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Aim: Electronic formats (ePROs) of paper-based patient-reported outcomes (PROs) should be validated before they can be reliably used. This review aimed to examine studies investigating measurement equivalence between ePROs and their paper originals to identify methodologies used and to determine the extent of such validation., Methods: Three databases (OvidSP, Web of Science and PubMed) were searched using a set of keywords. Results were examined for compliance with inclusion criteria. Articles or abstracts that directly compared screen-based electronic versions of PROs with their validated paper-based originals, with regard to their measurement equivalence, were included. Publications were excluded if the only instruments reported were stand-alone visual analogue scales or interactive voice response formats. Papers published before 2007 were excluded, as a previous meta-analysis examined papers published before this time., Results: Fifty-five studies investigating 79 instruments met the inclusion criteria. 53 % of the 79 instruments studied were condition specific. Several instruments, such as the SF-36, were reported in more than one publication. The most frequently reported formats for ePROs were Web-based versions. In 78 % of the publications, there was evidence of equivalence or comparability between the two formats as judged by study authors. Of the 30 publications that provided preference data, 87 % found that overall participants preferred the electronic format., Conclusions: When examining equivalence between paper and electronic versions of PROs, formats are usually judged by authors to be equivalent. Participants prefer electronic formats. This literature review gives encouragement to the further widespread development and use of ePROs.

The classification of the IEC-62304 considers the risks of failure due to the software, and ranges from "failure of the software does not contribute to a dangerous situation" (class A) to "failure of the software results in death or serious injury" (class C). Using off-the-shelf software One may wonder whether it's allowed to incorporate tools or off-the-shelf software in your in-house developed software product. Keywords: in vitro diagnostics regulation (IVDR); medical device software; quality management; software development EN in vitro diagnostics regulation (IVDR) medical device software quality management software development 982 988 7 05/26/22 20220601 NES 220601 Introduction The right treatment starts with the right diagnosis. IVDR software can often be seen as software that will drive or inform clinical management, i.e. the results from the software are used to diagnose a patient or to provide information about which treatment to start. [Extracted from the article]

Context: The increase in the population aging has brought more significant concern about how proper care will be provided to the elderly in the future. Thus, the development of technological solutions for the health domain has gained more prominence. Joining this scenario to the growing use of mobile devices for daily activities, several mobile applications focused on the elderly healthcare have been developed with healthcare and software engineer professionals involved. However, there is no survey to help both professionals to take decisions on the target of application, elderly profile, empirical validation techniques, among others. Thus, the following question arises: how have mobile applications for elderly healthcare been addressed in the literature in the past years? Objective: To identify the state of the art in the literature concerned with the development of mobile applications for elderly healthcare, considering healthcare and software Engineering viewpoints. Method: We performed a systematic mapping conducted by health and software engineering researchers to provide an interdisciplinary investigation of the papers that address mobile applications for elderly healthcare, summarizing the data collected under the following classification: target of application, older adult profile, spatial-temporal distribution, techniques for empirical validation and type of software engineering research. Results: We found a total of 2533 papers and, after applying our eligibility criteria, we got 149. We observed aspects related to the digital health initiative type, using the classification proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the elderly profile prioritized by the application, the spatial-temporal distribution of the studies, the empirical validation type, and the research contribution of each analyzed paper to the software engineering area. Conclusions: Regarding the WHO classification, we noticed that two categories were more frequently found, Clients and Data Services, and that none of the mobile apps were classified in the Health System Manager category. The data extraction result also reveals that most of the applications found in the literature focused on the independent elderly. Moreover, we observed that most of the studies were proposals of solutions for elderly health and the validation process of these solutions generally consisted of controlled experiments and usability evaluations. At last, the research focused on mobile applications for elderly healthcare has been performed mostly by developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation in buildings was not always given its due importance. The World Health Organization has highlighted the important role of air exchange with the outdoors in improving the air quality in buildings; buildings should, therefore, be equipped with mechanical ventilation or adequate air conditioning systems. This paper aims to investigate different retrofit solutions for air conditioning, evaluating them in terms of energy consumption and cost and the impact of increased outdoor air exchange rates on countering the propagation of COVID-19; the latter is the main novelty of the paper. As a case study, we take an existing office building located in Central Italy that was previously not equipped with a mechanical ventilation system (a system with primary air was introduced during the study). The energy analysis was conducted using dynamic simulation software after validation through energy bills; energy and economic analyses were conducted considering different external-air exchange rates. An optimal number of outdoor air changes was found