Software engineering life-cycle models have been around for about 30 years. Various models have been proposed, refined and adapted to the needs of different sub-areas of systems development. Dialogue engineering is a fairly new sub-area of software engineering, commercial spoken language dialogue systems (SLDSs) having been in the market place for only about a decade. While an iterative softwar...

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is an increasingly important tool for environmental policy, and even for industry. Analysts are also interested in forecasting future materials/energy fluxes on regional and global scales, as a function of various economic growth and regulatory scenarios. A fundamental tenet of LCA is that every material product must eventually become a waste. To choose the ‘greener’ o...

This paper examines the links between the rhythm of knowledge generation, the types of actors involved in knowledge generation and the structure of networks of collaborations in the biotech sector. The analysis departs from all biotechnology patent applications covered by Derwent Biotechnology Abstracts (DBA). In 2001, more than 96,000 patents are reported in DBA, covering 40 intellectual prope...

Cockroach infestations have been indicated as a major contributor to asthma throughout the world. Several studies have shown that large numbers of asthmatic patients are sensitized to cockroach allergens. Eliminating this pest from homes, schools, and public buildings involves a long-term commitment to a rational extermination process. This article covers the characteristics of the major cockro...

We add health and longevity to a standard model of life-cycle saving and show that, under plausible assumptions, increases in life expectancy lead to higher savings rates at every age, even when retirement is endogenous. In a stationary population these higher savings rates are offset by increased old age dependency, but during the disequilibrium phase, when longevity is rising, the effect on a...

The shape of the demographic life cycle is of fundamental interest, which demographers recognize through extensive efforts to estimate, describe, and interpret the age-shapes of fertility, mortality, marriage, divorce, and migration. These age-shapes are influenced by biology, culture, economic constraints, and individual choice. Similarly, the shape of the economic life cycle is of fundamental...

Our daily life activity leaves digital trails in an increasing number of databases (commercial web sites, internet service providers, search engines, location tracking systems, etc). Personal digital trails are commonly exposed to accidental disclosures resulting from negligence or piracy and to ill-intentioned scrutinization and abusive usages fostered by fuzzy privacy policies. No one is shel...

Business Process Management (BPM) systems provide a broad range of facilities to enact and manage operational business processes. Ideally, these systems should provide support for the complete BPM life-cycle: (re)design, configuration, execution, control, and diagnosis of processes. In the research presented, we evaluate the support provided by the FileNet P8 BPM Suite, which is consistently ra...

We have implemented a proof-of-concept prototype named Blutopia that embodies our ideas of a new software life cycle management paradigm driven chiefly by simplicity. Aiming at facilitating management, Blutopia allows administrators to deploy multiple machines fast and effortlessly in as little time as it takes to perform a system reboot. It is equally easy to manage and augment the deployed in...

Prions are self-templating protein aggregates that were originally identified as the causative agent of prion diseases in mammals, but have since been discovered in other kingdoms. Mammalian prions represent a unique class of infectious agents that are composed of misfolded prion protein. Prion proteins usually exist as soluble proteins but can refold and assemble into highly ordered, self-prop...