Software development processes are fundamentally based on efficient and effective communication. Communication between engineers, between engineers and managers, and between teams and clients are all essential components of a successful project. Requirements must be effectively transferred from client to engineer, specifications must be transitioned from architect to engineer, and constant communication between project team members, managers, and clients throughout the project life cycle is critical to the success of projects of any complexity. To succeed in a world where technologies, requirements, ideas, tools, and timelines are constantly changing, information must be accurate, readily available, easily found, and ideally delivered constantly, in real-time, to all team members. To meet these challenges, modern software development has evolved to encompass key concepts of adaptability to change and data-driven project management. A recent movement dubbed DevOps has attempted to use automated systems to bridge the information gap between project team entities and to enforce rigorous processes to ensure real-time communications.In this paper, the authors frame this challenge as a communications problem that can be addressed by the introduction of specifically designed autonomous system actors and processes. Successful implementation of such a methodology will enable efficient, effective, and immediate data collection, synthesis, and transfer of information between all requisite entities within the software project. A generalized model of DevOps will be presented and analyzed, offering a formalization of the communications and actors requisite to any effective software development process. These concepts will be further developed to illustrate the information flow between human and system actors, and explore how this model can be used to optimize the processes of a software development team to maximize productivity and quality of work products.

SUMMARYObjective The amygdalae have been a focus of mood disorder research due to their key role in processing emotional information. It has been long known that depressed individuals demonstrate impaired functional performance while engaged in emotional tasks. The structural basis for these functional differences has been investigated via volumetric analysis with mixed findings. In this study, we examined the morphometric basis for these functional changes in late-life depression (LLD) by analyzing both the size and shape of the amygdalae with the hypothesis that shape differences may be apparent even when overall volume differences are inconsistent. Methods Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 11 healthy, elderly individuals and 14 depressed, elderly individuals. Amygdalar size was quantified by computing total volume and amygdalar shape was quantified with a shape analysis method that we have developed.Results No significant volumetric differences were found for either amygdala. Nevertheless, localized regions of significant shape variation were detected for the left and right amygdalae. The most significant difference was contraction (LLD subjects as compared to control subjects) in a region typically associated with the basolateral nucleus, which plays a key role in emotion recognition in neurobiologic models of depression. Conclusions In this LLD study, we have shown that, despite insignificant amygdalar volumetric findings, variations of amygdalar shape can be detected and localized. With further investigation, morphometric analysis of various brain structures may help elucidate the neurobiology associated with LLD and other mood disorders.

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The Virtual Training Environment (VTE, https://www.vte.cert.org) is an online education and training system developed by the Immersive Learning Technologies group at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. VTE offers asynchronous, remote training in cyber-security, information technology, digital forensics, and other technical areas to over 30,000 users, primarily within the Department of Defense (DoD) and various branches of the United States Federal Civilian Agencies. A key aspect of the comprehensive training suite offered by VTE is an on-demand virtual lab system, featuring automated delivery of complex virtual lab environments to users through a standard web browser, with no additional client-side software installation required. VTE is able to deliver training environments 24 hours a day to users in remote locations, operating within various levels of network security. In addition to a virtual lab system that is uniformly accessible to student users, VTE provides a virtual lab authoring system with the same ease of use, delivering powerful virtual lab development tools through an accessible interface to domain experts and educators, eliminating the need for expertise in proprietary virtualization technologies. This paper will present the design and function of the VTE virtual lab system, including both student and lab author user experience descriptions.