| 1. |
- Larsson, Pär, et al.
(författare)
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The complete genome sequence of Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia
- 2005
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 37:2, s. 153-159
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Francisella tularensis is one of the most infectious human pathogens known. In the past, both the former Soviet Union and the US had programs to develop weapons containing the bacterium. We report the complete genome sequence of a highly virulent isolate of F. tularensis (1,892,819 bp). The sequence uncovers previously uncharacterized genes encoding type IV pili, a surface polysaccharide and iron-acquisition systems. Several virulence-associated genes were located in a putative pathogenicity island, which was duplicated in the genome. More than 10% of the putative coding sequences contained insertion-deletion or substitution mutations and seemed to be deteriorating. The genome is rich in IS elements, including IS630 Tc-1 mariner family transposons, which are not expected in a prokaryote. We used a computational method for predicting metabolic pathways and found an unexpectedly high proportion of disrupted pathways, explaining the fastidious nutritional requirements of the bacterium. The loss of biosynthetic pathways indicates that F. tularensis is an obligate host-dependent bacterium in its natural life cycle. Our results have implications for our understanding of how highly virulent human pathogens evolve and will expedite strategies to combat them.
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| 2. |
- Alvesson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Qualitative Interview
- 2008
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Ingår i: International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies. - 1412956242 ; , s. 1342-1344
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Introducing Support for Release Planning of Quality Requirements - An Industrial Evaluation of the QUPER Model
- 2008
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Ingår i: Second International Workshop on Software Product Management, 2008. IWSPM '08.. - 9781424440832 ; , s. 20-28
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In market-driven product development and release planning, it is important to market success to find the right balance among competing quality requirements. To address this issue, a conceptual model that incorporates quality as a dimension in addition to the cost and value dimensions used in prioritisation approaches for functional requirements has been developed. In this paper, we present an industrial evaluation of the model. The results indicate that the quality performance model provides helpful information about quality requirements in release planning. All subjects stated that the most difficult estimations may be more accurate by using the quality performance model.
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| 4. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard
(författare)
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Managing quality requirements in software product development
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Software product development companies experience different challenges in managing quality requirements compared to functional requirements. In this context, quality requirements are defined as requirements that describe a restriction on the system, and specify how well the system performs its functions. In a market–driven development context with large markets, potential customers, and strong competitors push the software product development companies to release the software product to a certain market segment at the right time with higher level of quality than the competitors. This thesis focuses on techniques and methods that support software product development companies that release their product to an open market. The goals are to find means to improve the ability to make early estimates of quality requirements with adequate accuracy, such as performance, in order to enhance high–level decision–making. This thesis is based on empirical research, including both quantitative and qualitative research design. The research results include a systematic literature review of empirical studies on quality requirements, which presents the state of research. The results show that there is a gap in the research literature of how cost estimation of quality requirements is conducted. How quality requirements are handled in practice is discovered and described in a survey in requirements engineering for embedded systems. From the survey, issues emerge such as when the quality level is good enough, and how to get quality requirements into projects when functional requirements are prioritized. A case study within the embedded software domain investigates how quality requirements metrics are used in an industrial context, which concludes that for a method to be successful, it is important that it is flexible enough to handle the diverse nature of quality requirements. Finally, a model for cost–benefit analysis of quality requirements, called QUPER, was set into operation in a case study. The intent was to evaluate and improve the model for supporting requirements prioritization and quality requirements roadmapping at early stages of release planning.
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| 5. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Quality requirements in practice: an interview study in requirements engineering for embedded systems
- 2009
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. - 1611-3349 .- 0302-9743. ; 5512, s. 218-232
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- [Context and motivation] In market-driven software development it is crucial, but challenging, to find the right balance among competing quality requirements (QR). [Problem] In order to identify the unique challenges associated with the selection, trade-off, and management of quality requirements an interview study is performed. [Results] This paper describes how QR are handled in practice. Data is collected through interviews with five product managers and five project leaders from five software companies. [Contribution] The contribution of this study is threefold: Firstly, it includes an examination of the interdependencies among quality requirements perceived as most important by the practitioners. Secondly, it compares the perceptions and priorities of quality requirements by product management and project management respectively. Thirdly, it characterizes the selection and management of quality requirements in down-stream development activities.
