ProjectFor

Masters of Software Engineering

A developing Pesticide Database(A safety concern on eco-system and the environment)

Student: Fengyou JiaID: 512-11-6317Date: 2003-2004

Presentation #1April 15, 2003

Committee:

Dr. Hankley, William (CIS)(Major Professor)

Dr. Deloach, Scott (CIS)

Dr. Zamfir-Bleyberg, Maria (CIS)

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ProjectFor

Masters of Software Engineering

A developing Pesticide Database(a safety concern on eco-system and the environment)

Overview

Student: Fengyou JiaID: 512-11-6317Date: 2003-2004

Presentation #1April 15, 2003

Committee:

Signature date

Dr. Hankley, William _____________________ __________(Major Professor)

Dr. Deloach, Scott _____________________ __________

Dr. Zamfir-Bleyberg, Maria _____________________ __________

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A Developing Pesticide Database (A safety concern on eco-system and the environment)

1 PROJECT OVERVIEW

Nowadays it is almost affordable to have personal computers to access internet for every person. As a result of the invasion of personal computers into business and private lives of people, it is necessary to for us to provide a tool for general public to access pesticide safety information prior to application in pest control program, learning the hazardous potentials of pesticides not only to humans but also to the ecosystems and environment.

Currently, there exist many different sorts of databases for pesticides. Due to differences in requirement specifications and database designs, each database serves slightly different purposes and has its own unique features. In general, current existing databases for pesticides do not support the requirements for evaluating the safety features between pesticides. Based on functions, existing databases for pesticides can be classified into 3 categories by emphasis: administrative and research, product-oriented, and pest-oriented.

Administration and research emphasisA number of pesticide databases were particularly designed to serve for administration, management, and research. One typical example is NPIRS (National Pesticide Information Retrieval System) (http://nspirs.ceris.purdue.edu/npirs). NSIRS database is able to retrieve information such as pesticides names and numbers, active ingredients, registration number and states, target pests, etc. It can also provide safety information for pesticides, but in a very inefficient way if users want to compare the safety features among or between pesticides. NSIRS database does not support the queries for retrieving information such as ecotoxicity and pollution potentials to the environment. It does not provide the information such as endangered species, product costs either.

Some databases may mainly serve on research purpose. For example, Pesticide Database (Jinno Laboratory, Toyohashi University of Technology) system retrieves information such as chemical structures and other chemical properties. The Pesticide Action Network Pesticide Database (http://www.pesticideinfo.org) provides current toxicity and regulatory information for pesticides. The Hazardous Chemical Database (http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/erd) allows users to retrieve information for any of the 3995 hazardous chemicals. The ARS Pesticide Properties Database (PPD) has been developed to provide water quality modelers and managers a list of the pesticide properties most important for predicting the potentials of pesticides to move into ground and surface waters

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under a range of weather and soil conditions. Information such as chemical structures of pesticides is useful, but less likely to be cared by end-users.

Product-oriented databasesThis type of database was designed to provide detailed information about particular pesticides of interest, such as product names, active ingredients, product formulation, chemical toxicity category, target pests to be controlled, etc. Typical databases include PANPD (Pesticide Action Network Pesticide Database) (http://www.pesticideinfo.org). This type of database does not support the request for safety comparation among or between several pesticides. Although most databases contain the basic information regarding the toxicity of pesticides to humans in either WHO or EPA formats, almost no database can instantly query the safety information regarding environmental hazards and ecological hazards of pesticides.

Pest-oriented databasesThis type of pesticide database is designed to retrieve a list of pesticide products that could control given a site of treatment, or pest(s). They may be able to provide the safety information individually. However, none of them has such a capacity to evaluate the safety features comprehensively among several candidate pesticide products. http://www.kellysolution.com is a typical pest-oriented database.

