The impact of agile methodologies and cost management success factors: an empirical study

Software cost management is a significant feature of project management. As such, it needs to be employed in a project or line of work. Software cost management is integral to software development failures, which, in turn, cause software failure. Thus, it is imperative that software development professionals develop their cost management skills to deliver successful software projects. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of cost management success factors with project management factors and three agile methodologies – Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum and Kanban methodologies which are used in the Pakistani software industry. To determine the results, the researchers applied quantitative approach through an extensive survey on 52 agile software development companies in Pakistan. Statistical techniques, such as Pearson’s correlation and mean and standard deviation were performed to examine the results. Following this analysis, we found that cost management has a positive effect on other project management factors, which are schedule, scope, risk, resources, and quality. Furthermore, it is determined that, in general, Kanban performed better than both, Scrum and XP in the context of project management factors

Cardiac Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Nrf2 Expression, and Coagulation Events in Mice with Experimental Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known to be associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. Dietary adenine intake in mice is also known to induce CKD. However, in this experimental model, the mechanisms underlying the cardiotoxicity and coagulation disturbances are not fully understood. Here, we evaluated cardiac inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage, and coagulation events in mice with adenine (0.2% w/w in feed for 4 weeks)-induced CKD. Control mice were fed with normal chow for the same duration. Adenine increased water intake, urine output, relative kidney weight, the plasma concentrations of urea and creatinine, and the urinary concentrations of kidney injury molecule-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin. It also decreased the body weight and creatinine clearance, and caused kidney DNA damage. Renal histological analysis showed tubular dilation and damage and neutrophilic influx. Adenine induced a significant increase in systolic blood pressure and the concentrations of troponin I, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-1β in heart homogenates. It also augmented the levels of markers of lipid peroxidation measured by malondialdehyde production and 8-isoprostane, as well as the antioxidants superoxide dismutase and catalase. Immunohistochemical analysis of the hearts showed that adenine increased the expression of nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-like 2 by cardiomyocytes. It also caused cardiac DNA damage. Moreover, compared with the control group, adenine induced a significant increase in the number of circulating platelet and shortened the thrombotic occlusion time in pial arterioles and venules in vivo, and induced a significant reduction in the prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time. In conclusion, the administration of adenine in mice induced CKD-associated cardiac inflammation, oxidative stress, Nrf2 expression, and DNA damage. It also induced prothrombotic events in vivo. Therefore, this model can be satisfactorily used to study the cardiac pathophysiological events in subjects with CKD and the effect of drug treatment thereon

Significantly elevated levels of plasma nicotinamide, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine phosphate levels in obese Emirati population : a cross-sectional study

Water-soluble vitamins like B3 (nicotinamide), B6 (pyridoxine), and B9 (folic acid) are of utmost importance in human health and disease, as they are involved in numerous critical metabolic reactions. Not surprisingly, deficiencies of these vitamins have been linked to various disease states. Unfortunately, not much is known about the physiological levels of B6 vitamers and vitamin B3 in an ethnically isolated group (such as an Emirati population), as well as their relationship with obesity. The aim of the present study was to quantify various B6 vitamers, as well as B3, in the plasma of obese and healthy Emirati populations and to examine their correlation with obesity. A sensitive and robust HPLC-MS/MS-based method was developed for the simultaneous quantitation of five physiologically relevant forms of vitamin B6, namely pyridoxal, pyridoxine, pyridoxamine, pyridoxamine phosphate, and pyridoxal phosphate, as well as nicotinamide, in human plasma. This method was used to quantify the concentrations of these vitamers in the plasma of 57 healthy and 57 obese Emirati volunteers. Our analysis showed that the plasma concentrations of nicotinamide, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine phosphate in the obese Emirati population were significantly higher than those in healthy volunteers (p < 0.0001, p = 0.0006, and p = 0.002, respectively). No significant differences were observed for the plasma concentrations of pyridoxine and pyridoxal phosphate. Furthermore, the concentrations of some of these vitamers in healthy Emirati volunteers were significantly different than those published in the literature for Western populations, such as American and European volunteers. This initial study underscores the need to quantify micronutrients in distinct ethnic groups, as well as people suffering from chronic metabolic disorders

Terbufos sulfon pogoršava srčane lezije u štakora koji boluju od dijabetesa: studija subakutne toksičnosti

Organophosphorus compounds (OPCs) have a wide range of applications, from agriculture to warfare. Exposure to these brings forward a varied kind of health issues globally. Terbufos is one of the leading OPCs used worldwide. The present study investigates the cardiac effect of no observable dose of a metabolite of terbufos, terbufos-sulfone (TS), under nondiabetic and streptozotocin-induced diabetic condition. 100 nmol per rat (1/20 of LD50) was administered intraperitoneally to adult male Wister rats daily for fifteen days. The left ventricle was collected for ultrastructural changes by transmission electron microscopy. The blood samples were collected for biochemical tests including RBC acetylcholinesterase, creatinine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides, ALT, AST, and GGT. The study revealed about 10 % inhibition of RBC-AChE in two weeks of TS treatment in non-diabetic rats whereas RBC-AChE activity was significantly decreased in diabetic TS treated rats. CK, LDH, and triglycerides were significantly higher in diabetic TS treated rats. Electron microscopy of the heart showed derangement and lesions of the mitochondria of cardiomyocytes in the TS treated groups. The present study concludes that a non-lethal dose of TS causes cardiac lesions which exacerbate under diabetic condition. Biochemical tests confirmed the ultrastructural changes. It is concluded that a non-lethal dose of TS may be a risk factor for a cardiovascular disease, which may be fatal under diabetic condition.Organofosforni spojevi (eng. Organophosphorous Compounds - OPCs) imaju široku primjenu, od one u poljoprivredi do one u vojne svrhe. Izlaganje takvim spojevima izaziva niz različitih zdravstvenih problema od globalnog značaja. Terbufos je jedan od vodećih OPC-a koji se koriste diljem svijeta. U ovom je istraživanju na modelu štakora bez dijabetesa sa streptozotocinom izazvanim dijabetesom ispitivan metabolit terbufos-sulfon (TS) u najvišoj dozi koja ne izaziva učinak te njezin utjecaj na srce. Odrasli mužjaci štakora soja Wistar dobivali su petnaest dana dnevnu dozu od 100 nmol štakor-1 (1/20 LD50) intraperitonealno. Transmisijskim elektronskim mikroskopom istražene su ultrastrukturne promjene lijeve klijetke. Na krvnim uzorcima provedeni su biokemijski testovi, uključujući aktivnost acetilkolinesteraze u crvenim krvnim stanicama, razinu kreatinin kinaze (CK), laktat dehidrogenaze (LDH), kolesterola, lipoproteina visoke gustoće (HDL), lipoproteina niske gustoće (LDL), triglicerida, ALT, AST i GGT. Istraživanjem je otkriveno oko 10 % inhibicije AChE-a u crvenim krvnim stanicama nakon dva tjedna izlaganja štakora bez dijabetesa TS-u, dok je u štakora s dijabetesom aktivnost AChE-a bila značajno smanjena. Razine CK, LDH i triglicerida bile su značajno više u TS tretiranim štakorima s dijabetesom. Elektronsko-mikroskopska analiza srca upućuje na narušenu strukturu i lezije u mitohondrijima u kardiomiocitima skupina štakora koji su tretirani TS-om. Zaključuje se da nesmrtonosna doza TS-a uzrokuje srčane lezije koje se pogoršavaju u prisutnosti dijabetesa. Biokemijski testovi potvrdili su ultrastrukturne promjene. Navedena doza TS-a može biti rizični čimbenik za kardiovaskularne bolesti, koje se mogu pokazati smrtonosnima uz istovremeno postojanje dijabetesa

Genetic transformation of sugarcane variety HSF-240 with marker gene GUS

In the current research an efficient transformation system for sugarcane was established. Shoot tip of variety HSF-240, excised from a six months old field grown plants were used as explant. For transformation, Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101 with vector pIG121 Hm, harboring GUS, HPTII and NPTII genes were used. HPTII is a hygromycin resistant while NPTII is a kanamycin resistant gene. Effects of Acetosyringone, duration of co-cultivation and pre-selection, concentration of cefotaxime and hygromycin in medium on transformation efficiency were studied. High transformation efficiency and 60% GUS expression was observed when 50 μM acetosyringone was added in the co-cultivation medium. Among different durations of co-cultivation, 48 h produced high (40%) transient GUS positives with an absolute control of bacterial growth. For pre-selection, seven days gave a high transformation efficiency of 10%. Cefotaxime concentration of 1000 mg/L proved optimal for pre-selection of the explants with efficient control of bacterial growth. A high regeneration (31%; P < 0.01) of the transformants was observed at 50 mg/L hygromycin. Presence of GUS gene was confirmed by PCR analysis and only the transgenic plants contained the 430 bp fragment of GUS gene. The new protocol developed in this study could be used for the efficient transformation of sugarcane with desired gene to produce insect/pest resistant, drought tolerant and high yielding sugarcane varieties in future

Detection of COVID-19 in Chest X-ray Images: A Big Data Enabled Deep Learning Approach

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreads from one person to another rapidly. A recently discovered coronavirus causes it. COVID-19 has proven to be challenging to detect and cure at an early stage all over the world. Patients showing symptoms of COVID-19 are resulting in hospitals becoming overcrowded, which is becoming a significant challenge. Deep learning’s contribution to big data medical research has been enormously beneficial, offering new avenues and possibilities for illness diagnosis techniques. To counteract the COVID-19 outbreak, researchers must create a classifier distinguishing between positive and negative corona-positive X-ray pictures. In this paper, the Apache Spark system has been utilized as an extensive data framework and applied a Deep Transfer Learning (DTL) method using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) three architectures —InceptionV3, ResNet50, and VGG19—on COVID-19 chest X-ray images. The three models are evaluated in two classes, COVID-19 and normal X-ray images, with 100 percent accuracy. But in COVID/Normal/pneumonia, detection accuracy was 97 percent for the inceptionV3 model, 98.55 percent for the ResNet50 Model, and 98.55 percent for the VGG19 model, respectively

Application of silicon and sodium hydrosulfide alleviates arsenic toxicity by regulating the physio-biochemical and molecular mechanisms of Zea mays

Soil contaminationwith toxic heavy metals (such as arsenic (As)) is becoming a serious global problem due to rapid development of social economy, although the use of silicon (Si) and sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) has been found effective in enhancing plant tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses including the As toxicity. For this purpose, a pot experiment was conducted using the different levels of As toxicity in the soil, i.e., (0 mM (no As), 50, and 100 µM) which were also supplied with the different exogenous levels of Si, i.e., (0 (no Si), 1.5, and 3 mM) and also with the NaHS, i.e., (0 (no NaHS), 1, and 2 mM) on growth, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange characteristics, oxidative stress biomarkers, antioxidant machinery (enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants), and their gene expression, ion uptake, organic acid exudation, and As uptake of maize (Zea mays L.). Results from the present study showed that the increasing levels of As in the soil significantly (P \u3c 0.05) decreased plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange attributes, sugars, and nutritional contents from the roots and shoots of the plants. In contrast, increasing levels of As in the soil significantly (P \u3c 0.05) increased oxidative stress indicators in terms of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and electrolyte leakage and also increased organic acid exudation patter in the roots of Z. mays, although the activities of enzymatic antioxidants and the response of their gene expressions in the roots and shoots of the plants and non-enzymatic such as phenolic, flavonoid, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanin contents were initially increased with the exposure of 50 µM As, but decreased by the increasing the As concentration 100 µM in the soil. The negative impact of As toxicity can overcome the application of Si and NaHS, which ultimately increased plant growth and biomass by capturing the reactive oxygen species and decreased oxidative stress in Z. mays by decreasing the As contents in the roots and shoots of the plants. Our results also showed that the Si was more sever and showed better results when we compared with NaHS under the same treatment of As in the soil. Research findings, therefore, suggest that the combined application of Si and NaHS can ameliorate As toxicity in Z. mays, resulting in improved plant growth and composition under metal stress, as depicted by balanced exudation of organic acids

Suicide bomb attack identification and analytics through data mining techniques

Suicide bomb attacks are a high priority concern nowadays for every country in the world. They are a massively destructive criminal activity known as terrorism where one explodes a bomb attached to himself or herself, usually in a public place, taking the lives of many. Terrorist activity in different regions of the world depends and varies according to geopolitical situations and significant regional factors. There has been no significant work performed previously by utilizing the Pakistani suicide attack dataset and no data mining-based solutions have been given related to suicide attacks. This paper aims to contribute to the counterterrorism initiative for the safety of this world against suicide bomb attacks by extracting hidden patterns from suicidal bombing attack data. In order to analyze the psychology of suicide bombers and find a correlation between suicide attacks and the prediction of the next possible venue for terrorist activities, visualization analysis is performed and data mining techniques of classification, clustering and association rule mining are incorporated. For classification, Naïve Bayes, ID3 and J48 algorithms are applied on distinctive selected attributes. The results exhibited by classification show high accuracy against all three algorithms applied, i.e., 73.2%, 73.8% and 75.4%. We adapt the K-means algorithm to perform clustering and, consequently, the risk of blast intensity is identified in a particular location. Frequent patterns are also obtained through the Apriori algorithm for the association rule to extract the factors involved in suicide attacks