An Error-Localization, Validation and Optimization Tool for Embedded Code Augmentation: an Architecture Oriented Approach

Embedded systems are usually designed for a single or a specified set of tasks. This specificity means the system design as well as its hardware/software development can be highly optimized. Embedded software must meet the requirements such as high reliability operation on resource-constrained platforms, real time constraints and rapid development. This necessitates the adoption of static machine codes analysis tools running on a host machine for the validation and optimization of embedded system codes, which can help meet all of these goals. This could significantly augment the software quality and is still a challenging field.Embedded systems are usually designed for a single or a specified set of tasks. This specificity means the system design as well as its hardware/software development can be highly optimized. Embedded software must meet the requirements such as high reliability operation on resource-constrained platforms, real time constraints and rapid development. This necessitates the adoption of static machine codes analysis tools running on a host machine for the validation and optimization of embedded system codes, which can help meet all of these goals. This could significantly augment the software quality and is still a challenging field.Embedded systems are usually designed for a single or a specified set of tasks. This specificity means the system design as well as its hardware/software development can be highly optimized. Embedded software must meet the requirements such as high reliability operation on resource-constrained platforms, real time constraints and rapid development. This necessitates the adoption of static machine codes analysis tools running on a host machine for the validation and optimization of embedded system codes, which can help meet all of these goals. This could significantly augment the software quality and is still a challenging field.Embedded systems are usually designed for a single or a specified set of tasks. This specificity means the system design as well as its hardware/software development can be highly optimized. Embedded software must meet the requirements such as high reliability operation on resource-constrained platforms, real time constraints and rapid development. This necessitates the adoption of static machine codes analysis tools running on a host machine for the validation and optimization of embedded system codes, which can help meet all of these goals. This could significantly augment the software quality and is still a challenging field.This dissertation contributes to an architecture oriented code validation, error localization and optimization technique assisting the embedded system designer in software debugging, to make it more effective at early detection of software bugs that are otherwise hard to detect, using the static analysis of machine codes. The focus of this work is to develop methods that automatically localize faults as well as optimize the code and thus improve the debugging process as well as quality of the code.Validation is done with the help of rules of inferences formulated for the target processor. The rules govern the occurrence of illegitimate/out of place instructions and code sequences for executing the computational and integrated peripheral functions. The stipulated rules are encoded in propositional logic formulae and their compliance is tested individually in all possible execution paths of the application programs. An incorrect sequence of machine code pattern is identified using slicing techniques on the control flow graph generated from the machine code.An algorithm to assist the compiler to eliminate the redundant bank switching codes and decide on optimum data allocation to banked memory resulting in minimum number of bank switching codes in embedded system software is proposed. A relation matrix and a state transition diagram formed for the active memory bank state transition corresponding to each bank selection instruction is used for the detection of redundant codes. Instances of code redundancy based on the stipulated rules for the target processor are identified.This validation and optimization tool can be integrated to the system development environment. It is a novel approach independent of compiler/assembler, applicable to a wide range of processors once appropriate rules are formulated. Program states are identified mainly with machine code pattern, which drastically reduces the state space creation contributing to an improved state-of-the-art model checking. Though the technique described is general, the implementation is architecture oriented, and hence the feasibility study is conducted on PIC16F87X microcontrollers. The proposed tool will be very useful in steering novices towards correct use of difficult microcontroller features in developing embedded systems.

Queues with Customer Induced Interruption

In this thesis we have introduced and studied the notion of self interruption of service by customers. Service interruption in queueing systems have been extensively discussed in literature (see, Krishnamoorthy, Pramod and Chakravarthy [38]) for the most recent survey. So far all work reported deal with cases in which service interruptions are generated by sources other than customers. However, there are situations where interruptions are due to the customers rather than the system. Such situations are especially arise at doctors clinic, banks, reservation counter etc. Our attempt is to quantify a few of such problems. Systematically we have proceed from single server queue (in Chapter 2) to multi-server queues (Chapter 3). In Chapte 4, we have studied a very general multiserver queueing model with service interruption and protection of service phases. We also introduced customer interruption in a retrial setup (in Chapter 5). All models (from Chapter 2 to Chapter 4) that were analyzed involve 'non-preemptive priority' for interrupted customers where as in the model discussed in Chapter 5 interruption of service by customers is not encouraged. So the interrupted customers cannot access the server as long as there are primary customers in the system. In Chapter 5 we have obtained an explicit expression for the stability condition of the system. In all models analyzed in this thesis, we have assumed that no more than one interruption is allowed for a customer while in service. Since the models are not analytically tractable, a large number of numerical illustrations were given in each chapter it illustrate the working of the systems. We can extend the models discussed in this thesis to several directions. For example some of the models can be analyzed with both server induced and customer induced interruptions the results for which are not available till date. Another possible extension of work is to the case where there is no bound on the number of interruptions a customer is permitted to have before service completion. More complex is the case where a customer is permitted to have a nite number (K ≥ 2) of We can extend the models discussed in this thesis to several directions.

