38,361 research outputs found

    Adapting Quality Assurance to Adaptive Systems: The Scenario Coevolution Paradigm

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    From formal and practical analysis, we identify new challenges that self-adaptive systems pose to the process of quality assurance. When tackling these, the effort spent on various tasks in the process of software engineering is naturally re-distributed. We claim that all steps related to testing need to become self-adaptive to match the capabilities of the self-adaptive system-under-test. Otherwise, the adaptive system's behavior might elude traditional variants of quality assurance. We thus propose the paradigm of scenario coevolution, which describes a pool of test cases and other constraints on system behavior that evolves in parallel to the (in part autonomous) development of behavior in the system-under-test. Scenario coevolution offers a simple structure for the organization of adaptive testing that allows for both human-controlled and autonomous intervention, supporting software engineering for adaptive systems on a procedural as well as technical level.Comment: 17 pages, published at ISOLA 201

    Addressing the needs of traumatic brain injury with clinical proteomics.

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    BackgroundNeurotrauma or injuries to the central nervous system (CNS) are a serious public health problem worldwide. Approximately 75% of all traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are concussions or other mild TBI (mTBI) forms. Evaluation of concussion injury today is limited to an assessment of behavioral symptoms, often with delay and subject to motivation. Hence, there is an urgent need for an accurate chemical measure in biofluids to serve as a diagnostic tool for invisible brain wounds, to monitor severe patient trajectories, and to predict survival chances. Although a number of neurotrauma marker candidates have been reported, the broad spectrum of TBI limits the significance of small cohort studies. Specificity and sensitivity issues compound the development of a conclusive diagnostic assay, especially for concussion patients. Thus, the neurotrauma field currently has no diagnostic biofluid test in clinical use.ContentWe discuss the challenges of discovering new and validating identified neurotrauma marker candidates using proteomics-based strategies, including targeting, selection strategies and the application of mass spectrometry (MS) technologies and their potential impact to the neurotrauma field.SummaryMany studies use TBI marker candidates based on literature reports, yet progress in genomics and proteomics have started to provide neurotrauma protein profiles. Choosing meaningful marker candidates from such 'long lists' is still pending, as only few can be taken through the process of preclinical verification and large scale translational validation. Quantitative mass spectrometry targeting specific molecules rather than random sampling of the whole proteome, e.g., multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), offers an efficient and effective means to multiplex the measurement of several candidates in patient samples, thereby omitting the need for antibodies prior to clinical assay design. Sample preparation challenges specific to TBI are addressed. A tailored selection strategy combined with a multiplex screening approach is helping to arrive at diagnostically suitable candidates for clinical assay development. A surrogate marker test will be instrumental for critical decisions of TBI patient care and protection of concussion victims from repeated exposures that could result in lasting neurological deficits

    MetTeL: A Generic Tableau Prover.

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    Africa RISING West Africa Project: Phase II Project Logframe

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    United States Agency for International Developmen

    Is a gene-centric human proteome project the best way for proteomics to serve biology?

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    With the recent developments in proteomic technologies, a complete human proteome project (HPP) appears feasible for the first time. However, there is still debate as to how it should be designed and what it should encompass. In "proteomics speak", the debate revolves around the central question as to whether a gene-centric or a protein-centric proteomics approach is the most appropriate way forward. In this paper, we try to shed light on what these definitions mean, how large-scale proteomics such as a HPP can insert into the larger omics chorus, and what we can reasonably expect from a HPP in the way it has been proposed so far

