Autonomics: In Search of a Foundation for Next Generation Autonomous Systems

The potential benefits of autonomous systems have been driving intensive development of such systems, and of supporting tools and methodologies. However, there are still major issues to be dealt with before such development becomes commonplace engineering practice, with accepted and trustworthy deliverables. We argue that a solid, evolving, publicly available, community-controlled foundation for developing next generation autonomous systems is a must. We discuss what is needed for such a foundation, identify a central aspect thereof, namely, decision-making, and focus on three main challenges: (i) how to specify autonomous system behavior and the associated decisions in the face of unpredictability of future events and conditions and the inadequacy of current languages for describing these; (ii) how to carry out faithful simulation and analysis of system behavior with respect to rich environments that include humans, physical artifacts, and other systems,; and (iii) how to engineer systems that combine executable model-driven techniques and data-driven machine learning techniques. We argue that autonomics, i.e., the study of unique challenges presented by next generation autonomous systems, and research towards resolving them, can introduce substantial contributions and innovations in system engineering and computer science

Innovative Computational Methods for Pharmaceutical Problem Solving a Review Part I: The Drug Development Process

Computational methods have provided pharmaceutical scientists and engineers a means to go beyond what\u27s possible with experimental testing alone. Providing a means to study active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), excipients, and drug interactions at or near-atomic levels. This paper provides a review of this and other innovative computational methods used for solving pharmaceutical problems throughout the drug development process. Part one of two this paper will emphasize the role of computational methods and game theory in solving pharmaceutical challenges

Public perception and social network analysis for coastal risk management in Maresme Sud (Barcelona, Catalonia)

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11852-014-0341-0Understanding the governance system, stakeholder relationships and perceptions of coastal landscape risk is essential to improving the sustainability of coastal environments. Our main objective was to analyse social networks for the Maresme Sud coastal area in Catalonia and examine public perceptions of risk in order to shed light on how the current governance system could be improved to promote more adaptive coastal landscape risk management. Our methodology was based on semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders and a social network analysis, which provided context-based information on stakeholder interactions and power relationships and the transfer and diffusion of different types of knowledge. In Maresme Sud, the strong presence of public bodies makes the integration of more adaptive and innovative discourses in coastal management practices more difficult. The role of supra-local stakeholders, currently poorly represented in the network, should be enhanced. Coastal partnerships could also act as bridging organizations to facilitate learning, cooperation and knowledge exchange among stakeholders.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Proceedings of the 2009 Joint Workshop of Fraunhofer IOSB and Institute for Anthropomatics, Vision and Fusion Laboratory

The joint workshop of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB, Karlsruhe, and the Vision and Fusion Laboratory (Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)), is organized annually since 2005 with the aim to report on the latest research and development findings of the doctoral students of both institutions. This book provides a collection of 16 technical reports on the research results presented on the 2009 workshop

Dagstuhl News January - December 2007

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Studying Control Processes for Bridge Teams

Several technological advances have been seen the maritime domain to achieve higher operational efficiency and to address the generally recognised causes of most maritime accidents. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) endorses the use of best available technology to “drive continuous improvement and innovation in the facilitation of maritime traffic” in line with the goal of sustainable development. It is commonly acknowledged that modern technology revolutionized marine navigation, and presently it has a large potential to increase safety in navigation. However, the incorporation of new technologies in support of navigation also brought unforeseen critical consequences, contributing to unsafe practices, or even to accidents or incidents. Several issues were associated with human factors. To properly address the adoption of the newest technology in support of safe navigation, IMO established the e-navigation concept, currently under implementation. The complexity of the maritime socio-technical system requires novel theoretical foundations, since many of the present framework rely on the analysis of accidents. The design of complex maritime navigation system must take place on several levels, providing different perspectives over the system problems. The evaluation and design of technologies envisaged by the e-navigation concept requires a better understand of how teams perform the navigation work in the pursuit of safe navigation. This study attempts to provide a better understanding on how maritime navigation is currently done on-board, considering the overarching elements and their interactions. In maritime navigation safety is a transverse issue, and that is why we need to know the conditions for safe navigation to improve the design of ship navigation control. The work supporting this thesis was focused on: (i) understanding how navigation is done and to perceive by the practitioners, (ii) understanding interactions between humans and technological interfaces, and (iii) understanding the relevant soft skills for the navigation functions. To address these topics, data was collected from expert practitioners such as navigators, pilots and instructors, thru semi structured interviews and questionnaires. The mains contribution of this study lies in presenting a framework of maritime navigation, exploring the control processes in the different levels of the maritime socio-technical system. In the view of safe operations, interactions between stakeholders are clarified, trying to determine how they influence safe navigation. This systemic view is then analysed from the perspective of the ship, considering it as a Joint-cognitive system (JCS). It is proposed that this JCS comprises 5 control levels: reactive, proactive, planning, strategic and political-economical. Planning is considered a fundamental process in the maritime Socio-technical system, because it facilitates the interactions between the different control level. It also increases the integrity of communications and enhances the predictability of the different control agents. New directions are proposed to improve the design of navigation system, recommending new roles for human and automated agents, and presenting a new conceptual navigation display.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

COVID-19 what have we learned? The rise of social machines and connected devices in pandemic management following the concepts of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine

A comprehensive bibliographic review with R statistical methods of the COVID pandemic in PubMed literature and Web of Science Core Collection, supported with Google Scholar search. In addition, a case study review of emerging new approaches in different regions, using medical literature, academic literature, news articles and other reliable data sources. Public responses of mistrust about privacy data misuse differ across countries, depending on the chosen public communication strategy