6628850
A qualitative assessment of the efficacy of UML diagrams as a form of graphical documentation in aiding program understanding
Graphical documentation is often characterized as an effective aid in program understanding. However, it is an open question exactly which types of graphical documentation are most suitable for which types of program understanding tasks (and in which specific usage contexts). The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the de facto standard for modeling modern software applications. This paper describes an experiment to assess the qualitative efficacy of UML diagrams in aiding program understanding. The experiment had participants analyze a series of UML diagrams and answer a detailed questionnaire concerning a hypothetical software system. Results from the experiment suggest that the UML's efficacy in support of program understanding is limited by factors such as ill-defined syntax and semantics, spatial layout, and domain knowledge.
6767443
Report from the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Course Projects (SWECP 2005)
This paper reports on the activities and results from the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering Course Projects (SWECP 2005), which was held on October 18, 2005 in Toronto, Canada. Creating software engineering course projects for undergraduate students is a challenging task. The instructor must carefully balance the conflicting goals of academic rigor and industrial relevance. Some of the fundamental characteristics of software engineering projects (e.g., team-based, large-scale, long-lived) are difficult to realize within the constraints of a university course in a single semester. This is particularly true when dealing with young students who may lack the real-world experience needed to appreciate some of the more subtle aspects of software engineering. This workshop explored how educators and industry can work together to develop a more rewarding educational experience for all stakeholders involved. Several key themes emerged from the workshop, including the importance of forming teams that are fair and balanced, the challenges in selecting a project that engages the students and meets the goals of the course, and the need for knowledge transfer amongst instructors.
14387450
Adoption challenges in migrating to web services
This paper outlines some of the challenges inherent in migrating to Web services. Technology adoption is a continual challenge for both tool developers and enterprise users. Web services are a prime example of a red-hot technology that is fraught with adoption issues. Part of the problem is separating marketing hype from business reality. Web services are network-accessible interfaces to application functionality. They are built using Internet technologies such as XML and standard protocols such as SOAP. The adoption issues related to Web services are complex and multifaceted. For example, determining whether this technology is a fundamental advance, rather than something old under a new name, requires technical depth, business acumen, and considerable historical knowledge of past claims. A model problem from the health care industry is used to illustrate some of the adoption issues that arise in migrating to Web services.
42165633
On the business value and technical challenges of adopting Web services
This paper provides a balanced perspective of the business value and technical challenges of adopting Web services. Technology adoption is a continual challenge for both tool developers and enterprise users. Web services are a prime example of an emerging technology that is fraught with adoption issues. Part of the problem is separating marketing hype from business reality. Web services are network-accessible interfaces to application functionality. They are built using Internet technologies such as XML and standard protocols such as SOAP. The adoption issues related to Web services are complex and multifaceted. For example, determining whether this technology is a fundamental advance, rather than something old under a new name, requires technical depth, business acumen, and considerable historical knowledge of past developments. A sample problem from the health care industry is used to illustrate some of the adoption issues.
2797141
Evaluating the reverse engineering capabilities of Web tools for understanding site content and structure: a case study
This paper describes an evaluation of the reverse engineering capabilities of three Web tools for understanding site content and structure. The evaluation is based on partitioning Web sites into three classes (static, interactive, and dynamic), and is structured using an existing reverse engineering environment framework (REEF). This case study also represents an initial evaluation of the applicability of the REEF in the related but qualitatively different domain of Web sites. The case study highlights several shortcomings of current Web tools in the context of aiding understanding to support evolution. For example, most Web tools are geared towards new page design and development, not to understanding detailed page content or overall site structure. The evaluation also identified some aspects of the REEF that might benefit from refinement to better reflect Web tool capabilities that support common evolution tasks. For example, Web server log file analysis as a specialized form of data gathering and subsequence information presentation.
