Improvement of the software systems development life cycle of the credit scoring process at a financial institution through the application of systems engineering

A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science in EngineeringThe research centred on improving the current software systems development life cycle (SDLC) of the credit scoring process at a financial institution based on systems engineering principles. The research sought ways to improve the current software SDLC in terms of cost, schedule and performance. This paper proposes an improved software SDLC that conforms to the principles of systems engineering. As decisioning has been automated in financial institutions, various processes are developed according to a software SDLC in order to ensure accuracy and validity thereof. This research can be applied to various processes within financial institutions where software development is conducted, verified and tested. A comparative analysis between the current software SDLC and a recommended SDLC was performed. Areas within the current SDLC that did not comply with systems engineering principles were identified. These inefficiencies were found during unit testing, functional testing and regression testing. An SDLC is proposed that conforms to systems engineering principles and is expected to reduce the current SDLC schedule by 20 per cent. Proposed changes include the sequence of processes within the SDLC, increasing test coverage by extracting data from the production environment, filtering and sampling data from the production environment, automating functional testing using mathematical algorithms, and creating a test pack for regression testing which adequately covers the software change.MT201

Job resources, job demands, burnout and work engagement of employees in the public sector

Magister Artium - MAThe variables in this study are explored from a positive psychology paradigm, which is largely concerned with effecting psychological health and well-being of employees. The aim of this study will be to examine the impact of job resources, job demands on work engagement and burnout of employees within the public sector.Both survey and data analysis will be employed to guide the investigation. Standardised questionnaires will be used for the two different constructs, using the responses of employees on a composite questionnaire. Pearson correlation analysis and analysis of variance will be used to determine the relationship between the constructs of the study.The contribution of this study to the existing theory and literature is the exploration and inclusion of job resources and job demands and its relationship with burnout and work engagement. Various studies have reported that work engagement is important for organisations because it is related to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, low turnover intention and employee performance.The strengths in conducting the research could assist organisations to determine the level of engagement of employees in their current jobs. It may also assist organisations to implement interventions to address and manage burnout of employees in order to deal more effectively with symptoms. Furthermore it may be useful for organisations in order to act timeously to prevent those employees who are already showing signs of burnout from becoming sick as well as to increase work engagement. In addition, support those who are suffering from ill-health or decreased well-being caused by chronic occupational stress

The effects of inward FDI communities on the research and development intensity of emerging market locally domiciled firms : Partial foreign ownership as a contingency

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Contracting the Facebook API

In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in the popularity of online social networks such as Facebook. In a new twist, third party developers are now able to create their own web applications which plug into Facebook and work with Facebook's "social" data, enabling the entire Facebook user base of more than 400 million active users to use such applications. These client applications can contain subtle errors that can be hard to debug if they misuse the Facebook API. In this paper we present an experience report on applying Microsoft's new code contract system for the .NET framework to the Facebook API.We wrote contracts for several classes in the Facebook API wrapper which allows Microsoft .NET developers to implement Facebook applications. We evaluated the usefulness of these contracts during implementation of a new Facebook application. Our experience indicates that having code contracts provides a better and quicker software development experience.Comment: In Proceedings TAV-WEB 2010, arXiv:1009.330

What good are strong specifications?

Abstract—Experience with lightweight formal methods suggests that programmers are willing to write specification if it brings tangible benefits to their usual development activities. This paper considers stronger specifications and studies whether they can be deployed as an incremental practice that brings additional benefits without being unacceptably expensive. We introduce a methodology that extends Design by Contract to write strong specifications of functional properties in the form of preconditions, postconditions, and invariants. The methodology aims at being palatable to developers who are not fluent in formal techniques but are comfortable with writing simple specifications. We evaluate the cost and the benefits of using strong specifications by applying the methodology to testing data structure implementations written in Eiffel and C#. In our extensive experiments, testing against strong specifications detects twice as many bugs as standard contracts, with a reasonable overhead in terms of annotation burden and runtime performance while testing. In the wide spectrum of formal techniques for software quality, testing against strong specifications lies in a “sweet spot ” with a favorable benefit to effort ratio. I

Experience from the move of the Colegio Máximo de la Compañía de Jesús Library (San Miguel, Buenos Aires) to the Library System of the Catholic University of Córdoba

Se presenta la experiencia del Sistema de Bibliotecas de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba a partir de la mudanza de la Biblioteca del Colegio Máximo de la Compañía de Jesús (BCMCJ), desde San Miguel, Buenos Aires. Se aborda el trabajo en conjunto entre el Colegio Máximo y el Sistema de Bibliotecas para la logística del traslado de la biblioteca y el acondicionamiento de la infraestructura del depósito. Se expone la importancia de la colección, con un acervo documental de más de 300.000 documentos (libros, folletos, material de archivo, etc.) y 800 títulos de publicaciones periódicas especializadas, y su traslado a Córdoba en el año 2017, tras 250 años desde la expulsión de los jesuitas en el año 1767. Se describe la colección ya que constituye un verdadero tesoro cultural, de valor patrimonial bibliográfico y documental, y es considerada una de las más importantes bibliotecas religiosas de América Latina. Se desarrollan las tareas realizadas por el personal bibliotecario, como la migración de los registros bibliográficos existentes desde una base MicroIsis a Koha y otras involucradas en el marco del Sistema de Gestión de la Calidad, bajo la norma ISO 9001:2015, así como la elaboración de los instructivos relacionados del proceso organización y registro documental y la gestión de los riesgos detectados. Finalmente, se mencionan hallazgos y reflexiones en relación con el traslado de la BCMCJ a Córdoba.The article presents the experience of the Library System of the Catholic University of Córdoba with the move of the Maximum College of Society of Jesus (BCMCJ) Library from San Miguel, Buenos Aires. The joint work between Colegio Máximo and the Library System for the logistics of moving the library and the preparation of the storage infrastructure is discussed. The importance of the collection, with a documentary collection of more than 300,000 documents (books, pamphlets, archival material, etc.) and 800 titles of specialized periodicals, and its transfer to Córdoba in 2017, after 250 years since the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, is presented. The collection is described, as it constitutes a true cultural treasure, of bibliographic and documentary heritage value, and is considered one of the most important religious libraries in Latin America. The tasks performed by the library staff are developed, such as the migration of existing bibliographic records from a MicroIsis base to Koha and others involved in the framework of the Quality Management System, under the ISO 9001:2015 standard, as well as the development of the related instructions of the Organization and Documentary Registration process and the management of the detected risks. Finally, findings and reflections are mentioned in relation to the transfer of the BCMCJ to Córdoba.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Análisis de los supuestos teóricos administrativos subyacentes en la gestión de las bibliotecas universitarias de la ciudad de Córdoba

