2,513 research outputs found
Automating property-based testing of evolving web services
Web services are the most widely used service technology that drives the Service-Oriented Computing~(SOC) paradigm. As a result, effective testing of web services is getting increasingly important. In this paper, we present a framework and toolset for testing web services and for evolving test code in sync with the evolution of web services. Our approach to testing web services is based on the Erlang programming language and QuviQ QuickCheck, a property-based testing tool written in Erlang, and our support for test code evolution is added to Wrangler, the Erlang refactoring tool.
The key components of our system include the automatic generation of initial test code, the inference of web service interface changes between versions, the provision of a number of domain specific refactorings and the automatic generation of refactoring scripts for evolving the test code. Our framework provides users with a powerful and expressive web service testing framework, while minimising users' effort in creating, maintaining and evolving the test model. The framework presented in this paper can be used by both web service providers and consumers, and can be used to test web services written in whatever language; the approach advocated here could also be adopted in other property-based testing frameworks and refactoring tools
Impacts of fuel consumption taxes on mobility patterns and CO2 emissions using a system dynamic approach
Current transport behaviour leads to increasing congestion of the infrastructure, growing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing energy demand, and growing CO2 emissions. Policies based principally on increasing system speed and in particular car speeds will lead to greater urban sprawl with increases in average trip lengths. Time saved by speed increases are traded for more distance. This trend is not sustainable in the longer term. Transport policies based just on time savings for citizens may not be the basis for our city planning strategy. The same happens with transport cost. With underpriced transport, the market undervalues land use location, which again may lead city to sprawl and could induce greater trip lengths. In this study, the efficiency of a fuel consumption or CO2 tax policy is analysed as a policy to internalise externalities of transport in a fair travel cost. Based on system dynamics theory, an integrated land use and transport model is proposed in order to assess the effects and impacts of such policy in the short, medium and long term. Different scenarios related to clean vehicles are incorporated. This model is applied to three cities Madrid, Vienna and Leeds and compares their results
Non-Myopic Sensor Control for Target Search and Track Using a Sample-Based GOSPA Implementation
This paper is concerned with sensor management for target search and track
using the generalised optimal subpattern assignment (GOSPA) metric. Utilising
the GOSPA metric to predict future system performance is computationally
challenging, because of the need to account for uncertainties within the
scenario, notably the number of targets, the locations of targets, and the
measurements generated by the targets subsequent to performing sensing actions.
In this paper, efficient sample-based techniques are developed to calculate the
predicted mean square GOSPA metric. These techniques allow for missed
detections and false alarms, and thereby enable the metric to be exploited in
scenarios more complex than those previously considered. Furthermore, the GOSPA
methodology is extended to perform non-myopic (i.e. multi-step) sensor
management via the development of a Bellman-type recursion that optimises a
conditional GOSPA-based metric. Simulations for scenarios with missed
detections, false alarms, and planning horizons of up to three time steps
demonstrate the approach, in particular showing that optimal plans align with
an intuitive understanding of how taking into account the opportunity to make
future observations should influence the current action. It is concluded that
the GOSPA-based, non-myopic search and track algorithm offers a powerful
mechanism for sensor management.Comment: The paper has been submitted for publication in IEEE Transactions on
Aerospace and Electronic Systems and is currently in revie
GREAT/SOFIA atmospheric calibration
The GREAT observations need frequency-selective calibration across the
passband for the residual atmospheric opacity at flight altitude. At these
altitudes the atmospheric opacity has both narrow and broad spectral features.
To determine the atmospheric transmission at high spectral resolution, GREAT
compares the observed atmospheric emission with atmospheric model predictions,
and therefore depends on the validity of the atmospheric models. We discusse
the problems identified in this comparison with respect to the observed data
and the models, and describe the strategy used to calibrate the science data
from GREAT/SOFIA during the first observing periods.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
A cryogenic liquid-mirror telescope on the moon to study the early universe
We have studied the feasibility and scientific potential of zenith observing
liquid mirror telescopes having 20 to 100 m diameters located on the moon. They
would carry out deep infrared surveys to study the distant universe and follow
up discoveries made with the 6 m James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with more
detailed images and spectroscopic studies. They could detect objects 100 times
fainter than JWST, observing the first, high-red shift stars in the early
universe and their assembly into galaxies. We explored the scientific
opportunities, key technologies and optimum location of such telescopes. We
have demonstrated critical technologies. For example, the primary mirror would
necessitate a high-reflectivity liquid that does not evaporate in the lunar
vacuum and remains liquid at less than 100K: We have made a crucial
demonstration by successfully coating an ionic liquid that has negligible vapor
pressure. We also successfully experimented with a liquid mirror spinning on a
superconducting bearing, as will be needed for the cryogenic, vacuum
environment of the telescope. We have investigated issues related to lunar
locations, concluding that locations within a few km of a pole are ideal for
deep sky cover and long integration times. We have located ridges and crater
rims within 0.5 degrees of the North Pole that are illuminated for at least
some sun angles during lunar winter, providing power and temperature control.
