Inexpensive Software Research Articles

The Johns Hopkins Swallowing Center database.

A special database has been constructed for faculty working in the Swallowing Center of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The database supports the clinical, research, and publication needs of the Center. This database on swallowing disorders includes over 6000 references to the literature dating from the mid-1960s. The system operates on microcomputer technology and uses relatively inexpensive and intuitive software programs. Monthly updates keep members informed of the latest developments in a multidisciplinary literature.

Cost recovery and usage tracking of CD-ROM databases with menuing software.

CD-ROM database products are in widespread use and offer potential cost savings over online products. Many libraries would find a cost-benefit analysis useful. Libraries often do not have sufficient funding simply to underwrite all costs related to CD-ROM workstations. Inexpensive menuing software permits usage tracking for data analysis and cost recovery of CD-ROM subscription, start-up, and operating costs. This article will explore the approach taken at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia to recover CD-ROM related expenses through user fees.

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).

A knowledge-based approach for improving information and decision making in a small business

This article describes the development of a prototype knowledge-based decision support system for a small manufacturing company. The prototype was designed to aid in the diagnosis and resolution of various production problems, as well as to assist in the collection and recording of information required for improved management decision making, as the first step toward a fully-integrated, real-time expert system for production management. The project illustrates a number of auxiliary issues and lessons arising from the development of the prototype system. These include: (1) the effectiveness of a multiple-expert approach in modeling the knowledge that comprises the system, (2) the need for prototyping during the incremental system development process, and (3) the growing impact of inexpensive software development tools and microcomputers on the ability of small companies to develop and implement highly-specialized knowledge-based systems.

Electronic Data Interchange in Construction

There is a need within the construction industry to electronically transmit standard documents between designers, owners, contractors, and material suppliers. These documents include purchase orders, requests for quotations, invoices, shipping notifications, materials lists, and payment transfers. Ideally, the transmission should be structured to eliminate or reduce the rekeying of transmitted data. This paper discusses the basic elements of electronic data interchage (EDI), a technology for document transfer that has produced documented cost‐saving benefits in other industries. Through inexpensive translation software that uses industry standards, direct computer‐to‐computer transmission of most any type of document is possible. The fundamentals of electronic data interchange are discussed and an example of document translation using ANSI X12 standards is presented. A case study implementation effort that was examined as part of a research project funded by the Construction Industry Institute is also des...

Seismic, Side-Scan Survey, Diving, and Coring Data Analyzed by a Macintosh IITM Computer and Inexpensive Software Provide Answers to a Possible Offshore Extension of Landslides at Palos Verdes Peninsula, California: ABSTRACT

A Macintosh II{sup TM} computer and commercially available software were used to analyze and depict the topography, construct an isopach sediment thickness map, plot core positions, and locate the geology of an offshore area facing an active landslide on the southern side of Palos Verdes Peninsula California. Profile data from side scan sonar, 3.5 kHz, and Boomer subbottom, high-resolution seismic, diving, echo sounder traverses, and cores - all controlled with a mini Ranger II navigation system - were placed in MacGridzo{sup TM} and WingZ{sup TM} software programs. The computer-plotted data from seven sources were used to construct maps with overlays for evaluating the possibility of a shoreside landslide extending offshore. The poster session describes the offshore survey system and demonstrates the development of the computer data base, its placement into the MacGridzo{sup TM} gridding program, and transfer of gridded navigational locations to the WingZ{sup TM} data base and graphics program. Data will be manipulated to show how sea-floor features are enhanced and how isopach data were used to interpret the possibility of landslide displacement and Holocene sea level rise. The software permits rapid assessment of data using computerized overlays and a simple, inexpensive means of constructing and evaluating information inmore » map form and the preparation of final written reports. This system could be useful in many other areas where seismic profiles, precision navigational locations, soundings, diver observations, and core provide a great volume of information that must be compared on regional plots to develop of field maps for geological evaluation and reports.« less

A comparison of inexpensive statistical packages for microcomputers running MS-DOS

The purpose of the present paper is to describe and compare some inexpensive software packages that calculate a variety of statistics on microcomputers running MS-DOS. For each package, hardware requirements, program capabilities, limitations, accuracy, error handling, and other features are considered.

COMPUTERS: Improve your strength and conditioning program by creating inexpensive nutritional software

COMPUTERS: Improve your strength and conditioning program by creating inexpensive nutritional software

Mathematical models to predict behaviour of tumours?

Mathematical modeling is an important tool in science that allows the investigator to examine phenomena that are not easily studied by direct experiment. The growth of neoplasms and their response to treatment are processes that appear particularly well suited for study by this approach. The ready availability of inexpensive powerful microcomputers and sophisticated software makes this research avenue open to all experimental and clinical oncologists.

