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One of the fundamental problems in computational structural biology is the prediction of RNA secondary structures from a single sequence. To solve this problem, mainly two different approaches have been used over the past decades: the free energy minimization (MFE) approach which is still considered the most popular and successful method and the competing stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) approach. While the accuracy of the MFE based algorithms is limited by the quality of underlying thermodynamic models, the SCFG method abstracts from free energies and instead tries to learn about the structural behavior of the molecules by training the grammars on known real RNA structures, making it highly dependent on the availability of a rich high quality training set. However, due to the respective problems associated with both methods, new statistics based approaches towards RNA structure prediction have become increasingly appreciated. For instance, over the last years, several statistical sampling methods and clustering techniques have been invented that are based on the computation of partition functions (PFs) and base pair probabilities according to thermodynamic models. A corresponding SCFG based statistical sampling algorithm for RNA secondary structures has been studied just recently. Notably, this probabilistic method is capable of producing accurate (prediction) results, where its worst-case time and space requirements are equal to those of common RNA folding algorithms for single sequences.
The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive study on how enriching the underlying SCFG by additional information on the lengths of generated substructures (i.e. by incorporating length-dependencies into the SCFG based sampling algorithm, which is actually possible without significant losses in performance) affects the reliability of the induced RNA model and the accuracy of sampled secondary structures. As we will see, significant differences with respect to the overall quality of generated sample sets and the resulting predictive accuracy are typically implied. In principle, when considering the more specialized length-dependent SCFG model as basis for statistical sampling, a higher accuracy of predicted foldings can be reached at the price of a lower diversity of generated candidate structures (compared to the more general traditional SCFG variant or sampling based on PFs that rely on free energies).
SHIM is a concurrent deterministic programming language for embedded systems built on rendezvous communication. It abstracts away many details to give the developer a high-level view that includes virtual shared variables, threads as orthogonal statements, and deterministic concurrent exceptions.
In this paper, we present a new way to compile a SHIM-like language into a set of asynchronous guarded actions, a well-established intermediate representation for concurrent systems. By doing so, we build a bridge to many other tools, including hardware synthesis and formal verification. We present our translation in detail, illustrate it through examples, and show how the result can be used by various other tools.
This report gives an overview of the separate translation of synchronous imperative programs to synchronous guarded actions. In particular, we consider problems to be solved for separate compilation that stem from preemption statements and local variable declarations. We explain how we solved these problems and sketch our solutions implemented in the our Averest framework to implement a compiler that allows a separate compilation of imperative synchronous programs with local variables and unrestricted preemption statements. The focus of the report is the big picture of our entire design flow.
In this article we present a method to generate random objects from a large variety of combinatorial classes according to a given distribution. Given a description of the combinatorial class and a set of sample data our method will provide an algorithm that generates objects of size n in worst-case runtime O(n^2) (O(n log(n)) can be achieved at the cost of a higher average-case runtime), with the generated objects following a distribution that closely matches the distribution of the sample data.
On Abstract Shapes of RNA
(2008)
As any RNA sequence can be folded in many different ways, there are lots of different possible secondary structures for a given sequence. Most computational prediction methods based on free energy minimization compute a number of suboptimal foldings and we have to identify the native structures among all these possible secondary structures. For this reason, much effort has been made to develop approaches for identifying good predictions of RNA secondary structure. Using the abstract shapes approach as introduced by Giegerich et al., each class of similar secondary structures is represented by one shape and the native structures can be found among the top shape representatives. In this article, we derive some interesting results answering enumeration problems for abstract shapes and secondary structures of RNA. We start by computing symptotical representations for the number of shape representations of length n. Our main goal is to find out how much the search space can be reduced by using the concept of abstract shapes. To reach this goal, we analyze the number of secondary structures and shapes compatible with an RNA sequence of length n under the assumption that base pairing is allowed between arbitrary pairs of bases analytically and compare their exponential growths. Additionally, we analyze the number of secondary structures compatible with an RNA sequence of length n under the assumptions that base pairing is allowed only between certain pairs of bases and that the structures meet some appropriate conditions. The exponential growth factors of the resulting asymptotics are compared to the corresponding experimentally obtained value as given by Giegerich et al.
