A GUI for Jess

The paper describes JessGUI, a graphical user interface developed on top of the Jess expert system shell. The central idea of the JessGUI project was to make building, revising, updating, and testing Jess-based expert systems easier, more flexible, and more user friendly. There are many other expert system building tools providing a rich and comfortable integrated development environment to expert system builders. However, they are all either commercial or proprietary products. Jess and JessGUI are open-source freeware, and yet they are well suited for building even complex expert system applications, both stand-alone and Web-based ones. An important feature of JessGUI is its capability of saving knowledge bases in XML format (in addition to the original Jess format), thus making them potentially easy to interoperate with other knowledge bases on the Internet. Jess and JessGUI are also used as practical knowledge engineering tools to support both introductory and advanced university courses on expert systems. The paper presents design details of JessGUI, explains its links with the underlying Jess knowledge representation and reasoning tools, and shows examples of using JessGUI in expert system development. It also discusses some of the current efforts in extending Jess/JessGUI in order to provide intelligent features originally not supported in Jess.     

Peculiarities of dominant mode transformation in rectangular T-septum waveguide with inhomogeneous dielectric loading

A combined 2D numerical-analytical algorithm for electromagnetic (EM) fields computation in one-counter waveguides with arbitrary cross section is proposed. The developed algorithm is employed to investigate the influence of the normalized propagation constant and dielectric loading on the field distribution in a rectangular T-septum waveguide with an E-plane dielectric insert. Dominant-mode varieties of a given transmission line are represented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 14, 201–205, 2004.     

Experimental measurements of optical constants of metals in the two-temperature state

Complex permittivity of metals being in the two-temperature state of electron and ion sub-systems excited by the femtosecond laser pulses is measured. Diagnostics of the optical properties was performed in the sub-picosecond range, in the visible spectral range at the wavelengths of 800, 620, and 400 nm for gold, silver, nickel, and vanadium under electron sub-system heating up to 10–30 kK.     

Evolution of geodesic acoustic mode in ohmic H-mode in TUMAN-3M tokamak

The behavior of a geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) in the TUMAN-3M tokamak has been experimentally studied using the heavy-ion beam probing technique. Oscillations of the electric potential under the action of a GAM localized at the plasma periphery have been detected. The GAM was observed in the regime of low confinement (L-mode) with low plasma density (??0.8 × 10¹⁹ m^?3) and disappeared upon the transition to a high confinement regime (H-mode). The possible role of GAM as a precursor of the improved confinement (LH-transition) is discussed.     

Particle Swarm Optimization and Pure Adaptive Search in Finish Goods’ Inventory Management

Abstract

Inventory management deals with a tradeoff between the benefits of keeping stocks of goods that allows fulfillment of the customer’s demand, and the cost of carrying inventory. Inventory control techniques are very important components and the most organizations can substantially reduce their costs associated with the flow of materials. This paper presents new inventory management model based on particle swarm optimization and pure adaptive search global optimization algorithm in production-inventory system. The proposed model is focusing on planned level of demand for finished goods, production and raw materials cost, production capacity as the norm, change of the production cost and inventory capital cost, all of which are typical factors in automobile manufacture industry. The model determines different factors such as the minimizing inventory quantity, minimizing inventory value, and minimizing production cost based on demand for production items. The model is tested with original real-world dataset obtained from the automotive company Lear from US and its factory in Novi Sad, Serbia.     

BiFeO3 Ceramics: Processing,Electrical, and Electromechanical Properties

Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃), a perovskite material, rich in properties and with wide functionality, has had a marked impact on the field of multiferroics, as evidenced by the hundreds of articles published annually over the past 10 years. Studies from the very early stages and particularly those on polycrystalline BiFeO₃ ceramics have been faced with difficulties in the preparation of the perovskite free of secondary phases. In this review, we begin by summarizing the major processing issues and clarifying the thermodynamic and kinetic origins of the formation and stabilization of the frequently observed secondary, nonperovskite phases, such as Bi₂₅FeO₃₉ and Bi₂Fe₄O₉. The second part then focuses on the electrical and electromechanical properties of BiFeO₃, including the electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity, high‐field polarization, and strain response, as well as the weak‐field piezoelectric properties. We attempt to establish a link between these properties and address, in particular, the macroscopic response of the ceramics under an external field in terms of the dynamic interaction between the pinning centers (e.g., charged defects) and the ferroelectric/ferroelastic domain walls.     

Dependence of the surface morphology of ultrathin bismuth films on mica substrates on the film thickness

The results of studying the surface of 15- to 100-nm-thick bismuth films by atomic-force microscopy are reported. The near-linear character of the dependences of the average surface roughness and the average height of growth patterns on the film thickness is established. It is found that the average crystallite size increases, as the film thickness is increased. A slight dependence of the crystallite size on the film thickness is observed at thicknesses in the range of 27–70 nm.     

A case study on the object-oriented framework for modeling product families with the dominant variation of the topology in the one-of-a-kind production

Traditional configuration-based product family modeling techniques do not yield favorable solutions for modeling the product families with the dominant product topology variations. This paper presents the case study for the modeling of variations of the product configuration, parameters, and topologies in mass production of custom windows and doors in a one-of-a-kind production (OKP) company. The case study is based on the object-oriented product family modeling framework we developed for OKP which is characterized by the dominant product variation by topology. The problem of variation in topology in our framework is solved by the manual model transformation in the computer-aided design module which creates a new metamodel of products with the desired topology and which is the basis for a further, automatic model transformation. Usage of our framework has a positive effect on the level of the product customizations and shortening of the leading time which helps OKP companies in obtaining a better position at the market. Our software solution for the designing and manufacturing of custom windows and doors based on our framework is implemented in more than 300 mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises. It proves our concept which can be used for the realization of the information systems for computer-aided one-of-a-kind production in the companies with a different production plan.