Gentleman : a lightweight web-based projectional editor

Lors de la conception et la manipulation de logiciel par modélisation, il est avantageux de bénéficier d’un grand degré de liberté au niveau de la présentation afin de comprendre l’information et prendre une action en exerçant peu d’effort cognitif et physique. Cette caractéristique doit aussi s’étendre aux outils que nous employons afin que ceux-ci augmentent nos capacités, plutôt que les restreindre. En génie logiciel, nous travaillons présentement à rehausser encore le niveau d’abstraction afin de réduire le rôle central du code décrit avec un langage de programmation à usage général. Ceci permettrait d’inclure les experts non techniques dans les activités de développement de logiciel. Cette approche, centralisée sur le domaine et l’expert, s’inscrit dans l’ingénierie dirigée par les modèles (IDM), où un modèle est produit et manipulé par divers experts et utilisateurs. Le modèle est alors décrit avec un langage créé spécifiquement pour un domaine d’application ou une tache, appelé langage dédié (DSL). Une technique utilisée pour créer ces modèles et leurs DSL est le projectional editing, qui permet d’utiliser des notations diverses interchangeables et d’étendre et composer facilement un langage. Toutefois, les solutions actuelles sont lourdes, spécifiques à une plateforme, et manquent considérablement d’utilisabilité, limitant ainsi l’usage et l’exploitation de cette approche. Pour mieux refléter les avantages du paradigme IDM avec le style projectionnel, nous introduisons dans cette thèse Gentleman, un éditeur projectionnel léger sur le web. Avec Gentleman, le développeur crée un modèle en combinant des concepts utilisés pour définir la structure du modèle et des projections pour les manipuler dans l’éditeur. Nous avons évalué Gentleman à travers une étude basée sur un groupe d’utilisateur. L’étude a confirmé sa capacité à créer et manipuler des modèles efficacement. Les participants ont noté qu’il est facile de prendre en main Gentleman et que l’interface est très intuitive comparativement aux éditeurs existants. Nous avons aussi intégré Gentleman avec succès à une plateforme web, démontrant ainsi ses capacités d’interopérabilité et l’avantage d’une solution web.In software activities and, more specifically, when modeling, the modeler should benefit from as much freedom as possible to understand the presented information and take action with minimal cognitive and mechanical effort. This characteristic should also apply to the tools used in the process so that they extend our capabilities rather than limit them. In the field of software engineering, current work aims to push the level of abstraction past general-purpose programming language into domain-specific modeling. This enables domain experts with various backgrounds to participate in software development activities. This vision is central to model-driven engineering (MDE) where, instead of code, various experts and users produce and manipulate domain-specific language (DSL). In recent years, projectional editing has proven to be a valid approach to creating and manipulating DSLs, as it supports various easily interchangeable notations and enables language extension and composition. However, current solutions are heavyweight, platform-specific, and suffer from poor usability. To better support this paradigm and minimize the risk of accidental complexity in terms of expressiveness, in this thesis, we introduce Gentleman, a lightweight web-based projectional editor. With Gentleman, a developer creates a model by combining concepts used to define its structure and projections to interact and manipulate them in the editor. We have evaluated Gentleman through a user study. The evaluation confirmed its capacity to create and manipulate models effectively. Most participants noted that the editor is very user-friendly and intuitive compared to existing editors. We have also successfully integrated Gentleman into a web application, demonstrating its interoperability and the benefit of a web solution

Towards cutting-edge European humanitarian leadership. Egmont European Policy Brief No. 67 March 2021.

Added to the already enormous challenges faced by the humanitarian system and its constituent parts (proliferation of conflict and non-state actors, climate stress, mass migration, …), the global Covid-19 pandemic coupled with repeated assaults on the basic tenets of multilateralism have brought existing systems to a breaking point, if not irrelevance. Traditional principled humanitarian positioning has fallen short of engaging with or addressing nefarious global political trends with dramatic effects. The result has been inequitable access to life saving support to those who need it most, risk transfers, and overall reduced capacity for aid agencies to meet growing challenges. A paradigm shift is needed. The imminent Communication of the European Commission on humanitarian aid is an opportunity to clarify perimeters, reaffirm with force the authority of IHL and take the measure of how much the EU can leverage support to strengthen principled humanitarian action across the world. It should set the frame to address structural tensions that require more thinking and interactions and create at EU level a space for non-institutional and informal dialogue

Frequently Relapsing Crohn's Disease Is Characterized by Persistent Elevation in Interleukin-6 and Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor Serum Levels During Remission

We examined immune and inflammatory activation during remission in patients with Crohn's disease who presented with various clinical profiles (prolonged remission vs. relapsing disease). Thirty-six patients with at least 3 years' follow-up starting from a remission period were studied retrospectively. Relapses were defined by a retrospective calculation of the Crohn's disease activity index or by the clinical judgement of the physicians in charge of the patients. Disease course over the study period was assessed by the mean number of annual relapses. Analysis used measurements during remission of the following: erythrocytes sedimentation rate, relative lymphocytosis, acid alpha1-glycoprotein, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) serum levels. During the study period 21 patients experienced at least one relapse and 15 did not. Mean serum levels of sIL-2R and mean relative lymphocytosis in remission significantly discriminated between relapsing and nonrelapsing patients. Only the mean sIL-2R serum level was selected by multivariate analysis, with a cutoff value of 82 pM/1 (sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 80%). The only features correlated with mean number of annual relapses in the relapsing patients were mean serum levels of sIL-2R (r=0.58, P=0.015) and IL-6 in remission (r=0.45, P=0.039). Multivariate analysis demonstrated statistical significance only for the mean serum level of IL-6 (P=0.014). In Crohn's disease the persistent elevation in sIL-2R serum levels during remission corresponds to chronic active disease, while high serum levels of IL-6 in these patients is associated with a high frequency of relapse

Pharma Clinics Medication of the Month. Esomeprazole

peer reviewedEsomeprazole is the last PPI registered on the Belgian market. It is the stable s-isomer of omeprazole. It has a better pharmacokinetic profile than omeprazole (racemate), allowing also better clinical performances. Esomeprazole is the first PPI shown superior to omeprazole in acute and chronic treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Controlled trials with this drug have also allowed to define new cost-effective strategies, such as on demand treatment for endoscopy-negative gastro-esophageal reflux and one week treatment of Helicobacter pylori positive duodenal ulcer

screening for Colorectal Cancer

peer reviewedColorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death in Northern countries and need a national screening program to reduce mortality and improve quality of life. Screening has to be cost-effective and acceptable for patients. Many screening tools, invasive or not, are existing and often debated: FOBT, sigmoidoscopy and complete colonoscopy. New tools are in development and have to be evaluated in current practice: virtual colonoscopy, new endoscopic technologies, DNA on faeces or proteomics with markers in serum

Dépistage du cancer colorectal en 2006

peer reviewedColorectal cancer is the second leading cause of death in Northern countries and needs a national screening program to reduce mortality and improve quality of life. Screening has to be cost-effective and acceptable for patients. Many screening tools, invasive or not, are existing and often debated: FOBT, sigmoidoscopy and complete colonoscopy. New tools are in development and have to be evaluated in current practice: virtual colonoscopy, new endoscopic technologies, DNA on faeces or proteomics with markers in serum

Evolution and predictive factors of relapse in ulcerative colitis patients treated with mesalazine after a first course of corticosteroids.

INTRODUCTION: Mesalazine remains the first line treatment for the induction and the maintenance of remission in mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC). Its efficacy as a maintenance treatment after a first flare treated with corticosteroids has not been specifically studied. The aims of our work were to study a cohort of UC patients treated with mesalazine after a course of oral systemic corticosteroids and to identify predictive factors of relapse and of colectomy. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We studied retrospectively a cohort of 143 UC patients, who never received immunosuppressive drugs, and treated for the first time with oral corticosteroids for a flare. Among patients responding to corticosteroids, we studied the group treated by mesalazine after the flare. RESULTS: Fifty% (n=52) achieved a complete clinical remission with steroid weaning. In this group, 67% (n=35) received oral mesalazine. Seventy-five % of patients treated by mesalazine relapsed (median 29 months, range: 1-156). Fourteen % required a colectomy (median 11 months, range: 1-24). Kaplan Meier curve showed a relapse rate and a colectomy rate over one year of 26% and 11% respectively. In multivariate analysis, male gender and short duration of disease were predictive factors of the time-to-relapse. No factor was predictive of time-to-colectomy. CONCLUSION: Maintenance efficacy of mesalazine over one year after a first course of corticosteroids for a disease flare is reasonably high. The longer-term relapse rate becomes higher in male patients with a short disease duration. An immunosuppressive treatment could be discussed in case of further relapse despite improved medication-adherence. Medication-adherence should first be assessed and promoted. An immunosuppressive treatment could be discussed in case of further relapse despite improved medication-adherence