Using NLP tools in the specification phase

The software quality control is one of the main topics in the Software Engineering area. To put the effort in the quality control during the specification phase leads us to detect possible mistakes in an early steps and, easily, to correct them before the design and implementation steps start. In this framework the goal of SAREL system, a knowledge-based system, is twofold. On one hand, to help software engineers in the creation of quality Software Requirements Specifications. On the other hand, to analyze the correspondence between two different conceptual representations associated with two different Software Requirements Specification documents. For the first goal, a set of NLP and Knowledge management tools is applied to obtain a conceptual representation that can be validated and managed by the software engineer. For the second goal we have established some correspondence measures in order to get a comparison between two conceptual representations. This information will be useful during the interaction.Postprint (published version

The Synonym management process in SAREL

The specification phase is one of the most important and least supported parts of the software development process. The SAREL system has been conceived as a knowledge-based tool to improve the specification phase. The purpose of SAREL (Assistance System for Writing Software Specifications in Natural Language) is to assist engineers in the creation of software specifications written in Natural Language (NL). These documents are divided into several parts. We can distinguish the Introduction and the Overall Description as parts that should be used in the Knowledge Base construction. The information contained in the Specific Requirements Section corresponds to the information represented in the Requirements Base. In order to obtain high-quality software requirements specification the writing norms that define the linguistic restrictions required and the software engineering constraints related to the quality factors have been taken into account. One of the controls performed is the lexical analysis that verifies the words belong to the application domain lexicon which consists of the Required and the Extended lexicon. In this sense a synonym management process is needed in order to get a quality software specification. The aim of this paper is to present the synonym management process performed during the Knowledge Base construction. Such process makes use of the Spanish Wordnet developed inside the Eurowordnet project. This process generates both the Required lexicon and the Extended lexicon that will be used during the Requirements Base construction.Postprint (published version

Interoperability and Standards: The Way for Innovative Design in Networked Working Environments

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityIn today’s networked economy, strategic business partnerships and outsourcing has become the dominant paradigm where companies focus on core competencies and skills, as creative design, manufacturing, or selling. However, achieving seamless interoperability is an ongoing challenge these networks are facing, due to their distributed and heterogeneous nature. Part of the solution relies on adoption of standards for design and product data representation, but for sectors predominantly characterized by SMEs, such as the furniture sector, implementations need to be tailored to reduce costs. This paper recommends a set of best practices for the fast adoption of the ISO funStep standard modules and presents a framework that enables the usage of visualization data as a way to reduce costs in manufacturing and electronic catalogue design.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

A relational approach to local immigrant policy-making: collaboration with immigrant advocacy bodies in French and German cities

The role of immigrant advocacy bodies in collaborative policy–making in cities isso far insufficiently researched. This article investigates the ties between relevanturban actors and immigrant advocacy bodies in cities in two Western Europeancountries. We draw on an original survey in forty French and German cities aswell asfieldwork in one French and one German city to analyze whetherurban actors from a variety of policy sectors and domains of societycooperate with immigrant councils and immigrant associations, and whichfactors explain such collaboration. Counter to the existing literature on therole of intermediaries between municipalities and immigrant populations, wefind a widespread existence of ties with immigrant advocacy bodies. However,such ties are not mainstreamed. Instead, collaboration is most present amongactors in charge of immigrant affairs, and when actors meet in policy fora thatallow interaction between urban actors and immigrant advocacy bodies

Estudi de l'anoditzat d'alumini: A6061/AI203/26p T6, A359/SiC/20p T6 i A356 (New-Rheocasting)

En aquest projecte es pretén l’estudi de la capa d’anoditzat d’alumini amb tres materials bases diferents. A6061/Al2o3/26p T6 conformat per forja, A359/SiC/20p T6 conformat per fundició i A356 conformat en estat semi-sólid pel procés New Rehocasting. Per realitzar aquest estudi s’han efectuat un seguit d’assaigs per tal d’obtenir diferents propietats com ara la ultramicroduresa “Ultramicroduròmetre FISHERSCOPE H-100”,coeficient de fricció i velocitat de desgast “Tribòmetre Pin-on-Disc CSEM”, rugositat “TAYLOR-HOBSON Rugosimetre- Perfilómetre” i espessor de capa “Equip d’anàlisi d’imatges LEICA”. Posteriorment, s’ha realitzat l’anàlisi dels resultats i s’han extret les pertinents conclusions

Beyond the separation of church and state: Explaining the new governance of religious diversity in Spain

Religious affairs have gained prominence in Spanish politics in recent years. Two factors have played a crucial role in raising the profile of religion in the policy agenda: first, the growth of religious diversity due to the rapid influx of immigrants from the global south that has led to the emergence of multiple challenges and controversies concerning the accommodation of religious diversity; second, the effects of the Al-Qaeda attacks on Spanish soil that fostered policymakers’ perception of the need to “do something” to reinforce Muslim newcomers’ loyalty to the host country. In light of these events, the Spanish policy approach has changed considerably in the last years, being the creation of the public foundation Pluralismo y Convivencia in 2004 being the most illustrative case in point. The aim of this paper is to explain the tranfromations in the governance of religious diversity in Spain. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork done between 2010 and 2013, we argue that three different political logics underlie the developments leading to the current policy outcome: the logic of democratization, the logic of securitisation of Islam and the logic of the Europeanisation of politics. In this paper we explain these transformations by using a sequential combination of three theoretical approaches: a) the church-state relations approach, b) the theory of control and c) the European convergence perspective

Quantum Error Correction with magnetic molecules

Quantum algorithms often assume independent spin qubits to produce trivial $|\uparrow\rangle=|0\rangle$, $|\downarrow\rangle=|1\rangle$ mappings. This can be unrealistic in many solid-state implementations with sizeable magnetic interactions. Here we show that the lower part of the spectrum of a molecule containing three exchange-coupled metal ions with $S=1/2$ and $I=1/2$ is equivalent to nine electron-nuclear qubits. We derive the relation between spin states and qubit states in reasonable parameter ranges for the rare earth $^{159}$Tb$^{3+}$ and for the transition metal Cu$^{2+}$, and study the possibility to implement Shor's Quantum Error Correction code on such a molecule. We also discuss recently developed molecular systems that could be adequate from an experimental point of view.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Identification of strong and weak interacting two level systems in KBr:CN

Tunneling two level systems (TLSs) are believed to be the source of phenomena such as the universal low temperature properties in disordered and amorphous solids, and $1/f$ noise. The existence of these phenomena in a large variety of dissimilar physical systems testifies for the universal nature of the TLSs, which however, is not yet known. Following a recent suggestion that attributes the low temperature TLSs to inversion pairs [M. Schechter and P.C.E. Stamp, arXiv:0910.1283.] we calculate explicitly the TLS-phonon coupling of inversion symmetric and asymmetric TLSs in a given disordered crystal. Our work (a) estimates parameters that support the theory in M. Schechter and P.C.E. Stamp, arXiv:0910.1283, in its general form, and (b) positively identifies, for the first time, the relevant TLSs in a given system.Comment: minor modifications, published versio