User-oriented databasesA user-oriented database is user-centered and intends to provide friendly user interfaces and sophisticated data retrieve tools. However, there is no such database for pesticides available to date. And, of all pesticide databases available, most require user-fees/membership fees and/or passwords to gain access making them untouchable to most of the general public. The goal of this research effort is to design and develop a powerful, sophisticated and user-oriented database for pesticide (including insecticides, fungicides, miticides, nematicides, rodenticides, and herbicides) in guidance of pesticide selection and application in pest management program. I emphasize the safety application of pesticides not only to human beings but also to ecosystems and surrounding environments. Ultimately we expect to reduce and minimize the usage of pesticides that have high hazardous potentials to humans, ecosystems, and the environment through using this database.

The fundamental idea is that one target pest in agriculture could be controlled by many different kinds of pesticide products. However, these candidate pesticides that are able to control that pest may vary significantly with their hazard potentials to humans, domestic animals, ecosystems, and the environment. Therefore, it is very possible for users to be able to choose the least hazardous one among pesticide products available in pest control programs.

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To achieve this goal I need to collect all related data regarding the hazards of pesticides to humans, domestic animals, ecosystem, and the environment. Then, I need to categorize information and compile the information into this database. Fortunately, most safety information is available for those pesticide products applied in agricultural production. Based on NSPIRS, thousands of pesticide products have been registered and used in the USA alone. Their active ingredients have been studied regarding their hazards to humans, domestic animals, ecosystems, and the environment prior to their releases. To construct a user-oriented data retrieval system, I will take advantage of the existing information related to the safety of pesticides.

There exists various databases for pesticides (http://www.epa.gov/region07/programs/wwpd/pests/dbinfo.htm) currently. However, Most serve administration, research, and management purposes. These databases for pesticides were designed in such a complicated fashion that special training needs for users to operate these databases. There is no database for pesticides, which is user-oriented and safety-focused. Although, some databases for pesticides may provide certain safety information of pesticides, there is no one that has committed to be able to evaluate the safety of pesticides. In addition, tedious un-categorized safety information for each pesticide product makes it impractical for users to compare among several to many different pesticide products simultaneously, especially when several safety properties of pesticides are considered at the same time. Thus, building up a user-oriented database with a safety focus is required and necessary to optimize pesticide application and protect environments. To make this pesticide database relevant and useful, I would also consider the registration and economic (cost) constraints of pesticides in the advanced version of database.

This pesticide database shall be designed and implemented with a safety emphasis on the pesticide application. This pesticide database is supposed to be able to retrieve information such as ingredients, target pests, hazardous potentials to humans, ecosystems, and the environment in the basic version. I will also consider the pesticide products, economical cost, pesticide registration, and users in the advanced version. With the equivalent control potential and economical cost, this database could help users to find pesticide products with least hazards to humans, domestic animals, ecosystems, and the environment. It will be able to help the users, consultants, and related government agencies in determining appropriate pesticide products used to destroy or repel pests, while reducing and minimizing the hazardous potentials of pesticides.

Ultimately, we expect this database would assist to reduce or minimize the use of certain pesticides that commit high hazard potentials to humans, domestic animals, ecosystems, and the environment. We also expect this database of pesticides would also be integrated into Pesticide Safety Education Programs (PSEP), serving to educate the general public in understanding the adverse influence of pesticides on humans and the environment.

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The major tasks for the proposed pesticide database include database and user interface designs and implementations, data collection, data transformation, data population, and data manipulation (insertion, deletion, updating). My responsibility in this project is to collecting data related pesticide safety and to create database (including database design, data population, data manipulation). The Oracle9i (new version) will be used for this project. Interfaces for the database will be implemented by using Microsoft FrontPage, which will be implemented by a different member in the research team. Oracle sever (humpty.oznet.ksu.edu) on the Oznet (Kansas Sate University) will be used to implement this pesticide database. This pesticide database will be accessible to general public through a web page registered in Kansas State University (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pesticidedatabase/index.htm).

This project described above is just a small part of a research program proposed by the Department of Entomology, Kansas State University. The total budget for this program is over half million dollars for a 3-year period. There are 4 to 5 professional persons required for this program and two of them are supposed to be responsible for database and interface design and implementation. As a core member in the team, I will be responsible for the data collection, data transformation, database design, data population, and data manipulation and ministration (I am not responsible for the interfaces). Due to the limitations of time and human resources, I will plan to implement the demonstration version (including partial data sets) as my MSE project.

