Automatic code generation: from process algebraic architectural descriptions to multithreaded java programs

Process algebraic architectural description languages provide a formal means for modeling software systems and assessing their properties. In order to bridge the gap between system modeling and system im- plementation, in this thesis an approach is proposed for automatically generating multithreaded object-oriented code from process algebraic architectural descriptions, in a way that preserves – under certain assumptions – the properties proved at the architectural level. The approach is divided into three phases, which are illustrated by means of a running example based on an audio processing system. First, we develop an architecture-driven technique for thread coordination management, which is completely automated through a suitable package. Second, we address the translation of the algebraically-specified behavior of the individual software units into thread templates, which will have to be filled in by the software developer according to certain guidelines. Third, we discuss performance issues related to the suitability of synthesizing monitors rather than threads from software unit descriptions that satisfy specific constraints. In addition to the running example, we present two case studies about a video animation repainting system and the implementation of a leader election algorithm, in order to summarize the whole approach. The outcome of this thesis is the implementation of the proposed approach in a translator called PADL2Java and its integration in the architecture-centric verification tool TwoTowers.

Biomass Gasification - Process analysis and dimensioning aspects for downdraft units and gas cleaning lines

In such territories where food production is mostly scattered in several small / medium size or even domestic farms, a lot of heterogeneous residues are produced yearly, since farmers usually carry out different activities in their properties. The amount and composition of farm residues, therefore, widely change during year, according to the single production process periodically achieved. Coupling high efficiency micro-cogeneration energy units with easy handling biomass conversion equipments, suitable to treat different materials, would provide many important advantages to the farmers and to the community as well, so that the increase in feedstock flexibility of gasification units is nowadays seen as a further paramount step towards their wide spreading in rural areas and as a real necessity for their utilization at small scale. Two main research topics were thought to be of main concern at this purpose, and they were therefore discussed in this work: the investigation of fuels properties impact on gasification process development and the technical feasibility of small scale gasification units integration with cogeneration systems. According to these two main aspects, the present work was thus divided in two main parts. The first one is focused on the biomass gasification process, that was investigated in its theoretical aspects and then analytically modelled in order to simulate thermo-chemical conversion of different biomass fuels, such as wood (park waste wood and softwood), wheat straw, sewage sludge and refuse derived fuels. The main idea is to correlate the results of reactor design procedures with the physical properties of biomasses and the corresponding working conditions of gasifiers (temperature profile, above all), in order to point out the main differences which prevent the use of the same conversion unit for different materials. At this scope, a gasification kinetic free model was initially developed in Excel sheets, considering different values of air to biomass ratio and the downdraft gasification technology as particular examined application. The differences in syngas production and working conditions (process temperatures, above all) among the considered fuels were tried to be connected to some biomass properties, such elementary composition, ash and water contents. The novelty of this analytical approach was the use of kinetic constants ratio in order to determine oxygen distribution among the different oxidation reactions (regarding volatile matter only) while equilibrium of water gas shift reaction was considered in gasification zone, by which the energy and mass balances involved in the process algorithm were linked together, as well. Moreover, the main advantage of this analytical tool is the easiness by which the input data corresponding to the particular biomass materials can be inserted into the model, so that a rapid evaluation on their own thermo-chemical conversion properties is possible to be obtained, mainly based on their chemical composition A good conformity of the model results with the other literature and experimental data was detected for almost all the considered materials (except for refuse derived fuels, because of their unfitting chemical composition with the model assumptions). Successively, a dimensioning procedure for open core downdraft gasifiers was set up, by the analysis on the fundamental thermo-physical and thermo-chemical mechanisms which are supposed to regulate the main solid conversion steps involved in the gasification process. Gasification units were schematically subdivided in four reaction zones, respectively corresponding to biomass heating, solids drying, pyrolysis and char gasification processes, and the time required for the full development of each of these steps was correlated to the kinetics rates (for pyrolysis and char gasification processes only) and to the heat and mass transfer phenomena from gas to solid phase. On the basis of this analysis and according to the kinetic free model results and biomass physical properties (particles size, above all) it was achieved that for all the considered materials char gasification step is kinetically limited and therefore temperature is the main working parameter controlling this step. Solids drying is mainly regulated by heat transfer from bulk gas to the inner layers of particles and the corresponding time especially depends on particle size. Biomass heating is almost totally achieved by the radiative heat transfer from the hot walls of reactor to the bed of material. For pyrolysis, instead, working temperature, particles size and the same nature of biomass (through its own pyrolysis heat) have all comparable weights on the process development, so that the corresponding time can be differently depending on one of these factors according to the