bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adapting a Requirements Engineering Process by Key Factors Estimation
Authors: Hadad Graciela Dora Susana , Doorn Jorge Horacio , Ledesma Viviana Alejandra
Published: December 2021

Literature mainly focuses the adaptation of any requirements engineering process on the possible variations of elicitation techniques, mainly due to information sources characteristics. However, these particularities, usually called situational factors, are seldom considered in other activities of the requirements process. Most situational factors, when considered in software projects, have a high influence on the requirements process. Therefore, the different situations that may attempt against or may favor a successful requirements process should be identified at the beginning of the project. Additionally, some of such factors may evolve along software development life cycle; this should motivate a reengineering of the requirements process at some strategic milestones. In this chapter, a process for constructing and dynamically adapting a requirements process is proposed, focusing on the evolving factors. The process follows rules based on different combinations of situational factors at specific control points and manages a repository of process blocks to perform the tailoring.
Adapting Agile Practices During the Evolution of a Healthcare Software Product
Authors: Santos Danilo F. S. , Rodrigues André Felipe A. , Guerra Filho Walter O. , Pereira Marcos Fábio
Published: December 2021

Agile Software Development (ASD) can be considered the mainstream development method of choice worldwide. ASD are used due to features such as easy management and embrace of changes, where change in requirements should be taken as a positive feature. However, some domain verticals, such as medical-healthcare, are classified as critical-safety system, which usually requires traditional methods. This chapter presents a practical use case describing the evolution of a software product that was conceived as a wellness software for end-users in mobile platforms to a medical-healthcare product restricted to regulatory standard recommendations. It presents the challenges and how the ASD is compatible to standards such as ISO/IEC 82304-1.
Use of Qualitative Research to Generate a Function for Finding the Unit Cost of Software Test Cases
Authors: Gillenson Mark L. , Stafford Thomas F. , Zhang Xihui “Paul” , Shi Yao
Published: December 2021

In this article, we demonstrate a novel use of case research to generate an empirical function through qualitative generalization. This innovative technique applies interpretive case analysis to the problem of defining and generalizing an empirical cost function for test cases through qualitative interaction with an industry cohort of subject matter experts involved in software testing at leading technology companies. While the technique is fully generalizable, this article demonstrates this technique with an example taken from the important field of software testing. The huge amount of software development conducted in today's world makes taking its cost into account imperative. While software testing is a critical aspect of the software development process, little attention has been paid to the cost of testing code, and specifically to the cost of test cases, in comparison to the cost of developing code. Our research fills the gap by providing a function for estimating the cost of test cases.
Software Cost Estimation and Capability Maturity Model in Context of Global Software Engineering
Authors: Latif Ayub Muhammad , Khan Khalid Muhammad , Duc Anh Nguyen
Published: December 2021

Software cost estimation is the process of forecasting the effort needed to develop the software system. Global software engineering (GSE) highlights that software development knows no boundaries and majority of the software products and services are developed today by globally-distributed teams, projects, and companies. The problem of cost estimation gets more complex if the discussion is carried out in the context of GSE, which has its own issues. Temporal, cultural, and geographical distance creates communication and software process implementation issues. Traditional software process models such as capability maturity model (CMM) lacks the dynamism to accommodate the recent trends in GSE. The chapter introduces GSE and discusses various cost estimation techniques and different levels of CMM. A couple of GSE-based case studies having CMM-level projects from multiple organizations are studied to analyze the impacts of highly mature processes on effort, quality, and cycle time.
Weaving Security into DevOps Practices in Highly Regulated Environments
Authors: Morales Jose Andre , Yasar Hasan , Volkmann Aaron
Published: December 2021

In this article, the authors discuss enhancing a DevOps implementation in a highly regulated environment (HRE) with security principles. DevOps has become a standard option for entities seeking to streamline and increase participation by all stakeholders in their Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). For a large portion of industry, academia, and government, applying DevOps is a straight forward process. There is, however, a subset of entities in these three sectors where applying DevOps can be very challenging. These are entities mandated by security policies to conduct all, or a portion, of their SDLC activities in an HRE. Often, the reason for an HRE is protection of intellectual property and proprietary tools, methods, and techniques. Even if an entity is functioning in a highly regulated environment, its SDLC can still benefit from implementing DevOps as long as the implementation conforms to all imposed policies. A benefit of an HRE is the existence of security policies that belong in a secure DevOps implementation. Layering an existing DevOps implementation with security will benefit the HRE as a whole. This work is based on the authors extensive experience in assessing and implementing DevOps across a diverse set of HREs. First, they extensively discuss the process of performing a DevOps assessment and implementation in an HRE. They follow this with a discussion of the needed security principles a DevOps enhanced SDLC should include. For each security principle, the authors discuss their importance to the SDLC and their appropriate placement within a DevOps implementation. They refer to a security enhanced DevOps implementation in an HRE as HRE-DevSecOps.
Metastructuring for Standards
Authors: Gey Ronny , Fried Andrea
Published: December 2021

This chapter focusses on the appearance and implementation of process standards in software development organizations. The authors are interested in the way organizations handle the plurality of process standards. Organizations respond by metastructuring to the increasing demand for standardizing their development processes. Standards metastructuring summarizes all organizational mechanisms for facilitating the ongoing adaption of global standards to the organizational context. Based on an in-depth single case study of a software developing organization in the automotive technology sector, the authors found four areas of metastructuring, four roles for standard mediation, and four types of metastructuring activities. With the case study, they encourage further research that proves standards in use and how organizations respond to the challenges of standardization.
Teaching Model-Driven Engineering in a Master's Program
Authors: Bragança Alexandre , Azevedo Isabel , Bettencourt Nuno
Published: December 2021

Model-driven engineering (MDE) is an approach to software engineering that adopts models as the central artefact. Although the approach is promising in addressing major issues in software development, particularly in dealing with software complexity, and there are several success cases in the industry as well as growing interest in the research community, it seems that it has been hard to generalize its gains among software professionals. To address this issue, MDE must be taught at a higher-education level. This chapter presents a three-year experience in teaching MDE in a course of a master program in informatics engineering. The chapter provides details on how a project-based learning approach was adopted and evolved along three editions of the course. Results of a student survey are discussed and compared to those from another course. In addition, several other similar teaching experiences are analyzed.
Test Suite Optimization Using Firefly and Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Pandey Abhishek , Banerjee Soumya
Published: December 2021

Software testing is essential for providing error-free software. It is a well-known fact that software testing is responsible for at least 50% of the total development cost. Therefore, it is necessary to automate and optimize the testing processes. Search-based software engineering is a discipline mainly focussed on automation and optimization of various software engineering processes including software testing. In this article, a novel approach of hybrid firefly and a genetic algorithm is applied for test data generation and selection in regression testing environment. A case study is used along with an empirical evaluation for the proposed approach. Results show that the hybrid approach performs well on various parameters that have been selected in the experiments.
Knowledge Management in University-Software Industry Collaboration
Authors: Chedid Marcello , Teixeira Leonor
Published: December 2021

The university-software industry collaboration relationship has been represented a key resource, to the extent that together they can more easily promote technological development that underpins innovation solutions. Through a literature review, this chapter aims to explore the concepts and the facilitator or inhibitor factors associated with the collaboration relationships between university and software industry, taking knowledge management into account. This chapter is organized as follows. In the first section, the authors briefly introduce university, software industry, and knowledge management. The following section, based on the literature reviewed, provides a critical discussion of the university-software industry collaboration relationship, knowledge management in knowledge intensive organizations or community, and knowledge management in collaboration relationship between these two types of industries. Finally, in the rest of the sections, the authors point to future research directions and conclude.
Migrating Software Towards Mobile Technologies
Authors: Favre Liliana Maria
Published: December 2021

New paradigms such as pervasive computing, cloud computing, and the internet of things (IoT) are impacting the business world. Smartphones are at the core of these paradigms by allowing us interaction with the world around us. In light of this, it is imperative to migrate a lot of existing non-mobile software to adapt it to the new technological reality. The main challenge to achieve this goal is the proliferation of mobile platforms. An integration of ADM (Architecture Driven Modernization), cross-platform development and formal metamodeling to face this kind of migration is described. The proposal was validated with the migration of object-oriented software to different mobile platforms through the multiplatform language Haxe. A comparison of the approach with traditional migration processes and the description of existing challenges in real projects of the scientific and industrial field are included.
Intuitionistic Fuzzy Decision Making Towards Efficient Team Selection in Global Software Development
Authors: Goyal Mukta , Gupta Chetna
Published: December 2021

For successful completion of any software project, an efficient team is needed. This task becomes more challenging when the project is to be completed under global software development umbrella. The manual selection of team members based on some expert judgment may lead to inappropriate selection. In reality, there are hundreds of employees in an organization and a single expert may be biased towards any member. Thus, there is a need to adopt methods which consider multiple selection criteria with multiple expert views for making appropriate selection. This article uses an intuitionistic fuzzy approach to handle uncertainty in the expert's decision in multicriteria group decision making process and ranking among the finite team members. An intuitionistic fuzzy Muirhead Mean (IFMM) is used to aggregate the intuitionistic criteria's. To gain confidence between criteria and expert score relationship, the Annova test is performed. The results are promising with p value as small as 0.02 and one-tail t-test score equals to 0.0000002.
Task Assignment and Personality
Authors: Gilal Abdul Rehman , Tunio Muhammad Zahid , Waqas Ahmad , Almomani Malek Ahmad , Khan Sajid , Gilal Ruqaya
Published: December 2021

