A Method of Functional Alignment Verification in Hierarchical Enterprise Models

Enterprise modeling involves multiple domains of expertise: requirements engineering, business process modeling, IT development etc. Our experience has shown that hierarchical enterprise models, made of an assembly of system models, are effective. In these models, two hierarchies exist: an organizational level hierarchy (describing systems' construction) and a functional level hierarchy (describing systems' functionality). Using a uniform hierarchical modeling language, system models at different hierarchical levels can be aligned in the context of the enterprise model. Using an operational semantics, each system model can be translated into executable code for model simulation and testing. The possibility to simulate and test models leads to the alignment verification for all system models across both hierarchies. In this paper we propose a method and tool for functional alignment verification. We use the Abstract State Machine (ASM) and the ASM language (AsmL) to formalize our graphical models for simulation and testing. We illustrate this approach with an example

Refinement Propagation. Towards Automated Construction of Visual Specifications.

Creation and transformation of visual specifications is driven by modeler’s design decisions. After a design decision has been made, the modeler needs to adjust the specification to maintain its correctness. The number of adjustments might make the design process tedious for large specifications. We are interested in techniques that will reduce the modeler’s obligation to control specification correctness. Every single transformation of the visual specification can be captured by the notion of refinement used in formal methods. In this work we present the technique that supports a stepwise refinement of visual specifications based on calculations. We use refinement calculus as a logic for reasoning about refinement correctness. When a design decision is made by the modeler, the necessary adjustments are calculated based on rules of refinement propagation. Refinement propagation can automate the specification adjustment and enforce its correctness

Effectiveness of resuming ustekinumab therapy in psoriasis patients with metabolic disorders. Clinical experience

Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease with possible damage to the musculoskeletal system, affecting 2-3 % of the adult population of the planet. To date, special attention in the treatment of psoriasis is paid to the comorbid background, since it is known that it can aggravate the course of psoriasis and affect the effectiveness of therapy. The purpose of psoriasis therapy is to achieve clean or almost clean skin, sustainable improvement of psoriatic arthritis, improving the quality of life, all this became possible with the advent of genetically engineered biological drugs. However, in the treatment of genetically engineered biological drugs there are “pain points”: primary inefficiency, “the effect of slipping”, the scheme of transition from one drug to another, the safety of the combined use of GIBP and system-based drugs, interruption of therapy.Objective. To study the therapeutic efficacy of ustekinumab in psoriasis patients with forced interruption of treatment, taking into account metabolic disorders.Materials and methods. 52 patients with a diagnosis of plaque psoriasis receiving ustekinumab for 3 years were under observation, which were divided into 2 groups, depending on body weight and metabolic disorders.Results. More than 80 % of patients taking the drug at a dosage of 45 mg, and at a dosage of 90 mg, to week 12 therapy reached PASI 75. By week 24, the proportion of patients in group I who reached PASI 75 was 96.3 %, in group II — 88.0 %.By week 48 PASI 75 reached 90.4 % patients: in group I — 100 % patients, in group II — 80.0 % patients.At 76 weeks, patients were interrupted ustekinumab treatment in connection with the purchase of the drug. The duration of treatment interruption ranged 36 weeks. By week 112, 86.5 % patients in both groups had a relapse of psoriasis, which was assessed by the loss of the therapeutic response of PASI 75.By week 124 (12 weeks after the resumption of therapy) 82.7 % patients reached PASI 75: in group I — 92.6 % patients, in group II — 72.0 % patients.After 16 weeks (week 128), all patients 100 % achieved PASI 75 IN group I. In group II to week 128 PASI 75 was observed in 80 % patients.Conclusion. With the resumption of treatment of patients with psoriasis with ustekinumab after a long interruption, there is a rapid and complete restoration of therapeutic effectiveness, however, in patients with psoriasis with metabolic disorders, there is a decrease in efficiency after the resumption of therapy in comparison with patients without abdominal obesity, which can determine the further strategy and tactics of management of such patients

Sleep disorders and obesity in adolescents: peculiarities of psycho-cognitive status (literature review)

Adolescence is a time of important physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes. Sleep is a primary aspect of adolescent development. Its disorders critically influence adolescents' ability to think, behave, and feel during daytime hours. Daytime activities, changes in the environment, and individual factors can have significant effects on adolescents' sleeping patterns. It is known, that a significant change of the sleep-wake cycle across adolescent development is a tendency to stay up later at night and to sleep in later in the morning. The peculiarity of this period of life is called a sleep delayed phase phenomenon, which can play the important role in the development of eating disorders and cause risk of obesity. The epidemic of childhood obesity presents a major public health problem. Many authors consider that obesity is a multisystem disease with potentially devastating consequences for physical and emotional health across the lifespan. Obesity may cause obstructive sleep apnea syndrome that can result in excessive daytime sleepiness in adolescents and have a negative effect on learning, school performance, and behavior. Early detection of risk factors, screening for metabolic and sleep disturbances in adolescents are major aims in reducing risk of cognitive and behavioral disorders. We assume that further studies of the psycho-cognitive impairments in adolescents with obesity in the sleep-wake continuum are necessary for the development of new approaches to forecasting, early diagnosis and pathogenically therapies of emotional and cognitive changes at the stage of personality formation as well as potentially reversible sleep and metabolic disorders

From Business to IT with SEAM: J2EE Pet Store Example

Business and IT alignment demands clear traceability between the applications to be developed and the business requirements. SEAM is a systemic visual approach for modeling systems, including information systems and organizations. This paper illustrates how we represent the business role of an IT application and its platform-specific realization in SEAM. We use the Java Pet Store sample application as an example

Obesity and functional bowel disorders: are they linked?

