Re-engineering a nanodosimetry Monte Carlo code into Geant4: software design and first results

A set of physics models for nanodosimetry simulation is being re-engineered for use in Geant4-based simulations. This extension of Geant4 capabilities is part of a larger scale R&D project for multi-scale simulation involving adaptable, co-working condensed and discrete transport schemes. The project in progress reengineers the physics modeling capabilities associated with an existing FORTRAN track-structure code for nanodosimetry into a software design suitable to collaborate with an object oriented simulation kernel. The first experience and results of the ongoing re-engineering process are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures and images, to appear in proceedings of the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 2009, Orland

Ontological Reengineering for Reuse

This paper presents the concept of Ontological Reengineering as the process of retrieving and transforming a conceptual model of an existing and implemented ontology into a new, more correct and more complete conceptual model which is reimplemented. Three activities have been identified in this process: reverse engineering, restructuring and forward engineering. The aim of Reverse Engineering is to output a possible conceptual model on the basis of the code in which the ontology is implemented. The goal of Restructuring is to reorganize this initial conceptual model into a new conceptual model, which is built bearing in mind the use of the restructured ontology by the ontology/application that reuses it. Finally, the objective of Forward Engineering is output a new implementation of the ontology. The paper also discusses how the ontological reengineering process has been applied to the Standard-Units ontology [18], which is included in a Chemical-Elements [12] ontology. These two ontologies will be included in a Monatomic-Ions and Environmental-Pollutants ontologies

A comparative analysis of business process modelling techniques

Business process modelling is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and academia due to its usefulness in facilitating human understanding and communication. Several modelling techniques have been proposed and used to capture the characteristics of business processes. However, available techniques view business processes from different perspectives and have different features and capabilities. Furthermore, to date limited guidelines exist for selecting appropriate modelling techniques based on the characteristics of the problem and its requirements. This paper presents a comparative analysis of some popular business process modelling techniques. The comparative framework is based on five criteria: flexibility, ease of use, understandability, simulation support and scope. The study highlights some of the major paradigmatic differences between the techniques. The proposed framework can serve as the basis for evaluating further modelling techniques and generating selection procedures

Conceptual design of deoiling processes : business process reengineering (BPR) and computer support tools

Deoiling of petroleum wastewater is a major concern in petroleum process engineering. The conventional design procedure for deoiling systems consists of nine consecutive stages involving different people or groups. This thesis considers reengineering the conventional procedure, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the process and productivity of people involved. The thesis then investigates the development of the appropriate computer support tools for the new procedure. The reengineering of the procedure is based on concepts proposed by Hammer (1990). The resulting procedure consists of four stages, where parallelism of the different tasks in the conventional procedure is explicitly considered. A model of the new procedure is described in UML (Unified Modelling Language). The advantage of using UML instead of using just natural language description is that UML uses graphical representation that is easy to use and less prone to ambiguity. Based on the new procedure, a decision support system called CODES (Conceptual DEsign of deoiling Systems) was designed and implemented. CODES supports the stages of wastewater assessment, equipment options at different locations, treatment disposal options and recommendations for final process configuration. Two Case Studies using operating field data are reported. The Case Studies using CODES proved to be straightforward to use and produced appropriate comments on the performance of the existing designs and proposed alternatives to satisfy the design requirements. CODES results agreed with knowledge from previous plant trials. The contribution of this thesis to the deoiling design process is twofold. Firstly, a critical review of the conventional procedure has resulted in a new one, which has potential benefits of improving a company's efficiency by reducing the number of people and activities involved, and shortening the design time. Secondly, the feasibility of applying the new procedure and CODES is successfully demonstrated through the case studies. Limitations and areas of extensions are also identified

ISICSoo: a class for the calculation of ionization cross sections from ECPSSR and PWBA theory

ISICS, originally a C language program for calculating K-, L- and M-shell ionization and X-ray production cross sections from ECPSSR and PWBA theory, has been reengineered into a C++ language class, named ISICSoo. The new software design enables the use of ISICS functionality in other software systems. The code, originally developed for Microsoft Windows operating systems, has been ported to Linux and Mac OS platforms to facilitate its use in a wider scientific environment. The reengineered software also includes some fixes to the original implementation, which ensure more robust computational results and a review of some physics parameters used in the computation. The paper describes the software design and the modifications to the implementation with respect to the previous version; it also documents the test process and provides some indications about the software performance.Comment: Preprint submitted to Computer Physics Communication

Refactoring, reengineering and evolution: paths to Geant4 uncertainty quantification and performance improvement

Ongoing investigations for the improvement of Geant4 accuracy and computational performance resulting by refactoring and reengineering parts of the code are discussed. Issues in refactoring that are specific to the domain of physics simulation are identified and their impact is elucidated. Preliminary quantitative results are reported.Comment: To be published in the Proc. CHEP (Computing in High Energy Physics) 201

Actor perception in business use case modeling

Mainstream literature recognizes the validity and effectiveness of use cases as a technique for gathering and capturing system requirements. Use cases represent the driver of various modern development methods, mainly of object-oriented extraction, such as the Unified Process. Although the adoption of use cases proliferated in the context of software systems development, they are not as extensively employed in business modeling . The concept of business use case is not a novelty, but only recently did it begin to re-circulate in the literature and in case tools. This paper examines the issues involved in adopting business use cases for capturing the functionality of an organization and proposes guidelines for their identification, packaging, and mapping to system use cases. The proposed guidelines are based on the principle of actor perception described in the paper. The application of this principle is exemplified with a worked example aimed at demonstrating the utility of the proposed guidelines and at clarifying the application of the principle of actor perception. The worked example is based on a series of workshops run at a major UK financial institution

The Organization of New Service Development in the USA and UK

We understand a great deal about the organization and management of new product development in the manufacturing sector, but we know relatively little about how applicable this research and practice is to the service sector. In this paper we introduce and test a framework for managing new product development in services. This framework is derived and tested by analyzing 108 service firms in a combined US and UK dataset, and then each national sub-sample separately. Our results generally support the predictive capability of the framework, and suggest that the development strategy, processes, organization and tools derived from manufacturing, specially those of concurrent engineering, are applicable to services. However, the framework better fits the US than UK data, which may question the notion of a 'best practice' applicable to different contexts.product development, services, concurrent engineering, simultaneous development