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In early June of 2000 a COTS Workshop entitled "Continuing Collaborations for Successful COTS Development" was held in Limerick, Ireland in conjunction with ICSE 2000. The purpose of the workshop was to collect experience reports regarding the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software to build systems, identify best-practices for the use of COTS software, and to establish a research agenda for those researchers interested in COTS-based software systems. This one and a half day workshop was an extension of the work begun during the workshop entitled "Ensuring Successful COTS Development" held in conjunction with ICSE '99. Results from that workshop demonstrated that there were a number of common research areas, including acquisition, planning and management, architecture and implementation, and evaluation and testing, for which researchers saw the possibility of collaboration. These areas included specific topics such as estimating the effort required to implement COTS-based systems, classification of architectural styles, and certification of COTS products for reliability and safety. The group will reconvene at ICSE'01 (www.csr.uvic.ca/icse2001) to discuss further the results achieved.The ICSE 2000 Workshop had about 26 participants and was formatted as a combination of plenary sessions and small breakout groups that worked on specific issues related to COTS-based systems. The breakout groups investigated the impact of COTS software usage in the following areas: Economic and financial issues. Requirements definition Software engineering process. Integration, maintenance and system management. Business models. Each breakout group tried to identify the current state of the art in COTS software usage as well as open questions that could provide the basis for further research in the coming years. Each group was responsible for producing a written summary of their discussions which are included, without major editing, below. A more complete description of the workshop, as well as all the participants' position papers, can be found at:http://seg.iit.nrc.ca/projects/cots/icse2000wkshp/index.html

The purpose of this study was to compare the host—bone response to hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate (HA/TCP)-coated and noncoated titanium fibermetal implants placed in a load-sharing cancellous bone environment of the distal femurs of rabbits. The influence of implantation site was also investigated by comparing these intracancellous implants with intramedullary implants evaluated in a previous study. Three parameters were measured: percentage implant perimeter surface length in contact with new bone, percentage internal fibermetal surface length in contact with ingrown bone, and percentage of available pore space filled with bone. The HA/TCP coating significantly accelerated and increased bone ongrowth, new bone formation on the perimeter and internal surface of the implants. This effect was evident as early as 2 weeks after implantation. In contrast, there was no difference between HA/TCP-coated and noncoated implants in the bone ingrowth parameter, percentage of available pore space filled with bone, or pull-out strength. Scanning electron microscopy in the backscatter mode demonstrated that new bone formed directly onto the HA/TCP-coated fibers and did not usually form directly on noncoated fibers. Analysis of fluorochrome labeling revealed that bone formation in weeks 1 through 4 was primarily woven and there-after lamellar. Compared with intramedullary placement, intracancellous placement significantly accelerated the apposition of bone to the perimeter and internal surface of HA/TCP-coated implants and both accelerated and increased bone ingrowth as a percentage of available pore volume. These data show that the host response to titanium fibermetal implants is influenced both by HA/TCP coating and by the implantation site.

COTS Workshop: Continuing Collaborations for Successful COTS Development John Dean, National Research of Council Canada fJohn.Dean@nrc.ca} Patricia Oberndorf, Software Engineering Institute {po(~_sei.cmu.edu} Mark Vigder, National Research Council Canada fMark.Viader~_nrc.ca~ Chris Abts, University of Southern California {cabts~sunset.usc.edu} Hakan Erdogmus, National Research Council of Canada {Hakan.Erdogmus~nrc.ca} Nell Maiden, City University, UK fN.A.M.Maiden(~citv.ac.uk} Michael Looney, DERA, UK fmiloonev@dra.hmo.ab} George Heineman, Worcester Polytechnic Institute {heineman(~cs.wpi.edu} Michael Guntersdorfer, University of California, Irvine fmQunters~uci.edu}

A new experimental technique for measuring generalized three-dimensional motion of vertebral bodies during cyclic loading in vitro is presented. The system consists of an orthogonal array of three lasers mounted rigidly to one vertebra, and a set of three mutually orthogonal charge-coupled devices mounted rigidly to an adjacent vertebra. Each laser strikes a corresponding charge-coupled device screen. The mathematical model of the system is reduced to a linear set of equations with consequent matrix algebra allowing fast real-time data reduction during cyclic movements of the spine. The range and accuracy of the system is well suited for studying thoracolumbar motion segments. Distinct advantages of the system include miniaturization of the components, the elimination of the need for mechanical linkages between the bodies, and a high degree of accuracy which is not dependent on viewing volume as found in photogrammetric systems. More generally, the spectrum of potential applications of systems of this type to the real-time measurement of the relative motion of two bodies is extremely broad.

THIS article is a discussion of a little 1 known phase of the oil business—the use of petroleum as a processing material. If one looks about, he will be able to find very few articles which do not utilize a petroleum product somewhere in manufacture. The clothes and shoes one wears, the furniture one sits on, the paper one sees, and a host of other everyday articles either contain petroleum, or used it while being made. It has never been determined accurately how much petroleum is so employed, but it is known that the quantities run into millions of barrels per year. The scope of petroleum's utility as a processing material is virtually unlimited. At present over 30 basic industries employ petroleum in their manufacturing processes, and the individual applications are numbered in the thousands. Obviously it is possible to give but a bird'seye view of the subject in so short a time, and for ...