REWARDING AND SUCCESS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

The purpose of the research is to determine the causes of failure of information systems development projects. We came to the hypothesis that rewarding can improve the success of information systems development projects. For this reason, it is suggested that employment contracts be tied to business results. Extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are a good motivator that affects the improvement of employee performance, i.e. increases productivity, business results and job satisfaction and contributes to increasing the success of information systems development projects. Designers and managers of information systems development projects who participated in the research, gave their views on the impact of rewards on the success of the information systems development project in response to survey questions. The attitudes were evaluated on a five-point Likert scales. We obtained additional data based on conversations with managers and designers who deal with the development of information systems. Through the research design, we determined an independent variable related to the employment contract based on business results, which is the basis for the application of various forms of remuneration, and a dependent variable related to the success of the information systems development project. The main findings of the research are related to the definition of the contract between the owner on the one hand and managers and designers on the other hand, which solves the problems of opportunistic behavior of managers and designers of information systems development project. In addition, the factors of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that are most often used to motivate managers and designers of information systems development are defined. The practical implications of the research refer to the benefits that the company owner, managers and designers of the information systems development will have. They will receive the best model of employment contract for employees working on the development of an information systems project. In addition, they will receive information about the views of designers and project managers related to reward factors that improve the success of the information systems development project. The originality of the research refers to the creation of a model that links the work contract based on business results with reward factors that help to increase the success of the information systems development project

Improving unified process methodology by implementing new quality management discipline

Unified process, a leading software development methodology, allows project teams to incrementally build their software and structurally defines project roles, phases, iterations and disciplines. One of the issues that arise when applying unified process is absence of discipline for quality assurance and control. This research aims to define new discipline entitled “quality management of software development” and its processes, in order to produce modified version of unified process, suitable for continually controlling quality in software development projects. This discipline will integrate ISO 9126 “Software engineering – product quality”, which is an international standard for addressing software quality and quality control tools, as proposed by Project Management Book of Knowledge 2010. Main hypothesis of this research is that, by defining and integrating new discipline of quality management, project teams that employ this new, modified version of unified process, will be able to produce software of higher quality level. Experimental research is conducted on four software development projects, ranging from 2009 to 2010, two of which use standard, and two of which use modified unified process model. Research results show higher software quality levels in two projects that use modified unified process methodology.peer-reviewe

Interactive Visual Analysis of Structure-borne Noise Data

Numerical simulation has become omnipresent in the automotive domain, posing new challenges such as high-dimensional parameter spaces and large as well as incomplete and multi-faceted data. In this design study, we show how interactive visual exploration and analysis of high-dimensional, spectral data from noise simulation can facilitate design improvements in the context of conflicting criteria. Here, we focus on structure-borne noise, i.e., noise from vibrating mechanical parts. Detecting problematic noise sources early in the design and production process is essential for reducing a product's development costs and its time to market. In a close collaboration of visualization and automotive engineering, we designed a new, interactive approach to quickly identify and analyze critical noise sources, also contributing to an improved understanding of the analyzed system. Several carefully designed, interactive linked views enable the exploration of noises, vibrations, and harshness at multiple levels of detail, both in the frequency and spatial domain. This enables swift and smooth changes of perspective; selections in the frequency domain are immediately reflected in the spatial domain, and vice versa. Noise sources are quickly identified and shown in the context of their neighborhood, both in the frequency and spatial domain. We propose a novel drill-down view, especially tailored to noise data analysis. Split boxplots and synchronized 3D geometry views support comparison tasks. With this solution, engineers iterate over design optimizations much faster, while maintaining a good overview at each iteration. We evaluated the new approach in the automotive industry, studying noise simulation data for an internal combustion engine.Comment: Accepted for IEEE VIS 2022 and IEEE TVC

