Peer Review #3 of "Reverse engineering approach for improving the quality of mobile applications (v0.1)"

Background: Portable applications (Android applications) are becoming increasingly complicated by mind-boggling programming frameworks. Applications must be produced rapidly and advance persistently in order to fit new client requirements and execution settings. However, catering to these imperatives may bring about poor outline decisions on design choices, known as anti-patterns, which may possibly corrupt programming quality and execution. Thus, the automatic detection of anti-patterns is a vital process that facilitates both maintenance and evolution tasks. Additionally, it guides developers to refactor their applications and consequently enhance their quality. Methods: We propose a reverse-engineering approach to analyze Android applications and detect the anti-patterns from mobile apps. We validate the effectiveness of our approach on a set of popular mobile apps such as YouTube, Whats App, Play Store and Twitter. The result of our approach produced an Android app with fewer anti-patterns, leading the way for perfect long-time apps and ensuring that these applications are purely valid. Results: The proposed method is a general detection method. It detected a set of semantic and structural design anti-patterns which have appeared 1262 times in mobile apps. The results showed that there was a correlation between the anti-patterns detected by an ontology editor and OntoUML editor. The results also showed that using ontology increases the detection percentage approximately 11.3%, guarantees consistency and decreases accuracy of anti-patterns in the new ontology.

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Reverse engineering approach for improving the quality of mobile applications

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27633v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eman K. Elsayed ◽

Kamal A. ElDahshan ◽

Enas E. El-Sharawy ◽

Naglaa E. Ghannam

Keyword(s):

Reverse Engineering ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Structural Design ◽

Mobile Apps ◽

Engineering Approach ◽

Long Time ◽

Android App ◽

Android Applications ◽

Programming Quality

Background: Portable applications (Android applications) are becoming increasingly complicated by mind-boggling programming frameworks. Applications must be produced rapidly and advance persistently in order to fit new client requirements and execution settings. However, catering to these imperatives may bring about poor outline decisions on design choices, known as anti-patterns, which may possibly corrupt programming quality and execution. Thus, the automatic detection of anti-patterns is a vital process that facilitates both maintenance and evolution tasks. Additionally, it guides developers to refactor their applications and consequently enhance their quality. Methods: We propose a reverse-engineering approach to analyze Android applications and detect the anti-patterns from mobile apps. We validate the effectiveness of our approach on a set of popular mobile apps such as YouTube, Whats App, Play Store and Twitter. The result of our approach produced an Android app with fewer anti-patterns, leading the way for perfect long-time apps and ensuring that these applications are purely valid. Results: The proposed method is a general detection method. It detected a set of semantic and structural design anti-patterns which have appeared 1262 times in mobile apps. The results showed that there was a correlation between the anti-patterns detected by an ontology editor and OntoUML editor. The results also showed that using ontology increases the detection percentage approximately 11.3%, guarantees consistency and decreases accuracy of anti-patterns in the new ontology.

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A Study of Medical Board Peer Reviews in Nevada

Journal of Medical Regulation ◽

10.30770/2572-1852-96.1.20 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 96 (1) ◽

pp. 20-29

Author(s):

Jerry C. Calvanese

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Board Members ◽

Study Objective ◽

Clark County ◽

Peer Reviews ◽

Medical Examiners ◽

Washoe County ◽

Total Average Cost ◽

Total Average

ABSTRACT Study Objective: The purpose of this study was to obtain data on various characteristics of peer reviews. These reviews were performed for the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners (NSBME) to assess physician licensees' negligence and/or incompetence. It was hoped that this data could help identify and define certain characteristics of peer reviews. Methods: This study examined two years of data collected on peer reviews. The complaints were initially screened by a medical reviewer and/or a committee composed of Board members to assess the need for a peer review. Data was then collected from the peer reviews performed. The data included costs, specialty of the peer reviewer, location of the peer reviewer, and timeliness of the peer reviews. Results: During the two-year study, 102 peer reviews were evaluated. Sixty-nine percent of the peer-reviewed complaints originated from civil malpractice cases and 15% originated from complaints made by patients. Eighty percent of the complaint physicians were located in Clark County and 12% were located in Washoe County. Sixty-one percent of the physicians who performed the peer reviews were located in Washoe County and 24% were located in Clark County. Twelve percent of the complaint physicians were in practice in the state for 5 years or less, 40% from 6 to 10 years, 20% from 11 to 15 years, 16% from 16 to 20 years, and 13% were in practice 21 years or more. Forty-seven percent of the complaint physicians had three or less total complaints filed with the Board, 10% had four to six complaints, 17% had 7 to 10 complaints, and 26% had 11 or more complaints. The overall quality of peer reviews was judged to be good or excellent in 96% of the reviews. A finding of malpractice was found in 42% of the reviews ordered by the medical reviewer and in 15% ordered by the Investigative Committees. There was a finding of malpractice in 38% of the overall total of peer reviews. The total average cost of a peer review was $791. In 47% of the peer reviews requested, materials were sent from the Board to the peer reviewer within 60 days of the original request and 33% took more than 120 days for the request to be sent. In 48% of the reviews, the total time for the peer review to be performed by the peer reviewer was less than 60 days. Twenty seven percent of the peer reviews took more than 120 days to be returned. Conclusion: Further data is needed to draw meaningful conclusions from certain peer review characteristics reported in this study. However, useful data was obtained regarding timeliness in sending out peer review materials, total times for the peer reviews, and costs.