Obesity and functional bowel disease (FBD) are affecting a large number of people worldwide. They have psychosocial consequences and associated with considerable healthcare resource use. The purpose of this review was a comprehensive study of the relationship between obesity and FBD, as well as mechanisms to explain this relationship. An analysis of the literature provides strong evidence of a link between obesity and diarrhea, but there is currently insufficient data to speak confidently about the link between obesity and irritable bowel syndrome. Most studies suggest that adult obesity is not associated or negatively associated with constipation. The association of obesity with diarrhea is most convincingly explained through diet, eating behavior, changes in the metabolism of bile acids, accelerated colonic transit, altered intestinal microbiota and associated inflammation and increased intestinal permeability. Medicines taken by patients, as well as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, can play their own role.Planning and conducting studies, including longitudinal ones, based on valid diagnostic criteria and taking into account the widest possible range of confounders, will allow a deeper study of the problem of comorbidity of obesity and FBD. This will help optimize the treatment of these diseases

Obesity and Circadian Cycle of Sleep and Wakefulness: Common Points and Prospects of Therapy

The prevalence of obesity in recent years has assumed the character of a non-communicable epidemic. Wherein, the standard approaches for its treatment are not always successful. Meanwhile, obesity remains one of the main causes of the formation of a number of some serious diseases, such as cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, etc. and death from them. In search of alternative and more adequate methods of obesity treatment and preventing its complications, recent studies are aimed at further identifying new associations and revealing the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying excessive weight gain. It should be noted an increasing amount of chronobiological studies that raised awareness of the key role of the body’s circadian rhythms and its main regulator, melatonin, responsible for the temporary organization of the main physiological (including metabolism) processes throughout the 24-h day, in the development and progression of obesity. This review is devoted to the consideration of mutually directed interactions between the circadian system and metabolism; attempts have been made to explain the role of sleep-wake cycle disruptions in the excess accumulation of adipose tissue and the formation of obesity and its comorbidities, as well as detailed therapeutic principles based on normalizing disruption of body clocks using time-coordinated approaches to food intake, physical activity, the effects of non-drug methods and pharmacological substances (chronobiotics), which represents a novel and promising ways to prevent or treat obesity and associated diseases

Lithologic-facies and paleogeographic features of Mid-Upper Jurassic oil-gas bearing sediments in Nurolsk depression (Western Siberia)

Bathonian-Callovian-Oxfordian sedimentation environment reconstruction in SE Nurolsk depression, Western Siberia has been described. Paleogeographic and litho-geochemical features of sediments, numerous plant remains and ichnofossils indicated the fact that this territory during the Naunaksk suite formation was the transition in-situ sedimentogenesis. Based on the integrated research data, the potential litho-facies were identified in the Mid-Upper sediments within Nurolsk depression, Western Siberia

Data-Oriented Declarative Language for Optimizing Business Processes

There is a signifi cant number of declarative languages to describe business processes. They tend to be used when business processes need to be fl exible and adaptable, being not possible to use an imperative description. Declarative languages in business process have been traditionally used to describe the order of activities, specifi cally the order allowed or prohibited. Unfortunately, none of them is worried about a declarative description of exchanged data between the activities and how they can infl uence the model. In this paper, we analyse the data description capacity of a variety of declarative languages in business processes. Using this analysis, we have detected the necessity to include data exchanged aspects in the declarative descriptions. In order to solve the gap, we propose a Data-Oriented Optimization Declarative LanguagE, called DOODLE, which includes the process requirements referred to data description, and the possibility to include an optimization function about the process output data

Obesity and functional bowel disorders in adolescents: a pilot study

Background: Studies of the relationship between obesity and functional bowel disorders, carried out in different age groups, provide conflicting results. It remains unclear what factors are responsible for the transition from a tendency to constipation in children to a tendency to diarrhea in adults with obesity.Aim: To establish factors related to stool consistency as a surrogate marker of colon transit in adolescents with obesity.Materials and methods: A single-center observational cross-sectional study was carried out. We consecutively recruited adolescents, aged 11–17 years with obesity. Socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle and nutritional characteristics were assessed using questionnaires. Bowel symptoms were assessed using questionnaires and interviews. Stool consistency was assessed using the Bristol Stool Form Scale. Serum concentrations of ALT, AST, bilirubin, cholesterol, glucose, HbA1c, leptin, and insulin were determined. The HOMA-IR index was used to determine insulin resistance.Results: One hundred and ten adolescents with obesity were enrolled in the study. Of these, 69.1% had a pathological consistency of feces, with the prevalence of forms characterizing delayed gut transit (49.1%). The predominance of loose stools was reported by 5.5% of patients. The combination of different forms of stool (unstable stool) was described by 14.5% of adolescents. Hard stools were common among adolescents from single-parent families and adolescents who rarely consume dairy products. The presence of loose stools has been associated with insulin resistance.Conclusion: Most obese adolescents who do not have abdominal complaints have colon transit disorders. Medical professionals should actively ask these patients about stool frequency and properties. With constipation, dietary correction is justified. Research is needed to investigate in-depth gut microbiota as a possible link between obesity and diarrhea