Non-functional Parameters Research Articles

Clustering data analytics of urban land use for change detection

In this study, the author proposes and details a workflow for the spatial-temporal demarcation of urban areal features in 8 cities of Tamilnadu, India. During the inception phase, functional requirements and non-functional parameters are analyzed and designed, within a suitable pixel area and object-oriented derived paradigm. Land use categories are defined from OpenStreetMap (OSM) related works with the scope of conducting climate change, using multispectral sensors onboard Landsat series. Furthermore, we augment the bands dataset with Spatially Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-Up Index (NDBI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Texture base indices, as a means of spatially integrating auto-covariance to stationarity patterns. In doing so, change detection can be pursuit by scaling up the segmentation of regional/zonal boundaries in a multi-dimensional environment, with the aid of Wide Area Networks (WAN) cluster computers such as the BEOWULF/Google Earth Engine clusters. GeoAnalytical measures are analyzed in the design of local and zonal spatial models (GRID, RASTER, DEM, IMAGE COLLECTION). Finally, multi variate geostatistical works are ensued for precision and recall in predictive data analytics. The author proposes reusing machine learning tools (filtering by attribute-based indexing in PaaS clouds) for pattern recognition and visualization of features and feature collection.

Clustering data analytics of urban land use for change detection

In this study, the author proposes and details a workflow for the spatial-temporal demarcation of urban areal features in 8 cities of Tamilnadu, India. During the inception phase, functional requirements and non-functional parameters are analyzed and designed, within a suitable pixel area and object-oriented derived paradigm. Land use categories are defined from OpenStreetMap (OSM) related works with the scope of conducting climate change, using multispectral sensors onboard Landsat series. Furthermore, we augment the bands dataset with Spatially Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-Up Index (NDBI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Texture base indices, as a means of spatially integrating auto-covariance to stationarity patterns. In doing so, change detection can be pursuit by scaling up the segmentation of regional/zonal boundaries in a multi-dimensional environment, with the aid of Wide Area Networks (WAN) cluster computers such as the BEOWULF/Google Earth Engine clusters. GeoAnalytical measures are analyzed in the design of local and zonal spatial models (GRID, RASTER, DEM, IMAGE COLLECTION). Finally, multi variate geostatistical works are ensued for precision and recall in predictive data analytics. The author proposes reusing machine learning tools (filtering by attribute-based indexing in PaaS clouds) for pattern recognition and visualization of features and feature collection.

Validity and reliability of the Duruöz Hand Index in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

The Duruöz Hand Index (DHI) is a valuable scale developed for evaluating hand functions of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and subsequently proven to be valid and reliable in various diseases. This study aims to investigate the validity and reliability of the DHI in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Patients diagnosed with PsA according to CASPAR criteria were enrolled. The demographic, clinical, and functional characteristics of patients were evaluated. Functional assessment was performed with DHI, Hand Functional Index, Health Assessment Questionnaire, and VAS-disability scale. C-reactive protein level, patients' and physicians' global VAS, swelling and tenderness of the hand joints, gross grip strength and thumb strength, and disease activity assessments were recorded as non-functional parameters related to active disease status. Reliability was assessed by internal consistency (with Cronbach's-a) and test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient. Face, content, convergent, and divergent validities were applied. One hundred and forty-four patients (74.3% female) were included in this study. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.963, and for the test-retest reliability of the DHI, the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.904 (p < 0.001). DHI showed good correlations with the functional disability scales (Hand Functional Index, Health Assessment Questionnaire, VAS-disability), indicating its convergent validity and moderate to non-significant correlations with the non-functional parameters supporting its divergent validity. Despite the occurrence of significant deformities and functional loss in PsA patients, there is a noticeable absence of specific tools tailored for PsA. Considering the intricacies associated with skin, nail, tendon, entheseal involvement, and arthritis, there is a need for straightforward tools in both clinical practice and studies involving patients with PsA. The DHI is a valid and reliable scale to evaluate the functional disability of hands in patients with PsA.

Performance Analysis of Hybrid Comparator using 45nm Technology

In the present real-time world, due to the improvements and innovations of System on Chip (SoC) applications, there is a requirement to integrate multiple technology design topologies. The electronic system design is classified as analog, digital, and mixed-signal design. The comparator is the major building block used in the datapath of System on Chip (SoC) application device. The usage of these devices depends on not only functionality but also on the non-functionality parameters considering different performance estimation metrics. The nonfunctional performance metrics for a transistor level design depends on the number of transistors, switching activities of logic level voltages and delay between input and outputs. These performance metrics are improved by considering the multiple logic families for multiple output generations instead of using a single logic family topology. The comparator is the major component in the arithmetic circuits for SoC applications and can be realized by using various design topologies. The vividly used topologies are Conventional CMOS logic, Pass Transistor Logic (PTL), Gate Diffusion Input (GDI) Logic, Stacking technique, Quantum-dot cellular automata, etc. The selection of the design topology for the comparator is made based on the non-functional parameters. The performance of non-functional parameters is improved by combining the topology architectures of different design techniques. In this paper, the comparator is designed using conventional CMOS logic, PTL, GDI, and a hybridized topology for best performance and the same is implemented using 45nm technology. These circuits are designed by using Cadence Virtuoso Electronic Design Automation (EDA) design tools. Non-functional performance parameters are analyzed for different topologies. Index Terms: VLSI Design, Comparator, Datapath, EDA tools, CMOS Logic, GDI Logic, PTL Logic.

Analysis of the russian market of software products for real estate management

Active sanctions against Russia, including in the field of information technology, lead to a situation where the dependence of organizations on software products non-Russian origin may be a serious problem. Consequently, the task of analyzing the Russian software market, to which this article is devoted, seems relevant. The authors have reviewed one of the software classes – automation systems for real estate management, Computer Aided Facilities Management (hereinafter – CAFM-systems) in a foreign terminology. The article deals with the evaluation and ranking of software products, on the basis of which recommendations for their use in projects are formulated. For this purpose, a list has been formed consisting of twelve Russian CAFM-systems registered in the Unified Register of Russian Computer Programs and Databases; a set of evaluation parameters has been developed, divided into two groups – functional and non-functional parameters; an evaluation methodology using mathematical decision-making methods has been proposed; a group of experts has been formed; an expert evaluation and ranking of systems according to the developed methodology was conducted; a rating of systems with an indication of the companies-developers has been built. The results of the study show that the Russian market of CAFM-systems has been formed and provides customers interested in software products of this class with a fairly wide range of alternatives for choice. The conducted research, on the one hand, has practical value for specialists working with such software products, and, on the other hand, scientific value expressed in the proposed holistic methodology of market analysis, which can be extended to other types of software products by specifying a set of comparison parameters.

Using Ensemble and TOPSIS with AHP for Classification and Selection of Web Services

Due to the increasing number of Web Services with the same functionality, selecting a Web Service that best serves the needs of the Web Client has become a tremendously challenging task. Present approaches use non-functional parameters of the Web Services but they do not consider any preprocessing of the set of functionally Similar Web Services. The lack of preprocessing results in increased use of computational resources due to unnecessary processing of Web Services that have a very low to no chance of satisfying the consumer’s requirements. In this paper, we propose an Ensemble classification method for preprocessing and a Web Service Selection method based on the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. Once the most eligible Web Services are enumerated through classification, they are ranked using the Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) used for weight calculation. A prototype of the method is developed, and experiments are conducted on a real-world Web Services dataset. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

On the Efficiency of Cloud Providers: A DEA Approach Incorporating Categorical Variables

Cloud computing is a growing industry and it has already dominated many IT markets segments. Cloud providers offer numerous equivalent IaaS services aiming to fulfill clients' requirements. In addition, cloud clients need to choose solutions that minimize costs without compromising efficiency though. However, not only the confusion due to the large variety of cloud services but also the uncertainty about the efficiency specifications that their cloud services should have, can make cloud computing services selection a difficult task for the users. Into this context, this paper presents an approach to a multi-attribute decision-making problem that focuses on the calculation of efficiency of IaaS cloud services as a measurable driver for both clients and providers. A DEA input-oriented model is described, which estimates efficiency of cloud services based on functional and non-functional parameters. Furthermore, the contribution of functional and non-functional features to the overall performance is examined. This innovative model urges providers to optimize the efficiency of their services aiming to increase their market share and, at the same time, assists clients in choosing a cost-effective cloud solution.

Functionality Aware Dynamic Composition of Web Services

The composition of the web service is a common technique to attain the best results of complex web tasks. The selection of appropriate web services, linking those services in the action flow and attaining the actual functionality of the task are the important factors to be considered. Even though different frameworks and methods have been proposed to dynamically compose web services, each method has its advantage and disadvantage over the other. Most of the methods give much importance to the Quality of Service (QoS) but fail to achieve the actual functionality after composition. This paper proposes a functionality-oriented composition technique for composing web services. Moreover, this method helps reach the extreme functionality of each web service in the composition towards customer satisfaction. Apart from considering the overall QoS of every single service, the non-functional parameters associated with these services are also considered for achieving the expected functionality. Each of these non-functional parameters has a vital role in the functional performance of the web service. The web services that satisfy the non-functional requirements are chosen to form the composition to attain the best performance. The list of services in the proposed composition method is different from the conventional one, which is composed based on the overall QoS. The non-functional parametric values, the QoS of each web service and the overall QoS after composition are evaluated for the proposed method and experimentally analyzed to prove their advantage over the others.

