MPLOT3—A system-independent plotting package

This paper describes a general purpose plotting package which enables sets of data points to be plotted on a variety of output devices by simply specifying the mnemonic name and without any programming on the part of the users. A plot can be produced with the default options from a simple data file which can be expanded to call in many extra facilities. Options include scaling, automatic selection of axes and their markings, and identification of curves/shapes by varying-length dashed lines, different symbols or colours. English and Greek characters can be written at any angle and size. Clipping or voiding facilities are provided to confine plotting inside or outside a given area. The package is expandable to allow new facilities to be added. The present form has been arrived at through feedback from the users over the last four years and has found a wide variety of applications in a scientific environment.     

An automated office for the laboratory scientist

Development of sophisticated office information facilities for business record-keeping and report generation has created opportunities for automation of information-handling in many other fields. Spreadsheet facilities, specifically LOTUS 1-2-3 on the Zenith Z-100, have been used to automate information-handling tasks in an experimental laboratory: to set up and maintain information in the laboratory notebook, to store and retrieve details about preparation and operation of each experiment in a series, to set up sampling rates and collect sample data from instruments, to perform statistical analysis, to tabulate and graph experiment results. The spreadsheet was used as the controlling facility to change and execute job control macros, to link to BASIC programs that controlled the analogue-digital converter and changed file formats so that the statistics package MICROSTAT could process files produced by the spreadsheet during the experiment. The outcome of the study was a LOTUS 1-2-3 spreadsheet template which can be used in an experimental laboratory.     

A digital sound editor

A series of digital computer programs which facilitate the production and control of acoustic stimuli for hearing assessment and research are described. The package, which is available for PDP 11 computers under RT-11, allows sounds to be digitized, adjusted for amplitude and/or dc offset, edited while in digital form, and output to file or tape. The waveform editor package includes facilities to edit sounds in time--with some sections removed or added with temporal precision of 0.1 msec or better. Two or more sounds may also be combined for stereo or monaural (sound-on-sound) output, or two may be concatenated. Together, the programs permit a wide range of manipulations useful in preparing sound stimuli for use in hearing experiments or in clinical audiometry.     

A display package for CAD of control systems

A multi-access computer system has been installed at the Control Systems Centre of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. The application of this computer to research into the computer aided design of industrial control systems involved the connection of two keyboard display terminals to the system. The ARDS storage tube displays chosen had the advantages of being teletypewriter compatible and not requiring the connection of a satellite computer A graphics package for the entry and structuring of data derived from the stability analysis of control systems was required as soon as possible after the installation was commissioned. The initial package enabled data to be entered by program and then selected and plotted by keyboard requests. Translation, scaling, alteration of the method of plotting (with points or vectors) and the selection of different items for the display were all carried out by keyboard interaction For long term CAD work a more extensive graphics package was required, the specification was determined following feedback from users of the initial package. It provided additional facilities for graphic interaction, alphanumeric annotation of the displays, specialized drawing and data entry functions and the storing of any pictures built up by the user, as well as a more linked data structure. The structure and facilities of this package are described.     

Enhancement of a graph drawing package

An extendable graph drawing package of Fortran subroutines enabling novice programmers to produce a wide variety of charts easily is described. It provides linear, logarithmic and normal probability scales as well as polar graphs. SIMPLEPLOT Mark 2 provides plotting facilities including curve drawing, linear and quadratic regression and the capability for the more experienced programmer to exercise greater control over the appearance of graphs. The design criteria for the package are discussed and a summary of facilities is given.     

Exception handling in C programs

This paper describes a software package which has been constructed to allow programs written in the C language to make use of exception handling facilities. The package is implemented as a set of macros and procedures and requires no modification to the C compiler or preprocessor. The operation of the package and its facilities are described, and practical experience of its use is presented. The code in the package is given in the appendix.     

The application of microcomputer data-base management packages in medical research

The role of microcomputer data-base management (DBMS) packages in the management of medical research studies has been reviewed. The features of commercial DBMS packages which are of particular advantage have been identified.A bench-mark test, resembling stages in the conduct of a research project, was constructed and four commercial packages compared in their performance of it. The packages varied in facilities offered, and it was found that the more sophisticated ones took longer to set up to perform the task. In use the less sophisticated packages were faster, but could become tedious to use with regular tasks and more error prone with complex tasks.The selection of a DBMS package depends on the potential application. This will involve a detailed assessment of the task to be performed: as a general rule a sophisticated package will only be warranted if the study is both complex and large. In practice research departments may benefit from more than one package.     

