Time-sharing Computer Research Articles

Computerized administrative monitoring system for interns and residents.

During the last decade, the role of the government and the professional corporations in approving graduate programmes, licensing interns and residents and requesting statistical information has expanded greatly. The result has been a dramatic increase in administrative workload. At McGill University, the response of the Faculty of Medicine was the introduction of a Computerized Administrative Monitoring System (CAMS) for interns and residents, which provides immediate access, via a video display terminal, to any applicant's or trainee's information file. CAMS also provides timely reports on the status of administrative requirement for both the specialty programmes and the interns and residents assigned to them. The design and implementation of CAMS on the central university time-sharing computer system is described. Some measures of the effort of design, implement and run the system are included, along with an indication of the benefits to the clerical and medical staff who administer the 40 specialty programmes and some 1000 medical trainees.

A computer system for combined neuronal mapping and morphometry

A computer system has been developed which allows both mapping and planimetry of histological preparations. Data consist of cytoarchitectonic boundaries defined in low-power micrographs of thick sections, and nuclear and vascular profiles defined in high-power micrographs of semi-thin sections taken from the original thick tissue, and landmarks common to both. Data from these different preparations and magnifications are entered into the computer on a digitizing tablet and are stored as points in a real-world coordinate system, along with profile labels, landmarks for alignment purposes, and section depth. Subsequent programs determine parameters such as area and perimeter for each profile, as well as its geometric center and relationship to the cytoarchitectonic boundary. This mapping parameter allows morphometric analysis of profiles as a function of their position. Other programs allow display and manipulation of data in 3 dimensions, cell counts, and stereology. Data acquisition is done in the laboratory, using a micro-computer; analysis and display are done on a large time-sharing computer connected to the small machine by a telephone interface.

The automated desk

The Automated Desk is an online, spatial interface to a time-shared computer utility. It supports a user in organizing, locating, and handling computerized information and tools. Naive computer users benefit from the ability to use the power of an operating system without knowing operating system commands. Experienced programmers benefit from the ability to “browse” a large number of “virtual terminals,” each running instances of various software programs. All users benefit from the ability to access computer-resident information while retaining the familiar visual orientation of the office desk. The user sees his “desk top” through an intelligent display terminal that is connected to a host computer. The desk top is a large flat surface about 100 times the size of an ordinary desk top. On it, the user can place objects in groupings that are meaningful to him. Processes can be associated with these objects to perform any online information handling function. The Automated Desk is a derivative of the Spatial Data Management System (SDMS) implemented by Computer Corporation of America. In the Automated Desk, the essential SDMS concepts of spatial organization and pictorial identification are implemented in simple ways on equipment of modest cost. The objective of the Automated Desk is to put key SDMS-like capabilities into an inexpensive product that runs on widely-available equipment. It is intended for widespread use in practical applications.

Interactive Multiobjective Decision Making by the Sequential Proxy Optimization Technique (Spot) and its Application to Environmental Systems

In this paper, a new interactive multiobjective decision making technique for solving multiobjective optimization problems, which is called sequential proxy optimization technique (SPOT), is presented. Using this technique, the preferred solution for the decision maker can be derived efficiently from among a Pareto optimal solution set by assessing his marginal rates of substitution and maximizing the local proxy preference functions sequentially. Based on the algorithm of SPOT, a time-sharing computer program is also written to implement man-machine interactive procedures. The industrial pollution control problem in Osaka City in Japan is formulated and it is demonstrated that the problem can be effectively solved using our computer program.

Computerized technique in organic microelemental analysis: Part IV: Automated determination of chlorine, bromine, and iodine in organic compounds

The automatic and computerized rapid microanalytical determination of chlorine, bromine, and iodine in organic and organometallic compounds is described. The method consists of combustion of the compound in a large diameter empty tube connected to a titration vessel. The combustion products are transferred from the end of the combustion tube to the titration vessel by means of an automatic reductive SO 2-containing wash. Automatic potentiometric titration with AgClO 4 to the preset endpoint potential, using a combination silver microelectrode, serves as the endpoint detection of the titration of halides. The entire analysis, including automatic preparation of the equipment for the next determination, is programmed in a 6-min cycle. The method is blank-free; the results are accurate. Standard deviations amount to: 0.05, 0.14, and 0.18% absolute for Cl, Br, and I, respectively. The analyzer is interfaced to a real-time, time-sharing computer along with electronic microbalances and other analyzers, as part of the microanalytical laboratory computer service. The results of the analyses are reported on CR-terminals and are stored on magnetic disk for further processing.

Models for Time-Sharing Computer Systems with Heterogeneous Users

Models for time-sharing computer systems are presented. The models are of the repairman type and involve more than one type of customer demanding service from a single server queue. The models studied do not admit a product form stationary distribution, thus approximation methods designed to study the queue length processes are introduced. Of particular importance is the introduction of an approximation method which allows for the queue discipline to be varied parametrically. The associated diffusion approximation allows one to study system performance as a function of queue discipline.

