bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pawnbroking in Singapore
Authors: Lim Ghee-Soon , Lye Soo-Choon 
Published: July 2002

Started in 1875, pawnbroking was a unique small business sector in Singapore. Its core business activity comprised giving out loans to walk-in pawners who presented valuables as collateral (pledges). Pawnbrokers made most of their profits from the interest differentials between the interests charged on the loans and the cost of capital of providing the loans. They were allowed to auction off unredeemed pledges through approved auction houses to recover their losses. Pawnbrokers were also allowed to purchase unredeemed pledges that had been pawned with themselves at the auction. About 90% of the pledges accepted by pawnbrokers thus were gold and jewelry. This case provides a detailed description of the pawnbroking industry in Singapore and the operations of pawnbrokers. The case is useful for teaching in areas such as industry analysis, company operation and human resource management.
Distributed, object-based programming systems
Authors: Chin Roger S. , Chanson Samuel T. 
Published: July 2002

The development of distributed operating systems and object-based programming languages makes possible an environment in which programs consisting of a set of interacting modules, or objects, may execute concurrently on a collection of loosely coupled processors. An object-based programming language encourages a methodology for designing and creating a program as a set of autonomous components, whereas a distributed operating system permits a collection of workstations or personal computers to be treated as a single entity. The amalgamation of these two concepts has resulted in systems that shall be referred to asdistributed,object-based programming systems.This paper discusses issues in the design and implementation of such systems. Following the presentation of fundamental concepts and various object models, issues in object management, object interaction management, and physical resource management are discussed. Extensive examples are drawn from existing systems.
A taxonomy for secure object-oriented databases
Authors: Olivier Martin S. , von Solms Sebastiaan H. 
Published: July 2002

This paper proposes a taxonomy for secure object-oriented databases in order to clarify the issues in modeling and implementing such databases. It also indicates some implications of the various choices one may make when designing such a database.Most secure database models have been designed for relational databases. The object-oriented database model is more complex than the relational model. For these reasons, models for secure object-oriented databases are more complex than their relational counterparts. Furthermore, since views of the object-oriented model differ, each security model has to make some assumptions about the object-oriented model used for its particular database.A number of models for secure object-oriented databases have been proposed. These models differ in many respects, because they focus on different aspects of the security problem, or because they make different assumptions about what constitutes a secure database or because they make different assumptions about the object-oriented model.The taxonomy proposed in this paper may be used to compare the various models: Models that focus on specific issues may be positioned in the broader context with the aid of the taxonomy. The taxonomy also identifies the major aspects where security models may differ and indicates some alternatives available to the system designer for each such design choice. We show some implications of using specific alternatives.Since differences between models for secure object-oriented databases are often subtle, a formal notation is necessary for a proper comparison. Such a formal notation also facilitates the formal derivation of restrictions that apply under specific conditions. The formal approach also gives a clear indication about the assumptions made by us—given as axioms—and the consequences of those assumptions (and of design choices made by the model designer)—given as theorems.
Implementing sequentially consistent shared objects using broadcast and point-to-point communication
Authors: Fekete Alan , Kaashoek M. Frans , Lynch Nancy 
Published: July 2002

This paper presents and proves correct a distributed algorithm that implements a sequentially consistent collection of shared read/update objects. This algorithm is a generalization of one used in the Orca shared object system. The algorithm caches objects in the local memory of processors according to application needs; each read operation accesses a single copy of the object, while each update accesses all copies. The algorithm uses broadcast communication when it sends messages to replicated copies of an object, and it uses point-to-point communication when a message is sent to a single copy, and when a reply is returned. Copies of all objects are kept consistent using a strategy based on sequence numbers for broadcasts.The algorithm is presented in two layers. The lower layer uses the given broadcast and point-to-point communication services, plus sequence numbers, to provide a new communication service called acontext multicast channel. The higher layer uses a context multicast channel to manage the object replication in a consistent fashion. Both layers and their combination are described and verified formally, using the I/O automation model for asynchronous concurrent systems.
Estimation of lower bounds in scheduling algorithms for high-level synthesis
Authors: Tiruvuri Giri , Chung Moon 
Published: July 2002