2 COST ESTIMATION

2.1 Introduction

The SW cost estimation is not applicable to my MSE Project due to following reasons. 1) The critical parts of this project are data collections and data transformations (including categorization), which may take approximately one year for 2 persons to complete the tasks. The reviewing process alone for data transformations may take to 4-6 months, ensuring that general publics understand the interfaces and all terminologies used. 2) Several automate tools will be used for the proposed program. One tool we will use in interface design is Microsoft FrontPage (2002), which can automatically generate desired user interfaces. Another tool we will use is Oracle9i, which is hugely different from the previous Oracle versions (e. g., Oracle8i). Oracle9i provide the user interfaces for database designs, database constraint implementations, data populations, and data manipulations (insert, modify, delete, update, etc.). However, I will provide the cost estimates for the proposed program.

2.1.1 Estimates

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It is important to estimate the effort to provide a quality product as early possible in a project. This is to ensure to be successful on the SW developing job. Thus, it is highly recommended that people bring in projects for the time and cost projected from the very beginning. A good estimate may remain the project to be focused. Programmers are always aware where they are and where they are going during the process of SW development [1, 2].

2.1.2 References[1] The Estimating Guide handout from David A. Gustafson, CIS740 Software Engineering Course. Kansas State University Fall Semester 2002.[2] Scott A. Deloach, CIS746 Software Measurement Course. Kansas State University Spring Semester 2002.

2.2 Size Estimate

2.2.1 Systematic Wild Anatomical Guess Based on experience this project as part of a proposed project (RAMP) will be about 6600 Line of Code (SLOC).

1000 line codes generated with Microsoft FrontPage for Interfaces 2600ine codes (300 records, data collection, transformation, population) 1000 line codes database design (table creation, triggers, procedures)

2.3 Effort

2.3.1 Systematic Wild Anatomical GuessFrom the Project Plan, the total estimated hours are 1108 Hours.

2.3.2 Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO)System features to determine system typeUnderstanding of product objectives High(organic)Experience with related software High(organic)Need for conformance to pre-existing requirements Low(organic)Need to meet external interface specific Low(organic)Concurrent development, new OS, or new hardware Low(organic)Need for special data structures Low(organic)Relative value of early completion Low(organic)

All of these points to an organic system, therefore the following COCOMO formulas is being used.

Effort (in moths) = 2.4 M (KDSI)1.05

Where M = multipliersKDSI = 1000s of lines of delivered source codes

Td = 2.5 E 0.38

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Where E = Effort in person-months

An estimated multipliers is 0.80, thusE = 2.4 x (multipliers) x (KDSI)1.05

= 2.4 x 0.80x (4.6) 1.05

= 9.53 person-months (or 1305 person-hours)

Time to deliver:Td = 2.5 E 0.38

= 2.5 x (9.53) 0.38 = 5.89 months

2.4 Cost

2.4.1 Based on Project Plan Assuming engineering cost at 100$ per hour, using this with the estimated hours from the project plan results in $110, 800 project cost to completion this project.

2.4.2 COCOMOUsing the same rate and calculating the cost based on the effort resulting from the COCOMO calculation results in a cost of $130,500 for completion of the project.

3 PROJECT PLAN

3.1 Milestones

3.1.1 Milestones Mail Documentation for Presentation 1 4/1/2003 Presentation 1 4/4/2003 Documentation Signed off from Presentation1 4/4/2003 Mail Documentation for Presentation 2 8/1/2003 Presentation 2 8/22/2003 Documentation Signed off from Presentation2 8/22/2003 Mail Documentation for Presentation 3 9/1/2003 Presentation 3 9/26/2003 Documentation Signed off from Presentation3 9/26/2003

3.1.2 Deliverables Project Overview Cost Estimation (Proposal budget) Project plan Requirement Specification Specification of Modules?

