The Design and Evaluation of a Cryptography Teaching Strategy for Software Engineering Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dowling, T.

2006-01-01

The present paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a cryptography module for final-year software engineering students. The emphasis is on implementation architectures and practical cryptanalysis rather than a standard mathematical approach. The competitive continuous assessment process reflects this approach and rewards…

A neural net-based approach to software metrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boetticher, G.; Srinivas, Kankanahalli; Eichmann, David A.

1992-01-01

Software metrics provide an effective method for characterizing software. Metrics have traditionally been composed through the definition of an equation. This approach is limited by the fact that all the interrelationships among all the parameters be fully understood. This paper explores an alternative, neural network approach to modeling metrics. Experiments performed on two widely accepted metrics, McCabe and Halstead, indicate that the approach is sound, thus serving as the groundwork for further exploration into the analysis and design of software metrics.

Living Design Memory: Framework, Implementation, Lessons Learned.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terveen, Loren G.; And Others

1995-01-01

Discusses large-scale software development and describes the development of the Designer Assistant to improve software development effectiveness. Highlights include the knowledge management problem; related work, including artificial intelligence and expert systems, software process modeling research, and other approaches to organizational memory;…

A Software Engineering Approach based on WebML and BPMN to the Mediation Scenario of the SWS Challenge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brambilla, Marco; Ceri, Stefano; Valle, Emanuele Della; Facca, Federico M.; Tziviskou, Christina

Although Semantic Web Services are expected to produce a revolution in the development of Web-based systems, very few enterprise-wide design experiences are available; one of the main reasons is the lack of sound Software Engineering methods and tools for the deployment of Semantic Web applications. In this chapter, we present an approach to software development for the Semantic Web based on classical Software Engineering methods (i.e., formal business process development, computer-aided and component-based software design, and automatic code generation) and on semantic methods and tools (i.e., ontology engineering, semantic service annotation and discovery).

Computer Software Information for Educators: A New Approach to Portrayal of Student Tryout Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Della-Piana, Gabriel; Della-Piana, Connie Kubo

1984-01-01

Suggests conventional evaluation reports are inappropriate for what needs to be portrayed for software users concerned with acquisition, software adaptation, design and development, and teacher implementation decisions. Two forms for evaluating information are described and illustrated--a narrative portrayal form and a design and development…

A new approach for instrument software at Gemini

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillies, Kim; Nunez, Arturo; Dunn, Jennifer

2008-07-01

Gemini Observatory is now developing its next generation of astronomical instruments, the Aspen instruments. These new instruments are sophisticated and costly requiring large distributed, collaborative teams. Instrument software groups often include experienced team members with existing mature code. Gemini has taken its experience from the previous generation of instruments and current hardware and software technology to create an approach for developing instrument software that takes advantage of the strengths of our instrument builders and our own operations needs. This paper describes this new software approach that couples a lightweight infrastructure and software library with aspects of modern agile software development. The Gemini Planet Imager instrument project, which is currently approaching its critical design review, is used to demonstrate aspects of this approach. New facilities under development will face similar issues in the future, and the approach presented here can be applied to other projects.

Training Software Developers and Designers to Conduct Usability Evaluations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skov, Mikael Brasholt; Stage, Jan

2012-01-01

Many efforts to improve the interplay between usability evaluation and software development rely either on better methods for conducting usability evaluations or on better formats for presenting evaluation results in ways that are useful for software designers and developers. Both of these approaches depend on a complete division of work between…

Software and resources for computational medicinal chemistry

PubMed Central

Liao, Chenzhong; Sitzmann, Markus; Pugliese, Angelo; Nicklaus, Marc C

2011-01-01

Computer-aided drug design plays a vital role in drug discovery and development and has become an indispensable tool in the pharmaceutical industry. Computational medicinal chemists can take advantage of all kinds of software and resources in the computer-aided drug design field for the purposes of discovering and optimizing biologically active compounds. This article reviews software and other resources related to computer-aided drug design approaches, putting particular emphasis on structure-based drug design, ligand-based drug design, chemical databases and chemoinformatics tools. PMID:21707404

A Software Tool for Integrated Optical Design Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, Jim; Troy, Ed; DePlachett, Charles; Montgomery, Edward (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Design of large precision optical systems requires multi-disciplinary analysis, modeling, and design. Thermal, structural and optical characteristics of the hardware must be accurately understood in order to design a system capable of accomplishing the performance requirements. The interactions between each of the disciplines become stronger as systems are designed lighter weight for space applications. This coupling dictates a concurrent engineering design approach. In the past, integrated modeling tools have been developed that attempt to integrate all of the complex analysis within the framework of a single model. This often results in modeling simplifications and it requires engineering specialist to learn new applications. The software described in this presentation addresses the concurrent engineering task using a different approach. The software tool, Integrated Optical Design Analysis (IODA), uses data fusion technology to enable a cross discipline team of engineering experts to concurrently design an optical system using their standard validated engineering design tools.

Development of Integrated Modular Avionics Application Based on Simulink and XtratuM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fons-Albert, Borja; Usach-Molina, Hector; Vila-Carbo, Joan; Crespo-Lorente, Alfons

2013-08-01

This paper presents an integral approach for designing avionics applications that meets the requirements for software development and execution of this application domain. Software design follows the Model-Based design process and is performed in Simulink. This approach allows easy and quick testbench development and helps satisfying DO-178B requirements through the use of proper tools. The software execution platform is based on XtratuM, a minimal bare-metal hypervisor designed in our research group. XtratuM provides support for IMA-SP (Integrated Modular Avionics for Space) architectures. This approach allows the code generation of a Simulink model to be executed on top of Lithos as XtratuM partition. Lithos is a ARINC-653 compliant RTOS for XtratuM. The paper concentrates in how to smoothly port Simulink designs to XtratuM solving problems like application partitioning, automatic code generation, real-time tasking, interfacing, and others. This process is illustrated with an autopilot design test using a flight simulator.

Composable Framework Support for Software-FMEA Through Model Execution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kocsis, Imre; Patricia, Andras; Brancati, Francesco; Rossi, Francesco

2016-08-01

Performing Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) during software architecture design is becoming a basic requirement in an increasing number of domains; however, due to the lack of standardized early design phase model execution, classic SW-FMEA approaches carry significant risks and are human effort-intensive even in processes that use Model-Driven Engineering.Recently, modelling languages with standardized executable semantics have emerged. Building on earlier results, this paper describes framework support for generating executable error propagation models from such models during software architecture design. The approach carries the promise of increased precision, decreased risk and more automated execution for SW-FMEA during dependability- critical system development.

Programming Language Software For Graphics Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beckman, Brian C.

1993-01-01

New approach reduces repetitive development of features common to different applications. High-level programming language and interactive environment with access to graphical hardware and software created by adding graphical commands and other constructs to standardized, general-purpose programming language, "Scheme". Designed for use in developing other software incorporating interactive computer-graphics capabilities into application programs. Provides alternative to programming entire applications in C or FORTRAN, specifically ameliorating design and implementation of complex control and data structures typifying applications with interactive graphics. Enables experimental programming and rapid development of prototype software, and yields high-level programs serving as executable versions of software-design documentation.

Acquiring Software Design Schemas: A Machine Learning Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harandi, Mehdi T.; Lee, Hing-Yan

1991-01-01

In this paper, we describe an approach based on machine learning that acquires software design schemas from design cases of existing applications. An overview of the technique, design representation, and acquisition system are presented. the paper also addresses issues associated with generalizing common features such as biases. The generalization process is illustrated using an example.

Evaluation of Optical Disk Jukebox Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranade, Sanjay; Yee, Fonald

1989-01-01

Discusses software that is used to drive and access optical disk jukeboxes, which are used for data storage. Categories of the software are described, user categories are explained, the design of implementation approaches is discussed, and representative software products are reviewed. (eight references) (LRW)

Towards a general object-oriented software development methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidewitz, ED; Stark, Mike

1986-01-01

An object is an abstract software model of a problem domain entity. Objects are packages of both data and operations of that data (Goldberg 83, Booch 83). The Ada (tm) package construct is representative of this general notion of an object. Object-oriented design is the technique of using objects as the basic unit of modularity in systems design. The Software Engineering Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center is currently involved in a pilot program to develop a flight dynamics simulator in Ada (approximately 40,000 statements) using object-oriented methods. Several authors have applied object-oriented concepts to Ada (e.g., Booch 83, Cherry 85). It was found that these methodologies are limited. As a result a more general approach was synthesized with allows a designer to apply powerful object-oriented principles to a wide range of applications and at all stages of design. An overview is provided of this approach. Further, how object-oriented design fits into the overall software life-cycle is considered.

Comparing Acquisition Strategies: Open Architecture versus Product Lines

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-30

software • New SOW language for accepting software deliveries – Enables third-party reuse • Additional SOW language regarding conducting software code walkthroughs and for using integrated development environments ...change the business environment must be the primary factor that drives the technical approach. Accordingly, there are business case decisions to be...elements of a system design should be made available to the customer to observe throughout the design process. Electronic access to the design environment

General object-oriented software development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidewitz, Edwin V.; Stark, Mike

1986-01-01

Object-oriented design techniques are gaining increasing popularity for use with the Ada programming language. A general approach to object-oriented design which synthesizes the principles of previous object-oriented methods into the overall software life-cycle, providing transitions from specification to design and from design to code. It therefore provides the basis for a general object-oriented development methodology.

Co-design of software and hardware to implement remote sensing algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theiler, James P.; Frigo, Janette R.; Gokhale, Maya; Szymanski, John J.

2002-01-01

Both for offline searches through large data archives and for onboard computation at the sensor head, there is a growing need for ever-more rapid processing of remote sensing data. For many algorithms of use in remote sensing, the bulk of the processing takes place in an ``inner loop'' with a large number of simple operations. For these algorithms, dramatic speedups can often be obtained with specialized hardware. The difficulty and expense of digital design continues to limit applicability of this approach, but the development of new design tools is making this approach more feasible, and some notable successes have been reported. On the other hand, it is often the case that processing can also be accelerated by adopting a more sophisticated algorithm design. Unfortunately, a more sophisticated algorithm is much harder to implement in hardware, so these approaches are often at odds with each other. With careful planning, however, it is sometimes possible to combine software and hardware design in such a way that each complements the other, and the final implementation achieves speedup that would not have been possible with a hardware-only or a software-only solution. We will in particular discuss the co-design of software and hardware to achieve substantial speedup of algorithms for multispectral image segmentation and for endmember identification.

Acquisition Handbook - Update. Comprehensive Approach to Reusable Defensive Software (CARDS)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-03-25

designs, and implementation components (source code, test plans, procedures and results, and system/software documentation). This handbook provides a...activities where software components are acquired, evaluated, tested and sometimes modified. In addition to serving as a facility for the acquisition and...systems from such components [1]. Implementation components are at the lowest level and consist of: specifications; detailed designs; code, test

Portable Medical Laboratory Applications Software

PubMed Central

Silbert, Jerome A.

1983-01-01

Portability implies that a program can be run on a variety of computers with minimal software revision. The advantages of portability are outlined and design considerations for portable laboratory software are discussed. Specific approaches for achieving this goal are presented.

An approach for assessing software prototypes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Church, V. E.; Card, D. N.; Agresti, W. W.; Jordan, Q. L.

1986-01-01

A procedure for evaluating a software prototype is presented. The need to assess the prototype itself arises from the use of prototyping to demonstrate the feasibility of a design or development stategy. The assessment procedure can also be of use in deciding whether to evolve a prototype into a complete system. The procedure consists of identifying evaluations criteria, defining alterative design approaches, and ranking the alternatives according to the criteria.

User Interface Design for Dynamic Geometry Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kortenkamp, Ulrich; Dohrmann, Christian

2010-01-01

In this article we describe long-standing user interface issues with Dynamic Geometry Software and common approaches to address them. We describe first prototypes of multi-touch-capable DGS. We also give some hints on the educational benefits of proper user interface design.

ScanImage: flexible software for operating laser scanning microscopes.

PubMed

Pologruto, Thomas A; Sabatini, Bernardo L; Svoboda, Karel

2003-05-17

Laser scanning microscopy is a powerful tool for analyzing the structure and function of biological specimens. Although numerous commercial laser scanning microscopes exist, some of the more interesting and challenging applications demand custom design. A major impediment to custom design is the difficulty of building custom data acquisition hardware and writing the complex software required to run the laser scanning microscope. We describe a simple, software-based approach to operating a laser scanning microscope without the need for custom data acquisition hardware. Data acquisition and control of laser scanning are achieved through standard data acquisition boards. The entire burden of signal integration and image processing is placed on the CPU of the computer. We quantitate the effectiveness of our data acquisition and signal conditioning algorithm under a variety of conditions. We implement our approach in an open source software package (ScanImage) and describe its functionality. We present ScanImage, software to run a flexible laser scanning microscope that allows easy custom design.

Open Source Software and Design-Based Research Symbiosis in Developing 3D Virtual Learning Environments: Examples from the iSocial Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Matthew; Galyen, Krista; Laffey, James; Babiuch, Ryan; Schmidt, Carla

2014-01-01

Design-based research (DBR) and open source software are both acknowledged as potentially productive ways for advancing learning technologies. These approaches have practical benefits for the design and development process and for building and leveraging community to augment and sustain design and development. This report presents a case study of…

The SoRReL papers: Recent publications of the Software Reuse Repository Lab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eichmann, David A. (Editor)

1992-01-01

The entire publication is presented of some of the papers recently published by the SoRReL. Some typical titles are as follows: Design of a Lattice-Based Faceted Classification System; A Hybrid Approach to Software Reuse Repository Retrieval; Selecting Reusable Components Using Algebraic Specifications; Neural Network-Based Retrieval from Reuse Repositories; and A Neural Net-Based Approach to Software Metrics.

A software engineering approach to expert system design and verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bochsler, Daniel C.; Goodwin, Mary Ann

1988-01-01

Software engineering design and verification methods for developing expert systems are not yet well defined. Integration of expert system technology into software production environments will require effective software engineering methodologies to support the entire life cycle of expert systems. The software engineering methods used to design and verify an expert system, RENEX, is discussed. RENEX demonstrates autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations, including replanning trajectory events and subsystem fault detection, onboard a space vehicle during flight. The RENEX designers utilized a number of software engineering methodologies to deal with the complex problems inherent in this system. An overview is presented of the methods utilized. Details of the verification process receive special emphasis. The benefits and weaknesses of the methods for supporting the development life cycle of expert systems are evaluated, and recommendations are made based on the overall experiences with the methods.

IMCS reflight certification requirements and design specifications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

The requirements for reflight certification are established. Software requirements encompass the software programs that are resident in the PCC, DEP, PDSS, EC, or any related GSE. A design approach for the reflight software packages is recommended. These designs will be of sufficient detail to permit the implementation of reflight software. The PDSS/IMC Reflight Certification system provides the tools and mechanisms for the user to perform the reflight certification test procedures, test data capture, test data display, and test data analysis. The system as defined will be structured to permit maximum automation of reflight certification procedures and test data analysis.

Automated software development workstation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Engineering software development was automated using an expert system (rule-based) approach. The use of this technology offers benefits not available from current software development and maintenance methodologies. A workstation was built with a library or program data base with methods for browsing the designs stored; a system for graphical specification of designs including a capability for hierarchical refinement and definition in a graphical design system; and an automated code generation capability in FORTRAN. The workstation was then used in a demonstration with examples from an attitude control subsystem design for the space station. Documentation and recommendations are presented.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pachuilo, Andrew R; Ragan, Eric; Goodall, John R

Visualization tools can take advantage of multiple coordinated views to support analysis of large, multidimensional data sets. Effective design of such views and layouts can be challenging, but understanding users analysis strategies can inform design improvements. We outline an approach for intelligent design configuration of visualization tools with multiple coordinated views, and we discuss a proposed software framework to support the approach. The proposed software framework could capture and learn from user interaction data to automate new compositions of views and widgets. Such a framework could reduce the time needed for meta analysis of the visualization use and lead tomore » more effective visualization design.« less

Reuse and Interoperability of Avionics for Space Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodson, Robert F.

2007-01-01

The space environment presents unique challenges for avionics. Launch survivability, thermal management, radiation protection, and other factors are important for successful space designs. Many existing avionics designs use custom hardware and software to meet the requirements of space systems. Although some space vendors have moved more towards a standard product line approach to avionics, the space industry still lacks similar standards and common practices for avionics development. This lack of commonality manifests itself in limited reuse and a lack of interoperability. To address NASA s need for interoperable avionics that facilitate reuse, several hardware and software approaches are discussed. Experiences with existing space boards and the application of terrestrial standards is outlined. Enhancements and extensions to these standards are considered. A modular stack-based approach to space avionics is presented. Software and reconfigurable logic cores are considered for extending interoperability and reuse. Finally, some of the issues associated with the design of reusable interoperable avionics are discussed.

AIRNOISE: A Tool for Preliminary Noise-Abatement Terminal Approach Route Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Jinhua; Sridhar, Banavar; Xue, Min; Ng, Hok

2016-01-01

Noise from aircraft in the airport vicinity is one of the leading aviation-induced environmental issues. The FAA developed the Integrated Noise Model (INM) and its replacement Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) software to assess noise impact resulting from all aviation activities. However, a software tool is needed that is simple to use for terminal route modification, quick and reasonably accurate for preliminary noise impact evaluation and flexible to be used for iterative design of optimal noise-abatement terminal routes. In this paper, we extend our previous work on developing a noise-abatement terminal approach route design tool, named AIRNOISE, to satisfy this criterion. First, software efficiency has been significantly increased by over tenfold using the C programming language instead of MATLAB. Moreover, a state-of-the-art high performance GPU-accelerated computing module is implemented that was tested to be hundreds time faster than the C implementation. Secondly, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed allowing users to import current terminal approach routes and modify the routes interactively to design new terminal approach routes. The corresponding noise impacts are then calculated and displayed in the GUI in seconds. Finally, AIRNOISE was applied to Baltimore-Washington International Airport terminal approach route to demonstrate its usage.

ControlShell - A real-time software framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schneider, Stanley A.; Ullman, Marc A.; Chen, Vincent W.

1991-01-01

ControlShell is designed to enable modular design and impplementation of real-time software. It is an object-oriented tool-set for real-time software system programming. It provides a series of execution and data interchange mechansims that form a framework for building real-time applications. These mechanisms allow a component-based approach to real-time software generation and mangement. By defining a set of interface specifications for intermodule interaction, ControlShell provides a common platform that is the basis for real-time code development and exchange.

TMT approach to observatory software development process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buur, Hanne; Subramaniam, Annapurni; Gillies, Kim; Dumas, Christophe; Bhatia, Ravinder

2016-07-01

The purpose of the Observatory Software System (OSW) is to integrate all software and hardware components of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) to enable observations and data capture; thus it is a complex software system that is defined by four principal software subsystems: Common Software (CSW), Executive Software (ESW), Data Management System (DMS) and Science Operations Support System (SOSS), all of which have interdependencies with the observatory control systems and data acquisition systems. Therefore, the software development process and plan must consider dependencies to other subsystems, manage architecture, interfaces and design, manage software scope and complexity, and standardize and optimize use of resources and tools. Additionally, the TMT Observatory Software will largely be developed in India through TMT's workshare relationship with the India TMT Coordination Centre (ITCC) and use of Indian software industry vendors, which adds complexity and challenges to the software development process, communication and coordination of activities and priorities as well as measuring performance and managing quality and risk. The software project management challenge for the TMT OSW is thus a multi-faceted technical, managerial, communications and interpersonal relations challenge. The approach TMT is using to manage this multifaceted challenge is a combination of establishing an effective geographically distributed software team (Integrated Product Team) with strong project management and technical leadership provided by the TMT Project Office (PO) and the ITCC partner to manage plans, process, performance, risk and quality, and to facilitate effective communications; establishing an effective cross-functional software management team composed of stakeholders, OSW leadership and ITCC leadership to manage dependencies and software release plans, technical complexities and change to approved interfaces, architecture, design and tool set, and to facilitate effective communications; adopting an agile-based software development process across the observatory to enable frequent software releases to help mitigate subsystem interdependencies; defining concise scope and work packages for each of the OSW subsystems to facilitate effective outsourcing of software deliverables to the ITCC partner, and to enable performance monitoring and risk management. At this stage, the architecture and high-level design of the software system has been established and reviewed. During construction each subsystem will have a final design phase with reviews, followed by implementation and testing. The results of the TMT approach to the Observatory Software development process will only be preliminary at the time of the submittal of this paper, but it is anticipated that the early results will be a favorable indication of progress.

Automatic Debugging Support for UML Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schumann, Johann; Swanson, Keith (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Design of large software systems requires rigorous application of software engineering methods covering all phases of the software process. Debugging during the early design phases is extremely important, because late bug-fixes are expensive. In this paper, we describe an approach which facilitates debugging of UML requirements and designs. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a set of notations for object-orient design of a software system. We have developed an algorithm which translates requirement specifications in the form of annotated sequence diagrams into structured statecharts. This algorithm detects conflicts between sequence diagrams and inconsistencies in the domain knowledge. After synthesizing statecharts from sequence diagrams, these statecharts usually are subject to manual modification and refinement. By using the "backward" direction of our synthesis algorithm. we are able to map modifications made to the statechart back into the requirements (sequence diagrams) and check for conflicts there. Fed back to the user conflicts detected by our algorithm are the basis for deductive-based debugging of requirements and domain theory in very early development stages. Our approach allows to generate explanations oil why there is a conflict and which parts of the specifications are affected.

Software synthesis using generic architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhansali, Sanjay

1993-01-01

A framework for synthesizing software systems based on abstracting software system designs and the design process is described. The result of such an abstraction process is a generic architecture and the process knowledge for customizing the architecture. The customization process knowledge is used to assist a designer in customizing the architecture as opposed to completely automating the design of systems. Our approach using an implemented example of a generic tracking architecture which was customized in two different domains is illustrated. How the designs produced using KASE compare to the original designs of the two systems, and current work and plans for extending KASE to other application areas are described.

Using CAD/CAM to improve productivity - The IPAD approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fulton, R. E.

1981-01-01

Progress in designing and implementing CAD/CAM systems as a result of the NASA Integrated Programs for Aerospace-Vehicle Design is discussed. Essential software packages have been identified as executive, data management, general user, and geometry and graphics software. Data communication, as a means to integrate data over a network of computers of different vendors, provides data management with the capability of meeting design and manufacturing requirements of the vendors. Geometry software is dependent on developmental success with solid geometry software, which is necessary for continual measurements of, for example, a block of metal while it is being machined. Applications in the aerospace industry, such as for design, analysis, tooling, testing, quality control, etc., are outlined.

RotCFD Software Validation - Computational and Experimental Data Comparison

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fernandez, Ovidio Montalvo

2014-01-01

RotCFD is a software intended to ease the design of NextGen rotorcraft. Since RotCFD is a new software still in the development process, the results need to be validated to determine the software's accuracy. The purpose of the present document is to explain one of the approaches to accomplish that goal.

A Common Interface Real-Time Multiprocessor Operating System for Embedded Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-04

Pressman , a design methodology should show hierarchical organization, lead to modules exhibiting independent functional characteristics, and be derived...Boehm, Barry W. "Software Engineering," Tutorial: Software Design Strategies, 2nd Edition. 35-50. Los Angeles CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1981... Pressman , Roger S. Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, Second Edi- tion. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1988. 59. Quinn, Michael J

Object-oriented productivity metrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Connell, John L.; Eller, Nancy

1992-01-01

Software productivity metrics are useful for sizing and costing proposed software and for measuring development productivity. Estimating and measuring source lines of code (SLOC) has proven to be a bad idea because it encourages writing more lines of code and using lower level languages. Function Point Analysis is an improved software metric system, but it is not compatible with newer rapid prototyping and object-oriented approaches to software development. A process is presented here for counting object-oriented effort points, based on a preliminary object-oriented analysis. It is proposed that this approach is compatible with object-oriented analysis, design, programming, and rapid prototyping. Statistics gathered on actual projects are presented to validate the approach.

The KASE approach to domain-specific software systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhansali, Sanjay; Nii, H. Penny

1992-01-01

Designing software systems, like all design activities, is a knowledge-intensive task. Several studies have found that the predominant cause of failures among system designers is lack of knowledge: knowledge about the application domain, knowledge about design schemes, knowledge about design processes, etc. The goal of domain-specific software design systems is to explicitly represent knowledge relevant to a class of applications and use it to partially or completely automate various aspects of the designing systems within that domain. The hope is that this would reduce the intellectual burden on the human designers and lead to more efficient software development. In this paper, we present a domain-specific system built on top of KASE, a knowledge-assisted software engineering environment being developed at the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory. We introduce the main ideas underlying the construction of domain specific systems within KASE, illustrate the application of the idea in the synthesis of a system for tracking aircraft from radar signals, and discuss some of the issues in constructing domain-specific systems.

Constraint-Driven Software Design: An Escape from the Waterfall Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Hoog, Robert; And Others

1994-01-01

Presents the principles of a development methodology for software design based on a nonlinear, product-driven approach that integrates quality aspects. Two examples are given to show that the flexibility needed for building high quality systems leads to integrated development environments in which methodology, product, and tools are closely…

Statistical Theory for the "RCT-YES" Software: Design-Based Causal Inference for RCTs. NCEE 2015-4011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schochet, Peter Z.

2015-01-01

This report presents the statistical theory underlying the "RCT-YES" software that estimates and reports impacts for RCTs for a wide range of designs used in social policy research. The report discusses a unified, non-parametric design-based approach for impact estimation using the building blocks of the Neyman-Rubin-Holland causal…

Agile development approach for the observatory control software of the DAG 4m telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Güçsav, B. Bülent; ćoker, Deniz; Yeşilyaprak, Cahit; Keskin, Onur; Zago, Lorenzo; Yerli, Sinan K.

2016-08-01

Observatory Control Software for the upcoming 4m infrared telescope of DAG (Eastern Anatolian Observatory in Turkish) is in the beginning of its lifecycle. After the process of elicitation-validation of the initial requirements, we have been focused on preparation of a rapid conceptual design not only to see the big picture of the system but also to clarify the further development methodology. The existing preliminary designs for both software (including TCS and active optics control system) and hardware shall be presented here in brief to exploit the challenges the DAG software team has been facing with. The potential benefits of an agile approach for the development will be discussed depending on the published experience of the community and on the resources available to us.

Sequence System Building Blocks: Using a Component Architecture for Sequencing Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Streiffert, Barbara A.; O'Reilly, Taifun

2005-01-01

Over the last few years software engineering has made significant strides in making more flexible architectures and designs possible. However, at the same time, spacecraft have become more complex and flight software has become more sophisticated. Typically spacecraft are often one-of-a-kind entities that have different hardware designs, different capabilities, different instruments, etc. Ground software has become more complex and operations teams have had to learn a myriad of tools that all have different user interfaces and represent data in different ways. At Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) these themes have collided to require an new approach to producing ground system software. Two different groups have been looking at tackling this particular problem. One group is working for the JPL Mars Technology Program in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Focused Technology area. The other group is the JPL Multi-Mission Planning and Sequencing Group . The major concept driving these two approaches on a similar path is to provide software that can be a more cohesive flexible system that provides a act of planning and sequencing system of services. This paper describes the efforts that have been made to date to create a unified approach from these disparate groups.

Sequencing System Building Blocks: Using a Component Architecture for Sequencing Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Streiffert, Barbara A.; O'Reilly, Taifun

2006-01-01

Over the last few years software engineering has made significant strides in making more flexible architectures and designs possible. However, at the same time, spacecraft have become more complex and flight software has become more sophisticated. Typically spacecraft are often one-of-a-kind entities that have different hardware designs, different capabilities, different instruments, etc. Ground software has become more complex and operations teams have had to learn a myriad of tools that all have different user interfaces and represent data in different ways. At Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) these themes have collided to require a new approach to producing ground system software. Two different groups have been looking at tackling this particular problem. One group is working for the JPL Mars Technology Program in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Focused Technology area. The other group is the JPL Multi-Mission Planning and Sequencing Group. The major concept driving these two approaches on a similar path is to provide software that can be a more cohesive flexible system that provides a set of planning and sequencing system of services. This paper describes the efforts that have been made to date to create a unified approach from these disparate groups.

Advanced engineering software for in-space assembly and manned planetary spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delaquil, Donald; Mah, Robert

1990-01-01

Meeting the objectives of the Lunar/Mars initiative to establish safe and cost-effective extraterrestrial bases requires an integrated software/hardware approach to operational definitions and systems implementation. This paper begins this process by taking a 'software-first' approach to systems design, for implementing specific mission scenarios in the domains of in-space assembly and operations of the manned Mars spacecraft. The technological barriers facing implementation of robust operational systems within these two domains are discussed, and preliminary software requirements and architectures that resolve these barriers are provided.

Configuring the Orion Guidance, Navigation, and Control Flight Software for Automated Sequencing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Odegard, Ryan G.; Siliwinski, Tomasz K.; King, Ellis T.; Hart, Jeremy J.

2010-01-01

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is being designed with greater automation capabilities than any other crewed spacecraft in NASA s history. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) flight software architecture is designed to provide a flexible and evolvable framework that accommodates increasing levels of automation over time. Within the GN&C flight software, a data-driven approach is used to configure software. This approach allows data reconfiguration and updates to automated sequences without requiring recompilation of the software. Because of the great dependency of the automation and the flight software on the configuration data, the data management is a vital component of the processes for software certification, mission design, and flight operations. To enable the automated sequencing and data configuration of the GN&C subsystem on Orion, a desktop database configuration tool has been developed. The database tool allows the specification of the GN&C activity sequences, the automated transitions in the software, and the corresponding parameter reconfigurations. These aspects of the GN&C automation on Orion are all coordinated via data management, and the database tool provides the ability to test the automation capabilities during the development of the GN&C software. In addition to providing the infrastructure to manage the GN&C automation, the database tool has been designed with capabilities to import and export artifacts for simulation analysis and documentation purposes. Furthermore, the database configuration tool, currently used to manage simulation data, is envisioned to evolve into a mission planning tool for generating and testing GN&C software sequences and configurations. A key enabler of the GN&C automation design, the database tool allows both the creation and maintenance of the data artifacts, as well as serving the critical role of helping to manage, visualize, and understand the data-driven parameters both during software development and throughout the life of the Orion project.

PT-SAFE: a software tool for development and annunciation of medical audible alarms.

PubMed

Bennett, Christopher L; McNeer, Richard R

2012-03-01

Recent reports by The Joint Commission as well as the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation have indicated that medical audible alarm effectiveness needs to be improved. Several recent studies have explored various approaches to improving the audible alarms, motivating the authors to develop real-time software capable of comparing such alarms. We sought to devise software that would allow for the development of a variety of audible alarm designs that could also integrate into existing operating room equipment configurations. The software is meant to be used as a tool for alarm researchers to quickly evaluate novel alarm designs. A software tool was developed for the purpose of creating and annunciating audible alarms. The alarms consisted of annunciators that were mapped to vital sign data received from a patient monitor. An object-oriented approach to software design was used to create a tool that is flexible and modular at run-time, can annunciate wave-files from disk, and can be programmed with MATLAB by the user to create custom alarm algorithms. The software was tested in a simulated operating room to measure technical performance and to validate the time-to-annunciation against existing equipment alarms. The software tool showed efficacy in a simulated operating room environment by providing alarm annunciation in response to physiologic and ventilator signals generated by a human patient simulator, on average 6.2 seconds faster than existing equipment alarms. Performance analysis showed that the software was capable of supporting up to 15 audible alarms on a mid-grade laptop computer before audio dropouts occurred. These results suggest that this software tool provides a foundation for rapidly staging multiple audible alarm sets from the laboratory to a simulation environment for the purpose of evaluating novel alarm designs, thus producing valuable findings for medical audible alarm standardization.

Investigating the Use of the Khan Academy and Mathematics Software with a Flipped Classroom Approach in Mathematics Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zengin, Yilmaz

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the flipped classroom approach designed by using Khan Academy and free open source software on students' academic achievement and to examine students' views about this approach. The research was evaluated in the light of both qualitative and quantitative data. Twenty-eight students studying…

Online Tutoring and Emotional Labour in the Private Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Sue

2012-01-01

Purpose: What happens when computer software is designed to replace the teacher and the human role is to service the relationship between the software and the learner? Specifically, this paper aims to consider whether or not emotional labour is performed in contexts mediated by technology in the private sector. Design/methodology/approach: The…

Collaborative Software Development in Support of Fast Adaptive AeroSpace Tools (FAAST)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kleb, William L.; Nielsen, Eric J.; Gnoffo, Peter A.; Park, Michael A.; Wood, William A.

2003-01-01

A collaborative software development approach is described. The software product is an adaptation of proven computational capabilities combined with new capabilities to form the Agency's next generation aerothermodynamic and aerodynamic analysis and design tools. To efficiently produce a cohesive, robust, and extensible software suite, the approach uses agile software development techniques; specifically, project retrospectives, the Scrum status meeting format, and a subset of Extreme Programming's coding practices are employed. Examples are provided which demonstrate the substantial benefits derived from employing these practices. Also included is a discussion of issues encountered when porting legacy Fortran 77 code to Fortran 95 and a Fortran 95 coding standard.

Software design for automated assembly of truss structures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herstrom, Catherine L.; Grantham, Carolyn; Allen, Cheryl L.; Doggett, William R.; Will, Ralph W.

1992-01-01

Concern over the limited intravehicular activity time has increased the interest in performing in-space assembly and construction operations with automated robotic systems. A technique being considered at LaRC is a supervised-autonomy approach, which can be monitored by an Earth-based supervisor that intervenes only when the automated system encounters a problem. A test-bed to support evaluation of the hardware and software requirements for supervised-autonomy assembly methods was developed. This report describes the design of the software system necessary to support the assembly process. The software is hierarchical and supports both automated assembly operations and supervisor error-recovery procedures, including the capability to pause and reverse any operation. The software design serves as a model for the development of software for more sophisticated automated systems and as a test-bed for evaluation of new concepts and hardware components.

Artificial intelligence approaches to software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johannes, James D.; Macdonald, James R.

1988-01-01

Artificial intelligence approaches to software engineering are examined. The software development life cycle is a sequence of not so well-defined phases. Improved techniques for developing systems have been formulated over the past 15 years, but pressure continues to attempt to reduce current costs. Software development technology seems to be standing still. The primary objective of the knowledge-based approach to software development presented in this paper is to avoid problem areas that lead to schedule slippages, cost overruns, or software products that fall short of their desired goals. Identifying and resolving software problems early, often in the phase in which they first occur, has been shown to contribute significantly to reducing risks in software development. Software development is not a mechanical process but a basic human activity. It requires clear thinking, work, and rework to be successful. The artificial intelligence approaches to software engineering presented support the software development life cycle through the use of software development techniques and methodologies in terms of changing current practices and methods. These should be replaced by better techniques that that improve the process of of software development and the quality of the resulting products. The software development process can be structured into well-defined steps, of which the interfaces are standardized, supported and checked by automated procedures that provide error detection, production of the documentation and ultimately support the actual design of complex programs.

Automated Engineering Design (AED); An approach to automated documentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcclure, C. W.

1970-01-01

The automated engineering design (AED) is reviewed, consisting of a high level systems programming language, a series of modular precoded subroutines, and a set of powerful software machine tools that effectively automate the production and design of new languages. AED is used primarily for development of problem and user-oriented languages. Software production phases are diagramed, and factors which inhibit effective documentation are evaluated.

Aviation Design Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

DARcorporation developed a General Aviation CAD package through a Small Business Innovation Research contract from Langley Research Center. This affordable, user-friendly preliminary design system for General Aviation aircraft runs on the popular 486 IBM-compatible personal computers. Individuals taking the home-built approach, small manufacturers of General Aviation airplanes, as well as students and others interested in the analysis and design of aircraft are possible users of the package. The software can cut design and development time in half.

Survey of Verification and Validation Techniques for Small Satellite Software Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jacklin, Stephen A.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current trends and practices in small-satellite software verification and validation. This document is not intended to promote a specific software assurance method. Rather, it seeks to present an unbiased survey of software assurance methods used to verify and validate small satellite software and to make mention of the benefits and value of each approach. These methods include simulation and testing, verification and validation with model-based design, formal methods, and fault-tolerant software design with run-time monitoring. Although the literature reveals that simulation and testing has by far the longest legacy, model-based design methods are proving to be useful for software verification and validation. Some work in formal methods, though not widely used for any satellites, may offer new ways to improve small satellite software verification and validation. These methods need to be further advanced to deal with the state explosion problem and to make them more usable by small-satellite software engineers to be regularly applied to software verification. Last, it is explained how run-time monitoring, combined with fault-tolerant software design methods, provides an important means to detect and correct software errors that escape the verification process or those errors that are produced after launch through the effects of ionizing radiation.

Software support environment design knowledge capture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dollman, Tom

1990-01-01

The objective of this task is to assess the potential for using the software support environment (SSE) workstations and associated software for design knowledge capture (DKC) tasks. This assessment will include the identification of required capabilities for DKC and hardware/software modifications needed to support DKC. Several approaches to achieving this objective are discussed and interim results are provided: (1) research into the problem of knowledge engineering in a traditional computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environment, like the SSE; (2) research into the problem of applying SSE CASE tools to develop knowledge based systems; and (3) direct utilization of SSE workstations to support a DKC activity.

At the Creation: Chaos, Control, and Automation--Commercial Software Development for Archives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drr, W. Theodore

1988-01-01

An approach to the design of flexible text-based management systems for archives includes tiers for repository, software, and user management systems. Each tier has four layers--objective, program, result, and interface. Traps awaiting software development companies involve the market, competition, operations, and finance. (10 references) (MES)

Advanced software development workstation project: Engineering scripting language. Graphical editor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

Software development is widely considered to be a bottleneck in the development of complex systems, both in terms of development and in terms of maintenance of deployed systems. Cost of software development and maintenance can also be very high. One approach to reducing costs and relieving this bottleneck is increasing the reuse of software designs and software components. A method for achieving such reuse is a software parts composition system. Such a system consists of a language for modeling software parts and their interfaces, a catalog of existing parts, an editor for combining parts, and a code generator that takes a specification and generates code for that application in the target language. The Advanced Software Development Workstation is intended to be an expert system shell designed to provide the capabilities of a software part composition system.

Designing the safety of healthcare. Participation of ergonomics to the design of cooperative systems in radiotherapy.

PubMed

Munoz, Maria Isabel; Bouldi, Nadia; Barcellini, Flore; Nascimento, Adelaide

2012-01-01

This communication deals with the involvement of ergonomists in a research-action design process of a software platform in radiotherapy. The goal of the design project is to enhance patient safety by designing a workflow software that supports cooperation between professionals producing treatment in radiotherapy. The general framework of our approach is the ergonomics management of a design process, which is based in activity analysis and grounded in participatory design. Two fields are concerned by the present action: a design environment which is a participatory design process that involves software designers, caregivers as future users and ergonomists; and a reference real work setting in radiotherapy. Observations, semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops allow the characterization of activity in radiotherapy dealing with uses of cooperative tools, sources of variability and non-ruled strategies to manage the variability of the situations. This production of knowledge about work searches to enhance the articulation between technocentric and anthropocentric approaches, and helps in clarifying design requirements. An issue of this research-action is to develop a framework to define the parameters of the workflow tool, and the conditions of its deployment.

Requirements Analysis for Large Ada Programs: Lessons Learned on CCPDS- R

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-12-01

when the design had matured and This approach was not optimal from the formal the SRS role was to be the tester’s contract, implemen- testing and...on the software development CPU processing load. These constraints primar- process is the necessity to include sufficient testing ily affect algorithm...allocations and timing requirements are by-products of the software design process when multiple CSCls are a P R StrR eSOFTWARE ENGINEERING executed within

Instructional design in mathematics for undergraduate students based on learning by mistakes approach utilizing scilab assistance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kartika, H.

2018-03-01

The issue related to making mistake while learning such as negative emotion is found while students learn mathematics with the aid of a computer. When the computer output showed a mistake message, the students considered it as a computer software malfunction. Based on this issue, the writer designs an instructional model based on learning by mistake approach and which is Scilab assisted. The method used in this research is research design involving undergraduate students in matrix algebra courses. The data collected throught survey with questionnaire to gain feedback about the approach implemented. The data analyzed using quantitative descriptive. The instructional design proposed is the student act as a mistake corrector while the teacher acts as a mistake maker. Teacher deliberately makes mistakes with the help of Scilab software. On the other hand, students correct, analyze and explain errors resulting from Scilab software. The result of this research is an ICT based instructional design which is expected to be applicable as an alternative learning in directing students to think positively about mistakes in learning. Furthermore, students are also expected to improve their ability in understanding and thinking critically while solving problems and improving themselves in learning mathematics.

Analyzing SystemC Designs: SystemC Analysis Approaches for Varying Applications

PubMed Central

Stoppe, Jannis; Drechsler, Rolf

2015-01-01

The complexity of hardware designs is still increasing according to Moore's law. With embedded systems being more and more intertwined and working together not only with each other, but also with their environments as cyber physical systems (CPSs), more streamlined development workflows are employed to handle the increasing complexity during a system's design phase. SystemC is a C++ library for the design of hardware/software systems, enabling the designer to quickly prototype, e.g., a distributed CPS without having to decide about particular implementation details (such as whether to implement a feature in hardware or in software) early in the design process. Thereby, this approach reduces the initial implementation's complexity by offering an abstract layer with which to build a working prototype. However, as SystemC is based on C++, analyzing designs becomes a difficult task due to the complex language features that are available to the designer. Several fundamentally different approaches for analyzing SystemC designs have been suggested. This work illustrates several different SystemC analysis approaches, including their specific advantages and shortcomings, allowing designers to pick the right tools to assist them with a specific problem during the design of a system using SystemC. PMID:25946632

Analyzing SystemC Designs: SystemC Analysis Approaches for Varying Applications.

PubMed

Stoppe, Jannis; Drechsler, Rolf

2015-05-04

The complexity of hardware designs is still increasing according to Moore's law. With embedded systems being more and more intertwined and working together not only with each other, but also with their environments as cyber physical systems (CPSs), more streamlined development workflows are employed to handle the increasing complexity during a system's design phase. SystemC is a C++ library for the design of hardware/software systems, enabling the designer to quickly prototype, e.g., a distributed CPS without having to decide about particular implementation details (such as whether to implement a feature in hardware or in software) early in the design process. Thereby, this approach reduces the initial implementation's complexity by offering an abstract layer with which to build a working prototype. However, as SystemC is based on C++, analyzing designs becomes a difficult task due to the complex language features that are available to the designer. Several fundamentally different approaches for analyzing SystemC designs have been suggested. This work illustrates several different SystemC analysis approaches, including their specific advantages and shortcomings, allowing designers to pick the right tools to assist them with a specific problem during the design of a system using SystemC.

Integrated Software Health Management for Aircraft GN and C

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schumann, Johann; Mengshoel, Ole

2011-01-01

Modern aircraft rely heavily on dependable operation of many safety-critical software components. Despite careful design, verification and validation (V&V), on-board software can fail with disastrous consequences if it encounters problematic software/hardware interaction or must operate in an unexpected environment. We are using a Bayesian approach to monitor the software and its behavior during operation and provide up-to-date information about the health of the software and its components. The powerful reasoning mechanism provided by our model-based Bayesian approach makes reliable diagnosis of the root causes possible and minimizes the number of false alarms. Compilation of the Bayesian model into compact arithmetic circuits makes SWHM feasible even on platforms with limited CPU power. We show initial results of SWHM on a small simulator of an embedded aircraft software system, where software and sensor faults can be injected.

The Software Engineering Prototype.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-06-01

34. sThis cnly means that the ’claim’, i.e., "accepted wisdcu" in systems design, was set up as the aiternative to the hypcthesis, in accord with tra dit ion...conflict and its resolution are m~~lyto occur when users can exercise their influence 4n the levelc2- inert prcezss. Ccnflict 4itsslY os snotr lead...the traditional method of software de- velopment often has poor results. Recently, a new approach to software development, the prototype approach

Achieving design reuse: a case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Peter J.; Nielsen, Jon J.; Roberts, William H.; Wilson, Greg M.

2008-08-01

The RSAA CICADA data acquisition and control software package uses an object-oriented approach to model astronomical instrumentation and a layered architecture for implementation. Emphasis has been placed on building reusable C++ class libraries and on the use of attribute/value tables for dynamic configuration. This paper details how the approach has been successfully used in the construction of the instrument control software for the Gemini NIFS and GSAOI instruments. The software is again being used for the new RSAA SkyMapper and WiFeS instruments.

Integrated design optimization research and development in an industrial environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, V.; German, Marjorie D.; Lee, S.-J.

1989-04-01

An overview is given of a design optimization project that is in progress at the GE Research and Development Center for the past few years. The objective of this project is to develop a methodology and a software system for design automation and optimization of structural/mechanical components and systems. The effort focuses on research and development issues and also on optimization applications that can be related to real-life industrial design problems. The overall technical approach is based on integration of numerical optimization techniques, finite element methods, CAE and software engineering, and artificial intelligence/expert systems (AI/ES) concepts. The role of each of these engineering technologies in the development of a unified design methodology is illustrated. A software system DESIGN-OPT has been developed for both size and shape optimization of structural components subjected to static as well as dynamic loadings. By integrating this software with an automatic mesh generator, a geometric modeler and an attribute specification computer code, a software module SHAPE-OPT has been developed for shape optimization. Details of these software packages together with their applications to some 2- and 3-dimensional design problems are described.

Integrated design optimization research and development in an industrial environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kumar, V.; German, Marjorie D.; Lee, S.-J.

1989-01-01

An overview is given of a design optimization project that is in progress at the GE Research and Development Center for the past few years. The objective of this project is to develop a methodology and a software system for design automation and optimization of structural/mechanical components and systems. The effort focuses on research and development issues and also on optimization applications that can be related to real-life industrial design problems. The overall technical approach is based on integration of numerical optimization techniques, finite element methods, CAE and software engineering, and artificial intelligence/expert systems (AI/ES) concepts. The role of each of these engineering technologies in the development of a unified design methodology is illustrated. A software system DESIGN-OPT has been developed for both size and shape optimization of structural components subjected to static as well as dynamic loadings. By integrating this software with an automatic mesh generator, a geometric modeler and an attribute specification computer code, a software module SHAPE-OPT has been developed for shape optimization. Details of these software packages together with their applications to some 2- and 3-dimensional design problems are described.

Accelerating NASA GN&C Flight Software Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tamblyn, Scott; Henry, Joel; Rapp, John

2010-01-01

When the guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) system for the Orion crew vehicle undergoes Critical Design Review (CDR), more than 90% of the flight software will already be developed - a first for NASA on a project of this scope and complexity. This achievement is due in large part to a new development approach using Model-Based Design.

Software Engineering for User Interfaces. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Draper, Stephen W.; Norman, Donald A.

The discipline of software engineering can be extended in a natural way to deal with the issues raised by a systematic approach to the design of human-machine interfaces. The user should be treated as part of the system being designed and projects should be organized to take into account the current lack of a priori knowledge of user interface…

An Object-Oriented Approach to Writing Computational Electromagnetics Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zimmerman, Martin; Mallasch, Paul G.

1996-01-01

Presently, most computer software development in the Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) community employs the structured programming paradigm, particularly using the Fortran language. Other segments of the software community began switching to an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm in recent years to help ease design and development of highly complex codes. This paper examines design of a time-domain numerical analysis CEM code using the OOP paradigm, comparing OOP code and structured programming code in terms of software maintenance, portability, flexibility, and speed.

Software-Based Visual Loan Calculator For Banking Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isizoh, A. N.; Anazia, A. E.; Okide, S. O. 3; Onyeyili, T. I.; Okwaraoka, C. A. P.

2012-03-01

industry is very necessary in modern day banking system using many design techniques for security reasons. This paper thus presents the software-based design and implementation of a Visual Loan calculator for banking industry using Visual Basic .Net (VB.Net). The fundamental approach to this is to develop a Graphical User Interface (GUI) using VB.Net operating tools, and then developing a working program which calculates the interest of any loan obtained. The VB.Net programming was done, implemented and the software proved satisfactory.

Checklists for the Evaluation of Educational Software: Critical Review and Prospects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tergan, Sigmar-Olaf

1998-01-01

Reviews strengths and weaknesses of check lists for the evaluation of computer software and outlines consequences for their practical application. Suggests an approach based on an instructional design model and a comprehensive framework to cope with problems of validity and predictive power of software evaluation. Discusses prospects of the…

User Studies: Developing Learning Strategy Tool Software for Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Gail E.; Koury, Kevin A.; Peng, Hsinyi

This paper is a report of user studies for developing learning strategy tool software for children. The prototype software demonstrated is designed for children with learning and behavioral disabilities. The tools consist of easy-to-use templates for creating organizational, memory, and learning approach guides for use in classrooms and at home.…

Application Development Methodology Appropriateness: An Exploratory Case Study Bridging the Gap between Framework Characteristics and Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Lawrence H., Jr.

2013-01-01

This qualitative study analyzed experiences of twenty software developers. The research showed that all software development methodologies are distinct from each other. While some, such as waterfall, focus on traditional, plan-driven approaches that allow software requirements and design to evolve; others facilitate ambiguity and uncertainty by…

Semantic Service Matchmaking in the ATM Domain Considering Infrastructure Capability Constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moser, Thomas; Mordinyi, Richard; Sunindyo, Wikan Danar; Biffl, Stefan

In a service-oriented environment business processes flexibly build on software services provided by systems in a network. A key design challenge is the semantic matchmaking of business processes and software services in two steps: 1. Find for one business process the software services that meet or exceed the BP requirements; 2. Find for all business processes the software services that can be implemented within the capability constraints of the underlying network, which poses a major problem since even for small scenarios the solution space is typically very large. In this chapter we analyze requirements from mission-critical business processes in the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain and introduce an approach for semi-automatic semantic matchmaking for software services, the “System-Wide Information Sharing” (SWIS) business process integration framework. A tool-supported semantic matchmaking process like SWIS can provide system designers and integrators with a set of promising software service candidates and therefore strongly reduces the human matching effort by focusing on a much smaller space of matchmaking candidates. We evaluate the feasibility of the SWIS approach in an industry use case from the ATM domain.

