bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Implementation of the Personal Software Process in Academic Settings and Current Support Tools
Authors: Nasir Mohd Hairul Nizam Md , Alias Nur Aalyaa , Fauzi Shukor Sanim Mohd , Massatu Mohd Hashim
Published: June 2013

The Personal Software Process (PSP) is a structured software development framework that includes defined operations, measurements, and analysis techniques designed to help software engineers understand and build on their personal skills and improve their performance. The PSP provides a defined personal process, guides software engineers in collecting and recording data, and defines ways to analyse data and make process improvements. This chapter reviews the previous literature on the implementation of the PSP in academic settings. Lessons learned from PSP implementations are then highlighted. We found that there were mixed outcomes due to several issues that later become a barrier to the adoption of the PSP. Several tools have been developed to overcome these barriers and constitute a helping hand for both students and engineers in adopting the PSP.
Developing a Web-Based Cooperative Environment to Software Project Development
Authors: Babamir Seyed Morteza
Published: June 2013

A software project is developed by collaboration of some expert people. However, the collaboration puts obstacles in the way of software development when the involved people in the project are scattered over the world. Although Internet has provided a collection of scattered islands in which the denizens of the islands are able to communicate with each other, it lacks full requisite qualifications for the collaboration among the denizens. The emerging idea is that a supportive environment should be developed on the Web for providing full requisite qualifications and facilitating collaboration. Towards providing such an environment, this chapter aims to present a framework exploiting Open Hypermedia System (OHS) and a Web-based collaboration protocol. OHS assists in saving and restoring artifacts constructed by the scattered people, and the protocol provides channels to concurrent communication and distributed authoring among the people.
Improving Lean, Service-Oriented Software Development at Codeweavers Ltd
Authors: Shannon Paul , Kidd Neil , Barrett Paul , Knight Chris , Wessel Sam
Published: June 2013

Following a successful adoption of lean and agile practices, the development team at Codeweavers Ltd has furthered its approach to service-oriented software development for the motor finance and insurance industry. Through iteratively inspecting and adapting their processes over the last twelve months, the team members have seen a change from their Kanban-style single piece flow to multiple work cells developing with separate swim lanes on a work in progress board and within fixed length iterations. The arrival of strong competition to their market led to a positive shift towards customer service and interaction with increased attention on lean planning and agility. This chapter reports on improvement in software craftsmanship with a focus on quality, largely achieved by the use of service-oriented architecture, combined with increased use of mocking for unit-testing. The perspective taken is from software team members, and in the chapter, the developers chart their own observations, improvements, and failures over the course of a year.
Reengineering the Portal to Texas HistorySM
Authors: Murray Kathleen , Phillips Mark , Hicks William , Weng Neena , Belden Dreanna
Published: June 2013

This case study reports the activities, findings, and lessons learned during a project that replaced the legacy Digital Asset Management (DAM) system of The Portal to Texas History? at the University of North Texas Libraries with an open source system. This unique system decouples the application development framework from the backend infrastructure, effectively relieving the development and growth constraints inherent in the legacy system. In a novel approach for an academic library, genealogists participated in the user-centered, iterative approach used to prototype, develop, and test the user interface. The resulting system promoted productivity gains by enabling programming staff to work in parallel from specialized areas of expertise. A post-project review process identified a number of lessons learned, including the importance of representing the requirements and priorities of internal and external stakeholders. The review process also informed an application development model that may be useful to other digital libraries.
A Systematic Approach for Designing Educational Recommender Systems
Authors: Brito Patrick H. S. , Bittencourt Ig Ibert , Machado Aydano Pamponet , Costa Evandro , Holanda Olavo , Ferreira Rafael , Ribeiro Thiago
Published: June 2013

The construction of Educational Recommender System (ERS) demands the incorporation of quality attributes at the software design, such as availability for preventing the service to be unavailable for a long time, and scalability for preventing the system from going offline due to a large number of simultaneous requests. The incorporation of such characteristics makes ERS more complex and expensive, but existing strategies for designing ERS do not consider quality attributes in an explicit way. This chapter presents an architecture-centered solution, which is partially supported by tools and considers quality attributes as early as possible in the software development process in a systematic way, from requirements to the source code. The feasibility of the proposed process is showed in terms of a case study executed in a “step-by-step” fashion, presenting how the software architecture can be designed and gradually refined until it achieves the level of object-oriented classes generated based on design patterns.
Software Process Improvement for Small and Very Small Enterprises
Authors: Zarour Mohammad , Abran Alain , Desharnais Jean-Marc
Published: June 2013

Software organizations have been struggling for decades to improve the quality of their products by improving their software development processes. Designing an improvement program for a software development process is a demanding and complex task. This task consists of two main processes: the assessment process and the improvement process. A successful improvement process requires first a successful assessment; failing to assess the organization’s software development process could create unsatisfactory results. Although very small enterprises (VSEs) have several interesting characteristics such as flexibility and ease of communications, initiating an assessment and improvement process based on well-known Software Process Improvement (SPI) models such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and ISO 15504 is more challenging in such VSEs. Accordingly, researchers and practitioners have designed a few assessment methods to meet the needs of VSEs organizations to initiate an SPI process. This chapter discusses the assessment and improvement process in VSEs; we first examine VSEs characteristics and problems. Next, we discuss the different assessment methods and standards designed to fit the needs of such organizations and how to compare them. Finally, we present future research work perceived in this context.
Software Engineering, Process Improvement, and Experience Management
Authors: Sharma Neeraj , Singh Kawaljeet , Goyal D.P.
Published: June 2013

Software engineers have always been experimenting with various models in an endeavor to improve upon software processes. Recently, a new area of software process improvement through experience management has got attention of the software engineering community. Software developers are experimenting with experience management to improve software process. This chapter explores the role of experience management in mitigating the effects of software crisis and investigates the current state of EM in Indian software engineering environment. The chapter discusses the need and integration of knowledge and experience management practices in software engineering environments. The chapter begins with the discussion of the ills of software engineering, classically referred to as “software crisis,” like late delivery of the systems, ill-functionality, and cost overruns, and justifies how managing the knowledge and experience of software engineers and practitioners can ward off these evils. The chapter then discusses the models and methodologies for knowledge and experience management in software engineering. Finally, the chapter sheds light on the major works carried out in this area and suggests possible future research avenues in this domain.
Quality Practices for Managing Software Development in Information System
Authors: Hani Syeda Umema
Published: June 2013

Information Systems are developed and acquired in business organization in order to achieve the competitive advantage. A good quality information system plays vital role in providing good product and service value to its customers. This study intends to discuss suitable quality practices which could not only support development of a good quality software product but also linked up well with the strategic needs of the organizational business. It first presents what industry recommends for quality practices of software development. Then a framework has been presented that links Information System’s development process improvement with strategic needs of an organization. It also demonstrates development of a primarily process improvement activity i.e. “process improvement plan” depicting how business goals leads to an adaptation of process framework like Capability Maturity Model for Development (CMMI-DEV) while using multi-model PI approach and the benefits achieved with its adaptation targeting development of a Quality Information System.
Business Risk Analysis
Authors: Virdi Jasbir
Published: June 2013

Up until now, efficient and applicable project methodologies, process improvement methodologies, product improvement methodologies, and relevant software engineering best practices have been developed and successfully implemented in many software projects in a variety of industries. However, projects still fail. Most of the project failure factors are diagnosed; however, some may fall through holes or gaps and get overlooked due to unknown reasons. The basis of this research study is a comprehensive questionnaire with relevant and probing questions that have collected data on obsolescence of requirements. Through analysis of the gathered data and information, this study aimed to present these risk factors, their impact, and a possible way to measure them. The critical factors identified and the result of this research project can be a trigger to conduct further in-depth analysis of project risks based on categories of projects (maintenance & support projects, development projects, data conversion projects, etc.), or rather, analysis of projects based on the business area/function. This research study is another attempt to assist in turning IT project failures into project successes.
Towards Test-Driven and Architecture Model-Based Security and Resilience Engineering
Authors: Saidane Ayda , Guelfi Nicolas
Published: June 2013

The quality of software systems depends strongly on their architecture. For this reason, taking into account non-functional requirements at architecture level is crucial for the success of the software development process. Early architecture model validation facilitates the detection and correction of design errors. In this research, the authors are interested in security critical systems, which require a reliable validation process. So far, they are missing security-testing approaches providing an appropriate compromise between software quality and development cost while satisfying certification and audit procedures requirements through automated and documented validation activities. In this chapter, the authors propose a novel test-driven and architecture model-based security engineering approach for resilient systems. It consists of a test-driven security modeling framework and a test based validation approach. The assessment of the security requirement satisfaction is based on the test traces analysis. Throughout this study, the authors illustrate the approach using a client server architecture case study.
The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model for Service-Intensive Projects
Authors: Koolmanojwong Supannika , Boehm Barry , Lane Jo Ann
Published: June 2013

