116,828 research outputs found
Proceedings of International Workshop "Global Computing: Programming Environments, Languages, Security and Analysis of Systems"
According to the IST/ FET proactive initiative on GLOBAL COMPUTING, the goal is to obtain techniques (models, frameworks, methods, algorithms) for constructing systems that are flexible, dependable, secure, robust and efficient.
The dominant concerns are not those of representing and manipulating data efficiently but rather those of handling the co-ordination and interaction, security, reliability, robustness, failure modes, and control of risk of the entities in the system and the overall design, description and performance of the system itself.
Completely different paradigms of computer science may have to be developed to tackle these issues effectively. The research should concentrate on systems having the following characteristics: ⢠The systems are composed of autonomous computational entities where activity is not centrally controlled, either because global control is impossible or impractical, or because the entities are created or controlled by different owners.
⢠The computational entities are mobile, due to the movement of the physical platforms or by movement of the entity from one platform to another.
⢠The configuration varies over time. For instance, the system is open to the introduction of new computational entities and likewise their deletion.
The behaviour of the entities may vary over time.
⢠The systems operate with incomplete information about the environment.
For instance, information becomes rapidly out of date and mobility requires information about the environment to be discovered.
The ultimate goal of the research action is to provide a solid scientific foundation for the design of such systems, and to lay the groundwork for achieving effective principles for building and analysing such systems.
This workshop covers the aspects related to languages and programming environments as well as analysis of systems and resources involving 9 projects (AGILE , DART, DEGAS , MIKADO, MRG, MYTHS, PEPITO, PROFUNDIS, SECURE) out of the 13 founded under the initiative. After an year from the start of the projects, the goal of the workshop is to fix the state of the art on the topics covered by the two clusters related to programming environments and analysis of systems as well as to devise strategies and new ideas to profitably continue the research effort towards the overall objective of the initiative.
We acknowledge the Dipartimento di Informatica and Tlc of the University of Trento, the Comune di Rovereto, the project DEGAS for partially funding the event and the Events and Meetings Office of the University of Trento for the valuable collaboration
Observing Environments
> Context ⢠Society is faced with âwickedâ problems of environmental sustainability, which are inherently multiperspectival, and there is a need for explicitly constructivist and perspectivist theories to address them.
> Problem ⢠However, different constructivist theories construe the environment in different ways. The aim of this paper is to clarify the conceptions of environment in constructivist approaches, and thereby to assist the sciences of complex systems and complex environmental problems.
> Method ⢠We describe the terms used for âthe environmentâ in von UexkĂźll, Maturana & Varela, and Luhmann, and analyse how their conceptions of environment are connected to differences of perspective and observation.
> Results ⢠We show the need to distinguish between inside and outside perspectives on the environment, and identify two very different and complementary logics of observation, the logic of distinction and the logic of representation, in the three constructivist theories.
> Implications ⢠Luhmannâs theory of social systems can be a helpful perspective on the wicked environmental problems of society if we consider carefully the theoryâs own blind spots: that it confines itself to systems of communication, and that it is based fully on the conception of observation as indication by means of distinction
Transdisciplinarity seen through Information, Communication, Computation, (Inter-)Action and Cognition
Similar to oil that acted as a basic raw material and key driving force of
industrial society, information acts as a raw material and principal mover of
knowledge society in the knowledge production, propagation and application. New
developments in information processing and information communication
technologies allow increasingly complex and accurate descriptions,
representations and models, which are often multi-parameter, multi-perspective,
multi-level and multidimensional. This leads to the necessity of collaborative
work between different domains with corresponding specialist competences,
sciences and research traditions. We present several major transdisciplinary
unification projects for information and knowledge, which proceed on the
descriptive, logical and the level of generative mechanisms. Parallel process
of boundary crossing and transdisciplinary activity is going on in the applied
domains. Technological artifacts are becoming increasingly complex and their
design is strongly user-centered, which brings in not only the function and
various technological qualities but also other aspects including esthetic, user
experience, ethics and sustainability with social and environmental dimensions.
When integrating knowledge from a variety of fields, with contributions from
different groups of stakeholders, numerous challenges are met in establishing
common view and common course of action. In this context, information is our
environment, and informational ecology determines both epistemology and spaces
for action. We present some insights into the current state of the art of
transdisciplinary theory and practice of information studies and informatics.
We depict different facets of transdisciplinarity as we see it from our
different research fields that include information studies, computability,
human-computer interaction, multi-operating-systems environments and
philosophy.Comment: Chapter in a forthcoming book: Information Studies and the Quest for
Transdisciplinarity - Forthcoming book in World Scientific. Mark Burgin and
Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Editor
Convergence science in the Anthropocene: Navigating the known and unknown
Rapidly changing ecological and social systems currently pose significant societal challenges. Navigating the complexity of social-ecological change requires ap- proaches able to cope with, and potentially solve, both foreseen and unforeseen societal challenges.
The emergent field of convergence addresses the intricacies of such challenges, and is thus relevant to a broad range of interdisciplinary issues.
This paper suggests a way to conceptualize convergence research. It discusses how it relates to two major societal challenges (adaptation, transformation), and to the generation of policy-relevant science. It also points out limitations to the further development of convergence research
Fostering Emotional Engineers: Revisiting Constructive Thinking in Engineering Education
For the past decade, engineering education efforts at the postsecondary level have sought to create a more holistic type of critical thinker (Felder & Brent, 2015; Grasso & Burkins, 2010). As part of this initiative, engineers are encouraged to develop skills associated with constructive thinkingâa pedagogical concept rooted in the belief that knowledge is constructed through continual interaction with peers and the environment (Anderson, 2013; Driscoll, 2005; Shayer, 2003). However, despite the positive ramifications linked with this pedagogical shift, studies have demonstrated that the increased use of collaborative aspects associated with constructivist teaching practices may be negatively impacting female students (Rosser, 2009; Tonso, 1996; Wolfe & Powell, 2009a, 2009b). Taking a primarily philosophical approach, the contribution of emotions to constructive thinking is explored utilizing Thayer-Baconâs (2000) conceptualization of the concept to argue that the pedagogical shift within engineering has not fully incorporated a holistic approach to learning. The results of recent studies in engineering education are analyzed to highlight the negative consequences associated with overlooking emotions as contributors to constructive thinking primarily for female students in the field (Jones et al., 2013; Tonso, 1996, 2006; Wolfe & Powell, 2006). To conclude, the value of emotions for the engineering discipline is underscored by using work by Jaggar (1992, 1998) to explore its historical association with female thought and its overall impact on the construction of knowledge
Cloudbus Toolkit for Market-Oriented Cloud Computing
This keynote paper: (1) presents the 21st century vision of computing and
identifies various IT paradigms promising to deliver computing as a utility;
(2) defines the architecture for creating market-oriented Clouds and computing
atmosphere by leveraging technologies such as virtual machines; (3) provides
thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both
customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain
SLA-oriented resource allocation; (4) presents the work carried out as part of
our new Cloud Computing initiative, called Cloudbus: (i) Aneka, a Platform as a
Service software system containing SDK (Software Development Kit) for
construction of Cloud applications and deployment on private or public Clouds,
in addition to supporting market-oriented resource management; (ii)
internetworking of Clouds for dynamic creation of federated computing
environments for scaling of elastic applications; (iii) creation of 3rd party
Cloud brokering services for building content delivery networks and e-Science
applications and their deployment on capabilities of IaaS providers such as
Amazon along with Grid mashups; (iv) CloudSim supporting modelling and
simulation of Clouds for performance studies; (v) Energy Efficient Resource
Allocation Mechanisms and Techniques for creation and management of Green
Clouds; and (vi) pathways for future research.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Conference pape
Understanding the nature and significance of early childhood: new evidence and its implications
INTRODUCTION
This paper is based on a presentation at a Centre for Community Child Health seminar devoted to a consideration of the Productivity Commissionâs Draft Report on Child Care and Early Childhood Learning. The aim of the paper was to present a succinct summary of relevant evidence to inform discussions. Rather than reviewing the evidence regarding existing forms of service, the presentation focused more broadly on what we know about child development â how children learn and what children need. The paper is not so much about challenging existing models of early childhood education and care in Australia as challenging our understanding of the nature and significance of the early years.
NEW RESEARCH EVIDENCE AND WHAT IT TELLS US
Over the past few decades, there has been a growing acceptance among scholars, professionals and policy makers of the importance of the early years. However, as we learn more about the way in which experiences in the early years shape health, development and wellbeing, and the extent of these influences over the life-course, the true importance of these years becomes more and more apparent.
There are nine sources of evidence to be considered.
Evidence about the nature and significance of prenatal development and experiences, and their effects over the life course
Evidence about the nature and significance of postnatal learning and development, and the impact of proximal environments
Evidence regarding the impact of early childhood experiences on long term development, health and wellbeing
Evidence regarding neurological development and plasticity
Evidence regarding the neurobiology of interpersonal relationships
Evidence regarding âsocial climate changeâ and its effects
Evidence from economic analyses of child development and the benefits of investments in the early years
Evidence regarding social inequalities and their effects
Evidence from repeated measurement of key indicators of child development and functioning.â˘
Presentation at Centre for Community Child Health seminar Investing in Early Childhoodâthe future of early childhood education and care in Australia
The Royal Childrenâs Hospital, Melbourne, 25 July 201
Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries
Digital libraries, whether commercial, public or personal, lie at the heart of the information society. Yet, research into their longâterm viability and the meaningful accessibility of their contents remains in its infancy. In general, as we have pointed out elsewhere, âafter more
than twenty years of research in digital curation and preservation the actual theories, methods and technologies that can either foster or ensure digital longevity remain
startlingly limited.â Research led by DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) and the Digital
Preservation Cluster of DELOS has allowed us to refine the key research challenges â theoretical, methodological and technological â that need attention by researchers in digital libraries during the coming five to ten years, if we are to ensure that the materials held in our emerging digital libraries are to remain sustainable, authentic, accessible and understandable over time. Building on this work and taking the theoretical framework of archival science as bedrock, this paper investigates digital preservation and its foundational role if digital libraries are to have longâterm viability at the centre of the
global information society.
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