Tougher: A user-friendly graphical interface for TOUGHREACT

TOUGHREACT is a powerful simulator for multiphase fluid, heat, and chemical transport, but has a steep learning curve and the creation of the input files is time intensive, particularly for heterogeneous and complex geometries such as those in mining rock pile formations. TOUGHER is an application developed by the acid rock drainage research group of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah in order to develop TOUGHREACT models rapidly for two-dimensional problems and to be able to visualize the simulation results in an intuitive way. It also reduces errors when creating complex layered 2D models and makes debugging easier. The software is currently limited to 2D rectangular grids with constant spatial sizes. The application is written in C++ and can be used on any computer with a Windows or Linux operating system. This paper will describe the overall structure of the application and give some examples of how it interfaces with the TOUGHREACT program. In particular, it will be shown how the application can generate a grid system for a rock pile containing several distinct geological layers, how the properties of each layer are set, and how the input sections (ELEM and CONNE) for TOUGHREACT are generated automatically. In addition, visualizing the flow and chemical output files generated by TOUGHREACT for a particular rock pile will be demonstrated. This includes transient vector as well as transient scalar data. At the end of the paper, two case studies, one with a simplified geometry and another with more complex layered rock geometry, will be presented.     

CSCW系统的理论与应用研究

计算机支持的协同工作（ＣＳＣＷ）作为新兴的研究领域正受到广泛的重视，本文介绍ＣＳＣＷ的发展背景、基本概念和应用领域，分析了ＣＳＣＷ系统的功能需求和特点，指出它与传统的分布式系统的联系和区别。讨论和评述了目前国内外ＣＳＣＷ系统的关键技术的研究现状，最后讨论了ＣＳＣＷ系统存在的几个问题，给出了今后的重点研究方向。     

A data mining technique for discovering distinct patterns of hand signs: implications in user training and computer interface design

Hand signs are considered as one of the important ways to enter information into computers for certain tasks. Computers receive sensor data of hand signs for recognition. When using hand signs as computer inputs, we need to (1) train computer users in the sign language so that their hand signs can be easily recognized by computers, and (2) design the computer interface to avoid the use of confusing signs for improving user input performance and user satisfaction. For user training and computer interface design, it is important to have a knowledge of which signs can be easily recognized by computers and which signs are not distinguishable by computers. This paper presents a data mining technique to discover distinct patterns of hand signs from sensor data. Based on these patterns, we derive a group of indistinguishable signs by computers. Such information can in turn assist in user training and computer interface design.     

一种集成温室环境控制系统软件接口的设计

开发了一个用于集成基于环境控制计算机的实时温室环境控制动态模型的软件接口(GreenHouseInterface,GHI)。该软件系统主要包含三个内容:(1)基于环境控制计算机的系统通信;(2)用一套数据库系统代表温室环境信息;(3)提出了一种描述温室环境控制过程的规范。通过计算机网络在两个地方运行系统用于验证GHI系统,实验结果表明系统具有良好的可靠性和稳定性,并对管理带来了方便。     

A novel automatic virtual metrology system architecture for TFT-LCD industry based on main memory database

The semiconductor and thin-film-transistor–liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) industries widely value Automatic Virtual Metrology System (AVMS). AVMS needs to handle a large volume of VM-related data, which may cause poor internal database performance. In general, AVMS adopts efficient but expensive commercial database management systems (DBMSs) to yield good AVMS performance. This usually makes the AVMS construction cost very high. Therefore, the industries require a novel AVMS architecture with lower cost and greater efficiency in database. This paper proposes a novel AVMS architecture based on Main Memory Database (MMDB) technology. Specifically, the MMDB is used to improve the performance bottlenecks of the current Disk Resident Database (DRDB). Also, we design automatic data-backup and automatic data-query sources integration mechanisms to effectively relieve rapidly increased data volume in the original AVMS architecture. In addition, the novel AVMS architecture adopts a free commercial MMDB to significantly reduce total system cost. Integrated testing results show that the proposed AVMS architecture and developed technologies can enable the AVMS to have better data-storage efficiency, superior data-query performance, and lower database cost. The proposed AVMS architecture and research results in this paper can be a useful reference for TFT-LCD manufacturing companies in constructing their own AVM systems. The proposed AVMS architecture can also be applied in the semiconductor and solar-cell industries.