bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modeling of interaction of polymeric sheet reinforcement and backfill
Authors: Pavan Kumar P.V.S.N.  , Madhav M.R.
Published: February 2025

The continuum modeling of polymeric sheet reinforcement–backfill interaction is presented. Polymeric sheet reinforcement is subjected to axial pull at one end of the reinforcement. The continuum analysis is carried out by FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua), a software based on the finite difference method. The displacements of reinforcement are quantified for different pullout forces and the variations of displacement and tension along the reinforcement length presented. The effects of axial stiffness of reinforcement, soil–reinforcement interface shear stiffness and length of reinforcement are quantified.
3D Modelling in Deep Excavations – Case Studies
Authors: Akçakal Önder  , Durgunoğlu Turan  , Koçak Berkay  , Tarı Taşkın
Published: February 2025

In 2D modelling computer programs which calculate in plain strain conditions, it is considered that modelled section continues infinitely with the same geometry through the axis perpandicular to the section. However, any variation in soil type, surcharge loads, topography or supporting conditions in this parpendicular axis effects the behaviour of the stress distribution in the soil. Therefore 3D modelling computer programs provide more realistic solution for the sections which contain variety of above mentioned conditions in parpendicular axis. In this paper, calculations in 2D and 3D modelling studies for two different shoring works are presented. Calculated plain strain ratio (PSR) values are compared with previously published studies.
Frost Protection for Geotextile-reinforced Soil Walls in Service
Authors: Sato Atsuko  , Yamanashi Takahiro  , Suzuki Teruyuki  , Tatta Naoki  , Yoshida Kouichi
Published: February 2025

Cases have been reported of deformed geotextile-reinforced soil walls in cold regions. The deformation is likely to be caused by frost heavein the backfill soil of reinforced soil walls. To prevent the deformation caused by frost heave, the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has established specific construction techniques. However, no preventive measures have been specified for geotextile-reinforced soil walls already in service. Toward proposing countermeasures to frost-heave deformation, full-scale tests were conducted. The results demonstrated that application of insulating materials to the outer surface of geotextile-reinforced soil walls helps to control frostheave deformation.
Laboratory and In-Situ testing for the identification of bonding parameters of GFRP pipes and soil nailing systems
Authors: Zenti Carla L.  , Sterpi Donatella
Published: February 2025

The soil nailing is one of the most effective provisions for the control and reduction of the tunnel pre-convergence and face extrusion and its use has become integral part of modern design methods. In the years, improvements have been introduced in the technological aspects and efforts have been made to better understand the mechanical behaviour of new materials and equipments. Some innovative technical solutions are discussed in this paper, devised to improve the reinforcing action of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) pipes and of soil nails. The effectiveness of these solutions, compared with traditional ones, is assessed on the basis of laboratory and on site pull out testing.
De-radicalization and Disengagement Programs as Counter-Terrorism and Prevention Tools. Insights From Field Experiences Regarding German Right-Wing Extremism and Jihadism
Authors: Koehler Daniel
Published: February 2025

The paper will explore the theoretical background and state of the research in regard to De-radicalization and Disengagement Programs (DDPs i.e. ‘Exit Programs’) as counter-terrorism and prevention tools against violent radicalization leading to terrorism. Introducing the theory of a ‘counter-terrorism network’ working on three social scales (macro-, meso-, and micro-social) and three impact levels (prevention, repression, intervention) the paper will explore in detail how exactly de-radicalization programs can yield a high impact on radical milieus and become a cornerstone of a society's resilience. In addition the paper will give a broad introduction to de-radicalization studies and an overview of relevant research in the field. Case studies and insights from two of the world's most successful programs will show how the theory might work in practice: EXIT-Germany (counselling highly radicalized individuals wanting to leave the German extreme right-wing scene) and HAYAT (a German family counselling program for the relatives of Jihadists and Foreign Fighters, as well as of individuals on the path of non-violent radicalization). Both programs have been running for some time (EXIT since 2000 and HAYAT since 2011) and have yielded an enormous amount of primary data on the practice of de-radicalization and the impact these programs can have on highly radical milieus. As both programs were initially designed as non-state actor counter-terrorism programs the paper will compare the practical insights derived from these two programs in light of the ‘counter-terrorism network’ theory. The paper will conclude with a summarizing theory of deradicalization programs as counter-terrorism and prevention tools and how these programs can be set-up effectively in order to achieve this end.
Countering Violent Extremism: Program and policy approaches relating to youth through education, families and communities
Authors: Veenkamp Ivo  , Zeiger Sara
Published: February 2025

