On the Temporality of Introducing Code Technical Debt

Code Technical Debt (TD) is intentionally or unintentionally created when developers introduce inefficiencies in the codebase. This can be attributed to various reasons such as heavy work-load, tight delivery schedule, unawareness of good practices, etc. To shed light into the context that leads to technical debt accumulation, in this paper we investigate: (a) the temporality of code technical debt introduction in new methods, i.e., whether the introduction of technical debt is stable across the lifespan of the project, or if its evolution presents spikes; and (b) the relation of technical debt introduction and the development team’s workload in a given period. To answer these questions, we perform a case study on twenty-seven Apache projects, and inspect the number of Technical Debt Items introduced in 6-month sliding temporal windows. The results of the study suggest that: (a) overall, the number of Technical Debt Items introduced through new code is a stable metric, although it presents some spikes; and (b) the number of commits performed is not strongly correlated to the number of introduced Technical Debt Items

The implementation of palliative care in Greece: a position paper by the Palliative Care Working Group of the Hellenic society of Medical Oncology (HeSMO)

The global burden of cancer continues to rise, with projections indicating a 47% increase in new cases by 2040. The integration of oncology and palliative care has emerged as a vital approach to address the complex needs of cancer patients. This position paper, endorsed by the Palliative Care Working Group of the Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology (HeSMO), emphasizes the significance of early integration of palliative care with cancer-directed therapies. It highlights the benefits of this approach, including improved quality of life, symptom control, emotional well-being, and enhanced survival rates for patients. The paper also addresses the challenges of palliative care provision in Greece and advocates for comprehensive education for health-care professionals, especially oncologists and nurses, to effectively manage palliative care needs. The importance of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), survivorship care plans (SCPs), home-based palliative care, and end-of-life care discussions is underscored. By aligning with international guidelines and recommendations, HeSMO strives to establish a supportive health-care system in Greece that offers equitable access to high-quality palliative care for all cancer patients, thus ensuring their well-being throughout their cancer journey

Overview of the first Wendelstein 7-X long pulse campaign with fully water-cooled plasma facing components

After a long device enhancement phase, scientific operation resumed in 2022. The main new device components are the water cooling of all plasma facing components and the new water-cooled high heat flux divertor units. Water cooling allowed for the first long-pulse operation campaign. A maximum discharge length of 8 min was achieved with a total heating energy of 1.3 GJ. Safe divertor operation was demonstrated in attached and detached mode. Stable detachment is readily achieved in some magnetic configurations but requires impurity seeding in configurations with small magnetic pitch angle within the edge islands. Progress was made in the characterization of transport mechanisms across edge magnetic islands: Measurement of the potential distribution and flow pattern reveals that the islands are associated with a strong poloidal drift, which leads to rapid convection of energy and particles from the last closed flux surface into the scrape-off layer. Using the upgraded plasma heating systems, advanced heating scenarios were developed, which provide improved energy confinement comparable to the scenario, in which the record triple product for stellarators was achieved in the previous operation campaign. However, a magnetic configuration-dependent critical heating power limit of the electron cyclotron resonance heating was observed. Exceeding the respective power limit leads to a degradation of the confinement

Overview of the first Wendelstein 7-X long pulse campaign with fully water-cooled plasma facing components

after a long device enhancement phase, scientific operation resumed in 2022. The main new device components are the water cooling of all plasma facing components and the new water-cooled high heat flux divertor units. Water cooling allowed for the first long-pulse operation campaign. A maximum discharge length of 8 min was achieved with a total heating energy of 1.3 GJ. Safe divertor operation was demonstrated in attached and detached mode. Stable detachment is readily achieved in some magnetic configurations but requires impurity seeding in configurations with small magnetic pitch angle within the edge islands. Progress was made in the characterization of transport mechanisms across edge magnetic islands: Measurement of the potential distribution and flow pattern reveals that the islands are associated with a strong poloidal drift, which leads to rapid convection of energy and particles from the last closed flux surface into the scrape-off layer. Using the upgraded plasma heating systems, advanced heating scenarios were developed, which provide improved energy confinement comparable to the scenario, in which the record triple product for stellarators was achieved in the previous operation campaign. However, a magnetic configuration-dependent critical heating power limit of the electron cyclotron resonance heating was observed. Exceeding the respective power limit leads to a degradation of the confinement

Measurements of radial neutral density profiles from Balmer-α emission in Wendelstein 7-X

Radial neutral density profiles are estimated from measurements of passive Hα emission in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator. To parametrize the generally three-dimensional distribution with a low number of degrees of freedom, the neutral density is reduced to a flux surface quantity. Accounting for emission from excitation and recombination processes, neutral density profiles are derived independently for each of the available lines of sight. Density profiles obtained from the different viewing geometries are found to vary within one order of magnitude. Toroidally oriented lines of sight predict systematically lower neutral densities when compared to poloidally oriented ones. This discrepancy is attributed to the simplifications inherent in the imposed model and significant differences in integration volumes across the viewing geometries. In line with expectations, obtained neutral densities are found to decrease with increasing plasma density. Key restrictions of the model include the reduction of the neutral density to a flux surface quantity, uncertainties in the plasma profiles and instrument function, and line integration effects outside the last closed flux surface

Factors associated with anxiety and depression in cancer patients: Demographic factors and the role of demoralization and satisfaction with care

