A mechanism to explore proactive knowledge retention in open source software communities.

Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software wherein the source code is distributed under a special type of licence in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to inspect, alter, and redistribute the software. OSS projects are collaborative endeavours which have multiple contributors who are constantly joining, leaving, or changing their role in the project. This ever-changing and ever-transient nature of OSS project contributors contributes to a contributor turnover-induced knowledge loss in OSS projects. In this case, “knowledge loss” refers to the phenomenon of the loss of project-specific knowledge, experience, and expertise in an OSS project, caused by contributors regularly joining and leaving the OSS project. This paper describes the design and development of a robust research methodology and contributes towards the formation of proactive knowledge retention practices in OSS projects to transform contributor's use of knowledge and engagement in knowledge-relevant activities including knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer

A systematic examination of knowledge loss in open source software projects

Context Open Source Software (OSS) development is a knowledge focused activity which relies heavily on contributors who can be volunteers or paid workers and are geographically distributed. While working on OSS projects contributors acquire project related individualistic knowledge and gain experience and skills, which often remains unshared with others and is usually lost once contributors leave a project. All software development organisations face the problem of knowledge loss as employees leave, but this situation is exasperated in OSS projects where most contributors are volunteers with largely unpredictable engagement durations. Contributor turnover is inevitable due to the transient nature of OSS project workforces causing knowledge loss, which threatens the overall sustainability of OSS projects and impacts negatively on software quality and contributor productivity. Objective The objective of this work is to deeply and systematically investigate the phenomenon of knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects as presented in the state-of-the-art literature and to synthesise the information presented on the topic. Furthermore, based on the learning arising from our investigation it is our intention to identify mechanisms to reduce the overall effects of knowledge loss in OSS projects. Methodology We use the snowballing methodology to identify the relevant literature on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects. This robust methodology for a literature review includes research question, search strategy, inclusion, exclusion, quality criteria, and data synthesis. The search strategy, and inclusion, exclusions and quality criteria are applied as a part of snowballing procedure. Snowballing is considered an efficient and reliable way to conduct a systematic literature review, providing a robust alternative to mechanically searching individual databases for given topics. Result Knowledge sharing in OSS projects is abundant but there is no evidence of a formal strategy or practice to manage knowledge. Due to the dynamic and diverse nature of OSS projects, knowledge management is considered a challenging task and there is a need for a proactive mechanism to share knowledge in the OSS community for knowledge to be reused in the future by the OSS project contributors. From the collection of papers found using snowballing, we consolidated various themes on knowledge loss due to contributor turnover in OSS projects and identified 11 impacts due to knowledge loss in OSS projects, and 10 mitigations to manage with knowledge loss in OSS projects. Conclusion In this paper, we propose future research directions to investigate integration of proactive knowledge retention practices with the existing OSS practices to reduce the current knowledge loss problem. We suggest that there is insufficient attention paid to KM in general in OSS, in particular there would appear to an absence of proactive measures to reduce the potential impact of knowledge loss. We also propose the need for a KM evaluation metric in OSS projects, similar to the ones that evaluate health of online communities, which should help to inform potential consumers of the OSS of the KM status on a project, something that is not existent today

A Novel Fingerprinting Technique for Data Storing and Sharing through Clouds

With the emerging growth of digital data in information systems, technology faces the challenge of knowledge prevention, ownership rights protection, security, and privacy measurement of valuable and sensitive data. On-demand availability of various data as services in a shared and automated environment has become a reality with the advent of cloud computing. The digital fingerprinting technique has been adopted as an effective solution to protect the copyright and privacy of digital properties from illegal distribution and identification of malicious traitors over the cloud. Furthermore, it is used to trace the unauthorized distribution and the user of multimedia content distributed through the cloud. In this paper, we propose a novel fingerprinting technique for the cloud environment to protect numeric attributes in relational databases for digital privacy management. The proposed solution with the novel fingerprinting scheme is robust and efficient. It can address challenges such as embedding secure data over the cloud, essential to secure relational databases. The proposed technique provides a decoding accuracy of 100%, 90%, and 40% for 10% to 30%, 40%, and 50% of deleted record

Reducing knowledge loss in open source software projects

From conception, to implementation, to deployment and to retirement, software development is a knowledge-intensive activity. To address the demands of knowledge acquisition and exchange, various mechanisms, processes and ceremonies have been established. These general knowledge acquisition and exchange challenges are amplified in Open Source Software (OSS) development where software developers are often volunteers, where their commitment to an OSS project may be transient, outside the reach of regular employment contractual arrangements, and in an environment where contributors may be widely geographically distributed. It is therefore the case that OSS projects present with very specific and highly demanding knowledge exchange challenges, and failure to address and manage these challenges can result in the lack of adoption, or worse the total collapse, of an OSS project. This work is focused on identifying a set of practices that can be adopted in OSS projects to reduce knowledge exchange challenges, and this is important work for which no substantial earlier contribution exists. To develop a set of OSS Knowledge Retention (KR) practices, a variety of sources are incorporated, including knowledge management in general, software engineering based knowledge creation and adoption, and community feedback. Following a survey of OSS project contributors, a suite of 31 OSS KR practices is identified and ranked, though differences can be seen in terms of practice appreciation depending on OSS project experience level and role. This set of OSS KR practices can be adopted by OSS projects so as to reduce the knowledge exchange challenges in their projects, and to promote longer term OSS project viability and success

Reducing knowledge loss in open source software projects

From conception, to implementation, to deployment and to retirement, software development is a knowledge-intensive activity. To address the demands of knowledge acquisition and exchange, various mechanisms, processes and ceremonies have been established. These general knowledge acquisition and exchange challenges are amplified in Open Source Software (OSS) development where software developers are often volunteers, where their commitment to an OSS project may be transient, outside the reach of regular employment contractual arrangements, and in an environment where contributors may be widely geographically distributed. It is therefore the case that OSS projects present with very specific and highly demanding knowledge exchange challenges, and failure to address and manage these challenges can result in the lack of adoption, or worse the total collapse, of an OSS project. This work is focused on identifying a set of practices that can be adopted in OSS projects to reduce knowledge exchange challenges, and this is important work for which no substantial earlier contribution exists. To develop a set of OSS Knowledge Retention (KR) practices, a variety of sources are incorporated, including knowledge management in general, software engineering based knowledge creation and adoption, and community feedback. Following a survey of OSS project contributors, a suite of 31 OSS KR practices is identified and ranked, though differences can be seen in terms of practice appreciation depending on OSS project experience level and role. This set of OSS KR practices can be adopted by OSS projects so as to reduce the knowledge exchange challenges in their projects, and to promote longer term OSS project viability and success

Spatial trends and human health risks of organochlorinated pesticides from bovine milk; a case study from a developing country, Pakistan

Bovine milk is a nutritious food commodity extensively produced and consumed in Punjab, Pakistan. This study assesses the concentration profile of organochlorine pesticides (OCP; 18 compounds) in buffaloes and cow's milk in eight major districts of Punjab, Pakistan and the potential impacts of such exposure. The total OCPs in buffaloes and cow's milk samples ranged from 3.93 to 27.63 ng mL and 14.64-77.93 ng mL respectively. The overall pattern of mean OCPs concentration in buffaloes and cows milk showed that Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) are predominant followed by Heptachlors and Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDTs). So far, the concentration profile depicted that ∑HCHs, ∑DDTs and ∑Heptachlors did not exceed the maximum residual limits set for buffaloes and cow's milk. The spatial trends in terms of cluster analysis depicted significant variation (p > 0.05) among the districts in one cluster probably owing to local conditions. Furthermore, recently used DDTs were also identified at some of the selected districts. The risk assessment suggests that the estimated daily intake for each OCP was in accordance with the acceptable daily intake, thus single compound exposure does not pose a significant carcinogenic risk. However, the hazard ratios indicated that the values for ∑DDTs posed risk in adults consuming cow's milk whereas children may face carcinogenic risk on the consumption of both buffalo and cow's milk. The risk may be altered where mixture is considered, furthermore, regarding carcinogenic risks a continuous monitoring based ecological analysis is recommended in the future

Data_Sheet_1_Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific anti-spike IgM, IgG, and anti-nucleocapsid IgG antibodies during the second wave of the pandemic: A population-based cross-sectional survey across Kashmir, India.docx

BackgroundWithin Kashmir, which is one of the topographically distinct areas in the Himalayan belt of India, a total of 2,236 cumulative deaths occurred by the end of the second wave. We aimed to conduct this population-based study in the age group of 7 years and above to estimate the seropositivity and its attributes in Kashmir valley.MethodsWe conducted a community-based household-level cross-sectional study, with a multistage, population-stratified, probability-proportionate-to-size, cluster sampling method to select 400 participants from each of the 10 districts of Kashmir. We also selected a quota of healthcare workers, police personnel, and antenatal women from each of the districts. Households were selected from each cluster and all family members with age 7 years or more were invited to participate. Information was collected through a standardized questionnaire and entered into Epicollect 5 software. Trained healthcare personnel were assigned for collecting venous blood samples from each of the participants which were transferred and processed for immunological testing. Testing was done for the presence of SARS-CoV-2-specific anti-spike IgM, IgG antibodies, and anti-nucleocapsid IgG antibodies. Weighted seropositivity was estimated along with the adjustment done for the sensitivity and specificity of the test used.FindingsThe data were collected from a total of 4,229 participants from the general population within the 10 districts of Kashmir. Our results showed that 84.84% (95% CI 84.51–85.18%) of the participants were seropositive in the weighted imputed data among the general population. In multiple logistic regression, the variables significantly affecting the seroprevalence were the age group 45–59 years (odds ratio of 0.73; 95% CI 0.67–0.78), self-reported history of comorbidity (odds ratio of 1.47; 95% CI 1.33–1.61), and positive vaccination history (odds ratio of 0.85; 95% CI 0.79–0.90) for anti-nucleocapsid IgG antibodies. The entire assessed variables showed a significant role during multiple logistic regression analysis for affecting IgM anti-spike antibodies with an odds ratio of 1.45 (95% CI 1.32–1.57) for age more than 60 years, 1.21 (95% CI 1.15–1.27) for the female gender, 0.87 (95% CI 0.82–0.92) for urban residents, 0.86 (95% CI 0.76–0.92) for self-reported comorbidity, and an odds ratio of 1.16 (95% CI 1.08–1.24) for a positive history of vaccination. The estimated infection fatality ratio was 0.033% (95% CI: 0.034–0.032%) between 22 May and 31 July 2021 against the seropositivity for IgM antibodies.InterpretationDuring the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, 84.84% (95% CI 84.51–85.18%) of participants from this population-based cross-sectional sample were seropositive against SARS-CoV-2. Despite a comparatively lower number of cases reported and lower vaccination coverage in the region, our study found such high seropositivity across all age groups, which indicates the higher number of subclinical and less severe unnoticed caseload in the community.</p

Weight-bearing in ankle fractures: An audit of UK practice.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this national study was to audit the weight-bearing practice of orthopaedic services in the National Health Service (NHS) in the treatment of operatively and non-operatively treated ankle fractures. METHODS: A multicentre prospective two-week audit of all adult ankle fractures was conducted between July 3rd 2017 and July 17th 2017. Fractures were classified using the AO/OTA classification. Fractures fixed with syndesmosis screws or unstable fractures (>1 malleolus fractured or talar shift present) treated conservatively were excluded. No outcome data were collected. In line with NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) criteria, "early" weight-bearing was defined as unrestricted weight-bearing on the affected leg within 3 weeks of injury or surgery and "delayed" weight-bearing as unrestricted weight-bearing permitted after 3 weeks. RESULTS: 251 collaborators from 81 NHS hospitals collected data: 531 patients were managed non-operatively and 276 operatively. The mean age was 52.6 years and 50.5 respectively. 81% of non-operatively managed patients were instructed for early weight-bearing as recommended by NICE. In contrast, only 21% of operatively managed patients were instructed for early weight-bearing. DISCUSSION: The majority of patients with uni-malleolar ankle fractures which are managed non-operatively are treated in accordance with NICE guidance. There is notable variability amongst and within NHS hospitals in the weight-bearing instructions given to patients with operatively managed ankle fractures. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates community equipoise and suggests that the randomized study to determine the most effective strategy for postoperative weight-bearing in ankle fractures described in the NICE research recommendation is feasible