to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection, a finding in line with the international literature. The increase in air changes with outdoor air leads to a rise in energy consumption and costs. These values were evaluated for different air conditioning systems and operational schedules. These drawbacks can be made less significant by combining interventions in the system with energy-efficiency measures applied to the building envelope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban greenery is a strategy to improve the thermal environment in urban areas affected by heat islands and global warming. These phenomena can harm the citizens' quality of life. Researchers have investigated the thermal benefits of urban vegetation, but only a few have explored its complexities across diverse urban scales. Understanding these variations is critical for precise analysis, customized solutions, efficient resource allocation, and enhancing urban living quality while promoting sustainability and climate resilience. This paper reviews 250 scientific articles about the relationship between greenspace and the urban thermal environment published between 2010 and 2023 through urban scales. It summarizes the parameters and findings of greenery's contribution to cooling the urban environment. The data reveal that most studies concentrated on the block scale, public open spaces, neighborhoods, parks, grouped vegetation, mixed arrangements, high vegetation, spatial parameters, and the use of air temperature data to report their findings. The cooling-effect evidence shows that the block scale has an average mitigation range of 0.7–2.7 °C, the neighborhood scale of 1.1–2.9 °C, and the city scale of 0.5–2.2 °C. Furthermore, it is critical to define reliable research methods and perform thorough software validation to assess model performance and establish guidelines for urban-landscape design accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a numerical investigation regarding the possibility of using electrically conductive concrete (ECON) combined with concrete-encased electrode (CEE) technology to develop new substation grounding systems (SGSs) called ECON-EE as a replacement for conventional copper or galvanized steel grounding grids. In the first step, the validation of the commercial FEM software used to perform grounding system analysis was performed in terms of the grid resistance (RG), ground potential rise (GPR), and step and touch voltages, using a symmetrical 70 m × 70 m conventional copper SGS. Next, several numerical simulations of an ECON-EE grounding system with the same dimensions as the conventional copper grid used for FEM software validation were performed. Thus, several parameters of the ECON-EE grounding system were studied, such as the geometry, dimensions, and resistivity of ECON and the diameter of the rebar. The numerical results obtained permit us to demonstrate that ECON-EE grounding systems can perform better than conventional SGSs equipped with vertical rods, particularly in the case of high ground resistivity. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the two main ECON-EE parameters affecting the grounding resistance and the touch and step voltages are the section area and the resistivity of the ECON. As discussed in detail in this paper, the proposed ECON-EE grounding system can offer several advantages compared to conventional SGSs in terms of efficiency and durability, as well as in terms of simplicity of conception and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The program committee rigorously reviewed 110 full papers using a double-blind reviewing policy. (ICST 2019) was held in Xi'an, China. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: To investigate the challenge of replacing the manual data quality routines with valid electronic protocols for health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSS), using lessons from the in Cross River HDSS in Cross River State, Nigeria. Methodology: Interviews and examination of household questionnaires. Then, a free software called Randomizer is used to generate random records which are matched with real records. In a second approach, an R Statistical Computing script was developed to extract 5% of the matched records either from an Excel spreadsheet or from a database. These household records are made available for quality assurance interviews. Findings: The study showed major flaws with the manual procedures for data quality checks in health and demographic surveillance systems, and the impracticability of using the manual method in systems where data collection is predominantly electronic. Research limitations: Repeat interviews by field supervisors are still performed with paper forms. Future research may therefore attempt to design solutions that can facilitate repeat interviews using mobile devices. Practical implications: The automated solutions presented in this study fit into the information technology revolution and the design of health and demographic surveillance system sites to leverage the strengths of this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of applications using 3D models as base for visualization or simulation the requirements for having valid models rises. While there are many programs that validate models there is no standard for storing the results. The simulation programs also may implement their own validation checking to verify if a model can be simulated which may be error prone or not extensive enough for their purpose. This paper provides an extension for the CityGML format to store the validation result. With the available validation information software using the extension can improve their process of working with models containing errors. CityGML model manufacturers may also improve their creation process of the model as well as deliver them validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DC electrical distribution systems offer many potential advantages over their AC counterparts. They can facilitate easier integration with distributed energy resources, improve system energy efficiency by eliminating AC/DC converters at end-use devices (e.g., laptop chargers), and reduce installation material, time, and cost. However, DC electrical distribution systems present additional design considerations, largely resulting from potentially greater magnitude and variation in cable losses. Modeling and simulation are rarely used to design such systems. However, the