Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This work proposes the integration of geographical databases and topographic environment models within current flight simulators technology. This process requires the definition of standard interfaces to integrate different geographical data sources in the topographic environment model, then the visualization and edition of the topographic environment, and finally the preparation of the scene for the flight simulator.The combined use of geographical databases and the emerging GPU computational power provides an opportunity to develop interactive applications that use massive geospatial data. This allows the visualization of geospatial databases in real time using low cost desktop computers.

This paper presents a working methodology and a complementary interactive tool, calledJobDag, for execution of commands on files selected from a working area. Workflows basedon DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs) can be specified using JobDag, for deferred executionon remote platforms such as clusters or grids. We have used the package SU (Seismic Unix)for testing JobDag, and we defined the object types this package accepts and the commandsthat apply on these objects, normally contained in files

Human-computer interaction is a very recent discipline at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Inthis paper we present the experiences of the first academic year the first courses about humancomputerinteraction, an undergraduate course and a Masters course, were designed andtaught. The HCI course introduction strategy consisted of two steps: 1) to initiate a dedicatedundergraduate course during the first term, and 2) to initiate a dedicated Masters courseduring the second term, simultaneously taught with the undergraduate course. Both coursesshare the outline. However, due to differences among undergraduate and graduate studentsand among undergraduate and Masters courses, evaluation methodology differences wereimplemented, resulting in more assignments and a higher exigency level for graduatestudents. Work in the classroom is different for each of the courses, because graduate studentscan build their own knowledge based on their previous working experience and on theexchange of ideas with other students. In both undergraduate and Masters courses, emphasisis set on practice supported by theory.

This work presents a proposal on design and implementation of web sites e-learning withproperties of service reconfiguration in execution time, offering a new adaptation andpersonalisation mechanism with context-aware characteristics.We describe an integration model to incorporate “the coordination context-aware contracts”into an e-learning framework. The implementation has been solved using design patternswhich allow superimposition of rules through contracts, by means of the interaction betweenthe objects that implement services (i.e messages edition on a Forum) and the objects thatrequire them.

Software change logs and release notes are documents released together with new versions of a software product. They contain the description of the changes made to the previous version and the new features introduced in the new version. In this paper, we present a keywordbased approach to mining and analyzing non-source code documents and define a mathematical framework to represent the data. This approach is applied in the study of the change logs of Linux and the release notes of FreeBSD. The results show that the software maintenance process and evolution process share some common properties and the keyword-based text mining technique could be used as a systematic method to study software maintenance and evolution.

 In this paper, the state-of-the-art on the field of Information and Communications Technolo- gies (ICTs) in Latin America is presented. Its main contribution consists in the localization of common objectives for the majority of the countries in the region. Although the countries are very heterogeneous from the cultural and geographical perspectives, there are many common factors that can be exploited in order to develop their economies. At first sight, Brazil or Mex- ico with their huge populations and big economies are giants compared to other countries like Bolivia or Costa Rica. However there are many common problems in all of them that can be addressed with a common strategy. An important question that this presentation tries to answer is the ICT profile of Latin America: consumer or producer. Data from the World Bank on ICT infrastructure and from the academic sector on the actual situation of the R&D activities in the region are analyzed to answer this question.

A description is given of an implementation of a parallel refinement algorithm based on the sequential 2T-LE algorithm of bisection into two triangles (Longest-Edge). The proposed algorithm allows refining in parallel the triangulation of a given geometric mesh. The parallel implementation was carried out on a cluster with a Linux platform communicated through a Message Passing Interface (MPI). The results of the parallel refinement show that as the size of the problem increases, better performance is obtained from the parallel algorithm compared to the sequential algorithm.

We de¯ne an structural operational semantics of the core of an imperative language. It has a measure in the transitions corresponding to the number of steps of evaluation that takes place in the transition (from the point of view of usual complexity theory) and transitivity rules that allow to prove in the theory what is usually proved in the meta-theory.

This research aims to investigate the adoption of technology by the visual deficient. The technology studied was the Dosvox software, a support tool for the visual deficient produced at NCE/UFRJ. A qualitative method, through a case study, was used to address professional and social expectation and the perception of visual deficiency bearers as to the intrinsic motivational factors (ease-of-use and social pressure) as well as to the extrinsic motivational factor (perceived usefulness). The motivational factors used have been extracted from the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and based on that model a standard form was used to gather information. Ten visual deficiency bearers, users of Dosvox, have been interviewed. The interviewees have been unanimous in affirming that, for those who are learning, Dosvox is the easiest software to use, stimulating them to return to studies and to social life. A significant group has confirmed that after their training with Dosvox, they have become more competitive as to the work market. It has also been observed a stronger influence of the perceived usefulness factor over the social pressure and the perceived ease-of-use. The results of this research may indicate new approaches to the development of specific information systems for the visual deficient.

This article presents the use of a remote network lab as an aid to support teaching computernetworks. The purpose is to enable students complement their theoretical learning withpractical experimentation in networking devices which can be carried out synchronously totheoretical classes and from any room with internet access. Unlike the current solutions basedon mainly software emulation and simulation, the students interact remotely with commercialnetwork devices, such as cutting-edge and widely used switches, routers and firewalls at theworkplace.This proposal reduces the expenses or installing new laboratories in all thecampuses where lectures are held and also moving the students to laboratories that are notlocated near their classrooms. The use of the remote laboratory has been compared with the useof traditional network labs with senior students majoring information technology engineering.The preliminary results show a great similarity in both uses demonstrating that a remotenetwork lab is an effective aid for teaching computer networks..