Decision support tools for site-specific fertilizer recommendations and agricultural planning in selected countries in sub-Sahara Africa

Peer Revie

Interoperability of ERP Software

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7678-5.ch003Even though most organizations are using enterprise resource planning applications, very few people understand the underlying interoperability nature within them. Interoperability is the ability of systems to provide services to and accept services from other systems, and to use the services exchanged so as to operate together in a more effective manner. The fact that interoperability can be improved means that the metrics for measuring interoperability can be defined. For the purpose of measuring the interoperability between systems, an interoperability assessment model is required. A comparative analysis among these models is provided to evaluate the similarities and differences in their philosophy and implementation. The analysis yields a set of recommendations for any party that is open to the idea of creating or improving an interoperability assessment model

A Review of Agent Based Interoperability Frameworks and Interoperability Assessment Models

In a heterogeneous world, concurrent distributed development has led to many types of multi-agent systems that offer diverse functionality in agents as different types of platforms are not in a position to interoperate. Agents from different platforms are likely to use different types of messages or message formats and the interpretation is likely to differ. The main driver for interoperability is partly the customer who strives for universality when accessing multiple services, and partly producers who often need to act in fast to obtain a sustainable customer base. Implementations of agent systems differ greatly in architecture thereby negatively affecting interoperability, system diversity, rapid proliferation of agent technology, and advancement of the industry. In order to standardize some aspects of agent technology, considerable research has been conducted in the area of interoperability of agent technologies. Hence, it would be interesting to find out what agent systems interoperability frameworks have been proposed in the last few years. It would also be interesting to find out what interoperability assessment models exist. To address these issues, this paper presents the findings of a comprehensive literature review conducted with the aim of establishing existing agent based interoperability frameworks and interoperability assessment models

A LITERATURE SURVEY OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY METRICS FOR STATECHART DIAGRAMS

Statechart diagrams have inherent complexity which keeps increasing every time the diagrams are modified. This complexity poses problems in comprehending statechart diagrams. The study of cognitive complexity has over the years provided valuable information for the design of improved software systems. Researchers have proposed numerous metrics that have been used to measure and therefore control the complexity of software. However, there is inadequate literature related to cognitive complexity metrics that can apply to measure statechart diagrams. In this study, a literature survey of statechart diagrams is conducted to investigate if there are any gaps in the literature. Initially, a description of UML and statechart diagrams is presented, followed by the complexities associated with statechart diagrams and finally an analysis of existing cognitive complexity metrics and metrics related to statechart diagrams. Findings indicate that metrics that employ cognitive weights to measure statechart diagrams are lacking

Complexity Metrics for Statechart Diagrams

Model-Driven Development and the Model-Driven Architecture paradigm have in the recent past been emphasizing on the importance of good models. In the Object-Oriented paradigm one of the key artefacts are the Statechart diagrams. Statechart diagrams have inherent complexity which keeps increasing every time the diagrams are modified, and this complexity poses problems when it comes to comprehending the diagrams. Statechart diagrams provide a foundation for analysing the dynamic behaviour of systems, and therefore, their quality should be maintained. The aim of this study is to develop and validate metrics for measuring the complexity of UML Statechart diagrams. This study used design science which involved the definition of metrics, development of a metrics tool, and theoretical and empirical validation of the metrics. For the measurement of the cognitive complexity of statechart diagrams, this study proposes three metrics. The defined metrics were further used to calculate the complexity of two sample statechart diagrams and found relevant. Also, theoretical validation of the defined metrics was done using the Weyuker’s nine properties and revealed they are mathematically sound. Empirical validations were performed on the metrics and results indicate that all the three metrics are good for the measurement of the cognitive complexity of statecharts

A Metrics-Based Fuzzy Logic Model for Predicting the Reusability of Object-Oriented Software

Retrieval Number: F1627089620/2020©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.F1627.089620Software reusability facilitates the engineering of new software or systems functionalities without having to start coding from scratch. This software quality provides numerous merits to the software developers including coming up with larger systems within a short time, with reduced development cost and reduced developer effort. However, software reusability is an external software quality attribute that is not measurable directly, and this is a major hindrance factor to its adoption in the software engineering process. This indicates that there is a need to come up with an approach to measure or predict software reusability to give advisories to the software developers on the prediction of software reusability. Therefore, this study aims at coming up with a prediction model to estimate software reusability by employing the use of a fuzzy logic approach, the study focused on Object-Oriented software. The research followed a guideline of four objectives and assumed descriptive and diagnostic methodology. It started by considering the existing ISO/IEC 25010 software quality model to determine and describe the main factors affecting the reusability of Object-Oriented software. The] main factors identified were Abstraction, Cohesion and Coupling, thereafter, it was followed by the definition of metrics to measure each of the three factors identified, to operationalize these metrics, they were then validated using Weyuker’s nine properties. After this, the researchers developed a metrics tool to automate the process of computing the metrics values of the defined metrics. Finally, a fuzzy logic prediction model that predicts the reusability of Object-Oriented software was developed based on the metrics values computed by the metrics tool. This model was then validated using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) framework. The outcome of the four objectives was presented, discussed and future works of this study outlines. This research work is a contribution to the software development industry where the software developers can apply it to engineer reusable software

Uptake and acceptability of oral HIV self-testing among community pharmacy clients in Kenya: a feasibility study

BACKGROUND: While HIV testing and counselling is a key entry point for treatment as prevention, over half of HIV-infected adults in Kenya are unaware they are infected. Offering HIV self-testing (HST) at community pharmacies may enhance detection of undiagnosed infections. We assessed the feasibility of pharmacy-based HST in Coastal Kenya. METHODS: Staff at five pharmacies, supported by on-site research assistants, recruited adult clients (≥18 years) seeking services indicative of HIV risk. Participants were offered oral HST kits (OraQuick®) at US$1 per test. Within one week of buying a test, participants were contacted for post-test data collection and counselling. The primary outcome was test uptake, defined as the proportion of invited clients who bought tests. Views of participating pharmacy staff were solicited in feedback sessions during and after the study. RESULTS: Between November 2015 and April 2016, 463 clients were invited to participate; 174 (38$1 per test. Further implementation research is required to assess uptake, yield, and linkage to care on a larger scale

Risk of sexual, physical and verbal assaults on men who have sex with men and female sex workers in coastal Kenya.

Violence toward MSM and female sex workers (FSW) is associated with HIV risk, and its prevention is prioritized in international HIV/AIDS policy.Sociodemographic and behavioural data derived from HIV risk and follow-up cohorts including MSM and FSW in coastal Kenya between 2005 and 2014 was used to estimate the risk of rape, physical assault and verbal abuse, and to assess associations between first occurrence of assault with individual and recent behavioural factors.Incidence of first reported rape was similar for MSM [3.9, confidence interval (CI) 3.1-5.0 per 100 person-years (pyrs)] and FSW (4.8 CI 3.5-6.4 per 100 pyrs), P = 0.22. Incidence of first reported physical and verbal assault was higher for FSW than MSM (21.1 versus 12.9 per 100 pyrs, P = 0.14 and 51.3 versus 30.9 per 100 pyrs, P = 0.03 respectively). Recent alcohol use was associated with reporting of all forms of assault by MSM [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.8, CI 0.9-3.5] and FSW (AOR 4.4, CI 1.41-14.0), as was recent sale of sex for MSM (AOR 2.0, CI 1.1-3.8). Exclusive sex with men, active sex work, and group sex were also specifically associated with reporting rape for MSM. Perpetrators of sexual and verbal assault were usually unknown, whilst perpetrators of physical violence toward FSW were usually regular sexual partners.MSM and FSW experienced a similarly high incidence of sexual assault in coastal Kenya, in addition to physical and verbal assault. Current national policies focus heavily on gender-based violence against women and young girls, but need to be inclusive of MSM and FSW