Reactive programming: un caso di studio

L'obiettivo di questa tesi è analizzare e testare la programmazione reattiva, paradigma di programmazione particolarmente adatto per lo sviluppo di applicazioni altamente interattive. La progettazione di sistemi reattivi implica necessariamente l'utilizzo di codice asincrono e la programmazione reattiva (RP) offre al programmatore semplici meccanismi per gestirlo. In questa tesi, la programmazione reattiva è stata utilizzata e valutata mediante la realizzazione di un progetto real-world chiamato AvvocaTimer. Verrà affrontata la progettazione, implementazione e collaudo di una parte del sistema attraverso l'approccio reattivo e, successivamente, confrontata con la prima versione, realizzata con i metodi attualmente usati per gestire codice asincrono, per analizzare vantaggi e/o svantaggi derivanti dall'utilizzo del nuovo paradigma.

Integrazione di piattaforme d'esecuzione e simulazione in una toolchain Scala per aggregate programming

La tesi è calata nell'ambito dell'Aggregate Programming e costituita da una prima parte introduttiva su questo ambito, per poi concentrarsi sulla descrizione degli elaborati prodotti e infine qualche nota conclusiva unitamente a qualche possibile sviluppo futuro. La parte progettuale consiste nell'integrazione del framework Scafi con il simulatore Alchemist e con una piattaforma di creazione e di esecuzione di sistemi in ambito Spatial Computin, con lo scopo di potenziare la toolchain esistente per Aggregate Programming. Inoltre si riporta anche un breve capitolo per l'esecuzione del framework scafi sviluppato in scala sulla piattaforma Android.

Reduced endurance of the cervical flexor muscles in patients with concurrent temporomandibular disorders and neck disability

Subjects with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) have been found to have clinical signs and symptoms of cervical dysfunction. Although many studies have investigated the relationship between the cervical spine and TMD, no study has evaluated the endurance capacity of the cervical muscles in patients with TMD. Thus the objective of this study was to determine whether patients with TMD had a reduced endurance of the cervical flexor muscles at any level of muscular contraction when compared with healthy subjects. One hundred and forty-nine participants provided data for this study (49 subjects were healthy, 54 had myogenous TMD, and 46 had mixed TMD). There was a significant difference in holding time at 25% MVC between subjects with mixed TMD when compared to subjects with myogenous TMD and healthy subjects. This implies that subjects with mixed TMD had less endurance capacity at a lower level of contraction (25% MVC) than healthy subjects and subjects with myogenous TMD. No significant associations between neck disability, jaw disability, clinical variables and neck flexor endurance test were found.

Knowing the future: partial foreknowledge effects on the programming of prosaccades and antisaccades

Foreknowledge about the demands of an upcoming trial may be exploited to optimize behavioural responses. In the current study we systematically investigated the benefits of partial foreknowledge--that is, when some but not all aspects of a future trial are known in advance. For this we used an ocular motor paradigm with horizontal prosaccades and antisaccades. Predictable sequences were used to create three partial foreknowledge conditions: one with foreknowledge about the stimulus location only, one with foreknowledge about the task set only, and one with foreknowledge about the direction of the required response only. These were contrasted with a condition of no-foreknowledge and a condition of complete foreknowledge about all three parameters. The results showed that the three types of foreknowledge affected saccadic efficiency differently. While foreknowledge about stimulus-location had no effect on efficiency, task foreknowledge had some effect and response-foreknowledge was as effective as complete foreknowledge. Foreknowledge effects on switch costs followed a similar pattern in general, but were not specific for switching of the trial attribute for which foreknowledge was available. We conclude that partial foreknowledge has a differential effect on efficiency, most consistent with preparatory activation of a motor schema in advance of the stimulus, with consequent benefits for both switched and repeated trials.

Concurrent and predictive validation of a novel robotic surgery simulator: a prospective, randomized study

We evaluated the concurrent and predictive validity of a novel robotic surgery simulator in a prospective, randomized study.

Trial history biases the spatial programming of antisaccades

The historical context in which saccades are made influences their latency and error rates, but less is known about how context influences their spatial parameters. We recently described a novel spatial bias for antisaccades, in which the endpoints of these responses deviate towards alternative goal locations used in the same experimental block, and showed that expectancy (prior probability) is at least partly responsible for this 'alternate-goal bias'. In this report we asked whether trial history also plays a role. Subjects performed antisaccades to a stimulus randomly located on the horizontal meridian, on a 40° angle downwards from the horizontal meridian, or on a 40° upward angle, with all three locations equally probable on any given trial. We found that the endpoints of antisaccades were significantly displaced towards the goal location of not only the immediately preceding trial (n - 1) but also the penultimate (n - 2) trial. Furthermore, this bias was mainly present for antisaccades with a short latency of <250 ms and was rapidly corrected by secondary saccades. We conclude that the location of recent antisaccades biases the spatial programming of upcoming antisaccades, that this historical effect persists over many seconds, and that it influences mainly rapidly generated eye movements. Because corrective saccades eliminate the historical bias, we suggest that the bias arises in processes generating the response vector, rather than processes generating the perceptual estimate of goal location.

Extranodal B-cell lymphoma in the urinary bladder with cytological evidence of concurrent involvement of the gall bladder in a cat

A 15-year-old domestic shorthair cat was presented with severe haematuria, stranguria, anorexia and lethargy of 10 days' duration. Physical examination revealed a large painful urinary bladder and pain in the cranial abdomen. Abdominal ultrasound revealed severe generalised mural thickening of both the gall bladder and the urinary bladder. Lymphoma was diagnosed on cytology of urine sediment and fine-needle aspirates of the gall bladder. Despite a transitory clinical improvement and partial remission following chemotherapy, the cat was euthanased six weeks after initial presentation due to recurrent clinical signs. Post-mortem examination confirmed a B-cell lymphoma in the urinary bladder. This report is the first description of gall bladder and bladder lymphoma in a cat.

[Fetal programming of cardiovascular disease: new causes and underlying mechanisms]

There exists an association between pathologic events occurring during early life and the development of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. For example, transient perinatal hypoxemia predisposes to exaggerated hypoxic pulmonary hypertension and preeclampsia predisposes the offspring to pulmonary and systemic endothelial dysfunction later in life. The latter finding offers a scientific basis for observations demonstrating an increased risk for premature cardiovascular morbidity in this population. Very recently, we showed that offspring of assisted reproductive technologies also display generalized vascular dysfunction and early arteriosclerosis. Studies in animal models have provided evidence that oxidative stress and/or epigenetic alterations play an important pathophysiological role in the fetal programming of cardiovascular disease.