Reflexion Models Research Articles

Специфика топоса рефлексии в контексте трансцендентальной и экзистенциальной моделей рассмотрения

The paper is focused on the examination of the topological problematics of the reflexion phenomenon in the context of understanding the transcendental and existential models of its consideration. Some features of the reflexion topos are highlighted based on the historical-philosophical and hermeneutic analysis. It is shown that in the development of the classical tradition of understanding reflection, the ideas of metaphysics as a special sphere of knowledge of the absolute are born, which determines the primacy of reflection in relation to sensory cognition. The reflexion topos is located in the sphere of the subject's speculation. In the tradition of forming ideas about transcendental reflection, the idea of the significance of the transcendental Other comes to the fore, moving the reflection topos beyond the limits of consciousness. The property of “mirroring” and transcen-dentality emphasizes the dualistic nature of reflection, the actualization of the spiritual and rational principles in the subject’s reflective experience. The intersubjective character of the reflexion topos in I. Kant’s philosophical ideas is outlined. Based on the philosophical views of M. Bakhtin, the specifics of the topos of the existential model of reflexion are revealed, where the Other is a multivalued subject for whom the reflexive-communicative act is an existential event. The existential reflexion topos is not initially set, is mobile, unstable, and is conditioned by the intensity of value interaction between personal principles. In conclusion, a vector for a deeper understanding of the topological problems of reflection in the context of existential consideration is giv-en.

Small-field measurement and Monte Carlo model validation of a novel image-guided radiotherapy system.

The RefleXion™ X1 is a novel radiotherapy system that is designed for image-guided radiotherapy, and eventually, biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT). BgRT is a treatment paradigm that tracks tumor motion using real-time positron emission signals. This study reports the small-field measurement results and the validation of a Monte Carlo (MC) model of the first clinical RefleXion unit. The RefleXion linear accelerator (linac) produces a 6 MV flattening filter free (FFF) photon beam and consists of a binary multileaf collimator (MLC) system with 64 leaves and two pairs of y-jaws. The maximum clinical field size achievable is 400×20 mm2 . The y-jaws provide either a 10 or 20mm opening at source-to-axis distance (SAD) of 850mm. The width of each MLC leaf at SAD is 6.25mm. Percentage depth doses (PDDs) and relative beam profiles were acquired using an Edge diode detector in a water tank for field sizes from 12.5×10 to 100×20 mm2 . Beam profiles were also measured using films. Output factors of fields ranging from 6.25×10 to 100×20 mm2 were measured using W2 scintillator detector, Edge detector, and films. Output correction factors k of the Edge detector for RefleXion were calculated. An MC model of the linac including pre-MLC beam sources and detailed structures of MLC and lower y-jaws was validated against the measurements. Simulation codes BEAMnrc and GATE were utilized. The diode measured PDD at 10cm depth (PDD10) increases from 53.6% to 56.9% as the field opens from 12.5×10 to 100×20 mm2 . The W2-measured output factor increases from 0.706 to 1 as the field opens from 6.25×10 to 100×20 mm2 (reference field size). The output factors acquired by diode and film differ from the W2 results by 1.65% (std=1.49%) and 2.09% (std=1.41%) on average, respectively. The profile penumbra and full-width half-maximum (FWHM) measured by diode agree well with the film results with a deviation of 0.60mm and 0.73% on average, respectively. The averaged beam profile consistency calculated between the diode- and film-measured profiles among different depths is within 1.72%. By taking the W2 measurements as the ground truth, the output correction factors k for Edge detector ranging from 0.958 to 1 were reported. For the MC model validation, the simulated PDD10 agreed within 0.6% to the diode measurement. The MC-simulated output factor differed from the W2 results by 2.3% on average (std=3.7%), while the MC simulated beam penumbra differed from the diode results by 0.67mm on average (std=0.42mm). The MC FWHM agreed with the diode results to within 1.40% on average. The averaged beam profile consistency calculated between the diode and MC profiles among different depths is less than 1.29%. This study represents the first small-field dosimetry of a clinical RefleXion system. A complete and accurate MC model of the RefleXion linac has been validated.

