Prototyping Methodology Research Articles

Fractional rate dataflow model and efficient code synthesis for multimedia applications

Automatic code synthesis from dataflow program graphs is a promising high-level design methodology for rapid prototyping of multimedia embedded systems. Memory efficient code synthesis from dataflow models has been an active research subject to reduce the gap in terms of memory requirements between the synthesized code and the hand-optimized code. However, existent dataflow models have inherent difficulty of efficiently handling data structures. In this paper, we propose a new dataflow extension called fractional rate dataflow (FRDF) in which fractional number of samples can be produced and consumed. In the proposed FRDF model, a constituent data type is considered as a fraction of the composite data type. Existent integer rate dataflow models can be easily extended to incorporate the fractional rates without loosing analytical properties. In this paper, the SDF model is extended to include FRDF, which can reduce the buffer memory requirements significantly, up to 70%, for some multimedia applications.

Respect in close relationships: Prototype definition, self‐report assessment, and initial correlates

Researchers who study romantic relationships have mentioned respect as a factor contributing to relationship success, but little effort has been made to define respect, measure it, or discover how it relates to other relationship constructs. In Study 1 a prototype methodology was used to identify consensual features of respect. Participants in Study 2 rated the centrality of the features of respect and completed a new prototype‐based respect‐for‐partner scale that was highly reliable and correlated in predictable ways with avoidant attachment and evaluative aspects of partner descriptions. In Study 3, the new respect scale predicted relationship satisfaction better than scales measuring liking, loving, attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance, and positive and negative partner qualities. Suggestions are offered for future research on respect.

Curriculum Methodology

A review of the contemporary literature on curriculum development indicates that much of the existing work either: (i) focuses on the development of educational resources; or (ii) identifies desirable features of development methods without providing any practical guidance. This article describes the development and application of a methodology for curriculum development. The methodology is flexible and evolutionary, and is soundly underpinned by accepted theory and practice from the field of information systems.The methodology was successfully appliedto a ‘live’ curriculum development project, i.e. the 1999 revalidation of the BTEC/EdExcel Computing Scheme at the University of Glamorgan. More recently, one of the authors has been involved in the development of an online degree programme as part of a European-funded project based in the University of Glamorgan.The author has identified that the prototype methodology needs to be extended to cover the development and approval of e-learning materials. The extensions are outlined in the conclusions.

ADAPT

For three years, Project ADAPT has investigated methods that must be developed to support economical conversion of information into electronic information systems-not just symbol recognition but document recognition. ADAPT system software provides a prototype methodology for hands-off conversion of document images to a tagged, structured document database. ADAPT also includes pilot efforts to increase optical character recognition (OCR) accuracy and to increase automated structure analysis capabilities of systems-document format recognition. Digitization of high-quality microfilm material may be the most practical way to load many documents into a conversion system, considering materials handling problems.

Training-based evolutionary multimedia prototyping

The port of Rotterdam is one of the largest cargo and container ports in the world with a hazard area of over 600 km 2 that affects about one million people. The port authority’s emergency management training center is responsible for the training of more than 5000 field and command personnel, pertaining to five units: fire brigades, police, ambulance services, chemical advise, and port authority. Special consideration is given to the training of the Command Incident Place (CIP), which consists of the commanders of these five units, plus a press officer and a fire brigade officer as commander of the whole group. The CIP members must make joint decisions on how to respond to large and complex emergencies. A typical training session involves more than 20 trainers for only seven trainees, where scenario descriptions and communication are done by conventional means such as fax machines and telephones. The port authority’s goal is to capitalize on advanced information and communication technologies to reduce human and material resources for such training sessions. To achieve this we have developed a training-based evolutionary multimedia prototyping methodology. We present this methodology, along with a description of the four multimedia systems that we developed and their empirical evaluation in real training sessions. The results of our study have been used to provide the port of Rotterdam with practical guidelines regarding how to proceed with designing more efficient training sessions. The most important finding was that an integrated system performs best for the trainees and that this goal should not be compromised by technological considerations. The paper ends with an overview of how to further expand the system and cross-cultural considerations to generalize the system for other ports.