The focus of international and national strategies for countering terrorism in the past decade has shifted from using hard security measures alone to combat terrorism, to a more multi-sectoral, comprehensive approach, which also includes more preventive strategies known as countering violent extremism (CVE). For example, multilateral organizations such as the United Nations are focusing on CVE through Pillar 1 of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which addresses “conditions conducive” to the spread of terrorism. This relatively new approach is also apparent through the formation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF) as a multilateral platform for addressing counter-terrorism issues, and the subsequent establishment of Hedayah, the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism, as the first institution to solely focus its efforts in long-term, preventive measures to foster resilience against violent extremism and terrorism. The CVE programs and policies that are emerging both out of the UN, the GCTF, Hedayah and the broader international community are based on an established basic methodology that 1) identifies push and pull factors that lead to recruitment or radicalization into violent extremism, and 2) designs interventions that specifically eliminate these root causes. This paper explores the international framework supporting the development and implementation of targeted interventions, specifically to minimize youth recruitment and radicalization into violent extremism through two program areas: 1) CVE through formal educational institutions, 2) building community resilience through families and communities. This paper also describes the recent work by Hedayah and other international bodies in these two program areas, and recommends potential next steps and ways forward to make these programs more effective.
Countering Violent Extremism Among Youth: The Turkish Case
Authors: Ekici Sıddık
Published: February 2025

An alternative way to reducing terrorism may be to understand why individuals, especially youth, join violent extremist groups. Such an understanding prevail the boundaries that need to be overcome in order to develop counter policies to discourage membership in such organizations. The study refers to the hierarchy of needs framework to capture why adults and youth prefer to be within extremist violent groups. In other words, the study is designed to find out what perceived needs commonly motivate individuals to join terror groups. The research uses Turkey's terrorism experience as a case study and introduces actual applied non-lethal policies to prevent youth becoming engaged in violent extremism.
Investigation and Prevention of Violent Radicalization in the Balkans: A National Point of View
Authors: Kozaliev Yani
Published: February 2025

This paper focuses on radicalism and extremist behavior in the Balkan region and in particular on the Bulgarian situation. It contributes to give an idea of what are the trends of the young Bulgarian Muslim radicalization by referring to the topical case of al Wakf al Islami, which is used also as the starting point for the highlight od possible preventive measures.
Fundamentalism in the Mental Health System -Children Agency and Activism in the Shadow of PTSD Industry
Authors: Veronese Guido  , Pepe Alessandro  , Castiglioni Marco
Published: February 2025

The care systems in developing countries are subjected to worldwide standards and guidelines, in which the western voice dominates the local one. Palestinian children living under political and military violence are often labeled as affected by post-traumatic stress syndromes and other stress related psychiatric impairments. Yet, data emerging from the ground and clinical experience show that these children, despite the worsening environmental conditions they live in, continue to show positive functioning in how they adjust to trauma. We carried out a qualitative research with children from the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories. Thematic content analysis of written materials produced by 74 school aged children has been implemented. Our work aimed to identify domains of wellbeing that contribute to helping children cope with violence and insecurity. Personal, environmental, micro and macro-social factors emerged. The study's limitations and its implications for clinical and community work with children living under political and military threats are discussed.
Environmental Terrorism as a Threat to the Serbian Water Infrastructure Sector-through the Lens of Regional Perspective
Authors: Radović Vesela  , Andrejević Aleksandar
Published: February 2025

Terrorism in the global world is recognized as one of the most significant threats. Hence, combating terrorism has become a primary focus for security professionals throughout the world. By studying the phenomenon of modern terrorism, we can easily conclude that the nature of terrorism has changed. Therefore, the authors are focused in the article on a new form of terrorism, named “environmental terrorism”. Environmental terrorism is an old type of conflict with a new face, and we have to confront it. For the purpose of this article the authors have chosen to present the environmental terrorism threat to the Serbian water infrastructure sector. The available scientific data witnessed that the water infrastructure system in Serbia is already vulnerable and needs a lot of improvement. A terrorist attack on such a fragile infrastructure could have enormous consequences and be devastating in its scope. Hence, the authors have analyzed the current state in the water infrastructure sector, which is already compromised with numerous problems and have addressed the question: do we fully understand the water infrastructure vulnerabilities and what has to be done to ensure its protection as one of the part of the Serbian critical infrastructure? The protection of the water infrastructure sector against terrorist attacks is a task for the Serbian Government, but it has to be solved in collaboration with neighboring countries. The final goal for all activities has to be the greater scope of trust among the neighbors and the achievement of an adequate level of security regarding environmental terrorism threats in the region of South Eastern Europe. Furthermore, environmental terrorism as a threat has to be settled at a national and regional security agenda in a more visible way.
Safety & Security Assessment to Prevent a Terrorism Attack in the Centralized Facility for Radioactive Waste Management in Albania
Authors: Qafmolla Luan
Published: February 2025

