Complexity and maintenance : a comparative study of object-oriented and structured methodologies : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Information Systems at Massey University

Maintenance has been found to be one of the most expensive phases in the life of an information system. It has been suggested that the use of object-oriented methods instead of traditional structured methods may be one way of reducing the cost of maintenance required for an information system. This thesis is an attempt to determine whether the object-oriented approach does in fact undergo a relatively smaller increase in complexity when subjected to a change in specifications than a similar system that is developed using a "structured methodology", and is therefore easier to maintain. The methodologies used in this study were Yourdon's (1989) Modern Structured Methodology and Booch's (1994) Object-Oriented methodology. The analysis phase of both methodologies were applied to the same case study twice in order to evaluate the effects of a change in the system's specifications. Once the two models for each methodology were complete, various metrics were applied to the structured system and a separate set of metrics were applied to the object-oriented system. The results of the models and the metrics were then analysed and validated in order to determine which system suffered a smaller proportional increase in complexity as a result of the changes to the system. It was found that overall, the object-oriented system proved to undergo a smaller increase in complexity, and it was therefore easier to maintain as a result of the changes than the structured system

A limnological assessment of Russell Pond, Woodstock, New Hampshire

A limnological survey was conducted during 17-18 September, 1998 to characterize the trophic state of Russell Pond, a 15.8 Ha natural Lake located in Woodstock, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Physical, biological and chemical parameters were measured to assess the health of the lake and changes from previous studies. Russell Pond is oligotrophic with high Secchi disk depths (13.8 m), low phosphorus levels (3.8 µg L1) and low Chlorophyll a concentration (0.5 µg L-1). Peridinium (Dinophyceae) dominated (64%) the net phytoplankton. Calanoid copepods (Diaptomidae) constituted 87.5% of the crustacean zooplankton. The lake is at risk for acidification because of low acid neutralizing capacity (1.2 mg CaCO3 L-1) and low pH (5.6) in the deep water. Russell Pond has exceptionally high water clarity due to the low phytoplankton density and low water color (6.9 CPU). Water quality of the lake has been stable over the past few years. Compared to data from four other New Hampshire lakes, Russell Pond is the most oligotrophic of the lakes, followed by Pleasant Lake and Stonehouse Pond. Great Pond and Townhouse Pond were the most mesotrophic of the lakes

Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft

Witchcraft has proven an important, if difficult, historical subject to investigate and interpret over the last four decades or so. Modern historical research into witchcraft began as an attempt to tease out the worldview of ordinary people in 16th- and 17th-century England, but it quickly expanded to encompass the history of witchcraft in most cultures and societies that have existed with scholarly studies now extending back to the time of earliest law code that punished sorcery, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.E.), and forward to the last witchcraft cases in England, those of Helen Duncan and Jane Yorke, tried in 1944. There has also been a significant amount of interest in the development of the modern religion of witchcraft, or Wicca, as various forms of neo-paganism continue to attract adherents.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_books/1002/thumbnail.jp

Magic: The Basics

Magic: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to magic in world history and contemporary societies. Presenting magic as a global phenomenon which has manifested in all human cultures, this book takes a thematic approach which explores the historical, social, and cultural aspects of magic. Key features include: Attempts to define magic either in universal or more particular terms, and to contrast it with other broad and potentially fluid categories such as religion and science; An examination of different forms of magical practice and the purposes for which magic has been used; Debates about magic’s effectiveness, its reality, and its morality; An exploration of magic’s association with certain social factors, such as gender, ethnicity and education, among others. Offering a global perspective of magic from antiquity through to the modern era and including a glossary of key terms, suggestions for further reading and case studies throughout, Magic: The Basics is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn more about the academic study of magic.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_books/1009/thumbnail.jp

Religion, the Supernatural and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe: An Album Amicorum for Charles Zika

This volume developed from a 2009 conference held in honor of Charles Zika at the University of Melbourne, where he spent most of his long career. In addition to an introductory essay by the editors, which provides a brief intellectual biography of Zika and establishes the major themes of the volume, there are seventeen contributions. Befitting Zika’s own interdisciplinarity and pioneering work incorporating visual records into historical analysis, most of the contributors are historians, many of whom draw in some way on art or other visual material, while four are art historians who situate their analysis within particular historical contexts. Befitting Zika’s internationalism, the majority of contributors are Australian, but four work in Europe and another four in North America

Pope John XXII

Throughout his pontificate, John XXII exhibited a marked concern over matters of sorcery, divination, and demonic invocation. The pope feared magical assaults and assassination attempts on his own person, and he used charges of heresy, sorcery, and idolatry as political weapons against his enemies. He also promoted the more general persecution of sorcery by ordering papal inquisitors to take action against sorcerers and by issuing a sentence of automatic excommunication against all those who practiced any form of demonic invocation that entailed the supplication or worship of demons. His bull on this matter, Super illius specula (Upon His Watchtower), remained an important part of the legal apparatus against practitioners of sorcery for the remainder of the Middle Ages

Nocturnal Journeys and Ritual Dances in Bernardino of Siena

This article takes its starting point in a story from a famous fifteenth-century sermon against sorcery by Bernardino of Siena. The story involves a solitary page travelling through a rural area who finds a group of people dancing on a threshing floor; at dawn, all the dancers vanish but one one girl to whom the page is holding fast. This girl is not treated by Bernardino as a sorceress, though the larger context of the story makes the absence of the perception of sorcery something of a puzzle. In search of possible origins for this story, the author examines an array of parallels, suggesting ultimately that Bernardino’s story could be linked to actual folk practices that involved nocturnal dancing

Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition

The Observant Movement was a widespread effort to reform religious life across Europe. It took root around 1400, and for a century and more thereafter it inspired or shaped much that became central to European religion and culture. The Observants produced many of the leading religious figures of the later Middle Ages—Catherine of Siena, Bernardino of Siena and Savonarola in Italy, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in Spain, and in Germany Martin Luther himself. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic introduction to the Observant Movement. Its essays also seek collectively to expand the horizons of our study of Observant reform, and to open new avenues for future scholarship