Applying acceptance requirements to requirements modeling tools via gamification: a case study on privacy and security.

Requirements elicitation, analysis and modeling are critical activities for software success. However, software systems are increasingly complex, harder to develop due to an ever-growing number of requirements from numerous and heterogeneous stakeholders, concerning dozens of requirements types, from functional to qualitative, including adaptation, security and privacy, ethical, acceptance and more. In such settings, requirements engineers need support concerning such increasingly complex activities, and Requirements Engineering (RE) modeling tools have been developed for this. However, such tools, although effective, are complex, time-consuming and requiring steep learning curves. The consequent lack of acceptance and abandonment in using such tools, by engineers, paves the way to the application of RE techniques in a more error-prone, low-quality way, increasing the possibility to have failures in software systems delivered. In this paper, we identify main areas of lack of acceptance, affecting RE engineers, for such tools, and propose an approach for making modeling tools more effective in engaging the engineer in performing RE in a tool-based way, receiving adequate feedback and staying motivated to use modeling tools. This is accomplished by performing acceptance requirements analysis (through the Agon Framework) and using gamification to increase the engagement of engineers during the usage of RE modeling tools. Towards this end, we performed a case study, within the VisiOn European Project, for enhancing a tool for modeling privacy and security requirements. Our case study provides preliminary evidence that our approach supports in making RE modeling tools more engaging from the engineer perspective

Il gioco della logica tra uso del linguaggio e costruzione della scienza.

E tanto più intendo tanto più ignoro, motto di Tommaso Campanella, può servire a spiegare, bene, le virgolette messe attorno alla parola: gioco, ed il suo carattere, ambiguo e contraddittorio, essendo tutto ciò vero tanto nello uso del linguaggio, quanto nella costruzione della scienza. Quanto segue si dipana in alcuni meandri della filosofia analitica, a partire dal positivismo logico, dove molto forte è l’accanirsi contro la metafisica. A riguardo, avendo presente l’uso rinnovato del termine, fatto da giovani filosofi contemporanei, corre il dovere di precisare la sua validità, se significa andare oltre le cose fisiche, con le assunzioni necessarie per pensare e fare scienza. Al contrario, validissimo è il rigetto della metafisica, quando questa voglia dire, come nella tradizione della storia del pensiero, rifarsi a principi primi indiscutibili ed assoluti. Rudolf Carnap e Karl Raimund Popper sono i maggiori esponenti delle scuole filosofiche, prese in esame. La trattazione collega linguaggio e costruzione della scienza, perché una concezione moderna descrive la scienza come un linguaggio, capace di leggere la realtà fisica, dove la complessità della analisi cresce al crescere della complessità della modellazione adottata. Infatti oltre a muoversi liberamente nello spazio, parametrizzato con righe, colonne e pile, è spesso necessario muoversi congiuntamente nel tempo e/o nel cosiddetto spazio delle scale, entrambi parametrizzati con pioli e montanti, a seconda che si permanga ad un dato livello, oppure si passi da un livello ad un altro. Da altra parte, un esempio musicale dà il segno della complessità: le cinque note pentatoniche (la si do re mi fa sol) permettono 720 permutazioni, mentre le dodici note (mettendo insieme i tasti bianchi e neri del pianoforte) permettono 479.001.600 permutazioni e, anche limitandosi alle ventiquattro scale armoniche, maggiori e minori (sulle sette note del clavicembalo ben temperato), il numero di permutazioni è 120.960. In questo contesto, il superamento della empiria fa passare dalla capacità di verificazione alla sola possibilità di falsificazione, dove è possibile dire quello che è errato, ma non è possibile certificare quello che è esatto. Infatti la verità è sempre provvisoria e precaria, valida fino ad una possibile smentita, più o meno prossima, e le costruzioni tecniche, sociali, economiche e politiche sono, sempre e solo, governate dal dubbio ed altrettanto precarie e provvisorie. Infine con un salto notevole di contenuto, ma affatto estraneo alla vita ed alle concezioni dei pensatori (qui già citati e/o citati nel seguito), è davvero difficile, soprattutto in questi tempi così tanto travagliati, separare il parlare alto di ricerca scientifica e tecnologica, nonché di storia della scienza e della tecnica, e di epistemologia, dai casi della vita quotidiana, vari e diversi. Di fronte a tutti questi è davvero difficile scegliere la strada migliore, in ogni caso, ben sapendo come occorra, sempre ed ovunque, il coraggio e lo impegno e talvolta anche la ribellione

Vulnerability assessment of concrete bridges using different methods of visual inspection

This paper shows the comparisons between different methods of visual inspection used in European Countries. These methodologies are applied to the deck bridge located near Cagliari, along the SS 195 road to Capoterra. From a strategic point of view, this structure plays a key role ensuring a direct connection to different structures related to industrial and local productions and to an important touristic district. This is a prestressed concrete bridge in an aggressive marine environment, which in October 2008 was hit by a flood that caused subsidence in the foundations. The aim of our inspection is to obtain a real measure of the vulnerability through different procedures and to determine which is the best method able to give objective results

Android source code vulnerability detection: a systematic literature review

The use of mobile devices is rising daily in this technological era. A continuous and increasing number of mobile applications are constantly offered on mobile marketplaces to fulfil the needs of smartphone users. Many Android applications do not address the security aspects appropriately. This is often due to a lack of automated mechanisms to identify, test, and fix source code vulnerabilities at the early stages of design and development. Therefore, the need to fix such issues at the initial stages rather than providing updates and patches to the published applications is widely recognized. Researchers have proposed several methods to improve the security of applications by detecting source code vulnerabilities and malicious codes. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) focuses on Android application analysis and source code vulnerability detection methods and tools by critically evaluating 118 carefully selected technical studies published between 2016 and 2022. It highlights the advantages, disadvantages, applicability of the proposed techniques and potential improvements of those studies. Both Machine Learning (ML) based methods and conventional methods related to vulnerability detection are discussed while focusing more on ML-based methods since many recent studies conducted experiments with ML. Therefore, this paper aims to enable researchers to acquire in-depth knowledge in secure mobile application development while minimizing the vulnerabilities by applying ML methods. Furthermore, researchers can use the discussions and findings of this SLR to identify potential future research and development directions

ESG in the financial industry: What matters for rating analysts?

This paper examines ESG rating analysts' views from Sustainalytics in order to highlight the main ESG features discussed across 11 sectors. We perform a topic modeling and a sentiment analysis to identify the content of analysts' opinions on the companies' ESG performance and to uncover the embedded sentiment associated with each ESG feature. The results of the topic modeling consist of 13 topics with a sector driven distribution. The analysis suggests that the best ESG performing financial institutions show to be actively committed to the code of best practice in governance and disclosure transparency. Whereas penalized financial entities seem to manifest less attention to ethical conduct and mis-selling. Furthermore, data privacy and security attract analysts' attention and should be closely monitored by financial entities. Finally, it is important to actively disclose ESG activities as the more information is available the better ESG commitment is reflected in analysts' views

An Application of IoT in a Drone Inspection Service for Environmental Control

This paper presents an exploratory activity with a drone inspection service for environmental control. The aim of the service is to provide technical support to decision-makers in environmental risk management. The proposed service uses IoT for the interaction between a mobile application, a Smart City platform, and an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The mobile application allows the users to report risky situations, such as fire ignition, spills of pollutants in water, or illegal dumping; the user has only to specify the class of the event, while the geographical coordinates are automatically taken from device-integrated GPS. The message sent from the mobile application arrives to a Smart City platform, which shows all the received alerts on a 3D satellite map, to support decision-makers in choosing where a drone inspection is required. From the Smart City platform, the message is sent to the drone service operator; a CSV file defining the itinerary of the drone is automatically built and shown through the platform; the drone starts the mission providing a video, which is used by the decision-makers to understand whether the situation calls for immediate action. An experimental activity in an open field was carried out to validate the whole chain, from the alert to the drone mission, enriched by a Smart City platform to enable a decision-maker to better manage the situation

Food waste reduction in supply chains through innovations: a review

Purpose: Agri-food supply chains are facing a number of challenges, which cause inefficiencies resulting in the waste of natural and economic resources, and in negative environmental and social impacts. Food waste (FW) is a result of such inefficiencies and supply chain actors search for economically viable innovations to prevent and reduce it. This study aims to analyse the drivers and the barriers that affect the decision of supply chain operators to adopt innovations (technological – TI, organisational – OI and marketing – MI) to reduce FW. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis was carried out using a four-step approach that included: a literature review to identify factors affecting the decision to adopt innovations; analysis of FW drivers and reduction possibilities along agri-food supply chains through innovations; mapping the results of Steps 1 and 2 and deriving conclusions regarding the factors affecting the adoption of innovations to reduce and prevent FW. Findings: Results show that different types of innovations have a high potential in reducing and preventing FW along the supply chain; however, they still must be economically feasible to be adopted by decision makers in the food supply chain. TI, OI and MI are often interrelated and can trigger each other. When it comes to a combination of different types of innovation to reduce and prevent FW, a good example of combining TI, OI and MI may be observed in the retail sector in Europe. Here, innovative smartphone apps (TI) to promote the sale of products nearing their expiration dates (OI in terms of organising the sales differently and MI in terms of marketing it differently) were developed and adopted via different retailing channels, leading to the creation of a new business model. Practical implications: This study analyses the drivers of FW generation together with the factors affecting the decision to adopt innovations to reduce it and provides solutions to supply chain operators to prevent and reduce FW through different types of innovations. Originality/value: Literature has not systematically addressed innovations aiming at the reduction of FW yet. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the determinants of innovation adoption and offers a novel view on the problem of FW reduction by means of innovation, by linking factors affecting the decision to innovate with FW drivers

Age-related changes in the energy of human mesenchymal stem cells

Aging is a physiological process that leads to a higher risk for the most devastating diseases. There are a number of theories of human aging proposed, and many of them are directly or indirectly linked to mitochondria. Here, we used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from young and older donors to study age-related changes in mitochondrial metabolism. We have found that aging in MSCs is associated with a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and lower NADH levels in mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA content is higher in aged MSCs, but the overall mitochondrial mass is decreased due to increased rates of mitophagy. Despite the higher level of ATP in aged cells, a higher rate of ATP consumption renders them more vulnerable to energy deprivation compared to younger cells. Changes in mitochondrial metabolism in aged MSCs activate the overproduction of reactive oxygen species in mitochondria which is compensated by a higher level of the endogenous antioxidant glutathione. Thus, energy metabolism and redox state are the drivers for the aging of MSCs/mesenchymal stromal cells

Old African fossils provide new evidence for the origin of the American crocodiles

Molecular and morphological phylogenies concur in indicating that the African lineages formerly referred to Crocodylus niloticus are the sister taxon the four Neotropical crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius, C. moreleti, C. acutus and C. rhombifer), implying a transoceanic dispersal from Africa to America. So far the fossil record did not contribute to identify a possible African forerunner of the Neotropical species but, curiously, the oldest remains referred to the African C. niloticus are Quaternary in age, whereas the oldest American fossils of Crocodylus are older, being dated to the early Pliocene, suggesting that another species could be involved. We re-described, also thanks to CT imaging, the only well-preserved topotipic skull of Crocodylus checchiai Maccagno, 1947 from the late Miocene (Messinian) African site of As Sahabi in Libya. As previously suggested on the basis of late Miocene material from Tanzania, C. checchiai is a valid, diagnosable species. According to our phylogenetic analyses, C. checchiai is related to the Neotropical taxa and could be even located at the base of their radiation, therefore representing the missing link between the African and the American lineages

Modulatory effect of nicotinic acid on the metabolism of Caco-2 cells exposed to IL-1β and LPS

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are the most common gastrointestinal inflammatory pathologies. Previous work evidenced a lower content of nicotinic acid (NA) in feces of IBD patients compared to healthy subjects. In the present study, we aimed to understand the effects of NA on intestinal inflammation, as several studies reported its possible beneficial effect, and investigate its influence on inflammation-driven metabolism. NA was tested on a Caco-2 in-vitro model in which inflammation was induced with interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), two mayor proinflammatory compounds produced in IBD, that stimulate the production of cytokines, such as interleukin 8. A metabolomics approach, with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and nuclear proton magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), was applied to study the metabolic changes. The results showed that NA significantly reduced the level of IL-8 produced in both LPS and IL-1β stimulated cells, confirming the anti-inflammatory effect of NA also on intestinal inflammation. Moreover, it was demonstrated that NA treatment had a restoring effect on several metabolites whose levels were modified by treatments with IL-1β or LPS. This study points out a possible use of NA as anti-inflammatory compound and might be considered as a promising starting point in understanding the beneficial effect of NA in IBD