Engineering Support Research Articles

On using Stack Overflow comment-edit pairs to recommend code maintenance changes

Code maintenance data sets typically consist of a before version of the code and an after version that contains the improvement or fix. Such data sets are important for various software engineering support tools related to code maintenance, such as program repair, code recommender systems, or Application Programming Interface (API) misuse detection. Most of the current data sets are typically constructed from mining commit history in version-control systems or issues in issue-tracking systems. In this paper, we investigate whether Stack Overflow can be used as an additional source for building code maintenance data sets. Comments on Stack Overflow provide an effective way for developers to point out problems with existing answers, alternative solutions, or pitfalls. Given its crowd-sourced nature, answers are then updated to incorporate these suggestions. In this paper, we mine comment-edit pairs from Stack Overflow and investigate their potential usefulness for constructing the above data sets. These comment-edit pairs have the added benefit of having concrete descriptions/explanations of why the change is needed as well as potentially having less tangled changes to deal with. We first design a technique to extract related comment-edit pairs and then qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the nature of these pairs. We find that the majority of comment-edit pairs are not tangled, but find that only 27% of the studied pairs are potentially useful for the above applications. We categorize the types of mined pairs and find that the highest ratio of useful pairs come from those categorized as Correction, Obsolete, Flaw, and Extension. These categories can provide data for both corrective and preventative maintenance activities. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our extracted pairs, we submitted 15 pull requests to popular GitHub repositories, 10 of which have been accepted to widely used repositories such as Apache Beam (https://beam.apache.org/) and NLTK (https://www.nltk.org/). Our work is the first to investigate Stack Overflow comment-edit pairs and opens the door for future work in this direction. Based on our findings and observations, we provide concrete suggestions on how to potentially identify a larger set of useful comment-edit pairs, which can also be facilitated by our shared data.

Research on the Design and Construction of Deep Foundation Pit Support in Geotechnical Engineering

Research on the Design and Construction of Deep Foundation Pit Support in Geotechnical Engineering

Analysis on Deformation and Stability of Tunnel Anchor Excavation under Broken Rock Mass

Based on the concrete engineering support of the tunnel anchor of the Dadu River Bridge on the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the geological background of broken rock mass, extremely developed joints and fissures, and poor self-stability of surrounding rock within the range of side anchors in Chengdu, a three-dimensional elastoplastic numerical calculation method is used. The current engineering geological conditions and the tunnel anchor design plan are to establish a three-dimensional fine numerical simulation model of the Chengdu side tunnel anchor that comprehensively considers rock mass unloading, stratum classification, and anchor tunnel excavation and support structure. The “excavation-support” process in each construction footage is simulated to realize the three-dimensional calculation of the dynamic construction and support of anchor tunnels, and to study the surrounding rock deformation, stress and plastic zone distribution changes during the excavation process. Comprehensive analysis found that the deformation of surrounding rock during excavation shows that it develops toward the empty surface, and the displacement distribution is obviously affected by the distribution of ground stress and rock formation. The greater the buried depth, the greater the deformation of the surrounding rock.

Условия подключения как неотъемлемая часть договора технологического присоединения: тенденции законодательного регулирования

This article discusses the connection conditions as an integral part of the technological connection agreement. The article provides a comparative analysis of the technical conditions for connecting to the networks of engineering and technical support issued in accordance with the urban planning legislation with the connection conditions that are an annex to the technological connection agreement. The author also touches upon the issues of the historical development of the regulation of relations on connection to various types of engineering networks. The article notes that despite the existing isolation of the connection conditions from the technological connection agreement and the consideration of these documents by the legislator separately, recently legislative regulation has been developing in the direction of gradual unification of the content of the technological connection agreement and the connection conditions. In order to avoid duplication of the terms of connection of the provisions of the technological connection agreement, the author proposes to fix the connection measures directly in the text of the agreement at the legislative level.

Machine learning-based thermokarst landslide susceptibility modeling across the permafrost region on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Thermokarst landslides (TL) caused by the thaw of ground ice in permafrost slopes are increasing on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), but the understanding of the spatially suitable environmental conditions including terrains and climate for them has not been fully established. Here, we applied multiple machine learning models and their ensemble to explore factors controlling the TL and map its susceptibility at a fine resolution. The models were calibrated and validated using a split-sample approach based on an inventory of TLs from the remote sensing data. The models indicated that summer air temperature and rainfall were the most two important factors controlling the occurrence and distribution of TLs, provided that other geomorphic conditions (i.e., slope, solar radiation, and fine soil) were suitable. The final ensemble susceptibility map based on downscaled climate data and terrain data suggested that ca. 1.4% of the QTP land was classified in high- to very high-susceptibility zone, which is likely to increase in response to future climate change. This study integrated local topography and climate in susceptibility modeling and provided new insights into the geomorphic sensitivity to climate change but also the engineering support over the QTP.

Challenges and opportunities for social entrepreneurs in civil engineering in Brazil

PurposeThis paper aims to identify challenges and opportunities for social enterprises (SE) in civil engineering in Brazil.Design/methodology/approachStarting from the transformative social innovation theory and inspired by grounded theory principles, this paper conducts three-stage exploratory research. First, this paper mapped the Brazilian SE civil engineering ecosystem. Next, this paper classified the SE initiatives along with an organizing framework. Finally, this paper conducted 11 interviews with key ecosystem actors and analyzed data through iterative, parallel and interrelated content analysis procedures.FindingsThe 37 SE found were classified along “Sustainability,” “Housing,” “Transportation” and “Sanitation” pillars, which are aligned with the United Nations’ social development goals. This paper found 50 challenges and opportunities, which were aggregated along seven dimensions. Three elements are particularly relevant as opportunities: opportunities for SE with ecosystem supporters, specialized investors and partnership with major companies; while government and early investment are the most relevant challenges.Research limitations/implicationsResearch findings and conclusions cannot be extended to other sectors and countries. Usual limitations associated with exploratory qualitative research must also be highlighted.Practical implicationsThe government should offer financial and technical support for civil engineering in working in partnership with ecosystem supporters. Academy could use SE content and ecosystem for its students and should offer diverse resources for network creation.Originality/valueFocusing on civil engineering SE in Brazil, this study sheds light on a high-impact sector that has not been studied yet.

Application of Computer Three-dimensional Modeling in Engineering Engineering

With the development of science and technology and the development of our society, new technologies are continuously applied in our country’s engineering. Due to the complex geological phenomena such as faults, pinching, and outcrops in geological bodies, in order to express these phenomena when modeling 3D strata Regardless of whether it is a surface model, a volume model or a mixed model, there are problems of space division or surface intersecting. Due to the complexity of geological body topology, data errors and computer accuracy problems, these models often fail in the actual modeling process. Using level set theory can effectively solve this problem. Level sets use implicit functions to express surfaces, which can realize the expression of complex geological bodies and topological operations such as merge, intersection, and difference. In 3D geological modeling, after generating various geological interfaces by interpolation, these geological interfaces are expressed in level sets, and various complex topological operations are completed by level theory, and a 3D geological model expressed in level sets is established. On this basis, by inserting various engineering activity interfaces expressed by level set, and using level set theory to perform topological operations, geological models after various engineering activities can be constructed. Reuse algorithms to extract various geological interfaces or engineering activity interfaces, and construct stratigraphic models that can be used for real-time visualization or engineering evaluation (such as finite element calculation) or geological models after engineering activities. By establishing a three-dimensional geological model of the area where the construction project is located, architectural designers and construction personnel can analyze and study complex geological conditions, and provide technical support for engineering. By studying the three-dimensional geological model, this paper analyzes the engineering geological conditions and potential risks of the construction process in the study area, and proposes risk control measures, which can provide scientific decision-making basis for building design, construction, and risk prevention and control, and has a high promotion value. Experimental research results show that the application of computer three-dimensional modeling in engineering engineering can effectively reduce the cost of the project, ensure the quality and schedule, and greatly improve the construction efficiency of the project.

Sustainable Development of the Slope Lands of the Russian Arctic: Investigation of the Relationship between Slope Aspects, Wind Regime and Residential Wind Comfort

The land-use of slope terrain in the Arctic region is important and relevant, as vast territories that are reserved for proposed cities’ development have disturbed land relief. The relevance of the study is also associated with an increased interest in the development of settlements in the Arctic region, which has great territorial and resource potential. In addition to the complexity of the engineering support of such terrains, there are difficulties in organizing comfortable indoor wind comfort in the residential areas required for population well-being. The study focuses on specific conditions for residential areas design resilient to the harsh climatic conditions on difficult slope terrain to ensure the quality of life of the population in the Arctic region of Russia. The article focuses on the study of wind-chill parameters such as wind velocity and temperature for different slopes. The subject of this research is slope terrain aeration conditions of the Arctic zone in Russia. The research aim expresses the relationship between specific aeration of the slope area conditions and the layout design of residential areas to ensure comfortable living conditions for the population. The study was carried out using mathematical computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling of wind flows in the ANSYS Fluent program. The results of the study are graphs showing the distribution of comfort and discomfort zones in a residential area for different aeration conditions at different slope terrains. Implementation of the methodology for assessing aeration conditions for residential areas on slope terrains was carried out in the city of Murmansk. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that there are no similar studies for the Arctic region in Russia. Research results can be used as a practical tool for justification of residential areas through a sample plan addressing their wind comfortability.

Knowledge-Based Design Guidance System for Cloud-Based Decision Support in the Design of Complex Engineered Systems

AbstractThe automation and intelligence highlighted in Industry 4.0 put forward higher requirements for reasonable trade-offs between humans and machines for decision-making governance. However, in the context of Industry 4.0, the vision of decision support for design engineering is still unclear. Additionally, the corresponding methods and system architectures are lacking to support the realization of value-chain-centric complex engineered systems design lifecycles. Hence, we identify decision support demands for complex engineered systems designs in the Industry 4.0 era, representing the integrated design problems at various stages of the product value chain. As a response, in this paper, the architecture of a Knowledge-Based Design Guidance System (KBDGS) for cloud-based decision support (CBDS) is presented that highlights the integrated management of complexity, uncertainty, and knowledge in designing decision workflows, as well as systematic design guidance to find satisfying solutions with the iterative process “formulation-refinement-exploration-improvement” (FREI). The KBDGS facilitates diverse multi-stakeholder collaborative decisions in end-to-end cloud services. Finally, two design case studies are conducted to illustrate the proposed work and the efficacy of the developed KBDGS. The contribution of this paper is to provide design guidance to facilitate knowledge discovery, capturing, and reuse in the context of decision-centric digital design, thus improving the efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making, as well as the evolution of decision support in the field of design engineering for the age of Industry 4.0 innovation paradigm.

Engineering support for the mobility of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation

The article addresses selected aspects of supporting the mobility of the Ground Forces in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The experience of contemporary armed conflicts in which Russian forces were involved confirmed the need to maintain subunits, guaranteeing maneuver freedom in the area occupied by the enemy. The study aims to present explanations concerning: the role and tasks of the engineering troops of the Russian Federation in contemporary armed conflicts, characteristics of the currently used methods of performing mine barriers, namely mechanical, electromechanical, explosive, manual, and combined ones. Also, the essence of engineering activities according to the views adopted in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the content of engineering support for mobility in tactical departments, and the interpretation of basic concepts, and the role of engineering units and subunits in the activities in question are presented. Besides, the executive potential of selected organizational and functional structures of engineering units, their purpose, and the possibility of implementing individual engineering tasks in tactical activities related to maneuvering and displacement are described. In the aspect of the issue of the impact of engineering barriers and destruction on the pace of the enemy’s attack, an analysis of the execution potential and tactics of operations (doctrinal patterns of combat operations) of a potential enemy (the other party and its capability of supporting the mobility of own troops in the implementation of engineering projects related to crossings (paving) in dams, through natural obstacles and areas of destruction as well as demining terrain and objects) was performed.

Imprecise abstract argumentation as a support for forensic engineering

PurposeCivil engineering structures are regularly confronted with failures that can lead to catastrophic consequences. It is important, after a failure, to be able to identify the origin and the sequence of factors that led to it. This failure analysis by experts, called forensic engineering investigation, generally leads to the drafting of an expert report. These reports do not inform on the processes that guided the experts to a conclusion and the uncertainties involved. This paper aims to propose a new methodological approach to formalize the opinions of experts in forensic engineering.Design/methodology/approachThe research consists in combining abstract argumentation with the theory of imprecise probabilities to take into account epistemic and stochastic uncertainties to support forensic engineering investigation.FindingsA model and a tool to support forensic analysis are presented. An application on the collapse of the Brumadinho dam highlights the interest of the chosen approach.Originality/valueThis work is the first use of the abstract argument framework in civil engineering, and so in forensic engineering. Furthermore, it provides an innovative model based on imprecise probability for AAF.

