Patterns such as problem frames and architectural styles are used here to support the formal specification and the development of information systems. New problem frames specific to information systems are proposed to describe identified sub-problems and to help the formal specification task. Recomposition is achieved through a component based approach and an architectural style that puts toget...

This commentary raises conceptual issues related to recent efforts to develop measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB). Specifically, Hills’ and Argyle’s (2002) article on the development of the 29-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), and its predecessor, the 20-item Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle, Martin & Crossland, 1989). Instead of assessing the structure of subjective well-being (S...

Feature selection methods, as a preprocessing step to machine learning, are effective in reducing dimensionality, removing irrelevant data, increasing learning accuracy, and improving result comprehensibility. However, the recent increase of dimensionality of data poses a severe challenge to many existing feature selection methods with respect to the efficiency and effectiveness. In this work, ...

Problem frames provide a means of analyzing and decomposing problems. They emphasise the world outside of the computer, helping the developer to focus on the problem domain, instead of drifting into inventing solutions. However, even modestly complex problems can force us into detailed consideration of the architecture of the solution. This is counter to the intention of the problem frames appr...

This paper develops a flexible approach to combine forecasts of future spot rates with forecasts from time-series models or macroeconomic variables. We find empirical evidence that accounting for both regimes in interest rate dynamics and combining forecasts from different models helps improve the out-of-sample forecasting performance for US short-term rates. Imposing restrictions from the expe...

In this paper, we propose a functional approach to overcome the lack of expressiveness of predicative approaches for extensional reference resolution. This later approach indeed forces designers of dialogue systems to use specific heuristics when solving some reference cases, which they can’t integrate in a unified representation framework. As we focus on extensional reference resolution in a g...

From the viewpoint of adaptability, we classify software systems as being nonreflexive, introspective and adaptive. Introducing a simple example of LL(1) languages for expressions, we present its nonreflexive and adaptive implementation using Haskell functional language. Multiple metalevel concepts are an essential demand for a systematic language approach, to build up adaptable software system...

I study creation of multiagent organizations via an automated computational process. My organizational design problem frames design decisions in terms of the quantitative impact that an organization is expected to have on the agents’ reasoning and behaviors. I develop techniques for efficiently solving this problem via incremental search of the organizational design space, and extend my organiz...

The conception of the architect as form-giver has since historical times dominated the field of architecture. It is precisely this image which has devalued material practice in the distinction between form and matter consistently inherent in architectural discourse. Recent technological developments in the field of design computation, coupled with environmental concerns and philosophical debate...

This work presents a safe navigation approach for a carlike robot. The approach relies on a global motion planning based on Velocity Vector Fields along with a Dynamic Window Approach for avoiding unmodeled obstacles. Basically, the vector field is associated with a kinematic, feedback-linearization controller whose outputs are validated, and eventually modified, by the Dynamic Window Approach....