Specialising Parsers for Queries

Many software systems consist of data processing components that analyse large datasets to gather information and learn from these. Often, only part of the data is relevant for analysis. Data processing systems contain an initial preprocessing step that filters out the unwanted information. While efficient data analysis techniques and methodologies are accessible to non-expert programmers, data preprocessing seems to be forgotten, or worse, ignored. This despite real performance gains being possible by efficiently preprocessing data. Implementations of the data preprocessing step traditionally have to trade modularity for performance: to achieve the former, one separates the parsing of raw data and filtering it, and leads to slow programs because of the creation of intermediate objects during execution. The efficient version is a low-level implementation that interleaves parsing and querying. In this dissertation we demonstrate a principled and practical technique to convert the modular, maintainable program into its interleaved efficient counterpart. Key to achieving this objective is the removal, or deforestation, of intermediate objects in a program execution. We first show that by encoding data types using Böhm-Berarducci encodings (often referred to as Church encodings), and combining these with partial evaluation for function composition we achieve deforestation. This allows us to implement optimisations themselves as libraries, with minimal dependence on an underlying optimising compiler. Next we illustrate the applicability of this approach to parsing and preprocessing queries. The approach is general enough to cover top-down and bottom-up parsing techniques, and deforestation of pipelines of operations on lists and streams. We finally present a set of transformation rules that for a parser on a nested data format and a query on the structure, produces a parser specialised for the query. As a result we preserve the modularity of writing parsers and queries separately while also minimising resource usage. These transformation rules combine deforested implementations of both libraries to yield an efficient, interleaved result

Land development in Massachusetts: Its effect on the environment within Essex and Middlesex counties from 1990 to 2007

Since the 1970\u27s urban centers in and surrounding Essex and Middlesex Counties in Massachusetts have expanded and proliferated into adjacent communities. This expansion has led to the conversion of land for housing, businesses, schools, recreation, and parks, placing significant strain on existing land cover, land use, and available natural resources. Mounting growth pressures and a reduction of undeveloped land have raised serious concerns as cropland and forest fragmentation, wetland destruction, protected open-space infringement, pollution, and systematic losses of rural conditions have become obvious. To monitor development, the post-classification change detection method was applied to Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite data and GIS was used to detect, quantity, and document the extent of development and its effect on the environment and to assess and quantify the demographic changes that occurred within the counties from 1990 to 2007. Classification of the 1990 image resulted in 217 clusters and 214 clusters for the 2007 image The overall accuracy achieved for the 1990 image classification was 87.3% with a KHAT value of 0.848, and the overall accuracy for the 2007 classification was 86.27% with a KHAT value of 0.840. From 1990 to 2007 land cover change occurred primarily along major transportation corridors. The post-classification change detection results indicate that Essex and Middlesex County combined gained 23,435.66 new acres of land development from 1990 to 2007 through a loss and change in acreage from the Bareland, Forest, Grassland, Water, and Wetland land cover class categories. Results indicate that there was an approximate 0.56% overall (net) increase of newly developed land areas within the 1990 and 2007 image classifications from 415.46 acres or 0.64 square miles. In addition, there was a substantial decrease (-40.0%) within the grassland category. Land development was responsible for a portion of the decrease of grasslands (-13.63%), which occurred mostly within Middlesex County. Results also indicate that new land development occurred within several Commonwealth of Massachusetts designated environmentally-sensitive areas: 722 acres in areas of critical environmental concern, 670 acres in priority habitats of rare species, 1,092 acres in living waters core habitats and critical supporting watersheds, 1,318 acres in protected and recreational open spaces, and within 0-1000 feet of 600 certified vernal pools. In addition, several rare or imperiled species inhabiting these areas may have been adversely affected by land development through habitat loss, change, or fragmentation, and/or passage corridor disruptions. A GIS comparison of the new land development acreages and census demographic statistics within Essex and Middlesex County cities and towns during this period indicate that communities with more families with children exhibited more land development, and communities with higher median household income exhibited less land development. Land change detection over the 17-year period indicated encroachment of development in areas of environmental concern, but level of development varied by socio-demographic factors. This study also illustrated that the combined use of remotely sensed data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, and demographic data are effective for use as a diagnostic tool and/or base to be built upon to explore associations, indicators, or drivers which may influence land cover change and its effects on existing environmental conditions in areas exhibiting change. In addition, this study provided awareness to ancillary research where scientific guidelines were derived for the protection of specific wildlife habitats and resident species. Lastly, this study presented several land cover modeling and web deployed data dissemination tools for the dissertation results as well as provided a conceptual framework for the successful adoption and implementation of these tools for organizations engaged in natural resource planning and management