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SQA Plan Test Plan Formal Inspection Report References Design Documents

Object Model Diagram Function Diagram Data Dictionary Schema Normalization / Dependences

Source Code? User manual Project Evaluation

3.2 Evaluation CriteriaThis section provides the comment evaluation criteria that each deliverable shall be judged against. They shall be reviewed as follows:

Relative to the project plan in terms of schedule, resources, and cost Product relative to documentation requirement Control of document during development Completeness and adequacy of each document Documentation of problem and resolutions

3.3 Project plan (see attachment: task_schedule)

4. Requirements Specification

4.1 IntroductionThis section provide an introduction to the requirements for a Database of Pesticide that is being implemented for as a project to partial satisfy the requirements for a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering. The section defines the purpose, scope, and goals of the project.

4.1.1 System Purpose

The purpose of the Database of Pesticides defined by this specification is to provide a usable tool for various users including formers, growers, universities, government agencies, and extension agencies, which is public available for the retrieval of data that allows information to be learned.

4.2.1 System ScopeAs my MSE project, which is a part of proposed research program (of RAMP, Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program), I shall be responsible for the data collection, data transformation, and database design. This system is limited to providing a database that meets the data needs of certain

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users using the interface that will be generated with Microsoft FrontPage. These data needs are for its retrieval and knowledge discovery.

4.2.1.1 Problem StatementPublics need an application software specific to those persons and agencies that are more likely to be responsible for pesticide application and selection. The applications (databases) currently in use by publics are not designed specifically for safety purpose. They are expensive sometimes (member fees), not user friendly, not inclusive of everyone’s needs, and not readily changeable to meet the changing needs or desires of the user. There are various pesticide databases available currently (http://www.epa.gov/region07/programs/wwpd/pests/dbinfo.htm). However, most databases for pesticides were designed without concerning the safety properties of pesticide products, especially without considering the hazardous potentials to ecosystems and the environment. Although, some databases for pesticides may provide certain safety information of pesticides, there is no one that could provide an efficient way to evaluate the safety of pesticides. In addition, tedious un-categorized safety information for each pesticide product makes it impractical for users to compare among several to many different pesticide products simultaneously, especially when several safety properties of pesticides are considered at the same time. Thus, building up a user-oriented database with a safety focus is required and necessary to optimize pesticide application and protect environments.

4.2.1.2 Benefits and GoalsThere are obvious intangible benefits for this system. They are:

Data information easily to accessible for publics (final deliverable product only)

Reducing or minimizing negative influence of pesticides Protecting the environment (underground waters and ecosystems)

The goal of this project is to provide a database that is accessible to public, able to track the safety information of pesticides of interest, and generate user configurable reports.

4.2.1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and AbbreviationsDatabase: A computer application that consist of a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access that which contains information about one particular enterprise. The primary goal is to provide an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use in retrieving and storing this information [1].

DDP: A developing database of pesticides with an emphasis on safety to the environment and ecosystem.

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FrontPage: A tool for web site creation and database connection, written and sold by Microsoft Company that has a powerful and easy to use graphical user interface.

MSE: This is an abbreviation for Master ‘s of Software Engineering degree.

RAMP: This is an abbreviation for Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program.

Oracle9i: Oracle9i Database, which developed by Oracle Corporation, is the most scalable and full-featured database available. Whether driving your web site, packaged applications, data warehouses or OLTP applications, Oracle9i Database is a foundation technology for any professional computing environment. Oracle9i Database is available in three editions: Enterprise, Standard, and Personal [http://www.oracle.com/ip/deploy/database/oracle9i/index.html?oracle9idb_features2.html].

SQL: This is an acronym for Structure Query language. This is a language that was defined to access database. It has been implemented by many database applications, but has the same syntax for the base instructions.

Ingredients: A pesticide may contain one to several different active ingredients that are the key chemical(s) to destroy pests. We will present the proportion for each ingredient contained in the pesticides.

Mamtoxicity: The toxicity of a pesticide is at best a relative measure to estimate its toxic effect on humans or other animals. There is no actual scientific test that can be conducted in which humans are subjected to lethal doses of pesticides. Fortunately, the hazards of every ingredient have been studied based on various animals testing (rats or mice). Manufacturers are required to provide the information such as acute oral toxicity and skin and eye irritation. It is important that persons working with pesticides have a broad general knowledge of the relative toxicity of at least the most common pesticides. By choosing the pesticides with low toxicity if possible, applicators can reduce the potential hazards to themselves. In this database, we used WHO and EPA to represent the toxicity of pesticides.

