An Integrated Approach for Agricultural Ecosystem Management

Sustainable development and growth of agriculture sector calls for improving its competitiveness through a better understanding of lands, weather and climate, and planting, especially prediction of events with increased accuracy, and systematic integration of observations and prediction into decision-making in agriculture management. In this short paper, a systematic approach based on integrated information systems (IISs) for agricultural ecosystem management is proposed. The approach involves establishing an IIS called agricultural ecosystem enterprise information system (AEEIS) that extracts data on terrain, land use, planting, and others, and integrates them for the purpose of agricultural and ecosystem management. The integration helps in generating managerial/policy alternatives in consultation not only with agricultural and ecological specialists, but also with agriculture and ecosystems management. AEEIS, a platform of enterprise information systems, includes operational database, extract transform and load, data warehouse, data mining, simulation modeling, and knowledge management for generating managerial strategies on land use, planting species/variety, and optimal coverage of plants. AEEIS is part of efforts on integrated agricultural information services that is one of the main applications of China's sustainable agricultural development plan. The short paper concludes that, for effective management of agriculture and ecosystems, a systematic approach is essential in which IISs play a crucial role.     

An Integrated Approach to Sensor Role Selection

Many sensor network applications require consistent coverage of the region in which they are deployed over the course of the network lifetime. However, because sensor networks may be deployed randomly, node distribution and data redundancy in some regions of the network may be lower than in others. The sensors in the sparsest regions should be considered more critical to the sensor network application since their removal would likely result in unmonitored regions in the environment. For this reason, sensors in the more densely deployed regions should be considered more favorable as candidates to route the traffic of other nodes in the network. In this work, we propose several coverage-aware routing costs that allow traffic to be routed around the sparsely deployed regions so that the coverage of the environment can remain high for a long lifetime. We also propose an integrated route discovery and sensor selection protocol called DAPR that further lengthens network lifetime by jointly selecting routers and active sensors, again with the goal of minimizing the use of sensors in sparsely covered areas. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our approach in extending network lifetime nearly to the extent that can be reached using a centralized approach based on global network knowledge.     

面向业务的综合网管系统的研究与实现

主要提出了一种网管建设的新思路——面向业务的网管系统。介绍了面向业务的网管系统的框架和一种具体的实现方法,并在此过程中,对所涉及到的一些新开发方法做了简单介绍。最后就今后的研究内容做了进一步的探讨。     

一种PD雷达距离门走动的综合处理方法

目标运动对回波信号有回波包络的伸缩和距离门的走动2个方面的影响,前者和系统的相对带宽有关,后者和工作的瞬时带宽以及相参积累时间有关;文中根据目标运动对回波的影响,结合工程应用条件,针对机载预警雷达中运动目标的距离门跨越问题,给出距离门叠加结合新CFAR的综合处理方法;该方法简单易行,并通过仿真验证以及实测数据检验证明该方法的有效性.     

Differential Thermal Testing: An Approach to its Feasibility

Testing techniques based on the functional behaviour, the propagation delay and the levels of quiescent current have been used with great success for the last two decade technologies. However, the efficiency of such techniques is dubious for future technologies, characterised by huge mixed-mode complex circuits and very low supply voltage levels. In this paper the feasibility of using internal thermal sensors to detect heat sources provoked by structural defects are considered and evaluated.     

塘沽电信管理网方案的探讨

在概述电信管理网、天津电信管理网和塘沽现有的电话网集中操作维护系统的基础上，对如何将塘沽现有的电话网集中操作维护系统接入天津电信管理网，以形成塘沽电信管理网的问题，提出了一些设想。     

An Integrated Approach to Image Watermarking and JPEG-2000 Compression

A scheme which integrates image compression and image watermarking in an effective way is proposed in this research. The image compression scheme under consideration is EBCOT (Embedded Block Coding with Optimized Truncation) which has been adopted in the verification model (VM) of the emerging JPEG-2000 image compression standard. The watermark is embedded during the process when the compressed bit-stream is formed, and can be detected on the fly in image decoding. Thus, watermark embedding and retrieval can be done very efficiently in comparison with other existing watermarking schemes. In addition to efficiency, the proposed scheme has many interesting features. The embedded watermark is robust against various signal processing attacks such as coding and filtering while the watermarked image maintains good perceptual quality. The watermark retrieval procedure does not require the knowledge of the original image. Furthermore, the watermark can be detected progressively and region of interest (ROI) watermarking can be accomplished easily.     

