by Dimitri Perrin, Heather J. Ruskin, Martin Crane and Ray Walshe
The field of epigenetics looks at changes in the chromosomal structure that affect gene expression without altering DNA sequence. A large-scale modelling project to better understand these mechanisms is gaining momentum.
by Pablo Giambiagi, Olaf Owe, Anders P. Ravn and Gerardo Schneider
The 'COSoDIS' project - Contract-Oriented Software Development for Internet Services - is developing novel approaches to implementing and reasoning about contracts in service-oriented architectures (SOA). The rationale is that system developers benefit from abstraction mechanisms in working with these architectures. Therefore the goal is to design and test system modelling and programming language tools to empower SOA developers to deploy highly dynamic, negotiable and monitorable Internet services.
by Leonardo Candela, Donatella Castelli and Pasquale Pagano
gCube is a new service-oriented application framework that supports the on-demand sharing of resources for computation, content and application services. gCube enables the realization of e-infrastructures that support the notion of Virtual Research Environments (VREs), ie collaborative digital environments through which scientists, addressing common research challenges, exchange information and produce new knowledge. gCube is currently used to govern the e-infrastructure set up by the European integrated project DILIGENT (A Digital Library Infrastructure on Grid-Enabled Technology).
by Raymond Bisdorff and Patrick Meyer
The Decision-Deck project is developing an open-source generic Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) software platform composed of modular components. Its purpose is to provide effective tools for decision-aid consultants, for researchers in the field of MCDA, and for operations research teachers.
by Cyriel Minkenberg, Ronald Luijten and Francois Abel
Optics offer significant potential as the communication infrastructure of choice for future supercomputers. The exploratory OSMOSIS project has resulted in a prototype of an electronically controlled optical packet switch with an aggregate capacity of 2.5 Tb/s. This device is designed specifically to meet high-performance computing (HPC) requirements.
by Pär Hansson and Olov Ståhl
Wide-area wireless sensor/actuator networks can be used across a broad range of application domains. Within the Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming (IPerG), we use these types of systems to establish a computer-supported citywide role-playing game. SICS develops one such platform, with research spanning such areas as wireless sensor/actuator hardware platforms, distribution software platforms, configuration software, and tools for user-created content.
by Vittorio Miori, Dario Russo and Massimo Aliberti
While many household appliances and hi-tech devices populate our lives, each one is independent of the others. Informatics research on domotics has the target of achieving interoperability between all the devices available in a home, automating some particular sequences of tasks and integrating the home with the outside world and especially with the Internet. The lack of an open and universal domotic standard is the principal reason for the poor use of domotics in real environments, so a new software architecture based on the SOA (service-oriented architecture) model and a domotic XML language has been created in order to realize a homogenous and independent vision of the home environment.
by Lea Landucci, Stefano Baraldi and Nicola Torpei
The advent of new technology means we are continuously offered high-tech devices that should make our life more agreeable, safe and pleasant. Do they succeed? In his book "The Psychology of Everyday Things", Donald Norman, a leading cognitive psychologist, warns us about the technology paradox: innovation technology risks making our life more complex every day. The intention of this warning is to make us conscious of the importance of 'human-centred design', particularly when we talk about human-computer interaction.
