Flex‐eWare: a flexible model driven solution for designing and implementing embedded distributed systems

The complexity of modern embedded systems increases as they incorporate new concerns such as distribution and mobility. These new features need to be considered as early as possible in the software development life cycle. Model driven engineering promotes an intensive use of models and is now widely seen as a solution to master the development of complex systems such as embedded ones. Component‐based software engineering is another major trend that gains acceptance in the embedded world because of its properties such as reuse, modularity, and flexibility. This article proposes the Flex‐eWare component model (FCM) for designing and implementing modern embedded systems. The FCM unifies model driven engineering and component‐based software engineering and has been evaluated in several application domains with different requirements: wireless sensor networks, distributed client/server applications, and control systems for electrical devices. This approach highlights a new concept: flexibility points that arise at several stages of the development process, that is, in the model (design phase), in the execution platform, and during the execution itself. This flexibility points are captured with model libraries that can extend the FCM. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

General quadratic performance analysis and synthesis of differential algebraic equation (DAE) systems

In this paper, control of linear differential-algebraic-equation systems, subject to general quadratic constraints, is considered. This setup, especially, includes the H_∞ control problem and the design for strict passivity. Based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) analysis conditions, LMI synthesis conditions for the existence of linear output feedback controllers are derived by means of a linearizing change of variables. This approach is constructive: a procedure for the determination of controller parameterizations is given on the basis of the solution of the LMI synthesis conditions. A discussion of the possible applications of the presented results concludes the paper.     

Survey and empirical comparison of different approaches for text extraction from scholarly figures

Different approaches have been proposed in the past to address the challenge of extracting text from scholarly figures. However, until recently, no comparative evaluation of the different approaches had been conducted. Thus, we performed an extensive study of the related work and evaluated in total 32 different approaches. In this work, we perform a more detailed comparison of the 7 most relevant approaches described in the literature and extend to 37 systematic linear combinations of methods for extracting text from scholarly figures. Our generic pipeline, consisting of six steps, allows us to freely combine the different possible methods and perform a fair comparison. Overall, we have evaluated 44 different linear pipeline configurations and systematically compared the different methods. We then derived two non-linear configurations and a two-pass approach. We evaluate all pipeline configurations over four datasets of scholarly figures of different origin and characteristics. The quality of the extraction results is assessed using F-measure and Levenshtein distance, and we measure the runtime performance. Our experiments showed that there is a linear configuration that overall shows the best text extraction quality on all datasets. Further experiments showed that the best configuration can be improved by extending it to a two-pass approach. Regarding the runtime, we observed huge differences from very fast approaches to those running for several weeks. Our experiments found the best working configuration for text extraction from our method set. However, they also showed that further improvements regarding region extraction and classification are needed.     

Selection of Gender-Marked Morphemes in Speech Production.

N.O. Schiller and A. Caramazza (2003) and A. Costa, D. Kovacic, E. Fedorenko, and A. Caramazza (2003) have argued that the processing of freestanding gender-marked morphemes (e.g., determiners) and bound gender-marked morphemes (e.g., adjective suffixes) during syntactic encoding in speech production follows distinct principles, with only freestanding morphemes being subject to a competitive selection process. In 3 experiments, the authors tested this hypothesis in German, extending a previous study by H. Schriefers, J.D. Jescheniak, and A. Hantsch (2002). The results suggest that freestanding and bound morphemes are basically processed in the same way, although competition appears to be attenuated for bound morphemes relative to free morphemes. The authors discuss theoretical and methodological implications of this pattern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biofunctional Micropatterning of Thermoformed 3D Substrates

Mimicking the in vivo microenvironment of cells is a challenging task in engineering in vitro cell models. Surface functionalization is one of the key components providing biochemical cues to regulate the interaction between cells and their substrate. In this study, two different approaches yield biofunctional surface patterns on thermoformed polymer films. The first strategy based on maskless projection lithography enables the creation of grayscale patterns of biological ligands with a resolution of 7.5 μm in different shapes on a protein layer adsorbed on a polymer film. In the second strategy, polymer films are micropatterned with different functional groups via chemical vapor deposition polymerization. After thermoforming, both types of pattern can be decorated with proteins either by affinity binding or covalent coupling. The 3D microstructures retain the biofunctional patterns as demonstrated by selective cell adhesion and growth of L929 mouse fibroblasts. This combination of functional micropatterning and thermoforming offers new perspectives for the design of 3D cell culture platforms.     

Das Orang‐Utan‐Haus im Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg

The Orangutan house in the Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg. The Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg gained a further attraction in the year 2004 with the Orangutan House. Characteristic of its construction is the open‐up dome with a diameter of 32 metres made of hollow sections. About one third of the dome can be moved on a rail system. This construction allows use as either indoor or open‐air enclosure. The frame of the building is made of ETFE‐foil cushions.