Improving requirements with NLP techniques

Elaborating “good” requirements specifications is an important factor for the success of a software project. Requirements are normally expressed using textual descriptions in natural language, but not without problems. Some requirements documentation techniques, such as use cases specifications, often focus on functionality and leave many concerns understated in the text and scattered through several documents. These concerns, commonly known as crosscutting or architecturally-relevant concerns, often come from business goals or quality attributes that must be clearly identified by analysts and developers, as these concerns can have a far-reaching effect in the development process. Not treating these concerns at early development stages can lead to poor design solutions that become difficult (and costly) to fix afterwards. Unfortunately, searching for concerns in textual requirements is a difficult and time-consuming task for analysts, because requirements are often poorly modularized and there is text duplicated across documents. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Improving requirements with NLP techniques

Elaborating “good” requirements specifications is an important factor for the success of a software project. Requirements are normally expressed using textual descriptions in natural language, but not without problems. Some requirements documentation techniques, such as use cases specifications, often focus on functionality and leave many concerns understated in the text and scattered through several documents. These concerns, commonly known as crosscutting or architecturally-relevant concerns, often come from business goals or quality attributes that must be clearly identified by analysts and developers, as these concerns can have a far-reaching effect in the development process. Not treating these concerns at early development stages can lead to poor design solutions that become difficult (and costly) to fix afterwards. Unfortunately, searching for concerns in textual requirements is a difficult and time-consuming task for analysts, because requirements are often poorly modularized and there is text duplicated across documents. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Tempo rubato e tempo addizionato: il tredicesimo mese dei persiani

Mustelus higmani is categorized as “least concern” according to the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but gaps in population trends occur in most of its distribution range. In Venezuela, this species has local importance because it is part of typical dishes. The aim of this work is to analyse the population structure, reproduction and feeding of M. higmani from Margarita Island’s artisanal fishery landings for management purposes. Between 2006 and 2008, 2223 specimens were analysed: 1156 females (24.8-88.4 cm total length [TL]) and 1067 males (20-69.2 cm TL). Temporal variations in sex ratio and length class structure were detected. Changes in body size were detected throughout different years of sampling. A decrease in TL and an increase in immature specimens in the catch were observed in 2008. Mean length at maturity (L50) was estimated at 46.7 cm TL for females and 47.6 cm TL for males. Female fecundity was 4±1.8 embryos (n=388). Length at birth was between 20 and 29 cm TL, and no differences in sex ratio were detected for embryos. Feeding analyses (n=266 stomachs) showed a diet mainly based on decapod crustaceans, small fish, stomatopods and cephalopods. The trophic level was 3.3, which shows feeding based on benthic and demersal species of the continental shelf, especially crustaceans

An Approach for Automating Use Case Refactoring

Carrying out requirements capture and modeling activities successfully is not easy, often requiring a thoughtful analysis of clients needs and demanding an adequate expertise from analysts. To ensure a fluid communication among stakeholders, analysts must take advantage of modeling techniques while describing requirements and exploit reuse and abstraction practices so as to avoid redundancy (for instance, using relations between use cases). Unfortunately, these practices are seldom applied because inspecting requirements such as textual use cases by hand, looking out for faulty or duplicate functionalities, is a challenging and error-prone activity. In this context, we introduce an assistive approach called ReUse that searches redundancy eficiencies in use case specifications and allows to fix them with relation-based refactorings. Our approach makes use of text processing and sequence alignment techniques to discover deficiencies (e.g., duplicate functionality). We have evaluated ReUse in five case studies, achieving promising results.Fil: Rago, Alejandro Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingenieria del Software; ArgentinaFil: Frade, Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingenieria del Software; ArgentinaFil: Ruival, Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingenieria del Software; ArgentinaFil: Marcos, Claudia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tandil. Instituto Superior de Ingenieria del Software; Argentin

Composición de ensambles de crustáceos decápodos en bancos de Pinctada imbricata y Arca zebra (Mollusca: Bivalvia) en la Isla de Cubagua, Venezuela: Efecto de la densidad del banco

