Building Custom Spreadsheet Functions with Python: End-User Software Engineering Approach

End-user computing empowers non-developers to manage data and applications, enhancing collaboration and efficiency. Spreadsheets, a prime example of end-user programming environments widely used in business for data analysis. However, Excel functionalities have limits compared to dedicated programming languages. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a prototype for integrating Python’s capabilities into Excel through on-premises desktop to build custom spreadsheet functions with Python. This approach overcomes potential latency issues associated with cloud-based solutions. This prototype utilizes Excel-DNA and IronPython. Excel-DNA allows creating custom Python functions that seamlessly integrate with Excel’s calculation engine. IronPython enables the execution of these Python (CSFs) directly within Excel. C# and VSTO add-ins form the core components, facilitating communication between Python and Excel. This approach empowers users with a potentially open-ended set of Python (CSFs) for tasks like mathematical calculations, statistical analysis, and even predictive modeling, all within the familiar Excel interface. This prototype demonstrates smooth integration, allowing users to call Python (CSFs) just like standard Excel functions. This research contributes to enhancing spreadsheet capabilities for end-user programmers by leveraging Python’s power within Excel. Future research could explore expanding data analysis capabilities by expanding the (CSFs) functions for complex calculations, statistical analysis, data manipulation, and even external library integration. The possibility of integrating machine learning models through the (CSFs) functions within the familiar Excel environment.

Software Defect Prediction Method Based on Stable Learning

The purpose of software defect prediction is to identify defect-prone code modules to assist software quality assurance teams with the appropriate allocation of resources and labor.In previous software defect prediction studies,transfer learning was effective in solving the problem of inconsistent project data distribution.However,target projects often lack sufficient data,which affects the performance of the transfer learning model.In addition,the presence of uncorrelated features between projects can decrease the prediction accuracy of the transfer learning model.To address these problems,this article propose a software defect prediction method based on stable learning(SDP-SL)that combines code visualization techniques and residual networks.This method first transforms code files into code images using code visualization techniques and then constructs a defect prediction model based on these code images.During the model training process,target project data are not required as prior knowledge.Following the principles of stable learning,this paper dynamically adjusted the weights of source project samples to eliminate dependencies between features,thereby capturing the“invariance mechanism”within the data.This approach explores the genuine relationship between code defect features and labels,thereby enhancing defect prediction performance.To evaluate the performance of SDP-SL,this article conducted comparative experiments on 10 open-source projects in the PROMISE dataset.The experimental results demonstrated that in terms of the F-measure,the proposed SDP-SL method outperformed other within-project defect prediction methods by 2.11%-44.03%.In cross-project defect prediction,the SDP-SL method provided an improvement of 5.89%-25.46% in prediction performance compared to other cross-project defect prediction methods.Therefore,SDP-SL can effectively enhance within-and cross-project defect predictions.

Open-Source Software Defined Networking Controllers:State-of-the-Art,Challenges and Solutions for Future Network Providers

Software Defined Networking(SDN)is programmable by separation of forwarding control through the centralization of the controller.The controller plays the role of the‘brain’that dictates the intelligent part of SDN technology.Various versions of SDN controllers exist as a response to the diverse demands and functions expected of them.There are several SDN controllers available in the open market besides a large number of commercial controllers;some are developed tomeet carrier-grade service levels and one of the recent trends in open-source SDN controllers is the Open Network Operating System(ONOS).This paper presents a comparative study between open source SDN controllers,which are known as Network Controller Platform(NOX),Python-based Network Controller(POX),component-based SDN framework(Ryu),Java-based OpenFlow controller(Floodlight),OpenDayLight(ODL)and ONOS.The discussion is further extended into ONOS architecture,as well as,the evolution of ONOS controllers.This article will review use cases based on ONOS controllers in several application deployments.Moreover,the opportunities and challenges of open source SDN controllers will be discussed,exploring carriergrade ONOS for future real-world deployments,ONOS unique features and identifying the suitable choice of SDN controller for service providers.In addition,we attempt to provide answers to several critical questions relating to the implications of the open-source nature of SDN controllers regarding vendor lock-in,interoperability,and standards compliance,Similarly,real-world use cases of organizations using open-source SDN are highlighted and how the open-source community contributes to the development of SDN controllers.Furthermore,challenges faced by open-source projects,and considerations when choosing an open-source SDN controller are underscored.Then the role of Artificial Intelligence(AI)and Machine Learning(ML)in the evolution of open-source SDN controllers in light of recent research is indicated.In addition,the challenges and limitations associated with deploying open-source SDN controllers in production networks,how can they be mitigated,and finally how opensource SDN controllers handle network security and ensure that network configurations and policies are robust and resilient are presented.Potential opportunities and challenges for future Open SDN deployment are outlined to conclude the article.

