Promoting Software Reuse Using Self Organizing Maps

Reusability of software, regardless of its utilizing technique, is widely believed to be a promising means for improving software productivity and reliability. However it is not practiced adequately due to the lack of techniques that facilitate the locating of reusable components that are functionally close. In this paper we apply Kohonen's Self-Organizing Maps to develop an approach for promoting Software Reuse. We look at the details of how Self-Organization can arrange and regularize data from the original pattern space into a topology preserving map. We describe a practical implementation of the SOM methodology for Software Reuse using a database of UNIX commands. And finally we briefly present our proposed Software Reuse Methodology.     

Pricing decisions for three-echelon supply chain with advertising and quality effort-dependent fuzzy demand

Simultaneous influence of market power structure, advertising and quality efforts on the optimal pricing decisions and performance of a multi-echelon supply chain under uncertainty have received scant attention in the literature. We focus on this gap by examining a serial decentralised three-echelon supply chain consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer and a retailer. The uncertainty associated with customer demand, marginal production costs and effort costs is expressed as linguistic or fuzzy variables. We analyse centralised supply chain to obtain all benchmark parameters. We investigate four decentralised supply chain cases through fuzzy game theoretic approach. We compare among three Stackelberg games with various supply chain leaderships and a vertical Nash. Our key findings are as follows. First, the manufacturer puts least quality effort while retailer puts least advertising effort when they act as Stackelberg leader in a three-echelon supply chain. Second, supplier's per unit price is governed by the channel leadership in three-echelon supply chain while retail prices are less affected by the leadership. We investigate the impact of fuzzy degree of quality and advertising sensitivity on optimal profit distribution among agents. We present numerical analysis to illustrate the importance of the derived theoretical results and discuss additional managerial insights.     

Control of interface nanoscale structure created by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Tailoring the structure of films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to specific applications requires a depth-resolved understanding of how the interface structures in such films are impacted by variations in deposition parameters such as feed position and plasma power. Analysis of complementary X-ray and neutron reflectivity (XR, NR) data provide a rich picture of changes in structure with feed position and plasma power, with those changes resolved on the nanoscale. For plasma-polymerized octafluorocyclobutane (PP-OFCB) films, a region of distinct chemical composition and lower cross-link density is found at the substrate interface for the range of processing conditions studied and a surface layer of lower cross-link density also appears when plasma power exceeds 40 W. Varying the distance of the feed from the plasma impacts the degree of cross-linking in the film center, thickness of the surface layer, and thickness of the transition region at the substrate. Deposition at the highest power, 65 W, both enhances cross-linking and creates loose fragments with fluorine content higher than the average. The thickness of the low cross-link density region at the air interface plays an important role in determining the width of the interface built with a layer subsequently deposited atop the first.     

Ubiquitous computing: connecting Pervasive computing through Semantic Web

Ubiquitous computing refers to building a global computing environment where seamless and invisible access to computing resources is provided to the user. Pervasive computing deals with acquiring context knowledge from the environment and providing dynamic, proactive and context-aware services to the user. A Ubiquitous computing environment is created by sharing knowledge and information between Pervasive computing environments. In this paper we propose a framework that uses the potential of the Semantic Web to weave Pervasive computing environments into a Ubiquitous computing environment. We discuss how the collaboration of these Pervasive environments can create an effective Ubiquitous computing environment referred herein as the Integrated Global Pervasive Computing Framework (IGPF). We test the effectiveness of the Ubiquitous environment through a small scenario from a prototype system that we have implemented over this framework to handle medical emergency scenario.     

Simulation study of the effect of wall roughness on the dynamics of granular flows in rotating semicylindrical chutes

A discrete element model (DEM) is used to investigate the behavior of spherical particles flowing down a semicylindrical rotating chute. The DEM simulations are validated by comparing with particle tracking velocimetry results of spherical glass particles flowing through a smooth semicylindrical chute at different rotation rates of the chute. The DEM model predictions agree well with experimental results of surface velocity and particle bed height evolution. The validated DEM model is used to investigate the influence of chute roughness on the flow behavior of monodisperse granular particles in rotating chutes. To emulate different base roughnesses, a rough base is constructed out of a square close packing of fixed spherical particles with a diameter equal to, smaller, or larger than the flowing particles. Finally, the DEM model is used to study segregation in a binary density mixture for different degrees of roughness of the chute. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 2117–2135, 2015     

Ultrahigh temperature water gas shift catalysts to increase hydrogen yield from biomass gasification

Noble metal (Rh, Pt, Pd, Ir, Ru, and Ag) and Ni catalysts supported on CeO₂–Al₂O₃ were investigated for water gas shift reaction at ultrahigh temperatures. Pt/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ and Ru/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ demonstrated as the best catalysts in terms of activity, hydrogen yield and hydrogen selectivity. At 700 °C and steam to CO ratio of 5.2:1, Pt/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ converted 76.3% of CO with 94.7% of hydrogen selectivity. At the same conditions, the activity and hydrogen selectivity for Ru/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ were 63.9% and 85.6%, respectively. Both catalysts showed a good stability over 9 h of continuous operation. However, both catalysts showed slight deactivation during the test period. The study revealed that Pt/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ and Ru/CeO₂–Al₂O₃ were excellent ultrahigh temperature water gas shift catalysts, which can be coupled with biomass gasification in a downstream reactor.     

A Three-Phase AC-to-DC Power Transistor Converter-Controlled DC Motor Drive

A three-phase ac-to-dc power transistor converter that is suitable for speed control of a dc motor and for a variable dc power supply is investigated. The availability of power transistors of fairly high power rating has made the task of ac-to-dc conversion relatively easy due to simplification of the converter circuit configuration. The external performance characteristics of the power transistor converter-controlled separately excited dc motor are obtained by employing the equal pulsewidth modulation (EPWM) control technique with 18 pulses per half-cycle of the supply voltage and are verified experimentally. There is good agreement between experimental and theoretical results. The external performance is also evaluated under constant torque operation. The use of inductance-capacitance (LC) filters for reducing the effect of predominant supply harmonics is briefly discussed. Experimental oscillograms of some typical waveforms are illustrated to verify the basic principles of operation.     

Minimum-cost network hardening using attack graphs

In defending one’s network against cyber attack, certain vulnerabilities may seem acceptable risks when considered in isolation. But an intruder can often infiltrate a seemingly well-guarded network through a multi-step intrusion, in which each step prepares for the next. Attack graphs can reveal the threat by enumerating possible sequences of exploits that can be followed to compromise given critical resources. However, attack graphs do not directly provide a solution to remove the threat. Finding a solution by hand is error-prone and tedious, particularly for larger and less secure networks whose attack graphs are overly complicated. In this paper, we propose a solution to automate the task of hardening a network against multi-step intrusions. Unlike existing approaches whose solutions require removing exploits, our solution is comprised of initially satisfied conditions only. Our solution is thus more enforceable, because the initial conditions can be independently disabled, whereas exploits are usually consequences of other exploits and hence cannot be disabled without removing the causes. More specifically, we first represent given critical resources as a logic proposition of initial conditions. We then simplify the proposition to make hardening options explicit. Among the options we finally choose solutions with the minimum cost. The key improvements over the preliminary version of this paper include a formal framework of the minimum network hardening problem, and an improved one-pass algorithm in deriving the logic proposition while avoiding logic loops.