Performance analysis of security aspects by weaving scenarios extracted from UML models

Aspect-oriented modeling (AOM) allows software designers to describe features that address pervasive concerns separately as aspects, and to systematically incorporate the features into a design model using model composition techniques. The goal of this paper is to analyze the performance effects of different security features that may be represented as aspect models. This is part of a larger research effort to integrate methodologies and tools for the analysis of security and performance properties early in the software development process. In this paper, we describe an extension to the AOM approach that provides support for performance analysis. We use the performance analysis techniques developed previously in the PUMA project, which take as input UML models annotated with the standard UML Profile for Schedulability, Performance and Time (SPT), and transform them first into Core Scenario Model (CSM), and then into different performance models. The composition of the aspects with the primary (base) model is performed at the CSM level. A new formal definition of CSM properties and operations is described as a foundation for scenario-based weaving. The proposed approach is illustrated with an example that utilizes two standards, TPC-W and SSL.     

Using Developer Activity Data to Enhance Awareness during Collaborative Software Development

Software development is a global activity unconstrained by the bounds of time and space. A major effect of this increasing scale and distribution is that the shared understanding that developers previously acquired by formal and informal face-to-face meetings is difficult to obtain. This paper proposes a shared awareness model that uses information gathered automatically from developer IDE interactions to make explicit orderings of tasks, artefacts and developers that are relevant to particular work contexts in collaborative, and potentially distributed, software development projects. The research findings suggest that such a model can be used to: identify entities (developers, tasks, artefacts) most associated with a particular work context in a software development project; identify relevance relationships amongst tasks, developers and artefacts e.g. which developers and artefacts are currently most relevant to a task or which developers have contributed to a task over time; and, can be used to identify potential bottlenecks in a project through a ‘social graph’ view. Furthermore, this awareness information is captured and provided as developers work in different locations and at different times.     

The BIOPHILE Sample Process Management System - Automated Sample Access at Ultra Low Temperatures

The genomics, proteomics, clinical, and drug discovery laboratories have a growing need to maintain valuable samples at ultra-low (−80°C) temperatures in a validated, secure environment. Automated sample processing systems have until now required manual (off-line) storage of samples at −80°C, reducing system reliability and speed. Both of these important needs are addressed by the Sample Process Management System being introduced by BIOPHILE Inc. Conventional sample management processes, such as storage, retrieval, and cataloging, are increasingly strained by the growing sample populations. There are variable sample types, access requirements and storage requirements. Security and inventory procedures are implemented manually. The evolving technologies present in the laboratory cannot interface with conventional manual storage techniques. Addressing these limitations, the primary benefits of BIOPHILE's solutions are:

• Fully validated sample management process that coordinates the life-cycles of samples and their related data.

• Robotic technology to securely store and retrieve samples, improving their accessibility and stability. Thermal shock is reduced, improving sample longevity and quality. The robotic technology allows integration with larger automation systems.

• A process program to develop a Sample Management Strategy. This strategy is developed by analyzing long-term research goals, current baseline processes, and identification of current sample life cycles. A full validation documentation package can be generated, providing a high level of quality assurance.

• Improved sample visibility and quality assurance - automated sample population cataloging; controlled sample management access and security.

     

1994 construction outlook: Dodge/Sweet's finds bright spots for 1994

Constrained by the excesses of the previous decade and tepid performance in the general economy, the rebound by construction from its 1990-91 downturn could best be described as subdued and selective. Single-family housing led the way before faltering this year, and only scattered help has come from the industry's other sectors. The big question facing construction at the end of 1993 is whether the current recovery is in danger of stalling or, put differently, does it have the stamina to become more broad-based?     

The it Imperative in Business Transformation

The IT imperative is to construct enterprisewide systems and capabilities needed by business to compete. For IS managers, this means embracing the viewpoint that IT plays a crucial role in building the business of the future. IS and business management must act as true partners, each supporting the other in creating an optimally performing company.     

