Software Development in the Cloud: Exploring the Affordances of Platform-as-a-Service

Software development teams increasingly adopt platform-as-a-service (PaaS), i.e., cloud services that make software development infrastructure available over the internet. Yet, empirical evidence of whether and how software development work changes with the use of PaaS is difficult to find. We performed a grounded-theory study to explore the affordances of PaaS for software development teams. We find that PaaS enables software development teams to enforce uniformity, to exploit knowledge embedded in technology, to enhance agility, and to enrich jobs. These affordances do not arise in a vacuum. Their emergence is closely interwoven with changes in methodologies, roles, and norms that give rise to self-organizing, loosely coupled teams. Our study provides rich descriptions of PaaS-based software development and an emerging theory of affordances of PaaS for software development teams.

La fundamentación discursiva de la ética : Examen crítico de la reflexión trascendental y defensa del programa ético-discursivo en la versión de Karl-Otto Apel

El tema de la tesis es la fundamentación ético discursiva propuesta por Karl-Otto Apel en el marco de su pragmática trascendental. El examen crítico de esta propuesta filosófica tiene el objetivo de reforzar los argumentos a favor de una fundamentación trascendental de la ética. Se enfrenta inicialmente a la pragmática apeliana con una serie de críticas provenientes del debate analítico sobre los "argumentos trascendentales", iniciada en los años sesenta del siglo XX. Se reconstruyen tres líneas principales: una que atañe a la forma de los argumentos trascendentales, otra a su capacidad para demostrar validez objetiva, y la otra a su capacidad para demostrar la unicidad de un esquema conceptual (iniciadas respectivamente por M. Gram, B. Stroud y S. Körner). La discusión y posterior aplicación a Apel de las críticas de este debate conduce a tres conclusiones principales. La primera es que no existen razones concluyentes en contra de realizar una reflexión trascendental sobre las condiciones de posibilidad del conocimiento válido. La segunda es que la fundamentación trascendental debe hacerse en el marco de un modelo filosófico dialógico y auto-reflexivo (diferente al asumido por los autores del debate). Precisamente, la tercera conclusión es que todo método trascendental debe ser "interno", es decir, debe asumir las condiciones que investiga. Se aborda entonces el problema de concebir un método que asuma la circularidad de la investigación y le dé un contenido concreto a la fundamentación. En lugar de la fórmula apeliana, se sostiene la conveniencia de entender la pragmática trascendental como una continuación, corregida en un sentido trascendental, de la hermenéutica iniciada por Heidegger y renovada por Gadamer. Un método interno "hermenéutico trascendental" puede describirse con los rasgos de la dialogicidad, la auto-reflexión y la crítica del sentido. El interés fundamental es, como para Apel, la reconstrucción de aquellos presupuestos que conforman la base de la ética discursiva, la cual transforma de manera comunicativa el imperativo categórico kantiano. Se discute finalmente la cuestión de cómo es posible pensar que los presupuestos argumentativos no están sometidos a cambios históricos. La respuesta apunta a señalar que la objeción de "otra razón posible" carece de argumentos sustantivos en contra de la fundamentación.

La fundamentación discursiva de la ética : Examen crítico de la reflexión trascendental y defensa del programa ético-discursivo en la versión de Karl-Otto Apel

El tema de la tesis es la fundamentación ético discursiva propuesta por Karl-Otto Apel en el marco de su pragmática trascendental. El examen crítico de esta propuesta filosófica tiene el objetivo de reforzar los argumentos a favor de una fundamentación trascendental de la ética. Se enfrenta inicialmente a la pragmática apeliana con una serie de críticas provenientes del debate analítico sobre los "argumentos trascendentales", iniciada en los años sesenta del siglo XX. Se reconstruyen tres líneas principales: una que atañe a la forma de los argumentos trascendentales, otra a su capacidad para demostrar validez objetiva, y la otra a su capacidad para demostrar la unicidad de un esquema conceptual (iniciadas respectivamente por M. Gram, B. Stroud y S. Körner). La discusión y posterior aplicación a Apel de las críticas de este debate conduce a tres conclusiones principales. La primera es que no existen razones concluyentes en contra de realizar una reflexión trascendental sobre las condiciones de posibilidad del conocimiento válido. La segunda es que la fundamentación trascendental debe hacerse en el marco de un modelo filosófico dialógico y auto-reflexivo (diferente al asumido por los autores del debate). Precisamente, la tercera conclusión es que todo método trascendental debe ser "interno", es decir, debe asumir las condiciones que investiga. Se aborda entonces el problema de concebir un método que asuma la circularidad de la investigación y le dé un contenido concreto a la fundamentación. En lugar de la fórmula apeliana, se sostiene la conveniencia de entender la pragmática trascendental como una continuación, corregida en un sentido trascendental, de la hermenéutica iniciada por Heidegger y renovada por Gadamer. Un método interno "hermenéutico trascendental" puede describirse con los rasgos de la dialogicidad, la auto-reflexión y la crítica del sentido. El interés fundamental es, como para Apel, la reconstrucción de aquellos presupuestos que conforman la base de la ética discursiva, la cual transforma de manera comunicativa el imperativo categórico kantiano. Se discute finalmente la cuestión de cómo es posible pensar que los presupuestos argumentativos no están sometidos a cambios históricos. La respuesta apunta a señalar que la objeción de "otra razón posible" carece de argumentos sustantivos en contra de la fundamentación.

