Gliome stellen mit 30-40 % die häufigsten intrakraniellen Tumoren dar. Darunter ist das Glioblastom, auch als Glioblastoma multiforme bezeichnet, mit ca. 50 % am stärksten vertreten und macht somit allein etwa 20 % aller Hirntumoren aus (Russell und Rubinstein 1989). Neben einer Metastasierung über den Liquor können diese Tumoren auch sehr selten als primäre Neubildung im Rückenmark vorkommen. Ebenso ist dort die Entwicklung eines sekundären Glioblastoms aus dem fortschreitenden Wachstum eines niedriggradigen Astrozytoms heraus möglich (Sure et al. 1997). Aufgrund ihres diffus infiltrativen Wachstums sowie der infausten Prognose wird das Glioblastom in der WHO-Klassifikation dem Tumorgrad IV zugeordnet (Louis et al. 2007). Ziel dieser vorliegenden medizinischen Dissertation ist es, mit Hilfe einer Meta-Analyse individueller Patientendaten einen integrativen Überblick über die bereits vorhandene Forschung dieser seltenen Erkrankung zu erlangen. Aus einer umfangreichen Literaturrecherche resultierten 82 geeignete Publikationen, sodass von insgesamt 157 Patienten unter anderem Daten zum Veröffentlichungszeitraum, Alter und Geschlecht des Patienten, Tumorbiologie und –lokalisation sowie Therapie und Outcome erhoben werden konnten. In der statistischen Auswertung wurde die Korrelation dieser Faktoren eingehend untersucht mit dem Ziel, signifikante Aspekte herauszufiltern, die das Überleben von Patienten mit spinalem Glioblastom positiv beeinflussen können. Trotz einer stetigen Verbesserung der bildgebenden Diagnostik durch Magnetresonanztomographie und Computertomographie sowie multimodaler Tumortherapie zeigte sich in der Auswertung der Ergebnisse, dass das mediane Überleben der Patienten mit spinalem Glioblastom bzw. Gliosarkom auf nur rund neun Monate zu beziffern ist. Dabei konnten sowohl das Alter bei Diagnosestellung als auch das Jahr der Veröffentlichung der jeweiligen Patientenfälle als statistisch signifikante und somit bedeutende prognostische Faktoren im Hinblick auf die Überlebenszeit der Patienten identifiziert werden.

Online customer reviews are web content voluntarily posted by the users of a product (e.g. camera) or service (e.g. hotel) to express their opinions about the product or service. Online reviews are important resources for businesses and consumers. This dissertation focuses on the important consumer concern of review utility, i.e., the helpfulness or usefulness of online reviews to inform consumer purchase decisions. Review utility concerns consumers since not all online reviews are useful or helpful. And, the quantity of the online reviews of a product/service tends to be very large. Manual assessment of review utility is not only time consuming but also information overloading. To address this issue, review helpfulness research (RHR) has become a very active research stream dedicated to study utility-sensitive review analysis (USRA) techniques for automating review utility assessment. Unfortunately, prior RHR solution is inadequate. RHR researchers call for more suitable USRA approaches. Our current research responds to this urgent call by addressing the research problem: What is an adequate USRA approach? We address this problem by offering novel Design Science (DS) artifacts for personalized USRA (PUSRA). Our proposed solution extends not only RHR research but also web personalization research (WPR), which studies web-based solutions for personalized web provision. We have evaluated the proposed solution by applying three evaluation methods: analytical, descriptive, and experimental. The evaluations corroborate the practical efficacy of our proposed solution. This research contributes what we believe (1) the first DS artifacts to the knowledge body of RHR and WPR, and (2) the first PUSRA contribution to USRA practice. Moreover, we consider our evaluations of the proposed solution the first comprehensive assessment of USRA solutions. In addition, this research contributes to the advancement of decision support research and practice. The proposed solution is a web-based decision support artifact with the capability to substantially improve accurate personalized webpage provision. Also, website designers can apply our research solution to transform their works fundamentally. Such transformation can add substantial value to businesses.

