Preface: Special issue on Foundations of Coordination Languages and Self-adaptive Systems

International audienceModern software systems are distributed, concurrent, mobile, and often involve the composition of heterogeneous components and of stand-alone services. Theoretical models, languages and tools for coordinating, composing and adapting services are hence required. They can indeed simplify the development of complex distributed service-based systems, enable functional correctness proofs and improve reusability and maintainability of such systems. This Special Issue (SI) is dedicated to Foundations of Coordination Languages and Self-adaptive Systems. This SI is a follow-up of the FOCLASA workshop that we organized at the 15th International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods (SEFM 2017), held in Trento, Italy on September 4-8, 2017. The workshop received 16 full paper submissions. After a careful reviewing process, the international Program Committee decided to select seven papers for presentation during the workshop and inclusion in the FOCLASA'17 proceedings. From these papers, the six best papers were selected and invited for an extended version to this special issue. All the submissions went through a rigorous peer review process; four papers were finally accepted and are included in this special issue. These papers provide key insights on different aspects of coordination languages and self-adaptive systems

Introduction: Semiotics and history revisited

The introductory article proposes to offer a general frame for the special issue, discussing the emergence of semiotics of history as a new discipline or approach in the humanities. It presents an overview on the attempts of joining the history and semiotics in the Western world since the early 1980s, with a special focus on the United States, and examines the contribution of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics to the semiotic study of history, paying the main attention to the work of Juri Lotman and Boris Uspenskij. Finally, a survey of the articles that make up the special issue dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Boris Uspenskij is presented

Citizen Science with and within the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Guest editors’ preface

The guest editors’ preface to the special issue of Etica&Politica/Ethics&Politics “Citizen Science with and within the Social Sciences and the Humanities” discusses the background of citizen science development in Europe with a specific focus on the social sciences and the humanities. It traces the challenges faced in giving visibility to the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in the citizen science field, and highlights the advantages of using an “umbrella term” to unify citizen science and participatory research practices across disciplines

Multi-Agent Systems

This Special Issue ""Multi-Agent Systems"" gathers original research articles reporting results on the steadily growing area of agent-oriented computing and multi-agent systems technologies. After more than 20 years of academic research on multi-agent systems (MASs), in fact, agent-oriented models and technologies have been promoted as the most suitable candidates for the design and development of distributed and intelligent applications in complex and dynamic environments. With respect to both their quality and range, the papers in this Special Issue already represent a meaningful sample of the most recent advancements in the field of agent-oriented models and technologies. In particular, the 17 contributions cover agent-based modeling and simulation, situated multi-agent systems, socio-technical multi-agent systems, and semantic technologies applied to multi-agent systems. In fact, it is surprising to witness how such a limited portion of MAS research already highlights the most relevant usage of agent-based models and technologies, as well as their most appreciated characteristics. We are thus confident that the readers of Applied Sciences will be able to appreciate the growing role that MASs will play in the design and development of the next generation of complex intelligent systems. This Special Issue has been converted into a yearly series, for which a new call for papers is already available at the Applied Sciences journal’s website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/Multi-Agent_Systems_2019

INNOVATION FOR SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: DIGITAL LITERACY AND THE NATIONAL READING CAMPAIGN

This study attempts to describe the history of how the Norwegian language policy in the Nordic Council and The European Global Language Policy at the European Commission are implemented in The National Library Strategy 2020-2023 in Norway and its relevance across Intercultural Communication. Innovation for a democratic Language Technology infrastructure aims to participate in quality education for Literacy, prioritizing Universal Design Development on children's inclusion for social development and a sustainable future. The Research field based on Hermeneutics, Epistemology, Ethics and methodology, are a main foundation for Universal design . (Areskoug Josefsson, Haarr, K. H., Eriksen, S. S., & Brossard Børhaug, F. 2022) Norway holds the chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 20221 and also the chairmanship of the Network for Nordic Language Committees.2 In this connection, the focus on challenges concerning minority children inclusion in schools, libraries, and intercultural language centers3 , and how the development and use of language technology can contribute to supporting the Nordic countries' language policies and digital plans is a priority. (Regjeringen; sprakteknologi og de nordiske sprakene, 2022) The National Library, through the Council of language in Norway, has initiated a discussion based on the debate between digital transition and languages policies: “In today's language technology landscape, school children and teachers experience that software and writing support offered by the major international technology giants in the school does not reflect the official spelling of the local languages. Today, it is impossible to include adopted spelling standards in internationally advanced writing tools. The language norms conveyed by the big technology giants thus appear as competitors to the official spelling. The companies also do not allow locally developed language technology for small languages (e.g., Greenlandic, Sami, Norwegian, Nynorsk) to be offered as a local adaptation to the children and young people who receive their education in these languages". (Wetås. Å, Språkrådet 4.04.2022)

Governance of Digitalization in Europe A contribution to the Exploration Shaping Digital Policy - Towards a Fair Digital Society? BertelsmannStiftung Study

Digital policy is a unique policy area. As a cross-cutting policy issue, it has an impact not only on individual areas of regulation but on almost all other policy areas as well. Aspects of digital policy such as data regimes, cybersecurity and standardization issues are relevant not only to the the future of the internet or 5G mobile communications infrastructure, but to other areas of our lives to which they are closely linked, which range from automated driving to digital assistance systems in education and healthcare to the digitalization of sectors such as agriculture and construction. Nevertheless, regulation efforts have thus far been primarily sector-specific and national in their scope. With a few exceptions, such as the EU’s controversial General Data Protection Regulation, there are few digital policy frameworks in place for Europe that defines and integrates basic principles for broad application. Instead, we face a situation in which a variety of approaches stand side by side, at times complementing each other but also – all too often – competing with each other in ways that foster inconsistencies. The development of Europe’s 5G infrastructure is illustrative of this state of affairs. Despite the presence of what were originally uniform objectives across Europe, 28 nationally distinct tendering procedures with different requirements have since emerged. As a result, we must now find ways to manage the problems associated with having three or more networks per country, high costs, a difficult debate over security and the threat of dependency on non-EU providers

A Study in the Syntax of the Luwian Language

he Ancient Anatolian corpora represent the earliest documented examples of the Indo-European languages. In this book, an analysis of the syntactic structure of the Luwian phrases, clauses and sentences is attempted, basing on a phrase-structural approach that entails a mild application of the theoretical framework of generative grammar. While obvious limits exist as regards the use of theory-driven models to the study and description of ancient corpus-languages, this books aims at demonstrating and illustrating the main configurational features of the Luwian syntax

The Public Performance Of Sanctions In Insolvency Cases: The Dark, Humiliating, And Ridiculous Side Of The Law Of Debt In The Italian Experience. A Historical Overview Of Shaming Practices

This study provides a diachronic comparative overview of how the law of debt has been applied by certain institutions in Italy. Specifically, it offers historical and comparative insights into the public performance of sanctions for insolvency through shaming and customary practices in Roman Imperial Law, in the Middle Ages, and in later periods. The first part of the essay focuses on the Roman bonorum cessio culo nudo super lapidem and on the medieval customary institution called pietra della vergogna (stone of shame), which originates from the Roman model. The second part of the essay analyzes the social function of the zecca and the pittima Veneziana during the Republic of Venice, and of the practice of lu soldate a castighe (no translation is possible). The author uses a functionalist approach to apply some arguments and concepts from the current context to this historical analysis of ancient institutions that we would now consider ridiculous. The article shows that the customary norms that play a crucial regulatory role in online interactions today can also be applied to the public square in the past. One of these tools is shaming. As is the case in contemporary online settings, in the public square in historic periods, shaming practices were used to enforce the rules of civility in a given community. Such practices can be seen as virtuous when they are intended for use as a tool to pursue positive change in forces entrenched in the culture, and thus to address social wrongs considered outside the reach of the law, or to address human rights abuses

