Digital Commons Network^™

Computing Χ² Values, John F. Dooley, Daniel C. St Clair, William E. Bond

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Textbooks and courses on numerical algorithms contain numerous examples which lead students to believe that the algorithm of choice for computing the zeros of a function f1994 is Newton's algorithm. In many of these courses little or no time is spent in providing students with "real world" experiences where Newton's method fails. The work presented in this paper describes a slow convergence problem encountered while trying to use Newton to estimate values for the 2 distributions. The problem occurred while the authors were trying to implement a well-known machine learning algorithm from the field of artificial intelligence. The function being …

Program Modeling And Control Synthesis For Robotic Manipulators, Ramiz N. Ballou, Arlan R. Dekock, David D. Ardayfio

Computer Science Technical Reports

The control and programming methodology of industrial robots is becoming increasingly important. The speed and accuracy of data generation, and the performance of the robot are considered the most important factors in robotics control. This paper presents and discusses algorithms that solve for the inverse solution for a given point in space at a very high speed based on the top down abstract method. The algorithms are independent of any specific type of manipulator configuration or programming language. The algorithms were implemented for the IBM-PC™ using the FORTRAN language to control the Armdroid™ robot. The program generates 500 sets of …

A New Approach To Automatic Target Recognition Using Wavelet Transforms, Anitha Panapakkam, S. N. Balakrishnan, Daniel St. Clair

Computer Science Technical Reports

Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) systems have significant impact in defense applications. There is a continuing need to develop new and robust techniques to handle the increasingly complex ATR problem. The objectives of this thesis are two-fold. First a new technique to be used for ATR is developed and secondly an integrated ATR system to investigate and combine all subsystems is developed. In this thesis, we have developed a new technique for the feature extraction stage of ATR problem using wavelet transforms. Wavelet transforms have been one of the widely investigated areas of research in the past few years. The promising …

Toward Scalable Parallel Software: An Active Object Model And Library To Support Von Neumann Languages, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Scalable parallel processing has been proposed as the technology scientists and engineers can use today to solve the problems of tomorrow. Many computational Grand Challenge problems require between two and three orders of magnitude than can be provided with the scalable parallel hardware of the early nineteen-nineties. While hardware continues to become more scalable and cheaper, software is not advancing at the same pace and remains a very expensive part of systems development.

A great deal of emphasis on software technology to support scalable parallel processing is placed on von Neumann languages. One of two approaches is common: (a) augment …

A General Object Model Transformation System, John P. Mullaney

Theses and Dissertations

Cecil and Fullenkamp developed a program that transforms knowledge captured in an object-model in one environment into a different object-model in a different environment. This program worked well for the intended purpose, but if one of the object-models is replaced by a different object-model then this transformation program has to be re-engineered. As the object-modeling paradigm becomes more prevalent, many systems are experiencing this problem. The primary goal of this research was to determine what reusable knowledge could be extracted from these types of program and used to build a general object-model transformer that generalizes such transformation programs. Toward this …

Performance Monitoring Of Hybrid Intelligent Systems, Nariman Abdel Baky, Fikret Ercal

Computer Science Technical Reports

Development of an automated system to enable the ongoing monitoring and control of the performance of HIS is a step towards increasing the confidence and security with which ordinary users will perceive AI-based Systems. The main objective of this research was to develop a prototype intelligent system to perform this monitoring. The proposed monitming system integrates performance metrics for the HIS's components with heuristics for evaluating data quality by checking data types, data ranges, percentage of missing data and the composition of data. The research demonstrated the possibility of developing such system and the feasibility of using it for a …

Ccsp - A Formal System For Distributed Program Debugging, Hanan Lutfiyya, Bruce Mcmillin, Beth Arrowsmith, Cristina Serban

Computer Science Technical Reports

One major problem with programming in a parallel/distributed environment is the difficulty in debugging the programs owing to the complex interactions of their component processes. Complete knowledge of the program's state is not generally attainable in a distributed system. This paper presents a distributed system for debugging distributed programs that allows for the execution and evaluation of embedded assertions expressed in Hoare's CSP [6]. We show examples of the use of this system, prove its correctness, and describe how the system can be used for the more general case of ensuring an application's correctness at run-time.

