bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The use of Monte Carlo methods in natural resource management models
Authors: Tumeo Mark A , Orlob Gerald T
Published: January 2007

The Monte Carlo method provides a means of introducing natural variability in data, uncertainty of parameter estimation, chance occurrences and model reliability, into the process of simulation modeling for resource management. The technique is described and demonstrated for a hypothetical application of a Gaussian Plume Dispersion Model to a case of atmospheric pollution. It is concluded that the utility of the Monte Carlo approach lies mainly in providing decision makers with information on the likelihood of extreme occurrences and the inherent reliability of simulation modeling.
From the Editor
Authors: Meissner Loren P.
Published: January 2007

I am starting the presses rolling on this issue of Fortran Forum without waiting for the previous one to be mailed, because I want to distribute a report of X3J3's June 1986 meeting as quickly as possible.
Operators considered harmful
Authors: Gfeller Martin
Published: January 2007

A set of output utility functions is described that allows the programmer to direct output to four different output devices (array, file, printer, and terminal) in a device-independent manner. These output functions provide the programmer with the ability to switch output devices without recoding application programs, and the ability to control particular device characteristics. The functions include logic for line counting and (optional) page headings, and are easy to learn and use. Technical notes, examples, function listings, and a discussion of potential extensions are also included. These output functions may usefully be included in the utility library of every micro and mainframe APL installation.
von zur Gathen's factorization challenge
Authors: Monagan Michael B.
Published: January 2007

In the April 1992 issue of the SIGSAM Bulletin, Joachim von zur Gathen makes the following
Polynomial Factorization Challenge
to focus practical efforts in the area of factorization over finite fields.
ON NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL COGNITION
Authors: Katz Amnon
Published: January 2007

There is a dual nature to cognition: subjective and objective. Only objective cognition, as seen by others, lends itself to study in terms that are observable and repeatable. We restrict ourselves to this aspect, and further assume that cognition as an attribute of the physical system that carries it. This leaves many problems of philosophy and even some questions of the physical theory of measurement out of our scope. The payoff is a time tested and solidly successful approach to what is observable, repeatable, and predictable.
Book review: Knowledge Acquisition as Modeling. Edited by Kenneth M. Ford and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (John Wiley & Sons)
Authors: Soldz Stephen
Published: January 2007

Constructivism seems to be the rising star in many fields. Fifteen years ago, to utter the word was to be met with blind stares. Nowadays, constructivism and its cousins seem to be everywhere. Talk of the importance and multiplicity of meanings, of mental structure arising from activity, of a pragmatic conception of truth replacing a realist one, has permeated many fields. Psychology has been hit by the constructivist wave. The social sciences have been trying to figure out the relationship between constructivism, constructionism and various other isms. Computer science, or at least the knowledge acquisition part of the field has recently been hit by the bug. Over the last 10 years, a number of researchers in this area have been using constructivist ideas to guide knowledge acquisition and the development of knowledge acquisition tools. With the publication of this book, this trend appears to have reached critical mass and is vying for position as the dominant paradigm, or model, for conceptualizing knowledge acquisition.
An expanded view of messages
Authors: Firesmith Donald
Published: January 2007

Most software developers have a strong tendency to define object-oriented concepts in terms of the specific object-oriented programming languages (OOPLs) they know. Unfortunately, these definitions also soffer the same limitations of the OOPLs. This, in turn, has tended to limit the power of object-oriented requirements analysis and logical design, which should be language independent. Many examples of this phenomenon exist, including lack of support for dynamic and multiple classification, equating objects and classes with encapsulations of attributes and operations (which is how many OOPLs implement then) rather than as software models of application domain entities, and defining a message as a dynamically bound call to a corresponding operation (a.k.a., method) of an object or class. This paper addresses this latter, arbitrary forced, one-to-one mapping of messages to operations.
A documentation scheme for object-oriented software systems
Authors: Sametinger J. , Stritzinger A.
Published: January 2007

The object-oriented programming paradigm improves the reusability of software considerably. Suitable documentation must be provided in order to facilitate software reuse, however. Extensive reuse of existing software components requires increased maintenance activity and hence enhances the importance of system documentation. An adequate scheme should help to achieve higher documentation quality.In this paper we provide a documentation scheme that aims to fulfill the documentation needs of both reusing and maintaining personnel. This scheme distinguishes among overview, external view, and internal view of both static and dynamic aspects of software components. The various views are described and illustrated by examples. The goal is to provide guidelines for writing documentation of object-oriented software systems and for evaluating the completeness of existing documentation.
Iterators
Authors: Baker Henry G.
Published: January 2007

