Software engineering techniques for the development of systems of systems

This paper investigates how existing software engineering techniques can be employed, adapted and integrated for the development of systems of systems. Starting from existing system-of-systems (SoS) studies, we identify computing paradigms and techniques that have the potential to help address the challenges associated with SoS development, and propose an SoS development framework that combines these techniques in a novel way. This framework addresses the development of a class of IT systems of systems characterised by high variability in the types of interactions between their component systems, and by relatively small numbers of such interactions. We describe how the framework supports the dynamic, automated generation of the system interfaces required to achieve these interactions, and present a case study illustrating the development of a data-centre SoS using the new framework

Применение метода контрольных возмущений для определения характерных узлов присоединения комплексной нагрузки при расчетах динамической устойчивости

Рассматривается влияние способа замещения комплексной нагрузки на характер электромеханических переходных процессов в электрических системах (ЭС) от действия больших возмущений. Показано, что установить общие рекомендации относительно способа замещения нагрузки в сложных ЭС затруднительно. Предлагается для опреде­ления характерных узлов нагрузки, оказывающих существенное влияние на характер динамического перехода, применять известный метод контрольных возмущений. Приводятся результаты сравнительных расчетов с использованием предлагаемой методики

Portovelo: A volcanic-hosted epithermal vein-system in Ecuador, South America

The Portovelo epithermal vein-system in southwestern Ecuador has produced more than 120 tons of gold and about 250 tons of silver. The veins result from hydrothermal processes close to a Miocene volcano which produced an andesitic to dacitic sequence followed by collapse and post-collapse rhyolitic activity which generated most of the alteration and mineralization. Three main structural segments are defined by NW-trending strike-slip faults, which show later stages of vertical movement. These faults are responsible for development of an extensive N-S dilatational jog within andesitic rocks, which acted as the main host to ore-deposition. A large-scale propylitic aureole surrounds a quartz-chlorite-sericite-adularia core, centered on the rhyolites, within a system of collapse-related ring-structures. A quartz-chlorite-sericite-adularia-calcite assemblage is the most common wall-rock alteration close to the veins. The size (4 x 15 km) and vertical range (1400 m) of the vein-system is exceptional. Alteration, textures and mineral assemblage, including a quartz-calcite gangue, sulfides, abundant sulfosalts and free gold (electrum), are quite typical of an adularia-sericite epithermal deposit. Spatially, the mineralization is arranged in three zones. In addition, three successive stages can be distinguished. The bulk of economic mineralization was deposited during the second stage, in association with a clear quartz and calcite gangue. Tm-ice and Tm-clath data of fluid inclusions in the clear quartz indicate a high salinity (similar to 10.5 eq. wt% NaCl). The homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions in the gangue minerals and in the altered host-rocks vary between 180 degrees and 310 degrees C. Quartz delta(18) O-values from hydrothermally altered wall-rocks reflect the original isotopic values of the latter. These values show a narrower range in vein quartz (delta O-18 between +7.7 parts per thousand, and +11.5 parts per thousand, SMOW). In addition, the delta O-18 values of the vein quartz increase systematically with decreasing homogenization temperature. This suggests that quartz was in equilibrium with a large reservoir of water of constant O-18/O-16 composition at decreasing equilibrium temperatures. The estimated isotopic composition of the fluids from which milky quartz and calcite of the main mineralization stage precipitated, lies around -1% SMOW. This value indicates a meteoric rather than a magmatic origin of the ambient fluid. Clear quartz of the second stage seems to have formed from a fluid with a delta(18)O of +3 parts per thousand, SMOW. This higher value can be due to a more intense water-rock interaction or to mixing of meteoric with magmatic water

Distributed Voltage Control Mechanism in Low-Voltage Distribution Grid Field Test

In this paper, we present a distributed voltage control mechanism that is being used in the large-scale field-test of the Linear project. The control system developed does not require a communication network between the different households. Only the locally measured household supply voltage is taken into account. The proposed control system is compatible with DSM infrastructure currently being developed, such as home gateways and smart meters. Moreover, the proposed control system can also be used as a fallback mechanism for other communication-based DSM control systems when communication fails or when the system has been compromised due to cyber security issues. Using Monte Carlo simulations on two accurately modeled field test grids and device models, the proposed approach and its various parameter set points are benchmarked against the optimal Dynamic Programming solution. Simulation results point out that on average the amount of over and under voltage occurrences can be lowered by more than 30 %e-onlystatus: publishe

The MOSART Mapping Optimization for multi-core ARchiTectures ∗

MOSART project addresses two main challenges of prevailing architectures: (i) The global interconnect and memory bottleneck due to a single, globally shared memory with high access times and power consumption; (ii) The difficulties in programming heterogeneous, multi-core platforms MOSART aims to overcome these through a multi-core architecture with distributed memory organization, a Network-on-Chip (NoC) communication backbone and configurable processing cores that are scaled, optimized and customized together to achieve diverse energy, performance, cost and size requirements of different classes of applications. MOSART achieves this by: (i) Providing platform support for management of abstract data structures including middleware services and a run-time data manager for NoC based communication infrastructure; (ii) Developing tool support for parallelizing and mapping applications on the multi-core target platform and customizing the processing cores for the application.