An open call format of crowdsourcing software development (CSD) is harnessing potential, diverse, and unlimited people. But, several thousand solutions are being submitted at platform against each call. To select and match the submitted task with the appropriate worker and vice versa is still a complicated problem. Focusing the issue, this study proposes a task assignment algorithm (TAA) that will behave as an intermediate facilitator (at platform) between task (from requester) and solution (from worker). The algorithm will divide the tasks' list based on the developer's personality. In this way, we can save the time of both developers and platform by reducing the searching time.
Agile Business Analysis for Digital Transformation
Authors: Kose Busra Ozdenizci
Published: December 2021

The use of cutting-edge digital technologies and the realization of right project, program, and portfolio (3P) initiatives can trigger the intended company-wide change and the digital transformation. Today, organizations need to increase their agility for managing their information technology (IT) projects and transforming their business models. The integration of agile perspective and business analysis (BA) approach has a great potential to increase the success of digital transformation. This study aims to provide an overview of state-of-the-art in agile business analysis in scope of digital transformation. In accordance with the well-known frameworks, general principles and promising techniques of Agile BA are highlighted and discussed. The regarding agile practices provide valuable guidelines for researchers and practitioners that how they can assist continuous feedback, continuous learning, continuous improvement, and continuous integration capabilities of organizations; and also how to maximize value to the stakeholders in agile project lifecycles and agile business transformations.
New Factors Affecting Productivity of the Software Factory
Authors: Castañeda Pedro , Mauricio David
Published: December 2021

Productivity is very important because it allows organizations to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in their activities; however, it is affected by numerous factors. While these factors have been identified for over two decades, all of the previous works limited the software factory to the programming work unit and did not analyze other work units that are also relevant. 90% of a software factory's effort is absorbed by the software production component, 85% of which is concentrated in the efforts of the analysis and design, programming, and testing work units. The present work identifies three new factors that influence the software factory, demonstrating that the use of rules and events influences analysis & design, team heterogeneity negatively affects analysis and design and positively affects programming; and the osmotic communication affects programming. An empirical study on software factories in Peru, determined that 95% of the influence came from these factors, which corroborated as well that team size and trust within the team influences in software production.
Disciplined or Agile?
Authors: Albuquerque Danyllo Wagner , Guimarães Everton Tavares , Ramos Felipe Barbosa Araújo , Moura Costa Antonio Alexandre , Gomes Alexandre , Dantas Emanuel , Perkusich Mirko , Almeida Hyggo
Published: December 2021

Software requirements changes become necessary due to changes in customer requirements and changes in business rules and operating environments; hence, requirements development, which includes requirements changes, is a part of a software process. Previous studies have shown that failing to manage software requirements changes well is a main contributor to project failure. Given the importance of the subject, there is a plethora of efforts in academia and industry that discuss the management of requirements change in various directions, ways, and means. This chapter provided information about the current state-of-the-art approaches (i.e., Disciplined or Agile) for RCM and the research gaps in existing work. Benefits, risks, and difficulties associated with RCM are also made available to software practitioners who will be in a position of making better decisions on activities related to RCM. Better decisions can lead to better planning, which will increase the chance of project success.
The Dynamics of Product Development in Software Startups
Authors: Shanbhag Narendranath , Pardede Eric
Published: December 2021

Software startups are increasingly under high pressure to deliver successful products to survive and thrive in the modern highly competitive technology market. Larger organizations with deep pockets can replicate the same business ideas used by startups with relative ease. So how does the average startup stand a chance at succeeding at this seemingly David vs. Goliath contest? This article looks at the available literature and identifies such factors that can affect the success of software development startups. Using causal loop constructs from the field of system dynamics, the interactions among the various identified factors are visualised to reveal the dynamics of the system. The result is as a three-dimensional view of success factors in form of time, capital and (product) differentiation. The modelled system is then simulated, and the resultant trend is reviewed and interpreted. This research acts as ground work for analysing the workings of software development startups and sets the stage for a more holistic study of the area, upon which further research can be carried out.
Climate Change Adaptation Disclosure Among the Companies in the Asia-Pacific Region
Authors: Amran Azlan , Salamzadeh Yashar , Athinarayanan Athivagar
Published: December 2021

Climate change, due to its significant global impact, has been the focus of many recent researches. Many businesses adapt their activities to be more compliant with climate change control, and these efforts are disclosed to the stakeholders and society at large. This research is conducted on leading companies in the Asia-Pacific (APEC) region from the Forbes Global 2000 Leading Companies list, from 13 APEC countries Beside the impact of culture, Based on the results, the presence of CSR committee is positively related to the climate change adaptation disclosure and Companies collaborating with NGOs reported a positive relationship with climate change adaptation. Conducting our study in APEC region and having a comprehensive view on the countries located in this region on one hand and considering the most successful companies on the other hand are among the originalities of our research. Also considering variables such as national culture, NGO alliances, CSR committees and top management’s commitment beside “climate change adaptation disclosure” is new in academic literature.
What Determines Tourist Adoption of Hotel Websites for Online Hotel Bookings?
Authors: Lata Suman , Kumar Anil
Published: December 2021

The online purchase through web channels regarding travel related product services have really taken an unprecedented growth. The objectives of the study is to determine how information quality available on the websites of the hotels influence the intentions of customers of online bookings. Furthermore, the study also seeks to analyze how etrust as mediator influence the customer online booking intention.A simple random sampling technique used to collect the data with help of a questionnaire as the data collection tool to survey the customers in Delhi. The total valid sample size was 400. The framework and hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM empirically. The paper found significant and positive relation between information quality and online hotel booking intentions of users whereas the relation between source credibility and online hotel booking intentions found insignificant. In addition, etrust partially mediate between information quality and online booking intentions through hotel website and no mediation between source credibility and online hotel booking intentions.
Developing and Comparing Data Mining Algorithms That Work Best for Predicting Student Performance
Authors: Abdelhafez Hoda Ahmed , Elmannai Hela
Published: December 2021

Learning data analytics improves the learning field in higher education using educational data for extracting useful patterns and making better decision. Identifying potential at-risk students may help instructors and academic guidance to improve the students’ performance and the achievement of learning outcomes. The aim of this research study is to predict at early phases the student’s failure in a particular course using the standards-based grading. Several machines learning techniques were implemented to predict the student failure based on Support Vector Machine, Multilayer Perceptron, Naïve Bayes, and decision tree. The results on each technique shows the ability of machine learning algorithms to predict the student failure accurately after the third week and before the course dropout week. This study provides a strong knowledge for student performance in all courses. It also provides faculty members the ability to help student at-risk by focusing on them and providing necessary support to improve their performance and avoid failure.
Solving Tourism Management Challenges by Means of Mobile Augmented Reality Applications
Authors: Ghandour Ahmad , Kintonova Aliya , Demidchik Natalya , Sverdlikova Elena
Published: December 2021

The purpose of the present article was to examine the use of mobile augmented reality technologies in the process of planning and organizing tourist activities. The analysis of the attitude of TUI Showroom’s clients and managers of Russian travel agencies to the application of immersive technologies in travel consulting unveiled several possibilities for the practical use of mobile augmented reality applications in the travel business. The study concludes with the opinion that stimulation of the client's interest in the historical and cultural context of the tour by providing additional argumentation and high-quality information on the marketing proposal in a new, unusual manner forms the cultural, epistemic, and educational values of augmented reality, necessary in sales, personnel training and interaction with business partners.
Updated distribution and host records for the argasid tick Ornithodoros (Pavlovskyella) zumpti: A potential vector of African swine fever virus in South Africa
Authors: Craig Anthony F. , Heath Livio , Crafford Jan E. , Richt Juergen A. , Swanepoel Robert
Published: December 2021

African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a lethal and contagious disease of domestic pigs. In South Africa, the virus historically circulated in warthogs and ornithodorid ticks that were only found in warthog burrows in the north of the country. Regulations implemented in 1935 to prevent transfer of infected animals or products to the south initially proved effective but from 2016 there have been outbreaks of disease in the south that cannot be traced to transfer of infection from the north. From 1963 there were widespread translocations of warthogs to the south, initially from a source considered to be free of ornithodorid ticks. We undertook to determine whether sylvatic circulation of ASFV occurs in the south, including identification of potential new vectors, through testing extralimital warthogs for antibody and ticks for virus. Results of testing warthogs for antibody and other species of ticks for virus will be presented separately. Here we report finding Ornithodoros (Pavlovskyella) zumpti ticks in warthog burrows for the first time. This occurred in the Eastern Cape Province (ECP) in 2019. Since African swine fever was recognised in the ECP for the first time in 2020 and outbreaks of the disease in domestic pigs continue to occur there, priority should be given to determining the distribution range and vector potential of O. (P.) zumpti for ASFV.
Salivary Gland Tumors – An Unusual Experience of 17 Years
Authors: Shanmugam Subbiah , Susikar Sujay , Kumar M. Samanth
Published: December 2021

Objective:

The salivary gland tumors or otherwise called the “unusual tumors” are aptly named. The aim of this study was to determine the types, frequency, distribution, and demographic characteristics and treatment–outcome aspects of salivary gland tumors in a large representative sample from southern peninsular India. Thereby, an attempt was made to understand to why are they actually called unusually presenting usual tumors.

Materials and Methods:

This original article is a retrospective study regarding a 17-year single institutional experience of these tumors with yet again unusual patterns of presentations. This work was harvested from an oncological unit in the southern part of India, the Royapettah Govt Hospital. Medical records from 2002 to 2019 of salivary gland tumor patients were compiled to derive the data and analyzed.

Statistical Analysis Used:

The data were grouped and analyzed using simple measures of central tendency, percentages, and represented in tables and graphs.

Results:

There are some similarities but more dissimilarities with respect to their presentation. Males outnumbered females. Malignant tumors outnumbered benign tumors. However, the most common benign and malignant tumors were similar to the rest of the world.

