An Empirical Validation of Cognitive Complexity as a Measure of Source Code Understandability

Background: Developers spend a lot of their time on understanding source code. Static code analysis tools can draw attention to code that is difficult for developers to understand. However, most of the findings are based on non-validated metrics, which can lead to confusion and code, that is hard to understand, not being identified. Aims: In this work, we validate a metric called Cognitive Complexity which was explicitly designed to measure code understandability and which is already widely used due to its integration in well-known static code analysis tools. Method: We conducted a systematic literature search to obtain data sets from studies which measured code understandability. This way we obtained about 24,000 understandability evaluations of 427 code snippets. We calculated the correlations of these measurements with the corresponding metric values and statistically summarized the correlation coefficients through a meta-analysis. Results: Cognitive Complexity positively correlates with comprehension time and subjective ratings of understandability. The metric showed mixed results for the correlation with the correctness of comprehension tasks and with physiological measures. Conclusions: It is the first validated and solely code-based metric which is able to reflect at least some aspects of code understandability. Moreover, due to its methodology, this work shows that code understanding is currently measured in many different ways, which we also do not know how they are related. This makes it difficult to compare the results of individual studies as well as to develop a metric that measures code understanding in all its facets.Comment: 12 pages. To be published at ESEM '20: ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measuremen

Physioxia Has a Beneficial Effect on Cartilage Matrix Production in Interleukin-1 Beta-Inhibited Mesenchymal Stem Cell Chondrogenesis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative condition that involves the production of inflammatory cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)) that stimulate degradative enzymes, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and aggrecanases (ADAMTS) resulting in articular cartilage breakdown. The presence of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) is one reason for poor clinical outcomes in current cell-based tissue engineering strategies for treating focal early osteoarthritic defects. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a potential cell source for articular cartilage regeneration, although IL-1 beta has been shown to inhibit in vitro chondrogenesis. In vivo, articular chondrocytes reside under a low oxygen environment between 2-5% oxygen (physioxia) and have been shown to enhance in vitro MSC chondrogenic matrix content with reduced hypertrophic marker expression under these conditions. The present investigation sought to understand the effect of physioxia on IL-1 beta inhibited MSC chondrogenesis. MSCs expanded under physioxic (2% oxygen) and hyperoxic (20%) conditions, then chondrogenically differentiated as pellets in the presence of TGF-beta 1 and either 0.1 or 0.5 ng/mL IL-1 beta. Results showed that there were donor variations in response to physioxic culture based on intrinsic GAG content under hyperoxia. In physioxia responsive donors, MSC chondrogenesis significantly increased GAG and collagen II content, whilst hypertrophic markers were reduced compared with hyperoxia. In the presence of IL-1 beta, these donors showed a significant increase in cartilage matrix gene expression and GAG content relative to hyperoxic conditions. In contrast, a set of MSC donors were unresponsive to physioxia and showed no significant increase in matrix production independent of IL-1 beta presence. Thus, physioxia has a beneficial effect on MSC cartilage matrix production in responsive donors with or without IL-1 beta application. The mechanisms controlling the MSC chondrogenic response in both physioxia responsive and unresponsive donors are to be elucidated in future investigations

Zum Leistungs- und Entwicklungsstand inklusiv beschulter Schülerinnen und Schüler mit (sonder-)pädagogischen Förderbedarfen auf der Insel Rügen nach acht Schulbesuchsjahren

Im Schuljahr 2017/18 wurden die Leistungsstände und Lernfortschritte von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit besonderen Förderbedarfen der Insel Rügen in zwei Teilstudien untersucht. Die untersuchten Jugendlichen wurden in ihrer Grundschulzeit innerhalb der Präventiven Integrativen Schule auf Rügen (PISaR) nach dem Rügener Inklusionsmodell (RIM) beschult (Einschulungsjahrgang 2010/11). Die im Rahmen der Teilstudie 1 betrachteten Schülerinnen und Schüler (N = 17) wiederholten in der Grundschulzeit eine Klassenstufe und waren zum Zeitpunkt der Untersuchung in der siebten Klassenstufe. In der Teilstudie 2 wurden die Leistungs- und Entwicklungsstände von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit förmlich festgestellten (sonder-)pädagogischen Förderbedarfen (N = 45) untersucht. Der Großteil von ihnen war zum Zeitpunkt der Datenerhebung in der achten Klassenstufe

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Creating and capturing value through service innovation and service productivity

This publication-based dissertation covers research on service innovation and service productivity over eight chapters. The first and second chapter provide an introduction into service innovation and service productivity. The third chapter is a systematic literature review that structures research published on service productivity. The fourth chapter is a meta-analysis which analyzes the factors influencing service productivity. The fifth chapter is a quantitative empirical paper that explains how individual political behavior affects new service development at the customer interface. The sixth chapter is a multiple case study that investigates how service innovation score concepts must be designed to be reinforcing and mutually supportive with the firm service productivity strategy. The seventh chapter is a mixed empirical study that combines qualitative interview data with quantitative questionnaire data to shed light on the underlying mechanisms that enhance innovation implementation effectiveness. The eighth chapter summarizes the contributions of this dissertation as well as its limitations and potential directions for further research.:Table of contents List of tables Table of figures List of abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Summary of research papers 2.1 First article 2.2 Second article 2.3 Third article 2.4 Fourth article 2.5 Fifth article 2.6 References 3. Service productivity: a systematic review of a dispersed research area 4. Measuring and managing service productivity: a meta-analysis 5. Political Behavior in Service Innovation: Empirical Examinations of Social Relationships 6. Combining strategies of high service productivity with successful service innovation 7. Effective innovation implementation: A mixed method study 8. Contributions, limitations, and further reserach 8.1 Contributions to research and practice 8.2 Limitations 8.3 Future research 8.4 Reference

Vorstellung der Synodal Versammlung der Stadt u: Landschaft Zürich

Synodalversammlung im RathaussaalAnonyme/r Künstler/inDruckgrafik erschien wahrscheinlich ursprünglich in: Johannes Hofmeister: Einkommen der geistlichen Pfruenden, nicht nur derjenigen, welche ..., Zürich 1789, nach S. 2

Vue de l' Eglise collegiale et Village de Beron Müster au Canton de Lucerne

dessiné d'après la Nature par F. Dörfflinger Coadjuteur ; par Jean Hofmeister de Z.Vermutlich nach einer Zeichnung von Wilhelm Franz Xaver Dörflinger (1746-1799) ab 1772 Helfer bei St. Stephan (Beromünster) und ab 1792 Pfarrer in Rickenbach (LU), Dilettan