Interoperability among UML tools: an industrial case study

Software architecture has emerged as an important field of software engineering for managing the realm of large-system development and maintenance [1-4]. The main intent of software architecture is to provide intellectual control over a sophisticated system of enormous complexity [5]. There are many definitions of software architecture [6]. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) [7], building upon [8], defines a software architecture “as the set of significant decisions about the organization of a software system: selection of the structural elements and their interfaces by which a system is composed, behavior as specified in collaborations among those elements, composition of these structural and behavioral elements into larger subsystem, architectural style that guides this organization. Software architecture also involves usage, functionality, performance, resilience, reuse, comprehensibility, economic and technology constraints and tradeoffs, and aesthetic concerns. Software architecture is developed during the early phases of the software development process. Therefore, it significantly constrains and facilitates the achievement of requirements and business goals. Hence, reviewing the software architecture represents a valid means to check the system conformance and to reveal any potentially-missed objectives early on [9]. Every software system has a software architecture; it can be implicit or explicit, i.e., documented and specifically designed to fulfill predefined business goals and quality requirements. When a system needs to be maintained it may be necessary to spend considerable effort in documenting the underlying software architecture even if it has to be recovered (reverse engineered) [10]

Interaction between phosphorus and parathyroid hormone in non-dialysis CKD patients under nephrology care

Whether the traditional treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-mineral and bone disorder is effective in the setting of tertiary nephrology care is an unexplored question. We evaluated phosphate, calcium and PTH levels during the first year of nephrology care and the prognostic role of month-12 levels in non-dialysis patients referred prior to availability of the novel P binders. We studied a historical cohort of consecutive patients with CKD stage 3-5 at referral (baseline), and after 6 and 12 months of nephrology care; thereafter, patients were followed for renal survival (time to death or end-stage renal disease). At month 12, versus baseline, we detected a larger implementation of dietary protein restriction (P = 0.001), vitamin D and P binder (P < 0.0001 for both). Mean serum P remained unchanged (4.02 +/- A 0.77, 4.01 +/- A 0.79, 4.10 +/- A 0.85 mg/dL at baseline, month 6 and 12, respectively) with only 18, 16 and 21 % patients showing uncontrolled serum P at the three study visits. Similarly, calcium levels were unchanged and within the target in most cases. Conversely, intact PTH increased from 102 pg/mL (interquartile range 67-139) to 113 (68-179), P = 0.015, with 59, 60 and 53 % patients showing high values at the three study visits. During the subsequent follow-up (31 months), 96 renal deaths occurred. Cox analysis evidenced a significant prognostic role of the interaction P x PTH (P = 0.002), that is, the risk of renal death associated with serum P increased in the presence of higher PTH. In patients under nephrology care, P and PTH should be considered in concert to optimize risk stratification for renal death

A miRNA signature in human cord blood stem and progenitor cells as potential biomarker of specific acute myeloid leukemia subtypes

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of several cellular processes. During hematopoiesis, specific expression signatures have been reported in different blood cell lineages and stages of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) differentiation. Here we explored the expression of miRNAs in umbilical cord blood stem (HSC) and progenitor cells (HPC) and compared it to unilineage granulocyte and granulo-monocyte differentiation as well as to primary blasts from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). CD34+CD38- ad CD34+CD38+ cells were profiled using a global array consisting of about 2000 miRNAs. An approach combining bioinformatic prediction of miRNA targets with mRNA expression profiling was used to search for putative biologically enriched functions and networks. At least 15 miRNAs to be differentially expressed between HSC and HPC cell population, a cluster of 7 miRNAs are located in the q32 region of human chromosome 14 (miR-377-3p, -136-5p, 376a-3p, 495-3p, 654-3p, 376c-3p and 381-3p) whose expression decreased during the early stages of normal myelopoiesis but were markedly increased in a small set of AML. Interestingly, miR-4739 and -4516, two novel microRNA whose function and targets are presently unknown, showed specific and peculiar expression profile during the hematopoietic stem cells differentiation into unilineages and resulted strongly upregulated in almost all AML subsets. miR-181, -126-5p, -29b-3p and -22-3p resulted dis-regulated in specific leukemias phenotypes. This study provides the first evidence of a miRNA signature in human cord blood stem and progenitor cells with a potential role in hematopoietic stemness properties and possibly in leukemogenesis of specific AML subtypes. J. Cell. Physiol. 230: 1770-1780, 2015