At Ball State University Dr. Wayne Zage and Professor Dolores Zage are working on a Design metrics project to develop a metrics approach for analyzing software design.The purpose of this thesis is to test the hypotheses of this metric by calculating the De external design component, and to show the correlation of errors and stress points in the design phase for a large Ada Software, professionally developed at Computer Sciences Corporation.From these studies we can relatively conclude that De does indicate the error-prone module. Since the D(G) is comprised of an internal and external component it is necessary to evaluate Di to support this hypothesis on a large project. Just by viewing the external complexity, the metric does a relatively good job of pointing out high error modules, with only viewing 10% of the modules we found 33% of the errors.Comparing the results of STANFINS-R and the results of the BSU projects, the BSU projects did better in finding the errors 33% verus 53%. However in the STANFINS project, we had a better success rate of finding the error modules. Of the modules highlighted 72% did contain errors. Thus if we loosened the criteria for selection of error prone modules we might have had a large percentage of the errors captured. / Department of Computer Science

A Domain-Specific Modeling Approach This study has presented a component-based domain modeling approach that provides an environment for simplifying and accelerating software development and analysis, and improves software reusability, maintainability, and productivity. With highlevel design abstraction, constraints of application domains, and the guidance of domain rules, the proposed component-based framework offers an effective solution to modeling and automating the development and deployment of software application. Meta-modeling will be used in this study to define the domain notations, rules, and constraints for component composition within a specific domain context. A domain-specific graphical design environment will also be proposed to simplify and accelerate the software development by simply dragging and dropping pre-built components with minimal programming effort. The modeling of components can be further extended with the specification of their dependability and real-time constraints. / Related work -- Component composition -- Domain-specific modeling -- Model-based component composition environment for a specific domain -- Mobile service creation framework (MCSF) -- A model-driven approach to implementing dependable component-based mobile services -- A model-driven approach to implementing component-based real-time mobile services / Related work -- Component composition -- Domain-specific modeling -- Model-based component composition environment for a specific domain -- Mobile service creation framework (MCSF) -- A model-driven approach to implementing dependable component-based mobile services -- A model-driven approach to implementing component-based real-time mobile services. / Department of Computer Science

Very large graphs are difficult for a person to browse and edit on a computer screen. This thesis introduces a visual formalism, structured graphs, which supports the scalable browsing and editing of very large graphs. This approach is relevant to a given application when it incorporates a large graph which is composed of named nodes and links, and abstraction hierarchies which can be defined on these nodes and links. A typical browsing operation is the selection of an arbitrary group of nodes and the display of the network of nodes and links for these nodes. Typical editing operations is: adding a new link between two nodes, adding a new node in the hierarchy, and moving sub-graphs to a new position in the node hierarchy. These operations are scalable when the number of user steps involved remains constant regardless of how large the graph is. This thesis shows that with structured graphs, these operations typically take one user step. We demonstrate the utility of structured graph formalism in an application setting. Computer aided software engineering tools, and in particular, structured analysis tools, are the chosen application area for this thesis, as they are graph based, and existing tools, though adequate for medium sized systems, lack scalability. In this thesis examples of an improved design for a structured analysis tool, based on structured graphs, is given. These improvements include scalable browsing and editing operations to support an individual software analyst, and component composition operations to support the construction of large models by a group of software analysts. Finally, we include proofs of key properties and descriptions of two text based implementations.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-41).

