Concept document of the repository-based software engineering program: A constructive appraisal

A constructive appraisal of the Concept Document of the Repository-Based Software Engineering Program is provided. The Concept Document is designed to provide an overview of the Repository-Based Software Engineering (RBSE) Program. The Document should be brief and provide the context for reading subsequent requirements and product specifications. That is, all requirements to be developed should be traceable to the Concept Document. Applied Expertise's analysis of the Document was directed toward assuring that: (1) the Executive Summary provides a clear, concise, and comprehensive overview of the Concept (rewrite as necessary); (2) the sections of the Document make best use of the NASA 'Data Item Description' for concept documents; (3) the information contained in the Document provides a foundation for subsequent requirements; and (4) the document adequately: identifies the problem being addressed; articulates RBSE's specific role; specifies the unique aspects of the program; and identifies the nature and extent of the program's users

Is Time Predictability Quantifiable?

Abstract—Computer architects and researchers in the realtime domain start to investigate processors and architectures optimized for real-time systems. Optimized for real-time systems means time predictable, i.e., architectures where it is possible to statically derive a tight bound of the worst-case execution time. To compare different approaches we would like to quantify time predictability. That means we need to measure time predictability. In this paper we discuss the different approaches for these measurements and conclude that time predictability is practically not quantifiable. We can only compare the worst-case execution time bounds of different architectures. I

TWENTY SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT PATTERNS TO SPECIFY RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS THAT USERS WILL TRUST

Trust has been shown as a crucial factor for the adoption of new technologies. Surprisingly, trust literature offers very little guidance for systematically integrating the vast amount of insights from behavioral research on trust into the development of computing systems. The aim of this article is to translate results from behavioral sciences into software requirement patterns that address user trust in recommender systems. Software requirement patterns are used in requirements engineering to recognize important and recurring issues and reduce the effort of compiling a list of software requirements. We collected antecedents that build trust, and developed software requirement patterns that demand functionality to support these antecedents. This paper contributes by presenting software requirement patterns consisting of the name, the goal and the pre-defined requirement template that can be used to specify trust requirements in recommender system development projects

Knowledge-Intensive Processes: Characteristics, Requirements and Analysis of Contemporary Approaches

Engineering of knowledge-intensive processes (KiPs) is far from being mastered, since they are genuinely knowledge- and data-centric, and require substantial flexibility, at both design- and run-time. In this work, starting from a scientific literature analysis in the area of KiPs and from three real-world domains and application scenarios, we provide a precise characterization of KiPs. Furthermore, we devise some general requirements related to KiPs management and execution. Such requirements contribute to the definition of an evaluation framework to assess current system support for KiPs. To this end, we present a critical analysis on a number of existing process-oriented approaches by discussing their efficacy against the requirements

Are We Lovin\u27 It?: The edTPA and the McDonaldization of Music Teacher Training

This qualitative study addresses the growing body of research about the implementation and impact of edTPA on the training and assessment of music teacher candidates at the college/university level from the viewpoint of 12 music education teacher trainers in the state of Tennessee. Ritzers four dimensions of McDonaldization (efficiency, calculability, predictability and control) provided the sociological framework used to explore the lived experiences of the music teacher trainers. Constructivist grounded theory was used to analyze the 12 semi-structured qualitative interviews with the goal of determining themes and patterns. Out of 12 respondents, two were in support of continuing the use of this portfolio assessment as a capstone project for their music teacher candidates, two were for discontinuing the edTPA, and the remaining eight saw both positive and negative aspects of the edTPA. During the coding process, all research participants responses echoed Ritzers four dimensions of the McDonaldization of Society. The discourse related to efficiency/inefficiency mostly centered on the K-12 Performing Arts Assessment Handbook. Concerns with calculability/incalculability focused on the scoring process. Discussions concerning predictability/unpredictability focused on issues of licensure and standardization. Experiences related to control/lack of control centered on state and federal mandates for teacher evaluation, the control of the scoring process by Pearson/SCALE, the relationship between music education program areas and their College of Education and the impact of the edTPA on coursework and the teacher candidates clinical practice. Since the edTPA will be required for Tennessee licensure in January, 2019, the music education teacher trainers seem resigned to the fact that it will be a part of music education programs for, at least, the foreseeable future. The research participants did, however, offer advice to improve the process including creating a specific handbook for music, adding edTPA language to methods classes, training all stakeholders, maintaining a cooperative relationship between the College of Education and music education, developing a lesson plan more suited to a music classroom and focusing on areas of overlap between the edTPA and TEAM to reduce stress and burn out

The increase of the functional entropy of the human brain with age

We use entropy to characterize intrinsic ageing properties of the human brain. Analysis of fMRI data from a large dataset of individuals, using resting state BOLD signals, demonstrated that a functional entropy associated with brain activity increases with age. During an average lifespan, the entropy, which was calculated from a population of individuals, increased by approximately 0.1 bits, due to correlations in BOLD activity becoming more widely distributed. We attribute this to the number of excitatory neurons and the excitatory conductance decreasing with age. Incorporating these properties into a computational model leads to quantitatively similar results to the fMRI data. Our dataset involved males and females and we found significant differences between them. The entropy of males at birth was lower than that of females. However, the entropies of the two sexes increase at different rates, and intersect at approximately 50 years; after this age, males have a larger entropy

Pathways to Coastal Resiliency: the Adaptive Gradients Framework

Current and future climate-related coastal impacts such as catastrophic and repetitive flooding, hurricane intensity, and sea level rise necessitate a new approach to developing and managing coastal infrastructure. Traditional “hard” or “grey” engineering solutions are proving both expensive and inflexible in the face of a rapidly changing coastal environment. Hybrid solutions that incorporate natural, nature-based, structural, and non-structural features may better achieve a broad set of goals such as ecological enhancement, long-term adaptation, and social benefits, but broad consideration and uptake of these approaches has been slow. One barrier to the widespread implementation of hybrid solutions is the lack of a relatively quick but holistic evaluation framework that places these broader environmental and societal goals on equal footing with the more traditional goal of exposure reduction. To respond to this need, the Adaptive Gradients Framework was developed and pilot-tested as a qualitative, flexible, and collaborative process guide for organizations to understand, evaluate, and potentially select more diverse kinds of infrastructural responses. These responses would ideally include natural, nature-based, and regulatory/cultural approaches, as well as hybrid designs combining multiple approaches. It enables rapid expert review of project designs based on eight metrics called “gradients”, which include exposure reduction, cost efficiency, institutional capacity, ecological enhancement, adaptation over time, greenhouse gas reduction, participatory process, and social benefits. The framework was conceptualized and developed in three phases: relevant factors and barriers were collected from practitioners and experts by survey; these factors were ranked by importance and used to develop the initial framework; several case studies were iteratively evaluated using this technique; and the framework was finalized for implementation. The article presents the framework and a pilot test of its application, along with resources that would enable wider application of the framework by practitioners and theorists