ARTIST: Model-Based Stairway to the Cloud

International audienceOver the past decade, cloud services emerged as one of the most promising technologies in IT. Since cloud computing allows improving the quality of software and, at the same time, aims at reducing costs of operating software and hardware, more and more software is delivered as a service in the cloud. However , moving existing software applications to the cloud and making them behave as software as a service is still a major challenge. In fact, in addition to technical aspects, business aspects also need to be considered. The ARTIST EU project (FP7) proposes a comprehensive model-based modernization approach, covering both business and technical aspects, to cloudify already existing software. In particular , ARTIST employs MDE techniques to automate the reverse engineering and forward engineering phases in a way that modernized software truly benefits from targeted cloud environments. In this paper we describe the overall ARTIST approach and present several lessons learned

A situational approach for the definition and tailoring of a data-driven software evolution method

Successful software evolution heavily depends on the selection of the right features to be included in the next release. Such selection is difficult, and companies often report bad experiences about user acceptance. To overcome this challenge, there is an increasing number of approaches that propose intensive use of data to drive evolution. This trend has motivated the SUPERSEDE method, which proposes the collection and analysis of user feedback and monitoring data as the baseline to elicit and prioritize requirements, which are then used to plan the next release. However, every company may be interested in tailoring this method depending on factors like project size, scope, etc. In order to provide a systematic approach, we propose the use of Situational Method Engineering to describe SUPERSEDE and guide its tailoring to a particular context.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

D10.2.1 Legal scenario : case study-intelligent integrated decision support for legal professionals

WP10 Case Study: Intelligent integrated decision support for legal professionals. Report PUThe aim of this document is to offer an overview of the work done during the first year of the research by the UAB legal team and the iSOCO engineers. The cooperation between the two teams has producedthe following results: (i) a reliable description of the Spanish and judicial contexts, stemming from 2004 surveys and field research at the court settings; (ii) a reliable description of the content of Spanish Legal databases; (iii) a preliminary textual analysis onlegal discourse findings; (iv) definition and epistemological bases for Ontologies of Professional Legal Knowledge(OPLK); (v) knowledge acquisition and ontology building of Iuriservice II(second prototype of an iFAQ assistant for judges attheir first appointment); (vi) use cases and software architecturedesign for the legal case study prototype, using NLP techniques, ontology models and ontology merging

Effectiveness of a strategy that uses educational games to implement clinical practice guidelines among Spanish residents of family and community medicine (e-EDUCAGUIA project):A clinical trial by clusters

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias FIS Grant Number PI11/0477 ISCIII.-REDISSEC Proyecto RD12/0001/0012 AND FEDER Funding.Background: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have been developed with the aim of helping health professionals, patients, and caregivers make decisions about their health care, using the best available evidence. In many cases, incorporation of these recommendations into clinical practice also implies a need for changes in routine clinical practice. Using educational games as a strategy for implementing recommendations among health professionals has been demonstrated to be effective in some studies; however, evidence is still scarce. The primary objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a teaching strategy for the implementation of CPGs using educational games (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) to improve knowledge and skills related to clinical decision-making by residents in family medicine. The primary objective will be evaluated at 1 and 6months after the intervention. The secondary objectives are to identify barriers and facilitators for the use of guidelines by residents of family medicine and to describe the educational strategies used by Spanish teaching units of family and community medicine to encourage implementation of CPGs. Methods/design: We propose a multicenter clinical trial with randomized allocation by clusters of family and community medicine teaching units in Spain. The sample size will be 394 residents (197 in each group), with the teaching units as the randomization unit and the residents comprising the analysis unit. For the intervention, both groups will receive an initial 1-h session on clinical practice guideline use and the usual dissemination strategy by e-mail. The intervention group (e-learning EDUCAGUIA) strategy will consist of educational games with hypothetical clinical scenarios in a virtual environment. The primary outcome will be the score obtained by the residents on evaluation questionnaires for each clinical practice guideline. Other included variables will be the sociodemographic and training variables of the residents and the teaching unit characteristics. The statistical analysis will consist of a descriptive analysis of variables and a baseline comparison of both groups. For the primary outcome analysis, an average score comparison of hypothetical scenario questionnaires between the EDUCAGUIA intervention group and the control group will be performed at 1 and 6months post-intervention, using 95% confidence intervals. A linear multilevel regression will be used to adjust the model. Discussion: The identification of effective teaching strategies will facilitate the incorporation of available knowledge into clinical practice that could eventually improve patient outcomes. The inclusion of information technologies as teaching tools permits greater learning autonomy and allows deeper instructor participation in the monitoring and supervision of residents. The long-term impact of this strategy is unknown; however, because it is aimed at professionals undergoing training and it addresses prevalent health problems, a small effect can be of great relevance. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02210442.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Impact of an ML-Based Demand Response Mechanism on the Electrical Distribution Network: A Case Study in Terni

The development of smart grids requires the active participation of end users through demand response mechanisms to provide technical benefits to the distribution network and receive economic savings. Integrating advanced machine learning tools makes it possible to optimise the network and manage the mechanism to maximise the benefits. This paper proceeds by forecasting consumption for the next 24 h using a recurrent neural network and by processing these data using a reinforcement learning-based optimisation model to identify the best demand response policy. The model is tested in a real environment: a portion of the Terni electrical distribution network. Several scenarios were identified, considering users’ participation at different levels and limiting the potential with various constraints

D10.2.1 Legal scenario : case study-intelligent integrated decision support for legal professionals

WP10 Case Study: Intelligent integrated decision support for legal professionals. Report PUThe aim of this document is to offer an overview of the work done during the first year of the research by the UAB legal team and the iSOCO engineers. The cooperation between the two teams has producedthe following results: (i) a reliable description of the Spanish and judicial contexts, stemming from 2004 surveys and field research at the court settings; (ii) a reliable description of the content of Spanish Legal databases; (iii) a preliminary textual analysis onlegal discourse findings; (iv) definition and epistemological bases for Ontologies of Professional Legal Knowledge(OPLK); (v) knowledge acquisition and ontology building of Iuriservice II(second prototype of an iFAQ assistant for judges attheir first appointment); (vi) use cases and software architecturedesign for the legal case study prototype, using NLP techniques, ontology models and ontology merging

British Telecommunications plc.

with legal translations from Elena Ferra