Justification for inclusion dependency normal form

Functional dependencies (FDs) and inclusion dependencies (INDs) are the most fundamental integrity constraints that arise in practice in relational databases. In this paper, we address the issue of normalization in the presence of FDs and INDs and, in particular, the semantic justification for an inclusion dependency normal form (IDNF), which combines the Boyce-Codd normal form with the restriction on the INDs that they be noncircular and key-based. We motivate and formalize three goals of database design in the presence of FDs and INDs: noninteraction between FDs and INDs, elimination of redundancy and update anomalies, and preservation of entity integrity. We show that (as for FDs), in the presence of INDs, being free of redundancy is equivalent to being free of update anomalies. Then, for each of these properties, we derive equivalent syntactic conditions on the database design. Individually, each of these syntactic conditions is weaker than IDNF and the restriction that an FD is not embedded in the right-hand side of an IND is common to three of the conditions. However, we also show that, for these three goals of database design to be satisfied simultaneously, IDNF is both a necessary and a sufficient condition     

Data envelopment analysis for evaluating the efficiency of genetic algorithms on solving the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows

This study proposes an alternative to the conventional empirical analysis approach for evaluating the relative efficiency of distinct combinations of algorithmic operators and/or parameter values of genetic algorithms (GAs) on solving the pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem with soft time windows (PDVRPSTW). Our approach considers each combination as a decision-making unit (DMU) and adopts data envelopment analysis (DEA) to determine the relative and cross efficiencies of each combination of GA operators and parameter values on solving the PDVRPSTW. To demonstrate the applicability and advantage of this approach, we implemented a number of combinations of GA’s three main algorithmic operators, namely selection, crossover and mutation, and employed DEA to evaluate and rank the relative efficiencies of these combinations. The numerical results show that DEA is well suited for determining the efficient combinations of GA operators. Among the combinations under consideration, the combinations using tournament selection and simple crossover are generally more efficient. The proposed approach can be adopted to evaluate the relative efficiency of other meta-heuristics, so it also contributes to the algorithm development and evaluation for solving combinatorial optimization problems from the operational research perspective.     

Cost-benefit analysis of an SLA mapping approach for defining standardized Cloud computing goods

Due to the large variety in computing resources and, consequently, the large number of different types of service level agreements (SLAs), computing resource markets face the problem of a low market liquidity. Restricting the number of different resource types to a small set of standardized computing resources seems to be the appropriate solution to counteract this problem. Standardized computing resources are defined through an SLA template. An SLA template defines the structure of an SLA, the service attributes, the names of the service attributes, and the service attribute values. However, since existing research results have only introduced static SLA templates so far, the SLA templates cannot reflect changes in user needs and market structures. To address this shortcoming, we present a novel approach of adaptive SLA matching. This approach adapts SLA templates based on SLA mappings of users. It allows Cloud users to define mappings between a public SLA template, which is available in the Cloud market, and their private SLA templates, which are used for various in-house business processes of the Cloud user. Besides showing how public SLA templates are adapted to the demand of Cloud users, we also analyze the costs and benefits of this approach. Costs are incurred every time a user has to define a new SLA mapping to a public SLA template due to its adaptation. In particular, we investigate how the costs differ with respect to the public SLA template adaptation method. The simulation results show that the use of heuristics within adaptation methods allows balancing the costs and benefits of the SLA mapping approach.     

Estimating spine shape in lateral sleep positions using silhouette-derived body shape models

This study aims at evaluating spinal alignment during sleep by combining personalized human models with mattress indentation measurements. A generic surface model has been developed that can be personalized based on anthropometric parameters derived from silhouette extraction. Shape assessment of the personalized surface models, performed by comparison with 3-D surface scans of the trunk, showed a mean unsigned distance of 9.77 mm between modeled and scanned surface meshes. The surface model is combined with an inner skeleton model, allowing the model to simulate distinct sleep postures. An automatic fitting algorithm sets the appropriate degrees of freedom to position the model on the measured indentation according to the adopted sleep posture. Validation on lateral sleep positions showed good intraclass correlations (0.73–0.88) between estimated and measured angular spinal deformations, indicating that silhouette-derived body shape models provide a valuable tool for the unobtrusive assessment of spinal alignment during sleep.Relevance to industry: A common drawback of the available techniques to assess spinal deformation on bedding systems is that they interfere with the actual sleep process. The current study presents a novel method based on silhouette-derived body shape models in order to estimate spine shape during sleep unobtrusively.     

