Background: Prescriptive methods have been at the core of modern hearing aid fittings for the past several decades. Every decade or so, there have been revisions to existing methods and/or the emergence of new methods that become widely used. In 2001 Byrne et al provided a comparison of insertion gain for generic prescriptive methods available at that time. Purpose: The purpose of this article was to compare National Acoustic Laboratories—Non-linear 1 (NAL-NL1), National Acoustic Laboratories—Non-linear 2 (NAL-NL2), Desired Sensation Level Multistage Input/Output (DSL m[i/o]), and Cambridge Method for Loudness Equalization 2—High-Frequency (CAMEQ2-HF) prescriptive methods for adults on the amplification characteristics of prescribed insertion gain and compression ratio. Following the differences observed in prescribed insertion gain among the four prescriptive methods, analyses of predicted specific loudness, overall loudness, and bandwidth of cochlear excitation and effective audibility as well as speech intelligibility of the international long-term average speech spectrum (ILTASS) at an average conversational input level were completed. These analyses allow for the discussion of similarities and differences among the present-day prescriptive methods. Research Design: The impact of insertion gain differences among the methods is examined for seven hypothetical hearing loss configurations using models of loudness perception and speech intelligibility. Study Sample: Hearing loss configurations for adults of various types and degrees were selected, five of which represent sensorineural impairment and were used by Byrne et al; the other two hearing losses provide an example of mixed and conductive impairment. Data Collection and Analysis: Prescribed insertion gain data were calculated in 1/3-octave frequency bands for each of the seven hearing losses from the software application of each prescriptive method over multiple input levels. The insertion gain data along with a diffuse field-to-eardrum transfer function were used to calculate output levels at the eardrums of the hypothetical listeners. Levels of hearing loss and output were then used in the Moore and Glasberg loudness model and the ANSI S3.5-1997 Speech Intelligibility Index model. Results: NAL-NL2 and DSL m[i/o] provided comparable overall loudness of approximately 8 sones for the five sensorineural hearing losses for a 65 dB SPL ILTASS input. This loudness was notably less than that perceived by a normal-hearing person for the same input signal, 18.6 sones. NAL-NL2 and DSL m[i/o] also provided comparable predicted speech intelligibility in quiet and noise. CAMEQ2-HF provided a greater average loudness, similar to NAL-NL1, with more high-frequency bandwidth but no significant improvement to predicted speech intelligibility. Conclusions: Definite variation in prescribed insertion gain was present among the prescriptive methods. These differences when averaged across the hearing losses were, by and large, negligible with regard to predicted speech intelligibility at normal conversational speech levels. With regard to loudness, DSL m[i/o] and NAL-NL2 provided the least overall loudness, followed by CAMEQ2-HF and NAL-NL1 providing the most loudness. CAMEQ2-HF provided the most audibility at high frequencies; even so, the audibility became less effective for improving speech intelligibility as hearing loss severity increased.

