The water hyacinth problem and the biological control option in the highland lake region of the upper Nile basin: Uganda's experience

The rapid proliferation and extensive spread of water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes (Mart) Solms in the highland lakes of the Nile Basin within less than 15 years of introduction into the basin in the 1980s pauses potential environmental and social economic menace if the noxious weed is not controlled soon. The water weed has spread all round Lake Victoria and, in Uganda where infes tation is mos t severe, water hyacinth estimated at 1,330,000 ton smothers over 2,000 ha of the lakeshore (August,1994). Lake Kyoga which already constantly supplies River Nile with the weed is infested with over 570 ha, while over 80% of the river course in Uganda is fringed on either side with an average width of about 5m of water hyacinth. As the impact of infestation with water hyacinth on water quality and availability, transportation by water, fishing activities, fisheries ecology, hydro-power generation etc becomes clear in Uganda, serious discussion is under way on how to control and manage the noxious weed. This paper pauses some of the questions being asked regarding the possible application of mechanical and chemical means to control the water weed.Uganda has already initiated the use of biological control of water hyacinth on Lake Kyoga with a strategy to use two weevils namely Neochetinabruchi and Neochetina eichhorniae. The strategy to build capacity and infrastructure for mass multiplication and deployment of biological control of the weevils in the field developed in Uganda by the Fisheries Research Insti tu te (FIRI) and the Namulonge Agricultural and Animal production Research Insti tute (NAARI) is proposed in outline for evaluation. Plans to deploy this strategy on lake Kyoga are under way

Impacts of concurrency, iteration, design review, and problem complexity on design project lead time and error generation

A case study of an aircraft engine manufacturer is used to analyze the effects of management levers on the lead time and design errors generated in an iteration-intensive concurrent engineering process. The levers considered are amount of design-space exploration iteration, degree of process concurrency, and timing of design reviews. Simulation is used to show how the ideal combination of these levers can vary with changes in design problem complexity, which can increase, for instance, when novel technology is incorporated in a design. Results confirm that it is important to consider multiple iteration-influencing factors and their interdependencies to understand concurrent processes, because the factors can interact with confounding effects. The article also demonstrates a new approach to derive a system dynamics model from a process task network. The new approach could be applied to analyze other concurrent engineering scenarios. © The Author(s) 2012.

Development of modelling method selection tool for health services management: From problem structuring methods to modelling and simulation methods

Background: There is an increasing recognition that modelling and simulation can assist in the process of designing health care policies, strategies and operations. However, the current use is limited and answers to questions such as what methods to use and when remain somewhat underdeveloped. Aim. The aim of this study is to provide a mechanism for decision makers in health services planning and management to compare a broad range of modelling and simulation methods so that they can better select and use them or better commission relevant modelling and simulation work. Methods. This paper proposes a modelling and simulation method comparison and selection tool developed from a comprehensive literature review, the research team's extensive expertise and inputs from potential users. Twenty-eight different methods were identified, characterised by their relevance to different application areas, project life cycle stages, types of output and levels of insight, and four input resources required (time, money, knowledge and data). Results: The characterisation is presented in matrix forms to allow quick comparison and selection. This paper also highlights significant knowledge gaps in the existing literature when assessing the applicability of particular approaches to health services management, where modelling and simulation skills are scarce let alone money and time. Conclusions: A modelling and simulation method comparison and selection tool is developed to assist with the selection of methods appropriate to supporting specific decision making processes. In particular it addresses the issue of which method is most appropriate to which specific health services management problem, what the user might expect to be obtained from the method, and what is required to use the method. In summary, we believe the tool adds value to the scarce existing literature on methods comparison and selection. © 2011 Jun et al.

Precise description of the different far fields encountered in the problem of diffraction of acoustic waves by a quarter-plane

This paper provides a review of important results concerning the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction and Geometrical Optics. It also reviews the properties of the existing solution for the problem of diffraction of a time harmonic plane wave by a half-plane. New mathematical expressions are derived for the wave fields involved in the problem of diffraction of a time harmonic plane wave by a quarter-plane, including the secondary radiated waves. This leads to a precise representation of the diffraction coefficient describing the diffraction occurring at the corner of the quarter-plane. Our results for the secondary radiated waves are an important step towards finding a formula giving the corner diffraction coefficient everywhere. © 2012 The authors.

The inverse problem in magnetic force microscopy--inferring sample magnetization from MFM images.

Nanomagnetic structures have the potential to surpass silicon's scaling limitations both as elements in hybrid CMOS logic and as novel computational elements. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) offers a convenient characterization technique for use in the design of such nanomagnetic structures. MFM measures the magnetic field and not the sample's magnetization. As such the question of the uniqueness of the relationship between an external magnetic field and a magnetization distribution is a relevant one. To study this problem we present a simple algorithm which searches for magnetization distributions consistent with an external magnetic field and solutions to the micromagnetic equations' qualitative features. The algorithm is not computationally intensive and is found to be effective for our test cases. On the basis of our results we propose a systematic approach for interpreting MFM measurements.

Application of the multi-objective Alliance algorithm to a benchmark aerodynamic optimization problem

This paper introduces a new version of the multiobjective Alliance Algorithm (MOAA) applied to the optimization of the NACA 0012 airfoil section, for minimization of drag and maximization of lift coefficients, based on eight section shape parameters. Two software packages are used: XFoil which evaluates each new candidate airfoil section in terms of its aerodynamic efficiency, and a Free-Form Deformation tool to manage the section geometry modifications. Two versions of the problem are formulated with different design variable bounds. The performance of this approach is compared, using two indicators and a statistical test, with that obtained using NSGA-II and multi-objective Tabu Search (MOTS) to guide the optimization. The results show that the MOAA outperforms MOTS and obtains comparable results with NSGA-II on the first problem, while in the other case NSGA-II is not able to find feasible solutions and the MOAA is able to outperform MOTS. © 2013 IEEE.

Multispacecraft refueling optimization considering the J2 perturbation and window constraints

The optimization of a near-circular low-Earth-orbit multispacecraft refueling problem is studied. The refueling sequence, service time, and orbital transfer time are used as design variables, whereas the mean mission completion time and mean propellant consumed by orbital maneuvers are used as design objectives. The J2 term of the Earth's nonspherical gravity perturbation and the constraints of rendezvous time windows are taken into account. A hybridencoding genetic algorithm, which uses normal fitness assignment to find the minimum mean propellant-cost solution and fitness assignment based on the concept of Pareto-optimality to find multi-objective optimal solutions, is presented. The proposed approach is demonstrated for a typical multispacecraft refueling problem. The results show that the proposed approach is effective, and that the J2 perturbation and the time-window constraints have considerable influences on the optimization results. For the problems in which the J2 perturbation is not accounted for, the optimal refueling order can be simply determined as a sequential order or as the order only based on orbitalplane differences. In contrast, for the problems that do consider the J2 perturbation, the optimal solutions obtained have a variety of refueling orders and use the drift of nodes effectively to reduce the propellant cost for eliminating orbital-plane differences. © 2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Manufacturing excellent engineers: Skill development in a Masters programme

An MPhil programme, delivered by the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, claims to be excellent at preparing graduates for manufacturing industry careers. The course uses a combination of different educational experiences, including industry-based assignments, industrial visits and practical exercises. This research explores how problem solving skills are developed during the first module, Induction, which is designed to enable students to undertake their first industrial assignment. From the literature, four conditions necessary for skill development were identified: Provision of a skill description, making explicit key components A number of different experiences with a range of contextual variables A teaching process which includes regular feedback and student reflection Students motivated to learn. These were used to construct a skill development framework (SDF). Using a case study research design, multiple types of evidence were collected to test for the above conditions using both classroom observation and questionnaire methods. The results confirmed the presence of the SDF conditions at different levels, with reflection aspects considered the weakest. Conflicting results were obtained regarding the students' self-awareness of skill levels. A plausible explanation is a change in the students' frame of reference. This initial study set out to develop a better understanding of the process of skill development. Whilst the SDF appears reasonable, there is a need for further work in three broad areas of defining skills, assessing skills and developing reflection skills.

on lin-bose problem

This paper study generalized Serre problem proposed by Lin and Bose in multidimensional system theory context [Multidimens. Systems and Signal Process. 10 (1999) 379; Linear Algebra Appl. 338 (2001) 125]. This problem is stated as follows. Let F ∈ Al×m be a full row rank matrix, and d be the greatest common divisor of all the l × l minors of F. Assume that the reduced minors of F generate the unit ideal, where A = K[x 1,...,xn] is the polynomial ring in n variables x 1,...,xn over any coefficient field K. Then there exist matrices G ∈ Al×l and F1 ∈ A l×m such that F = GF1 with det G = d and F 1 is a ZLP matrix. We provide an elementary proof to this problem, and treat non-full rank case.

可满足性问题研究

数理逻辑是计算机科学的基础，而逻辑公式的可满足性问题是计算机科学和人工智能领域中的一个著名而又重要的问题。它在计算机科学和人工智能研究中有广泛的应用。本文将重点介绍实际可用的判定算法及其相关技术。 本文的研究分两大方向，分别是命题逻辑的可满足性问题研究和一阶逻辑的可满足性问题研究。命题逻辑的可满足性问题（Satisfiability Problem）是一个历史悠久的问题，一般简称为 SAT问题。SAT 问题的求解算法有两大类，分别是确定性算法和非确定性算法。本文只研究确定性算法的相关内容，尤其是如何进行剪枝。我们充分调研了SAT求解算法和求解工具的相关知识，在此基础上，提出了local Lemma 这个剪枝技术，该技术可以更加充分地挖掘剪枝信息，达到进行更多剪枝的目的。 在一阶逻辑的可满足性问题研究方面，本文采取直接搜索可行的一阶逻辑模型的方法研究有限论域上的一阶逻辑的可满足性问题。该方法本质上就是深度优先的回溯搜索。因此，我们的研究重点就是如何找到问题的更高效的一阶逻辑的表示以及如何采用启发式的方式进行剪枝。在这个问题上，我的主要工作有两个：一个是模型搜索中适用于谓词的同构消去技术，包括Row by Row策略和Ramsey Number 策略两个技术；另一个是 DASH（Decision Assignment Scheme Heuristic），用来在生成有限模型的时候边搜索边消除同构子空间。DASH 能用近乎零代价保证输出的模型都是互不同构的。这两个技术都是基于有限论域中的元素的固有对称性，换言之，就是需要有限论域中的元素是两两可交换的。 在已有的成果的基础上，我们又尝试使用它们去求解一些数学中的实际问题，如拟群拉丁方，有限射影平面，正交拉丁方（组）等。我们给出了在这几个方面的一些尝试和初步结果，包括一个重要的定理和若干效率提高了几个数量级的改进。 值得一提的是，和马菲菲共同提出的横截矩阵（Transversal Matrix）概念是一个新颖的成果，使得正交拉丁方的表示和求解取得了明显的改进。在这个概念的基础上，进一步给出了几个定理，进行了理论上的拓展。实验数据表明，我们的求解途径和技术能有效解决拉丁方相关的问题。