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This research aims at identifying if current code validation tools contemplate the requirements of a guideline for the development of accessible mobile applications, called GUAMA, which was specified by our team over 3 years of research with visually impaired individuals and whose final conception process is formalized in this paper. Then, several tools were analyzed and two of them were chosen for a deeper study: Lint and Espresso. The results showed that Lint and Espresso respectively contemplate 12 and 6 from the 48 GUAMA requirements. Thus, the unique use of such tools is not adequate to validate the range of requirements. These results have motivated the investigation of a new integrated service/process, which presents a higher coverage regarding the validation of accessibility requirements.

Composts were prepared from the solid fraction of pig slurry (SPS) by mixing with cotton gin waste (CGW) in two different proportions. The aim was to assess the fertilizer value of the two composts and to evaluate potential pollution risks due to the heavy metal (Cu and Zn) concentrations in the composts and the nitrate leaching following their soil application. For this, a pot trial using Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) as a test plant was run in a glasshouse. Two composts, A and B, prepared with SPS:CGW ratios of 4:3 and 3:4 (v:v), respectively (OM 63 and 57%, TN 36.1 and 32.7%, and TP 15.3 and 10.8 g kg−1 in A and B, respectively), were applied to a sandy-loam soil at two doses based on the N supplied (D1: 360 mg TN pot−1, equivalent to 52 kg N ha−1, and D2: 720 mg TN pot−1). They were compared with a soluble mineral fertilizer (3.62 g pot−1 of N:P:K 10:10:10; providing 360 mg N pot−1); unfertilized control soil was also tested. The potential risk of nitrate-N leaching in the soil after two simulated intense rainfall events was evaluated. The experiment was carried out in double-layer pots, which allowed the collection of leachates. Both composts were able to increase plant biomass production and soil TN and available P with respect to the control; available Cu and Zn in the soil did not increase significantly with respect to the control soil and mineral fertilizer treatment, although N deficiency limited plant growth at harvests 2 and 3. The compost prepared with a higher proportion of SPS (A) was more efficient for N fertilization (relative agronomic efficiency: 38.1–47.6%; nitrogen use efficiency: 34.1–41.9% of TN), due to its greater inorganic-N concentration. To obtain high P and K efficiencies, application rates based on compost TN are recommended, which also prevent Cu and Zn soil enrichment. Nitrate leaching was very low in all treatments (, The research was funded by the People Program (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007–2013/under REA grant agreement no. 289887, and the results and conclusions achieved reflect only the author’s view, the European Union not being liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

There has been a steady increase in the popularization of chatbots solutions in recent years, in different areas, where the interface with users are replaced by software trained to answer like a human. This paper presents the stages, from conception to the publication, of a text based chatbot that is able to provide instant replies to users questions from an engagement program of a Brazilian company. Even though there is no consensus about the best development practices of such solutions, since each application domain brings along its own characteristics and requirements, this paper lists the activities, challenges faced and decisions made to build a chatbot solution.

The freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera marocana (Pallary, ) is an endemic species of Morocco being listed as critically endangered and it stands among the world's 100 most threatened species. An extensive survey was performed in the Sebou basin (total area of approximately 40,000km(2)), covering 26 different sites. Margaritifera marocana was found only in four sites limited to a small tributary (Oued (=River) Bouhlou).This population has a very restricted distribution (no more than 4km of river length) but appears stable with recent recruitment, since small specimens were found.Genetic analyses were performed, showing that this population has a similar diversity to that found in the River Laabid (Oum Er Rbia basin), but represents a distinct conservation unit that should be managed independently.Although this study adds a new population to the current known distribution of M. marocana, urgent conservation measures (e.g. extension of the Tazzekka National Park; better management of river flow; increase of the riparian vegetation in some stretches; establishment of national and international legislation, and engagement of local citizens) are needed given the species' restricted distribution, its rarity, and the numerous threats that impair its future survival., Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Grant/Award Number: Reference 15256799; IUCN SOS Save our Species fund, Grant/Award Number: Reference 2015B-015; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Grant/Award Number: SFRH/BPD/108445/2015 (EF) and SFRH/BD/115728/2016 (MLL)

Due to the increase in smartphone usage, it became easier to register memorable moments with a more accessible camera. To ensure a nice capture was made, users often take multiple shots from a scene, later filtering them based on some quality criteria. However, sometimes this may be unfeasible to do manually. To address this issue, this work initially defines relevant characteristics present in a good personal picture or video. We then show how to automatically search for these aspects using computer vision algorithms, successfully assessing personal media based on these aspects. Moreover, we show that it was possible to use this proposed solution in a real-world application, improving the generation of a personal album containing the best pictures and videos.

We present an exploratory study that investigated how programming instructors illustrate program execution, namely variable manipulation and control flow. The study involved tasks where instructors were asked to doodle illustrations of program execution in a sheet of paper for given Java methods with example input/output. We found eight illustration patterns, some of which relate to specific variable roles (Gatherer, Stepper for array indexing, Most Wanted Holder). By analyzing existing pedagogical animation and debugging tools, we conclude that their visualizations do not have a broad representation of the aspects evidenced by the illustration patterns of instructors, hinting that human illustrations tend to be considerably richer.

A selective, simple, and low cost method for nitrite determination was developed using an FIA system with a Prussian blue-carbon paste electrode (PB-CPE) as an amperometric detector. The electrochemical sensor was prepared by a fast, simple, and inexpensive procedure, and the long-term stability of the electrode was quite satisfactory as the performance was maintained over one year. PB acted as an effective redox mediator for nitrite electroreduction in acidic media, allowing nitrite detection at +0.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl sat , a potential at which most possible interfering species are not electroactive. Consequently, the proposed method was completely free from interference from nitrate, dissolved oxygen, ascorbic acid, and other species usually present in water and food samples. The electrochemical cell used in the FIA system was similar to a batch injection analysis cell, enabling recirculation of the carrier solution. This is an attractive feature because it allows the use of a high flow rate (6 mL min −1 ) leading to high sensitivity and analysis speed, while keeping reagent consumption low. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method had a detection limit of 9 μmol L −1 and was successfully employed for nitrite quantification in water and sausage samples. For all analyzed samples, recovery percentages close to 100% were obtained, which is indicative of the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method.

The suitability of LSV to study adsorption kinetics of metal ions was evaluated using Cu2+ adsorption on Amberlite® IR-120 as a model system. LSV provided results in agreement with conventional batch method with remarkable decreasing on analysis time and reagents consumption, since no adsorbent/adsorbate separation is required. Adsorption curves can be obtained in situ using only one portion of adsorbate solution. LSV provides higher temporal resolution for adsorption curves, which is indispensable to evaluate adsorption mechanisms and the performance of new adsorbent materials. Therefore, LSV not only saves time and reagents but also provides better quality of kinetic adsorption data.

In this work a bismuth film electrode (BiFE) plated in situ onto glassy carbon was used to quantify Zn2+ in multivitamin formulation samples by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry. For partially water-soluble multivitamin tablets, an alkaline extraction with 1.0 mol L−1 NaOH aqueous solution was adopted. This procedure was simple, fast and efficient to extracting Zn from sample matrix. Moreover, this procedure was able to make the method less susceptible to interferences from Cu2+, since it remains at extracting vessel as insoluble Cu(OH)2. For fully water-soluble effervescent tablets, sample pretreatment was not required.

This work reports the successful use of square-wave voltammetry (SWV) to directly assess the controlled releasing profile of naproxen from lab-made cellulose derivative materials (membranes and microparticles) in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) at 36 °C. Particular advantage of SWV refers to the direct real-time monitoring of released drug from cellulose derivative microparticles, which cannot be easily assessed by UV-spectrophotometry. Moreover, SWV was able to detect modifications in the naproxen releasing profile due to morphology and processing of membranes and microparticles. The possible miniaturization and versatility of SWV suggest the promising application on the study of several drug delivery systems, including in vivo studies.

Mutation testing is a program-transformation technique that injects artificial bugs to check whether the existing test suite can detect them. However, the costs of using mutation testing are usually high, hindering its use in industry. Useless mutants (equivalent and duplicated) contribute to increase costs. Previous research has focused mainly on detecting useless mutants only after they are generated and compiled. In this paper, we introduce a strategy to help developers with deriving rules to avoid the generation of useless mutants. To use our strategy, we pass as input a set of programs. For each program, we also need a passing test suite and a set of mutants. As output, our strategy yields a set of useless mutants candidates. After manually confirming that the mutants classified by our strategy as "useless" are indeed useless, we derive rules that can avoid their generation and thus decrease costs. To the best of our knowledge, we introduce 37 new rules that can avoid useless mutants right before their generation. We then implement a subset of these rules in the MUJAVA mutation testing tool. Since our rules have been derived based on artificial and small Java programs, we take our MUJAVA version embedded with our rules and execute it in industrial-scale projects. Our rules reduced the number of mutants by almost 13% on average. Our results are promising because (i) we avoid useless mutants generation; (ii) our strategy can help with identifying more rules in case we set it to use more complex Java programs; and (iii) our MUJAVA version has only a subset of the rules we derived.

