Calibrating software reliability models when the test environment does not match the user environment

Software failures have become the major factor that brings the system down or causes a degradation in the quality of service. For many applications, estimating the software failure rate from a user's perspective helps the development team evaluate the reliability of the software and determine the release time properly. Traditionally, software reliability growth models are applied to system test data with the hope of estimating the software failure rate in the field. Given the aggressive nature by which the software is exercised during system test, as well as unavoidable differences between the test environment and the field environment, the resulting estimate of the failure rate will not typically reflect the user‐perceived failure rate in the field. The goal of this work is to quantify the mismatch between the system test environment and the field environment. A calibration factor is proposed to map the failure rate estimated from the system test data to the failure rate that will be observed in the field. Non‐homogeneous Poisson process models are utilized to estimate the software failure rate in both the system test phase and the field. For projects that have only system test data, use of the calibration factor provides an estimate of the field failure rate that would otherwise be unavailable. For projects that have both system test data and previous field data, the calibration factor can be explicitly evaluated and used to estimate the field failure rate of future releases as their system test data becomes available. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global expression analysis of CESA and CSL genes in Arabidopsis

We have used Affymetrix gene chips to measure the expression of 10 CESA and 29 CSL genes of Arabidopsis in different developmental stages or organs. These measurements reveal that many of the genes exhibit different levels of expression in the various organs. While several CESA genes are highly expressed in all the tissues examined, very few CSL genes approach such high levels of expression. This suggests that the CSL genes either encode enzymes for the synthesis of minor components of cell walls or are expressed only in specific cell types. The expression data also highlights the potential importance of the CESA genes for primary and secondary cell wall formation during different developmental stages and in the different organs examined.     

Stability radii of positive linear Volterra-Stieltjes equations

We study stability radii of linear Volterra-Stieltjes equations under multi-perturbations and affine perturbations. A lower and upper bound for the complex stability radius with respect to multi-perturbations are given. Furthermore, in some special cases concerning the structure matrices, the complex stability radius can precisely be computed via the associated transfer functions. Then, the class of positive linear Volterra-Stieltjes equations is studied in detail. It is shown that for this class, complex, real and positive stability radius under multi-perturbations or multi-affine perturbations coincide and can be computed by simple formulae expressed in terms of the system matrices. As direct consequences of the obtained results, we get some results on robust stability of positive linear integro-differential equations and of positive linear functional differential equations. To the best of our knowledge, most of the results of this paper are new.     

Diffraction by a wedge at skew incidence: integral representations of Cauchy-Carleman for the electromagnetic fields

An electromagnetic diffraction problem in a wedge shaped region is reduced to a system of coupled functional difference equations by means of Sommerfeld integrals and Malyuzhinets theorem. By introducing an integral operator it is shown that the solutions of this system of functional equations can be defined in terms of integral representations whose kernels are solutions of a singular integral equation of Cauchy-Carleman type for which an explicit solution is given.     

The effect of olefinic terminal chains on the mesomorphic properties of 4,4'-disubstituted diphenyldiacetylenes

New diphenyldiacetylenes of the type with A, B = H and/or F; m = 0, 1; n = 1-4; and X = C n H 2n + 1 , F, CF 3 or CN were synthesized and their mesomorphic properties determined by hot stage polarizing microscopy and DSC. When m = 0, all of these compounds showed only a nematic phase except when X = CF 3 when both nematic and smectic A phases were seen. Both clearing and melting temperatures were higher than those reported for substitution with the corresponding alkyl chains but the much larger increase in clearing temperatures produced considerably wider nematic phases. Eutectic mixtures of a few of these olefins yielded nematic materials also having much wider temperature ranges and higher clearing temperatures than the eutectic mixtures of the alkyl compounds, while retaining their high birefringence and low viscosities. Such materials are of interest for beam-steering devices.

Four of the diacetylenes with m = 1 ( A, B = H) were also prepared ( X = C 6 H 13 , F, n = 2, 3). When X was C 6 H 13 ( n = 2), the nematic range was smaller in the 2- than in the 1-olefin but wider than in the alkyl series. When X = F, either no nematic phase or a monotropic one was observed, whereas the 1-olefins gave a much wider nematic phase. Both transition temperatures were lower than those for the corresponding 1-olefin and alkyl analogues. The compound with X = C 6 H 13 and n = 2 had a melting temperature below room temperature.     

Stability of translating solutions to mean curvature flow

We prove stability of rotationally symmetric translating solutions to mean curvature flow. For initial data that converge spatially at infinity to such a soliton, we obtain convergence for large times to that soliton without imposing any decay rates. The authors are members of SFB 647/B3 “Raum – Zeit – Materie: Singularity Structure, Long-time Behaviour and Dynamics of Solutions of Non-linear Evolution Equations”.     

On bounding the effective conductivity of isotropic composite materials

In this paper inequalities for the effective conductivity of isotropic composite materials are derived. These inequalities depend on several coefficients characterizing the microstructure of composites. The obtained coefficients can be exactly calculated for models of a two-component aggregate of multisized, coated ellipsoidal inclusions, packed to fill all space. As a result, new bounds for effective conductivity, considerably narrower than those of Hashin-Shtrikman, are established for such models of composite materials.     

Using Inquiry to Improve Pedagogy through K‐12/University Partnerships

This article focuses on the impact a collaborative project between university graduate fellows and K‐12 classroom teachers had on improved pedagogy in the classroom and in the future at the university. Nine teams participated in a yearlong professional development project to improve pedagogy and communication skills of the participants. This study shows that the participants, the fellows and the K‐12 teacher partners, made changes in planning, implementation, and even motivation for using inquiry‐based methods in their classroom. External observations of the teams further support the individuals' claims of improved pedagogy using inquiry and impact on student conceptual understanding. The Horizon Classroom Observation instrument was used for these observations. The teams showed an overall increase in scores, as well as overall effective and exemplarily implementation of their planning. The program design, the implementation, and the results of this three‐year study will be elaborated in this article.