導引精靈(wizard)是一種用來收集用戶端資料的互動式使用者介面應用程式，常被廣泛的使用在軟體系統裡，也是大多數應用程式常見的功能之一。導引精靈的使用不僅簡化了複雜的資料收集過程，也可以避免資料的遺漏以確保收集資料的完整性；此外在資料收集的過程中導引精靈所提供的適當提示與即時資料驗證，還可以提高資料收集的正確性，所以導引精靈對於應用程式的資料收集是相當有用的。 本研究的目標是開發一個模型驅動的導引精靈開發系統，希望能在相同或不相同的時間裡快速建構多平台導引精靈程式。我們提出的系統稱為MoDWiz，它實現了應用「模型驅動架構(MDA)」於多平台導引精靈開發的所有工具支援。為了讓使用者建構自己的(平台無關)導引精靈模型，MoDWiz不僅提供了用以規範導引精靈的超模型，還制定一個特定領域語言WDL以作為此超模型的具體語法。此外，由於WDL的制定，我們得以提供專屬的編輯器以輔助使用者進行導引精靈模型的編輯。目前MoDWiz支援三種執行平台的導引精靈開發，分別為網頁應用程式、Eclipse與Java。而根據MDA理論，我們必須制定的三種平台超模型均已內含於MoDWiz。除此之外，MoDWiz的工具鏈還包括用來將平台無關導引精靈模型轉換成符合每一個特定平台導引精靈模型的M2M工具，以及將每一個特定平台導引精靈模型轉換成相對應實作的M2T工具。所有MoDWiz的工具與WDL編輯器程式均實作為Eclipse 外掛程式，因此能夠與Eclipse平台高度整合。當利用WDL編輯器完成導引精靈模型的製作之後，使用者只需透過簡單的滑鼠點擊就可以完成導引精靈程式的實作。 / A wizard is an interactive user interface program used to collect data from the user. It is widely used in software systems and is a common part of most applications. Not only does the use of wizards modularize and simplify complex data collection process, but it can also avoid data missing and ensure data integrity. Furthermore, during the process of data collection, since a wizard can provide tips and instant data validation it can also improve the correctness of collected data. As a conclusion, it is very beneficial to use wizards in an application. The goal of this research is the development of a model-driven wizard generation system (MoDWiz) that can be used to help rapid construction of multi-platform wizards to be developed at different or the same time. MoDWiz is our solution to the problem of applying OMG's model-driven architecture (MDA) to the development of multi-platform wizards. In order for the user to construct his (platform independent) wizard model, MoDWiz provides not only a wizard metamodel but also a domain specific language (DSL) called WDL as a concrete syntax of the metamodel. Owing to the availability of WDL, we are able to provide also a friendly editor to help the user to edit his wizard models. MoDWiz supports at present three platforms: eclipse platform, web application platform and plain Java platform. Accordingly metamodels of wizards for these platforms have to be defined and indeed have been provided in MoDWiz. Apart from these, MoDWiz's tool chain includes also M2M tools, which could transform every platform independent wizard model into a corresponding PSM model for each platform, as well as M2T tools, which could transform every platform specific wizard model into a corresponding implementation. All of MoDWiz's tools and wizard editor are implemented as eclipse plug-ins and thus are highly integrated with eclipse. As a result it is very easy to get a wizard implementation by simple mouse clicks once its model has been constructed using MoDWiz.

Les radio galaxies sont les candidats préférentiels pour comprendre la formation et l'évolution des galaxies sur une grande échelle de temps. Observées jusqu'à z>5 en raison de leur brillance, elles sont abritées par des galaxies elliptiques géantes. L'émission radio révèle la présence d'un trou noir supermassif. Un tore de poussière entourant le noyau actif de galaxie (AGN) agit comme un coronographe naturel permettant alors l'étude de la galaxie hôte. L'objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer l'évolution de la composante stellaire en présence d'un AGN. La décomposition est faite à partir de la distribution spectrale d'énergie (SED) de l'UV au submillimétrique en utilisant le code d'évolution de galaxies PEGASE.3 et un code d' AGN, les deux modélisant l'émission de la poussière par transfert radiatif.En premier lieu, nous présentons le projet HeRGE, 70 radio galaxies observées avec Herschel, qui permet de mesurer leurs luminosités totales infrarouges, comparables à celles des ULIRG. Une décomposition de la luminosité infrarouge entre l'émission AGN et un modèle de starburst est proposée pour l'ensemble de l'échantillon. Ces luminosités élevées sont interprétées en termes de taux d'accrétion et de formation d'étoiles, favorisant la croissance du trou noir par rapport à la galaxie hôte.En second lieu, l'orientation du jet par rapport au tore est contrainte à partir de l'infrarouge moyen et du rapport des émissions radio des lobes (isotrope, 500MHz) et du coeur (anisotrope, 20GHz). Ces observations en accord avec le modèle d'unification permettent d'évaluer le facteur d'absorption Av, l'inclinaison du tore et de contraindre le facteur de Lorentz.Une sélection de 12 radio galaxies observées de l'UV au sub-mm est analysée avec PEGASE.3 et un modèle d'AGN. Une seule composante stellaire est insuffisante. Seules deux composantes (une évoluée et massive, et une jeune issue d'un starburst) permettent un ajustement significatif de la SED complète. La composante évoluée est très massive (environ 10^12 msun) formée sur une courte période de temps (<10^9 ans). La composante jeune (<4.10^7 ans), moins massive (environ 10^11 msun), confirme un processus épisodique de croissance par sursauts. Ces résultats sont des contraintes fortes pour les modèles de formation de galaxies. La relation avec le noyau actif reste encore à préciser. Les projets d'observations complémentaires, optique et mm, permettront de confirmer ces résultats.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία μελετάται έλεγχος της λειτουργίας ενός πλήθους διαφορετικών τεχνολογιών δικτύου, όπως το Ψηφιακό Δίκτυο Ενοποιημένων Υπηρεσιών (Integrated Services Digital Network, ISDN), ο ψηφιακός βρόχος συνδρομητή (Digital Subscriber Loop), οι τεχνολογίες SHDSL,VDSL κ.α. Αφότου έγινε μια εκτενής περιγραφή των περισσότερων τύπων δικτύων και διεξοδική μελέτη των λειτουργιών τους, προσδιορίστηκαν οι τεχνολογίες δικτύου που είναι εφικτό να μελετηθούν στα πλαίσια ενός εργαστηριακού μαθήματος. Για την επίτευξη του στόχου αυτού δη-μιουργήθηκαν μια σειρά εργαστηριακών ασκήσεων που βοηθούν στην κατανόηση τόσο των συγκεκριμένων τεχνολογιών (και των μεταξύ τους διαφορών) όσο και των πολυάριθμων ελέγχων που είναι δυνατό να διεξαχθούν για την παρακολούθηση και συντήρηση των συγκεκριμένων δικτύων. Εν κατακλείδι η εργασία αποτελεί ένα χρήσιμο εργαλείο για τη μελέτη των πιο σημαντικών τεχνολογιών δικτύου. / This diploma thesis examines the monitoring of the functions, of many network technologies such as the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL), the SHDSL, VDSL technologies and more. After an extensive reference of the most network types and a comprehensive study of their functions, it has been determined which of those is possible to be examined as a part of lab course. In order for this goal to be achieved, it has been created a set of laboratory exercises that help in the understanding of these network technologies, the differences between them and the multiple tests that can be conducted for the monitoring and maintenance of those networks. In conclusion this diploma thesis is useful tool in the study of the most important network technologies.

Geometric Multigrid (GMG) methods are widely used in numerical analysis to accelerate the convergence of partial differential equations solvers using a hierarchy of grid discretizations. These solvers find plenty of applications in various fields in engineering and scientific domains, where solving PDEs is of fundamental importance. Using multigrid methods, the pace at which the solvers arrive at the solution can be improved at an algorithmic level. With the advance in modern computer architecture, solving problems with higher complexity and sizes is feasible - this is also the case with multigrid methods. However, since hardware support alone cannot achieve high performance in execution time, there is a need for good software that help programmers in doing so. Multiple grid sizes and recursive expression of multigrid cycles make the task of manual program optimization tedious and error-prone. A high-level language that aids domain experts to quickly express complex algorithms in a compact way using dedicated constructs for multigrid methods and with good optimization support is thus valuable. Typical computation patterns in a GMG algorithm includes stencils, point-wise accesses, restriction and interpolation of a grid. These computations can be optimized for performance on modern architectures using standard parallelization and locality enhancement techniques. Several past works have addressed the problem of automatic optimizations of computations in various scientific domains using a domain-specific language (DSL) approach. A DSL is a language with features to express domain-specific computations and compiler support to enable optimizations specific to these computations. Halide and PolyMage are two of the recent works in this direction, that aim to optimize image processing pipelines. Many computations like upsampling and downsampling an image are similar to interpolation and restriction in geometric multigrid methods. In this thesis, we demonstrate how high performance can be achieved on GMG algorithms written in the PolyMage domain-specific language with new optimizations we added to the compiler. We also discuss the implementation of non-trivial optimizations, on PolyMage compiler, necessary to achieve high parallel performance for multigrid methods on modern architectures. We realize these goals by: • introducing multigrid domain-specific constructs to minimize the verbosity of the algorithm specification; • storage remapping to reduce the memory footprint of the program and improve cache locality exploitation; • mitigating execution time spent in data handling operations like memory allocation and freeing, using a pool of memory, across multiple multigrid cycles; and • incorporating other well-known techniques to leverage performance, like exploiting multi-dimensional parallelism and minimizing the lifetime of storage buffers. We evaluate our optimizations on a modern multicore system using five different benchmarks varying in multigrid cycle structure, complexity and size, for two-and three-dimensional data grids. Experimental results show that our optimizations: • improve performance of existing PolyMage optimizer by 1.31x; • are better than straight-forward parallel and vector implementations by 3.2x; • are better than hand-optimized versions in conjunction with optimizations by Pluto, a state-of-the-art polyhedral source-to-source optimizer, by 1.23x; and • achieve up to 1.5$\times$ speedup over NAS MG benchmark from the NAS Parallel Benchmarks. (The speedup numbers are Geometric means over all benchmarks)

Graphs model relationships across real-world entities in web graphs, social network graphs, and road network graphs. Graph algorithms analyze and transform a graph to discover graph properties or to apply a computation. For instance, a pagerank algorithm computes a rank for each page in a webgraph, and a community detection algorithm discovers likely communities in a social network, while a shortest path algorithm computes the quickest way to reach a place from another, in a road network. In Domains such as social information systems, the number of edges can be in billions or trillions. Such large graphs are processed on distributed computer systems or clusters. Graph algorithms can be executed on multi-core CPUs, GPUs with thousands of cores, multi-GPU devices, and CPU+GPU clusters, depending on the size of the graph object. While programming such algorithms on heterogeneous targets, a programmer is required to deal with parallelism and and also manage explicit data communication between distributed devices. This implies that a programmer is required to learn CUDA, OpenMP, MPI, etc., and also the details of the hardware architecture. Such codes are error prone and di cult to debug. A Domain Speci c Language (DSL) which hides all the hardware details and lets the programmer concentrate only the algorithmic logic will be very useful. With this as the research goal, Falcon, graph DSL and its compiler have been developed. Falcon programs are explicitly parallel and Falcon hides all the hardware details from the programmer. Large graphs that do not t into the memory of a single device are automatically partitioned by the Falcon compiler. Another feature of Falcon is that it supports mutation of graph objects and thus enables programming dynamic graph algorithms. The Falcon compiler converts a single DSL code to heterogeneous targets such as multi-core CPUs, GPUs, multi-GPU devices, and CPU+GPU clusters. Compiled codes of Falcon match or outperform state-of-the-art graph frameworks for di erent target platforms and benchmarks.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4765.pdf: 5526051 bytes, checksum: eca7635e3ad1f0a28a9f3871c97aac57 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-12 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / Autonomous mobile robots are machines capable of executing repetitive/dangerous tasks more efficiently. Most of them have an embedded software which is responsible for their execution. Over the last years, the complexity of these applications has continuously growing and they are presenting challenges that are uncommon to traditional information systems development. Therefore, any technique that can support their development is a great contribution. A technique that improves the productivity is to use domain-specific languages (DSLs). These are modeling and programming languages whose constructs are concepts and abstractions of a particular domain. It frees developers from worrying about generic programming concepts (classes, objects, attributes, etc.) and allows them to focus on the problem to be solved. As creating a DSL is not a trivial task and pointing the idiosyncrasies of mobile robots, this dissertation presents an approach for engineering DSLs to mobile robots. The aim is to make the activity of creating DSLs to this domain more systematic and controlled. In this approach, an application is taken as input and a series of domain statements is extracted from it. These statements are classified into categories and each one of them are analized in order to extract commonalities and variabilities, wich are transformed into components of a DSL. An important characteristic of the approach is that it asks for just one application to reach a first version of a running DSL. We suggest that the same DSL can be evolved just by applying the approach again using another application as input. So new components could be created and the existing ones could be modified. We also present a generic language model providing a foundation architecture that allows one to easily create new DSLs by extending it. Two proofs of concept are presented in order to exemplify the application of our approach. / Robôs móveis autônomos são máquinas com potencial para realizar atividades repetitivas ou de alta periculosidade com mais eficácia. Muitos possuem um software embarcado responsável pelo seu funcionamento. Nos últimos anos, a complexidade dessas aplicações robóticas embarcadas tem crescido continuamente