The physical keypads that used to dominate our mobile devices provided additional support for non-visual interaction - the keys could be recognized tactually, the interfaces were simpler and consistent. When combined with a screen reader, these devices could be easily operated by blind people. The advent of smartphones, with their rich, feature-filled applications and interfaces, have brought forward additional challenges for blind users. Apps and features are no longer developed by a single entity leading to an overwhelming variety of interfaces. We present an approach that superimposes a virtual overlay to all other interfaces ensuring interface consistency by re-structuring how content is accessed in every screen. To explore the approach, we split the screen, dedicating half to a configurable set of static options mimicking always available physical buttons regardless of context; while the other enables the standard content navigation gestures with the ability to re-order content and apply filters. In a qualitative study with nine visually impaired participants, the virtual overlays were reported as simpler to use, while still providing full-fledged usage of the system and the third party applications, and were seen as effective and useful, particularly for novice users.

Gesture-based systems are becoming an alternative to the development of intuitive applications for users because they enable them to interact more naturally. In general, such systems use tracking devices together with code to recognize the gestures, which often involves complex implementations. Furthermore, due to the nature of Software Development Kits provided by hardware vendors, the code becomes dependent on the tracking device. Hence, significant portions of the application need to be rewritten in order to run on another device. In this work, we propose the use of a Domain Specific Language to reduce the complexity of specification and recognition of gestures. We also provide a hardware abstraction layer that standardizes the capture of the sensorsfi raw data. This allows any gesture definition to become independent from the device. We conclude by presenting an experiment that evaluates the usage of the language to specify and recognize a large variety of gestures. The results show a reduction in the complexity for specifying and recognizing gestures.

In this paper, we introduce a Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) approach for the game "Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft". We argue that, in light of the challenges posed by the game (such as uncertainty and hidden information), Monte Carlo tree search offers an appealing alternative to existing AI players. Additionally, by enriching MCTS with a properly constructed heuristic, it is possible to introduce significant gains in performance. We illustrate through extensive empirical validation the superior performance of our approach against vanilla MCTS and the current state-of-the art AI for Hearthstone.

Code refactoring usually generates problems in other parts of the code that had already been validated. A solution is to use an anticipated test design methodology, where unit tests are first created to each module/class/method before their modification. Thus, developers are able to ensure the correct execution of functions after their refactoring. Our work applies this strategy to the development of a set of libraries that are used in several other projects. As developers have to modify the initial implementation of these libraries, to adapt such libraries to different needs, it is important to ensure that the libraries’ functions are still properly working and verify if the efficiency of the algorithms was modified. Results show that this approach has increased the confidence of developers in modifying a library and generating several implementations of such library, so that the best implementation could be selected using the same set of unit tests.

When applications intend to support accessibility, aspects of usability must be reviewed to adapt or extend common functional requirements that are implemented to ensure an easy use of applications. However, initiatives to develop guidelines for accessible mobile applications are recent and several approaches present only suggestions rather than a concrete list of requirements. This work presents an ample study on this subject, analyzing 247 scientific and technical articles to identify requirements that are discussed related to different types of impairments. This identification and further consolidation are carried out in a contextualized way via a classification schema proposed in this work. An observation based on analysis with real users is then performed to confirm and extend the initial requirements list and support our understanding about the limitations and needs of impaired users regarding the use of mobile technology. As result, this paper presents the main points of a guideline proposal for functional requirements, which should be considered by mobile applications to ensure accessibility with usability.

We present PandionJ, a pedagogical debugger for Java with innovative features regarding how the program state information is presented to users. We consider aspects that are either not available or not fully automated in existing debuggers (pedagogical or not), such as illustration of the history of variable values and look-ahead of their future state. Our approach relies on static analysis of code in order to infer variable roles, relationships, and behavior. This information is used to render illustrations of program state that existing debuggers are not capable of providing without requiring additional user input.

