SINPA: SupportINg the automation of construction PlAnning

We present SINPA: an integrated framework to support construction site planners. The most basic functionality of our tool provides a user-friendly framework to represent causality relations (precedence and parallelism) between the different tasks conforming a project. SINPA strongly relies on a constraint solver and makes an intensive use of constraints. SINPA automatically studies optimisations of the original planning, recomputes the solutions and provides recommendations in an intuitive way so that the planners can modify their original plan. It is important to emphasise that the users of SINPA do not need to work with or understand Constraint Programming.We would like to thank Sergio Zorrilla, construction engineer, for his help during the development of the SINPA tool. His useful comments and hints have contributed to greatly improve SINPA. We would also like to thank the reviewers of the paper for the careful reading and useful comments and suggestions that have improved the quality of the paper. This work has been supported by the Spanish MINECO/FEDER projects FAME (RTI2018-093608-B-C31) and the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE-CM (S2018/TCS-4314) co-funded by EIE Funds of the European Union

An expert system for checking the correctness of memory systems using simulation and metamorphic testing

During the last few years, computer performance has reached a turning point where computing power is no longer the only important concern. This way, the emphasis is shifting from an exclusive focus on the optimisation of the computing system to optimising other systems, like the memory system. Broadly speaking, testing memory systems entails two main challenges: the oracle problem and the reliable test set problem. The former consists in deciding if the outputs of a test suite are correct. The latter refers to providing an appropriate test suite for determining the correctness of the system under test. In this paper we propose an expert system for checking the correctness of memory systems. In order to face these challenges, our proposed system combines two orthogonal techniques – simulation and metamorphic testing – enabling the automatic generation of appropriate test cases and deciding if their outputs are correct. In contrast to conventional expert systems, our system includes a factual database containing the results of previous simulations, and a simulation platform for computing the behaviour of memory systems. The knowledge of the expert is represented in the form of metamorphic relations, which are properties of the analysed system involving multiple inputs and their outputs. Thus, the main contribution of this work is two-fold: a method to automatise the testing process of memory systems, and a novel expert system design focusing on increasing the overall performance of the testing process. To show the applicability of our system, we have performed a thorough evaluation using 500 memory configurations and 4 di erent memory management algorithms, which entailed the execution of more than one million of simulations. The evaluation used mutation testing, injecting faults in the memory management algorithms. The developed expert system was able to detect over 99% of the critical injected faults, hence obtaining very promising results, and outperforming other standard techniques like random testingThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España/FEDER (grant numbers DArDOS, TIN2015-65845-C3-1-R and FAME, RTI2018-093608-B-C31) and the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE under Grant S2018/TCS-4314. The first author is also supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Santander Universidades grant (CT17/17-CT18/17

Validating communication network configurations in cloud and HPC systems using Metamorphic Testing

Funding: This work was supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with the Complutense University as part of the Program to Stimulate Research for Young Doctors in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation) under grant PR65/19-22452, the Spanish MINECO/FEDER project MASSIVE under Grant RTI2018-095255-B-I00, the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE-CM under grant S2018/TCS-4314, and project S2018/TCS-4339 (BLOQUES-CM) co-funded by EIE Funds of the European Union and Comunidad de Madrid.During the last years, the fast evolution of computers and networks has led to the creation of a wide variety of services that have changed the way we live, like video streaming, on-line gaming and online shopping. These services are supported by complex systems, which require not only high computational power but high-speed and low-latency networks to fulfil the expected quality requirements. However, a misleading configuration in one of the thousand components that compose these systems may cause performance bottlenecks and functioning disruptions. Unfortunately, conventional testing methods are not adequate for checking these systems since, on many occasions, there does not exist a mechanism to determine if the behaviour of a system is the expected one. Fortunately, Metamorphic Testing is a valuable and promising testing technique that alleviates the two fundamental problems of testing: the oracle problem and the reliable test set problem. In this paper, we combine Metamorphic Testing and simulation techniques for validating communication network con- figurations in HPC systems. For this, we rely on a catalogue of Metamorphic Relations, based on network communications knowledge, for checking its correctness. In addition, we have conducted an experimental study for analysing the communica- tion network of HPC systems. The results show that Metamorphic Testing is appropriate for checking the correctness of communication networks supported by complex topologies in HPC systems.Postprin

