Interdisciplinary climate: The case of the first 50 years of British observations in Australia

This paper presents the case for improved interdisciplinarity in climate research in the context of assessing and discussing the caution required when utilizing some types of historical climate data. This is done by a case study examining the reliability of the instruments used for collecting weather data in Australia between 1788 and 1840, as well as the observers themselves, during the British settlement of New South Wales. This period is challenging because the instruments were not uniformly calibrated and were created, repaired, and used by a wide variety of people with skills that frequently remain undocumented. Continuing significant efforts to rescue such early instrumental records of climate are likely to be enhanced by more open, interdisciplinary research that encourages discussion of an apparent dichotomy of view about the quantitative value of early single-instrument data between historians of physics (including museum curators) and climate researchers. © 2012 American Meteorological Society

Crystallization of agility: Back to basics

There are a number of agile and traditional methodologies for software development. Agilists provide agile principles and agile values to characterize the agile methods but there is no clear and inclusive definition of agile methods; subsequently it is not feasible to draw a clear distinction between traditional and agile software development methods in practice. The purpose of this paper is to explain the concept of agility in detail; and then to suggest a definition of agile methods that would help in the ranking or differentiation of agile methods from other available methods

Can earth system science be a valued element of fair and effective earth system governance?

The hypothesis examined here is that Earth system scientists have become less relevant, or even irrelevant, to Earth system governance. We explore whether this proposition is true and, if it is, why this situation has arisen. By undertaking a review of current national efforts (in the UK and Australia) and a novel proposal regarding the use of the IPCC as a global governance tool, we try to discover under what, if any, circumstances Earth system science is valued in the development of environmental governance. These discussions lead us to the conclusion that targeted Earth system research (e.g. risk and resilience of systems and quantification of benefits of system components) can be genuinely valuable for future environmental governance. We, therefore, invite consideration of how Earth system researchers might be (re-) integrated into global Earth system governance development to the benefit of all

A reference framework for process-oriented software development organizations

In this paper, a proposal of a generic framework for process-oriented software development organizations is presented. Additionally, the respective way of managing the process model, and the instantiation of their processes with the Rational Unified Process (RUP) disciplines, whenever they are available, or with other kind of processes is suggested. The proposals made here were consolidated with experiences from real projects and we report the main results from one of those projects.FCT -Fuel Cell Technologies Program(POSI/37334/CHS/2001

The rationale of powertype-based metamodelling to underpin software development methodologies

Metamodelling provides a way of modelling the rules underpinning not only modelling languages such as UML but also processes. In the context of object-oriented development, we evaluate the conceptual framework used to reason about metamodelling from the different perspectives of methodologist, method engineer and software developer. We propose the use of clabjets and powertype patterns as a solution to avoid the present inconsistencies in the use of a strict metamodelling multi-level hierarchy and demonstrate their efficacy in providing a solid and improved framework for OO-based process (and product) metamodelling. Copyright © 2005, Australian Computer Society, Inc

A foundation for multi-level modelling

Multi-level modelling allows types and instances to be mixed in the same model, however there are several proposals for how meta- models can support this. This paper proposes a meta-circular basis for meta-modelling and shows how it supports two leading approaches to multi-level modelling

Supporting Tropos concepts in Agent OPEN

The growth of interest in agent-orientation as a new paradigm has introduced the need for developing concepts, tools and techniques for modeling and engineering agent-based software systems. Object technology has been supporting the development of information systems for many years but is now slowly evolving to encompass more recent ideas relating to the concept of "agent". Integrating agent concepts into existing OO methodologies has resulted in several agent-oriented methodologies, one of which is Agent OPEN. In this paper, we evaluate the existing Agent OPEN description against ideas formulated within Tropos, an agent-oriented software development methodology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004

Using a situational method engineering approach to identify reusable method fragments from the secure TROPOS methodology

Situational method engineering (SME) has as a focus a repository of method fragments, gleaned from extant methodologies and best practice. Using one such example, the OPF (OPEN Process Framework) repository, we identify deficiencies in the current SME support for securityrelated issues in the context of agent-oriented software engineering. Specifically, theoretical proposals for the development of reusable security-related method fragments from the agent-oriented methodology Secure Tropos are discussed. Since the OPF repository has already been enhanced by fragments from Tropos and other non-security-focussed agent-oriented software development methodologies, the only method fragments from Secure Tropos not already contained in this repository are those that are specifically security-related. These are identified, clearly defined and recommended for inclusion in the current OPF repository of method fragments. ©JOT 2010