Metamorphic Domain-Specific Languages: A Journey Into the Shapes of a Language

External or internal domain-specific languages (DSLs) or (fluent) APIs? Whoever you are -- a developer or a user of a DSL -- you usually have to choose your side; you should not! What about metamorphic DSLs that change their shape according to your needs? We report on our 4-years journey of providing the "right" support (in the domain of feature modeling), leading us to develop an external DSL, different shapes of an internal API, and maintain all these languages. A key insight is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution or no clear superiority of a solution compared to another. On the contrary, we found that it does make sense to continue the maintenance of an external and internal DSL. The vision that we foresee for the future of software languages is their ability to be self-adaptable to the most appropriate shape (including the corresponding integrated development environment) according to a particular usage or task. We call metamorphic DSL such a language, able to change from one shape to another shape

A Generic Tool for Tracing Executions Back to a DSML's Operational Semantics

International audienceThe increasing complexity of software development requires rigorously defined domain specific modeling languages (DSML). Model-driven engineering (\mde) allows users to define a DSML's syntax in terms of metamodels. The behaviour of a language can also be described, either operationally, or via transformations to other languages (e.g., by code generation). If the first approach requires to redefine analysis tools for each DSML (simulator, model-checker...), the second approach allows to reuse existing tools in the targeted language. However, the second approach (also called translational semantics) imply that the results (e.g., a program crash log, or a counterexample returned by a model checker) may not be straightforward to interpret by the users of a DSML. We propose in this paper a generic tool for formally tracing such analysis/execution results back to the original DSML's syntax and operational semantics, and we illustrate it on xSPEM, a timed process modeling language

At-Risk Phenotype of Neurofibromatose-1 Patients: A Multicentre Case-Control Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>To assess associations between subcutaneous neurofibromas (SC-NFs) and internal neurofibromas in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) and to determine whether the association between SC-NFs and peripheral neuropathy was ascribable to internal neurofibromas.</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>Prospective multicentre case-control study. Between 2005 and 2008, 110 NF-1 adults having two or more SC-NFs were individually matched for age, sex and hospital with 110 controls who had no SC-NF. Patients underwent standardized MRI of the spinal cord, nerve roots and sciatic nerves and an electrophysiological study. Analyses used adjusted multinomial logistic regression (ORa) to estimate the risk of the presence of internal neurofibromas or peripheral neuropathies associated with patients presented 2 to 9 SC-NFs, at least 10 SC-NFs as compared to patients without any (referential category).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cases had a mean age of 41 (± 13) years; 85 (80%) had two to nine SC-NFs and 21 (19%) at least ten SC-NFs. SC-NFs were more strongly associated with internal neurofibromas in patients with ten or more SC-NFs than in patients with fewer NF-SCs (e.g., sciatic nerve, aOR = 29.1 [8.5 to 100] vs. 4.3 [2.1 to 9.0]). The association with SC-NFs was stronger for diffuse, intradural, and > 3 cm internal neurofibromas than with other internal neurofibromas. Axonal neuropathy with slowed conduction velocities (SCV) was more strongly associated with having at least ten SC-NFs (aOR = 29.9, 5.5 to 162.3) than with having fewer SC-NFs (aOR = 4.4, 0.9 to 22.0). Bivariate analyses showed that the association between axonal neuropathy with SCV and sciatic neurofibromas was mediated by the association between SC-NFs and sciatic neurofibromas.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The at-risk phenotype of NF-1 patients (i.e. NF-1 patients with SC-NFs) is ascribable to associations linking SC-NFs to internal neurofibromas at risk for malignant transformation and to axonal neuropathies with slowed conduction velocities. Axonal neuropathies with SCV are particularly common in patients with at least ten SC-NFs.</p> <p>Registration details</p> <p>ORPHA86301</p

formal methods and agile development towards a happy marriage

Change makes software different from any other artifact created by humans. Although this is known since the 1970s, change is still often handled in an ad hoc manner. Agile development and, more recently, DevOps have been proposed as a solution, and success stories are reported from industry. Still, principled and rigorous foundations that can be taught, practiced, and systematically replicated are lacking. We argue that change has to become a first-class concept and that the development tools used by engineers and the run time environment supporting software execution should be structured in a way that naturally accommodates change. We distinguish between evolution and adaptation and discuss how software can be made self-adaptive, and how it can cooperate with humans in-the-loop, supporting continuous verification and assuring dependability. We discuss how several research approaches that were investigated in the past decade may be integrated and extended in a roadmap of future work leading to progress in tool support and automation to achieve dependable adaptation and evolution

Dual atmosphere study of the K41X stainless steel for interconnect application in high temperature water vapour electrolysis

High temperature water vapour electrolysis (HTE) is one of the most efficient technologies for mass hydrogen production. A major technical difficulty related to high temperature water vapour electrolysis is the development of interconnects working efficiently for a long period. Working temperature of 800 °C enables the use of metallic materials as interconnects. High temperature corrosion behaviour and electrical conductivity of a commercial stainless steel, K41X (AISI 441), were tested in HTE dual atmosphere (95%O2-5%H20/10%H2-90%H2O) at 800 °C. The alloy exhibits a very good oxidation resistance compared to single atmosphere tests. However, a supplied electrical current significantly changes the nature of the oxides that form during the test. A very good Area Specific Resistance (ASR) parameter was measured in dual atmosphere, much lower than the values obtained in single atmosphere tests

Transient adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma picture during varicella infection in an HTLV-1 carrier.

International audienceHTLV-1 (human T-lymphotropic virus type 1) is associated with tropical spastic paraparesis, adult T-cell lymphoma (ATL), and also with opportunistic infections. The risk for developing ATL in HTLV-1 healthy carriers is low, between 1 and 4%. Nothing is known about the events promoting the evolution from the healthy carrier state to symptomatic ATL. We describe the case of a 44-year-old French Caribbean man with a chronic and recurrent strongyloidiasis in which the occurrence of a hemorrhagic and necrotic varicella led to the discovery of an infection by HTLV-1 and an acute form of ATL. All hematological data were normal before the onset of varicella. ATL completely disappeared at the same time as the varicella healed. This leads us to hypothesize that acute infections such as the reactivation of varicella-zoster may act as a promoting factor for the development of ATL in healthy HTLV-1 carriers.HTLV-1 (human T-lymphotropic virus type 1) is associated with tropical spastic paraparesis, adult T-cell lymphoma (ATL), and also with opportunistic infections. The risk for developing ATL in HTLV-1 healthy carriers is low, between 1 and 4%. Nothing is known about the events promoting the evolution from the healthy carrier state to symptomatic ATL. We describe the case of a 44-year-old French Caribbean man with a chronic and recurrent strongyloidiasis in which the occurrence of a hemorrhagic and necrotic varicella led to the discovery of an infection by HTLV-1 and an acute form of ATL. All hematological data were normal before the onset of varicella. ATL completely disappeared at the same time as the varicella healed. This leads us to hypothesize that acute infections such as the reactivation of varicella-zoster may act as a promoting factor for the development of ATL in healthy HTLV-1 carriers