Databases for Software Engineering Environments - The Goal has not yet been attained

We argue that, despite a substantial number of proposed and existing new database systems, a suitable database system for software development environments and especially process-centred environments does not yet exist. We do so by first reviewing and refining the requirements for such systems. We then review a number of available and archetypical database systems and show that they do not meet these requirements

Mapping between Alloy specifications and database implementations

The emergence of lightweight formal methods tools such as Alloy improves the software design process, by encouraging developers to model and verify their systems before engaging in hideous implementation details. However, an abstract Alloy specification is far from an actual implementation, and manually refining the former into the latter is unfortunately a non-trivial task. This paper identifies a subset of the Alloy language that is equivalent to a relational database schema with the most conventional integrity constraints, namely functional and inclusion dependencies. This semantic correspondence enables both the automatic translation of Alloy specifications into relational database schemas and the reengineering of legacy databases into Alloy. The paper also discusses how to derive an object-oriented application layer to serve as interface to the underlying database

Using Visualization to Support Data Mining of Large Existing Databases

In this paper. we present ideas how visualization technology can be used to improve the difficult process of querying very large databases. With our VisDB system, we try to provide visual support not only for the query specification process. but also for evaluating query results and. thereafter, refining the query accordingly. The main idea of our system is to represent as many data items as possible by the pixels of the display device. By arranging and coloring the pixels according to the relevance for the query, the user gets a visual impression of the resulting data set and of its relevance for the query. Using an interactive query interface, the user may change the query dynamically and receives immediate feedback by the visual representation of the resulting data set. By using multiple windows for different parts of the query, the user gets visual feedback for each part of the query and, therefore, may easier understand the overall result. To support complex queries, we introduce the notion of approximate joins which allow the user to find data items that only approximately fulfill join conditions. We also present ideas how our technique may be extended to support the interoperation of heterogeneous databases. Finally, we discuss the performance problems that are caused by interfacing to existing database systems and present ideas to solve these problems by using data structures supporting a multidimensional search of the database

Life cycle assessment of Libyan crude oil

Petroleum products such as petrol and diesel are fossil fuels and have a high environmental impact. There is a demand to minimize these impacts especially in the upstream and midstream oil operations, i.e. exploration, production and refining processes, due to current and upcoming environmental regulations/policies and increased environmental consumer awareness. Thus, integration of the tools, methods and techniques for sustainability into products is becoming essential to comply with environmental regulations. The Libyan petroleum industry appears to be very slow in approaching modern concepts of approaches of sustainability including Life Cycle Assessment and studies. Therefore, this paper presents a novel environmental Life Cycle assessment of Libyan petroleum refining processes conducted with the support of Life Cycle Assessment methods and related tools including Software SimaPro. The refining processes from the Azzawya Oil refinery, are analyzed and used in the assessment and the data for the assessments was collected through fieldwork conducted in Feb 2013 in both El-Sharara oil field (Repsol Oil Company) and Azzawya Oil refinery in Libya. The results show that the first significant environmental impacts are associated with fossil fuels and the second major impacts are the respiratory inorganic impacts

The relative importance of home and host innovation systems in the internationalisation of MNE R&D: a patent citation analysis

This paper examines the phenomenon of home base augmenting (HBA) R&D and home base exploiting (HBE) R&D. It has three novelties. First, we argue that any given R&D facility’s capacity to exploit and/or augment technological competences is a function not just of its own resources, but the efficiency with which it can utilise complementary resources associated with the relevant local innovation system. Just as HBA activities require proximity to the economic units (and thus the innovation system) from which they seek to learn, HBE activities draw from the parent’s technological resources as well as from the other assets of home location’s innovation system. Furthermore, we argue that most firms tend to undertake both HBE and HBA activities simultaneously. Second, we use patent citation data from the European Patent Office to quantify the relative HBA vs. HBE character of foreign-located R&D. Third, we do so for European MNEs located in the US, as well as US MNEs located in Europe. Our results indicate that both EU (US) affiliates in the US (EU) rely extensively on home region knowledge sources, although they appear to exploit the host country knowledge base as well. The HBA component of US R&D in Europe in chemicals, electronics and petroleum refining is stronger than their European counterparts, as is the case for European R&D activities in the US in engineering.economics of technology ;