Mature Software Research Articles

Numerical Simulation Analysis of the Typical Reinforced-Concrete Wall-Beam Joint

Based on the existing research results, this paper has primarily researched on numerical simulation analysis of a wall-beam joint in complex stress situation in a shear wall structure, in terms of structural deformation, crack of concrete, stress-strain condition of reinforced concrete, bond-slip state of concrete of the joint. The mature finite element analysis software ANSYS is selected as a platform and the parametric design language APDL is used as the foundation. Analyze the deformation of the joint; the cracks and the development status; the strain and stress of the joint and the bond-slip condition between steel bars and concrete. Some problems existing in the results at such joint calculated by commonly-used structure design software PKPM were found to need extra attention and then the paper put forward some feasible solutions.

Examination of the software architecture change characterization scheme using three empirical studies

Software maintenance is one of the most crucial aspects of software development. Software engineering researchers must develop practical solutions to handle the challenges presented in maintaining mature software systems. Research that addresses practical means of mitigating the risks involved when changing software, reducing the complexity of mature software systems, and eliminating the introduction of preventable bugs is paramount to today's software engineering discipline. The Software Architecture Change Characterization Scheme (SACCS) provides software maintainers with a systematic approach to analyzing and characterizing the impact of a change prior to its implementation. SACCS was designed to help novice developers understand change requests, facilitate discussion among developers, and provide a higher-quality change compared with an ad hoc approach. In addition, this paper describes three controlled experiments designed to assess the viability of using SACCS and its ability to fulfill its goals. The successive studies build upon each other to enable progressive insights into the viability of the scheme. The results indicate that SACCS: 1) provides insight into the difficulty of a change request by assisting novice developers to consider various aspects of the request's potential to impact the system, 2) helps to facilitate discussion among developers by providing a common tool for change assessment, and 3) is a useful tool for supporting change implementation. The three experiments provide insight into the usefulness of SACCS, motivate additional research questions, and serve as a baseline for moving forward with research and further development of the approach.

The Fatigue Strength Assessment for Hull Structure of Steel Fishing Vessel

According to the norms “the fatigue strength assessment for hull structures in 2007” issued by China Classification Society, the combined computing platform established is composed of mature hydrodynamic software SESAM from Det NorskeVeritas(DNV)and MSC.PATRAN/NASTRAN, the fatigue strength assessment for hull structure of a steel fishing vessel is studied.

A survey of industrial experiences with CMM and the teaching of CMM practices

Teaching Software Engineering at the undergraduate and graduate levels often lacks the emphasis on models and practices that support software process improvement, such as Capability Maturity Model ...

Efficient Retrieval and Ranking of Undesired Package Cycles in Large Software Systems.

Many design guidelines state that a software system architecture should avoid cycles between its packages. Yet such cycles appear again and again in many programs. We believe that the existing approaches for cycle detection are too coarse to assist developers to remove cycles from their programs. In this paper, we describe an efficient algorithm that performs a fine-grained analysis of cycles among application packages. In addition, we define multiple metrics to rank cycles by their level of undesirability, prioritizing cycles that are the more undesired by developers. We compare these multiple ranking metrics on four large and mature software systems in Java and Smalltalk.

Quality requirements engineering for systems and software architecting: methods, approaches, and tools

Requirements engineering and software architecture are quite mature software engineering sub-disciplines, which often seem to be disconnected for many reasons and it is difficult to perceive the impact of functional and non-functional requirements on architecture and to establish appropriate trace links for traceability purposes. In other cases, the estimation of how non-functional requirements, as the quality properties a system should pose, is not perceived useful enough to produce high-quality software. Therefore, in this special issue, we want to highlight the importance and the role of quality requirements for architecting and building complex software systems that in many cases require multidisciplinary engineering techniques, which increases the complexity of the software development process.

