Metaprogramming and computational reflection are two related concepts that allow a program to inspect and possibly modify itself while running. Although the concepts have been explored by researchers for some time, a form of metaprogramming, namely aspect-oriented programming, is now being used by some practitioners. This paper is an attempt to understand the limitations of different forms of c...

Using the balanced scorecard approach based on sustainable development parameters is a powerful and useful methodology to evaluate the sustainable performance of organization or company. In this paper, a new approach based on sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) and multi criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches is developed for evaluating the performance of oil producing companies in Ira...

OBJECTIVES To provide an editorial introduction to the 2007 IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics with an overview of its contents and contributors. METHODS A brief overview of the main theme of "Biomedical Informatics for Sustainable Health Systems", and an outline of the purposes, contents, format, and acknowledgment of contributions for the 2007 IMIA Yearbook. RESULTS In resonance with th...

Sustainability has become an important initiative discussed and undertaken, not only by private buildings, but also by public buildings which both dealing with residential, office, commercial as well as hospital. Sustainable building is the practice of designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and removing buildings in ways that conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Rating sys...

This position paper intends to stimulate a profound rethinking of contemporary agricultural practice. We criticise the current intensity of chemical plant protection in Germany as ecologically unsustainable and thus threatening the achievement of key targets of environmental protection and nature conservation policies. In the first part of the paper, we provide background information on the use...

Nearly 20 years ago Quinn and Martin presented a novel blackbody design with an absorbing end face and highly reflecting side walls. This blackbody had the considerable advantage of being less sensitive to temperature gradients along the side walls (potentially of several degrees Celsius) compared to an all-black cavity. Recent work at NPL has developed this concept further, laying out the conc...

Delivering multimedia services to roaming subscribers raises significant challenges for content providers. There are a number of reasons for this; however, the principal difficulties arise from the inherent differences between the nature of mobile computing usage, and that of its static counterpart. The harnessing of appropriate contextual elements pertaining to a mobile subscriber at any given...

We describe a computationally reflective object-oriented architecture suitable for incorporating open-ended innovation and emergent entities into simulations. This allows emergent properties to be reified into objects. This requires modifying the model, and the metamodel, by incorporating novel classes and metaclasses dynamically. The classes and metaclasses are modified by including them in th...

Generics are proposed to reflect the nature of the conceptual system, whose prototype structure and vague boundaries make an unreliable basis for traditional treatments of truth and logic. Conceptual representations contain information that is considered germane and relevant to an understanding and familiarity with that concept. Such information includes fundamental or ontological features as w...