An UML Based Performance Evaluation of Real-Time Systems Using Timed Petri Net

Performance is a critical non-functional parameter for real-time systems and performance analysis is an important task making it more challenging for complex real-time systems. Mostly performance analysis is performed after the system development but an early stage analysis and validation of performance using system models can improve the system quality. In this paper, we present an early stage automated performance evaluation methodology to analyse system performance using the UML sequence diagram model annotated with modeling and analysis of real-time and embedded systems (MARTE) profile. MARTE offers a performance domain sub-profile that is used for representing real-time system properties essential for performance evaluation. In this paper, a transformation technique and transformation rules are proposed to map the UML sequence diagram model into a Generalized Stochastic Timed Petri net model. All the transformation rules are implemented using a metamodel based approach and Atlas Transformation Language (ATL). A case study from the manufacturing domain a Kanban system is used for validating the proposed technique.

A Hybrid User-Centric Approach for Efficient Web Service Selection

Over the last few years, e-commerce has exhibited explosive growth due to the ease of availability of the internet. E-commerce is rapidly changing the way in which businesses are interacting with each other as well as with their consumers. In each innovative e-commerce application, web services are being included as an important component. This leads to the availability of a huge number of web services that provide similar functionalities. The main challenge is to select the appropriate web service which fulfills the end user requirements. So, there is a need for a web service selection method that selects the web services not only based on their functionality, but also considers the nonfunctional requirements. This article proposes a method to preprocess web services using the J48 classification technique. After that, a hybrid weight evaluation mechanism is employed to obtain the weight values of each nonfunctional parameter. In the end, the web services that are near to user expectations are selected out using the ranking method.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Turkish version of Centrality of Pain Scale in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

The purpose of this study was to perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the Turkish version of the Centrality of Pain Scale (COPS) and to evaluate its psychometric properties in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Centrality of Pain Scale was translated and culturally adapted according to guidelines. Clinical and demographic data of the patients were recorded. In addition to the Turkish version of the COPS (COPS-TR), fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale and Short Form-36 were applied. Internal consistency and test-retest methods were used for reliability analysis. Convergent validity was assessed by analyzing the correlations between COP-TR and functional parameters. Divergent validity and responsiveness were also evaluated. One hundred and four patients (90 female and 14 male) were included. The mean age was 44years. Good internal consistency (α=.84) and high test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.95) were determined. Highest correlations were detected between COPS-TR and BPI-SF pain interference score (r=.64), COPS-TR and PCS (r=.61). There was no significant correlation with non-functional parameters (body mass index, disease duration). It showed high responsiveness (effect size and standardized response mean were 1.66 and 1.94, respectively). The patients filled out COPS-TR in 2minutes. COPS-TR is a reliable and valid instrument that shows good psychometric properties. It can be used in clinical practice and scientific research.

Validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Istanbul Low Back Pain Disability Index in axial spondyloarthritis

Objective To investigate the validation and reliability of Istanbul Low Back Pain Disability Index (ILBPDI) in axial spondyloarthritis (Ax-SpA). Methods Patients with Ax-SpA according to The Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society criteria were recruited. The validation was assessed by face, content, and construct (convergent and divergent) validities, whereas the reliability was assessed by internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Factor analysis was performed. Convergent validity was assessed by correlations of ILBPDI with functional parameters (The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index, The Dougados Functional Index, and The Health Assessment Questionnaire). Divergent validity was assessed by correlations of ILBPDI with non-functional parameters. Results Two hundred forty patients were recruited. Cognitive debriefing showed ILBPDI to be clear, relevant, and comprehensive. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.953. The test–retest reliability was good with the intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.870. ILBPDI was represented by three-factor groups of activity: axial bending, sitting/rest, and standing activities. ILBPDI had good correlations with the functional parameters (rho changes between 0.809 and 0.580), and it had poor or non-significant correlations with the non-functional parameters (absolute rho changes between 0.669 and 0.001). Conclusion ILBPDI is a practical, accurate, and non-time-consuming scale which is valid and reliable to evaluate the functional disability in patients with Ax-SpA.

