MATURE: A Model Driven bAsed Tool to Automatically Generate a langUage That suppoRts CMMI Process Areas spEcification

Many companies have achieved a higher quality in their processes by using CMMI. Process definition may be efficiently supported by software tools. A higher automation level will make process improvement and assessment activities easier to be adapted to customer needs. At present, automation of CMMI is based on tools that support practice definition in a textual way. These tools are often enhanced spreadsheets. In this paper, following the Model Driven Development paradigm (MDD), a tool that supports automatic generation of a language that can be used to specify process areas practices is presented. The generation is performed from a metamodel that represents CMMI. This tool, differently from others available, can be customized according to user needs. Guidelines to specify the CMMI metamodel are also provided. The paper also shows how this approach can support other assessment method

Extremal Transitions and Five-Dimensional Supersymmetric Field Theories

We study five-dimensional supersymmetric field theories with one-dimensional Coulomb branch. We extend a previous analysis which led to non-trivial fixed points with $E_n$ symmetry ($E_8$, $E_7$, $E_6$, $E_5=Spin(10)$, $E_4=SU(5)$, $E_3=SU(3)\times SU(2)$, $E_2=SU(2)\times U(1)$ and $E_1=SU(2)$) by finding two new theories: $\tilde E_1$ with $U(1)$ symmetry and $E_0$ with no symmetry. The latter is a non-trivial theory with no relevant operators preserving the super-Poincar\'e symmetry. In terms of string theory these new field theories enable us to describe compactifications of the type I' theory on $S^1/Z_2$ with 16, 17 or 18 background D8-branes. These theories also play a crucial role in compactifications of M-theory on Calabi--Yau spaces, providing physical models for the contractions of del Pezzo surfaces to points (thereby completing the classification of singularities which can occur at codimension one in K\"ahler moduli). The structure of the Higgs branch yields a prediction which unifies the known mathematical facts about del Pezzo transitions in a quite remarkable way.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, minor change to appendi

Graded Majorana spinors

In many mathematical and physical contexts spinors are treated as Grassmann odd valued fields. We show that it is possible to extend the classification of reality conditions on such spinors by a new type of Majorana condition. In order to define this graded Majorana condition we make use of pseudo-conjugation, a rather unfamiliar extension of complex conjugation to supernumbers. Like the symplectic Majorana condition, the graded Majorana condition may be imposed, for example, in spacetimes in which the standard Majorana condition is inconsistent. However, in contrast to the symplectic condition, which requires duplicating the number of spinor fields, the graded condition can be imposed on a single Dirac spinor. We illustrate how graded Majorana spinors can be applied to supersymmetry by constructing a globally supersymmetric field theory in three-dimensional Euclidean space, an example of a spacetime where standard Majorana spinors do not exist.Comment: 16 pages, version to appear in J. Phys. A; AFK previously published under the name A. F. Schunc

Correlation entropy of synaptic input-output dynamics

The responses of synapses in the neocortex show highly stochastic and nonlinear behavior. The microscopic dynamics underlying this behavior, and its computational consequences during natural patterns of synaptic input, are not explained by conventional macroscopic models of deterministic ensemble mean dynamics. Here, we introduce the correlation entropy of the synaptic input-output map as a measure of synaptic reliability which explicitly includes the microscopic dynamics. Applying this to experimental data, we find that cortical synapses show a low-dimensional chaos driven by the natural input pattern.Comment: 7 pages, 6 Figures (7 figure files

Identifying and characterizing risky play in the age one-to-three years

While research has investigated risk-taking in play for children from the age of four years upwards, less is known of risky play with children under four years. A small-scale observational study with children from five childcare settings with differing characteristics was undertaken to explore the occurrence and characteristics of risky play for children under four years of age, in relation to the current understanding of risky play. The study found similarities across the different contexts, which seem to reflect the characteristics of risky play for children aged one to three years. The findings suggest that the existing definition and characteristics of risky play are appropriate for two- and three-year-old children, but for one-year-olds, the study found discrepancies indicating deviations from existing definitions, indicating that the concept may not be so useful for this age group. To develop understanding of risky play, this article suggests new categories and an adapted definition

Production Process Modelling Architecture to Support Improved Cyber-Physical Production Systems

With the proliferation of intelligent networks in industrial environments, manufacturing SME’s have been in a continuous search for integrating and retrofitting existing assets with modern technologies that could provide low-cost solutions for optimizations in their production processes. Their willingness to support a technological evolution is firmly based on the perception that, in the future, better tools will guarantee process control, surveillance and maintenance. For this to happen, the digitalization of valuable and extractable information must be held in a cost-effective manner, through contemporary approaches such as IoT, creating the required fluidity between hardware and software, for implementing Cyber-Physical modules in the manufacturing process. The goal of this work is to develop an architecture that will support companies to digitize their machines and processes through an MDA approach, by modeling their production processes and physical resources, and transforming into an implementation model, using contemporary CPS and IoT concepts, to be continuously improved using forecasting/predictive algorithms and analytics.authorsversionpublishe