Overall performance measurement in a supply chain: towards a supplier-prime manufacturer based model

This study deals with the supply chain (SC) overall performance expression. The developed idea concerns more particularly the performance of the manufactured products. Indeed, two companies or more contribute to the manufacturing of products that are generally assembled by the prime manufacturer company. Moreover, in the industrial practice, performance scorecards are defined with regard to each process; and the overall performance is neither expressed for each company, nor for the whole SC. We propose here to identify the SC overall performance to the combination of the performances of the different involved companies in the SC. Thus, in order to obtain a definition of such performance, we choose to focus first on the performance of the prime manufacturer. In this sense, the approach is based on the SCOR model for the handling of the main processes around the considered product manufacturing. The prime manufacturer performance is then defined as the aggregation of its involved processes?? performances. While the prime manufacturer performance is strongly dependent on the suppliers?? performance, we suggest the integration of the impacting supplier performance into the prime manufacturer scorecards. From an operational point of view, the MACBETH methodology is used to coherently express both processes and overall performances. More precisely, the Choquet aggregation integral operator is applied in order to model mutual interactions between processes. Finally, the expression of a bearing??s manufacturer performance illustrates the proposition.     

On the use of a spectrum-based model for linear viscoelastic materials

A new spectrum-based model for describing the behavior of time-dependent materials is presented. In this paper, unlike most prior modeling techniques, the time-dependent response of viscoelastic materials is not expressed through the use of series. Instead, certain criteria have been imposed to select a spectrum function that has the potential of describing a wide range of material behavior. Another consequence of choosing the spectrum function of the type used in this paper is to have a few closed form analytic solutions in the theory of linear viscoelasticity. The Laplace transform technique is used to obtain the necessary formulae for viscoelastic Lame' functions, relaxation and bulk moduli, creep bulk and shear compliance, as well as Poisson's ratio. By using the Elastic–Viscoelastic Correspondence Principle (EVCP), material constants appearing in the proposed model are obtained by comparing the experimental data with the solution of the integral equation for a simple tensile test. The resulting viscoelastic functions describe the material properties which can then be used to express the behavior of a material in other loading configurations. The model's potential is demonstrated and its limitations are discussed.     

The effect of pre-straining on the mechanical behaviour of self-piercing riveted aluminium alloy sheets

Self-piercing riveting as an alternative joining method to spot-welding has attracted considerable interest from the automotive industry and has been widely used in aluminium intensive vehicles. Pressing and stamping are important processes in automotive production and result in additional straining on the vehicle body sheet material. It is therefore important to have knowledge of the effect of sheet pre-straining on the quality of the self-piercing riveted joints and on the mechanical behaviour of the riveted aluminium alloy sheets. This paper reports the influence of sheet pre-straining on the static and fatigue behaviour of self-piercing riveted aluminium alloy sheet. Wrought aluminium alloy sheet, NG5754 with a nominal thickness value of 2 mm was used to obtain pre-strained NG5754 sheets with pre-straining levels of 3%, 5% and 10%. Pairs of pre-strained NG5754 sheets were joined to create single-riveted lap joints which subsequently underwent lap-shear and fatigue testing. Microscopic inspection showed that the joint quality was satisfactory despite the increasing sheet straining levels. The results showed that by increasing the pre-straining level up to 10%, the shear and fatigue strength also increased. The rate of increase of the static and fatigue strength differed as the pre-straining levels varied.     

Maintaining Views in Object-Relational Databases

View materialization is an important way of improving the performance of query processing. When an update occurs to the source data from which a materialized view is derived, the materialized view has to be updated so that it is consistent with the source data. This update process is called view maintenance. The incremental method of view maintenance, which computes the new view using the old view and the update to the source data, is widely preferred to full view recomputation when the update is small in size. In this paper we investigate how to incrementally maintain views in object-relational (OR) databases. The investigation focuses on maintaining views defined in OR-SQL, a language containing the features of object referencing, inheritance, collection, and aggregate functions including user-defined set aggregate functions. We propose an architecture and algorithms for incremental OR viewmaintenance. We implement all algorithms and analyze the performance of them in comparison with full view recomputation. The analysis shows that the algorithms significantly reduce the cost of updating a vieww hen the size of an update to the source data is relatively small. Received 23 May 2000 / Revised 27 March 2001 / Accepted in revised form 30 April 2001 Correspondence and offprint requests to: Jixue Liu, School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, Adelaide SA5084, Australia. Email: jixue.liu@unisa.edu.auau     

Product family modeling for mass customization

With growing reliance on modeling in product development, it is imperative to describe product families in a cohesive way. In particular, mass customization calls for a close integration of product life cycle from customer recognition to delivery and services. This paper proposes a triple-view scheme for modeling product families. Technical challenges are discussed by comparing product family modeling with modeling single products. Individual modeling formalisms for different views are discussed. An example of product family modeling in power supply design is presented to illustrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed approach.