Inexpensive Microcomputer Research Articles

The Anesthesiology Discussion Group

The Anesthesiology Discussion Group

Showstopper!: the breakneck race to create Windows NT and the next generation at Microsoft

From the Publisher: The phenomenal success of Bill Gates and his Microsoft Corporation hinges, above all, on an ability to look to the future. Not content with holding a bulging share of the market for software applications, nor with dominating the crucial operating systems business by virtue of its DOS and Windows programs, Microsoft is always looking to the future. And the future of Microsoft now goes by the name of Windows NT. A software innovation of the first order, NT could redefine the standards for computing throughout the world, into the next century. NT endows inexpensive personal computers with the capabilities of giant mainframesyet without sacrificing the inherent flexibility and appeal of PCs. SHOWSTOPPER! is the inside story of this stunning breakthrough in computer technology. Stripping away myth after myth, this unprecedented tale lays bare the messy, wrenching reality of winning innovations. To date, America has dominated the global software industry through creating cutting-edge code and by depending on both the ingenuity of a few visionaries and the coordination of huge, costly teams of programmers and testers. Gatesa managerial genius as well as a technical visionarypromotes an atmosphere of controlled chaos at Microsoft, and the story of Windows NT perfectly reflects this ethos. The brainchild of David Cutler, a legendary programmer recruited by Gates in 1988, NT took five years and $150 million to complete. For much of that time, the massive program demanded the obsessive attention of more than 200 testers, writers and technicians. Focusing on Cutler's mercurial ability to inspire and lash his team, SHOWSTOPPER! brilliantly portrays the human drama ofthis mammoth undertaking, exposing the pressures, disappointments and ultimate triumph that emerge from a cauldron of constant deadlines, competition with peers and a perpetual war against the inevitable and ubiquitous bugs in the programamong them the potentially lethal showstopper. Gripping, vivid and accessible, SHOWSTOPPER! reveals the outside personalities that stand behind great advances: the mavericks, the organizers, the fixers, the motivators. Even as they wrestle with forces that threaten to tear them apart, Cutler and his team feverishly hunt for computing's Holy Grail.

Generation of dynamic random-element stereograms in real time with a system based on a personal computer.

A new system capable of generating static and dynamic random-element stereograms is designed and implemented. The stereogram is composed of a rectangle that can be varied in size, element density, orientation, and horizontal and vertical disparities, and can be swept at several velocities. The system is based on an inexpensive personal computer (Amiga 500), designed to work as a slave system under the control of a host computer (e.g. any personal computer). A colour monitor or two black and white monitors are suitable display devices to view the stereograms. This system is used to perform psycophysical experiments in humans and neurophysiological experiments in behaving monkeys, with the purpose of studying depth perception and binocular vision.

Embedding neural nets and expert systems in diagnostic microbiology laboratories

Describes a project for developing a reliable computer vision system that analyzes bacterial growths in real time on inexpensive personal computers, and an expert advising system that adds treatment recommendations to laboratory reports. The system embeds a neural network and multiple expert systems in the normal workflow of a clinical microbiology laboratory. Such laboratories receive specimens from patients with suspected bacterial infections, identify the organisms, determine which antibiotics will kill the bacteria or prevent growth, and convey the results to the treating physician, who can use the findings as a basis for treatment. Clearly this information is critical, since in the more extreme cases, lives are at stake. >

Automatic parallel generation of aeolian fractals on the IBM power visualization system

Simple approaches to pattern generation using a parallel graphics computer are described. Using these methods, a computer can automatically select parameters and generate a large collection of diverse, aesthetically appealing fractal patterns. Computational recipes are included to encourage reader involvement. The described approaches will work using inexpensive personal computers, although computations done in parallel provide for much quicker generation.

Exploiting a videodisc-based cineradiographic database for speech research

While cineradiography has been a staple of phonetics research for many years, making use of the results has relied on laborious and error-prone hand tracing of individual movie frames. The transfer of a representative selection of high-quality radiographic movies to laserdisc (a collaborative project of ATR and Queen’s University, Canada) has now made the application of standard video processing techniques to such data feasible on inexpensive microcomputers. The present research explores some of the possibilities inherent in this new look at old data: software capable of automatically reducing noise, detecting air-tissue boundaries, and tracking articulatory displacements (e.g., jaw, lips, tongue have been developed and will be demonstrated ) the results have been used to resynthesize close approximations to original vowel acoustics. The goal is to characterize tongue dynamics in terms of changes over time to a normalized parametrization of the tract surface profile, which this software permits one to derive automatically. This information will complement other modes for investigating speech production for which either dynamics or surface profiles are unavailable (MRI, magnetometer).

Integrating a personal-computer local-area network with a radiology information system: value as a tool for clinical research.

We investigated a method for increasing the utility of a radiology information system by connecting it to a personal-computer network and transferring radiologic data to a more user-friendly, familiar computing environment. We have developed a personal-computer local-area network that is linked to our radiology information system. Our software periodically transfers data from the radiology information system to a file server on our network that supports cross-platform access for Macintosh and IBM PC--compatible computers. Data are stored in formats compatible with inexpensive personal-computer software. These capabilities facilitate any research that requires a tailored, retrospective analysis of radiologic data. The need for ancillary personnel to perform paper-based searches or redundant data entry is decreased. Radiologists and administrators also have user-friendly access to information that might facilitate other projects dealing with education or analysis of clinical efficacy. The ever-growing power of personal computers, combined with inexpensive yet sophisticated software for these machines, frequently provides a more useful method for retrospective analysis of radiologic data than does a proprietary radiology information system running on a minicomputer.

Reflections: Directions: Projections

Reflections on three facets of professional art librarianship as experienced by the author over the past twenty years: the status of librarians, the status of the art library, information storage and retrieval. The University of Manitoba Faculty Association was one of the first in Canada to accept professional librarians as equal to faculty, a major step for the profession. Canadian librarians have played significant roles in the development of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) which from the beginning interested itself in collection development, technical practices of art libraries, and the needs, qualifications and physical surroundings of art librarians. The major technological development of the eighties for art libraries was not the widespread automation of major academic and public libraries, but the introduction of relatively inexpensive personal computers and attendant technology, which gives any library the capacity to access national and international databases and to assemble their files in a format which makes them readily available to a wider public.

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID): Technology Description, Characterizations, Comparisons, Usage and Cost Benefits

Customer requirements have guided the evolution and implementation of software and hardware computer data storage technologies. The concept of RAID originated with a group of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). They were investigating the use of an array of small capacity, inexpensive personal computer direct access storage devices (DASD) managed by a special type of a controller, as an alternative to the single large expensive disk (SLED) subsystems more common on mainframe computers. The disk arrays can be configured differently to provide different levels of operational capabilities, each providing special advantages in reliability and data availability, speed and economy. Different configurations are referred to as different levels of RAID. Berkeley originally defined a basic set of RAID levels ranging from RAID, level 0 (RAID 0) through RAID, level 5 (RAID 5). The RAID technology vendors have since extended the RAID level domain by defining RAID 6 and beyond to accommodate additional functionality. Each RAID type has shown itself to be suitable for certain applications. The projected reduction in storage costs and facilities, $/GB and ft2/GB respectively, using the present RAID technology and its projected evolution are phenomenal.

A long term system performance for a stratified solar storage container

A stratified solar storage container was designed with the main object of promoting and stabilizing stratification as a basis for improving the overall efficiency of a solar water heating system. Tests were conducted on a cylindrical water filled storage container of L/D equal to 3:1 and capacity of (500 kg) using a low cost stimulator. The design of the simulator was based on a relatively inexpensive micro-computer linking into a mains power regulator with an 8-bit digital control system (0–255 useful states) which drives a resistor chain. The output from this network is a voltage which determines the power level of an electrical heater in an 11.5 litre water filled copper vessel. With any useful energy profile of interest the user is able to control, through the micro-computer, the logic level of the userport and decide on the time step interval for the test by acessing the internal clock of the micro-computer. Meteorological data were used to compute radiation income on any inclined plane, and the output to the power regulator is controlled by the computed instantaneous rate of energy gain from the collector system undergoing simulation. The stimulator could be used to stimulate any solar water heating system, apart from the storage container. It is particularly useful in estimating long term system performance. Therefore, the long term system performance for the storage container was determined and the long term system efficiency was found to be 52%.

An inexpensive computer-based digital imaging teaching file.

Despite a decade and a half of digital imaging in radiology, most radiology teaching files remain film-based. The reasons include the high cost or unavailability of digital acquisition and display devices. In the past few years, a number of excellent exhibits that combine inexpensive microcomputers with radiologic education have been shown at national meetings [1-6]. Unfortunately, many of these methods require esoteric hardware, expensive or proprietary software, or special programming skills. We developed a simple method for creating and disseminating a teaching file of imaging studies obtained with digital techniques.

Resampling Methods for Computation-Intensive Data Analysis in Ecology and Evolution

The advent of fast, relatively inexpensive (thus, widely available) microcomputers is transforming the way we analyze data in ecological and evolutionary research. Even more profound, however, are the associated changes in questions asked, empirical methods used, studies conducted, and interpretations offered. Now that an array of computation-intensive statistical methods is newly available for general use, it seems particularly important to assess their advantages and limitations, to note how they are currently being used, and then to consider implications for the future. I focus in this review on four related techniques known in the statistical and biological literature as randomization (or permutation) tests, Monte Carlo methods, bootstrapping, and the jackknife. I refer to them collectively as resampling methods, because each involves taking several-to-many samples from the original data set (randomization, bootstrap, jackknife) or from a stochastic process like the one believed to have generated the data set (Monte Carlo). Each of these methods is actually an extensive family of techniques and specific applications that cannot be thoroughly examined here; instead, I briefly characterize the focal methods and then survey the recent literature in ecology and evolution to identify the issues most frequently associated with these techniques. It emerges that resampling methods are well represented in

Adaptive control with a forgetting factor with multiple samples between parameter adjustments

A discrete-time adaptive control algorithm with a forgetting factor that permits multiple samples between parameter adjustments is presented. A free integer value may be chosen in the design in order to reduce the minimum sampling period imposed by the computational requirements of the parameter adjustment laws. This fact makes the algorithm particularly suitable for inexpensive microcomputer implementation. A proof of global convergence of the algorithm is presented and the performance of the control structure is evaluated by simulations.

An analytical study of a two‐layer transient thermal conduction problem as applied to soil temperature surveys

The soil temperature survey is an inexpensive exploration method in groundwater and geothermal resource investigations. In its simplest form, temperatures measured in shallow holes are analyzed to deduce variations in material properties. Typical interpretation schemes are based on simple, one‐layer solutions to the Fourier conduction equation using the annual solar cycle as a surface heat source. We present a solution to the more complicated two‐layer problem that can be computed using inexpensive personal computers and spreadsheet software. The most demanding mathematical requirement is the ability to manipulate a [Formula: see text] matrix. Testing the solution over a range of thermal diffusivity values expected in common soils and rocks reveals that the solution is very sensitive to variations in the thermal diffusivity of the surface layer and to the depth of the interface with the lower layer. When the boundary to the lower layer is less than about 10 m deep, a soil temperature survey is expected to be sensitive to the diffusivity variations in the lower layer. Because variations in shallow thermal properties often can be significant, this two‐layer method should be useful in areas with distinct shallow layering, (e.g., where there is a shallow water table or a thin soil layer).

Using computer animation to visualize space - time patterns

The geographic information revolution is rapidly increasing the availability of data that are referenced both by space and by time coordinates. This creates new opportunities for analysis, but also causes enormous problems as analytical tools able to depict, detect, or measure patterns in space-time data are poorly developed. The question arises as to whether or not a greater emphasis on the dynamics of spatial patterns may assist the analysis task. This is investigated by creating a series of VHS-format computer animations using an inexpensive microcomputer (an Acorn Archimedes). The technology is demonstrated by the analysis of leukaemia data for northern England, telephone line faults, and crime incidence in Tyne and Wear. The results provide an entirely new perspective on the nature of spatial patterns thought to exist and demonstrates the potential of hypermedia technology as a platform for new and novel approaches to spatial analysis.

A Microcomputer Controlled System for Potentiometric Stripping Analysis

ABSTRACT The construction of an inexpensive microcomputer controlled potentiometric stripping analysis system is described. The system allows both cathodic or anodic preconcentration of metal ions, and the deposited material may be stripped either chemically or galvanically. The interface circuits and the units comprising the system are described and the main features of the control software are also presented. The system has been designed to support operation with a rotating glassy carbon disk as a working electrode and it can be used for the determination of several heavy metals at ppb concentration range. The system is flexible, expandable and suitable for general studies on the technique, allowing the development of new operating modes by simple modifications on the hardware and software.

EMSA/MAS standard format for spectral data exchange

One of the frustrating problems experimentalists often encounter with computer based spectroscopic instrumentation is the general incompatibility of the data files recorded on different analysis systems. The rapid growth of inexpensive personal computers has resulted in an information explosion which has increased the desirability and need for a simple method for exchange of experimental data between scientists who may be office neighbors or transoceanic collaborators. While it is not reasonable to expect a particular manufacturers software, which was designed and optimized for specific hardware, to function on an competitor's system, it would be of enormous value to the microanalysis community to have a simple method for data interchange. This would allow, for example, the routine distribution of experimental data between research laboratories with a minimum of difficulty or would enable test spectra to be transported between data acquisition systems to compare different data analysis routines. These points as well as all the other merits of a standardized data format have been detailed elsewhere.

Ultrasound measurement of the fetal head: computer versus operator.

In obstetrical ultrasound practice, biparietal diameter, occipito-frontal diameter and head circumference are among the most commonly used fetal measurements. To minimize the limitations associated with manual measurement, we have undertaken an investigation with a focus on (1) the design of a personal computer-based system for automated measurements of biparietal diameter, occipito-frontal diameter and head circumference, and (2) integration of such a system (including measurements of abdomen and femur) into the routine obstetrical ultrasound examination. This report presents preliminary results of a comparison of computer-determined fetal head measurements with those obtained by an operator. Data were obtained from 75 consecutive singleton fetal ultrasound examinations free of any obvious structural anomalies. The computer obtained acceptable measurements of biparietal diameter, occipito-frontal diameter and head circumference from 74 images and failed on one image. There was a highly significant correlation between computer-determined measurements of biparietal diameter (r = 0.986), occipito-frontal diameter (r = 0.958) and head circumference (r = 0.972) and those obtained by the operators. The mean measurement difference (computer minus operator) was 1.87 +/- 1.94 mm for biparietal diameter, 2.82 +/- 4.13 mm for occipito-frontal diameter and -0.36 +/- 9.87 mm for head circumference. These differences were independent of the operator's identity, the instrument used and gestational age. The key finding of this study is that, with the use of inexpensive personal computer technology, it is possible to design and implement a system that can give fetal head measurements which correlate highly with manual determination by a skilled operator and which take a fraction of the time.

An inexpensive personal computer based photon counter

Abstract This paper describes a computer based system for photon counting. The hardware consists of an IBM compatible personal computer (Leading Edge™ model D), a data acquisition and control interface and an external discriminator. The software package is written in Microsoft QuickBASIC. The system is capable of counting pulses at up to 2 MHz, with an internal precision of 16 bits, making it nearly ideal for low-level spectroscopic experiments. The main advantages of the system are low cost, ease of implementation, flexibility and high accuracy.

A student project for layered network protocol development

A student project to accompany a course on computer interfacing and local area networks is described. The audience at which the course is aimed consists of beginning graduate students and seniors. The course addresses fundamental concepts in computer networks in general, and local networks in particular. Students are given the specification of a simple sliding window protocol that provides sequence control and error recovery over an unreliable data link. The task is to implement this protocol on the Apple Macintosh computer as a Layer-3 protocol using the services of the link access protocol (Layer 2) already existent on the machine as part of the Appletalk network. Typical implementations and the cost of benefits of utilizing inexpensive microcomputers for projects in the field of computer networks are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>