Temporal stability and cross-situational consistency of affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses.

Examined consistency and stability of feelings in reports that were completed on 3,512 occasions randomly sampled from the lives of 42 undergraduates. Over a 6-wk period, Ss completed a mood inventory at times indicated by an alarm watch. The stability and consistency of responses depended on the situations, individuals, and responses involved. High degrees of consistency were unusual for single responses, although mean levels of responding tended to be both highly stable and consistent. The consistency and stability of variables covaried, suggesting a connection between the two. Ss who were more consistent across one pair of situations tended to be more consistent across other situational pairs. Results indicate that the question of whether personality consistency exists does not have a simple answer and requires knowledge of the persons, situations, responses, and level of analysis involved. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deductive sort and climbing sort: new methods for non-dominated sorting

In recent years an increasing number of real-world many-dimensional optimisation problems have been identified across the spectrum of research fields. Many popular evolutionary algorithms use non-dominance as a measure for selecting solutions for future generations. The process of sorting populations into non-dominated fronts is usually the controlling order of computational complexity and can be expensive for large populations or for a high number of objectives. This paper presents two novel methods for non-dominated sorting: deductive sort and climbing sort. The two new methods are compared to the fast non-dominated sort of NSGA-II and the non-dominated rank sort of the omni-optimizer. The results demonstrate the improved efficiencies of the deductive sort and the reductions in comparisons that can be made when applying inferred dominance relationships defined in this paper.     

An optimal parallel algorithm for triangulating a set of points in the plane

This paper presents an optimal parallel algorithm for triangulating an arbitrary set ofn points in the plane. The algorithm runs inO(logn) time usingO(n) space andO(_n) processors on a Concurrent-Read, Exclusive-Write Parallel RAM model (CREW PRAM). The parallel lower bound on triangulation is (logn) time so the best possible linear speedup has been achieved. A parallel divide-and-conquer technique of subdividing a problem into subproblems is employed.     

Verification and optimization of a PLC control schedule

We report on the use of model checking techniques for both the verification of a process control program and the derivation of optimal control schedules. Most of this work has been carried out as part of a case study for the EU VHS project (Verification of Hybrid Systems), in which the program for a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) of an experimental chemical plant had to be designed and verified. The original intention of our approach was to see how much could be achieved here using the standard model checking environment of SPIN/Promela. As the symbolic calculations of real-time model checkers can be quite expensive it is interesting to try and exploit the efficiency of established non-real-time model checkers like SPIN in those cases where promising work-arounds seem to exist. In our case we handled the relevant real-time properties of the PLC controller using a time-abstraction technique; for the scheduling we implemented in Promela a so-called variable time advance procedure . To compare and interpret the results we carried out the same case study with the aid of the real-time model checker Uppaal, enhanced with facilities for cost-guided state space exploration. Both approaches proved sufficiently powerful to verify the design of the controller and/or derive (time-)optimal schedules within reasonable time and space requirements. Published online: 2 October 2002 The work reported here was carried out while the second and third authors were employed by the Computer Science Department of the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands. The second author was supported by an NWO postdoc grant, the third author by an NWO PhD grant, and both were supported by the EU LTR project VHS (Project No. 26270).     

Benchmarking enhancements to a decision support system for global crop production assessments

The Office of Global Analysis/International Production Assessment Division (OGA/IPAD) of the United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) has been assimilating new data and information products from agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) into its operational decision support system (DSS). The FAS mission is to improve monthly estimates of global production of major agricultural commodities and provide US Government senior decision makers and the public the most accurate, timely, and objective assessment of the global food supply situation possible. These estimates are ultimately captured as the US governments’ official assessments of world food supply for the commodity markets and policy makers. The goal of this research was to measure changes in the quality and accuracy of decision support information resulting from the assimilation of new NASA products in the DSS. We gathered both qualitative and quantitative information through questionnaires and interviews to benchmark these changes. We used an interactive project lifecycle risk management tool developed for NASA mission spaceflight design and quality assurance (DDP – Defect Detection and Prevention) to do this. In this case, we used it to (1) quantify the change in DSS Objectives attained after assimilation of new products, and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of various Mitigation options against potential Risks. The change in Objectives attainment was considered the most important benchmarking indicator for examining the effectiveness of the assimilation of NASA products into OGA/IPAD’s DSS. From this research emerged a novel model for benchmarking DSSs that (1) promotes continuity and synergy within and between government agencies, (2) accommodates scientific, operational and architectural dynamics, and (3) facilitates transfer of knowledge among research, management, and decision-making agencies.     

Gartner rings security alarm bells

Research firm the Gartner Group has warned that Internet fraud is spiralling out of control with three out of four Web sites being currently vulnerable to attack and predicted that by 2003 the level of Internet fraud will have outstripped credit card fraud.