particular fuel is gasified and the particular conditions are established inside the gasifier. The same analysis also led to the estimation of reaction zone volumes for each biomass fuel, so as a comparison among the dimensions of the differently fed gasification units was finally accomplished. Each biomass material showed a different volumes distribution, so that any dimensioned gasification unit does not seem to be suitable for more than one biomass species. Nevertheless, since reactors diameters were found out quite similar for all the examined materials, it could be envisaged to design a single units for all of them by adopting the largest diameter and by combining together the maximum heights of each reaction zone, as they were calculated for the different biomasses. A total height of gasifier as around 2400mm would be obtained in this case. Besides, by arranging air injecting nozzles at different levels along the reactor, gasification zone could be properly set up according to the particular material is in turn gasified. Finally, since gasification and pyrolysis times were found to considerably change according to even short temperature variations, it could be also envisaged to regulate air feeding rate for each gasified material (which process temperatures depend on), so as the available reactor volumes would be suitable for the complete development of solid conversion in each case, without even changing fluid dynamics behaviour of the unit as well as air/biomass ratio in noticeable measure. The second part of this work dealt with the gas cleaning systems to be adopted downstream the gasifiers in order to run high efficiency CHP units (i.e. internal engines and micro-turbines). Especially in the case multi–fuel gasifiers are assumed to be used, weightier gas cleaning lines need to be envisaged in order to reach the standard gas quality degree required to fuel cogeneration units. Indeed, as the more heterogeneous feed to the gasification unit, several contaminant species can simultaneously be present in the exit gas stream and, as a consequence, suitable gas cleaning systems have to be designed. In this work, an overall study on gas cleaning lines assessment is carried out. Differently from the other research efforts carried out in the same field, the main scope is to define general arrangements for gas cleaning lines suitable to remove several contaminants from the gas stream, independently on the feedstock material and the energy plant size The gas contaminant species taken into account in this analysis were: particulate, tars, sulphur (in H2S form), alkali metals, nitrogen (in NH3 form) and acid gases (in HCl form). For each of these species, alternative cleaning devices were designed according to three different plant sizes, respectively corresponding with 8Nm3/h, 125Nm3/h and 350Nm3/h gas flows. Their performances were examined on the basis of their optimal working conditions (efficiency, temperature and pressure drops, above all) and their own consumption of energy and materials. Successively, the designed units were combined together in different overall gas cleaning line arrangements, paths, by following some technical constraints which were mainly determined from the same performance analysis on the cleaning units and from the presumable synergic effects by contaminants on the right working of some of them (filters clogging, catalysts deactivation, etc.). One of the main issues to be stated in paths design accomplishment was the tars removal from the gas stream, preventing filters plugging and/or line pipes clogging At this scope, a catalytic tars cracking unit was envisaged as the only solution to be adopted, and, therefore, a catalytic material which is able to work at relatively low temperatures was chosen. Nevertheless, a rapid drop in tars cracking efficiency was also estimated for this same material, so that an high frequency of catalysts regeneration and a consequent relevant air consumption for this operation were calculated in all of the cases. Other difficulties had to be overcome in the abatement of alkali metals, which condense at temperatures lower than tars, but they also need to be removed in the first sections of gas cleaning line in order to avoid corrosion of materials. In this case a dry scrubber technology was envisaged, by using the same fine particles filter units and by choosing for them corrosion resistant materials, like ceramic ones. Besides these two solutions which seem to be unavoidable in gas cleaning line design, high temperature gas cleaning lines were not possible to be achieved for the two larger plant sizes, as well. Indeed, as the use of temperature control devices was precluded in the adopted design procedure, ammonia partial oxidation units (as the only considered methods for the abatement of ammonia at high temperature) were not suitable for the large scale units, because of the high increase of reactors temperature by the exothermic reactions involved in the process. In spite of these limitations, yet, overall arrangements for each considered plant size were finally designed, so that the possibility to clean the gas up to the required standard degree was technically demonstrated, even in the case several contaminants are simultaneously present in the gas stream. Moreover, all the possible paths defined for the different plant sizes were compared each others on the basis of some defined operational parameters, among which total pressure drops, total energy losses, number of units and secondary materials consumption. On the basis of this analysis, dry gas cleaning methods proved preferable to the ones including water scrubber technology in al of the cases, especially because of the high water consumption provided by water scrubber units in ammonia adsorption process. This result is yet connected to the possibility to use activated carbon units for ammonia removal and Nahcolite adsorber for chloride acid. The very high efficiency of this latter material is also remarkable. Finally, as an estimation of the overall energy loss pertaining the gas cleaning process, the total enthalpy losses estimated for the three plant sizes were compared with the respective gas streams energy contents, these latter obtained on the basis of low heating value of gas only. This overall study on gas cleaning systems is thus proposed as an analytical tool by which different gas cleaning line configurations can be evaluated, according to the particular practical application they are adopted for and the size of cogeneration unit they are connected to.

Einzelmolekülspektroskopische Studien an Farbstoff-markierten Chlorophyll-a/b-Lichtsammlerkomplexen und Untersuchungen zur Integration der Komplexe in elektrochemische Solarzellen

Die zentrale Funktion des Hauptlichtsammlerkomplexes des Photosystems II, LHCII, besteht in der Absorption von Sonnenlicht und der Bereitstellung von Energie für die photosynthetische Ladungstrennung im Reaktionszentrum des Photosystems. Auch in der Regulation der Photosynthese spielt der LHCII eine wichtige Rolle, da die Energieverteilung zwischen Photosystem I und Photosystem II im Rahmen des sog. „State Transition“-Prozesses über die Verteilung der Lichtsammlerkomplexe zwischen den beiden Photosystemen gesteuert wird. Im Blickfeld des ersten Teils dieser Arbeit stand die konformative Dynamik der N-terminalen Domäne des LHCII, die wahrscheinlich in die Regulation der Lichtsammlung involviert ist. Gemeinsam mit Mitarbeitern des 3. Physikalischen Instituts der Universität Stuttgart wurde an der Etablierung einer Methode zur einzelmolekülspektroskopischen Untersuchung der Dynamik des N-Terminus gearbeitet. Als Messgröße diente der Energietransfer zwischen einem Fluoreszenzfarbstoff, der an die N-terminale Domäne gekoppelt war, und den Chlorophyllen des Komplexes. Die Funktion des LHCII als effiziente Lichtantenne bildete die Grundlage für den zweiten Teil dieser Arbeit. Hier wurde untersucht, in wie weit LHCII als Lichtsammler in eine elektrochemische Solarzelle integriert werden kann. In der potentiellen Solarzelle sollte die Anregungsenergie des LHCII auf Akzeptorfarbstoffe übertragen werden, die in der Folge Elektronen in das Leitungsband einer aus Titandioxid oder Zinndioxid bestehenden porösen Halbleiterelektrode injizierten, auf der Komplexe und Farbstoffe immobilisiert waren.

Integration of MFA and LCA methodologies: the anthropogenic aluminium cycle in Italy

MFA and LCA methodologies were applied to analyse the anthropogenic aluminium cycle in Italy with focus on historical evolution of stocks and flows of the metal, embodied GHG emissions, and potentials from recycling to provide key features to Italy for prioritizing industrial policy toward low-carbon technologies and materials. Historical trend series were collected from 1947 to 2009 and balanced with data from production, manufacturing and waste management of aluminium-containing products, using a ‘top-down’ approach to quantify the contemporary in-use stock of the metal, and helping to identify ‘applications where aluminium is not yet being recycled to its full potential and to identify present and future recycling flows’. The MFA results were used as a basis for the LCA aimed at evaluating the carbon footprint evolution, from primary and electrical energy, the smelting process and the transportation, embodied in the Italian aluminium. A discussion about how the main factors, according to the Kaya Identity equation, they did influence the Italian GHG emissions pattern over time, and which are the levers to mitigate it, it has been also reported. The contemporary anthropogenic reservoirs of aluminium was estimated at about 320 kg per capita, mainly embedded within the transportation and building and construction sectors. Cumulative in-use stock represents approximately 11 years of supply at current usage rates (about 20 Mt versus 1.7 Mt/year), and it would imply a potential of about 160 Mt of CO2eq emissions savings. A discussion of criticality related to aluminium waste recovery from the transportation and the containers and packaging sectors was also included in the study, providing an example for how MFA and LCA may support decision-making at sectorial or regional level. The research constitutes the first attempt of an integrated approach between MFA and LCA applied to the aluminium cycle in Italy.

Integration of a simulation platform for electrical mobility within the arrowhead interoperability framework

This dissertation document deals with the development of a project, over a span of more than two years, carried out within the scope of the Arrowhead Framework and which bears my personal contribution in several sections. The final part of the project took place during a visiting period at the university of Luleå. The Arrowhead Project is an European project, belonging to the ARTEMIS association, which aims to foster new technologies and unify the access to them into an unique framework. Such technologies include the Internet of Things phe- nomenon, Smart Houses, Electrical Mobility and renewable energy production. An application is considered compliant with such framework when it respects the Service Oriented Architecture paradigm and it is able to interact with a set of defined components called Arrowhead Core Services. My personal contribution to this project is given by the development of several user-friendly API, published in the project's main repository, and the integration of a legacy system within the Arrowhead Framework. The implementation of this legacy system was initiated by me in 2012 and, after many improvements carried out by several developers in UniBO, it has been again significantly modified this year in order to achieve compatibility. The system consists of a simulation of an urban scenario where a certain amount of electrical vehicles are traveling along their specified routes. The vehicles are con-suming their battery and, thus, need to recharge at the charging stations. The electrical vehicles need to use a reservation mechanism to be able to recharge and avoid waiting lines, due to the long recharge process. The integration with the above mentioned framework consists in the publication of the services that the system provides to the end users through the instantiation of several Arrowhead Service Producers, together with a demo Arrowhead- compliant client application able to consume such services.

An Elaboration of the Psycho-Physiological Method and its Application on the Process of Socialization of Mentally Handicapped People

The socialisation of mentally handicapped people is a long-term process during which the disabled person learns new habits and abilities step by step through education and training. Anxiety and neuroses due to an inadequate social environment can place obstacles in the path of the disabled person's integration into society. A method of regulating the psycho-physiological condition of mentally handicapped people (MRPC) was developed in order to reduce anxiety and neuropsychological tension and to establish positive social attitudes. Both verbal and non-verbal means of manipulating the psycho-physiological condition were used and experimental and control groups were formed from among the clients of Israelian's institute. The experimental groups applied the new method for six months, leading to a significant shift in the response of the clients involved. Expressed anxiety and defensive responses to mental tasks were transformed into orienting responses after 30 psycho-regulative exercises. Cognitive functions such as attention and memory also improved significantly. EEG examinations of the actual process of psycho-regulation revealed a tendency towards a change of brain activity by increasing the fast pulse frequency values in the alpha zones. Israelian concludes that the application of the MRPC creates better functional conditions for the socialisation of mentally handicapped people.

