The optimisation strategy used in MOODS is based on a simulated annealing approach1, 2, 3, 4. The simulated annealing algorithm is shown in Figure 1a. A cost function is used to evaluate the design and determine its position in the design space. Graph transformations are randomly selected and their effect on the design evaluated with respect to the user specified cost function. Transformations ...

Software development raises the need for traceability, i.e., the ability to control the consistency among software artifacts produced at different stages of the software life-cycle. Traceability cannot be obtained without a systematic transformational approach to software development. In this paper, we present a pattern-based approach1 to the correct stepwise refinement of UML static and dynami...

This paper deals with low-energy code generation for a highly optimized digital signal processor designed for mobile communication applications. We present a genetic algorithm based code generator (GCG), and an instruction-level power model for this processor. Our code generator is capable of reducing the power dissipation of target applications by means of two techniques: First, GCG minimizes ...

These notes are an expanded version of the lectures I gave at the 1991 ICTP Spring School on String Theory and Quantum Gravity. Here I have attempted to review, from my own personal viewpoint, some of the exciting developments in twodimensional string theory that have taken place over the last year and a half. Because of the multitude of new results, and since the field is still developing rapi...

Our goal is to represent images in terms of geometric objects acting as primitive elements of an image description. Similar representations obtained by stochastic marked point processes have already led to convincing image analysis results but suffer from serious drawbacks such as complex and unstable parameter tuning, large computing time, and lack of generality. We propose an alternative desc...

Motivated by a problem in the synthesis of nanowires, a sequential space filling design, called Sequential Minimum Energy Design (SMED), is proposed for exploring and searching for the optimal conditions in complex black-box functions. The SMED is a novel approach to generate designs that can quickly carve out regions with no observable nanostructure morphology, do not involve parametric estima...

Research in the humanities is increasingly attracted by data mining and data management techniques in order to efficiently deal with complex scientific corpora. Particularly, the exploration of hidden patterns within different types of data streams arising from psycholinguistic experiments is of growing interest in the area of translation process research. In order to support psycholinguistic e...

The ability to process events in their temporal and sequential context is a fundamental skill made mandatory by constant interaction with a dynamic environment. Sequence learning studies have demonstrated that subjects exhibit detailed — and often implicit — sensitivity to the sequential structure of streams of stimuli. Current connectionist models of performance in the so-called Serial Reactio...

Programmers spend a significant part of their time debugging, yet most of them simply add print statements and avoid debugging tools. Although the user interface of debuggers has improved significantly in the past decade, their basic debugging methodologies have changed little. This thesis examines single-process sequential debuggers and attempts to elucidate their weaknesses. Target-state expl...