340 research outputs found
Towards an operationalization of test-driven development skills: An industrial empirical study
Abstract Context: The majority of the empirical studies on Test-driven development (TDD) are concerned with verifying or refuting the effectiveness of the technique over a traditional approach, and they tend to neglect whether the subjects possess the necessary skills to apply TDD, though they argue such skills are necessary. Objective: We evaluate a set of minimal, a priori and in process skills necessary to apply TDD. We determine whether variations in external quality (i.e., number of defects) and productivity (i.e., number of features implemented) can be associated with different clusters of the TDD skills? set. Method: We executed a quasi-experiment involving 30 practitioners from industry. We first grouped the participants according to their TDD skills? set (consisting of a priori experience on programming and testing as well as in-process TDD conformance) into three levels (Low-Medium-High) using k-means clustering. We then applied ANOVA to compare the clusters in terms of external quality and productivity, and conducted post-hoc pairwise analysis. Results: We did not observe a statistically significant difference between the clusters either for external software quality ( F ( 2 , 27 = 1.44 , p = . 260 ), or productivity ( F ( 2 , 27 ) = 3.02 , p = . 065 ). However, the analysis of the effect sizes and their confidence intervals shows that the TDD skills? set is a factor that could account for up to 28% of the external quality, and 38% for productivity. Conclusion: We have reason to conclude that focusing on the improvement of TDD skills? set investigated in this study could benefit software developers in improving their baseline productivity and the external quality of the code they produce. However, replications are needed to overcome the issues related with the statistical power of this study. We suggest practical insights for future work to investigate the phenomenon further.hisresearchispartiallysupportedbytheAcademyofFinlandwithdecisionno.:278354,andbyFinnishDistinguishedProfessor(Fi.Di.Pro.) programme, ESEIL
EVALUATION OF A HAEMOSTATIC AGENT IN RABBITS
Topical hemostatic agents are applied locally to areas of injured vascular endothelium to control local bleeding. Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) has gained approval in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina as a topical haemostatic agent for external post-surgical and post-dental surgery bleeding. The safety of topical use of ABS has been demonstrated in numerous in vitro and in vivo animal models, as well as in a clinical Phase I trial in humans. ABS, besides its haemostatic activity, also has in vitro anti-infectious and anti-neoplastic effects. To assess potential detrimental effects of intravenous administration of ABS into intact systemic circulation in a rabbit experimental model, one milliliter of ABS was administered intravenously into the systemic circulation of twelve rabbits which were included in the study via the marginal ear vein. Animals were observed for 1 hr before euthanasia was performed by administering 40 mg of intracardiac suxamethonium chloride. In the event of death (cardiopulmonary arrest) before the end of the planned observation period of 60 minutes, time of death was recorded and histopathological examination of the liver and spleen was commenced. Ten rabbits were alive by the end of the planned observation period, without showing any clear signs of discomfort, whereas two animals died within five minutes after systemic administration of intravenous ABS. Postmortem histopathological examination of the livers and spleens of all animals’ revealed findings consistent with hepatic venous outflow obstruction. Systemic intravascular administration of ABS into intact vascular endothelium should never be performed in any setting. Further experimental and clinical studies on this liquid hemostatic agent should proceed by accepting ABS as purely a topical haemostatic agent, to be applied solely to areas of injured vascular endothelium
Mean platelet volume could be a promising biomarker to monitor dietary compliance in celiac disease
Background. Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease that develops in patients with a genetic predisposition, incurring a susceptibility to gluten-containing foods such as barley, wheat, and rye. The elimination of gluten from the diet is the main therapeutic approach and usually leads to clinical and laboratory improvement. There are no ideal markers that objectively assess dietary compliance in CD patients. Materials and methods. Sixty newly diagnosed CD patients (male/female: 43/17) and 40 healthy subjects (male/female: 23/17) were enrolled in this study. The diagnosis of CD was established by both histological findings of duodenum biopsy (total villous atrophy and lymphocytic infiltration) and positive antibodies against endomysium or gliadin. Results. A significantly higher mean platelet volume (MPV) was observed in the CD group compared with healthy subjects (8.45 +/- 0.96 fL versus 7.93 +/- 0.63 fL; p = 0.004). After introduction of a gluten-free diet, the MPV of CD patients in the dietary adherent group was significantly lower than that of the non-adherent group (8.09 +/- 0.6 fL versus 8.9 +/- 1.08 fL; p = 0.001). Overall dietary adherence rate was 71.6% (43/60 CD patients). In the dietary compliant group, initiation of gluten-free diet was associated with a significant decrease in MPV from base-line values (8.56 fL versus 8.25 fL; p = 0.008). In the non-adherent group, MPV on 3-month follow-up was higher than at base-line (8.05 fL versus 8.91 fL; p = 0.001). Conclusion. MPV could be a promising and easily available biomarker for monitoring of dietary adherence in CD patients at a low cost in comparison with other modalities.WoSScopu
Intrauterine pregnancy following low-dose gonadotropin ovulation induction and direct intraperitoneal insemination for severe cervical stenosis
BACKGROUND: We present a case of primary infertility related to extreme cervical stenosis, a subset of cervical factor infertility which accounts for approximately 5% of all clinical infertility referrals. CASE PRESENTATION: A 37 year-old nulligravida was successfully treated with ovulation induction via recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and direct intraperitoneal insemination (IPI). Anticipating controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer (IVF), the patient underwent hysteroscopy and cervical recanalization, but safe intrauterine access was not possible due to severe proximal cervical stricture. Hysterosalpingogram established bilateral tubal patency and confirmed an irregular cervical contour. Since the cervical canal could not be traversed, neither standard intrauterine insemination nor transcervical embryo transfer could be offered. Prepared spermatozoa were therefore placed intraperitoneally at both tubal fimbria under real-time transvaginal sonographic guidance using a 17 gage single-lumen IVF needle. Supplementary progesterone was administered as 200 mg/d lozenge (troche) plus 200 mg/d rectal suppository, maintained from the day following IPI to the 8(th )gestational week. A singleton intrauterine pregnancy was achieved after the second ovulation induction attempt. CONCLUSIONS: In this report, we outline the relevance of cervical factor infertility to reproductive medicine practice. Additionally, our andrology evaluation, ovulation induction approach, spermatozoa preparation, and insemination technique in such cases are described
The Effects of Cocaine on Different Redox Forms of Cysteine and Homocysteine, and on Labile, Reduced Sulfur in the Rat Plasma Following Active versus Passive Drug Injections
Received: 28 November 2012 / Revised: 19 April 2013 / Accepted: 6 May 2013 / Published online: 16 May 2013
The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThe aim of the present studies was to evaluate
cocaine-induced changes in the concentrations of different
redox forms of cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy),
and products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, i.e., labile,
reduced sulfur (LS) in the rat plasma. The above-mentioned
parameters were determined after i.p. acute and
subchronic cocaine treatment as well as following i.v.
cocaine self-administration using the yoked procedure.
Additionally, Cys, Hcy, and LS levels were measured
during the 10-day extinction training in rats that underwent
i.v. cocaine administration. Acute i.p. cocaine treatment
increased the total and protein-bound Hcy contents,
decreased LS, and did not change the concentrations of Cys
fractions in the rat plasma. In turn, subchronic i.p. cocaine administration significantly increased free Hcy and lowered
the total and protein-bound Cys concentrations while
LS level was unchanged. Cocaine self-administration
enhanced the total and protein-bound Hcy levels, decreased
LS content, and did not affect the Cys fractions. On the
other hand, yoked cocaine infusions did not alter the concentration
of Hcy fractions while decreased the total and
protein-bound Cys and LS content. This extinction training
resulted in the lack of changes in the examined parameters
in rats with a history of cocaine self-administration while in
the yoked cocaine group an increase in the plasma free Cys
fraction and LS was seen. Our results demonstrate for the
first time that cocaine does evoke significant changes in
homeostasis of thiol amino acids Cys and Hcy, and in some
products of anaerobic Cys metabolism, which are dependent
on the way of cocaine administration
An industry experiment on the effects of test-driven development on external quality and productivity
Existing empirical studies on test-driven development (TDD) report different conclusions about its effects on quality and productivity. Very few of those studies are experiments conducted with software professionals in industry. We aim to analyse the effects of TDD on the external quality of the work done and the productivity of developers in an industrial setting. We conducted an experiment with 24 professionals from three different sites of a software organization. We chose a repeated-measures design, and asked subjects to implement TDD and incremental test last development (ITLD) in two simple tasks and a realistic application close to real-life complexity. To analyse our findings, we applied a repeated-measures general linear model procedure and a linear mixed effects procedure. We did not observe a statistical difference between the quality of the work done by subjects in both treatments. We observed that the subjects are more productive when they implement TDD on a simple task compared to ITLD, but the productivity drops significantly when applying TDD to a complex brownfield task. So, the task complexity significantly obscured the effect of TDD. Further evidence is necessary to conclude whether TDD is better or worse than ITLD in terms of external quality and productivity in an industrial setting. We found that experimental factors such as selection of tasks could dominate the findings in TDD studies.This research has been partly funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
projects TIN2011-23216, the Distinguished Professor Program of Tekes, and the Academy of Finland (Grant
Decision No. 260871)
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