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Requirements Engineering (RE) has received much attention in research and practice due to its importance to software project success. Its interdisciplinary nature, the dependency to the customer, and its inherent uncertainty still render the discipline difficult to investigate. This results in a lack of empirical data. These are necessary, however, to demonstrate which practically relevant RE problems exist and to what extent they matter. Motivated by this situation, we initiated the Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering (NaPiRE) initiative which constitutes a globally distributed, bi-yearly replicated family of surveys on the status quo and problems in practical RE. In this article, we report on the qualitative analysis of data obtained from 228 companies working in 10 countries in various domains and we reveal which contemporary problems practitioners encounter. To this end, we analyse 21 problems derived from the literature with respect to their relevance and criticality in dependency to their context, and we complement this picture with a cause-effect analysis showing the causes and effects surrounding the most critical problems. Our results give us a better understanding of which problems exist and how they manifest themselves in practical environments. Thus, we provide a first step to ground contributions to RE on empirical observations which, until now, were dominated by conventional wisdom only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O controle da Leishmaniose Visceral Americana (LVA) está fundamentado no combate ao vetor e na eliminação do reservatório doméstico da área de foco - 200 metros em torno do caso humano ou canino. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo discutir a utilização de técnicas de análise espacial na vigilância epidemiológica da LVA no Município de Araçatuba, São Paulo, buscando estabelecer um modelo de vigilância epidemiológica em base territorial, redirecionando as estratégias de controle atualmente adotadas. Verificou-se que a transmissão da LVA não foi homogênea no município: a transmissão humana ocorreu nas áreas com maiores taxas de prevalência canina. A dispersão do vetor parece restrita a poucos domicílios, embora não tenha sido possível estabelecer um perfil da densidade vetorial. Visando estudar a distribuição do vetor e variáveis correlacionadas está sendo realizado estudo de campo por amostragem de domicílios, que permitirá o desenvolvimento de novas ferramentas de análise espacial e, possivelmente, permitirá redefinir as propostas de controle da endemia em ambiente urbano.

São Paulo, a densely inhabited state in southeast Brazil that contains the fourth most populated city in the world, recently experienced its largest yellow fever virus (YFV) outbreak in decades. YFV does not normally circulate extensively in São Paulo, so most people were unvaccinated when the outbreak began. Surveillance in non-human primates (NHPs) is important for determining the magnitude and geographic extent of an epizootic, thereby helping to evaluate the risk of YFV spillover to humans. Data from infected NHPs can give more accurate insights into YFV spread than when using data from human cases alone. To contextualise human cases, identify epizootic foci and uncover the rate and direction of YFV spread in São Paulo, we generated and analysed virus genomic data and epizootic case data from NHPs in São Paulo. We report the occurrence of three spatiotemporally distinct phases of the outbreak in São Paulo prior to February 2018. We generated 51 new virus genomes from YFV positive cases identified in 23 different municipalities in São Paulo, mostly sampled from NHPs between October 2016 and January 2018. Although we observe substantial heterogeneity in lineage dispersal velocities between phylogenetic branches, continuous phylogeographic analyses of generated YFV genomes suggest that YFV lineages spread in São Paulo at a mean rate of approximately 1km per day during all phases of the outbreak. Viral lineages from the first epizootic phase in northern São Paulo subsequently dispersed towards the south of the state to cause the second and third epizootic phases there. This alters our understanding of how YFV was introduced into the densely populated south of São Paulo state. Our results shed light on the sylvatic transmission of YFV in highly fragmented forested regions in São Paulo state and highlight the importance of continued surveillance of zoonotic pathogens in sentinel species., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The southeastern region of Brazil has recently experienced the largest yellow fever disease outbreak in decades. Since July 2016 epizootic events were reported in São Paulo state's north region, where 787 Culicidae were captured as part of public health surveillance efforts and tested using real-time quantitative PCR. One Aedes scapularis pool collected in November 2016 in an agriculture area in Urupês city tested positive for YFV-RNA. Using a validated multiplex PCR approach we were able to recover a complete virus genome sequence from this pool. Phylogenetic analysis of the novel strain and publicly available data indicates that the belongs to the South American genotype 1 clade circulating in Sao Paulo state and is basal to the recent outbreak clade in southeast Brazil. Our findings highlight the need of additional studies, including vector competence studies, to disentangle the role of Aedes scapularis in yellow fever transmission in the Americas., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We propose a method to analyse the 2009 outbreak in the region of Botucatu in the state of São Paulo (SP), Brazil, when 28 yellow fever (YF) cases were confirmed, including 11 deaths. At the time of the outbreak, the Secretary of Health of the State of São Paulo vaccinated one million people, causing the death of five individuals, an unprecedented number of YF vaccine-induced fatalities. We apply a mathematical model described previously to optimise the proportion of people who should be vaccinated to minimise the total number of deaths. The model was used to calculate the optimum proportion that should be vaccinated in the remaining, vaccine-free regions of SP, considering the risk of vaccine-induced fatalities and the risk of YF outbreaks in these regions.