greater dependency of DC system energy efficiency on design choices such as distribution voltages, architecture, and integration of PV and BESS suggests that modeling and simulation may be required. Such system performance analysis is currently not a standard practice, in part due to limited availability and validation of capable software tools. This paper characterizes the accuracy of a Modelica-based Building Electrical Efficiency Analysis Model (BEEAM) toolkit, as a precursor for validating its use to perform system performance analysis and inform design decisions. The study builds upon previous verification research by characterizing complete systems comprised of commercially available equipment, and providing a more detailed analysis of simulation results. Five lighting systems with varying electrical distribution architectures were designed using market-available equipment, installed in a laboratory environment, modeled using BEEAM, and simulated using three Modelica integrated development environments (IDEs). Simulated and measured results were compared to characterize toolkit accuracy. Initial results revealed that simulated performance was mostly within ±5% of measured system-level and device-level performance. While simulation results were not found to be dependent on the IDE, some Modelica compiler interoperability issues were identified. Although the BEEAM toolkit showed promise for the targeted use case, further work is needed to determine whether the demonstrated 5% accuracy is sufficient for making real-world design decisions, and for BEEAM to advance from an interesting research tool to one that can impact real-world building projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing software intelligent defect classification approaches do not consider radar characters and prior statistics information. Thus, when applying these appaoraches into radar software testing and validation, the precision rate and recall rate of defect classification are poor and have effect on the reuse effectiveness of software defects. To solve this problem, a new intelligent defect classification approach based on the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model is proposed for radar software in this paper. The proposed approach includes the defect text segmentation algorithm based on the dictionary of radar domain, the modified LDA model combining radar software requirement, and the top acquisition and classification approach of radar software defect based on the modified LDA model. The proposed approach is applied on the typical radar software defects to validate the effectiveness and applicability. The application results illustrate that the prediction precison rate and recall rate of the poposed approach are improved up to 15 ~ 20% compared with the other defect classification approaches. Thus, the proposed approach can be applied in the segmentation and classification of radar software defects effectively to improve the identifying adequacy of the defects in radar software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents detailed mathematical modeling, controller design, and flight test results for the autonomous mission of a nonconventional fixed-wing biplane micro air vehicle (MAV) called Skylark having span and chord length within 150 mm. Although numerous fixed-wing MAV designs are reported in the open literature, an MAV's reliable autonomous flight is still a challenge. The primary difficulties in performing the autonomous mission of fixed-wing MAV are system integration within the weight and power budget, center of gravity (CG) management, and flight controller design for fast dynamics. In this paper, the key challenges are addressed by using the higher payload capacity of Skylark, suitable selection and design of avionics components, and design of controller after detailed development of the mathematical model, including the additional effect of propeller wash and motor countertorque. An autonomous flight test is successfully demonstrated after the validation of algorithms and software architecture through nonlinear six-degrees-of-freedom simulation. The detailed design and development approach will increase the MAV's performance and reliability in civil and military applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software process simulation models (SPSMs) that are based on descriptive process models offer the executability that can demonstrate dynamic changes of software processes over time. Verification and validation (V&V) is critical in SPSMs for guaranteeing the quality and reliability of models. V&V of dynamic software process models is more complex and challenging than for static software process models. This work systematically summarizes and maps V&V studies in SPSM to provide guidelines for future research and practice. Specifically, this study aims at identifying the focus of research on V&V, the methods used for V&V, and how to implement V&V of SPSMs in software engineering research. We conducted a systematic mapping study on studies of SPSMs that report on their V&V activities. Under the guidance of a V&V meta‐model for SPSMs, we study four research questions about V&V process. We identified 107 primary studies from a pool of 313 papers on SPSMs until 2021. There are two main results of our study. The first one presents the relationship between quality aspects of SPSMs and the V&V methods to assure them. The second result reveals the relationships among the modeling process, three modeling steps, five quality aspects, and 10 V&V methods. Generally, researchers do not pay sufficient attention to V&V, as 65.8% ((313−107)/313) failed to mention or elaborate on their V&V process. We systematically summarize and map the state‐of‐the‐art V&V research in software process modeling field to support modelers' practice and improve their V&V process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 10th International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST 2017) was held on March 13 to 17, 2017, in Tokyo, Japan. Footnotes 1 Editorial for the special issue of STVR on the 10th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST 2017). [Extracted from the article]

