Game Engine Solutions

The rapid development of hardware and system platforms provides a favorable foundation for game development. A game engine overview is introduced first. Then, key features and available solutions of game engines are discussed. Typical products of game engines are shown and evaluated. Finally, we summarize our findings

Oral Interview: Contextualizing the Women\u27s Rights Movement in Tunisia Through Family History

In their path towards emancipation and equal rights, Tunisian women have gone through a number of phases that seem to be directly linked to legal changes and cultural factors. In fact, the Code of Personal Status (CPS) of 1956 seems to be a milestone in the women’s movement, and its following amendments continued on this path. However, it is a lot more complex than that. A piece of legislation officially passing is not a simple determinant of the state of Women’s Rights in a country. Through Dorra Mahfoudh Draoui’s “Report on Gender and Marriage in Tunisian Society” and my interview with my aunt, whom I ask about instances of underage marriage, forced marriage, and women’s oppression in our family, I dive deeper into these legal and cultural complexities. With this project, I aim to give perspective to the Women\u27s Rights movement in Tunisia with a focus on the question of marriage. This is my attempt at transcribing and reflecting on a personal experience with the aim to contextualize a certain movement. It is, however, necessary for me to point out that I am not a woman and therefore my take on the topic is merely observational and analytical, not personal. The interview was conducted on December 18th, 2020 in Tunis

Evaluating Network Test Scenarios for Network Simulators Systems

Networks continue to grow as industries use both wired and wireless networks. Creating experiments to test those networks can be very expensive if conducted on production networks; therefore, the evaluation of networks and their performance is usually conducted using emulation. This growing reliance on simulation raises the risk of correctness and validation. Today, many network simulators have widely varying focuses and are employed in different fields of research. The trustworthiness of results produced from simulation models must be investigated. The goal of this work is first to compare and assess the performance of three prominent network simulators—NS-2, NS-3, and OMNet++—by considering the following qualitative characteristics: architectural design, correctness, performance, usability, features, and trends. Second, introduce the concept of mutation testing to design the appropriate network scenarios to be used for protocol evaluation. Many works still doubt if used scenarios can suit well to claim conclusions about protocol performance and effectiveness. A large-scale simulation model was implemented using ad hoc on-demand distance vector and destination-sequenced distance vector routing protocols to compare performance, correctness, and usability. This study addresses an interesting question about the validation process: “Are you building the right simulation model in the right environment?” In conclusion, network simulation alone cannot determine the correctness and usefulness of the implemented protocol. Software testing approaches should be considered to validate the quality of the network model and test scenarios being used

A New Model to Improve Project Time-Cost Trade-Off in Uncertain Environments

The time–cost trade-off problem (TCTP) is fundamental to project scheduling. Risks in estimation of project cost and duration are significant due to uncertainty. This uncertainty cannot be eliminated by any scheduling or estimation techniques. Therefore, a model that can represent uncertainty in the real world to solve time–cost trade-off problems is needed. In this chapter, fuzzy logic is utilized to consider affecting uncertainties in project duration and cost. An optimization algorithm based on time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) is applied to provide a trade-off between project time and cost. The presented model could solve the time–cost trade-off problem while accounting for uncertainty in project cost and duration. This could help generate a more reliable schedule and mitigate the risk of projects running overbudget or behind schedule

Optimizing regression testing with AHP-TOPSIS metric system for effective technical debt evaluation

Regression testing is essential to ensure that the actual software product confirms the expected requirements following modification. However, it can be costly and time-consuming. To address this issue, various approaches have been proposed for selecting test cases that provide adequate coverage of the modified software. Nonetheless, problems related to omitting and/or rerunning unnecessary test cases continue to pose challenges, particularly with regard to technical debt (TD) resulting from code coverage shortcomings and/or overtesting. In the case of testing-related shortcomings, incurring TD may result in cost and time savings in the short run, but it can lead to future maintenance and testing expenses. Most prior studies have treated test case selection as a single-objective or two-objective optimization problem. This study introduces a multi-objective decision-making approach to quantify and evaluate TD in regression testing. The proposed approach combines the analytic-hierarchy-process (AHP) method and the technique of order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) to select the most ideal test cases in terms of objective values defined by the test cost, code coverage, and test risk. This approach effectively manages the software regression testing problems. The AHP method was used to eliminate subjective bias when optimizing objective weights, while the TOPSIS method was employed to evaluate and select test-case alternatives based on TD. The effectiveness of this approach was compared to that of a specific multi-objective optimization method and a standard coverage methodology. Unlike other approaches, our proposed approach always accepts solutions based on balanced decisions by considering modifications and using risk analysis and testing costs against potential technical debt. The results demonstrate that our proposed approach reduces both TD and regression testing efforts

