Abstract
In this paper we present the main concepts of a domain-specific aspect language for specifying cross-cutting concerns of MATLAB programs, together with a suite of metrics that is capable of assessing the overall advantage of introducing aspects in the development cycle of MATLAB software. We present the results of using our own suite to quantify the advantages of using aspect oriented programming, both in terms of programming effort and code quality. The results are promising and show a good potential for aspect oriented programming in MATLAB while our suite proves to be capable of analyzing the overall characteristics of MATLAB solutions and providing interesting results about them.

Abstract
Despite the availability of both multithreading and tabling in some Prolog systems, the implementation of these two features, such that they work together, implies complex ties to one another and to the underlying engine. In recent work, we have proposed an approach to combine multithreading with tabling, implemented on top of the Yap Prolog system, whose primary goal was to reduce memory usage for the table space. Regarding the execution times, we observed some problems related to Yap's memory allocator, which is based on the operating system's default memory allocator, when running programs that allocate a higher number of data structures in the table space. In this paper, we propose a more efficient and scalable memory allocator for multithreaded tabled evaluation of logic programs. Our goal is to minimize the performance degradation that the system suffers when it is exposed to simultaneous memory requests made by multiple threads. For that, we propose a memory allocator based on local and global pages, to split memory among specific data structures and different threads, together with a strategy where data structures of the same type are pre-allocated within a page. Experimental results show that our new memory allocator can effectively reduce the execution time and scale better, when increasing the number of threads, than the original allocator.

Abstract
Meeting safety requirements typically require substantial invasive extensions to applications. Even in the absence of faults, the overhead associated with these invasive extensions may unacceptably increase execution time. In this paper we focus on a number of experiments with schemes for error detection, having a 3D Path Planning application for an avionics system as case study. We analyze how these error detection schemes can be implemented to meeting system's time budget. The experiments allowed us to acquire the requirements for automating the application of the error detection schemes in the context of a hardware/software design-flow, and to determine how those schemes can be addressed using a novel approach where safety requirements are described using an aspect- and strategy-oriented programming language, named LARA. For our experiments and validation, we consider an FPGA-based embedded system consisting of a general purpose processor (GPP) coupled to custom computing units which are primarily used for hardware acceleration and for implementing fault detection schemes. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
Dermoscopy is a non-invasive diagnostic technique for the in vivo observation of pigmented skin lesions used in dermatology. There is currently a great interest in the prospects of automatic image analysis methods for dermoscopy, both to provide quantitative information about a lesion, which can be of relevance for the clinician, and as a stand alone early warning tool. The standard approach in automatic dermoscopic image analysis has usually three stages: (i) segmentation, (ii) feature extraction and selection, (iii) lesion classification. This paper evaluates the potential of an alternative approach based on the Menzies method presence of 1 or more of 6 color classes, indicating that the lesion should be considered a potential melanoma. This method does not require stages (i) and (ii) - lesion segmentation and feature extraction. The Jeffries-Matusita and Transformed Divergence metrics were used to evaluate the color class separability. The preliminary results presented in this paper suggest that a system based on the Menzies method could provide valuable information for automatic dermoscopic image analysis.

Abstract
Utilitybased learning is a key technique for addressing many real world data mining applications, where the costs/benefits are not uniform across the domain of the target variable. Still, most of the existing research has been focused on classification problems. In this paper we address a related problem. There are many relevant domains (e. g. ecological, meteorological, finance) where decisions are based on the forecast of a numeric quantity (i.e. the result of a regression model). The goal of the work on this paper is to present an evaluation framework for applications where the numeric outcome of a regression model may lead to different costs/benefits as a consequence of the actions it entails. The new metric provides a more informed estimate of the utility of any regression model, given the application-specific preference biases, and hence makes more reliable the comparison and selection between alternative regression models. We illustrate the objective of our evaluation methodology on a real-life application and also carry a set of experiments over a subset of our target regression tasks: the prediction of rare and extreme values. Results show the effectiveness of our proposed utility metric for identifying the models that perform better on this type of applications.

Abstract
The problem of selecting suppliers/partners is a crucial and important part in the process of decision making for companies that intend to perform competitively in their area of activity. The selection of supplier/partner is a time and resource-consuming task that involves data collection and a careful analysis of the factors that can positively or negatively influence the choice. Nevertheless it is a critical process that affects significantly the operational performance of each company. In this work, there were identified five broad selection criteria: Quality, Financial, Synergies, Cost, and Production System. Within these criteria, it was also included five sub-criteria. After the identification criteria, a survey was elaborated and companies were contacted in order to understand which factors have more weight in their decisions to choose the partners. Interpreted the results and processed the data, it was adopted a model of linear weighting to reflect the importance of each factor. The model has a hierarchical structure and can be applied with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method or Value Analysis. The goal of the paper it's to supply a selection reference model that can represent an orientation/pattern for a decision making on the suppliers/partners selection process (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge