Volumen 18 (2015): Heft 1 (December 2015)

Models are widely used not only in computer science field, but also in other fields. They are an effective way to show relevant information in a convenient way. Model-driven software development uses models and transformations as first-class citizens. That makes software development phases more related to each other, those links later help to make changes or modify software product more freely. At the moment there are a lot of methods and techniques to create those models and transform them into each other. Since 2004, authors have been developing the so called 2HMD approach to bridge the gap between problem domain and software components by using models and model transformation. The goal of this research is to compare different methods positioned for performing the same tasks as the 2HMD approach and to understand the state of the art in the area of model-driven software development.

Nowadays, it is a modern trend to develop a CASE tool for system modelling with an ability to transform models defined in different notations and also to generate a program code. However development of such a tool often involves experimentation with transformation algorithms that may require changes to the source model structure. Since CASE tools are basically used to represent a model in diagram’s form, implementing experimental changes in a modelling tool can require additional effort. In order to solve this problem, authors propose a way of describing the two-hemisphere model using Domain Specific Language. This paper covers the language’s syntax as well as provides an example of the two-hemisphere model defined with its help.

Organizations and teams are switching to agile methodology more and more often. The problem lies in the fact that organizations and teams are not certain at which agility level they currently are and at which agility domains they fail. This research focuses on creating a new method and tool for evaluation of the agility level of the company. The proposed method is based on the agility model of the company with agility domains, subdomains and attributes. Expert evaluation of domains, subdomains and attributes is the core of this method. The result of this research is the agility assessment method and blueprint of the architecture for the agility evaluation tool.

Over the last decade, researchers are investigating the potential of the educational paradigm shift from the traditional “one-size-fits all” teaching approach to an adaptive and more personalized study process. Availability of fast mobile connections along with the portative handheld device evolution, like phones and tablets, enable teachers and learners to communicate and interact with each other in a completely different way and speed. The mentioned devices not only deliver tutoring material to the learner, but might also serve as sensors to provide data about the learning process itself, e.g., learning conditions, location, detailed information on learning of tutoring material and other information. This sensor data put into the context of the study process can be widely used to improve student experience in the classroom and e-learning by providing more precise and detailed information to the teacher and/or an intelligent tutoring system for the selection of an appropriate tutoring strategy. This paper analyses and discusses acquisition, processing, and application scenarios of contextual information.

In this paper authors perform a research on possibilities of RDF (Resource Description Framework) syntaxes usage for information representation in Semantic Web. It is described why pure XML cannot be effectively used for this purpose, and how RDF framework solves this problem. Information is being represented in a form of a directed graph. RDF is only an abstract formal model for information representation and side tools are required in order to write down that information. Such tools are RDF syntaxes – concrete text or binary formats, which prescribe rules for RDF data serialization. Text-based RDF syntaxes can be developed on the existing format basis (XML, JSON) or can be an RDF-specific – designed from scratch to serve the only purpose – to serialize RDF graphs. Authors briefly describe some of the RDF syntaxes (both XML and non-XML) and compare them in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of each version. Serialization and deserialization speed tests using Jena library are made. The results from both analytical and experimental parts of this research are used to develop the recommendations for RDF syntaxes usage and to design a RDF/XML syntax subset, which is intended to simplify the development and raise compatibility of information serialized with this RDF syntax.

A domain model can provide compact information about its corresponding software system for business people. If the software system exists without its domain model and documentation it is time-consuming to understand its behavior and structure only from the code. Reverse Engineering (RE) tools can be used for obtaining behavior and structure of the software system from source code. After that the domain model can be created. A short overview and an example of obtaining the domain model, Topological Functioning Model (TFM), from source code are provided in the paper. Positive and negative effects of the process of TFM backward derivation are also discussed.

As part of the superelement approximation technology for fragments (subsystems) of the analyzed structures, a numerical method of determining the characteristics of arbitrary type superelements was developed. The examples of simulation models with two-node superelements demonstrated the efficacy of the method in the structural analysis of elastic systems.