Model driven software engineering in the large: experiences at the Dutch tax and customs service (industry talk)

It is an undeniable fact that software plays an important role in our lives. We use the software to play our music, to check our e-mail, or even to help us drive our car. Thus, the quality of software directly influences the quality of our lives. However, the traditional Software Engineering paradigm is not able to cope with the increasing demands in quantity and quality of produced software. Thus, a new paradigm of Model Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is quickly gaining ground. MDSE promises to solve some of the problems of traditional Software Engineering (SE) by raising the level of abstraction. Thus, MDSE proposes the use of models and model transformations, instead of textual program files used in traditional SE, as means of producing software. The models are usually graph-based, and are built by using graphical notations – i.e. the models are represented diagrammatically. The advantages of using graphical models over text files are numerous, for example it is usually easier to deduce the relations between different model elements in their diagrammatic form, thus reducing the possibility of defects during the production of the software. Furthermore, formal model transformations can be used to produce different kinds of artifacts from models in all stages of software production. For example, artifacts that can be used as input for model checkers or simulation tools can be produced. This enables the checking or simulation of software products in the early phases of development, which further reduces the probability of defects in the final software product. However, methods and techniques to support MDSE are still not mature enough. In particular methods and techniques for model configuration management (MCM) are still in development, and no generic MCM system exists. In this thesis, I describe my research which was focused on developing methods and techniques to support generic model configuration management. In particular, during my research, I focused on developing methods and techniques for supporting model evolution and model co-evolution. Described methods and techniques are generic and are suitable for a state-based approach to model configuration management. In order to support the model evolution, I developed methods for the representation, calculation, and visualization of state-based model differences. Unlike in previously published research, where these three aspects of model differences are dealt with in separation, in my research all these three aspects are integrated. Thus, the result of model differences calculation algorithm is in the format which is described by my research on model differences representation. The same representation format of model differences is used as a basis of my approach to differences visualization. It is important to notice that the developed representation format for model differences is metamodel independent, and thus is generic, i.e., it can be used to represent differences between all graph-based models. Model co-evolution is a term that describes the problem of adapting models when their metamodels evolve. My solution to this problem has three steps. In the first step a special metamodel MMfMM is introduced. Unlike in traditional approaches, where metamodels are represented as instances of a metametamodel, in my approach the metamodels are represented by models which are instances of an MMfMM. In the second step, since metamodels are represented by models, previously defined methods and techniques for model evolution are reused to represent and calculate the metamodel differences. In the final step I define an algorithm that uses the calculated metamodel differences to adapt models conforming to the evolved metamodel. In order to validate my approaches to model evolution and model co-evolution, I have developed a tool for comparing models and visualizing resulting differences, and a tool for model co-evolution. Moreover, I have developed a method to compare tools for model comparison, and using this method I have conducted a series of experiments in which I compared the tool I developed to an industrial tool called EMFCompare. The results of these experiments are also presented in the thesis. Furthermore, in order to validate my tool and approach to model co-evolution, I have also specified and conducted several experiments. The results of these experiments are also presented in the thesis.

Model Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) promotes the use of models, rather than code, as the primary development artifacts. Models tend to be more understandable than code and can represent systems are variable levels of abstraction. MDSE promises improved code quality and engineers’ productivity. Many of those benefits have been well examined and evaluated. However, the potential implications of MDSE on software security and reliability is not well understood. Model-Driven Security (MDS) is an approach that can support the process of modeling security requirements at a high level of abstraction in the early stage of software development. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study on MDS methodologies and concepts. The scope of the review is ten years from 2008 to 2018. The study reports on the frequencies of publication over this time period to identify the MDS forums based on seven classifications: online databases, year of publications, type of publication (journal or conference paper), the geographical distribution of the researchers, the main contribution of each paper, MDS approaches, and the security concepts. The majority of studies focused on extensions to existing UML languages suggesting some limitations in the current UML standard support for security. Most studies report on empirical evaluations, and UML Class Diagrams were the most extended language.