Research and Technology, 1989

Selected research and technology activities at Ames Research Center, including the Moffett Field site and the Dryden Flight Research Facility, are summarized. These accomplishments exemplify the Center's varied and highly productive research efforts for 1989

Multimetal smithing : An urban craft in rural settings?

Multimetal smithing should be defined as the use of more than one metal and/or different metalworking techniques within thesame crafts-milieu. This complex metalworking has long been linked to centrality, central places and urbanity in Scandinavia.It has been extensively argued that fine casting and smithing, as well as manufacture utilizing precious metals was exclusivelyundertaken within early urban settings or the “central places” pre-dating these. Furthermore, the presence of complex metalcraftsmanship has been used as a driving indicator of the political, social and economic superiority of certain sites, therebyenhancing their identity as “centralities”.Recent research has come to challenge the universality of this link between urbanity, centrality and complex metalworkingas sites in rural settings with evidence of multimetal smithing are being identified. This shows that the relationship between thecraft and centrality (urbanity) must be nuanced and that perhaps multimetal craftsmanship should be reconsidered as an urbanindicator.The thesis project “From Crucible and onto Anvil” started in 2015 and focuses on sites housing remains of multimetalcraftsmanship dating primarily from 500-1000 AD. Within the project a comprehensive survey of sites will be used to evaluate thepresence of multimetal craftsmanship in the landscape. Sites in selected target areas will also be subject to intra-site analysisfocusing on workshop organisation, production output, metalworking techniques and chronological variances.A key aim in the project is to elucidate the conceptual aspects of complex metalworking. The term multimetality is used toanalytically frame all the societal and economic aspects of multimetal craftsmanship. Through this inclusive perspective both thecraftsmanship and the metalworkers behind it are positioned within the overall socioeconomic framework. The metalworkers,their skills and competences as well as the products of their labour are viewed as dynamic actors in the landscape and on thearenas of political economy of the Late Iron Age.The survey has already revealed interesting aspects concerning multimetal smithing and urbanity. Although the multimetalsites do cluster against areas of early urban development there are also other patterns emerging. Multimetal craftsmanship – both as practice and concept – was well represented in both rural peripheral settings and urban crafts-milieus. This means that therole of multimetality as part of an “urban conceptual package” is crucial to investigate. Such an approach will have the dual endsof properly understanding the craft and its societal implications, but also further the knowledge of the phenomenon of urbanityas a whole. Was multimetal smithing part of an “urban package” that spread into the rural landscape? Did the multimetality differbetween urban and rural crafts-milieus? How does early urbanity relate to the chronology of multimetal craftsmanship?This paper aims to counter these questions using examples from the survey of multimetal sites conducted within the thesisproject. A comparison between selected sites will be presented. The purpose of this is to evaluate the role of multimetality withinthe “urban package” and discuss the role of complex metalworking in the establishment of urban arenas of interaction in LateIron Age Scandinavia

Neolithic land-use in the Dutch wetlands: estimating the land-use implications of resource exploitation strategies in the Middle Swifterbant Culture (4600-3900 BCE)

