Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Experimental Study Of The Effects Of Modularity On Resource Consumption In Software Development, Alan D. Christiansen

Masters Theses

"Many authors have encouraged the use of modular programming techniques in software development. In fact, there is almost total agreement within industrial and academic circles that modularity is a desirable feature of any software package. Unfortunately, the desirability of modular design is almost always voiced without support from experimental evidence.

This thesis consists of an experiment comparing the resource consumption of programmers based on the modularity practices employed during the design and programming phases of software development. The experiment tests the effectiveness of modularity in reducing psychological complexity of software.

The results of the research show that in some cases …

A Focus Of Attention Algorithm For Expert Systems, Kevin W. Whiting

Masters Theses

"This research is primarily concerned with increasing the performance of expert systems. A refined focus of attention strategy and its affect on performance are discussed. Early expert systems used a brute force approach to process the knowledge base. Each production rule in the knowledge base was evaluated each cycle. More recently, processing efficiency has been increased by focusing the attention of the inference engine on a subset of the rules by "filtering" for further testing, only rules that could possibly fire given the current content of the context base. Focus of attention as developed in this research increases performance over …

A Graphical Representation Of An Executing Program, Sherry A. Lile

Masters Theses

"This thesis describes the rationale for a computer program used as a teaching aid, as well as, the design, development, and implementation of that computer program. The program is a prototype that displays, line by line, a graphical depiction of a BASIC program being executed. Icons are used to represent FOR-NEXT loops, the contents of variables, I/O, and other programming elements. The internal logic associated with the Arithmetic-Logic Unit is also represented. The purpose is to produce an environment where the student may visualize the processes occurring in memory by viewing a symbolic portrayal of an executing program. The example …

Program Modeling And Control Synthesis For Robotic Manipulators, Ramiz Najib Ballou

Masters Theses

"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 or the IBM-PC using the FORTRAN language to control the Armdroid robot. The program generates 500 sets of …

Ciegen: A System For Testing Knowledge Base Compilation Heuristics On A Microcomputer, Jayne D. Ward

Masters Theses

"The expert system has proven itself to be a valuable aid in diagnosing and treating problems in domains requiring expertise. The commercial world has been alerted to this fact and the thrust is to make the expert system portable and available on small computers.

The goal of this research has been to lay the groundwork for a domain independent expert system builder on a microcomputer. The result of this effort was CIEGEN, a system consisting of a rule compiler, inference engine, and rule generator developed on the IBM PC. It is domain independent, responsible for transforming a knowledge base of …

The Design And Implementation Of The Programming Language Natural, Alan L. Sparks

Masters Theses

"This paper reports progress on the development of the programming language Natural, currently under design by Dr. Thomas J. Sager at the University of Missouri--Rolla. Natural is a very high-level language with a mathematical flavor, and includes several concepts relatively uncommon in programming language design.

The text also discusses an implementation on the IBM Personal Computer of Mini-Natural, a subset of Natural, and presents examples of programs written in Mini-Natural"--Abstract, page ii.

A Simple Method For Organizing Nearly Optimal Binary Search Trees, Joy L. Henderson

Masters Theses

"Improving the efficiency of retrieving information concerns users of computer systems involved in many applications- One way of addressing this concern is to organize a sorted sequence into a binary search tree. Knuth's Algorithm K is a bottom-up organization algorithm that always constructs a binary tree which minimizes average search time. However, the cost of executing Algorithm K is prohibitive for a large tree. The aim of this work is to find a less costly method of organizing sorted sequences into nearly-optimal binary search trees.

We present a top-down organization method which yields better average search times than top-down methods …

Survey Of Routing Algorithms For Computer Networks, Lu Yu

Masters Theses

"This thesis gives a general discussion of routing for computer networks, followed by an overview of a number of typical routing algorithms used or reported in the past few years. Attention is mainly focused on distributed adaptive routing algorithms for packet switching (or message switching) networks. Algorithms for major commercial networks (or network architectures) are reviewed as well, for the convenience of comparison"--Abstract, page ii.

An Optimal Design Of Relational Data Model, Pissamai Amatayakul

Masters Theses

The objective of this study was to propose a design methodology to support a designed in mapping a conceptual model to a logical model. The system was created as a semiinteractive software to produce an optimal relational data model for a given database. The software was developed by combining a well known normalization method from a theory of relational data model which was presented by Codd and the ideas of new normal form which were presented recently by many researchers in the field of database design. The complete description of data objects and their associations are initially defined as a …

A Uniform System For Data Base Directories, Karl Chang

Masters Theses

The objective of this study is to provide an efficient uniform system for data base directories, so that every file in the data base will have the same type of efficient directory. Data base directories will then be uniformly generated, updated and maintained.

The uniform system which is developed here can handle not only discrete attributes, but also range attributes. For the range attributes, it provides the uniform ranges (i.e., a set of ranges such that the records are distributed uniformly between ranges.)

