31 research outputs found
A machine independent implementation of a data storage description language.
This thesis presents the methods, results and conclusions of a design and implementation of a Data Storage Description Language (DSDL). The DSDL chosen was the CODASYL Network DSDL. The design supports storage independent manipulation, for access and reorganisation of partitioned schema records, sets and indexes. The production of a Table Generator to compile the DSDL provided the basic structure and mechanisms of a run-time system for the support of dynamic incremental reorganisation. The project developed storage constructs and techniques for a machine independent Data Storage Description Language and evaluated these ideas through an implementation.The particular objectives of the project included the evaluation of the efficiency of the techniques regarding the criteria of the storage space of tables and records, time for processing, and ease of reorganisation. By developing a run-time system to control dynamic reorganisation of a database given a new version of the storage schema for the same database
Supplementing Frequency Domain Interpolation Methods for Character Animation
The animation of human characters entails difficulties exceeding those met simulating objects, machines or plants. A person's gait is a product of nature affected by mood and physical condition. Small deviations from natural movement are perceived with ease by an unforgiving audience.
Motion capture technology is frequently employed to record human movement. Subsequent playback on a skeleton underlying the character being animated conveys many of the subtleties of the original motion. Played-back recordings are of limited value, however, when integration in a virtual environment requires movements beyond those in the motion library, creating a need for the synthesis of new motion from pre-recorded sequences. An existing approach involves interpolation between motions in the frequency domain, with a blending space defined by a triangle network whose vertices represent input motions. It is this branch of character animation which is supplemented by the methods presented in this thesis, with work undertaken in three distinct areas.
The first is a streamlined approach to previous work. It provides benefits including an efficiency gain in certain contexts, and a very different perspective on triangle network construction in which they become adjustable and intuitive user-interface devices with an increased flexibility allowing a greater range of motions to be blended than was possible with previous networks.
Interpolation-based synthesis can never exhibit the same motion variety as can animation methods based on the playback of rearranged frame sequences. Limitations such as this were addressed by the second phase of work, with the creation of hybrid networks. These novel structures use properties of frequency domain triangle blending networks to seamlessly integrate playback-based animation within them.
The third area focussed on was distortion found in both frequency- and time-domain blending. A new technique, single-source harmonic switching, was devised which greatly reduces it, and adds to the benefits of blending in the frequency domain
Applications integration for manufacturing control systems with particular reference to software interoperability issues
The introduction and adoption of contemporary computer aided manufacturing control
systems (MCS) can help rationalise and improve the productivity of manufacturing related
activities. Such activities include product design, process planning and production
management with CAD, CAPP and CAPM. However, they tend to be domain specific and
would generally have been designed as stand-alone systems where there is a serious lack of
consideration for integration requirements with other manufacturing activities outside the area
of immediate concern. As a result, "islands of computerisation" exist which exhibit
deficiencies and constraints that inhibit or complicate subsequent interoperation among typical
MCS components. As a result of these interoperability constraints, contemporary forms of
MCS typically yield sub-optimal benefits and do not promote synergy on an enterprise-wide
basis.
The move towards more integrated manufacturing systems, which requires advances in
software interoperability, is becoming a strategic issue. Here the primary aim is to realise
greater functional synergy between software components which span engineering, production
and management activities and systems. Hence information of global interest needs to be
shared across conventional functional boundaries between enterprise functions.
The main thrust of this research study is to derive a new generation of MCS in which
software components can "functionally interact" and share common information through
accessing distributed data repositories in an efficient, highly flexible and standardised
manner. It addresses problems of information fragmentation and the lack of formalism, as
well as issues relating to flexibly structuring interactions between threads of functionality
embedded within the various components. The emphasis is on the:
• definition of generic information models which underpin the sharing of common
data among production planning, product design, finite capacity scheduling and cell
control systems.
• development of an effective framework to manage functional interaction between
MCS components, thereby coordinating their combined activities.
• "soft" or flexible integration of the MCS activities over an integrating infrastructure
in order to (i) help simplify typical integration problems found when using
contemporary interconnection methods for applications integration; and (ii) enable
their reconfiguration and incremental development. In order to facilitate adaptability in response to changing needs, these systems must also be
engineered to enable reconfigurability over their life cycle. Thus within the scope of this
research study a new methodology and software toolset have been developed to formally
structure and support implementation, run-time and change processes. The tool set combines
the use of IDEFO (for activity based or functional modelling), IDEFIX (for entity-attribute
relationship modelling), and EXPRESS (for information modelling).
This research includes a pragmatic but effective means of dealing with legacyl software,
which often may be a vital source of readily available information which supports the
operation of the manufacturing enterprise. The pragmatism and medium term relevance of the
research study has promoted particular interest and collaboration from software manufacturers
and industrial practitioners. Proof of concept studies have been carried out to implement and
evaluate the developed mechanisms and software toolset
Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns
Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA
The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania
Annals of Scientific Society for Assembly, Handling and Industrial Robotics
This Open Access proceedings present a good overview of the current research landscape of industrial robots. The objective of MHI Colloquium is a successful networking at academic and management level. Thereby the colloquium is focussing on a high level academic exchange to distribute the obtained research results, determine synergetic effects and trends, connect the actors personally and in conclusion strengthen the research field as well as the MHI community. Additionally there is the possibility to become acquainted with the organizing institute. Primary audience are members of the scientific association for assembly, handling and industrial robots (WG MHI)
APPLICATION OUTSOURCING IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY – ITO MODEL
Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) in terms of the replacement of the in-house
production of IT activities by the use of third party suppliers had already started in the
1960s and has increased considerably. For 2013, the Gartner Group expected that the
global ITO market would reach a volume of 288 bn US dollars. Until 2017, the market
should grow on average about 5.4% yearly.
Despite the rich set of experiences companies have already had with ITO, the chances
of success are seen as at best 50:50. Currently, the dramatic growth of ITO is accompanied
by backsourcing of formerly outsourced IT functions or reports about dissatisfaction
and problems with ITO. Scientists put ITO failures or problems down to a lack of
modelling of all the possible factors affecting ITO success and demand a specific ITO
theory as a basis for better explaining and predicting successes and failures in an IT
sourcing context.
This thesis takes up this research gap. The aim of this thesis is to develop a novel ITO
Model which aids organisations in planning and implementing ITO solutions by guiding
them through the ITO process steps of preparation, selection, contract, transition, execution,
and post-deal comprising a comprehensive picture of the weighted aspects relevant
to ITO success and their interdependencies.
In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives were established for this thesis:
raising the topical level of scientific knowledge of the last decades about successinfluencing
factors in the ITO field based on an extensive literature survey of 48 scientific
articles deriving ITO success factors from empirical research work; structuring of
this success factor knowledge by the development of two ITO taxonomies (taxonomy of
success factors and taxonomy of success factor interdependencies); testing its practical
applicability on the basis of 8 real long-running application outsourcing cases in the
banking industry; further development of the success factor knowledge by identification
of weightings and the temporal relevance of relevant success factors / success factor
interdependencies within the ITO process. Design of the novel ITO Model based on the
empirical knowledge gained by development of rules for relevant success factors and
success factor interdependencies, by arrangement of these rules in temporal order within
the ITO process and by assignment of these rules to four levels of environment
Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud
Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp