Top down, bottom up structured programming and program structuring

New design and programming techniques for shuttle software. Based on previous Apollo experience, recommendations are made to apply top-down structured programming techniques to shuttle software. New software verification techniques for large software systems are recommended. HAL, the higher order language selected for the shuttle flight code, is discussed and found to be adequate for implementing these techniques. Recommendations are made to apply the workable combination of top-down, bottom-up methods in the management of shuttle software. Program structuring is discussed relevant to both programming and management techniques

Cooperative knowledge processing: the key technology for future organizations

Drawing from the challenges organizations are faced with today, there is a growing understanding that future market success, and long-term survival of enterprises will increasingly be related to the effectiveness of information technology utilization. This, however, requires to intertwine much more seriously organizational theory and research in information processing as it has been done before. Within this paper, we approached this aim from the perspective of radically decentralized, computerized enterprises. We further assume that organizations are increasingly processoriented, rather than applying to structuring organizations based on task decomposition and assignment. This scenario reveals that, due to the inherent autonomy of organizational units, the coordination of decentralized organizational activities (workflows, processes) necessitates a cooperative style of problem solving. On this basis, the paper introduces into the research area of cooperative knowledge processing, with a particular focus on multi-agent decision support systems, and human computer cooperative work. Finally, several important organizational applications of cooperative knowledge processing are presented that demonstrate how future enterprises can take great advantage from these new technologies.<br

Semantic web in manufacturing

Advances in manufacturing systems include attempts to create collaborative networks for enterprise integration and information interoperability. To achieve collaboration and sharing effectively, various networking technologies have been proposed in the literature. The web has emerged as a basic entity for interconnecting man and machine and almost all parts of the enterprise Community are being reshaped to exploit the opportunities that it offers. Apart from web technology, there are various other tools and techniques that have attracted research communities for representing data in ways that both machines and humans can understand. Semantic web, the second-generation web technology, is enriched by machine-processable information to support the users in their tasks. This paper presents the vision of the semantic web and describes ontologies and associated metadata as the building blocks of the semantic web. it reviews the literature dealing with the application of the semantic web and ontology in the broad domain of manufacturing. First, brief details about key enablers, i.e. web services, semantic web, semantic services, and ontology, are presented. Then the implementation of these approaches in different sectors of manufacturing is discussed. A knowledge base for all the information resources concerned with the manufacturing domain is also built up in this paper. An ontology model for a knowledge base of information resources is designed in Protege software, which can be used for storing and searching information about authors, journals, blogs, newspapers, and many other sources of information

Экономические критерии при проектировании архитектуры производственных систем

Architecture of integrated automated production systems is considered, its definition as a structural and functional model is given. The substantiation of economic efficiency indicators of production systems is provided. The relationship of architecture with an open system concept is shown. An approach to design systems based on functional structuring is demonstrated. Economic criteria are developed; the quality of system management is analyzed in terms of minimizing product lifecycle costs.Рассматривается архитектура автоматизированных интегрированных производственных систем, дается ее определение как структурно-функциональной модели. Приводятся обоснования показателей экономической эффективности производственных систем. Показывается связь архитектуры с понятием открытой системы. Демонстрируется подход к проектированию систем, основанный на функциональной структуризации. Разрабатываются экономические критерии, анализируется качество системного управления с точки зрения минимизации затрат жизненного цикла изделия

Organic Agriculture Movement at a Crossroad - a Comparative Study of Denmark and Japan

Along with apparent institutionalisation of organic agriculture that took place in the last couple of decades, the role of organic agriculture organisations as a social movement actor has increasingly being put into question. Under this circumstance, there can be observed an evidence of “division” among these organisations at being foe or ally to this trend of institutionalisation. Why have such competing trajectories existed in this social movement field? And how have different trajectories evolved throughout the time? Through a comparative study of two organisations related to organic agriculture in Denmark and Japan, it argues that a cause of the discrepancy can be found in fundamentally different formulations of the concepts of organic agriculture and the related movement, and thus different organisational fields in which the organisations have been embedded. It further attests that the process of external institutionalisation, punctuated typically by the establishment of the national organic law, has affected the internal institutionalisation of both organisations, regardless of its self-determined orientation toward pro- or anti- institutionalisation. Yet, how far or how fast the internal institutionalisation process will develop may still depend on the orientation of an organisation, when it potentially can preserve substantial autonomy from such process by refraining itself from creating business-client relationship with its own constituency and from compromising direct participation of its constituency to collective actions

