Towards a European master programme on global software engineering

This paper presents a European Master programme on global software engineering (SE), being put forward by four leading institutions from Sweden, UK, Netherlands and Italy. The Global SE European Master (GSEEM) programme aims to provide students with an excellence in SE based on sound theoretical foundations and practical experience, as well as prepare them to participate in global development of complex and large software systems. GSEEM has been designed with three noteworthy aspects: 1) Three specialization profiles in which the consortium excels: Software Architecting, Real-time Embedded Systems Engineering, and Web Systems and Services Engineering. 2) Two market-driven routes: "professional" to work as professionals, and "scientific" to continue the education towards research degrees. 3) An innovative concept of "shared modules", delivered together by multiple institutions. Four types of shared modules are foreseen: "parallel" twin modules which run remotely between universities, "shifted" modules which teach SE concepts incrementally with shifts in study locations and timeline ,"complementary" modules in which complementary SE concepts are taught in parallel through shared projects, and "common" modules which share the presentations and the project. The profiles realize "integrated knowledge" by complementing partial knowledge available at partner institutions. The paper explains how GSEEM achieves the objectives of educating global software engineers

Misterios de la vida de Jesucristo en la puerta de madera de la catedral de Split

La catedral de Split es, de hecho, el ex mausoleo del emperador Diocleciano, transformado en Iglesia. La catedral fue enriquecida durante el siglo xiii con varias obras escultóricas románicas de gran maestría. Entre ellas destacan la puerta de madera de doble batiente con escenas que representan los misterios de la vida de Cristo, esculpidas como bajorrelieves por el artista Andrija Buvina, natural de Split, inaugurada el 23 de abril del 1214. Entre las pocas puertas de madera medievales que conservamos es la única que se encuentra aún in situ y en un buen estado de conservación. Sobre cada una de las hojas de la puerta se encuentran siete pares de escenas en bajorrelieve que representan la vida, la muerte y la gloria de Cristo Redentor. Esta puerta está considerada, con razón, como una obra maestra de la escultura medieval en Croacia. La clave iconológica de la obra de Buvina consiste en la mistagogia cristológica y soteriológica de las escenas de la vida del Salvador. ---------------- Split Cathedral is the former mausoleum of the Emperor Diocletian which was transformed into a church. The Cathedral was embellished in the 13th century with several magnificent Romanesque sculptures. Outstanding among these is the double wooden door decorated with scenes representing the life of Christ, carved as a bas-relief by Andrija Buvina, a native of Split, which was inaugurated on 23 April 1214. Of the few medieval wooden doors that are still preserved, this is the only example that is still in its original position and in a good state of conservation. Both of the doors contain seven pairs of scenes in basrelief representing the life, death and glory of Christ the Redeemer. This door is rightly regarded as a master work of medieval sculpture in Croatia. The iconological key to Buvina’s work lies in the Christological mystagogy and soteriology of the life our Our Lord

Formal change impact analyses for emulated control software

Processor emulators are a software tool for allowing legacy computer programs to be executed on a modern processor. In the past emulators have been used in trivial applications such as maintenance of video games. Now, however, processor emulation is being applied to safety-critical control systems, including military avionics. These applications demand utmost guarantees of correctness, but no verification techniques exist for proving that an emulated system preserves the original system’s functional and timing properties. Here we show how this can be done by combining concepts previously used for reasoning about real-time program compilation, coupled with an understanding of the new and old software architectures. In particular, we show how both the old and new systems can be given a common semantics, thus allowing their behaviours to be compared directly

Who Underreports Smoking on Birth Records: A Monte Carlo Predictive Model with Validation

Research has shown that self-reports of smoking during pregnancy may underestimate true prevalence. However, little is known about which populations have higher rates of underreporting. Availability of more accurate measures of smoking during pregnancy could greatly enhance the usefulness of existing studies on the effects of maternal smoking offspring, especially in those populations where underreporting may lead to underestimation of the impact of smoking during pregnancy.In this paper, we develop a statistical Monte Carlo model to estimate patterns of underreporting of smoking during pregnancy, and apply it to analyze the smoking self-report data from birth certificates in the state of Massachusetts. Our results illustrate non-uniform patterns of underreporting of smoking during pregnancy among different populations. Estimates of likely underreporting of smoking during pregnancy were highest among mothers who were college-educated, married, aged 30 years or older, employed full-time, and planning to breastfeed. The model's findings are validated and compared to an existing underreporting adjustment approach in the Maternal and Infant Smoking Study of East Boston (MISSEB).The validation results show that when biological assays are not available, the Monte Carlo method proposed can provide a more accurate estimate of the smoking status during pregnancy than self-reports alone. Such methods hold promise for providing a better assessment of the impact of smoking during pregnancy

Мистический символизм Каббалы

1-(2-Heteroarylalkyl)-4-phenylpiperazines containing methyl group in either the alpha- or the beta-position of the side alkyl chain were synthesized as racemic mixtures. They were evaluated for in vitro binding affinity at the D-1 and D-2 dopamine and 5-HT1A serotonin receptors using synaptosomal membranes of the bovine caudate nucleus and hippocampus, respectively, as a source of the corresponding receptors. Tritiated SCH 23390 (D-1 receptor-selective), spiperone (D-2 receptor-selective), and 8-OH-DPAT (5-HT1A receptor-selective) were employed as the radioligands. None of the new compounds expressed significant affinity for the D-1 receptor. Introduction of the methyl group into the beta-position of the parent molecules increased the affinity for the D-2 receptor (10b-13b), and decreased the affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor with the exception of imidazole (11b) which was a rather efficient displacer of 8-OH-DPAT. Most potent of the newly synthesized compounds in [H-3]spiperone assay were compounds (+/-)6-[1-methyl-2-(4-phenylpiperazin-n-1-yl)-ethyl]-1, 4-dihydroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (10b), K-d = 6.0 nM and (+/-)5-[1-methyl-2-(4-phenylpiperazin-1-yl)-ethyl]-1,3-dihydrobenzoirnidazol-2-thione (13b), K-d = 5.3 nM. However, compounds containing methyl group in alpha-position (10a-13a) of the parent molecules expressed a decreased affinity for the D-2 receptor, while the affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor remained in the same range of concentrations as that of closely related achiral parent compounds (14-17) run in the same binding assays as references

Internet Queries and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Surveillance

The Internet is a common source of medical information and has created novel surveillance opportunities. We assessed the potential for Internet-based surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and examined the extent to which it reflects trends in hospitalizations and news coverage. Google queries were a useful predictor of hospitalizations for methicillin-resistant S. aureus infections

Natural occurrence of Cucumber mosaic virus infecting water mint (Mentha aquatica) in Antalya and Konya, Turkey

A virus causing a disease in mint (the aromatic and culinary plant) has recently become a problem in the Taurus Mountains, a mountain range in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. To detect the virus and investigate its distribution in the region, mint leaf samples were collected from the vicinity of spring areas in the plateaus of Antalya and Konya in 2009. It was found that Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was detected in 27.08% of symptomatic samples tested by DAS-ELISA. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of CMV on mint plants in this region of Turkey

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils from the medicinal plant Mentha cervina L. grown in Portugal

Mentha cervina is a medicinal plant traditionally used in Portugal in folk medicine, in different gastric disorders and inflammations of the respiratory tract. In order to validate those traditional uses, M. cervina essential oils (EOs) were characterized by GC and GC–MS and their antimicrobial activity was tested against 23 bacterial strains (including multiresistant strains). The EOs were dominated by the monoterpenes pulegone (52–75%), isomenthone (8–24%), limonene (4–6%), and menthone (1–2%). The antibacterial activity of these EOs was compared to that of the main components standards. The most effective antibacterial activity was expressed by the EOs against the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumanni, with MIC values of 1 mg/ml. The EOs complex mixtures were more active than the individual aromatic components supporting the hypothesis that the EOs antibacterial activity is a function of the synergistic effect of their different aromatic components. These results show the potential role of M. cervina EOs as antibacterial agents and validate the traditional use of this plant

Brain type carnosinase in dementia: a pilot study

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