In the last decade, substantial progress has been made in improving safety & security for nuclear material worldwide, both by states' own domestic actions and through international cooperation. Al Qaeda has continuously expressed interest in unleashing radiological terrorism by building and using radiological dispersal devices (RDDs), known as “dirty bombs” for instance. Common radioactive materials, such as commercial radioactive sources used in medicine, industry scientific research could fuel RDDs. Since 1998, in Albania a special centralized building exists for radioactive waste management and as a temporary storage facility situated inside the INP territory. Radioactive waste conditioned with or without shielding was successively placed into this building for long-term storage. So far, there have been several incidents worldwide with terrorism potential that involved nuclear waste materials and radioactive materials and its repository facilities, which may serve as a target by attacks of terrorism. DU was also feared to causes environmental contamination through it being spread, especially in territories and borders of our countries involving the risk and injuring of the civilian population.
Bioterrorism as a Threat to Food Supply Systems
Authors: Ristanović Elizabeta  , Radaković Sonja
Published: February 2025

Bioterrorism presents the use of microorganisms and their toxins as agents in terrorist actions in political, economic, religious, ideological or other purposes. Today, in the changing world of many contradictions bioterrorism is a real challenge for many non-state and state actors. The main target of bioterrorist acts are humans while a critical infrastructure can be used as a target depending on its impact on life and everyday activities. Among them, food supplies and distribution systems are extremely important and their deliberate contamination as a part of terrorist action is a real threat that can cause even global and serious health, ecological, economic and political consequences. Most health professionals have limited knowledge in the recognition of diseases from either natural or intentional contamination of food. They are not trained to respond appropriately to a terrorist assault for management of the consequences. Outbreaks of both unintentional and intentional food-borne disease can be managed by the same mechanisms contained in a crisis management plan. So, in order to be prepared for any incidents of food and water terrorism, it is essential to establish procedures, plans, to train the experts and to improve response capacities. The other subjects of society, especially decision makers as well as security professionals must also pay more attention to this problem in order to prevent it.
The Risk of Terrorist and Violent Extremist Attacks against Schools
Authors: Vejvodová Petra  , Mareš Miroslav
Published: February 2025

The contribution focuses on terrorist and violent extremist attacks against schools and pupils in Europe. Discussed are the reasons why schools can serve as targets, what kind of danger is represented, in which context of political extremism and terrorism, and what consequences and challenges it brings in the issue of managing terrorist threats (the possibility of early warning mechanisms, prevention and preparedness). The emergency plans of American schools are considered as good practice.
Resilience from a Neuroscience Perspective
Authors: Bryant Richard A.
Published: February 2025

Neuroscience has made many advances in understanding psychopathological responses to trauma. These developments have also led to promising avenues for promoting adaptation following extreme adversity. Comparable work targeting resilience has lagged behind. This chapter provides a review of the major models and evidence from a neuroscience perspective about the different ways people respond to trauma. Building on animal models, this field has learnt much about human trauma response from fear conditioning, sensitization, and memory reconsolidation models. The neural networks underpinning these processes are being mapped. Further, the roles of stress, gender, and attachment processes are being identified as key to understanding differential response to trauma. This chapter discusses how these different factors may be moderated to foster resilience. A central theme of this review is that the vast majority of evidence is inferred from studies that have compared people with and without psychiatric disorder after trauma. There is an urgent need for a more refined definition of resilience in neuroscience research that conceptualizes resilience as long-term functioning at a high level. Whereas neuroscience has shed light on many potential ways to promote resilience in people during and after adversity, there is a great need for closer study of these factors in populations that have been shown to be resilient over time and under varying conditions of stress. Only through this approach can more effective means emerge from neuroscience perspectives that can help people manage the aftermath of trauma both in the short and long terms.
Generating Process Models in Multi-View Environments
Authors: Damas Christophe  , Lambeau Bernard  , van Lamsweerde Axel
Published: February 2025

The role of high-quality models is increasingly recognized for driving and documenting processes in safety-critical domains such as medical processes. In general, the environment of a complex process has to deal with multiple views referring to different concerns, agents, resources, locations, and so forth. The variety of needs along those views calls for multiple, complementary and consistent facets of a composite process model, where each facet addresses a specific view. Building multi-view process models is in our experience hard and error-prone. To address this challenge, the paper describes formal operators for composing process model facets in a coherent way and, conversely, for decomposing process models into specific facets that abstract from details irrelevant to a specific view. These operators are grounded on the formal trace semantics provided by our process language and its supporting analysis toolset. The paper shows how these operators are automated and reports on their use in a real case study of model construction for a particle-therapy center.
Framing the Frame Problem
Authors: Meyer Bertrand
Published: February 2025

Some parts of the software verification process require human annotation, but as much as possible of the rest should be automatic. An excellent candidate for full automation is change analysis, also known as the frame problem: how to determine which program properties remain unchanged under a given operation. The problem is particularly delcate in the case of programs using pointers or references, in particular object-oriented programs. The double frame inference strategy automates both frame specification and frame verification. On the specification side, it deduces the set of permissible changes of a routine (its “modifies clause”) from a simple examination of its postcondition. On the implementation side, it applies the change calculus, itself based on the alias calculus, to determine the set of expressions whose values the routine can actually change. Frame verification then consists of ascertaining that the actual change set is a subset of the permissible change set.
From Verification to Synthesis
Authors: Peled Doron
Published: February 2025

Model checking methods are used to verify the correctness of digital circuits and code against their formal specification. In case of design or programming errors, they provide counterexample evidence of erroneous behavior. Model checking techniques suffer from inherent high complexity. New model checking methods attempt to speed it up and reduce the memory requirement. Recently, the more ambitious task of converting the formal specification automatically into correct-by-design code has gained significant progress. In this paper, automata-based techniques for model checking and automatic synthesis are described.
Mechanised Theory Engineering in Isabelle
Authors: Foster Simon  , Woodcock Jim
Published: February 2025

This is an introduction to mechanised theory engineering in Isabelle, an LCF-style interactive theorem prover. We introduce an embedding of Hoare & He's Unifying Theories of Programming (UTP) in Isabelle (named Isabelle/UTP) and show how to mechanise two key theories: relations and designs. These theories are sufficient to give an account of the partial and total correctness of nondeterministic sequential programs and of networks of reactive processes. A tutorial introduction to each theory is interspersed with its formalisation and with mechanised proofs of relevant properties and theorems. The work described here underpins specification languages such as Circus, which combines state-rich imperative operations, communication and concurrency, object orientation, references and pointers, real time, and process mobility, all with denotational, axiomatic, algebraic, and operational semantics.
From Actions, Transactions, and Processes to Services
Authors: Broy Manfred
Published: February 2025

For the problem domain of business process engineering we introduce, model, and formalize notions of business processes such as action, actor, event, business process, business transaction. In addition, for the solution domain of service-oriented architectures (SOA) we introduce, model, and formalize notions of service, service composition, service-oriented architecture, and layered SOA in a systematic way. We do that by a rigorous mathematical system model. For that purpose, we first develop a basic mathematical system model for formalizing fundamental concepts of processes and services. The goal is to provide a minimal set of formal modeling concepts, nevertheless expressive enough to formalize key notions and concepts in business process engineering and service-oriented architectures capturing also their mutual relationships. This way, the relationship between central notions in business process modeling is captured formally, which provides a basis for a methodology for deriving the systematic specification and design of service-oriented architectures from business process modeling. The purpose of the approach is manifold; one goal is a clear definition of terminology, concepts, terms, and models in business process modeling and SOA; another goal is a rigorous formal basis for the specification, design, and development of business processes and, in particular, SOAs. We end up with a strictly formal concept for the development steps from business process models to services as part of a SOA-oriented development process.
Weierstrass points of superelliptic curves
Authors: Shor C.  , Shaska T.
Published: February 2025

In this lecture we give a brief introduction to Weierstrass points of curves and computational aspects of q-Weierstrass points on superelliptic curves.
Descent and Covering Collections
Authors: Stoll Michael
Published: February 2025

We explain several approaches that allow to prove that a given curve over ${\mathbb{Q}}$ has no rational points.
Cyclic curves over the reals
Authors: Izquierdo M.  , Shaska T.
Published: February 2025

In this paper we study the automorphism groups of real curves admitting a regular meromorphic function f of degree p, so called real cyclic p-gonal curves. When p = 2 the automorphism groups of real hyperelliptic curves where given by Bujalance et al. in [4].
Reduction theory of binary forms
Authors: Beshaj Lubjana
Published: February 2025

In these lectures we give an introduction to the reduction theory of binary forms starting with quadratic forms with real coefficients, Hermitian forms, and then define the Julia quadratic for any degree n binary form. A survey of a reduction algorithm over ${\mathbb{Z}}$ is described based on recent work of Cremona and Stoll.
A Study on a Solution of Education Inequity in Chinese Rural Schools through Live Broadcast Classroom
Authors: Zhou Yuxia  , Xiong Ying  , Zhu Peida  , Wang Minjuan  , Liu Jie
Published: February 2025

Inequity between urban and rural education prevalently exists in China. Lack of qualified teachers is the main cause for disadvantaged education in rural area. In order to solve this problem, Live Broadcast Classroom was adopted in grade 5 English class. 90 students and 3 teachers of 3 classes from two primary schools in Yunnan Province were selected as participants. As for methodology, quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Results showed it was feasible to use Live Broadcast Classroom in solving the inequity problem in micro-level education (i.e., classroom): the gap between students' scores and attitudes towards English between urban and rural classes was narrowed. Challenges still exist and some suggestions are put forward in the end.
Progress Towards a Smarter Office via a Novel Intelligent System for Message Organisation by Unifying E-Mails & Phone Calls
Authors: Hunter Gordon  , Denholm-Price James  , Michel Thomas  , Yardley John  , Fox David
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the background to a commercial software service called Threads that was developed to allow the sharing of various message types amongst a community of users – typically all working for the same organisation. Recognising the difficulty that many users have in finding even their own e-mail, a key design goal was to make the sharing and searching of large quantity of disparate messages easier than any existing personal mail client. The project has concentrated on developing a user interface that is easy to use rather than easy to program and, in so doing, has highlighted some interesting user perspectives. This paper discusses the typical user's needs and some of the features Threads uses to meet them. We then introduce a novel intelligent method for organising such messages automatically, according to statistics relating to less common words (called “keywords”) which they contain. Initial experiments using this method are described, using both e-mail data from the parent company, and on the publicly available ENRON dataset of e-mails and phone calls. These preliminary results are interesting, but suggest the method as currently implemented is only suitable for semi-automatic classification, but not yet for fully automated allocations to projects. The paper concludes with a glimpse into the future prospects for message sharing and planned future developments to the Threads system.
Does the Mobile Social Software Promote the Spoken English Learning?
Authors: Zhou ChenRui  , Sun Zhong  , Shen HaiJiao
Published: February 2025

In web 2.0 era, there was little researches focused on the effect of mobile social software influencing spoken English learning in reforms of technology assist language learning. This study based on the theory of mobile micro learning and mobile learning community, a total of 72 primary school students were empirically investigated the learning outcome of using mobile social software to learn English after class for one semester. The results showed that using mobile social software to learn English after class can improve students' English speaking ability, specific performance in word accuracy, number of sentences and voice tone, and especially has significant effect on increasing the number of sentences.
Evaluation of Curriculum Developed From a NSF-Supported Teacher Workshop
Authors: Wang Minjuan  , Humphrey Trevore  , Samora Patricia
Published: February 2025

This project evaluates the educational component in support of a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the system of payments in the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve in China, the habitat of the endangered Guizhou golden monkey.
Towards Measuring Learning Effectiveness considering Presence, Engagement and Immersion in a Mixed and Augmented Reality Learning Environment
Authors: Alzahrani Ahmed  , Gardner Michael  , Callaghan Vic  , Alrashidi Malek
Published: February 2025

The current era of advanced display technologies, such as a head mounted displays, smart glasses and handheld devices, have supported the usage of mixed-reality and augmented reality concepts in smart educational classrooms. These advanced technologies have enabled enhanced collaboration and an interactive communication between distance learners and local learners. Being present' is a key factor in both worlds (real and virtual) as it plays an important role in increasing the students' collaborative engagement during the learning activity. However, few studies have considered how much using such immersive interfaces with various learning scenarios may ultimately affect learning outcomes, and whether students feel fully engaged or not in such environments. This work-in-progress paper will demonstrate a MiRTLE+ prototype of how remote students can collaborate within mixed-reality environments by using an augmented reality approach. Secondly, it will explore the learning effectiveness based on the following factors: students' presence, engagement, and immersion in smart environments. With regard to the learning task, we will consider a card game task to measure the learners' progress as they progress from novice to expert player. To evaluate these factors, we utilise several existing frameworks which have been applied to our mixed-reality worlds that help us to examine the learning outcomes from using these environments.
Self-Regulated Learning in Virtual Worlds – An Exploratory Study in OpenSim
Authors: Perera Indika  , Allison Colin
Published: February 2025

Computer technologies are increasingly used in education to give the student more autonomy, referred to as student centred learning. One of the assumptions often made in this situation is that students will self-regulate to ensure they achieve the intended learning outcomes. Learning in immersive environments is popular as they are engaging, entertaining and flexible. However, a potential tension exists between configuring a multi-user environment to prohibit actions that can disrupt learning and maintaining the freedom and flexibility that generates learner engagement. This research investigates the importance of student self-regulation for learning in OpenSim. The outcome suggests self-regulation is one of the most important factors needed for successful learning within OpenSim as it preserves engagement while dissuading disruptive behaviour. Moreover, the need for suitable user support is identified as key for promoting student self-regulation within OpenSim.
An Expert Review of REVERIE and its potential for game-based learning
Authors: Doumanis Ioannis  , Porter Stuart  , Economou Daphne  , Smith Serengul
Published: February 2025

REVERIE (REal and Virtual Engagement in Realistic Immersive Environments) is a research project with the aim to build a safe, collaborative, online environment which brings together realistic inter-personal communication and interaction. The REVERIE platform integrates cutting-edge technologies and tools, such as social networking services, spatial audio adaptation techniques, tools for creating personalized lookalike avatars, and artificial intelligence (A.I) detection features of the user's affective state into two distinct use cases. The first shows how REVERIE can be used in educational environments with an emphasis on social networking and learning. The second aims to emulate the look and feel of real physical presence and interaction for entertainment and collaborative purposes. This paper presents an expert evaluation of the first use case by potential users of REVERIE (teachers and students). Finally, the potential of REVERIE for game-based learning is discussed followed by an overview of the actionable recommendations that emerged as a result of the expert review.
Designing for User Engagement in Wearable-technology Enhanced Learning for Healthy Ageing
Authors: Buchem Ilona  , Merceron Agathe  , Kreutel Jörn  , Haesner Marten  , Steinert Anika
Published: February 2025

Today's demographic changes with the rising number of the elderly require new forms of health promotion and innovative approaches to increasing physical fitness. Physical activity is considered as one of the key factors of ageing healthy and at the same time one of the key motivational challenges for the elderly. Supporting healthy ageing through sustained physical fitness requires interventions that promote healthy levels of physical activity as part of everyday life. Wearable devices, such as activity trackers or smart wristbands, are body-worn and may be seamlessly integrated into everyday activities to track fitness data, thus bearing the potential of supporting healthy living habits at older age. Although wearable technologies have been used by younger adopters to optimise physical fitness, little is known so far how these emerging technologies may be leveraged to improve well-being and overall fitness of seniors. In this paper we present the multi-layer approach to designing for user user engagement in wearable-technology enhanced learning for healthy ageing as part of an R&D project called “Fitness MOOC – interaction of seniors with wearable fitness trackers in the MOOC (fMOOC)”. fMOOC is a wearable-technology enhanced learning solution combining the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) approach with embodied learning experience enhanced by wearable activity trackers used to track and monitor physical activity of senior learners. The paper proposes an adaptation of a standard User Experience (UX) model to the context of learning and instructional design and describes how methods for user engagement design have been applied on five different levels, i.e. conceptual, requirements, instructional, architecture and interface design, in the fMOOC project.
Dealing with Agents' Behaviour in the Decision-Making Process
Authors: Martinho Diogo  , Carneiro João  , Marreiros Goreti  , Novais Paulo
Published: February 2025

Gathering a group of managers or executives (decision-makers) in a same place and at a same time is not an easy task. In fact, the decision-makers' schedule is so tight that it becomes necessary to develop tools that will aid in the communication and in the decision-making process. The intelligent systems (IS) can be the solution to overcome these necessities. In literature, there have been appearing more and more IS that make use of multi agent systems (MAS) in order to represent real decision-makers in this type of systems. In our work we address the problem of how agents should behave during the decision-making process and what strategies they can follow to represent the interests of the decision-maker. We intend to define valid behaviours for agents in group decision-making context and to relate the theoretical behaviours definition with usual attitudes and acts that are relevant for this context. We define two dimensions and relate them with two facets based on the Five Factor Model. Then we propose the behaviours classification according three different levels (low, moderate and high) for each one of the dimensions. We use the value of the personality trait correspondent to each facet in order to classify our behaviours in the scale.
An Approach Addressing Service Availability in Mobile Environments
Authors: Guerrero-Contreras Gabriel  , Balderas-Díaz Sara  , Rodríguez-Domínguez Carlos  , Valenzuela Aurora  , Garrido José Luis
Published: February 2025

