Contractual Testing

Variants of must testing approach have been successfully applied in Service Oriented Computing for capturing compliance between (contracts exposed by) a client and a service and for characterising safe replacement, namely the fact that compliance is preserved when a service exposing a ’smaller’ contract is replaced by another one with a ’larger’ contract. Nevertheless, in multi-party interactions, partners often lack full coordination capabilities. Such a scenario calls for less discriminating notions of testing in which observers are, e.g., the description of uncoordinated multiparty contexts or contexts that are unable to observe the complete behaviour of the process under test. In this paper we propose an extended notion of must preorder, called contractual preorder, according to which contracts are compared according to their ability to pass only the tests belonging to a given set. We show the generality of our framework by proving that preorders induced by existing notions of compliance in a distributed setting are instances of the contractual preorder when restricting to suitable sets of observers

Trust-Building through Social Media Communications in Disaster Management

open4Social media provides a digital space – a meeting place, for different people, often representing one or more groups in a society. The use of this space during a disaster, especially where information needs are high and the availability of factually accurate and ethically sourced data is scarce, has increased substantially over the last 5-10 years. This paper attempts to address communication in social media and trust between the public and figures of authority during a natural disaster in order to suggest communication strategies that can enhance or reinforce trust between these bodies before, during and after a natural disaster.openM. G. Busà; M. T. Musacchio; S. Finan; C. FennelBusa', MARIA GRAZIA; Musacchio, MARIA TERESA; S., Finan; C., Fenne

CT-based tumour response criteria compared after combined treatment for liver metastases of colorectal cancer

open6noPurpose: The aim of this analysis is to compare different tumour response criteria (TRC) after chemotherapy combined with bevacizumab in liver metastases from colorectal cancer (mCRC) to ascertain the best early prognostic indicator of response. Methods and Materials: 103 target liver metastases from 65 mCRC patients treated with chemoterapy plus bevacizumab were examined at the Istituto Oncologico Veneto IOV-IRCSS (March 2008-January 2013). All patients had baseline CT and at least one follow-up scan. Tumour response was retrospectively analyzed by two radiologists using RECIST1.1, modified Choi, and Chun morphologic criteria. Tumour response, classified as good (complete or partial response) or poor (stable or progressive disease), was compared with progression-free survival (PFS) at first follow-up (t1) and time of best response. Interobserver agreement and concordance between TRC were measured. Results: At t1, 32.31% showed a good response according to RECIST1.1 (median PFS 11.1), 84.62% according to Choi (median PFS 10.8). These percentages rose to 49.23% (median PFS 12.1) and 87.69% (median PFS 10.8), respectively, at the time of best response. According to Chun, 67.69% showed a good response at the time of best response (median PFS 10.8). The Choi criteria detected a higher proportion of good responders at t1, showing a better correlation with PFS; all methods correlated with PFS at the time of best response. Conclusion: The Choi criteria proved more consistent in the early detection of response in mCRC treated with chemotherapy plus bevacizumab, underscoring the importance of using these criteria in the early assessment of response to combined treatment.openopenVarotto, A.; Di Grazia, L.; Aliberti, C.; Bergamo, F.; Nardin, M.; Pomerri, F.Varotto, A.; Di Grazia, L.; Aliberti, C.; Bergamo, F.; Nardin, M.; Pomerri, Fabi

Purine and Pyrimidine Salvage in Whole Rat Brain. Utilization of ATP-derived Ribose-1-Phosphate and 5-Phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate Generated in Experiments with Dialyzed Cell-free Extracts

The object of this work stems from our previous studies on the mechanisms responsible of ribose-1-phosphate- and 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate-mediated nucleobase salvage and 5-fluorouracil activation in rat brain (Mascia, L., Cappiello M., Cherri, S., and Ipata, P. L. (2000) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1474, 70-74; Mascia, L., Cotrufo, T., Cappiello, M., and Ipata, P. L. (1999) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1472, 93-98). Here we show that when ATP at "physiological concentration" is added to dialyzed extracts of rat brain in the presence of natural nucleobases or 5-fluorouracil, adenine-, hypoxanthine-, guanine-, uracil-, and 5-fluorouracil-ribonucleotides are synthesized. The molecular mechanism of this peculiar nueleotide synthesis relies on the capacity of rat brain to salvage purine and pyrimidine bases by deriving ribose-1-phosphate and 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate from ATP even in the absence of added pentose or pentose phosphates. The levels of the two sugar phosphates formed are compatible with those of synthesized nucleotides. We propose that the ATP-mediated 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate synthesis occurs through the action of purine nucleoside phosphorylase, phosphopentomutase, and 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate synthetase. Furthering our previous observations on the effect of ATP in the 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate-mediated 5-fluorouracil activation in rat liver (Mascia, L., and Ipata, P. L. (2001) Biochem. Pharmacol. 62, 213-218), we now show that the ratio [5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate]/[ATP] plays a major role in modulating adenine salvage in rat brain. On the basis of our in vitro results, we suggest that massive ATP degradation, as it occurs in brain during ischemia, might lead to an increase of the intracellular 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate and ribose-1-phosphate pools, to be utilized for nucleotide resynthesis during reperfusion

