‘Michiganders should know when and what their governor is working on’

E-speranto is a formal language for generating multilingual texts on the World Wide Web. It is currently still under development. The vocabulary and grammar rules of E-speranto are based on Esperanto; the syntax of E-speranto, however, is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language). The latter enables the integration of documents generated in E-speranto into web pages. When a user accesses a web page generated in E-speranto, the interpreter interprets the document into a chosen natural language, which enables the user to read the document in any arbitrary language supported by the interpreter.

The basic parts of the E-speranto interpreting system are the interpreters and information resources, which complies with the principle of separating the interpretation process from the data itself. The architecture of the E-speranto interpreter takes advantage of the resemblance between the languages belonging to the same linguistic group, which consequently results in a lower production cost of the interpreters for the same linguistic group.

We designed a proof-of-concept implementation for interpreting E-speranto in three Slavic languages: Slovenian, Serbian and Russian. These languages share many common features in addition to having a similar syntax and vocabulary. The content of the information resources (vocabulary, lexicon) was limited to the extent that was needed to interpret the test documents. The testing confirmed the applicability of our concept and also indicated the guidelines for future development of both the interpreters and E-speranto itself.

The quality attributes of a software system are, to a large extent, determined by the decisions taken early in the development process. Best practices in software engineering recommend the identification of important quality attributes during the requirements elicitation process, and the specification of software architectures to satisfy these requirements. Over the years the software engineering community has studied the relationship between quality attributes and the use of particular architectural styles and patterns. In this paper we study the relationship between quality attributes and Aspect-Oriented Software Architectures - which apply the principles of Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) at the architectural level. AOSD focuses on identifying, modeling and composing crosscutting concerns - i.e. concerns that are tangled and/or scattered with other concerns of the application. In this paper we propose to use AO-ADL, an aspect-oriented architectural description language, to specify quality attributes by means of parameterizable, and thus reusable, architectural patterns. We particularly focus on quality attributes that: (1) have major implications on software functionality, requiring the incorporation of explicit functionality at the architectural level; (2) are complex enough as to be modeled by a set of related concerns and the compositions among them, and (3) crosscut domain specific functionality and are related to more than one component in the architecture. We illustrate our approach for usability, a critical quality attribute that satisfies the previous constraints and that requires special attention at the requirements and the architecture design stages.

This research explores vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and their extensive applications, such as enhancing traffic efficiency, infotainment, and passenger safety. Despite significant study, widespread deployment of VANETs has been hindered by security and privacy concerns. Challenges in implementation, including scalability, flexibility, poor connection, and insufficient intelligence, have further complicated VANETs. This study proposes leveraging cloud computing to address these challenges, marking a paradigm shift. Cloud computing, recognised for its cost-efficiency and virtualisation, is integrated with VANETs. The paper details the nomenclature, architecture, models, services, applications, and challenges of VANET-based cloud computing. Three architectures for VANET clouds - vehicular clouds (VCs), vehicles utilising clouds (VuCs), and hybrid vehicular clouds (HVCs) - are discussed in detail. The research provides an overview, delves into related work, and explores VANET cloud computing's architectural frameworks, models, and cloud services. It concludes with insights into future work and a comprehensive conclusion.

The application of computer image digitisation has realised the transformation of people's production and lifestyle, and also promoted the development of the construction industry. This article aims to realise the research on architectural decoration design and production under computer network environment and promote the ecological development of indoor and outdoor design in the construction industry. This article proposes to use virtual reality technology in image digitisation to guide architectural decoration design research. In the comparative analysis of the weight of architectural decoration elements, among the calculated weights of secondary elements, the spatial function has the largest weight, which is 0.2155, and the landscape has the smallest weight, which is 0.0113. Among the three-level unit weights, the service area has the largest weight, which is 0.0976, and the fence frame has the smallest weight, which is 0.0119.

A well-documented architecture can greatly improve comprehension and maintainability. However, shorter release cycles and quick delivery patterns results in negligence of architecture. In such situations, the architecture can be recovered from its current implementation based on considering dependency relations. In literature, structural and semantic dependencies are commonly used software features, and directory information along with co-change/change history information are among rarely utilised software features. But, they are found to help improve architecture recovery. Therefore, we consider investigating various features that may further improve the accuracy of existing architecture recovery techniques and evaluate their feasibility by considering them in different pairs. We compared five state-of-the-art methods under different feature subsets. We identified that two of them commonly outperform others but surprisingly with low accuracy in some evaluations. Further, we propose a new subset of features that reflects more accurate user perceptions and hence, results in improving the accuracy of architecture recovery techniques.

To assess a country's economic outlook and achieve higher economic growth, econometric models and prediction techniques are significant tools. Policymakers are always concerned with the correct future estimates of economic variables to take the right economic decisions, design better policies and effectively implement them. Therefore, there is a need to improve the predictive accuracy of the existing models and to use more sophisticated and superior algorithms for accurate forecasting. Deep learning models like recurrent neural networks are considered superior for forecasting as they provide better predictive results as compared to many of the econometric models. Against this backdrop, this paper presents the feasibility of using different deep-learning neural network architectures for trade forecasting. It predicts export trade using different recurrent neural architectures such as 'vanilla recurrent neural network (VRNN)', 'bi-directional long short-term memory network (Bi-LSTM)', 'bi-directional gated recurrent unit (Bi-GRU)' and a hybrid 'bi-directional LSTM and GRU neural network'. The performances of these models are evaluated and compared using different performance metrics such as Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Root Mean Squared Logarithmic Error (RMSLE) and coefficient of determination <em>R</em>-squared (<em>R</em>²). The results validated the effective export prediction for India.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify Critical Success Factors (CSF) of Business Intelligence (BI) and provide a framework to classify CSF into layers or perspectives using an enterprise architecture approach, then rank CSF within each perspective and evaluate the importance of each perspective at different BI maturity levels as well. Background: Although the implementation of the BI project has a significant impact on creating analytical and competitive capabilities, the lack of evaluation of CSF holistically is still a challenge. Moreover, the BI maturity level of the organization has not been considered in the BI implementation project. Identifying BI critical success factors and their importance can help the project team to move to a higher maturity level in the organization. Methodology: First, a list of distinct CSF is identified through a literature review. Second, a framework is provided for categorizing these CSF using enterprise architecture. Interviewing is the research method used to evaluate the importance of CSF and framework layers with two questionnaires among experts. The first questionnaire was done by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a quantitative method of decision-making to calculate the weight of the CSF according to the importance of CSF in each of the framework layers. The second one was conducted to evaluate framework layers at different BI maturity levels using a Likert scale. Contribution: This paper contributes to the implementation of BI projects by identifying a comprehensive list of CSF in the form of a holistic multi-layered framework and ranking the importance of CSF and layers at BI maturity levels. Findings: The most important CSF in BI implementation projects include senior management support, process identification, data quality, analytics quality, hardware quality, security standards, scope management, documentation, project team skills, and customer needs transformation, which received the highest scores in framework layers. In addition, it was observed that as the organization moves to higher levels of maturity, the average importance of strategic business and security perspectives or layers increases. But the average importance of data, applications, infrastructure, and network, the project management layers in the proposed framework is the same regardless of the level of business intelligence maturity. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results of this paper can be used by academicians and practitioners to improve BI project implementation through understanding a comprehensive list of CSF and their importance. This awareness causes us to focus on the most important CSF and have better planning to reach higher levels of maturity according to the maturity level of the organization. Future Research: For future research, the interaction of critical success factors of business intelligence and framework layers can be examined with different methods.

Aim/Purpose: This study identifies the scale types and measurement units used in the measurement of enterprise architecture (EA) and analyzes the admissibility of the mathematical operations used. Background: The majority of measurement solutions proposed in the EA literature are based on researchers’ opinions and many with limited empirical validation and weak metrological properties. This means that the results generated by these solutions may not be reliable, trustworthy, or comparable, and may even lead to wrong investment decisions. While the literature proposes a number of EA measurement solutions, the designs of the mathematical operations used to measure EA have not yet been independently analyzed. It is imperative that the EA community works towards developing robust, reliable, and widely accepted measurement solutions. Only then can senior management make informed decisions about the allocation of resources for EA initiatives and ensure that their investment yields optimal results. Methodology: In previous research, we identified, through a systematic literature review, the EA measurement solutions proposed in the literature and classified them by EA entity types. In a subsequent study, we evaluated their metrology coverage from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. The metrology coverage was designed using a combination of the evaluation theory, best practices from the software measurement literature including the measurement context model, and representational theory of measurement to evaluate whether EA measurement solutions satisfy the metrology criteria. The research study reported here presents a more in-depth analysis of the mathematical operations within the proposed EA measurement solutions, and for each EA entity type, each mathematical operation used to measure EA was examined in terms of the scale types and measurement units of the inputs, their transformations through mathematical operations, the impact in terms of scale types, and measurement units of the proposed outputs. Contribution: This study adds to the body of knowledge on EA measurement by offering a metrology-based approach to analyze and design better EA measurement solutions that satisfy the validity of scale type transformations in mathematical operations and the use of explicit measurement units to allow measurement consistency for their usage in decision-making models. Findings: The findings from this study reveal that some important metrology and quantification issues have been overlooked in the design of EA measurement solutions proposed in the literature: a number of proposed EA mathematical operations produce numbers with unknown units and scale types, often the result of an aggregation of undetermined assumptions rather than explicit quantitative knowledge. The significance of such aggregation is uncertain, leading to numbers that have suffered information loss and lack clear meaning. It is also unclear if it is appropriate to add or multiply these numbers together. Such EA numbers are deemed to have low metrological quality and could potentially lead to incorrect decisions with serious and costly consequences. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results of the study provide valuable insights for professionals in the field of EA. Identifying the metrology limitations and weaknesses of existing EA measurement solutions may indicate, for instance, that practitioners should wait before using them until their design has been strengthened. In addition, practitioners can make informed choices and select solutions with a more robust metrology design. This, in turn, will benefit enterprise architects, software engineers, and other EA professionals in decision making, by enabling them to take into consideration factors more adequately such as cost, quality, risk, and value when assessing EA features. The study’s findings thus contribute to the development of more reliable and effective EA measurement solutions. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can use with greater confidence the EA measurement solutions with admissible mathematical operations and measurement units to develop new decision-making models. Other researchers can carry on research to address the weaknesses identified in this study and propose improved ones. Impact on Society: Developers, architects, and managers may be making inappropriate decisions based on seriously flawed EA measurement solutions proposed in the literature and providing undue confidence and a waste of resources when based on bad measurement design. Better quantitative tools will ultimately lead to better decision making in the EA domain, as in domains with a long history of rigor in the design of the measurement tools. Such advancements will benefit enterprise architects, software engineers, and other practitioners, by providing them with more meaningful measurements for informed decision making. Future Research: While the analysis described in this study has been explicitly applied to evaluating EA measurement solutions, researchers and practitioners in other domains can also examine measurement solutions proposed in their respective domains and design new ones.

The purpose of this investigation is to define the architecture of computer informing systems. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary, big-picture view of the cognition units which provide the foundation for informing systems. Among the findings are the following: informing systems should be designed for rigor and relevance with respect to the cognitive units (information), integrating its purpose and goal to achieve its expected utility; informing systems should also be designed for reasoning richness, informing modes, informing quality, and predicting informing biases and filters. Practical implications: A well-designed informing system should provide as an output a message and resonant change by reflecting information that triggers the client’s behavior. Social implication: The quest for the development of informing systems is not supported by Academia in practice; it is only supported by a close circle of early leaders of such systemic applications who sought to enhance the existing information systems which very often process data but do not inform as they should. Originality: This investigation, by providing an interdisciplinary and graphic modeling of informing channels and systems, indicates the vitality of these systems and their potential to create better decision-making in order to solve problems and sustain organizations and civilization.

BEIRUT: The Israeli military carried out at least five airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, after Israel’s defence minister ruled out any ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel’s goals had been met.

Smoke rose over Beirut as blasts shook the capital around mid-morning. The explosions followed an Israeli military warning posted on social media identifying 12 sites in the southern suburbs and saying it would take action against them soon. It warned residents they were located near Hezbollah facilities.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest strikes. Residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing the area in September.

In Israel, air raid sirens sounded in parts of the north, sending residents running for shelter, and the military said a number of “suspicious aerial targets” were launched from Lebanon. There were no reports of injuries.

Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict at the Lebanese-Israeli border had been rumbling on for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.

Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah over the last seven weeks, killing many of its top leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, flattening parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, and causing vast destruction in border villages in south Lebanon.

Meeting with Israel’s general staff for the first time, Israel’s newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.

“Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel’s right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meet the goals of the war in Lebanon - disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes.”

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday there had been “a certain progress” in ceasefire talks, whilst adding the war against Hezbollah was not yet over.

The main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement, he said.

Hezbollah has said it is ready for a long war against Israel and has kept up rocket fire.

SOUTH OF THE LITANI

The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a U.N. Resolution that ended a war between the group and Israel in 2006.

The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and Israel have accused each other of violating the resolution.

Israel’s offensive has driven more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon in the last seven weeks. Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,243 people and injured 14,134, the Lebanese health ministry said. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hezbollah attacks have killed roughly 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.

ZHUHAI: A hit-and-run attack at a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai killed 35 people and severely injured 43, local police said on Tuesday.

The incident happened at 7:48 p.m. (1148 GMT) on Monday, when a small off-road vehicle was driven into a large group of people exercising outside the sports centre.

Zhuhai police said in a statement that the suspect, a 62-year-old man surnamed Fan, was being treated at a hospital after hurting himself with a knife in his car.

A Reuters reporter at the scene on Tuesday evening said people had begun leaving wreaths, counting 18 laid in front of a sign for the Zhuhai People’s Fitness Square. Others lit candles and incense. The police presence was low.

A video, verified by Reuters, of the scene on Monday following the attack had shown at least 20 people lying on the ground. Cries of “terrorist” could be heard as ambulances arrived to take the injured to hospital.

Hundreds of rescue personnel from Zhuhai city and Guangdong province were deployed to provide emergency treatment, and more than 300 healthcare workers from five hospitals worked around the clock to save lives, state media Beijing Daily reported.

Fan was apprehended by police at the scene after attempting to flee, police said, adding that he had self-harmed using a knife, causing severe neck injuries.

Police said their preliminary investigation suggested the incident was triggered by Fan’s discontent following a divorce.

President Xi Jinping, cited by Chinese state television CCTV, ordered all-out efforts to treat the injured and demanded severe punishment for the perpetrator. The central government has dispatched a team to provide guidance on handling of the case, CCTV said.

The attack sparked thousands of angry comments on Chinese social media, many of which were quickly censored after the police reported the high death toll.

“Zhuhai is one of the most relaxed, peaceful, and liveable cities in the country, and this tragic incident has left a painful memory that will be hard to erase for many years to come,“ one user of the Weibo platform said.

Violent crime is rare in China due to tight security and strict gun laws. However, a rise in reports of knife attacks in large cities has drawn public attention to safety in public spaces.

In October, a knife attack in Beijing left five people wounded outside one of the city’s top primary schools. A month earlier, a Japanese student was fatally stabbed outside his school in Shenzhen.

Zhuhai is hosting China’s biggest annual air show this week where a new stealth jet fighter will be on display for the first time.

MADRID: Schools in flood-hit towns in eastern Spain will be closed on Wednesday as the region braces for more torrential rains, officials said.

National weather office AEMET on Tuesday placed parts of Valencia as well as Catalonia in the northeast and Andalusia in the south and the Balearic Islands on orange alert -- the second highest level -- for strong or torrential rains until Thursday.

The alert comes two weeks after an exceptional Mediterranean storm caused Spain's deadliest floods in decades.

The October 29 storm killed 223 people, the bulk of them in the Valencia region, according to the latest official tally.

Dozens of town halls in Valencia, including Chiva, one of the worst-hit sites, suspended classes and closed public gyms because of the threats of more heavy rain.

“In response to the information provided by the emergency services, school and sports activities will be SUSPENDED from tomorrow until further notice,“ Chiva town hall wrote on X.

A military vehicle drove through towns in Valencia using a megaphone to warn of the expected storms and urge people not to make “unnecessary trips,“ images broadcast on Spanish public television TVE showed,

While the amount of rain that is forecast to fall in Valencia is less than what fell two weeks ago, local officials warned sewage systems are clogged with mud and could struggle to cope with significant precipitation making more flooding possible.

Outrage at the authorities for their perceived mismanagement before and after the floods triggered mass protests on Saturday, the largest in Valencia city which drew 130,000 people.

Classes were also suspended on Wednesday in parts of southern Catalonia as well as some towns and cities in Andalusia, inclusing Malaga.

Says matter will now be decided by the PDM

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Met Office warns rains may generate urban flooding; asks travellers, tourists to take extra caution

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A combination of images showing illustratons depicting different angles of the upcoming Muraba Veil skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. — Instagram/@cnnstyle/@hypebeast

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Emergency personnel work near the site of a suspected hit-and-run attack, which left several wounded, outside a sports centre, in Zhuhai, China, November 11, 2024, in this still image taken from a social media video. — Reuters

A representational image showing a Richter scale reading. — AFP/File

Tropical Storm Rafael chugged toward the Cayman Islands on Tuesday and was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane en route to Cuba.

Here's a campaign event of note, set for Monday in the great state of Pennsylvania and featuring a lovely and personable pooch. "Join West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Babydog for food and fellowship at a Team Trump Road Trip Event in Erie, Pennsylvania," the Trump campaign noted Sunday in the briefest of brief written notices.

My Little Pony finally made it to the winner's circle.

Ward 8 voters on Tuesday sent incumbent Trayon White back to the D.C. Council for a third term, even as the embattled lawmaker faces a federal bribery case that clouds his political future.

Latinos left the Democratic party in a mass exodus last week, costing Kamala Harris the presidency.

Israel's security Cabinet has signed off on steps to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip ahead of Wednesday's deadline imposed by the Biden administration to address the dilemma or face a weapons embargo.

Will Venable is a busy man these days. The new manager of the Chicago White Sox is learning his way around the organization. He is talking to his new players and working with the front office on its offseason plans.

The Indiana Fever hired Stephanie White as coach on Friday, putting her in charge of a team led by WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark.