Software fault-freeness and reliability predictions

Many software development practices aim at ensuring that software is correct, or fault-free. In safety critical applications, requirements are in terms of probabilities of certain behaviours, e.g. as associated to the Safety Integrity Levels of IEC 61508. The two forms of reasoning - about evidence of correctness and about probabilities of certain failures -are rarely brought together explicitly. The desirability of using claims of correctness has been argued by many authors, but not been taken up in practice. We address how to combine evidence concerning probability of failure together with evidence pertaining to likelihood of fault-freeness, in a Bayesian framework. We present novel results to make this approach practical, by guaranteeing reliability predictions that are conservative (err on the side of pessimism), despite the difficulty of stating prior probability distributions for reliability parameters. This approach seems suitable for practical application to assessment of certain classes of safety critical systems

Fourier transform for quantum DD-modules via the punctured torus mapping class group

We construct a certain cross product of two copies of the braided dual $\tilde H$ of a quasitriangular Hopf algebra $H$, which we call the elliptic double $E_H$, and which we use to construct representations of the punctured elliptic braid group extending the well-known representations of the planar braid group attached to $H$. We show that the elliptic double is the universal source of such representations. We recover the representations of the punctured torus braid group obtained in arXiv:0805.2766, and hence construct a homomorphism to the Heisenberg double $D_H$, which is an isomorphism if $H$ is factorizable. The universal property of $E_H$ endows it with an action by algebra automorphisms of the mapping class group $\widetilde{SL_2(\mathbb{Z})}$ of the punctured torus. One such automorphism we call the quantum Fourier transform; we show that when $H=U_q(\mathfrak{g})$, the quantum Fourier transform degenerates to the classical Fourier transform on $D(\mathfrak{g})$ as $q\to 1$.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. Final version, to appear in Quantum Topolog

Transformational capacity and the influence of place and identity

Climate change is altering the productivity of natural resources with far-reaching implications for those who depend on them. Resource-dependent industries and communities need the capacity to adapt to a range of climate risks if they are to remain viable. In some instances, the scale and nature of the likely impacts means that transformations of function or structure will be required. Transformations represent a switch to a distinct new system where a different suite of factors become important in the design and implementation of response strategies. There is a critical gap in knowledge on understanding transformational capacity and its influences. On the basis of current knowledge on adaptive capacity we propose four foundations for measuring transformational capacity: (1)how risks and uncertainty are managed, (2)the extent of skills in planning, learning and reorganizing, (3)the level of financial and psychological flexibility to undertake change and (4)the willingness to undertake change. We test the influence of place attachment and occupational identity on transformational capacity using the Australian peanut industry, which is presently assessing significant structural change in response to predicted climatic changes. Survey data from 88% of peanut farmers in Queensland show a strong negative correlation between transformational capacity and both place attachment and occupational attachment, suggesting that whilst these factors may be important positive influences on the capacity to adapt to incremental change, they act as barriers to transformational change

Modeling Concurrency in Parallel Debugging

We propose a description language, Data Path Expressions (DPEs), for modeling the behavior of parallel programs. We have designed DPEs as a high-level debugging language, where the debugging paradigm is for the programmer to describe the expected program behavior and for the debugger to compare the actual program behavior during execution to detect program errors. We classify DPEs into five subclasses according to syntactic criteria, and characterize their semantics in terms of a hierarchy of extended Petri Net models. The characterization demonstrates the power of DPEs for modeling (true) concurrency. We also present predecessor automata as a mechanism for implementing the third subclass of DPEs, which expresses bounded parallelism. Predecessor automata extend finite state automata to recognize or generate partial ordering graphs as well as strings, and provide efficient event recognizers for parallel debugging. We briefly describe the application of DPEs race conditions, deadlock and starvation

Landholder Typologies Used in the Development of Natural Resource Management Programs in Australia - A Review

This article reviews the literature on the identification of landholder typologies that can be used to assist the design and delivery of natural resource management (NRM) programs. Australian researchers have developed typologies of landholders based on a variety of criteria. The rationale for developing landholder typologies is first discussed before reviewing the various approaches that have been used by Australian researchers and comparing their findings. The methods employed have differed according to the theories used to guide the research and the 'clients' or 'sponsors' of the research. The landholder types they describe, however, have a number of similarities. These similarities suggest that the studies have identified the same fundamental divisions in the rural community, and that it may be possible to integrate landholder typologies for a variety of NRM and non-NRM applications. It is concluded that further research could usefully investigate whether concepts of social class or sub-cultures may be appropriate to define and describe the variations in landholder types

Comparative Analysis of the RADWQ Report and Academic Literature on the Quality of Water in Nigeria.

This paper compares analyses of water quality in Nigeria presented in the academic literature with that reported by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the Rapid Assessment of Drinking Water Quality (RADWQ) programme. Bibliographic and grey literature databases were used to identify studies of microbial and physicochemical water quality in Nigeria. We screened 521 study abstracts and identified 90 relevant studies based on 11,648 water samples. For each relevant study, we recorded the number of water samples, the location/hydrological areas and the water source that was analysed. The percentage compliance for the academic literature with the WHO guideline for each of these parameters was obtained and compared to the RADWQs result. We then analysed these results with the same method used for the RADWQ report to compare results from both studies. We found little variation in physicochemical results between the two studies, but a large difference between the identified microbial properties. The overall national average compliance with the WHO guideline value for the academic literature is 53.37%, while that for RADWQ project was 73%. These disparities could be attributed to the huge difference in the total number of water samples analysed, the high level of contamination in the water samples and most notably, the non-representativeness of the water samples in the hydrological areas. Keyword: water quality, microbial properties, physicochemical properties, WHO RADW

The phenology of winter rye in Poland: an analysis of long-term experimental data

The study of the phenology of crops, although quite popular, has limitations, mainly because of frequent changes to crop varieties and management practices. Here, we present data on the phenology and yield of winter rye in western Poland collected between 1957 and 2012 from a long-term field experiment. Data were examined for trends through time and compared to climatological factors using regression analysis. Both annual air temperature and precipitation increased during the study period, equivalent to 2 °C and 186 mm, respectively, over the 52-year period for which met data were available. We detected significant delays in sowing date and recently in emergence, but significant advances were apparent in full flowering date equivalent to 4 days/decade. Yield and plant density experienced a step like change in 1986; yield increasing by ca. 70 % and plant density increasing by ca. 50 %, almost coinciding with a similar change in annual mean temperature, but most likely caused by a changed seed rate and use of herbicides. Future climate change is expected to have a greater impact on this crop, but farmers may be able to adapt to these changes by modifying water regimes, using new machinery and sowing new rye varieties

Changing perceptions and practices regarding aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and cyclooxygenase-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs among US primary care providers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74775/1/j.1365-2036.2008.03836.x.pd