Software process representation to support multiple views

Current interest in improving the effectiveness and predictability of software development has led to a recent focus on software process modeling and improvement. Process-centered software development environments (PCSDEs), have been examined as a useful adjunct to software process modeling. A number of PCSDEs have been designed and built; an examination of the range of potential users of such environments reveals a wide range of needs with respect to information about an enacted software process and how this information is presented. The paper describes one aspect of a PCSDE supporting multiple simultaneous views: the design of a representation of enacted software processes which is suitable for the generation of multiple simultaneous views

Consistency issues in partially bound dynamically composed systems

Dynamically composed systems are able to incorporate new components as they execute. Therefore, configurations of these systems are not fully elaborated until at least the time that they are executed, and they are perhaps never fully elaborated. Such incomplete configurations are termed partially bound configurations. Although partially bound, it is still important to be able to analyse these configurations to ascertain whether they meet certain assumptions about their composition. We are endeavouring to provide such support for the construction of dynamically composed systems through the application of configuration management concepts. One way in which these concepts can be applied in this domain is to explicitly state such assumptions and hence be able to validate partially bound configurations against these assumptions; in this way, inconsistencies can be reported as soon as they arise. This paper explores some of the issues involved in providing this kind of consistency mechanism for dynamically composed systems. In particular, the paper discusses consistency issues which arise in the context of systems where the generic structure of the system configuration is known, but the decision about which particular components comprise the configuration is deferred until execution

Generating direct manipulation program editors

Language specific editors are cognisant of the syntax and semantics of the programming language they manipulate. Despite the various potential advantages of language specific editors, they have not been widely accepted by software developers for serious software development. On the other hand direct manipulation editors, which are also cognisant of the entities they manipulate, have proven to be successful in other domains such as drawing and VLSI design tools. Thus, it is worth while investigating the incorporation of direct manipulation mechanisms into program editors. This paper presents a technique for specifying direct manipulation editing of programs which is amenable to the generation of language specific editors incorporating direct manipulation from a specification of the desired editing mechanisms

A layered operational model for describing inter-tool communication in tool integration frameworks

Integration frameworks for building software engineering environments provide at least data, control and presentation integration facilities, together with integration devices which afford access to these facilities by the tools which populate the framework. Typically, an integration device is a specially developed language, or extension to an existing language, in which the integration programmer specifies the desired interactions between the tools comprising the software engineering environment. Surprisingly little effort has been applied to assessing the expressiveness of integration languages, even though the power of such a language limits the level of integration a tool can achieve within the environment. Our work seeks to provide an approach to both assessing and comparing the expressiveness of the integration devices of a range of commercial and research products. The paper presents a layered operational model, based on information structures; this model has been developed for describing the semantics of the inter-tool communication features of integration devices in a precise manner, and in a manner which will facilitate such assessment and comparison

Modelling systems that integrate programming language and environment mechanisms

Once we relax the assumption that it must be possible to specify programs solely in terms of text and enter them in isolation from other tools, the range of possible program development mechanisms is significantly increased. Thus, in the light of advances in the field of integrated software development environments and in view of the wider availability of suitable workstations, we should reconsider the way we perceive (and, hence design) programming languages. This paper describes on-going work aimed at exploring the role of the programming language in the context of modern software development environments. The work is currently focused on two fronts: the development of a formalism for describing both a programming language and associated environment mechanisms, and the design of environment mechanisms that support software maintenance and reuse, complementing those traditionally provided by programming languages. This paper focuses on work in the first of these two areas

MultiView-Merlin: An experiment in tool integration

The experiment described in this paper involved the integration of a process-centred software development environment (Merlin) and a multi-view integrated software development environment (MultiView). These two tools were developed separately from each other, with no expectation that they would ever be integrated into a single integrated software engineering environment. This paper first briefly presents the separate environments and then describes the technique used to integrate them. This technique centres on the development of an adaptor process to mediate between the environments. It was first necessary to identify the point at which to connect the two environments, and then to design and implement an appropriate process to pass commands between them. This work has resulted in enhancements to both of the individual tools and has created a combined environment which exploits the advantages of both of the original environments

Recommendations for pen-based oral-fluid collection in growing pigs

Sampling guidelines were developed by observing pigs during oral-fluid sample collection in commercial herds. Pigs with previous oral-fluid collection experience (“trained”) should be allowed 20 minutes access to the rope. Pigs with no prior experience (“untrained”) should be allowed 60 minutes. One collection is enough to train pigs

Alternative raw material research for decarbonization of UK glass manufacture

Based on the current UK decarbonization policy, a general outlook on potential routes for the glass industry to achieve net‐zero is discussed and the differentiation during decarbonization is specified. Biomass ash is considered a potential alternative raw material for low‐carbon glass manufacture as it is rich in certain advantageous components, chiefly network modifiers. Simple sieving processes were shown to effectively separate impurities such as S, Cl, and C from some biomass ashes according to particle size distribution. The concentration of undesirable impurities decreased with increasing particle size. Morphologies and X‐ray diffraction patterns of larger washed biomass ash particles indicated liquid/amorphous phase formation during biomass combustion. The washing of ashes was also shown to be a potential route to purification. A washed bracken ash relevant to both modern and ancient glass production was characterized for comparison. Ultraviolet‐visible near‐infrared (UV‐Vis‐near IR) absorption spectra of representative green container glasses produced using biomass ash confirmed that ∼5 wt.% ash in representative glass batches has little impact on the color and redox state of glasses; the redox status of glass produced using >2 mm biomass ash after washing was less reduced than that of glass produced using high levels (>∼9 wt.%) of >2 mm biomass ash after sieving alone, observed via the redox couple Cr3+/Cr6+ by UV‐Vis‐near IR absorption spectroscopy

MLGWSC-1: The first Machine Learning Gravitational-Wave Search Mock Data Challenge

We present the results of the first Machine Learning Gravitational-Wave Search Mock Data Challenge (MLGWSC-1). For this challenge, participating groups had to identify gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole mergers of increasing complexity and duration embedded in progressively more realistic noise. The final of the 4 provided datasets contained real noise from the O3a observing run and signals up to a duration of 20 seconds with the inclusion of precession effects and higher order modes. We present the average sensitivity distance and runtime for the 6 entered algorithms derived from 1 month of test data unknown to the participants prior to submission. Of these, 4 are machine learning algorithms. We find that the best machine learning based algorithms are able to achieve up to 95% of the sensitive distance of matched-filtering based production analyses for simulated Gaussian noise at a false-alarm rate (FAR) of one per month. In contrast, for real noise, the leading machine learning search achieved 70%. For higher FARs the differences in sensitive distance shrink to the point where select machine learning submissions outperform traditional search algorithms at FARs $\geq 200$ per month on some datasets. Our results show that current machine learning search algorithms may already be sensitive enough in limited parameter regions to be useful for some production settings. To improve the state-of-the-art, machine learning algorithms need to reduce the false-alarm rates at which they are capable of detecting signals and extend their validity to regions of parameter space where modeled searches are computationally expensive to run. Based on our findings we compile a list of research areas that we believe are the most important to elevate machine learning searches to an invaluable tool in gravitational-wave signal detection.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, additional material available at https://github.com/gwastro/ml-mock-data-challenge-