Dreams: A tool for the design of dynamically reconfigurable embedded and modular systems

Dynamically Reconfigurable Systems are attracting a growing interest, mainly due to the emergence of novel applications based on this technology. However, commercial tools do not provide enough flexibility to design solutions, while keeping an acceptable design productivity. In this paper, a novel design flow is proposed, targeting dynamically reconfigurable systems. It is fully supported by a tool called Dreams, which is able to implement flexible systems, starting from a set of netlists corresponding to the modules, as well as a system description provided by the user. The tool automatically post-processes the nets, implementing a solution for the communications between reconfigurable regions, as well as the handling of routing conflicts, by means of a custom router. Since the design process of every module and the static system are independent, the proposed flow is compatible with system upgrade at run-time. In this paper, a use case corresponding to the design of a highly regular and parallel mesh-type architecture is described, in order to show the architectural flexibility offered by the tool.

Validation tool for smart screening of language disorders in pediatrics care

Primary-care pediatricians could play a key role in early detection of development disorders as quick as they might have enough time and knowledge for suitable screenings at clinical routine. This research paper focuses on the development and validation of a knowledge-based web tool whose aim is to support a smart detection of developmental disorders in early childhood. Thus, the use of the system can trigger the necessary preventive and therapeutic actions from birth until the age of six. The platform was designed on the basis of an analysis of significant 21 cases of children with language disorders that supported the creation of a specific knowledge base, its ontology and a set of description logic relations. The resulting system is being validated in a scalable approach with a team of seven experts from the fields of neonathology, pediatrics, neurology and language therapy.

Tool wear monitoring using neuro-fuzzy techniques: a comparative study in a turning process

Tool wear detection is a key issue for tool condition monitoring. The maximization of useful tool life is frequently related with the optimization of machining processes. This paper presents two model-based approaches for tool wear monitoring on the basis of neuro-fuzzy techniques. The use of a neuro-fuzzy hybridization to design a tool wear monitoring system is aiming at exploiting the synergy of neural networks and fuzzy logic, by combining human reasoning with learning and connectionist structure. The turning process that is a well-known machining process is selected for this case study. A four-input (i.e., time, cutting forces, vibrations and acoustic emissions signals) single-output (tool wear rate) model is designed and implemented on the basis of three neuro-fuzzy approaches (inductive, transductive and evolving neuro-fuzzy systems). The tool wear model is then used for monitoring the turning process. The comparative study demonstrates that the transductive neuro-fuzzy model provides better error-based performance indices for detecting tool wear than the inductive neuro-fuzzy model and than the evolving neuro-fuzzy model.

Use of decision trees algorithm for the territorial logistic planning.

Data mining, and in particular decision trees have been used in different fields: engineering, medicine, banking and finance, etc., to analyze a target variable through decision variables. The following article examines the use of the decision trees algorithm as a tool in territorial logistic planning. The decision tree built has estimated population density indexes for territorial units with similar logistics characteristics in a concise and practical way.

Seismic Risk Scenarios in Puerto Principe (Haiti). A Tool for Reconstruction and Emergency Planning

