The DIADEM Software Development Methodology extended to Multimedia Interfaces

DIADEM, created by THOMSON-CSF, is a methodology for specifying and developing user interfaces. It improves productivity of the interface development process as well as quality of the interface. The method provides support to user interface development in three aspects. (1) DIADEM defines roles of people involved and their tasks and organises the sequence of activities. (2) It provides graphical formalisms supporting information exchange between people. (3) It offers a basic set of rules for optimum human-machine interfaces. The use of DIADEM in three areas (process control, sales support, and multimedia presentation) was observed and evaluated by our laboratory in the European project DIAMANTA (ESPRIT P20507). The method provides an open procedure that leaves room for adaptation to a specific application and environment. This paper gives an overview of DIADEM and shows how to extend formalisms for developing multimedia interfaces.

Wastewater Treatment Project for Palma Soriano, Cuba: Assessment of Cultural and Ecological Conditions

The Palma Project is an experiment in the use of cultural identity as a social trigger to address ecological degradation. The research methodology draws from environmental, social and urban analyses to unveil the best strategy to address the ecological, river restoration and water treatment challenges in Berkeley, California’s “Sister City” in southeast Cuba, Palma Soriano. The objective is to provide a better quality of life and to create new opportunities for the local community to reconnect with natural cycles of water and the cultivation of their own land. The project aim is to promote the strength and capacity of local communities to protect their own environment based upon a master plan, which includes natural wastewater treatment, reforestation, urban agriculture and the facilitation and utilization of a public space bordering the major river which flows by Palma Soriano, the Cauto. This project will contribute and produce healthy water recycling for Palma, provide a potable water source for the city, encourage ecological restoration of the riparian zone of the Cauto, and provide new opportunities for food production. It is designed to preserve the cultural identity of the local community, and to restore the essential balance between the community’s need to sustain both itself and the natural environment.

Social Networking Technologies: Project Launch

Students taking the 20 credit version of the course (COMP6052) will work in groups of 6 to develop and design a new social networking tool/application/website. The teams will work on their design throughout the semester, and keep a design and development blog that will act as a digital portfolio of their work. At the end of the semester they will also be asked to submit an individual reflective summary that will outline their teams objectives and progress, their part in its progress, and a critical analysis of whether or not they were successful. At the end of the course teams will be asked to pitch their ideas to an interdisciplinary Dragon's Den style panel who will expect them to not only have created something that is technical viable, but will also want to see other economic, social, legal and ethical factors taken into consideration. In this presentation we explain the structure of the group project, what is expected in the blog, and explore some potential ideas to help students understand the scope of the work required. The outcome of the group project does not have to be a fully working piece of software, instead we are looking for a well developed idea that contains enough detail to be convincing to the panel.

REALISE project - final case study

This document describes the REALISE project, its successes and challenges. There are transferability plans for sustainability.

WAIS Seminar:Evaluating the Cognitive Side of Information Interaction

Abstract In this talk, I'll focus on the work we've been doing on evaluating the cognitive side of dealing with information resources and increasingly complex user interfaces. While we can build increasingly powerful user interfaces, they often come at the cost of simple design and ease of use. I'll describe two specific studies: 1) work on the ORCHID project focused on measuring mental workload during tasks using fNIRS (a blood-oxygen-based brain scanner), and 2) a evaluation metric for measuring how much people learn during tasks. Together these provide advances towards understanding the cognitive side of information interaction, in working towards building better tools for users.

The recognition of rights to same-sex couples: the path towards a pluralistic concept of family

This paper presents the final results of the research project undertaken in 2010 and 2011 by the legal research group “Filius”, affiliated with Corporación Universitaria Empresarial Alexander von Humboldt of Armenia, (Quindío). The project’s general objective is “to establish the concept of family used by the Colombian legal system based on the judgments of the Constitutional Court granting rights to same-sex couples”. To this end, a line of jurisprudence was developed from the Court’s rulings that discussed the rights of same-sex couples, concluding that despite the great progress made in Colombia on the recognition of rights to these couples following Decision C-075/2007, in all these judgments the Court had always refused to recognize their family status, and it was not until 2011, in Decision C-577, that the Court accepted that same-sex couples constitute a family, thereby dramatically changing the constitutional doctrine that had maintained the criteria of heterosexuality as defining family.

