178 research outputs found

    Extending Software Architecting Processes with Decision-Making Activities

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    Abstract. The traditional perspective on software architecture has paid much attention to the architecting process as a means to create the software architecture of the target system, as well as the documentation for describing this by means of several architectural views. Recently, the software architecture research community has faced the need to record, manage, and document the design decisions that lead to the architecture. Because architectures are the result of a set of design decisions, these must be managed properly as a complementary process to the architecting activity. Several types of processes can be defined and used as part of this decision-making activity. In this paper we focus on those activities that concern to the creation and use of architectural design decisions and how these can be managed with a tool support. 1

    Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and environmental risk factors for soil-transmitted helminth intensity of infection in Timor-Leste, using real time PCR

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    Background: No investigations have been undertaken of risk factors for intensity of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection in Timor-Leste. This study provides the first analysis of risk factors for intensity of STH infection, as determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR), examining a broad range of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and environmental factors, among communities in Manufahi District, Timor-Leste. Methods: A baseline cross-sectional survey of 18 communities was undertaken as part of a cluster randomised controlled trial, with additional identically-collected data from six other communities. qPCR was used to assess STH infection from stool samples, and questionnaires administered to collect WASH, demographic, and socioeconomic data. Environmental information was obtained from open-access sources and linked to infection outcomes. Mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression was undertaken to assess risk factors for intensity of Necator americanus and Ascaris infection. Results: 2152 participants provided stool and questionnaire information for this analysis. In adjusted models incorporating WASH, demographic and environmental variables, environmental variables were generally associated with infection intensity for both N. americanus and Ascaris spp. Precipitation (in centimetres) was associated with increased risk of moderate-intensity (adjusted relative risk [ARR] 6.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9–19.3) and heavy-intensity (ARR 6.6; 95% CI 3.1–14.1) N. americanus infection, as was sandy-loam soil around households (moderate-intensity ARR 2.1; 95% CI 1.0–4.3; heavy-intensity ARR 2.7; 95% CI 1.6–4.5; compared to no infection). For Ascaris, alkaline soil around the household was associated with reduced risk of moderate-intensity infection (ARR 0.21; 95% CI 0.09–0.51), and heavy-intensity infection (ARR 0.04; 95% CI 0.01–0.25). Few WASH risk factors were significant. Conclusion: In this high-prevalence setting, strong risk associations with environmental factors indicate that anthelmintic treatment alone will be insufficient to interrupt STH transmission, as conditions are favourable for ongoing environmental transmission. Integrated STH control strategies should be explored as a priorityACAC is an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow (1058878), JSM is an Australian NHMRC Practitioner Fellow, and DJG is an Australian NHMRC Career Development Fellow. This work is funded by an NHMRC Partnership project in collaboration with WaterAid Australia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

    Physical Characterization of an Unlensed, Dusty Star-forming Galaxy at z = 5.85

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    We present a physical characterization of MM J100026.36+021527.9 (a.k.a. "Mambo-9"), a dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) at z = 5.850 \ub1 0.001. This is the highest-redshift unlensed DSFG (and fourth most distant overall) found to date and is the first source identified in a new 2 mm blank-field map in the COSMOS field. Though identified in prior samples of DSFGs at 850 \u3bcm to 1.2 mm with unknown redshift, the detection at 2 mm prompted further follow-up as it indicated a much higher probability that the source was likely to sit at z > 4. Deep observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter and submillimeter Array (ALMA) presented here confirm the redshift through the secure detection of 12CO(J = 6\u21925) and p-H2O (21,1 \u2192 20,2). Mambo-9 is composed of a pair of galaxies separated by 6 kpc with corresponding star formation rates of 590 M o\u2d9 yr-1 and 220 M o\u2d9 yr-1, total molecular hydrogen gas mass of (1.7 \ub1 0.4) 7 1011 M o\u2d9, dust mass of (1.3 \ub1 0.3) 7 109 M o\u2d9, and stellar mass of (3.2-1.5+1.0) 7 109 M o\u2d9. The total halo mass, (3.3 \ub1 0.8) 7 1012 M o\u2d9, is predicted to exceed 1015 M o\u2d9 by z = 0. The system is undergoing a merger-driven starburst that will increase the stellar mass of the system tenfold in \u3c4 depl = 40-80 Myr, converting its large molecular gas reservoir (gas fraction of 96-2+1) into stars. Mambo-9 evaded firm spectroscopic identification for a decade, following a pattern that has emerged for some of the highest-redshift DSFGs found. And yet, the systematic identification of unlensed DSFGs like Mambo-9 is key to measuring the global contribution of obscured star formation to the star formation rate density at z \u2a86 4, the formation of the first massive galaxies, and the formation of interstellar dust at early times ( 721 Gyr)

    Relationship between human leukocyte antigen alleles and risk of Kaposi’s sarcoma in Cameroon

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    Several studies published to date report associations between human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and different types of Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS). However, there is little concordance between the HLA alleles identified and the populations studied. To test whether HLA alleles associate with KS in a Cameroonian case–control study, we performed high-resolution HLA typing in KSHV seropositive individuals. Among HIV-positive individuals, carriers of HLA-B*14:01 were at a significantly higher risk of AIDS-KS (p = 0.033). For HIV-negative patients, a gene-wise comparison of allele frequencies identified the HLA-B (p = 0.008) and -DQA1 (p = 0.002) loci as possible risk factors for endemic KS. Our study provides additional understanding of genetic determinants of KS and their implications in disease pathogenesis. Further validation of these findings is needed to define the functional relevance of these associations

    Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

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    Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
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