To automatically map source code entities to architectural modules with Naive Bayes

Background:The process of mapping a source code entity onto an architectural module is to a large degree a manual task. Automating this process could increase the use of static architecture conformance checking methods, such as reflexion modeling, in industry. Current techniques rely on user parameterization and a highly cohesive design. A machine learning approach would potentially require less parameters and better use of the available information to aid in automatic mapping. Aim:We investigate how a classifier can be trained to map from source code to architecture modules automatically. This classifier is trained with semantic and syntactic dependency information extracted from the source code and from architecture descriptions. The classifier is implemented using multinomial naive Bayes and evaluated. Method:We perform experiments and compare the classifier with three state-of-the-art mapping functions in eight open-source Java systems with known ground-truth-mappings. Results:We find that the classifier outperforms the state-of-the-art in all cases and that it provides a useful baseline for further research in the area of semi-automatic incremental clustering. Conclusions:We conclude that machine learning is a useful approach that performs better and with less need for parameterization compared to other approaches. Future work includes investigating problematic mappings and a more diverse set of subject systems.

A Gray Box for Visualizing Instruction Sequence Based on Improved Suffix Tree

Gray box is a kind of device in which the working process of a program or system is locally recognized. Gray box testing, also known as gray box analysis, is a software debugging method based on the limited cognition of the internal details of the program. Testers may know how system components interact with each other, but they lack a detailed understanding of internal program functions and operation. So the construction of gray box is particularly important. The most original gray boxes are static debugger and dynamic debugger. And then reflexion model, which reduces the manual work greatly, is developed and applied. The latest gray boxes are focus on regarding instructions as a natural language using the mature mathematical model to mine their internal value. Adhering to the idea of latest researches, our paper improves the original suffix tree and use the improved suffix tree as a mathematical models to analyse and visualize the internal logic of instructions. Our gray box aims at solving three problems in practical application. In addition, we explain the complexity of instruction sequence and put forward a prediction formula for the building part. By experiment, we prove the time complexity of each part and the correctness of the prediction formula, and show the effect of visualizing part.

Architecture conformance analysis using model‐based testing: A case study approach

SummaryContext: The architectural drift problem defines the discrepancy between the architecture description and the code. Deviations of the code from the architecture can occur if architectural constraints as defined in the architectural models are not implemented in the code. For large‐scale systems, manually checking the consistency of the architecture with the code is not trivial and cumbersome.Objective: The overall objective of this paper is to propose and analyze the effectiveness and practicality of an architecture conformance analysis approach using model‐based testing (ACAMBT) approach for checking the consistency between architectural models and the code. Hereby, we consider the case whereby the architecture is assumed correct, and the code needs to align with the architecture.Method: We propose a model‐based testing that uses architectural views to automatically derive test cases for checking the architectural constraints in the code. We have evaluated the approach and the corresponding toolset for a real industrial case study using a systematic case study protocol. Further, we have adopted exhaustive fault‐injection techniques to detect the constraint violations.Results: The evaluation of the approach on real code showed that deviations with the architectural constraints could be easily detected in the code.Conclusion: We can conclude that ACAMBT is effective for identifying inconsistencies between the architecture views and the code for the defined view constraints. Our survey study with practitioners showed that adopting the ACAMBT approach is practical and easy to use. The approach as such can be considered as a complimentary tool to the existing testing and reflexion modeling approaches.

Exploring the suitability of source code metrics for indicating architectural inconsistencies

Software architecture degradation is a phenomenon that frequently occurs during software evolution. Source code anomalies are one of the several aspects that potentially contribute to software architecture degradation. Many techniques for automating the detection of such anomalies are based on source code metrics. It is, however, unclear how accurate these techniques are in identifying the architecturally relevant anomalies in a system. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the extent to which source code metrics on their own can be used to characterize classes contributing to software architecture degradation. We performed a multi-case study on three open-source systems for each of which we gathered the intended architecture and data for 49 different source code metrics taken from seven different code quality tools. This data was analyzed to explore the links between architectural inconsistencies, as detected by applying reflexion modeling, and metric values indicating potential design problems at the implementation level. The results show that there does not seem to be a direct correlation between metrics and architectural inconsistencies. For many metrics, however, classes more problematic as indicated by their metric value seem significantly more likely to contribute to inconsistencies than less problematic classes. In particular, the fan-in, a classes’ public API, and method counts seem to be suitable indicators. The fan-in metric seems to be a particularly interesting indicator, as class size does not seem to have a confounding effect on this metric. This finding may be useful for focusing code restructuring efforts on architecturally relevant metrics in case the intended architecture is not explicitly specified and to further improve architecture recovery and consistency checking tool support.

Reflective feature location: knowledge in mind meets information in system

Locating code entities relevant to a feature (i.e., feature location) is an important task in software maintenance. Feature location is challenging due to the information gap between the developer’s knowledge about a feature and the feature’s implementation in the system. In this paper, we present a reflective feature location approach ReFLex to bridge this gap. ReFLex automatically computes a reflexion model between the developer’s logical view of a feature and the feature’s implemented view reverse-engineered from the code. It provides interactive reflection support for the developer to refine the logical view and the feature location results such that the logical view and the implemented view converge gradually in an iterative feature location process. We have implemented our approach as an Eclipse plugin and investigated the benefits and challenges in reflective feature location through a user study.

Didaktisch-methodische Perspektiven auf nationale Stereotype: Facetten einer unterrichtspraktischen Konkretisierung

In this article we address a central theme of how lessons in German and Danish that sensitise students for national clichés (stereotypes) can be designed. By introducing the training aids that support a language teaching about German and Danish clichés, we move concrete materials and results from teaching lessons in German and Danish schools as well as other educational institutions in the centre of our focus. Programmatically, a didactic-methodical model of sensitisation, reflexion and criticism is explained. Theoretical and terminological differentiations on the subject areas stereotype and stereotyping and to dimensions of stereotypes refer to the topical linguistic and social-psychological research discussion. Thoughts on the verisi-militude of national stereotypes from a didactic view decide the contribution.

Architecture Conformance Checking in Dynamically Typed Languages.

Architectural erosion is a recurrent problem faced by software architects, which might be even more severe in systems implemented in dynamically typed languages. The reasons are twofold: (i) some features provided by such languages make developers more propitious to break the planned architecture (e.g., dynamic invocations and buildings), and (ii) the developers’ community lacks tool support for monitoring the implemented architecture. To address these shortcomings, this paper presents an architectural conformance and visualization approach based on static code analysis techniques and on a lightweight type propagation heuristic. The central idea is to provide the developers’ community with means to control the architectural erosion process by reporting architectural violations and visualizing them in high-level architectural models, such as reflexion models and DSMs. This paper also describes a tool—called ArchRuby—that implements our approach. We evaluate our solution in three real-world systems identifying 48 architectural violations of which the developers had no prior knowledge. We also measure the effectiveness of our type propagation heuristic reporting that (i) the number of analyzed types raises 5% on the average and (ii) certain violations are only detected due to our heuristic.

Adding Informational Beliefs to the Players Strategic Thinking Model

Abstract: We propose the model that connects the strategic reflexion/strategic thinking model and the information reflexion model of players in game theory. This model can describe both types of beliefs: players' beliefs about opponents' thinking models and players' beliefs about their opponents' awareness about the external parameter value. We consider some general examples and also the example of the Cournot oligopoly model.

