Enabling of AUTOSAR system design using Eclipse-based tooling

International audienceAUTOSAR is a development partnership for standardisation of software architectures for the development of complex E/E systems. The software configuration process specified by AUTOSAR involves the handling of large amounts of data describing the E/E system. An efficient application of the process requires good and continuous toolsupport.In this paper we propose an approach for AUTOSAR tooling, which is based on the technology and, more important, on the idea of Eclipse. Eclipse is one of the most successful open source projects of the last years with a strong influence on the industry. It provides an open development platform that can easily be extended. On top of Eclipse, the approach provides an open tool basis, which can be extended by special, free or commercial plug-ins.Our AUTOSAR tooling approach is oriented towards the ideas behind Eclipse and focuses on reusing the success factors for a tool approach within the AUTOSAR community

Symptoms of depression and cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress: Evidence from a population study

Depression and exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity are considered risk factors for cardiovascular disease, possibly as a result of common antecedents, such as altered autonomic nervous system function. We examined the association between depressive symptomatology and cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress in 1608 adults (875 women) comprising three distinct age cohorts: 24-, 44-, and 63-year olds. Depression was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured at baseline and during the paced auditory serial arithmetic test. Depression scores were negatively associated with systolic blood pressure and heart rate reactions, after adjustment for likely confounders such as sex, cohort, occupational status, body mass index, stress task performance score, baseline cardiovascular activity, antidepressant and antihypertensive medication. The direction of association was opposite to that which would be expected if excessive reactivity were to mediate the association between depression and cardiovascular disease outcomes or if they shared common antecedents

Sustaining remission of psychotic depression: Rationale, design and methodology of STOP-PD II

Background: Psychotic depression (PD) is a severe disabling disorder with considerable morbidity and mortality. Electroconvulsive therapy and pharmacotherapy are each efficacious in the treatment of PD. Expert guidelines recommend the combination of antidepressant and antipsychotic medications in the acute pharmacologic treatment of PD. However, little is known about the continuation treatment of PD. Of particular concern, it is not known whether antipsychotic medication needs to be continued once an episode of PD responds to pharmacotherapy. This issue has profound clinical importance. On the one hand, the unnecessary continuation of antipsychotic medication exposes a patient to adverse effects, such as weight gain and metabolic disturbance. On the other hand, premature discontinuation of antipsychotic medication has the potential risk of early relapse of a severe disorder.Methods/design: The primary goal of this multicenter randomized placebo-controlled trial is to assess the risks and benefits of continuing antipsychotic medication in persons with PD once the episode of depression has responded to treatment with an antidepressant and an antipsychotic. Secondary goals are to examine age and genetic polymorphisms as predictors or moderators of treatment variability, potentially leading to more personalized treatment of PD. Individuals aged 18-85 years with unipolar psychotic depression receive up to 12 weeks of open-label treatment with sertraline and olanzapine. Participants who achieve remission of psychosis and remission/near-remission of depressive symptoms continue with 8 weeks of open-label treatment to ensure stability of remission. Participants with stability of remission are then randomized to 36 weeks of double-blind treatment with either sertraline and olanzapine or sertraline and placebo. Relapse is the primary outcome. Metabolic changes are a secondary outcome.Discussion: This trial will provide clinicians with much-needed evidence to guide the continuation and maintenance treatment of one of the most disabling and lethal of psychiatric disorders.Trial registration and URL: NCT: NCT01427608. © 2013 Flint et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Control of robots and machine tools with an extended factory cloud

This paper describes our concept for control of robots and machine tools through a private factory cloud which is dynamically extended by additional public resources. After discussing the opportunities and drawbacks of the virtualization of robot controllers (RC) and software programmable logic controllers (soft-PLC), we present first experiences with the setup of private and public infrastructures. Finally, we introduce our experimental design for investigating the requirements of machine control algorithms regarding availability, dependability and realtime capability in local and public configurations