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Publications

Publications by CSE

2011

5th Workshop on Wikis for Software Engineering

Authors
Aguiar, A; Merson, P;

Publication
Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration, 2011, Mountain View, CA, USA, October 3-5, 2011

Abstract
Using a wiki in software engineering settings dates back to its first usage in 1995. In fact, that was the motivation for Ward Cunningham to create the first wiki. Due to its simplicity, attractiveness and effectiveness for collaborative authoring and knowledge management, wikis are now massively disseminated and used in different domains. This workshop focuses on wikis for the specific domain of software engineering. It aims at bringing together researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts interested on researching, exploring and learning how wikis can be improved, customized and used to better support software projects. Based on lessons learned and obstacles identified, a research agenda will be defined with key opportunities and challenges. © 2011 Authors.

2011

SCHOOOOOLS.COM: A SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR K-6

Authors
Simoes, J; Aguiar, A;

Publication
EDULEARN11: 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND NEW LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract
Children and teens today grow up immersed in a myriad of digital devices, thinking and processing information in a radically different way from their predecessors. These kids usually prefer hypermedia information, learning by self-discovery, or by playing, in teams, are good at multitasking, better in digital literacy than in textual literacy, tend to be always connected, enjoy social interaction, diversity and sharing. As a result of all of this, young "digital natives" need new ways of learning that are more interactive, participative and individualized, capable of supporting the co-creation, collaboration, and sharing of a variety of contents, combining traditional and new digital media. To be successful, the teaching strategies, the learning contexts, and the learning spaces must accommodate these children's needs and habits, harmoniously combining technology and pedagogy, as earliest as possible. With the advent of Web 2.0, the way people collaborate in the creation and sharing of their own contents improved considerably, enabling everyone to be active producers and consumers at the same time, and helping them to self-organize in networks and virtual communities. It is now easy to create collaborative spaces for teachers and students to adopt a partnering pedagogy, more social and informal, but also more personal. Personal Learning Environments (PLE) combine tools that help learners to set their own learning goals, manage their learning contents and process, to communicate with others, allowing a bidirectional flow of information between teachers and students, at a degree not possible before by traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS). In this work, we present schoooools.com (a.k.a in Portugal as escolinhas. pt), a new collaborative and social learning environment, developed and validated in several Portuguese schools, following an action- research method. Schoooools.com is being developed to be a very simple personal learning environment targeted to schools and students from 6 up to 12 years old ( K-6). It follows a wiki- way philosophy for the cocreation of contents. It combines the best features of Web 2.0 relevant for schools, simplified and integrated in a single platform: easy-to-use content editors, wikis, blogs, private social networks, image galleries, calendars, private messages, chat, shared files, micro-blogging, integration with traditional LMS (ex: Moodle), integration with contents from publishers or other types of providers. It was designed with three principles in mind: educational, by providing collaborative web spaces to use in classroom, at home, everywhere, for educational purposes; entertainment, by providing appealing spaces and features to use also in leisure time, to learn by playing, chatting; social, by providing an engaging space to promote the communication and socialization within the respective private social networks. As in real life, students, parents and teachers have different features and responsibilities in the school, but they all may communicate and collaborate between them, with privacy rules similar to the real school and its respective community. Simply and naturally, the platform promotes a gradual adoption of the best practices on using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for educational purposes: in classroom or extracurricular contexts, inside or outside schools.

2011

Tributyltin-induced imposex in marine gastropods involves tissue-specific modulation of the retinoid X receptor

Authors
Lima, D; Reis Henriques, MA; Silva, R; Santos, AI; Castro, LFC; Santos, MM;