Mitigating Motion Base Safety Issues: The NASA LaRC CMF Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Richard B., Jr.; Grupton, Lawrence E.; Martinez, Debbie; Carrelli, David J.

2005-01-01

The NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), Cockpit Motion Facility (CMF) motion base design has taken advantage of inherent hydraulic characteristics to implement safety features using hardware solutions only. Motion system safety has always been a concern and its implementation is addressed differently by each organization. Some approaches rely heavily on software safety features. Software which performs safety functions is subject to more scrutiny making its approval, modification, and development time consuming and expensive. The NASA LaRC's CMF motion system is used for research and, as such, requires that the software be updated or modified frequently. The CMF's customers need the ability to update the simulation software frequently without the associated cost incurred with safety critical software. This paper describes the CMF engineering team's approach to achieving motion base safety by designing and implementing all safety features in hardware, resulting in applications software (including motion cueing and actuator dynamic control) being completely independent of the safety devices. This allows the CMF safety systems to remain intact and unaffected by frequent research system modifications.

One approach for evaluating the Distributed Computing Design System (DCDS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ellis, J. T.

1985-01-01

The Distributed Computer Design System (DCDS) provides an integrated environment to support the life cycle of developing real-time distributed computing systems. The primary focus of DCDS is to significantly increase system reliability and software development productivity, and to minimize schedule and cost risk. DCDS consists of integrated methodologies, languages, and tools to support the life cycle of developing distributed software and systems. Smooth and well-defined transistions from phase to phase, language to language, and tool to tool provide a unique and unified environment. An approach to evaluating DCDS highlights its benefits.

PopED lite: An optimal design software for preclinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies.

PubMed

Aoki, Yasunori; Sundqvist, Monika; Hooker, Andrew C; Gennemark, Peter

2016-04-01

Optimal experimental design approaches are seldom used in preclinical drug discovery. The objective is to develop an optimal design software tool specifically designed for preclinical applications in order to increase the efficiency of drug discovery in vivo studies. Several realistic experimental design case studies were collected and many preclinical experimental teams were consulted to determine the design goal of the software tool. The tool obtains an optimized experimental design by solving a constrained optimization problem, where each experimental design is evaluated using some function of the Fisher Information Matrix. The software was implemented in C++ using the Qt framework to assure a responsive user-software interaction through a rich graphical user interface, and at the same time, achieving the desired computational speed. In addition, a discrete global optimization algorithm was developed and implemented. The software design goals were simplicity, speed and intuition. Based on these design goals, we have developed the publicly available software PopED lite (http://www.bluetree.me/PopED_lite). Optimization computation was on average, over 14 test problems, 30 times faster in PopED lite compared to an already existing optimal design software tool. PopED lite is now used in real drug discovery projects and a few of these case studies are presented in this paper. PopED lite is designed to be simple, fast and intuitive. Simple, to give many users access to basic optimal design calculations. Fast, to fit a short design-execution cycle and allow interactive experimental design (test one design, discuss proposed design, test another design, etc). Intuitive, so that the input to and output from the software tool can easily be understood by users without knowledge of the theory of optimal design. In this way, PopED lite is highly useful in practice and complements existing tools. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Earth Science Markup Language: Transitioning From Design to Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moe, Karen; Graves, Sara; Ramachandran, Rahul

2002-01-01

The primary objective of the proposed Earth Science Markup Language (ESML) research is to transition from design to application. The resulting schema and prototype software will foster community acceptance for the "define once, use anywhere" concept central to ESML. Supporting goals include: 1. Refinement of the ESML schema and software libraries in cooperation with the user community. 2. Application of the ESML schema and software libraries to a variety of Earth science data sets and analysis tools. 3. Development of supporting prototype software for enhanced ease of use. 4. Cooperation with standards bodies in order to assure ESML is aligned with related metadata standards as appropriate. 5. Widespread publication of the ESML approach, schema, and software.

Design of the on-board application software for the instrument control unit of Euclid-NISP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ligori, Sebastiano; Corcione, Leonardo; Capobianco, Vito; Valenziano, Luca

2014-08-01

In this paper we describe the main requirements driving the development of the Application software of the ICU of NISP, the Near-Infrared Spectro-Photometer of the Euclid mission. This software will be based on a real-time operating system and will interface with all the subunits of NISP, as well as the CMDU of the spacecraft for the Telecommand and Housekeeping management. We briefly detail the services (following the PUS standard) that will be made available, and also possible commonalities in the approach with the ASW of the VIS CDPU, which could make the development effort more efficient; this approach could also make easier the maintenance of the SW during the mission. The development plan of the ASW and the next milestones foreseen are described, together with the architectural design approach and the development environment we are setting up.

Object oriented development of engineering software using CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yoon, C. John

1991-01-01

Engineering applications involve numeric complexity and manipulations of a large amount of data. Traditionally, numeric computation has been the concern in developing an engineering software. As engineering application software became larger and more complex, management of resources such as data, rather than the numeric complexity, has become the major software design problem. Object oriented design and implementation methodologies can improve the reliability, flexibility, and maintainability of the resulting software; however, some tasks are better solved with the traditional procedural paradigm. The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), with deffunction and defgeneric constructs, supports the procedural paradigm. The natural blending of object oriented and procedural paradigms has been cited as the reason for the popularity of the C++ language. The CLIPS Object Oriented Language's (COOL) object oriented features are more versatile than C++'s. A software design methodology based on object oriented and procedural approaches appropriate for engineering software, and to be implemented in CLIPS was outlined. A method for sensor placement for Space Station Freedom is being implemented in COOL as a sample problem.

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agresti, W. W.; Evanco, W. M.; Smith, M. C.

1990-01-01

Early experiences building a software quality prediction model are discussed. The overall research objective is to establish a capability to project a software system's quality from an analysis of its design. The technical approach is to build multivariate models for estimating reliability and maintainability. Data from 21 Ada subsystems were analyzed to test hypotheses about various design structures leading to failure-prone or unmaintainable systems. Current design variables highlight the interconnectivity and visibility of compilation units. Other model variables provide for the effects of reusability and software changes. Reported results are preliminary because additional project data is being obtained and new hypotheses are being developed and tested. Current multivariate regression models are encouraging, explaining 60 to 80 percent of the variation in error density of the subsystems.

System Re-engineering Project Executive Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-11-01

Management Information System (STAMIS) application. This project involved reverse engineering, evaluation of structured design and object-oriented design, and re- implementation of the system in Ada. This executive summary presents the approach to re-engineering the system, the lessons learned while going through the process, and issues to be considered in future tasks of this nature.... Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE), Distributed Software, Ada, COBOL, Systems Analysis, Systems Design, Life Cycle Development, Functional Decomposition, Object-Oriented

Engineering specification and system design for CAD/CAM of custom shoes: UMC project effort

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bao, Han P.

1991-01-01

The goal of this project is to supplement the footwear design system of North Carolina State University (NCSU) with a software module to design and manufacture a combination sole. The four areas of concentration were: customization of NASCAD (NASA Computer Aided Design) to the footwear project; use of CENCIT data; computer aided manufacturing activities; and beginning work for the bottom elements of shoes. The task of generating a software module for producing a sole was completed with a demonstrated product realization. The software written in C was delivered to NCSU for inclusion in their design system for custom footwear known as LASTMOD. The machining process of the shoe last was improved using a spiral tool path approach.

Overview and Software Architecture of the Copernicus Trajectory Design and Optimization System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Jacob; Senent, Juan S.; Ocampo, Cesar; Mathur, Ravi; Davis, Elizabeth C.

2010-01-01

The Copernicus Trajectory Design and Optimization System represents an innovative and comprehensive approach to on-orbit mission design, trajectory analysis and optimization. Copernicus integrates state of the art algorithms in optimization, interactive visualization, spacecraft state propagation, and data input-output interfaces, allowing the analyst to design spacecraft missions to all possible Solar System destinations. All of these features are incorporated within a single architecture that can be used interactively via a comprehensive GUI interface, or passively via external interfaces that execute batch processes. This paper describes the Copernicus software architecture together with the challenges associated with its implementation. Additionally, future development and planned new capabilities are discussed. Key words: Copernicus, Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization Software.

ALFA: The new ALICE-FAIR software framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Turany, M.; Buncic, P.; Hristov, P.; Kollegger, T.; Kouzinopoulos, C.; Lebedev, A.; Lindenstruth, V.; Manafov, A.; Richter, M.; Rybalchenko, A.; Vande Vyvre, P.; Winckler, N.

2015-12-01

The commonalities between the ALICE and FAIR experiments and their computing requirements led to the development of large parts of a common software framework in an experiment independent way. The FairRoot project has already shown the feasibility of such an approach for the FAIR experiments and extending it beyond FAIR to experiments at other facilities[1, 2]. The ALFA framework is a joint development between ALICE Online- Offline (O2) and FairRoot teams. ALFA is designed as a flexible, elastic system, which balances reliability and ease of development with performance using multi-processing and multithreading. A message- based approach has been adopted; such an approach will support the use of the software on different hardware platforms, including heterogeneous systems. Each process in ALFA assumes limited communication and reliance on other processes. Such a design will add horizontal scaling (multiple processes) to vertical scaling provided by multiple threads to meet computing and throughput demands. ALFA does not dictate any application protocols. Potentially, any content-based processor or any source can change the application protocol. The framework supports different serialization standards for data exchange between different hardware and software languages.

DbMap: improving database interoperability issues in medical software using a simple, Java-Xml based solution.

PubMed Central

Karadimas, H.; Hemery, F.; Roland, P.; Lepage, E.

2000-01-01

In medical software development, the use of databases plays a central role. However, most of the databases have heterogeneous encoding and data models. To deal with these variations in the application code directly is error-prone and reduces the potential reuse of the produced software. Several approaches to overcome these limitations have been proposed in the medical database literature, which will be presented. We present a simple solution, based on a Java library, and a central Metadata description file in XML. This development approach presents several benefits in software design and development cycles, the main one being the simplicity in maintenance. PMID:11079915

Automated Construction of Node Software Using Attributes in a Ubiquitous Sensor Network Environment

PubMed Central

Lee, Woojin; Kim, Juil; Kang, JangMook

2010-01-01

In sensor networks, nodes must often operate in a demanding environment facing restrictions such as restricted computing resources, unreliable wireless communication and power shortages. Such factors make the development of ubiquitous sensor network (USN) applications challenging. To help developers construct a large amount of node software for sensor network applications easily and rapidly, this paper proposes an approach to the automated construction of node software for USN applications using attributes. In the proposed technique, application construction proceeds by first developing a model for the sensor network and then designing node software by setting the values of the predefined attributes. After that, the sensor network model and the design of node software are verified. The final source codes of the node software are automatically generated from the sensor network model. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed technique by using a gas/light monitoring application through a case study of a Gas and Light Monitoring System based on the Nano-Qplus operating system. We evaluate the technique using a quantitative metric—the memory size of execution code for node software. Using the proposed approach, developers are able to easily construct sensor network applications and rapidly generate a large number of node softwares at a time in a ubiquitous sensor network environment. PMID:22163678

Automated construction of node software using attributes in a ubiquitous sensor network environment.

PubMed

Lee, Woojin; Kim, Juil; Kang, JangMook

2010-01-01

In sensor networks, nodes must often operate in a demanding environment facing restrictions such as restricted computing resources, unreliable wireless communication and power shortages. Such factors make the development of ubiquitous sensor network (USN) applications challenging. To help developers construct a large amount of node software for sensor network applications easily and rapidly, this paper proposes an approach to the automated construction of node software for USN applications using attributes. In the proposed technique, application construction proceeds by first developing a model for the sensor network and then designing node software by setting the values of the predefined attributes. After that, the sensor network model and the design of node software are verified. The final source codes of the node software are automatically generated from the sensor network model. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed technique by using a gas/light monitoring application through a case study of a Gas and Light Monitoring System based on the Nano-Qplus operating system. We evaluate the technique using a quantitative metric-the memory size of execution code for node software. Using the proposed approach, developers are able to easily construct sensor network applications and rapidly generate a large number of node softwares at a time in a ubiquitous sensor network environment.

Demonstration of a software design and statistical analysis methodology with application to patient outcomes data sets

PubMed Central

Mayo, Charles; Conners, Steve; Warren, Christopher; Miller, Robert; Court, Laurence; Popple, Richard

2013-01-01

Purpose: With emergence of clinical outcomes databases as tools utilized routinely within institutions, comes need for software tools to support automated statistical analysis of these large data sets and intrainstitutional exchange from independent federated databases to support data pooling. In this paper, the authors present a design approach and analysis methodology that addresses both issues. Methods: A software application was constructed to automate analysis of patient outcomes data using a wide range of statistical metrics, by combining use of C#.Net and R code. The accuracy and speed of the code was evaluated using benchmark data sets. Results: The approach provides data needed to evaluate combinations of statistical measurements for ability to identify patterns of interest in the data. Through application of the tools to a benchmark data set for dose-response threshold and to SBRT lung data sets, an algorithm was developed that uses receiver operator characteristic curves to identify a threshold value and combines use of contingency tables, Fisher exact tests, Welch t-tests, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests to filter the large data set to identify values demonstrating dose-response. Kullback-Leibler divergences were used to provide additional confirmation. Conclusions: The work demonstrates the viability of the design approach and the software tool for analysis of large data sets. PMID:24320426

Demonstration of a software design and statistical analysis methodology with application to patient outcomes data sets.

PubMed

Mayo, Charles; Conners, Steve; Warren, Christopher; Miller, Robert; Court, Laurence; Popple, Richard

2013-11-01

With emergence of clinical outcomes databases as tools utilized routinely within institutions, comes need for software tools to support automated statistical analysis of these large data sets and intrainstitutional exchange from independent federated databases to support data pooling. In this paper, the authors present a design approach and analysis methodology that addresses both issues. A software application was constructed to automate analysis of patient outcomes data using a wide range of statistical metrics, by combining use of C#.Net and R code. The accuracy and speed of the code was evaluated using benchmark data sets. The approach provides data needed to evaluate combinations of statistical measurements for ability to identify patterns of interest in the data. Through application of the tools to a benchmark data set for dose-response threshold and to SBRT lung data sets, an algorithm was developed that uses receiver operator characteristic curves to identify a threshold value and combines use of contingency tables, Fisher exact tests, Welch t-tests, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests to filter the large data set to identify values demonstrating dose-response. Kullback-Leibler divergences were used to provide additional confirmation. The work demonstrates the viability of the design approach and the software tool for analysis of large data sets.

Design for dependability: A simulation-based approach. Ph.D. Thesis, 1993

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goswami, Kumar K.

1994-01-01

This research addresses issues in simulation-based system level dependability analysis of fault-tolerant computer systems. The issues and difficulties of providing a general simulation-based approach for system level analysis are discussed and a methodology that address and tackle these issues is presented. The proposed methodology is designed to permit the study of a wide variety of architectures under various fault conditions. It permits detailed functional modeling of architectural features such as sparing policies, repair schemes, routing algorithms as well as other fault-tolerant mechanisms, and it allows the execution of actual application software. One key benefit of this approach is that the behavior of a system under faults does not have to be pre-defined as it is normally done. Instead, a system can be simulated in detail and injected with faults to determine its failure modes. The thesis describes how object-oriented design is used to incorporate this methodology into a general purpose design and fault injection package called DEPEND. A software model is presented that uses abstractions of application programs to study the behavior and effect of software on hardware faults in the early design stage when actual code is not available. Finally, an acceleration technique that combines hierarchical simulation, time acceleration algorithms and hybrid simulation to reduce simulation time is introduced.

Cobalt: A GPU-based correlator and beamformer for LOFAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Broekema, P. Chris; Mol, J. Jan David; Nijboer, R.; van Amesfoort, A. S.; Brentjens, M. A.; Loose, G. Marcel; Klijn, W. F. A.; Romein, J. W.

2018-04-01

For low-frequency radio astronomy, software correlation and beamforming on general purpose hardware is a viable alternative to custom designed hardware. LOFAR, a new-generation radio telescope centered in the Netherlands with international stations in Germany, France, Ireland, Poland, Sweden and the UK, has successfully used software real-time processors based on IBM Blue Gene technology since 2004. Since then, developments in technology have allowed us to build a system based on commercial off-the-shelf components that combines the same capabilities with lower operational cost. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a GPU-based correlator and beamformer with the same capabilities as the Blue Gene based systems. We focus on the design approach taken, and show the challenges faced in selecting an appropriate system. The design, implementation and verification of the software system show the value of a modern test-driven development approach. Operational experience, based on three years of operations, demonstrates that a general purpose system is a good alternative to the previous supercomputer-based system or custom-designed hardware.

An approach to integrating and creating flexible software environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bellman, Kirstie L.

1992-01-01

Engineers and scientists are attempting to represent, analyze, and reason about increasingly complex systems. Many researchers have been developing new ways of creating increasingly open environments. In this research on VEHICLES, a conceptual design environment for space systems, an approach was developed, called 'wrapping', to flexibility and integration based on the collection and then processing of explicit qualitative descriptions of all the software resources in the environment. Currently, a simulation is available, VSIM, used to study both the types of wrapping descriptions and the processes necessary to use the metaknowledge to combine, select, adapt, and explain some of the software resources used in VEHICLES. What was learned about the types of knowledge necessary for the wrapping approach is described along with the implications of wrapping for several key software engineering issues.

Conceptual Design of Environmentally Friendly Rotorcraft - A Comparison of NASA and ONERA Approaches

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Russell, Carl; Basset, Pierre-Marie

2015-01-01

In 2011, a task was initiated under the US-French Project Agreement on rotorcraft studies to collaborate on design methodologies for environmentally friendly rotorcraft. This paper summarizes the efforts of that collaboration. The French and US aerospace agencies, ONERA and NASA, have their own software toolsets and approaches to rotorcraft design. The first step of this research effort was to understand how rotorcraft impact the environment, with the initial focus on air pollution. Second, similar baseline helicopters were developed for a passenger transport mission, using NASA and ONERA rotorcraft design software tools. Comparisons were made between the designs generated by the two tools. Finally, rotorcraft designs were generated targeting reduced environmental impact. The results show that a rotorcraft design that targets reduced environmental impact can be significantly different than one that targets traditional cost drivers, such as fuel burn and empty weight.

MATTS- A Step Towards Model Based Testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herpel, H.-J.; Willich, G.; Li, J.; Xie, J.; Johansen, B.; Kvinnesland, K.; Krueger, S.; Barrios, P.

2016-08-01

In this paper we describe a Model Based approach to testing of on-board software and compare it with traditional validation strategy currently applied to satellite software. The major problems that software engineering will face over at least the next two decades are increasing application complexity driven by the need for autonomy and serious application robustness. In other words, how do we actually get to declare success when trying to build applications one or two orders of magnitude more complex than today's applications. To solve the problems addressed above the software engineering process has to be improved at least for two aspects: 1) Software design and 2) Software testing. The software design process has to evolve towards model-based approaches with extensive use of code generators. Today, testing is an essential, but time and resource consuming activity in the software development process. Generating a short, but effective test suite usually requires a lot of manual work and expert knowledge. In a model-based process, among other subtasks, test construction and test execution can also be partially automated. The basic idea behind the presented study was to start from a formal model (e.g. State Machines), generate abstract test cases which are then converted to concrete executable test cases (input and expected output pairs). The generated concrete test cases were applied to an on-board software. Results were collected and evaluated wrt. applicability, cost-efficiency, effectiveness at fault finding, and scalability.

Detailed design and first tests of the application software for the instrument control unit of Euclid-NISP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ligori, S.; Corcione, L.; Capobianco, V.; Bonino, D.; Sirri, G.; Fornari, F.; Giacomini, F.; Patrizii, L.; Valenziano, L.; Travaglini, R.; Colodro, C.; Bortoletto, F.; Bonoli, C.; Chiarusi, T.; Margiotta, A.; Mauri, N.; Pasqualini, L.; Spurio, M.; Tenti, M.; Dal Corso, F.; Dusini, S.; Laudisio, F.; Sirignano, C.; Stanco, L.; Ventura, S.; Auricchio, N.; Balestra, A.; Franceschi, E.; Morgante, G.; Trifoglio, M.; Medinaceli, E.; Guizzo, G. P.; Debei, S.; Stephen, J. B.

2016-07-01

In this paper we describe the detailed design of the application software (ASW) of the instrument control unit (ICU) of NISP, the Near-Infrared Spectro-Photometer of the Euclid mission. This software is based on a real-time operating system (RTEMS) and will interface with all the subunits of NISP, as well as the command and data management unit (CDMU) of the spacecraft for telecommand and housekeeping management. We briefly review the main requirements driving the design and the architecture of the software that is approaching the Critical Design Review level. The interaction with the data processing unit (DPU), which is the intelligent subunit controlling the detector system, is described in detail, as well as the concept for the implementation of the failure detection, isolation and recovery (FDIR) algorithms. The first version of the software is under development on a Breadboard model produced by AIRBUS/CRISA. We describe the results of the tests and the main performances and budgets.

3D graphics hardware accelerator programming methods for real-time visualization systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Souetov, Andrew E.

2001-02-01

The paper deals with new approaches in software design for creating real-time applications that use modern graphics acceleration hardware. The growing complexity of such type of software compels programmers to use different types of CASE systems in design and development process. The subject under discussion is integration of such systems in a development process, their effective use, and the combination of these new methods with the necessity to produce optimal codes. A method of simulation integration and modeling tools in real-time software development cycle is described.

3D graphics hardware accelerator programming methods for real-time visualization systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Souetov, Andrew E.

2000-02-01

The paper deals with new approaches in software design for creating real-time applications that use modern graphics acceleration hardware. The growing complexity of such type of software compels programmers to use different types of CASE systems in design and development process. The subject under discussion is integration of such systems in a development process, their effective use, and the combination of these new methods with the necessity to produce optimal codes. A method of simulation integration and modeling tools in real-time software development cycle is described.

Software architecture of INO340 telescope control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ravanmehr, Reza; Khosroshahi, Habib

2016-08-01

The software architecture plays an important role in distributed control system of astronomical projects because many subsystems and components must work together in a consistent and reliable way. We have utilized a customized architecture design approach based on "4+1 view model" in order to design INOCS software architecture. In this paper, after reviewing the top level INOCS architecture, we present the software architecture model of INOCS inspired by "4+1 model", for this purpose we provide logical, process, development, physical, and scenario views of our architecture using different UML diagrams and other illustrative visual charts. Each view presents INOCS software architecture from a different perspective. We finish the paper by science data operation of INO340 and the concluding remarks.

CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Volume 18, Number 11

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-11-01

languages. Our discipline of software engineering has really experienced phenomenal growth right before our eyes. A sign that software design has...approach on a high level of abstraction. The main emphasis is on the identification and allocation of a needed functionality (e.g., a target tracker ), rather...messaging software that is the backbone of teenage culture. As increasing security constraints will increase the cost of developing and main- taining any

Description of research interests and current work related to automating software design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaindl, Hermann

1992-01-01

Enclosed is a list of selected and recent publications. Most of these publications concern applied research in the areas of software engineering and human-computer interaction. It is felt that domain-specific knowledge plays a major role in software development. Additionally, it is believed that improvements in the general software development process (e.g., object-oriented approaches) will have to be combined with the use of large domain-specific knowledge bases.

MYRaf: A new Approach with IRAF for Astronomical Photometric Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kilic, Y.; Shameoni Niaei, M.; Özeren, F. F.; Yesilyaprak, C.

2016-12-01

In this study, the design and some developments of MYRaf software for astronomical photometric reduction are presented. MYRaf software is an easy to use, reliable, and has a fast IRAF aperture photometry GUI tools. MYRaf software is an important step for the automated software process of robotic telescopes, and uses IRAF, PyRAF, matplotlib, ginga, alipy, and Sextractor with the general-purpose and high-level programming language Python and uses the QT framework.

The Nebula Standard Computer Architecture,

DTIC Science & Technology

good target for high level languages, the designers also adopted a visibility approach in architecture design that provides more freedom for the hardware implementor while still maintaining software portability. (Author)

A Core Plug and Play Architecture for Reusable Flight Software Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilmot, Jonathan

2006-01-01

The Flight Software Branch, at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), has been working on a run-time approach to facilitate a formal software reuse process. The reuse process is designed to enable rapid development and integration of high-quality software systems and to more accurately predict development costs and schedule. Previous reuse practices have been somewhat successful when the same teams are moved from project to project. But this typically requires taking the software system in an all-or-nothing approach where useful components cannot be easily extracted from the whole. As a result, the system is less flexible and scalable with limited applicability to new projects. This paper will focus on the rationale behind, and implementation of the run-time executive. This executive is the core for the component-based flight software commonality and reuse process adopted at Goddard.

Digital adaptive controllers for VTOL vehicles. Volume 2: Software documentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartmann, G. L.; Stein, G.; Pratt, S. G.

1979-01-01

The VTOL approach and landing test (VALT) adaptive software is documented. Two self-adaptive algorithms, one based on an implicit model reference design and the other on an explicit parameter estimation technique were evaluated. The organization of the software, user options, and a nominal set of input data are presented along with a flow chart and program listing of each algorithm.

LEGOS: Object-based software components for mission-critical systems. Final report, June 1, 1995--December 31, 1997

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1998-08-01

An estimated 85% of the installed base of software is a custom application with a production quantity of one. In practice, almost 100% of military software systems are custom software. Paradoxically, the marginal costs of producing additional units are near zero. So why hasn`t the software market, a market with high design costs and low productions costs evolved like other similar custom widget industries, such as automobiles and hardware chips? The military software industry seems immune to market pressures that have motivated a multilevel supply chain structure in other widget industries: design cost recovery, improve quality through specialization, and enablemore » rapid assembly from purchased components. The primary goal of the ComponentWare Consortium (CWC) technology plan was to overcome barriers to building and deploying mission-critical information systems by using verified, reusable software components (Component Ware). The adoption of the ComponentWare infrastructure is predicated upon a critical mass of the leading platform vendors` inevitable adoption of adopting emerging, object-based, distributed computing frameworks--initially CORBA and COM/OLE. The long-range goal of this work is to build and deploy military systems from verified reusable architectures. The promise of component-based applications is to enable developers to snap together new applications by mixing and matching prefabricated software components. A key result of this effort is the concept of reusable software architectures. A second important contribution is the notion that a software architecture is something that can be captured in a formal language and reused across multiple applications. The formalization and reuse of software architectures provide major cost and schedule improvements. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is fast becoming the industry standard for object-oriented analysis and design notation for object-based systems. However, the lack of a standard real-time distributed object operating system, lack of a standard Computer-Aided Software Environment (CASE) tool notation and lack of a standard CASE tool repository has limited the realization of component software. The approach to fulfilling this need is the software component factory innovation. The factory approach takes advantage of emerging standards such as UML, CORBA, Java and the Internet. The key technical innovation of the software component factory is the ability to assemble and test new system configurations as well as assemble new tools on demand from existing tools and architecture design repositories.« less

Reducing the complexity of the software design process with object-oriented design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schuler, M. P.

1991-01-01

Designing software is a complex process. How object-oriented design (OOD), coupled with formalized documentation and tailored object diagraming techniques, can reduce the complexity of the software design process is described and illustrated. The described OOD methodology uses a hierarchical decomposition approach in which parent objects are decomposed into layers of lower level child objects. A method of tracking the assignment of requirements to design components is also included. Increases in the reusability, portability, and maintainability of the resulting products are also discussed. This method was built on a combination of existing technology, teaching experience, consulting experience, and feedback from design method users. The discussed concepts are applicable to hierarchal OOD processes in general. Emphasis is placed on improving the design process by documenting the details of the procedures involved and incorporating improvements into those procedures as they are developed.

Multiobjective optimization of hybrid regenerative life support technologies. Topic D: Technology Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manousiouthakis, Vasilios

1995-01-01

We developed simple mathematical models for many of the technologies constituting the water reclamation system in a space station. These models were employed for subsystem optimization and for the evaluation of the performance of individual water reclamation technologies, by quantifying their operational 'cost' as a linear function of weight, volume, and power consumption. Then we performed preliminary investigations on the performance improvements attainable by simple hybrid systems involving parallel combinations of technologies. We are developing a software tool for synthesizing a hybrid water recovery system (WRS) for long term space missions. As conceptual framework, we are employing the state space approach. Given a number of available technologies and the mission specifications, the state space approach would help design flowsheets featuring optimal process configurations, including those that feature stream connections in parallel, series, or recycles. We visualize this software tool to function as follows: given the mission duration, the crew size, water quality specifications, and the cost coefficients, the software will synthesize a water recovery system for the space station. It should require minimal user intervention. The following tasks need to be solved for achieving this goal: (1) formulate a problem statement that will be used to evaluate the advantages of a hybrid WRS over a single technology WBS; (2) model several WRS technologies that can be employed in the space station; (3) propose a recycling network design methodology (since the WRS synthesis task is a recycling network design problem, it is essential to employ a systematic method in synthesizing this network); (4) develop a software implementation for this design methodology, design a hybrid system using this software, and compare the resulting WRS with a base-case WRS; and (5) create a user-friendly interface for this software tool.

User-centered design of multi-gene sequencing panel reports for clinicians.

PubMed

Cutting, Elizabeth; Banchero, Meghan; Beitelshees, Amber L; Cimino, James J; Fiol, Guilherme Del; Gurses, Ayse P; Hoffman, Mark A; Jeng, Linda Jo Bone; Kawamoto, Kensaku; Kelemen, Mark; Pincus, Harold Alan; Shuldiner, Alan R; Williams, Marc S; Pollin, Toni I; Overby, Casey Lynnette

2016-10-01

The objective of this study was to develop a high-fidelity prototype for delivering multi-gene sequencing panel (GS) reports to clinicians that simulates the user experience of a final application. The delivery and use of GS reports can occur within complex and high-paced healthcare environments. We employ a user-centered software design approach in a focus group setting in order to facilitate gathering rich contextual information from a diverse group of stakeholders potentially impacted by the delivery of GS reports relevant to two precision medicine programs at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Responses from focus group sessions were transcribed, coded and analyzed by two team members. Notification mechanisms and information resources preferred by participants from our first phase of focus groups were incorporated into scenarios and the design of a software prototype for delivering GS reports. The goal of our second phase of focus group, to gain input on the prototype software design, was accomplished through conducting task walkthroughs with GS reporting scenarios. Preferences for notification, content and consultation from genetics specialists appeared to depend upon familiarity with scenarios for ordering and delivering GS reports. Despite familiarity with some aspects of the scenarios we proposed, many of our participants agreed that they would likely seek consultation from a genetics specialist after viewing the test reports. In addition, participants offered design and content recommendations. Findings illustrated a need to support customized notification approaches, user-specific information, and access to genetics specialists with GS reports. These design principles can be incorporated into software applications that deliver GS reports. Our user-centered approach to conduct this assessment and the specific input we received from clinicians may also be relevant to others working on similar projects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adapting Rational Unified Process (RUP) approach in designing a secure e-Tendering model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohd, Haslina; Robie, Muhammad Afdhal Muhammad; Baharom, Fauziah; Darus, Norida Muhd; Saip, Mohamed Ali; Yasin, Azman

2016-08-01

e-Tendering is an electronic processing of the tender document via internet and allow tenderer to publish, communicate, access, receive and submit all tender related information and documentation via internet. This study aims to design the e-Tendering system using Rational Unified Process approach. RUP provides a disciplined approach on how to assign tasks and responsibilities within the software development process. RUP has four phases that can assist researchers to adjust the requirements of various projects with different scope, problem and the size of projects. RUP is characterized as a use case driven, architecture centered, iterative and incremental process model. However the scope of this study only focusing on Inception and Elaboration phases as step to develop the model and perform only three of nine workflows (business modeling, requirements, analysis and design). RUP has a strong focus on documents and the activities in the inception and elaboration phases mainly concern the creation of diagrams and writing of textual descriptions. The UML notation and the software program, Star UML are used to support the design of e-Tendering. The e-Tendering design based on the RUP approach can contribute to e-Tendering developers and researchers in e-Tendering domain. In addition, this study also shows that the RUP is one of the best system development methodology that can be used as one of the research methodology in Software Engineering domain related to secured design of any observed application. This methodology has been tested in various studies in certain domains, such as in Simulation-based Decision Support, Security Requirement Engineering, Business Modeling and Secure System Requirement, and so forth. As a conclusion, these studies showed that the RUP one of a good research methodology that can be adapted in any Software Engineering (SE) research domain that required a few artifacts to be generated such as use case modeling, misuse case modeling, activity diagram, and initial class diagram from a list of requirements as identified earlier by the SE researchers

Investigation into the development of computer aided design software for space based sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pender, C. W.; Clark, W. L.

1987-01-01

The described effort is phase one of the development of a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to be used to perform radiometric sensor design. The software package will be referred to as SCAD and is directed toward the preliminary phase of the design of space based sensor system. The approach being followed is to develop a modern, graphic intensive, user friendly software package using existing software as building blocks. The emphasis will be directed toward the development of a shell containing menus, smart defaults, and interfaces, which can accommodate a wide variety of existing application software packages. The shell will offer expected utilities such as graphics, tailored menus, and a variety of drivers for I/O devices. Following the development of the shell, the development of SCAD is planned as chiefly selection and integration of appropriate building blocks. The phase one development activities have included: the selection of hardware which will be used with SCAD; the determination of the scope of SCAD; the preliminary evaluation of a number of software packages for applicability to SCAD; determination of a method for achieving required capabilities where voids exist; and then establishing a strategy for binding the software modules into an easy to use tool kit.

DCL System Using Deep Learning Approaches for Land-based or Ship-based Real-Time Recognition and Localization of Marine Mammals

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-30

platform (HPC) was developed, called the HPC-Acoustic Data Accelerator, or HPC-ADA for short. The HPC-ADA was designed based on fielded systems [1-4...software (Detection cLassificaiton for MAchine learning - High Peformance Computing). The software package was designed to utilize parallel and...Sedna [7] and is designed using a parallel architecture2, allowing existing algorithms to distribute to the various processing nodes with minimal changes

A CAD approach to magnetic bearing design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jeyaseelan, M.; Anand, D. K.; Kirk, J. A.

1988-01-01

A design methodology has been developed at the Magnetic Bearing Research Laboratory for designing magnetic bearings using a CAD approach. This is used in the algorithm of an interactive design software package. The package is a design tool developed to enable the designer to simulate the entire process of design and analysis of the system. Its capabilities include interactive input/modification of geometry, finding any possible saturation at critical sections of the system, and the design and analysis of a control system that stabilizes and maintains magnetic suspension.

Flight software development for the isothermal dendritic growth experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levinson, Laurie H.; Winsa, Edward A.; Glicksman, Martin E.

1989-01-01

The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) is a microgravity materials science experiment scheduled to fly in the cargo bay of the shuttle on the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP) carrier. The experiment will be operated by real-time control software which will not only monitor and control onboard experiment hardware, but will also communicate, via downlink data and uplink commands, with the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) at NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The software development approach being used to implement this system began with software functional requirements specification. This was accomplished using the Yourdon/DeMarco methodology as supplemented by the Ward/Mellor real-time extensions. The requirements specification in combination with software prototyping was then used to generate a detailed design consisting of structure charts, module prologues, and Program Design Language (PDL) specifications. This detailed design will next be used to code the software, followed finally by testing against the functional requirements. The result will be a modular real-time control software system with traceability through every phase of the development process.

Flight software development for the isothermal dendritic growth experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levinson, Laurie H.; Winsa, Edward A.; Glicksman, M. E.

1990-01-01

The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) is a microgravity materials science experiment scheduled to fly in the cargo bay of the shuttle on the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP) carrier. The experiment will be operated by real-time control software which will not only monitor and control onboard experiment hardware, but will also communicate, via downlink data and unlink commands, with the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) at NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The software development approach being used to implement this system began with software functional requirements specification. This was accomplished using the Yourdon/DeMarco methodology as supplemented by the Ward/Mellor real-time extensions. The requirements specification in combination with software prototyping was then used to generate a detailed design consisting of structure charts, module prologues, and Program Design Language (PDL) specifications. This detailed design will next be used to code the software, followed finally by testing against the functional requirements. The result will be a modular real-time control software system with traceability through every phase of the development process.

Modeling a distributed environment for a petroleum reservoir engineering application with software product line

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Faria Scheidt, Rafael; Vilain, Patrícia; Dantas, M. A. R.

2014-10-01

Petroleum reservoir engineering is a complex and interesting field that requires large amount of computational facilities to achieve successful results. Usually, software environments for this field are developed without taking care out of possible interactions and extensibilities required by reservoir engineers. In this paper, we present a research work which it is characterized by the design and implementation based on a software product line model for a real distributed reservoir engineering environment. Experimental results indicate successfully the utilization of this approach for the design of distributed software architecture. In addition, all components from the proposal provided greater visibility of the organization and processes for the reservoir engineers.

Software for integrated manufacturing systems, part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Volz, R. A.; Naylor, A. W.

1987-01-01

Part 1 presented an overview of the unified approach to manufacturing software. The specific characteristics of the approach that allow it to realize the goals of reduced cost, increased reliability and increased flexibility are considered. Why the blending of a components view, distributed languages, generics and formal models is important, why each individual part of this approach is essential, and why each component will typically have each of these parts are examined. An example of a specification for a real material handling system is presented using the approach and compared with the standard interface specification given by the manufacturer. Use of the component in a distributed manufacturing system is then compared with use of the traditional specification with a more traditional approach to designing the system. An overview is also provided of the underlying mechanisms used for implementing distributed manufacturing systems using the unified software/hardware component approach.

Distilling Design Patterns From Agile Curation Case Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benedict, K. K.; Lenhardt, W. C.; Young, J. W.

2016-12-01

In previous work the authors have argued that there is a need to take a new look at the data management lifecycle. Our core argument is that the data management lifecycle needs to be in essence deconstructed and rebuilt. As part of this process we also argue that much can be gained from applying ideas, concepts, and principles from agile software development methods. To be sure we are not arguing for a rote application of these agile software approaches, however, given various trends related to data and technology, it is imperative to update our thinking about how to approach the data management lifecycle, recognize differing project scales, corresponding variations in structure, and alternative models for solving the problems of scientific data curation. In this paper we will describe what we term agile curation design patterns, borrowing the concept of design patterns from the software world and we will present some initial thoughts on agile curation design patterns as informed by a sample of data curation case studies solicited from participants in agile data curation meeting sessions conducted in 2015-16.

Bayesian Software Health Management for Aircraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schumann, Johann; Mbaya, Timmy; Menghoel, Ole

2011-01-01

Modern aircraft, both piloted fly-by-wire commercial aircraft as well as UAVs, more and more depend on highly complex safety critical software systems with many sensors and computer-controlled actuators. Despite careful design and V&V of the software, severe incidents have happened due to malfunctioning software. In this paper, we discuss the use of Bayesian networks (BNs) to monitor the health of the on-board software and sensor system, and to perform advanced on-board diagnostic reasoning. We will focus on the approach to develop reliable and robust health models for the combined software and sensor systems.

A data dictionary approach to multilingual documentation and decision support for the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain. (COPERNICUS 555, an European concerted action).

PubMed

Ohmann, C; Eich, H P; Sippel, H

1998-01-01

This paper describes the design and development of a multilingual documentation and decision support system for the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain. The work was performed within a multi-national COPERNICUS European concerted action dealing with information technology for quality assurance in acute abdominal pain in Europe (EURO-AAP, 555). The software engineering was based on object-oriented analysis design and programming. The program cover three modules: a data dictionary, a documentation program and a knowledge based system. National versions of the software were provided and introduced into 16 centers from Central and Eastern Europe. A prospective data collection was performed in which 4020 patients were recruited. The software design has been proven to be very efficient and useful for the development of multilingual software.

Statistical Approaches to Adjusting Weights for Dependent Arms in Network Meta-analysis.

PubMed

Su, Yu-Xuan; Tu, Yu-Kang

2018-05-22

Network meta-analysis compares multiple treatments in terms of their efficacy and harm by including evidence from randomized controlled trials. Most clinical trials use parallel design, where patients are randomly allocated to different treatments and receive only one treatment. However, some trials use within person designs such as split-body, split-mouth and cross-over designs, where each patient may receive more than one treatment. Data from treatment arms within these trials are no longer independent, so the correlations between dependent arms need to be accounted for within the statistical analyses. Ignoring these correlations may result in incorrect conclusions. The main objective of this study is to develop statistical approaches to adjusting weights for dependent arms within special design trials. In this study, we demonstrate the following three approaches: the data augmentation approach, the adjusting variance approach, and the reducing weight approach. These three methods could be perfectly applied in current statistic tools such as R and STATA. An example of periodontal regeneration was used to demonstrate how these approaches could be undertaken and implemented within statistical software packages, and to compare results from different approaches. The adjusting variance approach can be implemented within the network package in STATA, while reducing weight approach requires computer software programming to set up the within-study variance-covariance matrix. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Open Technology Approaches to Geospatial Interface Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crevensten, B.; Simmons, D.; Alaska Satellite Facility

2011-12-01

What problems do you not want your software developers to be solving? Choosing open technologies across the entire stack of software development-from low-level shared libraries to high-level user interaction implementations-is a way to help ensure that customized software yields innovative and valuable tools for Earth Scientists. This demonstration will review developments in web application technologies and the recurring patterns of interaction design regarding exploration and discovery of geospatial data through the Vertex: ASF's Dataportal interface, a project utilizing current open web application standards and technologies including HTML5, jQueryUI, Backbone.js and the Jasmine unit testing framework.

The Macintosh Based Design Studio.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Earle, Daniel W., Jr.

1988-01-01

Describes the configuration of a workstation for a college design studio based on the Macintosh Plus microcomputer. Highlights include cost estimates, computer hardware peripherals, computer aided design software, networked studios, and potentials for new approaches to design activity in the computer based studio of the future. (Author/LRW)

A case study : Chart II software upgrade, using a design competition to procure ITS software

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-03-01

This is one of a series of case studies that examine procurement approaches used to deliver Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) projects. The purpose of these reports is to provide examples of successful strategies that have been used to overcome...

Ada developers' supplement to the recommended approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kester, Rush; Landis, Linda

1993-01-01

This document is a collection of guidelines for programmers and managers who are responsible for the development of flight dynamics applications in Ada. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the Recommended Approach to Software Development (SEL-81-305), which describes the software development life cycle, its products, reviews, methods, tools, and measures. The Ada Developers' Supplement provides additional detail on such topics as reuse, object-oriented analysis, and object-oriented design.

Redesign and Rehost of the BIG STICK Nuclear Wargame Simulation

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

described by Pressman [16]. The 4GT soft- ware development approach consists of four iterative phases: the requirements gathering phase, the design strategy...2. BIG STICK Instructions and Planning Guidance. Air Command and Staff College, Air University, Maxwell AFB AL, 1987. Unpublished Manual. 3. Barry W...Software Engineering Notes, 7:29-32, April 1982. 81 17. Roger S. Pressman . Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach. Mc-Craw-llill Book

Large-scale structural optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.

1983-01-01

Problems encountered by aerospace designers in attempting to optimize whole aircraft are discussed, along with possible solutions. Large scale optimization, as opposed to component-by-component optimization, is hindered by computational costs, software inflexibility, concentration on a single, rather than trade-off, design methodology and the incompatibility of large-scale optimization with single program, single computer methods. The software problem can be approached by placing the full analysis outside of the optimization loop. Full analysis is then performed only periodically. Problem-dependent software can be removed from the generic code using a systems programming technique, and then embody the definitions of design variables, objective function and design constraints. Trade-off algorithms can be used at the design points to obtain quantitative answers. Finally, decomposing the large-scale problem into independent subproblems allows systematic optimization of the problems by an organization of people and machines.

Highly efficient simulation environment for HDTV video decoder in VLSI design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Xun; Wang, Wei; Gong, Huimin; He, Yan L.; Lou, Jian; Yu, Lu; Yao, Qingdong; Pirsch, Peter

2002-01-01

With the increase of the complex of VLSI such as the SoC (System on Chip) of MPEG-2 Video decoder with HDTV scalability especially, simulation and verification of the full design, even as high as the behavior level in HDL, often proves to be very slow, costly and it is difficult to perform full verification until late in the design process. Therefore, they become bottleneck of the procedure of HDTV video decoder design, and influence it's time-to-market mostly. In this paper, the architecture of Hardware/Software Interface of HDTV video decoder is studied, and a Hardware-Software Mixed Simulation (HSMS) platform is proposed to check and correct error in the early design stage, based on the algorithm of MPEG-2 video decoding. The application of HSMS to target system could be achieved by employing several introduced approaches. Those approaches speed up the simulation and verification task without decreasing performance.

Applications of Ontology Design Patterns in Biomedical Ontologies

PubMed Central

Mortensen, Jonathan M.; Horridge, Matthew; Musen, Mark A.; Noy, Natalya F.

2012-01-01

Ontology design patterns (ODPs) are a proposed solution to facilitate ontology development, and to help users avoid some of the most frequent modeling mistakes. ODPs originate from similar approaches in software engineering, where software design patterns have become a critical aspect of software development. There is little empirical evidence for ODP prevalence or effectiveness thus far. In this work, we determine the use and applicability of ODPs in a case study of biomedical ontologies. We encoded ontology design patterns from two ODP catalogs. We then searched for these patterns in a set of eight ontologies. We found five patterns of the 69 patterns. Two of the eight ontologies contained these patterns. While ontology design patterns provide a vehicle for capturing formally reoccurring models and best practices in ontology design, we show that today their use in a case study of widely used biomedical ontologies is limited. PMID:23304337

Formulation of consumables management models. Development approach for the mission planning processor working model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Connelly, L. C.

1977-01-01

The mission planning processor is a user oriented tool for consumables management and is part of the total consumables subsystem management concept. The approach to be used in developing a working model of the mission planning processor is documented. The approach includes top-down design, structured programming techniques, and application of NASA approved software development standards. This development approach: (1) promotes cost effective software development, (2) enhances the quality and reliability of the working model, (3) encourages the sharing of the working model through a standard approach, and (4) promotes portability of the working model to other computer systems.

Pointo - a Low Cost Solution to Point Cloud Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Houshiar, H.; Winkler, S.

2017-11-01

With advance in technology access to data especially 3D point cloud data becomes more and more an everyday task. 3D point clouds are usually captured with very expensive tools such as 3D laser scanners or very time consuming methods such as photogrammetry. Most of the available softwares for 3D point cloud processing are designed for experts and specialists in this field and are usually very large software packages containing variety of methods and tools. This results in softwares that are usually very expensive to acquire and also very difficult to use. Difficulty of use is caused by complicated user interfaces that is required to accommodate a large list of features. The aim of these complex softwares is to provide a powerful tool for a specific group of specialist. However they are not necessary required by the majority of the up coming average users of point clouds. In addition to complexity and high costs of these softwares they generally rely on expensive and modern hardware and only compatible with one specific operating system. Many point cloud customers are not point cloud processing experts or willing to spend the high acquisition costs of these expensive softwares and hardwares. In this paper we introduce a solution for low cost point cloud processing. Our approach is designed to accommodate the needs of the average point cloud user. To reduce the cost and complexity of software our approach focuses on one functionality at a time in contrast with most available softwares and tools that aim to solve as many problems as possible at the same time. Our simple and user oriented design improve the user experience and empower us to optimize our methods for creation of an efficient software. In this paper we introduce Pointo family as a series of connected softwares to provide easy to use tools with simple design for different point cloud processing requirements. PointoVIEWER and PointoCAD are introduced as the first components of the Pointo family to provide a fast and efficient visualization with the ability to add annotation and documentation to the point clouds.

AFOSR BRI: Co-Design of Hardware/Software for Predicting MAV Aerodynamics

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-27

DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 2. REPORT TYPE 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 7...703-588-8494 AFOSR BRI While Moore’s Law theoretically doubles processor performance every 24 months, much of the realizable performance remains...past efforts to develop such CFD codes on accelerated processors showed limited success, our hardware/software co-design approach created malleable

Model-based software design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iscoe, Neil; Liu, Zheng-Yang; Feng, Guohui; Yenne, Britt; Vansickle, Larry; Ballantyne, Michael

1992-01-01

Domain-specific knowledge is required to create specifications, generate code, and understand existing systems. Our approach to automating software design is based on instantiating an application domain model with industry-specific knowledge and then using that model to achieve the operational goals of specification elicitation and verification, reverse engineering, and code generation. Although many different specification models can be created from any particular domain model, each specification model is consistent and correct with respect to the domain model.

Preliminary design review package for the solar heating and cooling central data processing system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

The Central Data Processing System (CDPS) is designed to transform the raw data collected at remote sites into performance evaluation information for assessing the performance of solar heating and cooling systems. Software requirements for the CDPS are described. The programming standards to be used in development, documentation, and maintenance of the software are discussed along with the CDPS operations approach in support of daily data collection and processing.

Developing Engineering and Science Process Skills Using Design Software in an Elementary Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fusco, Christopher

This paper examines the development of process skills through an engineering design approach to instruction in an elementary lesson that combines Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The study took place with 25 fifth graders in a public, suburban school district. Students worked in groups of five to design and construct model bridges based on research involving bridge building design software. The assessment was framed around individual student success as well as overall group processing skills. These skills were assessed through an engineering design packet rubric (student work), student surveys of learning gains, observation field notes, and pre- and post-assessment data. The results indicate that students can successfully utilize design software to inform constructions of model bridges, develop science process skills through problem based learning, and understand academic concepts through a design project. The final result of this study shows that design engineering is effective for developing cooperative learning skills. The study suggests that an engineering program offered as an elective or as part of the mandatory curriculum could be beneficial for developing students' critical thinking, inter- and intra-personal skills, along with an increased their understanding and awareness for scientific phenomena. In conclusion, combining a design approach to instruction with STEM can increase efficiency in these areas, generate meaningful learning, and influence student attitudes throughout their education.

Software requirements flow-down and preliminary software design for the G-CLEF spectrograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Ian N.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; DePonte Evans, Janet; Miller, Joseph B.; Onyuksel, Cem; Paxson, Charles; Plummer, David A.

2016-08-01

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)-Consortium Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF) is a fiber-fed, precision radial velocity (PRV) optical echelle spectrograph that will be the first light instrument on the GMT. The G-CLEF instrument device control subsystem (IDCS) provides software control of the instrument hardware, including the active feedback loops that are required to meet the G-CLEF PRV stability requirements. The IDCS is also tasked with providing operational support packages that include data reduction pipelines and proposal preparation tools. A formal, but ultimately pragmatic approach is being used to establish a complete and correct set of requirements for both the G-CLEF device control and operational support packages. The device control packages must integrate tightly with the state-machine driven software and controls reference architecture designed by the GMT Organization. A model-based systems engineering methodology is being used to develop a preliminary design that meets these requirements. Through this process we have identified some lessons that have general applicability to the development of software for ground-based instrumentation. For example, tasking an individual with overall responsibility for science/software/hardware integration is a key step to ensuring effective integration between these elements. An operational concept document that includes detailed routine and non- routine operational sequences should be prepared in parallel with the hardware design process to tie together these elements and identify any gaps. Appropriate time-phasing of the hardware and software design phases is important, but revisions to driving requirements that impact software requirements and preliminary design are inevitable. Such revisions must be carefully managed to ensure efficient use of resources.

A Component Approach to Collaborative Scientific Software Development: Tools and Techniques Utilized by the Quantum Chemistry Science Application Partnership

DOE PAGES

Kenny, Joseph P.; Janssen, Curtis L.; Gordon, Mark S.; ...

2008-01-01

Cutting-edge scientific computing software is complex, increasingly involving the coupling of multiple packages to combine advanced algorithms or simulations at multiple physical scales. Component-based software engineering (CBSE) has been advanced as a technique for managing this complexity, and complex component applications have been created in the quantum chemistry domain, as well as several other simulation areas, using the component model advocated by the Common Component Architecture (CCA) Forum. While programming models do indeed enable sound software engineering practices, the selection of programming model is just one building block in a comprehensive approach to large-scale collaborative development which must also addressmore » interface and data standardization, and language and package interoperability. We provide an overview of the development approach utilized within the Quantum Chemistry Science Application Partnership, identifying design challenges, describing the techniques which we have adopted to address these challenges and highlighting the advantages which the CCA approach offers for collaborative development.« less

Analysis of a hardware and software fault tolerant processor for critical applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dugan, Joanne B.

1993-01-01

Computer systems for critical applications must be designed to tolerate software faults as well as hardware faults. A unified approach to tolerating hardware and software faults is characterized by classifying faults in terms of duration (transient or permanent) rather than source (hardware or software). Errors arising from transient faults can be handled through masking or voting, but errors arising from permanent faults require system reconfiguration to bypass the failed component. Most errors which are caused by software faults can be considered transient, in that they are input-dependent. Software faults are triggered by a particular set of inputs. Quantitative dependability analysis of systems which exhibit a unified approach to fault tolerance can be performed by a hierarchical combination of fault tree and Markov models. A methodology for analyzing hardware and software fault tolerant systems is applied to the analysis of a hypothetical system, loosely based on the Fault Tolerant Parallel Processor. The models consider both transient and permanent faults, hardware and software faults, independent and related software faults, automatic recovery, and reconfiguration.

TES: A modular systems approach to expert system development for real-time space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cacace, Ralph; England, Brenda

1988-01-01

A major goal of the Space Station era is to reduce reliance on support from ground based experts. The development of software programs using expert systems technology is one means of reaching this goal without requiring crew members to become intimately familiar with the many complex spacecraft subsystems. Development of an expert systems program requires a validation of the software with actual flight hardware. By combining accurate hardware and software modelling techniques with a modular systems approach to expert systems development, the validation of these software programs can be successfully completed with minimum risk and effort. The TIMES Expert System (TES) is an application that monitors and evaluates real time data to perform fault detection and fault isolation tasks as they would otherwise be carried out by a knowledgeable designer. The development process and primary features of TES, a modular systems approach, and the lessons learned are discussed.

Bootstrapping Methods Applied for Simulating Laboratory Works

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prodan, Augustin; Campean, Remus

2005-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this work is to implement bootstrapping methods into software tools, based on Java. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a category of software e-tools aimed at simulating laboratory works and experiments. Findings: Both students and teaching staff use traditional statistical methods to infer the truth from sample…

Computers as Teaching Tools: Some Examples and Guidelines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beins, Bernard C.

The use of computers in the classroom has been touted as an important innovation in education. This article features some recently developed software for use in teaching psychology and different approaches to classroom computer use. Uses of software packages for psychological research designs are included as are applications and limitations of…

Teacher Resistance to CALL.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastment, David

Despite the evolution of software for computer-assisted language learning (CALL), teacher resistance remains high. Early software for language instruction was almost exclusively designed for drill and practice. That approach was later replaced by a model in which the computer provided a stimulus for students, most often as a partner in games.…

Collaborative Approach in Software Engineering Education: An Interdisciplinary Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vicente, Aileen Joan; Tan, Tiffany Adelaine; Yu, Alvin Ray

2018-01-01

Aim/Purpose: This study was aimed at enhancing students' learning of software engineering methods. A collaboration between the Computer Science, Business Management, and Product Design programs was formed to work on actual projects with real clients. This interdisciplinary form of collaboration simulates the realities of a diverse Software…

Measuring and assessing maintainability at the end of high level design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Briand, Lionel C.; Morasca, Sandro; Basili, Victor R.

1993-01-01

Software architecture appears to be one of the main factors affecting software maintainability. Therefore, in order to be able to predict and assess maintainability early in the development process we need to be able to measure the high-level design characteristics that affect the change process. To this end, we propose a measurement approach, which is based on precise assumptions derived from the change process, which is based on Object-Oriented Design principles and is partially language independent. We define metrics for cohesion, coupling, and visibility in order to capture the difficulty of isolating, understanding, designing and validating changes.

Submarine pipeline on-bottom stability. Volume 2: Software and manuals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1998-12-01

The state-of-the-art in pipeline stability design has been changing very rapidly recent. The physics governing on-bottom stability are much better understood now than they were eight years. This is due largely because of research and large scale model tests sponsored by PRCI. Analysis tools utilizing this new knowledge have been developed. These tools provide the design engineer with a rational approach have been developed. These tools provide the design engineer with a rational approach for weight coating design, which he can use with confidence because the tools have been developed based on full scale and near full scale model tests.more » These tools represent the state-of-the-art in stability design and model the complex behavior of pipes subjected to both wave and current loads. These include: hydrodynamic forces which account for the effect of the wake (generated by flow over the pipe) washing back and forth over the pipe in oscillatory flow; and the embedment (digging) which occurs as a pipe resting on the seabed is exposed to oscillatory loadings and small oscillatory deflections. This report has been developed as a reference handbook for use in on-bottom pipeline stability analysis It consists of two volumes. Volume one is devoted descriptions of the various aspects of the problem: the pipeline design process; ocean physics, wave mechanics, hydrodynamic forces, and meteorological data determination; geotechnical data collection and soil mechanics; and stability design procedures. Volume two describes, lists, and illustrates the analysis software. Diskettes containing the software and examples of the software are also included in Volume two.« less

Toward domain-specific design environments: Some representation ideas from the telecommunications domain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenspan, Sol; Feblowitz, Mark

1992-01-01

ACME is an experimental environment for investigating new approaches to modeling and analysis of system requirements and designs. ACME is built on and extends object-oriented conceptual modeling techniques and knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR) tools. The most immediate intended use for ACME is to help represent, understand, and communicate system designs during the early stages of system planning and requirements engineering. While our research is ostensibly aimed at software systems in general, we are particularly motivated to make an impact in the telecommunications domain, especially in the area referred to as Intelligent Networks (IN's). IN systems contain the software to provide services to users of a telecommunications network (e.g., call processing services, information services, etc.) as well as the software that provides the internal infrastructure for providing the services (e.g., resource management, billing, etc.). The software includes not only systems developed by the network proprietors but also by a growing group of independent service software providers.

Dependability modeling and assessment in UML-based software development.

PubMed

Bernardi, Simona; Merseguer, José; Petriu, Dorina C

2012-01-01

Assessment of software nonfunctional properties (NFP) is an important problem in software development. In the context of model-driven development, an emerging approach for the analysis of different NFPs consists of the following steps: (a) to extend the software models with annotations describing the NFP of interest; (b) to transform automatically the annotated software model to the formalism chosen for NFP analysis; (c) to analyze the formal model using existing solvers; (d) to assess the software based on the results and give feedback to designers. Such a modeling→analysis→assessment approach can be applied to any software modeling language, be it general purpose or domain specific. In this paper, we focus on UML-based development and on the dependability NFP, which encompasses reliability, availability, safety, integrity, and maintainability. The paper presents the profile used to extend UML with dependability information, the model transformation to generate a DSPN formal model, and the assessment of the system properties based on the DSPN results.

Dependability Modeling and Assessment in UML-Based Software Development

PubMed Central

Bernardi, Simona; Merseguer, José; Petriu, Dorina C.

2012-01-01

Assessment of software nonfunctional properties (NFP) is an important problem in software development. In the context of model-driven development, an emerging approach for the analysis of different NFPs consists of the following steps: (a) to extend the software models with annotations describing the NFP of interest; (b) to transform automatically the annotated software model to the formalism chosen for NFP analysis; (c) to analyze the formal model using existing solvers; (d) to assess the software based on the results and give feedback to designers. Such a modeling→analysis→assessment approach can be applied to any software modeling language, be it general purpose or domain specific. In this paper, we focus on UML-based development and on the dependability NFP, which encompasses reliability, availability, safety, integrity, and maintainability. The paper presents the profile used to extend UML with dependability information, the model transformation to generate a DSPN formal model, and the assessment of the system properties based on the DSPN results. PMID:22988428

Data and Analysis Center for Software.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-06-01

can make use of it in their day- to -day activities of developing, maintaining, and managing software. The biblio- graphic collection is composed of...which refer to development, design, or programming approaches whicn view a software system component, or module in terms of its required or intended... practices " are also included In this group. PROCEDURES (I keyword) Procedures is a term used ambiguously in the literature to refer to functions

Development of a Communications Front End Processor (FEP) for the VAX-11/780 Using an LSI-11/23.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

9 Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Software Development Life Cycle . . . . . . . 11 Requirements Analysis...proven to be useful (25] during the Software Development Life Cycle of a project. Development tools and documentation aids used throughout this effort...include "Structure Charts" ( ref Appendix B ), a "Data Dictionary" ( ref Appendix C ),and Program Design Language CPDL). 1.5.1 Software Development- Life

The Kinematic Analysis of Flat Leverage Mechanism of the Third Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhauyt, A.; Mamatova, G.; Abdugaliyeva, G.; Alipov, K.; Sakenova, A.; Alimbetov, A.

2017-10-01

It is necessary to make link mechanisms calculation to the strength at designing of flat link mechanisms of high class after definition of block diagrams and link linear sizes i.e. it is rationally to choose their forms and to determine the section sizes. The algorithm of the definition of dimension of link mechanism lengths of high classes (MHC) and their metric parameters at successive approach is offered in this work. It this paper educational and research software named GIM is presented. This software has been developed with the aim of approaching the difficulties students usually encounter when facing up to kinematic analysis of mechanisms. A deep understanding of the kinematic analysis is necessary to go a step further into design and synthesis of mechanisms. In order to support and complement the theoretical lectures, GIM software is used during the practical exercises, serving as an educational complementary tool reinforcing the knowledge acquired by the students.

Maximum Entropy Discrimination Poisson Regression for Software Reliability Modeling.

PubMed

Chatzis, Sotirios P; Andreou, Andreas S

2015-11-01

Reliably predicting software defects is one of the most significant tasks in software engineering. Two of the major components of modern software reliability modeling approaches are: 1) extraction of salient features for software system representation, based on appropriately designed software metrics and 2) development of intricate regression models for count data, to allow effective software reliability data modeling and prediction. Surprisingly, research in the latter frontier of count data regression modeling has been rather limited. More specifically, a lack of simple and efficient algorithms for posterior computation has made the Bayesian approaches appear unattractive, and thus underdeveloped in the context of software reliability modeling. In this paper, we try to address these issues by introducing a novel Bayesian regression model for count data, based on the concept of max-margin data modeling, effected in the context of a fully Bayesian model treatment with simple and efficient posterior distribution updates. Our novel approach yields a more discriminative learning technique, making more effective use of our training data during model inference. In addition, it allows of better handling uncertainty in the modeled data, which can be a significant problem when the training data are limited. We derive elegant inference algorithms for our model under the mean-field paradigm and exhibit its effectiveness using the publicly available benchmark data sets.

Object-oriented software design in semiautomatic building extraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guelch, Eberhard; Mueller, Hardo

1997-08-01

Developing a system for semiautomatic building acquisition is a complex process, that requires constant integration and updating of software modules and user interfaces. To facilitate these processes we apply an object-oriented design not only for the data but also for the software involved. We use the unified modeling language (UML) to describe the object-oriented modeling of the system in different levels of detail. We can distinguish between use cases from the users point of view, that represent a sequence of actions, yielding in an observable result and the use cases for the programmers, who can use the system as a class library to integrate the acquisition modules in their own software. The structure of the system is based on the model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern. An example from the integration of automated texture extraction for the visualization of results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.

Innovative Approaches to Flaw-Tolerant Design and Certification of Airframe Components. Report on NACA Data- Task 6

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-10-16

parameter A3 of the design curve is negative for 24S-T3. The design curve shown in Figure 41 for Model S2 is comparable with the design curve shown...Approaches to Flaw-Tolerant Design and Certification of Airframe Components Report on NACA Data – Task 6 Ricardo Actis and Barna Szabó Engineering...Software Research and Development, Inc. 111 West Port Plaza, Suite 825 St. Louis, MO 63146 September 26, 2017 Revised: October 16, 2017

A high order approach to flight software development and testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steinbacher, J.

1981-01-01

The use of a software development facility is discussed as a means of producing a reliable and maintainable ECS software system, and as a means of providing efficient use of the ECS hardware test facility. Principles applied to software design are given, including modularity, abstraction, hiding, and uniformity. The general objectives of each phase of the software life cycle are also given, including testing, maintenance, code development, and requirement specifications. Software development facility tools are summarized, and tool deficiencies recognized in the code development and testing phases are considered. Due to limited lab resources, the functional simulation capabilities may be indispensable in the testing phase.

An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications.

PubMed

Anjum, Maria; Budgen, David

2017-01-01

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the 'design model'. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model.

An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the ‘design model’. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model. PMID:28489905

The application of domain-driven design in NMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jinsong; Chen, Yan; Qin, Shengjun

2011-12-01

In the traditional design approach of data-model-driven, system analysis and design phases are often separated which makes the demand information can not be expressed explicitly. The method is also easy to lead developer to the process-oriented programming, making codes between the modules or between hierarchies disordered. So it is hard to meet requirement of system scalability. The paper proposes a software hiberarchy based on rich domain model according to domain-driven design named FHRDM, then the Webwork + Spring + Hibernate (WSH) framework is determined. Domain-driven design aims to construct a domain model which not only meets the demand of the field where the software exists but also meets the need of software development. In this way, problems in Navigational Maritime System (NMS) development like big system business volumes, difficulty of requirement elicitation, high development costs and long development cycle can be resolved successfully.

Expecting the Unexpected: Radiation Hardened Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Penix, John; Mehlitz, Peter C.

2005-01-01

Radiation induced Single Event Effects (SEEs) are a serious problem for spacecraft flight software, potentially leading to a complete loss of mission. Conventional risk mitigation has been focused on hardware, leading to slow, expensive and outdated on-board computing devices, increased power consumption and launch mass. Our approach is to look at SEEs from a software perspective, and to explicitly design flight software so that it can detect and correct the majority of SEES. Radiation hardened flight software will reduce the significant residual residual risk for critical missions and flight phases, and enable more use of inexpensive and fast COTS hardware.

The Use of UML for Software Requirements Expression and Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murray, Alex; Clark, Ken

2015-01-01

It is common practice to write English-language "shall" statements to embody detailed software requirements in aerospace software applications. This paper explores the use of the UML language as a replacement for the English language for this purpose. Among the advantages offered by the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a high degree of clarity and precision in the expression of domain concepts as well as architecture and design. Can this quality of UML be exploited for the definition of software requirements? While expressing logical behavior, interface characteristics, timeliness constraints, and other constraints on software using UML is commonly done and relatively straight-forward, achieving the additional aspects of the expression and management of software requirements that stakeholders expect, especially traceability, is far less so. These other characteristics, concerned with auditing and quality control, include the ability to trace a requirement to a parent requirement (which may well be an English "shall" statement), to trace a requirement to verification activities or scenarios which verify that requirement, and to trace a requirement to elements of the software design which implement that requirement. UML Use Cases, designed for capturing requirements, have not always been satisfactory. Some applications of them simply use the Use Case model element as a repository for English requirement statements. Other applications of Use Cases, in which Use Cases are incorporated into behavioral diagrams that successfully communicate the behaviors and constraints required of the software, do indeed take advantage of UML's clarity, but not in ways that support the traceability features mentioned above. Our approach uses the Stereotype construct of UML to precisely identify elements of UML constructs, especially behaviors such as State Machines and Activities, as requirements, and also to achieve the necessary mapping capabilities. We describe this approach in the context of a space-based software application currently under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Insights into Global Health Practice from the Agile Software Development Movement

PubMed Central

Flood, David; Chary, Anita; Austad, Kirsten; Diaz, Anne Kraemer; García, Pablo; Martinez, Boris; Canú, Waleska López; Rohloff, Peter

2016-01-01

Global health practitioners may feel frustration that current models of global health research, delivery, and implementation are overly focused on specific interventions, slow to provide health services in the field, and relatively ill-equipped to adapt to local contexts. Adapting design principles from the agile software development movement, we propose an analogous approach to designing global health programs that emphasizes tight integration between research and implementation, early involvement of ground-level health workers and program beneficiaries, and rapid cycles of iterative program improvement. Using examples from our own fieldwork, we illustrate the potential of ‘agile global health’ and reflect on the limitations, trade-offs, and implications of this approach. PMID:27134081

Insights into Global Health Practice from the Agile Software Development Movement.

PubMed

Flood, David; Chary, Anita; Austad, Kirsten; Diaz, Anne Kraemer; García, Pablo; Martinez, Boris; Canú, Waleska López; Rohloff, Peter

2016-01-01

Global health practitioners may feel frustration that current models of global health research, delivery, and implementation are overly focused on specific interventions, slow to provide health services in the field, and relatively ill-equipped to adapt to local contexts. Adapting design principles from the agile software development movement, we propose an analogous approach to designing global health programs that emphasizes tight integration between research and implementation, early involvement of ground-level health workers and program beneficiaries, and rapid cycles of iterative program improvement. Using examples from our own fieldwork, we illustrate the potential of 'agile global health' and reflect on the limitations, trade-offs, and implications of this approach.

Students, Micros, and Software: A New Approach in History Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xidis, Kathleen

1988-01-01

Explains how IBM and Apple microcomputers are being used in U.S. history survey courses at Johnson County Community College (Kansas). Discusses development of the program and the use of software such as "U.S. Constitution Tutor" and "Microstudy." Describes the courses and the computer-assisted-instruction modules designed to go…

The LINDSAY Virtual Human Project: An immersive Approach to Anatomy and Physiology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tworek, Janet K.; Jamniczky, Heather A.; Jacob, Christian; Hallgrímsson, Benedikt; Wright, Bruce

2013-01-01

The increasing number of digital anatomy teaching software packages challenges anatomy educators on how to best integrate these tools for teaching and learning. Realistically, there exists a complex interplay of design, implementation, politics, and learning needs in the development and integration of software for education, each of which may be…

Practical Tools for Designing and Weighting Survey Samples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valliant, Richard; Dever, Jill A.; Kreuter, Frauke

2013-01-01

Survey sampling is fundamentally an applied field. The goal in this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of practitioners by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians, illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems, and developing some specialized software where needed. This book serves at least…

Integrated tools and techniques applied to the TES ground data system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morrison, B. A.

2000-01-01

The author of this paper will dicuss the selection of CASE tools, a decision making process, requirements tracking and a review mechanism that leads to a highly integrated approach to software development that must deal with the constant pressure to change software requirements and design that is associated with research and development.

Improving Video Game Development: Facilitating Heterogeneous Team Collaboration through Flexible Software Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Musil, Juergen; Schweda, Angelika; Winkler, Dietmar; Biffl, Stefan

Based on our observations of Austrian video game software development (VGSD) practices we identified a lack of systematic processes/method support and inefficient collaboration between various involved disciplines, i.e. engineers and artists. VGSD includes heterogeneous disciplines, e.g. creative arts, game/content design, and software. Nevertheless, improving team collaboration and process support is an ongoing challenge to enable a comprehensive view on game development projects. Lessons learned from software engineering practices can help game developers to increase game development processes within a heterogeneous environment. Based on a state of the practice survey in the Austrian games industry, this paper presents (a) first results with focus on process/method support and (b) suggests a candidate flexible process approach based on Scrum to improve VGSD and team collaboration. Results showed (a) a trend to highly flexible software processes involving various disciplines and (b) identified the suggested flexible process approach as feasible and useful for project application.

Feature-based component model for design of embedded systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zha, Xuan Fang; Sriram, Ram D.

2004-11-01

An embedded system is a hybrid of hardware and software, which combines software's flexibility and hardware real-time performance. Embedded systems can be considered as assemblies of hardware and software components. An Open Embedded System Model (OESM) is currently being developed at NIST to provide a standard representation and exchange protocol for embedded systems and system-level design, simulation, and testing information. This paper proposes an approach to representing an embedded system feature-based model in OESM, i.e., Open Embedded System Feature Model (OESFM), addressing models of embedded system artifacts, embedded system components, embedded system features, and embedded system configuration/assembly. The approach provides an object-oriented UML (Unified Modeling Language) representation for the embedded system feature model and defines an extension to the NIST Core Product Model. The model provides a feature-based component framework allowing the designer to develop a virtual embedded system prototype through assembling virtual components. The framework not only provides a formal precise model of the embedded system prototype but also offers the possibility of designing variation of prototypes whose members are derived by changing certain virtual components with different features. A case study example is discussed to illustrate the embedded system model.

Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) Toolkit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkatesh, Meera; Kapadia, Ravi; Walker, Mark; Wilkins, Kim

2013-01-01

A framework of software components has been implemented to facilitate the development of ISHM systems according to a methodology based on Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). This framework is collectively referred to as the Toolkit and was developed using General Atomics' Health MAP (TM) technology. The toolkit is intended to provide assistance to software developers of mission-critical system health monitoring applications in the specification, implementation, configuration, and deployment of such applications. In addition to software tools designed to facilitate these objectives, the toolkit also provides direction to software developers in accordance with an ISHM specification and development methodology. The development tools are based on an RCM approach for the development of ISHM systems. This approach focuses on defining, detecting, and predicting the likelihood of system functional failures and their undesirable consequences.

Generic, Type-Safe and Object Oriented Computer Algebra Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kredel, Heinz; Jolly, Raphael

Advances in computer science, in particular object oriented programming, and software engineering have had little practical impact on computer algebra systems in the last 30 years. The software design of existing systems is still dominated by ad-hoc memory management, weakly typed algorithm libraries and proprietary domain specific interactive expression interpreters. We discuss a modular approach to computer algebra software: usage of state-of-the-art memory management and run-time systems (e.g. JVM) usage of strongly typed, generic, object oriented programming languages (e.g. Java) and usage of general purpose, dynamic interactive expression interpreters (e.g. Python) To illustrate the workability of this approach, we have implemented and studied computer algebra systems in Java and Scala. In this paper we report on the current state of this work by presenting new examples.

Towards Behavioral Reflexion Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ackermann, Christopher; Lindvall, Mikael; Cleaveland, Rance

2009-01-01

Software architecture has become essential in the struggle to manage today s increasingly large and complex systems. Software architecture views are created to capture important system characteristics on an abstract and, thus, comprehensible level. As the system is implemented and later maintained, it often deviates from the original design specification. Such deviations can have implication for the quality of the system, such as reliability, security, and maintainability. Software architecture compliance checking approaches, such as the reflexion model technique, have been proposed to address this issue by comparing the implementation to a model of the systems architecture design. However, architecture compliance checking approaches focus solely on structural characteristics and ignore behavioral conformance. This is especially an issue in Systems-of- Systems. Systems-of-Systems (SoS) are decompositions of large systems, into smaller systems for the sake of flexibility. Deviations of the implementation to its behavioral design often reduce the reliability of the entire SoS. An approach is needed that supports the reasoning about behavioral conformance on architecture level. In order to address this issue, we have developed an approach for comparing the implementation of a SoS to an architecture model of its behavioral design. The approach follows the idea of reflexion models and adopts it to support the compliance checking of behaviors. In this paper, we focus on sequencing properties as they play an important role in many SoS. Sequencing deviations potentially have a severe impact on the SoS correctness and qualities. The desired behavioral specification is defined in UML sequence diagram notation and behaviors are extracted from the SoS implementation. The behaviors are then mapped to the model of the desired behavior and the two are compared. Finally, a reflexion model is constructed that shows the deviations between behavioral design and implementation. This paper discusses the approach and shows how it can be applied to investigate reliability issues in SoS.

Unified Approach to Modeling and Simulation of Space Communication Networks and Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barritt, Brian; Bhasin, Kul; Eddy, Wesley; Matthews, Seth

2010-01-01

Network simulator software tools are often used to model the behaviors and interactions of applications, protocols, packets, and data links in terrestrial communication networks. Other software tools that model the physics, orbital dynamics, and RF characteristics of space systems have matured to allow for rapid, detailed analysis of space communication links. However, the absence of a unified toolset that integrates the two modeling approaches has encumbered the systems engineers tasked with the design, architecture, and analysis of complex space communication networks and systems. This paper presents the unified approach and describes the motivation, challenges, and our solution - the customization of the network simulator to integrate with astronautical analysis software tools for high-fidelity end-to-end simulation. Keywords space; communication; systems; networking; simulation; modeling; QualNet; STK; integration; space networks

Knowledge-intensive software design systems: Can too much knowledge be a burden?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

While acknowledging the considerable benefits of domain-specific, knowledge-intensive approaches to automated software engineering, it is prudent to carefully examine the costs of such approaches, as well. In adding domain knowledge to a system, a developer makes a commitment to understanding, representing, maintaining, and communicating that knowledge. This substantial overhead is not generally associated with domain-independent approaches. In this paper, I examine the downside of incorporating additional knowledge, and illustrate with examples based on our experience in building the SIGMA system. I also offer some guidelines for developers building domain-specific systems.

Knowledge-intensive software design systems: Can too much knowledge be a burden?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M.

1992-01-01

While acknowledging the considerable benefits of domain-specific, knowledge-intensive approaches to automated software engineering, it is prudent to carefully examine the costs of such approaches, as well. In adding domain knowledge to a system, a developer makes a commitment to understanding, representing, maintaining, and communicating that knowledge. This substantial overhead is not generally associated with domain-independent approaches. In this paper, I examine the downside of incorporating additional knowledge, and illustrate with examples based on our experiences building the SIGMA system. I also offer some guidelines for developers building domain-specific systems.

Architectural Design of a LMS with LTSA-Conformance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengupta, Souvik; Dasgupta, Ranjan

2017-01-01

This paper illustrates an approach for architectural design of a Learning Management System (LMS), which is verifiable against the Learning Technology System Architecture (LTSA) conformance rules. We introduce a new method for software architectural design that extends the Unified Modeling Language (UML) component diagram with the formal…

A "Black-and-White Box" Approach to User Empowerment with Component Computing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kynigos, C.

2004-01-01

The paper discusses three aspects central to the 10 year-old process of design, development and use of E-slate, a construction kit for educational software. These are: (1) the design of computational media for user empowerment, (2) the socially-grounded approach to the building of user communities and (3) the issue of long-term sustainability as…

Towards automation of user interface design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gastner, Rainer; Kraetzschmar, Gerhard K.; Lutz, Ernst

1992-01-01

This paper suggests an approach to automatic software design in the domain of graphical user interfaces. There are still some drawbacks in existing user interface management systems (UIMS's) which basically offer only quantitative layout specifications via direct manipulation. Our approach suggests a convenient way to get a default graphical user interface which may be customized and redesigned easily in further prototyping cycles.

Life in the Hive: Supporting Inquiry into Complexity Within the Zone of Proximal Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Danish, Joshua A.; Peppler, Kylie; Phelps, David; Washington, Dianna

2011-10-01

Research into students' understanding of complex systems typically ignores young children because of misinterpretations of young children's competencies. Furthermore, studies that do recognize young children's competencies tend to focus on what children can do in isolation. As an alternative, we propose an approach to designing for young children that is grounded in the notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky 1978) and leverages Activity Theory to design learning environments. In order to highlight the benefits of this approach, we describe our process for using Activity Theory to inform the design of new software and curricula in a way that is productive for young children to learn concepts that we might have previously considered to be "developmentally inappropriate". As an illuminative example, we then present a discussion of the design of the BeeSign simulation software and accompanying curriculum which specifically designed from an Activity Theory perspective to engage young children in learning about complex systems (Danish 2009a, b). Furthermore, to illustrate the benefits of this approach, we will present findings from a new study where 40 first- and second-grade students participated in the BeeSign curriculum to learn about how honeybees collect nectar from a complex systems perspective. We conclude with some practical suggestions for how such an approach to using Activity Theory for research and design might be adopted by other science educators and designers.

Modeling and Analysis of Space Based Transceivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Liebetreu, John; Moore, Michael S.; Price, Jeremy C.; Abbott, Ben

2005-01-01

This paper presents the tool chain, methodology, and initial results of a study to provide a thorough, objective, and quantitative analysis of the design alternatives for space Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceivers. The approach taken was to develop a set of models and tools for describing communications requirements, the algorithm resource requirements, the available hardware, and the alternative software architectures, and generate analysis data necessary to compare alternative designs. The Space Transceiver Analysis Tool (STAT) was developed to help users identify and select representative designs, calculate the analysis data, and perform a comparative analysis of the representative designs. The tool allows the design space to be searched quickly while permitting incremental refinement in regions of higher payoff.

Modeling and Analysis of Space Based Transceivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, Michael S.; Price, Jeremy C.; Abbott, Ben; Liebetreu, John; Reinhart, Richard C.; Kacpura, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

This paper presents the tool chain, methodology, and initial results of a study to provide a thorough, objective, and quantitative analysis of the design alternatives for space Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceivers. The approach taken was to develop a set of models and tools for describing communications requirements, the algorithm resource requirements, the available hardware, and the alternative software architectures, and generate analysis data necessary to compare alternative designs. The Space Transceiver Analysis Tool (STAT) was developed to help users identify and select representative designs, calculate the analysis data, and perform a comparative analysis of the representative designs. The tool allows the design space to be searched quickly while permitting incremental refinement in regions of higher payoff.

Aspects on Transfer of Aided - Design Files

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goanta, A. M.; Anghelache, D. G.

2016-08-01

At this stage of development of hardware and software, each company that makes design software packages has a certain type of file created and customized in time to distinguish that company from its competitors. Thus today are widely known the DWG files belonging AutoCAD, IPT / IAM belonging to Inventor, PAR / ASM of Solid Edge's, PRT from the NX and so on. Behind every type of file there is a mathematical model which is common to more types of files. A specific aspect of the computer -aided design is that all softwares are working with both individual parts and assemblies, but their approach is different in that some use the same type of file both for each part and for the whole (PRT ), while others use different types of files (IPT / IAM, PAR / ASM, etc.). Another aspect of the computer -aided design is to transfer files between different companies which use different software packages or even the same software package but in different versions. Each of these situations generates distinct issues. Thus, to solve the partial reading by a project different from the native one, transfer files of STEP and IGES type are used

Field Guide for Designing Human Interaction with Intelligent Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Thronesbery, Carroll G.

1998-01-01

The characteristics of this Field Guide approach address the problems of designing innovative software to support user tasks. The requirements for novel software are difficult to specify a priori, because there is not sufficient understanding of how the users' tasks should be supported, and there are not obvious pre-existing design solutions. When the design team is in unfamiliar territory, care must be taken to avoid rushing into detailed design, requirements specification, or implementation of the wrong product. The challenge is to get the right design and requirements in an efficient, cost-effective manner. This document's purpose is to describe the methods we are using to design human interactions with intelligent systems which support Space Shuttle flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at NASA/Johnson Space Center. Although these software systems usually have some intelligent features, the design challenges arise primarily from the innovation needed in the software design. While these methods are tailored to our specific context, they should be extensible, and helpful to designers of human interaction with other types of automated systems. We review the unique features of this context so that you can determine how to apply these methods to your project Throughout this Field Guide, goals of the design methods are discussed. This should help designers understand how a specific method might need to be adapted to the project at hand.

Reengineering legacy software to object-oriented systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pitman, C.; Braley, D.; Fridge, E.; Plumb, A.; Izygon, M.; Mears, B.

1994-01-01

NASA has a legacy of complex software systems that are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. Reengineering is one approach to modemizing these systems. Object-oriented technology, other modem software engineering principles, and automated tools can be used to reengineer the systems and will help to keep maintenance costs of the modemized systems down. The Software Technology Branch at the NASA/Johnson Space Center has been developing and testing reengineering methods and tools for several years. The Software Technology Branch is currently providing training and consulting support to several large reengineering projects at JSC, including the Reusable Objects Software Environment (ROSE) project, which is reengineering the flight analysis and design system (over 2 million lines of FORTRAN code) into object-oriented C++. Many important lessons have been learned during the past years; one of these is that the design must never be allowed to diverge from the code during maintenance and enhancement. Future work on open, integrated environments to support reengineering is being actively planned.

Software design as a problem in learning theory (a research overview)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fass, Leona F.

1992-01-01

Our interest in automating software design has come out of our research in automated reasoning, inductive inference, learnability, and algebraic machine theory. We have investigated these areas extensively, in connection with specific problems of language representation, acquisition, processing, and design. In the case of formal context-free (CF) languages we established existence of finite learnable models ('behavioral realizations') and procedures for constructing them effectively. We also determined techniques for automatic construction of the models, inductively inferring them from finite examples of how they should 'behave'. These results were obtainable due to appropriate representation of domain knowledge, and constraints on the domain that the representation defined. It was when we sought to generalize our results, and adapt or apply them, that we began investigating the possibility of determining similar procedures for constructing correct software. Discussions with other researchers led us to examine testing and verification processes, as they are related to inference, and due to their considerable importance in correct software design. Motivating papers by other researchers, led us to examine these processes in some depth. Here we present our approach to those software design issues raised by other researchers, within our own theoretical context. We describe our results, relative to those of the other researchers, and conclude that they do not compare unfavorably.

Analyzing qualitative data with computer software.

PubMed Central

Weitzman, E A

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To provide health services researchers with an overview of the qualitative data analysis process and the role of software within it; to provide a principled approach to choosing among software packages to support qualitative data analysis; to alert researchers to the potential benefits and limitations of such software; and to provide an overview of the developments to be expected in the field in the near future. DATA SOURCES, STUDY DESIGN, METHODS: This article does not include reports of empirical research. CONCLUSIONS: Software for qualitative data analysis can benefit the researcher in terms of speed, consistency, rigor, and access to analytic methods not available by hand. Software, however, is not a replacement for methodological training. PMID:10591282

NASA Software Safety Standard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenberg, Linda

1997-01-01

If software is a critical element in a safety critical system, it is imperative to implement a systematic approach to software safety as an integral part of the overall system safety programs. The NASA-STD-8719.13A, "NASA Software Safety Standard", describes the activities necessary to ensure that safety is designed into software that is acquired or developed by NASA, and that safety is maintained throughout the software life cycle. A PDF version, is available on the WWW from Lewis. A Guidebook that will assist in the implementation of the requirements in the Safety Standard is under development at the Lewis Research Center (LeRC). After completion, it will also be available on the WWW from Lewis.

Automatic building information model query generation

DOE PAGES

Jiang, Yufei; Yu, Nan; Ming, Jiang; ...

2015-12-01

Energy efficient building design and construction calls for extensive collaboration between different subfields of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) community. Performing building design and construction engineering raises challenges on data integration and software interoperability. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) data hub to host and integrate building models is a promising solution to address those challenges, which can ease building design information management. However, the partial model query mechanism of current BIM data hub collaboration model has several limitations, which prevents designers and engineers to take advantage of BIM. To address this problem, we propose a general and effective approachmore » to generate query code based on a Model View Definition (MVD). This approach is demonstrated through a software prototype called QueryGenerator. In conclusion, by demonstrating a case study using multi-zone air flow analysis, we show how our approach and tool can help domain experts to use BIM to drive building design with less labour and lower overhead cost.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCann, Billy W.; Silva, Nuwan De; Windus, Theresa L.

Computer-aided molecular design and high-throughput screening of viable host architectures can significantly reduce the efforts in the design of novel ligands for efficient extraction of rare earth elements. This paper presents a computational approach to the deliberate design of bis-phosphine oxide host architectures that are structurally organized for complexation of trivalent lanthanides. Molecule building software, HostDesigner, was interfaced with molecular mechanics software, PCModel, providing a tool for generating and screening millions of potential R 2(O)P-link-P(O)R 2 ligand geometries. The molecular mechanics ranking of ligand structures is consistent with both the solution-phase free energies of complexation obtained with density functional theorymore » and the performance of known bis-phosphine oxide extractants. For the case where link is -CH 2-, evaluation of the ligand geometry provides the first characterization of a steric origin for the ‘anomalous aryl strengthening’ effect. The design approach has identified a number of novel bis-phosphine oxide ligands that are better organized for lanthanide complexation than previously studied examples.« less

Automatic building information model query generation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, Yufei; Yu, Nan; Ming, Jiang

Energy efficient building design and construction calls for extensive collaboration between different subfields of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) community. Performing building design and construction engineering raises challenges on data integration and software interoperability. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) data hub to host and integrate building models is a promising solution to address those challenges, which can ease building design information management. However, the partial model query mechanism of current BIM data hub collaboration model has several limitations, which prevents designers and engineers to take advantage of BIM. To address this problem, we propose a general and effective approachmore » to generate query code based on a Model View Definition (MVD). This approach is demonstrated through a software prototype called QueryGenerator. In conclusion, by demonstrating a case study using multi-zone air flow analysis, we show how our approach and tool can help domain experts to use BIM to drive building design with less labour and lower overhead cost.« less

Enabling Creative Learning Design through Semantic Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charlton, Patricia; Magoulas, George; Laurillard, Diana

2012-01-01

The paper advocates an approach to learning design that considers it as creating digital artefacts that can be extended, modified and used for different purposes. This is realised through an "act becoming artefact" cycle, where users' actions in the authors' software environment, named Learning Designer, are automatically interpreted on…

The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) advanced automation project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dewberry, Brandon S.; Carnes, Ray

1990-01-01

The objective of the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) Advanced Automation Project is to influence the design of the initial and evolutionary Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP) ECLSS toward a man-made closed environment in which minimal flight and ground manpower is needed. Another objective includes capturing ECLSS design and development knowledge future missions. Our approach has been to (1) analyze the SSFP ECLSS, (2) envision as our goal a fully automated evolutionary environmental control system - an augmentation of the baseline, and (3) document the advanced software systems, hooks, and scars which will be necessary to achieve this goal. From this analysis, prototype software is being developed, and will be tested using air and water recovery simulations and hardware subsystems. In addition, the advanced software is being designed, developed, and tested using automation software management plan and lifecycle tools. Automated knowledge acquisition, engineering, verification and testing tools are being used to develop the software. In this way, we can capture ECLSS development knowledge for future use develop more robust and complex software, provide feedback to the knowledge based system tool community, and ensure proper visibility of our efforts.

Calculation and use of an environment's characteristic software metric set

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, Victor R.; Selby, Richard W., Jr.

1985-01-01

Since both cost/quality and production environments differ, this study presents an approach for customizing a characteristic set of software metrics to an environment. The approach is applied in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL), a NASA Goddard production environment, to 49 candidate process and product metrics of 652 modules from six (51,000 to 112,000 lines) projects. For this particular environment, the method yielded the characteristic metric set (source lines, fault correction effort per executable statement, design effort, code effort, number of I/O parameters, number of versions). The uses examined for a characteristic metric set include forecasting the effort for development, modification, and fault correction of modules based on historical data.

Quantitative comparison and evaluation of software packages for assessment of abdominal adipose tissue distribution by magnetic resonance imaging

PubMed Central

Bonekamp, S; Ghosh, P; Crawford, S; Solga, SF; Horska, A; Brancati, FL; Diehl, AM; Smith, S; Clark, JM

2009-01-01

Objective To examine five available software packages for the assessment of abdominal adipose tissue with magnetic resonance imaging, compare their features and assess the reliability of measurement results. Design Feature evaluation and test–retest reliability of softwares (NIHImage, SliceOmatic, Analyze, HippoFat and EasyVision) used in manual, semi-automated or automated segmentation of abdominal adipose tissue. Subjects A random sample of 15 obese adults with type 2 diabetes. Measurements Axial T1-weighted spin echo images centered at vertebral bodies of L2–L3 were acquired at 1.5 T. Five software packages were evaluated (NIHImage, SliceOmatic, Analyze, HippoFat and EasyVision), comparing manual, semi-automated and automated segmentation approaches. Images were segmented into cross-sectional area (CSA), and the areas of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). Ease of learning and use and the design of the graphical user interface (GUI) were rated. Intra-observer accuracy and agreement between the software packages were calculated using intra-class correlation. Intra-class correlation coefficient was used to obtain test–retest reliability. Results Three of the five evaluated programs offered a semi-automated technique to segment the images based on histogram values or a user-defined threshold. One software package allowed manual delineation only. One fully automated program demonstrated the drawbacks of uncritical automated processing. The semi-automated approaches reduced variability and measurement error, and improved reproducibility. There was no significant difference in the intra-observer agreement in SAT and CSA. The VAT measurements showed significantly lower test–retest reliability. There were some differences between the software packages in qualitative aspects, such as user friendliness. Conclusion Four out of five packages provided essentially the same results with respect to the inter- and intra-rater reproducibility. Our results using SliceOmatic, Analyze or NIHImage were comparable and could be used interchangeably. Newly developed fully automated approaches should be compared to one of the examined software packages. PMID:17700582

Reusable software parts and the semi-abstract data type

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Sanford G.

1986-01-01

The development of reuable software parts has been an area of intense discussion within the software community for many years. An approach is described for developing reusable parts for the applications of missile guidance, navigation and control which meet the following criteria: (1) Reusable; (2) Tailorable; (3) Efficient; (4) Simple to use; and (5) Protected against misuse. Validating the feasibility of developing reusable parts which possess these characteristics is the basis of the Common Ada Missile Packages Program (CAMP). Under CAMP, over 200 reusable software parts were developed, including part for navigation, Kalman filter, signal processing and autopilot. Six different methods are presented for designing reusable software parts.

The Application of Flash in Web-Based Multimedia Courseware Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Jun; Wang, Zu-Yuan; Wu, Yuren

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce some new functions achieved in a web-based multimedia courseware, which is developed by Flash software and used by part-time graduate students. Design/methodology/approach: The courseware uses Adobe Flash CS3 as its development software, which supports Actionscript language, FMS and FLV technology…

Designing, Developing and Implementing a Software Tool for Scenario Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norton, Geoff; Taylor, Mathew; Stewart, Terry; Blackburn, Greg; Jinks, Audrey; Razdar, Bahareh; Holmes, Paul; Marastoni, Enrique

2012-01-01

The pedagogical value of problem-based and inquiry-based learning activities has led to increased use of this approach in many courses. While scenarios or case studies were initially presented to learners as text-based material, the development of modern software technology provides the opportunity to deliver scenarios as e-learning modules,…

Captivating Open University Students with Online Literature Search Tutorials Created Using Screen Capture Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wales, Tim; Robertson, Penny

2008-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to share the experiences and challenges faced by the Open University Library (OUL) in using screen capture software to develop online literature search tutorials. Design/methodology/approach: A summary of information literacy support at the OUL is provided as background information to explain the decision to…

Role of Social Software Tools in Education: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minocha, Shailey

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of literature on the role of Web 2.0 or social software tools in education. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a critical and comprehensive review of a range of literature sources (until January 2009) addressing the various issues related to the educator's perspective of pedagogical…

Is Chinese Software Engineering Professionalizing or Not?: Specialization of Knowledge, Subjective Identification and Professionalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Yan

2012-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the challenge for the classical idea of professionalism in understanding the Chinese software engineering industry after giving a close insight into the development of this industry as well as individual engineers with a psycho-societal perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The study starts with the general…

The Company Approach to Software Engineering Project Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broman, D.; Sandahl, K.; Abu Baker, M.

2012-01-01

Teaching larger software engineering project courses at the end of a computing curriculum is a way for students to learn some aspects of real-world jobs in industry. Such courses, often referred to as capstone courses, are effective for learning how to apply the skills they have acquired in, for example, design, test, and configuration management.…

ActiveTutor: Towards More Adaptive Features in an E-Learning Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fournier, Jean-Pierre; Sansonnet, Jean-Paul

2008-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to sketch the emerging notion of auto-adaptive software when applied to e-learning software. Design/methodology/approach: The study and the implementation of the auto-adaptive architecture are based on the operational framework "ActiveTutor" that is used for teaching the topic of computer science programming in first-grade…

Factors that Influence First-Career Choice of Undergraduate Engineers in Software Services Companies: A South Indian Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gokuladas, V. K.

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify how undergraduate engineering students differ in their perception about software services companies in India based on variables like gender, locations of the college and branches of engineering. Design/methodology/approach: Data obtained from 560 undergraduate engineering students who had the…

ELISA, a demonstrator environment for information systems architecture design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Panem, Chantal

1994-01-01

This paper describes an approach of reusability of software engineering technology in the area of ground space system design. System engineers have lots of needs similar to software developers: sharing of a common data base, capitalization of knowledge, definition of a common design process, communication between different technical domains. Moreover system designers need to simulate dynamically their system as early as possible. Software development environments, methods and tools now become operational and widely used. Their architecture is based on a unique object base, a set of common management services and they host a family of tools for each life cycle activity. In late '92, CNES decided to develop a demonstrative software environment supporting some system activities. The design of ground space data processing systems was chosen as the application domain. ELISA (Integrated Software Environment for Architectures Specification) was specified as a 'demonstrator', i.e. a sufficient basis for demonstrations, evaluation and future operational enhancements. A process with three phases was implemented: system requirements definition, design of system architectures models, and selection of physical architectures. Each phase is composed of several activities that can be performed in parallel, with the provision of Commercial Off the Shelves Tools. ELISA has been delivered to CNES in January 94, currently used for demonstrations and evaluations on real projects (e.g. SPOT4 Satellite Control Center). It is on the way of new evolutions.

Cross-Sectional Time Series Designs: A General Transformation Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Velicer, Wayne F.; McDonald, Roderick P.

1991-01-01

The general transformation approach to time series analysis is extended to the analysis of multiple unit data by the development of a patterned transformation matrix. The procedure includes alternatives for special cases and requires only minor revisions in existing computer software. (SLD)

Developing Systems Engineering Skills Through NASA Summer Intern Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhasin, Kul; Barritt, Brian; Golden, Bert; Knoblock, Eric; Matthews, Seth; Warner, Joe

2010-01-01

During the Formulation phases of the NASA Project Life Cycle, communication systems engineers are responsible for designing space communication links and analyzing their performance to ensure that the proposed communication architecture is capable of satisfying high-level mission requirements. Senior engineers with extensive experience in communications systems perform these activities. However, the increasing complexity of space systems coupled with the current shortage of communications systems engineers has led to an urgent need for expedited training of new systems engineers. A pilot program, in which college-bound high school and undergraduate students studying various engineering disciplines are immersed in NASA s systems engineering practices, was conceived out of this need. This rapid summerlong training approach is feasible because of the availability of advanced software and technology tools and the students inherent ability to operate such tools. During this pilot internship program, a team of college-level and recently-hired engineers configured and utilized various software applications in the design and analysis of communication links for a plausible lunar sortie mission. The approach taken was to first design the direct-to-Earth communication links for the lunar mission elements, then to design the links between lunar surface and lunar orbital elements. Based on the data obtained from these software applications, an integrated communication system design was realized and the students gained valuable systems engineering knowledge. This paper describes this approach to rapidly training college-bound high school and undergraduate engineering students from various disciplines in NASA s systems engineering practices and tools. A summary of the potential use of NASA s emerging systems engineering internship program in broader applications is also described.

The mathematical statement for the solving of the problem of N-version software system design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovalev, I. V.; Kovalev, D. I.; Zelenkov, P. V.; Voroshilova, A. A.

2015-10-01

The N-version programming, as a methodology of the fault-tolerant software systems design, allows successful solving of the mentioned tasks. The use of N-version programming approach turns out to be effective, since the system is constructed out of several parallel executed versions of some software module. Those versions are written to meet the same specification but by different programmers. The problem of developing an optimal structure of N-version software system presents a kind of very complex optimization problem. This causes the use of deterministic optimization methods inappropriate for solving the stated problem. In this view, exploiting heuristic strategies looks more rational. In the field of pseudo-Boolean optimization theory, the so called method of varied probabilities (MVP) has been developed to solve problems with a large dimensionality.

A Mobile-Based E-Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ojokoh, Bolanle Adefowoke; Doyeni, Olubimtan Ayo; Adewale, Olumide Sunday; Isinkaye, Folasade Olubusola

2013-01-01

E-learning is an innovative approach for delivering electronically mediated, well-designed, learner-centred interactive learning environments by utilizing internet and digital technologies with respect to instructional design principles. This paper presents the application of Software Development techniques in the development of a Mobile Based…

Safety Characteristics in System Application of Software for Human Rated Exploration Missions for the 8th IAASS Conference

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mango, Edward J.

2016-01-01

NASA and its industry and international partners are embarking on a bold and inspiring development effort to design and build an exploration class space system. The space system is made up of the Orion system, the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) system. All are highly coupled together and dependent on each other for the combined safety of the space system. A key area of system safety focus needs to be in the ground and flight application software system (GFAS). In the development, certification and operations of GFAS, there are a series of safety characteristics that define the approach to ensure mission success. This paper will explore and examine the safety characteristics of the GFAS development. The GFAS system integrates the flight software packages of the Orion and SLS with the ground systems and launch countdown sequencers through the 'agile' software development process. A unique approach is needed to develop the GFAS project capabilities within this agile process. NASA has defined the software development process through a set of standards. The standards were written during the infancy of the so-called industry 'agile development' movement and must be tailored to adapt to the highly integrated environment of human exploration systems. Safety of the space systems and the eventual crew on board is paramount during the preparation of the exploration flight systems. A series of software safety characteristics have been incorporated into the development and certification efforts to ensure readiness for use and compatibility with the space systems. Three underlining factors in the exploration architecture require the GFAS system to be unique in its approach to ensure safety for the space systems, both the flight as well as the ground systems. The first are the missions themselves, which are exploration in nature, and go far beyond the comfort of low Earth orbit operations. The second is the current exploration system will launch only one mission per year even less during its developmental phases. Finally, the third is the partnered approach through the use of many different prime contractors, including commercial and international partners, to design and build the exploration systems. These three factors make the challenges to meet the mission preparations and the safety expectations extremely difficult to implement. As NASA leads a team of partners in the exploration beyond earth's influence, it is a safety imperative that the application software used to test, checkout, prepare and launch the exploration systems put safety of the hardware and mission first. Software safety characteristics are built into the design and development process to enable the human rated systems to begin their missions safely and successfully. Exploration missions beyond Earth are inherently risky, however, with solid safety approaches in both hardware and software, the boldness of these missions can be realized for all on the home planet.

ART/Ada design project, phase 1. Task 1 report: Overall design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, Bradley P.

1988-01-01

The design methodology for the ART/Ada project is introduced, and the selected design for ART/Ada is described in detail. The following topics are included: object-oriented design, reusable software, documentation techniques, impact of Ada, design approach, and differences between ART-IM 1.5 and ART/Ada 1.0 prototype. Also, Ada generator and ART/Ada runtime systems are discussed.

Finite element analysis of container ship's cargo hold using ANSYS and POSEIDON software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanny, Tania Tamiz; Akter, Naznin; Amin, Osman Md.

2017-12-01

Nowadays ship structural analysis has become an integral part of the preliminary ship design providing further support for the development and detail design of ship structures. Structural analyses of container ship's cargo holds are carried out for the balancing of their safety and capacity, as those ships are exposed to the high risk of structural damage during voyage. Two different design methodologies have been considered for the structural analysis of a container ship's cargo hold. One is rule-based methodology and the other is a more conventional software based analyses. The rule based analysis is done by DNV-GL's software POSEIDON and the conventional package based analysis is done by ANSYS structural module. Both methods have been applied to analyze some of the mechanical properties of the model such as total deformation, stress-strain distribution, Von Mises stress, Fatigue etc., following different design bases and approaches, to indicate some guidance's for further improvements in ship structural design.

A computer-aided approach to nonlinear control systhesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wie, Bong; Anthony, Tobin

1988-01-01

The major objective of this project is to develop a computer-aided approach to nonlinear stability analysis and nonlinear control system design. This goal is to be obtained by refining the describing function method as a synthesis tool for nonlinear control design. The interim report outlines the approach by this study to meet these goals including an introduction to the INteractive Controls Analysis (INCA) program which was instrumental in meeting these study objectives. A single-input describing function (SIDF) design methodology was developed in this study; coupled with the software constructed in this study, the results of this project provide a comprehensive tool for design and integration of nonlinear control systems.

CAD/CAM approach to improving industry productivity gathers momentum

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fulton, R. E.

1982-01-01

Recent results and planning for the NASA/industry Integrated Programs for Aerospace-Vehicle Design (IPAD) program for improving productivity with CAD/CAM methods are outlined. The industrial group work is being mainly done by Boeing, and progress has been made in defining the designer work environment, developing requirements and a preliminary design for a future CAD/CAM system, and developing CAD/CAM technology. The work environment was defined by conducting a detailed study of a reference design process, and key software elements for a CAD/CAM system have been defined, specifically for interactive design or experiment control processes. Further work is proceeding on executive, data management, geometry and graphics, and general utility software, and dynamic aspects of the programs being developed are outlined

LTSA Conformance Testing to Architectural Design of LMS Using Ontology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengupta, Souvik; Dasgupta, Ranjan

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a new methodology for checking conformance of the software architectural design of Learning Management System (LMS) to Learning Technology System Architecture (LTSA). In our approach, the architectural designing of LMS follows the formal modeling style of Acme. An ontology is built to represent the LTSA rules and the software…

Engineering Complex Embedded Systems with State Analysis and the Mission Data System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ingham, Michel D.; Rasmussen, Robert D.; Bennett, Matthew B.; Moncada, Alex C.

2004-01-01

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer s intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering methodology called State Analysis, which provides a process for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using State Analysis and how these requirements inform the design of the system software, using representative spacecraft examples.

Computer-Aided Molecular Design of Bis-phosphine Oxide Lanthanide Extractants

DOE PAGES

McCann, Billy W.; Silva, Nuwan De; Windus, Theresa L.; ...

2016-02-17

Computer-aided molecular design and high-throughput screening of viable host architectures can significantly reduce the efforts in the design of novel ligands for efficient extraction of rare earth elements. This paper presents a computational approach to the deliberate design of bis-phosphine oxide host architectures that are structurally organized for complexation of trivalent lanthanides. Molecule building software, HostDesigner, was interfaced with molecular mechanics software, PCModel, providing a tool for generating and screening millions of potential R 2(O)P-link-P(O)R 2 ligand geometries. The molecular mechanics ranking of ligand structures is consistent with both the solution-phase free energies of complexation obtained with density functional theorymore » and the performance of known bis-phosphine oxide extractants. For the case where link is -CH 2-, evaluation of the ligand geometry provides the first characterization of a steric origin for the ‘anomalous aryl strengthening’ effect. The design approach has identified a number of novel bis-phosphine oxide ligands that are better organized for lanthanide complexation than previously studied examples.« less

Development of a Prototype Automation Simulation Scenario Generator for Air Traffic Management Software Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khambatta, Cyrus F.

2007-01-01

A technique for automated development of scenarios for use in the Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor (McTMA) software simulations is described. The resulting software is designed and implemented to automate the generation of simulation scenarios with the intent of reducing the time it currently takes using an observational approach. The software program is effective in achieving this goal. The scenarios created for use in the McTMA simulations are based on data taken from data files from the McTMA system, and were manually edited before incorporation into the simulations to ensure accuracy. Despite the software s overall favorable performance, several key software issues are identified. Proposed solutions to these issues are discussed. Future enhancements to the scenario generator software may address the limitations identified in this paper.

Pipe Flow Simulation Software: A Team Approach to Solve an Engineering Education Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engel, Renata S.; And Others

1996-01-01

A computer simulation program for use in the study of fluid mechanics is described. The package is an interactive tool to explore the fluid flow characteristics of a pipe system by manipulating the physical construction of the system. The motivation, software design requirements, and specific details on how its objectives were met are presented.…

Bridging the Research-to-Practice Gap in Education: A Software-Mediated Approach for Improving Classroom Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weston, Mark E.; Bain, Alan

2015-01-01

This study reports findings from a matched-comparison, repeated-measure for intact groups design of the mediating effect of a suite of software on the quality of classroom instruction provided to students by teachers. The quality of instruction provided by teachers in the treatment and control groups was documented via observations that were…

Automation and Networking of Public Libraries in India Using the E-Granthalaya Software from the National Informatics Centre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matoria, Ram Kumar; Upadhyay, P. K.; Moni, Madaswamy

2007-01-01

Purpose: To describe the development of the library management system, e-Granthalaya, for public libraries in India. This is an initiative of the Indian government's National Informatics Centre (NIC). The paper outlines the challenges and the potential of a full-scale deployment of this software at a national level. Design/methodology/approach:…

Markov Chains For Testing Redundant Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Allan L.; Sjogren, Jon A.

1990-01-01

Preliminary design developed for validation experiment that addresses problems unique to assuring extremely high quality of multiple-version programs in process-control software. Approach takes into account inertia of controlled system in sense it takes more than one failure of control program to cause controlled system to fail. Verification procedure consists of two steps: experimentation (numerical simulation) and computation, with Markov model for each step.

Coordinating the Complexity of Tools, Tasks, and Users: On Theory-Based Approaches to Authoring Tool Usability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Tom

2016-01-01

Intelligent Tutoring Systems authoring tools are highly complex educational software applications used to produce highly complex software applications (i.e. ITSs). How should our assumptions about the target users (authors) impact the design of authoring tools? In this article I first reflect on the factors leading to my original 1999 article on…

Frequency Estimator Performance for a Software-Based Beacon Receiver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zemba, Michael J.; Morse, Jacquelynne Rose; Nessel, James A.; Miranda, Felix

2014-01-01

As propagation terminals have evolved, their design has trended more toward a software-based approach that facilitates convenient adjustment and customization of the receiver algorithms. One potential improvement is the implementation of a frequency estimation algorithm, through which the primary frequency component of the received signal can be estimated with a much greater resolution than with a simple peak search of the FFT spectrum. To select an estimator for usage in a QV-band beacon receiver, analysis of six frequency estimators was conducted to characterize their effectiveness as they relate to beacon receiver design.

Data Curation and Visualization for MuSIASEM Analysis of the Nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Renner, Ansel

2017-04-01

A novel software-based approach to relational analysis applying recent theoretical advancements of the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting framework is presented. This research explores and explains underutilized ways software can assist complex system analysis across the stages of data collection, exploration, analysis and dissemination and in a transparent and collaborative manner. This work is being conducted as part of, and in support of, the four-year European Commission H2020 project: Moving Towards Adaptive Governance in Complexity: Informing Nexus Security (MAGIC). In MAGIC, theoretical advancements to MuSIASEM propose a powerful new approach to spatial-temporal WEFC relational analysis in accordance with a structural-functional scaling mechanism appropriate for biophysically relevant complex system analyses. Software is designed primarily with JavaScript using the Angular2 model-view-controller framework and the Data-Driven Documents (D3) library. These design choices clarify and modularize data flow, simplify research practitioner's work, allow for and assist stakeholder involvement and advance collaboration at all stages. Data requirements and scalable, robust yet light-weight structuring will first be explained. Following, algorithms to process this data will be explored. Data interfaces and data visualization approaches will lastly be presented and described.

Methodology for object-oriented real-time systems analysis and design: Software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoeffler, James D.

1991-01-01

Successful application of software engineering methodologies requires an integrated analysis and design life-cycle in which the various phases flow smoothly 'seamlessly' from analysis through design to implementation. Furthermore, different analysis methodologies often lead to different structuring of the system so that the transition from analysis to design may be awkward depending on the design methodology to be used. This is especially important when object-oriented programming is to be used for implementation when the original specification and perhaps high-level design is non-object oriented. Two approaches to real-time systems analysis which can lead to an object-oriented design are contrasted: (1) modeling the system using structured analysis with real-time extensions which emphasizes data and control flows followed by the abstraction of objects where the operations or methods of the objects correspond to processes in the data flow diagrams and then design in terms of these objects; and (2) modeling the system from the beginning as a set of naturally occurring concurrent entities (objects) each having its own time-behavior defined by a set of states and state-transition rules and seamlessly transforming the analysis models into high-level design models. A new concept of a 'real-time systems-analysis object' is introduced and becomes the basic building block of a series of seamlessly-connected models which progress from the object-oriented real-time systems analysis and design system analysis logical models through the physical architectural models and the high-level design stages. The methodology is appropriate to the overall specification including hardware and software modules. In software modules, the systems analysis objects are transformed into software objects.

SCA Waveform Development for Space Telemetry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mortensen, Dale J.; Kifle, Multi; Hall, C. Steve; Quinn, Todd M.

2004-01-01

The NASA Glenn Research Center is investigating and developing suitable reconfigurable radio architectures for future NASA missions. This effort is examining software-based open-architectures for space based transceivers, as well as common hardware platform architectures. The Joint Tactical Radio System's (JTRS) Software Communications Architecture (SCA) is a candidate for the software approach, but may need modifications or adaptations for use in space. An in-house SCA compliant waveform development focuses on increasing understanding of software defined radio architectures and more specifically the JTRS SCA. Space requirements put a premium on size, mass, and power. This waveform development effort is key to evaluating tradeoffs with the SCA for space applications. Existing NASA telemetry links, as well as Space Exploration Initiative scenarios, are the basis for defining the waveform requirements. Modeling and simulations are being developed to determine signal processing requirements associated with a waveform and a mission-specific computational burden. Implementation of the waveform on a laboratory software defined radio platform is proceeding in an iterative fashion. Parallel top-down and bottom-up design approaches are employed.

Optimal design of piezoelectric transformers: a rational approach based on an analytical model and a deterministic global optimization.

PubMed

Pigache, Francois; Messine, Frédéric; Nogarede, Bertrand

2007-07-01

This paper deals with a deterministic and rational way to design piezoelectric transformers in radial mode. The proposed approach is based on the study of the inverse problem of design and on its reformulation as a mixed constrained global optimization problem. The methodology relies on the association of the analytical models for describing the corresponding optimization problem and on an exact global optimization software, named IBBA and developed by the second author to solve it. Numerical experiments are presented and compared in order to validate the proposed approach.

Radiation Hardened Electronics for Extreme Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keys, Andrew S.; Watson, Michael D.

2007-01-01

The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project consists of a series of tasks designed to develop and mature a broad spectrum of radiation hardened and low temperature electronics technologies. Three approaches are being taken to address radiation hardening: improved material hardness, design techniques to improve radiation tolerance, and software methods to improve radiation tolerance. Within these approaches various technology products are being addressed including Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA), MEMS Serial Processors, Reconfigurable Processors, and Parallel Processors. In addition to radiation hardening, low temperature extremes are addressed with a focus on material and design approaches.

Cost-Sensitive Radial Basis Function Neural Network Classifier for Software Defect Prediction

PubMed Central

Venkatesan, R.

2016-01-01

Effective prediction of software modules, those that are prone to defects, will enable software developers to achieve efficient allocation of resources and to concentrate on quality assurance activities. The process of software development life cycle basically includes design, analysis, implementation, testing, and release phases. Generally, software testing is a critical task in the software development process wherein it is to save time and budget by detecting defects at the earliest and deliver a product without defects to the customers. This testing phase should be carefully operated in an effective manner to release a defect-free (bug-free) software product to the customers. In order to improve the software testing process, fault prediction methods identify the software parts that are more noted to be defect-prone. This paper proposes a prediction approach based on conventional radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) and the novel adaptive dimensional biogeography based optimization (ADBBO) model. The developed ADBBO based RBFNN model is tested with five publicly available datasets from the NASA data program repository. The computed results prove the effectiveness of the proposed ADBBO-RBFNN classifier approach with respect to the considered metrics in comparison with that of the early predictors available in the literature for the same datasets. PMID:27738649

Cost-Sensitive Radial Basis Function Neural Network Classifier for Software Defect Prediction.

PubMed

Kumudha, P; Venkatesan, R

Effective prediction of software modules, those that are prone to defects, will enable software developers to achieve efficient allocation of resources and to concentrate on quality assurance activities. The process of software development life cycle basically includes design, analysis, implementation, testing, and release phases. Generally, software testing is a critical task in the software development process wherein it is to save time and budget by detecting defects at the earliest and deliver a product without defects to the customers. This testing phase should be carefully operated in an effective manner to release a defect-free (bug-free) software product to the customers. In order to improve the software testing process, fault prediction methods identify the software parts that are more noted to be defect-prone. This paper proposes a prediction approach based on conventional radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) and the novel adaptive dimensional biogeography based optimization (ADBBO) model. The developed ADBBO based RBFNN model is tested with five publicly available datasets from the NASA data program repository. The computed results prove the effectiveness of the proposed ADBBO-RBFNN classifier approach with respect to the considered metrics in comparison with that of the early predictors available in the literature for the same datasets.

ESML for Earth Science Data Sets and Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graves, Sara; Ramachandran, Rahul

2003-01-01

The primary objective of this research project was to transition ESML from design to application. The resulting schema and prototype software will foster community acceptance for the Define once, use anywhere concept central to ESML. Supporting goals include: 1) Refinement of the ESML schema and software libraries in cooperation with the user community; 2) Application of the ESML schema and software to a variety of Earth science data sets and analysis tools; 3) Development of supporting prototype software for enhanced ease of use; 4) Cooperation with standards bodies in order to assure ESML is aligned with related metadata standards as appropriate; and 5) Widespread publication of the ESML approach, schema, and software.

Dynamic Modelling with "MLE-Energy Dynamic" for Primary School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giliberti, Enrico; Corni, Federico

During the recent years simulation and modelling are growing instances in science education. In primary school, however, the main use of software is the simulation, due to the lack of modelling software tools specially designed to fit/accomplish the needs of primary education. In particular primary school teachers need to use simulation in a framework that is both consistent and simple enough to be understandable by children [2]. One of the possible area to approach modelling is about the construction of the concept of energy, in particular for what concerns the relations among substance, potential, power [3]. Following the previous initial research results with this approach [2], and with the static version of the software MLE Energy [1], we suggest the design and the experimentation of a dynamic modelling software—MLE dynamic-capable to represent dynamically the relations occurring when two substance-like quantities exchange energy, modifying their potential. By means of this software the user can graphically choose the dependent and independent variables and leave the other parameters fixed. The software has been initially evaluated, during a course of science education with a group of primary school teachers-to-be, to test the ability of the software to improve teachers' way of thinking in terms of substance-like quantities and their effects (graphical representation of the extensive, intensive variables and their mutual relations); moreover, the software has been tested with a group of primary school teachers, asking their opinion about the software didactical relevance in the class work.

Object-Oriented Technology-Based Software Library for Operations of Water Reclamation Centers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otani, Tetsuo; Shimada, Takehiro; Yoshida, Norio; Abe, Wataru

SCADA systems in water reclamation centers have been constructed based on hardware and software that each manufacturer produced according to their design. Even though this approach used to be effective to realize real-time and reliable execution, it is an obstacle to cost reduction about system construction and maintenance. A promising solution to address the problem is to set specifications that can be used commonly. In terms of software, information model approach has been adopted in SCADA systems in other field, such as telecommunications and power systems. An information model is a piece of software specification that describes a physical or logical object to be monitored. In this paper, we propose information models for operations of water reclamation centers, which have not ever existed. In addition, we show the feasibility of the information model in terms of common use and processing performance.

Software control and system configuration management: A systems-wide approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petersen, K. L.; Flores, C., Jr.

1984-01-01

A comprehensive software control and system configuration management process for flight-crucial digital control systems of advanced aircraft has been developed and refined to insure efficient flight system development and safe flight operations. Because of the highly complex interactions among the hardware, software, and system elements of state-of-the-art digital flight control system designs, a systems-wide approach to configuration control and management has been used. Specific procedures are implemented to govern discrepancy reporting and reconciliation, software and hardware change control, systems verification and validation testing, and formal documentation requirements. An active and knowledgeable configuration control board reviews and approves all flight system configuration modifications and revalidation tests. This flexible process has proved effective during the development and flight testing of several research aircraft and remotely piloted research vehicles with digital flight control systems that ranged from relatively simple to highly complex, integrated mechanizations.

Models and Frameworks: A Synergistic Association for Developing Component-Based Applications

PubMed Central

Sánchez-Ledesma, Francisco; Sánchez, Pedro; Pastor, Juan A.; Álvarez, Bárbara

2014-01-01

The use of frameworks and components has been shown to be effective in improving software productivity and quality. However, the results in terms of reuse and standardization show a dearth of portability either of designs or of component-based implementations. This paper, which is based on the model driven software development paradigm, presents an approach that separates the description of component-based applications from their possible implementations for different platforms. This separation is supported by automatic integration of the code obtained from the input models into frameworks implemented using object-oriented technology. Thus, the approach combines the benefits of modeling applications from a higher level of abstraction than objects, with the higher levels of code reuse provided by frameworks. In order to illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach, two representative case studies that use both an existing framework and an ad hoc framework, are described. Finally, our approach is compared with other alternatives in terms of the cost of software development. PMID:25147858

Models and frameworks: a synergistic association for developing component-based applications.

PubMed

Alonso, Diego; Sánchez-Ledesma, Francisco; Sánchez, Pedro; Pastor, Juan A; Álvarez, Bárbara

2014-01-01

The use of frameworks and components has been shown to be effective in improving software productivity and quality. However, the results in terms of reuse and standardization show a dearth of portability either of designs or of component-based implementations. This paper, which is based on the model driven software development paradigm, presents an approach that separates the description of component-based applications from their possible implementations for different platforms. This separation is supported by automatic integration of the code obtained from the input models into frameworks implemented using object-oriented technology. Thus, the approach combines the benefits of modeling applications from a higher level of abstraction than objects, with the higher levels of code reuse provided by frameworks. In order to illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach, two representative case studies that use both an existing framework and an ad hoc framework, are described. Finally, our approach is compared with other alternatives in terms of the cost of software development.

Capturing Requirements for Autonomous Spacecraft with Autonomy Requirements Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vassev, Emil; Hinchey, Mike

2014-08-01

The Autonomy Requirements Engineering (ARE) approach has been developed by Lero - the Irish Software Engineering Research Center within the mandate of a joint project with ESA, the European Space Agency. The approach is intended to help engineers develop missions for unmanned exploration, often with limited or no human control. Such robotics space missions rely on the most recent advances in automation and robotic technologies where autonomy and autonomic computing principles drive the design and implementation of unmanned spacecraft [1]. To tackle the integration and promotion of autonomy in software-intensive systems, ARE combines generic autonomy requirements (GAR) with goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE). Using this approach, software engineers can determine what autonomic features to develop for a particular system (e.g., a space mission) as well as what artifacts that process might generate (e.g., goals models, requirements specification, etc.). The inputs required by this approach are the mission goals and the domain-specific GAR reflecting specifics of the mission class (e.g., interplanetary missions).

Using VCL as an Aspect-Oriented Approach to Requirements Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amálio, Nuno; Kelsen, Pierre; Ma, Qin; Glodt, Christian

Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. By tackling the modularisation of crosscutting concerns, aspect orientation draws attention to modularity as a means to address the problems of scalability, complexity and evolution in software systems development. Aspect-oriented modelling (AOM) applies aspect-orientation to the construction of models. Most existing AOM approaches are designed without a formal semantics, and use multi-view partial descriptions of behaviour. This paper presents an AOM approach based on the Visual Contract Language (VCL): a visual language for abstract and precise modelling, designed with a formal semantics, and comprising a novel approach to visual behavioural modelling based on design by contract where behavioural descriptions are total. By applying VCL to a large case study of a car-crash crisis management system, the paper demonstrates how modularity of VCL's constructs, at different levels of granularity, help to tackle complexity. In particular, it shows how VCL's package construct and its associated composition mechanisms are key in supporting separation of concerns, coarse-grained problem decomposition and aspect-orientation. The case study's modelling solution has a clear and well-defined modular structure; the backbone of this structure is a collection of packages encapsulating local solutions to concerns.

Automating Risk Analysis of Software Design Models

PubMed Central

Ruiz, Guifré; Heymann, Elisa; César, Eduardo; Miller, Barton P.

2014-01-01

The growth of the internet and networked systems has exposed software to an increased amount of security threats. One of the responses from software developers to these threats is the introduction of security activities in the software development lifecycle. This paper describes an approach to reduce the need for costly human expertise to perform risk analysis in software, which is common in secure development methodologies, by automating threat modeling. Reducing the dependency on security experts aims at reducing the cost of secure development by allowing non-security-aware developers to apply secure development with little to no additional cost, making secure development more accessible. To automate threat modeling two data structures are introduced, identification trees and mitigation trees, to identify threats in software designs and advise mitigation techniques, while taking into account specification requirements and cost concerns. These are the components of our model for automated threat modeling, AutSEC. We validated AutSEC by implementing it in a tool based on data flow diagrams, from the Microsoft security development methodology, and applying it to VOMS, a grid middleware component, to evaluate our model's performance. PMID:25136688

Automating risk analysis of software design models.

PubMed

Frydman, Maxime; Ruiz, Guifré; Heymann, Elisa; César, Eduardo; Miller, Barton P

2014-01-01

The growth of the internet and networked systems has exposed software to an increased amount of security threats. One of the responses from software developers to these threats is the introduction of security activities in the software development lifecycle. This paper describes an approach to reduce the need for costly human expertise to perform risk analysis in software, which is common in secure development methodologies, by automating threat modeling. Reducing the dependency on security experts aims at reducing the cost of secure development by allowing non-security-aware developers to apply secure development with little to no additional cost, making secure development more accessible. To automate threat modeling two data structures are introduced, identification trees and mitigation trees, to identify threats in software designs and advise mitigation techniques, while taking into account specification requirements and cost concerns. These are the components of our model for automated threat modeling, AutSEC. We validated AutSEC by implementing it in a tool based on data flow diagrams, from the Microsoft security development methodology, and applying it to VOMS, a grid middleware component, to evaluate our model's performance.

Ground and Space Radar Volume Matching and Comparison Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, Kenneth; Schwaller, Mathew

2010-01-01

This software enables easy comparison of ground- and space-based radar observations. The software was initially designed to compare ground radar reflectivity from operational, ground based Sand C-band meteorological radars with comparable measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite s Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument. The software is also applicable to other ground-based and space-based radars. The ground and space radar volume matching and comparison software was developed in response to requirements defined by the Ground Validation System (GVS) of Goddard s Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) project. This software innovation is specifically concerned with simplifying the comparison of ground- and spacebased radar measurements for the purpose of GPM algorithm and data product validation. This software is unique in that it provides an operational environment to routinely create comparison products, and uses a direct geometric approach to derive common volumes of space- and ground-based radar data. In this approach, spatially coincident volumes are defined by the intersection of individual space-based Precipitation Radar rays with the each of the conical elevation sweeps of the ground radar. Thus, the resampled volume elements of the space and ground radar reflectivity can be directly compared to one another.

User Manuals for a Primary Care Electronic Medical Record System: A Mixed Methods Study of User- and Vendor-Generated Documents.

PubMed

Shachak, Aviv; Dow, Rustam; Barnsley, Jan; Tu, Karen; Domb, Sharon; Jadad, Alejandro R; Lemieux-Charles, Louise

2013-06-04

Tutorials and user manuals are important forms of impersonal support for using software applications including electronic medical records (EMRs). Differences between user- and vendor documentation may indicate support needs, which are not sufficiently addressed by the official documentation, and reveal new elements that may inform the design of tutorials and user manuals. What are the differences between user-generated tutorials and manuals for an EMR and the official user manual from the software vendor? Effective design of tutorials and user manuals requires careful packaging of information, balance between declarative and procedural texts, an action and task-oriented approach, support for error recognition and recovery, and effective use of visual elements. No previous research compared these elements between formal and informal documents. We conducted an mixed methods study. Seven tutorials and two manuals for an EMR were collected from three family health teams and compared with the official user manual from the software vendor. Documents were qualitatively analyzed using a framework analysis approach in relation to the principles of technical documentation described above. Subsets of the data were quantitatively analyzed using cross-tabulation to compare the types of error information and visual cues in screen captures between user- and vendor-generated manuals. The user-developed tutorials and manuals differed from the vendor-developed manual in that they contained mostly procedural and not declarative information; were customized to the specific workflow, user roles, and patient characteristics; contained more error information related to work processes than to software usage; and used explicit visual cues on screen captures to help users identify window elements. These findings imply that to support EMR implementation, tutorials and manuals need to be customized and adapted to specific organizational contexts and workflows. The main limitation of the study is its generalizability. Future research should address this limitation and may explore alternative approaches to software documentation, such as modular manuals or participatory design.

Libration Orbit Mission Design: Applications of Numerical & Dynamical Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Frank (Technical Monitor); Folta, David; Beckman, Mark

2002-01-01

Sun-Earth libration point orbits serve as excellent locations for scientific investigations. These orbits are often selected to minimize environmental disturbances and maximize observing efficiency. Trajectory design in support of libration orbits is ever more challenging as more complex missions are envisioned in the next decade. Trajectory design software must be further enabled to incorporate better understanding of the libration orbit solution space and thus improve the efficiency and expand the capabilities of current approaches. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is currently supporting multiple libration missions. This end-to-end support consists of mission operations, trajectory design, and control. It also includes algorithm and software development. The recently launched Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) and upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Constellation-X missions are examples of the use of improved numerical methods for attaining constrained orbital parameters and controlling their dynamical evolution at the collinear libration points. This paper presents a history of libration point missions, a brief description of the numerical and dynamical design techniques including software used, and a sample of future GSFC mission designs.

Model-Based Development of Automotive Electronic Climate Control Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kakade, Rupesh; Murugesan, Mohan; Perugu, Bhupal; Nair, Mohanan

With increasing complexity of software in today's products, writing and maintaining thousands of lines of code is a tedious task. Instead, an alternative methodology must be employed. Model-based development is one candidate that offers several benefits and allows engineers to focus on the domain of their expertise than writing huge codes. In this paper, we discuss the application of model-based development to the electronic climate control software of vehicles. The back-to-back testing approach is presented that ensures flawless and smooth transition from legacy designs to the model-based development. Simulink report generator to create design documents from the models is presented along with its usage to run the simulation model and capture the results into the test report. Test automation using model-based development tool that support the use of unique set of test cases for several testing levels and the test procedure that is independent of software and hardware platform is also presented.

Accuracy of computerized automatic identification of cephalometric landmarks by a designed software.

PubMed

Shahidi, Sh; Shahidi, S; Oshagh, M; Gozin, F; Salehi, P; Danaei, S M

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to design software for localization of cephalometric landmarks and to evaluate its accuracy in finding landmarks. 40 digital cephalometric radiographs were randomly selected. 16 landmarks which were important in most cephalometric analyses were chosen to be identified. Three expert orthodontists manually identified landmarks twice. The mean of two measurements of each landmark was defined as the baseline landmark. The computer was then able to compare the automatic system's estimate of a landmark with the baseline landmark. The software was designed using Delphi and Matlab programming languages. The techniques were template matching, edge enhancement and some accessory techniques. The total mean error between manually identified and automatically identified landmarks was 2.59 mm. 12.5% of landmarks had mean errors less than 1 mm. 43.75% of landmarks had mean errors less than 2 mm. The mean errors of all landmarks except the anterior nasal spine were less than 4 mm. This software had significant accuracy for localization of cephalometric landmarks and could be used in future applications. It seems that the accuracy obtained with the software which was developed in this study is better than previous automated systems that have used model-based and knowledge-based approaches.

Computational Support for Teachers' Design Thinking: Its Feasibility and Acceptability to Practitioners and Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masterman, Elizabeth; Walker, Simon; Bower, Matt

2013-01-01

A significant area of learning design research has been the development of software applications that guide teachers' thinking as they plan, construct and revise learning events for their students. In this paper, we review conceptualisations of, and approaches to, the activity of pedagogic design and highlight the implications for the provision of…

Artificial Intelligence Applications to Testability.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-10-01

general software assistant; examining testability utilization of it should wait a few years until the software assistant is a well defined product ...ago. It provides a single host which satisfies the needs of developers, product developers, and end users . As shown in table 5.10-2, it also provides...follows a trend towards more user -oriented design approaches to interactive computer systems. The implicit goal in this trend is the

Using a contextualized sensemaking model for interaction design: A case study of tumor contouring.

PubMed

Aselmaa, Anet; van Herk, Marcel; Laprie, Anne; Nestle, Ursula; Götz, Irina; Wiedenmann, Nicole; Schimek-Jasch, Tanja; Picaud, Francois; Syrykh, Charlotte; Cagetti, Leonel V; Jolnerovski, Maria; Song, Yu; Goossens, Richard H M

2017-01-01

Sensemaking theories help designers understand the cognitive processes of a user when he/she performs a complicated task. This paper introduces a two-step approach of incorporating sensemaking support within the design of health information systems by: (1) modeling the sensemaking process of physicians while performing a task, and (2) identifying software interaction design requirements that support sensemaking based on this model. The two-step approach is presented based on a case study of the tumor contouring clinical task for radiotherapy planning. In the first step of the approach, a contextualized sensemaking model was developed to describe the sensemaking process based on the goal, the workflow and the context of the task. In the second step, based on a research software prototype, an experiment was conducted where three contouring tasks were performed by eight physicians respectively. Four types of navigation interactions and five types of interaction sequence patterns were identified by analyzing the gathered interaction log data from those twenty-four cases. Further in-depth study on each of the navigation interactions and interaction sequence patterns in relation to the contextualized sensemaking model revealed five main areas for design improvements to increase sensemaking support. Outcomes of the case study indicate that the proposed two-step approach was beneficial for gaining a deeper understanding of the sensemaking process during the task, as well as for identifying design requirements for better sensemaking support. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Enhancing Students' Employability through Business Simulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avramenko, Alex

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach to business simulation with less dependence on business simulation software to provide innovative work experience within a programme of study, to boost students' confidence and employability. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on analysis of existing business simulation…

Virtual Classroom: Reflections of Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michael, Kathy

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify student and staff experiences with online learning at higher education (HE) using the software Elluminate Live! Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a qualitative approach, focusing on the reflections of participants (student and teacher) collated over a 12 month period of piloting online…

Large Scale Portability of Hospital Information System Software

PubMed Central

Munnecke, Thomas H.; Kuhn, Ingeborg M.

1986-01-01

As part of its Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP) the Veterans Administration installed new hospital information systems in 169 of its facilities during 1984 and 1985. The application software for these systems is based on the ANS MUMPS language, is public domain, and is designed to be operating system and hardware independent. The software, developed by VA employees, is built upon a layered approach, where application packages layer on a common data dictionary which is supported by a Kernel of software. Communications between facilities are based on public domain Department of Defense ARPA net standards for domain naming, mail transfer protocols, and message formats, layered on a variety of communications technologies.

Modernization of software quality assurance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhaumik, Gokul

1988-01-01

The customers satisfaction depends not only on functional performance, it also depends on the quality characteristics of the software products. An examination of this quality aspect of software products will provide a clear, well defined framework for quality assurance functions, which improve the life-cycle activities of software development. Software developers must be aware of the following aspects which have been expressed by many quality experts: quality cannot be added on; the level of quality built into a program is a function of the quality attributes employed during the development process; and finally, quality must be managed. These concepts have guided our development of the following definition for a Software Quality Assurance function: Software Quality Assurance is a formal, planned approach of actions designed to evaluate the degree of an identifiable set of quality attributes present in all software systems and their products. This paper is an explanation of how this definition was developed and how it is used.

Towards a general object-oriented software development methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidewitz, ED; Stark, Mike

1986-01-01

Object diagrams were used to design a 5000 statement team training exercise and to design the entire dynamics simulator. The object diagrams are also being used to design another 50,000 statement Ada system and a personal computer based system that will be written in Modula II. The design methodology evolves out of these experiences as well as the limitations of other methods that were studied. Object diagrams, abstraction analysis, and associated principles provide a unified framework which encompasses concepts from Yourdin, Booch, and Cherry. This general object-oriented approach handles high level system design, possibly with concurrency, through object-oriented decomposition down to a completely functional level. How object-oriented concepts can be used in other phases of the software life-cycle, such as specification and testing is being studied concurrently.

Airborne Intelligent Display (AID) Phase I Software Description,

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-10-24

Board Computer Characteristics 10 3.0 SOFTWARE GENERAL DESCRIPTION 13 3.1 Overview 13 3.2 System Software 14 3.2.1 System Startup 14 3.2.1.1 Initial...3 A-2 Task States A-4 A-3 Task Program Structure A-6 A-4 Task States and State Change Mechanisms A-7 A-5 Computing Return Addresses: RUNADR, SLPADR A...techniques. 2.2 Design Approach The stated objectives were met by: 1. distributing the processing load among multiple Z80 single-board computers (SBC’s). This

A CS1 Pedagogical Approach to Parallel Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rague, Brian William

2010-01-01

Almost all collegiate programs in Computer Science offer an introductory course in programming primarily devoted to communicating the foundational principles of software design and development. The ACM designates this introduction to computer programming course for first-year students as CS1, during which methodologies for solving problems within…

A Measured Approach to Microcomputer Lab Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duggan, Brian

1994-01-01

Explores design considerations for a functional microcomputer lab, including ergonomics and furnishings; access for the disabled; the use of other media; hardware security; and software security, including virus protection. A summary paragraph comments on the role of planning and forecasting. A bibliography of eight titles for further reading is…

Behavioral Science Design for Audio-Visual Software Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Dennis L.

1974-01-01

A discussion of the basic structure of the behavioral audio-visual production which consists of objectives analysis, approach determination, technical production, fulfillment evaluation, program refinement, implementation, and follow-up. (Author)

An Integrated Approach to Functional Engineering: An Engineering Database for Harness, Avionics and Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piras, Annamaria; Malucchi, Giovanni

2012-08-01

In the design and development phase of a new program one of the critical aspects is the integration of all the functional requirements of the system and the control of the overall consistency between the identified needs on one side and the available resources on the other side, especially when both the required needs and available resources are not yet consolidated, but they are evolving as the program maturity increases.The Integrated Engineering Harness Avionics and Software database (IDEHAS) is a tool that has been developed to support this process in the frame of the Avionics and Software disciplines through the different phases of the program. The tool is in fact designed to allow an incremental build up of the avionics and software systems, from the description of the high level architectural data (available in the early stages of the program) to the definition of the pin to pin connectivity information (typically consolidated in the design finalization stages) and finally to the construction and validation of the detailed telemetry parameters and commands to be used in the test phases and in the Mission Control Centre. The key feature of this approach and of the associated tool is that it allows the definition and the maintenance / update of all these data in a single, consistent environment.On one side a system level and concurrent approach requires the feasibility to easily integrate and update the best data available since the early stages of a program in order to improve confidence in the consistency and to control the design information.On the other side, the amount of information of different typologies and the cross-relationships among the data imply highly consolidated structures requiring lot of checks to guarantee the data content consistency with negative effects on simplicity and flexibility and often limiting the attention to special needs and to the interfaces with other disciplines.

Participatory Design, User Involvement and Health IT Evaluation.

PubMed

Kushniruk, Andre; Nøhr, Christian

2016-01-01

End user involvement and input into the design and evaluation of information systems has been recognized as being a critical success factor in the adoption of information systems. Nowhere is this need more critical than in the design of health information systems. Consistent with evidence from the general software engineering literature, the degree of user input into design of complex systems has been identified as one of the most important factors in the success or failure of complex information systems. The participatory approach goes beyond user-centered design and co-operative design approaches to include end users as more active participants in design ideas and decision making. Proponents of participatory approaches argue for greater end user participation in both design and evaluative processes. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of increased user involvement in design is explored in this contribution in the context of health IT. The contribution will discuss several approaches to including users in design and evaluation. Challenges in IT evaluation during participatory design will be described and explored along with several case studies.

Optical Design of Telescopes and other Reflective Systems using SLIDERS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howard, Joseph M.

2007-01-01

Optical design tools are presented to provide automatic generation of reflective optical systems for design studies and educational use. The tools are graphical in nature and use an interactive slider interface with freely available optical design software, OSLO EDU. Operation of the sliders provides input to adjust first-order and other system parameters (e.g. focal length), while appropriate system construction parameters are automatically updated to correct aberrations. Graphical output is also presented in real-time (e.g. a lens drawing) to provide the opportunity for a truly visual approach to optical design. Available systems include two- three- and four-mirror telescopes, relays, and afocal systems, either rotationally symmetric or having just a plane of symmetry. Demonstrations are presented, including a brief discussion of interfacing optical design software to MATLAB, and general research opportunities at NASA.

Measuring the complexity of design in real-time imaging software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sangwan, Raghvinder S.; Vercellone-Smith, Pamela; Laplante, Phillip A.

2007-02-01

Due to the intricacies in the algorithms involved, the design of imaging software is considered to be more complex than non-image processing software (Sangwan et al, 2005). A recent investigation (Larsson and Laplante, 2006) examined the complexity of several image processing and non-image processing software packages along a wide variety of metrics, including those postulated by McCabe (1976), Chidamber and Kemerer (1994), and Martin (2003). This work found that it was not always possible to quantitatively compare the complexity between imaging applications and nonimage processing systems. Newer research and an accompanying tool (Structure 101, 2006), however, provides a greatly simplified approach to measuring software complexity. Therefore it may be possible to definitively quantify the complexity differences between imaging and non-imaging software, between imaging and real-time imaging software, and between software programs of the same application type. In this paper, we review prior results and describe the methodology for measuring complexity in imaging systems. We then apply a new complexity measurement methodology to several sets of imaging and non-imaging code in order to compare the complexity differences between the two types of applications. The benefit of such quantification is far reaching, for example, leading to more easily measured performance improvement and quality in real-time imaging code.

From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aziz, Benjamin; Arenas, Alvaro E.; Bicarregui, Juan; Ponsard, Christophe; Massonet, Philippe

2009-01-01

In goal-oriented requirements engineering methodologies, goals are structured into refinement trees from high-level system-wide goals down to fine-grained requirements assigned to specific software/ hardware/human agents that can realise them. Functional goals assigned to software agents need to be operationalised into specification of services that the agent should provide to realise those requirements. In this paper, we propose an approach for operationalising requirements into specifications expressed in the Event-B formalism. Our approach has the benefit of aiding software designers by bridging the gap between declarative requirements and operational system specifications in a rigorous manner, enabling powerful correctness proofs and allowing further refinements down to the implementation level. Our solution is based on verifying that a consistent Event-B machine exhibits properties corresponding to requirements.

Multi-Flight-Phase GPS Navigation Filter Applications to Terrestrial Vehicle Navigation and Positioning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Park, Young W.; Montez, Moises N.

1994-01-01

A candidate onboard space navigation filter demonstrated excellent performance (less than 8 meter level RMS semi-major axis accuracy) in performing orbit determination of a low-Earth orbit Explorer satellite using single-frequency real GPS data. This performance is significantly better than predicted by other simulation studies using dual-frequency GPS data. The study results revealed the significance of two new modeling approaches evaluated in the work. One approach introduces a single-frequency ionospheric correction through pseudo-range and phase range averaging implementation. The other approach demonstrates a precise axis-dependent characterization of dynamic sample space uncertainty to compute a more accurate Kalman filter gain. Additionally, this navigation filter demonstrates a flexibility to accommodate both perturbational dynamic and observational biases required for multi-flight phase and inhomogeneous application environments. This paper reviews the potential application of these methods and the filter structure to terrestrial vehicle and positioning applications. Both the single-frequency ionospheric correction method and the axis-dependent state noise modeling approach offer valuable contributions in cost and accuracy improvements for terrestrial GPS receivers. With a modular design approach to either 'plug-in' or 'unplug' various force models, this multi-flight phase navigation filter design structure also provides a versatile GPS navigation software engine for both atmospheric and exo-atmospheric navigation or positioning use, thereby streamlining the flight phase or application-dependent software requirements. Thus, a standardized GPS navigation software engine that can reduce the development and maintenance cost of commercial GPS receivers is now possible.

Evolution of Autonomous Self-Righting Behaviors for Articulated Nanorovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tunstel, Edward

1999-01-01

Miniature rovers with articulated mobility mechanisms are being developed for planetary surface exploration on Mars and small solar system bodies. These vehicles are designed to be capable of autonomous recovery from overturning during surface operations. This paper describes a computational means of developing motion behaviors that achieve the autonomous recovery function. It proposes a control software design approach aimed at reducing the effort involved in developing self-righting behaviors. The approach is based on the integration of evolutionary computing with a dynamics simulation environment for evolving and evaluating motion behaviors. The automated behavior design approach is outlined and its underlying genetic programming infrastructure is described.

Why and how Mastering an Incremental and Iterative Software Development Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dubuc, François; Guichoux, Bernard; Cormery, Patrick; Mescam, Jean Christophe

2004-06-01

One of the key issues regularly mentioned in the current software crisis of the space domain is related to the software development process that must be performed while the system definition is not yet frozen. This is especially true for complex systems like launchers or space vehicles.Several more or less mature solutions are under study by EADS SPACE Transportation and are going to be presented in this paper. The basic principle is to develop the software through an iterative and incremental process instead of the classical waterfall approach, with the following advantages:- It permits systematic management and incorporation of requirements changes over the development cycle with a minimal cost. As far as possible the most dimensioning requirements are analyzed and developed in priority for validating very early the architecture concept without the details.- A software prototype is very quickly available. It improves the communication between system and software teams, as it enables to check very early and efficiently the common understanding of the system requirements.- It allows the software team to complete a whole development cycle very early, and thus to become quickly familiar with the software development environment (methodology, technology, tools...). This is particularly important when the team is new, or when the environment has changed since the previous development. Anyhow, it improves a lot the learning curve of the software team.These advantages seem very attractive, but mastering efficiently an iterative development process is not so easy and induces a lot of difficulties such as:- How to freeze one configuration of the system definition as a development baseline, while most of thesystem requirements are completely and naturally unstable?- How to distinguish stable/unstable and dimensioning/standard requirements?- How to plan the development of each increment?- How to link classical waterfall development milestones with an iterative approach: when should theclassical reviews be performed: Software Specification Review? Preliminary Design Review? CriticalDesign Review? Code Review? Etc...Several solutions envisaged or already deployed by EADS SPACE Transportation will be presented, both from a methodological and technological point of view:- How the MELANIE EADS ST internal methodology improves the concurrent engineering activitiesbetween GNC, software and simulation teams in a very iterative and reactive way.- How the CMM approach can help by better formalizing Requirements Management and Planningprocesses.- How the Automatic Code Generation with "certified" tools (SCADE) can still dramatically shorten thedevelopment cycle.Then the presentation will conclude by showing an evaluation of the cost and planning reduction based on a pilot application by comparing figures on two similar projects: one with the classical waterfall process, the other one with an iterative and incremental approach.

SLS Flight Software Testing: Using a Modified Agile Software Testing Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolton, Albanie T.

2016-01-01

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is an advanced launch vehicle for a new era of exploration beyond earth's orbit (BEO). The world's most powerful rocket, SLS, will launch crews of up to four astronauts in the agency's Orion spacecraft on missions to explore multiple deep-space destinations. Boeing is developing the SLS core stage, including the avionics that will control vehicle during flight. The core stage will be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, LA using state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. At the same time, the rocket's avionics computer software is being developed here at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. At Marshall, the Flight and Ground Software division provides comprehensive engineering expertise for development of flight and ground software. Within that division, the Software Systems Engineering Branch's test and verification (T&V) team uses an agile test approach in testing and verification of software. The agile software test method opens the door for regular short sprint release cycles. The idea or basic premise behind the concept of agile software development and testing is that it is iterative and developed incrementally. Agile testing has an iterative development methodology where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams. With testing and development done incrementally, this allows for increased features and enhanced value for releases. This value can be seen throughout the T&V team processes that are documented in various work instructions within the branch. The T&V team produces procedural test results at a higher rate, resolves issues found in software with designers at an earlier stage versus at a later release, and team members gain increased knowledge of the system architecture by interfacing with designers. SLS Flight Software teams want to continue uncovering better ways of developing software in an efficient and project beneficial manner. Through agile testing, there has been increased value through individuals and interactions over processes and tools, improved customer collaboration, and improved responsiveness to changes through controlled planning. The presentation will describe agile testing methodology as taken with the SLS FSW Test and Verification team at Marshall Space Flight Center.

Frequency Estimator Performance for a Software-Based Beacon Receiver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zemba, Michael J.; Morse, Jacquelynne R.; Nessel, James A.

2014-01-01

As propagation terminals have evolved, their design has trended more toward a software-based approach that facilitates convenient adjustment and customization of the receiver algorithms. One potential improvement is the implementation of a frequency estimation algorithm, through which the primary frequency component of the received signal can be estimated with a much greater resolution than with a simple peak search of the FFT spectrum. To select an estimator for usage in a Q/V-band beacon receiver, analysis of six frequency estimators was conducted to characterize their effectiveness as they relate to beacon receiver design.

Adaptive cyber-attack modeling system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonsalves, Paul G.; Dougherty, Edward T.

2006-05-01

The pervasiveness of software and networked information systems is evident across a broad spectrum of business and government sectors. Such reliance provides an ample opportunity not only for the nefarious exploits of lone wolf computer hackers, but for more systematic software attacks from organized entities. Much effort and focus has been placed on preventing and ameliorating network and OS attacks, a concomitant emphasis is required to address protection of mission critical software. Typical software protection technique and methodology evaluation and verification and validation (V&V) involves the use of a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) to mimic potential attackers or hackers. This manpower intensive, time-consuming, and potentially cost-prohibitive approach is not amenable to performing the necessary multiple non-subjective analyses required to support quantifying software protection levels. To facilitate the evaluation and V&V of software protection solutions, we have designed and developed a prototype adaptive cyber attack modeling system. Our approach integrates an off-line mechanism for rapid construction of Bayesian belief network (BN) attack models with an on-line model instantiation, adaptation and knowledge acquisition scheme. Off-line model construction is supported via a knowledge elicitation approach for identifying key domain requirements and a process for translating these requirements into a library of BN-based cyber-attack models. On-line attack modeling and knowledge acquisition is supported via BN evidence propagation and model parameter learning.

