Unique Properties of Money Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unique Properties of Money - Case Study Example Pouches of mackerel acted as money in prisons after cigarettes were banned by the prison authorities Pouches of mackerel were easily transferable from one place to another meaning they were portable. Cans were banned by wardens as a means of exchange, so prisoners turned to plastic pouches of mackerel. These were easily transferable around prison walls. Just like ideal money, the pouches of mackerel, plastic or can, were durable. They could be used for a long period without diminishing in value and quality. The pouches of mackerel cost about $ 1 at the commissary. Rather than, eat them, prisoners preferred to use them as money for trade. This means that their opportunity cost is low just like ideal money. Instead of eating them, prisoners derived a greater satisfaction in using them as a means, to trade for goods and services they needed much more. Their uniform value also made them as the preferred means of exchange in prison where ideal money was not available (McEachern, 2012). Money is characterized by almost non-existent fluctuation in value. The pouches of mackerel acted simil arly as their value remained uniform over a length of time. Similar to ideal money, the pouches of mackerel did not wear out quickly, were easy to carry and move around. They could be exchanged easily to support a range of prices and had uniform quality. There were few resources tied in creating the pouches and people were willing to accept them in believe that they would hold their  value.  

Future Career Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Future Career - Personal Statement Example This allows me to use my imagination and creativity alongside the technical skills I have developed which allow me to conceive a problem from a wide range of perspectives. Business is an interesting field with as many variables as engineering, and perhaps less predictable outcomes. Exceptions to business common sense can produce exceptional results; the same can rarely be said of engineering. The very value of education in this field is one of hot debate, from entrepreneurs proud to have left school with nothing to the MBA hotshot riding the corporate inside track - it is a discipline where success by any means can be argued as valid. As a highly successful student of facts and natural laws, this is a highly intriguing idea. For all I can learn from lectures and research, there is always a higher level to aspire to - always a rival with an edge of natural flair. An academic analysis, for example, of a systemic change can soon fail without the personal skills to 'sell' it to the workers. I have spent a long time developing my brain; I now want the chance to test my heart, soul and guts. There are numerous obstacles but the interesting part is to overcome the obstacles and run a smooth form of business. My parents have taught me that a balance between activities is always necessary for a healthy lifestyle. I engage in spending my free time constructively by serving the community and doing several jobs in my free time. I love reading business books. Just as I believe the highest level of success in business comes from drawing on every ounce of talent and ability, I believe that success in life comes through engaging every talent. The Cass MSc in Management enables graduates from a wide range of disciplines to develop real world knowledge and skills in key areas of modern management - it is this that most appeals to me, bringing the whole of my real world and life experiences to bear on how I do business. Through this program I hope to graduate with the confidence to sensitively and intelligently apply practical quantitative skills, which are required for a successful career in risk management. I chose to join the program to further polish out mytechnical and quantitative knowledgeof different specialist risk management areas, such as financial modelling, valuation theory, credit derivative pricing, and credit portfolio management. My strong technical groundingandquantitative skill from my current studies will have a definite impact on my career, qualifying me for a more specialized risk manager role. As much as a personality is important in business decision making, a person is also important in their society. While decisions can be made without feeling and individuals can try to exist as islands, both states seem unnatural and dangerous - oversimplified models that ignore a greater complexity. Activities I enjoy are enjoyable because of the interplay between myself and my community - the term 'altruistic' does not quite match, because I believe that every positive action brings broad rewards. I can rationalize this as a kind of karmic belief structure, but really it comes down to an analytical approach - what is good for a system or business should permeate all levels to bring mutual benefits. My natural talents have been nurtured thanks to the good will and determination of others. As a product of a global society, I try to carry out activities that make a positive impact

How Generation Y is Fitting into Today's Workforce Research Paper

How Generation Y is Fitting into Today's Workforce - Research Paper Example Generations values and concerns for an organization will always evolve with time, and employers who understand each generations perspective and the powers that shaped it, will have an upper hand when leveraging talent. Most employers are experiencing intergenerational conflicts; Boomers think Generation X tend to be impatient, Generation X view Boomers as being inflexible, while the both generations, consider generation Y spoilt for choice. Generation Y, on the other hand, view them as conservative and out of fashion (Nicole A. Lipkin 43). Generation Y, also referred to as GenMe or Gen Y can simply be described as the generation aged around eighteen to twenty five years that are motivated and technology savvy. Their behaviors and habits constrain their way of communication, working, acting, and how they relate to people. In other terms, this generation pertains to demographic cohort born between late seventies to mid nineties. This generation is heavily reliant on modern digital tech nology and media and expects fast information and entertainment due to its cultural diversity (Nicole A. Lipkin 45). Generation Y is adapting to the current workforce in several ways. With the current, competitive markets, most jobs require highly competent personnel, and Generation Y seem to always demand leadership roles, or perhaps climb the corporate ladder within a few months of their employment. This generation believes it deserves the position it demands, with or without experience. They expect immediate gratification resulting from their childhood, and do not intend to stay in the same position longer; they demand to be at the top of the organization within a short time. Employees of generation Y prefer performing their tasks remarkably and faster compared to their co-workers (Jean M. Twenge 8). Considering that a majority of the current workforce is headed for retirement, Gen Y is entering the workforce during a demographic shift. Considering that there might be a shortage of skilled workers, after boomers retire. Gen Y have been more tolerant of others opinions enabling them adapt ideas from older generations. With globalization becoming a current world trend, most of the Gen Y prefer being self-employed, rather than work for someone else. Although few among them succeed due to high start up rates. Globalization has encouraged Gen Y employees to join Unions, where they can share their views, exchange ideas, and find solutions concerning employment issues with members of other countries, and also act of a channel for learning new ideas (Jean M. Twenge 12). The current workforce demands vast ideas to be able to compete globally, and Gen Y does not only assist in replacing boomers, they bring with them fresh and better ideas, and tend to be a motivated and enthusiastic workforce. Gen Y is also widely using the media in redefining their career opportunities, ensuring they are up-to date with the relevant, required skills, and are aware of the jobs on dem and. For this generation, a decent job is not only defined by the monetary gains. Their selection for positions is driven by their behaviors. They do not take a job aimlessly, but because they feel motivated working there, implying that Gen Y is more focused on making a difference in their company and the society. As organizations demand, Gen Y appreciates technology only; when it is significant to them. Gen Y prefer filling an employment application online, and

Rewriting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Rewriting - Essay Example Talbot gives an example of atashi and boku in the Japanese language. Women use the first one while men use the second one to mean the same thing â€Å"I.† Although the people who speak Japanese language can tell the difference, other people may claim that the two terms have different meanings. The same case applies to other societies such as the Carib Indians. According to Johnson and Tannen, behavioral differences across genders affect speech presentation. Men and women have different roles in the families and in the society too. Therefore, women have a tendency of talking about family and social issues as opposed to men, who tend to spend more time talking about politics and work related issues. These differences, according to Johnson and Tennen (p.53), come out as power differences. Men are considered superior to women since they are involved and often discuss more important issues concerning work and society. Women on the other hand, are considered less powerful since they discuss family and personal issues. Men take the center stage in the conversation. They seem to initiate and control the discourse of any conversation. Women will join in the conversation when they are allowed or when it is necessary to do so. These differences in conversations are seen as power differences. 2. Provide several examples of politically-correct (or bias-free) language as discussed by Kakutani and of doublespeak as discussed by Lutz. Discuss some of the motivations in each case for why such changes in language have been proposed/ used. What are some of the ways in which politically correct language and doublespeak are different and some of the ways in which they are similar? With the increasing need for observing gender and political sensitivity, choice of words becomes necessary. According to Kakutani, there exists politically correct language that is used to avoid political bias. Some of the most common bias words include master, fellow, king, lord among others (p. 517).