EPA: Toxicity level standardized by Environment Protection Agency WHO: Toxicity level standardized by World Health Organization

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Ecotoxicity: toxicity of a pesticide to birds (mallard ducks), fish (rainbow trout), or bees (honey bees). BIRD: Animals tested in determining the toxic level of a given ingredient of pesticide. FISH: Animals tested in determining the toxic level of a given ingredient of pesticide. HONEY BEES: Animals tested in determining the toxic level of a given ingredient of pesticide. Environmental fates: All pesticides should degrade or break down eventually into other chemicals and into the simple building blocks of which the whole world is made, however, this process occurs at very different rates for different pesticides. In some, the changes occur rapidly (in hours or a few days). In others, the changes are slower and the pesticides may be present for relatively long periods of time (several to many years), which are known as persistent pesticides.

Dissipation half-life (DF50): FD50 measures overall rate of disappearance of pesticide from soil-includes leaching, runoff, hydrolysis, photolysis, microbial degradation, and vaporization as a function of pesticide, site, climate, and soil. Soil half-life (DT50): DT50 predicts the persistence of a pesticide in the soil, which is a relative indictor of pesticide persistence because it can be changed with the soil conditions. Leaching Potential (PLP): Pesticide movement in soils. Pesticides with fast movement in soil are of great concern because of their high leaching potential (PLP) for contaminating groundwater in the environmentally sensitive areas.

Formulation: The mixture of active and inactive ingredients is called pesticide formulation [3].

4.2.1.4 Major references (this part will be updated with the progress of project)[1] Abraham Silberschatz, Henry F. Korth, and S. Sudarshan, Database System Concepts. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1997.

[2] Jerome W. Middleton, Jr. Elementary School Database. Kansas State University, 1999.

[3] Bohmont, L. B. The standard pesticide user’s guide. 4th ed. A Simon & Schuster Company, New Jersey. 1997.

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4.2.1.5 System OverviewUltimately, our proposed project will develop an application package to meet the data needs of the general public and professional individuals in pest control programs. These data needs are for the storage of information and its retrieval. These needs will be met by a final version of the database. The database will collect information related to the safety of pesticides. In addition, the database will also collect user information in the enhanced version. Following are the types of information that needs to be collected.

(For user information)Name

o First o Last o Profession

Addresso Street o City o State o Zip code

Communicationo Phone o Email o Fax

Pest to be controlled Applied Sites Comments

(For pesticide information) Pest

Pest to be controlled Pest description Pest album

Mamtoxicity EPA WHO Cancer/Birth defects related

Ecotoxicity BIRD FISH HONEY BEES

Environmental fates Dissipation half-life (DF50) Soil half-life (DT50)

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Leaching Potential (LP) Pesticide products

Active Formulation Registration States Registration Number Restricted federal Restricted State Cost

The final application will provide database setup and update, data entry, data analysis (both statistical and knowledge discovery). And report generation.

4.2 DescriptionThis document provides the detailed of a database application for general publics. The final version of application will include graphic user interfaces that will be generated automatically with Microsoft FrontPage. The application simplifies the interaction between the user and the database by providing selection function buttons, predefined data input formats, and user definable report formats. This describes the way, by who, and how this application will be used and its characteristics.

4.2.1 System ContextThe final application operates in a Microsoft Windows environment. For this project that will be Window 2000 or late. The final application will be accessible for general public. The basic version will be limited to ingredients of pesticides only, where the final version will include user information and information regarding pesticide products in use currently. Ingredients of pesticides refer the active components contained in commercial pesticide products, which most are synthetic chemical components. The safety properties specified for each ingredient will be accessible in a data retrieval mode.

4.2.2 System ModesThis database system will have two basic modes of interaction. The first one is the expert mode. This mode uses Oracle9i (Oracle Corporation) to edit or create a database’ properties. This would be by the author or someone authorized to accept full responsibility for their actions. The second is the public user accessing the archived data. This would be by the application program written for archive retrieval.

4.2.3 Physical CharacteristicsThis database system will be FrontPage (2000) application on Personal Computer (PC). It will run under the Microsoft based operating systems of Window 2000, XP or Window NT. It will be a graphical user interface that

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is automatically generated and allows the users the majority of entries using the mouse with some keyboard interaction.

One physical characteristic of the application will be durability. This means the application will be self contained and not require changes as the user update their computer’s commercial software packages. Another physical characteristic will be to make the application ‘user configurable’ such that it can be adapted to the individual’s needs rather that forcing the user to conform the application formats. The response time characteristic of the application will be such that the user does not need to wait more than 5 seconds. A user will be able to work with a database on their computer anywhere if the computers are on a network. They will be able to retrieve any information they need.

4.2.4 User (Group) CharacteristicsBy the very nature of the application that is designed for general public, the normal users will includes farmers/ranches, universities, extension agencies, and environmental protection agencies. They will be able to retrieve data via network. On the final version of application, users may be required to specify their information such as target pest, target crops protected, and location (address).

4.2.5 Assumptions and DependenciesIt is assumed that a user is familiar with running application programs under Microsoft’s window operating system environments. This includes Windows 2000 and XP, or Windows NT 4.0 or above. The application is dependent on the Microsoft’s FrontPage, Oracle9i, and the Window’s Operating System.

4.2.6 Operational ScenariosThere are two basic scenarios for use of this application. This first is in terms of the ‘user’ database, and the second is the ‘pesticide’ database. The user’ database is ‘owned’ by Kansas State University, which is accessible by authorized individuals at university through a computer network. The ‘pesticide’ database, which is accessible to general public, will be centered around the needs of a data retrieval. For example, the user may want to find the most safe (to human and domesticated) pesticide to kill cockroaches at kitchen. It also owned by Kansas State University. The user information includes user name, user address, targeted pest to be controlled, and the targeted sites (plants) to be protected. The pesticide safety information includes LD50, leaching potential, persistence potential, hazardous potentials to ecosystem, and residual potentials in soils and underground waters. The ‘user’ database would have the ability to perform knowledge discovery (e.g., in a area where a given crop that is more likely to be infested by certain pests).

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4.3 Capabilities, Constraints, and Conditions

4.3.1 CapabilitiesThe capabilities of this application can be categorized as following five.o Defined database storageo Information storage and retrievalo Database updating o User report generationo Data analysisThese capabilities provide the user with the needed functionality to simplify their data inputs (for general public only) and automate analysis associated with working in a pesticide-related area (for authorized individuals only, e. g., university professors). Following section defines and describes the functions that the application contains.

Define database storage. This capability allows the user (public users only) to select and input appropriate user information through a user interface (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pesticidedatabase/user.asp). Following pressing ‘submit’ button by user the user record will be automatically created that can be used with other functions of the application. The pesticide database storage will be implemented following the database creation. Typically users (general public) are not allowed to update pesticide database, yet allowed to do data retrievals only.

Information storage and retrieval. The main reason to have a database is to provide quick and efficient storage and retrieval of information for the users. Particularly, the data retrievals are to assist to find the desired safe pesticides for users.

Database update. No database is static. Especially, more and more information regarding the safety properties of pesticides will be cumulated with time being. This capability will allow the authorized individuals (not the general publics) to be able to update the information stored in the database, allowing users to obtain the latest information.

Report generation. The report capability will allow the users (general publics) to generate reports for both the computer screen and printer. There will be a function that allows the public users to format the out by permitting them to place selected fields on a report page or screen.

Data analysis. The analysis functions implemented will be statistic based functions. This includes the knowledge discovery type analysis that will be done by certain authorized individuals. The knowledge discovery will be what is considered a first generation database mining system. The database is a relational database and will be used to mine knowledge of

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the type association rules and other classification rules. All these rules discovery will be based on statistics.

