Digital Commons Network^™

Genetic Algorithms With 3-Parent Crossover, L. Vincent Edmondson

Doctoral Dissertations

"A new genetic algorithm which uses a 3-parent uniform crossover operator is developed and analyzed. Uniform crossover operators are shown to be based on the premise that all bit-level genetic information should be passed from parents to children. The 3-parent uniform crossover operator is shown to adhere to this premise. The 3-parent uniform crossover operator is shown to be better than the 2-parent uniform crossover operator on the De Jong test functions.

Two new genetic algorithms which use 3-parent traditional crossover operators are developed and analyzed. The first uses a strategy of randomly selecting 3 of the 6 children resulting …

A Rule-Based System For Query Feedback, Hock C. Chan, Kwok-Kee Wei, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The authors propose a rule-based system which provides feedback in order to give the user a better understanding of the user's queries. This technique improves query accuracy and confidence. A rule-based expert system that pinpoints syntax errors is described. It suggests possible semantics errors and provides possible solutions, as well as the English translation for the queries. The system can be used for computer-aided training and in actual operations. The system was experimentally tested with a group of students.

Tau Decays With One Charged Particle Plus Multiple Π0'S, M. Procario, Manoj Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the CLEO-II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have measured branching fractions for tau lepton decay into one-prong final states with multiple π0’s B0hnπ, normalized to the branching fraction for tau decay into one charged particle and a single π0. We find B0h2π/B0hπ=0.345±0.006±0.016, B0h3π/B0hπ=0.041 ±0.003±0.005, and B0h4π/B0hπ=0.006±0.002±0.002.

Measurement Of Charmless Semileptonic Decays Of B Mesons, Bartelt; J.; Et Al., M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Observation Of The Charmed Baryon C+ And Measurement Of The Isospin Mass Splittings Of The C, Crawford, G.; Et Al., M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Study Of D0 Decays Into K̄0 And K̄*0, M. Procario, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Using the CLEO II detector at CESR we have studied D0 decays into final states with a ¯K0 or ¯K*0, and have measured branching ratios for the decay modes D0→(¯K0¯K*0)π0, η, η′. These results are compared with predictions of various charm decay models, and contributions of final-state interactions are discussed.

Repository Evaluation Of Software Reuse: An Empirical Study, R. D. Banker, Robert J. Kauffman, D. Zweig

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The use and benefits of repository evaluation of software reuse are illustrated through an analysis of the evolving repositories of two large firms that recently implemented integrated CASE development tools. The analysis shows that these tools have supported high levels of software reuse, but it also suggests that there remains considerable unexploited reuse potential. The findings indicate that organizational changes will be required before the full potential of the new technology can be realized.

An Application-Oriented Approach To Distributed Error-Detecting Branch & Bound, Aggie Y. Sun, Hanan Lutfiyya, Bruce Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

An important aspect which is often overlooked in software _design of distributed environments is that of fault tolerance. Many methodologies in the past have attempted to provide fault tolerance efficiently, but have never been successful at eliminating explicit time and space redundancy. One approach is the Application-Oriented Fault Tolerance Paradigm, which provides fault tolerance by examining the behavior and properties of the application and deriving executable assertions for the detection of faults. Previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of the application-oriented fault tolerance paradigm for various applications. However, the executable assertions were guided by the natural constraints of the problem. …

An Integrated Simulation Model Development Environment For Slam Ii Using Object-Oriented Paradigm, Rizvan Erol

Masters Theses

An integrated simulation model development environment was implemented to assist the modeler by automating certain activities of simulation modeling. The system included interactive model definition, experimental design, automatic simulation program generation in SLAM II. Object-oriented paradigm at software development stage was extensively used to conceptualize the structure, and rules of the SLAM II language in order to generate efficient, and modular program code. The present system targeted modeling of various probabilistic inventory control system problems. The remarkable advantages of the system were rapid model development time, and achieving reliable program code without requiring any knowledge in SLAM II. Object-oriented programming …

A Case Tool For Conceptual Database Design, Keng Siau, Kok Phuang Tan, Hock Chuan Chan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The paper describes a Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tool to support conceptual database modelling. One popular approach for conceptual database modelling is use of the Entity-Relationship (ER) model. The paper proposes the use of an Enhanced Entity-Relationship (EER) model for conceptual database modelling. This Enhanced Entity-Relationship model extends the Entity-Relationship model by incorporating the generalization/specialization, aggregation and categorization abstractions. The CASE tool, which is based on the Enhanced Entity-Relationship model, is known as the Enhanced Entity-Relationship Diagrammer (EERD). In addition, the CASE tool supports direct visual query and update based on the EERM.

Solution To A Multicriteria Aircraft Routing Problem Utilizing Parallel Search Techniques, James J. Grimm Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Pilots select routes based on factors such as threats, fuel, time on target, distance, and refueling points. This is a time consuming task. This thesis presents the software engineering synthesis of a software tool, based on a parallelized A* search algorithm, to select routes. For simplicity only threats and distance are used. A centralized open list is used with one processor managing the list while the other processors perform the node expansions. This decomposition result in a dynamically load balanced system. A number of parameters are changed to study their impact on the execution time. The use of a branch …

Examining A Layered Approach To Function And Design Representation For Reusable Software Components, Paul D. Siebels

Theses and Dissertations

This effort examined ways to improve the effectiveness of reusable software libraries. The main area of investigation was in improving the user interface by finding better ways to present the software components to potential re-users. The first aspect which was considered was finding an effective representation for reusable software components. A set of criteria was developed for evaluating the effectiveness of software representations. The criteria consisted of generality, expressiveness, understandability, consistency, and resolution. The second aspect which was considered was how to present the software component information to the user to facilitate finding the appropriate component for reuse. A representation …

An Intelligent Real-Time System Architecture Implemented In Ada, Michael A. Whelan

Theses and Dissertations

Conventional real-time systems are fully deterministic allowing for off-line, optimal, task scheduling under all circumstances. Real-time intelligent systems add non-deterministic task execution times and non- deterministic task sets for scheduling purposes. Non-deterministic task sets force intelligent real-time systems to trade-off execution time with solution quality during run-time and perform dynamic task scheduling. Four basic design considerations addressing those tradeoffs have been identified: control reasoning, focus of attention, parallelism, and algorithm efficacy. Non-real- time intelligent systems contain an environment sensor, a model of the environment, a reasoning process, and a large collection of procedural processes. Real-time intelligent systems add to these …

Formalization And Transformation Of Informal Analysis Models Into Executive Refine™ Specifications, Mary M. Boom, Bradley D. Mallare

Theses and Dissertations

This research developed and implemented an automated technique for translating informal specifications into formal, executable specifications. A unified Abstract Model (UAM) was developed to combine the information contained in Entity Relationship, State Transition, and Data Flow Models into a concise, object-based representation. The UAM forms the basis for defining a formal language, the Object Modeling Language (OML), used to capture the information contained in the UAM. By using OML, we were able to develop an automated translation process to convert informal specifications into executable, formal specifications. The Software Refinery Development Environment enabled us to easily develop a parser that translates …

Creating And Manipulating A Domain-Specific Formal Object Base To Support A Domain-Oriented Application Composition System, Mary Anne Randour

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated technology which enables sophisticated users to specify, generate, and maintain application software in domain-oriented terms. To realize this new technology, a development environment, called Architect, was designed and implemented. Using canonical formal specifications of domain objects, Architect rapidly composes these specifications into a software application and executes a prototype of that application as a means to demonstrate is correctness before any programming language specific code is generated. This thesis investigated populating and manipulating the formal object base required by Architect. This object base is built using a domain- specific language (DSL) which serves as an interface between …

Design Recovery For Software Library Population, Chester A. Wright Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis research investigated design recovery as a means of populating a reuse library. The targeted library was part of the Automatic Programming Technologies for Avionics Systems (APTAS). APTAS uses a knowledge base of forms, to present questions to a user, and rules, to select the forms to present and choose existing library modules to use in composing a new system. The approach applied the reengineering model developed by Eric Byrne to accomplish planning for the project, expanded the renovation phase of this model to cover the actual design recovery, and applied the expanded model to populating the library. Using …

Formalizing, Validating, And Verifying Real-Time System Requirements With Reacto And Vhdl, Frank C. Young

Theses and Dissertations

We develop a methodology for formalizing, verifying, and validating the requirements specification of real-time systems based on a graphical and formal hierarchical Finite State Machine (FSM) language Reacto. We define a means to quantify time and express real-time constraints in Reacto and a transformation from Reacto to the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) hardware Description Language (VHDL). Reacto's high level abstractions, graphical nature, and theorem prover produce efficient, accurate, and easily understood specifications. We use VHDL's event driven simulation capability, concurrency, and temporal operators to thoroughly examine temporal dependencies between the state machine transitions, and to increase simulation power …

An Object-Oriented Computer Aided Design Program For Traditional Control Systems Analysis, Wayne E. Bell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a continuation of the ICECAP-PC research project conducted under Prof. Gary B. Lamont at the Air Force Institute of Technology. It is an ongoing development of a public domain Computer Aided Design package for Control Engineering and Digital Signal Processing students, faculty and practitioners with a special emphasis on education. This investigation begins with the software maintenance task of restructuring, debugging, and testing the functional version of ICECAP-PC 9.0. The continuous, traditional portions are then ported to a new object-oriented program structure which is the primary focus of this effort. New interactive graphics capabilities are then added …

Software Support Measurement And Estimating For Oracle Database Applications Using Mark Ii Function Points, Steven D. Radnov

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the results of measuring software support of Oracle database applications and estimating the effort and schedule required to provide support. Software measurement was accomplished with a variant of the function points metric, called Mark II function points, which is comprised of three weighted parameters, inputs, entities, and outputs. A technique for mapping Mark II function points to Oracle DBMS components was developed, and the size of the software support for each project, per team, was measured by tabulating and weighting the number of inputs, entities, and outputs that are added, changed, and/or deleted. Software support effort was …

Automated Logistics Information Systems: A Case Study, James E. Hogue

Theses and Dissertations

A change within the Air Force has shifted management responsibilities within the logistics community. Formerly diverse functions have come under the purview of a single manager-the Logistics Group Commander-who has inherited information systems that may riot be able to provide consolidated information for informed and accurate decision making. The purpose of this thesis was to describe the current and potential ability for three logistics information management systems to share data: Standard Base Supply System, Consolidated Aircraft Management System, and On-Line Vehicle Information Management System. A systems model was synthesized from the literature review to determine what components of a system …

Integrated Diagnostic Expert System Model (Idesm): A Model For The Conversion Of Fault Isolation Procedures Into An Integrated Diagnostic Expert System, Robert J. Lacey, Glen D. Steemson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a model to convert existing hardcopy maintenance manual fault isolation procedures into electronic format and to partially automate the fault isolation process. A comprehensive model was developed which comprised four major components: user interface, expert system submodel, hypermedia submodel, and a submodel integration shell. Using this model, the F 15E nose landing gear fault isolation procedures were transformed into a rule based expert system. An existing hypermedia information base was expanded and subsequently integrated with the expert system to form the prototype application. The prototype was evaluated by engineering and maintenance personnel …

An Improved Characterization Of 1-Step Recoverable Embeddings: Rings In Hypercubes, Junlin Liu, Thomas J. Sager, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

An embedding is said to be 1-step recoverable if any single fault in the embedding can be recovered in one reconfiguration step. In this paper we present a heuristic approach to construct such 1-step recoverable embeddings. We show that to embed a k (even) length ring in ad-cube, where 6 < = k < = 3/4 2d and d < = 3, our scheme will guarantee finding a 1-step recoverable embedding, provided such an embedding exists. Compared to other previously proposed schemes, our scheme achieves much better results. A sufficient condition for the non-existence of 1-step recoverable embeddings for embedding rings of length > 3/4 2d in d-cubes is also given.

Compiling Ace For Distributed-Memory Machines, Jun Song

Dissertations and Theses

Distributed-memory machines offer a very high level of performance, flexibility and scalability. But the memory organization of this kind of machine determines that processes on different processors must communicate explicitly by sending and receiving messages. As a result, the programmer faces the enormously difficult task of detailed planning of algorithm-irrelevant, low-level communication issues. This level of programming resembles writing assembly programs for a sequential machine.

ACE is a message-passing language with abstract communication statements. It was defined by Dr. Jingke Li at Portland State University. The communication in ACE is still explicit, but it is abstracted to a higher level. …

Design And Implementation Of Two Text Recognition Algorithms, Madhumathi Yendamuri

Theses

This report presents two algorithms for text recognition. One is a neural-based orthogonal vector with pseudo-inverse approach for pattern recognition. A method to generate N orthogonal vectors for an N-neuron network is also presented. This approach converges the input to the corresponding orthogonal vector representing the prototype vector. This approach can restore an image to the original image and thus has error recovery capacility. Also, the concept of sub-networking is applied to this approach to enhance the memory capacity of the neural network. This concept drastically increases the memory capacity of the network and also causes a reduction of the …

Using Minimal And Maximal Fault Tolerance For The Assessment Of Fault-Tolerant Algorithms, Martina Schollmeyer, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Fault-Tolerant Distributed Deadlock Detection / Resolution, Pei-Yu Liu, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

The problem of deadlock detection in a distributed system has been extensively studied in the past few years. Many algorithms on distributed deadlock detection have been proposed under the assumption that the processors and communication in the system are fault-free. However, in an unreliable distributed system, faulty processors may prevent a deadlock detection algorithm from properly detecting deadlocks. Few of the algorithms proposed in the literature address the issue of handling process failures in a distributed system. This paper proposes a fault-tolerant distributed deadlock detection algorithm which integrates a priority-based probe algorithm with a PMC-based diagnosis model. This algorithm detects …

Relaxing Synchronization In Distributed Simulated Annealing, Chul-Eui Hong, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

Simulated annealing is an attractive, but expensive, heuristic for approximating the solution to combinatorial optimization problems. Since simulated annealing is a general purpose method, it can be applied to the broad range of NP-complete problems such as the traveling salesman problem, graph theory, and cell placement with a careful control of the cooling schedule.

Attempts to parallelize simulated annealing, particularly on distributed memory multicomputers, are hampered by the algorithm’s requirement of a globally consistent system state. In a multicomputer, maintaining the global state S involves explicit message traffic and is a critical performance bottleneck. One way to mitigate this bottleneck …

A Process-Learning Pid Controller Algorithm Utilizing An On-Line Iterative Improvement Technique, Ryan Rosandich, Ralph W. Wilkerson

Computer Science Technical Reports

Three iterative improvement algorithms are presented for the determination of process controller gains. An offline algorithm is developed and tested as a basis for comparison, and a simple on-line algorithm is developed as an incremental step toward the final algorithm, proportional on-line iterative improvement. The algorithms are based on an Artificial Neural Network learning method, and this method is compared with other control optimization techniques. The performance of each of the algorithms was experimentally evaluated in numerous realistically simulated process control situations consisting of flow, level, and temperature control loops with various values of dead-time and process noise. The experimental …

Adaptive Boundary Detection Using “Live-Wire” Two-Dimensional Dynamic Programming, William A. Barrett, Bryan S. Morse, Eric N. Mortensen, Jayaram Udupa

Faculty Publications

An adaptive boundary detection algorithm that uses two-dimensional dynamic programming is presented. The algorithm is less constrained than previous one-dimensional dynamic programming algorithms and allows the user to interactively determine the mathematically optimal boundary between a user-selected seed point and any other dynamically selected "free” point in the image. Interactive movement of the free point by the cursor causes the boundary to behave like a “live wire” as it adapts to the new minimum cost path between the seed point and the currently selected free point. The algorithm can also be adapted or customized to learn boundary-defining features for a …

The Management Of Replicated Data, Hsueh-Chi Shih, C. Y. Ho, S. Alptekin

Computer Science Technical Reports

Data replication, which has the benefits of improving system availability and read performance, proved to be indispensable to many database applications. In a replicated database, the one-copy serializability of transaction executions can be ensured by employing a replica control mechanism on top of the traditional concurrency control mechanism. This work contains two replica control algorithms and a read-only transaction processing algorithm. Both replica control algorithms handle multiple site, communication and partitioning failures. The replica control algorithms achieve read operation efficiency by always translating a logical read operation into one local physical read operation and by taking advantage of the locality …