For operation of the Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC)

During the month of June, the Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Georgia designed new benefits questionnaires for computer software management and information center (COSMIC). As a test of their utility, these questionnaires are now used in the benefits identification process

Hardware synthesis from DDL description

The details of digital systems can be conveniently input into the design automation system by means of hardware description language (HDL). The computer aided design and test (CADAT) system at NASA MSFC is used for the LSI design. The digital design language (DDL) was selected as HDL for the CADAT System. DDL translator output can be used for the hardware implementation of the digital design. Problems of selecting the standard cells from the CADAT standard cell library to realize the logic implied by the DDL description of the system are addressed

DDL system: Design systhesis of digital systems

Digital Systems Design Language was integrated into the CADAT system environment of NASA-MSFC. The major technical aspects of this integration are summarized. Automatic hardware synthesis is now possible starting with a high level description of the system to be synthesized. The DDL system provides a high level design verification capability, thereby minimizing design changes in the later stages of the design cycle. An overview of the DDL system covering the translation, simulation and synthesis capabilities is provided. Two companion documents (the user's and programmer's manuals) are to be consulted for detailed discussions

Pigmentation pattern formation in butterflies: experiments and models

Butterfly pigmentation patterns are one of the most spectacular and vivid examples of pattern formation in biology. They have attracted much attention from experimentalists and theoreticians, who have tried to understand the underlying genetic, chemical and physical processes that lead to patterning. In this paper, we present a brief review of this field by first considering the generation of the localised, eyespot, patterns and then the formation of more globally controlled patterns. We present some new results applied to pattern formation on the wing of the mimetic butterfly Papilio dardanus. To cite this article: H.F. Nijhout et al., C. R. Biologies 326 (2003)

IDDAP -- Interactive computer assistance for creative digital design

A new computer-aided design program to assist in the initial phases of logical design is described. The program, intended for use via an on-line remote terminal, will allow the designer to study and experiment with design alternatives during the initial creative design phases. An ALGOL-like language is used for specifying the system being designed. In addition to simulating the design, the program allows the user to perform on-line design changes, reorganize data and generate timing diagram information --Abstract, page ii

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 6: Implementation schedule, development costs, operational costs, benefit assessment, impact on company organization, spin-off assessment, phase 1, tasks 3 to 8

A baseline implementation plan, including alternative implementation approaches for critical software elements and variants to the plan, was developed. The basic philosophy was aimed at: (1) a progressive release of capability for three major computing systems, (2) an end product that was a working tool, (3) giving participation to industry, government agencies, and universities, and (4) emphasizing the development of critical elements of the IPAD framework software. The results of these tasks indicate an IPAD first release capability 45 months after go-ahead, a five year total implementation schedule, and a total developmental cost of 2027 man-months and 1074 computer hours. Several areas of operational cost increases were identified mainly due to the impact of additional equipment needed and additional computer overhead. The benefits of an IPAD system were related mainly to potential savings in engineering man-hours, reduction of design-cycle calendar time, and indirect upgrading of product quality and performance

Development of a microfluidic device for gaseous formaldehyde sensing = Développement d\u27un dispositif microfluidique pour la détection de formaldéhyde à l\u27état gazeux

