Scenario inspections

Scenarios help practitioners to better understand the requirements of a software system as well as its interface with the environment. However, despite their widespread use both by object-oriented development teams and human–computer interface designers, scenarios are being built in a very ad-hoc way. Departing from the requirements engineering viewpoint, this article shows how inspections help software developers to better manage the production of scenarios. We used Fagans inspections as the main paradigm in the design of our proposed process. The process was applied to case studies and data were collected regarding the types of problems as well as the effort to find them.

Active-site labelling of kallikreins by chloromethylketone derivatives

Ala-Phe-Lys-CH2-Cl is a chloromethylketone derivative which is able to promote the inhibition of several proteolytic enzymes. In this paper the inhibition of horse urinary and plasmatic kallikreins is described and this inhibition is compared to that produced in human plasma kallikrein. This compound was designed based upon the structure of bradykinin. This enzyme substrate system can provide a model for the study of the interactions between bradykinin and its receptor. The inhibition of the enzymes was achieved both for its esterase and kinin-releasing activities.     

Sound and mechanised compositional verification of input‐output conformance

This paper mechanises conformance verification in the setting of the CSP process algebra. The verification strategy is captured by a theorem stated as a process refinement expression, which can be verified by a model checker such as FDR. The conformance relation, cspio , distinguishes input and output events. The process algebraic framework of CSP is used to address compositional conformance verification by establishing compositionality properties for cspio with respect to the CSP operators. Although cspio has been defined in the standard CSP traces model, one can address quiescence situations using a special output event, in which case it is formally established that cspio is equivalent to Tretmans ioco . All the results have been mechanically proved using the CSP‐Prover. The proposed testing theory has been adopted in an industrial context involving collaboration with Motorola, on testing mobile applications. Several examples and a case study are presented to illustrate the overall approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Origins and antiquity of X-linked triallelic color vision systems in New World monkeys

It is known that the squirrel monkey, marmoset, and other related New World (NW) monkeys possess three high-frequency alleles at the single X-linked photopigment locus, and that the spectral sensitivity peaks of these alleles are within those delimited by the human red and green pigment genes. The three alleles in the squirrel monkey and marmoset have been sequenced previously. In this study, the three alleles were found and sequenced in the saki monkey, capuchin, and tamarin. Although the capuchin and tamarin belong to the same family as the squirrel monkey and marmoset, the saki monkey belongs to a different family and is one of the species that is most divergent from the squirrel monkey and marmoset, suggesting the presence of the triallelic system in many NW monkeys. The nucleotide sequences of these alleles from the five species studied indicate that gene conversion occurs frequently and has partially or completely homogenized intronic and exonic regions of the alleles in each species, making it appear that a triallelic system arose independently in each of the five species studied. Nevertheless, a detailed analysis suggests that the triallelic system arose only once in the NW monkey lineage, from a middle wavelength (green) opsin gene, and that the amino acid differences at functionally critical sites among alleles have been maintained by natural selection in NW monkeys for >20 million years. Moreover, the two X-linked opsin genes of howler monkeys (a NW monkey genus) were evidently derived from the incorporation of a middle (green) and a long wavelength (red) allele into one chromosome; these two genes together with the (autosomal) blue opsin gene would immediately enable even a male monkey to have trichromatic vision.     

A microscopic analysis of the effects of root surface scaling with different power parameters of er,cr:YSGG laser

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different power parameters of an Erbium, Cromium: Yttrium, Scandium, Gallium, Garnet laser (Er,Cr:YSGG laser) on the morphology, attachment of blood components (ABC), roughness, and wear on irradiated root surfaces. Sixty‐five incisive bovine teeth were used in this study, 35 of which were used for the analysis of root surface morphology and ABC. The remaining 30 teeth were used for roughness and root wear analysis. The samples were randomly allocated into seven groups: G1: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 0.5 W; G2: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 1.0 W; G3: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 1.5 W; G4: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 2.0 W; G5: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 2.5 W; G6: Er,Cr:YSGG laser, 3.0 W; G7: scaling and root planning (SRP) with manual curettes. The root surfaces irradiated by Er,Cr:YSGG at 1.0 W and scaling with manual curettes presented the highest degrees of ABC. The samples irradiated by the Er,Cr:YSGG laser were rougher than the samples treated by the manual curette, and increasing the laser power parameters caused more root wear and greater roughness on the root surface. The Er,Cr:YSGG laser is safe to use for periodontal treatment, but it is not appropriate to use irradiation greater than 1.0 W for this purpose. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:529–535, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Feeding behaviour of the terrestrial isopod Porcellionides pruinosus Brandt, 1833 (Crustacea, Isopoda) in response to changes in food quality and contamination

Soil decomposition is mainly dependent on the nature and characteristics of organic matter within the soil, the environmental conditions and the activity of microorganisms and soil fauna. Isopods play an important role in decomposition through litter fragmentation and stimulating and/or ingesting fungi and bacteria. The aim of this study was to jointly evaluate the effect of different food types and the effect of heavy metal contamination of those foods through isopod feeding performance assays. These studies used the terrestrial isopod Porcellionides pruinosus. After feeding with different leaf types for the study on feeding performance, alder leaves were chosen for the contamination experiments. Feeding parameters like consumption, assimilation, egestion and growth ratios were calculated and compared among treatments and food type. Lower quality food decreased isopods performance. Exotic food types were shown to be less preferred than alder or oak leaves. Contaminated food also resulted in a decrease in performance among the feeding parameters studies, although isopods can tolerate in certain cases high amounts of heavy metals. For this reason it is possible that in future this crustacean can be used as bioindicators of soil contamination or in the evaluation of contaminated sites or remediation processes.     

3D and VR models in Civil Engineering education: Construction,rehabilitation and maintenance

Where educational validity is concerned, a school of engineering can reasonably be expected to constantly update computational resources in frequent use in the professions. Virtual reality (VR) technology could be applied as a complement to three-dimensional (3D) modelling, leading to better communication whether in vocational training, in education or in professional practice. Techniques of 3D modelling and VR were applied to the development of models related to the construction process. The 3D models created to support rehabilitation design emerge as an important tool for the monitoring of anomalies in structures and to assist decisions based on the visual analyses of alternative solutions. The VR model created to help the management of lighting systems in buildings allows the visual and interactive transmission of information related to the physical behaviour of the elements, defined as a function of the time variable. Didactic interactive models showing construction works were also developed. These applications allow the visual simulation of the physical progression of each type of work and also assist in the study of the necessary equipment needed and how it functions on site. The introduction of CAD and VR techniques in school is helpful to students in order to prepare them to consider these technologies as important supports, later in their professional practice.     

Polarization microscopy as a tool for quantitative evaluation of collagen using picrosirius red in different stages of CKD in cats

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a relevant disease in feline clinic. The tubulointerstitial damage, with collagen deposition and fibrosis, is an important result of this process. The aim of this study was to quantify and correlate the deposition of collagen and severity of interstitial fibrosis (IF) in the kidney from cats in different stages of CKD. Kidney fragments from 10 adult cats with CKD were analyzed and stained by Masson's trichrome (MT) and Picrosirius red (PSR) for circular polarized microscopy. Random quantitative analysis was performed on MT sections to classify the degree of IF, per field area, with and without circular polarization. Statistics correlations were performed by Spearman's (ρ; p < .05). There was a significant correlation of IF quantification with the area of interstitial collagen deposition by polarized PSR (PSRp) (r = .7939, p = .0098) and nonpolarized PSR (PSRn) (r = .7781, p = .0080). There was a positive correlation of serum creatinine (sCr) at different stages of CKD with PSRp (r = .7939, p = .0098), PSRn (r = .8667, p = .0027) and MT (r = .7818, p = .0117). Correlations between the percentage of quantified area was also positive from PSRp to PSRn (r = .9030, p = .0009) and PSRp to MT (r = .7939, p = .0098). The PSRN was also correlated with MT (r = .9273, p = .0001). The correlation with IF and sCr follows the disease evolution and the quantification of collagen by PSR is an excellent tool for analyzing the disease severity at different stages.