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

Emerging Smart Technologies and the European Standardisation System

The standardisation of smart applications and the underlying smart communication infrastructure represent new challenges for European standardisation. This paper identifies and discusses a number of policy issues that the European Standardisation System (ESS) faces or is likely to face in the not-too-distant future. A number of potential steps that the ESS could take to help resolve these issues are sketched

The AQUAS ECSEL Project Aggregated Quality Assurance for Systems: Co-Engineering Inside and Across the Product Life Cycle

There is an ever-increasing complexity of the systems we engineer in modern society, which includes facing the convergence of the embedded world and the open world. This complexity creates increasing difficulty with providing assurance for factors including safety, security and performance. In such a context, the AQUAS project investigates the challenges arising from e.g., the inter-dependence of safety, security and performance of systems and aims at efficient solutions for the entire product life-cycle. The project builds on knowledge of partners gained in current or former EU projects and will demonstrate the newly developed methods and techniques for co-engineering across use cases spanning Aerospace, Medicine, Transport and Industrial Control.A special thanks to all the AQUAS consortium people that have worked on the AQUAS proposal on which this paper is based, especially to Charles Robinson (TRT), the proposal coordinator. The AQUAS project is funded from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n 737475, and from National funding

Multi-domain comparison of safety standards

International audienceThis paper presents an analysis of safety standards and their implementation in certification strategies from different domains such as aeronautics, automation, automotive, nuclear, railway and space. This work, performed in the context of the CG2E ("Club des Grandes Entreprises de l'Embarqué"), aims at identifying the main similarities and dissimilarities, for potential cross-domain harmonization. We strive to find the most comprehensive 'trans-sectorial' approach, within a large number of industrial domains. Exhibiting the 'true goals' of their numerous applicable standards, related to the safety of system and software, is a first important step towards harmonization, sharing common approaches, methods and tools whenever possible

Education and citizenship in the knowledge society - towards the comparative study of national systems of education

This paper is an attempt to propose how education systems can be studied in relation to the welfare state and knowledge society in the global age. It begins by discussing the aims of education and relates these to the core values of social citizenship, arguing that access to the provision of education is a fundamental pillar of citizenship with the purpose of extending and enhancing life chances by general principles of social inclusion and equality of opportunity. It further on reviews a large body of comparative research which studies how the design of education institutions in various countries influences one important aspect of these aims, namely school-leavers’ entrance into the labour market. The third and last section investigates the possibilities and difficulties inherent in comparative studies of national systems of education, particularly with regard to questions concerning validity when constructing conceptual models and comparable indicators. The tentative conclusion of the paper is that further comparative endeavours should set out analyzing primarily input- and process-related features of compulsory education, and the dimensions of stratification and standardization of upper secondary education for an assessment of these institutions’ capacity to equip citizens with knowledge and skills for human flourishing.education systems; social citizenship

A Path to Alignment: Connecting K-12 and Higher Education via the Common Core and the Degree Qualifications Profile

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which aim to assure competency in English/language arts and mathematics through the K-12 curriculum, define necessary but not sufficient preparedness for success in college. The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), which describes what a college degree should signify, regardless of major, offers useful but not sufficient guidance to high school students preparing for college study. A coordinated strategy to prepare students to succeed in college would align these two undertakings and thus bridge an unfortunate and harmful cultural chasm between the K-12 world and that of higher education. Chasms call for bridges, and the bridge proposed by this white paper could create a vital thoroughfare. The white paper begins with a description of the CCSS and an assessment of their significance. A following analysis then explains why the CCSS, while necessary, are not sufficient as a platform for college success. A corresponding explanation of the DQP clarifies the prompts that led to its development, describes its structure, and offers some guidance for interpreting the outcomes that it defines. Again, a following analysis considers the potential of the DQP and the limitations that must be addressed if that potential is to be more fully realized. The heart of the white paper lies in sections 5 and 6, which provide a crosswalk between the CCSS and the DQP. These sections show how alignments and differences between the two may point to a comprehensive preparedness strategy. They also offer a proposal for a multifaceted strategy to realize the potential synergy of the CCSS and the DQP for the benefit of high school and college educators and their students -- and the nation

On Content Models for Proximity Services

First time introduced in Release 12 of the 3GPP specifications, Proximity Services (ProSe in the above-mentioned specification) is a Device-to-Device (D2D) technology that allows two devices to detect each other and to communicate directly without traversing the Base Station or core network. In other words, it is a technology that is oriented (ultimately) on the direct connection of two devices. In this article, we are promoting the idea that proximity services are more than just support for a direct connection (in fact, search for candidates for a direct connection). The paper discusses content models (that is, information dissemination models) based on proximity data. In this case, a direct connection is simply one of the possible options for disseminating information

Contract as Pattern Language

This essay examines how patterns enable the transformation of contractual provisions into contracts, contracts into transactions, and transactions into markets. Although contract design patterns are broader than contract boilerplate (as described in Part II.C. below), some of the extensive legal scholarship on boilerplate19 helps explain how contract patterns generate agreements, transactions, and markets. The work of Henry Smith on the modularity of contract boilerplate proves particularly useful in this regard. Contract patterns perform several functions. Contract patterns break complex problems and bargains into components. Attorneys can then repeatedly apply these particular solutions to similar problems. Patterns also serve as heuristics for attorneys, i.e., devices to estimate quickly whether particular language solves certain bargaining problems, meets client objectives, and will be interpreted by courts in an anticipated manner