Expressing advanced user preferences in component installation

State of the art component-based software collections - such as FOSS distributions - are made of up to dozens of thousands components, with complex inter-dependencies and conflicts. Given a particular installation of such a system, each request to alter the set of installed components has potentially (too) many satisfying answers. We present an architecture that allows to express advanced user preferences about package selection in FOSS distributions. The architecture is composed by a distribution-independent format for describing available and installed packages called CUDF (Common Upgradeability Description Format), and a foundational language called MooML to specify optimization criteria. We present the syntax and semantics of CUDF and MooML, and discuss the partial evaluation mechanism of MooML which allows to gain efficiency in package dependency solvers

A Methodology for the Selection of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Methods in Real Estate and Land Management Processes

Real estate and land management are characterised by a complex, elaborate combination of technical, regulatory and governmental factors. In Europe, Public Administrators must address the complex decision-making problems that need to be resolved, while also acting in consideration of the expectations of the different stakeholders involved in settlement transformation. In complex situations (e.g., with different aspects to be considered and multilevel actors involved), decision-making processes are often used to solve multidisciplinary and multidimensional analyses, which support the choices of those who are making the decision. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods are included among the examination and evaluation techniques considered useful by the European Community. Such analyses and techniques are performed using methods, which aim to reach a synthesis of the various forms of input data needed to define decision-making problems of a similar complexity. Thus, one or more of the conclusions reached allow for informed, well thought-out, strategic decisions. According to the technical literature on MCDA, numerous methods are applicable in different decision-making situations, however, advice for selecting the most appropriate for the specific field of application and problem have not been thoroughly investigated. In land and real estate management, numerous queries regarding evaluations often arise. In brief, the objective of this paper is to outline a procedure with which to select the method best suited to the specific queries of evaluation, which commonly arise while addressing decision-making problems. In particular issues of land and real estate management, representing the so-called “settlement sector”. The procedure will follow a theoretical-methodological approach by formulating a taxonomy of the endogenous and exogenous variables of the multi-criteria analysis method

On some key research issues in Enterprise Risk Management related to economic capital and diversification effect at group level

The goal of this short communication is to give an overview of the key research issues in Enterprise Risk Management that arose during the talks and the brainstorming session of the first ERMII research workshop, which was held at ISFA, University of Lyon in June 2007. To define and compute economic capital at group level, fundamental problems related for example to value creation, correlation and capital allocation are stated. The ideas gathered in this paper are not directly ours, we just collected and summarized the ones that arose during the workshop.

A practical approach to goal modelling for time-constrained projects

Goal modelling is a well known rigorous method for analysing problem rationale and developing requirements. Under the pressures typical of time-constrained projects its benefits are not accessible. This is because of the effort and time needed to create the graph and because reading the results can be difficult owing to the effects of crosscutting concerns. Here we introduce an adaptation of KAOS to meet the needs of rapid turn around and clarity. The main aim is to help the stakeholders gain an insight into the larger issues that might be overlooked if they make a premature start into implementation. The method emphasises the use of obstacles, accepts under-refined goals and has new methods for managing crosscutting concerns and strategic decision making. It is expected to be of value to agile as well as traditional processes

Competition Between Auctions

Even though auctions are capturing an increasing share of commerce, they are typically treated in the theoretical economics literature as isolated. That is, an auction is typically treated as a single seller facing multiple buyers or as a single buyer facing multiple sellers. In this paper, we review the state of the art of competition between auctions. We consider three different types of competition: competition between auctions, competition between formats, and competition between auctioneers vying for auction traffic. We highlight the newest experimental, statistical and analytical methods in the analysis of competition between auctions.auctions, bidding, competition, auction formats, auction houses

Modelling and Analysing Highly-Configurable Services

Since the emergence of XaaS and Cloud Computing paradigms, the number and complexity of available services have been increasing enormously. These services usually o er a plethora of con guration options, which can even include additional services provided as a bundled o er. In this scenario, usual tasks, such as description, discovery and selection, become increasingly complex due to the variability of the decision space. The notion of Highly-Con gurable Service (HCS) has been coined to identify such group of services that can be con gured and bundled together to perform demanding computing tasks. In this paper we characterize HCSs by means of an abstract model and a text-based, human-readable notation named SYNOPSIS that facilitates the execution of various service tasks. In particular, we validate the usefulness of our model when checking the validity of HCSs descriptions in SYNOPSIS, as well as selecting the optimal con guration with regards to user requirements and preferences by providing a prototype implementation.Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-1867Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-70560-RScience Foundation Ireland Research. Centre grant 13/RC/2094ERC Advanced Grant no. 29165