Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-06-18T13:40:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 priscillarezendesilva.pdf: 1039823 bytes, checksum: 1dd3ace224b869dc4a10c45288993628 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-06-27T12:00:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 priscillarezendesilva.pdf: 1039823 bytes, checksum: 1dd3ace224b869dc4a10c45288993628 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-27T12:00:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 priscillarezendesilva.pdf: 1039823 bytes, checksum: 1dd3ace224b869dc4a10c45288993628 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-27 / Dentre os tratamentos propostos para transtornos mentais, a terapia de biofeedback é uma das muitas abordagens utilizadas. Tal terapia tem como objetivo auxiliar o indivíduo a assumir a responsabilidade pelo seu bem-estar, englobando responsabilidades pelas mudanças cognitivas, emocionais e comportamentais necessárias para a obtenção de mudanças fisiológicas saudáveis. Neste trabalho de revisão sistemática objetivou-se pesquisar e averiguar em quais psicopatologias o biofeedback e o neurofeedback têm sido utilizados, bem como verificar a existência de evidências de sua eficácia nesses quadros. Foi realizada uma pesquisa em cinco bases de dados eletrônicas (PubMed/Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycInfo e Scielo), utilizando-se combinações booleanas do termo “biofeedback” (AND) com termos retirados da Classificação Estatística Internacional de Doenças e Problemas Relacionados à Saúde – 10 (CID-10). A seguir, novas combinações foram empregadas adicionando o termo “intervention” às combinações descritas. Um total de 14.350 estudos foram incluídos no conjunto de dados. Foram analisados estudos originais, cujo objetivo era investigar a eficácia do biofeedback no tratamento de psicopatologias, escritos em português e/ou inglês publicados entre os anos de 2012-2017. Após o cumprimento de várias etapas de seleção, foram incluídos 49 estudos no conjunto de dados final e analisados de acordo com a: descrição da amostra (patologia; idade; tipo de biofeedback), desenho (Randomização; Controle, Cegamento; cálculo do N, Follow-up, Registro, Tamanho de efeito, análise por intenção de tratar, Multicêntrico, Piloto), protocolo (número de sessões de treinamento e de intervenção, duração da sessão de intervenção, frequência das sessões e duração da pesquisa). As psicopatologias mais frequentes foram transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade, transtorno depressivo maior, transtorno do espectro autista, dependência de álcool, compulsão alimentar e estresse. A maioria (51,02%) dos estudos analisados não utilizou medidas de tamanho de efeito e apenas um quinto (20,42%) encontrou, efetivamente, algum efeito nas intervenções com biofeedback ou neurofeedback. Todos os 13 estudos nos quais foi apresentado algum efeito do bio ou neurofeedback continham importantes falhas metodológicas. Considerados todos os aspectos metodológicos e os vieses de cada uma das falhas, verifica-se que nenhum dos artigos conseguiu contemplar todos os requisitos metodológicos para que se pudesse afirmar a eficácia do tratamento através do biofeedback e o neurofeedback. São necessários estudos mais rigorosos para que se possa afirmar a aplicabilidade e a eficácia do biofeedback e neurofeedback no manejo de psicopatologias. / Among the proposed treatments for mental disorders, biofeedback therapy is one of many approaches. Such therapy aims to assist the individual to take responsibility for their well-being, encompassing responsibility for the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes necessary to effect healthy physiological changes. In this systematic review we aimed to investigate in which psychopathologies biofeedback and neurofeedback have been used, as well as to verify the existence of evidence of its effectiveness in these psychopathologies. A search was carried out in five electronic databases (PubMed / Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycInfo and Scielo), using boolean combinations of the term "biofeedback" (AND) with terms derived from the International Classification of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics- 10 (ICD-10). Next, new combinations were employed by adding the term "intervention" to the combinations described. A total of 14,350 studies were included in the data set. We analyzed original studies, whose objective was to investigate the efficacy of biofeedback in the treatment of psychopathologies, written in Portuguese and / or English and published between the years of 2012-2017. After completing several selection steps, 49 studies were included in the final data set and analyzed according to: sample description (pathology; age; type of biofeedback), design (Randomization; Control, Blinding; Statistic for sample size, Follow-up, size of effect, intention-to-treat, Multicenter, Pilot) and protocol (number of training sessions, number of intervention sessions, duration of intervention session, frequency of sessions and duration of research). Biofeedback and neurofeedback were found mostly used in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, alcohol dependence, binge eating, and stress. Most (51.02%) of the studies analyzed did not use effect size measures and only one fifth (20.42%) did indeed find any effect on interventions with biofeedback or neurofeedback. All 13 studies that found some bio or neurofeedback effect contained important methodological flaws. Considering all the methodological aspects and biases of each one of the failures, it was verified that none of the studies was able to contemplate all the methodological requirements so that the effectiveness of the treatment with the biofeedback and the neurofeedback could be affirmed. More rigorous studies are needed to establish the applicability and efficacy of biofeedback and neurofeedback in the management of psychopathologies.

Orientador: Rodrigo Pessoa Cavalcanti Lira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T10:10:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fulco_EnzoAugustoMedeiros_M.pdf: 625645 bytes, checksum: 871772c97dcfc7b49d6bc56d1a72c439 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Introdução: Corticosteróides tópicos são utilizados comumente no tratamento da ceratoconjuntivite viral aguda. Tem sido sugerida a utilidade dos corticosteróides no tratamento sintomático da conjuntivite alívio dos sinais e/ou sintomas e prevenção dos infiltrados subepiteliais. Por outro lado, observou-se o relato dos possíveis efeitos colaterais, como o prolongamento da transmissão invitro do vírus e, no âmbito da medicina clínica, ensaios clínicos revelaram a eficácia duvidosa dos colírios de corticosteróides. O objetivo deste estudo foi comparar o uso dos corticosteróides tópicos, com quaisquer drogas usadas nos ensaios clínicos com o placebo. Objetivo: Avaliar se os corticosteróides tópicos são eficazes e seguros para o tratamento da ceratoconjuntivite adenoviral para melhorar os sintomas e evitar ou minimizar complicações relacionadas à doença. Desenho: Revisão sistemática. Métodos: Pesquisa documental na Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (que contém o Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register), MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, nas listas de referência de relatórios de ensaio identificados e no o Science Citation Index. Foram incluídos ensaios clínicos aleatorizados comparando quaisquer apresentações de corticosteróides tópico com quaisquer outras formas de tratamentos da ceratoconjuntivite adenoviral aguda. Resultados: Foram incluídos ensaios clínicos randomizados onde os corticosteróides tópicos foram comparados com placebo no tratamento da ceratoconjuntivite adenoviral aguda. A busca digital inicial identificou quatro ensaios clínicos comparando corticosteroides e placebo no manejo da ceratoconjuntivite epidêmica somando 243 pacientes. Uma revisão sistemática foi realizada. Conclusão: Nenhum estudo mostrou melhora no alívio dos sinais ou sintomas. A prevenção dos infiltrados subepiteliais permanece controversa, mostrando mais comumente um adiamento na história natural da doença do que uma modificação nela. O uso destes colírios deve ser recomendado com cautela e novos ensaios clínicos são necessários para comprovar sua eficácia / Abstract: Introduction: Topical corticosteroids are commonly used in the treatment of acute viral keratoconjunctivitis. It has been suggested the usefulness of corticosteroids in symptomatic relief of the signs of conjunctivitis and / or symptoms and prevention of subepithelial infiltrates. On the other hand, we observed the reported possible side effects, such as the extension of transmission of the virus in vitro, and beside that, clinical trials showing the effectiveness of corticosteroids eye drops. The aim of this study was to compare the use of topical corticosteroids, with any drugs used in clinical trials with placebo. Objective: To assess whether topical corticosteroids are effective and safe for the treatment of adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis to improve symptoms and prevent or minimize complications related to the disease. Design: Systematic review. Methods: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register), MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed and the reference lists of identified trial reports. We used the Science Citation Index to look for articles that cited the relevant studies. We included masked randomized controlled trials in which any form of topical corticosteroid treatment had been compared with placebo in the management of acute adenoviral ceroconjuctivitis. Results: Were included randomized controlled trials in which any form of topical corticosteroid treatment had been compared with placebo in the management of acute adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis. The initial digital search identified 4 clinical trials comparing corticosteroids and placebo in the management of Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis totaling 243 patients. A narrative review was conducted. Conclusion: No study has shown improvement in relief of the signs or symptoms. Prevention of subepithelial infiltrates remains controversial, most commonly showing a delay in the natural history of disease than a change in it. The use of eye drops should be recommended with caution and new clinical trials are needed to prove its effectiveness / Mestrado / Oftalmologia / Mestre em Ciências Médicas