Visualization of nucleic acid sequence structural information

Several interactive Pascal programs have been written for the analysis and display of structural information in nucleic acid sequences. Layout procedures were developed to display the homology and repeat matrices of a sequence and to predict and display the secondary structure of RNA/DNA molecules free of overlap and to predict and display internal repeats. No special plotting devices are required because the output is adapted to line printers. Sequences from several DNA database systems can be used as input. These programs are part of a general nucleic acid sequence analysis package.     

POLYPLOT—an interactive modular program in basic for plotting graphs

POLYPLOT is an interactive program in BASIC, with a modular structure, for plotting x-y graphs on a conventional printer. The options offered by POLYPLOT are: input of data from keyboard or disk file: single parameter or combination of parameters assigned to each axis; log plots: best-fit line and polynomial curve fitting; program scaling or user scaling of the axes; replotting of a data set, excluding samples, either individually or in groups. POLYPLOT may be used to create a large number of different programs because each option is contained in program modules which may be merged into a central program framework as required. The options operate independently so that programs containing any combination of options may be created.     

Geoic: an interactive terminal-based geochemical data processing system

A series of interactive terminal-based FORTRAN IV programs have been developed for processing and evaluating major and trace element data produced in the analysis of rock samples. The GEOIC system consists of three stages. The first is concerned with the processing of analytical data produced in the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of fused samples for major elements and pressed powder briquettes for trace elements. In the second stage, the major and trace element results are linked together by a tabulation program which creates an input file for CIPW norm programs. The tabulation program will sort also the analyses into groups according to an 8 character “group identifier” keyword attached to each analysis. Average analyses are calculated also for each group. The tabulation program combines the major, trace and normative data to produce a data base file as well as a tabulated output file for dispatch to a line printer. In the third stage, the data base file serves as the input to interactive programs for graphical and statistical evaluation of the geochemical data. The graphics program allows the user to plot rapidly binary and ternary diagrams for all samples or plotting may be restricted to specified groups or only to the group averages. The statistical program allows the user to calculate various parameters as well as a correlation coefficient matrix for all samples, for selected groups or for only group averages.The group identifier keyword attached by the user to each sample analysis facilitates the division of the suite of samples under study into groups and subgroups. This important feature adds considerable flexibility to the processing and evaluation of data via the tabulation, graphics and statistics programs.The tabulation program will accept also free-format major and trace element data produced by analytical methods other than XRF. The second and third stages of the system may be used, therefore, as a general purpose geochemical data processing and evaluation package.     

On fault isolation by neural-networks-based parameter estimation techniques

Abstract: The aim of the work is to exploit some aspects of functional approximation techniques in parameter estimation procedures applied on fault detection and isolation tasks using backpropagation neural networks as functional approximation devices. The major focus of this paper deals with the strategy used in the data selection task as applied to the determination of non-conventional process parameters, such as performance or process-efficiency indexes, which are difficult to acquire by direct measurement. The implementation and validation procedure on a real case study is carried out with the aid of the facilities supplied by commercial neural networks toolboxes, which manage databases, neural network structures and highly efficient training algorithms.     

A high level plotting system

This paper describes the use of a high level plotting system that has been in use at Oklahoma State University for about one year. The use of this plotting package can save much time and money for installations which use the Calcomp plotter. The program is written in ANSI FORTRAN and permits a user to produce complete graphs on a Calcomp plotter. The plotting system itself uses the assembly routines provided by the plotter manufacturer, thus freeing the user from most of the detail involved in producing two-dimensional plots. The plotting system plots and labels axes, produces interpolated and/or smoothed curves and performs other common plotting functions.     