Many object‐oriented metrics have been proposed in the literature to measure various structural properties of object‐oriented software. Furthermore, many centrality measures have been introduced to identify central nodes in large networks. However, few studies have used them to measure dependencies in software systems. In fact, centrality measures, as opposed to most traditional object‐oriented metrics that mainly focus on intrinsic properties of classes, can be used to better model the control flow and to identify the most important classes in a software system. This paper aims (1) to investigate the relationships between object‐oriented metrics and centrality measures and (2) to explore the ability of their combination to support fault‐proneness prediction from different perspectives (fault‐prone classes, fault severity, and number of faults). Many studies in the literature have addressed the prediction of fault‐prone classes, from different perspectives, using object‐oriented metrics. The main motivation here is in fact to investigate if the information captured by centrality measures is related to fault proneness and complementary to the information captured by object‐oriented metrics and to investigate if the combination of object‐oriented metrics and centrality measures improves the performance of fault‐proneness prediction significantly. We used size, complexity, and coupling object‐oriented metrics in addition to various centrality measures. We collected data from 20 different versions of five open‐source Java software systems. We first studied the relationships between selected metrics and their relationships to fault proneness. Then, we built different models to predict fault‐prone classes using several machine learning algorithms. In addition, we built models to predict if a class contains a high severity fault, and the number of faults in a class. Results indicate that using centrality measures in combination with object‐oriented metrics improves the prediction of fault‐prone classes as well as the prediction of the number of faults in a class. However, the combination has no significant impact, according to the data we collected, on the quality of the prediction of fault severity. Moreover, using centrality measures in combination with object‐oriented metrics also improves the prediction performance of fault proneness and the number of faults in both cross‐version and cross‐system validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pervasive presence of IoT sensing devices combined with advances in cloud-based services has made historical- and forecast weather data services widely available for use in smart software systems. The contribution of this paper is the design, performance evaluation, and validation of a software implementation of model-based dynamic fire risk prediction for wooden homes using local weather data. A key feature of the implementation is that the software architecture has been designed to support the use of different underlying cloud-based weather data services, and the integration as a service in third-party smart systems embedding fire risk predictions. The performed evaluation shows that the implementation is efficient, as weather data can be retrieved, preprocessed and fire risk predictions computed within seconds using only in the order of Kb's of memory; and accurate considering our sets of data, as the fire risks computed by the implementation have been validated against a set of in-situ measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the validation of a software application to optimize the discoloration process in simulated hearts and to automate and determine the final moment of decellularization in rat hearts using a vibrating fluid column. The implemented algorithm specifically for the automated verification of a simulated heart's discoloration process was optimized in this study. Initially, we used a latex balloon containing enough dye to reach the opacity of a heart. The complete discoloration process corresponds to complete decellularization. The developed software automatically detects the complete discoloration of a simulated heart. Finally, the process stops automatically. Another goal was to optimize the Langendorff-type experimental apparatus, which is pressure-controlled and equipped with a vibrating fluid column that shortens the decellularization time by mechanically acting directly on cell membranes. Control experiments were performed with the designed experimental device and the vibrating liquid column using different decellularization protocols for hearts taken from rats. In this work, we used a commonly utilized solution based on sodium dodecyl sulfate. Ultraviolet spectrophotometry was used to measure the evolution of the dye concentration in the simulated hearts and, similarly, to determine the concentrations of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and proteins in the rat hearts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a complete optimization design verification process is proposed and a novel structure of connecting brackets is presented, solving the fatigue failure of chassis connecting brackets operating on harsh roads. First, an endurance road test and fatigue life analysis were applied to the truck equipped with the original brackets, verifying the fatigue damage of the structure. Based on the solid isotropic material with penalization method, a novel lightweight connecting bracket layout was obtained by using the method of moving asymptotes (MMA) for topology optimization under multiple working conditions with multiple performance constraints. Moreover, the derivatives of objective and constraint functions concerning design variables were applied for the MMA. Considering manufacturability and functionality, the improved model based on the topology optimization results was further optimized by size optimization. Finally, fatigue life analysis and an endurance road test were conducted using the optimal design. Compared with the original structure, the novel brackets showed better stiffness, strength and fatigue performance while reducing the total mass by 15.2%. The whole optimization and validation process can provide practical ideas and value for developing multi-performance suspensions in the pre-product development stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes development of an innovative advanced driving simulator (ADS), that will be implemented into the driver education process as a method to improve education of students and thus their readiness to enter everyday traffic. ADS will allow the driving school students to get more practice in general vehicle control, unusual situation solving and use of modern assistant systems, as