Adapting Quality Assurance to Adaptive Systems: The Scenario Coevolution Paradigm

From formal and practical analysis, we identify new challenges that self-adaptive systems pose to the process of quality assurance. When tackling these, the effort spent on various tasks in the process of software engineering is naturally re-distributed. We claim that all steps related to testing need to become self-adaptive to match the capabilities of the self-adaptive system-under-test. Otherwise, the adaptive system's behavior might elude traditional variants of quality assurance. We thus propose the paradigm of scenario coevolution, which describes a pool of test cases and other constraints on system behavior that evolves in parallel to the (in part autonomous) development of behavior in the system-under-test. Scenario coevolution offers a simple structure for the organization of adaptive testing that allows for both human-controlled and autonomous intervention, supporting software engineering for adaptive systems on a procedural as well as technical level.Comment: 17 pages, published at ISOLA 201

Academic stress and coping: Contributions to the adaptation of the MMC

Este estudo enquadra-se na investiga??o das estrat?gias de coping utilizadas perante dificuldades associadas ao quotidiano escolar. Utilizando entrevistas a 30 alunos, o estudo (1) identificou as principais situa??es geradoras de stress, reconhecendo a import?ncia relativa do stress acad?mico na vida dos alunos, e (2) analisou a validade cultural para o contexto portugu?s das situa??es stressantes usadas na escala Multidimensional Measure of Coping (MMC), avaliando as perce??es dos alunos quanto ao n?vel de stress induzido e controlo percebido relativamente a essas situa??es. Os resultados confirmaram a import?ncia da escola enquanto fonte significativa de stress, e a adequa??o da MMC ao contexto portugu?s.8C1E-AFB9-6BE1 | Maria Teresa Martins Gon?alvesN/

eLearning for health in Brazil - UNA-SUS in numbers.

Use of technology enabled learning for distance education in the health field is growing, and new challenges are emerging related to reaching health professionals working in remote areas. The Open University of the Unified Health System (UNA-SUS) promotes Continuing Professional Development and uses Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) for distance education to theBrazilian health workforce, mainly in primary care. Methods: As part of ongoing quality assurance assessments, we performed a descriptive analysis of courses, learners, and completion rates from all enrolments in UNA-SUS for Qualification and Specialisation Courses. Data were collected directly from the UNA-SUS information system. Results: From March 2008 to October 2015 (91 months), UNA-SUS had 206,834 enrolments in 40 Specialisation Courses and 60 Qualification Courses, reaching 119,109 professionals (mean - 1.7 courses per person). These were distributed amongst 5,199 Brazilian municipalities, 59% of which had a population of 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. Learners were mainly women (80.6%), nurses (26.4%), and working in primary care (39.8%). Completion rates were 67.3% for Specialisation Courses and 37.9% for Qualification Courses, which were self-instructional. Reaching 93% of all Brazilian cities and 119,109 learners, UNA-SUS was able to deliver health education to health professionals (physicians, nurses, and others) in rural and other areas of shortage such as indigenous districts and metropolitan outskirts. UNA-SUS has succeeded in expanding ten-fold the seats for Specialisation Courses for family health, and has good results in TEL Qualification Courses. UNA-SUS has innovated Continuing Professional Development for health professionals in Brazil. These courses responded to the previously unattended educational needs of the workforce, focusing on reaching primary care professionals in smaller towns and remote areas. UNA-SUS is consolidating itself as a nationwide provider of continuing education

Kuksa*: Self-Adaptive Microservices in Automotive Systems

In pervasive dynamic environments, vehicles connect to other objects to send operational data and receive updates so that vehicular applications can provide services to users on demand. Automotive systems should be self-adaptive, thereby they can make real-time decisions based on changing operating conditions. Emerging modern solutions, such as microservices could improve self-adaptation capabilities and ensure higher levels of quality performance in many domains. We employed a real-world automotive platform called Eclipse Kuksa to propose a framework based on microservices architecture to enhance the self-adaptation capabilities of automotive systems for runtime data analysis. To evaluate the designed solution, we conducted an experiment in an automotive laboratory setting where our solution was implemented as a microservice-based adaptation engine and integrated with other Eclipse Kuksa components. The results of our study indicate the importance of design trade-offs for quality requirements' satisfaction levels of each microservices and the whole system for the optimal performance of an adaptive system at runtime

Testing the robustness of controllers for self-adaptive systems

Self-Adaptive systems are software-intensive systems endowed with the ability to respond to a variety of changes that may occur in their environment, goals, or the system itself, by adapting their structure and behavior at run-time in an autonomous way. Controllers are complex components incorporated in self-adaptive systems, which are crucial to their function since they are in charge of adapting the target system by executing actions through effectors, based on information monitored by probes. However, although controllers are becoming critical in many application domains, so far very little has been done to assess their robustness. In this paper, we propose an approach for evaluating the robustness of controllers for self-adaptive software systems, aiming to identify faults in their design. Our proposal considers the stateful nature of the controller, and identifies a set of robustness tests, which includes the provision of mutated inputs to the interfaces between the controller and the target system (i.e., probes). The feasibility of the approach is evaluated on Rainbow, a framework for architecture-based self-adaptation, and in the context of the Znn.com case study

Analysis of learners? profile for self-instructional courses on the health of the elderly produced by the open University of SUS (UNA-SUS).

Objetivo: descrever a constru??o de estrat?gias educacionais e o perfil dos egressos dos dois primeiros cursos autoinstrucionais do Programa de Qualifica??o em Sa?de da Pessoa Idosa (PQSPI). M?todo: an?lise descritiva do perfil de egressos do PQSPI, a partir de banco de dados consolidado da Universidade Aberta do SUS (UNA-SUS), em cursos desenhados sob constru??o reversa. Cursos conceberam-se sob dois formatos diferentes, desenvolvidos por tr?s equipes distintas, com a parceria e homologa??o da Coordena??o de Sa?de da Pessoa Idosa do Minist?rio da Sa?de. Resultados: foram desenvolvidos dois cursos, distribu?dos em sete ofertas, entre 2016 e 2018, voltados para: profissionais de n?vel superior, especialmente m?dicos/enfermeiros, curso 1; e t?cnicos/auxiliares de enfermagem (TAE) e agentes comunit?rios de sa?de (ACS), curso 2. O p?blico mais comum em todos os cursos foi de estudantes (37,9%). Dentre os profissionais, os TAE superaram m?dicos e os ACS foram o 4? p?blico mais frequente no curso 1; no curso 2, os TAE e os ACS foram os mais frequentes, com taxas de conclus?o em torno de 50%. Conclus?o: demonstrou-se maior interesse de estudantes, TAE e ACS nos cursos autoinstrucionais, sendo necess?rio estudar melhor sua participa??o. Os TAE e ACS t?m menos oportunidade de capacita??o, sendo um p?blico estrat?gico para a??es futuras.Aims: to describe the construction strategy and the learners? profile of the two initial selfinstructional courses on the Health of the Elderly Qualification Program (PQSPI). Method: descriptive analysis of the PQSPI learner?s profile from the Open University of SUS (UNASUS) consolidated database. The courses were designed based on reverse construction, when the learning objectives are the first to be drawn, followed by the activities, and then, the theoretical content is developed from it. The reverse construction involved 5 different formats, 3 production teams, and was approved by the Coordination of the Elderly from the Ministry of Health. Results: two courses with 7 educational offers were developed, directed to: graduated professionals, mainly physicians and nurses, course 1; Nursing technicians/assistants (NTA) and community health agents (CHA), course 2. The most common public for all courses was mainly composed by graduation students, demonstrating undergraduate?s interest in permanent education courses. NTA outperformed physicians and CHA were the fourth most common professional audience in course 1. In course 2, NTA and CHA were the most common audience and had completion rates around 50%. Conclusion: greater interest from students, NTA, and CHA in self-instructional courses was demonstrated, so it?s necessary to study in depth their participation. NTA and CHA have less opportunity for competencies building, being a strategic audience for future actions

A Novel Risk Stratification Model for Patients with Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR): Limitation of the TIMI Risk Scoring System

The Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score (TRS) has proven value in predicting prognosis in unstable angina/non ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) as well as in ST-elevation myocardial infarction. The TRS system has little implication, however, in the extent of myocardial damage in high-risk patients with NSTEMI. A total of 1621 patients (63.6±12.2 years; 1043 males) with NSTEMI were enrolled in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR). We analyzed the risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during a 6-month follow-up period. The TRS system showed good correlation with MACE for patients in the low and intermediate groups but had poor correlation when the high-risk group was included (p=0.128). The MACE rate was 3.8% for TRS 1, 9.4% for TRS 2, 10.7% for TRS 3, and 12.3% for TRS 4 (HR=1.29, p=0.026). Among the biomarkers and clinical risk factors, elevated N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) (HR=2.61, p=0.001) and Killip class above III showed good correlation with MACE (HR=0.302, p<0.001). Therefore, we revised an alternative clinical scoring system by including these two variables that reflect left ventricular dysfunction: age > 65 years, history of ischemic heart disease, Killip class above III, and elevated pro-BNP levels above the 75th percentile. This modified scoring system, when tested for validity, showed good predictive value for MACE (HR=1.64, p<0.001). Compared with the traditional TRS, the novel alternative scoring system based on age, history of ischemic heart disease, Killip class, and NT-proBNP showed a better predictive value for 6-month MACE in high-risk patients with NSTEMI

