Technical Debt Prioritization: State of the Art. A Systematic Literature Review

Background. Software companies need to manage and refactor Technical Debt issues. Therefore, it is necessary to understand if and when refactoring Technical Debt should be prioritized with respect to developing features or fixing bugs. Objective. The goal of this study is to investigate the existing body of knowledge in software engineering to understand what Technical Debt prioritization approaches have been proposed in research and industry. Method. We conducted a Systematic Literature Review among 384 unique papers published until 2018, following a consolidated methodology applied in Software Engineering. We included 38 primary studies. Results. Different approaches have been proposed for Technical Debt prioritization, all having different goals and optimizing on different criteria. The proposed measures capture only a small part of the plethora of factors used to prioritize Technical Debt qualitatively in practice. We report an impact map of such factors. However, there is a lack of empirical and validated set of tools. Conclusion. We observed that technical Debt prioritization research is preliminary and there is no consensus on what are the important factors and how to measure them. Consequently, we cannot consider current research conclusive and in this paper, we outline different directions for necessary future investigations

The use of incentives to promote Technical Debt management

When developing software, it is vitally important to keep the level of technical debt down since it is well established from several studies that technical debt can, e.g., lower the development productivity, decrease the developers' morale, and compromise the overall quality of the software. However, even if researchers and practitioners working in today's software development industry are quite familiar with the concept of technical debt and its related negative consequences, there has been no empirical research focusing specifically on how software managers actively communicate and manage the need to keep the level of technical debt as low as possible

Progressive impairment of CaV1.1 function in the skeletal muscle of mice expressing a mutant type 1 Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (G93A) linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder that is typically fatal within 3–5 years of diagnosis. While motoneuron death is the defining characteristic of ALS, the events that underlie its pathology are not restricted to the nervous system. In this regard, ALS muscle atrophies and weakens significantly before presentation of neurological symptoms. Since the skeletal muscle L-type Ca2+ channel (CaV1.1) is a key regulator of both mass and force, we investigated whether CaV1.1 function is impaired in the muscle of two distinct mouse models carrying an ALS-linked mutation. Methods: We recorded L-type currents, charge movements, and myoplasmic Ca2+ transients from dissociated flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) fibers to assess CaV1.1 function in two mouse models expressing a type 1 Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase mutant (SOD1G93A). Results: In FDB fibers obtained from “symptomatic” global SOD1G93A mice, we observed a substantial reduction of SR Ca2+ release in response to depolarization relative to fibers harvested from age-matched control mice. L-type current and charge movement were both reduced by ~40 % in symptomatic SOD1G93A fibers when compared to control fibers. Ca2+ transients were not significantly reduced in similar experiments performed with FDB fibers obtained from “early-symptomatic” SOD1G93A mice, but L-type current and charge movement were decreased (~30 and ~20 %, respectively). Reductions in SR Ca2+ release (~35 %), L-type current (~20 %), and charge movement (~15 %) were also observed in fibers obtained from another model where SOD1G93A expression was restricted to skeletal muscle. Conclusions: We report reductions in EC coupling, L-type current density, and charge movement in FDB fibers obtained from symptomatic global SOD1G93A mice. Experiments performed with FDB fibers obtained from early-symptomatic SOD1G93A and skeletal muscle autonomous MLC/SOD1G93A mice support the idea that events occurring locally in the skeletal muscle contribute to the impairment of CaV1.1 function in ALS muscle independently of innervation status

Towards a framework for developing visual analytics in supply chain environments

Visual Analytics (VA) has shown to be of significant importance for Supply Chain (SC) analytics. However, SC partners still have challenges incorporating it into their data-driven decision-making activities. A conceptual framework for the development and deployment of a VA system provides an abstract, platform-independent model for the whole process of VA, covering requirement specification, data collection and pre-processing, visualization recommendation, visualization specification and implementation, and evaluations. In this paper, we propose such a framework based on three main aspects: 1) Business view, 2) Asset view, and 3) Technology view. Each of these views covers a set of steps to facilitate the development and maintenance of the system in its context. The framework follows a consistent process structure that comprises activities, tasks, and people. The final output of the whole process is the VA as a deliverable. This facilitates the alignment of VA activities with business processes and decision-making activities. We presented the framework's applicability using an actual usage scenario and left the implementation of the system for future work

