Towards a Systematic Literature Review of Non-Functional Requirement Prioritization Approaches

The success of any software system depends on implementation of functional requirements followed by non-functional ones. There are various studies about prioritizing functional requirements and improving the prioritization techniques, but the work related to non-functional requirements prioritization is limited and there are no guidelines about which technique to be executed under particular circumstances. This paper does an empirical systematic review of the literature to identify and critically review the disseminated work based on empirical studies of software industries or presenting the non-functional requirement (NFR) prioritization approaches. The literature review yielded various insights; prominent amongst them includes, ad-hoc manner of NFR prioritization, neglection of NFRs, and the need for validation of existing NFR prioritization approaches on live data set with large number of NFRs which are always changing

unreinforced masonry buildings

A recent earthquake of M=4.9 occurred on 29 October 2007 in C, ameli, Denizli, which is located in a seismically active region at southwest Anatolia, Turkey. It has caused extensive damages at unreinforced masonry buildings like many other cases observed in Turkey during other previous earthquakes. Most of the damaged structures were non-engineered, seismically deficient, unreinforced masonry buildings. This paper presents a site survey of these damaged buildings. In addition to typical masonry damages, some infrequent, event-specific damages were also observed. Reasons for the relatively wide spread damages considering the magnitude of the event are discussed in the paper

Reverse Δ-wave as a possible sign in electrocardiography to diagnose mitral valve prolapse

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is defined as superior displacement of the mitral valve leaflets more than 2 mm into the left atrium during systole. Easier and cheaper assessment of this common disease is a priority in cardiac health care facilities.</p> <p>Presentation of the hypothesis</p> <p>In this study I addressed electrocardiographic presentation in 300 patients with MVP compared with 100 healthy individuals. I faced a novel finding in electrocardiogram (ECG) examination of these patients. It was a notch (reverse Δ-wave) in descending arm of QRS observed in 79% (237/300) of patients, consisting of 58% (174/300) in inferior leads and 21% (63/300) in I and aVL leads. The notch was identified only in 6 men in control group.</p> <p>Testing the hypothesis</p> <p>Considering the relatively higher prevalence of disease, a population-based diagnostic clinical trial study is appropriate to test the hypothesis.</p> <p>Implications of the hypothesis</p> <p>The hypothesis on diagnostic value of reverse Δ-wave in MVP may help in decreasing the rate of unnessessary echocardiography in some patients.</p

FREQUENCY RATIO ASSESSMENT FOR LANDSLIDES TRIGGERED BY 6 FEBRUARY 2023 KAHRAMANMARAS TURKIYE EARTHQUAKES BETWEEN GOLBASI AND ERKENEK

Landslides triggered by earthquakes are significant geological hazards that can have devastating consequences, posing risks to human lives, infrastructure, and the environment. These seismic events may cause the instability of slopes and result in the displacement of soil and rock materials, leading to landslides. It is crucial to understand the characteristics and mechanisms of earthquake-triggered landslides in order to effectively manage and mitigate their associated risks. The number of landslides triggered by the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes (with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6) was over three thousand and their destructive effects were also devastating as secondary hazards. This study aims to examine the characteristics of landslides using the frequency ratio (FR) model. A landslide susceptibility map (LSM) was also produced using the output. For this purpose, in this study, we derived landslides triggered by the earthquakes in a part of the earthquake-affected region, between Golbasi town of Adiyaman and Erkenek village of Malatya covering an area with a size of 625 km2. The study utilized a landslide inventory that was manually delineated by visual interpretation based on pre-event and post-event. These associations can serve as a foundation for the application of various data-driven machine learning techniques. The findings of this study will contribute to the development of accurate LSMs, providing crucial insights into the behavior of earthquake-triggered landslides

CLUSTERnGO: a user-defined modelling platform for two-stage clustering of time-series data.

MOTIVATION: Simple bioinformatic tools are frequently used to analyse time-series datasets regardless of their ability to deal with transient phenomena, limiting the meaningful information that may be extracted from them. This situation requires the development and exploitation of tailor-made, easy-to-use and flexible tools designed specifically for the analysis of time-series datasets. RESULTS: We present a novel statistical application called CLUSTERnGO, which uses a model-based clustering algorithm that fulfils this need. This algorithm involves two components of operation. Component 1 constructs a Bayesian non-parametric model (Infinite Mixture of Piecewise Linear Sequences) and Component 2, which applies a novel clustering methodology (Two-Stage Clustering). The software can also assign biological meaning to the identified clusters using an appropriate ontology. It applies multiple hypothesis testing to report the significance of these enrichments. The algorithm has a four-phase pipeline. The application can be executed using either command-line tools or a user-friendly Graphical User Interface. The latter has been developed to address the needs of both specialist and non-specialist users. We use three diverse test cases to demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed strategy. In all cases, CLUSTERnGO not only outperformed existing algorithms in assigning unique GO term enrichments to the identified clusters, but also revealed novel insights regarding the biological systems examined, which were not uncovered in the original publications. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The C++ and QT source codes, the GUI applications for Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems and user manual are freely available for download under the GNU GPL v3 license at http://www.cmpe.boun.edu.tr/content/CnG. CONTACT: [email protected] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.This work was supported by the Turkish State Planning Organization [DPT09K120520 to B.K.]; the Bogazici University Research Fund [10A05D4 to B.K., 08A506 to B.K., 6882-12A01D5 to A.T.C.]; TUBITAK [106M444 to B.K., 110E292 to A.T.C.], Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BRIC2.2 grant BB/K011138/1 to S.G.O.]; and EU 7th Framework Programme [BIOLEDGE Contract No: 289126 to S.G.O.].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btv53

Global burden of human brucellosis : a systematic review of disease frequency

BACKGROUND: This report presents a systematic review of scientific literature published between 1990-2010 relating to the frequency of human brucellosis, commissioned by WHO. The objectives were to identify high quality disease incidence data to complement existing knowledge of the global disease burden and, ultimately, to contribute towards the calculation of a Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) estimate for brucellosis.METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Thirty three databases were searched, identifying 2,385 articles relating to human brucellosis. Based on strict screening criteria, 60 studies were selected for quality assessment, of which only 29 were of sufficient quality for data analysis. Data were only available from 15 countries in the regions of Northern Africa and Middle East, Western Europe, Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia. Half of the studies presented incidence data, six of which were longitudinal prospective studies, and half presented seroprevalence data which were converted to incidence rates. Brucellosis incidence varied widely between, and within, countries. Although study biases cannot be ruled out, demographic, occupational, and socioeconomic factors likely play a role. Aggregated data at national or regional levels do not capture these complexities of disease dynamics and, consequently, at-risk populations or areas may be overlooked. In many brucellosis-endemic countries, health systems are weak and passively-acquired official data underestimate the true disease burden.CONCLUSIONS: High quality research is essential for an accurate assessment of disease burden, particularly in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Central and South America and Africa where data are lacking. Providing formal epidemiological and statistical training to researchers is essential for improving study quality. An integrated approach to disease surveillance involving both human health and veterinary services would allow a better understand of disease dynamics at the animal-human interface, as well as a more cost-effective utilisation of resources

Phylogeny and S1 Gene Variation of Infectious Bronchitis Virus Detected in Broilers and Layers in Turkey

Citation: Yilmaz, H., Altan, E., Cizmecigil, U. Y., Gurel, A., Ozturk, G. Y., Bamac, O. E., . . . Turan, N. (2016). Phylogeny and S1 Gene Variation of Infectious Bronchitis Virus Detected in Broilers and Layers in Turkey. Avian Diseases, 60(3), 596-602. doi:10.1637/11346-120915-Reg.1The avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (AvCoV-IBV) is recognized as an important global pathogen because new variants are a continuous threat to the poultry industry worldwide. This study investigates the genetic origin and diversity of AvCoV-IBV by analysis of the S1 sequence derived from 49 broiler flocks and 14 layer flocks in different regions of Turkey. AvCoV-IBV RNA was detected in 41 (83.6%) broiler flocks and nine (64.2%) of the layer flocks by TaqMan real-time RT-PCR. In addition, AvCoV-IBV RNA was detected in the tracheas 27/30 (90%), lungs 31/49 (62.2%), caecal tonsils 7/22 (31.8%), and kidneys 4/49 (8.1%) of broiler flocks examined. Pathologic lesions, hemorrhages, and mononuclear infiltrations were predominantly observed in tracheas and to a lesser extent in the lungs and a few in kidneys. A phylogenetic tree based on partial S1 sequences of the detected AvCoV-IBVs (including isolates) revealed that 1) viruses detected in five broiler flocks were similar to the IBV vaccines Ma5, H120, M41; 2) viruses detected in 24 broiler flocks were similar to those previously reported from Turkey and to Israel variant-2 strains; 3) viruses detected in seven layer flocks were different from those found in any of the broiler flocks but similar to viruses previously reported from Iran, India, and China (similar to Israel variant-1 and 4/91 serotypes); and 4) that the AVCoV-IBV, Israeli variant-2 strain, found to be circulating in Turkey appears to be undergoing molecular evolution. In conclusion, genetically different AvCoV-IBV strains, including vaccine-like strains, based on their partial S1 sequence, are circulating in broiler and layer chicken flocks in Turkey and the Israeli variant-2 strain is undergoing evolution. © 2016 American Association of Avian Pathologists

A Large Hadron Electron Collider at CERN

This document provides a brief overview of the recently published report on the design of the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC), which comprises its physics programme, accelerator physics, technology and main detector concepts. The LHeC exploits and develops challenging, though principally existing, accelerator and detector technologies. This summary is complemented by brief illustrations of some of the highlights of the physics programme, which relies on a vastly extended kinematic range, luminosity and unprecedented precision in deep inelastic scattering. Illustrations are provided regarding high precision QCD, new physics (Higgs, SUSY) and electron-ion physics. The LHeC is designed to run synchronously with the LHC in the twenties and to achieve an integrated luminosity of O(100) fb$^{-1}$. It will become the cleanest high resolution microscope of mankind and will substantially extend as well as complement the investigation of the physics of the TeV energy scale, which has been enabled by the LHC