Using specification and description language for life cycle assesment in buildings

The definition of a Life Cycle Assesment (LCA) for a building or an urban area is a complex task due to the inherent complexity of all the elements that must be considered. Furthermore, a multidisciplinary approach is required due to the different sources of knowledge involved in this project. This multidisciplinary approach makes it necessary to use formal language to fully represent the complexity of the used models. In this paper, we explore the use of Specification and Description Language (SDL) to represent the LCA of a building and residential area. We also introduce a tool that uses this idea to implement an optimization and simulation mechanism to define the optimal solution for the sustainability of a specific building or residential.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A Model-Driven Approach for the Design, Implementation, and Execution of Software Development Methods

[EN] Software development projects are diverse in nature. For this reason, software companies are often forced to define their methods in-house. In order to define methods efficiently and effectively, software companies require systematic solutions that are built upon sound methodical foundations. Providing these solutions is the main goal of the Method Engineering discipline. Method Engineering is the discipline to design, construct, and adapt methods, techniques, and tools for the development of information systems. Over the last two decades, a lot of research work has been performed in this area. However, despite its potential benefits, Method Engineering is not widely used in industrial settings. Some of the causes of this reality are the high theoretical complexity of Method Engineering and the lack of adequate software support. In this thesis, we aim to mitigate some of the problems that affect Method Engineering by providing a novel methodological approach that is built upon Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) foundations. The use of MDE enables a rise in abstraction, automation, and reuse that allows us to alleviate the complexity of our Method Engineering approach. Furthermore, by leveraging MDE techniques (such as metamodeling, model transformations, and models at runtime), our approach supports three phases of the Method Engineering lifecycle: design, implementation, and execution. This is unlike traditional Method Engineering approaches, which, in general, only support one of these phases. In order to provide software support for our proposal, we developed a Computer-Aided Method Engineering (CAME) environment that is called MOSKitt4ME. To ensure that MOSKitt4ME offered the necessary functionality, we identified a set of functional requirements prior to developing the tool. Then, after these requirements were identified, we defined the architecture of our CAME environment, and, finally, we implemented the architecture in the context of Eclipse. The thesis work was evaluated by means of a study that involved the participation of end users. In this study, MOSKitt4ME was assessed by means of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Think Aloud method. While the TAM allowed us to measure usefulness and ease of use in a subjective manner, the Think Aloud method allowed us to analyze these measures objectively. Overall, the results were favorable. MOSKitt4ME was highly rated in perceived usefulness and ease of use; we also obtained positive results with respect to the users' actual performance and the difficulty experienced.[ES] Los proyectos de desarrollo de software son diversos por naturaleza. Por este motivo, las compañías de software se ven forzadas frecuentemente a definir sus métodos de manera interna. Para poder definir métodos de forma efectiva y eficiente, las compañías necesitan soluciones sistemáticas que estén definidas sobre unos fundamentos metodológicos sólidos. Proporcionar estas soluciones es el principal objetivo de la Ingeniería de Métodos. La Ingeniería de Métodos es la disciplina que aborda el diseño, la construcción y la adaptación de métodos, técnicas y herramientas para el desarrollo de sistemas de información. Durante las dos últimas décadas, se ha llevado a cabo mucho trabajo de investigación en esta área. Sin embargo, pese a sus potenciales beneficios, la Ingeniería de Métodos no se aplica ampliamente en contextos industriales. Algunas de las principales causas de esta situación son la alta complejidad teórica de la Ingeniería de Métodos y la falta de un apropiado soporte software. En esta tesis, pretendemos mitigar algunos de los problemas que afectan a la Ingeniería de Métodos proporcionando una propuesta metodológica innovadora que está basada en la Ingeniería