Formaldehyd (HCHO) ist eine chemische Verbindung, die bei der Herstellung einer großen Zahl von Haushaltsprodukten verwendet wird.Charakteristisch ist seine hohe Flüchtigkeit aufgrund einer niedrigen Siedetemperatur ($T = - 19\ ℃$). Daher ist HCOH fast überall als Luftschadstoff in Innenräumen vorhanden. Die Miniaturisierung analytischer Systeme zu Handheld-Gerät hat das Potenzial, nicht nur effizientere, sondern auch empfindlichere Instrumente für die Echtzeitüberwachung dieses gefährlichen Luftschadstoffs zu ermöglichen. Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit präsentiert die Entwicklung eines Mikrofluidik-Geräts für die Erfassung von HCHO basierend auf der Hantzsch-Reaktion.Hierbei wurde der Schwerpunkt auf die Komponente für Fluoreszenzdetektion gelegt. Es wurde eine umfangreiche Literaturrecherche durchgeführt, die es erlaubt, den Stand der Technik auf dem Gebiet der Miniaturisierung des Fluoreszenzsensors zusammenzufassen. Auf Grund dieser Studie wurde ein modulares Fluoreszenzdetektionskonzept vorgeschlagen, das um einen CMOS-Bildsensor (CIS) herum entwickelt wurde. Zwei dreischichtige Fluidikzellenkonfigurationen (Konfiguration 1: Quarz - SU-8 3050 - Quarz und Konfiguration 2: Silizium - SU-8 3050 - Quarz) wurden in Betracht gezogen und parallel unter den gleichen experimentellen Bedingungen getestet. Die Verfahren der Mikrofabrikation der fluidischen Zellen wurden detailliert beschrieben, einschließlich des Integrationsprozesses der Standardkomponenten und der experimentellen Verfahren. Der CIS-basierte Fluoreszenzdetektor bewies seine Leistungsfähigkeit, eine anfängliche HCHO-Konzentration von 10 µg/L vollständig in 3,5-Diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidin (DDL- derivatisiert) sowohl für die Quarz- als auch für die Silizium-Fluidikzellen zu detektieren. Beide Systemewiesenein Abfragevolumen von 3,5 µL auf. Ein offensichtlich höheres Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis (SNR) wurde für die Silizium-Fluidzelle ($\text{SNR}_{\text{silicon}} = 6.1$) im Vergleich zur Quarz-Fluidzelle ($\text{SNR}_{\text{quartz}} = 4.9$) beobachtet. Die Verstärkung der Signalintensität in der Silizium-Fluidzelle ist wahrscheinlich auf den Silizium-Absorptionskoeffizienten bei der Anregungswellenlänge zurückzuführen,$a\left( \lambda_{\text{abs}} = 420\ nm \right) = 5 \bullet 10^{4}\text{cm}^{- 1}$. Dieser Koeffizient ist ungefähr fünfmal höher als der Absorptionskoeffizient bei der Fluoreszenzemissionswellenlänge $a\left(\lambda_{\text{em}} = 515\ nm \right) = 9.25 \bullet 10^{3}\text{cm}^{- 1}$. HCHO wird aufgrund seiner relativ hohen Konstanten für das Henry-Gesetz sehr schnell in ein flüssiges Reagenz aufgenommen. Somit hängt die Auswahl des molekularen Einfangverfahrens (Schwallströmung, Ringströmung oder membranbasierte Strömungswechselwirkung) von derLeistungsfähigkeit des Fluoreszenzdetektors ab. Ein vorläufiges Konzept, das auf der Verwendung einer Gas-Flüssigkeitsmembran-basierten Wechselwirkung zum ständigen Abfangen des gasförmigen HCHO basiert, wurde eingeführt. Hierzu wurden kompatible Materialien und Herstellungsmethoden identifiziert. Darüber hinaus wurden CFD-Simulationen durchgeführt, um die Mikrokanallänge unter verschiedenen hydrodynamischen Bedingungen abzuschätzen, die für eine vollständige HCHO-Derivatisierung erforderlich sind. Eine Verbesserung und Vereinfachung auf der Grundlage von sehrnempfindlichen Fluoreszenzdetektoren mit niedrigen Detektionsgrenzen könnte zukünftig basierend z. B. auf Schwallströmung oder Ringströmung möglich sein

Simulating Physical Interactions between an Articulated Mobile Vehicle and a Terrain

