In this paper an efficient three- stage algorithm is developed for software production cost and time estimation. First stage includes a hybrid model composed of COCOMO and Function Points methods to increase estimation accuracy. Second stage encompasses paired comparisons matrix of analytical hierarchy process to determine amount of any resources consumed in each step of software production by ...

Many studies have been conducted to determine the efficiency of two-stage network structures in the recent years. The two-stage network with additional inputs to the second stage, in which the second stage is independent of the first stage are one of these structures. Thus, there is a need for a model capable of calculating the efficiency of two-stage structures as well as efficiency of each st...

The Early Stage (ES) intermediate represents the starting structure in protein folding simulations based on the Fuzzy Oil Drop (FOD) model. The accuracy of FOD predictions is greatly dependent on the accuracy of the chosen intermediate. A suitable intermediate can be constructed using the sequence-structure relationship information contained in the so-called contingency table - this table expre...

A penetrated ovum was recovered from the oviduct of a 33 year old surgical patient who had had sexual intercourse 26 hr before the operation. The ovum was in the pronuclear stage. The ooplasmic organelles were mainly represented by mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum components, and Golgi elements. Small vesicles were found in the space between the two sheets of the pronuclear envelope. These v...

The habitat requirements of fishes and other marine organisms often change with ontogeny, so many harvested species exhibit such extreme large-scale spatial segregation between life stages that all life stages cannot be protected within a single marine reserve. Nevertheless, most discussions of marine reserves have focused narrowly on single lifehistory events (e.g., reproduction or settlement)...

Fibrin clots with reduced permeability, increased clot stiffness and reduced fibrinolysis susceptibility may predispose to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Little is known, however, about the structure of fibrin clots in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). These patients suffer from a high risk of CVD in addition to their chronic low-grade inflammation. Using permeability, compaction and...

In this paper we undertake the theoretical analysis of a two-stage semiconductor thermoelectric module (TEM) which contains an arbitrary and different number of thermocouples, n1 and n2, in each stage (pyramid-styled TEM). The analysis is based on a dimensionless entropy balance set of equations. We study the effects of n1 and n2, the flowing electric currents through each stage, the applied te...

Resolving how complexity affects stability of natural communities is of key importance for predicting the consequences of biodiversity loss. Central to previous stability analysis has been the assumption that the resources of a consumer are substitutable. However, during their development, most species change diets; for instance, adults often use different resources than larvae or juveniles. He...

This paper proposes a patent retrieval method that consists of two processing stages. In Stage 1, analysis and retrieval methods to improve recall are applied. In Stage 2, the top N documents retrieved in Stage 1 are re-arranged by applying analysis and retrieval methods that consider the claim structure to improve precision. This paper gives an overview of this retrieval method and evaluates i...