a(MDÆ)2: A Model Driven Approach to Multi-Dimensional Separation of Concerns with OCL

AbstractA typical activity in the object-oriented software engineering process involves the construction of a class structure in terms of which the system behaviour is to be specified. The behaviour, however, commonly consists of multiple tasks, each of which usually needs only part of the information available in that class structure. Additionally, a different representation of the required information may be appropriate. Therefore, it would be useful to be able to have multiple views on the global class structure, each being suitable for the specification of the behaviour related to a certain task. This paper introduces a(MDÆ)2, a technique to realise such a strategy. It incorporates OCL as a powerful query language and advocates a model driven development process which relieves the developer from the burden of manually writing a considerable amount of tedious and error-prone code

Screening for psychopathology in child welfare: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) compared with the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA)

Whilst children in child welfare suffer more psychopathology than their community peers, only a small percentage of them actually receive mental health care. Previous literature suggested that all children entering child welfare should be screened. This study evaluated whether the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) could be used for this purpose. The extended version of the SDQ and the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) questionnaire were administered to parents and caregivers of 292 children in child welfare. Children older than 11 years also completed the SDQ self-report and the Youth Self Report (YSR). Furthermore, the child’s history of service use was recorded and informants were asked if the actual care was sufficient. Inter-informant correlations for the scores from the SDQ and ASEBA were high and comparable or favoured the use of the SDQ (for parents and caregivers). Internal consistency was satisfactory to good. For all informants, high correlations were found between SDQ and ASEBA. Despite high scores on the SDQ, only 29% of the children had received mental health care. Service use was only correlated with the parent SDQ and the CBCL and TRF. Additional help, as requested by 21% of the parents and 37% of the caregivers, correlated moderately with the SDQ and ASEBA scores. Compared to the total difficulties score, the impact supplement is a better predictor of service use and the informant’s request for additional help. This study illustrates that the Dutch version of the SDQ, similar to the English and German versions, has equal validity as the Dutch ASEBA for screening children. Caution is warranted when the SDQ is the only source of information for referrals to specialized care

CAViT: a Consistency Maintenance Framework based on Transformation Contracts

Design by contract is a software correctness methodology for procedural and object-oriented software. It relies on logical assertions to detect implementation mistakes at run-time or to proof the absence thereof at compile-time. Design by contract has found a new application in model driven engineering, a methodology that aims to manage the complexity of frameworks by relying on models and transformations. A ``transformation contract\u27\u27 is a pair of constraints that together describe the effect of a transformation rule on the set of models contained in its transformation definition: the postcondition describes the model consistency state that the rule can establish provided that its precondition is satisfied. A transformation contract of a rule can be maintained automatically by calling the rule (1) as soon as the invariant corresponding to its postcondition is violated and (2) provided that its precondition is satisfied. Domain specific visual languages can facilitate the implementation of the actual transformation rules since they hide the complexity of graph transformation algorithms and standards for tool interoperability. In this talk, we describe CAViT: a framework that integrates a visual model transformation tool with a design by contract tool by relying on OMG standards such as UML, OCL and MOF

Interpretable detection of unstable smart TV usage from power state logs

Power state logs from smart TVs are collected in order to construct a time-series representation of their usage. Time-series that belong to a TV exhibiting instability problems are classified accordingly. To do so, an automated feature extraction approach is used, together with linear classification methods in order to realise interpretable classification decisions. A normalized true positive rate of 0.84 ± 0.10 is obtained for the classification. The normalized true negative rate equals 0.80 ± 0.03. The final model returns a regularity statistic called the Approximate Entropy as its most important feature

Assessing physiological response mechanisms and the role of psychosocial job resources in the physical activity health paradox : study protocol for the Flemish Employees' Physical Activity (FEPA) study

Background: In the current labour system many workers are still exposed to heavy physical demands during their job. In contrast to leisure time physical activity (LTPA), occupational physical activity (OPA) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality, termed the physical activity (PA) health paradox. In order to gain more insight into the PA health paradox, an exploration of structural preventive measures at the workplace is needed and therefore objective field measurements are highly recommended. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the protocol of the Flemish Employees' Physical Activity (FEPA) study, including objective measurements of PA, heart rate (HR) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to gain more insight into the PA health paradox. Methods: A total of 401 workers participated in the FEPA study across seven companies in the service and production sector in Belgium. The participants comprised 167 men and 234 women, aged 20 to 65years. OPA and LTPA were assessed by two Axivity AX3 accelerometers on the thigh and upper back. Ambulatory HR was measured by the Faros eMotion 90 degrees monitor. Both devices were worn during two to four consecutive working days. In addition, CRF was estimated by using the Harvard Step Test. Statistical analyses will be performed using Pearson correlation, and multiple regression adjusted for possible confounders. Discussion: This study aims to provide a better insight in the PA health paradox and the possible buffering factors by using valid and objective measurements of PA and HR (both during LTPA and OPA) over multiple working days. The results of the study can contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease by providing tailored recommendations for participants with high levels of OPA and by disseminating the results and recommendations to workplaces, policy makers and occupational health practitioners

Galactosylsphingamides : new α-GalCer analogues to probe the F’-pocket of CD1d

Invariant Natural Killer T-cells (iNKT-cells) are an attractive target for immune response modulation, as upon CD1d-mediated stimulation with KRN7000, a synthetic alpha-galactosylceramide, they produce a vast amount of cytokines. Here we present a synthesis that allows swift modification of the phytosphingosine side chain by amidation of an advanced methyl ester precursor. The resulting KRN7000 derivatives, termed alpha-galactosylsphingamides, were evaluated for their capacity to stimulate iNKT-cells. While introduction of the amide-motif in the phytosphingosine chain is tolerated for CD1d binding and TCR recognition, the studied alpha-galactosylsphingamides showed compromised antigenic properties