An Agent Based Architecture ForComponent-Based Software Development

Today\u27s companies are facing major changes in their organizations due to the changing environment in which they operate. They have to decrease the costs, decrease time to market, and improve quality. These imperatives have led to changes in the placement and role of IS department in the organization (Fried, 1995). Together with the recent advances in communication technology and powerful workstations, end-users have become more involved with the application development. Besides, the business processes change so fast that the traditional SDLC is too slow to keep up with these fluctuating requirements in the application domain. The need for rapid application development to respond to users\u27 changing needs, among the other mentioned trends, encourages the use of reusable software components. In (ATP, 1995), it is stated that at the level of vertical-market products, software design costs are generally $1 million to$10 million with near zero cost of reproducing additional units, and the typical production quantity is one. Reusable software components help organizations recover costs, improve quality through specialization, and develop rapidly from existing components

Characteristics of System Requirements for Electronic Commerce

This paper outlines some critical characteristics of requirements for developing a system designed to support electronic commerce. The characteristics are based not only on traditional user and organizational needs and goals, but also on specific requirement issues that arise in developing network systems and applications for electronic commerce. We then illustrate how an commercial electronic commerce system satisfies the proposed characteristics. A longer version of the paper is available

Determination Of The Features Of Instructional Computer Games

The ultimate goal of computer based education is to design an education-application which interactively presents all the relevant information in the best possible way. Imagine an expert systemwith all the advanced capabilities presents the information by using all sorts of different media, including virtual reality, accesses a rich knowledgebase, and interacts with students as an expert in the field. This kind of a system would provide the knowledge and experience of the best teacher to a large group of people. Today, the use of computers in education is generally an effort to imitate the conventional education by using the computer. But it may be necessary to adapt a totally different approach in order to fully utilize the capabilities of a computer. One of the best ways to utilize the power of the computers in education may be to present the instructional material in the form of an instructional computer game. Computer games can enhance learning while affecting the motivation and retention of knowledge and skills positively. In the context of this paper, learning is defined as enhancing the learning outcomes proposed by Gagné (1985). A game becomes an intentional education tool when the rules which govern the play of the game demand the development and use of educationally valuable skills, the acquisition of important knowledge, or exploration of a worthwhile world of experience

A Comprehensive Method to Assess Work System Security Risk

This article presents a comprehensive method to assess system security risks. The method includes a cohesive set of steps to not only identify a more complete set of security risks but also assess them in a systematic manner. The method is based on the integration of two kinds of models: (1) qualitative models emphasizing security risk factors and security requirement determination and (2) quantitative models that focus on formal evaluation and assessment of system security risks. Unlike most of the existing methods, the proposed method covers the whole process of system security risk assessment spanning all three phases—ascertainment of security requirements, measurement of evidence for security requirements, and evaluation of evidence against the needed security mechanisms. The article extends existing work on system security risk methods by incorporating new ideas of multifaceted security view and work system in a coherent set of steps. The article demonstrates the application of the proposed method to a real application and discusses the major results

An Adaptive Expert Analyst Modeling Support System:Aiding the Analyst in DeterminingInformation System RequirementsDuring the Analysis of an Organization

One of the most difficult tasks in designing information systems is the determination of system requirements. Requirement specifications must deal with three basic questions (1) What should requirements be? (2) How should requirements be derived? (3) How should requirements be stated? Although a number of professionals have discussed the first and third questions, few researchers have addressed the second question (YADAV and Chand, 1989). The analyst remains essentially unassisted in the process of deriving systems requirements. With the advances in IS technology, it seems reasonable to believe that an intelligent support system could assist the systems analyst with this task

DEACON: An Integrated Approach to the Analysis and Design of Enterprise Architecture-Based Computer Networks

The most common approach to network development in the modern organization remains an undocumented, ad hoc method of deploying available technology rapidly to fit within a given cost structure. Current methods largely ignore the importance of integrating the networking strategy of a firm with the overall information systems architecture of the enterprise. To address this problem, a new approach to network analysis and design is presented. The new method integrates existing principles of information systems analysis and design with the unique requirements imposed by distributed systems. The integrated approach seeks to provide the organization with a set of guidelines for allocating resources to a computer network based upon the business goals of a firm. Specifically, the method calls for (1) defining the business problem, (2) modeling business requirements, (3) modeling location requirements, (4) developing a network architecture, (5) simulating network operation, and (6) implementing the network. The method is illustrated and compared to other network development methods. DEACON is found to be an advantageous approach

Object-Oriented Analysis: A Decision-Driven Approach

Recently, many object-oriented analysis and design approaches (OOADs) have been proposed. This research boom may be attributed to the success of applying object-oriented programming (OOP) in embedded systems and systems software. However, object-oriented analysis (OOA) does not seem as successful as object-oriented design (OOD) or OOP [3]. Whereas the extant OOADs claim to perform systems analysis, this goal is seldom fulfilled [3]. Systems analysis consists of two kinds of activities: requirement analysis (problem analysis) and requirement specification (product description) [1]. During therequirement analysis, analysts aim to understand the problem and identify all possible constraints on the problem\u27s solution through observations, interviews, and discussions with experts in the problem domain. The requirement analysis activity analyzes the requirement space of a problem domain. Here, the requirement space is defined as the range of all possible user needs and constraints in a problem domain. Requirement specification, on the other hand, is intended to resolve conflicting views, to eliminate inconsistencies and ambiguities, and to document some particular requirement which describes the expected behavior of the future system. As Hoydalsvik et al [3] indicate, the extant OOADs are target-system oriented. A target-system oriented OOA aims to construct an object -oriented system and represents the requirement in a way more consistent with the design issues than with the users\u27 perception of the problem domain. In other words, it concentrates on a solution and not on understanding the problem. Finding objects and classes is the prevalent trend in the pure OOA. However, as Rubin et al [5] note, there are several problems in searching for objects: 1) The availability of a written requirement specification is usually assumed. Assuming a narrative specification is accessible, an OOAD searches for nouns as objects and for verbs as methods. This approach ignores that a written specification is barely available; even if it is available, ambiguities of text, synonyms, and homonyms are not unusual, 2) there is a strong bias toward the tangible aspects of a problem, and 3) it tends to incorporate all tangible objects of the analysis results. In order to address these shortcomings, an OOA approach should include a systematic procedure to understand the problem and the organization before finding the objects. Decision making is a major activity of an organization [6]. This article proposes a decision-driven OOA approach, which consists of a set of well-organized guidelines and procedures, focuses on the understanding of organizations through the analysis of decision making, and helps derive requirement specification in the form of object models. In particular, this article aims to address the following issues: •What decision making model is more appropriate for understanding the organization? •What aspects of decision making should be captured for understanding the organization? •What steps should an OOA approach have? •What mechanisms can help verify and validate the process of OOA?We will briefly review several OOADs in the next section. The proposed approach will be discussed in the following sectio

Effectiveness of community-based health education and home support program to reduce blood pressure among patients with uncontrolled hypertension in Nepal : a cluster-randomized trial

Background Hypertension is a major global public health problem. Elevated blood pressure can cause cardiovascular and kidney diseases. We assessed the effectiveness of health education sessions and home support programs in reducing blood pressure among patients with uncontrolled hypertension in a suburban community of Nepal. Methods We conducted a community-based, open-level, parallel-group, cluster randomized controlled trial in Birendranagar municipality of Surkhet, Nepal. We randomly assigned four clusters (wards) into intervention and control arms. We provided four health education sessions, frequent home and usual care for intervention groups over six months. The participants of the control arm received only usual care from health facilities. The primary outcome of this study was the proportion of controlled systolic blood pressure (SBP). The analysis included all participants who completed follow-up at six months. Results 125 participants were assigned to either the intervention (n = 63) or the control (n = 62) group. Of them, 60 participants in each group completed six months follow-up. Theproportion of controlled SBP was significantly higher among the intervention participants compared to the control (58.3% vs. 40%). Odds ratio of this was 2.1 with 95% CI: 1.01–4.35 (p = 0.046) and that of controlled diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 1.31 (0.63–2.72) (p = 0.600). The mean change (follow-up minus baseline) in SBP was significantly higher in the intervention than in the usual care (-18.7 mmHg vs. -11.2 mmHg, p = 0.041). Such mean change of DBP was also higher in the intervention (-10.95 mmHg vs. -5.53 mmHg, p = 0.065). The knowledge score on hypertension improved by 2.38 (SD 2.4) in the intervention arm, which was significantly different from that of the control group, 0.13 (1.8) (p<0.001). Conclusions Multiple health education sessions complemented by frequent household visits by health volunteers can effectively improve knowledge on hypertension and reduce blood pressure among uncontrolled hypertensive patients at the community level in Nepal

Electrocardiogram abnormalities and renal impairment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a healthcare facilities-based cross-sectional study in Dang district of Nepal

Aims/Introduction: The global burden of diabetes mellitus is rising substantially, with a further increase in cardiovascular and kidney disease burden. These public health problems are highly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, including Nepal. However, there is limited evidence on cardiac and renal conditions among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We determined the status of electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities and renal impairment among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Nepal. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study in Tulsipur Sub-Metropolitan City of Nepal using a multistage stratified sampling technique to recruit patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We used World Health Organization stepwise approach to surveillance (WHO STEPS) questionnaires and carried out resting ECG to collect data of 345 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Logistic regression analysis assessed the factors associated with ECG abnormalities and renal impairment. Results: The study showed that 6.1% of participants had major ECG abnormalities (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.8–8.6%), which were associated with hypertension (P = 0.01%) and low socioeconomic status (P = 0.01). The proportion of major and/or minor ECG abnormalities was 47.8% (95% CI 40.5–51%), and were significantly associated with age (odds ratio [OR] 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.07), higher education (OR 3.50, 95% CI 1.31–9.33), unemployment (OR 3.02, 95% CI 1.08–8.48), body mass index (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.02–1.17) and duration of type 2 diabetes mellitus >5 years (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.19–4.93). The proportion of renal impairment was 3.5% (95% CI 1.5–4.5%) which was associated with older age (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00–1.17) and hypertension (OR 12.12, 95% CI 1.07–138.22). Conclusion: A significant proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus had ECG abnormalities and renal impairment, which were significantly associated with hypertension. Therefore, hypertension management and early screening are essential to prevent future cardiorenal complications among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus