Incremental Development Research Articles

Designing a Business Intelligence and Analytics Maturity Model for Higher Education: A Design Science Approach

Business Intelligence and Analytics (BIA) systems play an essential role in organizations, providing actionable insights that enable business users to make more informed, data-driven decisions. However, many Higher Education (HE) institutions do not have accessible and usable models to guide them through the incremental development of BIA solutions to realize the full potential value of BIA. The situation is becoming ever more acute as HE operates today in a complex and dynamic environment brought forward by globalization and the rapid development of information technologies. This paper proposes a domain-specific BIA maturity model (MM) for HE–the HE-BIA Maturity Model. Following a design science approach, this paper details the design, development, and evaluation of two artifacts: the MM and the maturity assessment method. The evaluation phase comprised three case studies with universities from different countries and two workshops with practitioners from more than ten countries. HE institutions reported that the assessment with the HE-BIA model was (i) useful and adequate for their needs; (ii) and contributed to a better understanding of the current status of their BIA landscape, making it explicit that a BIA program is a technology endeavor as well as an organizational development.

Technology Focus: Cementing and Zonal Isolation (May 2022)

Over the past year, the number of cementing and zonal-isolation papers was much lower than usual because of the cancellation and postponement of several conferences. The overall impact, however, was mitigated by the transformation of several conferences to online events. I attended one virtual event and was pleasantly surprised with the value of the technical discussions that immediately followed each paper presentation and the willingness of authors to follow up on discussions after the conference. The development of new technology can take a significant amount of time and resources, and full worldwide introduction may take many years, giving rise to a commercial risk for the technology developer. One paper published last year described the first case history of self-healing cement technology in one geographical area more than 10 years after the publication of the first field application of the technology. In the October 2021 issue of JPT, SPE President Kamel Ben-Naceur discussed the importance of collaboration in solving technical problems quickly and efficiently. Three of the papers selected in this section are from collaborations between multiple companies pooling their expertise and resources to develop solutions for complex problems that could not be addressed efficiently by individual companies. Papers SPE 204015 and SPE 208782 issue from consortia whose goals are to improve the efficiency and reliability of plugging-and-abandonment operations. Paper SPE 204103 is a jointly funded collaboration evaluating CO2-resistant cement with a new experimental methodology to accelerate chemical interactions between the cement and CO2, thus shortening the validation time. The commercial risks associated with the incremental developments of existing technology can be acceptable more readily to individual companies, although this does not mean that efficient internal teamwork is not required. The three other papers selected are all supported and authored by individual companies, but each is a collaboration between multiple people with different expertise—experimental and poromechanical modeling expertise in paper SPE 206144, chemical synthesis and microfluidics expertise in paper SPE 207472, and cement chemistry and experimental expertise in paper SPE 208679. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 204103 Evaluation of New Innovative Cement Blend for Enhanced CO2 and H2S Resistance by Gunnar Lende, Halliburton, et al. SPE 206144 Advanced Cement Mechanical Integrity for Thermal Wells by Manh-Huyen Vu, Curistec, et al. SPE 207472 Associative Microgels, New Self-Adaptive Systems To Control Fluid Loss in Well Cementing by Arnaud Cadix, Solvay, et al.

The Missing Link: Developing a Safety Case for Perception Components in Automated Driving

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Safety assurance is a central concern for the development and societal acceptance of automated driving (AD) systems. Perception is a key aspect of AD that relies heavily on Machine Learning (ML). Despite the known challenges with the safety assurance of ML-based components, proposals have recently emerged for unit-level safety cases addressing these components. Unfortunately, AD safety cases express safety requirements at the system level and these efforts are missing the critical linking argument needed to integrate safety requirements at the system level with component performance requirements at the unit level. In this paper, we propose the Integration Safety Case for Perception (<b>ISCaP</b>), a generic template for such a linking safety argument specifically tailored for perception components. The template takes a deductive and formal approach to define strong traceability between levels. We demonstrate the applicability of ISCaP with a detailed case study and discuss its use as a tool to support incremental development of perception components.</div></div>