The appearance of
iterators
in an object-oriented language appears to be inversely related to the power of the language's intrinsic control structures. Iterator classes are used for the sole purpose of enumerating the elements of an abstract collection class without revealing its implementation. We find that the availability of higher-order functions and function closures eliminates the need for these
ad hoc
iterator classes, in addition to providing the other benefits of "mostly functional programming". We examine a purely functional iteration protocol for the difficult task of comparing the collections of leaves on two non-isomorphic trees---the so-called "samefringe" problem---and find that its type signature requires recursive (cyclic) functional types. Although higher-order "member functions" and recursive (cyclic) functional types are unusual in object-oriented languages, they arise quite naturally and provide a satisfying programming style.
Using Smalltalk for wait-free implementation of highly-concurrent objects
Authors: Scratchley W. Craig
Published: January 2007

In this paper I describe wait-free implementations of concurrent objects and show, with the help of an example, how the design of the Smalltalk language can allow a concurrent version of Smalltalk to easily support highly-concurrent objects. Specifically, I explain how a universal wait-free algorithm written in Smalltalk can allow arbitrary concurrent-objects to be easily implemented and used in concurrent applications.
ARDA
Authors: Ansell Jake , Al-Doori Mulhim
Published: January 2007

The paper explores the design and implementation of ARDA, an Expert System to analyse Reliability Data. Initially the viability of the knowledge domain is explored. The philosophy of design of the system is discussed. Details of the implementation are described. There is discussion of extension of system to other statistical analyses and of using alternative inferential bases.
The role of APL and J in high-performance computation
Authors: Bernecky Robert
Published: January 2007

Although multicomputers are becoming feasible for solving large problems, they are difficult to program: Extraction of parallelism from scalar languages is possible, but limited. Parallelism in algorithm design is difficult for those who think in von Neumann terms. Portability of programs and programming skills can only be achieved by hiding the underlying machine architecture from the user, yet this may impact performance on a specific host.APL, J, and other applicative array languages with adequately rich semantics can do much to solve these problems. The paper discusses the value of abstraction and semantic richness, performance issues, portability, potential degree of parallelism, data distribution, process creation, communication and synchronization, frequency of program faults, and clarity of expression. The BLAS are used as a basis for comparison with traditional supercomputing languages.
A parallel topological feature map in APL
Authors: Frey J. , Scheppelmann D. , Glombitza G.-P. , Meinzer H.
Published: January 2007

One can distinguish two different approaches of neural networks the supervised networks and the self organizing or unsupervised neural networks. The first type of neural nets is supplied with an ideal result regarding the input. During the learning procedure, the neural net adjusts weighting factors of the links between neurons so that the input feature vectors map to the ideal output. Those nets are used for example in robotics, where the ideal result is well known: it is the position the robot should be placed in. For the cases where no ideal result is known, the second type of neural nets, the so called self-learning Topological Feature Map (TFM) is appropriate. This paper will introduce such a neural net based on the idea of Kohonen's TFM. The original algorithm was extremely sequential and therefore not suitable for an APL implementation. The parallelization of the algorithm led to important improvements in speed and convergence to the global optimum.
Building the APL atlas of natural shapes
Authors: Langlet Gérard A.
Published: January 2007

It was previously shown [1] that APL contained the most powerful idiom ≠\ that could be used, directly in the language all computers know: binary algebra, to build models as well for physics as for biology and computer science. Several papers on the subject were published or submitted inside the "APL world" as well as outside (Bibliography in [2]). The purpose of the present paper is to show how a classical model, built to generate fractal shapes in plane geometry (2-D) can be revisited and considerably extended, thanks to the properties of ≠\ and of array-oriented binary algebra.
APL programming without tears
Authors: Naeve P. , Strohmeier B. , Wolf P.
Published: January 2007

To overcome the unreadability of traditional
APL
-code Knuth's idea of literate programming is adapted to
APL.
The
APL
2
web
system of structured documentation is introduced as a new way of
APL
-programming. An example is given to highlight the merits of this combination.
Extending APL2 to include program control structures
Authors: Selby David A.
Published: January 2007

APL2, and APL before it, have always been criticised for not embodying formal program flow control structures. It is proposed that a set of reserved words be added to the APL2 language. This set could include "if", "else", "while", etc. This extension should enhance performance and improve the readability of programs. This improved readability could lead to more maintainable code.
Co-operative programming with Windows DDE
Authors: Smith Adrian
Published: January 2007

