Family functioning guidelines for the care of people with spina bifida

Research supports a resilience-disruption model of family functioning in families with a child with spina bifida. Guidelines are warranted to both minimize disruption to the family system and maximize family resilience and adaptation to multiple spina bifida-related and normative stressors. This article discusses the spina bifida family functioning guidelines from the 2018 Spina Bifida Association’s Fourth Edition of the Guidelines for the Care of People with Spina Bifida, and reviews evidence-based directions with the intention of helping individuals with spina bifida achieve optimal mental health throughout their lifespan. Guidelines address clinical questions pertaining to the impact of having a child with spina bifida on family functioning, resilience and vulnerability factors, parenting behaviors that may facilitate adaptive child outcomes, and appropriate interventions or approaches to promote family functioning. Gaps in the research and future directions are discussed

A specification-based QoS-aware design framework for service-based applications

Effective and accurate service discovery and composition rely on complete specifications of service behaviour, containing inputs and preconditions that are required before service execution, outputs, effects and ramifications of a successful execution and explanations for unsuccessful executions. The previously defined Web Service Specification Language (WSSL) relies on the fluent calculus formalism to produce such rich specifications for atomic and composite services. In this work, we propose further extensions that focus on the specification of QoS profiles, as well as partially observable service states. Additionally, a design framework for service-based applications is implemented based on WSSL, advancing state of the art by being the first service framework to simultaneously provide several desirable capabilities, such as supporting ramifications and partial observability, as well as non-determinism in composition schemas using heuristic encodings; providing explanations for unexpected behaviour; and QoS-awareness through goal-based techniques. These capabilities are illustrated through a comparative evaluation against prominent state-of-the-art approaches based on a typical SBA design scenario

Towards Business-to-IT Alignment in the Cloud

Cloud computing offers a great opportunity for business process (BP) flexibility, adaptability and reduced costs. This leads to realising the notion of business process as a service (BPaaS), i.e., BPs offered on-demand in the cloud. This paper introduces a novel architecture focusing on BPaaS design that includes the integration of existing state-of-the-art components as well as new ones which take the form of a business and a syntactic matchmaker. The end result is an environment enabling to transform domain-specific BPs into executable workflows which can then be made deployable in the cloud so as to become real BPaaSes

GIS as an educational tool: Mapping cultural sites in greek space-time

Το θέμα της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η χαρτογραφική παρουσίαση της πολιτιστικής διαδοχής στον ελληνικό χωρο-χρόνο που σχετίζεται με βασικές έννοιες της γεωγραφικής και ιστορικής εκπαίδευσης. Η παιδαγωγική αξία της μελέτης είναι η ανάπτυξη πέντε διακριτών δεξιότητων: της έννοιας του χρόνου-κλίμακας, της ιστορικής και γεωγραφικής κατανόησης, της χωρικής ανάλυσης και ερμηνείας, της ικανότητας διεξαγωγής γεω-ιστορικής έρευνας, και της γεω-ιστορικής διαδικασίας λήψης αποφάσεων. Η μεθοδολογία βασίζεται στη βαθμονόμηση μιας σειράς κριτηρίων για κάθε πολιτιστική περιοχή που καλύπτει τα θέματα της οικονομίας, της γεωμορφολογίας, της κοινωνίας των πολιτών, της θρησκείας, της τέχνης και της επιστήμης. Η περαιτέρω ανάλυση αυτών των δεδομένων οδηγεί στη δημιουργία μιας γεω-βάσης. Οι παλαιογεωγραφικοί και ιστορικοί χάρτες των πολιτιστικών χώρων που προέρχονται από την γεωβάση παρέχουν πληροφορίες σχετικά με τις χρονικές και χωρικές μεταβολές. Ως αποτέλεσμα, οι μαθητές θα είναι σε θέση να αναπτύξουν μια πολυδιάστατη και διεπιστημονική προσέγγιση, προκειμένου να ανακατασκευάσουν την εξέλιξη του τόπου.This paper deals with the cartographical presentation of cultural succession in Greek space-time associated with core concepts of geographic and historical education. The pedagogic value of this study is to develop five distinct skills: sense of time-scale, historical and geographic comprehension, spatial analysis and interpretation, ability to perform geo-historical research, and procedure of geohistorical decision-making. The methodology is based on the calibration of a set of criteria for each cultural site that covers the topics of economy, geomorphology, society, religion, art and science. Further analysis of these data forms a geodatabase. In addition, palaeogeographic and historical maps of the cultural sites derived by the geodatabase provide information about temporal and spatial changes. As result, students will be able to develop a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach, in order to reconstruct the evolution of the site

New Data on Welshite, e.g. Ca2Mg3.8Mn0.62+Fe0.12+Sb1.55+O2 [Si2.8Be1.7Fe0.653+Al0.7As0.17O18], an Aenigmatite-Group Mineral

Electron and ion microprobe data on two samples of welshite from the type locality of Langban, Sweden, gave analytical totals of 99.38-99.57 wt.% and BeO contents of 4.82-5.11 wt.%, corresponding to 1.692-1.773 Be/20 O. Mossbauer and optical spectra of one of these samples gave Fe-[iv](3+)/Sigma Fe = 0.91, Fe-[iv](2+)/Sigma Fe = 0.09, and no evidence of Mn3+. The resulting formula for this sample is Ca2Mg3.8Mn0.62+Fe0.12+Sb1.55+O2[Si2.8Be1.7Fe0.653+Al0.7As0.17O18], and that for the second sample, Ca2Mg3.8Mn0.12+Fe0.12+F0.83+Sb1.25+O2[Si2.8Be1.8F0.653+Al0.25As0.25O18], is related by the substitution involving tetrahedral and octahedral sites: 0.59([vi,iv])(Fe,Al)(3+) approximate to 0.42([vi])(Mg,Mn,Fe)(2+) + 0.21(Sb-[vi],As-[iv])(5+), i.e. 3([vi,iv]) M3+ = 2([vi])M(2+) + M-[vi,iv](5+). WelShite is distinctive among aenigmatite-group minerals in the high proportion of Fe 3+ in tetrahedral coordination and is unique in its Be content, substantially exceeding 1Be per formula unit. Given the cation distributions in other minerals related to aenigmatite, we think it is reasonable to assume that at least one tetrahedral site is \u3e50% occupied by Be and that one octahedral site is \u3e50% occupied by Sb, so that welshite should be retained as a distinct species with its own name in the aenigmatite group

Redsharc: A Programming Model and On-Chip Network for Multi-Core Systems on a Programmable Chip

The reconfigurable data-stream hardware software architecture (Redsharc) is a programming model and network-on-a-chip solution designed to scale to meet the performance needs of multi-core Systems on a programmable chip (MCSoPC). Redsharc uses an abstract API that allows programmers to develop systems of simultaneously executing kernels, in software and/or hardware, that communicate over a seamless interface. Redsharc incorporates two on-chip networks that directly implement the API to support high-performance systems with numerous hardware kernels. This paper documents the API, describes the common infrastructure, and quantifies the performance of a complete implementation. Furthermore, the overhead, in terms of resource utilization, is reported along with the ability to integrate hard and soft processor cores with purely hardware kernels being demonstrated

Distributed service‐level agreement management with smart contracts and blockchain

The current cloud market is dominated by a few providers, which offer cloud services in a take‐it‐or‐leave‐it manner. However, the dynamism and uncertainty of cloud environments may require the change over time of both application requirements and service capabilities. The current service‐level agreement (SLA) management solutions cannot easily guarantee a trustworthy, distributed SLA adaptation due to the centralized authority of the cloud provider who could also misbehave to pursue individual goals. To address the above issues, we propose a novel SLA management framework, which facilitates the specification and enforcement of dynamic SLAs that enable one to describe how, and under which conditions, the offered service level can change over time. The proposed framework relies on a two‐level blockchain architecture. At the first level, the smart SLA is transformed into a smart contract that dynamically guides service provisioning. At the second level, a permissioned blockchain is built through a federation of monitoring entities to generate objective measurements for the smart SLA/contract assessment. The scalability of this permissioned blockchain is also thoroughly evaluated. The proposed framework enables creating open distributed clouds, which offer manageable and dynamic services, and facilitates cost reduction for cloud consumers, while it increases flexibility in resource management and trust in the offered cloud services

Ability of quantitative PCR to discriminate Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia from colonization.

Introduction.Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is a severe disease affecting immunocompromised patients. Diagnosis is difficult due to the low sensitivity of direct examination and inability to grow the pathogen in culture. Quantitative PCR in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) has high sensitivity, but limited specificity for distinguishing PCP from colonization.Aim. To assess the performance of an in-house quantitative PCR to discriminate between PCP and colonization.Methodology. This was a single-centre retrospective study including all patients with a positive PCR result for P. jirovecii in BAL between 2009 and 2017. Irrespective of PCR results, PCP was defined as the presence of host factors and clinical/radiological criteria consistent with PCP and (i) the presence of asci at direct examination of respiratory sample or (ii) anti-PCP treatment initiated with clinical response and absence of alternative diagnosis. Colonization was considered for cases who did not receive anti-PCP therapy with a favourable outcome or an alternative diagnosis. Cases who did not meet the above mentioned criteria were classified as 'undetermined'.Results. Seventy-one patients with positive P. jirovecii PCR were included (90 % non-HIV patients). Cases were classified as follows: 37 PCP, 22 colonization and 12 undetermined. Quantitative PCR values in BAL were significantly higher in patients with PCP versus colonization or undetermined (P<0.0001). The cut-off of 5×10 <sup>3</sup> copies/ml was able to discriminate PCP cases from colonization with 97 % sensitivity, 82 % specificity, 90 % positive predictive value and 95 % negative predictive value.Conclusions. Our quantitative PCR for P. jirovecii in BAL was reliable to distinguish PCP cases from colonization in this predominantly non-HIV population

Seasonal patterns of oral antihistamine and intranasal corticosteroid purchases from Australian community pharmacies : a retrospective observational study

Acknowledgments The abstract of this paper was presented at the Respiratory Effectiveness Group 2016 Annual Summit as a poster presentation with interim findings. The poster’s abstract was published in “Poster Abstracts” in The Journal of Thoracic Disease (Vol. 8, Supplement 5, 5 July 2016). http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/8504.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Hybrid, Qos-Aware Discovery of Semantic Web Services Using Constraint Programming

Most Semantic Web Services discovery approaches are not well suited when using complex relational, arithmetic and logical expressions, because they are usually based on Description Logics. Moreover, these kind of expressions usually appear when discovery is performed including Quality-of-Service conditions. In this work, we present an hybrid discovery process for Semantic Web Services that takes care of QoS conditions. Our approach splits discovery into stages, using different engines in each one, depending on its search nature. This architecture is extensible and loosely coupled, allowing the addition of discovery engines at will. In order to perform QoS-aware discovery, we propose a stage that uses Constraint Programming, that allows to use complex QoS conditions within discovery queries. Furthermore, it is possible to obtain the optimal offer that fulfills a given demand using this approach.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2006-0047