This thesis demonstrates the adequacy of an object-oriented approach to the construction of distributed metainformation systems: systems that facilitate information use by maintaining some information about the information. Computer systems are increasingly being used to store information objects and make them accessible via network. This access, however, still relies on an adequate metainformation system: there must be an effective means of specifying relevant information objects. Moreover, distribution requires the metainformation system to cope well with intermittent availability of network resources. Typical metainformation systems developed to date permit information objects to be specified by expressing knowledge about their syntactic properties, such as keywords. Within this approach, however, query results are potentially too large to be transmitted, stored and treated, at reasonable cost and time. Users are therefore finding it difficult to navigate their way through the masses of information available. In contrast, this thesis is based on the principle that a metainformation system IS more effective if it permits information objects to be specified according to their semantic properties, and that this helps managing, filtering and navigating information. Of particular interest is object orientation because it is the stateof- the-art approach to both the representation of information semantics and the Abstract 11 design of reliable systems. The thesis presents the design and implementation of a programming toolkit for the construction of metainformation systems, where information objects can be any entity that contains information, the notion of views permits organising the information space, transactional access is employed to obtain consistency, and replication is employed to obtain high availability and scalability.

We introduce a framework for 3D object deformation with primary focus on man-made objects. Our framework enables a user to deform a model while preserving its defining characteristics. Moreover, our framework enables a user to set constraints on a model to keep its most significant features intact after the deformation process. Our framework supports a semi-automatic constraint setting environment, where some constraints could be automatically set by the framework while others are left for the user to specify. Our framework has several advantages over some state of the art deformation techniques in that it enables a user to add new features to the deformed model while keeping its general look similar to the input model. In addition, our framework enables the rotation and extrusion of different parts of a model.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / To model the "black boxes" in a command and telemetry simulation, it is important to preserve the abstraction of a one-to-one match between the real-world interfaces and the simulated interfaces. Everywhere a physical interface exists on the box, there needs to be a simulated interface. Preserving this abstraction allows the model to evolve more naturally with real-world design changes. In most command and telemetry systems, many different types of commands and telemetry can be sent over a single interface. This creates a problem in preserving the interface abstraction if the Ada language is used for implementation. Due to the fact that Ada is a "strongly typed" language, a different or overloaded operation needs to exist for each type of command or telemetry. However, by using a "discriminated variant record" to represent the commands and telemetry streams, a single operation can be used in the Ada specification. This not only preserves the abstraction but makes the software more maintainable by allowing the data list to change during the design of the "black box" without changing the Ada specification. As a result, "loose coupling" is achieved, a common set of commands and telemetry formats can be "inherited" to promote reuse, and overall system development and maintenance costs are reduced.

Taking at least two roles in Mozart's opera Cost fan tutte, in addition to my borrowing of its subtitle and some of its form, I will argue that works of art do not lie down on any couch of wild analysis. Rather, I will say, it is the viewer of a work who submits to an analysis in the encounter. A 'psychoanalysis of art' has become rather commonplace, and in this method of interpretation the intentionality of the artist, linked to individual psychic formations, are of paramount importance, understood as evidenced in the work of art. While works of art may indeed reveal truths about the artist, they may also - and more interestingly - show something about the psychic structure of the viewer. This is suggested by Jacques Lacan, as he links the presence of the analyst with the presence of the work of art in the elaboration of his theory of objet a and the gaze in The Seminar. Book XI. He outlines a theory of art in which it is the work that brings the viewer to speech, through the structure of the relationship between them. In this relationship, the work of art is a paradoxical object, for it is both the thing and effect that cannot be represented, and the thing and effect that indicates its absence by its presence. I will take up the proposition that the work of art may occupy the place of the analyst in a number of ways, in order to examine its effects upon the relationship between work of art and its viewer. The effects are at the level of structure and I continue to take the opera as my model, as both work of art and the discursive means by which the effects of a work of art may be explored. I am tuneful, if at times repetitive, malicious, or capricious, throughout, and there will be an ensured encounter, good, bad, or quite simply, missed.

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / TechSat21 is sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research1. Its mission is to control a cluster of satellites that, when combined, create a “virtual satellite” with which to conduct various experiments in sparse aperture sensing and formation flying. Customers of the TechSat21 database include mission planners and system engineers. Mission Planners need information that allows them to make high level planning and scheduling decisions. System Engineers need information to predict satellite sub-system problems and conduct satellite design and performance trade studies. This paper describes those users and the project database.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The Space Station Verification and Training Facility is using an object-oriented design methodology for software design, a rate monotonic scheduling and message passing system to support the highly distributed environment, and the Ada language to implement most of the software. One of the subsystems within the Space Station and Training Facility is the Space Network Simulator. Space Network simulators are used to provide training of ground controllers and flight crews, providing a model of real-world formats and protocols. This gives the controller the appearance of a real-world network, providing valuable training. To develop a simulation of the space network within this distributed environment, software objects are under development to dynamically simulate the existence of the space vehicle(s) and their communication components. Communication components include the on-board antennas, transponders, communication systems, and corresponding communication ground control facilities. Telemetry systems are used in the simulation to provide the control of actual data manipulation, as a function of the state of the simulated Space Network. The telemetry system automatically formats appropriate telemetry characteristics through mode and control commands. A software model is under development to provide a transparent interface between the software objects and the telemetry system, allowing the objects to execute without knowledge of the particular telemetry system in use. A transparent interface between the software and hardware, within this object-oriented methodology, reduces the propagation of change to software models as the interface requirements change.

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