The Interplay Between the Speaker’s and the Hearer’s Perspective

The neutralization of contrasts in form or meaning that is sometimes observed in language production and comprehension is at odds with the classical view that language is a systematic one-to-one pairing of forms and meanings. This special issue is concerned with patterns of forms and meanings in language. The papers in this special issue arose from a series of workshops that were organized to explore variants of bidirectional Optimality Theory and Game Theory as models of the interplay between the speaker’s and the hearer’s perspective.     

Guest Editor's Foreword

Abstract. This special issue of Algorithmica is dedicated to papers on topics of algorithms and data structures for problems motivated primarily from the Internet or Internet applications. These papers come from a wide variety of possible topics in Internet Algorithmics, which include the following: • Web caching • Web auctions • Internet searching • Internet routing and multicasting • Internet-motivated security and security infrastructure • Electronic commerce and electronic money • Collaborative filtering We hope that this special issue shows the value of algorithms for these topics. Moreover, Algorithmica welcomes future submissions on algorithms for the above topics as well.     

Introduction to planning, scheduling and constraint satisfaction

Planning, scheduling and constraint satisfaction are important areas in artificial intelligence (AI). Many real-world problems are known as AI planning and scheduling problems, where resources must be allocated so as to optimize overall performance objectives. Therefore, solving these problems requires an adequate mixture of planning, scheduling and resource allocation to competing goal activities over time in the presence of complex state-dependent constraints. Constraint satisfaction plays also an important role to solve real-life problems, so that integrated techniques that manage planning and scheduling with constraint satisfaction remains necessary. This special issue on Planning, Scheduling and Constraint Satisfaction compiles a selection of papers of CAEPIA’2007 workshop on Planning, Scheduling and Constraint Satisfaction and COPLAS’2007: CP/ICAPS 2007 Joint Workshop on Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems. This issue presents novel advances on planning, scheduling, constraint programming/constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and many other common areas that exist among them. On the whole, this issue mainly focus on managing complex problems where planning, scheduling, constraint satisfaction and search must be combined and/or interrelated, which entails an enormous potential for practical applications and future research. Furthermore, this issue also includes a complete survey about constraint satisfaction, planning, scheduling and integration among these areas.     

Socio-Technical and Soft Approaches to Information Requirements Elicitation in the Post-Methodology Era

The contributors to this special issue focus on socio-technical and soft approaches to information requirements elicitation and systems development. They represent a growing body of research and practice in this field. This review presents an overview and analysis of the salient themes within the papers encompassing their common underlying framework, the methodologies and tools and techniques presented, the organisational situations in which they are deployed and the issues they seek to address. It will be argued in the review that the contributions to this special edition exemplify the ‘post-methodological era’ and the ‘contingency approaches’ from which it is formed.     

How Can I Help You? Call Centres,Classification Work and Coordination

As a comparatively novel but increasingly pervasive organizational arrangement, call centres have been a focus for much recent research. This paper identifies lessons for organizational and technological design through an examination of call centres and ‘classification work’ – explicating what Star [1992, Systems/Practice vol. 5, pp. 395–410] terms the ‘open black box’. Classification is a central means by which organizations standardize procedure, assess productivity, develop services and re-organize their business. Nevertheless, as Bowker and Star [1999, Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge MA: MIT Press] have pointed out, we know relatively little about the work that goes into making classification schema what they are. We will suggest that a focus on classification ‘work’ in this context is a useful exemplar of the need for some kind of ‘meta-analysis’ in ethnographic work also. If standardization is a major ambition for organizations under late capitalism, then comparison might be seen as a related but as-yet unrealized one for ethnographers. In this paper, we attempt an initial cut at a comparative approach, focusing on classification because it seemed to be the primary issue that emerged when we compared studies. Moreover, if technology is the principal means through which procedure and practice is implemented and if, as we believe, classifications are becoming ever more explicitly embedded within it (for instance with the development of so-called ‘semantic web’ and associated approaches to ontology-based design), then there is clearly a case for identifying some themes which might underpin classification work in a given domain.     