e apresentam desafios que são incomuns ao desenvolvimento dos tradicionais sistemas de informação. Portanto, toda técnica que dê suporte a esse tipo de desenvolvimento pode contribuir significativamente. Uma técnica que permite o aumento de produtividade é a utilização de linguagens específicas de domínio (DSLs). Essas são linguagens de modelagem e programação cujas construções são conceitos e abstrações de um domínio de aplicação em particular. Isso desobriga o desenvolvedor de se preocupar com conceitos genéricos de programação (classes, objetos, atributos, etc.) para focar-se no problema a ser resolvido. Como o desenvolvimento de uma DSL não é uma tarefa trivial e tendo em vista as idiossincrasias dos robôs móveis autônomos, esta dissertação apresenta uma abordagem para construção de DSLs para robôs móveis. O objetivo é deixar mais sistemática e controlada a criação de DSLs para esse domínio. Nessa abordagem, uma aplicação é tomada como entrada e dela extraem-se declarações a respeito do domínio. Essas declarações são categorizadas e, para cada categoria, são levantadas partes comuns e variáveis. Então, essas partes são transformadas em componentes de uma DSL. Uma característica importante da abordagem apresentada é que uma versão inicial da DSL pode ser alcançada tendo apenas uma aplicação como base. Sugere-se que essa mesma DSL possa evoluir pela reaplicação da abordagem tendo uma nova aplicação como entrada. Dessa forma, novos componentes podem ser criados e os existentes, modificados. Também é apresentado um modelo genérico de linguagem que fornece uma arquitetura básica, permitindo que novas DSLs sejam facilmente construídas pela extensão da mesma. Duas provas de conceito são apresentadas com a intenção de exemplificar a aplicação da abordagem.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6469.pdf: 4680875 bytes, checksum: 348ed33838e264f70033e8383aeaa100 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-27 / The integrated network management system aims to manage the telecommunications network, regardless of network elements technology in order to identify the causes of problems, providing a more assertive decision making to remedy these problems and make the network available and operational. Thus, can to cater to the market that is increasingly demanding with the level of quality telecommunications products and services. Given this need, integrated networks management system belongs to a real company needs to respond quickly to customers' expectations with respect to requests for new functions system, and perform technology upgrades periodically. However, the integrated network management system development use centered-source technologies, and it requires great effort and hinders reuse. In this context, this master's project presents a proposal to facilitate the integrated network management system development using the techniques of MDD (Model Driven Development). MDD emphasizes the use of models in software development. These models specify the rules of business domain at a high level of abstraction, i.e., regardless of the programming language and to run the software platform. With appropriate computational tools transformations of models in the source code are performed. The use of MDD can provide software reuse procedurally, enabling faster development, lower cost, produce a flexible software and enable faster modifications. To apply MDD approach, a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for the configuration management of integrated network management system setting is designed to facilitate the inclusion of a new technology to be managed by the system, while providing faster development and with fewer errors of code. To evaluate the proposal, an experiment was conducted with the participation of software developers that know the system and work in this real company. The results showed that according to the descriptive analyses there was a reduction in the time spent in application development when it was used DSL compared to the specialization of classes. However, hypotheses tests showed no such reduction. The insertion of errors in the code occurred only in applications developed using specialization classes. The use of DSL provided a broader view of the business rule and you do not need knowledge of the programming language, once the code was automatically generated. / Um sistema de gerenciamento integrado de redes tem o objetivo de gerenciar uma rede de telecomunicações, independentemente da tecnologia dos elementos de rede, a fim de identificar as causas de problemas, proporcionando a tomada de decisão mais assertiva para saná-los e deixar a rede disponível e operacional. Dessa forma, o mercado que está cada vez mais exigente com o nível de qualidade dos produtos e serviços de telecomunicações é atendido. Diante dessa necessidade, o sistema de gerenciamento integrado de redes de uma empresa real precisa atender rapidamente às expectativas dos clientes com relação