Data collection in global software engineering research: learning from past experience

Global Software Engineering has become a standard in today’s software industry. Research in distributed software development poses severe challenges that are due to the spatial and temporal distribution of the actors, as well as to language, intercultural and organizational aspects. These challenges occur in addition to “traditional” challenges of the domain itself in large-scale software projects, like coordination and communication issues, requirements volatily, lack of domain knowledge, among others. While several authors have reported empirical studies of global software development projects, the methodological difficulties and challenges of this type of studies have not been sufficiently discussed. In this paper, we share our experiences of collecting and analysing qualitative data in the context of Global Software Engineering projects. We discuss strategies for gaining access to field sites, building trust and documenting distributed and complex work practices in the context of several research projects we have conducted in the past 9 years. The experiences described in this paper illustrate the need to deal with fundamental problems, such as understanding local languages and different cultures, observing synchronous interaction, or dealing with barriers imposed by political conflicts between the sites. Based on our findings, we discuss some practical implications and strategies that can be used by other researchers and provide some recommendations for future research in methodological aspects of Global Software Engineering.     

7-(Dialkylamino)coumarin-4-yl]methyl-Caged Compounds as Ultrafast and Effective Long-Wavelength Phototriggers of 8-Bromo-Substituted Cyclic Nucleotides

[7-(Dimethylamino)coumarin-4-yl]methyl (DMACM) and [7-(diethylamino)coumarin-4-yl]methyl (DEACM) esters of 8-bromoadenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (8-Br-cAMP) and 8-bromoguanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (8-Br-cGMP) are described as novel caged compounds for 8-bromo-substituted cyclic nucleotides. Synthesis is accomplished by treatment of the free acids of the cyclic nucleotides with the corresponding 7(dialkylamino)-substituted 4(diazomethyl)coumarins. Irradiation of the DMACM- and DEACM-caged cyclic nucleotides with UV light stimulates the release of the cyclic nucleotides within roughly a nanosecond. The new caged compounds are resistant to hydrolysis in aqueous buffers and exhibit long-wavelength absorption properties with maxima at 400 nm, high extinction coefficients, and high quantum yields (0.15-0.31). Their favorable properties render these compounds the most efficient and rapid phototriggers of 8-bromo-substituted cyclic nucleotides known. The usefulness of the compounds for physiological studies under nondamaging light conditions was examined in HEK293 cells expressing the alpha subunit of the cyclic-nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel of cone photoreceptors (CNGA3) and of olfactory neurons (CNGA2) by using confocal laser scanning microscopy and the patch clamp technique.     

Compatibilisation of PPE/SAN blends by triblock terpolymers: Correlation between block terpolymer composition, morphology and properties

Immiscible blends of poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) (PPE) and poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN) with a weight composition of 60/40 were compatibilised by polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) triblock terpolymers (SBM) using a two-stage melt-processing approach. In order to investigate the influence of the SBM composition on the compatibilisation efficiency, the block lengths of the triblock terpolymers were systematically varied. The resulting morphological features of the blend systems as function of SBM composition and processing parameters are correlated with the resulting thermal and thermo-mechanical properties. In the ideal case, SBM should be located at the interface as PS is miscible with PPE while PMMA is miscible with SAN. The elastomeric middle block as an immiscible component should remain at the interface. This particular morphological arrangement is known as the ‘raspberry morphology’. A detailed TEM analysis of the blend morphologies following initial extrusion-compounding revealed a high compatibilisation efficiency of the SBM types with equal lengths of the end blocks and, furthermore, the desired raspberry morphology was achieved. In contrast, high PS contents in comparison to the other blocks led to a pronounced micelle formation in the PPE phase. Further evaluation of the blend structures following injection-moulding indicated that the morphologies remain relatively stable during this second melt-processing step. A detailed thermal analysis of all blend systems supports the interpretation of the observed morphological features. The fundamental correlation between SBM composition and blend morphology established in this study opens the door for the controlled development of interfacial properties of such compatibilised PPE/SAN blends during melt-processing.     

Liquid flow and phase holdup—measurement and CFD modeling for two-and three-phase bubble columns

Bubble columns are an important class of contacting devices in chemical industry and biotechnology. Their simple setup makes them ideal reactors for two- and three-phase operations such as fermentations or heterogeneous catalysis. Still, design and operation of these reactors is subject to widely empirical scale-up strategies. With recent advances in the development of measurement techniques, a more detailed approach to the development of optimized reactors for specific operations should become possible. This report is based on detailed measurements of local dispersed phase holdups in a pilot plant-sized bubble column operated at high superficial gas velocities and solid holdups. It deals with the influence of superficial gas velocity, solid loading and sparger geometry on measured and computed liquid flow velocities and holdup distributions. Liquid velocity measurements have been performed using the electrodiffusion method, modeling calculations have been carried out using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code CFX-4.3. Measurement results presented here give an insight into the development of liquid circulation and fluctuating velocity distribution depending on superficial gas velocity, solid loading and sparger geometry. CFD results implementing a multi-fluid model with k-ε turbulence and special momentum exchange terms for direct gas-solid interactions show that, even on standard PC workstations, this kind of computations can deliver qualitatively reasonable agreement with measurements.     

