Timing Analysis using the MARTE Profile in the Design of Rail Automation Systems

International audienceFor dependable systems as in the railway domain the timing behaviour is considered part of the functional correctness. Thus timing requirements have to be traced and refined through the system and software development phases and validation and verification efforts have to address the timing as well as the pure input/output behaviour. We show how timing can be handled in a UML or SysML based approach to the development of software-intensive railway systems by using the new MARTE profile. Thereby timing becomes fully integrated in the chain of system and software models and may benefit from tool support. Moreover, automated timing analysis may be employed via model transformations which enables the exploration of timing-related issues in various design phases

Phase Transitions of Boron Carbide: Pair Interaction Model of High Carbon Limit

Boron Carbide exhibits a broad composition range, implying a degree of intrinsic substitutional disorder. While the observed phase has rhombohedral symmetry (space group R3(bar)m), the enthalpy minimizing structure has lower, monoclinic, symmetry (space group Cm). The crystallographic primitive cell consists of a 12-atom icosahedron placed at the vertex of a rhombohedral lattice, together with a 3-atom chain along the 3-fold axis. In the limit of high carbon content, approaching 20% carbon, the icosahedra are usually of type B11Cp, where the p indicates the carbon resides on a polar site, while the chains are of type C-B-C. We establish an atomic interaction model for this composition limit, fit to density functional theory total energies, that allows us to investigate the substitutional disorder using Monte Carlo simulations augmented by multiple histogram analysis. We find that the low temperature monoclinic Cm structure disorders through a pair of phase transitions, first via a 3-state Potts-like transition to space group R3m, then via an Ising-like transition to the experimentally observed R3(bar)m symmetry. The R3m and Cm phases are electrically polarized, while the high temperature R3(bar)m phase is nonpolar

Caracterização de acessos de cupuaçuzeiro através de caracteres bromatológicos da polpa do fruto.

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Development of electron-beam equipment and technology of layer welding of the wire in the conditions of additive technologies

Immunotoxins are powerful tools to specifically eliminate deviated cells. Due to the side effects of the original immunotoxins, they were only considered for the treatment of cancer as in these cases, the potential favourable effect outweighed the unwanted toxic side effects. Over time, many improvements in the construction of immunotoxins have been implemented that circumvent, or at least strongly diminish, the side effects. In consequence this opens the way to employ these immunotoxins for the treatment of non-life threatening diseases. One such category of disease could be the many chronic inflammatory disorders in which an uncontrolled interaction between inflammatory cells leads to chronicity. In several of these chronic conditions, activated macrophages, which are characterised by an increased expression of CD64, are known to play a key role. In this review we discus the data presently available on elimination of activated macrophages through CD64 immunotoxins in several animal models for chronic disease. A chemically linked complete antibody with the plant toxin Ricin-A, proved very effective and provided proof of concept. Subsequently, the development towards genetically engineered, fully human, multivalent single chain based immunotoxins that have diminished immunogenicity, is discussed. The data show that the specific elimination of activated macrophages through CD64 is indeed beneficial for the course of disease. As opposed to other methods used to inactivate or eliminate macrophages, with the CD64 based immunotoxins only the activated population is killed. This may open the way to apply these immunotoxins as therapeutics in chronic inflammatory disease

Form and surface narrative: porcelain and politics in the twenty-first century

This practice-led research project explores the relationship between porcelain and politics. It does this by examining selected historical and contemporary pots that convey a political message and the visual language of surface decoration. Decorative functional ceramics may not be immediately associated with the creation and legitimisation of a culture and its political position However, with this research, I investigate selected political ceramics from the beginning of the twentieth century and contemporary ceramics and focus on how surface imagery is used as an instrument of political promotion and personal commentary. Stories that unfold around the surfaces of three-dimensional forms occupy a genre that is now commonly referred to as ‘narrative ceramics’: pots that tell a story. Mark-making is one of the unique ways people have shaped and sought to understand their world. Paintings and stories on ancient ceramics have revealed much of our knowledge of the past and the cultures that created them. For example, the black and red figure painted vases of Classical Greece (Ostermann 2006, 13) . My relationship with political porcelain objects was formed as an undergraduate art student in the 1980s. I was curious how Russian revolutionary pots made during the early twentieth century incorporated modern designs and political energy with traditional decorations on their surfaces. As such, I became interested in the contrast between what past cultures had integrated onto ceramic forms and the surface narratives of functional ceramics in the twenty-first century. In Russia, from 1917, the Bolshevik Party utilised porcelain forms from the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg to promote their new regime. My interest lies in how artists were enlisted to create messages of propaganda, by adopting traditional symbols and patterns with phrases and images of the modern environment. In twenty-first century Western democracies ceramic artists, such as Stephen Dixon, Stephen Bowers and Gerry Wedd, articulate personal and political narratives. Using functional and non-functional forms contemporary ceramic artists decorate surfaces with historic symbols and visual metaphors to observe and comment on twenty-first century political decisions and concerns. The primary focus of this research project was to respond to the political machinations of Australian politics as observed during the period of the research candidacy, by creating functional porcelain objects that utilised images and text on the surfaces. As a consequence, works developed for this project use text from contemporary phrases of the Australian Trade Union movement, and sound bites taken from the slogans and speeches of Australian politicians. By using functional forms to carry visual images of the Australian political landscape, the project aimed to advance the link between Australian politics and functional porcelain, establishing a space for our personal lives to engage with the politics that surround us