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Lifelong learning requires appropriate solutions, especially for corporate training. Workers usually have difficulty combining training and their normal work. In this context, micro-learning emerges as a suitable solution, since it is based on breaking down new concepts into small fragments or pills of content, which can be consumed in short periods of time. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we offer an updated overview of the research on this training paradigm, as well as the different technologies leading to potential commercial solutions. Second, we introduce a proposal to add micro-learning content to more formal distance learning environments (traditional Learning Management Systems or LMS), with the aim of taking advantage of both learning philosophies. Our approach is based on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that is deployed in the cloud. In order to ensure the full integration of the micro-learning approach in traditional LMSs, we have used two well-known standards in the distance learning field: LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) and LIS (Learning Information Service). The combination of these two technologies allows the exchange of data with the LMS to monitor the student's activity and results. Finally, we have collected the opinion of lectures from different countries in order to know their thoughts about the potential of this new approach in higher education, obtaining positive feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a general consensus of the good sensing and novelty characteristics of Twitter as an information media for the complex financial market. This paper investigates the permeability of Twittersphere, the total universe of Twitter users and their habits, towards relevant events in the financial market. Analysis shows that a general purpose social media is permeable to financial-specific events and establishes Twitter as a relevant feeder for taking decisions regarding the financial market and event fraudulent activities in that market. However, the provenance of contributions, their different levels of credibility and quality and even the purpose or intention behind them should to be considered and carefully contemplated if Twitter is used as a single source for decision taking. With the overall aim of this research, to deploy an architecture for real-time monitoring of irregularities in the financial market, this paper conducts a series of experiments on the level of permeability and the permeable features of Twitter in the event of one of these irregularities. To be precise, Twitter data is collected concerning an event comprising of a specific financial action on the 27th January 2017: the announcement about the merge of two companies Tesco PLC and Booker Group PLC, listed in the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), to create the UK's Leading Food Business. The experiment attempts to answer two research questions which aim to characterize the features of Twitter permeability to the financial market. The experimental results confirm that a far-impacting financial event, such as the merger considered, caused apparent disturbances in all the features considered, that is, information volume, content and sentiment as well as geographical provenance. Analysis shows that although Twitter is not a specific financial forum, it is permeable to financial events. Therefore it should be considered within the architecture for real-time monitoring of irregularities in the financial market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether traditional TV or Internet multimedia content, parental control systems based on the intermediate filtering criteria of broadcasters or content producers may be not flexible enough. From parent's perspective, the ideal scenario would be one in which they could dynamically decide about the suitability of any content. Since this desired scenario entails many practical problems, we propose an intermediate solution where parents delegate the decision of blocking any piece of TV content on a trustworthy set of parents. Our approach provides a collaborative parental control model based on two pillar: (1) a parenting social network where parents interact, freely give their opinion about TV content and tag this content (collaborative tagging); and (2) a model of trust relationship between parents. Regarding the deployment of parental control, we introduce a parental monitoring system for DVB-IPTV content, which is based on social technologies. The proposal combines information from the service provider and from parents in a social network to predict whether content should be blocked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly competitive market, stakeholders of the television industry strive to exploit all the possibilities to get revenues from advertising, but their practices are usually at odds with the comfort of the TV viewers. This paper presents the proof of concept of MiSPOT, a system that brings a non-invasive and fully personalized form of advertising to Interactive Digital TV, targeting both domestic and mobile receivers. MiSPOT employs semantic reasoning techniques to select advertisements suited to the preferences, interests and needs of each individual viewer, and then relies on multimedia composition abilities to blend the advertising material with the TV program he/she is viewing at any time. The advertisements can be set to launch interactive commercials, thus enabling means for the provision of t-commerce services. Evaluation experiments are described to show the technical viability of the proposal, and also to gauge the opinions of end users. Questions about the potential impact and exploitation of this new form of advertising are addressed too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of requirement specifications is done by accumulating knowledge about the desired systems in a progressive manner. This process can be supported by an analysis–revision cycle, in which the analysis phase checks the correctness of a given specification, and the revision phase modifies it, in case some problems are detected. To date, the analysis and revision activities have been typically considered in isolation, resulting in ineffective support to the stakeholders’ work. In response to that, this article introduces methodologies to conduct an interactive and integrated approach, grounded on the formalization of two basic types of evolutions (refinements and retrenchments) over multi-valued specification and modeling formalisms. Evaluation results are included to show that this approach can indeed help the stakeholders identify and clarify requirements through different stages of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desired principle of separation of concerns in software development can be jeopardized by the so-called crosscutting concerns, which tend to be scattered over (and tangled with) the functionality of the modular units of a system. The correct identification of such concerns (and their encapsulation into separate artifacts) is thereby considered a way to improve software understanding and evolution. Pursuing a proper management of concerns from the requirements engineering stage can greatly benefit the entire software life-cycle. In this paper, we propose conceptual guidelines on how to perform the identification of crosscutting concerns in the process of building requirements specifications. We argue that the identification must be carried out in an incremental way, to encapsulate apart the crosscutting concerns even if they have not emerged completely yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]