Conclusion:

A much confluent and in-depth analysis from other parts of India as well as other regions of the Asian subcontinent and world needs to be done to understand the behavior of these usual tumors presenting unusually.
Psychometric Analysis of the Bengali Version of the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test-20 Questionnaire in Patients Suffering from Chronic Rhino-Sinusitis
Authors: Misra Pankhuri , Banerjee Aniruddha , Goenka Rachna , Nayak Chintamani , Ali Sk. Swaif , Koley Munmun , Saha Subhranil
Published: December 2021

Introduction:

The Sino-nasal outcome test-20 (SNOT-20) questionnaire contains 20 items provided with a 6-point Likert scale and are aimed at measuring rhino-sinusitis specific and general symptoms; however, no Bengali version is available.

Aims and Objectives:

We aimed to develop SNOT-20 Bengali version (SNOT-20-B) and examine its cross-cultural adaptability considering linguistic equivalence in patients suffering from chronic rhino-sinusitis.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 270 patients by consecutive sampling at the ear-nose-throat outpatient of National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata. The SNOT-20-B was produced by standardized forward-backward translations. Construct validity was examined by the exploratory factor analysis (n = 150) using the principal component analysis (varimax rotation). Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; n = 120) was performed to verify model fit. Concurrent validity was checked by correlating SNOT-20-B score with simultaneously measured EQ-5D-5 L scores.

Observations and Results:

Internal consistency (Cronbach's α =0.860; 95% confidence interval 0.834, 0.883) and test-retest reliability (P > 0.05) both were satisfactory. Concurrent validity was agreeable (P = 0.007). In factor analysis, all the items loaded above pre-specified value of 0.4 and identified 6 components, explaining 67.8% of variation. The goodness-of-fit in the CFA model was acceptable (χ2 = 517.396, P < 0.001; Comparative Fit Index = 0.634, Tucker Lewis Index = 0.551, root mean square error of approximation = 0.140, standardized root mean square residual = 0.298).

Conclusions:

SNOT-20-B, consisting of 20 items and framed within six components, appeared to be a valid and reliable questionnaire but measured different dimensions from the English version.
Semen microbiota in normal and leukocytospermic males
Authors: Yao Ye , Qiu Xin-Jian , Wang Dong-Sheng , Luo Jie-Kun , Tang Tao , Li Yun-Hui , Zhang Chun-Hu , Liu Hao , Zhou Lu , Zhao Lin-Lin
Published: December 2021

Large numbers of microbes can be present in seminal fluid, and there are differences in the semen microbiota between normal and abnormal semen samples. To evaluate the semen microbiota in patients with leukocytospermia, 87 seminal fluid samples, including 33 samples with a normal seminal leukocyte count and 54 samples with leukocytospermia, were obtained for a cross-sectional analysis. Twenty samples with a normal seminal leukocyte count had normal sperm parameters (Control group), and 13 samples with a normal seminal leukocyte count were from asthenozoospermia patients (Ast group). However, 32 samples with leukocytospermia were from asthenozoospermia patients (LA group), and only 22 samples with leukocytospermia had normal sperm parameters (Leu group). The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing method was used to sequence the microbiota in the seminal fluid, and multiple bioinformatics methods were utilized to analyze the data. Finally, the results showed that the worse sperm parameters were observed in the leukocytospermia-related groups. Semen microbiota analysis found that there was increased alpha diversity in the leukocytospermia-related groups.Firmicutes,Proteobacteria,Actinobacteria, andBacteroideteswere the primary phyla in the seminal fluid. Two microbiota profiles, namely, Lactobacillus-enriched and Streptococcus-enriched groups, were identified in this study. The majority of the samples in the groups with a normal seminal leukocyte count could be categorized asLactobacillus-enriched, whereas the majority of the leukocytospermia samples could be categorized asStreptococcus-enriched. Our study indicated that males with leukocytospermia have worse sperm parameters and a different semen microbiota composition compared to males with a normal seminal leukocyte count.
Extra-Anatomical Iliopopliteal Bypass
Authors: Yadav Mayank , Haseen Mohd Azam , Singh Sumit Pratap
Published: December 2021

Introduction:

Pseudoaneurysm of the femoral artery or an infected graft in the femoral region is a very serious disease with devastating complication. The aim of this study is to describe a novel technique for its management in the form of an extra-anatomic bypass between external iliac artery (EIA) and the popliteal/distal superficial femoral artery (SFA).

Methods:

This is a single-center retrospective study and includes eight consecutive patients with infection of previous femoral grafts and large femoral pseudoaneurysms, in which extra-anatomic bypass between EIA and popliteal or distal SFA was done.

Results:

The mean age of patients in the study was 43 years. There was one 30-day postoperative mortality (12.5%) due to sepsis. The patency rate in rest of the seven patients at the end of 3 months was 100% with no major complications.