This article focuses on the analytical analysis of the free energy in a realistic model for RNA secondary structures. In fact, the free energy in a stochastic model derived from a database of small and large subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU and LSU rRNA) data is studied. A common thermody-namic model for computing the free energy of a given RNA secondary structure, as well as stochastic context-free grammars and generating functions are used to derive the desired results. These results include asymptotics for the expected free energy and for the corresponding variance of a random RNA secondary structure. The quality of our model is judged by comparing the derived results to the used database of SSU and LSU rRNA data. At the end of this article, it is discussed how our results could be used to help on identifying good predictions of RNA secondary structure.
Abstraction is intensively used in the verification of large, complex or infinite-state systems. With abstractions getting more complex it is often difficult to see whether they are valid. However, for using abstraction in model checking it has to be ensured that properties are preserved. In this paper, we use a translation validation approach to verify property preservation of system abstractions. We formulate a correctness criterion based on simulation between concrete and abstract system for a property to be verified. For each distinct run of the abstraction procedure the correctness is verified in the theorem prover Isabelle/HOL. This technique is applied in the verification of embedded adaptive systems. This paper is an extended version a previously published work.
On the Complexity of the Uncapacitated Single Allocation p-Hub Median Problem with Equal Weights
(2007)
The Super-Peer Selection Problem is an optimization problem in network topology construction. It may be cast as a special case of a Hub Location Problem, more exactly an Uncapacitated Single Allocation p-Hub Median Problem with equal weights. We show that this problem is still NP-hard by reduction from Max Clique.
Guaranteeing correctness of compilation is a ma jor precondition for correct software. Code generation can be one of the most error-prone tasks in a compiler. One way to achieve trusted compilation is certifying compilation. A certifying compiler generates for each run a proof that it has performed the compilation run correctly. The proof is checked in a separate theorem prover. If the theorem prover is content with the proof, one can be sure that the compiler produced correct code. This paper presents a certifying code generation phase for a compiler translating an intermediate language into assembler code. The time spent for checking the proofs is the bottleneck of certifying compilation. We exhibit an improved framework for certifying compilation and considerable advances to overcome this bottleneck. We compare our implementation featuring the Coq theorem prover to an older implementation. Our current implementation is feasible for medium to large sized programs.
The provision of network Quality-of-Service (network QoS) in wireless (ad-hoc) networks is a major challenge in the development of future communication systems. Before designing and implementing these systems, the network QoS requirements are to be specified. Existing approaches to the specification of network QoS requirements are mainly focused on specific domains or individual system layers. In this paper, we present a holistic, comprehensive formalization of network QoS requirements, across layers. QoS requirements are specified on each layer by defining QoS domain, consisting of QoS performance, reliability, and guarantee, and QoS scalability, with utility and cost functions. Furthermore, we derive preorders on multi-dimensional QoS domains, and present criteria to reduce these domains, leading to a manageable subset of QoS values that is sufficient for system design and implementation. We illustrate our approach by examples from the case study Wireless Video Transmission.
The provision of network Quality-of-Service (network QoS) in wireless (ad-hoc) networks is a major challenge in the development of future communication systems. Before designing and implementing these systems, the network QoS requirements are to be specified. Since QoS functionalities are integrated across layers and hence QoS specifications exist on different system layers, a QoS mapping technique is needed to translate the specifications into each other. In this paper, we formalize the relationship between layers. Based on a comprehensive and holistic formalization of network QoS requirements, we define two kinds of QoS mappings. QoS domain mappings associate QoS domains of two abstraction levels. QoS scalability mappings associate utility and cost functions of two abstraction levels. We illustrate our approach by examples from the case study Wireless Video Transmission.
The provision of quality-of-service (QoS) on the network layer is a major challenge in communication networks. This applies particularly to mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) in the area of Ambient Intelligence (AmI), especially with the increasing use of delay and bandwidth sensitive applications. The focus of this survey lies on the classification and analysis of selected QoS routing protocols in the domain of mobile ad-hoc networks. Each protocol is briefly described and assessed, and the results are summarized in multiple tables.