4.3.1.1 FunctionsListed below is the list of capability verses related application functions, which will be implemented by the application. The functions are what the various users will use to interact with the database. Defined database storage

Create user databaseCreate pesticide database

Information storage and retrievalEnter dataQuery retrievals

Database updating (here applied to the basic version only)Add an ingredientDelete an ingredientEdit information

User report generationDefined formatEdit formatQuery dataDisplay or print

Data analysisStatistical analysisKnowledge discovery

4.3.1.2 InputsAll inputs to the application are made by using window screen. The screen could be viewed in the following link (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pesticidedatabase/user.asp and http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pesticidedatabase/interface.asp). Almost every effort in choosing a desired pesticide (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pesticidedatabase/interface.asp) will be made to use the mouse for input and minimize the use of the key board.

4.3.1.3 OutputsOutputs from the application are made to the computer monitor or a printer. The outputs are a direct result of user requests.

4.3.1.4 Data handlingThere two types of data handling in this application. The first type is between the user and the application. This transfer of data is performed by webpage generated by FrontPage that interact with the user. The programs provide screen forms which the user fills out with requested information that is sent to database. The program may provides information from the database to the user via screen forms or printed

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information. The second type of data handling is by the use of Software Query Language (SQL) statement written in the FrontPage. These statements actually interact with Oracle9i database application. These statements create, enter, or retrieve data from the DDP database.

4.3.2 ConditionsThis section shall cover the operating conditions of the application. These are performance characteristics, project reliability, and anticipated system maintenance.

4.3.2.1 Performance characteristicsOne of important characteristics to be considered is speed of the application. It is expected that the wait for response be approximated 5 to 10 seconds. This response time depends on user request. If user wants to look the album of a targeted pest (e. g., bugs), it may take longer time to return a photo of the pest that is usually about 2 to 5 mbytes in size.

The second characteristic is one of throughput. With the computer system today, report generation is expected not to take long. Each request is supposed to generate one to many pages of report. It may take printer (even ink jet printer) less than a minute to print out.

The capacity characteristic of this application is expected to be able to fit all program, albums, and the database into 3 gigabytes of disk storage. This will handle approximately 3000 ingredients and 500 important economical pests in the database. This is based on the maximum space of 50,000 bytes of information storage for one ingredient and 5 mbytes for each picture of pest. With considering user information, another 3 gigabytes may need to store user information per year.

4.3.2.2 ReliabilityThis application is not a safety critical application and as a result the reliability factor for the application is not overly critical. However, the reliability will be reexamined following the release of a try-version for a 6-month period.

4.3.2.3 MaintainabilityThe use of FrontPage will help make the application easier to maintain. The reason for this is because FrontPage can generate codes automatically and the authors will not directly deal with codes of the application. In addition, other applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint could be borrowed in the application creation using FrontPage.

4.3.2.4 Life cycle requirements

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4.3.2.4.1 Planned Quality ActivitiesThe master’s of Software Engineering Project requirements specify that a software quality assurance plan, test plan, and document inspection report be part of the software portfolio submitted for the project. These documents will detail specific quality tasks and requirements to be carried out to complete the project. These documents will be written during the design phase of the project and cover activities to be completed during the design and implementation parts of the project.

Changes are expected to be made to this application, they will be tracked by reasoning for change, date of change, and an issue configuration control designation on documents. The application will be expected to be extended from the basic version (My Master degree Project) to the enhanced version (including user information).

4.3.3 ConstraintsThis section specifies the possible constrain for the application, the minimum hardware requirements for it to run.

4.3.3.1 System RequirementsThe following list the minimum system requirement for this application to achieve better performance. These will be updated as the project progresses. o Windows 2000 or later version requiredo 500 MHZ Pentium or equivalent chip clone recommendedo 256 MB RAMo 1 Gigabytes hard disk spaceo 640 X 480 displayo Windows compatible mouse or pointing deviceo Windows support printer

4.3.3.2 Security Security is not an important consideration in this application due to following reasons. The first is that the database will be designed to be accessible for public. The second reason is that there is not any privacy or any financial information concerned.

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