ADJUSTMENT STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING UNANTICIPATED CHANGES IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

Software engineers face multiple challenges of managing unanticipated changes, dependencies, uncertainty, emerging demand patterns. In this contribution we focus on the process of software development and its design to especially cover unforeseen changes. The article presents a structural view on the (distributed) software engineering process introducing three domains that trigger adjustment opportunities of the engineering process. Hereafter the solution approach imposing the process model PEPMAD is outlined

Adaptability Concepts for Enterprise Resource Planning Systems - A Component Framework

The research project CHANGE1 aims to bring adaptability into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems. Adaptability is seen as a quality to manage change. This could be a reaction to a need or a proactive push to leverage potential opportunities. In any case the process change should be optimally represented in the ERP application. One of the major problems in developing adaptable software systems is the lack of systematic methods during the process of software development. For that, a pattern-based approach has been developed which covers three identified dimensions of adaptability in ERP systems. In the next step a component framework is proposed for characterising adaptable ERP software systems, regardless of venture type

Business Models for Enterprise System Providers: Towards the Solution Based Procedure

Research on Enterprise Systems (ES) generally focuses on the implementation phase and issues occurring during the initialrun-time. In contrast, only limited research on the selection of an ES has been conducted; a clear focus on the outcome of theselection phase from the perspective of the ES provider and the deploying company has not been presented yet. Thiscontribution aims to close that gap by proposing a procedure to determine a business model for ES providers with the mostfavorable outcome for the company implementing the ES

Integrate Enterprise Systems to our Hyperconnected World: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime through architectural design

The architectures of currently sold Enterprise Systems were developed in a time when the amount of data to be processed was limited. Since then the necessity to capture and process real-time data from multiple sources has surged and needs to be considered in a world where everything must be exchanged and available anywhere, anytime and in any format. Yet the abstinence of novel approaches on the architectures of Enterprise Systems creates a gap between the increasing requirements and existing information systems. In this paper, we suggest a new architectural design approach, which will close the gap between increasing requirements and existing information systems. In order to determine a future-proof architecture, the authors conducted a Delphi survey where technology providers and users were inquired on the business needs and technical requirements. The result of the Delphi survey has been used to create a proposal for a different approach towards ES architectures

The Danish registry of diabetic retinopathy

AIM OF DATABASE: To monitor the development of diabetic eye disease in Denmark and to evaluate the accessibility and effectiveness of diabetic eye screening programs with focus on interregional variations. TARGET POPULATION: The target population includes all patients diagnosed with diabetes. Denmark (5.5 million inhabitants) has ~320,000 diabetes patients with an annual increase of 27,000 newly diagnosed patients. The Danish Registry of Diabetic Retinopathy (DiaBase) collects data on all diabetes patients aged ≥18 years who attend screening for diabetic eye disease in hospital eye departments and in private ophthalmological practice. In 2014–2015, DiaBase included data collected from 77,968 diabetes patients. MAIN VARIABLES: The main variables provide data for calculation of performance indicators to monitor the quality of diabetic eye screening and development of diabetic retinopathy. Data with respect to age, sex, best corrected visual acuity, screening frequency, grading of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy at each visit, progression/regression of diabetic eye disease, and prevalence of blindness were obtained. Data analysis from DiaBase’s latest annual report (2014–2015) indicates that the prevalence of no diabetic retinopathy, nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, and proliferative diabetic retinopathy is 78%, 18%, and 4%, respectively. The percentage of patients without diabetic maculopathy is 97%. The proportion of patients with regression of diabetic retinopathy (20%) is greater than the proportion of patients with progression of diabetic retinopathy (10%). CONCLUSION: The collection of data from diabetic eye screening is still expanding in Denmark. Analysis of the data collected during the period 2014–2015 reveals an overall decrease of diabetic retinopathy compared to the previous year, although the number of patients newly diagnosed with diabetes has been increasing in Denmark. DiaBase is a useful tool to observe the quality of screening, prevalence, and progression/regression of diabetic eye disease

Diabetic retinopathy as a potential marker of Parkinson's disease:a register-based cohort study

Neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, and an association between diabetic retinopathy and Parkinson’s disease has been proposed. In this nationwide register-based cohort study, we investigated the prevalence and incidence of Parkinson’s disease among patients screened for diabetic retinopathy in a Danish population-based cohort. Cases (n = 173 568) above 50 years of age with diabetes included in the Danish Registry of Diabetic Retinopathy between 2013 and 2018 were matched 1:5 by gender and birth year with a control population without diabetes (n = 843 781). At index date, the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease was compared between cases and controls. To assess the longitudinal relationship between diabetic retinopathy and Parkinson’s disease, a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model was estimated. The prevalence of Parkinson’s disease was 0.28% and 0.44% among cases and controls, respectively. While diabetic retinopathy was not associated with present (adjusted odds ratio 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.72–1.21) or incident Parkinson’s disease (adjusted hazard ratio 0.77, 95% confidence interval 0.56–1.05), cases with diabetes were in general less likely to have or to develop Parkinson’s disease compared to controls without diabetes (adjusted odds ratio 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.71–0.87 and adjusted hazard ratio 0.88, 95% confidence interval 0.78–1.00). In a national cohort of more than 1 million persons, patients with diabetes were 21% and 12% were less likely to have prevalent and develop incident Parkinson’s disease, respectively, compared to an age- and gender-matched control population without diabetes. We found no indication for diabetic retinopathy as an independent risk factor for incident Parkinson’s disease

Particulate matter exposure during pregnancy is associated with birth weight, but not gestational age, 1962-1992: a cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exposure to air pollutants is suggested to adversely affect fetal growth, but the evidence remains inconsistent in relation to specific outcomes and exposure windows.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using birth records from the two major maternity hospitals in Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England between 1961 and 1992, we constructed a database of all births to mothers resident within the city. Weekly black smoke exposure levels from routine data recorded at 20 air pollution monitoring stations were obtained and individual exposures were estimated via a two-stage modeling strategy, incorporating temporally and spatially varying covariates. Regression analyses, including 88,679 births, assessed potential associations between exposure to black smoke and birth weight, gestational age and birth weight standardized for gestational age and sex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant associations were seen between black smoke and both standardized and unstandardized birth weight, but not for gestational age when adjusted for potential confounders. Not all associations were linear. For an increase in whole pregnancy black smoke exposure, from the 1^st(7.4 μg/m³) to the 25^th(17.2 μg/m³), 50^th(33.8 μg/m³), 75^th(108.3 μg/m³), and 90^th(180.8 μg/m³) percentiles, the adjusted estimated decreases in birth weight were 33 g (SE 1.05), 62 g (1.63), 98 g (2.26) and 109 g (2.44) respectively. A significant interaction was observed between socio-economic deprivation and black smoke on both standardized and unstandardized birth weight with increasing effects of black smoke in reducing birth weight seen with increasing socio-economic disadvantage.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of this study progress the hypothesis that the association between black smoke and birth weight may be mediated through intrauterine growth restriction. The associations between black smoke and birth weight were of the same order of magnitude as those reported for passive smoking. These findings add to the growing evidence of the harmful effects of air pollution on birth outcomes.</p

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Research in progress: Leveraging Sales Process Potentials for Enterprise System Providers

Small and medium sized enterprise systems (ES) providers often face challenges since there are fewer resources available in comparison to incumbent competitors. Selling an enterprise system to a prospectus customer or reaching a rental agreement with the prospectus customer is crucial to maintain permanent cash inflows. Applying the case study methodology, the sales processes of three ES providers have been analyzed. The activities performed by the different departments involved in the case studies have been modeled using the Knowledge Modeling and Description Language (KMDL) to determine potential improvements in the processes