44358582
Strategies to Improve Variable Selection Performance
14137582
NASA's standards advisor pilot: search solutions for an intranet
With the immense progress in web technologies, lots of information can be acquired from a simple query. Unfortunately with the available tools today, the information obtained can be unfocussed and voluminous. It requires user to search through information galore before he can obtain the exact answer to the query. This arouses the need for a search technology which produces exact result in spite of simple query. This paper focuses on evaluating three search technologies - Verity Ultraseek, Copernic Enterprise search and ISYS:web for the NASA Standards Advisor Project. From the results obtained by using sample documents and sample queries it is shown that Verity Ultraseek outperformed Copernic and ISYS: web in both search capabilities and retrieval performance.
6086610
Security for fixed sensor networks
Sensor networks consist of resource-constrained sensors operating in a variety of environments. Given the severe constraints on these sensors, it is a particularly challenging problem to choose and design valid security protocols for such networks. This problem has recently given rise to new research addressing the security issues. This paper presents an overview of the important works, specifically the new mechanisms and protocols, which have been introduced or are still under development in this area.
2351489
An Empirical Study Using Task Assignment Patterns to Improve the Accuracy of Software Effort Estimation
In most software development organizations, there is seldom a one-to-one mapping between software developers and development tasks. It is frequently necessary to concurrently assign individuals to multiple tasks and to assign more than one individual to work cooperatively on a single task. A principal goal in making such assignments should be to minimize the effort required to complete each task. But what impact does the manner in which developers are assigned to tasks have on the effort requirements? This paper identifies four task assignment factors: team size, concurrency, intensity, and fragmentation. These four factors are shown to improve the predictive ability of the well-known intermediate COCOMO cost estimation model. A parsimonious effort estimation model is also derived that utilizes a subset of the task assignment factors and unadjusted function points. For the data examined, this parsimonious model is shown to have goodness of fit and quality of estimation superior to that of the COCOMO model, while utilizing fewer cost factors.
15470855
A field study of developer pairs: productivity impacts and implications
Pair programming purportedly delivers quality code with little productivity loss. The authors' field study, outside the pair programming environment, shows that two-person teams working independently are more productive than those working concurrently; agile methods may overcome inherent productivity losses of concurrent development. This research contrasts starkly with our field study findings. We decided to reexamine our earlier productivity data from teams of two and ask: Would our previous findings of concurrent-work productivity loss be reversed if we look only at programming pairs rather than teams of all sizes? If so, we could conclude that pairs are naturally more productive than larger teams, regardless of the collaborative process. If not, we could conclude that the collaboration mechanisms prescribed in pair programming might overcome a natural loss of productivity from concurrent work. We offer these findings and their implications as a benchmark against which we might measure the potential of pair programming practices.
17812918
Acquiring and delivering lessons learned for NASA scientists and engineers: a dynamic approach
Web forms are a common mechanism for collecting information online. They pose some limitations which negatively affect ease and flexibility of user interaction. These limitations are more pronounced when collecting information that can not be broken down into well defined and agreed upon structures. Lessons Learned or any kind of 'knowledge' is an example of such information. In this paper we introduce a concept of 'Dynamic Forms' which is aimed at enhancing user interaction while collecting unstructured information, 'Lessons Learned' in particular.
17086760
Cost profile of a highly assured, secure operating system
The Logical Coprocessing Kernel (LOCK) began as a research project to stretch the state of the art in secure computing by trying to meet or even exceed the “A1” requirements of the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC). Over the span os seven years, the project was transformed into an effort to develop and deploy a product: the Standard Mail Guard (SMG). Since the project took place under a US government contract, the development team needed to maintain detailed records of the time spent on the project. The records from 1987 to 1992 have been combined with information about software code size and error detection. This information has been used to examine the practical impacts of high assurance techniques on a large-scale software development program. Tasks are associated with the A1 formal assurance requirements added approximately 58% to the development cost of security-critical software. In exchange for these costs, the formal assurance tasks (formal specifications, proofs, and specification code correspondence) uncovered 68% of the security flaws detected in LOCK's critical security mechanisms. However, a study of flaw detection during the SMG program found that only 14% of all flaws detected were of the type that could be detected using formal assurance, and that the work of the formal assusrance team only accounted for 19% of all flaws detected. While formal assurance is clearly effective at detecting flaws, its practicality hinges on the degree to which the formally modeled system properties represent all of a system's esential properties.
28904616
Designing backpacks for high fidelity mobile outdoor augmented reality
This paper presents the design for our latest backpack to support mobile outdoor augmented reality, and how it evolved from lessons learned with our previous designs. We present a number of novel features which help to reduce size and weight, improve reliability and ease of configuration, and reduce CPU usage on laptop computers.
39456630
Technology Introduction in a Systemic Context for IT Project Success
The management of information technology (IT) introduction is a complex, interconnected systemic process. Sub-optimal solutions may result when an enterprise fails to analyse a broad spectrum of worthy solutions, taking a systemic standpoint. The information technologies selected and the means adopted to introduce those technologies, can be crucial to the eventual success or failure of an IT project. In this paper various analyses crucial to the management of change are identified and critically examined. The potential consequences of failure to successfully carry out such analyses are canvassed.
16344666
A Model for Learning Systems
A model for learning systems is presented, and representative AI, pattern recognition, and control systems are discussed in terms of its framework. The model details the functional components felt to be essential for any learning system, independent of the techniques used for its construction, and the specific environment in which it operates. These components are Performance element, instance selector, critic, earning element, blackboard, and world model. Consideration of learning system design leads naturally to the concept of a layered system, each layer operating at a different level of abstraction.
18629340
Report on the 1984 Distributed Artificial Intelligence Workshop
The fifth Distributed Artificial Intclligencc Workshop tias held at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Laboratory from October 14 to 17, 1984 It was attended by 20 participants from academic and industrial institutions. As in the past,’ this workshop was designed as an informal meeting It included brief research rcport,s from individual groups along with genera1 discussion of questions of common interest. This report summarizes the general discussion and contains summaries of group presentations that have been contributed by individual speakers to scale the resources applied to a problem). Others arc motivated by problem characteristics, such as natural spatial or functional distribution. Finally, some researchers are motivated by the observation that some issues in problcm solving and reasoning (e.g., communication and coherent cooperation) are brought into sharp focus in the distributed setting. The main body of this report contains summaries written by individual attcndces of the workshop. This is, in turn, followed by a brief smnmary of the gcncral discus