Real-Time Reflexion Modelling in architecture reconciliation: A multi case study

ContextReflexion Modelling is considered one of the more successful approaches to architecture reconciliation. Empirical studies strongly suggest that professional developers involved in real-life industrial projects find the information provided by variants of this approach useful and insightful, but the degree to which it resolves architecture conformance issues is still unclear. ObjectiveThis paper aims to assess the level of architecture conformance achieved by professional architects using Reflexion Modelling, and to determine how the approach could be extended to improve its suitability for this task. MethodAn in vivo, multi-case-study protocol was adopted across five software systems, from four different financial services organizations. Think-aloud, video-tape and interview data from professional architects involved in Reflexion Modelling sessions were analysed qualitatively. ResultsThis study showed that (at least) four months after the Reflexion Modelling sessions less than 50% of the architectural violations identified were removed. The majority of participants who did remove violations favoured changes to the architectural model rather than to the code. Participants seemed to work off two specific architectural templates, and interactively explored their architectural model to focus in on the causes of violations, and to assess the ramifications of potential code changes. They expressed a desire for dependency analysis beyond static-source-code analysis and scalable visualizations. ConclusionThe findings support several interesting usage-in-practice traits, previously hinted at in the literature. These include (1) the iterative analysis of systems through Reflexion models, as a precursor to possible code change or as a focusing mechanism to identify the location of architecture conformance issues, (2) the extension of the approach with respect to dependency analysis of software systems and architectural modelling templates, (3) improved visualization support and (4) the insight that identification of architectural violations in itself does not lead to their removal in the majority of instances.

Static Architecture-Conformance Checking: An Illustrative Overview

In this article, the authors compare and illustrate the use of three static architecture-conformance techniques: dependency-structure matrices, source code query languages, and reflexion models. To highlight the similarities and differences between these three techniques, they describe how to apply some of the techniques' available supporting tools to specify and check architectural constraints for a simple personal information management system.

Assessing architectural drift in commercial software development: a case study

AbstractObjectives: Software architecture is perceived as one of the most important artefacts created during a system's design. However, implementations often diverge from their intended architectures: a phenomenon called architectural drift. The objective of this research is to assess the occurrence of architectural drift in the context of de novo software development, to characterize it, and to evaluate whether its detection leads to inconsistency removal. Method: An in vivo, longitudinal case study was performed during the development of a commercial software system, where an approach based on Reflexion Modelling was employed to detect architectural drift. Observation and think‐aloud data, captured during the system's development, were assessed for the presence and types of architectural drift. When divergences were identified, the data were further analysed to see if identification led to the removal of these divergences. Results: The analysed system diverged from the intended architecture, during the initial implementation of the system. Surprisingly however, this work showed that Reflexion Modelling served to conceal some of the inconsistencies, a finding that directly contradicts the high regard that this technique enjoys as an architectural evaluation tool. Finally, the analysis illustrated that detection of inconsistencies was insufficient to prompt their removal, in the small, informal team context studied. Conclusions: Although the utility of the approach for detecting inconsistencies was demonstrated in most cases, it also served to hide several inconsistencies and did not act as a trigger for their removal. Hence additional efforts must be taken to lessen architectural drift and several improvements in this regard are suggested. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cosmic Intelligence and Black Holes

We propose that black holes may serve as a physical substratum for intelligent beings, based on(1) The descriptions of brain and psyche are complementary to each other, as internal and external observers of a black hole in the Susskind-t'Hooft's schema.(2) There is an aspect of the inner structure of a black hole that is isomorphic to the structure of the human subjective domain in the psychological model of reflexion.(3) Both black holes and the brain–psyche system have a facet that can be represented using thermodynamic concepts.(4) Both lend themselves to a holographic description.

Encapsulating targeted component abstractions using software Reflexion Modelling

AbstractDesign abstractions such as components, modules, subsystems or packages are often not made explicit in the implementation of legacy systems. Indeed, often the abstractions that are made explicit turn out to be inappropriate for future evolution agendas. This can make the maintenance, evolution and refactoring of these systems difficult. In this publication, we carry out a fine‐grained evaluation of Reflexion Modelling as a technique for encapsulating user‐targeted components. This process is a prelude to component recovery, reuse and refactoring. The evaluation takes the form of two in vivo case studies, where two professional software developers encapsulate components in a large, commercial software system. The studies demonstrate the validity of this approach and offer several best‐use guidelines. Specifically, they argue that users benefit from having a strong mental model of the system in advance of Reflexion Modelling, even if that model is flawed, and that users should expend effort exploring the expected relationships present in Reflexion Models. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reengineering towards components using "Reconn-exion"

