Embedding Spatial Software Visualization in the IDE: an Exploratory Study

Software visualization can be of great use for understanding and exploring a software system in an intuitive manner. Spatial representation of software is a promising approach of increasing interest. However, little is known about how developers interact with spatial visualizations that are embedded in the IDE. In this paper, we present a pilot study that explores the use of Software Cartography for program comprehension of an unknown system. We investigated whether developers establish a spatial memory of the system, whether clustering by topic offers a sound base layout, and how developers interact with maps. We report our results in the form of observations, hypotheses, and implications. Key findings are a) that developers made good use of the map to inspect search results and call graphs, and b) that developers found the base layout surprising and often confusing. We conclude with concrete advice for the design of embedded software maps.Comment: To appear in proceedings of SOFTVIS 2010 conferenc

Biotechnological modification and functionalisation of polyester surfaces

Synthetic fibers form an important part of the textile industry, the production of polyester alone surpassing that of cotton. A disadvantage of synthetic fibers is their low hydrophilicity. Polyester fibers are particularly hydrophobic. This affects the processability and functionalisation of the fibers. A relatively new and promising alternative is the use of enzymes in surface modification of synthetic fibers. Synthetic materials have generally been considered resistant to biological degradation; recent developments at different research groups demonstrate that enzymes are very well capable of hydrolysing synthetic materials

Security Code Smells in Android ICC

Android Inter-Component Communication (ICC) is complex, largely unconstrained, and hard for developers to understand. As a consequence, ICC is a common source of security vulnerability in Android apps. To promote secure programming practices, we have reviewed related research, and identified avoidable ICC vulnerabilities in Android-run devices and the security code smells that indicate their presence. We explain the vulnerabilities and their corresponding smells, and we discuss how they can be eliminated or mitigated during development. We present a lightweight static analysis tool on top of Android Lint that analyzes the code under development and provides just-in-time feedback within the IDE about the presence of such smells in the code. Moreover, with the help of this tool we study the prevalence of security code smells in more than 700 open-source apps, and manually inspect around 15% of the apps to assess the extent to which identifying such smells uncovers ICC security vulnerabilities.Comment: Accepted on 28 Nov 2018, Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), 201

NO BUG: biobased mosquitoes repellent personal protective equipment (PPE)

In tropical regions (South America, Asia and Africa) diseases like malaria and dengue cause many deaths. These diseases are transmitted through mosquitoes bites (Anopheles sp. and Aedes aegypti respectively). The current practice to protect against transmission of these diseases is by use of mosquito repellents. Common mosquito repellents used today are synthetic in nature and are suspected or have been proved to be harmful to the user and environment (e.g. DEET, DDT, dimethylphylphthalate, parathion etc). This research work is part of the FP7 No-Bug project (Novel release system and bio-based utilities for insect repellent textiles). The main interest of the project is personal protective textiles against insects (mosquitoes) for application not only in tropical areas where vector borne diseases are a major threat to the public health but also in European countries where the presence of mosquitoes can be nuisance. To solve the problems associated with the synthetic repellents, novel bio-repellents will be identified and an innovative slow release system established. Our aim is to develop a novel insect repellent personal protective equipment to be used by professional travelers (education, business, research, volunteers, missionary and peace corps) when they travel for duty in mosquito prone areas. The target mosquitoes are Anopheles stephensi which cause malaria and Aedes aegypti that transmit dengue