Guideline for the Selection of Requirement Prioritization Techniques in Agile Software Development: An Empirical Research

Prioritization is an essential process in any software development. Moreover in Agile, Requirement Prioritization (RP) needs more formal process because it is difficult to maintain priority after requirement change. Changes in the priority list are a continuous process in Agile Software Development (ASD) hence, the ignorance of critical requirements during prioritization will result several problems like unsatisfied client and poor quality of product. Moreover, there is little empirical knowledge on the state of the practice and contemporary problems exist in choosing best prioritization technique after the requirement change in Agile. To achieve this objective a guideline for the selection of RP technique is needed. Hence, the empirical research is used as a methodology for the evaluation of the requirement prioritization techniques practiced in Agile. The aim of this study is to determine RP techniques used in software industry and identify aspect or evaluation criteria to choose the best RP technique according to the environment. This study conducts an empirical study of requirement prioritization after requirement change in Agile, based on the responses from 137 Agile software practitioner representing around 31 organizations in Pakistan. The results reveal the main decision makers in the process of RP, prioritization technique after requirement change in Agile with the evaluation criteria and aspects to perform requirement prioritization. These findings will serve as a foundation to provide a guideline for selecting suitable requirement prioritization techniques in Agile which can help software practitioners to choose appropriate prioritization techniques during the process of requirement change in Agile.

A Random Projection Approach to Strengthen the Privacy Level of Medical Images

All our day’s work in this world of science is done with useful data. These useful data or information is extracted from raw facts. From the information, knowledge is gained. This knowledge is used by the customers for beneficial outcome. Here comes the concept of data mining. An important query arises as how to preserve these data. This concept is called as Privacy Preserving with Data Mining (PPDM). Many PPDM techniques are available to protect the data. The PPDM technique is useful in fields like medicine, forensics, defence, etc to preserve the confidential data. The existing techniques protect the secret data either by perturbing or by hiding them. Moreover, most of the techniques focus only on the numerical data. Very few perturbation techniques like translation, multiplicative and rotation perturb the images. But these techniques are very easily attacked by third parties since the transformation is a linear one. The Research Work aims to overcome the drawbacks of the existing perturbation techniques. The main objective of the Research Work is to improve the privacy level of the images by implementing a Random Projection (RP) technique. The remarkable features and benefits of the RP technique are pinpointed.

Towards Benefiting Both Cloud Users and Service Providers Through Resource Provisioning

Cloud users expect high Quality of service (QoS) levels within their budget and the cloud service providers (CSPs) to maximize their profits, always strive for the cost and energy minimization and better resource utilization. Any error in the management of resources causes Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations, high penalties, low customer satisfaction, and long-term losses. The objective of this article is to present a literature review on various resource provisioning strategies and also to present a novel cluster-based resource provisioning (CB-RP) technique that satisfies the needs of both cloud users and CSP. CB-RP employs a heart algorithm to cluster the arriving requests based on its characteristics. The CB-RP technique aims to analyze the requests and provision the resources according to the request category. Simulation results show that our technique produces significant improvements in terms of cost savings, resource utilization and turnaround time compared with state of art technique.

Uses of the Sphere as a Motherfied Object in Bioenergetic Analysis

In this article we are going to present a «Biospheres” practice. It evolved as a result of integrating our formative experiences in Bioenergetics Analysis with the «Dynamic Sphere Postural Reorganization” (Esferodinamia Reorganización Postural, which will be referred to as «RP” technique). We describe the sphere (large rubber ball) qualities and how it can be helpful for body psychotherapy interventions. Finally, we look into two cases using this clinical tool. The sphere becomes an element that facilitates clinical and educational work in the contemporary Bioenergetic field.

Study on Utilizing Rapid Prototyping Technology to Build Oral and Maxillofacial Models

Traditional dental impression approach is not applicable to most of the oral and craniofacial trauma patients. Without a physical model, it is not easy to evaluate a patients fracture and occlusion, limiting the treatment process. Especially, the accuracy of the maxillofacial model for occlusion evaluation needs to meet strict clinical demands. Therefore, in this research, we attempted to use computed tomography (CT), without damaging the oral and craniofacial tissues of patients, together with image processing and Rapid Prototyping (RP) technique to obtain physical oral and maxillofacial models with high accuracy. Initially, a set of procedures of generating maxillofacial model was developed. CT images were segmented and converted to a CAD file by a commercial medical image processing software. RP technique was used to fabricate maxillofacial model. After comparison, the deviations were greater than clinical demands of less than 1 mm. After analyzing the sources of errors, issues of CT slice thickness, images threshold selection and editing, and RP fabrication were investigated to improve the accuracy. As a result, updated standard procedures were suggested to obtain RP maxillofacial models with higher accuracy. The improved average deviation can be reduced to 0.22 mm. The biological RP models with high accuracy generated in this research can be used to improve success rate and safety in a surgery, to reduce complications after the surgery, and to decrease the time and cost of treatment.

Development of SVM rapid prototyping for scaffold fabrication

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce selective vacuum manufacturing (SVM), a powder-based rapid prototyping (RP) technique, and the ongoing development to improve its capability to apply in temporary scaffold fabrication. Design/methodology/approach – SVM employs a combination of sand casting and powder sintering process to construct a prototype layer by layer. A dense layer of support material is prepared and selectively removed to create a cavity where part material is filled and sintered to form a solid layer. In order for SVM to be considered for scaffold fabrication, besides preparing poly-lactic acid (PLA) for part material, support material preparation and process parameters identification have been studied. Redesigning of SVM machine to be more suitable for the real usage has also been presented. Findings – Particle size of salt has been controlled, and its suitable composition with flour and water has been determined. Process parameters have been identified to scale down the size of scaffolds to meso-scale and to achieve mechanical requirement. Properties of fabricated scaffolds have been enhanced and can be used for soft tissue applications. A prototype of the medical SVM machine has been constructed and tested. An examination of scaffolds fabricated on this new machine also showed their qualification for soft tissue application. Research limitations/implications – Further study will be on conducting a direct cytotoxicity test to provide the evidence for tissue growth before the clinical usage, on continuing to scaling down the scaffold size, and on improving SVM to meet the requirement of hard tissue. Originality/value – This simple, inexpensive RP technique demonstrates its viability for scaffold fabrication.