An Editor for Helping Novices to Learn Standard ML

This paper describes a novel editor intended as an aid in the learning of the functional programming language Standard ML. A common technique used by novices is programming by analogy whereby students refer to similar programs that they have written before or have seen in the course literature and use these programs as a basis to write a new program. We present a novel editor for ML which supports programming by analogy by providing a collection of editing commands that transform old programs into new ones. Each command makes changes to an isolated part of the program. These changes are propagated to the rest of the program using analogical techniques. We observed a group of novice ML students to determine the most common programming errors in learning ML and restrict our editor such that it is impossible to commit these errors. In this way, students encounter fewer bugs and so their rate of learning increases. Our editor, C Y NTHIA, has been implemented and is due to be tested on st..

Method of Stimulation of Pharmacy Workers Involved in the Government Program “Available Medicines”

The aim is to study the current state of the organization of work in pharmacies under the government program “Available medicines” and to create proposals for the improvement of material incentives to increase the motivation of workers of such pharmacies.Materials and methods. The research used the general methods of scientific knowledge: analysis and synthesis, analogy and comparison; method of questioning to determine the actual state and opinions of specialists on the organization of work in the conditions of pharmacy participation in the program "Available medicines".Results and discussion. In the course of the study, the problem of lack of incentives and motivation for the work of pharmacy workers under the Government program "Available medicines" has been highlighted. According to the results of the survey of specialists of three different forms of pharmacy' ownership, participating in the program of reimbursement of the cost of drugs, it was found that the volume and intensity of work of workers has significantly increased, and wages have remained at the same level. The number of operations performed by employees in such pharmacies has considerably increased, which is related to the registration and maintenance of recipes under the program "Available medicines". The questionnaire survey has showed that the best option for optimizing the organization of remuneration in the prevailing conditions would be to pay extra for work (overpays). It was found that the number of recipes taken by one pharmacist per day varies considerably in different pharmacies, and there are also differences in the duration of the work of pharmacies under the reimbursement program during the month. To increase the motivation of pharmacists to work in the prevailing conditions, the method of calculating the additional payment for work in the conditions of the program "Available medicines" for each chemist's worker is offered individually in accordance with the post based on a formula that takes into account the intensity of labor using the intensity coefficient and the percentage of the additional payment.Conclusions. The conducted researches have shown that the increased intensity of labor, which takes place in pharmacies working under the program "Available medicines", is the basis for the calculation of additional payments. The application of the system of material stimulation of the work of pharmacists based on the proposed methodology will allow compensating additional labor of specialists, taking into account the intensity of their work

An extra-memetic empirical methodology to accompany theoretical memetics

Abstract Purpose: The paper describes the difficulties encountered by researchers who are looking to operationalise theoretical memetics and provides a methodological avenue for studies that can test meme theory. Design/Methodology/Approach: The application of evolutionary theory to organisations is reviewed by critically reflecting on the validity of its truth claims. To focus the discussion a number of applications of meme theory are reviewed to raise specific issues which ought to be the subject of empirical investigation. Subsequently, the empirical studies conducted to date are assessed in terms of the progress made and conclusions for further work are drawn. Findings: The paper finds that the key questions posed by memetic theory have yet to be addressed empirically and that a recurring weakness is the practice of assuming the existence of a replicating unit of culture which has, however, yet to be demonstrated as a valid concept. Therefore, an 'extra-memetic' methodology is deemed to be necessary for the development of memetics as a scientific endeavour. Narrative analysis is abducted as an appropriate avenue for the operationalisation of extra-memetic empirical research. Originality/Value: The paper highlights inconsistencies, embedded in much of the memetic literature, which have not previously been recognised and the colloquial nature of the discipline is challenged from a positive but critical perspective. Consequently, the paper develops a rationale for the adoption of a widely recognised social science methodology for memetics which has been absent to date. In proposing narrative orientated research, knowledge concerning memes' validity can be facilitated whilst avoiding the current circularity in memetic truth claims. Key Words: Meme, Memetics, Narrative, Complexity, Evolution Classification: Conceptual Pape

Proof-Pattern Recognition and Lemma Discovery in ACL2

We present a novel technique for combining statistical machine learning for proof-pattern recognition with symbolic methods for lemma discovery. The resulting tool, ACL2(ml), gathers proof statistics and uses statistical pattern-recognition to pre-processes data from libraries, and then suggests auxiliary lemmas in new proofs by analogy with already seen examples. This paper presents the implementation of ACL2(ml) alongside theoretical descriptions of the proof-pattern recognition and lemma discovery methods involved in it

Automated Synthesis of SEU Tolerant Architectures from OO Descriptions

SEU faults are a well-known problem in aerospace environment but recently their relevance grew up also at ground level in commodity applications coupled, in this frame, with strong economic constraints in terms of costs reduction. On the other hand, latest hardware description languages and synthesis tools allow reducing the boundary between software and hardware domains making the high-level descriptions of hardware components very similar to software programs. Moving from these considerations, the present paper analyses the possibility of reusing Software Implemented Hardware Fault Tolerance (SIHFT) techniques, typically exploited in micro-processor based systems, to design SEU tolerant architectures. The main characteristics of SIHFT techniques have been examined as well as how they have to be modified to be compatible with the synthesis flow. A complete environment is provided to automate the design instrumentation using the proposed techniques, and to perform fault injection experiments both at behavioural and gate level. Preliminary results presented in this paper show the effectiveness of the approach in terms of reliability improvement and reduced design effort