Composable, nestable, pessimistic atomic statements

In this paper we introduce a new method for pessimistically implementing composable, nestable atomic statements. Our mechanism, called shelters, is inspired by the synchronization strategy used in the Jade programming language. Unlike previous lock-based pessimistic approaches, our mechanism does not require a whole-program analysis that computes a global lock order. Further, this mechanism frees us to implement several optimizations, impossible with automatically inserted locks, that are necessary for scaling on recent multi-core systems. Additionally we show how our basic mechanism can be extended to support both open- and closed-nesting of atomic statements, something that, to our knowledge, has not yet been implemented fully-pessimistically in this context. Unlike optimistic, transactional-memory-based approaches, programmers using our mechanism do not have to write compensating actions for open-nesting, or worry about the possibly awkward semantics and performance impact of aborted transactions. Similar to systems using locks, our implementation requires programmers to annotate the types of objects with the shelters that protect them, and indicate the sections of code to be executed atomically with atomic statements. A static analysis then determines from which shelters protection is needed for the atomic statements to run atomically. We have implemented shelter-based atomic statements for C, and applied our implementation to 12 benchmarks totaling over 200k lines of code including the STAMP benchmark suite, and the sqlite database system. Our implementation's performance is competitive with explicit locking, Autolocker, and a mature software transactional memory implementation.

Developing a pedagogy of risk in socio-scientific issues

The aim of this research is to develop principles for a pedagogy of risk in socio-scientific issues. Risk is challenging to teach because of its contested conceptual basis incorporating epistemic and non-epistemic values, its situated nature and its mathematical basis in probability and statistics. In our project – ‘Promoting Teachers’ Understanding of Risk in Socio-scientific Issues’ (TURS) – we have built a set of mature software tools designed through an epistemological analysis of risk and consideration of teaching and learning, as reflected in discussions with teachers. This software provides teachers with tools that enable them to express what they see as the significant issues, giving feedback for them to re-draft their models in the light of the consequences of their decisions. Pairs of science and mathematics teachers have modelled a scenario based on personal decision-making for a surgical intervention. Inductive analysis of teacher dialogue has generated four key findings: teaching risk lends itself to a multi-disciplinary approach; recognition of the multi-dimensional nature of risk can be elicited through engagement with contextualised biological dilemmas; use of executable models promotes discussion of the complexity of risk, and expressive tools can be designed which support coordinated analysis of the multi-dimensional nature of risk.

Measuring Open Source Quality

There is an ample debate over the quality of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) with mixed research results. The authors show that a reason for these mixed results is that quality is being defined, measured, and evaluated differently. They report the most popular approaches including software structure measures, process measures, and maturity assessment models. The way researchers have built their samples has also contributed to the mixed results with different project properties being considered and ignored. Because FLOSS projects evolve with each release, their quality does too, and it must be measured using metrics that take into account their communities’ commitment to quality rather than just the structure of the resulting code. Challenges exist in defining what constitutes a defect or bug, and the role of modularity in affecting FLOSS quality. The authors suggest three considerations for future research on FLOSS quality models: (1) defect resolution rate, (2) kind of software product, and (3) modularity—both technical and organizational.

Guest editorial: special issue on data mining with matrices, graphs and tensors

The field of data mining increasingly adapts methods and algorithms from advanced matrix computations, graph theory and optimization. In these methods, the data is described using matrix representations (graphs are represented by their adjacency matrices) and the data mining problem is formulated as an optimization problem with matrix variables. With these, the data mining task becomes a process of minimizing or maximizing a desired objective function of matrix variables. Prominent examples include spectral clustering, non-negative matrix factorization, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) related clustering and dimension reduction, tensor analysis and L-1 regularization. These matrix-formulated optimization-centric methodologies are rapidly becoming a significant part of data mining, and have evolved into a popular and rapidlyexpanding research area for solving challenging data mining problems. First, they are amenable to vigorous analysis and benefit from the well-established knowledge in linear algebra, graph theory and optimization accumulated through centuries. Second, they can be efficiently computed thanks to the mature software tools developed by scientific computing communities. Third, they are simple to implement and easy to

