Caravan Awnings: a Geometrical Problem

Two questions regardingthe design of caravan awnings were posed by a company.The company wishes to produce awnings with a pretty appearance. When an awning is attached to a caravan, some wrinkles could appear. We developed some methods to avoid the wrinkles. The problem is restricted to awnings which are made from one piece of cloth

Towards a Generalized Database System with Multiple Interfaces

We have applied logic programming to the problem of designing knowledge representation systems. This report describes a Generalized Database System, PRODB, that has been implemented in Prolog. It also describes two extensions to the basic PRODB core. First, knowledge representation and consistency-checking features have been added to PRODB to enhance its ability to consistently represent knowledge, especially in an Engineering domain. Second, extensions to Prolog\u27s definite clause grammar mechanism have been used to create interfaces to a knowledge base directly from grammars describing the input languages. The interface to the system is derived directly from the grammars, so this part of the system is easy to tailor. In addition, we are able to use different grammars at different times in order to have multiple interfaces to the same knowledge base system

Multiport network analyzer self-calibration: a new approach and some interesting results

A new approach to multiport network analyzer calibration is here presented. This solution exploits the redundancy of multiple standards connections in order to perform a multiport self-calibration. The method allows to use also partially or even fully unknown devices as standards. The algorithm is independent from a particular standard sequence. By this new approach, the user can tailor the known or unknown standard sequence to best fit the measurement needs and test set constrains. As an example we proved that the calibration of a three-port NWA can be carried out by the insertion of three known reflections at one port of the test-set, plus three connections of the same fully unknown two-port device

Portfolio Management for a Random Field of Bond Returns

A new method of bond portfolio optimization is described. The method is based on stochastic string models of bond returns. It is shown how to approximate the bond return correlation function with Padé approximations and how to compute the optimal portfolio allocation using Wiener-Hopf factorization. The technique is illustrated with an example of the Treasury bond portfolio.bond portfolio management, stochastic string, Toeplitz operators, Padé approximations, Wiener-Hopf factorization.