69 research outputs found
Towards a framework for work package allocation for GSD
Proceeding of: Proceeding of: OTM 2011 Workshops: Confederated International Workshops and Posters: EI2N+NSF ICE, ICSP+INBAST, ISDE, ORM, OTMA, SWWS+MONET+SeDeS, and VADER 2011, Hersonissos, Crete, Greece, October 17-21, 2011Global software development is an inexorable trend in the software industry. The impact of the trend in conventional software development can be found in many of its aspects. One of them is task or work package allocation. Task allocation was traditionally driven by resource competency and availability but GSD introduces new complexities to this process including time-zones differences, costs and cultural differences. In this work a report on the construction of a framework for work-package allocation within GSD projects is presented. This framework lies on three main pillars: individual and organizational competency, organizational customization and sound assessment methods.This work is supported by the Spanish Centro para el Desarrollo
Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) under the Eureka Project E! 6244 PROPS-Tour and
the national cooperation project SEM-IDi (IDI-20091150)
Measurement report: The 4-year variability and influence of the Winter Olympics and other special events on air quality in urban Beijing during wintertime
Comprehensive measurements are vital to obtain big enough
datasets for better understanding the complex atmosphere and further
improving the air quality. To investigate the 4-year variation of air
quality and the influences of special events (Beijing Winter Olympics, COVID
lockdown and Chinese New Year) on it during the wintertime in polluted urban
air, we conducted comprehensive observations in Beijing, China, during
1 January–20 February, in the years from 2019 to 2022. The
mass concentration of PM2.5 and its composition (organics, nitrate,
sulfate, ammonium, chloride and black carbon) and the number size distributions of
particles (down to ∼1 nm) and ions, gaseous pollutants (CO,
NOx, SO2, O3) and condensable vapors (sulfuric acid and
oxygenated organic molecules), as well as meteorological parameters, were
simultaneously measured. The days before 22Â January without any
special events in each year were selected to investigate the 4-year
variability of air quality. We found that the concentrations of CO,
NOx, total oxygenated organic molecules (OOMs), total PM2.5,
organics, chloride and black carbon and the number concentration of sub-3 nm
particles (N1.3−3) showed similar variations, decreasing from 2019 to
2021 and then increasing in 2022. For SO2, however, its concentration
decreased year by year due to the significant emission reduction, further
leading to the decrease of gaseous sulfuric acid and particulate sulfate
from 2019 to 2022. O3 concentration showed an opposite 4-year
variation compared with NOx. Meanwhile, both the oxygen and nitrogen
contents of oxygenated organic molecules increased year by year, implying
that not only the oxidation state of those compounds increased, but also
NOx was involved more efficiently in their formation processes. With
higher sulfuric acid concentrations and new particle formation (NPF) frequencies in 2021 than in
2022, and with the lowest concentrations of background aerosols and the
lowest ambient temperatures in 2021, N1.3−3 was still the lowest in
2021. Unlike N1.3−3, the ion concentrations in both 0.8–2 and
2–4 nm size ranges were higher in 2021 than in the other years. Then, the
days after 4Â February were chosen to explore the influence of special
events. The non-event days within this date range in 2019 and 2021 were
chosen as the reference period. Due to the favorable meteorological
conditions together with reductions in anthropogenic emissions, there were
basically no haze events during the Olympics. Therefore, CO, NOx,
SO2, total OOMs, accumulation-mode particles (N100−1000), and total
PM2.5 and its composition were much lower, while ion concentrations
were much higher compared with the reference period. Although there was also
emission reduction during COVID, especially for NOx, the
enhancement of secondary inorganic aerosol formation, together with
unfavorable meteorological conditions, caused severe haze events during this
period. Hence, CO, total OOMs and all PM2.5 compositions during
COVID increased dramatically compared with the reference period. Influenced
by SO2, condensation sink and sunlight, sulfuric acid concentration was
found to be comparable between the Olympics and the reference period but was
lower during COVID and Chinese New Year. Additionally, N1.3−3 was
almost at the same level during different periods, indicating that the
special events only had little impact on the NPF
processes. These results provide useful information to the development of