In the past, APL applications have come mostly in two kinds: one-off investigative developments, and major 'vertically integrated' applications. The first kind are usually characterised by a small volume of powerful APL code, precisely targeted towards exploring an interesting business idea. The second kind are typically wrapped around with a great blanket of 'user' code, which is all about the entry, validation, and presentation of data.With the advent of MS Windows (and the inevitable move of the PC community towards Windows applications) we can begin to exploit the inherent power of Word and Excel as providers of much of this user code. This paper begins the exploration, with just two simple ideas: an Excel-based report formatter, and an APL button-bar to add a 'real' array language to Excel.
The workspace manager
Authors: Swain Rexford H. , Jonusz Daniel F.
Published: January 2007

This paper describes the Workspace Manager (WSM), a tool that helps to support and add discipline to APL system development and maintenance efforts.The WSM acts as a repository of APL objects (variables, functions, and operators). Programmers use WSM tools to find where objects are used, edit objects, save changed objects, and request that objects be installed into (or erased from) production workspaces.Periodically, the WSM installs new releases of production workspaces by merging new and changed objects into existing workspaces.Audit trails are maintained for all of these activities, making it possible to review the change history of an object, compare different versions of an object, compare different releases of a workspace, revert to an old release of a workspace, and so on.
Structured APL
Authors: Willhoft Robert G.
Published: January 2007

APL, although a very powerful language, has failed to gain wide acceptance in part due to its lack of control structures. A proposal is made for introducing structure in APL objects by adding to the items that can be located on the left of the colon (:). These
markers
show the beginning and ends of blocks of code and allow for selection, iteration, and termination. The set of control structures is shown to be robust by showing their use in the creation of traditional control structures. A method of conversion to ISO APL is also presented.This paper briefly discusses proposals that have been made in the past along with an evaluation of their merits and shortcomings. The paper ends with a discussion of related issues, including elimination of branching, introduction of definition blocks, and lexical scoping in APL. Several areas for continuing work are given.
The process-flow model
Authors: Ganger Gregory R. , Patt Yale N.
Published: January 2007

Input/output subsystem performance is currently receiving considerable research attention. Significant effort has been focused on reducing average I/O response times and increasing throughput for a given workload. This work has resulted in tremendous advances in I/O subsystem performance. It is unclear, however, how these improvements will be reflected in overall system performance. The central problem lies in the fact that the current method of study tends to treat all I/O requests aa equally important. We introduce a three class taxonomy of I/O requests based on their effects on system performance. We denote the three classes
time-critical, time-limited, and time-noncritical
. A system-level, trace-driven simulation model has been developed for the purpose of studying disk scheduling algorithms. By incorporating knowledge of I/O classes, algorithms tuned for system performance rather than I/O subsystem performance may be developed. Traditional I/O subsystem simulators would rate such algorithms unfavorably because they produce suboptimal subsystem performance. By studying the I/O subsystem via global, system-level simulation, one can more easily identify changes that will improve overall system performance.
On the sensitivity of transient solutions of Markov models
Authors: Ramesh A. V. , Trivedi Kishor
Published: January 2007

We consider the sensitivity of transient solutions of Markov models to perturbations in their generator matrices. The perturbations can either be of a certain structure or can be very general. We consider two different measures of sensitivity and derive upper bounds on them. The derived bounds are sharper than previously reported bounds in the literature. Since the sensitivity analysis of transient solutions is intimately related to the condition of the exponential of the CTMC matrix, we derive an expression for the condition number of the CTMC matrix exponential which leads to some interesting implications. We compare the derived sensitivity bounds both numerically and analytically with those reported in the literature.
Parallel simulation of Markovian queueing networks using adaptive uniformization
Authors: Nicol David M. , Heidelberger Philip
Published: January 2007

This paper describes a method for simulating a large class of queueing network models with Markovian phase-type distributions on parallel architectures. The method, which is based on uniformization, exploits Markovian properties that permit one to first build schedules of simulation times at which processors ought to synchronize, and then simulate a mathematically correct sample path through the pre-chosen schedule. While the technique eliminates many of the overheads incurred by other synchronization methods, it may suffer when the maximum rate (in simulation time) at which one processor might possibly ever send jobs to another is much larger than the average rate at which it actually does. We show how to reduce these overheads, sometimes doubling the execution rate as a result. We discuss experiments performed on the Intel iPSC/2 and Touchstone Delta architectures, where speedups in excess of 155 are observed on 256 processors.
Hybrid technique for simulating high bandwidth delay computer networks
Authors: Ahn Jong-Suk , Danzig Peter B. , Estrin Deborah , Timmerman Brenda
Published: January 2007