Static Analysis Techniques for Fixing Software Defects in MPI-Based Parallel Programs

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is a widely accepted standard for parallel computing on distributed memorysystems.However, MPI implementations can contain defects that impact the reliability and performance of parallelapplications. Detecting and correcting these defects is crucial, yet there is a lack of published models specificallydesigned for correctingMPI defects. To address this, we propose a model for detecting and correcting MPI defects(DC_MPI), which aims to detect and correct defects in various types of MPI communication, including blockingpoint-to-point (BPTP), nonblocking point-to-point (NBPTP), and collective communication (CC). The defectsaddressed by the DC_MPI model include illegal MPI calls, deadlocks (DL), race conditions (RC), and messagemismatches (MM). To assess the effectiveness of the DC_MPI model, we performed experiments on a datasetconsisting of 40 MPI codes. The results indicate that the model achieved a detection rate of 37 out of 40 codes,resulting in an overall detection accuracy of 92.5%. Additionally, the execution duration of the DC_MPI modelranged from 0.81 to 1.36 s. These findings show that the DC_MPI model is useful in detecting and correctingdefects in MPI implementations, thereby enhancing the reliability and performance of parallel applications. TheDC_MPImodel fills an important research gap and provides a valuable tool for improving the quality ofMPI-basedparallel computing systems.

Towards Improving the Quality of Requirement and Testing Process in Agile Software Development:An Empirical Study

Software testing is a critical phase due to misconceptions about ambiguities in the requirements during specification,which affect the testing process.Therefore,it is difficult to identify all faults in software.As requirement changes continuously,it increases the irrelevancy and redundancy during testing.Due to these challenges;fault detection capability decreases and there arises a need to improve the testing process,which is based on changes in requirements specification.In this research,we have developed a model to resolve testing challenges through requirement prioritization and prediction in an agile-based environment.The research objective is to identify the most relevant and meaningful requirements through semantic analysis for correct change analysis.Then compute the similarity of requirements through case-based reasoning,which predicted the requirements for reuse and restricted to error-based requirements.Afterward,the apriori algorithm mapped out requirement frequency to select relevant test cases based on frequently reused or not reused test cases to increase the fault detection rate.Furthermore,the proposed model was evaluated by conducting experiments.The results showed that requirement redundancy and irrelevancy improved due to semantic analysis,which correctly predicted the requirements,increasing the fault detection rate and resulting in high user satisfaction.The predicted requirements are mapped into test cases,increasing the fault detection rate after changes to achieve higher user satisfaction.Therefore,the model improves the redundancy and irrelevancy of requirements by more than 90%compared to other clustering methods and the analytical hierarchical process,achieving an 80%fault detection rate at an earlier stage.Hence,it provides guidelines for practitioners and researchers in the modern era.In the future,we will provide the working prototype of this model for proof of concept.

HV Process Model of Software Development

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is one of the major ingredients for the development of efficient software systems within a time frame and low-cost involvement. From the literature, it is evident that there are various kinds of process models that are used by the software industries for the development of small, medium and long-term software projects, but many of them do not cover risk management. It is quite obvious that the improper selection of the software development process model leads to failure of the software products as it is time bound activity. In the present work, a new software development process model is proposed which covers the risks at any stage of the development of the software product. The model is named a Hemant-Vipin (HV) process model and may be helpful for the software industries for development of the efficient software products and timely delivery at the end of the client. The efficiency of the HV process model is observed by considering various kinds of factors like requirement clarity, user feedback, change agility, predictability, risk identification, practical implementation, customer satisfaction, incremental development, use of ready-made components, quick design, resource organization and many more and found through a case study that the presented approach covers many of parameters in comparison of the existing process models. .

