A Methodology for Deriving the Architectural Implications of Different Degrees of Mobility in Information Systems

When building information systems that can be accessed through desktop and mobile devices, developers often face the same basic design decisions that depend on a number of still unstructured criteria. Going through the whole decision-making process for every project is inefficient and error-prone, however, a comprehensive set of best practices has not yet been established. We therefore present the foundations of a classification scheme for mobile commerce systems that helps developers to categorize applications according to high-level requirements. After a discussion of the criteria, we suggest implications that can be drawn from it and present examples for their application

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

TRAVEL, CULTURAL TOURISM AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT. THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE TABULA PEUTINGERIANA

ROMIT PROJECT, www.romit.or

Participatory governance in smart cities: The urbanAPI case study

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This paper presents some results from an EU FP7 RTD project urbanAPI, in which three ICT applications target different aspects of participatory urban governance. The 3D Scenario Creator allows urban planners to visualise urban development proposals in three dimensions, share them with different stakeholders and obtain their feedback. The Mobility Explorer allows urban land use and transport planners to visualise and analyse population distribution and mobility patterns in the city. Finally, the Urban Development Simulator simulates socio-economic activity in response to alternative planning scenarios. These urbanAPI ICT applications are implemented in four pilot cities; Vienna (Austria), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), Bologna (Italy) and Ruse (Bulgaria), and evaluated with respect to their various requirements. Results show that the applications are useful tools, enhancing spatial planning assessements, and enabling public participation, communicating proposed plans to different stakeholders and identifying key development issues which can provide crucial inputs in planning and decision making processes

Cancellous bone and theropod dinosaur locomotion. Part III—Inferring posture and locomotor biomechanics in extinct theropods, and its evolution on the line to birds

This paper is the last of a three-part series that investigates the architecture of cancellous bone in the main hindlimb bones of theropod dinosaurs, and uses cancellous bone architectural patterns to infer locomotor biomechanics in extinct non-avian species. Cancellous bone is highly sensitive to its prevailing mechanical environment, and may therefore help further understanding of locomotor biomechanics in extinct tetrapod vertebrates such as dinosaurs. Here in Part III, the biomechanical modelling approach derived previously was applied to two species of extinct, non-avian theropods, Daspletosaurus torosus and Troodon formosus. Observed cancellous bone architectural patterns were linked with quasi-static, three-dimensional musculoskeletal and finite element models of the hindlimb of both species, and used to derive characteristic postures that best aligned continuum-level principal stresses with cancellous bone fabric. The posture identified for Daspletosaurus was largely upright, with a subvertical femoral orientation, whilst that identified for Troodon was more crouched, but not to the degree observed in extant birds. In addition to providing new insight on posture and limb articulation, this study also tested previous hypotheses of limb bone loading mechanics and muscular control strategies in non-avian theropods, and how these aspects evolved on the line to birds. The results support the hypothesis that an upright femoral posture is correlated with bending-dominant bone loading and abduction-based muscular support of the hip, whereas a crouched femoral posture is correlated with torsion-dominant bone loading and long-axis rotation-based muscular support. Moreover, the results of this study also support the inference that hindlimb posture, bone loading mechanics and muscular support strategies evolved in a gradual fashion along the line to extant birds

Housing Accessibility Methodology Targeting Older Poeple - Reliable Assessments and Valid Standards

Older people have more functional limitations than younger people and they form a segment of the population that is more dependent on mobility devices than other age groups. Since they spend most of their time at home, their dwelling is an important environmental arena for performing everyday activities. Barriers in the environment can limit or hinder activity performance. Therefore, older people are sensitive to the accessibility of the environment. To ensure housing accessibility, it is critical that professionals are provided with valid and reliable assessment instruments to identify accessibility problems before the planning of housing intervention strategies. It is also critical that housing standards addressing accessibility intended to accommodate people with functional limitations are valid in the sense that their definitions truly support accessibility. However, there is a paucity of valid and reliable assessment instruments targeting housing accessibility, and in-depth analysis of factors potentially impacting on reliability in complex assessment situations is remarkably absent. Moreover, the knowledge base informing the housing standards appears to be vague. We may therefore reasonably question the validity of the housing standards addressing accessibility. This thesis addresses housing accessibility methodology in general and the reliability of assessment and the validity of standards targeting older people with functional limitations and a dependence on mobility devices in particular. The overarching aim of the thesis was to develop and explore methods applicable for improving housing accessibility assessments and to explore feasible approaches to create housing standards that truly support accessibility and accommodate older people. A main methodological contribution of the present thesis is the development of the content-valid Nordic HE instrument which is deemed sufficiently reliable in Nordic countries, and the recommendations for in-depth examination of inter-rater agreement for the improvement of reliability. A second main contribution of the present thesis is that it explores the consequences of the housing standard definitions in terms of accessibility and provides estimates of the proportion of dwellings considered accessible and the proportion of persons defined as having accessibility problems. Collectively, these results have the potential to improve and influence research, practice and policy in a global context for the benefit of the health and well-being of older people with functional limitations. Moreover, the results provide new knowledge and invite reflections on central concepts and methodology relevant to psychometrics and research on person-environment fit

How to Structure Business Transformation Projects: The Case of Infineon’s Finance IT Roadmap

Although project management, benefits management, change management, and transformation management are everyday terms in many organizations, projects still experience high failure rates. Business transformation projects in particular are prone to fail because they affect multiple enterprise architecture layers, involve many stakeholders, last several years, and tie up considerable amounts of corporate capital. To handle their complexity, scholars recommend structuring business transformation projects into portfolios of interdependent, yet smaller and, thus, manageable projects. So far, little guidance on how to do so exists. To share first-hand experience and stimulate research, we present and reflect on a project conducted with Infineon Technologies in which we co-developed Infineon’s finance IT roadmap. The finance IT roadmap served as the foundation for transforming Infineon’s finance IT setup to tackle future challenges of financial management in the semiconductor industry from an integrated business, process, and IT perspective