Julee Holcombe Associate Professor of Arts (COLA) travels to China

With the support of my CIE Grant, on May 13th I left UNH and travelled to the Sichuan Province of China for two months. The CIE grant funds helped to support my faculty teaching exchange with Chengdu University, my research to investigate the different fine art practices and pedagogy in China, and lastly, to support my own photographic research and studio practice

The Covenant on Human Rights

This project began with a microprocessor platform developed by two master’s students: Albert López and Francisco Javier Sánchez. Their platform was designed as a gateway for sensing devices operating in the 868 MHz band. The platform consists of a Texas Instruments MSP430F5437A microcontroller and a Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet cont roller connected to the MSP430 processor by a Serial Peripheral Interface. Javier Lara Peinado implemented prototype white space sensors using the platform developed by the earlier two students. As part of his effort, he partially implemented a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) system for loading programs in to the flash memory of the microcontroller using Microchip’s TCP/IP stack.  However, he was not successful in loading programs into the flash as the TFTP transfer got stuck at the first block. The first purpose of this project was to find and fix the error(s) in the TFTP loading of programs into the MSP430’s flash memory. The second purpose of this project was to evaluate Microchip’s TCP/IP stack in depth.  This report describes measurements of UDP transmission rates. Additionally, the TFTP processing rate is measured and the TFTP program loading code is documented.  The report concludes with suggestions for possible improvements of this system.Projektet startade med en mikroprocessor-plattform som utvecklades av två masterstudenter: Albert López och Francisco Javier Sánchez.  Deras plattform var utformad som en inkörsport för avkänning av apparater som arbetar i 868 MHz-bandet. Plattformen består av en Texas Instruments MSP430F5437A mikrokontroller och en Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet controller ansluten till MSP430-processor med en SPI-gränssnitt (Serial Peripheral Interface). Javier Lara Peinado genomförde prototypvitt utrymme sensoreranvända plattformen som utvecklades av de två tidigare nämnda studenter. Som en del av sitt arbete genomförde handelvis ett Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) system för lastning program i flashminne mikrokontroller med hjälp av Microchips TCP / IP-stack. Men han var inte framgångsrik i lastning program i flash som TFTP-överföringen fastnade vid det första blocket. Det första syftet för detta projekt var att hitta och åtgärda felet(er) i TFTP laddning av program i MSP430 flashminne. Det andra syftet för detta projekt var att utvärdera Microchips TCP/IP- stack på djupet. I denna rapport beskrivs mätningar av UDP överföringshastighet.  Dessutom mäts TFTP bearbetningshastighet och TFTP programladdningskoden dokumenteras. Rapporten avslutas med förslag på möjliga förbättringar av systemet.Project for IK2553QC 20140702</p

Applying XP Ideas Formally: The Story Card and Extreme X-Machines

By gathering requirements on story cards extreme programming (XP) makes requirements collection easy. However it is less clear how the story cards are translated into a �finished product. We propose that a formal specification method based on X-Machines can be used to direct this transition. Extreme X-Machines �t in to the XP method well, without large overheads in design and maintenance. We also investigate how such machines adapt to change in the story cards and propose how this could be further enhanced

How good are your testers? An assessment of testing ability

During our previous research conducted in the Sheffield Software Engineering Observatory [11], we found that test first programmers spent a higher percentage of their time testing than those testing after coding. However as the team allocation was based on subjects' academic records and their preference, it was unclear if they were simply better testers. Thus this paper proposes two questionnaires to assess the testing ability of subjects, in order to reveal the factors that contribute to the previous findings. Preliminary results show that the testing ability of subjects, as measured by the survey, varies based on their professional skill level

How Much Do You Know About Teen Sexual Behavior? A True-False Quiz

Without the facts, it's difficult to develop effective approaches to reduce risky sexual behaviors and prevent teen pregnancy and STD transmission. This Child Trends fact sheet lists ten things that parents, policy makers, and practitioners should know about teen sexual behavior. While all teens who have sex are at risk of pregnancy and STDs, the fact sheet highlights some of the behaviors that put teens at increased risk

The organization of soil disposal by ants

Colonies of Pheidole ambigua ants excavate soil and drop it outside the nest entrance. The deposition of thousands of loads leads to the formation of regular ring-shaped piles. How is this pattern generated? This study investigated soil pile formation on level and sloping surfaces, both empirically and using an agent-based model. We found that ants drop soil preferentially in the direction in which the slope is least steeply uphill from the nest entrance, both when adding to an existing pile and when starting a new pile. Ants respond to cues from local slope to choose downhill directions. Ants walking on a slope increase the frequency and magnitude of changes in direction, and more of these changes of direction take them downhill than uphill. Also, ants carrying soil on a slope wait longer before dropping their soil compared to ants on a level plane. These mechanisms combine to focus soil dropping in the downhill direction, without the necessity of a direct relationship between slope and probability of dropping soil. These empirically determined rules were used to simulate soil disposal. The slight preference for turning downhill measured empirically was shown in the model to be sufficient to generate biologically realistic patterns of soil dumping when combined with memory of the direction of previous trips. From simple rules governing individual behaviour an overall pattern emerges, which is appropriate to the environment and allows a rapid response to changes

The Linkage Between Public and Private Investment: A Co-integration Analysis of a Panel of Developing Countries

This study uses panel data from 19 developing countries from 1980 to 1997 to examine the impact of public investment on private investment. A model is developed to identify both the short run and long-run effects of public investment on private investment, builds in the role of uncertainty on investment, and uses co-integration tests on panel data to check the time series properties of the data. The empirical results show that public investment is complementary to private investment in developing economies, and that credit constraints restrict the amount of private investment.

Development and validation of computational models of cellular interaction

In this paper we take the view that computational models of biological systems should satisfy two conditions – they should be able to predict function at a systems biology level, and robust techniques of validation against biological models must be available. A modelling paradigm for developing a predictive computational model of cellular interaction is described, and methods of providing robust validation against biological models are explored, followed by a consideration of software issues