Dirigida por Modelos (MDE). El uso de MDE permite elevar el nivel de abstracción, automatización y reuso, lo que posibilita una reducción de la complejidad de nuestra propuesta. Además, aprovechando técnicas de MDE (como por ejemplo el metamodelado, las transformaciones de modelos y los modelos en tiempo de ejecución), nuestra aproximación da soporte a tres fases del ciclo de vida de la Ingeniería de Métodos: diseño, implementación y ejecución. Esto es a diferencia de las propuestas existentes, las cuales, por lo general, sólo dan soporte a una de estas fases. Con el objetivo de proporcionar soporte software para nuestra propuesta, implementamos una herramienta CAME (Computer-Aided Method Engineering) llamada MOSKitt4ME. Para garantizar que MOSKitt4ME proporcionaba la funcionalidad necesaria, definimos un conjunto de requisitos funcionales como paso previo al desarrollo de la herramienta. Tras la definción de estos requisitos, definimos la arquitectura de la herramienta CAME y, finalmente, implementamos la arquitectura en el contexto de Eclipse. El trabajo desarrollado en esta tesis se evaluó por medio de un estudio donde participaron usuarios finales. En este estudio, MOSKitt4ME se evaluó por medio del Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) y del método Think Aloud. Mientras que el TAM permitió medir utilidad y facilidad de uso de forma subjetiva, el método Think Aloud permitió analizar estas medidas objetivamente. En general, los resultados obtenidos fueron favorables. MOSKitt4ME fue valorado de forma positiva en cuanto a utilidad y facilidad de uso percibida; además, obtuvimos resultados positivos en cuanto al rendimiento objetivo de los usuarios y la dificultad experimentada.[CA] Els projectes de desenvolupament de programari són diversos per naturalesa. Per aquest motiu, les companyies es veuen forçades freqüenment a definir els seus mètodes de manera interna. Per poder definir mètodes de forma efectiva i eficient, les companyies necessiten solucions sistemàtiques que estiguin definides sobre uns fundaments metodològics sòlids. Proporcionar aquestes solucions és el principal objectiu de l'Enginyeria de Mètodes. L'Enginyeria de Mètodes és la disciplina que aborda el diseny, la construcció i l'adaptació de mètodes, tècniques i eines per al desenvolupament de sistemes d'informació. Durant les dues últimes dècades, s'ha dut a terme molt de treball de recerca en aquesta àrea. No obstant, malgrat els seus potencials beneficis, l'Enginyeria de Mètodes no s'aplica àmpliament en contextes industrials. Algunes de les principals causes d'aquesta situació són l'alta complexitat teòrica de l'Enginyeria de Mètodes i la falta d'un apropiat suport de programari. En aquesta tesi, pretenem mitigar alguns dels problemes que afecten a l'Enginyeria de Mètodes proporcionant una proposta metodològica innovadora que està basada en l'Enginyeria Dirigida per Models (MDE). L'ús de MDE ens permet elevar el nivell d'abstracció, automatització i reutilització, possibilitant una reducció de la complexitat de la nostra proposta. A més a més, aprofitant tècniques de MDE (com per exemple el metamodelat, les transformacions de models i els models en temps d'execució), la nostra aproximació suporta tres fases del cicle de vida de l'Enginyeria de Mètodes: diseny, implementació i execució. Açò és a diferència de les propostes existents, les quals, en general, només suporten una d'aquestes fases. Amb l'objectiu de proporcionar suport de programari per a la nostra proposta, implementàrem una eina CAME (Computer-Aided Method Engineering) anomenada MOSKitt4ME. Per garantir que MOSKitt4ME oferia la funcionalitat necessària, definírem un conjunt de requisits funcionals com a pas previ al desenvolupament de l'eina. Després de la definició d'aquests requisits, definírem la arquitectura de l'eina CAME i, finalment, implementàrem l'arquitectura en el contexte d'Eclipse. El treball desenvolupat en aquesta tesi es va avaluar per mitjà d'un estudi on van participar usuaris finals. En aquest estudi, MOSKitt4ME es va avaluar per mitjà del Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) i el mètode Think Aloud. Mentre que el TAM va permetre mesurar utilitat i facilitat d'ús de manera subjectiva, el mètode Think Aloud va permetre analitzar aquestes mesures objectivament. En general, els resultats obtinguts van ser favorables. MOSKitt4ME va ser valorat de forma positiva pel que fa a utilitat i facilitat d'ús percebuda; a més a més, vam obtenir resultats positius pel que fa al rendiment objectiu dels usuaris i a la dificultat experimentada.Cervera Úbeda, M. (2015). A Model-Driven Approach for the Design, Implementation, and Execution of Software Development Methods [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/53931TESI

