Measuring the Pro-Activity of Software Agents

Despite having well-defined characteristics, software agents do not have a developed set of measures defining their quality. Attempts at evaluating software agent quality have focused on some agent aspects, like the development process, whereas others focusing on the agent as a software product have basically adopted measures associated with other software paradigms, like procedural and object-oriented concepts. Here we propose a set of measures for evaluating software agent pro-activity, the software agent's goal-driven behavioral ability to take the initiative and satisfy its goal

A Holonic Model Of System For The Resolution Of Incidents In The Software Engineering Projects

The need of automation in the resolution of the incidents that arise in the different phases of the software engineering projects, the desire of to manage the knowledge about how to solve an incident, the high specialization that appears in the different sub-domains of knowledge (security, networking, etc.), not only at individuals' level but also at organizations' one and the high rate of changes in the IT staffs, lead us to propose a model of a system for the resolution of the incidents before mentioned, based on the concepts of holon and informon

A Multi-Agent System for the Solution of Fuzzy Incidents in Telecommunications

This article presents a multi-agent expert system (SMAF) , that allows the input of incidents which occur in different elements of the telecommunications area. SMAF interacts with experts and general users, and each agent with all the agents? community, recording the incidents and their solutions in a knowledge base, without the analysis of their causes. The incidents are expressed using keywords taken from natural language (originally Spanish) and their main concepts are recorded with their severities as the users express them. Then, there is a search of the best solution for each incident, being helped by a human operator using a distancenotions between them

Investigación y desarrollo en el campo de la accesibilidad.

En este capítulo se describe la actividad de investigación y desarrollo más relevante llevada a cabo en CETTICO en el campo de la accesibilidad. En primer lugar, se presentan los cinco grupos de investigación que foman CETTICO, para seguidamente plantear su actuación en el ámbito de la ceguera y de la deficiencia auditiva, que son las dos discapacidades en las que más se ha trabajado. Con respecto a la ceguera se describen: algunas normas sobre requisitos de accesibilidad al ordenador, requisitos de usabilidad, un marco de trabajo para el desarrollo de aplicaciones y un diccionario con interfaz dual para usuarios, se describen: algunas normas sobre requisitos de accesibilidad al ordenador y el desarrollo de tres aplicaciones: una dirigída a la normalización de la lengua de signos, otra a la formación de niños sordos y la tercera al subtitulado en directo

Free-Form, High Energy Performance, Transparent Envelope

This article examines, from the energy viewpoint, a new lightweight, slim, high energy efficient, light-transmitting envelope system, providing for seamless, free-form designs for use in architectural projects. The research was based on envelope components already existing on the market, especially components implemented with granular silica gel insulation, as this is the most effective translucent thermal insulation there is today. The tests run on these materials revealed that there is not one that has all the features required of the new envelope model, although some do have properties that could be exploited to generate this envelope, namely, the vacuum chamber of vacuum insulated panels (VIP), the monolithic aerogel used as insulation in some prototypes, reinforced polyester barriers. By combining these three design components — the high-performance thermal insulation of the vacuum chamber combined with monolithic silica gel insulation, the free-form design potential provided by materials like reinforced polyester and epoxy resins—, we have been able to define and test a new, variable geometry, energy-saving envelope system

A New Envelope with Highly Energy-Efficient Insulation

This article examines, from the insulation viewpoint, a new lightweight, slim, highly energy-efficient, light-transmitting envelope system, providing seamless, free form designs for use in architectural projects. The research was based on envelope components that are already on the market, especially components implemented with granular silica gel insulation, because this is the most effective translucent thermal insulation available today. The tests run on these materials revealed that there is no single component that has all the features required of the new envelope model. However, some do have properties that could be exploited to generate this envelope, namely the vacuum chamber of VIP panels, monolithic aero gel used as insulation in some prototypes and reinforced polyester barriers. By combining these three design components, the high-performance thermal insulation of the vacuum chamber, combined with monolithic silica gel insulation and the free-form design potential provided by materials like reinforced polyester and epoxy resins, we have been able to define and test a new, variable geometry, envelope insulation system with excellent energy-saving level

Supporting End-User Development through a New Composition Model: An Empirical Study

End-user development (EUD) is much hyped, and its impact has outstripped even the most optimistic forecasts. Even so, the vision of end users programming their own solutions has not yet materialized. This will continue to be so unless we in both industry and the research community set ourselves the ambitious challenge of devising end to end an end-user application development model for developing a new age of EUD tools. We have embarked on this venture, and this paper presents the main insights and outcomes of our research and development efforts as part of a number of successful EU research projects. Our proposal not only aims to reshape software engineering to meet the needs of EUD but also to refashion its components as solution building blocks instead of programs and software developments. This way, end users will really be empowered to build solutions based on artefacts akin to their expertise and understanding of ideal solution

On the testability of WCAG 2.0 for beginners

Web accessibility for people with disabilities is a highly visible area of research in the field of ICT accessibility, including many policy activities across many countries. The commonly accepted guidelines for web accessibility (WCAG 1.0) were published in 1999 and have been extensively used by designers, evaluators and legislators. W3C-WAI published a new version of these guidelines (WCAG 2.0) in December 2008. One of the main goals of WCAG 2.0 was testability, that is, WCAG 2.0 should be either machine testable or reliably human testable. In this paper we present an educational experiment performed during an intensive web accessibility course. The goal of the experiment was to assess the testability of the 25 level-A success criteria of WCAG 2.0 by beginners. To do this, the students had to manually evaluate the accessibility of the same web page. The result was that only eight success criteria could be considered to be reliably human testable when evaluators were beginners. We also compare our experiment with a similar study published recently. Our work is not a conclusive experiment, but it does suggest some parts of WCAG 2.0 to which special attention should be paid when training accessibility evaluator

Free-Form, High Energy Performance, Transparent Vacuum Envelope

El artículo examina un nuevo sistema envolvente ligero, delgado, con ahorro energético, libre de formas diseñado para su uso en proyectos de arquitectura

F²TE³: A Transparent semi-monocoque VIP Envelope

This article examines a new lightweight, slim, high energy efficient, light-transmitting, self-supporting envelope system, providing for seamless, free-form designs for use in architectural projects. The system exploits vacuum insulation panel technology. The research was based on envelope components already existing on the market and patents and prototypes built by independent laboratories, especially components implemented with silica gel insulation, as this is the most effective transparent thermal insulation there is today. The tests run on these materials revealed that there is not one that has all the features required of the new envelope model, although some do have properties that could be exploited to generate this envelope, namely, the vacuum chamber of vacuum insulation panels, the use of monolithic aerogel as insulation in some prototypes, and reinforced polyester barriers. These three design components have been combined and tested to design a new, variable geometry, energy-saving envelope system that also solves many of the problems that other studies ascribe to the use of vacuum insulation panels