Uncertainty explicit assessment of off-the-shelf software: A Bayesian approach

Assessment of software COTS components is an essential part of component-based software development. Poorly chosen components may lead to solutions of low quality and that are difficult to maintain. The assessment may be based on incomplete knowledge about the COTS component itself and other aspects (e.g. vendor’s credentials, etc.), which may affect the decision of selecting COTS component(s). We argue in favor of assessment methods in which uncertainty is explicitly represented (‘uncertainty explicit’ methods) using probability distributions. We provide details of a Bayesian model, which can be used to capture the uncertainties in the simultaneous assessment of two attributes, thus, also capturing the dependencies that might exist between them. We also provide empirical data from the use of this method for the assessment of off-the-shelf database servers which illustrate the advantages of ‘uncertainty explicit’ methods over conventional methods of COTS component assessment which assume that at the end of the assessment the values of the attributes become known with certainty.     

Principles of Symmetry and Relative Errors of Instrumentation and Transducers

The author relies on the symmetry principle to propose variants of relative and reduced errors. Their characteristics and properties are discussed. Interrelations between various variants of errors are analyzed. A new quantitative definition of the instrument accuracy is given.     

Cryobank of plant genetic resources in Russian Academy of Sciences

Cryopreservation is the most reliable method for long-term storage of plant genetic resources. A review of cell injury by ice crystals and dehydration during a freeze–thaw cycle is given. For successful regeneration of plants and cultures after cryopreservation of their cells, the development of reliable cryopreservation procedure is required including preliminary cultivation, treatment by cryoprotectors, freezing by different methods, thawing and recultivation. Up to now 27 cell lines successfully resumed their growth after storage in liquid nitrogen and preserved their specific features and biosynthetic potential. Besides, shoot tips of 40 cultivars of potato, rose, strawberry and raspberry regenerated plants both in vitro and in vivo after cryopreservation. The longest storage duration was 25 years. Now in liquid nitrogen we continuously store 24 cell strains of rare medicinal plants, shoot tips of seven cultivars of strawberry and raspberry and seeds of 250 endangered plant species collected over all Russian territory.     

Stress formation in evaporated amorphous Ge-Se and Ge-Se-Ga(Tl, B) thin films

Thin amorphous chalcogenide films from the GeSe_x (x = 1-5), (GeSe₄)_100−yGa_y and (GeSe₅)_100−y Ga(Tl, B)_y (y = 5, 10, 15, 20) systems have been prepared by thermal evaporation and characterized with respect to their internal stress using a cantilever technique. The correlations between the stress, the composition and the structure of the films were investigated. The obtained results were related with some structural and mechanical parameters of the glasses like mean coordination number, number of constrains per atom, density, compactness, microhardness and Young's modulus. For all investigated chalcogenide films a stress relaxation with the time was observed as a result of spontaneous structural rearrangements.     

Analysis of the Possibility of Using Fuel Based on Reclaimed Uranium in VVÉR Reactors

A current problem is to show that reclaimed uranium can be, in principle, brought into the VVÉR fuel cycle. The possibility of using fuel based on reprocessed uranium in VVÉR is analyzed. The requirements for the initial isotopic composition of test batches of fuel pellets with 4% effective enrichment are determined, the compensation coefficient is calculated, the requirements for monitoring the isotopic composition are determined, and the technlogy for fabricating fuel pellets from relaimed fuel is determined. It is shown that the basic neutron-physical characteristics satisfy the restrictions adopted in the VVÉR-440 and -1000 designs. The effect of radiation on the public and the environment as a result of switching to fuel fabricated from reclaimed uranium is the same as for the standard oxide fuel.     

Tritium-Probe Method in a Study of Adsorption Layers of Lysozyme on the Surface of Detonation Nanodiamonds

Radiochemistry - Tritium-labeled lysozyme was used to determine its adsorption on the surface of nanodiamonds produced by detonation synthesis. It was found that the amount of the adsorbed protein...