Predicting Software Suitability Using a Bayesian Belief Network

The ability to reliably predict the end quality of software under development presents a significant advantage for a development team. It provides an opportunity to address high risk components earlier in the development life cycle, when their impact is minimized. This research proposes a model that captures the evolution of the quality of a software product, and provides reliable forecasts of the end quality of the software being developed in terms of product suitability. Development team skill, software process maturity, and software problem complexity are hypothesized as driving factors of software product quality. The cause-effect relationships between these factors and the elements of software suitability are modeled using Bayesian Belief Networks, a machine learning method. This research presents a Bayesian Network for software quality, and the techniques used to quantify the factors that influence and represent software quality. The developed model is found to be effective in predicting the end product quality of small-scale software development efforts

Apparent digestibility of insect protein meals for rainbow trout

Insect meals are considered to be promising future ingredients for aquaculture feeds. In past feeding trials in rainbow trout, insect meals were included in diets only on the basis of their nutrients content and energy density without taking into account their biological availability due to the lack of their digestible values. Apparent digestibility (ADC) provides good indication of the bioavailability of nutrients and energy thus providing rational basis for the correct inclusion of feedstuffs. The aim of this research was to assess, in an in vivo trial on rainbow trout, the ADC of five full fat insect meals: one Tenebrio molitor (TM), two Hermetia illucens obtained through two different process (HI1 and HI2), one Musca domestica (MD), and one Alphitobius diaperinus (AD). Fish were fed a high-quality reference diet (R) and test diets obtained mixing the R diet with each of the test ingredients at a ratio of 70:30. Diets contained 1% celite as inert marker. Fish were fed to visual satiety twice a day and faecal samples collected using a continuous automatic device. Faeces were freeze dried and frozen (-20 \ub0C) until analyses. The ADC of dry matter, crude protein and ether extract of each insect meal diet were calculated. ADC for dry matter varied between 70.07 (HI1) and 80.85 (TM). ADC for protein was above 84% in all treatments and resulted the highest in MD, TM and AD treatments. Ether extract apparent digestibility significantly differed among diets with the highest value reported for TM treatment. All treatments reported values higher than 96%. Observed differences could be due to the insect species and meal treatment but in general, tested insect meals were highly digestible for rainbow trout. The results from this research could be useful to optimize the diet formulation

Correlazioni tra le velocit\ue0 ultrasoniche e le caratteristiche petrografiche in ceramiche archeologiche: un primo approccio metodologico

L\u2019analisi delle velocit\ue0 degli ultrasuoni permette di investigare i caratteri tessiturali e strutturali e di individuare la presenza di eventuali difetti localizzati all\u2019interno del campione. La loro diffusione negli studi archeometrici \ue8 legata alla non distruttivit\ue0 e alla possibilit\ue0 di fornire risultati accurati in tempo reale. In questo lavoro sono state effettuate numerose analisi petrografiche in sezione sottile e misure di velocit\ue0 di propagazione degli ultrasuoni su reperti ceramici di interesse archeologico. In particolare sono stati selezionati ed analizzati ceramiche preistoriche ed anfore da trasporto del V-IV sec. a.C., caratterizzati da differente granulometria, composizione e struttura. Da questo primo approccio \ue8 stato possibile evidenziare che il parametro petrografico che influenza maggiormente la velocit\ue0 degli ultrasuoni \ue8 la forma e la disposizione spaziale dei pori, e la dimensione media degli inclusi, mentre correlazioni poco significative si ottengono prendendo in considerazione la percentuale e il tipo di inerte presente nell\u2019impasto ceramico

Effect of dietary supplementation with insect fats on growth performance, digestive efficiency and health of rabbits

Background: The present work aimed at evaluating the effect of the dietary replacement of soybean oil (S) by two types of insect fats extracted from black soldier fly larvae (H, Hermetia illucens L.) and yellow mealworm larvae (T, Tenebrio molitor L.) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, intestinal morphology and health of growing rabbits. Methods: At weaning, 200 crossbred rabbits (36 days old) were allotted to five dietary treatments (40 rabbits/group): a control diet (C) containing 1.5% of soybean oil and four experimental diets where soybean oil was partially (50%) or totally (100%) substituted by H (H50 and H100) or T (T50 and T100) fats. Total tract digestibility was evaluated on 12 rabbits per treatment. The growth trial lasted 41 d and, at slaughtering (78 days old), blood samples were collected from 15 rabbits per treatment, morphometric analyses were performed on duodenum, jejunum and ileum mucosa, and samples of liver, spleen and kidney were submitted to histological evaluation. Results: No difference was observed between the control and the experimental groups fed insect fats in terms of performance, morbidity, mortality and blood variables. The addition of H and T fats did not influence apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter, protein, ether extract, fibre fractions and gross energy. Gut morphometric indices and organ histopathology were not affected by dietary inclusion of H and T fats. Conclusions: H and T fats are suitable sources of lipid in rabbit diets to replace soybean oil without any detrimental effect on growth performance, apparent digestibility, gut mucosa traits and health

