A new framework and learning tool to enhance the usability of software

Edited version embargoed until 01.03.2018 Full version: Access restricted permanently due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Restriction set on 01.03.2017 by SC, Graduate schoolDue to technological developments, apps (mobile applications) and web-based applications are now used daily by millions of people worldwide. Accordingly, such applications need to be usable by all groups of users, regardless of individual attributes. Thus, software usability measurement is fundamental metric that needs to be evaluated in order to assess software efficiency, effectiveness, learnability and user satisfaction. Consequently, a new approach is required that both educates software novice developers in software evaluation methods and promotes the use of usability evaluation methods to create usable products. This research devised a development framework and learning tool in order to enhance overall awareness and assessment practice. Furthermore, the research also focuses on Usability Evaluation Methods (UEMs) with the objective of providing novice developers with support when making decisions pertaining to the use of learning resources. The proposed development framework and its associated learning resources is titled dEv (Design Evaluation), and it has been devised in order to address the three key challenges identified in the literature review and reinforce by the studies. These three challenges are: (i) the involvement of users in the initial phases of the development process, (ii) the mindset and perspectives of novice developers with regard to various issues as a result of their lack of UEMs or the provision of too many, and (iii) the general lack of knowledge and awareness concerning the importance and value of UEMs. The learning tool was created in line with investigation studies, feedback and novice developers requirements in the initial stages of the development process. An iterative experimental approach was adapted which incorporated the use of interviews and survey-based questionnaires. It was geared towards analysing the framework, learning tool and their various effects. Two subsequent studies were carried out in order to test the approach adopted and provide insight into its results. The studies also reported on their ability to affect novice developers using assessment methods and also to overcome a number of the difficulties associated with UEM application. This suggested approach is valuable when considering two different contributions: primarily, the integration of software evaluation and software development in the dEv framework, which encourages professionals to evaluate across all phases of the development; secondly, it is able to enhance developer awareness and insight with regard to evaluation techniques and their application

Security and privacy aspects of cloud computing : a smart campus case study

The trend of cloud computing is accelerating along with emerging technologies such as utility computing, grid computing, and distributed computing. Cloud computing is showing remarkable potential to provide flexible, cost- effective, and powerful resources across the internet, and is a driving force in today’s most prominent computing technologies. The cloud offers the means to remotely access and store data while virtual machines access data over a network resource. Furthermore, cloud computing plays a leading role in the fourth industrial revolution. Everyone uses the cloud daily life when accessing Dropbox, various Google services, and Microsoft Office 365. While there are many advantages in such an environment, security issues such as data privacy, data security, access control, cyber-attacks, and data availability, along with performance and reliability issues, exist. Efficient security and privacy measures should be implemented by cloud service providers to ensure the privacy, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data services. However, cloud service providers have not been providing enough secure and reliable services to end users. Blockchain is a technology that is improving cloud computing. This revolutionary technology offers persuasive data integrity properties and is used to tackle security problems. This research presents a detailed analysis of privacy and security challenges in the cloud. We demonstrate the importance of security challenges in a case study in the context of smart campus security, which will encourage researchers to examine security issues in cloud computing in the future. © 2022, Tech Science Press. All rights reserved. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Ikram Haq” is provided in this record*

Foot Function Index for Arabic-speaking patients (FFI-Ar) : translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation study

Background: Foot Function Index (FFI) is a valid and reliable outcome measure, which is widely used to measure the foot and ankle functional level and disorders. Until now, no validated Arabic version of the FFI is available. This study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this project was to translate and adapt the FFI into Arabic and to evaluate its psychometric properties of validity and reliability. Methods: The study consisted of two phases. The first phase was the translation and cultural adaptation of the FFI to Arabic. The next phase involved, testing the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the FFI on a sample of 50 consecutive participants which included internal consistency, test–retest reliability, floor and ceiling effects and construct validity. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 38 ± 12.94 years. Both the genders were evenly enrolled with 50% of the participants as male and 50% as female. Majority of them complained of plantar fasciopathy (32%) followed by pes planus (22%) and ankle sprain (18%). The scores of FFI-Ar were normally distributed, confirmed by a significant Shapiro–Wilk test. The mean value of FFI-Ar total score was 47.73 ± 19.85. There were no floor or ceiling effects seen in any of the subscales and total score. The internal consistency was good with the Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.882, 0.936 and 0.850 for the pain, disability and activity limitation subscales, respectively. The reproducibility of the FFI-Ar was analysed by intra-class correlation coefficient which revealed good to excellent test–retest reliability. A significant correlation was found between FFI-Ar and SF-36 and numeric rating scale (NRS) confirming its construct validity. Conclusion: The FFI-Arabic version showed good validity and reliability in patients with foot and ankle problems. This tool can be used in usual practice and research for analysing foot and ankle disorders in Arabic-speaking people

The knowledge and attitude towards prostate cancer and screening practices among males in Saudi Arabia

Background: Early-stage prostate cancer can be asymptomatic. The digital rectal exam (DRE) and the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test are usually used for prostate cancer screening. This study aims to assess knowledge and attitudes towards prostate cancer screening among males in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on Saudi males above the age of 40. A self-reported questionnaire was distributed online. Results: A total of 368 males completed the questionnaire. In the studied group, 64.5% had heard about prostate cancer through social media (46.7%), the internet (40.1%), or healthcare providers (18.6%). In addition, around 20.3% of the participants had heard about the PSA screening test. Moreover, 55.2% of participants had an inadequate level of knowledge about prostate cancer and the PSA test, while 53.1% had a negative attitude. Conclusion: There was a poor level of knowledge and attitude towards screening for prostate cancer among males in Saudi Arabia. This could be due to the lack of education on the risks of prostate cancer by healthcare providers

BrainGAN: Brain MRI Image Generation and Classification Framework Using GAN Architectures and CNN Models

Deep learning models have been used in several domains, however, adjusting is still required to be applied in sensitive areas such as medical imaging. As the use of technology in the medical domain is needed because of the time limit, the level of accuracy assures trustworthiness. Because of privacy concerns, machine learning applications in the medical field are unable to use medical data. For example, the lack of brain MRI images makes it difficult to classify brain tumors using image-based classification. The solution to this challenge was achieved through the application of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)-based augmentation techniques. Deep Convolutional GAN (DCGAN) and Vanilla GAN are two examples of GAN architectures used for image generation. In this paper, a framework, denoted as BrainGAN, for generating and classifying brain MRI images using GAN architectures and deep learning models was proposed. Consequently, this study proposed an automatic way to check that generated images are satisfactory. It uses three models: CNN, MobileNetV2, and ResNet152V2. Training the deep transfer models with images made by Vanilla GAN and DCGAN, and then evaluating their performance on a test set composed of real brain MRI images. From the results of the experiment, it was found that the ResNet152V2 model outperformed the other two models. The ResNet152V2 achieved 99.09% accuracy, 99.12% precision, 99.08% recall, 99.51% area under the curve (AUC), and 0.196 loss based on the brain MRI images generated by DCGAN architecture

Lifestyle of health sciences students at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia

BackgroundWe all want to live a long, happy and healthy life with an abundance of energy and vitality to perform well both mentally and physically. A healthy lifestyle is a valuable resource for reducing the incidence and impact of health problems, enabling you better to cope with life stressors, as well as improving your quality of life.AimsThe study was aimed to assess the lifestyle (eating habits and physical activity) of health sciences students studying at Majmaah University.Methods This cross-sectional institutional based study was conducted from 25th November 2014-3rd May 2015. A total of 450 students (370 males and 80 females) aged between 18–28 years were randomly chosen. Self-reported questionnaire was used for data collection from the College of Medicine, College of Applied Medical Sciences and College of Dentistry.Results Majority of the students, 62.4 per cent, were physically inactive. Students from the College of Medicine, 40.4 per cent, were the most physically active. The most common reason that restrained the students from being active was time limitation. In addition to that, many of the participants, 29.6 per cent, have never had breakfast at home. Also, most of the participants, 42.7 per cent, were not satisfied with their eating habits. Almost one quarter of students were consuming soft drinks more than four times a day.ConclusionThere is a high prevalence of sedentary lifestyle, physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits among health sciences students studying at Majmaah University. There is an urgent need for arranging health education programs for promoting healthy and active living among health sciences students of Majmaah University in Saudi Arabia

LIFESTYLE OF HEALTH SCIENCES STUDENTS AT MAJMAAH UNIVERSITY, SAUDI ARABIA

Background We all want to live a long, happy and healthy life with an abundance of energy and vitality to perform well both mentally and physically. A healthy lifestyle is a valuable resource for reducing the incidence and impact of health problems, enabling you better to cope with life stressors, as well as improving your quality of life. Aims The study was aimed to assess the lifestyle (eating habits and physical activity) of health sciences students studying at Majmaah University. Methods This cross-sectional institutional based study was conducted from 25th November 2014-3rd May 2015. A total of 450 students (370 males and 80 females) aged between 18–28 years were randomly chosen. Self-reported questionnaire was used for data collection from the College of Medicine, College of Applied Medical Sciences and College of Dentistry. Results Majority of the students, 62.4 per cent, were physically inactive. Students from the College of Medicine, 40.4 per cent, were the most physically active. The most common reason that restrained the students from being active was time limitation. In addition to that, many of the participants, 29.6 per cent, have never had breakfast at home. Also, most of the participants, 42.7 per cent, were not satisfied with their eating habits. Almost one quarter of students were consuming soft drinks more than four times a day. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of sedentary lifestyle, physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits among health sciences students studying at Majmaah University. There is an urgent need for arranging health education programs for promoting healthy and active living among health sciences students of Majmaah University in Saudi Arabia

A comprehensive skills analysis of novice software developers working in the professional software development industry

Measuring and evaluating a learner’s learning ability is always the focus of every person whose aim is to develop strategies and plans for their learners to improve the learning process. For example, classroom assessments, self-assessment using computer systems such as Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), and other approaches are available. Assessment of metacognition is one of these techniques. Having the ability to evaluate and monitor one’s learning is known as metacognition. An individual can then propose adjustments to their learning process based on this assessment. By monitoring, improving, and planning their activities, learners who can manage their cognitive skills are better able to manage their knowledge about a particular subject. It is common knowledge that students’ metacognitive and self-assessment skills and abilities have been extensively studied, but no research has been carried out on the mistakes that novice developers make because they do not use their self-assessment abilities enough. This study aims to assess the metacognitive skills and abilities of novice software developers working in the industry and to describe the consequences of awareness of metacognition on their performance. In the proposed study, we experimented with novice software developers and collected data using Devskiller and a self-assessment log to analyze their use of self-regulation skills. The proposed study showed that when developers are asked to reflect upon their work, they become more informed about their habitual mistakes, and using a self-assessment log helps them highlight their repetitive mistakes and experiences which allows them to improve their performance on future tasks