An empirical study of software design practices

Software engineers have developed a large body of software design theory and folklore, much of which was never validated. The results of an empirical study of software design practices in one specific environment are presented. The practices examined affect module size, module strength, data coupling, descendant span, unreferenced variables, and software reuse. Measures characteristic of these practices were extracted from 887 FORTRAN modules developed for five flight dynamics software projects monitored by the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). The relationship of these measures to cost and fault rate was analyzed using a contingency table procedure. The results show that some recommended design practices, despite their intuitive appeal, are ineffective in this environment, whereas others are very effective

A kiloparsec-scale nuclear stellar disk in the milky way as a possible explanation of the high velocity peaks in the galactic bulge

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment has measured the stellar velocities of red giant stars in the inner Milky Way. We confirm that the line of sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) in the mid-plane exhibit a second peak at high velocities, whereas those at | b| =2^\circ do not. We use a high resolution simulation of a barred galaxy, which crucially includes gas and star formation, to guide our interpretation of the LOSVDs. We show that the data are fully consistent with the presence of a thin, rapidly rotating, nuclear disk extending to ∼1 kpc. This nuclear disk is orientated perpendicular to the bar and is likely to be composed of stars on x2 orbits. The gas in the simulation is able to fall onto such orbits, leading to stars populating an orthogonal disk

Designing with Ada for satellite simulation: A case study

A FORTRAN-operated and an Ada-oriented design for the same system are compared to learn whether an essentially different design was produced using Ada. The designs were produced by an experiment that involves the parallel development of software for a spacecraft dynamics simulator. Design differences are identified in the use of abstractions, system structure, and simulator operations. Although the designs were significantly different, this result may be influenced by some special characteristics discussed

Rotorcraft handling-qualities design criteria development

Joint NASA/Army efforts at the Ames Research Center to develop rotorcraft handling-qualities design criteria began in earnest in 1975. Notable results were the UH-1H VSTOLAND variable stability helicopter, the VFA-2 camera-and-terrain-board simulator visual system, and the generic helicopter real-time mathematical model, ARMCOP. An initial series of handling-qualities studies was conducted to assess the effects of rotor design parameters, interaxis coupling, and various levels of stability and control augmentation. The ability to conduct in-flight handling-qualities research was enhanced by the development of the NASA/Army CH-47 variable-stability helicopter. Research programs conducted using this vehicle include vertical-response investigations, hover augmentation systems, and the effects of control-force characteristics. The handling-qualities data base was judged to be sufficient to allow an update of the military helicopter handling-qualities specification, MIL-H-8501. These efforts, including not only the in-house experimental work but also contracted research and collaborative programs performed under the auspices of various international agreements. The report concludes by reviewing the topics that are currently most in need of work, and the plans for addressing these topics

Note and Comment

The Law School; Pleading Estoppel; Libels on Person and on Property; The Conflict Between a Patentee\u27s Right to Monopoly and a State Anti-Monopoly Statut

InfiniTAM v3: A Framework for Large-Scale 3D Reconstruction with Loop Closure

Volumetric models have become a popular representation for 3D scenes in recent years. One breakthrough leading to their popularity was KinectFusion, which focuses on 3D reconstruction using RGB-D sensors. However, monocular SLAM has since also been tackled with very similar approaches. Representing the reconstruction volumetrically as a TSDF leads to most of the simplicity and efficiency that can be achieved with GPU implementations of these systems. However, this representation is memory-intensive and limits applicability to small-scale reconstructions. Several avenues have been explored to overcome this. With the aim of summarizing them and providing for a fast, flexible 3D reconstruction pipeline, we propose a new, unifying framework called InfiniTAM. The idea is that steps like camera tracking, scene representation and integration of new data can easily be replaced and adapted to the user's needs. This report describes the technical implementation details of InfiniTAM v3, the third version of our InfiniTAM system. We have added various new features, as well as making numerous enhancements to the low-level code that significantly improve our camera tracking performance. The new features that we expect to be of most interest are (i) a robust camera tracking module; (ii) an implementation of Glocker et al.'s keyframe-based random ferns camera relocaliser; (iii) a novel approach to globally-consistent TSDF-based reconstruction, based on dividing the scene into rigid submaps and optimising the relative poses between them; and (iv) an implementation of Keller et al.'s surfel-based reconstruction approach.Comment: This article largely supersedes arxiv:1410.0925 (it describes version 3 of the InfiniTAM framework

Catalog of the Scorpions of the World (1758-1998)

This unique and timely publication is the first such Catalog to be produced in over 100 years. The last full survey of the taxonomy of the world fauna of the Order Scorpiones was by Karl Kraepelin in 1899 - Scorpiones und Pedipalpi. Das Tierreich. Herausgegeben von der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft. Berlin. Since then, the sheer number of known species and subspecies has increased more than fourfold, and the classification of scorpions has been greatly transformed at both the generic and familial levels. This new Catalog brings together under one cover an enormous amount of difficult-to-locate information on scorpion nomenclature, biogeography, distribution and phylogeny, published before and after Kraepelin\u27s time. It is of special interest because of the unique status that scorpions currently enjoy as models for the study of evolutionary biology, ecology, toxicology, and physiology

NH\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Binding to the S\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e State of the O\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e-Evolving Complex of Photosystem II: Analogue to H\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eO Binding during the S\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e → S\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Transition

© 2015 American Chemical Society. Ammonia binds directly to the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II (PSII) upon formation of the S2 intermediate, as evidenced by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. We explore the binding mode by using quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics methods and simulations of extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra. We find that NH3 binds as an additional terminal ligand to the dangling Mn4, instead of exchanging with terminal water. Because water and ammonia are electronic and structural analogues, these findings suggest that water binds analogously during the S2 → S3 transition, leading to rearrangement of ligands in a carrousel around Mn4