Flow Synchronisation of the Production Systems: The Distributed Control Approach

The In the paper a concept of production orders rapid prototyping methodology subject to system logistics constraints is considered. The system functioning consists in development of the computer aided planning system for the simultaneous, multi-assortment, repetitive production and integrates the planning and control levels. A problem of a system run-up and cease under distributed control is discussed. The mentioned problem inspires and motivates consideration of the new construction of dispatching rules allocated to the system resources. The procedure of meta-rules construction is proposed. Examples providing verification of different cease of processes realisation are presented.

Lessons learned from developing a mission-critical expert system with multiple experts through rapid prototyping

The expert systems technology is ubiquitous among the mission-critical tasks in the defense area. Knowledge compiled through the military applications can serve as a remarkable source of learning opportunities for those in the civilian sector. In this paper, we describe the process of developing one such mission-critical military application, which contains an embedded expert system. A large number of experts simultaneously participated in numerous knowledge acquisition sessions to provide their expertise in air combat planning. The rapid prototyping methodology was employed as a vehicle to facilitate the knowledge acquisition process. By recounting the development process, we intend to share the lessons learned from this experience. These lessons are presented from three different perspectives, i.e. the knowledge engineers, the experts, and regarding the rapid prototyping methodology.

Reconstruction of the Homunculus skull using a combined scanning and stereolithography process

The reconstructed skull of the primate fossil Homunculus, a Miocene New World monkey from Argentina, offers unique opportunities for further study and has revealed information that could not be observed or appreciated on the original damaged specimens. This paper presents the process that applies the rapid prototyping methodology to reconstruct and produce such a physical model of the Homunculus’s skull. A laser scanner is used to digitize three pieces of sharp epoxy casts from the left facial skull and the mandible, which were broken apart during fossilization. Commercial software systems are used to develop image models of the fully reconstructed face and lower jaw. A stereolithography process is used to build the physical model.

Solid-phase synthesis and biological evaluation of a combinatorial library of philanthotoxin analogues.

The modular structure of philanthotoxins was exploited for construction of the first combinatorial library of these compounds using solid-phase parallel synthesis. (S)-Tyrosine and (S)-3-hydroxyphenylalanine were used as amino acid components, spermine, 1,12-dodecanediamine, and 4,9-dioxa-1,12-dodecanediamine as amine components, and butanoyl, phenylacetyl, and cyclohexylacetyl as N-acyl groups. Following automated preparative HPLC, the resulting 18 compounds were isolated as the S-forms in 40-70% yields. The purity of the products was determined by HPLC with evaporative light scattering detection and by (1)H and (13)C NMR. The thus obtained philanthotoxins were tested electrophysiologically for their antagonist properties on human muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) expressed in TE671 cells and on rat brain non-NMDA glutamate receptors (non-NMDAR) expressed in Xenopus oocytes. 4-Hydroxy analogues lacking the secondary amino groups (PhTX-12 and 4,9-dioxa-PhTX-12 and their analogues) were inactive on non-NMDAR, whereas the potency of the spermine derivatives (PhTX-343 and its analogues) increased with steric bulk of the N-acyl group. The analogue of PhTX-343 in which the N-butanoyl group was replaced by phenylacetyl group had IC(50) of 15 +/- 4 nM on non-NMDAR. Increasing the steric bulk of the N-acyl group was not advantageous for activity at nAChR, and a sharp decrease in potency with increased steric bulk was observed with the derivatives of PhTX-12. 3-Hydroxy analogues generally exhibited lower activity and different response to alterations of the N-acyl groups as compared to the 4-hydroxy analogues. Since the acyl group alterations in PhTX-343 and 4,9-dioxa-PhTX-12 have a similar effect on potency, which is distinctly different from that observed for PhTX-12, the two former compounds may bind to nAChR in a similar fashion but differently from that of PhTX-12. The combinatorial library approach described in this work represents a prototype methodology for future exploration of structure-activity relationships of philanthotoxins.