    Automated metamorphic testing on the analyses of feature models

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    Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Context: A feature model (FM) represents the valid combinations of features in a domain. The automated extraction of information from FMs is a complex task that involves numerous analysis operations, techniques and tools. Current testing methods in this context are manual and rely on the ability of the tester to decide whether the output of an analysis is correct. However, this is acknowledged to be time-consuming, error-prone and in most cases infeasible due to the combinatorial complexity of the analyses, this is known as the oracle problem.Objective: In this paper, we propose using metamorphic testing to automate the generation of test data for feature model analysis tools overcoming the oracle problem. An automated test data generator is presented and evaluated to show the feasibility of our approach.Method: We present a set of relations (so-called metamorphic relations) between input FMs and the set of products they represent. Based on these relations and given a FM and its known set of products, a set of neighbouring FMs together with their corresponding set of products are automatically generated and used for testing multiple analyses. Complex FMs representing millions of products can be efficiently created by applying this process iteratively.Results: Our evaluation results using mutation testing and real faults reveal that most faults can be automatically detected within a few seconds. Two defects were found in FaMa and another two in SPLOT, two real tools for the automated analysis of feature models. Also, we show how our generator outperforms a related manual suite for the automated analysis of feature models and how this suite can be used to guide the automated generation of test cases obtaining important gains in efficiency.Conclusion: Our results show that the application of metamorphic testing in the domain of automated analysis of feature models is efficient and effective in detecting most faults in a few seconds without the need for a human oracle.This work has been partially supported by the European Commission(FEDER)and Spanish Government under CICYT project SETI(TIN2009-07366)and the Andalusian Government project ISABEL(TIC-2533)

    Public policies and food security and family farming networks: contributions to the construction of effectiveness indicators.

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    This work presents a methodology for investigating the performance of public politics regarding food security networks formed in Brazilian municipalities aimed at increasing income and employment in familiar farming. These programs need to further develop the methodologies used for studying their efficiency so that they can reach a new stage in the improvement and use of management tools thereby achieving beteer results of social inclusion and/or food security. This paper constitutes a first effort to bring together indicators for the evaluation of the efficiency of public politicies

    Preliminary Report on Patent Literature, Search Methodology and Patent Status of Medicines on the WHO EML 2009

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    Over the past several decades the World Health Organization (WHO) has produced the Essential Medicines List (EML) to assist countries in deciding what medicines should be essential and available in National Essential Medicine Lists.1 WHO, through the work of regional offices, supports nations using the EML to ensure the quality, availability, and affordability of pharmaceuticals required to promote and advance public health in nations across the globe. However in some cases, access to EML pharmaceuticals might be complicated by existing patents, i.e., where issued, patent rights might pose obstacles to access and inclusion in national EMLs. Indeed, in developed and emerging economy national jurisdictions patent protection may be in effect for a not insignificant number of the WHO EML pharmaceuticals (Figure 2A). However, in developing countries, it is uncertain whether these patents have been filed or issued. Without patent data predicated on an established, reproducible protocol for accessing and assembling patent information on the EML pharmaceuticals, discussions, debates and strategic approaches to understanding and managing patents with regard to access and delivery to developing countries remain in the dark. Indeed, it is absurd to make policy and formulate strategy without solid patent information: the critical foundation for rational debate. To analyze the degree and scope of patenting of EML pharmaceuticals, WIPO (with WHO) approached the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, specifically the International Technology Transfer Institute (ITTI) to generate a preliminary overview of patents appurtenant to recently added pharmaceutical updates to the EML.2 As part of this work, with inputs from WHO and WIPO, ITTI developed novel methodology and a detailed protocol for identifying EML pharmaceutical patents in national jurisdictions, with an easily reproducible yet cost effective template. Herein is described the development of such a protocol and a preliminary pool of patent information that illustrates its utility. The protocol yields data in a layered approach thereby allowing a user to quickly and effectively obtain both broad and detailed patent information for medications on the WHO EML. In addition, the protocol can be used as an initial path for targeted strategic analysis of potentially relevant patent information in national jurisdictions. In sum, the objectives for this project were: To develop a robust methodology to assess the patent status of medicines on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines; To place in the public domain a detailed report on the present (2010) patent status of medicines that were on patent in 2003 and those medicines added to the Model List since 2003 by country and level of development; and To analyze the patent status of these Essential Medicines by the development status of countries. The report describes the development of the protocol and presents a preliminary list of EML and corresponding patents in certain jurisdictions to illustrate the utility of the approach. Results will be discussed both in terms of global access and patents, and in the context of establishing standard, systematic, protocols for periodic patent searches related to EML content. 1 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IMPLEMENTING THE THIRD WHO MEDICINES STRATEGY 2008--‐2013 20 (WHO Press, 3rd ed. 2009). 2 This report covers the EML up to and including updates until 2009
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