46726074
Adaptive computation-aware scheme for software-based predictive block motion estimation
Abstract The progress in computer processing power makes the use of a software codec (encoder and decoder) a feasible solution in many real-time video applications. The efficient distribution of available processing power to frames and blocks by a software codec resulting in higher output quality comprises two phases: (1) frame-level computation distribution and (2) block-level computation allocation. Predictive block motion estimation algorithms are widely employed in current video coding standards to remove the temporal redundancy, but they do not have the ability to distribute available processing power. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes an efficient frame-level computation distribution scheme based on a sliding window approach and an adaptive block-level scheme which adaptively switches between a predictive computation distortion benefit list heuristic and a buffer control like procedure. Experimental results demonstrate that the output quality of software-based predictive block motion estimation algorithms can be uniformly improved by the proposed schemes.
17764116
Identifying transcriptional regulatory sites in the human genome using an integrated computation
Recently, biological databases and analytical methods have become available for analyzing gene expression and transcriptional regulatory sequences. However, users must make the complicated analyses to query the data in various databases, and to analyze the gene upstreams using various predictive tools. Beyond methods for predicting transcriptional regulatory sites, new automated and integrated methods for analyzing gene upstream sequences on a higher level are urgently required. We present an integrated system to predict transcriptional regulatory sites and detect co-occurrence of these regulatory sites after a set of genes are input. The system comprises a biological data warehousing system, pattern discovery programs, pattern occurrence association detectors and user interfaces. User profiles and history pages enable users to trace the sequence analyses for transcriptional regulatory sites.
53306687
Identifying the combination of genetic factors that determine susceptibility to cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is common among women all over the world. Although infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) has been identified as the primary cause of cervical cancer, only some of those infected go on to develop cervical cancer. Obviously, the progression from HPV infection to cancer involves other environmental and host factors. Recent population-based twin and family studies have demonstrated the importance of the hereditary component of cervical cancer, associated with genetic susceptibility. Consequently, SNP markers and microsatellites should be considered genetic factors for determining what combinations of genetic factors are involved in precancerous changes to cervical cancer. This study employs a Bayesian network and four different decision tree algorithms, and compares the performance of these learning algorithms. The results of this study raise the possibility of investigations that could identify combinations of genetic factors, such as SNPs and microsatellites, that influence the risk associated with common complex multifactorial diseases, such as cervical cancer. The web site associated with this study is http://dblab8.csie.ncu.edu.tw/FactorAnalysis/.
16363094
A network security processor design based on an integrated SOC design and test platform
In this paper we present a generic network security processor (NSP) design suitable for a wide range of security related protocols in wired or wireless network applications. Following the platform-based design methodology, we develop four specific platforms, i.e., architecture platform, EDA platform, design-for-testability (DFT) platform, and prototyping platform, for our NSP design. With these platforms, design of the NSP chip becomes more efficient and systematic. A prototype chip of the NSP has been implemented and fabricated with a 0.18 mum CMOS technology. The chip area is 5 mm times 5 mm (with 1M gates approximately), including I/O pads. The operating clock rate is 80 MHz. The best performance of the crypto-engines is 1.025 Gbps for AES, 1.652 Mbps for RSA, 125.9/157.65 Mbps for HMAC-SHA1/MD5, and 2.56 Gbps for random number generator. Comparison result shows that our NSP is efficient in terms of performance, flexibility and scalability
12033624
Computing motif correlations in proteins
Protein motifs, which are specific regions and conserved regions, are found by comparing multiple protein sequences. These conserved regions in general play an important role in protein functions and protein folds, for example, for their binding properties or enzymatic activities. The aim here is to find the existence correlations of protein motifs. The knowledge of protein motif/domain sharing should be important in shedding new light on the biologic functions of proteins and offering a basis in analyzing the evolution in the human genome or other genomes. The protein sequences used here are obtained from the PIR-NREF database and the protein motifs are retrieved from the PROSITE database. We apply data mining approach to discover the occurrence correlations of motif in protein sequences. The correlation of motifs mined can be used in evolution analyses and protein structure prediction. We discuss the latter, i.e., protein structure prediction in this study. The correlations mined are stored and maintained in a database system. The database is now available at http://bioinfo.csie.ncu.edu.tw/ProMotif/.