Inclusion of Functional and Non-Functional Parameters for the Prediction of Overall Efforts of Mobile Applications.

Size is a major and main parameter for the estimation of efforts and cost of software applications in general and mobile applications in particular and estimating effort, cost and time has been a key step in the life cycle of the software project. In order to create a sound schedule for the project, it is therefore important to have these estimates as soon as possible in the software development life cycle. In past years, many methods have been employed to estimate size and efforts of mobile applications but till now these methods do not meet the expected needs from customer. In this paper, we present a new size measurement method i.e., Mobile COSMIC Function Points (MCFP) based on the COSMIC approach, which is a primary factor for estimation of efforts in mobile application development. This paper analyzes the possibility of using a combination of Functional and Non-functional parameters including both Mobile Technical Complexity Factors (MTCF) and Mobile Environmental Complexity Factors (MECF) for the purpose of mobile application sizing prediction and hence effort estimation. For the purpose of this study, thirty six mobile applications were analyzed and their size and efforts were compared by applying the new effort estimation approach. In this context of a mobile application, few investigations have been performed to compare the effectiveness of COSMIC, FP's and the proposed approach “COSMIC Plus Effort Estimation Model (CPEEM)”. The main goal of this paper is to investigate if the inclusion of Non functional parameters imposes an effect on the functional size of mobile application development. Upon estimating efforts using the proposed approach, the results were promising for mobile applications when compared the results of our approach with the results of the other two approaches

Web service classification based on non-functional parameters using vote based classifier

Today the internet has become a very vital part of everyone’s life. Nowadays, Companies are offering their business in the form of web services to reach their customers. Web services help in business by providing a standard way to communicate with their customers. But the rapid introduction of modern web services in this dynamic business environment influences the service quality and customer satisfaction. So, there is a requirement to focus on the functional as well as the non-functional aspect of web services. In this paper, for accurately classifying the web services vote based classifier has been used. For classification J48, Naive Bayes, SVM and Random Forest are used as a base learner. The proposed vote based classifier model provides accurate classification and prediction by improving the recall and precision value as compared to individual classifiers. The experiment is conducted on a real dataset of web services to find out the accurate result. The results show that the vote based classifier performs better in comparison to others. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed approach determines the most promising results.

A QoS-Oriented Novel Optimization Schemes for Web Service Composition for Improved Healthcare

Due to massive increase in Web service in order to provide users an improved service it is necessary to develop a dynamic approach based on multi constraint Quality-of-Service (QoS) driven web service composition model to recommend suitable services to intended users is a big challenge. QoS plays a prominent role in selecting a Web Service. QoS is mainly determined by several non-functional parameters like availability, reliability, robustness, integrity, accessibility, interoperability, accuracy and security. It is evidenced based on experimentation that the proposed Improved Rider Optimization scheme achieves near optimal solution where group of riders racing towards a target location and attains adaptability and scalability by making a more confident web service selection with QoS prediction.

Efficient Selection of QoS Based Web Services using Modified TOPSIS Method

Nowadays, due to the ease of availability of internet technology large numbers of people are using the World Wide Web. The companies are changing their way to do business. They are shifting from a data-oriented system to a service-oriented system. Now companies are able to depict their business in the form of web services and make them available on the internet. Due to this number of web services are available for satisfying the user’s need. But to select the best web service that satisfies user specification is a challenging issue. So, it is necessary to consider not only the functional requirement of the web services but also the nonfunctional requirements of the web services. On the other hand, users are not able to specify the exact nonfunctional parameter requirements so, there is a need for QoS processor which can understand the user's need and can extract the parameters for QoS. In this paper, a modified TOPSIS approach based on MCDM is proposed for the selection of efficient web service. The web services that are near to user expectations are selected out using the proposed method. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed approach determines the most promising results.

Proposed T-Model to cover 4S quality metrics based on empirical study of root cause of software failures

&lt;span&gt;There are various root causes of software failures. Few years ago, software used to fail mainly due to functionality related bugs. That used to happen due to requirement misunderstanding, code issues and lack of functional testing. A lot of work has been done in past on this and software engineering has matured over time, due to which software’s hardly fail due to functionality related bugs. To understand the most recent failures, we had to understand the recent software development methodologies and technologies. In this paper we have discussed background of technologies and testing progression over time. A survey of more than 50 senior IT professionals was done to understand root cause of their software project failures. It was found that most of the softwares fail due to lack of testing of non-functional parameters these days. A lot of research was also done to find most recent and most severe software failures. Our study reveals that main reason of software failures these days is lack of testing of non-functional requirements. Security and Performance parameters mainly constitute non-functional requirements of software. It has become more challenging these days due to lots of development in the field of new technologies like Internet of things (IoT), Cloud of things (CoT), Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, robotics and excessive use of mobile and technology in everything by masses. Finally, we proposed a software development model called as T-model to ensure breadth and depth of software is considered while designing and testing of software. &lt;/span&gt;

