Lutess: A Testing Environment for Synchronous Software

Several studies have shown that automated testing is a promising approach to save significant amounts of time and money in the industry of reactive software. But automated testing requires a formal framework and adequate means to generate test data. In the context of synchronous reactive software, we have built such a framework and its associated tool-Lutess- to integrate various wellfounded testing techniques. This tool automatically constructs test harnesses for fully automated test data generation and verdict return. This paper describes the four black-box testing techniques which are coordinated in Lutess uniform framework. 1 Introduction Testing receives an increasing attention from research teams working on formal techniques for software specification, development and verification, for two reasons. First, testing appears to be the only means to perform the validation of a piece of software, when formal verification is impracticable because of lacks of memory and/or time. Second,..

Cannabis Use and Reduced Risk of Insulin Resistance in HIV-HCV Infected Patients: A Longitudinal Analysis (ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH)

International audienceDiabetes and insulin resistance (IR) is common in human immunodeficiency virus-hepatitis C virus (HIV-HCV)-coinfected patients, a population also concerned with elevated cannabis use. Cannabis has been associated with reduced IR risk in some population-based surveys. We determined whether cannabis use was consistently associated with reduced IR risk in HEPAVIH, a French nationwide cohort of HIV-HCV-coinfected patients.Methods: HEPAVIH medical and sociobehavioral data were collected (using annual self-administered questionnaires). We used 60 months of follow-up data for patients with at least 1 medical visit where IR (using homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR]) and cannabis use were assessed. A mixed logistic regression model was used to evaluate the association between IR risk (HOMA-IR > 2.77) and cannabis use (occasional, regular, daily).Results: Among the 703 patients included in the study (1287 visits), 323 (46%) had HOMA-IR > 2.77 for at least 1 follow-up visit and 319 (45%) reported cannabis use in the 6 months before the first available visit. Cannabis users (irrespective of frequency) were less likely to have HOMA-IR > 2.77 (odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.4 [.2-.5]) after adjustment for known correlates/confounders. Two sensitivity analyses with HOMA-IR values as a continuous variable and a cutoff value of 3.8 confirmed the association between reduced IR risk and cannabis use.Conclusions: Cannabis use is associated with a lower IR risk in HIV-HCV-coinfected patients. The benefits of cannabis-based pharmacotherapies for patients concerned with increased risk of IR and diabetes need to be evaluated in clinical research and practice