Abstract
Aspect-Oriented Programming is an emerging programming paradigm providing novel constructs that eliminate code scattering and tangling by modularizing crosscutting concerns in their own aspect modules. Many current aspect-oriented languages are backwards compatible extensions to existing popular languages, which opens the way to aspectize systems written in those languages. This paper contributes with the beginnings of a pattern language for refactoring existing systems into aspect-oriented versions of those systems. The pattern language covers the early assessment and decision stages: identifying latent aspects in existing systems, knowing when it is feasible to refactor to aspects and assessment of the necessary prerequisites for the refactoring process. © 2007 Copyright is held by the authors.

Abstract

Abstract
Recent advances in mobile positioning systems and telecommunications are providing the technology needed for the development of location-aware tele-care applications. This paper introduces CAALYX - Complete Ambient Assisted Living Experiment, an EU-funded project that aims at increasing older people's autonomy and self-confidence by developing a wearable light device capable of measuring specific vital signs of the elderly, detecting falls and location, and communicating automatically in real-time with his/her care provider in case of an emergency, wherever the older person happens to be, at home or outside.

Abstract
Gathering field data from crisis areas requires overcoming a major technical hurdle: infrastructures and terminals for Internet access are non-existent or unreliable. Teams of professionals acting on the field lack a cost-effective, convenient way to provide their data to central management headquarters and the worldwide public in a timely manner. Cell-phone software can be leveraged to bridge this. Using cellphone applications, people living or working in low-tech areas can provide their knowledge worldwide, taking full advantage of georeferenced functionalities. In this paper we present the prototype of a platform based on a wiki+map server backbone for direct information entry, query, and editing, by people on the field using cell-phones, with strong version management. This georeferenced information can then be visualized centrally for tackling development/crisis issues, such as drought problems, outbreaks of diseases, etc. - giving NGOs and governments a better framework upon which to act.

Abstract
Many music works produced in the past still exist only as original manuscripts or as photocopies. Preserving them entails their digitalization and consequent accessibility in a digital format easy-to-manage. The manual process to carry out this task is very time consuming and error prone. Optical music recognition (OMR) is a form of structured document image analysis where music symbols are isolated and identified so that the music can be conveniently processed. While OMR systems perform well on printed scores, current methods for reading handwritten musical scores by computers remain far from ideal. One of the fundamental stages of this process is the staff line detection. In this paper a new method for the automatic detection of music stave lines based on a shortest path approach is presented. Lines with some curvature, discontinuities, and inclination are robustly detected. The proposed algorithm behaves favourably when compared experimentally with well-established algorithms.

Abstract
Demographical and social changes have an enormous effect on health care, emergency and welfare services. Indeed, as the average age continues to rise, it is set the mood to an exponential growth in assistance and care, resulting in higher service costs, a decrease in quality of service, or even both. On the other hand, as part of the evolution of traditional Virtual Reality Environments (or Intelligent Mixed Reality), a striving expression for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) it is possible to outline the role of AmI in healthcare, by focusing on its technological, logical (relational) and common sense nature. Our goal is to have in place an electronically-based monitoring system. This would reduce response time to adverse events, improve analytics and reporting, and will provide caregivers with the information they need to positively impact the care of individual patients.