Podemos encontrar em métodos ágeis como no Extreme Programming [Beck, 1999, Beck e Andres, 2006], no Scrum [Schwaber, 2008], no Crystal Clear [Cockburn, 2005], e no Lean Software Development [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007] referências relacionadas à manipulação e disponibilização de métricas e outras informações no ambiente de desenvolvimento. Neste trabalho, estas atividades são consideradas como tarefas de acompanhamento ágil. Observamos em métodos ágeis a importância de se realizar ações (práticas) baseadas em alguns princípios como guidelines [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007]. Por isto, realizamos uma análise bibliográca na literatura disponível para compreender princípios ágeis que possam afetar na execução deste tipo de tarefa, além de escrever sobre métricas no contexto de métodos ágeis e engenharia de software. Apesar da bibliograa, não encontramos pesquisas experimentais com o objetivo de levantar e (ou) compreender aspectos relacionados ao sucesso na aplicação deste tipo de tarefa em ambientes de desenvolvimento. Para isto, realizamos neste trabalho uma pesquisa experimental com este objetivo, utilizando uma abordagem de métodos mistos sequenciais de pesquisa [Creswell, 2009]. Escolhemos aplicar esta pesquisa em um conjunto de quinze equipes de desenvolvimento ágil, reunidas em realizações da disciplina Laboratório de Programação Extrema do IME-USP nos anos de 2010 e 2011. Esta pesquisa foi realizada em quatro fases sequenciais. Na primeira fase, realizamos sugestões para as equipes de desenvolvimento vinculadas ao acompanhamento ágil a m de levantar aspectos valiosos em sua aplicação utilizando uma abordagem baseada em pesquisa-ação [Thiollent, 2004]. Baseado nestes resultados, agrupamos alguns destes aspectos como heurísticas para o acompanhamento ágil, modelo similar ao de Hartmann e Dymond [2006]. Na segunda fase, aplicamos um questionário para vericar a validade das heurísticas levantadas. Na terceira fase, realizamos entrevistas semi-estruturadas com alguns integrantes destas equipes para compreender o por quê da validade das heurísticas levantadas, sendo analisadas com técnicas de teoria fundamentada em dados (grounded theory)[Strauss e Corbin, 2008]. Na quarta fase, reaplicamos o questionário da fase 2 em outro ambiente para triangulação da validade das heurísticas. Como resultado nal da pesquisa, estabelecemos um conjunto de heurísticas para o acompanhamento ágil, além de avaliações quantitativas de seus aspectos em dois ambientes, juntamente a diversas considerações qualitativas sobre sua utilização. Realizamos um mapeamento tanto das heurísticas como de seus conceitos relacionados à literatura disponível, identicando aspectos já existentes porém expandidos pela realização da pesquisa, e aspectos ainda não discutidos que podem ser considerados como novos na área. / It is possible to find on the agile methods several references related to managing and displaying relevant information in a software development worplace. These references are available in agile methods such as Extreme Programming [Beck, 1999, Beck e Andres, 2006], Scrum [Schwaber, 2008], Crystal Clear [Cockburn, 2005], Lean Software Development [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007],etc. In our work, we name this kind of activity as agile tracking, relating it to the tracker role defined by Beck [1999]. We noticed the importance of performing actions (practices) based on a set of principles as guidelines [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007], which is deeply associated with agile methods. Taking this matter into account, we performed a literature review in order to discuss a few agile principles that could affect the execution of agile tracking related tasks. We also describe a few works directly related to metrics, both on the agile methods and on the software engineering area in general. Even with related references in the literature, we could not find empirical researches with the goal of raising/understanding aspects related to successfully performing this kind of task on agile environments, which could be helpful on managing informations and informative workspaces. In order to accomplish this goal, we performed a research using a sequential mixed research methods approach [Creswell, 2009]. We chose to apply our research on a set of fifteen agile teams gathered on the IME-USP\'s \"Laboratory of Extreme Programming\" course in 2010 and 2011. This research was performed in four sequential phases. In the first phase, we made several suggestions to the agile teams, regarding agile tracking, using and approach based on action research [Thiollent, 2004]. We used this initial approach in order to gather relevant aspects of their use of agile tracking. Based on these results, we clustered some aspects as \"heuristics for agile tracking\", the same model used by Hartmann e Dymond [2006]. In phase two, we applied a survey to evaluate the validity of the proposed heuristics. In phase three, we gathered data from a few semi-structured interviews performed on team members in order to understand the reasons behind the proposed heuristics, in which we used grounded theory [Strauss e Corbin, 2008] coding techniques for analysis. In phase four, we reapplied phase two survey on a different environment in order to triangulate the heuristics evaluation data gathered on phase 2. As the result of this empirical research, a set of heuristics were established with quantitative evaluation data and several related qualitative concepts. We also relate the set of heuristics and associated concepts with other works in agile methods, highlighting aspects expanded by this research and some others that we could not directly find in the literature, which could be considered as new in the area.