Since 2000, the expansion of Sylvatic Yellow Fever (YF) has been observed in the southeast of Brazil, being detected in areas considered silent for decades. Epizootics in non-human primates (NHPs) are considered sentinel events for the detection of human cases. It is important to report epizootic events that could have impact on the conservation status of susceptible species. We describe the epizootics in NHPs, notified in state of São Paulo, Brazil, between September 2008 to August 2009. Ninety-one epizootic events, involving 147 animals, were reported in 36 counties. Samples were obtained from 65 animals (44.2%). Most of the epizootics (46.6%) were reported between March and April, the same period during which human cases of YF occurred in the state. Biological samples were collected from animals found dead and were sent to Instituto Adolfo Lutz, in São Paulo. Two samples, collected in two counties without an indication for YF vaccination, were positive for the virus. Another 48 animals were associated with YF by clinical-epidemiological linkage with laboratory confirmed cases. Because the disease in human and NHPs occurred in the same period, the detection of the virus in NHPs did not work as sentinel, but aided in the delineation of new areas of risk.

The Williams syndrome is a relatively rare disease with characteristic facial appearance, mental retardation, growth deficiency, cardiovascular anomalies, hypercalcemia and multiple organic dysfunctions. However, the urological findings of this syndrome (positive in up to 40% of patients) have not been frequently discussed. We present the case of a 6 year-old white girl with this diagnosis and a 3-year history of urinary incontinence. The investigation revealed bladder diverticula and detrusor hyperactivity, which was successfully treated with oxibutimin. We stress the importance of urological investigation, describe the main findings and discuss the pathophysiology and management, which significantly improves the quality of life of these children.

An electrophoretic survey of 42 populations of Anopheles pseudopunctipennis collected throughout its known geographic distribution was performed to clarify the taxonomic status of this important malaria vector species. The results indicated strong differences in the allele frequencies of three enzyme loci (glycerol dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, and phosphoglucomutase) of the 33 loci analyzed. No fixed electromorphic differences separate the populations of An. pseudopunctipennis. The populations of An. pseudopunctipennis showed little genetic divergence, with Nei distances ranging from 0 to 0.079. A comparison of An. pseudopunctipennis data with either one of three other Anopheles species showed a high genetic distance of 0.335 with a closely related species, An. franciscanus; 0.997 with An. crucians, and 2.355 with An. (Nyssorhynchus) albimanus. Geographic populations of An. pseudopunctipennis were classified into three clusters; one cluster included populations collected in North America (United States and Mexico) and Guatemala, one cluster included populations from Belize and South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina); and one cluster was represented by populations from the Island of Grenada (type-locality of An. pseudopunctipennis). Based on our isozyme analyses, we defined these clusters as three geographic populations of An. pseudopunctipennis. Of the two mainland populations, one extends from the southern United States south through Mexico and Guatemala, and the other extends north from southern South America through Central America to Belize. These two geographic populations converge in southern Mexico and northern Central America. One part of the convergence zone was identified in the area of eastern Guatemala and southern Belize.

Thirty-four patients with sacral agenesis were seen from 1954 to 1983, cases of meningomyelocele excluded. Five recognizable and consistent patterns of bone malformation were identified. Urodynamic examinations were done in 10 of the 34 patients. Their evaluation and response to treatment are analyzed; we tried to determine and establish the possible causes for its late diagnosis and consequences regarding the upper urinary tract.