International audienceThis paper deals with the problem of simulating the notions of a complex land vehicle moving in a natural environment. The contribution presented here is a motion generator which predicts the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle when executing a given nominal motion plan. This plan is expressed in terms of a channel to follow and of a set of intermediate subgoals to reach. Solving this motion generation problem requires to explicitly reason about the geometric and the physical aspects of the movements that the vehicle has to execute. In our approach, this is done using two basic constructions derived from the concept of physical model : the 'generalized obstades" are used for physically guiding the movements of the vehicle using an explicit model of the vehicle/terrain interactions, and the "physical targets' are used to map the strategic information onto our physical representation of the world and to introduce the force feedback gestural control

(MU-CTL-01-12) Towards Model Driven Game Engineering in SimSYS: Requirements for the Agile Software Development Process Game

Software Engineering (SE) and Systems Engineering (Sys) are knowledge intensive, specialized, rapidly changing disciplines; their educational infrastructure faces significant challenges including the need to rapidly, widely, and cost effectively introduce new or revised course material; encourage the broad participation of students; address changing student motivations and attitudes; support undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learning; and incorporate the skills needed by industry. Games have a reputation for being fun and engaging; more importantly immersive, requiring deep thinking and complex problem solving. We believe educational games are essential in the next generation of e-learning tools. An extensible, freely available, engaging, problem-based game platform that provides students with an interactive simulated experience closely resembling the activities performed in a (real) industry development project would transform the SE/Sys education infrastructure. Our goal is to extend the state-of-the-art research in SE/Sys education by investigating a game development platform (GDP) from an interdisciplinary perspective (education, game research, and software/systems engineering). A meta-model has been proposed to provide a rigourous foundation that integrates the three disciplines. The GDP is intended to support the semi-automated development of collections of scripted games and their execution, where each game embodies a specific set of learning objectives. The games are scripted using a template based approach. The templates integrate three approaches: use cases; storyboards; and state machines (timed, concurrent, hierarchical state machines). The specification templates capture the structure of the game (Game, Acts, Scenes, Screens, Challenges), storyline, characters (player, non-player, external), graphics, music/sound effects, rules, and so on. The instantiated templates are (manually) transformed into XML game scripts that can be loaded into the SimSYS Game Play Engine. As a game is played, the game play events are logged; they are analyzed to automatically assess a player’s accomplishments and automatically adapt the game play script. Currently, we are manually defining a collection of games. The games are being used to ensure the GDP is flexible and reliable (i.e., the prototype can load and correctly run a variety of game scripts), the ontology is comprehensive, and the templates assist in defining well-organized, modular game scripts. In this report, we present the initial part of an Agile Software Development Process game (Act I, Scenes 1 and 2) that embodies learning objectives related to SE fundamentals (requirements, architecture, testing, process); planning with Gantt charts; working with budgets; and selecting a team for an agile development project. A student player is rewarded in the game by getting hired, scoring points, or getting promoted to lead a project. The game has a variety of settings including a classroom, job fair, and a work environment with meeting rooms, cubicles, and a water cooler station. The main non-player characters include a teacher, boss, and an evil peer. In the future, semi-automated support for creating new game scripts will be explored using a wizard interface. The templates will be formally defined, supporting automated transformation into XML game scripts that can be loaded into the SimSYS Game Engine. We also plan to explore transforming the requirements into a notation that can be imported into a commercial tool that supports Statechart simulation

Problems related to the integration of fault tolerant aircraft electronic systems

Problems related to the design of the hardware for an integrated aircraft electronic system are considered. Taxonomies of concurrent systems are reviewed and a new taxonomy is proposed. An informal methodology intended to identify feasible regions of the taxonomic design space is described. Specific tools are recommended for use in the methodology. Based on the methodology, a preliminary strawman integrated fault tolerant aircraft electronic system is proposed. Next, problems related to the programming and control of inegrated aircraft electronic systems are discussed. Issues of system resource management, including the scheduling and allocation of real time periodic tasks in a multiprocessor environment, are treated in detail. The role of software design in integrated fault tolerant aircraft electronic systems is discussed. Conclusions and recommendations for further work are included