Towards a Theory of Software Development Expertise

Software development includes diverse tasks such as implementing new features, analyzing requirements, and fixing bugs. Being an expert in those tasks requires a certain set of skills, knowledge, and experience. Several studies investigated individual aspects of software development expertise, but what is missing is a comprehensive theory. We present a first conceptual theory of software development expertise that is grounded in data from a mixed-methods survey with 335 software developers and in literature on expertise and expert performance. Our theory currently focuses on programming, but already provides valuable insights for researchers, developers, and employers. The theory describes important properties of software development expertise and which factors foster or hinder its formation, including how developers' performance may decline over time. Moreover, our quantitative results show that developers' expertise self-assessments are context-dependent and that experience is not necessarily related to expertise.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 26th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2018), ACM, 201

Healthy Community Design Expert Workshop report: September 21-22, 2009, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia

"On September 21 and 22, 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened a group of 20 experts in the field of community design to discuss raising awareness about the health impact of community design decisions. The gathering included top thought leaders whose organizations represent those who play a direct role in creating the built environment through action and policy--developers, architects, planners, builders, academia, public health professionals, and government officials. Its interdisciplinary nature was both unique and intentional. The workshop was conceived as a result of a series of interviews in September and October 2008 that CDC had conducted with professionals in the public health, planning, and built environment sectors. From these interviews, two key themes emerged: A common concern about health exists, but common language among the disciplines is lacking; Almost no cross-discipline synergy on shared health concerns exists, and local public health professionals are not in the loop at the critical early stages of policy and project development." - p. 4I. Executive Summary -- II. Overview -- III. What is Healthy Community Design? -- IV. Who influences Healthy Community Design/How do they view the current situation and CDC's role? -- V. Where is Healthy Community Design working? -- VI. What steps do we need to take to encourage widespread adoption of industry best practices? -- VII. Tool for evaluating objectively the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented: Health Impact Assessments (HIA) -- VIII. The Path forward -- IX. ConclusionMode of access: World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (566 KB, 52p.)

ReseArch with Patient and Public invOlvement: a RealisT evaluation - the RAPPORT study

Background Patient and public involvement (PPI) is a prerequisite for many funding bodies and NHS research ethics approval. PPI in research is defined as research carried out with or by the public rather than to, about or for them. While the benefits of PPI have been widely discussed, there is a lack of evidence on the impact and outcomes of PPI in research. Objectives To determine the types of PPI in funded research, describe key processes, analyse the contextual and temporal dynamics of PPI and explore the experience of PPI in research for all those involved. Mechanisms contributing to the routine incorporation of PPI in the research process were assessed, the impact of PPI on research processes and outcomes evaluated, and barriers and enablers to effective PPI identified. Design A three-staged realist evaluation drawing on Normalisation Process Theory to understand how far PPI was embedded within health-care research in six areas: diabetes mellitus, arthritis, cystic fibrosis, dementia, public health and learning disabilities. The first two stages comprised a scoping exercise and online survey to chief investigators to assess current PPI activity. The third stage consisted of case studies tracked over 18 months through interviews and document analysis. The research was conducted in four regions of England. Participants Non-commercial studies currently running or completed within the previous 2 years eligible for adoption on the UK Clinical Research Network portfolio. A total of 129 case study participants included researchers and PPI representatives from 22 research studies, and representatives from funding bodies and PPI networks

Prediction model for hardened state properties of silica fume and fly ash based seawater concrete incorporating silicomanganese slag

Growing concrete consumption has gradually depleted conventional resources. This research incorporates silicomanganese (SiMn) slag, marine sand and seawater as alternative concreting materials. The use of SiMn slag to replace limestone as coarse aggregate enhances sustainability, though reducing strength and durability of concrete. This research aims to enhance the SiMn slag concrete by incorporating silica fume (SF) and fly ash (FA). The interaction of SF and FA on strength, durability and workability of concrete is investigated by statistically evaluating the experimental result. In this regard, the polynomial function prediction model is developed using the Response Surface Method (RSM) for the optimization of SF and FA contents. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using p-value at significance level of 0.05 showed that the models were statistically significant and had marginal residual errors. All models had high fitness with R2 value ranging from 0.853 to 0.999. Adequate precision of models was above 4, indicating that the models had a low prediction error and were fit for optimization. Optimization indicated that a combination of 11.5% SF and 16.3% FA produced concrete that met the optimization criteria. Experimental validation showed that the highest prediction error was 3.4% for compressive strength, 3.2% for tensile strength, 4.9% for sorptivity and 18% for chloride permeability. The optimized concrete exhibited compact microstructure with good bonding between aggregate and cement paste. By using the established linear equation with SiMn slag concrete, the models also predicted the compressive strength of limestone concrete containing SF and FA with an error of between 0.9% and 5.4%

Asynchronous teams

Abstract: "This paper has three purposes: first, to define a space of organizations for computer-based agents; second, to identify a fuzzy subset (called [delta]3[phi]) of this space that contains organizations that are open, parallel and effective; and third, to illustrate how members (called asynchronous teams) of this subset can be realized. These teams are characterized by autonomous agents that work in parallel on populations of solutions. As such, they have features in common with a number of well known organizations. Blackboards, parallel implementations of genetic algorithms and certain recurrent neural nets are examples. But these examples occur at the very outermost fringes of the [delta]3[phi] subset. Its interior remains unexplored. We begin that exploration here.

Экспертные заключения первичной аккредитационной экспертизы подготовки магистров образовательно-профессиональной программы «Дизайн» по специальности 022 «Дизайн» по второму (магистерскому) уровню в Запорожском национальном техническом университете

Голова експертної комісії: Кротова Тетяна Федорівна − професор кафедри художнього моделювання Київського національного університету технологій та дизайну, доктор мистецтвознавства, доцент; Член експертної комісії: Корсунський Віктор Олексійович − завідувач кафедри образотворчого мистецтва і дизайну Дніпровського національного університету імені Олеся Гончара, кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент.UK: ЗАГАЛЬНИЙ ВИСНОВОК: На підставі аналізу поданих на акредитацію матеріалів і результатів акредитаційної експертизи комісія робить висновок про можливість акредитації спеціальності 022 «Дизайн», Запорізького національного технічного університету за другим (магістерським) рівнем з ліцензійним обсягом 60 осіб. EN: GENERAL CONCLUSION: Based on the analysis of the materials submitted for accreditation and the results of the accreditation examination, the commission concludes that it is possible to accredit the specialty 022 "Design", Zaporizhzhya National Technical University for the second (master's) level with a licensed volume of 60 person. ОБЩИЕ ВЫВОДЫ: RU: На основании анализа представленных на аккредитацию материалов и результатов аккредитационной экспертизы комиссия делает вывод о возможности аккредитации специальности 022 «Дизайн», Запорожского национального технического университета по второму (магистерскому) уровню с лицензионным объемом 60 человек