Visual Analytics for Decision Support: A Supply Chain Perspective

Supply chain (SC) activities generate huge amount of data that can be used in decision making processes. However, proper data analytics techniques are required to combine, organize, and analyze data from different sources and produce required insights available for decision makers. These techniques promote analytical reasoning of the events and patterns hidden in the data using visualizations, so-called Visual Analytics (VA). Although there is a large number of VA systems to facilitate the process of analysis and decision making, there is a lack of an adequate overview of what already exists in this area for SC management. To address that need, we conducted a systematic literature review to analyze the state of the art in SC VA systems. Particularly, we focus on use cases, the type of the decisions that a VA system intended to support, the type of visualizations employed, the type of analytics used, and the data that has been used for analysis. The goal of this study is to provide SC and VA researchers with an overview of the works carried out in the field of SC VA, helping them to observe latest trends and to recognize existing gaps that need further investigation. Consequently, a mapping between decisions of various SC business processes and their reciprocal visualization techniques and tactics have been provided. Adding to that, VA applications and use cases in SC are identified based on the SC Operation Reference (SCOR) model and underlying decision areas are recognized.publishedVersio

Towards a framework for developing visual analytics in supply chain environments

Visual Analytics (VA) has shown to be of significant importance for Supply Chain (SC) analytics. However, SC partners still have challenges incorporating it into their data-driven decision-making activities. A conceptual framework for the development and deployment of a VA system provides an abstract, platform-independent model for the whole process of VA, covering requirement specification, data collection and pre-processing, visualization recommendation, visualization specification and implementation, and evaluations. In this paper, we propose such a framework based on three main aspects: 1) Business view, 2) Asset view, and 3) Technology view. Each of these views covers a set of steps to facilitate the development and maintenance of the system in its context. The framework follows a consistent process structure that comprises activities, tasks, and people. The final output of the whole process is the VA as a deliverable. This facilitates the alignment of VA activities with business processes and decision-making activities. We presented the framework\u27s applicability using an actual usage scenario and left the implementation of the system for future work

FLAMMABILITY OF ORNAMENTAL SPECIES FOR FIRE MANAGEMENT IN WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE IN PARANÁ STATE

The objective of this work was to evaluate the flammability of ornamental species as a tool for fire management in areas of wildland-urban interface in Paraná. For this, native ornamental species and exotic species were selected. Initially, the following morphological characteristics of the leaves, which are associated with the flammability of the selected species were evaluated: texture, exudates, hairiness and enervation. The flammability characteristics of the species were analyzed through burning experiments. Fifty 1g burns of freshly harvested plant material of each species were conducted in an epiradiator. The variables collected were: ignition frequency (FI), time to ignition (TI), combustion duration (DC) and combustion index (CI). These variables were statistically analyzed by the SNK test at 95% probability. The Cluster test was also performed to identify different levels of flammability of the species tested as a function of the morphological characteristics and the flammability parameters obtained in the epiradiator tests. The results showed that FI and TI were lower in most native species (except Verbena rigida), differing statistically from exotic ones. There were differences among the species as a function of the species leaf morphology and the flammability parameters measured during the burning. It can be inferred that most native species may have been considered slightly flammable and exotic as flammable, with the exception of the species Euonymus japonica, classified as zero flammability, concluding that native species are the most suitable for use in fire management in wildland-urban interface areas in Paraná, and should be intensively used in landscaping

THE INFLUENCE OF STREET TREES ON URBAN MICROCLIMATE

The microclimatic improvement is often cited as one of the benefits generated by urban trees, however, there are few studies which quantitatively address this effect. The aim of this paper was to compare the microclimate of streets with and without trees. Therefore, three samples containing a stretch of street with and without trees were selected, with the street with trees being composed of different species. The temperature, relative humidity and wind speed data were measured by automatic Kestrel® meteorological ministations installed on the street with trees and another in the street without trees. The data collection period was from 9 AM to 3 PM, and the monitoring interval was every 1 minute during all four seasons starting in the winter of 2011. The comparative analyses were done using the Student’s t-test (99%). The results indicated that the air temperature in a street with trees was on average 1.7 °C lower than a street without trees, the relative humidity was 6.9% higher and the wind speed was 0.04 m/s lower.  There was no statistical difference for temperature between the street with “ipê” in the winter and spring. There was no difference for wind speed in the summer between the street with other trees and the street with “ipê” and “tipuana”. It was concluded that street trees provide a pleasant microclimate, and this influence was statistically significant