Ship Design for Production—Some U.K. Experience

Ship design for production is widely accepted in principle. Its successful establishment depends on the shipbuilders having a well-defined shipbuilding policy, available to the designer, the establishment of a realistic and agreed schedule, and adequately trained personnel. Key production engineering techniques include spatial analysis, process analysis, and standardization. The advent of powerful and inexpensive computer software has created new opportunities for producibility to be incorporated from the earliest stages of the design process. Significant progress has been made in recent years in the development of design methods and in their application

Software support for computer science video courses

The Computer Science department at the University of Idaho offers a Masters degree to off-campus students via video taped courses. One of the major roadblocks to the expansion of course offerings is the lack of inexpensive software available to the video student.

A comparison of inexpensive statistical packages for apple II microcomputers

The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare some inexpensive software packages that calculate a variety of statistics on the Apple II microcomputer. For each package, hardware requirements, program capacity, limitations, constraints, accuracy, editing, error handling, and other features were studied.

Personal Computer Aided Design (PCAD) of Electro-Hydraulic Control Systems

ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC controls are becoming more prominent for agricultural equipment automation. These control systems need to be designed to attain the desired response specifications while maintaining stability. Personal computers (PC), available to most engineers, can aid in the design of hydraulic control systems. This paper describes a relatively inexpensive software package (TUTSIM)* for continuous dynamic system simulation of hydrualic control system responses. The software package is able to simulate the non-linearities that exist in many electro-hydraulic control systems. A review of hydraulic control system simulation and an application example is included.

A Modular Multimicroprocessor System for Real-Time Applications

Multiprocessing may contribute to lower automation costs, allowing sharing of expensive resources and modular expansibility, which lowers initial investment costs and allows spreading of development costs over a wider market. Compatibility with standard commercial microcomputers allows their use as inexpensive software development systems; provides broader software bases; eases programmer education; and helps integration with non-real-time related subsystems. DCC-2600 is a system which blends the multiprocessing muscle provided by the IEEE-796 (Multibus) architecture with the compatibility with the IBM Personal Computer, a worldwide "de facto" standard. Achieving this combination required special care in the design of key hardware and software features.

Moving Insurance Education into the Computer Age

Computers have been an essential tool of insurance researchers for many years. Their use in teaching insurance, risk management, employee benefits, and similar subjects, both inside and outside of the classroom, inevitably will grow. As more and more households purchase microcomputers and as inexpensive software enhances accessibility, the percentage of students with pre-college computer exposure can be expected to increase rapidly.' This development may prove to be an embarrassment, however, for those persons in the teaching profession who are not prepared. A majority of students within perhaps the next ten years likely will have grown up using computers. They will see the computer as a multi-faceted source of services and will expect to utilize it for performing numerous routine, otherwise time-consuming chores. Most of them will be quite comfortable with machine applications, having turned to a computer for years as a personal secretary, an exacting instructor with endless patience, and a stimulating, challenging opponent in increasingly sophisticated games. Such students are unlikely to be either challenged or satisfied with many of the educational techniques common today. For example, professors who assign projects or problems requiring repetitive calculations may soon find themselves under considerable pressure to provide computer assistance for completing the assignments. Likewise, faculty soon may be routinely expected to arrange computer-based instructional support to reinforce concepts discussed in the classroom. Many insurance educators already have implemented teaching techniques which utilize the computer facilities at their institutions to varying degrees. As early as 1969, Howard [5] was calling for a consideration of machine capabilities by insurance faculty. Since that time, some of the innovations

An approach to the collection and manipulation of time-based data using the IBM PC and BASICA.

With the advent of increasingly integrated, powerful and inexpensive digital electronics, relatively powerful computers have become available to the general public. Along with this technological boom there has been a concomitant increase in the availability of over-the-counter software packages which can be used by research scientists for program development. In the past, the development of computer programs for the collection of large amounts of time-based data was expensive and time consuming; however, the introduction of the current generation of 16-bit microcomputers and associated hardware and software packages has enabled investigators with only a rudimentary knowledge of computers and interfacing to begin to design programs. The schemes and algorithms, developed using BASICA on an IBM-Personal Computer, which are described in this article can serve other investigators as models for the assembly of their own programs for the collection, manipulation and plotting of time-based data. The incorporation of inexpensive computer graphics hardware and software, which provided a simple solution to the problem of analysis and presentation of large amounts of data, will also be discussed.

A new direction in personal computer software

The personalization of computers is made possible by three major factors--advances in microelectronics, the availability of inexpensive software for a spectrum of applications, and the increased user-friendliness of computer systems. This paper examines the trends in software development, and presents estimates of the escalating costs involved in such development. Major studies by AT & T and by others stress that the true need is for more sophisticated and effective communication tools rather than for more computing power. Effective communication often pivots around the impact of diverse types of information--numeric, textual, and pictorial. Current endeavors are towards refining and integrating several existing technologies to implement software that enables programmers and non-programmers alike to readily manipulate images comprised of different types of information. This paper examines the emerging field of presentation graphics software and presents details of a new product in this nascent field. The conclusion emphasizes the impact of graphic computing in enlarging the spectrum of personal computer applications.

Micro packages that spell success

Key feature in the growth of the micro market has been the development of well-written, inexpensive packages covering a wide range of applications.