Dynamic Memory Access Management for High-Performance DSP Applications Using High-Level Synthesis

Multimedia applications such as video and image processing are often characterized by a huge number of data accesses. In many digital signal processing applications, array access patterns are regular and periodic. In these cases, optimized architectures using pipelined memory access controllers can be generated. In this paper, we focus on implementing memory interfacing modules that can be automatically generated from a high-level synthesis tool and which can efficiently handle predictable address patterns as well as random ones (i.e., dynamic address computations). The benefits of balancing dynamic address computations from datapath to dedicated computation units in the memory controller is also analyzed as well as operator bitwidth optimization and data locality to save power consumption and reduce latency.      

Electricity Market Design: An Integrated Approach to Reliability Assurance

System reliability is an integral part of a properly designed deregulated electricity market, even though wholesale energy prices are its most visible piece. This paper discusses the resources, collectively known as the ancillary services, in a power system for maintaining reliability. It then discusses an integrated approach in systematically determining and securing the needed ancillary services and system configuration across multiple time spans, culminating in the cooptimization of energy and ancillary services for security-constrained generator unit commitment in the day-ahead market and security-constrained economic dispatch of the generators in real-time operation. The paper also provides a summary of the ancillary services market in several U.S. power markets and proposes several technical issues for further discussion and research.     

An Integrated Approach to Digital Control of AC Motor Drives

The paper describes a high-performance microcomputer-based controller for inverter-fed ac motor drives. Both the implementation of high-level drive control policies and on-line computation of three-phase switching patterns for control of the inverter output frequency and voltage, are carried out by a single ?P. The selection of a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategy with limited processing requirements, has made the integration of these features possible without devising a multiprocessor architecture, or relying upon dedicated hardware to support specific functions. Peculiar facilities, like on-line reconfigurability of control parameters, real-time tracing of system behavior and diagnostics, have also been implemented to enhance the overall controller performance and flexibility. The validity of the integrated solution has been thoroughly verified by extensive experimental tests carried out with a prototype system composed of an 8085-based microcomputer, a 30-kVA three-phase transistor inverter, and a 20-kW induction motor.     

Calibrating On-chip Thermal Sensors in Integrated Circuits: A Design-for-Calibration Approach

With the scaling of technology, thermal issues have started to adversely affect reliability, performance, and robustness of integrated circuits. As a result, many recent research papers have focused on the use of embedded thermal sensors to monitor the temperature profile within the IC and manage the on-chip resources to keep the temperatures within acceptable limits. However, due to increasing process variations and parameter drifts, temperature measurements by these thermal sensors may not be accurate unless these on-chip sensors are calibrated before shipping the devices to the users. Existing calibration methods are either time-consuming or assume that the sensors do not require calibration for they use very large area which makes them insensitive to variations and drifts. In this paper, we propose a design-for-calibration (DFC) approach for calibrating the embedded thermal sensors in the manufacturing environment. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of our approach. The impact of uncertainties in parameters on the accuracy of calibration is also investigated in the paper.     