Conclusion:

Our technique of extra-anatomic bypass from external iliac to femoral or popliteal artery, just medial to anterior superior iliac spine beneath the inguinal ligament in the subcutaneous plane is a simple and quick approach with no major neurological or bleeding risk.
Superior Mesenteric Vein Aneurysm
Authors: Saran Ayushica , Lovelock Thomas , Vasudevan Thodur , Charalabidis Peter
Published: December 2021

Visceral venous aneurysms (VVAs) are rare, accounting for 3% of all venous aneurysms. We present a case of a 73-year-old man diagnosed with an incidental 3.3 cm superior mesenteric vein (SMV) aneurysm, which has been managed conservatively for over 2 years. A 73-year-old man presented to the emergency department with a 1-week history of abdominal pain, generalized fatigue, and multiple episodes of vomiting. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan of the abdomen and pelvis was performed. This demonstrated an incidental multilobulated SMV aneurysm at the level of the inferior aspect of the uncinate process of the pancreas, with a maximal diameter of 25 mm. We have successfully managed this conservatively with serial imaging for 2 years. There are only 17 reported cases of SMV aneurysms, most of which occur at the confluence of the splenic vein. Ours occurred in the distal SMV. Due to their rarity, there is no standardized management approach for VVAs. Treatment is only proposed for VVAs with increasing size or rupture, thrombosis, or compression of local structures. We provide our experience in successfully managing an uncomplicated SMV aneurysm conservatively.
Suturing the lax pseudosac to the Cooper's ligament to prevent seroma in endoscopic hernia repair
Authors: Abraham Jobi
Published: December 2021

Seroma formation after laparoscopic or robotic inguinal hernia repair is a known complication, causing nuisance to the patient and embarrassment to the surgeon. A method of fixing the lax pseudosac of direct inguinal hernia to Cooper's ligament by suturing, to prevent post-operative seroma formation, is discussed in this study. Seventy-two pseudosac fixations were done in a 'figure of eight technique' using non-absorbable suture in 56 patients. These patients were followed up 2 weeks and 6 weeks post surgery. None developed a seroma. The primary obliteration of pseudosac by suturing with non-absorbable suture to Cooper's ligament is a cheap and reliable method for prevention of post-operative seroma. However, it is time-consuming and dependent on the suturing skill of the surgeon.
Horner syndrome—A rare complication after thyroidectomy for benign thyroid swelling
Authors: Janjua MH , Iftikhar S , Sarwar MZ , Farooq MS , Naqi SA
Published: December 2021

Horner syndrome occurring after thyroidectomy is a rare entity and most of the reported cases have happened after surgeries on malignant thyroid swellings. In the present report, we describe a 27-year-old female who developed ptosis, miosis, enophthalmos, and anhidrosis on the second post-operative day after thyroidectomy for benign goiter. Post-operative ultrasound, computed tomography of neck, nerve conduction study, and electromyography of brachial plexus were unremarkable. Patient was kept on conservative management. She was given short course of Prednisolone orally for 2 weeks and was discharged on 150 mcg thyroxine. She had significant improvement in ptosis, miosis, and enophthalmos after six months. Horner syndrome is a rare but an important complication after thyroidectomy which may lead to cosmetic disfigurement. Surgeons should be well aware of this possibility and its presentation for timely recognition and management postoperatively. Early intervention should be done for any reversible cause, i.e., hematoma and oral steroids should be initiated as early as possible.
Family physicians in an Eastern Turkish City need training on child abuse and neglect
Authors: Calikoglu EO , Atila D , Aktürk Z
Published: December 2021

Aim:

The study's purpose was to determine the knowledge, competencies, and approaches of family physicians in recognizing the signs of child neglect and abuse.

Methods:

This cross-sectional study was conducted between 1 March and 30 August 2019 in the Erzurum province in Turkey. The population of the study was family physicians working in primary care. The data were collected with an instrument that included the Scale of Diagnosing the Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect (SDRCAN) and a socio-demographic information form.

Results:

The mean age was 37.40 ± 8.78 years (min. 26, max. 60). Of the participants, 103 (n = 58.5%) were men. The most common types of encountered child abuse/neglect were physical abuse or neglect (each 27.8%, n = 49). Having received education on child abuse/neglect among participants was only 44.9% (n = 79). On the other hand, the rate of having encountered any child abuse/neglect was 40.3% (n = 71). Another result of this study is the proportion of family physicians feeling weak regarding history taking (30.7%, n = 54), physical exam (17.0%, n = 30), and cooperation with the authorities (13.1%, n = 23). Additionally, the different responses among the participants about action in case of encountering child abuse/neglect were remarkable. Being a woman was one prominent factor that increased the SDRCAN score (P < 0.001).

Conclusion:

The awareness and knowledge of family physicians in Erzurum about child maltreatment are inadequate. We recommend focusing on child maltreatment, especially in medical faculties, including this issue in the standard core curriculums, and organizing intermittent in-service training programs during the post-graduate working period.
If early warning systems are used, would it be possible to estimate early clinical deterioration risk and prevent readmission to intensive care?
Authors: Kupeli I , Subasi F
Published: December 2021

Background:

Although the intensive care unit (ICU) admission criteria are specified clearly, it is difficult to make the decision of discharge from ICU.

Aims:

The purpose of this study is to test whether or not early warning scores will allow us to estimate early clinical deterioration within 24 hours and predict readmission to intensive care. A total of 1330 patients were included in the retrospective study.

Patients and Methods:

All the patients' age, gender, ICU hospitalization reasons and Acute Physiological and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scores were recorded. National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and VitalpacTM early warning score (VIEWS) scores were calculated using the physiological and neurological examination records. Discharge NEWS and VIEWS values of the patients who were readmitted to intensive care 24 hours after discharge were compared with the patients who were not readmitted to intensive care. The statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS version 21 package software.

Results:

Age average of all the patients was 64.3 ± 20.8 years. The number of the patients who were readmitted to intensive care was 118 (8.87%). When examining the factors that affect early clinical deterioration, it was found that advanced age, high APACHE II scores, higher NEWS and VIEWS scores, lower DAP values and the patient's transfer from the ward were significantly predictive (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

In this study, high NEWS and VIEWS are strong scoring systems that can be used in estimating early clinical deterioration risk and are easy-to-use and less time consuming.
Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Gu L , Xie X , Guo Z , Shen W , Qian P , Jiang N , Fan Y
Published: December 2021

Aims:

This study aims to investigate the potential application of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) to predict concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) in locally advanced esophageal carcinoma.

Patients and Methods:

This study involved 33 patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer and treated with CRT. The patients underwent DCE-MRI before CRT (pre) and 3 weeks after starting CRT (mid). The patients were categorized into two groups: complete response (CR) and non-complete response (non-CR) after 3 months of treatment. The quantitative parameters of DCE-MRI (Ktrans, Kep, and Ve), the changes and ratios of parameters (ΔKtrans, ΔKep, ΔVe, rΔKtrans, rΔKep, and rΔVe), and the relative ratio in the tumor area and a normal tube wall (rKtrans, rKep, and rVe) were calculated and compared between two timeframes in two groups, respectively. Moreover, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) statistical analysis was used to assess the above parameters.

Results:

We divided 33 patients into two groups: 22 in the CR group and 11 in the non-CR group. During the mid-CRT phase in the CR group, both Ktrans and Kep rapidly decreased, while only Kep decreased in the non-CR group. The pre-Ktrans and pre-Kep in the CR group were substantially higher compared to the non-CR group. Moreover, the rKtrans was also apparently observed as higher at pre-CRT in the CR group compared to the non-CR group. The ROC analysis demonstrated that the pre-Ktrans could be the best parameter to evaluate the treatment performance (AUC = 0.74).

Conclusion:

Pre-Ktrans could be a promising parameter to forecast how patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer will respond to CRT.
Amblyaudia
Authors: Kaipuzha Ramiya Ramachandran , Pulimoottil Davis Thomas , Bakshi Satvinder Singh , Suriyanarayanan Gopalakrishnan
Published: December 2021

Amblyaudia represents the spectrum of auditory processing deficits auditory processing deficits(APD) that are felt to be associated with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL) and may have detrimental effects on hearing and language development. The hallmark finding in amblyaudia is an abnormally large asymmetry between the two ears during dichotic listening tasks with either normal or below normal performance in the dominant ear. Imbalanced signaling between the two ears during critical periods may result in altered or maladaptive patterns of neural connections that persist even after the peripheral pathology has resolved. Amblyaudia often presents with difficulties in attention, speech comprehension, and reading. Dichotic listening tests are used for screening and diagnosis because they put stress on the binaural auditory system and reveal any asymmetry between the auditory pathways. The prevalence and severity of amblyaudia in the population can be minimized by early identification and correction of AHL. Intervention may be in the form of reducing the intensity of input to the dominant ear during dichotic listening tasks or as a short-term intervention program called auditory rehabilitation for interaural asymmetry. Amblyaudia is an important source of difficulties in attention, speech comprehension, and reading, often difficult to diagnose, and early diagnosis and implementation of corrective measures can make a significant difference in the development of these children.
On the multiplication of spherical functions of reductive spherical pairs of type A
Authors: Bravi Paolo , Gandini Jacopo
Published: December 2021

LetGbe a simple complex algebraic group, and let$K \subset G$be a reductive subgroup such that the coordinate ring of$G/K$is a multiplicity-freeG-module. We consider theG-algebra structure of$\mathbb C[G/K]$and study the decomposition into irreducible summands of the product of irreducibleG-submodules in$\mathbb C[G/K]$. When the spherical roots of$G/K$generate a root system of type$\mathsf A$, we propose a conjectural decomposition rule, which relies on a conjecture of Stanley on the multiplication of Jack symmetric functions. With the exception of one case, we show that the rule holds true whenever the root system generated by the spherical roots of$G/K$is a direct sum of subsystems of rank 1.
Polynomiality of factorizations in reflection groups
Authors: Polak Elzbieta , Ross Dustin
Published: December 2021

We study the number of ways of factoring elements in the complex reflection groups
$G(r,s,n)$
as products of reflections. We prove a result that compares factorization numbers in
$G(r,s,n)$
to those in the symmetric group
$S_n$
, and we use this comparison, along with the Ekedahl, Lando, Shapiro, and Vainshtein (ELSV) formula, to deduce a polynomial structure for factorizations in
$G(r,s,n)$
.
Role of Platelets in the Pathogenicity of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis in Coronary Heart Diseases
Authors: Nasir Abubakar Auwal , Osaro Erhabor , Mohammed Ibrahim , Marafa Ahmed Hamidu , Abdulrahman Yakubu
Published: December 2021

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process that results in coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and in many cases of stroke. It is a disease that involves multiple inflammatory cytokine which is regarded as the primary underlying cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). CVD is the leading cause of death in the developed and developing countries like Nigeria. From pathological perspective, the chronic inflammatory condition of atherosclerosis occurs due to interplay between platelets, monocytes, macrophages. Physiologically platelets play a significant role in coagulation and repair of endothelial injury. Pathologically, studies have shown that activated platelets release multiple inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that serve as positive mediators of atherosclerosis. This chemokine is (RANTES, P-selectin and PF-4). Activated platelet release p-selectin that mediate platelet adhesion and rolling to injured endothelial cell, RANTES trigger the recruitment of monocytes into the sub- endothelium and PF4 promote the differentiation of monocytes into macrophages in the intimal layer of the endothelium which engulf ox-LDL to form FOAM cells. Thus, the aim of this review is to understand and describe the role of activated platelets in atherosclerosis as well as therapeutic target of these platelet inflammatory chemokines which is the major mediator of atherosclerosis in human.
Assessment of Seminal Plasma Anti-oxidant capacities, Fructose Content, and Some Heavy Metal Concentrations among Infertile Males in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Authors: Umohinyang Peter Edidong , Elekima Ibioku , Onwuli Donatus
Published: December 2021

No Abstract.
28 Days Sub Acute Toxicity Studies of the Methanol Stem Bark Extract of Combretum hypopilinum Diels (Combretacea) in Rats
Authors: Kabiru Abubakar , Aminu Usman , Musa Yerima , Amali Muhammad Abubakar , Hassan Samaila , Suleiman Abdullahi , Giaze Rabiu Tijani , Umaru Milicent Ladi
Published: December 2021

The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety profile of Combretum hypopilinum stem bark extracted with Methanol (70%v/v). Preliminary Phytochemical screening of the crude methanol stem bark extract was carried out, and revealed the presence of secondary metabolites such as steroids, flavonoids and alkaloids. Initial oral acute toxicity test was carried out using the Limit Dose Test to ascertain the safety of the extract in rats. Sub-acute toxicity testing was conducted by 28 days oral administration of 400 mg/kg, 800 mg/kg and 1600 mg/kg body weight to three groups of ten rats. The fourth group was administered distilled water 10 ml/kg. No major changes were observed in body weight of the animals following 28 days of daily oral administration. Biochemical parameters such as Total Protein, Total Bilirubin, Creatinine, Aspartate Transaminase (AST) and Alanine Transaminase (ALT), were found to be within normal ranges. The levels of marker enzymes in the vital organs did not show any significant changes between control and treated groups. Histopathological examination of the major vital organs (liver, brain, and kidney) revealed no significant pathological changes in the treated groups of rats. The results of the present work suggested that the methanol stem bark extract of Combretum hypopilinum is relatively safe for use at the tested doses.
PERİNATAL SOSYAL HİZMET UZMANI
Authors: ERKOÇ Beyza , ASLAN Avşar
Published: December 2021

Planlı bir gebelik sonucu çocuğun dünyaya gelme süreci içerdiği güzel duyguların yanında, gebeliğin istenilen gibi devam etmemesi, bebeğin veya annenin sağlıkları ve yaşamları ilgili riskler, doğumla ilgili riskler, istenmeyen gebelikler, düşük, ölü doğum ve buna benzer olası zorluklar güzel duyguların yerini kaygı, endişe, stres gibi olumsuz duygulara bırakabilir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, her bebeğin ve her aile üyesinin yeterli şefkatli bakım ile desteklenmesi ve potansiyellerinin en üst düzeye çıkartılması amacı ile çalışan, gebelik öncesinden başlayarak bebek bir yaşına gelinceye kadar anneye, aileye ve topluma yönelik psiko-sosyal destek sağlayan perinatal sosyal hizmet uzmanlığının tanıtımının yapılması ve bu uzmanlık türünün ülkemizde aktif hale getirilebilmesi adına öneriler sunulmasıdır.