Mobile Cloud Computing paradigm has arisen as a major proposal to address collaboration support in working environments. Particularly, this paradigm has proven to be useful in emergency scenarios, education or tourism. However, these environments are commonly based on dynamic network topologies, which imply unstable connections (disconnections and network partitions). In consequence, the availability of the services can be compromised. Therefore, approaches based on the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) are insufficient and they must be complemented with techniques and methods of Autonomic Computing, in order to ensure the quality attributes of the system against context changes. In this work, a self-adaptive architecture is proposed in order to address the availability of the services deployed in dynamic network environments. This architecture has been designed to provide a common basis for collaborative mobile systems. The architecture follows a component-based design, and it provides a distributed approach to support the dynamic replication and deployment of services. Further, an example scenario based on a real Mobile Forensic Workspace is described to show the applicability of the proposal.
Change Impact Analysis for Context-Aware Applications in Intelligent Environments
Authors: Preuveneers Davy  , Joosen Wouter
Published: February 2025

As software systems for context-aware applications and intelligent environments become increasingly complex and adaptive, the need to understand and predict the impact of changes grows. Such changes may manifest themselves (1) as alterations in the way users behave, (2) as software customizations to handle new requirements, and (3) as variations on the dynamic context in which intelligent environment systems are deployed and operate. Such internal and external changes may be anticipated or unforeseen in nature. With reliability being a key concern for intelligent environments, we revisit in this work the state-of-practice on change impact analysis (CIA) – a well-known methodology in software engineering – and investigate to what extent it can be applied and enhanced to contribute to the development of more reliable context-aware adaptive applications to increase the confidence in intelligent environment systems.
Error Analysis Expert System Based on the Takagi-Sugeno Model
Authors: Cheng NuHua  , Lv Wei  , Ni YuHua  , Li Mei  , Cai Yong
Published: February 2025

The error data obtained from the front-end in-class feedback system would be analyzed and judged by the back-end expert system, and the causes of such errors would be provided and the corresponding after-school exercises would then be automatically pushed to the students by the cloud service platform to increase targeted learning and learning efficiency.
Non-State Actors in Maritime Security
Authors: Seyle Conor  , Madsen Jens Vestergaard
Published: February 2025

Maritime security is affected by global trends in security-related issues, but also retains unique characteristics related to the maritime domain. Over the past thirty years, several trends in security policy have led to an increasingly visible role for non-state actors in supporting maritime security. Existing research on the ways that non-state actors such as civil society organizations and private-sector entities contribute to security is reviewed. Their roles as advocates, service providers, and (in limited ways) providers of direct security services are explored, and an analysis of counter-piracy activities in the early twenty-first century is used to assess the relevance of this existing research for the maritime sector. A strong counter-piracy role is identified for non-state actors in the maritime sector, potentially greater than the role they play in land-based domains.
Organizing Maritime Domain Awareness: Lessons from Southeast Asia
Authors: Bueger Christian
Published: February 2025

Information-sharing and maritime domain awareness (MDA) are at the heart of the contemporary maritime security agenda. The goal of MDA is to develop a shared understanding of developments and threats at sea which is one of the preconditions for coordination and cooperation between diverse maritime security agencies. MDA is not only a technical challenge, but also a social, political, and legal one. A study of the organization of MDA in the Southeast Asian region with a focus on its three major centers is presented, and the political and social functions that each center performs in the governance of maritime security in the region are explored. The lessons that the Southeast Asian system offers for the organization of MDA in other regions are also outlined with particular reference to the Western Indian Ocean.
The Greek Approach to the EU’s Maritime Security Strategy
Authors: Skordeli Marina
Published: February 2025

The European Union’s Maritime Security Strategy, which was adopted during the Greek presidency of the EU in June 2014, is the culmination of a process that acknowledged the numerous EU interests and policies associated with the sea and the need for their effective protection. The Greek approach to the EU’s maritime security strategy is dictated by its special concerns and considerations as a naval country and a leading shipping power, but also by its status as an Eastern Mediterranean country. The challenges Greece faces in the wider maritime environment, and especially in the Eastern Mediterranean context, match the challenges that present themselves to the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic community as a whole. In assuming a key role in the EU’s maritime security strategy, Greece will be defending its own vital interests, and it will also be highlighting the contribution it can make to the stability of the region.
Towards Cloud Big Data Services for Intelligent Transport Systems
Authors: Kemp Gavin  , Vargas-Solar Genoveva  , Ferreira Da Silva Catarina  , Ghodous Parisa  , Collet Christine  , Lopez Amaya Pedropablo
Published: February 2025

In later years, the increase in computation power and data storage has opened new perspectives to data analysis. The possibility to analyse big data brings new insights into obscure and useful correlations in data providing undiscovered knowledge. Applying big data analytics to the transport data has brought better understanding to the transports network revealing unexpected choking points in cities. This technology is still largely inaccessible to small companies due to their limited computational resources and complex for large ones due to the time needed to develop a big data analytical system Using the high scalability of Cloud and the use of specialized services in a services oriented architecture, new perspective are to developing efficient and scalable big data infrastructure adapted to transport systems. This paper presents a big data infrastructure using service oriented architecture.
Cooling and Capability Analysis Methodology: Towards Development of a Cost Model for Turbine Blades Film Cooling Holes
Authors: Continente Javier  , Shehab Essam  , Salonitis Konstantinos  , Tammineni Sree  , Chinchapatnam Phani
Published: February 2025

This paper outlines a methodology incorporating cooling performance and manufacturing process capabilities to evaluate turbine blade film cooling cost. The manufacturing process considered is the electro discharge machining of cooling holes on turbine blades. The proposed methodology allows estimating the impact of geometry, cooling and capability variables on the unit cost of the turbine blade. A procedure based in CFD simulation is proposed to quantify the effects of geometry parameters and their variability due to manufacturing, on cooling performance. Similarly, the influence of hole design on process capabilities is addressed propounding a method to evaluate it. The methodology has been applied to two case studies namely: cooling analysis for heat transfer coefficient and assessment of non-conformance in different regions of an aerofoil.
Quality Problems in Complex Systems even Considering the Application of Quality Initiatives during Product Development
Authors: Bertelli Cosimo R.  , Loureiro Geilson
Published: February 2025

This paper aims to present the importance to create a new and lean process for identifying potential failures during development of complex products. It has been identified in the literature and in companies the lack of knowledge to select the most appropriate quality tools in order to solve and or prevent the potential problems that might appear during the prototype development and launching phases of complex products. Literature about quality tools are easily found, therefore there is much questioning on the appropriate quality tools to be selected and how, where and when they should be applied. Based on this, this article aims to provide the understanding of the quality tools during program development and direct their application (Design for Six Sigma, Design FMEA, QFD, TRIZ, Robust Engineering, DFM and DFA). It is noticeable that even applying quality tools during all phases of complex products the failures still exist and, therefore, still cause a lot of problems to the companies that can be letal (example: at aerospace, automotive, metallurgical, medical and others companies) (CANCIGLIERI, OKIMURA, 2015) [1]. Besides all this, this paper will provide the evidence that something in addition to quality tools application should be done to guarantee design robustness of complex products. Two case studies provide evidences that only performing quality tools analysis like Design FMEA, DFSS, DFM, DFA and others is not enough to achieve the objectives of quality, as well as competitiveness, that large companies are looking for. A new and lean process is necessary to evaluate and identify the failures in a robust and definitive scenario. The new processes is based on the concept of Lean System Engineering as well as Lean Engineering Principles and propose to create a dual process to the systems engineering process mitigating the risks of failing what should be done as planned in the product and its life cycle processes.
A Feasibility Study of Remote Inverse Manufacturing
Authors: Mishima Nozomu  , Jun Ooki  , Kadowaki Yuta  , Torihara Kenta  , Hirose Kiyoshi  , Matsumoto Mitsutaka
Published: February 2025

Material recycling of small-sized e-waste such as mobile phones is an emerging issue in Japan. Manual disassembly is a suitable process to enhance quality of recycling. However, the labor cost of manual disassembly is one of the largest problems. Current recycling processes using physical separation methods are efficient. But, those methods require large facilities and case-by-case adjustment of the processes. The authors think human vision will be the most flexible and reliable method to separate valuable parts and non-valuable parts. This paper proposes a basic concept of “cloud inverse manufacturing” based on remote operation via internet. In the concept, cloud operators of the system participate in the physical separation processes as if they were playing an online game. The paper evaluates the separation efficiency of crushed particles and showed that metal-rich particles can be recognized by vision. The paper also designed a prototype manipulator to separate target particles from a conveyer. The paper concludes that the concept is promising to carry out low-cost and high-quality recycling of small-sized e-waste.