Open and Interoperable Maritime Surveillance Framework Set to Improve Sea-Borders Control

This study presents an open and interoperable maritime surveillance framework with multimodal sensor networks and an automated decision-making. The intention is to improve sea-border control, plugging the gaps in the maritime security with interoperability solutions and have wide-area situational awareness, thus particular reducing the number of illegal immigrants crossing sea borders in small boats, with a cost-effective approach. In this paper initial results are presented. This research is a part of a European project supported by ITEA2, Eureka Cluster Programme (RECONSURVE Project, no: ITEA2 09036)

Modules and transactions: Building blocks for a theory of software engineering

This article leverages the findings of the transaction cost economics field, and proposes a simple theory and associated vocabulary to serve as a foundation for a unified theory of software engineering. The theory characterizes software engineering as a set of transactions organized under a spectrum of three governance structures (top-down, bottom-up and reuse), and explains the strengths and weaknesses of these governance structures in relation to asset specificity and uncertainty. It takes into account the recursive nature of the notions in software engineering, and applies uniformly to various contexts at different levels of granularity. It sheds light both on the technical and on the human aspects of software engineering through a unified explanatory framework, without requiring a need to assemble different approaches to address each. The theory not only explains some of the propositions given in the software engineering literature but also reveals the boundaries of their applicability. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Pre-service Teachers’ Developing Conceptions about the Nature and Pedagogy of Mathematical Modeling in the Context of a Mathematical Modeling Course

Adopting a multitiered design-based research perspective, this study examines pre-service secondary mathematics teachers' developing conceptions about (a) the nature of mathematical modeling in simulations of real life problem solving, and (b) pedagogical principles and strategies needed to teach mathematics through modeling. Unlike other studies that have focused on single-topic and lesson-sized research sites, a course-sized research site was used in this study. Having been through several iterations over three teaching semesters, the 15-week long course was implemented with 25 pre-service secondary mathematics teachers. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers developed ideas about the nature of mathematical modeling involving what mathematical modeling is, the relationship between mathematical modeling and meaningful understanding, and the nature of mathematical modeling tasks. They also realized the changing roles of teachers during modeling implementations and diversity in students' ways of thinking. The researchers' conceptual development, on the other hand, involved realizing the critical aspect of the teacher role played by the instructor during modeling implementations, and the need for more experience of modeling implementations for pre-service teachers