From the Proceedings of the 1977 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 15-16, 1977, Las Vegas, Nevada / A new minimum tillage implement, "the land imprinter," has been designed and fabricated, and is currently being tested. Its design is based on water infiltration control theory developed during the past decade. The land imprinter was developed primarily for establishing vegetation in barren land areas in semiarid and arid regions of the world. It simultaneously forms interconnected downslope and cross - slope corrugations that shed water and then infiltrate it precisely where vegetative growth is to be encouraged. This controlled short distance routing of water along short waterways into small reservoirs makes more rainwater available for seed germination and seedling establishment, and less water available for loss by surface runoff and evaporation. The imprinter has only one moving part, in the form of a massive compound roller and central axle which turn together as a rigid assembly during operation. The compound roller consists of two imprint capsules which are linked together on the axle shaft by an axle pulling clamp. The core of the imprint capsule is a hollow steel cylinder (1-m diameter and 1-m long) fabricated from 1.27-cm steel plate. A variety of imprint geometries are formed by welding short lengths of specially -cut steel angles (1.27 cm x 15.24 cm x 15.24 cm) to the outer surface of the cylindrical core. Ten imprint capsules with distinctly different geometric patterns of steel angles have been developed and fabricated. By pairing these capsules in as many ways as possible, 45 different geometric patterns can be imprinted. The patterns of steel angles perform a number of different tillage functions including (1) brush and soft rock crushing, (2) brush and rock imbedding, (3) runoff inducing and directing, (4) infiltration inducing and directing, (5) biomass concentrating, (6) seedbed forming, (7) surface and vertical mulching, (8) wind and water erosion controlling, (9) surface compacting, and (10) surface trenching and pitting. Advantages of the land imprinter as compared with alternative tillage methods include (1) greater stability, diversity, complexity, and precision of surface geometric patterns; (2) better control of point infiltration, runoff, erosion, and evaporation; and (3) greater utility in brush -covered, steeply - sloping, deeply gullied, and rocky land. The land imprinter should have widespread utility in both range and croplands because of its unique ability to mold runoff -watered seedbeds that increase the probability of seed germination and seedling establishment.

With the rise of automation in traditional manufacturing processes, more companies are beginning to integrate computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) cells on their production floors. Through CIM cell integration, companies have the ability to reduce process time and increase production. One of the problems created with CIM cell automation is caused by the dependency the sequential steps have on one another. Dependency created by the previous step increases the probability that a process error could occur due to previous variation. One way to eliminate this dependency is through the use of an in-process measuring device such as a Renishaw spindle probe used in conjunction with a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine. Western Kentucky University (WKU) utilizes a CIM cell in the Senator Mitch McConnell Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics laboratory. The laboratory is located in the Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences department and gives students the opportunity to learn how automated systems can be integrated. The CIM cell consists of three Mitsubishi six-axis robots, a Haas Mini-mill, a Haas GT-10 lathe, an AXYZ, Inc. CNC router table, 120 watt laser engraver, an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), material handling conveyor, and vision station. The CIM cell functions throughout the curriculum as a means for applied learning and research. The researcher used this CIM cell in order to determine if an in-process measuring device, such as the Renishaw spindle probe, had the ability to affect process capability. The researcher conducted the study to see if an in-process measuring device can be integrated into the CIM cell located in the Senator Mitch McConnell Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics laboratory to eliminate compounding variation. The researcher discovered that through the use of a Renishaw 40-2 spindle probe used in conjunction with a CNC Haas Mini Mill, process capability has the potential to be improved in a CIM cell by accounting for compounding variation present in the process.