Selbstorganisation ist eine interessante und vielversprechende Möglichkeit, um die Komplexität verteilter Systeme beherrschbar zu machen. In diesem Beitrag schlagen wir ein leistungsfähiges Rechnersystem auf Basis von rekonfigurierbarer Hardware vor, welches aufgrund seiner Flexibilität in vielen Bereichen eingesetzt werden kann. Es wird die geplante Systemarchitektur und Systemsoftware beschrieben und ein intelligentes, verteiltes Kamerasystem vorgestellt, welches wir als Anwendung mit dem vorgeschlagenen System realisieren wollen, um Selbstorganisation in verteilten Systemen näher zu untersuchen.
Katja is a tool generating order-sorted recursive data types as well as position types for Java, from specifications using an enhanced ML like notation. Katja’s main features are its conciseness of specifications, the rich interface provided by the generated code and the Java atypical immutability of types. After several stages of extending and maintaining the Katja project, it became apparent many changes had to be done. The original design of Katja wasn’t prepared for the introduction of several backends, the introduction of position sorts and constant feature enhancements and bug fixes. By supplying this report Katja reaches release status for the first time.
Ownership Domains generalize ownership types. They support programming patterns like iterators that are not possible with ordinary ownership types. However, they are still too restrictive for cases in which an object X wants to access the public domains of an arbitrary number of other objects, which often happens in observer scenarios. To overcome this restriction, we developed so-called loose domains which abstract over several precise domains. That is, similar to the relation between supertypes and subtypes we have a relation between loose and precise domains. In addition, we simplified ownership domains by reducing the number of domains per object to two and hard-wiring the access permissions between domains. We formalized the resulting type system for an OO core language and proved type soundness and a fundamental accessibility property.
With the UML 2.0 standard, the Unified Modeling Language took a big step towards SDL, incorporating many features of the language. SDL is a mature and complete language with formal semantics. The Z.109 standard defines a UML Profile for SDL, mapping UML constructs to corresponding counterparts in SDL, giving them a precise semantics. In this report, we present a case study for the formalisation of the Z.109 standard. The formal definition makes the mapping precise and can be used to derive tool support.
Over a period of 30 years, ITU-T’s Specification and Description Language (SDL) has matured to a sophisticated formal modelling language for distributed systems and communication protocols. The language definition of SDL-2000, the latest version of SDL, is complex and difficult to maintain. Full tool support for SDL is costly to implement. Therefore, only subsets of SDL are currently supported by tools. These SDL subsets - called SDL profiles - already cover a wide range of systems, and are often suffcient in practice. In this report, we present our approach for extracting the formal semantics for SDL profiles from the complete SDL semantics. We then formalise the approach, present our SDL-profile tool, and report on our experiences.
Web-based authentication is a popular mechanism implemented by Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) because it allows a simple registration and authentication of customers, while avoiding the high resource requirements of the new IEEE 802.11i security standard and the backward compatibility issues of legacy devices. In this work we demonstrate two different and novel attacks against web-based authentication. One attack exploits operational anomalies of low- and middle-priced devices in order to hijack wireless clients, while the other exploits an already known vulnerability within wired-networks, which in dynamic wireless environments turns out to be even harder to detect and protect against.
There is a well known relationship between alternating automata on finite words and symbolically represented nondeterministic automata on finite words. This relationship is of practical relevance because it allows to combine the advantages of alternating and symbolically represented nondeterministic automata on finite words. However, for infinite words the situation is unclear. Therefore, this work investigates the relationship between alternating omega-automata and symbolically represented nondeterministic omega-automata. Thereby, we identify classes of alternating omega-automata that are as expressive as safety, liveness and deterministic prefix automata, respectively. Moreover, some very simple symbolic nondeterminisation procedures are developed for the classes corresponding to safety and liveness properties.
This document introduces the extension of Katja to support position structures and explains the subtleties of their application as well as the design decisions made and problems solved with respect to their implementation. The Katja system was first introduced by Jan Schäfer in the context of his project work and is based on the MAX system developed by Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter.
Wireless LANs operating within unlicensed frequency bands require random access schemes such as CSMA/ CA, so that wireless networks from different administrative domains (for example wireless community networks) may co-exist without central coordination, even when they happen to operate on the same radio channel. Yet, it is evident that this Jack of coordination leads to an inevitable loss in efficiency due to contention on the MAC layer. The interesting question is, which efficiency may be gained by adding coordination to existing, unrelated wireless networks, for example by self-organization. In this paper, we present a methodology based on a mathematical programming formulation to determine the
parameters (assignment of stations to access points, signal strengths and channel assignment of both access points and stations) for a scenario of co-existing CSMA/ CA-based wireless networks, such that the contention between these networks is minimized. We demonstrate how it is possible to solve this discrete, non-linear optimization problem exactly for small
problems. For larger scenarios, we present a genetic algorithm specifically tuned for finding near-optimal solutions, and compare its results to theoretical lower bounds. Overall, we provide a benchmark on the minimum contention problem for coordination mechanisms in CSMA/CA-based wireless networks.
Das Handlungsreisendenproblem ist eines der bekanntesten NP-vollständigen kombinatorischen Optimierungsprobleme. Algorithmen mit unterschiedlichen Konzepten und Strategien wurden entwickelt, die sich in Lösungsqualität und Laufzeit unterscheiden. Ein vergleichsweise neuer Ansatz stellt jedoch das Kombinieren vorhandener Lösungen dar. Hier werden die Kantenmengen gegebener Handlungsreisendertouren als Ausgangsbasis für weitere Optimierungen verwendet. Erste Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Gebiet stellen bereits vielversprechende Ergebnisse vor, die nachfolgend vertieft evaluiert werden.
Ein maßgeschneidertes Kommunikationssystem für eine mobile Applikation mit Dienstgüteanforderungen
(2004)
In diesem Beitrag wird die Maßschneiderung eines Ad-Hoc-Kommunikationssystems zur Fernsteuerung eines Luftschiffs über WLAN vorgestellt. Dabei steht die Dienstunterstützung bei der Übertragung mehrerer Datenströme im Vordergrund. Es werden verschiedene Dienstgütemechanismen erklärt und deren Entwicklung und Integration in ein Kommunikationsprotokoll mit Hilfe eines komponentenbasierten Ansatzes genauer erläutert.
We present a methodology to augment system safety step-by-step and illustrate the approach by the definition of reusable solutions for the detection of fail-silent nodes - a watchdog and a heartbeat. These solutions can be added to real-time system designs, to protect against certain types of system failures. We use SDL as a system design language for the development of distributed systems, including real-time systems.
The Chained Lin-Kernighan algorithm (CLK) is one of the best heuristics to solve Traveling Salesman Problems (TSP). In this paper a distributed algorithm is proposed, were nodes in a network locally optimize TSP instances by using the CLK algorithm. Within an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) network-based framework the resulting tours are modified and exchanged with neighboring nodes. We show that the distributed variant finds better tours compared to the original CLK given the same amount of computation time. For instance fl3795, the original CLK got stuck in local optima in each of 10 runs, whereas the distributed algorithm found optimal tours in each run requiring less than 10 CPU minutes per node on average in an 8 node setup. For instance sw24978, the distributed algorithm had an average solution quality of 0.050% above the optimum, compared to CLK's average solution of 0.119% above the optimum given the same total CPU time (104 seconds). Considering the best tours of both variants for this instance, the distributed algorithm is 0.033% above the optimum and the CLK algorithm 0.099%.
Many applications dealing with geometry acquisition and processing produce polygonal meshes that carry artifacts like discretization noise. While there are many approaches to remove the artifacts by smoothing or filtering the mesh, they are not tailored to any specific application subject to·certain restrictive objectives. We show how to incorporate smoothing schemes based on the general Laplacian approximation to satsify all those objectives at
the same time for the results of flow simulation in the application field of car manufacturing. In the presented application setting the major restrictions come from the bounding volume of the flow simulation, the so-called installation space. In particular, clean mesh regions (without noise) should not be smoothed while at the same time the installation space must not be violated by the smoothing of the noisy mesh regions. Additionally, aliasing effects at the boundary between clean and noisy mesh regions must be prevented. To address the fact that the meshes come from flow simulation, the presented method is versatile enough to preserve their exact volume and to apply anisotropic filters using the flow information.
Although the paper focuses on the results of a specific application, most of its findings can be transferred to different settings as well.
Today, test methods for communication protocols assume, among other things, that the protocol design is specified as a single, monolithic finite state machine (FSM). From this specification, test suites that are capable of detecting output and/or transfer faults in the protocol implementation are derived. Limited applicability ofthese methods is mainly because oftheir specific assumptions, and due to the size of the derived test suite and the resulting test effort for realistic protocols. In this work, the compositional test method (C-method), which exploits the available structure of a communication protocol, is proposed. The C-method first tests each protocol component separately for output and/or transfer faults, using one of the traditional test methods, then checks for composability, and finally tests the composite system for composition faults. To check for composability and to derive the test suite for the detection of composition faults, it is not required to construct the global state machine. Instead, all information is derived from the component state machines, which avoids a potential state explosion and lengthy test cases. Furthermore, the test suite checks for composition faults only. This substantially reduces the size of the test suite and thus the overall test effort.
Approximating illumination by point light sources, as done in many professional applications, suffers from the problem of the weak singularity: Numerical exceptions caused by the division by the squared distance between the point light source and the point to be illuminated must be avoided. Multiple importance sampling overcomes these problems by combining multiple sampling techniques by weights. Such a set of weights is called a heuristic. So far the estimators resulting from a heuristic only have been analyzed for variance. Since the cost of sampling is not at all constant for different sampling techniques, it is possible to find more efficient heuristics, even though they may hove higher variance. Based on our new stratification heuristic, we present a robust and unbiased global illumination algorithm. By numerical examples, we show that it is more efficient than previous heuristics. The algorithm is as simple as a path tracer, but elegantly avoids the problem of the weak singularity.
We propose a framework for the synthesis of temporal logic programs which are formulated in a simple temporal logic programming language from both positive and negative examples. First we will prove that results from the theory of first order inductive logic programming carry over to the domain of temporal logic. After this we will show how programs formulated in the presented language can be generalized or specialized in order to satisfy the specification induced by the sets of examples.
Objective: In some surgical specialties, e.g. orthopedics, robots are already used in the operating room for bony milling work. Oto- and otoneurosurgery may also greatly benefit by robotic enhanced precision. Study Design: Experimental study on robotic milling on oak wood and human temporal bone specimen. Methods: A standard industrial robot with a 6 degrees-of-freedom serial kinematics was used with force feedback to proportionally control the robot speed. Different milling modes and characteristic path parameters were evaluated to generate milling paths based on CAD geometry data of a cochlear implant and an implantable hearing system. Results: The best suited strategy proofed to be the spiral horizontal milling mode with the burr held perpendicularly to the temporal bone surface. In order to avoid high grooves, the distance in between paths should equal half the radius of the cutting burr head. Due to the vibration of the robot’s own motors, a rather high oscillation of the standard deviation of forces was encountered. This oscillation dropped drastically to nearly 0 N, when the burr head reached contact with the dura mater due to its damping characteristics. The cutting burr could be moved a long time on the dura without damaging it, because of its rather blunt head. The robot moved the burr very smoothly according to the encountered resistances. Conclusion: This is the first development of an functioning robotic milling procedure for otoneurosurgery with force-based speed control. It is planned to implement ultrasound-based local navigation and to perform robotic mastoidectomy.
This report explains basic notions and concepts of Abstract State Machines (ASM) as well as notation for defining ASM models. The objective here is to provide an intuitive understanding of the formalism; for a rigorous definition of the mathematical foundations of ASM, the reader is referred to [2] and [3]. Further references on ASM-related material can be found on the ASM Web Pages [1].
UML and SDL are languages for the development of software systems that have different origins, and have evolved separately for many years. Recently, it can be observed that OMG and ITU, the standardisation bodies responsible for UML and SDL, respectively, are making efforts to harmonise these languages. So far, harmonisation takes place mainly on a conceptual level, by extending and aligning the set of language concepts. In this paper, we argue that harmonisation of languages can be approached both from a syntactic and semantic perspective. We show how a common syntactical basis can be derived from the analysis of the UML meta-model
and the SDL abstract grammar. For this purpose, conceptually sound and well-founded mappings from meta-models to abstract grammars and vice versa are defined and applied. On the semantic level, a comparison between corresponding language constructs is performed.