Fluorescence methods for determination of temperature in fuel sprays

Fluorescent additives which allow the determination of droplet temperatures in hydrocarbon fuel sprays have been developed. These systems, which exploit the chemistry of organic exciplexes; should make possible the determination of droplet temperatures within 1 degree C. Two specific systems are described: 3,10-dicyanophenanthrene/diethylaniline over the 20-135 degrees C range, and naphthalene/tetramethyl-p-phenylene diamine over the 140-265 degrees C range. These additives should allow 2-D real-time nonintrusive visualization of the droplet temperatures in an evolving fuel spray.     

Application of ion-etching of grooves into quartz for surface acoustic wave devices

The application of r.f.-sputter etching techniques to the fabrication of grooves in the surface of quartz is reported. This process has been used for the construction of devices which employ the interaction of surface acoustic waves with arrays of well-defined parallel grooves. Devices have been produced with grooves up to 2.5 m deep, which have substantially rectangular profiles and controllable mark-to-space ratios. The groove geometries have been characterized using Talysurf, optical microscopy, SEM and TEM techniques.     

Role of midwives

Dr. Alfano (New England Journal of Medicine 296: 1126, 1977) is certainly entitled to his personal opinions, but when they appear in a major publication in a setting that calls for factual information, they cannot go unchallenged. Midwives have played and continue to play a major part in maternal-infant services in many advanced European countries. Combined midwife-physician services in Sweden, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland produced infant mortality rates in 1972 superior to those reported by Dr. Alfano for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1974. Even in 1967 Sweden and the Netherlands (where most infants are delivered by midwives) had infant mortality rates, respectively, of 12.9 and 13.4/100 live births. These numbers, of course, do not mean that midwives are superior to doctors, but they do not seem to prove them inferior when they are employed in an appropriate setting. In Oregon (where certified nurse-midwives have been employed for some years) the professional midwife is found mainly in the "expensive" practices, so that if there is a "3rd-level of care," it is delivered to the well-to-do rather than the indigent. It is a little early to tell, but the impression around here is that although the quality of the birth experience may be changed by addition of midwives to an upper-middle-class practice, the outcome in terms of numbers of live babies is no different. This finding may not apply when 1 is dealing with the economically disadvantaged. A striking study from California demonstrated a definite improvement in fetal outcome when certified midwives were added to an established program and a tendency for the infant mortality rate to rise again when their services were discontinued for lack of funds. A similar program is under way in Oregon, but it is much too early for results to be apparent. This letter is not written in defense of midwives - it is a plea for balance and rationality. Medicine is no place for a territorial imperative. Only by calling on the expertise of all qualified members of a society can one hope to progress and to improve the human condition.     

Producing persistent, high-current, high-duty-factor H- beams for routine 1 MW operation of Spallation Neutron Source (invited)

Since 2009, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) has been producing neutrons with ion beam powers near 1 MW, which requires the extraction of ～50 mA H(-) ions from the ion source with a ～5% duty factor. The 50 mA are achieved after an initial dose of ～3 mg of Cs and heating the Cs collar to ～170 °C. The 50 mA normally persist for the entire 4-week source service cycles. Fundamental processes are reviewed to elucidate the persistence of the SNS H(-) beams without a steady feed of Cs and why the Cs collar temperature may have to be kept near 170 °C.     

Calculations of diffusion and diffusion-limited processes in Ni3Al using accelerated molecular dynamics

We present a systematic microscopic approach to diffusion and diffusion-limited processes in Ni₃Al. These processes have been identified as controlling the deformation of the material under specific circumstances. The embedded atom method calculations are done using kinetic Monte Carlo combined with the Dimer method of finding saddlepoints. We compute the tracer diffusivities as functions of composition and temperature. The comparison with available experiments is good. We find that at temperatures below about 1000 K, the diffusivity is a sharp function of composition, showing a pronounced dip on the Ni-rich side at 76 at.% Ni. This agrees well with experiment, except that the experiments show this structure setting in a temperatures below about 1300 K. We show that the structure arises from the composition dependence of both the vacancy formation energy and pre-exponential of the diffusivity. We also compute the mobility of an anti-phase boundary perpendicular to its plane, and conclude that vacancy-assistance is very plausible. We conclude that the kMC + Dimer method works well for these problems above 700 K but less effectively below, owing to the presence of short-range, low-energy hops that tend to localize the vacancy and lower the efficiency of the calculation.