Research into the usefulness of scientific diagrams as teaching and learning tools has revealed their great effectiveness in reinforcing and replacing text; summarizing, clarifying, grouping and comparing information; illustrating abstract concepts and spatial relations between concepts; and aiding understanding and integration of knowledge. However, these advantages are not always realised as diagram effectiveness depends on the student's cognitive ability, visual literacy and prior knowledge. In biochemistry, flow diagrams are used as tools for the visualisation of biochemical processes, the abstract nature of which presents problems to students, probably because the depicted content is beyond their perceptual experience. In this study, we define visualisation as the entire process from the perception of an external representation (e.g. diagram), its internal processing, and the expression of a mental model of the represented content. Therefore, visualisation incorporates reasoning processes and interactions with a student's conceptual knowledge, in their construction of a mental model. Students' visualisation difficulties, in terms of conceptual and reasoning difficulties, have been well researched in areas such as physics and chemistry, but neglected in biochemistry, especially with respect to the use of diagrams as visualisation tools. Thus the aim of this study was to investigate students' use of diagrams for the visualisation of biochemical processes, and to identify the nature, and potential sources of students' conceptual, reasoning and diagram-related difficulties revealed during the visualisation process. The study groups ranged from 27 to 95 biochemistry students from the University of Natal and 2 to 13 local and international experts. Propositional knowledge was obtained from textbooks and from a questionnaire to experts. Data on student visualisation of biochemical processes was obtained from their responses to written and interview probes as well as student-generated diagrams. All data was subjected to inductive analysis according to McMillan and Schumacher (1993) and any difficulties that emerged were classified at levels 1- 3 on the framework of Grayson et al. (2001). The possible sources of difficulties were considered in terms of a model by Schonborn et al. (2003 & 2002). The results revealed the following major findings. The meaning of linear, cyclic and cascade biochemical processes was partially resolved by means of an extensive list of generic and distinguishing functional features obtained from experts. Attempts to clarify propositional knowledge of the complement system revealed a deficiency in our understanding of the functional relationship between the complement pathways and highlighted the need for further experimental laboratory work. Several students literally interpreted diagrams of the functional characteristics of biochemical processes (e.g. cyclic) as the spatial arrangement of the intermediates within cells (e.g. occur in "circles"), although in some cases, their verbal responses revealed that they did not hold this difficulty suggesting that they might hold more than one internal model of the process. Some students also showed difficulty using textbook diagrams to visualise the chemistry of glycolytic and complement reactions. In this regard, besides students' conceptual knowledge and reasoning ability, a major source of these difficulties included misleading symbolism and visiospatial characteristics in the diagrams, suggesting the need for improvement of diagram design through the use of clearer symbolism, the standardization of conventions, and improvement of visiospatial properties of diagrams. The results constituted further empirical evidence for the model of Schonbom et al. (2003 & 2002) and led to the proposal of a model of visualisation aimed at clarifying the highly complex and cognitive processes involved in individuals' visualisation of biochemical processes in living systems. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Routine pipette calibration is an essential part of any quality assurance and quality control program in the forensic sciences and beyond. Pipette calibration standards in a forensic laboratory are typically set to the limits outlined by the document ISO8655, published by the International Organization for Standardization for the general scientific community. Alternative methods exist that may be capable of monitoring pipette stability across time in a forensic setting. Statistical process control charts, or Shewhart charts, are one such form of process control, which is being investigated for its potential application to pipette calibration monitoring for forensic DNA laboratories. Indeed, the application of process control lines for monitoring the calibration of volumetric equipment is not without precedent.1 To investigate the applicability of process control charts for monitoring pipette stability, a series of X ̅ and S charts, a type of Shewhart chart, have been produced from eight years of collected calibration data. A total of 71 pipettes of the following sizes were examined: 1-10 µL, 1-10 µL multi-channel, 10-100 µL, 100-1000 µL, 1-3 µL, 30-300 µL, 5-50 µL, 5-50 µL multi-channel, and 500-5000 µL pipettes. The ISO8655 calibration recommended volume limits of these pipettes have been added to the charts for the purposes of comparison. With these charts, it is possible to assess pipette performance over time in comparison to the ISO8655 calibration standards and to the control limits imposed by the Shewhart charts. The completed charts suggest that the methodology proposed by Shewhart shows promise as a supplement to ISO8655 recommendations for monitoring pipette stability across time. To corroborate the value of using Shewhart charts to monitor pipette performance, a serial dilution study in conjunction with a series of simulations with dynamic modeling software was performed. This dilution study investigated whether the systematic biases shown by the Shewhart charts could be measured in a laboratory setting. The simulations investigated multiple hypothetical pipetting scenarios concerning various levels of systematic bias. The simulations consistently corroborated the value of Shewhart charts to enforce better compliance between a pipette’s nominal and actual volume delivery, while the serial dilution study offered partial evidence of systematic pipetting bias.

Podemos encontrar em métodos ágeis como no Extreme Programming [Beck, 1999, Beck e Andres, 2006], no Scrum [Schwaber, 2008], no Crystal Clear [Cockburn, 2005], e no Lean Software Development [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007] referências relacionadas à manipulação e disponibilização de métricas e outras informações no ambiente de desenvolvimento. Neste trabalho, estas atividades são consideradas como tarefas de acompanhamento ágil. Observamos em métodos ágeis a importância de se realizar ações (práticas) baseadas em alguns princípios como guidelines [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007]. Por isto, realizamos uma análise bibliográca na literatura disponível para compreender princípios ágeis que possam afetar na execução deste tipo de tarefa, além de escrever sobre métricas no contexto de métodos ágeis e engenharia de software. Apesar da bibliograa, não encontramos pesquisas experimentais com o objetivo de levantar e (ou) compreender aspectos relacionados ao sucesso na aplicação deste tipo de tarefa em ambientes de desenvolvimento. Para isto, realizamos neste trabalho uma pesquisa experimental com este objetivo, utilizando uma abordagem de métodos mistos sequenciais de pesquisa [Creswell, 2009]. Escolhemos aplicar esta pesquisa em um conjunto de quinze equipes de desenvolvimento ágil, reunidas em realizações da disciplina Laboratório de Programação Extrema do IME-USP nos anos de 2010 e 2011. Esta pesquisa foi realizada em quatro fases sequenciais. Na primeira fase, realizamos sugestões para as equipes de desenvolvimento vinculadas ao acompanhamento ágil a m de levantar aspectos valiosos em sua aplicação utilizando uma abordagem baseada em pesquisa-ação [Thiollent, 2004]. Baseado nestes resultados, agrupamos alguns destes aspectos como heurísticas para o acompanhamento ágil, modelo similar ao de Hartmann e Dymond [2006]. Na segunda fase, aplicamos um questionário para vericar a validade das heurísticas levantadas. Na terceira fase, realizamos entrevistas semi-estruturadas com alguns integrantes destas equipes para compreender o por quê da validade das heurísticas levantadas, sendo analisadas com técnicas de teoria fundamentada em dados (grounded theory)[Strauss e Corbin, 2008]. Na quarta fase, reaplicamos o questionário da fase 2 em outro ambiente para triangulação da validade das heurísticas. Como resultado nal da pesquisa, estabelecemos um conjunto de heurísticas para o acompanhamento ágil, além de avaliações quantitativas de seus aspectos em dois ambientes, juntamente a diversas considerações qualitativas sobre sua utilização. Realizamos um mapeamento tanto das heurísticas como de seus conceitos relacionados à literatura disponível, identicando aspectos já existentes porém expandidos pela realização da pesquisa, e aspectos ainda não discutidos que podem ser considerados como novos na área. / It is possible to find on the agile methods several references related to managing and displaying relevant information in a software development worplace. These references are available in agile methods such as Extreme Programming [Beck, 1999, Beck e Andres, 2006], Scrum [Schwaber, 2008], Crystal Clear [Cockburn, 2005], Lean Software Development [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007],etc. In our work, we name this kind of activity as agile tracking, relating it to the tracker role defined by Beck [1999]. We noticed the importance of performing actions (practices) based on a set of principles as guidelines [Poppendieck e Poppendieck, 2007], which is deeply associated with agile methods. Taking this matter into account, we performed a literature review in order to discuss a few agile principles that could affect the execution of agile tracking related tasks. We also describe a few works directly related to metrics, both on the agile methods and on the software engineering area in general. Even with related references in the literature, we could not find empirical researches with the goal of raising/understanding aspects related to successfully performing this kind of task on agile environments, which could be helpful on managing informations and informative workspaces. In order to accomplish this goal, we performed a research using a sequential mixed research methods approach [Creswell, 2009]. We chose to apply our research on a set of fifteen agile teams gathered on the IME-USP\'s \"Laboratory of Extreme Programming\" course in 2010 and 2011. This research was performed in four sequential phases. In the first phase, we made several suggestions to the agile teams, regarding agile tracking, using and approach based on action research [Thiollent, 2004]. We used this initial approach in order to gather relevant aspects of their use of agile tracking. Based on these results, we clustered some aspects as \"heuristics for agile tracking\", the same model used by Hartmann e Dymond [2006]. In phase two, we applied a survey to evaluate the validity of the proposed heuristics. In phase three, we gathered data from a few semi-structured interviews performed on team members in order to understand the reasons behind the proposed heuristics, in which we used grounded theory [Strauss e Corbin, 2008] coding techniques for analysis. In phase four, we reapplied phase two survey on a different environment in order to triangulate the heuristics evaluation data gathered on phase 2. As the result of this empirical research, a set of heuristics were established with quantitative evaluation data and several related qualitative concepts. We also relate the set of heuristics and associated concepts with other works in agile methods, highlighting aspects expanded by this research and some others that we could not directly find in the literature, which could be considered as new in the area.

Capturing a requirement is a great challenge in the initial stages of the software development, be it a system requirement or a customer requirement to the software engineers. Understanding the requirement and predicting or differentiating what may happen and what must happen is difficult especially in the complex real time systems. Live sequence charts are extensions of the message sequence charts which can specify the live ness of the requirements. And the play engine tool is used to specify, validate, and analyze the scenarios of the requirements. This thesis is to evaluate live sequence charts using the play engine tool and to see if the built-in model checkers can detect inconsistencies in the LSC’s. / The requirements capturing and analysis has always been the initial criteria and main problem during the software design and development for the software engineers. It’s been very common to use natural language for capturing the requirements in the industries because of its ease of use. The graphical languages were used to represent the requirements, its behavior and the scenarios graphically or visually, for example UML. UML Sequence diagrams are used in the real time software development to capture the requirements which specifies the scenarios of the system behavior and also the interactions between the objects graphically. Message sequence charts are also a graphical language for representing the scenarios and also the behavior of the system especially in the telecommunication domain. But these two are only useful in specifying the one aspect of the behavior and not much helpful in specifying the liveness of the requirement. Liveness can be defined as something good will happen [34] or something must happen. For this reason live sequence charts were developed which can specify the liveness of the requirement. Live sequence charts are capable of specifying the scenarios what may happen and what must happen. This thesis is to evaluate the live sequence charts using the play engine tool running on the windows machine and also to study the built in model checkers for formal verification. The thesis starts with the various types of graphical representation of requirements in Software Engineering, followed by the Research Methodology, next a bit more explanation of Live Sequence Charts, Evaluation, Result, Conclusions and Lessons Learned from the thesis. / Permanent Address: C/O: K.VIJAYA H.NO. 3-1-39/12/3/2 TEACHER'S COLONY ARMOOR-503224 ANDHRAPRADESH INDIA.

With the recent increase in the threat of biological terrorism as well as the continual risk of other diseases, the research in public health surveillance and disease monitoring has grown tremendously. There is an abundance of data available in all sorts of forms. Hospitals, federal and local governments, and industries are all collecting data and developing new methods to be used in the detection of anomalies. Many of these methods are developed, applied to a real data set, and incorporated into software. This research, however, takes a different view of the evaluation of these methods. We feel that there needs to be solid statistical evaluation of proposed methods no matter the intended area of application. Using proof-by-example does not seem reasonable as the sole evaluation criteria especially concerning methods that have the potential to have a great impact in our lives. For this reason, this research focuses on determining the properties of some of the most common anomaly detection methods. A distinction is made between metrics used for retrospective historical monitoring and those used for prospective on-going monitoring with the focus on the latter situation. Metrics such as the recurrence interval and time-to-signal measures are therefore the most applicable. These metrics, in conjunction with control charts such as exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts and cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts, are examined. Two new time-to-signal measures, the average time-between-signal events and the average signal event length, are introduced to better compare the recurrence interval with the time-to-signal properties of surveillance schemes. The relationship commonly thought to exist between the recurrence interval and the average time to signal is shown to not exist once autocorrelation is present in the statistics used for monitoring. This means that closer consideration needs to be paid to the selection of which of these metrics to report. The properties of a commonly applied scan method are also studied carefully in the strictly temporal setting. The counts of incidences are assumed to occur independently over time and follow a Poisson distribution. Simulations are used to evaluate the method under changes in various parameters. In addition, there are two methods proposed in the literature for the calculation of the p-value, an adjustment based on the tests for previous time periods and the use of the recurrence interval with no adjustment for previous tests. The difference in these two methods is also considered. The quickness of the scan method in detecting an increase in the incidence rate as well as the number of false alarm events that occur and how long the method signals after the increase threat has passed are all of interest. These estimates from the scan method are compared to other attribute monitoring methods, mainly the Poisson CUSUM chart. It is shown that the Poisson CUSUM chart is typically faster in the detection of the increased incidence rate. / Ph. D.

Healthcare is facing great challenges and psychiatric care is no exception. Extensive attempts to improve quality are made. It is essential to use methods that enable learning from experience, to improve performance. The core feature of Statistical Process Control (SPC), the control charts, are in use in various settings to enable learning and to support quality improvement work, but its use in psychiatric settings are scarce. This master´s thesis explores the usefulness of control charts, in quality improvement work. This was done in a case study at a department of psychosis by addressing two questions related to: a) control chart’s contribution to knowledge on if, when, where and how changes occur, and 2) how usefulness of control charts is perceived at the department. Control charts were applied to important variables and development officer’s and manager’s thoughts on usefulness were analysed using pattern matching. The use of charts shows shifts and differences between wards related to ongoing improvement projects. There is a readiness to start using control charts. The perceived usefulness matches the benefits and challenges identified in literature. Control charts as a tool supporting continuous improvement work in a psychiatric context, has a great potential still awaiting its use.

In this study, neural networks are developed under conditions of nonnormality as alternatives to standard control charts, and their performance is compared with those of standard ‾x and CUSUM control charts.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1950 W4 / Master of Science

by Au Sai Kit. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Purpose of the research --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Significance of the research --- p.4 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Literature related to cognitive skills in programming --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Literature related to programming in BASIC --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- Literature related to organization aids --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4 --- Literature related to methodology --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1 --- Theoretical framework --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2 --- Hypotheses --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3 --- Method --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Procedure --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Subjects --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Instruments --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Design --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1 --- Reliability of the instruments --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2 --- Results and discussion --- p.49 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.71 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of findings --- p.71 / Chapter 5.2 --- Conclusions --- p.73 / Chapter 5.3 --- Limitations --- p.75 / Chapter 5.4 --- Recommendations --- p.77 / Bibliography --- p.79