Building program understanding tools using visitor combinators

Program understanding tools manipulate program representations, such as abstract syntax trees, control-flow graphs, or data-flow graphs. This paper deals with the use of visitor combinators to conduct such manipulations. Visitor combinators are an extension of the well-known visitor design pattern. They are small, reusable classes that carry out specific visiting steps. They can be composed in different constellations to build more complex visitors. We evaluate the expressiveness, reusability, ease of development, and applicability of visitor combinators to the construction of program understanding tools. To that end, we conduct a case study in the use of visitor combinators for control-flow analysis and visualization as used in a commercial Cobol program understanding tool

Domain-specific languages

Domain-Specific Languages are used in software engineering in order to enhance quality, flexibility, and timely delivery of software systems, by taking advantage of specific properties of a particular application domain. This survey covers terminology, risks and benefits, examples, design methodologies, and implementation techniques of domain-specific languages as used for the construction and maintenance of software systems. Moreover, it covers an annotated selection of 75 key publications in the area of domain-specific languages

Oral health status and need for oral care of care-dependent indwelling elderly:from admission to death

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess oral health and oral status of elderly patients newly admitted to a nursing home from admission until death. Materials and methods: Oral health, oral status, need for dental care, cooperation with dental treatment, and given dental care were assessed by two geriatric dentists in all new long-stay patients (n = 725) admitted to a nursing home between January 2009 and December 2013. All patients were followed from admission until death or until they left the nursing home. Results: At admission, dementia patients were significantly older than somatic patients; median [IQR] ages were, respectively, 85 [79–89] and 81 [76–87] (p = 0.001). In addition, edentulous patients were significantly older than patients with remaining teeth, 83 [79–89] versus 80 [74–86] (p = 0.001) years. Thirty percent of the admitted patients died within 12 months after admission. A small minority (20%) of the patients had their own teeth. In this group, poor oral hygiene (72%), caries (70%), and broken teeth (62%) were frequently observed. Edentulous patients were significantly more cooperative with treatment than patients with remaining teeth (64 versus 27%). Finally, significantly less professional dental care was given to edentulous patients when compared to patients with remaining teeth (median 90 [IQR 60–180] versus 165 [75–375] min). Conclusion: When compared to edentulous elderly patients, patients with remaining teeth were younger at admittance, were more often non-cooperative, and had a poorer oral health and higher need for dental care. Clinical relevance: It is important that health care workers ensure adequate oral health and dental care to frail elderly, especially for elderly with remaining teeth

Increased risk of atherosclerosis by elevated plasma levels of phospholipid transfer protein.

Plasma phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) is thought to be involved in the remodeling of high density lipoproteins (HDL), which are atheroprotective. It is also involved in the metabolism of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL). Hence, PLTP is thought to be an important factor in lipoprotein metabolism and the development of atherosclerosis. We have overexpressed PLTP in mice heterozygous for the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, a model for atherosclerosis. We show that increased PLTP activity results in a dose-dependent decrease in HDL, and a moderate stimulation of VLDL secretion (</=1.5-fold). The mice were given a high fat, high cholesterol diet, which resulted in hypercholesterolemia in all animals. HDL concentrations were dramatically reduced in PLTP-overexpressing animals when compared with LDL receptor controls, whereas VLDL + LDL cholesterol levels were identical. Susceptibility to atherosclerosis was increased in a PLTP dose-responsive manner. We conclude that PLTP increases susceptibility to atherosclerosis by lowering HDL concentrations, and therefore we suggest that an increase in PLTP is a novel, long term risk factor for atherosclerosis in humans