Researchers evaluate and contrast new network routing, admission control, congestion control and flow control algorithms through simulation. Analytically de-rived arguments justifiably lack credibility because, in the attempt to model the underlying physical system, the analyst is forced to make compromising approximations. However, unlike analytical techniques like Jackson Queueing Networks, simulations require significant computation and a simulation's state can consume a great deal of memory.This paper describes a technique that we developed to reduce the memory consumption of communication network simulators. Reduced memory makes simulations of larger and higher bandwidth-delay networks possible, but introduces an adjustable degree of approximation in the simulation. The higher the memory savings, the less accurate the computed measures. We call our technique
Flowsim
. The paper motivates the need to simulate computer networks rather than model them analytically, motivates why a simulator's state can grow quickly, and explains why analytical techniques have failed to model modern communication networks.
An evaluation of alternative virtual replication strategies for continuous retrieval of multimedia data
Authors: Ghandeharizadeh Shahram , Ramos Luis
Published: January 2007

During the past decade, information technology has evolved to store and retrieve multimedia data (e.g., audio, video). Multimedia information systems utilize a variety of human senses to provide an effective means of conveying information. Already, these systems play a major role in educational applications, entertainment technology, and library information systems. A challenging task when implementing these systems is to support a continuous retrieval of an object at the bandwidth required by its media type. This is challenging because certain media types, in particular video, require very high bandwidths. For example, the bandwidth required by NTSC (the US standard established by the National Television System Committee) for "network-quality" video is about 45 megabits per second (mbps). Recommendation 601 of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) calls for a 216 mbps bandwidth for video objects. A video object based on the HDTV (High Definition Television) quality images requires approximately a 700 mbps bandwidth. Compare these bandwidth requirements with the typical 10 mbps bandwidth of a magnetic disk drive, which is not expected to increase significantly in the near future. Currently, there are several ways to support continuous display of these objects: 1) sacrifice the quality of the data by using either a lossy compression technique or a low resolution device, 2) employ the aggregate bandwidth of several disk drives by declustering an object across multiple disks [2], and 3) use a combination of these two techniques. Lossy compression techniques encode data into a form that consumes a relatively small amount of space, however, when the data is decoded, it yields a representation similar to the original (some loss of data). While it is effective, there are applications that cannot tolerate loss of data. As an example consider the video signals collected from space. This data may not be compressed using a lossy compression technique. Otherwise, the scientists who later uncompress and analyze the data run the risk of either observing phenomena that may not exist due to a slight change in data or miss important observations due to some loss of data.
A composite modelling approach to software performance measurement
Authors: Vetland Vidar , Hughes Peter , Sølvberg Arne
Published: January 2007

Traditionally performance modellers have tended to ignore the difficulty of obtaining parameter vaules which represent the resource demands of multi-layered software. In practice the use of performance engineering in large-scale systems development is limited by the cost of acquiring appropriate performance information about the various software components. However, if this information cart be reused when components are combined in different ways, then the cost of measurement can be more easily justified. Such reuse can be achieved by means of a composite work model.
Optimizing file transfer response time using the loss-load curve congestion control mechanism
Authors: Williamson Carey L.
Published: January 2007

Loss-load curves are a recently proposed feedback mechanism for rate-based congestion control in datagram computer networks. In the loss-load model, packet loss inside the network is a direct function of sender transmission rates, and senders choose their own transmission rate based on the loss-load tradeoff curve provided by the network. Earlier work [1] has provided the mathematical basis for the loss-load model and provided preliminary simulation results demonstrating its responsiveness, fairness, and stability. The loss-load model works Well for simple network environments where each source has a large number of packets to transmit, and wishes to maximize raw throughput.
Customizing the SIGCHI curriculum for use in Sweden
Authors: Löwgren Jonas , Holmberg Lena
Published: January 2007

This note describes the work undertaken by the Swedish interdisciplinary interest group for HCI (STIMDI) in order to develop a HCI curriculum for Sweden. Our efforts have been inspired by the ACM SIGCHI curriculum proposal presented recently; we discuss why we felt certain customizations were necessary and present our modified curriculum. We also describe our plans for creating a HCI teaching resource in the form of a commonly accessible database.
The technical committee for human interface (SICE-Japan)—an introduction
Authors: Kurosu Masaaki
Published: January 2007

In Japan, several of the academic associations are supporting research activity on the human interface from various approaches (e.g., information processing, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, etc.). Among them, the Technical Committee (TC) for Human Interface of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE) is a representative one in the size of its membership and the variety of the activities.
Controversies about privacy and open information in CSCW
Authors: Allen Jonathan P.
Published: January 2007

