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To what extent the medical device software regulations can be achieved with agile software development methods? XP—DSDM—Scrum
Get PDFFor medical device software development organisations, it is very challenging to maintain both conformance to the strict regulatory requirements enforced by the safety critical nature of the domain and achieve efficiency in software development. Agile software development methods provide promising solutions to overcome the efficiency issues and the challenges of traditional software development approaches in the domain. Previously, we investigated to what extent the regulatory requirements defined in MDevSPICE® (the software process assessment framework for medical device software development) are met through using XP (eXtreme Programming) and Scrum and what additional practices have to be performed to ensure safety and regulatory compliance in the medical device software development domain. In this paper, we extended the research to include the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) which covers the whole software development life cycle. Here, we provide a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of XP’s and DSDM’s suitability for medical device software development and briefly discuss Scrum from the same perspective. We provide the coverage ratios of processes and practices defined in MDevSPICE® when these agile software development methods are implemented
The Role of Domestic Integrated Battery Energy Storage Systems for Electricity Network Performance Enhancement
Get PDFLow carbon technologies are necessary to address global warming issues through electricity decabonisation, but their large-scale integration challenges the stability and security of electricity supply. Energy storage can support this transition by bringing flexibility to the grid but since it represents high capital investments, the right choices must be made in terms of the technology and the location point in the network. Most of the potential for storage is achieved when connected further from the load, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are a strong candidate for behind-the-meter integration. This work reviews and evaluates the state-of-the-art development of BESS, analysing the benefits and barriers to a wider range of applications in the domestic sector. Existing modelling tools that are key for a better assessment of the impacts of BESS to the grid are also reviewed. It is shown that the technology exists and has potential for including Electric Vehicle battery reuse, however it is still mostly applied to optimise domestic photovoltaic electricity utilisation. The barriers to a wider integration are financial, economic, technical, as well as market and regulation. Increased field trials and robust numerical modelling should be the next step to gain investment confidence and allow BESS to reach their potential
Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Stress among Older Adult Nursing Students: The Student Nurse Stressor-15 (SNS-15) Scale
Get PDFAims and objectives
To report the development, testing and validation of an instrument to assess the stressors experienced by student nurses during their older adult clinical placements.
Background
The world's population of older adults is accelerating rapidly, with associated increased healthcare demands and a growing need for skilled nursing staff. However, this sector fails to attract adequate numbers of nursing graduates which is leading to a significant gap between nursing supply and demand. Older adult care is considered to be less attractive than other specialties and accompanied by more sources of stress.
Design
A quantitative design was used.
Methods
Data were collected from a cohort of Irish student nurses (n = 242) completing older adult clinical placements as part of their undergraduate degree. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis examined the instrument's underlying latent structure. Discriminant validity was investigated using a confirmatory factor analysis model with covariates. STROBE guidelines for cross‐sectional studies informed reporting of this paper's research.
Results
Factor analyses identified two factors relating to “Knowledge and Workload” and “Resources,” which were assessed by nine and six items, respectively. Discriminant validity analyses found a significant relationship between age and the workload and knowledge factor, and between year of programme and the resources factor. The new instrument was labelled the Student Nurse Stressor‐15 (SNS‐15) Scale.
Conclusions
The SNS‐15 contained some overlap with stressors from extant general student nurse stress instruments and a number of unique stressors encountered in older adult care. Future research directions are discussed.
Relevance to clinical practice
The SNS‐15 may assist stakeholders in nurse education and practice with the development of undergraduate degree programmes and clinical placements, and ultimately, in improving patient care and student retention
A Serverless Architecture for Wireless Body Area Network Applications
Get PDFWireless body area networks (WBANs) have become popular for providing real-time healthcare monitoring services. WBANs are an important subset of Cyber-physical systems (CPS). As the amount of sensing devices in such healthcare applications is growing rapidly, security, scalability, availability and privacy are a real challenge. Adoption of cloud computing is growing in the healthcare sector because it can provide high scalability while ensuring availability and affordable healthcare monitoring services. Serverless computing brings a new era to the design and deployment of event-driven applications in cloud computing. Serverless computing also helps the developer to build a large application using Function as a Service without thinking about the management and scalability of the infrastructure. The goal of this paper is to propose a dependable serverless architecture for WBAN applications. This architecture will improve the dependability of WBAN applications through ensuring scalability, availability, security and privacy by design, in addition to being cost-effective. This paper presents a detailed price comparison between two leading cloud service providers. Additionally, this paper reports on the findings from a case study which evaluated security, scalability and availability of the proposed architecture. This evaluation was conducted by load testing and rule-based intrusion detection
Automated Model-based Attack Tree Analysis using HiP-HOPS
Get PDFAs Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) grow increasingly complex and interact with external CPS, system security remains a nontrivial challenge that continues to scale accordingly, with potentially devastating consequences if left unchecked. While there is a significant body of work on system security found in industry practice, manual diagnosis of security vulnerabilities is still widely applied. Such approaches are typically resource-intensive, scale poorly and introduce additional risk due to human error. In this paper, a model-based approach for Security Attack Tree analysis using the HiP-HOPS dependability analysis tool is presented. The approach is demonstrated within the context of a simple web-based medical application to automatically generate attack trees, encapsulated as Digital Dependability Identities (DDIs), for offline security analysis. The paper goes on to present how the produced DDIs can be used to approach security maintenance, identifying security capabilities and controls to counter diagnosed vulnerabilities
