A Variational Calculation of TE and TM Cutoff Wavenumbers in Circular Eccentric Guides by Conformal Mapping

The cutoff wavenumbers of higher order modes in circular eccentric guides are computed with the variational analysis combined with a conformal mapping. A conformal mapping is applied to the variational formulation, and the variational equation is solved by the finite-element method. Numerical results for TE and TM cutoff wavenumbers are presented for different distances between the centers and ratio of the radii. Comparisons with numerical results found in the literature validate the presented method

Invariant density for a class of initial distributions under quadratic mapping

For the discrete-time quadratic map xt+1=4xt(1-xt) the evolution equation for a class of non-uniform initial densities is obtained. It is shown that in the t to infinity limit all of them approach the invariant density for the map.

Architecture and other Architectures: Mapping the Production of Insular Space in the Pearl River Delta (China) and Jakarta (Indonesia)

Globalization is widely regarded as the rise of the borderless world. However in practice, true globalization points rather to a “spatial logic” by which globalization is manifested locally in the shape of insular space. Globalization in this sense is not merely about the creation of physical fragmentation of space but also the creation of social disintegration. This study tries to proof that global processes also create various forms of insular space leading also to specific social implications. In order to examine the problem this study looks at two cases: China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Jakarta in Indonesia. The PRD case reveals three forms of insular space namely the modular, concealed and the hierarchical. The modular points to the form of enclosed factories where workers are vulnerable for human-right violations due to the absent of public control. The concealed refers to the production of insular space by subtle discrimination against certain social groups in urban space. And the hierarchical points to a production of insular space that is formed by an imbalanced population flow. The Jakarta case attempts to show more types of insularity in relation to the complexity of a mega-city which is shaped by a culture of exclusion. Those are dormant and hollow insularity. The dormant refers to the genesis of insular– radical – community from a culture of resistance. The last type, the hollow, points to the process of making a “pseudo community” where sense of community is not really developed as well as weak social relationship with its surrounding. Although global process creates various expressions of territorial insularization, however, this study finds that the “line of flight” is always present, where the border of insularity is crossed. The PRD’s produces vernacular modernization done by peasants which is less likely to be controlled by the politics of insularization. In Jakarta, the culture of insularization causes urban informalities that have no space, neither spatially nor socially; hence their state of ephemerality continues as a tactic of place-making. This study argues that these crossings possess the potential for reconciling venue to defuse the power of insularity.

Precision mapping

The nondestructive determination of plant total dry matter (TDM) in the field is greatly preferable to the harvest of entire plots in areas such as the Sahel where small differences in soil properties may cause large differences in crop growth within short distances. Existing equipment to nondestructively determine TDM is either expensive or unreliable. Therefore, two radiometers for measuring reflected red and near-infrared light were designed, mounted on a single wheeled hand cart and attached to a differential Global Positioning System (GPS) to measure georeferenced variations in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in pearl millet fields [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.]. The NDVI measurements were then used to determine the distribution of crop TDM. The two versions of the radiometer could (i) send single NDVI measurements to the GPS data logger at distance intervals of 0.03 to 8.53 m set by the user, and (ii) collect NDVI values averaged across 0.5, 1, or 2 m. The average correlation between TDM of pearl millet plants in planting hills and their NDVI values was high (r^2 = 0.850) but varied slightly depending on solar irradiance when the instrument was calibrated. There also was a good correlation between NDVI, fractional vegetation cover derived from aerial photographs and millet TDM at harvest. Both versions of the rugged instrument appear to provide a rapid and reliable way of mapping plant growth at the field scale with a high spatial resolution and should therefore be widely tested with different crops and soil types.

CoObRA: Eine Plattform zur Verteilung und Replikation komplexer Objektstrukturen mit optimistischen Sperrkonzepten

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Konzeption und Realisierung der Persistenz-, Verteilungs- und Versionierungsbibliothek CoObRA 2 vorgestellt. Es werden zunächst die Anforderungen an ein solches Rahmenwerk aufgenommen und vorhandene Technologien für dieses Anwendungsgebiet vorgestellt. Das in der neuen Bibliothek eingesetzte Verfahren setzt Änderungsprotokolle beziehungsweise -listen ein, um Persistenzdaten für Dokumente und Versionen zu definieren. Dieses Konzept wird dabei durch eine Abbildung auf Kontrukte aus der Graphentheorie gestützt, um die Semantik von Modell, Änderungen und deren Anwendung zu definieren. Bei der Umsetzung werden insbesondere das Design der Bibliothek und die Entscheidungen, die zu der gewählten Softwarearchitektur führten, eingehend erläutert. Dies ist zentraler Aspekt der Arbeit, da die Flexibilität des Rahmenwerks eine wichtige Anforderung darstellt. Abschließend werden die Einsatzmöglichkeiten an konkreten Beispielanwendungen erläutert und bereits gemachte Erfahrungen beim Einsatz in CASE-Tools, Forschungsanwendungen und Echtzeit-Simulationsumgebungen präsentiert.