The Social Desintegration of an Ethnical German Group from Romanian Village Community Comparative with a Romanian Group and Hungarian Group from some Village Their Integration into the German Society

Zarna is witness to the disappearance of the Swabian community in Santana, a process which seems to date back to before the major changes in Central and Eastern Europe. His project showed how a strong German ethnic community, formed more than 250 years ago, has virtually disappeared from the village of Santana (Romania). Zarna presents the causes leading to the loss of their ethnic identity, of their culture, traditions and of the collective reproduction of their ethnicity, although the last Swabians remaining in the village have preserved their individual identity and not let themselves be assimilated. The policy of the former communist regime is not sufficient to explain the decline of the German ethnic group, nor is the present international context with its varying effects on the form and reproduction of their ethnic identity. Zarna has analysed the origins of the Swabian community, its development, historical changes (both desired and imposed) and the disappearance of elements that determined their German culture and their pride in being German. The Germans have demobilised more rapidly than other ethnic groups in Romania, partly because of Germany's pro-emigration policy over the last two decades. Many of the emigrants were however, poorly prepared for emigration and have not been able to recreate the prosperous financial situation which they left. The prevalent feeling among those interviewed was disappointment and this increases with age and education.

Ethnosciences - A step towards the integration of scientific and non-scientific forms of knowledge in the management of natural resources for the future

Integration of indigenous knowledge and ethnoscientific approaches into contemporary frameworks for conservation and sustainable management of natural resources will become increasingly important in policies on an international and national level. We set the scene on how this can be done by exploring the key conditions and dimensions of a dialogue between ‘ontologies’ and the roles, which ethnosciences could play in this process. First, the roles which ethnosciences in the context of sustainable development were analysed, placing emphasis on the implications arising when western sciences aspire to relate to indigenous forms of knowledge. Secondly, the contributions of ethnosciences to such an ‘inter-ontological dialogue’ were explored, based on an ethnoecological study of the encounter of sciences and indigenous knowledge in the Andes of Bolivia, and reviewed experiences from mangrove systems in Kenya, India and Sri Lanka, and from case-studies in other ecosystems world-wide.

Growth, modification and integration of carbon nanotubes into molecular electronics

Molecules are the smallest possible elements for electronic devices, with active elements for such devices typically a few Angstroms in footprint area. Owing to the possibility of producing ultrahigh density devices, tremendous effort has been invested in producing electronic junctions by using various types of molecules. The major issues for molecular electronics include (1) developing an effective scheme to connect molecules with the present micro- and nano-technology, (2) increasing the lifetime and stabilities of the devices, and (3) increasing their performance in comparison to the state-of-the-art devices. In this work, we attempt to use carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the interconnecting nanoelectrodes between molecules and microelectrodes. The ultimate goal is to use two individual CNTs to sandwich molecules in a cross-bar configuration while having these CNTs connected with microelectrodes such that the junction displays the electronic character of the molecule chosen. We have successfully developed an effective scheme to connect molecules with CNTs, which is scalable to arrays of molecular electronic devices. To realize this far reaching goal, the following technical topics have been investigated. 1. Synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by thermal chemical vapor deposition (T-CVD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) techniques (Chapter 3). We have evaluated the potential use of tubular and bamboo-like MWCNTs grown by T-CVD and PE-CVD in terms of their structural properties. 2. Horizontal dispersion of MWCNTs with and without surfactants, and the integration of MWCNTs to microelectrodes using deposition by dielectrophoresis (DEP) (Chapter 4). We have systematically studied the use of surfactant molecules to disperse and horizontally align MWCNTs on substrates. In addition, DEP is shown to produce impurityfree placement of MWCNTs, forming connections between microelectrodes. We demonstrate the deposition density is tunable by both AC field strength and AC field frequency. 3. Etching of MWCNTs for the impurity-free nanoelectrodes (Chapter 5). We show that the residual Ni catalyst on MWCNTs can be removed by acid etching; the tip removal and collapsing of tubes into pyramids enhances the stability of field emission from the tube arrays. The acid-etching process can be used to functionalize the MWCNTs, which was used to make our initial CNT-nanoelectrode glucose sensors. Finally, lessons learned trying to perform spectroscopic analysis of the functionalized MWCNTs were vital for designing our final devices. 4. Molecular junction design and electrochemical synthesis of biphenyl molecules on carbon microelectrodes for all-carbon molecular devices (Chapter 6). Utilizing the experience gained on the work done so far, our final device design is described. We demonstrate the capability of preparing patterned glassy carbon films to serve as the bottom electrode in the new geometry. However, the molecular switching behavior of biphenyl was not observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), mercury drop or fabricated glassy carbon/biphenyl/MWCNT junctions. Either the density of these molecules is not optimum for effective integration of devices using MWCNTs as the nanoelectrodes, or an electroactive contaminant was reduced instead of the ionic biphenyl species. 5. Self-assembly of octadecanethiol (ODT) molecules on gold microelectrodes for functional molecular devices (Chapter 7). We have realized an effective scheme to produce Au/ODT/MWCNT junctions by spanning MWCNTs across ODT-functionalized microelectrodes. A percentage of the resulting junctions retain the expected character of an ODT monolayer. While the process is not yet optimized, our successful junctions show that molecular electronic devices can be fabricated using simple processes such as photolithography, self-assembled monolayers and dielectrophoresis.