To produce efficient design, a high-level synthesis system should be able to analyze a variety of cost-performance tradeoffs. The system can use lower-bound performance estimated methods to identify and puune inferior designs without producint complete designs. We present a lower-bound performance estimate method that is not only faster than existing methods, but also produces better lower bounds. In most cases, the lower bound produced by our algorithm is tight.Scheduling algorithms such as branch-and-bound need fast and effective lower-bound estimate methods, often for a large number of partially scheduled dataflow graphs, to reduce the search space. We extend our method to efficiently estimate completion time of partial schedules. This problem is not addressed by existing methods in the literature. Our lower-bound estimate is shown to by very effective in reducing the size of the search space when used in a branch-and-bound scheduling algorithm.Our methods can handle multicycle operations, pipelined functional units, and chaining of operations. We also present an extension to handle conditional branches. A salient feature of the extended method is its applicability to speculative execution as well as C-select implementation of conditional branches.
Primality testing using elliptic curves
Authors: Goldwasser Shafi , Kilian Joe 
Published: July 2002

We present a primality proving algorithm—a probablistic primality test that produces short certificates of primality on prime inputs. We prove that the test runs in expected polynomial time for all but a vanishingly small fraction of the primes. As a corollary, we obtain an algorithm for generating large certified primes with distribution statistically close to uniform. Under the conjecture that the gap between consecutive primes is bounded by some polynomial in their size, the test is shown to run in expected polynomial time for all primes, yielding a Las Vegas primality test.
Our test is based on a new methodology for applying group theory to the problem of prime certification, and the application of this methodology using groups generated by elliptic curves over finite fields.
We note that our methodology and methods have been subsequently used and improved upon, most notably in the primality proving algorithm of Adleman and Huang using hyperelliptic curves and in practical primality provers using elliptic curves.
A knowledge-based method for inferring semantic concepts from visual models of system behavior
Authors: Mills Kevin L. , Gomaa Hassan 
Published: July 2002

Software designers use visual models, such as data flow/control flow diagrams or object collaboration diagrams, to express system behavior in a form that can be understood easily by users and by pogrammers, and from which designers can generate a software architecture. The research described in this paper is motivated by a desire to provide an automated designer's assistant that can generate software architectures for concurrent systems directly from behavioral models expressed visually as flow diagrams. To achieve this goal, an automated designer's assistant must be capable of interpreting flow diagrams in semantic, rather than syntactic, terms. While semantic concepts can be attached manually to diagrams using labels, such as stereotypes in the Unified Model Language (UML), this paper considers the possibility of providing autmated assistance to infer appropriate tags for symbols on a flow diagram. The approach relies upon constructing an underlying metamodel that defines semantic concepts based upon (1) syntactic relationships among visual symbols and (2) inheritance relationships among semantic concepts. Given such a metamodel, a rule-based inference engine can, in many situations, infer the presence of semantic concepts on flow diagram, and can tag symbols accordingly. Futher, an object-oriented query system can compare semantic tags on digram instances for conformance with their definition in the metamodel. To illustrate the approach, the paper describes a metamodel for data flow/control flow diagrams used in the context of a specific software modeling method, Concurrent Object-Based Real-time Analysis (COBRA). The metamodel is implemented using an expert-system shell, CLIPS V6.0, which integrates an object-oriented language with a rule-based inference engine.
The paper applies the implemented metamodel to design software for an automobile cruise-control system and provides an evaluation of the approach based upon results from four case studies. For the case studies, the implemented metamodel recognized, automatically and correctly, the existence of 86% of all COBRA semantic concepts within the flow diagrams. Varying degrees of human assistance were used to correctly identify the remaining semantic concepts within the diagrams: in two percent of the cases the implemented metamodel reached tentative classifications that a designer was asked to confirm or override; in four percent of the cases a designer was asked to provide additional information before a concept was classified; in the remaining eight percent of the cases the designer was asked to identify the concept.
Data allocation in distributed database systems
Authors: Apers Peter M. G. 
Published: July 2002

The problem of allocating the data of a database to the sites of a communication network is investigated. This problem deviates from the well-known file allocation problem in several aspects. First, the objects to be allocated are not known a priori; second, these objects are accessed by schedules that contain transmissions between objects to produce the result. A model that makes it possible to compare the cost of allocations is presented; the cost can be computed for different cost functions and for processing schedules produced by arbitrary query processing algorithms.
For minimizing the total transmission cost, a method is proposed to determine the fragments to be allocated from the relations in the conceptual schema and the queries and updates executed by the users.
For the same cost function, the complexity of the data allocation problem is investigated. Methods for obtaining optimal and heuristic solutions under various ways of computing the cost of an allocation are presented and compared.
Two different approaches to the allocation management problem are presented and their merits are discussed.
Three papers from the third international conference on information systems: introduction
Authors: Ginzberg Michael J. 
Published: July 2002