To provide better service to customers and remain competitive in the business environment, a wide variety of ready-to-use software and technologies are available for one to “grab and go” in order to build up software systems at a rapid pace. Currently, a wide variety of Web services are available and ready to use for this purpose. Current software process models also support commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based development processes. However, although COTS and Web Services are similar, they are different in many perspectives. On one hand, there are various software process models that support Web services development. Yet there is no process model that supports the project that uses services provided by others. This chapter introduces the Incremental Commitment Spiral Model (ICSM), a new generation process model that provides development guidelines, from exploring a Web service alternative to deployment and maintenance with case studies.
Study of Safety Auditors’ Views on the Use of BIM for Safety in Hong Kong
Authors: Wan Allen , Platten Andrew , Briggs Tim
Published: June 2013

Traditionally site safety is a concern for the Architectural, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry. In view of government of Hong Kong initiating a number of large scale AEC projects and a relative high number of serious accidents continue to occur, site safety will remain an issue for the local AEC. Recently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) or digital simulation and data management software have been attracting much attention both in Hong Kong and in the international sector. It is a notable question to ask “Is it possible to use BIM to improve site safety in Hong Kong?” For over ten years now, the concept of Safety Management System (SMS) has been adopted in Hong Kong as the strategy for site safety management systems. It is commonly accepted in Hong Kong the drive to establish, implement and monitor SMS comes from registered safety officer (RSO) and registered safety auditor (RSA). Thus, in theory views of safety auditors on the use of BIM for safety can reflect whether or not BIM is effective tool to improve site safety. In this paper, the SMS regulation in Hong Kong will be briefly outlined and then results of a survey of members of the Society of Accredited Safety Auditor (SASA) in Hong Kong will be presented. It is concluded that 78% of the respondents to this study believe there is benefit for using BIM for SMS and commonly respondents refer to using BIM for visualization of construction sequences and planning of hazard controls. This study provides the background to a wider investigation of the linkage between BIM and Health and Safety Management.
Solving the Mixed Backhauling Vehicle Routing
Authors: Wassan Niaz A. , Salhi Said , Nagy Gábor , Wassan Naveed , Wade Anne C.
Published: June 2013

The mixed vehicle routing problem with backhauls is investigated using ant system heuristic. This distribution problem seems to suffer from a lack of published work even though it has immense practical applicability especially within logistic systems. Some enhancements to the basic ant system algorithm are embedded into the search. In particular a focus is on the choice in the placement of ants, the use of site-dependent candidate list, the introduction of a look ahead-based visibility, and appropriate strategies for updating local and global trails. Encouraging computational results are reported when tested on benchmark data sets.
Attacks on Confidentiality of Communications Between Stranger Organizations
Authors: Ates Mikaël , Lax Gianluca
Published: June 2013

Knowledge has become the main intangible asset of many organizations. Two organizations that have had no previous contact or relationship are defined strangers. When two stranger organizations enter into a relationship, knowledge plays a very critical role since each party has to disclose its own knowledge to achieve knowledge from the other party. In this paper, the authors study the confidentiality of communications between stranger organizations, showing that even when strong authentication algorithms, like RSA, are exploited, no guarantee that the communication is confidential can be given. This study is surely useful to keep in mind the limitations concerning the confidentiality whenever stranger organizations are involved.
The Role of Supportive Leadership and Job Design for Proactive Behavior and Self-Organization in Work Groups
Authors: Lantz Annika
Published: June 2013

Research on group work has shown that supportive leadership helps improve the group’s cooperation and social exchange in groups, which in turn influences the effects of the group work. This study develops a previous model on the relationship between job design, group processes, group initiative and self-organizational activities by including supportive leadership. The hypothesized model was tested using LISREL 8.30 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993) in five different organizational contexts (two types of industry, elderly care, school and nuclear power plant) and in 104 work groups. The results are based on work task analysis (two studies) and questionnaires. The meaningfulness of the model was tested both in contexts where proactive behavior and self-organizational activities are desirable and in a context where proactive behavior can be damaging. Dimensions of job design, supportive leadership, group processes are interrelated and connected to self-organizational activities. Reflectivity and group initiative show the largest effects on self-organizational activities. Job design captured by work task analysis gives a better model fit and has a larger impact on self-organizational activities than self-assessed autonomy. Supportive leadership has an effect on group processes that in turn impact group initiative and self-organizational activities and a direct effect on group initiative as well.
Site Occupancy of the B2 Phase in Ti-25Al-zMo Alloys
Authors: Singh A. K. , Premkumar M.
Published: June 2013

