Third-party Software Research Articles

Preliminary results of measurements obtained from a low-cost arduino-based surface weather data acquisition system for radio meteorology

Surface weather monitoring is crucial for radio meteorology, agricultural, communication, and industrial processes. However, there is a dearth of weather data in Ede, Osun State, Nigeria (Lat 7.736° N, Lon 4.435° E). The proposed weather monitoring system used the Arduino Mega2560 microcontroller to measure, record and display the atmospheric parameters. Analog sensors for pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were interfaced with the microcontroller through an ADC for digital signal conversion and data logging. An LCD connected to the microcontroller displays the measured parameters. The weather data were stored in excel format on a microSD card. The data were compared with that of a nearby weather station. The plots showed a close agreement with the data collected from the nearby station. The system eliminates the need for extra cost baud rate and expensive third-party software for interfacing. Besides, there is no need for an internet connection for configuration. Hence, this data acquisition system (DAS) could be a better choice in cost and maintenance than the off-the-shelf weather stations. The DAS was programmed to derive the surface radio refractivity from the meteorological parameters and the corresponding radio refractivity gradients over Ede.

Decision Making Models on the Market of Cloud Services

Introduction. Optimization can be applied in developing profitability management tools for a cloud service broker working according to a certain business model. On behalf of the managing telecommunications holding company (telecommunications operator), this broker integrates, aggregates and configures software and data storage services of third-party Internet software vendors. Such a broker receives only fixed commissions from this company, based on the subscription fee, but does not pay royalties to an Internet software vendor and does not receive payments from the sale of service packages. The purpose. The cloud broker faces the problem of limited human resources required to carry out the relevant legal, technical and economic activities. In addition, the broker faces the problem of uncertainty in sales, service prices, the share of resource use, or the risk of losing operational and financial goals. Results. To run a broker?s business efficiently, one needs to find services and their bundles that increase profitability and reduce financial risk by solving certain optimization problems. Information on such services is needed to support negotiations on fixed and variable commissions, as well as to prioritize services and their packages to be provided. Thus, for the cloud services broker, both profitability management tools and services portfolio development tools are useful. In general, a cloud service broker is an organization that negotiates the relationships between cloud service clients and Internet software vendors. Cloud broker can be created on the basis of different business models regarding the type of service (platform, infrastructure, software), type of clients (enterprise, household), functions performed (identity management, accounting, billing, location, etc.), the degree of rebranding, measures of aggregation of services and other criteria. Conclusions. Different cloud brokers have different attitudes to choice of important solutions for their businesses. Solutions can relate to pricing, capacity planning and utilization in combination with service quality, security, scalability and other issues. Keywords: optimization, portfolio, uncertainty, Boolean variables, revenue generation.

DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE SOFTWARE FOR TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES MODELING

Rosneft Oil Company PJSC (the Company) is developing a line of corporate software to solve a wide range of business tasks in terms of prospecting, exploration, development, construction and monitoring of field development. Creation of our own line of software will make it possible to implement a unified software platform covering the full cycle of field development and operation. An important area of the production chain is the stage of gathering, transportation and treatment of produced oil. Modeling of technological processes of the Upstream block is the basis for making decisions both at the design stage of surface facilities, and at the stage of operational support and management of the operation of these facilities. Currently, the modeling of processes during gathering and treatment of produced oil in the research institutes of the Company is carried out using third-party software. With the aim of developing its own technologies in the field of technological modeling, implementing innovative approaches in modeling, increasing stability in the current market environment, the Company is implementing a project to develop a corporate software package RN-SIMTEP. The simulator being developed is aimed at solving the following production tasks of the Company: design and optimization of the operation of oil and gas treatment facilities, risk analysis during the operation of surface facilities, and cost optimization in the design of facilities. This paper describes the basic principles and features that must be taken into account when creating such a complex as an element of the corporate line of software in the exploration and production block. The main methodological and architectural solutions used in software development, current results are shown, an assessment of the prospects for further development of the current project is given.

EM3DANI: A Julia package for fully anisotropic 3D forward modeling of electromagnetic data

Forward modeling is vital for 3D inversion and interpretation of electromagnetic (EM) data in anisotropic media, which is one of the major challenges in the field of EM geophysics. However, there are few freely available 3D codes that are capable of modeling EM responses in fully anisotropic media. In addition, most existing 3D EM codes are written in low-level languages (LLs) such as C and Fortran, making them difficult to read, maintain, and extend. Taking advantage of recent progress in computer technology and numerical methods, we have developed an open-source package for forward modeling of frequency-domain EM fields in a fully 3D anisotropic earth (EM3DANI) using the Julia language, a relatively young, high-level programming language with a focus on high performance. Based on a mimetic finite-volume discretization of the governing equations, the modeling algorithm is expressed in an abstract form in terms of matrices/vectors and thus can be easily implemented by using any high-level language commonly used for numerical computing. Existing libraries written in LLs can be easily integrated into a Julia code without the so-called two-language problem; thus, we have exploited several mature third-party packages to deal with computationally intensive parts of the forward modeling, which guarantees high stability and efficiency. We have elaborated the structure of the package, paying special attention to code usability, readability, and extendability, while striving to retain versatility and high performance. The effectiveness of the code is demonstrated through two 1D synthetic examples for magnetotelluric and controlled-source EM (CSEM) problems, respectively. High accuracy and efficiency can be achieved for both 1D examples. Furthermore, we have developed a 3D example mimicking a marine CSEM survey scenario for hydrocarbon exploration. The simulation results indicate that the effect of the anisotropy on forward responses is significant and can be comparable to that of the target reservoir.

TCMacro: A Simple and Robust ImageJ-Based Method for Automated Measurement of Tail Coiling Activity in Zebrafish.

Tail coiling is a reflection response in fish embryos that can be used as a model for neurotoxic analysis. The previous method to analyze fish tail coiling is largely based on third-party software. In this study, we aim to develop a simple and cost-effective method called TCMacro by using ImageJ macro to reduce the operational complexity. The basic principle of the current method is based on the dynamic change of pixel intensity in the region of interest (ROI). When the fish tail is moving, the average intensity is increasing. In time when the fish freeze, the peak of mean intensity is maintaining at a relatively low level. By using the optimized macro settings and excel VBA scripts, all the tail coiling measurement processes can be archived with few operation steps with high precision. Three major endpoints of tail coiling counts, tail coiling duration and tail coiling intervals can be obtained in batch. To validate this established method, we tested the potential neurotoxic activity of Tricaine (methanesulfonate, MS-222) and psychoactive compound of caffeine. Zebrafish embryos after Tricaine exposure displayed significantly less tail coiling activity in a dose-dependent manner, and were comparable to manual counting through the Wilcoxon test and Pearson correlation double validation. Zebrafish embryos after caffeine exposure displayed significantly high tail coiling activity. In conclusion, the TCMacro method presented in this study provides a simple and robust method that is able to measure the relative tail coiling activities in zebrafish embryos in a high-throughput manner.

Automate TNM Input Process Using Python

Since 2004, we have been using TNM 2.5 to analyze the noise impacts from traffic. The decades-old Graphical User Interface (GUI) is inadequate to handle large scale projects with hundreds of receptors and roadways. TNM 3.0 has a vastly better user interface, but its import function is still buggy as of early 2021. Therefore, we have developed an interim solution to automate massive input using ESRI ArcGIS software and Python's third-party packages such as Pandas, PyAutoGUI, and subprocess. This process is used to automate building barrier input and roadway/traffic inputs in the old TNM 2.5 user interface.

Understanding the Reactive Practices of Third-party Developers

Increasingly, building software systems by using third-party modules is recognized as a crucial success factor for the software industry. Much research looks at how software platforms should be configured to stimulate the development of third-party software. Yet, there is a lack of research on third-party software developers’ actual activities in relation to the platform ecosystem they work within. As a result, our understanding of the platform-centric ecosystem is limited. This paper aims to understand the nature of third-party software developers’ work by conducting a systematic investigation of this workforce from a practice perspective. In particular, we pay close attention to third-party software developers’ behavioral responses towards platform changes. Through a case study, we identify four reactive practices enacted by third-party developers: recognizing, processing, adapting, and influencing. We generalize the observation into a model of the reactive mechanism. The study contributes to the theorizing of platform-centric ecosystems by highlighting the critical role of third-party developers.

Application of 3D-Modeling in Medicine in Preparation for 3D-Printing

3D-modeling in the medical field can be used to create medical models (eg, tissues and human organs) using 3D-printing or used for digital 3D visualization of the necessary structures. Medical 3D-printing is used when the work on prostheses that should perfectly match the patient's anatomy is needed. In addition, thanks to 3D-modeling technology, it is possible to develop peculiar medical tools. It is also possible to perform trial surgeries on 3D-models before the actual operation. There is special software for creating medical 3D-models for further printing. The purpose of this work is to determine the functions of 3D-modeling in preparation for 3D-printing in the process of creating medical models and comparative analysis of software for 3D-modeling used in the medical field. There is a common workflow that can be used to convert volumetric medical imaging data (created by computer tomography (CT), or other imaging techniques) into physical models printed on a 3D-printer. This process is divided into three stages: image segmentation, polygon mesh refinement, and 3D-printing. 3D-modeling programs are used at the stage of polygon mesh refinement. They allow almost unlimited manipulations to refine the mesh to make the model printable. The main manipulations for post-processing of a segmented model using 3D-modeling are: 1) reparation - correction of errors and discrepancies that sometimes occur in the process of segmentation and images export; 2) smoothing - correction of errors that occur during segmentation due to inappropriate resolution of the original medical image via softening by smoothing the surface of the model; 3) adding elements - combining a segmented model with other structures or removing unnecessary parts from the segmentation. As a result of a comparative analysis of 3D-modeling software used in the medical field, it was found that for 3D-modeling can be used software specifically designed for medical 3D-modeling and regular 3D-modeling software. When using regular software, you need third-party software to get the correct model file format. The choice of software depends on the goal: to work with implants and create patient-specific devices, it is possible to use specially designed programs for these purposes, such as Within Medical and Medical Design Studio; if high accuracy is required, it is possible to use D2P created for working with DICOM-images at the image segmentation stage; to achieve fast results, when maintaining of maximum accuracy is not needed, a mobile version of the software, such as Ossa 3D, can be used; common 3D-modeling software, such as Cinema 4D and Blender, can be used to develop peculiar tools and medical equipment.

THE PLATFORM FOR CREATION OF EVENT-DRIVEN APPLICATIONS BASED ON WOLFRAM MATHEMATICA AND APACHE KAFKA

The article is devoted to the study and development of the mechanism of interaction between Wolfram Mathematica programs and Apache Kafka queue to provide the ability to build event-driven applications based on it. The subject of the research is the practical principles of building a mechanism for interaction between Wolfram Mathematica and Apache Kafka through a proxy-server. The purpose of the article is to develop and substantiate practical recommendations regarding the formation of proxy-server and a mechanism for its work to publishing messages to the Apache Kafka queue and reading messages from it for programs of the mathematical processor Wolfram Mathematica, which will make it possible to build event-driven applications. The tasks are: to determine the mechanism of such interaction, prove the choice of tools for its implementation, create and test the obtained results. The research used the following tools: Apache Kafka, Kafkacat, servers Ubuntu 20 LTS, the method of developing the Wolfram Mathematica package. The results of the research: the mechanism of interaction between Wolfram Mathematica and Apache Kafka through a proxy-server was determined and the corresponding toolkit was created on its basis in the form of two Mathematica packages, which are built on using bash-scripts, Apache Kafka and third-party Kafkacat software. The first - for use on the end user's computer, the second – on a compute server with a remote Mathematica kernel. It is confirmed that the Mathematica processor is currently not suitable in its pure form for real-time data analysis. Conclusions. Practical recommendations have been developed and substantiated regarding the formation of the mechanism of interaction between the Wolfram Mathematica mathematical processor and the Apache Kafka queue manager through a proxy-server for the possibility of working in two directions with the queue: publishing messages and reading them. A toolkit for such interaction in the form of Mathematica packages has been created, their capabilities have been demonstrated. The economic benefit of using the described tools is shown. Future ways of its improvement are given.