How Software Engineering Transforms Organizations: An Open and Qualitative Study on the Organizational Objectives and Motivations in Agile Transformations

Agile Transformations are challenging processes for organizations that look to extend the benefits of Agile philosophy and methods beyond software engineering.Despite the impact of these transformations on orga-nizations,they have not been extensively studied in academia.We conducted a study grounded in workshops and interviews with 99 participants from 30 organizations,including organizations undergoing transformations(“final organizations”)and companies supporting these processes(“consultants”).The study aims to understand the motivations,objectives,and factors driving and challenging these transformations.Over 700 responses were collected to the question and categorized into 32 objectives.The findings show that organizations primarily aim to achieve customer centricity and adaptability,both with 8%of the mentions.Other primary important objectives,with above 4%of mentions,include alignment of goals,lean delivery,sustainable processes,and a flatter,more team-based organizational structure.We also detect discrepancies in perspectives between the objectives identified by the two kinds of organizations and the existing agile literature and models.This misalignment highlights the need for practitioners to understand with the practical realities the organizations face.

A Hybrid Model for Improving Software Cost Estimation in Global Software Development

Accurate software cost estimation in Global Software Development(GSD)remains challenging due to reliance on historical data and expert judgments.Traditional models,such as the Constructive Cost Model(COCOMO II),rely heavily on historical and accurate data.In addition,expert judgment is required to set many input parameters,which can introduce subjectivity and variability in the estimation process.Consequently,there is a need to improve the current GSD models to mitigate reliance on historical data,subjectivity in expert judgment,inadequate consideration of GSD-based cost drivers and limited integration of modern technologies with cost overruns.This study introduces a novel hybrid model that synergizes the COCOMO II with Artificial Neural Networks(ANN)to address these challenges.The proposed hybrid model integrates additional GSD-based cost drivers identified through a systematic literature review and further vetted by industry experts.This article compares the effectiveness of the proposedmodelwith state-of-the-artmachine learning-basedmodels for software cost estimation.Evaluating the NASA 93 dataset by adopting twenty-six GSD-based cost drivers reveals that our hybrid model achieves superior accuracy,outperforming existing state-of-the-artmodels.The findings indicate the potential of combining COCOMO II,ANN,and additional GSD-based cost drivers to transform cost estimation in GSD.

Development and Evaluation of 3D Delivery Animation Software Designed to Improve the Mother’s and Spouse’s Satisfaction with Delivery

Purpose: To clarify the effectiveness of 3-D delivery animation software for the mother’s and husband’s satisfaction with delivery. Subjects and Method: We independently developed a software application used to display the pelvic region and explain the labor process. The study involved a collaboration with hospital staff who recruited 18 primiparous and 18 multiparous mothers who were hospitalized for delivery at Facility A. The midwife explained the process of delivery using the “Delivery Animation Software”. A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was distributed and analyzed separately for primiparous and multiparous mothers and their husbands. Results: 1) For both primiparous and multiparous couples, both mothers and their husbands gained a significantly higher level of understanding after delivery than during pregnancy. 2) The Self-Evaluation Scale for Experience of Delivery results were as follows: “I did my best for the baby even if it was painful” was selected more often for “birth coping skills”;“reliable medical staff” was selected more often for “physiological birth process”;“the birth progressed as I expected” was selected frequently by primiparous mothers;and “the birth progressed smoothly” was selected often by multiparous mothers. 3) In terms of husbands’ satisfaction with the delivery, “I was satisfied with the delivery”, “I was given an easy-to-understand explanation”, and “They explained the process to me” was selected of primiparous and multiparous fathers. 4) All primiparous and multiparous mothers positively evaluated whether the delivery animation was helpful in understanding the process of delivery. Conclusion: The delivery animation was effective in improving the understanding and satisfaction of both the mothers and their husbands.