Publication
AQUATIC TOXICOLOGY

Abstract
Despite the large number of studies on the phenomenon of imposex, the mechanism underlying the abnormal growth of male sexual characters onto females in numerous gastropod species is yet to be fully elucidated. Although several hypotheses have been raised over the years, a convincing body of evidence indicates that tributyltin-induced imposex involves the abnormal modulation of the retinoid X receptor (RXR). Here, we investigate the RXR gene transcription at different timings and tissues upon exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of tributyltin (TOT) (100 ng Sn/L TBT) in both genders of the imposex susceptible gastropod Nucella lapillus. RXR gene transcription was determined at two time-points (i.e., before and after imposex initiation) by quantitative Real Time PCR in potential target tissues: the central nervous system (CNS), penis/penis forming area (PFA), gonads and digestive gland. TBT-exposure altered transcription of RXR gene in a tissue and sex specific manner. In the CNS, a significant down-regulation was observed in females both before and after imposex initiation (P <= 0.01 and P <= 0.05, respectively). A similar trend was observed in male CNS at the first time-point, although differences between control and the TBT-exposed group were just above significance (P=0.059). The penis/PFA showed no differences in transcription of RXR gene between control and TBT exposed female snails before imposex induction, or before and after imposex initiation for males. However, male penis showed higher transcription of RXR gene in comparison to the PFA of females. After imposex has been induced, a significant (P <= 0.001) increase in transcription of RXR gene was observed in penis of females with vas deference sequence index (VDS) levels of 3-4 in comparison with the PFA of both control and imposex females with VDS 1-2. At advanced stages of imposex, females displayed RXR transcription patterns in penis identical to those of males, which points to a functional role of RXR in the penis of both genders. In the other tissues, gonads and digestive gland. RXR gene transcription was not affected by TBT, at any of the analysed time-points. These patterns of RXR gene transcription upon TOT exposure highlight the pivotal involvement of the CNS in the mechanism of imposex induction. We integrate the results in a conceptual model, and discuss the central role of RXR and the retinoic acid signalling pathways in imposex and male genitalia formation in gastropods.

2011

ICT4Depression: service oriented architecture applied to the treatment of depression

Authors
Rocha, A; Henriques, MR; Lopes, JC; Camacho, R; Klein, M; Modena, G; Van de Ven, P; McGovern, E; Tousset, E; Gauthier, T; Warmerdam, L;

Publication
2012 25TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER-BASED MEDICAL SYSTEMS (CBMS)

Abstract
FP7 ICT4Depression project aims at providing a set of tools to,further improve both patient outcome and increase of access to treatment of the patients suffering from major depression. This article describes the Information Systems (IS) architecture used in the project. ICT4Depression uses a service oriented architecture as means of bringing together different kinds of information concerning the patient, the therapeutic modules he is advised to follow and the sensors used to assess his status.

2011

AOM metadata extension points

Authors
Matsumoto, PatriciaMegumi; Correia, FilipeFigueiredo; Yoder, JosephWilliam; Guerra, Eduardo; Ferreira, HugoSereno; Aguiar, Ademar;

Publication
Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, PLoP 2011, Portland, Oregon, USA, October 21-23, 2011

Abstract
An Adaptive Object Model (AOM) is a common architectural style for systems in which classes, attributes, relationships and behaviors of applications are represented as metadata, allowing them to be changed at runtime not only by programmers, but also by end users. Frequently, behavior is added to AOM systems by increasingly adding expressiveness to the model. However, this approach can result in a full blown programming language, which is not desirable. This pattern describes a solution for adding behavior to AOM systems by using metadata to identify points in the application where behavior can be dynamically added. This solution may limit the expressive power of the model, but can also simplify it, since points of extension are well defined in the system. © Copyright 2011 Carnegie Mellon University.

2011

Patterns of information classification

Authors
Correia, FilipeFigueiredo; Aguiar, Ademar;

Publication
Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, PLoP 2011, Portland, Oregon, USA, October 21-23, 2011

Abstract
Providing efficient access to information can be approached in different ways, but ultimately implies the creation of an INDEX, represented with an indexing language, like a TAXONOMY, a THESAURUS, an ONTOLOGY or a FOLKSONOMY. Each of these languages strikes a different balance between the effort to create and maintain the index, the effectiveness of knowledge capture, the guidance that readers can get, and how efficiently they can get it. Furthermore, in a world in which more and more information is available, two issues gain particular importance in the creation of an index: how can it be done collaborative, and how can the index abstract and express information more richly. © Copyright 2011 Carnegie Mellon University.

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