Definition of an it project portfolio management methodology for a pharmaceutical company

Con la creciente popularidad de las soluciones de IT como factor clave para aumentar la competitividad y la creación de valor para las empresas, la necesidad de invertir en proyectos de IT se incrementa considerablemente. La limitación de los recursos como un obstáculo para invertir ha obligado a las empresas a buscar metodologías para seleccionar y priorizar proyectos, asegurándose de que las decisiones que se toman son aquellas que van alineadas con las estrategias corporativas para asegurar la creación de valor y la maximización de los beneficios. Esta tesis proporciona los fundamentos para la implementación del Portafolio de dirección de Proyectos de IT (IT PPM) como una metodología eficaz para la gestión de proyectos basados en IT, y una herramienta para proporcionar criterios claros para los directores ejecutivos para la toma de decisiones. El documento proporciona la información acerca de cómo implementar el IT PPM en siete pasos, el análisis de los procesos y las funciones necesarias para su ejecución exitosa. Además, proporciona diferentes métodos y criterios para la selección y priorización de proyectos. Después de la parte teórica donde se describe el IT PPM, la tesis aporta un análisis del estudio de caso de una empresa farmacéutica. La empresa ya cuenta con un departamento de gestión de proyectos, pero se encontró la necesidad de implementar el IT PPM debido a su amplia cobertura de procesos End-to-End en Proyectos de IT, y la manera de asegurar la maximización de los beneficios. Con la investigación teórica y el análisis del estudio de caso, la tesis concluye con una definición práctica de un modelo aproximado IT PPM como una recomendación para su implementación en el Departamento de Gestión de Proyectos.

Demarcación teórica del optimismo y la resiliencia en el contexto de capital psicológico.

En este estudio se describe el constructo del Capital Psicológico y se hace el análisis de sus respectivos componentes; enfocándose en los conceptos de Optimismo y Resiliencia, con el fin de encontrar y demarcar teóricamente las diferencias que existen entre estos dos componentes. A consecuencia de la frecuente confusión entre estos dos términos en el ámbito académico, surge el interés de encontrar y analizar diferentes estudios e investigaciones que se hayan hecho hasta el momento, las cuales logren resaltar dichas diferencias, para aplicar este conocimiento a las personas con el fin de brindarles una mejor calidad de vida en el ámbito personal y profesional. La autoeficacia, en contextos organizacionales, hace referencia a la convicción y confianza con la que cuenta un trabajador, sobre sus habilidades para trabajar su motivación, teniendo en cuenta recursos cognitivos y/o cursos de acción necesarios para proyectar y completar exitosamente una prueba específica de su vida. El optimismo, se estudia como aquel estilo de pensamiento explicativo, que carga los eventos positivos a causas internas, continuas y penetrantes, y los eventos negativos a razones externas. Por otro lado, la esperanza es la capacidad de todo ser humano para llevar a cabo acciones que lo orienten a una meta deseada, a través de la propia motivación y el pensamiento seguro y positivo. Por último, la Resiliencia es tener la capacidad de recobrar frente a la adversidad, el fracaso, o incluso cambios efectivos que pueden parecer opresores.

Theoretical studies of the exohedral reactivity of fullerene compounds

Des del descobriment del buckminster ful.lerè el 1985, s'ha despertat un interés enorme per entendre la reactivitat química així com les propietats d'aquests compostos. La funcionalització exoèdrica del ful.lerè més abundant, el C60, està força ben establerta. Tanmateix, la investigació en aquest camp encara continua oberta ja que s'han sintetitzat una gran varietat de derivats molt prometedors donades les seves futures aplicacions. La tesi comprèn quinze capítols que contenen set publicacions relacionades. Els primers dos estudis es basen en la reacció Diels-Alder sobre els anomenats metal.loful.lerens endoèdrics TNT X3N@C78, X= Sc, Y. Aquest projecte de investigació està motivat pel desconeixament existent sobre les possibles conseqüències de l'encapsulació del grup X3N. El tercer estudi descriu minuciosament els canvis detectats en la funcionalització exoèdrica un cop s'ha produït l'encapsulació dels diferents gasos nobles. En aquesta tesi s'estudia en detall l'ús de l'aproximació ONIOM per a estudiar reaccions de cicloaddició en compostos ful.lerènics. Els resultats d'aquest projecte són d'alt interès per a la realització dels estudis posteriors sobre la reacció de Diels-Alder i la 1,3-dipolar en ful.lerens i derivats. Finalment, l'última part d'aquesta tesi es basa en les propietats antioxidants de determinats ful.lerens. A l'últim treball inclòs en aquesta tesi s'estudia en detall el mecanismo de reacció per a la eliminació del ió superòxid en presència de ful.lerens.

The Pedagogical Congresses of Portuguese Secondary Teaching : the participation of female teachers (1927-1928)

This paper was written within the context of the research project “The development of teacher’ associative organizations and unionism (1889-1990)” funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology). Five important congresses about secondary education were organized in Portugal between 1927 and 1931. These congresses served to claim the rights of teachers and the consolidation of the class, as well as to promote the discussion of scientific and pedagogical problems. In these congresses, the presence of female teachers was residual. However, the few teachers who participated had a significant contribution to the definition of secondary education during the following decades. Among other issues, it contributed to the discussion of female education and to analyze the importance of Biology and Physical Education in high schools. This paper presents the analysis of the minutes of the 1927s and 1928s Congresses. This analysis allowed the assessment of the important role played by a group of teachers to define, at the end of the first third of the 20th century, the future guidelines of Portuguese secondary education. It also reported that these teachers were pioneers who opened the way for the increasing number of teachers in secondary education during the 20th century.

Researching and designing GREAT; the extremely condensed hybrid urban block

The fact that the hybrid building is an extremely condensed urban block which increases the city’s density and contributes to the public realm of the city – horizontally as well vertically - forms one of the key interests of this documentation, research and master studio work. The “ground scraper” is not only public because of the character of its plinth facing surrounding streets, but also in regard to its interior space that is partly accessible to public. As such the European hybrid building potentially extends the city’s public domain horizontally and vertically into the building’s interior and links the public domain inside and outside. Notwithstanding, the hybrid building due to its specific and unconventional character represents a truly urban architecture that was unfortunately often rejected in the name of ‘purity’ of form and function during the twentieth century. Or with other words, its rejection demonstrates the domination of the building’s plan opposed to the section. Today, new frameworks for the city, like the “compact city,” ask for innovative interpretations and designs of building types, worthy to be investigated and proposed. The architectural type of the hybrid building, (re)defines and expresses the relation between architecture and the city in a specific manner. To begin with, the city of Rotterdam forms the first test-case of the Hybrid’s project to document and discuss statements, such as “the hybrid building has a long- standing tradition within this ‘modern city”, “it is a machine for urbanity,” “it enlarges the city,” “it innovates because of its ambitiousness but also because of necessity,” “it combines to activate,” “it asks for extraordinary design intelligence and craftsmanship.” A special way of drawing is developed to document, analyse and compare historical and contemporary representatives of the species. The method includes panoply of scales ranging from the morphological arrangement on the scale of the city, the typologies of stacking diverse programs to the architectural features that establish the mutual relationship between the public space of the city and the interior of the building. Basically the features analysed within the series of drawings are also constitutional for (the success of) every future hybrid building.

The potential of digital interactive television for the provision of healthcare and wellness services

The potential of digital interactive television (iDTV) to promote original services, formats and contents that can be relevant to support personal health care and wellness of individuals, namely elderly people, has not been yet fully explored in the past. Therefore, in a context of rapid change of the technological resources, in which the distribution and presentation of content comes associated with new platforms (such as digital terrestrial TV and IPTV), it is important to perceive the configurations that are being developed for interactive digital TV (iDTV) that may result in relevant outcomes within the field of healthcare and wellness, with the aim of offering complementarity to the existing services and contents made available today via the traditional means and media. This article describes and discusses the preliminary results of the first part of the research project iDTV-HEALTH: Inclusive services to promote health and wellness via digital interactive television. These first results suggest that iDTV solutions may represent a real contribution to delivery healthcare and wellness to the target population, namely as a supplement to health services provision.

Profiles of digital TV adopters in the switchover context in Portugal

In order to conduct a successful transition from analogue terrestrial television to full digital terrestrial television it is essential to identify what are the most significant drivers and barriers for adoption among the impacted population. Also importantly, it is to segment the population according with their attitudes towards digital TV, their awareness about the switchover process and intention of adopting digital TV, among other relevant topics. The tradition of profiles definition based on the adoption and rejection of innovations can be traced back to Beal & Bohlen, who proposed five categories of innovation adopters based on the time of adoption, with significant differences in selected personal and social characteristics: the innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the majority and non-adopters. Later, Rogers would propose similar categories of adopters that became the standard for years to come: the innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority and the laggards. While helpful, these traditional innovation adopters’ profiles do not totally grasp the complexities of the adoption of an innovation such as digital TV, particularly in mandatory settings. In this paper we will propose a classification of adopters of digital TV in Portugal, based on the results of one of the four empirical studies of the research project ADOPT-DTV, namely, the quantitative inquiry administered to a representative sample of the Portuguese population. The paper will be concluded with a brief discussion of results and the enumeration of the next steps of the research project.

Drivers and barriers to digital television adoption in Portugal: the perspectives of the TV viewers and other main stakeholders

To understand what are the most significant factors for digital TV adoption by the Portuguese population in the switchover context is the main goal of the research project here presented. In April 26, 2012, the analogue terrestrial television switchoff is planned to occur in Portugal, according to the schedule published by the national telecommunication regulator Anacom. Digital terrestrial TV was launched in the country in April 2009, making Portugal one of the countries with a more ambitious schedule – or risky, depending on the perspective - for the full transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television. In this paper we will start by presenting the research project’s objectives, theoretical framework and research design. Next, we will present first results of the project focused on the barriers and drivers to digital TV adoption from two of the empirical studies which integrate it, namely, the quantitative inquiry administered to a representative sample of the Portuguese population and interviews with main stakeholders in the area of digital TV in Portugal. The perspectives of the television viewers are compared with other main stakeholders in this process. The paper will be concluded with a brief discussion of these results and a brief enumeration of next steps for the project.

The importance of parental involvement in language acquisition and activities and techniques to enhance the home-school connection

This study discusses the importance of parental involvement in children’s language development, and the related project offers parents books and activities to assist them in developing their children’s linguistic skills.