Effective testing for concurrency bugs

In the current multi-core era, concurrency bugs are a serious threat to software reliability. As hardware becomes more parallel, concurrent programming will become increasingly pervasive. However, correct concurrent programming is known to be extremely challenging for developers and can easily lead to the introduction of concurrency bugs. This dissertation addresses this challenge by proposing novel techniques to help developers expose and detect concurrency bugs. We conducted a bug study to better understand the external and internal effects of real-world concurrency bugs. Our study revealed that a significant fraction of concurrency bugs qualify as semantic or latent bugs, which are two particularly challenging classes of concurrency bugs. Based on the insights from the study, we propose a concurrency bug detector, PIKE that analyzes the behavior of program executions to infer whether concurrency bugs have been triggered during a concurrent execution. In addition, we present the design of a testing tool, SKI, that allows developers to test operating system kernels for concurrency bugs in a practical manner. SKI bridges the gap between user-mode testing and kernel-mode testing by enabling the systematic exploration of the kernel thread interleaving space. Our evaluation shows that both PIKE and SKI are effective at finding concurrency bugs.Im gegenwärtigen Multicore-Zeitalter sind Fehler aufgrund von Nebenläufigkeit eine ernsthafte Bedrohung der Zuverlässigkeit von Software. Mit der wachsenden Parallelisierung von Hardware wird nebenläufiges Programmieren nach und nach allgegenwärtig. Diese Art von Programmieren ist jedoch als äußerst schwierig bekannt und kann leicht zu Programmierfehlern führen. Die vorliegende Dissertation nimmt sich dieser Herausforderung an indem sie neuartige Techniken vorschlägt, die Entwicklern beim Aufdecken von Nebenläufigkeitsfehlern helfen. Wir führen eine Studie von Fehlern durch, um die externen und internen Effekte von in der Praxis vorkommenden Nebenläufigkeitsfehlern besser zu verstehen. Diese ergibt, dass ein bedeutender Anteil von solchen Fehlern als semantisch bzw. latent zu charakterisieren ist -- zwei besonders herausfordernde Klassen von Nebenläufigkeitsfehlern. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen der Studie entwickeln wir einen Detektor (PIKE), der Programmausführungen daraufhin analysiert, ob Nebenläufigkeitsfehler aufgetreten sind. Weiterhin präsentieren wir das Design eines Testtools (SKI), das es Entwicklern ermöglicht, Betriebssystemkerne praktikabel auf Nebenläufigkeitsfehler zu überprüfen. SKI füllt die Lücke zwischen Testen im Benutzermodus und Testen im Kernelmodus, indem es die systematische Erkundung der Kernel-Thread-Verschachtelungen erlaubt. Unsere Auswertung zeigt, dass sowohl PIKE als auch SKI effektiv Nebenläufigkeitsfehler finden

Os comportamentos de risco para os transtornos alimentares atenuam a agilidade e a impulsão vertical em atletas de esportes de combate?

Desconhece-se a relação entre desempenho físico e comportamentos de risco para os transtornos alimentares (CRTA). O objetivo foi comparar a agilidade e a impulsão vertical entre atletas de esportes de combate do sexo masculino com e sem risco para os transtornos alimentares. Participaram 113 atletas com idade entre 12 e 36 anos. O Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) foi utilizado para avaliar CRTA. Utilizou-se o teste vai-e-vem (5 metros) para avaliar agilidade. O teste de impulsão vertical foi utilizado para avaliar a potência anaeróbia de membros inferiores. Conduziu-se análise multivariada de covariância (MANOVA) para comparar os testes motores em função das classificações dicotômicas do EAT-26. Os resultados indicaram diferença estatisticamente significante da impulsão vertical entre atletas com (Média=2,50m) e sem risco (Média=2,58m) para os transtornos alimentares (F(2, 111)=12,34; p=0,041). Os achados não apontaram diferenças para a agilidade entre atletas com (Média=20,57 segundos) e sem risco (Média=20,34 segundos) para os transtornos alimentares (F(2, 111)=2,57; p=0,22). Concluiu-se que os comportamentos de risco para transtornos alimentares estiveram relacionados com o menor desempenho na impulsão vertical em atletas de esportes de combate do sexo masculino, fato não replicado para a agilidade

Reuma.pt/vasculitis - the Portuguese vasculitis registry

BACKGROUND: The vasculitides are a group of rare diseases with different manifestations and outcomes. New therapeutic options have led to the need for long-term registries. The Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register, Reuma.pt, is a web-based electronic clinical record, created in 2008, which currently includes specific modules for 12 diseases and > 20,000 patients registered from 79 rheumatology centres. On October 2014, a dedicated module for vasculitis was created as part of the European Vasculitis Society collaborative network, enabling prospective collection and central storage of encrypted data from patients with this condition. All Portuguese rheumatology centres were invited to participate. Data regarding demographics, diagnosis, classification criteria, assessment tools, and treatment were collected. We aim to describe the structure of Reuma.pt/vasculitis and characterize the patients registered since its development. RESULTS: A total of 687 patients, with 1945 visits, from 13 centres were registered; mean age was 53.4 ± 19.3 years at last visit and 68.7% were females. The most common diagnoses were Behçet's disease (BD) (42.5%) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) (17.8%). Patients with BD met the International Study Group criteria and the International Criteria for BD in 85.3 and 97.2% of cases, respectively. Within the most common small- and medium-vessel vasculitides registered, median [interquartile range] Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) at first visit was highest in patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) (17.0 [12.0]); there were no differences in the proportion of patients with AAV or polyarteritis nodosa who relapsed (BVAS≥1) or had a major relapse (≥1 major BVAS item) during prospective assessment (p = 1.00, p = 0.479). Biologic treatment was prescribed in 0.8% of patients with GCA, 26.7% of patients with AAV, and 7.6% of patients with BD. There were 34 (4.9%) deaths reported. CONCLUSIONS: Reuma.pt/vasculitis is a bespoke web-based registry adapted for routine care of patients with this form of rare and complex diseases, allowing an efficient data-repository at a national level with the potential to link with other international databases. It facilitates research, trials recruitment, service planning and benchmarking.publishersversionpublishe

Identificação de Problemas e Propostas para Melhoria

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Práticas artísticas no ensino básico e secundário

Sobre a Matéria-Prima, há novidades e perigos. O tempo vivido na Europa e no contexto global tem vindo a acentuar a urgência das prioridades quantificadas, com um discurso dominante onde há menos política (pessoas) e mais representação económica (coisas). O correlato entre pessoas e coisas é, como sabemos, o dinheiro, ou trabalho reificado. A crise europeia, em torno da dívida soberana e dos maiores orçamentos do mundo, da capacidade da sua gestão na linguagem dura dos mercados e das taxas de juro veio modificar os objetivos imediatos da Europa, que em 2000 eram ambiciosos — “a sociedade mais competitiva do mundo em 2010” — para uma estratégia de emergência, agora chamada horizonte 2020. Este é o panorama ideal para colocar o ensino artístico em risco. Os fóruns internacionais passaram a valorizar os resultados da educação em rankings e sondagens de aproveitamento, cuja principal estratégia e preocupação é a mensurabilidade e comparabilidade, como são exemplo os relatórios PISA: avaliam-se em todos os países, as competências em Ciências, Matemática e Língua Materna. A matéria-prima de amanhã corre riscos de desaparecer gradualmente, pelos cortes de carga horária, pela concepção extracurricular da educação artística, pela sua perceção menorizada em função das concepções competitivas da sociedade contemporânea globalizada.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O urbanismo conveniente luso-brasileiro na formação de povoações em Minas Gerais no século XVIII

The settlement of villages in the old colonial province of Minas Gerais obeyed certain principles of what was considered decent, convenient and adequate. Such principles were based on rules, doctrines and habits inherent to the Luso-Brazilian architecture of that time. The historical analysis of these aspects leads to a critical review of some consolidated assumptions in historiography, such as the one for which the settlements aforementioned would have appeared in a spontaneous, irregular and disordered fashion. Because they are evident in the remaining settlements and period art treatises and documents, these aspects lead to the consideration of a true art of populating, based on certain values and habits, which we call convenient Luso-Brazilian urbanism.A formação de povoações na capitania de Minas Gerais no século XVIII estava condicionada a preceitos de decoro, conveniência e adequação. Esses preceitos constituíam regras, doutrinas e costumes muito relevantes à arte luso-brasileira de edificar arquiteturas e cidades naquele tempo. A consideração histórica desses aspectos nos conduz à revisão crítica de uma série de compreensões consolidadas na historiografia, como, por exemplo, a de que essas povoações seriam espontâneas, irregulares e desordenadas. Pela importância com que se evidenciam nas povoações remanescentes, nos tratados artísticos e nos documentos coevos, tais aspectos nos levam a cogitar em uma verdadeira arte de povoar fundamentada nesses valores e costumes, arte a que denominamos urbanismo conveniente luso-brasileiro