Optimizing construction of scheduled data flow graph for on-line testability

The objective of this work is to develop a new methodology for behavioural synthesis using a flow of synthesis, better suited to the scheduling of independent calculations and non-concurrent online testing. The traditional behavioural synthesis process can be defined as the compilation of an algorithmic specification into an architecture composed of a data path and a controller. This stream of synthesis generally involves scheduling, resource allocation, generation of the data path and controller synthesis. Experiments showed that optimization started at the high level synthesis improves the performance of the result, yet the current tools do not offer synthesis optimizations that from the RTL level. This justifies the development of an optimization methodology which takes effect from the behavioural specification and accompanying the synthesis process in its various stages. In this paper we propose the use of algebraic properties (commutativity, associativity and distributivity) to transform readable mathematical formulas of algorithmic specifications into mathematical formulas evaluated efficiently. This will effectively reduce the execution time of scheduling calculations and increase the possibilities of testability

Set-based approach to passenger aircraft family design

Presented is a method for the design of passenger aircraft families. Existing point-based methods found in the literature employ sequential approaches in which a single design solution is selected early and is then iteratively modified until all requirements are satisfied. The challenge with such approaches is that the design is driven toward a solution that, although promising to the optimizer, may be infeasible due to factors not considered by the models. The proposed method generates multiple solutions at the outset. Then, the infeasible solutions are discarded gradually through constraint satisfaction and set intersection. The method has been evaluated through a notional example of a three-member aircraft family design. The conclusion is that point-based design is still seen as preferable for incremental (conventional) designs based on a wealth of validated empirical methods, whereas the proposed approach, although resource-intensive, is seen as more suited to innovative designs

Scalable and perceptual audio compression

This thesis deals with scalable perceptual audio compression. Two scalable perceptual solutions as well as a scalable to lossless solution are proposed and investigated. One of the scalable perceptual solutions is built around sinusoidal modelling of the audio signal whilst the other is built on a transform coding paradigm. The scalable coders are shown to scale both in a waveform matching manner as well as a psychoacoustic manner. In order to measure the psychoacoustic scalability of the systems investigated in this thesis, the similarity between the original signal\u27s psychoacoustic parameters and that of the synthesized signal are compared. The psychoacoustic parameters used are loudness, sharpness, tonahty and roughness. This analysis technique is a novel method used in this thesis and it allows an insight into the perceptual distortion that has been introduced by any coder analyzed in this manner

On the role of pre and post-processing in environmental data mining

The quality of discovered knowledge is highly depending on data quality. Unfortunately real data use to contain noise, uncertainty, errors, redundancies or even irrelevant information. The more complex is the reality to be analyzed, the higher the risk of getting low quality data. Knowledge Discovery from Databases (KDD) offers a global framework to prepare data in the right form to perform correct analyses. On the other hand, the quality of decisions taken upon KDD results, depend not only on the quality of the results themselves, but on the capacity of the system to communicate those results in an understandable form. Environmental systems are particularly complex and environmental users particularly require clarity in their results. In this paper some details about how this can be achieved are provided. The role of the pre and post processing in the whole process of Knowledge Discovery in environmental systems is discussed

Annual Report: 2013

I submit herewith the annual reports from the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for the period ending December 31, 2013. This is done in accordance with an act of Congress, approved March 2, 1887, entitled, “An act to establish agricultural experiment stations, in connection with the agricultural college established in the several states under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and under the acts supplementary thereto,” and also of the act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature, approved March 12, 1935, accepting the provisions of the act of Congress. The research reports are organized according to our strategic plan and by broad subject, focusing on geography, high-latitude agriculture, forest sciences, and the interaction of humans and the environment. Research conducted by our graduate and undergraduate students plays an important role in these grants and the impact they make on Alaska.Financial Statement -- Funding & Grants -- Students -- Research at SNRAS & AFES -- Publications -- Facult