一种改进的网格作业管理实现方法

面向服务的网格中，实现作业管理的应用程序一般采用多线程机制。这种方法相对于可以划分为相互独立子任务的网格作业而言，灵活性欠缺，而且会造成中心服务器负载过重、资源浪费、导致系统效率降低。针对这个问题，提出了一种“主任务分发-子任务签单”的机制实现作业管理，该机制能够较好地解决面向服务的网格中，具有此类特点的作业的管理方法存在的问题。     

An Interactive Design Environment for C-Based High-Level Synthesis of RTL Processors

Much effort in register transfer level (RTL) design has been devoted to developing "push-button" types of tools. However, given the highly complex nature, and lack of control on RTL design, push-button type synthesis is not accepted by many designers. Interactive design with assistance of algorithms and tools can be more effective if it provides control to the steps of synthesis. In this paper, we propose an interactive RTL design environment which enables designers to control the design steps and to integrate hardware components into a system. Our design environment is targeting a generic RTL processor architecture and supporting pipelining, multicycling, and chaining. Tasks in the RTL design process include clock definition, component allocation, scheduling, binding, and validation. In our interactive environment, the user can control the design process at every stage, observe the effects of design decisions, and manually override synthesis decisions at will. We present a set of experimental results that demonstrate the benefits of our approach. Our combination of automated tools and interactive control by the designer results in quickly generated RTL designs with better performance than fully-automatic results, comparable to fully manually optimized designs.     

An Integrated Design Approach to 30/20 GHz Trunking Systems

A design procedure for 30/20 GHz trunking systems is presented which permits the joint optimization of the satellite links and the terrestrial links between diversity terminals of individual earth stations. This process involves the generation of uplink and downlink power control functions (PCF's), which depend on 1) the rapidity with which power control can be exercised, relative to the rate of variation of atmospheric attenuation, and 2) the available uplink and downlink HPA power. The PCF's combine to produce a link availability curve (LAC), which describes the uplink/downlink fade combinations for which a specified bit error rate (BER) can be maintained. The set of required terminal separation distances (TSD's) can generally be computed from the LAC, together with the marginal uplink and downlink attenuation distributions. Methods of implementing uplink and downlink power control are discussed. In particular, several alternatives for determination of uplink attenuation and selection of the appropriate transmit terminal are contrasted.     

An Information-Based Approach to Sensor Management in Large Dynamic Networks

This paper addresses the problem of sensor management for a large network of agile sensors. Sensor management, as defined here, is the process of dynamically retasking agile sensors in response to an evolving environment. Sensors may be agile in a variety of ways, e.g., the ability to reposition, point an antenna, choose sensing mode, or waveform. The goal of sensor management in a large network is to choose actions for individual sensors dynamically so as to maximize overall network utility. Sensor management in the multiplatform setting is a challenging problem for several reasons. First, the state space required to characterize an environment is typically of very high dimension and poorly represented by a parametric form. Second, the network must simultaneously address a number of competing goals. Third, the number of potential taskings grows exponentially with the number of sensors. Finally, in low-communication environments, decentralized methods are required. The approach we present in this paper addresses these challenges through a novel combination of particle filtering for nonparametric density estimation, information theory for comparing actions, and physicomimetics for computational tractability. The efficacy of the method is illustrated in a realistic surveillance application by simulation, where an unknown number of ground targets are detected and tracked by a network of mobile sensors.     

Integrated Approach to Microwave Design

A new, integrated approach to microwave design is presented involving concepts such as optimal design centering, optimal design tolerancing, optimal design tuning, parasitic effects, uncertainties in models and reference planes, and mismatched terminations. The approach is of the worst case type, and previously published design schemes fall out as particular cases of the ideas presented. The mathematical and computational complexity as well as the benefits realized by our approach is illustrated by transformer examples, including a realistic stripline circuit.     

An Improved Management Approach to Upgrade Avionic System Reliability

This paper presents an improved reliability-program management-approach for upgrading avionic system reliability. Management of the program was by means of an improvement control plan that included continuously updated field performance data, the improvements planned, and projections of the numerical reliability increase with the changes incorporated. The use of special teams working concurrently to improve design, parts, and manufacturing processes is discussed. Presented are measured field results that verify the effectiveness of these improvement efforts.