Proviral integration site for Moloney murine leukemia virus 1, but not phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, is essential in the antiapoptotic signaling cascade initiated by IL-5 in eosinophils

BACKGROUND: Eosinophil differentiation, activation, and survival are largely regulated by IL-5. IL-5-mediated transmembrane signal transduction involves both Lyn-mitogen-activated protein kinases and Janus kinase 2-signal transducer and activator of transcription pathways. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether additional signaling molecules/pathways are critically involved in IL-5-mediated eosinophil survival. METHODS: Eosinophil survival and apoptosis were measured in the presence and absence of IL-5 and defined pharmacologic inhibitors in vitro. The specific role of the serine/threonine kinase proviral integration site for Moloney murine leukemia virus (Pim) 1 was tested by using HIV-transactivator of transcription fusion proteins containing wild-type Pim-1 or a dominant-negative form of Pim-1. The expression of Pim-1 in eosinophils was analyzed by means of immunoblotting and immunofluorescence. RESULTS: Although pharmacologic inhibition of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) by LY294002, wortmannin, or the selective PI3K p110delta isoform inhibitor IC87114 was successful in each case, only LY294002 blocked increased IL-5-mediated eosinophil survival. This suggested that LY294002 inhibited another kinase that is critically involved in this process in addition to PI3K. Indeed, Pim-1 was rapidly and strongly expressed in eosinophils after IL-5 stimulation in vitro and readily detected in eosinophils under inflammatory conditions in vivo. Moreover, by using specific protein transfer, we identified Pim-1 as a critical element in IL-5-mediated antiapoptotic signaling in eosinophils. CONCLUSIONS: Pim-1, but not PI3K, plays a major role in IL-5-mediated antiapoptotic signaling in eosinophils.

Critical issues in managing protected areas by multi-stakeholder participation - analysis of a process in the Swiss Alps

Balancing the frequently conflicting priorities of conservation and economic development poses a challenge to management of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site (WHS). This is a complex societal problem that calls for a knowledge-based solution. This in turn requires a transdisciplinary research framework in which problems are defined and solved cooperatively by actors from the scientific community and the life-world. In this article we re-examine studies carried out in the region of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch WHS, covering three key issues prevalent in transdisciplinary settings: integration of stakeholders into participatory processes; perceptions and positions; and negotiability and implementation. In the case of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch WHS the transdisciplinary setting created a situation of mutual learning among stakeholders from different levels and backgrounds. However, the studies showed that the benefits of such processes of mutual learning are continuously at risk of being diminished by the power play inherent in participatory approaches.