We propose several algorithms for efficient Testing of logical Implication in the case of ground objects. Because the problem of Testing a set of propositional formulas for (un)satisfiability is \(NP\)-complete there's strong evidence that there exist examples for which every algorithm which solves the problem of testing for (un)satisfiability has a runtime that is exponential in the length of the input. So will have our algorithms. We will therefore point out classes of logic programs for which our algorithms have a lower runtime. At the end of this paper we will give an outline of an algorithm for theory refinement which is based on the algorithms described above.
Interactive graphics has been limited to simple direct illumination that commonly results in an artificial appearance. A more realistic appearance by simulating global illumination effects has been too costly to compute at interactive rates. In this paper we describe a new Monte Carlo-based global illumination algorithm. It achieves performance of up to 10 frames per second while arbitrary changes to the scene may be applied interactively. The performance is obtained through the effective use of a fast, distributed ray-tracing engine as well as a new interleaved sampling technique for parallel Monte Carlo simulation. A new filtering step in combination with correlated sampling avoids the disturbing noise artifacts common to Monte Carlo methods.
We study high dimensional integration in the quantum model of computation. We develop quantum algorithms for integration of functions from Sobolev classes \(W^r_p [0,1]^d\) and analyze their convergence rates. We also prove lower bounds which show that the proposed algorithms are, in many cases, optimal within the setting of quantum computing. This extends recent results of Novak on integration of functions from Hölder classes.
Image synthesis often requires the Monte Carlo estimation of integrals. Based on a generalized concept of stratification we present an efficient sampling scheme that consistently outperforms previous techniques. This is achieved by assembling sampling patterns that are stratified in the sense of jittered sampling and N-rooks sampling at the same time. The faster convergence and improved anti-aliasing are demonstrated by numerical experiments.
Monte Carlo & Beyond
(2002)
Many rendering problems can only be solved using Monte Carlo integration. The noise and variance inherent with the statistical method efficiently can be reduced by stratification. So far only uncorrelated stratification methods were used that in addition depend on the dimension of the integration domain. Based on rank-1-lattices we present a new stratification technique that removes this dependency on dimension, is much more efficient by correlation, is trivial to implement, and robust to use. The superiority of the new scheme is demonstrated for standard rendering algorithms.
We present an algorithm for determining quadrature rules for computing the direct illumination of predominantly diffuse objects by high dynamic range images. The new method precisely reproduces fine shadow detail, is much more efficient as compared to Monte Carlo integration, and does not require any manual intervention.
We survey old and new results about optimal algorithms for summation of finite sequences and for integration of functions from Hölder or Sobolev spaces. First we discuss optimal deterministic and randornized algorithms. Then we add a new aspect, which has not been covered before on conferences
about (quasi-) Monte Carlo methods: quantum computation. We give a short introduction into this setting and present recent results of the authors on optimal quantum algorithms for summation and integration. We discuss comparisons between the three settings. The most interesting case for Monte
Carlo and quantum integration is that of moderate smoothness \(k\) and large dimension \(d\) which, in fact, occurs in a number of important applied problems. In that case the deterministic exponent is negligible, so the \(n^{-1/2}\) Monte Carlo and the \(n^{-1}\) quantum speedup essentially constitute the entire convergence rate.
In this work we propose a set of term-rewriting techniques for modelling object-oriented computation. Based on symbolic variants of explicit substitutions calculi, we show how to deal with imperative statements like assignment and sequence in specifications in a pure declarative style. Under our model, computation with classes and objects becomes simply normal form calculation, exactly as it is the case in term-rewriting based languages (for instance the functional languages). We believe this kind of unification between functions and
objects is important because it provides plausible alternatives for using the term-rewriting theory as an engine for supporting the formal and mechanical reasoning about object-oriented specifications.