We also have identified potential problems, like lunar dust. Issues raised by
our preliminary study demand additional in-depth analyses. These issues must be
fully examined as part of a scientific debate we hope to start with the present
article.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures. To appear in Astrophysical Journal June 20 200
Dark-ages Reionization & Galaxy Formation Simulation VIII. Suppressed growth of dark matter halos during the Epoch of Reionization
We investigate how the hydrostatic suppression of baryonic accretion affects
the growth rate of dark matter halos during the Epoch of Reionization. By
comparing halo properties in a simplistic hydrodynamic simulation in which gas
only cools adiabatically, with its collisionless equivalent, we find that halo
growth is slowed as hydrostatic forces prevent gas from collapsing. In our
simulations, at the high redshifts relevant for reionization (between
and ), halos that host dwarf galaxies () can be reduced by up to a factor of 2 in mass due to the
hydrostatic pressure of baryons. Consequently, the inclusion of baryonic
effects reduces the amplitude of the low mass tail of the halo mass function by
factors of 2 to 4. In addition, we find that the fraction of baryons in dark
matter halos hosting dwarf galaxies at high redshift never exceeds
of the cosmic baryon fraction. When implementing baryonic processes, including
cooling, star formation, supernova feedback and reionization, the suppression
effects become more significant with further reductions of to
60\%. Although convergence tests suggest that the suppression may become weaker
in higher resolution simulations, this suppressed growth will be important for
semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, in which the halo mass inherited from
an underlying N-body simulation directly determines galaxy properties. Based on
the adiabatic simulation, we provide tables to account for these effects in
N-body simulations, and present a modification of the halo mass function along
with explanatory analytic calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures; Updated to match the published version. Two
changes in Figures 1 and 3 in order to 1) correct bin sizes of the 10^8 and
10^8.5 Msol bins for NOSN_NOZCOOL_NoRe (was 0.5, should be 0.25); 2) include
stellar mass in baryon fraction (was missed in Fig. 3). Quantitative
description of Fig. 3 changed slightly in Section 2.2. All other results and
conclusions remain unchange
Dark-ages reionization and galaxy formation simulation--VII. The sizes of high-redshift galaxies
We investigate high-redshift galaxy sizes using a semi-analytic model
constructed for the Dark-ages Reionization And Galaxy-formation Observables
from Numerical Simulation project. Our fiducial model, including strong
feedback from supernovae and photoionization background, accurately reproduces
the evolution of the stellar mass function and UV luminosity function. Using
this model, we study the size--luminosity relation of galaxies and find that
the effective radius scales with UV luminosity as at --. We show that recently discovered very luminous
galaxies at (Bowler et al. 2016) and (Oesch et al. 2016)
lie on our predicted size--luminosity relations. We find that a significant
fraction of galaxies at will not be resolved by JWST, but GMT will have
the ability to resolve all galaxies in haloes above the atomic cooling limit.
We show that our fiducial model successfully reproduces the redshift evolution
of average galaxy sizes at . We also explore galaxy sizes in models
without supernova feedback. The no-supernova feedback models produce galaxy
sizes that are smaller than observations. We therefore confirm that supernova
feedback plays an important role in determining the size--luminosity relation
of galaxies and its redshift evolution during reionization.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
Editorial: Bridging the gap between policy and science in assessing the health status of marine ecosystems
Human activities,both established and emerging, increasingly affect the provision of marine ecosystem services that deliver societal and economic benefits. Monitoring the status of marine ecosystems and determining how human activities change their capacity to sustain benefits for society requires an evidence-based Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach that incorporates knowledge of ecosystem functioning and services).Although,there are diverse methods to assess the status of individual ecosystem components, none assesses the health of marine ecosystems holistically, integrating information from multiple ecosystem components. Similarly,while acknowledging the availability of several methods to measure single pressures and assess their impacts, evaluation of cumulative effects of multiple pressures remains scarce.Therefore,an integrative assessment requires us to first understand the response of marine ecosystems to human activities and their pressures and then develop innovative, cost-effective monitoring tools that enable collection of data to assess the health status of large marine areas. Conceptually, combining this knowledge of effective monitoring methods with cost-benefit analyses will help identify appropriate management measures to improve environmental status economically and efficiently. The European project DEVOTES (DEVelopment Of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status) specifically addressed these topics in order to support policymakers and managers in implementing the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Here, we synthesize our main innovative findings, placing these within the context of recent wider research, and identifying gaps and the major future challenges
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