An introductory computer graphics laboratory

Methods are described for teaching students how to write computer programs to perform basic graphics operations. The elementary operations of scaling, translation, reflection, shear, rotation and clipping are presented. Graphics 1000, a Hewlett-Packard graphics software product is the software used. This product imbeds subroutine calls in a FORTRAN program to execute the graphics functions. The laboratory sessions are divided into modules. Module I uses interactive programs to demonstrate graphics operations. Module II introduces Graphics 1000 commands. Module III uses interactive programs to demonstrate XY plotting with as many as four graphs per plot. Module IV uses interactive programs to demonstrate rotation of objects with hidden line removal. Students are assigned tasks ranging from drawing a section of an I beam through rotation of a three-dimensional object. Computer programs used for the demonstrations are available for the students to examine in order to learn how they work.     

SDSE: a software package to simulate the evolution of a pair of DNA sequences

An algorithm to simulate DNA sequence evolution under a general stochastic model, including as particular cases all the previously used schemes of nucleotide substitution, is described. The stimulation is carried out on finite, variable length, DNA sequences through a strict stochastic process, according to the particular substitution rates imposed by each scheme. Five FORTRAN programs, running on an IBM PC and compatibles, carry out all the tasks needed for the simulation. They are menu driven and interfaced to the system through a principal menu. All sequence data files used and generated by the SDSE package conform to the standard GenBank database format, thus allowing the use of any sequence retrieved from this databank, as well as the application of other packages to analyse, manipulate or retrieve stimulated sequences.     

Orient: A computer program for the resolution and rotation of paleocurrent data

A limited number of computer and calculator programs are available now for paleocurrent reorientation. The published listings of reorientation programs however, do not, account for fold plunge. ORIENT is an interactive FORTRAN program which will remove tectonic tilt and plunge from palaeocurrent measurements in deformed areas. The program also contains facilities for resolving palaeocurrent data recorded as two apparent dips. The program will accept data recorded in a variety of conventional forms and has a flexible data input format that may be modified by the user at run time. The corrected data are output onto cards or disk file for further processing. The program is written as a series of modules which allows the subroutines to be used for alternative applications. The output format of the corrected data can be modified to facilitate input to any statistical processing programs currently available.     

气固催化反应L—H—H—W型等温动力学模型自动识别及图示

本文依据L-H-H-W机理采用组合方式对气固催化反应的动力学模型进行自动识别以及对找出模型进行三维立体图示诊断,建立了GSKM系统。GSKM系统主要包括模型寻优、固定模型参数估值和图示诊断。我们对从等温数据建立反应速率与温度、压力的关系作了较有实用意义的探讨。应用本系统,我们对文献上所提供的数据,进行了动力学模型自动识别及图示诊断,得到了较为满意的结果。     

Anatomical modeling with computer-aided design

Many industrial computer aided design (CAD) programs contain highly developed facilities that can be used to create and analyze three dimensional models of biological structures. In this paper we describe the use of one such program package for modeling the rat brain and a component thereof. Special features of the models of interest to morphologists are illustrated.     

A computer program for perspective projection of three-dimensional finite element models

The theoretical basis of a computer program prepared for plotting the perspectives of 3-D finite element models with consideration of the hidden line removal technique is presented. The algorithm is successfully implemented in a FORTRAN 77 program. The validity of the algorithm and its implementation is verified through use of two typical examples. The program may be used in input data error correction and output data reduction of finite element programs.     

POTLIB 2001: A potential energy surface library for chemical systems

POTLIB 2001 is a computer program library of global chemical potential energy surface (PES) functions (91 functions in version 1.0) along with test data, a suite of utility programs, and a convenient user interface. The PES programs are written in ANSI standard FORTRAN77 and can be used to determine the Born-Oppenheimer potential energy of chemical systems as a function of the internal coordinates. The accompanying test data allow users to verify local implementations of this library. Finally, the utility programs permit use of this library in conjunction with a variety of chemical dynamics and chemical kinetics computer codes. Interface routines are provided for the POLYRATE and ABCRATE program packages of Truhlar and co-workers, the VENUS96 program package of Hase and co-workers, and the VARIFLEX program package of Klippenstein and co-workers; the routines in this library can also be used in conjunction with the DYNASOL program package of Zhang and co-workers. This article describes the library and the utility programs and outlines the systematic conventions used for interfaces in the computer programs contained in the library. Adherence to these conventions will allow future PESs to be compatible with this library.