La fundamentación discursiva de la ética : Examen crítico de la reflexión trascendental y defensa del programa ético-discursivo en la versión de Karl-Otto Apel

El tema de la tesis es la fundamentación ético discursiva propuesta por Karl-Otto Apel en el marco de su pragmática trascendental. El examen crítico de esta propuesta filosófica tiene el objetivo de reforzar los argumentos a favor de una fundamentación trascendental de la ética. Se enfrenta inicialmente a la pragmática apeliana con una serie de críticas provenientes del debate analítico sobre los "argumentos trascendentales", iniciada en los años sesenta del siglo XX. Se reconstruyen tres líneas principales: una que atañe a la forma de los argumentos trascendentales, otra a su capacidad para demostrar validez objetiva, y la otra a su capacidad para demostrar la unicidad de un esquema conceptual (iniciadas respectivamente por M. Gram, B. Stroud y S. Körner). La discusión y posterior aplicación a Apel de las críticas de este debate conduce a tres conclusiones principales. La primera es que no existen razones concluyentes en contra de realizar una reflexión trascendental sobre las condiciones de posibilidad del conocimiento válido. La segunda es que la fundamentación trascendental debe hacerse en el marco de un modelo filosófico dialógico y auto-reflexivo (diferente al asumido por los autores del debate). Precisamente, la tercera conclusión es que todo método trascendental debe ser "interno", es decir, debe asumir las condiciones que investiga. Se aborda entonces el problema de concebir un método que asuma la circularidad de la investigación y le dé un contenido concreto a la fundamentación. En lugar de la fórmula apeliana, se sostiene la conveniencia de entender la pragmática trascendental como una continuación, corregida en un sentido trascendental, de la hermenéutica iniciada por Heidegger y renovada por Gadamer. Un método interno "hermenéutico trascendental" puede describirse con los rasgos de la dialogicidad, la auto-reflexión y la crítica del sentido. El interés fundamental es, como para Apel, la reconstrucción de aquellos presupuestos que conforman la base de la ética discursiva, la cual transforma de manera comunicativa el imperativo categórico kantiano. Se discute finalmente la cuestión de cómo es posible pensar que los presupuestos argumentativos no están sometidos a cambios históricos. La respuesta apunta a señalar que la objeción de "otra razón posible" carece de argumentos sustantivos en contra de la fundamentación.

Timed mind maps using MINDMANAGER & MS-PROJECT for educational innovation

The adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is becoming a great challenge for the University Community, especially for its teaching and research staff, which is involved actively in the teaching-learning process. It is also inducing a paradigm change for lecturers and students. Among the methodologies used for processes of teaching innovation, system thinking plays an important role when working mainly with mind maps, and is focused to highlighting the essence of the knowledge, allowing its visual representation. In this paper, a method for using these mind maps for organizing a particular subject is explained. This organization is completed with the definition of duration, precedence relationships and resources for each of these activities, as well as with their corresponding monitoring. Mind maps are generated by means of the MINDMANAGER package whilst Ms-PROJECT is used for establishing tasks relationships, durations, resources, and monitoring. Summarizing, a procedure and the necessary set of applications for self organizing and managing (timed) scheduled teaching tasks has been described in this paper.

Timed mind maps using mindmanager & msproject for educational innovation

The adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is becoming a great challenge for the University Community, especially for its teaching and research staff, which is involved actively in the teaching-learning process. It is also inducing a paradigm change for lecturers and students. Among the methodologies used for processes of teaching innovation, system thinking plays an important role when working mainly with mind maps, and is focused to highlighting the essence of the knowledge, allowing its visual representation. In this paper, a method for using these mind maps for organizing a particular subject is explained. This organization is completed with the definition of duration, precedence relationships and resources for each of these activities, as well as with their corresponding monitoring. Mind maps are generated by means of the MINDMANAGER package whilst Ms-PROJECT is used for establishing tasks relationships, durations, resources, and monitoring. Summarizing, a procedure and the necessary set of applications for self organizing and managing (timed) scheduled teaching tasks has been described in this paper

Image Segmentation Using Ant System-based Clustering Algorithm

Industrial applications of computer vision sometimes require detection of atypical objects that occur as small groups of pixels in digital images. These objects are difficult to single out because they are small and randomly distributed. In this work we propose an image segmentation method using the novel Ant System-based Clustering Algorithm (ASCA). ASCA models the foraging behaviour of ants, which move through the data space searching for high data-density regions, and leave pheromone trails on their path. The pheromone map is used to identify the exact number of clusters, and assign the pixels to these clusters using the pheromone gradient. We applied ASCA to detection of microcalcifications in digital mammograms and compared its performance with state-of-the-art clustering algorithms such as 1D Self-Organizing Map, k-Means, Fuzzy c-Means and Possibilistic Fuzzy c-Means. The main advantage of ASCA is that the number of clusters needs not to be known a priori. The experimental results show that ASCA is more efficient than the other algorithms in detecting small clusters of atypical data.

Unsupervised system to classify SO2 pollutant concentrations in Salamanca, Mexico

Salamanca is cataloged as one of the most polluted cities in Mexico. In order to observe the behavior and clarify the influence of wind parameters on the Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) concentrations a Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) Neural Network have been implemented at three monitoring locations for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2006. The maximum and minimum daily values of SO2 concentrations measured during the year of 2006 were correlated with the wind parameters of the same period. The main advantages of the SOM Neural Network is that it allows to integrate data from different sensors and provide readily interpretation results. Especially, it is powerful mapping and classification tool, which others information in an easier way and facilitates the task of establishing an order of priority between the distinguished groups of concentrations depending on their need for further research or remediation actions in subsequent management steps. For each monitoring location, SOM classifications were evaluated with respect to pollution levels established by Health Authorities. The classification system can help to establish a better air quality monitoring methodology that is essential for assessing the effectiveness of imposed pollution controls, strategies, and facilitate the pollutants reduction.

Pollutant concentrations and Meteorological data classification by Neural Networks

This paper present an environmental contingency forecasting tool based on Neural Networks (NN). Forecasting tool analyzes every hour and daily Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) concentrations and Meteorological data time series. Pollutant concentrations and meteorological variables are self-organized applying a Self-organizing Map (SOM) NN in different classes. Classes are used in training phase of a General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) classifier to provide an air quality forecast. In this case a time series set obtained from Environmental Monitoring Network (EMN) of the city of Salamanca, Guanajuato, México is used. Results verify the potential of this method versus other statistical classification methods and also variables correlation is solved.

Air pollution data classification by SOM Neural Network

Over the last ten years, Salamanca has been considered among the most polluted cities in México. This paper presents a Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) Neural Network application to classify pollution data and automatize the air pollution level determination for Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) in Salamanca. Meteorological parameters are well known to be important factors contributing to air quality estimation and prediction. In order to observe the behavior and clarify the influence of wind parameters on the SO2 concentrations a SOM Neural Network have been implemented along a year. The main advantages of the SOM is that it allows to integrate data from different sensors and provide readily interpretation results. Especially, it is powerful mapping and classification tool, which others information in an easier way and facilitates the task of establishing an order of priority between the distinguished groups of concentrations depending on their need for further research or remediation actions in subsequent management steps. The results show a significative correlation between pollutant concentrations and some environmental variables.

Bio-inspired enhancement of reputation systems for intelligent environments

Providing security to the emerging field of ambient intelligence will be difficult if we rely only on existing techniques, given their dynamic and heterogeneous nature. Moreover, security demands of these systems are expected to grow, as many applications will require accurate context modeling. In this work we propose an enhancement to the reputation systems traditionally deployed for securing these systems. Different anomaly detectors are combined using the immunological paradigm to optimize reputation system performance in response to evolving security requirements. As an example, the experiments show how a combination of detectors based on unsupervised techniques (self-organizing maps and genetic algorithms) can help to significantly reduce the global response time of the reputation system. The proposed solution offers many benefits: scalability, fast response to adversarial activities, ability to detect unknown attacks, high adaptability, and high ability in detecting and confining attacks. For these reasons, we believe that our solution is capable of coping with the dynamism of ambient intelligence systems and the growing requirements of security demands.

Conductivity variations of multi-walled carbon nanotubes oriented in liquid crystal cells

The control of carbon nanotubes conductivity is generating interest in several fields since it may be relevant for a number of applications. The self-organizing properties of liquid crystals may be used to impose alignment on dispersed carbon nanotubes,thus control-ling their conductivity and its anisotropy. This leads to a number of possible applications in photonic and electronic devices such as electrically controlled carbon nanotube switch- es and crossboards. In this work, cells of liquid crystals doped with multi-walled nanotubes have been prepared in different configurations. Their conductivity variations upon switching have been investigated. It turns out that conductivity evolution depends on the initial configuration (either homogeneous, homeotropic or in-plane switching), the cell thickness and the switching record. The control of these manufacturing paramenters allows the modulation of the electrical behavior of carbon nanotubes.

Knowledge-based analysis of microarray gene expression data by using support vector machines

We introduce a method of functionally classifying genes by using gene expression data from DNA microarray hybridization experiments. The method is based on the theory of support vector machines (SVMs). SVMs are considered a supervised computer learning method because they exploit prior knowledge of gene function to identify unknown genes of similar function from expression data. SVMs avoid several problems associated with unsupervised clustering methods, such as hierarchical clustering and self-organizing maps. SVMs have many mathematical features that make them attractive for gene expression analysis, including their flexibility in choosing a similarity function, sparseness of solution when dealing with large data sets, the ability to handle large feature spaces, and the ability to identify outliers. We test several SVMs that use different similarity metrics, as well as some other supervised learning methods, and find that the SVMs best identify sets of genes with a common function using expression data. Finally, we use SVMs to predict functional roles for uncharacterized yeast ORFs based on their expression data.

Multiwavelength study of quiescent states of MrK 421 with unprecedented hard x-Ray coverage provided by NuStar in 2013

We present coordinated multiwavelength observations of the bright, nearby BL Lacertae object Mrk 421 taken in 2013 January–March, involving GASP-WEBT, Swift, NuSTAR, Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, VERITAS, and other collaborations and instruments, providing data from radio to very high energy (VHE) γ-ray bands. NuSTAR yielded previously unattainable sensitivity in the 3–79 keV range, revealing that the spectrum softens when the source is dimmer until the X-ray spectral shape saturates into a steep G » 3 power law, with no evidence for an exponential cutoff or additional hard components up "aprox" 80keV. For the first time, we observed both the synchrotron and the inverse-Compton peaks of the spectral energy distribution (SED) simultaneously shifted to frequencies below the typical quiescent state by an order of magnitude. The fractional variability as a function of photon energy shows a double-bump structure that relates to the two bumps of the broadband SED. In each bump, the variability increases with energy, which, in the framework of the synchrotron self-Compton model, implies that the electrons with higher energies are more variable. The measured multi band variability, the significant X-ray-toVHE correlation down to some of the lowest fluxes ever observed in both bands, the lack of correlation between optical/UV and X-ray flux, the low degree of polarization and its significant (random) variations, the short estimated electron cooling time, and the significantly longer variability timescale observed in the NuSTAR light curves point toward in situ electron acceleration and suggest that there are multiple compact regions contributing to the broadband emission of Mrk 421 during low-activity states.

Aplicação de mapas auto-organizáveis na classificação de padrões de escoamento bifásico

O escoamento bifásico de gás-líquido é encontrado em muitos circuitos fechados que utilizam circulação natural para fins de resfriamento. O fenômeno da circulação natural é importante nos recentes projetos de centrais nucleares para a remoção de calor. O circuito de circulação natural (Circuito de Circulação Natural - CCN), instalado no Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares, IPEN / CNEN, é um circuito experimento concebido para fornecer dados termo-hidráulicos relacionados com escoamento monofásico ou bifásico em condições de circulação natural. A estimativa de transferência de calor tem sido melhorada com base em modelos que requerem uma previsão precisa de transições de padrão de escoamento. Este trabalho apresenta testes experimentais desenvolvidos no CCN para a visualização dos fenômenos de instabilidade em ciclos de circulação natural básica e classificar os padrões de escoamento bifásico associados aos transientes e instabilidades estáticas de escoamento. As imagens são comparadas e agrupadas utilizando mapas auto-organizáveis de Kohonen (SOM), aplicados em diferentes características da imagem digital. Coeficientes da Transformada Discreta de Cossenos de Quadro Completo (FFDCT) foram utilizados como entrada para a tarefa de classificação, levando a bons resultados. Os protótipos de FFDCT obtidos podem ser associados a cada padrão de escoamento possibilitando uma melhor compreensão da instabilidade observada. Uma metodologia sistemática foi utilizada para verificar a robustez do método.