Interacting Components

SystemCSP is a graphical modeling language based on both CSP and concepts of component-based software development. The component framework of SystemCSP enables specification of both interaction scenarios and relative execution ordering among components. Specification and implementation of interaction among participating components is formalized via the notion of interaction contract. The used approach enables incremental design of execution diagrams by adding restrictions in different interaction diagrams throughout the process of system design. In this way all different diagrams are related into a single formally verifiable system. The concept of reusable formally verifiable interaction contracts is illustrated by designing set of design patterns for typical fault tolerance interaction scenarios

Grid simulation services for the medical community

The first part of this paper presents a selection of medical simulation applications, including image reconstruction, near real-time registration for neuro-surgery, enhanced dose distribution calculation for radio-therapy, inhaled drug delivery prediction, plastic surgery planning and cardio-vascular system simulation. The latter two topics are discussed in some detail. In the second part, we show how such services can be made available to the clinical practitioner using Grid technology. We discuss the developments and experience made during the EU project GEMSS, which provides reliable, efficient, secure and lawful medical Grid services

From extension to engagement: Mapping the imaginary of wearable technology

This article maps the metaphors that have been used to facilitate human engagement with wearable technologies - extension, enhancement, augmentation - and locates the values and assumptions about the body and technology that they articulate. At the same time it considers the figure of the cyborg, in which many of these metaphors are incorporated fictionally and theoretically, and locates in this figure not one (interrogative, critical) meaning, but many possible meanings. The article then goes on to explore a recent reconfiguring of the human-technology relationship (Schroeder and Rebelo's 2007 analogy with the relationship between musician and intstrument), which it describes in terms of engagement - and to propose further that we need to embrace fully the embodied character of this relationship in order to realize the most creative possibilities of our relationship with the material world as expressed in this recent technology. © 2008 SAGE Publications

Challenges in Energy Awareness: a Swedish case of heating consumption in households

An efficient and sustainable energy system is an important factor when minimising the environmental impact caused by the cities. We have worked with questions on how to construct a more direct connection between customers-­‐citizens and a provider of district heating for negotiating notions of comfort in relation to heating and hot tap water use. In this paper we present visualisation concepts of such connections and reflect on the outcomes in terms of the type of data needed for sustainability assessment, as well as the methods explored for channelling information on individual consumption and environmental impact between customers and the provider of district heating. We have defined challenges in sustainable design for consumer behaviour change in the case of reducing heat and hot water consumption in individual households: (1) The problematic relation between individual behaviour steering and system level district heating, (2) The complexity of environmental impact as indicator for behaviour change, and (3) Ethical considerations concerning the role of the designer