Software Engineering Metrics for COTS-Based Systems

The paradigm shift to commercial off-the-shelf components appears inevitable, necessitating drastic changes to current software development and business practices. Quality and risk concerns currently limit the application of COTS based system design to noncritical applications. New approaches to quality and risk management will be needed to handle the growth of CBSs. Our metrics based approach and software engineering metrics can aid developers and managers in analyzing the return on investment in quality improvement initiatives for CBSs. These metrics also facilitate the modeling of cost and quality, although we need more complex models to capture the intricate relationships between cost and quality metrics in a CBS

Metrics-Guided Quality Management for Component-Based Software Systems

The growing reliance on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components for developing large-scale projects introduces a new paradigm in software Engineering; which requires the design of new software development and business processes. Large scale component reuse leads to savings in development resources, enabling these resources to be applied to areas such as quality improvement. These savings come at the price of integration difficulties, performance constraints, and incompatibility of components from multiple vendors. Relying on COTS components also increases the system\u27\u27s vulnerability to risks arising from third-party development, which can negatively affect the quality of the system, as well as causing expenses not incurred in traditional software development. We aim to alleviate such concerns by using software metrics to accurately quantify factors contributing to the overall quality of a component-based system, guiding quality and risk management by identifying and eliminating sources of ris

Temporal Modeling of Software Test Coverage

This paper presents a temporal model for the coverage achieved by software testing. The proposed model, which is applicable at any level of the testing hierarchy, can determine the value of test coverage at any given time, as well as predicting future values. The model is comprised of two main components: coverage functions, and the coverage matrix. The coverage functions represent the coverage of a single entity as a function of time and reflect the test environment through their stochastic parameters. The coverage matrix utilizes the coverage functions to depict the coverage attained for each entity by each test within the test suite. A normalized sum of the elements of the coverage matrix is used to represent the overall coverage achieved by the test suite, as a function of time. The application of the model to multi-phase testing is illustrated In the application section, test coverage values from Y2K compliance testing are used to verify model predictions

Metrics and Models for Cost and Quality of Component-Based Software

Quality and risk concerns currently limit the application of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software components to non-critical applications. Software metrics can quantify factors contributing to the overall quality of a component-based system, and models for tradeoffs between cost and various aspects of quality can guide quality and risk management by identifying and eliminating sources of risk. This paper discusses metrics and models that can be used to alleviate quality concerns for COTS-based systems, enabling the use of COTS components in a broader range of applications

Order in a Spatially Anisotropic Triangular Antiferromagnet

The phase diagram of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on an anisotropic triangular lattice of weakly coupled chains, a model relevant to Cs2CuCl4, is investigated using a renormalization group analysis, which includes marginal couplings important for connecting to numerical studies of this model. In particular, the relative stability of incommensurate spiral spin-density order and collinear antiferromagnetic order is studied. While incommensurate spiral order is found to exist over most of the phase diagram in the presence of a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, at small interchain and extremely weak DM couplings, collinear antiferromagnetic order can survive. Our results imply that Cs2CuCl4 is well within the part of the phase diagram where spiral order is stable. The implications of the renormalization group analysis for numerical studies, many of which have found spin-liquidlike behavior, are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, minor edits and reference adde

Hydrological Monitoring with Hybrid Sensor Networks

Existing hydrological monitoring systems suffer from short- comings in accuracy, resolution, and scalability. Their fragility, high power consumption, and lack of autonomy necessitate frequent site visits. Cabling requirements and large size limit their scalability and make them prohibitively expensive. The research described in this paper proposes to alleviate these problems by pairing high-resolution in situ measure- ment with remote data collection and software maintenance. A hybrid sensor network composed of wired and wireless connections autonomously measures various attributes of the soil, including moisture, temperature, and resistivity. The mea- surements are communicated to a processing server over the existing GSM cellular infrastructure. This system enables the collection of data at a scale and resolution that is orders of magnitude greater than any existing method, while dramatically reducing the cost of monitoring. The quality and sheer volume of data collected as a result will enable previously infeasible research in hydrology

