An Event-Based Coordination Model for Context-Aware Applications

International audienceContext-aware applications adapt their behavior depending on changes in their environment context. Programming such applications in a modular way requires to modularize the global context into more specific contexts and attach specific behavior to these contexts. This is reminiscent of aspects and has led to the notion of context-aware aspects. This paper revisits this notion of context-aware aspects in the light of previous work on concurrent event-based aspect-oriented programming (CEAOP). It shows how CEAOP can be extended in a seamless way in order to define a model for the coordination of concurrent adaptation rules with explicit contexts. This makes it possible to reason about the compositions of such rules. The model is concretized into a prototypical modeling language

Un modèle de programmation intégrant classes, événements et aspects

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) has become the de facto programming paradigm. Event-Based Programming (EBP) and Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) complement OOP, covering some of its deficiencies when building complex software. Today's applications combine the three paradigms. However, OOP, EBP and AOP have not yet been properly integrated. Their underlying concepts are in general provided as distinct language constructs, whereas they are not completely orthogonal. This lack of integration and orthogonality complicates the development of software as it reduces its understandability, its composability and increases the required glue code. This thesis proposes an integration of OOP, EBP and AOP leading to a simple and regular programming model. This model integrates the notions of class and aspect, the notions of event and join point, and the notions of piece of advice, method and event handler. It re- duces the number of language constructs while keeping expressiveness and offering additional programming options. We have designed and implemented two programming languages based on this model: EJava and ECaesarJ. EJava is an extension of Java implementing the model. We have validated the expressiveness of this language by implementing a well-known graphical editor, JHotDraw, reducing its glue code and improving its design. ECaesarJ is an extension of CaesarJ that combines our model with mixins and language support for state machines. This combination was shown to greatly facilitate the implementation of a smart home application, an industrial- strength case study that aims to coordinate different devices in a house and automatize their behaviors.Le paradigme de la programmation par objets (PPO) est devenu le paradigme de programmation le plus utilisé. La programmation événementielle (PE) et la programmation par aspects (PPA) complètent la PPO en comblant certaines de ses lacunes lors de la construction de logiciels complexes. Les applications actuelles combinent ainsi les trois paradigmes. Toutefois, la POO, la PE et la POA ne sont pas encore bien intégrées. Leurs concepts sous-jacents sont en général fournis sous la forme de constructions syntaxiques spécifiques malgré leurs points communs. Ce manque d'intégration et d'orthogonalité complique les logiciels car il réduit leur compréhensibilité et leur composabilité, et augmente le code d'infrastructure. Cette thèse propose une intégration de la PPO, de la PE et de la PPA conduisant à un modèle de programmation simple et régulier. Ce modèle intègre les notions de classe et d'aspect, les notions d'événement et de point de jonction, et les notions d'action, de méthode et de gestionnaire d'événements. Il réduit le nombre de constructions tout en gardant l'expressivité initiale et en offrant même des options de programmation supplémentaires. Nous avons conçu et mis en œuvre deux langages de programmation basés sur ce modèle : EJava et ECaesarJ. EJava est une extension de Java implémentant le modèle. Nous avons validé l'expressivité de ce langage par la mise en œuvre d'un éditeur graphique bien connu, JHotDraw, en réduisant le code d'infrastructure nécessaire et en améliorant sa conception. ECaesarJ est une extension de CaesarJ qui combine notre modèle avec de la composition de mixins et un support linguistique des machines à états. Cette combinaison a grandement facilité la mise en œuvre d'une application de maison intelligente, une étude de cas d'origine industrielle dans le domaine de la domotique

