LNCS

Systems ought to behave reasonably even in circumstances that are not anticipated in their specifications. We propose a definition of robustness for liveness specifications which prescribes, for any number of environment assumptions that are violated, a minimal number of system guarantees that must still be fulfilled. This notion of robustness can be formulated and realized using a Generalized Reactivity formula. We present an algorithm for synthesizing robust systems from such formulas. For the important special case of Generalized Reactivity formulas of rank 1, our algorithm improves the complexity of [PPS06] for large specifications with a small number of assumptions and guarantees

Specification-Centered Robustness

In addition to being correct, a system should be robust, that is, it should behave reasonably even after receiving unexpected inputs. In this paper, we summarize two formal notions of robustness that we have introduced previously for reactive systems. One of the notions is based on assigning costs for failures on a user-provided notion of incorrect transitions in a specification. Here, we define a system to be robust if a finite number of incorrect inputs does not lead to an infinite number of incorrect outputs. We also give a more refined notion of robustness that aims to minimize the ratio of output failures to input failures. The second notion is aimed at liveness. In contrast to the previous notion, it has no concept of recovery from an error. Instead, it compares the ratio of the number of liveness constraints that the system violates to the number of liveness constraints that the environment violates

La comunicación entre el paciente oncológico y los profesionales. El cuestionario de comunicación de la EORTC

The aims of the present work are to introduce to the field of communication between the cancer patient and the professionals, to remark the positive influence communication may have on the patient, and to present the EORTC communication questionnaire. Communication between patient and professional is a key element in the support that is offered to cancer patients. It is important to consider different professionals communicate with cancer patients. There is a need of research in communication between patients and professionals. Two main models of patient care are presented: Paternalistic and Patient-Centered Cancer Care. Patient-Centered Care includes Patient- Centered Communication - PCC. The relation between communication and other PROs - Quality of Life, Information and Satisfaction with Care - is presented. There are cross-cultural differences in communication that could be related to the model of patient care. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group is developing a questionnaire to assess communication between cancer patient and the professionals. This Communication questionnaire mainly assesses professionals’ behaviors. Cultural aspects have a key role in the development of the EORTC questionnaire. This instrument is based on the Patient- Centered Communication – PCC model. The EORTC QLQ-COMU26 is presented. It includes six scales and four individual items. The three phases of the questionnaire development process are described. At the present moment the EORTC QLQ-COMU26 is being field-tested in a larger international study (phase IV), to ensure it is an appropriate and psychometrically valid instrument.Este trabajo pretende introducir el área de la comunicación entre el paciente oncológico y los profesionales, y destacar el impacto que tiene en el paciente. Además, se presenta el cuestionario de comunicación de la EORTC. La comunicación entre el paciente y los profesionales es uno de los elementos claves del soporte que se ofrece a dichos pacientes. En dicha comunicación participan un rango importante de profesionales. Hay una necesidad de realizar más investigación sobre la comunicación. Se presentan dos modelos principales de atención al paciente: el Paternalista y el de Atención Centrada en el Paciente con cáncer. Este último lleva asociada la Comunicación Centrada en el Paciente - CCP. Se revisa la relación entre comunicación y otros PRO: Calidad de Vida, información, y Satisfacción con los Cuidados. Existen diferencias culturales en comunicación que pueden estar relacionadas con el modelo de atención al paciente. El Grupo de Calidad de Vida de la Organización Europea para la Investigación y Tratamiento del Cáncer-EORTC está desarrollando una escala de comunicación entre el paciente oncológico y los profesionales. La mayoría del contenido de dicho cuestionario se centra en las conductas de los profesionales. Los aspectos culturales tienen un papel fundamental en el desarrollo del instrumento. El cuestionario se basa en el modelo de Comunicación Centrada en el Paciente – CCP. Se presenta el cuestionario EORTC QLQ-COMU26, que consta de seis escalas y cuatro ítems individuales. Se describen las tres primeras fases que se han dado en su creación. En la actualidad su funcionamiento psicométrico se está valorando en un estudio internacional

The impact of a cancer Survivorship Care Plan on gynecological cancer patient and health care provider reported outcomes (ROGY Care): study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is a need for improvement of information provision and post-treatment care for cancer survivors. A Survivorship Care Plan (SCP) is recommended by the American Institute of Medicine and the Dutch Health Council, which is a summary of patients' course of treatment as a formal document, and includes recommendations for subsequent cancer surveillance, management of late effects, and strategies for health promotion. Until now, evidence on the effects of implementing the SCP in clinical practice is lacking. The rationale and study design of a pragmatic cluster randomized trial, aiming to assess the impact of SCP care in routine clinical practice, is presented.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>A web-based patient registration system 'Registrationsystem Oncological GYnecology' (ROGY) is used by gynecologists in the South of the Netherlands since 2006. A personalized SCP can automatically be generated out of ROGY. In this pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial, 12 hospitals are randomized to either 'usual care' or 'SCP care'. In patients with 'usual care', the gynecologist provides care as usual. In patients with 'SCP care', information about the tumor stage and treatment is personally discussed with the patient and a document is handed to the patient. Prospectively, all patients diagnosed with endometrial or ovarian cancer in the participating hospitals will be approached for study participation. Patients will complete questionnaires after surgery, and before additional treatment, and after 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. In addition, health care providers will be asked their opinion about implementation of SCP care. Primary outcome is defined as patient satisfaction with information provision and care. Secondary outcomes are illness perception, health-related quality of life, health care use, prevalence, course and referral rate of survivors with psychosocial distress, and health care providers' evaluation of SCP care.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The ROGY Care trial will help to gain insight into the impact of SCP care on patient reported outcomes, and on the evaluation of cancer survivors and health care providers of the different elements of the SCP. Therefore, results will contribute to efforts to improve quality of care for cancer survivors.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Trial Registration: <url>http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov</url>. Identifier: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01185626">NCT01185626</a></p> <p>Medical Research Ethics Committee Reference Number: NL33429.008.10 Grant Reference Number: UVT2010-4743</p

Experimental Aspects of Synthesis

We discuss the problem of experimentally evaluating linear-time temporal logic (LTL) synthesis tools for reactive systems. We first survey previous such work for the currently publicly available synthesis tools, and then draw conclusions by deriving useful schemes for future such evaluations. In particular, we explain why previous tools have incompatible scopes and semantics and provide a framework that reduces the impact of this problem for future experimental comparisons of such tools. Furthermore, we discuss which difficulties the complex workflows that begin to appear in modern synthesis tools induce on experimental evaluations and give answers to the question how convincing such evaluations can still be performed in such a setting.Comment: In Proceedings iWIGP 2011, arXiv:1102.374

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE : survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Funding for the WEAVE facility has been provided by UKRI STFC, the University of Oxford, NOVA, NWO, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Isaac Newton Group partners (STFC, NWO, and Spain, led by the IAC), INAF, CNRS-INSU, the Observatoire de Paris, Région Île-de-France, CONCYT through INAOE, Konkoly Observatory (CSFK), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Lund University, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Swedish Research Council, the European Commission, and the University of Pennsylvania.WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366-959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20,000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼ 3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼ 1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼ 0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey  ∼ 400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z 1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.PostprintPeer reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z<0.5$ cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in $\sim25\,000$ field galaxies at $0.3\lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using $>1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366−959\,nm at R∼5000, or two shorter ranges at R∼20000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z>2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator

Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer– Quality of Life Questionnaire Sexual Health (EORTC QLQ-SH22)

Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed a questionnaire to assess sexual health in patients with cancer and cancer survivors. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Methods: The 22-item EORTC sexual health questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-SH22) was administered with the EORTC QLQ-C30 to 444 patients with cancer. The hypothesised scale structure, reliability and validity were evaluated through standardised psychometric procedures. Results: The cross-cultural field study showed that the majority of patients (94.7%) were able to complete the QLQ-SH22 in less than 20 min ; 89% of the study participants did not need any help to fill in the questionnaire. Multi-item multi-trait scaling analysis confirmed the hypothesised scale structure with two multi-item scales (sexual satisfaction, sexual pain) and 11 single items (including five conditional items and four gender- specific items). The internal consistency yielded acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients (.90 for the sexual satisfaction scale, .80 for the sexual pain scale). The test-retest correlations (Pearson's r) ranged from .70 to .93 except for the scale communication with professionals (.67) and male body image (.69). The QLQ-SH22 discriminates well between subgroups of patients differing in terms of their performance and treatment status. Conclusion: The study supports the reliability, the content and construct validity of the QLQ- SH22. The newly developed questionnaire is clinically applicable to assess sexual health of patients with cancer at different treatment stages and during survivorship for clinical trials and for clinical practice

Psychometric validation of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer– Quality of Life Questionnaire Sexual Health (EORTC QLQ-SH22)

Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed a questionnaire to assess sexual health in patients with cancer and cancer survivors. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Methods: The 22-item EORTC sexual health questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-SH22) was administered with the EORTC QLQ-C30 to 444 patients with cancer. The hypothesised scale structure, reliability and validity were evaluated through standardised psychometric procedures. Results: The cross-cultural field study showed that the majority of patients (94.7%) were able to complete the QLQ-SH22 in less than 20 min ; 89% of the study participants did not need any help to fill in the questionnaire. Multi-item multi-trait scaling analysis confirmed the hypothesised scale structure with two multi-item scales (sexual satisfaction, sexual pain) and 11 single items (including five conditional items and four gender- specific items). The internal consistency yielded acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients (.90 for the sexual satisfaction scale, .80 for the sexual pain scale). The test-retest correlations (Pearson's r) ranged from .70 to .93 except for the scale communication with professionals (.67) and male body image (.69). The QLQ-SH22 discriminates well between subgroups of patients differing in terms of their performance and treatment status. Conclusion: The study supports the reliability, the content and construct validity of the QLQ- SH22. The newly developed questionnaire is clinically applicable to assess sexual health of patients with cancer at different treatment stages and during survivorship for clinical trials and for clinical practice