Green Measurements for Software Product Based on Sustainability Dimensions

Software is a central component in the modern world and vastly affects the environment’s sustainability. The demand for energy and resource requirements is rising when producing hardware and software units. Literature study reveals that many studies focused on green hardware; however, limited efforts were made in the greenness of software products. Green software products are necessary to solve the issues and problems related to the long-term use of software, especially from a sustainability perspective. Without a proper mechanism for measuring the greenness of a particular software product executed in a specific environment, the mentioned benefits will not be attained. Currently, there are not enough works to address this problem, and the green status of software products is uncertain and unsure. This paper aims to identify the green measurements based on sustainable dimensions in a software product. The second objective is to reveal the relationships between the elements and measurements through empirical study. The study is conducted in two phases. The first phase is the theoretical phase, where the main components, measurements and practices that influence the sustainability of a software product are identified. The second phase is the empirical study that involved 103 respondents in Malaysia investigating current practices of green software in the industrial environment and further identifying the main sustainability dimensions and measurements and their impact on achieving green software products. This study has revealed seven green measurements of software product: Productivity, Usability, Cost Reduction, Employee Support, Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency and Tool Support. The relationships are statistically significant, with a significance level of less than 0.01 (p = 0.000). Thus, the hypothesised relationships were all accepted. The contributions of this study revolve around the research perspectives of the measurements to attain a green software product.     

Computational modelling of water flow inside laboratory Knelson concentrator bowl

Enhanced gravity concentrators such as Knelson concentrator (KC) are extensively used in the mineral processing industry. The complexities of KC bowl geometry and variation of feed characteristics have forced process engineers to design empirically new units using laboratory and pilot-scale Knelson concentrators. However, numerical modelling methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) provide a better insight of flow behaviour of fluid and particulate solid phases inside these processing units. This article reports findings of CFD simulations for single-phase water flow inside the laboratory KC. An available standard 7.5-cm laboratory KC bowl was numerically simulated using realisable k-ε turbulence model to resolve the turbulence dispersion of existing transitional flow regime. The effects of relative centrifugal force (RCF) intensity and bed fluidisation water flow rate on the water velocity and pressure distributions were studied. Simulations confirmed the swirling flow pattern governing inside the bowl. The results revealed that the impact of RCF intensity on the water field values is greater than that of bed fluidisation water flow rate. Both velocity and pressure variations inside the bowl rings followed a linear trend.     

Precipitating spinel into precursor glass and its assistance in crystallization

The crystallization phenomena of spinel in CaO-MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-Fe₂O₃ glass have received much attention due to the particular role in preparation of glass-ceramic materials, which represent an effective option to manage hazardous waste. In this study, both preliminary spinel and secondary spinel were precipitated in the precursor glass. The formation of these spinel was meticulously assessed by a combination of X-ray diffractometry and scanning electron microscopy. The structure of the microenvironment in the precursor glass was characterized by Raman spectrums. These advanced techniques highlight the potential for one-step crystallization of the glass. The investigation, which focused on one-step crystallization, demonstrated the growth of pyroxene on spinel accompanying a migration of chromium. The results also show the microstructure of the obtained glass-ceramic was very dependent on the heat-treat temperature. This study not only unambiguously reveals the precipitation mechanisms of spinel but also provides more documentation for one-step crystallization in the glass-ceramics field.     

Strength and dilatancy behaviors of deep sands in Shanghai with a focus on grain size and shape effect

With rapid development of infrastructures like tunnels and open excavations in Shanghai, investigations on deeper soils have become critically important. Most of the existing laboratory works were focused on the clayey strata up to Layer 6 in Shanghai, i.e. at depth of up to 40 m. In this paper, Layers 7, 9, and 11, which were mostly formed of sandy soils at depth of up to 150 m, were experimentally investigated with respect to physico-mechanical behaviors. The stress–strain behaviors were analyzed by the consolidated drained/undrained (CD/CU) triaxial tests under monotonic loading. One-dimensional (1D) oedometer tests were performed to investigate the consolidation properties of the sandy soils. Specimens were prepared at three different relative densities for each layer. Also, the micro-images and particle size analyzers were used to analyze the shape and size of the sand grains. The influences of grain size, density, and angularity on the stress–strain behaviors and compressibility were also studied. Compared to the other layers, Layer 11 had the smallest mean grain size (D₅₀), highest compressibility, and lowest shear strength. In contrast, Layer 9 had the largest mean grain size, lowest compressibility, and highest shear strength. Layer 7 was of intermediate mean grain size, exhibiting more compressibility and less shear strength than that of Layer 9. Also, the critical state parameters and maximum dilatancy rate of different layers were discussed.     

Tuning effect of silicon substitution on magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R2Fe17 and their composites

In this work, we report the tuning effect of the Si substitution on the magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R₂Fe₁₇ compounds and their paraffin composites. It is found that the introduction of Si can remarkably improve the magnetic and electromagnetic properties of the R₂Fe₁₇ compounds, making the R₂Fe_17–xSi_x-paraffin composites excellent microwave absorption materials (MAMs). By introducing the Si element, their saturation magnetizations decrease slightly, while much higher Curie temperatures are obtained. Furthermore, better impedance match is reached due to the decrease of the high-frequency permittivity ε′ by about 40%–50%, which finally enhances the performance of the microwave absorption. The peak frequency (f_RL) of the reflection loss (RL) curve moves toward high frequency domain and the qualified bandwidth (QB, RL ≤ ?10 dB) increases remarkably. The maximum QB of 3.3 GHz (12.0–15.3 GHz) is obtained for the Sm_1.5Y_0.5Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 1.0 mm) and the maximum RL of ?53.6 dB is achieved for Nd₂Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 2.2 mm), both surpassing most of the reported MAMs. Additionally, a distinguished dielectric microwave absorption peak is observed, which further increases the QB in these composites.     

Real-time organic aerosol chemical speciation in the indoor environment using extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Understanding the sources and composition of organic aerosol (OA) in indoor environments requires rapid measurements, since many emissions and processes have short timescales. However, real-time molecular-level OA measurements have not been reported indoors. Here, we present quantitative measurements, at a time resolution of five seconds, of molecular ions corresponding to diverse aerosol-phase species, by applying extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI-MS) to indoor air analysis for the first time, as part of the highly instrumented HOMEChem field study. We demonstrate how the complex spectra of EESI-MS are screened in order to extract chemical information and investigate the possibility of interference from gas-phase semivolatile species. During experiments that simulated the Thanksgiving US holiday meal preparation, EESI-MS quantified multiple species, including fatty acids, carbohydrates, siloxanes, and phthalates. Intercomparisons with Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer suggest that EESI-MS quantified a large fraction of OA. Comparisons with FIGAERO-CIMS shows similar signal levels and good correlation, with a range of 100 for the relative sensitivities. Comparisons with SV-TAG for phthalates and with SV-TAG and AMS for total siloxanes also show strong correlation. EESI-MS observations can be used with gas-phase measurements to identify co-emitted gas- and aerosol-phase species, and this is demonstrated using complementary gas-phase PTR-MS observations.     

A Lattice Approach to Image Segmentation

After a formal definition of segmentation as the largest partition of the space according to a criterion σ and a function f, the notion of a morphological connection is reminded. It is used as an input to a central theorem of the paper (Theorem 8), that identifies segmentation with the connections that are based on connective criteria. Just as connections, the segmentations can then be regrouped by suprema and infima. The generality of the theorem makes it valid for functions from any space to any other one. Two propositions make precise the AND and OR combinations of connective criteria. The soundness of the approach is demonstrated by listing a series of segmentation techniques. One considers first the cases when the segmentation under study does not involve initial seeds. Various modes of regularity are discussed, which all derive from Lipschitz functions. A second category of examples involves the presence of seeds around which the partition of the space is organized. An overall proposition shows that these examples are a matter for the central theorem. Watershed and jump connection based segmentations illustrate this type of situation. The third and last category of examples deals with cases when the segmentation occurs in an indirect space, such as an histogram, and is then projected back on the actual space under study. The relationships between filtering and segmentation are then investigated. A theoretical chapter introduces and studies the two notions of a pulse opening and of a connected operator. The conditions under which a family of pulse openings can yield a connected filter are clarified. The ability of segmentations to generate pyramids, or hierarchies, is analyzed. A distinction is made between weak hierarchies where the partitions increase when going up in the pyramid, and the strong hierarchies where the various levels are structured as semi-groups, and particularly as granulometric semi-groups. The last section is based on one example, and goes back over the controversy about “lattice” versus “functional” optimization. The problem is now tackled via a case of colour segmentation, where the saturation serves as a cursor between luminance and hue. The emphasis is put on the difficulty of grouping the various necessary optimizations into a single one.     

Classification of the Uncertainty of Measurements

A discussion is given of questions arising when classifying uncertainties from the point of view of the structure of the measurement process.     

用增量的累积量方法测量大气风场

为了在非平稳、非线性条件下能得到真实风场的良好估计,提出了一种用空间分布天线（SA）雷达信号的增量累积量测量大气风场参数的方法。该方法基于结构函数方法,利用高阶累计量在信息处理中的特性,用零延迟的增量累计量求解平均水平风速等具体参量，并在大气散射模型基础上对增量累积量方法进行了数值模拟,得出了同理论分析一致的结果.分析和计算表明,该方法完全适用于局地平稳条件，可以减小风场参量估计对天线间距的敏感度；阶数k≥3时,对高斯噪声有很强抑制;同时可以得到风场参量的高阶估计，这是普通的二阶方法（如全相关分析、全谱分析）不具备的。