A study of emotions in requirements engineering.

Proceedings of: 3rd World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WKKS 2010), September 22-24, 2010, Corfu (Greece)Requirements engineering (RE) is a crucial activity in software development projects. This phase in the software development cycle is knowledge intensive, and thus, human capital intensive. From the human point of view, emotions play an important role in behavior and can even act as behavioral motivators. Thus, if we consider that RE represents a set of knowledge-intensive tasks, which include acceptance and negotiation activities, then the emotional factor represents a key element in these issues. However, the emotional factor in RE has not received the attention it deserves. This paper aims to integrate the stakeholder’s emotions into the requirement process, proposing to catalogue them like any other factor in the process such as clarity or stability. Results show that high arousal and low pleasure levels are predictors of high versioning requirements.Publicad

A Retrospective Study of Peanut and Tree Nut Allergy: Sensitization and Correlations with Clinical Manifestations

Peanut (PN) and tree nut (TN) allergies are among the leading causes of fatal food-induced anaphylaxis and are increasing in prevalence, especially in children. Their cosensitization and concurrent clinical allergy have been understudied. This retrospective study investigated the correlation between PN and TN allergy, both in terms of in vitro sensitization (IVS) and clinical allergic manifestations. We conducted a retrospective medical record review at the Allergy Clinic at University Hospital of Brooklyn. Fourteen hundred six charts were reviewed, of which 76 (5.4%) had documented relevant clinical allergy: PN allergy but not TN allergy (n = 29) or TN allergy but not PN allergy (n = 11) or both (n = 30). Six patients with PN allergy but no TN exposure history were not included in the analysis. The majority of patients (67/76, 88.1%) had a concurrent history of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, or AD. Sensitivity of TN IVS predicting PN IVS was 38/39 (97%). Similarly, sensitivity of PN IVS predicting TN IVS was 38/42 (91%). Sensitivity of TN clinical allergy predicting PN allergy was 30/59 (51%). Sensitivity of PN clinical allergy predicting TN allergy was 30/41 (73%). The total number of organ systems involved in reported clinical reactions correlated with IVS to TN (p = 0.004) but not IVS to PN (p = 0.983). In summary, we found PN sensitization predicts TN sensitization in vitro, with lower predictability for clinical reactions

NEW RESEARCH Recovering From Early Deprivation: Attachment Mediates Effects of Caregiving on Psychopathology

Objective: Children exposed to early institutional rearing are at risk for developing psychopathology. The present investigation examines caregiving quality and the role of attachment security as they relate to symptoms of psychopathology in young children exposed to early institutionalization. Method: Participants were enrolled in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal intervention study of children abandoned and placed in institutions at or shortly after birth. Measures included observed caregiving when children were 30 months of age, observed attachment security at 42 months, and caregiver reports of children's psychopathology at 54 months. At 54 months, some children remained in institutions, others were in foster care, others had been adopted domestically, and still others had been returned to their biological families. Thus, the children had experienced varying amounts of institutional rearing. Results: After controlling for gender, quality of caregiving when children were 30 months old was associated with symptoms of multiple domains of psychopathology at 54 months of age. Ratings of security of attachment at 42 months mediated the associations between quality caregiving at 30 months and fewer symptoms of psychopathology at 54 months. Conclusions: Among deprived young children, high-quality caregiving at 30 months predicted reduced psychopathology and functional impairment at 54 months. Security of attachment mediated this relationship. Interventions for young children who have experienced deprivation may benefit from explicitly targeting caregiver-child attachment relationships. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 2012;51(7):683-693. Key Words: institutionalization, early childhood, caregiving, attachment, psychopathology S tudies of young children raised in socially deprived institutional settings have documented a substantial increased risk for psychopathology. From the mid-20th century to the present, problems documented in young children living in institutions have included sadness and social withdrawal, anxious and wary behavior, aggression and defiance, hyperactivity and inattentiveness, stereotyped movements, indiscriminate behavior, and disturbances in attachment. 3 Second, when changes in quality of caregiving within institutional settings were quasi-experimentally manipulated, higher quality of care was associated with more favorable outcomes. 2 Collectively, these studies indicate that higher-quality caregiving protects