La electrocoagulación, una alternativa al proceso convencional de coagulación de aguas residuales

El tratamiento de residuos consistentes en dispersiones acuosas coloidales, o en emulsiones de aceite en agua, se suele realizar mediante la adición de reactivos al residuo, normalmente disoluciones que contienen sales de hierro y aluminio. Una alternativa a la dosificación de estas disoluciones es la generación por vía electroquímica de los iones necesarios para desestabilizar los coloides de la dispersión, o las microgotas de la emulsión, mediante la utilización de planchas de hierro o aluminio como ánodos de celdas electroquímicas. Esta alternativa se conoce como electrocoagulación, e implica cambios importantes con respecto al proceso convencional,en especial la generación de microburbujas procedentes de los procesos de oxidación y reducción del agua.Estas microburbujas tienen un doble efecto sobre el aguaen tratamiento. Por una parte provocan una turbulencia suave que favorece los procesos de agregación de los contaminantes. Por otra, favorecen los procesos de separación de los contaminantes por flotación, al adherirse a los mismos y disminuir su densidad aparente. En este trabajo se revisan los aspectos más importantes de esta novedosa tecnología electroquímica

Parallel mutation testing for large scale systems

Mutation testing is a valuable technique for measuring the quality of test suites in terms of detecting faults. However, one of its main drawbacks is its high computational cost. For this purpose, several approaches have been recently proposed to speed-up the mutation testing process by exploiting computational resources in distributed systems. However, bottlenecks have been detected when those techniques are applied in large-scale systems. This work improves the performance of mutation testing using large-scale systems by proposing a new load distribution algorithm, and parallelising different steps of the process. To demonstrate the benefits of our approach, we report on a thorough empirical evaluation, which analyses and compares our proposal with existing solutions executed in large-scale systems. The results show that our proposal outperforms the state-of-the-art distribution algorithms up to 35% in three different scenarios, reaching a reduction of the execution time of—at best—up to 99.66%This work was supported by the Spanish MINECO/FEDER project under Grants PID2021- 122270OB-I00, TED2021-129381B-C21 and PID2019-108528RBC22, the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE-CM under Grant S2018/TCS-4314, Project S2018/TCS-4339 (BLOQUES-CM) cofunded by EIE Funds of the European Union and Comunidad de Madrid and the Project HPC-EUROPA3 (INFRAIA-2016-1-730897), with the support of the EC Research Innovation Action under the H2020 Programm

MT-EA4Cloud: A Methodology For testing and optimising energy-aware cloud systems

Currently, using conventional techniques for checking and optimising the energy consumption in cloud systems is unpractical, due to the massive computational resources required. An appropriate test suite focusing on the parts of the cloud to be tested must be efficiently synthesised and executed, while the correctness of the test results must be checked. Additionally, alternative cloud configurations that optimise the energetic consumption of the cloud must be generated and analysed accordingly, which is challenging. To solve these issues we present MT-EA4Cloud, a formal approach to check the correctness – from an energy-aware point of view – of cloud systems and optimise their energy consumption. To make the checking of energy consumption practical, MT-EA4Cloud combines metamorphic testing, evolutionary algorithms and simulation. Metamorphic testing allows to formally model the underlying cloud infrastructure in the form of metamorphic relations. We use metamorphic testing to alleviate both the reliable test set problem, generating appropriate test suites focused on the features reflected in the metamorphic relations, and the oracle problem, using the metamorphic relations to check the generated results automatically. MT-EA4Cloud uses evolutionary algorithms to efficiently guide the search for optimising the energetic consumption of cloud systems, which can be calculated using different cloud simulatorsThis work was supported by the Spanish MINECO/FEDER projects DArDOS, FAME and MASSIVE under Grants TIN2015-65845-C3-1-R, RTI2018-093608-B-C31 and RTI2018-095255- B-I00, and the Comunidad de Madrid project FORTE-CM under grant S2018/TCS-4314. The first author is also supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Santander Universidades grant (CT17/17-CT18/17

Uses and opportunities of emergency calls as a resource for flood risk management

Floods pose significant risks to both human lives and property, necessitating effective flood risk management strategies. One promising approach for enhancing flood risk management is the utilization of emergency calls as a valuable data source. This paper proposes two primary applications of these calls: 1) enhancing the cartography of flood risk areas and 2) improving risk communication systems. The disastrous flood event that took place in the Vega Baja region (Spain) in September 2019 is taken as a case study for this research. On the one hand, by analysing and geolocating emergency calls related to this flood event, we identify additional affected zones that are not represented in the existing cartography, leading to more comprehensive and accurate mapping. On the other hand, the analysis of the 112 calls is used to create a context-based catalogue of warning messages, tailored to address the unique requirements and challenges faced by the local population during the flood event under study. Thus, emergency calls serve as a direct link between the needs of affected population during a flood event and emergency response agencies. Overall, the outputs of this research underscore the importance of integrating emergency call data into flood management frameworks to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience in flood-prone regions in the framework of climate change.Agencia Valenciana de Seguridad y Respuesta a las Emergencias (AVSRE). Generalitat Valenciana

Profiling SLAs for cloud system infrastructures and user interactions

Cloud computing has emerged as a cutting-edge technology which is widely used by both private and public institutions, since it eliminates the capital expense of buying, maintaining, and setting up both hardware and software. Clients pay for the services they use, under the so-called Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which are the contracts that establish the terms and costs of the services. In this paper, we propose the CloudCost UML profile, which allows the modeling of cloud architectures and the users’ behavior when they interact with the cloud to request resources. We then investigate how to increase the profits of cloud infrastructures by using price schemes. For this purpose, we distinguish between two types of users in the SLAs: regular and high-priority users. Regular users do not require a continuous service, so they can wait to be attended to. In contrast, high-priority users require a constant and immediate service, so they pay a greater price for their services. In addition, a computer-aided design tool, called MSCC (Modeling SLAs Cost Cloud), has been implemented to support the CloudCost profile, which enables the creation of specific cloud scenarios, as well as their edition and validation. Finally, we present a complete case study to illustrate the applicability of the CloudCost profile, thus making it possible to draw conclusions about how to increase the profits of the cloud infrastructures studied by adjusting the different cloud parameters and the resource configuration.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (co-financed by European Union FEDER funds) project “FAME (Formal modeling and advanced testing methods. Applications to medicine and computing systems) and MASSIVE (Engineering adaptive software by and for the people in a highly connected world)”, references RTI2018-093608-B-C32 and RTI2018-095255-B-I00. There was also support from the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha project SBPLY/17/180501/000276/ 01 (cofunded with FEDER funds, EU), the Region of Madrid (grant number FORTE-CM, S2018/TCS-4314), and the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with the Complutense University as part of the Program to Stimulate Research for Young Doctors in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation) under grant PR65/19-2245

Fomento del emprendimiento universitario mediante la innovación docente en la asignatura Creación de Empresas

El emprendimiento se configura como un objetivo constante en cualquier sociedad dado que la creación de empresas constituye un motor de innovación, competitividad y crecimiento. Las universidades han iniciado un proceso de apoyo a aquellos que están dispuestos a construirse su propio empleo tratando de conseguir que los graduados y graduadas asuman un compromiso hacia una acción responsable, estén preparados y dispuestos a concebir, emprender y liderar nuevos proyectos empresariales. Para ello es necesario que la universidad posibilite y fomente actitudes innovadoras y actitudes emprendedoras. En este sentido, en los últimos años, los cambios en los programas docentes derivados del Plan Bolonia han buscado reforzar esta línea de acción con la inclusión de asignaturas relacionadas con el emprendimiento y la creación de empresas. Este trabajo pretende determinar si estos cambios en los planes docentes han generado resultados positivos realizando un análisis particularizado de la práctica docente innovadora desarrollada en una de estas asignaturas, implantada recientemente en el grado en Administración de Empresas de la Universidad de Córdoba. Se demuestra cómo la intención fundamentada de crear empresas por parte del alumnado es muy superior en aquellos que han seguido esta materia frente a grupos de estudiantes que aún no la han cursado. Se evidencia que los contenidos, así como las metodologías aplicadas permiten condicionar en el alumno su actitud hacia la actividad emprendedora y empresarial, modificándola positivamente. Por todo ello, se recomienda una mayor coordinación del profesorado implicado en la docencia y se reclama un mayor apoyo por parte de las instituciones públicas.Artículo revisado por pare