NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Yetman, G.; Downs, R. R.
2011-12-01
Software deployment is needed to process and distribute scientific data throughout the data lifecycle. Developing software in-house can take software development teams away from other software development projects and can require efforts to maintain the software over time. Adopting and reusing software and system modules that have been previously developed by others can reduce in-house software development and maintenance costs and can contribute to the quality of the system being developed. A variety of models are available for reusing and deploying software and systems that have been developed by others. These deployment models include open source software, vendor-supported open source software, commercial software, and combinations of these approaches. Deployment in Earth science data processing and distribution has demonstrated the advantages and drawbacks of each model. Deploying open source software offers advantages for developing and maintaining scientific data processing systems and applications. By joining an open source community that is developing a particular system module or application, a scientific data processing team can contribute to aspects of the software development without having to commit to developing the software alone. Communities of interested developers can share the work while focusing on activities that utilize in-house expertise and addresses internal requirements. Maintenance is also shared by members of the community. Deploying vendor-supported open source software offers similar advantages to open source software. However, by procuring the services of a vendor, the in-house team can rely on the vendor to provide, install, and maintain the software over time. Vendor-supported open source software may be ideal for teams that recognize the value of an open source software component or application and would like to contribute to the effort, but do not have the time or expertise to contribute extensively. Vendor-supported software may also have the additional benefits of guaranteed up-time, bug fixes, and vendor-added enhancements. Deploying commercial software can be advantageous for obtaining system or software components offered by a vendor that meet in-house requirements. The vendor can be contracted to provide installation, support and maintenance services as needed. Combining these options offers a menu of choices, enabling selection of system components or software modules that meet the evolving requirements encountered throughout the scientific data lifecycle.
Behind Linus's Law: Investigating Peer Review Processes in Open Source
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Jing
2013-01-01
Open source software has revolutionized the way people develop software, organize collaborative work, and innovate. The numerous open source software systems that have been created and adopted over the past decade are influential and vital in all aspects of work and daily life. The understanding of open source software development can enhance its…
The Emergence of Open-Source Software in North America
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pan, Guohua; Bonk, Curtis J.
2007-01-01
Unlike conventional models of software development, the open source model is based on the collaborative efforts of users who are also co-developers of the software. Interest in open source software has grown exponentially in recent years. A "Google" search for the phrase open source in early 2005 returned 28.8 million webpage hits, while…
Developing open-source codes for electromagnetic geophysics using industry support
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Key, K.
2017-12-01
Funding for open-source software development in academia often takes the form of grants and fellowships awarded by government bodies and foundations where there is no conflict-of-interest between the funding entity and the free dissemination of the open-source software products. Conversely, funding for open-source projects in the geophysics industry presents challenges to conventional business models where proprietary licensing offers value that is not present in open-source software. Such proprietary constraints make it easier to convince companies to fund academic software development under exclusive software distribution agreements. A major challenge for obtaining commercial funding for open-source projects is to offer a value proposition that overcomes the criticism that such funding is a give-away to the competition. This work draws upon a decade of experience developing open-source electromagnetic geophysics software for the oil, gas and minerals exploration industry, and examines various approaches that have been effective for sustaining industry sponsorship.
The Emergence of Open-Source Software in China
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pan, Guohua; Bonk, Curtis J.
2007-01-01
The open-source software movement is gaining increasing momentum in China. Of the limited numbers of open-source software in China, "Red Flag Linux" stands out most strikingly, commanding 30 percent share of Chinese software market. Unlike the spontaneity of open-source movement in North America, open-source software development in…
Ardal, Christine; Alstadsæter, Annette; Røttingen, John-Arne
2011-09-28
Innovation through an open source model has proven to be successful for software development. This success has led many to speculate if open source can be applied to other industries with similar success. We attempt to provide an understanding of open source software development characteristics for researchers, business leaders and government officials who may be interested in utilizing open source innovation in other contexts and with an emphasis on drug discovery. A systematic review was performed by searching relevant, multidisciplinary databases to extract empirical research regarding the common characteristics and barriers of initiating and maintaining an open source software development project. Common characteristics to open source software development pertinent to open source drug discovery were extracted. The characteristics were then grouped into the areas of participant attraction, management of volunteers, control mechanisms, legal framework and physical constraints. Lastly, their applicability to drug discovery was examined. We believe that the open source model is viable for drug discovery, although it is unlikely that it will exactly follow the form used in software development. Hybrids will likely develop that suit the unique characteristics of drug discovery. We suggest potential motivations for organizations to join an open source drug discovery project. We also examine specific differences between software and medicines, specifically how the need for laboratories and physical goods will impact the model as well as the effect of patents.
Open Source Software Development and Lotka's Law: Bibliometric Patterns in Programming.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Newby, Gregory B.; Greenberg, Jane; Jones, Paul
2003-01-01
Applies Lotka's Law to metadata on open source software development. Authoring patterns found in software development productivity are found to be comparable to prior studies of Lotka's Law for scientific and scholarly publishing, and offer promise in predicting aggregate behavior of open source developers. (Author/LRW)
2011-01-01
Background Innovation through an open source model has proven to be successful for software development. This success has led many to speculate if open source can be applied to other industries with similar success. We attempt to provide an understanding of open source software development characteristics for researchers, business leaders and government officials who may be interested in utilizing open source innovation in other contexts and with an emphasis on drug discovery. Methods A systematic review was performed by searching relevant, multidisciplinary databases to extract empirical research regarding the common characteristics and barriers of initiating and maintaining an open source software development project. Results Common characteristics to open source software development pertinent to open source drug discovery were extracted. The characteristics were then grouped into the areas of participant attraction, management of volunteers, control mechanisms, legal framework and physical constraints. Lastly, their applicability to drug discovery was examined. Conclusions We believe that the open source model is viable for drug discovery, although it is unlikely that it will exactly follow the form used in software development. Hybrids will likely develop that suit the unique characteristics of drug discovery. We suggest potential motivations for organizations to join an open source drug discovery project. We also examine specific differences between software and medicines, specifically how the need for laboratories and physical goods will impact the model as well as the effect of patents. PMID:21955914
OSIRIX: open source multimodality image navigation software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rosset, Antoine; Pysher, Lance; Spadola, Luca; Ratib, Osman
2005-04-01
The goal of our project is to develop a completely new software platform that will allow users to efficiently and conveniently navigate through large sets of multidimensional data without the need of high-end expensive hardware or software. We also elected to develop our system on new open source software libraries allowing other institutions and developers to contribute to this project. OsiriX is a free and open-source imaging software designed manipulate and visualize large sets of medical images: http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix/
Espino, Jeremy U; Wagner, M; Szczepaniak, C; Tsui, F C; Su, H; Olszewski, R; Liu, Z; Chapman, W; Zeng, X; Ma, L; Lu, Z; Dara, J
2004-09-24
Computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance requires high-quality software that is well-supported and affordable. Developing software in an open-source framework, which entails free distribution and use of software and continuous, community-based software development, can produce software with such characteristics, and can do so rapidly. The objective of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) Open Source Project is to accelerate the deployment of computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance systems by writing software and catalyzing the formation of a community of users, developers, consultants, and scientists who support its use. The University of Pittsburgh seeded the Open Source Project by releasing the RODS software under the GNU General Public License. An infrastructure was created, consisting of a website, mailing lists for developers and users, designated software developers, and shared code-development tools. These resources are intended to encourage growth of the Open Source Project community. Progress is measured by assessing website usage, number of software downloads, number of inquiries, number of system deployments, and number of new features or modules added to the code base. During September--November 2003, users generated 5,370 page views of the project website, 59 software downloads, 20 inquiries, one new deployment, and addition of four features. Thus far, health departments and companies have been more interested in using the software as is than in customizing or developing new features. The RODS laboratory anticipates that after initial installation has been completed, health departments and companies will begin to customize the software and contribute their enhancements to the public code base.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ge, Xun; Huang, Kun; Dong, Yifei
2010-01-01
A semester-long ethnography study was carried out to investigate project-based learning in a graduate software engineering course through the implementation of an Open-Source Software Development (OSSD) learning environment, which featured authentic projects, learning community, cognitive apprenticeship, and technology affordances. The study…
Rey-Martinez, Jorge; Pérez-Fernández, Nicolás
2016-12-01
The proposed validation goal of 0.9 in intra-class correlation coefficient was reached with the results of this study. With the obtained results we consider that the developed software (RombergLab) is a validated balance assessment software. The reliability of this software is dependent of the used force platform technical specifications. Develop and validate a posturography software and share its source code in open source terms. Prospective non-randomized validation study: 20 consecutive adults underwent two balance assessment tests, six condition posturography was performed using a clinical approved software and force platform and the same conditions were measured using the new developed open source software using a low cost force platform. Intra-class correlation index of the sway area obtained from the center of pressure variations in both devices for the six conditions was the main variable used for validation. Excellent concordance between RombergLab and clinical approved force platform was obtained (intra-class correlation coefficient =0.94). A Bland and Altman graphic concordance plot was also obtained. The source code used to develop RombergLab was published in open source terms.
A Study of Clinically Related Open Source Software Projects
Hogarth, Michael A.; Turner, Stuart
2005-01-01
Open source software development has recently gained significant interest due to several successful mainstream open source projects. This methodology has been proposed as being similarly viable and beneficial in the clinical application domain as well. However, the clinical software development venue differs significantly from the mainstream software venue. Existing clinical open source projects have not been well characterized nor formally studied so the ‘fit’ of open source in this domain is largely unknown. In order to better understand the open source movement in the clinical application domain, we undertook a study of existing open source clinical projects. In this study we sought to characterize and classify existing clinical open source projects and to determine metrics for their viability. This study revealed several findings which we believe could guide the healthcare community in its quest for successful open source clinical software projects. PMID:16779056
Nurturing reliable and robust open-source scientific software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Uieda, L.; Wessel, P.
2017-12-01
Scientific results are increasingly the product of software. The reproducibility and validity of published results cannot be ensured without access to the source code of the software used to produce them. Therefore, the code itself is a fundamental part of the methodology and must be published along with the results. With such a reliance on software, it is troubling that most scientists do not receive formal training in software development. Tools such as version control, continuous integration, and automated testing are routinely used in industry to ensure the correctness and robustness of software. However, many scientist do not even know of their existence (although efforts like Software Carpentry are having an impact on this issue; software-carpentry.org). Publishing the source code is only the first step in creating an open-source project. For a project to grow it must provide documentation, participation guidelines, and a welcoming environment for new contributors. Expanding the project community is often more challenging than the technical aspects of software development. Maintainers must invest time to enforce the rules of the project and to onboard new members, which can be difficult to justify in the context of the "publish or perish" mentality. This problem will continue as long as software contributions are not recognized as valid scholarship by hiring and tenure committees. Furthermore, there are still unsolved problems in providing attribution for software contributions. Many journals and metrics of academic productivity do not recognize citations to sources other than traditional publications. Thus, some authors choose to publish an article about the software and use it as a citation marker. One issue with this approach is that updating the reference to include new contributors involves writing and publishing a new article. A better approach would be to cite a permanent archive of individual versions of the source code in services such as Zenodo (zenodo.org). However, citations to these sources are not always recognized when computing citation metrics. In summary, the widespread development of reliable and robust open-source software relies on the creation of formal training programs in software development best practices and the recognition of software as a valid form of scholarship.
Four simple recommendations to encourage best practices in research software
Jiménez, Rafael C.; Kuzak, Mateusz; Alhamdoosh, Monther; Barker, Michelle; Batut, Bérénice; Borg, Mikael; Capella-Gutierrez, Salvador; Chue Hong, Neil; Cook, Martin; Corpas, Manuel; Flannery, Madison; Garcia, Leyla; Gelpí, Josep Ll.; Gladman, Simon; Goble, Carole; González Ferreiro, Montserrat; Gonzalez-Beltran, Alejandra; Griffin, Philippa C.; Grüning, Björn; Hagberg, Jonas; Holub, Petr; Hooft, Rob; Ison, Jon; Katz, Daniel S.; Leskošek, Brane; López Gómez, Federico; Oliveira, Luis J.; Mellor, David; Mosbergen, Rowland; Mulder, Nicola; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Pergl, Robert; Pichler, Horst; Pope, Bernard; Sanz, Ferran; Schneider, Maria V.; Stodden, Victoria; Suchecki, Radosław; Svobodová Vařeková, Radka; Talvik, Harry-Anton; Todorov, Ilian; Treloar, Andrew; Tyagi, Sonika; van Gompel, Maarten; Vaughan, Daniel; Via, Allegra; Wang, Xiaochuan; Watson-Haigh, Nathan S.; Crouch, Steve
2017-01-01
Scientific research relies on computer software, yet software is not always developed following practices that ensure its quality and sustainability. This manuscript does not aim to propose new software development best practices, but rather to provide simple recommendations that encourage the adoption of existing best practices. Software development best practices promote better quality software, and better quality software improves the reproducibility and reusability of research. These recommendations are designed around Open Source values, and provide practical suggestions that contribute to making research software and its source code more discoverable, reusable and transparent. This manuscript is aimed at developers, but also at organisations, projects, journals and funders that can increase the quality and sustainability of research software by encouraging the adoption of these recommendations. PMID:28751965
Four simple recommendations to encourage best practices in research software.
Jiménez, Rafael C; Kuzak, Mateusz; Alhamdoosh, Monther; Barker, Michelle; Batut, Bérénice; Borg, Mikael; Capella-Gutierrez, Salvador; Chue Hong, Neil; Cook, Martin; Corpas, Manuel; Flannery, Madison; Garcia, Leyla; Gelpí, Josep Ll; Gladman, Simon; Goble, Carole; González Ferreiro, Montserrat; Gonzalez-Beltran, Alejandra; Griffin, Philippa C; Grüning, Björn; Hagberg, Jonas; Holub, Petr; Hooft, Rob; Ison, Jon; Katz, Daniel S; Leskošek, Brane; López Gómez, Federico; Oliveira, Luis J; Mellor, David; Mosbergen, Rowland; Mulder, Nicola; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Pergl, Robert; Pichler, Horst; Pope, Bernard; Sanz, Ferran; Schneider, Maria V; Stodden, Victoria; Suchecki, Radosław; Svobodová Vařeková, Radka; Talvik, Harry-Anton; Todorov, Ilian; Treloar, Andrew; Tyagi, Sonika; van Gompel, Maarten; Vaughan, Daniel; Via, Allegra; Wang, Xiaochuan; Watson-Haigh, Nathan S; Crouch, Steve
2017-01-01
Scientific research relies on computer software, yet software is not always developed following practices that ensure its quality and sustainability. This manuscript does not aim to propose new software development best practices, but rather to provide simple recommendations that encourage the adoption of existing best practices. Software development best practices promote better quality software, and better quality software improves the reproducibility and reusability of research. These recommendations are designed around Open Source values, and provide practical suggestions that contribute to making research software and its source code more discoverable, reusable and transparent. This manuscript is aimed at developers, but also at organisations, projects, journals and funders that can increase the quality and sustainability of research software by encouraging the adoption of these recommendations.
Government Technology Acquisition Policy: The Case of Proprietary versus Open Source Software
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hemphill, Thomas A.
2005-01-01
This article begins by explaining the concepts of proprietary and open source software technology, which are now competing in the marketplace. A review of recent individual and cooperative technology development and public policy advocacy efforts, by both proponents of open source software and advocates of proprietary software, subsequently…
Maintaining Quality and Confidence in Open-Source, Evolving Software: Lessons Learned with PFLOTRAN
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Frederick, J. M.; Hammond, G. E.
2017-12-01
Software evolution in an open-source framework poses a major challenge to a geoscientific simulator, but when properly managed, the pay-off can be enormous for both the developers and the community at large. Developers must juggle implementing new scientific process models, adopting increasingly efficient numerical methods and programming paradigms, changing funding sources (or total lack of funding), while also ensuring that legacy code remains functional and reported bugs are fixed in a timely manner. With robust software engineering and a plan for long-term maintenance, a simulator can evolve over time incorporating and leveraging many advances in the computational and domain sciences. In this positive light, what practices in software engineering and code maintenance can be employed within open-source development to maximize the positive aspects of software evolution and community contributions while minimizing its negative side effects? This presentation will discusses steps taken in the development of PFLOTRAN (www.pflotran.org), an open source, massively parallel subsurface simulator for multiphase, multicomponent, and multiscale reactive flow and transport processes in porous media. As PFLOTRAN's user base and development team continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to implement strategies which ensure sustainable software development while maintaining software quality and community confidence. In this presentation, we will share our experiences and "lessons learned" within the context of our open-source development framework and community engagement efforts. Topics discussed will include how we've leveraged both standard software engineering principles, such as coding standards, version control, and automated testing, as well unique advantages of object-oriented design in process model coupling, to ensure software quality and confidence. We will also be prepared to discuss the major challenges faced by most open-source software teams, such as on-boarding new developers or one-time contributions, dealing with competitors or lookie-loos, and other downsides of complete transparency, as well as our approach to community engagement, including a user group email list, hosting short courses and workshops for new users, and maintaining a website. SAND2017-8174A
Developing an Open Source Option for NASA Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Moran, Patrick J.; Parks, John W. (Technical Monitor)
2003-01-01
We present arguments in favor of developing an Open Source option for NASA software; in particular we discuss how Open Source is compatible with NASA's mission. We compare and contrast several of the leading Open Source licenses, and propose one - the Mozilla license - for use by NASA. We also address some of the related issues for NASA with respect to Open Source. In particular, we discuss some of the elements in the External Release of NASA Software document (NPG 2210.1A) that will likely have to be changed in order to make Open Source a reality withm the agency.
Open Source Molecular Modeling
Pirhadi, Somayeh; Sunseri, Jocelyn; Koes, David Ryan
2016-01-01
The success of molecular modeling and computational chemistry efforts are, by definition, dependent on quality software applications. Open source software development provides many advantages to users of modeling applications, not the least of which is that the software is free and completely extendable. In this review we categorize, enumerate, and describe available open source software packages for molecular modeling and computational chemistry. PMID:27631126
Open source hardware and software platform for robotics and artificial intelligence applications
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Liang, S. Ng; Tan, K. O.; Lai Clement, T. H.; Ng, S. K.; Mohammed, A. H. Ali; Mailah, Musa; Azhar Yussof, Wan; Hamedon, Zamzuri; Yussof, Zulkifli
2016-02-01
Recent developments in open source hardware and software platforms (Android, Arduino, Linux, OpenCV etc.) have enabled rapid development of previously expensive and sophisticated system within a lower budget and flatter learning curves for developers. Using these platform, we designed and developed a Java-based 3D robotic simulation system, with graph database, which is integrated in online and offline modes with an Android-Arduino based rubbish picking remote control car. The combination of the open source hardware and software system created a flexible and expandable platform for further developments in the future, both in the software and hardware areas, in particular in combination with graph database for artificial intelligence, as well as more sophisticated hardware, such as legged or humanoid robots.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Simpson, James Daniel
2014-01-01
Free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) is software that is collaboratively developed. FLOSS provides end-users with the source code and the freedom to adapt or modify a piece of software to fit their needs (Deek & McHugh, 2008; Stallman, 2010). FLOSS has a 30 year history that dates to the open hacker community at the Massachusetts…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kamthan, Pankaj
2007-01-01
Open Source Software (OSS) has introduced a new dimension in software community. As the development and use of OSS becomes prominent, the question of its integration in education arises. In this paper, the following practices fundamental to projects and processes in software engineering are examined from an OSS perspective: project management;…
The Open Source Teaching Project (OSTP): Research Note.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hirst, Tony
The Open Source Teaching Project (OSTP) is an attempt to apply a variant of the successful open source software approach to the development of educational materials. Open source software is software licensed in such a way as to allow anyone the right to modify and use it. From such a simple premise, a whole industry has arisen, most notably in the…
Open-source software: not quite endsville.
Stahl, Matthew T
2005-02-01
Open-source software will never achieve ubiquity. There are environments in which it simply does not flourish. By its nature, open-source development requires free exchange of ideas, community involvement, and the efforts of talented and dedicated individuals. However, pressures can come from several sources that prevent this from happening. In addition, openness and complex licensing issues invite misuse and abuse. Care must be taken to avoid the pitfalls of open-source software.
GIS-Based Noise Simulation Open Source Software: N-GNOIS
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Vijay, Ritesh; Sharma, A.; Kumar, M.; Shende, V.; Chakrabarti, T.; Gupta, Rajesh
2015-12-01
Geographical information system (GIS)-based noise simulation software (N-GNOIS) has been developed to simulate the noise scenario due to point and mobile sources considering the impact of geographical features and meteorological parameters. These have been addressed in the software through attenuation modules of atmosphere, vegetation and barrier. N-GNOIS is a user friendly, platform-independent and open geospatial consortia (OGC) compliant software. It has been developed using open source technology (QGIS) and open source language (Python). N-GNOIS has unique features like cumulative impact of point and mobile sources, building structure and honking due to traffic. Honking is the most common phenomenon in developing countries and is frequently observed on any type of roads. N-GNOIS also helps in designing physical barrier and vegetation cover to check the propagation of noise and acts as a decision making tool for planning and management of noise component in environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies.
Adopting Open Source Software to Address Software Risks during the Scientific Data Life Cycle
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Vinay, S.; Downs, R. R.
2012-12-01
Software enables the creation, management, storage, distribution, discovery, and use of scientific data throughout the data lifecycle. However, the capabilities offered by software also present risks for the stewardship of scientific data, since future access to digital data is dependent on the use of software. From operating systems to applications for analyzing data, the dependence of data on software presents challenges for the stewardship of scientific data. Adopting open source software provides opportunities to address some of the proprietary risks of data dependence on software. For example, in some cases, open source software can be deployed to avoid licensing restrictions for using, modifying, and transferring proprietary software. The availability of the source code of open source software also enables the inclusion of modifications, which may be contributed by various community members who are addressing similar issues. Likewise, an active community that is maintaining open source software can be a valuable source of help, providing an opportunity to collaborate to address common issues facing adopters. As part of the effort to meet the challenges of software dependence for scientific data stewardship, risks from software dependence have been identified that exist during various times of the data lifecycle. The identification of these risks should enable the development of plans for mitigating software dependencies, where applicable, using open source software, and to improve understanding of software dependency risks for scientific data and how they can be reduced during the data life cycle.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Denny, Barbara A.; McKenney, Paul E., Sr.; Lee, Danny
1994-01-01
This document is Volume 3 of the final technical report on the work performed by SRI International (SRI) on SRI Project 8600. The document includes source listings for all software developed by SRI under this effort. Since some of our work involved the use of ST-II and the Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun) High-Speed Serial Interface (HSI/S) driver, we have included some of the source developed by LBL and BBN as well. In most cases, our decision to include source developed by other contractors depended on whether it was necessary to modify the original code. If we have modified the software in any way, it is included in this document. In the case of the Traffic Generator (TG), however, we have included all the ST-II software, even though BBN performed the integration, because the ST-II software is part of the standard TG release. It is important to note that all the code developed by other contractors is in the public domain, so that all software developed under this effort can be re-created from the source included here.
Open source software integrated into data services of Japanese planetary explorations
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Yamamoto, Y.; Ishihara, Y.; Otake, H.; Imai, K.; Masuda, K.
2015-12-01
Scientific data obtained by Japanese scientific satellites and lunar and planetary explorations are archived in DARTS (Data ARchives and Transmission System). DARTS provides the data with a simple method such as HTTP directory listing for long-term preservation while DARTS tries to provide rich web applications for ease of access with modern web technologies based on open source software. This presentation showcases availability of open source software through our services. KADIAS is a web-based application to search, analyze, and obtain scientific data measured by SELENE(Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiter. KADIAS uses OpenLayers to display maps distributed from Web Map Service (WMS). As a WMS server, open source software MapServer is adopted. KAGUYA 3D GIS (KAGUYA 3D Moon NAVI) provides a virtual globe for the SELENE's data. The main purpose of this application is public outreach. NASA World Wind Java SDK is used to develop. C3 (Cross-Cutting Comparisons) is a tool to compare data from various observations and simulations. It uses Highcharts to draw graphs on web browsers. Flow is a tool to simulate a Field-Of-View of an instrument onboard a spacecraft. This tool itself is open source software developed by JAXA/ISAS, and the license is BSD 3-Caluse License. SPICE Toolkit is essential to compile FLOW. SPICE Toolkit is also open source software developed by NASA/JPL, and the website distributes many spacecrafts' data. Nowadays, open source software is an indispensable tool to integrate DARTS services.
Ciobanu, O
2009-01-01
The objective of this study was to obtain three-dimensional (3D) images and to perform biomechanical simulations starting from DICOM images obtained by computed tomography (CT). Open source software were used to prepare digitized 2D images of tissue sections and to create 3D reconstruction from the segmented structures. Finally, 3D images were used in open source software in order to perform biomechanic simulations. This study demonstrates the applicability and feasibility of open source software developed in our days for the 3D reconstruction and biomechanic simulation. The use of open source software may improve the efficiency of investments in imaging technologies and in CAD/CAM technologies for implants and prosthesis fabrication which need expensive specialized software.
The role of open-source software in innovation and standardization in radiology.
Erickson, Bradley J; Langer, Steve; Nagy, Paul
2005-11-01
The use of open-source software (OSS), in which developers release the source code to applications they have developed, is popular in the software industry. This is done to allow others to modify and improve software (which may or may not be shared back to the community) and to allow others to learn from the software. Radiology was an early participant in this model, supporting OSS that implemented the ACR-National Electrical Manufacturers Association (now Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard for medical image communications. In radiology and in other fields, OSS has promoted innovation and the adoption of standards. Popular OSS is of high quality because access to source code allows many people to identify and resolve errors. Open-source software is analogous to the peer-review scientific process: one must be able to see and reproduce results to understand and promote what is shared. The authors emphasize that support for OSS need not threaten vendors; most vendors embrace and benefit from standards. Open-source development does not replace vendors but more clearly defines their roles, typically focusing on areas in which proprietary differentiators benefit customers and on professional services such as implementation planning and service. Continued support for OSS is essential for the success of our field.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Zelt, C. A.
2017-12-01
Earth science attempts to understand how the earth works. This research often depends on software for modeling, processing, inverting or imaging. Freely sharing open-source software is essential to prevent reinventing the wheel and allows software to be improved and applied in ways the original author may never have envisioned. For young scientists, releasing software can increase their name ID when applying for jobs and funding, and create opportunities for collaborations when scientists who collect data want the software's creator to be involved in their project. However, we frequently hear scientists say software is a tool, it's not science. Creating software that implements a new or better way of earth modeling or geophysical processing, inverting or imaging should be viewed as earth science. Creating software for things like data visualization, format conversion, storage, or transmission, or programming to enhance computational performance, may be viewed as computer science. The former, ideally with an application to real data, can be published in earth science journals, the latter possibly in computer science journals. Citations in either case should accurately reflect the impact of the software on the community. Funding agencies need to support more software development and open-source releasing, and the community should give more high-profile awards for developing impactful open-source software. Funding support and community recognition for software development can have far reaching benefits when the software is used in foreseen and unforeseen ways, potentially for years after the original investment in the software development. For funding, an open-source release that is well documented should be required, with example input and output files. Appropriate funding will provide the incentive and time to release user-friendly software, and minimize the need for others to duplicate the effort. All funded software should be available through a single web site, ideally maintained by someone in a funded position. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the reality that researches who use software, as opposed to develop software, are more attractive university hires because they are more likely to be "big picture" scientists that publish in the highest profile journals, although sometimes the two go together.
Bonnal, Raoul J P; Aerts, Jan; Githinji, George; Goto, Naohisa; MacLean, Dan; Miller, Chase A; Mishima, Hiroyuki; Pagani, Massimiliano; Ramirez-Gonzalez, Ricardo; Smant, Geert; Strozzi, Francesco; Syme, Rob; Vos, Rutger; Wennblom, Trevor J; Woodcroft, Ben J; Katayama, Toshiaki; Prins, Pjotr
2012-04-01
Biogem provides a software development environment for the Ruby programming language, which encourages community-based software development for bioinformatics while lowering the barrier to entry and encouraging best practices. Biogem, with its targeted modular and decentralized approach, software generator, tools and tight web integration, is an improved general model for scaling up collaborative open source software development in bioinformatics. Biogem and modules are free and are OSS. Biogem runs on all systems that support recent versions of Ruby, including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Further information at http://www.biogems.info. A tutorial is available at http://www.biogems.info/howto.html bonnal@ingm.org.
Methodology of decreasing software complexity using ontology
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
DÄ browska-Kubik, Katarzyna
2015-09-01
In this paper a model of web application`s source code, based on the OSD ontology (Ontology for Software Development), is proposed. This model is applied to implementation and maintenance phase of software development process through the DevOntoCreator tool [5]. The aim of this solution is decreasing software complexity of that source code, using many different maintenance techniques, like creation of documentation, elimination dead code, cloned code or bugs, which were known before [1][2]. Due to this approach saving on software maintenance costs of web applications will be possible.
Open Source Software in Medium Size Organizations: Key Factors for Adoption
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Solomon, Jerry T.
2010-01-01
For-profit organizations are constantly evaluating new technologies to gain competitive advantage. One such technology, application software, has changed significantly over the past 25 years with the introduction of Open Source Software (OSS). In contrast to commercial software that is developed by private companies and sold to organizations, OSS…
[GNU Pattern: open source pattern hunter for biological sequences based on SPLASH algorithm].
Xu, Ying; Li, Yi-xue; Kong, Xiang-yin
2005-06-01
To construct a high performance open source software engine based on IBM SPLASH algorithm for later research on pattern discovery. Gpat, which is based on SPLASH algorithm, was developed by using open source software. GNU Pattern (Gpat) software was developped, which efficiently implemented the core part of SPLASH algorithm. Full source code of Gpat was also available for other researchers to modify the program under the GNU license. Gpat is a successful implementation of SPLASH algorithm and can be used as a basic framework for later research on pattern recognition in biological sequences.
Open-source meteor detection software for low-cost single-board computers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Vida, D.; Zubović, D.; Šegon, D.; Gural, P.; Cupec, R.
2016-01-01
This work aims to overcome the current price threshold of meteor stations which can sometimes deter meteor enthusiasts from owning one. In recent years small card-sized computers became widely available and are used for numerous applications. To utilize such computers for meteor work, software which can run on them is needed. In this paper we present a detailed description of newly-developed open-source software for fireball and meteor detection optimized for running on low-cost single board computers. Furthermore, an update on the development of automated open-source software which will handle video capture, fireball and meteor detection, astrometry and photometry is given.
Clinical software development for the Web: lessons learned from the BOADICEA project
2012-01-01
Background In the past 20 years, society has witnessed the following landmark scientific advances: (i) the sequencing of the human genome, (ii) the distribution of software by the open source movement, and (iii) the invention of the World Wide Web. Together, these advances have provided a new impetus for clinical software development: developers now translate the products of human genomic research into clinical software tools; they use open-source programs to build them; and they use the Web to deliver them. Whilst this open-source component-based approach has undoubtedly made clinical software development easier, clinical software projects are still hampered by problems that traditionally accompany the software process. This study describes the development of the BOADICEA Web Application, a computer program used by clinical geneticists to assess risks to patients with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer. The key challenge of the BOADICEA Web Application project was to deliver a program that was safe, secure and easy for healthcare professionals to use. We focus on the software process, problems faced, and lessons learned. Our key objectives are: (i) to highlight key clinical software development issues; (ii) to demonstrate how software engineering tools and techniques can facilitate clinical software development for the benefit of individuals who lack software engineering expertise; and (iii) to provide a clinical software development case report that can be used as a basis for discussion at the start of future projects. Results We developed the BOADICEA Web Application using an evolutionary software process. Our approach to Web implementation was conservative and we used conventional software engineering tools and techniques. The principal software development activities were: requirements, design, implementation, testing, documentation and maintenance. The BOADICEA Web Application has now been widely adopted by clinical geneticists and researchers. BOADICEA Web Application version 1 was released for general use in November 2007. By May 2010, we had > 1200 registered users based in the UK, USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Conclusions We found that an evolutionary software process was effective when we developed the BOADICEA Web Application. The key clinical software development issues identified during the BOADICEA Web Application project were: software reliability, Web security, clinical data protection and user feedback. PMID:22490389
Clinical software development for the Web: lessons learned from the BOADICEA project.
Cunningham, Alex P; Antoniou, Antonis C; Easton, Douglas F
2012-04-10
In the past 20 years, society has witnessed the following landmark scientific advances: (i) the sequencing of the human genome, (ii) the distribution of software by the open source movement, and (iii) the invention of the World Wide Web. Together, these advances have provided a new impetus for clinical software development: developers now translate the products of human genomic research into clinical software tools; they use open-source programs to build them; and they use the Web to deliver them. Whilst this open-source component-based approach has undoubtedly made clinical software development easier, clinical software projects are still hampered by problems that traditionally accompany the software process. This study describes the development of the BOADICEA Web Application, a computer program used by clinical geneticists to assess risks to patients with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer. The key challenge of the BOADICEA Web Application project was to deliver a program that was safe, secure and easy for healthcare professionals to use. We focus on the software process, problems faced, and lessons learned. Our key objectives are: (i) to highlight key clinical software development issues; (ii) to demonstrate how software engineering tools and techniques can facilitate clinical software development for the benefit of individuals who lack software engineering expertise; and (iii) to provide a clinical software development case report that can be used as a basis for discussion at the start of future projects. We developed the BOADICEA Web Application using an evolutionary software process. Our approach to Web implementation was conservative and we used conventional software engineering tools and techniques. The principal software development activities were: requirements, design, implementation, testing, documentation and maintenance. The BOADICEA Web Application has now been widely adopted by clinical geneticists and researchers. BOADICEA Web Application version 1 was released for general use in November 2007. By May 2010, we had > 1200 registered users based in the UK, USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand. We found that an evolutionary software process was effective when we developed the BOADICEA Web Application. The key clinical software development issues identified during the BOADICEA Web Application project were: software reliability, Web security, clinical data protection and user feedback.
Oostenveld, Robert; Fries, Pascal; Maris, Eric; Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs
2011-01-01
This paper describes FieldTrip, an open source software package that we developed for the analysis of MEG, EEG, and other electrophysiological data. The software is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox and includes a complete set of consistent and user-friendly high-level functions that allow experimental neuroscientists to analyze experimental data. It includes algorithms for simple and advanced analysis, such as time-frequency analysis using multitapers, source reconstruction using dipoles, distributed sources and beamformers, connectivity analysis, and nonparametric statistical permutation tests at the channel and source level. The implementation as toolbox allows the user to perform elaborate and structured analyses of large data sets using the MATLAB command line and batch scripting. Furthermore, users and developers can easily extend the functionality and implement new algorithms. The modular design facilitates the reuse in other software packages.
The case for open-source software in drug discovery.
DeLano, Warren L
2005-02-01
Widespread adoption of open-source software for network infrastructure, web servers, code development, and operating systems leads one to ask how far it can go. Will "open source" spread broadly, or will it be restricted to niches frequented by hopeful hobbyists and midnight hackers? Here we identify reasons for the success of open-source software and predict how consumers in drug discovery will benefit from new open-source products that address their needs with increased flexibility and in ways complementary to proprietary options.
Ensemble Eclipse: A Process for Prefab Development Environment for the Ensemble Project
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wallick, Michael N.; Mittman, David S.; Shams, Khawaja, S.; Bachmann, Andrew G.; Ludowise, Melissa
2013-01-01
This software simplifies the process of having to set up an Eclipse IDE programming environment for the members of the cross-NASA center project, Ensemble. It achieves this by assembling all the necessary add-ons and custom tools/preferences. This software is unique in that it allows developers in the Ensemble Project (approximately 20 to 40 at any time) across multiple NASA centers to set up a development environment almost instantly and work on Ensemble software. The software automatically has the source code repositories and other vital information and settings included. The Eclipse IDE is an open-source development framework. The NASA (Ensemble-specific) version of the software includes Ensemble-specific plug-ins as well as settings for the Ensemble project. This software saves developers the time and hassle of setting up a programming environment, making sure that everything is set up in the correct manner for Ensemble development. Existing software (i.e., standard Eclipse) requires an intensive setup process that is both time-consuming and error prone. This software is built once by a single user and tested, allowing other developers to simply download and use the software
Open Source Software and the Intellectual Commons.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dorman, David
2002-01-01
Discusses the Open Source Software method of software development and its relationship to control over information content. Topics include digital library resources; reference services; preservation; the legal and economic status of information; technical standards; access to digital data; control of information use; and copyright and patent laws.…
Open Source Software Development
2011-01-01
Software, 2002, 149(1), 3-17. 3. DiBona , C., Cooper, D., and Stone, M. (Eds.), Open Sources 2.0, 2005, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA. Also see, C... DiBona , S. Ockman, and M. Stone (Eds.). Open Sources: Vocides from the Open Source Revolution, 1999. O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA. 4. Ducheneaut, N
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Melton, R.; Thomas, J.
With the rapid growth in the number of space actors, there has been a marked increase in the complexity and diversity of software systems utilized to support SSA target tracking, indication, warning, and collision avoidance. Historically, most SSA software has been constructed with "closed" proprietary code, which limits interoperability, inhibits the code transparency that some SSA customers need to develop domain expertise, and prevents the rapid injection of innovative concepts into these systems. Open-source aerospace software, a rapidly emerging, alternative trend in code development, is based on open collaboration, which has the potential to bring greater transparency, interoperability, flexibility, and reduced development costs. Open-source software is easily adaptable, geared to rapidly changing mission needs, and can generally be delivered at lower costs to meet mission requirements. This paper outlines Ball's COSMOS C2 system, a fully open-source, web-enabled, command-and-control software architecture which provides several unique capabilities to move the current legacy SSA software paradigm to an open source model that effectively enables pre- and post-launch asset command and control. Among the unique characteristics of COSMOS is the ease with which it can integrate with diverse hardware. This characteristic enables COSMOS to serve as the command-and-control platform for the full life-cycle development of SSA assets, from board test, to box test, to system integration and test, to on-orbit operations. The use of a modern scripting language, Ruby, also permits automated procedures to provide highly complex decision making for the tasking of SSA assets based on both telemetry data and data received from outside sources. Detailed logging enables quick anomaly detection and resolution. Integrated real-time and offline data graphing renders the visualization of the both ground and on-orbit assets simple and straightforward.
Open source molecular modeling.
Pirhadi, Somayeh; Sunseri, Jocelyn; Koes, David Ryan
2016-09-01
The success of molecular modeling and computational chemistry efforts are, by definition, dependent on quality software applications. Open source software development provides many advantages to users of modeling applications, not the least of which is that the software is free and completely extendable. In this review we categorize, enumerate, and describe available open source software packages for molecular modeling and computational chemistry. An updated online version of this catalog can be found at https://opensourcemolecularmodeling.github.io. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Long, Ju
2009-01-01
Open Source Software (OSS) is a major force in today's Information Technology (IT) landscape. Companies are increasingly using OSS in mission-critical applications. The transparency of the OSS technology itself with openly available source codes makes it ideal for students to participate in the OSS project development. OSS can provide unique…
The 2017 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC)
Harris, Nomi L.; Cock, Peter J.A.; Chapman, Brad; Fields, Christopher J.; Hokamp, Karsten; Lapp, Hilmar; Munoz-Torres, Monica; Tzovaras, Bastian Greshake; Wiencko, Heather
2017-01-01
The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is a meeting organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community. The 18th annual BOSC ( http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2017) took place in Prague, Czech Republic in July 2017. The conference brought together nearly 250 bioinformatics researchers, developers and users of open source software to interact and share ideas about standards, bioinformatics software development, open and reproducible science, and this year’s theme, open data. As in previous years, the conference was preceded by a two-day collaborative coding event open to the bioinformatics community, called the OBF Codefest. PMID:29118973
The 2017 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC).
Harris, Nomi L; Cock, Peter J A; Chapman, Brad; Fields, Christopher J; Hokamp, Karsten; Lapp, Hilmar; Munoz-Torres, Monica; Tzovaras, Bastian Greshake; Wiencko, Heather
2017-01-01
The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is a meeting organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community. The 18th annual BOSC ( http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2017) took place in Prague, Czech Republic in July 2017. The conference brought together nearly 250 bioinformatics researchers, developers and users of open source software to interact and share ideas about standards, bioinformatics software development, open and reproducible science, and this year's theme, open data. As in previous years, the conference was preceded by a two-day collaborative coding event open to the bioinformatics community, called the OBF Codefest.
Oostenveld, Robert; Fries, Pascal; Maris, Eric; Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs
2011-01-01
This paper describes FieldTrip, an open source software package that we developed for the analysis of MEG, EEG, and other electrophysiological data. The software is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox and includes a complete set of consistent and user-friendly high-level functions that allow experimental neuroscientists to analyze experimental data. It includes algorithms for simple and advanced analysis, such as time-frequency analysis using multitapers, source reconstruction using dipoles, distributed sources and beamformers, connectivity analysis, and nonparametric statistical permutation tests at the channel and source level. The implementation as toolbox allows the user to perform elaborate and structured analyses of large data sets using the MATLAB command line and batch scripting. Furthermore, users and developers can easily extend the functionality and implement new algorithms. The modular design facilitates the reuse in other software packages. PMID:21253357
Communal Resources in Open Source Software Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Spaeth, Sebastian; Haefliger, Stefan; von Krogh, Georg; Renzl, Birgit
2008-01-01
Introduction: Virtual communities play an important role in innovation. The paper focuses on the particular form of collective action in virtual communities underlying as Open Source software development projects. Method: Building on resource mobilization theory and private-collective innovation, we propose a theory of collective action in…
Open-Source Software in Computational Research: A Case Study
Syamlal, Madhava; O'Brien, Thomas J.; Benyahia, Sofiane; ...
2008-01-01
A case study of open-source (OS) development of the computational research software MFIX, used for multiphase computational fluid dynamics simulations, is presented here. The verification and validation steps required for constructing modern computational software and the advantages of OS development in those steps are discussed. The infrastructure used for enabling the OS development of MFIX is described. The impact of OS development on computational research and education in gas-solids flow, as well as the dissemination of information to other areas such as geophysical and volcanology research, is demonstrated. This study shows that the advantages of OS development were realized inmore » the case of MFIX: verification by many users, which enhances software quality; the use of software as a means for accumulating and exchanging information; the facilitation of peer review of the results of computational research.« less
Web accessibility and open source software.
Obrenović, Zeljko
2009-07-01
A Web browser provides a uniform user interface to different types of information. Making this interface universally accessible and more interactive is a long-term goal still far from being achieved. Universally accessible browsers require novel interaction modalities and additional functionalities, for which existing browsers tend to provide only partial solutions. Although functionality for Web accessibility can be found as open source and free software components, their reuse and integration is complex because they were developed in diverse implementation environments, following standards and conventions incompatible with the Web. To address these problems, we have started several activities that aim at exploiting the potential of open-source software for Web accessibility. The first of these activities is the development of Adaptable Multi-Interface COmmunicator (AMICO):WEB, an infrastructure that facilitates efficient reuse and integration of open source software components into the Web environment. The main contribution of AMICO:WEB is in enabling the syntactic and semantic interoperability between Web extension mechanisms and a variety of integration mechanisms used by open source and free software components. Its design is based on our experiences in solving practical problems where we have used open source components to improve accessibility of rich media Web applications. The second of our activities involves improving education, where we have used our platform to teach students how to build advanced accessibility solutions from diverse open-source software. We are also partially involved in the recently started Eclipse projects called Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF), the aim of which is development of extensible infrastructure, upon which developers can build a variety of utilities that help to evaluate and enhance the accessibility of applications and content for people with disabilities. In this article we briefly report on these activities.
Software Tools for Development on the Peregrine System | High-Performance
Computing | NREL Software Tools for Development on the Peregrine System Software Tools for and manage software at the source code level. Cross-Platform Make and SCons The "Cross-Platform Make" (CMake) package is from Kitware, and SCons is a modern software build tool based on Python
Using Open Source Software in Visual Simulation Development
2005-09-01
increased the use of the technology in training activities. Using open source/free software tools in the process can expand these possibilities...resulting in even greater cost reduction and allowing the flexibility needed in a training environment. This thesis presents a configuration and architecture...to be used when developing training visual simulations using both personal computers and open source tools. Aspects of the requirements needed in a
Anatomy of BioJS, an open source community for the life sciences.
Yachdav, Guy; Goldberg, Tatyana; Wilzbach, Sebastian; Dao, David; Shih, Iris; Choudhary, Saket; Crouch, Steve; Franz, Max; García, Alexander; García, Leyla J; Grüning, Björn A; Inupakutika, Devasena; Sillitoe, Ian; Thanki, Anil S; Vieira, Bruno; Villaveces, José M; Schneider, Maria V; Lewis, Suzanna; Pettifer, Steve; Rost, Burkhard; Corpas, Manuel
2015-07-08
BioJS is an open source software project that develops visualization tools for different types of biological data. Here we report on the factors that influenced the growth of the BioJS user and developer community, and outline our strategy for building on this growth. The lessons we have learned on BioJS may also be relevant to other open source software projects.
Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial in the field of planetary science
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Frigeri, A.
2012-12-01
Information technology applied to geospatial analyses has spread quickly in the last ten years. The availability of OpenData and data from collaborative mapping projects increased the interest on tools, procedures and methods to handle spatially-related information. Free Open Source Software projects devoted to geospatial data handling are gaining a good success as the use of interoperable formats and protocols allow the user to choose what pipeline of tools and libraries is needed to solve a particular task, adapting the software scene to his specific problem. In particular, the Free Open Source model of development mimics the scientific method very well, and researchers should be naturally encouraged to take part to the development process of these software projects, as this represent a very agile way to interact among several institutions. When it comes to planetary sciences, geospatial Free Open Source Software is gaining a key role in projects that commonly involve different subjects in an international scenario. Very popular software suites for processing scientific mission data (for example, ISIS) and for navigation/planning (SPICE) are being distributed along with the source code and the interaction between user and developer is often very strict, creating a continuum between these two figures. A very widely spread library for handling geospatial data (GDAL) has started to support planetary data from the Planetary Data System, and recent contributions enabled the support to other popular data formats used in planetary science, as the Vicar one. The use of Geographic Information System in planetary science is now diffused, and Free Open Source GIS, open GIS formats and network protocols allow to extend existing tools and methods developed to solve Earth based problems, also to the case of the study of solar system bodies. A day in the working life of a researcher using Free Open Source Software for geospatial will be presented, as well as benefits and solutions to possible detriments coming from the effort required by using, supporting and contributing.
Embracing Open Software Development in Solar Physics
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hughitt, V. K.; Ireland, J.; Christe, S.; Mueller, D.
2012-12-01
We discuss two ongoing software projects in solar physics that have adopted best practices of the open source software community. The first, the Helioviewer Project, is a powerful data visualization tool which includes online and Java interfaces inspired by Google Maps (tm). This effort allows users to find solar features and events of interest, and download the corresponding data. Having found data of interest, the user now has to analyze it. The dominant solar data analysis platform is an open-source library called SolarSoft (SSW). Although SSW itself is open-source, the programming language used is IDL, a proprietary language with licensing costs that are prohibative for many institutions and individuals. SSW is composed of a collection of related scripts written by missions and individuals for solar data processing and analysis, without any consistent data structures or common interfaces. Further, at the time when SSW was initially developed, many of the best software development processes of today (mirrored and distributed version control, unit testing, continuous integration, etc.) were not standard, and have not since been adopted. The challenges inherent in developing SolarSoft led to a second software project known as SunPy. SunPy is an open-source Python-based library which seeks to create a unified solar data analysis environment including a number of core datatypes such as Maps, Lightcurves, and Spectra which have consistent interfaces and behaviors. By taking advantage of the large and sophisticated body of scientific software already available in Python (e.g. SciPy, NumPy, Matplotlib), and by adopting many of the best practices refined in open-source software development, SunPy has been able to develop at a very rapid pace while still ensuring a high level of reliability. The Helioviewer Project and SunPy represent two pioneering technologies in solar physics - simple yet flexible data visualization and a powerful, new data analysis environment. We discuss the development of both these efforts and how they are beginning to influence the solar physics community.
Exploring the Role of Value Networks for Software Innovation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Morgan, Lorraine; Conboy, Kieran
This paper describes a research-in-progress that aims to explore the applicability and implications of open innovation practices in two firms - one that employs agile development methods and another that utilizes open source software. The open innovation paradigm has a lot in common with open source and agile development methodologies. A particular strength of agile approaches is that they move away from 'introverted' development, involving only the development personnel, and intimately involves the customer in all areas of software creation, supposedly leading to the development of a more innovative and hence more valuable information system. Open source software (OSS) development also shares two key elements of the open innovation model, namely the collaborative development of the technology and shared rights to the use of the technology. However, one shortfall with agile development in particular is the narrow focus on a single customer representative. In response to this, we argue that current thinking regarding innovation needs to be extended to include multiple stakeholders both across and outside the organization. Additionally, for firms utilizing open source, it has been found that their position in a network of potential complementors determines the amount of superior value they create for their customers. Thus, this paper aims to get a better understanding of the applicability and implications of open innovation practices in firms that employ open source and agile development methodologies. In particular, a conceptual framework is derived for further testing.
Open-Source web-based geographical information system for health exposure assessment
2012-01-01
This paper presents the design and development of an open source web-based Geographical Information System allowing users to visualise, customise and interact with spatial data within their web browser. The developed application shows that by using solely Open Source software it was possible to develop a customisable web based GIS application that provides functions necessary to convey health and environmental data to experts and non-experts alike without the requirement of proprietary software. PMID:22233606
pyam: Python Implementation of YaM
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Myint, Steven; Jain, Abhinandan
2012-01-01
pyam is a software development framework with tools for facilitating the rapid development of software in a concurrent software development environment. pyam provides solutions for development challenges associated with software reuse, managing multiple software configurations, developing software product lines, and multiple platform development and build management. pyam uses release-early, release-often development cycles to allow developers to integrate their changes incrementally into the system on a continual basis. It facilitates the creation and merging of branches to support the isolated development of immature software to avoid impacting the stability of the development effort. It uses modules and packages to organize and share software across multiple software products, and uses the concepts of link and work modules to reduce sandbox setup times even when the code-base is large. One sidebenefit is the enforcement of a strong module-level encapsulation of a module s functionality and interface. This increases design transparency, system stability, and software reuse. pyam is written in Python and is organized as a set of utilities on top of the open source SVN software version control package. All development software is organized into a collection of modules. pyam packages are defined as sub-collections of the available modules. Developers can set up private sandboxes for module/package development. All module/package development takes place on private SVN branches. High-level pyam commands support the setup, update, and release of modules and packages. Released and pre-built versions of modules are available to developers. Developers can tailor the source/link module mix for their sandboxes so that new sandboxes (even large ones) can be built up easily and quickly by pointing to pre-existing module releases. All inter-module interfaces are publicly exported via links. A minimal, but uniform, convention is used for building modules.
The 2016 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC).
Harris, Nomi L; Cock, Peter J A; Chapman, Brad; Fields, Christopher J; Hokamp, Karsten; Lapp, Hilmar; Muñoz-Torres, Monica; Wiencko, Heather
2016-01-01
Message from the ISCB: The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is a yearly meeting organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community. BOSC has been run since 2000 as a two-day Special Interest Group (SIG) before the annual ISMB conference. The 17th annual BOSC ( http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2016) took place in Orlando, Florida in July 2016. As in previous years, the conference was preceded by a two-day collaborative coding event open to the bioinformatics community. The conference brought together nearly 100 bioinformatics researchers, developers and users of open source software to interact and share ideas about standards, bioinformatics software development, and open and reproducible science.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van Reijswoud, Victor; Mulo, Emmanuel
2006-01-01
Over recent years the issue of free and open source software (FOSS) for development in less developed countries (LDCs) has received increasing attention. In the beginning the benefits of FOSS for lower developed countries was only stressed by small groups of idealists like Richard Stallman. Now, however, it is moving into the hands of large…
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…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lemmens, R.; Maathuis, B.; Mannaerts, C.; Foerster, T.; Schaeffer, B.; Wytzisk, A.
2009-12-01
This paper involves easy accessible integrated web-based analysis of satellite images with a plug-in based open source software. The paper is targeted to both users and developers of geospatial software. Guided by a use case scenario, we describe the ILWIS software and its toolbox to access satellite images through the GEONETCast broadcasting system. The last two decades have shown a major shift from stand-alone software systems to networked ones, often client/server applications using distributed geo-(web-)services. This allows organisations to combine without much effort their own data with remotely available data and processing functionality. Key to this integrated spatial data analysis is a low-cost access to data from within a user-friendly and flexible software. Web-based open source software solutions are more often a powerful option for developing countries. The Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) is a PC-based GIS & Remote Sensing software, comprising a complete package of image processing, spatial analysis and digital mapping and was developed as commercial software from the early nineties onwards. Recent project efforts have migrated ILWIS into a modular, plug-in-based open source software, and provide web-service support for OGC-based web mapping and processing. The core objective of the ILWIS Open source project is to provide a maintainable framework for researchers and software developers to implement training components, scientific toolboxes and (web-) services. The latest plug-ins have been developed for multi-criteria decision making, water resources analysis and spatial statistics analysis. The development of this framework is done since 2007 in the context of 52°North, which is an open initiative that advances the development of cutting edge open source geospatial software, using the GPL license. GEONETCast, as part of the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), puts essential environmental data at the fingertips of users around the globe. This user-friendly and low-cost information dissemination provides global information as a basis for decision-making in a number of critical areas, including public health, energy, agriculture, weather, water, climate, natural disasters and ecosystems. GEONETCast makes available satellite images via Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) technology. An OGC WMS interface and plug-ins which convert GEONETCast data streams allow an ILWIS user to integrate various distributed data sources with data locally stored on his machine. Our paper describes a use case in which ILWIS is used with GEONETCast satellite imagery for decision making processes in Ghana. We also explain how the ILWIS software can be extended with additional functionality by means of building plug-ins and unfold our plans to implement other OGC standards, such as WCS and WPS in the same context. Especially, the latter one can be seen as a major step forward in terms of moving well-proven desktop based processing functionality to the web. This enables the embedding of ILWIS functionality in Spatial Data Infrastructures or even the execution in scalable and on-demand cloud computing environments.
The open-source movement: an introduction for forestry professionals
Patrick Proctor; Paul C. Van Deusen; Linda S. Heath; Jeffrey H. Gove
2005-01-01
In recent years, the open-source movement has yielded a generous and powerful suite of software and utilities that rivals those developed by many commercial software companies. Open-source programs are available for many scientific needs: operating systems, databases, statistical analysis, Geographic Information System applications, and object-oriented programming....
Katzman, G L; Morris, D; Lauman, J; Cochella, C; Goede, P; Harnsberger, H R
2001-06-01
To foster a community supported evaluation processes for open-source digital teaching file (DTF) development and maintenance. The mechanisms used to support this process will include standard web browsers, web servers, forum software, and custom additions to the forum software to potentially enable a mediated voting protocol. The web server will also serve as a focal point for beta and release software distribution, which is the desired end-goal of this process. We foresee that www.mdtf.org will provide for widespread distribution of open source DTF software that will include function and interface design decisions from community participation on the website forums.
Develop Direct Geo-referencing System Based on Open Source Software and Hardware Platform
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Liu, H. S.; Liao, H. M.
2015-08-01
Direct geo-referencing system uses the technology of remote sensing to quickly grasp images, GPS tracks, and camera position. These data allows the construction of large volumes of images with geographic coordinates. So that users can be measured directly on the images. In order to properly calculate positioning, all the sensor signals must be synchronized. Traditional aerial photography use Position and Orientation System (POS) to integrate image, coordinates and camera position. However, it is very expensive. And users could not use the result immediately because the position information does not embed into image. To considerations of economy and efficiency, this study aims to develop a direct geo-referencing system based on open source software and hardware platform. After using Arduino microcontroller board to integrate the signals, we then can calculate positioning with open source software OpenCV. In the end, we use open source panorama browser, panini, and integrate all these to open source GIS software, Quantum GIS. A wholesome collection of data - a data processing system could be constructed.
Note: Tormenta: An open source Python-powered control software for camera based optical microscopy.