Software for math and science education for the deaf.

PubMed

Adamo-Villani, Nicoletta; Wilbur, Ronnie

2010-01-01

In this article, we describe the development of two novel approaches to teaching math and science concepts to deaf children using 3D animated interactive software. One approach, Mathsigner, is non-immersive and the other, SMILE, is a virtual reality immersive environment. The content is curriculum-based, and the animated signing characters are constructed with state-of-the art technology and design. We report preliminary development findings of usability and appeal based on programme features (e.g. 2D/3D, immersiveness, interaction type, avatar and interface design) and subject features (hearing status, gender and age). Programme features of 2D/3D, immersiveness and interaction type were very much affected by subject features. Among subject features, we find significant effects of hearing status (deaf children take longer time and make more mistakes than hearing children) and gender (girls take longer than boys; girls prefer immersive environments rather than desktop presentation; girls are more interested in content than technology compared to boys). For avatar type, we found a preference for seamless, deformable characters over segmented ones. For interface comparisons, there were no subject effects, but an animated interface resulted in reduced time to task completion compared to static interfaces with and without sound and highlighting. These findings identify numerous features that affect software design and appeal and suggest that designers must be careful in their assumptions during programme development.

Technical Reference Suite Addressing Challenges of Providing Assurance for Fault Management Architectural Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fitz, Rhonda; Whitman, Gerek

2016-01-01

Research into complexities of software systems Fault Management (FM) and how architectural design decisions affect safety, preservation of assets, and maintenance of desired system functionality has coalesced into a technical reference (TR) suite that advances the provision of safety and mission assurance. The NASA Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program, with Software Assurance Research Program support, extracted FM architectures across the IV&V portfolio to evaluate robustness, assess visibility for validation and test, and define software assurance methods applied to the architectures and designs. This investigation spanned IV&V projects with seven different primary developers, a wide range of sizes and complexities, and encompassed Deep Space Robotic, Human Spaceflight, and Earth Orbiter mission FM architectures. The initiative continues with an expansion of the TR suite to include Launch Vehicles, adding the benefit of investigating differences intrinsic to model-based FM architectures and insight into complexities of FM within an Agile software development environment, in order to improve awareness of how nontraditional processes affect FM architectural design and system health management. The identification of particular FM architectures, visibility, and associated IV&V techniques provides a TR suite that enables greater assurance that critical software systems will adequately protect against faults and respond to adverse conditions. Additionally, the role FM has with regard to strengthened security requirements, with potential to advance overall asset protection of flight software systems, is being addressed with the development of an adverse conditions database encompassing flight software vulnerabilities. Capitalizing on the established framework, this TR suite provides assurance capability for a variety of FM architectures and varied development approaches. Research results are being disseminated across NASA, other agencies, and the software community. This paper discusses the findings and TR suite informing the FM domain in best practices for FM architectural design, visibility observations, and methods employed for IV&V and mission assurance.

A Computational Workflow for the Automated Generation of Models of Genetic Designs.

PubMed

Misirli, Göksel; Nguyen, Tramy; McLaughlin, James Alastair; Vaidyanathan, Prashant; Jones, Timothy S; Densmore, Douglas; Myers, Chris; Wipat, Anil

2018-06-05

Computational models are essential to engineer predictable biological systems and to scale up this process for complex systems. Computational modeling often requires expert knowledge and data to build models. Clearly, manual creation of models is not scalable for large designs. Despite several automated model construction approaches, computational methodologies to bridge knowledge in design repositories and the process of creating computational models have still not been established. This paper describes a workflow for automatic generation of computational models of genetic circuits from data stored in design repositories using existing standards. This workflow leverages the software tool SBOLDesigner to build structural models that are then enriched by the Virtual Parts Repository API using Systems Biology Open Language (SBOL) data fetched from the SynBioHub design repository. The iBioSim software tool is then utilized to convert this SBOL description into a computational model encoded using the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML). Finally, this SBML model can be simulated using a variety of methods. This workflow provides synthetic biologists with easy to use tools to create predictable biological systems, hiding away the complexity of building computational models. This approach can further be incorporated into other computational workflows for design automation.

Efficacy and Physicochemical Evaluation of an Optimized Semisolid Formulation of Povidone Iodine Proposed by Extreme Vertices Statistical Design; a Practical Approach

PubMed Central

Lotfipour, Farzaneh; Valizadeh, Hadi; Shademan, Shahin; Monajjemzadeh, Farnaz

2015-01-01

One of the most significant issues in pharmaceutical industries, prior to commercialization of a pharmaceutical preparation is the "preformulation" stage. However, far too attention has been paid to verification of the software assisted statistical designs in preformulation studies. The main aim of this study was to report a step by step preformulation approach for a semisolid preparation based on a statistical mixture design and to verify the predictions made by the software with an in-vitro efficacy bioassay test. Extreme vertices mixture design (4 factors, 4 levels) was applied for preformulation of a semisolid Povidone Iodine preparation as Water removable ointment using different PolyEthylenGlycoles. Software Assisted (Minitab) analysis was then performed using four practically assessed response values including; Available iodine, viscosity (N index and yield value) and water absorption capacity. Subsequently mixture analysis was performed and finally, an optimized formulation was proposed. The efficacy of this formulation was bio-assayed using microbial tests in-vitro and MIC values were calculated for Escherichia coli, pseudomonaaeruginosa, staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Results indicated the acceptable conformity of the measured responses. Thus, it can be concluded that the proposed design had an adequate power to predict the responses in practice. Stability studies, proved no significant change during the one year study for the optimized formulation. Efficacy was eligible on all tested species and in the case of staphylococcus aureus; the prepared semisolid formulation was even more effective. PMID:26664368

Modeling strategic use of human computer interfaces with novel hidden Markov models

PubMed Central

Mariano, Laura J.; Poore, Joshua C.; Krum, David M.; Schwartz, Jana L.; Coskren, William D.; Jones, Eric M.

2015-01-01

Immersive software tools are virtual environments designed to give their users an augmented view of real-world data and ways of manipulating that data. As virtual environments, every action users make while interacting with these tools can be carefully logged, as can the state of the software and the information it presents to the user, giving these actions context. This data provides a high-resolution lens through which dynamic cognitive and behavioral processes can be viewed. In this report, we describe new methods for the analysis and interpretation of such data, utilizing a novel implementation of the Beta Process Hidden Markov Model (BP-HMM) for analysis of software activity logs. We further report the results of a preliminary study designed to establish the validity of our modeling approach. A group of 20 participants were asked to play a simple computer game, instrumented to log every interaction with the interface. Participants had no previous experience with the game's functionality or rules, so the activity logs collected during their naïve interactions capture patterns of exploratory behavior and skill acquisition as they attempted to learn the rules of the game. Pre- and post-task questionnaires probed for self-reported styles of problem solving, as well as task engagement, difficulty, and workload. We jointly modeled the activity log sequences collected from all participants using the BP-HMM approach, identifying a global library of activity patterns representative of the collective behavior of all the participants. Analyses show systematic relationships between both pre- and post-task questionnaires, self-reported approaches to analytic problem solving, and metrics extracted from the BP-HMM decomposition. Overall, we find that this novel approach to decomposing unstructured behavioral data within software environments provides a sensible means for understanding how users learn to integrate software functionality for strategic task pursuit. PMID:26191026

An Architecture, System Engineering, and Acquisition Approach for Space System Software Resiliency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Dewanne Marie

Software intensive space systems can harbor defects and vulnerabilities that may enable external adversaries or malicious insiders to disrupt or disable system functions, risking mission compromise or loss. Mitigating this risk demands a sustained focus on the security and resiliency of the system architecture including software, hardware, and other components. Robust software engineering practices contribute to the foundation of a resilient system so that the system "can take a hit to a critical component and recover in a known, bounded, and generally acceptable period of time". Software resiliency must be a priority and addressed early in the life cycle development to contribute a secure and dependable space system. Those who develop, implement, and operate software intensive space systems must determine the factors and systems engineering practices to address when investing in software resiliency. This dissertation offers methodical approaches for improving space system resiliency through software architecture design, system engineering, increased software security, thereby reducing the risk of latent software defects and vulnerabilities. By providing greater attention to the early life cycle phases of development, we can alter the engineering process to help detect, eliminate, and avoid vulnerabilities before space systems are delivered. To achieve this objective, this dissertation will identify knowledge, techniques, and tools that engineers and managers can utilize to help them recognize how vulnerabilities are produced and discovered so that they can learn to circumvent them in future efforts. We conducted a systematic review of existing architectural practices, standards, security and coding practices, various threats, defects, and vulnerabilities that impact space systems from hundreds of relevant publications and interviews of subject matter experts. We expanded on the system-level body of knowledge for resiliency and identified a new software architecture framework and acquisition methodology to improve the resiliency of space systems from a software perspective with an emphasis on the early phases of the systems engineering life cycle. This methodology involves seven steps: 1) Define technical resiliency requirements, 1a) Identify standards/policy for software resiliency, 2) Develop a request for proposal (RFP)/statement of work (SOW) for resilient space systems software, 3) Define software resiliency goals for space systems, 4) Establish software resiliency quality attributes, 5) Perform architectural tradeoffs and identify risks, 6) Conduct architecture assessments as part of the procurement process, and 7) Ascertain space system software architecture resiliency metrics. Data illustrates that software vulnerabilities can lead to opportunities for malicious cyber activities, which could degrade the space mission capability for the user community. Reducing the number of vulnerabilities by improving architecture and software system engineering practices can contribute to making space systems more resilient. Since cyber-attacks are enabled by shortfalls in software, robust software engineering practices and an architectural design are foundational to resiliency, which is a quality that allows the system to "take a hit to a critical component and recover in a known, bounded, and generally acceptable period of time". To achieve software resiliency for space systems, acquirers and suppliers must identify relevant factors and systems engineering practices to apply across the lifecycle, in software requirements analysis, architecture development, design, implementation, verification and validation, and maintenance phases.

Architecture-Based Unit Testing of the Flight Software Product Line

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ganesan, Dharmalingam; Lindvall, Mikael; McComas, David; Bartholomew, Maureen; Slegel, Steve; Medina, Barbara

2010-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of the unit testing approach developed and used by the Core Flight Software (CFS) product line team at the NASA GSFC. The goal of the analysis is to understand, review, and reconunend strategies for improving the existing unit testing infrastructure as well as to capture lessons learned and best practices that can be used by other product line teams for their unit testing. The CFS unit testing framework is designed and implemented as a set of variation points, and thus testing support is built into the product line architecture. The analysis found that the CFS unit testing approach has many practical and good solutions that are worth considering when deciding how to design the testing architecture for a product line, which are documented in this paper along with some suggested innprovennents.

In the soft-to-hard technical spectrum: Where is software engineering?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leibfried, Theodore F.; Macdonald, Robert B.

1992-01-01

In the computer journals and tabloids, there have been a plethora of articles written about the software engineering field. But while advocates of the need for an engineering approach to software development, it is impressive how many authors have treated the subject of software engineering without adequately addressing the fundamentals of what engineering as a discipline consists of. A discussion is presented of the various related facets of this issue in a logical framework to advance the thesis that the software development process is necessarily an engineering process. The purpose is to examine more of the details of the issue of whether or not the design and development of software for digital computer processing systems should be both viewed and treated as a legitimate field of professional engineering. Also, the type of academic and professional level education programs that would be required to support a software engineering discipline is examined.

Integrating Cost as an Independent Variable Analysis with Evolutionary Acquisition - A Multiattribute Design Evaluation Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-03-01

within the Automated Cost Estimating Integrated Tools ( ACEIT ) software suite (version 5.x). With this capability, one can set cost targets or time...not allow the user to vary more than one decision variable. This limitation of the ACEIT approach thus hinders a holistic view when attempting to

Mercury⊕: An evidential reasoning image classifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peddle, Derek R.

1995-12-01

MERCURY⊕ is a multisource evidential reasoning classification software system based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence. The design and implementation of this software package is described for improving the classification and analysis of multisource digital image data necessary for addressing advanced environmental and geoscience applications. In the remote-sensing context, the approach provides a more appropriate framework for classifying modern, multisource, and ancillary data sets which may contain a large number of disparate variables with different statistical properties, scales of measurement, and levels of error which cannot be handled using conventional Bayesian approaches. The software uses a nonparametric, supervised approach to classification, and provides a more objective and flexible interface to the evidential reasoning framework using a frequency-based method for computing support values from training data. The MERCURY⊕ software package has been implemented efficiently in the C programming language, with extensive use made of dynamic memory allocation procedures and compound linked list and hash-table data structures to optimize the storage and retrieval of evidence in a Knowledge Look-up Table. The software is complete with a full user interface and runs under Unix, Ultrix, VAX/VMS, MS-DOS, and Apple Macintosh operating system. An example of classifying alpine land cover and permafrost active layer depth in northern Canada is presented to illustrate the use and application of these ideas.

A stochastic optimal feedforward and feedback control methodology for superagility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halyo, Nesim; Direskeneli, Haldun; Taylor, Deborah B.

1992-01-01

A new control design methodology is developed: Stochastic Optimal Feedforward and Feedback Technology (SOFFT). Traditional design techniques optimize a single cost function (which expresses the design objectives) to obtain both the feedforward and feedback control laws. This approach places conflicting demands on the control law such as fast tracking versus noise atttenuation/disturbance rejection. In the SOFFT approach, two cost functions are defined. The feedforward control law is designed to optimize one cost function, the feedback optimizes the other. By separating the design objectives and decoupling the feedforward and feedback design processes, both objectives can be achieved fully. A new measure of command tracking performance, Z-plots, is also developed. By analyzing these plots at off-nominal conditions, the sensitivity or robustness of the system in tracking commands can be predicted. Z-plots provide an important tool for designing robust control systems. The Variable-Gain SOFFT methodology was used to design a flight control system for the F/A-18 aircraft. It is shown that SOFFT can be used to expand the operating regime and provide greater performance (flying/handling qualities) throughout the extended flight regime. This work was performed under the NASA SBIR program. ICS plans to market the software developed as a new module in its commercial CACSD software package: ACET.

Component Technology for High-Performance Scientific Simulation Software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Epperly, T; Kohn, S; Kumfert, G

2000-11-09

We are developing scientific software component technology to manage the complexity of modem, parallel simulation software and increase the interoperability and re-use of scientific software packages. In this paper, we describe a language interoperability tool named Babel that enables the creation and distribution of language-independent software libraries using interface definition language (IDL) techniques. We have created a scientific IDL that focuses on the unique interface description needs of scientific codes, such as complex numbers, dense multidimensional arrays, complicated data types, and parallelism. Preliminary results indicate that in addition to language interoperability, this approach provides useful tools for thinking about themore » design of modem object-oriented scientific software libraries. Finally, we also describe a web-based component repository called Alexandria that facilitates the distribution, documentation, and re-use of scientific components and libraries.« less

An adaptive software defined radio design based on a standard space telecommunication radio system API

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiong, Wenhao; Tian, Xin; Chen, Genshe; Pham, Khanh; Blasch, Erik

2017-05-01

Software defined radio (SDR) has become a popular tool for the implementation and testing for communications performance. The advantage of the SDR approach includes: a re-configurable design, adaptive response to changing conditions, efficient development, and highly versatile implementation. In order to understand the benefits of SDR, the space telecommunication radio system (STRS) was proposed by NASA Glenn research center (GRC) along with the standard application program interface (API) structure. Each component of the system uses a well-defined API to communicate with other components. The benefit of standard API is to relax the platform limitation of each component for addition options. For example, the waveform generating process can support a field programmable gate array (FPGA), personal computer (PC), or an embedded system. As long as the API defines the requirements, the generated waveform selection will work with the complete system. In this paper, we demonstrate the design and development of adaptive SDR following the STRS and standard API protocol. We introduce step by step the SDR testbed system including the controlling graphic user interface (GUI), database, GNU radio hardware control, and universal software radio peripheral (USRP) tranceiving front end. In addition, a performance evaluation in shown on the effectiveness of the SDR approach for space telecommunication.

Designing Image Analysis Pipelines in Light Microscopy: A Rational Approach.

PubMed

Arganda-Carreras, Ignacio; Andrey, Philippe

2017-01-01

With the progress of microscopy techniques and the rapidly growing amounts of acquired imaging data, there is an increased need for automated image processing and analysis solutions in biological studies. Each new application requires the design of a specific image analysis pipeline, by assembling a series of image processing operations. Many commercial or free bioimage analysis software are now available and several textbooks and reviews have presented the mathematical and computational fundamentals of image processing and analysis. Tens, if not hundreds, of algorithms and methods have been developed and integrated into image analysis software, resulting in a combinatorial explosion of possible image processing sequences. This paper presents a general guideline methodology to rationally address the design of image processing and analysis pipelines. The originality of the proposed approach is to follow an iterative, backwards procedure from the target objectives of analysis. The proposed goal-oriented strategy should help biologists to better apprehend image analysis in the context of their research and should allow them to efficiently interact with image processing specialists.

Designer's unified cost model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freeman, William T.; Ilcewicz, L. B.; Swanson, G. D.; Gutowski, T.

1992-01-01

A conceptual and preliminary designers' cost prediction model has been initiated. The model will provide a technically sound method for evaluating the relative cost of different composite structural designs, fabrication processes, and assembly methods that can be compared to equivalent metallic parts or assemblies. The feasibility of developing cost prediction software in a modular form for interfacing with state of the art preliminary design tools and computer aided design programs is being evaluated. The goal of this task is to establish theoretical cost functions that relate geometric design features to summed material cost and labor content in terms of process mechanics and physics. The output of the designers' present analytical tools will be input for the designers' cost prediction model to provide the designer with a data base and deterministic cost methodology that allows one to trade and synthesize designs with both cost and weight as objective functions for optimization. The approach, goals, plans, and progress is presented for development of COSTADE (Cost Optimization Software for Transport Aircraft Design Evaluation).

Trajectory design strategies that incorporate invariant manifolds and swingby

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guzman, J. J.; Cooley, D. S.; Howell, K. C.; Folta, D. C.

1998-01-01

Libration point orbits serve as excellent platforms for scientific investigations involving the Sun as well as planetary environments. Trajectory design in support of such missions is increasingly challenging as more complex missions are envisioned in the next few decades. Software tools for trajectory design in this regime must be further developed to incorporate better understanding of the solution space and, thus, improve the efficiency and expand the capabilities of current approaches. Only recently applied to trajectory design, dynamical systems theory now offers new insights into the natural dynamics associated with the multi-body problem. The goal of this effort is the blending of analysis from dynamical systems theory with the well established NASA Goddard software program SWINGBY to enhance and expand the capabilities for mission design. Basic knowledge concerning the solution space is improved as well.

Manufacturing of ArF chromeless hard shifter for 65-nm technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Keun-Taek; Dieu, Laurent; Hughes, Greg P.; Green, Kent G.; Croffie, Ebo H.; Taravade, Kunal N.

2003-12-01

For logic design, Chrome-less Phase Shift Mask is one of the possible solutions for defining small geometry with low MEF (mask enhancement factor) for the 65nm node. There have been lots of dedicated studies on the PCO (Phase Chrome Off-axis) mask technology and several design approaches have been proposed including grating background, chrome patches (or chrome shield) for applying PCO on line/space and contact pattern. In this paper, we studied the feasibility of grating design for line and contact pattern. The design of the grating pattern was provided from the EM simulation software (TEMPEST) and the aerial image simulation software. AIMS measurements with high NA annular illumination were done. Resist images were taken on designed pattern in different focus. Simulations, AIMS are compared to verify the consistency of the process with wafer printed performance.

Design, testing, and delivery of an interactive graphics display subsystem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holmes, B.

1973-01-01

An interactive graphics display system was designed to be used in locating components on a printed circuit card and outputting data concerning their thermal values. The manner in which this was accomplished in terms of both hardware and software is described. An analysis of the accuracy of this approach is also included.

Assisting Bulgarian Special Educators with Competency Development Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Rob; Herrington, Jan; Konza, Deslea; Tzvetkova-Arsova, Mira; Stefanov, Krassen

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss an expansion of the Special Education Bulgaria (SEB) internet community that is required to pilot software created by the European Union's (EU's) Sixth Framework integrated project, TENCompetence. Design/methodology/approach: SEB is the product of a two-year research project designed to create a…

Agent oriented programming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shoham, Yoav

1994-01-01

The goal of our research is a methodology for creating robust software in distributed and dynamic environments. The approach taken is to endow software objects with explicit information about one another, to have them interact through a commitment mechanism, and to equip them with a speech-acty communication language. System-level applications include software interoperation and compositionality. A government application of specific interest is an infrastructure for coordination among multiple planners. Daily activity applications include personal software assistants, such as programmable email, scheduling, and new group agents. Research topics include definition of mental state of agents, design of agent languages as well as interpreters for those languages, and mechanisms for coordination within agent societies such as artificial social laws and conventions.

Architecture-driven reuse of code in KASE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhansali, Sanjay

1993-01-01

In order to support the synthesis of large, complex software systems, we need to focus on issues pertaining to the architectural design of a system in addition to algorithm and data structure design. An approach that is based on abstracting the architectural design of a set of problems in the form of a generic architecture, and providing tools that can be used to instantiate the generic architecture for specific problem instances is presented. Such an approach also facilitates reuse of code between different systems belonging to the same problem class. An application of our approach on a realistic problem is described; the results of the exercise are presented; and how our approach compares to other work in this area is discussed.

Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Flight Software (FSW): A Unique Approach to Exercise in Long Duration Habitats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mangieri, Mark

2005-01-01

ARED flight instrumentation software is associated with an overall custom designed resistive exercise system that will be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS). This innovative software application fuses together many diverse and new technologies into a robust and usable package. The software takes advantage of touchscreen user interface technology by providing a graphical user interface on a Windows based tablet PC, meeting a design constraint of keyboard-less interaction with flight crewmembers. The software interacts with modified commercial data acquisition (DAQ) hardware to acquire multiple channels of sensor measurment from the ARED device. This information is recorded on the tablet PC and made available, via International Space Station (ISS) Wireless LAN (WLAN) and telemetry subsystems, to ground based mission medics and trainers for analysis. The software includes a feature to accept electronically encoded prescriptions of exercises that guide crewmembers through a customized regimen of resistive weight training, based on personal analysis. These electronically encoded prescriptions are provided to the crew via ISS WLAN and telemetry subsystems. All personal data is securely associated with an individual crew member, based on a PIN ID mechanism.

Knowledge-based reusable software synthesis system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donaldson, Cammie

1989-01-01

The Eli system, a knowledge-based reusable software synthesis system, is being developed for NASA Langley under a Phase 2 SBIR contract. Named after Eli Whitney, the inventor of interchangeable parts, Eli assists engineers of large-scale software systems in reusing components while they are composing their software specifications or designs. Eli will identify reuse potential, search for components, select component variants, and synthesize components into the developer's specifications. The Eli project began as a Phase 1 SBIR to define a reusable software synthesis methodology that integrates reusabilityinto the top-down development process and to develop an approach for an expert system to promote and accomplish reuse. The objectives of the Eli Phase 2 work are to integrate advanced technologies to automate the development of reusable components within the context of large system developments, to integrate with user development methodologies without significant changes in method or learning of special languages, and to make reuse the easiest operation to perform. Eli will try to address a number of reuse problems including developing software with reusable components, managing reusable components, identifying reusable components, and transitioning reuse technology. Eli is both a library facility for classifying, storing, and retrieving reusable components and a design environment that emphasizes, encourages, and supports reuse.

Domain analysis for the reuse of software development experiences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, V. R.; Briand, L. C.; Thomas, W. M.

1994-01-01

We need to be able to learn from past experiences so we can improve our software processes and products. The Experience Factory is an organizational structure designed to support and encourage the effective reuse of software experiences. This structure consists of two organizations which separates project development concerns from organizational concerns of experience packaging and learning. The experience factory provides the processes and support for analyzing, packaging, and improving the organization's stored experience. The project organization is structured to reuse this stored experience in its development efforts. However, a number of questions arise: What past experiences are relevant? Can they all be used (reused) on our current project? How do we take advantage of what has been learned in other parts of the organization? How do we take advantage of experience in the world-at-large? Can someone else's best practices be used in our organization with confidence? This paper describes approaches to help answer these questions. We propose both quantitative and qualitative approaches for effectively reusing software development experiences.

Toolpack mathematical software development environment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Osterweil, L.

1982-07-21

The purpose of this research project was to produce a well integrated set of tools for the support of numerical computation. The project entailed the specification, design and implementation of both a diversity of tools and an innovative tool integration mechanism. This large configuration of tightly integrated tools comprises an environment for numerical software development, and has been named Toolpack/IST (Integrated System of Tools). Following the creation of this environment in prototype form, the environment software was readied for widespread distribution by transitioning it to a development organization for systematization, documentation and distribution. It is expected that public release ofmore » Toolpack/IST will begin imminently and will provide a basis for evaluation of the innovative software approaches taken as well as a uniform set of development tools for the numerical software community.« less

Model format for a vaccine stability report and software solutions.

PubMed

Shin, Jinho; Southern, James; Schofield, Timothy

2009-11-01

A session of the International Association for Biologicals Workshop on Stability Evaluation of Vaccine, a Life Cycle Approach was devoted to a model format for a vaccine stability report, and software solutions. Presentations highlighted the utility of a model format that will conform to regulatory requirements and the ICH common technical document. However, there need be flexibility to accommodate individual company practices. Adoption of a model format is premised upon agreement regarding content between industry and regulators, and ease of use. Software requirements will include ease of use and protections against inadvertent misspecification of stability design or misinterpretation of program output.

Assessment of CTAS ETA prediction capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolender, Michael A.

1994-11-01

This report summarizes the work done to date in assessing the trajectory fidelity and estimated time of arrival (ETA) prediction capability of the NASA Ames Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) software. The CTAS software suite is a series of computer programs designed to aid air traffic controllers in their tasks of safely scheduling the landing sequence of approaching aircraft. in particular, this report concerns the accuracy of the available measurements (e.g., position, altitude, etc.) that are input to the software, as well as the accuracy of the final data that is made available to the air traffic controllers.

Formal specification and verification of Ada software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hird, Geoffrey R.

1991-01-01

The use of formal methods in software development achieves levels of quality assurance unobtainable by other means. The Larch approach to specification is described, and the specification of avionics software designed to implement the logic of a flight control system is given as an example. Penelope is described which is an Ada-verification environment. The Penelope user inputs mathematical definitions, Larch-style specifications and Ada code and performs machine-assisted proofs that the code obeys its specifications. As an example, the verification of a binary search function is considered. Emphasis is given to techniques assisting the reuse of a verification effort on modified code.

Automated Software Generation Approaches for the Design and Development of Guidance and Control Systems Software (Les Differentes Approches Generation pour la Conception et le Developpement de Logiciels de Guidage et de Pilotage)

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-03-01

de Logiciels") etaient en cours de developpement pour resoudre des problimes similaires dans le monde de la gestion . le Panel... gestion des sp cifications, d’algorithmes et de reprtsentations. Techniques et Sciences Informatiques, 4(3), 1985. 4-21 R. Jacquart, M. Lemoine, and G...Guidance and Control Systems Software (Les Diff~rentes Approches "G6neration" pour la Conception et le D~veloppement de Logiciels de Guidage et de

VA's Integrated Imaging System on three platforms.

PubMed

Dayhoff, R E; Maloney, D L; Majurski, W J

1992-01-01

The DHCP Integrated Imaging System provides users with integrated patient data including text, image and graphics data. This system has been transferred from its original two screen DOS-based MUMPS platform to an X window workstation and a Microsoft Windows-based workstation. There are differences between these various platforms that impact on software design and on software development strategy. Data structures and conventions were used to isolate hardware, operating system, imaging software, and user-interface differences between platforms in the implementation of functionality for text and image display and interaction. The use of an object-oriented approach greatly increased system portability.

VA's Integrated Imaging System on three platforms.

PubMed Central

Dayhoff, R. E.; Maloney, D. L.; Majurski, W. J.

1992-01-01

The DHCP Integrated Imaging System provides users with integrated patient data including text, image and graphics data. This system has been transferred from its original two screen DOS-based MUMPS platform to an X window workstation and a Microsoft Windows-based workstation. There are differences between these various platforms that impact on software design and on software development strategy. Data structures and conventions were used to isolate hardware, operating system, imaging software, and user-interface differences between platforms in the implementation of functionality for text and image display and interaction. The use of an object-oriented approach greatly increased system portability. PMID:1482983

A Platform-Independent Plugin for Navigating Online Radiology Cases.

PubMed

Balkman, Jason D; Awan, Omer A

2016-06-01

Software methods that enable navigation of radiology cases on various digital platforms differ between handheld devices and desktop computers. This has resulted in poor compatibility of online radiology teaching files across mobile smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. A standardized, platform-independent, or "agnostic" approach for presenting online radiology content was produced in this work by leveraging modern hypertext markup language (HTML) and JavaScript web software technology. We describe the design and evaluation of this software, demonstrate its use across multiple viewing platforms, and make it publicly available as a model for future development efforts.

Using a Formal Approach for Reverse Engineering and Design Recovery to Support Software Reuse

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gannod, Gerald C.

2002-01-01

This document describes 3rd year accomplishments and summarizes overall project accomplishments. Included as attachments are all published papers from year three. Note that the budget for this project was discontinued after year two, but that a residual budget from year two allowed minimal continuance into year three. Accomplishments include initial investigations into log-file based reverse engineering, service-based software reuse, and a source to XML generator.

Model based design introduction: modeling game controllers to microprocessor architectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jungwirth, Patrick; Badawy, Abdel-Hameed

2017-04-01

We present an introduction to model based design. Model based design is a visual representation, generally a block diagram, to model and incrementally develop a complex system. Model based design is a commonly used design methodology for digital signal processing, control systems, and embedded systems. Model based design's philosophy is: to solve a problem - a step at a time. The approach can be compared to a series of steps to converge to a solution. A block diagram simulation tool allows a design to be simulated with real world measurement data. For example, if an analog control system is being upgraded to a digital control system, the analog sensor input signals can be recorded. The digital control algorithm can be simulated with the real world sensor data. The output from the simulated digital control system can then be compared to the old analog based control system. Model based design can compared to Agile software develop. The Agile software development goal is to develop working software in incremental steps. Progress is measured in completed and tested code units. Progress is measured in model based design by completed and tested blocks. We present a concept for a video game controller and then use model based design to iterate the design towards a working system. We will also describe a model based design effort to develop an OS Friendly Microprocessor Architecture based on the RISC-V.

The Design and Development of the SMEX-Lite Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rakow, Glenn P.; Schnurr, Richard G., Jr.; Solly, Michael A.

1998-01-01

This paper describes the design and development of a 250W orbit average electrical power system electronic Power Node and software for use in Low Earth Orbit missions. The mass of the Power Node is 3.6 Kg (8 lb.). The dimensions of the Power Node are 30cm x 26cm x 7.9cm (11 in. x 10.25 in x 3.1 in.) The design was realized using software, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) digital logic and surface mount technology. The design is generic enough to reduce the non-recurring engineering for different mission configurations. The Power Node charges one to five, low cost, 22-cell 4 AH D-cell battery packs independently. The battery charging algorithms are executed in the power software to reduce the mass and size of the power electronic. The Power Node implements a peak-power tracking algorithm using an innovative hardware/software approach. The power software task is hosted on the spacecraft processor. The power software task generates a MIL-STD-1553 command packet to update the Power Node control settings. The settings for the battery voltage and current limits, as well as minimum solar array voltage used to implement peak power tracking are contained in this packet. Several advanced topologies are used in the Power Node. These include synchronous rectification in the bus regulators, average current control in the battery chargers and quasi-resonant converters for the Field Effect Transistor (FET) transistor drive electronics. Lastly, the main bus regulator uses a feed-forward topology with the PWM implemented in an FPGA.

A toolbox and a record for scientific model development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ellman, Thomas

1994-01-01

Scientific computation can benefit from software tools that facilitate construction of computational models, control the application of models, and aid in revising models to handle new situations. Existing environments for scientific programming provide only limited means of handling these tasks. This paper describes a two pronged approach for handling these tasks: (1) designing a 'Model Development Toolbox' that includes a basic set of model constructing operations; and (2) designing a 'Model Development Record' that is automatically generated during model construction. The record is subsequently exploited by tools that control the application of scientific models and revise models to handle new situations. Our two pronged approach is motivated by our belief that the model development toolbox and record should be highly interdependent. In particular, a suitable model development record can be constructed only when models are developed using a well defined set of operations. We expect this research to facilitate rapid development of new scientific computational models, to help ensure appropriate use of such models and to facilitate sharing of such models among working computational scientists. We are testing this approach by extending SIGMA, and existing knowledge-based scientific software design tool.

Software Architecture for a Virtual Environment for Nano Scale Assembly (VENSA).

PubMed

Lee, Yong-Gu; Lyons, Kevin W; Feng, Shaw C

2004-01-01

A Virtual Environment (VE) uses multiple computer-generated media to let a user experience situations that are temporally and spatially prohibiting. The information flow between the user and the VE is bidirectional and the user can influence the environment. The software development of a VE requires orchestrating multiple peripherals and computers in a synchronized way in real time. Although a multitude of useful software components for VEs exists, many of these are packaged within a complex framework and can not be used separately. In this paper, an architecture is presented which is designed to let multiple frameworks work together while being shielded from the application program. This architecture, which is called the Virtual Environment for Nano Scale Assembly (VENSA), has been constructed for interfacing with an optical tweezers instrument for nanotechnology development. However, this approach can be generalized for most virtual environments. Through the use of VENSA, the programmer can rely on existing solutions and concentrate more on the application software design.

Software Architecture for a Virtual Environment for Nano Scale Assembly (VENSA)

PubMed Central

Lee, Yong-Gu; Lyons, Kevin W.; Feng, Shaw C.

2004-01-01

A Virtual Environment (VE) uses multiple computer-generated media to let a user experience situations that are temporally and spatially prohibiting. The information flow between the user and the VE is bidirectional and the user can influence the environment. The software development of a VE requires orchestrating multiple peripherals and computers in a synchronized way in real time. Although a multitude of useful software components for VEs exists, many of these are packaged within a complex framework and can not be used separately. In this paper, an architecture is presented which is designed to let multiple frameworks work together while being shielded from the application program. This architecture, which is called the Virtual Environment for Nano Scale Assembly (VENSA), has been constructed for interfacing with an optical tweezers instrument for nanotechnology development. However, this approach can be generalized for most virtual environments. Through the use of VENSA, the programmer can rely on existing solutions and concentrate more on the application software design. PMID:27366610

Towards Real-time, On-board, Hardware-Supported Sensor and Software Health Management for Unmanned Aerial Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schumann, Johann; Rozier, Kristin Y.; Reinbacher, Thomas; Mengshoel, Ole J.; Mbaya, Timmy; Ippolito, Corey

2013-01-01

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) can only be deployed if they can effectively complete their missions and respond to failures and uncertain environmental conditions while maintaining safety with respect to other aircraft as well as humans and property on the ground. In this paper, we design a real-time, on-board system health management (SHM) capability to continuously monitor sensors, software, and hardware components for detection and diagnosis of failures and violations of safety or performance rules during the flight of a UAS. Our approach to SHM is three-pronged, providing: (1) real-time monitoring of sensor and/or software signals; (2) signal analysis, preprocessing, and advanced on the- fly temporal and Bayesian probabilistic fault diagnosis; (3) an unobtrusive, lightweight, read-only, low-power realization using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that avoids overburdening limited computing resources or costly re-certification of flight software due to instrumentation. Our implementation provides a novel approach of combining modular building blocks, integrating responsive runtime monitoring of temporal logic system safety requirements with model-based diagnosis and Bayesian network-based probabilistic analysis. We demonstrate this approach using actual data from the NASA Swift UAS, an experimental all-electric aircraft.

A Rapid, Flexible Approach to Conceptual Space Mission Tradespace Definition and Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Girerd, Andre R.

2005-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the Mission Tradespace Tool (MTT), a methodology and software framework developed to improve JPL's early design process by offering a rapid, structured, and inexpensive way to identify feasible design architectures from a wide array of candidate architectures. There has been a growing consensus at JPL that to improve the quality of service offered to design customers it is desirable to explore a wide tradespace of candidate architectures prior to forming a conceptual design baseline. This paper describes the rationale behind the MTT's approach to meet this need. Notable features of the framework are introduced and explained.

An integrated approach to system design, reliability, and diagnosis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patterson-Hine, F. A.; Iverson, David L.

1990-01-01

The requirement for ultradependability of computer systems in future avionics and space applications necessitates a top-down, integrated systems ingeneering approach for design, implementation, testing, and operation. The functional analyses of hardware and software systems must be combined by models that are flexible enough to represent their interactions and behavior. The information contained in these models must be accessible throughout all phases of the system life cycle in order to maintain consistency and accuracy in design and operational decisions. One approach being taken by researchers at Ames Research Center is the creation of an object-oriented environment that integrates information about system components required in the reliability evaluation with behavioral information useful for diagnostic algorithms.

Technology Developments in Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keys, Andrew S.; Howell, Joe T.

2008-01-01

The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project consists of a series of tasks designed to develop and mature a broad spectrum of radiation hardened and low temperature electronics technologies. Three approaches are being taken to address radiation hardening: improved material hardness, design techniques to improve radiation tolerance, and software methods to improve radiation tolerance. Within these approaches various technology products are being addressed including Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA), MEMS, Serial Processors, Reconfigurable Processors, and Parallel Processors. In addition to radiation hardening, low temperature extremes are addressed with a focus on material and design approaches. System level applications for the RHESE technology products are discussed.

Faster Aerodynamic Simulation With Cart3D

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

A NASA-developed aerodynamic simulation tool is ensuring the safety of future space operations while providing designers and engineers with an automated, highly accurate computer simulation suite. Cart3D, co-winner of NASA's 2002 Software of the Year award, is the result of over 10 years of research and software development conducted by Michael Aftosmis and Dr. John Melton of Ames Research Center and Professor Marsha Berger of the Courant Institute at New York University. Cart3D offers a revolutionary approach to computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the computer simulation of how fluids and gases flow around an object of a particular design. By fusing technological advancements in diverse fields such as mineralogy, computer graphics, computational geometry, and fluid dynamics, the software provides a new industrial geometry processing and fluid analysis capability with unsurpassed automation and efficiency.

C++, objected-oriented programming, and astronomical data models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farris, A.

1992-01-01

Contemporary astronomy is characterized by increasingly complex instruments and observational techniques, higher data collection rates, and large data archives, placing severe stress on software analysis systems. The object-oriented paradigm represents a significant new approach to software design and implementation that holds great promise for dealing with this increased complexity. The basic concepts of this approach will be characterized in contrast to more traditional procedure-oriented approaches. The fundamental features of objected-oriented programming will be discussed from a C++ programming language perspective, using examples familiar to astronomers. This discussion will focus on objects, classes and their relevance to the data type system; the principle of information hiding; and the use of inheritance to implement generalization/specialization relationships. Drawing on the object-oriented approach, features of a new database model to support astronomical data analysis will be presented.

Whole earth modeling: developing and disseminating scientific software for computational geophysics.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellogg, L. H.

2016-12-01

Historically, a great deal of specialized scientific software for modeling and data analysis has been developed by individual researchers or small groups of scientists working on their own specific research problems. As the magnitude of available data and computer power has increased, so has the complexity of scientific problems addressed by computational methods, creating both a need to sustain existing scientific software, and expand its development to take advantage of new algorithms, new software approaches, and new computational hardware. To that end, communities like the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) have been established to support the use of best practices in scientific computing for solid earth geophysics research and teaching. Working as a scientific community enables computational geophysicists to take advantage of technological developments, improve the accuracy and performance of software, build on prior software development, and collaborate more readily. The CIG community, and others, have adopted an open-source development model, in which code is developed and disseminated by the community in an open fashion, using version control and software repositories like Git. One emerging issue is how to adequately identify and credit the intellectual contributions involved in creating open source scientific software. The traditional method of disseminating scientific ideas, peer reviewed publication, was not designed for review or crediting scientific software, although emerging publication strategies such software journals are attempting to address the need. We are piloting an integrated approach in which authors are identified and credited as scientific software is developed and run. Successful software citation requires integration with the scholarly publication and indexing mechanisms as well, to assign credit, ensure discoverability, and provide provenance for software.

Design of the ANTARES LCM-DAQ board test bench using a FPGA-based system-on-chip approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anvar, S.; Kestener, P.; Le Provost, H.

2006-11-01

The System-on-Chip (SoC) approach consists in using state-of-the-art FPGA devices with embedded RISC processor cores, high-speed differential LVDS links and ready-to-use multi-gigabit transceivers allowing development of compact systems with substantial number of IO channels. Required performances are obtained through a subtle separation of tasks between closely cooperating programmable hardware logic and user-friendly software environment. We report about our experience in using the SoC approach for designing the production test bench of the off-shore readout system for the ANTARES neutrino experiment.

Undercut feature recognition for core and cavity generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yusof, Mursyidah Md; Salman Abu Mansor, Mohd

2018-01-01

Core and cavity is one of the important components in injection mould where the quality of the final product is mostly dependent on it. In the industry, with years of experience and skill, mould designers commonly use commercial CAD software to design the core and cavity which is time consuming. This paper proposes an algorithm that detect possible undercut features and generate the core and cavity. Two approaches are presented; edge convexity and face connectivity approach. The edge convexity approach is used to recognize undercut features while face connectivity is used to divide the faces into top and bottom region.

Managing Technical and Cost Uncertainties During Product Development in a Simulation-Based Design Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Karandikar, Harsh M.

1997-01-01

An approach for objective and quantitative technical and cost risk analysis during product development, which is applicable from the earliest stages, is discussed. The approach is supported by a software tool called the Analytical System for Uncertainty and Risk Estimation (ASURE). Details of ASURE, the underlying concepts and its application history, are provided.

Interaction design challenges and solutions for ALMA operations monitoring and control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pietriga, Emmanuel; Cubaud, Pierre; Schwarz, Joseph; Primet, Romain; Schilling, Marcus; Barkats, Denis; Barrios, Emilio; Vila Vilaro, Baltasar

2012-09-01

The ALMA radio-telescope, currently under construction in northern Chile, is a very advanced instrument that presents numerous challenges. From a software perspective, one critical issue is the design of graphical user interfaces for operations monitoring and control that scale to the complexity of the system and to the massive amounts of data users are faced with. Early experience operating the telescope with only a few antennas has shown that conventional user interface technologies are not adequate in this context. They consume too much screen real-estate, require many unnecessary interactions to access relevant information, and fail to provide operators and astronomers with a clear mental map of the instrument. They increase extraneous cognitive load, impeding tasks that call for quick diagnosis and action. To address this challenge, the ALMA software division adopted a user-centered design approach. For the last two years, astronomers, operators, software engineers and human-computer interaction researchers have been involved in participatory design workshops, with the aim of designing better user interfaces based on state-of-the-art visualization techniques. This paper describes the process that led to the development of those interface components and to a proposal for the science and operations console setup: brainstorming sessions, rapid prototyping, joint implementation work involving software engineers and human-computer interaction researchers, feedback collection from a broader range of users, further iterations and testing.

Secured Advanced Federated Environment (SAFE): A NASA Solution for Secure Cross-Organization Collaboration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chow, Edward; Spence, Matthew Chew; Pell, Barney; Stewart, Helen; Korsmeyer, David; Liu, Joseph; Chang, Hsin-Ping; Viernes, Conan; Gogorth, Andre

2003-01-01

This paper discusses the challenges and security issues inherent in building complex cross-organizational collaborative projects and software systems within NASA. By applying the design principles of compartmentalization, organizational hierarchy and inter-organizational federation, the Secured Advanced Federated Environment (SAFE) is laying the foundation for a collaborative virtual infrastructure for the NASA community. A key element of SAFE is the Micro Security Domain (MSD) concept, which balances the need to collaborate and the need to enforce enterprise and local security rules. With the SAFE approach, security is an integral component of enterprise software and network design, not an afterthought.

Software Design Challenges in Time Series Prediction Systems Using Parallel Implementation of Artificial Neural Networks.

PubMed

Manikandan, Narayanan; Subha, Srinivasan

2016-01-01

Software development life cycle has been characterized by destructive disconnects between activities like planning, analysis, design, and programming. Particularly software developed with prediction based results is always a big challenge for designers. Time series data forecasting like currency exchange, stock prices, and weather report are some of the areas where an extensive research is going on for the last three decades. In the initial days, the problems with financial analysis and prediction were solved by statistical models and methods. For the last two decades, a large number of Artificial Neural Networks based learning models have been proposed to solve the problems of financial data and get accurate results in prediction of the future trends and prices. This paper addressed some architectural design related issues for performance improvement through vectorising the strengths of multivariate econometric time series models and Artificial Neural Networks. It provides an adaptive approach for predicting exchange rates and it can be called hybrid methodology for predicting exchange rates. This framework is tested for finding the accuracy and performance of parallel algorithms used.

Software Design Challenges in Time Series Prediction Systems Using Parallel Implementation of Artificial Neural Networks

PubMed Central

Manikandan, Narayanan; Subha, Srinivasan

2016-01-01

Software development life cycle has been characterized by destructive disconnects between activities like planning, analysis, design, and programming. Particularly software developed with prediction based results is always a big challenge for designers. Time series data forecasting like currency exchange, stock prices, and weather report are some of the areas where an extensive research is going on for the last three decades. In the initial days, the problems with financial analysis and prediction were solved by statistical models and methods. For the last two decades, a large number of Artificial Neural Networks based learning models have been proposed to solve the problems of financial data and get accurate results in prediction of the future trends and prices. This paper addressed some architectural design related issues for performance improvement through vectorising the strengths of multivariate econometric time series models and Artificial Neural Networks. It provides an adaptive approach for predicting exchange rates and it can be called hybrid methodology for predicting exchange rates. This framework is tested for finding the accuracy and performance of parallel algorithms used. PMID:26881271

[sgRNA design for the CRISPR/Cas9 system and evaluation of its off-target effects].

PubMed

Xie, Sheng-song; Zhang, Yi; Zhang, Li-sheng; Li, Guang-lei; Zhao, Chang-zhi; Ni, Pan; Zhao, Shu-hong

2015-11-01

The third generation of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing technology has been successfully applied to genome modification of various species including animals, plants and microorganisms. How to improve the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and reduce its off-target effects has been extensively explored in this field. Using sgRNA (Small guide RNA) with high efficiency and specificity is one of the critical factors for successful genome editing. Several software have been developed for sgRNA design and/or off-target evaluation, which have advantages and disadvantages respectively. In this review, we summarize characters of 16 kinds online and standalone software for sgRNA design and/or off-target evaluation and conduct a comparative analysis of these different kinds of software through developing 38 evaluation indexes. We also summarize 11 experimental approaches for testing genome editing efficiency and off-target effects as well as how to screen highly efficient and specific sgRNA.

Automated, Parametric Geometry Modeling and Grid Generation for Turbomachinery Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harrand, Vincent J.; Uchitel, Vadim G.; Whitmire, John B.

2000-01-01

The objective of this Phase I project is to develop a highly automated software system for rapid geometry modeling and grid generation for turbomachinery applications. The proposed system features a graphical user interface for interactive control, a direct interface to commercial CAD/PDM systems, support for IGES geometry output, and a scripting capability for obtaining a high level of automation and end-user customization of the tool. The developed system is fully parametric and highly automated, and, therefore, significantly reduces the turnaround time for 3D geometry modeling, grid generation and model setup. This facilitates design environments in which a large number of cases need to be generated, such as for parametric analysis and design optimization of turbomachinery equipment. In Phase I we have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the approach. The system has been tested on a wide variety of turbomachinery geometries, including several impellers and a multi stage rotor-stator combination. In Phase II, we plan to integrate the developed system with turbomachinery design software and with commercial CAD/PDM software.

Computers--Teaching, Technology, and Applications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cocco, Anthony M.; And Others

1995-01-01

Includes "Managing Personality Types in the Computer Classroom" (Cocco); "External I/O Input/Output with a PC" (Fryda); "The Future of CAD/CAM Computer-Assisted Design/Computer-Assisted Manufacturing Software" (Fulton); and "Teaching Quality Assurance--A Laboratory Approach" (Wojslaw). (SK)

Low cost paths to binary optics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Arthur; Domash, Lawrence

1993-01-01

Application of binary optics has been limited to a few major laboratories because of the limited availability of fabrication facilities such as e-beam machines and the lack of standardized design software. Foster-Miller has attempted to identify low cost approaches to medium-resolution binary optics using readily available computer and fabrication tools, primarily for the use of students and experimenters in optical computing. An early version of our system, MacBEEP, made use of an optimized laser film recorder from the commercial typesetting industry with 10 micron resolution. This report is an update on our current efforts to design and build a second generation MacBEEP, which aims at 1 micron resolution and multiple phase levels. Trails included a low cost scanning electron microscope in microlithography mode, and alternative laser inscribers or photomask generators. Our current software approach is based on Mathematica and PostScript compatibility.

A new mathematical approach for the estimation of the AUC and its variability under different experimental designs in preclinical studies.

