On the Modular Specification of NFPs: A Case Study

The modular specification of non-functional properties of systems is a current challenge of Software Engineering, for which no clear solution exists. However, in the case of Domain-Specific Languages some successful proposals are starting to emerge, combining model-driven techniques with aspect-weaving mechanisms. In this paper we show one of these approaches in practice, and present the implementation we have developed to fully support it. We apply our approach for the specification and monitoring of non-functional properties using observers to a case study, illustrating how generic observers defining non-functional properties can be defined in an independent manner. Then, correspondences between these observers and the domain-specific model of the system can be established, and then weaved into a unified system specification using ATL model transformation. Such a unified specification can also be analyzed in a natural way to obtain the required non-functional properties of the system.This work is partially funded by Research Projects TIN2011-23795 and TIN2011-15497-E

Quasiparticle properties in a density functional framework

We propose a framework to construct the ground-state energy and density matrix of an N-electron system by solving selfconsistently a set of single-particle equations. The method can be viewed as a non-trivial extension of the Kohn-Sham scheme (which is embedded as a special case). It is based on separating the Green's function into a quasi-particle part and a background part, and expressing only the background part as a functional of the density matrix. The calculated single-particle energies and wave functions have a clear physical interpretation as quasiparticle energies and orbitals.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Phys. Rev.

A Framework for Blockchain Interoperability and Runtime Selection

The suitability of a particular blockchain for a given use case depends mainly on the blockchain's functional and non-functional properties. Such properties may vary over time, and thus, a selected blockchain may become unsuitable for a given use case. This uncertainty may hinder the widespread adoption of blockchain technologies in general. To mitigate the impact of volatile blockchain properties, we propose a framework that monitors several blockchains, allows the user to define functional and non-functional requirements, determines the most appropriate blockchain, and enables the switchover to that chain at runtime. Our evaluation using a reference implementation shows that switching to another blockchain can save cost and enable users to benefit from better performance and a higher level of trust

Investigation of Functional-technological Properties of Soya Protein

There was offered and grounded the use of functional technological properties of the soya protein isolate in the technology of oil pasts. It will allows to increase the balance of the oil past composition additionally and will favor the decrease of extracting moisture during the storage term.There was studied the dynamics of a gradient of the limit stress of soya protein: hydrated soya protein, hydrated soya protein with the temperature processing, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 5 min, hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 10 min; hydrated soya protein with the preliminary keeping during 24 h and temperature processing during 15 min.It was established, that the hydrated isolate of soya protein is a plastic system, has enough strength.The limit stress parameter at the variable velocity of deformation of model samples determines optimal technological parameters of preparing the soya isolate: hydromodule – 1: 8, temperature processing – (82±2) °С, process duration 10 min with preliminary keeping during 24 hours.As a result of the studies, there were demonstrated technological parameters of preparing the soya protein isolate for obtaining the oil past by the direct mixing with the oil base

The characterization of the functional properties of three cold alkali extracted meat protein concentrates and the relationship between functional properties determined using model systems and the properties of an emulsion-type sausage in which they were incorporated : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masterate of Technology (Biotechnology) at Massey University

The feasibility of marketing three meat protein concentrates (MassMPC, MyoMPC and SarcoMPC) on the commercial protein market was studied. Solubility, heat gel strength, water binding and emulsification properties of these proteins were investigated under different temperature, protein to water ratio and salt treatments using model systems. Model systems were designed so that they approximated the physical and chemical conditions found in an emulsion- type sausage. The properties of the meat proteins were compared to those exhibited by a soy concentrate (GL750) and three sodium caseinates (SV07, SV02 and CasN) measured under the same conditions. In addition the performance of the meat, soy, and caseinate proteins in an emulsion-type sausage was evaluated. MassMPC and MyoMPC exhibited superior heat gelling properties compared to the commercial protein products while SarcoMPC was more soluble and exhibited foaming properties similar to these products. All three proteins could be used successfully in sausages which had 3% of the total protein replaced with additive protein. At a 30% replacement level the addition of MassMPC and SarcoMPC produced undesirable effects on sausage properties. MyoMPC did not adversely affect the characteristics important in a commercial sausage, at this replacement level. However, in terms of overall functional properties and performance in a food system, MassMPC, MyoMPC and SarcoMPC were inferior to the commercial protein products. Data collected from this study were analyzed using the Pearson's correlation test to identify relationships between: functional properties assessed using model systems; sensory and instrumental measurements of emulsion-type sausage rheological properties; and model system functional properties of proteins and the properties of sausages incorporating these proteins. A negative correlation between emulsion stability moisture loss and water binding capacity was identified but this relationship was dependent on the methods used to measure these properties. Solubility was found to be negatively related to the water binding capacity of proteins. The Warner Bratzler Shear test, multiple compression test and extrusion test were the most useful instrumental measurements for evaluating textural properties considered important in a commercial emulsion-type sausage. However, the relationships between sensory properties and these instrumental measurements were dependent on the level of incorporation of protein additives in the sausages. Important correlations were identified between functional properties of proteins measured in the presence of 2% salt, and properties of sausages which had 30% of the total protein replaced by additive proteins. The usefulness of these relationships are discussed, the reasons why some relationships were not significant are suggested, and a new approach to studying the functional properties of proteins is proposed

Properties of Design-Based Functional Principal Components Analysis

This work aims at performing Functional Principal Components Analysis (FPCA) with Horvitz-Thompson estimators when the observations are curves collected with survey sampling techniques. One important motivation for this study is that FPCA is a dimension reduction tool which is the first step to develop model assisted approaches that can take auxiliary information into account. FPCA relies on the estimation of the eigenelements of the covariance operator which can be seen as nonlinear functionals. Adapting to our functional context the linearization technique based on the influence function developed by Deville (1999), we prove that these estimators are asymptotically design unbiased and consistent. Under mild assumptions, asymptotic variances are derived for the FPCA' estimators and consistent estimators of them are proposed. Our approach is illustrated with a simulation study and we check the good properties of the proposed estimators of the eigenelements as well as their variance estimators obtained with the linearization approach.Comment: Revised version for J. of Statistical Planning and Inference (January 2009

Diagrammatic analysis of the Hubbard model:Stationary property of the thermodynamic potential

Diagrammatic approach proposed many years ago for strong correlated Hubbard model is developed for analyzing of the thermodynamic potential properties. The new exact relation between such renormalized quantities as thermodynamic potential, one-particle propagator and correlation function is established. This relation contains additional integration of the one-particle propagator by the auxiliary constant. The vacuum skeleton diagrams constructed from irreducible Green's functions and tunneling propagator lines are determined and special functional is introduced. The properties of such functional are investigated and its relation to the thermodynamic potential is established. The stationary properties of this functional with respect to first order changing of the correlation function is demonstrated and as a consequence the stationary properties of the thermodynamic potential is proved.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure