Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Personality Dimensions And Temperaments Of Engineering Professors And Students – A Survey, Arif Raza, Zaka Ulmustafa, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This research work aims to study personality profiles and temperaments of Pakistani software engineering professors and students. In this survey we have collected personality profiles of 18 professors and 92 software engineering students. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument, the most prominent personality type among professors as well as among students is a combination of Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging (ISTJ). The study shows ITs (Introverts and Thinking) and IJs (Introverts and Judging) are the leading temperaments among the professors. About the students’ data, the results of the study indicate SJs (Sensing and Judging) and ISs (Introverts and …

Trust-Based Service Selection, Zainab Aljazzaf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that builds enterprise solutions based on services. In SOA, the lack of trust between different parties affects the adoption of such architecture. Trust is as significant a factor for successful online interactions as it is in real life communities, and consequently, it is an important factor that is used as a criterion for service selection. In the context of online services and SOA, the literature shows that the field of trust is not mature. Trust definition and the consideration of the essentials of trust aspects do not reflect the true nature of …

Classic Mosaics And Visual Correspondence Via Graph-Cut Based Energy Optimization, Yu Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Computer graphics and computer vision were traditionally two distinct research fields focusing on opposite topics. Lately, they have been increasingly borrowing ideas and tools from each other. In this thesis, we investigate two problems in computer vision and graphics that rely on the same tool, namely energy optimization with graph cuts.

In the area of computer graphics, we address the problem of generating artificial classic mosaics, still and animated. The main purpose of artificial mosaics is to help a user to create digital art. First we reformulate our previous static mosaic work in a more principled global optimization framework. Then, …

Three-Dimensional Modeling Of Electrostatic Precipitator Using Hybrid Finite Element - Flux Corrected Transport Technique, Niloofar Farnoosh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis presents the results of a three-dimensional simulation of the entire precipitation process inside a single-electrode one-stage electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The model was designed to predict the motion of ions, gas and solid particles. The precipitator consists of two parallel grounded collecting plates with a corona electrode mounted at the center, parallel to the plates and excited with a high dc voltage. The complex mutual interaction between the three coexisting phenomena of electrostatic field, fluid dynamics and the particulate transport, which affect the ESP process, were taken into account in all the simulations. The electrostatic field and ionic space …

A Business Maturity Model Of Software Product Line Engineering, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In the recent past, software product line engineering has become one of the most promising practices in software industry with the potential to substantially increase the software development productivity. Software product line engineering approach spans the dimensions of business, architecture, software engineering process and organization. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents a business maturity model of software product line, which is a methodology to evaluate the current maturity of the business dimension of a software product line in an organization. This model examines the …

Addressing Computational Complexity Of High Speed Distributed Circuits Using Model Order Reduction, Ehsan Rasekh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Advanced in the fabrication technology of integrated circuits (ICs) over the last couple of years has resulted in an unparalleled expansion of the functionality of microelectronic systems. Today’s ICs feature complex deep-submicron mixed-signal designs and have found numerous applications in industry due to their lower manufacturing costs and higher performance levels. The tendency towards smaller feature sizes and increasing clock rates is placing higher demands on signal integrity design by highlighting previously negligible interconnect effects such as distortion, reflection, ringing, delay, and crosstalk. These effects if not predicted in the early stages of the design cycle can severely degrade circuit …

Improving Search Engine Results By Query Extension And Categorization, Guo Mei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Since its emergence, the Internet has changed the way in which information is distributed and it has strongly influenced how people communicate. Nowadays, Web search engines are widely used to locate information on the Web, and online social networks have become pervasive platforms of communication.

Retrieving relevant Web pages in response to a query is not an easy task for Web search engines due to the enormous corpus of data that the Web stores and the inherent ambiguity of search queries. We present two approaches to improve the effectiveness of Web search engines. The first approach allows us to retrieve …

Advances In Graph-Cut Optimization: Multi-Surface Models, Label Costs, And Hierarchical Costs, Andrew T. Delong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Computer vision is full of problems that are elegantly expressed in terms of mathematical optimization, or energy minimization. This is particularly true of "low-level" inference problems such as cleaning up noisy signals, clustering and classifying data, or estimating 3D points from images. Energies let us state each problem as a clear, precise objective function. Minimizing the correct energy would, hypothetically, yield a good solution to the corresponding problem. Unfortunately, even for low-level problems we are confronted by energies that are computationally hard—often NP-hard—to minimize. As a consequence, a rather large portion of computer vision research is dedicated to proposing …

Active Learning With Generalized Queries, Jun Du

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We study active learning with generalized queries in the thesis.