Urban segregation as a complex system : an agent-based simulation approach

Urban segregation represents a significant barrier for achieving social inclusion in cities. To overcome this, it is necessary to implement policies founded upon a better understanding of segregation dynamics. However, a crucial challenge for achieving such understanding lies in the fact that segregation is a complex system. It emerges from local interactions able to produce unexpected and counterintuitive outcomes that cannot be defined a priori. This study adopts an agent-based simulation approach that addresses the complex nature of segregation. It proposes a model named MASUS, Multi-Agent Simulator for Urban Segregation, which provides a virtual laboratory for exploring theoretical issues and policy approaches concerning segregation. The MASUS model was first implemented for São José dos Campos, a medium-sized Brazilian city. Based on the data of this city, the model was parameterized and calibrated. The potential of MASUS is demonstrated through three different sets of simulation experiments. The first compares simulated data with real data, the second tests theories about segregation, and the third explores the impact of anti-segregation policies. The first set of experiments provides a retrospective validation of the model by simulating the segregation dynamics of São José dos Campos during the period 1991-2000. In general, simulated and real data reveal the same trends, a result that demonstrates that the model is able to accurately represent the segregation dynamics of the study area. The second set of experiments aims at demonstrating the potential of the model to explore and test theoretical issues about urban segregation. These experiments explore the impact of two mechanisms on segregation: income inequality and personal preferences. To test the impact of income inequality, scenarios considering different income distributions were simulated and compared. The results show how decreasing levels of income inequality promote the spatial integration of different social groups in the city. Additional tests were conducted to explore how the preferences of high-income families regarding the presence of other income groups could affect segregation patterns. The results reveal that the high levels of segregation were maintained even in a scenario where affluent households did not take into account the income composition of neighborhoods when selecting their residential location. Finally, the third set of experiments provides new insights about the impact of different urban policies on segregation. One experiment tests whether the regularization of clandestine settlements and equitable distribution of infrastructure would affect the segregation trends in the city. The simulated outputs indicate that they had no significant impact on the segregation patterns. Besides this test focusing on a general urban policy, two specific social-mix policy approaches were explored: poverty dispersion and wealth dispersion. The results suggest that policies based on poverty dispersion, which have been adopted in cities in Europe and the United States, are less effective in developing countries, where poor families represent a large share of the population. On the other hand, the policy based on wealth dispersion was able to produce substantial and long-term improvements in the segregation patterns of the city.Städtische Segregation als komplexes System : Ein agentenbasierter Simulationsansatz Die städtische Segregation stellt eine bedeutende Barriere für die Erreichung der sozialen Inclusion in den Städten dar. Um diese zu überwinden, ist es notwendig, eine Politik zu betreiben, die die Dynamiken der Segregation besser versteht und berücksichtigt. Eine besondere Herausforderung für ein besseres Verständnis dieser Dynamik ist die Tatsache, dass Segregation ein komplexes System ist. Dieses System entsteht aus lokalen Interaktionen, die zu unerwarteten und nicht eingängigen Ergebnissen führt, die nicht von vornherein bestimmt werden können. Diese Studie wendet einen multi-agenten Simulationsmodel an, das die komplexe Natur der Segregation berücksichtigt. Es schlägt ein Modell mit dem Namen MASUS (Multi-Agent Simulator for Urban Segregation) vor. Dieses bietet ein virtuelles Labor für die Untersuchung der theoretischen Aspekte und Politikansätze der Segregation. Das Modell wurde für São José dos Campos, eine mittelgroße brasilianische Stadt, eingesetzt. Das Modell wurde auf der Grundlage der Daten dieser Stadt parametisiert und kallibriert. Das Potenzial von MASUS wird durch drei verschiedene Arten von Simulationsexperimente dargestellt. Die erste vergleicht simulierte Daten mit realen Daten, die zweite prüft Segregationstheorien, und die dritte untersucht die Auswirkungen von Antisegregationspolitik. Die erste Gruppe von Experimenten liefert eine rückblickende Validierung des Modells durch die Simulation der Segregationsdynamiken von São José dos Campos im Zeitraum 1991-2000. Die simulierten und realen Daten zeigen im Allgemeinen die gleichen Trends. Dies zeigt, dass das Modell in der Lage ist, die Segregationsdynamik im Untersuchungsgebiet korrekt darzustellen. Die zweite Gruppe von Experimenten hat zum Ziel, das Potenzial des Modells hinsichtlich der Untersuchung und Prüfung der theoretischen Aspekte städtischer Segregation darzustellen. Diese Experimente untersuchen die Auswirkung von zwei Mechanismen auf Segregation: Einkommensungleichheit und persönliche Präferenzen. Um die Auswirkungen von Einkommensungleichheit zu prüfen, wurden Szenarien mit unterschiedlichen Einkommensverteilungen simuliert und verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen wie abnehmende Einkommenshöhen die räumliche Integration von verschiedenen sozialen Gruppen in der Stadt fördern. Zusätzliche Tests wurden durchgeführt, um zu untersuchen wie die Präferenzen von Haushalten mit hohen Einkommen im Bezug auf das Vorhandensein anderer Einkommensgruppen die Segregationsmuster beeinflussen könnten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Segregation auf hohem Niveau blieb sogar in einem Szenario wo wohlhabende Haushalte das Einkommensgefüge der Nachbarschaft bei der Wahl ihrer Wohngegend nicht berücksichtigten. Die dritte Gruppe von Experimenten führt zu neuen Einsichten über die Auswirkungen von verschiedenen städtischen politischen Maßnahmen auf die Segregation. Ein Experiment prüft ob die Regulierung von illegalen Siedlungen und die gleichmäßige Verteilung der Infrastruktur die Segregationstrends in der Stadt beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse der Simulation zeigen, dass diese keine signifikante Auswirkung auf die Segregationsmuster haben. Neben diesem Test, der die allgemeine städtische Politik zum Inhalt hat, wurden zwei Ansätze der spezifischen Sozialen-Mix-Politik untersucht: Armutsverteilung und Wohlstandsverteilung. Die Ergebnisse deuten daraufhin, dass eine Politik der Armutsverteilung, die aus europäischen und nordamerikanischen Städten bekannt ist, weniger wirkungsvoll in Entwicklungsländern ist, wo arme Familien einen Großteil der Bevölkerung darstellen. Auf der anderen Seite führte eine Politik der Wohlstandsverteilung zu erheblichen und langfristigen Verbesserungen der Segregationsmuster der Stadt

A diversity-aware computational framework for systems biology

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

An adaptive physiology-aware communication framework for distributed medical cyber physical systems

For emergency medical cyber-physical systems, enhancing the safety and effectiveness of patient care, especially in remote rural areas, is essential. While the doctor to patient ratio in the United States is 30 to 10,000 in large metropolitan areas, it is only 5 to 10,000 in most rural areas; and the highest death rates are often found in the most rural counties. Use of telecommunication technologies can enhance effectiveness and safety of emergency ambulance transport of patients from rural areas to a regional center hospital. It enables remote monitoring of patients by the physician experts at the tertiary center. There are critical times during transport when physician experts can provide vital assistance to the ambulance Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to associate best treatments. However, the communication along the roads in rural areas can range irregularly from 4G to low speed 2G links, including some parts of routes with cellular network communication breakage. This unreliable and limited communication bandwidth together with the produced mass of clinical data and the many information exchanges pose a major challenge in real-time supervision of patients. In this study, we define the notion of distributed emergency care, and propose a novel adaptive physiology-aware communication framework which is aware of the patient condition, the underlying network bandwidth, and the criticality of clinical data in the context of the specific diseases. Using the concept of distributed medical CPS models, we study the semantics relation of communication Quality of Service (QoS) with clinical messages, criticality of clinical data, and an ambulance's undertaken route all in a disease-aware manner. Our proposed communication framework is aimed to enhance remote monitoring of acute patients during ambulance transport from a rural hospital to a regional center hospital. We evaluate the components of our framework through various experimentation phases including simulation, instrumentation, real-world profiling, and validation

