Viewpoint Development of Stochastic Hybrid Systems

Nowadays, due to the explosive spreading of networked and highly distributed systems, mastering system complexity becomes a critical issue. Two development and verification paradigms have become more popular: viewpoints and randomisation. The viewpoints offer large freedom and introduce concurrency and compositionality in the development process. Randomisation is now a traditional method for reducing complexity (comparing with deterministic models) and it offers finer analytical analysis tools (quantification over non-determinism, multi-valued logics, etc). In this paper, we propose a combination of these two paradigms introducing a viewpoint methodology for systems with stochastic behaviours

Self build design and construction processes and the future of sustainable design education

The paper was given during the First Annual International Conference on Construction, 20-23 June2011,in Athens, Greece; it was submitted and peer reviewed after the conference again and selected to be included in a book as a chapter.Research groups' funds

Governing by internet architecture

In the past thirty years, the exponential rise in the number of Internet users around the word and the intensive use of the digital networks have brought to light crucial political issues. Internet is now the object of regulations. Namely, it is a policy domain. Yet, its own architecture represents a new regulative structure, one deeply affecting politics and everyday life. This article considers some of the main transformations of the Internet induced by privatization and militarization processes, as well as their consequences on societies and human beings.En los últimos treinta años ha crecido de manera exponencial el número de usuarios de Internet alrededor del mundo y el uso intensivo de conexiones digitales ha traído a la luz cuestiones políticas cruciales. Internet es ahora objeto de regulaciones. Es decir, es un ámbito de la política. Aún su propia arquitectura representa una nueva estructura reguladora, que afecta profundamente la política y la vida cotidiana. Este artículo considera algunas de las principales transformaciones de Internet inducida por procesos de privatización y militarización, como también sus consecuencias en las sociedades y en los seres humanos

Evaluation of refurbishment alternatives for an Italian vernacular building considering architectural heritage, energy efficiency and costs

Despite the majority of legislative requirements in terms of energy performances is not addressed to historical buildings, there is an increasing consciousness on their relevance to reach the European CO2 emissions’ reduction goals. This paper engages the theme of traditional buildings’ refurbishment, with a view to the necessity of a conscious intervention in terms of heritage preservation, energy efficiency and financial viability. In particular, the research analyzed a real case study of a rural building located in North Italy; the main objective of the study is to compare two different refurbishment scenarios by simultaneously considering architectural, energy and financial aspects

An architectural approach with separation of concerns to address extra-functional requirements in the development of embedded real-time software systems

AbstractA large proportion of the requirements on embedded real-time systems stems from the extra-functional dimensions of time and space determinism, dependability, safety and security, and it is addressed at the software level. The adoption of a sound software architecture provides crucial aid in conveniently apportioning the relevant development concerns. This paper takes a software-centered interpretation of the ISO 42010 notion of architecture, enhancing it with a component model that attributes separate concerns to distinct design views. The component boundary becomes the border between functional and extra-functional concerns. The latter are treated as decorations placed on the outside of components, satisfied by implementation artifacts separate from and composable with the implementation of the component internals. The approach was evaluated by industrial users from several domains, with remarkably positive results

The global hydrology education resource

This article is a selective overview of a range of contemporary teaching resources currently available globally for university hydrology educators, with an emphasis on web-based resources. Major governmental and scientific organizations relevant to the promotion of hydrology teaching are briefly introduced. Selected online teaching materials are then overviewed, i.e. PowerPoint presentations, course materials, and multimedia. A range of websites offering free basic hydrology modelling software are mentioned, together with some data file sources which could be used for teaching. Websites offering a considerable range of general hydrology links are also noted, as are websites providing international and national data sets which might be incorporated into teaching exercises. Finally, some discussion is given on reference material for different modes of hydrology teaching, including laboratory and field exercises