An investigation of requirements traceability practices in software companies in Malaysia

Requirement traceability (RT) is one of the critical activity of good requirements management and an important part of development projects. At the same time, it improves the quality of software products. Nevertheless, industrial practitioners are challenged by this lack of guidance or results which serve as a rule or guide in establishing effective traceability in their projects. The outcome of this is that practitioners are ill-informed as to the best or most efficient means of accomplishing their tasks, such as found in software companies. Notwithstanding the lack of guidance, there are a number of commonly accepted practices which can guide industrial practitioners with respect to trace the requirements in their projects. This study aims to determine the practices of RT through conducting a systematic literature review. Also, this study conducted a survey for investigating the use of RT practices in the software companies at northern region of Malaysia. Finally, a series of interviews with practitioners were carried out to know the reasons that influence on the use of these practices in software development. The findings showed that majority software companies do not use traceability practices for tracing requirements due to financial issues and the lack of knowledge of these practices. This study presented empirical evidence about the use of RT practices among software companies. Thus, the findings of this study can assist practitioners to select RT practices, and also enables researchers to find gaps and pointers for future study in this study domain

Structural analysis of the Ss sialoglycoprotein specific for Henshaw blood group from human erythrocyte membranes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66122/1/j.1432-1033.1984.tb08155.x.pd

Frosted Branch Angiitis After Smallpox Vaccination

PURPOSE: To describe a patient presenting with frosted branch angiitis soon after small-pox vaccination. OBSERVATIONS: Frosted branch angiitis (FBA) is an acute onset retinal vasculitis featuring prominent perivascular sheathing in otherwise healthy individuals. FBA has been associated with noninfectious and infectious etiologies. This report describes a twenty-year-old African American female who developed bilateral frosted branch angiitis one week after small-pox vaccination. At presentation, the patient had bilateral, para-central visual field defects and subjective visual disturbances. On dilated exam, the patient demonstrated diffuse vasculitis bilaterally. The patient\u27s field defects and clinical exam responded dramatically to oral prednisone therapy. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE: Acute idiopathic frosted branch angiitis is a rare condition which was temporally associated with small-pox vaccination

ABC i PET

Kostnadsvurderinger av PET i Norge har vært gjort tidligere (J.G.Fjell, 2003 og overslagsmessig av SMM). Disse er imidlertid teoretisk beregnet i forkant av innføringen av PET ved Riks-Radiumhospitalet. Både organisering og finansiering har i praksis blitt noe annerledes enn forutsatt i tidligere vurderinger. Utredningen benytter anledningen til å studere arbeidsprosessene som utføres og de faktiske kostnadene. PET er i norsk sammenheng ny medisinsk teknologi. Gjennom en aktivitetsbasert kostnadskalkyle tilstreber oppgaven å vise, så nøyaktig som mulig, kostnaden forbundet med klinisk PET på Riks-Radiumhospitalet. Herunder hører kostnad per pasient (KPP) for de ulike undersøkelsesalternativene som tilbys, og en vurdering av kostnadene for ledig kapasitet. Ett tema i kostnadsanalysen er variasjon i kostnad mellom undersøkelsesalternativene. Det er derfor gunstig med en viss forståelse av hvordan undersøkelsen fungerer og hvilke undersøkelsesalternativ som tilbys. Informasjon om PET og PET-senteret presenteres derfor som bakgrunnsstoff. Teori om aktivitetsbaserte kostnadskalkyler (ABC) utdypes, og danner grunnlag for kalkylen. Metoden er forankret i teorien og er videre tilpasset den praktiske situasjon og arbeidsprosessene ved PET-senteret. Tilpasningen fordrer enkelte forenklinger og forutsetninger som presenteres underveis. Avslutningsvis vurderes kostnads- og kapasitetseffekten av en medisinsk-teknisk utfordring innen PET/CT. Forhåpentligvis kan eksempelet kaste litt lys på hvilke styringsvariabler som kan hentes fra en detaljert aktivitetsbasert kalkyle. En PET-undersøkelse ved PET-senteret på Riks-Radiumhospitalet koster fra kr 11.774,- til 15.149,- inklusive Mva, avhengig av hvilken undersøkelsesform som velges. For år 2007 er kostnader for ledig kapasitet beregnet å være i størrelsesorden kr 4 millioner, og samlet årskostnad tett oppunder kr 38 millioner

