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This paper offers a comparative systematic literature review of the key principles, norms, and strategies associated with Security by Design (SbD) and Privacy by Design (PbD). Both frameworks are grounded in the idea that security and privacy should be integral components of digital technologies from the very beginning of the design process. Following PRISMA guidelines, we reviewed 82 documents sourced from databases such as the ACM Digital Library, EBSCO Library, IEEE Xplore, ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science. Our analysis reveals that SbD and PbD share four fundamental principles: prevention/proactiveness, embeddedness, user-centricity, and transparency. The review also highlights the solid regulatory foundation of PbD, particularly under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), compared to the emerging regulatory context for SbD. Additionally, we explore a range of strategies, from organizational cultural changes to technical interventions, that illustrate the nuanced approaches taken to implement these paradigms. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of these findings and suggesting directions for future research, aiming to contribute to the development of technologies that are both secure and respectful of privacy, while also advocating for integrated frameworks that enhance digital trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have shown that involving users in design processes is a key factor in understanding user needs and essential for designing computer systems capable of providing valuable user experiences. However, many practitioners do not emphasize user needs sufficiently and neglect user involvement in software design and development. The UCD Sprint is a recently proposed, step-by-step, cost-effective process that focuses on involving users in design activities. This article reports a mixed-method study in which, for the first time, practitioners working in companies used the UCD Sprint; the study's main objective was to investigate the impact of the UCD Sprint on practitioners' design practices. The results show that, among the various activities associated with this process, those that involved users were particularly appreciated by practitioners. Thus, the UCD Sprint can enhance the innovativeness of company design practices; it enables practitioners to obtain sufficient information to create systems that fit users' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing software design (CSD) is the completion of specific software-design tasks on behalf of a client by a large, unspecified group of external individuals who have the specialized knowledge required by an open call. Although current CSD platforms have provided features to improve coordination in the CSD process (such as email notifications, chat, and announcements), these features are insufficient to solve the coordination limitations. A lack of appropriate coordination support in CSD activities may cause delays and missed opportunities for participants, and thus the best quality of design contest results may not be guaranteed. This research aims to support the effective management of the CSD process through identifying the key activity dependencies among participants in CSD platforms and designing a set of process models to provide coordination support through managing this activity. In order to do this, a five-stage approach was used: First, the current CSD process was investigated by reviewing 13 CSD platforms. Second, the review resulted in the identification of 17 possible suggestions to improve CSD. These suggestions were evaluated in stage 3 through distributing a survey to 41 participants who had experience in using platforms in the field of CSD. In stage 4, we designed ten process models that could meet the requirements of suggestions, while in stage 5, we evaluated these process models through interviews with domain experts. The result shows that coordination support in the activities of the CSD can make valuable contributions to the development of CSD platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of software engineering is advancing at astonishing speed, with packages now available to support many stages of data science pipelines. These packages can support infectious disease modelling to be more robust, efficient and transparent, which has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a package for the construction of infectious disease models, integrated it with several open-source libraries and applied this composite pipeline to multiple data sources that provided insights into Australia's 2022 COVID-19 epidemic. We aimed to identify the key processes relevant to COVID-19 transmission dynamics and thereby develop a model that could quantify relevant epidemiological parameters.The pipeline's advantages include markedly increased speed, an expressive application programming interface, the transparency of open-source development, easy access to a broad range of calibration and optimisation tools and consideration of the full workflow from input manipulation through to algorithmic generation of the publication materials. Extending the base model to include mobility effects slightly improved model fit to data, with this approach selected as the model configuration for further epidemiological inference. Under our assumption of widespread immunity against severe outcomes from recent vaccination, incorporating an additional effect of the main vaccination programs rolled out during 2022 on transmission did not further improve model fit. Our simulations suggested that one in every two to six COVID-19 episodes were detected, subsequently emerging Omicron subvariants escaped 30–60% of recently acquired natural immunity and that natural immunity lasted only one to eight months on average. We documented our analyses algorithmically and present our methods in conjunction with interactive online code notebooks and plots.We demonstrate the feasibility of integrating a flexible domain-specific syntax library with state-of-the-art packages in high performance computing, calibration, optimisation and visualisation to create an end-to-end pipeline for infectious disease modelling. We used the resulting platform to demonstrate key epidemiological characteristics of the transition from the emergency to the endemic phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The field of software engineering is advancing at astonishing speed, with packages now available to support many stages of data science pipelines. These packages can support infectious disease modelling to be more robust, efficient and transparent, which has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a package for the construction of infectious disease models, integrated it with several open-source libraries and applied this composite pipeline to multiple data sources that provided insights into Australia's 2022 COVID-19 epidemic. We aimed to identify the key processes relevant to COVID-19 transmission dynamics and thereby develop a model that could quantify relevant epidemiological parameters. The pipeline's advantages include markedly increased speed, an expressive application programming interface, the transparency of open-source development, easy access to a broad range of calibration and optimisation tools and consideration of the full workflow from input manipulation through to algorithmic generation of the publication materials. Extending the base model to include mobility effects slightly improved model fit to data, with this approach selected as the model configuration for further epidemiological inference. Under our assumption of widespread immunity against severe outcomes from recent vaccination, incorporating an additional effect of the main vaccination programs rolled out during 2022 on transmission did not further improve model fit. Our simulations suggested that one in every two to six COVID-19 episodes were detected, subsequently emerging Omicron subvariants escaped 30e60% of recently acquired natural immunity and that natural immunity lasted only one to eight months on average. We documented our analyses algorithmically and present our methods in conjunction with interactive online code notebooks and plots. We demonstrate the feasibility of integrating a flexible domain-specific syntax library with state-of-the-art packages in high performance computing, calibration, optimisation and visualisation to create an end-to-end pipeline for infectious disease modelling. We used the resulting platform to demonstrate key epidemiological characteristics of the transition from the emergency to the endemic phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we revise Conway’s law from a mathematical point of view. We model it more mathematically by introducing several mathematical tools. By introducing a task graph, we first rigorously state Conway’s law based on the homomorphisms in graph theory for the software system and the organizations that created it. Although Conway did not mention it, the task graph shows the geometric structure of tasks, which plays a crucial role. However, the model in terms of homomorphism is not sufficient for recent requirements for high-level treatment of communication (from security, knowledge hiding, etc.) in organizations and hierarchical treatment of organizations. In order to reformulate it for the requirement, we introduce mathematical tools, weakened homomorphisms and graph topology. Then we provide a novel mathematical model of Conway’s law with hierarchical and complicated structures along the line of the recent requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend for an increasingly ubiquitous and cyber‐physical world has been leveraging the use and importance of microcontrollers (μC) to unprecedented levels. Therefore, microcontroller programming (μCP) becomes a paramount skill for electrical and computer engineering students. However, μCP poses significant challenges for undergraduate students, given the need to master low‐level programming languages and several algorithmic strategies that are not usual in "generic" programming. Moreover, μCP can be time‐consuming and complex even when using high‐level languages. This article samples the current state of μCP education in Portugal and unveils the potential support of natural language processing (NLP) tools (such as chatGPT). Our analysis of μCP curricular units from seven representative Portuguese engineering schools highlights a predominant use of AVR 8‐bit μC and project‐based learning. While NLP tools emerge as strong candidates as students' μC companion, their application and impact on the learning process and outcomes deserve to be understood. This study compares the most prominent NLP tools, analyzing their benefits and drawbacks for μCP education, building on both hands‐on tests and literature reviews. By providing automatic code generation and explanation of concepts, NLP tools can assist students in their learning process, allowing them to focus on software design and real‐world tasks that the μC is designed to handle, rather than on low‐level coding. We also analyzed the specific impact of chatGTP in the context of a μCP course at ISEP, confirming most of our expectations, but with a few curiosities. Overall, this work establishes the foundations for future research on the effective integration of NLP tools in μCP courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose An investigational drug services (IDS) pharmacy plays a vital role in supporting clinical trial research by ensuring the safe and efficient management of investigational products. This article describes the implementation of an electronic project management software to improve an IDS pharmacy's study protocol work. The article describes the implementation of the software and how this approach addressed specific challenges, including project oversight, process standardization, documentation, reporting, accountability, and intrateam communication. Summary We describe an electronic project management software system used to streamline and standardize the work associated with study protocols. This software provides an organized and customizable workspace to manage tasks associated with each study protocol. The software automates task creation, tracks progress, and ensures comprehensive record keeping. Additionally, the software fosters effective communication within the team and offers real-time reporting to assess team productivity and progress. We have observed improved consistency, enhanced revenue, including approximately $18,000 in additional fee capture, and increased collaboration among pharmacy team members. Conclusion Implementing an electronic project management software has proven highly beneficial in the IDS pharmacy. The software has significantly improved workflow efficiency by addressing challenges in study protocol management. While initial setup and training required time and resources, the long-term benefits in project oversight, collaboration, and revenue capture justify the investment. An electronic project management software is a valuable tool in managing the complexity of study protocol activities and supports the pharmacy's crucial role in advancing clinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AKTIN Emergency Department Registry, a German health data network, faces operational challenges due to rapid growth. Manual data request processes have become inefficient, hindering timely research and straining personnel. To address these challenges, we undertook a user-centered analysis utilizing Design Thinking principles to identify pain points and functional requirements in current data request creation and management processes. Future work will prioritize iterative implementation of the created concepts with continuous user engagement and rigorous software validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As society's reliance on software systems escalates over time, so too does the cost of failure of these systems. Meanwhile, the complexity of software systems, as well as of their designs, is also ever‐increasing, influenced by the proliferation of new tools and technologies to address intended societal needs. The traditional response to this complexity in software engineering and software architecture has been to apply rationalistic approaches to software design through methods and tools for capturing design rationale and evaluating various design options against a set of criteria. However, research from other fields demonstrates that intuition may also hold benefits for making complex design decisions. All humans, including software designers, use intuition and rationality in varying combinations. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of what is known and unknown from existing research regarding the use and performance consequences of using intuition and rationality in software design decision‐making. To this end, a systematic literature review has been conducted, with an initial sample of 3909 unique publications and a final sample of 26 primary studies. We present an overview of existing research, based on the literature concerning intuition and rationality use in software design decision‐making and propose a research agenda with 14 questions that should encourage researchers to fill identified research gaps. This research agenda emphasizes what should be investigated to be able to develop support for the application of the two cognitive processes in software design decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To systemically identify and synthesize information on health professionals' and students' perceptions regarding the development needs of incident reporting software. Design: A systematic review of qualitative studies. Data Sources: A database search was conducted using Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science and Medic without time or language limits in February 2023. Review methods: A total of 4359 studies were identified. Qualitative studies concerning the perceptions of health professionals and students regarding the development needs of incident reporting software were included, based on screening and critical appraisal by two independent reviewers. A thematic synthesis was conducted. Results: From 10 included studies, five analytical themes were analysed. Health professionals and students desired the following improvements or changes to incident reporting software: (1) the design of reporting software, (2) the anonymity of reporting, (3) the accessibility of reporting software, (4) the classification of fields and answer options and (5) feedback and tracking of reports. Wanted features included suitable reporting forms for various specialized fields that could be integrated into existing hospital information systems. Rapid, user‐friendly reporting software using multiple reporting platforms and with flexible fields and predefined answer options was preferred. While anonymous reporting was favoured, the idea of reporting serious incidents with both patient and reporter names was also suggested. Conclusion: Health professionals and students provided concrete insights into the development needs for reporting software. Considering the underreporting of healthcare cases, the perspectives of healthcare professionals must be considered while developing user‐friendly reporting tools. Reporting software that facilitates the reporting process could reduce underreporting. Reporting Method: The ENTREQ reporting guideline was used to support the reporting of this systematic review. Patient or Public Contribution: There was no patient or public contribution. Protocol Registration: The protocol is registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews with register number CRD42023393804. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, a variety of digital platforms have emerged to deliver core correctional services. Understanding the challenges and drivers of correctional agencies' digitalisation helps us to understand the processes that shape these technologies and their impact on correctional environments and practices. To bridge this gap, we conducted interviews with 26 software developers and other stakeholders involved in the digitalisation of corrections, aiming to explore the challenges encountered in designing and implementing digital service delivery technologies for correctional services. Our findings shed light on some key challenges faced by software developers and other stakeholders involved in the design process, including institutional culture, justice system bureaucracy, and public perceptions. These challenges significantly influence design processes and the availability of digital products for end users. They shape the techno-social landscape of correctional agencies and contribute to the dominance or absence of certain digital platforms or artefacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article presents the development of a new wind turbine simulation software to study wake flow physics. To this end, the design and development of waLBerla‐wind, a new simulator based on the lattice‐Boltzmann method that is known for its excellent performance and scaling properties, will be presented. Here it will be used for large eddy simulations (LES) coupled with actuator wind turbine models. Due to its modular software design, waLBerla‐wind is flexible and extensible with regard to turbine configurations. Additionally it is performance portable across different hardware architectures, another critical design goal. The new solver is validated by presenting force distributions and velocity profiles and comparing them with experimental data and a vortex solver. Furthermore, waLBerla‐wind's performance is compared to a theoretical peak performance, and analyzed with weak and strong scaling benchmarks on CPU and GPU systems. This analysis demonstrates the suitability for large‐scale applications and future cost‐effective full wind farm simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIndexes are useful for summarizing multivariate information into single metrics for monitoring, communicating, and decision-making. While most work has focused on defining new indexes for specific purposes, more attention needs to be directed toward making it possible to understand index behavior in different data conditions, and to determine how their structure affects their values and the variability therein. Here we discuss a modular data pipeline recommendation to assemble indexes. It is universally applicable to index computation and allows investigation of index behavior as part of the development procedure. One can compute indexes with different parameter choices, adjust steps in the index definition by adding, removing, and swapping them to experiment with various index designs, calculate uncertainty measures, and assess indexes’ robustness. The article presents three examples to illustrate the usage of the pipeline framework: comparison of two different indexes designed to monitor the spatio-temporal distribution of drought in Queensland, Australia; the effect of dimension reduction choices on the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) on countries’ ranking; and how to calculate bootstrap confidence intervals for the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The methods are supported by a new R package, called tidyindex. Supplemental materials for the article are available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design patterns represent a means of communicating reusable solutions to common problems, provided they are implemented and maintained correctly. However, many design pattern instances erode as they age, sacrificing qualities they once provided. Identifying such instances of pattern decay is valuable because it allows for proactive attempts to extend the longevity and quality