Supporting older people with multimorbidity: the care burden of home healthcare assistants in Ireland
Get PDFThe treatment burden inherent in self-managing multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity) is recognised, but there has been little examination of the care burden experienced by paid home healthcare assistants (HCAs) who support older people with multimorbidity. Focus groups were conducted with HCAs in Ireland and data were coded using a thematic analysis approach. Care burden of HCAs was linked with lack of knowledge and information, poor communication, insufficient time and resources, gaps in medication support and work-related stress. Strategies are required to reduce the care burden of HCAs, who are essential stakeholders supporting growing numbers of older people with multimorbidity
Environmental drivers of mixotrophs in boreal lakes
Get PDFMixotrophy is increasingly recognized as an important trophic pathway among phytoplankton, yet its underlying drivers remain largely unknown and unexplored. Here, we present a study utilizing 69 lake samplings in boreal Quebec, Canada, identifying variables driving the success of phytoplankton that have a capacity for mixotrophy and pointing to the underlying mechanisms. We found that the success of mixotrophs (% of total biomass) was positively influenced by both colored dissolved organic matter (cDOM) and dissolved CO2 concentration but limited by the abundance of crustacean zooplankton. The effect of cDOM manifested as a consequence of limited autotrophic phytoplankton biomass in lakes with reduced light penetration. We observed a nonlinear (u-shaped) relation between CO2 and mixotrophs, with biomass favored at both low and high CO2 concentrations. A reduced fitness of mixotrophs at near atmospheric CO2 concentrations is likely owing to the costs of rapidly switching between or maintaining multiple trophic strategies. The abundance of zooplankton had a negative effect on mixotroph biomass but a positive effect on autotrophic phytoplankton. We also found that while the community composition of potentially mixotrophic phytoplankton was to some degree likely influenced by zooplankton biomass, composition was unaffected by the CO2 and cDOM gradients. Overall, this study highlights mixotrophy in boreal lake systems as a strategy of persistence, with the maintenance of a moderate but constant presence across a changing gradient of light and trophic conditions. The results of our study support the hypothesis that phytoplankton with a capacity for mixotrophy provide a superior and stable stoichiometric food source for zooplankton, implicating mixotrophs as a vital component of boreal lake food webs
Éistigí - Pictelín Joint Conference 2018. Creative Arts Research Centre, 17 May 2018, Dundalk Institute of Technology. Book of Abstacts.
Get PDFThe cultural and digital media sectors are amongst the most dynamic sectors of a knowledge economy, with the creative origination that underpins the creative media industries affording much potential for experimentation. The twin conferences entitled Éistigí and Picteilín provide a platform for Irish and European academics, postgraduate students, and practitioners to share knowledge and expand the boundaries of research that pivots on culture and arts practice alongside digital and creative media. Hosted by the Creative Arts Research Centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), Éistigí and Picteilín aim to provide a platform for communication between researchers, and ultimately to provide impetus and a common basis for the future of research in Creative Arts, Media and Music. The interchange of research results takes place through keynotes, oral presentations, film screenings and poster sessions. A strength of the twin approach is that it maximises synergies between disciplines. The conferences not only promote multidisciplinary research, by bringing researchers from music, games studies, computing, traditional media and digital media together to talk about issues from each of their perspectives, but it also promotes and reflects on interdisciplinary research. Éistigí and Picteilín 2018 are delighted to also facilitate the launch of Interactive Narratives and Transmedia Storytelling: Creating Immersive Stories by Creative Arts Research Centre member Dr Kelly McErlean
Taxonomy Based Testing and Validation of a new Defect Classification for Health Software
Get PDFDefect-based testing is a powerful tool for finding errors in software. Many software manufacturers
avoid this method because it requires a detailed defect taxonomy that is expensive to
construct and difficult to validate. The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
(AAMI) is developing SW911, a defect taxonomy to be published as a standard for
health software. This paper details three methods to validate SW91 for its comprehensiveness.
The initial validations of SW91 were conducted via mapping vulnerabilities from the Common
Weakness Enumeration and a dataset from a medical device software development company
in Ireland. Taxonomy based testing is another validation method proposed in this research
and its applicability was investigated using empirical data from a medical device software
development company in Ireland. Finally, the paper details future plans to implement
taxonomy based testing to improve software quality in medical device software and to
validate SW91. This validation will focus on the efficiency, reliability, ability to perform useful
analyses and defect coverage of SW91
Studio Trad: Facilitating traditional music experiences for music production students
Get PDFMany music production programmes in higher education institutions are heavily invested in popular music genres and production values in contrast to the diversity of musics often included in other music programmes and encountered in everyday life. Commenting on his 2017 album, Ed Sheeran highlights the potential for incorporating Irish traditional music into popular music. Over the past number of years, creative practice research projects at Dundalk Institute of Technology have provided opportunities for music production students to engage in the recording and production of Irish traditional music, broadening their experience beyond popular music genres and facilitating time for them to work collaboratively with Irish traditional musicians. Thus, an authentic and action-oriented mode of engagement in higher education is utilized to enhance the learning experience continuously aware of changes and attitudes in the music industry. This article focuses on three Summer Undergraduate Research Projects that provided students with the opportunity to research and record Irish traditional music during the summer months. The project not only provided the students with credible industry-like experience, it also provided the staff involved with an insight into the potential of collaborative project work to address multiple learning aims and objectives. In this article, a critical review of the projects is informed by feedback from the students involved, which can inform future development and structures of existing programmes in music production education