The pervasiveness of ubiquitously connected smart devices are the main factors in shaping the computing. With the advent of Internet of things (IoTs), massive amount of data is being generated from different sources. The centralized architecture of cloud has become inefficient for the services provision to IoT enabled applications. For better support and services, fog layer is introduced in order to manage the IoT applications demands like latency, responsiveness, deadlines, resource availability and access time etc. of the fog nodes. However, there are some issues related to resource management and fog nodes allocation to the requesting application based on user expectations in the fog layer that need to be addressed. In this paper, we have proposed a Framework, based on Model Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) that practices Machine Learning algorithms and places fog enabled IoT applications at a most suitable fog node. MDSE is meant to develop software by exploiting the problem at domain model level. It is the abstract representation of knowledge that enhances productivity by maximization of compatibility between the systems. The proposed framework is a meta-model that prioritizes the placement requests of applications based on their required expectations and calculates the abilities of the fog nodes for different application placement requests. Rules based machine learning methods are used to create rules based on user’s requirements metrics and then results are optimized to get requesting device placement in the fog layer. At the end, a case study is conducted that uses fuzzy logic for application mapping and shows how the actual application placement will be done by the framework. The proposed meta-model reduces complexity and provides flexibility to make further enhancements according to the user’s requirement to use any of the Machine Learning approaches.

Effective emergency response requires situational awareness and preplanning for various contingencies inherent to the catastrophe; may it be a natural disaster or man-made crisis situation. Model Driven Software Engineering has contributed to the domain of contingency planning and response in a befitting manner by providing generic and scalable models, simulating emergency scenarios, in order to enhance the skills of responders. However, a thorough literature review identified that a comprehensive, intelligent and repository based model for planning of various contingencies inherent to the emergency situation is a mile stone to be achieved. Accepting the challenge, Interactive Contingency environment creation and Response Planning System (CRIPS) is proposed, which is a model driven platform/framework and facilitates a crisis manager to create a virtual emergency environment with its diverse ingredients and shaping an effective response actions to cater it. A multi perspective feedback mechanism and centrally administered picture board, which are the essential components of any response planning system, have also been incorporated. In addition, intelligent rater and repository concepts are introduced to rate the planning of crisis manager and save this whole contingency environment for analysis and self-learning of model, making it distinctive to the previous researches. The outcome of this research is a comprehensive meta-model, which can be further extended for model based development of an effective contingency and emergency response planning system. The validity of proposed meta-model is demonstrated through a real world case study of terrorists attack on Army Public School (APS) Peshawar/Pakistan. The results prove that proposed model is capable of modeling simple as well as complex scenarios and allows a crisis manager to effectively model a response in order to deter the catastrophic effects.KeywordsContingencyMeta-modelModel drivenResponseFeedbackRatingRepository

The Nordic Workshop on Model Driven Software Engineering brings together industry practitioners and academic researchers to share experiences and latest research on model driven software engineering and development. The workshop is a forum to present experiences and ongoing research in software engineering and model-driven engineering in particular, but also functions as an event for establishing co-operative research projects between the participants and working on joint research papers. The workshop provides an open forum, reserving ample time for discussions. The workshop has 7 editions of past history. Prior instances were held in Reykjavik (Island), Ronneby (Sweden), Grimstad (Norway), Tampere (Finland), and Turku (Finland).

Refactoring is the method to detecting and fixing bad smells in software. Refactoring techniques that have developed is a refactoring technique that is done on the source code. Along with the development of model driven software engineering (MDSE), it also developed the method of refactoring on the model. Refactoring method in the model is considered more effective and efficient because the detection and repair of bad smell is done at the design phase. The method of refactoring on the model evolves into a variety of techniques. Due to this, the systematic literature review is done to get the development of refactoring method on the developing model.

The main purpose of genericity in high lever programming language is to increase efficiency of software development and the safety and reusability of software. Genericity is the useful tool to implement generative software development and MDA. However, few modelling language has genericity mechanism and the mechanisms in typical programming language, say C++, Java, etc., is not sufficiently and is not ease to use. The situation in PAR platform is quite different. PAR platform supports Model Driven Software Engineering (MDE) and consists of algorithm modelling language Radl, abstract program modelling language Apla, a set of rules for the model transformation and a set of automatic transformation tools of algorithm model and program model. One of the distinct features of the PAR platform is the agile genericity mechanisms. In PAR not only a value, a data type and a computing-action (including operator, method, function and procedure, etc.) can be generic parameter, an ADT can be generic parameter also. We present new concepts, say type region, action region and ADT region, which can increase the safety of generic software obviously. The paper will pay special attention to describe the syntax and semantics of the ADT parameter. The case study describes the method to develop generic program with ADT as parameter.

The article examines the interrelation between tax reliefs and social benefits in the Czech Republic as complementary instruments of fiscal and social policy. Against the background of long-term state budget deficits intensified by recent crises, the study addresses the question of whether the coexistence of these two systems fulfils the principles of fair and efficient taxation and non-discrimination. The authors hypothesize that the dual system of tax reliefs and social benefits satisfies the requirement of fairness in taxation. The research applies an analytical and comparative legal-economic methodology, combining a normative assessment of tax and social policy instruments with synthesis of their fiscal and distributive impacts. The analysis reveals significant overlap between the two systems in purpose and effect, yet also systemic inconsistencies leading to unequal treatment of different income groups. Tax reliefs tend to favour higher-income taxpayers, whereas social benefits primarily target low-income households, producing regressive outcomes when assessed in isolation. The results indicate that fairness and efficiency can only be ensured through integrated evaluation of both instruments, rather than their separate assessment within public budgets. The hypothesis has not been confirmed, though neither has it been conclusively disproved due to the absence of comprehensive data on the combined economic impact. The article concludes that any reform of the Czech fiscal system must consider the simultaneous effects of tax and benefit mechanisms to uphold constitutional principles of equality and fiscal responsibility.

This paper analyzes the future occupational structure of the labour force in European members of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development (OECD). Occupational structure forecasts allow researchers to evaluate the quality of job openings and, consequently, overall future labour market performance. Identification of demand for certain occupations in Europe can facilitate assessment of whether processes occurring in the Russian labour market are consistent with global trends.The paper discusses the methodology of labour force forecasting and basic research approaches to the prediction of occupational structure changes. It emphasizes the dynamics of demand for representatives of certain occupations in Europe by identifying the fastest growing and declining occupations and suggests possible reasons for changing demand. The paper demonstrates that the main occupational trend over the next decade will consist in the increasing importance of professionals, as well as technicians and associate professionals. The increase in demand for health professionals and representatives of occupations providing scientific and technological innovation will be most significant. At the same time, it is expected that demand for elementary occupations will also rise. This process will evolve simultaneously with the decrease in the total number of skilled and semi-skilled blue-collar occupations due to globalization and the reduction of industrial production in developed economies. The ongoing “mechanization” of many job functions will not eliminate the need for occupations such as cleaners, labourers, domestic servants or personal workers. The need for these jobs allow employees with low levels of education to enter the labour market rather than depending on the social benefit system. Another tendency for all countries with developed economies will be reduced demand for many white-collar occupations as modern computer technologies and the automation of many routine functions previously performed by office workers becomes more prevalent.

"Gadžology" as Activism:What I Would Have Ethnography Do for East European Roma Heather Tidrick (bio) Gypsy stereotypes are unnervingly familiar even if you have never traveled to Budapest: They do not want to work; they just have babies so they can live off the social benefits system. Watch your pockets on the tram. Be careful in the Gypsy quarter—be sure not to go there after dark. As my own role as an American in Hungary has shifted over the past decade, though—as an English teacher just out of the University of California in the late 1990s; then an editor of Romani rights reports with the European Roma Rights Centre; and since 2003 a graduate student researcher—I have found it amazing how far-reaching adherence is to the ugly dominant narratives about Roma. This essay has two main goals: first, to recall the significance of the politics of knowledge in the articulation of bio-power (Foucault 1978)—for Roma in Europe, like Jews and many other groups who have experienced stigmatization, the contours of their oppression are profoundly influenced by notions of their cultural alterity, whether these expressions of their apparent distinctiveness appear in journalism, scholarly writing, or NGO promotional materials. I offer a few contemporary examples of such representations in the case of Roma and discuss the consequences of these representations. Second, because scholars play a political role in creating texts, I advocate a methodological stance that foregrounds inherent human dignity and vigilantly guards against the further reproduction of dominant, extremely destructive narratives about stigmatized groups. I discuss how these principles have shaped my own research agenda on the interplay between social policy and institutional practices with Roma. By playfully proposing "Gadžology" [End Page 121] (the study of non-Roma, or gadže, from a Romani point of view) as the counterpoint to "Romology," I attempt to highlight the ways our disciplinary boundaries can define our object of study to the detriment of both theory and ethics—and to challenge us to formulate alternative and liberatory avenues of scholarship as ethnographers. Power, Knowledge, and Romology Many writers too easily traffic in Gypsy stereotypes without the evidence to support their claims. Political scientist Zoltan Barany references the supposed "higher-than-average levels of Gypsy criminality" (2002, 180); journalist Isabel Fonseca claims that Roma have no words for "time," "danger," "warmth," and "quiet" (Fonseca 1996; Hancock 1997); and anthropologist David Scheffel (2005) points to apparent Romani deviance as a key factor in the segregation of Roma from Slovak community life in Svinia (and, implicitly, elsewhere in Eastern Europe). One only has to scratch the surface of these destructive claims to recognize the thin epistemological footing on which many of the authors in the multidisciplinary field of Romani Studies stand. Ian Hancock situates Fonseca's misinformation on the Romani language within the long "Gypsylorist" tradition of falsely claiming lexical paucity to illustrate supposed lack of virtues among Roma (Hancock 1997). Examples illustrating Romani "deviance" in Scheffel's account include such atrocities as a child throwing a pencil across the room in frustration—suggesting deep flaws in his interpretive frame as well as the self-acknowledged limitations in his ethnographic data collection. "Criminality" was the main justification the Third Reich used for their attempted extermination of Roma and Sinti during World War II.1 The link made between a supposed tendency or predisposition toward crime and the bodies and biology of Roma dates back to Cesare Lombroso's nineteenth-century criminological anthropological theory identifying Gypsies as a "race of criminals."2 Barany's uncritical use of the loaded term is not supported with any actual crime statistics. Such knowledge claims about Roma constitute essential features in the landscape of past and present international Romani politics. In this context, I argue, producing a text about Roma (be it written or visual) is a political act. In continuing to recycle such tropes as Gypsy criminality, deviance, and cultural paucity, scholars and journalists often participate [End Page 122] in reinforcing structural inequalities and systematic social exclusion of Roma in the places where they constitute a visible minority.3 Putative knowledge about Roma informs social policy and program development in countless ways...

Transformations in the Dutch welfare state and access to entitlements. The example of the Amsterdam city authority. The Netherlands faced a crisis at the end of the 1970’ s in their version of the welfare state and redirected their social benefit system towards a targeting policy, i. e., allocating resources and aid to the people who most needed them. The new policy included a special effort to identify and know more about their target audiences. The author uses the example of the Amsterdam city authority to present the tools, information technology in particular, used by the services in charge of managing and distributing specific targeted benefits. In addition to the technical specifics, the author describes both the advantages (better identification of people concerned) as well as the ambiguity introduced by such tools, in particular the risk of division between the assisted population and the population that finances such protection without being privy to it. Furthermore, discrepancies are possible in terms of individual freedoms and rising costs and thus the extent of generosity from this policy of social redistribution.

A number of alternatives to Social Security's auxiliary benefit system have been proposed in the context of changes in American family and work patterns. This article focuses on one modification therein—lowering the 10-year duration-of-marriage requirement for divorced spouses. Using a powerful microsimulation model (MINT), we examine the distributional effects of extending spouse and survivor benefit eligibility to 5- and 7-year marriages ending in divorce among female retirees in 2030, a population largely comprised of baby boomers. Results show that the options would increase benefits for a small share of female retirees, around 2 to 4%, and would not affect the vast majority of low-income divorced older women. However, of those affected, the options would substantially increase benefits and lower incidence of poverty and near poor. Low-income divorced retirees with marriages between 5 and 9 years in length and a deceased former spouse face the greatest potential gains.

We study the effect of salience in the social security benefit system on labor earnings by exploiting kinks and notches in budget lines introduced by earnings testing and social security accrual mechanisms for 67- to 69-year-old workers in Norway. An earnings test had large effects on labor earnings, while an accrual system discontinuity had no discernible effects. We interpret the difference as likely to be caused by a lack of salience in the accrual incentives: agents are not able or willing to take into account the value of future benefit increases when considering the relevant rewards for working.

Nra JAKAB and wealth, financed by compulsory payments.Unsurprisingly, the expenditure category dominating this division is 'social benefits and social transfers in kind (purchased market production)'.Social benefits are paid to households to alleviate social risks and needs.Examples include unemployment benefits and pension payments.In 2021 in the EU, the social benefits and social transfers in kind comprised slightly more than 89% of expenditure in the social protection COFOG division.In the EU in 2021, expenditure on social protection stood at 2,983 billion, equivalent to 20.5% of GDP and 39.9% of total expenditure.By far the most significant group in this division, 'old age' (10.8% of GDP), mainly regards pension payments.Expenditure in 'sickness and disability' (2.9% of GDP), the second largest group, represents mainly social payments in cash or kind (i.e.regarding social insurance schemes).Social protection represented the largest area of general government expenditure in 2021 in all EU Member States.The ratio of government social protection expenditure to GDP varied across EU Member States from 8.7% of GDP in Ireland to 24.8% in France. 3 Globally, population ageing is expected to increase the costs of social security over the next few decades, with regional variations present in scale, timing, and impact.This situation mostly relates to long-term, income-dependent cash benefits such as (old age) pensions, social services, or social insurance in-kind benefits provided for sickness and long-term care.EU-14 countries are expected to overtake the dependency threshold, a critical point in the cross-section of the age distribution of the population beyond which tax revenue from direct taxation can no longer sustain the planned level of transfer to retirees well before the year 2100, especially relative to, for example, the United States of America, more generous pension systems, and older societies with higher dependency-ratios.Asian countries, such as China and Southeast Asian countries, projected to reach Australian and North American levels of age-dependency within the next 30 years, will, on median projections, reach the age structure comparable to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries by the year 2050.From a sustainability perspective, similar issues concerning social security can be observed across Europe. 4 The EU is facing the global phenomenon of demographic changes in the ageing of the population.If the currently established growth continues, by 2030, the total percentage of elderly people (between the ages of 65 and 79 years) will amount to 37% of the entire population in the EU, which will affect the sustainability of the pension systems of the Member States.Special studies have been prepared on the 3 Nine EU Member States -France (24.8% of GDP), Finland (24.6% of GDP), Italy (23.4% of GDP), Austria (21.9% of GDP), Denmark (21.1% of GDP), Belgium (21.0% of GDP), Germany (20.9% of GDP), Greece and Spain (both 20.6% of GDP) -devoted at least 20% of GDP to social protection, with Norway being the highest among EFTA countries (18.6%).At the other end of the scale, Ireland (8.7% of GDP), Malta (11.0% of GDP), Cyprus (12.5% of GDP), Hungary (13.1% of GDP), Romania (13.3% of GDP), Bulgaria (13.4% of GDP), Estonia (13.5% of GDP), Czechia (13.6% of GDP) and Latvia (13.8% of GDP), including Iceland among the EFTA countries (13.2% of GDP), each spent less than 14% of GDP on social protection.Eurostat, 2023. 4 Boji, 2023.Nra JAKAB the Slovenian and Romanian examples, the region has, thus far, seen no progress.This book does not address migration issues, which are crucial for sustainability, as the population of Central Europe is dying, and migrants are increasingly using the services of the social security system.Finally, long regarded as second-rate rights or disregarded in practice, implemented sparingly, and partly insufficiently backed by active, coherent measures to guarantee their exercise, we believe social rights are reemerging in bad economic times.We agree with Vallasek that the question of social rights is a particularly important topic these days, as global society is facing renewed crises from economic recessions, inflations, the pandemic, and wars.In this context, the issue of sustainability of the social system is a key factor.The issue of social law and social policy can never be considered alone but must be interpreted along with the education, health, labour, and even tax policy of the given state.Thus, the need for a coherent, long-term planned social policy is unequivocal. 1010 Vallasek, 2023.

Precios fijos y raciones: la Anaconda Copper Company en Chile entre 1932 y 1958