A Proposed Approach for Measuring Maturity Level of Software Delivery

Software delivery is vital for modern organizations, driving innovation and competitiveness. Measuring an organization’s maturity in software delivery is crucial for efficiency and quality. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) framework provides a roadmap for improvement but assessing an organization’s CMM Level is challenging. This paper offers a quantitative approach tailored to the CMM framework, using Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) frame-works for each key process area (KPA). These frameworks include metrics and questions to compute maturity scores effectively. The study also refines practices into questions for a thorough assessment. The result is an Analysis Matrix that calculates weighted scores and an overall maturity score. This approach helps organizations assess and enhance their software delivery processes systematically, aiming for improved practices and growth.

A Tutorial on Federated Learning from Theory to Practice:Foundations,Software Frameworks,Exemplary Use Cases,and Selected Trends

When data privacy is imposed as a necessity,Federated learning(FL)emerges as a relevant artificial intelligence field for developing machine learning(ML)models in a distributed and decentralized environment.FL allows ML models to be trained on local devices without any need for centralized data transfer,thereby reducing both the exposure of sensitive data and the possibility of data interception by malicious third parties.This paradigm has gained momentum in the last few years,spurred by the plethora of real-world applications that have leveraged its ability to improve the efficiency of distributed learning and to accommodate numerous participants with their data sources.By virtue of FL,models can be learned from all such distributed data sources while preserving data privacy.The aim of this paper is to provide a practical tutorial on FL,including a short methodology and a systematic analysis of existing software frameworks.Furthermore,our tutorial provides exemplary cases of study from three complementary perspectives:i)Foundations of FL,describing the main components of FL,from key elements to FL categories;ii)Implementation guidelines and exemplary cases of study,by systematically examining the functionalities provided by existing software frameworks for FL deployment,devising a methodology to design a FL scenario,and providing exemplary cases of study with source code for different ML approaches;and iii)Trends,shortly reviewing a non-exhaustive list of research directions that are under active investigation in the current FL landscape.The ultimate purpose of this work is to establish itself as a referential work for researchers,developers,and data scientists willing to explore the capabilities of FL in practical applications.

Software Vulnerability Mining and Analysis Based on Deep Learning

In recent years,the rapid development of computer software has led to numerous security problems,particularly software vulnerabilities.These flaws can cause significant harm to users’privacy and property.Current security defect detection technology relies on manual or professional reasoning,leading to missed detection and high false detection rates.Artificial intelligence technology has led to the development of neural network models based on machine learning or deep learning to intelligently mine holes,reducing missed alarms and false alarms.So,this project aims to study Java source code defect detection methods for defects like null pointer reference exception,XSS(Transform),and Structured Query Language(SQL)injection.Also,the project uses open-source Javalang to translate the Java source code,conducts a deep search on the AST to obtain the empty syntax feature library,and converts the Java source code into a dependency graph.The feature vector is then used as the learning target for the neural network.Four types of Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN),Long Short-Term Memory(LSTM),Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory(BiLSTM),and Attention Mechanism+Bidirectional LSTM,are used to investigate various code defects,including blank pointer reference exception,XSS,and SQL injection defects.Experimental results show that the attention mechanism in two-dimensional BLSTM is the most effective for object recognition,verifying the correctness of the method.

SCIRD: Revealing Infection of Malicious Software in Edge Computing-Enabled IoT Networks

The Internet of Things(IoT)has characteristics such as node mobility,node heterogeneity,link heterogeneity,and topology heterogeneity.In the face of the IoT characteristics and the explosive growth of IoT nodes,which brings about large-scale data processing requirements,edge computing architecture has become an emerging network architecture to support IoT applications due to its ability to provide powerful computing capabilities and good service functions.However,the defense mechanism of Edge Computing-enabled IoT Nodes(ECIoTNs)is still weak due to their limited resources,so that they are susceptible to malicious software spread,which can compromise data confidentiality and network service availability.Facing this situation,we put forward an epidemiology-based susceptible-curb-infectious-removed-dead(SCIRD)model.Then,we analyze the dynamics of ECIoTNs with different infection levels under different initial conditions to obtain the dynamic differential equations.Additionally,we establish the presence of equilibrium states in the SCIRD model.Furthermore,we conduct an analysis of the model’s stability and examine the conditions under which malicious software will either spread or disappear within Edge Computing-enabled IoT(ECIoT)networks.Lastly,we validate the efficacy and superiority of the SCIRD model through MATLAB simulations.These research findings offer a theoretical foundation for suppressing the propagation of malicious software in ECIoT networks.The experimental results indicate that the theoretical SCIRD model has instructive significance,deeply revealing the principles of malicious software propagation in ECIoT networks.This study solves a challenging security problem of ECIoT networks by determining the malicious software propagation threshold,which lays the foundation for buildingmore secure and reliable ECIoT networks.

ProTSA: A Testing Process for Automotive Software Domain

This study evaluates the development of a testing process for the automotive software domain, highlighting challenges stemming from the absence of adequate processes. The research demonstrates the application of Design Science Research methodology in developing, an automotive software testing process—ProTSA, using six functional testing modules. Additionally, the study evaluates the benefits of implementing ProTSA in a specific Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) using an experimental single-case approach with industry professionals’ participation through a survey. The study concludes that combining testing techniques with effective communication and alignment is crucial for enhancing software quality. Furthermore, survey data indicates that implementing ProTSA leads to productivity gains by initiating tests early, resulting in time savings in the testing program and increased productivity for the testing team. Future work will explore implementing ProTSA in cybersecurity, over-the-air software updates, and autonomous vehicle testing processes. .

Strategic Contracting for Software Upgrade Outsourcing in Industry 4.0

The advent of Industry 4.0 has compelled businesses to adopt digital approaches that combine software toenhance production efficiency. In this rapidly evolving market, software development is an ongoing process thatmust be tailored to meet the dynamic needs of enterprises. However, internal research and development can beprohibitively expensive, driving many enterprises to outsource software development and upgrades to externalservice providers. This paper presents a software upgrade outsourcing model for enterprises and service providersthat accounts for the impact of market fluctuations on software adaptability. To mitigate the risk of adverseselection due to asymmetric information about the service provider’s cost and asymmetric information aboutthe enterprise’s revenues, we propose pay-per-time and revenue-sharing contracts in two distinct informationasymmetry scenarios. These two contracts specify the time and transfer payments for software upgrades. Througha comparative analysis of the optimal solutions under the two contracts and centralized decision-making withfull-information, we examine the characteristics of the solutions under two information asymmetry scenarios andanalyze the incentive effects of the two contracts on the various stakeholders. Overall, our study offers valuableinsights for firms seeking to optimize their outsourcing strategies and maximize their returns on investment insoftware upgrades.

Developing Lexicons for Enhanced Sentiment Analysis in Software Engineering:An Innovative Multilingual Approach for Social Media Reviews

Sentiment analysis is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital age, with social media being a significantsource of user-generated content. The development of sentiment lexicons that can support languages other thanEnglish is a challenging task, especially for analyzing sentiment analysis in social media reviews. Most existingsentiment analysis systems focus on English, leaving a significant research gap in other languages due to limitedresources and tools. This research aims to address this gap by building a sentiment lexicon for local languages,which is then used with a machine learning algorithm for efficient sentiment analysis. In the first step, a lexiconis developed that includes five languages: Urdu, Roman Urdu, Pashto, Roman Pashto, and English. The sentimentscores from SentiWordNet are associated with each word in the lexicon to produce an effective sentiment score. Inthe second step, a naive Bayesian algorithm is applied to the developed lexicon for efficient sentiment analysis ofRoman Pashto. Both the sentiment lexicon and sentiment analysis steps were evaluated using information retrievalmetrics, with an accuracy score of 0.89 for the sentiment lexicon and 0.83 for the sentiment analysis. The resultsshowcase the potential for improving software engineering tasks related to user feedback analysis and productdevelopment.

