Customized Atomicity Specification for Transactional Workflows

This paper introduces a new approach for specifying transaction management requirements for workflow applications. We propose independent models for the specification of workflow and transaction properties. Although we distinguish multiple transaction properties in our approach, we focus on atomicity in this paper. We propose an intuitive notation to specify atomicity and provide generic rules to integrate the workflow specification and the atomicity specification into one single model based on Petri Nets. The integrated model can be checked for correctness. We call this correctness criterion relaxed soundness as a weaker notion of the existing soundness criterion. We can relax the correctness criterion because we rely on run-time transaction management. A real life example shows the applicability of the concepts

Requirements and architecture for automatic setup and enactment of reliable cooperative services

Service providers often cooperate to offer advanced services to their\ud customers. This cooperation often involves process synchronization and data\ud sharing. The specific service requirements and inherent heterogeneity of\ud provider infrastructures, make cooperation setup and enactment hard. Current\ud approaches therefore either manually configure and implement the service\ud setup and often apply standard techniques that do not fit heterogeneity of\ud providers in general or cannot satisfy the customized cooperation\ud requirements needed.\ud Therefore, we propose ASSURE, an approach that enables automatic service\ud setup and reliable enactment for customized cooperation requirements. We\ud identify requirements with respect to reliability, autonomy, heterogeneity and\ud distribution. We propose an architecture that consists of four layers as an\ud extension of existing infrastructure: contracting layer, composition layer,\ud coordination layer and execution layer. The architecture supports automatic\ud cooperative service setup and enactment, and provides functionality for\ud transactional correctness guarantees. The architecture supports peer-to-peer\ud implementation such that it can be used locally and supports flexible degrees\ud of automation

Growth and Nutrition: Preliminary Findings from the Round 5 Survey in Vietnam

This fact sheet presents preliminary findings on nutrition and health from Round 5 of the Young Lives survey in Viet Nam in 2016. Young Lives has followed two cohorts of children born seven years apart since 2002. This fact sheet compares key growth and nutritional indicators for 15-year-olds in 2016 (Younger Cohort) and in 2009 (Older Cohort), using data on food security to characterise constraints on the quantity of food available. For a measure of food quality, we consider data on consumption of specific food groups and dietary diversity. We find that there are important disparities in food diversity and in household food security which are consistently associated with stunting levels. The findings support the continuation of ongoing targeted poverty reduction programme

General Mental Health, Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction in the Context of COVID-19 Policies: A 2-Year Cohort Study in the Netherlands, April 2020-January 2022.

Objective: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health, understanding who has been affected most and why is incomplete. We sought to understand changes in mental health in the context of transmission numbers and pandemic (social) restrictions and whether changes in mental health varied among population groups. Methods: We analyzed data from 92 062 people (aged ≥16 years and able to read Dutch) who participated in the Corona Behavioral Unit cohort study at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands, from April 17, 2020, through January 25, 2022. Participants self-reported mental well-being through multiple rounds of surveys. We used a multivariable linear mixed-effects model to analyze loneliness, general mental health, and life satisfaction. Results: As strictness of pandemic prevention measures and social restrictions increased, people’s feelings of loneliness increased and mental health and life satisfaction decreased. As restrictions were relaxed, loneliness decreased and general mental health improved. Younger people (aged 16-24 y) versus older people (aged ≥40 y), people with low (vs high) education levels, and people living alone (vs living together) were more likely to have negative well-being outcomes. We observed that trajectories over time differed considerably only by age, with participants aged 16-24 years affected substantially more than participants aged ≥40 years by pandemic social restrictions. These patterns were consistent across multiple waves of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the social restrictions imposed by the Dutch government during the study period were associated with reduced mental well-being, especially among younger people. However, people appeared resilient as they recovered during periods when restrictions were relaxed. Monitoring and supporting well-being, in particular to reduce loneliness, may help younger people during periods of intense social restrictions.</p