Formalism-Driven Development: Concepts, Taxonomy, and Practice

Formal methods are crucial in program specification and verification. Instead of building cases to test functionalities, formal methods specify functionalities as properties and mathematically prove them. Nevertheless, the applicability of formal methods is limited in most development processes due to the requirement of mathematical knowledge for developers. To promote the application of formal methods, we formulate formalism-driven development (FDD), which is an iterative and incremental development process that guides developers to adopt proper formal methods throughout the whole development lifespan. In FDD, system graphs, a variant of transition systems optimized for usability, are designed to model system structures and behaviors with representative properties. System graphs are built iteratively and incrementally via refinement. Properties of system graphs are specified in propositional and temporal logics and verified by model-checking techniques with interpretation over transition system. In addition, skeleton programs are generated based on system graphs and expose implementable interfaces for executing external algorithms and emitting observable effects. Furthermore, we present Seniz, a framework that practicalizes and automates FDD. In this paper, we explicate the concepts and taxonomy of FDD and discuss its practice.

Intellectual Property Rights as Ethical Response to Global Climate Change Crisis

Debate regarding the contribution of Intellectual Property (IP) rights to lessening climate change is intensifying. On one side, IP optimists emphasize their function in encouraging investment in Research, Development and Commercialization. However, alternative view, principally associated with developing countries, sees the monopoly rights embodied in IP as a barrier to technology adoption and international transfer and this has led to a dilemma in IP rights ethically responding to global climate change.The role of intellectual property rights with regards to climate change has remained a divisive issue. Not only has no agreement been reached in this area, but even the path to a constructive and meaningful discussion seems elusive. Unless the role of intellectual property is addressed in a constructive and balanced manner, the potential for achieving sustainable and realistic outcomes from the climate talks could be compromised.This article explored the complex relationship between IP rights and climate change through technology-based reductions in emissions and with reference to sustainable development laws. It also considers the role IP rights can play in delivering technological change to abate the issues of climate change crisis by arguing that climate change is legally disruptive, with existing legal doctrines and frameworks forced to confront, respond, and perhaps even evolve to respond to climate change, beyond the application and incremental development of existing rules and doctrines written in the context of linkages between private international law and public international law.It concludes by outlining some plausible strategies that are necessary in resolving the dilemma associate with IP rights ethically responding to global climate change.

Project Management Methodologies for Engineering KMS based on PMBOK Approach: A Systematic Literature Review

The process of creating, sharing, discovering, and capturing knowledge becomes an intangible asset for an organization. As a valuable asset, Knowledge needs to be managed. There is a tool called Knowledge Management System (KMS). The latest technology and social or structural mechanisms are components to develop KMS. But developing an IT project has a high risk of failure, so it should be managed using a project management approach. A project is a temporary endeavor to make a product or service. It means that a project has a start and an end project phase. Some methodologies which exist do not offer complete stages of development KMS. They do not cover feasibility study activities, lack of clear specification, and lack of closing project phase. The study gap is expected to be loaded up and well explained in this paper through a systematic review of the published literature over the last six years using the Kitchenham method. The results show that most researchers used a predictive approach compared to an iterative, incremental, or adaptive development approach to build KMS. The main result of this study we found 36 processes in the developing KMS. The novelty of this research, we generated a table to map the processes into the model, method, artifact and presented it by group process based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). The table can help the organization develop the KMS project to improve its effectiveness and competitiveness.

Design and implementation of a fault tolerant web-based examination system for developing countries

This paper presents the development of a web-based examination system that focuses on automated resolution of faults such as power, network, or component failure that may occur when an e-learning system is used to conduct an examination. This system can withstand various challenges that hinder the adoption of e-learning technologies in developing countries. This is important because it will reduce the time and cost involved in conducting large scale examinations by tertiary institutions without the need to upgrade existing infrastructures. These institutions will not necessarily require uninterrupted power or network connection to conduct web-based examinations as the system can easily resume if such an incident occurs. The architecture of the proposed web-based online examination system provides for integrated management of functions such as question pool creation and update, examination monitoring, failure toleration and recovery, automated grading, and randomization. The system also eliminates the need for manual scheduling of examinations which requires much planning and is error-prone. Different examinations can be scheduled to run simultaneously. The design technology adopted for the implementation is a client/server technology. The incremental software development model in conjunction with prototyping technique was adopted in the development of the web-based examination system due to the iterative nature of the developed software. The system was developed using PHP, JavaScript, Ajax and MySQL. The system has been applied to conduct an examination involving more than 20,000 students per semester at University of Calabar. It has been proved to save efforts of teachers and students.

