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The objective of this research was to determine the capability of design patterns to find usability issues in mobile groupware interfaces. A particular collection of patterns was used for this purpose. Patterns were obtained by identifying essential activities and collaborative tasks in the communication process among members of working groups. A previous study on said proposal suggested that design solutions offered by the patterns foster communication, collaboration, and coordination through user interface elements. This new analysis evaluated virtues of the proposal from a user interface-assessment perspective. For this purpose 6 experts on design, usability, HCI and UCD validated the heuristics, which were then applied by 12 members of an educational support group called USAER. Results suggested that proposed heuristics could provide a reliable perspective of the usability level of mobile user interfaces for groupware applications.

The software engineering discipline has developed the concept of software process to guide development teams towards a high-quality end product to be delivered on-time and within the planned budget. Consequently,several software-systems development life-cycles (PM-SDLCs) have been theoretically formulated and empirically tested over the years. In this chapter, a conceptual research methodology is used to review the state of the art on the main PM-SDLCs formulated for software-intensive systems, with the aim to answer the following research questions: (a) What are the main characteristics that describe the PM-SDLCs?, (b) What are the common and unique characteristics of such PM-SDLCs?, and (c) What are the main benefits and limitations of PM-SDLCs from a viewpoint of a conceptual analysis? This research is motivated by a gap in the literature on comprehensive studies that describe and compare the main PMSDLCs and organizes a view of the large variety of PM-SDLCs.

Nephrocalcinosis refers to calcium deposition in the form of calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate in the renal parenchyma and tubules. After diagnosis, the cause of nephrocalcinosis must be established to carry out a comprehensive approach to this entity. Although this is a common finding, it can be underdiagnosed due to the lack of knowledge of the different presentation patterns that exist. Many causes have been described related to this disease.A pictorial review about the most common features of cortical and medullary nephrocalcinosis both in ultrasound and CT is presented in the present work as well as a review of its main causes and graphics to easily recognize each pattern.

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