Generalized Probabilistic Reasoning And Empirical Studies On Computational Efficiency And Scalability, Eric P. Baenen

Theses and Dissertations

Expert Systems are tools that can be very useful for diagnostic purposes, however current methods of storing and reasoning with knowledge have significant limitations. One set of limitations involves how to store and manipulate uncertain knowledge: much of the knowledge we are dealing with has some degree of uncertainty. These limitations include lack of complete information, not being able to model cyclic information and limitations on the size and complexity of the problems to be solved. If expert systems are ever going to be able to tackle significant real world problems then these deficiencies must be corrected. This paper describes …

Knowledge-Based Safety Training System (Kbsts): A Prototype Implementation, Venky Shankararaman, B. S. Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A computer-based safety training system for process operators must be able to make effective presentation of textual material, test the trainee's understanding through quizzes and facilitate plant simulation. The general framework of such a system is presented in an earlier paper (Computers in Industry, Vol. 17, 1991, pp. 349–358). In this paper, we discuss the development and implementation of a prototype Knowledge-Based Safety Training System based on the framework. The design philosophy, system architecture and the plant modelling methodology are described.

Unification Of Larch And Z-Based Object Models To Support Algebraically-Based Design Refinement: The Larch Perspective, Catherine J. Lin

Theses and Dissertations

This research describes the feasibility of developing object-oriented LARCH specifications, part of a dual approach for formally extending object-oriented analysis models using LARCH and Z. The first phase consisted of two steps establishing a set of transformation heuristics for algebraically representing object models and implementing a robust LARCH parser. The LARCH parser produced abstract syntax trees ASTs of objects forming the basis for analyzing the similarities and differences between Z-based and LARCH-based object representations. The second phase used the analysis of LARCH and Z to identify fundamental core constructs in the languages and abstract syntax trees. These core constructs consisted …

The Photo-Realistic Afit Virtual Cockpit, Milton E. Diaz

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has pursued research in virtual environments since 1988. This research expands the current capabilities of the AFIT Virtual Cockpit (VC) by increasing the realism of the cockpit environment and improving the pilot's command interface. Realism is improved creating console elements from texture maps and polygonal models; these elements include working dials, switches and circuit breakers. The pilot command interface is improved in part by adapting the AFIT Information Pod using a two-dimensional mouse input to the virtual three-dimensional environment. This immersive virtual environment is also improved by modifications to the Head Mounted Display …

Semantics Vs. Syntax Vs. Computations Machine Models For Type-2 Polynomial-Time Bounded Functionals (Preliminary Draft), James S. Royer

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

This paper investigates analogs of the Kreisel-Lacombe-Shoenfield Theorem in the context of the type-2 basic feasible functionals, a.k.a. the Mehlhorn-Cook class of type-2 polynomial-time functionals. We develop a direct, polynomial-time analog of effective operation, where the time bound on computations is modeled after Kapron and Cook's scheme for their basic polynomial-time functionals. We show that (i) if P = NP, these polynomial-time effective operations are strictly more powerful on R (the class of recursive functions) than the basic feasible functions, and (ii) there is an oracle relative to which these polynomial-time effective operations and the basic feasible functionals have the …

Multiprocessor Document Allocation: A Neural Network Approach, Abdulaziz Sultan Al-Sehibani, Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanjay Ranka

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

We consider the problem of distributing the documents to a given set of processors so that the load on each processor is as equal as possible and the amount of communication is as small as possible. This is an NP-Complete problem. We apply continuous as well as discrete Hopfield neural networks to obtain suboptimal solutions for the problem. These networks perform better than a genetic algorithm for this task proposed by Frieder et al. [4]; in particular, the continuous Hopfield network performs extremely well.

Covering Radius 1985-1994, G. D. Cohen, S. N. Litsyn, Antoine C. Lobstein, H. F. Mattson Jr

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

We survey important developments in the theory of covering radius during the period 1985-1994. We present lower bounds, constructions and upper bounds, the linear and nonlinear cases, density and asymptotic results, normality, specific classes of codes, covering radius and dual distance, tables, and open problems.