A Cloud Based Disaster Management System

The combination of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and 3D virtual environments opens a new paradigm for their use in natural disaster management applications. It is important to have a realistic virtual environment based on datasets received from WSNs to prepare a backup rescue scenario with an acceptable response time. This paper describes a complete cloud-based system that collects data from wireless sensor nodes deployed in real environments and then builds a 3D environment in near real-time to reflect the incident detected by sensors (fire, gas leaking, etc.). The system’s purpose is to be used as a training environment for a rescue team to develop various rescue plans before they are applied in real emergency situations. The proposed cloud architecture combines 3D data streaming and sensor data collection to build an efficient network infrastructure that meets the strict network latency requirements for 3D mobile disaster applications. As compared to other existing systems, the proposed system is truly complete. First, it collects data from sensor nodes and then transfers it using an enhanced Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RLP). A 3D modular visualizer with a dynamic game engine was also developed in the cloud for near-real time 3D rendering. This is an advantage for highly-complex rendering algorithms and less powerful devices. An Extensible Markup Language (XML) atomic action concept was used to inject 3D scene modifications into the game engine without stopping or restarting the engine. Finally, a multi-objective multiple traveling salesman problem (AHP-MTSP) algorithm is proposed to generate an efficient rescue plan by assigning robots and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles to disaster target locations, while minimizing a set of predefined objectives that depend on the situation. The results demonstrate that immediate feedback obtained from the reconstructed 3D environment can help to investigate what–if scenarios, allowing for the preparation of effective rescue plans with an appropriate management effort.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Coalgebraische Similarität

Bereits bekannt erhält jeder Funktor genau dann schwache Pullbacks, wenn jede Kongruenz eine difunktionale Bisimulation ist. In Kapitel 3 fanden wir äquivalente Aussagen für die schwache Kerpaarerhaltung und die Urbilderhaltung. Ausserdem definierten wir eine Funktorabänderung, die wir Urbildbereinigung nannten. Der resultierende Funktor erhält Urbilder. Die Idee war inspiriert von der Transformation, so dass daraus ein gesunder Funktor entsteht. Der Urbilder erhaltende Funktor hat auch den Vorteil, dass seine Unterfunktoren genau die Urbilder erhaltende Unterfunktoren des ursprünglichen Funktors sind. In Kapitel 4 zeigten wir, dass die monotonen trennbaren Boxen eine korrekte und vollständige Modallogik liefern. Interessant ist, dass die Urbild-Bereinigung des allgemeinen Nachbarschaftsfunktors einen Funktor liefert, der schwache Pullbacks erhält

Efficient preparation of PET tracers for visualization of age-related disorders using emerging methods of radiofluorination

In 2013 novel compounds targeting alpha-synuclein oligomer aggregates in Parkinson’s disease were reported. Especially 5-(3-bromophenyl)-3-(piperonyl)pyrazole (1a) showed dramatic therapeutic effects since it was able to eliminate pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates. Therefore, it was assumed that 18F-labeled analogs of 1a are potentially useful for the detection of alpha-synuclein oligomers. The first 18F-labeled compound 5-(3-bromphenyl)-3-(6-[18F]fluorpiperonyl)pyrazol ([18F]1b) was prepared by 1,3 dipolar cycloaddition between 3'-bromophenyl acetylene (2a) and [18F]fluorophenyldiazomethane generated in situ from tosylhydrazone ([18F]3b). In order to establish optimized reaction conditions, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between 4-[18F]fluorophenyldiazomethane and 4'-fluorophenyl acetylene (2b) was studied as a model reaction. Optimized reaction conditions enabled to obtain 3,5-bis(4-fluorophenyl)-1H-pyrazole ([18F]1d) in radiochemical yield (RCY) of 67%. The same reaction conditions delivered [18F]1b in RCYs of 27–34%. The second approach applied in this work to obtain the alpha-synuclein targeting compound 5-(3-[18F]fluorphenyl)-3-(piperonyl)pyrazol ([18F]1c) was based on copper mediated 18F-fluorodestannylation. The latter method was recently reported by Scott et. al. This method highly benefits from the fact that trialkylaryl tin compounds are routinely used as precursors for electrophilic radiofluorinations. Therefore, a method using stannyl precursors and “nucleophilic [18F]Fluoride” should be of high interest for the production of radiopharmaceuticals. Initially, trimethyl(phenyl)tin was used as a model substrate to establish the 18F-fluorodestannylation approach. After reaction optimization, this approach was used to label several electron-neutral, -rich and -poor stannyl substrates in RCYs of 16-88%. Additionally, 18F-destannylation was used to produce [18F]1c in RCY of 62%. Furthermore, this method was applied in the synthesis of 18F-labeled amino acids starting from commercially available precursors. Finally, a scalable automated synthesis of 3-O-methyl-6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA (6-[18F]OMFD), 6-[18F]Fluoro-L-m-tyrosine (6-[18F]FMT), 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine (2-[18F]F-Tyr) und 6-[18F]fluoro-L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanin (6-[18F]FDOPA) was established affording these compounds in high isolated RCY of 32-57%. Remarkably, the automated radiosynthesis of 6-[18F]FDOPA via Cu-mediated radiofluorination of an appropriate stannane precursor afforded RCYs of 57%. Starting from 9.2 GBq [18F]fluoride 3.5 GBq of 6-[18F]FDOPA was obtained within 65 min suitable for clinical applications

Design and implementation of visualization techniques for subsumption hierarchies

Data Visualizing is becoming an important research topic in computer science, and has received considerable attention in the last two decades. In several instances, visualization is a crucial step in order to easily access and properly understand the data. With it, the analysis and the decision making is a relatively easier task. In this thesis, we will focus on the visualization of the concept hierarchies by producing several geometric representations. The main tools used are the graphs where the concepts are represented by vertices and the edges represent the relationships between concepts. Our specific application is the development of a drawing system that interfaces with the description logic reasonner RACER . Unless there is no error in the ontology, the RACER system responds to the taxonomy queries correctly. The body of the response must contain information about a relational structure called a concept hierarchy. This information could be saved as a text file. In the first part of the thesis, we will present our system architecture and discuss its components then we will show how to collect the information about the concept hierarchy using the taxonomy query. We also describe methods for parsing hierarchies and the creation of an appropriate data structure that will be used by the set of algorithms we developed. The second part of the thesis contains the algorithms used to retrieve the properties of the concept hierarchy, as well as to study the specific structure of these hierarchies. It is well known that graph drawing in general is a very complex issue and, therefore, it is important that our approach in drawing takes into account the specificity of these graphs. We consider many aesthetic criteria that fit our specific application: the levels should be kept together as much as possible, the drawing area should be as small as possible, the number of crossings should be minimized, etc. Also, we will develop a decomposition technique that will be very useful in many instances

A Dynamic Platform for Developing 3D Facial Avatars in a Networked Virtual Environment

Avatar facial expression and animation in 3D collaborative virtual environment (CVE) systems are reconstructed through a complex manipulation of muscles, bones, and wrinkles in 3D space. The need for a fast and easy reconstruction approach has emerged in the recent years due to its application in various domains: 3D disaster management, virtual shopping, and military training. In this work we proposed a new script language based on atomic parametric action to easily produce real-time facial animation. To minimize use of the game engine, we introduced script-based component where the user introduces simple short script fragments to feed the engine with a new animation on the fly. During runtime, when an embedded animation is required, an xml file is created and injected into the game engine without stopping or restarting the engine. The resulting animation method preserves the real-time performance because the modification occurs not through the modification of the 3D code that describes the CVE and its objects but rather through modification of the action scenario that rules when an animation happens or might happen in that specific situation