Semiautomatic implementation of protocols using an Estelle-Ccompiler

The basic ideas underlying an Estelle-C compiler, which accepts an Estelle protocol specification and produces a protocol implementation in C, are presented. The implementation of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) class-2 transparent protocol, using the semiautomatic approach, is discussed. A manual implementation of the protocol is performed and compared to the semiautomatic implementation. The semiautomatic approach to protocol implementation offers several advantages over the conventional manual one, including correctness and modularity in protocol implementation code, conformance to the specification, and reduction in implementation time. Finally, ongoing development of a new Estelle-C compiler is presented     

Pressurized fluidized-bed hydro retort ing of raw and beneficiated Eastern oil shales

Bench-scale tests were conducted with raw and beneficiated shales in an advanced multi-purpose research reactor. Raw Alabama shale and raw and beneficiated Indiana shales were retorted at 515 °C using hydrogen pressures of 4 and 7 MPa. Shale feed rates were 15 to 34 kg h⁻¹. High oil yields and carbon conversions were achieved in all tests. Oil yield from Alabama shale hydroretorted at 7 MPa was 200% of Fischer assay. Raw and beneficiated Indiana shales hydroretorted at 7 MPa produced oil yields of 170 and 195% of Fischer assay respectively. Total carbon conversions were >70% for all tests conducted at 7 MPa.     

On a responsive replenishment system: a fuzzy logic approach

In today's competitive business environment, it is important that customers are able to obtain their preferred items in the shops they visit, particularly for convenience store chains such as 7–Eleven where popular items are expected to be readily available on the shelves of the stores for buyers. To minimize the cost of running such store chains, it is essential that stocks be kept to a minimum and at the same time large varieties of popular items are available for customers. In this respect, the replenishment system needs to be able to cope with the taxing demands of minimal inventory but at the same time keeping large varieties of needed items. This paper proposes a replenishment system which is able to respond to the fluctuating demands of customers and provide a timely supply of needed items in a cost–effective way. The proposed system embraces the principle of fuzzy logic which is able to deal with uncertainties by virtue of its fuzzy rules reasoning mechanism, thereby leveraging the responsiveness of the entire replenishment system for the chain stores. To validate the feasibility of the approach, a case study has been conducted in an emulated environment with promising results.     

Development of a Profit-Based Air Cargo Loading Information System

In today's competitive logistics business environment, airfreight forwarders need to optimize every aspect of their logistics operations. However, forwarders still heavily rely on human brain and working experiences for calculating complex cargo packing and scheduling problems. Although recent research studies related to cargo packing and scheduling problems have resulted in the development of a number of advanced techniques of cargo planning, it can be seen that most of the research work is focused on the optimization of space in order to achieve the maximum possible amount of cargo to be packed in the minimum of space. After numerous site evaluation and end-user feedbacks, it is found that space optimization does not necessarily cause profit optimization, which is the ultimate aim of logistics providers. A study of contemporary research publications indicates that there are inadequate research studies related to profit-based optimization in cargo packing areas. This paper presents a profit-based air cargo loading information system (ACLIS) that embeds an innovative technology known as heuristics iterative reasoning technology (HIRT) that supports loading plan generation, focusing on maximization of the profit margin. In general, the proposed system is meant to maximize the profit in the airfreight forwarding business. It adopts an objective function governed by a list of constraints together with rule-based reasoning to provide expert advice to support the generation of appropriate loading plans     

In Search of the "Ideal" Pear (pyrus spp.): Results of a Multidisciplinary Exploration

Preference mapping with 10 pears identified 3 segments among New Zealand consumers. While 1 segment preferred ripe European cultivars, another rejected only the seedling with strong off‐flavors. A 3rd segment combined the 2 former segments, but also rejected 2 hybrid samples. Survey responses to the question “To me, the ideal pear is ?” from a 2nd consumer sample confirmed the general preference for juicy and sweet pears, the key characteristics of ripeness. A separate appearance evaluation revealed 4 segments based on color and shape. Combining information from several sources resulted in suggestions for new breeding directions for pears, while highlighting the importance of appearance and the need for more extensive measurements.     

Synergistic interaction of D1 and D2 dopamine receptors in the modulation of the reinforcing effect of brain stimulation.

Rats were trained to press a bar for hypothalamic stimulation, and a frequency-response function was plotted. Quinpirole (a selective D2 agonist) facilitated self-stimulation when injected alone but failed to show the facilitatory effect when injected either 1 hr before or 1 hr after injection of SCH 23390 (a D1 antagonist). Injection of reserpine followed by α-methyl-p-tyrosine virtually eliminated self-stimulation. Subsequent injection of either SKF 38393 (a D1 agonist) alone or quinpirole alone did not restore self-stimulation, but a combination of quinpirole and SKF 38393 did. Results suggest that a D2 dopamine agonist facilitates the reinforcing effect of brain stimulation only if D1 receptors are activated by endogenous dopamine or by an exogenous agonist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undershoot and settling time tradeoffs for nonminimum phase systems

It has been known for some time that real nonminimum phase zeros imply undershoot in the step response of linear systems. Bounds on such undershoot depend on the settling time demanded and the zero locations. In this note, we review such constraints for linear time invariant systems and provide new stronger bounds that consider simultaneously the effect of two real nonminimum phase zeros. Using the concept of zero dynamics, we extend these results to a class of nonlinear systems.     

In utero exchange transfusion in homozygous alpha-thalassaemia: a case report

We report a case of homozygous alpha-thalassaemia with hydrops fetalis presenting at 22 weeks of gestation. In utero exchange transfusion was performed with maternal blood at 23 weeks. 25 weeks and 29 weeks of gestation. The fetus was delivered at 29 weeks of gestation without significant neonatal complication. Post-transfusion haemoglobin pattern after transfusion suggested that a total haematocrit of 0.52 may be the desired post-exchange transfusion haematocrit to aim for and the total haematocrit of haemoglobin A and haemoglobin Portland dropped approximately one percent per day.     

On delay adjustment for dynamic load balancing in distributed virtual environments

Distributed virtual environments (DVEs) are becoming very popular in recent years, due to the rapid growing of applications, such as massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs). As the number of concurrent users increases, scalability becomes one of the major challenges in designing an interactive DVE system. One solution to address this scalability problem is to adopt a multi-server architecture. While some methods focus on the quality of partitioning the load among the servers, others focus on the efficiency of the partitioning process itself. However, all these methods neglect the effect of network delay among the servers on the accuracy of the load balancing solutions. As we show in this paper, the change in the load of the servers due to network delay would affect the performance of the load balancing algorithm. In this work, we conduct a formal analysis of this problem and discuss two efficient delay adjustment schemes to address the problem. Our experimental results show that our proposed schemes can significantly improve the performance of the load balancing algorithm with neglectable computation overhead.