The Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering: Past, Present and Future

CONTEXT: Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is the research field where Software Engineering (SE) problems are modelled as search problems to be solved by search-based techniques. The Symposium on Search Based Software Engineering (SSBSE) is the premier event on SBSE, which had its 11th edition in 2019. OBJECTIVE: In order to better understand the characteristics and evolution of papers published at SSBSE, this work reports results from a mapping study targeting the proceedings of all SSBSE editions. Despite the existing mapping studies on SBSE, our contribution in this work is to provide information to researchers and practitioners willing to enter the SBSE field, being a source of information to strengthen the symposium, guide new studies, and motivate new collaboration among research groups. METHOD: A systematic mapping study was conducted with a set of four research questions, in which 134 studies published in all editions of SSBSE, dated from 2009 to 2019, were evaluated. In a fifth question, 32 papers published in the challenge track were summarised. RESULTS: Throughout the years, 290 authors from 25 countries have contributed to the main track of the symposium, with the collaboration of at least two institutions in 46.3% of the papers. SSBSE papers have got substantial external visibility, as most citations are from different venues. The SE tasks addressed by SSBSE are mostly related to software testing, software debugging, software design, and maintenance. Evolutionary algorithms are present in 75% of the papers, being the most common search technique. The evaluation of the SBSE approaches usually includes industrial systems. CONCLUSIONS: SSBSE has helped increase the popularity of SBSE in the SE research community and has played an important role on making SBSE mature. There are still problems and challenges to be addressed in the SBSE field, which can be tackled by SSBSE authors in further studies

An adaptive memetic algorithm for the architecture optimisation problem

Architecture design is one of the most important steps in software development, since design decisions affect the quality of the final system (e.g. reliability and performance). Due to the ever-growing complexity and size of software systems, deciding on the best design is a computationally intensive and complex task. This issue has been tackled by using optimisation method, such as local search and genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms work well in rugged fitness landscapes, whereas local search methods are successful when the search space is smooth. The strengths of these two algorithms have been combined to create memetic algorithms, which have shown to be more efficient than genetic algorithms and local search on their own. A major point of concern with memetic algorithms is the likelihood of loosing the exploration capacity because of the ‘exploitative’ nature of local search. To address this issue, this work uses an adaptive scheme to control the local search application. The utilised scheme takes into account the diversity of the current population. Based on the diversity indicator, it decides whether to call local search or not. Experiments were conducted on the component deployment problem to evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with and without the adaptive local search algorithm

RhoA pathway and actin regulation of the golgi/centriole complex

International audienceIn vertebrate cells, the Golgi apparatus is located in close proximity to the centriole. The architecture of the Golgi/centriole complex depends on a multitude of factors, including the actin filament cytoskeleton. In turn, both the Golgi and centriole act as the actin nucleation centers. Actin organization and polymerization also depend on the small GTPase RhoA pathway. In this chapter, we summarize the most current knowledge on how the genetic, magnetic, or pharmacologic interference with RhoA pathway and actin cytoskeleton directly or indirectly affects architecture, structure, and function of the Golgi/centriole complex