Creating a Microcomputer Facility

A relatively inexpensive set of hardware, software, and experiments used in conjunction with a time-sharing computer system for the instruction of undergraduate and graduate students in computer engineering and computer science is described. The hardware is a modular computer station consisting of standard building blocks of a microcomputer system such as CPU, memory, and I/O. The software of the system is divided between that resident in the time-sharing system and that resident in the microcomputer. The microcomputer facility was designed to be inexpensive by using the capability of a time-sharing computer usually found at an academic institution. The facility has the capability of accomodating large groups of students and a variety of different microprocessors.

A Microcomputer Laboratory Work Station

This paper describes a work station designed for undergraduate microcomputer interfacing laboratories. The station includes a powerful set of hardware prototyping and software development tools. Development and downloading of software is faciltated by a communications system which links the work station to a time-sharing host computer. The communications software provides a transparent mode of operation, in which the user may directly interact with time-sharing system facilties (editors and cross-assemblers, for example), and a mode which provides packeted, error-checked downloading of work station object code. This arrangement makes optimal use of available computing resources for software development, and eliminates the need for magnetic storage devices at the work station.

Computer Science at Western experience with Curriculum '78 in a time-sharing environment

The Computer Science programs and environment at the University of Western Ontario are described. The courses have recently been revised in the light of Curriculum '78. We compare the new offerings with Curriculum '78, discussing especially the mathematics requirements and courses we have introduced, and showing how a variety of three- and four-year programs is organized coherently. The Department has also moved to virtually total interactive, time-sharing computer environment, even in introductory mass-enrollment courses. We discuss the impact of this, and of the increasing enrollments, on the education we offer and on our academic standards.

An ideographic language front end processor for accessing English language computer systems

A scheme is described which enables users to interact with a timesharing computer in an ideographic language such as Chinese. The host computer runs a completely unmodified English-based operating system, the necessary translation being performed by a preprocessing microcomputer which constitutes the ideographic terminal. The two systems communicate through a serial line, and the host sees the preprocessor as an ordinary (English) terminal. After brief consideration of the terminal's keyboard and display, we examine the software problems of translation for five examples subsystems – an interpreted programming language, text editor, document preparation software, interactive data base management system, and the command level of the operating system itself.

A microcomputer interface for control of real-time experiments in cognitive psychology

A microcomputer system for real-time control of experiments in cognitive psychology is described. The microcomputer serves as an interface that allows a remote timesharing computer to control the timed display of textual material on CRTs and collect response times accurate to 1 msec. It can control two CRT subject stations presenting the same or different experiments and control other devices such as slide projectors and tape recorders. It is argued that such special-purpose microcomputer interfaces provide a real-time laboratory with significantly less effort than does the more traditional laboratory minicomputer.

Interactive multiobjective reliability design of a standby system by the sequential proxy optimization technique (SPOT)

Abstract A new interactive multiobjective decision making technique for solving multiobjective optimization problems, which is called sequential proxy optimization technique (SPOT)has been proposed by the author. Using this technique, the preferred solution for the decision maker can be derived efficiently from among a Pareto optimal solution set by assessing his marginal rates of substitution and maximizing the local proxy preference functions sequentially. Based on the algorithm of SPOT, a time-sharing computer program has also been written to implement man-machine interactive procedures. In this paper, after summarizing the theoretical framework of SPOT, its application to reliability design of a standby system is considered. The multi-objective mathematical model for a standby system is formulated and the interaction processes to solve an illustrative example for a standby system composed of four subsystems are demonstrated together with the computer outputs.

A versatile computerized system for the development and comparison of electroanalytical procedures

The computerized system reported is suitable for potentiometric and voltammetric techniques. All instrumental settings are fully automated and new analytical schemes can be implemented simply by software modifications. A dedicated 4K, 16-bit microcomputer allows rapid real-time data acquisition and processing. By application of a data acquisition scheme simulating a multichannel analyser, stripping potentiograms and chronopotentiograms can be conveniently represented in digital form as time vs. potential relationships. Procedures developed on the system can be transferred to microprocessorcontrolled equipment as the software for complete analytical procedures, including device handlers, data storage buffers and graphic output, occupies 3–4K words. Flexibility in program editing and assembling is obtained with an optional data link to a medium-sized, time-shared computer with extensive software packages. The link described is of simple construction and can be readily established between computers with standard teletype terminals. The performance of the system is illustrated by comparing the selectivities of two established voltammetric stripping techniques with the selectivity of a new potentiometric technique developed on the system.