Barabas, Federico M; Masullo, Luciano A; Stefani, Fernando D
2016-12-01
Until recently, PC control and synchronization of scientific instruments was only possible through closed-source expensive frameworks like National Instruments' LabVIEW. Nowadays, efficient cost-free alternatives are available in the context of a continuously growing community of open-source software developers. Here, we report on Tormenta, a modular open-source software for the control of camera-based optical microscopes. Tormenta is built on Python, works on multiple operating systems, and includes some key features for fluorescence nanoscopy based on single molecule localization.
Note: Tormenta: An open source Python-powered control software for camera based optical microscopy
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Barabas, Federico M.; Masullo, Luciano A.; Stefani, Fernando D.
2016-12-01
Until recently, PC control and synchronization of scientific instruments was only possible through closed-source expensive frameworks like National Instruments' LabVIEW. Nowadays, efficient cost-free alternatives are available in the context of a continuously growing community of open-source software developers. Here, we report on Tormenta, a modular open-source software for the control of camera-based optical microscopes. Tormenta is built on Python, works on multiple operating systems, and includes some key features for fluorescence nanoscopy based on single molecule localization.
The 2016 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC)
Harris, Nomi L.; Cock, Peter J.A.; Chapman, Brad; Fields, Christopher J.; Hokamp, Karsten; Lapp, Hilmar; Muñoz-Torres, Monica; Wiencko, Heather
2016-01-01
Message from the ISCB: The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is a yearly meeting organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community. BOSC has been run since 2000 as a two-day Special Interest Group (SIG) before the annual ISMB conference. The 17th annual BOSC ( http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2016) took place in Orlando, Florida in July 2016. As in previous years, the conference was preceded by a two-day collaborative coding event open to the bioinformatics community. The conference brought together nearly 100 bioinformatics researchers, developers and users of open source software to interact and share ideas about standards, bioinformatics software development, and open and reproducible science. PMID:27781083
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hasan, B.; Hasbullah; Purnama, W.; Hery, A.
2016-04-01
Creative industry development areas of software by using Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is expected to be one of the solutions to foster new entrepreneurs of the students who can open job opportunities and contribute to economic development in Indonesia. This study aims to create entrepreneurial coaching model based on the creative industries by utilizing FOSS software field as well as provide understanding and fostering entrepreneurial creative industries based field software for students of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. This activity phase begins with identifying entrepreneurs or business software technology that will be developed, training and mentoring, apprenticeship process at industrial partners, creation of business plans and monitoring and evaluation. This activity involves 30 UPI student which has the motivation to self-employment and have competence in the field of information technology. The results and outcomes expected from these activities is the birth of a number of new entrepreneurs from the students engaged in the software industry both software in the world of commerce (e-commerce) and education/learning (e-learning/LMS) and games.
Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT): a new open-source player in the drug discovery field.
Wójcikowski, Maciej; Zielenkiewicz, Piotr; Siedlecki, Pawel
2015-01-01
There has been huge progress in the open cheminformatics field in both methods and software development. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to unite those methods and software into one package. We here describe the Open Drug Discovery Toolkit (ODDT), which aims to fulfill the need for comprehensive and open source drug discovery software. The Open Drug Discovery Toolkit was developed as a free and open source tool for both computer aided drug discovery (CADD) developers and researchers. ODDT reimplements many state-of-the-art methods, such as machine learning scoring functions (RF-Score and NNScore) and wraps other external software to ease the process of developing CADD pipelines. ODDT is an out-of-the-box solution designed to be easily customizable and extensible. Therefore, users are strongly encouraged to extend it and develop new methods. We here present three use cases for ODDT in common tasks in computer-aided drug discovery. Open Drug Discovery Toolkit is released on a permissive 3-clause BSD license for both academic and industrial use. ODDT's source code, additional examples and documentation are available on GitHub (https://github.com/oddt/oddt).
Integrating HCI Specialists into Open Source Software Development Projects
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hedberg, Henrik; Iivari, Netta
Typical open source software (OSS) development projects are organized around technically talented developers, whose communication is based on technical aspects and source code. Decision-making power is gained through proven competence and activity in the project, and non-technical end-user opinions are too many times neglected. In addition, also human-computer interaction (HCI) specialists have encountered difficulties in trying to participate in OSS projects, because there seems to be no clear authority and responsibility for them. In this paper, based on HCI and OSS literature, we introduce an extended OSS development project organization model that adds a new level of communication and roles for attending human aspects of software. The proposed model makes the existence of HCI specialists visible in the projects, and promotes interaction between developers and the HCI specialists in the course of a project.
Developing Open Source Software To Advance High End Computing. Report to the President.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development, Arlington, VA.
This is part of a series of reports to the President and Congress developed by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) on key contemporary issues in information technology. This report defines open source software, explains PITAC's interest in this model, describes the process used to investigate issues in open source…
Open Source, Openness, and Higher Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wiley, David
2006-01-01
In this article David Wiley provides an overview of how the general expansion of open source software has affected the world of education in particular. In doing so, Wiley not only addresses the development of open source software applications for teachers and administrators, he also discusses how the fundamental philosophy of the open source…
48 CFR 208.7401 - Definitions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... OF DEFENSE ACQUISITION PLANNING REQUIRED SOURCES OF SUPPLIES AND SERVICES Enterprise Software... a contract that is used to acquire designated commercial software or related services such as... Officer to develop processes for DoD-wide software asset management. Software maintenance means services...
The discounting model selector: Statistical software for delay discounting applications.
Gilroy, Shawn P; Franck, Christopher T; Hantula, Donald A
2017-05-01
Original, open-source computer software was developed and validated against established delay discounting methods in the literature. The software executed approximate Bayesian model selection methods from user-supplied temporal discounting data and computed the effective delay 50 (ED50) from the best performing model. Software was custom-designed to enable behavior analysts to conveniently apply recent statistical methods to temporal discounting data with the aid of a graphical user interface (GUI). The results of independent validation of the approximate Bayesian model selection methods indicated that the program provided results identical to that of the original source paper and its methods. Monte Carlo simulation (n = 50,000) confirmed that true model was selected most often in each setting. Simulation code and data for this study were posted to an online repository for use by other researchers. The model selection approach was applied to three existing delay discounting data sets from the literature in addition to the data from the source paper. Comparisons of model selected ED50 were consistent with traditional indices of discounting. Conceptual issues related to the development and use of computer software by behavior analysts and the opportunities afforded by free and open-sourced software are discussed and a review of possible expansions of this software are provided. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
Modular Filter and Source-Management Upgrade of RADAC
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Lanzi, R. James; Smith, Donna C.
2007-01-01
In an upgrade of the Range Data Acquisition Computer (RADAC) software, a modular software object library was developed to implement required functionality for filtering of flight-vehicle-tracking data and management of tracking-data sources. (The RADAC software is used to process flight-vehicle metric data for realtime display in the Wallops Flight Facility Range Control Center and Mobile Control Center.)
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.
75 FR 10439 - Cognitive Radio Technologies and Software Defined Radios
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-03-08
... Technologies and Software Defined Radios AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY... concerning the use of open source software to implement security features in software defined radios (SDRs... ongoing technical developments in cognitive and software defined radio (SDR) technologies. 2. On April 20...
Open source electronic health record and patient data management system for intensive care.
Massaut, Jacques; Reper, Pascal
2008-01-01
In Intensive Care Units, the amount of data to be processed for patients care, the turn over of the patients, the necessity for reliability and for review processes indicate the use of Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) and electronic health records (EHR). To respond to the needs of an Intensive Care Unit and not to be locked with proprietary software, we developed a PDMS and EHR based on open source software and components. The software was designed as a client-server architecture running on the Linux operating system and powered by the PostgreSQL data base system. The client software was developed in C using GTK interface library. The application offers to the users the following functions: medical notes captures, observations and treatments, nursing charts with administration of medications, scoring systems for classification, and possibilities to encode medical activities for billing processes. Since his deployment in February 2004, the PDMS was used to care more than three thousands patients with the expected software reliability and facilitated data management and review processes. Communications with other medical software were not developed from the start, and are realized by the use of the Mirth HL7 communication engine. Further upgrade of the system will include multi-platform support, use of typed language with static analysis, and configurable interface. The developed system based on open source software components was able to respond to the medical needs of the local ICU environment. The use of OSS for development allowed us to customize the software to the preexisting organization and contributed to the acceptability of the whole system.
Open Source software and social networks: disruptive alternatives for medical imaging.
Ratib, Osman; Rosset, Antoine; Heuberger, Joris
2011-05-01
In recent decades several major changes in computer and communication technology have pushed the limits of imaging informatics and PACS beyond the traditional system architecture providing new perspectives and innovative approach to a traditionally conservative medical community. Disruptive technologies such as the world-wide-web, wireless networking, Open Source software and recent emergence of cyber communities and social networks have imposed an accelerated pace and major quantum leaps in the progress of computer and technology infrastructure applicable to medical imaging applications. This paper reviews the impact and potential benefits of two major trends in consumer market software development and how they will influence the future of medical imaging informatics. Open Source software is emerging as an attractive and cost effective alternative to traditional commercial software developments and collaborative social networks provide a new model of communication that is better suited to the needs of the medical community. Evidence shows that successful Open Source software tools have penetrated the medical market and have proven to be more robust and cost effective than their commercial counterparts. Developed by developers that are themselves part of the user community, these tools are usually better adapted to the user's need and are more robust than traditional software programs being developed and tested by a large number of contributing users. This context allows a much faster and more appropriate development and evolution of the software platforms. Similarly, communication technology has opened up to the general public in a way that has changed the social behavior and habits adding a new dimension to the way people communicate and interact with each other. The new paradigms have also slowly penetrated the professional market and ultimately the medical community. Secure social networks allowing groups of people to easily communicate and exchange information is a new model that is particularly suitable for some specific groups of healthcare professional and for physicians. It has also changed the expectations of how patients wish to communicate with their physicians. Emerging disruptive technologies and innovative paradigm such as Open Source software are leading the way to a new generation of information systems that slowly will change the way physicians and healthcare providers as well as patients will interact and communicate in the future. The impact of these new technologies is particularly effective in image communication, PACS and teleradiology. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Busby, Ben; Lesko, Matthew; Federer, Lisa
2016-01-01
In genomics, bioinformatics and other areas of data science, gaps exist between extant public datasets and the open-source software tools built by the community to analyze similar data types. The purpose of biological data science hackathons is to assemble groups of genomics or bioinformatics professionals and software developers to rapidly prototype software to address these gaps. The only two rules for the NCBI-assisted hackathons run so far are that 1) data either must be housed in public data repositories or be deposited to such repositories shortly after the hackathon's conclusion, and 2) all software comprising the final pipeline must be open-source or open-use. Proposed topics, as well as suggested tools and approaches, are distributed to participants at the beginning of each hackathon and refined during the event. Software, scripts, and pipelines are developed and published on GitHub, a web service providing publicly available, free-usage tiers for collaborative software development. The code resulting from each hackathon is published at https://github.com/NCBI-Hackathons/ with separate directories or repositories for each team.
The image-guided surgery toolkit IGSTK: an open source C++ software toolkit.
Enquobahrie, Andinet; Cheng, Patrick; Gary, Kevin; Ibanez, Luis; Gobbi, David; Lindseth, Frank; Yaniv, Ziv; Aylward, Stephen; Jomier, Julien; Cleary, Kevin
2007-11-01
This paper presents an overview of the image-guided surgery toolkit (IGSTK). IGSTK is an open source C++ software library that provides the basic components needed to develop image-guided surgery applications. It is intended for fast prototyping and development of image-guided surgery applications. The toolkit was developed through a collaboration between academic and industry partners. Because IGSTK was designed for safety-critical applications, the development team has adopted lightweight software processes that emphasizes safety and robustness while, at the same time, supporting geographically separated developers. A software process that is philosophically similar to agile software methods was adopted emphasizing iterative, incremental, and test-driven development principles. The guiding principle in the architecture design of IGSTK is patient safety. The IGSTK team implemented a component-based architecture and used state machine software design methodologies to improve the reliability and safety of the components. Every IGSTK component has a well-defined set of features that are governed by state machines. The state machine ensures that the component is always in a valid state and that all state transitions are valid and meaningful. Realizing that the continued success and viability of an open source toolkit depends on a strong user community, the IGSTK team is following several key strategies to build an active user community. These include maintaining a users and developers' mailing list, providing documentation (application programming interface reference document and book), presenting demonstration applications, and delivering tutorial sessions at relevant scientific conferences.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vlas, Radu Eduard
2012-01-01
Open source projects do have requirements; they are, however, mostly informal, text descriptions found in requests, forums, and other correspondence. Understanding such requirements provides insight into the nature of open source projects. Unfortunately, manual analysis of natural language requirements is time-consuming, and for large projects,…
Building CHAOS: An Operating System for Livermore Linux Clusters
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Garlick, J E; Dunlap, C M
2003-02-21
The Livermore Computing (LC) Linux Integration and Development Project (the Linux Project) produces and supports the Clustered High Availability Operating System (CHAOS), a cluster operating environment based on Red Hat Linux. Each CHAOS release begins with a set of requirements and ends with a formally tested, packaged, and documented release suitable for use on LC's production Linux clusters. One characteristic of CHAOS is that component software packages come from different sources under varying degrees of project control. Some are developed by the Linux Project, some are developed by other LC projects, some are external open source projects, and some aremore » commercial software packages. A challenge to the Linux Project is to adhere to release schedules and testing disciplines in a diverse, highly decentralized development environment. Communication channels are maintained for externally developed packages in order to obtain support, influence development decisions, and coordinate/understand release schedules. The Linux Project embraces open source by releasing locally developed packages under open source license, by collaborating with open source projects where mutually beneficial, and by preferring open source over proprietary software. Project members generally use open source development tools. The Linux Project requires system administrators and developers to work together to resolve problems that arise in production. This tight coupling of production and development is a key strategy for making a product that directly addresses LC's production requirements. It is another challenge to balance support and development activities in such a way that one does not overwhelm the other.« less
The SCEC/UseIT Intern Program: Creating Open-Source Visualization Software Using Diverse Resources
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Francoeur, H.; Callaghan, S.; Perry, S.; Jordan, T.
2004-12-01
The Southern California Earthquake Center undergraduate IT intern program (SCEC UseIT) conducts IT research to benefit collaborative earth science research. Through this program, interns have developed real-time, interactive, 3D visualization software using open-source tools. Dubbed LA3D, a distribution of this software is now in use by the seismic community. LA3D enables the user to interactively view Southern California datasets and models of importance to earthquake scientists, such as faults, earthquakes, fault blocks, digital elevation models, and seismic hazard maps. LA3D is now being extended to support visualizations anywhere on the planet. The new software, called SCEC-VIDEO (Virtual Interactive Display of Earth Objects), makes use of a modular, plugin-based software architecture which supports easy development and integration of new data sets. Currently SCEC-VIDEO is in beta testing, with a full open-source release slated for the future. Both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO were developed using a wide variety of software technologies. These, which included relational databases, web services, software management technologies, and 3-D graphics in Java, were necessary to integrate the heterogeneous array of data sources which comprise our software. Currently the interns are working to integrate new technologies and larger data sets to increase software functionality and value. In addition, both LA3D and SCEC-VIDEO allow the user to script and create movies. Thus program interns with computer science backgrounds have been writing software while interns with other interests, such as cinema, geology, and education, have been making movies that have proved of great use in scientific talks, media interviews, and education. Thus, SCEC UseIT incorporates a wide variety of scientific and human resources to create products of value to the scientific and outreach communities. The program plans to continue with its interdisciplinary approach, increasing the relevance of the software and expanding its use in the scientific community.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Daniell, James; Simpson, Alanna; Gunasekara, Rashmin; Baca, Abigail; Schaefer, Andreas; Ishizawa, Oscar; Murnane, Rick; Tijssen, Annegien; Deparday, Vivien; Forni, Marc; Himmelfarb, Anne; Leder, Jan
2015-04-01
Over the past few decades, a plethora of open access software packages for the calculation of earthquake, volcanic, tsunami, storm surge, wind and flood have been produced globally. As part of the World Bank GFDRR Review released at the Understanding Risk 2014 Conference, over 80 such open access risk assessment software packages were examined. Commercial software was not considered in the evaluation. A preliminary analysis was used to determine whether the 80 models were currently supported and if they were open access. This process was used to select a subset of 31 models that include 8 earthquake models, 4 cyclone models, 11 flood models, and 8 storm surge/tsunami models for more detailed analysis. By using multi-criteria analysis (MCDA) and simple descriptions of the software uses, the review allows users to select a few relevant software packages for their own testing and development. The detailed analysis evaluated the models on the basis of over 100 criteria and provides a synopsis of available open access natural hazard risk modelling tools. In addition, volcano software packages have since been added making the compendium of risk software tools in excess of 100. There has been a huge increase in the quality and availability of open access/source software over the past few years. For example, private entities such as Deltares now have an open source policy regarding some flood models (NGHS). In addition, leaders in developing risk models in the public sector, such as Geoscience Australia (EQRM, TCRM, TsuDAT, AnuGA) or CAPRA (ERN-Flood, Hurricane, CRISIS2007 etc.), are launching and/or helping many other initiatives. As we achieve greater interoperability between modelling tools, we will also achieve a future wherein different open source and open access modelling tools will be increasingly connected and adapted towards unified multi-risk model platforms and highly customised solutions. It was seen that many software tools could be improved by enabling user-defined exposure and vulnerability. Without this function, many tools can only be used regionally and not at global or continental scale. It is becoming increasingly easy to use multiple packages for a single region and/or hazard to characterize the uncertainty in the risk, or use as checks for the sensitivities in the analysis. There is a potential for valuable synergy between existing software. A number of open source software packages could be combined to generate a multi-risk model with multiple views of a hazard. This extensive review has simply attempted to provide a platform for dialogue between all open source and open access software packages and to hopefully inspire collaboration between developers, given the great work done by all open access and open source developers.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Barlow, P. M.; Filali-Meknassi, Y.; Sanford, W. E.; Winston, R. B.; Kuniansky, E.; Dawson, C.
2015-12-01
UNESCO's HOPE Initiative—the Hydro Free and (or) Open-source Platform of Experts—was launched in June 2013 as part of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme. The Initiative arose in response to a recognized need to make free and (or) open-source water-resources software more widely accessible to Africa's water sector. A kit of software is being developed to provide African water authorities, teachers, university lecturers, and researchers with a set of programs that can be enhanced and (or) applied to the development of efficient and sustainable management strategies for Africa's water resources. The Initiative brings together experts from the many fields of water resources to identify software that might be included in the kit, to oversee an objective process for selecting software for the kit, and to engage in training and other modes of capacity building to enhance dissemination of the software. To date, teams of experts from the fields of wastewater treatment, groundwater hydrology, surface-water hydrology, and data management have been formed to identify relevant software from their respective fields. An initial version of the HOPE Software Kit was released in late August 2014 and consists of the STOAT model for wastewater treatment developed by the Water Research Center (United Kingdom) and the MODFLOW-2005 model for groundwater-flow simulation developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Kit is available on the UNESCO HOPE website (http://www.hope-initiative.net/).Training in the theory and use of MODFLOW-2005 is planned in southern Africa in conjunction with UNESCO's study of the Kalahari-Karoo/Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer, which extends over an area that includes parts of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, and in support of the European Commission's Horizon 2020 FREEWAT project (FREE and open source software tools for WATer resource management; see the UNESCO HOPE website).
PySE: Software for extracting sources from radio images
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Carbone, D.; Garsden, H.; Spreeuw, H.; Swinbank, J. D.; van der Horst, A. J.; Rowlinson, A.; Broderick, J. W.; Rol, E.; Law, C.; Molenaar, G.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.
2018-04-01
PySE is a Python software package for finding and measuring sources in radio telescope images. The software was designed to detect sources in the LOFAR telescope images, but can be used with images from other radio telescopes as well. We introduce the LOFAR Telescope, the context within which PySE was developed, the design of PySE, and describe how it is used. Detailed experiments on the validation and testing of PySE are then presented, along with results of performance testing. We discuss some of the current issues with the algorithms implemented in PySE and their interaction with LOFAR images, concluding with the current status of PySE and its future development.
Guidance and Control Software Project Data - Volume 2: Development Documents
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hayhurst, Kelly J. (Editor)
2008-01-01
The Guidance and Control Software (GCS) project was the last in a series of software reliability studies conducted at Langley Research Center between 1977 and 1994. The technical results of the GCS project were recorded after the experiment was completed. Some of the support documentation produced as part of the experiment, however, is serving an unexpected role far beyond its original project context. Some of the software used as part of the GCS project was developed to conform to the RTCA/DO-178B software standard, "Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification," used in the civil aviation industry. That standard requires extensive documentation throughout the software development life cycle, including plans, software requirements, design and source code, verification cases and results, and configuration management and quality control data. The project documentation that includes this information is open for public scrutiny without the legal or safety implications associated with comparable data from an avionics manufacturer. This public availability has afforded an opportunity to use the GCS project documents for DO-178B training. This report provides a brief overview of the GCS project, describes the 4-volume set of documents and the role they are playing in training, and includes the development documents from the GCS project. Volume 2 contains three appendices: A. Guidance and Control Software Development Specification; B. Design Description for the Pluto Implementation of the Guidance and Control Software; and C. Source Code for the Pluto Implementation of the Guidance and Control Software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ames, D. P.
2013-12-01
As has been seen in other informatics fields, well-documented and appropriately licensed open source software tools have the potential to significantly increase both opportunities and motivation for inter-institutional science and technology collaboration. The CUAHSI HIS (and related HydroShare) projects have aimed to foster such activities in hydrology resulting in the development of many useful community software components including the HydroDesktop software application. HydroDesktop is an open source, GIS-based, scriptable software application for discovering data on the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System and related resources. It includes a well-defined plugin architecture and interface to allow 3rd party developers to create extensions and add new functionality without requiring recompiling of the full source code. HydroDesktop is built in the C# programming language and uses the open source DotSpatial GIS engine for spatial data management. Capabilities include data search, discovery, download, visualization, and export. An extension that integrates the R programming language with HydroDesktop provides scripting and data automation capabilities and an OpenMI plugin provides the ability to link models. Current revision and updates to HydroDesktop include migration of core business logic to cross platform, scriptable Python code modules that can be executed in any operating system or linked into other software front-end applications.
AKM in Open Source Communities
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Stamelos, Ioannis; Kakarontzas, George
Previous chapters in this book have dealt with Architecture Knowledge Management in traditional Closed Source Software (CSS) projects. This chapterwill attempt to examine the ways that knowledge is shared among participants in Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS 1) projects and how architectural knowledge is managed w.r.t. CSS. FLOSS projects are organized and developed in a fundamentally different way than CSS projects. FLOSS projects simply do not develop code as CSS projects do. As a consequence, their knowledge management mechanisms are also based on different concepts and tools.
Open source software to control Bioflo bioreactors.
Burdge, David A; Libourel, Igor G L
2014-01-01
Bioreactors are designed to support highly controlled environments for growth of tissues, cell cultures or microbial cultures. A variety of bioreactors are commercially available, often including sophisticated software to enhance the functionality of the bioreactor. However, experiments that the bioreactor hardware can support, but that were not envisioned during the software design cannot be performed without developing custom software. In addition, support for third party or custom designed auxiliary hardware is often sparse or absent. This work presents flexible open source freeware for the control of bioreactors of the Bioflo product family. The functionality of the software includes setpoint control, data logging, and protocol execution. Auxiliary hardware can be easily integrated and controlled through an integrated plugin interface without altering existing software. Simple experimental protocols can be entered as a CSV scripting file, and a Python-based protocol execution model is included for more demanding conditional experimental control. The software was designed to be a more flexible and free open source alternative to the commercially available solution. The source code and various auxiliary hardware plugins are publicly available for download from https://github.com/LibourelLab/BiofloSoftware. In addition to the source code, the software was compiled and packaged as a self-installing file for 32 and 64 bit windows operating systems. The compiled software will be able to control a Bioflo system, and will not require the installation of LabVIEW.
Open Source Software to Control Bioflo Bioreactors
Burdge, David A.; Libourel, Igor G. L.
2014-01-01
Bioreactors are designed to support highly controlled environments for growth of tissues, cell cultures or microbial cultures. A variety of bioreactors are commercially available, often including sophisticated software to enhance the functionality of the bioreactor. However, experiments that the bioreactor hardware can support, but that were not envisioned during the software design cannot be performed without developing custom software. In addition, support for third party or custom designed auxiliary hardware is often sparse or absent. This work presents flexible open source freeware for the control of bioreactors of the Bioflo product family. The functionality of the software includes setpoint control, data logging, and protocol execution. Auxiliary hardware can be easily integrated and controlled through an integrated plugin interface without altering existing software. Simple experimental protocols can be entered as a CSV scripting file, and a Python-based protocol execution model is included for more demanding conditional experimental control. The software was designed to be a more flexible and free open source alternative to the commercially available solution. The source code and various auxiliary hardware plugins are publicly available for download from https://github.com/LibourelLab/BiofloSoftware. In addition to the source code, the software was compiled and packaged as a self-installing file for 32 and 64 bit windows operating systems. The compiled software will be able to control a Bioflo system, and will not require the installation of LabVIEW. PMID:24667828
Tracking Clouds with low cost GNSS chips aided by the Arduino platform
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hameed, Saji; Realini, Eugenio; Ishida, Shinya
2016-04-01
The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a constellation of satellites that is used to provide geo-positioning services. Besides this application, the GNSS system is important for a wide range of scientific and civilian applications. For example, GNSS systems are routinely used in civilian applications such as surveying and scientific applications such as the study of crustal deformation. Another important scientific application of GNSS system is in meteorological research. Here it is mainly used to determine the total water vapour content of the troposphere, hereafter Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV). However, both GNSS receivers and software have prohibitively high price due to a variety of reasons. To overcome this somewhat artificial barrier we are exploring the use of low-cost GNSS receivers along with open source GNSS software for scientific research, in particular for GNSS meteorology research. To achieve this aim, we have developed a custom Arduino compatible data logging board that is able to operate together with a specific low-cost single frequency GNSS receiver chip from NVS Technologies AG. We have also developed an open-source software bundle that includes a new Arduino core for the Atmel324p chip, which is the main processor used in our custom logger. We have also developed software code that enables data collection, logging and parsing of the GNSS data stream. Additionally we have comprehensively evaluated the low power characteristics of the GNSS receiver and logger boards. Currently we are exploring the use of several openly source or free to use for research software to map GNSS delays to PWV. These include the open source goGPS (http://www.gogps-project.org/) and gLAB (http://gage.upc.edu/gLAB) and the openly available GAMIT software from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We note that all the firmware and software developed as part of this project is available on an open source license.
An approach to a real-time distribution system
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Kittle, Frank P., Jr.; Paddock, Eddie J.; Pocklington, Tony; Wang, Lui
1990-01-01
The requirements of a real-time data distribution system are to provide fast, reliable delivery of data from source to destination with little or no impact to the data source. In this particular case, the data sources are inside an operational environment, the Mission Control Center (MCC), and any workstation receiving data directly from the operational computer must conform to the software standards of the MCC. In order to supply data to development workstations outside of the MCC, it is necessary to use gateway computers that prevent unauthorized data transfer back to the operational computers. Many software programs produced on the development workstations are targeted for real-time operation. Therefore, these programs must migrate from the development workstation to the operational workstation. It is yet another requirement for the Data Distribution System to ensure smooth transition of the data interfaces for the application developers. A standard data interface model has already been set up for the operational environment, so the interface between the distribution system and the application software was developed to match that model as closely as possible. The system as a whole therefore allows the rapid development of real-time applications without impacting the data sources. In summary, this approach to a real-time data distribution system provides development users outside of the MCC with an interface to MCC real-time data sources. In addition, the data interface was developed with a flexible and portable software design. This design allows for the smooth transition of new real-time applications to the MCC operational environment.
A Flexible Method for Producing F.E.M. Analysis of Bone Using Open-Source Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Boppana, Abhishektha; Sefcik, Ryan; Meyers, Jerry G.; Lewandowski, Beth E.
2016-01-01
This project, performed in support of the NASA GRC Space Academy summer program, sought to develop an open-source workflow methodology that segmented medical image data, created a 3D model from the segmented data, and prepared the model for finite-element analysis. In an initial step, a technological survey evaluated the performance of various existing open-source software that claim to perform these tasks. However, the survey concluded that no single software exhibited the wide array of functionality required for the potential NASA application in the area of bone, muscle and bio fluidic studies. As a result, development of a series of Python scripts provided the bridging mechanism to address the shortcomings of the available open source tools. The implementation of the VTK library provided the most quick and effective means of segmenting regions of interest from the medical images; it allowed for the export of a 3D model by using the marching cubes algorithm to build a surface mesh. To facilitate the development of the model domain from this extracted information required a surface mesh to be processed in the open-source software packages Blender and Gmsh. The Preview program of the FEBio suite proved to be sufficient for volume filling the model with an unstructured mesh and preparing boundaries specifications for finite element analysis. To fully allow FEM modeling, an in house developed Python script allowed assignment of material properties on an element by element basis by performing a weighted interpolation of voxel intensity of the parent medical image correlated to published information of image intensity to material properties, such as ash density. A graphical user interface combined the Python scripts and other software into a user friendly interface. The work using Python scripts provides a potential alternative to expensive commercial software and inadequate, limited open-source freeware programs for the creation of 3D computational models. More work will be needed to validate this approach in creating finite-element models.
Open source tools and toolkits for bioinformatics: significance, and where are we?
Stajich, Jason E; Lapp, Hilmar
2006-09-01
This review summarizes important work in open-source bioinformatics software that has occurred over the past couple of years. The survey is intended to illustrate how programs and toolkits whose source code has been developed or released under an Open Source license have changed informatics-heavy areas of life science research. Rather than creating a comprehensive list of all tools developed over the last 2-3 years, we use a few selected projects encompassing toolkit libraries, analysis tools, data analysis environments and interoperability standards to show how freely available and modifiable open-source software can serve as the foundation for building important applications, analysis workflows and resources.
PD5: a general purpose library for primer design software.
Riley, Michael C; Aubrey, Wayne; Young, Michael; Clare, Amanda
2013-01-01
Complex PCR applications for large genome-scale projects require fast, reliable and often highly sophisticated primer design software applications. Presently, such applications use pipelining methods to utilise many third party applications and this involves file parsing, interfacing and data conversion, which is slow and prone to error. A fully integrated suite of software tools for primer design would considerably improve the development time, the processing speed, and the reliability of bespoke primer design software applications. The PD5 software library is an open-source collection of classes and utilities, providing a complete collection of software building blocks for primer design and analysis. It is written in object-oriented C(++) with an emphasis on classes suitable for efficient and rapid development of bespoke primer design programs. The modular design of the software library simplifies the development of specific applications and also integration with existing third party software where necessary. We demonstrate several applications created using this software library that have already proved to be effective, but we view the project as a dynamic environment for building primer design software and it is open for future development by the bioinformatics community. Therefore, the PD5 software library is published under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which guarantee access to source-code and allow redistribution and modification. The PD5 software library is downloadable from Google Code and the accompanying Wiki includes instructions and examples: http://code.google.com/p/primer-design.
Kalpathy-Cramer, Jayashree; Awan, Musaddiq; Bedrick, Steven; Rasch, Coen R N; Rosenthal, David I; Fuller, Clifton D
2014-02-01
Modern radiotherapy requires accurate region of interest (ROI) inputs for plan optimization and delivery. Target delineation, however, remains operator-dependent and potentially serves as a major source of treatment delivery error. In order to optimize this critical, yet observer-driven process, a flexible web-based platform for individual and cooperative target delineation analysis and instruction was developed in order to meet the following unmet needs: (1) an open-source/open-access platform for automated/semiautomated quantitative interobserver and intraobserver ROI analysis and comparison, (2) a real-time interface for radiation oncology trainee online self-education in ROI definition, and (3) a source for pilot data to develop and validate quality metrics for institutional and cooperative group quality assurance efforts. The resultant software, Target Contour Testing/Instructional Computer Software (TaCTICS), developed using Ruby on Rails, has since been implemented and proven flexible, feasible, and useful in several distinct analytical and research applications.
Microcomputer software development facilities
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Gorman, J. S.; Mathiasen, C.
1980-01-01
A more efficient and cost effective method for developing microcomputer software is to utilize a host computer with high-speed peripheral support. Application programs such as cross assemblers, loaders, and simulators are implemented in the host computer for each of the microcomputers for which software development is a requirement. The host computer is configured to operate in a time share mode for multiusers. The remote terminals, printers, and down loading capabilities provided are based on user requirements. With this configuration a user, either local or remote, can use the host computer for microcomputer software development. Once the software is developed (through the code and modular debug stage) it can be downloaded to the development system or emulator in a test area where hardware/software integration functions can proceed. The microcomputer software program sources reside in the host computer and can be edited, assembled, loaded, and then downloaded as required until the software development project has been completed.
Open Source Paradigm: A Synopsis of The Cathedral and the Bazaar for Health and Social Care.
Benson, Tim
2016-07-04
Open source software (OSS) is becoming more fashionable in health and social care, although the ideas are not new. However progress has been slower than many had expected. The purpose is to summarise the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) paradigm in terms of what it is, how it impacts users and software engineers and how it can work as a business model in health and social care sectors. Much of this paper is a synopsis of Eric Raymond's seminal book The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which was the first comprehensive description of the open source ecosystem, set out in three long essays. Direct quotes from the book are used liberally, without reference to specific passages. The first part contrasts open and closed source approaches to software development and support. The second part describes the culture and practices of the open source movement. The third part considers business models. A key benefit of open source is that users can access and collaborate on improving the software if they wish. Closed source code may be regarded as a strategic business risk that that may be unacceptable if there is an open source alternative. The sharing culture of the open source movement fits well with that of health and social care.
Hadlich, Marcelo Souza; Oliveira, Gláucia Maria Moraes; Feijóo, Raúl A; Azevedo, Clerio F; Tura, Bernardo Rangel; Ziemer, Paulo Gustavo Portela; Blanco, Pablo Javier; Pina, Gustavo; Meira, Márcio; Souza e Silva, Nelson Albuquerque de
2012-10-01
The standardization of images used in Medicine in 1993 was performed using the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard. Several tests use this standard and it is increasingly necessary to design software applications capable of handling this type of image; however, these software applications are not usually free and open-source, and this fact hinders their adjustment to most diverse interests. To develop and validate a free and open-source software application capable of handling DICOM coronary computed tomography angiography images. We developed and tested the ImageLab software in the evaluation of 100 tests randomly selected from a database. We carried out 600 tests divided between two observers using ImageLab and another software sold with Philips Brilliance computed tomography appliances in the evaluation of coronary lesions and plaques around the left main coronary artery (LMCA) and the anterior descending artery (ADA). To evaluate intraobserver, interobserver and intersoftware agreements, we used simple and kappa statistics agreements. The agreements observed between software applications were generally classified as substantial or almost perfect in most comparisons. The ImageLab software agreed with the Philips software in the evaluation of coronary computed tomography angiography tests, especially in patients without lesions, with lesions < 50% in the LMCA and < 70% in the ADA. The agreement for lesions > 70% in the ADA was lower, but this is also observed when the anatomical reference standard is used.
Busby, Ben; Lesko, Matthew; Federer, Lisa
2016-01-01
In genomics, bioinformatics and other areas of data science, gaps exist between extant public datasets and the open-source software tools built by the community to analyze similar data types. The purpose of biological data science hackathons is to assemble groups of genomics or bioinformatics professionals and software developers to rapidly prototype software to address these gaps. The only two rules for the NCBI-assisted hackathons run so far are that 1) data either must be housed in public data repositories or be deposited to such repositories shortly after the hackathon’s conclusion, and 2) all software comprising the final pipeline must be open-source or open-use. Proposed topics, as well as suggested tools and approaches, are distributed to participants at the beginning of each hackathon and refined during the event. Software, scripts, and pipelines are developed and published on GitHub, a web service providing publicly available, free-usage tiers for collaborative software development. The code resulting from each hackathon is published at https://github.com/NCBI-Hackathons/ with separate directories or repositories for each team. PMID:27134733
On Quality and Measures in Software Engineering
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bucur, Ion I.
2006-01-01
Complexity measures are mainly used to estimate vital information about reliability and maintainability of software systems from regular analysis of the source code. Such measures also provide constant feedback during a software project to assist the control of the development procedure. There exist several models to classify a software product's…
A Quantitative Analysis of Open Source Software's Acceptability as Production-Quality Code
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fischer, Michael
2011-01-01
The difficulty in writing defect-free software has been long acknowledged both by academia and industry. A constant battle occurs as developers seek to craft software that works within aggressive business schedules and deadlines. Many tools and techniques are used in attempt to manage these software projects. Software metrics are a tool that has…
Open source approaches to health information systems in Kenya.
Drury, Peter; Dahlman, Bruce
2005-01-01
This paper focuses on the experience to date of an installation of a Free Open Source Software (FOSS) product, Care2X, at a church hospital in Kenya. The FOSS movement has been maturing rapidly. In developed countries, its benefits relative to proprietary software have been extensively discussed and ways of quantifying the total costs of the development have been developed. Nevertheless, empirical data on the impact of FOSS, particularly in the developing world, concerning its use and development is still quite limited, although the possibilities of FOSS are becoming increasingly attractive.
3D reconstruction software comparison for short sequences
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Strupczewski, Adam; Czupryński, BłaŻej
2014-11-01
Large scale multiview reconstruction is recently a very popular area of research. There are many open source tools that can be downloaded and run on a personal computer. However, there are few, if any, comparisons between all the available software in terms of accuracy on small datasets that a single user can create. The typical datasets for testing of the software are archeological sites or cities, comprising thousands of images. This paper presents a comparison of currently available open source multiview reconstruction software for small datasets. It also compares the open source solutions with a simple structure from motion pipeline developed by the authors from scratch with the use of OpenCV and Eigen libraries.
2010-04-30
estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources , gathering and maintaining...previous and current complex SW development efforts, the program offices will have a source of objective lessons learned and metrics that can be applied...the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this
An approach to software cost estimation
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mcgarry, F.; Page, J.; Card, D.; Rohleder, M.; Church, V.
1984-01-01
A general procedure for software cost estimation in any environment is outlined. The basic concepts of work and effort estimation are explained, some popular resource estimation models are reviewed, and the accuracy of source estimates is discussed. A software cost prediction procedure based on the experiences of the Software Engineering Laboratory in the flight dynamics area and incorporating management expertise, cost models, and historical data is described. The sources of information and relevant parameters available during each phase of the software life cycle are identified. The methodology suggested incorporates these elements into a customized management tool for software cost prediction. Detailed guidelines for estimation in the flight dynamics environment developed using this methodology are presented.
[Example of product development by industry and research solidarity].
Seki, Masayoshi
2014-01-01
When the industrial firms develop the product, the research result from research institutions is used or to reflect the ideas from users on the developed product would be significant in order to improve the product. To state the software product which developed jointly as an example to describe the adopted development technique and its result, and to consider the modality of the industry solidarity seen from the company side and joint development. The software development methods have the merit and demerit and necessary to choose the optimal development technique by the system which develops. We have been jointly developed the dose distribution browsing software. As the software development method, we adopted the prototype model. In order to display the dose distribution information, it is necessary to load four objects which are CT-Image, Structure Set, RT-Plan, and RT-Dose, are displayed in a composite manner. The prototype model which is the development technique was adopted by this joint development was optimal especially to develop the dose distribution browsing software. In a prototype model, since the detail design was created based on the program source code after the program was finally completed, there was merit on the period shortening of document written and consist in design and implementation. This software eventually opened to the public as an open source. Based on this developed prototype software, the release version of the dose distribution browsing software was developed. Developing this type of novelty software, it normally takes two to three years, but since the joint development was adopted, it shortens the development period to one year. Shortening the development period was able to hold down to the minimum development cost for a company and thus, this will be reflected to the product price. The specialists make requests on the product from user's point of view are important, but increase in specialists as professionals for product development will increase the expectations to develop a product to meet the users demand.
Embracing Open Source for NASA's Earth Science Data Systems
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Baynes, Katie; Pilone, Dan; Boller, Ryan; Meyer, David; Murphy, Kevin
2017-01-01
The overarching purpose of NASAs Earth Science program is to develop a scientific understanding of Earth as a system. Scientific knowledge is most robust and actionable when resulting from transparent, traceable, and reproducible methods. Reproducibility includes open access to the data as well as the software used to arrive at results. Additionally, software that is custom-developed for NASA should be open to the greatest degree possible, to enable re-use across Federal agencies, reduce overall costs to the government, remove barriers to innovation, and promote consistency through the use of uniform standards. Finally, Open Source Software (OSS) practices facilitate collaboration between agencies and the private sector. To best meet these ends, NASAs Earth Science Division promotes the full and open sharing of not only all data, metadata, products, information, documentation, models, images, and research results but also the source code used to generate, manipulate and analyze them. This talk focuses on the challenges to open sourcing NASA developed software within ESD and the growing pains associated with establishing policies running the gamut of tracking issues, properly documenting build processes, engaging the open source community, maintaining internal compliance, and accepting contributions from external sources. This talk also covers the adoption of existing open source technologies and standards to enhance our custom solutions and our contributions back to the community. Finally, we will be introducing the most recent OSS contributions from NASA Earth Science program and promoting these projects for wider community review and adoption.
Digital beacon receiver for ionospheric TEC measurement developed with GNU Radio
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Yamamoto, M.
2008-11-01
A simple digital receiver named GNU Radio Beacon Receiver (GRBR) was developed for the satellite-ground beacon experiment to measure the ionospheric total electron content (TEC). The open-source software toolkit for the software defined radio, GNU Radio, is utilized to realize the basic function of the receiver and perform fast signal processing. The software is written in Python for a LINUX PC. The open-source hardware called Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), which best matches the GNU Radio, is used as a front-end to acquire the satellite beacon signals of 150 and 400 MHz. The first experiment was successful as results from GRBR showed very good agreement to those from the co-located analog beacon receiver. Detailed design information and software codes are open at the URL http://www.rish.kyoto-u.ac.jp/digitalbeacon/.
Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS): design and first-year review
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Smith, Arfon M.
2018-01-01
JOSS is a free and open-access journal that publishes articles describing research software across all disciplines. It has the dual goals of improving the quality of the software submitted and providing a mechanism for research software developers to receive credit. While designed to work within the current merit system of science, JOSS addresses the dearth of rewards for key contributions to science made in the form of software. JOSS publishes articles that encapsulate scholarship contained in the software itself, and its rigorous peer review targets the software components: functionality, documentation, tests, continuous integration, and the license. A JOSS article contains an abstract describing the purpose and functionality of the software, references, and a link to the software archive. JOSS published more than 100 articles in its first year, many from the scientific python ecosystem (including a number of articles related to astronomy and astrophysics). JOSS is a sponsored project of the nonprofit organization NumFOCUS and is an affiliate of the Open Source Initiative.In this presentation, I'll describes the motivation, design, and progress of the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) and how it compares to other avenues for publishing research software in astronomy.
The Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics as a Community of Practice
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hwang, L.; Kellogg, L. H.
2016-12-01
Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), geodynamics.org, originated in 2005 out of community recognition that the efforts of individual or small groups of researchers to develop scientifically-sound software is impossible to sustain, duplicates effort, and makes it difficult for scientists to adopt state-of-the art computational methods that promote new discovery. As a community of practice, participants in CIG share an interest in computational modeling in geodynamics and work together on open source software to build the capacity to support complex, extensible, scalable, interoperable, reliable, and reusable software in an effort to increase the return on investment in scientific software development and increase the quality of the resulting software. The group interacts regularly to learn from each other and better their practices formally through webinar series, workshops, and tutorials and informally through listservs and hackathons. Over the past decade, we have learned that successful scientific software development requires at a minimum: collaboration between domain-expert researchers, software developers and computational scientists; clearly identified and committed lead developer(s); well-defined scientific and computational goals that are regularly evaluated and updated; well-defined benchmarks and testing throughout development; attention throughout development to usability and extensibility; understanding and evaluation of the complexity of dependent libraries; and managed user expectations through education, training, and support. CIG's code donation standards provide the basis for recently formalized best practices in software development (geodynamics.org/cig/dev/best-practices/). Best practices include use of version control; widely used, open source software libraries; extensive test suites; portable configuration and build systems; extensive documentation internal and external to the code; and structured, human readable input formats.
Open source tools for ATR development and performance evaluation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Baumann, James M.; Dilsavor, Ronald L.; Stubbles, James; Mossing, John C.
2002-07-01
Early in almost every engineering project, a decision must be made about tools; should I buy off-the-shelf tools or should I develop my own. Either choice can involve significant cost and risk. Off-the-shelf tools may be readily available, but they can be expensive to purchase and to maintain licenses, and may not be flexible enough to satisfy all project requirements. On the other hand, developing new tools permits great flexibility, but it can be time- (and budget-) consuming, and the end product still may not work as intended. Open source software has the advantages of both approaches without many of the pitfalls. This paper examines the concept of open source software, including its history, unique culture, and informal yet closely followed conventions. These characteristics influence the quality and quantity of software available, and ultimately its suitability for serious ATR development work. We give an example where Python, an open source scripting language, and OpenEV, a viewing and analysis tool for geospatial data, have been incorporated into ATR performance evaluation projects. While this case highlights the successful use of open source tools, we also offer important insight into risks associated with this approach.
The GenABEL Project for statistical genomics.
Karssen, Lennart C; van Duijn, Cornelia M; Aulchenko, Yurii S
2016-01-01
Development of free/libre open source software is usually done by a community of people with an interest in the tool. For scientific software, however, this is less often the case. Most scientific software is written by only a few authors, often a student working on a thesis. Once the paper describing the tool has been published, the tool is no longer developed further and is left to its own device. Here we describe the broad, multidisciplinary community we formed around a set of tools for statistical genomics. The GenABEL project for statistical omics actively promotes open interdisciplinary development of statistical methodology and its implementation in efficient and user-friendly software under an open source licence. The software tools developed withing the project collectively make up the GenABEL suite, which currently consists of eleven tools. The open framework of the project actively encourages involvement of the community in all stages, from formulation of methodological ideas to application of software to specific data sets. A web forum is used to channel user questions and discussions, further promoting the use of the GenABEL suite. Developer discussions take place on a dedicated mailing list, and development is further supported by robust development practices including use of public version control, code review and continuous integration. Use of this open science model attracts contributions from users and developers outside the "core team", facilitating agile statistical omics methodology development and fast dissemination.
Source Lines Counter (SLiC) Version 4.0
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Monson, Erik W.; Smith, Kevin A.; Newport, Brian J.; Gostelow, Roli D.; Hihn, Jairus M.; Kandt, Ronald K.
2011-01-01
Source Lines Counter (SLiC) is a software utility designed to measure software source code size using logical source statements and other common measures for 22 of the programming languages commonly used at NASA and the aerospace industry. Such metrics can be used in a wide variety of applications, from parametric cost estimation to software defect analysis. SLiC has a variety of unique features such as automatic code search, automatic file detection, hierarchical directory totals, and spreadsheet-compatible output. SLiC was written for extensibility; new programming language support can be added with minimal effort in a short amount of time. SLiC runs on a variety of platforms including UNIX, Windows, and Mac OSX. Its straightforward command-line interface allows for customization and incorporation into the software build process for tracking development metrics. T
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Hart, William Eugene
These slides describe different strategies for installing Python software. Although I am a big fan of Python software development, robust strategies for software installation remains a challenge. This talk describes several different installation scenarios. The Good: the user has administrative privileges - Installing on Windows with an installer executable, Installing with Linux application utility, Installing a Python package from the PyPI repository, and Installing a Python package from source. The Bad: the user does not have administrative privileges - Using a virtual environment to isolate package installations, and Using an installer executable on Windows with a virtual environment. The Ugly:more » the user needs to install an extension package from source - Installing a Python extension package from source, and PyCoinInstall - Managing builds for Python extension packages. The last item referring to PyCoinInstall describes a utility being developed for the COIN-OR software, which is used within the operations research community. COIN-OR includes a variety of Python and C++ software packages, and this script uses a simple plug-in system to support the management of package builds and installation.« less
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Redmann, G. H.
1976-01-01
Recent advances in image processing and new applications are presented to the user community to stimulate the development and transfer of this technology to industrial and commercial applications. The Proceedings contains 37 papers and abstracts, including many illustrations (some in color) and provides a single reference source for the user community regarding the ordering and obtaining of NASA-developed image-processing software and science data.
OpenSQUID: A Flexible Open-Source Software Framework for the Control of SQUID Electronics
Jaeckel, Felix T.; Lafler, Randy J.; Boyd, S. T. P.
2013-02-06
We report commercially available computer-controlled SQUID electronics are usually delivered with software providing a basic user interface for adjustment of SQUID tuning parameters, such as bias current, flux offset, and feedback loop settings. However, in a research context it would often be useful to be able to modify this code and/or to have full control over all these parameters from researcher-written software. In the case of the STAR Cryoelectronics PCI/PFL family of SQUID control electronics, the supplied software contains modules for automatic tuning and noise characterization, but does not provide an interface for user code. On the other hand, themore » Magnicon SQUIDViewer software package includes a public application programming interface (API), but lacks auto-tuning and noise characterization features. To overcome these and other limitations, we are developing an "open-source" framework for controlling SQUID electronics which should provide maximal interoperability with user software, a unified user interface for electronics from different manufacturers, and a flexible platform for the rapid development of customized SQUID auto-tuning and other advanced features. Finally, we have completed a first implementation for the STAR Cryoelectronics hardware and have made the source code for this ongoing project available to the research community on SourceForge (http://opensquid.sourceforge.net) under the GNU public license.« less
Software Assurance: Five Essential Considerations for Acquisition Officials
2007-05-01
May 2007 www.stsc.hill.af.mil 17 2 • address security concerns in the software development life cycle ( SDLC )? • Are there formal software quality...What threat modeling process, if any, is used when designing the software ? What analysis, design, and construction tools are used by your software design...the-shelf (COTS), government off-the-shelf (GOTS), open- source, embedded, and legacy software . Attackers exploit unintentional vulnerabil- ities or
Technical Writing for Software Engineers
1990-05-01
Writing models 3. Analogies: Software Development and Composing 3.1 Art / Science /Design 3.2 General Correspondence Between the Disciplines 3.3...The first subsection describes a dialogue common to both fields, one that considers these disciplines as art , science , and design. The second notes...find additional similarities between software development and composing in these and other sources. 3.1 Art / Science /Design Ongoing discussions about
Technical Writing for Software Engineers
1991-11-01
3 Analogies: Software Development and Composing 3.1 Art / Science /Design 3.2 General Correspondences Between the Disciplines 3.3 Specific Analogies...domains. The first subsection describes a dialogue common to both fields, one that considers these disciplines as art , science , and design. The second...will find additional similarities between software development and composing in these and other sources. 3.1 Art / Science /Design Ongoing discussions
Transforming Aggregate Object-Oriented Formal Specifications to Code
1999-03-01
integration issues associated with a formal-based software transformation system, such as the source specification, the problem space architecture , design architecture ... design transforms, and target software transforms. Software is critical in today’s Air Force, yet its specification, design, and development
Complexity Measure for the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL)
2002-06-01
Albrecht, A. and Gaffney , J., Software Function Source Lines of Code and Development Effort Prediction, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering...Through Meausrement”; Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 77, No. 4, April 89. Schach, Stephen, R., Software Engineering, Second Edition, IRWIN, Burr Ridge
Open-Source as a strategy for operational software - the case of Enki
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kolberg, Sjur; Bruland, Oddbjørn
2014-05-01
Since 2002, SINTEF Energy has been developing what is now known as the Enki modelling system. This development has been financed by Norway's largest hydropower producer Statkraft, motivated by a desire for distributed hydrological models in operational use. As the owner of the source code, Statkraft has recently decided on Open Source as a strategy for further development, and for migration from an R&D context to operational use. A current cooperation project is currently carried out between SINTEF Energy, 7 large Norwegian hydropower producers including Statkraft, three universities and one software company. Of course, the most immediate task is that of software maturing. A more important challenge, however, is one of gaining experience within the operational hydropower industry. A transition from lumped to distributed models is likely to also require revision of measurement program, calibration strategy, use of GIS and modern data sources like weather radar and satellite imagery. On the other hand, map based visualisations enable a richer information exchange between hydrologic forecasters and power market traders. The operating context of a distributed hydrology model within hydropower planning is far from settled. Being both a modelling framework and a library of plugin-routines to build models from, Enki supports the flexibility needed in this situation. Recent development has separated the core from the user interface, paving the way for a scripting API, cross-platform compilation, and front-end programs serving different degrees of flexibility, robustness and security. The open source strategy invites anyone to use Enki and to develop and contribute new modules. Once tested, the same modules are available for the operational versions of the program. A core challenge is to offer rigid testing procedures and mechanisms to reject routines in an operational setting, without limiting the experimentation with new modules. The Open Source strategy also has implications for building and maintaining competence around the source code and the advanced hydrological and statistical routines in Enki. Originally developed by hydrologists, the Enki code is now approaching a state where maintenance requires a background in professional software development. Without the advantage of proprietary source code, both hydrologic improvements and software maintenance depend on donations or development support on a case-to-case basis, a situation well known within the open source community. It remains to see whether these mechanisms suffice to keep Enki at the maintenance level required by the hydropower sector. ENKI is available from www.opensource-enki.org.
Kajihata, Shuichi; Furusawa, Chikara; Matsuda, Fumio; Shimizu, Hiroshi
2014-01-01
The in vivo measurement of metabolic flux by (13)C-based metabolic flux analysis ((13)C-MFA) provides valuable information regarding cell physiology. Bioinformatics tools have been developed to estimate metabolic flux distributions from the results of tracer isotopic labeling experiments using a (13)C-labeled carbon source. Metabolic flux is determined by nonlinear fitting of a metabolic model to the isotopic labeling enrichment of intracellular metabolites measured by mass spectrometry. Whereas (13)C-MFA is conventionally performed under isotopically constant conditions, isotopically nonstationary (13)C metabolic flux analysis (INST-(13)C-MFA) has recently been developed for flux analysis of cells with photosynthetic activity and cells at a quasi-steady metabolic state (e.g., primary cells or microorganisms under stationary phase). Here, the development of a novel open source software for INST-(13)C-MFA on the Windows platform is reported. OpenMebius (Open source software for Metabolic flux analysis) provides the function of autogenerating metabolic models for simulating isotopic labeling enrichment from a user-defined configuration worksheet. Analysis using simulated data demonstrated the applicability of OpenMebius for INST-(13)C-MFA. Confidence intervals determined by INST-(13)C-MFA were less than those determined by conventional methods, indicating the potential of INST-(13)C-MFA for precise metabolic flux analysis. OpenMebius is the open source software for the general application of INST-(13)C-MFA.
Continuous integration for concurrent MOOSE framework and application development on GitHub
Slaughter, Andrew E.; Peterson, John W.; Gaston, Derek R.; ...
2015-11-20
For the past several years, Idaho National Laboratory’s MOOSE framework team has employed modern software engineering techniques (continuous integration, joint application/framework source code repos- itories, automated regression testing, etc.) in developing closed-source multiphysics simulation software (Gaston et al., Journal of Open Research Software vol. 2, article e10, 2014). In March 2014, the MOOSE framework was released under an open source license on GitHub, significantly expanding and diversifying the pool of current active and potential future contributors on the project. Despite this recent growth, the same philosophy of concurrent framework and application development continues to guide the project’s development roadmap. Severalmore » specific practices, including techniques for managing multiple repositories, conducting automated regression testing, and implementing a cascading build process are discussed in this short paper. Furthermore, special attention is given to describing the manner in which these practices naturally synergize with the GitHub API and GitHub-specific features such as issue tracking, Pull Requests, and project forks.« less
Continuous integration for concurrent MOOSE framework and application development on GitHub
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Slaughter, Andrew E.; Peterson, John W.; Gaston, Derek R.
For the past several years, Idaho National Laboratory’s MOOSE framework team has employed modern software engineering techniques (continuous integration, joint application/framework source code repos- itories, automated regression testing, etc.) in developing closed-source multiphysics simulation software (Gaston et al., Journal of Open Research Software vol. 2, article e10, 2014). In March 2014, the MOOSE framework was released under an open source license on GitHub, significantly expanding and diversifying the pool of current active and potential future contributors on the project. Despite this recent growth, the same philosophy of concurrent framework and application development continues to guide the project’s development roadmap. Severalmore » specific practices, including techniques for managing multiple repositories, conducting automated regression testing, and implementing a cascading build process are discussed in this short paper. Furthermore, special attention is given to describing the manner in which these practices naturally synergize with the GitHub API and GitHub-specific features such as issue tracking, Pull Requests, and project forks.« less
Wojdyla, Justyna Aleksandra; Kaminski, Jakub W; Panepucci, Ezequiel; Ebner, Simon; Wang, Xiaoqiang; Gabadinho, Jose; Wang, Meitian
2018-01-01
Data acquisition software is an essential component of modern macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines, enabling efficient use of beam time at synchrotron facilities. Developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute, the DA+ data acquisition software is implemented at all three Swiss Light Source (SLS) MX beamlines. DA+ consists of distributed services and components written in Python and Java, which communicate via messaging and streaming technologies. The major components of DA+ are the user interface, acquisition engine, online processing and database. Immediate data quality feedback is achieved with distributed automatic data analysis routines. The software architecture enables exploration of the full potential of the latest instrumentation at the SLS MX beamlines, such as the SmarGon goniometer and the EIGER X 16M detector, and development of new data collection methods.
CellProfiler and KNIME: open source tools for high content screening.
Stöter, Martin; Niederlein, Antje; Barsacchi, Rico; Meyenhofer, Felix; Brandl, Holger; Bickle, Marc
2013-01-01
High content screening (HCS) has established itself in the world of the pharmaceutical industry as an essential tool for drug discovery and drug development. HCS is currently starting to enter the academic world and might become a widely used technology. Given the diversity of problems tackled in academic research, HCS could experience some profound changes in the future, mainly with more imaging modalities and smart microscopes being developed. One of the limitations in the establishment of HCS in academia is flexibility and cost. Flexibility is important to be able to adapt the HCS setup to accommodate the multiple different assays typical of academia. Many cost factors cannot be avoided, but the costs of the software packages necessary to analyze large datasets can be reduced by using Open Source software. We present and discuss the Open Source software CellProfiler for image analysis and KNIME for data analysis and data mining that provide software solutions which increase flexibility and keep costs low.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fu, L.; West, P.; Zednik, S.; Fox, P. A.
2013-12-01
For simple portals such as vocabulary based services, which contain small amounts of data and require only hyper-textual representation, it is often an overkill to adopt the whole software stack of database, middleware and front end, or to use a general Web development framework as the starting point of development. Directly combining open source software is a much more favorable approach. However, our experience with the Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning Vocabulary (CMSPV) service portal shows that there are still issues such as system configuration and accommodating a new team member that need to be handled carefully. In this contribution, we share our experience in the context of the CMSPV portal, and focus on the tools and mechanisms we've developed to ease the configuration job and the incorporation process of new project members. We discuss the configuration issues that arise when we don't have complete control over how the software in use is configured and need to follow existing configuration styles that may not be well documented, especially when multiple pieces of such software need to work together as a combined system. As for the CMSPV portal, it is built on two pieces of open source software that are still under rapid development: a Fuseki data server and Epimorphics Linked Data API (ELDA) front end. Both lack mature documentation and tutorials. We developed comparison and labeling tools to ease the problem of system configuration. Another problem that slowed down the project is that project members came and went during the development process, so new members needed to start with a partially configured system and incomplete documentation left by old members. We developed documentation/tutorial maintenance mechanisms based on our comparison and labeling tools to make it easier for the new members to be incorporated into the project. These tools and mechanisms also provided benefit to other projects that reused the software components from the CMSPV system.
An object oriented implementation of the Yeadon human inertia model
Dembia, Christopher; Moore, Jason K.; Hubbard, Mont
2015-01-01
We present an open source software implementation of a popular mathematical method developed by M.R. Yeadon for calculating the body and segment inertia parameters of a human body. The software is written in a high level open source language and provides three interfaces for manipulating the data and the model: a Python API, a command-line user interface, and a graphical user interface. Thus the software can fit into various data processing pipelines and requires only simple geometrical measures as input. PMID:25717365
An object oriented implementation of the Yeadon human inertia model.
Dembia, Christopher; Moore, Jason K; Hubbard, Mont
2014-01-01
We present an open source software implementation of a popular mathematical method developed by M.R. Yeadon for calculating the body and segment inertia parameters of a human body. The software is written in a high level open source language and provides three interfaces for manipulating the data and the model: a Python API, a command-line user interface, and a graphical user interface. Thus the software can fit into various data processing pipelines and requires only simple geometrical measures as input.
Christopher W. Helm
2006-01-01
GLIMS is a NASA funded project that utilizes Open-Source Software to achieve its goal of creating a globally complete inventory of glaciers. The participation of many international institutions and the development of on-line mapping applications to provide access to glacial data have both been enhanced by Open-Source GIS capabilities and play a crucial role in the...
caGrid 1.0 : an enterprise Grid infrastructure for biomedical research.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Oster, S.; Langella, S.; Hastings, S.
To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. Design: An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG{trademark}) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including (1) discovery, (2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and (3) coordinated study. Measurements: The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure andmore » leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. Results: The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL:
Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG)
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gurnis, M.; Kellogg, L. H.; Bloxham, J.; Hager, B. H.; Spiegelman, M.; Willett, S.; Wysession, M. E.; Aivazis, M.
2004-12-01
Solid earth geophysicists have a long tradition of writing scientific software to address a wide range of problems. In particular, computer simulations came into wide use in geophysics during the decade after the plate tectonic revolution. Solution schemes and numerical algorithms that developed in other areas of science, most notably engineering, fluid mechanics, and physics, were adapted with considerable success to geophysics. This software has largely been the product of individual efforts and although this approach has proven successful, its strength for solving problems of interest is now starting to show its limitations as we try to share codes and algorithms or when we want to recombine codes in novel ways to produce new science. With funding from the NSF, the US community has embarked on a Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) that will develop, support, and disseminate community-accessible software for the greater geodynamics community from model developers to end-users. The software is being developed for problems involving mantle and core dynamics, crustal and earthquake dynamics, magma migration, seismology, and other related topics. With a high level of community participation, CIG is leveraging state-of-the-art scientific computing into a suite of open-source tools and codes. The infrastructure that we are now starting to develop will consist of: (a) a coordinated effort to develop reusable, well-documented and open-source geodynamics software; (b) the basic building blocks - an infrastructure layer - of software by which state-of-the-art modeling codes can be quickly assembled; (c) extension of existing software frameworks to interlink multiple codes and data through a superstructure layer; (d) strategic partnerships with the larger world of computational science and geoinformatics; and (e) specialized training and workshops for both the geodynamics and broader Earth science communities. The CIG initiative has already started to leverage and develop long-term strategic partnerships with open source development efforts within the larger thrusts of scientific computing and geoinformatics. These strategic partnerships are essential as the frontier has moved into multi-scale and multi-physics problems in which many investigators now want to use simulation software for data interpretation, data assimilation, and hypothesis testing.
Ada Software Design Methods Formulation.
1982-10-01
cycle organization is also appropriate for another reason. The source material for the case studies is the work of the two contractors who participated in... working version of the system exist. The integration phase takes the pieces developed and combines them into a single working system. Interfaces...hardware, developed separately from the software, is united with the software, and further testing is performed until the system is a working whole
The Particle-in-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Software Center
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mori, W. B.; Decyk, V. K.; Tableman, A.; Fonseca, R. A.; Tsung, F. S.; Hu, Q.; Winjum, B. J.; An, W.; Dalichaouch, T. N.; Davidson, A.; Hildebrand, L.; Joglekar, A.; May, J.; Miller, K.; Touati, M.; Xu, X. L.
2017-10-01
The UCLA Particle-in-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Software Center (PICKSC) aims to support an international community of PIC and plasma kinetic software developers, users, and educators; to increase the use of this software for accelerating the rate of scientific discovery; and to be a repository of knowledge and history for PIC. We discuss progress towards making available and documenting illustrative open-source software programs and distinct production programs; developing and comparing different PIC algorithms; coordinating the development of resources for the educational use of kinetic software; and the outcomes of our first sponsored OSIRIS users workshop. We also welcome input and discussion from anyone interested in using or developing kinetic software, in obtaining access to our codes, in collaborating, in sharing their own software, or in commenting on how PICKSC can better serve the DPP community. Supported by NSF under Grant ACI-1339893 and by the UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education.
Sun, Ryan; Bouchard, Matthew B.; Hillman, Elizabeth M. C.
2010-01-01
Camera-based in-vivo optical imaging can provide detailed images of living tissue that reveal structure, function, and disease. High-speed, high resolution imaging can reveal dynamic events such as changes in blood flow and responses to stimulation. Despite these benefits, commercially available scientific cameras rarely include software that is suitable for in-vivo imaging applications, making this highly versatile form of optical imaging challenging and time-consuming to implement. To address this issue, we have developed a novel, open-source software package to control high-speed, multispectral optical imaging systems. The software integrates a number of modular functions through a custom graphical user interface (GUI) and provides extensive control over a wide range of inexpensive IEEE 1394 Firewire cameras. Multispectral illumination can be incorporated through the use of off-the-shelf light emitting diodes which the software synchronizes to image acquisition via a programmed microcontroller, allowing arbitrary high-speed illumination sequences. The complete software suite is available for free download. Here we describe the software’s framework and provide details to guide users with development of this and similar software. PMID:21258475
Launching GUPPI: the Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
DuPlain, Ron; Ransom, Scott; Demorest, Paul; Brandt, Patrick; Ford, John; Shelton, Amy L.
2008-08-01
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is launching the Green Bank Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument (GUPPI), a prototype flexible digital signal processor designed for pulsar observations with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). GUPPI uses field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware and design tools developed by the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) at the University of California, Berkeley. The NRAO has been concurrently developing GUPPI software and hardware using minimal software resources. The software handles instrument monitor and control, data acquisition, and hardware interfacing. GUPPI is currently an expert-only spectrometer, but supports future integration with the full GBT production system. The NRAO was able to take advantage of the unique flexibility of the CASPER FPGA hardware platform, develop hardware and software in parallel, and build a suite of software tools for monitoring, controlling, and acquiring data with a new instrument over a short timeline of just a few months. The NRAO interacts regularly with CASPER and its users, and GUPPI stands as an example of what reconfigurable computing and open-source development can do for radio astronomy. GUPPI is modular for portability, and the NRAO provides the results of development as an open-source resource.
Computer Software for Intelligent Systems.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lenat, Douglas B.
1984-01-01
Discusses the development and nature of computer software for intelligent systems, indicating that the key to intelligent problem-solving lies in reducing the random search for solutions. Formal reasoning methods, expert systems, and sources of power in problem-solving are among the areas considered. Specific examples of such software are…
Current trends for customized biomedical software tools.
Khan, Haseeb Ahmad
2017-01-01
In the past, biomedical scientists were solely dependent on expensive commercial software packages for various applications. However, the advent of user-friendly programming languages and open source platforms has revolutionized the development of simple and efficient customized software tools for solving specific biomedical problems. Many of these tools are designed and developed by biomedical scientists independently or with the support of computer experts and often made freely available for the benefit of scientific community. The current trends for customized biomedical software tools are highlighted in this short review.
Sustaining Open Source Communities through Hackathons - An Example from the ASPECT Community
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Heister, T.; Hwang, L.; Bangerth, W.; Kellogg, L. H.
2016-12-01
The ecosystem surrounding a successful scientific open source software package combines both social and technical aspects. Much thought has been given to the technology side of writing sustainable software for large infrastructure projects and software libraries, but less about building the human capacity to perpetuate scientific software used in computational modeling. One effective format for building capacity is regular multi-day hackathons. Scientific hackathons bring together a group of science domain users and scientific software contributors to make progress on a specific software package. Innovation comes through the chance to work with established and new collaborations. Especially in the domain sciences with small communities, hackathons give geographically distributed scientists an opportunity to connect face-to-face. They foster lively discussions amongst scientists with different expertise, promote new collaborations, and increase transparency in both the technical and scientific aspects of code development. ASPECT is an open source, parallel, extensible finite element code to simulate thermal convection, that began development in 2011 under the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics. ASPECT hackathons for the past 3 years have grown the number of authors to >50, training new code maintainers in the process. Hackathons begin with leaders establishing project-specific conventions for development, demonstrating the workflow for code contributions, and reviewing relevant technical skills. Each hackathon expands the developer community. Over 20 scientists add >6,000 lines of code during the >1 week event. Participants grow comfortable contributing to the repository and over half continue to contribute afterwards. A high return rate of participants ensures continuity and stability of the group as well as mentoring for novice members. We hope to build other software communities on this model, but anticipate each to bring their own unique challenges.
A Roadmap for using Agile Development in a Traditional System
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Streiffert, Barbara; Starbird, Thomas
2006-01-01
I. Ensemble Development Group: a) Produces activity planning software for in spacecraft; b) Built on Eclipse Rich Client Platform (open source development and runtime software); c) Funded by multiple sources including the Mars Technology Program; d) Incorporated the use of Agile Development. II. Next Generation Uplink Planning System: a) Researches the Activity Planning and Sequencing Subsystem for Mars Science Laboratory (APSS); b) APSS includes Ensemble, Activity Modeling, Constraint Checking, Command Editing and Sequencing tools plus other uplink generation utilities; c) Funded by the Mars Technology Program; d) Integrates all of the tools for APSS.
The GenABEL Project for statistical genomics
Karssen, Lennart C.; van Duijn, Cornelia M.; Aulchenko, Yurii S.
2016-01-01
Development of free/libre open source software is usually done by a community of people with an interest in the tool. For scientific software, however, this is less often the case. Most scientific software is written by only a few authors, often a student working on a thesis. Once the paper describing the tool has been published, the tool is no longer developed further and is left to its own device. Here we describe the broad, multidisciplinary community we formed around a set of tools for statistical genomics. The GenABEL project for statistical omics actively promotes open interdisciplinary development of statistical methodology and its implementation in efficient and user-friendly software under an open source licence. The software tools developed withing the project collectively make up the GenABEL suite, which currently consists of eleven tools. The open framework of the project actively encourages involvement of the community in all stages, from formulation of methodological ideas to application of software to specific data sets. A web forum is used to channel user questions and discussions, further promoting the use of the GenABEL suite. Developer discussions take place on a dedicated mailing list, and development is further supported by robust development practices including use of public version control, code review and continuous integration. Use of this open science model attracts contributions from users and developers outside the “core team”, facilitating agile statistical omics methodology development and fast dissemination. PMID:27347381
Understanding How the "Open" of Open Source Software (OSS) Will Improve Global Health Security.
Hahn, Erin; Blazes, David; Lewis, Sheri
2016-01-01
Improving global health security will require bold action in all corners of the world, particularly in developing settings, where poverty often contributes to an increase in emerging infectious diseases. In order to mitigate the impact of emerging pandemic threats, enhanced disease surveillance is needed to improve early detection and rapid response to outbreaks. However, the technology to facilitate this surveillance is often unattainable because of high costs, software and hardware maintenance needs, limited technical competence among public health officials, and internet connectivity challenges experienced in the field. One potential solution is to leverage open source software, a concept that is unfortunately often misunderstood. This article describes the principles and characteristics of open source software and how it may be applied to solve global health security challenges.
Noninvasive Fetal ECG: the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2013.
Silva, Ikaro; Behar, Joachim; Sameni, Reza; Zhu, Tingting; Oster, Julien; Clifford, Gari D; Moody, George B
2013-03-01
The PhysioNet/CinC 2013 Challenge aimed to stimulate rapid development and improvement of software for estimating fetal heart rate (FHR), fetal interbeat intervals (FRR), and fetal QT intervals (FQT), from multichannel recordings made using electrodes placed on the mother's abdomen. For the challenge, five data collections from a variety of sources were used to compile a large standardized database, which was divided into training, open test, and hidden test subsets. Gold-standard fetal QRS and QT interval annotations were developed using a novel crowd-sourcing framework. The challenge organizers used the hidden test subset to evaluate 91 open-source software entries submitted by 53 international teams of participants in three challenge events, estimating FHR, FRR, and FQT using the hidden test subset, which was not available for study by participants. Two additional events required only user-submitted QRS annotations to evaluate FHR and FRR estimation accuracy using the open test subset available to participants. The challenge yielded a total of 91 open-source software entries. The best of these achieved average estimation errors of 187bpm 2 for FHR, 20.9 ms for FRR, and 152.7 ms for FQT. The open data sets, scoring software, and open-source entries are available at PhysioNet for researchers interested on working on these problems.
Leveraging Code Comments to Improve Software Reliability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tan, Lin
2009-01-01
Commenting source code has long been a common practice in software development. This thesis, consisting of three pieces of work, made novel use of the code comments written in natural language to improve software reliability. Our solution combines Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, Statistics, and Program Analysis techniques to…
Integrated Environment for Development and Assurance
2015-01-26
Jan 26, 2015 © 2015 Carnegie Mellon University We Rely on Software for Safe Aircraft Operation Embedded software systems introduce a new class of...eveloper Compute Platform Runtime Architecture Application Software Embedded SW System Engineer Data Stream Characteristics Latency jitter affects...Why do system level failures still occur despite fault tolerance techniques being deployed in systems ? Embedded software system as major source of
Sanyal, Parikshit; Ganguli, Prosenjit; Barui, Sanghita; Deb, Prabal
2018-01-01
The Pap stained cervical smear is a screening tool for cervical cancer. Commercial systems are used for automated screening of liquid based cervical smears. However, there is no image analysis software used for conventional cervical smears. The aim of this study was to develop and test the diagnostic accuracy of a software for analysis of conventional smears. The software was developed using Python programming language and open source libraries. It was standardized with images from Bethesda Interobserver Reproducibility Project. One hundred and thirty images from smears which were reported Negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy (NILM), and 45 images where some abnormality has been reported, were collected from the archives of the hospital. The software was then tested on the images. The software was able to segregate images based on overall nuclear: cytoplasmic ratio, coefficient of variation (CV) in nuclear size, nuclear membrane irregularity, and clustering. 68.88% of abnormal images were flagged by the software, as well as 19.23% of NILM images. The major difficulties faced were segmentation of overlapping cell clusters and separation of neutrophils. The software shows potential as a screening tool for conventional cervical smears; however, further refinement in technique is required.
Open-Source Development of the Petascale Reactive Flow and Transport Code PFLOTRAN
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hammond, G. E.; Andre, B.; Bisht, G.; Johnson, T.; Karra, S.; Lichtner, P. C.; Mills, R. T.
2013-12-01
Open-source software development has become increasingly popular in recent years. Open-source encourages collaborative and transparent software development and promotes unlimited free redistribution of source code to the public. Open-source development is good for science as it reveals implementation details that are critical to scientific reproducibility, but generally excluded from journal publications. In addition, research funds that would have been spent on licensing fees can be redirected to code development that benefits more scientists. In 2006, the developers of PFLOTRAN open-sourced their code under the U.S. Department of Energy SciDAC-II program. Since that time, the code has gained popularity among code developers and users from around the world seeking to employ PFLOTRAN to simulate thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and biogeochemical processes in the Earth's surface/subsurface environment. PFLOTRAN is a massively-parallel subsurface reactive multiphase flow and transport simulator designed from the ground up to run efficiently on computing platforms ranging from the laptop to leadership-class supercomputers, all from a single code base. The code employs domain decomposition for parallelism and is founded upon the well-established and open-source parallel PETSc and HDF5 frameworks. PFLOTRAN leverages modern Fortran (i.e. Fortran 2003-2008) in its extensible object-oriented design. The use of this progressive, yet domain-friendly programming language has greatly facilitated collaboration in the code's software development. Over the past year, PFLOTRAN's top-level data structures were refactored as Fortran classes (i.e. extendible derived types) to improve the flexibility of the code, ease the addition of new process models, and enable coupling to external simulators. For instance, PFLOTRAN has been coupled to the parallel electrical resistivity tomography code E4D to enable hydrogeophysical inversion while the same code base can be used as a third-party library to provide hydrologic flow, energy transport, and biogeochemical capability to the community land model, CLM, part of the open-source community earth system model (CESM) for climate. In this presentation, the advantages and disadvantages of open source software development in support of geoscience research at government laboratories, universities, and the private sector are discussed. Since the code is open-source (i.e. it's transparent and readily available to competitors), the PFLOTRAN team's development strategy within a competitive research environment is presented. Finally, the developers discuss their approach to object-oriented programming and the leveraging of modern Fortran in support of collaborative geoscience research as the Fortran standard evolves among compiler vendors.
The Core Flight System (cFS) Community: Providing Low Cost Solutions for Small Spacecraft
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
McComas, David; Wilmot, Jonathan; Cudmore, Alan
2016-01-01
In February 2015 the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) completed the open source release of the entire Core Flight Software (cFS) suite. After the open source release a multi-NASA center Configuration Control Board (CCB) was established that has managed multiple cFS product releases. The cFS was developed and is being maintained in compliance with the NASA Class B software development process requirements and the open source release includes all Class B artifacts. The cFS is currently running on three operational science spacecraft and is being used on multiple spacecraft and instrument development efforts. While the cFS itself is a viable flight software (FSW) solution, we have discovered that the cFS community is a continuous source of innovation and growth that provides products and tools that serve the entire FSW lifecycle and future mission needs. This paper summarizes the current state of the cFS community, the key FSW technologies being pursued, the development/verification tools and opportunities for the small satellite community to become engaged. The cFS is a proven high quality and cost-effective solution for small satellites with constrained budgets.
Development of a software package for solid-angle calculations using the Monte Carlo method
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Zhang, Jie; Chen, Xiulian; Zhang, Changsheng; Li, Gang; Xu, Jiayun; Sun, Guangai
2014-02-01
Solid-angle calculations play an important role in the absolute calibration of radioactivity measurement systems and in the determination of the activity of radioactive sources, which are often complicated. In the present paper, a software package is developed to provide a convenient tool for solid-angle calculations in nuclear physics. The proposed software calculates solid angles using the Monte Carlo method, in which a new type of variance reduction technique was integrated. The package, developed under the environment of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) in Microsoft Visual C++, has a graphical user interface, in which, the visualization function is integrated in conjunction with OpenGL. One advantage of the proposed software package is that it can calculate the solid angle subtended by a detector with different geometric shapes (e.g., cylinder, square prism, regular triangular prism or regular hexagonal prism) to a point, circular or cylindrical source without any difficulty. The results obtained from the proposed software package were compared with those obtained from previous studies and calculated using Geant4. It shows that the proposed software package can produce accurate solid-angle values with a greater computation speed than Geant4.
Continuous integration and quality control for scientific software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Neidhardt, A.; Ettl, M.; Brisken, W.; Dassing, R.
2013-08-01
Modern software has to be stable, portable, fast and reliable. This is going to be also more and more important for scientific software. But this requires a sophisticated way to inspect, check and evaluate the quality of source code with a suitable, automated infrastructure. A centralized server with a software repository and a version control system is one essential part, to manage the code basis and to control the different development versions. While each project can be compiled separately, the whole code basis can also be compiled with one central “Makefile”. This is used to create automated, nightly builds. Additionally all sources are inspected automatically with static code analysis and inspection tools, which check well-none error situations, memory and resource leaks, performance issues, or style issues. In combination with an automatic documentation generator it is possible to create the developer documentation directly from the code and the inline comments. All reports and generated information are presented as HTML page on a Web server. Because this environment increased the stability and quality of the software of the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell tremendously, it is now also available for scientific communities. One regular customer is already the developer group of the DiFX software correlator project.
Software for MR image overlay guided needle insertions: the clinical translation process
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ungi, Tamas; U-Thainual, Paweena; Fritz, Jan; Iordachita, Iulian I.; Flammang, Aaron J.; Carrino, John A.; Fichtinger, Gabor
2013-03-01
PURPOSE: Needle guidance software using augmented reality image overlay was translated from the experimental phase to support preclinical and clinical studies. Major functional and structural changes were needed to meet clinical requirements. We present the process applied to fulfill these requirements, and selected features that may be applied in the translational phase of other image-guided surgical navigation systems. METHODS: We used an agile software development process for rapid adaptation to unforeseen clinical requests. The process is based on iterations of operating room test sessions, feedback discussions, and software development sprints. The open-source application framework of 3D Slicer and the NA-MIC kit provided sufficient flexibility and stable software foundations for this work. RESULTS: All requirements were addressed in a process with 19 operating room test iterations. Most features developed in this phase were related to workflow simplification and operator feedback. CONCLUSION: Efficient and affordable modifications were facilitated by an open source application framework and frequent clinical feedback sessions. Results of cadaver experiments show that software requirements were successfully solved after a limited number of operating room tests.
Crawling The Web for Libre: Selecting, Integrating, Extending and Releasing Open Source Software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Truslove, I.; Duerr, R. E.; Wilcox, H.; Savoie, M.; Lopez, L.; Brandt, M.
2012-12-01
Libre is a project developed by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Libre is devoted to liberating science data from its traditional constraints of publication, location, and findability. Libre embraces and builds on the notion of making knowledge freely available, and both Creative Commons licensed content and Open Source Software are crucial building blocks for, as well as required deliverable outcomes of the project. One important aspect of the Libre project is to discover cryospheric data published on the internet without prior knowledge of the location or even existence of that data. Inspired by well-known search engines and their underlying web crawling technologies, Libre has explored tools and technologies required to build a search engine tailored to allow users to easily discover geospatial data related to the polar regions. After careful consideration, the Libre team decided to base its web crawling work on the Apache Nutch project (http://nutch.apache.org). Nutch is "an open source web-search software project" written in Java, with good documentation, a significant user base, and an active development community. Nutch was installed and configured to search for the types of data of interest, and the team created plugins to customize the default Nutch behavior to better find and categorize these data feeds. This presentation recounts the Libre team's experiences selecting, using, and extending Nutch, and working with the Nutch user and developer community. We will outline the technical and organizational challenges faced in order to release the project's software as Open Source, and detail the steps actually taken. We distill these experiences into a set of heuristics and recommendations for using, contributing to, and releasing Open Source Software.
Open source pipeline for ESPaDOnS reduction and analysis
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Martioli, Eder; Teeple, Doug; Manset, Nadine; Devost, Daniel; Withington, Kanoa; Venne, Andre; Tannock, Megan
2012-09-01
OPERA is a Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) open source collaborative software project currently under development for an ESPaDOnS echelle spectro-polarimetric image reduction pipeline. OPERA is designed to be fully automated, performing calibrations and reduction, producing one-dimensional intensity and polarimetric spectra. The calibrations are performed on two-dimensional images. Spectra are extracted using an optimal extraction algorithm. While primarily designed for CFHT ESPaDOnS data, the pipeline is being written to be extensible to other echelle spectrographs. A primary design goal is to make use of fast, modern object-oriented technologies. Processing is controlled by a harness, which manages a set of processing modules, that make use of a collection of native OPERA software libraries and standard external software libraries. The harness and modules are completely parametrized by site configuration and instrument parameters. The software is open- ended, permitting users of OPERA to extend the pipeline capabilities. All these features have been designed to provide a portable infrastructure that facilitates collaborative development, code re-usability and extensibility. OPERA is free software with support for both GNU/Linux and MacOSX platforms. The pipeline is hosted on SourceForge under the name "opera-pipeline".
Survivability as a Tool for Evaluating Open Source Software
2015-06-01
the thesis limited the program development, so it is only able to process project issues (bugs or feature requests), which is an important metric for...Ideally, these insights may provide an analytic framework to generate guidance for decision makers that may support the inclusion of OSS to more...refine their efforts to build quality software and to strengthen their software development communities. 1.4 Research Questions This thesis addresses
Wojdyla, Justyna Aleksandra; Kaminski, Jakub W.; Ebner, Simon; Wang, Xiaoqiang; Gabadinho, Jose; Wang, Meitian
2018-01-01
Data acquisition software is an essential component of modern macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines, enabling efficient use of beam time at synchrotron facilities. Developed at the Paul Scherrer Institute, the DA+ data acquisition software is implemented at all three Swiss Light Source (SLS) MX beamlines. DA+ consists of distributed services and components written in Python and Java, which communicate via messaging and streaming technologies. The major components of DA+ are the user interface, acquisition engine, online processing and database. Immediate data quality feedback is achieved with distributed automatic data analysis routines. The software architecture enables exploration of the full potential of the latest instrumentation at the SLS MX beamlines, such as the SmarGon goniometer and the EIGER X 16M detector, and development of new data collection methods. PMID:29271779
Chełkowski, Tadeusz; Gloor, Peter; Jemielniak, Dariusz
2016-01-01
While researchers are becoming increasingly interested in studying OSS phenomenon, there is still a small number of studies analyzing larger samples of projects investigating the structure of activities among OSS developers. The significant amount of information that has been gathered in the publicly available open-source software repositories and mailing-list archives offers an opportunity to analyze projects structures and participant involvement. In this article, using on commits data from 263 Apache projects repositories (nearly all), we show that although OSS development is often described as collaborative, but it in fact predominantly relies on radically solitary input and individual, non-collaborative contributions. We also show, in the first published study of this magnitude, that the engagement of contributors is based on a power-law distribution.
2016-01-01
While researchers are becoming increasingly interested in studying OSS phenomenon, there is still a small number of studies analyzing larger samples of projects investigating the structure of activities among OSS developers. The significant amount of information that has been gathered in the publicly available open-source software repositories and mailing-list archives offers an opportunity to analyze projects structures and participant involvement. In this article, using on commits data from 263 Apache projects repositories (nearly all), we show that although OSS development is often described as collaborative, but it in fact predominantly relies on radically solitary input and individual, non-collaborative contributions. We also show, in the first published study of this magnitude, that the engagement of contributors is based on a power-law distribution. PMID:27096157
The 2015 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC 2015).
Harris, Nomi L; Cock, Peter J A; Lapp, Hilmar; Chapman, Brad; Davey, Rob; Fields, Christopher; Hokamp, Karsten; Munoz-Torres, Monica
2016-02-01
The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of open source software development and open science within the biological research community. Since its inception in 2000, BOSC has provided bioinformatics developers with a forum for communicating the results of their latest efforts to the wider research community. BOSC offers a focused environment for developers and users to interact and share ideas about standards; software development practices; practical techniques for solving bioinformatics problems; and approaches that promote open science and sharing of data, results, and software. BOSC is run as a two-day special interest group (SIG) before the annual Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference. BOSC 2015 took place in Dublin, Ireland, and was attended by over 125 people, about half of whom were first-time attendees. Session topics included "Data Science;" "Standards and Interoperability;" "Open Science and Reproducibility;" "Translational Bioinformatics;" "Visualization;" and "Bioinformatics Open Source Project Updates". In addition to two keynote talks and dozens of shorter talks chosen from submitted abstracts, BOSC 2015 included a panel, titled "Open Source, Open Door: Increasing Diversity in the Bioinformatics Open Source Community," that provided an opportunity for open discussion about ways to increase the diversity of participants in BOSC in particular, and in open source bioinformatics in general. The complete program of BOSC 2015 is available online at http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2015_Schedule.
The Role of Free/Libre and Open Source Software in Learning Health Systems.
Paton, C; Karopka, T
2017-08-01
Objective: To give an overview of the role of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in the context of secondary use of patient data to enable Learning Health Systems (LHSs). Methods: We conducted an environmental scan of the academic and grey literature utilising the MedFLOSS database of open source systems in healthcare to inform a discussion of the role of open source in developing LHSs that reuse patient data for research and quality improvement. Results: A wide range of FLOSS is identified that contributes to the information technology (IT) infrastructure of LHSs including operating systems, databases, frameworks, interoperability software, and mobile and web apps. The recent literature around the development and use of key clinical data management tools is also reviewed. Conclusions: FLOSS already plays a critical role in modern health IT infrastructure for the collection, storage, and analysis of patient data. The nature of FLOSS systems to be collaborative, modular, and modifiable may make open source approaches appropriate for building the digital infrastructure for a LHS. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.
Locking Down the Software Development Environment
2014-12-01
OpenSSL code [13]. The OpenSSL software is, as the name implies, open source, a result of many developers coding beginning in 1998 using the C...programming language to build crypto services. OpenSSL is used widely both on the Internet and in firmware [13], further delaying the ability of many
OpenSim: open-source software to create and analyze dynamic simulations of movement.
Delp, Scott L; Anderson, Frank C; Arnold, Allison S; Loan, Peter; Habib, Ayman; John, Chand T; Guendelman, Eran; Thelen, Darryl G
2007-11-01
Dynamic simulations of movement allow one to study neuromuscular coordination, analyze athletic performance, and estimate internal loading of the musculoskeletal system. Simulations can also be used to identify the sources of pathological movement and establish a scientific basis for treatment planning. We have developed a freely available, open-source software system (OpenSim) that lets users develop models of musculoskeletal structures and create dynamic simulations of a wide variety of movements. We are using this system to simulate the dynamics of individuals with pathological gait and to explore the biomechanical effects of treatments. OpenSim provides a platform on which the biomechanics community can build a library of simulations that can be exchanged, tested, analyzed, and improved through a multi-institutional collaboration. Developing software that enables a concerted effort from many investigators poses technical and sociological challenges. Meeting those challenges will accelerate the discovery of principles that govern movement control and improve treatments for individuals with movement pathologies.
Development of a web application for water resources based on open source software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Delipetrev, Blagoj; Jonoski, Andreja; Solomatine, Dimitri P.
2014-01-01
This article presents research and development of a prototype web application for water resources using latest advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), open source software and web GIS. The web application has three web services for: (1) managing, presenting and storing of geospatial data, (2) support of water resources modeling and (3) water resources optimization. The web application is developed using several programming languages (PhP, Ajax, JavaScript, Java), libraries (OpenLayers, JQuery) and open source software components (GeoServer, PostgreSQL, PostGIS). The presented web application has several main advantages: it is available all the time, it is accessible from everywhere, it creates a real time multi-user collaboration platform, the programing languages code and components are interoperable and designed to work in a distributed computer environment, it is flexible for adding additional components and services and, it is scalable depending on the workload. The application was successfully tested on a case study with concurrent multi-users access.
Automated real-time software development
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Jones, Denise R.; Walker, Carrie K.; Turkovich, John J.
1993-01-01
A Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) system has been developed at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (CSDL) under the direction of the NASA Langley Research Center. The CSDL CASE tool provides an automated method of generating source code and hard copy documentation from functional application engineering specifications. The goal is to significantly reduce the cost of developing and maintaining real-time scientific and engineering software while increasing system reliability. This paper describes CSDL CASE and discusses demonstrations that used the tool to automatically generate real-time application code.
Establishing a Professional Development Network around Dynamic Mathematics Software in England
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lavicza, Zsolt; Hohenwarter, Markus; Jones, Keith; Lu, Allison; Dawes, Mark
2010-01-01
In this paper, we will outline some results of an NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) funded project that aimed to establish a professional development network with an open-source mathematical software--GeoGebra--in England. During the past few years a large international user and developer community has formed…
Development and Use of an Open-Source, User-Friendly Package to Simulate Voltammetry Experiments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Shuo; Wang, Jing; Gao, Yanjing
2017-01-01
An open-source electrochemistry simulation package has been developed that simulates the electrode processes of four reaction mechanisms and two typical electroanalysis techniques: cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. Unlike other open-source simulation software, this package balances the features with ease of learning and implementation and…
Analysis on the inbound tourist source market in Fujian Province
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
YU, Tong
2017-06-01
The paper analyzes the development and structure of inbound tourism in Fujian Province by Excel software and conducts the cluster analysis on the inbound tourism market by SPSS 23.0 software based on the inbound tourism data of Fujian Province from 2006 to 2015. The results show: the rapid development of inbound tourism in Fujian Province and the diversified inbound tourist source countries indicate the stability of inbound tourism market; the inbound tourist source market in Fujian Province can be divided into four categories according to the cluster analysis, and tourists from the United States, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore are the key of inbound tourism in Fujian Province.
MNE Scan: Software for real-time processing of electrophysiological data.
Esch, Lorenz; Sun, Limin; Klüber, Viktor; Lew, Seok; Baumgarten, Daniel; Grant, P Ellen; Okada, Yoshio; Haueisen, Jens; Hämäläinen, Matti S; Dinh, Christoph
2018-06-01
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electroencephalography (EEG) are noninvasive techniques to study the electrophysiological activity of the human brain. Thus, they are well suited for real-time monitoring and analysis of neuronal activity. Real-time MEG/EEG data processing allows adjustment of the stimuli to the subject's responses for optimizing the acquired information especially by providing dynamically changing displays to enable neurofeedback. We introduce MNE Scan, an acquisition and real-time analysis software based on the multipurpose software library MNE-CPP. MNE Scan allows the development and application of acquisition and novel real-time processing methods in both research and clinical studies. The MNE Scan development follows a strict software engineering process to enable approvals required for clinical software. We tested the performance of MNE Scan in several device-independent use cases, including, a clinical epilepsy study, real-time source estimation, and Brain Computer Interface (BCI) application. Compared to existing tools we propose a modular software considering clinical software requirements expected by certification authorities. At the same time the software is extendable and freely accessible. We conclude that MNE Scan is the first step in creating a device-independent open-source software to facilitate the transition from basic neuroscience research to both applied sciences and clinical applications. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Two-step web-mining approach to study geology/geophysics-related open-source software projects
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Behrends, Knut; Conze, Ronald
2013-04-01
Geology/geophysics is a highly interdisciplinary science, overlapping with, for instance, physics, biology and chemistry. In today's software-intensive work environments, geoscientists often encounter new open-source software from scientific fields that are only remotely related to the own field of expertise. We show how web-mining techniques can help to carry out systematic discovery and evaluation of such software. In a first step, we downloaded ~500 abstracts (each consisting of ~1 kb UTF-8 text) from agu-fm12.abstractcentral.com. This web site hosts the abstracts of all publications presented at AGU Fall Meeting 2012, the world's largest annual geology/geophysics conference. All abstracts belonged to the category "Earth and Space Science Informatics", an interdisciplinary label cross-cutting many disciplines such as "deep biosphere", "atmospheric research", and "mineral physics". Each publication was represented by a highly structured record with ~20 short data attributes, the largest authorship-record being the unstructured "abstract" field. We processed texts of the abstracts with the statistics software "R" to calculate a corpus and a term-document matrix. Using R package "tm", we applied text-mining techniques to filter data and develop hypotheses about software-development activities happening in various geology/geophysics fields. Analyzing the term-document matrix with basic techniques (e.g., word frequencies, co-occurences, weighting) as well as more complex methods (clustering, classification) several key pieces of information were extracted. For example, text-mining can be used to identify scientists who are also developers of open-source scientific software, and the names of their programming projects and codes can also be identified. In a second step, based on the intermediate results found by processing the conference-abstracts, any new hypotheses can be tested in another webmining subproject: by merging the dataset with open data from github.com and stackoverflow.com. These popular, developer-centric websites have powerful application-programmer interfaces, and follow an open-data policy. In this regard, these sites offer a web-accessible reservoir of information that can be tapped to study questions such as: which open source software projects are eminent in the various geoscience fields? What are the most popular programming languages? How are they trending? Are there any interesting temporal patterns in committer activities? How large are programming teams and how do they change over time? What free software packages exist in the vast realms of related fields? Does the software from these fields have capabilities that might still be useful to me as a researcher, or can help me perform my work better? Are there any open-source projects that might be commercially interesting? This evaluation strategy reveals programming projects that tend to be new. As many important legacy codes are not hosted on open-source code-repositories, the presented search method might overlook some older projects.
OOSTethys - Open Source Software for the Global Earth Observing Systems of Systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bridger, E.; Bermudez, L. E.; Maskey, M.; Rueda, C.; Babin, B. L.; Blair, R.
2009-12-01
An open source software project is much more than just picking the right license, hosting modular code and providing effective documentation. Success in advancing in an open collaborative way requires that the process match the expected code functionality to the developer's personal expertise and organizational needs as well as having an enthusiastic and responsive core lead group. We will present the lessons learned fromOOSTethys , which is a community of software developers and marine scientists who develop open source tools, in multiple languages, to integrate ocean observing systems into an Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). OOSTethys' goal is to dramatically reduce the time it takes to install, adopt and update standards-compliant web services. OOSTethys has developed servers, clients and a registry. Open source PERL, PYTHON, JAVA and ASP tool kits and reference implementations are helping the marine community publish near real-time observation data in interoperable standard formats. In some cases publishing an OpenGeospatial Consortium (OGC), Sensor Observation Service (SOS) from NetCDF files or a database or even CSV text files could take only minutes depending on the skills of the developer. OOSTethys is also developing an OGC standard registry, Catalog Service for Web (CSW). This open source CSW registry was implemented to easily register and discover SOSs using ISO 19139 service metadata. A web interface layer over the CSW registry simplifies the registration process by harvesting metadata describing the observations and sensors from the “GetCapabilities” response of SOS. OPENIOOS is the web client, developed in PERL to visualize the sensors in the SOS services. While the number of OOSTethys software developers is small, currently about 10 around the world, the number of OOSTethys toolkit implementers is larger and growing and the ease of use has played a large role in spreading the use of interoperable standards compliant web services widely in the marine community.
Software Management for the NOνAExperiment
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Davies, G. S.; Davies, J. P.; C Group; Rebel, B.; Sachdev, K.; Zirnstein, J.
2015-12-01
The NOvAsoftware (NOνASoft) is written in C++, and built on the Fermilab Computing Division's art framework that uses ROOT analysis software. NOνASoftmakes use of more than 50 external software packages, is developed by more than 50 developers and is used by more than 100 physicists from over 30 universities and laboratories in 3 continents. The software builds are handled by Fermilab's custom version of Software Release Tools (SRT), a UNIX based software management system for large, collaborative projects that is used by several experiments at Fermilab. The system provides software version control with SVN configured in a client-server mode and is based on the code originally developed by the BaBar collaboration. In this paper, we present efforts towards distributing the NOvA software via the CernVM File System distributed file system. We will also describe our recent work to use a CMake build system and Jenkins, the open source continuous integration system, for NOνASoft.
CymeR: cytometry analysis using KNIME, docker and R
Muchmore, B.; Alarcón-Riquelme, M.E.
2017-01-01
Abstract Summary: Here we present open-source software for the analysis of high-dimensional cytometry data using state of the art algorithms. Importantly, use of the software requires no programming ability, and output files can either be interrogated directly in CymeR or they can be used downstream with any other cytometric data analysis platform. Also, because we use Docker to integrate the multitude of components that form the basis of CymeR, we have additionally developed a proof-of-concept of how future open-source bioinformatic programs with graphical user interfaces could be developed. Availability and Implementation: CymeR is open-source software that ties several components into a single program that is perhaps best thought of as a self-contained data analysis operating system. Please see https://github.com/bmuchmore/CymeR/wiki for detailed installation instructions. Contact: brian.muchmore@genyo.es or marta.alarcon@genyo.es PMID:27998935
CymeR: cytometry analysis using KNIME, docker and R.
Muchmore, B; Alarcón-Riquelme, M E
2017-03-01
Here we present open-source software for the analysis of high-dimensional cytometry data using state of the art algorithms. Importantly, use of the software requires no programming ability, and output files can either be interrogated directly in CymeR or they can be used downstream with any other cytometric data analysis platform. Also, because we use Docker to integrate the multitude of components that form the basis of CymeR, we have additionally developed a proof-of-concept of how future open-source bioinformatic programs with graphical user interfaces could be developed. CymeR is open-source software that ties several components into a single program that is perhaps best thought of as a self-contained data analysis operating system. Please see https://github.com/bmuchmore/CymeR/wiki for detailed installation instructions. brian.muchmore@genyo.es or marta.alarcon@genyo.es. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.
Virtual Observer Controller (VOC) for Small Unit Infantry Laser Simulation Training
2007-04-01
per-seat license when deployed. As a result, ViaVoice was abandoned early in development. Next, the SPHINX engine from Carnegie Mellon University was...examined. Sphinx is Java-based software, providing cross-platform functionality, and it is also free, open-source software. Software developers at...IST had experience using SPHINX , so it was initially selected it to be the VOC speech engine. After implementing a small portion of the VOC grammar
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hasan, B.; Hasbullah, H.; Elvyanti, S.; Purnama, W.
2018-02-01
The creative industry is the utilization of creativity, skill and talent of individuals to create wealth and jobs by generating and exploiting creativity power of individual. In the field of design, utilization of information technology can spur creative industry, development of creative industry design will accommodate a lot of creative energy that can pour their ideas and creativity without limitations. Open Source software is a trend in the field of information technology has developed since the 1990s. Examples of applications developed by the Open Source approach is the Apache web services, Linux and Android Operating System, the MySQL database. This community service activities based entrepreneurship aims to: 1). give an idea about the profile of the UPI student’s knowledge of entrepreneurship about the business based creative industries in software by using web software development and educational game 2) create a model for fostering entrepreneurship based on the creative industries in software by leveraging web development and educational games, 3) conduct training and guidance on UPI students who want to develop business in the field of creative industries engaged in the software industry . PKM-based entrepreneurship activity was attended by about 35 students DPTE FPTK UPI had entrepreneurial high interest and competence in information technology. Outcome generated from PKM entrepreneurship is the emergence of entrepreneurs from the students who are interested in the creative industry in the field of software which is able to open up business opportunities for themselves and others. Another outcome of this entrepreneurship PKM activity is the publication of articles or scientific publications in journals of national/international indexed.
Information Extraction for System-Software Safety Analysis: Calendar Year 2008 Year-End Report
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Malin, Jane T.
2009-01-01
This annual report describes work to integrate a set of tools to support early model-based analysis of failures and hazards due to system-software interactions. The tools perform and assist analysts in the following tasks: 1) extract model parts from text for architecture and safety/hazard models; 2) combine the parts with library information to develop the models for visualization and analysis; 3) perform graph analysis and simulation to identify and evaluate possible paths from hazard sources to vulnerable entities and functions, in nominal and anomalous system-software configurations and scenarios; and 4) identify resulting candidate scenarios for software integration testing. There has been significant technical progress in model extraction from Orion program text sources, architecture model derivation (components and connections) and documentation of extraction sources. Models have been derived from Internal Interface Requirements Documents (IIRDs) and FMEA documents. Linguistic text processing is used to extract model parts and relationships, and the Aerospace Ontology also aids automated model development from the extracted information. Visualizations of these models assist analysts in requirements overview and in checking consistency and completeness.
NeuroPG: open source software for optical pattern generation and data acquisition
Avants, Benjamin W.; Murphy, Daniel B.; Dapello, Joel A.; Robinson, Jacob T.
2015-01-01
Patterned illumination using a digital micromirror device (DMD) is a powerful tool for optogenetics. Compared to a scanning laser, DMDs are inexpensive and can easily create complex illumination patterns. Combining these complex spatiotemporal illumination patterns with optogenetics allows DMD-equipped microscopes to probe neural circuits by selectively manipulating the activity of many individual cells or many subcellular regions at the same time. To use DMDs to study neural activity, scientists must develop specialized software to coordinate optical stimulation patterns with the acquisition of electrophysiological and fluorescence data. To meet this growing need we have developed an open source optical pattern generation software for neuroscience—NeuroPG—that combines, DMD control, sample visualization, and data acquisition in one application. Built on a MATLAB platform, NeuroPG can also process, analyze, and visualize data. The software is designed specifically for the Mightex Polygon400; however, as an open source package, NeuroPG can be modified to incorporate any data acquisition, imaging, or illumination equipment that is compatible with MATLAB’s Data Acquisition and Image Acquisition toolboxes. PMID:25784873
Using Rose and Compass for Authentication
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
White, G
2009-07-09
Many recent non-proliferation software projects include a software authentication component. In this context, 'authentication' is defined as determining that a software package performs only its intended purpose and performs that purpose correctly and reliably over many years. In addition to visual inspection by knowledgeable computer scientists, automated tools are needed to highlight suspicious code constructs both to aid the visual inspection and to guide program development. While many commercial tools are available for portions of the authentication task, they are proprietary, and have limited extensibility. An open-source, extensible tool can be customized to the unique needs of each project. ROSEmore » is an LLNL-developed robust source-to-source analysis and optimization infrastructure currently addressing large, million-line DOE applications in C, C++, and FORTRAN. It continues to be extended to support the automated analysis of binaries (x86, ARM, and PowerPC). We continue to extend ROSE to address a number of security specific requirements and apply it to software authentication for non-proliferation projects. We will give an update on the status of our work.« less
ObsPy: Establishing and maintaining an open-source community package
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Krischer, L.; Megies, T.; Barsch, R.
2017-12-01
Python's ecosystem evolved into one of the most powerful and productive research environment across disciplines. ObsPy (https://obspy.org) is a fully community driven, open-source project dedicated to provide a bridge for seismology into that ecosystem. It does so by offering Read and write support for essentially every commonly used data format in seismology, Integrated access to the largest data centers, web services, and real-time data streams, A powerful signal processing toolbox tuned to the specific needs of seismologists, and Utility functionality like travel time calculations, geodetic functions, and data visualizations. ObsPy has been in constant unfunded development for more than eight years and is developed and used by scientists around the world with successful applications in all branches of seismology. By now around 70 people directly contributed code to ObsPy and we aim to make it a self-sustaining community project.This contributions focusses on several meta aspects of open-source software in science, in particular how we experienced them. During the panel we would like to discuss obvious questions like long-term sustainability with very limited to no funding, insufficient computer science training in many sciences, and gaining hard scientific credits for software development, but also the following questions: How to best deal with the fact that a lot of scientific software is very specialized thus usually solves a complex problem but at the same time can only ever reach a limited pool of developers and users by virtue of it being so specialized? Therefore the "many eyes on the code" approach to develop and improve open-source software only applies in a limited fashion. An initial publication for a significant new scientific software package is fairly straightforward. How to on-board and motivate potential new contributors when they can no longer be lured by a potential co-authorship? When is spending significant time and effort on reusable scientific open-source development a reasonable choice for young researchers? The effort to go from purpose tailored code for a single application resulting in a scientific publication is significantly less compared to generalising and engineering it well enough so it can be used by others.
Experiences Supporting the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera: the Devops Model
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Licht, A.; Estes, N. M.; Bowman-Cisnesros, E.; Hanger, C. D.
2013-12-01
Introduction: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Science Operations Center (SOC) is responsible for instrument targeting, product processing, and archiving [1]. The LROC SOC maintains over 1,000,000 observations with over 300 TB of released data. Processing challenges compound with the acquisition of over 400 Gbits of observations daily creating the need for a robust, efficient, and reliable suite of specialized software. Development Environment: The LROC SOC's software development methodology has evolved over time. Today, the development team operates in close cooperation with the systems administration team in a model known in the IT industry as DevOps. The DevOps model enables a highly productive development environment that facilitates accomplishment of key goals within tight schedules[2]. The LROC SOC DevOps model incorporates industry best practices including prototyping, continuous integration, unit testing, code coverage analysis, version control, and utilizing existing open source software. Scientists and researchers at LROC often prototype algorithms and scripts in a high-level language such as MATLAB or IDL. After the prototype is functionally complete the solution is implemented as production ready software by the developers. Following this process ensures that all controls and requirements set by the LROC SOC DevOps team are met. The LROC SOC also strives to enhance the efficiency of the operations staff by way of weekly presentations and informal mentoring. Many small scripting tasks are assigned to the cognizant operations personnel (end users), allowing for the DevOps team to focus on more complex and mission critical tasks. In addition to leveraging open source software the LROC SOC has also contributed to the open source community by releasing Lunaserv [3]. Findings: The DevOps software model very efficiently provides smooth software releases and maintains team momentum. Scientists prototyping their work has proven to be very efficient as developers do not need to spend time iterating over small changes. Instead, these changes are realized in early prototypes and implemented before the task is seen by developers. The development practices followed by the LROC SOC DevOps team help facilitate a high level of software quality that is necessary for LROC SOC operations. Application to the Scientific Community: There is no replacement for having software developed by professional developers. While it is beneficial for scientists to write software, this activity should be seen as prototyping, which is then made production ready by professional developers. When constructed properly, even a small development team has the ability to increase the rate of software development for a research group while creating more efficient, reliable, and maintainable products. This strategy allows scientists to accomplish more, focusing on teamwork, rather than software development, which may not be their primary focus. 1. Robinson et al. (2010) Space Sci. Rev. 150, 81-124 2. DeGrandis. (2011) Cutter IT Journal. Vol 24, No. 8, 34-39 3. Estes, N.M.; Hanger, C.D.; Licht, A.A.; Bowman-Cisneros, E.; Lunaserv Web Map Service: History, Implementation Details, Development, and Uses, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013LPICo1719.2609E.
Studying the laws of software evolution in a long-lived FLOSS project.
Gonzalez-Barahona, Jesus M; Robles, Gregorio; Herraiz, Israel; Ortega, Felipe
2014-07-01
Some free, open-source software projects have been around for quite a long time, the longest living ones dating from the early 1980s. For some of them, detailed information about their evolution is available in source code management systems tracking all their code changes for periods of more than 15 years. This paper examines in detail the evolution of one of such projects, glibc, with the main aim of understanding how it evolved and how it matched Lehman's laws of software evolution. As a result, we have developed a methodology for studying the evolution of such long-lived projects based on the information in their source code management repository, described in detail several aspects of the history of glibc, including some activity and size metrics, and found how some of the laws of software evolution may not hold in this case. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Studying the laws of software evolution in a long-lived FLOSS project
Gonzalez-Barahona, Jesus M; Robles, Gregorio; Herraiz, Israel; Ortega, Felipe
2014-01-01
Some free, open-source software projects have been around for quite a long time, the longest living ones dating from the early 1980s. For some of them, detailed information about their evolution is available in source code management systems tracking all their code changes for periods of more than 15 years. This paper examines in detail the evolution of one of such projects, glibc, with the main aim of understanding how it evolved and how it matched Lehman's laws of software evolution. As a result, we have developed a methodology for studying the evolution of such long-lived projects based on the information in their source code management repository, described in detail several aspects of the history of glibc, including some activity and size metrics, and found how some of the laws of software evolution may not hold in this case. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. PMID:25893093
Quantitative evaluation of software packages for single-molecule localization microscopy.
Sage, Daniel; Kirshner, Hagai; Pengo, Thomas; Stuurman, Nico; Min, Junhong; Manley, Suliana; Unser, Michael
2015-08-01
The quality of super-resolution images obtained by single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) depends largely on the software used to detect and accurately localize point sources. In this work, we focus on the computational aspects of super-resolution microscopy and present a comprehensive evaluation of localization software packages. Our philosophy is to evaluate each package as a whole, thus maintaining the integrity of the software. We prepared synthetic data that represent three-dimensional structures modeled after biological components, taking excitation parameters, noise sources, point-spread functions and pixelation into account. We then asked developers to run their software on our data; most responded favorably, allowing us to present a broad picture of the methods available. We evaluated their results using quantitative and user-interpretable criteria: detection rate, accuracy, quality of image reconstruction, resolution, software usability and computational resources. These metrics reflect the various tradeoffs of SMLM software packages and help users to choose the software that fits their needs.
Challenges of the Open Source Component Marketplace in the Industry
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ayala, Claudia; Hauge, Øyvind; Conradi, Reidar; Franch, Xavier; Li, Jingyue; Velle, Ketil Sandanger
The reuse of Open Source Software components available on the Internet is playing a major role in the development of Component Based Software Systems. Nevertheless, the special nature of the OSS marketplace has taken the “classical” concept of software reuse based on centralized repositories to a completely different arena based on massive reuse over Internet. In this paper we provide an overview of the actual state of the OSS marketplace, and report preliminary findings about how companies interact with this marketplace to reuse OSS components. Such data was gathered from interviews in software companies in Spain and Norway. Based on these results we identify some challenges aimed to improve the industrial reuse of OSS components.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Shah, Anuj; Castleton, Karl J.; Hoopes, Bonnie L.
2004-06-01
The study of the release and effects of chemicals in the environment and their associated risks to humans is central to public and private decision making. FRAMES 1.X, Framework for Risk Analysis in Multimedia Environmental Systems, is a systems modeling software platform, developed by PNNL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, that helps scientists study the release and effects of chemicals on a source to outcome basis, create environmental models for similar risk assessment and management problems. The unique aspect of FRAMES is to dynamically introduce software modules representing individual components of a risk assessment (e.g., source release of contaminants, fate andmore » transport in various environmental media, exposure, etc.) within a software framework, manipulate their attributes and run simulations to obtain results. This paper outlines the fundamental constituents of FRAMES 2.X, an enhanced version of FRAMES 1.X, that greatly improve the ability of the module developers to “plug” their self-developed software modules into the system. The basic design, the underlying principles and a discussion of the guidelines for module developers are presented.« less
The software system development for the TAMU real-time fan beam scatterometer data processors
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Clark, B. V.; Jean, B. R.
1980-01-01
A software package was designed and written to process in real-time any one quadrature channel pair of radar scatterometer signals form the NASA L- or C-Band radar scatterometer systems. The software was successfully tested in the C-Band processor breadboard hardware using recorded radar and NERDAS (NASA Earth Resources Data Annotation System) signals as the input data sources. The processor development program and the overall processor theory of operation and design are described. The real-time processor software system is documented and the results of the laboratory software tests, and recommendations for the efficient application of the data processing capabilities are presented.
Delay Tolerant Networking on NASA's Space Communication and Navigation Testbed
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Johnson, Sandra; Eddy, Wesley
2016-01-01
This presentation covers the status of the implementation of an open source software that implements the specifications developed by the CCSDS Working Group. Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) is open source software and it implements specifications that have been developed by two international working groups through IETF and CCSDS. ION was implemented on the SCaN Testbed, a testbed located on an external pallet on ISS, by the GRC team. The presentation will cover the architecture of the system, high level implementation details, and issues porting ION to VxWorks.
NASA's Earth Imagery Service as Open Source Software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
De Cesare, C.; Alarcon, C.; Huang, T.; Roberts, J. T.; Rodriguez, J.; Cechini, M. F.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.
2016-12-01
The NASA Global Imagery Browse Service (GIBS) is a software system that provides access to an archive of historical and near-real-time Earth imagery from NASA-supported satellite instruments. The imagery itself is open data, and is accessible via standards such as the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)'s Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) protocol. GIBS includes three core software projects: The Imagery Exchange (TIE), OnEarth, and the Meta Raster Format (MRF) project. These projects are developed using a variety of open source software, including: Apache HTTPD, GDAL, Mapserver, Grails, Zookeeper, Eclipse, Maven, git, and Apache Commons. TIE has recently been released for open source, and is now available on GitHub. OnEarth, MRF, and their sub-projects have been on GitHub since 2014, and the MRF project in particular receives many external contributions from the community. Our software has been successful beyond the scope of GIBS: the PO.DAAC State of the Ocean and COVERAGE visualization projects reuse components from OnEarth. The MRF source code has recently been incorporated into GDAL, which is a core library in many widely-used GIS software such as QGIS and GeoServer. This presentation will describe the challenges faced in incorporating open software and open data into GIBS, and also showcase GIBS as a platform on which scientists and the general public can build their own applications.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Leukhin, R. I.; Shaykhutdinov, D. V.; Shirokov, K. M.; Narakidze, N. D.; Vlasov, A. S.
2017-02-01
Developing the experimental design of new electromagnetic constructions types in engineering industry enterprises requires solutions of two major problems: regulator’s parameters setup and comprehensive testing of electromagnets. A weber-ampere characteristic as a data source for electromagnet condition identification was selected. Present article focuses on development and implementation of the software for electromagnetic drive control system based on the weber-ampere characteristic measuring. The software for weber-ampere characteristic data processing based on artificial neural network is developed. Results of the design have been integrated into the program code in LabVIEW environment. The license package of LabVIEW graphic programming was used. The hardware is chosen and possibility of its use for control system implementation was proved. The trained artificial neural network defines electromagnetic drive effector position with minimal error. Developed system allows to control the electromagnetic drive powered by the voltage source, the current source and hybrid sources.
Final Report. Center for Scalable Application Development Software
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Mellor-Crummey, John
2014-10-26
The Center for Scalable Application Development Software (CScADS) was established as a part- nership between Rice University, Argonne National Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, University of Tennessee – Knoxville, and University of Wisconsin – Madison. CScADS pursued an integrated set of activities with the aim of increasing the productivity of DOE computational scientists by catalyzing the development of systems software, libraries, compilers, and tools for leadership computing platforms. Principal Center activities were workshops to engage the research community in the challenges of leadership computing, research and development of open-source software, and work with computational scientists to help them develop codesmore » for leadership computing platforms. This final report summarizes CScADS activities at Rice University in these areas.« less
A component-based software environment for visualizing large macromolecular assemblies.
Sanner, Michel F
2005-03-01
The interactive visualization of large biological assemblies poses a number of challenging problems, including the development of multiresolution representations and new interaction methods for navigating and analyzing these complex systems. An additional challenge is the development of flexible software environments that will facilitate the integration and interoperation of computational models and techniques from a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In this paper, we present a component-based software development strategy centered on the high-level, object-oriented, interpretive programming language: Python. We present several software components, discuss their integration, and describe some of their features that are relevant to the visualization of large molecular assemblies. Several examples are given to illustrate the interoperation of these software components and the integration of structural data from a variety of experimental sources. These examples illustrate how combining visual programming with component-based software development facilitates the rapid prototyping of novel visualization tools.
IQM: An Extensible and Portable Open Source Application for Image and Signal Analysis in Java
Kainz, Philipp; Mayrhofer-Reinhartshuber, Michael; Ahammer, Helmut
2015-01-01
Image and signal analysis applications are substantial in scientific research. Both open source and commercial packages provide a wide range of functions for image and signal analysis, which are sometimes supported very well by the communities in the corresponding fields. Commercial software packages have the major drawback of being expensive and having undisclosed source code, which hampers extending the functionality if there is no plugin interface or similar option available. However, both variants cannot cover all possible use cases and sometimes custom developments are unavoidable, requiring open source applications. In this paper we describe IQM, a completely free, portable and open source (GNU GPLv3) image and signal analysis application written in pure Java. IQM does not depend on any natively installed libraries and is therefore runnable out-of-the-box. Currently, a continuously growing repertoire of 50 image and 16 signal analysis algorithms is provided. The modular functional architecture based on the three-tier model is described along the most important functionality. Extensibility is achieved using operator plugins, and the development of more complex workflows is provided by a Groovy script interface to the JVM. We demonstrate IQM’s image and signal processing capabilities in a proof-of-principle analysis and provide example implementations to illustrate the plugin framework and the scripting interface. IQM integrates with the popular ImageJ image processing software and is aiming at complementing functionality rather than competing with existing open source software. Machine learning can be integrated into more complex algorithms via the WEKA software package as well, enabling the development of transparent and robust methods for image and signal analysis. PMID:25612319
IQM: an extensible and portable open source application for image and signal analysis in Java.
Kainz, Philipp; Mayrhofer-Reinhartshuber, Michael; Ahammer, Helmut
2015-01-01
Image and signal analysis applications are substantial in scientific research. Both open source and commercial packages provide a wide range of functions for image and signal analysis, which are sometimes supported very well by the communities in the corresponding fields. Commercial software packages have the major drawback of being expensive and having undisclosed source code, which hampers extending the functionality if there is no plugin interface or similar option available. However, both variants cannot cover all possible use cases and sometimes custom developments are unavoidable, requiring open source applications. In this paper we describe IQM, a completely free, portable and open source (GNU GPLv3) image and signal analysis application written in pure Java. IQM does not depend on any natively installed libraries and is therefore runnable out-of-the-box. Currently, a continuously growing repertoire of 50 image and 16 signal analysis algorithms is provided. The modular functional architecture based on the three-tier model is described along the most important functionality. Extensibility is achieved using operator plugins, and the development of more complex workflows is provided by a Groovy script interface to the JVM. We demonstrate IQM's image and signal processing capabilities in a proof-of-principle analysis and provide example implementations to illustrate the plugin framework and the scripting interface. IQM integrates with the popular ImageJ image processing software and is aiming at complementing functionality rather than competing with existing open source software. Machine learning can be integrated into more complex algorithms via the WEKA software package as well, enabling the development of transparent and robust methods for image and signal analysis.
Statistics of software vulnerability detection in certification testing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Barabanov, A. V.; Markov, A. S.; Tsirlov, V. L.
2018-05-01
The paper discusses practical aspects of introduction of the methods to detect software vulnerability in the day-to-day activities of the accredited testing laboratory. It presents the approval results of the vulnerability detection methods as part of the study of the open source software and the software that is a test object of the certification tests under information security requirements, including software for communication networks. Results of the study showing the allocation of identified vulnerabilities by types of attacks, country of origin, programming languages used in the development, methods for detecting vulnerability, etc. are given. The experience of foreign information security certification systems related to the detection of certified software vulnerabilities is analyzed. The main conclusion based on the study is the need to implement practices for developing secure software in the development life cycle processes. The conclusions and recommendations for the testing laboratories on the implementation of the vulnerability analysis methods are laid down.
The 2015 Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC 2015)
Harris, Nomi L.; Cock, Peter J. A.; Lapp, Hilmar
2016-01-01
The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of open source software development and open science within the biological research community. Since its inception in 2000, BOSC has provided bioinformatics developers with a forum for communicating the results of their latest efforts to the wider research community. BOSC offers a focused environment for developers and users to interact and share ideas about standards; software development practices; practical techniques for solving bioinformatics problems; and approaches that promote open science and sharing of data, results, and software. BOSC is run as a two-day special interest group (SIG) before the annual Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference. BOSC 2015 took place in Dublin, Ireland, and was attended by over 125 people, about half of whom were first-time attendees. Session topics included “Data Science;” “Standards and Interoperability;” “Open Science and Reproducibility;” “Translational Bioinformatics;” “Visualization;” and “Bioinformatics Open Source Project Updates”. In addition to two keynote talks and dozens of shorter talks chosen from submitted abstracts, BOSC 2015 included a panel, titled “Open Source, Open Door: Increasing Diversity in the Bioinformatics Open Source Community,” that provided an opportunity for open discussion about ways to increase the diversity of participants in BOSC in particular, and in open source bioinformatics in general. The complete program of BOSC 2015 is available online at http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2015_Schedule. PMID:26914653
PFLOTRAN-RepoTREND Source Term Comparison Summary.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Frederick, Jennifer M.
Code inter-comparison studies are useful exercises to verify and benchmark independently developed software to ensure proper function, especially when the software is used to model high-consequence systems which cannot be physically tested in a fully representative environment. This summary describes the results of the first portion of the code inter-comparison between PFLOTRAN and RepoTREND, which compares the radionuclide source term used in a typical performance assessment.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Howison, James
2009-01-01
This dissertation presents evidence that the production of Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is far more alone than together; it is far more often individual work done "in company" than it is teamwork. When tasks appear too large for an individual they are more likely to be deferred until they are easier rather than be undertaken through…
Moody, George B; Mark, Roger G; Goldberger, Ary L
2011-01-01
PhysioNet provides free web access to over 50 collections of recorded physiologic signals and time series, and related open-source software, in support of basic, clinical, and applied research in medicine, physiology, public health, biomedical engineering and computing, and medical instrument design and evaluation. Its three components (PhysioBank, the archive of signals; PhysioToolkit, the software library; and PhysioNetWorks, the virtual laboratory for collaborative development of future PhysioBank data collections and PhysioToolkit software components) connect researchers and students who need physiologic signals and relevant software with researchers who have data and software to share. PhysioNet's annual open engineering challenges stimulate rapid progress on unsolved or poorly solved questions of basic or clinical interest, by focusing attention on achievable solutions that can be evaluated and compared objectively using freely available reference data.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Konnik, Mikhail V.; Welsh, James
2012-09-01
Numerical simulators for adaptive optics systems have become an essential tool for the research and development of the future advanced astronomical instruments. However, growing software code of the numerical simulator makes it difficult to continue to support the code itself. The problem of adequate documentation of the astronomical software for adaptive optics simulators may complicate the development since the documentation must contain up-to-date schemes and mathematical descriptions implemented in the software code. Although most modern programming environments like MATLAB or Octave have in-built documentation abilities, they are often insufficient for the description of a typical adaptive optics simulator code. This paper describes a general cross-platform framework for the documentation of scientific software using open-source tools such as LATEX, mercurial, Doxygen, and Perl. Using the Perl script that translates M-files MATLAB comments into C-like, one can use Doxygen to generate and update the documentation for the scientific source code. The documentation generated by this framework contains the current code description with mathematical formulas, images, and bibliographical references. A detailed description of the framework components is presented as well as the guidelines for the framework deployment. Examples of the code documentation for the scripts and functions of a MATLAB-based adaptive optics simulator are provided.
Are Earth System model software engineering practices fit for purpose? A case study.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Easterbrook, S. M.; Johns, T. C.
2009-04-01
We present some analysis and conclusions from a case study of the culture and practices of scientists at the Met Office and Hadley Centre working on the development of software for climate and Earth System models using the MetUM infrastructure. The study examined how scientists think about software correctness, prioritize their requirements in making changes, and develop a shared understanding of the resulting models. We conclude that highly customized techniques driven strongly by scientific research goals have evolved for verification and validation of such models. In a formal software engineering context these represents costly, but invaluable, software integration tests with considerable benefits. The software engineering practices seen also exhibit recognisable features of both agile and open source software development projects - self-organisation of teams consistent with a meritocracy rather than top-down organisation, extensive use of informal communication channels, and software developers who are generally also users and science domain experts. We draw some general conclusions on whether these practices work well, and what new software engineering challenges may lie ahead as Earth System models become ever more complex and petascale computing becomes the norm.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Buford, James A., Jr.; Cosby, David; Bunfield, Dennis H.; Mayhall, Anthony J.; Trimble, Darian E.
2007-04-01
AMRDEC has successfully tested hardware and software for Real-Time Scene Generation for IR and SAL Sensors on COTS PC based hardware and video cards. AMRDEC personnel worked with nVidia and Concurrent Computer Corporation to develop a Scene Generation system capable of frame rates of at least 120Hz while frame locked to an external source (such as a missile seeker) with no dropped frames. Latency measurements and image validation were performed using COTS and in-house developed hardware and software. Software for the Scene Generation system was developed using OpenSceneGraph.
Weather forecasting with open source software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rautenhaus, Marc; Dörnbrack, Andreas
2013-04-01
To forecast the weather situation during aircraft-based atmospheric field campaigns, we employ a tool chain of existing and self-developed open source software tools and open standards. Of particular value are the Python programming language with its extension libraries NumPy, SciPy, PyQt4, Matplotlib and the basemap toolkit, the NetCDF standard with the Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata conventions, and the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service standard. These open source libraries and open standards helped to implement the "Mission Support System", a Web Map Service based tool to support weather forecasting and flight planning during field campaigns. The tool has been implemented in Python and has also been released as open source (Rautenhaus et al., Geosci. Model Dev., 5, 55-71, 2012). In this presentation we discuss the usage of free and open source software for weather forecasting in the context of research flight planning, and highlight how the field campaign work benefits from using open source tools and open standards.
Improving Software Sustainability: Lessons Learned from Profiles in Science.
Gallagher, Marie E
2013-01-01
The Profiles in Science® digital library features digitized surrogates of historical items selected from the archival collections of the U.S. National Library of Medicine as well as collaborating institutions. In addition, it contains a database of descriptive, technical and administrative metadata. It also contains various software components that allow creation of the metadata, management of the digital items, and access to the items and metadata through the Profiles in Science Web site [1]. The choices made building the digital library were designed to maximize the sustainability and long-term survival of all of the components of the digital library [2]. For example, selecting standard and open digital file formats rather than proprietary formats increases the sustainability of the digital files [3]. Correspondingly, using non-proprietary software may improve the sustainability of the software--either through in-house expertise or through the open source community. Limiting our digital library software exclusively to open source software or to software developed in-house has not been feasible. For example, we have used proprietary operating systems, scanning software, a search engine, and office productivity software. We did this when either lack of essential capabilities or the cost-benefit trade-off favored using proprietary software. We also did so knowing that in the future we would need to replace or upgrade some of our proprietary software, analogous to migrating from an obsolete digital file format to a new format as the technological landscape changes. Since our digital library's start in 1998, all of its software has been upgraded or replaced, but the digitized items have not yet required migration to other formats. Technological changes that compelled us to replace proprietary software included the cost of product licensing, product support, incompatibility with other software, prohibited use due to evolving security policies, and product abandonment. Sometimes these changes happen on short notice, so we continually monitor our library's software for signs of endangerment. We have attempted to replace proprietary software with suitable in-house or open source software. When the replacement involves a standalone piece of software with a nearly equivalent version, such as replacing a commercial HTTP server with an open source HTTP server, the replacement is straightforward. Recently we replaced software that functioned not only as our search engine but also as the backbone of the architecture of our Web site. In this paper, we describe the lessons learned and the pros and cons of replacing this software with open source software.
Ensemble: an Architecture for Mission-Operations Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Norris, Jeffrey; Powell, Mark; Fox, Jason; Rabe, Kenneth; Shu, IHsiang; McCurdy, Michael; Vera, Alonso
2008-01-01
Ensemble is the name of an open architecture for, and a methodology for the development of, spacecraft mission operations software. Ensemble is also potentially applicable to the development of non-spacecraft mission-operations- type software. Ensemble capitalizes on the strengths of the open-source Eclipse software and its architecture to address several issues that have arisen repeatedly in the development of mission-operations software: Heretofore, mission-operations application programs have been developed in disparate programming environments and integrated during the final stages of development of missions. The programs have been poorly integrated, and it has been costly to develop, test, and deploy them. Users of each program have been forced to interact with several different graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Also, the strategy typically used in integrating the programs has yielded serial chains of operational software tools of such a nature that during use of a given tool, it has not been possible to gain access to the capabilities afforded by other tools. In contrast, the Ensemble approach offers a low-risk path towards tighter integration of mission-operations software tools.
A Tale of Two Observing Systems: Interoperability in the World of Microsoft Windows
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Babin, B. L.; Hu, L.
2008-12-01
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium's (LUMCON) and Dauphin Island Sea Lab's (DISL) Environmental Monitoring System provide a unified coastal ocean observing system. These two systems are mirrored to maintain autonomy while offering an integrated data sharing environment. Both systems collect data via Campbell Scientific Data loggers, store the data in Microsoft SQL servers, and disseminate the data in real- time on the World Wide Web via Microsoft Internet Information Servers and Active Server Pages (ASP). The utilization of Microsoft Windows technologies presented many challenges to these observing systems as open source tools for interoperability grow. The current open source tools often require the installation of additional software. In order to make data available through common standards formats, "home grown" software has been developed. One example of this is the development of software to generate xml files for transmission to the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). OOSTethys partners develop, test and implement easy-to-use, open-source, OGC-compliant software., and have created a working prototype of networked, semantically interoperable, real-time data systems. Partnering with OOSTethys, we are developing a cookbook to implement OGC web services. The implementation will be written in ASP, will run in a Microsoft operating system environment, and will serve data via Sensor Observation Services (SOS). This cookbook will give observing systems running Microsoft Windows the tools to easily participate in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Oceans Interoperability Experiment (OCEANS IE).
The Consumer Juggernaut: Web-Based and Mobile Applications as Innovation Pioneer
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Messerschmitt, David G.
As happened previously in electronics, software targeted at consumers is increasingly the focus of investment and innovation. Some of the areas where it is leading is animated interfaces, treating users as a community, audio and video information, software as a service, agile software development, and the integration of business models with software design. As a risk-taking and experimental market, and as a source of ideas, consumer software can benefit other areas of applications software. The influence of consumer software can be magnified by research into the internal organizations and processes of the innovative firms at its foundation.
Experimental research control software system
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cohn, I. A.; Kovalenko, A. G.; Vystavkin, A. N.
2014-05-01
A software system, intended for automation of a small scale research, has been developed. The software allows one to control equipment, acquire and process data by means of simple scripts. The main purpose of that development is to increase experiment automation easiness, thus significantly reducing experimental setup automation efforts. In particular, minimal programming skills are required and supervisors have no reviewing troubles. Interactions between scripts and equipment are managed automatically, thus allowing to run multiple scripts simultaneously. Unlike well-known data acquisition commercial software systems, the control is performed by an imperative scripting language. This approach eases complex control and data acquisition algorithms implementation. A modular interface library performs interaction with external interfaces. While most widely used interfaces are already implemented, a simple framework is developed for fast implementations of new software and hardware interfaces. While the software is in continuous development with new features being implemented, it is already used in our laboratory for automation of a helium-3 cryostat control and data acquisition. The software is open source and distributed under Gnu Public License.
A Padawan Programmer's Guide to Developing Software Libraries.
Yurkovich, James T; Yurkovich, Benjamin J; Dräger, Andreas; Palsson, Bernhard O; King, Zachary A
2017-11-22
With the rapid adoption of computational tools in the life sciences, scientists are taking on the challenge of developing their own software libraries and releasing them for public use. This trend is being accelerated by popular technologies and platforms, such as GitHub, Jupyter, R/Shiny, that make it easier to develop scientific software and by open-source licenses that make it easier to release software. But how do you build a software library that people will use? And what characteristics do the best libraries have that make them enduringly popular? Here, we provide a reference guide, based on our own experiences, for developing software libraries along with real-world examples to help provide context for scientists who are learning about these concepts for the first time. While we can only scratch the surface of these topics, we hope that this article will act as a guide for scientists who want to write great software that is built to last. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ames, D. P.; Kadlec, J.; Cao, Y.; Grover, D.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Whiteaker, T.; Goodall, J. L.; Valentine, D. W.
2010-12-01
A growing number of hydrologic information servers are being deployed by government agencies, university networks, and individual researchers using the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS). The CUAHSI HIS Project has developed a standard software stack, called HydroServer, for publishing hydrologic observations data. It includes the Observations Data Model (ODM) database and Water Data Service web services, which together enable publication of data on the Internet in a standard format called Water Markup Language (WaterML). Metadata describing available datasets hosted on these servers is compiled within a central metadata catalog called HIS Central at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and is searchable through a set of predefined web services based queries. Together, these servers and central catalog service comprise a federated HIS of a scale and comprehensiveness never previously available. This presentation will briefly review/introduce the CUAHSI HIS system with special focus on a new HIS software tool called "HydroDesktop" and the open source software development web portal, www.HydroDesktop.org, which supports community development and maintenance of the software. HydroDesktop is a client-side, desktop software application that acts as a search and discovery tool for exploring the distributed network of HydroServers, downloading specific data series, visualizing and summarizing data series and exporting these to formats needed for analysis by external software. HydroDesktop is based on the open source DotSpatial GIS developer toolkit which provides it with map-based data interaction and visualization, and a plug-in interface that can be used by third party developers and researchers to easily extend the software using Microsoft .NET programming languages. HydroDesktop plug-ins that are presently available or currently under development within the project and by third party collaborators include functions for data search and discovery, extensive graphing, data editing and export, HydroServer exploration, integration with the OpenMI workflow and modeling system, and an interface for data analysis through the R statistical package.
Software Selection: A Primer on Source and Evaluation.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Burston, Jack
2003-01-01
Provides guidance on making decisions regarding the selection of foreign language instructional software. Identifies sources of foreign language software, indicates sources of foreign language software reviews, and outlines essential procedures of software evaluation. (Author/VWL)
A Stigmergy Approach for Open Source Software Developer Community Simulation
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Cui, Xiaohui; Beaver, Justin M; Potok, Thomas E
2009-01-01
The stigmergy collaboration approach provides a hypothesized explanation about how online groups work together. In this research, we presented a stigmergy approach for building an agent based open source software (OSS) developer community collaboration simulation. We used group of actors who collaborate on OSS projects as our frame of reference and investigated how the choices actors make in contribution their work on the projects determinate the global status of the whole OSS projects. In our simulation, the forum posts and project codes served as the digital pheromone and the modified Pierre-Paul Grasse pheromone model is used for computing developer agentmore » behaviors selection probability.« less
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meerbaum-Salant, Orni; Hazzan, Orit
2009-01-01
This paper focuses on challenges in mentoring software development projects in the high school and analyzes difficulties encountered by Computer Science teachers in the mentoring process according to Shulman's Teacher Knowledge Base Model. The main difficulties that emerged from the data analysis belong to the following knowledge sources of…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Anderson, R. B.; Clegg, S. M.; Graff, T.; Morris, R. V.; Laura, J.
2015-06-01
We describe plans to generate a database of LIBS spectra of planetary analog materials and develop free, open-source software to enable the planetary community to analyze LIBS (and other spectral) data.
Dang, Catherine; Phuong, Thomas; Beddag, Mahmoud; Vega, Anabel; Denis, Céline
2018-07-01
To present a data model for clinical legal medicine and the software based on that data model for both practitioners and researchers. The main functionalities of the presented software are computer-assisted production of medical certificates and data capture, storage and retrieval. The data model and the software were jointly developed by the department of forensic medicine of the Jean Verdier Hospital (Bondy, France) and an bioinformatics laboratory (LIMICS, Paris universities 6-13) between November 2015 and May 2016. The data model was built based on four sources: i) a template used in our department for producing standardised medical certificates; ii) a random sample of medical certificates produced by the forensic department; iii) anterior consensus between four healthcare professionals (two forensic practitioners, a psychologist and a forensic psychiatrist) and iv) anatomical dictionaries. The trial version of the open source software was first designed for examination of physical assault survivors. An UML-like data model dedicated to clinical legal practice was built. The data model describes the terminology for examinations of sexual assault survivors, physical assault survivors, individuals kept in police custody and undocumented migrants for age estimation. A trial version of a software relying on the data model was developed and tested by three physicians. The software allows files archiving, standardised data collection, extraction and assistance for certificate generation. It can be used for research purpose, by data exchange and analysis. Despite some current limitations of use, it is a tool which can be shared and used by other departments of forensic medicine and other specialties, improving data management and exploitation. Full integration with external sources, analytics software and use of a semantic interoperability framework are planned for the next months. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.
Open Source Seismic Software in NOAA's Next Generation Tsunami Warning System
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hellman, S. B.; Baker, B. I.; Hagerty, M. T.; Leifer, J. M.; Lisowski, S.; Thies, D. A.; Donnelly, B. K.; Griffith, F. P.
2014-12-01
The Tsunami Information technology Modernization (TIM) is a project spearheaded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to update the United States' Tsunami Warning System software currently employed at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (Eva Beach, Hawaii) and the National Tsunami Warning Center (Palmer, Alaska). This entirely open source software project will integrate various seismic processing utilities with the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office's core software, AWIPS2. For the real-time and near real-time seismic processing aspect of this project, NOAA has elected to integrate the open source portions of GFZ's SeisComP 3 (SC3) processing system into AWIPS2. To provide for better tsunami threat assessments we are developing open source tools for magnitude estimations (e.g., moment magnitude, energy magnitude, surface wave magnitude), detection of slow earthquakes with the Theta discriminant, moment tensor inversions (e.g. W-phase and teleseismic body waves), finite fault inversions, and array processing. With our reliance on common data formats such as QuakeML and seismic community standard messaging systems, all new facilities introduced into AWIPS2 and SC3 will be available as stand-alone tools or could be easily integrated into other real time seismic monitoring systems such as Earthworm, Antelope, etc. Additionally, we have developed a template based design paradigm so that the developer or scientist can efficiently create upgrades, replacements, and/or new metrics to the seismic data processing with only a cursory knowledge of the underlying SC3.
OrChem - An open source chemistry search engine for Oracle(R).
Rijnbeek, Mark; Steinbeck, Christoph
2009-10-22
Registration, indexing and searching of chemical structures in relational databases is one of the core areas of cheminformatics. However, little detail has been published on the inner workings of search engines and their development has been mostly closed-source. We decided to develop an open source chemistry extension for Oracle, the de facto database platform in the commercial world. Here we present OrChem, an extension for the Oracle 11G database that adds registration and indexing of chemical structures to support fast substructure and similarity searching. The cheminformatics functionality is provided by the Chemistry Development Kit. OrChem provides similarity searching with response times in the order of seconds for databases with millions of compounds, depending on a given similarity cut-off. For substructure searching, it can make use of multiple processor cores on today's powerful database servers to provide fast response times in equally large data sets. OrChem is free software and can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. All software is available via http://orchem.sourceforge.net.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Engel, P.; Schweimler, B.
2016-04-01
The deformation monitoring of structures and buildings is an important task field of modern engineering surveying, ensuring the standing and reliability of supervised objects over a long period. Several commercial hardware and software solutions for the realization of such monitoring measurements are available on the market. In addition to them, a research team at the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences (NUAS) is actively developing a software package for monitoring purposes in geodesy and geotechnics, which is distributed under an open source licence and free of charge. The task of managing an open source project is well-known in computer science, but it is fairly new in a geodetic context. This paper contributes to that issue by detailing applications, frameworks, and interfaces for the design and implementation of open hardware and software solutions for sensor control, sensor networks, and data management in automatic deformation monitoring. It will be discussed how the development effort of networked applications can be reduced by using free programming tools, cloud computing technologies, and rapid prototyping methods.
An overview of the Hadoop/MapReduce/HBase framework and its current applications in bioinformatics
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Taylor, Ronald C.
Bioinformatics researchers are increasingly confronted with analysis of ultra large-scale data sets, a problem that will only increase at an alarming rate in coming years. Recent developments in open source software, that is, the Hadoop project and associated software, provide a foundation for scaling to petabyte scale data warehouses on Linux clusters, providing fault-tolerant parallelized analysis on such data using a programming style named MapReduce. An overview is given of the current usage within the bioinformatics community of Hadoop, a top-level Apache Software Foundation project, and of associated open source software projects. The concepts behind Hadoop and the associated HBasemore » project are defined, and current bioinformatics software that employ Hadoop is described. The focus is on next-generation sequencing, as the leading application area to date.« less
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mahmot, Ron; Koslosky, John T.; Beach, Edward; Schwarz, Barbara
1994-01-01
The Mission Operations Division (MOD) at Goddard Space Flight Center builds Mission Operations Centers which are used by Flight Operations Teams to monitor and control satellites. Reducing system life cycle costs through software reuse has always been a priority of the MOD. The MOD's Transportable Payload Operations Control Center development team established an extensive library of 14 subsystems with over 100,000 delivered source instructions of reusable, generic software components. Nine TPOCC-based control centers to date support 11 satellites and achieved an average software reuse level of more than 75 percent. This paper shares experiences of how the TPOCC building blocks were developed and how building block developer's, mission development teams, and users are all part of the process.
WILDFIRE IGNITION RESISTANCE ESTIMATOR WIZARD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT REPORT
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Phillips, M.; Robinson, C.; Gupta, N.
2012-10-10
This report describes the development of a software tool, entitled “WildFire Ignition Resistance Estimator Wizard” (WildFIRE Wizard, Version 2.10). This software was developed within the Wildfire Ignition Resistant Home Design (WIRHD) program, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, Infrastructure Protection & Disaster Management Division. WildFIRE Wizard is a tool that enables homeowners to take preventive actions that will reduce their home’s vulnerability to wildfire ignition sources (i.e., embers, radiant heat, and direct flame impingement) well in advance of a wildfire event. This report describes the development of the software, its operation, its technicalmore » basis and calculations, and steps taken to verify its performance.« less
RINGMesh: A programming library for developing mesh-based geomodeling applications
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pellerin, Jeanne; Botella, Arnaud; Bonneau, François; Mazuyer, Antoine; Chauvin, Benjamin; Lévy, Bruno; Caumon, Guillaume
2017-07-01
RINGMesh is a C++ open-source programming library for manipulating discretized geological models. It is designed to ease the development of applications and workflows that use discretized 3D models. It is neither a geomodeler, nor a meshing software. RINGMesh implements functionalities to read discretized surface-based or volumetric structural models and to check their validity. The models can be then exported in various file formats. RINGMesh provides data structures to represent geological structural models, either defined by their discretized boundary surfaces, and/or by discretized volumes. A programming interface allows to develop of new geomodeling methods, and to plug in external software. The goal of RINGMesh is to help researchers to focus on the implementation of their specific method rather than on tedious tasks common to many applications. The documented code is open-source and distributed under the modified BSD license. It is available at https://www.ring-team.org/index.php/software/ringmesh.
An efficient approach to the deployment of complex open source information systems
Cong, Truong Van Chi; Groeneveld, Eildert
2011-01-01
Complex open source information systems are usually implemented as component-based software to inherit the available functionality of existing software packages developed by third parties. Consequently, the deployment of these systems not only requires the installation of operating system, application framework and the configuration of services but also needs to resolve the dependencies among components. The problem becomes more challenging when the application must be installed and used on different platforms such as Linux and Windows. To address this, an efficient approach using the virtualization technology is suggested and discussed in this paper. The approach has been applied in our project to deploy a web-based integrated information system in molecular genetics labs. It is a low-cost solution to benefit both software developers and end-users. PMID:22102770
Strengthening Software Authentication with the ROSE Software Suite
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
White, G
2006-06-15
Many recent nonproliferation and arms control software projects include a software authentication regime. These include U.S. Government-sponsored projects both in the United States and in the Russian Federation (RF). This trend toward requiring software authentication is only accelerating. Demonstrating assurance that software performs as expected without hidden ''backdoors'' is crucial to a project's success. In this context, ''authentication'' is defined as determining that a software package performs only its intended purpose and performs said purpose correctly and reliably over the planned duration of an agreement. In addition to visual inspections by knowledgeable computer scientists, automated tools are needed to highlightmore » suspicious code constructs, both to aid visual inspection and to guide program development. While many commercial tools are available for portions of the authentication task, they are proprietary and not extensible. An open-source, extensible tool can be customized to the unique needs of each project (projects can have both common and custom rules to detect flaws and security holes). Any such extensible tool has to be based on a complete language compiler. ROSE is precisely such a compiler infrastructure developed within the Department of Energy (DOE) and targeted at the optimization of scientific applications and user-defined libraries within large-scale applications (typically applications of a million lines of code). ROSE is a robust, source-to-source analysis and optimization infrastructure currently addressing large, million-line DOE applications in C and C++ (handling the full C, C99, C++ languages and with current collaborations to support Fortran90). We propose to extend ROSE to address a number of security-specific requirements, and apply it to software authentication for nonproliferation and arms control projects.« less
The SCEC Broadband Platform: Open-Source Software for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Goulet, C.; Silva, F.; Maechling, P. J.; Callaghan, S.; Jordan, T. H.
2015-12-01
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP) is a carefully integrated collection of open-source scientific software programs that can simulate broadband (0-100Hz) ground motions for earthquakes at regional scales. The BBP scientific software modules implement kinematic rupture generation, low and high-frequency seismogram synthesis using wave propagation through 1D layered velocity structures, seismogram ground motion amplitude calculations, and goodness of fit measurements. These modules are integrated into a software system that provides user-defined, repeatable, calculation of ground motion seismograms, using multiple alternative ground motion simulation methods, and software utilities that can generate plots, charts, and maps. The BBP has been developed over the last five years in a collaborative scientific, engineering, and software development project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and SCEC scientific software developers. The BBP can run earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to simulate ground motions for well-observed historical earthquakes and to quantify how well the simulated broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms. The BBP can also run simulations for hypothetical earthquakes. In this case, users input an earthquake location and magnitude description, a list of station locations, and a 1D velocity model for the region of interest, and the BBP software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. The SCEC BBP software released in 2015 can be compiled and run on recent Linux systems with GNU compilers. It includes 5 simulation methods, 7 simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, the ability to compare simulation results against GMPEs, updated ground motion simulation methods, and a simplified command line user interface.
Data Mining Meets HCI: Making Sense of Large Graphs
2012-07-01
graph algo- rithms, won the Open Source Software World Challenge, Silver Award. We have released Pegasus as free , open-source software, downloaded by...METIS [77], spectral clustering [108], and the parameter- free “Cross-associations” (CA) [26]. Belief Propagation can also be used for clus- tering, as...number of tools have been developed to support “ landscape ” views of information. These include WebBook and Web- Forager [23], which use a book metaphor
Transformation Systems at NASA Ames
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Buntine, Wray; Fischer, Bernd; Havelund, Klaus; Lowry, Michael; Pressburger, TOm; Roach, Steve; Robinson, Peter; VanBaalen, Jeffrey
1999-01-01
In this paper, we describe the experiences of the Automated Software Engineering Group at the NASA Ames Research Center in the development and application of three different transformation systems. The systems span the entire technology range, from deductive synthesis, to logic-based transformation, to almost compiler-like source-to-source transformation. These systems also span a range of NASA applications, including solving solar system geometry problems, generating data analysis software, and analyzing multi-threaded Java code.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Georgiev, Bozhidar; Georgieva, Adriana
2013-12-01
In this paper, are presented some possibilities concerning the implementation of a test-driven development as a programming method. Here is offered a different point of view for creation of advanced programming techniques (build tests before programming source with all necessary software tools and modules respectively). Therefore, this nontraditional approach for easier programmer's work through building tests at first is preferable way of software development. This approach allows comparatively simple programming (applied with different object-oriented programming languages as for example JAVA, XML, PYTHON etc.). It is predictable way to develop software tools and to provide help about creating better software that is also easier to maintain. Test-driven programming is able to replace more complicated casual paradigms, used by many programmers.
Development of Cross-Platform Software for Well Logging Data Visualization
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Akhmadulin, R. K.; Miraev, A. I.
2017-07-01
Well logging data processing is one of the main sources of information in the oil-gas field analysis and is of great importance in the process of its development and operation. Therefore, it is important to have the software which would accurately and clearly provide the user with processed data in the form of well logs. In this work, there have been developed a software product which not only has the basic functionality for this task (loading data from .las files, well log curves display, etc.), but can be run in different operating systems and on different devices. In the article a subject field analysis and task formulation have been performed, and the software design stage has been considered. At the end of the work the resulting software product interface has been described.
OpenFLUID: an open-source software environment for modelling fluxes in landscapes
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fabre, Jean-Christophe; Rabotin, Michaël; Crevoisier, David; Libres, Aline; Dagès, Cécile; Moussa, Roger; Lagacherie, Philippe; Raclot, Damien; Voltz, Marc
2013-04-01
Integrative landscape functioning has become a common concept in environmental management. Landscapes are complex systems where many processes interact in time and space. In agro-ecosystems, these processes are mainly physical processes, including hydrological-processes, biological processes and human activities. Modelling such systems requires an interdisciplinary approach, coupling models coming from different disciplines, developed by different teams. In order to support collaborative works, involving many models coupled in time and space for integrative simulations, an open software modelling platform is a relevant answer. OpenFLUID is an open source software platform for modelling landscape functioning, mainly focused on spatial fluxes. It provides an advanced object-oriented architecture allowing to i) couple models developed de novo or from existing source code, and which are dynamically plugged to the platform, ii) represent landscapes as hierarchical graphs, taking into account multi-scale, spatial heterogeneities and landscape objects connectivity, iii) run and explore simulations in many ways : using the OpenFLUID software interfaces for users (command line interface, graphical user interface), or using external applications such as GNU R through the provided ROpenFLUID package. OpenFLUID is developed in C++ and relies on open source libraries only (Boost, libXML2, GLib/GTK, OGR/GDAL, …). For modelers and developers, OpenFLUID provides a dedicated environment for model development, which is based on an open source toolchain, including the Eclipse editor, the GCC compiler and the CMake build system. OpenFLUID is distributed under the GPLv3 open source license, with a special exception allowing to plug existing models licensed under any license. It is clearly in the spirit of sharing knowledge and favouring collaboration in a community of modelers. OpenFLUID has been involved in many research applications, such as modelling of hydrological network transfer, diagnosis and prediction of water quality taking into account human activities, study of the effect of spatial organization on hydrological fluxes, modelling of surface-subsurface water exchanges, … At LISAH research unit, OpenFLUID is the supporting development platform of the MHYDAS model, which is a distributed model for agrosystems (Moussa et al., 2002, Hydrological Processes, 16, 393-412). OpenFLUID web site : http://www.openfluid-project.org
GWAMA: software for genome-wide association meta-analysis.
Mägi, Reedik; Morris, Andrew P
2010-05-28
Despite the recent success of genome-wide association studies in identifying novel loci contributing effects to complex human traits, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, much of the genetic component of variation in these phenotypes remains unexplained. One way to improving power to detect further novel loci is through meta-analysis of studies from the same population, increasing the sample size over any individual study. Although statistical software analysis packages incorporate routines for meta-analysis, they are ill equipped to meet the challenges of the scale and complexity of data generated in genome-wide association studies. We have developed flexible, open-source software for the meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. The software incorporates a variety of error trapping facilities, and provides a range of meta-analysis summary statistics. The software is distributed with scripts that allow simple formatting of files containing the results of each association study and generate graphical summaries of genome-wide meta-analysis results. The GWAMA (Genome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis) software has been developed to perform meta-analysis of summary statistics generated from genome-wide association studies of dichotomous phenotypes or quantitative traits. Software with source files, documentation and example data files are freely available online at http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/GWAMA.
The 2006 NESCent Phyloinformatics Hackathon: A Field Report
Lapp, Hilmar; Bala, Sendu; Balhoff, James P.; Bouck, Amy; Goto, Naohisa; Holder, Mark; Holland, Richard; Holloway, Alisha; Katayama, Toshiaki; Lewis, Paul O.; Mackey, Aaron J.; Osborne, Brian I.; Piel, William H.; Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L.; Poon, Art F.Y.; Qiu, Wei-Gang; Stajich, Jason E.; Stoltzfus, Arlin; Thierer, Tobias; Vilella, Albert J.; Vos, Rutger A.; Zmasek, Christian M.; Zwickl, Derrick J.; Vision, Todd J.
2007-01-01
In December, 2006, a group of 26 software developers from some of the most widely used life science programming toolkits and phylogenetic software projects converged on Durham, North Carolina, for a Phyloinformatics Hackathon, an intense five-day collaborative software coding event sponsored by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). The goal was to help researchers to integrate multiple phylogenetic software tools into automated workflows. Participants addressed deficiencies in interoperability between programs by implementing “glue code” and improving support for phylogenetic data exchange standards (particularly NEXUS) across the toolkits. The work was guided by use-cases compiled in advance by both developers and users, and the code was documented as it was developed. The resulting software is freely available for both users and developers through incorporation into the distributions of several widely-used open-source toolkits. We explain the motivation for the hackathon, how it was organized, and discuss some of the outcomes and lessons learned. We conclude that hackathons are an effective mode of solving problems in software interoperability and usability, and are underutilized in scientific software development.
Software Certification - Coding, Code, and Coders
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Havelund, Klaus; Holzmann, Gerard J.
2011-01-01
We describe a certification approach for software development that has been adopted at our organization. JPL develops robotic spacecraft for the exploration of the solar system. The flight software that controls these spacecraft is considered to be mission critical. We argue that the goal of a software certification process cannot be the development of "perfect" software, i.e., software that can be formally proven to be correct under all imaginable and unimaginable circumstances. More realistically, the goal is to guarantee a software development process that is conducted by knowledgeable engineers, who follow generally accepted procedures to control known risks, while meeting agreed upon standards of workmanship. We target three specific issues that must be addressed in such a certification procedure: the coding process, the code that is developed, and the skills of the coders. The coding process is driven by standards (e.g., a coding standard) and tools. The code is mechanically checked against the standard with the help of state-of-the-art static source code analyzers. The coders, finally, are certified in on-site training courses that include formal exams.
PLUS: open-source toolkit for ultrasound-guided intervention systems.
Lasso, Andras; Heffter, Tamas; Rankin, Adam; Pinter, Csaba; Ungi, Tamas; Fichtinger, Gabor
2014-10-01
A variety of advanced image analysis methods have been under the development for ultrasound-guided interventions. Unfortunately, the transition from an image analysis algorithm to clinical feasibility trials as part of an intervention system requires integration of many components, such as imaging and tracking devices, data processing algorithms, and visualization software. The objective of our paper is to provide a freely available open-source software platform-PLUS: Public software Library for Ultrasound-to facilitate rapid prototyping of ultrasound-guided intervention systems for translational clinical research. PLUS provides a variety of methods for interventional tool pose and ultrasound image acquisition from a wide range of tracking and imaging devices, spatial and temporal calibration, volume reconstruction, simulated image generation, and recording and live streaming of the acquired data. This paper introduces PLUS, explains its functionality and architecture, and presents typical uses and performance in ultrasound-guided intervention systems. PLUS fulfills the essential requirements for the development of ultrasound-guided intervention systems and it aspires to become a widely used translational research prototyping platform. PLUS is freely available as open source software under BSD license and can be downloaded from http://www.plustoolkit.org.
Automation for System Safety Analysis
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Malin, Jane T.; Fleming, Land; Throop, David; Thronesbery, Carroll; Flores, Joshua; Bennett, Ted; Wennberg, Paul
2009-01-01
This presentation describes work to integrate a set of tools to support early model-based analysis of failures and hazards due to system-software interactions. The tools perform and assist analysts in the following tasks: 1) extract model parts from text for architecture and safety/hazard models; 2) combine the parts with library information to develop the models for visualization and analysis; 3) perform graph analysis and simulation to identify and evaluate possible paths from hazard sources to vulnerable entities and functions, in nominal and anomalous system-software configurations and scenarios; and 4) identify resulting candidate scenarios for software integration testing. There has been significant technical progress in model extraction from Orion program text sources, architecture model derivation (components and connections) and documentation of extraction sources. Models have been derived from Internal Interface Requirements Documents (IIRDs) and FMEA documents. Linguistic text processing is used to extract model parts and relationships, and the Aerospace Ontology also aids automated model development from the extracted information. Visualizations of these models assist analysts in requirements overview and in checking consistency and completeness.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Kumazaki, Y; Miyaura, K; Hirai, R
2015-06-15
Purpose: To develop a High Dose Rate Brachytherapy (HDR-BT) quality assurance (QA) tool for verification of source position with Oncentra applicator modeling, and to report the results of radiation source positions with this tool. Methods: We developed a HDR-BT QA phantom and automated analysis software for verification of source position with Oncentra applicator modeling for the Fletcher applicator used in the MicroSelectron HDR system. This tool is intended for end-to-end tests that mimic the clinical 3D image-guided brachytherapy (3D-IGBT) workflow. The phantom is a 30x30x3 cm cuboid phantom with radiopaque markers, which are inserted into the phantom to evaluate applicatormore » tips and reference source positions; positions are laterally shifted 10 mm from the applicator axis. The markers are lead-based and scatter radiation to expose the films. Gafchromic RTQA2 films are placed on the applicators. The phantom includes spaces to embed the applicators. The source position is determined as the distance between the exposed source position and center position of two pairs of the first radiopaque markers. We generated a 3D-IGBT plan with applicator modeling. The first source position was 6 mm from the applicator tips, and the second source position was 10 mm from the first source position. Results: All source positions were consistent with the exposed positions within 1 mm for all Fletcher applicators using in-house software. Moreover, the distance between source positions was in good agreement with the reference distance. Applicator offset, determined as the distance from the applicator tips at the first source position in the treatment planning system, was accurate. Conclusion: Source position accuracy of applicator modeling used in 3D-IGBT was acceptable. This phantom and software will be useful as a HDR-BT QA tool for verification of source position with Oncentra applicator modeling.« less
An open source platform for multi-scale spatially distributed simulations of microbial ecosystems
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Segre, Daniel
2014-08-14
The goal of this project was to develop a tool for facilitating simulation, validation and discovery of multiscale dynamical processes in microbial ecosystems. This led to the development of an open-source software platform for Computation Of Microbial Ecosystems in Time and Space (COMETS). COMETS performs spatially distributed time-dependent flux balance based simulations of microbial metabolism. Our plan involved building the software platform itself, calibrating and testing it through comparison with experimental data, and integrating simulations and experiments to address important open questions on the evolution and dynamics of cross-feeding interactions between microbial species.
Genoviz Software Development Kit: Java tool kit for building genomics visualization applications.
Helt, Gregg A; Nicol, John W; Erwin, Ed; Blossom, Eric; Blanchard, Steven G; Chervitz, Stephen A; Harmon, Cyrus; Loraine, Ann E
2009-08-25
Visualization software can expose previously undiscovered patterns in genomic data and advance biological science. The Genoviz Software Development Kit (SDK) is an open source, Java-based framework designed for rapid assembly of visualization software applications for genomics. The Genoviz SDK framework provides a mechanism for incorporating adaptive, dynamic zooming into applications, a desirable feature of genome viewers. Visualization capabilities of the Genoviz SDK include automated layout of features along genetic or genomic axes; support for user interactions with graphical elements (Glyphs) in a map; a variety of Glyph sub-classes that promote experimentation with new ways of representing data in graphical formats; and support for adaptive, semantic zooming, whereby objects change their appearance depending on zoom level and zooming rate adapts to the current scale. Freely available demonstration and production quality applications, including the Integrated Genome Browser, illustrate Genoviz SDK capabilities. Separation between graphics components and genomic data models makes it easy for developers to add visualization capability to pre-existing applications or build new applications using third-party data models. Source code, documentation, sample applications, and tutorials are available at http://genoviz.sourceforge.net/.
Certification of COTS Software in NASA Human Rated Flight Systems
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Goforth, Andre
2012-01-01
Adoption of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products in safety critical systems has been seen as a promising acquisition strategy to improve mission affordability and, yet, has come with significant barriers and challenges. Attempts to integrate COTS software components into NASA human rated flight systems have been, for the most part, complicated by verification and validation (V&V) requirements necessary for flight certification per NASA s own standards. For software that is from COTS sources, and, in general from 3rd party sources, either commercial, government, modified or open source, the expectation is that it meets the same certification criteria as those used for in-house and that it does so as if it were built in-house. The latter is a critical and hidden issue. This paper examines the longstanding barriers and challenges in the use of 3rd party software in safety critical systems and cover recent efforts to use COTS software in NASA s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) project. It identifies some core artifacts that without them, the use of COTS and 3rd party software is, for all practical purposes, a nonstarter for affordable and timely insertion into flight critical systems. The paper covers the first use in a flight critical system by NASA of COTS software that has prior FAA certification heritage, which was shown to meet the RTCA-DO-178B standard, and how this certification may, in some cases, be leveraged to allow the use of analysis in lieu of testing. Finally, the paper proposes the establishment of an open source forum for development of safety critical 3rd party software.
Prior, Fred W; Erickson, Bradley J; Tarbox, Lawrence
2007-11-01
The Cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG) program was created by the National Cancer Institute to facilitate sharing of IT infrastructure, data, and applications among the National Cancer Institute-sponsored cancer research centers. The program was launched in February 2004 and now links more than 50 cancer centers. In April 2005, the In Vivo Imaging Workspace was added to promote the use of imaging in cancer clinical trials. At the inaugural meeting, four special interest groups (SIGs) were established. The Software SIG was charged with identifying projects that focus on open-source software for image visualization and analysis. To date, two projects have been defined by the Software SIG. The eXtensible Imaging Platform project has produced a rapid application development environment that researchers may use to create targeted workflows customized for specific research projects. The Algorithm Validation Tools project will provide a set of tools and data structures that will be used to capture measurement information and associated needed to allow a gold standard to be defined for the given database against which change analysis algorithms can be tested. Through these and future efforts, the caBIG In Vivo Imaging Workspace Software SIG endeavors to advance imaging informatics and provide new open-source software tools to advance cancer research.
Software Engineering Program: Software Process Improvement Guidebook
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
1996-01-01
The purpose of this document is to provide experience-based guidance in implementing a software process improvement program in any NASA software development or maintenance community. This guidebook details how to define, operate, and implement a working software process improvement program. It describes the concept of the software process improvement program and its basic organizational components. It then describes the structure, organization, and operation of the software process improvement program, illustrating all these concepts with specific NASA examples. The information presented in the document is derived from the experiences of several NASA software organizations, including the SEL, the SEAL, and the SORCE. Their experiences reflect many of the elements of software process improvement within NASA. This guidebook presents lessons learned in a form usable by anyone considering establishing a software process improvement program within his or her own environment. This guidebook attempts to balance general and detailed information. It provides material general enough to be usable by NASA organizations whose characteristics do not directly match those of the sources of the information and models presented herein. It also keeps the ideas sufficiently close to the sources of the practical experiences that have generated the models and information.
Basic to Advanced InSAR Processing: GMTSAR
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sandwell, D. T.; Xu, X.; Baker, S.; Hogrelius, A.; Mellors, R. J.; Tong, X.; Wei, M.; Wessel, P.
2017-12-01
Monitoring crustal deformation using InSAR is becoming a standard technique for the science and application communities. Optimal use of the new data streams from Sentinel-1 and NISAR will require open software tools as well as education on the strengths and limitations of the InSAR methods. Over the past decade we have developed freely available, open-source software for processing InSAR data. The software relies on the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) for the back-end data analysis and display and is thus called GMTSAR. With startup funding from NSF, we accelerated the development of GMTSAR to include more satellite data sources and provide better integration and distribution with GMT. In addition, with support from UNAVCO we have offered 6 GMTSAR short courses to educate mostly novice InSAR users. Currently, the software is used by hundreds of scientists and engineers around the world to study deformation at more than 4300 different sites. The most challenging aspect of the recent software development was the transition from image alignment using the cross-correlation method to a completely new alignment algorithm that uses only the precise orbital information to geometrically align images to an accuracy of better than 7 cm. This development was needed to process a new data type that is being acquired by the Sentinel-1A/B satellites. This combination of software and open data is transforming radar interferometry from a research tool into a fully operational time series analysis tool. Over the next 5 years we are planning to continue to broaden the user base through: improved software delivery methods; code hardening; better integration with data archives; support for high level products being developed for NISAR; and continued education and outreach.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Grubb, Matt
2016-01-01
The NASA Operational Simulator for Small Satellites (NOS3) is a suite of tools to aid in areas such as software development, integration test (IT), mission operations training, verification and validation (VV), and software systems check-out. NOS3 provides a software development environment, a multi-target build system, an operator interface-ground station, dynamics and environment simulations, and software-based hardware models. NOS3 enables the development of flight software (FSW) early in the project life cycle, when access to hardware is typically not available. For small satellites there are extensive lead times on many of the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components as well as limited funding for engineering test units (ETU). Considering the difficulty of providing a hardware test-bed to each developer tester, hardware models are modeled based upon characteristic data or manufacturers data sheets for each individual component. The fidelity of each hardware models is such that FSW executes unaware that physical hardware is not present. This allows binaries to be compiled for both the simulation environment, and the flight computer, without changing the FSW source code. For hardware models that provide data dependent on the environment, such as a GPS receiver or magnetometer, an open-source tool from NASA GSFC (42 Spacecraft Simulation) is used to provide the necessary data. The underlying infrastructure used to transfer messages between FSW and the hardware models can also be used to monitor, intercept, and inject messages, which has proven to be beneficial for VV of larger missions such as James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). As hardware is procured, drivers can be added to the environment to enable hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing. When strict time synchronization is not vital, any number of combinations of hardware components and software-based models can be tested. The open-source operator interface used in NOS3 is COSMOS from Ball Aerospace. For testing, plug-ins are implemented in COSMOS to control the NOS3 simulations, while the command and telemetry tools available in COSMOS are used to communicate with FSW. NOS3 is actively being used for FSW development and component testing of the Simulation-to-Flight 1 (STF-1) CubeSat. As NOS3 matures, hardware models have been added for common CubeSat components such as Novatel GPS receivers, ClydeSpace electrical power systems and batteries, ISISpace antenna systems, etc. In the future, NASA IVV plans to distribute NOS3 to other CubeSat developers and release the suite to the open-source community.
Development of the FITS tools package for multiple software environments
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Pence, W. D.; Blackburn, J. K.
1992-01-01
The HEASARC is developing a package of general purpose software for analyzing data files in FITS format. This paper describes the design philosophy which makes the software both machine-independent (it runs on VAXs, Suns, and DEC-stations) and software environment-independent. Currently the software can be compiled and linked to produce IRAF tasks, or alternatively, the same source code can be used to generate stand-alone tasks using one of two implementations of a user-parameter interface library. The machine independence of the software is achieved by writing the source code in ANSI standard Fortran or C, using the machine-independent FITSIO subroutine interface for all data file I/O, and using a standard user-parameter subroutine interface for all user I/O. The latter interface is based on the Fortran IRAF Parameter File interface developed at STScI. The IRAF tasks are built by linking to the IRAF implementation of this parameter interface library. Two other implementations of this parameter interface library, which have no IRAF dependencies, are now available which can be used to generate stand-alone executable tasks. These stand-alone tasks can simply be executed from the machine operating system prompt either by supplying all the task parameters on the command line or by entering the task name after which the user will be prompted for any required parameters. A first release of this FTOOLS package is now publicly available. The currently available tasks are described, along with instructions on how to obtain a copy of the software.
Advanced software development workstation. OOPSLA 1992 Conference. Trip report
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Izygon, Michel E.
1992-01-01
This report summarizes the main trends observed at the Object Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications Conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia. This conference is the main object-oriented event that allows us to assess the dynamism of the technology and to meet the main actors of the field. It is an invaluable source of information for the advanced software development project.
Constructing graph models for software system development and analysis
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pogrebnoy, Andrey V.
2017-01-01
We propose a concept for creating the instrumentation for functional and structural decisions rationale during the software system (SS) development. We propose to develop SS simultaneously on two models - functional (FM) and structural (SM). FM is a source code of the SS. Adequate representation of the FM in the form of a graph model (GM) is made automatically and called SM. The problem of creating and visualizing GM is considered from the point of applying it as a uniform platform for the adequate representation of the SS source code. We propose three levels of GM detailing: GM1 - for visual analysis of the source code and for SS version control, GM2 - for resources optimization and analysis of connections between SS components, GM3 - for analysis of the SS functioning in dynamics. The paper includes examples of constructing all levels of GM.
Technology transfer in software engineering
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Bishop, Peter C.
1989-01-01
The University of Houston-Clear Lake is the prime contractor for the AdaNET Research Project under the direction of NASA Johnson Space Center. AdaNET was established to promote the principles of software engineering to the software development industry. AdaNET will contain not only environments and tools, but also concepts, principles, models, standards, guidelines and practices. Initially, AdaNET will serve clients from the U.S. government and private industry who are working in software development. It will seek new clients from those who have not yet adopted the principles and practices of software engineering. Some of the goals of AdaNET are to become known as an objective, authoritative source of new software engineering information and parts, to provide easy access to information and parts, and to keep abreast of innovations in the field.
Software engineering capability for Ada (GRASP/Ada Tool)
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Cross, James H., II
1995-01-01
The GRASP/Ada project (Graphical Representations of Algorithms, Structures, and Processes for Ada) has successfully created and prototyped a new algorithmic level graphical representation for Ada software, the Control Structure Diagram (CSD). The primary impetus for creation of the CSD was to improve the comprehension efficiency of Ada software and, as a result, improve reliability and reduce costs. The emphasis has been on the automatic generation of the CSD from Ada PDL or source code to support reverse engineering and maintenance. The CSD has the potential to replace traditional prettyprinted Ada Source code. A new Motif compliant graphical user interface has been developed for the GRASP/Ada prototype.
SIMA: Python software for analysis of dynamic fluorescence imaging data.
Kaifosh, Patrick; Zaremba, Jeffrey D; Danielson, Nathan B; Losonczy, Attila
2014-01-01
Fluorescence imaging is a powerful method for monitoring dynamic signals in the nervous system. However, analysis of dynamic fluorescence imaging data remains burdensome, in part due to the shortage of available software tools. To address this need, we have developed SIMA, an open source Python package that facilitates common analysis tasks related to fluorescence imaging. Functionality of this package includes correction of motion artifacts occurring during in vivo imaging with laser-scanning microscopy, segmentation of imaged fields into regions of interest (ROIs), and extraction of signals from the segmented ROIs. We have also developed a graphical user interface (GUI) for manual editing of the automatically segmented ROIs and automated registration of ROIs across multiple imaging datasets. This software has been designed with flexibility in mind to allow for future extension with different analysis methods and potential integration with other packages. Software, documentation, and source code for the SIMA package and ROI Buddy GUI are freely available at http://www.losonczylab.org/sima/.
Fostering successful scientific software communities
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bangerth, W.; Heister, T.; Hwang, L.; Kellogg, L. H.
2016-12-01
Developing sustainable open source software packages for the sciences appears at first to be primarily a technical challenge: How can one create stable and robust algorithms, appropriate software designs, sufficient documentation, quality assurance strategies such as continuous integration and test suites, or backward compatibility approaches that yield high-quality software usable not only by the authors, but also the broader community of scientists? However, our experience from almost two decades of leading the development of the deal.II software library (http://www.dealii.org, a widely-used finite element package) and the ASPECT code (http://aspect.dealii.org, used to simulate convection in the Earth's mantle) has taught us that technical aspects are not the most difficult ones in scientific open source software. Rather, it is the social challenge of building and maintaining a community of users and developers interested in answering questions on user forums, contributing code, and jointly finding solutions to common technical and non-technical challenges. These problems are posed in an environment where project leaders typically have no resources to reward the majority of contributors, where very few people are specifically paid for the work they do on the project, and with frequent turnover of contributors as project members rotate into and out of jobs. In particular, much software work is done by graduate students who may become fluent enough in a software only a year or two before they leave academia. We will discuss strategies we have found do and do not work in maintaining and growing communities around the scientific software projects we lead. Specifically, we will discuss the management style necessary to keep contributors engaged, ways to give credit where credit is due, and structuring documentation to decrease reliance on forums and thereby allow user communities to grow without straining those who answer questions.
REVEAL: Software Documentation and Platform Migration
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wilson, Michael A.; Veibell, Victoir T.; Freudinger, Lawrence C.
2008-01-01
The Research Environment for Vehicle Embedded Analysis on Linux (REVEAL) is reconfigurable data acquisition software designed for network-distributed test and measurement applications. In development since 2001, it has been successfully demonstrated in support of a number of actual missions within NASA s Suborbital Science Program. Improvements to software configuration control were needed to properly support both an ongoing transition to operational status and continued evolution of REVEAL capabilities. For this reason the project described in this report targets REVEAL software source documentation and deployment of the software on a small set of hardware platforms different from what is currently used in the baseline system implementation. This report specifically describes the actions taken over a ten week period by two undergraduate student interns and serves as a final report for that internship. The topics discussed include: the documentation of REVEAL source code; the migration of REVEAL to other platforms; and an end-to-end field test that successfully validates the efforts.
Open source cardiology electronic health record development for DIGICARDIAC implementation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dugarte, Nelson; Medina, Rubén.; Huiracocha, Lourdes; Rojas, Rubén.
2015-12-01
This article presents the development of a Cardiology Electronic Health Record (CEHR) system. Software consists of a structured algorithm designed under Health Level-7 (HL7) international standards. Novelty of the system is the integration of high resolution ECG (HRECG) signal acquisition and processing tools, patient information management tools and telecardiology tools. Acquisition tools are for management and control of the DIGICARDIAC electrocardiograph functions. Processing tools allow management of HRECG signal analysis searching for indicative patterns of cardiovascular pathologies. Telecardiology tools incorporation allows system communication with other health care centers decreasing access time to the patient information. CEHR system was completely developed using open source software. Preliminary results of process validation showed the system efficiency.
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.
Ground Software Maintenance Facility (GSMF) system manual
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Derrig, D.; Griffith, G.
1986-01-01
The Ground Software Maintenance Facility (GSMF) is designed to support development and maintenance of spacelab ground support software. THE GSMF consists of a Perkin Elmer 3250 (Host computer) and a MITRA 125s (ATE computer), with appropriate interface devices and software to simulate the Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE). This document is presented in three sections: (1) GSMF Overview; (2) Software Structure; and (3) Fault Isolation Capability. The overview contains information on hardware and software organization along with their corresponding block diagrams. The Software Structure section describes the modes of software structure including source files, link information, and database files. The Fault Isolation section describes the capabilities of the Ground Computer Interface Device, Perkin Elmer host, and MITRA ATE.
Neinstein, Aaron; Wong, Jenise; Look, Howard; Arbiter, Brandon; Quirk, Kent; McCanne, Steve; Sun, Yao; Blum, Michael; Adi, Saleh
2016-03-01
Develop a device-agnostic cloud platform to host diabetes device data and catalyze an ecosystem of software innovation for type 1 diabetes (T1D) management. An interdisciplinary team decided to establish a nonprofit company, Tidepool, and build open-source software. Through a user-centered design process, the authors created a software platform, the Tidepool Platform, to upload and host T1D device data in an integrated, device-agnostic fashion, as well as an application ("app"), Blip, to visualize the data. Tidepool's software utilizes the principles of modular components, modern web design including REST APIs and JavaScript, cloud computing, agile development methodology, and robust privacy and security. By consolidating the currently scattered and siloed T1D device data ecosystem into one open platform, Tidepool can improve access to the data and enable new possibilities and efficiencies in T1D clinical care and research. The Tidepool Platform decouples diabetes apps from diabetes devices, allowing software developers to build innovative apps without requiring them to design a unique back-end (e.g., database and security) or unique ways of ingesting device data. It allows people with T1D to choose to use any preferred app regardless of which device(s) they use. The authors believe that the Tidepool Platform can solve two current problems in the T1D device landscape: 1) limited access to T1D device data and 2) poor interoperability of data from different devices. If proven effective, Tidepool's open source, cloud model for health data interoperability is applicable to other healthcare use cases. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Wong, Jenise; Look, Howard; Arbiter, Brandon; Quirk, Kent; McCanne, Steve; Sun, Yao; Blum, Michael; Adi, Saleh
2016-01-01
Objective Develop a device-agnostic cloud platform to host diabetes device data and catalyze an ecosystem of software innovation for type 1 diabetes (T1D) management. Materials and Methods An interdisciplinary team decided to establish a nonprofit company, Tidepool, and build open-source software. Results Through a user-centered design process, the authors created a software platform, the Tidepool Platform, to upload and host T1D device data in an integrated, device-agnostic fashion, as well as an application (“app”), Blip, to visualize the data. Tidepool’s software utilizes the principles of modular components, modern web design including REST APIs and JavaScript, cloud computing, agile development methodology, and robust privacy and security. Discussion By consolidating the currently scattered and siloed T1D device data ecosystem into one open platform, Tidepool can improve access to the data and enable new possibilities and efficiencies in T1D clinical care and research. The Tidepool Platform decouples diabetes apps from diabetes devices, allowing software developers to build innovative apps without requiring them to design a unique back-end (e.g., database and security) or unique ways of ingesting device data. It allows people with T1D to choose to use any preferred app regardless of which device(s) they use. Conclusion The authors believe that the Tidepool Platform can solve two current problems in the T1D device landscape: 1) limited access to T1D device data and 2) poor interoperability of data from different devices. If proven effective, Tidepool’s open source, cloud model for health data interoperability is applicable to other healthcare use cases. PMID:26338218
Developing a Cyberinfrastructure for integrated assessments of environmental contaminants.
Kaur, Taranjit; Singh, Jatinder; Goodale, Wing M; Kramar, David; Nelson, Peter
2005-03-01
The objective of this study was to design and implement prototype software for capturing field data and automating the process for reporting and analyzing the distribution of mercury. The four phase process used to design, develop, deploy and evaluate the prototype software is described. Two different development strategies were used: (1) design of a mobile data collection application intended to capture field data in a meaningful format and automate transfer into user databases, followed by (2) a re-engineering of the original software to develop an integrated database environment with improved methods for aggregating and sharing data. Results demonstrated that innovative use of commercially available hardware and software components can lead to the development of an end-to-end digital cyberinfrastructure that captures, records, stores, transmits, compiles and integrates multi-source data as it relates to mercury.
Developing a Treatment Planning Software Based on TG-43U1 Formalism for Cs-137 LDR Brachytherapy.
Sina, Sedigheh; Faghihi, Reza; Soleimani Meigooni, Ali; Siavashpour, Zahra; Mosleh-Shirazi, Mohammad Amin
2013-08-01
The old Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs) used for intracavitary brachytherapy with Cs-137 Selectron source utilize traditional dose calculation methods, considering each source as a point source. Using such methods introduces significant errors in dose estimation. As of 1995, TG-43 is used as the main dose calculation formalism in treatment TPSs. The purpose of this study is to design and establish a treatment planning software for Cs-137 Solectron brachytherapy source, based on TG-43U1 formalism by applying the effects of the applicator and dummy spacers. Two softwares used for treatment planning of Cs-137 sources in Iran (STPS and PLATO), are based on old formalisms. The purpose of this work is to establish and develop a TPS for Selectron source based on TG-43 formalism. In this planning system, the dosimetry parameters of each pellet in different places inside applicators were obtained by MCNP4c code. Then the dose distribution around every combination of active and inactive pellets was obtained by summing the doses. The accuracy of this algorithm was checked by comparing its results for special combination of active and inactive pellets with MC simulations. Finally, the uncertainty of old dose calculation formalism was investigated by comparing the results of STPS and PLATO softwares with those obtained by the new algorithm. For a typical arrangement of 10 active pellets in the applicator, the percentage difference between doses obtained by the new algorithm at 1cm distance from the tip of the applicator and those obtained by old formalisms is about 30%, while the difference between the results of MCNP and the new algorithm is less than 5%. According to the results, the old dosimetry formalisms, overestimate the dose especially towards the applicator's tip. While the TG-43U1 based software perform the calculations more accurately.
Reconfigurable Software for Mission Operations
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Trimble, Jay
2014-01-01
We developed software that provides flexibility to mission organizations through modularity and composability. Modularity enables removal and addition of functionality through the installation of plug-ins. Composability enables users to assemble software from pre-built reusable objects, thus reducing or eliminating the walls associated with traditional application architectures and enabling unique combinations of functionality. We have used composable objects to reduce display build time, create workflows, and build scenarios to test concepts for lunar roving operations. The software is open source, and may be downloaded from https:github.comnasamct.
Software Attribution for Geoscience Applications in the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hwang, L.; Dumit, J.; Fish, A.; Soito, L.; Kellogg, L. H.; Smith, M.
2015-12-01
Scientific software is largely developed by individual scientists and represents a significant intellectual contribution to the field. As the scientific culture and funding agencies move towards an expectation that software be open-source, there is a corresponding need for mechanisms to cite software, both to provide credit and recognition to developers, and to aid in discoverability of software and scientific reproducibility. We assess the geodynamic modeling community's current citation practices by examining more than 300 predominantly self-reported publications utilizing scientific software in the past 5 years that is available through the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG). Preliminary results indicate that authors cite and attribute software either through citing (in rank order) peer-reviewed scientific publications, a user's manual, and/or a paper describing the software code. Attributions maybe found directly in the text, in acknowledgements, in figure captions, or in footnotes. What is considered citable varies widely. Citations predominantly lack software version numbers or persistent identifiers to find the software package. Versioning may be implied through reference to a versioned user manual. Authors sometimes report code features used and whether they have modified the code. As an open-source community, CIG requests that researchers contribute their modifications to the repository. However, such modifications may not be contributed back to a repository code branch, decreasing the chances of discoverability and reproducibility. Survey results through CIG's Software Attribution for Geoscience Applications (SAGA) project suggest that lack of knowledge, tools, and workflows to cite codes are barriers to effectively implement the emerging citation norms. Generated on-demand attributions on software landing pages and a prototype extensible plug-in to automatically generate attributions in codes are the first steps towards reproducibility.
Software to model AXAF-I image quality
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Ahmad, Anees; Feng, Chen
1995-01-01
A modular user-friendly computer program for the modeling of grazing-incidence type x-ray optical systems has been developed. This comprehensive computer software GRAZTRACE covers the manipulation of input data, ray tracing with reflectivity and surface deformation effects, convolution with x-ray source shape, and x-ray scattering. The program also includes the capabilities for image analysis, detector scan modeling, and graphical presentation of the results. A number of utilities have been developed to interface the predicted Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility-Imaging (AXAF-I) mirror structural and thermal distortions with the ray-trace. This software is written in FORTRAN 77 and runs on a SUN/SPARC station. An interactive command mode version and a batch mode version of the software have been developed.
Development of a new software for analyzing 3-D fracture network
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Um, Jeong-Gi; Noh, Young-Hwan; Choi, Yosoon
2014-05-01
A new software is presented to analyze fracture network in 3-D. Recently, we completed the software package based on information given in EGU2013. The software consists of several modules that play roles in management of borehole data, stochastic modelling of fracture network, construction of analysis domain, visualization of fracture geometry in 3-D, calculation of equivalent pipes and production of cross-section diagrams. Intel Parallel Studio XE 2013, Visual Studio.NET 2010 and the open source VTK library were utilized as development tools to efficiently implement the modules and the graphical user interface of the software. A case study was performed to analyze 3-D fracture network system at the Upper Devonian Grosmont Formation in Alberta, Canada. The results have suggested that the developed software is effective in modelling and visualizing 3-D fracture network system, and can provide useful information to tackle the geomechanical problems related to strength, deformability and hydraulic behaviours of the fractured rock masses. This presentation describes the concept and details of the development and implementation of the software.
What's New in Software? Hot New Tool: The Hypertext.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hedley, Carolyn N.
1989-01-01
This article surveys recent developments in hypertext software, a highly interactive nonsequential reading/writing/database approach to research and teaching that allows paths to be created through related materials including text, graphics, video, and animation sources. Described are uses, advantages, and problems of hypertext. (PB)
Technology collaboration by means of an open source government
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Berardi, Steven M.
2009-05-01
The idea of open source software originally began in the early 1980s, but it never gained widespread support until recently, largely due to the explosive growth of the Internet. Only the Internet has made this kind of concept possible, bringing together millions of software developers from around the world to pool their knowledge. The tremendous success of open source software has prompted many corporations to adopt the culture of open source and thus share information they previously held secret. The government, and specifically the Department of Defense (DoD), could also benefit from adopting an open source culture. In acquiring satellite systems, the DoD often builds walls between program offices, but installing doors between programs can promote collaboration and information sharing. This paper addresses the challenges and consequences of adopting an open source culture to facilitate technology collaboration for DoD space acquisitions. DISCLAIMER: The views presented here are the views of the author, and do not represent the views of the United States Government, United States Air Force, or the Missile Defense Agency.
OsiriX: an open-source software for navigating in multidimensional DICOM images.
Rosset, Antoine; Spadola, Luca; Ratib, Osman
2004-09-01
A multidimensional image navigation and display software was designed for display and interpretation of large sets of multidimensional and multimodality images such as combined PET-CT studies. The software is developed in Objective-C on a Macintosh platform under the MacOS X operating system using the GNUstep development environment. It also benefits from the extremely fast and optimized 3D graphic capabilities of the OpenGL graphic standard widely used for computer games optimized for taking advantage of any hardware graphic accelerator boards available. In the design of the software special attention was given to adapt the user interface to the specific and complex tasks of navigating through large sets of image data. An interactive jog-wheel device widely used in the video and movie industry was implemented to allow users to navigate in the different dimensions of an image set much faster than with a traditional mouse or on-screen cursors and sliders. The program can easily be adapted for very specific tasks that require a limited number of functions, by adding and removing tools from the program's toolbar and avoiding an overwhelming number of unnecessary tools and functions. The processing and image rendering tools of the software are based on the open-source libraries ITK and VTK. This ensures that all new developments in image processing that could emerge from other academic institutions using these libraries can be directly ported to the OsiriX program. OsiriX is provided free of charge under the GNU open-source licensing agreement at http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix.
caGrid 1.0: An Enterprise Grid Infrastructure for Biomedical Research
Oster, Scott; Langella, Stephen; Hastings, Shannon; Ervin, David; Madduri, Ravi; Phillips, Joshua; Kurc, Tahsin; Siebenlist, Frank; Covitz, Peter; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Foster, Ian; Saltz, Joel
2008-01-01
Objective To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. Design An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including 1) discovery, 2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and 3) coordinated study. Measurements The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure and leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. Results The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL: https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid. Conclusions While caGrid 1.0 is designed to address use cases in cancer research, the requirements associated with discovery, analysis and integration of large scale data, and coordinated studies are common in other biomedical fields. In this respect, caGrid 1.0 is the realization of a framework that can benefit the entire biomedical community. PMID:18096909
caGrid 1.0: an enterprise Grid infrastructure for biomedical research.
Oster, Scott; Langella, Stephen; Hastings, Shannon; Ervin, David; Madduri, Ravi; Phillips, Joshua; Kurc, Tahsin; Siebenlist, Frank; Covitz, Peter; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Foster, Ian; Saltz, Joel
2008-01-01
To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including 1) discovery, 2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and 3) coordinated study. The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure and leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL: https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid. While caGrid 1.0 is designed to address use cases in cancer research, the requirements associated with discovery, analysis and integration of large scale data, and coordinated studies are common in other biomedical fields. In this respect, caGrid 1.0 is the realization of a framework that can benefit the entire biomedical community.
Systems biology driven software design for the research enterprise.
Boyle, John; Cavnor, Christopher; Killcoyne, Sarah; Shmulevich, Ilya
2008-06-25
In systems biology, and many other areas of research, there is a need for the interoperability of tools and data sources that were not originally designed to be integrated. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of systems biology, and its association with high throughput experimental platforms, there is an additional need to continually integrate new technologies. As scientists work in isolated groups, integration with other groups is rarely a consideration when building the required software tools. We illustrate an approach, through the discussion of a purpose built software architecture, which allows disparate groups to reuse tools and access data sources in a common manner. The architecture allows for: the rapid development of distributed applications; interoperability, so it can be used by a wide variety of developers and computational biologists; development using standard tools, so that it is easy to maintain and does not require a large development effort; extensibility, so that new technologies and data types can be incorporated; and non intrusive development, insofar as researchers need not to adhere to a pre-existing object model. By using a relatively simple integration strategy, based upon a common identity system and dynamically discovered interoperable services, a light-weight software architecture can become the focal point through which scientists can both get access to and analyse the plethora of experimentally derived data.
ProteoWizard: open source software for rapid proteomics tools development.
Kessner, Darren; Chambers, Matt; Burke, Robert; Agus, David; Mallick, Parag
2008-11-01
The ProteoWizard software project provides a modular and extensible set of open-source, cross-platform tools and libraries. The tools perform proteomics data analyses; the libraries enable rapid tool creation by providing a robust, pluggable development framework that simplifies and unifies data file access, and performs standard proteomics and LCMS dataset computations. The library contains readers and writers of the mzML data format, which has been written using modern C++ techniques and design principles and supports a variety of platforms with native compilers. The software has been specifically released under the Apache v2 license to ensure it can be used in both academic and commercial projects. In addition to the library, we also introduce a rapidly growing set of companion tools whose implementation helps to illustrate the simplicity of developing applications on top of the ProteoWizard library. Cross-platform software that compiles using native compilers (i.e. GCC on Linux, MSVC on Windows and XCode on OSX) is available for download free of charge, at http://proteowizard.sourceforge.net. This website also provides code examples, and documentation. It is our hope the ProteoWizard project will become a standard platform for proteomics development; consequently, code use, contribution and further development are strongly encouraged.
Adaptive optics system for the IRSOL solar observatory
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ramelli, Renzo; Bucher, Roberto; Rossini, Leopoldo; Bianda, Michele; Balemi, Silvano
2010-07-01
We present a low cost adaptive optics system developed for the solar observatory at Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (IRSOL), Switzerland. The Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor is based on a Dalsa CCD camera with 256 pixels × 256 pixels working at 1kHz. The wavefront compensation is obtained by a deformable mirror with 37 actuators and a Tip-Tilt mirror. A real time control software has been developed on a RTAI-Linux PC. Scicos/Scilab based software has been realized for an online analysis of the system behavior. The software is completely open source.
CROPPER: a metagene creator resource for cross-platform and cross-species compendium studies.
Paananen, Jussi; Storvik, Markus; Wong, Garry
2006-09-22
Current genomic research methods provide researchers with enormous amounts of data. Combining data from different high-throughput research technologies commonly available in biological databases can lead to novel findings and increase research efficiency. However, combining data from different heterogeneous sources is often a very arduous task. These sources can be different microarray technology platforms, genomic databases, or experiments performed on various species. Our aim was to develop a software program that could facilitate the combining of data from heterogeneous sources, and thus allow researchers to perform genomic cross-platform/cross-species studies and to use existing experimental data for compendium studies. We have developed a web-based software resource, called CROPPER that uses the latest genomic information concerning different data identifiers and orthologous genes from the Ensembl database. CROPPER can be used to combine genomic data from different heterogeneous sources, allowing researchers to perform cross-platform/cross-species compendium studies without the need for complex computational tools or the requirement of setting up one's own in-house database. We also present an example of a simple cross-platform/cross-species compendium study based on publicly available Parkinson's disease data derived from different sources. CROPPER is a user-friendly and freely available web-based software resource that can be successfully used for cross-species/cross-platform compendium studies.
ImTK: an open source multi-center information management toolkit
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Alaoui, Adil; Ingeholm, Mary Lou; Padh, Shilpa; Dorobantu, Mihai; Desai, Mihir; Cleary, Kevin; Mun, Seong K.
2008-03-01
The Information Management Toolkit (ImTK) Consortium is an open source initiative to develop robust, freely available tools related to the information management needs of basic, clinical, and translational research. An open source framework and agile programming methodology can enable distributed software development while an open architecture will encourage interoperability across different environments. The ISIS Center has conceptualized a prototype data sharing network that simulates a multi-center environment based on a federated data access model. This model includes the development of software tools to enable efficient exchange, sharing, management, and analysis of multimedia medical information such as clinical information, images, and bioinformatics data from multiple data sources. The envisioned ImTK data environment will include an open architecture and data model implementation that complies with existing standards such as Digital Imaging and Communications (DICOM), Health Level 7 (HL7), and the technical framework and workflow defined by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Information Technology Infrastructure initiative, mainly the Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS) specifications.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities in OSS
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Boldyreff, Cornelia; Capiluppi, Andrea; Knowles, Thomas; Munro, James
Using Open Source Software (OSS) in undergraduate teaching in universities is now commonplace. Students use OSS applications and systems in their courses on programming, operating systems, DBMS, web development to name but a few. Studying OSS projects from both a product and a process view also forms part of the software engineering curriculum at various universities. Many students have taken part in OSS projects as well as developers.
The development of data acquisition and processing application system for RF ion source
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Zhang, Xiaodan; Wang, Xiaoying; Hu, Chundong; Jiang, Caichao; Xie, Yahong; Zhao, Yuanzhe
2017-07-01
As the key ion source component of nuclear fusion auxiliary heating devices, the radio frequency (RF) ion source is developed and applied gradually to offer a source plasma with the advantages of ease of control and high reliability. In addition, it easily achieves long-pulse steady-state operation. During the process of the development and testing of the RF ion source, a lot of original experimental data will be generated. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a stable and reliable computer data acquisition and processing application system for realizing the functions of data acquisition, storage, access, and real-time monitoring. In this paper, the development of a data acquisition and processing application system for the RF ion source is presented. The hardware platform is based on the PXI system and the software is programmed on the LabVIEW development environment. The key technologies that are used for the implementation of this software programming mainly include the long-pulse data acquisition technology, multi-threading processing technology, transmission control communication protocol, and the Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer data compression algorithm. Now, this design has been tested and applied on the RF ion source. The test results show that it can work reliably and steadily. With the help of this design, the stable plasma discharge data of the RF ion source are collected, stored, accessed, and monitored in real-time. It is shown that it has a very practical application significance for the RF experiments.
FluxPyt: a Python-based free and open-source software for 13C-metabolic flux analyses.
Desai, Trunil S; Srivastava, Shireesh
2018-01-01
13 C-Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is a powerful approach to estimate intracellular reaction rates which could be used in strain analysis and design. Processing and analysis of labeling data for calculation of fluxes and associated statistics is an essential part of MFA. However, various software currently available for data analysis employ proprietary platforms and thus limit accessibility. We developed FluxPyt, a Python-based truly open-source software package for conducting stationary 13 C-MFA data analysis. The software is based on the efficient elementary metabolite unit framework. The standard deviations in the calculated fluxes are estimated using the Monte-Carlo analysis. FluxPyt also automatically creates flux maps based on a template for visualization of the MFA results. The flux distributions calculated by FluxPyt for two separate models: a small tricarboxylic acid cycle model and a larger Corynebacterium glutamicum model, were found to be in good agreement with those calculated by a previously published software. FluxPyt was tested in Microsoft™ Windows 7 and 10, as well as in Linux Mint 18.2. The availability of a free and open 13 C-MFA software that works in various operating systems will enable more researchers to perform 13 C-MFA and to further modify and develop the package.
FluxPyt: a Python-based free and open-source software for 13C-metabolic flux analyses
Desai, Trunil S.
2018-01-01
13C-Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is a powerful approach to estimate intracellular reaction rates which could be used in strain analysis and design. Processing and analysis of labeling data for calculation of fluxes and associated statistics is an essential part of MFA. However, various software currently available for data analysis employ proprietary platforms and thus limit accessibility. We developed FluxPyt, a Python-based truly open-source software package for conducting stationary 13C-MFA data analysis. The software is based on the efficient elementary metabolite unit framework. The standard deviations in the calculated fluxes are estimated using the Monte-Carlo analysis. FluxPyt also automatically creates flux maps based on a template for visualization of the MFA results. The flux distributions calculated by FluxPyt for two separate models: a small tricarboxylic acid cycle model and a larger Corynebacterium glutamicum model, were found to be in good agreement with those calculated by a previously published software. FluxPyt was tested in Microsoft™ Windows 7 and 10, as well as in Linux Mint 18.2. The availability of a free and open 13C-MFA software that works in various operating systems will enable more researchers to perform 13C-MFA and to further modify and develop the package. PMID:29736347
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Belloni, V.; Ravanelli, R.; Nascetti, A.; Di Rita, M.; Mattei, D.; Crespi, M.
2018-05-01
In the last few decades, there has been a growing interest in studying non-contact methods for full-field displacement and strain measurement. Among such techniques, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has received particular attention, thanks to its ability to provide these information by comparing digital images of a sample surface before and after deformation. The method is now commonly adopted in the field of civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering and different companies and some research groups implemented 2D and 3D DIC software. In this work a review on DIC software status is given at first. Moreover, a free and open source 2D DIC software is presented, named py2DIC and developed in Python at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division of DICEA of the University of Rome "La Sapienza"; its potentialities were evaluated by processing the images captured during tensile tests performed in the Structural Engineering Lab of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and comparing them to those obtained using the commercial software Vic-2D developed by Correlated Solutions Inc, USA. The agreement of these results at one hundredth of millimetre level demonstrate the possibility to use this open source software as a valuable 2D DIC tool to measure full-field displacements on the investigated sample surface.
OrChem - An open source chemistry search engine for Oracle®
2009-01-01
Background Registration, indexing and searching of chemical structures in relational databases is one of the core areas of cheminformatics. However, little detail has been published on the inner workings of search engines and their development has been mostly closed-source. We decided to develop an open source chemistry extension for Oracle, the de facto database platform in the commercial world. Results Here we present OrChem, an extension for the Oracle 11G database that adds registration and indexing of chemical structures to support fast substructure and similarity searching. The cheminformatics functionality is provided by the Chemistry Development Kit. OrChem provides similarity searching with response times in the order of seconds for databases with millions of compounds, depending on a given similarity cut-off. For substructure searching, it can make use of multiple processor cores on today's powerful database servers to provide fast response times in equally large data sets. Availability OrChem is free software and can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. All software is available via http://orchem.sourceforge.net. PMID:20298521
Development of a Standard Set of Software Indicators for Aeronautical Systems Center.
1992-09-01
29:12). The composite models listed include COCOMO and the Software Productivity, Quality, and Reliability Model ( SPQR ) (29:12). The SPQR model was...determine the values of the 68 input parameters. Source provides no specifics. Indicator Name SPQR (SW Productivity, Qual, Reliability) Indicator Class
Frameworks Coordinate Scientific Data Management
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
2012-01-01
Jet Propulsion Laboratory computer scientists developed a unique software framework to help NASA manage its massive amounts of science data. Through a partnership with the Apache Software Foundation of Forest Hill, Maryland, the technology is now available as an open-source solution and is in use by cancer researchers and pediatric hospitals.
An Inexpensive, Open-Source USB Arduino Data Acquisition Device for Chemical Instrumentation.
Grinias, James P; Whitfield, Jason T; Guetschow, Erik D; Kennedy, Robert T
2016-07-12
Many research and teaching labs rely on USB data acquisition devices to collect voltage signals from instrumentation. However, these devices can be cost-prohibitive (especially when large numbers are needed for teaching labs) and require software to be developed for operation. In this article, we describe the development and use of an open-source USB data acquisition device (with 16-bit acquisition resolution) built using simple electronic components and an Arduino Uno that costs under $50. Additionally, open-source software written in Python is included so that data can be acquired using nearly any PC or Mac computer with a simple USB connection. Use of the device was demonstrated for a sophomore-level analytical experiment using GC and a CE-UV separation on an instrument used for research purposes.
Open Source 2010: Reflections on 2007
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wheeler, Brad
2007-01-01
Colleges and universities and commercial firms have demonstrated great progress in realizing the vision proffered for "Open Source 2007," and 2010 will mark even greater progress. Although much work remains in refining open source for higher education applications, the signals are now clear: the collaborative development of software can provide…
Facilitating Internet-Scale Code Retrieval
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bajracharya, Sushil Krishna
2010-01-01
Internet-Scale code retrieval deals with the representation, storage, and access of relevant source code from a large amount of source code available on the Internet. Internet-Scale code retrieval systems support common emerging practices among software developers related to finding and reusing source code. In this dissertation we focus on some…
Building a Snow Data Management System using Open Source Software (and IDL)
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Goodale, C. E.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Hart, A. F.; Painter, T.; Zimdars, P. A.; Bryant, A.; Brodzik, M.; Skiles, M.; Seidel, F. C.; Rittger, K. E.
2012-12-01
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory free and open source software is used everyday to support a wide range of projects, from planetary to climate to research and development. In this abstract I will discuss the key role that open source software has played in building a robust science data processing pipeline for snow hydrology research, and how the system is also able to leverage programs written in IDL, making JPL's Snow Data System a hybrid of open source and proprietary software. Main Points: - The Design of the Snow Data System (illustrate how the collection of sub-systems are combined to create a complete data processing pipeline) - Discuss the Challenges of moving from a single algorithm on a laptop, to running 100's of parallel algorithms on a cluster of servers (lesson's learned) - Code changes - Software license related challenges - Storage Requirements - System Evolution (from data archiving, to data processing, to data on a map, to near-real-time products and maps) - Road map for the next 6 months (including how easily we re-used the snowDS code base to support the Airborne Snow Observatory Mission) Software in Use and their Software Licenses: IDL - Used for pre and post processing of data. Licensed under a proprietary software license held by Excelis. Apache OODT - Used for data management and workflow processing. Licensed under the Apache License Version 2. GDAL - Geospatial Data processing library used for data re-projection currently. Licensed under the X/MIT license. GeoServer - WMS Server. Licensed under the General Public License Version 2.0 Leaflet.js - Javascript web mapping library. Licensed under the Berkeley Software Distribution License. Python - Glue code and miscellaneous data processing support. Licensed under the Python Software Foundation License. Perl - Script wrapper for running the SCAG algorithm. Licensed under the General Public License Version 3. PHP - Front-end web application programming. Licensed under the PHP License Version 3.01
Villoria, Eduardo M; Lenzi, Antônio R; Soares, Rodrigo V; Souki, Bernardo Q; Sigurdsson, Asgeir; Marques, Alexandre P; Fidel, Sandra R
2017-01-01
To describe the use of open-source software for the post-processing of CBCT imaging for the assessment of periapical lesions development after endodontic treatment. CBCT scans were retrieved from endodontic records of two patients. Three-dimensional virtual models, voxel counting, volumetric measurement (mm 3 ) and mean intensity of the periapical lesion were performed with ITK-SNAP v. 3.0 software. Three-dimensional models of the lesions were aligned and overlapped through the MeshLab software, which performed an automatic recording of the anatomical structures, based on the best fit. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the changes in lesions size after treatment were performed with the 3DMeshMetric software. The ITK-SNAP v. 3.0 showed the smaller value corresponding to the voxel count and the volume of the lesion segmented in yellow, indicating reduction in volume of the lesion after the treatment. A higher value of the mean intensity of the segmented image in yellow was also observed, which suggested new bone formation. Colour mapping and "point value" tool allowed the visualization of the reduction of periapical lesions in several regions. Researchers and clinicians in the monitoring of endodontic periapical lesions have the opportunity to use open-source software.
Open Source in Higher Education: Towards an Understanding of Networked Universities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Quint-Rapoport, Mia
2012-01-01
This article addresses the question of understanding more about networked universities by looking at open source software developers working in academic contexts. It sketches their identities and work as an emerging professional community that both relies upon and develops digitally mediated networks and contributes to the progress of academic…
Weiser, Armin A; Thöns, Christian; Filter, Matthias; Falenski, Alexander; Appel, Bernd; Käsbohrer, Annemarie
2016-01-01
FoodChain-Lab is modular open-source software for trace-back and trace-forward analysis in food-borne disease outbreak investigations. Development of FoodChain-Lab has been driven by a need for appropriate software in several food-related outbreaks in Germany since 2011. The software allows integrated data management, data linkage, enrichment and visualization as well as interactive supply chain analyses. Identification of possible outbreak sources or vehicles is facilitated by calculation of tracing scores for food-handling stations (companies or persons) and food products under investigation. The software also supports consideration of station-specific cross-contamination, analysis of geographical relationships, and topological clustering of the tracing network structure. FoodChain-Lab has been applied successfully in previous outbreak investigations, for example during the 2011 EHEC outbreak and the 2013/14 European hepatitis A outbreak. The software is most useful in complex, multi-area outbreak investigations where epidemiological evidence may be insufficient to discriminate between multiple implicated food products. The automated analysis and visualization components would be of greater value if trading information on food ingredients and compound products was more easily available.
Near-Infrared Neuroimaging with NinPy
Strangman, Gary E.; Zhang, Quan; Zeffiro, Thomas
2009-01-01
There has been substantial recent growth in the use of non-invasive optical brain imaging in studies of human brain function in health and disease. Near-infrared neuroimaging (NIN) is one of the most promising of these techniques and, although NIN hardware continues to evolve at a rapid pace, software tools supporting optical data acquisition, image processing, statistical modeling, and visualization remain less refined. Python, a modular and computationally efficient development language, can support functional neuroimaging studies of diverse design and implementation. In particular, Python's easily readable syntax and modular architecture allow swift prototyping followed by efficient transition to stable production systems. As an introduction to our ongoing efforts to develop Python software tools for structural and functional neuroimaging, we discuss: (i) the role of non-invasive diffuse optical imaging in measuring brain function, (ii) the key computational requirements to support NIN experiments, (iii) our collection of software tools to support NIN, called NinPy, and (iv) future extensions of these tools that will allow integration of optical with other structural and functional neuroimaging data sources. Source code for the software discussed here will be made available at www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/Neural_SystemsGroup/software.html. PMID:19543449
Filter, Matthias; Falenski, Alexander; Appel, Bernd; Käsbohrer, Annemarie
2016-01-01
FoodChain-Lab is modular open-source software for trace-back and trace-forward analysis in food-borne disease outbreak investigations. Development of FoodChain-Lab has been driven by a need for appropriate software in several food-related outbreaks in Germany since 2011. The software allows integrated data management, data linkage, enrichment and visualization as well as interactive supply chain analyses. Identification of possible outbreak sources or vehicles is facilitated by calculation of tracing scores for food-handling stations (companies or persons) and food products under investigation. The software also supports consideration of station-specific cross-contamination, analysis of geographical relationships, and topological clustering of the tracing network structure. FoodChain-Lab has been applied successfully in previous outbreak investigations, for example during the 2011 EHEC outbreak and the 2013/14 European hepatitis A outbreak. The software is most useful in complex, multi-area outbreak investigations where epidemiological evidence may be insufficient to discriminate between multiple implicated food products. The automated analysis and visualization components would be of greater value if trading information on food ingredients and compound products was more easily available. PMID:26985673
Software and electronic developments for TUG - T60 robotic telescope
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Parmaksizoglu, M.; Dindar, M.; Kirbiyik, H.; Helhel, S.
2014-12-01
A robotic telescope is a telescope that can make observations without hands-on human control. Its low level behavior is automatic and computer-controlled. Robotic telescopes usually run under the control of a scheduler, which provides high-level control by selecting astronomical targets for observation. TUBITAK National Observatory (TUG) T60 Robotic Telescope is controlled by open source OCAAS software, formally named TALON. This study introduces the improvements on TALON software, new electronic and mechanic designs. The designs and software improvements were implemented in the T60 telescope control software and tested on the real system successfully.
Demonstrating High-Accuracy Orbital Access Using Open-Source Tools
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Gilbertson, Christian; Welch, Bryan
2017-01-01
Orbit propagation is fundamental to almost every space-based analysis. Currently, many system analysts use commercial software to predict the future positions of orbiting satellites. This is one of many capabilities that can replicated, with great accuracy, without using expensive, proprietary software. NASAs SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) Center for Engineering, Networks, Integration, and Communications (SCENIC) project plans to provide its analysis capabilities using a combination of internal and open-source software, allowing for a much greater measure of customization and flexibility, while reducing recurring software license costs. MATLAB and the open-source Orbit Determination Toolbox created by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) were utilized to develop tools with the capability to propagate orbits, perform line-of-sight (LOS) availability analyses, and visualize the results. The developed programs are modular and can be applied for mission planning and viability analysis in a variety of Solar System applications. The tools can perform 2 and N-body orbit propagation, find inter-satellite and satellite to ground station LOS access (accounting for intermediate oblate spheroid body blocking, geometric restrictions of the antenna field-of-view (FOV), and relativistic corrections), and create animations of planetary movement, satellite orbits, and LOS accesses. The code is the basis for SCENICs broad analysis capabilities including dynamic link analysis, dilution-of-precision navigation analysis, and orbital availability calculations.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Stensrud, Kjell C.; Hamm, Dustin
2007-01-01
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) / Flight Design and Dynamics Division (DM) has prototyped the use of Open Source middleware technology for building its next generation spacecraft mission support system. This is part of a larger initiative to use open standards and open source software as building blocks for future mission and safety critical systems. JSC is hoping to leverage standardized enterprise architectures, such as Java EE, so that its internal software development efforts can be focused on the core aspects of their problem domain. This presentation will outline the design and implementation of the Trajectory system and the lessons learned during the exercise.
High pressure single-crystal micro X-ray diffraction analysis with GSE_ADA/RSV software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dera, Przemyslaw; Zhuravlev, Kirill; Prakapenka, Vitali; Rivers, Mark L.; Finkelstein, Gregory J.; Grubor-Urosevic, Ognjen; Tschauner, Oliver; Clark, Simon M.; Downs, Robert T.
2013-08-01
GSE_ADA/RSV is a free software package for custom analysis of single-crystal micro X-ray diffraction (SCμXRD) data, developed with particular emphasis on data from samples enclosed in diamond anvil cells and subject to high pressure conditions. The package has been in extensive use at the high pressure beamlines of Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory and Advanced Light Source (ALS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The software is optimized for processing of wide-rotation images and includes a variety of peak intensity corrections and peak filtering features, which are custom-designed to make processing of high pressure SCμXRD easier and more reliable.
PRay - A graphical user interface for interactive visualization and modification of rayinvr models
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fromm, T.
2016-01-01
PRay is a graphical user interface for interactive displaying and editing of velocity models for seismic refraction. It is optimized for editing rayinvr models but can also be used as a dynamic viewer for ray tracing results from other software. The main features are the graphical editing of nodes and fast adjusting of the display (stations and phases). It can be extended by user-defined shell scripts and links to phase picking software. PRay is open source software written in the scripting language Perl, runs on Unix-like operating systems including Mac OS X and provides a version controlled source code repository for community development (https://sourceforge.net/projects/pray-plot-rayinvr/).
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.
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.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.
2014-12-01
Developing scientific software is a continuous balance between not reinventing the wheel and getting fragile codes to interoperate with one another. Binary software distributions such as Anaconda provide a robust starting point for many scientific software packages, but this solution alone is insufficient for many scientific software developers. HashDist provides a critical component of the development workflow, enabling highly customizable, source-driven, and reproducible builds for scientific software stacks, available from both the IPython Notebook and the command line. To address these issues, the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center has funded the development of HashDist in collaboration with Simula Research Laboratories and the University of Texas at Austin. HashDist is motivated by a functional approach to package build management, and features intelligent caching of sources and builds, parametrized build specifications, and the ability to interoperate with system compilers and packages. HashDist enables the easy specification of "software stacks", which allow both the novice user to install a default environment and the advanced user to configure every aspect of their build in a modular fashion. As an advanced feature, HashDist builds can be made relocatable, allowing the easy redistribution of binaries on all three major operating systems as well as cloud, and supercomputing platforms. As a final benefit, all HashDist builds are reproducible, with a build hash specifying exactly how each component of the software stack was installed. This talk discusses the role of HashDist in the hydrological sciences, including its use by the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in the development and deployment of the Proteus Toolkit as well as the Rapid Operational Access and Maneuver Support project. We demonstrate HashDist in action, and show how it can effectively support development, deployment, teaching, and reproducibility for scientists working in the hydrological sciences. The HashDist documentation is available from: http://hashdist.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ HashDist is currently hosted at: https://github.com/hashdist/hashdist
Open source libraries and frameworks for biological data visualisation: a guide for developers.
Wang, Rui; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Hermjakob, Henning; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio
2015-04-01
Recent advances in high-throughput experimental techniques have led to an exponential increase in both the size and the complexity of the data sets commonly studied in biology. Data visualisation is increasingly used as the key to unlock this data, going from hypothesis generation to model evaluation and tool implementation. It is becoming more and more the heart of bioinformatics workflows, enabling scientists to reason and communicate more effectively. In parallel, there has been a corresponding trend towards the development of related software, which has triggered the maturation of different visualisation libraries and frameworks. For bioinformaticians, scientific programmers and software developers, the main challenge is to pick out the most fitting one(s) to create clear, meaningful and integrated data visualisation for their particular use cases. In this review, we introduce a collection of open source or free to use libraries and frameworks for creating data visualisation, covering the generation of a wide variety of charts and graphs. We will focus on software written in Java, JavaScript or Python. We truly believe this software offers the potential to turn tedious data into exciting visual stories. © 2014 The Authors. PROTEOMICS published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Open source libraries and frameworks for biological data visualisation: A guide for developers
Wang, Rui; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Hermjakob, Henning; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio
2015-01-01
Recent advances in high-throughput experimental techniques have led to an exponential increase in both the size and the complexity of the data sets commonly studied in biology. Data visualisation is increasingly used as the key to unlock this data, going from hypothesis generation to model evaluation and tool implementation. It is becoming more and more the heart of bioinformatics workflows, enabling scientists to reason and communicate more effectively. In parallel, there has been a corresponding trend towards the development of related software, which has triggered the maturation of different visualisation libraries and frameworks. For bioinformaticians, scientific programmers and software developers, the main challenge is to pick out the most fitting one(s) to create clear, meaningful and integrated data visualisation for their particular use cases. In this review, we introduce a collection of open source or free to use libraries and frameworks for creating data visualisation, covering the generation of a wide variety of charts and graphs. We will focus on software written in Java, JavaScript or Python. We truly believe this software offers the potential to turn tedious data into exciting visual stories. PMID:25475079
PNNL Future Power Grid Initiative-developed GridOPTICS Software System (GOSS)
None
2018-01-16
The power grid is changing and evolving. One aspect of this change is the growing use of smart meters and other devices, which are producing large volumes of useful data. However, in many cases, the data canât be translated quickly into actionable guidance to improve grid performance. There's a need for innovative tools. The GridOPTICS(TM) Software System, or GOSS, developed through PNNL's Future Power Grid Initiative, is open source and became publicly available in spring 2014. The value of this middleware is that it easily integrates grid applications with sources of data and facilitates communication between them. Such a capability provides a foundation for developing a range of applications to improve grid management.
Software to Facilitate Remote Sensing Data Access for Disease Early Warning Systems
Liu, Yi; Hu, Jiameng; Snell-Feikema, Isaiah; VanBemmel, Michael S.; Lamsal, Aashis; Wimberly, Michael C.
2015-01-01
Satellite remote sensing produces an abundance of environmental data that can be used in the study of human health. To support the development of early warning systems for mosquito-borne diseases, we developed an open-source, client based software application to enable the Epidemiological Applications of Spatial Technologies (EASTWeb). Two major design decisions were full automation of the discovery, retrieval and processing of remote sensing data from multiple sources, and making the system easily modifiable in response to changes in data availability and user needs. Key innovations that helped to achieve these goals were the implementation of a software framework for data downloading and the design of a scheduler that tracks the complex dependencies among multiple data processing tasks and makes the system resilient to external errors. EASTWeb has been successfully applied to support forecasting of West Nile virus outbreaks in the United States and malaria epidemics in the Ethiopian highlands. PMID:26644779
The Azimuth Project: an Open-Access Educational Resource
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Baez, J. C.
2012-12-01
The Azimuth Project is an online collaboration of scientists, engineers and programmers who are volunteering their time to do something about a wide range of environmental problems. The project has several aspects: 1) a wiki designed to make reliable, sourced information easy to find and accessible to a technically literate nonexperts, 2) a blog featuring expository articles and news items, 3) a project to write programs that explain basic concepts of climate physics and illustrate principles of good open-source software design, and 4) a project to develop mathematical tools for studying complex networked systems. We discuss the progress so far and some preliminary lessons. For example, enlisting the help of experts outside academia highlights the problems with pay-walled journals and the benefits of open access, as well as differences between how software development is done commercially, in the free software community, and in academe.
Software support for SBGN maps: SBGN-ML and LibSBGN.
van Iersel, Martijn P; Villéger, Alice C; Czauderna, Tobias; Boyd, Sarah E; Bergmann, Frank T; Luna, Augustin; Demir, Emek; Sorokin, Anatoly; Dogrusoz, Ugur; Matsuoka, Yukiko; Funahashi, Akira; Aladjem, Mirit I; Mi, Huaiyu; Moodie, Stuart L; Kitano, Hiroaki; Le Novère, Nicolas; Schreiber, Falk
2012-08-01
LibSBGN is a software library for reading, writing and manipulating Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) maps stored using the recently developed SBGN-ML file format. The library (available in C++ and Java) makes it easy for developers to add SBGN support to their tools, whereas the file format facilitates the exchange of maps between compatible software applications. The library also supports validation of maps, which simplifies the task of ensuring compliance with the detailed SBGN specifications. With this effort we hope to increase the adoption of SBGN in bioinformatics tools, ultimately enabling more researchers to visualize biological knowledge in a precise and unambiguous manner. Milestone 2 was released in December 2011. Source code, example files and binaries are freely available under the terms of either the LGPL v2.1+ or Apache v2.0 open source licenses from http://libsbgn.sourceforge.net. sbgn-libsbgn@lists.sourceforge.net.
Schroedinger’s code: Source code availability and transparency in astrophysics
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ryan, PW; Allen, Alice; Teuben, Peter
2018-01-01
Astronomers use software for their research, but how many of the codes they use are available as source code? We examined a sample of 166 papers from 2015 for clearly identified software use, then searched for source code for the software packages mentioned in these research papers. We categorized the software to indicate whether source code is available for download and whether there are restrictions to accessing it, and if source code was not available, whether some other form of the software, such as a binary, was. Over 40% of the source code for the software used in our sample was not available for download.As URLs have often been used as proxy citations for software, we also extracted URLs from one journal’s 2015 research articles, removed those from certain long-term, reliable domains, and tested the remainder to determine what percentage of these URLs were still accessible in September and October, 2017.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fraser, Ryan; Gross, Lutz; Wyborn, Lesley; Evans, Ben; Klump, Jens
2015-04-01
Recent investments in HPC, cloud and Petascale data stores, have dramatically increased the scale and resolution that earth science challenges can now be tackled. These new infrastructures are highly parallelised and to fully utilise them and access the large volumes of earth science data now available, a new approach to software stack engineering needs to be developed. The size, complexity and cost of the new infrastructures mean any software deployed has to be reliable, trusted and reusable. Increasingly software is available via open source repositories, but these usually only enable code to be discovered and downloaded. As a user it is hard for a scientist to judge the suitability and quality of individual codes: rarely is there information on how and where codes can be run, what the critical dependencies are, and in particular, on the version requirements and licensing of the underlying software stack. A trusted software framework is proposed to enable reliable software to be discovered, accessed and then deployed on multiple hardware environments. More specifically, this framework will enable those who generate the software, and those who fund the development of software, to gain credit for the effort, IP, time and dollars spent, and facilitate quantification of the impact of individual codes. For scientific users, the framework delivers reviewed and benchmarked scientific software with mechanisms to reproduce results. The trusted framework will have five separate, but connected components: Register, Review, Reference, Run, and Repeat. 1) The Register component will facilitate discovery of relevant software from multiple open source code repositories. The registration process of the code should include information about licensing, hardware environments it can be run on, define appropriate validation (testing) procedures and list the critical dependencies. 2) The Review component is targeting on the verification of the software typically against a set of benchmark cases. This will be achieved by linking the code in the software framework to peer review forums such as Mozilla Science or appropriate Journals (e.g. Geoscientific Model Development Journal) to assist users to know which codes to trust. 3) Referencing will be accomplished by linking the Software Framework to groups such as Figshare or ImpactStory that help disseminate and measure the impact of scientific research, including program code. 4) The Run component will draw on information supplied in the registration process, benchmark cases described in the review and relevant information to instantiate the scientific code on the selected environment. 5) The Repeat component will tap into existing Provenance Workflow engines that will automatically capture information that relate to a particular run of that software, including identification of all input and output artefacts, and all elements and transactions within that workflow. The proposed trusted software framework will enable users to rapidly discover and access reliable code, reduce the time to deploy it and greatly facilitate sharing, reuse and reinstallation of code. Properly designed it could enable an ability to scale out to massively parallel systems and be accessed nationally/ internationally for multiple use cases, including Supercomputer centres, cloud facilities, and local computers.
Free for All: Open Source Software
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schneider, Karen
2008-01-01
Open source software has become a catchword in libraryland. Yet many remain unclear about open source's benefits--or even what it is. So what is open source software (OSS)? It's software that is free in every sense of the word: free to download, free to use, and free to view or modify. Most OSS is distributed on the Web and one doesn't need to…
CellAnimation: an open source MATLAB framework for microscopy assays.
Georgescu, Walter; Wikswo, John P; Quaranta, Vito
2012-01-01
Advances in microscopy technology have led to the creation of high-throughput microscopes that are capable of generating several hundred gigabytes of images in a few days. Analyzing such wealth of data manually is nearly impossible and requires an automated approach. There are at present a number of open-source and commercial software packages that allow the user to apply algorithms of different degrees of sophistication to the images and extract desired metrics. However, the types of metrics that can be extracted are severely limited by the specific image processing algorithms that the application implements, and by the expertise of the user. In most commercial software, code unavailability prevents implementation by the end user of newly developed algorithms better suited for a particular type of imaging assay. While it is possible to implement new algorithms in open-source software, rewiring an image processing application requires a high degree of expertise. To obviate these limitations, we have developed an open-source high-throughput application that allows implementation of different biological assays such as cell tracking or ancestry recording, through the use of small, relatively simple image processing modules connected into sophisticated imaging pipelines. By connecting modules, non-expert users can apply the particular combination of well-established and novel algorithms developed by us and others that are best suited for each individual assay type. In addition, our data exploration and visualization modules make it easy to discover or select specific cell phenotypes from a heterogeneous population. CellAnimation is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). CellAnimationsource code and documentation may be downloaded from www.vanderbilt.edu/viibre/software/documents/CellAnimation.zip. Sample data are available at www.vanderbilt.edu/viibre/software/documents/movies.zip. walter.georgescu@vanderbilt.edu Supplementary data available at Bioinformatics online.
New software for 3D fracture network analysis and visualization
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Song, J.; Noh, Y.; Choi, Y.; Um, J.; Hwang, S.
2013-12-01
This study presents new software to perform analysis and visualization of the fracture network system in 3D. The developed software modules for the analysis and visualization, such as BOUNDARY, DISK3D, FNTWK3D, CSECT and BDM, have been developed using Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Visualization TookKit (VTK) open-source library. Two case studies revealed that each module plays a role in construction of analysis domain, visualization of fracture geometry in 3D, calculation of equivalent pipes, production of cross-section map and management of borehole data, respectively. The developed software for analysis and visualization of the 3D fractured rock mass can be used to tackle the geomechanical problems related to strength, deformability and hydraulic behaviors of the fractured rock masses.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
MCCLEAN, JARROD; HANER, THOMAS; STEIGER, DAMIAN
FermiLib is an open source software package designed to facilitate the development and testing of algorithms for simulations of fermionic systems on quantum computers. Fermionic simulations represent an important application of early quantum devices with a lot of potential high value targets, such as quantum chemistry for the development of new catalysts. This software strives to provide a link between the required domain expertise in specific fermionic applications and quantum computing to enable more users to directly interface with, and develop for, these applications. It is an extensible Python library designed to interface with the high performance quantum simulator, ProjectQ,more » as well as application specific software such as PSI4 from the domain of quantum chemistry. Such software is key to enabling effective user facilities in quantum computation research.« less
World Wind Tools Reveal Environmental Change
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
2012-01-01
Originally developed under NASA's Learning Technologies program as a tool to engage and inspire students, World Wind software was released under the NASA Open Source Agreement license. Honolulu, Hawaii based Intelesense Technologies is one of the companies currently making use of the technology for environmental, public health, and other monitoring applications for nonprofit organizations and Government agencies. The company saved about $1 million in development costs by using the NASA software.
Tailoring a software production environment for a large project
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Levine, D. R.
1984-01-01
A software production environment was constructed to meet the specific goals of a particular large programming project. These goals, the specific solutions as implemented, and the experiences on a project of over 100,000 lines of source code are discussed. The base development environment for this project was an ordinary PWB Unix (tm) system. Several important aspects of the development process required support not available in the existing tool set.
Evaluation and selection of open-source EMR software packages based on integrated AHP and TOPSIS.
Zaidan, A A; Zaidan, B B; Al-Haiqi, Ahmed; Kiah, M L M; Hussain, Muzammil; Abdulnabi, Mohamed
2015-02-01
Evaluating and selecting software packages that meet the requirements of an organization are difficult aspects of software engineering process. Selecting the wrong open-source EMR software package can be costly and may adversely affect business processes and functioning of the organization. This study aims to evaluate and select open-source EMR software packages based on multi-criteria decision-making. A hands-on study was performed and a set of open-source EMR software packages were implemented locally on separate virtual machines to examine the systems more closely. Several measures as evaluation basis were specified, and the systems were selected based a set of metric outcomes using Integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and TOPSIS. The experimental results showed that GNUmed and OpenEMR software can provide better basis on ranking score records than other open-source EMR software packages. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
The plpdfa software is a product of an LDRD project at LLNL entitked "Adaptive Sampling for Very High Throughput Data Streams" (tracking number 11-ERD-035). This software was developed by a graduate student summer intern, Chris Challis, who worked under project PI Dan Merl furing the summer of 2011. The software the source code is implementing is a statistical analysis technique for clustering and classification of text-valued data. The method had been previously published by the PI in the open literature.
An Open Avionics and Software Architecture to Support Future NASA Exploration Missions
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Schlesinger, Adam
2017-01-01
The presentation describes an avionics and software architecture that has been developed through NASAs Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) division. The architecture is open-source, highly reliable with fault tolerance, and utilizes standard capabilities and interfaces, which are scalable and customizable to support future exploration missions. Specific focus areas of discussion will include command and data handling, software, human interfaces, communication and wireless systems, and systems engineering and integration.
SimVascular: An Open Source Pipeline for Cardiovascular Simulation.
Updegrove, Adam; Wilson, Nathan M; Merkow, Jameson; Lan, Hongzhi; Marsden, Alison L; Shadden, Shawn C
2017-03-01
Patient-specific cardiovascular simulation has become a paradigm in cardiovascular research and is emerging as a powerful tool in basic, translational and clinical research. In this paper we discuss the recent development of a fully open-source SimVascular software package, which provides a complete pipeline from medical image data segmentation to patient-specific blood flow simulation and analysis. This package serves as a research tool for cardiovascular modeling and simulation, and has contributed to numerous advances in personalized medicine, surgical planning and medical device design. The SimVascular software has recently been refactored and expanded to enhance functionality, usability, efficiency and accuracy of image-based patient-specific modeling tools. Moreover, SimVascular previously required several licensed components that hindered new user adoption and code management and our recent developments have replaced these commercial components to create a fully open source pipeline. These developments foster advances in cardiovascular modeling research, increased collaboration, standardization of methods, and a growing developer community.
Software for imaging phase-shift interference microscope
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Malinovski, I.; França, R. S.; Couceiro, I. B.
2018-03-01
In recent years absolute interference microscope was created at National Metrology Institute of Brazil (INMETRO). The instrument by principle of operation is imaging phase-shifting interferometer (PSI) equipped with two stabilized lasers of different colour as traceable reference wavelength sources. We report here some progress in development of the software for this instrument. The status of undergoing internal validation and verification of the software is also reported. In contrast with standard PSI method, different methodology of phase evaluation is applied. Therefore, instrument specific procedures for software validation and verification are adapted and discussed.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
None
1981-10-29
This volume is the software description for the National Utility Regulatory Model (NUREG). This is the third of three volumes provided by ICF under contract number DEAC-01-79EI-10579. These three volumes are: a manual describing the NUREG methodology; a users guide; and a description of the software. This manual describes the software which has been developed for NUREG. This includes a listing of the source modules. All computer code has been written in FORTRAN.
Baldwin, Krystal L; Kannan, Vaishnavi; Flahaven, Emily L; Parks, Cassandra J; Ott, Jason M; Willett, Duwayne L
2018-01-01
Background Moving to electronic health records (EHRs) confers substantial benefits but risks unintended consequences. Modern EHRs consist of complex software code with extensive local configurability options, which can introduce defects. Defects in clinical decision support (CDS) tools are surprisingly common. Feasible approaches to prevent and detect defects in EHR configuration, including CDS tools, are needed. In complex software systems, use of test–driven development and automated regression testing promotes reliability. Test–driven development encourages modular, testable design and expanding regression test coverage. Automated regression test suites improve software quality, providing a “safety net” for future software modifications. Each automated acceptance test serves multiple purposes, as requirements (prior to build), acceptance testing (on completion of build), regression testing (once live), and “living” design documentation. Rapid-cycle development or “agile” methods are being successfully applied to CDS development. The agile practice of automated test–driven development is not widely adopted, perhaps because most EHR software code is vendor-developed. However, key CDS advisory configuration design decisions and rules stored in the EHR may prove amenable to automated testing as “executable requirements.” Objective We aimed to establish feasibility of acceptance test–driven development of clinical decision support advisories in a commonly used EHR, using an open source automated acceptance testing framework (FitNesse). Methods Acceptance tests were initially constructed as spreadsheet tables to facilitate clinical review. Each table specified one aspect of the CDS advisory’s expected behavior. Table contents were then imported into a test suite in FitNesse, which queried the EHR database to automate testing. Tests and corresponding CDS configuration were migrated together from the development environment to production, with tests becoming part of the production regression test suite. Results We used test–driven development to construct a new CDS tool advising Emergency Department nurses to perform a swallowing assessment prior to administering oral medication to a patient with suspected stroke. Test tables specified desired behavior for (1) applicable clinical settings, (2) triggering action, (3) rule logic, (4) user interface, and (5) system actions in response to user input. Automated test suite results for the “executable requirements” are shown prior to building the CDS alert, during build, and after successful build. Conclusions Automated acceptance test–driven development and continuous regression testing of CDS configuration in a commercial EHR proves feasible with open source software. Automated test–driven development offers one potential contribution to achieving high-reliability EHR configuration. Vetting acceptance tests with clinicians elicits their input on crucial configuration details early during initial CDS design and iteratively during rapid-cycle optimization. PMID:29653922
Basit, Mujeeb A; Baldwin, Krystal L; Kannan, Vaishnavi; Flahaven, Emily L; Parks, Cassandra J; Ott, Jason M; Willett, Duwayne L
2018-04-13
Moving to electronic health records (EHRs) confers substantial benefits but risks unintended consequences. Modern EHRs consist of complex software code with extensive local configurability options, which can introduce defects. Defects in clinical decision support (CDS) tools are surprisingly common. Feasible approaches to prevent and detect defects in EHR configuration, including CDS tools, are needed. In complex software systems, use of test-driven development and automated regression testing promotes reliability. Test-driven development encourages modular, testable design and expanding regression test coverage. Automated regression test suites improve software quality, providing a "safety net" for future software modifications. Each automated acceptance test serves multiple purposes, as requirements (prior to build), acceptance testing (on completion of build), regression testing (once live), and "living" design documentation. Rapid-cycle development or "agile" methods are being successfully applied to CDS development. The agile practice of automated test-driven development is not widely adopted, perhaps because most EHR software code is vendor-developed. However, key CDS advisory configuration design decisions and rules stored in the EHR may prove amenable to automated testing as "executable requirements." We aimed to establish feasibility of acceptance test-driven development of clinical decision support advisories in a commonly used EHR, using an open source automated acceptance testing framework (FitNesse). Acceptance tests were initially constructed as spreadsheet tables to facilitate clinical review. Each table specified one aspect of the CDS advisory's expected behavior. Table contents were then imported into a test suite in FitNesse, which queried the EHR database to automate testing. Tests and corresponding CDS configuration were migrated together from the development environment to production, with tests becoming part of the production regression test suite. We used test-driven development to construct a new CDS tool advising Emergency Department nurses to perform a swallowing assessment prior to administering oral medication to a patient with suspected stroke. Test tables specified desired behavior for (1) applicable clinical settings, (2) triggering action, (3) rule logic, (4) user interface, and (5) system actions in response to user input. Automated test suite results for the "executable requirements" are shown prior to building the CDS alert, during build, and after successful build. Automated acceptance test-driven development and continuous regression testing of CDS configuration in a commercial EHR proves feasible with open source software. Automated test-driven development offers one potential contribution to achieving high-reliability EHR configuration. Vetting acceptance tests with clinicians elicits their input on crucial configuration details early during initial CDS design and iteratively during rapid-cycle optimization. ©Mujeeb A Basit, Krystal L Baldwin, Vaishnavi Kannan, Emily L Flahaven, Cassandra J Parks, Jason M Ott, Duwayne L Willett. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 13.04.2018.
Investigating interoperability of the LSST data management software stack with Astropy
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jenness, Tim; Bosch, James; Owen, Russell; Parejko, John; Sick, Jonathan; Swinbank, John; de Val-Borro, Miguel; Dubois-Felsmann, Gregory; Lim, K.-T.; Lupton, Robert H.; Schellart, Pim; Krughoff, K. S.; Tollerud, Erik J.
2016-07-01
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be an 8.4m optical survey telescope sited in Chile and capable of imaging the entire sky twice a week. The data rate of approximately 15TB per night and the requirements to both issue alerts on transient sources within 60 seconds of observing and create annual data releases means that automated data management systems and data processing pipelines are a key deliverable of the LSST construction project. The LSST data management software has been in development since 2004 and is based on a C++ core with a Python control layer. The software consists of nearly a quarter of a million lines of code covering the system from fundamental WCS and table libraries to pipeline environments and distributed process execution. The Astropy project began in 2011 as an attempt to bring together disparate open source Python projects and build a core standard infrastructure that can be used and built upon by the astronomy community. This project has been phenomenally successful in the years since it has begun and has grown to be the de facto standard for Python software in astronomy. Astropy brings with it considerable expectations from the community on how astronomy Python software should be developed and it is clear that by the time LSST is fully operational in the 2020s many of the prospective users of the LSST software stack will expect it to be fully interoperable with Astropy. In this paper we describe the overlap between the LSST science pipeline software and Astropy software and investigate areas where the LSST software provides new functionality. We also discuss the possibilities of re-engineering the LSST science pipeline software to build upon Astropy, including the option of contributing affliated packages.
A generic open-source software framework supporting scenario simulations in bioterrorist crises.
Falenski, Alexander; Filter, Matthias; Thöns, Christian; Weiser, Armin A; Wigger, Jan-Frederik; Davis, Matthew; Douglas, Judith V; Edlund, Stefan; Hu, Kun; Kaufman, James H; Appel, Bernd; Käsbohrer, Annemarie
2013-09-01
Since the 2001 anthrax attack in the United States, awareness of threats originating from bioterrorism has grown. This led internationally to increased research efforts to improve knowledge of and approaches to protecting human and animal populations against the threat from such attacks. A collaborative effort in this context is the extension of the open-source Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) simulation and modeling software for agro- or bioterrorist crisis scenarios. STEM, originally designed to enable community-driven public health disease models and simulations, was extended with new features that enable integration of proprietary data as well as visualization of agent spread along supply and production chains. STEM now provides a fully developed open-source software infrastructure supporting critical modeling tasks such as ad hoc model generation, parameter estimation, simulation of scenario evolution, estimation of effects of mitigation or management measures, and documentation. This open-source software resource can be used free of charge. Additionally, STEM provides critical features like built-in worldwide data on administrative boundaries, transportation networks, or environmental conditions (eg, rainfall, temperature, elevation, vegetation). Users can easily combine their own confidential data with built-in public data to create customized models of desired resolution. STEM also supports collaborative and joint efforts in crisis situations by extended import and export functionalities. In this article we demonstrate specifically those new software features implemented to accomplish STEM application in agro- or bioterrorist crisis scenarios.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sharma, Amita; Sarangdevot, S. S.
2010-11-01
Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) methodology has been investigated in development of real world business application software—Financial Accounting Software. Eclipse-AJDT environment has been used as open source enhanced IDE support for programming in AOP language—Aspect J. Crosscutting concerns have been identified and modularized as aspects. This reduces the complexity of the design considerably due to elimination of code scattering and tangling. Improvement in modularity, quality and performance is achieved. The study concludes that AOP methodology in Eclipse-AJDT environment offers powerful support for modular design and implementation of real world quality business software.
Canary: An NLP Platform for Clinicians and Researchers.
Malmasi, Shervin; Sandor, Nicolae L; Hosomura, Naoshi; Goldberg, Matt; Skentzos, Stephen; Turchin, Alexander
2017-05-03
Information Extraction methods can help discover critical knowledge buried in the vast repositories of unstructured clinical data. However, these methods are underutilized in clinical research, potentially due to the absence of free software geared towards clinicians with little technical expertise. The skills required for developing/using such software constitute a major barrier for medical researchers wishing to employ these methods. To address this, we have developed Canary, a free and open-source solution designed for users without natural language processing (NLP) or software engineering experience. It was designed to be fast and work out of the box via a user-friendly graphical interface.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a comprehensive environmental exposure and risk analysis software system for agency-wide application using the methodology of a Multi-media, Multi-pathway, Multi-receptor Risk Assessment (3MRA) model. This software sys...
Developing Digital Competences Using an Educational Software. A Pedagogical Research
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Magdas, Ioana; Bontea, Timea
2011-01-01
Many teachers and people in educational institutions consider it necessary to prepare children for living in a computerized society. The Internet offers an incredible number of opportunities for teachers. The Web offer of e-learning open source platforms reached an impressive configuration. In this article, we present an educational software for…
The Application of Function Points to Predict Source Lines of Code for Software Development
1992-09-01
there are some disadvantages. Software estimating tools are expensive. A single tool may cost more than $15,000 due to the high market value of the...term and Lang variables simultaneously onlN added marginal improvements over models with these terms included singularly. Using all the available
KiT: a MATLAB package for kinetochore tracking.
Armond, Jonathan W; Vladimirou, Elina; McAinsh, Andrew D; Burroughs, Nigel J
2016-06-15
During mitosis, chromosomes are attached to the mitotic spindle via large protein complexes called kinetochores. The motion of kinetochores throughout mitosis is intricate and automated quantitative tracking of their motion has already revealed many surprising facets of their behaviour. Here, we present 'KiT' (Kinetochore Tracking)-an easy-to-use, open-source software package for tracking kinetochores from live-cell fluorescent movies. KiT supports 2D, 3D and multi-colour movies, quantification of fluorescence, integrated deconvolution, parallel execution and multiple algorithms for particle localization. KiT is free, open-source software implemented in MATLAB and runs on all MATLAB supported platforms. KiT can be downloaded as a package from http://www.mechanochemistry.org/mcainsh/software.php The source repository is available at https://bitbucket.org/jarmond/kit and under continuing development. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. jonathan.armond@warwick.ac.uk. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.
Hyperspectral Soil Mapper (HYSOMA) software interface: Review and future plans
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Chabrillat, Sabine; Guillaso, Stephane; Eisele, Andreas; Rogass, Christian
2014-05-01
With the upcoming launch of the next generation of hyperspectral satellites that will routinely deliver high spectral resolution images for the entire globe (e.g. EnMAP, HISUI, HyspIRI, HypXIM, PRISMA), an increasing demand for the availability/accessibility of hyperspectral soil products is coming from the geoscience community. Indeed, many robust methods for the prediction of soil properties based on imaging spectroscopy already exist and have been successfully used for a wide range of soil mapping airborne applications. Nevertheless, these methods require expert know-how and fine-tuning, which makes them used sparingly. More developments are needed toward easy-to-access soil toolboxes as a major step toward the operational use of hyperspectral soil products for Earth's surface processes monitoring and modelling, to allow non-experienced users to obtain new information based on non-expensive software packages where repeatability of the results is an important prerequisite. In this frame, based on the EU-FP7 EUFAR (European Facility for Airborne Research) project and EnMAP satellite science program, higher performing soil algorithms were developed at the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences as demonstrators for end-to-end processing chains with harmonized quality measures. The algorithms were built-in into the HYSOMA (Hyperspectral SOil MApper) software interface, providing an experimental platform for soil mapping applications of hyperspectral imagery that gives the choice of multiple algorithms for each soil parameter. The software interface focuses on fully automatic generation of semi-quantitative soil maps such as soil moisture, soil organic matter, iron oxide, clay content, and carbonate content. Additionally, a field calibration option calculates fully quantitative soil maps provided ground truth soil data are available. Implemented soil algorithms have been tested and validated using extensive in-situ ground truth data sets. The source of the HYSOMA code was developed as standalone IDL software to allow easy implementation in the hyperspectral and non-hyperspectral communities. Indeed, within the hyperspectral community, IDL language is very widely used, and for non-expert users that do not have an ENVI license, such software can be executed as a binary version using the free IDL virtual machine under various operating systems. Based on the growing interest of users in the software interface, the experimental software was adapted for public release version in 2012, and since then ~80 users of hyperspectral soil products downloaded the soil algorithms at www.gfz-potsdam.de/hysoma. The software interface was distributed for free as IDL plug-ins under the IDL-virtual machine. Up-to-now distribution of HYSOMA was based on a close source license model, for non-commercial and educational purposes. Currently, the HYSOMA is being under further development in the context of the EnMAP satellite mission, for extension and implementation in the EnMAP Box as EnSoMAP (EnMAP SOil MAPper). The EnMAP Box is a freely available, platform-independent software distributed under an open source license. In the presentation we will focus on an update of the HYSOMA software interface status and upcoming implementation in the EnMAP Box. Scientific software validation, associated publication record and users responses as well as software management and transition to open source will be discussed.
Systems biology driven software design for the research enterprise
Boyle, John; Cavnor, Christopher; Killcoyne, Sarah; Shmulevich, Ilya
2008-01-01
Background In systems biology, and many other areas of research, there is a need for the interoperability of tools and data sources that were not originally designed to be integrated. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of systems biology, and its association with high throughput experimental platforms, there is an additional need to continually integrate new technologies. As scientists work in isolated groups, integration with other groups is rarely a consideration when building the required software tools. Results We illustrate an approach, through the discussion of a purpose built software architecture, which allows disparate groups to reuse tools and access data sources in a common manner. The architecture allows for: the rapid development of distributed applications; interoperability, so it can be used by a wide variety of developers and computational biologists; development using standard tools, so that it is easy to maintain and does not require a large development effort; extensibility, so that new technologies and data types can be incorporated; and non intrusive development, insofar as researchers need not to adhere to a pre-existing object model. Conclusion By using a relatively simple integration strategy, based upon a common identity system and dynamically discovered interoperable services, a light-weight software architecture can become the focal point through which scientists can both get access to and analyse the plethora of experimentally derived data. PMID:18578887
Control Software for Advanced Video Guidance Sensor
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Howard, Richard T.; Book, Michael L.; Bryan, Thomas C.
2006-01-01
Embedded software has been developed specifically for controlling an Advanced Video Guidance Sensor (AVGS). A Video Guidance Sensor is an optoelectronic system that provides guidance for automated docking of two vehicles. Such a system includes pulsed laser diodes and a video camera, the output of which is digitized. From the positions of digitized target images and known geometric relationships, the relative position and orientation of the vehicles are computed. The present software consists of two subprograms running in two processors that are parts of the AVGS. The subprogram in the first processor receives commands from an external source, checks the commands for correctness, performs commanded non-image-data-processing control functions, and sends image data processing parts of commands to the second processor. The subprogram in the second processor processes image data as commanded. Upon power-up, the software performs basic tests of functionality, then effects a transition to a standby mode. When a command is received, the software goes into one of several operational modes (e.g. acquisition or tracking). The software then returns, to the external source, the data appropriate to the command.
Miller, Brian S; Calderan, Susannah; Gillespie, Douglas; Weatherup, Graham; Leaper, Russell; Collins, Kym; Double, Michael C
2016-03-01
Directional frequency analysis and recording (DIFAR) sonobuoys can allow real-time acoustic localization of baleen whales for underwater tracking and remote sensing, but limited availability of hardware and software has prevented wider usage. These software limitations were addressed by developing a module in the open-source software PAMGuard. A case study is presented demonstrating that this software provides greater efficiency and accessibility than previous methods for detecting, localizing, and tracking Antarctic blue whales in real time. Additionally, this software can easily be extended to track other low and mid frequency sounds including those from other cetaceans, pinnipeds, icebergs, shipping, and seismic airguns.
Analyzing qualitative data with computer software.
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
Development and validation of an open source quantification tool for DSC-MRI studies.
Gordaliza, P M; Mateos-Pérez, J M; Montesinos, P; Guzmán-de-Villoria, J A; Desco, M; Vaquero, J J
2015-03-01
This work presents the development of an open source tool for the quantification of dynamic susceptibility-weighted contrast-enhanced (DSC) perfusion studies. The development of this tool is motivated by the lack of open source tools implemented on open platforms to allow external developers to implement their own quantification methods easily and without the need of paying for a development license. This quantification tool was developed as a plugin for the ImageJ image analysis platform using the Java programming language. A modular approach was used in the implementation of the components, in such a way that the addition of new methods can be done without breaking any of the existing functionalities. For the validation process, images from seven patients with brain tumors were acquired and quantified with the presented tool and with a widely used clinical software package. The resulting perfusion parameters were then compared. Perfusion parameters and the corresponding parametric images were obtained. When no gamma-fitting is used, an excellent agreement with the tool used as a gold-standard was obtained (R(2)>0.8 and values are within 95% CI limits in Bland-Altman plots). An open source tool that performs quantification of perfusion studies using magnetic resonance imaging has been developed and validated using a clinical software package. It works as an ImageJ plugin and the source code has been published with an open source license. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PYTHON for Variable Star Astronomy (Abstract)
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Craig, M.
2018-06-01
(Abstract only) Open source PYTHON packages that are useful for data reduction, photometry, and other tasks relevant to variable star astronomy have been developed over the last three to four years as part of the Astropy project. Using this software, it is relatively straightforward to reduce images, automatically detect sources, and match them to catalogs. Over the last year browser-based tools for performing some of those tasks have been developed that minimize or eliminate the need to write any of your own code. After providing an overview of the current state of the software, an application that calculates transformation coefficients on a frame-by-frame basis by matching stars in an image to the APASS catalog will be described.
Development and Characterization of a Low-Pressure Calibration System for Hypersonic Wind Tunnels
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Green, Del L.; Everhart, Joel L.; Rhode, Matthew N.
2004-01-01
Minimization of uncertainty is essential for accurate ESP measurements at very low free-stream static pressures found in hypersonic wind tunnels. Statistical characterization of environmental error sources requires a well defined and controlled calibration method. A calibration system has been constructed and environmental control software developed to control experimentation to eliminate human induced error sources. The initial stability study of the calibration system shows a high degree of measurement accuracy and precision in temperature and pressure control. Control manometer drift and reference pressure instabilities induce uncertainty into the repeatability of voltage responses measured from the PSI System 8400 between calibrations. Methods of improving repeatability are possible through software programming and further experimentation.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Bevins, N; Vanderhoek, M; Lang, S
2014-06-15
Purpose: Medical display monitor calibration and quality control present challenges to medical physicists. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate and share experiences with an open source package that allows for both initial monitor setup and routine performance evaluation. Methods: A software package, pacsDisplay, has been developed over the last decade to aid in the calibration of all monitors within the radiology group in our health system. The software is used to calibrate monitors to follow the DICOM Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) via lookup tables installed on the workstation. Additional functionality facilitates periodic evaluations of both primary andmore » secondary medical monitors to ensure satisfactory performance. This software is installed on all radiology workstations, and can also be run as a stand-alone tool from a USB disk. Recently, a database has been developed to store and centralize the monitor performance data and to provide long-term trends for compliance with internal standards and various accrediting organizations. Results: Implementation and utilization of pacsDisplay has resulted in improved monitor performance across the health system. Monitor testing is now performed at regular intervals and the software is being used across multiple imaging modalities. Monitor performance characteristics such as maximum and minimum luminance, ambient luminance and illuminance, color tracking, and GSDF conformity are loaded into a centralized database for system performance comparisons. Compliance reports for organizations such as MQSA, ACR, and TJC are generated automatically and stored in the same database. Conclusion: An open source software solution has simplified and improved the standardization of displays within our health system. This work serves as an example method for calibrating and testing monitors within an enterprise health system.« less
The State of Open Source Electronic Health Record Projects: A Software Anthropology Study
2017-01-01
Background Electronic health records (EHR) are a key tool in managing and storing patients’ information. Currently, there are over 50 open source EHR systems available. Functionality and usability are important factors for determining the success of any system. These factors are often a direct reflection of the domain knowledge and developers’ motivations. However, few published studies have focused on the characteristics of free and open source software (F/OSS) EHR systems and none to date have discussed the motivation, knowledge background, and demographic characteristics of the developers involved in open source EHR projects. Objective This study analyzed the characteristics of prevailing F/OSS EHR systems and aimed to provide an understanding of the motivation, knowledge background, and characteristics of the developers. Methods This study identified F/OSS EHR projects on SourceForge and other websites from May to July 2014. Projects were classified and characterized by license type, downloads, programming languages, spoken languages, project age, development status, supporting materials, top downloads by country, and whether they were “certified” EHRs. Health care F/OSS developers were also surveyed using an online survey. Results At the time of the assessment, we uncovered 54 open source EHR projects, but only four of them had been successfully certified under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC Health IT) Certification Program. In the majority of cases, the open source EHR software was downloaded by users in the United States (64.07%, 148,666/232,034), underscoring that there is a significant interest in EHR open source applications in the United States. A survey of EHR open source developers was conducted and a total of 103 developers responded to the online questionnaire. The majority of EHR F/OSS developers (65.3%, 66/101) are participating in F/OSS projects as part of a paid activity and only 25.7% (26/101) of EHR F/OSS developers are, or have been, health care providers in their careers. In addition, 45% (45/99) of developers do not work in the health care field. Conclusion The research presented in this study highlights some challenges that may be hindering the future of health care F/OSS. A minority of developers have been health care professionals, and only 55% (54/99) work in the health care field. This undoubtedly limits the ability of functional design of F/OSS EHR systems from being a competitive advantage over prevailing commercial EHR systems. Open source software seems to be a significant interest to many; however, given that only four F/OSS EHR systems are ONC-certified, this interest is unlikely to yield significant adoption of these systems in the United States. Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act was responsible for a substantial infusion of capital into the EHR marketplace, the lack of a corporate entity in most F/OSS EHR projects translates to a marginal capacity to market the respective F/OSS system and to navigate certification. This likely has further disadvantaged F/OSS EHR adoption in the United States. PMID:28235750
Campagnola, Luke; Kratz, Megan B; Manis, Paul B
2014-01-01
The complexity of modern neurophysiology experiments requires specialized software to coordinate multiple acquisition devices and analyze the collected data. We have developed ACQ4, an open-source software platform for performing data acquisition and analysis in experimental neurophysiology. This software integrates the tasks of acquiring, managing, and analyzing experimental data. ACQ4 has been used primarily for standard patch-clamp electrophysiology, laser scanning photostimulation, multiphoton microscopy, intrinsic imaging, and calcium imaging. The system is highly modular, which facilitates the addition of new devices and functionality. The modules included with ACQ4 provide for rapid construction of acquisition protocols, live video display, and customizable analysis tools. Position-aware data collection allows automated construction of image mosaics and registration of images with 3-dimensional anatomical atlases. ACQ4 uses free and open-source tools including Python, NumPy/SciPy for numerical computation, PyQt for the user interface, and PyQtGraph for scientific graphics. Supported hardware includes cameras, patch clamp amplifiers, scanning mirrors, lasers, shutters, Pockels cells, motorized stages, and more. ACQ4 is available for download at http://www.acq4.org.
Dimensional Error in Rapid Prototyping with Open Source Software and Low-cost 3D-printer
Andrade-Delgado, Laura; Telich-Tarriba, Jose E.; Fuente-del-Campo, Antonio; Altamirano-Arcos, Carlos A.
2018-01-01
Summary: Rapid prototyping models (RPMs) had been extensively used in craniofacial and maxillofacial surgery, especially in areas such as orthognathic surgery, posttraumatic or oncological reconstructions, and implantology. Economic limitations are higher in developing countries such as Mexico, where resources dedicated to health care are limited, therefore limiting the use of RPM to few selected centers. This article aims to determine the dimensional error of a low-cost fused deposition modeling 3D printer (Tronxy P802MA, Shenzhen, Tronxy Technology Co), with Open source software. An ordinary dry human mandible was scanned with a computed tomography device. The data were processed with open software to build a rapid prototype with a fused deposition machine. Linear measurements were performed to find the mean absolute and relative difference. The mean absolute and relative difference was 0.65 mm and 1.96%, respectively (P = 0.96). Low-cost FDM machines and Open Source Software are excellent options to manufacture RPM, with the benefit of low cost and a similar relative error than other more expensive technologies. PMID:29464171
Dimensional Error in Rapid Prototyping with Open Source Software and Low-cost 3D-printer.
Rendón-Medina, Marco A; Andrade-Delgado, Laura; Telich-Tarriba, Jose E; Fuente-Del-Campo, Antonio; Altamirano-Arcos, Carlos A
2018-01-01
Rapid prototyping models (RPMs) had been extensively used in craniofacial and maxillofacial surgery, especially in areas such as orthognathic surgery, posttraumatic or oncological reconstructions, and implantology. Economic limitations are higher in developing countries such as Mexico, where resources dedicated to health care are limited, therefore limiting the use of RPM to few selected centers. This article aims to determine the dimensional error of a low-cost fused deposition modeling 3D printer (Tronxy P802MA, Shenzhen, Tronxy Technology Co), with Open source software. An ordinary dry human mandible was scanned with a computed tomography device. The data were processed with open software to build a rapid prototype with a fused deposition machine. Linear measurements were performed to find the mean absolute and relative difference. The mean absolute and relative difference was 0.65 mm and 1.96%, respectively ( P = 0.96). Low-cost FDM machines and Open Source Software are excellent options to manufacture RPM, with the benefit of low cost and a similar relative error than other more expensive technologies.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Darch, Peter T.; Sands, Ashley E.
2016-06-01
Sky surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), generate data on an unprecedented scale. While many scientific projects span a few years from conception to completion, sky surveys are typically on the scale of decades. This paper focuses on critical challenges arising from long timescales, and how sky surveys address these challenges.We present findings from a study of LSST, comprising interviews (n=58) and observation. Conceived in the 1990s, the LSST Corporation was formed in 2003, and construction began in 2014. LSST will commence data collection operations in 2022 for ten years.One challenge arising from this long timescale is uncertainty about future needs of the astronomers who will use these data many years hence. Sources of uncertainty include scientific questions to be posed, astronomical phenomena to be studied, and tools and practices these astronomers will have at their disposal. These uncertainties are magnified by the rapid technological and scientific developments anticipated between now and the start of LSST operations.LSST is implementing a range of strategies to address these challenges. Some strategies involve delaying resolution of uncertainty, placing this resolution in the hands of future data users. Other strategies aim to reduce uncertainty by shaping astronomers’ data analysis practices so that these practices will integrate well with LSST once operations begin.One approach that exemplifies both types of strategy is the decision to make LSST data management software open source, even now as it is being developed. This policy will enable future data users to adapt this software to evolving needs. In addition, LSST intends for astronomers to start using this software well in advance of 2022, thereby embedding LSST software and data analysis approaches in the practices of astronomers.These findings strengthen arguments for making the software supporting sky surveys available as open source. Such arguments usually focus on reuse potential of software, and enhancing replicability of analyses. In this case, however, open source software also promises to mitigate the critical challenge of anticipating the needs of future data users.
Automated Construction of Node Software Using Attributes in a Ubiquitous Sensor Network Environment
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.
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.
The ALMA common software: dispatch from the trenches
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schwarz, J.; Sommer, H.; Jeram, B.; Sekoranja, M.; Chiozzi, G.; Grimstrup, A.; Caproni, A.; Paredes, C.; Allaert, E.; Harrington, S.; Turolla, S.; Cirami, R.
2008-07-01
The ALMA Common Software (ACS) provides both an application framework and CORBA-based middleware for the distributed software system of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Building upon open-source tools such as the JacORB, TAO and OmniORB ORBs, ACS supports the development of component-based software in any of three languages: Java, C++ and Python. Now in its seventh major release, ACS has matured, both in its feature set as well as in its reliability and performance. However, it is only recently that the ALMA observatory's hardware and application software has reached a level at which it can exploit and challenge the infrastructure that ACS provides. In particular, the availability of an Antenna Test Facility(ATF) at the site of the Very Large Array in New Mexico has enabled us to exercise and test the still evolving end-to-end ALMA software under realistic conditions. The major focus of ACS, consequently, has shifted from the development of new features to consideration of how best to use those that already exist. Configuration details which could be neglected for the purpose of running unit tests or skeletal end-to-end simulations have turned out to be sensitive levers for achieving satisfactory performance in a real-world environment. Surprising behavior in some open-source tools has required us to choose between patching code that we did not write or addressing its deficiencies by implementing workarounds in our own software. We will discuss these and other aspects of our recent experience at the ATF and in simulation.
Political Economy, the Internet and FL/OSS Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mansell, Robin; Berdou, Evangelia
Despite the growing amount of research on Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FL/OSS) development, there is little insight into how structural factors associated with institutions influence the patterns of software developer activity in this area. This article examines some of the dynamics of the development of this type of software and the extent to which these dynamics are associated with features of the gift economy as is frequently suggested in the literature. Drawing on an empirical analysis of contributors to the GNOME FL/OSS project, we suggest that greater attention should be given to the emergence of a mixed economy in which features of the exchange economy come to the fore with implications for the power relationships among those contributing to FL/OSS.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pfaffman, Jay
2008-01-01
Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) applications meet many of the software needs of high school science classrooms. In spite of the availability and quality of FOSS tools, they remain unknown to many teachers and utilized by fewer still. In a world where most software has restrictions on copying and use, FOSS is an anomaly, free to use and to…
AMIDE: a free software tool for multimodality medical image analysis.
Loening, Andreas Markus; Gambhir, Sanjiv Sam
2003-07-01
Amide's a Medical Image Data Examiner (AMIDE) has been developed as a user-friendly, open-source software tool for displaying and analyzing multimodality volumetric medical images. Central to the package's abilities to simultaneously display multiple data sets (e.g., PET, CT, MRI) and regions of interest is the on-demand data reslicing implemented within the program. Data sets can be freely shifted, rotated, viewed, and analyzed with the program automatically handling interpolation as needed from the original data. Validation has been performed by comparing the output of AMIDE with that of several existing software packages. AMIDE runs on UNIX, Macintosh OS X, and Microsoft Windows platforms, and it is freely available with source code under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Open source EMR software: profiling, insights and hands-on analysis.
Kiah, M L M; Haiqi, Ahmed; Zaidan, B B; Zaidan, A A
2014-11-01
The use of open source software in health informatics is increasingly advocated by authors in the literature. Although there is no clear evidence of the superiority of the current open source applications in the healthcare field, the number of available open source applications online is growing and they are gaining greater prominence. This repertoire of open source options is of a great value for any future-planner interested in adopting an electronic medical/health record system, whether selecting an existent application or building a new one. The following questions arise. How do the available open source options compare to each other with respect to functionality, usability and security? Can an implementer of an open source application find sufficient support both as a user and as a developer, and to what extent? Does the available literature provide adequate answers to such questions? This review attempts to shed some light on these aspects. The objective of this study is to provide more comprehensive guidance from an implementer perspective toward the available alternatives of open source healthcare software, particularly in the field of electronic medical/health records. The design of this study is twofold. In the first part, we profile the published literature on a sample of existent and active open source software in the healthcare area. The purpose of this part is to provide a summary of the available guides and studies relative to the sampled systems, and to identify any gaps in the published literature with respect to our research questions. In the second part, we investigate those alternative systems relative to a set of metrics, by actually installing the software and reporting a hands-on experience of the installation process, usability, as well as other factors. The literature covers many aspects of open source software implementation and utilization in healthcare practice. Roughly, those aspects could be distilled into a basic taxonomy, making the literature landscape more perceivable. Nevertheless, the surveyed articles fall short of fulfilling the targeted objective of providing clear reference to potential implementers. The hands-on study contributed a more detailed comparative guide relative to our set of assessment measures. Overall, no system seems to satisfy an industry-standard measure, particularly in security and interoperability. The systems, as software applications, feel similar from a usability perspective and share a common set of functionality, though they vary considerably in community support and activity. More detailed analysis of popular open source software can benefit the potential implementers of electronic health/medical records systems. The number of examined systems and the measures by which to compare them vary across studies, but still rewarding insights start to emerge. Our work is one step toward that goal. Our overall conclusion is that open source options in the medical field are still far behind the highly acknowledged open source products in other domains, e.g. operating systems market share. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Thermal Tracker: The Secret Lives of Bats and Birds Revealed
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
None
Offshore wind developers and stakeholders can accelerate the sustainable, widespread deployment of offshore wind using a new open-source software program, called ThermalTracker. Researchers can now collect the data they need to better understand the potential effects of offshore wind turbines on bird and bat populations. This plug and play software can be used with any standard desktop computer, thermal camera, and statistical software to identify species and behaviors of animals in offshore locations.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
1981-01-01
Guidelines and recommendations are presented for the collection of software development data. Motivation and planning for, and implementation and management of, a data collection effort are discussed. Topics covered include types, sources, and availability of data; methods and costs of data collection; types of analyses supported; and warnings and suggestions based on software engineering laboratory (SEL) experiences. This document is intended as a practical guide for software managers and engineers, abstracted and generalized from 5 years of SEL data collection.
Cavuşoğlu, M Cenk; Göktekin, Tolga G; Tendick, Frank
2006-04-01
This paper presents the architectural details of an evolving open source/open architecture software framework for developing organ-level surgical simulations. Our goal is to facilitate shared development of reusable models, to accommodate heterogeneous models of computation, and to provide a framework for interfacing multiple heterogeneous models. The framework provides an application programming interface for interfacing dynamic models defined over spatial domains. It is specifically designed to be independent of the specifics of the modeling methods used, and therefore facilitates seamless integration of heterogeneous models and processes. Furthermore, each model has separate geometries for visualization, simulation, and interfacing, allowing the model developer to choose the most natural geometric representation for each case. Input/output interfaces for visualization and haptics for real-time interactive applications have also been provided.
Conjunctive programming: An interactive approach to software system synthesis
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Tausworthe, Robert C.
1992-01-01
This report introduces a technique of software documentation called conjunctive programming and discusses its role in the development and maintenance of software systems. The report also describes the conjoin tool, an adjunct to assist practitioners. Aimed at supporting software reuse while conforming with conventional development practices, conjunctive programming is defined as the extraction, integration, and embellishment of pertinent information obtained directly from an existing database of software artifacts, such as specifications, source code, configuration data, link-edit scripts, utility files, and other relevant information, into a product that achieves desired levels of detail, content, and production quality. Conjunctive programs typically include automatically generated tables of contents, indexes, cross references, bibliographic citations, tables, and figures (including graphics and illustrations). This report presents an example of conjunctive programming by documenting the use and implementation of the conjoin program.
FROMS3D: New Software for 3-D Visualization of Fracture Network System in Fractured Rock Masses
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Noh, Y. H.; Um, J. G.; Choi, Y.
2014-12-01
A new software (FROMS3D) is presented to visualize fracture network system in 3-D. The software consists of several modules that play roles in management of borehole and field fracture data, fracture network modelling, visualization of fracture geometry in 3-D and calculation and visualization of intersections and equivalent pipes between fractures. Intel Parallel Studio XE 2013, Visual Studio.NET 2010 and the open source VTK library were utilized as development tools to efficiently implement the modules and the graphical user interface of the software. The results have suggested that the developed software is effective in visualizing 3-D fracture network system, and can provide useful information to tackle the engineering geological problems related to strength, deformability and hydraulic behaviors of the fractured rock masses.
Simplified Deployment of Health Informatics Applications by Providing Docker Images.
Löbe, Matthias; Ganslandt, Thomas; Lotzmann, Lydia; Mate, Sebastian; Christoph, Jan; Baum, Benjamin; Sariyar, Murat; Wu, Jie; Stäubert, Sebastian
2016-01-01
Due to the specific needs of biomedical researchers, in-house development of software is widespread. A common problem is to maintain and enhance software after the funded project has ended. Even if many tools are made open source, only a couple of projects manage to attract a user basis large enough to ensure sustainability. Reasons for this include complex installation and configuration of biomedical software as well as an ambiguous terminology of the features provided; all of which make evaluation of software laborious. Docker is a para-virtualization technology based on Linux containers that eases deployment of applications and facilitates evaluation. We investigated a suite of software developments funded by a large umbrella organization for networked medical research within the last 10 years and created Docker containers for a number of applications to support utilization and dissemination.
Data-Driven Software Framework for Web-Based ISS Telescience
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Tso, Kam S.
2005-01-01
Software that enables authorized users to monitor and control scientific payloads aboard the International Space Station (ISS) from diverse terrestrial locations equipped with Internet connections is undergoing development. This software reflects a data-driven approach to distributed operations. A Web-based software framework leverages prior developments in Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) to create portable code and portable data, to which one can gain access via Web-browser software on almost any common computer. Open-source software is used extensively to minimize cost; the framework also accommodates enterprise-class server software to satisfy needs for high performance and security. To accommodate the diversity of ISS experiments and users, the framework emphasizes openness and extensibility. Users can take advantage of available viewer software to create their own client programs according to their particular preferences, and can upload these programs for custom processing of data, generation of views, and planning of experiments. The same software system, possibly augmented with a subset of data and additional software tools, could be used for public outreach by enabling public users to replay telescience experiments, conduct their experiments with simulated payloads, and create their own client programs and other custom software.
Bridging the Particle Physics and Big Data Worlds
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pivarski, James
2017-09-01
For decades, particle physicists have developed custom software because the scale and complexity of our problems were unique. In recent years, however, the ``big data'' industry has begun to tackle similar problems, and has developed some novel solutions. Incorporating scientific Python libraries, Spark, TensorFlow, and machine learning tools into the physics software stack can improve abstraction, reliability, and in some cases performance. Perhaps more importantly, it can free physicists to concentrate on domain-specific problems. Building bridges isn't always easy, however. Physics software and open-source software from industry differ in many incidental ways and a few fundamental ways. I will show work from the DIANA-HEP project to streamline data flow from ROOT to Numpy and Spark, to incorporate ideas of functional programming into histogram aggregation, and to develop real-time, query-style manipulations of particle data.
Lessons Learned through the Development and Publication of AstroImageJ
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Collins, Karen
2018-01-01
As lead author of the scientific image processing software package AstroImageJ (AIJ), I will discuss the reasoning behind why we decided to release AIJ to the public, and the lessons we learned related to the development, publication, distribution, and support of AIJ. I will also summarize the AIJ code language selection, code documentation and testing approaches, code distribution, update, and support facilities used, and the code citation and licensing decisions. Since AIJ was initially developed as part of my graduate research and was my first scientific open source software publication, many of my experiences and difficulties encountered may parallel those of others new to scientific software publication. Finally, I will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of releasing scientific software that I now recognize after having AIJ in the public domain for more than five years.
A USB-2 based portable data acquisition system for detector development and nuclear research
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jiang, Hao; Ojaruega, M.; Becchetti, F. D.; Griffin, H. C.; Torres-Isea, R. O.
2011-10-01
A highly portable high-speed CAMAC data acquisition system has been developed using Kmax software (Sparrow, Inc.) for Macintosh laptop and tower computers. It uses a USB-2 interface to the CAMAC crate controller with custom-written software drivers. Kmax permits 2D parameter gating and specific algorithms have been developed to facilitate the rapid evaluation of various multi-element nuclear detectors for energy and time-of-flight measurements. This includes tests using neutrons from 252Cf and a 2.5 MeV neutron generator as well as standard gamma calibration sources such as 60Co and 137Cs. In addition, the system has been used to measure gamma-gamma coincidences over extended time periods using radioactive sources (e.g., Ra-228, Pa-233, Np-237, and Am-243).
Guidance and Control Software Project Data - Volume 1: Planning Documents
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hayhurst, Kelly J. (Editor)
2008-01-01
The Guidance and Control Software (GCS) project was the last in a series of software reliability studies conducted at Langley Research Center between 1977 and 1994. The technical results of the GCS project were recorded after the experiment was completed. Some of the support documentation produced as part of the experiment, however, is serving an unexpected role far beyond its original project context. Some of the software used as part of the GCS project was developed to conform to the RTCA/DO-178B software standard, "Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification," used in the civil aviation industry. That standard requires extensive documentation throughout the software development life cycle, including plans, software requirements, design and source code, verification cases and results, and configuration management and quality control data. The project documentation that includes this information is open for public scrutiny without the legal or safety implications associated with comparable data from an avionics manufacturer. This public availability has afforded an opportunity to use the GCS project documents for DO-178B training. This report provides a brief overview of the GCS project, describes the 4-volume set of documents and the role they are playing in training, and includes the planning documents from the GCS project. Volume 1 contains five appendices: A. Plan for Software Aspects of Certification for the Guidance and Control Software Project; B. Software Development Standards for the Guidance and Control Software Project; C. Software Verification Plan for the Guidance and Control Software Project; D. Software Configuration Management Plan for the Guidance and Control Software Project; and E. Software Quality Assurance Activities.
General guidelines for biomedical software development
Silva, Luis Bastiao; Jimenez, Rafael C.; Blomberg, Niklas; Luis Oliveira, José
2017-01-01
Most bioinformatics tools available today were not written by professional software developers, but by people that wanted to solve their own problems, using computational solutions and spending the minimum time and effort possible, since these were just the means to an end. Consequently, a vast number of software applications are currently available, hindering the task of identifying the utility and quality of each. At the same time, this situation has hindered regular adoption of these tools in clinical practice. Typically, they are not sufficiently developed to be used by most clinical researchers and practitioners. To address these issues, it is necessary to re-think how biomedical applications are built and adopt new strategies that ensure quality, efficiency, robustness, correctness and reusability of software components. We also need to engage end-users during the development process to ensure that applications fit their needs. In this review, we present a set of guidelines to support biomedical software development, with an explanation of how they can be implemented and what kind of open-source tools can be used for each specific topic. PMID:28443186
Open source Modeling and optimization tools for Planning
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Peles, S.
Open source modeling and optimization tools for planning The existing tools and software used for planning and analysis in California are either expensive, difficult to use, or not generally accessible to a large number of participants. These limitations restrict the availability of participants for larger scale energy and grid studies in the state. The proposed initiative would build upon federal and state investments in open source software, and create and improve open source tools for use in the state planning and analysis activities. Computational analysis and simulation frameworks in development at national labs and universities can be brought forward tomore » complement existing tools. An open source platform would provide a path for novel techniques and strategies to be brought into the larger community and reviewed by a broad set of stakeholders.« less
The SCEC Broadband Platform: Open-Source Software for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Silva, F.; Goulet, C. A.; Maechling, P. J.; Callaghan, S.; Jordan, T. H.
2016-12-01
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP) is a carefully integrated collection of open-source scientific software programs that can simulate broadband (0-100 Hz) ground motions for earthquakes at regional scales. The BBP can run earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to simulate ground motions for well-observed historical earthquakes and to quantify how well the simulated broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms. The BBP can also run simulations for hypothetical earthquakes. In this case, users input an earthquake location and magnitude description, a list of station locations, and a 1D velocity model for the region of interest, and the BBP software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. The BBP scientific software modules implement kinematic rupture generation, low- and high-frequency seismogram synthesis using wave propagation through 1D layered velocity structures, several ground motion intensity measure calculations, and various ground motion goodness-of-fit tools. These modules are integrated into a software system that provides user-defined, repeatable, calculation of ground-motion seismograms, using multiple alternative ground motion simulation methods, and software utilities to generate tables, plots, and maps. The BBP has been developed over the last five years in a collaborative project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and SCEC scientific software developers. The SCEC BBP software released in 2016 can be compiled and run on recent Linux and Mac OS X systems with GNU compilers. It includes five simulation methods, seven simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, and the ability to compare simulation results against empirical ground motion models (aka GMPEs). The latest version includes updated ground motion simulation methods, a suite of new validation metrics and a simplified command line user interface.
Applang - A DSL for specification of mobile applications for android platform based on textX
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kosanović, Milan; Dejanović, Igor; Milosavljević, Gordana
2016-06-01
Mobile platforms become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives thus making more pressure to software developers to develop more applications faster and with the support for different mobile operating systems. To foster the faster development of mobile services and applications and to support various mobile operating systems a new software development approaches must be undertaken. Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) are a viable approach that promise to solve a problem of target platform diversity as well as to facilitate rapid application development and shorter time-to-market. This paper presents Applang, a DSL for the specification of mobile applications for the Android platform, based on textX meta-language. The application is described using Applang DSL and the source code for a target platform is automatically generated by the provided code generator. The same application defined using single Applang source can be transformed to various targets with little or no manual modifications.
48 CFR 227.7203-17 - Overseas contracts with foreign sources.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-10-01
... COPYRIGHTS Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7203-17 Overseas contracts with foreign sources. (a) The clause at 252.227-7032, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software... Noncommercial Computer Software and Noncommercial Computer Software Documentation, when the Government requires...
48 CFR 227.7203-17 - Overseas contracts with foreign sources.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... COPYRIGHTS Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7203-17 Overseas contracts with foreign sources. (a) The clause at 252.227-7032, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software... Noncommercial Computer Software and Noncommercial Computer Software Documentation, when the Government requires...
48 CFR 227.7203-17 - Overseas contracts with foreign sources.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-10-01
... COPYRIGHTS Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7203-17 Overseas contracts with foreign sources. (a) The clause at 252.227-7032, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software... Noncommercial Computer Software and Noncommercial Computer Software Documentation, when the Government requires...
48 CFR 227.7203-17 - Overseas contracts with foreign sources.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... COPYRIGHTS Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7203-17 Overseas contracts with foreign sources. (a) The clause at 252.227-7032, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software... Noncommercial Computer Software and Noncommercial Computer Software Documentation, when the Government requires...
48 CFR 227.7203-17 - Overseas contracts with foreign sources.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-10-01
... COPYRIGHTS Rights in Computer Software and Computer Software Documentation 227.7203-17 Overseas contracts with foreign sources. (a) The clause at 252.227-7032, Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software... Noncommercial Computer Software and Noncommercial Computer Software Documentation, when the Government requires...
Software Descriptions. Micro-computers: Atari, Apple, PET, TRS-80.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Olivero, James L.
Each of the more than 200 educational software programs developed by both commercial and public domain sources which are described is intended for use with one of the four microcomputers most frequently used for instructional purposes--Atari, Apple, PET, and TRS-80. These descriptions are offered as a service for those who are just beginning to…
Andrew C. Oishi; David Hawthorne; Ram Oren
2016-01-01
Estimating transpiration from woody plants using thermal dissipation sap flux sensors requires careful data processing. Currently, researchers accomplish this using spreadsheets, or by personally writing scripts for statistical software programs (e.g., R, SAS). We developed the Baseliner software to help establish a standardized protocol for processing sap...
From, by, and for the OSSD: Software Engineering Education Using an Open Source Software Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huang, Kun; Dong, Yifei; Ge, Xun
2006-01-01
Computing is a complex, multidisciplinary field that requires a range of professional proficiencies. Computing students are expected to develop in-depth knowledge and skills, integrate and apply their knowledge flexibly to solve complex problems, and work successfully in teams. However, many students who graduate with degrees in computing fail to…
Agile Methods: Selected DoD Management and Acquisition Concerns
2011-10-01
SIDRE Software Intensive Innovative Development and Reengineering/Evolution SLIM Software Lifecycle Management -Estimate SLOC source lines of code...ISBN #0321502752 Coaching Agile Teams Lyssa Adkins ISBN #0321637704 Agile Project Management : Creating Innovative Products – Second Edition Jim...Accessed July 13, 2011. [Highsmith 2009] Highsmith, J. Agile Project Management : Creating Innovative Products, 2nd ed. Addison- Wesley, 2009
Introducing Dynamic Mathematics Software to Secondary School Teachers: The Case of GeoGebra
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hohenwarter, Judith; Hohenwarter, Markus; Lavicza, Zsolt
2009-01-01
This paper describes a study aimed to identify most common impediments related to the introduction of an open-source mathematical software package GeoGebra. We report on the analysis of data collected during a three-week professional development programme organised for middle and high school teachers in Florida. The study identified challenges…
Desiderata for a Computer-Assisted Audit Tool for Clinical Data Source Verification Audits
Duda, Stephany N.; Wehbe, Firas H.; Gadd, Cynthia S.
2013-01-01
Clinical data auditing often requires validating the contents of clinical research databases against source documents available in health care settings. Currently available data audit software, however, does not provide features necessary to compare the contents of such databases to source data in paper medical records. This work enumerates the primary weaknesses of using paper forms for clinical data audits and identifies the shortcomings of existing data audit software, as informed by the experiences of an audit team evaluating data quality for an international research consortium. The authors propose a set of attributes to guide the development of a computer-assisted clinical data audit tool to simplify and standardize the audit process. PMID:20841814
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Krishnamurthy, M.
2008-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the open access and open source movement in the digital library world. Design/methodology/approach: A review of key developments in the open access and open source movement is provided. Findings: Open source software and open access to research findings are of great use to scholars in developing…
Leveraging Existing Mission Tools in a Re-Usable, Component-Based Software Environment
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Greene, Kevin; Grenander, Sven; Kurien, James; z,s (fshir. z[orttr); z,scer; O'Reilly, Taifun
2006-01-01
Emerging methods in component-based software development offer significant advantages but may seem incompatible with existing mission operations applications. In this paper we relate our positive experiences integrating existing mission applications into component-based tools we are delivering to three missions. In most operations environments, a number of software applications have been integrated together to form the mission operations software. In contrast, with component-based software development chunks of related functionality and data structures, referred to as components, can be individually delivered, integrated and re-used. With the advent of powerful tools for managing component-based development, complex software systems can potentially see significant benefits in ease of integration, testability and reusability from these techniques. These benefits motivate us to ask how component-based development techniques can be relevant in a mission operations environment, where there is significant investment in software tools that are not component-based and may not be written in languages for which component-based tools even exist. Trusted and complex software tools for sequencing, validation, navigation, and other vital functions cannot simply be re-written or abandoned in order to gain the advantages offered by emerging component-based software techniques. Thus some middle ground must be found. We have faced exactly this issue, and have found several solutions. Ensemble is an open platform for development, integration, and deployment of mission operations software that we are developing. Ensemble itself is an extension of an open source, component-based software development platform called Eclipse. Due to the advantages of component-based development, we have been able to vary rapidly develop mission operations tools for three surface missions by mixing and matching from a common set of mission operation components. We have also had to determine how to integrate existing mission applications for sequence development, sequence validation, and high level activity planning, and other functions into a component-based environment. For each of these, we used a somewhat different technique based upon the structure and usage of the existing application.
DPOI: Distributed software system development platform for ocean information service
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Guo, Zhongwen; Hu, Keyong; Jiang, Yongguo; Sun, Zhaosui
2015-02-01
Ocean information management is of great importance as it has been employed in many areas of ocean science and technology. However, the developments of Ocean Information Systems (OISs) often suffer from low efficiency because of repetitive work and continuous modifications caused by dynamic requirements. In this paper, the basic requirements of OISs are analyzed first, and then a novel platform DPOI is proposed to improve development efficiency and enhance software quality of OISs by providing off-the-shelf resources. In the platform, the OIS is decomposed hierarchically into a set of modules, which can be reused in different system developments. These modules include the acquisition middleware and data loader that collect data from instruments and files respectively, the database that stores data consistently, the components that support fast application generation, the web services that make the data from distributed sources syntactical by use of predefined schemas and the configuration toolkit that enables software customization. With the assistance of the development platform, the software development needs no programming and the development procedure is thus accelerated greatly. We have applied the development platform in practical developments and evaluated its efficiency in several development practices and different development approaches. The results show that DPOI significantly improves development efficiency and software quality.
Manabe, Sho; Morimoto, Chie; Hamano, Yuya; Fujimoto, Shuntaro
2017-01-01
In criminal investigations, forensic scientists need to evaluate DNA mixtures. The estimation of the number of contributors and evaluation of the contribution of a person of interest (POI) from these samples are challenging. In this study, we developed a new open-source software “Kongoh” for interpreting DNA mixture based on a quantitative continuous model. The model uses quantitative information of peak heights in the DNA profile and considers the effect of artifacts and allelic drop-out. By using this software, the likelihoods of 1–4 persons’ contributions are calculated, and the most optimal number of contributors is automatically determined; this differs from other open-source software. Therefore, we can eliminate the need to manually determine the number of contributors before the analysis. Kongoh also considers allele- or locus-specific effects of biological parameters based on the experimental data. We then validated Kongoh by calculating the likelihood ratio (LR) of a POI’s contribution in true contributors and non-contributors by using 2–4 person mixtures analyzed through a 15 short tandem repeat typing system. Most LR values obtained from Kongoh during true-contributor testing strongly supported the POI’s contribution even for small amounts or degraded DNA samples. Kongoh correctly rejected a false hypothesis in the non-contributor testing, generated reproducible LR values, and demonstrated higher accuracy of the estimated number of contributors than another software based on the quantitative continuous model. Therefore, Kongoh is useful in accurately interpreting DNA evidence like mixtures and small amounts or degraded DNA samples. PMID:29149210
Manabe, Sho; Morimoto, Chie; Hamano, Yuya; Fujimoto, Shuntaro; Tamaki, Keiji
2017-01-01
In criminal investigations, forensic scientists need to evaluate DNA mixtures. The estimation of the number of contributors and evaluation of the contribution of a person of interest (POI) from these samples are challenging. In this study, we developed a new open-source software "Kongoh" for interpreting DNA mixture based on a quantitative continuous model. The model uses quantitative information of peak heights in the DNA profile and considers the effect of artifacts and allelic drop-out. By using this software, the likelihoods of 1-4 persons' contributions are calculated, and the most optimal number of contributors is automatically determined; this differs from other open-source software. Therefore, we can eliminate the need to manually determine the number of contributors before the analysis. Kongoh also considers allele- or locus-specific effects of biological parameters based on the experimental data. We then validated Kongoh by calculating the likelihood ratio (LR) of a POI's contribution in true contributors and non-contributors by using 2-4 person mixtures analyzed through a 15 short tandem repeat typing system. Most LR values obtained from Kongoh during true-contributor testing strongly supported the POI's contribution even for small amounts or degraded DNA samples. Kongoh correctly rejected a false hypothesis in the non-contributor testing, generated reproducible LR values, and demonstrated higher accuracy of the estimated number of contributors than another software based on the quantitative continuous model. Therefore, Kongoh is useful in accurately interpreting DNA evidence like mixtures and small amounts or degraded DNA samples.
Nema, Shubham; Hasan, Whidul; Bhargava, Anamika; Bhargava, Yogesh
2016-09-15
Behavioural neuroscience relies on software driven methods for behavioural assessment, but the field lacks cost-effective, robust, open source software for behavioural analysis. Here we propose a novel method which we called as ZebraTrack. It includes cost-effective imaging setup for distraction-free behavioural acquisition, automated tracking using open-source ImageJ software and workflow for extraction of behavioural endpoints. Our ImageJ algorithm is capable of providing control to users at key steps while maintaining automation in tracking without the need for the installation of external plugins. We have validated this method by testing novelty induced anxiety behaviour in adult zebrafish. Our results, in agreement with established findings, showed that during state-anxiety, zebrafish showed reduced distance travelled, increased thigmotaxis and freezing events. Furthermore, we proposed a method to represent both spatial and temporal distribution of choice-based behaviour which is currently not possible to represent using simple videograms. ZebraTrack method is simple and economical, yet robust enough to give results comparable with those obtained from costly proprietary software like Ethovision XT. We have developed and validated a novel cost-effective method for behavioural analysis of adult zebrafish using open-source ImageJ software. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
An Analysis of Open Source Security Software Products Downloads
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Barta, Brian J.
2014-01-01
Despite the continued demand for open source security software, a gap in the identification of success factors related to the success of open source security software persists. There are no studies that accurately assess the extent of this persistent gap, particularly with respect to the strength of the relationships of open source software…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kwon, N.; Gentle, J.; Pierce, S. A.
2015-12-01
Software code developed for research is often used for a relatively short period of time before it is abandoned, lost, or becomes outdated. This unintentional abandonment of code is a valid problem in the 21st century scientific process, hindering widespread reusability and increasing the effort needed to develop research software. Potentially important assets, these legacy codes may be resurrected and documented digitally for long-term reuse, often with modest effort. Furthermore, the revived code may be openly accessible in a public repository for researchers to reuse or improve. For this study, the research team has begun to revive the codebase for Groundwater Decision Support System (GWDSS), originally developed for participatory decision making to aid urban planning and groundwater management, though it may serve multiple use cases beyond those originally envisioned. GWDSS was designed as a java-based wrapper with loosely federated commercial and open source components. If successfully revitalized, GWDSS will be useful for both practical applications as a teaching tool and case study for groundwater management, as well as informing theoretical research. Using the knowledge-sharing approaches documented by the NSF-funded Ontosoft project, digital documentation of GWDSS is underway, from conception to development, deployment, characterization, integration, composition, and dissemination through open source communities and geosciences modeling frameworks. Information assets, documentation, and examples are shared using open platforms for data sharing and assigned digital object identifiers. Two instances of GWDSS version 3.0 are being created: 1) a virtual machine instance for the original case study to serve as a live demonstration of the decision support tool, assuring the original version is usable, and 2) an open version of the codebase, executable installation files, and developer guide available via an open repository, assuring the source for the application is accessible with version control and potential for new branch developments. Finally, metadata about the software has been completed within the OntoSoft portal to provide descriptive curation, make GWDSS searchable, and complete documentation of the scientific software lifecycle.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gonçalves, Vânia
The environments of software development and software provision are shifting to Web-based platforms supported by Platform/Software as a Service (PaaS/SaaS) models. This paper will make the case that there is equally an opportunity for mobile operators to identify additional sources of revenue by exposing network functionalities through Web-based service platforms. By elaborating on the concepts, benefits and risks of SaaS and PaaS, several factors that should be taken into consideration in applying these models to the telecom world are delineated.
Math Description Engine Software Development Kit
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Shelton, Robert O.; Smith, Stephanie L.; Dexter, Dan E.; Hodgson, Terry R.
2010-01-01
The Math Description Engine Software Development Kit (MDE SDK) can be used by software developers to make computer-rendered graphs more accessible to blind and visually-impaired users. The MDE SDK generates alternative graph descriptions in two forms: textual descriptions and non-verbal sound renderings, or sonification. It also enables display of an animated trace of a graph sonification on a visual graph component, with color and line-thickness options for users having low vision or color-related impairments. A set of accessible graphical user interface widgets is provided for operation by end users and for control of accessible graph displays. Version 1.0 of the MDE SDK generates text descriptions for 2D graphs commonly seen in math and science curriculum (and practice). The mathematically rich text descriptions can also serve as a virtual math and science assistant for blind and sighted users, making graphs more accessible for everyone. The MDE SDK has a simple application programming interface (API) that makes it easy for programmers and Web-site developers to make graphs accessible with just a few lines of code. The source code is written in Java for cross-platform compatibility and to take advantage of Java s built-in support for building accessible software application interfaces. Compiled-library and NASA Open Source versions are available with API documentation and Programmer s Guide at http:/ / prim e.jsc.n asa. gov.
Using Selection Pressure as an Asset to Develop Reusable, Adaptable Software Systems
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Berrick, Stephen; Lynnes, Christopher
2007-01-01
The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) at NASA has over the years developed and honed several reusable architectural components for supporting large-scale data centers with a large customer base. These include a processing system (S4PM) and an archive system (S4PA) based upon a workflow engine called the Simple Scalable Script based Science Processor (S4P) and an online data visualization and analysis system (Giovanni). These subsystems are currently reused internally in a variety of combinations to implement customized data management on behalf of instrument science teams and other science investigators. Some of these subsystems (S4P and S4PM) have also been reused by other data centers for operational science processing. Our experience has been that development and utilization of robust interoperable and reusable software systems can actually flourish in environments defined by heterogeneous commodity hardware systems the emphasis on value-added customer service and the continual goal for achieving higher cost efficiencies. The repeated internal reuse that is fostered by such an environment encourages and even forces changes to the software that make it more reusable and adaptable. Allowing and even encouraging such selective pressures to software development has been a key factor In the success of S4P and S4PM which are now available to the open source community under the NASA Open source Agreement
Technology Infusion of CodeSonar into the Space Network Ground Segment
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Benson, Markland J.
2009-01-01
This slide presentation reviews the applicability of CodeSonar to the Space Network software. CodeSonar is a commercial off the shelf system that analyzes programs written in C, C++ or Ada for defects in the code. Software engineers use CodeSonar results as an input to the existing source code inspection process. The study is focused on large scale software developed using formal processes. The systems studied are mission critical in nature but some use commodity computer systems.
A Brief Assessment of LC2IEDM, MIST and Web Services for use in Naval Tactical Data Management
2004-07-01
server software, messaging between the client and server, and a database. The MIST database is implemented in an open source DBMS named PostGreSQL ... PostGreSQL had its beginnings at the University of California, Berkley, in 1986 [11]. The development of PostGreSQL has since evolved into a...contact history from the database. DRDC Atlantic TM 2004-148 9 Request Software Request Software Server Side Response from service
Reference software implementation for GIFTS ground data processing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Garcia, R. K.; Howell, H. B.; Knuteson, R. O.; Martin, G. D.; Olson, E. R.; Smuga-Otto, M. J.
2006-08-01
Future satellite weather instruments such as high spectral resolution imaging interferometers pose a challenge to the atmospheric science and software development communities due to the immense data volumes they will generate. An open-source, scalable reference software implementation demonstrating the calibration of radiance products from an imaging interferometer, the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer1 (GIFTS), is presented. This paper covers essential design principles laid out in summary system diagrams, lessons learned during implementation and preliminary test results from the GIFTS Information Processing System (GIPS) prototype.
QGene 4.0, an extensible Java QTL-analysis platform.
Joehanes, Roby; Nelson, James C
2008-12-01
Of many statistical methods developed to date for quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis, only a limited subset are available in public software allowing their exploration, comparison and practical application by researchers. We have developed QGene 4.0, a plug-in platform that allows execution and comparison of a variety of modern QTL-mapping methods and supports third-party addition of new ones. The software accommodates line-cross mating designs consisting of any arbitrary sequence of selfing, backcrossing, intercrossing and haploid-doubling steps that includes map, population, and trait simulators; and is scriptable. Software and documentation are available at http://coding.plantpath.ksu.edu/qgene. Source code is available on request.
Analysis of High-Throughput ELISA Microarray Data
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
White, Amanda M.; Daly, Don S.; Zangar, Richard C.
Our research group develops analytical methods and software for the high-throughput analysis of quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) microarrays. ELISA microarrays differ from DNA microarrays in several fundamental aspects and most algorithms for analysis of DNA microarray data are not applicable to ELISA microarrays. In this review, we provide an overview of the steps involved in ELISA microarray data analysis and how the statistically sound algorithms we have developed provide an integrated software suite to address the needs of each data-processing step. The algorithms discussed are available in a set of open-source software tools (http://www.pnl.gov/statistics/ProMAT).
Magnetostriction measurement by four probe method
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dange, S. N.; Radha, S.
2018-04-01
The present paper describes the design and setting up of an indigenouslydevelopedmagnetostriction(MS) measurement setup using four probe method atroom temperature.A standard strain gauge is pasted with a special glue on the sample and its change in resistance with applied magnetic field is measured using KeithleyNanovoltmeter and Current source. An electromagnet with field upto 1.2 tesla is used to source the magnetic field. The sample is placed between the magnet poles using self designed and developed wooden probe stand, capable of moving in three mutually perpendicular directions. The nanovoltmeter and current source are interfaced with PC using RS232 serial interface. A software has been developed in for logging and processing of data. Proper optimization of measurement has been done through software to reduce the noise due to thermal emf and electromagnetic induction. The data acquired for some standard magnetic samples are presented. The sensitivity of the setup is 1microstrain with an error in measurement upto 5%.
Flight Software Development for the CHEOPS Instrument with the CORDET Framework
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cechticky, V.; Ottensamer, R.; Pasetti, A.
2015-09-01
CHEOPS is an ESA S-class mission dedicated to the precise measurement of radii of already known exoplanets using ultra-high precision photometry. The instrument flight software controlling the instrument and handling the science data is developed by the University of Vienna using the CORDET Framework offered by P&P Software GmbH. The CORDET Framework provides a generic software infrastructure for PUS-based applications. This paper describes how the framework is used for the CHEOPS application software to provide a consistent solution for to the communication and control services, event handling and FDIR procedures. This approach is innovative in four respects: (a) it is a true third-party reuse; (b) re-use is done at specification, validation and code level; (c) the re-usable assets and their qualification data package are entirely open-source; (d) re-use is based on call-back with the application developer providing functions which are called by the reusable architecture. File names missing from here on out (I tried to mimic the files names from before.)
Study of application of space telescope science operations software for SIRTF use
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Dignam, F.; Stetson, E.; Allendoerfer, W.
1985-01-01
The design and development of the Space Telescope Science Operations Ground System (ST SOGS) was evaluated to compile a history of lessons learned that would benefit NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). Forty-nine specific recommendations resulted and were categorized as follows: (1) requirements: a discussion of the content, timeliness and proper allocation of the system and segment requirements and the resulting impact on SOGS development; (2) science instruments: a consideration of the impact of the Science Instrument design and data streams on SOGS software; and (3) contract phasing: an analysis of the impact of beginning the various ST program segments at different times. Approximately half of the software design and source code might be useable for SIRTF. Transportability of this software requires, at minimum, a compatible DEC VAX-based architecture and VMS operating system, system support software similar to that developed for SOGS, and continued evolution of the SIRTF operations concept and requirements such that they remain compatible with ST SOGS operation.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Bordano, Aldo; Uhde-Lacovara, JO; Devall, Ray; Partin, Charles; Sugano, Jeff; Doane, Kent; Compton, Jim
1993-01-01
The Navigation, Control and Aeronautics Division (NCAD) at NASA-JSC is exploring ways of producing Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) flight software faster, better, and cheaper. To achieve these goals NCAD established two hardware/software facilities that take an avionics design project from initial inception through high fidelity real-time hardware-in-the-loop testing. Commercially available software products are used to develop the GN&C algorithms in block diagram form and then automatically generate source code from these diagrams. A high fidelity real-time hardware-in-the-loop laboratory provides users with the capability to analyze mass memory usage within the targeted flight computer, verify hardware interfaces, conduct system level verification, performance, acceptance testing, as well as mission verification using reconfigurable and mission unique data. To evaluate these concepts and tools, NCAD embarked on a project to build a real-time 6 DOF simulation of the Soyuz Assured Crew Return Vehicle flight software. To date, a productivity increase of 185 percent has been seen over traditional NASA methods for developing flight software.
Software Carpentry In The Hydrological Sciences
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.
2014-12-01
Scientists are spending an increasing amount of time building and using hydrology software. However, most scientists are never taught how to do this efficiently. As a result, many are unaware of tools and practices that would allow them to write more reliable and maintainable code with less effort. As hydrology models increase in capability and enter use by a growing number of scientists and their communities, it is important that the scientific software development practices scale up to meet the challenges posed by increasing software complexity, lengthening software lifecycles, a growing number of stakeholders and contributers, and a broadened developer base that extends from application domains to high performance computing centers. Many of these challenges in complexity, lifecycles, and developer base have been successfully met by the open source community, and there are many lessons to be learned from their experiences and practices. Additionally, there is much wisdom to be found in the results of research studies conducted on software engineering itself. Software Carpentry aims to bridge the gap between the current state of software development and these known best practices for scientific software development, with a focus on hands-on exercises and practical advice. In 2014, Software Carpentry workshops targeting earth/environmental sciences and hydrological modeling have been organized and run at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System Annual Meeting, and the Earth Science Information Partners Summer Meeting. In this presentation, we will share some of the successes in teaching this material, as well as discuss and present instructional material specific to hydrological modeling.
Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Wang, Rui; Hermjakob, Henning; Müller, Markus; Vesada, Vladimir; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio
2014-01-01
Data processing, management and visualization are central and critical components of a state of the art high-throughput mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics experiment, and are often some of the most time-consuming steps, especially for labs without much bioinformatics support. The growing interest in the field of proteomics has triggered an increase in the development of new software libraries, including freely available and open-source software. From database search analysis to post-processing of the identification results, even though the objectives of these libraries and packages can vary significantly, they usually share a number of features. Common use cases include the handling of protein and peptide sequences, the parsing of results from various proteomics search engines output files, and the visualization of MS-related information (including mass spectra and chromatograms). In this review, we provide an overview of the existing software libraries, open-source frameworks and also, we give information on some of the freely available applications which make use of them. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Computational Proteomics in the Post-Identification Era. Guest Editors: Martin Eisenacher and Christian Stephan. PMID:23467006
Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Wang, Rui; Hermjakob, Henning; Müller, Markus; Vesada, Vladimir; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio
2014-01-01
Data processing, management and visualization are central and critical components of a state of the art high-throughput mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics experiment, and are often some of the most time-consuming steps, especially for labs without much bioinformatics support. The growing interest in the field of proteomics has triggered an increase in the development of new software libraries, including freely available and open-source software. From database search analysis to post-processing of the identification results, even though the objectives of these libraries and packages can vary significantly, they usually share a number of features. Common use cases include the handling of protein and peptide sequences, the parsing of results from various proteomics search engines output files, and the visualization of MS-related information (including mass spectra and chromatograms). In this review, we provide an overview of the existing software libraries, open-source frameworks and also, we give information on some of the freely available applications which make use of them. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Computational Proteomics in the Post-Identification Era. Guest Editors: Martin Eisenacher and Christian Stephan. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Abdullah, Johari Yap; Omar, Marzuki; Pritam, Helmi Mohd Hadi; Husein, Adam; Rajion, Zainul Ahmad
2016-12-01
3D printing of mandible is important for pre-operative planning, diagnostic purposes, as well as for education and training. Currently, the processing of CT data is routinely performed with commercial software which increases the cost of operation and patient management for a small clinical setting. Usage of open-source software as an alternative to commercial software for 3D reconstruction of the mandible from CT data is scarce. The aim of this study is to compare two methods of 3D reconstruction of the mandible using commercial Materialise Mimics software and open-source Medical Imaging Interaction Toolkit (MITK) software. Head CT images with a slice thickness of 1 mm and a matrix of 512x512 pixels each were retrieved from the server located at the Radiology Department of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. The CT data were analysed and the 3D models of mandible were reconstructed using both commercial Materialise Mimics and open-source MITK software. Both virtual 3D models were saved in STL format and exported to 3matic and MeshLab software for morphometric and image analyses. Both models were compared using Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Hausdorff Distance. No significant differences were obtained between the 3D models of the mandible produced using Mimics and MITK software. The 3D model of the mandible produced using MITK open-source software is comparable to the commercial MIMICS software. Therefore, open-source software could be used in clinical setting for pre-operative planning to minimise the operational cost.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pérez Peña, José Vicente; Baldó, Mane; Acosta, Yarci; Verschueren, Laurent; Thibaud, Kenmognie; Bilivogui, Pépé; Jean-Paul Ngandu, Alain; Beavogui, Maoro
2017-04-01
In the last decade the increasing interest for public health has promoted specific regulations for the transport, storage, transformation and/or elimination of potentially toxic waste. A special concern should focus on the effective management of biomedical waste, due to the environmental and health risk associated with them. The first stage for the effective management these waste includes the selection of the best sites for the location of facilities for its storage and/or elimination. Best-site selection is accomplished by means of multi-criteria decision analyses (MCDA) that aim to minimize the social and environmental impact, and to maximize management efficiency. In this work we presented a methodology that uses open-source software and data to analyze the best location for the implantation of a centralized waste management system in a developing country (Guinea, Conakry). We applied an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) using different thematic layers such as land use (derived from up-to-date Sentinel 2 remote sensing images), soil type, distance and type of roads, hydrography, distance to dense populated areas, etc. Land-use data were derived from up-to-date Sentinel 2 remote sensing images, whereas roads and hydrography were obtained from the Open Street Map database and latter validated with administrative data. We performed the AHP analysis with the aid of QGIS open-software Geospatial Information System. This methodology is very effective for developing countries as it uses open-source software and data for the MCDA analysis, thus reducing costs in these first stages of the integrated analysis.
The State of Open Source Electronic Health Record Projects: A Software Anthropology Study.
Alsaffar, Mona; Yellowlees, Peter; Odor, Alberto; Hogarth, Michael
2017-02-24
Electronic health records (EHR) are a key tool in managing and storing patients' information. Currently, there are over 50 open source EHR systems available. Functionality and usability are important factors for determining the success of any system. These factors are often a direct reflection of the domain knowledge and developers' motivations. However, few published studies have focused on the characteristics of free and open source software (F/OSS) EHR systems and none to date have discussed the motivation, knowledge background, and demographic characteristics of the developers involved in open source EHR projects. This study analyzed the characteristics of prevailing F/OSS EHR systems and aimed to provide an understanding of the motivation, knowledge background, and characteristics of the developers. This study identified F/OSS EHR projects on SourceForge and other websites from May to July 2014. Projects were classified and characterized by license type, downloads, programming languages, spoken languages, project age, development status, supporting materials, top downloads by country, and whether they were "certified" EHRs. Health care F/OSS developers were also surveyed using an online survey. At the time of the assessment, we uncovered 54 open source EHR projects, but only four of them had been successfully certified under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC Health IT) Certification Program. In the majority of cases, the open source EHR software was downloaded by users in the United States (64.07%, 148,666/232,034), underscoring that there is a significant interest in EHR open source applications in the United States. A survey of EHR open source developers was conducted and a total of 103 developers responded to the online questionnaire. The majority of EHR F/OSS developers (65.3%, 66/101) are participating in F/OSS projects as part of a paid activity and only 25.7% (26/101) of EHR F/OSS developers are, or have been, health care providers in their careers. In addition, 45% (45/99) of developers do not work in the health care field. The research presented in this study highlights some challenges that may be hindering the future of health care F/OSS. A minority of developers have been health care professionals, and only 55% (54/99) work in the health care field. This undoubtedly limits the ability of functional design of F/OSS EHR systems from being a competitive advantage over prevailing commercial EHR systems. Open source software seems to be a significant interest to many; however, given that only four F/OSS EHR systems are ONC-certified, this interest is unlikely to yield significant adoption of these systems in the United States. Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act was responsible for a substantial infusion of capital into the EHR marketplace, the lack of a corporate entity in most F/OSS EHR projects translates to a marginal capacity to market the respective F/OSS system and to navigate certification. This likely has further disadvantaged F/OSS EHR adoption in the United States. ©Mona Alsaffar, Peter Yellowlees, Alberto Odor, Michael Hogarth. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 24.02.2017.
48 CFR 252.227-7013 - Rights in technical data-Noncommercial items.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... causing a computer to perform a specific operation or series of operations. (3) Computer software means computer programs, source code, source code listings, object code listings, design details, algorithms... or will be developed exclusively with Government funds; (ii) Studies, analyses, test data, or similar...
48 CFR 252.227-7013 - Rights in technical data-Noncommercial items.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-10-01
... causing a computer to perform a specific operation or series of operations. (3) Computer software means computer programs, source code, source code listings, object code listings, design details, algorithms... or will be developed exclusively with Government funds; (ii) Studies, analyses, test data, or similar...
48 CFR 252.227-7013 - Rights in technical data-Noncommercial items.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-10-01
... causing a computer to perform a specific operation or series of operations. (3) Computer software means computer programs, source code, source code listings, object code listings, design details, algorithms... or will be developed exclusively with Government funds; (ii) Studies, analyses, test data, or similar...
48 CFR 252.227-7013 - Rights in technical data-Noncommercial items.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... causing a computer to perform a specific operation or series of operations. (3) Computer software means computer programs, source code, source code listings, object code listings, design details, algorithms... developed exclusively with Government funds; (ii) Studies, analyses, test data, or similar data produced for...
QuantWorm: a comprehensive software package for Caenorhabditis elegans phenotypic assays.
Jung, Sang-Kyu; Aleman-Meza, Boanerges; Riepe, Celeste; Zhong, Weiwei
2014-01-01
Phenotypic assays are crucial in genetics; however, traditional methods that rely on human observation are unsuitable for quantitative, large-scale experiments. Furthermore, there is an increasing need for comprehensive analyses of multiple phenotypes to provide multidimensional information. Here we developed an automated, high-throughput computer imaging system for quantifying multiple Caenorhabditis elegans phenotypes. Our imaging system is composed of a microscope equipped with a digital camera and a motorized stage connected to a computer running the QuantWorm software package. Currently, the software package contains one data acquisition module and four image analysis programs: WormLifespan, WormLocomotion, WormLength, and WormEgg. The data acquisition module collects images and videos. The WormLifespan software counts the number of moving worms by using two time-lapse images; the WormLocomotion software computes the velocity of moving worms; the WormLength software measures worm body size; and the WormEgg software counts the number of eggs. To evaluate the performance of our software, we compared the results of our software with manual measurements. We then demonstrated the application of the QuantWorm software in a drug assay and a genetic assay. Overall, the QuantWorm software provided accurate measurements at a high speed. Software source code, executable programs, and sample images are available at www.quantworm.org. Our software package has several advantages over current imaging systems for C. elegans. It is an all-in-one package for quantifying multiple phenotypes. The QuantWorm software is written in Java and its source code is freely available, so it does not require use of commercial software or libraries. It can be run on multiple platforms and easily customized to cope with new methods and requirements.
Software project management tools in global software development: a systematic mapping study.
Chadli, Saad Yasser; Idri, Ali; Ros, Joaquín Nicolás; Fernández-Alemán, José Luis; de Gea, Juan M Carrillo; Toval, Ambrosio
2016-01-01
Global software development (GSD) which is a growing trend in the software industry is characterized by a highly distributed environment. Performing software project management (SPM) in such conditions implies the need to overcome new limitations resulting from cultural, temporal and geographic separation. The aim of this research is to discover and classify the various tools mentioned in literature that provide GSD project managers with support and to identify in what way they support group interaction. A systematic mapping study has been performed by means of automatic searches in five sources. We have then synthesized the data extracted and presented the results of this study. A total of 102 tools were identified as being used in SPM activities in GSD. We have classified these tools, according to the software life cycle process on which they focus and how they support the 3C collaboration model (communication, coordination and cooperation). The majority of the tools found are standalone tools (77%). A small number of platforms (8%) also offer a set of interacting tools that cover the software development lifecycle. Results also indicate that SPM areas in GSD are not adequately supported by corresponding tools and deserve more attention from tool builders.
An expert system based software sizing tool, phase 2
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Friedlander, David
1990-01-01
A software tool was developed for predicting the size of a future computer program at an early stage in its development. The system is intended to enable a user who is not expert in Software Engineering to estimate software size in lines of source code with an accuracy similar to that of an expert, based on the program's functional specifications. The project was planned as a knowledge based system with a field prototype as the goal of Phase 2 and a commercial system planned for Phase 3. The researchers used techniques from Artificial Intelligence and knowledge from human experts and existing software from NASA's COSMIC database. They devised a classification scheme for the software specifications, and a small set of generic software components that represent complexity and apply to large classes of programs. The specifications are converted to generic components by a set of rules and the generic components are input to a nonlinear sizing function which makes the final prediction. The system developed for this project predicted code sizes from the database with a bias factor of 1.06 and a fluctuation factor of 1.77, an accuracy similar to that of human experts but without their significant optimistic bias.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Parra, Pablo; da Silva, Antonio; Polo, Óscar R.; Sánchez, Sebastián
2018-02-01
In this day and age, successful embedded critical software needs agile and continuous development and testing procedures. This paper presents the overall testing and code coverage metrics obtained during the unit testing procedure carried out to verify the correctness of the boot software that will run in the Instrument Control Unit (ICU) of the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) on-board Solar Orbiter. The ICU boot software is a critical part of the project so its verification should be addressed at an early development stage, so any test case missed in this process may affect the quality of the overall on-board software. According to the European Cooperation for Space Standardization ESA standards, testing this kind of critical software must cover 100% of the source code statement and decision paths. This leads to the complete testing of fault tolerance and recovery mechanisms that have to resolve every possible memory corruption or communication error brought about by the space environment. The introduced procedure enables fault injection from the beginning of the development process and enables to fulfill the exigent code coverage demands on the boot software.
FEBio: finite elements for biomechanics.
Maas, Steve A; Ellis, Benjamin J; Ateshian, Gerard A; Weiss, Jeffrey A
2012-01-01
In the field of computational biomechanics, investigators have primarily used commercial software that is neither geared toward biological applications nor sufficiently flexible to follow the latest developments in the field. This lack of a tailored software environment has hampered research progress, as well as dissemination of models and results. To address these issues, we developed the FEBio software suite (http://mrl.sci.utah.edu/software/febio), a nonlinear implicit finite element (FE) framework, designed specifically for analysis in computational solid biomechanics. This paper provides an overview of the theoretical basis of FEBio and its main features. FEBio offers modeling scenarios, constitutive models, and boundary conditions, which are relevant to numerous applications in biomechanics. The open-source FEBio software is written in C++, with particular attention to scalar and parallel performance on modern computer architectures. Software verification is a large part of the development and maintenance of FEBio, and to demonstrate the general approach, the description and results of several problems from the FEBio Verification Suite are presented and compared to analytical solutions or results from other established and verified FE codes. An additional simulation is described that illustrates the application of FEBio to a research problem in biomechanics. Together with the pre- and postprocessing software PREVIEW and POSTVIEW, FEBio provides a tailored solution for research and development in computational biomechanics.
A Clustering-Based Approach to Enriching Code Foraging Environment.
Niu, Nan; Jin, Xiaoyu; Niu, Zhendong; Cheng, Jing-Ru C; Li, Ling; Kataev, Mikhail Yu
2016-09-01
Developers often spend valuable time navigating and seeking relevant code in software maintenance. Currently, there is a lack of theoretical foundations to guide tool design and evaluation to best shape the code base to developers. This paper contributes a unified code navigation theory in light of the optimal food-foraging principles. We further develop a novel framework for automatically assessing the foraging mechanisms in the context of program investigation. We use the framework to examine to what extent the clustering of software entities affects code foraging. Our quantitative analysis of long-lived open-source projects suggests that clustering enriches the software environment and improves foraging efficiency. Our qualitative inquiry reveals concrete insights into real developer's behavior. Our research opens the avenue toward building a new set of ecologically valid code navigation tools.
A knowledge discovery object model API for Java
Zuyderduyn, Scott D; Jones, Steven JM
2003-01-01
Background Biological data resources have become heterogeneous and derive from multiple sources. This introduces challenges in the management and utilization of this data in software development. Although efforts are underway to create a standard format for the transmission and storage of biological data, this objective has yet to be fully realized. Results This work describes an application programming interface (API) that provides a framework for developing an effective biological knowledge ontology for Java-based software projects. The API provides a robust framework for the data acquisition and management needs of an ontology implementation. In addition, the API contains classes to assist in creating GUIs to represent this data visually. Conclusions The Knowledge Discovery Object Model (KDOM) API is particularly useful for medium to large applications, or for a number of smaller software projects with common characteristics or objectives. KDOM can be coupled effectively with other biologically relevant APIs and classes. Source code, libraries, documentation and examples are available at . PMID:14583100
Design and Implementation of a Modern Automatic Deformation Monitoring System
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Engel, Philipp; Schweimler, Björn
2016-03-01
The deformation monitoring of structures and buildings is an important task field of modern engineering surveying, ensuring the standing and reliability of supervised objects over a long period. Several commercial hardware and software solutions for the realization of such monitoring measurements are available on the market. In addition to them, a research team at the University of Applied Sciences in Neubrandenburg (NUAS) is actively developing a software package for monitoring purposes in geodesy and geotechnics, which is distributed under an open source licence and free of charge. The task of managing an open source project is well-known in computer science, but it is fairly new in a geodetic context. This paper contributes to that issue by detailing applications, frameworks, and interfaces for the design and implementation of open hardware and software solutions for sensor control, sensor networks, and data management in automatic deformation monitoring. It will be discussed how the development effort of networked applications can be reduced by using free programming tools, cloud computing technologies, and rapid prototyping methods.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hameetman, G. J.; Dekker, G. J.
1993-11-01
The Italian satellite (with a large Dutch contribution) SAX is a scientific satellite which has the mission to study roentgen sources. One main requirement for the Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS) is to achieve and maintain a stable pointing accuracy with a limit cycle of less than 90 arcsec during pointings of maximal 28 hours. The main SAX instrument, the Narrow Field Instrument, is highly sensitive to (indirect) radiation coming from the Sun. This sensitivity leads to another main requirement that under no circumstances the safe attitude domain may be left. The paper describes the application software in relation with the overall SAX AOCS subsystem, the CASE tools that have been used during the development, some advantages and disadvantages of the use of these tools, the measures taken to meet the more or less conflicting requirements of reliability and flexibility, and the lessons learned during development. The quality of the approach to the development has proven the (separately executed) hardware/software integration tests. During these tests, a neglectible number of software errors has been detected in the application software.
Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute.
Kurtzer, Gregory M; Sochat, Vanessa; Bauer, Michael W
2017-01-01
Here we present Singularity, software developed to bring containers and reproducibility to scientific computing. Using Singularity containers, developers can work in reproducible environments of their choosing and design, and these complete environments can easily be copied and executed on other platforms. Singularity is an open source initiative that harnesses the expertise of system and software engineers and researchers alike, and integrates seamlessly into common workflows for both of these groups. As its primary use case, Singularity brings mobility of computing to both users and HPC centers, providing a secure means to capture and distribute software and compute environments. This ability to create and deploy reproducible environments across these centers, a previously unmet need, makes Singularity a game changing development for computational science.
Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute
Kurtzer, Gregory M.; Bauer, Michael W.
2017-01-01
Here we present Singularity, software developed to bring containers and reproducibility to scientific computing. Using Singularity containers, developers can work in reproducible environments of their choosing and design, and these complete environments can easily be copied and executed on other platforms. Singularity is an open source initiative that harnesses the expertise of system and software engineers and researchers alike, and integrates seamlessly into common workflows for both of these groups. As its primary use case, Singularity brings mobility of computing to both users and HPC centers, providing a secure means to capture and distribute software and compute environments. This ability to create and deploy reproducible environments across these centers, a previously unmet need, makes Singularity a game changing development for computational science. PMID:28494014
RGG: A general GUI Framework for R scripts
Visne, Ilhami; Dilaveroglu, Erkan; Vierlinger, Klemens; Lauss, Martin; Yildiz, Ahmet; Weinhaeusel, Andreas; Noehammer, Christa; Leisch, Friedrich; Kriegner, Albert
2009-01-01
Background R is the leading open source statistics software with a vast number of biostatistical and bioinformatical analysis packages. To exploit the advantages of R, extensive scripting/programming skills are required. Results We have developed a software tool called R GUI Generator (RGG) which enables the easy generation of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for the programming language R by adding a few Extensible Markup Language (XML) – tags. RGG consists of an XML-based GUI definition language and a Java-based GUI engine. GUIs are generated in runtime from defined GUI tags that are embedded into the R script. User-GUI input is returned to the R code and replaces the XML-tags. RGG files can be developed using any text editor. The current version of RGG is available as a stand-alone software (RGGRunner) and as a plug-in for JGR. Conclusion RGG is a general GUI framework for R that has the potential to introduce R statistics (R packages, built-in functions and scripts) to users with limited programming skills and helps to bridge the gap between R developers and GUI-dependent users. RGG aims to abstract the GUI development from individual GUI toolkits by using an XML-based GUI definition language. Thus RGG can be easily integrated in any software. The RGG project further includes the development of a web-based repository for RGG-GUIs. RGG is an open source project licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and can be downloaded freely at PMID:19254356
A Generic Software Architecture For Prognostics
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Teubert, Christopher; Daigle, Matthew J.; Sankararaman, Shankar; Goebel, Kai; Watkins, Jason
2017-01-01
Prognostics is a systems engineering discipline focused on predicting end-of-life of components and systems. As a relatively new and emerging technology, there are few fielded implementations of prognostics, due in part to practitioners perceiving a large hurdle in developing the models, algorithms, architecture, and integration pieces. As a result, no open software frameworks for applying prognostics currently exist. This paper introduces the Generic Software Architecture for Prognostics (GSAP), an open-source, cross-platform, object-oriented software framework and support library for creating prognostics applications. GSAP was designed to make prognostics more accessible and enable faster adoption and implementation by industry, by reducing the effort and investment required to develop, test, and deploy prognostics. This paper describes the requirements, design, and testing of GSAP. Additionally, a detailed case study involving battery prognostics demonstrates its use.
Software Carpentry and the Hydrological Sciences
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ahmadia, A. J.; Kees, C. E.; Farthing, M. W.
2013-12-01
Scientists are spending an increasing amount of time building and using hydrology software. However, most scientists are never taught how to do this efficiently. As a result, many are unaware of tools and practices that would allow them to write more reliable and maintainable code with less effort. As hydrology models increase in capability and enter use by a growing number of scientists and their communities, it is important that the scientific software development practices scale up to meet the challenges posed by increasing software complexity, lengthening software lifecycles, a growing number of stakeholders and contributers, and a broadened developer base that extends from application domains to high performance computing centers. Many of these challenges in complexity, lifecycles, and developer base have been successfully met by the open source community, and there are many lessons to be learned from their experiences and practices. Additionally, there is much wisdom to be found in the results of research studies conducted on software engineering itself. Software Carpentry aims to bridge the gap between the current state of software development and these known best practices for scientific software development, with a focus on hands-on exercises and practical advice based on the following principles: 1. Write programs for people, not computers. 2. Automate repetitive tasks 3. Use the computer to record history 4. Make incremental changes 5. Use version control 6. Don't repeat yourself (or others) 7. Plan for mistakes 8. Optimize software only after it works 9. Document design and purpose, not mechanics 10. Collaborate We discuss how these best practices, arising from solid foundations in research and experience, have been shown to help improve scientist's productivity and the reliability of their software.
Social network analyzer on the example of Twitter
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gorodetskaia, Mariia; Khruslova, Diana
2017-09-01
Social networks are powerful sources of data due to their popularity. Twitter is one of the networks providing a lot of data. There is need to collect this data for future usage from linguistics to SMM and marketing. The report examines the existing software solutions and provides new ones. The study includes information about the software developed. Some future features are listed.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cornelius, Sarah
2014-01-01
"How to" guides and software training resources support the development of the skills and confidence needed to teach in virtual classrooms using web-conferencing software. However, these sources do not often reveal the subtleties of what it is like to be a facilitator in such an environment--what it feels like, what issues might emerge…
Preparing a scientific manuscript in Linux: Today's possibilities and limitations.
Tchantchaleishvili, Vakhtang; Schmitto, Jan D
2011-10-22
Increasing number of scientists are enthusiastic about using free, open source software for their research purposes. Authors' specific goal was to examine whether a Linux-based operating system with open source software packages would allow to prepare a submission-ready scientific manuscript without the need to use the proprietary software. Preparation and editing of scientific manuscripts is possible using Linux and open source software. This letter to the editor describes key steps for preparation of a publication-ready scientific manuscript in a Linux-based operating system, as well as discusses the necessary software components. This manuscript was created using Linux and open source programs for Linux.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dunlap, Joanna C.; Wilson, Brent G.; Young, David L.
This paper describes how Open Source philosophy, a movement that has developed in opposition to the proprietary software industry, has influenced educational practice in the pursuit of scholarly freedom and authentic learning activities for students and educators. This paper provides a brief overview of the Open Source movement, and describes…
Zhang, Lanlan; Hub, Martina; Mang, Sarah; Thieke, Christian; Nix, Oliver; Karger, Christian P; Floca, Ralf O
2013-06-01
Radiotherapy is a fast-developing discipline which plays a major role in cancer care. Quantitative analysis of radiotherapy data can improve the success of the treatment and support the prediction of outcome. In this paper, we first identify functional, conceptional and general requirements on a software system for quantitative analysis of radiotherapy. Further we present an overview of existing radiotherapy analysis software tools and check them against the stated requirements. As none of them could meet all of the demands presented herein, we analyzed possible conceptional problems and present software design solutions and recommendations to meet the stated requirements (e.g. algorithmic decoupling via dose iterator pattern; analysis database design). As a proof of concept we developed a software library "RTToolbox" following the presented design principles. The RTToolbox is available as open source library and has already been tested in a larger-scale software system for different use cases. These examples demonstrate the benefit of the presented design principles. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Open source IPSEC software in manned and unmanned space missions
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Edwards, Jacob
Network security is a major topic of research because cyber attackers pose a threat to national security. Securing ground-space communications for NASA missions is important because attackers could endanger mission success and human lives. This thesis describes how an open source IPsec software package was used to create a secure and reliable channel for ground-space communications. A cost efficient, reproducible hardware testbed was also created to simulate ground-space communications. The testbed enables simulation of low-bandwidth and high latency communications links to experiment how the open source IPsec software reacts to these network constraints. Test cases were built that allowed for validation of the testbed and the open source IPsec software. The test cases also simulate using an IPsec connection from mission control ground routers to points of interest in outer space. Tested open source IPsec software did not meet all the requirements. Software changes were suggested to meet requirements.
PsyToolkit: a software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux.
Stoet, Gijsbert
2010-11-01
PsyToolkit is a set of software tools for programming psychological experiments on Linux computers. Given that PsyToolkit is freely available under the Gnu Public License, open source, and designed such that it can easily be modified and extended for individual needs, it is suitable not only for technically oriented Linux users, but also for students, researchers on small budgets, and universities in developing countries. The software includes a high-level scripting language, a library for the programming language C, and a questionnaire presenter. The software easily integrates with other open source tools, such as the statistical software package R. PsyToolkit is designed to work with external hardware (including IoLab and Cedrus response keyboards and two common digital input/output boards) and to support millisecond timing precision. Four in-depth examples explain the basic functionality of PsyToolkit. Example 1 demonstrates a stimulus-response compatibility experiment. Example 2 demonstrates a novel mouse-controlled visual search experiment. Example 3 shows how to control light emitting diodes using PsyToolkit, and Example 4 shows how to build a light-detection sensor. The last two examples explain the electronic hardware setup such that they can even be used with other software packages.
Agile Methods for Open Source Safety-Critical Software
Enquobahrie, Andinet; Ibanez, Luis; Cheng, Patrick; Yaniv, Ziv; Cleary, Kevin; Kokoori, Shylaja; Muffih, Benjamin; Heidenreich, John
2011-01-01
The introduction of software technology in a life-dependent environment requires the development team to execute a process that ensures a high level of software reliability and correctness. Despite their popularity, agile methods are generally assumed to be inappropriate as a process family in these environments due to their lack of emphasis on documentation, traceability, and other formal techniques. Agile methods, notably Scrum, favor empirical process control, or small constant adjustments in a tight feedback loop. This paper challenges the assumption that agile methods are inappropriate for safety-critical software development. Agile methods are flexible enough to encourage the right amount of ceremony; therefore if safety-critical systems require greater emphasis on activities like formal specification and requirements management, then an agile process will include these as necessary activities. Furthermore, agile methods focus more on continuous process management and code-level quality than classic software engineering process models. We present our experiences on the image-guided surgical toolkit (IGSTK) project as a backdrop. IGSTK is an open source software project employing agile practices since 2004. We started with the assumption that a lighter process is better, focused on evolving code, and only adding process elements as the need arose. IGSTK has been adopted by teaching hospitals and research labs, and used for clinical trials. Agile methods have matured since the academic community suggested they are not suitable for safety-critical systems almost a decade ago, we present our experiences as a case study for renewing the discussion. PMID:21799545
Agile Methods for Open Source Safety-Critical Software.
Gary, Kevin; Enquobahrie, Andinet; Ibanez, Luis; Cheng, Patrick; Yaniv, Ziv; Cleary, Kevin; Kokoori, Shylaja; Muffih, Benjamin; Heidenreich, John
2011-08-01
The introduction of software technology in a life-dependent environment requires the development team to execute a process that ensures a high level of software reliability and correctness. Despite their popularity, agile methods are generally assumed to be inappropriate as a process family in these environments due to their lack of emphasis on documentation, traceability, and other formal techniques. Agile methods, notably Scrum, favor empirical process control, or small constant adjustments in a tight feedback loop. This paper challenges the assumption that agile methods are inappropriate for safety-critical software development. Agile methods are flexible enough to encourage the rightamount of ceremony; therefore if safety-critical systems require greater emphasis on activities like formal specification and requirements management, then an agile process will include these as necessary activities. Furthermore, agile methods focus more on continuous process management and code-level quality than classic software engineering process models. We present our experiences on the image-guided surgical toolkit (IGSTK) project as a backdrop. IGSTK is an open source software project employing agile practices since 2004. We started with the assumption that a lighter process is better, focused on evolving code, and only adding process elements as the need arose. IGSTK has been adopted by teaching hospitals and research labs, and used for clinical trials. Agile methods have matured since the academic community suggested they are not suitable for safety-critical systems almost a decade ago, we present our experiences as a case study for renewing the discussion.
Orchestrating high-throughput genomic analysis with Bioconductor
Huber, Wolfgang; Carey, Vincent J.; Gentleman, Robert; Anders, Simon; Carlson, Marc; Carvalho, Benilton S.; Bravo, Hector Corrada; Davis, Sean; Gatto, Laurent; Girke, Thomas; Gottardo, Raphael; Hahne, Florian; Hansen, Kasper D.; Irizarry, Rafael A.; Lawrence, Michael; Love, Michael I.; MacDonald, James; Obenchain, Valerie; Oleś, Andrzej K.; Pagès, Hervé; Reyes, Alejandro; Shannon, Paul; Smyth, Gordon K.; Tenenbaum, Dan; Waldron, Levi; Morgan, Martin
2015-01-01
Bioconductor is an open-source, open-development software project for the analysis and comprehension of high-throughput data in genomics and molecular biology. The project aims to enable interdisciplinary research, collaboration and rapid development of scientific software. Based on the statistical programming language R, Bioconductor comprises 934 interoperable packages contributed by a large, diverse community of scientists. Packages cover a range of bioinformatic and statistical applications. They undergo formal initial review and continuous automated testing. We present an overview for prospective users and contributors. PMID:25633503
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Silva, F.; Maechling, P. J.; Goulet, C. A.; Somerville, P.; Jordan, T. H.
2014-12-01
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform is a collaborative software development project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and the SCEC Community Modeling Environment. The SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP) is open-source scientific software that can generate broadband (0-100Hz) ground motions for earthquakes, integrating complex scientific modules that implement rupture generation, low and high-frequency seismogram synthesis, non-linear site effects calculation, and visualization into a software system that supports easy on-demand computation of seismograms. The Broadband Platform operates in two primary modes: validation simulations and scenario simulations. In validation mode, the Platform runs earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to calculate seismograms for a well-observed historical earthquake. Then, the BBP calculates a number of goodness of fit measurements that quantify how well the model-based broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms for a certain event. Based on these results, the Platform can be used to tune and validate different numerical modeling techniques. In scenario mode, the Broadband Platform can run simulations for hypothetical (scenario) earthquakes. In this mode, users input an earthquake description, a list of station names and locations, and a 1D velocity model for their region of interest, and the Broadband Platform software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. Working in close collaboration with scientists and research engineers, the SCEC software development group continues to add new capabilities to the Broadband Platform and to release new versions as open-source scientific software distributions that can be compiled and run on many Linux computer systems. Our latest release includes 5 simulation methods, 7 simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, the ability to compare simulation results against GMPEs, and several new data products, such as map and distance-based goodness of fit plots. As the number and complexity of scenarios simulated using the Broadband Platform increases, we have added batching utilities to substantially improve support for running large-scale simulations on computing clusters.
The social disutility of software ownership.
Douglas, David M
2011-09-01
Software ownership allows the owner to restrict the distribution of software and to prevent others from reading the software's source code and building upon it. However, free software is released to users under software licenses that give them the right to read the source code, modify it, reuse it, and distribute the software to others. Proponents of free software such as Richard M. Stallman and Eben Moglen argue that the social disutility of software ownership is a sufficient justification for prohibiting it. This social disutility includes the social instability of disregarding laws and agreements covering software use and distribution, inequality of software access, and the inability to help others by sharing software with them. Here I consider these and other social disutility claims against withholding specific software rights from users, in particular, the rights to read the source code, duplicate, distribute, modify, imitate, and reuse portions of the software within new programs. I find that generally while withholding these rights from software users does cause some degree of social disutility, only the rights to duplicate, modify and imitate cannot legitimately be denied to users on this basis. The social disutility of withholding the rights to distribute the software, read its source code and reuse portions of it in new programs is insufficient to prohibit software owners from denying them to users. A compromise between the software owner and user can minimise the social disutility of withholding these particular rights from users. However, the social disutility caused by software patents is sufficient for rejecting such patents as they restrict the methods of reducing social disutility possible with other forms of software ownership.
Clarity: An Open Source Manager for Laboratory Automation
Delaney, Nigel F.; Echenique, José Rojas; Marx, Christopher J.
2013-01-01
Software to manage automated laboratories interfaces with hardware instruments, gives users a way to specify experimental protocols, and schedules activities to avoid hardware conflicts. In addition to these basics, modern laboratories need software that can run multiple different protocols in parallel and that can be easily extended to interface with a constantly growing diversity of techniques and instruments. We present Clarity: a laboratory automation manager that is hardware agnostic, portable, extensible and open source. Clarity provides critical features including remote monitoring, robust error reporting by phone or email, and full state recovery in the event of a system crash. We discuss the basic organization of Clarity; demonstrate an example of its implementation for the automated analysis of bacterial growth; and describe how the program can be extended to manage new hardware. Clarity is mature; well documented; actively developed; written in C# for the Common Language Infrastructure; and is free and open source software. These advantages set Clarity apart from currently available laboratory automation programs. PMID:23032169
Free and open source software for the manipulation of digital images.
Solomon, Robert W
2009-06-01
Free and open source software is a type of software that is nearly as powerful as commercial software but is freely downloadable. This software can do almost everything that the expensive programs can. GIMP (gnu image manipulation program) is the free program that is comparable to Photoshop, and versions are available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. This article briefly describes how GIMP can be installed and used to manipulate radiology images. It is no longer necessary to budget large amounts of money for high-quality software to achieve the goals of image processing and document creation because free and open source software is available for the user to download at will.
ACQ4: an open-source software platform for data acquisition and analysis in neurophysiology research
Campagnola, Luke; Kratz, Megan B.; Manis, Paul B.
2014-01-01
The complexity of modern neurophysiology experiments requires specialized software to coordinate multiple acquisition devices and analyze the collected data. We have developed ACQ4, an open-source software platform for performing data acquisition and analysis in experimental neurophysiology. This software integrates the tasks of acquiring, managing, and analyzing experimental data. ACQ4 has been used primarily for standard patch-clamp electrophysiology, laser scanning photostimulation, multiphoton microscopy, intrinsic imaging, and calcium imaging. The system is highly modular, which facilitates the addition of new devices and functionality. The modules included with ACQ4 provide for rapid construction of acquisition protocols, live video display, and customizable analysis tools. Position-aware data collection allows automated construction of image mosaics and registration of images with 3-dimensional anatomical atlases. ACQ4 uses free and open-source tools including Python, NumPy/SciPy for numerical computation, PyQt for the user interface, and PyQtGraph for scientific graphics. Supported hardware includes cameras, patch clamp amplifiers, scanning mirrors, lasers, shutters, Pockels cells, motorized stages, and more. ACQ4 is available for download at http://www.acq4.org. PMID:24523692
Pulley, S; Collins, A L
2018-09-01
The mitigation of diffuse sediment pollution requires reliable provenance information so that measures can be targeted. Sediment source fingerprinting represents one approach for supporting these needs, but recent methodological developments have resulted in an increasing complexity of data processing methods rendering the approach less accessible to non-specialists. A comprehensive new software programme (SIFT; SedIment Fingerprinting Tool) has therefore been developed which guides the user through critical data analysis decisions and automates all calculations. Multiple source group configurations and composite fingerprints are identified and tested using multiple methods of uncertainty analysis. This aims to explore the sediment provenance information provided by the tracers more comprehensively than a single model, and allows for model configurations with high uncertainties to be rejected. This paper provides an overview of its application to an agricultural catchment in the UK to determine if the approach used can provide a reduction in uncertainty and increase in precision. Five source group classifications were used; three formed using a k-means cluster analysis containing 2, 3 and 4 clusters, and two a-priori groups based upon catchment geology. Three different composite fingerprints were used for each classification and bi-plots, range tests, tracer variability ratios and virtual mixtures tested the reliability of each model configuration. Some model configurations performed poorly when apportioning the composition of virtual mixtures, and different model configurations could produce different sediment provenance results despite using composite fingerprints able to discriminate robustly between the source groups. Despite this uncertainty, dominant sediment sources were identified, and those in close proximity to each sediment sampling location were found to be of greatest importance. This new software, by integrating recent methodological developments in tracer data processing, guides users through key steps. Critically, by applying multiple model configurations and uncertainty assessment, it delivers more robust solutions for informing catchment management of the sediment problem than many previously used approaches. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
quanTLC, an online open-source solution for videodensitometric quantification.
Fichou, Dimitri; Morlock, Gertrud E
2018-07-27
The image is the key feature of planar chromatography. Videodensitometry by digital image conversion is the fastest way of its evaluation. Instead of scanning single sample tracks one after the other, only few clicks are needed to convert all tracks at one go. A minimalistic software was newly developed, termed quanTLC, that allowed the quantitative evaluation of samples in few minutes. quanTLC includes important assets such as open-source, online, free of charge, intuitive to use and tailored to planar chromatography, as none of the nine existent software for image evaluation covered these aspects altogether. quanTLC supports common image file formats for chromatogram upload. All necessary steps were included, i.e., videodensitogram extraction, preprocessing, automatic peak integration, calibration, statistical data analysis, reporting and data export. The default options for each step are suitable for most analyses while still being tunable, if needed. A one-minute video was recorded to serve as user manual. The software capabilities are shown on the example of a lipophilic dye mixture separation. The quantitative results were verified by comparison with those obtained by commercial videodensitometry software and opto-mechanical slit-scanning densitometry. The data can be exported at each step to be processed in further software, if required. The code was released open-source to be exploited even further. The software itself is online useable without installation and directly accessible at http://shinyapps.ernaehrung.uni-giessen.de/quanTLC. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Park, Bum-Sik; Hong, In-Seok; Jang, Ji-Ho; Jin, Hyunchang; Choi, Sukjin; Kim, Yonghwan
2016-02-01
A 28 GHz electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source is being developed for use as an injector for the superconducting linear accelerator of the Rare Isotope Science Project. Beam extraction from the ECR ion source has been simulated using the KOBRA3-INP software. The simulation software can calculate charged particle trajectories in three dimensional complex magnetic field structures, which in this case are formed by the arrangement of five superconducting magnets. In this study, the beam emittance is simulated to understand the effects of plasma potential, mass-to-charge ratio, and spatial distribution. The results of these simulations and their comparison to experimental results are presented in this paper.
The Need for Vendor Source Code at NAS. Revised
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Carter, Russell; Acheson, Steve; Blaylock, Bruce; Brock, David; Cardo, Nick; Ciotti, Bob; Poston, Alan; Wong, Parkson; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)
1997-01-01
The Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Facility has a long standing practice of maintaining buildable source code for installed hardware. There are two reasons for this: NAS's designated pathfinding role, and the need to maintain a smoothly running operational capacity given the widely diversified nature of the vendor installations. NAS has a need to maintain support capabilities when vendors are not able; diagnose and remedy hardware or software problems where applicable; and to support ongoing system software development activities whether or not the relevant vendors feel support is justified. This note provides an informal history of these activities at NAS, and brings together the general principles that drive the requirement that systems integrated into the NAS environment run binaries built from source code, onsite.
Integrating open-source software applications to build molecular dynamics systems.
Allen, Bruce M; Predecki, Paul K; Kumosa, Maciej
2014-04-05
Three open-source applications, NanoEngineer-1, packmol, and mis2lmp are integrated using an open-source file format to quickly create molecular dynamics (MD) cells for simulation. The three software applications collectively make up the open-source software (OSS) suite known as MD Studio (MDS). The software is validated through software engineering practices and is verified through simulation of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-a and isophorone diamine (DGEBA/IPD) system. Multiple simulations are run using the MDS software to create MD cells, and the data generated are used to calculate density, bulk modulus, and glass transition temperature of the DGEBA/IPD system. Simulation results compare well with published experimental and numerical results. The MDS software prototype confirms that OSS applications can be analyzed against real-world research requirements and integrated to create a new capability. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
76 FR 75875 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement; Open Source Software Public Meeting
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-12-05
... Regulation Supplement; Open Source Software Public Meeting AGENCY: Defense Acquisition Regulations System... initiate a dialogue with industry regarding the use of open source software in DoD contracts. DATES: Public... be held in the General Services Administration (GSA), Central Office Auditorium, 1800 F Street NW...
Space Physics Data Facility Web Services
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Candey, Robert M.; Harris, Bernard T.; Chimiak, Reine A.
2005-01-01
The Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) Web services provides a distributed programming interface to a portion of the SPDF software. (A general description of Web services is available at http://www.w3.org/ and in many current software-engineering texts and articles focused on distributed programming.) The SPDF Web services distributed programming interface enables additional collaboration and integration of the SPDF software system with other software systems, in furtherance of the SPDF mission to lead collaborative efforts in the collection and utilization of space physics data and mathematical models. This programming interface conforms to all applicable Web services specifications of the World Wide Web Consortium. The interface is specified by a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file. The SPDF Web services software consists of the following components: 1) A server program for implementation of the Web services; and 2) A software developer s kit that consists of a WSDL file, a less formal description of the interface, a Java class library (which further eases development of Java-based client software), and Java source code for an example client program that illustrates the use of the interface.
The Development of Point Doppler Velocimeter Data Acquisition and Processing Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Cavone, Angelo A.
2008-01-01
In order to develop efficient and quiet aircraft and validate Computational Fluid Dynamic predications, aerodynamic researchers require flow parameter measurements to characterize flow fields about wind tunnel models and jet flows. A one-component Point Doppler Velocimeter (pDv), a non-intrusive, laser-based instrument, was constructed using a design/develop/test/validate/deploy approach. A primary component of the instrument is software required for system control/management and data collection/reduction. This software along with evaluation algorithms, advanced pDv from a laboratory curiosity to a production level instrument. Simultaneous pDv and pitot probe velocity measurements obtained at the centerline of a flow exiting a two-inch jet, matched within 0.4%. Flow turbulence spectra obtained with pDv and a hot-wire detected the primary and secondary harmonics with equal dynamic range produced by the fan driving the flow. Novel,hardware and software methods were developed, tested and incorporated into the system to eliminate and/or minimize error sources and improve system reliability.
HITCal: a software tool for analysis of video head impulse test responses.
Rey-Martinez, Jorge; Batuecas-Caletrio, Angel; Matiño, Eusebi; Perez Fernandez, Nicolás
2015-09-01
The developed software (HITCal) may be a useful tool in the analysis and measurement of the saccadic video head impulse test (vHIT) responses and with the experience obtained during its use the authors suggest that HITCal is an excellent method for enhanced exploration of vHIT outputs. To develop a (software) method to analyze and explore the vHIT responses, mainly saccades. HITCal was written using a computational development program; the function to access a vHIT file was programmed; extended head impulse exploration and measurement tools were created and an automated saccade analysis was developed using an experimental algorithm. For pre-release HITCal laboratory tests, a database of head impulse tests (HITs) was created with the data collected retrospectively in three reference centers. This HITs database was evaluated by humans and was also computed with HITCal. The authors have successfully built HITCal and it has been released as open source software; the developed software was fully operative and all the proposed characteristics were incorporated in the released version. The automated saccades algorithm implemented in HITCal has good concordance with the assessment by human observers (Cohen's kappa coefficient = 0.7).
Tethys: A Platform for Water Resources Modeling and Decision Support Apps
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Swain, N. R.; Christensen, S. D.; Jones, N.; Nelson, E. J.
2014-12-01
Cloud-based applications or apps are a promising medium through which water resources models and data can be conveyed in a user-friendly environment—making them more accessible to decision-makers and stakeholders. In the context of this work, a water resources web app is a web application that exposes limited modeling functionality for a scenario exploration activity in a structured workflow (e.g.: land use change runoff analysis, snowmelt runoff prediction, and flood potential analysis). The technical expertise required to develop water resources web apps can be a barrier to many potential developers of water resources apps. One challenge that developers face is in providing spatial storage, analysis, and visualization for the spatial data that is inherent to water resources models. The software projects that provide this functionality are non-standard to web development and there are a large number of free and open source software (FOSS) projects to choose from. In addition, it is often required to synthesize several software projects to provide all of the needed functionality. Another challenge for the developer will be orchestrating the use of several software components. Consequently, the initial software development investment required to deploy an effective water resources cloud-based application can be substantial. The Tethys Platform has been developed to lower the technical barrier and minimize the initial development investment that prohibits many scientists and engineers from making use of the web app medium. Tethys synthesizes several software projects including PostGIS for spatial storage, 52°North WPS for spatial analysis, GeoServer for spatial publishing, Google Earth™, Google Maps™ and OpenLayers for spatial visualization, and Highcharts for plotting tabular data. The software selection came after a literature review of software projects being used to create existing earth sciences web apps. All of the software is linked via a Python-powered software development kit (SDK). Tethys developers use the SDK to build their apps and incorporate the needed functionality from the software suite. The presentation will include several apps that have been developed using Tethys to demonstrate its capabilities. Based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1135483.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Joyce, M.; Ramirez, P.; Boustani, M.; Mattmann, C. A.; Khudikyan, S.; McGibbney, L. J.; Whitehall, K. D.
2014-12-01
Apache Open Climate Workbench (OCW; https://climate.apache.org/) is a Top-Level Project at the Apache Software Foundation that aims to provide a suite of tools for performing climate science evaluations using model outputs from a multitude of different sources (ESGF, CORDEX, U.S. NCA, NARCCAP) with remote sensing data from NASA, NOAA, and other agencies. Apache OCW is the second NASA project to become a Top-Level Project at the Apache Software Foundation. It grew out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Regional Climate Model Evaluation System (RCMES) project, a collaboration between JPL and the University of California, Los Angeles' Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE). Apache OCW provides scientists and developers with tools for data manipulation, metrics for dataset comparisons, and a visualization suite. In addition to a powerful low-level API, Apache OCW also supports a web application for quick, browser-controlled evaluations, a command line application for local evaluations, and a virtual machine for isolated experimentation with minimal setup. This talk will look at the difficulties and successes of moving a closed community research project out into the wild world of open source. We'll explore the growing pains Apache OCW went through to become a Top-Level Project at the Apache Software Foundation as well as the benefits gained by opening up development to the broader climate and computer science communities.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
The LK scripting language is a simple and fast computer programming language designed for easy integration with existing software to enable automation of tasks. The LK language is used by NREL’s System Advisor Model (SAM), the SAM Software Development Kit (SDK), and SolTrace products. LK is easy extensible and adaptable to new software due to its small footprint and is designed to be statically linked into other software. It is written in standard C++, is cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and OSX), and includes optional portions that enable direct integration with graphical user interfaces written in the open source C++ wxWidgets Versionmore » 3.0+ toolkit.« less
pyPcazip: A PCA-based toolkit for compression and analysis of molecular simulation data
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Shkurti, Ardita; Goni, Ramon; Andrio, Pau; Breitmoser, Elena; Bethune, Iain; Orozco, Modesto; Laughton, Charles A.
The biomolecular simulation community is currently in need of novel and optimised software tools that can analyse and process, in reasonable timescales, the large generated amounts of molecular simulation data. In light of this, we have developed and present here pyPcazip: a suite of software tools for compression and analysis of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data. The software is compatible with trajectory file formats generated by most contemporary MD engines such as AMBER, CHARMM, GROMACS and NAMD, and is MPI parallelised to permit the efficient processing of very large datasets. pyPcazip is a Unix based open-source software (BSD licenced) written in Python.
Preparing a scientific manuscript in Linux: Today's possibilities and limitations
2011-01-01
Background Increasing number of scientists are enthusiastic about using free, open source software for their research purposes. Authors' specific goal was to examine whether a Linux-based operating system with open source software packages would allow to prepare a submission-ready scientific manuscript without the need to use the proprietary software. Findings Preparation and editing of scientific manuscripts is possible using Linux and open source software. This letter to the editor describes key steps for preparation of a publication-ready scientific manuscript in a Linux-based operating system, as well as discusses the necessary software components. This manuscript was created using Linux and open source programs for Linux. PMID:22018246
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Guan, Qiang
At exascale, the challenge becomes to develop applications that run at scale and use exascale platforms reliably, efficiently, and flexibly. Workflows become much more complex because they must seamlessly integrate simulation and data analytics. They must include down-sampling, post-processing, feature extraction, and visualization. Power and data transfer limitations require these analysis tasks to be run in-situ or in-transit. We expect successful workflows will comprise multiple linked simulations along with tens of analysis routines. Users will have limited development time at scale and, therefore, must have rich tools to develop, debug, test, and deploy applications. At this scale, successful workflows willmore » compose linked computations from an assortment of reliable, well-defined computation elements, ones that can come and go as required, based on the needs of the workflow over time. We propose a novel framework that utilizes both virtual machines (VMs) and software containers to create a workflow system that establishes a uniform build and execution environment (BEE) beyond the capabilities of current systems. In this environment, applications will run reliably and repeatably across heterogeneous hardware and software. Containers, both commercial (Docker and Rocket) and open-source (LXC and LXD), define a runtime that isolates all software dependencies from the machine operating system. Workflows may contain multiple containers that run different operating systems, different software, and even different versions of the same software. We will run containers in open-source virtual machines (KVM) and emulators (QEMU) so that workflows run on any machine entirely in user-space. On this platform of containers and virtual machines, we will deliver workflow software that provides services, including repeatable execution, provenance, checkpointing, and future proofing. We will capture provenance about how containers were launched and how they interact to annotate workflows for repeatable and partial re-execution. We will coordinate the physical snapshots of virtual machines with parallel programming constructs, such as barriers, to automate checkpoint and restart. We will also integrate with HPC-specific container runtimes to gain access to accelerators and other specialized hardware to preserve native performance. Containers will link development to continuous integration. When application developers check code in, it will automatically be tested on a suite of different software and hardware architectures.« less
SU-E-T-103: Development and Implementation of Web Based Quality Control Software
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Studinski, R; Taylor, R; Angers, C
Purpose: Historically many radiation medicine programs have maintained their Quality Control (QC) test results in paper records or Microsoft Excel worksheets. Both these approaches represent significant logistical challenges, and are not predisposed to data review and approval. It has been our group's aim to develop and implement web based software designed not just to record and store QC data in a centralized database, but to provide scheduling and data review tools to help manage a radiation therapy clinics Equipment Quality control program. Methods: The software was written in the Python programming language using the Django web framework. In order tomore » promote collaboration and validation from other centres the code was made open source and is freely available to the public via an online source code repository. The code was written to provide a common user interface for data entry, formalize the review and approval process, and offer automated data trending and process control analysis of test results. Results: As of February 2014, our installation of QAtrack+ has 180 tests defined in its database and has collected ∼22 000 test results, all of which have been reviewed and approved by a physicist via QATrack+'s review tools. These results include records for quality control of Elekta accelerators, CT simulators, our brachytherapy programme, TomoTherapy and Cyberknife units. Currently at least 5 other centres are known to be running QAtrack+ clinically, forming the start of an international user community. Conclusion: QAtrack+ has proven to be an effective tool for collecting radiation therapy QC data, allowing for rapid review and trending of data for a wide variety of treatment units. As free and open source software, all source code, documentation and a bug tracker are available to the public at https://bitbucket.org/tohccmedphys/qatrackplus/.« less
InterProScan 5: genome-scale protein function classification
Jones, Philip; Binns, David; Chang, Hsin-Yu; Fraser, Matthew; Li, Weizhong; McAnulla, Craig; McWilliam, Hamish; Maslen, John; Mitchell, Alex; Nuka, Gift; Pesseat, Sebastien; Quinn, Antony F.; Sangrador-Vegas, Amaia; Scheremetjew, Maxim; Yong, Siew-Yit; Lopez, Rodrigo; Hunter, Sarah
2014-01-01
Motivation: Robust large-scale sequence analysis is a major challenge in modern genomic science, where biologists are frequently trying to characterize many millions of sequences. Here, we describe a new Java-based architecture for the widely used protein function prediction software package InterProScan. Developments include improvements and additions to the outputs of the software and the complete reimplementation of the software framework, resulting in a flexible and stable system that is able to use both multiprocessor machines and/or conventional clusters to achieve scalable distributed data analysis. InterProScan is freely available for download from the EMBl-EBI FTP site and the open source code is hosted at Google Code. Availability and implementation: InterProScan is distributed via FTP at ftp://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/software/unix/iprscan/5/ and the source code is available from http://code.google.com/p/interproscan/. Contact: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/support or interhelp@ebi.ac.uk or mitchell@ebi.ac.uk PMID:24451626
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Guhlin, Miguel
2007-01-01
Open source has continued to evolve and in the past three years the development of a graphical user interface has made it increasingly accessible and viable for end users without special training. Open source relies to a great extent on the free software movement. In this context, the term free refers not to cost, but to the freedom users have to…
Software risk management through independent verification and validation
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Callahan, John R.; Zhou, Tong C.; Wood, Ralph
1995-01-01
Software project managers need tools to estimate and track project goals in a continuous fashion before, during, and after development of a system. In addition, they need an ability to compare the current project status with past project profiles to validate management intuition, identify problems, and then direct appropriate resources to the sources of problems. This paper describes a measurement-based approach to calculating the risk inherent in meeting project goals that leverages past project metrics and existing estimation and tracking models. We introduce the IV&V Goal/Questions/Metrics model, explain its use in the software development life cycle, and describe our attempts to validate the model through the reverse engineering of existing projects.
Modeling SMAP Spacecraft Attitude Control Estimation Error Using Signal Generation Model
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Rizvi, Farheen
2016-01-01
Two ground simulation software are used to model the SMAP spacecraft dynamics. The CAST software uses a higher fidelity model than the ADAMS software. The ADAMS software models the spacecraft plant, controller and actuator models, and assumes a perfect sensor and estimator model. In this simulation study, the spacecraft dynamics results from the ADAMS software are used as CAST software is unavailable. The main source of spacecraft dynamics error in the higher fidelity CAST software is due to the estimation error. A signal generation model is developed to capture the effect of this estimation error in the overall spacecraft dynamics. Then, this signal generation model is included in the ADAMS software spacecraft dynamics estimate such that the results are similar to CAST. This signal generation model has similar characteristics mean, variance and power spectral density as the true CAST estimation error. In this way, ADAMS software can still be used while capturing the higher fidelity spacecraft dynamics modeling from CAST software.
General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT): Mission, Vision, and Business Case
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hughes, Steven P.
2007-01-01
The Goal of the GMAT project is to develop new space trajectory optimization and mission design technology by working inclusively with ordinary people, universities businesses and other government organizations; and to share that technology in an open and unhindered way. GMAT's a free and open source software system; free for anyone to use in development of new mission concepts or to improve current missions, freely available in source code form for enhancement or future technology development.
The Role of Standards in Cloud-Computing Interoperability
2012-10-01
services are not shared outside the organization. CloudStack, Eucalyptus, HP, Microsoft, OpenStack , Ubuntu, and VMWare provide tools for building...center requirements • Developing usage models for cloud ven- dors • Independent IT consortium OpenStack http://www.openstack.org • Open-source...software for running private clouds • Currently consists of three core software projects: OpenStack Compute (Nova), OpenStack Object Storage (Swift
Host computer software specifications for a zero-g payload manhandling simulator
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wilson, S. W.
1986-01-01
The HP PASCAL source code was developed for the Mission Planning and Analysis Division (MPAD) of NASA/JSC, and takes the place of detailed flow charts defining the host computer software specifications for MANHANDLE, a digital/graphical simulator that can be used to analyze the dynamics of onorbit (zero-g) payload manhandling operations. Input and output data for representative test cases are contained.
Advanced Shutter Control for a Molecular Beam Epitaxy Reactor
An open-source hardware and software-based shutter controller solution was developed that communicates over Ethernet with our original equipment...manufacturer (OEM) molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) reactor control software. An Arduino Mega microcontroller is the used for the brain of the shutter... controller , while a custom-designed circuit board distributes 24-V power to each of the 16 shutter solenoids available on the MBE. Using Ethernet
Directional Unfolded Source Term (DUST) for Compton Cameras.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Mitchell, Dean J.; Horne, Steven M.; O'Brien, Sean
2018-03-01
A Directional Unfolded Source Term (DUST) algorithm was developed to enable improved spectral analysis capabilities using data collected by Compton cameras. Achieving this objective required modification of the detector response function in the Gamma Detector Response and Analysis Software (GADRAS). Experimental data that were collected in support of this work include measurements of calibration sources at a range of separation distances and cylindrical depleted uranium castings.
A survey of quality assurance practices in biomedical open source software projects.
Koru, Günes; El Emam, Khaled; Neisa, Angelica; Umarji, Medha
2007-05-07
Open source (OS) software is continuously gaining recognition and use in the biomedical domain, for example, in health informatics and bioinformatics. Given the mission critical nature of applications in this domain and their potential impact on patient safety, it is important to understand to what degree and how effectively biomedical OS developers perform standard quality assurance (QA) activities such as peer reviews and testing. This would allow the users of biomedical OS software to better understand the quality risks, if any, and the developers to identify process improvement opportunities to produce higher quality software. A survey of developers working on biomedical OS projects was conducted to examine the QA activities that are performed. We took a descriptive approach to summarize the implementation of QA activities and then examined some of the factors that may be related to the implementation of such practices. Our descriptive results show that 63% (95% CI, 54-72) of projects did not include peer reviews in their development process, while 82% (95% CI, 75-89) did include testing. Approximately 74% (95% CI, 67-81) of developers did not have a background in computing, 80% (95% CI, 74-87) were paid for their contributions to the project, and 52% (95% CI, 43-60) had PhDs. A multivariate logistic regression model to predict the implementation of peer reviews was not significant (likelihood ratio test = 16.86, 9 df, P = .051) and neither was a model to predict the implementation of testing (likelihood ratio test = 3.34, 9 df, P = .95). Less attention is paid to peer review than testing. However, the former is a complementary, and necessary, QA practice rather than an alternative. Therefore, one can argue that there are quality risks, at least at this point in time, in transitioning biomedical OS software into any critical settings that may have operational, financial, or safety implications. Developers of biomedical OS applications should invest more effort in implementing systemic peer review practices throughout the development and maintenance processes.
Mathur, Gagan; Haugen, Thomas H; Davis, Scott L; Krasowski, Matthew D
2014-01-01
Interfacing of clinical laboratory instruments with the laboratory information system (LIS) via "middleware" software is increasingly common. Our clinical laboratory implemented capillary electrophoresis using a Sebia(®) Capillarys-2™ (Norcross, GA, USA) instrument for serum and urine protein electrophoresis. Using Data Innovations Instrument Manager, an interface was established with the LIS (Cerner) that allowed for bi-directional transmission of numeric data. However, the text of the interpretive pathology report was not properly transferred. To reduce manual effort and possibility for error in text data transfer, we developed scripts in AutoHotkey, a free, open-source macro-creation and automation software utility. Scripts were written to create macros that automated mouse and key strokes. The scripts retrieve the specimen accession number, capture user input text, and insert the text interpretation in the correct patient record in the desired format. The scripts accurately and precisely transfer narrative interpretation into the LIS. Combined with bar-code reading by the electrophoresis instrument, the scripts transfer data efficiently to the correct patient record. In addition, the AutoHotKey script automated repetitive key strokes required for manual entry into the LIS, making protein electrophoresis sign-out easier to learn and faster to use by the pathology residents. Scripts allow for either preliminary verification by residents or final sign-out by the attending pathologist. Using the open-source AutoHotKey software, we successfully improved the transfer of text data between capillary electrophoresis software and the LIS. The use of open-source software tools should not be overlooked as tools to improve interfacing of laboratory instruments.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Das, I.; Oberai, K.; Sarathi Roy, P.
2012-07-01
Landslides exhibit themselves in different mass movement processes and are considered among the most complex natural hazards occurring on the earth surface. Making landslide database available online via WWW (World Wide Web) promotes the spreading and reaching out of the landslide information to all the stakeholders. The aim of this research is to present a comprehensive database for generating landslide hazard scenario with the help of available historic records of landslides and geo-environmental factors and make them available over the Web using geospatial Free & Open Source Software (FOSS). FOSS reduces the cost of the project drastically as proprietary software's are very costly. Landslide data generated for the period 1982 to 2009 were compiled along the national highway road corridor in Indian Himalayas. All the geo-environmental datasets along with the landslide susceptibility map were served through WEBGIS client interface. Open source University of Minnesota (UMN) mapserver was used as GIS server software for developing web enabled landslide geospatial database. PHP/Mapscript server-side application serve as a front-end application and PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension serve as a backend application for the web enabled landslide spatio-temporal databases. This dynamic virtual visualization process through a web platform brings an insight into the understanding of the landslides and the resulting damage closer to the affected people and user community. The landslide susceptibility dataset is also made available as an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS) which can be accessed through any OGC compliant open source or proprietary GIS Software.
Converging Work-Talk Patterns in Online Task-Oriented Communities.
Xuan, Qi; Devanbu, Premkumar; Filkov, Vladimir
2016-01-01
Much of what we do is accomplished by working collaboratively with others, and a large portion of our lives are spent working and talking; the patterns embodied in the alternation of working and talking can provide much useful insight into task-oriented social behaviors. The available electronic traces of the different kinds of human activities in online communities are an empirical goldmine that can enable the holistic study and understanding of these social systems. Open Source Software (OSS) projects are prototypical examples of collaborative, task-oriented communities, depending on volunteers for high-quality work. Here, we use sequence analysis methods to identify the work-talk patterns of software developers in online communities of Open Source Software projects. We find that software developers prefer to persist in same kinds of activities, i.e., a string of work activities followed by a string of talk activities and so forth, rather than switch them frequently; this tendency strengthens with time, suggesting that developers become more efficient, and can work longer with fewer interruptions. This process is accompanied by the formation of community culture: developers' patterns in the same communities get closer with time while different communities get relatively more different. The emergence of community culture is apparently driven by both "talk" and "work". Finally, we also find that workers with good balance between "work" and "talk" tend to produce just as much work as those that focus strongly on "work"; however, the former appear to be more likely to continue to be active contributors in the communities.
Using Selection Pressure as an Asset to Develop Reusable, Adaptable Software Systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Berrick, S. W.; Lynnes, C.
2007-12-01
The Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) at NASA has over the years developed and honed a number of reusable architectural components for supporting large-scale data centers with a large customer base. These include a processing system (S4PM) and an archive system (S4PA) based upon a workflow engine called the Simple, Scalable, Script-based Science Processor (S4P); an online data visualization and analysis system (Giovanni); and the radically simple and fast data search tool, Mirador. These subsystems are currently reused internally in a variety of combinations to implement customized data management on behalf of instrument science teams and other science investigators. Some of these subsystems (S4P and S4PM) have also been reused by other data centers for operational science processing. Our experience has been that development and utilization of robust, interoperable, and reusable software systems can actually flourish in environments defined by heterogeneous commodity hardware systems, the emphasis on value-added customer service, and continual cost reduction pressures. The repeated internal reuse that is fostered by such an environment encourages and even forces changes to the software that make it more reusable and adaptable. Allowing and even encouraging such selective pressures to software development has been a key factor in the success of S4P and S4PM, which are now available to the open source community under the NASA Open Source Agreement.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Allen, Alice; Teuben, Peter J.; Ryan, P. Wesley
2018-05-01
We examined software usage in a sample set of astrophysics research articles published in 2015 and searched for the source codes for the software mentioned in these research papers. We categorized the software to indicate whether the source code is available for download and whether there are restrictions to accessing it, and if the source code is not available, whether some other form of the software, such as a binary, is. We also extracted hyperlinks from one journal’s 2015 research articles, as links in articles can serve as an acknowledgment of software use and lead to the data used in the research, and tested them to determine which of these URLs are still accessible. For our sample of 715 software instances in the 166 articles we examined, we were able to categorize 418 records as according to whether source code was available and found that 285 unique codes were used, 58% of which offered the source code for download. Of the 2558 hyperlinks extracted from 1669 research articles, at best, 90% of them were available over our testing period.
Hybrid Optimization Parallel Search PACKage
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
2009-11-10
HOPSPACK is open source software for solving optimization problems without derivatives. Application problems may have a fully nonlinear objective function, bound constraints, and linear and nonlinear constraints. Problem variables may be continuous, integer-valued, or a mixture of both. The software provides a framework that supports any derivative-free type of solver algorithm. Through the framework, solvers request parallel function evaluation, which may use MPI (multiple machines) or multithreading (multiple processors/cores on one machine). The framework provides a Cache and Pending Cache of saved evaluations that reduces execution time and facilitates restarts. Solvers can dynamically create other algorithms to solve subproblems, amore » useful technique for handling multiple start points and integer-valued variables. HOPSPACK ships with the Generating Set Search (GSS) algorithm, developed at Sandia as part of the APPSPACK open source software project.« less
D-GENIES: dot plot large genomes in an interactive, efficient and simple way.
Cabanettes, Floréal; Klopp, Christophe
2018-01-01
Dot plots are widely used to quickly compare sequence sets. They provide a synthetic similarity overview, highlighting repetitions, breaks and inversions. Different tools have been developed to easily generated genomic alignment dot plots, but they are often limited in the input sequence size. D-GENIES is a standalone and web application performing large genome alignments using minimap2 software package and generating interactive dot plots. It enables users to sort query sequences along the reference, zoom in the plot and download several image, alignment or sequence files. D-GENIES is an easy-to-install, open-source software package (GPL) developed in Python and JavaScript. The source code is available at https://github.com/genotoul-bioinfo/dgenies and it can be tested at http://dgenies.toulouse.inra.fr/.
Web-Based Environment for Maintaining Legacy Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Tigges, Michael; Thompson, Nelson; Orr, Mark; Fox, Richard
2007-01-01
Advanced Tool Integration Environment (ATIE) is the name of both a software system and a Web-based environment created by the system for maintaining an archive of legacy software and expertise involved in developing the legacy software. ATIE can also be used in modifying legacy software and developing new software. The information that can be encapsulated in ATIE includes experts documentation, input and output data of tests cases, source code, and compilation scripts. All of this information is available within a common environment and retained in a database for ease of access and recovery by use of powerful search engines. ATIE also accommodates the embedment of supporting software that users require for their work, and even enables access to supporting commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software within the flow of the experts work. The flow of work can be captured by saving the sequence of computer programs that the expert uses. A user gains access to ATIE via a Web browser. A modern Web-based graphical user interface promotes efficiency in the retrieval, execution, and modification of legacy code. Thus, ATIE saves time and money in the support of new and pre-existing programs.
a Framework for AN Open Source Geospatial Certification Model
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Khan, T. U. R.; Davis, P.; Behr, F.-J.
2016-06-01
The geospatial industry is forecasted to have an enormous growth in the forthcoming years and an extended need for well-educated workforce. Hence ongoing education and training play an important role in the professional life. Parallel, in the geospatial and IT arena as well in the political discussion and legislation Open Source solutions, open data proliferation, and the use of open standards have an increasing significance. Based on the Memorandum of Understanding between International Cartographic Association, OSGeo Foundation, and ISPRS this development led to the implementation of the ICA-OSGeo-Lab imitative with its mission "Making geospatial education and opportunities accessible to all". Discussions in this initiative and the growth and maturity of geospatial Open Source software initiated the idea to develop a framework for a worldwide applicable Open Source certification approach. Generic and geospatial certification approaches are already offered by numerous organisations, i.e., GIS Certification Institute, GeoAcademy, ASPRS, and software vendors, i. e., Esri, Oracle, and RedHat. They focus different fields of expertise and have different levels and ways of examination which are offered for a wide range of fees. The development of the certification framework presented here is based on the analysis of diverse bodies of knowledge concepts, i.e., NCGIA Core Curriculum, URISA Body Of Knowledge, USGIF Essential Body Of Knowledge, the "Geographic Information: Need to Know", currently under development, and the Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM). The latter provides a US American oriented list of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of workers in the geospatial technology industry and influenced essentially the framework of certification. In addition to the theoretical analysis of existing resources the geospatial community was integrated twofold. An online survey about the relevance of Open Source was performed and evaluated with 105 respondents worldwide. 15 interviews (face-to-face or by telephone) with experts in different countries provided additional insights into Open Source usage and certification. The findings led to the development of a certification framework of three main categories with in total eleven sub-categories, i.e., "Certified Open Source Geospatial Data Associate / Professional", "Certified Open Source Geospatial Analyst Remote Sensing & GIS", "Certified Open Source Geospatial Cartographer", "Certified Open Source Geospatial Expert", "Certified Open Source Geospatial Associate Developer / Professional Developer", "Certified Open Source Geospatial Architect". Each certification is described by pre-conditions, scope and objectives, course content, recommended software packages, target group, expected benefits, and the methods of examination. Examinations can be flanked by proofs of professional career paths and achievements which need a peer qualification evaluation. After a couple of years a recertification is required. The concept seeks the accreditation by the OSGeo Foundation (and other bodies) and international support by a group of geospatial scientific institutions to achieve wide and international acceptance for this Open Source geospatial certification model. A business case for Open Source certification and a corresponding SWOT model is examined to support the goals of the Geo-For-All initiative of the ICA-OSGeo pact.
Terra Harvest Open Source Environment (THOSE): a universal unattended ground sensor controller
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gold, Joshua; Klawon, Kevin; Humeniuk, David; Landoll, Darren
2011-06-01
Under the Terra Harvest Program, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has the objective of developing a universal Controller for the Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) community. The mission is to define, implement, and thoroughly document an open architecture that universally supports UGS missions, integrating disparate systems, peripherals, etc. The Controller's inherent interoperability with numerous systems enables the integration of both legacy and future Unattended Ground Sensor System (UGSS) components, while the design's open architecture supports rapid third-party development to ensure operational readiness. The successful accomplishment of these objectives by the program's Phase 3b contractors is demonstrated via integration of the companies' respective plug-'n-play contributions that include various peripherals, such as sensors, cameras, etc., and their associated software drivers. In order to independently validate the Terra Harvest architecture, L-3 Nova Engineering, along with its partner, the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), is developing the Terra Harvest Open Source Environment (THOSE), a Java based system running on an embedded Linux Operating System (OS). The Use Cases on which the software is developed support the full range of UGS operational scenarios such as remote sensor triggering, image capture, and data exfiltration. The Team is additionally developing an ARM microprocessor evaluation platform that is both energyefficient and operationally flexible. The paper describes the overall THOSE architecture, as well as the implementation strategy for some of the key software components. Preliminary integration/test results and the Team's approach for transitioning the THOSE design and source code to the Government are also presented.
Rule-based interface generation on mobile devices for structured documentation.
Kock, Ann-Kristin; Andersen, Björn; Handels, Heinz; Ingenerf, Josef
2014-01-01
In many software systems to date, interactive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are represented implicitly in the source code, together with the application logic. Hence, the re-use, development, and modification of these interfaces is often very laborious. Flexible adjustments of GUIs for various platforms and devices as well as individual user preferences are furthermore difficult to realize. These problems motivate a software-based separation of content and GUI models on the one hand, and application logic on the other. In this project, a software solution for structured reporting on mobile devices is developed. Clinical content archetypes developed in a previous project serve as the content model while the Android SDK provides the GUI model. The necessary bindings between the models are specified using the Jess Rule Language.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Albus, James S.; Mccain, Harry G.; Lumia, Ronald
1989-01-01
The document describes the NASA Standard Reference Model (NASREM) Architecture for the Space Station Telerobot Control System. It defines the functional requirements and high level specifications of the control system for the NASA space Station document for the functional specification, and a guideline for the development of the control system architecture, of the 10C Flight Telerobot Servicer. The NASREM telerobot control system architecture defines a set of standard modules and interfaces which facilitates software design, development, validation, and test, and make possible the integration of telerobotics software from a wide variety of sources. Standard interfaces also provide the software hooks necessary to incrementally upgrade future Flight Telerobot Systems as new capabilities develop in computer science, robotics, and autonomous system control.
Lindoerfer, Doris; Mansmann, Ulrich
2017-07-01
Patient registries are instrumental for medical research. Often their structures are complex and their implementations use composite software systems to meet the wide spectrum of challenges. Commercial and open-source systems are available for registry implementation, but many research groups develop their own systems. Methodological approaches in the selection of software as well as the construction of proprietary systems are needed. We propose an evidence-based checklist, summarizing essential items for patient registry software systems (CIPROS), to accelerate the requirements engineering process. Requirements engineering activities for software systems follow traditional software requirements elicitation methods, general software requirements specification (SRS) templates, and standards. We performed a multistep procedure to develop a specific evidence-based CIPROS checklist: (1) A systematic literature review to build a comprehensive collection of technical concepts, (2) a qualitative content analysis to define a catalogue of relevant criteria, and (3) a checklist to construct a minimal appraisal standard. CIPROS is based on 64 publications and covers twelve sections with a total of 72 items. CIPROS also defines software requirements. Comparing CIPROS with traditional software requirements elicitation methods, SRS templates and standards show a broad consensus but differences in issues regarding registry-specific aspects. Using an evidence-based approach to requirements engineering for registry software adds aspects to the traditional methods and accelerates the software engineering process for registry software. The method we used to construct CIPROS serves as a potential template for creating evidence-based checklists in other fields. The CIPROS list supports developers in assessing requirements for existing systems and formulating requirements for their own systems, while strengthening the reporting of patient registry software system descriptions. It may be a first step to create standards for patient registry software system assessments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Viceconti, M; Testi, D; Gori, R; Zannoni, C
2000-01-01
The present work describes a technology transfer project called HIPCOM devoted to the re-engineering of the process used by a medical devices manufacturer to design custom-made hip prostheses. Although it started with insufficient support from the end-user management, a very tight scheduling and a moderate budget, the project developed into what is considered by all partners a success story. In particular, the development of the design software, called HIPCOM Interactive Design Environment (HIDE) was completed in a time shorter than any optimistic expectation. The software was quite stable since its first beta version, and once introduced at the user site it fully replaced the original procedure in less than two months. One year after the early adoption, more than 80 custom-made prostheses had been designed with HIDE and the user had reported only two bugs, both cosmetics. The scope of the present work was to report the development experience and to investigate the reasons for these positive results, with particular reference to the development procedure and the software architecture. The choice of TCL/TK as development language and the adoption of well-defined software architecture were found to be the success key factors. Other important determinants were found to be the adoption of an incremental software engineering strategy, well suited for small to medium projects and the presence in the development staff of a technology transfer expert.
The Visible Human Data Sets (VHD) and Insight Toolkit (ITk): Experiments in Open Source Software
Ackerman, Michael J.; Yoo, Terry S.
2003-01-01
From its inception in 1989, the Visible Human Project was designed as an experiment in open source software. In 1994 and 1995 the male and female Visible Human data sets were released by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) as open source data sets. In 2002 the NLM released the first version of the Insight Toolkit (ITk) as open source software. PMID:14728278
OpenMx: An Open Source Extended Structural Equation Modeling Framework
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boker, Steven; Neale, Michael; Maes, Hermine; Wilde, Michael; Spiegel, Michael; Brick, Timothy; Spies, Jeffrey; Estabrook, Ryne; Kenny, Sarah; Bates, Timothy; Mehta, Paras; Fox, John
2011-01-01
OpenMx is free, full-featured, open source, structural equation modeling (SEM) software. OpenMx runs within the "R" statistical programming environment on Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux computers. The rationale for developing OpenMx is discussed along with the philosophy behind the user interface. The OpenMx data structures are…
The Saint Louis River Idea-Slam crowd sourcing good ideas for the Saint Louis River
As part of the 2017 Saint Louis River Summit, we propose hosting an “Idea-Slam” using software originally developed by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Idea-box is an open source online app/website used to collect and surface ideas from members of an or...
Panel: Governance in Open Source Projects and Communities
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bolici, Francesco; de Laat, Paul; Ljungberg, Jan; Pontiggia, Andrea; Rossi Lamastra, Cristina
“Although considerable research has been devoted to the growth and expansion of open source communities and the comparison between the efficiency of corporate structures and community structures in the field of software development, rather less attention has been paid to their governance structures (control, monitoring, supervision)” (Lattemann and Stieglitz 2005).
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hart, Andrew F.; Verma, Rishi; Mattmann, Chris A.; Crichton, Daniel J.; Kelly, Sean; Kincaid, Heather; Hughes, Steven; Ramirez, Paul; Goodale, Cameron; Anton, Kristen;
2012-01-01
For the past decade, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in collaboration with Dartmouth University has served as the center for informatics for the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). The EDRN is a multi-institution research effort funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and tasked with identifying and validating biomarkers for the early detection of cancer. As the distributed network has grown, increasingly formal processes have been developed for the acquisition, curation, storage, and dissemination of heterogeneous research information assets, and an informatics infrastructure has emerged. In this paper we discuss the evolution of EDRN informatics, its success as a mechanism for distributed information integration, and the potential sustainability and reuse benefits of emerging efforts to make the platform components themselves open source. We describe our experience transitioning a large closed-source software system to a community driven, open source project at the Apache Software Foundation, and point to lessons learned that will guide our present efforts to promote the reuse of the EDRN informatics infrastructure by a broader community.
Koush, Yury; Ashburner, John; Prilepin, Evgeny; Sladky, Ronald; Zeidman, Peter; Bibikov, Sergei; Scharnowski, Frank; Nikonorov, Artem; De Ville, Dimitri Van
2017-08-01
Neurofeedback based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) is a novel and rapidly developing research field. It allows for training of voluntary control over localized brain activity and connectivity and has demonstrated promising clinical applications. Because of the rapid technical developments of MRI techniques and the availability of high-performance computing, new methodological advances in rt-fMRI neurofeedback become possible. Here we outline the core components of a novel open-source neurofeedback framework, termed Open NeuroFeedback Training (OpenNFT), which efficiently integrates these new developments. This framework is implemented using Python and Matlab source code to allow for diverse functionality, high modularity, and rapid extendibility of the software depending on the user's needs. In addition, it provides an easy interface to the functionality of Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) that is also open-source and one of the most widely used fMRI data analysis software. We demonstrate the functionality of our new framework by describing case studies that include neurofeedback protocols based on brain activity levels, effective connectivity models, and pattern classification approaches. This open-source initiative provides a suitable framework to actively engage in the development of novel neurofeedback approaches, so that local methodological developments can be easily made accessible to a wider range of users. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Open Source Hbim for Cultural Heritage: a Project Proposal
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Diara, F.; Rinaudo, F.
2018-05-01
Actual technologies are changing Cultural Heritage research, analysis, conservation and development ways, allowing new innovative approaches. The possibility of integrating Cultural Heritage data, like archaeological information, inside a three-dimensional environment system (like a Building Information Modelling) involve huge benefits for its management, monitoring and valorisation. Nowadays there are many commercial BIM solutions. However, these tools are thought and developed mostly for architecture design or technical installations. An example of better solution could be a dynamic and open platform that might consider Cultural Heritage needs as priority. Suitable solution for better and complete data usability and accessibility could be guaranteed by open source protocols. This choice would allow adapting software to Cultural Heritage needs and not the opposite, thus avoiding methodological stretches. This work will focus exactly on analysis and experimentations about specific characteristics of these kind of open source software (DBMS, CAD, Servers) applied to a Cultural Heritage example, in order to verifying their flexibility, reliability and then creating a dynamic HBIM open source prototype. Indeed, it might be a starting point for a future creation of a complete HBIM open source solution that we could adapt to others Cultural Heritage researches and analysis.
The new meaning of quality in the information age.
Prahalad, C K; Krishnan, M S
1999-01-01
Software applications are now a mission-critical source of competitive advantage for most companies. They are also a source of great risk, as the Y2K bug has made clear. Yet many line managers still haven't confronted software issues--partly because they aren't sure how best to define the quality of the applications in their IT infrastructures. Some companies such as Wal-Mart and the Gap have successfully integrated the software in their networks, but most have accumulated an unwidely number of incompatible applications--all designed to perform the same tasks. The authors provide a framework for measuring the performance of software in a company's IT portfolio. Quality traditionally has been measured according to a product's ability to meet certain specifications; other views of quality have emerged that measure a product's adaptability to customers' needs and a product's ability to encourage innovation. To judge software quality properly, argue the authors, managers must measure applications against all three approaches. Understanding the domain of a software application is an important part of that process. The domain is the body of knowledge about a user's needs and expectations for a product. Software domains change frequently based on how a consumer chooses to use, for example, Microsoft Word or a spreadsheet application. The domain can also be influenced by general changes in technology, such as the development of a new software platform. Thus, applications can't be judged only according to whether they conform to specifications. The authors discuss how to identify domain characteristics and software risks and suggest ways to reduce the variability of software domains.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thankachan, Briju; Moore, David Richard
2017-01-01
The use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), a subset of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), can reduce the cost of purchasing software. Despite the benefit in the initial purchase price of software, deploying software requires total cost that goes beyond the initial purchase price. Total cost is a silent issue of FOSS and can only…
Pybus -- A Python Software Bus
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Lavrijsen, Wim T.L.P.
2004-10-14
A software bus, just like its hardware equivalent, allows for the discovery, installation, configuration, loading, unloading, and run-time replacement of software components, as well as channeling of inter-component communication. Python, a popular open-source programming language, encourages a modular design on software written in it, but it offers little or no component functionality. However, the language and its interpreter provide sufficient hooks to implement a thin, integral layer of component support. This functionality can be presented to the developer in the form of a module, making it very easy to use. This paper describes a Pythonmodule, PyBus, with which the conceptmore » of a ''software bus'' can be realized in Python. It demonstrates, within the context of the ATLAS software framework Athena, how PyBus can be used for the installation and (run-time) configuration of software, not necessarily Python modules, from a Python application in a way that is transparent to the end-user.« less
Ham, Timothy S; Dmytriv, Zinovii; Plahar, Hector; Chen, Joanna; Hillson, Nathan J; Keasling, Jay D
2012-10-01
The Joint BioEnergy Institute Inventory of Composable Elements (JBEI-ICEs) is an open source registry platform for managing information about biological parts. It is capable of recording information about 'legacy' parts, such as plasmids, microbial host strains and Arabidopsis seeds, as well as DNA parts in various assembly standards. ICE is built on the idea of a web of registries and thus provides strong support for distributed interconnected use. The information deposited in an ICE installation instance is accessible both via a web browser and through the web application programming interfaces, which allows automated access to parts via third-party programs. JBEI-ICE includes several useful web browser-based graphical applications for sequence annotation, manipulation and analysis that are also open source. As with open source software, users are encouraged to install, use and customize JBEI-ICE and its components for their particular purposes. As a web application programming interface, ICE provides well-developed parts storage functionality for other synthetic biology software projects. A public instance is available at public-registry.jbei.org, where users can try out features, upload parts or simply use it for their projects. The ICE software suite is available via Google Code, a hosting site for community-driven open source projects.
Semantic integration of gene expression analysis tools and data sources using software connectors
2013-01-01
Background The study and analysis of gene expression measurements is the primary focus of functional genomics. Once expression data is available, biologists are faced with the task of extracting (new) knowledge associated to the underlying biological phenomenon. Most often, in order to perform this task, biologists execute a number of analysis activities on the available gene expression dataset rather than a single analysis activity. The integration of heteregeneous tools and data sources to create an integrated analysis environment represents a challenging and error-prone task. Semantic integration enables the assignment of unambiguous meanings to data shared among different applications in an integrated environment, allowing the exchange of data in a semantically consistent and meaningful way. This work aims at developing an ontology-based methodology for the semantic integration of gene expression analysis tools and data sources. The proposed methodology relies on software connectors to support not only the access to heterogeneous data sources but also the definition of transformation rules on exchanged data. Results We have studied the different challenges involved in the integration of computer systems and the role software connectors play in this task. We have also studied a number of gene expression technologies, analysis tools and related ontologies in order to devise basic integration scenarios and propose a reference ontology for the gene expression domain. Then, we have defined a number of activities and associated guidelines to prescribe how the development of connectors should be carried out. Finally, we have applied the proposed methodology in the construction of three different integration scenarios involving the use of different tools for the analysis of different types of gene expression data. Conclusions The proposed methodology facilitates the development of connectors capable of semantically integrating different gene expression analysis tools and data sources. The methodology can be used in the development of connectors supporting both simple and nontrivial processing requirements, thus assuring accurate data exchange and information interpretation from exchanged data. PMID:24341380
Semantic integration of gene expression analysis tools and data sources using software connectors.
Miyazaki, Flávia A; Guardia, Gabriela D A; Vêncio, Ricardo Z N; de Farias, Cléver R G
2013-10-25
The study and analysis of gene expression measurements is the primary focus of functional genomics. Once expression data is available, biologists are faced with the task of extracting (new) knowledge associated to the underlying biological phenomenon. Most often, in order to perform this task, biologists execute a number of analysis activities on the available gene expression dataset rather than a single analysis activity. The integration of heterogeneous tools and data sources to create an integrated analysis environment represents a challenging and error-prone task. Semantic integration enables the assignment of unambiguous meanings to data shared among different applications in an integrated environment, allowing the exchange of data in a semantically consistent and meaningful way. This work aims at developing an ontology-based methodology for the semantic integration of gene expression analysis tools and data sources. The proposed methodology relies on software connectors to support not only the access to heterogeneous data sources but also the definition of transformation rules on exchanged data. We have studied the different challenges involved in the integration of computer systems and the role software connectors play in this task. We have also studied a number of gene expression technologies, analysis tools and related ontologies in order to devise basic integration scenarios and propose a reference ontology for the gene expression domain. Then, we have defined a number of activities and associated guidelines to prescribe how the development of connectors should be carried out. Finally, we have applied the proposed methodology in the construction of three different integration scenarios involving the use of different tools for the analysis of different types of gene expression data. The proposed methodology facilitates the development of connectors capable of semantically integrating different gene expression analysis tools and data sources. The methodology can be used in the development of connectors supporting both simple and nontrivial processing requirements, thus assuring accurate data exchange and information interpretation from exchanged data.
DYNA3D Code Practices and Developments
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Lin, L.; Zywicz, E.; Raboin, P.
2000-04-21
DYNA3D is an explicit, finite element code developed to solve high rate dynamic simulations for problems of interest to the engineering mechanics community. The DYNA3D code has been under continuous development since 1976[1] by the Methods Development Group in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The pace of code development activities has substantially increased in the past five years, growing from one to between four and six code developers. This has necessitated the use of software tools such as CVS (Concurrent Versions System) to help manage multiple version updates. While on-line documentation with an Adobe PDF manualmore » helps to communicate software developments, periodically a summary document describing recent changes and improvements in DYNA3D software is needed. The first part of this report describes issues surrounding software versions and source control. The remainder of this report details the major capability improvements since the last publicly released version of DYNA3D in 1996. Not included here are the many hundreds of bug corrections and minor enhancements, nor the development in DYNA3D between the manual release in 1993[2] and the public code release in 1996.« less
The Chandra Source Catalog 2.0: Building The Catalog
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Grier, John D.; Plummer, David A.; Allen, Christopher E.; Anderson, Craig S.; Budynkiewicz, Jamie A.; Burke, Douglas; Chen, Judy C.; Civano, Francesca Maria; D'Abrusco, Raffaele; Doe, Stephen M.; Evans, Ian N.; Evans, Janet D.; Fabbiano, Giuseppina; Gibbs, Danny G., II; Glotfelty, Kenny J.; Graessle, Dale E.; Hain, Roger; Hall, Diane M.; Harbo, Peter N.; Houck, John C.; Lauer, Jennifer L.; Laurino, Omar; Lee, Nicholas P.; Martínez-Galarza, Juan Rafael; McCollough, Michael L.; McDowell, Jonathan C.; Miller, Joseph; McLaughlin, Warren; Morgan, Douglas L.; Mossman, Amy E.; Nguyen, Dan T.; Nichols, Joy S.; Nowak, Michael A.; Paxson, Charles; Primini, Francis Anthony; Rots, Arnold H.; Siemiginowska, Aneta; Sundheim, Beth A.; Tibbetts, Michael; Van Stone, David W.; Zografou, Panagoula
2018-01-01
To build release 2.0 of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC2), we require scientific software tools and processing pipelines to evaluate and analyze the data. Additionally, software and hardware infrastructure is needed to coordinate and distribute pipeline execution, manage data i/o, and handle data for Quality Assurance (QA) intervention. We also provide data product staging for archive ingestion.Release 2 utilizes a database driven system used for integration and production. Included are four distinct instances of the Automatic Processing (AP) system (Source Detection, Master Match, Source Properties and Convex Hulls) and a high performance computing (HPC) cluster that is managed to provide efficient catalog processing. In this poster we highlight the internal systems developed to meet the CSC2 challenge.This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center.
The Astrophysics Source Code Library by the numbers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Allen, Alice; Teuben, Peter; Berriman, G. Bruce; DuPrie, Kimberly; Mink, Jessica; Nemiroff, Robert; Ryan, PW; Schmidt, Judy; Shamir, Lior; Shortridge, Keith; Wallin, John; Warmels, Rein
2018-01-01
The Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL, ascl.net) was founded in 1999 by Robert Nemiroff and John Wallin. ASCL editors seek both new and old peer-reviewed papers that describe methods or experiments that involve the development or use of source code, and add entries for the found codes to the library. Software authors can submit their codes to the ASCL as well. This ensures a comprehensive listing covering a significant number of the astrophysics source codes used in peer-reviewed studies. The ASCL is indexed by both NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) and Web of Science, making software used in research more discoverable. This presentation covers the growth in the ASCL’s number of entries, the number of citations to its entries, and in which journals those citations appear. It also discusses what changes have been made to the ASCL recently, and what its plans are for the future.
NA-42 TI Shared Software Component Library FY2011 Final Report
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Knudson, Christa K.; Rutz, Frederick C.; Dorow, Kevin E.
The NA-42 TI program initiated an effort in FY2010 to standardize its software development efforts with the long term goal of migrating toward a software management approach that will allow for the sharing and reuse of code developed within the TI program, improve integration, ensure a level of software documentation, and reduce development costs. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been tasked with two activities that support this mission. PNNL has been tasked with the identification, selection, and implementation of a Shared Software Component Library. The intent of the library is to provide a common repository that is accessiblemore » by all authorized NA-42 software development teams. The repository facilitates software reuse through a searchable and easy to use web based interface. As software is submitted to the repository, the component registration process captures meta-data and provides version control for compiled libraries, documentation, and source code. This meta-data is then available for retrieval and review as part of library search results. In FY2010, PNNL and staff from the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL) teamed up to develop a software application with the goal of replacing the aging Aerial Measuring System (AMS). The application under development includes an Advanced Visualization and Integration of Data (AVID) framework and associated AMS modules. Throughout development, PNNL and RSL have utilized a common AMS code repository for collaborative code development. The AMS repository is hosted by PNNL, is restricted to the project development team, is accessed via two different geographic locations and continues to be used. The knowledge gained from the collaboration and hosting of this repository in conjunction with PNNL software development and systems engineering capabilities were used in the selection of a package to be used in the implementation of the software component library on behalf of NA-42 TI. The second task managed by PNNL is the development and continued maintenance of the NA-42 TI Software Development Questionnaire. This questionnaire is intended to help software development teams working under NA-42 TI in documenting their development activities. When sufficiently completed, the questionnaire illustrates that the software development activities recorded incorporate significant aspects of the software engineering lifecycle. The questionnaire template is updated as comments are received from NA-42 and/or its development teams and revised versions distributed to those using the questionnaire. PNNL also maintains a list of questionnaire recipients. The blank questionnaire template, the AVID and AMS software being developed, and the completed AVID AMS specific questionnaire are being used as the initial content to be established in the TI Component Library. This report summarizes the approach taken to identify requirements, search for and evaluate technologies, and the approach taken for installation of the software needed to host the component library. Additionally, it defines the process by which users request access for the contribution and retrieval of library content.« less
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mallasch, Paul G.; Babic, Slavoljub
1994-01-01
The United States Air Force (USAF) provides NASA Lewis Research Center with monthly reports containing the Synchronous Satellite Catalog and the associated Two Line Mean Element Sets. The USAF Synchronous Satellite Catalog supplies satellite orbital parameters collected by an automated monitoring system and provided to Lewis Research Center as text files on magnetic tape. Software was developed to facilitate automated formatting, data normalization, cross-referencing, and error correction of Synchronous Satellite Catalog files before loading into the NASA Geosynchronous Satellite Orbital Statistics Database System (GSOSTATS). This document contains the User's Guide and Software Maintenance Manual with information necessary for installation, initialization, start-up, operation, error recovery, and termination of the software application. It also contains implementation details, modification aids, and software source code adaptations for use in future revisions.
Cooperative Work and Sustainable Scientific Software Practices in R
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Weber, N.
2013-12-01
Most scientific software projects are dependent on the work of many diverse people, institutions and organizations. Incentivizing these actors to cooperatively develop software that is both reliable, and sustainable is complicated by the fact that the reward structures of these various actors greatly differ: research scientists want results from a software or model run in order to publish papers, produce new data, or test a hypothesis; software engineers and research centers want compilable, well documented code that is refactorable, reusable and reproducible in future research scenarios. While much research has been done on incentives and motivations for participating in open source software projects or cyberinfrastrcture development, little work has been done on what motivates or incentivizes developers to maintain scientific software projects beyond their original application. This poster will present early results of research into the incentives and motivation for cooperative scientific software development. In particular, this work focuses on motivations for the maintenance and repair of libraries on the software platform R. Our work here uses a sample of R packages that were created by research centers, or are specific to earth, environmental and climate science applications. We first mined 'check' logs from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) to determine the amount of time a package has existed, the number of versions it has gone through over this time, the number of releases, and finally the contact information for each official package 'maintainer'. We then sent a survey to each official maintainer, asking them questions about what role they played in developing the original package, and what their motivations were for sustaining the project over time. We will present early results from this mining and our survey of R maintainers.
STARS 2.0: 2nd-generation open-source archiving and query software
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Winegar, Tom
2008-07-01
The Subaru Telescope is in process of developing an open-source alternative to the 1st-generation software and databases (STARS 1) used for archiving and query. For STARS 2, we have chosen PHP and Python for scripting and MySQL as the database software. We have collected feedback from staff and observers, and used this feedback to significantly improve the design and functionality of our future archiving and query software. Archiving - We identified two weaknesses in 1st-generation STARS archiving software: a complex and inflexible table structure and uncoordinated system administration for our business model: taking pictures from the summit and archiving them in both Hawaii and Japan. We adopted a simplified and normalized table structure with passive keyword collection, and we are designing an archive-to-archive file transfer system that automatically reports real-time status and error conditions and permits error recovery. Query - We identified several weaknesses in 1st-generation STARS query software: inflexible query tools, poor sharing of calibration data, and no automatic file transfer mechanisms to observers. We are developing improved query tools and sharing of calibration data, and multi-protocol unassisted file transfer mechanisms for observers. In the process, we have redefined a 'query': from an invisible search result that can only transfer once in-house right now, with little status and error reporting and no error recovery - to a stored search result that can be monitored, transferred to different locations with multiple protocols, reporting status and error conditions and permitting recovery from errors.