Sexual dimorphism of medium-sized neurons with spines in human nucleus accumbens

The nucleus accumbens is a limbic nucleus, representing part of the striatum body, and together with the caudate nucleus and putamen, it lies on the septum. The aim of this study was to examine morphological sexual dimorphism in spine density and also to undertake an immunohistochemical study of expression for estrogen and progesterone receptors in the medium-sized neurons in the nucleus accumbens. The research was conducted on twenty human brains of persons of both sexes, between the age of 20-75 years. The Golgi method was applied to determine the types and subtypes of neurons, morphologies of soma, dendrites and axons, as well as the relations between the cells and glial elements. The following were quantitatively examined: the maximum diameter of the neurons, the minimal diameter of the neurons, and the total length of the dendrites. The expression of receptors for estrogen and progesterone, their distribution and intensity were defined immunohistochemically. The parameters of the bodies of neurons in the shell and core of the nucleus accumbens were studied in both men and women. No statistically significant differences were found. Examination of the spine density showed statistical significance in terms of a higher density of spines in women. Immunohistochemically, in the female brain estrogen expression is diffusely spread in a large number of neurons; it is extra nuclear, of granular appearance and high intensity. In the male brain, expression of estrogen is visible and distributed over about one half of different types of neurons; it is extra nuclear, of granular appearance, mostly of middle and low staining intensity. Expression of progesterone in the female brain was very discreet and on a very small number of neurons; it was extra nuclear and with a weak staining intensity. Expression of progesterone in the male brain was distributed on a small number of neurons. It had a granular appearance, it was extra nuclear, with a very low staining intensity. Our results show differences in the morphology as well as expression of receptors for estrogen and progesterone on medium-sized neurons with spines in the nucleus accumbens of men and women

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

A New Auronolignan from the Cotinus coggygria Heartwood

A new auronolignan, named cotinignan B, was isolated from Cotinus coggygria Scop. Structure elucidation was performed on the basis of 1H, 13C NMR, COSY, NOESY, HSQC, and HMBC experiments, supported with HR-ESI-MS, IR and UV. Additional J-HMBC NMR experiment was essential to resolve the configuration of the trisubstituted double bond. This compound represents the secondly discovered natural compound belonging to the rare auronolignan type

Prestress in the extracellular matrix sensitizes latent TGF-β1 for activation.

Integrin-mediated force application induces a conformational change in latent TGF-β1 that leads to the release of the active form of the growth factor from the extracellular matrix (ECM). Mechanical activation of TGF-β1 is currently understood as an acute process that depends on the contractile force of cells. However, we show that ECM remodeling, preceding the activation step, mechanically primes latent TGF-β1 akin to loading a mechanical spring. Cell-based assays and unique strain devices were used to produce a cell-derived ECM of controlled organization and prestrain. Mechanically conditioned ECM served as a substrate to measure the efficacy of TGF-β1 activation after cell contraction or direct force application using magnetic microbeads. The release of active TGF-β1 was always higher from prestrained ECM as compared with unorganized and/or relaxed ECM. The finding that ECM prestrain regulates the bioavailability of TGF-β1 is important to understand the context of diseases that involve excessive ECM remodeling, such as fibrosis or cancer

Burden of non-communicable disease studies in Europe : a systematic review of data sources and methodological choices

Background Assessment of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) resulting from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) requires specific calculation methods and input data. The aims of this study were to (i) identify existing NCD burden of disease (BoD) activities in Europe; (ii) collate information on data sources for mortality and morbidity; and (iii) provide an overview of NCD-specific methods for calculating NCD DALYs. Methods NCD BoD studies were systematically searched in international electronic literature databases and in grey literature. We included all BoD studies that used the DALY metric to quantify the health impact of one or more NCDs in countries belonging to the European Region. Results A total of 163 BoD studies were retained: 96 (59%) were single-country or sub-national studies and 67 (41%) considered more than one country. Of the single-country studies, 29 (30%) consisted of secondary analyses using existing Global Burden of Disease (GBD) results. Mortality data were mainly derived (49%) from vital statistics. Morbidity data were frequently (40%) drawn from routine administrative and survey datasets, including disease registries and hospital discharge databases. The majority (60%) of national BoD studies reported mortality corrections. Multimorbidity adjustments were performed in 18% of national BoD studies. Conclusion The number of national NCD BoD assessments across Europe increased over time, driven by an increase in BoD studies that consisted of secondary data analysis of GBD study findings. Ambiguity in reporting the use of NCD-specific BoD methods underlines the need for reporting guidelines of BoD studies to enhance the transparency of NCD BoD estimates across Europe