Software Related Problems Research Articles

Informal learning from dealing with software-related problems in the digital workplace

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of problem-solving activities, emotional experiences and contextual and personal factors on learning from dealing with software-related problems in everyday office work.Design/methodology/approachTo measure the use of problem-solving activities, emotional experiences and the contextual factors of problem characteristics and learning in situ, a research diary was used. To measure team psychological safety (contextual factor) and personal factors, including the Big Five personality traits, occupational self-efficacy and technology self-efficacy, the authors administered a self-report questionnaire. In sum, 48 students from a software company in Germany recorded 240 diary entries during five working days. The data was analysed using multilevel analysis.FindingsResults revealed that asking others and using information from the internet are positive predictors of self-perceived learning from a software-related problem, while experimenting, which was the most common activity, had a negative effect on learning. Guilt about the problem was positively related to learning while working in the office (as opposed to remote work), and feeling irritated/annoyed/angry showed a negative effect. Surprisingly, psychological safety had a negative effect on perceived learning.Research limitations/implicationsMajor limitations of the study concern the convenience sample and the disregard for the sequence of the activities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the limited empirical evidence on employees’ problem-solving activities and informal workplace learning in the software context. To overcome the shortcomings of previous studies using retrospective assessments and in-lab observations, this study uses the diary method to investigate in situ.

Utility of Deep Brain Stimulation Telemedicine for Patients With Movement Disorders During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China

ObjectiveTo explore the utility of deep brain stimulation (DBS) telemedicine in the management of patients with movement disorders from January 2019 to March 2020, covering the main period of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Materials and MethodsWe obtained data from 40 hospitals around China that employed DBS tele-programming for their outpatients with Parkinson’s disease or dystonia from January 2019 to March 2020. Data were obtained on the number and nature of patients’ DBS health care service requests, reasons for their requests, the number of DBS telemedicine sessions subsequently completed, safety issues, and the patients’ satisfaction with the DBS tele-programing parameter adjustments made. ResultsThere were 909 DBS tele-programming health service requests (from 196 patients) completed during the study period. The results showed: 1) the number of DBS telemedicine sessions requested and the number of patients examined increased during the COVID-19 outbreak in February and March 2020 when compared with the monthly numbers in 2019; 2) the most common reason for the patients’ health service requests was poor symptom control; 3) the most common DBS tele-programming adjustment made was voltage change; 4) overall, most (89%) DBS tele-programming adjustment sessions were experienced by the patients as satisfactory; and 5) significant adverse events and unexpected treatment interruptions caused by connection failure or other hardware- or software-related problems did not occur. ConclusionsDBS telemedicine could have a unique role to play in maintaining the delivery of DBS treatment and medical care to outpatients with movement disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluation of MRI Artifact in some selected centers in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) artifacts can occur due to hardware or software related problems, human physiologic phenomenon or physical restrictions. Careful study design and scanning protocols can prevent certain artifacts from occurring, but some are unavoidable. The study aimed at evaluating MRI artifact in some selected centers in Kano metropolis, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted involving both prospective and retrospective phases across three centres in the Kano metropolis from March 2019 to August 2019. Using the purposive sampling method, 3 centers were selected. A data capture sheet was designed for data collection. Thirty five (50%) of the artifacts encountered were from the centreA, 28(40%) from the centre B, and 7(10%) from the centre C. Motion-induced artifact was the most frequently encountered artifact 26(37.1%), followed by wrap-around artifact 15(21.4%), and then frequency-induced artifact 13(18.6%). Thoracic spine MRI had the highest number of artifacts 28(40%), followed by brain 20(28.6%), and then lumbar spine 19(27.1%). In Kano metropolis the most encountered MRI artifact was the motion-induced artifact and thoracic spine MRI had the highest number of artifacts. The artifacts had a negative effect on image quality.

What Makes a National Pharmaceutical Track and Trace System Succeed? Lessons From Turkey.

Track and trace systems are increasingly being implemented as a technological solution to secure pharmaceutical supply chains. Turkey was the first country to implement a full pharmaceutical track and trace system throughout the entire regulated domestic supply chain. This article explores the emergence and functioning of this system and the consequences for substandard and falsified medicine with a focus on the underlying political and economic factors. This study uses an explanatory case study approach that combined interviews with purposefully selected key informants and document analyses. The main drivers for implementing the pharmaceutical track and trace system in Turkey centered on the elimination of reimbursement fraud and the prevention of falsified medicine in the regulated supply chain. Although stakeholders experienced both physical and software-related problems in implementation, the alignment of incentives of all stakeholders with the power of the state, along with leeway for adaptations, ultimately resulted in a successful process. This track and trace system provides a clean regulated supply chain, minimizes reimbursement fraud, facilitates fast market recalls, and can flag likely medicine shortages. Staff previously engaged in pharmacy inspections now concentrate on ensuring production quality, which reduces the risk of substandard medicines. In Turkey, 4 factors drove the successful implementation of pharmaceutical track and trace: the political determination to eliminate reimbursement fraud, a large pharmaceutical market dominated by a single payer, medicine reimbursement being contingent on verified dispensing and prescription, and flexibility to adapt the system according to the needs of stakeholders during implementation.

An Empirical Study to Investigate the Effect of Transactive Memory System on Software Development Team Performance

Software development often involves teams of developers interacting with each other to develop a software product or service. Given that individuals in the same team may have varying expertise and knowledge, it is believed that proper management of Transactive Memory System (TMS) or group knowledge within a team is more likely to ensure optimum team performance. In this study, we test this hypothesis by using an experiment in which we compare the performance of different teams with different TMS in solving the same software related problems. Our results indicate it is under certain conditions, that teams with higher TMS will usually achieve better performance than teams with lower TMS.

Review of Systematic Software Innovation Using TRIZ

This paper attempts to review the use of TRIZ, Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, in the field of software innovation. TRIZ finds widespread applications in many fields of engineering such as mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical, materials, industrial engineering, etc. Even, TRIZ has its applications in management and strategies. However, the applications of TRIZ in the field of software engineering to solve problems that arise during phases such as software design, development, coding, testing, and maintenance seems to be in its very initial phase. The primary objectives of this paper are to review and consolidate the current state of the art in the area of TRIZ for software related problems by a literature review. The current review will help academicians and industry experts to understand the current state and to visualize a possible future direction.

Artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging: how it can really affect diagnostic image quality and confuse clinical diagnosis?

Different kinds of artifacts can occur during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans due to hardware or software related problems, human physiologic phenomenon or physical restrictions. Some of them can seriously affecting diagnostic image quality, while others may simulate or be confused with different pathology. On another word artifact as an artificial feature appearing in an image that is not present in the original investigative object. It is important to recognize these artifacts according to a basic understanding of their origin, especially those mimicking pathology, as they can lead to incorrect diagnosis and cause serious after-effects on patient’s health and outcomes. We presented an overview of the most common MRI artifacts and methods to fix or rectify them. We also provide the original artifacts images and statistics from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinical Hospital, Dept of Radiology, mainly obtained from image databases and some images from data base of other Lithuanian hospitals.

Software-Related Recalls of Health Information Technology and Other Medical Devices: Implications for FDA Regulation of Digital Health.

Medical software has become an increasingly critical component of health care, yet the regulatory landscape for digital health is inconsistent and controversial. To understand which policies might best protect patients, we examined the impact of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) regulatory safeguards on software-related technologies in recent years and the implications for newly passed legislative changes in regulatory policy. Using FDA databases, we identified all medical devices that were recalled from 2011 through 2015 primarily because of software defects. We counted all software-related recalls for each FDA risk category and evaluated each high-risk and moderate-risk recall of electronic medical records to determine the manufacturer, device classification, submission type, number of units, and product details. A total of 627 software devices (1.4 million units) were subject to recalls, with 12 of these devices (190,596 units) subject to the highest-risk recalls. Eleven of the devices recalled as high risk had entered the market through the FDA review process that does not require evidence of safety or effectiveness, and one device was completely exempt from regulatory review. The largest high-risk recall categories were anesthesiology and general hospital, with one each in cardiovascular and neurology. Five electronic medical record systems (9,347 units) were recalled for software defects classified as posing a moderate risk to patient safety. Software problems in medical devices are not rare and have the potential to negatively influence medical care. Premarket regulation has not captured all the software issues that could harm patients, evidenced by the potentially large number of patients exposed to software products later subject to high-risk and moderate-risk recalls. Provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act that became law in late 2016 will reduce safeguards further. Absent stronger regulations and implementation to create robust risk assessment and adverse event reporting, physicians and their patients are likely to be at risk from medical errors caused by software-related problems in medical devices.

Software Bug Detection using Data Mining

The common software problems appear in a wide variety of applications and environments. Some software related problems arises in software project development i.e. software related problems are known as software defect in which Software bug is a major problem arises in the coding implementation .There are no satisfied result found by project development team. The software bug problems mentation in problem report and software engineer does not easily detect this software defect but by the help of data mining classification software engineers easily can classify software bug. This paper classified and detect software bug by J48, ID3 and Naive Bayes data mining algorithms. Comparison of these algorithms to detect accuracy and time taken to build model is also presented in this paper. General Terms Data Mining, Classification algorithms, Software Bug, Weka Tool.

The Revised 40 Principles for Software Inventions

Applying 40 Principles is one of the earliest and most popular techniques of TRIZ. There are no controversies on application of 40 principles by any of the TRIZ schools. Although they are fundamentally sound, there is some difficulty in applying those in software related problems. As they were originally developed for mechanical or technical problems, the meaning of many terms like 'thermal', 'aerodynamic', 'hydrodynamic', 'ultrasonic', 'infrared', 'temperature', 'liquid', 'gas' etc. are embarrassing in a software context.This article reviews the 40 principles in the context of software industry and rephrases the principles and their applications to make them suitable for software problems. This article can be used as a valuable reference for all TRIZ researchers and software inventors.

Erratum to: Causes of error in analytical chemistry: results of a web-based survey of proficiency testing participants

Results of a voluntary-response survey of respondent-identified causes of unacceptable results in nine proficiency testing schemes are reported. The PT schemes were predominantly environment and food analysis schemes. 111 respondents reported 230 identified causes of error. Sample preparation (16 % of causes reported), Equipment failures (13 %), ‘Human error’ (13 %) and Calibration (10 %) were the top four general causes of poor analytical results. Among sample preparation errors, sample extraction or recovery problems were the most important causes reported. Most calibration errors were related to errors in calculation and dilution and not in availability or quality of calibration materials. No failures were attributed to failures in commercial software; software-related problems were largely associated with user input errors. Corrective actions were generally specific to the particular problem identified. Review of all reported causes indicated that about 44 % could be attributed to simple operator errors.

Automated Bicycle Counts

Quantifying bicycle use is fundamental to understanding bicycle travel. Methods of counting bicycles vary from limited-time, manual counts to permanent overhead imaging sensors. One common permanent counting method uses inductive loops embedded in the pavement to count cyclists on paths. Although inductive loop detectors have been found to be a highly accurate method of counting bicycles under ideal test conditions, their accuracy after years of use has not been systematically studied. This study focuses on bicycle counts collected by the City of Boulder, Colorado, since 1998, on multiuse paths with inductive loop detectors. To estimate the accuracy of the devices in use, two individuals manually counted path users at six locations. On average, the loop detectors counted 4% fewer bicycles than the manual counters at the same locations. Of the 22 detector channels with sufficient counts to judge their accuracy, roughly 68% were considered accurate. The most dramatic inaccuracies were caused primarily by detector settings and software-related problems. This study found that inductive loop detectors can provide accurate measures of bicycle use on a pathway, but only when detectors are properly installed, calibrated, maintained, and free of external interference.

Optimising a help desk performance at a telecommunication company

One of the problems faced by a mobile telecommunication company in Kuwait is the excessive waiting time to fix PC or software related problems of its over 800 employees. We successfully developed, validated and employed a simulation model to determine the number of technicians needed at the company to minimise total cost by considering both the cost of idle time of the employees and the wages of technicians. The simulation results indicated that the total cost can be reduced significantly by just hiring one more technician.

WITS-HEX: A renovated code for analysis of PIXE X-ray spectra

The code REX [H.C. Kaufmann and K.R. Akselsson, Adv. X-ray Anal. 18 (1975) 353] and its successor, HEX were developed at Florida State University and University of Lund in the early seventies for quantitative reduction of PIXE spectra. HEX modelled many of the physical processes, including target self-absorption. Lack of adequate documentation and several inherent software related problems hampered widespread adoption and further development. HEX was designed using a hierarchical functional design approach, coded in FORTRAN IV. Its element library and request list are tightly constrained. ANSI standard FORTRAN provides few structured constructs, nor does it support dynamic data structures. HEX has a batch mode of interaction which affords minimal (interim) user interactions. To overcome these limitations we have modernised the program to run on IBM PC compatible computers by using object-oriented design techniques, documented in Program Description Language (pseudo-code) and implemented in a modern programming language, Pascal. Turbo Pascal 5.5 provides an integrated program development environment, a high resolution graphics library, an operating system interface and many software development tools to improve programmer productivity. A menu-based highly interactive screen management library is used for the user interface. A demonstration version is available for user evaluation. Further rigorous testing and the development of user acquired spectra interfacing code will be developed before the first release. The renovated code, WITS-HEX, has extracted the intellectual value embodied in HEX. It will be inherently more stable, reliable, versatile, maintainable and easy to use to facilitate future process modifications.

Software Protocol for Handling ISDN in the Packet-Switched Network

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) provides basic architecture for existing, as well as future residential plus business communications. ISDN overlayed with CCS#7 of a digital PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) can be the ultimate, ubiquitous network for circuit switch (voice, data), packet switch (voice, data), and private line (voice, data) applications. Assuming that the present ISDN has to interwork in the present physically separate overlayed networks (voice and data), significant problems are expected to emerge for designing hardware and linking softwares for handling packet traffic. In this paper, the software-related problems, when ISDN packet distribution nodes have to handle an ISDN interface, will be outlined with an ISDN software protocol solution. An approximation of the delay involved in the telephone switching system which is part of ISDN processing as well as the delay for the interface gateways, the HOST computer nodes, and the LAN and WAN computer nodes will be identified and formulated to reflect the total performance measure defined. Major emphasis is given to flow and congestion control performance measures in the ISDN Gateways, which are analyzed and simulated with the assistance of the basic delay table transfer software model developed for the IMPS and gateways in the ARPANET, MILNET, and MINET. The performance evaluation of this basic ISDN interfacing software, which only involved one ISDN level, i.e., the HOST or gateway and its related subnetworks, is simulated on sections of these networks to illustrate its congestion control effectiveness. There are six mathematical software techniques to account for end-to-end delay, which form the basis for the solution to these ISDN software-hardware problems in the Interface Gateways connecting the electronic switch to the computer network components.