Lightweight and static verification of UML executable models

Executable models play a key role in many software development methods by facilitating the (semi)automatic implementation/execution of the software system under development. This is possible because executable models promote a complete and fine-grained specification of the system behaviour. In this context, where models are the basis of the whole development process, the quality of the models has a high impact on the final quality of software systems derived from them. Therefore, the existence of methods to verify the correctness of executable models is crucial. Otherwise, the quality of the executable models (and in turn the quality of the final system generated from them) will be compromised. In this paper a lightweight and static verification method to assess the correctness of executable models is proposed. This method allows us to check whether the operations defined as part of the behavioural model are able to be executed without breaking the integrity of the structural model and returns a meaningful feedback that helps repairing the detected inconsistencies.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Desarrollo e implementación de un sistema basado en equipos KNX

El objetivo del presente trabajo es el montaje y la programación de un sistema domótico con tecnología KNX. Inicialmente se realiza una breve introducción a la domótica. Se explica que es la domótica, se relata brevemente la historia de la domótica, se enumeran sus objetivos principales y se habla de los diferentes componentes de un sistema domótico. Tras haber introducido el tema general del trabajo, se realiza una introducción a la tecnología KNX. Ésta es la tecnología que se va a utilizar para llevar a cabo el trabajo. Además, también se explica como funciona dicha tecnología, como transmite y estructura los datos y sus principales ventajas e inconvenientes. A continuación, se introduce la herramienta de programación utilizada, ETS5, detallando los aspectos más importantes de este software y su funcionamiento. Después, se presentan los diferentes componentes utilizados en el sistema domótico y como se realizará el conexionado. Por último, una vez montado el sistema domótico, se lleva a cabo la programación y se comprueba el correcto funcionamiento del sistema.Universidad de Sevilla. Máster Universitario en Ingeniería Electrónica, Robótica y Automátic

El malbaratament alimentari en el tomàquet de penjar a Catalunya: Una anàlisi de flux de materials al llarg de la cadena de valor

