Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Rapid prototyping is a method of software system development that is gaining much support presently. Rapid prototyping allows the designer to quickly produce a model of a system or part of a system which the user can see and thus verify if his requirements have been met. The prototype specifications can then be efficiently converted to an accurate set of program specifications that the programmers can implement as a final working system. The computer aided prototyping system (CAPS) is a rapid prototyping system that will automate many of the processes of prototyping such as code generation of prototype modules and searching for reusable components. One of the many components of CAPS is a language translator which translates a prototype specification written in the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL) into a set of Ada procedures and packages. The Ada procedures and packages, when executed in proper order, will effectively execute the prototype. This thesis demonstrates an implementation of the translator component of the CAPS. An attribute grammar tool, Kodiyak, is used to build a translator which implements the major constructs of PSDL and produces Ada code to implement PSDL operators according to their control constraints. / http://archive.org/details/implementationof00alti / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The Texas Department of Transportation has been experiencing maintenance budget fluctuations recently. The shortage of budget has a negative impact on the agency’s maintenance strategies and results in the undesirable deterioration of highway conditions increasing the risk towards both road users and the agency. This paper aims at developing a methodology to minimize the impact of budget fluctuation by quantifying the risk of not performing a maintenance activity and identifying the priority of maintenance activities based on the quantified risk. With the help of maintenance experts from TxDOT, four maintenance objectives and 16 maintenance function groups were identified and a hierarchy structure was developed based on the objectives and function groups. Four pilot districts were selected to represent the different demographic and climatic regions in Texas and maintenance experts were selected from the four districts to participate in the workshop. The Overall Relative Weights of 16 maintenance function groups were determined based on the individual evaluator’s judgments using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. To determine if the four pilot districts give different relative importance to the four defined objectives and different priority to the 16 maintenance groups, statistical analyses were conducted with the four sets of values, one for each of the four pilot districts, using Kruskal-Wallis test. At last, a web-based prototype system was developed to assist users in generating the list of maintenance projects under budget constraints. Exposure factors, ADT and truck volume, were applied in the system to factor in the impact of traffic to the maintenance strategy. Users of this system can choose to use the weights and parameter values from one of the pilot districts which they think is most comparable to their own district or the state average values that has been proved to be applicable to all the districts in Texas. / text

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis builds upon work previously done in the development of the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) and the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL), and presents a conceptual design for the Software Base Management System (SBMS) component of CAPS. The SBMS is the most critical component of CAPS as it will coordinate the retrieval and integration of Ada software modules. A robust SBMS that enables a software system designer to successfully retrieve reusable Ada components will expedite the prototype development process and enhance designer productivity. Implementation of the conceptual design will be the basis for further work in this area. (Ada is a registered trademark of the United States Government, Ada Joint Program Office.) / http://archive.org/details/conceptualdesign00gali / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

The emerging interests in spatial pattern mining leads to the demand for a flexible spatial pattern mining language, on which easy to use and understand visual pattern language could be built. It is worthwhile to define a pattern mining language called LCSPM to allow users to specify complex spatial patterns. I describe a proposed pattern mining language in this paper. A visual interface which allows users to specify the patterns visually is developed. Visual pattern queries are translated into the LCSPM language by a parser and data mining process can be triggered afterwards. The visual language is based on and goes beyond the visual language proposed in literature. I implemented a prototype system based on the open source JUMP framework.

In 2025, there will be almost 8 billion people to feed as the worlds population rapidly increases. To meet domestic and export demands, Australian grain productivity needs to approximately triple in the next 20 years, and this production needs to occur in an environmentally sustainable manner. The advent of Hi-tech Precision Farming in Australia has shown promise in recent time to optimize the use of resources. Most