Preface

DAMSS-2018 is the jubilee 10th international workshop on data analysis methods for software systems, organized in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the end of the year. The same place and the same time every year. Ten years passed from the first workshop. History of the workshop starts from 2009 with 16 presentations. The idea of such workshop came up at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Computer Society supported this idea. This idea got approval both in the Lithuanian research community and abroad. The number of this year presentations is 81. The number of registered participants is 113 from 13 countries. In 2010, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics became a member of Vilnius University, the largest university of Lithuania. In 2017, the institute changes its name into the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies. This name reflects recent activities of the institute. The renewed institute has eight research groups: Cognitive Computing, Image and Signal Analysis, Cyber-Social Systems Engineering, Statistics and Probability, Global Optimization, Intelligent Technologies, Education Systems, Blockchain Technologies. The main goal of the workshop is to introduce the research undertaken at Lithuanian and foreign universities in the fields of data science and software engineering. Annual organization of the workshop allows the fast interchanging of new ideas among the research community. Even 11 companies supported the workshop this year. This means that the topics of the workshop are actual for business, too. Topics of the workshop cover big data, bioinformatics, data science, blockchain technologies, deep learning, digital technologies, high-performance computing, visualization methods for multidimensional data, machine learning, medical informatics, ontological engineering, optimization in data science, business rules, and software engineering. Seeking to facilitate relations between science and business, a special session and panel discussion is organized this year about topical business problems that may be solved together with the research community. This book gives an overview of all presentations of DAMSS-2018.DAMSS-2018 is the jubilee 10th international workshop on data analysis methods for software systems, organized in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the end of the year. The same place and the same time every year. Ten years passed from the first workshop. History of the workshop starts from 2009 with 16 presentations. The idea of such workshop came up at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Computer Society supported this idea. This idea got approval both in the Lithuanian research community and abroad. The number of this year presentations is 81. The number of registered participants is 113 from 13 countries. In 2010, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics became a member of Vilnius University, the largest university of Lithuania. In 2017, the institute changes its name into the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies. This name reflects recent activities of the institute. The renewed institute has eight research groups: Cognitive Computing, Image and Signal Analysis, Cyber-Social Systems Engineering, Statistics and Probability, Global Optimization, Intelligent Technologies, Education Systems, Blockchain Technologies. The main goal of the workshop is to introduce the research undertaken at Lithuanian and foreign universities in the fields of data science and software engineering. Annual organization of the workshop allows the fast interchanging of new ideas among the research community. Even 11 companies supported the workshop this year. This means that the topics of the workshop are actual for business, too. Topics of the workshop cover big data, bioinformatics, data science, blockchain technologies, deep learning, digital technologies, high-performance computing, visualization methods for multidimensional data, machine learning, medical informatics, ontological engineering, optimization in data science, business rules, and software engineering. Seeking to facilitate relations between science and business, a special session and panel discussion is organized this year about topical business problems that may be solved together with the research community. This book gives an overview of all presentations of DAMSS-2018

Language Design for Reactive Systems: On Modal Models, Time, and Object Orientation in Lingua Franca and SCCharts

Reactive systems play a crucial role in the embedded domain. They continuously interact with their environment, handle concurrent operations, and are commonly expected to provide deterministic behavior to enable application in safety-critical systems. In this context, language design is a key aspect, since carefully tailored language constructs can aid in addressing the challenges faced in this domain, as illustrated by the various concurrency models that prevent the known pitfalls of regular threads. Today, many languages exist in this domain and often provide unique characteristics that make them specifically fit for certain use cases. This thesis evolves around two distinctive languages: the actor-oriented polyglot coordination language Lingua Franca and the synchronous statecharts dialect SCCharts. While they take different approaches in providing reactive modeling capabilities, they share clear similarities in their semantics and complement each other in design principles. This thesis analyzes and compares key design aspects in the context of these two languages. For three particularly relevant concepts, it provides and evaluates lean and seamless language extensions that are carefully aligned with the fundamental principles of the underlying language. Specifically, Lingua Franca is extended toward coordinating modal behavior, while SCCharts receives a timed automaton notation with an efficient execution model using dynamic ticks and an extension toward the object-oriented modeling paradigm