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Volume: 5, Issue: 9, Fri Oct 14 11:53:14 EDT 1988

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| TODAY'S TOPICS |
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(1) Simulation in Computer Networks
(2) Congress on Cybernetics and Systems
(3) MIRRORS/II Connectionist Simulator Available
(4) ACM Journal in Simulation

* Moderator: Paul Fishwick, Univ. of Florida
* Send topical mail to: simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu
* Archives available via FTP to bikini.cis.ufl.edu, login as
  'anonymous', use your last name as the password, change
  directory to pub/simdigest.



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To: simulation@bikini.cis.ufl.edu
Subject: simulation in computer networks
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 88 13:08:11 +0100
From: Zheng Wang (Ext: 3701) <zwang@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>

Dear All;

I am a PhD candidate, working on fault tolerance in networks.
Generally I am interested in simulation of network behavior
in the presence of node or link failures.

In particular, I want to carry out simulation of a large
network with a set of particular routing and congestion
control algorithms for

1) the time for the routing algorithm to find a alternative
path in the face of failures.

2) the degradation of performance of neighbour nodes because
of the failures. (throughput, delay, packet drop rate etc)


I would be very grateful if you can give me suggestions
and advice on references and simulation systems.


Zheng

 -------------------------------------------------
 Zheng Wang
 Dept of Computer Science
 University College London
 London WC1 6BT
 E-mail: zwang@uk.ac.ucl.cs
 -------------------------------------------------



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Date: Sun, 9 Oct 88 21:00:03 EDT
From: Paul Fishwick <fishwick@fish.cis.ufl.edu>
To: simulation@ufl.edu

>From uflorida!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm.bitnet!spnhc Sun Oct  9 20:38:31 EDT 1988
Article 125 of comp.theory.dynamic-sys:
Path: uflorida!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm.bitnet!spnhc
>From: SPNHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Spyros Antoniou)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.dynamic-sys,sci.psychology
Subject: Congress on Cybernetics and Systems
Date: 8 Oct 88 03:36:04 GMT
Organization: The City University of New York - New York, NY
Xref: uflorida comp.theory.dynamic-sys:125 sci.psychology:924
DISCLAIMER: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article


             WORLD ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEMS AND CYBERNETICS

         8 T H    I N T E R N A T I O N A L    C O N G R E S S

         O F    C Y B E R N E T I C S    A N D   S Y S T E M S

 JUNE 11-15, 1990 at Hunter College, City University of New York, USA

     This triennial conference is supported by many international
groups  concerned with  management, the  sciences, computers, and
technology systems.

      The 1990  Congress  is the eighth in a series, previous events
having been held in  London (1969),  Oxford (1972), Bucharest (1975),
Amsterdam (1978), Mexico City (1981), Paris (1984) and London (1987).

      The  Congress  will  provide  a forum  for the  presentation
and discussion  of current research. Several specialized  sections
will focus on computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive
science, biocybernetics, psychocybernetics  and sociocybernetics.
Suggestions for other relevant topics are welcome.

      Participants who wish to organize a symposium or a section,
are requested  to submit a proposal ( sponsor, subject, potential
participants, very short abstracts ) as soon as possible, but not
later  than  September 1989.  All submissions  and correspondence
regarding this conference should be addressd to:

                    Prof. Constantin V. Negoita
                         Congress Chairman
                   Department of Computer Science
                           Hunter College
                    City University of New York
             695 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10021 U.S.A.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|   Spyros D. Antoniou  SPNHC@CUNYVM.BITNET  SDAHC@HUNTER.BITNET    |
|                                                                   |
|      Hunter College of the City University of New York U.S.A.     |
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





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Date: Fri, 14 Oct 88 10:33:18 EDT
From: James A. Reggia <reggia@mimsy.umd.edu>
To: simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu
Subject: MIRRORS/II Connectionist Simulator Available


              MIRRORS/II Connectionist Simulator Available


           MIRRORS/II is a general-purpose connectionist simulator
      which  can  be used to implement a broad spectrum of connec-
      tionist  (neural  network)  models.   MIRRORS/II   is   dis-
      tinguished  by  its support of an extensible high-level non-
      procedural language, an indexed library of networks, spread-
      ing  activation methods, learning methods, event parsers and
      handlers, and a generalized event-handling mechanism.

           The MIRRORS/II language allows relatively inexperienced
      computer  users  to  express the structure of a network that
      they would like to study and the parameters which will  con-
      trol their particular connectionist model simulation.  Users
      can select an existing spreading activation/learning  method
      and  other  system  components  from the library to complete
      their connectionist model; no programming  is  required.  On
      the  other hand, more advanced users with programming skills
      who are interested in research  involving  new  methods  for
      spreading  activation  or  learning  can  still derive major
      benefits from using MIRRORS/II.  The advanced user need only
      write functions for the desired procedural components (e.g.,
      spreading activation method, control strategy, etc.).  Based
      on language primitives specified by the user MIRRORS/II will
      incorporate the user-written components into the connection-
      ist  model;  no  changes to the MIRRORS/II system itself are
      required.