A significant part of a developer's activity is spent on maintenance tasks, which might involve dealing with unfamiliar code. Especially in these cases, a maintenance task is likely to imply a considerable amount of time locating the relevant source code that needs to be changed, a problem often referred to as feature location. This paper proposes a navigation mechanism for tracing user interface elements of a running program to their representation in the source code. The mechanism realization relies on instrumenting the program in order to enable navigation from user interface elements to locations in the source code. We developed a prototype implementation of the proposed mechanism that implies an acceptable instrumentation overhead, suitable for being used on industrial-scale programs. We performed a user study and observed that the proposed mechanism enables fast code location and that the time spent to accomplish similar tasks does not change significantly as program size increases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Scientific publications are the main vehicle to disseminate information in the field of biotechnology for wastewater treatment. Indeed, the new research paradigms and the application of high-throughput technologies have increased the rate of publication considerably. The problem is that manual curation becomes harder, prone-to-errors and time-consuming, leading to a probable loss of information and inefficient knowledge acquisition. As a result, research outputs are hardly reaching engineers, hampering the calibration of mathematical models used to optimize the stability and performance of biotechnological systems. In this context, we have developed a data curation workflow, based on text mining techniques, to extract numerical parameters from scientific literature, and applied it to the biotechnology domain. A workflow was built to process wastewater-related articles with the main goal of identifying physico-chemical parameters mentioned in the text. This work describes the implementation of the workflow, identifies achievements and current limitations in the overall process, and presents the results obtained for a corpus of 50 full-text documents.

PurposeThe set of services provided by the mobile phone platform, is becoming increasingly complex and requiring more computing power, hence higher energy consumption, and compromising the autonomy of these devices. The purpose of this paper is to identify scenarios where methods could be applied to reduce such consumption and extend the mobile autonomy.Design/methodology/approachThis mobile evolution has given rise to a lot of energy saving research activities, which mainly focus on the hardware side of computational systems. However, it is tempting to suppose that only hardware dissipates power, not software. This paper characterizes several hardware and software scenarios, which could be explored to develop energy‐efficient mobile techniques.FindingsFrom this analysis, the authors argue that the development of applications that consider energy saving as one of their requirements, can result in a significant final energy saving because solutions will be part of their own software and they do not depend on external resources to obtain a lower consumption.Originality/valueThis paper provides a broad analysis about the different research directions in energy consumption optimization and stresses the important contributions that the software engineering area could offer to this subject.

A voltammetric method for the determination of ethyl acetate in ethanol fuel using a Fe3+/Nafion®-coated glassy carbon electrode (GCE) is proposed. The ethyl acetate present in the ethanol fuel was previously converted to acetohydroxamic acid via pretreatment with hydroxylamine chloride. The acetohydroxamic acid promptly reacted with the iron (III) present in the film, producing iron (III) acetohydroxamate, which presents a well-defined voltammetric peak current at −0.02 V. Optimization of the voltammetric parameters for the cyclic, linear sweep, square wave, and differential pulse modalities was carried out for this chemically-modified electrode. Square wave voltammetry afforded the best response for acetohydroxamic acid detection. The analytical curve for this species was linear from 9 to 100 μmol L−1 according to the following equation: ip (μA) = 0.27 + 2.55Cacetohydroxamic acid (μmol L−1), with linear correlation coefficient equal to 0.993. The technique presented limit of detection equal to 5.3 μmol L−1 and quantification limit of 17.6 μmol L−1. The proposed method was compared to the official method of ethyl acetate analysis (Gas Chromatography), and a satisfactory correlation was found between these techniques.

In this work, an adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetric method based on square wave voltammetry (SWV) was developed for determination of the sunscreen agent octocrylene (OCR) individually and simultaneously with 2-Hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone (BENZO-3) and octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC). All voltammetric experiments were conducted in a mixture 0.04 mol L− 1 BR buffer: ethanol (80:20, v:v) using a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) as working electrode. The proposed method could be successfully used to analyze commercial sun-block preparations containing OCR alone and combined with BENZO-3 and OMC. For all analyzed samples, the voltammetric method has allowed fast, simple and reliable determination of these sunscreen agents with minimal sample pre-treatment requirements.

When compared to the realm of textual syntax, developing graphical syntax for a domain-specific modeling language (DSML) is still challenging. Xdiagram is a research prototype that consists of a textual domain-specific language (DSL) for specifying diagrammatic representations against abstract syntax defined in the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). Specifications are written in Xdiagram against such models in a declarative fashion in order to obtain a diagram editor. We explain the main primitives of our DSL using conceptual modeling as an example domain for illustration.

The current efforts to specify an usability guideline for accessible mobile applications are sparse and they are still far to present a concrete pattern. Our previous work carried out a broad survey to consolidate the findings of these efforts in a unique list with 36 requirements, 13 of them focused on vision impairments. In this paper we show the results of an observation-based analysis involving visually impaired volunteers, whose aim was to complement this review and confirm if the lack of these requirements in fact affects the use of mobile applications.