Resumé The official title of my thesis is Application for an appeal review on the points of law in civil procedure. The main objective of this thesis is to describe the development of an institute of an application for an appeal review throughout the legal history of the civil procedure in the area of the Czech Republic up to current state, with a particular focus on the conditions of admissibility of such application and its essentials. My thesis is composed of three chapters. The first chapter is to introduce the reader to the historical development of an application of an appeal review from the very beginning in the 18th century up to date. In particular, the landmark Constitutional Court decision (sp. zn. Pl. ÚS 29/11) is emphasized in the end of the chapter. The second chapter deals with the actual legislation of an application for an appeal review in The Code of Civil Procedure. Its main goal is to describe this institute as whole. It is also to provide the reader with further analysis of some controversial issues of the actual legislation as the conditions of admissibility of an application and its essentials required by the law. Finally, it manifests the attitude of the judiciary towards these problematic features of the actual legislation. The third chapter contains the brief explication about an...

A intenção deste trabalho é compreender a formação de uma rede de debates intelectuais entre dois grupos da esquerda anglófona articulados em torno do Left Book Club, de Londres e em torno da revista Partisan Review, de Nova York durante os anos da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Entendo que, especialmente na primeira metade da década de 1940, os contatos entre estes dois núcleos da esquerda anglo-saxã se estreitaram em dois caminhos: por um lado, por uma crítica comum ao stalinismo; e, por outro, por uma crítica à esquerda da cultura nativa (e tradições burguesas) em ambos os países. Defendemos ainda que essas propostas articuladas por dentro dos movimentos intelectuais de esquerda nos dois países, ora baseadas ideologicamente numa releitura nãoinstitucionalizada do marxismo, ora no trotskismo, ora no pacifismo, ora na reconstrução de um discurso liberal, se aglutinavam em torno da contestação dos rumos do movimento comunista internacional, liderado pelo stalinismo. A articulação dos debates entre esses dois grupos se reforçará no momento em que o célebre romancista anglo-indiano George Orwell, famoso por duas das distopias mais famosas do século XX, o Animal Farm (1945) e o 1984 (1949), contribui simultaneamente com ambos os grupos. Na Partisan Review, Orwell ficara encarregado da publicação da coluna London Letters to Partisan Review, entre os anos de 1941 e 1946. A possibilidade de um diálogo franco com ambos os círculos, especialmente pela rede costurada com membros de ambos os grupos, possibilitou a Orwell criar uma ponte de contatos entre os dois ambientes. Entendo ainda que essa articulação construída por Orwell foi decisiva nas futuras participações de outros intelectuais, que já haviam publicado no Left Book Club e que participavam ativamente dos debates britânicos, como contribuintes da Partisan Review. / The intention of this work is to understand the constitution of a network of intellectual debates articulated among two groups of the Anglophone left around the London\'s Left Book Club, and around the New York\'s Partisan Review, during the years of World War II. I understand that, especially in the first half of the 1940s, contacts between the two cores of the Anglo-Saxon left narrowed in two ways: firstly, by a common critique of Stalinism; and on the other, a left-wing critic of the native culture (and bourgeois traditions) in both countries. We argue that those proposals articulated inside the left-wing intellectual movements in the two countries, based ideologically on a non-institutionalized reinterpretation of Marxism, or in Trotskyism, or in pacifism, or in rebuilding a liberal discourse, coalesced around the challenge of the international communist movement course, led by Stalinism. The joint discussions among those two groups will be strengthened at the time that the famous Anglo-Indian novelist George Orwell, famous for two of the most famous dystopias of the twentieth century, Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), contributes simultaneously with both groups. In Partisan Review, Orwell had been in charge of publishing the column \"London Letters to Partisan Review\", between the years 1941 and 1946. The possibility of an open dialogue with both circles, especially the stitched network with members of both groups, enabled Orwell to create a bridge between the two environments. I also believe that this articulation builted by Orwell was decisive in the future participation of other intellectuals, who had already published through the Left Book Club and participating actively in British debates, as contributors of Partisan Review.