Characterization Of A Class Of Sigmoid Functions With Applications To Neural Networks, Anil Ravindran Menon, Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanjay Ranka

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

Sigmoid functions, whose graphs are "S-shaped" curves, appear in a great variety of contexts, such as the transfer functions in many neural networks. Their ubiquity is no accident; these curves are the among the simplest non-linear curves, striking a graceful balance between linear and non-linear behavior.

R-By-C Crozzle: An Np-Hard Problem, Michelle Gower, Ralph Wilkerson

Computer Science Technical Reports

In an Auslralian magazine, a monetary prize is awarded to the person with the best answer to a word puzzle called a Crozzle. Each valid placement of given words into a 10x 15 grid is given a score, and the best answer is the placement with the largest score. Various search techniques have been utilized lo solve this problem. No one has shown whether there is a polynomial-time algorithm to find the best Crozzle. This paper proves that the Crozzle is in NP. It also creates a similar word puzzle, called R-by-C Crozzle, by lifting the constraint on the grid …

A Load Distribution Through Competition For Workstation Clusters, Kam Hong Shum, Muslim Bozyigit

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The aim of this work is to develop a competition driven solution approach for load distribution in distributed computing system (DCS) environments. The subject DCS is composed of a set of workstation clusters. The study deals with concurrent applications, but assumes the existence of the independent tasks executing on individual workstations as well. Akin to conventional load balancing algorithms, the approach considers two phases; the partitioning phase and the mapping phase. Each phase is based on the application and the DCS data which is translated into market data, mainly price. The price is governed by the demand and supply of …

Logging Subsystem Performance: Model And Evaluation, Thomas K. Clark

Dissertations and Theses

Transaction logging is an integral part of ensuring proper transformation of data from one state to another in modern data management. Because of this, the throughput of the logging subsystem can be critical to the throughput of an application. The purpose of this research is to break the log bottleneck at minimum cost.

We first present a model for evaluating a logging subsystem, where a logging subsystem is made up of a log device, a log backup device, and the interconnect algorithm between the two, which we term the log backup method. Included in the logging model is a set …

A Vlsi Implementation Of A Parallel, Self-Organizing Learning Model, Tony R. Martinez, George L. Rudolph, Linton G. Salmon, Matthew G. Stout

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a VLSI implementation of the Priority Adaptive Self-organizing Concurrent System (PASOCS) learning model that is built using a multi-chip module (MCM) substrate. Many current hardware implementations of neural network learning models are direct implementations of classical neural network structures - a large number of sample computing nodes connected by a dense number of weighted links. PASOCS is one of a class of ASOCS (Adaptive Self-Organizing Concurrent System) connectionist models whose overall goal is the same as classical neural networks models, but whose functional mechanisms differ significantly. This model has potential application in areas such as pattern recognition, …

The "Infoharness" Information Integration Platform, Leon Shklar, Satish Thatte, Howard Marcus, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The "InfoHarness" information integration platform, tools, and services being developed at Bellcore are aimed at providing integrated and rapid access to huge amounts of heterogeneous information independent of the type, representation, and location of information. InfoHarness provides advanced search and browsing capabilities without imposing the burden of restructuring, reformatting or relocating information on information suppliers or creators. This is achieved through object-oriented encapsulation of information and the associated meta-information (e.g., type, location, access rights, owner, creation date, etc.). The meta-information extraction methods ensure rapid and largely automatic creation of information repositories. A gateway that supports access to InfoHarness repositories from …

Does Pedagogy Make A Difference?: An Experimental Study Of Unethical Behavior In Information Systems, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Jn the past few years ethics education has received increasing attention from the business and academic communities. Many have instituted pedagogical programs for increasing awareness of ethical issues, ethical norms and codes of conduct in different professions. It appears that both researchers and practitioners are in agreement about the need for providing adequate ethics education to managers (13, 20, 9). This has become especially important in the context of the information systems (IS) discipline. Proliferation of information and communication technologies has raised many questions on what constitutes ethical managerial behavior. Researchers have reported that the existence of a computer-based information …

Spiders: A New User Interface For Rotation And Visualization Of N-Dimensional Point Sets, William A. Barrett, Kirk L. Duffin

Faculty Publications

We present a new method for creating n-dimensional rotation matrices from manipulating the projections of n-dimensional data coordinate axes onto a viewing plane. A user interface for n-dimensional rotation is implemented. The interface is shown to have no rotational hysteresis.

Fluted Formulas And The Limits Of Decidability, William C. Purdy

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

In the predicate calculus, variables provide a flexible indexing service that selects the actual arguments to a predicate letter from among possible arguments that precede the predicate letter (in the parse of the formula). In the process of selection, the possible arguments can be permuted, repeated (used more than once), and skipped. If this service is withheld, so that arguments must be the immediately preceding ones, taken in the order in which they occur, the formula is said to be fluted. Quine showed that if a fluted formula contains only homogeneous conjunction (conjoins only subformulas of equal arity), then the …

A Domain-Specific Parallel Programming System I: Design And Application To Ecological Modelling, Elaine Wenderholm, Micah Beck

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Technical Reports

The goal of the εm project is to make parallel programming easily accessible to a broad community of scientists. Previous approaches such as the use of general parallel programming languages and parallelizing compilers for sequential languages have fallen short in this respect. The approach is to design a special purpose programming language which is oriented towards a specific area of application. The result is a specialized and effective scientific tool. εm is a high-level programming system which puts parallelism into the hands of scientists who are not sophisticated programmers. By restricting and simplifying the programming interface, εm eases both the …

An Empirical Study On End Users' Update Performance For Different Abstraction Levels, Hock Chuan Chan, Kwok Kee Wei, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent laboratory experiments have shown a strong tendency that database users can perform better at the conceptual level than at the logical level. The experiments measured users’ performance for the tasks of database design and database retrieval. Besides database design and retrieval, the third major database task is update. User performance for updates has not been measured. With the widespread availability of databases, updates will be done frequently by end-users. This task is gaining in importance as a measure of the usability of a database system. An experiment was conducted to measure the effect of different abstraction levels on user …

Eighth-Order Explicit Symplecticrunge-Kutta-Nyström Integrators, Daniel I. Okunbor, Eric J. Lu

Computer Science Technical Reports

We consider the solution of Hamiltonian dynamical systems by constructing eighth-order explicit symplectic Runge-Kutta-Nyström integrators. The application of highorder integrators may be important in areas such as in astronomy. They require large number of function evaluations, which make them computationally expensive and easily susceptible to errors. The integrators developed in this paper require 17 function evaluations as opposed to the 26-stage (effectively 24) eighth-order explicit symplectic Runge-Kutta-Nyström method derived by Calvo and Sanz-Serna. Numerical tests using the 2-Body and the sine-Gordon problems indicate that our methods are comparable to that of Calvo and Sanz-Serna and Yoshida.

How To Program In Ccsp, Beth Arrowsmith

Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Performance Of Combined Diversity Reception And Convolutional Coding For Qdpsk Land Mobile Radio, Huafei Zhou, Robert H. Deng, T. T. Tjhung

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Diversity reception and error correction coding are powerful techniques to combat multipath fading encountered in mobile radio communications. In order to improve the transmission performance of the ?/4-shift QDPSK signal in mobile radio channels, the authors propose a new scheme of combined coding and diversity reception, i.e., combination of diversity reception employing code combining (CC) and convolutional coding employing error-and erasure correction Viterbi decoding. They also consider another combination scheme, i.e., combination of diversity reception employing postdetection maximal ratio combining (MRC) and convolutional coding employing hard decision Viterbi decoding. They theoretically analyze the performance of the schemes taking into account …

Optimum Symbol-By-Symbol Detection Of Uncoded Digital Data Over The Gaussian Channel With Unknown Carrier Phase, Pooi Yuen Kam, Seng Siew Ng, Tock Soon Ng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A theory of optimum receiver design for symbol-by-symbol detection of an uncoded digital data sequence received over the Gaussian channel with unknown carrier phase is presented. Linear suppressed-carrier modulation is assumed. The work here aims at laying a conceptual foundation for optimum symbol-by-symbol detection, and rectifies existing approaches to the problem. The optimum receiver structure is obtained explicitly for an arbitrary carrier phase model, but its computational requirements are too heavy in general for any practical implementation. In one important special case, namely, the case in which the carrier phase can be treated as a constant over some K+1 symbol …

Teaching The Practice Of Formal Methods In Distributed Computing Systems - A Module, Beth Arrowsmith, Bruce Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.