A large-scale multi-agent system for navy personnel distribution

In the US Navy, at the end of each sailor's tour of duty, he or she is assigned to a new job. The Navy employs some 280 people, called detailers, full time to effect these new assignments. The intelligent distribution agent (IDA) prototype was designed and built to automate, in a cognitively plausible manner, the job of the human detailers. That model is being redesigned to function as a multi-agent system. This is not a trivial matter due to the fact that there would need to be approximately 350 ‐ 000 individual agents. There are also many issues relating to how the agents interact and how all entities involved, including humans, exercise their autonomy. This paper describes both the IDA prototype and the multi-agent IDA system being created from it. We shall also discuss several of the major issues regarding the design, interaction and autonomy of the various agents involved.     

Classification of SPOT HRV imagery and texture features

Abstract

Spatial co-occurrence matrices were computed for a SPOT HRV multispectral image for a moderate-relief environment in eastern Canada. The texture features entropy and inverse difference moment were used with the spectral data in landcover classification, and substantive increases in accuracy were noted. These range from 10 per cent for exposed bedrock to over 40 per cent in forest and wetland classes. The average classification accuracies were increased from 511 per cent (spectral data alone) to 86.7 per cent (spectral data plus entropy measured in band 2 and inverse difference moment in band 3). Classes that are homogeneous on the ground were characterized adequately by spectral tone alone, but classes containing mixed vegetation patterns or strongly related to structure were characterized more accurately by using a mixture of spectral tone and texture.     

EFFECT OF CURING INGREDIENTS, SKINNING, AND BONING ON YIELD, QUALITY, AND MICROFLORA OR COUNTRY HAMS

Green hams were left intact, partially skinned, fully skinned, and fully skinned and boned. They were dry-cured with or without nitrate and aged 3 months. The presence of nitrate had no effect on the variables studies. Percent moisture loss and accompanying weight loss increased with each further removal of protective fat and skin. Percent residual salt was in proportion to weight loss. Residual nitrite was low for all groups Color and aroma scores were similar for all groups. General appearance scores, however, were lowest for the drier boneless group. Shear values were greatest while organoleptic flavor and over-all satisfaction scores were lowest in the boneless group. Tenderness scores were similar for the skinless and boneless group but both were lower than for the intact or partially skinned groups. In general, microbial counts were highest for surface samples from completely skinned fresh hams and lowest for partially skinned fresh hams. Higher counts were obtained for core samples from boneless fresh hams than for intact hams. Aerobic (26° and 37°C), lactobacilli, enterococci. streptococci. yeast and mold surface, and core counts tended to decrease during the manufacture of aged dry-cured hams. No trends in counts due to ham group or cure treatment were observed during the manufacturing process. At the end of the aging period none of the hams contained bacteria of public health significance. Aged dry-cured hams of acceptable microbial quality can be manufactured using intact, partially skinned, skinned or boneless fresh hams without potassium nitrate as part of the cure mixture.     

Prevention of RCF damage in curved track through development of the INFRA‐STAR two‐material rail

Results from the European 5th frame research project ‘INFRA‐STAR’ are presented. The goal of the project is to prevent rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and to reduce squeal noise in curves by applying an additional surface layer material on the top of the railhead, resulting in a two‐material rail. In INFRA‐STAR, a dynamic train–track interaction model is used to provide the contact forces. Wheel‐rail profiles, wheel‐rail friction, vehicle data, track data and operating conditions are included to calculate the wheel‐rail contact forces and spin moments, contact positions and load distributions in the contact patch. The contact pressure, friction coefficient, coating thickness, material properties of the coating and the rail material are used in finite element calculations and shakedown theory to calculate shakedown limits, which are then used to predict the RCF performance of the system. The paper details the work on theoretical modelling, twin disc testing, metallurgical research and field testing completed to date (August 2002, the project just passed midterm). The development of the surface layer application methods that are used, and the further objectives of the INFRA‐STAR project, are discussed.     

Image analysis to reveal crack development using a computer simulation of wear and rolling contact fatigue

Plastic flow of near‐surface rail material under contact loading is a feature of rail–wheel contact, and severe flow typically leads to both wear, and the initiation and development of small surface‐breaking cracks. This paper presents results from a ratcheting based computer simulation, which has been developed to allow the simultaneous investigation of wear, crack initiation and early crack propagation. To identify repeatably small crack‐like flaws, image analysis is applied to the visual representation of the wearing surface generated by the model. This representation shows a good similarity to traditional micrographs taken from sections of worn surfaces. The model clearly reveals the interaction of wear with crack development, processes which are linked because wear truncates surface‐breaking cracks, and can completely remove small surface‐breaking cracks.     

Detection of Reaction Products Between Water and Soda-Lime-Silica Glass

A simulated extract approach was used to ascertain the identities of the products of reaction between a soda-lime-silica glass and water. The reaction between the glass and water was studied at 90° C. with reaction time periods up to 4 hours. The products of this reaction were found to be sodium metasilicate, calcium meta-silicate, and metasilicic acid.     

Spectral texture for improved class discrimination in complex terrain

Abstract

A spatial co-occurrence algorithm has been used to derive image texture from Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data to increase classification accuracy in a moderate relief, boreal environment in eastern Canada. The aim was to investigate ‘data-driven improvements’, including those available through digital elevation modelling. Overall classification accuracy using MSS data alone was 59·1 per cent when compared to a biophysical inventory of the area compiled primarily by aerial photointerpretation. This increased to 66·2 per cent with MSS plus texture and to 89·8 per cent when MSS data were analysed with geomorphometry extracted from a digital elevation model (DEM). The introduction of MSS texture resulted in statistically significant increases in individual class accuracies in classes that were also well defined using the geomorphometric and integrated data sets. This suggested that some of the additional information provided by geomorphometry was also contained in spectral texture. It was also noted that individual texture orientations resulted in higher class accuracies than average texture measures; this is probably related to structural (slope/aspect) characteristics of specific vegetation communities.