Modelling the role of the design context in the design process: a domain-independent approach

Domain-independent models of the design process are an important means for facilitating interdisciplinary communication and for supporting multidisciplinary design. Many so-called domain-independent models are, however, not really domain independent. We state that, to be domain independent, the models must abstract from domain-specific aspects, be based on the study of several design disciplines, and be useful for many design disciplines and for multidisciplinary design teams. This paper describes a domain-independent descriptive design model that is developed by studying similarities and differences between design processes in a few design disciplines. The model is based on the general theory of state transitions. We modelled a design situation as a state at a certain moment and a design activity as a transition. We also explicitly modelled the role of the design context in design processes. In our empirical studies, we noticed the influence of the design context on the product being designed and the design process and the importance of communication between designers and stakeholders in the design context regularly during the design process. Making designers aware of the role of the design context can improve the quality of both the product being designed and the design process. The role of the design context is, however, often not explicitly taken into account in design models. We modelled the design context as part of the state at a certain moment and interaction with the design context as one of the activities performed by designers

AmbiDexter: Practical Ambiguity Detection

Ambiguity detection tools try to statically track down ambiguities in context-free grammars. Current ambiguity detection tools, however, either are too slow for large real- istic cases, or produce incomprehensible ambiguity reports. AmbiDexter is the ambiguity tool to have your cake and eat it too

A Second Look at String-Inspired Models for Proton-Proton Scattering via Pomeron Exchange

We re-examine a string dual model for elastic proton-proton scattering via Pomeron exchange. We argue that the method of "Reggeizing" a propagator to take into account an entire trajectory of exchanged particles can be generalized, in particular by modifying the value of the mass-shell parameter in the model. We then fit the generalized model to scattering data at large s and small t. The fitting results are inconclusive, but suggest that a better fit might be obtained by allowing the mass-shell to vary. The model fits the data equally well (roughly) for a wide range of values of the mass-shell parameter, but the other fitting parameters (the slope and intercept of the Regge trajectory, and the coupling constant and dipole mass from the proton-proton-glueball coupling) are then inconsistent with what we expect. On the other hand, using the traditional method of Reggeization generates a weaker fit, but the other parameters obtain more physically reasonable values. In analyzing the fitting results, we also found that our model is more consistent with the sqrt(s) = 1800 GeV coming from the E710 experiment than that coming from the CDF experiment, and that our model has the greatest discrepancy with the data in the range 0.5 GeV^2 < |t| < 0.6 GeV^2, suggesting that the transition from soft Pomeron to hard Pomeron may occur closer to t = -0.5 GeV^2 rather than t = -0.6 GeV^2 as previously thought.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Critical Behavior of Disordered Systems with a Free Surface

The behavior of homogeneous and disordered systems with a free boundary is described on the basis of group theory in the two-loop approximation directly in three-dimensional space. The effect of the free boundary on the regime of the bulk critical behavior is revealed. It is shown that the boundedness of the system slightly affects the regime of the bulk critical behavior in the case of the ordinary transition, whereas this effect is more noticeable in the case of the special transition. Surface critical phenomena are described for homogeneous and disordered systems, and the critical exponents are calculated in the two-loop approximation. It is shown that the effect of impurities is insignificant in the special phase transition, whereas it is more noticeable in the ordinary phase transition. The derived critical exponents are compared with the computer-simulation results.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

A tool for fast ground truth generation for object detection and tracking from video

Object detection and tracking is one of the most important components in computer vision applications. To carefully evaluate the performance of detection and tracking algorithms, it is important to develop benchmark data sets. One of the most tedious and error-prone aspects when developing benchmarks, is the generation of the ground truth. This paper presents FAST-GT (FAst Semi-automatic Tool for Ground Truth generation), a new generic framework for the semiautomatic generation of ground truths. FAST-GT reduces the need for manual intervention thus speeding-up the ground-truthing process