From Method Fragments to Method Services

In Method Engineering (ME) science, the key issue is the consideration of information system development methods as fragments. Numerous ME approaches have produced several definitions of method parts. Different in nature, these fragments have nevertheless some common disadvantages: lack of implementation tools, insufficient standardization effort, and so on. On the whole, the observed drawbacks are related to the shortage of usage orientation. We have proceeded to an in-depth analysis of existing method fragments within a comparison framework in order to identify their drawbacks. We suggest overcoming them by an improvement of the ?method service? concept. In this paper, the method service is defined through the service paradigm applied to a specific method fragment ? chunk. A discussion on the possibility to develop a unique representation of method fragment completes our contribution

How packaging affects the product preferences of children and the buyer behaviour of their parents in the food industry

Purpose – Health is becoming an increasingly important issue in the UK as well as the rest of Europe. Emphasis on the importance of healthy eating is ongoing for many reasons, including the growing concern about childhood obesity resulting in the ban of advertising of unhealthy foods to children in the UK in April 2007. However, although legislation has been placed upon the advertising of unhealthy food products, no such restrictions have been placed on the packaging of children's foods despite the influence of packaging on consumer buyer decisions. This paper aims to investigate the effect of packaging on children's product preferences and its ability to influence parents' buyer decision in-store. Design/methodology/approach – The study was approached from the parents' rather than the children's perspective. A quantitative approach was adopted in data collection, using a 28 item Likert scaled questionnaire administered to 150 parents, with over 95 percent response rate. Findings – The study shows that packaging does affect the product preferences of children. Also, children are particularly interested in influencing the purchase of unhealthy foods. However, parents within the study claimed that they did not succumb to their children's requests for the purchase of unhealthy food, which contradicts evidence from previous findings. Research limitations/implications – The claim by parents that they did not succumb to their children's requests for unhealthy food contradicts findings from previous research. This therefore leads to a recommendation for further studies as social desirability bias may have influenced the outcomes of the findings. Practical implications – Findings from this study can be applied within the retail and service marketing sector to provide the practitioner with information relevant to decision making on children's influence on parents buyer behavior in-store. Outcomes of the study are also important when considering the future of children's food marketing and tackling the issue of childhood obesity. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that there is a relationship between packaging and children product preferences and children's influence on parents' buyer decision in-store

A critical review of the formation of mono- and dicarboxylated metabolic intermediates of alkylphenol polyethoxylates during wastewater treatment and their environmental significance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 Taylor & Francis.Alkylphenoxyacetic acids, the metabolic biodegradation products of alkylphenol ethoxylates, are commonly found in wastewaters and sewage effluents. These persistent hydrophilic derivatives possess intrinsic estrogenic activity, which can mimic natural hormones. Their concentrations increase through the sewage treatment works as a result of biodegradation and biotransformation, and when discharged can disrupt endocrine function in fish. These acidic metabolites represent the dominant alkylphenolic compounds found in wastewater effluent and their presence is cause for concern as, potentially, through further biotransformation and biodegradation, they can act as sources of nonylphenol, which is toxic and estrogenic. The authors aim to assess the mechanisms of formation as well as elimination of alkylphenoxyacetic acids within conventional sewage treatment works with the emphasis on the activated sludge process. In addition, they evaluate the various factors influencing their degradation and formation in laboratory scale and full-scale systems. The environmental implications of these compounds are considered, as is the need for tertiary treatment processes for their removal

The Sentinel City: A Multivalent Resiliency Plan For Houston, Texas

Sentinel Cities are the first metropoles in the United States to exhibit signs of climate change-related stress. Each Sentinel has a unique set of problems to overcome. In Houston these are climate-augmented storms and sea level rise, which subject its residents to compound flood vulnerability from drastic rainfall and storm surge. Today, Houston is subject to several underlying systemic weaknesses inherited from the city’s unchecked growth, which make the urban populace particu- larly vulnerable to flood events. The most acclaimed proposal to mitigate flood risk Houston is the “Ike Dike” Coastal Spine, a system of flood barriers and gates modeled after the 20th century Delta Works of Holland as precedent. Further interrogation of the Dutch model as precedent reveals deep differences between the Texas flood problem and that of the Netherlands, while also revealing aspects of the Delta Plan that Houston could emulate. A multivalent resiliency strategy for Houston can imitate these methods while also ensuring success in the distinct Texas social and political climate. This report explores a scheme called the String of Pearls, a strategy to incentivize sustainable growth in Houston while building emergency preparedness into the very fabric of the city

Explainer: An interactive Agent for Explaining the Diagnosis of Cardiac Arrhythmia Generated by IK-DCBRC

Interactions between medical applications and users involve a high level of trust, since many complex, automated applications are integrated and involve critical domains in which public health is paramount. Although uncertainty decreases the accuracy and trust of such medical applications under these circumstances, explanation-aware computing becomes crucial in improving the efficiency of these applications. This paper describes an intelligent agent that interacts with users to provide meaningful explanations of previous diagnoses supported by IK-DCBRC. The agent ensures intelligent interactions with users via a rule-based system that generates appropriate explanations according to the selected level of abstraction and the detected cardiac arrhythmia. The paper also describes a particular medical application, that is, cardiac arrhythmia with automatic diagnoses supported by the case-based reasoning classifier, IK-DCBRC