Food waste is one of the most important challenges facing society today, from the economic, environmental or social point of view. In a context where more than 840 million people suffer from malnutrition in the world (FAO, 2011), it is more necessary than ever to face up to this challenge and do it in the most effective way possible. It is not possible to deal with food waste based on specific solutions, it must be addressed from a holistic and transversal perspective, but most solutions that are designed will not pass through temporary patches. It is therefore necessary to approach a chain and not unleash the challenge of food waste in the whole of the sustainability of the current food system. With this in mind, the final degree work (TFG) that is presented aims to analyze the food waste that occurs along the value chain of the 'hanging' tomatoes in Catalonia. The study is divided into three main blocks: 1) Characterization of the value chain of the 'hanging' tomatoes in Catalonia; 2) Determination of the flow of input and output materials along the chain of value of 'hanging tomatoes in Catalonia; and, finally, 3) Quantification of the food waste that generate 100 kg of 'hanging' tomatoes produced and consumed in Catalonia. The results obtained suggest that 40.35% of the 'hanging' tomatoes will be wasted along the value chain. But this food waste is also accompanied by the waste of other resources, in particular to produce and consume 100 kg of 'hanging' tomatoes in Catalonia, they consume 416 liters of water, 1.17 kg of plastics and 1.1 liters of fuel, among other materials. Finally, this study has also been used to verify that the flow analysis of materials throughout the food chain is a useful tool to quantify food waste, as well as to identify the main improvement points for to move towards a more sustainable agri-food system.El malbaratament alimentari és un dels reptes més importants als que s'enfronta la societat avui en dia, tant des del punt de vista econòmic com ambiental o social. En un context on més de 840 milions de persones pateixen risc de desnutrició al món (FAO, 2011), és més necessari que mai fer front a aquest repte i fer-ho de la manera més efectiva possible. No es pot fer front al malbaratament alimentari a base de solucions puntuals, cal abordar-lo des d'una perspectiva holística i transversal, sinó la majoria de solucions que es dissenyaran no passaran de pedaços temporals. Cal doncs un enfocament de cadena i no deslligar el repte del malbaratament alimentari del conjunt de la sostenibilitat del sistema alimentari actual. Tenint això ben present, el treball de final de grau (TFG) que s'exposa pretén analitzar el malbaratament alimentari que es produeix al llarg de la cadena de valor del tomàquet de penjar a Catalunya. L'estudi s'estructura en tres grans blocs: 1) Caracterització de la cadena de valor del tomàquet de penjar a Catalunya; 2) Determinació del flux de materials d'entrada i sortida al llarg de la cadena de valor del tomàquet de penjar a Catalunya; i, finalment, 3) Quantificació del malbaratament alimentari que generen 100 kg de tomàquet de penjar produïts i consumits a Catalunya. Els resultats obtinguts apunten a què el 40,35% dels tomàquets de penjar es malbaraten al llarg de la cadena de valor. Però aquest malbaratament alimentari ve també acompanyat del malbaratament d'altres recursos, en concret per produir i consumir 100 kg de tomàquet de penjar a Catalunya es consumeixen 416 litres d'aigua, 1,17 kg de plàstics i 1,1 litres de combustible, entre d'altres materials. Per acabar, aquest estudi també ha servit per comprovar que l'anàlisi de flux de materials al llarg de la cadena alimentària és una eina útil per a quantificar el malbaratament alimentari, així com també per a identificar-ne els principals punts de millora per a caminar cap a un sistema agroalimentari més sostenible.El despilfarro alimentario es uno de los retos más importantes a los que se afrenta la sociedad hoy en día, des del punto de vista tanto económico, como ambiental o social. En un contexto donde más de 840 millones de personas sufren risco de desnutrición en el mundo (FAO, 2011), es más necesario que nunca hacer frente a este reto i hacerlo de la forma más efectiva posible. No se puede hacer frente al despilfarro alimentario a base de soluciones puntuales, es necesario abordarlo des de una perspectiva holística y transversal, sino la mayoría de soluciones que se diseñaran no pasaran de pedazos temporales. Es necesario, entonces un enfoque de cadena y no desatar el reto del despilfarro alimentario del conjunto de la sostenibilidad del sistema alimentario actual. Teniendo esto presente, el trabajo final de grado (TFG) que se expone, pretende analizar el despilfarro que se produce a lo largo de la cadena de valor del tomate de colgar en Cataluña. El estudio se estructura en tres grandes bloques; 1) Caracterización de la cadena de valor del tomate de colgar en Catalunya; 2) Determinación del flujo de materiales de entrada y salida en toda la cadena de valor del tomate de colgar y finalmente, 3) Cuantificación del despilfarro generado para 100kg de tomate de colgar producidos y consumidos en Catalunya. Los resultados obtenidos apuntan a que el 40,35% de los tomates de colgar se malbaratan a lo largo de toda la cadena de valor. Pero este despilfarro alimentario viene también acompañado del despilfarro de recursos, en concreto para producir i consumir 100 kg de tomate de colgar en Cataluña se consumen 416L de agua, 1,17kg de plásticos o 1,1L de combustible entre otros materiales. Para terminar, este estudio también ha servido para comprobar que el análisis de flujo de materiales a lo largo de la cadena alimentaria es una herramienta útil para cuantificar el despilfarro alimentario, así como también para identificar los principales puntos de mejora para andar hacia un sistema agroalimentario más sostenible.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::2 - Fam zer

Lightweight Executability Analysis of Graph Transformation Rules

Proceedings of: IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2010). Leganés-Madrid, Spain 21-25 Septemeber 2010.Domain Specific Visual Languages (DSVLs) play a cornerstone role in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), where (domain specific) models are used to automate the production of the final application. Graph Transformation is a formal, visual, rule-based technique, which is increasingly used in MDE to express in-place model transformations like refactorings, animations and simulations. However, there is currently a lack of methods able to perform static analysis of rules, taking into account the DSVL meta-model integrity constraints. In this paper we propose a lightweight, efficient technique that performs static analysis of the weak executability of rules. The method determines if there is some scenario in which the rule can be safely applied, without breaking the meta-model constraints. If no such scenario exists, the method returns meaningful feedback that helps repairing the detected inconsistencies.Work funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through mobility grants JC2009-00015 and PR2009-0019, projects TIN2008-02081 and TIN2008-00444 and the R&D programme of the Madrid Community, project S2009/TIC-1650.Publicad

Comparative effects of oleoyl-estrone and a specific β3-adrenergic agonist (CL316, 243) on the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism of rat white adipose tissue

Background: The combination of oleoyl-estrone (OE) and a selective b3-adrenergic agonist (B3A; CL316,243) treatment in rats results in a profound and rapid wasting of body reserves (lipid). Methods: In the present study we investigated the effect of OE (oral gavage) and/or B3A (subcutaneous constant infusion) administration for 10 days to overweight male rats, compared with controls, on three distinct white adipose tissue (WAT) sites: subcutaneous inguinal, retroperitoneal and epididymal. Tissue weight, DNA (and, from these values cellularity), cAMP content and the expression of several key energy handling metabolism and control genes were analyzed and computed in relation to the whole site mass. Results: Both OE and B3A significantly decreased WAT mass, with no loss of DNA (cell numbers). OE decreased and B3A increased cAMP. Gene expression patterns were markedly different for OE and B3A. OE tended to decrease expression of most genes studied, with no changes (versus controls) of lipolytic but decrease of lipogenic enzyme genes. The effects of B3A were widely different, with a generalized increase in the expression of most genes, including the adrenergic receptors, and, especially the uncoupling protein UCP1. Discussion: OE and B3A, elicit widely different responses in WAT gene expression, end producing similar effects, such as shrinking of WAT, loss of fat, maintenance of cell numbers. OE acted essentially on the balance of lipolysislipogenesis and the blocking of the uptake of substrates; its decrease of synthesis favouring lipolysis. B3A induced a shotgun increase in the expression of most regulatory systems in the adipocyte, an effect that in the end favoured again the loss of lipid; this barely selective increase probably produces inefficiency, which coupled with the increase in UCP1 expression may help WAT to waste energy through thermogenesis. Conclusions: There were considerable differences in the responses of the three WAT sites. OE in general lowered gene expression and stealthily induced a substrate imbalance. B3A increasing the expression of most genes enhanced energy waste through inefficiency rather than through specific pathway activation. There was not a synergistic effect between OE and B3A in WAT, but their combined action increased WAT energy waste

Analyzing the Importance of Marking Links to Special Targets in Mobile Web

Literature points out the importance of indicating when a link opens a different website in a new window, since this is the default behavior that users expect, but this problem has not been specifically studied in mobile devices yet. This paper explains a study that was carried out with 20 different mobile devices and 19 users. We compared the usability of opening links in the same window or in a new one, informing or not informing the user about the target, as well as the convenience of using icons or text to inform about the target of a link. Results show that 95% of the devices used for the experiment had browser multi-window support, and we conclude that mobile users prefer to be previously informed when a link opens in a new window, and that the preferred method for informing them is using an icon instead of a text

Alf-verifier: an Eclipse plugin for verifying Alf/UML executable models

In this demonstration we present an Eclipse plugin that implements a lightweight method for verifying fine-grained operations at design time. This tool suffices to check that the execution of the operations (specified in Alf Action Language) is consistent with the integrity constraints defined in the class diagram (specified in UML) and returns a meaningful feedback that helps correcting them otherwise.Postprint (author’s final draft

Generating operation specifications from UML class diagrams: A model transformation approach

One of the more tedious and complex tasks during the specification of conceptual schemas (CSs) is modeling the operations that define the system behavior. This paper aims to simplify this task by providing a method that automatically generates a set of basic operations that complement the static aspects of the CS and suffice to perform all typical life-cycle create/update/delete changes on the population of the elements of the CS. Our method guarantees that the generated operations are executable, i.e. their executions produce a consistent state wrt the most typical structural constraints that can be defined in CSs (e.g. multiplicity constraints). In particular, our method takes as input a CS expressed as a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram (optionally defined using a profile to enrich the specification of associations) and generates an extended version of the CS that includes all necessary operations to start operating the system. If desired, these basic operations can be later used as building blocks for creating more complex ones. We show the formalization and implementation of our method by means of model-to-model transformations. Our approach is particularly relevant in the context of Model Driven Development approaches. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The authors want to thank the anonymous referees of this journal for their interesting suggestions. This work has been partly supported by the MICINN under projects TIN2008-00444, Grupo Consolidado and TIN2010-18011, and by the Generalitat Valenciana under the project OKA PROMETEO/2009/015, and co-financed with the European Regional Development Fund.Albert Albiol, M.; Cabot Sagrera, J.; Gómez Seoane, C.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2011). Generating operation specifications from UML class diagrams: A model transformation approach. Data and Knowledge Engineering. 70(4):365-389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.datak.2011.01.003S36538970

Effect of cafeteria diet feeding on soleus intramyocellular lipid of Wistar rats

Background: The presence of lipid besides muscle fibres facilitates the energy supply for exercise, but it is also indicative of insulin resistance in the untrained. Muscle lipid is associated with increased dietary energy: hyperlipidic diets induce an increase in intramyocellular lipid deposition in skeletal muscle. Methods: In the present study we analyzed the changes in soleus (a red-fibre muscle) intracellular muscle content under a hyperlipidic (cafeteria) diet in Wistar rats. We also analyzed in parallel the mitochondrial content a relative index of energy output capability. Results: Cafeteria diet-fed rats contained more lipid and mitochondria per unit of muscle section area than controls. Conclusions: The correlation found in the increases of muscle lipid and mitochondria hit at this increase as an adaptation of muscle to oxidize excess energy substrates under conditions of excess energy availability, probably contributing to adaptive thermogenesis

Oleoyl-estrone is a precursor of an estrone-derived ponderostat signal

Oleoyl-estrone (OE) is a powerful anti-obesity compound that decreases food intake, decreases insulin resistance and circulating cholesterol. OE stimulates a severe loss of body fat by decreasing adipose tissue lipid synthesis and maintaining lipolysis. Therefore, the body economy loses lipid energy because energy expenditure is maintained. This study analyses the discrepancy between OE effects and the distribution of labelled OE in plasma. Estrone radioimmunoassay of organic solvent plasma extracts of rats treated with OE showed the massive presence of acyl-estrone, but. saponification did not release estrone, but containing similar unknown compound. Analysis of label distribution in plasma after oral gavages of 3H-OE showed the presence of a more hydrophilic compound than OE or any estrogen as well as 3H2O, formed from 3H-OE in the acidic stomach medium. OE was not attached toa specific transporter in plasma. Through serum HPLC analysis we found W, a labelled derivative more hydrophilic than OE or estrone. The results were confirmed using 14C-OE. HPLC-MS/MS studies showed that plasma OE levels were one order of magnitude lower than those of W. When liver cell cytosols from rats laden with 3H-OE were incubated with nuclei from untreated rats, the OE-derived label (i.e., W's) was found attached to nuclear DNA. Neither estradiol nor estrone interfered with its binding. W is a fairly hydrophilic compound of low molecular weight containing the estrone nucleus, but it is not an ester because saponification or esterases do not yield estrone as OE does. It is concluded that OE acts through its conversion to W, its active form; which binds to a nuclear receptor different from that of estrogen. The estimated W serum levels are proportional to the pharmacological OE effects in vivo. We postulate W as a new type of hormone that exerts the full range of in vivo effects thus far attributed to OE. The full identification of W is anticipated to open the way for the development of new OE-like anti-obesity drugs