Search

This paper introduces an easy to learn method to describe enterprise architectures with a limited focus on the relation between enterprise functions and IT-systems. We have designed the Enterprise Architecture Modelling method (EAM), driven by our teaching requirements and based on our ERP modelling experience. EAM consists of these diagram types: the Supply Chain Diagram, showing the business environment; the Enterprise Function Diagrams for the interoperation of enterprise functions; the Scenario Overlay for modelling the main business processes; the System Infrastructure Diagram, depicting the technical infrastructure of IT systems and networks; and the Application Overlay Diagram, showing which applications give support to which enterprise functions. We satisfactorily conducted about 40 case studies based on EAM. To solicit feedback we performed an enquiry among users of EAM. A future step will be testing the use of EAM in managerial decision taking in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a method of navigation in a large family of tilings of the hyperbolic plane and looks at the question of possible applications in the light of the few ones which were already obtained. (This paper is a revised and slightly extended version of a paper presented by the author at IMECS΄2010, see Margenstern (Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2010, pp. 367–382, 2010).) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe our novel use of space syntax for the design and development of pervasive systems. Pervasive systems are computer systems that are designed to be ˵invisible″ to users because they are designed to blend in with their environment and become part of the fabric of everyday life. Pervasive systems consist of fixed, mobile and embedded components, each of which may entail interactive capabilities and intelligence. Due to their close relationship with the build environment, pervasive systems are an ideal domain for adopting a space syntax methodology. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we present an adaptation of the space syntax methodology aimed at researchers and designers of space and pervasive systems. By developing an adaptation of the space syntax methodology we intend for space syntax to be added the arsenal of tools and theories that researchers use to understand and design pervasive systems. To exemplify how this can be achieved, we present three case studies that demonstrate crucial ways in which space syntax analysis can aid the design of pervasive systems. The case studies presented here show how space syntax can be used in the development of pervasive system as an application development tool, as an exploratory tool, and as a modelling tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of testing is to distinguish between a number of hypotheses about a system–for example, different diagnoses of faults–by applying input patterns and verifying or falsifying the hypotheses from the observed outputs. Optimal distinguishing tests (ODTs) are those input patterns that are most likely to distinguish between hypotheses about non-deterministic systems. Finding ODTs is practically important, but it amounts in general to determining a ratio of model counts and is therefore computationally very expensive. In this paper, we present a novel approach to constraint-based ODT generation, which uses structural properties of the system to limit the complexity of computation. We first construct a compact graphical representation of the testing problem via compilation into decomposable negation normal form. Based on this compiled representation, we show how one can evaluate distinguishing tests in linear time, which allows us to efficiently determine an ODT. Experimental results from a real-world application show that our method can compute ODTs for instances that were intractable for previous approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While changing from a predominantly terminal to an increasingly chronic condition, cancer is still a growing concern. Accompanying this change are new opportunities for technologies to support patients, their caregivers, and clinicians. In this paper, we present an in-depth study of cancer communities. From this exploration, we define and describe the concept of a personal cancer journey. We examine lessons and design opportunities across this journey for sensing and context-awareness and capture and access applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews a framework for numerically analyzing dynamic interactions in imperfectly competitive industries. The framework dates back to Ericson and Pakes [1995. Review of Economic Studies 62, 53-82], but it is based on equilibrium notions that had been available for some time before, and it has been extended in many ways by different authors since. The framework requires as input a set of primitives which describe the institutional structure in the industry to be analyzed. The framework outputs profits and policies for every incumbent and potential entrant at each possible state of the industry. These policies can be used to simulate the distribution of sample paths for all firms from any initial industry structure. The sample paths generated by the model can be quite different depending on the primitives, and most of the extensions were designed to enable the framework to accommodate empirically relevant cases that required modification of the initial structure. The sample paths possess similar properties to those observed in (the recently available) panel data sets on industries. These sample paths can be used either for an analysis of the likely response to a policy or an environmental change, or as the model's implication in an estimation algorithm. We begin with a review of an elementary version of the framework and a report on what is known about its analytic properties. Much of the rest of the paper deals with computational issues. We start with an introduction to iterative techniques for computing equilibrium that are analogous to the techniques used to compute the solution to single agent dynamic programming problems. This includes discussions of the determinants of the computational burden of these techniques, and the mechanism implicitly used to select an equilibrium when multiple equilibria are possible. We then outline a number of techniques that might be used to reduce the computational burden of the iterative algorithm. This section includes discussions of both the implications of differences in modeling assumptions used in the alternative techniques, and a discussion of the likely relevance of the different techniques for different institutional structures. A separate section reports on a technique for computing multiple equilibria from the same set of primitives. The paper concludes with a review of applications of the framework and a brief discussion of areas where further development of the framework would seem warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the position that the advent of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) depends on the availability of an ecosystem based on widely accepted mainstream platforms supporting AAL domain specific interfaces. It describes the features which such platforms must meet, based on the experience of the MonAMI project. It identifies challenges concerning the standardisation of application specific interfaces, and their support by platforms. It finally suggests two measures that will help make such platforms a reality: first, the launching of a research and industry initiative for an open source platform; secondly, the launching of a EC policy supported long-term process for the adoption of AAL standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With very high resolution (VHR) satellite it is now possible to carry out, using collected data from space, many applications that in the recent past were exclusive to airborne and on site surveys. Due to the high geometrical resolution, the multi-spectrality, the high radiometric sensitivity, the revisit capabilities, the area imaged by a single frame or strip and to the accurate geometrical processing that can be targeted, VHR imagery is a key source of information for a wide range of applications related to natural, semi-natural, urban up to desert environment. For example, a possible range of applications in this scenario can be: seasonal vegetation detection and monitoring, pasture monitoring and grazing paths, water points inventory, palm trees counting and monitoring, desertification expansion and sand mobilization mapping and monitoring. The paper also gives satellite data technical features and in general the capabilities of Very High Resolution in territorial problems solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DDDAS (Dynamic Data Driven Applications Systems) concept creates new capabilities in applications and measurements, through a new computational paradigm where application simulations can dynamically incorporate and respond to online field-data and measurements, and/or control such measurements. Such capabilities entail dynamic integration of the computational and measurement aspects of an application in a dynamic feed-back-loop, leading to unified SuperGrids of the computational and the instrumentation platforms. Examples of advances in applications capabilities enabled through DDDAS over traditional computational modeling methods, and advances in measurements methods, and instrumentation and sensor network systems, have appeared extensively in the literature. This paper concentrates in discussing a computational model representing the unified DDDAS computation-measurement environments, and asymptotic cases leading to traditional computational environments, data assimilation, and traditional control systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brain computer interface (BCI) technology allows a direct connection between brain and computer without any muscular activity required, and thus it offers a unique opportunity to enhance and/or to restore communication and actions into external word in people with severe motor disability. Here, we present the framework of the current research progresses regarding non-invasive EEG-based BCI applications specifically devoted to interact with the environment. Despite of the technological advancement, the operability of a BCI device in an out-laboratory setting (i.e. real-life condition) still remains far from being settled. The BCI control is indeed, characterized by unusual properties, when compared to more traditional inputs (long delays, noise with varying structure, long-term drifts, event-related noise, and stress effects). Current approaches to this are constituted by post hoc processing the BCI signal in order to better conform to traditional control. A long-term approach is to devise novel interaction modalities. In this regard, BCI can offer an unusual and compelling testing ground for new interaction ideas in the Human Computer Interaction field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]