Seeing the forest through the trees: A review of integrated environmental modelling tools

Today’s interconnected socio-economic and environmental challenges require the combination and reuse of existing integrated modelling solutions. This paper contributes to this overall research area, by reviewing a wide range of currently available frameworks, systems and emerging technologies for integrated modelling in the environmental sciences. Based on a systematic review of the literature, we group related studies and papers into viewpoints and elaborate on shared and diverging characteristics. Our analysis shows that component-based modelling frameworks and scientific workflow systems have been traditionally used for solving technical integration challenges, but ultimately, the appropriate framework or system strongly depends on the particular environmental phenomenon under investigation. The study also shows that – in general – individual integrated modelling solutions do not benefit from components and models that are provided by others. It is this island (or silo) situation, which results in low levels of model reuse for multi-disciplinary settings. This seems mainly due to the fact that the field as such is highly complex and diverse. A unique integrated modelling solution, which is capable of dealing with any environmental scenario, seems to be unaffordable because of the great variety of data formats, models, environmental phenomena, stakeholder networks, user perspectives and social aspects. Nevertheless, we conclude that the combination of modelling tools, which address complementary viewpoints – such as service-based combined with scientific workflow systems, or resource-modelling on top of virtual research environments – could lead to sustainable information systems, which would advance model sharing, reuse and integration. Next steps for improving this form of multi-disciplinary interoperability are sketched.     

基于组件的开放式CAD系统模型

在回顾CAD系统的几类系统模型并分析其优缺点的基础上，立足于CAD系统的开放性、集成性和效率，运用基于组件的软件工程技术，提出了CAD系统组件模型，并详细地分析了模型中各组件的功能和组件间的通讯.系统模型具有两级总线结构，较之以往的模型，其开放性大大提高，便于实现结构灵活、开放性强的实用系统.同时，组件也为软件复用建立了良好的基础.     

A ‘context-aware’ and agent-centric perspective for the alignment between individuals and organizations

The enterprise modeling field aims at representing organizations from several, inter-related perspectives. A number of enterprise modeling frameworks have been developed providing models, methods and tools that enable to communicate the structure and processes of organizations. These frameworks have been used both for systems development and organizational analysis ends, where the latter mainly focuses process (re)design efforts. We argue that enterprise modeling frameworks can be used for other kinds of organizational analysis. In particular, they can be used to capture and model work practices, human multitasking at work, and to compare models describing pre-defined behavior with actual execution.     

Building enterprise reuse program

Reuse is viewed as a realistically effective approach to solving software crisis. For an organization that wants to build a reuse program, technical and non-technical issues must be considered in parallel. In this paper, a model-based approach to building systematic reuse program is presented. Component-based reuse is currently a dominant approach to software reuse. In this approach, building the right reusable component model is the first important step. In order to achieve systematic reuse, a set of component models should be built from different perspectives. Each of these models will give a specific view of the components so as to satisfy different needs of different persons involved in the enterprise reuse program. There already exist some component models for reuse from technical perspectives. But less attention is paid to the reusable components from a non-technical view, especially from the view of process and management. In our approach, a reusable component model—FLP model for reusable component—is introduced. This model describes components from three dimensions (Form, Level, and Presentation) and views components and their relationships from the perspective of process and management. It determines the sphere of reusable components, the time points of reusing components in the development process, and the needed means to present components in terms of the abstraction level, logic granularity and presentation media. Being the basis on which the management and technical decisions are made, our model will be used as the kernel model to initialize and normalize a systematic enterprise reuse program.     

Building enterprise reuse program——A model-based approach

Reuse is viewed as a realistically effective approach to solving software crisis. For an organization that wants to build a reuse program, technical and non-technical issues must be considered in parallel. In this paper, a model-based approach to building systematic reuse program is presented. Component-based reuse is currently a dominant approach to software reuse. In this approach, building the right reusable component model is the first important step. In order to achieve systematic reuse, a set of component models should be built from different perspectives. Each of these models will give a specific view of the components so as to satisfy different needs of different persons involved in the enterprise reuse program. There already exist some component models for reuse from technical perspectives. But less attention is paid to the reusable components from a non-technical view, especially fromthe view of process and management. In our approach, a reusable component model--FLP modelfor reusable component     

