Improving Runtime Overheads for detectEr

We design monitor optimisations for detectEr, a runtime-verification tool synthesising systems of concurrent monitors from correctness properties for Erlang programs. We implement these optimisations as part of the existing tool and show that they yield considerably lower runtime overheads when compared to the unoptimised monitor synthesis.Comment: In Proceedings FESCA 2015, arXiv:1503.0437

Besieged : Malta 1565

The history of the great siege of Malta has always been recounted from a Western point of view. The historical sources are primarily, if not exclusively, of Western origin. The lack of knowledge of Arabic and other Ottoman languages are perhaps the real reason for this historical bias. This could be the reason why works from scholars from the former Ottoman countries feature less in the Western narratives about the Great Siege. However, Arab and Ottoman scholars have been working on their history’s involvement in this major sixteenth-century Mediterranean event. Perhaps, their historical canons are not the same as those operated by the West, however, the empirical story retold by Arab and Ottoman texts is by no means unreliable. Facts are facts, and Arab history can be a source of revelation not only for the period when Malta was under Aghlabid and Arab rule, between 870 and 1091, but also for other eras of our history in particular, the sixteenth-century Mediterranean conflict characterized by the clash between the Ottoman Empire on one side and the Spanish Empire and its satellite countries on the other.peer-reviewe

A large pericardial effusion and bilateral pleural effusions as the initial manifestations of Familial Mediterranean Fever

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is a condition characterized by recurrent febrile poly-serositis. Typical presentations of the disease include episodes of fever, abdominal pain and joint pains. Chest pain is a less common presentation. We report a case of FMF which presented with a large pericardial effusion and bilateral pleural effusions in a lady who had no positive family history and negative genetic testing.peer-reviewe

Parametric Modelling of EEG Data for the Identification of Mental Tasks

Electroencephalographic (EEG) data is widely used as a biosignal for the identification of different mental states in the human brain. EEG signals can be captured by relatively inexpensive equipment and acquisition procedures are non-invasive and not overly complicated. On the negative side, EEG signals are characterized by low signal-to-noise ratio and non-stationary characteristics, which makes the processing of such signals for the extraction of useful information a challenging task.peer-reviewe

Dentistry

The specialty of Dental Surgery has progressed from the "blood and acrylic" of the early seventies. Dentistry has undergone a quantum leap over the past twenty-five years, with improvements in both technique and technology, bringing us the sophisticated procedures used in today's practice.peer-reviewe

Un’esperienza nel Mediterraneo

The urban zone, now known as il-Fgura, started spreading like a fungus a few decades ago, but the appearance of the first lined houses in the area dates back two centuries. It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that this district began to develop into a marginal suburb of the harbour town of Bormla, which is one of the three towns situated in the south-east of the Grand Harbour. However, if one wants to unearth the history of il-Fguta's remote past, i.e. before the sixteenth century, one has to rely mainly on archaeological evidence and from what has been unearthed one can try to make an interpretative reading of the habitation patterns and use of the land of the area for the period which lacks written historical evidence. After all, very few, if any conclusions can be drawn from archaeology as this area has been savagely built up and like other places close to it, development was undertaken regardless of the historical remains. The latter were either destroyed or sold on the market. Thus, in the unearthing of recondite historical figures, the major evidence about il-Fgura's past can only be drawn from surviving written information and oral traditions; it should be stressed that unfortunately archaeology in this particular case cannot be used as a substitute.peer-reviewe

Improving runtime overheads for detectEr

We design monitor optimisations for detectEr, a runtime-verification tool synthesising systems of concurrent monitors from correctness properties for Erlang programs. We implement these optimisations as part of the existing tool and show that they yield considerably lower runtime overheads when compared to the unoptimised monitor synthesis.peer-reviewe

Parametric and Nonparametric EEG Analysis for the Evaluation of EEG Activity in Young Children with Controlled Epilepsy

There is an important evidence of differences in the EEG frequency spectrum of control subjects as compared to epileptic subjects. In particular, the study of children presents difficulties due to the early stages of brain development and the various forms of epilepsy indications. In this study, we consider children that developed epileptic crises in the past but without any other clinical, psychological, or visible neurophysiological findings. The aim of the paper is to develop reliable techniques for testing if such controlled epilepsy induces related spectral differences in the EEG. Spectral features extracted by using nonparametric, signal representation techniques (Fourier and wavelet transform) and a parametric, signal modeling technique (ARMA) are compared and their effect on the classification of the two groups is analyzed. The subjects performed two different tasks: a control (rest) task and a relatively difficult math task. The results show that spectral features extracted by modeling the EEG signals recorded from individual channels by an ARMA model give a higher discrimination between the two subject groups for the control task, where classification scores of up to 100% were obtained with a linear discriminant classifier