Software architecture visualisation

Tracing the history of software engineering reveals a series of abstractions. In early days, software engineers would construct software using machine code. As time progressed, software engineers and computer scientists developed higher levels of abstraction in order to provide tools to assist in building larger software systems. This has resulted in high-level languages, modelling languages, design patterns, and software architecture. Software architecture has been recognised as an important tool for designing and building software. Some research takes the view that the success or failure of a software development project depends heavily on the quality of the software architecture. For any software system, there are a number of individuals who have some interest in the architecture. These stakeholders have differing requirements of the software architecture depending on the role that they take. Stakeholders include the architects, designers, developers and also the sales, services and support teams and even the customer for the software. Communication and understanding of the architecture is essential in ensuring that each stakeholder can play their role during the design, development and deployment of that software system. Software visualisation has traditionally been focused on aiding the understanding of software systems by those who perform development and maintenance tasks on that software. In supporting developers and maintainers, software visualisation has been largely concerned with representing static and dynamic aspects of software at the code level. Typically, a software visualisation will represent control flow, classes, objects, import relations and other such low level abstractions of the software. This research identifies the fundamental issues concerning software architecture visualisation. It does this by identifying the practical use of software architecture in the real world, and considers the application of software visualisation techniques to the visualisation of software architecture. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which software architecture visualisation can assist in the tasks undertaken by the differing stakeholders in a software system and its architecture. A prototype tool, named ArchVis, has been developed to enable the exploration of some of the fundamental issues in software architecture visualisation. ArchVis is a new approach to software architecture visualisation that is capable of utilising multiple sources and representations of architecture in order to generate multiple views of software architecture. The mechanism by which views are generated means that they can be more relevant to a wider collection of stakeholders in that architecture. During evaluation ArchVis demonstrates the capability of utilising a number of data sources in order to produce architecture visualisations. Arch Vis' view model is capable of generating the necessary views for architecture stakeholders and those stakeholders can navigate through the views and data in order to obtain relevant information. The results of evaluating ArchVis using a framework and scenarios demonstrate that the majority of the objectives of this research have been achieved

On-Site vs. Off-Site practices of MSD intervention and its impact on Organizational - Productivity, Absenteeism and Costs.Theoretical analysis with application

Purpose: To establish to what degree musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) impacted employee productivity, and to compare the impact of an On-Site, verses an Off-Site care strategy in the context of MSD related productivity losses, absenteeism and the associated costs. Theoretical Foundation: MSDs have been shown to be the single greatest cause of long, short and permanent work disability globally and a primary driver of direct and indirect costs. Presenteeism, has been shown to cost organization more in productivity losses than absenteeism or direct medical costs. Methods: Two studies were performed to evaluate similar, seated computer-based employees from three large corporations. Productivity study, done in two phases to measure the impact that MSDs have on employee productivity and to measure the impact of the On-Site MSD treatment. The instrument used was; the WLQ or Work Limitations Questionnaire. The Absenteeism study measured and compared absenteeism rates between employees who used the On-Site clinics in the past year, with employees with MSDs who chose Off-site options. An Absenteeism Questionnaire was used to measure MSD related absenteeism in the context of disability days, treatments, medical consults and diagnostics. An average wage method was used to calculate the average cost per-year, per-case (employee). Findings: Phase 1: WLQ average Lost Productivity Score of 10.5% which translated into an average total lost productivity cost of €1,478.25 per year. The Phase 2 follow up revealed the study group WLQ score dropped from 10.5% to 1.86% at a saving of €1,197.71 per person per year. The Control group average WLQ score was 11.2% and rose to 12.06%, or an additional loss of €118.13 per person per year. Absenteeism study; Total average absenteeism in working hours per-person, per-year, On-Site vs. Off-Site were, 16.62 hours and 68.38 hours respectively costing €108.07 and €444.72 respectively. The average time an employee needed to wait, from the time of onset of symptom, to the time of first treatment, was 3.6 days (28.8 working hours) for On-Site and 14.09 days (119.2 working hours) for Off-Site respectively. Conclusion: MSDs contributed greatly to costly employee productivity losses and presenteeism, and an On-Site treatment strategy significantly reduced productivity losses. The On-Site intervention demonstrated significantly lower absenteeism rates and lower disability rates, required fewer treatments, external consults and external diagnostics and less waiting time than employees seeking Off-Site care. Originality: Measuring the comparative economic impact on organizations between On-Site and Off-Site treatment strategies for MSDs. This study measured productivity losses as presenteeism, and absenteeism, in terms of days and hours lost for medical treatments and exams as well as the impact of a presenteeism lowering strategies for MSDs. Limitations: On-Site MSD clinics are rare. The sample did not represent the general Portuguese population. The average wage formula did not allow for actual costs. Study was not blinded. Practical and Research Implications: The On-Site model can be used with larger samples representing a wider spectrum of the population which could potentially lead to a cost-effective strategy for the government (SNS), and a decreased burden on the health care systems

Towards a teacher-centric approach for multi-touch surfaces in classrooms

The potential of tabletops to enable simultaneous interaction and face-to-face collaboration can provide novel learning opportunities. Despite significant research in the area of collaborative learning around tabletops, little attention has been paid to the integration of multi-touch surfaces into classroom layouts and how to employ this technology to facilitate teacher-learner dialogue and teacher-led activities across multi-touch surfaces. While most existing techniques focus on the collaboration between learners, this work aims to gain a better understanding of practical challenges that need to be considered when integrating multi-touch surfaces into classrooms. It presents a multi-touch interaction technique, called TablePortal, which enables teachers to manage and monitor collaborative learning on students' tables. Early observations of using the proposed technique within a novel classroom consisting of networked

Measurements of Isoprene-Derived Organosulfates in Ambient Aerosols by Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry—Part 2: Temporal Variability and Formation Mechanisms

Organosulfate species have recently gained attention for their potentially significant contribution to secondary organic aerosol (SOA); however, their temporal behavior in the ambient atmosphere has not been probed in detail. In this work, organosulfates derived from isoprene were observed in single particle mass spectra in Atlanta, GA during the 2002 Aerosol Nucleation and Characterization Experiment (ANARChE) and the 2008 August Mini-Intensive Gas and Aerosol Study (AMIGAS). Real-time measurements revealed that the highest organosulfate concentrations occurred at night under a stable boundary layer, suggesting gas-to-particle partitioning and subsequent aqueous-phase processing of the organic precursors played key roles in their formation. Further analysis of the diurnal profile suggests possible contributions from multiple production mechanisms, including acid-catalysis and radical-initiation. This work highlights the potential for additional SOA formation pathways in biogenically influenced urban regions to enhance the organic aerosol burden

Measurements of Isoprene-Derived Organosulfates in Ambient Aerosols by Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry - Part 1: Single Particle Atmospheric Observations in Atlanta

Organosulfate species have recently been identified as a potentially significant class of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) species, yet little is known about their behavior in the atmosphere. In this work, organosulfates were observed in individual ambient aerosols using single particle mass spectrometry in Atlanta, GA during the 2002 Aerosol Nucleation and Characterization Experiment (ANARChE) and the 2008 August Mini-Intensive Gas and Aerosol Study (AMIGAS). Organosulfates derived from biogenically produced isoprene were detected as deprotonated molecular ions in negative-ion spectra measured by aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry; comparison to high-resolution mass spectrometry data obtained from filter samples corroborated the peak assignments. The size-resolved chemical composition measurements revealed that organosulfate species were mostly detected in submicrometer aerosols and across a range of aerosols from different sources, consistent with secondary reaction products. Detection of organosulfates in a large fraction of negative-ion ambient spectra − ca. 90−95% during ANARChE and ~65% of submicrometer particles in AMIGAS − highlights the ubiquity of organosulfate species in the ambient aerosols of biogenically influenced urban environments

Association between Outdoor Air Pollution and Childhood Leukemia: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis.

BackgroundA causal link between outdoor air pollution and childhood leukemia has been proposed, but some older studies suffer from methodological drawbacks. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic reviews have summarized the most recently published evidence and no analyses have examined the dose-response relation.ObjectiveWe investigated the extent to which outdoor air pollution, especially as resulting from traffic-related contaminants, affects the risk of childhood leukemia.MethodsWe searched all case-control and cohort studies that have investigated the risk of childhood leukemia in relation to exposure either to motorized traffic and related contaminants, based on various traffic-related metrics (number of vehicles in the closest roads, road density, and distance from major roads), or to measured or modeled levels of air contaminants such as benzene, nitrogen dioxide, 1,3-butadiene, and particulate matter. We carried out a meta-analysis of all eligible studies, including nine studies published since the last systematic review and, when possible, we fit a dose-response curve using a restricted cubic spline regression model.ResultsWe found 29 studies eligible to be included in our review. In the dose-response analysis, we found little association between disease risk and traffic indicators near the child's residence for most of the exposure range, with an indication of a possible excess risk only at the highest levels. In contrast, benzene exposure was positively and approximately linearly associated with risk of childhood leukemia, particularly for acute myeloid leukemia, among children under 6 y of age, and when exposure assessment at the time of diagnosis was used. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide showed little association with leukemia risk except at the highest levels.DiscussionOverall, the epidemiologic literature appears to support an association between benzene and childhood leukemia risk, with no indication of any threshold effect. A role for other measured and unmeasured pollutants from motorized traffic is also possible. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4381

Effects of Ultraviolet Radiation on Amphibians: Field Experiments

Numerous reports suggest that populations of amphibians from a wide variety of locations are experiencing population declines and/or range reductions. In some cases, unusually high egg mortality has been reported. Field experiments have been used with increasing frequency to investigate ultraviolet radiation as one of the potential factors contributing to these declines. Results from field experiments illustrate that hatching success of eggs is hampered by ultraviolet radiation in a number of species, while other species appear to be unaffected. Continued mortality in early life-history stages may ultimately contribute to a population decline. Although UV-B radiation may not contribute to the population declines of all species, it may play a role in the population decline of some species, especially those that lay eggs in open shallow water subjected to solar radiation and in those that have a poor ability to repair UV-induced DNA damage.Peer reviewe