Orientador: Ney Lemke / Coorientador: Marcio Luis Acencio / Banca: Cesar Martins / Banca: Lucas Bleicher / Resumo: Fatores de transcrição são proteínas que interagem com sequências nucleotídicas específicas situadas nas regiões promotoras de genes e, através dessa interação, regulam a transcrição dos genes. Devido a essa função reguladora, a identificação e a caracterização da rede de interações entre fatores de transcrição e seus genes alvos são importantes por que essa rede representa o arcabouço molecular através do qual os estímulos ambientais são convertidos em expressão diferencial dos genes. Como essa expressão diferencial, por sua vez, determina o comportamento da célula em resposta a um certo estímulo, a rede de interações de regulação transcricional pode, portanto, fornecer uma compreensão sistêmica de como os comportamentos celulares emergem a partir dos estímulos ambientais. A primeira etapa para a construção de uma rede de regulação transcricional consiste na coleta de dados relacionados às interações entre os fatores de transcrição e seus genes alvos. Porém, como esses dados são encontrados de forma dispersa na literatura ou em bancos de dados pagos, essa etapa demanda muito tempo. Com o objetivo de centralizar esses dados de forma a facilitar sua coleta e, consequentemente, a construção da rede de interações de regulação transcricional, desenvolvemos um banco de dados relacional chamado Human Transcriptional Regulation Interaction Database (HTRIdb). Desenvolvido em PostgreSQL e Java, o HTRIdb contém uma coleção de milhares de interações de regulação transcricional experimentalmente verificadas em seres humanos que podem ser acessadas e obtidas gratuitamente por toda a comunidade científica. Além do acesso gratuito e livre permissão para a obtenção dos dados, o HTRIdb oferece... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Transcription factors are proteins that interact with specific nucleotide sequences located in promoter regions of genes and, through this interaction, regulate gene transcription. Due of this regulatory function, the identification and characterization of the network of interactions between transcription factors and their target genes are important since this network represents the molecular framework that explains how environmental stimuli are converted into differential expression of genes. This network provides a systemic understanding of how cellular behaviors emerge from the environmental stimuli. The first step for the transcriptional regulatory network construction is the collection of data about interactions between transcription factors and their target genes. This step is very time-consuming as these data are found dispersed on the literature or in commercial databases. In an effort to provide researchers with a repository of transcriptional regulatory interactions from which such interactions can be directly and easily extracted, we developed a relational database called the Human Interaction Database Transcriptional Regulation (HTRIdb). HTRIdb was implemented using PostgreSQL and Java and contains a collection of thousands of experimentally verified human transcriptional regulation interactions. HTRIdb can be freely accessed by the scientific community and offers a visualization tool for the regulatory network and provides a communication interface between users and developers to enhance... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This dissertation discusses risk management in the context of software development. It commences by investigating why so many software development projects fail. It then focuses on approaches to software development that emerged as attempts to improve the success rate. A common shortcoming to these approaches is identified, namely that they only cater for the tasks that need to be done, ignoring possible unexpected problems. After having motivated the need for risk management, the framework for a risk management methodology is discussed, outlining the steps in the risk management process. Decision-making guidelines and best practices follow, as well as a discussion about the way they should be implemented as part of the risk management effort. Guidelines are provided for the implementation of risk management as part of software development. Finally, the risks that may cause the failure of the implementation of risk management are identified and guidelines provided to address them. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-03-01Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:49:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 bovolenta_la_me_botib.pdf: 1243263 bytes, checksum: ae0c358db6c21782ceadf7284345fd8a (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fatores de transcrição são proteínas que interagem com sequências nucleotídicas específicas situadas nas regiões promotoras de genes e, através dessa interação, regulam a transcrição dos genes. Devido a essa função reguladora, a identificação e a caracterização da rede de interações entre fatores de transcrição e seus genes alvos são importantes por que essa rede representa o arcabouço molecular através do qual os estímulos ambientais são convertidos em expressão diferencial dos genes. Como essa expressão diferencial, por sua vez, determina o comportamento da célula em resposta a um certo estímulo, a rede de interações de regulação transcricional pode, portanto, fornecer uma compreensão sistêmica de como os comportamentos celulares emergem a partir dos estímulos ambientais. A primeira etapa para a construção de uma rede de regulação transcricional consiste na coleta de dados relacionados às interações entre os fatores de transcrição e seus genes alvos. Porém, como esses dados são encontrados de forma dispersa na literatura ou em bancos de dados pagos, essa etapa demanda muito tempo. Com o objetivo de centralizar esses dados de forma a facilitar sua coleta e, consequentemente, a construção da rede de interações de regulação transcricional, desenvolvemos um banco de dados relacional chamado Human Transcriptional Regulation Interaction Database (HTRIdb). Desenvolvido em PostgreSQL e Java, o HTRIdb contém uma coleção de milhares de interações de regulação transcricional experimentalmente verificadas em seres humanos que podem ser acessadas e obtidas gratuitamente por toda a comunidade científica. Além do acesso gratuito e livre permissão para a obtenção dos dados, o HTRIdb oferece... / Transcription factors are proteins that interact with specific nucleotide sequences located in promoter regions of genes and, through this interaction, regulate gene transcription. Due of this regulatory function, the identification and characterization of the network of interactions between transcription factors and their target genes are important since this network represents the molecular framework that explains how environmental stimuli are converted into differential expression of genes. This network provides a systemic understanding of how cellular behaviors emerge from the environmental stimuli. The first step for the transcriptional regulatory network construction is the collection of data about interactions between transcription factors and their target genes. This step is very time-consuming as these data are found dispersed on the literature or in commercial databases. In an effort to provide researchers with a repository of transcriptional regulatory interactions from which such interactions can be directly and easily extracted, we developed a relational database called the Human Interaction Database Transcriptional Regulation (HTRIdb). HTRIdb was implemented using PostgreSQL and Java and contains a collection of thousands of experimentally verified human transcriptional regulation interactions. HTRIdb can be freely accessed by the scientific community and offers a visualization tool for the regulatory network and provides a communication interface between users and developers to enhance... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Information Technology in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / The application of software systems in business organizations continue to increase as the Internet technology grows. Business processes that previously required manual interventions are becoming automated using software systems. The use of software systems is fundamental to electronic processing of business transactions. More business organizations, large and small, are utilizing information technology in order to have competitive advantage in the business arena. Software is ubiquitous. Among areas where software plays core roles are e-Banking where software systems are used to process banking transactions, e-Health where software systems are used to facilitate activities in the health sector, e-Commerce where software systems are used to facilitate online business transactions, e-Government where software system are used to facilitate government activities and e-Learning where software systems are used to facilitate the teaching and learning process. Nevertheless, the large number of failing software projects and the increase in software security problems coupled with shortage of skilled software developers are still major obstacles in the software development industry. Among others, the solution can be achieved by improving the competency of software developers so that software systems developed are of good quality, safe, robust, and support business objectives. Software companies and business organizations stand a big chance to increase their return on investment (ROI), if competencies of software developers are improved. A software developer plays critical roles in software development projects. A software developer, however, requires specific skills and knowledge in order to develop software systems that solve problems and deliver solutions. This research is about competencies of software developers. The research focuses on software development activities performed by software companies and business organizations within the Western Cape Province. The unit of analysis is software developers. Data pertaining to tasks performed by software developers, tools used by software developers and skills required were collected, examined and analysed. The objective of the research is to develop a competency framework for software developers. It can be used by institutions and the industry to provide better education. Most importantly, the industry will have access to competent software developers who can perform their job well. As justified in this research, knowledge of a competency framework for software developers is extremely essential.ÿ