Design patterns multiagents driven for software development

AbstractThe complexity of nowadays systems imposes development of a dynamic architecture based on modularization, dependency, processing and data access principles. The field of software design and development is rich in patterns. Software patterns can be seen as a library of code modules that is reused during development of programs. The paper propose a software pattern multiagent systems driven. There will be taken four main patterns: singleton, transfer object, abstract factory and data access object and will be implemented as software agents. Patterns have always participants who are related through the pattern structure. This leads to the observation that different patterns can be created by varying type and features of the participants. An entire family of patterns can be built from one pattern; thus, there will be many smaller building blocks, cooperating and computing toward one goal. This is the trigger for using software agents as blocks. Each project functionality will be decomposed into many tasks, which will be completed by software agents. Each task will be solved by software agents acting as software pattern blocks. The agents (software pattern implementation) will be automatically generated based on the specificity of the task. The implementation is done using JADE, a mature software agent technology platform. The paper is focused on the automation of the task – software pattern(s) mapping and implementation.

A high-order feature synthesis and selection algorithm applied to insurance risk modelling

In many jurisdictions, automobile insurers have access to risk-sharing pools to which they can transfer some risks. We consider different feature selection and modelling approaches to maximise profitability of these transfers through better risk selection. For that purpose, we introduce a flexible scoring model and devise a robust feature synthesis and selection method. We show what should be the most suitable sorting criterion depending on pool regulations. We use a technique, similar to cross validation, but that is coherent with the sequential structure of insurance data. We explain how software maturity level impacts profitability.

Biology of Grapsus grapsus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Brachyura, Grapsidae) in the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, Equatorial Atlantic Ocean

Eleven expeditions were undertaken to the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago to study the reproductive biology of Grapsus grapsus, providing additional information on limb mutilation and carapace colour. MATURE software was used to estimate morphological maturity, while gonadal analyses were conducted to estimate physiological maturity. The puberty moult took place at larger size in males (51.4 mm of carapace length) than in females (33.8 mm), while physiological maturity occurred at a similar size in males (38.4 mm) and in females (33.4 mm). Above 50 mm, the proportion of red males increased in the population, indicating that functional maturity is also related to colour pattern. Small habitat and high local population density contributed to the high rate of cannibalism. The low diversity of food items, absence of predators of large crabs and high geographic isolation are the determinants of unique behavioural and biological characteristics observed in the G. grapsus population.

Elements of a Computational Framework for Coupled Simulations

AbstractCoupled problems arise because certain aspects of some systems have previously been modelled separately, assuming (implicitly) an uncoupled behaviour. More often then not, computational approaches and mature software have been developed for each of these aspects in isolation. If one has to consider now the coupled problem, it would be advantageous if this previous work could be put to good use. This, in particular, concerns the developed software. In this presentation we will analyse the requirements for this to be achieved, and outline some of the possible solutions. Several tasks have to be accomplished: Non‐matching spatial grids and geometric representations have to be joined, fulfilling certain consistency requirements. Similarly non‐matching time‐stepping schemes have tobe combined. After outlining a possible mathematical formulation for the coupling, the joining of the software will be considered. We view the original software which is modelling some aspect as a software‐engineering component, and we describe a component‐based approach to achieve a consistently coupled and (if so desired) distributed computational simulation (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Maturing Software Engineering Knowledge through Classifications: A Case Study on Unit Testing Techniques

Classification makes a significant contribution to advancing knowledge in both science and engineering. It is a way of investigating the relationships between the objects to be classified and identifies gaps in knowledge. Classification in engineering also has a practical application; it supports object selection. They can help mature software engineering knowledge, as classifications constitute an organized structure of knowledge items. Till date, there have been few attempts at classifying in software engineering. In this research, we examine how useful classifications in software engineering are for advancing knowledge by trying to classify testing techniques. The paper presents a preliminary classification of a set of unit testing techniques. To obtain this classification, we enacted a generic process for developing useful software engineering classifications. The proposed classification has been proven useful for maturing knowledge about testing techniques, and therefore, SE, as it helps to: 1) provide a systematic description of the techniques, 2) understand testing techniques by studying the relationships among techniques (measured in terms of differences and similarities), 3) identify potentially useful techniques that do not yet exist by analyzing gaps in the classification, and 4) support practitioners in testing technique selection by matching technique characteristics to project characteristics.

