14708618
Enhancing UML Conceptual Modeling through the Use of Virtual Reality
UML is one of the major conceptual modeling tools in Object-Oriented software engineering. However, recently more and more concerns arise from the modeling quality of UML. Among them, limitation of the two-dimensional presentation of its notations is reported to be significant. By bringing in the concepts of Steoropsis (3-D appearance), animation, interaction and immersion, Virtual Reality may improve the UML modeling quality. Specifically, in this paper we analyze the modeling quality of UML by using recent published literature in conceptual modeling. We then recommend the use of Virtual Reality to enhance the modeling quality of UML. Some examples of how Virtual Reality can be used to improve UML modeling quality are given. Finally, we propose a research framework for enhancing the quality of UML conceptual modeling through the use of Virtual Reality.
32843088
Analysis of Zipf's law: An index approach
Abstract A rigorous analysis of Zipf's law is made using an index for the sequence of observed values of the variables in a Zipf-type relationship. Three important properties relating rank, count, and frequency are identified. Using this approach, the shape of Zipf-type curves can be described in terms of three distinct regions and two parameters of the Mandelbrot-Zipf law. This result has considerable practical significance, since it provides rigorous foundations for the application of Zipf's law.
16469592
IT businesses and franchising: a research proposal
Franchising has been popular as a growth strategy for small businesses; it is even more so in today's global and information-based economy. In early 2001, Entrepreneur magazine-well known for its Franchise 500 listing-added a tech businesses category to its franchise zone with three subcategories: Internet businesses, tech training, and miscellaneous tech businesses. This study applies Herbert Simon's model for business firm growth as a theory-grounded solution to help managers understand the growth dynamics of IT-based franchising businesses. We present a research proposal with a pilot study of the growth of 27 IT-based franchise businesses, and explain how to relate the parameters of Simon's model to strategic variables that can give managers a valuable strategic tool to understand the context of their industrial competition in IT-based franchising.
18308344
Using Colored Petri Nets for Conversation Modeling
Conversations are a useful means of structuring communicative interactions among agents. The value of a conversation-based approach is largely determined by the conversational model it uses. Finite State Machines, used heavily to date for this purpose, are not sufficient for complex agent interactions requiring a notion of concurrency. We propose the use of Colored Petri Nets as a model underlying a language for conversation specification. This carries the relative simplicity and graphical representation of the former approach, along with greater expressive power and support for concurrency. The construction of such a language, Protolingua, is currently being investigated within the framework of the Jackal agent development environment. In this paper, we explore the use of Colored Petri Nets in modeling agent communicative interaction.
18395542
Adaptive Web Services Testing
Web services (WS) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) present a set of unique testing challenges. As services are distributed, it is necessary to test them using a distributed architecture. Furthermore, as these services may keep on changing, testing needs to be adaptive. This paper proposes an adaptive testing framework which can continuously learn and improve the built-in test strategies. The framework allows different test cases to be selected based on the recent test results. The framework also has a windowing mechanism to evaluate and select test cases.
40831365
Mining Frequent Spatial Patterns in Image Databases
Mining useful patterns in image databases can not only reveal useful information to users but also help the task of data management. In this paper, we propose an image mining framework, Frequent Spatial Pattern mining in images (FSP), to mine frequent patterns located in a pair of spatial locations of images. A pattern in the FSP is associated with a pair of spatial locations and refers to the occurrence of the same image content in a set of images. This framework is designed to be general so as to accept different levels of representations of image content and different layout forms of spatial representations.
8362551
Using simulation to facilitate the study of software product line evolution
A product line approach is a disciplined methodology for strategic reuse of source code, requirement specifications, software architectures, design models, components, test cases, and the processes for using the aforementioned artifacts. Software process simulation modeling is a valuable tool for enabling decision making for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from adoption and strategic management to process improvement and planning. In this paper, discrete event simulation is used to provide a framework for the simulation of software product line engineering. We have created an environment that facilitates strategic management and long-term forecasting with respect to software product line development and evolution.
17642380
Evolutionary Modeling of Ordinary Differential Equations for Dynamic Systems
This paper presents a new idea of modeling one-dimensional dynamic systems by higher-order ordinary differential equation (HODE) models in stead of by the ARMA models used in the traditional time series analysis. Accordingly, based on the idea of hybrid evolutionary modeling, we modify the HEMA algorithm in (Cao et al., 1998a; Cao et al., 1998b) to approach the modeling problem of HODEs for dynamic systems. Two applications of time series are used to demonstrate its effectiveness and advantages.