Human Resource Development & Job Satisfaction Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Development Job Satisfaction Essay Opportunities for training and development are paramount in decisions regarding employee career choices. It is important that those in the human resource development (HRD) look at how their work affects those who they provide service. HRD is a field that focuses on training, career development and organizational development with the goal of improving processes and enhancing the learning and performance of individuals, organizations, communities and society (Judge and Saari, 2008). To accomplish this task, HRD practitioners must look at how training and development programs affect those employees who participate in them. They must be aware of how employees who participate in them perceive the information presented. They must be aware of how employees feel about the training and programs offered to them, and they must understand the components that make up job training satisfaction from the employee standpoint. Employees use the trainings as a framework to base the company upon. Job satisfaction is a major factor in decisions regarding people’s careers; however it is naive to assume that people work primarily to achieve professional fulfillment and job satisfaction (Caruso, 2011). In fact, they seem to work because what they get on the job enables them to achieve whatever they want to achieve off the job. On the job, they must produce, which sometimes equals no enjoyment. Every person has different reasons for working. The reasons for working are as individual as the person. But, we all work because we obtain something that we need from work. The something obtained from work impacts morale, employee motivation, and the quality of life. To create positive employee motivation, treat employees as if they matter because employees matter (Judge and Saari, 2008). These ideas will help you fulfill what people want from work and create employee motivation. Compensation levels and competiveness are higher than ever before and the casualties are factors like job satisfaction. Literature Review A satisfied or happy employee may begin to develop an approach of self-complacency, and an overall sense of well-being, and consequently, his temperament may reflect his disposition (Caruso, 2011). As a result, it is all too common to see that the productivity of the employee does not always closely follow his upward level of happiness. Does that mean that employers don’t want happy employees? No, however that don’t desire to gain employees that forget why they’re employed in the first place. Another important aspect of this situation is the level of constructive conflict. If properly used and applied in the organizational arena, the managerial imbedding of a limited degree of beneficial conflict does indeed shake these smug people and satisfied employees out of their fatigue and enables them to achieve a certain individuality of action. Viewed from the perspective of the organization the key issue is not having satisfied, happy employees but maximizing productivity, the bottom line being profit (Caruso, 2011). A generation of employees who feel entitled to employee satisfaction has entered the workforce and several generations of employees for whom work never quite fulfilled their dreams, are leaving. And, they are leaving in the worst of economic times which will affect their satisfaction with the rest of the quality of life they experience. This downward trend in job satisfaction raises concerns about the overall engagement of employees and ultimately employee productivity, retention, creativity, risk-taking, mentoring, and in overall employee motivation and interest in work. Factors contributing to employee satisfaction include treating employees with respect, providing regular employee recognition, empowering employees, offering above industry-average benefits and compensation, providing employee perks and company activities, and positive management within a success framework of goals, measurements, and expectations (Egan and Young, 2004). You can tell your colleagues, coworkers and or staff how much you value them and their contribution any day of the year. No occasion is required to tell someone job well done or keep up the outstanding efforts. In fact, small surprises and tokens of your appreciation spread throughout the year help you and the people in your work life feel valued all year long. Employee recognition is limited in most organizations (Egan and Young, 2004). At my place of employment, employees complain about the lack of recognition regularly. My supervisor would respond by asking, â€Å"Why should I recognize or thank her? She’s just doing her job. † These factors combine to create work places that fail to provide recognition for employees. Employers who prioritize employee recognition understand the power of recognition, because they see the adverse effect of it in the employee. HRD employee job satisfaction is situational. Employee job satisfaction depends on the company and its practices, the expectations and needs from work, the quality of the supervision, the health of the industry, the competitiveness of the job market, the state of the economy, the success of the company, your mentor resources, and more (Lleana and Simmons, 2008). The inconsistencies are what make employee job satisfaction so challenging. Since the day to day job cycle can’t be predicted, it’s safe to say that employee satisfaction can’t be either. Conclusion The most influential factor in job satisfaction appears to be the degree to which employees think their job makes good use of their skills and abilities. This is closely followed by the extent to which employees think the work they perform is meaningful. If employees believe their work and the work of their organization is important and makes good use of their skills, there is a very good chance they will be satisfied with their job, even if they are not as positive about other aspects of the job. The next major component of satisfaction appears to be whether employees believe they are treated with respect. Higher job satisfaction is associated with working conditions where employees believe their opinions count and where they receive recognition for the work they perform. Job satisfaction is related to how well an organization is managed. This component does not seem to work in isolation from job fit and respect. In other words, a well-managed organization does not turn into high job satisfaction scores in the absence of a good match between employees and the job, or under conditions where employees do not feel respected for what they do. When a lack of respect is felt amongst an employee, a lack of respect is shown for the job at hand whether it be through work performance, attitude, or respect reciprocated. HRD is a career field that requires one to interact with others on a daily basis. With that being said, one must always exhibit a pleasant persona for the simple fact that what they do has a major impact on the individuals that they come across. HRD is also a career field where you are constantly assisting others in job advancements and etc. within an organization, which to me is satisfying all within itself.

Parasitic Plants and Their Hosts: Types and Characteristics

Parasitic Plants and Their Hosts: Types and Characteristics Survival of one life form is dependent not only on its ability to search and utilize available life sustaining resources but also upon its healthy competition for various such requisites with other life forms belonging to either the same or different species. To facilitate this, different life forms have evolved with special assets of abilities to exist, work and exhibit a tendency to proliferate so as to flag their dominance on ecological niche. Scientific communities at times are amazed by the kinds of interaction in which different life forms co-exist with each other and also with the surroundings. In plants, interaction science has emerged as a major area of research which deals with investigating and studying such phenomena in detail, their mechanism, reasoning for interactions of plant with plant, animals, and/or micro-organism. Evolution of a new species from an existing ancestral mob assures adaptation to new and more efficient modes of existence, wherein lesser inputs are in vested for more possible benefits. One such example is the parasitic plants or epiphytes. Parasitic plants comprise 19 families in angiosperms and constitute to about 4,100 species (Nickrent. and Musselman, 2004). Among these with various parasitic habits, mistletoes are well known as perrenial, polyphyletic group of angiospermic aerial plant parasites (Devkota, 2005) infecting generally host stem and/or branches, and belong to families, Viscaceae and Loranthaceae. Mistletoes are considered as an important component of biodiversity (Watson, 2001; Shaw et al., 2004), and have been appraised not only due to their unique parasitic relationship with their respective hosts, their growth habits, mechanism of seed dispersal but also because of their miraculous medicinal values which includes their use as sympathetic medicine to take down abnormal tissue growth under cancer (Kunwar et al.2005). They are predominantly known to occur on fruit trees. Mistletoes are characterised by the development of a root like absorptive organ called haustorium which forms the host parasite interface and draws nutrients from the host conductive tissues to the parasite (Devkota, 2005). Dendrophthoe falcata is a hemi-parasitic plant belonging to the Loranthaceae mistletoes and is considered as the commonest of all other mistletoes widely occurring in India (Parker acnd Westwood, 2009). The genus Dendrophthoe comprises of about 31 species spread across tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia (Flora of China, 2003) among which 7 species are found in India. The sp. falcata has its hold in India since ancient times and has been in use as traditional folklore medication for various ailments. Though a parasite incurring huge losses to commercial fruit and timer production, it is considered and welcomed as a sacred sign of prosperity in few areas of rural India. Well globally, much of the advanced scientific investigations have centered on other mistletoes such as Orobanche, Viscum etc. These studies have aimed towards understanding the parasite behaviour, sap flow dynamics at the host parasite interface, chemical compositions of floral organs, designing successful control st rategies, evaluating medicinal potentials etc. The present review will focus on the existing literature earlier attempts aiming study of various scientific aspects associated with D.falcata. The review considerably outlines the variety of studies performed revolving around the host-parasite relationship, morphology and geographical distribution, and studies aiming towards in vitro establishment and attempts towards scientific justification of the ethno-medicinal properties, and various existing and possible control strategies for this mistletoe family member. Morphology and biogeography: Evolutionarily, mistletoes belonging to Loranthaceae are considered older than those of Viscaceae and ever since their origin from dense Gondwanan forests; they have successfully encompassed tropics, subtropics and arid portions on the globe through their nutritional competition-driven conquests (Devkota et al, 2005). Notes on floral morphology and embryology in D.falcata have been provided by Singh (1952). D.falcata bears grey barks, thick coriaceous leaves variable in shape with stout flowers (Wealth of India. 2002). The flowering inflorescences in D.falcata was previously referred to as axillary or as developing on the scars of fallen leaves, but Y.P.S Pundir (1996) verified it to be of strictly cauliflorous nature and also notified that it shares fundamental similarity to that of Ficus glomerata, F. pomifera and F. hispida. Two of its varieties are widespread in India namely, var. falcata (Honey Suckled Mistletoe) and var. Coccinea (Red Honey Suckled Mistletoe) distinguished by occurrence of white and red flowering, respectively (Flowers of India, a World Wide Web resource). A comprehensive list of almost all the species within the genus Dendrophthoe can be availed (from web source at http://www.naturekind.org/taxpage/0/binomial/Dendrophthoe_falcata). Haustorial polymorphism, leaf mimicry, explosive flowering, fruit adhesive pulp etc. Singh, B., 1952. A contribution to the floral morphology and embryology of Dendrophthoe falcata (L. f.) Ettingsh. Jour. Linn. Soc., Lond., 53, 449. Dendrophthoe homoplastica (mistle- toe) mimic those of its common host, Eucalyptus shirleyi. (Robert L. Mathiasen, David C. Shaw, Daniel L. Nickrent, David M. Watson,2008 Plant Disease / Vol. 92 No. 7) Hosts and host-parasite relationships: Mistletoes occur mostly on forest, fruit and ornamental host trees preferentially harboring zones rich in biodiversity and thus are found excessively on mountain ridges provided with favorably optimum light intensities and in few in slopes and plains (Devkota, 2005 and references therein). Mistletoes do not follow a uniform pattern of distribution which is affected by local environments and effected by habits of seed dispersing avian visitors. Host range: Earliest, B.Singh (1962) reported that the leafy mistletoe D.falcata is parasitic on over 300 hosts in India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. Indiaà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s rich plant biodiversity in 1977 could report exclusive host range numbering 345 plants susceptible to infection from this mistletoe (Siva Sarma and Vijayalakshmi 1977) which is a significant number as it contributes to its comparatively recent global record for 401 hosts (Shaw 1993). Till date, D.falcata represents the only known mistletoe with the largest global host range (Calvin and Wilson, 2009) which is continuously and rapidly widening. Haustoria: Mistleoes are known to form haustorial structures at the point of attachment to the host. Among angiosperms, parasitic relationship through the formation of haustorial linkages is known to be widespread (Wilson and Calvin, 2006). In general, haustorial connections among 72 (of the 75) ariel parasitic genera may belong to either of the four types viz., epicortical roots (ERs), clasping unions, wood roses, and bark strands (Calvin and Wilson, 1998). ERs may run along the host branches in either direction forming haustorial structures at variable intervals while à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½unionsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ occur as single points of attachment of individual parasites hence pronounced as solitary. In D,falcata on different hosts two of the haustorial kinds have been observed viz., solitary unions as on Sugar apple (Annona squamosa), and epicortical roots as on sugar apple (Achras sapota), guava (Psidium guajava), pomegranate (Punica granatum) have been observed. It is unknown about what factors decide formation of different haustorial types by the leafy mistletoe on different hosts. The host branches infected with D.falcata show a gradual reduction in growth and diameter as compared to other healthy uninfected branches (Karunaichamy et al, 1999). It has also been reported that the development of mistletoe plants on the host tree is a dynamic process which necessarily leads to the death of the host tree and that the whole process may last for about a decade (Karunaichamy et al, 1999). It is known that mistletoes have higher nutrient titer than their host (Lamont, 1983; Karunaichamy et al, 1993) and this could probably be attributed to a competitively higher water (including dissolved nutrient and growth promoting metabolite) uptake rate by the parasite at its haustorium at a point in the host branch in comparison to that in the protruding lateral ends of the branch (that extends after the haustorium). This might render key nutrients be unavailable to the host branches that could repress growth post-infection (Stewart and Press, 1990). But in work by Karunaichamy et al (1999) one D.falcata seed per stem of Azadirachta indica seedling has been tested which has shown the life threatening effect on whole plant which again itself i s at an immature seedling stage (so death of the whole plant could be expected). In a broad sense, physiological and metabolic perturbations induced by the parasite in the whole host plant outlined at the seedling stage surmised by the reduced host leaf area, leaf number, growth performance upon infection cannot be correlated to that in a fully mature host. (statement in bold italics) could be justified by that there may be an increment in the probability of multiple mistletoe seed dispersals or extended reach of haustorial structures to other branches of the same tree (as we saw in Guava) that might possibly lead to a gradual depletion of key metabolites (thereby lowering an essential threshold titer for the same) required for growth of the host plant altogether. Alternatively though unknown, it might also be possible or still unknown if the hemi-parasites dissipate any unknown metabolite in to the host xylem at the point of anchor formation that may inhibit growth and metabolism in the hostà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s axillary meristems and the whole host plant life may only be at stake if such inhibitory effects are perceived by all plant parts. This again is contradictory hypothesis as evident from fact that the haustorial connections of the parasite with the plant are devoid of any retranslocation system (Smith and Stewart, 1990, also see later). Once more, a report by Sridhar and Rama Rao (1978) unraveled the infection of D.falcata surprisingly hosting itself directly on the fruit (Table 1) of Acharas sapota (Sapota). Almost all the hemi-parasitic members of the Loranthaceae tap the xylem vessels of their host to avail water and minerals but to a considerable extent produce their own supply of assimilates (Kuijt, 1969). D.falcata does not have an indigenous rooting system and is dependent on the host for water and minerals. Nutrient dynamics have shown that a higher titre of N, P , K, Mg and Na in the leaves of mistletoe than the leaves of uninfected and infected hosts which may be due to differential translocation of elements within the host phloem (Prakash et al, 1967; Karunaichamy et al, 1999). Nitrogen loss is well pronounced in mistletoe infected hosts and a higher potassium levels in mistletoe is an indicative of higher transpiration rates and a lack of re-translocation system (Karunaichamy et al, 1999 and references t herein). Though outlined above that the total phosphorous in mistletoe leaves is present in excess as compared to that the host leaves, fractionation studies have elucidated that percentage acid-insoluble phosphate is comparatively lesser in the parasite and also that further fractionation again infers a lower percentage of phospholipid, RNA, DNA and phosphoproteins. The DNA content of the infected host leaves however demonstrate a dramatic increase compared to the healthy uninfected leaves (Prakash et al, 1967). Mistletoes are believed to mimic their hosts in floral structures. At some instance it was supported by a hypothesis which explains that such behaviour imparts protection to the mistletoe from the herbivores. Later, the hypothesis was field tested, rejected and replaced by a belief that a host parasite resemblance might help to safeguard hostsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ individual fitness by signaling the birds to expel mistletoe seeds on other uninfected hosts (Atsatt, 1979). Moreover, the hosts and parasite follow individual developmental scheduling of events under which the parasite might experience an influence from a firm epigenetic hormonal control on leaf size and shape thus evolving the mimicry or resemblance to the host(). List of hosts: Loranthaceous parasites were known in India since 1885 and until then only 35 species were known. Specifically for D.falcata from among the earliest of the reports, 268 host species have been known to be under the clutch of the deadly hemiparasite (Ravindranath and Narsimha Rao, 1959), and shortly later B.Singh (1962) reported its parasitic relation with over 300 hosts reported in India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. Until 1993, a report by Shaw III depicts a global increase of host range to 401. In Indian tropics 37 species of tree have been reported as the favourite hosts for D.falcata (Ghosh et al., 2002). Due to the ever increasing host range (Sridhar and Rama Rao, 1978) currently it is difficult to draw a margin between the more and less common host genera. Vectors for seed dispersal and pollination: Seed dispersal as well as pollination is usually mediated by the birds that thrive on fruits from the parasite and/or host. Particularly in southern India, Tickelà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Flowerpecker which is also named as Pale-billed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrohynchos, Latham) is reported to facilitate seed dispersal of D. falcata among Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss. belonging to Meliaceae) through fecal excretions or regurgitations (Karunaichamy et al, 1999; Hambali, 1977 and references therein). The mistletoe bird also eats insects and therefore has a grinding gizzard. When eating the mistletoe berry the bird is able to close the gizzard and the toxic seeds are usually swallowed as a whole and are shunt through their gut in about 3-4 minute (Murphy et al., 1993) and because the seed has a sticky coating, to get rid of the seed the bird applies its vent to the edges of the host tree branches and may turn around whereby the seed then sticks onto the branch where it may subsequently germin ate (Ali, 1931; Ali 1932; Davidar, 1985). These birds also act as vectors for pollination in the hemi-parasite whose flowers bear a mechanism that causes pollen to explosively spray on the plumage of the visiting flowerpeckers (Karunaichamy et al., 1999; Vidal-Russell and Nickrent, 2008). Studies conducted in the higher altitudes of Western Ghats (where both the mistletoes and the flowerpeckers occur predominantly), which parallel the western coast of India infer that the flowerpecker pollinated mistletoes have particularly developed feature specialized to attract a unique vector both to facilitate pollination and seed dispersal: the fruit and flowers have similar resemblance and more significantly, the fruiting time overlap with the next flowering season (Davidar, 1983). Hair-crested Drongo or Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus) is an Asian bird of the family Dicruridae and sunbirds (family=Nectariniidae) also known to feed on the nectar from the D.falcata flowers also adds to the list of pollinators to this mistletoe (Kunwar et al, 2005 and references therein). Phytochemistry: Results for the preliminary tests in phytochemical screening analyses using ethanolic extract of the whole plant reports the presence of carbohydrates, glycosides, steroids, tannins phenolic compounds, flavonoids and triterpenes (Sahu et al, 2010). Chromatography of D.falcata fruits has recently added new members to the list of naturally occurring terpenes which has taxonomically been considered significant (Mallavadhani et al., 2006). Total phenolics in mistletoe have a comparatively higher concentration but it failed to correlate to any resistance by the host or its susceptibility to infection by the hemiparaste (Khanna et al,, 1968). Later a phenolic inhibitor of the enzyme a-glucan phosphorylase was reported ((Khanna et al,, 1971). A study by Ramchandra and coworkers (2005) indicated that an elevated antioxidant potential in the mistletoe is due to sequestration of phenolic compounds from the host plants. Their HPTLC data on samples from mistletoe hosted on Mangifera indica (Mango), reportedly contained mangiferin, a C-glucosyl xanthone synthesized by the host plant. The report raises query concerning further investigations for whether the transfer of phenolics to the hemi-parasite indicates a preliminary host mediated defense or a mode of host identification by the parasite or as a mechanism from within the parasite to bypass rejection from the host plant. In mature seed embryo 0.65 mg chlorophyll/g fresh wt; chlorophyll a : b ratio of 1.6 per mg chlorophyll has been evidenced. Moreover, in context to titre of enzymes for photorespiration, phosphoglycolate activity in the embryo has been recorded to be 16.7 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½mol substrate/min and 3-phosphoglycerate phosphatase activity 6.8 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½mol substrate/min. Similarly, NADH-linked glyoxylate reductase activity has been demonstrated in the embryo (0.09 à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½mol substrate/min/g fresh wt) by Kachru, and Krishnan (1979). Chroamatography of the ethanolic extract followed by NMR and Mass spectrometry could isolate and identify Quercitin, a rhamnoside (Shihab et al, 2006). Hexokinase has been partially isolated and studied for its properties from D.falata leaves (Baijal and Sanwal, 1976). In a comparative evaluation of this parasitic plant grown on various host plants, Nair et al.10) reported the accumulation of kaempferol, quercetin, myrecitin, and their glycosides. Medicinal Properties: D.falcata possesses remarkable potentials as a medicinal plant evident from the wound healing, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, antinociceptive properties of its ethanolic extracts (Pattanayak and Sunita, 2008, Shihab et al, 2006). Medicinal properties of this hemiparasite may vary in effects respective to different hosts it establishes a relation with (Mallavadhani et al., 2006). The whole plant is used in indigenous system of medicine as cooling, bitter, astringent, aphrodisiac, narcotic and diuretic (Alekutty e al., 1993) and is useful in treating pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma, menstrual disorders, swelling wounds, ulcers, renal and vesical calculi and vitiated conditions of kapha and pitta (Anarthe et al., 20081; Anarthe et al, 2010; Sastry, 1952; Pattanayak et al., 2008 ). Also, the decoction of plant used by women as an anti-fertility agent has been evidenced to possess anticancer activity (Nadkarni, 1993). The leaf ethanolic extract significantly and dose dependently inhibits the acetic acid induced writhing in mice (Shihab et al, 2006) and has indicated a low level toxicity in the brine shrimp lethality assays. Besides, a more recent work by Pattanayak and Mazumder (2010) shows significant tumor reduction in induced mammary carcinogenesis in Wistar female rats when fed with hydroalcoholic extracts of D. falcata. Ethno-medicinal aspects: Ethnomedical studies are generally characterized by a strong anthropological and/or biomedical approach and in this context the use of D.falcata as a traditioal remedy for most if not all the ailments has been well appraised. Perhaps, the variety of knowledge available has not yet been exploited full fledgedly due to the currently over-recommended chemial analogs that are predominant over market most of which have side-effects associated under frequent use. In vitro regeneration and gene introgression studies: It is known that long term caulogensis from the endosperm tissue exhibits a high degree of polyploidisation of its cells associated with abnormalities such as chromosome bridges and lagging chromosomes but mistletoe endosperms have exceptional stability in their chromosome number (Razdan, 2003). In the past, in vitro studies aiming towards investigating behavior of mature embryos have been reported in D.falcata (Johri and Bajaj, 1962). The effects of light, endosperm, endosperm extract, and position of the embryo on media have been studied on in vitro germination of D.falcata (Bajaj, 1968). Shoot induction has been successfully achieved in D.falcata (Bhojwani and Razdan, 1983). Shoot buds in Loranthaceae directly differentiate from the peripheral cells of the endosperm cultures though D.falcata may particularly require media supplemented with a combination of cytokinins and a low concentration of IAA or IBA. Among other cytokinins, 2-ip has been most effective and also addition of Casein hydrolysate (2000mg/l) has been necessarily recommended for shoot bud differentiation. For optimal shoot bud growth frequent subcultutres on fresh media is crucial. Caulogenesis from these shoot buds may be followed by differentiation into shoot and haustoria. The latter could be avoided by increased kinetin concentration and for such kinetin induced shoot bud differentiation, a low concentration of auxin (IAA or IBA) is necessary (Nag and Johri, 1971). Ready to use tissue culture strategies have been discussed by a review article by Pattanayak and Mazumder (2008). Advanced molecular level studies are surprisingly lacking for D.falcata with only single report where tests for amenability of this plant in gene introgression studies have been investigated via successful agrobacterium mediated transformation of its embryogenic cultures for GUS expression (Rohini et al, 2005). Diseases of D.falcata: Very little is known about diseases that victimize this hemiparasitc plant. The pathogen species that have been reported in association are generally known to commonly infect a wide range of plants off genera. There are realizations that propose that mistletoe specific pathogens are rare and develop endemism and be localized to favorably optimized areas where their growth requisites and nutritional demands are inline with the host mistletoe species and their host nutrient and sap flow dynamics. Fungal: The hemi-parasite itself is susceptible to diseases such as leaf blight caused by Colletotrichum state of Glomerella cingulata which has been reported on D.falcata which seriously infects Teak (Tectona grandis) plantations (Ali and Florence, 1987) in Kerala, India. Epiparasitism Plant: A surprising evidence of hyper-parasitism has been reported in the Mohand Range Forest (Dehradun, India) where D.falcata itself receives haustoria from Scurrula cordifolia (another mistletoe), both hosted together by Ougeinia oojeinensis (fabaceae) (Pundir, 1979). Similaly, Viscum orientale (Viscaceae) has also been reported to grow on D.falcata (Saxena, 1971). In another instance Cuscuta reflexa (Convolvulaceae) has been shown to act as a rival to the leafy mistletoe (Nath and Indira, 1975). Viscum capitellatum. Sm has also been evidenced from Sri Lanka to be an obligate epiparasite for D.falcata (Calvin and Wilson, 2009) and symplastic continuity exists between their phloem (Glatzel and Balasubramaniam, 1987) which is an indicative of the aggressive epiparasitism depicted more vividly by the presence of graft-resembling à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½unionsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. Viscum loranthi Elmer, thus has been advocated to have potentials for biological control of Loranthaceae hemiparasites (Pundi r, 1981) damaging commercial timber crops. Well, other species such as D.glabrata has also been reported to be parasitized by Viscum articulatum (Robert L. Mathiasen, David C. Shaw, Daniel L. Nickrent, David M. Watson,2008 Plant Disease / Vol. 92 No. 7). On the whole, 88% of Viscaceae and 61% Loranthaceae epiparasitize Loranthaceae (Calvin and Wilson, 2009). Hyperparasitism in Other mistletoes in the same genus: Notothixos subaureus (Viscaceae), parasitic on Dendrophthoe glabrescens (Loranthaceae) on Eucalyptus (source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1876445) Insects: Recently, Cockerell Scale insects, Pseudaulacaspis cockerelli Cooley (Diaspididae) have been reported to settle on the leaves, stems and haustoria of D.falcata parasitizing Senna siamea (unpublished communication). These scale insects are known to thrive on sap nutrients and their reproduction and hence their proliferation rate has depicted relation with the nitrogen status of the host. Well in this regard mistletoe particularly D.F indicates a favorable choice as their nutrient uptake seems more biased towards drawing more nitrogen rich species from the host sap. The host S.siamea, though is a non-nodulating leguminous tree specie but can produce more nitrogen than the nodulating relatives. Controlling the parasite: Backed by easy seed dispersal by fruit eating birds, widespread and ever increasing host range of Dendrophthoe falcata continues to pose heavy losses in economically valuable fruit trees and those with medicinal properties whether growing in forests, orchards or gardens (Sridhar and Rama Rao, 1978). Healthy tree hosts can tolerate few branch attachments with mistletoes but a heavily infected host slowly moves towards its decline as the mistletoe feeds upon its nutrients and spreads on all its ariel parts (Aly, 2007). Hostsà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ death is more probable when they become more prone to other forms of biotic ad abiotic stresses. Reports from 1930s evidence that until then no proper control and eradication methods were available rather the only alternative used was excising off the parasite (before seed production) completely from below the point of infection in the host and their immediate incineration (Sridhar and Rama Rao, 1978). Mechanical pruning of the infected host branches with cuts at least one foot below the point of mistletoe attachment in order to completely remove embedded haustoria has also been suggested as a method of choice but severe heading (topping) which is often used to remove heavy tree infestations weakens the host tree structure. Instead, it is best to remove severely infested trees entirely because they are usually a source of mistletoe seeds. Another method employed when mechanical pruning gives up upon mistletoe infection uses painting the infected area using a pruning paint or spray and wrapping it with layers of opaque polyethylene cover so as to restrict light source required by this leafy mistletoe. In another method, use of ethephon (a growth regulator) in form of spray to completely wet leaves of mistletoe harboring dormant host trees is recommended (Aly, 2007). Regrowth of the parasite may be prevented by pruning it and painting the spot in the host branch (Koski et al., 2009). Lately, adopted method of control uses application of 50% diesel oil emulsion sprayed on mistletoe leaves. The said morbid effect of emulsion significantly increases the intra-molecular respiration rates in the leaves followed by a gradual decline in capacity of stomatal closure consequently leading to death of the hemiparasite (Singh and Sharma., 1970). Delias eucharis, a medium sized pierid butterfly (Common Jezebel) commonly occurs in South and South-East Asia (Bingham, 1907) and is particularly known to lay its eggs and feed on leaves of mistletoes (Roychoudhury, 2005) and has been suggested in its use to control the parasitic mistletoes (Sevastopulo, 1950, Mushtaque and Baloch 1979). Alternatively, resistance to D.falcata using herbicide (metribuzin) infusion of its host, Tectona grandis (Teak) has also been tested but is of limited help as the efficiency of parasite killing was not proportional to the amount of herbicide used which is required to estimate exact dosage and infusion time for multiple of infection on one host (Balasundaran and Ali, 1989). In one of the papers from the proceedings of the 6th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society conference, G.G. Hambali (1977) has discussed beside other uses the exploitaton of scolytid and cerambycid beetles in controlling Dendrophthoe spp. Several similar or other control alternatives have been suggested by Khan et al. (1987). Approaches as highlighted above towards control of parasitic weeds by traditional methods are limitedly effective and best control via herbicides and fumigants may be hazardous to Mother Nature (Jacobsohn 1994). Removal of mistletoe by hand is effective considerably under small degrees of infection but extensive infestation might render this approach as inevitably expensive (Aly, 2007) and cumbersome more particularly when the infestation spans large tree plantations or dense forests. Replacing the infected plantations with resistant trees has also been a method of choice. Though not reported yet specifically for D.falcata, resistance for broadleaf mistletoe (Phoradendron macrophyllum) was evidenced in some tree species viz., pear, Chinese pistachio, crapemyrtle, ginkgo, sycamore, and conifers such as redwood and cedar (Perry 1995). These few resistant species are of significance to the plant breeders but raising parasitic plant resistant crop genotypes have been very difficult and yet lack success. Use of high and low intensity fires has also been noted but is rather undesirable in plantations as wonà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t result in complete cure but only subside heavy infestation from the mistletoes in stand without suppression of re-infestation (Carnegie et al, 2009). Chemical control of mistletoes has been extensively researched in Australia which points out the reasons for their limited routine practice in forests as these methods are labour intensive, cost-effective, variable or limited in results. Use of biological control strategies including mistletoe targeting fungi has also been evidenced (Carnegie et al, 2009). Recent efforts by S. Aly and his workgroup (at the Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Agricultural Research Organization, Newe Yaar Research Center, Israel) enlists successful biotechnological approaches which guarantee prospects towards achieving effective parasitic weed control and ensure environmental safety (Aly, 2007). Adoption of these tools within biotechnology viz, trait gene introgression, gene silencing, promoter technology etc accordingly towards generating transgenic host trees remain the only promising alternative to combat losses incurred from D.falcata infestations. Aspects of biodiversity: Management and control strategies whether mild or exhaustive and whether practiced on a low to high area of coverage should not overlook that mistletoes are considered a valuable component of biodiversity. They are seen as à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½a keystone resourceà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ of food and shelter for diverse population of vertebrates and invertebrates (Carnegie et al, 2009). Conclusions: (KEY: take up the previous issues in above topics and be general and also take examples from other species or genera about the same, for medicinal values and products again search for other existing natural resources. Parasitic plants and their origin Parasitic plants constitute to about 1% of the total angiosperms in nature. Studies explaining the science behind the evolutionary origin of the ariel habit in Loranthaceae have recently been initiated where primitive hypotheses are being investigated with use of phylogenetic tools and analyses (Wilson and Calvin, 2006). Phytochemistry: Though in a recent review by DCruz et al (2010) considerable reproductive toxicity that may cause upon consumption of extracts from the hemiparasite and other plant extracts had been advocated. The article also appeals for extensive research on neutralizing the toxicity of plant based products before they could be validated for their health benefits. Medicinal uses: Antioxidants are considered important for preventing human diseases but the synthetic antioxidants viz., butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA) that have a restricted use as preservatives in oils and fatty foods to minimize their oxidation are considered carcinogenic (Andlauer and Furst, 1998) which can be altered by use of ethanolic and/or methanolic D.falcata extracts as

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay Empirical software engineering requires the scientific employment of qualitative and quantitative data to realize and improve the software product and process. To conduct empirical studies, the process steering steps to be performed and research strategy are very essential elements [11]. Apart from the traditional method such as experiments, case studies and surveys, the systematic literature review, also called systematic review, is another strategy becoming normally used in empirical software engineering in order to identify relevant empirical studies and combine results to provide reliable information for researcher. This paper aims to provide the general idea of systematic review, process to conduct the review according to the existing guideline and suggestion to improve the guideline. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction to systematic review, explains the reason why systematic review is needed, discusses the differences from narrative review and pros and cons of systematic review. Section 2 explains process of conducting systematic review in detail according to Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. Since there are still some restrictions and gaps could be improved in the guideline, section 3 described those limitations and provides suggestions for improvement. Lastly, section 4 presents some concluding remarks. 1.1 What is Systematic literature review? Systematic literature review is the methodology that researchers use to gather and evaluate available information to specific research topic. The use of a SLR is mainly proposed to provide an unbiased and systematic approach to answer a structural question which focuses to research topics. The studies or articles that used for systematic review are called primary studies, the systematic review itself is considered as the secondary studies. The review process is very formal with strict procedures and sequence. Each step of the process must be well-defined and can be reproducible by other researchers. The selection criterion of primary studies and type of acceptable information are also defined before hand and thoroughly reviews. To identify the primary studies is done by the use of searching technique. All search methodology and selection criteria are transparent for the reader by described in review protocol. Thus, this means other readers can replicate this review in systematic way. Finally, selected primary studies are analyzed and aggregated, in which forming a systematic review for answer the research questions. 1.2 Why Systematic reviews is needed? Originally, systematic review has been introduced in medical and clinical field as a way to help clinical practitioner finds the answer to their question relating to their practices. Before systematic review was implemented, researchers have difficulties in several areas that traditional review cannot satisfy their need. There is no structural way to review primary studies and to ensure that all related evidence has been evaluated. To summarize and evaluate the knowledge from primary studies is very difficult and also because each study may use different design and organization of information may be vary. The result from traditional review is difficult to evaluation if there is conflicting result. Many times, reader of the review have some doubt to the quality of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ work since the review method is not clear and explicit. In addition, due to broad scope of traditional review, the result of the review can easily be bias as the selection choice by reviewer may not be co nsistency without well defined guideline of the selection. Thus, systematic review methodology has been introduced to address those difficulties. Systematic review process have increasingly recognized and replaced traditional reviews in many academic fields including software engineering discipline since it provides effective way to summarize and determine research result to help those researchers in their studies. The researchers can utilize systematic review to design new studies that previously difficult in the past with traditional review. With systematic review, it helps reducing reviewer bias since it uses objective and reproducible criteria for primary sources selection with strict assessment of the resources. It also help s researchers to combine result from several small studies in which can help them conclude more precise and dependable result. Moreover, it assists in identifying gap that researchers could make further investigation [1]. 1.3 Differences between Systematic and Unsystematic review There are several key differences between systematic review and unsystematic review or traditional review. This topic will discuss each difference of these two types of review. First, the search for primary studies of these two reviews is widely different, with traditional review, the scope of primary studies search usually have wide range of coverage with no strict rules how to search. In contrast, the search of primary studies in systematic review is very focused on the topics, researchers need to identify question and predefined search rules that can be reproducible by other researchers. Second, the primary sources selection process is also different. With systematic review, selection process has to be predetermined; researchers must decide which type of resources is acceptable for the review so that the selection process is explicit and transparent, and then select primary sources with these strict rules and criteria. Unlike systematic review, traditional review selection process does not have specified criteria on the selection process and dependent on researchers experiences to select the primary sources. Finally, the evaluation method of systematic review followed strict evaluation rules to evaluate each of selected primary sources while traditional review is variable based on individual researchers methods. 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Systematic review Though there are several advantages that researchers can utilize systematic review method in their studies, there are still some disadvantages remain comparing with traditional review. Researchers will need to aware and select review type that is appropriate with their situation. This topic will discuss both advantage and disadvantage of systematic review. Advantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ One of the major advantages of the systematic review is that it improves the precision and completeness of the result. Because systematic review process uses well-defined method to search and select for primary studies in which will result in less biased sources comparing with traditional review  ¿Ã‚ ½ The systematic review process helps researchers to identify the consistency or inconsistency of the result from its selection process. If result is consistent, it provides strong answer to researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ questions. If not, researchers can identify the gap and then study the variance. This benefit will be difficult to identify through traditional review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Systematic review can apply statistic technique (meta-analysis) to help combining data from more than one primary studies which will give more precise answer to researchers question than using only one primary study. With traditional review, it will be more difficult for researchers to compare and conclude the result from several primary studies to answer their focus question. Disadvantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ Because of its limited focus and predefined method, as it is the advantage of systematic review, it can be disadvantage in some cases. Since the process does not allow comprehensive coverage of the evidence to answer research topics. Thus, researchers must carefully determine their condition and select technique appropriately. In general, traditional review is more useful if researchers want to obtain more broad perspective of their research topic comparing to systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Traditional review is more useful if the researched topic is the brand new topic, since not much primary studies will be available. Traditional review will have more information coverage than systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Due to its strictness in process and methodology, systematic review process usually needs more time and effort from researchers to conduct the review. 2. Systematic review guidelines As first introduced in medical research studied, systematic review has also been brought to software engineering field by B. Kitchenham (2004). Since software engineering research method is less strict and less experimented-dependent comparing with medical studies, the revision is needed in the process of systematic review to adapt to the characteristic of software engineering studies. The guidelines emphasize the distinction to medical systematic reviews and guide the software engineering researchers how to perform a systematic review. There are several activities involves in the systematic literature review and they are specified in the guideline. In this section, I refer to the guideline suggested by Kitchenham [1] which describes a systematic review process into three main phases: Planning the review, Conducting the review and Document or Reporting or the review. Each of them consists of order of stages. The implementation each phase involves iteration, feedback and refinement in order to move to next stage and finally reach satisfactory outcomes as illustrated in figure 1. Please note that there are some more optional stages described in the guideline. But I only refer to the stages that are essential to be performed Fig. 1. Phases in Systematic Review 2.1 Planning the review In the first phase of the review, the final outcome which would be produced is a review protocol. It is considered as a plan which defines the research questions that will be addressed by the review and basic review procedures. The planning phase consists of the following stages:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of the need for a review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the research question(s)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Developing a review protocol  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the review protocol 2.1.1 Identification of the need for a review Before conducting the review, the reasons behind why the systematic review could answer the research questions or could be useful for further must be given. Originally, the need for a systematic review initiates from the demand to fairly sum up all existing information about some phenomenon. Probably the reasons are to represent more general conclusions instead of just obtaining from individual studies, or may be carried out to lead up to further research activities. In particular, Kitchenham notes that the researchers should first make sure that a new systematic review is really needed before starting the review. And they should consider finding any existing systematic reviews relates to the topic of interest. It could be possible that they do not even need a new systematic review if there existed. Besides, the already published systematic review could help construct a protocol. 2.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) This is the most important stage of the systematic review process. The research questions can be seen as a goal of the review since they drive the whole process of systematic review. To be in detail, the search process is conducted with the aim to classify primary studies that discuss the research questions. Furthermore, the data extraction and analysis processes must extract and synthesize the data in such a way to answer the questions. Kitchenham notes that asking the right question is the important issue in any systematic review. She provides some guideline questions to help in construct the correct questions. She also discusses the characteristics and various types of research questions which are proper for the systematic review. For detailed structure of the questions, the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context) criteria are used to define the review question elements. Besides, Kitchenham discusses about the different kinds of experimental designs to derive the acceptable studies. In particular, she argues whether studies based on primary studies of one particular type should be accepted for systematic reviews in software engineering. 