by Heather Ruskin, Ana Barat and Ludmila Sarbu

In research on cancer development, alterations in genetic regulatory pathways have attracted more attention than less well-known epigenetic modifications, (eg in DNA methylation, imprinting and chromatin). All are common in cancer, and cause altered gene expression in neoplastic events. Current literature on genetic-epigenetic interactions is largely qualitative and lacks systematic organisation. A novel database is being designed and implemented to provide a way to organise expanding knowledge on genetic-epigenetic interactions, to address key biomedical questions.

by James T. Murphy, Ray Walshe and Marc Devocelle

A parallel agent-based model of bacterial population growth, called Micro-Gen, has been developed to simulate the complex interactions between individual bacterial cells and antibiotics within a microbial colony. It represents a unique quantitative tool that has the potential to inform the development of antibiotic treatment strategies against harmful microbial pathogens such as MRSA.

by María del Mar Gallardo, Christophe Joubert, Pedro Merino and David Sanán

Formal verification tools generally require users to deal with tedious and time-consuming installation, licensing issues, configuration, documentation, frequent updates and other hardware-related issues. This is the case even if all that is required is a quick check of a tool's adequacy for solving specific a problem. A current joint effort inside the ERCIM Working Group on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems (FMICS) is promoting the use of an electronic tool integration (ETI) platform that allows remote connection through Web services to widespread and numerous verification toolboxes, among them Construction and Analysis of Distributed Processes (CADP).

by Christian Kubczak, Tiziana Margaria, Ralf Nagel and Bernhard Steffen

The aim of new technology in software analysis is to save time and money and to help organizations and businesses carry out their core topics and processes more effectively. Whether compliance, governance, auditing, risk management or optimization, any theme that targets quality and efficiency in businesses and organizations relies on software and IT platforms to ensure a fast and accurate response. The FMICS-jETI platform makes this as easy as a plug-and-play solution.

by Maurice ter Beek, Stefania Gnesi, Diego Latella, Mieke Massink, Maurizio Sebastianis and Gianluca Trentanni

Researchers from the Formal Methods and Tools group of ISTI-CNR and think3, Inc. are collaborating on the application of formal modelling and verification techniques to enhance think3's Product Data Management (PDM) groupware application.

by Michael Baentsch, Peter Buhler, Reto Hermann, Frank Höring, Thorsten Kramp and Thomas Weigold

Hackers are becoming increasingly inventive in their schemes to attack financial transactions on the Internet. Internet banking systems are a particularly attractive target, so it is mainly this application at which work in the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory is aimed, with the invention and implementation of 'ZTIC', the Zone Trusted Information Channel. Its success is the result of establishing a secure channel between a server and a ZTIC connected to a user's PC.

by Paolo Cignoni, Massimiliano Corsini and Guido Ranzuglia

MeshLab is a free and open-source general-purpose mesh processing system designed to assist in the management of not-so-small, unstructured 3D models that typically occur in the pipeline when processing 3D scanned data in the context of Cultural Heritage. MeshLab provides a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering and converting the resulting meshes.

by Graziano Bertini, Gianfranco Lucia, Simone Lunardi and Massimo Magrini

Modern multimedia performances and presentations offer innovative methods for user interaction, in order to be more appealing to the audience. Following this trend and in collaboration with VIS S.r.l. (an SME in Rome), the Institute of Information Sciences and Technology (ISTI-CNR) has developed a system called Pandora, which controls real-time video effects applied to filmed or synthesized scenes by means of parameters extracted from sound signals. The system can be used both for artistic interactive multimedia performances and also for other non-artistic applications.

by Géry Casiez and Daniel Vogel

By adding an elastic input area near the edge of input devices such as touchpads, RubberEdge enhances their performance. This helps users to select objects more quickly that are beyond the reach of a single finger movement on the touchpad surface.

by László Kovács, Máté Pataki, Tamás Füzessy and Zoltán Tóth

The simultaneous support of electronic and paper-based document handling is a natural demand of current filing and document management systems. To support the better management of search and retrieval functions and to reduce the high costs of digitizing, the Department of Distributed Systems of SZTAKI analysed the different kinds of error that emerged during the digitization process of Hungarian documents, and examined how these errors affect the searchability of the digitized items. For this reason, a testbed was set up that was suitable for the automatic analysis of digitized texts in a large corpus, and the conclusions and statistics obtained from the analysis were employed in the development of new content management products. The primary beneficiaries of these are civil service and higher-education bodies.

by Vasilios Siris, Ioannis G. Askoxylakis, Marco Conti and Raffaele Bruno

The reduction of network deployment and operation costs and the integration of wireless access networks with fixed broadband access technology are crucial to allowing small and medium-scale enterprises to enter the high-growth potential mobile broadband access market, and for the introduction of innovative services that require pervasive broadband access.

This is the focus of the thirty-month EC-funded project EU-MESH (Enhanced, Ubiquitous and Dependable Broadband Access using MESH Networks), which commenced in January 2008 and is targetting the objective 'Network of the Future' of ICT's 'Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures' challenge.

by Kostas Pentikousis, Marilia Curado, Pedro Miguel Neves and Marcos Katz

The WEIRD (WiMAX Extension to Isolated Research Data Networks) project is unique in the European R&D scene: by the end of May 2008, WEIRD will deliver not one but four WiMAX testbeds, all interconnected via GEANT2, the pan-European research and education network. By combining theoretical methods with empirical research and prototype development, the project identifies and addresses the needs arising from a variety of scenarios, ranging from environmental monitoring to telemedicine. WiMAX has been much touted (and criticized) during the last years. The WEIRD testbeds are instrumental in separating hype from reality.

by György Kovács and Géza Haidegger

Given that they are crucial in achieving global sustainable development through the saving of primary materials and in diminishing global pollution, the processes of industrial recycling and reuse urgently need advanced ICT networking technology. In the frame of the E-Mult project, the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory of SZTAKI and its cooperating partners have devised a set of advanced multi-agent solutions and an appropriate methodology with which to support the establishment and operation of dynamic networks of car-recycling SMEs.

by Géraldine Cabannes

ActiveEon is a spin-off company from INRIA that provides support for the ProActive Parallel Suite® solution. Open and non-intrusive, this parallel computing solution can accelerate and scale up distributed applications, enabling greater business agility at lower cost. The solution provides a uniform parallel computing interface, independent of the underlying virtualized infrastructure, for better utilization of existing investments in PC desktops, multi-cores, servers, clusters and grids. ProActive is currently being used in INRIA's AGOS (Architecture Grid-Oriented Service) project.