Developing a distributed electronic health-record store for India

The DIGHT project is addressing the problem of building a scalable and highly available information store for the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of the over one billion citizens of India

Automatic instantiation of abstract tests on specific configurations for large critical control systems

Computer-based control systems have grown in size, complexity, distribution and criticality. In this paper a methodology is presented to perform an abstract testing of such large control systems in an efficient way: an abstract test is specified directly from system functional requirements and has to be instantiated in more test runs to cover a specific configuration, comprising any number of control entities (sensors, actuators and logic processes). Such a process is usually performed by hand for each installation of the control system, requiring a considerable time effort and being an error prone verification activity. To automate a safe passage from abstract tests, related to the so called generic software application, to any specific installation, an algorithm is provided, starting from a reference architecture and a state-based behavioural model of the control software. The presented approach has been applied to a railway interlocking system, demonstrating its feasibility and effectiveness in several years of testing experience

On cost-effective reuse of components in the design of complex reconfigurable systems

Design strategies that benefit from the reuse of system components can reduce costs while maintaining or increasing dependability—we use the term dependability to tie together reliability and availability. D3H2 (aDaptive Dependable Design for systems with Homogeneous and Heterogeneous redundancies) is a methodology that supports the design of complex systems with a focus on reconfiguration and component reuse. D3H2 systematizes the identification of heterogeneous redundancies and optimizes the design of fault detection and reconfiguration mechanisms, by enabling the analysis of design alternatives with respect to dependability and cost. In this paper, we extend D3H2 for application to repairable systems. The method is extended with analysis capabilities allowing dependability assessment of complex reconfigurable systems. Analysed scenarios include time-dependencies between failure events and the corresponding reconfiguration actions. We demonstrate how D3H2 can support decisions about fault detection and reconfiguration that seek to improve dependability while reducing costs via application to a realistic railway case study

What is Specific about Art/Cultural Projects?

The present issue focuses on the contribution made by art/cultural initiatives to the development of multiple identity in some of the European cities having in mind the subjectivity of the artists and plurality of the surrounding cultures. The art/cultural projects (AES- Russia, Europe Art Train – Holland, Life Station – Austria and some others) with intercultural dimension have a special character to offer because: they are dealing with meaning, and enable dialogue between people in different social groups. The examples will be taken from different European countries, which aim to reinterpret the reality of life, to show, answer, and question its contradictions. The attention will be focused on their political, educational and aesthetic contribution to the community construction having in mind their desire for new intercultural policy and practices. Every artist crosses borders daily but those who choose to cross cultural borders (language, expression, music, tradition) enter into a fertile, but dangerous field. Artists do not aim specifically to produce multicultural work but since they are living in specific time, and since art is rooted in real life, the realities of everyday life are transposed into their work. This paper is fundamentally interested in the role that art projects can play in a modern society and promotes the initiative that links an artistic dimension to a form of interactive social urban situation. All projects are representing ‘laboratories’ that use public spaces. It is more than obvious that the social and the economic fields are not separated from the cultural one beside the tendency that is putting them in opposition as artists and the world rather than artists in the world. In the last two decades, the world of the arts has economised rapidly. Increasingly, artists have turned the economy into a subject of their own work. Art/cultural projects engage people’s creativity, and so lead to problem-solving. They encourage questioning, and the imagination of possible future actions. They offer self-expression, which is an essential characteristic of the active citizen. Some experiences from the art/cultural field are shifting attention towards the people themselves: their imagination, motivation, demands, fantasies and only then the city is becoming a cultural product, a community construction.Intercultural actions, Policy agenda, Art/cultural projects, Networking aspects

VEIL Ballarat centre structural plan

This report looks at the future devlopment in Ballerat, Victoria. New forms of urban planning, housing and also transport and use of natural resouces are some of the major topics covered.  (1) BALLARAT - THE LOCALLY PRODUCTIVE CITY Goal: All precincts in Ballarat (exemplified by the CBA) aim to maximise production of environmentally and socially critical resources.Target: To be a net exporter in as many of the following areas as possible: Renewable energy - diverse systems - wind, solar, geothermal, biomass Water - rainwater, grey water, recycled Food production - close to points of consumption Community services Knowledge - research, innovation, education and skills. E.g: climate adaptation solutions; low-carbon solutions; sustainable agriculture (food and bio-mass) Green businesses, green services, eco-innovation (agricultural best practice and re-mining) "green zone" (2) BALLARAT - THE LOW CONSUMPTION CITYGoal: Living and Working Better - Consuming LessTarget: To develop the highest quality of living and working conditions with the lowest per-capita consumption and production of waste, in as many of the following areas as possible: Greenhouse gas (e.g. target: reductions of greater than 60%) Electricity use (e.g through retrofitting - 40% reduction) Water: (e.g. target 80 litres/person/day of reticulated potable water) Transport /mobility (e.g. target greater than 30% shift from car to walking & cycling; 25% reduction in car trip distances; 40% increase in public transport use) Waste reduction (e.g, in all sectors,40%) (3) BALLARAT - THE REGENERATIVE CITYGoal: Avoiding cascading breakdown effects, enabling quick bounceback from challenges - creating a social and physical fabric that is diverse, decentralised and locally inter-connected, so that any shocks (environmental or economic) will be limited in the spread of their effects.Target: To approach all planning and design decisions with the intent of increasing the diversity of communities, production systems (as in 1, above) and public facilities, particularly in relation to: access to energy, water, food, transport, the provision of work and residential facilities life in extreme weather conditions community engagement (4) BALLARAT - THE INVENTIVE CITYGoal: To achieve all of above through the development of innovative new solutions and approaches, building on the strong history of inventiveness and creativity in Ballarat (in agriculture and mining in particular).Target: Ballarat to be known nationally and internationally as supporting a culture of creative risk-taking, experimentation, and innovation in relation to climate resilience and sustainable solutions

Uncertainty and risk: politics and analysis

In environmental and sustainable development policy issues, and in infrastructural megaprojects and issues of innovative medical technologies as well, public authorities face emergent complexity, high value diversity, difficult-to-structure problems, high decision stakes, high uncertainty, and thus risk. In practice, it is believed, this often leads to crises, controversies, deadlocks, and policy fiascoes. Decision-makers are said to face a crisis in coping with uncertainty. Both the cognitive structure of uncertainty and the political structure of risk decisions have been studied. So far, these scientific literatures exist side by side, with few apparent efforts at theoretically conceptualizing and empirically testing the links between the two. Therefore, this exploratory and conceptual paper takes up the challenge: How should we conceptualize the cognitive structure of uncertainty? How should we conceptualize the political structure of risk? How can we conceptualize the link(s) between the two? Is there any empirical support for a conceptualization that bridges the analytical and political aspects of risk? What are the implications for guidelines for risk analysis and assessment