The structure of the B2 phase has been investigated in Ti-25Al-30Mo, Ti-25Al-35Mo and Ti-25Al-40Mo alloys using Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data in homogenized condition. Different initial structure models have been used for the refinement based on the analyzed alloy chemistry. Site occupancy models for the general alloy compositions (xTi-yAl-zMo) wherein the Ti (x) is less than 50 atom % have been proposed. The site occupancy of the B2 phase has been calculated and compared with those of earlier experimental and theoretical investigations. The lattice parameter of the B2 phase decreases with increase in Mo content at constant Al.
A New Calculation Method for Belleville Disc Springs with Contact Flats and Reduced Thickness
Authors: Ferrari Giammarco
Published: June 2013

A new calculation method for disc springs with contact flats and reduced thickness is presented in this paper. The analysis aims at putting in evidence the contradiction in standard norms where the standard calculation method for this kind of Belleville springs is used. On the basis of this analysis it is found that standard methods do not work for reduced disc springs because they lead to dangerously wrong results and software developed during this study shows how it is possible to create a new type of standard tables for this kind of springs.
IJOSpontaneous Group Decision Making in Distributed Collaborative Learning
Authors: Liu Geoffrey Z.
Published: June 2013

The paper reports on an exploratory study of student spontaneous group decision making (GDM) in distributed collaborative learning environments. Recordings of group meetings were collected from graduate students working on a database design project (in a library and information science program in California), from which group decision instances were extracted and formally coded for quantitative analysis. A follow-up survey was conducted to gather more information. The study finds that students are generally in favor of an unfacilitated and semi-structured GDM process, with group decisions typically made by consensus. A rigidly structured GDM process tends to be associated with poor group performance. GDM efficiency is an important predictor of the quality of final group products, and too much brainstorming may lead to difficulties. Students relying exclusively on text chatting tend to be unsure if their opinion was given equal attention, and those in underperforming groups are more doubtful about decision quality.
Agricultural Investment Risk Relationship to National Domestic Production
Authors: Omankhanlen Alex Ehimare
Published: June 2013

This empirical case study investigated the uncertainty of agricultural investment schemes in Nigeria and their relationship to national domestic production. Government administrations have invested a substantial amount of money into the agricultural sector, yet thus far, there have been very few visible results to show for it. The private sector does not seem to be interested in developing agriculture even with government incentives. The purpose of this study is to identify investment risk factors for national agriculture development as perceived by business stakeholders. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) was then used to examine the strength of the cause-effect relationship for the agricultural investment factors in terms of expected domestic production. The findings were that there was no significant relationship between commercial bank credit granting to businesses for agricultural development and therefore no impact on national domestic production. On the other hand, the regression analysis did support the hypotheses that there was a significant relationship between government funding towards the agricultural sector and national domestic production as well as a significant relationship between the public agriculture credit guarantee scheme and national domestic production, respectively. Based on this positive finding, the study closes with several unique recommendations for policy makers in order to stimulate the investment into the agricultural sector to increase national production.
Empowering Local Village Community Enterprises in Thailand
Authors: Sawasduang Prapeeporn
Published: June 2013

This paper describes a process that has been developed over the years to empower local village communities in Thailand to create sustainable community enterprises principally based on local knowledge and resources. The paper, which is written for an international audience and therefore first describes some characteristics of local communities in Thailand, then discusses research methodology and approach leading to a community enterprise learning model, refers to case study work carried out in the Central Region of Thailand, and finally discusses the community learning process. The work may be more generically applicable, and can now form the basis for a broader co-operation with similar groups conducting studies in other countries. With this in mind the research has been presented and discussed in December 2011 at The Faculty of Economics1, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China and in March 2012 with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences2 in Beijing as a basis for possible future co-operation. Further dissemination of the research into other ASEAN countries is envisaged.
Monetary Policy Instruments and Bank Risks in China
Authors: Geng Zhongyuan , Zhai Xue
Published: June 2013

The authors use a panel data regression model to examine the effects of main monetary policy instruments on commercial bank risks in China from 1998 to 2011. The interest rate has a positive effect on bank risk while the interest rate margin, the reserve requirement ratio and open market operation have a negative effect. Among the three monetary policy instruments, the reserve requirement ratio has the greatest effect on bank risk, the interest rate (the interest rate margin) the second largest and the open market operation the weakest. Their findings provide guidance to the monetary authority and regulatory authorities in monetary policy and banking regulation in China.
Towards a Conceptual Model of User Acceptance of Location-Based Emergency Services
Authors: Aloudat Anas , Michael Katina
Published: June 2013