Concerns about the privacy implications of computer-supported cooperative work technologies are on the rise. The celebrated benefits of CSCW technologies often stem from their ability to collect or provide greater access to potentially sensitive information about individual behavior, a fact not lost on CSCW developers and researchers concerned with promoting both systems use and humanistic values. In response to these concerns, the CSCW '92 conference included a day-long workshop on privacy issues in CSCW, organized by Andrew Clement of the University of Toronto, and a plenary panel discussion of privacy and open information issues in CSCW, moderated by Rob Kling of the University of California, Irvine.
One visual designer's perspective on INTERCHI'93
Authors: Cargile Andy
Published: January 2007

INTERCHI'93---the first combined European INTERACT and American SIG-CHI conference---was for me very much like Amsterdam itself: extremely open-minded and eye-opening. I learned as much from the many colleagues I talked to as from the actual material itself, which seemed to be a fairly even combination of theory and practice, of researchers and practitioners, of the very detailed to the very broad in concept, and of the useful and the less useful. I spent a good deal of time talking with colleagues from various countries and found a wonderful diversity of perspective. In addition to becoming absorbed in the many sexy concepts and new ideas of the more future-oriented material and presentations, I had many substantial discussions with others responsible for making "vision" a reality in a practical way on a day to day basis.
Determining initial states for time-parallel simulations
Authors: Wang Jain J. , Abrams Marc
Published: January 2007

Time-parallel simulations exploit parallelism by partitioning the time domain of a simulation model. Exploiting temporal parallelism requires predicting future states of a simulation model. A poor prediction of future states may cause extensive recomputation so that a time-parallel simulation requires more real time to execute than a corresponding sequential simulation. Recurrent states of a simulation model provide a way to predict future states. In this paper, we propose a time-parallel simulation method which uses a pre-simulation to identify recurrent states. For simulation models in which recurrent states do not exist or can not support sufficient time parallelism, an approximation technique is suggested to extend the class of simulation models to which time-parallel simulation can be applied. Several queueing network models are investigated with the proposed time-parallel simulation. Experimental result suggest that the proposed approach can exploit massive parallelism while yielding accurate results.
High performance parallel logic simulations on a network of workstations
Authors: Manjikian Naraig , Loucks Wayne M.
Published: January 2007

An approach for high performance parallel logic simulation on a local area network of workstation computers is discussed in this paper. The single, shared transmission medium often found in such networks places limitations on parallel execution, hence a reduction in the frequency of synchronization is pursued by combining a circuit partitioning methodology with a specific synchronization constraint. A consequence of the partitioning methodology is replication of objects between blocks of a partition. A partitioning procedure based on iterative improvement is described for reducing replication while preserving load balance. Two interprocessor synchronization techniques for parallel simulation are studied: conservative and optimistic synchronization. Experiments conducted on three large sequential circuits indicate that reasonable speedup is achievable for well-balanced partitions, and that optimistic synchronization provides a modest improvement in performance over conservative synchronization.
Corolla partitioning for distributed logic simulation of VLSI-circuits
Authors: Sporrer Christian , Bauer Herbert
Published: January 2007

Time Warp has evolved to a common technique for distributed simulation. Speedup in Time Warp simulation systems mainly depends on two overhead factors: first, the load on the simulators has to be well balanced and second, communication and rollbacks have to be kept to a minimum. Both of these factors are influenced by the partitioning of the simulated system. In this paper, we focus on various static partitioning schemes used to partition digital circuits for distributed simulation.

A new hierarchical partitioning approach is presented, compared and rated with other partitioning schemes by evaluating benchmark circuits. Partitioning is done in two steps: a fine grained clustering step based on corollas and a coarse grained step forming partitions using the connectivity matrix. The corolla approach yields very good partitioning results even for a large number of partitions. The achieved speedups are almost linear (up to 12 partitions for larger circuits), as long as the partition sizes are large enough so that communication between the simulators is not a bottleneck. The results reveal the great impact of partitioning on the acceleration of distributed logic simulation and show the effectiveness of the presented corolla partitioning scheme.
Book review: Telecommunications and Networking by Udo W. Pooch, Denis Machuel and John McCahn (CRC Press, 1991)
Authors: Kinicki Robert E.
Published: January 2007

This book is intended is an introduction to telecommunications. In the preface the authors mention that one of their goals is to present an overview of the interaction and relationship between telecommunications and data processing. Thus the text is divided into three parts - basics of telecommunications, transmission systems, and networking.
Some common misconceptions about performance modeling and validation
Authors: Cao Xiren
Published: January 2007

Queueing networks and Markov processes etc. are widely used in modeling computer systems and communication networks to study their performance and reliability. To solve a real world problem, the model developed has to be validated through measured data. In this paper, we point out that in validating a model, one has to be very clear about one's claims regarding what has been validated; Too "accurate" results do not imply a correct model and usually indicates a validation problem. We discuss some common misconceptions in performance modeling and validation. We illustrate our points through examples. To capture the main concepts, the problems are simplified in these examples.
RECOUP—maintaining Fortran
Authors: Simpson Dan , Valentine Sam , Mitchell Richard , Liu Lulu , Ellis Rod
Published: January 2007

The RECOUP Project is investigating ways of making old Fortran code more intelligible. In particular, such code is likely to be very unstructured and to have inadequate documentation. We are attempting to solve both these problems.The two groups working on this project are approaching the problem from different angles with a view to meeting in the middle. On the one hand, current Fortran restructuring tools are being investigated and extended with a view to extracting abstract data types buried in the code. On the other hand, an executable subset of Z has been identified which will form the basis of the documentation notation. The intention is that old Fortran code should be restructured and documented in Z [Spivey, 1992], so that proposed updates to the code and to its documentation can be kept in step.
Communications approaches for simulation-AI interactions
Authors: Cao Yu , Graham James H. , Elmaghraby Adel S.
Published: January 2007

Although the paradigm of AI--simulation interactions is relatively new, it is believed that this hybrid approach has a number of advantages, in terms of making fuller use of the power and features of both AI and simulation. This paper considers in detail the various classes of interactions between AI and simulation systems, and how they may be mutually beneficial. It then considers various strategies for communication and presents a UNIX--based implementation of interprocess communication. Finally a case study is presented using MODSIM as the language for a manufacturing system simulation, and CLIPS as the language for implementing an intelligent agent which interacts with the simulation.
Multimodal human-computer interaction
Authors: Carbonell Noelle
Published: January 2007

The European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) was established in April 1989 as a result of a joint initiative from CWI, GMD and INRIA. The Consortium is dedicated to the advancement of European research and development, in the areas of information technology and applied mathematics, and welcomes national research laboratories from all European countries as members. At present, ERCIM includes 11 national member institutions which are strongly involved in the European Community's R&D programmes: AEDIMA (Spain), CWI (the Netherlands), CNR (Italy), FORTH (Greece), GMD (Germany), INRIA (France), INESC (Portugal), RAL (United Kingdom), SICS (Sweden), SINTEF (Norway), VTT (Finland). Through the definition of common scientific goals and strategies, ERCIM member institutes aim to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase cooperation with European industry. To further these objectives, the Consortium organizes joint scientific Workshops and Advanced Courses, sponsors a Fellowship Programme for talented young researchers, undertakes joint strategic projects, encourages technology transfer, and promotes international research collaborations and networks. ERCIM publications include workshop proceedings, research and strategic reports, as well as a worldwide distributed quarterly newsletter.
The Workshop on Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction
that took place at INRIA-Lorraine in November 1993 is one of the numerous scientific events that ERCIM initiated and sponsored in 1993.
Anonymous collaboration
Authors: Lee Andrew
Published: January 2007

This paper describes an alternative technique for groups to work together, based on anonymity. This is viewed as an alternative to the common direct interaction approach where group members interact with one another at a personal level. Human interaction problems such as over or lack of participation, narrow-mindedness, and personal biases are unavoidable when people work together directly. These problems are the reactions of people when they face others with differences to themselves. It is believed that an alternative interaction technique is needed to solve or reduce the human interaction problems in groups.The philosophy behind the proposed anonymous collaboration (ANOC) technique is to create an environment where collaborators share information and work, without knowing each others' identity or contributions. This kind of human interaction is seen as suppressing direct contact and therefore, also suppressing problems related to human interpersonal interaction. ANOC implementations require the following provisions: anonymity of collaborators and contributions; presence of facilitators; broadcast dialogues; and individual but shared work. Possible implementation scenarios in the areas of electronic discussions, electronic conferencing, and group authoring, are described.ANOC is seen as an alternative especially for groups with members that have conflicting interest and personality, or where equal contribution from everyone is highly regarded.
Book Review: Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product and Process by Deborah Hix and H. Rex Hartson (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1993)
Authors: Preece Jenny
Published: January 2007

The focus of this book is on 'design for usability'. In the Foreword James Foley writes: "This is one of the first books to emphasize process and it fits brief discussions of the other issues into the process framework. Similarly, it is one of the first books to elaborate on the important theme that user interface development must be an integral part of the overall software engineering process and not an add-on or afterthought" (p. vii). These are ambitious aims and ones that do indeed make 'Developing User Interfaces' different from most other currently published books on HCI. Furthermore, this book is written for a broad readership of: practitioners from a range of different backgrounds such as software engineers, programmers, software quality-assurance specialists trainers, technical writers, systems analysts, marketing personnel and managers as well as interaction designers; researchers in Human-Computer Interaction; and teachers and students, who study user interface development at undergraduate and master's level.
Advances derived from real-world experiences
Authors: Atwood Michael E.
Published: January 2007

The INTERCHI workshop titled "Human-Computer Interaction Advances Derived from Real-World Experiences" began as a discussion of personal experiences in doing HCI (human-computer interaction) work in real-world settings. It concluded with discussion of some of the "tricks of the trade" for applying HCI in the real world and with suggestions for using the CHI and INTERACT conferences as vehicles of change for prompting more real-world applications, of HCI. The latter set of suggestions, we present as challenges to the INTERCHI and CHI communities.
Remembering while mousing
Authors: Wright Patricia , Lickorish Ann , Milroy Robert
Published: January 2007

Thinking harder, attending more carefully, remembering more or for longer periods are activities that all contribute to the mental overheads that may have to be met when working with computer displays. One way of measuring these cognitive costs is by providing users with tools (e.g. memory aids) and then seeing how features of the interface influence the way people use these tools. In some respects this is like providing a hiker with a walking stick; the stick may not be used much until the going gets tough. This technique was developed in order to explore the memory load people experienced when working with a document on a computer screen. The practical issues concern saving space on the screen by removing some of the information that readers will need only intermittently but leaving the material accessible, just a mouse click away from the current screen display. The scientific issues concern the memory processes involved when people are working with indexes or menus that have to be summoned into view by clicking a button on the screen.
Effective video screen displays
Authors: Cory Kenneth A.
Published: January 2007

Cues are often added to video screen presentations to help users focus on the most important sections of text. The effectiveness of cues is usually thought to be inherent within the characteristics of the cues. In this case, an experiment was conducted to determine whether the effectiveness of two cuing techniques is dependent upon a user's cognitive style. The Thurstone and Jeffrey Closure Flexibility Test was used to identify 75 subjects high in the field independent cognitive style and another 75 high in the field dependent cognitive style. Twenty-five members of each cognitive style group were exposed to one of the cuing techniques; either underlining or highlighting. A control group was exposed to no cue. The cues were used to called attention to important words and phrases appearing in a tutorial that explained how to use the Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia in CD-ROM format. The dependent variable was time taken to finish the tutorial.Results were evaluated according to an analysis of variance and a t-test. Cognitive style was demonstrated to be a determining factor with field independent subjects finishing the tutorial significantly faster than the field dependent subjects.The faster performance of field independent subjects while interacting with a video screen display was attributed to the fact that they tend to perceive objects more analytically and to separate objects from their embedded backgrounds, as opposed to field dependent subjects who tend to perceive objects in a global context.
An experiential approach to teaching students about usability and HCI
Authors: Hackman George , Ferratt Thomas W. , Kerckaert Fantine M.
Published: January 2007

As computers are utilized more in the workplace, the need for developing "easy-to-use" computer hardware and software has become more important. This has led to increased interest in testing the ease of use of software, i.e., software usability testing, and in researching the nature of human-computer interactions. Today's management information systems and computer science students will be designing and implementing the software systems of the future and, therefore, will need to understand the procedures of usability testing. They will also need to learn and appreciate questions addressed by human-computer interaction (HCI) research. Students in a scholars section of an Introduction to Computers and Information Systems class (MIS 103) at the University of Dayton, in Dayton, Ohio, were given the opportunity to increase their knowledge about usability testing and HCI research by participating in a "hands-on" project. This article describes and evaluates their experience, thereby providing guidance for incorporating usability principles in course work via direct experience in usability testing.
Inductive logic programming and learnability
Authors: Kietz Jörg-Uwe , Džeroski Sašo
Published: January 2007

The paper gives an overview of theoretical results in the rapidly growing field of inductive logic programming (ILP). The ILP learning situation (generality model, background knowledge, examples, hypotheses) is formally characterized and various restrictions of it are discussed in the light of their impact on learnability. The two dominant models of learnability, PAC-learning and identification in the limit, are extended to take into account the ILP learning situation. Several learnability results for logic programs are then presented, both positive and negative.
Book review: The Benchmarking Handbook for Database and Transaction Processing Systems Edited by Jim Gray (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1991)
Authors: Dujmović Jozo J.
Published: January 2007

This book is a short, complete summary of the most important approaches to performance measurements of database systems and transaction processing systems. It is intended to serve as a tutorial for the novice and a reference for the professional. Included are contributions by ten authors: Dina Bitton, Rick Cattell, David DeWitt, Jim Gray, Neal Nelson, Patrick O'Neil, Tom Sawyer, Omri Serlin, Carolyn Turbyfill, and Cyril Orji.
Solution to complex queueing systems
Authors: Gupta Surendra M. , Karaesmen Fikri
Published: January 2007

In this paper, some very useful and applicable ideas are presented to facilitate solving complex problems in Queueing Theory. It is demonstrated how a spreadsheet can be used to solve problems which many practitioners find very intimidating. To this end an algorithm is presented which is particularly designed for easy implementation in a spreadsheet. A template is provided illustrating the implementation of the algorithm. The use of the template is demonstrated in various queueing applications.
End-user computing abilities and the use of information systems
Authors: Suh Kunsoo , Kim Sanghoon , Lee Jinjoo
Published: January 2007

This paper investigates the relationship between end-user computing (EUC) ability and the use of information systems (IS). Using user's two belief constructs -- perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness -- as intervening variables, this paper proposes a causal model of how computing ability influences IS use. This study found that end-users' computing abilities exert significant and direct effects on their beliefs on the ease of use/usefulness of IS, and these beliefs, in turn, influence their usage behavior. This empirical result supports the assumption that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness intervene the impact of computing ability on subsequent IS use.
An automatic selection method of key search algorithms based on expert knowledge bases
Authors: Park Ki-hong , Aoe Jun-ichi , Shishibori Masami , Arita Hisatoshi
Published: January 2007

This paper proposes an automatic selection method for key search algorithms. The methodology has been implemented in a system called KEALASE (KEy-search Algorithm SElection). Key search algorithms are selected according to the user's requirements through interaction with KEALSE which bases its inferences on an evaluation table. The evaluation table contains values rating the performance of each key search algorithm for the different searching properties. The proposed selection algorithm is based on a step by step reduction of key search algorithms and searching properties. The paper also proposes assistance facilities that consist of both a support function and a program synthesis function. Experimental results show that the appropriate key search algorithms are effectively selected, and that the necessary number of questions asked, to select the appropriate algorithm, is reduced to less than half of the total number of possible questions. The support function is useful for the user during the selection process, and the program synthesis function fully translates a selected key search algorithm into high level language in an average of less than 1 hour.
Book review: Scheduling of Production Processes by Juergen Dorn and Karl Froeschl (Ellis Horwoor, 1993)
Authors: Van Dyke Parunak H.
Published: January 2007

This volume is the edited proceedings of a workshop on production scheduling, hosted by the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Expert Systems at the Technical University of Vienna, at ECAI 1992 (the Tenth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence). The book's fifteen chapters, all from European researchers, are loosely grouped into four categories.
A temporal connectionist approach to natural language
Authors: Jacquemin Christian
Published: January 2007

Time is an essential dimension of human natural language understanding but most of the symbolic models applied to linguistic data do not account for temporal structure. In contrast, the models from the connectionist paradigm have a natural ability to perform dynamic processing.After a presentation of some networks with a concern for time, we describe the model for Coincidence Detection which can be thought of as encoding spatio-temporal regularities of the input data. The architecture of the model is inspired from neurobiological studies of the cerebral cortex. It performs a dynamic interpretation of nominal composition and is analyzed in terms of micro-symbolic co-occurrences. The relevance of the Coincidence Detection machinery in language processing shows the significance of time in computational language understanding.
The time dimension of neural network models
Authors: Rohwer Richard
Published: January 2007

This review attempts to provide an insightful perspective on the role of time within neural network models and the use of neural networks for problems involving time. The most commonly used neural network models are defined and explained giving mention to important technical issues but avoiding great detail. The relationship between recurrent and feedforward networks is emphasised, along with the distinctions in their practical and theoretical abilities. Some practical examples are discussed to illustrate the major issues concerning the application of neural networks to data with various types of temporal structure, and finally some highlights of current research on the more difficult types of problems are presented.
Speeding times
Authors: Spunde Walter G.
Published: January 2007

In a recent article [2], it was shown that function samples for all functions composed of the elementary functions can be computed using two operators,
By
and
Times,
which deliver samples of the maximum possible order for linear combinations and products of functions. The article highlighted the simplicity of the exposition, but made no attempt to modify algorithms to improve the speed of calculations. In particular, it was noted that the APL functions took around three seconds to obtain the values of the first ten derivatives of the test function (
x
csc
x
)/ log
arctan
exp
x
while Mathematica 2.0 obtained the same results in about a second. The APL functions, however, were also able to obtain these derivatives at any number of points, and the calculation for 100 points took approximately 18 seconds. This article will show how a simple adjustment can significantly reduce these execution times.