Studies have highlighted the prevalence of sedentary behaviours in the university student population and have noted the significant potential for the promotion of physical activity in educational settings for young adults. Following the epidemiological procedure and ecological approach, the main purpose of this thesis focused on the university student population to review the previous research results by a systematic review method (first study), to compare the differences between UK and Taiwanese participants' and relevant effective variables by using a quantitative study method (second study), to have a deeper understanding of the Taiwanese university students' physical activity behaviours by using a qualitative study method (third study), then to evaluate the efficiency of designed interventions in university settings (fourth study). The whole thesis applied the ecological approach to classify the survey variables' effect to university students' physical activity behaviours. A total of 55 published papers were reviewed and majority of studies were conducted in the US using a cross-sectional design. Finding variables consistently related to university students physical activity level were female gender(-), attitude self-efficacy perceived barrier (-), family support (+), physical activity and sport history (+). These survey variables were more consistent in the literature and corresponded to previous adults' study. Some survey variables linked to university student were also found in the literature but still need more studies for this target population to come to a robust conclusion. Seven days recall design measurement and stage of changes survey for physical activity levels were more identified and have been more frequent using in the reviewed papers. Also, more studies on different ethnicity, environmental variables and intervention with different methodology such as qualitative study method are needed to enrich the knowledge of university's students' physical activity behaviours.

With the rapid advancement of technologies, software is gaining its popularity in assisting our daily activities in the last decades. This circumstance causes a rising concerns about a software product with high quality which lead to a question about the justification whether a software product has high quality. Therefore, a numerous of researches and studies had spent a lot of effort in software product quality assessment in order to justify whether the software product(s) under study have satisfactory quality. One of the foremost approaches to assess software product quality is the application of the quality models. For example, quality model ISO 9126. However, the quality models do not provide an explicit way to aggregate the performance of different quality aspects nor handling the various interests raised from different perspective or stakeholders. Although many studies have been conducted to aggregate the different measures of quality attributes, they are still not capable to include the various interests raised by different software product stakeholders. Therefore, some studies have attempted to apply MCDA methods in order to aggregate the measure of quality attributes as the ultimate software product quality and handling the various quality interests. However, they do not provide any rational about their particular choice of MCDA methods. Most of them justify their choice by referring to high popularity of the selected MCDA method. Without studying the suitability of MCDA methods in the application domain of the software product, it is difficult to conclude whether the chosen MCDA methods fit in the intended software engineering discipline. Furthermore, there is no systematic approach available to help other software practitioners in selecting the MCDA method that will be suitable for their needs and constraints in software product quality assessment. This thesis aims to provide the key concepts for an effective selection of suitable MCDA method for the purpose of software product quality assessment. A foremost part of this thesis presents two systematic reviews. The first review illustrates the evaluation of the characteristics of MCDA methods. The second review identifies the major needs and constraints of the software quality assessment potential MCDA method has to consider in order to be used for assessing quality of software products. Based on the results from both systematic reviews, a selection framework named MCDA-SQA framework is formulated. This framework is intended to assist the software practitioners to systematically select and adapt appropriate MCDA method(s) in order to fulfil their quality assessment needs and the respective environmental concerns.

Automated Test Data Generation (ATDG) is an activity that in the course of software testing automatically generates test data for the software under test (SUT). It usually makes the testing more efficient and cost effective. Test Data Generation (TDG) is crucial for software testing because test data is one of the key factors for determining the quality of any software test during its execution. The multi-phased activity of ATDG involves various techniques for each of its phases. This research field is not new by any means, albeit lately new techniques have been devised and a gradual increase in the level of maturity has brought some diversified trends into it. To this end several ATDG techniques are available, but emerging trends in computing have raised the necessity to summarize and assess the current status of this area particularly for practitioners, future researchers and students. Further, analysis of the ATDG techniques becomes even more important when Miller et al. [4] highlight the hardship in general acceptance of these techniques. Under this scenario only a systematic review can address the issues because systematic reviews provide evaluation and interpretation of all available research relevant to a particular research question, topic area, or phenomenon of interest. This thesis, by using a trustworthy, rigorous, and auditable methodology, provides a systematic review that is aimed at presenting a fair evaluation of research concerning ATDG techniques of the period 1997-2006. Moreover it also aims at identifying probable gaps in research about ATDG techniques of defined period so as to suggest the scope for further research. This systematic review is basically presented on the pattern of [5 and 8] and follows the techniques suggested by [1].The articles published in journals and conference proceedings during the defined period are of concern in this review. The motive behind this selection is quite logical in the sense that the techniques that are discussed in literature of this period might reflect their suitability for the prevailing software environment of today and are believed to fulfill the needs of foreseeable future. Furthermore only automated and/or semiautomated ATDG techniques have been chosen for consideration while leaving the manual techniques as they are out of the scope. As a result of the preliminary study the review identifies ATDG techniques and relevant articles of the defined period whereas the detailed study evaluates and interprets all available research relevant to ATDG techniques. For interpretation and elaboration of the discovered ATDG techniques a novel approach called ‘Natural Clustering’ is introduced. To accomplish the task of systematic review a comprehensive research method has been developed. Then on the practical implications of this research method important results have been gained. These results have been presented in statistical/numeric, diagrammatic, and descriptive forms. Additionally the thesis also introduces various criterions for classification of the discovered ATDG techniques and presents a comprehensive analysis of the results of these techniques. Some interesting facts have also been highlighted during the course of discussion. Finally, the discussion culminates with inferences and recommendations which emanate from this analysis. As the research work produced in the thesis is based on a rich amount of trustworthy information, therefore, it could also serve the purpose of being an upto- date guide about ATDG techniques. / Shahid Mahmood Folkparksvägen 14:23 372 40 Ronneby Sweden +46 76 2971676

Software engineering research has been, and still is criticised as being immature and unscientific due to lack of evaluation. However, software engineering community is now focusing more on empirical research and there is a movement to adopt approaches from other mature fields like medical science and one such approach is Systematic Reviews. One of the major activities within the requirements engineering process is to use requirements prioritization that helps to focus on the most important requirements. There are many prioritization techniques available to prioritize software requirements; still there is lack of evidence of which technique to prefer. The reasons could be the differences in contexts, measurement of variables and usage of data sets. In this thesis, the area of requirements prioritization has been systematically reviewed in order to assess what evidence regarding different prioritisation techniques exist. The results from different studies are contradictory in nature due to variations in study designs, research methodologies and choice of different dependent and context variables. Based on the results of the systematic review, a research framework has been proposed to provide the researchers with a common background for further research with in requirements prioritization area. The goal of the framework is to develop reliable knowledge base as well as help researchers conduct and report prioritization studies.

Context: Software testing is an integral part of software development life cycle. To improve the quality of software there are different testing approaches practiced over the years. Traditionally software testing is carried out by following approach focusing on prior test design. While exploratory testing is an approach to test software where the tester does not require to follow a specific test design. But rather, exploratory testing should facilitate the tester in testing the complete system comprehensively. Exploratory testing is seen by some, as a way to conduct simultaneous learning, test design and execution of tests simultaneously. While others point to exploratory testing enabling constant evolution of tests in an easy manner. Objectives: In this study we have investigated the field of exploratory testing in literature and industry to understand its perception and application. Further among the stated claims by practitioners, we selected defect detection efficiency and effectiveness claim for empirical validation through an experiment and survey. Methods: In this study, a systematic literature review, interview, experiment and survey are conducted. In the systematic review a number of article sources are used, including IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Engineering village, Springer Link, Google Scholar and Books database. The systematic review also includes the gray literature published by the practitioners. The selection of studies was done using two-phase and tollgate approach. A total of 47 references were selected as primary studies. Eight semi-structures interviews were conducted with industry practitioners. Experiment had total 4 iterations and 70 subjects. The subjects were selected from industry and academia. The experimental design used was one factor with two interventions and one response variable. Results: Based on our findings from literature review and interviews, the understanding of exploratory testing has improved over the period but still lacks empirical investigation. The results drawn from experimental and survey data shows that exploratory testing proved effective and efficient in finding more critical bugs in limited time. Conclusions: We conclude that exploratory testing has a lot of potential and much more to offer to testing industry. But more empirical investigation and true facts and figures are required to motivate the testing industry to adapt it. We have reported a number of advantages, disadvantages, challenges and factors in this study. We further investigated the claims stated by the ET practitioners through an experiment and survey. The statistical tests were conducted on the collected data to draw meaningful results. We found statistical significance difference in number of true defects found. Using exploratory testing approach testers found far more defects than test case based testing. Although, there was no statistical significance difference between the two approaches for false defects. / Slutsatser: Vi anser att det experimentella tester har stor potential och mycket mer att erbjuda testning industrin. Men mer empirisk undersökning och sann fakta och siffror är skyldiga att motivera testning industrin att anpassa den. Vi har rapporterat en rad fördelar, nackdelar, utmaningar och faktorer i denna studie. Vi undersökte vidare fordringar anges av ET utövare genom ett experiment och undersökning. De statistiska test genomfördes på insamlade data för att dra meningsfulla resultat. Vi fann statistisk signifikans skillnaden i antalet sann fel som upptäcks. Använda utforskande testning strategi testare fann långt fler fel än testfall baserat testning. Även om det inte fanns någon statistisk signifikans skillnad mellan de två synsätten för falska defekter. / 0046 73 651 8048