This paper investigates the introduction of location-based services by government as part of an all-hazards approach to modern emergency management solutions. Its main contribution is in exploring the determinants of an individual’s acceptance or rejection of location services. The authors put forward a conceptual model to better predict why an individual would accept or reject such services, especially with respect to emergencies. While it may be posited by government agencies that individuals would unanimously wish to accept life-saving and life-sustaining location services for their well-being, this view remains untested. The theorised determinants include: visibility of the service solution, perceived service quality features, risks as perceived by using the service, trust in the service and service provider, and perceived privacy concerns. The main concern here is to predict human behaviour, i.e. acceptance or rejection. Given that location-based services are fundamentally a set of electronic services, this paper employs the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a special adaptation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to serve as the theoretical foundation of its conceptualisation. A series of propositions are drawn upon the mutual relationships between the determinants and a conceptual model is constructed using the determinants and guided by the propositions. It is argued the conceptual model presented would yield to the field of location-based services research a justifiable theoretical approach competent for exploitation in further empirical research in a variety of contexts (e.g. national security).
Smart Content Selection for Public Displays in Ambient Intelligence Environments
Authors: Ribeiro Fernando Reinaldo , José Rui
Published: June 2013

A public display that is able to present the right information at the right time is a very compelling concept. However, realising or even approaching this ability to autonomously select appropriate content based on some interpretation of the surrounding social context represents a major challenge. This article provides an overview of the key challenges involved and an exploration of some of the main alternatives available. It also describes a novel place-based content adaptation system that autonomously selects from web sources the content deemed more relevant according to a dynamic place model. This model is based on a tag cloud that combines content suggestions expressed by multiple place visitors with those expressed by the place owner. Evaluation results have shown that a place tag cloud can provide a valuable approach to this issue and that people recognize and understand the sensitivity of the system to their demands.
Modeling Forest Species Distributions in a Human-Dominated Landscape in Northeastern, USA
Authors: McCauley Stephen , Rogan John , Miller Jennifer
Published: June 2013

Mapping forest species distributions is notoriously difficult in human-dominated mixed temperate forest environments. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of species distribution modeling techniques for estimating the distribution of forest canopy species on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Binary maps of estimated presence/absence were produced for four canopy species using a classification tree approach and a generalized linear modeling approach, both including and excluding a spatial dependence term, and the results are evaluated using several assessment measures. Secondary goals of the study are to examine the influence of past land use on species distributions at the landscape scale and to consider the effect of explicitly including information on spatial dependence. Findings suggest that these techniques are broadly applicable in such human-dominated landscapes, but that complex disturbance histories introduce significant challenges.
Comparing Static and Dynamic Policies for Vehicle Routing Problems with Backhauling and Dynamic Customer Demands
Authors: Mitra Subrata
Published: June 2013

Dynamic vehicle routing problems with backhauling (VRPB), although important, have attracted little attention in the literature. Dynamic VRPB is more complex than dynamic vehicle routing problems (VRP) without backhauling, and since VRP without backhauling is a special case of VRPB, models and algorithms for dynamic VRPB can easily be adapted for dynamic VRP. In this paper, the author compared between static and dynamic policies for solving VRPB with dynamic occurrences of customer delivery and pickup demands. They developed heuristic algorithms for medium-sized problems under static and dynamic policies. Although dynamic policies are always at least as good as static policies, the author observed from numerical experimentations that static policies perform relatively well for low degrees of dynamism (dod). On the other hand, dynamic policies are expected to perform significantly better than static policies for high dod and early availabilities of dynamic customer delivery and pickup demand information. The author concludes the paper by providing directions for future research on dynamic VRPB.
Towards a Semantic-Based Approach for Affect and Metaphor Detection
Authors: Zhang Li , Barnden John
Published: June 2013

