if (updatedVariableContainers!=null) {
// loop over all updated variable containers
Iterator iter = updatedVariableContainers.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
VariableContainer variableContainer = (VariableContainer) iter.next();
Map variableInstances = variableContainer.getVariableInstances();
if (variableInstances!=null) {
// loop over all variable instances in the container
Iterator varInstancesIter = variableInstances.entrySet().iterator();
while (varInstancesIter.hasNext()) {