attributes of pattern components. Apart from structural decay, design patterns can exhibit symptoms of behavioral decay. We utilized a taxonomy that characterizes these negative behaviors and designed a case study wherein we measured structural and behavioral decay, hereafter referred to as pattern grime, as well as pattern quality and size, across pattern evolutions. We evaluated the relationships between structural and behavioral grime and found statistically significant cases of strong correlations between specific types of structural and behavioral grime. Furthermore, we extended the QATCH operational software quality model to incorporate design pattern evolution metrics and measured and correlated software quality to the presence of behavioral grime in software systems. Our results suggest a strong inverse relationship between software quality and behavioral grime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Internet of Things (IoT) application development falls more on libraries and tools, software developers design applications targeting power-constrained edge-computing devices. However, not only the quality-of-service (QoS) but also energy savings remain major challenges. This letter presents Cometes, a complete tool-flow that extends modern SDK tools, assisting developers in selecting resources toward the desired tradeoff between execution time and energy consumption, without exceeding the power limitations of the Edge clusters. Cometes runs at application design time, on top of Kubernetes, and exploits cross-device estimation methods as well as traditional multiobjective optimizers to enable efficient resource allocation. The presented solution achieves up to 66% energy savings, up to 50% speed-up, and an average improvement of 7%, compared to the placement policy of the lightweight Kubernetes (k3s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design of a control unit for efficient battery charge management in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The system design aims at controlling the performance of the charging process of dual lithium-ion battery blocks in electric vehicles, with a main battery that powers the vehicle and an auxiliary one for servicing the ancillary equipment. In this paper, we design and analyze the protocol of a control unit that operates and regulates the battery charge in electric vehicles to obtain optimum performance. The so-designed system enhances the battery charge process and protects the main battery from capacity reduction, thus enlarging the driving range of the electric vehicle. We design a specific protocol for an electric circuit that reproduces the structure of the battery charge system of an electric vehicle. The control system improves the efficiency of the auxiliary battery charge by 4.5%. The theoretical simulation matches experimental values in a simulation test by 98.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the heat transfer inside the helically coiled tubes, a kind of internally finned helically coiled tubes is proposed. Compared to the smooth helically coiled tubes, the heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics of internally finned helically coiled tubes are investigated numerically. Influence of fin number, pitch and coil diameter on the performance is analyzed. Empirical correlations to calculate the Nusselt number and friction factor of internally finned helically coiled tubes are summarized. The helically coiled tubes heat exchangers are divided equally into several cells and the theoretical analysis of energy flow in each cell is carried out. According to the established equations of heat transfer, the calculation method for single-stream helically coiled tubes heat exchangers and multi-stream helically coiled tubes heat exchangers is proposed. The geometric model and thermohydraulic model are built up, and the design software for internally finned helically coiled tubes heat exchangers is developed based on Python. Take two cases of helically coiled tubes heat exchangers as examples, smooth helically coiled tubes and internally finned helically coiled tubes (fin number is six) are applied to validate the accuracy of calculations results obtained by design software. The results show that the deviation of outlet temperature and pressure drop is less than 7 % and 11 %, respectively. When applying internally finned helically coiled tubes, the heat transfer coefficient of the tube side is increased by approximately 30 %. The corresponding pressure drop and heat load is higher. The outlet temperature proves that the heat transfer is more insufficient in the case of internally finned helically coiled tubes (fin number is six).

This paper describes the design of a control unit for efficient battery charge management in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The system design aims at controlling the performance of the charging process of dual lithium-ion battery blocks in electric vehicles, with a main battery that powers the vehicle and an auxiliary one for servicing the ancillary equipment. In this paper, we design and analyze the protocol of a control unit that operates and regulates the battery charge in electric vehicles to obtain optimum performance. The so-designed system enhances the battery charge process and protects the main battery from capacity reduction, thus enlarging the driving range of the electric vehicle. We design a specific protocol for an electric circuit that reproduces the structure of the battery charge system of an electric vehicle. The control system improves the efficiency of the auxiliary battery charge by 4.5%. The theoretical simulation matches experimental values in a simulation test by 98.4%.

Crowdsourcing software design (CSD) is the completion of specific software-design tasks on behalf of a client by a large, unspecified group of external individuals who have the specialized knowledge required by an open call. Although current CSD platforms have provided features to improve coordination in the CSD process (such as email notifications, chat, and announcements), these features are insufficient to solve the coordination limitations. A lack of appropriate coordination support in CSD activities may cause delays and missed opportunities for participants, and thus the best quality of design contest results may not be guaranteed. This research aims to support the effective management of the CSD process through identifying the key activity dependencies among participants in CSD platforms and designing a set of process models to provide coordination support through managing this activity. In order to do this, a five-stage approach was used: First, the current CSD process was investigated by reviewing 13 CSD platforms. Second, the review resulted in the identification of 17 possible suggestions to improve CSD. These suggestions were evaluated in stage 3 through distributing a survey to 41 participants who had experience in using platforms in the field of CSD. In stage 4, we designed ten process models that could meet the requirements of suggestions, while in stage 5, we evaluated these process models through interviews with domain experts. The result shows that coordination support in the activities of the CSD can make valuable contributions to the development of CSD platforms.

Accurate estimation of software effort and time in the software development process is a key activity to achieve the necessary product quality. However, underestimation or overestimation of effort has become a key challenge for software development. One of the main problems is the estimation with metrics from late stages, because the product must already be finished to make estimates. In this paper, the use of statistical models and machine learning approaches for software estimation are used in early stages such as software design, and a data set is presented with metric values of design artifacts with 37 software projects. As results, models for the estimation of development time and effort are proposed and validated through leave-one-out cross-validation. Further, machine learning techniques were employed in order to compare software projects estimations. Through the statistical tests, it was proven that the errors were not statistically different with the regression models for effort estimation. However, with Random Forest the best statistical results were obtained for estimating development time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an overview of the INTERSECT project which delivers research software engineering training to intermediate and advanced developers of research software through week-long bootcamps. In addition to providing a project overview, we describe the first summer bootcamp, provide links to materials, and discuss observations from bootcamp participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full potential for electronic health record systems in facilitating a positive transformation in care, with improvements in quality and safety, has yet to be realised. There remains a need to reconceptualise the structure, content and use of the nursing component of electronic health record systems. The aim of this study was to engage and involve a diverse group of stakeholders, including nurses and electronic health record system developers, in exploring together both issues and possible new approaches to documentation that better fit with practice, and that facilitate the optimal use of recorded data. Three focus groups were held in the UK and USA, using a semi-structured interview guide, and a common reflexive approach to analysis. The findings were synthesised into themes that were further developed into a set of development principles that might be used to inform a novel electronic health record system specification to support nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid societal development and increased engineering construction have exacerbated the disturbance of the geological environment. The impact of extreme climatic factors has grown, leading to a surge in geological disasters, with landslides emerging as particularly significant. Consequently, fundamental research in geological disaster detection or monitoring necessitates an in-depth study of the physical phenomena accompanying landslides' development, evolution, and occurrence. Exploring the signal characteristics associated with landslides is crucial to indirectly understanding their development and change processes—a scientific question deserving thorough exploration. Despite this research's importance, there is a notable gap in the investigation of the key design and specific implementation of electromagnetic instruments tailored for landslide detection. This gap is particularly pronounced in designing and implementing data acquisition software for electromagnetic instruments. This interdisciplinary research draws on theoretical frameworks from embedded computer science, software engineering, digital signal processing technology, geophysics, and engineering geology. It focuses on developing specialized data acquisition application software for landslide detection or monitoring, contributing to the scientific understanding of landslide development and providing independent intellectual property in the electromagnetic wave signal detection field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Business Process Automation (BPA) is adopted by organizations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase overall business performance. Traditional Business Process Automation (TBPA) is one of the main approaches employed to develop a BPA. TBPA entails the development of BPA in a programming language to integrate relevant applications in the digital ecosystem to execute a given process. Process variability and practitioner unavailability are issues that encumber the requirements engineering for TBPA software. Objective: This work proposes Requirements with Logs (RWL), a log-based approach for TBPA software to reduce the impact of these issues, by providing a higher alignment among business process requirements and software architecture, and employing process mining to semi-automatically discover the business process during requirements elicitation. Method: The research conducted a case study in a technology institute to assess RWL and report its results in practice. Results: The results revealed significant improvements in adaptability to business process changes, in time spent with practitioners, and in software development. RWL also presented limitations, including human intervention to accurately obtain the business process, complexity to trace the process into the architecture, data privacy concerns, and risk of network traffic overload. Conclusion: This research demonstrated the effectiveness of RWL to minimize the impact of process variability and the dependence on practitioners.

Existing brain-computer interface (BCI) software platforms are typically designed for research purposes and offer limited usability for non-technical end-users. This paper presents the Mindset software application, which allows end-users to train and use a BCI through a graphical user interface. The four modules of Mindset (acquisition, visualization, training, and output) collectively provide functionality to connect to various EEG hardware, visualize incoming data streams, perform user training for mental imagery and visual P300 paradigms, and facilitate real-time control of a diverse range of applications. Online experiments were conducted to characterize system performance during motor imagery and visual P300 tasks with different EEG headsets and computing hardware. With both motor imagery and visual P300 paradigms, and two different headsets and two different computer configurations, output latency was no greater than 30 ms, latency jitter below 10 ms and system clock jitter less than 17 ms. Further, the prototypical event-related potential morphology was confirmed in the visual P300 paradigm, while the expected contralateral desynchronization was observed in the motor imagery paradigm. These results demonstrate that Mindset can satisfy the real-time requirements of a BCI system and reliably capture relevant neurophysiological signals with readily available computing hardware. Mindset facilitates the translation of BCI research into clinical and practical use by improving the accessibility and usability of BCI technology.

Low Back Pain (LBP) is a prevalent health issue that affects many people's daily functioning and well-being. However, diagnosing LBP is challenging because it requires expert knowledge of the spine's structure and function. Therapists usually rely on asking patients questions to guide their tests, but this method is not very efficient. Moreover, existing systems for LBP diagnosis and information exchange are narrow in their coverage. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a design specification for a web-based decision support system that offers a preliminary diagnosis and suggests a comprehensive diagnosis that may have multiple components. The system design incorporates an intuitive and user-friendly framework that can handle the complex features of LBP diagnosis and uses verbal probability estimation to cope with the uncertainty involved. The design specification can facilitate communication among the relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Systems existing in hospital or clinic settings offer services within the physical environment. Examples of such systems include picture archiving and communication systems, which provide remote services for patients. To develop a successful system, methods like software development life cycles (SDLCs) and design techniques, such as prototyping, are needed. This study aimed to specify requirements, design, and evaluation of dental image exchange and management system using a user‐centered approach. Methods: This cross‐sectional study was conducted in four phases, each corresponding to different stages of SDLCs. User‐needs data were used to gathered by interviews and observations. A prototype was developed using object‐oriented programming and presented to users for feedback. Finally, focus group was used to finalized the prototype into the desired system. Results: User needs were identified and prioritized from the outset, with ease of use, security, and mobile apps being their most essential requirements. The prototype underwent several iterations of design and evaluation in focus group sessions until users were satisfied, and their feedback was incorporated. Eventually, the prototype was refined into the final system with users' consent. Conclusion: The study revealed that instant access to information, voluntary participation, user interface (UI) design, and usefulness were critical variables for users and should be integral to any system. Successful implementation of such a system requires careful consideration of end‐users' needs and their application to the system. Moreover, integrating the system with electronic health records can further enhance the treatment process and the efficiency of medical staff. The voluntary perspective of users played a significant role in achieving an exemplary UI and overall satisfaction with the system. Developers and policymakers should consider these aspects in similar system development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Developmental disorders are a prevalent problem in the health sector of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and children in these countries are at greater risk. A registry system is helpful and vital to monitoring and managing this disease. Objective The present study aims to develop an electronic registry system for children's developmental motor disorders. Methods The study was conducted between 2019 and 2020 in three phases. First, the requirements of the system were identified. Second, UML diagrams were first drawn using Microsoft Visio software. Then, the system was designed using the ASP.NET framework in Visual Studio 2018, and the C# programming language was used in the NET 4.5 technology platform. In the third phase, system usability was evaluated from the users' viewpoint. Results The findings of this research included system requirements, a conceptual model, and a web-based system. The client and system server connection was established through the IP/TCP communication protocol in a university physical network. End users approved the system with an agreement rate of 87.14%. Conclusion The study's results can be used as a model for designing and developing systems related to children's developmental movement disorders in other countries. It is also suggested as a valuable platform for research and improving the management of this disease.

Multiphysics processes in fractured porous media is a research field of importance for several subsurface applications and has received considerable attention over the last decade. The dynamics are characterized by strong couplings between processes as well as interaction between the processes and the structure of the fractured medium itself. The rich range of behaviour calls for explorative mathematical modelling, such as experimentation with constitutive laws and novel coupling concepts between physical processes. Moreover, efficient simulations of the strong couplings between multiphysics processes and geological structures require the development of tailored numerical methods.We present a modelling framework and its implementation in the open-source simulation toolbox PorePy, which is designed for rapid prototyping of multiphysics processes in fractured porous media. PorePy uses a mixed-dimensional representation of the fracture geometry and generally applies fully implicit couplings between processes. The code design follows the paradigms of modularity and differentiable programming, which together allow for extreme flexibility in experimentation with governing equations with minimal changes to the code base. The code integrity is supported by a multilevel testing framework ensuring the reliability of the code.We present our modelling framework within a context of thermo-poroelasticity in deformable fractured porous media, illustrating the close relation between the governing equations and the source code. We furthermore discuss the design of the testing framework and present simulations showcasing the extendibility of PorePy, as well as the type of results that can be produced by mixed-dimensional simulation tools.

Software design is critical to the development of software. However, existing literature highlighted the presence of gender bias in software design, which might be causing differences in task performance between males and females. Supported by theories such as the cognitive load theory, emotional design theory, and the Aesthetic-Usability Effect, this research aims to explore the potential disparities in task performance between males and females. The study developed two tasks using two different software in terms of user friendliness. The study was performed on two groups that possessed comparable educational backgrounds and professional experiences. The investigation encompassed two tasks aimed at evaluating performance in both professional and domestic contexts. Through the application of structural equation modeling and a range of statistical analyses, the study identified disparities among females, including high perception of cognitive load and lack of emotional design. The study emphasizes on the importance of incorporating phycological cognitive differences in design and ensuring inclusive design personas in software design. Addressing the cognitive and emotional aspects of software design will reduce task performance discrepancies and shift the misbelief that task performance discrepancies are attributable to gender-based intellectual differences, rather than deficiencies in software design.

Abstract Background and Aims Systems existing in hospital or clinic settings offer services within the physical environment. Examples of such systems include picture archiving and communication systems, which provide remote services for patients. To develop a successful system, methods like software development life cycles (SDLCs) and design techniques, such as prototyping, are needed. This study aimed to specify requirements, design, and evaluation of dental image exchange and management system using a user‐centered approach. Methods This cross‐sectional study was conducted in four phases, each corresponding to different stages of SDLCs. User‐needs data were used to gathered by interviews and observations. A prototype was developed using object‐oriented programming and presented to users for feedback. Finally, focus group was used to finalized the prototype into the desired system. Results User needs were identified and prioritized from the outset, with ease of use, security, and mobile apps being their most essential requirements. The prototype underwent several iterations of design and evaluation in focus group sessions until users were satisfied, and their feedback was incorporated. Eventually, the prototype was refined into the final system with users' consent. Conclusion The study revealed that instant access to information, voluntary participation, user interface (UI) design, and usefulness were critical variables for users and should be integral to any system. Successful implementation of such a system requires careful consideration of end‐users' needs and their application to the system. Moreover, integrating the system with electronic health records can further enhance the treatment process and the efficiency of medical staff. The voluntary perspective of users played a significant role in achieving an exemplary UI and overall satisfaction with the system. Developers and policymakers should consider these aspects in similar system development projects.