           Connectionist models developed using MIRRORS/II are not
      limited  to  a  particular  processing  paradigm.  Spreading
      activation methods, and Hebbian learning, competitive learn-
      ing,  and  error  back-propagation  are  among the resources
      found in the MIRRORS/II library.  MIRRORS/II  provides  both
      synchronous  and asynchronous control strategies that deter-
      mine which nodes should have their activation values updated
      during  an iteration.  Users can also provide their own con-
      trol strategies and have control over a  simulation  through
      the generalized event handling mechanism.

           Simulations  produced  by  MIRRORS/II  have  an  event-
      handling  mechanism  which  provides a general framework for
      scheduling certain actions to  occur  during  a  simulation.
      MIRRORS/II  supports  system-defined events (constant/cyclic
      input, constant/cyclic output,  clamp,  learn,  display  and
      show)  and user-defined events.  An event command (e.g., the
      input-command) indicates which event is to occur, when it is
      to  occur,  and  which  part of the network it is to affect.
      Simultaneously occurring events are prioritized according to
      user  specification.   At  run  time,  the appropriate event
      handler performs  the  desired  action  for  the  currently-
      occurring event.  User-defined events can redefine the work-
      ings of system-defined  events  or  can  create  new  events
      needed for a particular application.

           MIRRORS/II is implemented in Franz Lisp  and  will  run
      under  Opuses  38, 42, and 43 of Franz Lisp on UNIX systems.
      It is currently running on a MicroVAX, VAX and  SUN  3.   If
      you  are  interested  in obtaining more detailed information
      about the MIRRORS/II system see D'Autrechy, C.  L.  et  al.,
      1988, "A General-Purpose Simulation Environment for Develop-
      ing  Connectionist  Models,"   Simulation,  51,  5-19.   The
      MIRRORS/II  software  and reference manual are available for
      no charge via tape or ftp.  If you are interested in obtain-
      ing  a  copy of the software send your U.S. Mail address via
      e-mail to

                      mirrors@mimsy.umd.edu
                                  or
                      ...!uunet!mimsy!mirrors


      or send your U.S. Mail address to

                   Lynne D'Autrechy
                   University of Maryland
                   Department of Computer Science
                   College Park, MD  20742


      and we will send you back a license which you must sign  and
      return  to  us and further instructions on how to obtain the
      MIRRORS/II software and manual.




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Date: Fri, 14 Oct 88 11:47:56 EDT
From: Paul Fishwick <fishwick@fish.cis.ufl.edu>
To: simulation@ufl.edu
Subject: ACM Journal in Simulation


 Would you like to see an "ACM Transactions on Simulation"? I am passing
along information that was published in the ACM SIGSIM SIMULETTER, Volume
19, Number 1, March 1988 (pages 21-22):

__________________________________________________________________________
Arguments for an ACM Transactions on Simulation (note also that this
transactions could be a combined ACM/IEEE-CS publication):

(1) A subfield as important as computer simulation should be represented
    by an ACM publication.

(2) While many publications include simulation as an area, no publication
    is primarily devoted to discrete event simulation and one is needed.
    (Publications of the Society for Computer Simulation have historically
    been associated with continuous simulation)

(3) Certain subordinate simulation topics, such as model representation,
    model diagnosis, and simulation support environments, represent
    strong mutual overlap with areas of computer science such as
    software engineering, computer-assisted design and artificial
    intelligence. Other publications are less likely to accept papers
    in these areas, and no mutual benefit is likely to occur for these
    other areas of computer science.

Arguments against an ACM Transactions on Simulation:

(1) The number of existing publication outlets is quite sufficient, including
    (to name but a few): Simulation, Transactions of the Society for
    Computer Simulation, Operations Research, ORSA Journal on Computing
    Management Science, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation,
    IIE Transactions, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and
    the ACM publications that would deal with simulation applications in
    their subject areas.

(2) Some argue that the number of "high quality" submissions in simulation
    does not justify an increase in the number of periodicals in this area.

(3) With a single journal devoted to discrete event simulation, the interest
    in others may not be as high and they will get a "second class"
    reputation.

(4) A sufficient number of capable people are unavailable to perform
    editorial duties.

If you favor the idea, what are your thoughts on the questions below?:

(1) Which types of simulation should be included: (a) discrete event,
    (b) continuous, (c) Monte Carlo, (d) combined, (e) other?

(2) Should the scope of the interest include: (a) tuturials, (b) reviews,
    (c) algorithms, (d) applications, (e) research, (f) applications only
    in areas not covered by other ACM publications, (g) other?

(3) Should the domain of interest (and the title) be expanded to include
    other related topics, such as (a) man-machine or human-in-the-loop
    simulators, (b) gaming, (c) cognitive process simulation, (d) modeling,
    (e) modeling, (f) others?
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A SIGSIM committee composed of Prof. Richard. E. Nance, Prof. Jerzy Rozenblit,
and Prof. Rob G. Sargent was formed to study the concept of an "ACM
Transactions on Simulation".

I encourage any all of you to respond directly to Prof. Nance to give
him your honest thoughts on this matter. His electronic address is:

nance@vtcs1.bitnet

If you consider your thoughts public, please also send them to this digest
so that an interactive discussion can take place.

-paul



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