Visual exploration and retrieval of XML document collections with the generic system X2

This article reports on the XML retrieval system X2 which has been developed at the University of Munich over the last five years. In a typical session with X2, the user first browses a structural summary of the XML database in order to select interesting elements and keywords occurring in documents. Using this intermediate result, queries combining structure and textual references are composed semiautomatically. After query evaluation, the full set of answers is presented in a visual and structured way. X2 largely exploits the structure found in documents, queries and answers to enable new interactive visualization and exploration techniques that support mixed IR and database-oriented querying, thus bridging the gap between these three views on the data to be retrieved. Another salient characteristic of X2 which distinguishes it from other visual query systems for XML is that it supports various degrees of detailedness in the presentation of answers, as well as techniques for dynamically reordering and grouping retrieved elements once the complete answer set has been computed

Towards the Co-Evolution of Models and Artefacts of Industrial Tools Through External Views

Modern software systems comprise multiple models. When these models are changed, interdependent models must be evolved accordingly. Manually managing this co-evolution of models is tedious and error-prone. Moreover, other interdependent artefacts, such as persisted states of industrial software applications, must co-evolve accordingly. Automated consistency preservation allows for efficiently managing the co-evolution of models. However, while state-of-the-art approaches operate delta-based, typical software applications persist changes state-based without conforming to explicit metamodels. Additionally, software applications may persist changes infrequently, even though interdependent models might be concurrently modified. As such, current approaches are insufficient for artefacts of industrial tools. To address these issues, we propose an approach for the co-evolution of models and artefacts of industrial tools by treating these artefacts as external views on the models

Constellations of public organic food procurement for youth. An interdisciplinary analytical tool

The research project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth” (iPOPY) combines a multitude of national and disciplinary perspectives: a necessary condition for a holistic understanding of public organic food procurement for youth (POPY). One challenge of such a research agenda lies in the integration of diverse results. This calls for an interdisciplinary research approach that facilitates discussion about results generated in different work packages (WP). This report sketches the methodological tool constellation analysis, one of the basic assumptions of which is that technical, natural and social elements and developments are closely intertwined and can only be analysed by taking into account their heterogeneity. Constellation analysis may serve as a bridging concept for the integration and synthesis of project results, which is a task of WP 1. This report presents preliminary results from an explorative constellation analysis of (organic) school meals. In the appendix, a list of definitions with regard to POPY is provided – the iPOPY glossary, which may later be further developed and published separately

Solid NURBS Conforming Scaffolding for Isogeometric Analysis

This work introduces a scaffolding framework to compactly parametrise solid structures with conforming NURBS elements for isogeometric analysis. A novel formulation introduces a topological, geometrical and parametric subdivision of the space in a minimal plurality of conforming vectorial elements. These determine a multi-compartmental scaffolding for arbitrary branching patterns. A solid smoothing paradigm is devised for the conforming scaffolding achieving higher than positional geometrical and parametric continuity. Results are shown for synthetic shapes of varying complexity, for modular CAD geometries, for branching structures from tessellated meshes and for organic biological structures from imaging data. Representative simulations demonstrate the validity of the introduced scaffolding framework with scalable performance and groundbreaking applications for isogeometric analysis

Ontologies in domain specific languages : a systematic literature review

The systematic literature review conducted in this paper explores the current techniques employed to leverage the development of DSLs using ontologies. Similarities and differences between ontologies and DSLs, techniques to combine DSLs with ontologies, the rationale of these techniques and challenges in the DSL approaches addressed by the used techniques have been investigated. Details about these topics have been provided for each relevant research paper that we were able to investigate in the limited amount of time of one month. At the same time, a synthesis describing the main trends in all the topics mentioned above has been done

A hybrid approach for multi-view modeling

Multi-view modeling is a widely accepted technique to reduce the complexity in the development of modern software systems. It allows developers to focus on a narrowed portion of the specification dealing with a selected aspect of the problem. However, multi-view modeling support discloses a number of issues: on the one hand consistency management very often has to cope with semantics interconnections between the different concerns. On the other hand, providing a predefined set of views usually results as too restrictive because of expressiveness and customization needs. This paper proposes a hybrid solution for multi-view modeling based on an arbitrary number of custom views defined on top of an underlying modeling language. The aim is to benefit from the consistency by-construction granted by well-defined views while at the same time providing malleable perspectives through which the system under development can be specified

Power, control and organisational learning

A review of managerial literature highlights the crucial importance of shared culture and common schemes of interpretation in organisational learning. The interpretative and sensemaking approaches of organisational learning insert themselves deeply in the process of the construction of social uniformity and cognitive homogeneity. Individual learning, culture, beliefs and rationality - the shared mental models - are the targets of confirmation processes. Thus, this specific kind of organisational learning cannot be considered as normatively neutral, but as a political process. A case study of a bank illustrates that organisational learning can be based on a structured social construction of cognitive homogeneity which generates an increase of control and enhances power of the management by reinforcing the legitimacy of decisions. However, this case study also shows that learning and non-learning are the two faces of the same process or, in other words, that organisational learning can produce unawareness and unintentional nonlearning by too much cultural uniformity. -- Eine Durchsicht der Managementliteratur verdeutlicht die zentrale Bedeutung gemeinsamer Kultur und geteilter Deutungsmuster für das Organisationslernen. Die interpretativen und deutungsbezogenen Ansätze des Organisationslernens basieren auf tiefgreifenden Prozessen zur Konstruktion sozialer Einheitlichkeit und kognitiver Homogenität. Die Absicherungsprozesse beziehen sich auf das individuelle Lernen, Kultur, Werthaltungen und Rationalität - die gemeinsamen mentalen Modelle. Insofern kann diese Form des Organisationslernens nicht als wertneutral angesehen werden; es handelt sich vielmehr um einen politischen Prozeß. An einer Fallstudie in einer Bank wird illustriert, daß Organisationslernen auf einer sozial konstruierten kognitiven Homogenität aufgebaut werden kann. Dabei wird Management-Kontrolle erweitert und ihre Macht verstärkt, indem die Legitimität ihrer Entscheidungen abgesichert wird. Allerdings dokumentiert die Fallstudie auch, daß Lernen und Nicht-Lernen zwei Seiten des gleichen Prozesses sind, anders gewendet: Organisationslernen kann zur Ausblendung von Wahrnehmung beitragen und - unbeabsichtigt - Nicht-Lernen generieren, wenn zuvor ein zu hohes Maß an kultureller Homogenität etabliert worden ist.