An investigation into approximate solutions for deterministic and stochastic multi-dimensional sequencing

A description is given of an investigation in detail into the validity of the overlap integral method for describing planar optical waveguide junctions. A comparison between the results of this method and that of a rigorous mode-matching approach is taken

Supporting Multiple Stakeholders in Agile Development

Agile software development practices require several stakeholders with different kinds of expertise to collaborate while specifying requirements, designing and modeling software, and verifying whether developers have implemented requirements correctly. We studied 112 requirements engineering (RE) tools from academia and the features of 13 actively maintained behavior-driven development (BDD) tools, which support various stakeholders in specifying and verifying the application behavior. Overall, we found that there is a growing tool specialization targeted towards a specific type of stakeholders. Particularly with BDD tools, we found no adequate support for non-technical stakeholders —- they are required to use an integrated development environment (IDE) —- which is not adapted to suit their expertise. We argue that employing separate tools for requirements specification, modeling, implementation, and verification is counter-productive for agile development. Such an approach makes it difficult to manage associated artifacts and support rapid implementation and feedback loops. To avoid dispersion of requirements and other software-related artifacts among separate tools, establish traceability between requirements and the application source code, and streamline a collaborative software development workflow, we propose to adapt an IDE as an agile development platform. With our approach, we provide in-IDE graphical interfaces to support non-technical stakeholders in creating and maintaining requirements concurrently with the implementation. With such graphical interfaces, we also guide non-technical stakeholders through the object-oriented design process and support them in verifying the modeled behavior. This approach has two advantages: (i) compared with employing separate tools, creating and maintaining requirements directly within a development platform eliminates the necessity to recover trace links, and (ii) various natively created artifacts can be composed into stakeholder-specific interactive live in-IDE documentation. These advantages have a direct impact on how various stakeholders collaborate with each other, and allow for rapid feedback, which is much desired in agile practices. We exemplify our approach using the Glamorous Toolkit IDE. Moreover, the discussed building blocks can be implemented in any IDE with a rich-enough graphical engine and reflective capabilities

Survivor: An Analysis of the Term from India

This article discusses the need for greater conceptual clarity of the term survivor. It raises questions about the propriety of the term to refer to the victims of sex trafficking. It points out that in the Indian context, the term victim is legally and operationally defined. It cautions against the hasty incorporation of the term survivor into public policies addressing the trafficked victims\u27 problems. Different social platforms use the term survivor differently, and the difference is not nominal. The use of the term survivor is both casual as well as intentional. The term survivor trivializes the exploitation and makes invisible the violence inherent to prostitution and sex trafficking. It cautions that the replacement of the term victim with the term survivor in public policies and programs aimed at providing assistance, compensation, and justice to traffic victims could result in such benefits getting hijacked by the exploiters; and the voices of the victims will get further muffled

The effects of acute aerobic exercise on choice reaction time in young adults

Background:Exercise, especially aerobic exercise thought to have a positive impact on cognitive and brain function which mainly involved in acquisition, processing, storage and executive functions. Executive control processes are important in sport and occupational settings where a person is being asked to make decisions while performing physical work. We have done this study, to determine the effects of acute moderate intensity exercise on cognitive domains and to apply this knowledge in various fields where cognition and executive functions are important. Study and control population each consists of 60 apparently healthy subjects in the age group of 18-30 years.Methods:The material used for study Cosco Upright Exercise Bike and Reaction Time apparatus. Visual Choice Reaction Time, the examiner presented visual stimuli at random to the subject. The subject saw the light displayed on his side and pressed the appropriate corresponding button as quickly as possible and the reading was noted. The same procedure was repeated for auditory choice reaction time for auditory stimuli. After that each subject from study population underwent acute moderate intensity aerobic exercise on for 10 minutes. Starting within 5 minutes after the exercise, subjects were assessed for the same cognitive test as above, for the second time. Control population rested for 10 minutes and then was assessed again for the same cognitive test.Results:There was no significant difference between the pre- values of study population and pre- values of control population. There was no significant difference between the pre- values of control population and post values of control population. Thus, there was no improvement in cognitive functions on account of repetition of tests. There was a significant difference between the post values of study population and post values of control population. There was a significant difference between the pre- values of study population and post values of study population.Conclusions:There was a decrease in reaction time following exercise in the study population, suggests that there was an improvement in the cognitive functions post exercise

An Examination of Factors Influencing National Reputation of India on Social Media

Social media play a central role in governments’ communication with foreign citizens, but little is done to understand how such platforms build national reputation. To fill this research gap, the study examines online engagement, online social relations, and information use that predict national reputation in the social media context. National reputation is examined through a survey of 387 South Asian social media followers of the Indian government. Results show that online engagement of users with the Indian government and their information use related to India are positively associated with national reputation. However, users’ online social relations with Indians is negatively associated with national reputation. The study provides empirical support to understand how public diplomacy operates in an online-only context and in the case of India specifically