Antonio Francisco do Prado

A survey on software components search and retrieval

In the literature, several works that explore component search may be found, since the decade of 90 until today. Current research on component-based software engineering (CBSE) point to the creation of component markets, which allow reuse to occur at large scale. Although search mechanisms play a very important role in such markets, the literature is quite poor in putting these two concerns together. This work presents a survey about the main research on component search, and discusses how should be a mechanism to efficiently search components, in order to offer support for future component markets.

Using ontologies and Web services for content adaptation in Ubiquitous Computing

The diversity of small mobile devices and networks enabling users to access the Internet expands every day. In this highly dynamic environment of Ubiquitous Computing, current programming paradigms do not offer the flexibility needed for software reuse. To improve this flexibility, this paper proposes the use of ontologies and Web services, within a framework of components for the content adaptation domain, to facilitate the development of software based on reuse. A case study illustrates the use of the proposed solution.

A content classification and filtering server for the internet

The amazing growth of the Web in recent years, which includes content inappropriate for some classes of users, has gone hand in hand with increasingly sophisticated mobile access devices (e.g., cell phones). In this context, a major challenge is the dynamic adaptation of content, which allows these devices to access any given content independently of its original format, allied to a number of added value services such as virus scanning, language translation and content filtering. This article proposes and implements a content classification and filtering server inserted into a content adaptation architecture based on the Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP). The proposed solution does not depend on hardware or software characteristics of access devices, for the service is done externally through edge devices (e.g., proxies).

Model driven RichUbi: a model driven process for building rich interfaces of context-sensitive ubiquitous applications

The demand for software in Ubiquitous Computing, in which access to applications occurs anywhere, anytime and from different devices, has raised new challenges for Software Engineering. One of these challenges is related to the adaptation of the contents of an application to the numerous devices that can access it in distinct contexts. Another challenge is related to the building of rich interfaces with multimedia content, asynchronous communication and other features that characterize Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Searching for solutions focused on these challenges, a model-driven process for building rich interfaces of context-sensitive ubiquitous applications has been developed. The process, which is based on the conceptions of Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM), emphasizes the modeling reuse from a rich interface components metamodel. This metamodel provides a generic infrastructure for developing rich interfaces of applications, focusing on model-level reuse and on code generation for different Ubiquitous Computing platforms. In addition, the metamodel allows that the interface models are built by using the terms of rich interface domain, which facilitates the communication between users and developers.

Top-Down Approach for Web Services Development

This paper focuses on Web Services development presenting an approach that investigates the model-based software development towards Service-Oriented Architecture. This work explores software development based on Domain-Specific Modeling for building WSDL 2.0 meta-model. The Multiple Views CASE tool supports the development process of Web Services according to top-down approach through the creation of models at a high level of abstraction and the partial code generation. A case study in the Electronic Health domain illustrates the proposed in this work. The main contribution of the work is leverage agility and ease Web Services development process through highlevel specification based on the meta-model.

End-user live editing of iTV programmes

Watching TV is a practice many people enjoy and feel comfortable with. While watching a TV programme, users can be offered the opportunity to, while making annotations, create their own edited versions of the programme. In this scenario, it is a challenge to allow the user to add comments in a ubiquitous, transparent way. In this paper, we exploit the concept of end-user live editing of interactive video programmes by detailing an environment where users are able to live edit a video using the iTV remote control. We contextualise our approach in the context of the Brazilian Interactive Digital TV platform.

Context-aware information retrieval on a ubiquitous medical learning environment

This paper proposes an information retrieval process that employs a relevance feedback approach based on implicit evidences provided by contextual information and explicit evidences provided by the user behavior during interaction. This process takes advantage of semantic information processing enabled by the use of ontologies to build semantic indexes, to represent context and domain knowledge and to aid interactions mediated by mobile devices.

Porting COBOL programs using a transformational approach

Transformation systems have been applied in several areas of software engineering. This paper describes the use of the transformational engine Draco-PUC in porting COBOL programs. We describe the porting strategy for going from COBOL to C/C++ and give examples of such a strategy applied to a radar application and also to a payroll system. Although targeting an object-orientated language, we do not claim to generate code that strictly follows the OO guidelines. This paper gives special attention to the knowledge structure we have been using to help guide the transformation process as well as to help in the process of design recovery. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Software Maintenance 9: 3–31, 1997

A methodology based on openEHR archetypes and software agents for developing e-health applications reusing legacy systems

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In Pervasive Healthcare, novel information and communication technologies are applied to support the provision of health services anywhere, at anytime and to anyone. Since health systems may offer their health records in different electronic formats, the openEHR Foundation prescribes the use of archetypes for describing clinical knowledge in order to achieve semantic interoperability between these systems. Software agents have been applied to simulate human skills in some healthcare procedures. This paper presents a methodology, based on the use of openEHR archetypes and agent technology, which aims to overcome the weaknesses typically found in legacy healthcare systems, thereby adding value to the systems. METHODS This methodology was applied in the design of an agent-based system, which was used in a realistic healthcare scenario in which a medical staff meeting to prepare a cardiac surgery has been supported. We conducted experiments with this system in a distributed environment composed by three cardiology clinics and a center of cardiac surgery, all located in the city of Marília (São Paulo, Brazil). We evaluated this system according to the Technology Acceptance Model. RESULTS The case study confirmed the acceptance of our agent-based system by healthcare professionals and patients, who reacted positively with respect to the usefulness of this system in particular, and with respect to task delegation to software agents in general. The case study also showed that a software agent-based interface and a tools-based alternative must be provided to the end users, which should allow them to perform the tasks themselves or to delegate these tasks to other people. CONCLUSIONS A Pervasive Healthcare model requires efficient and secure information exchange between healthcare providers. The proposed methodology allows designers to build communication systems for the message exchange among heterogeneous healthcare systems, and to shift from systems that rely on informal communication of actors to a more automated and less error-prone agent-based system. Our methodology preserves significant investment of many years in the legacy systems and allows developers to extend them adding new features to these systems, by providing proactive assistance to the end-users and increasing the user mobility with an appropriate support.

A ubiquitous computing environment for medical education

This paper proposes a Ubiquitous Computing Environment for Medical Education, whose kernel is a Web-based system with collaborative tools, to support the interactions and computational tasks among different actors involved in the Medical Education process. In order to allow this environment to be ubiquitous, the Web pages of this system are adapted, through a Content Adaptation Architecture, so they can be accessed by a huge variety of small mobile devices (e.g., cell phones, smart phones, tablets, Personal Digital Assistants).