Conforme a Lei n.º 9.307, de 23 de setembro de 1996, as sentenças arbitrais nacionais produzem os mesmos efeitos das sentenças judiciais, independentemente de homologação. A despeito disso, elas se encontram sujeitas ao controle do Poder Judiciário. A Lei de Arbitragem disciplina os limites e meios para a impugnação judicial das sentenças arbitrais nacionais basicamente em dois dispositivos, os arts. 32 e 33. Optou-se por um regramento bastante sucinto, mas que é suficiente para resolver as situações práticas que podem se verificar quando uma sentença arbitral é impugnada. Compreendido que a arbitragem é processo de origem convencional (privada) e que por força daquelas e outras regras, como os arts. 17, 18, 20, § 2º, e 31 ela se insere no círculo da teoria geral do processo (aplicando-se-lhe, por conseguinte, os respectivos princípios e conceitos) e se sujeita aos ditames essenciais do devido processo legal, torna-se possível, a partir das técnicas interpretativas existentes, chegar a soluções para as diversas questões envolvendo o controle judicial das sentenças arbitrais nacionais das quais a Lei n.º 9.307 não tratou expressamente ou de que tratou de forma imprecisa. / According to Law n.o 9.307, which came into effect in September 23rd, 1996, domestic arbitral awards have the same effect on the parties as a ruling by a State Court, without the need for judicial confirmation. The Brazilian Arbitration Act regulates the limits and means for the judicial challenge of domestic arbitral awards in, essentialy, two articles, art. 32 and 33. The Act opted for brief rules on the issue, but they are sufficient to resolve the practical situations that may arise when an arbitral award is challenged. Understanding that arbitration is a process of conventional origin (private) and that due to those as well as other rules, such as articles 17, 18, 20, paragraph 2, and 31 it is contained in the field of general procedural theory (so that, consequently, the same principles and concepts are applicable) and is subject to the essential dictates of due legal process, it becomes possible, due to existing techniques of interpretation, to develop solutions to the many issues involving the judicial control of domestic arbitral awards that Law n.o 9.307 either did not expressly regulate or regulated imprecisely.

This paper focuses on the evolution of “reasonableness” as a unitary standard of judicial review and the role of tribunal expertise in that process. The modern era begins with Nipawin in 1973, a time when judicial review operated with a crude binary system of standards that allowed for either full curial deference (patent unreasonableness) or no deference (correctness). It ends in 2008 with Dunsmuir and the jettisoning of the highest standard of curial deference, the standard of patent unreasonableness. Correctness is now implicitly understood not as a standard but, as the justified absence of the need to extend deference to a tribunal`s decision. Patent unreasonableness and the middle ground standard of reasonableness have ostensibly been "collapsed" into a single more rational, workable, flexible and sophisticated unitary system based on the multi faceted standard of reasonableness. It is argued that the new “standard of review analysis” expressed in Dunsmuir is simply a comprehensive restatement of all the previously articulated diverse and, typically, non-dispositive factors and exceptions. The hallmarks of this new standard are the recognition that, more often than not in administrative law, there is no one right or best answer and that, a reviewing court will respect and affirm a tribunal’s choice if it is within the range of options provided it is well reasoned. This paper also addresses the primarily academic criticism of the Supreme Court over conceptual problems in distinguishing patent unreasonableness from reasonableness, a dispute fuelled by this court’s continued attempts to justify a standard of review that allowed for a tribunal’s right to be wrong. It is argued that patent unreasonableness had become less of a standard of review and more of a simple expression of judicial censure for egregious fault in decision making; a qualifier to a finding of unreasonableness. Arguably that role may have been preserved even with the collapsing of the two standards into one standard in Dunsmuir. While Dunsmuir should have clarified many of the issues the three-way difference of opinion in the Court demonstrates continuing deep rifts that may portend further uncertainty. Uptake by lower courts indicates otherwise. / Thesis (Master, Law) -- Queen's University, 2009-03-17 14:58:15.299

