Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

Chemiluminescence methods (present and future)

This article provides a general review of chemiluminescent methods in some of their recent applications in drug analysis, sea water analysis or antioxidant activity of natural and synthetic products (including olive oil). Practical considerations are not included in the review since the main interest is to state, through the aforementioned applications, that chemiluminescence has been, is, and will be a versatile tool for Analytical Chemistry in future years.<br><br>Este art&#237;culo da una visi&#243;n general de los m&#233;todos de quimiluminiscencia en algunas de las aplicaciones m&#225;s recientes en an&#225;lisis de drogas, an&#225;lisis del agua marina o la actividad antioxidante de productos naturales y de s&#237;ntesis (incluyendo el aceite de oliva). Las consideraciones pr&#225;cticas no est&#225;n incluidas ya que el principal inter&#233;s es establecer, a trav&#233;s de las aplicaciones mencionadas, que la quimiluminiscencia ha sido, es y ser&#225; en los pr&#243;ximos a&#241;os una herramienta vers&#225;til de la Qu&#237;mica Anal&#237;tica

Consideraciones en el análisis de internacionalización del sector del aceite de oliva

En búsqueda de mostrar una salida a las empresas nacionales que se han visto negativamente afectadas por la depresión económica que sufre España en los últimos años, hemos apostado por la “internacionalización” de las mismas. Durante este trabajo hemos realizado un amplio estudio, no sólo del concepto, teorías y procesos, sino también de cómo solucionar los problemas que puedan surgir en su desarrollo. Además, hemos analizado profundamente el sector del aceite de oliva, en especial, en el territorio andaluz (uno de los más perjudicados hasta ahora) resaltando las herramientas necesarias que ayudarían a ver un amplio abanico de oportunidades dentro de lo que creemos un sector en decadencia, pues el entorno andaluz está lleno de productos de calidad que saben valorar en el exterior. Tal afirmación la hemos revalidado al conocer la historia y evolución de una empresa andaluza cuyo proceso de internacionalización la llevó al éxito. Por esta razón, el caso de estudio tiene gran importancia en cuanto a la aplicación de las teorías y procesos analizados, pues nos ha ayudado a ponderar la relevancia de los epígrafes dotándolos de contenido con el fin de poner a disposición de las empresas en búsqueda de respuestas una información útil, amena y comprensiva, pues la materia que se aborda es compleja y extensa y el “tiempo” para tomar decisiones en el sector del aceite de oliva, como veremos a continuación, es oro (líquido).In search of showing an exit to the national companies that have been negatively affected by the recent Spanish economic depression, we have opted for "internationalization". During this work we have studied the concept, theories, processes, and how to solve the problems that may arise in its development. We have also analyzed the olive oil sector in the Andalusian territory, highlighting the necessary tools that would help to know opportunities, within what we believe is a sector in decline, as the Andalusian environment is full of quality products valued abroad. Affirmation revalidated when knowing a company whose internalization led to success. The case study where we have applied the content developed in this work has great importance. It has helped us to ponder the relevance of the epigraphs and to make available to companies useful information on a subject that is complex and extensive

Collaborative tools: computer science students' skills versus software industry needs

Software companies encourage and further the use of collaborative tools and skills at the workplace in pursuit of the benefits of their use: they improve communication, productivity and efficiency, and competitiveness. Besides, undergraduate and graduate software engineering computing curricula recommend subjects related to effective cooperative working and group learning. In order to align industry needs and curricula recommendations, universities should provide students with the collaborative knowledge and skills that they will require on the labour market once they finish their degrees. In this scenario, we asked three questions: Are collaborative tools beneficial to software projects? Is it easier for students with knowledge and skills of collaborative tools to find a job? Do enterprises use collaborative tools as a marketing strategy for the recruitment process or are they really empowering their employees to use collaborative tools? This paper explores these questions. We devised a survey addressing the above questions, which was administered to 86 recent computer science graduates. We applied statistical techniques to analyse the responses. From the data gathered during the survey, we conclude that the expected benefits of the use of collaborative tools are in fact corroborated, students skilled in the use of collaborative tools do find it easier to get jobs and companies are not only looking for people with collaborative skills but also use collaborative tools in their routine work processes

Looking for the Holy Grail of Software Development

The history of Software Engineering has been marked by many famous project failures documented in papers, articles and books. This pattern of lack of success has prompted the creation of dozens of software analysis, requirements definition, and design methods, programming languages, software development environments and software development processes all promoted as solving ?the software problem.? What we hear less about are software projects that were successful. This article reports on the findings of an extensive analysis of successful software projects that have been reported in the literature. It discusses the different interpretations of success and extracts the characteristics that successful projects have in common. These characteristics provide Software Project Managers with an agenda of topics to be addressed that will help ensure, not guarantee, that their software project will be successful

Características de las directoras de los centros escolares andaluces: análisis y propuestas para el cambio social

Aunque el número de profesoras es mayor que el de profesores en las escuelas e institutos los puestos de dirección han sido y son ocupados mayoritariamente por los hombres. En esta ponencia se presentan los resultados y una reflexión sobre las características personales y profesionales de las mujeres en las organizaciones educativas y los puestos de dirección. Entre los hallazgos de nuestra investigación se pone de manifiesto que el porcentaje de nuevas directoras va acercándose progresivamente al de sus colegas varones, sobre todo en mujeres que superan los 40 años, aunque todavía siguen dirigiendo mayoritariamente centros de Educación Infantil y Primaria y se concentran prioritariamente en centros de tamaño pequeño o mediano

Balancing software engineering education and industrial needs

In the world of information and communications technologies the demand for professionals with software engineering skills grows at an exponential rate. On this ground, we have conducted a study to help both academia and the software industry form a picture of the relationship between the competences of recent graduates of undergraduate and graduate software engineering programmes and the tasks that these professionals are to perform as part of their jobs in industry. Thanks to this study, academia will be able to observe which skills demanded by industry the software engineering curricula do or do not cater for, and industry will be able to ascertain which tasks a recent software engineering programme graduate is well qualified to perform. The study focuses on the software engineering knowledge guidelines provided in SE2004 and GSwE2009, and the job profiles identified by Career Space

The deleterious effects induced by an acute exposure of human skin to common air pollutants are prevented by extracts of Deschampsia antarctica.

The homeostatic and regenerative potential of the skin is critically impaired by an increasing accumulation of air pollutants in human ecosystems. These toxic compounds are frequently implicated in pathological processes such as premature cutaneous ageing, altered pigmentation and cancer. In this scenario, innovative strategies are required to tackle the effects of severe air pollution on skin function. Here we have used a Human Skin Organotypic Culture (HSOC) model to characterize the deleterious effects of an acute topic exposure of human skin to moderately high concentrations of common ambient pollutants, including As, Cd, Cr, dioxins and tobacco smoke. All these toxic compunds inflict severe damage in the tissue, activating the AHR-mediated response to xenobiotics. We have further evaluated the potential of an aqueous leaf extract of the polyextremophile plant Deschampsia antarctica (Edafence) to protect human skin against the acute exposure to toxic pollutants. Our results indicate that pre-treatment of HSOC samples with this aqueous extract conuterbalances the deleterious effects of the exposure to toxic comunds and triggers the activation of key genes invoved in the redox system and in the pro-inflammatory/wound healing response in the skin, suggesting that this natural compound might be effectively used in vivo to protect human skin routinely in different daily conditions.post-print1974 K

Software project management: learning from our mistakes

In the January/February 2014 issue of IEEE Software, the Voice of Evidence column published an article titled ?Looking for the Holy Grail of Software Development?. In that article, the authors reviewed the main practices that software project managers needed to engage in to make success more likely. While it is important to know what software project managers should do, a complementary question is, What should they not do? In other words, what practices should software project managers avoid to make success more likely? Answering this question might assist current and future software project managers in preventing, or at least mitigating, problematic scenarios that, if unresolved, will eventually lead to additional project failures. In the words of Laplante et al ?While it is certainly useful to study the successful ways people solve problems, the old adage that we learn from our mistakes suggests that studying failures might be even more fruitful.

¿Solamente platos? Cerámicas de barniz rojo en el depósito ibérico del Zacatín (Granada)

Se presenta un conjunto homogéneo de platos de barniz rojo indígena con un perfil muy particular y sin paralelos conocidos por el momento. Dicho conjunto formaba parte del depósito ritual hallado en la granadina calle del Zacatín, una fosa junto al río Darro que se rellenó con los resultantes de un festín sagrado posiblemente en relación con el propio río. En este trabajo planteamos que estos platos fueron fabricados ex profeso para el ritual que tuvo lugar fuera de las murallas de Iliberri en torno al 370 a.C