In this thesis, the design and implementation of the hybrid B-plus tree and inverted files which is …

A Learning Strategy For A Class Of Probabilistic Automata, Lyle Amos Reibling

Masters Theses

A learning strategy is developed for a class of probabilistic automata. Given an input sequence to the probabilistic automaton* and the output sequence arising from the probabilistic transition function of the automaton* the learning strategy will conjecture the probabilistic automata which cover the input - output sequence observed and will infer the probabilistic transition structure of the conjectured automata.

A Study Of Flow Languages, Vector Machines, Petri Nets And Convex Languages, Shyam Kishore Bajpai

Masters Theses

In this work, relations have been established among vector machines and augmented vector machines, vector machines and Petri nets, and augmented vector machines and generalized Petri nets. At each stage, number of examples are given to illustrate the theory of Petri nets, vector machines and augmented vector machines.

A Computer Assisted Instruction Package For Computer Graphics, Robert Normand Dutilly

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to:

(1) Present the concepts and significance of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI).

(2) Demonstrate the usefulness of CAI by the implementation of a system to instruct in the fundamentals of Computer Graphics.

(3) Describe methods used for implementing a large CAI package on a microcomputer.

(4) Development of software tools to assist in the creation of CAI programs.

The paper will also cover the historical perspectives on the growth of CAI, its impact on the educational field and the proper construction of CAI materials. The system is written in the UCSD Pascal computer programming …

Recipe Design And Management In A Nutritional Data Base System, Robert G. Trenary

Masters Theses

The Nutritional Data Base System (NDBS) is an interactive information system which provides the user the ability to create and process menus, recipes and food items. Three primary program modules are thus indicated along with modules to translate user requests and process file and directory information. A discussion of standard data base concepts and an application of these concepts to the processing of recipes in the NDBS system is presented. Future possible expansions are suggested and other similar information systems are discussed.

The Online Subject/Title Catalog Of Western Michigan University, James N. Sleep

Masters Theses

An online subject searchable catalog has been developed to allow public access to the OCLC-MARC subscription tapes of the Western Michigan University Libraries. The system has been implemented on the Western Michigan University Academic Computer Center DECsystem-10 computer and is currently running with access to nearly one hundred thousand citations. During the design of the Online Subject/Title Catalog, statistical analysis of the source data was performed. Paper products based on the OCLC-MARC subscription tapes, such as KWOC indexes, were also developed. A novel feature of this project was the use of SN0B0L4 as the main computer language used.

A Computer System For Understanding English Text In A Kindergarten Story, Janice Anne Freyburger

Masters Theses

A computer system for natural language understanding is presented in this thesis. The system attempts to understand English in a limited domain, a kindergarten-level story about three frogs and a puppy. The system is designed with two modes of operations: the text of the story is processed and its information incorporated into a knowledge database; and as a test of the system's understanding, the system answers questions from the user about the text. If any parts of the test or questions cannot be processed, the user is asked for clarification. The functions of this system are described and analyzed. A …

A Computer-Assisted Instructional System And Its Application To A Course On Computer Structures And Hardware, Tahir Mufti

Masters Theses

Computer-Assisted Instruction is a powerful tool which is fast becoming an integral part of the instructional system in schools.

The objective of this study is to review the techniques used to provide Computer-Assisted Instruction and to present such an instructional system called LEARN which is general enough to be applied towards the teaching of any subject. Also included are notes on the application of the LEARN system to a subject entitled "Computer Structures and Hardware".

The Menu Formation In A Computerized Nutrition System, Kathleen Ann Kostrzewa

Masters Theses

The creation of a diet is a complex process which involves analysis of a number of critical variables. Due to present technology, computers can be used effectively in menu planning and recipe analysis.

The objective of this study is the utilization of the computer to test the major criteria which must be met in order to produce a diet which meets nutritional, cost, and acceptability requirements. In this thesis, the design and implementation of a computerized menu planning system known as the Nutritional Data Base System is presented.

A Mechanism For Specifying Parallel Procedures, James Oliver Smith Jr.

Masters Theses

"This thesis presents a mechanism that will provide a semantic and syntactic environment for expressing parallel procedures. This mechanism will be referred to as the Parallel Machine. The parallelism of the Parallel Machine is accomplished through an arbitrary number of specialized computing elements that each implement a single command called a Simultaneous Command. Each Simultaneous Command is capable of determining the occasions for its action by observing conditions within the Parallel Machine. There is no restriction on the number of Simultaneous Commands that can be defined or be simultaneously active. Within a parallel procedure expressed as a set of Simultaneous …

Development And Application Of Computer Assisted Instruction For Mini-Computers, Thomas A. Burne

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Use Of Optical Character Recognition In The Invoice Processing System Of The Michigan Medicaid Program, Richard F. Burns

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Using Ibm's Information Management System To Implement A Relational Data Base, Melvin Arthur Rushton

Masters Theses

"A relational model of data has been the topic of several papers which deal with the question of the underlying design philosophy of data base systems. E. F. Codd, C. J. Date, and others have discussed the application of relation theory to formatted data, the objectives of such an approach, normalization of relations, and languages for manipulating the model (data sublanguages). Few papers have delt with storage constructs or access techniques for a relational data base. Indeed, it was not necessary that they do so, for the user of such a system is only concerned with the information available in …

Toacs : An Interactive Computer Graphic Display Model Of A Theaterwide On-Line Air Combat Simulation, Herman William Blick

Masters Theses

"On-line interactive graphics is a very effective research tool for examining the concepts, components and design parameters of theater warfare involving multiple aircraft. The aim of the present research is to design an on-line computer system which utilizes interactive graphic displays to develop a dynamic, two-sided mathematical model of theaterwide tactical fighter combat operations. The model, called TOACS, is very useful in simulating and evaluating airborne defense systems and the problems common to this type of simulation — such as the formulation of battle strategy for the commitment and guidance of interceptors against threat aircraft -- as well as those …

Comparison Of Scatter Storage Techniques Using An Analysis Of Variance Model, Robert Lee Kitsch

Masters Theses

"An analysis of variance model is developed to determine if a significant difference exists between various scatter storage techniques. The model is a two-factor hierarchical mixed design with each combination of transformation and search method considered as a treatment. The data used in the analysis is obtained from a computer program which provides statistics on the number of probes needed to load the (k+l)st item into a table for the different treatments. An ANOVA table was then computed for various load factors.

A significant difference among the treatments was detected for load factors above .4. Comparison of individual treatments using …

A Numerical Study Of Ordinary Differential Equations With Periodic Coefficients, Richard Bruce Schuessler

Masters Theses

"In this thesis a method for solving ordinary differential equations with periodic coefficients is derived. In addition, by utilization of Floquet theory, a theorem is given by which it is possible to determine the stability of the zero solution. Error bounds are given for the method and for the two dimensional case bounds are given for the error in the eigenvalues. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the method"--Abstract, page ii.

Initial Feasible Solutions Of Three Dimensional Transportation Problems, Mamoru Aiga

Masters Theses

The purpose of this paper is to investigate methods to obtain initial feasible solutions of three dimensional transportation problems. Schell's procedure was tested on various randomly generated problems, and it was determined that this algorithm did not always yield an initial feasible solution. Thus a modified Schell procedure was developed.

Computer programs were written to compare the modified Schell procedure with Phase I of Simplex method. It was concluded, from cases tested, that the modified Schell procedure requires much less computing time and generally gives a feasible solution closer to the optimum solution.

Monte Carlo Simulation Of Confidence Intervals For Reliability, Kathryn Palisch Berkbigler

Masters Theses

"A computer program which computes fiducial confidence intervals for reliability by Monte Carlo simulation has been written. The program has the capability of computing these intervals for general systems of series, parallel, and mixed series and parallel subsystems which have failure time distributions which are either exponential, Weibull, gamma, normal, or lognormal.

Comparison of the simulation technique with a Bayesian technique for computing confidence intervals in the case of a series of exponentially distributed components shows that the two methods agree quite well when a fiducial prior distribution for reliability is used in the Bayesian technique. A uniform prior distribution …

Computerized Registration For High Schools, Kenneth Lee Fore

Masters Theses

"The guidance personnel in a high school are often burdened with the duty of hand scheduling the student's courses. Using the computer as a sub-optimizing tool in the registration of students, however, can cut scheduling time dramatically and relieve the guidance department of an onerous chore. The technique described in this investigation uses a conflict matrix that schedules the student's request and keeps the class load level within the course sections. A search of the schedule array for each course request may uncover a conflict. If no conflict occurs the course is scheduled and the remaining courses for this student …

Computer Implemented Synthesis Of Multiple Level Combinational Networks, Alfredo Caldwell

Masters Theses

The purpose of this investigation has been to implement, in the form of computer programs, two algorithms which are used in the synthesis of multiple level combinational networks. The algorithms implemented were devised by Professor Paul E. Wood, Jr., of M.I.T., and by Professor Eugene L. Lawler, of The University of Michigan. In the course of the investigation a more efficient way of implementing the two algorithms was discovered. The combined version of the algorithms takes advantage of the best features of the original algorithms.

In the synthesis of multiple level combinational networks minimal complexity is high desirable. The whole …

Modified Method Of Linear Associative Retrieval, James Donald Byrd

Masters Theses

"It is becoming increasingly important for those in decision making positions to have the most current and accurate data possible as related to their particular needs. Although there are several well known retrieval techniques available an intensified effort is being made at many installations to provide a retrieval system that will supply the demands of their own needs. One well known approach to the solution of information retrieval is linear associative retrieval. The solution that has been proposed requires several computer runs on some requests and therefore is very time consuming. The author has implemented a method to eliminate unnecessary …