In this work we present a critical assessment of some problems and open questions on the debated notion of modularity. Modularity is greatly in fashion nowadays, being often proposed as the new approach to complex artefact production that enables to combine fast innovation pace, enhanced product variety and reduced need for co-ordination. In line with recent critical assessments of the manageri...

We describe a large-scale evaluation of four interactive question answering system with real users. The purpose of the evaluation was to develop evaluation methods and metrics for interactive QA systems. We present our evaluation method as a case study, and discuss the design and administration of the evaluation components and the effectiveness of several evaluation techniques with respect to t...

E agree about the goals of price stability, low unemployment and stable economic growth, but they disagree about the policies to achieve these goals. The disagreement is particularly heated over discretionary countercyclical Keynesian fiscal policy. After the poor macroeconomic performance of the 1970s and critical policy evaluations of the Keynesian approach— ranging from Robert E. Lucas and T...

An abundance of comprehensive school reform (CSR) literature exists illustrating CSRs are effective in improving student outcomes. However, much of this research reports on top-down reforms, focuses on academic outcomes, and uses quantitative methods alone. Many educational researchers have argued for the use of mixed methods for providing a holistic understanding of a CSR’s impact on student o...

Kriegspiel is a Chess variant similar to wargames, in which players have to deal with uncertainty. Kriegspiel increases the difficulty typical of Chess by hiding from each player his opponent’s moves. Although it is a two person game it needs a referee, whose task consists in accepting the legal moves and rejecting the illegal ones, with respect to the real situation. Neither player knows the w...

Smart CAD/CAM technologies for superior product modeling in the intelligence of designing complete product variants become more and more pertinent in future. Many design techniques to help interdisciplinary design actions in different engineering domains in addition to consequent processes have to be developed. A necessary job to achieve this aim is to permanently investigate the present state ...

From 2001-2006 we used a number of approaches to assess how well our first-year students learn statistics and mathematics when introduced to different teaching methods. The topics introduced in their two courses include those found in a standard applied probability and statistics course. For example, descriptive linear regression. Most of these assessments have been based upon analyses of opini...

We present our experience with a usability evaluation of two prototype CVE applications being developed by the COVEN project. The applications are a teleconferencing system aimed at future business users of CVEs, and a holiday planning environment for the use of the general public. Our concerns in the evaluations were three fold: to refine the design of these applications, to gain further under...

Smart CAD/CAM technologies for superior product modeling in the intelligence of designing complete product variants become more and more pertinent in future. Many design techniques to help interdisciplinary design actions in different engineering domains in addition to consequent processes have to be developed. A necessary job to achieve this aim is to permanently investigate the present state ...

considering a) that a number of administrations and organizations throughout the world are currently using and/or evaluating high-definition television systems, and that in many parts of the world HDTV broadcasting is likely to become the primary medium of the next century; b) that subjective assessments are a vital element in HDTV system design and selection; c) that Recommendation ITU-R BT.50...