BIOLOGICAL INVASION OF Corythucha ciliata IN GREEN URBAN SPACES IN PORTUGAL: A NICHE MODELING APPROACH USING MAXIMUM ENTROPY

Corythucha ciliata (Hemiptera: Tingidae) \ue9 um inseto nativo da Am\ue9rica do Norte que foi introduzido na Europa, pela It\ue1lia, em 1964. Desde ent\ue3o tem se expandido por toda a Europa, desconhecendo-se a data de chegada e a sua \ue1rea de distribui\ue7\ue3o em Portugal. Esta importante praga invasora alimenta-se na face inferior das folhas de pl\ue1tano, uma das mais importantes \ue1rvores ornamentais nos espa\ue7os verdes urbanos em Portugal, causando senesc\ueancia prematura e eventualmente morte, em casos de infesta\ue7\uf5es severas consecutivas. A modela\ue7\ue3o de nicho est\ue1 se tornando uma ferramenta cada vez mais importante na gest\ue3o de invas\uf5es biol\uf3gicas, tanto antes como depois da introdu\ue7\ue3o do organismo invasor. Neste estudo, o software MaxEnt (m\ue1xima entropia) foi usado na modela\ue7\ue3o da distribui\ue7\ue3o invasiva potencial de Corythucha ciliata em Portugal, a partir de um conjunto de vari\ue1veis ambientais e de dados de presen\ue7a do inseto, obtidos a partir da observa\ue7\ue3o de folhas de pl\ue1tanos amostrados por todo o pa\ueds. De acordo com o melhor modelo gerado pelo MaxEnt, as \ue1reas de maior adequabilidade potencial \ue0 invas\ue3o de Corythucha ciliata encontram-se no norte de Portugal apresentando o sul e as regi\uf5es de maior altitude do norte e centro adequabilidade reduzida ou nula. Observa\ue7\uf5es laboratoriais da biologia de Corythucha ciliata aliadas aos registos de aus\ueancia em v\ue1rias localidades do sul de Portugal e ocorr\ueancia predominante na metade norte de Espanha suportam o modelo desenvolvido. Por\ue9m, a valida\ue7\ue3o do modelo requer futuras prospec\ue7\uf5es nas \ue1reas de reduzida adequabilidade e onde a praga se encontrava virtualmente ausente no momento em que foi realizada a amostragem. Os modelos de adequabilidade podem ser usados como ferramenta auxiliar na tomada de decis\ue3o no que concerne \ue0 gest\ue3o dos espa\ue7os verdes.Corythucha ciliata (Hemiptera: Tingidae) is an insect native to North America which has been introduced into Europe, through Italy, in 1964. Since then it has expanded across Europe being its date of arrival and distributional range in Portugal unknown. This important invasive pest feeds on the underside of the leaves of sycamore trees, one of the most widespread ornamental tree in urban areas of Portugal, causing their premature senescence and eventually death, in case of consecutive severe infestations. Habitat modeling is becoming an increasingly important tool for managing biological invasions, either prior or after the introduction of the invasive organism. In this study the software MaxEnt (maximum entropy) was used to model the distribution of Corythucha ciliata in its Portuguese invasive range, from a set of environmental variables and georeferenced occurrence data obtained from observation of Platanus spp. leaves sampled all over the country. According to the best model developed, the areas of greater suitability to invasion of Corythucha ciliata are located in the northern portion of the country whereas the more southern and mountainous areas are of low or virtually null suitability. Laboratory observations of Corythucha ciliata biology allied to records of pest absence across several localities of southern Portugal and predominant occurrence in the northern half of Spain support the model developed. However, model validation requires future prospection in the areas of predicted reduced suitability and where the pest was virtually absent at the moment of sampling. Suitability models can be a useful tool for decision making in management of green spaces