Component-based systems are often comprised of a large number of components, as well as services for binding them together. Static visualization of component dependencies suffers from scalability issues, due to the high number of nodes and edges, despite the fact that there have been previous approaches to mitigate this problem through diagram cluttering reduction mechanisms. Another limitation of static visualization is the inability to represent bindings that are dynamically determined at runtime. In this paper, we describe VISCTE, a tool for exploring component collaborations through runtime monitoring. We target concept location at the component level, where a user-controlled recording process enables developers to obtain diagrams that depict a partial representation of the system. We materialized the approach for OSGi-based component systems and successfully experimented it with an industrial-scale component-based system.

The maintenance of legacy code is a hard task since developers do not have access to details of its implementation. Thus, the refactoring of code units usually generates problems in other parts of the code that already had been validated. A solution to this problem is to use an anticipated test design methodology, where unit tests are first created to each module/class/methods before their modification. Thus, developers are able to ensure the correct performance of functions after their refactoring. This work discusses our experience in applying this methodology to the Data Access Object (DAO) layer refactoring of a real legacy application of a mobile multinational. Our results show that this strategy assists developers in better understanding the code and improves the performance of unit tests since they are produced by the own development team. Furthermore, we show the importance of the miniworld definition, which tries to represent a set of data that increases the coverage of the test process.

In this work, different analytical techniques (thermal analysis, 13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy) have been used to study the organic matter changes during the co-composting of pig slurry with cotton gin waste. To ensure the validity of the findings, the composting process was developed in different scenarios: under experimental pilot plant conditions, using the static pile system, and under real conditions on a pig farm, using the turning pile system. Also, the thermal stability index (R1) was determined before and after an extraction with water, to evaluate the effect of eliminating water-soluble inorganic salts on the thermal analysis. The results of the thermal methods showed the degradation of the most labile organic matter during composting; R1 increased during composting in all piles, without any influence of the presence of water-soluble inorganic ions in the sample. The NMR showed a decrease in the abundance of the carbohydrate molecules and an increase in the aliphatic materials during composting, due to a concentration effect. Also, FT-IR spectroscopy was a useful technique to study the trends of polysaccharides and nitrate, as indicators of organic matter transformations during composting. The research was carried out in the framework of the EU Life+ project MANEV “Evaluation of manure management and treatment technology for environmental protection and sustainable livestock farming in Europe” (LIFE09 ENV/ES/000453) and of the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) ReUseWaste of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013/under REA grant agreement no. 289887.

Design patterns are not easily traceable in source code, leading to maintainability and comprehension issues, while the instantiation of certain patterns involves generalizable boiler-plate code. We provide high-level language constructs addressing design patterns that transform source code by injecting a substantial part of their implementation at compile time. We developed proof of concept extensions addressing widely used design patterns, namely Singleton, Visitor, Decorator, and Observer, using annotations as the means to extend Java. We describe our Java annotations to support these design patterns and the associated source code transformations, demonstrating that it is possible to significantly reduce the necessary code to instantiate a pattern through the use of high-level constructs.

The intensification of the livestock production systems implies a potential environmental risk, associated with the great generation of animal wastes and slurries and their storage and management. Manure management is associated with considerable emissions of ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gases (GHG). However, the potential for GHG mitigation is highly dependent on the waste treatment strategy considered. This laboratory study aims to evaluate the influence of the type of bulking agent used on the potential reduction of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, dealing with carbon (C) conservation when the solid fraction of pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) slurry is managed by composting. For this, a composting experiment in batch reactors was run with four mixtures elaborated using the solid fraction of pig slurry (SPS) and different materials (maize (Zea mays) stalks, barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) straw, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) gin and garden prunings) as bulking agents. The potential C conservation in the mixtures was evaluated by determining the CO2 emissions; the evolution of the mixtures, the thermal profile developed and the thermodynamics of the process were also studied. The mixtures elaborated with cotton gin and garden prunings showed the fastest temperature development, and also the highest CO2 emissions. However, the use of maize stalks as bulking agent reduced CO2 emissions due to its slow degradability: this could constitute a suitable strategy to promote C conservation during the management of pig slurry by composting., The research has been funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/under REA grant agreement n° 289887, and the results and conclusions achieved reflect only the author’s view - the Union not being liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. This work has been also supported by a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ contract to Dr. Bustamante (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) co-funded by the EU through the Social Funds.

When multimedia applications intend to support accessibility, aspects of usability must be reviewed to adapt or extend common functional requirements that are implemented to ensure an easy use of applications. Furthermore, these requirements must be identified and analyzed in a contextualized way, since different types of impairments require different types of requirements. This work analyzed 247 scientific and technological articles to identify requirements that are being considered to different types of impairments. The collected information was consolidated and classified according to groups of impairments. As result, this paper brings a checklist proposal focused on requirements for vision impaired users that should be considered by mobile multimedia applications to ensure accessibility with usability.

Empirical studies revealed that computer science and engineering students have difficulty in mastering concepts such as interfaces and information hiding. These concepts are central to component-based software engineering (CBSE), a challenging subject to address in a university course, given that some degree of software development complexity is necessary for effectively practicing it. This paper describes an experiment carried in an advanced programming course offered at our institution, consisting of having a collaborative course project targeting the practice of CBSE. In this collaborative project, different student teams developed parts of an IDE whose designs were tested by other teams in terms of component interoperability and extensibility. Although students were able to practice the CBSE-related concepts in approximate real settings, the necessary technical supervision from instructors might consist of a pitfall.

We compared morphology of Palythoa caribaeorum (number of polyps, area, diameter and height) occupying three sites located at different distances from a harbor area and with different environmental conditions, such as sedimentation. Seasonality was also considered by comparing morphology during the wet and dry seasons. GLM analyses showed significant main and first-order interaction effects between sites and seasons for each of the four morphological variables measured. Only at the site directly in front of the harbor area there was no seasonal variation. At the other two sites, no significant differences were found when the average pairwise distance of each morphological character was compared between seasons for each site. This indicates that these characters vary in a similar way and suggests growth conditions intrinsic to the species. Environmental homogeneity at the harbor area seems to promote homogeneous morphometry, which indicates different biological strategies and suggests that this species ada...

Context: Since the introduction of evidence-based software engineering in 2004, systematic literature review (SLR) has been increasingly used as a method for conducting secondary studies in software engineering. Two tertiary studies, published in 2009 and 2010, identified and analysed 54 SLRs published in journals and conferences in the period between 1st January 2004 and 30th June 2008. Objective: In this article, our goal was to extend and update the two previous tertiary studies to cover the period between 1st July 2008 and 31st December 2009. We analysed the quality, coverage of software engineering topics, and potential impact of published SLRs for education and practice. Method: We performed automatic and manual searches for SLRs published in journals and conference proceedings, analysed the relevant studies, and compared and integrated our findings with the two previous tertiary studies. Results: We found 67 new SLRs addressing 24 software engineering topics. Among these studies, 15 were considered relevant to the undergraduate educational curriculum, and 40 appeared of possible interest to practitioners. We found that the number of SLRs in software engineering is increasing, the overall quality of the studies is improving, and the number of researchers and research organisations worldwide that are conducting SLRs is also increasing and spreading. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the software engineering research community is starting to adopt SLRs consistently as a research method. However, the majority of the SLRs did not evaluate the quality of primary studies and fail to provide guidelines for practitioners, thus decreasing their potential impact on software engineering practice.

Introducing reuse and software product line (SPL) concepts into digital game-development processes isn't a straightforward task. This work presents a systematic process for bridging SPLs to game development, culminating with domain-specific languages and generators streamlined for game subdomains. The authors present a game SPL for arcade games as a case study to illustrate and evaluate their proposed guidelines. This article is part of a special issue on games.

A complete alternative and cheaper route for production of glassy polymeric carbon electrodes in laboratorial scale is described. Two kinds of polyphenolic resins were synthesized by mixing the precursors phenol and formaldehyde with 1) ammonium or 2) sodium hydroxide as catalyst. A shorter treatment time of 3.5 days (from 25 to 1000 °C) was employed for preparation of the electrodic material compared with the 5–7 day period proposed in the literature. The obtained materials were inserted into conventional hollow plastic bodies and electrically contacted with copper wire. After proper polishing, the electrodic materials were tested as working electrodes by cyclic voltammetry technique. The data demonstrated that the use of sodium hydroxide causes peculiar problems such as alkaline residues in the electrodic materials and subsequent fading of final product. On the other hand, the materials obtained by the ammonium hydroxide route presented good results in terms of mechanical resistance, glassy appearance, conductivity and voltammetric response, allowing for application of such materials in electrochemistry.

The extension of frameworks with domain-specific modeling languages (DSML) has proved to be an effective way of improving the productivity in software product-line engineering. However, developing and evolving a DSML is typically a difficult and time-consuming task because it requires to develop and maintain a code generator, which transforms application models into framework-based code. In this paper, we propose a new approach for extending object-oriented frameworks that aims to alleviate this problem. The approach is based on developing an additional aspect-oriented layer that encodes a DSML for building framework-based applications, eliminating the need of implementing a code generator. We further show how a language workbench is capable of automating the construction of DSMLs using the proposed layer.

Octocorals are common components of sublittoral benthic communities in temperate, tropical and polar areas. However, their natural diets and feeding rates are poorly known. The aim of this study was to determine qualitatively–quantitatively the diet of the octocoral Carijoa riisei (snowflake coral) and analyse the distribution and diet composition throughout a whole year at two different depths of the same environment. Hence, 30 colonies were haphazardly sampled for gastric content analysis from 2 and 6 m deep (surface and bottom) at Porto de Galinhas beach, Pernambuco, Brazil, in January, June and October 2006, and March 2007. Relative and absolute abundance, richness and occurrence frequency per gastric cavity were assessed. Shannon–Wiener index (H′) and evenness were also calculated. Items were classified according to the occurrence frequency. The biovolume of preys was estimated from meristic data, and from the biovolume were then estimated wet weight, dry weight and organic carbon. Weighed biovolume (WBV), which relates biomass and abundance, was assessed to estimate the real contribution of preys to octocoral diet. Results attested the presence of 102 phytoplankton and 25 zooplankton taxa. Mean prey size was 112.7 µm. Diatoms showed the greater richness with 88 morphotypes. Only cyanophytes and diatoms, from phytoplankton, were very common (>70%). As a whole, phytoplankton was also the most abundant group (83%), followed by crustacean fragments (5%). Thus, although having low biovolume (3×10−3), the phytoplankton showed the highest WBV (44.5%). Feeding items richness was homogeneous throughout the study year and in both depths, while abundance showed significant seasonal and bathymetric fluctuation. The t-test (Hutchinson) found significant differences for prey item diversity related to depth and season. From the analysis, it is possible to conclude that the C. riisei population of the Brazilian north-eastern coast is polyphagous, but shows preference for phytoplanktonic elements and small prey. Therefore, the species behaves as a passive suspensivorous feeder with equitable biomass contribution from phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Mycobacterium chelonae is one of the most antibiotic-resistant species of the pathogenic, rapidly-growing mycobacteria. The objective of this study was to evaluate the bactericidal activity of classical and new potential drugs, alone and in combinations, against clinical isolates of Mycobacterium chelonae. Clarithromycin was seen to be the most bactericidal drug. In drug combinations, this compound is most useful with gentamicin, fluoroquinolones, rifampicin, linezolid, other aminoglycosides, doxycyline and carbapenems. The combination of tobramycin with ciprofloxacin or moxifloxacin also exhibits similar activity. In conclusion, this study on bactericidal activity of drug combinations against Mycobacterium chelonae confirms the utility of clarithromycin associated with other drugs, and, of the new drugs, the value of moxifloxacin and linezolid.

A solid paraffin-based carbon paste electrode modified with 2-aminothiazole organofunctionalized silica (SiAt-SPCPE) was applied to Ni 2+ determination in commercial ethanol fuel samples. The proposed method comprised four steps: (1) Ni 2+ preconcentration at open circuit potential directly in the ethanol fuel sample, (2) transference of the electrode to an electrochemical cell containing DMG, (3) differential pulse voltammogram registering and (4) surface regeneration by polishing the electrode. The proposed method combines the high Ni 2+ adsorption capacity presented by 2-aminothiazole organofunctionalized silica with the electrochemical properties of the Ni(DMG) 2 complex, whose electrochemical reduction provides the analytical signal. All experimental parameters involved in the proposed method were optimized. Using a preconcentration time of 20 min, it was obtained a linear range from 7.5 × 10 −9 to 1.0 × 10 −6 mol L −1 with detection limit of 2.0 × 10 −9 mol L −1 . Recovery values between 96.5 and 102.4% were obtained for commercial samples spiked with 1.0 μmol L −1 Ni 2+ and the developed electrode was totally stable in ethanolic solutions. The contents of Ni 2+ found in the commercial samples using the proposed method were compared to those obtained by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy by using the F - and t -test. Neither the F - nor t -values exceeded the critical values at 95% confidence level, confirming that there are not statistical differences between the results obtained by both methods. These results indicate that the developed electrode can be successfully employed to reliable Ni 2+ determination in commercial ethanol fuel samples without any sample pretreatment or dilution step.