From Geophysics to Microgeophysics for Engineering and Cultural Heritage

The methodologies of microgeophysics have been derived from the geophysical ones, for the sake of solving specific diagnostic and/or monitoring problems regarding civil engineering and cultural heritage studies. Generally, the investigations are carried out using different 2D and 3D tomographic approaches as well as different energy sources: sonic and ultrasonic waves, electromagnetic (inductive and impulsive) sources, electric potential fields, and infrared emission. Many efforts have been made to modify instruments and procedures in order to improve the resolution of the surveys as well as to significantly reduce the time of the measurements without any loss of information. This last point has been achieved by using multichannel systems. Finally, some applications are presented, and the results seem to be very promising and promote this new branch of geophysics. Therefore, these methodologies can be used even more to diagnose, monitor, and safeguard not only engineering buildings and/or large structures, but also ancient monuments and cultural artifacts, such as pottery, statues, and so forth

Patient satisfaction and food waste in obstetrics and gynaecology wards

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an indicator of healthcare quality, and expectation is an important determinant. A component of patient satisfaction is the quality of foodservice. An indicator of this quality is the food wasted by hospitalised patients. In the present study, we investigated patient satisfaction regarding food and foodservice, the expectation on food quality and the amount of food wasted in two obstetrics and gynaecology wards in Northern and Southern Italy. Patients and Methods: A questionnaire, including sociodemographic data, rate of food waste, expectations of food quality and characteristics of food and foodservice, was admini-strated to 550 inpatients in obstetrics and gynaecology wards (275 for each hospital). Univariate analysis was performed to describe the results, and multivariate analysis was carried out to control for sociodemographic data. Results: Northern patients were more satisfied with the quality of food (54.2% vs 36.0%) and foodservice (54.5% vs 38.2%) than southern patients. Northern patients had more positive expectations about the quality of food (69.5% vs 31.6%), whereas southern patients stated that they had no expectations. Southern patients gave more importance to mealtime (72.7% vs 26.2%), and many of them brought food from home to the hospital (30.2% vs 2.2%) through relatives who came to visit them. Southern patients discarded about 41.7% of food served, whereas northern patients discarded only about 15.3%. Discussion: Food waste is a worldwide problem due to its economic, social and environmental effects. Especially in hospitals, food waste could have a negative impact on the overall patient satisfaction

Evaluation of carcass and meat traits of Muscovy duck fed with black soldier fly partially defatted meal

The aim of this study was to evaluate the carcass characteristics and breast meat quality in Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata domestica) fed different inclusion levels of a partially defatted black soldier fly larva (BSF) meal. A total of 256 Muscovy ducklings (average live weight, LW: 71.32\ub12.70 g) were reared from day 3 to day 48 and randomly allotted in 32 pens (8 replicates/treatment). Four different diets were formulated with increasing substitution level of corn gluten meal with BSF larva meal (0, 3, 6 and 9%; BSF0, BSF3, BSF6 and BSF9, respectively) and divided in 3 feeding phases: starter (1-14 days), grower (14-35 days) and finisher (35-48 days). At day 48, 2 animals/replicate were slaughtered and dissected to determine their carcass yields. The weights of spleen, bursa of Fabricius, liver, heart and abdominal fat were recorded. Breast and thigh muscles were then excised from 16 ducks/treatment and weighted. Ultimate pH (pHu) and L*, a*, b* colour values were then measured on breast muscle. The collected data were tested by means of oneway ANOVA evaluating the effect of dietary BSF inclusion level by polynomial contrasts. Significance was declared at P<0.05. The inclusion of BSF did not affect final LW (2,515.68\ub192.42 g on average). Hot and cold carcass weights showed a quadratic response (P<0.05) to increasing BSF larva meal, with a minimum corresponding to BSF6; however, refrigeration losses were not affected by treatments. Weight of spleen, bursa of Fabricius, liver and heart did not differ among treatments. The weight of abdominal fat showed a quadratic response to increasing BSF meal with a minimum corresponding to BSF6 group (P<0.05). Breast and thigh yields, pHu and L*, a*, b* colour values did not differ among groups. With the exception of BSF6, the inclusion of BSF meal did not affect meat traits and carcass characteristics, confirming the potential use of BSF meal in Muscovy duck diets

La lipomatosi congenita infiltrante del volto. Caso Clinico

Congenital infiltrating lipomatosis of the face, first described by Beck in 1836, is a rare condition of unknown etiology, characterized by widespread infiltration of mature fat cells in the context of tissues softening of the face, with associated consequent bone deformities. It is presented as an isolated or associated condition hemimegalencephaly and neurocutaneous syndromes. We describe the case of a 10-year-old patient with known lipomatosis congenital of the face, arrived at our structure for follow up with Computed Tomography (CT) and Resonance Magnetic (RM) .