Management of Traffic Control — A Computer Oriented Approach

Traffic Management system (TMS) comprises four major sub systems: The Network Database Management system for information to the passengers, Transit Facility Management System for service, planning, and scheduling vehicle and crews, Congestion Management System for traffic forecasting and planning, Safety Management System concerned with safety aspects of passengers and Environment. This work has opened a rather wide frame work of model structures for application on traffic. The facets of these theories are so wide that it seems impossible to present all necessary models in this work. However it could be deduced from the study that the best Traffic Management System is that whichis realistic in all aspects is easy to understand is easy to apply As it is practically difficult to device an ideal fool—proof model, the attempt here has been to make some progress-in that direction.

Customer perceptions of Banking Products and Services in Kerala with reference to Specific Customer Segments in the Urban Area

As of 1999. the state of Kerala has 3210 offices of scheduled commercial banks (SCBS). In all, there are 48 commercial banks operating in Kerala, which includes PSBs, OPBs, NPBS. FBs, and Gramin Banks. The urban areas give a complete picture of the competition in the present day banking scenario with the presence of all bank groups. Semi-urban areas of Kerala have 2196 and urban areas have 593 as on March 1995.“ The study focuses on the selected segments ofthe urban customers in Kerala which is capable of giving the finer aspects of variation in customer behaviour in the purchase of banking products and services. Considering the exhaustive nature of such an exercise, all the districts in the state have not been brought under the purview of the study. Instead. three districts with largest volume of business in terms of deposits, advances, and number of offices have been short listed as representative regions for a focused study. The study focuses on the retail customer segment and their perceptions on the various products or services offered to them. Non Resident Indians (NRIs), and Traders and Small—ScaIe Industries segments have also been included in the study with a view to obtain a comparative picture with respect to perception on customer satisfaction and service quality dimensions and bank choice behaviour. The research is hence confined to customer behaviour and the implications for possible strategies for segmentation within the retail segment customers

Structural And Surface Morphological Investigation Of Formation Stages Of Highly (002) Oriented Zno Films On Glass Substrates By Spray Pyrolysis Method

ZnO thin films were coated on amorphous glass substrate at various temperatures in the range 160-500 0C by spray pyrolysis method. The as deposited films were characterised by using XRD and SEM. Wurtzite phase of ZnO was formed at a substrate temperature of 400 0C, highly oriented (002) phase was developed with respect to increase of substrate temperature from 450 to 500 0C. Morphological and growth mode of these films were analyzed with respect to structural orientation of films from wurtzite to highly (002) oriented phase. Present study reveals that substrate temperature was one of the important parameters which determine the crystalline quality, population of defects, grain size, orientation and morphology of the films

Impact of Product Quality, Service Quality and Contextual Experience on Customer Perceived Value and Future Buying Intentions

Recognizing that high satisfaction leads to high customer loyalty, companies today are aiming for total customer satisfaction. This article explains relative impact of product quality, service quality and contextual experience on customer perceived value and intention to shop in the future. The data has been collected using a questionnaire from 205 customers of a national retailer chain. The relative importance of product quality, service quality and contextual experience on customer perceived value and thus on customer preference and future intentions was measured using multiple regression. Also, the contribution of perceived value to preference and thus on future buying intention was also measured. Structural Equation Model (SEM) using Amos 4 was used to find the overall fitness of the model. It was found that product quality, service quality and contextual experience have a major influence on customer perceived value

Cumulative Approach to Customer Satisfaction with Respect to Compact Segment Car Users

Earlier studies on measurement of customer satisfaction are based on either transaction specific or overall approaches. The transaction specific approach evaluates customer satisfaction with single components in the whole purchase process but the overall satisfaction was based on all the encounters or experiences to the customer throughout the purchase process. Consumers will comment on particular events of their purchase process when asked about transaction-specific satisfaction and they will comment their overall impression and general experiences in overall satisfaction (Bitner & Hubbert 1994) Through a critical review on the literature, it has been identified a new approaches to customer satisfaction, say, cumulative approaches that can be more useful than overall and transaction specific approaches for strategic decision making (Fornell et al 1996). The cumulative approach to customer satisfaction doesn’t study earlier due to the difficulty in operationalization of the concept. But the influencers of customer satisfaction are context specific and the prevailing models doesn’t give the sources of variations in the satisfaction, the importance of cumulative approaches to customer satisfaction has emerges that lights to a new research. The current study has focused to explore the influencers of overall customer satisfaction to form individual elements that can be used to identify the cumulative customer satisfaction.