“In an ill-structured domain you cannot, by definition, have a pre-compiled schema in your mind for every circumstance and context you may find ... you must be able to flexibly select and arrange knowledge sources to most efficaciously pursue the needs of a given situation.” [57] / In order to interact and collaborate effectively, agents, whether human or software, must be able to communicate through common understandings and compatible conceptualisations. Ontological differences that occur either from pre-existing assumptions or as side-effects of the process of specification are a fundamental obstacle that must be overcome before communication can occur. Similarly, the integration of information from heterogeneous sources is an unsolved problem. Efforts have been made to assist integration, through both methods and mechanisms, but automated integration remains an unachieved goal. Communication and information integration are problems of meaning and interaction, or semantic interoperability. This thesis contributes to the study of semantic interoperability by identifying, developing and evaluating three approaches to the integration of information. These approaches have in common that they are lightweight in nature, pragmatic in philosophy and general in application. / The first work presented is an effort to integrate a massive, formal ontology and knowledge-base with semi-structured, informal heterogeneous information sources via a heuristic-driven, adaptable information agent. The goal of the work was to demonstrate a process by which task-specific knowledge can be identified and incorporated into the massive knowledge-base in such a way that it can be generally re-used. The practical outcome of this effort was a framework that illustrates a feasible approach to providing the massive knowledge-base with an ontologically-sound mechanism for automatically generating task-specific information agents to dynamically retrieve information from semi-structured information sources without requiring machine-readable meta-data. / The second work presented is based on reviving a previously published and neglected algorithm for inferring semantic correspondences between fields of tables from heterogeneous information sources. An adapted form of the algorithm is presented and evaluated on relatively simple and consistent data collected from web services in order to verify the original results, and then on poorly-structured and messy data collected from web sites in order to explore the limits of the algorithm. The results are presented via standard measures and are accompanied by detailed discussions on the nature of the data encountered and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithm and the ways in which it complements other approaches that have been proposed. / Acknowledging the cost and difficulty of integrating semantically incompatible software systems and information sources, the third work presented is a proposal and a working prototype for a web site to facilitate the resolving of semantic incompatibilities between software systems prior to deployment, based on the commonly-accepted software engineering principle that the cost of correcting faults increases exponentially as projects progress from phase to phase, with post-deployment corrections being significantly more costly than those performed earlier in a project’s life. The barriers to collaboration in software development are identified and steps taken to overcome them. The system presented draws on the recent collaborative successes of social and collaborative on-line projects such as SourceForge, Del.icio.us, digg and Wikipedia and a variety of techniques for ontology reconciliation to provide an environment in which data definitions can be shared, browsed and compared, with recommendations automatically presented to encourage developers to adopt data definitions compatible with previously developed systems. / In addition to the experimental works presented, this thesis contributes reflections on the origins of semantic incompatibility with a particular focus on interaction between software systems, and between software systems and their users, as well as detailed analysis of the existing body of research into methods and techniques for overcoming these problems.

Este trabalho descreve LAGO - Linguagem de Acesso Global ao sistema AMPLO AMPLO é um ambiente de projeto de sistemas digitais que consiste de uma base de dados orientada a objetos e diversas ferramentas de projeto, como editores de texto, editores gráficos, compiladores e simuladores de sistemas digitais. LAGO é a interface de alto nível de AMPLO, sendo responsável pelo controle de acesso aos recursos do sistema. Através desta interface, os usuários de AMPLO podem ativar funções de administração, gerência de projeto, projeto propriamente dito e consulta a base de dados. O acesso as diversas funções do sistema esta vinculado a classificação do usuário. Um - administrador geral - responsável pelo cadastro de usuários e de grupos de usuários. Grupos de usuários são criados Para realizar projetos, sob a liderança de um - administrador de grupo - Este indicado pelo administrador geral quando da criação do grupo e realiza funções de gerência de grupo e da base de dados associada ao grupo. Usuários - projetistas - tem acesso as funções de ativação de ferramentas (editores de texto, editores gráficos, compiladores e simuladores) e as func6es de administração de tarefas (uma tarefa corresponde a uma transação longa, a nível de banco de dados, por exemplo, a criação de objetos em varias sess6es de edição). A cada tarefa esta associada uma base de dados temporária, privativa do projetista, removida após o término da tarefa. Portanto, a base de dados de AMPLO e dividida em três níveis: base de dados pública, bases de dados por projeto e bases de dados dos projetistas. Permanentemente, LAGO oferece facilidades de consulta a base de dados. Estas funções de consulta estão disponíveis quando o usuário inicializa o sistema ou, posteriormente, pela seleção de uma função de consulta. A navegação pelos objetos da base de dados rode ser feita de forma gráfica ou textual. Na forma gráfica, os objetos são apresentados através de arvores representando os diversos tipos de relacionamentos existentes. Na forma textual, LAGO apresenta listas com nomes de objetos. / This work describes LAGO - a language for accessing the AMPLO system. AMPLO is a design environment of digital systems which is composed of an object oriented data base and of several design tools, such as text editors, graphics editors, compilers and simulators of digital systems LAGO is the high-level interface of AMPLO, and it is responsible for controlling the access to the system's resources. With this interface, the users of AMPLO may activate administratation and, design management functions, data base queries, and design tasks. The access to the several system functions is in accordance to the user classification. A "general administrator" is responsible for creating users and groups of users. Groups of users create designs, under the leadership of a "group administrator", who is indicated by the general administrator when the group is created. The "grou p administrator" has private functions for managing the group and the data base associated to the group. Designers activate design tools as text editors, graphic editors, compilers and simulators. Also they can use task management functions (a task corresponds to a long transaction at the data base level, like the creation of objects in several editing sessions, for example). A temporary data base which is a designer private data base is associated to each task, and is removed at the end of the task. Thus, the data base of AMPLO is divided into three levels: p ublic data base, group data base and designer data base LAGO permanently, offers facilities of data base ueries. These q uery functions are available when the user inicializes the system and later on, when the query function is selected. The navigation through the data base objects can be done in a gra p hical or textual form. In the graphical form, the objects are presented by trees representing the several types of relationships. In the textual form, LAGO presents lists with the name of objects.