The International Conference on Information Systems provides an annual forum for keeping abreast of the latest trends and developments in IS research. The conference is sponsored by the TIMS College on Information Systems and the Society for Information Management in cooperation with ACM SIGBDP.
The Third International Conference on Information Systems was held December 13-15, 1982, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Alan G. Merten as chairman. Two papers from that conference have been published in recent issues, one by Ahmed S. Zaki in February and one by Margrethe H. Olson in March. They were concerned with the impact of information systems on organizations and society. The following three papers discuss new methodological approaches to the development and use of information systems.
Abdel-Hamid and Madnick focus on the problem of estimating resource requirements and schedules for software development projects. They use System Dynamics, a tool for modeling systems consisting of multiple, interacting feedback loops, to explore this problem. Their results show that policies often built into the project management process can assure that projects will fail to meet their scheduled completion, regardless of the accuracy of resource requirement and project size estimates.
Hart Will explores the idea of a single, unified interface to provide auditors with the access they need in today's computer-based accounting environment. Instead of the proliferation of audit software seen so far, he suggests that a common language for accessing data, programs, and text can be developed. He describes the design of such a language and speculates about its likely impact.
Mason and Carey's paper is concerned with the area of information systems design. They present an Architecture-Based Methodology for prototyping interactive information systems, derived from an analogy to the architectural approach to designing buildings or other physical structures. They discuss both the special role of “architect” and the tools required to support this approach to system design, including one commercially available program product.
Computer perspectives: the bandwidth famine
Authors: Wilkes Maurice V. 
Published: July 2002

A number of years ago I visited a young and successful computer company and was given a tour of the facilities by one of the directors. We passed offices in which people were working at computer terminals; I was told they constituted the accounts department. A little further on we came to the software department; here people were also using terminals. “Now,” said my host, “I will show you the hardware department.” To my surprise, instead of the oscilloscopes and waveform analyzers that I had expected to find, I saw more computer terminals. This was a sign of the times.
Today, the designer of printed circuit boards such as those intended to be plugged into PCs, has a great variety of software tools from which to choose: programs for layout and routing; programs for checking that the design rules have been followed correctly; logic simulators for checking that the design is functionally correct; and more elaborate simulators for checking the timing. These tools make it possible to produce a working prototype without performing any experimental work on a laboratory bench.
In the dark ages of electronics, the debugging of circuits was carried out using experimental versions made by screwing the components down on a piece of wood and connecting them. The behavior of the circuit was checked using an oscilloscope. These experimental versions were known as breadboards, because someone had compared them to those boards on which bread was sliced. The wooden board has been obsolete for years, but the term has survived. A modern version of the breadboard (still used occasionally) is the wire-wrapped prototype. It is, however, costly in time and money and the effort spent on it does not advance the physical design of the final product. Moreover, in certain respects, particularly as regards electrical interference and cross talk, the wire-wrapped version may give misleading information.
IMMUNOPATHOGENESIS OF HIV INFECTION
Authors: Pantaleo G. , Fauci A. S. 
Published: July 2002

The rate of progression of HIV disease may be substantially different among HIV-infected individuals. Following infection of the host with any virus, the delicate balance between virus replication and the immune response to the virus determines both the outcome of the infection, i.e. the persistence versus elimination of the virus, and the different rates of progression.During primary HIV infection, a burst of viremia occurs that disseminates virus to the lymphoid organs. A potent immune response ensues that substantially, but usually not completely, curtails virus replication. This inability of the immune system to completely eliminate the virus leads to establishment of chronic, persistent infection that over time leads to profound immunosuppression. The potential mechanisms of virus escape from an otherwise effective immune response have been investigated. Clonal deletion of HIV-specific cytotoxic T-cell clones and sequestration of virus-specific cytotoxic cells away from the major site of virus replication represent important mechanisms of virus escape from the immune response that favor persistence of HIV. Qualitative differences in the primary immune response to HIV (i.e. mobilization of a restricted versus broader T-cell receptor repertoire) are associated with different rates of disease progression. Therefore, the initial interaction between the virus and immune system of the host is critical for the subsequent clinical outcome.
RST: A Connectionist Architecture to Deal with Spatiotemporal Relationships
Authors: Chappelier J.-C. , Grumbach A. 
Published: July 2002