Reliability concerns for next-generation networks

Telecommunications, a critical national infrastructure, has brought communities together. It and the Internet in particular, along with privatization and competition, have provided a sound basis for economic interaction and growth. This interaction and growth are occurring at a time when telecommunications technology is rapidly evolving and being introduced for future networks, and when international cooperation and interaction are high. The reliability of future telecommunications networks is an important challenge that needs attention. Some believe that reliability has not kept pace with the introduction of rapidly evolving new technologies. There is worry that the interconnected telecommunications environment, and the critical infrastructures depending on telecommunications, could become much more vulnerable with the new technology. If true, the economy and safety of a nation or a region could be seriously impacted, since telecommunications, along with privatization and competition, provide a basis for unprecedented communications and economic interaction and growth. This letter identifies several areas, including the effects of privatization, the maturity of new equipment and software, and the non-traditional deployment environments which need to be considered and addressed to assure the reliability on which we have all come to depend.

Biomechanische Modellierung der Halswirbelsäule auf Basis tomografischer Bilddaten / Biomechanical modeling of the cervical spine on the basis of tomographic data

Navigation systems have been successfully established in spine surgery over the past years. Although there is rather good intraoperative support, preoperative planning still lacks a technologically mature software basis. In particular, the computation of the effect of intervention would be of great importance to the surgeon, which would allow him to choose the right strategy. For the patient, this would result in reduced trauma and optimized postoperative mobility. For a correct simulation of the behavior of the cervical spine, a patient individual finite element model is needed which would precisely reflect the geometrical and biomechanical properties of the spine. Therefore, a modeling process starting from tomographic data and ending in an applicable finite element model must be elaborated. A possible solution will be presented in this paper.

The GENIE Universal, Object-Oriented Neutrino Generator

A Universal Object-Oriented/C++ Neutrino Monte Carlo Generator (GENIE) is briefly described. The purpose of this large scale software system is to become the 'canonical' Monte Carlo for Neutrino Interaction Physics whose validity will extend to all neutrino types and nuclear targets in the energy range from few MeV to few hundred GeV. GENIE attempts to unify the Monte Carlo generation approaches used by a host of different, smaller procedural systems in a modern object-oriented software design. It is already a mature software system that currently consists of ∼100,000 lines of C++ code (∼350 classes organised in ∼40 packages).

An approach to the software quality management

This article is devoted to an engineering approach to software quality management. The approach is oriented toward the attainment of the software maturity, which is a key software quality characteristic. A model of quality and a conceptual model for making decisions on software quality management are developed. They are based on methods of specification of quality requirements to the maturity of software components, defect prediction, and systematic quantitative reliability control during software development. A graphical defect prediction model (a Bayesian Belief Network) is presented.

Trust in software outsourcing relationships: An empirical investigation of Indian software companies

This paper investigates trust in software outsourcing relationships. The study is based on an empirical investigation of eighteen high maturity software vendor companies based in India. Our analysis of the literature suggests that trust has received a lot of attention in all kinds of business relationships. This includes inter-company relationships, whether cooperative ventures or subcontracting relationships, and relationship among different parts of a single company. However, trust has been relatively under-explored in software outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we present a detailed empirical investigation of trust in commercial software outsourcing relationships. The investigation presents what vendor companies perceive about getting trust from client companies in outsourcing relationships. We present the results in two parts—(1) achieving trust initially in outsourcing relationships and (2) maintaining trust in ongoing outsourcing relationships. Our findings confirm that the critical factors to achieving trust initially in an outsourcing relationship include previous clients' reference and experience of vendor in outsourcing engagements. Critical factors identified for maintaining trust in an established outsourcing relationship include transparency, demonstrability, honesty, process followed and commitment. Our findings also suggest that trust is considered to be very fragile in outsourcing relationships.