A rapid and simple method for procaine determination was developed by flow injection analysis (FIA) using a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) as amperometric detector. The present method is based on the amine/hydroxylamine oxidation from procaine monitored at 0.80 V on SPCE in sodium acetate solution pH 6.0. Using the best experimental conditions assigned as: pH 6.0, flow rate of 3.8 mL min −1 , sample volume of 100 μL and analytical path of 30 cm it is possible to construct a linear calibration curve from 9.0 × 10 −6 to 1.0 × 10 −4 mol L −1 . The relative standard deviation for 5.0 × 10 −5 mol L −1 procaine (15 repetitions using the same electrode) is 3.2% and detection limit calculated is 6.0 × 10 −6 mol L −1 . Recoveries obtained for procaine gave a mean values from 94.8 to 102.3% and an analytical frequency of 36 injections per hour was achieved. The method was successfully applied for the determination of procaine in pharmaceutical formulation without any pre-treatment, which are in good accordance with the declared values of manufacturer and an official method based on spectrophotometric analysis.

In this work, a voltammetric method for determination of nitrite in tap and mineral waters samples was developed. The method is based on the reduction of nitrite catalyzed by the electrochemical mediator [Fe(CN)6]3-. A carbon paste electrode (CPE) prepared with solid paraffin as binder agent was used as working electrode and cyclic voltammetry was the voltammetric technique employed for nitrite quantification. All parameters of the analytical method were optimized and the best conditions obtained were: BR buffer 0.04 mol L-1 pH = 1.0 as supporting electrolyte and 0.7 mmol L-1 of Fe(CN)6] 3- in the electrochemical cell. Under these optimized conditions, the method presented a linear range from 0.05 to 2.5 mmol L-1 of nitrite, with limits of detection and quantification equal to 22 and 75 μmol L-1, respectively. Spiked samples of mineral and tap water were analyzed by the proposed method and recovery percentages close to 100 % were obtained for all analyzed samples. Moreover, the method has presented a satisfactory precision since low values of relative standard deviation (RSD) were always obtained. These results indicate that the method allow the reliable determination of nitrite in water samples in a simple and inexpensive way. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v7i1.679

This paper describes a comparative study between the procedures of deconvolution and the second-order derivative of square wave voltammograms to achieve separation of the voltammetric peaks of levofloxacin (LEVO) and norfloxacin (NOR), for their simultaneous quantification in urine samples. The obtained results indicate that the use of second-derivative voltammograms coupled with carbon screen-printed electrodes is the most efficient approach for completely separating the voltammetric peaks of LEVO and NOR. In addition, this approach has produced detection limits lower than 1.0 µmol L-1 and a wide linear range for both drugs. The proposed method was successfully used to simultaneously determine LEVO and NOR in spiked human and bovine urine samples with recovery percentages close to 100% for all analyzed samples.

Differently of the Web Accessibility Guidelines, which are already consolidated as a reference, the initiatives to develop guidelines for accessible mobile applications are recent and several approaches present only suggestions rather than a concrete list of functional requirements. This work analyzed 247 scientific articles to identify requirements that are being considered to different types of impairments. The collected information was consolidated and classified according to groups of impairments. As result, this paper presents the main points of a checklist proposal for functional requirements, which should be considered by mobile applications to ensure accessibility with usability.

The daily behavior of an individual is an important indicator to identify and prevent health problems, so that some works are focusing their investigations on techniques to carry out remote and continuous monitoring of such human behaviors. In this context, our work presents a neural network based application for the automated classification of human movements. This application identifies six basic movements, from the signals obtained from a mobile triaxial accelerometer, and uses these movements to figure out behavioral patterns from their uses. The set of features used to characterize the accelerometer curves provided a classification accuracy of about 91%. Another contribution of this study was to raise up important practical issues that must be considered as extensions of this kind of intelligent monitoring application.

Despite the fact that pedagogical programming environments have been available for several years, some fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming and design, such as encapsulation, interfaces, polymorphism, and inheritance, are not addressed by existing tools to a full extent. This paper presents novel interaction metaphors embodied in tool support that, as opposed to existing tools, makes possible to illustrate such object-oriented programming concepts with first-class representations. A tool referred to as AguiaJ, which is being used at our institution for the past three years, embodies novel interaction metaphors for addressing the aforementioned concepts in a gradual and comprehensive way. We explain the innovative tool features using a running example involving the domain of image manipulation.

The Technical Debt (TD) metaphor has been used in the software community as a way to manage and communicate the long-term consequences that some technical decisions may cause. Although intuitive, researches in TD do not discuss practical approaches to identify and monitor TD items, which could be applied in a transparent way during the process of software evolution. This work proposes a technique based on software metrics that automates the process of TD identification and monitoring. For that end, a subset of metrics was analyzed and related to aspects of TD items. As a form to validate the technique, it was used to analyze a TD item from a past 7 years multinational project. Evidences suggest that TD items can be related to software metrics so that software metric tools could be an important resource to automate the identification and monitoring of TD items.