Towards understanding quality-related characteristics in knowledge-intensive processes: A systematic literature review

Context: Contemporary process management systems have been supporting users during the execution of repetitive, predefined business processes. Many business processes are no longer limited to explicit business rules as processes can be unpredictable, knowledge-driven and emergent. In recent years, knowledge-intensive processes (KIPs) have become more important for many businesses. However, quality-related aspects of these processes are still scarce. Therefore, it is hard to evaluate these types of processes in terms of their quality. Objective: In this paper, we present a Systematic Literature Review aiming at investigating and reporting quality-related aspects of KIPs. Results: We identified in the selected studies the characteristics and methods related to KIPs. Although several papers present quality aspects of processes, literature still lacks directions on the quality-related approaches in KIPs.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Prospective Risk of Intrauterine Death of Monochorionic-Diamniotic Twins

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to calculate the prospective risk of fetal death in monochorionic-diamniotic twins. STUDY DESIGN: We evaluated 193 monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancies that were followed and delivered after 24 weeks. Surveillance included cardiotocography and sonography performed at least once weekly. The prospective risk of fetal death was calculated as the total number of deaths at the beginning of the gestational period divided by the number of continuing pregnancies at or beyond that period. RESULTS: The fetal death rate was 5 of 193 pregnancies (2.6%; 95% CI, 1.1, 5.9); the prospective risk of stillbirth per pregnancy after 32 weeks of gestation was 1.2% (95% CI, 0.3% - 4.2%). CONCLUSION: Under intensive surveillance, the prospective risk of fetal death in monochorionic-diamniotic pregnancies after 32 weeks of gestation is much lower than reported and does not support a policy of elective preterm delivery

Dynamic critical exponents of the Ising model with multispin interactions

We revisit the short-time dynamics of 2D Ising model with three spin interactions in one direction and estimate the critical exponents $z,$ $\theta,$ $\beta$ and $\nu$. Taking properly into account the symmetry of the Hamiltonian we obtain results completely different from those obtained by Wang et al.. For the dynamic exponent $z$ our result coincides with that of the 4-state Potts model in two dimensions. In addition, results for the static exponents $\nu$ and $\beta$ agree with previous estimates obtained from finite size scaling combined with conformal invariance. Finally, for the new dynamic exponent $\theta$ we find a negative and close to zero value, a result also expected for the 4-state Potts model according to Okano et al.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, corrected Abstract mistypes, corrected equation on page 4 (Parameter Q

Alteração nas frequências alélicas em ciclos de seleção recorrente como estratégia para identificação de QTLs para tolerância ao Al em milho.

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Serum serotonin levels and bone in rheumatoid arthritis patients

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a disease characterized by bone loss, increased levels of serotonin have been reported. Recent studies have demonstrated a role for circulating serotonin as a regulator of osteoblastogenesis, inhibiting bone formation. Thus, we measured serum serotonin levels (SSL) in a Portuguese sample of 205 RA patients and related these to anthropometric variables, disease parameters, serum bone biomarkers, and bone mineral density (BMD) assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at several sites (total proximal femur, lumbar spine, left hand, and left second proximal phalange). SSL were inversely associated with body mass index (BMI) in RA women (r = − 0.218; p = 0.005), independent of exposure to biologics and/or bisphosphonates. Among biologic naïves, there was an inverse association between SSL and osteoprotegerin in RA women (r = − 0.260; p = 0.022). Serum β-CTX and dickkopf-1 were strongly associated with SSL in RA men not treated with bisphosphonates (r = 0.590; p < 0.001/r = 0.387; p = 0.031, respectively). There was also an inverse association between SSL and sclerostin in RA men (r = − 0.374; p < 0.05), stronger among biologic naïve or bisphosphonates-unexposed RA men. In crude models, SSL presented as a significant negative predictor of total proximal femur BMD in RA women as well as in postmenopausal RA women. After adjustment for BMI, disease duration, and years of menopause, SSL remained a significant negative predictor of total proximal femur BMD only in postmenopausal RA women. Our data reinforce a role, despite weak, for circulating serotonin in regulating bone mass in RA patients, with some differences in terms of gender and anatomical sites.Associação Nacional de Reumatologia, the study sponsor, had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication

The population impact of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in relation to other non-communicable disorders: comparing two estimation approaches

The aim of this study was to quantify the population impact of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) with other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), using two complementary strategies: standard multivariate models based on global burden of disease (GBD)-defined groups vs. empirical mutually exclusive patterns of NCDs. We used cross-sectional data from the Portuguese Fourth National Health Survey (n = 23,752). Six GBD-defined groups were included: RMDs, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes or renal failure, and stroke or myocardial infarction. The empirical approach comprised the patterns “low disease probability”, “cardiometabolic conditions”, “respiratory conditions” and “RMDs and depression”. As recommended by the outcome measures in rheumatology (OMERACT) initiative, health outcomes included life impact, pathophysiological manifestations, and resource use indicators. Population attributable fractions (PAF) were computed for each outcome and bootstrap confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated. Among GBD-defined groups, RMDs had the highest impact across all the adverse health outcomes, from frequent healthcare utilization (PAF 7.8%, 95% CI 6.2–9.3) to negative self-rated health (PAF 18.1%, 95% CI 15.4–20.6). In the empirical approach, patterns “cardiometabolic conditions” and “RMDs and depression” had similar PAF estimates across all adverse health outcomes, but “RMDs and depression” showed significantly higher impact on chronic pain (PAF 8.9%, 95% CI 7.6–10.3) than the remaining multimorbidity patterns. RMDs revealed the greatest population impact across all adverse health outcomes tested, using both approaches. Empirical patterns are particularly interesting to evaluate the impact of RMDs in the context of their co-occurrence with other NCDs.This study received no specific funding. The funding for EPI Unit is obtained from the National Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT UID/DTP/04750/2013/002). FAA is supported by Grant FCT SFRH/BD/85398/2012, TM by Grant FCT SFRH/BD/92370/2013 and RL by Grant FCT SFRH/BPD/88729/2012

Software Development Analytics in Practice: A Systematic Literature Review

Context:Software Development Analytics is a research area concerned with providing insights to improve product deliveries and processes. Many types of studies, data sources and mining methods have been used for that purpose. Objective:This systematic literature review aims at providing an aggregate view of the relevant studies on Software Development Analytics in the past decade (2010-2019), with an emphasis on its application in practical settings. Method:Definition and execution of a search string upon several digital libraries, followed by a quality assessment criteria to identify the most relevant papers. On those, we extracted a set of characteristics (study type, data source, study perspective, development life-cycle activities covered, stakeholders, mining methods, and analytics scope) and classified their impact against a taxonomy. Results:Source code repositories, experimental case studies, and developers are the most common data sources, study types, and stakeholders, respectively. Product and project managers are also often present, but less than expected. Mining methods are evolving rapidly and that is reflected in the long list identified. Descriptive statistics are the most usual method followed by correlation analysis. Being software development an important process in every organization, it was unexpected to find that process mining was present in only one study. Most contributions to the software development life cycle were given in the quality dimension. Time management and costs control were lightly debated. The analysis of security aspects suggests it is an increasing topic of concern for practitioners. Risk management contributions are scarce. Conclusions:There is a wide improvement margin for software development analytics in practice. For instance, mining and analyzing the activities performed by software developers in their actual workbench, the IDE

CRABP1, C1QL1 and LCN2 are biomarkers of differentiated thyroid carcinoma, and predict extrathyroidal extension

The prognostic variability of thyroid carcinomas has led to the search for accurate biomarkers at the molecular level. Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is a typical example of differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC) in which challenges are faced in the differential diagnosis. Methods: We used high-throughput paired-end RNA sequencing technology to study four cases of FTC with different degree of capsular invasion: two minimally invasive (mFTC) and two widely invasive FTC (wFTC). We searched by genes differentially expressed between mFTC and wFTC, in an attempt to find biomarkers of thyroid cancer diagnosis and/or progression. Selected biomarkers were validated by real-time quantitative PCR in 137 frozen thyroid samples and in an independent dataset (TCGA), evaluating the diagnostic and the prognostic performance of the candidate biomarkers. Results: We identified 17 genes significantly differentially expressed between mFTC and wFTC. C1QL1, LCN2, CRABP1 and CILP were differentially expressed in DTC in comparison with normal thyroid tissues. LCN2 and CRABP1 were also differentially expressed in DTC when compared with follicular thyroid adenoma. Additionally, overexpression of LCN2 and C1QL1 were found to be independent predictors of extrathyroidal extension in DTC. Conclusions: We conclude that the underexpression of CRABP1 and the overexpression of LCN2 may be useful diagnostic biomarkers in thyroid tumours with questionable malignity, and the overexpression of LCN2 and C1QL1 may be useful for prognostic purposes.This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/ Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the project "Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences" (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274). Further funding from the project "Advancing cancer research: from basic knowledgment to application";NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000029; “Projetos Estruturados de I&D&I”, funded by Norte 2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norte; The study was funded by grants from the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme (project number 179571). The funding organizations do not have any interference in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript

The Geometry of Mass Outflows and Fueling Flows in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy Mrk 3

We present a study of the resolved emission-line regions and an inner dust/gas disk in the Seyfert 2 galaxy Mrk 3, based on Hubble Space Telescope observations. We show that the extended narrow-line region (ENLR), spanning ~4 kpc, is defined by the intersection of the ionizing bicone of radiation from the AGN and the inner disk, which is not coplanar with the large-scale stellar disk. This intersection leads to different position and opening angles of the ENLR compared to the narrow-line region (NLR). A number of emission-line arcs in the ENLR appear to be continuations of dust lanes in the disk, supporting this geometry. The NLR, which consists of outflowing emission-line knots spanning the central ~650 pc, is in the shape of a backwards S. This shape may arise from rotation of the gas, or it may trace the original fueling flow close to the nucleus that was ionized after the AGN turned on.Comment: 22 page, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa