86,563 research outputs found

    BAREMO: How to Choose the Appropriate Software Component Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

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    To select a software component from several similar candidates is a complex task, since each project pursues different objectives. We intend to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process in the taking of multicriteria decisions for software component reuse. This method is called BAREMO. It will help the software engineer to make estimations which will enable him/her to choose the appropriate component. The article presents a case study of the application of the method, where a project manager assesses a certain software component in order to consider its reuse in the domain of image processing

    Development of titanium dioxide nanoparticles/nanosolution for photocatalytic activity

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    Biological and chemical contaminants by man-made activities have been serious global issue. Exposure of these contaminants beyond the limits may result in serious environmental and health problem. Therefore, it is important to develop an effective solution that can be easily utilized by mankind. One of the effective ways to overcome this problem is by using titanium dioxide (TiO2). TiO2 is a well-known photocatalyst that widely used for environmental clean-up due to its ability to decompose organic pollutant and kill bacteria. Although it is proven TiO2 has an advantage to solve this concern, its usefulness unfortunately is limited only under UV light irradiation. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the potential of TiO2 that can be activated under visible light by the incorporation of metal ions (Fe, Ag, Zr and Ag-Zr). In this study, sol-gel method was employed for the synthesis of metal ions incorporated TiO2. XRD analysis revealed that all samples content biphasic anatase-brookite TiO2 of size 3 nm to 5 nm. It was found that the incorporation of these metal ions did not change the morphology of TiO2 but the crystallinity and optical properties were affected. The crystallinity of anatase in the biphasic TiO2 was found to be decreased and favored brookite formation. PL analysis showed metal ions incorporation suppressed the recombination of electron-hole pairs while the band gap energy of TiO2 (3.2 eV) was decreased by the incorporation of Fe (2.46 eV) and Ag (2.86 eV). Among this incorporation, Ag-Zr incorporated TiO2 showed highest performance for methyl orange degradation (93%) under fluorescent xxv light irradiation for 10 h. This follows by Zr-TiO2 (82%), Fe-TiO2 (75%) and Ag�TiO2 (43%). Meanwhile, the highest antibacterial performance was exhibited by Ag�TiO2. TEM images showed that E.coli bacterium was killed within 12 h after treated with Ag-TiO2. The results obtained from the fieldwork study established that Ag-Zr incorporation have excellent performances for VOC removal and antibacterial test. The VOC content after treated with Ag-Zr-TiO2 fulfilled the Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality 2010 which is lower than 3 ppm. In addition, the percentage of microbes also found to be decrease around 45 % within 5 days of monitoring

    Validation and verification of expert systems

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    Validation and verification (V&V) are procedures used to evaluate system structure or behavior with respect to a set of requirements. Although expert systems are often developed as a series of prototypes without requirements, it is not possible to perform V&V on any system for which requirements have not been prepared. In addition, there are special problems associated with the evaluation of expert systems that do not arise in the evaluation of conventional systems, such as verification of the completeness and accuracy of the knowledge base. The criticality of most NASA missions make it important to be able to certify the performance of the expert systems used to support these mission. Recommendations for the most appropriate method for integrating V&V into the Expert System Development Methodology (ESDM) and suggestions for the most suitable approaches for each stage of ESDM development are presented

    Framework for a spatial Decision Support Tool for policy and decision making

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    The main challenge of developing of a spatial DST (Decision Support Tool) to support the decision making on future livestock production will not be a technical one, but instead a challenge of meeting the con-text requirements of the tool, such as the characteristics of the country-specific spatial plan-ning and decision-making process, the wishes of the potential users of the tool and its output as well as the country-specific policies and regulations. The spatial DST which is being pro-posed in this report therefore does not include complex and state-of-the-art GIS techniques, but instead tries to be as clear and simple as possible, in order to give the potential users a full understanding during the analysis process and with using the output of the tool. A spatial DST can easily become a ‘black box’ if the users do not fully understand the limita-tions of the tool and its output. Despite the fact that output maps of GIS systems may look very detailed and suggest a high degree of accuracy, they are often not. This will entirely de-pend on the availability of reliable and detailed input data. Most likely, many of the produced output maps should be used in an indicative way only. Therefore, the output of the spatial DST needs to be accompanied by supporting information on the reliability of the output and the shortcomings due to unreliable or missing input data, as well as the consequences for use of the output. Therefore, a comprehensive meta-data assessment system is proposed as an in-tegrated part of the spatial DST. The distribution of the output will also require tools to pro-duce more sketch-like presentations, e.g. using fuzzy borders and aggregated maps, which are another important feature of the spatial DST

    Search fields for radical innovations involving market research

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    Strong market orientation is essential for innovation success! Although both academics and market research practitioners would generally accept this statement, alignment with the needs of the customer often results in conservative innovation strategies. Due to their focus on what is currently on offer in the marketplace, customers primarily demand so-called incremental innovations. Companies however, want to develop entry points for radical innovations. The identification of radical innovations is a difficult task whose implementation is often associated with significant risk. It is questionable if market research can alone allow innovation management to develop attractive search fields for radical innovations and if it can also contribute to the reduction of the risk that such innovations inherently possess. Closer observation shows that the market research methods used today for the discovery of radical innovations in the form of new market/technology combinations possess only limited suitability. Empirical tests verify that success-fully innovative companies often don't use such methods, rather they involve specifically qualified, innovative knowledge carriers early-on in the process such as Lead Users or external experts with relevant knowledge from analogous markets in the search for innovations. When searching for applications for radical innovations, market researchers should initially concentrate on the question of who they address as the information source. How successful the process of involving experts is and how well supported through the methodology it is, depends heavily on the specific factors and conditions related to the pro-ject planning. --Produktentwicklung,Produktinnovation,Marktforschung

    Integrated urban evolutionary modeling

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    Cellular automata models have proved rather popular as frameworks for simulating the physical growth of cities. Yet their brief history has been marked by a lack of application to real policy contexts, notwithstanding their obvious relevance to topical problems such as urban sprawl. Traditional urban models which emphasize transportation and demography continue to prevail despite their limitations in simulating realistic urban dynamics. To make progress, it is necessary to link CA models to these more traditional forms, focusing on the explicit simulation of the socio-economic attributes of land use activities as well as spatial interaction. There are several ways of tackling this but all are based on integration using various forms of strong and loose coupling which enable generically different models to be connected. Such integration covers many different features of urban simulation from data and software integration to internet operation, from interposing demand with the supply of urban land to enabling growth, location, and distributive mechanisms within such models to be reconciled. Here we will focus on developin
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