Achieving Autonomic Computing through the Use of Variability Models at Run-time

Increasingly, software needs to dynamically adapt its behavior at run-time in response to changing conditions in the supporting computing infrastructure and in the surrounding physical environment. Adaptability is emerging as a necessary underlying capability, particularly for highly dynamic systems such as context-aware or ubiquitous systems. By automating tasks such as installation, adaptation, or healing, Autonomic Computing envisions computing environments that evolve without the need for human intervention. Even though there is a fair amount of work on architectures and their theoretical design, Autonomic Computing was criticised as being a \hype topic" because very little of it has been implemented fully. Furthermore, given that the autonomic system must change states at runtime and that some of those states may emerge and are much less deterministic, there is a great challenge to provide new guidelines, techniques and tools to help autonomic system development. This thesis shows that building up on the central ideas of Model Driven Development (Models as rst-order citizens) and Software Product Lines (Variability Management) can play a signi cant role as we move towards implementing the key self-management properties associated with autonomic computing. The presented approach encompass systems that are capable of modifying their own behavior with respect to changes in their operating environment, by using variability models as if they were the policies that drive the system's autonomic recon guration at runtime. Under a set of recon guration commands, the components that make up the architecture dynamically cooperate to change the con guration of the architecture to a new con guration. This work also provides the implementation of a Model-Based Recon guration Engine (MoRE) to blend the above ideas. Given a context event, MoRE queries the variability models to determine how the system should evolve, and then it provides the mechanisms for modifying the system.Cetina Englada, C. (2010). Achieving Autonomic Computing through the Use of Variability Models at Run-time [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/7484Palanci

