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Code decay is a gradual process that negatively impacts the quality of a software system. Developers need trusted measurement techniques to evaluate whether their systems have decayed. This dissertation aims to assess code decay by discovering software architectural violations. Our methodology uses Lightweight Sanity Check for Implemented Architectures to derive architectural constraints represented by can-use and cannot-use phrases. Our methodology also uses Lattix to discover architectural violations. We also introduce measures that indicate code decay in a software system. We conducted two case studies of proprietary systems (9 versions of System A and 14 versions of System B) to demonstrate our methodology for assessing code decay. Resulting architectural constraints and architectural violations were validated by the expert of each system. Our results show that the net violations of System A increased from one version to other version even though there were architecture changes. However, in System B, the number of net violations decreased after changes in the architecture. The proposed code decay metrics can give managers insight into the process of software development, the history of the software product, and the status of unresolved violations. Our results and qualitative analysis showed that the methodology was effective and required a practical level of effort for moderate sized software systems. Code decay values increase because of an increase in the number of violations over multiple versions. We compared our code decay measures with definitions in the literature, namely coupling metrics. In addition, our empirical results showed that coupling is qualitatively correlated with the size of a system as expected. We note that coupling is an opportunity for architectural violations. We concluded that coupling is not consistently related to violations.

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A new safety application, as part of ITS Advanced Rural Transportation System (ARTS), has been developed to be deployed on a two-lane rural road (Route 114), in Southwest Virginia. The route segment under study is subject to significant head-on accidents, as a result of two main conditions: 1- Illegal passing maneuvers crossing solid yellow line, and 2- A short passing sight distance due to the road vertical profile. The main objective of this research is to design a video detection-based warning system by installing an affordable and efficient system on the vertical crest curve on Route 114, capable of performing the following two main functions: 1.Detect vehicles that attempt to violate the no-passing zone restriction (i.e. when crossing into the opposing direction). 2.Warn the drivers violating the restriction in order to discourage them from continuing their maneuvers. System architecture as well as detailed system design was developed. A system simulation was conducted with the use of a special software program written with MATLAB. The simulation was applied for both "with" and "without" the system cases. The simulation runs showed that the system could virtually eliminate all head-on collisions, should violators obey the early warning messages displayed. Several sensitivity tests were made for different scenarios. Finally, the viability of the system was evaluated from economic point of view. The financial analysis revealed high economic indicators. / Ph. D.

Although international human rights declarations exist, violations of human rights are still sad but also common facts around the world. But for repressive regimes, it becomes more and more difficult to hide committed human rights violations, since society entered the "Information Revolution." This study argues that the volume of international information exchanged influences a country's human rights record. A pooled cross sectional time series regression model with a lagged endogenous variable and a standard robust error technique is used to test several hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that the flow of information can be related to a country's human rights index. The study also suggests that more empirical work on this topic will be necessary.

This essay is about children's rights in one African country namely Kenya. It includesinternational documents like the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) andthe regional African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). The thesis alsoanalyzes the differences between these documents and also the Sustainable development goals arediscussed and how they directly touch children's rights.This thesis also deals with the topic of how children's rights are protected by the Kenyanconstitution . It will mention the international laws and conventions that Kenya is obligated toimplement and follow in order to guarantee the kenyan children their rights. During the work wewill take a look at legislations and policies that Kenya has established to promote and protect therights of the children in Kenya.I will analyze some of the violations of the rights of children in Kenya and will be mainly focusingon laws and policies that the country established. The thesis also includes an investigation ofwhich children's rights are violated in Kenya. It consists of statistics and what the laws in Kenyasay about these violations.

There is a grave concern for the life, liberty and security of individuals who have been forced to leave their homes and have become dispersed within their native countries and throughout the Asian continent. These internally displaced persons and refugees are the subject of this study. Some of the themes that will be discussed include: civil war, human rights violations and the economy, since these are the problems affecting the populations of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar. These case studies are of particular interest because Afghanistan is where most refugees come from, Myanmar has the longest-running military regime and Pakistan hosts the most refugees in the world. All three case studies are currently in a state of civil war, are breeding grounds for violations of human rights and have corrupt economies. Thus, the goal is to end armed conflict, to put an end to the human rights violations that come with it and to restructure the economies in each of these nation states so that the internally displaced persons and refugees can be repatriated, since displacement has become too much of a burden for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar's neighboring countries, who have been taking in all of the refugees from said countries. Theoretically, if the issues causing displacement were to be solved, then the countries that host refugees would be able to concentrate on their own populations. This study can potentially address the gap between knowledge, policy formation, and policy implementation to realize the goals of the international community in dealing with the displacement crisis.

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