Context: In today’s highly competitive business environment, shortened product and technology life-cycles, it is critical for software industry to continuously innovate. To help an organisation to achieve this goal, a better understanding and control of the activities and determinants of innovation is required. This can be achieved through innovation measurement initiative which assesses innovation capability, output and performance. Objective: This study explores definitions of innovation, innovation measurement frameworks, key elements of innovation and metrics that have been proposed in literature and used in industry. The degree of empirical validation and context of studies was also investigated. It also elicited the perception of innovation, its importance, challenges and state of practice of innovation measurement in software industry. Methods: In this study, a systematic literature review, followed by online questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were conducted. The systematic review used seven electronic databases, including Compendex, Inspec, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Business Source premier, Science Direct and Scopus. Studies were subject to preliminary, basic and advanced criteria to judge the relevance of papers. The online questionnaire targeted software industry practitioners with different roles and firm sizes. A total of 94 completed and usable responses from 68 unique firms were collected. Seven face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with four industry practitioners and three academics. Results: Based on the findings of literature review, interviews and questionnaire a comprehensive definition of innovation was identified which may be used in software industry. The metrics for evaluation of determinants, inputs, outputs and performance were aggregated and categorised. A conceptual model of the key measurable elements of innovation was constructed from the findings of the systematic review. The model was further refined after feedback from academia and industry through interviews. Conclusions: The importance of innovation measurement is well recognised in both academia and industry. However, innovation measurement is not a common practice in industry. Some of the major reasons are lack of available metrics and data collection mechanisms to measure innovation. The organisations which do measure innovation use only a few metrics that do not cover the entire spectrum of innovation. This is partly because of the lack of consistent definition of innovation in industry. Moreover, there is a lack of empirical validation of the metrics and determinants of innovation. Although there is some static validations, full scale industry trials are currently missing. For software industry, a unique challenge is development of alternate measures since some of the existing metrics are inapplicable in this context. The conceptual model constructed in this study is one step towards identifying measurable key aspects of innovation to understanding the innovation capability and performance of software firms.

Software has gained an essential role in our daily life in the last decades. This condition demands high quality software. To produce high quality software many practitioners and researchers put more attention on the software development process. Large investments are poured to improve the software development process. Software Process Improvement (SPI) is a research area which is aimed to address the assessment and improvement issues in the software development process. One of the most important aspects in software process improvement is to measure the results gained from the embarked process change. Without measuring the results, it is hard to tell whether the goals have been achieved or not. However, measurement for software process improvement is not a trivial task. Furthermore, there is no common systematic methodology that can be used to help measuring the performance of software process improvement initiatives. This thesis is intended to provide basic key concepts for the effective measurement and evaluation of the outcome of software process improvement. A major part of this thesis presents the systematic review in evaluating the outcome of software process improvement. The systematic review is aimed at the identification of the major issues in software process improvement evaluation and to gather the requirements for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. Based on the results of the systematic review, a measurement and evaluation model is formulated. The objective of the model is to provide the groundwork for a software process improvement measurement and evaluation framework. The model is deemed to be applicable in a broad spectrum of scenarios by providing concepts that are independent from specific SPI initiatives.

Context: Due to the increasing size and complexity of software today, the amount of effort for software quality assurance (QA) is growing and getting more and more expensive. There are many techniques lead to the improvement in software QA. Static analysis can obtain very good coverage while analyze program without execution, but it has the weakness of imprecision by false errors. In contrast, dynamic analysis can obtain only partial coverage due to a large number of possible test cases, but the reported errors are more precise. Static and dynamic analyses can complement each other by providing valuable information that would be missed by using isolated analysis technique. Although many studies investigate the QA approaches that combine static and dynamic QA techniques, it is unclear what we have learned from these studies, because no systematic synthesis exists to date. Method: This thesis is intended to provide basic key concepts for combined QA approaches. A major part of this thesis presents the systematic review that brings details discussion about state of the art on the approaches that combine static and dynamic QA techniques. The systematic review is aimed at the identification of the existed combined QA approaches, how to classify them, their purposes and input as well as introduce which combination is available. Result: The results show that, there are two relations in the combination of static and dynamic techniques such as integration and separation. Besides, the objectives of combined QA approaches were introduced according to QA process quality and product quality. The most common inputs for combined approaches were also discussed. Moreover, we identified which combination of static and dynamic techniques should or should not be used as well as the potential combination for further research.