well as objectively evaluate student's skills by the instructor. As a conclusion, expected outcomes of innovative simulator design and results validation possibilities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV) based on machine learning is generally an extensive and costly process. Due to the increasing complexity of autonomous systems, the need for extensive testing and validation arises. In recent years, computer simulation has been used for these purposes. Performing realistic simulations, especially for the purpose of computer vision-based systems, requires a high-quality, almost photorealistic virtual environment. This paper introduces U SMART ZONE, a high-fidelity virtual model of the Severní Terasa district in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic comprising of more than 7.5km of drivable roads with a total area of approximately 1.4km² for human-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many search-based algorithms have been successfully applied in several software engineering activities. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are the most used in the scientific domains by scholars to solve software testing problems. They imitate the theory of natural selection and evolution. The harmony search algorithm (HSA) is one of the most recent search algorithms in the last years. It imitates the behavior of a musician to find the best harmony. Scholars have estimated the similarities and the differences between genetic algorithms and the harmony search algorithm in diverse research domains. The test data generation process represents a critical task in software validation. Unfortunately, there is no work comparing the performance of genetic algorithms and the harmony search algorithm in the test data generation process. This paper studies the similarities and the differences between genetic algorithms and the harmony search algorithm based on the ability and speed of finding the required test data. The current research performs an empirical comparison of the HSA and the GAs, and then the significance of the results is estimated using the t-Test. The study investigates the efficiency of the harmony search algorithm and the genetic algorithms according to (1) the time performance, (2) the significance of the generated test data, and (3) the adequacy of the generated test data to satisfy a given testing criterion. The results showed that the harmony search algorithm is significantly faster than the genetic algorithms because the t-Test showed that the p-value of the time values is 0.026 < α (α is the significance level = 0.05 at 95% confidence level). In contrast, there is no significant difference between the two algorithms in generating the adequate test data because the t-Test showed that the p-value of the fitness values is 0.25 > α. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the size of transistors to nano‐dimensions has brought new problems and challenges to the semiconductor field‐effect transistor industry. Therefore, quantum cells are considered as an alternative technology to solve these problems. The efforts of the past few years on the earth of nano‐electronics circuits have focused more on minimizing the cost of hardware by processing more than two values per basic action. In this paper, for the first time, the ternary XOR circuit has been designed and simulated in ternary quantum cells (TQCA) technologies. The proposed ternary XOR‐based on TQCA with 369 cells, area‐delay cost (m2 − scc) is 136.76, power equal to 1704.7 × 10−20 J equivalent to 106.4 eV, area 0.074128 μm2, and a delay of 1.25 clock was designed and simulated for validation with TQCAsim software. In addition, the ternary decoder circuit was simulated with 14 cells, cost (m2 − scc) is 0.0339, area 0.0021 μm2, and delay of one clock cycle. The comparison indicates that TQCA technology has unique behaviors and advantages in various criteria such as low power consumption, delay reduction, reduction of occupied space, and a significant increase in working frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfluidic devices have opened new opportunities for functional material chemical synthesis in a few applications. The screening of microfluidic synthesis processes is an urgent task of the experimental process in terms of automation and intellectualization. This study proposes a methodology and software for extracting the morphological and dynamic characteristics of generated monodisperse droplets from video data streams obtained from a digital microscope. For this purpose, the paper considers an approach to generating an extended feature space characterizing the process of droplet generation using a microfluidic device based on the creation of synthetic image datasets. YOLOv7 was used as an algorithm for detecting objects in the images. When training this algorithm, the values in the test dataset mAP@0.5 0.996 were obtained. The algorithms proposed for image processing and analysis implement the basic functionality to extract the morphological and dynamic characteristics of monodisperse droplets in the synthesis process. Laboratory validation and verification of the software demonstrated high results of the identification of key characteristics of the monodisperse droplets generated by the microfluidic device with the average deviation from the real values not exceeding 8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study protocol proposes an adaptation of the participatory and iterative process framework for language adaptation (PIPFLA). The adapted model follows five dimensions for a cross-cultural equivalence model: semantic, content, technical, criterion, and conceptual. Iterative adaptations were conducted through the Delphi technique of expert consultation that comprised nursing professionals from academic, administrative, and practice fields, professional translators, and students' online focus groups to arrive at consensus. The adapted process of PIPFLA proposed in this paper uses a standardized and transparent documentation, including expert judgment. Neither systematic reviews nor empirical research currently published describe the methodology used with enough details to allow for replication or improvement. This work illustrates innovation that takes concepts related to cultural adaptation of tools and applies these ideas to cultural adaptation of an online learning platform, based on the use of committees and codebook