Este trabalho descreve LAGO - Linguagem de Acesso Global ao sistema AMPLO AMPLO é um ambiente de projeto de sistemas digitais que consiste de uma base de dados orientada a objetos e diversas ferramentas de projeto, como editores de texto, editores gráficos, compiladores e simuladores de sistemas digitais. LAGO é a interface de alto nível de AMPLO, sendo responsável pelo controle de acesso aos recursos do sistema. Através desta interface, os usuários de AMPLO podem ativar funções de administração, gerência de projeto, projeto propriamente dito e consulta a base de dados. O acesso as diversas funções do sistema esta vinculado a classificação do usuário. Um - administrador geral - responsável pelo cadastro de usuários e de grupos de usuários. Grupos de usuários são criados Para realizar projetos, sob a liderança de um - administrador de grupo - Este indicado pelo administrador geral quando da criação do grupo e realiza funções de gerência de grupo e da base de dados associada ao grupo. Usuários - projetistas - tem acesso as funções de ativação de ferramentas (editores de texto, editores gráficos, compiladores e simuladores) e as func6es de administração de tarefas (uma tarefa corresponde a uma transação longa, a nível de banco de dados, por exemplo, a criação de objetos em varias sess6es de edição). A cada tarefa esta associada uma base de dados temporária, privativa do projetista, removida após o término da tarefa. Portanto, a base de dados de AMPLO e dividida em três níveis: base de dados pública, bases de dados por projeto e bases de dados dos projetistas. Permanentemente, LAGO oferece facilidades de consulta a base de dados. Estas funções de consulta estão disponíveis quando o usuário inicializa o sistema ou, posteriormente, pela seleção de uma função de consulta. A navegação pelos objetos da base de dados rode ser feita de forma gráfica ou textual. Na forma gráfica, os objetos são apresentados através de arvores representando os diversos tipos de relacionamentos existentes. Na forma textual, LAGO apresenta listas com nomes de objetos. / This work describes LAGO - a language for accessing the AMPLO system. AMPLO is a design environment of digital systems which is composed of an object oriented data base and of several design tools, such as text editors, graphics editors, compilers and simulators of digital systems LAGO is the high-level interface of AMPLO, and it is responsible for controlling the access to the system's resources. With this interface, the users of AMPLO may activate administratation and, design management functions, data base queries, and design tasks. The access to the several system functions is in accordance to the user classification. A "general administrator" is responsible for creating users and groups of users. Groups of users create designs, under the leadership of a "group administrator", who is indicated by the general administrator when the group is created. The "grou p administrator" has private functions for managing the group and the data base associated to the group. Designers activate design tools as text editors, graphic editors, compilers and simulators. Also they can use task management functions (a task corresponds to a long transaction at the data base level, like the creation of objects in several editing sessions, for example). A temporary data base which is a designer private data base is associated to each task, and is removed at the end of the task. Thus, the data base of AMPLO is divided into three levels: p ublic data base, group data base and designer data base LAGO permanently, offers facilities of data base ueries. These q uery functions are available when the user inicializes the system and later on, when the query function is selected. The navigation through the data base objects can be done in a gra p hical or textual form. In the graphical form, the objects are presented by trees representing the several types of relationships. In the textual form, LAGO presents lists with the name of objects.

Machine Learning has become more important for materials engineering in the last decade. Globally, automated machine learning (AutoML) is growing in popularity with the increasing demand for data analysis solutions. Yet, it is not frequently used for small tabular data. Comparisons and benchmarks already exist to assess the qualities of AutoML tools in general, but none of them elaborates on the surrounding conditions of materials engineers working with experimental data: small datasets with less than 1000 samples. This benchmark addresses these conditions and draws special attention to the overall competitiveness with manual data analysis. Four representative AutoML frameworks are used to evaluate twelve domain-specific datasets to provide orientation on the promises of AutoML in the field of materials engineering. Performance, robustness and usability are discussed in particular. The results lead to two main conclusions: First, AutoML is highly competitive with manual model optimization, even with little training time. Second, the data sampling for train and test data is of crucial importance for reliable results.

Representation has always been a critical component in architectural practice and representational techniques have been evolving over time. The relatively recent advent of the digital media is revolutionizing architectural representation. Digital representation techniques are proving to be a more effective means of communicating the design to the client and the collaborative project team. The techniques are advancing so rapidly that it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep in pace with the digital acceleration and utilize these representation techniques in architectural practice. There is a wide difference between what is possible using digital architectural visualization and what is implemented in practice. The research explores the extent of utilization of these digital representation techniques and the challenges they pose in practical implementation. Employing a logical approach to selectively implement this digital procedural change in representation would help in realizing the strategic benefits of these rapidly progressing techniques.

This dissertation focuses on the re-use of business process reference models, available in a business process model warehouse, to enable the definition of more comprehensive business requirements. It proposes a business process model warehouse framework to promote the re-use of multiple business process reference models and the flexible visualisation of business process models. The critical success factor for such a framework is that it should contribute to minimise to some extent the causes of inadequate business requirements. The proposed framework is based on an analogy with a data warehouse framework, consisting of the following components: usage of multiple business process reference models as source models, the conceptual design of a process to extract, load and transform multiple business process reference models into a repository, a description of repository functionality for managing enterprise architecture artefacts, and motivation of flexible visualisation of business process models to ensure more comprehensive business requirements. / Computer Science (School of Computing) / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

This dissertation focuses on the re-use of business process reference models, available in a business process model warehouse, to enable the definition of more comprehensive business requirements. It proposes a business process model warehouse framework to promote the re-use of multiple business process reference models and the flexible visualisation of business process models. The critical success factor for such a framework is that it should contribute to minimise to some extent the causes of inadequate business requirements. The proposed framework is based on an analogy with a data warehouse framework, consisting of the following components: usage of multiple business process reference models as source models, the conceptual design of a process to extract, load and transform multiple business process reference models into a repository, a description of repository functionality for managing enterprise architecture artefacts, and motivation of flexible visualisation of business process models to ensure more comprehensive business requirements. / Computer Science (School of Computing) / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

The design of VLSI electronic circuits can be achieved at many different abstraction levels starting from system behavior to the most detailed, physical layout level. As the number of transistors in VLSI circuits is increasing, the complexity of the design is also increasing, and it is now beyond human ability to manage. Hence CAD (Computer Aided design) or EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools are involved in the design. EDA or CAD tools automate the design, verification and testing of these VLSI circuits. In today’s market, there are many EDA tools available. However, they are very expensive and require high-performance platforms. One of the key challenges today is to select appropriate CAD or EDA tools which are open-source for academic purposes. This thesis provides a detailed examination of an open-source EDA tool called Electric VLSI Design system. An excellent and efficient CAD tool useful for students and teachers to implement ideas by modifying the source code, Electric fulfills these requirements. This thesis' primary objective is to explain the Electric software features and architecture and to provide various digital and analog designs that are implemented by this software for educational purposes. Since the choice of an EDA tool is based on the efficiency and functions that it can provide, this thesis explains all the analysis and synthesis tools that electric provides and how efficient they are. Hence, this thesis is of benefit for students and teachers that choose Electric as their open-source EDA tool for educational purposes.