Automation of a Thin-Layer Load-Bearing Structure Design on the Example of High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (HALE UAV)

In the aerospace industry, thin-layer composites are increasingly used for load-bearing structures. When designing such composite structures, particular attention must be paid to the development of an appropriate geometric form of the structure to increase the structure’s load capacity and reduce the possibility of a loss of stability and harmful aeroelastic phenomena. For this reason, the use of knowledge-based engineering support methods is complicated. Software was developed to propose and quickly evaluate a thin-layer load-bearing structure using generative modeling methods to facilitate development of the initial concept of an aerospace load-bearing structure. Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis verifies and improves such structures. The most important contributions of the paper are a methodology for automating the design of ultralight and highly flexible aircraft structures with the use of generative modelling, proposing and verifying the form of generative models for selected fragments of the structure, especially wings, and integration of the use of generative models for iterative improvement of structures using low- and middle-fidelity methods of numerical verification.

Engineering Support of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation

Engineering Support of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation

Investigating a Streaming Analytics Framework for Data Analytics Applications in the Aircraft Cabin

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Aircraft cabin operations shift towards data-driven processes. Cabin-wide multi-system communication networks are introduced to share required data for corresponding novel data-driven applications. Examples are data-driven predictive maintenance applications to reduce the downtime of systems and increase the period of scheduled maintenance or video analytics usage to detect a strained or unruly atmosphere amongst passengers. These applications require a network to transport the associated data and resources for actual computation. Costs and weight have always been the most important factors deciding if new services are introduced within the aircraft cabin. Thus, re-using hardware with free computation capacity that is already installed in the aircraft cabin can target both aspects, weight and costs. Examples for such hardware resources could be the In-flight Entertainment (IFE) equipment being installed in every seat. By means of distributed computing these resources can be combined in order to solve a computational task. In this paper, the Apache Spark Streaming Framework is investigated as an example for a distributed computing framework with respect to its suitability for being deployed in the aircraft cabin. For this purpose, it is evaluated how Spark scales with resource-constrained computing nodes. As this type of framework is designed for a robust execution of tasks, it can also be used for non-safety, but business-critical applications. In addition, Spark is a well-established commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, thus, possible advantages of such software like a reduction of non-recurrent engineering costs and support for developers creating applications for the aircraft cabin are also considered.</div></div>

Railroad track technological construction process modeling and optimization using a genetic algorithm

The article discusses theoretical and practical research in the field of evolutionary modeling application for solving construction works planning problems in the formation of railroad track technological construction process. The study is a part of the developed engineering and technical support subsystem for railway construction: engineering and intellectual support of railroad track technological construction process. This subsystem is based on the effective use of automated systems with artificial intelligence elements. Development and implementation of these automated systems are focused on achieving a single end result, such as a finished railroad track facility with suitable functionality within the established deadlines, planned working cost and labor costs, as well as meeting modern safety requirements throughout the entire operation period. Taking into account railway construction dynamic, the use of new materials and technologies, new trends were identified within the study scope in the field of technological processes operational development, and optimal work sequence determination in the railway facilities construction. In particular, the occurrence of deviations from the planned requirements in the construction work course requires a quick reconsideration of the decisions already made, due to the railway construction stochastic behavior. This is a forced measure to ensure the fulfillment of the planned targets. The existing methods allow to correct the construction work organization, however, the technology, and in particular, the technological process remains unchanged. The static nature of the technological process is largely dictated by the project documentation requirements and work safety. But modern advances in the information and intelligent technologies field, with the account of technological process structure variability, can give a technological process dynamic properties. The technological process's ability to adapt to changing work production conditions will provide flexibility in the railway facilities construction. To solve this problem, an automated evolutionary modeling mode and optimization of the railway facility construction technological process were used. The peculiarities of existing optimization methods, in terms of the dimension of the active task and taking into account several criteria, force us to turn to intelligent methods. The article describes a technological processes optimization method for the railway facilities construction using a genetic directed search algorithm in the space of solutions. In this case, several design constraints are taken into account: resource, technological, organizational, informational. For this, a computational and logical model was developed, which made it possible to assess the target function (fitness function), with the account of the dynamic distribution nature of the contractor's available resources for construction work. Based on the theoretical research results, the article presents the practical aspects of evolutionary modeling and optimization of the railway facilities construction technological process using a genetic algorithm on the example of the flooded railway roadbed embankment construction. The results presented in this article were obtained during the dissertation research made by the author.

Fuzzy Logic Support for Requirements Engineering

Fuzzy Logic Support for Requirements Engineering

The Coal Bio-Solubilization Technology for Energy Security

The petroleum needs as primary energy in Indonesia more increasing, while the petroleum reserves were more depleting so that coal utilization as primary energy is inevitable. Therefore, needed a solution in coal utilization which is environmentally friendly (clean energy) to fulfill the national energy needs. This research is based on the analysis and study of 11 research journals related to coal bio-solubilization technology published in the period 1994 to 2019. The results show that low-rank coal has the potential as the environmentally friendly alternative energy by converting solid coal into liquid phase equivalent to gasoline and diesel which is sulfur and nitrogen-free with bio-solubilization technology. However, this bio-solubilization technology has the disadvantage of the slow coal degradation process into the liquid phase because it only relies on the microorganism’s ability. The application of coal bio-solubilization technology as the alternative energy to support energy security requires genetic engineering and catalyst technology research support to improve the microorganism’s ability to increase the coal degradation rate.

Handheld Optical System for Pectus Excavatum Assessment

Disruptive 3D technologies, such as reverse engineering (RE) and additive manufacturing (AM), when applied in the medical field enable the development of new methods for personalized and non-invasive treatments. When referring to the monitoring of pectus excavatum, one of the most common thoracic malformations, 3D acquisition of the patient chest proved to be a straightforward method for assessing and measuring chest deformation. Unfortunately, such systems are usually available in a dedicated facility, can be operated only by specialized doctors with the support of engineers and can be used only with patients on site. It is therefore impossible to perform any routine check-up when the patient is unable to reach the outpatient clinic. The COVID19 pandemic situation has placed even greater restrictions on patient mobility, worsening this problem. To deal with this issue, a new low-cost portable optical scanner for monitoring pectus excavatum is proposed in this work. The scanner, named Thor 2.0, allows a remote diagnostic approach, offering the possibility to perform routine check-ups telematically. Usability tests confirmed the user-friendly nature of the devised system. The instrument was used at the Meyer Children’s Hospital (Florence, Italy) chest-malformations center to treat PE patients. The performed measurements proved to be in line with the current state of the art.

Wave-attenuation characteristics of combined-vegetation wave break forests for big rivers with large flood water level changes.

For large rivers with a compound cross section, the downstream channel has a very wide water surface during the flood season. A wide water surface, high water level, and larger wind speed will cause higher waves, increasing the threat of flooding to the dike. The design of a combined-vegetation wave break forest was put forward to achieve better wave attenuation effect. The main idea of this concept is to plant different types of vegetation at different locations in front of the dike. Three single-vegetation and four combined-vegetation forest schemes were tested under seven different water depth conditions. Both physical experiments and wave numerical simulations were carried out for each scheme to study the wave attenuation effect. The results showed that the wave attenuation effect of the single-vegetation wave break forest was significantly different under different water depth conditions, and the overall effect of the combined-vegetation of wave forest was better. Combined-vegetation wave break forests combine the advantages of different types of vegetation in different water levels, which makes it more economical and reasonable to plant by rivers with large water level variation. The proposed design ideas and methods could provide theoretical support for ecological revetment engineering of large rivers and insights for practical applications.

Modernization of engineering support of crop cultivation

This paper gives substantiations to a system of effective engineering support of crop cultivation for improving competitiveness of produced goods. Considering the modernization of plant cultivation techniques and technical facilities to carry out agricultural practices, the optimal system of machines for mechanizing crop cultivation was proposed. In substantiating the system of machines, the method of analysis and synthesis of existing and proposed agricultural practices with their engineering support, the methods of modeling and optimization of production processes were proposed to determine the parameters and operating modes of the proposed machines in the system, the planning of a multifactorial experiment according to the BК-plan was used. As a result of the research, the original engineering support system of crop cultivation for lowland agricultural landscapes is proposed, which, according to calculations conducted, allows increasing labor productivity by at least a factor of two. It became possible due to modernization of tillage processes, sowing and harvesting, by combining separate previously technological operations in multifunctional units. The modernization of machine-tractor units was accomplished using original devices for serial machines according to the inventions of the authors. The proposed multifunctional units without a break in time, in a single stream and pace carry out production processes that coincide in calendar terms in the technology of a cultivated agricultural crop, contributing to the quality of work and higher yields.