A layered operational model for describing inter-tool communication in tool integration frameworks

Integration frameworks for building software engineering environments provide at least data, control and presentation integration facilities, together with integration devices which afford access to these facilities by the tools which populate the framework. Typically, an integration device is a specially developed language, or extension to an existing language, in which the integration programmer specifies the desired interactions between the tools comprising the software engineering environment. Surprisingly little effort has been applied to assessing the expressiveness of integration languages, even though the power of such a language limits the level of integration a tool can achieve within the environment. Our work seeks to provide an approach to both assessing and comparing the expressiveness of the integration devices of a range of commercial and research products. The paper presents a layered operational model, based on information structures; this model has been developed for describing the semantics of the inter-tool communication features of integration devices in a precise manner, and in a manner which will facilitate such assessment and comparison

MultiView-Merlin: An experiment in tool integration

The experiment described in this paper involved the integration of a process-centred software development environment (Merlin) and a multi-view integrated software development environment (MultiView). These two tools were developed separately from each other, with no expectation that they would ever be integrated into a single integrated software engineering environment. This paper first briefly presents the separate environments and then describes the technique used to integrate them. This technique centres on the development of an adaptor process to mediate between the environments. It was first necessary to identify the point at which to connect the two environments, and then to design and implement an appropriate process to pass commands between them. This work has resulted in enhancements to both of the individual tools and has created a combined environment which exploits the advantages of both of the original environments

Can You Swim? Self-Report and Actual Swimming Competence Among Young Adults in Ballarat, Australia

This paper reports the Australian findings in an international study comparing self-reported and actual swimming and aquatic skills of young adults. Physical Education and Sports Sciences students (n=263) completed the “Can You Swim?” self-report survey and practical skills assessment, unaware that the practical tests replicated survey items. Relationships for comparisons between practical tests and their matched survey item were weak, indicating participants had inaccurate perceptions of their own swimming skills. Typically, they underestimated their competence in terms of distance and fundamental aquatic skills. Understanding of what constitutes different levels of swimming ability was poor, for example, most participants identified as average or good to excellent swimmers, but more than half of self-identified average swimmers, and 20% of good to excellent swimmers, estimated they could complete \u3c100m of continuous swimming. The implications of study findings for drowning prevention and the need for further research are discussed

Use of methods for specifying the target difference in randomised controlled trial sample size calculations : Two surveys of trialists' practice

© The Author(s), 2014.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Luminosities of Protostars in the Spitzer c2d and Gould Belt Legacy Clouds

Motivated by the long-standing "luminosity problem" in low-mass star formation whereby protostars are underluminous compared to theoretical expectations, we identify 230 protostars in 18 molecular clouds observed by two Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy surveys of nearby star-forming regions. We compile complete spectral energy distributions, calculate Lbol for each source, and study the protostellar luminosity distribution. This distribution extends over three orders of magnitude, from 0.01 Lsun - 69 Lsun, and has a mean and median of 4.3 Lsun and 1.3 Lsun, respectively. The distributions are very similar for Class 0 and Class I sources except for an excess of low luminosity (Lbol < 0.5 Lsun) Class I sources compared to Class 0. 100 out of the 230 protostars (43%) lack any available data in the far-infrared and submillimeter (70 um < wavelength < 850 um) and have Lbol underestimated by factors of 2.5 on average, and up to factors of 8-10 in extreme cases. Correcting these underestimates for each source individually once additional data becomes available will likely increase both the mean and median of the sample by 35% - 40%. We discuss and compare our results to several recent theoretical studies of protostellar luminosities and show that our new results do not invalidate the conclusions of any of these studies. As these studies demonstrate that there is more than one plausible accretion scenario that can match observations, future attention is clearly needed. The better statistics provided by our increased dataset should aid such future work.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. 21 pages, 10 figures, 4 table

EpsinR: an AP1/clathrin interacting protein involved in vesicle trafficking

EpsinR is a clathrin-coated vesicle (CCV) enriched 70-kD protein that binds to phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate, clathrin, and the gamma appendage domain of the adaptor protein complex 1 (AP1). In cells, its distribution overlaps with the perinuclear pool of clathrin and AP1 adaptors. Overexpression disrupts the CCV-dependent trafficking of cathepsin D from the trans-Golgi network to lysosomes and the incorporation of mannose-6-phosphate receptors into CCVs. These biochemical and cell biological data point to a role for epsinR in AP1/clathrin budding events in the cell, just as epsin1 is involved in the budding of AP2 CCVs. Furthermore, we show that two gamma appendage domains can simultaneously bind to epsinR with affinities of 0.7 and 45 μM, respectively. Thus, potentially, two AP1 complexes can bind to one epsinR. This high affinity binding allowed us to identify a consensus binding motif of the form DFxDF, which we also find in γ-synergin and use to predict that an uncharacterized EF-hand–containing protein will be a new gamma binding partner

