IDEF5 Ontology Description Capture Method: Concept Paper

The results of research towards an ontology capture method referred to as IDEF5 are presented. Viewed simply as the study of what exists in a domain, ontology is an activity that can be understood to be at work across the full range of human inquiry prompted by the persistent effort to understand the world in which it has found itself - and which it has helped to shape. In the contest of information management, ontology is the task of extracting the structure of a given engineering, manufacturing, business, or logistical domain and storing it in an usable representational medium. A key to effective integration is a system ontology that can be accessed and modified across domains and which captures common features of the overall system relevant to the goals of the disparate domains. If the focus is on information integration, then the strongest motivation for ontology comes from the need to support data sharing and function interoperability. In the correct architecture, an enterprise ontology base would allow th e construction of an integrated environment in which legacy systems appear to be open architecture integrated resources. If the focus is on system/software development, then support for the rapid acquisition of reliable systems is perhaps the strongest motivation for ontology. Finally, ontological analysis was demonstrated to be an effective first step in the construction of robust knowledge based systems

Theoretical foundations for information representation and constraint specification

Research accomplished at the Knowledge Based Systems Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University is described. Outlined here are the theoretical foundations necessary to construct a Neutral Information Representation Scheme (NIRS), which will allow for automated data transfer and translation between model languages, procedural programming languages, database languages, transaction and process languages, and knowledge representation and reasoning control languages for information system specification

Research accomplished at the Knowledge Based Systems Lab: IDEF3, version 1.0

An overview is presented of the foundations and content of the evolving IDEF3 process flow and object state description capture method. This method is currently in beta test. Ongoing efforts in the formulation of formal semantics models for descriptions captured in the outlined form and in the actual application of this method can be expected to cause an evolution in the method language. A language is described for the representation of process and object state centered system description. IDEF3 is a scenario driven process flow modeling methodology created specifically for these types of descriptive activities

Shoot development, chlorophyll, gas exchange and carbohydrates in lychee seedlings (Litchi chinensis)

Shoot growth, chlorophyll concentrations, gas exchange and starch concentrations were studied in lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) seedlings of cultivar “Wai Chee” grown in a heated greenhouse at Nambour in subtropical Australia (27° S). We also examined the effects of shoot defoliation and root pruning on leaf expansion. Shoot growth showed a rhythmic cycle under constant greenhouse conditions, with a mean duration of flushing of 20 days and an interval of 10 days over three cycles. Shoots and leaves expanded in a sigmoidal pattern to about 80 mm and 500 cm2, respectively, for each flush. Starch concentrations of the lower stem and roots decreased as the young red leaves expanded, and increased as the fully expanded leaves turned dark green. Chlorophyll concentrations and net CO2 assimilation rate were highest in the fully expanded dark green leaves.Removing 50% of the area of each fully expanded leaf had little effect on the expansion of younger leaves, but total biomass of defoliated plants was only 60% of that of controls. In contrast, removing half the roots just before bud swelling reduced final leaf area by 80%. We conclude that the young shoot has relatively low rates of photoassimilation until the leaves are fully expanded and dark green, and depends on assimilates from elsewhere in the plant. During leaf expansion, translocation of assimilates to the shoot occurred at the expense of the roots

Effects of leaf, shoot and fruit development on photosynthesis of lychee trees (Litchi chinensis)

Changes in gas exchange with leaf age and fruit growth were determined in lychee trees (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) growing in subtropical Queensland (27° S). Leaves expanded in a sigmoid pattern over 50 days during spring, with net CO2 assimilation (A) increasing from –4.1 ± 0.9 to 8.3 ± 0.5 μmol m−2 s−1 as the leaves changed from soft and red, to soft and light green, to hard and dark green. Over the same period, dark respiration (Rd) decreased from 5.0 ± 0.8 to 2.0 ± 0.1 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1. Net CO2 assimilation was above zero about 30 days after leaf emergence or when the leaves were half fully expanded. Chlorophyll concentrations increased from 0.7 ± 0.2 mg g−1 in young red leaves to 10.3 ± 0.7 mg g−1 in dark green leaves, along with stomatal conductance (gs, from 0.16 ± 0.09 to 0.47 ± 0.17 mol H2O m−2 s−1).Fruit growth was sigmoidal, with maximum values of fresh mass (29 g), dry mass (6 g) and fruit surface area (39 cm2) occurring 97 to 115 days after fruit set. Fruit CO2 exchange in the light (Rl) and dark (Rd) decreased from fruit set to fruit maturity, whether expressed on a surface area (10 to 3 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 and 20 to 3 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1, respectively) or on a dry mass basis (24 to 2 nmol CO2 g−1 s−1 and 33 to 2 nmol CO2 g−1 s−1, respectively). Photosynthesis never exceeded respiration, however, the difference between Rl and Rd was greatest in young green fruit (4 to 8 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1). About 90% of the carbon required for fruit growth was accounted for in the dry matter of the fruit, with the remainder required for respiration. Fruit photosynthesis contributed about 3% of the total carbon requirement of the fruit over the season. Fruit growth was mainly dependent on CO2 assimilation in recently expanded dark green leaves

Effects of light availability on leaf gas exchange and expansion in lychee (Litchi chinensis)

Effects of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) on leaf gas exchange of lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) were studied in field-grown “Kwai May Pink” and “Salathiel” orchard trees and young potted “Kwai May Pink” plants during summer in subtropical Queensland (27° S). Variations in PPFD were achieved by shading the trees or plants 1 h before measurement at 0800 h. In a second experiment, potted seedlings of “Kwai May Pink” were grown in a heated greenhouse in 20% of full sun (equivalent to maximum noon PPFD of 200 μmol m−2 s−1) and their growth over three flush cycles was compared with seedlings grown in full sun (1080 μmol m−2 s−1). Young potted plants of “Kwai May Pink” were also grown outdoors in artificial shade that provided 20, 40, 70 or 100% of full sun (equivalent to maximum PPFDs of 500, 900, 1400 and 2000 μmol m−2 s−1) and measured for shoot extension and leaf area development over one flush cycle. Net CO2 assimilation increased asymptotically in response to increasing PPFD in both orchard trees and young potted plants. Maximum rates of CO2 assimilation (11.9 ± 0.5 versus 6.3 ± 0.2 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1), dark respiration (1.7 ± 0.3 versus 0.6 ± 0.2 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1), quantum yield (0.042 ± 0.005 versus 0.027 ± 0.003 mol CO2 mol−1) and light saturation point (1155 versus 959 μmol m−2 s−1) were higher in orchard trees than in young potted plants. In potted seedlings grown in a heated greenhouse, shoots and leaves exposed to full sun expanded in a sigmoidal pattern to 69 ± 12 mm and 497 ± 105 cm2 for each flush, compared with 27 ± 7 mm and 189 ± 88 cm2 in shaded seedlings. Shaded seedlings were smaller and had higher shoot:root ratios (3.7 versus 3.1) than seedlings grown in full sun. In the potted plants grown outdoors in 20, 40, 70 or 100% of full sun, final leaf area per shoot was 44 ± 1, 143 ± 3, 251 ± 7 and 362 ± 8 cm2, respectively. Shoots were also shorter in plants grown in shade than in plants grown in full sun (66 ± 5 mm versus 101 ± 2 mm). Photosynthesis in individual leaves of lychee appeared to be saturated at about half full sun, whereas maximum leaf expansion occurred at higher PPFDs. We conclude that lychee plants can persist as seedlings on the forest floor, but require high PPFDs for optimum growth

Analysis of methods

Information is one of an organization's most important assets. For this reason the development and maintenance of an integrated information system environment is one of the most important functions within a large organization. The Integrated Information Systems Evolution Environment (IISEE) project has as one of its primary goals a computerized solution to the difficulties involved in the development of integrated information systems. To develop such an environment a thorough understanding of the enterprise's information needs and requirements is of paramount importance. This document is the current release of the research performed by the Integrated Development Support Environment (IDSE) Research Team in support of the IISEE project. Research indicates that an integral part of any information system environment would be multiple modeling methods to support the management of the organization's information. Automated tool support for these methods is necessary to facilitate their use in an integrated environment. An integrated environment makes it necessary to maintain an integrated database which contains the different kinds of models developed under the various methodologies. In addition, to speed the process of development of models, a procedure or technique is needed to allow automatic translation from one methodology's representation to another while maintaining the integrity of both. The purpose for the analysis of the modeling methods included in this document is to examine these methods with the goal being to include them in an integrated development support environment. To accomplish this and to develop a method for allowing intra-methodology and inter-methodology model element reuse, a thorough understanding of multiple modeling methodologies is necessary. Currently the IDSE Research Team is investigating the family of Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) DEFinition (IDEF) languages IDEF(0), IDEF(1), and IDEF(1x), as well as ENALIM, Entity Relationship, Data Flow Diagrams, and Structure Charts, for inclusion in an integrated development support environment

Why Game Designers Should Study Magic

For millennia, magicians have designed illusions that are perceived as real regardless of their impossibility, inducing a sense of wonder in their audience. This paper argues that video game designers face the same design challenge - crafting believable and engaging illusions - and that the practice of magic provides an untapped wealth of design principles and techniques for game designers. To support this claim, the paper introduces two key principles of magic, affording perceived causal relations and forcing perceivedfree choice. It then presents techniques to create and exploit these effects and discusses their parallels and applications in game design, encouraging game designers and researchers to further explore the field of magic for testable theories and applicable techniques

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. Conclusions Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record