The human resources development through mentoring: the Spanish case

Objeto: El mentoring es una práctica para favorecer el desarrollo de los recursos humanos cada día más utilizada por las empresas. Sin embargo, la investigación sobre el tema presenta aún numerosos aspectos que no se han abordado lo suficiente. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer esta práctica, analizar sus efectos y conocer que beneficios que reporta a los individuos y a las empresas que la utilizan, exponiendo una serie de indicaciones prácticas para que su aplicación resulte efectiva. Posteriormente, procedemos a contrastar los planteamientos anteriores, analizando el impacto del mentoring en el rendimiento, tanto a nivel organizacional como a nivel individual, en una muestra de empresas españolas. Los resultados reflejan que existe una relación causal directa entre el empleo de los programas de mentoring y el crecimiento de la empresa y su capital humano. Diseño/metodología/enfoque: Tras el planteamiento teórico se procede a contrastar las hipótesis mediante la metodología de ecuaciones estructurales, realizando previamente un análisis factorial confirmatorio de las escalas de medida. Aportaciones y resultados: Los resultados muestran la existencia de un efecto causal y directo de la aplicación del mentoring y el rendimiento de las empresas de la muestra. De este modo validamos los planteamientos teóricos formulados y contribuimos a un conocimiento más profundo de esta práctica, sus condiciones de efectividad y los beneficios que reporta a la empresa. Implicaciones prácticas: El mentoring se inicia con la incorporación del pupilo, un empleado con posibilidades de promoción y mejora, cuyo plan de carrera contempla la utilización de esta técnica. A partir de este instante, el siguiente paso será elegir el mentor, normalmente una persona con más experiencia y conocedora de la organización. Gran parte del éxito del mentoring se basa en la adecuada elección del mentor, por ello debe ser analizado de manera minuciosa, de manera que la pareja mentor-pupilo tenga afinidad, confianza y se desarrolle en un clima propicio. Por otro lado, el mentoring ayuda a incorporar y socializar nuevos empleados, pues el mentor actúa como trasmisor de conocimiento e información de la cultura de la compañía, sus valores, normas estrategias, prepara los profesionales que proceden o son destinados a otros países, mejorando adaptación y conocimiento del país. El pupilo que interviene en el proceso de mentoring conseguirá estar preparado para alcanzar posiciones de mayor responsabilidad en la empresa, de acuerdo con sus planes de carrera y estrategia de la organización. Originalidad / Valor añadido: Este trabajo permite el avance en el conocimiento del mentoring en el ámbito empresarial y proporciona evidencia empírica de su utilidad para los directivos de recursos humanos.Purpose: Mentoring is a practice to encourage the development of human resources increasingly used by companies. However, research on the subject still presents many aspects that have not been sufficiently addressed. Thus, the aim of this study is analyze the effects of this practice and its benefits in individuals and businesses, exposing a series of practical guidelines for its use to be effective. Then, we proceed to contrast the previous approaches, analyzing the impact of mentoring on performance, both organizational and individual levels in a sample of Spanish companies. The results show that there is a direct causal relationship between the use of mentoring programs and growth of the company and its human capital. Design/methodology: Following the theoretical approach we proceed to test the hypotheses using structural equation methodology and confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement scales. Findings: The results show the existence of a causal and direct effect of the implementation of mentoring and businesses performance. This validated the theoretical approaches formulated and contribute to a deeper understanding of this practice, its conditions of effectiveness and benefits of the company. Practical implications: Mentoring begins with the incorporation of the protégé (an employee with capacity for promotion and improvement and his career plan includes the use of this technique). From this moment, the next step is to choose a mentor, usually someone more experienced and knowledgeable about the organization. Much of the success of mentoring is based on the proper choice of the mentor, must be analyzed so thoroughly, so that the mentor-mentee pair has affinity, trust and develop in a climate. On the other hand, helps to provide mentoring and socializing new employees, as the mentor acts as a transmitter of knowledge and information about the company culture, values, norms, strategies, prepares professionals coming or for other countries, improving adaptation and knowledge of the country's pupil involved in the mentoring process, get ready to rise to positions of increasing responsibility in the company, according to their career plans and strategy of the organization. Originality/value: This work enables the advancement in knowledge of mentoring in business and provides empirical evidence of its usefulness to staff of human resources.Peer Reviewe

Assessing the Role of the Interleukin-12/STAT4 Axis in Breast Cancer by a Bioinformatics Approach

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is an anti-tumor cytokine that promotes biological actions through the IL-12/STAT4 axis. Genetic variation and tumor microenvironment dynamics have been identified as critical elements for impaired immune anti-tumor responses. Breast cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous disease classified at the molecular level in several subtypes, each having unique biological and clinical traits. Despite research identifying the relevance of IL-12 in many cancer types, no studies have assessed the role of the IL-12/STAT4 axis in BC. The goal of this study was to evaluate the correlation of the IL-12/STAT4 signaling axis and BC patients’ survival in general and in the context of the BC molecular subtypes. Bioinformatics analyses using TCGA data were completed to evaluate the correlation of the IL-12/STAT4 axis and BC. A high expression of important IL-12/STAT4 axis molecules such as the IL-12 receptor genes (IL12RB1 and IL12RB2), STAT4, IFNG and TBX21 were found to significantly increase BC patients’ survival rates, especially in the most aggressive BC subtypes such as the luminal B (LumB), HER-2+ and basal like (BL). A possible relevant role of the IL-12/STAT4 axis in BC is suggested by this bioinformatics-study, which might also be subtype-specific. Further studies such as molecular and tumor microenvironment analyses will be required to clarify better the specific role of the IL-12 /STAT4 axis in BC. The results from these additional analyses may potentially improve IL-12 related immunotherapeutic approaches to BC

The Iberian Exception: An overview of its effects over its first 100 days

This paper offers an independent assessment of certain economic effects of the Iberian Exception (IE) which was introduced in June 2022 by the Spanish and Portuguese governments. Their stated aim was to reduce wholesale spot electricity prices (which were rising alarmingly due to tight international gas markets related to Russia s invasion of Ukraine) and thereby reduce retail electricity prices for consumers whose prices were linked to that wholesale market. Another aim was to reduce Spanish inflation, which was linked to a regulated electricity retail price indexed to the wholesale spot market. Using hourly data on the wholesale electricity market for the first 100 days of the IE, the authors question the Spanish Governments estimate of the beneficial effects of the measure for affected consumers, which included over 10 million small consumers as well as many large ones. They argue that the estimated effect of the IE on retail prices depends on the assumed counterfactual. Although counterfactuals are always difficult to construct, the government s counterfactual ignores demand elasticity, and this inflates their estimate of immediate consumer benefits. Alternative counterfactuals that include demand elasticity reduce the estimated benefits for consumers and may even lead to the conclusion that the latter would have paid less had the IE not been introduced. The authors identify several other potential short and long-term effects of the IE that deserve further study, including increased margins for fossil fired generators, reduced margins for decarbonized inframarginal plant, heightened regulatory risk for investors, weakened incentives for efficient consumption, higher carbon emissions and gas prices and ultimately higher costs for consumers.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures and 4 table

Declarative Events for Object-Oriented Programming

In object-oriented designs inversion of control is achieved by an event-driven programming style based on imperatively triggered events. An alternative approach can be found in aspect-oriented programming, which defines events as declarative queries over implicitly available events. This helps to localize definition of events and avoid preplanning, but lacks a clean integration with object-oriented features and principles. The contribution of this work is a concept of object-oriented events that combines imperative, declarative and implicit events and provides their seamless integration with object-oriented features, preserving encapsulation and modular reasoning. We present an efficient and type-safe implementation of the concept as an extension to the Scala language.Dans une conception par objets, l'inversion de contrôle s'appuie sur un style de programmation événementiel utilisant des événements lancés de manière impérative. La programmation par aspects suggère une autre voie qui consiste à définir des événements sous la forme de requêtes déclaratives portant sur des événements prédéfinis. Il est ainsi possible de localiser la définition des événements sans planifier à l'avance l'existence de ces événements. Cette voie pose toutefois un problème d'intégration aux caractéristiques et aux principes de la programmation par objets. La contribution de ce travail est l'introduction d'un concept d'événement qui combine différents types d'événements, impératifs, déclaratifs et implicites tout en étant parfaitement intégré avec les principes des objets, préservant notamment l'encapsulation et le raisonnement modulaire propre aux objets. Nous présentons ici une implémentation typée et efficace de ce concept sous la forme d'un extension du langage de programmation Scala

Análisis de algunas WebQuest dedicadas a la historia de las Matemáticas

Este artículo trata el concepto y la utilización de las WebQuest por parte del profesorado de Matemáticas en los diferentes niveles educativos, haciendo énfasis tanto en Educación secundaria obligatoria como en bachillerato. Más concretamente, se comentan algunas de las escasas WebQuest existentes en Internet y versando sobre la historia de las matemáticas en castellano, además de realizar un estudio crítico de las mismas, indicando aquellos aspectos, que en nuestra opinión, podrían considerarse favorables y los que podrían verse mejorados

Use of in-vivo induced antigen technology to identify bacterial genes expressed during Solea senegalensis infection with Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida

The marine fish pathogen Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp) is responsible for important disease outbreaks affecting several fish species including flatfish Solea senegalensis (Kaup). Phdp is able to avoid host defences by invasion and intracellular survival in non-phagocytic cells, mainly epithelial cells. Virulence factors reported in Phdp include restricting complement-mediated activity, apoptosis of phagocytes caused by exotoxins secretion, iron acquisition mechanisms such as siderophores that enable the pathogen to obtain iron from transferrin and ability to bind haemin and antioxidant enzymatic activities capable to counteract superoxide radicals (Do Vale et al., 2005; Andreoni and Magnano, 2014). Commonly, genes expressed during pathogen infection are important for pathogenicity. In vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) (Handfield et al., 2000) has been used to identify in vivo-induced genes using pooled sera from fish that have experienced photobacteriosis. Materials and methods Sera were obtained from surviving S. senegalensis specimens after sublethal infection with Phdp (Lg41/01) and subsequently pooled and adsorbed against in vitro grown Phdp Lg41/01 and Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells and lysates according to Handfield et al. (2000). The efficiency of sera adsorption was evaluated based on the immunoreactivity after each adsorption step with whole and lysed Phdp cells grown in vitro. A genomic expression library of Phdp Lg41/01 was generated in E. coli BL21 (DE3) using pET-30 expression system (Novagen, San Diego, CA, USA). The expression library was probed with adsorbed and non-absorbed sera using immunoblot technique. Reactive clones of in vivo-induced and in vitro antigens were obtained, purified and their inserted DNA sequenced (Macrogen Europe, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Nucleotide sequences were compared against the NCBI protein database using BLASTx. Results A progressive reduction in sera immunoreactivity against in vitro grown Phdp cells was detected after the adsorption rounds, especially after the first adsorption step. Thus, following adsorption steps substantially removed antibodies against in vitro expressed antigens and resulted in relative enrichment in antibodies recognizing in vivo expressed antigens. The library from Phdp Lg14/01 constructed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) consisted of approximately 6500 recombinants. A total of 117 clones were selected for their reactivity with pooled adsorbed and non-adsorbed sera from convalescent S. senegalensis specimens after a first round of screening. In a second screening, 14 out of 117 candidate clones showed positive reaction, among which two clones were clearly positive and two gave weak reaction against adsorbed sera. Predicted proteins codified by inserted sequences have intracellular and membrane cell location and are involved in virulence, synthesis of intermediary products, energy metabolism and gene replication. Inosine-5’-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) and alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpC) have been identified as in vivo induced antigens expressed during S. senegalensis infection with Phdp. Iron/manganese superoxide dismutase (Fe/Mn-SOD) and alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS) proteins have also been identified, though with weak signal. Discussion and conclusion Identification of immunogenic bacterial proteins during Phdp infection is essential for understanding bacterial pathogenesis and development of effective vaccines. AhpC peroxidase activity has a protective role by reducing hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite and organic hydroperoxides. Immunization with AhpC conferred protection against Helicobacter pylori infection (O’Riordan et al., 2012). IMPDH catalyzes the conversion of products essential in de novo synthesis of guanine nucleotides. Adequate levels of purine nucleotides are critical for cell proliferation, nucleic acid replication, cell signaling and as a biochemical energy source. This gene is an important therapeutic target against bacterial diseases (Shu and Nair,2008). In conclusion, different genes expressed during Phdp infection in S. senegalensis have been identified. Among them, IMPDH and AhpC have been identified as in vivo induced antigens expressed during S. senegalensis infection with Phdp. Thus, they are likely to play a role in the virulence of Phdp. The antigenic character of these proteins makes them potential targets for the development of new vaccines. References Andreoni, F., and Magnani, M., 2014. Photobacteriosis: Prevention and Diagnosis. Journal of Immunology Research, 2014: 1-7. Do Vale, A., Silva, M.T., dos Santos, N.M., Nascimento, D.S., Reis Rodrigues, P., Costa Ramos, C., Ellis, A.E., and Azevedo, J.E., 2005. AIP56, a novel plasmid-encoded virulence factor of Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida with apoptogenic activity against sea bass macrophages and neutrophils. Molecular Microbiology, 58: 1025-1038. Handfield, M., Brady, L.J., Progulske-Fox, A., and Hillman, J.D., 2000. IVIAT: a novel method to identify microbial genes expressed specifically during human infections. Trends in Microbiology, 8: 336-339. O’Riordan A.A., Morales V.A., Mulligan L., Faheem N., Windle H.J., and Kelleher D.P., 2012. Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase: a candidate Helicobacter pylori vaccine. Vaccine, 30:3876-3884. Shu, Q., and Nair, V., 2008. Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) as a target in drug discovery. Medicinal Research Reviews, 28:219-232.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Mapa de aseguramiento para las instituciones financieras no bancarias cubanas

The present article is primarily aimed to establish a methodology to design assurance map that support the preparation of the internal audit plan of Cubans non-bank financial institutions based on the principles of corporate governance, model of three lines of defense and assurance service providers from using a conjunct of theoretical, empirical methods and techniques that enabling strengthening of risk-based internal auditing.  El presente artículo tiene como objetivo establecer una metodología para el diseño del mapa de aseguramiento que sustente la elaboración del plan de auditoría interna de las instituciones financieras no bancarias cubanas sustentada en los principios del gobierno corporativo, el modelo de las tres líneas de defensa y los proveedores de servicio de aseguramiento a partir del empleo de un conjunto de métodos del nivel teórico, empírico y técnicas posibilitando el fortalecimiento de la auditoría interna basada en riesgos