550 research outputs found
Model-driven generative programming for BIS mobile applications
The burst on the availability of smart phones based on the Android platform calls for cost-effective techniques to generate mobile apps for general purpose, distributed business information systems (BIS). To mitigate this problem our research aims at applying model-driven techniques to automatically generate usable prototypes with a sound, maintainable, architecture. Following three base principles: model-based generation, separation of concerns, paradigm seamlessness, we try to answer the main guiding question – how to reduce development time and cost by transforming a given domain model into an Android application?
To answer this question we propose to develop an application that follows a generative approach for mobile BIS apps that will mitigate the identified problems. Its input is a platform independent model (PIM), with business rules specified in OCL (Object Constraint Language). We adopted the Design Science Research methodology, that helps gaining problem understanding, identifying systemically appropriate solutions, and in effectively evaluating new and innovative solutions. To better evaluate our solution, besides resorting to third party tools to test specific components integration, we demonstrated its usage and evaluated how well it mitigates a subset of the identified problems in an observational study (we presented our generated apps to an outside audience in a controlled environment to study our model-based centered and, general apps understandability) and communicated its effectiveness to researchers and practitioners.O grande surto de disponibilidade de dispositivos mĂłveis para a plataforma Android requer, tĂ©cnicas generativas de desenvolvimento de aplicações para sistemas comuns e/ou distribuĂdos de informação empresariais/negĂłcio, que otimizem a relação custo-benefĂcio. Para mitigar este problema, esta investigação visa aplicar tĂ©cnicas orientadas a modelos para, automaticamente, gerar protĂłtipos funcionais de aplicações com uma arquitetura robusta e fácil de manter. Seguindo para tal trĂŞs princĂpios base: geração baseada no modelo, separação de aspetos, desenvolvimento sem soturas (sem mudança de paradigma), tentamos dar resposta Ă pergunta orientadora – como reduzir o tempo e custo de desenvolvimento de uma aplicação Android por transformação de um dado modelo de domĂnio?
De modo a responder a esta questĂŁo nĂłs propomos desenvolver uma aplicação que segue uma abordagem generativa para aplicações de informação empresariais/negĂłcio mĂłveis de modo a mitigar os problemas identificados. Esta recebe modelos independentes de plataforma (PIM), com regras de negĂłcio especificadas em OCL (Object Constraint Language). Seguimos a metodologia Design Science Research que ajuda a identificar e perceber o problema, a identificar sistematicamente soluções apropriadas aos problemas e a avaliar mais eficientemente soluções novas e inovadoras. Para melhor avaliar a nossa solução, apesar de recorrermos a ferramentas de terceiros para testar a integração de componentes especĂficos, tambĂ©m demonstramos a sua utilização, atravĂ©s de estudos experimentais (em um ambiente controlado, apresentamos as nossas aplicações geradas a uma audiĂŞncia externa que nos permitiu estudar a compreensibilidade baseada e centrada em modelos e, de um modo geral, das aplicações) avaliamos o quanto esta mitiga um subconjunto de problemas identificados e comunicamos a sua eficácia para investigadores e profissionais
Towards early hemolysis detection: a smartphone based approach
Os especialistas em diagnĂłstico in vitro (IVDs) tĂŞm confiado maioritariamente na inspeção visual (Ăłtica) manual e, em segundo lugar, em sensores Ăłticos ou câmaras embutidas ou dispositivos mĂ©dicos incorporados que suportam o exame da qualidade da amostra na fase prĂ©-analĂtica. Com o aumento dos volumes de amostras para serem processadas e dos respetivos dados complexos gerados por esse processamento, aquelas tĂ©cnicas tornaram-se cada vez mais difĂceis de utilizar, ou os respetivos resultados nĂŁo ficam imediatamente disponĂveis. Para superar as complexidades impostas por tais tĂ©cnicas tradicionais, o aumento do uso de dispositivos mĂłveis e algoritmos de processamento de imagem no setor de saĂşde abriu caminho para a constituição de novos casos de uso baseados em análises mĂłveis de amostras, pois fornecem uma interação simples e intuitiva com objetos gráficos familiares que sĂŁo mostrados no ecrĂŁ dos smartphones. As interfaces gráficas e as tĂ©cnicas de interação suportadas por dispositivos mĂłveis podem pois proporcionar ao especialista em IVD uma sĂ©rie de vantagens e valor agregado devido Ă maior familiaridade com estes dispositivos e Ă grande acessibilidade que evidenciam atualmente, tendo o potencial de facilitar as análises de amostras. No entanto, o uso sistemático de dispositivos mĂłveis no setor da saĂşde encontra-se ainda numa fase muito incipiente, em particular na área de IVD. Nesta tese, propõe-se conceber e discutir a arquitetura, a conceção e a