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| 6. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard
(författare)
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Quality Requirements: Trade-off Analysis of Benefit and Cost
- 2009
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Ingår i: ARWE 2009 : Proceedings of the 12th Australian Workshop on Requirements Engineering.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Would slightly better performance be significantly more valuable from a market perspective? Would significantly better performance be just slightly more expensive to implement? When dealing with quality requirements, we often end up in a difficult trade-off analysis. Aspects such as release targets, end-user experience, and business opportunities must be taken into consideration. But when is the quality level good enough? Berntsson Svensson et al. [1], pointed out that a major challenge by practitioners in industry is deciding when a certain quality level is good enough. Should the performance be two seconds, 1.5 seconds or even one second? To support release planning and roadmapping of quality requirements, we have developed the quality performance (QUPER) model [2, 4, 5]. The development of QUPER was carried out at two case companies in the mobile handset domain with a supplier-integrator relationship [5]. To apply QUPER in practice, the generic guidelines in Regnell et al. [4] were developed in cooperation between industry and academia. Moreover, the tailoring and evaluation of QUPER [2] were carried out by the researchers together with practitioners at the case company using an action research [6] approach.
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| 7. |
- Berntsson Svensson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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The Application of Geographical Information Systems to Multinational Finance Corporations
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Business and Systems Research. - 1751-200X. ; 3:4, s. 437-455
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Geographical information systems (GIS) aim to help decision-makers to relate different types of data in a spatial context and to reach conclusions about these relationships. This research examines the potential areas that a GIS could be applied within multinational finance corporations. The results highlight the importance of combining the financial aspects of the multinational with its operational functions. Furthermore, the results show that the ability of the GIS to model financial information, as well as the ability of the GIS to integrate with other systems while maintaining data integrity were the two most preferred GIS design features.
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| 8. |
- Egorova, Evgenia, et al.
(författare)
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Stakeholders’ Perception of Success: an Empirical Investigation
- 2009
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Ingår i: SEAA '09. 35th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, 2009.. - Patras, Greece : Euromicro. - 1089-6503. - 9780769537849 ; , s. 210-216
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Different stakeholders involved in the software development may attribute success to different indicators. Analogously they may support different factors considered the root of successful projects. The study presented in this paper explores how different stakeholders perceive project success and what they deem the effect of specific factors on the project outcome. The study highlighted both commonalities and differences among three main stakeholder classes. A substantial agreement was observed concerning the characteristics that make a project or product successful. As far as the factors that could lead to success are concerned, more bias emerged.
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| 9. |
- Forslund, Anna-Lena, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Direct repeat-mediated deletion of a type IV pilin gene results in major virulence attenuation of Francisella tularensis
- 2006
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Ingår i: Molecular Microbiology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0950-382X .- 1365-2958. ; 59:6, s. 1818-1830
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularaemia, is a highly infectious and virulent intracellular pathogen. There are two main human pathogenic subspecies, Francisella tularensis ssp. tularensis (type A), and Francisella tularensis ssp. holarctica (type B). So far, knowledge regarding key virulence determinants is limited but it is clear that intracellular survival and multiplication is one major virulence strategy of Francisella. In addition, genome sequencing has revealed the presence of genes encoding type IV pili (Tfp). One genomic region encoding three proteins with signatures typical for type IV pilins contained two 120 bp direct repeats. Here we establish that repeat-mediated loss of one of the putative pilin genes in a type B strain results in severe virulence attenuation in mice infected by subcutaneous route. Complementation of the mutant by introduction of the pilin gene in cis resulted in complete restoration of virulence. The level of attenuation was similar to that of the live vaccine strain and this strain was also found to lack the pilin gene as result of a similar deletion event mediated by the direct repeats. Presence of the pilin had no major effect on the ability to interact, survive and multiply inside macrophage-like cell lines. Importantly, the pilin-negative strain was impaired in its ability to spread from the initial site of infection to the spleen. Our findings indicate that this putative pilin is critical for Francisella infections that occur via peripheral routes.
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| 10. |
- Frobell, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Self-reported activity level and knee function in amateur football players: the influence of age, gender, history of knee injury and level of competition.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1433-7347 .- 0942-2056. ; 16, s. 713-719
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to investigate if self-reported activity level or knee functions are influenced by subject characteristics, level of competition and history of knee injury. Cross-Sectional study using questionnaires distributed at a personal visit. One hundred and eighty-eight (65 women) amateur football players in 10 football clubs from each division below national level participated in the study. Self-reported Tegner Activity Scale, and the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) are the main outcome measures. Older age, female gender and lower level of competition (football division) were independently associated with lower self-reported Tegner Activity Scale (P < 0.001). Subjects reporting history of knee injury had significantly worse KOOS scores (P < 0.001 for all subscales). In future studies, a clear description of how the Tegner Activity Scale was administered is recommended. We suggest that self-reported Tegner Activity Scale scores should be adjusted for age, gender and level of competition. In amateur football players, KOOS scores do not need adjustment for age and gender.
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