Affect detection from open-ended virtual improvisational contexts is a challenging task. To achieve this research goal, the authors developed an intelligent agent which was able to engage in virtual improvisation and perform sentence-level affect detection from user inputs. This affect detection development was efficient for the improvisational inputs with strong emotional indicators. However, it can also be fooled by the diversity of emotional expressions such as expressions with weak or no affect indicators or metaphorical affective inputs. Moreover, since the improvisation often involves multi-party conversations with several threads of discussions happening simultaneously, the previous development was unable to identify the different discussion contexts and the most intended audiences to inform affect detection. Therefore, in this paper, the authors employ latent semantic analysis to find the underlying semantic structures of the emotional expressions and identify topic themes and target audiences especially for those inputs without strong affect indicators to improve affect detection performance. They also discuss how such semantic interpretation of dialog contexts is used to identify metaphorical phenomena. Initial exploration on affect detection from gestures is also discussed to interpret users’ experience of using the system and provide an extra channel to detect affect embedded in the virtual improvisation. Their work contributes to the journal themes on affect sensing from text, semantic-based dialogue processing and emotional gesture recognition.
A Set of Criteria for Selection of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Authors: Méxas Mirian Picinini , Quelhas Osvaldo Luis Gonçalves , Costa Helder Gomes , Lameira Valdir de Jesus
Published: June 2013

Information systems have evolved at a continual pace since administrations began to develop greater interest in production processes and supply chains. This created systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRPII). This research discusses a literature search conducted to map the multicriteria models used to select ERP systems. As a result, this article proposes criteria and subcriteria to be used in the selection of ERP systems. The basic structure is developed around a tree and subcriteria tree that can be used as a checklist for companies wishing to acquire an ERP system.
A Methodology to Bridge Information Gap in ERP Implementation Life Cycle
Authors: Negi Tripti , Bansal Veena
Published: June 2013

ERP packages are complex in nature. Requirements Engineering (RE) and Configuration can be termed as two knowledge phases in an ERP implementation. During RE, needs and requirements of various stakeholders are identified and documented. Configuration phase uses information generated by RE phase. Hence the RE techniques should be able to capture configuration specific requirements. But it turns out that RE techniques do not capture configuration specific information completely. Thus, there is a gap between the information captured during RE phase and the information required for configuration. To minimize this gap, a solution called Data Activity Model for Configuration (DAMC) is proposed. It is validated by professionals mainly consultants and program managers for various ERP vendors.
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) Adoption Challenges
Authors: Beydoun Ghassan , Xu Dongming , Sugumaran Vijayan
Published: June 2013

Predictions for Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to deliver transformational results to the role and capabilities of IT for businesses have fallen short. Unforseen challenges have often emerged in SOA adoption. They have fallen into two categories: technical issues stemming from service components reuse difficulties and organisational issues stemming from inadequate support or understanding of what is required from the executive management in an organisation to facilitate the technical rollout. This special issue of IJIIT presents a collection of papers which attempt to resolve some of these issues. This paper first explores and analyses the hindrances to the full exploitation of SOA.
Dis2PPI
Authors: Notari Daniel Luis , Oldra Samuel Brando , Mariani Mauricio Adami , Reolon Cristian , Bonatto Diego
Published: June 2013

Experiments in bioinformatics are based on protocols that employ different steps for data mining and data integration, collectively known as computational workflows. Considering the use of databases in the biomedical sciences software that is able to query multiple databases is desirable. Systems biology, which encompasses the design of interactomic networks to understand complex biological processes, can benefit from computational workflows. Unfortunately, the use of computational workflows in systems biology is still very limited, especially for applications associated with the study of disease. To address this limitation, we designed Dis2PPI, a workflow that integrates information retrieved from genetic disease databases and interactomes. Dis2PPI extracts protein names from a disease report and uses this information to mine protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. The data gathered from this mining can be used in systems biology analyses. To demonstrate the functionality of Dis2PPI for systems biology analyses, the authors mined information about xeroderma pigmentosum and Cockayne syndrome, two monogenic diseases that lead to skin cancer when the patients are exposed to sunlight and neurodegeneration.
Hemoglobinuria Misidentified as Hematuria: Review of Discolored Urine and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria
Authors: Veerreddy Prashant
Published: June 2013

Discolored urine is a common reason for office visits to a primary care physician and urology referral. Early differentiation of the type or cause of discolored urine is necessary for accurate diagnosis and prompt management.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria is a clonal disorder caused by acquired somatic mutations in the PIG-A gene on the X-chromosome of hemopoietic stem cells and leads to deficiency of surface membrane anchor proteins. The deficiency of these proteins leads to an increased risk of hemolysis of erythrocytes and structural damage of platelets, resulting in a clinical syndrome characterized by complement-mediated intravascular hemolytic anemia, bone marrow failure, and venous thrombosis. Patients with this clinical syndrome present with paroxysms of hemolysis, causing hemoglobinuria manifesting as discolored urine. This can be easily confused with other common causes of discolored urine and result in extensive urologic work-up. Three commonly confused entities of discolored urine include hematuria, hemoglobinuria, and myoglobinuria. Specific characteristics in a dipstick test or urinalysis can guide differentiation of these three causes of discolored urine.

