Abstract
Over the last decade component-based software development arose as a promising paradigm to deal with the ever increasing complexity in software design, evolution and reuse. Shacc is a prototyping tool for component-based systems in which components are modelled coinductively as generalized Mealy machines. The prototype is built as a Haskell library endowed with a graphical user interface developed in Swing. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Abstract
The academic performance and social competence of a child in school is positively associated with the involvement of their parents. However, the researches about educational learning models often ignore the parents' part. Internet opens a new paradigm: education and communication approach is more complex than ever. Here, we would like to present an Internet based system to support students' homework. We believe that one of the major advantages of our system is time saving, particularly from the teacher's point of view. Also, this system gathers statistical data concerning different groups of students selected by the teacher. From these data on, the teacher can easily see where the students are having problems and decide what to do next. From the student (or parent) point of view, the prompt feedback about the exercises correctness, added to the training with different exercises sets about the same subject, besides the utilization of video, color, sound, etc., that positively reinforce child's senses, are elected as the main advantages. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract

Abstract
Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) is an optical sensor recorded within the core of a standard optical fibre, which responds faithfully to strain and temperature. FBG sensors are a promising alternative to other sensing methodologies to assess bone mechanics in vivo. However, response of bone cells/bone tissue to FBGs and its sensing capability in this environment have not been recorded yet. The present study addressed these issues in long-term human osteoblastic cell cultures. Results showed that osteoblastic cells were able to adhere and proliferate over the fibre and, also, the protective polymer coating. RT-PCR analysis showed the expression of Col I, ALP, BMP-2, M-CSF, RANKL and OPG. In addition, cultures presented high ALP activity and the formation of a calcium phosphate mineralized extracellular matrix. Cell behavior over the fibre without and with the coating polymer was similar to that found in cultures grown in standard tissue culture plates (control). In addition to the excellent osteoblastic cytocompatibility, FBGs maintained the physical integrity and functionality, as its sensing capability was not affected through the culture period. Results suggest the possibility of in vivo osseointegration of the optical fibre/FBGs anticipating a variety of applications in bone mechanical dynamics.

Abstract
Several types of market equilibria approaches, such as Cournot, Conjectural Variation (CVE). Supply Function (SFE) or Conjectured Supply Function (CSFE) have been used to model electricity markets for the medium and long term. Among them, CSFE has been proposed as a generalization of the classic Cournot. It computes the equilibrium considering the reaction of the competitors against changes in their strategy, combining several characteristics of both CVE and SFE. Unlike linear SFE approaches, strategies are linearized only at the equilibrium point, using their first-order Taylor approximation. But to solve CSFE, the slope or the intercept of the linear approximations must be given, which has been proved to be very restrictive. This paper proposes a new algorithm to compute CSFE. Unlike previous approaches, the main contribution is that the competitors' strategies for each generator are initially unknown (both slope and intercept) and endogenously computed by this new iterative algorithm. To show the applicability of the proposed approach, it has been applied to several case examples where its qualitative behavior has been analyzed in detail.

Abstract
Objective: In human speech, the changes in intonation, rhythm, or stress reflect emotions or intentions and are called prosody. Dysprosody is the impairment of prosody and has been described in stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Reports in epilepsy patients are limited to case reports. Methods: We assessed prosody qualitatively and quantitatively in 967 focal epilepsy patients. The qualitative assessment was performed by 2 native German speakers, and the quantitative frequency analysis used linguistic software tools. For the quantitative analysis, the formant F0 (a frequency peak, which is an approximation of pitch) and the further spectral frequency peaks of our patients' voices were analyzed. Results: We found 26 patients with ictal dysprosody through qualitative analysis (2.7% of all focal epilepsies). The qualitative changes affected mostly the pitch and the loss of melody. The seizure patterns at the time of ictal dysprosody were always in the nondominant hemisphere (100%) and were mostly right temporal (n = 22; 84.6%). Quantitative analysis of 15 audio samples (11 patients) showed a change in the frequency of formant F0 of several patients and a reduction of frequency variation during ictal speech, expressed as the SD of formant F0 (ictal 14.1 vs interictal 27.2). Conclusions: Ictal dysprosody localizes seizure onset or propagation to the nondominant temporal lobe. This information can be used in the evaluation of patients considered for resective epilepsy surgery. Neurology (R) 2011; 77: 1482-1486