Coupling agent-based models of subsistence farming with individual-based forest models and dynamic models of water distribution

Subsistence farming communities are dependent on the landscape to provide the resource base upon which their societies can be built. A key component of this is the role of climate and the feedback between rainfall, crop growth, land clearance and their coupling to the hydrological cycle. Temporal fluctuations in rainfall alter the spatial distribution of water availability, which in turn is mediated by soil-type, slope and landcover. This pattern ultimately determines the locations within the landscape that can support agriculture and controls sustainability of farming practices. The representation of such a system requires us to couple together the dynamics of human and ecological systems and landscape change, each of which constitutes a significant modelling challenge on its own. Here we present a proto-type coupled modelling system to simulate land-use change by bringing together three simple process models: (a) an agent-based model of subsistence farming; (b) an individual-based model of forest dynamics; and (c) a spatially explicit hydrological model which predicts distributed soil moisture and basin scale water fluxes. Using this modelling system we investigate how demographic changes influence deforestation and assess its impact on forest ecology, stream hydrology and changes in water availability.     

Performance evaluation of dynamic probabilistic broadcasting for flooding in mobile ad hoc networks

In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), flooding is a required message dissemination technique for network-wide broadcast. The conventional blind flooding algorithm causes broadcast storm problem, a high number of unnecessary packet rebroadcasts thus resulting in high contention and packet collisions. This paper proposes a new probabilistic approach that dynamically fine-tunes the rebroadcasting probability of a node for routing request packets (RREQs) according to the number of neighbour nodes. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach for the ad hoc on demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol and compared against the blind flooding, fixed probabilistic and adjusted probabilistic flooding [L.M.M.M. Bani-Yassein, M. Ould-Khaoua et al., Performance analysis of adjusted probabilistic broadcasting in mobile ad hoc networks, International Journal of Wireless Information Networks 13(2) (2006) 127–140; M.B. Yassein, M.O. Khaoua et al., Improving route discovery in on-demand routing protocols using local topology information in MANETs, Proceedings of the ACM international workshop on Performance Monitoring, Measurement, and Evaluation of Heterogeneous Wireless and Wired Networks, Terromolinos, Spain, ACM Press, 2006, pp. 95–99.] approaches. The simulation results show that our proposed approach demonstrates better performance than blind flooding, fixed probabilistic and adjusted flooding approaches.     

iPhone改变PC世界?

下一代台式PC和笔记本电脑也许会跟iPhone特别相像。一年前,我写过一篇专栏文章＂为什么iPhone会改变PC世界＂,在那篇文章中我描绘了未来PC操作系统的用户界面,将出现类似于iPhone中的多重触控、智能识别、3D和微小图标等元素。在微软的Surface Computing中这些元素已经成为现实。     

PI k mass production and an optimal circuit for the Nečiporuk slice

Letf: {0,1} ⁿ {0,1} ^m be anm-output Boolean function inn variables.f is called ak-slice iff(x) equals the all-zero vector for allx with Hamming weight less thank andf(x) equals the all-one vector for allx with Hamming weight more thank. Wegener showed that PI _k -set circuits (set circuits over prime implicants of lengthk) are at the heart of any optimum Boolean circuit for ak-slicef. We prove that, in PI _k -set circuits, savings are possible for the mass production of anyFX, i.e., any collectionF ofm output-sets given any collectionX ofn input-sets, if their PI _k -set complexity satisfiesSC _m (FX)3n+2m. This PI _k mass production, which can be used in monotone circuits for slice functions, is then exploited in different ways to obtain a monotone circuit of complexity 3n+o(n) for the Neiporuk slice, thus disproving a conjecture by Wegener that this slice has monotone complexity (n ^3/2). Finally, the new circuit for the Neiporuk slice is proven to be asymptotically optimal, not only with respect to monotone complexity, but also with respect to combinational complexity.     

Electrocapacitive Deionization: Mechanisms,Electrodes, and Cell Designs

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging water desalination technology for removing different ionic species from water, which is based on electric charge compensation by these charged species. CDI is becoming popular because it is more energy-efficient and cost-effective than other technologies, such as reverse osmosis and distillation, specifically in dealing with brackish water having low or moderate salt concentrations. Over the past decade, the CDI research field has witnessed significant advances in the used electrode materials, cell architectures, and associated mechanisms for desalination applications. This review article first discusses ion storage/removal mechanisms in carbon and Faradaic materials aided by advanced in situ analysis techniques and computations. It then summarizes research progress toward electrode materials in terms of structure, surface chemistry, and composition. More still, it discusses CDI cell architectures by highlighting their different cell design concepts. Finally, current challenges and future research directions are summarized to provide guidelines for future CDI research.     

Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on the Governance Mode Decisions of Engineering Managers During the Establishment of Research Alliances With Publicly Funded Entities

Strengthening intellectual property rights for publicly financed research and development (R&D) ensures that research organizations maximize the full national value of the intellectual property that they generate, but potential negative spillover effects on the perceived value of a research alliance might deter an existing alliance partner from continued collaboration or a potential alliance partner from future collaboration. This study, performed in 2010 within the context of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa, aimed to develop a structural equation modeling-based value-mediation governance decision-making model that will enable engineering managers at publicly financed R&D organizations to select optimal governance modes for the research alliances they are establishing to grow their organizations’ R&D capabilities.     

Optimization problems in contracted tensor networks

We discuss the calculus of variations in tensor representations with a special focus on tensor networks and apply it to functionals of practical interest. The survey provides all necessary ingredients for applying minimization methods in a general setting. The important cases of target functionals which are linear and quadratic with respect to the tensor product are discussed, and combinations of these functionals are presented in detail. As an example, we consider the representation rank compression in tensor networks. For the numerical treatment, we use the nonlinear block Gauss?CSeidel method. We demonstrate the rate of convergence in numerical tests.     

Automatically performing weak mutation with the aid of symbolic execution,concolic testing and search-based testing

Automating software testing activities can increase the quality and drastically decrease the cost of software development. Toward this direction, various automated test data generation tools have been developed. The majority of existing tools aim at structural testing, while a quite limited number aim at a higher level of testing thoroughness such as mutation. In this paper, an attempt toward automating the generation of mutation-based test cases by utilizing existing automated tools is proposed. This is achieved by reducing the killing mutants’ problem into a covering branches one. To this extent, this paper is motivated by the use of state of the art techniques and tools suitable for covering program branches when performing mutation. Tools and techniques such as symbolic execution, concolic execution, and evolutionary testing can be easily adopted toward automating the test input generation activity for the weak mutation testing criterion by simply utilizing a special form of the mutant schemata technique. The propositions made in this paper integrate three automated tools in order to illustrate and examine the method’s feasibility and effectiveness. The obtained results, based on a set of Java program units, indicate the applicability and effectiveness of the suggested technique. The results advocate that the proposed approach is able to guide existing automating tools in producing test cases according to the weak mutation testing criterion. Additionally, experimental results with the proposed mutation testing regime show that weak mutation is able to speedup the mutant execution time by at least 4.79 times when compared with strong mutation.     

Understanding risk-taking behavior of groups: A “decision analysis” perspective

Past research has extensively investigated the effect of media, especially focusing on how anonymity increases risk-related behaviors of groups when using computer-mediated communication (CMC). This study extends prior research by examining the differences in group risk-taking behaviors between face-to-face groups and completely non-anonymous CMC groups (i.e., groups working in a fully identified, synchronous CMC environment similar to popular instant messaging systems utilized widely within organizations). Drawing on the “decision analysis” perspective, a key framework for understanding organizational decision-making, the study also examines the effects of the firm's risk preferences as well as the type of information distribution among group members (i.e., full information known to all group members versus partial information know by only some of the members) on the groups' risk-taking behaviors. Results from a laboratory experiment using student subjects found no differences in risk-taking behaviors between CMC and face-to-face groups; additionally, no differences were found related to how information was distributed among group members. A significant effect was found, however, for the risk preference of the firm, showing that risk-neutral firms influenced groups to make riskier decisions than groups from risk-averse firms. Finally, groups within risk-neutral firms receiving partial information made riskier decisions than groups receiving full information. The implications of these results for future research and practice are examined.