more targeted pollution control plans.</p
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Greasing the wheels? The impact of regulations and corruption on firm entry
This paper investigates the question of whether corruption might ‘grease the
wheels’ of an economy. We investigate whether and to what extent the impact of regulations
on entrepreneurship is dependent on corruption. We first test whether regulations robustly
deter firm entry into markets. Our results show that the existence of a larger number
of procedures required to start a business, as well as larger minimum capital requirements
are detrimental to entrepreneurship. Second, we test whether corruption reduces the negative
impact of regulations on entrepreneurship in highly regulated economies. Our empirical
analysis, covering a maximum of 43 countries over the 2003–2005 period, shows that corruption
facilitates firm entry in highly regulated economies. For example, the ‘greasing’
effect of corruption kicks in at around 50 days required to start a new business. Our results
thus provide support for the ‘grease the wheels’ hypothesis
Follow-up of patients with curatively resected colorectal cancer: a practice guideline
BACKGROUND: A systematic review was conducted to evaluate the literature regarding the impact of follow-up on colorectal cancer patient survival and, in a second phase, recommendations were developed. METHODS: The MEDLINE, CANCERLIT, and Cochrane Library databases, and abstracts published in the 1997 to 2002 proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology were systematically searched for evidence. Study selection was limited to randomized trials and meta-analyses that examined different programs of follow-up after curative resection of colorectal cancer where five-year overall survival was reported. External review by Ontario practitioners was obtained through a mailed survey. Final approval of the practice guideline report was obtained from the Practice Guidelines Coordinating Committee. RESULTS: Six randomized trials and two published meta-analyses of follow-up were obtained. Of six randomized trials comparing one follow-up program to a more intense program, only two individual trials detected a statistically significant survival benefit favouring the more intense follow-up program. Pooling of all six randomized trials demonstrated a significant improvement in survival favouring more intense follow-up (Relative Risk Ratio 0.80 (95%CI, 0.70 to 0.91; p = 0.0008). Although the rate of recurrence was similar in both of the follow-up groups compared, asymptomatic recurrences and re-operations for cure of recurrences were more common in patients with more intensive follow-up. Trials including CEA monitoring and liver imaging also had significant results, whereas trials not including these tests did not. CONCLUSION: Follow-up programs for patients with curatively resected colorectal cancer do improve survival. These follow-up programs include frequent visits and performance of blood CEA, chest x-rays, liver imaging and colonoscopy, however, it is not clear which tests or frequency of visits is optimal. There is a suggestion that improved survival is due to diagnosis of recurrence at an earlier, asymptomatic stage which allows for more curative resection of recurrence. Based on this evidence and consideration of the biology of colorectal cancer and present practices, a guideline was developed. Patients should be made aware of the risk of disease recurrence or second bowel cancer, the potential benefits of follow-up and the uncertainties requiring further clinical trials. For patients at high-risk of recurrence (stages IIb and III) clinical assessment is recommended when symptoms occur or at least every 6 months the first 3 years and yearly for at least 5 years. At the time of those visits, patients may have blood CEA, chest x-ray and liver imaging. For patients at lower risk of recurrence (stages I and Ia) or those with co-morbidities impairing future surgery, only visits yearly or when symptoms occur. All patients should have a colonoscopy before or within 6 months of initial surgery, and repeated yearly if villous or tubular adenomas >1 cm are found; otherwise repeat every 3 to 5 years. All patients having recurrences should be assessed by a multidisciplinary team in a cancer centre
Smart-M3 and OSGi: the Interoperability Platform
This paper presents the first attempt to design an interoperability platform by integrating an RDF based information sharing infrastructure named Smart-M3 within the OSGi framework, enhancing the information level interoperability of the former with the service level interoperability of the latter. Such an interoperability platform provides a generic and simple solution to develop Smart Environment Applications
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