A simulation system for corporate planning

This paper describes the structure and use of a general purpose simulation package developed for the interactive construction of dynamic computer-based simulation models. The package consists of a system of computer programs written in the BASIC language for a Digital PDP 11/70 time-sharing computer. The framework upon which the package is based is essentially an amalgamation of the System Dynamics and Input-Output approaches to the modelling of complex organizations. Networks of levels and flows provide the basis for dynamic, modular representation, while matrix algebra features provide the basis for aggregational flexibility and the analysis of multi- product multi-process industrial systems. The package is designed to provide planning managers with the ability to construct flexible models, localized or ‘corporate’, financial or non-financial, without the need for any programming in the conventional sense. A flow diagram of the system to be modelled guides the model builder in responding to computer terminal prompts which determine the model structure as a set of programmed relationships. This in turn gives rise to a further series of prompts at the terminal for the entry of all data pertinent to the model. Model editing and computation then proceeds, with user interaction, if desired, for amendments, monitoring of computations, and report generation. Two specific applications of the package are discussed in the latter part of the paper, and sample output from runs of both of the resultant models is provided.

BMON2 — A distributed monitor system for biological image processing

This paper presents an example of a distributed monitor system, BMON2, which was developed and is in daily use in a biological image processing environment. Some useful aspects of such a system are discussed, particularly those which make for easier biologist-user interaction and system extensibility. The principles of extension of the distributed monitor to a time-shared computer system is outlined.

A time series control chart for a nuclear reactor: D. S. Ermer, M. C. Chow and S. M. Wu. Proc. IEEE Reliability Symposium, Washington, D.C., January 23–25, p. 92 (1979)

An interactive fuzzy decision-making method for solving multiobjective nonlinear programming problems is presented in this paper by assuming that the decision maker (DM) has fuzzy goals for each of the objective functions. The fuzzy goals of the DM are quantified by eliciting corresponding membership functions through the interaction with the DM. Having determined the membership functions, if the DM specifies his reference membership values, the augmented minimax problem is solved and the DM is supplied with the corresponding Pareto-optimal solution together with the trade-off rates between the membership functions. Then by considering the current values of the membership functions as well as the trade-off rates, the DM responds by updating his reference membership values. In this way the compromise or satisficing solution for the DM can be derived efficiently from among a Pareto-optimal solution set. On the basis of the proposed method, a time-sharing computer program is written and an illustrative numerical example is demonstrated along with the computer outputs.

The scientific laboratory instrument to computer coupler.

Small inexpensive microprocessor based computers can be used to connect a wide variety of biomedical laboratory instruments to a large central time-sharing computer system. The Scientific Laboratory instrument to computer coupler (SLICC) is built around the 8080 microprocessor and has a modular bus structured design which permits the mininijzation of costs for each custom installation. The microprocessor acquires analog and digital data from laboratory equipment, formats it for transmission to the central computer, and can accept and display results returned to it from the central computer. The SLICC has some local storage capability to buffer data when the central computer is unavailable as well as to smooth out the data transfer rate. In addition, the SLICC can be used to interactively control laboratory experiments.

GENFILES: a computerized medical genetics information network. I. An overview.

GENFILES is a comprehensive computer information network to serve research, service, and administrative needs in medical genetics. Four major databases contain detailed information generated by the cytogenetics laboratory, the prenatal diagnosis program, the diagnostic and genetic counseling clinics, and the human cell culture facility. Unique aspects are the use of RAMIS, a commercial database management system, and of microprocessor computers as "intelligent" terminals with significant data-handling capabilities. All databases are no-line in a directly accessed large timesharing computer. The system, which has been designed, controlled and maintained by regular genetics staff, is an easy to use, moderate-cost tool well suited for use as a regional clinical genetics information system.

Mathematical Concepts for Modeling Human Behavior in Complex Man-Machine Systems

Many useful mathematical models for manual control, monitoring, and decision-making tasks in man-machine systems have been designed and successfully applied. However, critical comments have occasionally been made, mainly by practitioners concerned with the design of complex man-machine systems. They especially blame models which seem to explain only data from abstract subtask experiments designed particularly for these models. In this review paper, an initial approach to bridging the gap between these two perspectives of models is presented. From the manifold of possible human tasks, a very popular baseline scenario has been chosen, namely car driving. A hierarchy of human activities is derived by analyzing this task in general terms. A structural description leads to a block diagram and a timesharing computer analogy. The range of applicability of existing mathematical models is considered with respect to the hierarchy of human activities in real complex tasks. Also, other mathematical tools so far not often applied to man-machine systems are discussed. The mathematical descriptions at least briefly considered here include utility, estimation, control, queueing, and fuzzy set theory as well as artificial intelligence techniques. Some thoughts are given as to how these methods might be integrated and how further work might be pursued.

A search–match system for X-ray powder diffraction data

A computer program which can identify the crystalline component phases of a mixture from its X-ray diffraction pattern is described. The program uses the data base of powder diffraction patterns maintained by the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards. The `reverse searching' technique employed permits the identification of each component and provides an estimate of confidence in the identification. Errors in measured spacings and intensities are tolerated by the program. The interactive search-match system is available for general use via a networked timeshared computer.