Effects of stability on model composition effort: an exploratory study

Model composition plays a central role in many software engineering activities, e.g., evolving design models to add new features. To support these activities, developers usually rely on model composition heuristics. The problem is that the models to-be-composed usually conflict with each other in several ways and such composition heuristics might be unable to properly deal with all emerging conflicts. Hence, the composed model may bear some syntactic and semantic inconsistencies that should be resolved. As a result, the production of the intended model is an error-prone and effort-consuming task. It is often the case that developers end up examining all parts of the output composed model instead of prioritizing the most critical ones, i.e., those that are likely to be inconsistent with the intended model. Unfortunately, little is known about indicators that help developers (1) to identify which model is more likely to exhibit inconsistencies, and (2) to understand which composed models require more effort to be invested. It is often claimed that software systems remaining stable over time tends to have a lower number of defects and require less effort to be fixed than unstable systems. However, little is known about the effects of software stability in the context of model evolution when supported by composition heuristics. This paper, therefore, presents an exploratory study analyzing stability as an indicator of inconsistency rate and resolution effort on model composition activities. Our findings are derived from 180 compositions performed to evolve design models of three software product lines. Our initial results, supported by statistical tests, also indicate which types of changes led to lower inconsistency rate and lower resolution effort.     

Cost- and energy-efficient backhaul options for heterogeneous mobile network deployments

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) have the potential to cater for the capacity requirements of mobile broadband services at reduced cost and energy consumption levels. One key aspect in HetNets is the role of the backhaul. More specifically, it is crucial for a mobile operator to understand the impact of specific technological and architectural upgrades in the mobile backhaul network on the capital and operational expenditure (i.e., CAPEX and OPEX). This paper proposes a comprehensive methodology that can be used to analyze the total cost of ownership of a number of backhaul options based on fiber, microwave, and copper technologies. The study considers both a Greenfield and a Brownfield scenario and takes into account the mobile broadband capacity requirements for the time period between years 2015 and 2025. From the results presented in the paper it can be concluded that even though microwave and fiber will be predominately used in the future, the possible migration paths leading to such fiber- and microwave-based backhaul scenarios might be different, depending upon factors such as spectrum and license costs, time to deployment, availability of equipment, and required quality of service levels.     

Evaluation of tissue-equivalent materials to be used as human brain tissue substitute in dosimetry for diagnostic radiology

Tissue-equivalent materials to be used as substitutes for human brain tissue in dosimetry for diagnostic radiology have been investigated in terms of calculated total mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ), calculated mass energy-absorption coefficient (μ_en/ρ) and absorbed dose. Measured linear attenuation coefficients (μ) have been used for benchmarking the calculated total mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ). The materials examined were bolus, nylon®, orange articulation wax, red articulation wax, PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate), bees wax, paraffin I, paraffin II, pitch and water. The results show that water is the best substitute for brain among the materials investigated. The average percentage differences between the calculated μ/ρ and μ_en/ρ coefficients for water and those for brain were 1.0% and 2.5%, respectively. Absorbed doses determined by Monte Carlo methods confirm water as being the best brain substitute to be used in dosimetry for diagnostic radiology, showing maximum difference of 0.01%. Additionally this study showed that PMMA, a material often used for the manufacturing of head phantoms for computed tomography, cannot be considered to be a suitable substitute for human brain tissue in dosimetry.     

A tank-to-wheel analysis tool for energy and emissions studies in road vehicles

Currently, oil based fuels are the primary energy source of road transport. The growing need for oil independence and CO(2) mitigation has lead to the increasing importance of alternative fuel usage. CO(2) is produced not only as the fuel is used in the vehicle (tank-to-wheel contribution), but also upstream, from the fuel extraction to the refueling station (well-to-tank contribution), and the life cycle of the fuel production (well-to-wheel contribution) must be considered in order to analyse the global impact of the fuel utilization. A road vehicle tank-to-wheel analysis tool that may be integrated with well-to-tank models was developed in the present study. The integration in a demonstration case study allowed to perform a life cycle assessment concerning the utilization of diesel and natural gas fuels in a specific network line of a bus transit company operating in the city of Porto, Portugal.     

Poly(propylene)/Carbon Nanofiber Nanocomposites: Ex Situ Solvent‐Assisted Preparation and Analysis of Electrical and Electronic Properties

CNF‐reinforced PP nanocomposites were fabricated from CNFs dispersed in a boiling PP/xylene solution. Their thermal properties were characterized by TGA and DSC and shown to exhibit improved thermal stability and higher crystallinity. They were further processed into thin films by compression molding. The electrical conductivity and dielectric property of the PP/CNF nanocomposite thin films were studied. Both electric conductivity and real permittivity increased with increasing fiber loading. Electrical conductivity percolation is observed between 3.0 and 5.0 wt.‐% fiber loading. The rheological behavior of the nanocomposite melts were also investigated. It was found that a small fiber concentration affects the modulus and viscosity of PP melt significantly.

     

The catalytic behavior of zinc oxide prepared from various precursors and by different methods

Samples of zinc oxide were obtained by thermal decomposition of zinc salts (acetate and nitrate) and by precipitation (chloride and nitrate). The samples were characterized by S_BET, X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD showed that ZnO crystals exhibited similar morphologies, while the crystal size and the particles morphology, availed by SEM, are dependent on the preparation method and the precursor salt utilized. The catalytic properties were evaluated to sec-butyl alcohol (SBA) reaction, using nitrogen, hydrogen and synthetic air as carrier gas. The catalytic properties of ZnO surface are strongly dependent on crystal size, atmosphere of reaction and zinc salts precursor. The activity to dehydrogenation of SBA in oxidant atmosphere is strongly sensitive to crystal size, while the selectivity to methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is slightly sensitive. The activity to dehydrogenation and dehydration of SBA increases with change of atmosphere reaction from oxidant to reducing. High reaction temperatures and reducing environment for ZnO sample with small crystal size decrease significantly the selectivity to MEK. The ZnO crystal size has an important role to establish the properties of partial reduction of ZnO and catalytic properties.     

Removal of hexavalent chromium from water by adsorption onto surfactant modified montmorillonite

The utilization of organoclays as adsorbents in the remediation of polluted water has been the subject of many recent research studies. In the present work, the adsorption of hexavalent chromium onto montmorillonite modified by the cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) was studied by aiming at water pollution remediation. The electrophoretic mobility measurements of the organo-montmorillonite showed a zeta potential reversion from negative to positive in the whole acidic pH range and up to pH 8.5. In some cases the adsorption of chromate ions onto the organo-montmorillonite was higher than 98% and was well described by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The utilization of montmorillonite modified by CPB showed to be an attractive solution to the remediation of water contaminated with chromate ions.