Effect of foot reflexology on anxiety and agitation in patients under mechanical ventilation after open heart surgery: A randomized clinical trial study

زمینه و هدف: رویکردهای غیر دارویی از جمله ماساژ بازتابی پا به علت کاهش عوارض و هزینه ها در کانون توجه محققین در جامعه بیماران مختلف قرار گرفته است. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی تأثیر ماساژ بازتابی پا بر اضطراب و بیقراری بیماران تحت تهویه مکانیکی پس از جراحی قلب باز انجام شد. روش بررسی: این مطالعه کارآزمایی بالینی کنترل شده، سه گروهی و دو سو کور با طراحی اندازه گیری مکرر در دو بیمارستان وابسته به دانشگاه علوم پزشکی بقیه الله (عج) تهران، از بهمن1392 تا اردیبهشت 1393 انجام شد. 96 بیمار کاندید جراحی قلب باز به روش نمونه گیری در دسترس انتخاب و به صورت تخصیص تصادفی در سه گروه آزمون (ماساژ بازتابی پا 34 نفر)، درمان نما (تماس سطحی پاشنه پا 30 نفر) و کنترل (مراقبت های معمول 32 نفر) قرار گرفتند. در گروه آزمون، ماساژ بازتابی پا به مدت20 دقیقه بر روی نقاط بازتاب قلب و ریه، انجام شد. میزان اضطراب و بیقراری بر اساس مقیاس سنجش اضطراب (FAS) و مقیاس سنجش بیقراری ریچموند (RSAS) در 6 مرحله زمانی ثبت شد. یافته ها: داده های آماری 92 بیمار (31 نفر گروه آزمون، 30 نفر گروه درمان نما و 31 نفر گروه کنترل) جمع آوری گردید. در مقایسه روند تغییرات سطح اضطراب و بیقراری، آزمون درون گروهی فریدمن نشان داد، بین میانگین سطح اضطراب و بیقراری در گروه ها در مراحل زمانی مختلف تفاوت معنی دار آماری وجود دارد. همچنین آزمون کروسکال والیس نشان داد میزان اضطراب و بیقراری بین سه گروه در مراحل مختلف زمانی تفاوت معنی دار آماری با یکدیگر ندارند. نتیجه گیری: ماساژ بازتابی پا در نقاط بازتابی مربوط به قلب و ریه تغییر معنی داری در کاهش اضطراب و بیقراری بیماران پس از جراحی ایجاد نکرد

Mitigating External Threats in Wireless Local Area Networks

As computer networks become more critical to enterprises, it is inevitable that efficient security policies are designed, case in point: wireless networks, in order to effectively ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data traversing these networks. The primary objective of this paper is to appropriately simulate an enterprise network, and evaluate the threats, and possible mitigation approaches applicable. An analysis of an enterprise WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) was carried out, to identify relevant vulnerabilities, and possible countermeasures against these threats. The primary threats analysed were those possible by an external adversary. Upon identification of said threats, a security model was developed, so as to improve enterprise network security, and ensure the levels are optimum. In addition, a number of the principles involved are applicable to non-wireless networks.   Keywords: WLAN, Wireless, Security, WPA 2, IEEE 802.11. 

Design and FPGA Prototyping of a Flood Prediction System

This paper explains the chip design of a flood prediction system based on piezoelectric pressure sensors, and its FPGA prototyping. The sensors are placed at different water levels and can dependably predict the occurrence of a flood. The main criteria considered in design of the system are low cost, low power consumption, ease of installation, autonomy, reliability, and most importantly, provision of early alerts. Predicting the flood before its actual occurrence can buy sufficient time for residents to evacuate nearby areas, preventing loss of life and property. The design has been prototyped on Altera\u27s Cyclone DE2 FPGA board