Digital Commons Network^™

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.

Autonomous Robot Navigation In Unknown Terrains Using Parallel Numerical Artificial Potential Fields, John C. Schneider

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

We present a new artificial potential field formulation for resolution complete robot navigation that unifies the purely geometric path planning problem with the lower level force control problem. Our formulation is designed for numerical computation over a massively parallel mesh of processors and is responsive to newly discovered terrain features. It does not suffer from many of the problems commonly associated with potential fields and with adequate resolution provides provably correct, collision free convergence to the goal. In addition, our formulation supports many desirable, practical features required for implementation, such as bounded actuator torques, attainable incremental constructability, realizable computation and …

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 …

The Fat-Pyramid And Universal Parallel Computation Independent Of Wire Delay, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper shows that a fat-pyramid of area Θ(A) requires only O(log A) slowdown to simulate any competing network of area A under very general conditions. The result holds regardless of the processor size (amount of attached memory) and number of processors in the competing networks as long as the limitation on total area is met. Furthermore, the result is valid regardless of the relationship between wire length and wire delay. We especially focus on elimination of the common simplifying assumption that unit time suffices to traverse a wire regardless of its length, since the assumption becomes more and more …

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 …

1.1, Yolanda Jones

E-lert

No abstract provided.

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.

Disk-Directed I/O For Mimd Multiprocessors, David Kotz

Computer Science Technical Reports

Many scientific applications that run on today's multiprocessors are bottlenecked by their file I/O needs. Even if the multiprocessor is configured with sufficient I/O hardware, the file-system software often fails to provide the available bandwidth to the application. Although libraries and improved file-system interfaces can make a significant improvement, we believe that fundamental changes are needed in the file-server software. We propose a new technique, disk-directed I/O, that flips the usual relationship between server and client to allow the disks (actually, disk servers) to determine the flow of data for maximum performance. Our simulations show that tremendous performance gains are …

A Data-Parallel Programming Library For Education (Dapple), David Kotz

Computer Science Technical Reports

In the context of our overall goal to bring the concepts of parallel computing into the undergraduate curriculum, we set out to find a parallel-programming language for student use. To make it accessible to students at all levels, and to be independent of any particular hardware platform, we chose to design our own language, based on a data-parallel model and on C++. The result, DAPPLE, is a C++ class library designed to provide the illusion of a data-parallel programming language on conventional hardware and with conventional compilers. DAPPLE defines Vectors and Matrices as basic classes, with all the usual C++ …

Icdm: Integrated Cooperative Decision Making - In Practice, Leonard Myers, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Multi-agent systems provide an attractive architecture for the implementation of complex systems. Much of the research is focussed on complete automation of the decision making process as a means of duplicating human abilities for working with new problems and environments. There as also a need for systems that employ the human as an agent and rely on human abilities for common sense and deep thought. The CAD Research Center at Cal Poly and CDM Technologies have significant experience in building systems of the latter type that assist human users in solving complex problems in planning, design and economics. This experience …

Multimedia Authoring, Development Environments, And Digital Video Editing, Fillia Makedon, James W. Matthews, Charles B. Owen, Samuel A. Rebelsky

Dartmouth Scholarship

Multimedia systems integrate text, audio, video, graphics, and other media and allow them to be utilized in a combined and interactive manner. Using this exciting and rapidly developing technology, multimedia applications can provide extensive benefits in a variety of arenas, including research, education, medicine, and commerce. While there are many commercial multimedia development packages, the easy and fast creation of a useful, full-featured multimedia document is not yet a straightforward task.

This paper addresses issues in the development of multimedia documents, ranging from user-interface tools that manipulate multimedia documents to multimedia communication technologies such as compression, digital video editing and …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 9, November 1994, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

A fourteen page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

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.

Distributed Scheduling In Finite Capacity Networks, Perry Fizzano, Clifford Stein

Computer Science Technical Reports

We consider the problem of scheduling unit-sized jobs in a distributed network of processors. Each processor only knows the number of jobs it and its neighbors have. We give an analysis of intuitive algorithm and prove that the algorithm produces schedules that are within a logarithmic factor of the length of the optimal schedule given that the optimal schedule is sufficiently long.

Incremental Equational Programming, Samuel A. Rebelsky

Computer Science Technical Reports

This paper extends Equational Programming (EP)—a declarative, symbolic programming language—to allow programs to manipulate incrementally defined and modified input terms and to avoid repeated work when evaluating these incremental terms. This paper represents two key aspects of this extension: a notation for representing revision and a modification to EP's runtime library to accomodate this notation. Unlike Field's method of incremental term rewriting, which is designed for more general but less efficient term-rewriting systems, this paper's method accomodates EP's restrictions (in particular, EP's decision to disallow overlapping rules) so that it may take advantage of EP's speed.

