Test Case Generation as an AI Planning Problem

While Artificial Intelligence techniques have been applied to a variety of software engineering applications, the area of automated software testing remains largely unexplored. Yet, test cases for certain types of systems (e.g., those with command language interfaces and transaction based systems) are similar to plans. We have exploited this similarity by constructing an automated test case generator with an AI planning system at its core. We compared the functionality and output of two systems, one based on Software Engineering techniques and the other on planning, for a real application: the StorageTek robot tape library command language. From this, we showed that AI planning is a viable technique for test case generation and that the two approaches are complementary in their capabilities.     

Layout design of manufacturable quantum-dot cellular automata

Quantum-dot cellular automaton (QCA) is an emergent technology that is not hindered by quantum effects that limit the scaling of CMOS technology, but instead employs them to perform computation. However, this brings its own impediments, such as the influence of the thermodynamic effects. Beside that, QCA has to be coupled with CMOS circuitry of different size features to enable clocking. We discussed all these facts and devised a floorplan which would facilitate manufacturability. Based on it we developed the process of QCA layout design and defined the design rules that must be considered in order to ensure correct operation. These instructions enable the automatization of designing a QCA circuit layout.     

Distributed biological computation: from oscillators,logic gates and switches to a multicellular processor and neural computing applications

Neural Computing and Applications - Ever since its foundational years, synthetic biology has been focused on the implementation of biological computing structures. In the beginning, engineered...     

Comprehensive Performance Analysis of ZigBee Technology Based on Real Measurements

Although the ZigBee technology is massively deployed the performance question still remains unanswered. There is a lack of serious performance evaluations and thus this paper provides a comprehensive and unbiased study of the ZigBee PRO technology. An extensive real measurement was conducted to accomplish this task. We found out a big performance gap among ZigBee implementations even though they are compliant with the ZigBee standard. The presented results and analysis could be beneficial for many wireless sensor network developers.     

Icy affairs: Understanding recent advancements in the freezing and frozen storage of fish

Freezing methods have evolved over the last 30 years. This review states the effect of various freezing methods on the quality of fish and seafood. Freezing temperatures, freezing, and frozen storage temperatures were also analyzed and reviewed. The changes in the ice crystal, protein, and lipid affect the fish quality and nutritional value during freezing and frozen storage. Freezing methods when combined with various additives or preprocessing approaches help improve the efficacy of freezing and frozen storage. Several experimental or emerging methods also have positive effects on the products' quality. According to the metadata reanalysis of quality markers, freshly frozen fish using different freezing methods may vary much in terms of ice diameter, but not others. High pressure freezing or immersion freezing-derived fish retains the best quality through frozen storage. More data are required on freezing methods (electrical-assisted freezing, microwave-assisted freezing, magnetic-assisted freezing, radiofrequency-assisted freezing, and the commercial's application and investment should be considered in the future. This review sheds light on finding a balanced initial shear force during freezing and the use of certain additives to control freezing-related damages. Focusing on ice diameter alone may be futile (e.g., liquid N₂ freezing). Future optimization of technologies should be in a way that several processes along the farm to fork such as freezing, frozen storage, thawing, thermal processing of fish, and even refabrication of food should mutually complement each other's needs to deliver safe and high-quality fish to the consumer's plate, even after a prolonged shelf-life.     

Comparison between lipid and protein oxidation progress in the tail and claw muscles of signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus)

Microbial activity and then oxidation progress are the most important freshness indicators during post-mortem. In this study, we monitored proteomic and microbial changes, as well as biochemical degradation, in the tail and claw muscles of crayfish stored for 12 days at +4 °C. One specified protein band at 107 kDa in the claw muscle and two specified protein bands in the tail muscle at 140 and 36–40 kDa were identified. Western blotting indicated a higher amount of oxidised proteins in the tail compared to the claw muscle. Tail muscle showed higher oxidation progress and calpain activity than claw one. Both muscles were spoiled after 12 days with respect to total viable counts. In the first days, calpain activity is the main reason for protein degradation, while protein oxidation dominates for the rest of the time. Lipid–protein oxidation progress showed probably, protein oxidation started earlier than lipid oxidation in both muscles.     

Acid dissolution of mineral matrix in Green River oil shale.: 2. Effect of ultrasonic field

An ultrasonic field was found to enhance the rate of mineral dissolution from Green River oil shale matrix when treated with dilute HCl. This effect was most pronounced forcoarse particles and minimal for finely pulverized shale. Data comparing the behaviour in an ultrasonic field with control specimens are presented in terms of gas evolution profiles, ion concentrations and gravimetric analyses.     

Adiabatic pipelining: a key to ternary computing with quantum dots

The quantum-dot cellular automaton (QCA), a processing platform based on interacting quantum dots, was introduced by Lent in the mid-1990s. What followed was an exhilarating period with the development of the line, the functionally complete set of logic functions, as well as more complex processing structures, however all in the realm of binary logic. Regardless of these achievements, it has to be acknowledged that the use of binary logic is in computing systems mainly the end result of the technological limitations, which the designers had to cope with in the early days of their design. The first advancement of QCAs to multi-valued (ternary) processing was performed by Lebar Bajec et al, with the argument that processing platforms of the future should not disregard the clear advantages of multi-valued logic. Some of the elementary ternary QCAs, necessary for the construction of more complex processing entities, however, lead to a remarkable increase in size when compared to their binary counterparts. This somewhat negates the advantages gained by entering the ternary computing domain. As it turned out, even the binary QCA had its initial hiccups, which have been solved by the introduction of adiabatic switching and the application of adiabatic pipeline approaches. We present here a study that introduces adiabatic switching into the ternary QCA and employs the adiabatic pipeline approach to successfully solve the issues of elementary ternary QCAs. What is more, the ternary QCAs presented here are sizewise comparable to binary QCAs. This in our view might serve towards their faster adoption.     

Comprehensive Performance Analysis of Lightweight Mesh and Its Comparison with ZigBee Pro Technology

As there is a rising demand on energy efficiency the proper network stack is an essential for every wireless sensor network application. This paper gives a comprehensive view on performance comparison of \(\hbox {Atmel}^{\circledR }\) Lightweight Mesh (LWM) and ZigBee Pro technology based on extensive real measurements. We focused mainly on application layer throughput, routing latency and self-healing capability. Although the LWM clearly outperforms ZigBee Pro in most aspects, the LWM has particular drawbacks. Particularly, the LWM provides smaller footprint and faster stack processing along with higher application throughput. The most notable throughput difference where the LWM outperforms the BitCloud was by as much as thirteen times.