269 research outputs found

    Learning from mistakes: An empirical study of elicitation interviews performed by novices

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    © 2018 IEEE. [Context] Interviews are the most widely used elicitation technique in requirements engineering. However, conducting effective requirements elicitation interviews is challenging, due to the combination of technical and soft skills that requirements analysts often acquire after a long period of professional practice. Empirical evidence about training the novices on conducting effective requirements elicitation interviews is scarce. [Objectives] We present a list of most common mistakes that novices make in requirements elicitation interviews. The objective is to assist the educators in teaching interviewing skills to student analysts. [Re-search Method] We conducted an empirical study involving role-playing and authentic assessment with 110 students, teamed up in 28 groups, to conduct interviews with a customer. One re-searcher made observation notes during the interview while two researchers reviewed the recordings. We qualitatively analyzed the data to identify the themes and classify the mistakes. [Results and conclusion] We identified 34 unique mistakes classified into 7 high level themes. We also give examples of the mistakes made by the novices in each theme, to assist the educationists and trainers. Our research design is a novel combination of well-known pedagogical approaches described in sufficient details to make it re-peatable for future requirements engineering education and training research

    Age-related changes in anatomical and morphological leaf traits of Wollemia nobilis

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    The results highlight significant variations of Wollemia nobilis leaf traits which reflect age-related changes of the subsequent growth units along the branches. Age-related changes appear in a gradual increase of leaf size from young leaves to old leaves. The LMA increasing from 13.75 g/cm(2) in current year leaves to 24.84 g/cm(2) in 7 year leaves is associated with an increment of the number of lignified elements (vascular tissues, astrosclereids), of hypodermal and epidermal-cuticle structures (cuticle, wax layer) and of oil bodies abundance, which may increase resistance to stress factors. These characteristics highlight that W. nobilis leaves can adapt to variable environmental conditions with a return rate on a larger time-scale since leaves on a branch stay alive for a long time until the branch dies

    SARS-CoV2 and immunosuppression. A double-edged sword

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    Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov2) outbreak has caused a pandemic rapidly impacting on the way of life of the entire world. This impact in the specific setting of transplantation and immunosuppression has been poorly explored to date. Discordant data exist on the impact of previous coronavirus outbreaks on immunosuppressed patients. Overall, only a very limited number of cases have been reported in literature, suggesting that transplanted patients not necessarily present an increased risk of severe SARS-Cov2-related disease compared to the general population. We conducted a literature review related to the impact of immunosuppression on coronavirus infections including case reports and series describing immunosuppression management in transplant recipients. The role of steroids, calcineurin inhibitors, and mycophenolic acid has been explored more in detail. A point-in-time snapshot of the yet released literature and some considerations in relation to the use of immunosuppression in SARS-Cov2 infected transplant recipients are provided here for the physicians dealing with immunocompromised patients

    A non-interleaving process calculus for multi-party synchronisation

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    We introduce the wire calculus. Its dynamic features are inspired by Milner's CCS: a unary prefix operation, binary choice and a standard recursion construct. Instead of an interleaving parallel composition operator there are operators for synchronisation along a common boundary and non-communicating parallel composition. The (operational) semantics is a labelled transition system obtained with SOS rules. Bisimilarity is a congruence with respect to the operators of the language. Quotienting terms by bisimilarity results in a compact closed category

    Integrated Structure and Semantics for Reo Connectors and Petri Nets

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    In this paper, we present an integrated structural and behavioral model of Reo connectors and Petri nets, allowing a direct comparison of the two concurrency models. For this purpose, we introduce a notion of connectors which consist of a number of interconnected, user-defined primitives with fixed behavior. While the structure of connectors resembles hypergraphs, their semantics is given in terms of so-called port automata. We define both models in a categorical setting where composition operations can be elegantly defined and integrated. Specifically, we formalize structural gluings of connectors as pushouts, and joins of port automata as pullbacks. We then define a semantical functor from the connector to the port automata category which preserves this composition. We further show how to encode Reo connectors and Petri nets into this model and indicate applications to dynamic reconfigurations modeled using double pushout graph transformation

    Leishmania infantum Seroprevalence in Cats From Touristic Areas of Italy and Greece

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    Leishmaniosis by Leishmania infantum is a major zoonotic Vector-Borne Disease (VBD) in terms of geographic distribution, pathogenicity and zoonotic potential. While dogs are the main reservoir of L. infantum, the infection in cats is poorly understood although increasingly reported from enzootic and non-enzootic areas. The Mediterranean basin is a key area for leishmaniosis and includes touristic spots that require continuous surveillance for VBDs in consideration of the growing tendency of tourists to travel with their pets. This study evaluated L. infantum seroprevalence in cats living in selected touristic localities of Italy and Greece. A total of 269 cat serum samples from three Sites i.e., 76, 40, and 153 from Adriatic Coast of Abruzzo, Italy (Site A), Giglio Island, Tuscany, Italy (Site B), and Mykonos Island, Greece (Site C), respectively, were included in the survey. Sera samples were subjected to an indirect immunofluorescence antibody assay for the detection of anti-L. infantum specific IgG. Associations between possible risk factors and seropositivity to L. infantum were statistically evaluated. Antibodies against L. infantum were detected in eight out of 269 (3.0%) cats tested i.e., 4/76 (5.3%), 1/40 (2.5%), and 3/153 (2.0%), from sites A, B, and C, respectively. A statistical association between anti-L. infantum antibodies and cohabitation with dogs was shown. This study indicates that feline populations living in the examined Italian and Greek touristic areas are exposed to L. infantum and that they may contribute to the circulation of L. infantum, enhancing the risk of infection for dogs and humans

    Towards an embedding of Graph Transformation in Intuitionistic Linear Logic

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    Linear logics have been shown to be able to embed both rewriting-based approaches and process calculi in a single, declarative framework. In this paper we are exploring the embedding of double-pushout graph transformations into quantified linear logic, leading to a Curry-Howard style isomorphism between graphs and transformations on one hand, formulas and proof terms on the other. With linear implication representing rules and reachability of graphs, and the tensor modelling parallel composition of graphs and transformations, we obtain a language able to encode graph transformation systems and their computations as well as reason about their properties
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