Undergraduate software engineering education: the mark of a discipline

Undergraduate software engineering education is now well established in many countries, and many of these degree programs have received formal accreditation by the relevant country's professional body for computing. SE 2004 represents an enormous effort by numerous individuals across the discipline. Its quality has been clearly recognized by the sponsoring organizations. The developmental team confidently looks forward to the volume's use and to your participation in future evaluations and in the next phase of development. The volume provides usable results for those in emerging economies who wish to enter the software engineering community, and we know that individual project members and the participating national bodies are ready to assist.     

Measurement of target coordinates in three-dimensional bistatic forward-scattering radar

The maximum-likelihood technique is applied to determine the coordinates of moving targets in a three-dimensional bistatic forward-scattering radar. The potential accuracy of the coordinates’ determination is estimated. Simulation results are presented.     

An efficient electron-beam-pumped semiconductor laser for the green spectral range based on II–VI multilayer nanostructures

Emission characteristics of an electron-beam-pumped Cd(Zn)Se/ZnMgSSe semiconductor laser are studied. The laser’s active region consists of a set of ten equidistant ZnSe quantum wells containing fractional-monolayer CdSe quantum-dot inserts and a waveguide formed by a short-period superlattice with the net thickness of ～0.65 μm. Lasing occurs at room temperature at a wavelength of 542 nm. Pulsed power as high as 12 W per cavity face and an unprecedentedly high efficiency of ～8.5% are attained for the electron-beam energy of 23 keV.     

An Experimental Investigation into the Feed Rate Capacity of Rotary Valve and Blow Tank Feeders

Industry widely uses rotary valves and blow tanks for the pneumatic conveying of products, each having their pros and cons depending on the specific application. This article shows the differing results obtained when low-velocity conveying a product through a common pipeline using both a drop-through rotary valve and a bottom-discharge blow tank feeder. A number of issues arise in the rotary valve system, the main one being rotary valve air leakage. A blow tank system, on the other hand, does not leak, as it is an enclosed system. The experimental results show dramatic differences in product throughput. Further exploration leads to a novel modification being made to the rotary valve system in an attempt to increase its capacity. The result of this modification shows a slight increase in output tonnage, but still significantly less than that obtained from the blow tank.     

Sampling and the discretization theorem

An algorithm was obtained for restoration of a continuous process from a finite number of its equispaced discrete samples. The necessary and sufficient sampling conditions were formulated.     

Learning with belief levels

We study learning of predicate logics formulas from “elementary facts,” i.e. from the values of the predicates in the given model. Several models of learning are considered, but most of our attention is paid to learning with belief levels. We propose an axiom system which describes what we consider to be a human scientist's natural behavior when trying to explore these elementary facts. It is proved that no such system can be complete. However we believe that our axiom system is “practically” complete. Theorems presented in the paper in some sense confirm our hypothesis.     

On the SEP of Cooperative Diversity with Opportunistic Relaying

We analyze the exact symbol error probability (SEP) of cooperative diversity with opportunistic amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying. The benefit of this opportunism to the SEP is assessed by comparing with maximal ratio combining of orthogonal multiple AF relay transmissions.     

2007’s Wearable Computing Advances

This year, the 11th International Symposium on Wearable Computers returned to the city where it began: Boston, Massachusetts. ISWC is the premier conference in wearable computing, reporting the latest advances in research and technology. As in previous years, attendees came both from academia and industry, representing a broad spectrum of nationalities and technical interests. The year 2008's program emphasized gesture and activity recognition but also reported on power considerations, augmented reality, evaluation, and new interaction modalities, among other topics.     

Modelling and simulation of KNbO3 ceramics dispersion

The dispersion of potassium niobate (KNbO₃) ceramics is analysed using the multiple-arc approach. This has revealed a high frequency arc that is unattainable by the Cole-Cole single arc analysis. The temperature dependence of the new arc is derived through the spread parameter of the relaxation distribution and interpreted in terms of the ferroelectric property of the KNbO₃ ceramics. It is shown that the overall dispersion behaviour of the ceramics is mainly due to the existence of two distinctly different polarisation mechanisms. The arc approach has also provided an effective tool for network simulation of dispersion whereby the ceramics are modelled by nine parallel R-C branches over the frequency range 10²-10⁵ Hz used