In contrast to supervised learning, active learning can usually achieve the same predictive accuracy with much fewer labeled training examples, thus significantly reducing the labeling cost. However, previous studies of active learning mostly assume that the learner can only ask specific queries (i.e., require labels for specific examples by providing all feature values). For instance, if the task is to predict osteoarthritis based on a patient data set with 30 features, the previous active learners could only ask the specific queries as: does this patient have osteoarthritis, if ID is …

An Architecture Maturity Model Of Software Product Line, Faheem Ahmed, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Software architecture has been a key research area in the software engineering community due to its significant role in creating high-quality software. The trend of developing product lines rather than single products has made the software product line a viable option in the industry. Software product line architecture (SPLA) is regarded as one of the crucial components in the product lines, since all of the resulting products share this common architecture. The increased popularity of software product lines demands a process maturity evaluation methodology. Consequently,this paper presents an architecture process maturity model for software product line engineering to evaluate the …

Solving Polynomial Systems Via Triangular Decomposition, Changbo Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Finding the solutions of a polynomial system is a fundamental problem with numerous applications in both the academic and industrial world. In this thesis, we target on computing symbolically both the real and the complex solutions of nonlinear polynomial systems with or without parameters. To this end, we improve existing algorithms for computing triangular decompositions. Based on that, we develop various new tools for solving polynomial systems and illustrate their effectiveness by applications.

We propose new algorithms for computing triangular decompositions of polynomial systems incrementally. With respect to previous works, our improvements are based on a weakened notion of a …

Some Single And Combined Operations On Formal Languages: Algebraic Properties And Complexity, Bo Cui

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis, we consider several research questions related to language operations in the following areas of automata and formal language theory: reversibility of operations, generalizations of (comma-free) codes, generalizations of basic operations, language equations, and state complexity.

Motivated by cryptography applications, we investigate several reversibility questions with respect to the parallel insertion and deletion operations. Among the results we obtained, the following result is of particular interest. For languages L₁, L₂ ⊆ Σ^∗, if L₂ satisfies the condition L₂ΣL₂ ∩ Σ⁺L₂Σ⁺ = ∅, then …

Workflow-Net Based Cooperative Multi-Agent Systems, Yehia T. Kotb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Workflow-nets are mathematical frameworks that are used to formally describe, model and implement workflows. First, we propose critical section workflow nets (abbreviated WFCSnet). This framework allows feedbacks in workflow systems while ensuring the soundness of the workflow. Feedback is generally not recommended in workflow systems as they threaten the soundness of the system. The proposed WFCSnet allows safe feedback and limits the maximum number of activities per workflow as required. A theorem for soundness of WFCSnet is presented. Serializability, Separability, Quasi-liveness and CS-Properties of WFCSnet are examined and some theorems and lemmas are proposed to mathematically formalize them. In this …

Models, Techniques, And Metrics For Managing Risk In Software Engineering, Andriy Miranskyy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The field of Software Engineering (SE) is the study of systematic and quantifiable approaches to software development, operation, and maintenance. This thesis presents a set of scalable and easily implemented techniques for quantifying and mitigating risks associated with the SE process. The thesis comprises six papers corresponding to SE knowledge areas such as software requirements, testing, and management. The techniques for risk management are drawn from stochastic modeling and operational research.

The first two papers relate to software testing and maintenance. The first paper describes and validates novel iterative-unfolding technique for filtering a set of execution traces relevant to a …

Computing, Symbols And Math, Stephen M. Watt

Computer Science Presentations

No abstract provided.

Finding Faulty Functions From The Traces Of Field Failures, Syed Shariyar Murtaza

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Corrective maintenance, which rectifies field faults, consumes 30-60% time of software maintenance. Literature indicates that 50% to 90% of the field failures are rediscoveries of previous faults, and that 20% of the code is responsible for 80% of the faults. Despite this, identification of the location of the field failures in system code remains challenging and consumes substantial (30-40%) time of corrective maintenance. Prior fault discovery techniques for field traces require many pass-fail traces, discover only crashing failures, or identify faulty coarse grain code such as files as the source of faults. This thesis (which is in the integrated article …

Architecture Supporting Computational Trust Formation, Chern Har Yew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Trust is a concept that has been used in computing to support better decision making. For example, trust can be used in access control. Trust can also be used to support service selection. Although certain elements of trust such as reputation has gained widespread acceptance, a general model of trust has so far not seen widespread usage. This is due to the challenges of implementing a general trust model. In this thesis, a middleware based approach is proposed to address the implementation challenges.

The thesis proposes a general trust model known as computational trust. Computational trust is based on research …

Algorithmic Contributions To The Theory Of Regular Chains, Wei Pan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Regular chains, introduced about twenty years ago, have emerged as one of the major

tools for solving polynomial systems symbolically. In this thesis, we focus on different

algorithmic aspects of the theory of regular chains, from theoretical questions to high-

performance implementation issues.

The inclusion test for saturated ideals is a fundamental problem in this theory.

By studying the primitivity of regular chains, we show that a regular chain generates

its saturated ideal if and only if it is primitive. As a result, a family of inclusion tests

can be detected very efficiently.

The algorithm to compute the regular GCDs …

Federated Critical Infrastructure Simulators: Towards Ontologies For Support Of Collaboration, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz, Adam Shypanski, Gagandeep S. Gill

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Our society relies greatly on a variety of critical infrastructures (CI), such as power system networks, water distribution, oil and natural gas systems, telecommunication networks and others. Interdependency between those systems is high and may result in cascading failures spanning different infrastructures. Behavior of each CI can be observed and analyzed through the use of domain simulators, but this does not account for their interdependency. To explore CI interdependencies, domain simulators need to be integrated in a federation where they can collaborate.

This paper explores three different simulators: the EPANET water distribution simulator, the PSCAD power system simulator and the …

An Empirical Study Of Open Source Software Usability – The Industrial Perspective, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the use of open source projects by common novice users; Open Source Software (OSS) is thus no longer a reserved arena for software developers and computer gurus. Although user-centered designs are gaining popularity in OSS, usability is still not considered one of the prime objectives in many design scenarios. This paper analyzes industry users’ perception of usability factors, including understandability, learnability, operability, and attractiveness on OSS usability. The research model of this empirical study establishes the relationship between the key usability factors and OSS usability from industrial perspective. In order to conduct …

A Unit Test Approach For Database Schema Evolution, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam A M Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Context: The constant changes in today’s business requirements demand continuous database revisions. Hence, database structures, not unlike software applications, deteriorate during their lifespan and thus require refactoring in order to achieve a longer life span. Although unit tests support changes to application programs and refactoring, there is currently a lack of testing strategies for database schema evolution.

Objective: This work examines the challenges for database schema evolution and explores the possibility of using various testing strategies to assist with schema evolution. Specifically, the work proposes a novel unit test approach for the application code that accesses databases with the objective …

An Empirical Study Of Open Source Software Usability: The Industrial Perspective, Arif Raza, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Faheem Ahmed

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the use of open source projects by common novice users; Open Source Software (OSS) is thus no longer a reserved arena for software developers and computer gurus. Although user-centered designs are gaining popularity in OSS, usability is still not considered as one of the prime objectives in many design scenarios. In this paper, we analyze industry users’ perception of usability factors, including understandability, learnability, operability and attractiveness, on OSS usability. The research model of this empirical study establishes the relationship between the key usability factors and OSS usability from industrial perspective. In …

From Glossaries To Ontologies: Disaster Management Domain, Katarina Grolinger, Kevin P. Brown, Miriam A.M. Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Our society’s reliance on a variety of critical infrastructures (CI) presents significant challenges for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Experts from different domains including police, paramedics, firefighters and various other CI teams are involved in the fast paced response to a disaster, increasing the risk of miscommunication. To ensure clear communication, as well as to facilitate CI software interoperability, a common disaster ontology is needed. We propose using the knowledge stored in domain glossaries, vocabularies and dictionaries for the creation of a lightweight disaster management domain ontology. Glossaries, vocabularies and dictionaries are semi structured representations of domain knowledge, where significant …