User-centric product derivation in software product lines

Software Product Line (SPL) engineering aims at achieving efficient development of software products in a specific domain. New products are obtained via a process which entails creating a new configuration specifying the desired product’s features. This configuration must necessarily conform to a variability model, that describes the scope of the SPL, or else it is not viable. To ensure this, configuration tools are used that do not allow invalid configurations to be expressed. A different concern, however, is making sure that a product addresses the stakeholders’ needs as best as possible. The stakeholders may not be experts on the domain, so they may have unrealistic expectations. Also, the scope of the SPL is determined not only by the domain but also by limitations of the development platforms. It is therefore possible that the desired set of features goes beyond what is possible to currently create with the SPL. This means that configuration tools should provide support not only for creating valid products, but also for improving satisfaction of user concerns. We address this goal by providing a user-centric configuration process that offers suggestions during the configuration process, based on the use of soft constraints, and identifying and explaining potential conflicts that may arise. Suggestions help mitigating stakeholder uncertainty and poor domain knowledge, by helping them address well known and desirable domain-related concerns. On the other hand, automated conflict identification and explanation helps the stakeholders to understand the trade-offs required for realizing their vision, allowing informed resolution of conflicts. Additionally, we propose a prototype-based approach to configuration, that addresses the order-dependency issues by allowing the complete (or partial) specification of the features in a single step. A subsequent resolution process will then identify possible repairs, or trade-offs, that may be required for viabilization.

Using configuration management and product line software paradigms to support the experimentation process in software engineering.

There is no empirical evidence whatsoever to support most of the beliefs on which software construction is based. We do not yet know the adequacy, limits, qualities, costs and risks of the technologies used to develop software. Experimentation helps to check and convert beliefs and opinions into facts. This research is concerned with the replication area. Replication is a key component for gathering empirical evidence on software development that can be used in industry to build better software more efficiently. Replication has not been an easy thing to do in software engineering (SE) because the experimental paradigm applied to software development is still immature. Nowadays, a replication is executed mostly using a traditional replication package. But traditional replication packages do not appear, for some reason, to have been as effective as expected for transferring information among researchers in SE experimentation. The trouble spot appears to be the replication setup, caused by version management problems with materials, instruments, documents, etc. This has proved to be an obstacle to obtaining enough details about the experiment to be able to reproduce it as exactly as possible. We address the problem of information exchange among experimenters by developing a schema to characterize replications. We will adapt configuration management and product line ideas to support the experimentation process. This will enable researchers to make systematic decisions based on explicit knowledge rather than assumptions about replications. This research will output a replication support web environment. This environment will not only archive but also manage experimental materials flexibly enough to allow both similar and differentiated replications with massive experimental data storage. The platform should be accessible to several research groups working together on the same families of experiments.

Direct support and general support maintenance manual : periscope, tank, M19-old and new configuration (6650-00-765-2971) (1240-01-005-6035), M24-old and new configuration (6650-00-344-4647) (1240-01-005-6036).

"Aug 80."

Operator, organizational, and direct support maintenance manual : air conditioner, base mounted, air cooled, electric motor driven, 120/208 volts, 3 phase, 50/60 cycle, 5 stack configuration (Thermo King model S18-104 TM 5) FSN 4120-926-1203, (Keco model F18000-6) FSN 4120-168-2044, (Mecom model 19099-G 18000-5-MEC) FSN 4120-406-3222.

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Direct support, general support, and depot maintenance manual : electronic equipment configuration Army models UH-1B and UH-1C/M helicopters.

Includes index.

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools list for electronics equipment configuration, Army models UH-1H and UH-1V with SLAE.

Includes index.

Direct support maintenance repair parts and special tools list (including depot maintenance repair parts and special tools) for electronic equipment configuration CH-47D (NSN 1520-01-088-3669).

Includes index.

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists (including depot maintenance repair parts and special tools) for signal electronic equipment configuration, Army model RV-1D aircraft.

Includes index.

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists (including depot maintenance repair parts and special tools) for electronics equipment configuration for Army helicopter OH-6A with standard lightweight avionics equipment (NSN 1520-00-918-1523).

"March 1979."

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists ... for signal electronic equipment configuration, Army model OV-1D aircraft.

"February 1976."

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools list ... for electronic equipment configuration, Army models UH-1D (NSN 1520-00-859-2670), UH-1H (NSN 1520-00-087-7637), UH-1V (NSN 1520-01-043-4949), and EH-1X (aircraft) (NSN 1520-01-042-9396) helicopters.

"17 May 1985."

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists (including depot maintenance repair parts and special tools) for electronic equipment configuration OH-6A, Army model helicopter without standard lightweight avionics equipment.

"October 1976."

Direct support and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists (including depot maintenance repair parts and special tools) for electronic equipment configuration for CH-47A, CH-47B, and CH-47C helicopters.

"November 1978."

Anaerobic degradation of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) in fluidized bed reactor by microbial consortia in different support materials

Four anaerobic fluidized bed reactors filled with activated carbon (R1), expanded clay (R2), glass beads (R3) and sand (R4) were tested for anaerobic degradation of LAS. All reactors were inoculated with sludge from a UASB reactor treating swine wastewater and were fed with a synthetic substrate supplemented with approximately 20 mg l(-1) of LAS, on average. To 560 mg l(-1) COD influent, the maximum COD and LAS removal efficiencies were mean values of 97 +/- 2% and 99 +/- 2%, respectively, to all reactors demonstrating the potential applicability of this reactor configuration for treating LAS. The reactors were kept at 30 degrees C and operated with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 18 h. The use of glass beads and sand appear attractive because they favor the development of biofilms capable of supporting LAS degradation. Subsequent 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of samples from reactors R3 and R4 revealed that these reactors gave rise to broad microbial diversity, with microorganisms belonging to the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, indicating the role of microbial consortia in degrading the surfactant LAS. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Meta-heuristics self-configuration for scheduling

Scheduling resolution requires the intervention of highly skilled human problemsolvers. This is a very hard and challenging domain because current systems are becoming more and more complex, distributed, interconnected and subject to rapidly changing. A natural Autonomic Computing evolution in relation to Current Computing is to provide systems with Self-Managing ability with a minimum human interference. This paper addresses the resolution of complex scheduling problems using cooperative negotiation. A Multi-Agent Autonomic and Meta-heuristics based framework with self-configuring capabilities is proposed.