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases in Kidney Development

The kidney plays a fundamental role in the regulation of arterial blood pressure and fluid/electrolyte homeostasis. As congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) constitute one of the most common human birth defects, improved understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to CAKUT is critical. Accumulating evidence indicates that aberrant signaling via receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) is causally linked to CAKUT. Upon activation by their ligands, RTKs dimerize, undergo autophosphorylation on specific tyrosine residues, and interact with adaptor proteins to activate intracellular signal transduction pathways that regulate diverse cell behaviours such as cell proliferation, survival, and movement. Here, we review the current understanding of role of RTKs and their downstream signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of CAKUT

Emergency Management of Hypertension in Children

Systemic arterial hypertension in children has traditionally been thought to be secondary in origin. Increased incidence of risk factors like obesity, sedentary life-styles, and faulty dietary habits has led to increased prevalence of the primary arterial hypertension (PAH), particularly in adolescent age children. PAH has become a global epidemic worldwide imposing huge economic constraint on health care. Sudden acute increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure can lead to hypertensive crisis. While it generally pertains to secondary hypertension, occurrence of hypertensive crisis in PAH is however rare in children. Hypertensive crisis has been further subclassified depending on presence or absence of end-organ damage into hypertensive emergency or urgency. Both hypertensive emergencies and urgencies are known to cause significant morbidity and mortality. Increasing awareness among the physicians, targeted at investigation of the pathophysiology of hypertension and its complications, better screening methods, generation, and implementation of novel treatment modalities will impact overall outcomes. In this paper, we discuss the etiology, pathogenesis, and management of hypertensive crisis in children. An extensive database search using keywords was done to obtain the information

Global Journalist: Iraqi elections

In this January 27, 2005 program of the Global Journalist, host Stuart Loory talks to three journalists, Dahr Jamil in Baghdad, Maggy Zanger in Tucson, and Marty Schram in Washington about whether the upcoming elections in war-torn Iraq will lead the country to develop a democracy

Instanton Effects in Matrix Models and String Effective Lagrangians

We perform an explicit calculation of the lowest order effects of single eigenvalue instantons on the continuous sector of the collective field theory derived from a $d=1$ bosonic matrix model. These effects consist of certain induced operators whose exact form we exhibit.Comment: Latex document, 36 pages, includes 6 figures appended as uuencoded eps files, preprint CERN-TH.7301/94, UPR-608

Design and Validation of an Accurate Low-Cost Data Acquisition System for Structural Health Monitoring of a Pedestrian Bridge

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an effective operating technique devoted to enhance the robustness of an infrastructure, and to validate its safety requirements. The aim of SHM is to determine a structure’s reaction when subjected to any type of excitation, by means of identifying modifications in basic vibration measurements and modal parameters such as natural frequencies, damping and mode shapes. Consequently, sensors are mounted on a structure intending to record data on equal time intervals basis prior to, during and after an induced stimulation. Therefore, the necessity to adopt a computer-based data acquisition (DAQ) technique is required in this analytical approach in order to evaluate vibrational signals collected by sensors placed on a structure. In this work an accurate microcontroller-based DAQ system is proposed to monitor a pedestrian bridge located in Athens Greece for the purpose of characterizing the system state and evaluate the modal properties of the investigated structure. Four low-cost yet accurate triaxial accelerometers were systematically placed along the bridge intending to report the system response toward different generated perturbations. The proposed monitoring and computational system was tested in laboratory conditions prior to the bridge assessment. Three triaxial accelerometer were installed on a steel cantilever beam. A comparative analysis between the results of the suggested DAQ system and that of the standard laboratory DAQ system National Instrument DAQ was performed to test the accuracy of the suggested framework

Intraocular Metastasis as the Presenting Symptom of NSCLC and the Role of Bevacizumab: A Case Report

Introduction: Metastasis to the eye is a rare clinical entity accounting for about 2-9% ocular malignancies. Clinical awareness can lead to prompt diagnosis and appropriate management.Case presentation: We here present a case of a 60-year-old patient who visited to several ophthalmologists with the complaint of blurry vision in his left eye. He was diagnosed with anterior uveitis and elevated intraocular pressure. A masquerade syndrome was suspected, and anterior chamber paracentesis was performed, which revealed metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). CT chest revealed a left lung mass with right paratracheal lymphadenopathy. No other evidence of metastatic disease was found on PET/CT scan and MRI of the brain. He received treatment for stage IV lung cancer with carboplatin, paclitaxel, and bevacizumab. The intraocular tumor cell infiltration was treated with intravitreal bevacizumab that resulted in subjective and objective improvement.Conclusion: Metastasis to the eye may present in a masquerade-like fashion as intraocular inflammation. Tumor specific therapy directed locally within the eye may be a component of an overall treatment plan.