Using enterprise architecture analysis and interview data to estimate service response time

Insights into service response time is important for service-oriented architectures and service management. However, directly measuring the service response time is not always feasible or can be very costly. This paper extends an analytical modeling method which uses enterprise architecture modeling to support the analysis. The extensions consist of (i) a formalization using the Hybrid Probabilistic Relational Model formalism, (ii) an implementation in an analysis tool for enterprise architecture and (iii) a data collection approach using expert assessments collected via interviews and questionnaires. The accuracy and cost effectiveness of the method was tested empirically by comparing it with direct performance measurements of five services of a geographical information system at a Swedish utility company. The tests indicate that the proposed method can be a viable option for rapid service response time estimates when a moderate accuracy within 15% is sufficient.     

Annual vegetation burns across the northern savanna region of Ghana: period of occurrence, area burns, nutrient losses and emissions

This study has assessed the seasonal occurrence of annual vegetation fires and defined inter-seasonally burned area for the different vegetation cover types across Ghana and the northern region of Ghana using 10-year (2001?C2010) remote sensing data. These values were used with fire induced elemental losses to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and net plant nutrient loss due to gross bush fire nutrient transfers and annual atmospheric nutrient depositions. About 21, 68, 10 and 1?% of annual burns across the northern region of Ghana take place in the months of November, December, January and February respectively. As much as 68?±?4 thousand km² (25?C32?%) and 37?±?2.6 thousand km² (46?C60?%) of dry land are annually burned across Ghana and the northern region of Ghana respectively, with 53?C56?% of the total annual burns across the country taking place in the northern region. About 10,100?C28,400 Gg of C, comprising 215?C4,700 thousand Gg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂, CH₄) potential global warming green house gases and 48?C324 thousand Gg of local pollutants (CO, NO_x) are estimated to be released annually through bush fire occurrence across Ghana. Net negative balance for P between fire-induced nutrient transfers and, annual wet and dry nutrient deposits is of concern given the high P-sorbing mineral content of the soils. The temporal loss of P suggest an input source than wet and dry atmospheric P depositions for the sustenance of the ecosystem or predict a long term threat to regional food production.     

Where does model-driven engineering help? Experiences from three industrial cases

There have been few experience reports from industry on how Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is applied and what the benefits are. This paper summarizes the experiences of three large industrial participants in a European research project with the objective of developing techniques and tools for applying MDE on the development of large and complex software systems. The participants had varying degrees of previous experience with MDE. They found MDE to be particularly useful for providing abstractions of complex systems at multiple levels or from different viewpoints, for the development of domain-specific models that facilitate communication with non-technical experts, for the purposes of simulation and testing, and for the consumption of models for analysis, such as performance-related decision support and system design improvements. From the industrial perspective, a methodology is considered to be useful and cost-efficient if it is possible to reuse solutions in multiple projects or products. However, developing reusable solutions required extra effort and sometimes had a negative impact on the performance of tools. While the companies identified several benefits of MDE, merging different tools with one another in a seamless development environment required several transformations, which increased the required implementation effort and complexity. Additionally, user-friendliness of tools and the provision of features for managing models of complex systems were identified as crucial for a wider industrial adoption of MDE.     

Self Assembly–Assisted Additive Manufacturing: Direct Ink Write 3D Printing of Epoxy–Amine Thermosets

The use of self‐assembling, pre‐polymer materials in 3D printing is rare, due to difficulties of facilitating printing with low molecular weight species and preserving their reactivity and/or functions on the macroscale. Akin to 3D printing of small molecules, examples of extrusion‐based printing of pre‐polymer thermosets are uncommon, arising from their limited rheological tuneability and slow reactions kinetics. The direct ink write (DIW) 3D printing of a two‐part resin, Epon 828 and Jeffamine D230, using a self‐assembly approach is reported. Through the addition of self‐assembling, ureidopyrimidinone‐modified Jeffamine D230 and nanoclay filler, suitable viscoelastic properties are obtained, enabling 3D printing of the epoxy–amine pre‐polymer resin. A significant increase in viscosity is observed, with an infinite shear rate viscosity of approximately two orders of magnitude higher than control resins, in addition to, an increase in yield strength and thixotropic behavior. Printing of simple geometries is demonstrated with parts showing excellent interlayer adhesion, unachievable using control resins.     

Design of an Ultrafast G Protein Switch Based on a Mouse Melanopsin Variant

The primary goal of optogenetics is the light-controlled noninvasive and specific manipulation of various cellular processes. Herein, we present a hybrid strategy for targeted protein engineering combining computational techniques with electrophysiological and UV/visible spectroscopic experiments. We validated our concept for channelrhodopsin-2 and applied it to modify the less-well-studied vertebrate opsin melanopsin. Melanopsin is a promising optogenetic tool that functions as a selective molecular light switch for G protein-coupled receptor pathways. Thus, we constructed a model of the melanopsin G_q protein complex and predicted an absorption maximum shift of the Y211F variant. This variant displays a narrow blue-shifted action spectrum and twofold faster deactivation kinetics compared to wild-type melanopsin on G protein-coupled inward rectifying K⁺ (GIRK) channels in HEK293 cells. Furthermore, we verified the in vivo activity and optogenetic potential for the variant in mice. Thus, we propose that our developed concept will be generally applicable to designing optogenetic tools.     

Online social networks: A survey of a global phenomenon

Online social networks became a global phenomenon with enormous social as well as economic impact within a few years. Alone, the most popular online social network, Facebook, counts currently more than 850 million users worldwide. Consequently, online social networks attract a great deal of attention among practitioners as well as researchers. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of online social networks in order to contribute to a better understanding of this worldwide phenomenon. In this context, we address for example the following questions: What are the major functionalities and characteristics of online social networks? What are the users’ motives for using them and how did online social networks emerge and develop over time? What is the impact and value of online social networks from a business perspective and what are corresponding challenges and risks?     

metaSMT: focus on your application and not on solver integration

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Many applications from artificial intelligence and formal methods use decision procedures as their core solving engines. In this...     

Visualisierung der Partikelbewegung in einem Abweiseradsichter

In spite of its great importance for the dry classification of fine powders, the processes in deflector wheel classifiers are to a large extent unknown. Therefore, in the present work a commercial available classifier was modified to gain an optical access to the deflector wheel. For the first time, the obtained photographs enable an observation of the gas flow and the particle motion between the blades of the deflector wheel. Especially the importance of particle‐particle‐ and particle‐blade‐collisions could be shown.