The World-Wide Web past present and future, and its application to medicine

The World-Wide Web was first developed as a tool for collaboration in the high energy physics community. From there it spread rapidly to other fields, and grew to its present impressive size. As an easy way to access information, it has been a great success, and a huge number of medical applications have taken advantage of it. But there is another side to the Web, its potential as a tool for collaboration between people. Medical examples include telemedicine and teaching. New technical developments offer still greater potential in medical and other fields. This paper gives some background to the early development of the World-Wide Web, a brief overview of its present state with some examples relevant to medicine, and a look at the future

A Family of Domain-Specific Languages for Integrated Modular Avionics

UID/CEC/04516/2019 TUBITAK/ 0008/2014 2018/2019(Proc. DAAD 441.00)In the domain of avionics, we can find intricate software product lines constrained by both aircraft’s hardware and conformance to strict standards. Existing general-purpose languages are complicated, as they do not hide unnecessary low level-details. This situation potentially leads to a lengthy process in the specification phase and the loss of control over the quality of the specification itself and possibly resulting in the generation of inconsistent products. In Software development for avionics systems, the pressure of time-to-market is high. Additionally, the long time taken for systems certification of this sort of critical system pushes for the development of solutions that support specifications correct by construction. With that kind of solutions, we can release the burden of the software developer by positively constraining the configuration of the products. In this paper, we put into practice an in-house solution that implements the concept of Product Lines of Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). The solution allows generating dedicated DSLs for each sub-family/configuration in Modular avionics departing from the model of a given aircraft.authorsversionpublishe

Outdoor workers and sun protection strategies: Two case study examples in Queensland, Australia

Introduction: Outdoor workers are at risk of developing skin cancer because they are exposed to high levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation. The Outdoor Workers Sun Protection Project investigated sun protection strategies for high risk outdoor workers in rural and regional Australia. Methods: Fourteen workplaces (recruitment rate 37%) across four industries in rural and regional Queensland, Australia were recruited to the OWSPP. In 2011–2012, data were collected using pre- and post-intervention interviews and discussion groups. This article presents two workplaces as case study examples. Results: The flat organisational structure of workplace 1 supported the implementation of the Sun Safety Action Plan (SSAP), whilst the hierarchical organisational nature of workplace 2 delayed implementation of the SSAP. Neither workplace had an existing sun protection policy but both workplaces adopted one. An effect related to the researchers’ presence was seen in workplace 1 and to a lesser degree in workplace 2. Overt reciprocity was seen between management and workers in workplace 1 but this was not so evident in workplace 2. In both workplaces, the role of the workplace champion was pivotal to SSAP progression. Conclusions: These two case studies highlight a number of contextually bound workplace characteristics related to sun safety. These issues are (1) the structure of workplace, (2) policy, (3) an effect related to the researchers’ presence, (4) the workplace champion and (5) reciprocity. There are several recommendations from this article. Workplace health promotion strategies for sun safety need to be contextualised to individual workplaces to take advantage of the strengths of the workplace and to build capacity

SIGMA: Scala Internal Domain-Specific Languages for Model Manipulations

International audienceModel manipulation environments automate model operations such as model consistency checking and model transformation. A number of external model manipulation Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) have been proposed, in particular for the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). While their higher levels of abstraction result in gains in expressiveness over general-purpose languages, their limitations in versatility, performance, and tool support together with the need to learn new languages may significantly contribute to accidental complexities. In this paper, we present Sigma, a family of internal DSLs embedded in Scala for EMF model consistency checking, model-to-model and model-to-text transformations. It combines the benefits of external model manipulation DSLs with general-purpose programming taking full advantage of Scala versatility, performance and tool support. The DSLs are compared to the state-of-the-art Epsilon languages in non-trivial model manipulation tasks that resulted in 20% to 70% reduction in code size and significantly better performance

Changes in Outdoor Workers' Sun-Related Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors: A Pre–Post Workplace Intervention

Objective: To evaluate changes in outdoor workers' sun-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in response to a health promotion intervention using a participatory action research process. Methods: Fourteen workplaces across four outdoor industry types worked collaboratively with the project team to develop tailored sun protection action plans. Workers were assessed before and after the 18-month intervention. Results: Outdoor workers reported increases in workplace support for sun protection (P < 0.01) and personal use of sun protection (P < 0.01). More workers reported seeking natural shade (+20%) and wearing more personal protective equipment, including broad-brimmed hats (+25%), long-sleeved collared shirts (+19%), and long trousers (+16%). The proportion of workers reporting sunburn over the past 12 months was lower at postintervention (-14%) (P = 0.03); however, the intensity of reported sunburn increased. Conclusions: This intervention was successful in increasing workers' sun protective attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors