RESUMO
As software engineering (SE) practitioners, we can help society by using our communities of experts to address a software need of a socially conscious organization. Doing so can benefit society in the locale of a SE conference and provide access to international experts for local organizations. Furthermore, established SE researchers as well as practitioners and students have the opportunity for a unique learning experience. While the SE community has already realized the importance of addressing human values and promoting social good objectives in software development, we are unaware of previous attempts to leverage SE conferences for this activity. Conferences present an opportunity to enjoy the assembly of SE practitioners, researchers, and students for the purpose of a philanthropic endeavor. Over the past four years of running a "Requirements Engineering for Social Good" event called RE Cares, co-located with the International Conference on Requirements Engineering, we worked with the stakeholders local to the conference venue. We selected stakeholders who would not necessarily have ready access to requirements engineering, software design, and development expertise otherwise, to build software targeting "good causes." In the last two years, this event was altered to adapt to the constraints induced by COVID-19, moving to a hybrid mode and changing many of its practices accordingly. This paper summarizes and generalizes our experiences, discussing our lessons learned in the context of the pandemic and beyond and providing a framework for conducting similar social contribution in any SE conferences in general.
RESUMO
Recent research shows that people usually try to avoid exerting cognitive effort yet they are willing to exert effort to gain rewards. This cost-benefit framework provides predictions for behaviour outside the laboratory. Nevertheless, the extent to which such considerations affect real-life decisions is not clear. Here we experimentally examined computer-programmers' decisions to write code in a reusable manner, using functions, which demands an initial investment of cognitive effort or to clone and tweak code, a strategy whose cost increases with repetitions. Only a small portion of our participants demonstrated sensitivity to the benefits and costs of programming strategies. When asked to solve the tasks, participants tended to avoid using functions, demonstrating biased effort estimation. By contrast, when asked how they planned to solve the tasks, participants tended to demonstrate an opposite trend, overestimating effort, in line with an injunctive norm involving the overuse of functions. In the context of real-world problems, the effect of cost-benefit considerations may therefore be limited by task-irrelevant factors. Our interdisciplinary approach may be useful in providing novel theoretical insights and in promoting cognitive-effort investments outside the laboratory.
RESUMO
Conjunctival biopsy specimens from the right eye of a 66-year-old woman who had a 10-year history of an irritated and swollen right upper eyelid were diagnosed as diffuse intraepithelial neoplasia with sebaceous features. The treatment consisted of two courses, 2 weeks apart, of 0.02% mitomycin C eye drops. Biopsies performed after completion the second course showed no evidence of neoplastic involvement. Severe trichiasis that developed after the biopsies was managed surgically. Today, 46 months after completion of mitomycin C treatment, the conjunctiva shows no inflammation, the eyelid is not swollen or irritated, and there is no clinical indication of recurrence. This case report demonstrates that conjunctival diffuse intraepithelial neoplasia of the conjunctiva with sebaceous features can be successfully treated by treatment with mitomycin C drops.