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Published studies on agile effort estimation predominantly focus on comparisons of the accuracy of different estimation methods, while efficiency comparisons, i.e. how much time the estimation methods consume was not in the forefront. However, for practical use in software development, the time required can be a very important cost factor for enterprises, especially when the accuracy of different agile effort estimations is similar. In this study, we thus try to advance the current standard accuracy comparison between methods by introducing efficiency, i.e. time it takes to use a method as an additional dimension of comparison. We conduct this comparison between three agile effort estimation methods that were not yet compared in the literature, namely, Planning Poker, Bucket System and Affinity Estimation. For the comparison, we used eight student teams with 29 students who had to use all the effort estimation methods during the course where they had to finish a programming project in 3 weeks. The results indicate that after the students get used to using the different methods the accuracy between them is not statistically significantly different, however, the efficiency is. On average, Bucket System and Affinity Estimation methods take half as much time as Planning Poker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Electrotechnical Review / Elektrotehniski Vestnik is the property of Electrotechnical Society of Slovenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The influence of several meteorological parameters on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) incidences with immediately and/or delayed effects has been widely reported. It remains unknown whether the individual AMI subtypes reveal similar patterns. To date, generally seasonal variation in ST elevation MI (STEMI) has been investigated. However, these approaches couldn’t detect the effects of changes in multiple meteorological variables on STEMI incidence within a specific season. Therefore, the aim of our study is to explore immediate, delayed and cumulative effects of average daily temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity on nation-wide STEMI hospital admissions. We linked daily hospitals’ STEMI admission data with meteorological stations’ data according to the patient’s permanent residence. Subsequently, a multivariate analysis based on a main effect generalised linear model, assuming a log-link function with a Poisson distribution, was conducted. With the help of lags, we were able to analyse delayed effects, while the cumulative effects of specific meteorological variables were analysed utilising time windows. As a result, we confirmed immediate and delayed negative effect of low temperature and low relative humidity for all observed lags as well as cumulative average effects of low temperature and low relative humidity for all observed time windows. However, no delayed, single-day effect for atmospheric pressure was detected. Nevertheless, the cumulative average effect was confirmed in all time windows suggesting that prolonged low pressure influences the incidence of STEMI. A novelty of our approach is the comparative examination of immediate, delayed and cumulative effect of specific meteorological variables on the incidence of STEMI. This approach enables us to gain a new insight into the phenomenon studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The evaluation of e-learning and conventional pedagogical activities in nursing programmes has focused either on a single pedagogical activity or the entire curriculum, and only on students’ or teachers’ perspective. The goal of this study was to design and test a novel approach for evaluation of e-learning and conventional pedagogical activities that considers students’, teachers’ and managers’ perspectives. A case study of the proposed approach was performed at a publicly funded nursing faculty with Slovenian and Italian students from 2009 to 2012. The case study was combined with focus group discussions, interviews, direct observation and survey. The proposed approach allows management to compare the value of different pedagogical activities through the students’, teachers’ and managers’ perspectives. The approach proved useful in the evaluation of pedagogical activities and provided valid arguments for long-term pedagogical process improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]