A contrastive analysis of non-native interlanguage english intonation systems and their implication in the organisation of information from a functional perspectiva : a study based on a computerized corpus of spanish learners of english

El contexto teórico y empírico de esta investigación sobre entonación, se enmarca dentro de la filosofía lingüística de la teoría sistémico-funcional. El modelo metodológico empleado se basa en la Lingüística de Corpus. La descripción de la adquisición y aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera está justificada dentro del marco teórico de la teoría de interlengua y la adquisición de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras.. El presente estudio del corpus comparativo y longitudinal de aprendices y hablantes nativos de lengua inglesa, tiene como objetivo principal investigar los modelos de entonación producidos por ambos grupos de hablantes. Se pretende demostrar que la diferencia a nivel entonativo entre estos dos grupos no sólo tiene como resultado que los no nativos tengan acento extranjero; sino que puede afectar al mensaje transmitido, en cuanto a la estructura y organización de la información dentro del discurso oral en las metafunciones textual e interpersonal.. Se asume la existencia de un sistema entonativo de interlengua, de esta forma este análisis tiene como objeto no sólo reflejar los errores sino también los posibles sistemas aproximativos de los aprendices mencionados..

Capturing temporality and intentionality in information systems

Information modelling is a topic that has been researched a great deal, but still many questions around it have not been solved. An information model is essential in the design of a database which is the core of an information system. Currently most of databases only deal with information that represents facts, or asserted information. The ability of capturing semantic aspect has to be improved, and yet other types, such as temporal and intentional information, should be considered. Semantic Analysis, a method of information modelling, has offered a way to handle various aspects of information. It employs the domain knowledge and communication acts as sources of information modelling. It lends itself to a uniform structure whereby semantic, temporal and intentional information can be captured, which builds a sound foundation for building a semantic temporal database.

Organizations redesign and building of information systems

Develop software is still a risky business. After 60 years of experience, this community is still not able to consistently build Information Systems (IS) for organizations with predictable quality, within previously agreed budget and time constraints. Although software is changeable we are still unable to cope with the amount and complexity of change that organizations demand for their IS. To improve results, developers followed two alternatives: Frameworks that increase productivity but constrain the flexibility of possible solutions; Agile ways of developing software that keep flexibility with less upfront commitments. With strict frameworks, specific hacks have to be put in place to get around the framework construction options. In time this leads to inconsistent architectures that are harder to maintain due to incomplete documentation and human resources turnover. The main goals of this work is to create a new way to develop flexible IS for organizations, using web technologies, in a faster, better and cheaper way that is more suited to handle organizational change. To do so we propose an adaptive object model that uses a new ontology for data and action with strict normalizing rules. These rules should bound the effects of changes that can be better tested and therefore corrected. Interfaces are built with templates of resources that can be reused and extended in a flexible way. The “state of the world” for each IS is determined by all production and coordination acts that agents performed over time, even those performed by external systems. When bugs are found during maintenance, their past cascading effects can be checked through simulation, re-running the log of transaction acts over time and checking results with previous records. This work implements a prototype with part of the proposed system in order to have a preliminary assessment its feasibility and limitations.

A study of habitat fragmentation in Southeastern Brazil using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS)

The purpose of this work was to study fragmentation of forest formations (mesophytic forest, riparian woodland and savannah vegetation (cerrado)) in a 15,774-ha study area located in the Municipal District of Botucatu in Southeastern Brazil (São Paulo State). A land use and land cover map was made from a color composition of a Landsat-5 thematic mapper (TM) image. The edge effect caused by habitat fragmentation was assessed by overlaying, on a geographic information system (GIS), the land use and land cover data with the spectral ratio. The degree of habitat fragmentation was analyzed by deriving: 1. mean patch area and perimeter; 2. patch number and density; 3. perimeter-area ratio, fractal dimension (D), and shape diversity index (SI); and 4. distance between patches and dispersion index (R). In addition, the following relationships were modeled: 1. distribution of natural vegetation patch sizes; 2. perimeter-area relationship and the number and area of natural vegetation patches; 3. edge effect caused by habitat fragmentation, the values of R indicated that savannah patches (R = 0.86) were aggregated while patches of natural vegetation as a whole (R = 1.02) were randomly dispersed in the landscape. There was a high frequency of small patches in the landscape whereas large patches were rare. In the perimeter-area relationship, there was no sign of scale distinction in the patch shapes, In the patch number-landscape area relationship, D, though apparently scale-dependent, tends to be constant as area increases. This phenomenon was correlated with the tendency to reach a constant density as the working scale was increased, on the edge effect analysis, the edge-center distance was properly estimated by a model in which the edge-center distance was considered a function of the to;al patch area and the SI. (C) 1997 Elsevier B.V. B.V.

A CASE tool for the modeling of methods and information systems

MODSI is a multi-models tool for information systems modeling. A modeling process in MODSI can be driven according to three different approaches: informal, semi-formal and formal. The MODSI tool is therefore based on the linked usage of these three modeling approaches. It can be employed at two different levels: the meta-modeling of a method and the modeling of an information system.In this paper we start presenting different types of modeling by making an analysis of their particular features. Then, we introduce the meta-model defined in our tool, as well as the tool functional architecture. Finally, we describe and illustrate the various usage levels of this tool.

Mobile application as a tool for urban traffic data collection and generation to advanced traveler information systems using Wi-Fi networks available in urban centers

This paper presents an Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) developed on Android platform, which is open source and free. The developed application has as its main objective the free use of a Vehicle-to- Infrastructure (V2I) communication through the wireless network access points available in urban centers. In addition to providing the necessary information for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to a central server, the application also receives the traffic data close to the vehicle. Once obtained this traffic information, the application displays them to the driver in a clear and efficient way, allowing the user to make decisions about his route in real time. The application was tested in a real environment and the results are presented in the article. In conclusion we present the benefits of this application. © 2012 IEEE.

Reunión Microcomputación y Sistemas de Información Documentales en América Latina: Problemas, Experiencias y Proyecciones = Meeting Microcomputers and Bibliographic Information Systems in Latin America: Problems, Experiences and Projections

Contiene objetivos, conclusiones y recomendaciones de la Reunion sobre Microcomputacion y Sistemas de Informacion Documentales en America Latina: Problemas, Experiencias y Proyecciones. Incluye ademas, lista de participantes y de siglas de instituciones, redes de informacion y paquetes de programas; resumenes de trabajos presentados; caracteristicas de paquetes de programas revisados y lista de documentos presentados.

Lineamientos de un programa regional para el fortalecimiento de la cooperación entre redes y sistemas nacionales de información para el desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe (INFOLAC) = Basic principles for a regional programme to strengthen co-operation among national information networks and systems for development in Latin America and the Caribbean (INFOLAC)

Contiene antecedentes y lineamientos para formular e impulsar un programa regional de cooperacion entre redes y sistemas nacionales de informacion existentes en America Latina y el Caribe.

Ergonomics and interfaces of traditional information systems: packaging

The contemporary world is characterized, among other factors, by the influence of the new computer information systems on the behavior of individuals. However, traditional information systems still have interaction problems with users. The aim of this study was to determine whether the interaction aspects between user versus traditional information systems (particularly the graphics) have been fully studied. To do so, the ergonomic aspects and usability of such systems were reviewed, with emphasis on the problems of visibility, legibility and readability. From that criteria, the evolution of ergonomic studies of information systems was reviewed (bibliometrics technique); and examples of ergonomic and usability problems in packaging were demonstrated (case study). The results confirm that traditional information systems still have problems of interaction between human X system, hindering the effective perception of information.