Continuing to develop software from scratch will not be feasible indefinitely. Reusing existing software would seem to be a viable solution to this problem. The paradigm of component-based development (CBD) explicitly accounts for reuse in its process. Unfortunately the majority of existing software systems are not implemented using CBD, thus reusing portions of this software using CBD becomes difficult. Reengineering and maintenance research contains a plethora of software analysis and restructuring techniques that could be used to help us exploit legacy applications for reuse. This thesis focuses on two such techniques and combines variations of them for the purpose of component recovery: A feature location technique called Software Reconnaissance and a design recovery technique called Software Reflexion Modelling. Their combination is called "Component Reconn-exion." We describe the technique, highlight results and evaluation to date and finally discuss further work necessary to complete our contribution as a PhD. thesis.

Software reflexion models: bridging the gap between design and implementation

The artifacts constituting a software system often drift apart over time. We have developed the software reflexion model technique to help engineers perform various software engineering tasks by exploiting, rather than removing, the drift between design and implementation. More specifically, the technique helps an engineer compare artifacts by summarizing where one artifact (such as a design) is consistent with and inconsistent with another artifact (such as source). The technique can be applied to help a software engineer evolve a structural mental model of a system to the point that it is "good enough" to be used for reasoning about a task at hand. The software reflexion model technique has been applied to support a variety of tasks, including design conformance, change assessment, and an experimental reengineering of the million-lines-of-code Microsoft Excel product. We provide a formal characterization of the reflexion model technique, discuss practical aspects of the approach, relate experiences of applying the approach and tools, and place the technique into the context of related work.

Positive-negative asymmetry and bipolar contrast

Repertory grids in which personal acquaintances were evaluated on the basis of bipolar constructs (e.g., generous-stingy) were completed by 58 undergraduates. A “person format”, with all constructs applied to each acquaintance in turn, was assigned randomly to 29 students; a “construct format”, in which these acquaintances were evaluated successively on only 1 construct at a time, was assigned to the other 29. The relative frequency of positive evaluations in the construct format grids (0.62) was consistent with the golden section hypothesis, whereas that in the person format grids (0.66) was significantly higher. Theoretical implications of these findings were discussed in terms of H. Frank's (1964) theoretical definition of strikingness and V. A. Lefebvre's (1990) computational model of reflexion.

Self-Reflexion in Evaluating Others

It was predicted in two independent experiments that subjects would assign themselves and other persons to the same poles of bipolar dimensions (such as generous/stingy) with a relative frequency of 0.625. This hypothesis was derived from Lefebvre's model of reflexion. Subjects completed repertory grids in which they evaluated themselves and others on either personal constructs elicited from themselves or a standard set of Semantic Differential dimensions. The hypothesized value closely approximated the extent to which subjects assigned themselves and others to the same poles of both elicited and supplied dimensions. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed in terms of formal assumptions of Lefebvre's model.

Reengineering with reflexion models: a case study

Reengineering large and complex software systems is often very costly. The article presents a reverse engineering technique and relates how a Microsoft engineer used it to aid an experimental reengineering of Excel-a product that comprises about 1.2 million lines of C code. The reflexion technique is designed to be lightweight and iterative. To use it, the user first defines a high-level structural model, then extracts a map of the source code and uses a set of computation tools to compare the two models. The approach lets software engineers effectively validate their high-level reasoning with information from the source code. The engineer in this case study-a developer with 10-plus years at Microsoft-specified and computed an initial reflexion model of Excel in a day and then spent four weeks iteratively refining it. He estimated that gaining the same degree of familiarity with the Excel source code might have taken up to two years with other available approaches. On the basis of this experience, the authors believe that the reflexion technique has practical applications.