Towards the Integration of Versioning Systems, Bug Reports and Source Code Meta-Models

Versioning system repositories and bug tracking systems are valuable sources of information to study the evolution of large open source software systems. However, being conceived for specific purposes, i.e., to support the development or trigger maintenance activities, they do neither allow an easy information browsing nor support the study of software evolution. For example, queries such as locating and browsing the faultiest methods are not provided.This paper addresses such issues and proposes an approach and a framework to consistently merge information extracted from source code, versioning repositories and bug reports. Our information representation exploits the property concepts of the FAMIX information exchange meta-model, allowing to represent, browse, and query, at different level of abstractions, the concept of interest. This allows the user to navigate back and forth from versioning system modification reports to bug reports and to source code. This paper presents the analysis framework and approaches to populate it, tools developed and under development for it, as well as lessons learned while analyzing several releases of Mozilla.     

Identification of cherry tomatoes growth origin by means of magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spectroscopy is a promising non‐invasive and non‐destructive analytical technique in food science, since it offers the opportunity of studying vegetables and fruits in their wholeness without any manipulation. The aim of this preliminary study was to demonstrate the possibility of assessing unambiguously the place of origin of fresh cherry tomatoes by means of MRI experiments. The innovative approach has been successfully used to distinguish PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) cherry tomatoes from non‐PGI ones, as well as cv. Naomi from cv. Shiren samples. The method determines informative physical and morphological parameters, transverse relaxation times and thicknesses, respectively, which can be combined into four empirical equations; two of them are used to determine the cultivated variety and the other two to assess the place of origin. This approach has successfully recognize the cultivated variety of c. 90% of the analyzed samples and the geographical origin of c. 80% of the investigated cherry tomatoes. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Development of a BIM-based holonic system for real-time monitoring of building operational efficiency

In the wide context of facility management, several processes, such as operations, maintenance, retrofitting, and renovations, ensure that buildings comply with the principles of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and indoor comfort. Apart from ordinary operation, facility management is responsible for the renovation of and long-term performance improvement of building facilities. In such a scenario, the cyber–physical system (CPS) paradigm with holonic architecture, which is the focus of this study, can successfully guide the operation management and long-term refurbishment processes of buildings. Analogous to the manufacturing field, the developed CPS maximizes holons’ self-configuration and self-organization and overall throughput effectiveness metrics to detect the best corrective actions toward system improvements. Consequently, suggestions and lessons learned from the evaluation of building efficiency are redirected to the building information model. Hence, the digital model acts as a repository of currently available equipment for operations management and the history of diagnoses that support decision-making during the maintenance, retrofitting, and renovation processes. Evidently, the repeated detection of a specific issue, which is unaffected by operations management, should be considered an opportunity to act and enhance the performances of existing building components. Similar to a goods-producing industry, the building management system developed in this study applies the aforementioned methodology to provide services related to indoor comfort and building health. This approach indicates that a method for automatic real-time diagnosis is tested in a case study consisting of a multi-use and large public building. The current paper, which is an extended version of the one presented in the Creative Construction Conference 2018, deepens the decision support tool and the supervision policy. Moreover, the developed system is contextualized by providing an example of use case and highlighting the step forward in the field of smart buildings.     

Self organisation and photoinduced charge transfer in single-wall carbon nanotubes embedded in a thermotropic liquid crystal polymer

A hybrid material composed by a thermotropic liquid crystal (LCP) polymer (HBA–PET) and single wall carbon nanotubes has been produced in order to study the interaction at the interface matrix/filler for possible applications in electronics and optics. The nanocomposites are characterized by a mosaic-like morphology, with regions of randomly placed LC fibers intercalated with regions formed by aligned polymer fibers, that trigger in turn the alignment of carbon nanotube bundles by means of P stacking interaction. Moreover an effective electronic interaction between the nanocomposite components is demonstrated by combining use of photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. The photoinduced charge transfer between SWCNT and polymer could be explain on the basis of the injection of holes (generated in the polymer by light absorption), into the SWCNT valence band and followed by a radiationless decay of the excited polymer’s electron.     

Data Fusion for Food Authentication: Fresh/Frozen–Thawed Discrimination in West African Goatfish (Pseudupeneus prayensis) Fillets

The substitution of fresh fish with frozen–thawed fish is a typical fraud that not only damages consumers from an economical point of view, but also causes safety issues. Furthermore, fish authentication is important for correct product labeling, as promoted by recent regulatory actions. In this paper, we present the results of the authentication of fresh west African goatfish (Pseudupeneus prayensis) fillets using different analytical technologies, namely a portable visible/near-infrared spectrometer, a compact digital camera, and a texture analyzer. First, the classification performance of the abovementioned analytical technologies is evaluated and compared. Then, it is shown how the fusion of different technologies can be effectively used to improve the classification accuracy. Particularly, spectra and color features extracted from digital images returned a classification accuracy of 100 and 98.5 %, respectively, when considered separately. However, the classification accuracy fell to 80 % when considering measurements taken with a 24-h delay. Data fusion, instead, allowed a classification accuracy of 100 % also after 24 h. Hence, the combination of a spectrometer and a digital camera is very promising for cost-effective on-line/at-line applications, as both sensors are rapid, non-invasive, and do not require sample preparation. Furthermore, since more than 200 samples were collected over a prolonged period of time (1 year), the classification models encompassed some sources of variability (seasonality effects and size) that are not usually accounted for in similar studies.     

Short time step analysis of vertical ground-coupled heat exchangers: The approach of CaRM

In this paper an improvement of the model CaRM (CApacity Resistance Model) is presented to consider the borehole thermal capacitance, both of the filling material of the borehole and of the heat carrier fluid inside the ground heat exchanger. Several models, numerical and analytical, are available in literature for short time step analyses of ground-coupled heat pump systems. According to the modelling for the surrounding ground, the new approach for the inside of the borehole is based on electrical analogy. In this study the double U-tube ground heat exchanger is analyzed. The new model has been validated by means of a commercial software based on the finite elements method as well as measurements of ground response test, using a suitable plant system. In this last comparison, the contribution of the thermal capacitance of the circulating fluid is investigated, since it is frequently neglected in short time step simulations. In both cases, there is agreement between the CaRM results and data from numerical simulations and measurements as well.     

An industrial application of a performance assessment and retuning technique for PI controllers

In this paper we show how a simple methodology for the set-point following performance assessment and automatic tuning of a PI controller can be employed effectively in a real industrial application. In particular, a flow control loop in a pharmaceutical plant is considered. Practical issues related to the implementation in a Distributed Control System are discussed. Results show that the technique is capable of significantly improving the performance of the controller.     

And Yet it Moves! Microfluidics Without Channels and Troughs

A simple, versatile, rapid, and inexpensive procedure based on the immersion method is developed to fabricate chemical gradients on chemically activated Si/SiO₂ surfaces by a trichloro (1H,1H,2H,2H‐perfluorooctyl) silane self‐assembly monolayer (SAM). Contact angle measurements, atomic force microscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy data based on the intensity of the signals of C1s and F1s, which progressively increase, indicate that the surface is characterized by the presence of increasing amounts of the SAM along the gradient direction. Experimental conditions are optimized by maximizing the variation of the contact angle of water drops at the starting and the ending points of the gradient. The application of the chemical gradient to droplet motion is demonstrated. The results are rationalized by dissipative particle dynamics simulations that well match the observed contact angles and the velocities of the drops. The simulations also show that the intrinsic nature of the gradient affects the velocity of the motion.