The GOODSTEP project: General Object-Oriented Database for Software Engineering Processes

The goal of the GOODSTEP project is to enhance and improve the functionality of a fully object-oriented database management system to yield a platform suited for applications such as software development environments (SDEs). The baseline of the project is the O2 database management system (DBMS). The O2 DBMS already includes many of the features regulated by SDEs. The project has identified enhancements to O2 in order to make it a real software engineering DBMS. These enhancements are essentially upgrades of the existing O2 functionality, and hence require relatively easy extensions to the O2 system. They have been developed in the early stages of the project and are now exploited and validated by a number of software engineering tools built on top of the enhanced O2 DBMS. To ease tool construction, the GOODSTEP platform encompasses tool generation capabilities which allow for generation of integrated graphical and textual tools from high-level specifications. In addition, the GOODSTEP platform provides a software process toolset which enables modeling, analysis and enaction of software processes and is also built on top of the extended O2 database. The GOODSTEP platform is to be validated using two CASE studies carried out to develop an airline application and a business application

Genetic heterogeneity of porcine enteric caliciviruses identified from diarrhoeic piglets

Enteric caliciviruses (noroviruses and sapoviruses) are responsible for the majority of non-bacterial gastroenteritis in humans of all age groups. Analysis of the polymerase and capsid genes has provided evidence for a huge genetic diversity, but the understanding of their ecology is limited. In this study, we investigated the presence of porcine enteric caliciviruses in the faeces of piglets with diarrhoea. A total of 209 samples from 118 herds were analyszd and calicivirus RNA was detected by RT-PCR in 68 sample (32.5%) and in 46 herds (38.9%), alone or in mixed infection with group A and C rotaviruses. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis of the calicivirus-positive samples characterized the majority as genogroup III (GGIII) sapoviruses. Unclassified caliciviruses, distantly related to the representatives of the other sapovirus genogroups, were identified in five herds, while one outbreak was associated with a porcine sapovirus related genetically to human GGII and GGIV sapovirus strains. By converse, norovirus strains were not detected. Altogether, these data suggest the epidemiological relevance of porcine enteric caliciviruses and suggest a role in the etiology of piglets diarrhoe

Strain rate, temperature and deformation state effect on Ecoflex 00-50 silicone mechanical behaviour

Silicone elastomers are extremely attractive materials due to their wide range of possible applications, from biomedical engineering to soft robotics. In this work, an extensive thermo-mechanical characterization of Ecoflex Shore hardness 00–50, a commercially available silicone elastomer, has been carried out to compensate for the lack of relevant literature. The mechanical behaviour of the material has been characterized by performing monotonic and cyclic loading tests. These tests were performed in different deformation states, i.e. uniaxial tension, pure shear and biaxial tension, at different strain rates and temperatures. Experimental findings allowed to highlight the material time-dependent response and quantify the contribution of dissipative deformation phenomena to the overall strain energy. Uniaxial tensile tests performed at different temperatures (between −40 °C and 140 °C) showed that the material mechanical behaviour is sensitive to temperature in this range: a decrease of the ultimate stress and strain has been observed with increasing temperature. Finally, the data obtained from the latter tests have been used to define a failure envelope, applied for the first time to Ecoflex silicones, and valuable to describe the material ultimate stress and strain at any temperature and strain rate

Host range of mammalian orthoreovirus type 3 widening to alpine chamois

Mammalian orthoreoviruses (MRV) type 3 have been recently identified in human and several animal hosts, highlighting the apparent lack of species barriers. Here we report the identification and genetic characterization of MRVs strains in alpine chamois, one of the most abundant wild ungulate in the Alps. Serological survey was also performed by MRV neutralization test in chamois population during five consecutive years (2008-2012). Three novel MRVs were isolated on cell culture from chamois lung tissues. No respiratory or other clinical symptoms neither lung macroscopic lesions were observed in the chamois population. MRV strains were classified as MRV-3 within the lineage III, based on S1 phylogeny, and were closely related to Italian strains identified in dog, bat and diarrheic pig. The full genome sequence was obtained by next-generation sequencing and phylogenetic analyses showed that other segments were more similar to MRVs of different geographic locations, serotypes and hosts, including human, highlighting genome reassortment and lack of host specific barriers. By using serum neutralization test, a high prevalence of MRV-3 antibodies was observed in chamois population throughout the monitored period, showing an endemic level of infection and suggesting a self-maintenance of MRV and/or a continuous spill-over of infection from other animal species

Prognostic role of micrometastases in sentinel lymph node in patients with invasive breast cancer

Background and Purpose of the study: Axillary lymph node status at the time of diagnosis remains one of the most important prognostic factors in women with breast cancer. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) proved to be a reliable method for the evaluation of axillary nodal status in early-stage invasive breast cancer. The prognostic value and potential therapeutic consequences of SLN micrometastases remains a matter of great debate. Patients and Methods: From January 1998 to March 2011, 1,976 consecutive patients with non-metastatic invasive breast cancer underwent surgical treatment; 1,080 of them (54.6%) underwent SLNB. We collected data regarding demography, preoperative lymphoscintigraphy, type of surgery, histopathologic and immunohistochemical features and adjuvant treatment. Main findings: A mean number of 2.1±1.4 (range 1-13) SLN per patient were collected, a total of 2,294 nodes. SLNs were macrometastatic in 16.7% of patients and micrometastatic in 3.3%. Among the patients with positive SLN 93.6% underwent complete ALND. The overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of 72 patients with micrometastases in SLN at 60 months was 100%, similar to patients with negative SLN (98.7%), quite different from the DFS of N1-N3 patients (85.8%). Statistically significant differences in OS and DFS were observed between patients with N1mi and the group with N1-N3 sentinel node (p < 0.001 and p = 0.04) and also between patients with negative SLN and those with macrometastatic SLN (p < 0.001 for both). Conclusion: SLN micrometastases could represents an epiphenomenon of peritumoral lymphovascular invasion which impacts independently on the survival of patients with invasive breast cancer

Harmonizing methods for wildlife abundance estimation and pathogen detection in Europe-a questionnaire survey on three selected host-pathogen combinations

__Background:__ The need for wildlife health surveillance as part of disease control in wildlife, domestic animals and humans on the global level is widely recognized. However, the objectives, methods and intensity of existing wildlife health surveillance programs vary greatly among European countries, resulting in a patchwork of data that are difficult to merge and compare. This survey aimed at evaluating the need and potential for data harmonization in wildlife health in Europe. The specific objective was to collect information on methods currently used to estimate host abundance and pathogen prevalence. Questionnaires were designed t

A Conceptual Basis for Feature Engineering

The gulf between the user and the developer perspectives lead to diculties in producing successful software systems. Users are focused on the problem domain, where the system's features are the primary concern. Developers are focused on the solution domain, where the system's life-cycle artifacts are key. Presently, there is little understanding of how to narrow this gulf