development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spazio IT has been working on the Independent Software Verification and Validation of several codebases, some written in Ada, others in C/C++ and more recently also in Python; in all cases Spazio IT has used static analysis techniques and tools facilitating code inspection. Static analysis has always proven to be beneficial, but depending on the programming language, its advantages have emerged in different areas and namely: metrics and structural analysis for Ada, bugs finding at execution/semantic level for C/C++ and errors finding at compilation/syntactical level for Python. The paper presents first some general considerations on static analysis, then it concentrates on static analysis specifically applied to Ada, C/C++ and Python codebases. Finally, the paper describes Spazio IT future activities in the area of static analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turning is a complex machining process that can be characterized by a number of performances for a given machining system, workpiece material, cutting tool, and selected cutting regime. In addition to the characteristics of the machined surface quality, the estimation of machining time is particularly important for manufacturers, since machining time is directly related to other important performances of the turning process, such as productivity, cost, and energy consumption. In this paper, a model for estimation of total operation time in turning of a part with continuous profile, made of polyoxymethylene copolymer (POM-C), using a polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tool, was developed. Face centred central composite design (CCD) and Box–Cox transformation approaches were applied for that purpose. The developed model was then used as the objective function in the proposed optimization model, which also included three practical constraints related to quality of the machined surface (surface roughness and workpiece deflection) and machinability aspects of the workpiece material (favourable chip forms). Nonlinear and linear models, used as constraints, were developed based on the results of experimental investigation of turning of POM-C using a PCD cutting tool. The total operation time estimation model showed good agreement with the results of tool path simulations in CAM software and validation experimental trial in real manufacturing environment. By applying the optimal solution, 44% of the total time being saved for machining of a single part can be achieved, compared to the recommended cutting parameter values, which indicates significant optimization benefits in turning industrial plastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of attribute decomposition, there are a variety of software trustworthiness metric models. However, little attention has been paid to using more rigorous methods and to performing theoretical validation. Axiomatic methods formalise the empirical understanding of software attributes through defining ideal metric properties. They can offer precise terms for the software attributes' quantification. We have utilised them to assess software trustworthiness on the basis of attribute decomposition, presented four properties, constructed a software trustworthiness measure (STMBDA for short). In this paper, we extend the set of properties, introduce two new properties, namely non-negativity and proportionality, and perfect substitutability and expectability. We verify the theoretical rationality of STMBDA by demonstrating that it conforms to the new property set and the empirical validity by evaluating the trustworthiness of 23 spacecraft software. The validation results show that STMBDA is able to effectively assess the spacecraft software trustworthiness and identify weaknesses in the development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of intracranial stereotactic trajectories, from entry point to target point, is still mostly done manually by the neurosurgeon. The development of automated stereotactic planning tools has been described in the literature. This systematic review aims to assess the effectiveness of stereotactic planning procedure automation and develop tools for patients undergoing neurosurgical stereotactic procedures. PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google Scholar, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials databases were searched from inception to September 1, 2019, at the exception of Google Scholar (from 1 January 2010 to September 1, 2019) in French and English. Eligible studies included all studies proposing automated stereotactic planning. A total of 1543 studies were screened. Forty-two studies were included in the systematic review, including 18 (42.9%) conference papers. The surgical procedures planned automatically were mainly deep brain stimulation (n = 14, 33.3%), stereoelectroencephalography (n = 12, 28.6%), and not specified (n = 10, 23.8%). The most frequently used surgical constraints to plan the trajectory were blood vessels (n = 32, 76.2%), cerebral sulci (n = 27, 64.3%), and cerebral ventricles (n = 23, 54.8%). The distance from blood vessels ranged from 1.96 to 4.78 mm for manual trajectories and from 2.47 to 7.0 mm for automated trajectories. At least one neurosurgeon was involved in 36 studies (85.7%). The automated stereotactic trajectory was preferred in 75.4% of the studied cases (range 30–92.9). Only 3 (7.1%) studies were multicentric. No study reported prospective use of the planning software. Stereotactic planning automation is a promising tool to provide valuable stereotactic trajectories for clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of the content of chemical elements occurring in waste in large, small and trace amounts was performed using two instrumental analysis techniques: ICP-OES—Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry and WDXRF—Wavelength Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry. Since such analyses are expensive and time-consuming, the objective of the work presented in this paper was the development of a quick and inexpensive method for preliminary, scanning-based identification of the chemical composition of tested samples (solid, bulk or powder) using standardless, semi-quantitative analysis. An optimized method of preparing samples for X-ray measurements by pressing into a durable tablet, universal for all materials tested, was developed. Moreover, limits of quantification were