The 12 January 2010, an earthquake hit the city of Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti. The earthquake reached a magnitude Mw 7.0 and the epicenter was located near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km west of the capital. The earthquake occurred in the boundary region separating the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. This plate boundary is dominated by left-lateral strike slip motion and compression, and accommodates about 20 mm/y slip, with the Caribbean plate moving eastward with respect to the North American plate (DeMets et al., 2000). Initially the location and focal mechanism of the earthquake seemed to involve straightforward accommodation of oblique relative motion between the Caribbean and North American plates along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system (EPGFZ), however Hayes et al., (2010) combined seismological observations, geologic field data and space geodetic measurements to show that, instead, the rupture process involved slip on multiple faults. Besides, the authors showed that remaining shallow shear strain will be released in future surface-rupturing earthquakes on the EPGFZ. In December 2010, a Spanish cooperation project financed by the Politechnical University of Madrid started with a clear objective: Evaluation of seismic hazard and risk in Haiti and its application to the seismic design, urban planning, emergency and resource management. One of the tasks of the project was devoted to vulnerability assessment of the current building stock and the estimation of seismic risk scenarios. The study was carried out by following the capacity spectrum method as implemented in the software SELENA (Molina et al., 2010). The method requires a detailed classification of the building stock in predominant building typologies (according to the materials in the structure and walls, number of stories and age of construction) and the use of the building (residential, commercial, etc.). Later, the knowledge of the soil characteristics of the city and the simulation of a scenario earthquake will provide the seismic risk scenarios (damaged buildings). The initial results of the study show that one of the highest sources of uncertainties comes from the difficulty of achieving a precise building typologies classification due to the craft construction without any regulations. Also it is observed that although the occurrence of big earthquakes usually helps to decrease the vulnerability of the cities due to the collapse of low quality buildings and the reconstruction of seismically designed buildings, in the case of Port-au-Prince the seismic risk in most of the districts remains high, showing very vulnerable areas. Therefore the local authorities have to drive their efforts towards the quality control of the new buildings, the reinforcement of the existing building stock, the establishment of seismic normatives and the development of emergency planning also through the education of the population.

Adding Usability Mechanisms into Agile Requirements: Tool Support with U-Kunagi

The growing interest for integrating agile methodologies and usability has brought various challenges to practitioners. This research focuses on a specific part of these challenges that is related to the integration of usability mechanisms (features such as cancel, undo, warning, etc.) into agile requirements, usually written in the form of user stories. For this aim, a framework has been developed, conformed first by a well-defined modeling language that aims to formalize previous empirical research in the field, models of the impact of usability mechanisms into user stories, and a tool to help practitioners applying them to user stories. Results show that the use of this framework helps agile developers to think about usability from the beginning of the development process, without needing to be an expert in the subject. Our proposal can therefore complement other usability practices to improve the quality of use of software developed using agile methodologies.

An open-source simulation tool of grid-connected PV systems.

This paper will present an open-source simulation tool, which is being developed in the frame of an European research project1. The tool, whose final version will be freely available through a website, allows the modelling and the design of different types of grid-connected PV systems, such as large grid-connected plants and building-integrated installations. The tool is based on previous software developed by the IES-UPM2, whose models and energy losses scenarios have been validated in the commissioning of PV projects3 carried out in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, whose aggregated capacity is nearly 300MW. This link between design and commissioning is one of the key points of tool presented here, which is not usually addressed by present commercial software. The tool provides, among other simulation results, the energy yield, the analysis and breakdown of energy losses, and the estimations of financial returns adapted to the legal and financial frameworks of each European country. Besides, educational facilities will be developed and integrated in the tool, not only devoted to learn how to use this software, but also to train the users on the best design PV systems practices. The tool will also include the recommendation of several PV community experts, which have been invited to identify present necessities in the field of PV systems simulation. For example, the possibility of using meteorological forecasts as input data, or modelling the integration of large energy storage systems, such as vanadium redox or lithium-ion batteries. Finally, it is worth mentioning that during the verification and testing stages of this software development, it will be also open to the suggestions received from the different actors of the PV community, such as promoters, installers, consultants, etc.

Knowledge representation tool for cognitiveprocesses modeling

In the last decades, neuropsychological theories tend to consider cognitive functions as a result of the whole brainwork and not as individual local areas of its cortex. Studies based on neuroimaging techniques have increased in the last years, promoting an exponential growth of the body of knowledge about relations between cognitive functions and brain structures [1]. However, so fast evolution make complicated to integrate them in verifiable theories and, even more, translated in to cognitive rehabilitation. The aim of this research work is to develop a cognitive process-modeling tool. The purpose of this system is, in the first term, to represent multidimensional data, from structural and functional connectivity, neuroimaging, data from lesion studies and derived data from clinical intervention [2][3]. This will allow to identify consolidated knowledge, hypothesis, experimental designs, new data from ongoing studies and emerging results from clinical interventions. In the second term, we pursuit to use Artificial Intelligence to assist in decision making allowing to advance towards evidence based and personalized treatments in cognitive rehabilitation. This work presents the knowledge base design of the knowledge representation tool. It is compound of two different taxonomies (structure and function) and a set of tags linking both taxonomies at different levels of structural and functional organization. The remainder of the abstract is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the web application used for gathering necessary information for generating the knowledge base, Section 3 describes knowledge base structure and finally Section 4 expounds reached conclusions.