2.1.3 Developing a review protocol A review protocol is a concrete plan which details the process and strategy to perform a particular systematic review. A pre-defined protocol is crucial to minimize the possibility of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. The protocol contains all the essentials of the review and some other planning information. The elements described in protocol are: background, research questions, planned search strategy, study selection criteria and procedures, quality assessment criteria and procedures, data extraction strategy, data synthesis strategy and project timetable. Kitchenham suggests that the review protocol should be piloted during its development to find mistakes in the data search procedures, in which it can help to improve the review methodology. 2.1.4 Evaluating the review protocol Because the review protocol is significant for the systematic review, it should be evaluated before execution. The evaluation procedures are done by asking researchers or experts to review the protocol and the agreements among all reviewers must be reached. 2.2 conducting the review This is the execution phase which follows the plan defined in the review protocol. The final outcomes of the systematic review are generated in the end of this phase. To conduct the review, the subsequent stages must be carried out:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of research  ¿Ã‚ ½ Selection of primary studies  ¿Ã‚ ½ Study quality assessment  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data extraction and monitoring  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data synthesis 2.2.1 Identification of research Since the systematic review aims to find all possible of available publications relating to the research question and make conclusion in a fair manner, how to generate the search strategy and publication bias are the critical issues that Kitchenham discusses in this stage. The search strategies defined in the protocol are used to discover the relevant publications. In general, the search strategies are done iteratively by trial searches using different combinations of search terms and in consultations with relevant experts. Typically the search term can be obtained by separate the research questions into individual elements base on PICOC criteria and then create a list of synonyms and relevant words. Another good way to derive the search term is by analyzing the heading of journals. Kitchenham notes that the search strategy should be designed to detect articles that report pessimistic results in order to illustrate researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. Other major concerns regarding the systemat ic review are the completeness and repeatability. Kitchenham suggests that the review process must be transparent and replicable. By providing sufficient detail when documenting the review, this enables the study to be replicable and allows the external reader to evaluate the search terms. And the search terms should be documented properly. 2.2.2 Selection of primary studies The purpose of the selection process is to assess if obtained primary studies have any actual relevance to the research questions. So that we can identify ones that provide direct information for the review. This process should proceed according to the plan defined in the protocol. Kitchenham explains that the study selection is a multistage process. Firstly, base on the research questions, the researchers should define the study criteria to point out the direct relevant studies. These inclusion and exclusion criteria should be piloted to ensure the reliability and correctness when interpreted. The exclusion criteria should be applied first in order to exclude any irrelevant studies. Kitchenham suggests keeping the record of excluded publication with the reason of exclusion just after all unrelated publications have been filtered out. Then the inclusion criteria are applied to remaining studies. Kitchenham also mentions about how to increase trustworthiness of the process in an attem pt to decrease the possibility of bias. 2.2.3 Study quality assessment After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the primary studies, the quality of primary studies is also considered significantly important to be assessed. Kitchenham describes how important of the quality assessment for example, to allow researchers to evaluate differences in the study, and to weight the importance of each study when synthesize the results. She also discusses about the hierarchy of the evidence described in medical guidelines. Base on their assumption, this hierarchy can be used to control the sorts of study included in the systematic review and it is a ground for the initial quality evaluation. To explain, the top of the hierarchy is the evidence from systematic reviews and controlled experiments, which is believed in the medical area that it is more reliable than the bottom level evidence such as the evidence from expert opinions. However, this argument was later proved that it is not always true. After that, Kitchenham describes about how to defi ne and to use the quality instruments. Basically, checklists are used to assess quality in detailed. To construct the checklists, factors that could bias study results are considered. 2.2.4 Data extraction and monitoring Once the primary studies have been selected, the next step is to extract the relevant information. The extraction process should be performed as defined in review protocol which will describe the extraction forms used to collect the data from the filtered primary studies and also the procedure of data extraction. Kitchenham discusses what should be contained in the data collection form. Not only the information to facilitate the answer of review question and the criteria for quality assessment are included, but also the basic information such as name of reviewer, date of performing data extraction and publication detail must be given. Importantly, the extraction form must be piloted before implementation. Kitchenham suggests that there should be two or more researchers perform data extraction independently. And they have to set agreements either by consensus or by using additional researchers to resolve disagreements on the data. If each paper cannot be assessed by at least two resea rchers, some checking technique, such as random sample of primary studies, has to be employed to ensure that the data are extracted correctly. Monitoring data is also important to perform in this stage. Kitchenham notes that multiple publications of the same study should not be contained in the systematic review since it can lead to bias. It is sometimes needed to contact the authors to make sure if those publications refer to the same study or not and also to derive the required information if the data obtained from studies are missing or we need some unpublished data. 2.2.5 Data synthesis Data synthesis aims to gather and summarize the data extracted from selected primary studies. Same as other stages, the activities to be performed should be defined in the review protocol. Base on Kitchenham research on various options of data combination from several types of studies, sensitivity analyses is suggested to perform to find out the impacts on the synthesis results where some studies are higher quality than others. 2.3 Reporting the review The purpose of this last phase is to write the results of the review. The guidelines explain there are three main stages in this phase  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying dissemination mechanism  ¿Ã‚ ½ Formatting the main report  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the report The final report does not only include the answers to the intended research questions, but it also need to specify the dissemination strategy so that the researcher can expose the result efficiently. Kitchenham presents seven mechanisms to disseminate the systematic reviews results. They are: a) Academic journals and/or conferences b) Practitioner-oriented journals and/or magazines c) Press Releases to the popular and specialist press d) Short summary leaflets e) Posters f) Web pages g) Direct communication to affected bodies Basically, the results are reported in two formulas: in a technical report or in a conference or journal paper. After writing the reports, it is necessary to perform evaluation. Kitchenham discusses evaluation technique for each type of reports. One effective technique is organizing a peer review. The structure and contents of report papers can be seen in the Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. 3. Improvement suggestions on Systematic review guidelines This section aims to present limitations and to provide suggestion for improvement on each step of the systematic review guidelines on software engineering. The recommendations are collected base on lessons learned and experiences from various articles which utilize systematic review as literature review technique. The study reported in [7] reveals that one of the significant problems of publishing low quality systematic review is that some people conducting systematic review do not understand exactly what systematic review is and how to perform it. So, they end up with having no obvious research questions, explicit search strategy and so on. The subsequent suggestions should be always kept in mind before starting and while performing the systematic review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Thoroughly review and study the guidelines, e.g. Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guidelines.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Review several SLR examples and experiences to help you understand the process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Make sure you understand each step of activities and be reasonable for everything you do.