Gothenburg introduced a time-of-day dependent cordon-based congestion charging scheme in January 2013. This paper explores how the introduction of the Gothenburg congestion charging scheme has affected trip tour and trip chaining behavior, using panel surveys conducted in 2012 and 2013, before and after the Gothenburg congestion charging began. This study proposes a typology of trip tour and trip chaining behavior based on organization of trips. Further, the study develops a series of indicators to characterize trip chains and trip tours patterns. Descriptive analysis is used to compare travel patterns before and after congestion pricing at the daylevel, tour-level and stage-level. The analysis results show that car travelers not only suppress activities to a small extent but also tend to have simpler tour patterns after the congestion charges implementation. The adaptation patterns reduce charges paid to some extent. In general, the reorganization of activities taken from on the way from work/school to home contributes greatly to reducing the congestion charges paid. A linear model is also developed to identify the effects of socio-demographic factors and contextual factors on the amount of charges paid based on panel data.

Uses rule based AI (forward and backward chaining) to model legal decision making by judges. / AI to model legal decision making (c) Eric Engle

In recent years, the importance of sagebrush to shrub-steppe ecosystems and associated plant and animal species has been recognized. The historical removal of herbaceous species by excessive and uncontrolled livestock grazing on many of our sagebrush ecosystems has resulted in a stagnant state where dense, competitive stands of sagebrush prevent herbaceous species from recovering. Most early research on sagebrush control was directed toward eradication to increase herbaceous forage for livestock production, rather than sagebrush thinning to improve shrub vigor and understory production for wildlife habitat and community diversity. Mechanical treatments have the ability to retain shrub and herbaceous components, while improving diversity within degraded sagebrush communities. This study evaluated the effects of 6 mechanical treatments and revegetation of a Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) community in northern Utah that were treated in the fall of 2001 and spring of 2002 (aerator only). Disking and imprinting killed 98% of the sagebrush and significantly (p < 0.05) lowered cover and density of sagebrush more than any other treatment. Disking and imprinting was the only mechanical treatment to reduce cover and density of residual understory species, but also to successfully establish seeded grasses. One-way Ely chaining, 1-way and 2-way pipe harrowing, and aerating in the fall and spring reduced sagebrush cover from greater than 20% to less than 5% and reduced density by about half. Two years after mechanical treatment surviving sagebrush had greater leader and seed stalk growth than untreated sagebrush. Choice of a mechanical treatment to increase and diversify the perennial herbaceous component and retain the shrub component of sagebrush communities depends on the amount of residual herbaceous species, as well as economics. Chaining is potentially most economical for diversifying communities with a residual herbaceous perennial component. It is uncertain whether successful revegetation from disking and imprinting was a result of significant reduction in sagebrush, residual perennial herbaceous species, or both. Response of sagebrush communities with a very limited perennial herbaceous understory needs to be tested to determine how much and what kind of mechanical reduction in sagebrush is needed for successful revegetation.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has become increasingly popular in combination with Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN is a way to make a network more programmable and dynamic. However, in order to create a homogeneous network using this concept, legacy equipment will have to be substituted by SDN equipment, which is costly. To close the gap between the legacy world and SDN, we introduce the concept of a legacy Network Management System (NMS) that is connected to an SDN controller to perform service provisioning. This way, the NMS is capable of configuring both legacy as well as SDN networks to provide customers with the services that they have ordered, while still allowing for new SDN features in the SDN domain of the network. The main service we wish to provide using SDN is Service Function Chaining (SFC). Service provisioning consists of dynamically constructing a path through the ordered network services, in this case Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). This thesis focuses on the SDN controller and its interaction with the NMS. This project aims at configuring OpenFlow rules in the network using an SDN controller to perform SFC. Moreover, the focus will be on how to represent an SDN element and a service function chain in the legacy network NMS. The thesis also contains a discussion on what information should be exchanged between the management software and the controller. The management software used is called BECS, a system developed by Packetfront Software. Integrating SDN in BECS is done by creating a proof of concept, containing a full environment from the low level network elements to the NMS. By using a bottom-up approach for creating this proof of concept, the information that BECS is required to send to the SDN controller can be identified before designing and implementing the connection between these two entities. When sending the information, the NMS should be able to receive acknowledgement of successful information exchange or an error. However, when the proof of concept was created a problem arose on how to test and troubleshoot it. For this reason, a web Graphical User Interface (GUI) was created. This GUI shows the number of packets that have gone through a VNF. Because it is possible to see how many packets go through a VNF, one can see where a network issue occurs. The subsequent analysis investigates the impact of making such a GUI available for a network administrator and finds that the part of the network where the configuration error occurs can be narrowed down significantly. / Software Defined Networking (SDN) har blivit mer och mer populärt i kombination med Network Function Virtualization (NFV). SDN är en sätt för att göra ett nätverk mer programmerbart och dynamiskt. För att skapa ett homogent nätverk med detta koncept, behöver man dock ersätta traditionell utrustning med SDN utrustning som är dyr. För att stänga gapet mellan traditionella nätverk och SDN-världen, introducerar vi ett koncept med ett traditionell Network Management System (NMS) som är anslutet till en SDN-styrenhet för att utföra tjänsteprovisionering. På detta sätt kan NMS:et konfigurera både traditionella och SDN-nätverk, samt provisionera tjänster för kunderna medan nya SDN-funktioner möjliggörs i SDN-delen av nätverket. Den huvudsakliga tjänsten som vi vill lansera genom SDN är Service Function Chaining (SFC). Tjänsteprovisionering består av att konstruera en väg genom beställda tjänster, i detta fall Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Detta examensarbete fokuserar huvusakligen på SDN-styrenheten och dess interaktion med NMS:et. Projektet syftar till att konfigurera OpenFlow regler i SDN-styrenheten för att utföra SFC. Dessutom fokuserar arbetet på hur man kan representera SDN-element och SFCs i ett traditionellt NMS. Vidare diskuteras vilken information som ska utbytas mellan NMS:et och SDNstyrenheten. NMS:et som ska vara användas är BECS, ett system utvecklat av Packetfront Software. Uppgiften löses genom att skapa ett proof of concept, som innehåller ett komplett system med alla komponenter från nätverkselement till NMS:et. Genom att använda en bottom-up-strategi för detta proof of concept kan informationen som BECS måste skicka till SDN styrenheten indentifieras, innan design och implementation av förbindelsen mellan enheterna kan utföras. När informationen är skickad ska NMS:et kunna hämta information om huruvida styrenheten fick informationen utan fel. Dock uppstår ett problem gällande hur man testar och felsöker detta proof of concept. Av denna anledning skapades ett web Graphical User Interface (GUI). Användargränssnittet visar antalet paket som går genom varje VNF, samt var i nätverket fel uppstår. Analysen undersöker hur stor effekten är för en nätverkadministrator och visar att området där fel kan uppstå begränsas avsevärt.

This project sought to evaluate the effects of video prompting in combination with backwards chaining to increase proficiency of tying shoe-laces using a changing criterion design. Two children, one diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and one neurotypical were invited to participate in this study. Following baseline, shoe-tying prompt videos and backwards chaining were used to teach shoe-tying. Video prompting plus backwards chaining increased the typically developing participant’s proficiency with performing a larger percentage of steps of the targeted skill independently following intervention. However, the participant with ASD was unable to meet criterion and the study was terminated for him due to challenging behavior. These results indicate that the combination of point-of-view video prompts along with backwards chaining can be effective in teaching children to tie their shoelaces. These results also indicate that children with ASD may need additional supports with this intervention to reach acquisition criterion. Parents reported satisfaction both with the procedures undertaken and with the outcomes of the intervention. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Submitted by PPG Ci?ncia da Computa??o (ppgcc@pucrs.br) on 2017-11-24T20:01:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-12-04T11:49:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-04T11:53:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafael_Anton_Eichelberger_dis.pdf: 5090662 bytes, checksum: 0c27686648c0e4c286c555a921034507 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-15 / Service Function Chaining (SFC) ? um importante campo de pesquisa na ?rea de redes de computadores, com v?rias propostas de diferentes m?todos de encapsulamento e encaminhamento de pacotes. Os m?todos de encaminhamento de pacotes usados para implementar SFC podem inviabilizar o uso de ferramentas tradicionais de depura??o de rede, o que dificulta a detec??o de erros de configura??o ou poss?veis degrada??es de desempenho em ambientes SFC. Este trabalho apresenta o SFC Path Tracer, uma ferramenta para detec??o de problemas no dom?nio SFC em ambientes NFV/SDN. Essa ferramenta permite a identifica??o de problemas no dom?nio SFC, atrav?s da gera??o de trace de pacotes e medi??o de atrasos intra-hop a partir de um SFC Path espec?fico. SFC Path Tracer ? agn?stico em rela??o aos mecanismos de encapsulamento e encaminhamento usados para implementar SFC, sendo eficaz na detec??o de grande parte dos problemas em um ambiente SFC. / Service Function Chaining (SFC) is an important research field in networking area with many encapsulation and forwarding mechanisms being proposed. To implement SFC, non-standard forwarding methods are used which break the mechanism of regular network troubleshooting tools, challenging the detection of SFC misconfiguration or performance degradation. This work presents the SFC Path Tracer, a tool for roubleshooting SFC in NFV/SDN environments. This tool enables the identification of problems in the SFC environment by generating packet trace and computing intra-hop delays from a specific SFC path. SFC Path Tracer is agnostic regarding the SFC encapsulation and forwarding mechanisms being effective to detect most problems in an SFC environment.