Beds of the Atlantic pearl oyster (Pinctada imbricata) and the turkey wing (Arca zebra) of contrasting population densities were evaluated to determine the occurrence of associated decapod crustaceans. In these beds at Cubagua Island, Venezuela, we recorded 40 decapod species belonging to 18 families. Mithraculus forceps (Majidae), Pilumnus caribaeus (Pilumnidae), Cuapetes americanus (Palaemonidae) and Petrolisthes galathinus (Porcellanidae) were the most common species found in these assemblages. The medium- and high-density bivalve beds exhibited more species and a greater abundance of associated decapods than the low-density bivalve beds, and more taxonomic distinctness. Multivariate analysis detected different groups of decapods in the low-density beds and the medium- to high-density beds. Additionally, similarities were found in the communities of crustaceans in the beds of Atlantic pearl oysters and turkey wing, demonstrating that bed density is important for the composition of associated fauna.Bancos de la ostra perla del Atlántico (P. imbricata) y de la pepitona (A. zebra) de densidades poblacionales contrastantes fueron evaluados para determinar la ocurrencia de crustáceos decápodos asociados. En estos bancos en la isla de Cubagua, Venezuela, fueron colectadas 40 especies de decápodos, pertenecientes a 18 familias. Mithraculus forceps (Majidae), Pilumnus caribaeus (Pilumnidae), Cuapetes americanus (Palaemonidae) y Petrolisthes galathinus (Porcellanidae) fueron las especies más comunes en estos ensambles. Los bancos de densidad media y alta mostraron mayor riqueza de especies y abundancia que los de baja densidad de bivalvos, así como mayor distinción taxonómica. Análisis multivariados detectaron diferentes grupos de decápodos en los bancos de baja densidad en relación a los de densidad media y alta. Adicionalmente, la fauna encontrada en bancos de ostra perla y pepitona no mostró diferencias, demostrando que la densidad es importante para la composición de la fauna asociada

The Biology of Thecaphora frezii Smut and Its Effects on Argentine Peanut Production

Thecaphora frezii was first reported in 1962 in wild peanut from Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. In Argentina, it was first detected in 1995 in commercial crops from the central-northern area of Córdoba province. The fungus can survive in the soil as teliospores. When peanut gynophore penetrates the soil, their exudates disrupt telial dormancy; T. frezii penetrates and colonizes the tissues and replaces the cells with teliospores. Since its first report, peanut smut prevalence has gradually increased in peanut areas to reach a 100% in 2012. Currently, it is the most important peanut disease in Argentina, not only for its destructive power on crop but also for its quick spread throughout the growing region of Córdoba and the lack of effective tools for its management. It is important for additional research to find effective agronomical practice that reaches high control efficiencies. The collaboration of all those involved in Argentinian peanut production systems is necessary for the management of peanut smut to be successful

Towards recovering architectural information from images of architectural diagrams

The architecture of a software system is often described with diagrams embedded in the documentation. However, these diagrams are normally stored and shared as images, losing track of model-level architectural information and refraining software engineers from working on the architectural model later on. In this context, tools able to extract architectural information from images can be of great help. In this article, we present a framework called IMEAV for processing architectural diagrams (based on speci c viewtypes) and recovering information from them. We have instantiated our framework to analyze \\module views and evaluated this prototype with an image dataset. Results have been encouraging, showing a good accuracy for recognizing modules, relations and textual features.XV Simposio Argentino de Ingeniería de Softwar

Towards recovering architectural information from images of architectural diagrams

The architecture of a software system is often described with diagrams embedded in the documentation. However, these diagrams are normally stored and shared as images, losing track of model-level architectural information and refraining software engineers from working on the architectural model later on. In this context, tools able to extract architectural information from images can be of great help. In this article, we present a framework called IMEAV for processing architectural diagrams (based on speci c viewtypes) and recovering information from them. We have instantiated our framework to analyze \module views" and evaluated this prototype with an image dataset. Results have been encouraging, showing a good accuracy for recognizing modules, relations and textual features.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Towards recovering architectural information from images of architectural diagrams

The architecture of a software system is often described with diagrams embedded in the documentation. However, these diagrams are normally stored and shared as images, losing track of model-level architectural information and refraining software engineers from working on the architectural model later on. In this context, tools able to extract architectural information from images can be of great help. In this article, we present a framework called IMEAV for processing architectural diagrams (based on speci c viewtypes) and recovering information from them. We have instantiated our framework to analyze \module views" and evaluated this prototype with an image dataset. Results have been encouraging, showing a good accuracy for recognizing modules, relations and textual features.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

TeXTracT: a Web-based Tool for Building NLP-enabled Applications

Over the last few years, the software industry has showed an increasing interest for applications with Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities. Several cloud-based solutions have emerged with the purpose of simplifying and streamlining the integration of NLP techniques via Web services. These NLP techniques cover tasks such as language detection, entity recognition, sentiment analysis, classification, among others. However, the services provided are not always as extensible and configurable as a developer may want, preventing their use in industry-grade developments and limiting their adoption in specialized domains (e.g., for analyzing technical documentation). In this context, we have developed a tool called TeXTracT that is designed to be composable, extensible, configurable and accessible. In our tool, NLP techniques can be accessed independently and orchestrated in a pipeline via RESTful Web services. Moreover, the architecture supports the setup and deployment of NLP techniques on demand. The NLP infrastructure is built upon the UIMA framework, which defines communication protocols and uniform service interfaces for text analysis modules. TeXTracT has been evaluated in two case-studies to assess its pros and cons.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO