Case-control retrospective study on cardiovascular disease risk and quality of life among Malay adults

In recent years, cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become the top cause of mortality, morbidity, and hospitalization in Malaysia. This study aimed to identify the most significant CVD risk factor and protective factor among Malay adults in Kuala Terengganu, as well as to compare the quality of life between case and control groups. A case-control study via self-administered questionnaire was carried out among 130 respondents aged 23 to 56 years in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and Nursing College Kuala Terengganu to compare past exposure (retrospective) between case and control groups to CVD risk. In the present study, 68 of them were in a case group with high blood cholesterol (total cholesterol [TC] > 5.18 mmol/L), while the other 62 were in a control group with the normal range of blood cholesterol (total cholesterol [TC] < 5.18 mmol/L). Purposive sampling was first applied to select the respondents in Kuala Terengganu. Then, consecutive sampling and quota sampling were performed in the study locations to recruit respondents, considering the type of respondents (case or control group) as a factor. The data were analysed using Independent-Samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Chi-Square test and odds ratio (OR). The findings show no significant differences (p > 0.05) between the two groups in terms of CVD risk factors. However, by comparing the food frequency consumption scores, their fish consumption levels were found to be significantly different (p = 0.010). The control group had higher consumption (with a score of 60.8) compared to the case group (with a score of 50.8). Overweight or obesity was the only significant risk factor (OR: 2.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06 to 4.29), while the only significant protective factor was the absence of any chronic diseases (OR: 0.00, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.03), which were found to be associated with CVD, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and stroke. Furthermore, the quality of life of the control group was higher than that of the case group, but this difference was not significant (p > 0.05). Overweight or obesity is a major risk factor of CVD, while the absence of any chronic diseases is a major protector factor

Component-aware Orchestration of Cloud-based Enterprise Applications, from TOSCA to Docker and Kubernetes

Enterprise IT is currently facing the challenge of coordinating the management of complex, multi-component applications across heterogeneous cloud platforms. Containers and container orchestrators provide a valuable solution to deploy multi-component applications over cloud platforms, by coupling the lifecycle of each application component to that of its hosting container. We hereby propose a solution for going beyond such a coupling, based on the OASIS standard TOSCA and on Docker. We indeed propose a novel approach for deploying multi-component applications on top of existing container orchestrators, which allows to manage each component independently from the container used to run it. We also present prototype tools implementing our approach, and we show how we effectively exploited them to carry out a concrete case study

Composition and Self-Adaptation of Service-Based Systems with Feature Models

The adoption of mechanisms for reusing software in pervasive systems has not yet become standard practice. This is because the use of pre-existing software requires the selection, composition and adaptation of prefabricated software parts, as well as the management of some complex problems such as guaranteeing high levels of efficiency and safety in critical domains. In addition to the wide variety of services, pervasive systems are composed of many networked heterogeneous devices with embedded software. In this work, we promote the safe reuse of services in service-based systems using two complementary technologies, Service-Oriented Architecture and Software Product Lines. In order to do this, we extend both the service discovery and composition processes defined in the DAMASCo framework, which currently does not deal with the service variability that constitutes pervasive systems. We use feature models to represent the variability and to self-adapt the services during the composition in a safe way taking context changes into consideration. We illustrate our proposal with a case study related to the driving domain of an Intelligent Transportation System, handling the context information of the environment.Work partially supported by the projects TIN2008-05932, TIN2008-01942, TIN2012-35669, TIN2012-34840 and CSD2007-0004 funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER; P09-TIC-05231 and P11-TIC-7659 funded by Andalusian Government; and FP7-317731 funded by EU. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

Intelligent Software for Ecological Building Design

Building design is a complex process because of the number of elements and issues involved and the number of relationships that exist among them. Adding sustainability issues to the list increases the complexity of design by an order of magnitude. There is a need for computer assistance to manage the increased complexity of design and to provide intelligent collaboration in formulating acceptable design solutions. Software development technology today offers opportunities to design and build an intelligent software system environment that can serve as a reliable intelligent partner to the human designer. In this paper the authors discuss the requirements for an intelligent software design environment, explain the major challenges in designing this environment, propose an architecture for an intelligent design support system for sustainable design and present the existing technologies that can be used to implement that architecture

Мотивационное управление персоналом на примере компании ООО "Мобител"

Цель дипломной работы: анализ системы мотивационного управления в организации и разработка направлений его совершенствования. В ходе работы проводились практические исследования персонала, выявлялся мотивационный тип, определялась степень информативности персонала организации о системе мотивации (мотивационная среда). Был проведен практический анализ соотношения типов мотивации с формами. В ходе исследования применялось несколько практических методик по формированию мотивационной программы в компании. Степень внедрения: ряд рекомендаций по совершенствованию мотивационного управления персоналом были внедрены в практику управления ООО "Мобител".The purpose of the thesis: analysis of the system of motivational management in the organization and development of directions for its improvement. In the course of the work, practical research of personnel was carried out, the motivational type was revealed, the degree of information of the personnel of the organization about the system of motivation (motivational environment) was determined. A practical analysis of the relationship between types of motivation and forms was carried out. In the course of the research, several practical methods were used to form a motivational program in the company. Degree of implementation: a number of recommendations for improving motivational management of personnel were introduced into the practice of the management of LLC "Mobitel"

The variability and predictors of quality of AIDS care services in Brazil

Abstract Background Since establishing universal free access to antiretroviral therapy in 1996, the Brazilian Health System has increased the number of centers providing HIV/AIDS outpatient care from 33 to 540. There had been no formal monitoring of the quality of these services until a survey of 336 AIDS health centers across 7 Brazilian states was undertaken in 2002. Managers of the services were asked to assess their clinics according to parameters of service inputs and service delivery processes. This report analyzes the survey results and identifies predictors of the overall quality of service delivery. Methods The survey involved completion of a multiple-choice questionnaire comprising 107 parameters of service inputs and processes of delivering care, with responses assessed according to their likely impact on service quality using a 3-point scale. K-means clustering was used to group these services according to their scored responses. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of high service quality. Results The questionnaire was completed by 95.8% (322) of the managers of the sites surveyed. Most sites scored about 50% of the benchmark expectation. K-means clustering analysis identified four quality levels within which services could be grouped: 76 services (24%) were classed as level 1 (best), 53 (16%) as level 2 (medium), 113 (35%) as level 3 (poor), and 80 (25%) as level 4 (very poor). Parameters of service delivery processes were more important than those relating to service inputs for determining the quality classification. Predictors of quality services included larger care sites, specialization for HIV/AIDS, and location within large municipalities. Conclusion The survey demonstrated highly variable levels of HIV/AIDS service quality across the sites. Many sites were found to have deficiencies in the processes of service delivery processes that could benefit from quality improvement initiatives. These findings could have implications for how HIV/AIDS services are planned in Brazil to achieve quality standards, such as for where service sites should be located, their size and staffing requirements. A set of service delivery indicators has been identified that could be used for routine monitoring of HIV/AIDS service delivery for HIV/AIDS in Brazil (and potentially in other similar settings). </jats:sec