Mobile Agenten im Internet
(2001)
Mobile Agenten haben sich in den letzten Jahren zunehmend in der Architektur und Programmierung verteilter Systeme bewährt. Es sind Programme, die einen Internen Zustand mit sich führen, während sie verschiedene, möglicherweise auf unterschiedlichen Plattformen basierende, Systeme besuchen. Auf dem jeweiligen System nehmen sie Dienste in Anspruch, indem sie entweder lokale Bibliotheken ansprechen, oder auf durch das System bereitgestellte Dienste zugreifen. Dabei müssen mobile Agenten sowohl alle vom Programm benötigten Daten, wie auch den gesamten Code mit sich führen. Zwar sind die Daten ein wichtiger (wenn nicht sogar der entscheidende) Teil eines Agenten, trotzdem wird in der Regel nicht als wertvoller, eigenständiger Part angesehen. Dies ist jedoch nicht immer ratsam, könnten doch Agenten am aktuellen Aufenthaltsort einen „Container" zurückzulassen um ihm anderen Agenten zur Verfügung zu stellen (natürlich erst nach erfolgter Zugriffskontrolle), bzw. die Daten erst dann auf ein Migrationsziel übertragen, wenn sich durch lokale Aufrufe des Systems herausgestellt hat, dass sie dort benötigt werden. Diese Arbeit ist zweigeteilt, insofern, als dass sie sich mit den zwei verschiedenen „Ebenen" der mobilen Agenten beschäftigt. Im ersten Teil werden die für die Migration und Nutzung der Resourcen notwendigen Aspekte besprochen. Dabei wird der Schwerpunkt auf die notwendige Unterstützung durch die Umgebung gelegt, wobei nicht eine neue integrierte Umgebung entworfen, sondern vielmehr die notwendigen Blöcke aufgezeigt werden sollen. Diese können dann als Teil eines Environments oder aber als eigentständige Komponente bereitsgestellt werden. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit den durch die Interaktion verschiedener Agenten entstehenden Probleme. Stichworte hierbei sind die Kostenkontrolle (wer bezahlt auf welche Art für in Anspruch genommene Dienste), Workflow Unterstützung, sowie Sicherheit in einem offenen, verteilten System, in dem es keine zentrale Überprüfung von Rechten und Identitäten geben kann. Abgeschlossen wird diese Ausarbeitung mit einer Bewertung der auf den beiden Ebenen gefundenen Problemen und Eigenheiten, wobei dann die Frage aufgeworfen wird, ob Agenten in der heutigen Form überhaupt sinnvoll sind.
The Analytic Blossom
(2001)
Blossoming is a powerful tool for studying and computing with Bézier and B-spline curves and surfaces - that is, for the investigation and analysis of polynomials and piecewise polynomials in geometric modeling. In this paper, we define a notion of the blossom for Poisson curves. Poisson curves are to analytic functions what Bézier curves are to polynomials - a representation adapted to geometric design. As in the polynomial setting, the blossom provides a simple, powerful, elegant and computationally meaningful way to analyze Poisson curves. Here, we
define the analytic blossom and interpret all the known algorithms for Poisson curves - subdivision, trimming, evaluation of the function and its derivatives, and conversion between the Taylor and the Poisson basis - in terms of this analytic blossom.
We introduce two novel techniques for speeding up the generation of digital \((t,s)\)-sequences. Based on these results a new algorithm for the construction of Owen's randomly permuted \((t,s)\)-sequences is developed and analyzed. An implementation of the new techniques is available at http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~ilja/libseq/index.html
Interleaved Sampling
(2001)
The sampling of functions is one of the most fundamental tasks in computer graphics, and occurs in a variety of different forms. The known sampling methods can roughly be grouped in two categories. Sampling on regular grids is simple and efficient, and the algorithms are often easy to built into graphics hardware. On the down side, regular sampling is prone to aliasing artifacts that are expensive to overcome. Monte Carlo methods, on the other hand,
mask the aliasing artifacts by noise. However due to the lack of coherence, these methods are more expensive and not weil suited for hardware implementations. In this paper, we introduce a novel sampling scheme where samples from several regular grids are a combined into a single irregular sampling pattern. The relative positions of the regular grids are themselves determined by Monte Carlo methods. This generalization obtained by interleaving yields,significantly improved quality compared to traditional approaches while at the same time preserving much of the advantageous coherency of regular sampling. We demonstrate the quality of the new sampling scheme with a number of applications ranging from supersampling over motion blur simulation to volume rendering. Due to the coherence in the interleaved samples, the method is optimally suited for implementations in graphics hardware.