The Dutch wetlands witness the gradual adoption of Neolithic novelties by foraging societies during the Swifterbant period. Recent analyses provide new insights into the subsistence palette of Middle Swifterbant societies. Small-scale livestock herding and cultivation are in evidence at this time, but their importance if unclear. Within the framework of PAGES Land-use at 6000BP project, we aim to translate the information on resource exploitation into information on land-use that can be incorporated into global climate modelling efforts, with attention for the importance of agriculture. A reconstruction of patterns of resource exploitation and their land-use dimensions is complicated by methodological issues in comparing the results of varied recent investigations. Analyses of organic residues in ceramics have attested to the cooking of aquatic foods, ruminant meat, porcine meat, as well as rare cases of dairy. In terms of vegetative matter, some ceramics exclusively yielded evidence of wild plants, while others preserve cereal remains. Elevated δ15N values of human were interpreted as demonstrating an important aquatic component of the diet well into the 4th millennium BC. Yet recent assays on livestock remains suggest grazing on salt marshes partly accounts for the human values. Finally, renewed archaeozoological investigations have shown the early presence of domestic animals to be more limited than previously thought. We discuss the relative importance of exploited resources to produce a best-fit interpretation of changing patterns of land-use during the Middle Swifterbant phase. Our review combines recent archaeological data with wider data on anthropogenic influence on the landscape. Combining the results of plant macroremains, information from pollen cores about vegetation development, the structure of faunal assemblages, and finds of arable fields and dairy residue, we suggest the most parsimonious interpretation is one of a limited land-use footprint of cultivation and livestock keeping in Dutch wetlands between 4600 and 3900 BCE.NWOVidi 276-60-004Human Origin

Taphonomy, environment or human plant exploitation strategies?: Deciphering changes in Pleistocene-Holocene plant representation at Umhlatuzana rockshelter, South Africa

The period between ~40 and 20 ka BP encompassing the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) transition has long been of interest because of the associated technological change. Understanding this transition in southern Africa is complicated by the paucity of archaeological sites that span this period. With its occupation sequence spanning the last ~70,000 years, Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter is one of the few sites that record this transition. Umhlatuzana thus offers a great opportunity to study past environmental dynamics from the Late Pleistocene (MIS 4) to the Late Holocene, and past human subsistence strategies, their social organisation, technological and symbolic innovations. Although organic preservation is poor (bones, seeds, and charcoal) at the site, silica phytoliths preserve generally well throughout the sequence. These microscopic silica particles can identify different plant types that are no longer visible at the site because of decomposition or burning to a reliable taxonomical level. Thus, to trace site occupation, plant resource use, and in turn reconstruct past vegetation, we applied phytolith analyses to sediment samples of the newly excavated Umhlatuzana sequence. We present results of the phytolith assemblage variability to determine change in plant use from the Pleistocene to the Holocene and discuss them in relation to taphonomical processes and human plant gathering strategies and activities. This study ultimately seeks to provide a palaeoenvironmental context for modes of occupation and will shed light on past human-environmental interactions in eastern South Africa.NWOVidi 276-60-004Human Origin

Ways and Capacity in Archaeological Data Management in Serbia

Over the past year and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world has witnessed inequalities across borders and societies. They also include access to archaeological resources, both physical and digital. Both archaeological data creators and users spent a lot of time working from their homes, away from artefact collections and research data. However, this was the perfect moment to understand the importance of making data freely and openly available, both nationally and internationally. This is why the authors of this paper chose to make a selection of data bases from various institutions responsible for preservation and protection of cultural heritage, in order to understand their policies regarding accessibility and usage of the data they keep. This will be done by simple visits to various web-sites or data bases. They intend to check on the volume and content, but also importance of the offered archaeological heritage. In addition, the authors will estimate whether the heritage has adequately been classified and described and also check whether data is available in foreign languages. It needs to be seen whether it is possible to access digital objects (documents and the accompanying metadata), whether access is opened for all users or it requires a certain hierarchy access, what is the policy of usage, reusage and distribution etc. It remains to be seen whether there are public API or whether it is possible to collect data through API. In case that there is a public API, one needs to check whether datasets are interoperable or messy, requiring data cleaning. After having visited a certain number of web-sites, the authors expect to collect enough data to make a satisfactory conclusion about accessibility and usage of Serbian archaeological data web bases