Building Multimedia Proceedings: The Roles Of Video In Interactive Electronic Conference Proceedings, Samuel A. Rebelsky, Fillia Makedon, James Matthews, Charles Owen, Laura Bright, Kenneth Harker, Nancy Toth

Computer Science Technical Reports

Modern computer systems have changed the way that conference proceedings can be presented and archived. No longer are researchers limited by printed text; electronic proceedings allow one to search the proceedings, add and share annotations, and create paths of related concepts through the proceedings. These additional capabilities extend the opportunities and benefit the thought processes of actual conference participants and the new virtual participants who experience the conference through the electronic proceedings.

In this paper, we discuss the construction of electronic conference proceedings, highlighting the role of talks and other presentations (and, particularly, the audio and video of these talks …

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 …

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.

Efficient Parallel Algorithms For Closest Point Problems, Peter Su

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This dissertation develops and studies fast algorithms for solving closest point problems. Algorithms for such problems have applications in many areas including statistical classification, crystallography, data compression, and finite element analysis. In addition to a comprehensive empirical study of known sequential methods, I introduce new parallel algorithms for these problems that are both efficient and practical. I present a simple and flexible programming model for designing and analyzing parallel algorithms. Also, I describe fast parallel algorithms for nearest-neighbor searching and constructing Voronoi diagrams. Finally, I demonstrate that my algorithms actually obtain good performance on a wide variety of machine architectures. …

Disk-Directed I/O For Mimd Multiprocessors, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Many scientific applications that run on today's multiprocessors are bottlenecked by their file I/O needs. Even if the multiprocessor is configured with sufficient I/O hardware, the file-system software often fails to provide the available bandwidth to the application. Although libraries and improved file-system interfaces can make a significant improvement, we believe that fundamental changes are needed in the file-server software. We propose a new technique, \em disk-directed I/O, that flips the usual relationship between server and client to allow the disks (actually, disk servers) to determine the flow of data for maximum performance. Our simulations show that tremendous performance gains …

Contour Ranking On Coarse Grained Machines: A Case Study For Low-Level Vision Computations, Farooq Hameed, Ashfaq A. Khokhar, Susanne E. Hambrusch, Jamshed Patel

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Locally Resolvable B-Reps, Carlos Gonzalez-Ochoa, George Vanecek

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Study Of Intrusion Of A Software Trace System In The Execution Of Parallel Programs, Kuei Yu Wang

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Problem Solving In Human Beings And Computers (Formerly: Heuristic Problem Solving), Zygmunt Pizlo, Anupam Joshi, Scott M. Graham

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Incremental Construction Of Multi-Dimen- Sional Space Partitioning Trees, George Vanecek, Shankara Shastry M.C.

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

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 …

Design And Implementation Of Tools To Increase User Control And Knowledge Elicitation In A Virtual Battlespace, Jim J. Rohrer

Theses and Dissertations

AFIT's Synthetic BattleBridge is an immersive command observatory for viewing large-area activity within a virtual environment. Three basic areas for improvement are addressed: (1) an improved, immersive, user interface, (2) direct control of atmospheric effects, and (3) improved knowledge elicitation by means of remote viewers, a new space scope, and an enhanced RADAR scope. These requirements are analyzed and implemented. Some functionality was lost but the results show a general improvement of environmental control and knowledge elicitation.

Devious: A Distributed Environment For Vision Tasks, Phillip R. Romig Iii, Ashok K. Samal

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

We present a system for the integration of computer vision tasks in a distributed environment. This system, called DeViouS, is based on the client/server model and runs in a heterogeneous environment of Unix workstations. It takes advantage of the free cycles in modern workstation environments to distribute and speed up the execution of vision tasks.

Two primary goals of DeViouS are to provide a practical distributed system and a research environment for vision computing. DeViouS is based on a modular design that allows experimentation in various aspects of algorithm design, scheduling and network programming. It can make use of any …

An Office Document Retrieval System With The Capability Of Processing Incomplete And Vague Queries, Qianhong Liu

Dissertations

TEXPROS (TEXt PROcessing System) is an intelligent document processing system. The system is a combination of filing and retrieval systems, which supports storing, classifying, categorizing, retrieving and reproducing documents, as well as extracting, browsing, retrieving and synthesizing information from a variety of documents. This dissertation presents a retrieval system for TEXPROS, which is capable of processing incomplete or vague queries and providing semantically meaningful responses to the users. The design of the retrieval system is highly integrated with various mechanisms for achieving these goals. First, a system catalog including a thesaurus is used to store the knowledge about the database. …

1.0 Librarian's Supplement, Yolanda Jones

E-lert

No abstract provided.