Assessing the impact of adaptive accessibility on the optimal transport policy implementation by using an integrated land-use/transport model for Madrid

Accessibility is an essential concept widely used to evaluate the impact of land-use and transport strategies in transport and urban planning. Accessibility is typically evaluated by using a transport model or a land-use model independently or successively without a feedback loop, thus neglecting the interaction effects between the two systems and the induced competition effects among opportunities due to accessibility improvements. More than a mere methodological curiosity, failure to account for land- use/transport interactions and the competition effect may result in large underestimation of the policy effects. With the recent development of land-use and transport interaction (LUTI) models, there is a growing interest in using these models to adequately measure accessibility and evaluate its impact. The current study joins this research stream by embedding an accessibility measure in a LUTI model with two main aims. The first aim is to account for adaptive accessibility, namely the adjustment of the potential accessibility due to the effect of competition among opportunities (e.g., workplaces) as a result of improved accessibility. LUTI models are particularly suitable for assessing adaptive accessibility because the competition factor is a function of the number of jobs, which is related to land-use attractiveness and the number of workers which is related, among other factors, to the transport demand. The second aim is to identify the optimal implementation scenario of policy measures on the basis of the potential and adaptive accessibility and analyse the results in terms of social welfare and accessibility. The metropolitan area of Madrid is used as a case-study and two transport policy instruments, namely a cordon toll and bus frequency increase, have been chosen for the simulation study in order to present the usefulness of the approach to urban planners and policy makers. The MARS model (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) calibrated for Madrid was employed as the analysis tool. The impact of accessibility is embedded in the model through a social welfare function that includes not only costs and benefits to both road users and transport operators, but also costs and benefits for the government and society in general (external costs). An optimisation procedure is performed by the MARS model for maximizing the value of objective function in order to find the best (optimal) policy imp lementations intensity (i.e., price, frequency). Last, the two policy strategies are evaluated in terms of their accessibility. Results show that the accessibility with competition factor influences the optimal policy implementation level and also generates different results in terms of social welfare. In addition, mapping the difference between the potential and the adaptive accessibility indicators shows that the main changes occur in areas where there is a strong competition among land-use opportunities.

High-quality real-time temporal segmentation tool for video editing software

The increasing use of video editing software has resulted in a necessity for faster and more efficient editing tools. Here, we propose a lightweight high-quality video indexing tool that is suitable for video editing software.

Temporal segmentation tool for high-quality real time video editing software

The increasing use of video editing software requires faster and more efficient editing tools. As a first step, these tools perform a temporal segmentation in shots that allows a later building of indexes describing the video content. Here, we propose a novel real-time high-quality shot detection strategy, suitable for the last generation of video editing software requiring both low computational cost and high quality results. While abrupt transitions are detected through a very fast pixel-based analysis, gradual transitions are obtained from an efficient edge-based analysis. Both analyses are reinforced with a motion analysis that helps to detect and discard false detections. This motion analysis is carried out exclusively over a reduced set of candidate transitions, thus maintaining the computational requirements demanded by new applications to fulfill user needs.