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The functionality and quality of nutrition-related mobile applications in China (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.13261 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Yuan Li ◽

Jingmin Ding ◽

Yishan Wang ◽

Chengyao Tang ◽

Puhong Zhang

Keyword(s):

Disease Management ◽

Nutrition Education ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Dietary Guidelines ◽

Diet Analysis ◽

Innovative Technology ◽

Nutritional Knowledge ◽

Food Record

BACKGROUND There are an increasing number of mobile applications that provide dietary guidance in supporting healthy lifestyle and disease management. However, the characteristics of these nutrition-related apps are not well analyzed. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the functionality and quality of nutrition-related apps in China. METHODS Mobile apps providing dietary guidance were screened in Chinese iOS and android app stores using stepwise searching criteria in November 2017. Primary review was conducted by extracting information from the description of apps. Free apps that contain all the information of diet and nutrition, with the last update after 1st Jan 2016 were downloaded for further analysis on the nutritional functionality features based on the framework of Chinese Dietary Guidelines and on the market related features as well. The user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (uMARS) was used to assess the quality of apps. RESULTS Among the 44 downloaded nutrition-related apps screened from 628 apps with dietary guidance content, only 11(25%) were aimed exclusively for dietary guidance, the others were aimed for fitness guidance (17, 39%), disease management (11, 25%) and maternal health (5, 11%) respectively. The nutritional functionalities of the 44 apps included nutritional information enquiry (40, 91%), nutrition education (35, 80%), food record (34, 77%), diet analysis (34, 77%), and personalized recipes (21, 48%). Twelve out of 44 apps contained all of the above five nutrition related functionalities. The diet analysis and suggestions were mainly focused on energy (33/44, 75%), less on other factors like dietary structure (10/44, 23%). About 96% (42/44) of the apps provided social communication functionality and 59% (26/44) of the apps supported user incentives. Eight out of 44 apps (18%) also applied intelligent recognition technology. Using 5-point uMARS as scales of quality, the median scores of the 44 apps was 3.6 (IQR = 0.7). CONCLUSIONS Most nutrition-related apps are developed in the service of health management other than for dietary guidance exclusively. Although basic energy balance theory was generally applied, the nutritional functionality of the nutrition-related apps is relatively limited and not individualized. More efforts should be taken to integrate with the scientific nutritional knowledge and innovative technology in developing an app followed with complete and personalized dietary guidance.

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Effectiveness of mobile applications on healthy lifestyles aimed at diabetic patients: review of systematic reviews. (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.16098 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Francisco Jesús Represas Carrera Sr ◽

Ángel Alfredo Martínez Ques Sr ◽

Ana Clavería Fontán Sr

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Diabetes Mellitus ◽

Systematic Reviews ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Control Group ◽

Diabetic Patients ◽

Healthy Lifestyles ◽

Major Public Health Problem

BACKGROUND Diabetes mellitus is currently a major public health problem worldwide. It is traditionally approached in a clinical inpatient relationship between the patient and the healthcare professional. However, the rise of new technologies, particularly mobile applications, is revolutionizing the traditional healthcare model through the introduction of telehealthcare. OBJECTIVE (1) To assess the effects of mobile applications for improving healthy lifestyles on the quality of life and metabolic control of diabetes mellitus in adult patients. (2) To describe the characteristics of the mobile applications used, identify the healthy lifestyles they target, and describe any adverse effects their use may have. METHODS Review of systematic reviews and meta-analysis, following the guidelines of the Cochrane Collaboration and the Joanna Briggs Institute. We included studies that used any mobile application aimed at helping patients improve self-management of diabetes mellitus by focusing on healthy lifestyles. Studies needed to include a control group receiving regular care without the use of mobile devices. In May 2018, a search was conducted in Medline, Embase, Cochrane, LILACS, PsychINFO, Cinahl and Science Direct, updated in May 2019. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Amstar-2 tool. RESULTS Seven systematic reviews of 798 articles were initially selected for analysis. The interventions had a duration of between 1 and 12 months. Mobile applications focused singly or simultaneously on different lifestyles aspects (diet, physical exercise, motivation, blood glucose levels, etc.). There are significant changes in HbA1c values, body weight and BMI, although in others, such as lipid profile, quality of life, or blood pressure, there is no clear improvement. CONCLUSIONS There is clear evidence that the use of mobile applications improves glycemic control in diabetic patients in the short term. There is a lack of evidence in its long-term benefits. It is thus necessary to carry out further studies to learn about the long-term effectiveness of mobile applications aimed at promoting the healthy lifestyles of diabetic patients. CLINICALTRIAL PROSPERO Register: CRD42019133685

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Editorial peer-review for improving the quality of reports of biomedical studies

10.1002/14651858.mr000016 ◽

2001 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

TO Jefferson ◽

P Alderson ◽

F Davidoff ◽

E Wager

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Quality Of Reports

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Acknowledgment to Reviewers of Logistics in 2020

Logistics ◽

10.3390/logistics5010006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 6

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

Driving Force ◽

High Quality

Peer review is the driving force of journal development, and reviewers are gatekeepers who ensure that Logistics maintains its standards for the high quality of its published papers [...]

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