SAGA: A DSL for Story Management

Video game development is currently a very labour-intensive endeavour. Furthermore it involves multi-disciplinary teams of artistic content creators and programmers, whose typical working patterns are not easily meshed. SAGA is our first effort at augmenting the productivity of such teams. Already convinced of the benefits of DSLs, we set out to analyze the domains present in games in order to find out which would be most amenable to the DSL approach. Based on previous work, we thus sought those sub-parts that already had a partially established vocabulary and at the same time could be well modeled using classical computer science structures. We settled on the 'story' aspect of video games as the best candidate domain, which can be modeled using state transition systems. As we are working with a specific company as the ultimate customer for this work, an additional requirement was that our DSL should produce code that can be used within a pre-existing framework. We developed a full system (SAGA) comprised of a parser for a human-friendly language for 'story events', an internal representation of design patterns for implementing object-oriented state-transitions systems, an instantiator for these patterns for a specific 'story', and three renderers (for C++, C# and Java) for the instantiated abstract code.Comment: In Proceedings DSL 2011, arXiv:1109.032

Black glasses, bulk and fibers: Obtaining information in the infrared

International audienceBlack in the visible but highly transparent in the infrared, the chalcogenbased glasses have reached a maturity which makes them competitive materials for several technological applications related to detection in the mid IR spectral domain. As bulk IR transparent materials they offer an advantage compared to germanium crystals, as they are low cost materials which can be shaped into simple or sophisticated IR lenses by molding. Many efforts have been made to optimize the chemical composition in order to make these glasses very resistant to moisture and oxygen corrosion or devitrification.When drawn into optical fibers with different optical configurations, they represent a new generation of waveguides covering the 3 to 12gtm spectral domain and paving the way for the development of temperature, chemical or biochemical sensors. Amongst these possibilities, the remote in situ analysis of chemical processes (such as fermentation or reactions carried out under microwave or autoclave conditions) as well in vivo analysis of biological tissues, are the most exciting. The use of chalcogen glass fiber tips for scanning near field micro-spectroscopy is also a promising field

Semi-automated stereoradiographic upper limb 3D reconstructions using a combined parametric and statistical model: a preliminary study

PURPOSE: Quantitative assessment of 3D clinical indices may be crucial for elbow surgery planning. 3D parametric modeling from bi-planar radiographs was successfully proposed for spine and lower limb clinical investigation as an alternative for CT-scan. The aim of this study was to adapt this method to the upper limb with a preliminary validation. METHODS: CT-scan 3D models of humerus, radius and ulna were obtained from 20 cadaveric upper limbs and yielded parametric models made of geometric primitives. Primitives were defined by descriptor parameters (diameters, angles...) and correlations between these descriptors were found. Using these correlations, a semi-automated reconstruction method of humerus using bi-planar radiographs was achieved: a 3D personalized parametric model was built, from which clinical parameters were computed [orientation and projections on bone surface of trochlea sulcus to capitulum (CTS) axis, trochlea sulcus anterior offset and width of distal humeral epiphysis]. This method was evaluated by accuracy compared to CT-scan and reproducibility. RESULTS: Points-to-surface mean distance was 0.9 mm (2 RMS = 2.5 mm). For clinical parameters, mean differences were 0.4-1.9 mm and from 1.7° to 2.3°. All parameters except from angle formed by CTS axis and bi-epicondylar axis in transverse plane were reproducible. Reconstruction time was about 5 min. CONCLUSIONS: The presented method provides access to morphological upper limb parameters with very low level of radiation. Preliminary in vitro validation for humerus showed that it is fast and accurate enough to be used in clinical daily practice as an alternative to CT-scan for total elbow arthroplasty pre operative evaluation

Declarative Events for Object-Oriented Programming

In object-oriented designs inversion of control is achieved by an event-driven programming style based on imperatively triggered events. An alternative approach can be found in aspect-oriented programming, which defines events as declarative queries over implicitly available events. This helps to localize definition of events and avoid preplanning, but lacks a clean integration with object-oriented features and principles. The contribution of this work is a concept of object-oriented events that combines imperative, declarative and implicit events and provides their seamless integration with object-oriented features, preserving encapsulation and modular reasoning. We present an efficient and type-safe implementation of the concept as an extension to the Scala language.Dans une conception par objets, l'inversion de contrôle s'appuie sur un style de programmation événementiel utilisant des événements lancés de manière impérative. La programmation par aspects suggère une autre voie qui consiste à définir des événements sous la forme de requêtes déclaratives portant sur des événements prédéfinis. Il est ainsi possible de localiser la définition des événements sans planifier à l'avance l'existence de ces événements. Cette voie pose toutefois un problème d'intégration aux caractéristiques et aux principes de la programmation par objets. La contribution de ce travail est l'introduction d'un concept d'événement qui combine différents types d'événements, impératifs, déclaratifs et implicites tout en étant parfaitement intégré avec les principes des objets, préservant notamment l'encapsulation et le raisonnement modulaire propre aux objets. Nous présentons ici une implémentation typée et efficace de ce concept sous la forme d'un extension du langage de programmation Scala

Plasma amino-acid determinations by reversed-phase HPLC: Improvement of the orthophthalaldehyde method and comparison with ion exchange chromatography

Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RPHPLC) determination of amino-acids with on-line pre-column ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA) derivatization and fluorescence detection is rapid and sensitive. However, high-performance ionexchange chromatography (HP-IEC) with post-column ninhydrine reaction is the most widely used amino-acid (AA) assay for biological samples. These two methods have been compared for the determination of individual plasma AA concentrations

A short-term divergent selection for resistance to Teladorsagia circumcincta in Romanov sheep using natural or artificial challenge

This experiment was conducted to assess the efficiency of selection on the basis of response to artificial challenges in order to breed sheep resistant to natural infection. A short-term divergent selection process was designed to estimate the genetic parameters of these two traits. Two flocks, including 100 Romanov ram lambs each, were challenged in 1990 when they were 6 months old. One flock received three artificial infections with 20 000 third-stage Teladorsagia circumcincta larvae, at intervals of 7 weeks. Faecal egg counts (FEC) were performed on Days 22, 25 and 28 post infection (p.i.) and the animals were drenched on Day 28 p.i. The other flock was grazed for 5 months on a pasture contaminated with the same species. Faecal samples were taken from the lambs at similar ages. About 5 rams with the lowest FEC and 5 with the highest FEC were selected in each flock and mated with unselected ewes. Their offspring (200 animals) were challenged in 1992, half in the same way as their sires, and the other half by the other method. Because of a drought in the summer of 1990, it was necessary to repeat part of the experiment, and in 1992 the 5 and 8 rams with the lowest and highest FEC, respectively, were selected from the offspring challenged on the pasture in 1992 and were mated with unselected ewes. Their progeny (about 80 animals) were challenged in 1994, half by natural infection, half by artificial infection. The mean FEC of the flock increased from the first to the third artificial infection. The natural infection was highly variable in different years, reflecting the difficulty of assessing resistance using this mode of challenge. Genetic parameters were estimated using animal models and REML solutions. The repeatabilities of the FEC following artificial and natural infection were 0.49 and 0.70 respectively within a period of one week, and 0.22 and 0.41 respectively for periods separated by intervals of 7 weeks; the heritabilities of the single egg count were 0.22 and 0.38 respectively. The genetic correlation was 0.87: the FEC recorded under natural or artificial infection appear to depend on the same genetic potential