Comprehending annotations on object-oriented programs using fractional permissions

Fractional permissions are a general system for managing access to mutable state. We show how fractional permis-sions can give semantics to a regimen of annotations includ-ing“unique,”“non-null,”“read-only,”ownership, and method effects. The unification supports new annotations: “unique-write ” and “from”. We also develop a model of object in-variants in the presence of inheritance using “nesting, ” an extension of “adoption.” 1

Data refinement for true concurrency

The majority of modern systems exhibit sophisticated concurrent behaviour, where several system components modify and observe the system state with fine-grained atomicity. Many systems (e.g., multi-core processors, real-time controllers) also exhibit truly concurrent behaviour, where multiple events can occur simultaneously. This paper presents data refinement defined in terms of an interval-based framework, which includes high-level operators that capture non-deterministic expression evaluation. By modifying the type of an interval, our theory may be specialised to cover data refinement of both discrete and continuous systems. We present an interval-based encoding of forward simulation, then prove that our forward simulation rule is sound with respect to our data refinement definition. A number of rules for decomposing forward simulation proofs over both sequential and parallel composition are developed

Generating Bijections between HOAS and the Natural Numbers

A provably correct bijection between higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS) and the natural numbers enables one to define a "not equals" relationship between terms and also to have an adequate encoding of sets of terms, and maps from one term family to another. Sets and maps are useful in many situations and are preferably provided in a library of some sort. I have released a map and set library for use with Twelf which can be used with any type for which a bijection to the natural numbers exists. Since creating such bijections is tedious and error-prone, I have created a "bijection generator" that generates such bijections automatically together with proofs of correctness, all in the context of Twelf.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2010, arXiv:1009.218

Transforming Development and Disaster Risk

Abstract: This article focuses on the complex relationship between development and disaster risk. Development and disaster risk are closely linked as the people and assets exposed to risk, as well as their vulnerability and capacity, are largely determined by development processes. Transformation is key to moving from current development patterns that increase, create or unfairly distribute risks, to forms of development that are equitable, resilient and sustainable. Based on a review of existing literature, we present three opportunities that have the potential to lead to transformation in the development-disaster risk relationship: (i) exposing development-disaster risk trade-offs in development policy and decision-making; (ii) prioritizing equity and social justice in approaches to secure resilience; and (iii) enabling transformation through adaptive governance. This research aims to contribute to breaking down existing barriers in research, policy and practice between the disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and development communities by providing cross-sectoral opportunities to operationalize theoretical knowledge on transformation. It also helps to clarify the connections between different global agendas by positioning transformation as a potential bridging concept to link disconnected policy processes. This paper argues for empirical research to test the opportunities presented here and further define transformative pathways at multiple scales

Uniqueness Typing for Resource Management in Message-Passing Concurrency

We view channels as the main form of resources in a message-passing programming paradigm. These channels need to be carefully managed in settings where resources are scarce. To study this problem, we extend the pi-calculus with primitives for channel allocation and deallocation and allow channels to be reused to communicate values of different types. Inevitably, the added expressiveness increases the possibilities for runtime errors. We define a substructural type system which combines uniqueness typing and affine typing to reject these ill-behaved programs

A Type System for Unstructured Locking that Guarantees Deadlock Freedom without Imposing a Lock Ordering

Deadlocks occur in concurrent programs as a consequence of cyclic resource acquisition between threads. In this paper we present a novel type system that guarantees deadlock freedom for a language with references, unstructured locking primitives, and locks which are implicitly associated with references. The proposed type system does not impose a strict lock acquisition order and thus increases programming language expressiveness.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2010, arXiv:1110.385

No evidence of compensatory changes in energy balance, despite reductions in body weight and liver fat, during dapagliflozin treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial (ENERGIZE).

AimThis study assessed the impact of dapagliflozin on food intake, eating behaviour, energy expenditure, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-determined brain response to food cues and body composition in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D).Materials and methodsPatients were given dapagliflozin 10 mg once daily in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with short-term (1 week) and long-term (12 weeks) cross-over periods. The primary outcome was the difference in test meal food intake between long-term dapagliflozin and placebo treatment. Secondary outcomes included short-term differences in test meal food intake, short- and long-term differences in appetite and eating rate, energy expenditure and functional MRI brain activity in relation to food images. We determined differences in glycated haemoglobin, weight, liver fat (by 1 H magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and subcutaneous/visceral adipose tissue volumes (by MRI).ResultsIn total, 52 patients (43% were women) were randomized; with the analysis of 49 patients: median age 58 years, weight 99.1 kg, body mass index 35 kg/m2 , glycated haemoglobin 49 mmol/mol. Dapagliflozin reduced glycated haemoglobin by 9.7 mmol/mol [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.91-16.27, p = .004], and body weight (-2.84 vs. -0.87 kg) versus placebo. There was no short- or long-term difference in test meal food intake between dapagliflozin and placebo [mean difference 5.7 g (95% CI -127.9 to 139.3, p = .933); 15.8 g (95% CI -147.7 to 116.1, p = .813), respectively] nor in the rate of eating, energy expenditure, appetite, or brain responses to food cues. Liver fat (median reduction -4.7 vs. 1.95%), but not subcutaneous/visceral adipose tissue, decreased significantly with 12 weeks of dapagliflozin.ConclusionsThe reduction in body weight and liver fat with dapagliflozin was not associated with compensatory adaptations in food intake or energy expenditure

Energy balance, body composition, sedentariness and appetite regulation: pathways to obesity.

Energy balance is not a simple algebraic sum of energy expenditure and energy intake as often depicted in communications. Energy balance is a dynamic process and there exist reciprocal effects between food intake and energy expenditure. An important distinction is that of metabolic and behavioural components of energy expenditure. These components not only contribute to the energy budget directly, but also by influencing the energy intake side of the equation. It has recently been demonstrated that resting metabolic rate (RMR) is a potential driver of energy intake, and evidence is accumulating on the influence of physical activity (behavioural energy expenditure) on mechanisms of satiety and appetite control. These effects are associated with changes in leptin and insulin sensitivity, and in the plasma levels of gastrointestinal (GI) peptides such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), ghrelin and cholecystokinin (CCK). The influence of fat-free mass on energy expenditure and as a driver of energy intake directs attention to molecules emanating from skeletal tissue as potential appetite signals. Sedentariness (physical inactivity) is positively associated with adiposity and is proposed to be a source of overconsumption and appetite dysregulation. The molecular signals underlying these effects are not known but represent a target for research

W average power

Abstract: We present a novel design of leakage channel fiber (LCF) that incorporates an air-hole lattice to define the modal filtering characteristics. The approach has the potential to offer single-mode, large mode area (LMA) fibers in a single-material platform with bend loss characteristics comparable to all-solid (LCFs) whilst at the same time providing significant fabrication benefits. We compare the performance of the proposed fiber with that of rod-type photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) and all-solid LCFs offering a similar effective mode area of ~1600μm 2 at 1.05μm. Our calculations show that the proposed fiber concept succeeds in combining the advantages of the use of small air holes and the larger design space of rod-type PCFs with the improved bend tolerance and greater higher order mode discrimination of all-solid LCFs, while alleviating their respective issues of rigidity and restricted material design space. We report the fabrication and experimental characterization of a first exemplar fiber, which we demonstrate offers a single-mode output with a fundamental mode area ~1440µm 2 at 1.06µm, and that can be bent down to a radius of 20cm with a bend loss of <3dB/turn. Finally we show that the proposed design concept can be adopted to achieve larger mode areas (> 3000µm 2 ), albeit at the expense of reduced bend tolerance