Synthesis of OCL Pre-conditions for Graph Transformation Rules

Proceedings of: Third International Conference on Model Transformation (ICMT 2010): Theory and Practice of Model Transformation. Málaga, Spain, 28 June-02 July, 2010Graph transformation (GT) is being increasingly used in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) to describe in-place transformations like animations and refactorings. For its practical use, rules are often complemented with OCL application conditions. The advancement of rule post-conditions into pre-conditions is a well-known problem in GT, but current techniques do not consider OCL. In this paper we provide an approach to advance post-conditions with arbitrary OCL expressions into pre-conditions. This presents benefits for the practical use of GT in MDE, as it allows: (i) to automatically derive pre-conditions from the meta-model integrity constraints, ensuring rule correctness, (ii) to derive pre-conditions from graph constraints with OCL expressions and (iii) to check applicability of rule sequences with OCL conditions.Work funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through projects “Design and construction of a Conceptual Modeling Assistant” (TIN2008-00444/TIN - Grupo Consolidado), “METEORIC” (TIN2008-02081),mobility grants JC2009-00015 and PR2009-0019, and the R&D program of the Community of Madrid (S2009/TIC-1650, project “e-Madrid”).Publicad

Object Incompleteness and Dynamic Composition in Java-Like Languages

Abstract. Object composition is often advocated as a more flexible alternative to standard class inheritance since it takes place at run-time, thus permitting the behavior of objects to be specialized dynamically. In this paper we present In-complete Featherweight Java (IFJ), an extension of Featherweight Java with in-complete objects, i.e., objects that require some missing methods which can be provided at run-time by composition with another (complete) object. Incomplete object usage is disciplined by static typing, therefore the language enjoys type safety (which implies no “message-not-understood ” run-time errors).

Magnetic resonance imaging indicators of blood-brain barrier and brain water changes in young rats with kaolin-induced hydrocephalus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hydrocephalus is associated with enlargement of cerebral ventricles. We hypothesized that magnetic resonance (MR) imaging parameters known to be influenced by tissue water content would change in parallel with ventricle size in young rats and that changes in blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability would be detected.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hydrocephalus was induced by injection of kaolin into the cisterna magna of 4-week-old rats, which were studied 1 or 3 weeks later. MR was used to measure longitudinal and transverse relaxation times (T1 and T2) and apparent diffusion coefficients in several regions. Brain tissue water content was measured by the wet-dry weight method, and tissue density was measured in Percoll gradient columns. BBB permeability was measured by quantitative imaging of changes on T1-weighted images following injection of gadolinium diethylenetriamine penta-acetate (Gd-DTPA) tracer and microscopically by detection of fluorescent dextran conjugates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In nonhydrocephalic rats, water content decreased progressively from age 3 to 7 weeks. T1 and T2 and apparent diffusion coefficients did not exhibit parallel changes and there was no evidence of BBB permeability to tracers. The cerebral ventricles enlarged progressively in the weeks following kaolin injection. In hydrocephalic rats, the dorsal cortex was more dense and the white matter less so, indicating that the increased water content was largely confined to white matter. Hydrocephalus was associated with transient elevation of T1 in gray and white matter and persistent elevation of T2 in white matter. Changes in the apparent diffusion coefficients were significant only in white matter. Ventricle size correlated significantly with dorsal water content, T1, T2, and apparent diffusion coefficients. MR imaging showed evidence of Gd-DTPA leakage in periventricular tissue foci but not diffusely. These correlated with microscopic leak of larger dextran tracers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MR characteristics cannot be used as direct surrogates for water content in the immature rat model of hydrocephalus, probably because they are also influenced by other changes in tissue composition that occur during brain maturation. There is no evidence for widespread persistent opening of BBB as a consequence of hydrocephalus in young rats. However, increase in focal BBB permeability suggests that periventricular blood vessels may be disrupted.</p

Fluids and barriers of the CNS: a historical viewpoint

Tracing the exact origins of modern science can be a difficult but rewarding pursuit. It is possible for the astute reader to follow the background of any subject through the many important surviving texts from the classical and ancient world. While empirical investigations have been described by many since the time of Aristotle and scientific methods have been employed since the Middle Ages, the beginnings of modern science are generally accepted to have originated during the 'scientific revolution' of the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe. The scientific method is so fundamental to modern science that some philosophers consider earlier investigations as 'pre-science'. Notwithstanding this, the insight that can be gained from the study of the beginnings of a subject can prove important in the understanding of work more recently completed. As this journal undergoes an expansion in focus and nomenclature from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into all barriers of the central nervous system (CNS), this review traces the history of both the blood-CSF and blood-brain barriers from as early as it was possible to find references, to the time when modern concepts were established at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract Static Composition of Refactorings

The number of possible refactorings is unlimited, so no tool vendor will ever be able to provide custom refactorings for all specific user needs. Therefore, we propose a new kind of refactoring tools, which allow users to create, edit and and compose required refactorings just like any other documents. The heart of such a refactoring editor is the ability to compose larger refactorings from existing ones. Computing the precondition of the composite refactoring from the preconditions of the composed refactorings is non-trivial since earlier transformations influence the truth of preconditions of later ones. The ability to calculate these effects without referring to a particular program to which the refactorings should be applied is called program-independent composition. It is the prerequisite for creating composite refactorings that are reusable on arbitrary programs. The main contribution of this paper is a formal model for automatic, programindependent composition of conditional program transformations. We show that conditional transformations, including refactorings, can be composed from a limited set of basic operations. Program-independent derivation of a precondition for th

Phorbol ester induced changes in tight and adherens junctions in the choroid plexus epithelium and in the ependyma

The molecular composition and functional properties of cell-cell junctions of choroid plexus epithelial cells and the ependyma of the lateral ventricular wall were investigated in the rat brain. Expression studies of cadherin and {alpha}- and {beta}-catenins, as well as expression of occludin and ZO-1, indicated that cell adherens and tight junctions were present in both choroid plexus epithelial cells and in ependymal cells. We then tested the hypothesis that phorbolester in vivo can induce changes in the expression level of adherens and tight junction molecules at the blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barrier as well as in the ependyma. In addition, the functional properties of the ependymal junctions were tested by injection of dextran 3000 into the striatum after phorbolester application. Twenty-four hours after phorbolester-injection into the lateral ventricle of the rat brain, the expression patterns of tight and adherens junction molecules were markedly changed in the epithelial cells of the choroid plexus. The adherens junction proteins cadherin and {beta}-catenin were reduced in both the ependymal cells of the lateral ventricle and choroid plexus epithelial cells. In addition, the occludin-immunoreactivity of the choroid plexus epithelial cells was strongly reduced. However, the ZO-1 immunoreactivity was not affected by the phorbol ester-treatment and the {alpha}-catenin immunoreactivity was not changed. Furthermore, phorbol ester injection induced a reduction of the volume of intrastriatal injected biotinylated dextran (m.w. 3000), which is consistent with a modulatory influence of protein kinase C activation on the clearance capacity of the brain

Structural alterations of tight junctions are associated with loss of polarity in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat blood-brain barrier endothelial cells

The mechanisms leading to stroke in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) are not well understood. We tested the hypothesis that the endothelial tight junctions of the blood-brain barrier are altered in SHRSP prior to stroke. We investigated tight junctions in 13-week-old SHRSP, spontaneously hypertensive stroke-resistant rats (SHR) and age-matched Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) by electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry. Ultrathin sections showed no difference in junction structure of cerebral capillaries from SHRSP, SHR and WKY, respectively. However, using freeze-fracturing, we observed that the blood-brain barrier specific distribution of tight junction particles between P- and E-face in WKY (58.7±3.6%, P-face; 41.2±5.59%, E-face) and SHR (53.2±19.3%, P-face; 55.6±13.25%, E-face) was changed to an 89.4±9.9% predominant E-face association in cerebral capillaries from SHRSP. However, the expression of the tight junction molecules ZO-1, occludin, claudin-1 and claudin-5 was not changed in capillaries of SHRSP. Permeability of brain capillaries from SHRSP was not different compared to SHR and WKY using lanthanum nitrate as a tracer. In contrast, analysis of endothelial cell polarity by distribution of the glucose-1 transporter (Glut-1) revealed that its abluminal:luminal ratio was reduced from 4:1 in SHR and WKY to 1:1 in endothelial cells of cerebral capillaries of SHRSP. In summary, we demonstrate that early changes exist in cerebral capillaries from a genetic model of hypertension-associated stroke. We suggest that a disturbed fence function of the tight junctions in SHRSP blood-brain barrier endothelial cells may lead to subtle changes in polarity. These changes may contribute to the pathogenesis of stroke