Critical Issues In Software Quality Assurance: An Exploratory Study

Recent reviews of the Software Quality Assurance (SQA) literature expose that in most organizations, systems development is characterized by recurrent problems, such as poor system quality.  The conclusions of these reviews is that SQA efforts have failed due primarily to their failure to adequately address the linkages between the organizational and process aspects of quality assurance in software development projects.  As an initial step in identifying and understanding the linkages between the organizational and process aspects of SQA, the authors conducted an exploratory study to elicit a set of issues critical to the assurance of delivering reliable software

The use of social media in undergraduate curriculum

Social media (SoMe) and mobile technology (MT) have been topics of interest to many educators, health professionals and policy developers over the last decade. This year, two editorials in leading nursing journals have described the potential for SoMe in nursing (Jones & Hayter 2013; Ferguson 2013). A recent Australian journal publication further supports the potential of SoMe and in particular Twitter (Wilson, R, et al. 2013). Increasingly, nurses and other health professionals and the general public are actively utilizing new technology to improve health and enhance practice (Barton, A 2012)]. To-date, there is limited evidence on the use of information technology and SoMe within the undergraduate nursing curriculum. Today’s students have a variety of technologies at their fingertips, from mobile devices to cloud technologies. It is imperative that higher education facilities look at innovative teaching methods to engage students in this digital era and enhance their learning. For the nursing and midwifery profession to innovate and remain current it must connect and collaborate with health care practitioners that exist outside of the traditional classroom. SoMe allows for this method of learning

A skewer survey of the Galactic halo from deep CFHT and INT images

We study the density profile and shape of the Galactic halo using deep multicolour images from the MENeaCS and CCCP projects, over 33 fields selected to avoid overlap with the Galactic plane. Using multicolour selection and PSF homogenization techniques we obtain catalogues of F stars (near-main sequence turnoff stars) out to Galactocentric distances up to 60kpc. Grouping nearby lines of sight, we construct the stellar density profiles through the halo in eight different directions by means of photometric parallaxes. Smooth halo models are then fitted to these profiles. We find clear evidence for a steepening of the density profile power law index around R=20 kpc, from -2.50 +- 0.04 to -4.85 +- 0.04, and for a flattening of the halo towards the poles with best-fit axis ratio 0.63 +- 0.02. Furthermore, we cannot rule out a mild triaxiality (w>=0.8). We recover the signatures of well-known substructure and streams that intersect our lines of sight. These results are consistent with those derived from wider but shallower surveys, and augur well for upcoming, wide-field surveys of comparable depth to our pencil beam surveys.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 6 table

The dynamics of z~1 clusters of galaxies from the GCLASS survey

We constrain the internal dynamics of a stack of 10 clusters from the GCLASS survey at 0.87<z<1.34. We determine the stack cluster mass profile M(r) using the MAMPOSSt algorithm of Mamon et al., the velocity anisotropy profile beta(r) from the inversion of the Jeans equation, and the pseudo-phase-space density profiles Q(r) and Qr(r), obtained from the ratio between the mass density profile and the third power of the (total and, respectively, radial) velocity dispersion profiles of cluster galaxies. Several M(r) models are statistically acceptable for the stack cluster (Burkert, Einasto, Hernquist, NFW). The total mass distribution has a concentration c=r200/r-2=4.0-0.6+1.0, in agreement with theoretical expectations, and is less concentrated than the cluster stellar-mass distribution. The stack cluster beta(r) is similar for passive and star-forming galaxies and indicates isotropic galaxy orbits near the cluster center and increasingly radially elongated with increasing cluster-centric distance. Q(r) and Qr(r) are almost power-law relations with slopes similar to those predicted from numerical simulations of dark matter halos. Combined with results obtained for lower-z clusters we determine the dynamical evolution of galaxy clusters, and compare it with theoretical predictions. We discuss possible physical mechanisms responsible for the differential evolution of total and stellar mass concentrations, and of passive and star-forming galaxy orbits [abridged].Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted for publication in A&A after minor modification

Finding halo streams with a pencil-beam survey: new wraps in the Sagittarius stream

We use data from two CFHT-MegaCam photometric pencil-beam surveys in the g' and the r' bands to measure distances to the Sagittarius, the Palomar 5 and the Orphan stream. We show that, using a cross-correlation algorithm to detect the turnoff point of the main sequence, it is possible to overcome the main limitation of a two-bands pencil-beam survey, namely the lack of adjacent control-fields that can be used to subtract the foreground and background stars to enhance the signal on the colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). We describe the cross-correlation algorithm and its implementation. We combine the resulting main sequence turnoff points with theoretical isochrones to derive photometric distances to the streams. Our results (31 detections on the Sagittarius stream and one each for the Palomar 5 and the Orphan streams) confirm the findings by previous studies, expand the distance trend for the Sagittarius faint southern branch and, for the first time, trace the Sagittarius faint branch of the northern-leading arm out to 56 kpc. In addition, they show evidence for new substructure: we argue that these detections trace the continuation of the Sagittarius northern-leading arm into the southern hemisphere, and find a nearby branch of the Sagittarius trailing wrap in the northern hemisphere.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 2 table

The competitive NMDA antagonist CPP protects substantia nigra neurons from MPTP-induced degeneration in primates

Degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons is the primary histopathological feature of Parkinson's disease. The neurotoxin MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine) induces a neurological syndrome in man and non-human primates very similar to idiopathic Parkinson's disease by selectively destroying dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurons. This gives rise to the hypothesis that Parkinson's disease may be caused by endogenous or environmental toxins. Endogenous excitatory amino acids (EAAs) such as L-glutamate could be involved in neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease. We report in this study that the competitive NMDA antagonist CPP (3-((+/-)-2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)-propyl-1-phosphonic acid) protects nigral tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) positive neurons from degeneration induced by systemic treatment with MPTP in common marmosets. This indicates that EAAs are involved in the pathophysiological cascade of MPTP-induced neuronal cell death and that EAA antagonists may offer a neuroprotective therapy for Parkinson's disease

Student outcomes from diverse undergraduate research experiences - findings from a multi-disciplinary study

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) provide students with opportunities to engage in high impact experiential learning. UREs have been especially prevalent in the sciences, but there are now extensive banks of case studies demonstrating the use of UREs as an educationally enriching activity in nearly all disciplines. This study investigated the diversity of UREs available across a wide range of disciplines at a large Australian research-intensive university and examined the perceived benefits. Through group interviews with 68 academics, we gathered detailed information about 81 URE activities, across 28 Schools within the institution (representing 77.8% of Schools), ranging from archaeology to political science, from biology to social work and from law to journalism. The most common URE model observed was that of activities embedded in courses. Across disciplines the most common feature was the requirement for students to engage with the research literature in their field. A smaller number of models incorporated features which allowed students to engage in other high impact learning activities such as community-based activities and internships. Although we identified a large ‘set’ of perceived student outcomes across the varied URE models the generic graduate attributes attained by students through these UREs appeared to be independent of the discipline itself. In most cases, the UREs were available to all students rather than an elite or specialist cohort. This leads us to believe that across a range of disciplinary contexts, there are many ways to use UREs to achieve high levels of engagement of large cohorts of students

Asymptotic Conformal Yano--Killing Tensors for Schwarzschild Metric

The asymptotic conformal Yano--Killing tensor proposed in J. Jezierski, On the relation between metric and spin-2 formulation of linearized Einstein theory [GRG, in print (1994)] is analyzed for Schwarzschild metric and tensor equations defining this object are given. The result shows that the Schwarzschild metric (and other metrics which are asymptotically ``Schwarzschildean'' up to O(1/r^2) at spatial infinity) is among the metrics fullfilling stronger asymptotic conditions and supertranslations ambiguities disappear. It is also clear from the result that 14 asymptotic gravitational charges are well defined on the ``Schwarzschildean'' background.Comment: 8 pages, latex, no figure