Engineering self-adaptive systems through feedback loops

To deal with the increasing complexity of software systems and uncertainty of their environments, software engineers have turned to self-adaptivity. Self-adaptive systems are capable of dealing with a continuously changing environment and emerging requirements that may be unknown at design-time. However, building such systems cost-effectively and in a predictable manner is a major engineering challenge. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art in engineering self-adaptive systems and identify potential improvements in the design process. Our most important finding is that in designing self-adaptive systems, the feedback loops that control self-adaptation must become first-class entities. We explore feedback loops from the perspective of control engineering and within existing self-adaptive systems in nature and biology. Finally, we identify the critical challenges our community must address to enable systematic and well-organized engineering of self-adaptive and self-managing software systems

The NOvA Technical Design Report

This Technical Design Report (TDR) describes the preliminary design of the NOνA accelerator upgrades, NOνA detectors, detector halls and detector sites. Compared to the March 2006 and November 2006 NOνA Conceptual Design Reports (CDR), critical value engineering studies have been completed and the alternatives still active in the CDR have been narrowed to achieve a preliminary technical design ready for a Critical Decision 2 review. Many aspects of NOνA described this TDR are complete to a level far beyond a preliminary design. In particular, the access road to the NOvA Far Detector site in Minnesota has an advanced technical design at a level appropriate for a Critical Decision 3a review. Several components of the accelerator upgrade and new neutrino detectors also have advanced technical designs appropriate for a Critical Decision 3a review

GM in Asian Auto Markets

We combine searches by the CDF and D0 collaborations for a Higgs boson decaying to W+W-. The data correspond to an integrated total luminosity of 4.8 (CDF) and 5.4 (D0) fb-1 of p-pbar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. No excess is observed above background expectation, and resulting limits on Higgs boson production exclude a standard-model Higgs boson in the mass range 162-166 GeV at the 95% C.L