ABE: an environment for engineering intelligent systems

The ABE multilevel architecture for developing intelligent systems addresses the key problems of intelligent systems engineering: large-scale applications and the reuse and integration of software components. ABE defines a virtual machine for module-oriented programming and a cooperative operating system that provides access to the capabilities of that virtual machine. On top of the virtual machine, ABE provides a number of system design and development frameworks, which embody such programming metaphors as control flow, blackboards, and dataflow. These frameworks support the construction of capabilities, including knowledge processing tools, which span a range from primitive modules to skeletal systems. Finally, applications can be built on skeletal systems. In addition, ABE supports the importation of existing software, including both conventional and knowledge processing tools     

A Component Model for Perspective Management of Enterprise Software Reuse

This paper discusses that in order to achieve systematic reuse, the technical and non-technical issues must be considered in parallel, and a set of component models should be built from different perspectives. Each of these models gives a specific view of the components so as to satisfy different needs of different persons involved in the enterprise reuse program. Especially, we present a reusable component model – FLP model for reusable component, which describes components from three dimensions (form, level, and presentation) and views components and their relationships from the perspective of process and management. This model determines the sphere of reusable components, the time points of reusing components in the development process, and the needed means to present components in terms of the abstraction level, logic granularity and presentation media. It is the basis on which the management and technical decisions are made. It will be used as the kernel model to initialize and normalize a systematic enterprise reuse program. After the FLP model, the relationships among these different models are discussed. Furthermore, the usage of these models to facilitate the perspective management of enterprise software reuse is discussed.     

基于构件的软件框架与角色扩展形态研究

框架是实现大粒度软件复用的有效途径,面向对象框架可以通过实例化扩展实现具体的应用系统,但是,研究和实践表明,面向对象框架存在着一些问题.采用基于构件的框架(CBSF),通过用构件替代框架内部相互协作的类,以增大框架构成成分的粒度;同时利用构件的接口调用和组装实现框架扩展机制.主要探讨了角色扩展形态,角色是将要被进一步实例化的特殊构件,可分为抽象构件和模板.针对不同变化性类型,提出可以利用体系结构模式、设计模式或参数化这3种方式设计CBSF角色扩展,进而讨论了基于角色扩展形态的应用构件组装.     

A process model for component-oriented software engineering

The investigation of reuse has a long history, eventually maturing into the "build by integration" paradigm. Meanwhile, component technologies also improved along with engineering practices. What is missing is a methodology that uses components within such a paradigm, thus bridging the gap. The authors propose a model devoted to complete component orientation, rather than modifying object-oriented approaches to accommodate components. They investigate component-based technologies to address new needs and, consequently, to integrate adequate practices toward a consistent process model.     

Refinement preserving approximations for the design and verification of heterogeneous systems

Embedded systems are electronic devices that function in the context of a real environment, by sensing and reacting to a set of stimuli. Because of their close interaction with the environment, and to simplify their design, different parts of an embedded system are best described using different notations and different techniques. In this case, we say that the system is heterogeneous. We informally refer to the notation and the rules that are used to specify and verify the elements of heterogeneous systems and their collective behavior as a model of computation. In this paper, we consider different classes of relationships between models of computation and discuss their preservation properties with respect to the model's refinement relation and composition operator. In particular, we focus on abstraction and refinement relationships in the form of abstract interpretations and introduce the notion of conservative approximation. We show that, unlike abstract interpretations, conservative approximations preserve refinement verification results from an abstract to a concrete model while avoiding false positives. We also characterize the relationship between abstract interpretations and conservative approximations, and derive necessary and sufficient conditions to obtain a conservative approximation from a pair of abstract interpretations. In addition, we use the inverse of a conservative approximation to identify components that can be used indifferently in several models, thus enabling reuse across models of computation. The concepts described in this paper are illustrated with examples from continuous time and discrete time models of computation.     

Knowledge and software modeling using UML

Ontology can be considered as a comprehensive knowledge model which enables the developer to practice knowledge, instead of code, reuse. In the development of knowledge-based systems, different modeling languages are employed at different stages of the development process. By using a common modeling language for the knowledge and software models, knowledge instead of software reuse can be achieved. We illustrate the process by first presenting an ontology developed for an industrial domain and then investigate Unified Modeling Language (UML) as an ontology modeling tool. Since any model expressed in UML can be translated into a software model, the transition from the knowledge model to system implementation is better supported with the proposed approach. The industrial domain of selecting a remediation technique for petroleum contaminated sites is adopted for the illustration case study.     

Designing enterprise integration solutions: effectively

The design of large and complex enterprise integration solutions is a difficult task. It can require solutions that are unique because of constraints from the current set of legacy applications. Design knowledge for enterprise integration solutions is, therefore, difficult to articulate and reuse. In particular, the nature and form of knowledge for conceptual design of integration solutions is difficult to pin down. In this paper, we investigate whether design knowledge for enterprise integration in the form of patterns can be reused to develop systems integration solutions, and whether such reuse leads to more effective design outcomes. The research follows design science guidelines in which we describe a research artifact, and evaluate it to assess whether it meets the intended goals. The results indicate that approaches to facilitate reuse of conceptual design knowledge are feasible in the domain of enterprise integration, and that such reuse does, in fact, lead to more effective design solutions.     

ON ANALOGY FOR SOFTWARE REUSE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM CYBERNETICS

Principles developed in cybernetics and systems theory can offer meaningful hindsight to research and development in computer science and may also provide some kind of guidance to the future study of computer science. In this paper we provide some comments on the role of analogy in software reuse from the perspective of cybernetics. Our purpose is to encourage a dialogue between researchers in software engineering and those in the study of cybernetics and systems. Three aspects of cybernetics are examined: the two-dimensional nature of cybernetics and systems theory, software reuse as a form of self-adaptation that originated from the abstract schema implied by analogy, and the nonrational cognitive process involved in using analogy for software reuse. We hope that cybernetics can provide meaningful insight related to analogy in software reuse; we also hope this kind of study will benefit cybernetics itself.     

CAD应用框架配置技术研究

为满足CAD软件研发中应用框架扩展、复用及调整的需求,论文提出了应用框架基于配置的动态设计方案,并给出了实现的模块划分及流程;同时研究并给出了CAD软件功能配置的层次结构及内容,基于此研究,相同的软件框架在不同的配置下可以开发成为不同的CAD应用或控件,而且不同的CAD软件通过配置合并可以实现框架的集成及功能复用。该技术已在实际的CAD软件开发中得到应用验证。     

Guidelines for Business Rule Modeling Decisions

Business process models are used heavily in practice as a basis for process improvement, systems development, and understanding business operations. While prior research has identified a clear need for integrating business rules into graphical business process models, there is little guidance on the circumstances under which business rules should be integrated into business process models. Unnecessary integration may hamper business rule reuse, increase business process model complexity, and lead to difficulties with business rule modification, to name a few. Accordingly, it is important to understand when such integration is appropriate. The aim of this article is to address this need for guidance on when business rules should be integrated in process models, and when they should remain separate. To this end, we explain 12 factors posited to influence such modeling decisions, conduct an empirical study to identify their importance, and develop empirically based modeling guidelines that inform business rule modeling decisions.     

Extending Science Gateway Frameworks to Support Big Data Applications in the Cloud

Cloud computing offers massive scalability and elasticity required by many scientific and commercial applications. Combining the computational and data handling capabilities of clouds with parallel processing also has the potential to tackle Big Data problems efficiently. Science gateway frameworks and workflow systems enable application developers to implement complex applications and make these available for end-users via simple graphical user interfaces. The integration of such frameworks with Big Data processing tools on the cloud opens new opportunities for application developers. This paper investigates how workflow systems and science gateways can be extended with Big Data processing capabilities. A generic approach based on infrastructure aware workflows is suggested and a proof of concept is implemented based on the WS-PGRADE/gUSE science gateway framework and its integration with the Hadoop parallel data processing solution based on the MapReduce paradigm in the cloud. The provided analysis demonstrates that the methods described to integrate Big Data processing with workflows and science gateways work well in different cloud infrastructures and application scenarios, and can be used to create massively parallel applications for scientific analysis of Big Data.     

Understanding the High-Performance-Computing Community: A Software Engineer's Perspective

Studies of computational scientists developing software for high-performance computing systems indicate that these scientists face unique software engineering issues. Previous failed attempts to transfer SE technologies to this domain haven't always taken these issues into account. To support scientific-software development, the SE community can disseminate appropriate practices and processes, develop educational materials specifically for computational scientists, and investigate the large-scale reuse of development frameworks.     

Tarsier and ICMS: two approaches to framework development

Modelling frameworks provide models with support components that handle tasks such as visualisation, data management and model integration. Within these broad requirements different approaches to framework development are possible. Tarsier is a modelling framework that supports the development of models in a high-level language, such as C++. This approach allows Tarsier model developers to craft object oriented solutions to large modelling problems. ICMS is a software system that supports the development of models in a custom modelling language that allows modellers with little programming experience to develop, integrate and visualise catchment models. Both frameworks provide sophisticated tools for model linking, data management, and data analysis and visualisation. By focusing on different user groups, Tarsier and ICMS have evolved into quite different environments, yet both satisfy the definition of a modelling framework. This paper concentrates on the components within each framework and the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches.