Microservices and Machine Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Green Buildings

In recent years, the use of services for Open Systems development has consolidated and strengthened. Advances in the Service Science and Engineering (SSE) community, promoted by the reinforcement of Web Services and Semantic Web technologies and the presence of new Cloud computing techniques, such as the proliferation of microservices solutions, have allowed software architects to experiment and develop new ways of building open and adaptable computer systems at runtime. Home automation, intelligent buildings, robotics, graphical user interfaces are some of the social atmosphere environments suitable in which to apply certain innovative trends. This paper presents a schema for the adaptation of Dynamic Computer Systems (DCS) using interdisciplinary techniques on model-driven engineering, service engineering and soft computing. The proposal manages an orchestrated microservices schema for adapting component-based software architectural systems at runtime. This schema has been developed as a three-layer adaptive transformation process that is supported on a rule-based decision-making service implemented by means of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The experimental development was implemented in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) applying the proposed microservices schema for adapting home architectural atmosphere systems on Green Buildings

The development of a competence framework for engineering analysis and simulation

Engineering analysis and simulation has always played a significant role in the nuclear sector and its use continues to increase across all branches of industry. To remain competitive in an increasingly global environment and to ensure the safety and reliability of products, companies must prepare effectively for the challenges that new engineering simulation technologies will bring. Concerns surrounding the inappropriate use of simulation by staff without the appropriate competences persist, as analyses become more advanced, increasingly embracing more complex physical phenomena and interactions, often in an effort to model reality more faithfully. These trends and the associated competencies required, emphasize the need for life-long learning and continual staff development. Organisations clearly require a sufficient and ongoing supply of well-qualified engineers and the recently funded EASIT2 project is directly aimed at addressing and managing these issues

Models in the Cloud: Exploring Next Generation Environmental Software Systems

There is growing interest in the application of the latest trends in computing and data science methods to improve environmental science. However we found the penetration of best practice from computing domains such as software engineering and cloud computing into supporting every day environmental science to be poor. We take from this work a real need to re-evaluate the complexity of software tools and bring these to the right level of abstraction for environmental scientists to be able to leverage the latest developments in computing. In the Models in the Cloud project, we look at the role of model driven engineering, software frameworks and cloud computing in achieving this abstraction. As a case study we deployed a complex weather model to the cloud and developed a collaborative notebook interface for orchestrating the deployment and analysis of results. We navigate relatively poor support for complex high performance computing in the cloud to develop abstractions from complexity in cloud deployment and model configuration. We found great potential in cloud computing to transform science by enabling models to leverage elastic, flexible computing infrastructure and support new ways to deliver collaborative and open science

Transferring simulation skills from other industries to nuclear

Engineering analysis and simulation has always played a significant role in the nuclear sector and its use continues to increase across all branches of industry. To remain competitive in an increasingly global environment and to ensure the safety and reliability of designs, the nuclear industry must take advantage of the new engineering simulation technologies. Concerns surrounding the inappropriate use of simulation by staff without the appropriate competency persist, as analyses become more advanced, increasingly embracing more complex physical phenomena, often in an effort to model reality more faithfully. Furthermore, the age profile of the skilled staff in the nuclear sector in the UK is such that the skills shortage is likely to increase in future. These trends emphasize the need for life-long learning and continual staff development along with transfer of skills from other industry sectors to the nuclear sector. The nuclear industry has taken some initiatives to address skill shortages through the National Skills Academy for Nuclear and Nuclear Energy Skills Alliance (NESA) but these are mostly focused on manufacturing and R&D skills. The recently completed EU funded EASIT2 project is directly aimed at addressing the engineering analysis and simulation skills. This paper gives a brief overview of the EASIT2 project and its deliverables and points out how it can help the skills issues being faced by the nuclear industry. INTRODUCTIO

Invasion moving boundary problem for a biofilm reactor model

The work presents the analysis of the free boundary value problem related to the invasion model of new species in biofilm reactors. In the framework of continuum approach to mathematical modelling of biofilm growth, the problem consists of a system of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations governing the microbial species growth and a system of semi-linear elliptic partial differential equations describing the substrate trends. The model is completed with a system of elliptic partial differential equations governing the diffusion and reaction of planktonic cells, which are able to switch their mode of growth from planktonic to sessile when specific environmental conditions are found. Two systems of nonlinear differential equations for the substrate and planktonic cells mass balance within the bulk liquid are also considered. The free boundary evolution is governed by a differential equation that accounts for detachment. The qualitative analysis is performed and a uniqueness and existence result is discussed. Furthermore, two special models of biological and engineering interest are discussed numerically. The invasion of Anammox bacteria in a constituted biofilm inhabiting the deammonification units of the wastewater treatment plants is simulated. Numerical simulations are run to evaluate the influence of the colonization process on biofilm structure and activity.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, original pape

A New Lean Model: Improving Race Team Performance through Team-Driver Communication Efficacy

In some organizational settings and in the field of competitive automobile racing, certain situations and rules place an emphasis on and sometimes escalate the need for effective team communications. This dissertation hypothesizes that effective and dense communications contributes directly to team performance. Supported by organizational behavioral and lean six sigma theory, communications is declared a form of waste within the context of Industrial Engineering subject to data collection, measurements, and real-time, value-added metrics. Measuring and reporting trends in communications provides a basis for a new and unique model called a Communications Productivity Model (CPM) with an associated Communications Density Report (CDR). Industrial Engineering productivity, statistics, linguistic and text analysis tools were combined to develop a unique Dynamic Productivity Index (DPI) enhancing the CDR as a means to rapidly provide meaningful and value-added feedback on recent and future performance. Data was collected on actual automobile racing teams to validate the new communications model, report on the results using the CDR and introduce the DPI. Future research is also proposed in this dissertation to enhance the new communications model whereby speech recognition technologies are evaluated and tested

Domain-specific languages in perspective

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are languages tailored to a specific application domain. They offer substantial gains in expressiveness and ease of use compared with general-purpose languages in their domain of application. Although the use of DSLs is by no means new, it is receiving increased attention in the context of model-driven engineering and development of parallel software for multicore processors. We discuss these trends from the perspective of the roles DSLs have traditionally played

Empirical research on the evaluation model and method of sustainability of the open source ecosystem

The development of open source brings new thinking and production modes to software engineering and computer science, and establishes a software development method and ecological environment in which groups participate. Regardless of investors, developers, participants, and managers, they are most concerned about whether the Open Source Ecosystem can be sustainable to ensure that the ecosystem they choose will serve users for a long time. Moreover, the most important quality of the software ecosystem is sustainability, and it is also a research area in Symmetry. Therefore, it is significant to assess the sustainability of the Open Source Ecosystem. However, the current measurement of the sustainability of the Open Source Ecosystem lacks universal measurement indicators, as well as a method and a model. Therefore, this paper constructs an Evaluation Indicators System, which consists of three levels: The target level, the guideline level and the evaluation level, and takes openness, stability, activity, and extensibility as measurement indicators. On this basis, a weight calculation method, based on information contribution values and a Sustainability Assessment Model, is proposed. The models and methods are used to analyze the factors affecting the sustainability of Stack Overflow (SO) ecosystem. Through the analysis, we find that every indicator in the SO ecosystem is partaking in different development trends. The development trend of a single indicator does not represent the sustainable development trend of the whole ecosystem. It is necessary to consider all of the indicators to judge that ecosystem’s sustainability. The research on the sustainability of the Open Source Ecosystem is helpful for judging software health, measuring development efficiency and adjusting organizational structure. It also provides a reference for researchers who study the sustainability of software engineering

Special Issue: new trends in Process Simulation and Modeling

This special issue of the Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management is focused on new trends in Process Simulation and Modeling.Many business processes are so complex, interconnected and subject to variability. For those reasons, it is hard to understand the components evolution and interactions within the business processes without a dynamic model. Simulation and modeling approach is a good choice to predict processes performance, to compare alternatives and to establish the effect of several scenarios on performance. Moreover, if a process does not yet exist, or company is considering a new implementation, a simulation model can give a clue how well the proposed process will perform. In addition, process simulation and modeling is a growing and exciting research field.Peer Reviewe

New mathematical model for assessment of concurrent engineering.

Recently, global competition has led to shorter product life cycles and increased technological sophistication. Products are becoming more complex due to rapid technological developments and increasing consumer demands for lower costs, greater variety, and greater performance. At the same time the proliferation of new technologies is rendering products obsolete at an increasingly rapid pace. These market and technology trends lead to the emerging of concurrent engineering. This thesis firstly will give a definition and briefly introduction of concurrent engineering, including its fundamentals, and the benefits of concurrent engineering, its difficulties and caveats. After that this thesis will introduce an implementation method for concurrent engineering. This thesis will focus on concurrent engineering assessment model; the purposes of concurrent engineering assessment model are providing information about your current state of affairs. It describes how things are done now and how well they are being done. Firstly, two existing assessment models will be introduced. The existing assessment models are focused on the present situation; they only assess the present situation, they do not assess the past situation, and the future situation; most of these models look like a questionnaire, the assessment is highly subjective and not very accurate. This thesis will focus on constructing a mathematical assessment model, making the assessment much more objective and accurate. All in all, the major contribution of this thesis research is the constructing of the mathematical assessment model. This new model describes the history and the future of company, assessing the company\u27s performance, exposing practical problems and identifying potential improvements.Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .J53. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0436. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006