Software Reliability Prediction Using Ensemble Learning on Selected Features in Imbalanced and Balanced Datasets: A Review

Redundancy,correlation,feature irrelevance,and missing samples are just a few problems that make it difficult to analyze software defect data.Additionally,it might be challenging to maintain an even distribution of data relating to both defective and non-defective software.The latter software class’s data are predominately present in the dataset in the majority of experimental situations.The objective of this review study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining ensemble learning and feature selection in improving the performance of defect classification.Besides the successful feature selection approach,a novel variant of the ensemble learning technique is analyzed to address the challenges of feature redundancy and data imbalance,providing robustness in the classification process.To overcome these problems and lessen their impact on the fault classification performance,authors carefully integrate effective feature selection with ensemble learning models.Forward selection demonstrates that a significant area under the receiver operating curve(ROC)can be attributed to only a small subset of features.The Greedy forward selection(GFS)technique outperformed Pearson’s correlation method when evaluating feature selection techniques on the datasets.Ensemble learners,such as random forests(RF)and the proposed average probability ensemble(APE),demonstrate greater resistance to the impact of weak features when compared to weighted support vector machines(W-SVMs)and extreme learning machines(ELM).Furthermore,in the case of the NASA and Java datasets,the enhanced average probability ensemble model,which incorporates the Greedy forward selection technique with the average probability ensemble model,achieved remarkably high accuracy for the area under the ROC.It approached a value of 1.0,indicating exceptional performance.This review emphasizes the importance of meticulously selecting attributes in a software dataset to accurately classify damaged components.In addition,the suggested ensemble learning model successfully addressed the aforementioned problems with software data and produced outstanding classification performance.

Identification of Software Bugs by Analyzing Natural Language-Based Requirements Using Optimized Deep Learning Features

Software project outcomes heavily depend on natural language requirements,often causing diverse interpretations and issues like ambiguities and incomplete or faulty requirements.Researchers are exploring machine learning to predict software bugs,but a more precise and general approach is needed.Accurate bug prediction is crucial for software evolution and user training,prompting an investigation into deep and ensemble learning methods.However,these studies are not generalized and efficient when extended to other datasets.Therefore,this paper proposed a hybrid approach combining multiple techniques to explore their effectiveness on bug identification problems.The methods involved feature selection,which is used to reduce the dimensionality and redundancy of features and select only the relevant ones;transfer learning is used to train and test the model on different datasets to analyze how much of the learning is passed to other datasets,and ensemble method is utilized to explore the increase in performance upon combining multiple classifiers in a model.Four National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)and four Promise datasets are used in the study,showing an increase in the model’s performance by providing better Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve(AUC-ROC)values when different classifiers were combined.It reveals that using an amalgam of techniques such as those used in this study,feature selection,transfer learning,and ensemble methods prove helpful in optimizing the software bug prediction models and providing high-performing,useful end mode.

Adaptive Sparse Grid Discontinuous Galerkin Method:Review and Software Implementation

This paper reviews the adaptive sparse grid discontinuous Galerkin(aSG-DG)method for computing high dimensional partial differential equations(PDEs)and its software implementation.The C++software package called AdaM-DG,implementing the aSG-DG method,is available on GitHub at https://github.com/JuntaoHuang/adaptive-multiresolution-DG.The package is capable of treating a large class of high dimensional linear and nonlinear PDEs.We review the essential components of the algorithm and the functionality of the software,including the multiwavelets used,assembling of bilinear operators,fast matrix-vector product for data with hierarchical structures.We further demonstrate the performance of the package by reporting the numerical error and the CPU cost for several benchmark tests,including linear transport equations,wave equations,and Hamilton-Jacobi(HJ)equations.

Interactivity software tools for teaching in ophthalmology

The use of interactive audience software,such as audience response systems(ARS),in medical education has become increasingly popular in recent years.This technology allows instructors to engage students in real time,encouraging active participation and promoting effective learning.The benefits of interactive audience software in medical education include increased student engagement,promotion of active learning,and enhanced learning outcomes.However,there are also several challenges to its implementation,including technical difficulties,careful planning and preparation,over-reliance on technology,and ethical concerns related to privacy and data security.The cost of implementing interactive audience software may also be a barrier for some institutions.This paper specifically reviews six interactive software platforms,including Socrative,Quizizz,Pear Deck,Slido,Wooclap and ClassPoint.These platforms allow for real-time assessment of student understanding,feedback,and participation.They also enable instructors to adjust their teaching strategies based on student responses and feedback.Overall,interactive audience software has shown great potential to enhance learning and engagement in medical education.It is important for instructors to carefully consider the benefits and challenges of its implementation.While the cost of implementing interactive audience software may be a barrier for some institutions,there are free and low-cost options available.