Application Development Process Research Articles

A development process of enterprise applications with microservices

This paper presents a development process of enterprises applications with microservices. We identify the construction phases, practices, fundamentals, methods and tools that are being used in the development of microservices based enterprise applications. After identifying and proposing the development process, it is validated and tested in the construction of an application called Sinplafut. By using microservices the size of enterprise applications is reduced and easier to manage, deployment, scaling, test and replace using the resources offered by cloud computing. In this way the costs and efforts necessary to maintain the application in the cloud are considerably reduced.

An Efficient and Robust Mobile Augmented Reality Application

AR technology is perceived to be evolved from the bases of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. The ultimate goal of AR is to provide better management and ubiquitous access to information by using seamless techniques in which the interactive real world is combined with an interactive computer-generated world in one coherent environment. The direction of research in the field of AR has been shifted from traditional Desktop based mediums to the mobile devices such as the smartphones. However, image recognition on smartphones enforces many restrictions and challenges in the form of efficiency and robustness which are the general performance measurement of image recognition. Smart phones have limited processing capabilities as compared to the PC platform, hence the process of mobile AR application development and use of image recognition algorithm need to be emphasised. The processes of mobile AR application development include detection, description and matching. All the processes and algorithms need to be carefully selected in order to create an efficient and robust mobile AR application. The algorithm used in this work for detection, description and matching are AGAST, FREAK and Hamming distance respectively. The computation time, robustness towards rotation, scale and brightness are evaluated. The dataset used to evaluate the mobile AR application is the benchmark dataset; Mikolajczyk. The results showed that the mobile AR application is efficient with a computation time of 29.1ms. The robustness towards scale, rotation and brightness changes of the mobile AR application also obtained high accuracy which is 89.76%, 87.71% and 83.87% respectively. Hence, combination of algorithm AGAST, FREAK and Hamming distance are suitable to create an efficient and robust mobile AR application.

Comparative Analysis of Interaction Flow Modeling Language Tools

Modeling approaches based on standards are of paramount importance in the field of front-end design for web and mobile applications. Problems are often encountered during the selection of tools for designing applications for developers and researchers, particularly applications that are related to time and cost in the market and academia. The Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) is a recently standardized modeling language designed for managing the content expression, user interaction and behavior control of front-end applications. IFML brings several benefits to the development process of web and mobile front-end applications. Thus, several tools have been developed for the exploitation of technical artifacts offered by current specifications. In this study, we discuss the tools proposed for modeling IFML to provide a comparative analysis while considering various criteria. The result can be used as a basis of tool selection for specific aspects.

A descriptive system for the Infant health-related Quality of life Instrument (IQI): Measuring health with a mobile app.

BackgroundThe assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is important for health outcomes research, disease modeling studies and comparisons of different healthcare interventions. Yet, only a few tools are available to assess HRQoL in 0-1-year-old infants. Furthermore, there is a need for an instrument able to assess HRQoL with a single, standardized, overall score in the first year of life. Here we described the development of the Infant health-related Quality of life Instrument (IQI), a generic, preference-based instrument that can be administered through a mobile application for assessing HRQoL in 0-1-year-old infants.MethodsA multi-step development process began by extracting candidate health concepts from relevant measures identified by two literature searches. Next, three panels, with experts from Asia, Europe, New Zealand and United States of America, and two surveys, with primary caregivers in New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, evaluated the relevance of the candidate health concepts, organized them into attributes based on their similarities, explored alternative attributes and generated response scales. Additional interviews assessed the cross-cultural interpretability, parents’ understanding of health attributes, and the usability of the mobile application.ResultsThe final list of 7 health attributes included in the IQI consisted of sleeping, feeding, breathing, stooling/poo, mood, skin, and interaction. The users’ experiences with the mobile application were generally positive.ConclusionsThe IQI is the first generic, preference-based, instrument designed to assess overall HRQoL in 0-1-year old infants. It is short and easy-to-administer through a mobile application. Moreover, close attention was paid to the opinions of the infants’ primary caregivers during the instrument and mobile application development process.

Extraction of pulmonary vessels and tumour from plain computed tomography sequence

Human lungs consist of various lobes and segments; the right consisting of 3 lobes and 10 bronchopulmonary segments and the left consisting of 2 lobes and 10 bronchopulmonary segments. A CT data of cancerous lung is taken and is segmented along with the vascular tree and tumor. The algorithms used for the study include Hessian matrix and Otsu’s multiple thresholding. The resultants will be fused and visualized in 3D fashion using Visualization Tool Kit (VTK), which is considered to be the future work. Later this part of the module will be further added to the application development process which finally will be provided to the cardiothoracic surgeons. This will enable them to the pre-planning of cardiothoracic surgery.

Development of the NowIKnow Mobile Application to Promote Completion of HPV Vaccine Series Among Young Adult Women

ObjectiveTo identify salient beliefs about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine completion among young adult women who live in economically disadvantaged urban communities and to describe the integration of those beliefs into the development of a mobile health (mHealth) application to promote vaccine completion. DesignTheory-based, community-informed, mHealth application development process. SettingTwo federally supported family planning clinics in a large metropolitan area in the Northeastern region of the United States. ParticipantsThirty-five young adult women ages 18 to 26 years who lived in economically disadvantaged communities. MethodsParticipants completed a baseline survey and postclinic survey after they received the first doses of the HPV vaccine. Results informed the content of the application with additional input from a community advisory board and provider advisory board. ResultsOne third of participants had prior sexually transmitted infections, but fewer than half used condoms during most recent intercourse. Most participants (n = 30 and 32 [86% and 91%]) had correct knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer, and most (n = 31, 89%) intended to get the next dose of the HPV vaccine. Twelve salient beliefs about HPV vaccine completion were identified and used to develop the NowIKnow mHealth application. The application includes information, motivational content, a discussion forum, and vaccine completion reminders. ConclusionTheory-based research and user-centered design can be systematically integrated into the development of mHealth applications. With content tailored to the target population, use of this novel intervention has the potential to reduce cancer disparities by reaching disadvantaged young adult women.

한국의 지하철 노선도 앱 디자인 및 UI 개발 과정을 통한 교통 앱 개발 고려사항에 관한 연구 - Broong사의 Jihachul 앱의 개발 및 운영 사례를 중심으로

한국의 지하철 노선도 앱 디자인 및 UI 개발 과정을 통한 교통 앱 개발 고려사항에 관한 연구 - Broong사의 Jihachul 앱의 개발 및 운영 사례를 중심으로

The Role of Participatory Design in Mobile Application Development

Mobile devices are used by people worldwide. It becomes a common equipment to complete a day-to-day activity. Inside the devices, there are numerous mobile applications that have been built for various needs. Some of these are quite successful while the other are not. The development of successful mobile application faces several challenges. In this research, we want to explore the use of participatory design method in mobile application development. Particularly, the aim of the study is to answer the question whether participatory design method has a place in the realm of mobile application development. We established two sessions of workshop to accommodate the participant to take part in the development process of mobile application. The result shows that participatory design method can determine how the user will deal with the limitations of mobile devices. It helps user to create a particular form of interaction that meets mobile devices characteristics.

RapIoT toolkit: Rapid prototyping of collaborative Internet of Things applications

The Internet of Things holds huge promise in enhancing collaboration in multiple application domains. Bringing internet connectivity to everyday objects and environments promotes ubiquitous access to information and integration with third-party systems. Further, connected “things” can be used as physical interfaces to enable users to cooperate, leveraging multiple devices via parallel and distributed actions. Yet creating prototypes of IoT systems is a complex task for developers non-expert in IoT, as it requires dealing with multi-layered hardware and software infrastructures. We introduce RapIoT, a software toolkit that facilitates the prototyping of IoT systems by providing an integrated set of technologies. Our solution abstracts low-level details and communication protocols, allowing developers non-expert in IoT to focus on application logic, facilitating rapid prototyping. RapIoT supports the development of collaborative applications by enabling the definition of high-level data type primitives and allowing interactions spread among multiple smart objects. RapIoT primitives act as a loosely coupled interface between generic IoT devices and applications, simplifying the development of systems that make use of an ecology of devices distributed to multiple users and environments. We illustrate the potential of our toolkit by presenting the development process of an IoT application ideated during a workshop with non-expert developers and addressing real-world challenges affecting smart cities. We conclude by discussing the strength and limitations of our platform, highlighting further possible uses for collaborative applications.

UMIICA: A Model-Driven Integrated Development Environment for Industrial Control Applications

With the growing complexity of software-based industrial control applications, the demand for reliable software in the industrial control domain has also been increasing. Although the robustness of complex industrial control applications can benefit from formal modeling and verification, there remains a significant gap between formally verified models and real implementation. A model-driven development approach can be a solution to this problem. This paper aims to introduce a full-fledged model-driven integrated development environment, called UMIICA, for developing reliable industrial control applications. For this goal, we first determined the requirements imposed by the model-driven development process of networked industrial control applications. Based on these requirements, we analyzed the problems to be solved and designed the UMIICA tool according to the problem statements. Our proposed UMIICA tool is a full-fledged development environment for better productivity and software quality in our target application domain in that it incorporates whole model-driven development phases with cross-platform support and preserves the verified model behavior on the final implementation. As a case study, we constructed a three-axis cartesian robot testbed and developed an application for the testbed via the UMIICA tool. The evaluation results on our testbed also proved the effectiveness of UMIICA regarding the functional correctness and real-time performance guarantee of the resulting target application.

A Simulation Model for Application Development in Data Warehouses

Software development projects have been blamed for being behind schedule, cost overruns, and the delivery of poor quality product. This paper presents a simulation model of a data warehouse to evaluate the feasibility of different software development controls and measures to better manage a software development lifecycle, and improve the performance of the launched software. This paper attempts to address the practical issue of code defects in each stage of data warehouse application development. The author has compared the defect removal rate of their previous project to the newly proposed enhanced project development life cycle that uses code inspection and code scorecard along with other phases of software development life cycle. Simulation results show that the code inspection and code score-carding have achieved a significant code defect reduction. This has also significantly improved the software development process and allowed for a flawless production execution. The author proposes this simulation model to a data warehouse application development process to enable developers to improve their current process.

Website Development for the Openness of Educational Information in Bandung, Indonesia

The problems of education in Kota Bandung have not resolved satisfactorily. Some examples of chronic educational problems are the lack of openness of information about the use of government grants by schools, the quota for needy students, and school levies. The cause of this problem is the absence of the media in the form of websites that can be accessed by parents openly to get information about student academic progress and the problems of education in the city. In this study, will create a web application in the form of online mediain accordance with the character of the people of Bandung. The Web producing news and information based on users' preferences, and providing spaces for open public discussion. This study uses an Evolutionary Prototyping method. This approach is suitable to be used so that the process of application development is done gradually and faster because there is interaction with the user during the process. This website can encompass all residents to access the openness of educational information in Kota Bandung. TheWeb testing is done by the user, the test results show three functional items on the web are login member, search news and manage the article. The test result shows each item received by the user. After testing, the website is hosted by the domain name intipbdg.org (Informasi dan Tips Pendidikan Bandung).

