Root-restricted Kleenean rotations

We generalize the Kleene theorem to the case where nonassociative products are used. For this purpose, we apply rotations restricted to the root of binary trees.     

Dynamic hinting: Collaborative real-time resource management for reactive embedded systems

The increasing complexity of today’s reactive embedded applications can rapidly result in reduced real-time capabilities of the underlying hard and software. As an example for this paper we’ll refer to the specific and growing demands on the severely resource constrained sensor nodes in sensor/actuator networks (SANet). While preemptive operating systems are one way to retain acceptable reactivity within highly dynamic environments, their concurrency paradigm commonly leads to severe resource management problems, caused by the coexistence of tasks with interfering and even varying requirements. To counteract these problems, we present the novel Dynamic Hinting approach for maintaining good reactivity in typically resource constrained sensor/actuator systems by efficient combination of preemptive task scheduling and collaborative resource allocation. With respect to task priorities, our technique significantly improves classical methods for handling priority inversions (and deadlocks where required) under both short- and long-term resource allocations. Furthermore, we facilitate compositional software design by providing independently developed tasks with runtime information for yet collaborative and reflective resource sharing – e.g. by means of time-utility-functions. In many cases this even allows to reduce blocking delays as otherwise imposed by bounded priority inversion.     

Stream engines meet wireless sensor networks: cost-based planning and processing of complex queries in AnduIN

Wireless sensor networks are powerful, distributed, self-organizing systems used for event and environmental monitoring. In-network query processors like TinyDB offer a user friendly SQL-like application development. Due to the sensor nodes?? resource limitations, monolithic approaches often support only a restricted number of operators. For this reason, complex processing is typically outsourced to the base station. Nevertheless, previous work has shown that complete or partial in-network processing can be more efficient than the base station approach. In this paper, we introduce AnduIN, a system for developing, deploying, and running complex in-network processing tasks. In particular, we present the query planning and execution strategies used in AnduIN, a system combining sensor-local in-network processing and a data stream engine. Query planning employs a multi-dimensional cost model taking energy consumption into account and decides autonomously which query parts will be processed within the sensor network and which parts will be processed at the central instance.     

Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops: Year 1 results and lessons learned

Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops is a project focused on the needs of the specialty crops sector, with a focus on apples and nursery trees. The project’s main thrusts are the integration of robotics technology and plant science; understanding and overcoming socio-economic barriers to technology adoption; and making the results available to growers and stakeholders through a nationwide outreach program. In this article, we present the results obtained and lessons learned in the first year of the project with a reconfigurable mobility infrastructure for autonomous farm driving. We then present sensor systems developed to enable three real-world agricultural applications—insect monitoring, crop load scouting, and caliper measurement—and discuss how they can be deployed autonomously to yield increased production efficiency and reduced labor costs.     

A Newton-like finite element scheme for compressible gas flows

Semi-implicit and Newton-like finite element methods are developed for the stationary compressible Euler equations. The Galerkin discretization of the inviscid fluxes is potentially oscillatory and unstable. To suppress numerical oscillations, the spatial discretization is performed by a high-resolution finite element scheme based on algebraic flux correction. A multidimensional limiter of TVD type is employed. An important goal is the efficient computation of stationary solutions in a wide range of Mach numbers, which is a challenging task due to oscillatory correction factors associated with TVD-type flux limiters. A semi-implicit scheme is derived by a time-lagged linearization of the nonlinear residual, and a Newton-like method is obtained in the limit of infinite CFL numbers. Special emphasis is laid on the numerical treatment of weakly imposed characteristic boundary conditions. Numerical evidence for unconditional stability is presented. It is shown that the proposed approach offers higher accuracy and better convergence behavior than algorithms in which the boundary conditions are implemented in a strong sense.     

Verifying a Network Invariant for All Configurations of the Futurebus+ Cache Coherence Protocol

In this paper we describe a network invariant for all configurations of the Futurebus+ Cache Coherence Protocol. The network invariant was computed with PAX and verified by a model checker. Using this invariant we are able to prove a specification of cache coherence correct for an arbitrary number of components on a single bus of the system. This specification includes a progress property not proven yet. We show how the result for the single bus system can be extended to tree-shaped systems. This is, as far as we know, the first uniform proof of the protocol with multiple data-buses.     

2‐D/3‐D displays based on switchable lenticulars

Abstract— An attractive concept for 3‐D displays is the one based on LCDs equipped with lenticular lenses. This enables autostereoscopic multiview 3‐D displays without a loss in brightness. A general issue in multiview 3‐D displays is their relatively low spatial resolution because the pixels are divided among the different views. To overcome this problem, we have developed switchable displays, using liquid‐crystal (LC) filled switchable lenticulars. In this way, it is possible to have a high‐brightness 3‐D display capable of fully exploiting the native 2‐D resolution of the underlying LCD. The feasibility of LC‐filled switchable lenticulars was shown in several applications. For applications in which it is advantageous to be able to display 3‐D and 2‐D content simultaneously, a 42‐in. locally switchable prototype having a matrix electrode structure was developed. These displays were realized using cylindrically shaped lenticular lenses in contact with LC. An alternative for these are lenticulars based on gradient‐index (GRIN) LC lenses. Preliminary results for such switchable GRIN lenses are presented as well.     

Visualization of myocardial perfusion derived from coronary anatomy

Visually assessing the effect of the coronary artery anatomy on the perfusion of the heart muscle in patients with coronary artery disease remains a challenging task. We explore the feasibility of visualizing this effect on perfusion using a numerical approach. We perform a computational simulation of the way blood is perfused throughout the myocardium purely based on information from a three-dimensional anatomical tomographic scan. The results are subsequently visualized using both three-dimensional visualizations and bull's eye plots, partially inspired by approaches currently common in medical practice. Our approach results in a comprehensive visualization of the coronary anatomy that compares well to visualizations commonly used for other scanning technologies. We demonstrate techniques giving detailed insight in blood supply, coronary territories and feeding coronary arteries of a selected region. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach through visualizations that show information which commonly cannot be directly observed in scanning data, such as a separate visualization of the supply from each coronary artery. We thus show that the results of a computational simulation can be effectively visualized and facilitate visually correlating these results to for example perfusion data.     

Lognormal behaviour of untreated and treated wastewater constituents

This article presents an extensive study to select the theoretical probability distribution that represents the concentrations of major constituents from 35 wastewater treatment plants located in Brazil, as well as to verify the influence of the adopted treatment technology on the data distributions. Due to the lack of a solid basis for selecting the distributions that best fit the data, various distributions had to be tried and the choice was based on statistical tests and visual techniques, comprising a total of 3,444 tests undertaken. While comparing suitability of five distributions (normal, lognormal, gamma, exponential and rectangular) for analysis of data (influent and effluent biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus, thermotolerant coliforms and flow), it was observed that the lognormal distribution was the most suitable, which is in agreement with the findings from other research studies. This conclusion requires a different position from the one currently adopted when analysing plant performance, in which symmetry of the data is generally implied, which has been shown not to be the case with the large array of data sets investigated.