Debugging of Web Applications with Web-TLR

Web-TLR is a Web verification engine that is based on the well-established Rewriting Logic--Maude/LTLR tandem for Web system specification and model-checking. In Web-TLR, Web applications are expressed as rewrite theories that can be formally verified by using the Maude built-in LTLR model-checker. Whenever a property is refuted, a counterexample trace is delivered that reveals an undesired, erroneous navigation sequence. Unfortunately, the analysis (or even the simple inspection) of such counterexamples may be unfeasible because of the size and complexity of the traces under examination. In this paper, we endow Web-TLR with a new Web debugging facility that supports the efficient manipulation of counterexample traces. This facility is based on a backward trace-slicing technique for rewriting logic theories that allows the pieces of information that we are interested to be traced back through inverse rewrite sequences. The slicing process drastically simplifies the computation trace by dropping useless data that do not influence the final result. By using this facility, the Web engineer can focus on the relevant fragments of the failing application, which greatly reduces the manual debugging effort and also decreases the number of iterative verifications.Comment: In Proceedings WWV 2011, arXiv:1108.208

Surgical treatment of chronic acromioclavicular dislocation : comparison between two surgical procedures for anatomic reconstruction

INTRODUCTION: Surgical treatment of chronic complete acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocation is still debated and no gold standard surgical procedure has been identified. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective series of 90 patients treated for AC dislocations is reported here. Patients were divided into three groups: group 1 receiving AC reconstruction with a Dacron vascular prosthesis; group 2 receiving AC reconstruction with LARS(\uae) artificial ligament; group 3 receiving conservative treatment. Follow-up was performed after 1, 6 and 15 months with plain radiographs, UCLA, SPADI and modified UCLA acromioclavicular rating scales. RESULTS: Patients treated surgically presented significant better functional outcome compared to patients treated conservatively with overall positive results in 93.3% of patients for group 2 and 53.3% of patients for group 1. However, reconstruction with Dacron vascular prosthesis presented an unacceptable high complications rate (43.3%). CONCLUSION: Our results show that anatomic AC reconstruction with LARS(\uae) artificial ligament resulted in both satisfactory functional outcome and low complication rate. Therefore, we recommend this procedure for the treatment of chronic complete AC dislocations

Current surgical options for articular cartilage repair

The articular cartilage lesions represent one of the major unsolved problems in the orthopaedic surgery. This is because articular cartilage has a limited capacity of self-repair following trauma. The aim of this study is to review the different surgical options for articular cartilage repair. They can be divided into three groups: techniques without transplant of cells or tissues; techniques based on the transplantation of tissues; the tissue engineering techniques. The first group includes the joint debridement and the techniques based on the bone marrow-stimulation principle. The second group includes the transplantation of periosteum and the transplantation of autologous or allogeneic osteochondral plugs. The tissue engineering techniques could be further divided as follows: methods based on the transplantation of cells either in solution, or in the form of microspheres, or carried on a biocompatible scaffold; the transplant of cartilage fragments; the cell-free techniques, based on the use of an acellular scaffold, able to entrap the reparative cells recruited from the host tissue and to guide their differentiation toward a chondral phenotype. In this work we present various options for the treatment of chondral or osteochondral lesions. Today, however, due to the lack of comparative studies, it is not always possible to define the best treatment choice for the different cartilage pathologies

Thoracic outlet syndrome in the overhead athlete: A report of 2 cases of subclavius posticus muscle

Subclavius posticus muscle is a supernumerary anatomical variation of the subclavius muscle. The aim of this study was to show the possible contribution of the posticus muscle in the development of unilateral thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) in overhead athletes, presenting hypertrophy of the dominant arm due to their sport activity. Reported here are 2 young overhead athletes complaining pain, paresthesia, weakness in the dominant upper limb, although presenting none of the main shoulder and neurological disorders. After developing subclavian vein thrombosis, TOS was suspected and finally diagnosed by dynamic magnetic resonance angiography, which also showed bilateral subclavius posticus muscle in both patients. Despite bilateral subclavius posticus, TOS was only evident in the dominant limb in which the association of hypertrophy of lateral cervical muscles, resulting from the overhead sport activity, to the subclavius posticus likely led to a significant reduction of the upper thoracic outlet space