QoS-aware model driven architecture through the UML and CIM

The specification of Quality of Service (QoS) constraints over software design requires measures that ensure such requirements are met by the delivered product. Achieving this goal is non-trivial, as it involves, at least, identifying how QoS constraint specifications should be checked at the runtime. In this paper we present an implementation of a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) based framework for the runtime monitoring of QoS properties. We incorporate the UML2 superstructure and the UML profile for Quality of Service to provide abstract descriptions of component-and-connector systems. We then define transformations that refine the UML2 models to conform with the Distributed Management Taskforce (DMTF) Common Information Model (CIM) (Distributed Management Task Force Inc. 2006), a schema standard for management and instrumentation of hardware and software. Finally, we provide a mapping the CIM metamodel to a .NET-based metamodel for implementation of the monitoring infrastructure utilising various .NET features including the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface.

Theological Voices. PAC Politics and the Abortion Debate: Abortion Politics and the Reagan Era

This investigation shall focus upon the issue of legalized abortion. I believe the complex controversy surrounding the issue of abortion, demonstrates more clearly than any other single contemporary issue the social, political, moral and religious forces working for change in a post-Reagan America. I shall examine in depth the theology, writings, strategies and activities of those Americans who seek to express themselves and their beliefs in religious, or religiously supported interest groups. The current debate surrounding abortion legislation lends itself to several forms of analysis: religious, political, sociological, etc. I will write from the perspective of a student of religion. I shall focus more upon the religious, moral and theological conviction-s of the abortion activists than upon their constitutional right to free speech or assembly. I shall give more attention to denominational structures and church/state relations than to the structuring of representative districts and democratic theory.

Group photo at New York Trade School Commencement Ceremony, 1959

A group of administrators from the New York Trade School pose at the 1959 commencement ceremony held May 19, 1959. Original caption: "Front: (left to right) Wm. F. Vanderbeek - Kenneth Schweiger - Bernard Rosenstadt - Ralph D. Cole - George E. McLaughlin - Herbert Brod - Edward Hansen. Back: (left to right) James Wright - Lawrence Levenstein - Ronald B. Smith - Roy Wall."

The life-cycle effects of social security in a model with housing and endogenous benefits

This article develops a life-cycle general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents who make choices of nondurables consumption, investment in homeowned housing and labour supply. Agents retire from an specific age and receive Social Security benefits which are dependant on average past earnings. The model is calibrated, numerically solved and is able to match stylized U.S. aggregate statistics and to generate average life-cycle profiles of its decision variables consistent with data and literature. We also conduct an exercise of complete elimination of the Social Security system and compare its results with the benchmark economy. The results enable us to emphasize the importance of endogenous labour supply and benefits for agents' consumption-smoothing behaviour.

Business diplomacy: the compass rose of foreign markets

With transnational corporations (TNCs) around the world today numbering over 60,000 and more than 800,000 affiliates working abroad, it is easy to understand how modern day international business could have transformed into a major global player serving at the axis of politics, social and environmental responsibility. Additionally, with accountability to a large variety of both public and private stakeholders, all exerting significant power and influence, today’s global corporate structure is reinventing modern international relations, and in some cases, dominating it. (Muldoon 2005) This transformative nature of globalization today can also serve as a source of friction among this growing chorus of players and is bringing irreversible change to these relationships and how they impact and influence business around the world. (Muldoon 2005) From the largest to the smallest international corporation seeking to expand into new international markets, the challenges that come with corporate ambition can mean the difference between success and failure and they find a home at the intersection of international relations, diplomacy and economics. To successfully navigate these challenges, especially in emerging economies, a company must now factor in more than just the “bottom line” and address complex issues that include human rights differences, environmental regulations, labor rights and values of each country. (Henisz, 2014) Combined with modern-day mobility achieved through technology and the Internet, corporations today have a great capacity to reach targeted audiences and establish a presence, but it is this same technology that also allows for immediate response to any corporate action. This constant, 24-hour news cycle, where everyone is made to be a real-time reporter through social media, has created a situation that demonstrably necessitates the ability to not only 3 respond immediately, but also to have real-time understanding of the challenges faced by a corporation as it looks toward global expansion. International Business Diplomacy, or simply Business Diplomacy as it will be referred to in this paper, combines all of these nuanced factors into a relatively new discipline that offers companies looking to expand into new markets, guidelines and directives so that they can more strategically map corporate direction, limit risk and achieve their objectives. This paper will examine the history of diplomacy and how the concept of statecraft became intertwined with the increasing globalization of business. Following a scholarly examination of how modern Business Diplomacy came into being, and the unique challenges that come with its application, particularly the liabilities needed to be overcome, this paper will apply the concept to the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer, tracking its strategic emergence from a small, regionally focused aircraft producer to global leader in the regional and executive jet market platforms. It will then examine Embraer’s entrance into the Chinese market, where the company suffered from several missteps and eventually had to refocus its business model from commercial to executive jets. Finally, as globalization continues to “emancipate international business from its institutional and social constraints,” (Muldoon 2005) this paper will address how the relatively new and emerging discipline of Business Diplomacy is continuing to mature and grow in stature and influence through the proposition of a new challenge or “liability” that corporations must also overcome as they expand into new markets. Through the analysis of Embraer in China, this paper will introduce the Liability of Governance to the lexicon of Business Diplomacy and propose specific steps that a company can undertake to avoid it.

O Caráter Tectônico do Moderno Brasileiro: Bernardes e Campello na Paraíba (1970-1980)

This study aims to analyze the tectonic character of the works of Sergio Bernardes and Glauco Campello architects, built in Paraiba, between the turn of the decade in 1970 and early 1980 in order to bring reflections about the poetics of construction s importance in the formal structure of the architecture, contributing to the debate about the specificitiesand peculiarities of modern architecture produced in Brazil. The research, using the strategies of the case study, startsfromthe review on the use of "tectonic" by Kenneth Frampton and other scholars of the term, to base the concept and set the analytical parameters of the tectonics. Then it proceeds to the insertion of buildings in the cultural and socio-political Brazilian s context in the periodproposed forstudy, in sequence, analyzesthe works of each architect. The study confirms that the expressive power of Brazilian heroic modern architecture, emphasizing the poetics of construction, sediments a tectonic culture that resonates in the following generations

Positive leader characteristics from high-speed video observations

Based on analyses of high-speed video recordings of cloud-to-ground lightning in Brazil and the USA, the characteristics of positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) leaders are presented. The high frame rates permitted the average, 2-dimensional speeds of development along the paths of the channels to be resolved with good accuracy. The values range from 0.3 to 6.0 x 10(5) ms(-1) with a mean of 2.7 x 10(5) ms(-1). Contrary to what is usually assumed, downward +CG leader speeds are similar to downward -CG leader speeds. Our observations also show that the speeds tend to increase by a factor of 1.1 to 6.5 as they approach the ground. The presence of short duration, recoil leaders (RLs) during the development of positive leaders reveal a highly branched structure that is not usually recorded when using conventional photographic and video cameras. The existence of the RLs may help to explain observations of UHF-VHF radiation during the development of +CG flashes.

Flow cytometric assessment of canine erythrocytes and platelets for dog erythrocyte antigen 1.1

Background: In human medicine, transfusion of ABO-mismatched platelets has been associated with shortened platelet survival and refractoriness to platelet transfusion because of expression of certain blood group antigens on platelets. It remains unknown if canine platelets express dog erythrocyte antigens (DEAs). Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a flow cytometric assay for DEA 1.1 and determine whether DEA 1.1 is present on canine platelets.Methods: Blood was collected from 172 clinically healthy dogs. Platelets and erythrocytes from each dog were tested for DEA 1.1 by flow cytometry using anti-DEA 1.1 blood-typing sera. Erythrocytes from each dog were also assessed for DEA 1.1 using a standard tube-typing test (T1) and using a second tube method (T2), if the flow cytometric and T1 results differed.Results: Using flow cytometry, DEA 1.1 was detected on erythrocytes of all 110 dogs shown by T1 or T2 testing to be DEA 1.1-positive. Initial results of the T1 test had a diagnostic accuracy of 93% (160 correct/ 172 tests). The frequency of erythrocyte DEA 1.1 positivity in previously untyped dogs (n = 118) was 56%. DEA 1.1 expression was not detected on platelets from DEA 1.1-positive dogs.Conclusions: Flow cytometry was a reliable method for detection of DEA 1.1 on canine erythrocytes. The absence of DEA 1.1 on platelets from DEA 1.1-positive dogs suggests that their platelets do not express DEA 1.1 and will not induce production of anti-DEA 1.1 antibodies that might lead to platelet refractoriness or reactions to a subsequent transfusion of DEA 1.1positive erythrocytes.

Fetal Pulmonary Response After Fetoscopic Tracheal Occlusion for Severe Isolated Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the response in lung growth and vascularity after fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion for severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia in the prediction of neonatal survival.METHODS: Between January 2006 and December 2010, fetal lung parameters (observed-to-expected lung-to-head ratio; observed-to-expected lung volume; and contralateral lung vascularization index) were evaluated before fetal tracheal occlusion and were evaluated longitudinally every 2 weeks in 72 fetuses with severe isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Thirty-five fetuses underwent fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion and 37 cases did not.RESULTS: Survival rate was significantly higher in the fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion group (54.3%) than in the no fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion group (5.4%, P<.01). Fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion resulted in a significant improvement in fetal lung size and pulmonary vascularity when compared with fetuses that did not go to the fetal intervention (increase of the observed-to-expected lung-to-head ratio, observed-to-expected total lung volume, and contralateral pulmonary vascularization index 56.2% compared with 0.3%, 37.9% compared with 0.1%, and 98.6% compared with 0.0%, respectively; P<.01). Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that the observed-to-expected total fetal lung volume was the single best predictor of neonatal survival before fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion (cutoff 0.23, area under the curve [AUC] 0.88, relative risk 5.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-19.7). However, the contralateral lung vascularization index at 4 weeks after fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion was more accurate in the prediction of neonatal outcome (cutoff 24.0%, AUC 0.98, relative risk 9.9, 95% CI 1.5-66.9) with the combination of observed-to-expected lung volumes and contralateral lung vascularization index at 4 weeks being the best predictor of outcome (AUC 0.98, relative risk 16.6, 95% CI 2.5-112.3).CONCLUSION: Fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion improves survival rate by increasing the lung size and pulmonary vascularity in fetuses with severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The pulmonary response after fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion can be used to predict neonatal survival. (Obstet Gynecol 2012; 119: 93-101) DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0b013e31823d3aea

Biodiversity conservation in human-modified Amazonian forest landscapes

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The interaction between vitamin K nutriture and warfarin administration in patients with bacterial overgrowth due to atrophic gastritis

Atrophic gastritis patients have intestinal bacterial overgrowth which could produce menaquinones. The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction between a diet low in phylloquinone and minidoses of warfarin in subjects with and without bacterial overgrowth. Subjects with atrophic gastritis (indicated by serum pepsinogen ratio) and healthy volunteers were studied while fed a restrictive phylloquinone diet and while receiving a minidose of warfarin. Coagulation times, serum osteocalcin, serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin, plasma phylloquinone, plasma K-epoxide, plasma undercarboxylated prothrombin (PIVKA)-II and urinary gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) were measured. At baseline, there were no differences between groups for any variable measured. Comparisons between baseline and post intervention in both groups, showed significant increases in circulating levels of K-epoxide, PIVKA II and undercarboxylated osteocalcin. However, no differences were observed when comparisons were made between groups. Our data do not support the hypothesis that bacterial synthesis of menaquinones in patients with bacterial overgrowth due to atrophic gastritis confers considerable resistance to the effect of warfarin.