Computer based testing using “digital ink”: Participatory design of a Tablet PC based assessment application for secondary education

In this paper, we identify key challenges faced by computer-based assessment (CBA) in secondary education and we put forward a framework of design considerations: design with the students and teachers, select the most appropriate media platform and plan an evolution rather than a revolution of prior practices. We present the CBA application ‘MyTest’ which was developed using the participatory methodology We!Design, with the collaboration of 31 students and teachers. The application is targeted for the Tablet PC platform, provides “digital ink” capabilities and supports both closed-type and open questions, facilitating the transfer of traditional assessment practices to CBA. Both students and teachers were excited about the design sessions, and they asserted that they would rely more on educational software designed using this approach. The comparison of the ‘MyTest’ application with an assessment application developed with the same participatory methodology and the involvement of 40 undergraduate students revealed dissimilar expectations and needs of high school and undergraduate students that are often disguised or misinterpreted. A pilot evaluation of the application in real learning conditions was conducted with 31 students using Tablet PCs and with 37 students using traditional PCs. Interestingly, the Tablet PC platform rendered the ‘MyTest’ application more useful and usable to the students, validating our claims.     

MRPM: three visual basic programs for mineral resource potential mapping

A traditional method for mineral resource potential mapping is to superimpose a number of indicator maps, and to combine geological information with or without the use of multivariate statistical models. More recently, GISs have become widely applied in mineral resource assessment and many statistical models for geological information synthesis have been proposed. GIS-based mineral resource potential mapping has facilitated modern mineral resource assessment. As a contribution to publicly available computer software for GIS-based mineral resource assessment, integrated three Visual Basic programs have been developed on MapInfo platform. The programs integrate map patterns using weights of evidence, applied general C-F, and evidence theory models, and generate posterior probability, combined certainty factor, and combined basic probability assignment maps, respectively. The software is demonstrated by a case study based on a real data set.     

Non-hierarchical control of a flexible manufacturing cell

As hierarchically controlled computer-integrated manufacturing systems growthey tend to become complex and their designability, maintainability, expandability and fault tolerance deteriorate. As an alternative, herterarchical control architectures offer prospects of reduced compexity, reduced software development costs, high modularity, high flexibility, and improved fault tolerance. By locating decision making where information originates, global information is reduced to a minimum, scheduling becomes dynamic, machines and parts become “intelligent” entities that cooperatively interact, and the overall system is decomposed into functionally simplified, modular parts.Three flexible machining cell control systems have been constructed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and are described in this paper: a centralized controller, a hierarchical controller with dynamic scheduling, and a fully distributed heterarchical controller with “intelligent parts”. Comparative results are reported showing that the heterarchical approach possesses a number of advantages including increased fault-tolerance, inherent adaptability and reconfigurability, decreased complexity, and reduced software development cost.     

基于PC机的一种嵌入系统开发环境

文章提出并实现了一种由PC机和C/C++构成的PDA软件开发环境,借助于该环境中的一系列工具,PDA应用软件可在PC机上进行代码编写、源程序调试及模拟运行。PC机上生成的目标程序转换为可在PDA运行的固件代码。在不依赖硬件开发环境的同时,提高了开发效率。     

Double-ended queues with impatience

The effect of “impatient” behaviour is studied primarily in the context of “double-ended” queues where each demands service from the other, typically taxis and passengers. Related models, single queue, and double, with a variety of mechanisms are considered. “Impatience” is to be understood in a wider context than simply becoming tired of waiting: it can arise because the customer, for some reason, runs out of time (inventory and organ transplantation), or because an alternative service becomes available (communication applications). The emphasis in this paper is theoretical but a brief numerical assessment of operational consequences is given.

Scope and purpose

The “double-ended (or synchronization) queue” is a model for a variety of service demanding/providing systems. In an orderly taxi rank at a railway station or airport, on one side a queue is formed by the arrival of stream of passengers who wait for taxis to their destinations while on the other side a queue of taxis waiting for passengers. Obviously, the two queues can never coexist. The concept of “impatience” enters when a taxi or passenger leaves the queue before receiving service.This concept of “reneging” is widely applicable. In health care, for example, organs are stored for transplantation for needful patients. Both the organs and the demands for them have limited lifetime. A similar scenario applies to perishable inventory systems. In a similar manner, the real-time communication networks admit impatient behaviour. A typical example is a processor-shared queue in data networks with random time-out periods or deadlines.The paper sets out the basics in a variety of theoretical model settings with the common feature of exponential arrival, service and impatience mechanisms. A brief discussion based on numerical calculation is given of some operational features of the models but the thrust is on the theoretical techniques needed to make meaningful operational assessments.     

A software authentication system for information integrity

This paper describes a software authentication technique based on the public key cryptography for information integrity. The software provider can use a secret key to sign any released program and the user can verify the integrity of programs obtained from vendors or a “trusted information database”. The software provider needs to go through a registration process to become “licensed” and obtains certificates from multiple certificate centers before being able to sign any released program. Users need only one public key to verify the integrity of the programs.     

数字区域地质调查基本理论与技术方法研究

文章根据美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、英国等在数字填图技术方面的研究现状,结合我国实际情况,对数字填图技术的理论基础、数字填图的区调数据模型、数字填图的技术流程、实现数字填图技术的工具与方法等数字填图基本理论与技术方法进行了初步探讨。     

Reconfigurable control of robotized manufacturing cells

This paper investigates the field of manufacturing system control. The addressed subject is indeed very fascinating, due to the importance that it has reached in the last decades both at research and industrial level. On the other hand, it seems to the author that most of the complexity intrinsic to the subject itself relies on the different meanings or levels of abstraction that both the terms “manufacturing system” and “control” may symbolize. The presented research aims to face the topic in a concrete fashion, i.e., by developing a control software system for a specific, although easy to be generalized, robotized manufacturing cell. Two different development methodologies, from the conceptual design to the actual implementation, of a cell control system are presented and compared. The former, based on ladder logic diagrams, for a PLC controlled manufacturing cell; the latter, based on object-oriented modeling and programming techniques, for a PC controlled manufacturing cell. The analysis has been conducted considering the internal and external requirements of the manufacturing system, mostly driven by the contemporary industrial need of reconfigurable control systems, largely acknowledged as the critical key to succeed in the new era of mass customization.     

基于C／S的手机无线查房系统的设计与研究

针对目前移动查房的手持设备是平板电脑或PDA,而且主要使用的对象是医生和护士,现在提出一种新的无线查房解决方案——基于C／S的手机无线查房系统：它将应用范围扩展到了医院的服务对象,比如病人、病人家属等。     

“It was an artefact not the result”: A note on systems dynamic model development tools

Environmental modelling is done more and more by practising ecologists rather than computer scientists or mathematicians. This is because there is a broad spectrum of development tools available that allows graphical coding of complex models of dynamic systems and help to abstract from the mathematical issues of the modelled system and the related numerical problems for estimating solutions. In this contribution, we study how different modelling tools treat a test system, a highly non-linear predator–prey model, and how the numerical solutions vary. We can show that solutions (a) differ if different development tools are chosen but the same numerical procedure is selected; (b) depend on undocumented implementation details; (c) vary even for the same tool but for different versions; and (d) are generated but with no notifications on numerical problems even if these could be identified. We conclude that improved documentation of numeric methods used in the modelling software is essential to make sure that process based models formulated in terms of these modelling packages do not become “black box” models due to uncertainty in integration methods.     

Software process assessment concepts

Software and the software processes (design, implementation, maintenance) are defined and described. Assessment, i.e. the measurement of software processes is introduced as seen by the concepts of Certification (ISO 9000) and of Maturity Levels (SEI CMM). Then various important assessment methods are compared: CMM, BOOTSTRAP, SynQuest, and SPICE. The comparison stresses practical experience and the cost-benefit ratio. All methods have in common that the set of items measured (the “questionnaires”) are ad hoc (but based on practical experience), and that statistical quality control is lacking. Finally, an enhanced assessment approach is proposed using statistical analysis of assessment data, and including an evaluation method based on a process model and expert system technology.     

基于Android平台的应用开发研究

近年来,Android操作系统及其相关应用深受业内关注。尤其在眼下热门的智能手机和平板电脑市场中,该操作系统已然成为了中坚力量,其发展势头非常迅猛。市场调研公司Gartner的数据显示,到2011年年底Android将成为最大的智能手机平台,而2012年其市场份额更将达到49％。本文主要介绍了Google移动设备软件平台Android以及基于此平台的移动终端应用程序开发。     

A sketch-based approach to human body modelling

In this paper, we present a new approach and a novel interface, Virtual Human Sketcher (VHS), which enables those who can draw, to sketch-out various human body models. Our approach supports freehand drawing input and a “Stick Figure→Fleshing-out→Skin Mapping” modelling pipeline. Following this pipeline, a stick figure is drawn first to illustrate a figure pose, which is automatically reconstructed into 3D through a “Multi-layered Back-Front Ambiguity Clarifier”. It is then fleshed-out with freehand body contours. A “Creative Model-based Method” is developed for interpreting the body size, shape, and fat distribution of the sketched figure and transferring it into a 3D human body through graphical comparisons and generic model morphing. The generic model is encapsulated with three distinct layers: skeleton, fat tissue, and skin. It can be transformed sequentially through rigid morphing, fatness morphing, and surface matching to match the 2D figure sketch. The initial resulting 3D body model can be incrementally modified through sketching directly on the 3D model. In addition, this body surface can be mapped onto a series of posed stick figures to be interpolated as a 3D character animation. VHS has been tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create plausible human bodies and animate them within minutes.     

Results of the Eureka FAMOS research programme: A European contribution to manufacturing technology

Market competition is leading to direct confrontation between products coming from the main manufacturing areas: Europe, the U.S.A. and Asia, where Japan is leading. For Europe to maintain and improve its role, it is important to develop “winning” products. This requires an advanced, technology based industry (secondary sector) and a highly effective research and innovation network (quaternarium), developing new design tools and new configurations for products and production systems. To foster and strengthen an advanced industry and a highly effective quaternarium, Europe has launched various initiatives, from EEC Programmes to the Eureka initiative.In this paper the contribution of the Eureka FAMOS projects is assessed by using a model linking the research innovation cycle, “actors” (companies and research institutions) and activation mechanisms (programmes and initiatives). With the Eureka FAMOS Umbrella Project acting as an activation mechanism, the analysis of the specific FAMOS projects carried out through MONITECH—an assessment activity set up by IMU-CNR—shows how the “actors” (companies and research institutions) have reacted and launched specific projects (36 at an estimated cost of 600 MECU), in 17 industrial sectors, leading to new production paradigms (production systems and related technologies). Considering the results already achieved (pilot production systems and technologies) the Eureka FAMOS Research Programme may be seen as a relevant European initiative in manufacturing technology.The synergy which the Eureka FAMOS Programme is starting to provide with EEC Programmes will give the European research network and industry further benefits.     

Centrifugation Based Automated Synthesis Technologies

Centrifugation is a powerful method for solid-liquid separation. It can be applied in numerous ways to simplify solid phase synthetic procedures. At the same time, centrifugation is the only totally parallel technique which can be scaled up for processing volume or number of simultaneously run reactions, without the limitation of overpressure or vacuum-driven filtration-based systems. We have developed synthesizers based on the power of centrifugation- peptide and small organic molecule synthesizers utilizing cotton as the synthetic substrate and inclusion volume chemistry, synthesizers for automation of “tea bag” synthesis, and synthesizers based on “tilted plate centrifugation”. The last technique was employed in an oligonucleotide production facility with the capacity of more than 10 million compounds per year.     

Extraction of geometric characteristics for manufacturability assessment

One of the advantages of feature-based design is that it provides data which are defined as parameters of features in readily available forms for tasks from design through manufacturing. It can thus facilitate the integration of CAD and CAM. However, not all design features are features required in down stream applications and not all parameters or data can be predefined in the features. One of the significant examples is property that is formed by feature interactions. For example, the interaction of a positive feature and a negative feature induces a wall thickness change that might cause defects in a part. Therefore, the identification of the wall thickness change by detecting the feature interaction is required in the moldability assessment.The work presented in this paper deals with the extraction of geometric characteristics in feature-based design for manufacturability assessment. We focus on the manufacturability assessment of discrete parts with emphasis on a net shape process—injection molding. The definition, derivation and representation of the spatial relationships between features are described. The geometric characteristics formed by feature interactions are generalized as significant items, such as “depth”, “thickness”, “height” etc. based on the generalization of feature shapes. Reasoning on feature interactions and extraction of geometric characteristics is treated as a refinement procedure. High-level spatial relationships—“is_in”, “adjacent_to” and “coplanar” as well as their geometric details are first derived. The significant items formed from feature interactions are then computed based on the detailed spatial relationships. This work was implemented in a computer-aided concurrent product and process development environment to support molding product design assessment.     

Flexible Bytecode for Linking in .NET

Dynamic linking in modern execution environments like .NET is considerably more sophisticated than in the days of C shared libraries on UNIX. One aspect of this sophistication is that .NET assemblies embed type information about dynamically linked resources.This type information implicitly represents compile-time assumptions about the resources available at run-time. However, the resources available at run-time may differ from those available at compile-time. For example, the execution environment on a mobile phone might provide fewer, simpler classes than on a desktop PC. As bytecode cannot adapt to its execution environment, component reuse is restricted and development costs are increased.We have designed and implemented a “flexible” dynamic linking scheme that binds bytecode as late as possible to the assemblies and classes available in a .NET execution environment. We describe the scheme's integration with the .NET linking infrastructure, review important design decisions and report on experiences with the “Rotor” shared source version of .NET.     

Cooperation without deliberation: A minimal behavior-based approach to multi-robot teams

While terminology and some concepts of behavior-based robotics have become widespread, the central ideas are often lost as researchers try to scale behavior to higher levels of complexity. “Hybrid systems” with model-based strategies that plan in terms of behaviors rather than simple actions have become common for higher-level behavior. We claim that a strict behavior-based approach can scale to higher levels of complexity than many robotics researchers assume, and that the resulting systems are in many cases more efficient and robust than those that rely on “classical AI” deliberative approaches. Our focus is on systems of cooperative autonomous robots in dynamic environments. We will discuss both claims that deliberation and explicit communication are necessary to cooperation and systems that cooperate only through environmental interaction. In this context we introduce three design principles for complex cooperative behavior—minimalism, statelessness and tolerance—and present a RoboCup soccer system that matches the sophistication of many deliberative soccer systems while exceeding their robustness, through the use of strict behavior-based techniques with no explicit communication.