The Role of Knowledge Modeling Techniques in Software Development: A General Approach Based on a Knowledge Management Tool

The aim of the paper is to discuss the use of knowledge models to formulate general applications. First, the paper presents the recent evolution of the software field where increasing attention is paid to conceptual modeling. Then, the current state of knowledge modeling techniques is described where increased reliability is available through the modern knowledge acquisition techniques and supporting tools. The KSM (Knowledge Structure Manager) tool is described next. First, the concept of knowledge area is introduced as a building block where methods to perform a collection of tasks are included together with the bodies of knowledge providing the basic methods to perform the basic tasks. Then, the CONCEL language to define vocabularies of domains and the LINK language for methods formulation are introduced. Finally, the object oriented implementation of a knowledge area is described and a general methodology for application design and maintenance supported by KSM is proposed. To illustrate the concepts and methods, an example of system for intelligent traffic management in a road network is described. This example is followed by a proposal of generalization for reuse of the resulting architecture. Finally, some concluding comments are proposed about the feasibility of using the knowledge modeling tools and methods for general application design.

CAS: A tool for improving autonomous work

The EHEA proposes a student-centered teaching model. Therefore, it seems necessary to actively involve the students in the teaching-learning process. Increasing the active participation of the students is not always easy in mathematical topics, since, when the students just enter the University, their ability to carry out autonomous mathematical work is scarce. In this paper we present some experiences related with the use of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS). All the experiences are designed in order to develop some mathematical competencies and mainly self-learning, the use of technology and team-work. The experiences include some teachers? proposals including: small projects to be executed in small groups, participation in competitions, the design of different CAS-Toolboxes, etc. The results obtained in the experiences, carried out with different groups of students from different engineering studies at different universities, makes us slightly optimistic about the educational value of the model.

Service for the pseudonymization of electronic healthcare records based on ISO/EN 13606 for the secondary use of information

The availability of electronic health data favors scientific advance through the creation of repositories for secondary use. Data anonymization is a mandatory step to comply with current legislation. A service for the pseudonymization of electronic healthcare record (EHR) extracts aimed at facilitating the exchange of clinical information for secondary use in compliance with legislation on data protection is presented. According to ISO/TS 25237, pseudonymization is a particular type of anonymization. This tool performs the anonymizations by maintaining three quasi-identifiers (gender, date of birth and place of residence) with a degree of specification selected by the user. The developed system is based on the ISO/EN 13606 norm using its characteristics specifically favorable for anonymization. The service is made up of two independent modules: the demographic server and the pseudonymizing module. The demographic server supports the permanent storage of the demographic entities and the management of the identifiers. The pseudonymizing module anonymizes the ISO/EN 13606 extracts. The pseudonymizing process consists of four phases: the storage of the demographic information included in the extract, the substitution of the identifiers, the elimination of the demographic information of the extract and the elimination of key data in free-text fields. The described pseudonymizing system was used in three Telemedicine research projects with satisfactory results. A problem was detected with the type of data in a demographic data field and a proposal for modification was prepared for the group in charge of the drawing up and revision of the ISO/EN 13606 norm.

Life cycle assessment as a policy-support tool: the case of taxis in the city of Madrid

This paper examined the potentialities of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as instrument for policy-support. To this respect, the adoption of an initiative within the Madrid Air Quality Plan (AQP) 2011–2015 regarding the substitution of diesel taxis with hybrid, natural gas and LPG alternatives was studied. Four different scenarios were elaborated, a business-as-usual scenario (BAU), the scenario of the AQP, and two extreme-situation scenarios: all-diesel (ADI) and all-ecologic (AEC). Impacts were characterized according to the ILCD methodology, focusing especially on climate change (CC) and photochemical ozone formation (PO). SimaPro 7.3 was used as analysis and inventory-construction tool. The results indicate that the shift to ecologic alternatives reduced impacts, especially those related to CC and PO. For the complete life cycle, reductions of 13% (CC) and 25% (PO) were observed for AQP against BAU (CC:1365 GgCO2, PO:13336 MgNMVOC). Deeper reductions were observed for AEC (CC:34%, PO:59%), while ADI produced slight increases in impacts if against BAU. The analysis of the use-phase revealed that the central and highest speed zones of the city benefit from the adoption of AQP. This is especially evident in zone 7, with reductions of 16% in CC and 31% in PO respectively against BAU (CCzone1:3443 kgCO2/veh·km, POzone7:11.1 kgNMVOC/veh·km).