Middleware Challenges for Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are being developed to provide useful interactions between physical systems and environments and cyber world for a variety of applications. CPS are designed with a set of software and interconnected distributed hardware components that are linked with physical elements to provide advanced monitoring and control mechanisms geared towards enhancing the targeted physical system or environment. These components function seamlessly to offer specific functionalities that help enhance human lives, physical system operations and environments. While CPS can offer many smart enhancements for improving physical processes, the development of such complex systems composed of many distributed and heterogeneous components is extremely difficult. This is due to the many communication, computing, and networking challenges. Using an appropriate middleware that provides a framework to support developing and operating diverse CPS applications is a novel method to address these challenges. The availability of advanced middleware services and platforms can provide effective approaches for enhancing CPS application development processes as well as provide more robust environments for operating CPS applications. Such middleware can significantly reduce the time needed to design, build, test, and operate robust CPS applications. However, designing a common middleware platform for diverse types of CPS applications is not trivial. This paper investigates the middleware challenges for CPS, based on the different types of CPS applications being developed and their specific challenges. In addition, the paper discusses the current efforts of developing middleware platforms for CPS and the open research issues in the field.

The Comfort app prototype: introducing a web-based application for monitoring comfort in palliative care.

To introduce a web-based application for monitoring comfort in patients receiving palliative care. Multi-phase electronic application development process that concluded with a pilot design to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the developed app (n=7 patients). The app is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows. The results from phases I and II provided the knowledge about monitoring comfort. In phase III, five experts analysed the content of the app. The assessment of comfort comprises 11 self-reported items (pain, tiredness, drowsiness, nausea, lack of appetite, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, fear of the future, peace and the will to live). In phase IV, a total of 117 messages were retrieved. Participants considered the app simple, easy to use and useful. This prototype is feasible and user-friendly. Further research is needed to continue the app development, particularly in terms of data protection.

Barriers to Achieving Economies of Scale in Analysis of EHR Data

Signed in 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act infused $28 billion of federal funds to accelerate adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). Yet, EHRs have produced mixed results and have even raised concern that the current technology ecosystem stifles innovation. We describe the development process and report initial outcomes of a chronic kidney disease analytics application that identifies high-risk patients for nephrology referral. The cost to validate and integrate the analytics application into clinical workflow was $217,138. Despite the success of the program, redundant development and validation efforts will require $38.8 million to scale the application across all multihospital systems in the nation. We address the shortcomings of current technology investments and distill insights from the technology industry. To yield a return on technology investments, we propose policy changes that address the underlying issues now being imposed on the system by an ineffective technology business model.

Framework for a Calibration-Less Operation of Force Sensing Resistors at Different Temperatures

Force sensing resistors (FSRs) typically exhibit noticeably different responses from one device to another, and thus, an individual time-consuming calibration is required for each device. With the aim of speeding-up the development process of applications involving FSRs, a framework for a calibration-less operation of FSRs is presented. The method is based on performing periodic updates on the output voltage at null force and on employing a unique sensitivity value. Dynamic forces were applied at different temperatures to 96 FlexiForce sensors manufactured by Tekscan, Inc. The sensors exhibited rather constant sensitivity values at the temperatures spanning between 24 °C–60 °C. Conversely, the output voltage at null force showed a non-deterministic behavior when the temperature changed. The proposed method showed higher accuracy than the manufacturer method when measuring small forces, whereas the manufacturer method exhibited higher accuracy when working with large forces. Statistical tools were employed to fit the univariate sensitivity data to probability density functions and to assess the relationship between the FSR parameters and temperature. Finally, the effects of temperature changes over sensors’ hysteresis are discussed.

Development and evaluation of educational android application

In this study, a mobile application was developed for courses at undergraduate level. The application has not only been developed and used, but has also been used practically for 8 weeks. In other words, the findings are based on a practical experience rather than a theoretical basis. This study aimed to determine the opinions of students who participated in the development and application process of an Android application named NEU-CEIT about the mobile learning environment, educational and sharing structure of the developed application. A total of 27 students participated and students were asked to upload the developed application and examine the content. Following the application, students were administered an environment evaluation questionnaire. Data of the research were collected with survey method. Data obtained in the research were analyzed through the views of experts. According to the results, it was revealed that outcomes related with the usage structure of the developed application were positive, educational structure of the application is appropriate to follow the curriculum, it is rich in terms of materials and it might be one of the applications that students can use for communication. The results also showed that mobile applications will support education and increase motivation. This study supports that mobile applications improve academic achievement.
 Keywords: Mobile learning, android application, application development.