Abbildung von XML-Dokumenten auf SQL:2003-konforme Datentypen

Die Auszeichnungssprache XML dient zur Annotation von Dokumenten und hat sich als Standard-Datenaustauschformat durchgesetzt. Dabei entsteht der Bedarf, XML-Dokumente nicht nur als reine Textdateien zu speichern und zu transferieren, sondern sie auch persistent in besser strukturierter Form abzulegen. Dies kann unter anderem in speziellen XML- oder relationalen Datenbanken geschehen. Relationale Datenbanken setzen dazu bisher auf zwei grundsätzlich verschiedene Verfahren: Die XML-Dokumente werden entweder unverändert als binäre oder Zeichenkettenobjekte gespeichert oder aber aufgespalten, sodass sie in herkömmlichen relationalen Tabellen normalisiert abgelegt werden können (so genanntes „Flachklopfen“ oder „Schreddern“ der hierarchischen Struktur). Diese Dissertation verfolgt einen neuen Ansatz, der einen Mittelweg zwischen den bisherigen Lösungen darstellt und die Möglichkeiten des weiterentwickelten SQL-Standards aufgreift. SQL:2003 definiert komplexe Struktur- und Kollektionstypen (Tupel, Felder, Listen, Mengen, Multimengen), die es erlauben, XML-Dokumente derart auf relationale Strukturen abzubilden, dass der hierarchische Aufbau erhalten bleibt. Dies bietet zwei Vorteile: Einerseits stehen bewährte Technologien, die aus dem Bereich der relationalen Datenbanken stammen, uneingeschränkt zur Verfügung. Andererseits lässt sich mit Hilfe der SQL:2003-Typen die inhärente Baumstruktur der XML-Dokumente bewahren, sodass es nicht erforderlich ist, diese im Bedarfsfall durch aufwendige Joins aus den meist normalisierten und auf mehrere Tabellen verteilten Tupeln zusammenzusetzen. In dieser Arbeit werden zunächst grundsätzliche Fragen zu passenden, effizienten Abbildungsformen von XML-Dokumenten auf SQL:2003-konforme Datentypen geklärt. Darauf aufbauend wird ein geeignetes, umkehrbares Umsetzungsverfahren entwickelt, das im Rahmen einer prototypischen Applikation implementiert und analysiert wird. Beim Entwurf des Abbildungsverfahrens wird besonderer Wert auf die Einsatzmöglichkeit in Verbindung mit einem existierenden, ausgereiften relationalen Datenbankmanagementsystem (DBMS) gelegt. Da die Unterstützung von SQL:2003 in den kommerziellen DBMS bisher nur unvollständig ist, muss untersucht werden, inwieweit sich die einzelnen Systeme für das zu implementierende Abbildungsverfahren eignen. Dabei stellt sich heraus, dass unter den betrachteten Produkten das DBMS IBM Informix die beste Unterstützung für komplexe Struktur- und Kollektionstypen bietet. Um die Leistungsfähigkeit des Verfahrens besser beurteilen zu können, nimmt die Arbeit Untersuchungen des nötigen Zeitbedarfs und des erforderlichen Arbeits- und Datenbankspeichers der Implementierung vor und bewertet die Ergebnisse.

Value Stream Analysis and Mapping for Product Development

This paper explores the concept of Value Stream Analysis and Mapping (VSA/M) as applied to Product Development (PD) efforts. Value Stream Analysis and Mapping is a method of business process improvement. The application of VSA/M began in the manufacturing community. PD efforts provide a different setting for the use of VSA/M. Site visits were made to nine major U.S. aerospace organizations. Interviews, discussions, and participatory events were used to gather data on (1) the sophistication of the tools used in PD process improvement efforts, (2) the lean context of the use of the tools, and (3) success of the efforts. It was found that all three factors were strongly correlated, suggesting success depends on both good tools and lean context. Finally, a general VSA/M method for PD activities is proposed. The method uses modified process mapping tools to analyze and improve process.

Value Stream Mapping in a Manufacturing Environment

Current Value Stream Map Future Value Stream Map Research Motivation Key Research Questions

Value Stream Analysis and Mapping for Product Development

This paper explores the concept of Value Stream Analysis and Mapping (VSA/M) as applied to Product Development (PD) efforts. Value Stream Analysis and Mapping is a method of business process improvement. The application of VSA/M began in the manufacturing community. PD efforts provide a different setting for the use of VSA/M. Site visits were made to nine major U.S. aerospace organizations. Interviews, discussions, and participatory events were used to gather data on (1) the sophistication of the tools used in PD process improvement efforts, (2) the lean context of the use of the tools, and (3) success of the efforts. It was found that all three factors were strongly correlated, suggesting success depends on both good tools and lean context. Finally, a general VSA/M method for PD activities is proposed. The method uses modified process mapping tools to analyze and improve process.

Ka-Map: an interactive web-mapping application

ka-Map ("ka" as in ka-boom!) is an open source project that is aimed at providing a javascript API for developing highly interactive web-mapping interfaces using features available in modern web browsers. ka-Map currently has a number of interesting features. It sports the usual array of user interface elements such as: interactive, continuous panning without reloading the page; keyboard navigation options (zooming, panning); zooming to pre-set scales; interactive scalebar, legend and keymap support; optional layer control on client side; server side tile caching

Online Robust 3D Mapping Using Structure from Motion Cues

This paper presents a complete solution for creating accurate 3D textured models from monocular video sequences. The methods are developed within the framework of sequential structure from motion, where a 3D model of the environment is maintained and updated as new visual information becomes available. The camera position is recovered by directly associating the 3D scene model with local image observations. Compared to standard structure from motion techniques, this approach decreases the error accumulation while increasing the robustness to scene occlusions and feature association failures. The obtained 3D information is used to generate high quality, composite visual maps of the scene (mosaics). The visual maps are used to create texture-mapped, realistic views of the scene

Mapping sub-flows to p2mp LSPs

In previous work we proposed a multi-objective traffic engineering scheme (MHDB-S model) using different distribution trees to multicast several flows. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm to create multiple point-to-multipoint (p2mp) LSPs based on the optimum sub-flow values obtained with our MHDB-S model. Moreover, a general problem for supporting multicasting in MPLS networks is the lack of labels. To reduce the number of labels used, a label space reduction algorithm solution is also considered