（Dis）Economies of Scale in Business Software Systems Development and Enhancement Projects

In the software engineering literature, it is commonly believed that economies of scale do not occur in case of software Development and Enhancement Projects （D＆EP）. Their per-unit cost does not decrease but increase with the growth of such projects product size. Thus this is diseconomies of scale that occur in them. The significance of this phenomenon results from the fact that it is commonly considered to be one of the fundamental objective causes of their low effectiveness. This is of particular significance with regard to Business Software Systems （BSS） D＆EP characterized by exceptionally low effectiveness comparing to other software D＆EP. Thus the paper aims at answering the following two questions： （1） Do economies of scale really not occur in BSS D＆EP？ （2） If economies of scale may occur in BSS D＆EP, what factors are then promoting them？ These issues classify into economics problems of software engineering research and practice.

Project Systems Engineering for Developing Space Robots

Space robots possess unique distinguishing features unlike general robots on earth, due to the particular environments in space. The developing of various practical space robots promoting the improvement of space science and technology is a complex man-machine-environment engineering problem. This paper analyses from the systems engineering viewpoint the space robot system in the scope of the architecture of robotics discipline, space environment characteristics, man-machine-environment system of space robots, the general methodology of project systems engineering and the process of space robot systems engineering.

An Information Systems Project Management Course Using a Service-Learning Model

This paper describes the implementation of an Information Systems （IS） capstone project management course that is a requirement for graduating seniors in an undergraduate Computer Information Systems （CIS） program at a regional university. The description provides a model which includes the culmination of students＇ academic training in an IS curriculum which is part of a Bachelor of Business Administration （BBA） program in an accredited college of business. The course requires an application of technical and business skills, as well as systems development and project management skills--while students are working on an actual IS project for an external sponsoring organization. Rationale for implementing this type of course includes the benefits it provides to the students, the project sponsors, and the IS department providing the course. Feedback from the course is used as integral part of the C1S curriculum assessment process used for accreditation purposes.

Modified projective synchronization with complex scaling factors of uncertain real chaos and complex chaos

To increase the variety and security of communication, we present the definitions of modified projective synchronization with complex scaling factors （CMPS） of real chaotic systems and complex chaotic systems, where complex scaling factors establish a link between real chaos and complex chaos. Considering all situations of unknown parameters and pseudo-gradient condition, we design adaptive CMPS schemes based on the speed-gradient method for the real drive chaotic system and complex response chaotic system and for the complex drive chaotic system and the real response chaotic system, respectively. The convergence factors and dynamical control strength are added to regulate the convergence speed and increase robustness. Numerical simulations verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented schemes.

Wavelet-Based Mixed-Resolution Coding Approach Incorporating with SPT for the Stereo Image

With the advances of display technology, three-dimensional(3-D) imaging systems are becoming increasingly popular. One way of stimulating 3-D perception is to use stereo pairs, a pair of images of the same scene acquired from different perspectives. Since there is an inherent redundancy between the images of a stereo pairs, data compression algorithms should be employed to represent stereo pairs efficiently. The proposed techniques generally use block-based disparity compensation. In order to get the higher compression ratio, this paper employs the wavelet-based mixed-resolution coding technique to incorporate with SPT-based disparity-compensation to compress the stereo image data. The mixed-resolution coding is a perceptually justified technique that is achieved by presenting one eye with a low-resolution image and the other with a high-resolution image. Psychophysical experiments show that the stereo image pairs with one high-resolution image and one low-resolution image provide almost the same stereo depth to that of a stereo image with two high-resolution images. By combining the mixed-resolution coding and SPT-based disparity-compensation techniques, one reference (left) high-resolution image can be compressed by a hierarchical wavelet transform followed by vector quantization and Huffman encoder. After two level wavelet decompositions, for the low-resolution right image and low-resolution left image, subspace projection technique using the fixed block size disparity compensation estimation is used. At the decoder, the low-resolution right subimage is estimated using the disparity from the low-resolution left subimage. A full-size reconstruction is obtained by upsampling a factor of 4 and reconstructing with the synthesis low pass filter. Finally, experimental results are presented, which show that our scheme achieves a PSNR gain (about 0.92dB) as compared to the current block-based disparity compensation coding techniques.

Harmonization of Spatial Discrepancies from Land-related Data and Information Using Geospatial Technologies： A Case Study of OI-Kalou Township in Nyandarua County, Kenya

This paper explores potential of Remote Sensing and Geospatial Information Systems as viable tools for data collection, processing, transformation and adjustment of cadastral data discrepancies often noted by geospatial practitioners during rasterization and vectorization of land related data. Necessary datasets were collected employing main approach/procedure of scanning, georeferencing, digitization, transformation and analysis in that order, to amalgamate and harmonize all datasets into one common projection and coordinate system （Universal Transverse Mercator （UTM） on Arc-Datum 1960）. Discrepancies in derived areas against recorded values in land registries were noted, smaller parcels exhibited smaller discrepancies and vice versa. Discrepancies were found to be directly proportional to the parcel areas/sizes although large parcels （〉 1000 m2） exhibited abnormally high discrepancies. This procedure yielded systematic discrepancies that could be minimized by use of a fifth order polynomial. Resultant residuals were found to be tolerably low and could be ignored for small parcels （〈 1000 m2）. Final outputs included automated GIS geodatabase cadastre, containing cadastral attributes harmonized to one projection and coordinate system that can be overlaid to other datasets from engineering design and construction works, geological and geotechnical investigation surveys, etc. tied to Remote Sensing data without the requirement of further transformations.