PubMed

Navarro-Fontestad, Carmen; González-Álvarez, Isabel; Fernández-Teruel, Carlos; Bermejo, Marival; Casabó, Vicente Germán

2012-01-01

The aim of the present work was to develop a new mathematical method for estimating the area under the curve (AUC) and its variability that could be applied in different preclinical experimental designs and amenable to be implemented in standard calculation worksheets. In order to assess the usefulness of the new approach, different experimental scenarios were studied and the results were compared with those obtained with commonly used software: WinNonlin® and Phoenix WinNonlin®. The results do not show statistical differences among the AUC values obtained by both procedures, but the new method appears to be a better estimator of the AUC standard error, measured as the coverage of 95% confidence interval. In this way, the new proposed method demonstrates to be as useful as WinNonlin® software when it was applicable. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SCOS 2: An object oriented software development approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Symonds, Martin; Lynenskjold, Steen; Mueller, Christian

1994-01-01

The Spacecraft Control and Operations System 2 (SCOS 2), is intended to provide the generic mission control system infrastructure for future ESA missions. It represents a bold step forward in order to take advantage of state-of-the-art technology and current practices in the area of software engineering. Key features include: (1) use of object oriented analysis and design techniques; (2) use of UNIX, C++ and a distributed architecture as the enabling implementation technology; (3) goal of re-use for development, maintenance and mission specific software implementation; and (4) introduction of the concept of a spacecraft control model. This paper touches upon some of the traditional beliefs surrounding Object Oriented development and describes their relevance to SCOS 2. It gives rationale for why particular approaches were adopted and others not, and describes the impact of these decisions. The development approach followed is discussed, highlighting the evolutionary nature of the overall process and the iterative nature of the various tasks carried out. The emphasis of this paper is on the process of the development with the following being covered: (1) the three phases of the SCOS 2 project - prototyping & analysis, design & implementation and configuration / delivery of mission specific systems; (2) the close cooperation and continual interaction with the users during the development; (3) the management approach - the split between client staff, industry and some of the required project management activities; (4) the lifecycle adopted being an enhancement of the ESA PSS-05 standard with SCOS 2 specific activities and approaches defined; and (5) an examination of some of the difficulties encountered and the solutions adopted. Finally, the lessons learned from the SCOS 2 experience are highlighted, identifying those issues to be used as feedback into future developments of this nature. This paper does not intend to describe the finished product and its operation, but focusing on the journey to arrive there, concentrating therefore on the process and not the products of the SCOS 2 software development.

On data modeling for neurological application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woźniak, Karol; Mulawka, Jan

The aim of this paper is to design and implement information system containing large database dedicated to support neurological-psychiatric examinations focused on human brain after stroke. This approach encompasses the following steps: analysis of software requirements, presentation of the problem solving concept, design and implementation of the final information system. Certain experiments were performed in order to verify the correctness of the project ideas. The approach can be considered as an interdisciplinary venture. Elaboration of the system architecture, data model and the tools supporting medical examinations are provided. The achievement of the design goals is demonstrated in the final conclusion.

Integrating Human Factors into Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitmore, Mihriban; Holden, Kritina; Baggerman, Susan; Campbell, Paul

2007-01-01

The purpose of this design process is to apply Human Engineering (HE) requirements and guidelines to hardware/software and to provide HE design, analysis and evaluation of crew interfaces. The topics include: 1) Background/Purpose; 2) HE Activities; 3) CASE STUDY: Net Habitable Volume (NHV) Study; 4) CASE STUDY: Human Modeling Approach; 5) CASE STUDY: Human Modeling Results; 6) CASE STUDY: Human Modeling Conclusions; 7) CASE STUDY: Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation Approach; 8) CASE STUDY: Unsuited Evaluation Results; 9) CASE STUDY: Suited Evaluation Results; 10) CASE STUDY: Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation Conclusions; 11) Near-Term Plan; and 12) In Conclusion

Automated Software Development Workstation (ASDW)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fridge, Ernie

1990-01-01

Software development is a serious bottleneck in the construction of complex automated systems. An increase of the reuse of software designs and components has been viewed as a way to relieve this bottleneck. One approach to achieving software reusability is through the development and use of software parts composition systems. A software parts composition system is a software development environment comprised of a parts description language for modeling parts and their interfaces, a catalog of existing parts, a composition editor that aids a user in the specification of a new application from existing parts, and a code generator that takes a specification and generates an implementation of a new application in a target language. The Automated Software Development Workstation (ASDW) is an expert system shell that provides the capabilities required to develop and manipulate these software parts composition systems. The ASDW is now in Beta testing at the Johnson Space Center. Future work centers on responding to user feedback for capability and usability enhancement, expanding the scope of the software lifecycle that is covered, and in providing solutions to handling very large libraries of reusable components.

RNAblueprint: flexible multiple target nucleic acid sequence design.

PubMed

Hammer, Stefan; Tschiatschek, Birgit; Flamm, Christoph; Hofacker, Ivo L; Findeiß, Sven

2017-09-15

Realizing the value of synthetic biology in biotechnology and medicine requires the design of molecules with specialized functions. Due to its close structure to function relationship, and the availability of good structure prediction methods and energy models, RNA is perfectly suited to be synthetically engineered with predefined properties. However, currently available RNA design tools cannot be easily adapted to accommodate new design specifications. Furthermore, complicated sampling and optimization methods are often developed to suit a specific RNA design goal, adding to their inflexibility. We developed a C ++  library implementing a graph coloring approach to stochastically sample sequences compatible with structural and sequence constraints from the typically very large solution space. The approach allows to specify and explore the solution space in a well defined way. Our library also guarantees uniform sampling, which makes optimization runs performant by not only avoiding re-evaluation of already found solutions, but also by raising the probability of finding better solutions for long optimization runs. We show that our software can be combined with any other software package to allow diverse RNA design applications. Scripting interfaces allow the easy adaption of existing code to accommodate new scenarios, making the whole design process very flexible. We implemented example design approaches written in Python to demonstrate these advantages. RNAblueprint , Python implementations and benchmark datasets are available at github: https://github.com/ViennaRNA . s.hammer@univie.ac.at, ivo@tbi.univie.ac.at or sven@tbi.univie.ac.at. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

User Manuals for a Primary Care Electronic Medical Record System: A Mixed Methods Study of User- and Vendor-Generated Documents

PubMed Central

Dow, Rustam; Barnsley, Jan; Tu, Karen; Domb, Sharon; Jadad, Alejandro R.; Lemieux-Charles, Louise

2015-01-01

Research problem Tutorials and user manuals are important forms of impersonal support for using software applications including electronic medical records (EMRs). Differences between user- and vendor documentation may indicate support needs, which are not sufficiently addressed by the official documentation, and reveal new elements that may inform the design of tutorials and user manuals. Research question What are the differences between user-generated tutorials and manuals for an EMR and the official user manual from the software vendor? Literature review Effective design of tutorials and user manuals requires careful packaging of information, balance between declarative and procedural texts, an action and task-oriented approach, support for error recognition and recovery, and effective use of visual elements. No previous research compared these elements between formal and informal documents. Methodology We conducted an mixed methods study. Seven tutorials and two manuals for an EMR were collected from three family health teams and compared with the official user manual from the software vendor. Documents were qualitatively analyzed using a framework analysis approach in relation to the principles of technical documentation described above. Subsets of the data were quantitatively analyzed using cross-tabulation to compare the types of error information and visual cues in screen captures between user- and vendor-generated manuals. Results and discussion The user-developed tutorials and manuals differed from the vendor-developed manual in that they contained mostly procedural and not declarative information; were customized to the specific workflow, user roles, and patient characteristics; contained more error information related to work processes than to software usage; and used explicit visual cues on screen captures to help users identify window elements. These findings imply that to support EMR implementation, tutorials and manuals need to be customized and adapted to specific organizational contexts and workflows. The main limitation of the study is its generalizability. Future research should address this limitation and may explore alternative approaches to software documentation, such as modular manuals or participatory design. PMID:26190888

minimUML: A Minimalist Approach to UML Diagramming for Early Computer Science Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Scott A.; Perez-Quinones, Manuel A.; Edwards, Stephen H.

2005-01-01

In introductory computer science courses, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is commonly used to teach basic object-oriented design. However, there appears to be a lack of suitable software to support this task. Many of the available programs that support UML focus on developing code and not on enhancing learning. Programs designed for…

Media processors using a new microsystem architecture designed for the Internet era

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyland, David C.

1999-12-01

The demands of digital image processing, communications and multimedia applications are growing more rapidly than traditional design methods can fulfill them. Previously, only custom hardware designs could provide the performance required to meet the demands of these applications. However, hardware design has reached a crisis point. Hardware design can no longer deliver a product with the required performance and cost in a reasonable time for a reasonable risk. Software based designs running on conventional processors can deliver working designs in a reasonable time and with low risk but cannot meet the performance requirements. What is needed is a media processing approach that combines very high performance, a simple programming model, complete programmability, short time to market and scalability. The Universal Micro System (UMS) is a solution to these problems. The UMS is a completely programmable (including I/O) system on a chip that combines hardware performance with the fast time to market, low cost and low risk of software designs.

Final Report - Regulatory Considerations for Adaptive Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilkinson, Chris; Lynch, Jonathan; Bharadwaj, Raj

2013-01-01

This report documents the findings of a preliminary research study into new approaches to the software design assurance of adaptive systems. We suggest a methodology to overcome the software validation and verification difficulties posed by the underlying assumption of non-adaptive software in the requirementsbased- testing verification methods in RTCA/DO-178B and C. An analysis of the relevant RTCA/DO-178B and C objectives is presented showing the reasons for the difficulties that arise in showing satisfaction of the objectives and suggested additional means by which they could be satisfied. We suggest that the software design assurance problem for adaptive systems is principally one of developing correct and complete high level requirements and system level constraints that define the necessary system functional and safety properties to assure the safe use of adaptive systems. We show how analytical techniques such as model based design, mathematical modeling and formal or formal-like methods can be used to both validate the high level functional and safety requirements, establish necessary constraints and provide the verification evidence for the satisfaction of requirements and constraints that supplements conventional testing. Finally the report identifies the follow-on research topics needed to implement this methodology.

Knowledge-based control of an adaptive interface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lachman, Roy

1989-01-01

The analysis, development strategy, and preliminary design for an intelligent, adaptive interface is reported. The design philosophy couples knowledge-based system technology with standard human factors approaches to interface development for computer workstations. An expert system has been designed to drive the interface for application software. The intelligent interface will be linked to application packages, one at a time, that are planned for multiple-application workstations aboard Space Station Freedom. Current requirements call for most Space Station activities to be conducted at the workstation consoles. One set of activities will consist of standard data management services (DMS). DMS software includes text processing, spreadsheets, data base management, etc. Text processing was selected for the first intelligent interface prototype because text-processing software can be developed initially as fully functional but limited with a small set of commands. The program's complexity then can be increased incrementally. The intelligent interface includes the operator's behavior and three types of instructions to the underlying application software are included in the rule base. A conventional expert-system inference engine searches the data base for antecedents to rules and sends the consequents of fired rules as commands to the underlying software. Plans for putting the expert system on top of a second application, a database management system, will be carried out following behavioral research on the first application. The intelligent interface design is suitable for use with ground-based workstations now common in government, industrial, and educational organizations.

A systematic composite service design modeling method using graph-based theory.

PubMed

Elhag, Arafat Abdulgader Mohammed; Mohamad, Radziah; Aziz, Muhammad Waqar; Zeshan, Furkh

2015-01-01

The composite service design modeling is an essential process of the service-oriented software development life cycle, where the candidate services, composite services, operations and their dependencies are required to be identified and specified before their design. However, a systematic service-oriented design modeling method for composite services is still in its infancy as most of the existing approaches provide the modeling of atomic services only. For these reasons, a new method (ComSDM) is proposed in this work for modeling the concept of service-oriented design to increase the reusability and decrease the complexity of system while keeping the service composition considerations in mind. Furthermore, the ComSDM method provides the mathematical representation of the components of service-oriented design using the graph-based theoryto facilitate the design quality measurement. To demonstrate that the ComSDM method is also suitable for composite service design modeling of distributed embedded real-time systems along with enterprise software development, it is implemented in the case study of a smart home. The results of the case study not only check the applicability of ComSDM, but can also be used to validate the complexity and reusability of ComSDM. This also guides the future research towards the design quality measurement such as using the ComSDM method to measure the quality of composite service design in service-oriented software system.

A Systematic Composite Service Design Modeling Method Using Graph-Based Theory

PubMed Central

Elhag, Arafat Abdulgader Mohammed; Mohamad, Radziah; Aziz, Muhammad Waqar; Zeshan, Furkh

2015-01-01

The composite service design modeling is an essential process of the service-oriented software development life cycle, where the candidate services, composite services, operations and their dependencies are required to be identified and specified before their design. However, a systematic service-oriented design modeling method for composite services is still in its infancy as most of the existing approaches provide the modeling of atomic services only. For these reasons, a new method (ComSDM) is proposed in this work for modeling the concept of service-oriented design to increase the reusability and decrease the complexity of system while keeping the service composition considerations in mind. Furthermore, the ComSDM method provides the mathematical representation of the components of service-oriented design using the graph-based theoryto facilitate the design quality measurement. To demonstrate that the ComSDM method is also suitable for composite service design modeling of distributed embedded real-time systems along with enterprise software development, it is implemented in the case study of a smart home. The results of the case study not only check the applicability of ComSDM, but can also be used to validate the complexity and reusability of ComSDM. This also guides the future research towards the design quality measurement such as using the ComSDM method to measure the quality of composite service design in service-oriented software system. PMID:25928358

Systems design and comparative analysis of large antenna concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garrett, L. B.; Ferebee, M. J., Jr.

1983-01-01

Conceptual designs are evaluated and comparative analyses conducted for several large antenna spacecraft for Land Mobile Satellite System (LMSS) communications missions. Structural configurations include trusses, hoop and column and radial rib. The study was conducted using the Interactive Design and Evaluation of Advanced Spacecraft (IDEAS) system. The current capabilities, development status, and near-term plans for the IDEAS system are reviewed. Overall capabilities are highlighted. IDEAS is an integrated system of computer-aided design and analysis software used to rapidly evaluate system concepts and technology needs for future advanced spacecraft such as large antennas, platforms, and space stations. The system was developed at Langley to meet a need for rapid, cost-effective, labor-saving approaches to the design and analysis of numerous missions and total spacecraft system options under consideration. IDEAS consists of about 40 technical modules efficient executive, data-base and file management software, and interactive graphics display capabilities.

Resilience Design Patterns - A Structured Approach to Resilience at Extreme Scale (version 1.0)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hukerikar, Saurabh; Engelmann, Christian

Reliability is a serious concern for future extreme-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Projections based on the current generation of HPC systems and technology roadmaps suggest that very high fault rates in future systems. The errors resulting from these faults will propagate and generate various kinds of failures, which may result in outcomes ranging from result corruptions to catastrophic application crashes. Practical limits on power consumption in HPC systems will require future systems to embrace innovative architectures, increasing the levels of hardware and software complexities. The resilience challenge for extreme-scale HPC systems requires management of various hardware and software technologies thatmore » are capable of handling a broad set of fault models at accelerated fault rates. These techniques must seek to improve resilience at reasonable overheads to power consumption and performance. While the HPC community has developed various solutions, application-level as well as system-based solutions, the solution space of HPC resilience techniques remains fragmented. There are no formal methods and metrics to investigate and evaluate resilience holistically in HPC systems that consider impact scope, handling coverage, and performance & power eciency across the system stack. Additionally, few of the current approaches are portable to newer architectures and software ecosystems, which are expected to be deployed on future systems. In this document, we develop a structured approach to the management of HPC resilience based on the concept of resilience-based design patterns. A design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem. We identify the commonly occurring problems and solutions used to deal with faults, errors and failures in HPC systems. The catalog of resilience design patterns provides designers with reusable design elements. We define a design framework that enhances our understanding of the important constraints and opportunities for solutions deployed at various layers of the system stack. The framework may be used to establish mechanisms and interfaces to coordinate flexible fault management across hardware and software components. The framework also enables optimization of the cost-benefit trade-os among performance, resilience, and power consumption. The overall goal of this work is to enable a systematic methodology for the design and evaluation of resilience technologies in extreme-scale HPC systems that keep scientific applications running to a correct solution in a timely and cost-ecient manner in spite of frequent faults, errors, and failures of various types.« less

Training Tactical-Level Planning Skills: An Investigation of Problem-Centered and Direct Instruction Approaches

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

learned how to shape their mental models in response to changes in the situation. This increased confidence in their abilities may have led to the...specially- designed software. It is clear that the students were more engaged with the tasks as presented by the software which may have led them...although in theory the student should influence how and when these activities happen: 1. Overview of the research project, the project goals, the

Recent Naval Postgraduate School Publications.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-09-30

Software and Har ware, Vaxjo, Sweden, Aug. 11-12, 1981 Proc. , (1 S8 1) . SchneidEwind, N F Disciplined approach to real - time software design: A look at...29 p. Zyda, M 3 Real - time contour surface display generation Ercpared for chief of Naval Res., Arlington, Va. Naval Postgraduate School, (NPS-.51-84-O...13), Sept., 1984. 21 p. Zyda M .3 THe fEasibility of a multi rccessor architecture for real - time contour surface is, lay generation Prcparea for Chief

Contingency designs for attitude determination of TRMM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crassidis, John L.; Andrews, Stephen F.; Markley, F. Landis; Ha, Kong

1995-01-01

In this paper, several attitude estimation designs are developed for the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) spacecraft. A contingency attitude determination mode is required in the event of a primary sensor failure. The final design utilizes a full sixth-order Kalman filter. However, due to initial software concerns, the need to investigate simpler designs was required. The algorithms presented in this paper can be utilized in place of a full Kalman filter, and require less computational burden. These algorithms are based on filtered deterministic approaches and simplified Kalman filter approaches. Comparative performances of all designs are shown by simulating the TRMM spacecraft in mission mode. Comparisons of the simulation results indicate that comparable accuracy with respect to a full Kalman filter design is possible.

Software engineering for ESO's VLT project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippi, G.

1994-12-01

This paper reports on the experience at the European Southern Observatory on the application of software engineering techniques to a 200 man-year control software project for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). This shall provide astronomers, before the end of the century, with one of the most powerful telescopes in the world. From the definition of the general model, described in the software management plan, specific activities have been and will be defined: standards for documents and for code development, design approach using a CASE tool, the process of reviewing both documentation and code, quality assurance, test strategy, etc. The initial choices, the current implementation and the future planned activities are presented and, where feedback is already available, pros and cons are discussed.

Ultrareliable PACS: design and clinical evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goble, John C.; Kronander, Torbjorn; Wilske, Nils-Olof; Yngvesson, Jonas T.; Ejderholm, Henrik; Ekstrom, Marie

1999-07-01

We describe our experience in the design, installation and clinical evaluation o fan ultra-reliable PACS - a system in which the fundamental design constraint was system availability. This syste has ben constructed using commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and software, using an open system, standards-based approach. The system is deployed in the film-free Department of Pediatric Radiology at the Astrid Lindgren Barnsjukhus a nit of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

DCL System Research Using Advanced Approaches for Land-based or Ship-based Real-Time Recognition and Localization of Marine Mammals

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-30

recognition. Algorithm design and statistical analysis and feature analysis. Post -Doctoral Associate, Cornell University, Bioacoustics Research...short. The HPC-ADA was designed based on fielded systems [1-4, 6] that offer a variety of desirable attributes, specifically dynamic resource...The software package was designed to utilize parallel and distributed processing for running recognition and other advanced algorithms. DeLMA

Resilience Design Patterns - A Structured Approach to Resilience at Extreme Scale (version 1.1)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hukerikar, Saurabh; Engelmann, Christian

Reliability is a serious concern for future extreme-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Projections based on the current generation of HPC systems and technology roadmaps suggest the prevalence of very high fault rates in future systems. The errors resulting from these faults will propagate and generate various kinds of failures, which may result in outcomes ranging from result corruptions to catastrophic application crashes. Therefore the resilience challenge for extreme-scale HPC systems requires management of various hardware and software technologies that are capable of handling a broad set of fault models at accelerated fault rates. Also, due to practical limits on powermore » consumption in HPC systems future systems are likely to embrace innovative architectures, increasing the levels of hardware and software complexities. As a result the techniques that seek to improve resilience must navigate the complex trade-off space between resilience and the overheads to power consumption and performance. While the HPC community has developed various resilience solutions, application-level techniques as well as system-based solutions, the solution space of HPC resilience techniques remains fragmented. There are no formal methods and metrics to investigate and evaluate resilience holistically in HPC systems that consider impact scope, handling coverage, and performance & power efficiency across the system stack. Additionally, few of the current approaches are portable to newer architectures and software environments that will be deployed on future systems. In this document, we develop a structured approach to the management of HPC resilience using the concept of resilience-based design patterns. A design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem. We identify the commonly occurring problems and solutions used to deal with faults, errors and failures in HPC systems. Each established solution is described in the form of a pattern that addresses concrete problems in the design of resilient systems. The complete catalog of resilience design patterns provides designers with reusable design elements. We also define a framework that enhances a designer's understanding of the important constraints and opportunities for the design patterns to be implemented and deployed at various layers of the system stack. This design framework may be used to establish mechanisms and interfaces to coordinate flexible fault management across hardware and software components. The framework also supports optimization of the cost-benefit trade-offs among performance, resilience, and power consumption. The overall goal of this work is to enable a systematic methodology for the design and evaluation of resilience technologies in extreme-scale HPC systems that keep scientific applications running to a correct solution in a timely and cost-efficient manner in spite of frequent faults, errors, and failures of various types.« less

Water supply pipe dimensioning using hydraulic power dissipation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sreemathy, J. R.; Rashmi, G.; Suribabu, C. R.

2017-07-01

Proper sizing of the pipe component of water distribution networks play an important role in the overall design of the any water supply system. Several approaches have been applied for the design of networks from an economical point of view. Traditional optimization techniques and population based stochastic algorithms are widely used to optimize the networks. But the use of these approaches is mostly found to be limited to the research level due to difficulties in understanding by the practicing engineers, design engineers and consulting firms. More over due to non-availability of commercial software related to the optimal design of water distribution system,it forces the practicing engineers to adopt either trial and error or experience-based design. This paper presents a simple approach based on power dissipation in each pipeline as a parameter to design the network economically, but not to the level of global minimum cost.

Implementing Software Safety in the NASA Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wetherholt, Martha S.; Radley, Charles F.

1994-01-01

Until recently, NASA did not consider allowing computers total control of flight systems. Human operators, via hardware, have constituted the ultimate safety control. In an attempt to reduce costs, NASA has come to rely more and more heavily on computers and software to control space missions. (For example. software is now planned to control most of the operational functions of the International Space Station.) Thus the need for systematic software safety programs has become crucial for mission success. Concurrent engineering principles dictate that safety should be designed into software up front, not tested into the software after the fact. 'Cost of Quality' studies have statistics and metrics to prove the value of building quality and safety into the development cycle. Unfortunately, most software engineers are not familiar with designing for safety, and most safety engineers are not software experts. Software written to specifications which have not been safety analyzed is a major source of computer related accidents. Safer software is achieved step by step throughout the system and software life cycle. It is a process that includes requirements definition, hazard analyses, formal software inspections, safety analyses, testing, and maintenance. The greatest emphasis is placed on clearly and completely defining system and software requirements, including safety and reliability requirements. Unfortunately, development and review of requirements are the weakest link in the process. While some of the more academic methods, e.g. mathematical models, may help bring about safer software, this paper proposes the use of currently approved software methodologies, and sound software and assurance practices to show how, to a large degree, safety can be designed into software from the start. NASA's approach today is to first conduct a preliminary system hazard analysis (PHA) during the concept and planning phase of a project. This determines the overall hazard potential of the system to be built. Shortly thereafter, as the system requirements are being defined, the second iteration of hazard analyses takes place, the systems hazard analysis (SHA). During the systems requirements phase, decisions are made as to what functions of the system will be the responsibility of software. This is the most critical time to affect the safety of the software. From this point, software safety analyses as well as software engineering practices are the main focus for assuring safe software. While many of the steps proposed in this paper seem like just sound engineering practices, they are the best technical and most cost effective means to assure safe software within a safe system.

Illumination with a Dim Bulb? What do social scientists learn by employing qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) in the service of multi-method designs?

PubMed Central

White, Michael J.; Judd, Maya D.; Poliandri, Simone

2012-01-01

Although there has been much optimistic discussion of integrating quantitative and qualitative findings into sociological analysis, there remains a gap regarding the application of mixed approaches. We examine the potential gains and pitfalls of such integration in the context of the growing analytic power of contemporary qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) programs. We illustrate the issues with our own research in a mixed-methods project examining low fertility in Italy, a project that combines analysis of large nationally representative survey data with qualitative in-depth interviews with women across four (4) cities in Italy. Despite the enthusiasm for mixed-methods research, the available software appears to be underutilized. In addition, we suggest that the sociological research community will want to address several conceptual and inferential issues with these approaches. PMID:23543938

Illumination with a Dim Bulb? What do social scientists learn by employing qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) in the service of multi-method designs?

PubMed

White, Michael J; Judd, Maya D; Poliandri, Simone

2012-08-01

Although there has been much optimistic discussion of integrating quantitative and qualitative findings into sociological analysis, there remains a gap regarding the application of mixed approaches. We examine the potential gains and pitfalls of such integration in the context of the growing analytic power of contemporary qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) programs. We illustrate the issues with our own research in a mixed-methods project examining low fertility in Italy, a project that combines analysis of large nationally representative survey data with qualitative in-depth interviews with women across four (4) cities in Italy. Despite the enthusiasm for mixed-methods research, the available software appears to be underutilized. In addition, we suggest that the sociological research community will want to address several conceptual and inferential issues with these approaches.

A new design approach based on differential evolution algorithm for geometric optimization of magnetorheological brakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le-Duc, Thang; Ho-Huu, Vinh; Nguyen-Thoi, Trung; Nguyen-Quoc, Hung

2016-12-01

In recent years, various types of magnetorheological brakes (MRBs) have been proposed and optimized by different optimization algorithms that are integrated in commercial software such as ANSYS and Comsol Multiphysics. However, many of these optimization algorithms often possess some noteworthy shortcomings such as the trap of solutions at local extremes, or the limited number of design variables or the difficulty of dealing with discrete design variables. Thus, to overcome these limitations and develop an efficient computation tool for optimal design of the MRBs, an optimization procedure that combines differential evolution (DE), a gradient-free global optimization method with finite element analysis (FEA) is proposed in this paper. The proposed approach is then applied to the optimal design of MRBs with different configurations including conventional MRBs and MRBs with coils placed on the side housings. Moreover, to approach a real-life design, some necessary design variables of MRBs are considered as discrete variables in the optimization process. The obtained optimal design results are compared with those of available optimal designs in the literature. The results reveal that the proposed method outperforms some traditional approaches.

The Handover Toolbox: a knowledge exchange and training platform for improving patient care.

PubMed

Drachsler, Hendrik; Kicken, Wendy; van der Klink, Marcel; Stoyanov, Slavi; Boshuizen, Henny P A; Barach, Paul

2012-12-01

Safe and effective patient handovers remain a global organisational and training challenge. Limited evidence supports available handover training programmes. Customisable training is a promising approach to improve the quality and sustainability of handover training and outcomes. We present a Handover Toolbox designed in the context of the European HANDOVER Project. The Toolbox aims to support physicians, nurses, individuals in health professions training, medical educators and handover experts by providing customised handover training tools for different clinical needs and contexts. The Handover Toolbox uses the Technology Enhanced Learning Design Process (TEL-DP), which encompasses user requirements analysis; writing personas; group concept mapping; analysis of suitable software; plus, minus, interesting rating; and usability testing. TEL-DP is aligned with participatory design approaches and ensures development occurs in close collaboration with, and engagement of, key stakeholders. Application of TEL-DP confirmed that the ideal formats of handover training differs for practicing professionals versus individuals in health profession education programmes. Training experts from different countries differed in their views on the optimal content and delivery of training. Analysis of suitable software identified ready-to-use systems that provide required functionalities and can be further customised to users' needs. Interest rating and usability testing resulted in improved usability, navigation and uptake of the Handover Toolbox. The design of the Handover Toolbox was based on a carefully led stakeholder participatory design using the TEL-DP approach. The Toolbox supports a customisable learning approach that allows trainers to design training that addresses the specific information needs of the various target groups. We offer recommendations regarding the application of the Handover Toolbox to medical educators.

Exploiting Software Tool Towards Easier Use And Higher Efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, G. H.; Su, J. T.; Deng, Y. Y.

2006-08-01

In developing countries, using data based on instrument made by themselves in maximum extent is very important. It is not only related to maximizing science returns upon prophase investment -- deep accumulations in every aspects but also science output. Based on the idea, we are exploiting a software (called THDP: Tool of Huairou Data Processing). It is used for processing a series of issues, which is met necessary in processing data. This paper discusses its designed purpose, functions, method and specialities. The primary vehicle for general data interpretation is through various techniques of data visualization, techniques of interactive. In the software, we employed Object Oriented approach. It is appropriate to the vehicle. it is imperative that the approach provide not only function, but do so in as convenient a fashion as possible. As result of the software exploiting, it is not only easier to learn data processing for beginner and more convenienter to need further improvement for senior but also increase greatly efficiency in every phrases include analyse, parameter adjusting, result display. Under frame of virtual observatory, for developing countries, we should study more and newer related technologies, which can advance ability and efficiency in science research, like the software we are developing

Resilience Design Patterns: A Structured Approach to Resilience at Extreme Scale

DOE PAGES

Engelmann, Christian; Hukerikar, Saurabh

2017-09-01

Reliability is a serious concern for future extreme-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Projections based on the current generation of HPC systems and technology roadmaps suggest the prevalence of very high fault rates in future systems. While the HPC community has developed various resilience solutions, application-level techniques as well as system-based solutions, the solution space remains fragmented. There are no formal methods and metrics to integrate the various HPC resilience techniques into composite solutions, nor are there methods to holistically evaluate the adequacy and efficacy of such solutions in terms of their protection coverage, and their performance \\& power efficiency characteristics.more » Additionally, few of the current approaches are portable to newer architectures and software environments that will be deployed on future systems. In this paper, we develop a structured approach to the design, evaluation and optimization of HPC resilience using the concept of design patterns. A design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem. We identify the problems caused by various types of faults, errors and failures in HPC systems and the techniques used to deal with these events. Each well-known solution that addresses a specific HPC resilience challenge is described in the form of a pattern. We develop a complete catalog of such resilience design patterns, which may be used by system architects, system software and tools developers, application programmers, as well as users and operators as essential building blocks when designing and deploying resilience solutions. We also develop a design framework that enhances a designer's understanding the opportunities for integrating multiple patterns across layers of the system stack and the important constraints during implementation of the individual patterns. It is also useful for defining mechanisms and interfaces to coordinate flexible fault management across hardware and software components. The resilience patterns and the design framework also enable exploration and evaluation of design alternatives and support optimization of the cost-benefit trade-offs among performance, protection coverage, and power consumption of resilience solutions. Here, the overall goal of this work is to establish a systematic methodology for the design and evaluation of resilience technologies in extreme-scale HPC systems that keep scientific applications running to a correct solution in a timely and cost-efficient manner despite frequent faults, errors, and failures of various types.« less

Resilience Design Patterns: A Structured Approach to Resilience at Extreme Scale

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Engelmann, Christian; Hukerikar, Saurabh

Reliability is a serious concern for future extreme-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Projections based on the current generation of HPC systems and technology roadmaps suggest the prevalence of very high fault rates in future systems. While the HPC community has developed various resilience solutions, application-level techniques as well as system-based solutions, the solution space remains fragmented. There are no formal methods and metrics to integrate the various HPC resilience techniques into composite solutions, nor are there methods to holistically evaluate the adequacy and efficacy of such solutions in terms of their protection coverage, and their performance \\& power efficiency characteristics.more » Additionally, few of the current approaches are portable to newer architectures and software environments that will be deployed on future systems. In this paper, we develop a structured approach to the design, evaluation and optimization of HPC resilience using the concept of design patterns. A design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem. We identify the problems caused by various types of faults, errors and failures in HPC systems and the techniques used to deal with these events. Each well-known solution that addresses a specific HPC resilience challenge is described in the form of a pattern. We develop a complete catalog of such resilience design patterns, which may be used by system architects, system software and tools developers, application programmers, as well as users and operators as essential building blocks when designing and deploying resilience solutions. We also develop a design framework that enhances a designer's understanding the opportunities for integrating multiple patterns across layers of the system stack and the important constraints during implementation of the individual patterns. It is also useful for defining mechanisms and interfaces to coordinate flexible fault management across hardware and software components. The resilience patterns and the design framework also enable exploration and evaluation of design alternatives and support optimization of the cost-benefit trade-offs among performance, protection coverage, and power consumption of resilience solutions. Here, the overall goal of this work is to establish a systematic methodology for the design and evaluation of resilience technologies in extreme-scale HPC systems that keep scientific applications running to a correct solution in a timely and cost-efficient manner despite frequent faults, errors, and failures of various types.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Yixing; Zhang, Jianshun; Pelken, Michael

Executive Summary The objective of this study was to develop a “Virtual Design Studio (VDS)”: a software platform for integrated, coordinated and optimized design of green building systems with low energy consumption, high indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and high level of sustainability. This VDS is intended to assist collaborating architects, engineers and project management team members throughout from the early phases to the detailed building design stages. It can be used to plan design tasks and workflow, and evaluate the potential impacts of various green building strategies on the building performance by using the state of the art simulation toolsmore » as well as industrial/professional standards and guidelines for green building system design. Engaged in the development of VDS was a multi-disciplinary research team that included architects, engineers, and software developers. Based on the review and analysis of how existing professional practices in building systems design operate, particularly those used in the U.S., Germany and UK, a generic process for performance-based building design, construction and operation was proposed. It distinguishes the whole process into five distinct stages: Assess, Define, Design, Apply, and Monitoring (ADDAM). The current VDS is focused on the first three stages. The VDS considers building design as a multi-dimensional process, involving multiple design teams, design factors, and design stages. The intersection among these three dimensions defines a specific design task in terms of “who”, “what” and “when”. It also considers building design as a multi-objective process that aims to enhance the five aspects of performance for green building systems: site sustainability, materials and resource efficiency, water utilization efficiency, energy efficiency and impacts to the atmospheric environment, and IEQ. The current VDS development has been limited to energy efficiency and IEQ performance, with particular focus on evaluating thermal performance, air quality and lighting environmental quality because of their strong interaction with the energy performance of buildings. The VDS software framework contains four major functions: 1) Design coordination: It enables users to define tasks using the Input-Process-Output flow approach, which specifies the anticipated activities (i.e., the process), required input and output information, and anticipated interactions with other tasks. It also allows task scheduling to define the work flow, and sharing of the design data and information via the internet. 2) Modeling and simulation: It enables users to perform building simulations to predict the energy consumption and IEQ conditions at any of the design stages by using EnergyPlus and a combined heat, air, moisture and pollutant simulation (CHAMPS) model. A method for co-simulation was developed to allow the use of both models at the same time step for the combined energy and indoor air quality analysis. 3) Results visualization: It enables users to display a 3-D geometric design of the building by reading BIM (building information model) file generated by design software such as SketchUp, and the predicted results of heat, air, moisture, pollutant and light distributions in the building. 4) Performance evaluation: It enables the users to compare the performance of a proposed building design against a reference building that is defined for the same type of buildings under the same climate condition, and predicts the percent of improvements over the minimum requirements specified in ASHRAE Standard 55-2010, 62.1-2010 and 90.1-2010. An approach was developed to estimate the potential impact of a design factor on the whole building performance, and hence can assist the user to identify areas that have most pay back for investment. The VDS software was developed by using C++ with the conventional Model, View and Control (MVC) software architecture. The software has been verified by using a simple 3-zone case building. The application of the VDS concepts and framework for building design and performance analysis has been illustrated by using a medium-sized, five story office building that received LEED Platinum Certification from USGBC.« less

Supporting Development of Satellite's Guidance Navigation and Control Software: A Product Line Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McComas, David; Stark, Michael; Leake, Stephen; White, Michael; Morisio, Maurizio; Travassos, Guilherme H.; Powers, Edward I. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Flight Software Branch (FSB) is developing a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Flight Software (FSW) product line. The demand for increasingly more complex flight software in less time while maintaining the same level of quality has motivated us to look for better FSW development strategies. The GNC FSW product line has been planned to address the core GNC FSW functionality very similar on many recent low/near Earth missions in the last ten years. Unfortunately these missions have not accomplished significant drops in development cost since a systematic approach towards reuse has not been adopted. In addition, new demands are continually being placed upon the FSW which means the FSB must become more adept at providing GNC FSW functionality's core so it can accommodate additional requirements. These domain features together with engineering concepts are influencing the specification, description and evaluation of FSW product line. Domain engineering is the foundation for emerging product line software development approaches. A product line is 'A family of products designed to take advantage of their common aspects and predicted variabilities'. In our product line approach, domain engineering includes the engineering activities needed to produce reusable artifacts for a domain. Application engineering refers to developing an application in the domain starting from reusable artifacts. The focus of this paper is regarding the software process, lessons learned and on how the GNC FSW product line manages variability. Existing domain engineering approaches do not enforce any specific notation for domain analysis or commonality and variability analysis. Usually, natural language text is the preferred tool. The advantage is the flexibility and adapt ability of natural language. However, one has to be ready to accept also its well-known drawbacks, such as ambiguity, inconsistency, and contradictions. While most domain analysis approaches are functionally oriented, the idea of applying the object-oriented approach in domain analysis is not new. Some authors propose to use UML as the notation underlying domain analysis. Our work is based on the same idea of merging UML and domain analysis. Further, we propose a few extensions to UML in order to express variability, and we define precisely their semantics so that a tool can support them. The extensions are designed to be implemented on the API of a popular industrial CASE tool, with obvious advantages in cost and availability of tool support. The paper outlines the product line processes and identifies where variability must be addressed. Then it describes the product line products with respect to how they accommodate variability. The Celestial Body subdomain is used as a working example. Our results to date are summarized and plans for the future are described.

Migration of Data from One Library Management System to Another: A Case Study in India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matoria, Ram Kumar; Upadhyay, P. K.

2005-01-01

Purpose: To share the experiences gained during the migration of library data from one library management system (LibSys[TM]) to another (e-Granthalaya[TM]). Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes the step-by-step approach taken to migrate the existing library data to the new software. The paper also discusses the peculiarities of the…

Exploring Factors of a Web-Based Seminar that Influence Hispanic Preservice Teachers' Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Criselda G.; Hooper, H. H., Jr.

2011-01-01

The purpose of the qualitative study using a phenomenological approach was to gain insight of preservice teachers' experiences with a WebCT seminar designed to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a Hispanic-Serving Institution's teacher education program. By applying a "holistic approach" to analyze data, NVivo software was…

Construction of integrated case environments.

PubMed

Losavio, Francisca; Matteo, Alfredo; Pérez, María

2003-01-01

The main goal of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) technology is to improve the entire software system development process. The CASE approach is not merely a technology; it involves a fundamental change in the process of software development. The tendency of the CASE approach, technically speaking, is the integration of tools that assist in the application of specific methods. In this sense, the environment architecture, which includes the platform and the system's hardware and software, constitutes the base of the CASE environment. The problem of tools integration has been proposed for two decades. Current integration efforts emphasize the interoperability of tools, especially in distributed environments. In this work we use the Brown approach. The environment resulting from the application of this model is called a federative environment, focusing on the fact that this architecture pays special attention to the connections among the components of the environment. This approach is now being used in component-based design. This paper describes a concrete experience in civil engineering and architecture fields, for the construction of an integrated CASE environment. A generic architectural framework based on an intermediary architectural pattern is applied to achieve the integration of the different tools. This intermediary represents the control perspective of the PAC (Presentation-Abstraction-Control) style, which has been implemented as a Mediator pattern and it has been used in the interactive systems domain. In addition, a process is given to construct the integrated CASE.

The software development process at the Chandra X-ray Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Janet D.; Evans, Ian N.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina

2008-08-01

Software development for the Chandra X-ray Center Data System began in the mid 1990's, and the waterfall model of development was mandated by our documents. Although we initially tried this approach, we found that a process with elements of the spiral model worked better in our science-based environment. High-level science requirements are usually established by scientists, and provided to the software development group. We follow with review and refinement of those requirements prior to the design phase. Design reviews are conducted for substantial projects within the development team, and include scientists whenever appropriate. Development follows agreed upon schedules that include several internal releases of the task before completion. Feedback from science testing early in the process helps to identify and resolve misunderstandings present in the detailed requirements, and allows review of intangible requirements. The development process includes specific testing of requirements, developer and user documentation, and support after deployment to operations or to users. We discuss the process we follow at the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) to develop software and support operations. We review the role of the science and development staff from conception to release of software, and some lessons learned from managing CXC software development for over a decade.

Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Mount, Frances; Carreon, Patricia; Torney, Susan E.

2001-01-01

The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at NASA Johnson Space Center are combining laboratories and expertise to establish the Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations. This is a testbed for human centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems that will be needed for human exploration and development of space. This project will improve human-centered analysis, design and evaluation methods for developing intelligent software. This software will support human-machine cognitive and collaborative activities in future interplanetary work environments where distributed computer and human agents cooperate. We are developing and evaluating prototype intelligent systems for distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. The primary target domain is control of life support systems in a planetary base. Technical approaches will be evaluated for use during extended manned tests in the target domain, the Bioregenerative Advanced Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex). A spinoff target domain is the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center (MCC). Prodl}cts of this project include human-centered intelligent software technology, innovative human interface designs, and human-centered software development processes, methods and products. The testbed uses adjustable autonomy software and life support systems simulation models from the Adjustable Autonomy Testbed, to represent operations on the remote planet. Ground operations prototypes and concepts will be evaluated in the Exploration Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) and Jupiter Facility.

Designers' unified cost model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freeman, W.; Ilcewicz, L.; Swanson, G.; Gutowski, T.

1992-01-01

The Structures Technology Program Office (STPO) at NASA LaRC has initiated development of a conceptual and preliminary designers' cost prediction model. The model will provide a technically sound method for evaluating the relative cost of different composite structural designs, fabrication processes, and assembly methods that can be compared to equivalent metallic parts or assemblies. The feasibility of developing cost prediction software in a modular form for interfacing with state-of-the-art preliminary design tools and computer aided design programs is being evaluated. The goal of this task is to establish theoretical cost functions that relate geometric design features to summed material cost and labor content in terms of process mechanics and physics. The output of the designers' present analytical tools will be input for the designers' cost prediction model to provide the designer with a database and deterministic cost methodology that allows one to trade and synthesize designs with both cost and weight as objective functions for optimization. This paper presents the team members, approach, goals, plans, and progress to date for development of COSTADE (Cost Optimization Software for Transport Aircraft Design Evaluation).

The GeoViz Toolkit: Using component-oriented coordination methods for geographic visualization and analysis

PubMed Central

Hardisty, Frank; Robinson, Anthony C.

2010-01-01

In this paper we present the GeoViz Toolkit, an open-source, internet-delivered program for geographic visualization and analysis that features a diverse set of software components which can be flexibly combined by users who do not have programming expertise. The design and architecture of the GeoViz Toolkit allows us to address three key research challenges in geovisualization: allowing end users to create their own geovisualization and analysis component set on-the-fly, integrating geovisualization methods with spatial analysis methods, and making geovisualization applications sharable between users. Each of these tasks necessitates a robust yet flexible approach to inter-tool coordination. The coordination strategy we developed for the GeoViz Toolkit, called Introspective Observer Coordination, leverages and combines key advances in software engineering from the last decade: automatic introspection of objects, software design patterns, and reflective invocation of methods. PMID:21731423

Visualizing Volume to Help Students Understand the Disk Method on Calculus Integral Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tasman, F.; Ahmad, D.

2018-04-01

Many research shown that students have difficulty in understanding the concepts of integral calculus. Therefore this research is interested in designing a classroom activity integrated with design research method to assist students in understanding the integrals concept especially in calculating the volume of rotary objects using disc method. In order to support student development in understanding integral concepts, this research tries to use realistic mathematical approach by integrating geogebra software. First year university student who takes a calculus course (approximately 30 people) was chosen to implement the classroom activity that has been designed. The results of retrospective analysis show that visualizing volume of rotary objects using geogebra software can assist the student in understanding the disc method as one way of calculating the volume of a rotary object.

Development of Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation Based on Gazebo and Pixhawk for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Khoa Dang; Ha, Cheolkeun

2018-04-01

Hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) is well known as an effective approach in the design of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) systems, enabling engineers to test the control algorithm on a hardware board with a UAV model on the software. Performance of HILS is determined by performances of the control algorithm, the developed model, and the signal transfer between the hardware and software. The result of HILS is degraded if any signal could not be transferred to the correct destination. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a middleware software to secure communications in HILS system for testing the operation of a quad-rotor UAV. In our HILS, the Gazebo software is used to generate a nonlinear six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) model, sensor model, and 3D visualization for the quad-rotor UAV. Meanwhile, the flight control algorithm is designed and implemented on the Pixhawk hardware. New middleware software, referred to as the control application software (CAS), is proposed to ensure the connection and data transfer between Gazebo and Pixhawk using the multithread structure in Qt Creator. The CAS provides a graphical user interface (GUI), allowing the user to monitor the status of packet transfer, and perform the flight control commands and the real-time tuning parameters for the quad-rotor UAV. Numerical implementations have been performed to prove the effectiveness of the middleware software CAS suggested in this paper.

The U.S./IAEA Workshop on Software Sustainability for Safeguards Instrumentation: Report to the NNSA DOE Office of International Nuclear Safeguards (NA-241)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pepper, Susan E.; Pickett, Chris A.; Queirolo, Al

The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) convened a workshop on Software Sustainability for Safeguards Instrumentation in Vienna, Austria, May 6-8, 2014. Safeguards instrumentation software must be sustained in a changing environment to ensure existing instruments can continue to perform as designed, with improved security. The approaches to the development and maintenance of instrument software used in the past may not be the best model for the future and, therefore, the organizers’ goal was to investigate these past approaches and to determine an optimalmore » path forward. The purpose of this report is to provide input for the DOE NNSA Office of International Nuclear Safeguards (NA-241) and other stakeholders that can be utilized when making decisions related to the development and maintenance of software used in the implementation of international nuclear safeguards. For example, this guidance can be used when determining whether to fund the development, upgrade, or replacement of a particular software product. The report identifies the challenges related to sustaining software, and makes recommendations for addressing these challenges, supported by summaries and detailed notes from the workshop discussions. In addition the authors provide a set of recommendations for institutionalizing software sustainability practices in the safeguards community. The term “software sustainability” was defined for this workshop as ensuring that safeguards instrument software and algorithm functionality can be maintained efficiently throughout the instrument lifecycle, without interruption and providing the ability to continue to improve that software as needs arise.« less

Formalization of software requirements for information systems using fuzzy logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yegorov, Y. S.; Milov, V. R.; Kvasov, A. S.; Sorokoumova, S. N.; Suvorova, O. V.

2018-05-01

The paper considers an approach to the design of information systems based on flexible software development methodologies. The possibility of improving the management of the life cycle of information systems by assessing the functional relationship between requirements and business objectives is described. An approach is proposed to establish the relationship between the degree of achievement of business objectives and the fulfillment of requirements for the projected information system. It describes solutions that allow one to formalize the process of formation of functional and non-functional requirements with the help of fuzzy logic apparatus. The form of the objective function is formed on the basis of expert knowledge and is specified via learning from very small data set.

Real time UNIX in embedded control-a case study within the context of LynxOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kleines, H.; Zwoll, K.

1996-02-01

Intelligent communication controllers for a layered protocol profile are a typical example of an embedded control application, where the classical approach for the software development is based on a proprietary real-time operating system kernel under which the individual layers are implemented as tasks. Based on the exemplary implementation of a derivative of MAP 3.0, an unusual and innovative approach is presented, where the protocol software is implemented under the UNIX-compatible real-time operating system LynxOS. The overall design of the embedded control application is presented under a more general view and economical implications as well as aspects of the development environment and performance are discussed

Software reengineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fridge, Ernest M., III

1991-01-01

Programs in use today generally have all of the function and information processing capabilities required to do their specified job. However, older programs usually use obsolete technology, are not integrated properly with other programs, and are difficult to maintain. Reengineering is becoming a prominent discipline as organizations try to move their systems to more modern and maintainable technologies. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) Software Technology Branch (STB) is researching and developing a system to support reengineering older FORTRAN programs into more maintainable forms that can also be more readily translated to a modern languages such as FORTRAN 8x, Ada, or C. This activity has led to the development of maintenance strategies for design recovery and reengineering. These strategies include a set of standards, methodologies, and the concepts for a software environment to support design recovery and reengineering. A brief description of the problem being addressed and the approach that is being taken by the STB toward providing an economic solution to the problem is provided. A statement of the maintenance problems, the benefits and drawbacks of three alternative solutions, and a brief history of the STB experience in software reengineering are followed by the STB new FORTRAN standards, methodology, and the concepts for a software environment.

On Designing Lightweight Threads for Substrate Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haines, Matthew

1997-01-01

Existing user-level thread packages employ a 'black box' design approach, where the implementation of the threads is hidden from the user. While this approach is often sufficient for application-level programmers, it hides critical design decisions that system-level programmers must be able to change in order to provide efficient service for high-level systems. By applying the principles of Open Implementation Analysis and Design, we construct a new user-level threads package that supports common thread abstractions and a well-defined meta-interface for altering the behavior of these abstractions. As a result, system-level programmers will have the advantages of using high-level thread abstractions without having to sacrifice performance, flexibility or portability.

CONFIG: Integrated engineering of systems and their operation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.; Ryan, Dan; Fleming, Land

1994-01-01

This article discusses CONFIG 3, a prototype software tool that supports integrated conceptual design evaluation from early in the product life cycle, by supporting isolated or integrated modeling, simulation, and analysis of the function, structure, behavior, failures and operations of system designs. Integration and reuse of models is supported in an object-oriented environment providing capabilities for graph analysis and discrete event simulation. CONFIG supports integration among diverse modeling approaches (component view, configuration or flow path view, and procedure view) and diverse simulation and analysis approaches. CONFIG is designed to support integrated engineering in diverse design domains, including mechanical and electro-mechanical systems, distributed computer systems, and chemical processing and transport systems.

An interfaces approach to TES ground data system processing design with the Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurian, R.; Grifin, A.

2002-01-01

Developing production-quality software to process the large volumes of scientific data is the responsibility of the TES Ground Data System, which is being developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory together with support contractor Raytheon/ITSS. The large data volume and processing requirements of the TES pose significant challenges to the design.

The dependability of medical students' performance ratings as documented on in-training evaluations.

PubMed

van Barneveld, Christina

2005-03-01

To demonstrate an approach to obtain an unbiased estimate of the dependability of students' performance ratings during training, when the data-collection design includes nesting of student in rater, unbalanced nest sizes, and dependent observations. In 2003, two variance components analyses of in-training evaluation (ITE) report data were conducted using urGENOVA software. In the first analysis, the dependability for the nested and unbalanced data-collection design was calculated. In the second analysis, an approach using multiple generalizability studies was used to obtain an unbiased estimate of the student variance component, resulting in an unbiased estimate of dependability. Results suggested that there is bias in estimates of the dependability of students' performance on ITEs that are attributable to the data-collection design. When the bias was corrected, the results indicated that the dependability of ratings of student performance was almost zero. The combination of the multiple generalizability studies method and the use of specialized software provides an unbiased estimate of the dependability of ratings of student performance on ITE scores for data-collection designs that include nesting of student in rater, unbalanced nest sizes, and dependent observations.

Preliminary design of flight hardware for two-phase fluid research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hustvedt, D. C.; Oonk, R. L.

1982-01-01

This study defined the preliminary designs of flight software for the Space Shuttle Orbiter for three two-phase fluid research experiments: (1) liquid reorientation - to study the motion of liquid in tanks subjected to small accelerations; (2) pool boiling - to study low-gravity boiling from horizontal cylinders; and (3) flow boiling - to study low-gravity forced flow boiling heat transfer and flow phenomena in a heated horizontal tube. The study consisted of eight major tasks: reassessment of the existing experiment designs, assessment of the Spacelab facility approach, assessment of the individual carry-on approach, selection of the preferred approach, preliminary design of flight hardware, safety analysis, preparation of a development plan, estimates of detailed design, fabrication and ground testing costs. The most cost effective design approach for the experiments is individual carry-ons in the Orbiter middeck. The experiments were designed to fit into one or two middeck lockers. Development schedules for the detailed design, fabrication and ground testing ranged from 15 1/2 to 18 months. Minimum costs (in 1981 dollars) ranged from $463K for the liquid reorientation experiment to $998K for the pool boiling experiment.

Three Object-Oriented enhancement for EPICS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osberg, E. A.; Dohan, D. A.; Richter, R.; Biggs, R.; Chillara, K.; Wade, D.; Bossom, J.

1994-12-01

In line with our group's intention of producing software using, where possible, Object-Oriented methodologies and techniques in the development of RF control systems, we have undertaken three projects to enhance the EPICS software environment. Two of the projects involve interfaces to EPICs Channel Access from Object-Oriented languages. The third is an enhancement to the EPICS State Notation Language to better support the Shlaer-Mellor Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Methodology. This paper discusses the motivation, approaches, results and future directions of these three projects.

Bridging the Hardware-Software Gap: A Proof Carrying Approach for Computer Systems Trust Evaluation (5.3.5)

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-22

has significantly lowered the design cost and shortened the time-to- market (TTM) of Integrated Circuits (ICs) in the electronic industry. Over the...semiconductor companies have focused on high-profit phases such as design, marketing , and sales and have outsourced chip manufacturing, wafer fabrication...supply chain has significantly lowered the design cost and shortened the time- to- market (TTM) of integrated circuits (ICs) in the electronic

A VxD-based automatic blending system using multithreaded programming.

PubMed

Wang, L; Jiang, X; Chen, Y; Tan, K C

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the object-oriented software design for an automatic blending system. By combining the advantages of a programmable logic controller (PLC) and an industrial control PC (ICPC), an automatic blending control system is developed for a chemical plant. The system structure and multithread-based communication approach are first presented in this paper. The overall software design issues, such as system requirements and functionalities, are then discussed in detail. Furthermore, by replacing the conventional dynamic link library (DLL) with virtual X device drivers (VxD's), a practical and cost-effective solution is provided to improve the robustness of the Windows platform-based automatic blending system in small- and medium-sized plants.

FPGA Based Reconfigurable ATM Switch Test Bed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chu, Pong P.; Jones, Robert E.

1998-01-01

Various issues associated with "FPGA Based Reconfigurable ATM Switch Test Bed" are presented in viewgraph form. Specific topics include: 1) Network performance evaluation; 2) traditional approaches; 3) software simulation; 4) hardware emulation; 5) test bed highlights; 6) design environment; 7) test bed architecture; 8) abstract sheared-memory switch; 9) detailed switch diagram; 10) traffic generator; 11) data collection circuit and user interface; 12) initial results; and 13) the following conclusions: Advances in FPGA make hardware emulation feasible for performance evaluation, hardware emulation can provide several orders of magnitude speed-up over software simulation; due to the complexity of hardware synthesis process, development in emulation is much more difficult than simulation and requires knowledge in both networks and digital design.

Comparison of lenses' thermal expansion formulation in Zemax versus ANSYS with SigFit post processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faria, João.; Alves, J. L.; Nunes-Pereira, Eduardo J.

2017-08-01

The goal of this paper is to study in which extent the use of Zemax is suited for athermalization purposes. The research questions targeted in this paper are: what are the differences in the formulation of materials' thermal expansion between Zemax and Ansys; what is the impact on optical quality between both approaches; quantification of the differences between the two methodologies in terms of back focal length, spot radius and modulation transfer function (MTF). To quantify the differences between both approaches, it is used an objective working between -40°C and 110°C. Initially, only Zemax was used to evaluate the objective. Zemax considers a linear geometric expansion of every optical surface, which is here proved to not be the best approach to find a deformed geometry after a thermal load. The second approach is to create a 3D model and perform a finite element simulation in Ansys software. The input data is the thermal variation and the output is the deformed geometry of the lenses. Using SigFit software, it was possible to generate new mathematical equations of the deformed lenses and import this data into Zemax to start a new ray tracing. The new shape and location of lenses differs for both scenarios, and the difference in the focal plane shift is around 12%. The maximum spot radius difference is 27% and MTF relative error goes up to 16%. Zemax as a standalone software is valid if used as an initial guess for the optical designer. However, as a final stage for validation and detailed design, the approach containing Ansys and SigFit should be preferable.

GST-PRIME: an algorithm for genome-wide primer design.

PubMed

Leister, Dario; Varotto, Claudio

2007-01-01

The profiling of mRNA expression based on DNA arrays has become a powerful tool to study genome-wide transcription of genes in a number of organisms. GST-PRIME is a software package created to facilitate large-scale primer design for the amplification of probes to be immobilized on arrays for transcriptome analyses, even though it can be also applied in low-throughput approaches. GST-PRIME allows highly efficient, direct amplification of gene-sequence tags (GSTs) from genomic DNA (gDNA), starting from annotated genome or transcript sequences. GST-PRIME provides a customer-friendly platform for automatic primer design, and despite the relative simplicity of the algorithm, experimental tests in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana confirmed the reliability of the software. This chapter describes the algorithm used for primer design, its input and output files, and the installation of the standalone package and its use.

Human-Automation Integration: Principle and Method for Design and Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Billman, Dorrit; Feary, Michael

2012-01-01

Future space missions will increasingly depend on integration of complex engineered systems with their human operators. It is important to ensure that the systems that are designed and developed do a good job of supporting the needs of the work domain. Our research investigates methods for needs analysis. We included analysis of work products (plans for regulation of the space station) as well as work processes (tasks using current software), in a case study of Attitude Determination and Control Officers (ADCO) planning work. This allows comparing how well different designs match the structure of the work to be supported. Redesigned planning software that better matches the structure of work was developed and experimentally assessed. The new prototype enabled substantially faster and more accurate performance in plan revision tasks. This success suggests the approach to needs assessment and use in design and evaluation is promising, and merits investigatation in future research.

Cleanroom certification model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Currit, P. A.

1983-01-01

The Cleanroom software development methodology is designed to take the gamble out of product releases for both suppliers and receivers of the software. The ingredients of this procedure are a life cycle of executable product increments, representative statistical testing, and a standard estimate of the MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) of the product at the time of its release. A statistical approach to software product testing using randomly selected samples of test cases is considered. A statistical model is defined for the certification process which uses the timing data recorded during test. A reasonableness argument for this model is provided that uses previously published data on software product execution. Also included is a derivation of the certification model estimators and a comparison of the proposed least squares technique with the more commonly used maximum likelihood estimators.

CONRAD Software Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guzman, J. C.; Bennett, T.

2008-08-01

The Convergent Radio Astronomy Demonstrator (CONRAD) is a collaboration between the computing teams of two SKA pathfinder instruments, MeerKAT (South Africa) and ASKAP (Australia). Our goal is to produce the required common software to operate, process and store the data from the two instruments. Both instruments are synthesis arrays composed of a large number of antennas (40 - 100) operating at centimeter wavelengths with wide-field capabilities. Key challenges are the processing of high volume of data in real-time as well as the remote mode of operations. Here we present the software architecture for CONRAD. Our design approach is to maximize the use of open solutions and third-party software widely deployed in commercial applications, such as SNMP and LDAP, and to utilize modern web-based technologies for the user interfaces, such as AJAX.

Repository-Based Software Engineering Program: Working Program Management Plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

Repository-Based Software Engineering Program (RBSE) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsored program dedicated to introducing and supporting common, effective approaches to software engineering practices. The process of conceiving, designing, building, and maintaining software systems by using existing software assets that are stored in a specialized operational reuse library or repository, accessible to system designers, is the foundation of the program. In addition to operating a software repository, RBSE promotes (1) software engineering technology transfer, (2) academic and instructional support of reuse programs, (3) the use of common software engineering standards and practices, (4) software reuse technology research, and (5) interoperability between reuse libraries. This Program Management Plan (PMP) is intended to communicate program goals and objectives, describe major work areas, and define a management report and control process. This process will assist the Program Manager, University of Houston at Clear Lake (UHCL) in tracking work progress and describing major program activities to NASA management. The goal of this PMP is to make managing the RBSE program a relatively easy process that improves the work of all team members. The PMP describes work areas addressed and work efforts being accomplished by the program; however, it is not intended as a complete description of the program. Its focus is on providing management tools and management processes for monitoring, evaluating, and administering the program; and it includes schedules for charting milestones and deliveries of program products. The PMP was developed by soliciting and obtaining guidance from appropriate program participants, analyzing program management guidance, and reviewing related program management documents.

Theoretical and software considerations for nonlinear dynamic analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, R. J.; Dodds, R. H., Jr.

1983-01-01

In the finite element method for structural analysis, it is generally necessary to discretize the structural model into a very large number of elements to accurately evaluate displacements, strains, and stresses. As the complexity of the model increases, the number of degrees of freedom can easily exceed the capacity of present-day software system. Improvements of structural analysis software including more efficient use of existing hardware and improved structural modeling techniques are discussed. One modeling technique that is used successfully in static linear and nonlinear analysis is multilevel substructuring. This research extends the use of multilevel substructure modeling to include dynamic analysis and defines the requirements for a general purpose software system capable of efficient nonlinear dynamic analysis. The multilevel substructuring technique is presented, the analytical formulations and computational procedures for dynamic analysis and nonlinear mechanics are reviewed, and an approach to the design and implementation of a general purpose structural software system is presented.

Learning from examples - Generation and evaluation of decision trees for software resource analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Selby, Richard W.; Porter, Adam A.

1988-01-01

A general solution method for the automatic generation of decision (or classification) trees is investigated. The approach is to provide insights through in-depth empirical characterization and evaluation of decision trees for software resource data analysis. The trees identify classes of objects (software modules) that had high development effort. Sixteen software systems ranging from 3,000 to 112,000 source lines were selected for analysis from a NASA production environment. The collection and analysis of 74 attributes (or metrics), for over 4,700 objects, captured information about the development effort, faults, changes, design style, and implementation style. A total of 9,600 decision trees were automatically generated and evaluated. The trees correctly identified 79.3 percent of the software modules that had high development effort or faults, and the trees generated from the best parameter combinations correctly identified 88.4 percent of the modules on the average.

ThermoData Engine (TDE): software implementation of the dynamic data evaluation concept. 5. Experiment planning and product design.

PubMed

Diky, Vladimir; Chirico, Robert D; Kazakov, Andrei F; Muzny, Chris D; Magee, Joseph W; Abdulagatov, Ilmutdin; Kang, Jeong Won; Kroenlein, Kenneth; Frenkel, Michael

2011-01-24

ThermoData Engine (TDE) is the first full-scale software implementation of the dynamic data evaluation concept, as reported recently in this journal. In the present paper, we describe development of an algorithmic approach to assist experiment planning through assessment of the existing body of knowledge, including availability of experimental thermophysical property data, variable ranges studied, associated uncertainties, state of prediction methods, and parameters for deployment of prediction methods and how these parameters can be obtained using targeted measurements, etc., and, indeed, how the intended measurement may address the underlying scientific or engineering problem under consideration. A second new feature described here is the application of the software capabilities for aid in the design of chemical products through identification of chemical systems possessing desired values of thermophysical properties within defined ranges of tolerance. The algorithms and their software implementation to achieve this are described. Finally, implementation of a new data validation and weighting system is described for vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data, and directions for future enhancements are outlined.

A Study of the Use of Ontologies for Building Computer-Aided Control Engineering Self-Learning Educational Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García, Isaías; Benavides, Carmen; Alaiz, Héctor; Alonso, Angel

2013-08-01

This paper describes research on the use of knowledge models (ontologies) for building computer-aided educational software in the field of control engineering. Ontologies are able to represent in the computer a very rich conceptual model of a given domain. This model can be used later for a number of purposes in different software applications. In this study, domain ontology about the field of lead-lag compensator design has been built and used for automatic exercise generation, graphical user interface population and interaction with the user at any level of detail, including explanations about why things occur. An application called Onto-CELE (ontology-based control engineering learning environment) uses the ontology for implementing a learning environment that can be used for self and lifelong learning purposes. The experience has shown that the use of knowledge models as the basis for educational software applications is capable of showing students the whole complexity of the analysis and design processes at any level of detail. A practical experience with postgraduate students has shown the mentioned benefits and possibilities of the approach.

An intelligent maximum permissible exposure meter for safety assessments of laser radiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corder, D. A.; Evans, D. R.; Tyrer, J. R.

1996-09-01

There is frequently a need to make laser power or energy density measurements when determining whether radiation from a laser system exceeds the Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) as defined in BS EN 60825. This can be achieved using standard commercially available laser power or energy measurement equipment, but some of these have shortcomings when used in this application. Calculations must be performed by the user to compare the measured value to the MPE. The measurement and calculation procedure appears complex to the nonexpert who may be performing the assessment. A novel approach is described which uses purpose designed hardware and software to simplify the process. The hardware is optimized for measuring the relatively low powers associated with MPEs. The software runs on a Psion Series 3a palmtop computer. This reduces the cost and size of the system yet allows graphical and numerical presentation of data. Data output to other software running on PCs is also possible, enabling the instrument to be used as part of a quality system. Throughout the measurement process the opportunity for user error has been minimized by the hardware and software design.

EPA H2O User Manual

EPA Science Inventory

EPA H2O is a software tool designed to support research being conducted in the Tampa Bay watershed to provide information, data, and approaches and guidance that communities can use to examine alternatives when making strategic decisions to support a prosperous and environmentall...

Introducing the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System Desktop Application (HydroDesktop) and Open Development Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ames, D.; Kadlec, J.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Maidment, D. R.

2009-12-01

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS) project includes extensive development of data storage and delivery tools and standards including WaterML (a language for sharing hydrologic data sets via web services); and HIS Server (a software tool set for delivering WaterML from a server); These and other CUASHI HIS tools have been under development and deployment for several years and together, present a relatively complete software “stack” to support the consistent storage and delivery of hydrologic and other environmental observation data. This presentation describes the development of a new HIS software tool called “HydroDesktop” and the development of an online open source software development community to update and maintain the software. HydroDesktop is a local (i.e. not server-based) client side software tool that ultimately will run on multiple operating systems and will provide a highly usable level of access to HIS services. The software provides many key capabilities including data query, map-based visualization, data download, local data maintenance, editing, graphing, data export to selected model-specific data formats, linkage with integrated modeling systems such as OpenMI, and ultimately upload to HIS servers from the local desktop software. As the software is presently in the early stages of development, this presentation will focus on design approach and paradigm and is viewed as an opportunity to encourage participation in the open development community. Indeed, recognizing the value of community based code development as a means of ensuring end-user adoption, this project has adopted an “iterative” or “spiral” software development approach which will be described in this presentation.

An evolutionary morphological approach for software development cost estimation.

PubMed

Araújo, Ricardo de A; Oliveira, Adriano L I; Soares, Sergio; Meira, Silvio

2012-08-01

In this work we present an evolutionary morphological approach to solve the software development cost estimation (SDCE) problem. The proposed approach consists of a hybrid artificial neuron based on framework of mathematical morphology (MM) with algebraic foundations in the complete lattice theory (CLT), referred to as dilation-erosion perceptron (DEP). Also, we present an evolutionary learning process, called DEP(MGA), using a modified genetic algorithm (MGA) to design the DEP model, because a drawback arises from the gradient estimation of morphological operators in the classical learning process of the DEP, since they are not differentiable in the usual way. Furthermore, an experimental analysis is conducted with the proposed model using five complex SDCE problems and three well-known performance metrics, demonstrating good performance of the DEP model to solve SDCE problems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

VIMOS Instrument Control Software Design: an Object Oriented Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brau-Nogué, Sylvie; Lucuix, Christian

2002-12-01

The Franco-Italian VIMOS instrument is a VIsible imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph with outstanding multiplex capabilities, allowing to take spectra of more than 800 objects simultaneously, or integral field spectroscopy mode in a 54x54 arcsec area. VIMOS is being installed at the Nasmyth focus of the third Unit Telescope of the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Mount Paranal in Chile. This paper will describe the analysis, the design and the implementation of the VIMOS Instrument Control System, using UML notation. Our Control group followed an Object Oriented software process while keeping in mind the ESO VLT standard control concepts. At ESO VLT a complete software library is available. Rather than applying waterfall lifecycle, ICS project used iterative development, a lifecycle consisting of several iterations. Each iteration consisted in : capture and evaluate the requirements, visual modeling for analysis and design, implementation, test, and deployment. Depending of the project phases, iterations focused more or less on specific activity. The result is an object model (the design model), including use-case realizations. An implementation view and a deployment view complement this product. An extract of VIMOS ICS UML model will be presented and some implementation, integration and test issues will be discussed.

Management Design Theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pries-Heje, Jan; Baskerville, Richard L.

This paper elaborates a design science approach for management planning anchored to the concept of a management design theory. Unlike the notions of design theories arising from information systems, management design theories can appear as a system of technological rules, much as a system of hypotheses or propositions can embody scientific theories. The paper illus trates this form of management design theories with three grounded cases. These grounded cases include a software process improvement study, a user involvement study, and an organizational change study. Collectively these studies demonstrate how design theories founded on technological rules can not only improve the design of information systems, but that these concepts have great practical value for improving the framing of strategic organi zational design decisions about such systems. Each case is either grounded in an empirical sense, that is to say, actual practice, or it is grounded to practices described extensively in the practical literature. Such design theories will help managers more easily approach complex, strategic decisions.

Empirical studies of software design: Implications for SSEs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krasner, Herb

1988-01-01

Implications for Software Engineering Environments (SEEs) are presented in viewgraph format for characteristics of projects studied; significant problems and crucial problem areas in software design for large systems; layered behavioral model of software processes; implications of field study results; software project as an ecological system; results of the LIFT study; information model of design exploration; software design strategies; results of the team design study; and a list of publications.

The Evolution of Software and Its Impact on Complex System Design in Robotic Spacecraft Embedded Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Roy

2013-01-01

The growth in computer hardware performance, coupled with reduced energy requirements, has led to a rapid expansion of the resources available to software systems, driving them towards greater logical abstraction, flexibility, and complexity. This shift in focus from compacting functionality into a limited field towards developing layered, multi-state architectures in a grand field has both driven and been driven by the history of embedded processor design in the robotic spacecraft industry.The combinatorial growth of interprocess conditions is accompanied by benefits (concurrent development, situational autonomy, and evolution of goals) and drawbacks (late integration, non-deterministic interactions, and multifaceted anomalies) in achieving mission success, as illustrated by the case of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Approaches to optimizing the benefits while mitigating the drawbacks have taken the form of the formalization of requirements, modular design practices, extensive system simulation, and spacecraft data trend analysis. The growth of hardware capability and software complexity can be expected to continue, with future directions including stackable commodity subsystems, computer-generated algorithms, runtime reconfigurable processors, and greater autonomy.

Component-based integration of chemistry and optimization software.

PubMed

Kenny, Joseph P; Benson, Steven J; Alexeev, Yuri; Sarich, Jason; Janssen, Curtis L; McInnes, Lois Curfman; Krishnan, Manojkumar; Nieplocha, Jarek; Jurrus, Elizabeth; Fahlstrom, Carl; Windus, Theresa L

2004-11-15

Typical scientific software designs make rigid assumptions regarding programming language and data structures, frustrating software interoperability and scientific collaboration. Component-based software engineering is an emerging approach to managing the increasing complexity of scientific software. Component technology facilitates code interoperability and reuse. Through the adoption of methodology and tools developed by the Common Component Architecture Forum, we have developed a component architecture for molecular structure optimization. Using the NWChem and Massively Parallel Quantum Chemistry packages, we have produced chemistry components that provide capacity for energy and energy derivative evaluation. We have constructed geometry optimization applications by integrating the Toolkit for Advanced Optimization, Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation, and Global Arrays packages, which provide optimization and linear algebra capabilities. We present a brief overview of the component development process and a description of abstract interfaces for chemical optimizations. The components conforming to these abstract interfaces allow the construction of applications using different chemistry and mathematics packages interchangeably. Initial numerical results for the component software demonstrate good performance, and highlight potential research enabled by this platform.

Intelligent Hardware-Enabled Sensor and Software Safety and Health Management for Autonomous UAS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rozier, Kristin Y.; Schumann, Johann; Ippolito, Corey

2015-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can only be deployed if they can effectively complete their mission and respond to failures and uncertain environmental conditions while maintaining safety with respect to other aircraft as well as humans and property on the ground. We propose to design a real-time, onboard system health management (SHM) capability to continuously monitor essential system components such as sensors, software, and hardware systems for detection and diagnosis of failures and violations of safety or performance rules during the ight of a UAS. Our approach to SHM is three-pronged, providing: (1) real-time monitoring of sensor and software signals; (2) signal analysis, preprocessing, and advanced on-the- y temporal and Bayesian probabilistic fault diagnosis; (3) an unobtrusive, lightweight, read-only, low-power hardware realization using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in order to avoid overburdening limited computing resources or costly re-certi cation of ight software due to instrumentation. No currently available SHM capabilities (or combinations of currently existing SHM capabilities) come anywhere close to satisfying these three criteria yet NASA will require such intelligent, hardwareenabled sensor and software safety and health management for introducing autonomous UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS). We propose a novel approach of creating modular building blocks for combining responsive runtime monitoring of temporal logic system safety requirements with model-based diagnosis and Bayesian network-based probabilistic analysis. Our proposed research program includes both developing this novel approach and demonstrating its capabilities using the NASA Swift UAS as a demonstration platform.

System Engineering Concept Demonstration, Effort Summary. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-12-01

involve only the system software, user frameworks and user tools. U •User Tool....s , Catalyst oExternal 00 Computer Framwork P OSystems • •~ Sysytem...analysis, synthesis, optimization, conceptual design of Catalyst. The paper discusses the definition, design, test, and evaluation; operational concept...This approach will allow system engineering The conceptual requirements for the Process Model practitioners to recognize and tailor the model. This

A unified approach to VLSI layout automation and algorithm mapping on processor arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkateswaran, N.; Pattabiraman, S.; Srinivasan, Vinoo N.

1993-01-01

Development of software tools for designing supercomputing systems is highly complex and cost ineffective. To tackle this a special purpose PAcube silicon compiler which integrates different design levels from cell to processor arrays has been proposed. As a part of this, we present in this paper a novel methodology which unifies the problems of Layout Automation and Algorithm Mapping.

Rocketdyne/Westinghouse nuclear thermal rocket engine modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Glass, James F.

1993-01-01

The topics are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: systems approach needed for nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) design optimization; generic NTR engine power balance codes; rocketdyne nuclear thermal system code; software capabilities; steady state model; NTR engine optimizer code-logic; reactor power calculation logic; sample multi-component configuration; NTR design code output; generic NTR code at Rocketdyne; Rocketdyne NTR model; and nuclear thermal rocket modeling directions.

A Logical Design of the Naval Postgraduate School Housing Office.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-03-01

34 March 1985 L C -:0 Thesis Advisor: Barry A. Frew LU Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited 85 6 3 057...Information Systems Development : Analysis and Design, South-Western, 1984. Pressman , R. S. , Software Engineering A Practitioner’s Approach, McGraw...Postgraduate School Monterey, California 93943 3. Lt. Barry A. Frew 2 Code 54 Fw Administrative Services Department Naval Postgraduate School Monterey

Improving INPE'S balloon ground facilities for operation of the protoMIRAX experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mattiello-Francisco, F.; Rinke, E.; Fernandes, J. O.; Cardoso, L.; Cardoso, P.; Braga, J.

2014-10-01

The system requirements for reusing the scientific balloon ground facilities available at INPE were a challenge to the ground system engineers involved in the protoMIRAX X-ray astronomy experiment. A significant effort on software updating was required for the balloon ground station. Considering that protoMIRAX is a pathfinder for the MIRAX satellite mission, a ground infrastructure compatible with INPE's satellite operation approach would be useful and highly recommended to control and monitor the experiment during the balloon flights. This approach will make use of the SATellite Control System (SATCS), a software-based architecture developed at INPE for satellite commanding and monitoring. SATCS complies with particular operational requirements of different satellites by using several customized object-oriented software elements and frameworks. We present the ground solution designed for protoMIRAX operation, the Control and Reception System (CRS). A new server computer, properly configured with Ethernet, has extended the existing ground station facilities with switch, converters and new software (OPS/SERVER) in order to support the available uplink and downlink channels being mapped to TCP/IP gateways required by SATCS. Currently, the CRS development is customizing the SATCS for the kernel functions of protoMIRAX command and telemetry processing. Design-patterns, component-based libraries and metadata are widely used in the SATCS in order to extend the frameworks to address the Packet Utilization Standard (PUS) for ground-balloon communication, in compliance with the services provided by the data handling computer onboard the protoMIRAX balloon.

CLMSVault: A Software Suite for Protein Cross-Linking Mass-Spectrometry Data Analysis and Visualization.

PubMed

Courcelles, Mathieu; Coulombe-Huntington, Jasmin; Cossette, Émilie; Gingras, Anne-Claude; Thibault, Pierre; Tyers, Mike

2017-07-07

Protein cross-linking mass spectrometry (CL-MS) enables the sensitive detection of protein interactions and the inference of protein complex topology. The detection of chemical cross-links between protein residues can identify intra- and interprotein contact sites or provide physical constraints for molecular modeling of protein structure. Recent innovations in cross-linker design, sample preparation, mass spectrometry, and software tools have significantly improved CL-MS approaches. Although a number of algorithms now exist for the identification of cross-linked peptides from mass spectral data, a dearth of user-friendly analysis tools represent a practical bottleneck to the broad adoption of the approach. To facilitate the analysis of CL-MS data, we developed CLMSVault, a software suite designed to leverage existing CL-MS algorithms and provide intuitive and flexible tools for cross-platform data interpretation. CLMSVault stores and combines complementary information obtained from different cross-linkers and search algorithms. CLMSVault provides filtering, comparison, and visualization tools to support CL-MS analyses and includes a workflow for label-free quantification of cross-linked peptides. An embedded 3D viewer enables the visualization of quantitative data and the mapping of cross-linked sites onto PDB structural models. We demonstrate the application of CLMSVault for the analysis of a noncovalent Cdc34-ubiquitin protein complex cross-linked under different conditions. CLMSVault is open-source software (available at https://gitlab.com/courcelm/clmsvault.git ), and a live demo is available at http://democlmsvault.tyerslab.com/ .

The Knowledge-Based Software Assistant: Beyond CASE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carozzoni, Joseph A.

1993-01-01

This paper will outline the similarities and differences between two paradigms of software development. Both support the whole software life cycle and provide automation for most of the software development process, but have different approaches. The CASE approach is based on a set of tools linked by a central data repository. This tool-based approach is data driven and views software development as a series of sequential steps, each resulting in a product. The Knowledge-Based Software Assistant (KBSA) approach, a radical departure from existing software development practices, is knowledge driven and centers around a formalized software development process. KBSA views software development as an incremental, iterative, and evolutionary process with development occurring at the specification level.

The Enzyme Portal: a case study in applying user-centred design methods in bioinformatics.

PubMed

de Matos, Paula; Cham, Jennifer A; Cao, Hong; Alcántara, Rafael; Rowland, Francis; Lopez, Rodrigo; Steinbeck, Christoph

2013-03-20

User-centred design (UCD) is a type of user interface design in which the needs and desires of users are taken into account at each stage of the design process for a service or product; often for software applications and websites. Its goal is to facilitate the design of software that is both useful and easy to use. To achieve this, you must characterise users' requirements, design suitable interactions to meet their needs, and test your designs using prototypes and real life scenarios.For bioinformatics, there is little practical information available regarding how to carry out UCD in practice. To address this we describe a complete, multi-stage UCD process used for creating a new bioinformatics resource for integrating enzyme information, called the Enzyme Portal (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/enzymeportal). This freely-available service mines and displays data about proteins with enzymatic activity from public repositories via a single search, and includes biochemical reactions, biological pathways, small molecule chemistry, disease information, 3D protein structures and relevant scientific literature.We employed several UCD techniques, including: persona development, interviews, 'canvas sort' card sorting, user workflows, usability testing and others. Our hope is that this case study will motivate the reader to apply similar UCD approaches to their own software design for bioinformatics. Indeed, we found the benefits included more effective decision-making for design ideas and technologies; enhanced team-working and communication; cost effectiveness; and ultimately a service that more closely meets the needs of our target audience.

Less label, more free: approaches in label-free quantitative mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Neilson, Karlie A; Ali, Naveid A; Muralidharan, Sridevi; Mirzaei, Mehdi; Mariani, Michael; Assadourian, Gariné; Lee, Albert; van Sluyter, Steven C; Haynes, Paul A

2011-02-01

In this review we examine techniques, software, and statistical analyses used in label-free quantitative proteomics studies for area under the curve and spectral counting approaches. Recent advances in the field are discussed in an order that reflects a logical workflow design. Examples of studies that follow this design are presented to highlight the requirement for statistical assessment and further experiments to validate results from label-free quantitation. Limitations of label-free approaches are considered, label-free approaches are compared with labelling techniques, and forward-looking applications for label-free quantitative data are presented. We conclude that label-free quantitative proteomics is a reliable, versatile, and cost-effective alternative to labelled quantitation. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Real-time acquisition and tracking system with multiple Kalman filters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beard, Gary C.; McCarter, Timothy G.; Spodeck, Walter; Fletcher, James E.

1994-07-01

The design of a real-time, ground-based, infrared tracking system with proven field success in tracking boost vehicles through burnout is presented with emphasis on the software design. The system was originally developed to deliver relative angular positions during boost, and thrust termination time to a sensor fusion station in real-time. Autonomous target acquisition and angle-only tracking features were developed to ensure success under stressing conditions. A unique feature of the system is the incorporation of multiple copies of a Kalman filter tracking algorithm running in parallel in order to minimize run-time. The system is capable of updating the state vector for an object at measurement rates approaching 90 Hz. This paper will address the top-level software design, details of the algorithms employed, system performance history in the field, and possible future upgrades.

Parametric modelling design applied to weft knitted surfaces and its effects in their physical properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliveira, N. P.; Maciel, L.; Catarino, A. P.; Rocha, A. M.

2017-10-01

This work proposes the creation of models of surfaces using a parametric computer modelling software to obtain three-dimensional structures in weft knitted fabrics produced on single needle system machines. Digital prototyping, another feature of digital modelling software, was also explored in three-dimensional drawings generated using the Rhinoceros software. With this approach, different 3D structures were developed and produced. Physical characterization tests were then performed on the resulting 3D weft knitted structures to assess their ability to promote comfort. From the obtained results, it is apparent that the developed structures have potential for application in different market segments, such as clothing and interior textiles.

Object-Oriented Programming When Developing Software in Geology and Geophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadulin, R. K.; Bakanovskaya, L. N.

2017-01-01

The paper reviews the role of object-oriented programming when developing software in geology and geophysics. Main stages have been identified at which it is worthwhile to apply principles of object-oriented programming when developing software in geology and geophysics. The research was based on a number of problems solved in Geology and Petroleum Production Institute. Distinctive features of these problems are given and areas of application of the object-oriented approach are identified. Developing applications in the sphere of geology and geophysics has shown that the process of creating such products is simplified due to the use of object-oriented programming, firstly when designing structures for data storage and graphical user interfaces.

Managing MDO Software Development Projects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Townsend, J. C.; Salas, A. O.

2002-01-01

Over the past decade, the NASA Langley Research Center developed a series of 'grand challenge' applications demonstrating the use of parallel and distributed computation and multidisciplinary design optimization. All but the last of these applications were focused on the high-speed civil transport vehicle; the final application focused on reusable launch vehicles. Teams of discipline experts developed these multidisciplinary applications by integrating legacy engineering analysis codes. As teams became larger and the application development became more complex with increasing levels of fidelity and numbers of disciplines, the need for applying software engineering practices became evident. This paper briefly introduces the application projects and then describes the approaches taken in project management and software engineering for each project; lessons learned are highlighted.

The Future of Data Reduction at UKIRT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Economou, F.; Bridger, A.; Wright, G. S.; Rees, N. P.; Jenness, T.

The Observatory Reduction and Acquisition Control (ORAC) project is a comprehensive re-implementation of all existing instrument user interfaces and data handling software involved at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). This paper addresses the design of the data reduction part of the system. Our main aim is to provide data reduction facilities for the new generation of UKIRT instruments of a similar standard to our current software packages, which have enjoyed success because of their science-driven approach. Additionally we wish to use modern software techniques in order to produce a system that is portable, flexible and extensible so as to have modest maintenance requirements, both in the medium and the longer term.

Spatial Dmbs Architecture for a Free and Open Source Bim

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Logothetis, S.; Valari, E.; Karachaliou, E.; Stylianidis, E.

2017-08-01

Recent research on the field of Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology, revealed that except of a few, accessible and free BIM viewers there is a lack of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) BIM software for the complete BIM process. With this in mind and considering BIM as the technological advancement of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems, the current work proposes the use of a FOSS CAD software in order to extend its capabilities and transform it gradually into a FOSS BIM platform. Towards this undertaking, a first approach on developing a spatial Database Management System (DBMS) able to store, organize and manage the overall amount of information within a single application, is presented.

Multi-Agent Systems Design for Novices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynch, Simon; Rajendran, Keerthi

2005-01-01

Advanced approaches to the construction of software systems can present difficulties to learners. This is true for multi-agent systems (MAS) which exhibit concurrency, non-determinacy of structure and composition and sometimes emergent behavior characteristics. Additional barriers exist for learners because mainstream MAS technology is young and…

MUMEDALA--An Approach to Multi-Media Authoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Philip G.

1984-01-01

Discusses pedagogical factors influencing design and construction of sophisticated educational multimedia workstations, and presents an overview of the Multi-Media Authoring Language system, an experimental test vehicle providing a framework in which to conduct hardware, software, and interfacing experiments necessary to produce a solution to…

Lattice enumeration for inverse molecular design using the signature descriptor.

PubMed

Martin, Shawn

2012-07-23

We describe an inverse quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) framework developed for the design of molecular structures with desired properties. This framework uses chemical fragments encoded with a molecular descriptor known as a signature. It solves a system of linear constrained Diophantine equations to reorganize the fragments into novel molecular structures. The method has been previously applied to problems in drug and materials design but has inherent computational limitations due to the necessity of solving the Diophantine constraints. We propose a new approach to overcome these limitations using the Fincke-Pohst algorithm for lattice enumeration. We benchmark the new approach against previous results on LFA-1/ICAM-1 inhibitory peptides, linear homopolymers, and hydrofluoroether foam blowing agents. Software implementing the new approach is available at www.cs.otago.ac.nz/homepages/smartin.

Optimization Testbed Cometboards Extended into Stochastic Domain

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patnaik, Surya N.; Pai, Shantaram S.; Coroneos, Rula M.; Patnaik, Surya N.

2010-01-01

COMparative Evaluation Testbed of Optimization and Analysis Routines for the Design of Structures (CometBoards) is a multidisciplinary design optimization software. It was originally developed for deterministic calculation. It has now been extended into the stochastic domain for structural design problems. For deterministic problems, CometBoards is introduced through its subproblem solution strategy as well as the approximation concept in optimization. In the stochastic domain, a design is formulated as a function of the risk or reliability. Optimum solution including the weight of a structure, is also obtained as a function of reliability. Weight versus reliability traced out an inverted-S-shaped graph. The center of the graph corresponded to 50 percent probability of success, or one failure in two samples. A heavy design with weight approaching infinity could be produced for a near-zero rate of failure that corresponded to unity for reliability. Weight can be reduced to a small value for the most failure-prone design with a compromised reliability approaching zero. The stochastic design optimization (SDO) capability for an industrial problem was obtained by combining three codes: MSC/Nastran code was the deterministic analysis tool, fast probabilistic integrator, or the FPI module of the NESSUS software, was the probabilistic calculator, and CometBoards became the optimizer. The SDO capability requires a finite element structural model, a material model, a load model, and a design model. The stochastic optimization concept is illustrated considering an academic example and a real-life airframe component made of metallic and composite materials.

Design Approach and Implementation of Application Specific Instruction Set Processor for SHA-3 BLAKE Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yuli; Han, Jun; Weng, Xinqian; He, Zhongzhu; Zeng, Xiaoyang

This paper presents an Application Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP) for the SHA-3 BLAKE algorithm family by instruction set extensions (ISE) from an RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor. With a design space exploration for this ASIP to increase the performance and reduce the area cost, we accomplish an efficient hardware and software implementation of BLAKE algorithm. The special instructions and their well-matched hardware function unit improve the calculation of the key section of the algorithm, namely G-functions. Also, relaxing the time constraint of the special function unit can decrease its hardware cost, while keeping the high data throughput of the processor. Evaluation results reveal the ASIP achieves 335Mbps and 176Mbps for BLAKE-256 and BLAKE-512. The extra area cost is only 8.06k equivalent gates. The proposed ASIP outperforms several software approaches on various platforms in cycle per byte. In fact, both high throughput and low hardware cost achieved by this programmable processor are comparable to that of ASIC implementations.

Central composite design with the help of multivariate curve resolution in loadability optimization of RP-HPLC to scale-up a binary mixture.

PubMed

Taheri, Mohammadreza; Moazeni-Pourasil, Roudabeh Sadat; Sheikh-Olia-Lavasani, Majid; Karami, Ahmad; Ghassempour, Alireza

2016-03-01

Chromatographic method development for preparative targets is a time-consuming and subjective process. This can be particularly problematic because of the use of valuable samples for isolation and the large consumption of solvents in preparative scale. These processes could be improved by using statistical computations to save time, solvent and experimental efforts. Thus, contributed by ESI-MS, after applying DryLab software to gain an overview of the most effective parameters in separation of synthesized celecoxib and its co-eluted compounds, design of experiment software that relies on multivariate modeling as a chemometric approach was used to predict the optimized touching-band overloading conditions by objective functions according to the relationship between selectivity and stationary phase properties. The loadability of the method was investigated on the analytical and semi-preparative scales, and the performance of this chemometric approach was approved by peak shapes beside recovery and purity of products. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Quantitative comparison and evaluation of software packages for assessment of abdominal adipose tissue distribution by magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed

Bonekamp, S; Ghosh, P; Crawford, S; Solga, S F; Horska, A; Brancati, F L; Diehl, A M; Smith, S; Clark, J M

2008-01-01

To examine five available software packages for the assessment of abdominal adipose tissue with magnetic resonance imaging, compare their features and assess the reliability of measurement results. Feature evaluation and test-retest reliability of softwares (NIHImage, SliceOmatic, Analyze, HippoFat and EasyVision) used in manual, semi-automated or automated segmentation of abdominal adipose tissue. A random sample of 15 obese adults with type 2 diabetes. Axial T1-weighted spin echo images centered at vertebral bodies of L2-L3 were acquired at 1.5 T. Five software packages were evaluated (NIHImage, SliceOmatic, Analyze, HippoFat and EasyVision), comparing manual, semi-automated and automated segmentation approaches. Images were segmented into cross-sectional area (CSA), and the areas of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). Ease of learning and use and the design of the graphical user interface (GUI) were rated. Intra-observer accuracy and agreement between the software packages were calculated using intra-class correlation. Intra-class correlation coefficient was used to obtain test-retest reliability. Three of the five evaluated programs offered a semi-automated technique to segment the images based on histogram values or a user-defined threshold. One software package allowed manual delineation only. One fully automated program demonstrated the drawbacks of uncritical automated processing. The semi-automated approaches reduced variability and measurement error, and improved reproducibility. There was no significant difference in the intra-observer agreement in SAT and CSA. The VAT measurements showed significantly lower test-retest reliability. There were some differences between the software packages in qualitative aspects, such as user friendliness. Four out of five packages provided essentially the same results with respect to the inter- and intra-rater reproducibility. Our results using SliceOmatic, Analyze or NIHImage were comparable and could be used interchangeably. Newly developed fully automated approaches should be compared to one of the examined software packages.

Evolution of International Space Station Program Safety Review Processes and Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ratterman, Christian D.; Green, Collin; Guibert, Matt R.; McCracken, Kristle I.; Sang, Anthony C.; Sharpe, Matthew D.; Tollinger, Irene V.

2013-01-01

The International Space Station Program at NASA is constantly seeking to improve the processes and systems that support safe space operations. To that end, the ISS Program decided to upgrade their Safety and Hazard data systems with 3 goals: make safety and hazard data more accessible; better support the interconnection of different types of safety data; and increase the efficiency (and compliance) of safety-related processes. These goals are accomplished by moving data into a web-based structured data system that includes strong process support and supports integration with other information systems. Along with the data systems, ISS is evolving its submission requirements and safety process requirements to support the improved model. In contrast to existing operations (where paper processes and electronic file repositories are used for safety data management) the web-based solution provides the program with dramatically faster access to records, the ability to search for and reference specific data within records, reduced workload for hazard updates and approval, and process support including digital signatures and controlled record workflow. In addition, integration with other key data systems provides assistance with assessments of flight readiness, more efficient review and approval of operational controls and better tracking of international safety certifications. This approach will also provide new opportunities to streamline the sharing of data with ISS international partners while maintaining compliance with applicable laws and respecting restrictions on proprietary data. One goal of this paper is to outline the approach taken by the ISS Progrm to determine requirements for the new system and to devise a practical and efficient implementation strategy. From conception through implementation, ISS and NASA partners utilized a user-centered software development approach focused on user research and iterative design methods. The user-centered approach used on the new ISS hazard system utilized focused user research and iterative design methods employed by the Human Computer Interaction Group at NASA Ames Research Center. Particularly, the approach emphasized the reduction of workload associated with document and data management activities so more resources can be allocated to the operational use of data in problem solving, safety analysis, and recurrence control. The methods and techniques used to understand existing processes and systems, to recognize opportunities for improvement, and to design and review improvements are described with the intent that similar techniques can be employed elsewhere in safety operations. A second goal of this paper is to provide and overview of the web-based data system implemented by ISS. The software selected for the ISS hazard systemMission Assurance System (MAS)is a NASA-customized vairant of the open source software project Bugzilla. The origin and history of MAS as a NASA software project and the rationale for (and advantages of) using open-source software are documented elsewhere (Green, et al., 2009).

HRVanalysis: A Free Software for Analyzing Cardiac Autonomic Activity

PubMed Central

Pichot, Vincent; Roche, Frédéric; Celle, Sébastien; Barthélémy, Jean-Claude; Chouchou, Florian

2016-01-01

Since the pioneering studies of the 1960s, heart rate variability (HRV) has become an increasingly used non-invasive tool for examining cardiac autonomic functions and dysfunctions in various populations and conditions. Many calculation methods have been developed to address these issues, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Although, its interpretation may remain difficult, this technique provides, from a non-invasive approach, reliable physiological information that was previously inaccessible, in many fields including death and health prediction, training and overtraining, cardiac and respiratory rehabilitation, sleep-disordered breathing, large cohort follow-ups, children's autonomic status, anesthesia, or neurophysiological studies. In this context, we developed HRVanalysis, a software to analyse HRV, used and improved for over 20 years and, thus, designed to meet laboratory requirements. The main strength of HRVanalysis is its wide application scope. In addition to standard analysis over short and long periods of RR intervals, the software allows time-frequency analysis using wavelet transform as well as analysis of autonomic nervous system status on surrounding scored events and on preselected labeled areas. Moreover, the interface is designed for easy study of large cohorts, including batch mode signal processing to avoid running repetitive operations. Results are displayed as figures or saved in TXT files directly employable in statistical softwares. Recordings can arise from RR or EKG files of different types such as cardiofrequencemeters, holters EKG, polygraphs, and data acquisition systems. HRVanalysis can be downloaded freely from the Web page at: https://anslabtools.univ-st-etienne.fr HRVanalysis is meticulously maintained and developed for in-house laboratory use. In this article, after a brief description of the context, we present an overall view of HRV analysis and we describe the methodological approach of the different techniques provided by the software. PMID:27920726

Demonstration of a Safety Analysis on a Complex System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leveson, Nancy; Alfaro, Liliana; Alvarado, Christine; Brown, Molly; Hunt, Earl B.; Jaffe, Matt; Joslyn, Susan; Pinnell, Denise; Reese, Jon; Samarziya, Jeffrey;

Teaching and assessment of mathematical principles for software correctness using a reasoning concept inventory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drachova-Strang, Svetlana V.

As computing becomes ubiquitous, software correctness has a fundamental role in ensuring the safety and security of the systems we build. To design and develop software correctly according to their formal contracts, CS students, the future software practitioners, need to learn a critical set of skills that are necessary and sufficient for reasoning about software correctness. This dissertation presents a systematic approach to both introducing these reasoning skills into the curriculum, and assessing how well the students have learned them. Specifically, it introduces a comprehensive Reasoning Concept Inventory (RCI) that captures the fine details of basic reasoning skills that are ideally learned across the undergraduate curriculum to reason about software correctness, to develop high quality software, and to understand why software works as specified. The RCI forms the basis for developing learning outcomes that help educators to assess the adequacy of current techniques and pinpoint necessary improvements. This dissertation contains results from experimentation and assessment over the past few years in multiple CS courses. The results show that the finer principles of mathematical reasoning of software correctness can be taught effectively and continuously improved with the help of the RCI using suitable teaching practices, and supporting methods and tools.

Mining dynamic noteworthy functions in software execution sequences.

PubMed

Zhang, Bing; Huang, Guoyan; Wang, Yuqian; He, Haitao; Ren, Jiadong

2017-01-01

As the quality of crucial entities can directly affect that of software, their identification and protection become an important premise for effective software development, management, maintenance and testing, which thus contribute to improving the software quality and its attack-defending ability. Most analysis and evaluation on important entities like codes-based static structure analysis are on the destruction of the actual software running. In this paper, from the perspective of software execution process, we proposed an approach to mine dynamic noteworthy functions (DNFM)in software execution sequences. First, according to software decompiling and tracking stack changes, the execution traces composed of a series of function addresses were acquired. Then these traces were modeled as execution sequences and then simplified so as to get simplified sequences (SFS), followed by the extraction of patterns through pattern extraction (PE) algorithm from SFS. After that, evaluating indicators inner-importance and inter-importance were designed to measure the noteworthiness of functions in DNFM algorithm. Finally, these functions were sorted by their noteworthiness. Comparison and contrast were conducted on the experiment results from two traditional complex network-based node mining methods, namely PageRank and DegreeRank. The results show that the DNFM method can mine noteworthy functions in software effectively and precisely.

MO-D-213-07: RadShield: Semi- Automated Calculation of Air Kerma Rate and Barrier Thickness

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

DeLorenzo, M; Wu, D; Rutel, I

2015-06-15

Purpose: To develop the first Java-based semi-automated calculation program intended to aid professional radiation shielding design. Air-kerma rate and barrier thickness calculations are performed by implementing NCRP Report 147 formalism into a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The ultimate aim of this newly created software package is to reduce errors and improve radiographic and fluoroscopic room designs over manual approaches. Methods: Floor plans are first imported as images into the RadShield software program. These plans serve as templates for drawing barriers, occupied regions and x-ray tube locations. We have implemented sub-GUIs that allow the specification in regions and equipment for occupancymore » factors, design goals, number of patients, primary beam directions, source-to-patient distances and workload distributions. Once the user enters the above parameters, the program automatically calculates air-kerma rate at sampled points beyond all barriers. For each sample point, a corresponding minimum barrier thickness is calculated to meet the design goal. RadShield allows control over preshielding, sample point location and material types. Results: A functional GUI package was developed and tested. Examination of sample walls and source distributions yields a maximum percent difference of less than 0.1% between hand-calculated air-kerma rates and RadShield. Conclusion: The initial results demonstrated that RadShield calculates air-kerma rates and required barrier thicknesses with reliable accuracy and can be used to make radiation shielding design more efficient and accurate. This newly developed approach differs from conventional calculation methods in that it finds air-kerma rates and thickness requirements for many points outside the barriers, stores the information and selects the largest value needed to comply with NCRP Report 147 design goals. Floor plans, parameters, designs and reports can be saved and accessed later for modification and recalculation. We have confirmed that this software accurately calculates air-kerma rates and required barrier thicknesses for diagnostic radiography and fluoroscopic rooms.« less

Students' Different Understandings of Class Diagrams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boustedt, Jonas

2012-01-01

The software industry needs well-trained software designers and one important aspect of software design is the ability to model software designs visually and understand what visual models represent. However, previous research indicates that software design is a difficult task to many students. This article reports empirical findings from a…

Approach and Instrument Placement Validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ator, Danielle

2005-01-01

The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) from the 2003 flight mission represents the state of the art technology for target approach and instrument placement on Mars. It currently takes 3 sols (Martian days) for the rover to place an instrument on a designated rock target that is about 10 to 20 m away. The objective of this project is to provide an experimentally validated single-sol instrument placement capability to future Mars missions. After completing numerous test runs on the Rocky8 rover under various test conditions, it has been observed that lighting conditions, shadow effects, target features and the initial target distance have an effect on the performance and reliability of the tracking software. Additional software validation testing will be conducted in the months to come.

Variable selection with stepwise and best subset approaches

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

While purposeful selection is performed partly by software and partly by hand, the stepwise and best subset approaches are automatically performed by software. Two R functions stepAIC() and bestglm() are well designed for stepwise and best subset regression, respectively. The stepAIC() function begins with a full or null model, and methods for stepwise regression can be specified in the direction argument with character values “forward”, “backward” and “both”. The bestglm() function begins with a data frame containing explanatory variables and response variables. The response variable should be in the last column. Varieties of goodness-of-fit criteria can be specified in the IC argument. The Bayesian information criterion (BIC) usually results in more parsimonious model than the Akaike information criterion. PMID:27162786

Real time UNIX in embedded control -- A case study within context of LynxOS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kleines, H.; Zwoll, K.

1996-02-01

Intelligent communication controllers for a layered protocol profile are a typical example of an embedded control application, where the classical approach for the software development is based on a proprietary real-time operating system kernel under which the individual layers are implemented as tasks. Based on the exemplary implementation of a derivative of MAP 3.0, an unusual and innovative approach is presented, where the protocol software is implemented under the UNIX-compatible real-time operating system LynxOS. The overall design of the embedded control application is presented under a more general view and economical implications as well as aspects of the development environmentmore » and performance are discussed.« less

Evolutionary Approach of Virtual Communities of Practice: A Reflection within a Network of Spanish Rural Schools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frossard, Frédérique; Trifonova, Anna; Barajas Frutos, Mario

The isolation of rural communities creates special necessities for teachers and students in rural schools. The present article describes "Rural Virtual School", a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) in which Spanish teachers of rural schools share learning resources and teaching methodologies through social software applications. The article arrives to an evolutionary model, in which the use of the social software tools evolves together with the needs and the activities of the VCoP through the different stages of its lifetime. Currently, the community has reached a high level of maturity and, in order to keep its momentum, the members intentionally use appropriate technologies specially designed to enhance rich innovative educational approaches, through which they collaboratively generate creative practices.

Development of a User Interface for a Regression Analysis Software Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ulbrich, Norbert Manfred; Volden, Thomas R.

2010-01-01

An easy-to -use user interface was implemented in a highly automated regression analysis tool. The user interface was developed from the start to run on computers that use the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or UNIX operating system. Many user interface features were specifically designed such that a novice or inexperienced user can apply the regression analysis tool with confidence. Therefore, the user interface s design minimizes interactive input from the user. In addition, reasonable default combinations are assigned to those analysis settings that influence the outcome of the regression analysis. These default combinations will lead to a successful regression analysis result for most experimental data sets. The user interface comes in two versions. The text user interface version is used for the ongoing development of the regression analysis tool. The official release of the regression analysis tool, on the other hand, has a graphical user interface that is more efficient to use. This graphical user interface displays all input file names, output file names, and analysis settings for a specific software application mode on a single screen which makes it easier to generate reliable analysis results and to perform input parameter studies. An object-oriented approach was used for the development of the graphical user interface. This choice keeps future software maintenance costs to a reasonable limit. Examples of both the text user interface and graphical user interface are discussed in order to illustrate the user interface s overall design approach.

A four-alternative forced choice (4AFC) software for observer performance evaluation in radiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Guozhi; Cockmartin, Lesley; Bosmans, Hilde

2016-03-01

Four-alternative forced choice (4AFC) test is a psychophysical method that can be adopted for observer performance evaluation in radiological studies. While the concept of this method is well established, difficulties to handle large image data, perform unbiased sampling, and keep track of the choice made by the observer have restricted its application in practice. In this work, we propose an easy-to-use software that can help perform 4AFC tests with DICOM images. The software suits for any experimental design that follows the 4AFC approach. It has a powerful image viewing system that favorably simulates the clinical reading environment. The graphical interface allows the observer to adjust various viewing parameters and perform the selection with very simple operations. The sampling process involved in 4AFC as well as the speed and accuracy of the choice made by the observer is precisely monitored in the background and can be easily exported for test analysis. The software has also a defensive mechanism for data management and operation control that minimizes the possibility of mistakes from user during the test. This software can largely facilitate the use of 4AFC approach in radiological observer studies and is expected to have widespread applicability.

State analysis requirements database for engineering complex embedded systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Matthew B.; Rasmussen, Robert D.; Ingham, Michel D.

2004-01-01

It has become clear that spacecraft system complexity is reaching a threshold where customary methods of control are no longer affordable or sufficiently reliable. At the heart of this problem are the conventional approaches to systems and software engineering based on subsystem-level functional decomposition, which fail to scale in the tangled web of interactions typically encountered in complex spacecraft designs. Furthermore, there is a fundamental gap between the requirements on software specified by systems engineers and the implementation of these requirements by software engineers. Software engineers must perform the translation of requirements into software code, hoping to accurately capture the systems engineer's understanding of the system behavior, which is not always explicitly specified. This gap opens up the possibility for misinterpretation of the systems engineer's intent, potentially leading to software errors. This problem is addressed by a systems engineering tool called the State Analysis Database, which provides a tool for capturing system and software requirements in the form of explicit models. This paper describes how requirements for complex aerospace systems can be developed using the State Analysis Database.

QuBiLS-MAS, open source multi-platform software for atom- and bond-based topological (2D) and chiral (2.5D) algebraic molecular descriptors computations.

PubMed

Valdés-Martiní, José R; Marrero-Ponce, Yovani; García-Jacas, César R; Martinez-Mayorga, Karina; Barigye, Stephen J; Vaz d'Almeida, Yasser Silveira; Pham-The, Hai; Pérez-Giménez, Facundo; Morell, Carlos A

2017-06-07

In previous reports, Marrero-Ponce et al. proposed algebraic formalisms for characterizing topological (2D) and chiral (2.5D) molecular features through atom- and bond-based ToMoCoMD-CARDD (acronym for Topological Molecular Computational Design-Computer Aided Rational Drug Design) molecular descriptors. These MDs codify molecular information based on the bilinear, quadratic and linear algebraic forms and the graph-theoretical electronic-density and edge-adjacency matrices in order to consider atom- and bond-based relations, respectively. These MDs have been successfully applied in the screening of chemical compounds of different therapeutic applications ranging from antimalarials, antibacterials, tyrosinase inhibitors and so on. To compute these MDs, a computational program with the same name was initially developed. However, this in house software barely offered the functionalities required in contemporary molecular modeling tasks, in addition to the inherent limitations that made its usability impractical. Therefore, the present manuscript introduces the QuBiLS-MAS (acronym for Quadratic, Bilinear and N-Linear mapS based on graph-theoretic electronic-density Matrices and Atomic weightingS) software designed to compute topological (0-2.5D) molecular descriptors based on bilinear, quadratic and linear algebraic forms for atom- and bond-based relations. The QuBiLS-MAS module was designed as standalone software, in which extensions and generalizations of the former ToMoCoMD-CARDD 2D-algebraic indices are implemented, considering the following aspects: (a) two new matrix normalization approaches based on double-stochastic and mutual probability formalisms; (b) topological constraints (cut-offs) to take into account particular inter-atomic relations; (c) six additional atomic properties to be used as weighting schemes in the calculation of the molecular vectors; (d) four new local-fragments to consider molecular regions of interest; (e) number of lone-pair electrons in chemical structure defined by diagonal coefficients in matrix representations; and (f) several aggregation operators (invariants) applied over atom/bond-level descriptors in order to compute global indices. This software permits the parallel computation of the indices, contains a batch processing module and data curation functionalities. This program was developed in Java v1.7 using the Chemistry Development Kit library (version 1.4.19). The QuBiLS-MAS software consists of two components: a desktop interface (GUI) and an API library allowing for the easy integration of the latter in chemoinformatics applications. The relevance of the novel extensions and generalizations implemented in this software is demonstrated through three studies. Firstly, a comparative Shannon's entropy based variability study for the proposed QuBiLS-MAS and the DRAGON indices demonstrates superior performance for the former. A principal component analysis reveals that the QuBiLS-MAS approach captures chemical information orthogonal to that codified by the DRAGON descriptors. Lastly, a QSAR study for the binding affinity to the corticosteroid-binding globulin using Cramer's steroid dataset is carried out. From these analyses, it is revealed that the QuBiLS-MAS approach for atom-pair relations yields similar-to-superior performance with regard to other QSAR methodologies reported in the literature. Therefore, the QuBiLS-MAS approach constitutes a useful tool for the diversity analysis of chemical compound datasets and high-throughput screening of structure-activity data.

Army-NASA aircrew/aircraft integration program (A3I) software detailed design document, phase 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Banda, Carolyn; Chiu, Alex; Helms, Gretchen; Hsieh, Tehming; Lui, Andrew; Murray, Jerry; Shankar, Renuka

1990-01-01

The capabilities and design approach of the MIDAS (Man-machine Integration Design and Analysis System) computer-aided engineering (CAE) workstation under development by the Army-NASA Aircrew/Aircraft Integration Program is detailed. This workstation uses graphic, symbolic, and numeric prototyping tools and human performance models as part of an integrated design/analysis environment for crewstation human engineering. Developed incrementally, the requirements and design for Phase 3 (Dec. 1987 to Jun. 1989) are described. Software tools/models developed or significantly modified during this phase included: an interactive 3-D graphic cockpit design editor; multiple-perspective graphic views to observe simulation scenarios; symbolic methods to model the mission decomposition, equipment functions, pilot tasking and loading, as well as control the simulation; a 3-D dynamic anthropometric model; an intermachine communications package; and a training assessment component. These components were successfully used during Phase 3 to demonstrate the complex interactions and human engineering findings involved with a proposed cockpit communications design change in a simulated AH-64A Apache helicopter/mission that maps to empirical data from a similar study and AH-1 Cobra flight test.

Towards a whole-cell modeling approach for synthetic biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Purcell, Oliver; Jain, Bonny; Karr, Jonathan R.; Covert, Markus W.; Lu, Timothy K.

2013-06-01

Despite rapid advances over the last decade, synthetic biology lacks the predictive tools needed to enable rational design. Unlike established engineering disciplines, the engineering of synthetic gene circuits still relies heavily on experimental trial-and-error, a time-consuming and inefficient process that slows down the biological design cycle. This reliance on experimental tuning is because current modeling approaches are unable to make reliable predictions about the in vivo behavior of synthetic circuits. A major reason for this lack of predictability is that current models view circuits in isolation, ignoring the vast number of complex cellular processes that impinge on the dynamics of the synthetic circuit and vice versa. To address this problem, we present a modeling approach for the design of synthetic circuits in the context of cellular networks. Using the recently published whole-cell model of Mycoplasma genitalium, we examined the effect of adding genes into the host genome. We also investigated how codon usage correlates with gene expression and find agreement with existing experimental results. Finally, we successfully implemented a synthetic Goodwin oscillator in the whole-cell model. We provide an updated software framework for the whole-cell model that lays the foundation for the integration of whole-cell models with synthetic gene circuit models. This software framework is made freely available to the community to enable future extensions. We envision that this approach will be critical to transforming the field of synthetic biology into a rational and predictive engineering discipline.

Designers' models of the human-computer interface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gillan, Douglas J.; Breedin, Sarah D.

1993-01-01

Understanding design models of the human-computer interface (HCI) may produce two types of benefits. First, interface development often requires input from two different types of experts: human factors specialists and software developers. Given the differences in their backgrounds and roles, human factors specialists and software developers may have different cognitive models of the HCI. Yet, they have to communicate about the interface as part of the design process. If they have different models, their interactions are likely to involve a certain amount of miscommunication. Second, the design process in general is likely to be guided by designers' cognitive models of the HCI, as well as by their knowledge of the user, tasks, and system. Designers do not start with a blank slate; rather they begin with a general model of the object they are designing. The author's approach to a design model of the HCI was to have three groups make judgments of categorical similarity about the components of an interface: human factors specialists with HCI design experience, software developers with HCI design experience, and a baseline group of computer users with no experience in HCI design. The components of the user interface included both display components such as windows, text, and graphics, and user interaction concepts, such as command language, editing, and help. The judgments of the three groups were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis and Pathfinder. These methods indicated, respectively, how the groups categorized the concepts, and network representations of the concepts for each group. The Pathfinder analysis provides greater information about local, pairwise relations among concepts, whereas the cluster analysis shows global, categorical relations to a greater extent.

A CMMI-based approach for medical software project life cycle study.

PubMed

Chen, Jui-Jen; Su, Wu-Chen; Wang, Pei-Wen; Yen, Hung-Chi

2013-01-01

In terms of medical techniques, Taiwan has gained international recognition in recent years. However, the medical information system industry in Taiwan is still at a developing stage compared with the software industries in other nations. In addition, systematic development processes are indispensable elements of software development. They can help developers increase their productivity and efficiency and also avoid unnecessary risks arising during the development process. Thus, this paper presents an application of Light-Weight Capability Maturity Model Integration (LW-CMMI) to Chang Gung Medical Research Project (CMRP) in the Nuclear medicine field. This application was intended to integrate user requirements, system design and testing of software development processes into three layers (Domain, Concept and Instance) model. Then, expressing in structural System Modeling Language (SysML) diagrams and converts part of the manual effort necessary for project management maintenance into computational effort, for example: (semi-) automatic delivery of traceability management. In this application, it supports establishing artifacts of "requirement specification document", "project execution plan document", "system design document" and "system test document", and can deliver a prototype of lightweight project management tool on the Nuclear Medicine software project. The results of this application can be a reference for other medical institutions in developing medical information systems and support of project management to achieve the aim of patient safety.

Next Generation Cloud-based Science Data Systems and Their Implications on Data and Software Stewardship, Preservation, and Provenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hua, H.; Manipon, G.; Starch, M.

2017-12-01

NASA's upcoming missions are expected to be generating data volumes at least an order of magnitude larger than current missions. A significant increase in data processing, data rates, data volumes, and long-term data archive capabilities are needed. Consequently, new challenges are emerging that impact traditional data and software management approaches. At large-scales, next generation science data systems are exploring the move onto cloud computing paradigms to support these increased needs. New implications such as costs, data movement, collocation of data systems & archives, and moving processing closer to the data, may result in changes to the stewardship, preservation, and provenance of science data and software. With more science data systems being on-boarding onto cloud computing facilities, we can expect more Earth science data records to be both generated and kept in the cloud. But at large scales, the cost of processing and storing global data may impact architectural and system designs. Data systems will trade the cost of keeping data in the cloud with the data life-cycle approaches of moving "colder" data back to traditional on-premise facilities. How will this impact data citation and processing software stewardship? What are the impacts of cloud-based on-demand processing and its affect on reproducibility and provenance. Similarly, with more science processing software being moved onto cloud, virtual machines, and container based approaches, more opportunities arise for improved stewardship and preservation. But will the science community trust data reprocessed years or decades later? We will also explore emerging questions of the stewardship of the science data system software that is generating the science data records both during and after the life of mission.

Software Design Improvements. Part 2; Software Quality and the Design and Inspection Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lalli, Vincent R.; Packard, Michael H.; Ziemianski, Tom

1997-01-01

The application of assurance engineering techniques improves the duration of failure-free performance of software. The totality of features and characteristics of a software product are what determine its ability to satisfy customer needs. Software in safety-critical systems is very important to NASA. We follow the System Safety Working Groups definition for system safety software as: 'The optimization of system safety in the design, development, use and maintenance of software and its integration with safety-critical systems in an operational environment. 'If it is not safe, say so' has become our motto. This paper goes over methods that have been used by NASA to make software design improvements by focusing on software quality and the design and inspection process.

Automating Physical Database Design: An Extensible Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-03-01

Schonberg. Tom Cheatham of Harvard University and Software Options provided much encouragement and support, as did Glenn Holloway, Judy Townley , and Mike...through- out, and also helped by reading drafts of a conference paper that reported earlier stages of this work (as did Glenn Holloway and Judy Townley

Turned on to Language Arts: Computer Literacy in the Primary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guthrie, Larry F.; Richardson, Susan

1995-01-01

Describes Apple Computer's Early Language Connections (ELC) program. Designed for K-2 grades, ELC integrates Macintosh computers, children's literature, instructional software, and other curriculum materials, including sample lessons constructed around thematic units. The literature-based product uses a whole-language approach (with phonics…

Agile Learning: Sprinting through the Semester

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lang, Guido

2017-01-01

This paper introduces agile learning, a novel pedagogical approach that applies the processes and principles of agile software development to the context of learning. Agile learning is characterized by short project cycles, called sprints, in which a usable deliverable is fully planned, designed, built, tested, reviewed, and launched. An…

Introduction to Software Design

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-01-01

Schedules 20 major contributions. We also acknowledge the helpful Worked Examples 20 comments of Larry Peters, Michael Jackson . and Bob Glass. Exercises 20...contrasted with the related For a more general approach to the use of JSP, see work of Warnner and Michael Jackson (JSP). The [Cameron83]. [Ingovaldsson86

An NAFP Project: Use of Object Oriented Methodologies and Design Patterns to Refactor Software Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaykhian, Gholam Ali; Baggs, Rhoda

2007-01-01

In the early problem-solution era of software programming, functional decompositions were mainly used to design and implement software solutions. In functional decompositions, functions and data are introduced as two separate entities during the design phase, and are followed as such in the implementation phase. Functional decompositions make use of refactoring through optimizing the algorithms, grouping similar functionalities into common reusable functions, and using abstract representations of data where possible; all these are done during the implementation phase. This paper advocates the usage of object-oriented methodologies and design patterns as the centerpieces of refactoring software solutions. Refactoring software is a method of changing software design while explicitly preserving its external functionalities. The combined usage of object-oriented methodologies and design patterns to refactor should also benefit the overall software life cycle cost with improved software.

Design and implementation of a general main axis controller for the ESO telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandrock, Stefan; Di Lieto, Nicola; Pettazzi, Lorenzo; Erm, Toomas

2012-09-01

Most of the real-time control systems at the existing ESO telescopes were developed with "traditional" methods, using general purpose VMEbus electronics, and running applications that were coded by hand, mostly using the C programming language under VxWorks. As we are moving towards more modern design methods, we have explored a model-based design approach for real-time applications in the telescope area, and used the control algorithm of a standard telescope main axis as a first example. We wanted to have a clear work-flow that follows the "correct-by-construction" paradigm, where the implementation is testable in simulation on the development host, and where the testing time spent by debugging on target is minimized. It should respect the domains of control, electronics, and software engineers in the choice of tools. It should be a targetindependent approach so that the result could be deployed on various platforms. We have selected the Mathworks tools Simulink, Stateflow, and Embedded Coder for design and implementation, and LabVIEW with NI hardware for hardware-in-the-loop testing, all of which are widely used in industry. We describe how these tools have been used in order to model, simulate, and test the application. We also evaluate the benefits of this approach compared to the traditional method with respect to testing effort and maintainability. For a specific axis controller application we have successfully integrated the result into the legacy platform of the existing VLT software, as well as demonstrated how to use the same design for a new development with a completely different environment.

Enabling drug discovery project decisions with integrated computational chemistry and informatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsui, Vickie; Ortwine, Daniel F.; Blaney, Jeffrey M.

2017-03-01

Computational chemistry/informatics scientists and software engineers in Genentech Small Molecule Drug Discovery collaborate with experimental scientists in a therapeutic project-centric environment. Our mission is to enable and improve pre-clinical drug discovery design and decisions. Our goal is to deliver timely data, analysis, and modeling to our therapeutic project teams using best-in-class software tools. We describe our strategy, the organization of our group, and our approaches to reach this goal. We conclude with a summary of the interdisciplinary skills required for computational scientists and recommendations for their training.

System Risk Balancing Profiles: Software Component

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, John C.; Sigal, Burton C.; Gindorf, Tom

2000-01-01

The Software QA / V&V guide will be reviewed and updated based on feedback from NASA organizations and others with a vested interest in this area. Hardware, EEE Parts, Reliability, and Systems Safety are a sample of the future guides that will be developed. Cost Estimates, Lessons Learned, Probability of Failure and PACTS (Prevention, Avoidance, Control or Test) are needed to provide a more complete risk management strategy. This approach to risk management is designed to help balance the resources and program content for risk reduction for NASA's changing environment.

Software development and its description for Geoid determination based on Spherical-Cap-Harmonics Modelling using digital-zenith camera and gravimetric measurements hybrid data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morozova, K.; Jaeger, R.; Balodis, J.; Kaminskis, J.

2017-10-01

Over several years the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics (GGI) was engaged in the design and development of a digital zenith camera. At the moment the camera developments are finished and tests by field measurements are done. In order to check these data and to use them for geoid model determination DFHRS (Digital Finite element Height reference surface (HRS)) v4.3. software is used. It is based on parametric modelling of the HRS as a continous polynomial surface. The HRS, providing the local Geoid height N, is a necessary geodetic infrastructure for a GNSS-based determination of physcial heights H from ellipsoidal GNSS heights h, by H=h-N. The research and this publication is dealing with the inclusion of the data of observed vertical deflections from digital zenith camera into the mathematical model of the DFHRS approach and software v4.3. A first target was to test out and validate the mathematical model and software, using additionally real data of the above mentioned zenith camera observations of deflections of the vertical. A second concern of the research was to analyze the results and the improvement of the Latvian quasi-geoid computation compared to the previous version HRS computed without zenith camera based deflections of the vertical. The further development of the mathematical model and software concerns the use of spherical-cap-harmonics as the designed carrier function for the DFHRS v.5. It enables - in the sense of the strict integrated geodesy approach, holding also for geodetic network adjustment - both a full gravity field and a geoid and quasi-geoid determination. In addition, it allows the inclusion of gravimetric measurements, together with deflections of the vertical from digital-zenith cameras, and all other types of observations. The theoretical description of the updated version of DFHRS software and methods are discussed in this publication.

An exchange format for use-cases of hospital information systems.

PubMed

Masuda, G; Sakamoto, N; Sakai, R; Yamamoto, R

2001-01-01

Object-oriented software development is a powerful methodology for development of large hospital information systems. We think use-case driven approach is particularly useful for the development. In the use-cases driven approach, use-cases are documented at the first stage in the software development process and they are used through the whole steps in a variety of ways. Therefore, it is important to exchange and share the use-cases and make effective use of them through the overall lifecycle of a development process. In this paper, we propose a method of sharing and exchanging use-case models between applications, developers, and projects. We design an XML based exchange format for use-cases. We then discuss an application of the exchange format to support several software development activities. We preliminarily implemented a support system for object-oriented analysis based on the exchange format. The result shows that using the structural and semantic information in the exchange format enables the support system to assist the object-oriented analysis successfully.

The WHATs and HOWs of maturing computational and software engineering skills in Russian higher education institutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semushin, I. V.; Tsyganova, J. V.; Ugarov, V. V.; Afanasova, A. I.

2018-05-01

Russian higher education institutions' tradition of teaching large-enrolled classes is impairing student striving for individual prominence, one-upmanship, and hopes for originality. Intending to converting these drawbacks into benefits, a Project-Centred Education Model (PCEM) has been introduced to deliver Computational Mathematics and Information Science courses. The model combines a Frontal Competitive Approach and a Project-Driven Learning (PDL) framework. The PDL framework has been developed by stating and solving three design problems: (i) enhance the diversity of project assignments on specific computation methods algorithmic approaches, (ii) balance similarity and dissimilarity of the project assignments, and (iii) develop a software assessment tool suitable for evaluating the technological maturity of students' project deliverables and thus reducing instructor's workload and possible overlook. The positive experience accumulated over 15 years shows that implementing the PCEM keeps students motivated to strive for success in rising to higher levels of their computational and software engineering skills.

The Design of a Fault-Tolerant COTS-Based Bus Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chau, Savio N.; Alkalai, Leon; Burt, John B.; Tai, Ann T.

1999-01-01

In this paper, we report our experiences and findings on the design of a fault-tolerant bus architecture comprised of two COTS buses, the IEEE 1394 and the 12C. This fault-tolerant bus is the backbone system bus for the avionics architecture of the X2000 program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. COTS buses are attractive because of the availability of low cost commercial products. However, they are not specifically designed for highly reliable applications such as long-life deep-space missions. The X2000 design team has devised a multi-level fault tolerance approach to compensate for this shortcoming of COTS buses. First, the approach enhances the fault tolerance capabilities of the IEEE 1394 and 12 C buses by adding a layer of fault handling hardware and software. Second, algorithms are developed to enable the IEEE 1394 and the 12 C buses assist each other to isolate and recovery from faults. Third, the set of IEEE 1394 and 12 C buses is duplicated to further enhance system reliability. The X2000 design team has paid special attention to guarantee that all fault tolerance provisions will not cause the bus design to deviate from the commercial standard specifications. Otherwise, the economic attractiveness of using COTS will be diminished. The hardware and software design of the X2000 fault-tolerant bus are being implemented and flight hardware will be delivered to the ST4 and Europa Orbiter missions.

GCS component development cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez, Jose A.; Macias, Rosa; Molgo, Jordi; Guerra, Dailos; Pi, Marti

2012-09-01

The GTC1 is an optical-infrared 10-meter segmented mirror telescope at the ORM observatory in Canary Islands (Spain). First light was at 13/07/2007 and since them it is in the operation phase. The GTC control system (GCS) is a distributed object & component oriented system based on RT-CORBA8 and it is responsible for the management and operation of the telescope, including its instrumentation. GCS has used the Rational Unified process (RUP9) in its development. RUP is an iterative software development process framework. After analysing (use cases) and designing (UML10) any of GCS subsystems, an initial component description of its interface is obtained and from that information a component specification is written. In order to improve the code productivity, GCS has adopted the code generation to transform this component specification into the skeleton of component classes based on a software framework, called Device Component Framework. Using the GCS development tools, based on javadoc and gcc, in only one step, the component is generated, compiled and deployed to be tested for the first time through our GUI inspector. The main advantages of this approach are the following: It reduces the learning curve of new developers and the development error rate, allows a systematic use of design patterns in the development and software reuse, speeds up the deliverables of the software product and massively increase the timescale, design consistency and design quality, and eliminates the future refactoring process required for the code.

Direct or Directed: Orchestrating a More Harmonious Approach to Teaching Technology within an Art & Design Higher Education Curriculum with Special Reference to Visual Communications Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall, Lindsey; Meachem, Lester

2007-01-01

In this scoping study we have investigated the integration of subject-specific software into the structure of visual communications courses. There is a view that the response within visual communications courses to the rapid developments in technology has been linked to necessity rather than by design. Through perceptions of staff with day-to-day…

Feasibility study for a numerical aerodynamic simulation facility. Volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lincoln, N. R.; Bergman, R. O.; Bonstrom, D. B.; Brinkman, T. W.; Chiu, S. H. J.; Green, S. S.; Hansen, S. D.; Klein, D. L.; Krohn, H. E.; Prow, R. P.

1979-01-01

A Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility (NASF) was designed for the simulation of fluid flow around three-dimensional bodies, both in wind tunnel environments and in free space. The application of numerical simulation to this field of endeavor promised to yield economies in aerodynamic and aircraft body designs. A model for a NASF/FMP (Flow Model Processor) ensemble using a possible approach to meeting NASF goals is presented. The computer hardware and software are presented, along with the entire design and performance analysis and evaluation.

Computer Synthesis Approaches of Hyperboloid Gear Drives with Linear Contact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abadjiev, Valentin; Kawasaki, Haruhisa

2014-09-01

The computer design has improved forming different type software for scientific researches in the field of gearing theory as well as performing an adequate scientific support of the gear drives manufacture. Here are attached computer programs that are based on mathematical models as a result of scientific researches. The modern gear transmissions require the construction of new mathematical approaches to their geometric, technological and strength analysis. The process of optimization, synthesis and design is based on adequate iteration procedures to find out an optimal solution by varying definite parameters. The study is dedicated to accepted methodology in the creation of soft- ware for the synthesis of a class high reduction hyperboloid gears - Spiroid and Helicon ones (Spiroid and Helicon are trademarks registered by the Illinois Tool Works, Chicago, Ill). The developed basic computer products belong to software, based on original mathematical models. They are based on the two mathematical models for the synthesis: "upon a pitch contact point" and "upon a mesh region". Computer programs are worked out on the basis of the described mathematical models, and the relations between them are shown. The application of the shown approaches to the synthesis of commented gear drives is illustrated.

Design of a Horizontal Penetrometer for Measuring On-the-Go Soil Resistance

PubMed Central

Topakci, Mehmet; Unal, Ilker; Canakci, Murad; Celik, Huseyin Kursat; Karayel, Davut

2010-01-01

Soil compaction is one of the main negative factors that limits plant growth and crop yield. Therefore, it is important to determine the soil resistance level and map it for the field to find solutions for the negative effects of the compaction. Nowadays, high powered communication technology and computers help us on this issue within the approach of precision agriculture applications. This study is focused on the design of a penetrometer, which can make instantaneous soil resistance measurements in the soil horizontally and data acquisition software based on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The penetrometer was designed using commercial 3D parametric solid modelling design software. The data acquisition software was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic.NET programming language. After the design of the system, manufacturing and assembly of the system was completed and then a field experiment was carried out. According to the data from GPS and penetration resistance values which are collected in Microsoft SQL Server database, a Kriging method by ArcGIS was used and soil resistance was mapped in the field for a soil depth of 40 cm. During operation, no faults, either in mechanical and software parts, were seen. As a result, soil resistance values of 0.2 MPa and 3 MPa were obtained as minimum and maximum values, respectively. In conclusion, the experimental results showed that the designed system works quite well in the field and the horizontal penetrometer is a practical tool for providing on-line soil resistance measurements. This study contributes to further research for the development of on-line soil resistance measurements and mapping within the precision agriculture applications. PMID:22163410

Design of a horizontal penetrometer for measuring on-the-go soil resistance.

PubMed

Topakci, Mehmet; Unal, Ilker; Canakci, Murad; Celik, Huseyin Kursat; Karayel, Davut

2010-01-01

Soil compaction is one of the main negative factors that limits plant growth and crop yield. Therefore, it is important to determine the soil resistance level and map it for the field to find solutions for the negative effects of the compaction. Nowadays, high powered communication technology and computers help us on this issue within the approach of precision agriculture applications. This study is focused on the design of a penetrometer, which can make instantaneous soil resistance measurements in the soil horizontally and data acquisition software based on the GPS (Global Positioning System). The penetrometer was designed using commercial 3D parametric solid modelling design software. The data acquisition software was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic.NET programming language. After the design of the system, manufacturing and assembly of the system was completed and then a field experiment was carried out. According to the data from GPS and penetration resistance values which are collected in Microsoft SQL Server database, a Kriging method by ArcGIS was used and soil resistance was mapped in the field for a soil depth of 40 cm. During operation, no faults, either in mechanical and software parts, were seen. As a result, soil resistance values of 0.2 MPa and 3 MPa were obtained as minimum and maximum values, respectively. In conclusion, the experimental results showed that the designed system works quite well in the field and the horizontal penetrometer is a practical tool for providing on-line soil resistance measurements. This study contributes to further research for the development of on-line soil resistance measurements and mapping within the precision agriculture applications.

Operator Station Design System - A computer aided design approach to work station layout

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, J. L.

1979-01-01

The Operator Station Design System is resident in NASA's Johnson Space Center Spacecraft Design Division Performance Laboratory. It includes stand-alone minicomputer hardware and Panel Layout Automated Interactive Design and Crew Station Assessment of Reach software. The data base consists of the Shuttle Transportation System Orbiter Crew Compartment (in part), the Orbiter payload bay and remote manipulator (in part), and various anthropometric populations. The system is utilized to provide panel layouts, assess reach and vision, determine interference and fit problems early in the design phase, study design applications as a function of anthropometric and mission requirements, and to accomplish conceptual design to support advanced study efforts.

NSLS-II HIGH LEVEL APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND CLIENT API DESIGN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shen, G.; Yang; L.

2011-03-28

The beam commissioning software framework of NSLS-II project adopts a client/server based architecture to replace the more traditional monolithic high level application approach. It is an open structure platform, and we try to provide a narrow API set for client application. With this narrow API, existing applications developed in different language under different architecture could be ported to our platform with small modification. This paper describes system infrastructure design, client API and system integration, and latest progress. As a new 3rd generation synchrotron light source with ultra low emittance, there are new requirements and challenges to control and manipulate themore » beam. A use case study and a theoretical analysis have been performed to clarify requirements and challenges to the high level applications (HLA) software environment. To satisfy those requirements and challenges, adequate system architecture of the software framework is critical for beam commissioning, study and operation. The existing traditional approaches are self-consistent, and monolithic. Some of them have adopted a concept of middle layer to separate low level hardware processing from numerical algorithm computing, physics modelling, data manipulating, plotting, and error handling. However, none of the existing approaches can satisfy the requirement. A new design has been proposed by introducing service oriented architecture technology. The HLA is combination of tools for accelerator physicists and operators, which is same as traditional approach. In NSLS-II, they include monitoring applications and control routines. Scripting environment is very important for the later part of HLA and both parts are designed based on a common set of APIs. Physicists and operators are users of these APIs, while control system engineers and a few accelerator physicists are the developers of these APIs. With our Client/Server mode based approach, we leave how to retrieve information to the developers of APIs and how to use them to form a physics application to the users. For example, how the channels are related to magnet and what the current real-time setting of a magnet is in physics unit are the internals of APIs. Measuring chromaticities are the users of APIs. All the users of APIs are working with magnet and instrument names in a physics unit. The low level communications in current or voltage unit are minimized. In this paper, we discussed our recent progress of our infrastructure development, and client API.« less

Design analysis of ceramic and polymer 150 kV insulators for tropical condition using quickfield software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walukow, Stephy B.; Manjang, Salama; Zainuddin, Zahir; Samman, Faizal Arya

2018-03-01

This research is to analyze design of ceramic and polymer 150 kV insulators for the tropical area. The use of an insulator certainly requires an electric field. The leakage current and breakdown voltage this happens the contaminant on the surface of the insulator. This type of contaminant can be rain, dust, salt air, extreme weather (much in tropical climates), industrial pollutants and cracks on the surface resulting in collisions. The method used in this research is magnetic field and electric field isolator using Quicfield software. To get the test results variation ranges 20 kV, 70 kV and 150 kV. Side effects of magnetic and electric fields around the insulator. The simulation results show the accumulated contaminants on the surface. Planning should be done in insulator insulator on unstable insulator. Thus, the approach using this commercially available software can be applied to. Therefore, the development of further simulations on the different types of composite insulators used on.

RCTS: A flexible environment for sensor integration and control of robot systems; the distributed processing approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allard, R.; Mack, B.; Bayoumi, M. M.

1989-01-01

Most robot systems lack a suitable hardware and software environment for the efficient research of new control and sensing schemes. Typically, engineers and researchers need to be experts in control, sensing, programming, communication and robotics in order to implement, integrate and test new ideas in a robot system. In order to reduce this time, the Robot Controller Test Station (RCTS) has been developed. It uses a modular hardware and software architecture allowing easy physical and functional reconfiguration of a robot. This is accomplished by emphasizing four major design goals: flexibility, portability, ease of use, and ease of modification. An enhanced distributed processing version of RCTS is described. It features an expanded and more flexible communication system design. Distributed processing results in the availability of more local computing power and retains the low cost of microprocessors. A large number of possible communication, control and sensing schemes can therefore be easily introduced and tested, using the same basic software structure.

Design and implementation of a cloud based lithography illumination pupil processing application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Youbao; Ma, Xinghua; Zhu, Jing; Zhang, Fang; Huang, Huijie

2017-02-01

Pupil parameters are important parameters to evaluate the quality of lithography illumination system. In this paper, a cloud based full-featured pupil processing application is implemented. A web browser is used for the UI (User Interface), the websocket protocol and JSON format are used for the communication between the client and the server, and the computing part is implemented in the server side, where the application integrated a variety of high quality professional libraries, such as image processing libraries libvips and ImageMagic, automatic reporting system latex, etc., to support the program. The cloud based framework takes advantage of server's superior computing power and rich software collections, and the program could run anywhere there is a modern browser due to its web UI design. Compared to the traditional way of software operation model: purchased, licensed, shipped, downloaded, installed, maintained, and upgraded, the new cloud based approach, which is no installation, easy to use and maintenance, opens up a new way. Cloud based application probably is the future of the software development.

Service-oriented architecture for the ARGOS instrument control software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borelli, J.; Barl, L.; Gässler, W.; Kulas, M.; Rabien, Sebastian

2012-09-01

The Advanced Rayleigh Guided ground layer Adaptive optic System, ARGOS, equips the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) with a constellation of six rayleigh laser guide stars. By correcting atmospheric turbulence near the ground, the system is designed to increase the image quality of the multi-object spectrograph LUCIFER approximately by a factor of 3 over a field of 4 arc minute diameter. The control software has the critical task of orchestrating several devices, instruments, and high level services, including the already existing adaptive optic system and the telescope control software. All these components are widely distributed over the telescope, adding more complexity to the system design. The approach used by the ARGOS engineers is to write loosely coupled and distributed services under the control of different ownership systems, providing a uniform mechanism to offer, discover, interact and use these distributed capabilities. The control system counts with several finite state machines, vibration and flexure compensation loops, and safety mechanism, such as interlocks, aircraft, and satellite avoidance systems.

Use of Soft Computing Technologies for a Qualitative and Reliable Engine Control System for Propulsion Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis; Brown, Terry; Crumbley, R. T. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The problem to be addressed in this paper is to explore how the use of Soft Computing Technologies (SCT) could be employed to improve overall vehicle system safety, reliability, and rocket engine performance by development of a qualitative and reliable engine control system (QRECS). Specifically, this will be addressed by enhancing rocket engine control using SCT, innovative data mining tools, and sound software engineering practices used in Marshall's Flight Software Group (FSG). The principle goals for addressing the issue of quality are to improve software management, software development time, software maintenance, processor execution, fault tolerance and mitigation, and nonlinear control in power level transitions. The intent is not to discuss any shortcomings of existing engine control methodologies, but to provide alternative design choices for control, implementation, performance, and sustaining engineering, all relative to addressing the issue of reliability. The approaches outlined in this paper will require knowledge in the fields of rocket engine propulsion (system level), software engineering for embedded flight software systems, and soft computing technologies (i.e., neural networks, fuzzy logic, data mining, and Bayesian belief networks); some of which are briefed in this paper. For this effort, the targeted demonstration rocket engine testbed is the MC-1 engine (formerly FASTRAC) which is simulated with hardware and software in the Marshall Avionics & Software Testbed (MAST) laboratory that currently resides at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, building 4476, and is managed by the Avionics Department. A brief plan of action for design, development, implementation, and testing a Phase One effort for QRECS is given, along with expected results. Phase One will focus on development of a Smart Start Engine Module and a Mainstage Engine Module for proper engine start and mainstage engine operations. The overall intent is to demonstrate that by employing soft computing technologies, the quality and reliability of the overall scheme to engine controller development is further improved and vehicle safety is further insured. The final product that this paper proposes is an approach to development of an alternative low cost engine controller that would be capable of performing in unique vision spacecraft vehicles requiring low cost advanced avionics architectures for autonomous operations from engine pre-start to engine shutdown.

Design approach of an aquaculture cage system for deployment in the constructed channel flow environments of a power plant

PubMed Central

Lee, Jihoon; Fredriksson, David W.; DeCew, Judson; Drach, Andrew; Yim, Solomon C.

2018-01-01

This study provides an engineering approach for designing an aquaculture cage system for use in constructed channel flow environments. As sustainable aquaculture has grown globally, many novel techniques have been introduced such as those implemented in the global Atlantic salmon industry. The advent of several highly sophisticated analysis software systems enables the development of such novel engineering techniques. These software systems commonly include three-dimensional (3D) drafting, computational fluid dynamics, and finite element analysis. In this study, a combination of these analysis tools is applied to evaluate a conceptual aquaculture system for potential deployment in a power plant effluent channel. The channel is supposedly clean; however, it includes elevated water temperatures and strong currents. The first portion of the analysis includes the design of a fish cage system with specific net solidities using 3D drafting techniques. Computational fluid dynamics is then applied to evaluate the flow reduction through the system from the previously generated solid models. Implementing the same solid models, a finite element analysis is performed on the critical components to assess the material stresses produced by the drag force loads that are calculated from the fluid velocities. PMID:29897954

Computer-generated holograms (CGH) realization: the integration of dedicated software tool with digital slides printer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guarnieri, Vittorio; Francini, Franco

1997-12-01

Last generation of digital printer is usually characterized by a spatial resolution enough high to allow the designer to realize a binary CGH directly on a transparent film avoiding photographic reduction techniques. These devices are able to produce slides or offset prints. Furthermore, services supplied by commercial printing company provide an inexpensive method to rapidly verify the validity of the design by means of a test-and-trial process. Notably, this low-cost approach appears to be suitable for a didactical environment. On the basis of these considerations, a set of software tools able to design CGH's has been developed. The guidelines inspiring the work have been the following ones: (1) ray-tracing approach, considering the object to be reproduced as source of spherical waves; (2) Optimization and speed-up of the algorithms used, in order to produce a portable code, runnable on several hardware platforms. In this paper calculation methods to obtain some fundamental geometric functions (points, lines, curves) are described. Furthermore, by the juxtaposition of these primitives functions it is possible to produce the holograms of more complex objects. Many examples of generated CGHs are presented.

Computation of Sensitivity Derivatives of Navier-Stokes Equations using Complex Variables

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vatsa, Veer N.

2004-01-01

Accurate computation of sensitivity derivatives is becoming an important item in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) because of recent emphasis on using nonlinear CFD methods in aerodynamic design, optimization, stability and control related problems. Several techniques are available to compute gradients or sensitivity derivatives of desired flow quantities or cost functions with respect to selected independent (design) variables. Perhaps the most common and oldest method is to use straightforward finite-differences for the evaluation of sensitivity derivatives. Although very simple, this method is prone to errors associated with choice of step sizes and can be cumbersome for geometric variables. The cost per design variable for computing sensitivity derivatives with central differencing is at least equal to the cost of three full analyses, but is usually much larger in practice due to difficulty in choosing step sizes. Another approach gaining popularity is the use of Automatic Differentiation software (such as ADIFOR) to process the source code, which in turn can be used to evaluate the sensitivity derivatives of preselected functions with respect to chosen design variables. In principle, this approach is also very straightforward and quite promising. The main drawback is the large memory requirement because memory use increases linearly with the number of design variables. ADIFOR software can also be cumber-some for large CFD codes and has not yet reached a full maturity level for production codes, especially in parallel computing environments.

Petascale Computing for Ground-Based Solar Physics with the DKIST Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berukoff, Steven J.; Hays, Tony; Reardon, Kevin P.; Spiess, DJ; Watson, Fraser; Wiant, Scott

2016-05-01

When construction is complete in 2019, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will be the most-capable large aperture, high-resolution, multi-instrument solar physics facility in the world. The telescope is designed as a four-meter off-axis Gregorian, with a rotating Coude laboratory designed to simultaneously house and support five first-light imaging and spectropolarimetric instruments. At current design, the facility and its instruments will generate data volumes of 3 PB per year, and produce 107-109 metadata elements.The DKIST Data Center is being designed to store, curate, and process this flood of information, while providing association of science data and metadata to its acquisition and processing provenance. The Data Center will produce quality-controlled calibrated data sets, and make them available freely and openly through modern search interfaces and APIs. Documented software and algorithms will also be made available through community repositories like Github for further collaboration and improvement.We discuss the current design and approach of the DKIST Data Center, describing the development cycle, early technology analysis and prototyping, and the roadmap ahead. We discuss our iterative development approach, the underappreciated challenges of calibrating ground-based solar data, the crucial integration of the Data Center within the larger Operations lifecycle, and how software and hardware support, intelligently deployed, will enable high-caliber solar physics research and community growth for the DKIST's 40-year lifespan.

Intelligent Agents for Design and Synthesis Environments: My Summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norvig, Peter

1999-01-01

This presentation gives a summary of intelligent agents for design synthesis environments. We'll start with the conclusions, and work backwards to justify them. First, an important assumption is that agents (whatever they are) are good for software engineering. This is especially true for software that operates in an uncertain, changing environment. The "real world" of physical artifacts is like that: uncertain in what we can measure, changing in that things are always breaking down, and we must interact with non-software entities. The second point is that software engineering techniques can contribute to good design. There may have been a time when we wanted to build simple artifacts containing little or no software. But modern aircraft and spacecraft are complex, and rely on a great deal of software. So better software engineering leads to better designed artifacts, especially when we are designing a series of related artifacts and can amortize the costs of software development. The third point is that agents are especially useful for design tasks, above and beyond their general usefulness for software engineering, and the usefulness of software engineering to design.

CamOptimus: a tool for exploiting complex adaptive evolution to optimize experiments and processes in biotechnology.

PubMed

Cankorur-Cetinkaya, Ayca; Dias, Joao M L; Kludas, Jana; Slater, Nigel K H; Rousu, Juho; Oliver, Stephen G; Dikicioglu, Duygu

2017-06-01

Multiple interacting factors affect the performance of engineered biological systems in synthetic biology projects. The complexity of these biological systems means that experimental design should often be treated as a multiparametric optimization problem. However, the available methodologies are either impractical, due to a combinatorial explosion in the number of experiments to be performed, or are inaccessible to most experimentalists due to the lack of publicly available, user-friendly software. Although evolutionary algorithms may be employed as alternative approaches to optimize experimental design, the lack of simple-to-use software again restricts their use to specialist practitioners. In addition, the lack of subsidiary approaches to further investigate critical factors and their interactions prevents the full analysis and exploitation of the biotechnological system. We have addressed these problems and, here, provide a simple-to-use and freely available graphical user interface to empower a broad range of experimental biologists to employ complex evolutionary algorithms to optimize their experimental designs. Our approach exploits a Genetic Algorithm to discover the subspace containing the optimal combination of parameters, and Symbolic Regression to construct a model to evaluate the sensitivity of the experiment to each parameter under investigation. We demonstrate the utility of this method using an example in which the culture conditions for the microbial production of a bioactive human protein are optimized. CamOptimus is available through: (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.10257).

Modular design of synthetic gene circuits with biological parts and pools.

PubMed

Marchisio, Mario Andrea

2015-01-01

Synthetic gene circuits can be designed in an electronic fashion by displaying their basic components-Standard Biological Parts and Pools of molecules-on the computer screen and connecting them with hypothetical wires. This procedure, achieved by our add-on for the software ProMoT, was successfully applied to bacterial circuits. Recently, we have extended this design-methodology to eukaryotic cells. Here, highly complex components such as promoters and Pools of mRNA contain hundreds of species and reactions whose calculation demands a rule-based modeling approach. We showed how to build such complex modules via the joint employment of the software BioNetGen (rule-based modeling) and ProMoT (modularization). In this chapter, we illustrate how to utilize our computational tool for synthetic biology with the in silico implementation of a simple eukaryotic gene circuit that performs the logic AND operation.

FAME, a microprocessor based front-end analysis and modeling environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenbaum, J. D.; Kutin, E. B.

1980-01-01

Higher order software (HOS) is a methodology for the specification and verification of large scale, complex, real time systems. The HOS methodology was implemented as FAME (front end analysis and modeling environment), a microprocessor based system for interactively developing, analyzing, and displaying system models in a low cost user-friendly environment. The nature of the model is such that when completed it can be the basis for projection to a variety of forms such as structured design diagrams, Petri-nets, data flow diagrams, and PSL/PSA source code. The user's interface with the analyzer is easily recognized by any current user of a structured modeling approach; therefore extensive training is unnecessary. Furthermore, when all the system capabilities are used one can check on proper usage of data types, functions, and control structures thereby adding a new dimension to the design process that will lead to better and more easily verified software designs.

Graphical Interfaces for Simulation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollan, J. D.; And Others

This document presents a discussion of the development of a set of software tools to assist in the construction of interfaces to simulations and real-time systems. Presuppositions to the approach to interface design that was used are surveyed, the tools are described, and the conclusions drawn from these experiences in graphical interface design…

Designing a Pedagogical Model for Web Engineering Education: An Evolutionary Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadjerrouit, Said

2005-01-01

In contrast to software engineering, which relies on relatively well established development approaches, there is a lack of a proven methodology that guides Web engineers in building reliable and effective Web-based systems. Currently, Web engineering lacks process models, architectures, suitable techniques and methods, quality assurance, and a…

We Scrum Every Day: Using Scrum Project Management Framework for Group Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pope-Ruark, Rebecca

2012-01-01

Collaborative group projects have documented learning benefits, yet collaboration is challenging for students because the educational system values individual achievement. This article explores Scrum, an approach to framing, planning, and managing group projects used in Web-software development. Designed for multi-faceted projects, this approach…