ADAMS

A wide variety of multilateral and bilateral agencies, private sector firms, and African governments have a need for high quality, reliable data on agricultural productivity. This paper identifies numerous situations where poor data lead to incorrect estimates of African land and labor productivity. The paper argues that better coordination of macro, meso, and micro data collection, reporting, and analysis efforts can lower costs and improve our ability to monitor trends and to quantify determinants of agricultural productivity. Seven key points are made in the discussion: (1) Missing or poorly measured variables used in the numerator (output) or denominator (land and labor, for example) are biasing productivity ratios; (2) In most cases, these errors underestimate levels of agricultural productivity in Africa and distort trends; (3) Micro data are an important source of information for identifying the existence and magnitude of these errors in macro and meso data; (4) Information from micro data can improve estimates of productivity ratios when macro data are not available and too costly to collect; (5) Detailed micro data sets are the best source of information on the farm-level determinants of agricultural productivity; this information contributes to the development of productivity-enhancing policies and technologies; (6) Micro data play an important role in identifying the appropriate variables to monitor in macro and meso series; (7) Only consistently high-quality macro data in unbroken time series can provide adequate information about productivity trends and the contribution of policy and technological change to national agricultural productivity over time. From these conclusions it becomes evident that improving the data used to monitor and analyze agricultural productivity requires much greater cross-fertilization of detailed micro studies and broad macro-data collection and reporting efforts. As data collection and analysis costs are high, researchers and statistical services need to ensure the maximum complementarity possible among different types of surveys and data. This requires coordination among donors, government agencies, and research institutes that fund, collect, and analyze agricultural data.

Framework for query optimization in distributed statistical databases

In this paper, an object-oriented design method is proposed for the control software design of an automated manufacturing system. This object-oriented approach is based on three popular modeling tools — IDEFO, entity-relationship diagram (ERD) and Petri-Net. Firstly, IDEFO, ERD and Petri-Net models for manufacturing systems are constructed. Some transformation rules are found between these models and object-oriented model. Finally, simulation and control software are coded based on object-oriented model. As an example, application of this method to an automated manufacturing cell are illustrated.

Modelling and simulation of combined lumped and distributed systems by an object-oriented approach

In a hydraulic power system, the manifold blocks are usually tailor-made. Computer-aided design of these manifold blocks will facilitate the production of these systems. An object-oriented approach in the design of these blocks has advantages that modifications of the component physical dimensions can easily be incorporated into the scheme without difficulties. An object-oriented model to represent the behaviour and the design knowledge of hydraulic power circuits and components is used in this design methodology. The class reconstruction principle enables the class structures of fluid power sub-circuits and components to be defined and expanded in a rigorous manner. With the aid of object-oriented modelling philosophy, it is extended to manifold block design, which can be viewed both as an object placing problem and as a routing-design problem. In order to provide a computer-aided engineering solution to these problems, some design rules and algorithms have been proposed and implemented in designing hydraulic manifold blocks. This approach can be used to construct a 3D path connection algorithm for manifold block design and to support many other design activities.

Current commercialized PDM tools have drawbacks in representing a variety of data types such as CAD data, images, audio, long text, etc. by relational data modeling. For this reason, object-oriented approaches have been suggested as an alternative. In this paper, using the object-oriented paradigm, an object-oriented data model for the PDM system is proposed. The scope of the modeling is limited to management information for drawings, parts, and product structure. Rumbaugh’s OMT (Object Modeling Technique) has been adopted for the system design. In the modeling, classes of data vault and workspace are taken into account for the review or approval of drawings and parts data based on the concurrent engineering concept. For parts and corresponding product structure, classes of phantoms, options, substitutes, etc. are added to the model. In addition, state transition and data flow diagrams are suggested based on the analysis of work and data flows of drawings and parts.KeywordsPDMobject-oriented modelingOMTconcurrent engineering

M*-OBJECT is a methodology for information system analysis, design and implementation developed for CIM environments. It is based on an object-oriented approach and it covers in-depth analysis of static and dynamic aspects of CIM information systems. M*-OBJECT is made of three major phases: organization analysis, conceptual design, and implementation design. The conceptual design phase is supported by the Process and Data Net (PDN) model which integrates an object-oriented data model and a process model. The major features of the specification approach are: (1) static, dynamic, and behavioral properties of information are fully covered, (2) complex data structures and data manipulations can be specified, and (3) specifications are executable for rapid prototyping.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) affects occupants’ satisfaction, health, productivity, comfort, and well-being. IoT developments enable better monitoring of IEQ parameters; however, integrating the various types of heterogeneous data from both the IoT and BIM domains is cumbersome and capital intensive, and therefore, limits the potential of smart buildings. Semantic web technologies can reduce heterogeneity issues, which is necessary to facilitate complex IEQ models. An ontology integrating data related to a building’s topology and its static and dynamic properties is still lacking. The outline of this research is twofold. First, a systematic literature review was conducted to find state-of-the-art semantic web technologies related to building topology, static properties, and dynamic properties from the IoT and BIM domains. By graphically reviewing various ontologies, their valuable patterns, commonalities, and best practices were revealed. Secondly, those results were used to develop a new ontology that integrates topological building information with static and dynamic properties. This Building Performance Ontology (BOP) provides a generic upper-level description of properties and two lower-level ontologies representing observations and actuation. The ontology results in intuitive queries and is both horizontally and vertically extensible. Multiple levels of detail are introduced to ensure practical applicability and efficient patterns based on the data modeler’s needs. BOP opens up a new range of research opportunities in the IEQ domain.

Object-oriented data model for scanning probe microscopy image processing

Railway distributed system integration needs to realize information exchange, resources sharing and coordination process across fields, departments and application systems. And railway data integration is essential to implement this integration. In order to resolve the problem of heterogeneity of data models among data sources of different railway operation systems, this paper presents a novel integration data model of spatial structure, a XML-oriented 3-dimension common data model. The proposed model accommodates both the flexibility of level relationship and syntax expression in data integration. In this model, a spatial data pattern is used to describe and express the characteristic relationship of data items among all types of data. Based on the data model with rooted directed graph and the organization of level as well as the flexibility of the expression, the model can represent the mapping between different data models, including relationship model and object-oriented model. A consistent concept and algebraic description of the data set is given to function as the metadata in data integration, so that the algebraic manipulation of data integration is standardized to support the data integration of distributed system.

Two major techniques commonly available for modeling genomic data are the relational and object oriented approaches. This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. The comparison was done using two sets of disparate genomic data, one for the E. Coli genome and one for the human genome, in order to demonstrate the generality of the modeling methods and the credibility of the comparison itself. One major strength of the object-oriented approach is its highly flexible data modeling power offering an elegant way of representing complex genomic objects. The approach's major weakness includes the lack of generic way of accessing complex objects. The strength of the relational approach is its full provision of SQL. But the approach's weakness is cumbersome modeling of complex genomic objects that is due to normalization. This paper also includes discussions on broader issues related to the two alternative approaches such as support for ad hoc queries and a federation of heterogeneous genomic databases in which both relational and object-oriented data models are used. >

This paper presents an algorithm to translate building topology in an object-oriented architectural building model (Building Information Modeling, BIM) into an object-oriented physical-based energy performance simulation by using an object-oriented programming approach. Our algorithm demonstrates efficient mapping of building components in a BIM model into space boundary conditions in an object-oriented physical modeling (OOPM)-based building energy model, and the translation of building topology into space boundary conditions to create an OOPM model. The implemented command, TranslatingBuildingTopology, using an object-oriented programming approach, enables graphical representation of the building topology of BIM models and the automatic generation of space boundaries information for OOPM models. The algorithm and its implementation allow coherent object-mapping from BIM to OOPM and facilitate the definition of space boundaries information during model translation for building thermal simulation. In order to demonstrate our algorithm and its implementation, we conducted experiments with three test cases using the BESTEST 600 model. Our experiments show that our algorithm and its implementation enable building topology information to be automatically translated into space boundary information, and facilitates the reuse of BIM data into building thermal simulations without additional export or import processes.

The aim of the paper is to provide a practical method to introduce design principles typical of the object-oriented approach, like “design by extension”, to the application domain of manufacturing systems control design. The proposed method is based on a domain-specific extension of the modeling language UML and on the formalization of design models as transition systems for verification purposes. Object-oriented models, formalized according to the proposed semantics, can be analyzed with model checking techniques in order to verify the behavioral conformity of object classes, according to a notion of substitutability which is defined in the paper specifically for the proposed modeling language.

The paper presents an application of the FRBR OO document model for defining an information ontology of legal resources that takes into account the dimension of time. FRBR-based paradigms are used within several existing projects in computer support of activities in the legal domain, but they are mostly oriented to bibliographic organization of documents without a real modeling of the peculiar characteristics of the legal domain. Also, all of them refer to the current version of the FRBR model, called FRBR ER . Yet, in these years the FRBR model is undergoing a major revision and a new version using an object-oriented approach is being developed. Thus we first have updated the model of legal resources to rely on the new object-oriented model, called FRBR OO . More importantly, consistency problems were corrected and the time dimension was introduced, which came very useful when considering the legal domain and dealing with legal resources. Therefore, while it is not in the scope of this paper to define an abstract model of the norms (e.g. obligations, permissions, etc.) or the representation of the norms (e.g. rules model), we rather focus our attention on the abstract description of the normative acts lifecycle and how it is possible to fill the gap between the rule modeling and the structure of the legal resources.

Recent advances in computing and communications technology indicate that this progress and use of state of the art techniques will continue at a very rapid pace. This situation will inevitably increase companies’ informational data input and output as a consequence. It is also obvious that companies need to process and convert both input and output in such a manner that valuable entities are created in return. We value data as a company asset to be visualised in the form of new generation graphics providing decision-makers with significant corporate information. By these ways executives who can realize and evaluate the overall picture more effectively will be able to take new steps forward in improving business efficiency. We hereby suggest an alternative object-oriented business modelling approach which is able to more comprehensively analyse problems with respect to relations and correlations in current company structure. Through our model we propose a new reporting system by restructuring available data to enable decision makers to have reports via a user friendly reporting system. We combine the data available in the system with data source Objects via the Java SQL-based database, then the Cortex is formed and an infrastructure is developed for making statistical inquiries. Thus, all data in a single pool of resources can be managed and integrated with the reports consolidated while summary reports which provide spontaneous pictures and graphics are provided to be displayed instantly.