This article begins with a case summary of a woman presenting with cranberry-colored urine and a final delayed diagnosis of paryxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Her hemoglobinuria was misdiagnosed as hematuria, leading to extensive urologic work-up. The article also gives an overview of the approach to diagnosing and treating discolored urine.
Chemical composition and severe ozone loss derived from SCIAMACHY and GOME-2 observations during Arctic winter 2010/2011 in comparisons to Arctic winters in the past
Authors: Hommel R. , Eichmann K.-U. , Aschmann J. , Bramstedt K. , Weber M. , von Savigny C. , Richter A. , Rozanov A. , Wittrock F. , Bauer R. , Khosrawi F. , Burrows J. P.
Published: June 2013

Abstract. Record breaking losses of ozone (O3) in the Arctic stratosphere have been reported in winter and spring 2011. Trace gas amounts and polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) distributions retrieved using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) and scattering theory applied to the measurements of radiance and irradiance by satellite-born and ground-based instrumentation, document the unusual behaviour. A chemical transport model has been used to relate and compare Arctic winter-spring conditions in 2011 with those in previous years. We examine in detail the composition and transformations occurring in the Arctic polar vortex using total column and vertical profile data products for O3, bromine oxide (BrO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), chlorine dioxide (OClO), and PSCs retrieved from measurements made by the instrument SCIAMACHY onboard the ESA satellite Envisat, as well as the total column ozone amount, retrieved from the measurements of GOME-2 on the EUMETSAT operational meteorological polar orbiter Metop-A. In the late winter and spring 2010/2011 the chemical loss of O3 in the polar vortex is consistent with and confirms findings reported elsewhere. More than 70% of O3 was depleted between the 425 K and 525 K isentropic surfaces, i.e. in the altitude range ~16–20 km. In contrast, during the same period in the previous winter only slightly more than 20% depletion occurred below 20 km, whereas 40% of the O3 was removed above the 575 K isentrope (~23 km). This loss above the 575 K isentrope is explained by the catalytic destruction by the NOx descending from the mesosphere. At lower altitudes O3 loss results from processing by halogen driven O3 catalytic removal cycles, activated by the large volume of PSC generated throughout this winter and spring. The mid-winter 2011 conditions, prior to the catalytic cycles being fully effective, are also investigated. Surprisingly, a significant loss of O3 with 60% is observed in mid-January 2011 below 500 K (~19 km), which was then sustained for approximately a week. This "mini-hole" event had an exceptionally large spatial extent. Such meteorologically driven changes in polar stratospheric O3 are expected to increase in frequency as anthropogenically induced climate change evolves.
The in-flight blackbody calibration system for the GLORIA interferometer on board an airborne research platform
Authors: Olschewski F. , Ebersoldt A. , Friedl-Vallon F. , Gutschwager B. , Hollandt J. , Kleinert A. , Monte C. , Piesch C. , Preusse P. , Rolf C. , Steffens P. , Koppmann R.
Published: June 2013

Abstract. The Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere (GLORIA) is a prototype of an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) for PREMIER, a candidate mission for ESA's Earth Explorer 7. GLORIA is deployed on board various research aircraft like the Russian M55 Geophysica or the German HALO. The instrument provides detailed infrared images of the Upper Troposphere/Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) region, which plays a crucial role in the climate system. GLORIA uses a two-dimensional detector array for infrared limb observations in emission and therefore needs large-area blackbody radiation sources (126 mm × 126 mm) for calibration. In order to meet the highly demanding uncertainty requirements for the scientific objectives of the GLORIA missions and due to the sophisticated tomographic evaluation scheme, the spatial distribution of the radiance temperature of the blackbody calibration sources has to be determined with an uncertainty of about 0.1 K. Since GLORIA is exposed to the hostile environment of the UTLS with mutable low temperature and pressure, an in-flight calibration system has to be carefully designed to cope with those adverse circumstances. The GLORIA in-flight calibration system consists of two identical weight-optimised high-precision blackbody radiation sources, which are independently stabilized at two different temperatures. The two point calibration is in the range of the observed atmospheric infrared radiance emissions with 10 K below and 30 K above ambient temperature, respectively. Thermo-Electric Coolers are used to control the temperature of the blackbody radiation sources offering the advantage of avoiding cryogens and mechanical coolers. The design and performance of the GLORIA in-flight calibration system is presented. The blackbody calibration sources have been comprehensively characterized for their spatially (full aperture) and spectrally (7 μm to 13 μm) resolved radiation properties in terms of radiance temperatures traceable to the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90) at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the national metrology institute of Germany.
Phosphate monoesterase and diesterase activities in the North and South Pacific Ocean
Authors: Sato M. , Sakuraba R. , Hashihama F.
Published: June 2013

Abstract. To reveal the biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus in the Pacific Ocean, phosphate monoesterase and diesterase activities were measured with soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and labile and total dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) concentrations in the North and South Pacific Ocean. Both esterase activities were noticeably enhanced around the western part of 30° N, where the surface SRP concentration was below 10 nM, while they showed no significant correlation with DOP concentration. The proportion of the activity in the dissolved fraction was higher for diesterase than monoesterase, which may support results from previous genomic analyses. Substrate affinity and the maximum hydrolysis rate of monoesterase were the highest at lower concentrations of SRP, showing the adaptation of microbes to inorganic phosphorus nutrient deficiency at the molecular level. The calculated turnover time of monoesters was 1 to 2 weeks in the western North Pacific Ocean, which was much shorter than the turnover time in other areas of the Pacific Ocean but longer than the turnover time in other phosphate-depleted areas. In contrast, the turnover rate of diesters was calculated to exceed 100 days, revealing that diesters in the western North Pacific were a biologically refractory phosphorus fraction. In future studies, a combination of molecular biological techniques and kinetic studies will reveal the entire process of biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus in the ocean, including components that were not elucidated in the present study.
Hard paths, soft paths or no paths? Cross-cultural perceptions of water solutions
Authors: Wutich A. , White A. C. , Roberts C. M. , White D. D. , Larson K. L. , Brewis A.
Published: June 2013

Abstract. In this study, we examine how development status and water scarcity shape people's perceptions of "hard path" and "soft path" water solutions. Based on ethnographic research conducted in four semi-rural/peri-urban sites (in Bolivia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the US), we use content analysis to conduct statistical and thematic comparisons of interview data. Our results indicate clear differences based on development status and, to a lesser extent, water scarcity. People in less developed sites were more likely to suggest hard path solutions, less likely to suggest soft path solutions, and more likely to see no path to solutions than people in more developed sites. Thematically, people in less developed sites envisioned solutions that involve small-scale water infrastructure and decentralized, community based solutions, while people in more developed sites envisioned solutions that involve large-scale infrastructure and centralized, regulatory water solutions. People in water-scarce sites were less likely to suggest soft path solutions and more likely to see no path to solutions (but no more likely to suggest hard path solutions) than people in water-rich sites. Thematically, people in water-rich sites seemed to perceive a wider array of unrealized potential soft path solutions than those in water-scarce sites. On balance, our findings are encouraging in that they indicate that people are receptive to soft path solutions in a range of sites, even those with limited financial or water resources. Our research points to the need for more studies that investigate the social feasibility of soft path water solutions, particularly in sites with significant financial and natural resource constraints.
Developing predictive insight into changing water systems: use-inspired hydrologic science for the Anthropocene
Authors: Thompson S. E. , Sivapalan M. , Harman C. J. , Srinivasan V. , Hipsey M. R. , Reed P. , Montanari A. , Blöschl G.
Published: June 2013

Abstract. Globally, many different kinds of water resources management issues call for policy and infrastructure based responses. Yet responsible decision making about water resources management raises a fundamental challenge for hydrologists: making predictions about water resources on decadal-to-century long timescales. Obtaining insight into hydrologic futures over 100 yr timescales forces researchers to address internal and exogenous changes in the properties of hydrologic systems. To do this, new hydrologic research must identify, describe and model feedbacks between water and other changing, coupled environmental subsystems. These models must be constrained to yield useful insights, despite the many likely sources of uncertainty in their predictions. Chief among these uncertainties are the impacts of the increasing role of human intervention in the global water cycle – a defining challenge for hydrology in the Anthropocene. Here we present a research agenda that proposes a suite of strategies to address these challenges. The research agenda focuses on the development of co-evolutionary hydrologic modeling to explore coupling across systems, and to address the implications of this coupling on the long-time behavior of the coupled systems. Three research directions support the development of these models: hydrologic reconstruction, comparative hydrology and model-data learning. These strategies focus on understanding hydrologic processes and feedbacks over long timescales, across many locations, and through strategic coupling of observational and model data in specific systems. We highlight the value of use-inspired and team-based science that is motivated by real-world hydrologic problems but targets improvements in fundamental understanding to support decision-making and management.