Animation-based validation of reactive software systems using behavioural models

Tese de doutoramento em InformáticaDuring the development of software systems, validation is a crucial activity to guarantee that the software system ful lls the users' needs and expectations. A key issue to have a successful validation consists in adopting a process where users and clients can actively discuss the requirements of the system under development. A reactive system is expected to continuously interact with its environment. Usually, the interaction of a reactive system with its environment is supported by a set of nonterminating processes that operate in parallel. During the interaction, the reactive system must answer to high-priority events, even when the system is executing something else. Due to above characteristics, the behaviour of reactive systems can be very complex. The approach suggested in this thesis assumes that the requirements of reactive software systems are partially described by use case diagrams, and each use case is detailed by a collection of scenario descriptions. Within this approach, one can obtain, from a set of behavioural scenarios of a given system, an executable behavioural model that can support, when complemented with animation- and domain-speci c elements, a graphical animation for reproducing that set of scenarios for validation purposes. Animating the scenarios using graphical elements from the application domain ensures an e ective involvement of the users in the system's validation. The Coloured Petri nets (CPNs) modelling language is used as the notation to obtain the behavioural models, due to its natural support for mechanisms like concurrency, synchronisation, and resource sharing and its tool support. The obtained CPN model is guaranteed to be (1) parametric, allowing an easy modi cation of the initial conditions of the scenarios, (2) environment-descriptive, meaning that it includes the state of the relevant elements of the environment, and (3) animation-separated, implying that the elements related to the animation are separated from the other ones. We validate our approach based on its application to three case studies of reactive systems.Durante o desenvolvimento de sistemas de software, a validação é uma actividade crucial para garantir que o sistema de software satisfaz as necessidades e expectativas do utilizador. O sucesso na validação consiste na utilização de um processo onde os utilizadores e os clientes possam discutir de uma forma activa os requisitos do sistema que está a ser desenvolvido. Um sistema reactivo está continuamente em interacção com o seu ambiente, que é geralmente suportada por um conjunto de processos intermináveis que operam em paralelo. Durante a interacção, o sistema reactivo dever a responder aos eventos com alta prioridade, mesmo quando o sistema está a executar algo diferente. Devido às características anteriores, o comportamento dos sistemas reactivos pode ser muito complexo. A abordagem sugerida nesta tese assume que os requisitos de sistemas reactivos são em parte descritos por diagramas de casos de uso e que cada caso de uso é detalhado por uma colecção de descrições de cenários. Nesta abordagem, é possível obter, a partir de um conjunto de cenários de um dado sistema, um modelo comportamental que seja executável e que suporte, quando complementado com elementos específicos, uma animação gráfica que reproduza aquele conjunto de cenários para fins de validação. A animação dos cenários utilizando elementos gráficos do domínio da aplicação garante um envolvimento efectivo dos utilizadores na validação do sistema. A linguagem de modelação redes de Petri coloridas (CPNs) é usada como a notação para obter os modelos comportamentais, devido ao seu suporte natural a mecanismos como a concorrência, sincronização e partilha de recursos, e às suas ferramentas de suporte. Se as recomendações da abordagem proposta foram seguidas, temos a garantia que o modelo CPN: (1) parametriza as condições iniciais dos cenários, (2) contém uma descrição do ambiente, incluindo o estado dos seus elementos, e (3) separa os elementos relacionados com a animação dos outros elementos do modelo. A validação da nossa abordagem tem por base a sua aplicação a três casos de estudo de sistemas reactivos.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) SFRH/BD/19718/200

Grafo de relações : uma metodologia para coordenar dependencias entre atividades em ambientes computacionais

Orientadores: Leo Pini Magalhães, Alberto Barbosa RaposoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Um dos desafios relacionados à coordenação em ambientes computacionais é a geração de estruturas para equacionar possíveis conflitos decorrentes de relacionamentos de dependências entre as atividades deste ambiente. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia para automatizar a geração de mecanismos de coordenação em ambientes computacionais. Estes mecanismos são gerados a partir dos comportamentos temporais especificados para as atividades executadas no ambiente. Permite-se especificar comportamentos temporais alternativos e atividades alternativas, os quais podem ser selecionados em tempo de processamento mudando assim as relações temporais entre as atividades e/ou as atividades que participam destes comportamentos. O algoritmo proposto para este fim implementa uma política de coordenação global permitindo-se que a execução de uma atividade aconteça somente quando não violar qualquer restrição temporal do ambiente. A identificação e modelagem das restrições temporais que cada atividade deve atender resultam no mecanismo de coordenação, obtido em tempo linear no número de atividades. Exploram-se as capacidades de encapsulamento e compactação das redes de Petri coloridas na modelagem dos mecanismos de coordenação sem vincular o uso da metodologia a um conhecimento prévio deste sistema formal (redes de Petri coloridas)Abstract: One of the challenges related to the coordination of computational environments is the generation of structures to address possible conflicts related to dependences among the activities of these environments. This work presents a methodology to automate the generation of coordination mechanisms for computational environments. These mechanisms are generated from the temporal behaviors specified for the activities executed in the environment. It is possible to specify alternative temporal behaviors and alternative activities, which can be selected in processing time changing temporal relationships among the activities and/or the activities that participate in these behaviors. The algorithm proposed for this implements a global coordination policy, allowing that the execution of an activity only occurs when this doesn't violate any temporal restriction of the environment. The identification and modeling of the temporal restrictions that each activity should satisfy result in the coordination mechanism, obtained in linear time in the number of activities. The modular and compacting capacities of colored Petri nets are explored in the modeling of the coordination mechanisms without connecting the use of the methodology to a previous knowledge of this formal system (colored Petri nets)DoutoradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoDoutor em Engenharia Elétric