determined, and the uncertainty of the results obtained was estimated by comparing them with the results acquired with the use of the accredited calibration method, employing standards and certified reference materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with software validation of flexible discrete-event systems. A reconfiguration scenario is any run-time adaptation of the software execution according to user requirements. Nevertheless, since several behaviors can be redundant from an execution to another, using the object constraint language (OCL) is not useful to specify all constraints that should be satisfied by a system. We propose an extension of OCL named reconfigurable OCL for improving the specification and validation of constraints related to different execution scenarios of a system. An ROCL metamodel is proposed with formal syntax and semantics. This solution gains in terms of validation time and quick expressions of constraints. We apply the proposed extended language to reconfigurable wireless sensor networks to highlight the benefits of this contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his work "Rock Anisotropy and the Theory of Stress Measurements", Amadei (1983) highlights the importance of the correct geological-technical characterisation of the rocks involved in open pit or underground excavation works. At the laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnology (IGG-CNR, Polytechnic of Turin), a data reduction software has been developed which, based on the theory developed by Amadei, allows the estimation of the main stresses acting in selected volumes of rock, on the basis of strains resulting from over-coring, possibly taking into account the transverse isotropy of the material. This paper, after listing the most popular techniques for assessing the state of stress in on-site rocks, focuses on the stress relief method. In particular, the validation tests of the software, called BM2000, are presented, comparing the calculated results with those published by Amadei and with those provided by two software packages from the literature (Smith82, STRESsOUT). After having outlined the input data and the necessary adjustments for their application in the aforementioned software, the results obtained showed excellent correspondence, for the cases of both isotropic and transversely isotropic rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current generation of information technology, mobile applications (apps) have become an essential and momentous source to publicize the information across the world. Academia, industries and other organizations have preferred mobile apps rather than classical software. Mobile apps are different from classical software and popularity, adaptability of mobile apps is more with wide range use. The growth of mobile apps across various fields has shown a big challenge for mobile app development industries to deliver apps on time and budget with desired accuracy and performance. Planning of mobile-based projects is a very complex task for the software industry, especially estimation of effort, time and cost for development of mobile apps. There are various literature, method, and model available in the field of classical software but mobile apps are different from classical software by their nature. It has also observed that the selection of input data is also affecting the accuracy of prediction. There is lack of calibrated model and method that administer the immense scope of determination in development of effort estimation for mobile apps. In this paper, various existing techniques of effort estimation have applied on software analytics for mobile apps (SAMOA) dataset for better analysis of suitable estimation technique that fits for mobile App development. The aim of this paper is twofold—(i) to explore the performance of variously established estimation technique on mobile app development (SAMOA dataset). (ii) Analysis of experimental results and, suggesting the best technique for the distinguished mobile app development scenario. The work is carried out adopting four techniques namely multiple linear regressions, Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP-NN), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Naïve forecasting approach. The results have compared with these statistical models. Among all techniques, the experimental results have presented that the GA was outperforming among four effort estimation techniques. Mobile app effort estimation models have built using four-estimation technique using SAMOA dataset. In addition, we investigated and compared various techniques namely MLP, MLP-NN, GA and Naïve forecasting approach. Upon construction, accuracy measures MMRE, MRE, PRED(25) represented promising outcomes for mobile apps used in the effort estimation model construction and validation of the process. The analysis presented that GA provided better performance rather than another approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space domain systems must go through different types of ground testing. For system-level black-box functional testing, ground support equipment is built ad hoc, customized for each different mission. Building any of this specific equipment involves considerable engineering effort that can be diluted using techniques that allow reusing configurations of the test setup environment without recodification. These techniques can be merged into a hierarchical checking process based on independent filters to compare the received outputs with the expected ones. The hierarchical checking allows the separate definition of several layers or levels of validation, from the lowest protocol packet levels to the logical abstractions at the highest application level. This paper introduces a solution based on Model-Driven Engineering for Low-Code Ground Support Equipment. It uses the abovementioned mechanisms to reduce the effort to develop and customize ground support systems for different missions. This solution is integrated within an environment called MASSIVA, which allows the automatic configuration and definition of system-level test procedures. This environment has been used in the software verification and validation process of the Instrument Control Unit of the Energetic Particle Detector on board Solar Orbiter. • Low-Code solution for Ground Support Equipment development. • Model-Driven Engineering support for black-box system-level test definition. • Automatic