An algebra for feature-oriented software development

Feature-Oriented Software Development (FOSD) provides a multitude of formalisms, methods, languages, and tools for building variable, customizable, and extensible software. Along different lines of research different ideas of what a feature is have been developed. Although the existing approaches have similar goals, their representations and formalizations have not been integrated so far into a common framework. We present a feature algebra as a foundation of FOSD. The algebra captures the key ideas and provides a common ground for current and future research in this field, in which also alternative options can be explored

Sensor Data Visualisation: A Composition-Based Approach to Support Domain Variability

International audienceIn the context of the Internet of Things, sensors are surrounding our environment. These small pieces of electronics are inserted in everyday life's elements (e.g., cars, doors, radiators, smartphones) and continuously collect information about their environment. One of the biggest challenges is to support the development of accurate monitoring dashboard to visualise such data. The one-size-fits-all paradigm does not apply in this context, as user's roles are variable and impact the way data should be visualised: a building manager does not need to work on the same data as classical users. This paper presents an approach based on model composition techniques to support the development of such monitoring dashboards, taking into account the domain variability. This variability is supported at both implementation and modelling levels. The results are validated on a case study named SmartCampus, involving sensors deployed in a real academic campus

Definition and Verification of Security Configurations of Cyber-Physical Systems

The proliferation of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) is rais ing serious security challenges. These are complex systems, integrating physical elements into automated networked systems, often containing a variety of devices, such as sensors and actuators, and requiring complex management and data storage. This makes the construction of secure CPSs a challenge, requiring not only an adequate specification of secu rity requirements and needs related to the business domain but also an adaptation and concretion of these requirements to define a security configuration of the CPS where all its components are related. Derived from the complexity of the CPS, their configurations can be incorrect according to the requirements, and must be verified. In this paper, we propose a grammar for specifying business domain security requirements based on the CPS components. This will allow the definition of security requirements that, through a defined security feature model, will result in a configuration of services and security properties of the CPS, whose correctness can be verified. For this last stage, we have created a cata logue of feature models supported by a tool that allows the automatic verification of security configurations. To illustrate the results, the pro posal has been applied to automated verification of requirements in a hydroponic system scenario.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología RTI2018-094283-B-C33 (ECLIPSE)Junta de Andalucía METAMORFOSIS (US-1381375)Junta de Castilla.La Mancha SBPLY-17-180501-000202 (GENESIS

A coalgebraic perspective on logical interpretations

In Computer Science stepwise refinement of algebraic specifications is a well-known formal methodology for rigorous program development. This paper illustrates how techniques from Algebraic Logic, in particular that of interpretation, understood as a multifunction that preserves and reflects logical consequence, capture a number of relevant transformations in the context of software design, reuse, and adaptation, difficult to deal with in classical approaches. Examples include data encapsulation and the decomposition of operations into atomic transactions. But if interpretations open such a new research avenue in program refinement, (conceptual) tools are needed to reason about them. In this line, the paper’s main contribution is a study of the correspondence between logical interpretations and morphisms of a particular kind of coalgebras. This opens way to the use of coalgebraic constructions, such as simulation and bisimulation, in the study of interpretations between (abstract) logics.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Island in the neoliberal stream: energy security and soft re-nationalisation in Hungary

Since 2010, the Hungarian Government has increased its stake in the country’s energy sector at the expense of foreign-owned energy companies. This ‘soft re-nationalisation’ is driven by both exogenous and endogenous factors, especially the country’s external dependence on gas imports, its previous commitment to a European model of energy liberalisation, public dissatisfaction with high energy prices and the emergence of an ‘illiberal state’. The case of Hungary’s ‘soft re-nationalisation’ yields two central findings. Firstly, conceptually, there is a need to move away from just focusing on the radical re-nationalisation of energy in the form of resource nationalism, and instead understand re-nationalisation as consisting of a broad spectrum of state interventions into the energy market. Secondly, Hungary’s recent ‘statist turn’ in the energy sector highlights inherent tensions within EU energy policy as it threatens attempts to establish a fully liberalised and marketised energy market across the continen