Objective: Anxiety and depression are common in cancer patients and seem to affect quality of life, treatment compliance and even survival. Defining factors related to anxiety and depression and exploring the role of demoralization and satisfaction with care, could contribute to the improvement of patients' quality of life and quality of health services as well. Methods: A convenience sample of 150 cancer inpatients and outpatients from two oncology centers, with various types of solid tumors, participated in a prospective cross-sectional observational study. The psychometric tools used were the Greek versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, FAMCARE-Patient Scale and Oncology Palliative Care (FAMCARESCALE) and Demoralization Scale (DEMORALIZATION SCALE II, DS-II). Results: Patients mean age was 62 years (20–85 years) and 89 patients (59.3%) were women. Among patients, 33% had breast, 24% gastrointestinal and 15% lung cancer. Eighty-two patients (54.7%) had metastatic disease. Women showed higher rates of anxiety (p = 0.054). Anxiety was inversely related to age (p = 0.043) and positively correlated with time since diagnosis (p = 0.076). Unmarried patients presented with higher rates of depression (p = 0.026). Multiple linear regression showed a statistically significant impact of Demoralization factor ‘Meaning and Purpose’ on anxiety (p < 0.001, R2 = 36.3%) and depression (p < 0.001, R2 = 49%). Moreover, higher educational level (p = 0.038, R2 = 3.1%) is related to higher levels of anxiety and higher scores of FAMCARESCALE factor-Information/interaction with the health care professionals, is related to lower levels of depression (p = 0.008, R2 = 2.7%). Conclusions: The results highlight the significant impact of demoralization on anxiety and depression in cancer patients. Early recognition of demoralization and early referral to mental health professionals will hopefully alleviate the mental burden of cancer patients. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Change impact analysis: A systematic mapping study

Change Impact Analysis (CIA) is the process of exploring the tentative effects of a change in other parts of a system. CIA is considered beneficial in practice, since it reduces cost of maintenance and the risk of software development failures. In this paper, we present a systematic mapping study that covers a plethora of CIA methods (by exploring 111 papers), putting special emphasis on how the CIA phenomenon can be quantified: to be efficiently managed. The results of our study suggest that: (a) the practical benefits of CIA cover any type of maintenance request (e.g., feature additions, bug fixing) and can help in reducing relevant cost; (b) CIA quantification relies on four parameters (instability, amount of change, change proneness, and changeability), whose assessment is supported by various metrics and predictors; and (c) in this vast research field, there are still some viewpoints that remain unexplored (e.g., the negative consequences of highly change prone artifacts), whereas others are over-researched (e.g., quantification of instability based on metrics). Based on our results, we provide: (a) useful information for practitioners—i.e., the expected benefits of CIA, and a list of CIA-related metrics, emphasizing on the provision of a detailed interpretation of their relation to CIA; and (b) interesting future research directions—i.e., over- and under-researched sub-fields of CIA. © 2020 Elsevier Inc

A Rare Case of Primary Carcinosarcoma of the Breast

Breast carcinosarcoma is a rare malignancy accounting for approximately 0.08-0.2% of all breast tumours. It is a type of metaplastic mammary carcinoma displaying biphasic differentiation with epithelial and mesenchymal cellular characteristics with probable derivation from myoepithelial cells. A 65-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a two-month history of a rapidly growing mass in her left breast. Neither her medical nor family history was positive for malignancies. Subsequently, she underwent a fine needle aspiration, which was positive for adenocarcinoma, followed by a lumpectomy with axillary lymph node dissection. The histology revealed an undifferentiated neoplasm and the immunohistochemical cell staining was positive for pan-cytokeratin, SMA, Vimentin, and S-100, suggesting the diagnosis of breast carcinosarcoma with a triple-negative immunophenotype. There was no evidence of metastasis except for a positive lymph node, indicating a stage IIIA disease. Thus, she received adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy. However, 16 months later, she presented with metastatic disease, and unfortunately, she died 4 months later due to a systemic infection. Aggressive behavior, higher staging, chemoresistance, and higher proportion of triple negative breast cancer seem to be the main characteristics of breast carcinosarcoma, which is recognised as a separate entity from common invasive ductal carcinoma, with significantly worse clinical outcomes. © 2023 Maria Kiakou et al., published by Sciendo 2023

The implementation of palliative care in Greece: a position paper by the Palliative Care Working Group of the Hellenic society of Medical Oncology (HeSMO)

The global burden of cancer continues to rise, with projections indicating a 47% increase in new cases by 2040. The integration of oncology and palliative care has emerged as a vital approach to address the complex needs of cancer patients. This position paper, endorsed by the Palliative Care Working Group of the Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology (HeSMO), emphasizes the significance of early integration of palliative care with cancer-directed therapies. It highlights the benefits of this approach, including improved quality of life, symptom control, emotional well-being, and enhanced survival rates for patients. The paper also addresses the challenges of palliative care provision in Greece and advocates for comprehensive education for health-care professionals, especially oncologists and nurses, to effectively manage palliative care needs. The importance of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), survivorship care plans (SCPs), home-based palliative care, and end-of-life care discussions is underscored. By aligning with international guidelines and recommendations, HeSMO strives to establish a supportive health-care system in Greece that offers equitable access to high-quality palliative care for all cancer patients, thus ensuring their well-being throughout their cancer journey

Reusability Index: A Measure for Assessing Software Assets Reusability

© 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature. The reusability of assets is usually measured through reusability indices. However, these indices either do not synthesize their constituent metrics into an aggregate or they do not capture all facets of reusability, such as structural characteristics, external qualities, and their documentation. To alleviate these shortcomings, we introduce a reusability index (REI) as a synthesis of various software metrics that cover a number of related reusability aspects. Furthermore, we evaluate its ability to quantify reuse, by comparing it to existing indices through a case study on 15 reusable open-source assets (i.e., libraries and frameworks). The results of the study suggest that the proposed index presents the highest predictive and discriminative power, it is the most consistent in ranking reusable assets, and the most strongly correlated to their levels of reuse