Student perceptions of interpersonal justice, engagement, agency and anger: a longitudinal study for reciprocal effects

Based on the premise that classroom interactions unfold through a complex series of circular influences between teacher and students, the aim of this longitudinal study was to test a reciprocal effects model connecting students’ perceptions of interpersonal justice, on the one hand, and student engagement, agency and anger, on the other. Self-report measures of interpersonal justice, student engagement, agency and anger were collected from 454 Year Nine students from Northern Italy in a 3-wave longitudinal research design. Structural equation modelling with latent variables indicated that interpersonal justice in wave 1 had a negative effect on both student agency and anger in wave 2, while interpersonal justice in wave 2 only negatively predicted student anger in wave 3. With respect to the reciprocal effects, student engagement in wave 2 was found to positively predict interpersonal justice in wave 3, while a negative effect close to statistical significance was observed from student agency in wave 2 to interpersonal justice in wave 3. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for teacher practice, as they emphasize that (a) the two main facets of student participation, namely engagement and agency, are differently interconnected with the learning environment, and (b) the perception of being treated fairly is important to the point that its deficiency triggers a persistent feeling of anger in students

Development of a green scalable route toward the synthesis of bio-based 2-pyrones

2-Pyrones are molecules that gained significant attention in the field of medicine and synthetic chemistry. They are broadly present in nature, where they play an important role in the defense mechanisms of the organisms in which they are present. Due to their unique structure, 2-pyrones hold immense potential both for the development of pharmacologically active compounds and as building blocks in synthetic chemistry; for these reasons those molecules have attracted researcher's attention during the past decade. In this work, we present the synthesis optimization of bio-based 2-pyrones starting from bio sourced galactaric acid by means of a statistical design of experiment, its scale up from 500 mg to 100 g, the solvent recycling to make the reaction greener as well as the synthesis of galactaric acid from galactose

Dandy-Walker malformation: is the "tail sign" the key sign?

OBJECTIVE.To demonstrate the value of the "tail sign" in the assessment of Dandy-Walker Malformation (DWM). METHODS: A total of 31fetal MRI, performed before 24 weeks of gestation after second-line US examination between May 2013 and September 2014, were examined retrospectively. All MRI examinations were performed using a 1.5 Tesla magnet without maternal sedation. RESULTS: MRI diagnosed 15/31 cases of Dandy-Walker Malformation, 6/31 cases of vermian partial caudal agenesis, 2/31 of vermian hypoplasia, 4/31 of vermian malrotation, 2/31 of Walker-Warburg Syndrome, 1/31 of Blake pouch cyst, 1/31 of rhombencephalosynapsis. All data were compared with fetopsy results, Fetal MR after the 30th week or postnatal MRI; the follow up depended on the maternal decision to terminate or continue pregnancy. In our review study we found the presence of the "tail sign"; this sign was visible only in Dandy-Walker Malformation and Walker-Warburg Syndrome. CONCLUSION: The "tail sign" could be helpful in the difficult differential diagnosis between Dandy Walker, vermian malrotation, vermian hypoplasia and vermian partial agenesis

Vulnerable Narcissism and Problematic Social Networking Sites Use: Focusing the Lens on Specific Motivations for Social Networking Sites Use

Research highlighted that Problematic Social Networking Sites Use (PSNSU) and vulnerable narcissism are associated. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. The present study aimed to test the mediating role of motives for social networking sites (SNSs) use between vulnerable narcissism and five symptoms of PSNSU (i.e., preference for online social interactions, mood regulation, cognitive preoccupation, compulsive use, and negative outcomes) in a sole model. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 344 SNSs users in the age range of 18–30 years (76.5% females; mean age = 23.80 years, standard deviation = 2.30 years). Vulnerable narcissism, three motives to use SNSs (coping, conformity, enhancement), and symptoms of PSNSU were assessed. Structural equation modeling was used to test for mediation. The results indicate that both motives with positive (i.e., enhancement) and negative (i.e., coping and conformity) valence partially mediated the association between vulnerable narcissism and different symptoms of PSNSU. We conclude that individuals with vulnerable narcissism may develop PSNSU not only as a compensatory strategy to cope with psychosocial difficulties but also as a result of a gratification-seeking process

Heterotopic cervical pregnancy: a case report

[No abstract available