Man vs machine: examining the three themes of service robotics in tourism and hospitality

Electronic Markets - There is a growing need in the tourism and hospitality literature to harmonise service robots and artificial intelligence’s (AI) meaning and foundations, while also...     

Extended bisection method for parameter identification of the transient heat conduction equation for thermo-elastic deformations during drilling

A new interdisciplinary approach is discribed to identifying unknown parameters using an extended version of the known interval bisection method. This developed method is based on the use of finite elements for calibrating the simulation calculation. The resulting thermo-elastic deformations which occur in drilling processes with impaired cooling lubrication are to be used as correction values for tool positioning in the NC control. Based on the strong impact on workpiece temperature of machining, a simulation approach is presented for calculating the temperature fields and their thermo-elastic consequences. In addition, methods are presented to correct these effects. This paper particularly deals with the temperature fields of drilling operations. Special attention is paid to the technique employed for iterative numerical determination of the unknown heat flux η _w and heat transfer coefficient \(\bar {\gamma }\) values. Finally, the data obtained from experiments are compared with those achieved by numerical simulation in order to verify the efficiency of simulation and determination of parameters.     

State of the Art Treatment of Non-Ferrous Castings 3-in-1 Heat Treatment Systems Combine Foundry Processes

The interior of a high-pressure die-casting is of an unsatisfactory quality. Engine blocks made with this die casting process show lower specific engine performance. Pressure die-casting can hardly be heat treated for obvious reasons PSM (Precision Sand Molds) process uses sand and organic binder to generate a mold and even allows the manufacturing of complex diesel engine blocks in aluminum alloys. Combined technologies are available for semi-permanent mold castings with cores and castings made in Precision Sand Molds with organic binders. Castings are placed into the special heat treatment furnace immediately after pouting without the operations in stand alone machinery. This patented Sand Lion^R 3-in-1 technology processes hot castings and carries out three (3) foundry processes simultaneously in one (1) automated machine: 1) De-coring and sand removal; 2) Thermal sand reclamation; 3) Solution heat treatment of castings. The combination of several main casting processes is reflected in significant reductions of energy consumption, of production costs, and improving the quality of the castings. Audits in foundries using the 3-in-1 process showed an average reduction in production costs of more than 30%.     

Determinants for Successful Agile Collaboration between UX Designers and Software Developers in a Complex Organisation

ABSTRACT

Agile and User-centered design processes have been reported to frequently putting contradictory demands on people working within these methodological frameworks. The current research addresses this point by focussing on the crucial relationship between software developer and designer. An online survey, a contextual inquiry, and a diary study were employed with 107 developers and designers in a large media organization to determine the factors for success in agile development cycles. The results from the survey show that while developers and designers have similar levels of satisfaction with agile processes, there are differences in the factors predicting those ratings. Developers are happier with the wider teamwork but want more access to and close collaboration with designers, while the latters’ concern was the quality of the wider teamwork. Additional contextual inquiries and a diary study with pairs of designers and developers reflected the survey findings that close cooperation (and proximity) was essential for improving communication, reducing inefficiencies, and avoiding suboptimal products being released. However, organizational processes, the setup of the work environment, and managerial traditions meant that this close collaboration and localized decision-making was found difficult to maintain. Results from the survey, the contextual inquiry, and the diary study found six factors for success from collaborations emerged.     

Tracking in object action space

In this paper we focus on the joint problem of tracking humans and recognizing human action in scenarios such as a kitchen scenario or a scenario where a robot cooperates with a human, e.g., for a manufacturing task. In these scenarios, the human directly interacts with objects physically by using/manipulating them or by, e.g., pointing at them such as in “Give me that…”. To recognize these types of human actions is difficult because (a) they ought to be recognized independent of scene parameters such as viewing direction and (b) the actions are parametric, where the parameters are either object-dependent or as, e.g., in the case of a pointing direction convey important information. One common way to achieve recognition is by using 3D human body tracking followed by action recognition based on the captured tracking data. For the kind of scenarios considered here we would like to argue that 3D body tracking and action recognition should be seen as an intertwined problem that is primed by the objects on which the actions are applied. In this paper, we are looking at human body tracking and action recognition from a object-driven perspective. Instead of the space of human body poses we consider the space of the object affordances, i.e., the space of possible actions that are applied on a given object. This way, 3D body tracking reduces to action tracking in the object (and context) primed parameter space of the object affordances. This reduces the high-dimensional joint-space to a low-dimensional action space. In our approach, we use parametric hidden Markov models to represent parametric movements; particle filtering is used to track in the space of action parameters. We demonstrate its effectiveness on synthetic and on real image sequences using human-upper body single arm actions that involve objects.