Electronics and Computer Science-Centro de Investigación en Tecnoloxías da Información (CITIUS)

Obtaining models of cultural heritage that guarantee information interoperability and, at the same time, maintain a high degree of fitness to the problem at hand is not a trivial quest. This paper proposes a two-step approach to attain this, where particular models for each problem at hand are derived from a common, standardised Cultural Heritage Abstract Reference Model (CHARM) by using specific rules that guarantee abstract interoperability while allowing for as much specificity as necessary. This is illustrated through a case study involving three different communities, each with a different conceptual model of cultural heritage, which still generate a seamless object model.

Obtaining models of cultural heritage that guarantee information interoperability and, at the same time, maintain a high degree of fitness to the problem at hand is not a trivial quest. This paper proposes a two-step approach to attain this, where particular models for each problem at hand are derived from a common, standardised Cultural Heritage Abstract Reference Model (CHARM) by using specific rules that guarantee abstract interoperability while allowing for as much specificity as necessary. This is illustrated through a case study involving three different communities, each with a different conceptual model of cultural heritage, which still generate a seamless object model.

Information systems for archaeology are usually based on the description of discrete entities with well-known attributes and associations. This has led to views of reality that are often artificially static, where stored information provides a temporal snapshot of what reality was like at a given moment, and also objectivized, corresponding to the judgment of reality by a particular set of authors. But reality is indeed diachronic and multivocal. Here we propose a mechanism to cope with such “soft issues” within the sphere of information modelling, based on the determination of which information features are of a temporal or subjective nature, and then using “object slices” to convey perdurant and multivocal semantics in software. The conceptual modelling language ConML has been provided with the necessary extensions so that the temporal and subjective aspects of archaeological entities can be described.

Advanced interaction techniques are necessary to explore the potential of large data-volume systems. In this context, rich internet application patterns were defined, but usually reduced to the development of social web applications. However, other types of applications, such as data-analysis applications, require also advanced interaction solutions to assist users in making decisions and data-analysis. This paper identifies a set of problems emerged in the interaction between humans and data-analysis applications. We propose a set of guidelines for rich applications as a solution for these problems. As illustrative example of a real data-analysis environment, the paper focuses on a case study in the cultural heritage domain, highlighting the existing interaction problems and how they can be solved through the design guidelines proposed. The set of design guidelines allows to specify interfaces abstractly, creating a repository to solve interaction problems. These guidelines aim to serve as a basis for a future identification of new rich applications design patterns.

Most of the information that is used as input for the development of information systems is originally produced in non-structured forms, such as verbal communications or free-style text documents. Some examples are requirements specifications or documents associated to translation of contents. In cases like these, there is a need to support the structuring and extraction of the underlying semantic relations embedded in the text, in order to fully understand and post-process it. There are models for the analysis of textual information, such as information retrieval solutions or topic maps. However, these models do not offer an integral, flexible and reusable approach that can assist in giving structure and semantics to the information within a standard framework. Discourse analysis techniques, in contrast, identify semantic relations (such as authors' intentionality or possible dependencies between text elements) in the textual information according to well-established linguistic patterns. Based on these techniques, this paper presents a modelling language based on the ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel that is capable of representing pieces of textual information in a highly structured manner, describing the semantic relations in the associated discourse. In addition, the paper shows an application of the proposed language to the domain of requirements engineering, illustrating the benefits of the application of the suggested approach as well as its possibilities in other textual domains.

Most of elderly people suffer physical degeneration that makes them particularly vulnerable to falls. Falls cause injuries, time of hospitalization, re-habilitation which is particularly difficult for the elderly and disabled. This paper presents a new system with advanced ...

Falls in the elderly and disabled people represent a major health problem in terms of primary care costs facing the public and private systems. This paper presents a multi-agent system capable of detecting falls through sensors in a mobile device and act accordingly ...

ABSTRACT In the last years publishing industry and editorial boards are experimenting big changes, with a sustained growth in sales and use of new e-reading structures and products. This exponential growth involves reading through mobiles devices and tablets, a new environment with new challenges. However, the readers often need some training and skills developing to use these devices with a successful reading experience. In order to train and evaluate the training impact in readers, this paper shows a complete mobile application development process that integrates, compares and evaluates three methods to teach the potential readers in e-reading and technological skills. The application allows the extraction, monitoring and analysis of analytical variables about reader's behavior following the three teaching methods. Thus, the application provides an environment to capture all need data related to e-reading through mobiles devices. The final goal of the research is determining the main e-reading capabilities to teach users and providing an expert e-reading committee the necessary data for the evaluation of user learning as social reader.