Enterprise Integration of Smart Objects using Semantic Service Descriptions

Integrating physical objects (smart objects) and enterprise IT systems is still a labor intensive, mainly manual task done by domain experts. On one hand, enterprise IT backend systems are based on service oriented architectures (SOA) and driven by business rule engines or business process execution engines. Smart objects on the other hand are often programmed at very low levels. In this paper we describe an approach that makes the integration of smart objects with such backends systems easier. We introduce semantic endpoint descriptions based on Linked USDL. Furthermore, we show how different communication patterns can be integrated into these endpoint descriptions. The strength of our endpoint descriptions is that they can be used to automatically create REST or SOAP endpoints for enterprise systems, even if which they are not able to talk to the smart objects directly. We evaluate our proposed solution with CoAP, UDP and 6LoWPAN, as we anticipate the industry converge towards these standards. Nonetheless, our approach also allows easy integration with backend systems, even if no standardized protocol is used.

A Team-Oriented Investigation of ERP Post-Implementation Integration Projects: How Cross-Functional Collaboration Influences ERP Benefits

The benefits companies achieve by implementing an ERP system vary considerably. Many companies need to adapt their ERP integration solution in the post-implementation stage. But after the completion of such a usually very complex integration project, benefits do not emerge by all means. A misfit between the organization and the IS, especially the aspect of cross-functional team collaboration, could explain these divergences. Using an initial theoretical framework, we conducted a single case study to explore the team-oriented perceptions in a post-implementation ERP integration project. To analyze the benefits and the influences in greater depth we disentangled the integration benefits into their particular parts (process, system and information quality). Our findings show that post-implementation ERP integration changes are not always perceived as beneficiary by the involved teams and that cross-functional collaboration has an important influence.

Legal Integration of Islam: A Transatlantic Comparison

The status of Islam in Western societies remains deeply contentious. Countering strident claims on both the right and left, Legal Integration of Islam offers an empirically informed analysis of how four liberal democracies—France, Germany, Canada, and the United States—have responded to the challenge of integrating Islam and Muslim populations. Demonstrating the centrality of the legal system to this process, Christian Joppke and John Torpey reject the widely held notion that Europe is incapable of accommodating Islam and argue that institutional barriers to Muslim integration are no greater on one side of the Atlantic than the other. While Muslims have achieved a substantial degree of equality working through the courts, political dynamics increasingly push back against these gains, particularly in Europe. From a classical liberal viewpoint, religion can either be driven out of public space, as in France, or included without sectarian preference, as in Germany. But both policies come at a price—religious liberty in France and full equality in Germany. Often seen as the flagship of multiculturalism, Canada has found itself responding to nativist and liberal pressures as Muslims become more assertive. And although there have been outbursts of anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States, the legal and political recognition of Islam is well established and largely uncontested. Legal Integration of Islam brings to light the successes and the shortcomings of integrating Islam through law without denying the challenges that this religion presents for liberal societies.

A PROCESS FOR ACHIEVING COMPARABLE DATA FROM HETEROGENEOUS DATABASES

The current state of health and biomedicine includes an enormity of heterogeneous data ‘silos’, collected for different purposes and represented differently, that are presently impossible to share or analyze in toto. The greatest challenge for large-scale and meaningful analyses of health-related data is to achieve a uniform data representation for data extracted from heterogeneous source representations. Based upon an analysis and categorization of heterogeneities, a process for achieving comparable data content by using a uniform terminological representation is developed. This process addresses the types of representational heterogeneities that commonly arise in healthcare data integration problems. Specifically, this process uses a reference terminology, and associated "maps" to transform heterogeneous data to a standard representation for comparability and secondary use. The capture of quality and precision of the “maps” between local terms and reference terminology concepts enhances the meaning of the aggregated data, empowering end users with better-informed queries for subsequent analyses. A data integration case study in the domain of pediatric asthma illustrates the development and use of a reference terminology for creating comparable data from heterogeneous source representations. The contribution of this research is a generalized process for the integration of data from heterogeneous source representations, and this process can be applied and extended to other problems where heterogeneous data needs to be merged.