Local Agenda 21 and ecological urban restructuring: An European model project in Leipzig

AGENDA 21 as one of the final resolutions of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro stresses in chapter 28 the important role of cities, towns and communities in globally sustainable development. One of the most important European model projects in this respect was carried out in Leipzig from 1993 to 1997. The Leipzig Ostraum Project was supported through the LIFE support program of the European Union with the largest subsidy awarded till that time (4,3 mill. DM, with a total project budget of about 20 mill. DM). The central goal of this project is the use, testing and further development of present knowledge with regard to sustainable urban restructuring in combination with innovative strategies of economic and employment policies. The scope of traditional urban ecology is extended to comprise adjacent rural areas and to revitalize regional material flows. In the meantime, affiliated projects have won support by the THERMIE program of the European Union and the EXWOST-program of the German Federal Ministry of Construction. This paper reports on the most important results of the Leipzig Project to date. In particular, the authors show that the concept of ecological urban restructuring and the Local Agenda 21 are in harmony with one another and can play a decisive role in stimulating consensus on future urban development. All urban actors can be winners in this process. Difficulties arose, however, through dishonest use of financial support by the project agency. -- Die AGENDA 21, Abschlußdokument der UN-Konferenz über Umwelt und Entwicklung im Juni 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, betont in ihrem Kapitel 28 die Rolle der Kommunen, Städte und Gemeinden bei einer global zukunftsfähigen Entwickung (sustainable development). Eines der wichtigsten europäischen Modellprojekte zu diesem Thema wurde in den Jahren 1993 bis 1997 in Leipzig durchgeführt. Zentrale Zielstellung des mit der bisher höchsten Fördersumme aus dem LIFEProgramm der Europäischen Kommission (4,3 Mio DM bei einem Projektvolumen von knapp 20 Mio DM) geförderten Leipziger Ostraum-Projektes ist die Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung des Erkenntnisstandes zum Thema des zukunftsfähigen Städtebaus in Kombination mit innovativen Strategien einer ökologischen Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungspolitik. Die traditionelle Stadtökologie wird erweitert durch die Einbeziehung der Umlandgemeinden und die Revitalisierung regionaler Stoffkreisläufe. Inzwischen sind ergänzende Tochterprojekte mit Förderung aus dem THERMIE-Programm der Europäischen Kommission und dem EXWOST-Programm des Bundesbauministeriums eingeworben werden. In dem Paper wird über die wichtigsten bisherigen Ergebnisse des Projektes berichtet. Insbesondere wird gezeigt, daß die Konzepte des Ökologischen Stadtumbaus und der Lokalen Agenda 21 miteinander harmonieren und eine konsensstiftende Funktion in der zukünftigen Stadtentwicklung übernehmen können. Alle städtischen Akteure können Winner in diesem Prozeß sein. Durch unredlichen Umgang des Projektträgers mit den Fördergeldern war das Leipziger Projekt in jüngster Zeit allerdings in Schwierigkeiten geraten.

A Programming Environment Evaluation Methodology for Object-Oriented Systems

The object-oriented design strategy as both a problem decomposition and system development paradigm has made impressive inroads into the various areas of the computing sciences. Substantial development productivity improvements have been demonstrated in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to user interface design. However, there has been very little progress in the formal characterization of these productivity improvements and in the identification of the underlying cognitive mechanisms. The development and validation of models and metrics of this sort require large amounts of systematically-gathered structural and productivity data. There has, however, been a notable lack of systematically-gathered information on these development environments. A large part of this problem is attributable to the lack of a systematic programming environment evaluation methodology that is appropriate to the evaluation of object-oriented systems

Modeling coherent social systems for learning

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