NDT-Agile: An Agile, CMMI-Compatible Framework for Web Engineering

Agile and Web Engineering show important synergies, making Agile a common approach for Web development. Besides, several initiatives emerged to support CMMI-DEV within Agile, where CMMI-DEV aims to improve organizations’ software development process. An approach integrating Agile, Web and CMMI-DEV might be of great value, since they might allow Web development teams to use Agile, as well as progress through CMMI-DEV maturity levels. For this purpose, we developed NDT-Agile, an NDT-based Agile framework to achieve the goals of CMMI-DEV in the context of Web Engineering. It was developed by mapping Agile practices to the goals of CMMI-DEV so as to identify existing gaps. Next, we searched for suitable Agile practices to cover the gaps and integrated them into a framework called NDTAgile, which was validated using an expert-judgment technique: the Delphi method. This paper describes how we integrated Agile and CMMI-DEV into a Web Engineering framework. Besides, it also analyzes its initial evaluation, together with a first tool developed to support it.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

INNOVA Research Journal

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo determinar la importancia del Órgano de Solución de Diferencias de la OMC dentro de las negociaciones sobre el acceso a los mercados internacionales. El área que se está investigando es el funcionamiento de la OMC especialmente, cómo esta resuelve las diferencias entre países, especialmente teniendo en cuenta el análisis de costo-beneficio que se incurre. La investigación se lleva a cabo a través de la revisión de fuentes primarias y secundarias con un enfoque cualitativo y comparativo así como perspectiva analítica y descriptiva. El resultado que se obtuvo después de estudiar dos casos específicamente en Ecuador, nos muestra cómo el organismo proporciona buenas oportunidades de desarrollo comercial a nivel mundial con ahorro de recursos. Se recomienda que los países hagan conciencia y permitan que estos organismos les asesoren al momento de tomar decisiones y resolver conflictos en búsqueda de un comercio más eficaz y eficiente

Pentraxin 3 in patients with severe sepsis or shock: the ALBIOS trial

Background: The long pentraxin PTX3 is a key component of the humoral arm of innate immunity related to sepsis severity and mortality. We evaluated the clinical and prognostic significance of circulating PTX3 in the largest cohort ever reported of patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. Materials and methods: Plasma PTX3 was measured on days 1, 2 and 7 after randomization of 958 patients to albumin or crystalloids for fluid resuscitation in the multicentre Albumin Italian Outcome Sepsis (ALBIOS) trial. We tested the association of PTX3 and its changes over time with clinical severity, prevalent and incident organ dysfunctions, 90-day mortality and treatment. Results: PTX3 was high at baseline (72 [33\u2013186] ng/mL) and rose with the severity and number of organ dysfunctions (P < 0\ub7001) and the incidence of subsequent new failures. The PTX3 concentration dropped from day 1 to 7, but this decrease was less pronounced in patients with septic shock (P = 0\ub70004). Higher concentrations of PTX3 on day 1 predicted incident organ dysfunctions. Albumin supplementation was associated with lower levels of PTX3 in patients with septic shock (P = 0\ub7005) but not in those without shock. In a fully adjusted multivariable model, PTX3 on day 7 predicted 90-day mortality. Smaller drops in PTX3 predicted higher 90-day mortality. Conclusions: In severe sepsis and septic shock, early high PTX3 predict subsequent new organ failures, while a smaller drop in circulating PTX3 over time predicts an increased risk of death. Patients with septic shock show lower levels of PTX3 when assigned to albumin than to crystalloids

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field