Abstract. In this paper we describe the principles of the design and development of an intelligent query interface, done in the context of the SEWASIE (SEmantic Webs and AgentS in Integrated Economies) European IST project. The SEWASIE project aims at enabling a uniform access to heterogeneous data sources through an integrated ontology. The query interface is meant to support a user in formulating a precise query -which best captures her/his information needs -even in the case of complete ignorance of the vocabulary of the underlying information system holding the data. The intelligence of the interface is driven by an ontology describing the domain of the data in the information system. The final purpose of the tool is to generate a conjunctive query ready to be executed by some evaluation engine associated to the information system.

According to the most recent deaf literature, playing with digital games shows positive effects on deaf children's specific skills. The goal of this paper is to present the first guidelines for the design of games for deaf children. Our review of deaf literature, briefly sketched in the paper, considers such abilities as well as deaf children's preferences most relevant for the design of digital games for them. Literature findings are then used to compile the guidelines, with accompanying usage examples. Guidelines and literature findings are correlated at the end of this paper.

Abstract. Business Process modeling is constantly acquiring attention in modern enterprises. Today, BP editor tools support modelers in building correct diagrams only from the syntactic point of view. Enriching them with ontologies may bring many advantages, that go from the possibility of applying advanced reasoning techniques, aimed at the identification of contradictions and mistakes in the model specification, to the possibility of organizing BP models repositories, with advanced search and retrieval facilities. Finally, semantic technologies can substantially help the solution of the Business/IT alignment problem. Semantic enrichment of a BP can be achieved by representing a BP, or part of it, with an ontology-oriented formalism (semantic lifting) and mapping it to a reference ontology. In this paper, we present the basic elements of a Business Process Ontology framework (OPAL+BPAL) and its concrete representation according to an OWL syntax. Finally, we show how it is possible to generate an OWL representation of a BPMN diagram.

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Nowadays, circa 10% of 7-11 olds turn out to be poor comprehenders: they demonstrate text comprehension difficulties, related to inference making, despite proficiency in low-level cognitive skills like word reading. To improve the reading comprehension of these children, TERENCE, a technology enhanced learning project, aims at stimulating inference-making about stories. In order to design and develop the TERENCE system, we use a user centred design approach that requires an in depth study of the system's main end-users, namely, its learners and educators. This paper reports on the specification of the user classes for the TERENCE learners by means of user-centred design field studies, the resulting global system architecture, and an example use case of the system, with few related GUI's snapshots.

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