The Aurora or-parallel Prolog system

Demystifying Pension Design: Clearer Principles Foster Better Practices

This study draws upon self-verification theory, social identity theory and self-categorization theory to investigate the dual effects of system design, i.e., identity confirmation (the self) and identification (the community), on virtual community (VC) participation. An important theoretical development is the conceptualization of VC identity and the elucidation of its system design determinants. Community presentation, i.e., system design features for presenting a virtual community identity, is hypothesized to facilitate identification by setting the boundaries for inter-group comparison and highlighting the in-group homogeneity. Furthermore, system design features that prior research identified as determinants for identity confirmation, i.e., self-presentation, deep profiling, and co-presence, are argued to have impacts on identification directly by influencing social comparison and indirectly by making the VC identity attractive. The research model accounts for the dual roles of system design features, i.e., effects on identification and identity confirmation, in explaining VC participation. The implications of these results for both theory and practice are discussed.

The rationale for selecting the engineering field test site and the building cooling requirements are described. Descriptions of the Phase I activities are presented and descriptions of the overall cooling system and its major subsystems and components are provided. The preliminary design analyses conducted to select collector/storage, chiller module and thermal distribution components; operating features and estimated system performance are included. Economic analyses and the results obtained are described including an assessment of the commercialization potential for the solar cooling system. Phase II activities are presented and detailed design, construction and installation features of the solar system at the test site are described. Testing documentation is provided by the checkout and acceptance tests and their results are described.

The scan-100 collision Avoidance System (CAS) has been designed to assist in the avoidance of collision at sea by automating the radar plotting functions in a small digital computer linked to the ship's radar. A clear and easily understandable display is provided to present numerical data and computer-generated plots to the ship's officer for evaluation of the radar data and for planning a safe and timely action to avoid collisions. This paper discusses the system design philosophy as implemented and tested in an engineering prototype of the SCAN-100 CAS. This philosophy utilizes an integrated man-machine concept which employs the best capabilities of each. The routine functions of radar tracking and plotting are performed by the system, which then presents the information to the operator in the form of displays combining graphic plots and numerical data. Automatic alarms are provided by the computer, one based on closest-point-of-approach (CPA) and another based on target arrival at a guard-ring distance. A vital requirement for the effective operation of such a radar-based system is the processing of radar data prior to tracking. In particular, the system must distinguish between receiver noise, sea clutter, and valid targets. The SCAN-100 uses a radar preprocessor, especially designed for this purpose, as well as computer processing to achieve the necessary radar signal enhancement. Several aspects of this processing technique are discussed in the paper. The system has recently undergone testing. Results of these tests are also described.

This paper reports on design and construction features of a bunching system built at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the NRL linac, with emphasis on solution of the impedance matching and tuning problems inherent in the buncher design.

In large-scale software applications, programmers often combine different programming languages because this allows them to use the most suitable language for a given problem, to gradually migrate existing projects from one language to another, or to reuse existing source code. However, different programming languages have fundamentally different implementations, which are hard to combine. The composition of language implementations often results in complex interfaces between languages, insufficient flexibility, or poor performance. We propose TruffleVM, a virtual machine (VM) that can execute different programming languages and is able to compose them in a seamless way. TruffleVM supports dynamically-typed languages (e.g., JavaScript and Ruby) as well as statically typed low-level languages (e.g., C). It consists of individual language implementations, which translate source code to an intermediate representation that is executed by a shared VM. TruffleVM composes these different language implementations via generic access . Generic access is a language-agnostic mechanism that language implementations use to access foreign data or call foreign functions. It features language-agnostic messages that the TruffleVM resolves to efficient foreign-language-specific operations at runtime. Generic access supports multiple languages, enables an efficient multi-language development, and ensures high performance. We evaluate generic access with two case studies. The first one explains the transparent composition of JavaScript, Ruby, and C. The second one shows an implementation of the C extensions application programming interface (API) for Ruby. We show that generic access guarantees good runtime performance. It avoids conversion or marshalling of foreign objects at the language boundary and allows the dynamic compiler to perform its optimizations across language boundaries.

A RISC-based multiprocessor system called MIEP (Multiple Inference Engine for Prolog) is proposed as a tool to construct an intelligent workstation for AI applications. The MIEP contains general purpose processor modules (processor with local memory) and PIER (a Prolog inference engine on a RISC) modules interconnected by a bus. A PIER module contains a LISCP (limited instruction set computer for Prolog) as the kernel Prolog processor, a floating point coprocessor, FPC, and a cache memory. The PIER module has been simulated and evaluated with some benchmark programs. Primary results show that PIER can achieve a peak performance of more than 500 KLIPS. In addition, a parallel execution model for Prolog on MIEP has been studied and evaluated. Design issues and features of the MIEP system are presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A hydraulic energy-dissipating bypass system for continuous flow operation in a hydroelectric power plant is described. Difficulties with cavitation, flow separation, vibration, and mechanical failures are encountered in many existing bypass systems. These difficulties increase with the pressure head. This paper describes the design principles and features of a high-head bypass system that successfully eliminates these difficulties and discharges a steady, uniform, low velocity flow at its outlet. The bypass system consists of a needle valve, an air entrainment system or energy-absorber cone, and an energy-absorbing stilling chamber with attached outlet duct. Modifications to the system are described including the installation of baffle blocks in the outlet duct. Full-scale tests verifying system performance by pressure and flow velocity measurements are described.

BackgroundNegative feedback in combination with time delay can bring about both sustained oscillations and adaptive behaviour in cellular networks. Here, we study which design features of systems with delayed negative feedback shape characteristic response patterns with special emphasis on the role of time delay. To this end, we analyse generic two-dimensional delay differential equations describing the dynamics of biochemical signal-response networks.ResultsWe investigate the influence of several design features on the stability of the model equilibrium, i.e., presence of auto-inhibition and/or mass conservation and the kind and/or strength of the delayed negative feedback. We show that auto-inhibition and mass conservation have a stabilizing effect, whereas increasing abruptness and decreasing feedback threshold have a de-stabilizing effect on the model equilibrium. Moreover, applying our theoretical analysis to the mammalian p53 system we show that an auto-inhibitory feedback can decouple period and amplitude of an oscillatory response, whereas the delayed feedback can not.ConclusionsOur theoretical framework provides insight into how time delay and design features of biochemical networks act together to elicit specific characteristic response patterns. Such insight is useful for constructing synthetic networks and controlling their behaviour in response to external stimulation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12918-016-0325-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The 11th Student Journalist Festival audio broadcast system design in November 2019 has completed the most comprehensive live broadcast in recent years, based on the inherent audio system of 1400 m2 CUC 4K studio and the AoIP technology. This paper introduces the design scheme of this activity’s audio broadcasting system from signal input to signal output in detail, including equipment selection, system architecture and signal flow, etc., especially focuses on the system design features and the application of AoIP in it.

PurposeThis study examines how contributors with different achievement goals participate under the influence of two common motivators/demotivators on crowdsourcing platforms, namely system design features and task nature.Design/methodology/approachA free simulation experiment was conducted among undergraduate students with the use of a crowdsourcing platform for two weeks.FindingsThe results indicate that contributors with a strong performance-approach goal get better scores and participate in more crowdsourcing tasks. Contributors with a strong mastery-avoidance goal participate in fewer heterogeneous tasks.Research limitations/implicationsContributors with different achievement goals participate in crowdsourcing tasks to different extents under the influence of the two motivators/demotivators. The inclusion of the approach-avoidance dimension in the performance-mastery dichotomy enables demonstrating the influence of motivators/demotivators more specifically. This article highlights differentiation between the quality and the quantity of heterogeneous crowdsourcing tasks.Practical implicationsManagement is advised to approach performance-approach people if a leaderboard and a point system are incorporated into their crowdsourcing platforms. Also, management should avoid offering heterogeneous tasks to mastery-avoidance contributors. System developers should take users' motivational goals into consideration when designing the motivators in their systems.Originality/valueThe study sheds light on habitual achievement goals, which are relatively stable in comparison to contributors' motives and states. The relationships between achievement goals and motivators/demotivators are more persistent across time. This study informs system designers' decisions to include appropriate motivators for sustained contributor participation.

ABSTRACTBuilt environment researchers and practitioners are addressing the current sustainability and energy challenges facing the industry. The shift in building energy and sustainability expectations has led project teams to develop new practices and processes. Owners, project managers, designers and contractors now actively seek opportunities to improve the energy performance of existing buildings through retrofitting. Given that integrated system upgrades result in more significant energy reduction rates than traditional approaches, this study adopted a case-study approach to understand the integrated system design process and its effects on energy-efficiency performance measures in retrofit projects compared to traditional retrofit processes. Within this scope, three retrofit projects with different processes and rate of energy consumption reduction were purposefully selected to meet certain project delivery and system design characteristics. This paper focuses on effects of these characteristics on the collaborative decision-making process and integrated system design. Its main contribution lies in the analysis of critical decisions related to process and performance modelling practices in the delivery of retrofit projects. As a consequence, it was found that while collaborative energy benchmarking and performance goal setting provided a transparent decision-making environment, the review of existing conditions prior to design and the use of historical operational performance data made the iterative energy modelling of an integrated building system design realistic.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has been developing a prototype VDL Mode 2 system since mid of 2005. The purposes of this project are to obtain knowledge, insights and experiences of aeronautical communications trends and technologies and to prepare for future deployment of globally harmonized communication infrastructure consistent with international standards in Korea. The prototype VDL M2 system is composed of ground system and aircraft system. VDL Mode 2 transceiver (VDR), ground station, and simplified CMU and DSP were developed or implemented as a component of the prototype system. In addition, test ATS application including AFN, CPDLC and ADS functions is implemented to verify system operation. The system integration and a series of tests were done by last year and two times flight tests have been performed by April 2009. This paper describes the successful implementation of prototype VDL Mode 2 system in Korea including system architecture and design features. This paper also addresses methodology and progress of the flight test.

An overview of the development test flight (DTF-1) mission is presented, and the system design, safety requirements, and safety features are described. The lessons that were learned during the design and early development stages are also presented. The DTF-1 mission objectives are to evaluate: the overall man-machine performance in zero G, Flight Telerobotic Service manipulator design, and workstation design, including handcontrollers and displays. The payload bay and aft flight deck elements, and computer control of the DTF-1 are described. Recommendations for developing and implementing a safety system are presented, and some design alternatives for the next space-qualified telerobotic system are suggested.

Logic programming (LP) has been successfully applied to solve many problems in artificial intelligence and many other areas. However, LP is unable to deal with uncertain, imprecise or vague information. On the other hand, fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic have demonstrated their applicability in dealing with uncertainty, and have motivated the research on extending classic LP to add fuzzy reasoning. However, a full fledged implementation of a fuzzy logic programming language universally accepted and/or in production does not exist yet. There are many reasons for this, and we present some of them. The aim of the paper is to briefly survey some of the major design problems we faced in implementing a fuzzy version of a Prolog-like logic programming language.