Generating collaborative systems for digital libraries: A model-driven approach

This is an open access article shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Copyright @ 2010 The Authors.The design and development of a digital library involves different stakeholders, such as: information architects, librarians, and domain experts, who need to agree on a common language to describe, discuss, and negotiate the services the library has to offer. To this end, high-level, language-neutral models have to be devised. Metamodeling techniques favor the definition of domainspecific visual languages through which stakeholders can share their views and directly manipulate representations of the domain entities. This paper describes CRADLE (Cooperative-Relational Approach to Digital Library Environments), a metamodel-based framework and visual language for the definition of notions and services related to the development of digital libraries. A collection of tools allows the automatic generation of several services, defined with the CRADLE visual language, and of the graphical user interfaces providing access to them for the final user. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by presenting digital libraries generated with CRADLE, while the CRADLE environment has been evaluated by using the cognitive dimensions framework

Evaluation of Ingenol mebutate efficacy for the treatment of actinic keratosis with Antera 3D camera

OBJECTIVE: Cumulative exposure of the skin to ultraviolet radiation promotes mutation in keratinocytes and their abnormal growth led to the formation of scaly lesions, called actinic keratoses (AKs). Its incidence is growing at an emerging rate, becoming a worldwide problem especially for occupational ultraviolet (UV) rays exposure. Detectable lesions are often associated with field changes, where the surrounding skin is altered and subclinical lesions may be present. Thus, a field-directed therapy, such as topical treatment, should be preferred for the prevention of invasive cancer development. A retrospective analysis was made, evaluating the efficacy of ingenol-mebutate gel, using a novel device the 3D in vivo optical skin Imaging (Antera 3D, Miravex, Ireland). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included all patients with multiple non-hypertrophic Aks, to whom it was prescribed ingenol-mebutate gel, applied at the dosages of 0.015 for lesions in the scalp/face (for 3 consecutive days) and at the dosage of 0.05% for lesions in the trunk and/or extremities (for 2 consecutive days). RESULTS: A reduction of the lesions and of median hemoglobin levels, after a follow-up of 60 days, was observed in 100% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Ingenol mebutate gel, the last topical molecule appeared in the Italian market showed its efficacy using Antera 3D also in terms of hemoglobin reduction. Therefore, this camera could be considered an useful tool for the identification of the area to be treated and for therapeutic follow-up

PMS15 Patterns of Care with Biological Drugs for Ankylosing Spondylitis: Real-World Data from the Private Healthcare Market in Brazil

novembre 19361936/11 (N407)

Enhanced 10 Gb/s operations of directly modulated reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers without electronic equalization

We report enhanced 10 Gb/s operation of directly modulated bandwidth-limited reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers. By using a single suitable arrayed waveguide grating we achieve simultaneously WDM demultiplexing and optical equalization. Compared to previous approaches, the proposed system results significantly more tolerant to seeding wavelength drifts. This removes the need for wavelength lockers, additional electronic equalization or complex digital signal processing. Uniform C-band operations are obtained experimentally with < 2 dB power penalty within a wavelength drift of 10 GHz (which doubles the ITU-T standard recommendations)

Incremental update of constraint-compliant policy rules

Organizations typically define policies to describe (positive or negative) requirements about strategic objectives. Examples are policies relative to the security of information systems in general or to the control of access to an organization’s resources. Often, the form used to specify policies is in terms of general constraints (what and why) to be enforced via the use of rules (how and when). The consistency of the rule system (transforming valid states into valid states) can be compromised and rules can violate some constraints when constraints are updated due to changing requirements. Here, we explore a number of issues related to constraint update, in particular proposing a systematic way to update rules as a consequence of modifications of constraints, by identifying which components of the rule have to be updated. Moreover, we show the construction of sets of rules, directly derived from a positive constraint, to guarantee constraint preservation and constraint enforcement

Incremental update of constraint-compliant policy rules

Organizations typically define policies to describe (positive or negative) requirements about strategic objectives. Examples are policies relative to the security of information systems in general or to the control of access to an organization’s resources. Often, the form used to specify policies is in terms of general constraints (what and why) to be enforced via the use of rules (how and when). The consistency of the rule system (transforming valid states into valid states) can be compromised and rules can violate some constraints when constraints are updated due to changing requirements. Here, we explore a number of issues related to constraint update, in particular proposing a systematic way to update rules as a consequence of modifications of constraints, by identifying which components of the rule have to be updated. Moreover, we show the construction of sets of rules, directly derived from a positive constraint, to guarantee constraint preservation and constraint enforcement

Probing the single-particle character of rotational states in 19^{19}F using a short-lived isomeric beam

A beam containing a substantial component of both the $J^{\pi}=5^+$, $T_{1/2}=162$ ns isomeric state of $^{18}$F and its $1^+$, 109.77-min ground state has been utilized to study members of the ground-state rotational band in $^{19}$F through the neutron transfer reaction $(d$,$p)$ in inverse kinematics. The resulting spectroscopic strengths confirm the single-particle nature of the 13/2$^+$ band-terminating state. The agreement between shell-model calculations, using an interaction constructed within the $sd$ shell, and our experimental results reinforces the idea of a single-particle/collective duality in the descriptions of the structure of atomic nuclei

Prognostic significance of tyrosinase expression in sentinel lymph node biopsy for ultra-thin, thin, and thick melanomas

Abstract. – BACKGROUND: Investigate if the tyrosinase mRNA expression may be predictive of the outcome on ultra-thin, thin, and thick melanoma patients. AIM: In our study, we sought to correlate tyrosinase mRNA expression to the outcome in a group of 71 patients with thick, thin and ultra-thin melanomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 71 patients with melanomas underwent a SLNB (sentinel lymph node biopsy) at the “Sapienza” University of Rome. Among these, 38 patients had thin melanomas, while the other 33 patients had thick melanomas. In every patient’s sample histology, immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was completed. We then correlated tyrosinase mRNA expression to the statistical analysis of the outcome of patients. RESULTS: Positivity of histology was found in one patient (1.4%), immunohistochemistry in five patients (7%), and tyrosinase in 52/71 (73.2%). Thickness and tyrosinase positivity were predictive for disease progression (p < 0.05). The median follow-up was 58.24 months. There were recurrences and/or deaths in both groups of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Nodal metastasis in melanoma is uncommon, especially in patients with thin melanomas. In this study, histology and immunohistochemistry were found to be non predictive for the risk of nodal metastases, while instead, tyrosinase m-RNA expression appeared to play a role in highlighting those patients with a risk of disease progression. Moreover, no differences among the thin melanoma groups of patients (0.30-0.75 mm and 0.76-1.00 mm) were observed