Aspectizing exception handling: A quantitative study

It is usually assumed that the implementation of exception handling can be better modularized by the use of aspect-oriented programming (AOP). However, the trade-offs involved in using AOP with this goal are not yet well-understood. To the best of our knowledge, no work in the literature has attempted to assess whether AOP really promotes an enhancement in well-understood quality attributes other than separation of concerns, when used for modularizing non-trivial exception handling code. This paper presents a quantitative study of the adequacy of aspects for modularizing exception handling code. The study consisted in refactoring part of a real object-oriented system so that the code responsible for handling exceptions was moved to aspects. We employed a suite of metrics to measure quality attributes of the original and refactored systems, including coupling, cohesion, and conciseness. We found that AOP improved separation of concerns between exception handling code and normal application code. However, contradicting the general intuition, the aspect-oriented version of the system did not present significant gains for any of the four size metrics we employed.411925527

Sequence analysis of the 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 virus haemagglutinin gene from 2009-2010 Brazilian clinical samples

In this paper, we analysed the haemagglutinin (HA) gene identified by polymerase chain reaction from 90 influenza A H1N1 virus strains that circulated in Brazil from April 2009-June 2010. A World Health Organization sequencing protocol allowed us to identify amino acid mutations in the HA protein at positions S220T (71%), D239G/N/S (20%), Y247H (4.5%), E252K (3.3%), M274V (2.2%), Q310H (26.7%) and E391K (12%). A fatal outcome was associated with the D239G mutation (p < 0.0001). Brazilian HA genetic diversity, in comparison to a reference strain from California, highlights the role of influenza virus surveillance for study of viral evolution, in addition to monitoring the spread of the virus worldwide

Molecular markers delimit cryptic species in Ceratocystis sensu stricto

Ceratocystis sensu stricto is a genus of closely related fungi that are mostly plant pathogens. Morphological variation between species in this genus is limited and species delineation is strongly reliant on phylogenetic inference. Primary support for many of the species is based on the ITS region which, on its own, can be used to delineate all species described in the genus. However, the recent discovery of two ITS types in a single isolate of Ceratocystis questions the use of this marker in taxonomic studies. The aim of this study was to consider the potential use of alternative gene regions to support the species boundaries in this genus. The phylogenetic value of the βT 1 and EF 1-α gene regions, generally used in combination with ITS, were re-evaluated and compared to five single copy protein coding genes (CAL, RPBII, MS204, FG1093 and Mcm7). As an alternative approach, genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified and evaluated as diagnostic markers to distinguish between the species. Fifteen species residing in Ceratocystis were used in this study. None of the protein coding genes could be used to distinguish all species but a combination of the βT 1, MS204 and RPBII gene regions resolved 11 of the 15 described species. Unique SNP markers were identified for 13 of the species and these provided significant additional support for most of the established taxon boundaries. Other than ITS, none of the markers tested could distinguish between C. acaciivora and C. manginecans and these species are, therefore, reduced to synonymy with the name C. manginecans being retained. Results of this study also revealed the likely existence of additional species in Ceratocystis.Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP), the National Research Foundation (NRF) as well as the Genomics Research Institute (GRI) at the University of Pretoria. Also the Thuthuka Foundation (grant no 80670) .http://link.springer.comjournal/11557hb201