Conforme a Lei n.º 9.307, de 23 de setembro de 1996, as sentenças arbitrais nacionais produzem os mesmos efeitos das sentenças judiciais, independentemente de homologação. A despeito disso, elas se encontram sujeitas ao controle do Poder Judiciário. A Lei de Arbitragem disciplina os limites e meios para a impugnação judicial das sentenças arbitrais nacionais basicamente em dois dispositivos, os arts. 32 e 33. Optou-se por um regramento bastante sucinto, mas que é suficiente para resolver as situações práticas que podem se verificar quando uma sentença arbitral é impugnada. Compreendido que a arbitragem é processo de origem convencional (privada) e que por força daquelas e outras regras, como os arts. 17, 18, 20, § 2º, e 31 ela se insere no círculo da teoria geral do processo (aplicando-se-lhe, por conseguinte, os respectivos princípios e conceitos) e se sujeita aos ditames essenciais do devido processo legal, torna-se possível, a partir das técnicas interpretativas existentes, chegar a soluções para as diversas questões envolvendo o controle judicial das sentenças arbitrais nacionais das quais a Lei n.º 9.307 não tratou expressamente ou de que tratou de forma imprecisa. / According to Law n.o 9.307, which came into effect in September 23rd, 1996, domestic arbitral awards have the same effect on the parties as a ruling by a State Court, without the need for judicial confirmation. The Brazilian Arbitration Act regulates the limits and means for the judicial challenge of domestic arbitral awards in, essentialy, two articles, art. 32 and 33. The Act opted for brief rules on the issue, but they are sufficient to resolve the practical situations that may arise when an arbitral award is challenged. Understanding that arbitration is a process of conventional origin (private) and that due to those as well as other rules, such as articles 17, 18, 20, paragraph 2, and 31 it is contained in the field of general procedural theory (so that, consequently, the same principles and concepts are applicable) and is subject to the essential dictates of due legal process, it becomes possible, due to existing techniques of interpretation, to develop solutions to the many issues involving the judicial control of domestic arbitral awards that Law n.o 9.307 either did not expressly regulate or regulated imprecisely.

A intenção deste trabalho é compreender a formação de uma rede de debates intelectuais entre dois grupos da esquerda anglófona articulados em torno do Left Book Club, de Londres e em torno da revista Partisan Review, de Nova York durante os anos da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Entendo que, especialmente na primeira metade da década de 1940, os contatos entre estes dois núcleos da esquerda anglo-saxã se estreitaram em dois caminhos: por um lado, por uma crítica comum ao stalinismo; e, por outro, por uma crítica à esquerda da cultura nativa (e tradições burguesas) em ambos os países. Defendemos ainda que essas propostas articuladas por dentro dos movimentos intelectuais de esquerda nos dois países, ora baseadas ideologicamente numa releitura nãoinstitucionalizada do marxismo, ora no trotskismo, ora no pacifismo, ora na reconstrução de um discurso liberal, se aglutinavam em torno da contestação dos rumos do movimento comunista internacional, liderado pelo stalinismo. A articulação dos debates entre esses dois grupos se reforçará no momento em que o célebre romancista anglo-indiano George Orwell, famoso por duas das distopias mais famosas do século XX, o Animal Farm (1945) e o 1984 (1949), contribui simultaneamente com ambos os grupos. Na Partisan Review, Orwell ficara encarregado da publicação da coluna London Letters to Partisan Review, entre os anos de 1941 e 1946. A possibilidade de um diálogo franco com ambos os círculos, especialmente pela rede costurada com membros de ambos os grupos, possibilitou a Orwell criar uma ponte de contatos entre os dois ambientes. Entendo ainda que essa articulação construída por Orwell foi decisiva nas futuras participações de outros intelectuais, que já haviam publicado no Left Book Club e que participavam ativamente dos debates britânicos, como contribuintes da Partisan Review. / The intention of this work is to understand the constitution of a network of intellectual debates articulated among two groups of the Anglophone left around the London\'s Left Book Club, and around the New York\'s Partisan Review, during the years of World War II. I understand that, especially in the first half of the 1940s, contacts between the two cores of the Anglo-Saxon left narrowed in two ways: firstly, by a common critique of Stalinism; and on the other, a left-wing critic of the native culture (and bourgeois traditions) in both countries. We argue that those proposals articulated inside the left-wing intellectual movements in the two countries, based ideologically on a non-institutionalized reinterpretation of Marxism, or in Trotskyism, or in pacifism, or in rebuilding a liberal discourse, coalesced around the challenge of the international communist movement course, led by Stalinism. The joint discussions among those two groups will be strengthened at the time that the famous Anglo-Indian novelist George Orwell, famous for two of the most famous dystopias of the twentieth century, Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), contributes simultaneously with both groups. In Partisan Review, Orwell had been in charge of publishing the column \"London Letters to Partisan Review\", between the years 1941 and 1946. The possibility of an open dialogue with both circles, especially the stitched network with members of both groups, enabled Orwell to create a bridge between the two environments. I also believe that this articulation builted by Orwell was decisive in the future participation of other intellectuals, who had already published through the Left Book Club and participating actively in British debates, as contributors of Partisan Review.