Selecting Services for Multiple Users: Let’s Be Democratic

Service selection is a challenging task, and a lot of effort has been devoted to tools that assist the user in choosing the service whose non-functional parameters better match her/his preferences. In many practical situations, the responsibility to decide which is the appropriate service is shared among multiple parties. A standard approach to this service selection problem is to discard services that are unanimously considered inappropriate and focus on the rest. However, as the involved parties may have colliding interests, only a few services may be eliminated. This work addresses this shortcoming and enables users to reach a “democratic” decision by means of a majority vote: a service is eliminated if the majority of the parties find it inappropriate. We formulate the problem using dominance relationships, and propose algorithms that return an appropriate subset of services for the parties, while being more efficient than standard techniques. Moreover, we consider the problem of defining an appropriate ranking for the non eliminated services, and formulate it as an instance of a group recommendation problem. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of our approach through extensive experimental evaluation on real-based and synthetic datasets.

Comparison of conduit and autograft efficiency in repairing femoral nerve injury in New Zealand rabbits.

Background: Peripheral nerve injuries may affect all age groups and exert devastating impacts on the professional and personal life of the patients. The investigation of nerve regeneration and use of biomaterials and synthetic materials have resulted in advancements in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries and lesions. Nerve conduits can be used to adjoin the digital sensory nerve spaces of less than 3 cm, especially when the direct tension-free repair of peripheral nerve lesions is not possible. The present study was conducted to evaluate the use of nerve conduits by functional and nonfunctional parameters (i.e. histological study). Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 30 male rabbits. After cutting or crushing the right femoral nerve of the rabbits, they were divided into 3 groups: group 1, with right femoral nerve cut; group 2, with right femoral nerve crushed; and group 3, with right femoral nerve cut using a conduit. The 3 groups were evaluated after 1, 8, and 16 weeks for functional parameters (i.e. walking track analysis). In addition, they were subjected to nonfunctional examination (i.e. histological study) after 16 weeks, then, the results were compared. Results: The 3 groups showed no statistically significant differences in motor recovery in the eighth and 16th weeks (p>0.05). Based on the histological study, group 3 with an end-to-end nerve cutting using a conduit, showed a significantly higher axon count compared to groups 2 and 3 (p<0.05). Conclusion: End-to-end anastomosis using conduit led to axon growth; moreover, comparable functional recovery was observed with end-to-end neurorrhaphy in a rabbit model. Given that the diameter of the nerves and muscles, which might be neurotized in humans, and is much bigger and not comparable to that of the rabbits, it is highly recommended to conduct studies on animals with the larger size, such as primates, to facilitate the generalization of the results to humans.

Innate Immune System Status of Sulphur Mustard-Poisoned Iranian Veterans Three Decades after Exposure.

Sulphur mustard (SM) is an incapacitating chemical warfare agent which causes acute and chronic toxicities in different body organs of affected individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the innate immune status of the Iranian veterans who were exposed to SM around 30 years earlier and had more than 25% disabilities. In this regard, most functional and non-functional parameters of innate immunity were evaluated in 35 veterans. Phagocytic activity, nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction assay and haemolytic complement activity (HCA) in addition to routine haematological parameters, serum protein electrophoresis, complements C3 and C4 levels were studied. Measures of haematological parameters, serum proteins, C3 and C4 were almost within the normal range. Functional experiments such as phagocytic activity, NBT reduction assay and HCA were normal as well. However, serum protein analysis revealed a fair decrease in percentages of α1 -globulin. Mean values of the parameters of innate immune system of the veterans three decades after SM poisoning were almost within the upper and lower normal limits. Reduced α1 -globulin - maybe subsequent to a chain of SM-induced genetic disorders - may have been the result of α1 -antitrypsin deficiency which may result in prevalent respiratory complications among these veterans. As a supplementary study, measurement of serum α1 -antitrypsin in SM-poisoned veterans could be beneficial. Further studies are required to prove this hypothesis. Further investigations on the evaluation of the acquired immunity parameters as the second line of defence may reveal a better understanding of SM veterans' immune system status.