às solicitações de novas funções do sistema, assim como realizar atualizações tecnológicas periodicamente. Porém, o desenvolvimento do sistema de gerenciamento integrado de redes dessa empresa utiliza tecnologias centradas em código-fonte, o que implica em grande esforço e dificulta a sua reutilização. Neste contexto, este projeto de mestrado apresenta uma proposta para facilitar o desenvolvimento do sistema de gerenciamento integrado de redes utilizando as técnicas de MDD (Desenvolvimento Dirigido a Modelos). MDD enfatiza a utilização de modelos no desenvolvimento do software. Esses modelos especificam as regras de negócio de domínio em um alto nível de abstração, ou seja, independentemente da linguagem de programação e da plataforma de execução do software. Com ferramentas computacionais adequadas são realizadas as transformações dos modelos em código-fonte. A utilização de MDD pode proporcionar reúso de software de forma processual, possibilitar um desenvolvimento mais rápido, com menor custo, produzir um software flexível e possibilitar modificações mais rapidamente. Para aplicar a abordagem de MDD, uma linguagem específica de domínio (DSL) para a gerência de configuração do sistema de gerenciamento integrado de redes foi desenvolvida. Tem como objetivo facilitar a inclusão de uma nova tecnologia a ser gerenciada pelo sistema e ao mesmo tempo proporcionar um desenvolvimento mais rápido, com menos erros de código. Para avaliar a proposta foi realizado um experimento com a participação dos atuais desenvolvedores de software de uma empresa real. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que, segundo a análise descritiva, houve redução do tempo gasto no desenvolvimento das aplicações quando foi utilizada a DSL em comparação com o desenvolvimento baseado em especialização das classes. Porém, os testes das hipóteses não apresentaram tal redução. A inserção de erros no código ocorreu somente nas aplicações desenvolvidas utilizando especialização das classes. O uso da DSL proporcionou uma visão mais ampla da regra de negócio e não exigiu conhecimento da linguagem de programação, pois o código foi gerado automaticamente.

Mitteilungen des URZ 4/2002

Resources Events Agents (REA) ontology is a profound business modeling ontology that was developed to define the architecture of accounting information systems. Nevertheless, REA did not manage to get the same attention as other business modeling ontologies. One reason of such abandon is the absence of a meaningful visual notation for the ontology, which has resulted in an abstruse ontology to non-academic audience. Another reason for this abandon is the fact that REA does not have a standard formal representation. This has resulted in a humble amount of researches which have focused on defining meta-models of the ontology while neglecting the wider purpose of REA-based information systems development. Consequently, the ontology was deviated away from its original purpose, and rather used in business schools. To solve the aforementioned issues, this research presents a Model Driven Development (MDD) technique in the form of a REA-based Domain Specific Visual Language (DSVL) that is implemented within a modeling and code generation editor. This effort was taken in order to answer the question of “How would a REA-DSVL based tool make the REA ontology implementable in the domain of information systems development?” In order to answer the research question, a design science methodology (DSRM) was implemented as the structure of this research. The DSRM was chosen because this research aims to develop three main artifacts. These are; a meta-model of REA, a visual notation of REA, and a REA-DSVL-based modeling and code generation tool. The first phase of the DSRM was to identify the problems which were mentioned earlier, followed by the requirements identification phase which drew the outline of the; meta-model, the visual notation, and the tool. After that, the development phase was conducted in order to develop the aforementioned artifacts. The editor was then demonstrated using a case study of a local company in Stockholm-Sweden. Finally, the resulted artifacts were evaluated based on the collected requirements and the results from the case study. Based on the analyses of the artifacts and the case study, this research was concluded with the result that a REA-based DSVL tool can help in boosting the planning and analysis phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This is achieved by automating some of the conventional software planning and design tasks, which would lead to more accurate systems’ designs; thus, minimizing the time of the planning and design phases. And it can be achieved by abstracting the direct logic of REA through providing functionalities that help users from different backgrounds (academic and professional) to embrace a business modeling editor rather than an ontology; thus, attracting a wider users base for implementing REA.