Context: Over the recent years, ‘Lean Software Development’ (LSD) has been emerging as a significant practice in the Software Industry. The inherent nature of ‘Lean’ to efficiently handle frequently changing customer needs by minimizing ‘Waste’ is a major success factor in practicing it in the context of ‘Software Engineering’. In simple words, Lean Software Development is the true translation of Lean Manufacturing and Lean IT principles to Software Engineering. This work presents an in-depth analysis on the implication of lean methodologies from both ‘State of Art’ and ‘State of Practice’ in the context of Software Engineering. Objectives: The prime objective of the study is to investigate what methodologies were considered & adopted under lean philosophy and to present relevant evidence on the implication of lean methodologies in reference to what defines ‘lean’ in Software Engineering. An extensive literature review was aimed to find the existing challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects and the respective lean mitigation methodologies that were employed by various software organizations to appease their negative impact. Industrial interviews were conducted by interviewing lean experts, with a motive to find the current state of lean implementation in software industry. The outcomes from the systematic literature review (State of Art) and the industry (State of Practice) are comparatively analysed to explore the similarities and differences on the state of lean implication. Finally, a set of guidelines are recommended that would benefit an Industrial Practitioner/Stakeholder/Academic Researcher in practicing the appropriate lean methodology in the context of software engineering. Methods: We conducted a ‘Systematic literature review’ (SLR) by systematically analyzing relevant studies and then interviewed industrial experts to validate our findings. The systematic literature review was conducted according to the guidelines proposed by Dr. Barbara Kitchenham stated in ‘Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews’ article. The thorough review helped us in identifying various challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects and the respective lean mitigation methodologies that were practiced in the context of software engineering. The associated benefits of practicing the lean methodologies are also presented. The extensive review included peer reviewed articles from electronic databases such as IEEE Explore, Inspec, Scopus and ISI. In addition to this, we conducted snowball sampling on the references of the selected articles to avoid the potential risk of losing relevant and valuable information. Also, other potential sources of information such as books, theses/dissertations, white papers and website/blog articles are included as a part of Grey Literature. In this study, the articles related to the implication of lean methodologies in the context of software engineering were considered. The review included 72 primary studies published between 1993 and 2012. The primary studies were selected based on the following criteria: If they presented the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects. If they depicted the implication of lean mitigation methodologies (Tool/ Technique/ Method/ Process/ Practice/ Principle) that appeased the negative impact of the identified challenging factors that hampered the success of software projects. If they depicted the implication of lean methodologies (Tool/ Technique/ Method/ Process/ Practice/ Principle) in general or for a specific development/ Management/ Maintenance improvement activities that lead to the success of software projects in the context of software engineering. If they presented the benefits of practicing lean methodologies in the context of software engineering. The study quality assessment was done based on the quality criteria defined in the ‘Quality assessment criteria checklist’. The data such as Article ID, Article Title, Literature type (Peer- reviewed, Non-peer reviewed), Context of validation of the lean methodology (Industry/Academia), Subjects considered for the study (Researchers/students, Industrial practitioners), Type of article publication (Conference/ Journal/ Books/ Thesis Reports/ Doctoral dissertations/ Other), Research method used in the study (Case Study/ Experiment/ Experience Report/ Not stated/ Secondary Data Analysis/ Literature Review), Context of conducting the research (Industry/ Academia/ Not stated/ Both), Context of validation of the study (Strong/ Medium/ Weak), Publication date & year, Source of the publication, are extracted as a part of Quantitative analysis. The secondary data analysis for both ‘State of Art’ (Systematic literature review) and ‘State of Practice’ (Industry) was carried by performing a generic data analysis designed to answer our research questions. The more specific data such as the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects, the type of lean contribution presented i.e., the methodology being a Tool, Technique, Practice, Principal, Process or a Method, along with the benefits associated on their implication that helped us to answer our research questions are extracted as a part of qualitative analysis from the selected studies. The industrial interviews were conducted by interviewing potential lean experts who had decent experience in lean software development, to find the current state of lean implication in the software industry. In the end, a comparative analysis was performed to clearly understand the state of convergence and divergence between the results from extensive literature review and the industry with respect to the implication of lean methodologies in the context of software engineering. Results: A total of 72 primary articles were selected for data extraction. 56 articles were selected from the electronic databases that clearly depicted lean implementation in the context of software engineering. 9 articles were selected by conducting snowball sampling i.e. by scrutinizing the references of the selected primary studies and finally the grey literature resulted in 7 articles. Most of the articles discussed about lean implication in the context of software engineering. The depicted lean methodologies were validated in either Industry or Academia. A few articles depicted regarding lean principles and their benefits in the context of software engineering. Most of the selected articles in our study were peer- reviewed. Peer reviewing is a process of evaluating one’s work or performance by an expert in the same field in order to maintain or enhance the quality of work or performance in the particular field. This indicates that the articles considered for data extraction have been reviewed by potential experts in the research domain. Conclusions: This study provided a deeper insight into lean implication in the context of software engineering. The aim of the thesis is to find the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects. A total of 54 challenges were identified from the literature review. The 72 primary articles selected from various resources yielded 53 lean methodologies. The lean methodologies were grouped into Principles, practices, tools and methods. Mapping between the identified challenges and the mitigation lean methodologies is presented. Industrial interviews were conducted to find the current state of lean implication in software engineering. A total of 30 challenges were identified from the industry. A total of 40 lean methodologies were identified from the interviews. Comparative analysis was done to find the common challenges and mitigation lean methodologies between the State of art and State of practice. Based on the analysis a set of guidelines are presented at the end of the document. The guidelines benefit an industrial practitioner in practicing the appropriate lean methodology. Keywords: Lean Methodology, Lean software development, lean software management, lean software engineering, Systematic literature review, literature review. / Context: Over the recent years, ‘Lean Software Development’ (LSD) has been emerging as a significant practice in the Software Industry. The inherent nature of ‘Lean’ to efficiently handle frequently changing customer needs by minimizing ‘Waste’ is a major success factor in practicing it in the context of ‘Software Engineering’. In simple words, Lean Software Development is the true translation of Lean Manufacturing and Lean IT principles to Software Engineering. This work presents an in-depth analysis on the implication of lean methodologies from both ‘State of Art’ and ‘State of Practice’ in the context of Software Engineering. Objectives: The prime objective of the study is to investigate what methodologies were considered & adopted under lean philosophy and to present relevant evidence on the implication of lean methodologies in reference to what defines ‘lean’ in Software Engineering. An extensive literature review was aimed to find the existing challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects and the respective lean mitigation methodologies that were employed by various software organizations to appease their negative impact. Industrial interviews were conducted by interviewing lean experts, with a motive to find the current state of lean implementation in software industry. The outcomes from the systematic literature review (State of Art) and the industry (State of Practice) are comparatively analysed to explore the similarities and differences on the state of lean implication. Finally, a set of guidelines are recommended that would benefit an Industrial Practitioner/Stakeholder/Academic Researcher in practicing the appropriate lean methodology in the context of software engineering. Methods: We conducted a ‘Systematic literature review’ (SLR) by systematically analyzing relevant studies and then interviewed industrial experts to validate our findings. The systematic literature review was conducted according to the guidelines proposed by Dr. Barbara Kitchenham stated in ‘Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews’ article. The thorough review helped us in identifying various challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects and the respective lean mitigation methodologies that were practiced in the context of software engineering. The associated benefits of practicing the lean methodologies are also presented. The extensive review included peer reviewed articles from electronic databases such as IEEE Explore, Inspec, Scopus and ISI. In addition to this, we conducted snowball sampling on the references of the selected articles to avoid the potential risk of losing relevant and valuable information. Also, other potential sources of information such as books, theses/dissertations, white papers and website/blog articles are included as a part of Grey Literature. In this study, the articles related to the implication of lean methodologies in the context of software engineering were considered. The review included 72 primary studies published between 1993 and 2012. The primary studies were selected based on the following criteria: If they presented the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects. If they depicted the implication of lean mitigation methodologies (Tool/ Technique/ Method/ Process/ Practice/ Principle) that appeased the negative impact of the identified challenging factors that hampered the success of software projects. If they depicted the implication of lean methodologies (Tool/ Technique/ Method/ Process/ Practice/ Principle) in general or for a specific development/ Management/ Maintenance improvement activities that lead to the success of software projects in the context of software engineering. If they presented the benefits of practicing lean methodologies in the context of software engineering. The study quality assessment was done based on the quality criteria defined in the ‘Quality assessment criteria checklist’. The data such as Article ID, Article Title, Literature type (Peer- reviewed, Non-peer reviewed), Context of validation of the lean methodology (Industry/Academia), Subjects considered for the study (Researchers/students, Industrial practitioners), Type of article publication (Conference/ Journal/ Books/ Thesis Reports/ Doctoral dissertations/ Other), Research method used in the study (Case Study/ Experiment/ Experience Report/ Not stated/ Secondary Data Analysis/ Literature Review), Context of conducting the research (Industry/ Academia/ Not stated/ Both), Context of validation of the study (Strong/ Medium/ Weak), Publication date & year, Source of the publication, are extracted as a part of Quantitative analysis. The secondary data analysis for both ‘State of Art’ (Systematic literature review) and ‘State of Practice’ (Industry) was carried by performing a generic data analysis designed to answer our research questions. The more specific data such as the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects, the type of lean contribution presented i.e., the methodology being a Tool, Technique, Practice, Principal, Process or a Method, along with the benefits associated on their implication that helped us to answer our research questions are extracted as a part of qualitative analysis from the selected studies. The industrial interviews were conducted by interviewing potential lean experts who had decent experience in lean software development, to find the current state of lean implication in the software industry. In the end, a comparative analysis was performed to clearly understand the state of convergence and divergence between the results from extensive literature review and the industry with respect to the implication of lean methodologies in the context of software engineering. Results: A total of 72 primary articles were selected for data extraction. 56 articles were selected from the electronic databases that clearly depicted lean implementation in the context of software engineering. 9 articles were selected by conducting snowball sampling i.e. by scrutinizing the references of the selected primary studies and finally the grey literature resulted in 7 articles. Most of the articles discussed about lean implication in the context of software engineering. The depicted lean methodologies were validated in either Industry or Academia. A few articles depicted regarding lean principles and their benefits in the context of software engineering. Most of the selected articles in our study were peer- reviewed. Peer reviewing is a process of evaluating one’s work or performance by an expert in the same field in order to maintain or enhance the quality of work or performance in the particular field. This indicates that the articles considered for data extraction have been reviewed by potential experts in the research domain. Conclusions: This study provided a deeper insight into lean implication in the context of software engineering. The aim of the thesis is to find the challenging factors that negatively influenced the success of software projects. A total of 54 challenges were identified from the literature review. The 72 primary articles selected from various resources yielded 53 lean methodologies. The lean methodologies were grouped into Principles, practices, tools and methods. Mapping between the identified challenges and the mitigation lean methodologies is presented. Industrial interviews were conducted to find the current state of lean implication in software engineering. A total of 30 challenges were identified from the industry. A total of 40 lean methodologies were identified from the interviews. Comparative analysis was done to find the common challenges and mitigation lean methodologies between the State of art and State of practice. Based on the analysis a set of guidelines are presented at the end of the document. The guidelines benefit an industrial practitioner in practicing the appropriate lean methodology. Keywords: Lean Methodology, Lean software development, lean software management, lean software engineering, Systematic literature review, literature review. / 0091-8375920473

Magister Curationis - MCur / In this minithesis a systematic review of all of the available contemporary literature on post-breast cancer lymphoedema was undertaken. The purpose of this systematic review was to search for, collate, synthesize and thereby provide the reader with a comprehensive, evidence-based account of all the available research published between 1988 and 2008 on the treatment of post-breast cancer lymphoedema with natural medicine.Because the large number of articles published every year across a plethora of biomedical journals makes it incredibly difficult for practitioners to keep up-to-date within their specialized areas, systematic reviews are particularly useful as they summarize high quality, contemporary scientific knowledge on a topic in one place (Antman, Lau, Kupelnik, Mosteller & Chalmers, 1992). One such topic on which many health practitioners have a paucity of information regarding management and risk reduction is lymphoedema (Radina, Armer, Culbertson & Dusold,2004) The primary objective of this research project was to assess the effects of natural medicine on post-breast cancer lymphoedema in regard to 1) life style improvement including any signs and symptoms related to the condition such as heaviness, tightness, pain, ache, itch, mobility of the affected arm, skin texture as well as psychological symptoms like distress;2) arm volume changes of the affected limb; 3) adverse effects; and 4) modification or cessation of treatment.Several online databases were searched for articles that contain the term lymphoedema, lymphedema, limb swelling or "linfedema" (Spanish and Portuguese); thereby including all possible spellings in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Relevant information was extracted and recorded in tabular format. The quality of each study was analysed using a checklist,which was drawn up by the primary researcher and study supervisor based on the CONSORT guidelines (Altman, 1996).To ensure quality, only randomized controlled trials, quasi-randomized controlled trials or clinical trials that met the inclusion or exclusion criteria, reporting benefits or adverse effects of natural medicines for the treatment of post-breast cancer lymphoedema were included. In addition,studies had to focus on natural medicine versus placebo or routine treatment or no treatment as types of intervention; and participants had to include women of all ages that had been diagnosed with post-breast cancer lymphoedema.The relevant data from included studies was entered into Review Manager 5 (Revman 5) software for meta-analysis. The primary studies included in this systematic review generally suffered from small sample sizes, varied somewhat in their operationalisation of outcomes and the format for presenting results, making meta-analysis very difficult. However, results suggest that sodium selenite taken orally and CYCLO 3 FORT also taken orally are effective in the reduction of limb volume. The results also suggested that aromatherapy using an intervention cream containing wheat germ oil and essential oils of fennel, sage, geranium, black pepper and juniper; and vitamin E plus pentoxifylline taken orally are not effective.Seeing as these results are drawn from single studies with heterogeneous outcome variables, they should be seen as tentative until they are confirmed by replication. Gaps in the literature regarding natural medicine as a treatment for post-breast cancer lymphoedema were identified, and recommendations for further research are proposed.