Palladio’s Villa Emo:The Golden Proportion Hypothesis Defended

At Nexus 2000, Rachel Fletcher argued that Palladio may well have made use of the ‘golden section’, or extreme and mean ratio, in the design of the Villa Emo at Fanzolo. In this issue of Nexus Network Journal, Lionel March argued that the Golden Section is nowhere to be found in the Villa Emo as described in I quattro libri dell’archittetura. In the present paper, Rachel Fletcher defends her original thesis, comparing the Villa Emo as actually built to the project for it that Palladio published in his book.     

Editorial

At the time of writing this editorial, subscribers will have just received their copies of the triple issue honouring the work of Rod Burstall. Coordinating this collection was a substantial undertaking; and thanks go to all concerned, particularly to David Rydeheard and Don Sannella and the behind the scenes production staff. We (the journal editors) hope you agree that it was well worth waiting for the fascinating collection. The production and scheduling of that set of papers, and other incidental but cumulative factors, have contributed to recent issues being late. We hope soon to be back close to our planned, evenly timed, publication timetable; however it also seems timely to mention, and to reiterate, some changes which are afoot. As of this issue (14.1) we shall revert to our initial publication frequency of 4 issues per year, but these will be larger than in earlier volumes and will retain the large page format adopted in Volume 12. [A reminder for authors who use LaTeX to use the new class files.] We are now receiving, and publishing, long papers (but still with the option of including supplementary material on the web) and, except in special issues, strive to achieve a reasonable coverage of topics within the given constraints. Although normally skipped over, readers of the journal front matter might notice periodic changes to the editorial board. These usually go unmentioned; our editors (who are working editors, not merely ‘names’) seek no reward or praise. Readers will also notice the recently modernised BCS-FACS logo and a declaration that the journal (although truly international in scope) was founded by (BCS-)FACS, some even to this day refer to it as ‘the FACS journal’, and we are very happy for this to continue. Bringing these two threads together gets me to the point of this digression. Dan Simpson founded the BCS specialist group on Formal Aspects of Computing Science some 25 years ago. Without his radical suggestion that the BCS had a specialist group that actually addressed Computer Science, there would have been no FACS and no FACS journal. Dan has recently finished his spell as Dean in the Faculty of IT at Brighton University and he has also resigned as a member of our editorial board. As you can see, he was active to the very end being responsible for progressing 2 of the 3 papers in this issue. I gather he now intends to concern himself with other matters; I would counsel a less stressful life and more Bob Dylan music. He has been a friend and colleague of many of those associated with the FACS group and its journal; on their behalf may I offer a big ‘thank you’ for all that you have done for us and offer our best wishes for whatever endeavours you are about to embark upon. Very many years ago, at a conference, I heard someone respond in debate “I didn't see who said that but it sounded like Mr Simpson from Teesside … .” – well it's no longer ‘Mr’ nor ‘Teesside’ but I can't believe that we really have seen or heard the last of this Yorkshire lad. Thanks, goodbye and good luck. It is with deep regret that we have to report the death of Ole-Johan Dahl. Professor Dahl was a leader of thought in many fields; his contributions on Object-Oriented languages and methods were recently recognised in his (joint) awards of the IEEE von Neumann prize and the ACM Turing Award. He was also a major contributor to Formal Methods and a future edition of this journal will attempt to mark his contribution. We have lost an editor; our thoughts are with his family who have lost so much more.au     

Editorial

This issue of Formal Aspects of Computing contains nine papers, all related to the formal specification and the analysis of the ‘Tree Identify’ protocol of the IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus. In March 2001 a workshop on this topic was held in association with the FME conference in Berlin. All but the first paper in this issue are derived from presentations given at that workshop. The mechanisms for invitations to submit papers for this issue and their subsequent refereeing etc. are detailed in the first paper which also introduces the task that was undertaken.     