The Case for Medical Device Cybersecurity Hygiene Practices for Frontline Personnel

The Case for Medical Device Cybersecurity Hygiene Practices for Frontline Personnel

Emergency Infrastructure and Locational Extraction: Problematizing Computer Assisted Dispatch Systems as Public Good

This article analyzes the increasing articulation between third-party software and emergency infrastructures through a focus on the computer-assisted dispatch system RapidDeploy, which purports to help 9-1-1 responders more accurately and efficiently respond to emergency situations. We build from research that focuses on overlaps between surveillance and emergency response to demonstrate how large-scale data mining practices—in particular, location extraction—are repurposed as beneficial, if not life-saving, measures. In focusing on the capacity to extract and analyze location in the name of public good, we discursively analyze how RapidDeploy’s official company blog constructs the benevolence of data collection. We then demonstrate how these viewpoints are reproduced in the news reports in one city—Charleston, South Carolina—where RapidDeploy has formally partnered with emergency response services. This analysis is used to demonstrate how words like “data” and “cloud” continue to be used as vague buzzwords for companies situated at the intersections of surveillance and civic function, and to argue for greater attention to how the trend towards platformization continues to blur the relationships between surveillance and emergency response systems. This case study examines the public face of this company and, as such, analyzes the language used to gain public assent for the software and its function.

DeepFrag: An Open-Source Browser App for Deep-Learning Lead Optimization.

Lead optimization, a critical step in early stage drug discovery, involves making chemical modifications to a small-molecule ligand to improve properties such as binding affinity. We recently developed DeepFrag, a deep-learning model capable of recommending such modifications. Though a powerful hypothesis-generating tool, DeepFrag is currently implemented in Python and so requires a certain degree of computational expertise. To encourage broader adoption, we have created the DeepFrag browser app, which provides a user-friendly graphical user interface that runs the DeepFrag model in users’ web browsers. The browser app does not require users to upload their molecular structures to a third-party server, nor does it require the separate installation of any third-party software. We are hopeful that the app will be a useful tool for both researchers and students. It can be accessed free of charge, without registration, at http://durrantlab.com/deepfrag. The source code is also available at http://git.durrantlab.com/jdurrant/deepfrag-app, released under the terms of the open-source Apache License, Version 2.0.

Transition of Care: Conceptualizing an Intentional Communication Model for the Camp Community.

“Transition of care” is defined as the movement of an individual from one setting of care to another and involves communicating with appropriate out-of-camp stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and community health care providers to identify youth needs (before camp) and outcomes achieved (after camp) so desired health goals may be shared across youth settings (e.g., home, school, community). Informed by management continuity and informational continuity theoretical frameworks, transition of care describes how activities such as recordkeeping and sharing of information from one team of caregivers to another improves the quality of services. When considered within the context of a child’s summertime experiences such as summer camp, attention to transition of care from a child’s academic year to summer, and from summer to a child’s academic year, may improve the quality of children’s summertime experiences by ensuring that a child’s health and well-being are both fully supported and promoted across the calendar year. Transition of care communication practices are strengthened through the use of electronic health records (EHRs) and systems that support the sharing of information across stakeholders. This article contextualizes transition of care communication for the camp community, addressing implications for practice, research, and policy, to encourage the development of a comprehensive system that supports transition of care practices; a system that will require the buy-in of camp institutions, third-party camp software companies, camp organizations, and families.Subscribe to JOREL

Third-party Payment Services Selection for Logistics Public Information Platforms

The payment mode has important effects on business transactions. This paper focuses on decision-making research on third-party payment services selection for logistics information platforms (LPIPs). From the point of view of technology adoption and LPIPs, six selection criteria of third-party payment services were proposed based on UTAUT model. An optimal decision-making approach measured by these criteria was put forward based on the multi-attribute decision-making theory. The final criteria weights were adjusted by the initial individuals separately obtained by the relative comparison method and entropy evaluation method. And the final evaluation of all was obtained by weighted averaging. An illustrative case was carried out based on the former method. It is indicated that the proposed decision-making method is effective and could well distinguish different third-party payment software for LPIPs in quantitative way.

Streamlined Multimodal DESI and MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging on a Singular Dual-Source FT-ICR Mass Spectrometer.

The study of biological specimens by mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has had a profound influence in the various forms of spatial-omics over the past two decades including applications for the identification of clinical biomarker analysis; the metabolic fingerprinting of disease states; treatment with therapeutics; and the profiling of lipids, peptides and proteins. No singular approach is able to globally map all biomolecular classes simultaneously. This led to the development of many complementary multimodal imaging approaches to solve analytical problems: fusing multiple ionization techniques, imaging microscopy or spectroscopy, or local extractions into robust multimodal imaging methods. However, each fusion typically requires the melding of analytical information from multiple commercial platforms, and the tandem utilization of multiple commercial or third-party software platforms—even in some cases requiring computer coding. Herein, we report the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) in tandem with desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) imaging in the positive ion mode on a singular commercial orthogonal dual-source Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) instrument for the complementary detection of multiple analyte classes by MSI from tissue. The DESI source was 3D printed and the commercial Bruker Daltonics software suite was used to generate mass spectrometry images in tandem with the commercial MALDI source. This approach allows for the generation of multiple modes of mass spectrometry images without the need for third-party software and a customizable platform for ambient ionization imaging. Highlighted is the streamlined workflow needed to obtain phospholipid profiles, as well as increased depth of coverage of both annotated phospholipid, cardiolipin, and ganglioside species from rat brain with both high spatial and mass resolution.

Artistoo, a library to build, share, and explore simulations of cells and tissues in the web browser.

The cellular Potts model (CPM) is a powerful in silico method for simulating biological processes at tissue scale. Their inherently graphical nature makes CPMs very accessible in theory, but in practice, they are mostly implemented in specialised frameworks users need to master before they can run simulations. We here present Artistoo (Artificial Tissue Toolbox), a JavaScript library for building 'explorable' CPM simulations where viewers can change parameters interactively, exploring their effects in real time. Simulations run directly in the web browser and do not require third-party software, plugins, or back-end servers. The JavaScript implementation imposes no major performance loss compared to frameworks written in C++; Artistoo remains sufficiently fast for interactive, real-time simulations. Artistoo provides an opportunity to unlock CPM models for a broader audience: interactive simulations can be shared via a URL in a zero-install setting. We discuss applications in CPM research, science dissemination, open science, and education.

On the usage of JavaScript, Python and Ruby packages in Docker Hub images

Docker is one of the most popular containerization technologies. A Docker container can be saved into an image including all environmental packages required to run it, such as system and third-party packages from language-specific package repositories. Relying on its modularity, an image can be shared and included in other images to simplify the way of building and packaging new software. However, some package managers allow to include duplicated packages in an image, increasing its footprint; and outdated packages may miss new features and bug fixes or contain reported security vulnerabilities, putting the image in which they are contained at risk. Previous research has focused on studying operating system packages within Docker images, but little attention has been given to third-party packages. This article empirically studies installation practices, outdatedness and vulnerabilities of JavaScript, Python and Ruby packages installed in 3,000 popular community Docker Hub images. In many cases, these installed packages missed important releases leading to potential vulnerabilities of the images. Our findings suggest that maintainers of Docker Hub community images should invest more effort in updating outdated packages contained in those images in order to significantly reduce the number of vulnerabilities. In addition to this, Python community images are generally much less outdated and much less subject to vulnerabilities than NodeJS and Ruby community images. Specifically for NodeJS community images, elimination of duplicate package releases could lead to a significant reduction in their image footprint.

THE MECHANISM FOR CREATION OF EVENT-DRIVEN APPLICATIONS BASED ON WOLFRAM MATHEMATICA AND APACHE KAFKA

The article is devoted to the research and development of the mechanism of interaction between Wolfram Mathematica programs and Apache Kafka queue to provide the ability to build event-driven applications based on it. The subject of the research is the practical principles of building a mechanism for interaction between Wolfram Mathematica and Apache Kafka. The purpose of the article is to develop and substantiate practical recommendations regarding the formation of a mechanism for publishing messages to the Apache Kafka queue and reading messages from it for programs of the mathematical processor Wolfram Mathematica, which will make it possible to build event-driven applications. Tasks: to determine the mechanism of such interaction, prove the choice of tools for its implementation, create and test the obtained results. The research used the following tools: Apache Kafka, Kafkacat, the method of developing the Wolfram Mathematica package. The results of the research: the mechanism of interaction between Wolfram Mathematica and Apache Kafka was determined and the corresponding toolkit was created on its basis in the form of two Mathematica packages, which are built on using Apache Kafka as a queue client and third-party Kafkacat software, respectively. It is shown that the first option is less reliable and consumes much more computer resources during operation. It has been demonstrated that the Mathematica processor is currently not suitable in its pure form for real-time data analysis. Recommendations are given regarding the use of built-in compilation functions to increase the speed of such processing. Conclusions. Practical recommendations have been developed and substantiated regarding the formation of the mechanism of interaction between the Wolfram Mathematica mathematical processor and the Apache Kafka queue manager for the possibility of working in two directions with the queue: publishing messages and reading them. A toolkit for such interaction in the form of Mathematica packages has been created, their capabilities have been demonstrated, as well as comparison with each other. The economic benefit of using the described tools is shown. Future ways of its improvement are given.

POSSIBILITIES OF USING SERIAL CNC EQUIPMENT AS A BASIS FOR BUILDING DIGITAL PRODUCTION SITES

The article addresses the problem of building cyber-physical control systems of metal machining based on commercial computer numerical machine control systems (CNC). The article provides an overview of possibilities of integrating third-party software into common CNC units. The analysis has revealed a universal way of integration and resulted in a diagram of the cyber-physical machining system.

On the Untriviality of Trivial Packages: An Empirical Study of npm JavaScript Packages

Nowadays, developing software would be unthinkable without the use of third-party packages. Although such code reuse helps to achieve rapid continuous delivery of software to end-users, blindly reusing code has its pitfalls. For example, prior work has investigated the rationale for using packages that implement simple functionalities, known as trivial packages (i.e., in terms of the code size and complexity). This prior work showed that although these trivial packages were simple, they were popular and prevalent in the npm ecosystem. This popularity and prevalence of trivial packages peaked our interest in questioning the ‘triviality of trivial packages’. To better understand and examine the triviality of trivial packages, we mine a large set of JavaScript projects that use trivial npm packages and evaluate their relative centrality. Specifically, we evaluate the triviality from two complementary points of view: based on project usage and ecosystem usage of these trivial packages. Our result shows that trivial packages are being used in central JavaScript files of a software project. Additionally, by analyzing all external package API calls in these JavaScript files, we found that a high percentage of these API calls are attributed to trivial packages. Therefore, these packages play a significant role in JavaScript files. Furthermore, in the package dependency network, we observed that 16.8 percent packages are trivial and in some cases removing a trivial package can impact approximately 29 percent of the ecosystem. Overall, our finding indicates that although smaller in size and complexity, trivial packages are highly depended on packages by JavaScript projects. Additionally, our study shows that although they might be called trivial, nothing about trivial packages is trivial.