A wide range of additional forward chaining applications could be realized with deductive databases, if their rule formalism, their immediate consequence operator, and their fixpoint iteration process would be more flexible. Deductive databases normally represent knowledge using stratified Datalog programs with default negation. But many practical applications of forward chaining require an extensible set of user–defined built–in predicates. Moreover, they often need function symbols for building complex data structures, and the stratified fixpoint iteration has to be extended by aggregation operations. We present an new language Datalog*, which extends Datalog by stratified meta–predicates (including default negation), function symbols, and user–defined built–in predicates, which are implemented and evaluated top–down in Prolog. All predicates are subject to the same backtracking mechanism. The bottom–up fixpoint iteration can aggregate the derived facts after each iteration based on user–defined Prolog predicates.

In this paper we present a dataflow processor architecture based on [1], which is driven by controlflow generated tokens. We will show the special properties of this architecture with regard to scalability, extensibility, and parallelism. In this context we outline the application scope and compare our approach with related work. Advantages and disadvantages will be discussed and we suggest solutions to solve the disadvantages. Finally an example of the implementation of this architecture will be given and we have a look at further developments. We believe the features of this basic approach predestines the architecture especially for embedded systems and system on chips.

No description available.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a aplicabilidade de um minerador de dados para obter relações entre padrões de viagens encadeadas e características sócio-econômicas de viajantes urbanos. Para representar as viagens encadeadas, as viagens correspondentes a cada indivíduo do banco de dados foram codificadas em termos de seqüência de letras que indicam uma ordem cronológica em que atividades são desenvolvidas. O minerador de dados utilizado neste trabalho é árvore de decisão e classificação, uma ferramenta de análise disponível no software S-Plus. A análise foi baseada na pesquisa origem-destino realizada pelo Metrô-SP na região metropolitana de São Paulo, por meio de entrevistas domiciliares, em 1987. Um dos importantes resultados é que indivíduos que têm atributos sócio-econômicos e de viagens similares não se comportam de maneira similar; pelo contrário, eles fazem diferentes padrões de viagens encadeadas, as quais podem ser descritas em termos de probabilidade ou freqüência associada a cada padrão. Portanto, o minerador de dados deve possuir a habilidade para representar essa distribuição. A consistência do resultado foi analisada comparando-os com alguns resultados encontrados na literatura referente a análise de viagem baseada em atividades. A principal conclusão é que árvore de decisão e classificação aplicada a dados individuais, contendo encadeamento de viagem codificado e atributos socioeconômicos e de viagem, permite extrair conhecimento e informações ocultas que ajudam a compreender o comportamento de viagem de viajantes urbanos. / The main aim of this work is to analyze the applicability of a data miner for obtaining relationships between trip-chaining patterns and urban trip-makers socioeconomic characteristics. In order to represent the trip-chains, trips corresponding to each individual in the data set were coded in terms of letters indicating a chronological order in which activities are performed. Data miner applied in this work is decision and classification tree, an analysis tool available in S-Plus software package. The analysis was based on the origin-destination home-interview survey carried out by Metrô-SP in São Paulo metropolitan area. One of the important findings is that individuals having similar socieconomic and trip attributes do not behave in a similar way; on the contrary, they make different trip-chaining patterns, which may be described in term of probability or frequency associated to each pattern. Therefore, the data miner should have ability to represent that distribution. The consistency of results was analyzed by comparing them with some results found in literature related to activity-based travel analysis. The main conclusion is that decision and classification tree applied to individual data, containing coded trip-chaining and socioeconomic and trip attributes, allows extracting hidden knowledge and information that help to understand the travel behaviour of urban trip-makers.