Power and politics of user involvement in software development

© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. [CONTEXT] Involving users in software development is a complex and multi-faceted concept. Empirical research that studies power and politics of user involvement in software development is scarce. [OBJECTIVE] In this paper, we present the results from a case study of a software development project, where organizational politics was explored in context of user involvement in software development. [METHOD] We collected data through 30 interviews with 20 participants, attending workshops, observing project meetings, and analysing projects documents. The qualitative data was rigorously and iteratively analyzed. [RESULTS] The results indicate that the politics was a significant factor used to exert power and influence in decision-making processes. Communication channels were exploited for political purposes. These contributed to the users' dissatisfaction with their involvement thus impacting on the project outcome. [CONCLUSION] Having multiple teams of stakeholders with different levels of power in decision-making, the politics is inevitable and inescapable. Without careful attention, the political aspect of user involvement in software development can contribute to unsuccessful project

PEMBERDAYAAN KELOMPOK TANI OLEH YAYASAN MITRA TANI MANDIRI MELALUI SISTEM PEMASARAN BERSAMA KOMODITI JAMBU METE DI DESA NAKU KECAMATAN BIBOKI FEOTLEU KABUPATEN TIMOR TENGAH UTARA

ABSTRAK                   Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor pendukung, penghambat, dan proses pemberdayaan kelompok tani, pelaksanaan pemasaran bersama dan tingkat efisiensi yang terjadi melalui pemasaran bersama komoditi jambu mete. Sumber  dan teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah wawancara untuk memperoleh data primer dengan menggunakan kuisioner, sedangkan data sekunder menggunakan literatur yang relevan dengan penelitian. Data yang terkumpul, disusun menurut tujuan yang ingin dicapai yaitu untuk mengetahui faktor pendukung dan penghambat dengan mengunakan skala likert sesuai tabel rujukan pencapaian skor rata-rata, sementara proses pemberdayaan kelompok tani dan pelaksanaan pemasaran bersama menggunakan analisis deskriptif kualitatif. Sedangkan untuk mengetahui pada tingkat mana efisiensi itu terjadi maka menggunakan rumus efisiensi pemasaran. Dari hasil penelitian diketahui bahwa: 1) Yang termasuk Faktor pendukung adalah :Aksesibilitas Informasi, Akuntabilitas Informasi,Partisipasiyang termasuk dalam kategori “Sangat Tinggi” dengan nilai presentase pencapaian skor maksimumum 100%. Sedangkan yang termasuk faktor penghambat adalah: Pendidikan, luas penguasaan lahan,kapasitas organisasi lokal petani yang tergolong dalam kategori “Sangat Rendah” dan jumlah anggota keluarga tergolong “Cukup Banyak”, 2) Proses pemberdayaan kelompok tani melalui pemasaran bersama meliputi kegiatan penyuluhan dan sekolah masyarakat, 3) pelaksanaan  kegiatan pemasaran bersama dimulai dari pengembangan strategi dan pengelolaan teknis pemasaran bersama dan 4) Efisiensi pemasaran komoditi jambu mete yang terjadi di Desa Naku sebesar 2,78 %. Kata Kunci: Pemberdayaan Kelompok Tani, Sistem Pemasaran Bersama, Efisiensi Pemasaran,. ABSTRACT                 This study aims to determine the supporting factors, obstacles, and the process of empowering farmer groups, the implementation of joint marketing and the level of efficiency that occurs through joint marketing of cashew commodity. Sources and data collection techniques used in this study were interviews to obtain primary data using questionnaires, while secondary data used literature that was relevant to the study. The collected data, arranged according to the objectives to be achieved, is to find out the supporting and inhibiting factors by using a Likert scale according to the reference table for achieving an average score, while the process of empowering farmer groups and implementing joint marketing using qualitative descriptive analysis. Meanwhile, to find out at what level of efficiency that occurs then using the marketing efficiency formula. The results of the study shows taht: 1) Included in the supporting factors are: Information Accessibility, Information Accountability, Participation included in the category of "Very High" with a percentage of achieving a maximum score of 100%. While the inhibiting factors are: Education, land tenure area, the capacity of local farmer organizations that are classified as "Very Low" and the number of family members classified as "Quite a lot", 2) The process of empowering farmer groups through joint marketing includes extension activities and community schools, 3) The implementation of joint marketing activities begins with the development of strategies and technical management of joint marketing, and 4) The efficiency of marketing of cashew commodities occurs at Naku cost of 2,78 %. Keywords: Empowerment of Farmer Groups, Collective Marketing Systems, Marketing Efficienc

ASUHAN KEPERAWATAN PADA NY. E. A. U & NY. E. B YANG MENGALAMI ABORTUS INKOMPLIT DENGAN NYERI AKUT DI RUANG CEMPAKA RSUD MGR. GABRIEL MANEK, SVD ATAMBUA

Latar Belakang:    Abortus Inkomplit adalah pengeluaran hasil konsepsi pada kehamilan sebelum 20 minggu dengan masih adanya sisa yang tertinggal di dalam uterus. Masalah yang sering muncul di abortus inkomplit adalah nyeri. Nyeri adalah perasaan yang tidak nyaman yang sangat subyektif dan hanya orang yang mengalaminya yang dapat menjelaskan dan mengevaluasi perasaan tersebut. Tujuan:     Tujuan penelitian  ini adalah untuk melaksanakan asuhan keperawatan pada klien yang mengalami abortus inkomplit dengan nyeri akut di RSUD Mgr Gabriel Manek,SVD Atambua. Metode:  jenis metode  penelitian yang digunakan adalah deskriptif dengan rancangan penelitian studi kasus. Hasil:   Hasil penelitian mendapatkan data bahwa ada perbedaan nyeri yaitu  pada rentang respon nyeri dimana klien 1 skala nyeri 6 (sedang) dan klien 2 skala nyeri 3 (nyeri ringan) sehingga dilakukan intervensi dan implementasi mengajarkan teknik relaksasi napas dalam. Setelah diberikan teknik relaksasi klien 1 nyeri tidak berkurang sedangkan klien 2 nyeri berkurang. Kesimpulan:  Berdasarkan hasil penelitian studi kasus, didapatkan perbedaan yaitu pada tindakan teknik relaksasi napas dalam pada klien 1 nyeri tidak berkurang sedangkan pada klien 2 nyeri berkurang

Regulation in some vital physiological attributes and antioxidative defense system in carrot (Daucus carota L.) under saline stress

Regulation of some key metabolic phenomena including antioxidative defense system involved in plant salt tolerance is of great concern. Changes in chlorophyll pigments, chlorophyll fl uorescence and leaf gas exchange characteristics, glycinebetaine and proline contents, and enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants was assessed in two carrot (Daucus carota L.) cultivars, DC-4 and T-29 under saline stress in a greenhouse study. Application of different saline regimes (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) to the growth medium considerably reduced the shoot and root fresh and dry weights, shoot and root lengths, chlorophyll b contents, leaf water potential (Ψw), leaf osmotic potential (Ψs), photosynthetic rate (A), water-use effi ciency, sub-stomatal CO2 concentration (Ci), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (E), Ci/Ca ratio, leaf and root K+ and Ca2+ contents, leaf MDA, total phenolics, total soluble proteins, and activities of CAT, SOD and POD enzymes, while a marked increase was observed in leaf turgor potential (Ψp), leaf and root Na+ and Cl- contents, leaf proline, glycinebetaine (GB), ascorbic acid (AsA) and H2O2 contents in both cultivars. Of both carrot cultivars, cultivar T-29 was relatively higher in shoot and root fresh weights, root Na+, leaf and root Ca2+, leaf proline, MDA, total phenolics, soluble proteins and activity of SOD enzyme. In contrast, cultivar DC-4 was relatively higher in leaf Ψw and Ψs, leaf K+, root Ca2+ and leaf GB as compared to those in the other cultivar. The relatively better growth of cultivar T-29 was found to be correlated with improved leaf water potential, leaf Ca2+, proline, phenolics, and activity of SOD enzyme under saline conditions

Hyperparathyroidism in Survivors of Childhood Malignancy after Total Body Irradiation

Objective: The risk of developing hyperparathyroidism (HPT) in adults after radiation exposure is higher than that of the general population. Extensive follow up guidelines of United Kingdom Children’s Cancer Study group (UKCCSG) or Scottish intercollegiate guidelines network (SIGN) do not recommend monitoring serum calcium or parathyroid hormone in patients treated for childhood malignancies. The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence of HPT in a cohort of survivors of childhood malignancy attending a late effects clinic after their treatment for haematological and non-haematological malignancies that included previous irradiation Design and methods: Study was performed in 105 patients attending a late effects clinic. These patients had received different modalities f treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and bone marrow transplant for haematological and non-haematological malignancies in their childhood with. All patients had evaluation for thyroid and parathyroid disease with a clinical examination and biochemical investigations. Patients with hyperparathyroidism were treated with parathyroidectomy in the absence of thyroid disease and positive localization on imaging. This resulted in normalization of serum calcium. Conclusion: This data suggests that there is a significant risk of hyperparathyroidism in young females with haematological malignancies who received total body irradiation as a single fraction for bone marrow transplant

A Novel Medical Treatment of Cushing's Due to Ectopic ACTH in a Patient With Neurofibromatosis Type 1

A 64-year-old male presented with neurofibromatosis 1 and Cushing's syndrome. Clinically he was over weight, depressed with extensive skin bruising and hypertension. His 24 hours urinary metanephrines, urinary 5HIAA, gut peptides and chromgranin levels were normal. His renal function and renal MRI scan was also normal. His cortisol failed to suppress on overnight dexamethsone suppression test. His low dose dexamethasone suppression with CRH stimulation showed failure of suppression of cortisol to < 50 nmol/L and ACTH was measurable at 10 ng/L on day 3. There was no response of ACTH or cortisol to CRH stimulation. His ACTH precursors were high at 126 pmol/L consistent with defective pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) processing suggesting an ectopic source of ACTH production. The MRI scan of his pituitary and CT scan of the adrenal glands was normal. His octreotide scan was negative. The source of his ectopic ACTH was most likely a large retroperitoneal plexiform neurofibroma seen on CT abdomen that had undergone malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour transformation on histology. He was a poor surgical risk for tumour debulking procedure. In view of the available literature and role of c-kit signalling in neurofibromatosis, he was treated with Imitinib. Four months after the treatment his Cushings had resolved on biochemical testing. After a year his plexiform neurofibroma has not increased in size. To our knowledge, this is the first case of NF1 associated with clinical and biochemical features of Cushing's secondary to ectopic ACTH due to MPNST in a plexiform neurofibroma and its resolution on treatment with imatinib

Globally Optimal Fetoscopic Mosaicking Based on Pose Graph Optimisation With Affine Constraints

Fetoscopic laser ablation surgery could be guided using a high-quality panorama of the operating site, representing a map of the placental vasculature. This can be achieved during the initial inspection phase of the procedure using image mosaicking techniques. Due to the lack of camera calibration in the operating room, it has been mostly modelled as an affine registration problem. While previous work mostly focuses on image feature extraction for visual odometry, the challenges related to large-scale reconstruction (re-localisation, loop closure, drift correction) remain largely unaddressed in this context. This letter proposes using pose graph optimisation to produce globally optimal image mosaics of placental vessels. Our approach follows the SLAM framework with a front-end for visual odometry and a back-end for long-term refinement. Our front-end uses a recent state-of-the-art odometry approach based on vessel segmentation, which is then managed by a key-frame structure and the bag-of-words (BoW) scheme to retrieve loop closures. The back-end, which is our key contribution, models odometry and loop closure constraints as a pose graph with affine warpings between states. This problem in the special Euclidean space cannot be solved by existing pose graph algorithms and available libraries such as G2O. We model states on affine Lie group with local linearisation in its Lie algebra. The cost function is established using Mahalanobis distance with the vectorisation of the Lie algebra. Finally, an iterative optimisation algorithm is adopted to minimise the cost function. The proposed pose graph optimisation is first validated on simulation data with a synthetic trajectory that has different levels of noise and different numbers of loop closures. Then the whole system is validated using real fetoscopic data that has three sequences with different numbers of frames and loop closures. Experimental results validate the advantage of the proposed method compared with baselines

Glucagon Secreting Tumors and Glucagonoma Syndrome

Glucagonomas are the functioning neuroendocrine tumors. These arise from pancreatic islet α-cells. These tumors are extremely rare and have an annual incidence of 1 per 20-40 million population 80% of glucagon-expressing tumors are sporadic, and 20% are associated with genetic syndromes such as Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia-type 1. Glucagonoma typically occurs in the distal pancreas, and around 85% are in the body or tail. It tends to be large at the time of diagnosis. Most reported cases of glucagonoma are malignant and about 65-75% patients present with metastatic disease. The liver is usually the first site of metastases, followed by the involvement of peripancreatic lymph nodes. The term Glucagonoma syndrome and glucagonoma are often interchangeably used, but in fact, these are two distinct entities. Glucagonoma syndrome comprises of necrolytic migratory erythema, hyperglucagonemia, diabetes mellitus, anemia, weight loss, glossitis, diarrhea, venous thrombosis and neuropsychiatric disturbances in the presence of a glucagon-producing tumor of the pancreas. Tumors secreting glucagon can occur without the glucagonoma syndrome. The glucagonoma secretion depends on the expression of protein convertase enzyme PC1/3 or PC2 within the tumor itself. As a result of this expression, the clinical manifestations can be variable. The tumor can either present with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in a patient with a previous history of diabetes or with the features of the glucagonoma syndrome. In cases where a tumor is localized surgery is the curative treatment. Reduction of the tumor bulk, removal of the primary by surgery and targeted therapy for the hepatic metastases are the favored approach even when there is the metastasis

Antimicrobial susceptibility to zinc bacitracin of Clostridium perfringens of rabbit origin

Zinc bacitracin is widely used in Italian rabbit farms to control both Epizootic Rabbit Enteropathy (ERE) and clostridiosis, and field results demonstrate useful activity. Nevertheless, data regarding the in vitro efficacy of zinc bacitracin against clostridia of rabbit origin are not available. In this study, the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of zinc bacitracin were evaluated in 123 C. perfringens strains isolated from rabbits in Italian fattening units. The agar dilution method was performed in Brucella Agar supplemented with laked sheep blood, haemin and vitamin K1, as recommended in NCCLS document M11-A6. Most strains (94.3%) had low MIC values (£ 0.5 mg/ml), and a few strains (4%) were inhibited by a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Two isolates (1.6%) had a MIC value of 16mg/ml. The MIC values of ATCC reference strains showed a good fit between each batch. MIC required to inhibit the 90% of organisms was 0.5 mg/ml and the presence of only two strains with MIC=16 mg/ml revealed the susceptibility to zinc bacitracin of Italian isolates of C. perfringens from rabbit and the absence of acquired resistance.Agnoletti, F.; Bacchin, C.; Bano, L.; Passera, A.; Favretti, M.; Mazzolini, E. (2007). Antimicrobial susceptibility to zinc bacitracin of Clostridium perfringens of rabbit origin. World Rabbit Science. 15(1):19-22. doi:10.4995/wrs.2007.609192215