Message from editor

From the Editors
 Huseyin Uzunboylu, Cigdem Hursen
 Dear Colleagues
 It is a great honour for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. Our main aim is to increase the quality of the journal day by day. We are ready to publish the new issue of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has 5 articles written by authors from Cyprus, Portugal and Turkey. 
 The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all authors who have contributed to this issue. There are different focuses in the articles. For example, Sibel Ersel Kaymakamoğlu aimed to explore the English language learning beliefs of the students studying in the Guidance and Counseling Department at one of the Universities in Northern Cyprus. It also explored if the participants’ perceptions about English language learning showed differences according to gender and age. The findings revealed significant differences between the male and female participants’ perceptions about English language learning beliefs. On the other hand, İshak Kozikoğlu aim of this research is to analyze the studies concerning challenges faced by novice teachers in terms of various aspects and compare challenges according to location of the studies conducted in Turkey and abroad. Another study conducted by Fernando Almeida. They describe the experience of using a serious game in the entrepreneurship field in the context of the classroom. For that, they adopt a quantitative research technique based on a survey research to measure the different characteristics experienced by higher education students when using serious games in the classroom to learn entrepreneurship. The students have multidisciplinary competences, coming from courses with strong emphasis in the area of management and technology. The use of the serious game allowed students to develop skills mainly in terms of innovation, leadership, strategic thinking, problem solving, business launch and risk management. Also, Belkıs Tekmen aim of this study is to review and discuss some of these components of preschool teacher education in the Turkish context such as the student selection policy, faculty development, recruitment policies and competencies of the graduates. Finally, Huseyin Bicen and Senay Kocakoyun aimed to determine the opinions of students who participated in the development and application process of an Android application named NEU-CEIT about the mobile learning environment, educational and sharing structure of the developed application. According to the results, it was revealed that outcomes related with the usage structure of the developed application were positive, educational structure of the application is appropriate to follow the curriculum, it is rich in terms of materials and it might be one of the applications that students can use for communication.
 I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to publish their articles, and also all reviewers working seriously in this process. 
 Best regards,
 Editor-in-Chief
 Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu
 Executive Editor
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Hursen

Monitoring as-a-service to drive more efficient future system design

In the services world, the expected benefits are the fastest time to market, lower costs, greater consistency in the application, and increased agility. The reuse and sharing properties of software components are useful to address these challenges. However, to achieve this, it is necessary to be able to observe each service and to control the service composition. This article proposes to rethink the company's organisational process of application development and use the power of monitoring to help the application design. The proposed Monitoring as-a-service (MaaS), whose properties are detailed, will be used for the computation of the offered Quality of Service (QoS), for the services calibration during the service creation phase and to inform the QoS Controller during the operational phase. For effective design, the architect will place MaaS at crucial points of its architecture according to its decision-making process. Finally, we present experimental results and a conclusion ends the paper.

Effects of a Technology Supported Project Based Learning (TS-PBL) Approach on the Success of a Mobile Application Development Course and the Students’ Opinions

Similar to traditional desktop software development processes, teamwork is a necessity in the mobile application development process. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of the technology supported project-based learning approach in mobile application development courses on the academic achievement of students and to clarify the engineering students’ opinions. A total of 130 engineering students from the Department taking mobile application development courses were the participants of this study. The lessons progressed in one group in the form of technology supported project-based learning steps, while in the other group, they were conducted using traditional methods. Based on the results, the practical implementation of a mobile application with a TS-PBL approach in engineering students’ education will be discussed.