Das Kontextmarketing im mobilen Customer Relationship Management

Zusammenfassung Mobile Telekommunikationstechnologien verändern den Alltag, ihre Benutzer und die Geschäftswelt. Im Zuge der Mobilität haben die Nutzer von mobilen Übertragungstechnologien ein hohes Kommunikationsbedürfnis in jeglicher Situation entwickelt: Sie wollen überall und jederzeit kommunizieren und informiert sein. Dies ist auch darauf zurückzuführen, dass ein Wandel der Individualisierung – von der Person zur Situation – stattgefunden hat. Im Rahmen der Untersuchung gehen wir auf diese entscheidenden Veränderung ein und analysieren die Potenziale des Kontextmarketing im mobilen Customer Relationship Management anhand der Erringung von Wettbewerbsvorteilen durch Situationsfaktoren. Daneben zeigen wir mögliche Geschäftsmodelle und Wertschöpfungsketten auf. Abgerundet wird die Arbeit durch die Darstellung möglicher personenbezogener, technischer und rechtlicher Restriktionen.

Goal-oriented recovery bei nichtlinearen Scheibenproblemen

Es werden die Grundlagen und wichtigsten Konzepte für zielorientierte Fehlerschätzer bei linearen und nichtlinearen Problemen vorgestellt. Mit ihrer Hilfe lassen sich Aussagen über die Güte einzelner lokaler Werte treffen und es ist möglich, das Netz innerhalb von adaptiven Verfahren derart zu optimieren, dass die betrachtete lokale Größe möglichst genau berechnet werden kann.

Analysis of applications and of conceptions for an application-oriented mathematics instruction

In connection with the (revived) demand for considering applications in the teaching of mathematics, various schemata or lists of criteria have been developed since the end of the sixties, which set up requirements about closeness to the real world or about the type of mathematics being used, and which have made it possible to analyze the available applications in their light. After having stated the problem (in section 1), we present (in section 2) a sketch of some of the best known of these and of some earlier schemata, although we are not aiming for a complete picture. Then (in section 3) we distinguish among different dimensions.in the analysis of applications. With this as a basis, we develop (in section 4) our own suggestion for categorizing types of applications and conceptions for an application-oriented mathematics instruction. Then (in section 5) we illustrate our schemata by some examples of performed evaluations. Finally (in section 6), we present some preliminary first results of the analysis of teaching conceptions.

Customer Recovery Controlling

Die langfristige Sicherung bestehender (profitabler) Kundenbeziehungen erweist sich für Unternehmen zunehmend als eine wichtige und zugleich immer schwieriger zu bewältigende Herausforderung. Vor dem Hintergrund hoher Kosten für die Neukundengewinnung und sinkender Kundenloyalität auf gesättigten, wettbewerbsintensiven und transparenten Märkten – verbunden mit tendenziell steigenden Abwanderungsraten – rücken die Früherkennung und Prävention von Kundenabwanderungen sowie die Kundenrückgewinnung verstärkt in den Fokus. Der Aufwand für derartige Anstrengungen muss in einem sinnvollen Verhältnis zum Ertrag stehen. Letztlich wird also für den Komplex „Kundenabwanderung“ ein ergebnisgesteuertes Gesamtsystem der Früherkennung, Prävention und Rückgewinnung benötigt. An dieser Stelle setzt das Customer Recovery Controlling an. Auf Basis des kontributionsorientierten Controllingansatzes wird ein ganzheitliches Controllingsystem für das Customer Recovery Management entwickelt. Dabei werden die führungsunterstützenden Controllingprinzipien der Entscheidungsfundierung, -reflexion und Koordinationsentlastung einschließlich zentraler Controllinginstrumente in den Gesamtzusammenhang des Customer Recovery Managementprozesses gestellt. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass mit einem professionellen Customer Recovery Controlling große Nutzenpotenziale verbunden sind, die sich auf der Customer Recovery Managementebene (z.B. verbesserte Entscheidungsqualität, höhere Präventions- bzw. Rückgewinnungsraten) wie auch auf der Ebene der Gesamtunternehmung (z.B. Sicherung bzw. Erhöhung des Kundenstammwertes) auswirken. Die Erfolgsmodellierung zählt zu den wesentlichen Aufgaben des Controlling. Diesbezüglich bedarf es eines mehrdimensionalen Controllinginstruments, das neben Ergebnisindikatoren auch Leistungstreiber berücksichtigt: die Customer Recovery Scorecard. Ihre Perspektiven – Finanz-, Kunden-, Prozess-, Potenzial- und Wettbewerbsperspektive – sichern eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung der strategisch relevanten Erfolgsfaktoren und darüber hinaus gewährleisten die Kennzahlen eine systematische Planung, Steuerung und Kontrolle des Customer Recovery Management Erfolgs. Für die Erfolgsgrößen werden kausale Abhängigkeiten in Form von Ursache-Wirkungs-Beziehungen innerhalb und zwischen den Perspektiven erfasst (Strategy Maps), wodurch gewissermaßen eine Modellierung der Wertschöpfungskette im Customer Recovery Management erfolgt. Unsere durchgeführte Studie zum Status Quo des Customer Recovery Controlling in der deutschen (groß-)unternehmerischen Dienstleistungspraxis hat gezeigt, dass der präventive Umgang mit Kundenabwanderung zukünftig an Bedeutung gewinnen wird. Obwohl die Mehrheit der befragten Unternehmen über ein organisatorisch verankertes Controlling verfügt, sind bezüglich des allgemeinen Controllingentwicklungsstandes inkl. des Instrumenteneinsatzes Defizite zu konstatieren. In Bezug auf Letzteres hat sich herausgestellt, dass rein ökonomische Aspekte eine dominante Stellung einnehmen; Finanzkennzahlen werden gegenüber den Markt-, Prozess und Potenzialkennzahlen zum einen häufiger eingesetzt und zum anderen auch in ihrer Bedeutung höher eingeschätzt. Darüber hinaus ist der Einsatz von Kennzahlensystemen im Customer Recovery Management noch nicht weit verbreitet und auch hier ist ein finanzwirtschaftlicher Fokus festzustellen. Der Erfolg von Customer Recovery Maßnahmen wird zu einem großen Ausmaß durch die Nutzung des Synergiepotenzials von Customer Recovery Management (Führung vom Markt bzw. Kunden her) und Controlling (Führung vom Erfolg her) determiniert.

Learning achievements of farmers during the transition to market-oriented organic agriculture in rural Uganda

Organic agriculture requires farmers with the ability to develop profitable agro-enterprises on their own. By drawing on four years of experiences with the Enabling Rural Innovation approach in Uganda, we outline how smallholder farmers transition to organic agriculture and, at the same time, increase their entrepreneurial skills and competences through learning. In order to document this learning we operationalised the Kirkpatrick learning evaluation model, which subsequently informed the collection of qualitative data in two study sites. Our analysis suggests that the Enabling Rural Innovation approach helps farmers to develop essential capabilities for identifying organic markets and new organic commodities, for testing these organic commodities under varying organic farm management scenarios, and for negotiating contracts with organic traders. We also observed several obstacles that confront farmers’ transition to organic agriculture when using the Enabling Rural Innovation approach. These include the long duration of agronomic experimentation and seed multiplication, expensive organic certification procedures and the absence of adequate mechanism for farmers to access crop finance services. Despite prevailing obstacles we conclude that the Enabling Rural Innovation approach provides a starting point for farmers to develop entrepreneurial competences and profitable agro-enterprises on their own.

Quality oriented drying of Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis L.)

Heilkräuter sind während des Trocknungsprozesses zahlreichen Einflüssen ausgesetzt, welche die Qualität des Endproduktes entscheidend beeinflussen. Diese Forschungsarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Trocknung von Zitronenmelisse (Melissa officinalis .L) zu einem qualitativ hochwertigen Endprodukt. Es werden Strategien zur Trocknung vorgeschlagen, die experimentelle und mathematische Aspekte mit einbeziehen, um bei einer adäquaten Produktivität die erforderlichen Qualitätsmerkmale im Hinblick auf Farbeänderung und Gehalt an ätherischen Ölen zu erzielen. Getrocknete Zitronenmelisse kann zurzeit, auf Grund verschiedener Probleme beim Trocknungsvorgang, den hohen Qualitätsanforderungen des Marktes nicht immer genügen. Es gibt keine standardisierten Informationen zu den einzelnen und komplexen Trocknungsparametern. In der Praxis beruht die Trocknung auf Erfahrungswerten, bzw. werden Vorgehensweisen bei der Trocknung anderer Pflanzen kopiert, und oftmals ist die Trocknung nicht reproduzierbar, oder beruht auf subjektiven Annäherungen. Als Folge dieser nicht angepassten Wahl der Trocknungsparameter entstehen oftmals Probleme wie eine Übertrocknung, was zu erhöhten Bruchverlusten der Blattmasse führt, oder eine zu geringe Trocknung, was wiederum einen zu hohen Endfeuchtegehalt im Produkt zur Folge hat. Dies wiederum mündet zwangsläufig in einer nicht vertretbaren Farbänderung und einen übermäßigen Verlust an ätherischen Ölen. Auf Grund der unterschiedlichen thermischen und mechanischen Eigenschaften von Blättern und Stängel, ist eine ungleichmäßige Trocknung die Regel. Es wird außerdem eine unnötig lange Trocknungsdauer beobachtet, die zu einem erhöhten Energieverbrauch führt. Das Trocknen in solaren Tunneln Trocknern bringt folgendes Problem mit sich: wegen des ungeregelten Strahlungseinfalles ist es schwierig die Trocknungstemperatur zu regulieren. Ebenso beeinflusst die Strahlung die Farbe des Produktes auf Grund von photochemischen Reaktionen. Zusätzlich erzeugen die hohen Schwankungen der Strahlung, der Temperatur und der Luftfeuchtigkeit instabile Bedingungen für eine gleichmäßige und kontrollierbare Trocknung. In Anbetracht der erwähnten Probleme werden folgende Forschungsschwerpunkte in dieser Arbeit gesetzt: neue Strategien zur Verbesserung der Qualität werden entwickelt, mit dem Ziel die Trocknungszeit und den Energieverbrauch zu verringern. Um eine Methodik vorzuschlagen, die auf optimalen Trocknungsparameter beruht, wurden Temperatur und Luftfeuchtigkeit als Variable in Abhängigkeit der Trocknungszeit, des ätherischer Ölgehaltes, der Farbänderung und der erforderliche Energie betrachtet. Außerdem wurden die genannten Parametern und deren Auswirkungen auf die Qualitätsmerkmale in solaren Tunnel Trocknern analysiert. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, wurden unterschiedliche Ansätze verfolgt. Die Sorption-Isothermen und die Trocknungskinetik von Zitronenmelisse und deren entsprechende Anpassung an verschiedene mathematische Modelle wurden erarbeitet. Ebenso wurde eine alternative gestaffelte Trocknung in gestufte Schritte vorgenommen, um die Qualität des Endproduktes zu erhöhen und gleichzeitig den Gesamtenergieverbrauch zu senken. Zusätzlich wurde ein statistischer Versuchsplan nach der CCD-Methode (Central Composite Design) und der RSM-Methode (Response Surface Methodology) vorgeschlagen, um die gewünschten Qualitätsmerkmalen und den notwendigen Energieeinsatz in Abhängigkeit von Lufttemperatur und Luftfeuchtigkeit zu erzielen. Anhand der gewonnenen Daten wurden Regressionsmodelle erzeugt, und das Verhalten des Trocknungsverfahrens wurde beschrieben. Schließlich wurde eine statistische DOE-Versuchsplanung (design of experiments) angewandt, um den Einfluss der Parameter auf die zu erzielende Produktqualität in einem solaren Tunnel Trockner zu bewerten. Die Wirkungen der Beschattung, der Lage im Tunnel, des Befüllungsgrades und der Luftgeschwindigkeit auf Trocknungszeit, Farbänderung und dem Gehalt an ätherischem Öl, wurde analysiert. Ebenso wurden entsprechende Regressionsmodelle bei der Anwendung in solaren Tunneltrocknern erarbeitet. Die wesentlichen Ergebnisse werden in Bezug auf optimale Trocknungsparameter in Bezug auf Qualität und Energieverbrauch analysiert.

Concurrent Aggregates (CA): An Object-Oriented Language for Fine-Grained Message-Passing Machines

Fine-grained parallel machines have the potential for very high speed computation. To program massively-concurrent MIMD machines, programmers need tools for managing complexity. These tools should not restrict program concurrency. Concurrent Aggregates (CA) provides multiple-access data abstraction tools, Aggregates, which can be used to implement abstractions with virtually unlimited potential for concurrency. Such tools allow programmers to modularize programs without reducing concurrency. I describe the design, motivation, implementation and evaluation of Concurrent Aggregates. CA has been used to construct a number of application programs. Multi-access data abstractions are found to be useful in constructing highly concurrent programs.