De acordo com a Confederação Nacional do Transporte (CNT), o modal rodoviário representa o meio pelo qual aproximadamente 60% das cargas são transportadas no Brasil, configurando desta forma a maior representatividade entre os modais existentes. No ramo de transporte rodoviário, empresas transportadoras de carga exercem papel decisivo na movimentação de mercadorias em cadeias produtivas de diferentes segmentos da economia. Para atender às exigências de qualidade e excelência operacional, as transportadoras devem planejar suas rotas interligando seus depósitos aos clientes de maneira eficiente e econômica, atendendo à demanda, respeitando a capacidade dos veículos, a sequência de coleta e entrega e as janelas de visitas. O planejamento de rotas é conhecido na literatura como o problema de roteamento de veículos (PRV). Considerado um problema da classe NPDifícil, não se conhece algoritmo computacionalmente eficiente para sua resolução, especialmente quando avaliadas situações práticas reais. Neste sentido, este trabalho propõe a construção de uma ferramenta (software), denominada de Roteirizador, baseado em um algoritmo metaheurístico híbrido (AH). Formado pela combinação das metaheurísticas Busca Tabu (BT) e Algoritmo Genético (AG), o AH permite combinar as melhores características de ambas as técnicas, fornecendo resultados superiores quando comparados à aplicação de cada técnica individualmente. Deste modo, o Roteirizador, inserido no ambiente computacional de uma transportadora rodoviária de cargas, busca melhorar a eficiência do planejamento de rotas. O AH apresentou em 50% dos experimentos, resultados superiores ou muito próximos dos valores ótimos apresentados pela literatura, e nos experimentos executados em uma unidade da Transportadora, todos os cenários apresentaram ganho em relação ao processo atualmente executado. O Roteirizador, baseado no AH, apresentou a possibilidade de economizar um montante superior a R$ 500 mil ao ano, unicamente com a redução da distância percorrida pelos veículos. Além do ganho em distância, o correto dimensionamento da jornada de trabalho das tripulações eliminou a necessidade de gastos relacionados ao pagamento de horas extras. Por fim, cabe ainda a possibilidade de um ganho superior tanto em distância quanto no número de veículos empregados caso a Transportadora revise a sua política de agrupamento de clientes por regiões / According to the National Transport Confederation (CNT), the road transport system represents the means by which approximately 60% of the cargo is transported in Brazil, thus making it more representative of existing modes. In the field of road transport, freight carriers play a decisive role in the movement of goods in productive chains of different segments of the economy. To meet the requirements of quality and operational excellence, such as carriers to plan their routes interconnecting their warehouses to customers of efficient and economical efficiency, meeting the demand, respecting a transport capacity, collection and delivery sequence and windows of visits. Scale planning is called in the literature as the vehicle routing problem (PRV). Considered an NP-Hard class problem, it is not known computationally efficient algorithm for its resolution, especially when evaluating real practical situations. In this sense, this work proposes the construction of a tool (software), called Roteirizador, based on a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm (AH). Formed by the combination of Tabu Search (TB) and Genetic Algorithm metaheuristics (AG), AH allows to combine the best characteristics of both techniques, providing superior results when compared to the application of each technique individually. In this way, the Roteirizador, inserted in the computational environment of a road transport operator of loads, looks for to improve the efficiency of the planning of routes. The AH presented in 50% of the experiments, results superior or very close to the optimal values presented in the literature, and in the experiments performed in an unit of the Carrier, all the scenarios presented a gain in relation to the currently executed process. The Roteirizador, based on the AH, presented the possibility of saving an amount of more than R$ 500,000 per year, solely by reducing the distance traveled by vehicles. In addition to the distance gain, the correct sizing of crew work hours eliminated the need for expenses related to the payment of overtime. Finally, there is also the possibility of a higher gain both in distance and in the number of vehicles used if Carrier reviews its policy of grouping customers by regions.

M.Sc. (Computer Science) / The attitude of critics towards decision support systems vary from a major breakthrough to just another bussword. The objective of this study is to design an expert system that can advise the ignorant to design, implement and evaluate a decision support system. In chapter one criteria that will influence the design of a decision support system were identified. The four areas the were looked into: Organisational long term goals and -strategy Attitude of the people in the organization The tasks of management The problem a decision support system will be designed for. A list of 'criteria were compiled and carried forward to chapter two. In chapter two a decision support system was defined and the components of the system discussed. The influence that the criteria (of chapter one) had on the components of the decision support system were decided. Chapter three discussed a subset of a decision support system namely expert systems. This chapter were motivated by two things: The objective of this study was to design an expert system According to the definition of a decision support system (chapter two) an expert system is a subset of a decision support system. A brief description of the components of an expert system and a layout of the different rule bases were given. An implementation methodology will be discussed. In chapter four a methodology were described to measure user satisfaction after a decision support system were implemented. A summary of this chapter were accepted for publication as an article in 'Information and Systems Management'. Chapter five discussed a look into the future of decision support systems. A complete Super Intelligent System was described. Although this is fictitious it could trigger ideas for other studies.