Increasing testing productivity and software quality: A comparison of software testing methodologies within NASA

Pressure to compress the development life cycle and reduce the duration and resources committed to testing lead to experimentation in testing at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centerís Software Engineering Laboratory. This study investigates the trend to reduce developer testing and increasingly rely upon inspection techniques and independent functional testing to shorten the development life cycle, improve testing productivity, and improve software quality.An approach is developed to conduct this comparison. In particular, the problem faced by software researchers, having a comprehensive characterization of software projects so similar types may be identified for comparative studies, is addressed using expert opinion.     

Stability of impulsive stochastic functional differential systems in terms of two measures via comparison approach

Comparison principles for general impulsive stochastic functional differential systems are established.Employing the comparison principles and the theory of differential inequalities,stability and instability,involving two measures,of impulsive stochastic functional differential systems are investigated.Several stability and instability criteria are obtained,and two examples are also given to illustrate our results.     

处理器验证激励在线筛选技术

如何生成高质量的验证激励是功能验证中的核心问题之一.随着功能验证的不断进行,验证激励的有效性也随之降低.为了提高验证激励的质量,提出一种在线筛选技术来处理验证激励.该技术采用单分类支持向量机来在线地构建分类器,以对新生成的验证激励是否冗余进行预测,如果是冗余的,则不进入仿真阶段进行仿真.在此基础上,进一步提出指令序列核函数来衡量不同指令序列的相似程度.实验结果表明,与约束随机生成技术相比,文中技术可以减少约83%的验证激励及79%的验证时间.     

基于逻辑器件的可编程增益放大器设计

本文介绍了可编程增益放大器设计的方法。它主要由控制电路、放大电路、显示电路三大模块组成。该系统性能好、成本低、工作可靠,具有一定的工程应用价值,经测试表明,该设计基本上达到了设计的要求。     

Robust pole assignment for incomplete nonlinear decoupling applied to robots

A robustness analysis and synthesis for incomplete nonlinear decoupling for a class of nonlinear systems is discussed. Rigid and elastic-joint robot models belong to this class. For the elastic case, a transformation facilitates the robustness analysis under a weak assumption. Charts with H ₁- and H - norms of closed-loop disturbance transfer functions of the nonlinear-decoupled system are presented for a robust pole assignment.     

Discretized LKF method for stability of coupled differential‐difference equations with multiple discrete and distributed delays

Time‐delay systems described by coupled differential‐functional equations include as special cases many types of time‐delay systems and coupled differential‐difference systems with time delays. This article discusses the discretized Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) method for the stability problem of coupled differential‐difference equations with multiple discrete and distributed delays. Through independently dividing every delay region that the plane regions consists in two delays to discretize LKF, the exponential stability conditions for coupled systems with multiple discrete and distributed delays are established based on a linear matrix inequality (LMI). The numerical examples show that the analysis limit of delay bound in which the systems are stable may be approached by our result. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Globally asymptotic stabilization for nonlinear time-delay systems with ISS inverse dynamics

The output feedback stabilization is considered for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems with inverse dynamics in this paper.An appropriate state observer is constructed for the unmeasurable system states in order to realize the control objective.By adopting the backstepping and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional methods,a systematic design procedure for a memoryless output feedback control law is presented.It is shown that the designed controller can make the closed-loop system globally asymptotically stable while keeping all signals bounded.An illustrative example is discussed to show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.     

Augmented Lyapunov functional approach for stability of neutral systems with mixed delays

This paper is concerned with the neutral‐delay‐dependent and discrete‐delay‐dependent stability for uncertain neutral systems with mixed delays and norm‐bounded uncertainties. Through constructing a new augmented Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional and proving its positive definiteness, introducing some slack matrices and using integral inequality, the improved delay‐dependent stability criteria are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the significant improvement on the conservatism of the delay bound over some existing results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Modal logic as metalogic

The goal of this paper is to show how modal logic may be conceived as recording the derived rules of a logical system in the system itself. This conception of modal logic was propounded by Dana Scott in the early seventies. Here, similar ideas are pursued in a context less classical than Scott's.First a family of propositional logical systems is considered, which is obtained by gradually adding structural rules to a variant of the nonassociative Lambek calculus. In this family one finds systems that correspond to the associative Lambek calculus, linear logic, relevant logics, BCK logic and intuitionistic logic. Above these basic systems, sequent systems parallel to the basic systems are constructed, which formalize various notions of derived rules for the basic systems. The deduction theorem is provable for the basic systems if, and only if, they are at least as strong as systems corresponding to linear logic, or BCK logic, depending on the language, and their deductive metalogic is not stronger than they are.However, though we do not always have the deduction theorem, we may always obtain a modal analogue of the deduction theorem for conservative modal extensions of the basic systems. Modal postulates which are necessary and sufficient for that are postulates of S4 plus modal postulates which mimic structural rules. For example, the modal postulates which Girard has recently considered in linear logic are necessary and sufficient for the modal analogue of the deduction theorem.All this may lead towards results about functional completeness in categories. When functional completeness, which is analogous to the deduction theorem, fails, we may perhaps envisage a modal analogue of functional completeness in a modal category, of which our original category is a full subcategory.     

Analysis of Sequence Divergence in Mammalian ABCGs Predicts a Structural Network of Residues That Underlies Functional Divergence

The five members of the mammalian G subfamily of ATP-binding cassette transporters differ greatly in their substrate specificity. Four members of the subfamily are important in lipid transport and the wide substrate specificity of one of the members, ABCG2, is of significance due to its role in multidrug resistance. To explore the origin of substrate selectivity in members 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 of this subfamily, we have analysed the differences in conservation between members in a multiple sequence alignment of ABCG sequences from mammals. Mapping sets of residues with similar patterns of conservation onto the resolved 3D structure of ABCG2 reveals possible explanations for differences in function, via a connected network of residues from the cytoplasmic to transmembrane domains. In ABCG2, this network of residues may confer extra conformational flexibility, enabling it to transport a wider array of substrates.