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Record the decisions made during conducting the systematic review as much as possible since this information will be needed for writing the final report. According to [2], they suggest to perform training on systematic reviewing in the very first step in order to make the reviewers familiar with the specific terms in the area where they will conduct systematic review. Furthermore, this helps the reviewers get better understanding about the review process and activities. 3.1 Planning the review During this phase, the main activities to be performed are specifying the purpose of conducting a systematic review, formulating research questions, developing and evaluating a review protocol. 3.1.1 Identification of the need for a review In order to identify the clear statement of the objective of the review, the researchers should use the checklist to help pointing out the reasons and ensure their needs. Regarding this issue, there are several useful checklists provided in Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. In addition to identify rationale of the review, Staples and Niazi [3] collected information from case studies, surveys, and reports to check if the intended research questions are possible to be answered by systematic review. This is founded very useful since they come to know what is common and uncommon in the research questions. Sometimes people thought the question is normal and feasible to be answered by other researches but in the later phases when they try searching for the related literature, they found that their question is very uncommon and then they have to discard those questions. Another crucial point is that the researchers should try to identify the existing systematic review related to their topics of interested in order to avoid conducting a duplicate review. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find published systematic review in the area of software engineering comparing with medicine. Since there is no powerful scientific database which collects systematic reviews of studies related to software engineering empirical studies, like the Cochrane (www.cochrane.com) which stores a large amount of systematic reviews of medical research. Although there are currently several services providing access to sources of software engineering publications, there are still many restrictions of those publications as followings [17]:  ¿Ã‚ ½ The available studies is limited and disintegrated properly since many researchers in this field are focused on their own style to generate result rather than structural review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is difficult to combine the result of software engineering review because the quality of review is so variable with no agreed standard for systematic review for this field.  ¿Ã‚ ½ There is no guideline that is well-accepted, though some guideline has been proposed but it neither addresses all necessary topics nor provided sufficient detail. 3.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) As mentioned before, the research questions are specified as part of the review protocol and will be used to construct the search string for searching related primary studies. Basically they will be revised repeatedly during piloting the review protocol and should not be changed when the protocol is committed. The most important point when formulate the research questions is to make them as obvious and concrete as possible. Other than structuring the question by using the PICOC criteria which is shown in [1], it is essential to specify rationale to formulate a particular question. Tabulate the question and purpose such in table 1 could be helpful. Table 1. Research question Research question Purpose RQ1: RQ2: Brereton et al [4] recommend that during protocol construction, researchers should anticipate to refine their research question both for increasing their understanding and making the automated search more effective. There are several systematic reviews, for example the  ¿Ã‚ ½Systematic literature review of guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews ¿Ã‚ ½ in [4], which firstly define a few research questions. Later on, after investigation some information sources, those questions are extended in more detailed questions Regarding [5], the research questions are not only the questions that needed to be answer by the review, but also the question providing some idea in the area of such a topic for better comprehension. This is also confirmed by Staples and Niazi [3] since their research questions are part of a larger research project. By performing the systematic review on these questions will help them understand better in the project background. By selecting clear and narrow research questions, it helps confining the scope of a systematic literature. [4] proposes another method that may help to scope the research question. That is a systematic pre-review mapping study. The idea is to map out sorts of studies relating the systematic review question have been conducted. The mapping process can be considered as a quick data extraction but the studies described are not very details. The further information about mapping study can be found at [12]. 3.1.3 Developing a review protocol As explained in the section 2, the protocol provides information of the plan for conduction the review, including, for example, the procedure to be performed, the search strategy for selecting primary studies, the allocation of reviewers to some specific activities and the quality assessment criteria for evaluate primary studies. Lacking of a protocol, some process such as the selection of primary studies or data analysis and synthesis may be motivated by researcher bias [14]. And because one of the key features of the systematic review is repeatable, a well-documented review protocol is needed to guarantee the reproducibility of the review. Many experiences on systematic review show that developing a review protocol is an iteration process that needs several revisions to get the complete protocol. Thus, the researchers should expect protocol changes, take a long time and allot appropriate time for it. Brereton et al [4] suggests all members in systematic review team should participate actively in constructing the review protocol, in which helps all of them get insights about the protocol and understand the process of data extraction. Additionally, piloting the review protocol is highly suggested to be performed. Not only because it supports discovering misunderstandings and mistakes in the data extraction and aggregation process, but also it may specify that the researchers need to change the method planned to deal with the research questions. As mentioned above, the search strategy must be documented in the protocol, enabling the reader of a review to evaluate how accurate and complete this is. However, due to the restriction of existing software engineering search engines that are not well-supported systematic reviews like in medicine, the software engineers should conduct resource-dependent searches. In particular, they might have to use different search string for each searchable sources which have different form interfaces and search syntaxes [4]. The followings are recommendations to improve the search strategy.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Searches should be performed to title as well as abstract [6]. However, before making a decision to accept or reject a primary study, searching on summary and content is founded very useful. Since mostly in software engineering, the abstract and titles are not much indicative [6] and not so dependable for primary studies selection [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Any search strategy should be made up of multiple keywords, and it is essential to use a various combinations of terms to get the very successful search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Using more standardized vocabulary will promote the search results [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ For some software engineering topics, the publications in related fields should be searched as well. i.e. information systems, psychology, economics, quality, artificial intelligence [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the most out of relevant publications, synonyms of the main search term should be used for search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is likely that adding other more general terms to synonyms of the key search term detects more relevant studies. However, this tends to increase the number of irrelevant articles as well. So, it should only be used when there are a number of systematic review resources available in detecting and rejecting irrelevant articles [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is not necessary to search on all the search fields because it is not considerably benefits the response and also requires a big effort [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Construct search strings using Boolean  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½AND ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to link the key terms and  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½OR ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to group synonyms [4]. An example could be the following: (experiment OR  ¿Ã‚ ½empirical study ¿Ã‚ ½) AND ( ¿Ã‚ ½software cost estimation ¿Ã‚ ½ OR  ¿Ã‚ ½software effort estimation ¿Ã‚ ½)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Try searching from synonyms to the term representing the study type need to search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Include search fields that typically contain the key terms of the study type such as title and abstract [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the key search terms. ,beak down the research questions into single words pertaining to the types of study that will help answer the question, technology of interested, and the response test [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ After deriving the key search terms, using various combinations of those terms to perform trial searches [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the year of the paper first published in the search string can help lessen the amount of irrelevant articles [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when using the Basic or Advances search forms because some search engines may produce different results even though the key searched terms are the s