Rapid prototyping methodology in action: A developmental study

This study investigated the use of rapid prototyping methodologies in two projects conducted in a natural work setting. It sought to determine the nature of its use by designers and customers and the extent to which its use enhances traditional instructional design (ID). With respect to describing rapid prototyping use, the results pertain to designer tasks performed, the concurrent processing of those tasks, and customer involvement. With respect to describing the enhancements facilitated by rapid prototyping, the results pertain to design and development cycle-time reduction, product quality, and customer and designer satisfaction. In general, the two projects studied show ID efforts that created products that were usable for a conveniently long period of time without revision; delivered in a shorter period of time than would have been expected using traditional techniques; and received by satisfied customers who had been involved throughout their development. In other words, the rapid prototyping methods lived up to their promised benefits.

Organisational learning – it’s just routine

Reports research into how the organisational learning process can be routinised. Three sets of enabling routines and four sets of defensive routines are identified which are core to facilitating and challenging the learning process. A field‐tested prototype methodology is reported which supports the introduction of a strategy for organisational learning and change by practitioners within companies. In this way the abstract notions of organisational learning, corporate regeneration and change can be made operational.

A Framework for Developing Distributed Hard Real-Time Applications

Abstract This paper presents a prototyping methodology for the development in Ada 95 of distributed applications with hard real-time requirements. Based upon an architecture-independent description of the system's elementary actions and their exchange of events, and given the system's configuration, real-time analysis of the distributed application can be performed. In addition, using the same system description an executable prototype of the application is created, which enables testing its timing behavior, and, if the actual code for the elementary actions is provided, automatically generating the final code of the application.

Rapid prototyping of microfluidic switches in poly(dimethyl siloxane) and their actuation by electro-osmotic flow

This paper describes a procedure for rapidly and conveniently prototyping microfluidic devices that are useful with aqueous solutions. A design (with diameters of channels 20 µm) is created in a computer-aided design program and printed at high resolution on a transparency. This transparency is used as a mask in photolithography to create a master in positive relief photoresist: casting poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) against this master yields a polymeric replica containing a network of bas-relief channels. The channels are closed and sealed irreversibly by oxidizing the replica and another flat substrate (PDMS, glass, silicon, silicon oxide) in an oxygen plasma and bringing the two surfaces into conformal contact. Oxidation of the polymer allows the formation of a seal without using adhesives; it also generates channels that support electro-osmotic flow (EOF) and fill easily with aqueous solutions. Two microfluidic devices - a fluidic switch and a side channel flow controller - have been fabricated using this rapid prototyping methodology. These devices were tested using aqueous solutions as the test fluid and actuated by EOF.

Development of Prototype Highway Asset Management System

A prototype methodology for integrating highway infrastructure management activities has been developed. This paper describes the analytical procedures and data integration and presentation methods as well as the geographic information system- (GIS-) based software system that ties together and implements the data and management procedures. Together these elements comprise the new methodology. There are four major areas of integration considered in the methodology: (1) integrated computerized system; (2) network-level integration; (3) project-level integration; and (4) multiple performance measures. The network-level integration involves performing trade-off analysis to select candidate projects from various highway infrastructure components. The project-level integration includes identifying adjacent improvement projects from various infrastructure components that can be implemented simultaneously to reduce traffic disruptions. The project-level integration is performed in a spatial manner using GIS capabilities. The integrated system approach developed in this study for the management of highway assets was applied to five infrastructure components (pavements, bridges, culverts, intersections, and signs) of the state highway system in Champaign County in central Illinois. The sample highway application showed that coordinating project implementation is beneficial for highway agencies and users. It reduces disruption to normal traffic flow caused by rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in a 5 year program by 20%.