Trabajo Final (Licenciadas en Bibliotecología y Documentación) -- Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, 2017En este trabajo se pretende establecer la relación existente entre la administración vigente en las bibliotecas universitarias de la ciudad de Córdoba y las teorías administrativas analizadas por Idalberto Chiavenato en su libro “Introducción a la teoría general de la administración”. La presente investigación se orienta a detectar supuestos básicos administrativos presentes en la gestión de las bibliotecas universitarias de la ciudad de Córdoba a la par de indagar en los conocimientos teóricos que los administrativos aplican y en la formación profesional que poseen. Se trata de un estudio con dos enfoques: cualitativo y cuantitativo, dado que incluye un estudio teórico de compulsa bibliográfica y análisis de contenido de los autores referentes a la administración para detectar los supuestos subyacentes a la temática y paralelamente desarrollar un estudio exploratorio de campo, extrayendo los datos de forma directa de la realidad, por medio de la aplicación de un cuestionario. Se concluye que en la gestión de los centros de información se hacen presente aspectos, herramientas o elementos que responden a distintas teorías administrativas

Evaluation of the cerebrovascular reactivity in patients with Moyamoya Angiopathy by use of breath-hold fMRI: investigation of voxel-wise hemodynamic delay correction in comparison to [15^{15}O]water PET

PURPOSE: Patients with Moyamoya Angiopathy (MMA) require hemodynamic assessment to evaluate the risk of stroke. Hemodynamic evaluation by use of breath-hold-triggered fMRI (bh-fMRI) was proposed as a readily available alternative to the diagnostic standard [$^{15}$O]water PET. Recent studies suggest voxel-wise hemodynamic delay correction in hypercapnia-triggered fMRI. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of delay correction of bh-fMRI in patients with MMA and to compare the results with [$^{15}$O]water PET. METHODS: bh-fMRI data sets of 22 patients with MMA were evaluated without and with voxel-wise delay correction within different shift ranges and compared to the corresponding [$^{15}$O]water PET data sets. The effects were evaluated combined and in subgroups of data sets with most severely impaired CVR (apparent steal phenomenon), data sets with territorial time delay, and data sets with neither steal phenomenon nor delay between vascular territories. RESULTS: The study revealed a high mean cross-correlation (r = 0.79, p < 0.001) between bh-fMRI and [$^{15}$O]water PET. The correlation was strongly dependent on the choice of the shift range. Overall, no shift range revealed a significantly improved correlation between bh-fMRI and [$^{15}$O]water PET compared to the correlation without delay correction. Delay correction within shift ranges with positive high high cutoff revealed a lower agreement between bh-fMRI and PET overall and in all subgroups. CONCLUSION: Voxel-wise delay correction, in particular with shift ranges with high cutoff, should be used critically as it can lead to false-negative results in regions with impaired CVR and a lower correlation to the diagnostic standard [$^{15}$O]water PET

Effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination in prevention of hospital admissions for rotavirus gastroenteritis among young children in Belgium : case-control study

Objective : To evaluate the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccination among young children in Belgium. Design : Prospective case-control study. Setting : Random sample of 39 Belgian hospitals, February 2008 to June 2010. Participants : 215 children admitted to hospital with rotavirus gastroenteritis confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and 276 age and hospital matched controls. All children were of an eligible age to have received rotavirus vaccination (that is, born after 1 October 2006 and aged >= 14 weeks). Main outcome measure : Vaccination status of children admitted to hospital with rotavirus gastroenteritis and matched controls. Results : 99 children (48%) admitted with rotavirus gastroenteritis and 244 (91%) controls had received at least one dose of any rotavirus vaccine (P= 12 months. The G2P[4] genotype accounted for 52% of cases confirmed by polymerase chain reaction with eligible matched controls. Vaccine effectiveness was 85% (64% to 94%) against G2P[4] and 95% (78% to 99%) against G1P[8]. In 25% of cases confirmed by polymerase chain reaction with eligible matched controls, there was reported co-infection with adenovirus, astrovirus and/or norovirus. Vaccine effectiveness against co-infected cases was 86% (52% to 96%). Effectiveness of at least one dose of any rotavirus vaccine (intention to vaccinate analysis) was 91% (82% to 95%). Conclusions : Rotavirus vaccination is effective for the prevention of admission to hospital for rotavirus gastroenteritis among young children in Belgium, despite the high prevalence of G2P[4] and viral co-infection