checking process based on hierarchical definition of independent filters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software size estimation is a vital activity of software project planning and management. Early software size estimation is a challenging task due to the limited information available during the early phases of software development. The goal of this paper is to construct and validate early software size estimation models based on four analysis-to-design adjustment factor (ADAF)-adjusted analysis class diagram metrics (i.e. ADAF-adjusted number of classes, ADAF-adjusted number of attributes, ADAF-adjusted number of methods and ADAF-adjusted number of relationships) using stepwise multiple linear regression and leave-one-out cross-validation. Furthermore, the prediction accuracy of the best-performing proposed model is also compared with the model based on objective class points. The results of this comparison reveal that our proposed method reduces errors significantly (i.e. on average, 16% reduction in mean absolute residual and 24% reduction in mean squared error). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validation of formal specifications is a challenging task. It is one of the factors that impede the penetration of formal methods into the common practices of software development. This paper discusses the issue of validating formal models by executing them in the context of Event-B. The most important problem lies in the non-determinism which often prevents purely automatic tools to execute models. In this paper, we first present and discuss the techniques we have created to allow the execution of models at all levels of abstraction. These techniques rely on users to overcome the barriers resulting from non-deterministic features by either modifying the model or providing ad hoc implementations. Then, we present our main contribution, the formal definition of the notion of fidelity, that guarantees that all the observable behaviors of the executable models are indeed specified by the original (non-deterministic) models. The notion of fidelity can be expressed in terms of proof obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calibration of test materials generally involves the interaction between empirical analysis and expert judgement. This paper explores the extent to which scale familiarity might affect expert judgement as a component of test validation in the calibration process. It forms part of a larger study that investigates the alignment of the LanguageCert suite of tests, Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the China Standards of English (CSE) and China's College English Test (CET). In the larger study, Year 1 students at a prestigious university in China were administered two tests--one with items based on China's College English Test (CET), and the other a CEFR-aligned test developed by LanguageCert--the LanguageCert Test of English (LTE). Comparable sections of the CET and the LTE involved sets of discrete items targeting lexico-grammatical competence. In order to ascertain whether expert judges were equally comfortable placing test items on either scale (CET or CEFR), a group of professors from the university in China who set the CET-based test, were asked to expert judge the CET items against the nine CSE levels with which they were very familiar. They were then asked to judge the LTE items against the six CEFR levels, with which they were less familiar. Both sets of expert ratings and the test taker responses on both tests were then calibrated within a single frame of reference and located on the LanguageCert scale In the analysis of the expert ratings, the CSE-familiar raters exhibited higher levels of agreement with the empirically-derived score levels for the CET items than they did with the equivalent LTE items. This supports the proposition that expert judgement may be used in the calibration process where the experts in question have a strong knowledge of both the test material and the standards against which the test material is to be judged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind farms are increasingly interested in participating in the secondary frequency control, especially in power systems where AGC is organized by regulation zones comprising generation units of different technologies. In order to estimate the wind farms behaviour and overall impact on automatic generation control (AGC), a reasonably simple wind farm model is needed. First‐order and second‐order linear models of wind farms are proposed in the literature in AGC‐related studies. However, these simple models neglect key dynamic features for AGC integration of wind farms, such as artificial ramp limitations, dead bands, communication delays and start‐up delays caused by turbine orientation. This paper presents a still simple wind farm model, however representing all relevant dynamics and availability constraints at power system control level. Applying an illustrative case study, model parameters are tuned and validated by means of field measurements, recorded during a response trail run of a real wind farm of 30 MW installed power operating within the Spanish power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a significant approach for designing the more accurate power estimation and validation models over the existing power estimation models given in the literature. It is well established that one of the existing power estimation models is not able to accurately estimate the power of the designs incorporated with low power techniques like clock enable. In this paper, an improvement over the existing power estimation model has been suggested termed as FPEV_Tool. This tool is accurately estimating the power of both types of digital circuits i.e. designs with clock enable and without clock enable specifically, with an average error of approximately 3% and peak error of 17%, respectively. The accuracy of the proposed tool is validated using Xpower Analyzer available for power analysis in Xilinx ISE and existing model given in the literature by Deng et al. This tool helps researchers to validate and compare their results with the results of existing models and commercial tools available in the market. This tool also provides a new move toward the power estimation and validation to the researchers those are working in the field of low power digital circuit design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]