Is the pharmacy profession innovative enough?: meeting the needs of Australian residents with chronic conditions and their carers using the nominal group technique

Background Community pharmacies are ideally located as a source of support for people with chronic conditions. Yet, we have limited insight into what innovative pharmacy services would support this consumer group to manage their condition/s. The aim of this study was to identify what innovations people with chronic conditions and their carers want from their ideal community pharmacy, and compare with what pharmacists and pharmacy support staff think consumers want. Methods We elicited ideas using the nominal group technique. Participants included people with chronic conditions, unpaid carers, pharmacists and pharmacy support staff, in four regions of Australia. Themes were identified via thematic analysis using the constant comparison method. Results Fifteen consumer/carer, four pharmacist and two pharmacy support staff groups were conducted. Two overarching themes were identified: extended scope of practice for the pharmacist and new or improved pharmacy services. The most innovative role for Australian pharmacists was medication continuance, within a limited time-frame. Consumers and carers wanted improved access to pharmacists, but this did not necessarily align with a faster or automated dispensing service. Other ideas included streamlined access to prescriptions via medication reminders, electronic prescriptions and a chronic illness card. Conclusions This study provides further support for extending the pharmacist’s role in medication continuance, particularly as it represents the consumer’s voice. How this is done, or the methods used, needs to optimise patient safety. A range of innovative strategies were proposed and Australian community pharmacies should advocate for and implement innovative approaches to improve access and ensure continuity of care

Cam morphology but neither acetabular dysplasia nor pincer morphology is associated with osteophytosis throughout the hip: findings from a cross-sectional study in UK Biobank

Objectives: to examine whether acetabular dysplasia (AD), cam and/or pincer morphology are associated with radiographic hip osteoarthritis (rHOA) and hip pain in UK Biobank (UKB) and, if so, what distribution of osteophytes is observed.Design: participants from UKB with a left hip dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan had alpha angle (AA), lateral centre-edge angle (LCEA) and joint space narrowing (JSN) derived automatically. Cam and pincer morphology, and AD were defined using AA and LCEA. Osteophytes were measured manually and rHOA grades were calculated from JSN and osteophyte measures. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationships between these hip morphologies and rHOA, osteophytes, JSN, and hip pain.Results: 6,807 individuals were selected (mean age: 62.7; 3382/3425 males/females). Cam morphology was more prevalent in males than females (15.4% and 1.8% respectively). In males, cam morphology was associated with rHOA [OR 3.20 (95% CI 2.41–4.25)], JSN [1.53 (1.24–1.88)], and acetabular [1.87 (1.48–2.36)], superior [1.94 (1.45–2.57)] and inferior [4.75 (3.44–6.57)] femoral osteophytes, and hip pain [1.48 (1.05–2.09)]. Broadly similar associations were seen in females, but with weaker statistical evidence. Neither pincer morphology nor AD showed any associations with rHOA or hip pain.Conclusions: cam morphology was predominantly seen in males in whom it was associated with rHOA and hip pain. In males and females, cam morphology was associated with inferior femoral head osteophytes more strongly than those at the superior femoral head and acetabulum. Further studies are justified to characterise the biomechanical disturbances associated with cam morphology, underlying the observed osteophyte distribution

Machine-learning derived acetabular dysplasia and cam morphology are features of severe hip osteoarthritis : findings from UK Biobank

Acknowledgements and disclosures The authors would like to thank Dr Martin Williams, Consultant Musculoskeletal Radiologist North Bristol NHS Trust, who provided substantial training and expertise in osteophyte assessment on DXA images. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (application number 17295). Financial Support: RE, MF, FS are supported, and this work is funded by a Wellcome Trust collaborative award (reference number 209233). BGF is supported by a Medical Research Council (MRC) clinical research training fellowship (MR/S021280/1). CL was funded by the MRC, UK (MR/S00405X/1) as well as a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (223267/Z/21/Z). NCH acknowledges support from the MRC and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton, and University Hospital Southampton. This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust [Grant number 223267/Z/21/Z]. NCH has received consultancy, lecture fees and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, AMGEN, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, UCB, Shire, Consilient Healthcare, Kyowa Kirin and Internis Pharma. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.Peer reviewedPublisher PD