implementação de um protĂłtipo de uma aplicação mĂłvel para smartphone (designada por "HemoDetect") que implementa um conjunto sugerido de algoritmos, interfaces e tĂ©cnicas de interação que foram desenvolvidos com o objetivo de contribuir para a compreensĂŁo de tĂ©cnicas mais eficientes para ajudar a detetar a hemĂłlise, um processo que designa a rotura de glĂłbulos vermelhos (eritrĂłcitos) e libertação do respetivo conteĂşdo (citoplasma) para o fluĂdo circundante (por exemplo, plasma sanguĂneo), complementando-as com estatĂsticas e medições de laboratĂłrio, mostrando a utilização de um protĂłtipo durante experiĂŞncias, permitindo assim chegar-se a um conceito viável que permita apoiar eficazmente a deteção precoce de hemĂłlise.In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) specialists have been firstly relying on manual visual (optical) inspection and, secondly, on optical sensors or cameras embedded or built-in medical devices which support the examination of sample quality in pre-analytical phase. With increasing sample processing volumes and their generated complex data, these techniques have become increasingly difficult or results are not readily available. In order to overcome the complexities posed by these traditional techniques, the increased usage of mobile devices and algorithms in the healthcare industry paves the way into shaping new use cases and discovery of mobile analysis of samples, as they provide a user-friendly and familiar interaction with objects displayed on their screens. The interfaces and interaction techniques rendered by mobile devices, bring, to the IVD specialist, a number of advantages and added value due to increased familiarity with the devices or their accessibility, which is made easier. However, they are at the beginning of their journey in the healthcare industry, in particular in the IVD and point-of-care areas. In this thesis, the proposal is to discover and discuss the architecture, design and implementation of a smartphone prototype app (called “HemoDetect”) with its algorithms, interfaces and interaction techniques which was developed to help detect hemolysis which represents the rupture of red blood cells (erythrocytes) and release of their contents (cytoplasm) into surrounding fluid (e.g. blood plasma), and complementing it with from-the-lab statistics and measurements showing its utilization during experiments, which ultimately may be a feasible concept that could support early hemolysis detection.Les spĂ©cialistes du diagnostic in vitro (DIV) se sont d'abord appuyĂ©s sur l'inspection visuelle (optique) manuelle et, ensuite, sur des capteurs optiques ou des camĂ©ras intĂ©grĂ©es ou intĂ©grĂ©es Ă des dispositifs mĂ©dicaux qui facilitent l'examen de la qualitĂ© des Ă©chantillons en phase prĂ©-analytique. Avec l'augmentation des volumes de traitement des Ă©chantillons et des donnĂ©es complexes gĂ©nĂ©rĂ©es, ces techniques sont devenues de plus en plus difficiles ou les rĂ©sultats ne sont pas facilement disponibles. Afin de surmonter les complexitĂ©s posĂ©es par ces techniques traditionnelles, l'utilisation croissante des appareils mobiles et des algorithmes dans le secteur de la santĂ© ouvre la voie Ă la dĂ©finition de nouveaux cas d'utilisation et Ă la dĂ©couverte d'analyses d'Ă©chantillons mobiles, car ils fournissent une interaction conviviale et familière. avec des objets affichĂ©s sur leurs Ă©crans. Les interfaces et les techniques d'interaction rendues par les appareils mobiles apportent au spĂ©cialiste des dispositifs de DIV un certain nombre d'avantages et de valeur ajoutĂ©e en raison d'une familiarisation accrue avec les appareils ou de leur accessibilitĂ©, ce qui est facilitĂ©. Cependant, ils sont au dĂ©but de leur parcours dans le secteur de la santĂ©, en particulier dans le domains des DIV et point-of-care. Dans cette thèse, la proposition est de dĂ©couvrir et de discuter de l’architecture, de la conception et de la mise en oeuvre d’une application pour smartphone (appelĂ©e «HemoDetect») avec ses algorithmes, interfaces et techniques d’interaction, qui a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©veloppĂ©e pour aider Ă dĂ©tecter l’hĂ©molyse qui reprĂ©sente une rupture des globules rouges (Ă©rythrocytes) et la libĂ©ration de leur contenu (cytoplasme) dans le liquide environnant (par exemple, le plasma sanguin), en le complĂ©tant par des statistiques de laboratoire et des mesures montrant son utilisation au cours des expĂ©riences, ce qui pourrait finalement ĂŞtre un concept rĂ©alisable qui pourrait permettre une dĂ©tection prĂ©coce de l'hĂ©molyse
Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"
Distributed collaborative context-aware content-centric workflow management for mobile devices
Ubiquitous mobile devices have become a necessity in today’s society, opening new opportunities for interaction and collaboration between geographically distributed people. With the increased use of mobile phones, people can collaborate while on the move. Collaborators expect technologies that would enhance their teamwork and respond to their individual needs.
Workflow is a widely used technology that supports collaboration and can be adapted for a variety of collaborative scenarios. Although the originally computer-based workflow technology has expanded also on mobile devices, there are still research challenges in the development of user-focused device-oriented collaborative workflows.
As opposed to desktop computers, mobile devices provide a different, more personalised user experience and are carried by their owners everywhere. Mobile devices can capture user context and behave as digitalised user complements. By integrating context awareness into the workflow technology, workflow decisions can be based on local, context information and therefore, be more adapted to individual collaborators’ circumstances and expectations. Knowing the current context of collaborators and their mobile devices is useful, especially in mobile peer-topeer collaboration where the workflow process execution can be driven by devices according to the situation.
In mobile collaboration, team workers share pictures, videos, or other content. Monitoring and exchanging the information on the current state of the content processed on devices can enhance the overall workflow execution. As mobile devices in peer-to-peer collaboration are not aware of a global workflow state, the content state information can be used to communicate progress among collaborators. However, there is still a lack of integrating content lifecycles in process-oriented workflows.
The aim of this research was therefore to investigate how workflow technology can be adapted for mobile peer-to-peer collaboration, in particular, how the level of context awareness in mobile collaborative workflows can be increased and how the extra content lifecycle management support can be integrated.
The collaborative workflow technology has been adapted for mobile peerto- peer collaboration by integrating context and content awareness. In the first place, a workflow-specific context management approach has been developed that allows defining workflow-specific context models and supports the integration of context models with collaborative workflows. Workflow process has been adapted to make decisions based on context information. Secondly, extra content management support has been added to the workflow technology. A representation for content lifecycles has been designed, and content lifecycles have been integrated with the workflow process.
In this thesis, the MobWEL workflow approach is introduced. The Mob- WEL workflow approach allows defining, managing and executing mobile context-aware content-centric workflows. MobWEL is a workflow execution language that extends BPEL, using constructs from existing workflow approaches, Context4BPEL and BPELlight, and adopting elements from the BALSA workflow model. The MobWEL workflow management approach is a technology-based solution that has been designed to provide workflow management support to a specific class of mobile applications
Understanding and assessing security on Android via static code analysis
Smart devices have become a rich source of sensitive information including personal data (contacts and account data) and context information like GPS data that is continuously aggregated by onboard sensors. As a consequence, mobile platforms have become a prime target for malicious and over-curious applications. The growing complexity and the quickly rising number of mobile apps have further reinforced the demand for comprehensive application security vetting. This dissertation presents a line of work that advances security testing on Android via static code analysis. In the first part of this dissertation, we build an analysis framework that statically models the complex runtime behavior of apps and Android’s application framework (on which apps are built upon) to extract privacy and security-relevant data-flows. We provide the first classification of Android’s protected resources within the framework and generate precise API-to-permission mappings that excel over prior work. We then propose a third-party library detector for apps that is resilient against common code obfuscations to measure the outdatedness of libraries in apps and to attribute vulnerabilities to the correct software component. Based on these results, we identify root causes of app developers not updating their dependencies and propose actionable items to remedy the current status quo. Finally, we measure to which extent libraries can be updated automatically without modifying the application code.Smart Devices haben sich zu Quellen persönlicher Daten (z.B. Kontaktdaten) und Kontextinformationen (z.B. GPS Daten), die kontinuierlich über Sensoren gesammelt werden, entwickelt. Aufgrund dessen sind mobile Platformen ein attraktives Ziel für Schadsoftware geworden. Die stetig steigende App Komplexität und Anzahl verfügbarer Apps haben zusätzlich ein Bedürfnis für gründliche Sicherheitsüberprüfungen von Applikationen geschaffen. Diese Dissertation präsentiert eine Reihe von Forschungsarbeiten, die Sicherheitsbewertungen auf Android durch statische Code Analyse ermöglicht. Zunächst wurde ein Analyseframework gebaut, dass das komplexe Laufzeitverhalten von Apps und Android’s Applikationsframework (dessen Funktionalität Apps nutzen) statisch modelliert, um sicherheitsrelevante Datenflüsse zu extrahieren. Zudem ermöglicht diese Arbeit eine Klassifizierung geschützter Framework Funktionalität und das Generieren präziser Mappings von APIs-auf-Berechtigungen. Eine Folgearbeit stellt eine obfuskierungs-resistente Technik zur Erkennung von Softwarekomponenten innerhalb der App vor, um die Aktualität der Komponenten und, im Falle von Sicherheitlücken, den Urheber zu identifizieren. Darauf aufbauend wurde Ursachenforschung betrieben, um herauszufinden wieso App Entwickler Komponenten nicht aktualisieren und wie man diese Situation verbessern könnte. Abschließend wurde untersucht bis zu welchem Grad man veraltete Komponenten innerhalb der App automatisch aktualisieren kann
Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering
computer software maintenance; computer software selection and evaluation; formal logic; formal methods; formal specification; programming languages; semantics; software engineering; specifications; verificatio
PRODUCT LINE ARCHITECTURE FOR HADRONTHERAPY CONTROL SYSTEM: APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT AND CERTIFICATION
Hadrontherapy is the treatment of cancer with charged ion beams. As the
charged ion beams used in hadrontherapy are required to be accelerated to
very large energies, the particle accelerators used in this treatment are
complex and composed of several sub-systems. As a result, control systems
are employed for the supervision and control of these accelerators.
Currently, The Italian National Hadrontherapy Facility (CNAO) has the
objective of modernizing one of the software environments of its control
system. Such a project would allow for the integration of new types of
devices into the control system, such as mobile devices, as well as
introducing newer technologies into the environment.
In order to achieve this, this work began with the requirement analysis
and definition of a product line architecture for applications of the upgraded
control system environment. The product line architecture focuses on
reliability, maintainability, and ease of compliance with medical software
certification directives. This was followed by the design and development of
several software services aimed at allowing the communication of the
environments applications and other components of the control system, such
as remote file access, relational data access, and OPC-UA. In addition,
several libraries and tools have been developed to support the development
of future control system applications, following the defined product line
architecture.
Lastly, a pilot application was created using the tools developed during
this work, as well as the preliminary results of a cross-environment
integration project. The approach followed in this work is later evaluated by
comparing the developed tools to their legacy counterparts, as well as
estimating the impact of future applications following the defined product
line architecture.Hadrontherapy is the treatment of cancer with charged ion beams. As the
charged ion beams used in hadrontherapy are required to be accelerated to
very large energies, the particle accelerators used in this treatment are
complex and composed of several sub-systems. As a result, control systems
are employed for the supervision and control of these accelerators.
Currently, The Italian National Hadrontherapy Facility (CNAO) has the
objective of modernizing one of the software environments of its control
system. Such a project would allow for the integration of new types of
devices into the control system, such as mobile devices, as well as
introducing newer technologies into the environment.
In order to achieve this, this work began with the requirement analysis
and definition of a product line architecture for applications of the upgraded
control system environment. The product line architecture focuses on
reliability, maintainability, and ease of compliance with medical software
certification directives. This was followed by the design and development of
several software services aimed at allowing the communication of the
environments applications and other components of the control system, such
as remote file access, relational data access, and OPC-UA. In addition,
several libraries and tools have been developed to support the development
of future control system applications, following the defined product line
architecture.
Lastly, a pilot application was created using the tools developed during
this work, as well as the preliminary results of a cross-environment
integration project. The approach followed in this work is later evaluated by
comparing the developed tools to their legacy counterparts, as well as
estimating the impact of future applications following the defined product
line architecture
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