In the past decade, connectionism has proved its efficiency in the field of static pattern recognition. The next challenge is to deal with spatiotemporal problems. This article presents a new connectionist architecture, RST (ŕeseau spatio temporel [spatio temporal network]), with such spatiotemporal capacities. It aims at taking into account at the architecture level both spatial relationships (e.g., as between neighboring pixels in an image) and temporal relationships (e.g., as between consecutive images in a video sequence). Concerning the spatial aspect, the network is embedded in actual space (two-or three-dimensional), the metrics of which directly influence its structure through a connection distribution function. For the temporal aspect, we looked toward biology and used a leaky-integrator neuron model with a refractory period and postsynaptic potentials. The propagation of activity by spatiotemporal synchronized waves enables RST to perform motion detection and localization in sequences of video images.
MANAGING MARTYRDOM: FEMALE SUICIDE AND STATECRAFT IN MID-QING CHINA
Authors: Theiss Janet 
Published: July 2002

AbstractDuring the first 150 years of Qing rule, the suicides of women were the subject of unprecedented quantities of legal and ritual legislation and a frequent topic of debate in imperial, official, and literati discourses on law, ethics, and social order. This legislation often appeared contradictory, banning honors for suicide in principle, yet granting frequent exceptions. This article examines the complex array of political, cultural, and social factors that produced this intensification of state and elite interest in female suicide and created the apparent inconsistency of state policies. It argues that evolving Qing policies toward female suicide reflected a surprising convergence of statecraft goals, Qing imperial agendas, Han literati interest in promoting orthodox social norms, Manchu ethnic concerns, and the enduring fascination that the pathos of the female martyr held for male rulers and officials in general.
TO LOCK UP ELEUSIS: A QUESTION OF LIMINAL SPACE
Authors: Endsjø Dag Øistein 
Published: July 2002

AbstractIn this article, I argue that the geographical periphery, the eschatia, represented an area within the ancient Greek worldview that reflected a territorial parallel to the intermediate state of the Greek rites of passage. There were also a number of mythological ties between the eschatia and this ritual mid state, the most basic aspect of both of them consisting of a simultaneous being and non-being that entailed a sense of profound confusion of all proper categories. Placed not only betwixt and between the land of the dead and polis as the land of the living, but also between an Olympian and a chthonic divine sphere, the uncultivated geographical periphery represented an ambiguous and primordial landscape, where men had still not been distinguished from the realm of the gods, the animals, and the dead. As the geographical periphery thus was considered to reflect a primordial quality, the intermediate phase of various rites of passage was seen as the ritual imitation of this area. Having journeyed to the ends of the earth and the land of the dead, Heracles could therefore suggest closing down the Eleusian mysteries. Operating with a theoretical concept of liminal space, I will in this way try to show how the idea of ritual liminality, as initiated by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, may be transferred to a spatial context.
LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE TOURNANTE EN CHINE: QUELQUES REMARQUES SUR SON RÔLE ET SON ÉVOLUTION 1
Authors: Loveday Helen 
Published: July 2002

Abstract"Shi Zhifu du monastère de Changlu à Zhenzhou fit ériger dans une haute salle un grand pivot et deux roues; entre les roues il abrita les boîtiers du canon en 5048 chapitres. La somme d'argent réunie se montait à 3 millions de pièces; l'ornementation d'argile et de bois laqués, de jade et d'or, est sublime. Les paroles restent impuissantes à la louer, ce n'est que par le regard qu'il est possible de l'appréhender."2
AN ADDITIONAL NOTE TO TWO RECENT ARTICLES ON THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT AND THE LARGE NUMBERS IN NUMBERS I AND XXVI
Authors:   Rendsburg
Published: July 2002

AbstractThis short note deduces evidence in support of both E. W. Davies (with qualification) and C. J. Humphreys in their differing approaches to the problem of the large number of Israelites during the exodus and wandering.
THE BINDING OF ISAAC: AN INNER-BIBLICAL POLEMIC ON THE QUESTION OF "DISOBEYING" A MANIFESTLY ILLEGAL ORDER
Authors: Boehm Omri 
Published: July 2002

AbstractIt is traditionally accepted among scholars that the "original" episode of the Akedah is narrated in Gen. xxii 1-13, 19. Verses 14-18, the "second angelic speech", offering Abraham a blessing for his obedience, are usually considered, on stylistic, structural and critical grounds, a secondary interpolation. Recent studies, however, have argued that Abraham's extraordinary obedience actually necessitates the extra blessings which he receives in the second angelic speech. It, therefore, could not have been simply inserted into the original account. This has suggested to many scholars that the author responsible for vv. 15-18 has left his mark also on vv. 1-13, 19. In re-examining the style, composition and content of this story, I will suggest that the mark may be found in the first angelic speech, stopping Abraham at the crucial moment (vv. 11-12). Without the angelic intervention an episode would emerge in which Abraham disobeyed the divine command, sacrificing the ram "instead of his son", on his own responsibility.