A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON BUSINESS CYCLES AND MICROECONOMICS

Over the past 150 years, business cycles have been extensively studied. However, there needs to be more research comparing the field's evolution since 1900 with microeconomics, which would provide a broader perspective on both fields. We reviewed more than 7.5 million citations and more than three thousand publications on Google Scholar and Scopus databases through a systematic literature review. The evidence suggests a gradual increase in citations over the decades, with a significant discontinuity in the 2020s due to the coronavirus pandemic. This pandemic has dramatically affected academic production in this research field. Nevertheless, key findings highlighted the global coverage and the top publications in such a field

In Need of a Domain-Specific Language Modeling Notation for Smartphone Applications with Portable Capability

The rapid growth of the smartphone market and its increasing revenue has motivated developers to target multiple platforms. Market leaders, such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, develop their smartphone applications complying with their platform specifications. The specification of each platform makes a platform-dedicated application incompatible with other platforms due to the diversity of operating systems, programming languages, and design patterns. Conventional development methodologies are applied to smartphone applications, yet they perform less well. Smartphone applications have unique hardware and software requirements. All previous factors push smartphone developers to build less sophisticated and low-quality products when targeting multiple smartphone platforms. Model-driven development have been considered to generate smartphone applications from abstract models to alleviate smartphones platform fragmentation. Reusing these abstract models for other platforms was not considered because they do not fit new platforms requirements. It is possible that defining smartphone applications using a portability-driven modeling notation would facilitate smartphone developers to understand better their applications to be ported to other platforms. We call for a portability-driven modeling notation to be used within a smartphone development process. Our in-process research work will be manifested through the application of a domain-specific language complying with the three software portability principles and three design factors. This paper aims to highlight our research work, methodology and current statue

Media Usage in Post-Secondary Education and Implications for Teaching and Learning

The Web 2.0 has permeated academic life. The use of online information services in post-secondary education has led to dramatic changes in faculty teaching methods as well as in the learning and study behavior of students. At the same time, traditional information media, such as textbooks and printed handouts, still form the basic pillars of teaching and learning. This paper reports the results of a survey about media usage in teaching and learning conducted with Western University students and instructors, highlighting trends in the usage of new and traditional media in higher education by instructors and students. In addition, the survey comprises part of an international research program in which 20 universities from 10 countries are currently participating. Further, the study will hopefully become a part of the ongoing discussion of practices and policies that purport to advance the effective use of media in teaching and learning

Security Issues in Data Warehouse

Data Warehouse (DWH) provides storage for huge amounts of historical data from heterogeneous operational sources in the form of multidimensional views, thus supplying sensitive and useful information which help decision-makers to improve the organization’s business processes. A data warehouse environment must ensure that data collected and stored in one big repository are not vulnerable. A review of security approaches specifically for data warehouse environment and issues concerning each type of security approach have been provided in this paper

Reliability Models Applied to Mobile Applications

Smartphones have become the most used electronic devices. They carried out most of the functionalities of desktops, allowing various useful applications that suit the users’ needs. Therefore, instead of the operator, the user has become the number one controller of the device and its applications and thus its reliability becomes an emergent need. We aim to investigate and evaluate the efficacy of Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs) when applied to Smartphone application failure data and check whether they achieve the same success as in the desktop/laptop area. We selected three of the most used SRGMs and applied them to three different Smartphone applications. None of the selected models were able to account for the data satisfactorily. Their failure is traced back to the specific features of mobile applications compared to desktop applications. Thus, a suitable model for Smartphone applications is still needed to improve their reliability

A Pilot Case Study on Innovative Behaviour: Lessons Learned and Directions for Future Work

Context: A case study is a powerful research strategy for investigating complex social-technical and managerial phenomena in real life settings. However, when the phenomenon has not been fully discovered or understood, pilot case studies are important to refine the research problem, the research variables, and the case study design before launching a full-scale investigation. The role of pilot case studies has not been fully addressed in empirical software engineering research literature. Objective: To explore the use of pilot case studies in the design of full-scale case studies, and to report the main lessons learned from an industrial pilot study. Method: We designed and conducted an exploratory case study to identify new relevant research variables that influence the innovative behaviour of software engineers in the industrial setting and to refine the full-scale case study design for the next phase of our research. Results: The use of a pilot case study identified several important research variables that were missing in the initial framework. The pilot study also supported a more sophisticated case study design, which was used to guide a full-scale study. Conclusions: When a research topic is has not been fully discovered or understood, it is difficult to create a case study design that covers the relevant research variables and their potential relationships. Conducting a full-scale case study using an untested case design can lead to waste of resources and time if the design has to be reworked during the study. In these situations, the use of pilot case studies can significantly improve the case study design

Media Usage Survey: Overall Comparison of Faculty and Students

Recent developments in the use of technologies in education have provided unique opportunities for teaching and learning. This paper describes the results of a survey conducted at Western University (Canada) in 2013, regarding the use of media by students and instructors. The results of this study support the assumption that the media usage of students and instructors include a mixture of traditional and new media. The main traditional media continue to be important, and some new media have emerged as seemingly on equal footing or even more important than the traditional forms of media. Some new media that have recently been in the public spotlight do not seem to be as important as expected. These new media may still be emerging but it is not possible to know their ultimate importance at this point. There was some variation in media usage across different Faculties but perhaps not as much variation as might have been expected