Guest editorial: special issue on a decade of mining the Web

As editors of the Special Issue on a Decade of Mining the Web, we provide a brief overview of how Web mining evolved from the first Web mining workshop (WEBKDD’99) till today. We then introduce the papers of the special issue. Each of them is in a domain of Web mining research; it contains a survey of the past and a vision for the future.     

Preface by the section editors

The papers in this special section present a sample of recent approaches to modeling and verification of software-based systems. This research was initially presented at the 4th International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 03). The choice of papers for the issue was based on their merit as well as on the fact that, as a group, they represent the main current research areas in the field of software-based systems.     

Metalearning and Algorithm Selection: progress,state of the art and introduction to the 2018 Special Issue

This article serves as an introduction to the Special Issue on Metalearning and Algorithm Selection. The introduction is divided into two parts. In the the first section, we give an overview of how the field of metalearning has evolved in the last 1–2 decades and mention how some of the papers in this special issue fit in. In the second section, we discuss the contents of this special issue. We divide the papers into thematic subgroups, provide information about each subgroup, as well as about the individual papers. Our main aim is to highlight how the papers selected for this special issue contribute to the field of metalearning.     

Development of a biomimetic miniature robotic crawler

The paper presents the development of segmented artificial crawlers endowed with passive hook-shaped frictional microstructures. The goal is to find design rules for fabricating biomimetic, adaptable and mobile machines mimicking segmented animals with hydrostatic skeleton, and intended to move effectively along unstructured substrates. The paper describes the mechanical model, the design and the fabrication of a SMA-actuated segmented microrobot, whose locomotion is inspired by the peristaltic motion of Annelids, and in particular of earthworms (Lumbricus Terrestris). Experimental locomotion performance are compared with theoretical performance predicted by a purposely developed friction model -taking into account design parameters such as number of segments, body mass, special friction enhancement appendixes—and with locomotion performance of real earthworms as presented in literature. Experiments indicate that the maximum speed of the crawler prototype is 2.5 mm/s, and that 3-segment crawlers have almost the same velocity as earthworms having the same weight (and about 330% their length), whereas 4-segment crawlers have the same velocity, expressed as body lengths/s, as earthworms with the same mass (and about 270% their length). Arianna Menciassi (MS, 1995; PhD, 1999) joined the CRIM Lab of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy) as a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering with a research program on the micromanipulation of mechanical and biological micro-objects. The main results of the activity on micromanipulation were presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (May 2001, Seoul) in a paper titled “Force Feedback-based Microinstrument for Measuring Tissue Properties and Pulse in Microsurgery”, which won the “ICRA2001 Best Manipulation Paper Award”. In the year 2000, she was offered a position of Assistant Professor in Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and in June 2006 she obtained a promotion to Associate Professor. Her main research interests are in the field of biomedical microrobotics, biomimetics, microfabrication technologies, micromechatronics and microsystem technologies. She is working on several European projects and international projects for the development of minimally invasive instrumentation for medical applications and for the exploitation of micro- and nano-technologies in the medical field. Samuele Gorini received his Laurea Degree in Mechanical Engineering (with honors) from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2001. In 2005 he obtained the Ph.D. in Microsystem Engineering with a thesis on locomotion methods and systems for miniaturised endoscopic devices. Since 2000, he has been working at the CRIM Lab of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy. His research interests are in the field of biomedical robotics with a special focus on actuation technologies. Starting from the year 2004 he has been president of Era Endoscopy S.r.l., a start-up company of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna developing novel devices for endoscopy. Dino Accoto (MS 1998, PhD 2002) is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Scuola Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy). He received the Laurea degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa (cum laude) in 1998, the diploma in Engineering from the Scuola Sant’Anna (cum laude) in 1999 and the PhD degree from the Scuola Sant’Anna in 2002. From October 2001 to September 2002 he has been visiting scholar at the RPL-Lab, Stanford University (Ca, USA). Since 2004 he cooperates with the Biomedical Robotics & EMC Lab at Campus Bio-Medico University in Rome. His main research field is the modelling and development of small electromechanical systems, with a special attention to multi-physics and multi-domain approaches. The research, often inspired by the analysis of natural mechanisms, has been mainly applied to hybridizing microtechnologies, including microfluidics, and robotics. He has co-authored more than 30 papers, appeared in international journals and conference proceedings. Paolo Dario received his Dr. Eng. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 1977. He is currently a Professor of Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.. He also teaches courses at the School of Engineering of the University of Pisa and at the Campus Biomedico University in Rome. He has been Visiting Professor at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, at the College de France, Paris, and at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan, France. He was the founder of the ARTS (Advanced Robotics Technologies and Systems) Laboratory and is currently the Co-ordinator of the CRIM (Center for the Research in Microengineering) Laboratory of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he supervises a team of about 70 researchers and Ph.D. students. His main research interests are in the fields of medical robotics, bio-robotics, mechatronics and micro/nanoengineering, and specifically in sensors and actuators for the above applications, and in robotics for rehabilitation. He is the coordinator of many national and European projects, the editor of two books on the subject of robotics, and the author of more than 200 scientific papers (75 on ISI journals). He is Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board of many international journals. Prof. Dario has served as President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society in the years 2002–2003. He has been the General Chair of the IEEE RAS-EMBS BioRob’06 Conference and he is the General Co-Chair of ICRA 2007 Conference. Prof. Dario is an IEEE Fellow, a Fellow of the European Society on Medical and Biological Engineering, and a recipient of many honors and awards, such as the Joseph Engelberger Award. He is also a member of the Board of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR).     

Who do you think you are? A review of the complex interplay between information systems,identification and identity

This paper introduces the special issue on information systems, identity and identification. In addition to introducing the papers in the special issue, it provides a state-of-the-art review of research into identity and identification to contextualise the contributions of the special issue papers. The paper reviews research themes in personal and organisational identity as well as research challenges in identification before considering the interplay between these two strands.     

People, Information Systems and Change

Information systems are the glue between people and computers. Both the social and business environments are in a continual, some might say chaotic, state of change while computer hardware continues to double its performance about every 18 months. This presents a major challenge for information system developers.  The term user-friendly is an old one, but one which has come to take on a multitude of meanings. However, in today’s context we might well take a user-friendly system to be one where the technology fits the user’s cognitive models of the activity in hand. This article looks at the relationship between information systems and the changing demands of their users as the underlying theme for the current issue of Cognition, Technology and Work.  People, both as individuals and organisations, change. The functionalist viewpoint, which attempts to freeze and inhibit such change, has failed systems developers on numerous occasions. Responding to, and building on, change in the social environment is still a significant research issue for information systems specialists who need to be able to create living information systems.     

Digital libraries as a new class of information systems (from the editors of the special issue)

In the paper, the origins of a new branch of information systems—the so-called digital libraries— is briefly discussed. Serious study and development in this area only began in the early 1990s. Characteristics of digital library systems and the range of related problems are examined. The papers of Russian authors published in this special issue are presented. These papers are based on the materials reported at the first Russian national conference on digital libraries, held in October 1999.     

Intelligent distributed production control

This editorial introduces the special issue of the Springer journal, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, on intelligent distributed production control. This special issue contains selected papers presented at the 13th IFAC Symposium on Information Control Problems in Manufacturing??INCOM??2009 (Bakhtadze and Dolgui 2009). The papers in this special issue were selected because of their high quality and their specific way of addressing the variety of issues dealing with intelligent distributed production control. Previous global discussions about the state of the art in intelligent distributed production control are provided, as well as exploratory guidelines for future research in this area.