Teamworked organisational engineering: getting the most out of teamworking

Teamworking is proving to be a popular method of organising to exploit new technology and respond to the demands of globalisation, but having tried it, many companies are finding that effective implementation is not as easy as they first thought. New research in the Change Management Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University has identified why this is the case. Although thought by many to be a general panacea, research has identified three quite different approaches to teamworking each with different purposes, payoffs, forms, structures, strengths and weaknesses. The authors offer an outline of a prototype methodology to help managers, in their roles as architects and designers of company organisation, think through and engineer requisite teamwork arrangements.

Human error identification techniques for risk assessment of high risk systems—Part 1: review and evaluation of techniques

This is the first in a two-part series of papers dealing with the area of assessing human errors in high risk complex systems. This first paper outlines thirty-eight approaches of error identification, categorising them into types of error identification approach. The paper then reviews these techniques with respect to a broad range of criteria. Viable and non-viable techniques are identified. Trends and research needs are also noted. The second paper proposes a framework or tool-kit approach to Human Error Identification, and presents a prototype methodology to show what such a framework approach would look like in practice, for the nuclear power domain.

An expert system for planning landfill restoration

The application of expert systems technology in the domain of environmental management is particularly appropriate in order to preserve and disseminate efficiently valuable and scarce expertise at reasonable costs. The Landfill Restoration Plan Advisor (LRPA) is an expert system designed for use in the planning of sanitary landfill restoration. This paper describes the LRPA and the methodology and techniques that were employed for its development. A unique feature of this experience was that knowledge was acquired from multiple expertise sources in various forms. Expertise acquired from text analysis of textbooks and manuals was used in developing the core knowledge base for the expert system; while those acquired from text analysis of research publications and interviews with selected domain experts was used in the subsequent refinement and expansion of the basic prototype. The building process for the LRPA prototype adopted a modular approach using the incremental rapid prototyping methodology.

Automatic neighbourhood identification from population surfaces

The definition of coherent social neighbourhoods has long been a pursuit of social geographers. There has been renewed interest in the identification of neighbourhood and community boundaries for market analysis and service delivery, with the widespread availability of digital spatially referenced population data. Traditional computational approaches to neighbourhood identification have typically involved aspatial multivariate statistical techniques or statistical regionalization approaches which are fundamentally limited by the predefined boundaries in the spatial data. Incorporation of greater spatial analytical capabilities in GIS software has led to a widespread recognition that the nature of the underlying spatial data model places fundamental limitations on the analyses which can be performed. Surface models of population provide an alternative data structure for the development of explicitly geographical analysis techniques. This paper considers the application of computationally intensive regionalization methods to population surface models, and presents a prototype methodology for the automatic identification of social neighbourhoods without the constraints of preexisting zone boundaries.

An approach for developing domain specific CASE tools and its application to manufacturing process control

An investigation into the development and evaluation of a domain specific computer aided software engineering (CASE) tool, known as a methodology companion, is described. A development methodology for designing domain specific CASE tools supporting model-based analysis and automatic code generation is described. These ideas are used to produce a prototype methodology companion designed to assist the task of developing control software for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in batch process manufacturing. The CASE tool is domain specific to the industry and organization described, and supports specification, analysis, simulation, report generation, and code generation of the manufacturing control steps. The tool is then evaluated in an industrial setting to determine its overall potential and limitations and the impact it will have on the domain.

Analysis and design of a three-level PWM converter system for railway-traction applications

The paper analyses the merits and demerits of three-level PWM converters through the comparison with two-level PWM converters. A general method for analysing the switching modes of PWM converters is described and an analysis of the three-level PWM converter is presented as an example. A neutral-point voltage-balance-control algorithm together with its hardware and software implementation is presented. A three-step methodology of rapid prototyping by using CAD for the system design, using a real-time simulator for checking the implementation and using high-power testing for validating the system, is described.