This paper presents the design, development, and testing of an interactive planning tool for urban-wetland systems. The tool targets initial architectural and urban design stages, enabling a broader understanding of natural-urban synergies, ecosystem services, and sustainable systemic design strategies for water management, energy efficiency, on-site food production, community, coastal protection, and security. Targeting a test study site in Queensland, Australia, this paper aims to establish proof of concept for the tool algorithm used to calculate quantitative values for each sub-system and two novel system assessment criteria: 'fair share' (FS) and benefit cost (BC) ratio. The FS criterion is based on the permaculture FS ethical principle and tracks system diversity, resilience, and self-sustenance. The BC criterion builds on cost-benefit valuation methods but includes non-market values, providing a holistic assessment of system costs and benefits, including ecosystem services. Good practise (GP) and best practise (BP) design scenarios are developed for this study site and compared against a business-as-usual (BAU) case. Results demonstrate the relevance of FS and BC as assessment criteria to aid in the development of sustainable designs. Compared to the BAU scenario, the GP and BP scenario BC ratios increased 12 and 14 times, respectively. Yearly cost of living reductions for GP were equivalent to 26,990 AUD per site inhabitant, with BP resulting in a negative yearly cost of living (a yearly benefit equivalent to 6420 AUD per site inhabitant). The use of the FS and BC assessment criteria and tool highlights a potential new approach to planning and development processes, integrating aspects currently omitted within planning requirements and assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cyber physical systems are complex systems to build and implement, electronic devices and concepts such as the energy saving, the user comfort and the privacy of sensitive data. In the physical world, buildings represent a major part of total energy consumption, that's why improving the energy efficiency levels of buildings is topical by which the emergence of smart buildings. Since, even if efforts are being made in normalizing the process of energy saving management while maintaining a high level of users' comfort, managing the access control in smart buildings systems remains an ad‐hoc process. This is why a number of researches focus on the design and implementation of solutions aimed at covering the process of access control management. In the context of developing a smart building application, already developed in our laboratory, we have set up an access control management system to manage users' access. We present the design of an access control architecture, using the Unified Modeling Language, upon the smart building application which is the subject of a maintenance work. The designed solution is implemented with the purpose of evolving the application to be used by multiple users. The implemented access control solution is an extended role‐based access control model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging daily, new devices and software-driven advancements pose challenges in software development, including errors, bugs, and evolving requirements. This leads to delays in delivery. Ensuring software security within the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is crucial. To address this, the research focuses on incorporating security aspects early in the SDLC through model transformation. Platform-independent models with security attributes like Integrity, Privacy, Security Audit, non-repudiation, and authentication are generated. A template-based source code generator is utilized to create the structure of the source model. The Secure Business Process Model (SBPM) encompasses Unified Modeling Language (UML) artifacts, such as analysis level classes and sequence diagrams, enriched with security attributes derived from the activity model. Security requirements are linked to elements extracted from the source model, and structural codes with security-enabled members are produced. Automation in software development is inevitable, though not complete, as it plays a vital role in addressing these challenges and improving the security of software applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural vehicles, such as tractors, combines, and harvesters, are following the trend of commercial vehicles with a transition from diesel to electric propulsion. Seen as an integrated system, a full-electric tractor is a complex machine with many systems that have to be interconnected for efficient functionality; thus, the need for a central control unit arises. The purpose of this article is to present an electronic control unit that interconnects the powertrain, the hydraulic systems, and the auxiliary systems of a full-electric tractor, with an emphasis on optimization through software design. The article describes the hardware of the electronic control unit and the software state diagrams necessary to implement the functions required by the electric tractor. The results of this article show how, through software optimization, the performances of the tractor can be improved, with parameters such as the response time of the various equipment being a useful indicator of such an improvement. Furthermore, the implementation of trip memory and an easy-to-use human–machine interface allows for easy diagnostic of the electric tractor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirements form the basis for all software products. Apparently, the requirements are imprecisely stated when scattered between development teams. Therefore, software applications released with some bugs, missing functionalities, or loosely implemented requirements. In literature, a limited number of related works have been developed as a tool for software requirements inspections. This paper presents a methodology to verify that the system design fulfilled all functional requirements. The proposed approach contains three phases: requirements collection, facts collection, and matching algorithm. The feedback results provided enable analysist and developer to make a decision about the initial application release while taking on consideration missing requirements or over-designed .requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise in initiatives such as software ecosystems and Internet of Things (IoT), developing robust web Application Programming Interfaces (web APIs) has become an increasingly important practice. One main concern in developing web APIs is that they expose back-end systems and data toward clients. This exposure threatens critical non-functional requirements, such as the security of back-end systems, the performance of provided services, and the privacy of communications with clients. Although dealing with non-functional requirements during software design has been long studied, there is still little guide on addressing these requirements in web APIs. In this paper, we present WEBAPIK, a body of structured knowledge on addressing non-functional requirements in the design of web APIs. WEBAPIK is comprised of 27 distinct non-functional requirements, 37 distinct design techniques to address some of the identified requirements, and the trade-offs of 22 design techniques, presented in two forms of natural language and knowledge graphs. The design knowledge compiled in WEBAPIK is systematically extracted and aggregated from 80 heterogeneous online literature resources, including 7 books, 15 weblogs and tutorial, 5 vendor white papers, 6 design standards, and 47 research papers. These resources are systematically retrieved from two search engines of Google and Google Scholar and five research databases of Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, SpringerLink, and ScienceDirect in two periods of March to August 2018 and August 2022. WEBAPIK gathers and structures expert and scholarly discussions to provide insight about addressing non-functional requirements in the design of web APIs. The structure brought to the design knowledge makes it amenable towards extension and creates the potential for employing it in the database of knowledge-based systems that aid software developers in design decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance analysis and evaluation of satellite navigation systems under ionospheric scintillation have been a focal point in the field of modern aviation. With the development and upgrading of satellite navigation systems, the performance indicators and evaluation techniques of these systems also require continuous iteration and optimization. In this study, based on the ionospheric scintillation model and satellite navigation algorithm, we designed a software tool to evaluate the performance of GNSS aviation services under various ionospheric scintillation intensities. The software is implemented in the C/C++ programming language and provides assessment capabilities for different ionospheric scintillation environments and flight phases. By encapsulating the software task modules using technologies such as dynamic link libraries and thread pools, the software can flexibly adjust the ionospheric scintillation intensity and control the flight trajectory. This ensures the strong scalability and reusability of the software. The software supports the performance evaluation of aviation services during all flight phases of global flights and is compatible with GPS, BDS, GALILEO, and GLONASS systems. Through verification of the accuracy, integrity, continuity, and availability of the GNSS system under different flight phases and ionospheric scintillation effects, the effectiveness of the software design has been validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paediatric burns are a major public health issue because of long‐term physical, psychological and social consequences and the high cost of treatment. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a mobile‐based self‐management application for caregivers of children with severe burns. A participatory design technique was employed to develop the Burn application, which included three main phases: the determination of application requirements, the design and evaluation of the low‐fidelity prototype, and the design and evaluation of the high‐fidelity prototypes. In the first phase, application requirements were determined via validated paper questionnaires using the Delphi technique. In the second step, a low‐fidelity prototype was prepared using conceptual models and evaluated through a focus group with specialists. Seven specialists reviewed the application and evaluated how this prototype meets functional requirements and objectives. The third phase was performed in three stages. First, the high‐fidelity prototype was designed and developed by the JAVA programming language. Second, a cognitive walk‐through was carried out to show how users can interact with the mobile application and how it works. Third, this program was installed on the mobile phones of 28 caregivers of burned children, eight IT experts, and two general surgeries, and the prototype's usability was evaluated. In the present study, most caregivers of children with burns stated that after discharge, they face problems regarding infection control and wound care (4.07) and how to perform physical activity (4.12). User registration, educational materials, caregiver‐clinician communication, chat box, and appointment booking, safe login were the most important characteristic of the Burn application. Mean usability evaluation scores were in the range of 7.92 ± 0.238 to 8.10 ± 0.103, which is considered at a "good" level. From the Burn program design experience, it can be concluded that co‐design with health care specialists can significantly support and meet the specialists' and patients' needs and ensure the program's usefulness. In addition, application evaluation by users involved and not involved in the application design process can help enhance usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music education, whether professional or amateur, includes learning musical instruments. Intonation is a critical factor in their training. The main objective of this research work is the design and validation of online educational software for the real-time training and evaluation of intonation in non-fixed pitch musical instruments, such as fretted string instruments (violin, viola, and cello) and brass instruments (trumpet, horn, and trombone). This software is intended to create a practice artefact for novice music students. A design sciences research methodology is adopted to achieve a product tested for functionality and usability. Novice students carry out the validation phase through a study consisting of previous practice with the software and the administration of a questionnaire with open-ended items grouped in technical-didactic, emotional, and overall dimensions, plus two additional questions. The results show evidence that the software was well received, confirming previous studies on the design and validation of educational music education software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Transformation (DT) technologies become increasingly ubiquitous in modern society, the flaws in their designs are starting to attract attention. AI models have been shown to be susceptible to biases in the training data, especially against underrepresented groups. Although an increasing call for AI solution designers to take fairness into account, the field lacks a design methodology to help AI design teams of members from different backgrounds brainstorm and surface potential fairness issues during the design stage. To address this problem, we propose the Fairness in Design (FID) framework to help AI software designers surface and explore complex fairness-related issues, that otherwise can be overlooked. We explore literature in the field of fairness in AI to narrow down the field into ten major fairness principles, which assist designers in brainstorming around metrics and guide thinking processes about fairness. FID facilitates discussions among design team members, through a game-like approach that is based on a set of prompt cards, to identify and discuss potential concerns from the perspective of various stakeholders. Extensive user studies show that FID is effective at assisting participants in making better decisions about fairness, especially complex issues that involve algorithmic decisions. It has also been found to decrease the barrier of entry for software teams, in terms of the pre-requisite knowledge about fairness, to address fairness issues so that they can make more appropriate related design decisions. The FID methodological framework contributes a novel toolkit to aid in the design and conception process of AI systems, decrease barriers to entry, and assist critical thinking around complex issues surrounding algorithmic systems. The framework is integrated into a step-by-step card game for AI system designers to employ during the design and conception stage of the life-cycle process. FID is a unique decision support framework for software teams interested to create fairness-aware AI solutions.

Background: An oral examination might reveal important diagnostic information regarding a patient’s general health. There are several natural changes in the soft tissue structures of the mouth that may resemble a pathological condition. The aim of this research was to develop an educational web- based application for diagnosis in oral medicine and evaluation of the students’ attitudes towards it. Methods: This educational intervention involved one sample group and was conducted from September to December 2019. In the first step, the educational software was designed based on the ADDIE instructional design model. In the second step, 30 dental students were selected by census sampling, and their attitudes towards the designed educational web application were assessed. The web-based educational application was developed using the asp.net web form framework and the #c programming language. The standard kaplan educational product questionnaire was used to assess dental students’ attitudes. Descriptive statistics including the mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency were used. Statistical significance was calculated for the components of the questionnaire using the one sample t-test and the cutoff point of 3. SPSS V26 was used to analyze the tests. Results: The majority of students had positive attitudes in all 12 domains of the questionnaire including objectives (P=0.0001), assessment (P=0.0001), practice (P=0.0001), examples (P=0.0001), information (P=0.001), multimedia (P=0.028), overviews (P=0.011), integration (P=0.144), motivation (P=0.0001); organization (P=0.003), usability (P=0.0001), and personalization (P=0.144) which were significantly greater than average and were acceptable. Despite the difference between the two domains (integration and personalization) with the average score, no statistically significant difference was seen. Conclusion: The innovative educational software was successfully developed. The results revealed that students were extremely satisfied with the quality of the educational software. As a result, it can be effectively employed as a teaching aid when combined with conventional education.