Biostratigraphic evidence for incremental tectonic development of early Cambrian deep-water environments in the Misty Creek embayment (Selwyn basin, Northwest Territories, Canada)

The early evolution of the Misty Creek embayment (MCE), a prominent, northwest-trending sub-basin of the economically important Selwyn basin, is poorly understood. The abrupt contact between Cambrian Stage 4 (traditional lower Cambrian) carbonate ramp strata of the Sekwi Formation and overlying Miaolingian (traditional middle Cambrian) deep-water, calciturbiditic strata of the Hess River Formation has been regarded as diachronous. This important transition, which marks the onset of long-lived, deep-water conditions in the MCE, remains unexplained. This study uses biostratigraphic data from a previously undescribed location in the MCE, existing biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic data from the 1970s, and regional thickness patterns to characterise the sharp yet diachronous transition from lithofacies typical of the Sekwi Formation to those typical of the Hess River Formation. The dramatic change in depositional environments was diachronous yet non-gradational, precluding a eustatic cause. The change was geologically abrupt, probably through two extension-related subsidence events, with different geographic extents, which heralded the MCE’s long life as a deep-water basin. The onset of deep-water conditions in the MCE occurred semi-contemporaneously with other extension-related events that are recorded in the northern Canadian Cordillera, demonstrating that Cambrian Series 2 – Miaolingian was a time of widespread extension and subsidence along the western margin of Laurentia.

Sensitive periods, but not critical periods, evolve in a fluctuating environment: a model of incremental development.

Sensitive periods, during which the impact of experience on phenotype is larger than in other periods, exist in all classes of organisms, yet little is known about their evolution. Recent mathematical modelling has explored the conditions in which natural selection favours sensitive periods. These models have assumed that the environment is stable across ontogeny or that organisms can develop phenotypes instantaneously at any age. Neither assumption generally holds. Here, we present a model in which organisms gradually tailor their phenotypes to an environment that fluctuates across ontogeny, while receiving cost-free, imperfect cues to the current environmental state. We vary the rate of environmental change, the reliability of cues and the duration of adulthood relative to ontogeny. We use stochastic dynamic programming to compute optimal policies. From these policies, we simulate levels of plasticity across ontogeny and obtain mature phenotypes. Our results show that sensitive periods can occur at the onset, midway through and even towards the end of ontogeny. In contrast with models assuming stable environments, organisms always retain residual plasticity late in ontogeny. We conclude that critical periods, after which plasticity is zero, are unlikely to be favoured in environments that fluctuate across ontogeny.

An Incremental Software Automation Testing for Space Telemetry, Track and Command Software Systems Based on Domain Knowledge

As a core component of the Space Telemetry, Track and Command (TT&C) system, the TT&C software’s quality is the key factor to ensure the successful implementation of space TT&C missions. Due to the complexity of space TT&C missions, incremental development is adopted in which frequent testing is required. Many problems of the original manual testing are exposed, such as large consumption of human resources, low efficiency of testing and quality highly relying on human expertise. Automatic testing method is urgently required. However, the testing of the TT&C software highly depends on the domain knowledge of space TT&C missions, which is complex and professional. This hinders the direct application of existing software automatic testing methods to the TT&C software. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an automatic testing method of the TT&C software based on domain knowledge. The domain knowledge description of the space TT&C domain is defined and a set of guidance principles for eliciting domain knowledge elicitation is given. Testing cases are automatically generated and executed by combining the domain knowledge and the image recognition results. Evaluations show that our method can realize the automatic testing of space TT&C software increments with higher accuracy. Its time cost is reduced by more than 50% compared with the manual testing, and will not increase rapidly with growing software maintenance scale. The time cost in domain knowledge elicitation will not affect the testing efficiency.

Supporting the development of scientific understanding when constructing an evolving explanation

We explore how students developed an integrated understanding of scientific ideas and how they applied their understandings in new situations. We examine the incremental development of 7th grade students’ scientific ideas across four iterations of a scientific explanation related to a freshwater system. We demonstrate that knowing how to make use of scientific ideas to explain phenomena needs to be learned just as developing integrated understanding of scientific ideas needs to be learned. Students participated in an open-ended, long-term project-based learning unit, constructing one explanation over time to address, “How healthy is our stream for freshwater organisms and how do our actions on land potentially impact the water quality of the stream?” The explanation developed over several weeks as new data were collected and analyzed. Students discussed evidence by revisiting scientific ideas and including new scientific ideas. This research investigates two questions: (1) As students engage in writing a scientific explanation over time, to what extent do they develop integrated understanding of appropriate scientific ideas? and (2) When writing about new evidence, do these earlier experiences of writing explanations enable students to make use of new scientific ideas in more sophisticated ways? In other words, do earlier experiences allow students to know how to make use of their ideas in these new situations? The results indicated statistically significant effects. Through various iterations of the explanation students included richer discussion using appropriate scientific ideas. Students were also able to make better use of new knowledge in new situations.

Assessing the costs of Managed Aquifer Recharge options to support agricultural development

Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) can play an important role in agricultural water management and productivity where suitable aquifers exist. Yet while the benefits and costs of surface water storage have been extensively reported, the benefits and costs of MAR have been under reported and poorly conceptualised to date. In this study of ten potential MAR schemes in wet-dry tropical climates of northern Australia the estimated levelized costs ranged from US$0.04 to $0.36/m3 for MAR schemes of 0.6–5 Mm3/y capacity. The type of MAR scheme had the largest influence on cost, resulting in the following order of increasing cost for 1 Mm3/y schemes: recharge release, infiltration basin, recharge weir, aquifer storage transfer and recovery (ASTR), aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), seawater intrusion barrier. Infiltration type schemes were typically lower cost than well-injection. Scheme scale, end use and experience with similar schemes were also key influences on cost. A five-fold increase in scale reduced the levelized cost of ASR by 60%. Conceptualisation allows comparison across dissimilar schemes and revealed significant costs (20–100% of operating) associated with approvals and monitoring required for risk-based scheme development and operation. MAR can facilitate conjunctive use of surface and groundwater for improved agricultural water management. Dams typically provide considerably larger storages which results in lower levelized costs, with estimates of $0.03 to $0.18/m3 for options (annual yield 55–1248 Mm3) in the same study area. MAR is more favoured in areas of low relief, offers the benefit of reducing evaporative losses and is well suited to mosaic irrigation with incremental development and relatively low capital expenditure which may be attractive for agricultural irrigation.

An Agile Software Engineering Method to Design Blockchain Applications

Cryptocurrencies and its underlying technology, Blockchain, are transforming banking and economics by allowing trustworthy programs to exist without the requirement for a trusted counterpart. In recent years, the Blockchain and the programs that run on it, known as Smart Contracts, have seen increased use across all businesses that demand trust and verifiable credentials. Some have compared the "Blockchain revolution" to the early days of the Internet and the World Wide Web. As a result, all Blockchain-based software development is accelerating at a dizzying pace. Many software engineers argue that the widespread interest in Blockchain technology has resulted in haphazard and rushed software creation, a type of first-come, first-served competition that fails to assure software quality or take into consideration core software engineering ideas. This research tries to solve this issue by proposing a software development strategy for gathering requirements, assessing them, designing, creating, testing, and deploying Blockchain applications. Several Agile approaches are employed in the process, including User Stories and iterative and incremental development based on them. It does, however, employ more formal notations, such as UML diagrams that define the system's design, with improvements to express unique Blockchain concepts. The method is well discussed, including an example to illustrate how it works.

Development of Plan S monitoring and compliance tool in the context of PTCRIS for Portuguese National Science Foundation

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) has endorsed Plan-S since early 2021 and it is working towards implementing its obligations. To ensure an effective fulfillment of its open science policies, FCT is implementing a new monitoring and compliance tool, that will enforce the compliance with Plan-S as well as the new FCT's open access (OA) policy. This paper details FCT's approach to implement this tool and discusses the challenges of integrating information that is spread across multiple systems. The new tool will be built on top of infrastructures and services developed by FCT over the last years under the umbrella of the Portuguese Current Research Information System (PTCRIS) program. This tool comprises an operational component, integrated with the grant management system, and an analytical component, based on a Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence (DW/BI) system. The DW/BI system for the ecosystem of Science and Technology in Portugal will be developed using Kimball's Dimensional DW architecture, which advocates the incremental design and development of dimensional data marts linked by conforming dimensions. In this approach, data marts contain atomic and summarized data, corresponding to the development of elementary and derived dimensional models. Three data marts will be developed for the subject areas of funding, scientific results and for monitoring and compliance. The last data mart will calculate the compliance indicators for Plan-S as well as for FCT's OA policy. The operational component of the new tool then receives, from the analytical component, the list of scientific results per funding registry along with data regarding compliance. A list of non-compliances for each scientific result will be the basis of a notification module that will inform the principal investigator (PI) and the FCT compliance officer.

Development of an application for providing corneal topography reports based on artificial intelligence.

To develop an application (TopEye) in the iOS platform for mobile devices to allow the capture and interpretation of color maps generated by corneal topographers using artificial intelligence. In the execution, follow-up, and assessment of the project, we used the Scrum methodology and interactive and incremental development process for the project management and agile software development. The ge nerated diagnostic pattern bank consists of 1,172 examples of corneal topography, divided into 275 spherical, 302 symmetrical, 295 asymmetrical, and 300 irregular patterns (keratoconus). For the development of the artificial intelligence of the application, network training was established with 240 images of each pattern type, with a total of 960 patterns (81.91%). The remaining 212 images (18.09%) were used to test the application and will be used for the results. The process is semi-automatic, so the topographic image is captured with a smartphone, the examiner performs the contour of the corneal relief manually, and then the neural network performs the diagnosis. The application diagnosed 201 cases (94.81%) correctly. In 212 images, the algorithm missed the classification of 11 cases (5.19%). The major error that occurred was in distinguishing between symmetrical and asymmetrical classes. In keratoconus screening, the application reached 95.00% sensitivity and 98.68% specificity. The work resulted in obtaining an efficient application to capture topographic images using a smartphone camera and their interpretations through applied artificial intelligence.

A multicriteria decision aid perspective that guides an incremental development of knowledge and fosters relationships and decisions

“Ivrea, industrial city of the 20 th century”, is the 54 th UNESCO site in Italy, and it has been in the World Heritage List since July 2018. Its inclusion was the result of a complex decision process, which needs to be reactivated to enhance this large, unitary urban system of great historical, architectural and environmental value. The huge dimensions and extreme heterogeneity of the built heritage, the weakness of the socio-economic context, and the dynamics of the public and private organisations have generated a complex situation, which hinders the enhancement of the whole UNESCO site. A methodology that integrates two decision aid approaches can deal with and reduce these complexity factors, to guide the incremental development of knowledge and to foster relationships that facilitate the process reactivation. A Problem Structuring method was used to structure the decision problems and logically synthesise fragmented knowledge. Multicriteria models and methods were used to analytically describe the space of action and propose examples of how alternative policies, enhancement activities or projects can be analysed and evaluated, to be ranked or selected. The paper describes the problem situation and how these methods were integrated and used. The study aims to underline the complementarity of the different decision aid approaches and to show how logical and analytical models, applications of tools and results can be proposed to create an effective communication process, both at technical level and with stakeholders who are willing to participate in preparatory workshops.

Thermodynamic properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are of interest in COVID-19

The pure component properties are estimated for active pharmaceutical ingredients that are related or proposed for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoronaVirus-2. These include Baricitinib, Camostat, Chloroquine, Dexamethasone, Hydroxychloroquine, Fingolimod, Favipiravir, Thalidomide, and Umifenovir. The estimations are based on group contribution+ (GC) models that contain combined group contribution and atom connectivity index with uncertainties in the estimated property values. The thermodynamic properties that are reported include boiling point, critical temperature, critical pressure, critical volume, melting point, standard Gibb's energy of formation, standard enthalpy of formation, enthalpy of fusion, enthalpy of vaporization at 298 K, enthalpy of vaporization at boiling point, entropy of vaporization at boiling point, flash point, Hildebrand solubility parameter, octanol/water partition coefficient, acentric factor, and liquid molar volume at 298 K. The reported properties are not available in the literature and thereby is an incremental development for reliable process engineering.

Automated Conflict Management Framework Development for Autonomous Aerial and Ground Vehicles

The number of aerial- and ground-based unmanned vehicles and operations is expected to significantly expand in the near future. While aviation traditionally has an excellent safety record in managing conflicts, the current approaches will not be able to provide safe and efficient operations in the future. This paper presents the development of a novel framework integrating autonomous aerial and ground vehicles to facilitate short- and mid-term tactical conflict management. The methodology presents the development of a modular web service framework to develop new conflict management algorithms. This new framework is aimed at managing urban and peri-urban traffic of unmanned ground vehicles and assisting the introduction of urban air mobility into the same framework. A set of high-level system requirements is defined. The incremental development of two versions of the system prototype is presented. The discussions highlight the lessons learnt while implementing and testing the conflict management system and the introduced version of the stop-and-go resolution algorithm and defines the identified future development directions. Operation of the system was successfully demonstrated using real hardware. The developed framework implements short- and mid-term conflict management methodologies in a safe, resource efficient and scalable manner and can be used for the further development and the evaluation of various methods integrating aerial- and ground-based autonomous vehicles.

Tenure insecurity and incremental housing development in the peri-urban interface of Ibadan, Nigeria

The increasing urbanization being experienced in countries of Africa exacerbates current housing needs and tenure insecurity. In Ibadan, Nigeria, the urban populace finds it easier to access land in the informal land market because of the strictness of the formal land market. This results in incremental housing development. Based on the self-help theory, the study examined the contribution of tenure insecurity to the development of incremental housing in peri-urban Ibadan. A cross-sectional research design and mixed methods were employed in the study. 248 household heads were selected from 6 LGAs of Ibadan and administered with a structured questionnaire. Ethical protocols were followed and informed consent was obtained. The study revealed that the majority of the incremental developers were illiterates. Factors that accounted for the incremental development included fear of eviction, high housing rent, and lack of funds. The study recommended enhancing access to secure land titles as it has multiplier-effects on housing.

TAPHONOMY AND DEPOSITIONAL SETTING OF THE SHRINGASAURUS INDICUS (ARCHOSAUROMORPHA: ALLOKOTOSAURIA) BONEBED FROM THE MIDDLE TRIASSIC DENWA FORMATION, SATPURA GONDWANA BASIN, INDIA

ABSTRACT A bonebed of multiple skeletons of the Triassic horned reptile Shringasaurus indicus was discovered in the upper Denwa Formation, Satpura Gondwana Basin, India. The monotaxic bonebed contains multiple individuals of different ontogenic stages indicating herding behavior by Shringasaurus indicus. The herd was a mixed-sex herd. The adult and sub-adult bones in the bonebed exceed the number of juvenile bones. The distribution of the bones was slightly patchy, bones of different individuals were admixed, and several bones were piled up implying mass mortality. The bonebed occurs in a fine-grained mudrock that is hydraulically incompatible with long-distance transport and concentration by currents. Sedimentary facies analysis indicates that the bonebed accumulated and was buried in a crevasse splay deposit between two ENE-WSW trending channel-fill complexes. The northern channel-fill complex was formed by unidirectional flow with lateral channel migration towards the south and with minor contemporaneous tectonic subsidence. Repeated breaching of the levee by this channel flow led to the incremental development of the crevasse splay deposit. The herd of Shringasaurus indicus, which lived near to the perennial channel, was drowned en masse and the carcasses were trapped within the muddy sediments of the crevasse splay deposit. Apart from a partially articulated skeleton, the rest of the bones were disarticulated but remained associated. The bones show little evidence of post-mortem modifications. With a continuous supply of the sediments through the spillover channels, the bones were buried before complete disarticulation and dispersal had taken place.