A GAMIFICATION FRAMEWORK FOR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE WATER USAGE PROMOTION

The recent advent of smart meters to increase the effectiveness of urban Water Demand Management Strategies (WDM) has allowed water utilities to gather quasi real-time consumption data to monitor the network status and load and useful to develop models of consumers' behavior. At the same time, the consumption information can warn users about their habits in a fine-grained way. In principle, the feedback alone could stimulate increased awareness on water usage, but the motivations and individual attitudes of consumers are mostly hidden. Moreover, the same sustainable behavior should be incentivized also for households in which smart metering solutions are not present, but for which data gathering becomes a challenge. Modifying users' behavior by means of software is a tough task, due to the difficulty in designing an effective application able to maintain the behavioral changes in the long term. Gamification, the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to enhance traditional applications and drive behaviors of its users, has been proven successful in tackling with the problem. In this work, we propose a gamified application to enhance users' participation and data gathering in a real WDM scenario, by describing the designing principles and the architecture of the envisioned solution. An integrated approach exploiting both board and digital games to incentivize users to submit meaningful data for water utilities and change their long-term behavior is also detailed. The work is part of the SmartH2O project, which aims at creating an ICT platform to raise customers' awareness about their consumption and pursue water savings in the residential sector

Relevance, benefits, and problems of software modelling and model driven techniques—A survey in the Italian industry

Context Claimed benefits of software modelling and model driven techniques are improvements in productivity, portability, maintainability and interoperability. However, little effort has been devoted at collecting evidence to evaluate their actual relevance, benefits and usage complications. Goal The main goals of this paper are: (1) assess the diffusion and relevance of software modelling and MD techniques in the Italian industry, (2) understand the expected and achieved benefits, and (3) identify which problems limit/prevent their diffusion. Method We conducted an exploratory personal opinion survey with a sample of 155 Italian software professionals by means of a Web-based questionnaire on-line from February to April 2011. Results Software modelling and MD techniques are very relevant in the Italian industry. The adoption of simple modelling brings common benefits (better design support, documentation improvement, better maintenance, and higher software quality), while MD techniques make it easier to achieve: improved standardization, higher productivity, and platform independence. We identified problems, some hindering adoption (too much effort required and limited usefulness) others preventing it (lack of competencies and supporting tools). Conclusions The relevance represents an important objective motivation for researchers in this area. The relationship between techniques and attainable benefits represents an instrument for practitioners planning the adoption of such techniques. In addition the findings may provide hints for companies and universitie

A Proposal for Modelling Usability in a Holistic MDD Method

Holistic methods for Model-Driven Development (MDD) aim to model all the system features in a conceptual model. This conceptual model is the input for a model compiler that can generate software systems by means of automatic transformations. However, in general, MDD methods focus on modelling the structure and functionality of systems, relegating the interaction and usability features to manual implementations at the last steps of the software development process. Some usability features are strongly related to the functionality of the system and their inclusion is not so easy. In order to facilitate the inclusion of functional usability features from the first steps of the development process and bring closer MDD methods to the holistic perspective, we propose a Usability Model. The Usability Model gathers conceptual primitives that represent functional usability features in a sufficiently abstract way so that the model can be used with different holistic MDD methods. This paper defines all the primitives that can be used to represent functional usability features. Moreover, we have defined a process to include the Usability Model in any MDD method without affecting its existing conceptual model. The proposal is based on model-to-model and model-to-code transformations. As proof of concept, we have applied our proposal to an existing MDD method called the OO-method and we have measured its efficiency. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been developed with the support of MICINN (PROS-Req TIN2010-19130-C02-02), UV (UV-INV-PRECOMP13-115032), GVA (ORCA PROMETEO/2009/015), and co-financed with ERDF. We acknowledge the support of the ITEA2 Call 3 UsiXML (20080026) and funding by the MITYC (TSI-020400-2011-20).Panach Navarrete, JI.; Aquino Salvioni, N.; Pastor López, O. (2014). A Proposal for Modelling Usability in a Holistic MDD Method. Science of Computer Programming. 86:74-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2013.06.008S74888

Synthèse et étude de nouveaux nitroxydes et alcoxyamines (application en polymerisation radicalaire contrôlée)

Le contrôle d'une polymérisation radicalaire en présence de nitroxydes est basé sur le piégeage réversible des radicaux en croissance par les nitroxydes, formant des alcoxyamines. Des travaux précédents ont montré que le nitroxyde b-phophoré SG1 est un contrôleur efficace des polymérisations du styrène et des acrylates. Nous avons préparé un nouveau nitroxyde, aussi performant que le SG1, mais offrant une synthèse plus avantageuse au niveau industriel. Ensuite, nous avons abaissé la température de polymérisation du styrène en augmentant l'encombrement stérique ou en introduisant des fonctions alcools sur le nitroxyde. L'utilisation de nitroxydes encombrés diminue la qualité du contrôle, et la masse molaire des polystyrènes n'excède pas 800000 g.mol-1. Enfin, nous avons testé sans succès différents nitroxydes afin de contrôler la polymérisation du méthacrylate de méthyle. Nous sommes revenus au cas du SG1 et, avec des conditions opératoires adaptées, le contrôle devient possible.The control of a free radical polymerization mediated by nitroxides relies on the reversible trapping of the polymer radicals by the nitroxides to form N-alcoxyamines. Earlier works showed that the b-phophonylated nitroxide SG1 was very efficient in the radical polymerization of styrene and acrylates monomers. We have prepared a new nitroxide, as efficient as SG1, which synthesis is more attractive from the view of industry. Then, we have reduced the temperature of the polymerization in increasing the steric strain of the nitroxide, or in introducing hydroxyl functions in the nitroxide. The use of steric hindred nitroxides gives a less efficient control, and it is not possible to obtain polystyrenes with a molecular mass higher than 80000 g.mol-1. Lastly, we have unsuccessfully tried several nitroxides in order to control the polymerization of methylmethacrylate. We have gone back over the use of SG1, and under suitable conditions, the control of the polymerization can be effective.AIX-MARSEILLE1-BU Sci.St Charles (130552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Neutronic Spectrometry Measurements in Sodium

MEASUREMENTS WERE MADE OF NEUTRONIC PENETRATION IN SODIUM, WHICH COULD SERVE AS A REFERENCE AND AS A BENCHMARK FOR COMPUTER CODES. THE MODEL EMPLOYED CONSISTED OF AN ASSEMBLY OF 7 CONTAINERS FULL OF SODIUM FOR A TOTAL OF 10 TONS AND A USEFUL LENGTH OF ALMOST 4 METRES. MEASUREMENTS WERE PERFORMED AT VARIOUS DEPTHS ALONG THE CENTRAL AXIS OF THE STRUCTURE WITH PROTON RECOIL PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS. THE ENERGY BAND EXPLORED WAS BETWEEN 100 AND 650 KEV. HERE WE REPORT NOT ONLY THE ORIGINAL SPECTRA OF THE IMPULSES BUT ALSO THE NEUTRONIC SPECTRA FOUND BY UNFOLDING WITH THE SPEC-4 CODENA-NOT AVAILABL

Model-driven development of user interfaces for IoT systems via domain-specific components and patterns

Abstract Internet of Things technologies and applications are evolving and continuously gaining traction in all fields and environments, including homes, cities, services, industry and commercial enterprises. However, still many problems need to be addressed. For instance, the IoT vision is mainly focused on the technological and infrastructure aspect, and on the management and analysis of the huge amount of generated data, while so far the development of front-end and user interfaces for IoT has not played a relevant role in research. On the contrary, user interfaces can play a key role in the acceptance of IoT solutions by final adopters. In this paper we discuss the requirements and usage scenarios covering the front end aspects of IoT systems and we present a model-driven approach to the design of such interfaces by: defining specific components and design patterns using a visual modeling language for IoT applications; describing an implementation of the solution that comprises also automatic code generation from models; and by showing the solution at work

Neutron Spectrometry Measurements in Iron

WE REPORT THE MEASUREMENT AND NEUTRON SPECTRA OBTAINED BY ELABORATION OF MEASUREMENTS MADE WITH A SMALL LIQUID SCINTILLATOR SPECTROMETER AND FOUR GAS PROPORTIONAL COUNTERS AT DIFFERENT PRESSURE IN THE ENERGY BAND BETWEEN 14 KEV AND 10 MEV. IN THE CASE OF THE SCIBNTILLATION COUNTERS THEY WERE OBTAINED BY NE213-CODE ON THE DIFFERENTIAL METHOD. FOR PROPORTIONAL GAS COUNTERS THE SPECTRA WERE GENERATED USING THE UNFOLDING SPEC4 CODE.NA-NOT AVAILABL