In this thesis, we demonstrate how developers can make use of the model driven architecture (MDA) techniques to make the software development process more reliable, robust and less costly. We will focus on discussing a set of transformation techniques that together, transform a PSM (Platform Specific Model) into a code model written in Visual Basic.NET and an ER (Entity Relationship) model developed using SQL (Structured query Language) and targeting the Microsoft SQL Server relational database management system. The source model is assumed to be represented using UML (Unified Modeling Language). ...

The Grid initiative provides an infrastructure for distributed computation among widely distributed high-performance computers. This will allow for exchanging and processing very large amounts of data. There are a huge number of applications that are geographically distributed such as multi-point radio facility for astrophysics, space physics, atmospheric physics, and radio research, utilizing very high performance Grid Computing. It is expected that similar applications to become important in commercial settings, initially for scientific and technical computing applications and then for commercial ...

A denial of service (DoS) attack is an attempt by a person or a group of persons to cripple an online service. This can have serious consequences on companies like Amazon and eBay, which rely on their online availability to do business. Many defense mechanisms have been proposed to thwart DoS attacks. One of these defense mechanisms is called hop-count filtering. Although an attacker can forge any field in the IP header, he or she cannot falsify the number of hops an IP packet takes to reach its destination. This hop-count information can be inferred from the time-to-live value in the IP header. ...

The aim of this thesis is to deluge the latest studies in chaotic dynamics and their relevance in neural computing, as also to inspect a new learning algorithm for a network of chaotic spiking neurons as it is recently proposed by Nigel Crook et al. [1]. The thesis will tackle the latest research in the field of information processing and chaotic neural networks, and will contribute to the recent work of Nigel Crook et al. [1] by finding a suitable learning algorithm for chaotic neurons. The learning algorithm based on biological realism will be implemented in a network of chaotic spiking ...

This thesis examines the different type of agents, and how they help evolve the world around, most particularly the way business are undertaken and handled. The following work is based upon the DALIA environment, which stands for Distributed Autonomous and Linguistically Competent Agents. In this work I have extended and improved the DALIA agent negotiation aspect, where two agents are involved in an offer and counter-offer negotiations. The model presented by DALIA for the offers and counter offers ia investigated and the weak points in the negotiation paradigm are identified. A strategy is ...

Retail space planning is an accurate and complex process affecting the overall performance of a retail environment. Such task, confronting large retailers consisting of huge malls and hypermarkets, appears infinite in the absence of a complete automated process, starting from the store plan generation, passing by the optimal product assortment and finishing with the product-to-shelf allocation problem. Moreover, the ever-changing factors affecting the retail space planning process, such as merchandising rules, competitive strategies and consumer behavior require continuous follow-up and optimization ...

The scheduling problem is one of the most challenging problems faced in many different areas of everyday life. This problem can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem, and it has been solved with various methods using heuristics and intelligent algorithms. We present in this research an efficient solution to the scheduling problem using two different heuristics namely Simulated Annealing and Ant Colony Optimization. A study comparing the performances of both solutions is described and the results are analyzed.

We need the following definitions: An integral domain is a commutative unitary ring with no zero divisors. A principal ideal domain (PID) is an integral domain in which every ideal can be generated by one element. A unique factorization domain (UFD) is an integral domain in which factorization of integers into primes is unique. (more details later). An integral domain R is said to be a Euclidean ring if for every a≠0 in R there is a defined integer d(a) such that: For all a,b € R, both non zero, d(a) ≤d(ab). For all a,b € R, both non zero, there exists t,r € R such that a=tb+r where either r=0 ...

Web services are form of middleware to exchange information between systems over a network. With the advent of the age of mobile devices and their diversity, the importance of web services became all the more apparent. Every web service grants certain functionality and can utilize other web services to gain more functionality and more robustness. Such a service that combines the functionality of other services is called a composite service and the process of designing such a service is called a composition. This thesis studies an on-the-fly algorithm that efficiently checks for the possibility ...

This study is part of a newly growing science in exoplanet characteristics. We present an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between the eclipse depth of giant exoplanets and the metallicity of their host stars to show the best eclipse depth-metallicity trend. This will help us to better understand the conditions that lead to giant planets formation, which helps to postulate about the formation of our Solar System and more generally the planet formation theories. Previous studies have shown that stars with giant planets tend to have higher metallicities than stars without giant ...