Class movement and re-location: An empirical study of Java inheritance evolution

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Systems and Software. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Inheritance is a fundamental feature of the Object-Oriented (OO) paradigm. It is used to promote extensibility and reuse in OO systems. Understanding how systems evolve, and specifically, trends in the movement and re-location of classes in OO hierarchies can help us understand and predict future maintenance effort. In this paper, we explore how and where new classes were added as well as where existing classes were deleted or moved across inheritance hierarchies from multiple versions of four Java systems. We observed first, that in one of the studied systems the same set of classes was continuously moved across the inheritance hierarchy. Second, in the same system, the most frequent changes were restricted to just one sub-part of the overall system. Third, that a maximum of three levels may be a threshold when using inheritance in a system; beyond this level very little activity was observed, supporting earlier theories that, beyond three levels, complexity becomes overwhelming. We also found evidence of ‘collapsing’ hierarchies to bring classes up to shallower levels. Finally, we found that larger classes and highly coupled classes were more frequently moved than smaller and less coupled classes. Statistical evidence supported the view that larger classes and highly coupled classes were less cohesive than smaller classes and lowly coupled classes and were thus more suitable candidates for being moved (within an hierarchy)

Analysis of seismological and geological observations for moderate-size earthquakes: the Colfiorito Fault System (Central Apennines, Italy)

To contribute to the understanding of the relationships between moderate earthquakes and the faults that are recognizable in the geological record, we analysed seismological and geological data related to the 1997–1998 Umbria-Marche (Central Italy) earthquake swarm. The seismological recordings, collected by local networks, allowed accurate location of about 1000 events, whereas the geological field observations provided a picture of the structural features and the ground-surface deformations. We also re-examined and used some published data and results, mostly about the fault plane solutions and the geology. On the basis of earthquake locations, fault plane solutions, and geological mapping we explored the possible correlation between the earthquake causative fault planes and the normal faults exposed in the area. Our results show that the two main shocks that occurred on 1997 September 26 (MW=5.7 and MW=6.0) originated on the same structure, reactivating at depth the Colfiorito normal faults. Neither rupture propagated up to the ground surface, but both triggered gravitational sliding that occurred along pre-existing fault scarps. The earthquake that occurred on 1997 October 14 (MW=5.6) originated on another fault branch at a much shallower depth. In spite of its lower magnitude, this earthquake produced tectonic ruptures where the fault plane projects to the surface in an area where no faults were previously mapped. By comparing the palaeostress reconstruction, based on slickenside lineation analysis, and the focal mechanism solutions, we suggest a possible correlation between the longterm (Early Middle Pleistocene) cumulative effects of the Colfiorito Fault System and the short-term behaviour of the fault planes observed during this earthquake swarm, favouring the idea of a seismogenic source producing clustered moderate-size earthquakes rather than large events scattered in time

Storia e medicina di genere

La salute non è un campo neutrale. Il concetto di diversità, declinato sui temi del sesso e del genere, è uno degli strumenti della riflessione clinica, ma anche di quella bioetica - quando discute, in particolare, del principio di uguaglianza. Il tema ha una storia medica recente. Proviamo rapidamente, attraverso un riesame della letteratura, a verificare se, in prospettiva storica, questa affermazione di ‘contemporaneità’ sia effettivamente condivisibile

Towards automated support for extraction of reusable components

A cost effective introduction of software reuse techniques requires the reuse of existing software developed in many cases without aiming at reusability. This paper discusses the problems related to the analysis and reengineering of existing software in order to reuse it. We introduce a process model for component extraction and focus on the problem of analyzing and qualifying software components which are candidates for reuse. A prototype tool for supporting the extraction of reusable components is presented. One of the components of this tool aids in understanding programs and is based on the functional model of correctness. It can assist software engineers in the process of finding correct formal specifications for programs. A detailed description of this component and an example to demonstrate a possible operational scenario are given

Deliverable # 3.01.5 Results of tectonic validation for the seismogenic source model (DISS)

This deliverable materializes the results obtained in the Activity A3 that aims at a quantitative tectonic validation of the seismic source model contained in the DISS, version 3.1.0 (Basili et., 2008; DISS Working Group, 2009). The validation consists of three tests: 1) geometric; 2) kinematic; and 3) dynamic

Migration and shortening rates in the Apennines

Is compression across the northern Apennine fold-and-thrust system (Italy) still active? To address this question, we quantified the long-term rates of migration and shortening of the system along with the measurement errors. Our approach integrates structural geology, seismicity patterns, and statistical treatment of tectonic activity. On the basis of recently published surface and subsurface data, we found a migration rate of 8.85 ± 0.61 mm/yr. The inception age of individual fold structures follow closely this average rate, indicating that the system has been migrating at a constant rate for the past 17 Myr. Cumulative shortening of the system also increases linearly through time at 2.93 ± 0.31 mm/yr. The location of the youngest structures in the easternmost portion of the system coincides with a significant peak of seismic moment released by historical earthquakes. We conclude that not only these easternmost thrusts are still active, but also that they generate earthquakes

The phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor sildenafil decreases the proinflammatory chemokine IL-8 in diabetic cardiomyopathy: in vivo and in vitro evidence

Purpose: Interleukin (IL)-8 is a proinflammatory C-X-C chemokine involved in inflammation underling cardiac diseases, primary or in comorbid condition, such diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). The phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor sildenafil can ameliorate cardiac conditions by counteracting inflammation. The study aim is to evaluate the effect of sildenafil on serum IL-8 in DCM subjects vs. placebo, and on IL-8 release in human endothelial cells (Hfaec) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) under inflammatory stimuli. Methods: IL-8 was quantified: in sera of (30) DCM subjects before (baseline) and after sildenafil (100 mg/day, 3-months) vs. (16) placebo and (15) healthy subjects, by multiplatform array; in supernatants from inflammation-challenged cells after sildenafil (1 µM), by ELISA. Results: Baseline IL-8 was higher in DCM vs. healthy subjects (149.14 ± 46.89 vs. 16.17 ± 5.38 pg/ml, p < 0.01). Sildenafil, not placebo, significantly reduced serum IL-8 (23.7 ± 5.9 pg/ml, p < 0.05 vs. baseline). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for IL-8 was 0.945 (95% confidence interval of 0.772 to 1.0, p < 0.01), showing good capacity of discriminating the response in terms of drug-induced IL-8 decrease (sensitivity of 0.93, specificity of 0.90). Sildenafil significantly decreased IL-8 protein release by inflammation-induced Hfaec and PBMC and downregulated IL-8 mRNA in PBMC, without affecting cell number or PDE5 expression. Conclusion: Sildenafil might be suggested as potential novel pharmacological tool to control DCM progression through IL-8 targeting at systemic and cellular level

Sex and Gender Differences in Ischemic Heart Disease: Endocrine Vascular Disease Approach (EVA) Study Design

Improvements in ischemic heart disease (IHD) management have been unbalanced between sexes, with coronary microvascular dysfunction considered the likely underlying reason. The Endocrine Vascular disease Approach (EVA) is an observational study ( Clinicaltrial.gov NCT02737982) aiming to assess sex and gender interactions between coronary circulation, sexual hormones, and platelet function. Consecutive patients with IHD undergoing coronary angiography will be recruited: (1) to assess sex and gender differences in angiographic reperfusion indexes; (2) to evaluate the effects of estrogen/androgen on sex-related differences in myocardial ischemia; (3) to investigate the platelet biology differences between men and women with IHD; (4) to verify sex- and gender-driven interplay between response to percutaneous coronary intervention, platelets, sex hormones, and myocardial damage at baseline and its impact on 12-month outcomes. The integration of sex and gender in this translational project on IHD will contribute to the identification of new targets for further innovative clinical interventions

Automatic induction of framenet lexical units in Italian

In this paper we investigate the applicability of automatic methods for frame induction to improve the coverage of IFrameNet, a novel lexical resource based on Frame Semantics in Italian. The experimental evaluations show that the adopted methods based on neural word embeddings pave the way for the assisted development of a large scale lexical resource for our language