•The paper presents a study of the reliability of two mapping studies.•It is concluded that reliability of systematic studies cannot be taken for granted.•Four conjectures are put forward to increase ...reliability of literature studies.
Systematic literature reviews and systematic mapping studies are becoming increasingly common in software engineering, and hence it becomes even more important to better understand the reliability of such studies.
This paper presents a study of two systematic mapping studies to evaluate the reliability of mapping studies and point out some challenges related to this type of study in software engineering.
The research is based on an in-depth case study of two published mapping studies on software product line testing.
We found that despite the fact that the two studies are addressing the same topic, there are quite a number of differences when it comes to papers included and in terms of classification of the papers included in the two mapping studies.
From this we conclude that although mapping studies are important, their reliability cannot simply be taken for granted. Based on the findings we also provide four conjectures that further research has to address to make secondary studies (systematic mapping studies and systematic literature reviews) even more valuable to both researchers and practitioners.
Coastal fishing communities are closely linked to the biological and ecological characteristics of exploited resources and the physical conditions associated with climate and ocean dynamics. Thus, ...the human populations that depend on fisheries are inherently exposed to climate variability and uncertainty. This study applied an ethno-oceanographic framework to investigate the perceptions of fishers on climate and ocean change to better understand the impacts of climate change on the coastal fishing communities of the South Brazil Bight. Seven coastal fishing communities that cover the regional diversity of the area were selected. Fishers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results suggest that fishers have detected climate-related changes in their environment such as reduced rainfall, increased drought events, calmer sea conditions, increases in air and ocean temperatures, changes in wind patterns and shoreline erosion. The perceptions of the fishers were compared to the available scientific data, and correlations were found with rainfall, wind speed and air and ocean temperatures. New hypotheses were raised based on the perceptions of fishers about sea level, coastal currents and sea conditions such as the hypothesis that the sea has become calmer. These perceived changes have positive and negative effects on the yields and livelihoods of fishers. The present work is the first evaluation of the perceptions of fishers on climate and ocean change and brings new understandings of climate-fishery-human interactions as well as provides inputs for future adaptation plans.
Several variability representations have been proposed over the years. Software maintenance in the presence of variability is known to be hard. One of the reasons is that maintenance tasks require a ...large amount of cognitive effort for program comprehension. In fact, the different ways of representing variability in source code might influence the comprehension process in different ways. Despite the differences, there is little evidence about how these variability representations – such as conditional-compilation directives or feature-oriented programming – influence program comprehension. Existing research has focused primarily on either understanding how code using modern paradigms evolves compared to the traditional way of realizing variability, namely conditional compilation, or on the aspects influencing the comprehension of conditional compilation only. We used two different programs implemented in Java and each of these variability representations. As Java does not support conditional compilation natively, we relied on the mimicking (i.e., preprocessing annotations in comments) that has been used in the literature. Our results show no significant statistical differences regarding the evaluated measures (correctness, understanding, or response time) in the tasks. Our heterogeneous sample allowed us to produce evidence about the influence of using
CC
and FOP variability representations on the aspects involved in the comprehension of feature-oriented software, while addressing bug-finding tasks.
In software development, Testing is an important mechanism both to identify defects and assure that completed products work as specified. This is a common practice in single-system development, and ...continues to hold in Software Product Lines (SPL). Even though extensive research has been done in the SPL Testing field, it is necessary to assess the current state of research and practice, in order to provide practitioners with evidence that enable fostering its further development.
This paper focuses on Testing in SPL and has the following goals: investigate state-of-the-art testing practices, synthesize available evidence, and identify gaps between required techniques and existing approaches, available in the literature.
A systematic mapping study was conducted with a set of nine research questions, in which 120 studies, dated from 1993 to 2009, were evaluated.
Although several aspects regarding testing have been covered by single-system development approaches, many cannot be directly applied in the SPL context due to specific issues. In addition, particular aspects regarding SPL are not covered by the existing SPL approaches, and when the aspects are covered, the literature just gives brief overviews. This scenario indicates that additional investigation, empirical and practical, should be performed.
The results can help to understand the needs in SPL Testing, by identifying points that still require additional investigation, since important aspects regarding particular points of software product lines have not been addressed yet.
Small-scale fisheries face similar challenges and constraints, including marginalization, spatial competition, unequal power relations, limited participation in decision-making processes, and climate ...Stressors. We compare the vulnerability of smallscale fishing communities under pressure from climate change in the southern Cape in South Africa and the South Brazil Bight in Brazil using a standardized vulnerability framework to identify the differences and/or similarities between the fishing communities in both countries. In Brazil, high dependence on fishing and attachment to place increased the vulnerability of the fishers; in contrast, in South Africa strong dependence on markets to buy food threatened food security of the fishers. These findings provide noteworthy insights into the regional vulnerability of fishing communities in both countries; additionally, the results support the development of local climate change mitigation plans and provide examples for similar communities that are likely to experience climate Stressors in other regional locations.
Understanding the social vulnerabilities and community strategies to adapt to environmental changes is crucial for the development of actions to enhance community conservation and survival. With the ...aim to identify the drivers of vulnerability to climate change among different coastal communities across a large marine ecosystem, a comprehensive multi-scale vulnerability framework was here adopted. Eight selected fishing communities representative of the South Brazil Bight were surveyed at the household level. A total of 151 fishers were interviewed. Findings revealed a series of adaptation patterns evidencing that remoteness and the lack of climate change-related institutional support increase vulnerability among fishing villages. On the other hand, community organization, occurrence of strong leadership, partnerships with research activities, community-based co-management and livelihood diversification reduce vulnerability. Our analysis focused on social vulnerability to climate change in regional fishing communities and provides a better understanding of these effects in coastal zones, the factors explaining vulnerability and some perspectives on resilient and adaptable systems. Learning from comparisons at the ecosystem level may be applied to coastal regions elsewhere.
Context: Software product lines (SPL) engineering defines a set of systems that share common features and artifacts to achieve high productivity, quality, market agility, low time to market, and ...cost. An SPL product is derived from a configuration of features which need to be compounded together without violating their particular specifications. While it is easy to identify the behavior of a feature in isolation, specifying and resolving interactions among features may not be a straightforward task. The feature interaction problem has been a challenging subject for decades.
Objective: This study aims at surveying existing research on feature interaction in SPL engineering in order to identify common practices and research trends.
Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted with a set of seven research questions, in which the 35 studies found are mainly classified regarding the feature interaction solution presented: detection, resolution and general analysis.
Results: 43% of the papers deal with feature interaction at early phases of a software lifecycle. The remaining is shared among the other categories: source code detection, resolution and analysis. For each category, it was also identified the main strategies used to deal with interactions.
Conclusions: The findings can help to understand the needs in feature interaction for SPL engineering, and highlight aspects that still demand an additional investigation. For example, often strategies are partial and only address specific points of a feature interaction investigation.
Abstract This study aims to expand the discussion regarding the extent to which tourism can address socioeconomic expectations. Like other coastal regions, the state of Alagoas has prioritised ...tourism promotion, despite facing a rainy season that hinders its primary form of tourism, known as Sea, Sun and Sand tourism. We have based our assessment on climate and weather. Through various sources, we have identified narratives related to the rainy season. When crossing these narratives with the Alagoas Strategic Plan for Tourism Development 2013-2023, our findings revealed that the state’s policy inadequately addresses the impact of the rainy season. Consequently, we have proposed some recommendations to better align with current local-regional constraints and demands. Beyond the scope of this work, our narrative approach has proven valuable in expanding the consideration of values and meanings within the framework of public policy development, potentially fostering a more holistic understanding of the environment-society relationship.
Resumo Esse estudo busca ampliar a discussão sobre a extensão na qual o turismo pode responder às expectativas socioeconômicas. Como em outras zonas costeiras, o estado de Alagoas tem priorizado a promoção turística, apesar da ocorrência de uma estação chuvosa que freia o desenvolvimento do seu principal tipo de turismo, de sol e praia. Neste contexto, o clima e o tempo são utilizados como pontos de referência para essa análise. Por intermédio de diversas fontes, foram identificadas nove narrativas relacionadas à estação chuvosa. As narrativas foram cruzadas com o Plano Estratégico para o Desenvolvimento Turístico de Alagoas 2013-2023, apontando que a estação chuvosa está mal refletida na política estadual. Para melhor abordar as limitações e demandas locais-regionais atuais, recomendações foram, assim, propostas. Além do escopo desse trabalho, a abordagem das narrativas provou ser útil para ampliar a consideração de valores e significados no desenvolvimento de políticas públicas, especialmente na relação ambiente-sociedade.
Resumen Este estudio buscó expandir la discusión sobre la extensión en que el turismo puede responder a las expectativas socioeconómicas. Como en otras zonas costeras, el estado de Alagoas ha priorizado la promoción turística, pese a la ocurrencia de una estación lluviosa que frena el desarrollo de su principal tipo de turismo, de sol y playa. En este contexto, clima y tiempo son utilizados como puntos de referencia para este análisis. Por intermedio de diversas fuentes, se identificaron nueve narrativas sobre la estación lluviosa. Al cruzarlas con el Plan Estratégico para el Desarrollo Turístico de Alagoas 2013-2023, los resultados destacaron cómo la estación lluviosa está mal reflejada en dicha política pública. Para mejor abordar las limitaciones y demandas locales-regionales actuales, son propuestas recomendaciones. Más allá de esto, el abordaje de las narrativas probó su utilidad para expandir la consideración de valores y significados en políticas públicas, potencialmente en la relación ambiente-sociedad.
Software product line (SPL) approach has been widely adopted to achieve systematic reuse in families of software products. Despite its benefits, developing an SPL from scratch requires high up-front ...investment. Because of that, organizations commonly create product variants with opportunistic reuse approaches (e.g., copy-and-paste or clone-and-own). However, maintenance and evolution of a large number of product variants is a challenging task. In this context, a family of products developed opportunistically is a good starting point to adopt SPLs, known as extractive approach for SPL adoption. One of the initial phases of the extractive approach is the recovery and definition of a product line architecture (PLA) based on existing software variants, to support variant derivation and also to allow the customization according to customers’ needs. The problem of defining a PLA from existing system variants is that some variants can become highly unrelated to their predecessors, known as outlier variants. The inclusion of outlier variants in the PLA recovery leads to additional effort and noise in the common structure and complicates architectural decisions. In this work, we present an automatic approach to identify and filter outlier variants during the recovery and definition of PLAs. Our approach identifies the minimum subset of cross-product architectural information for an effective PLA recovery. To evaluate our approach, we focus on real-world variants of the Apo-Games family. We recover a PLA taking as input 34 Apo-Game variants developed by using opportunistic reuse. The results provided evidence that our automatic approach is able to identify and filter outlier variants, allowing to eliminate exclusive packages and classes without removing the whole variant. We consider that the recovered PLA can help domain experts to take informed decisions to support SPL adoption.
One of the questions that is still controversial in welding is the determination of the fusion efficiency in welded joints; there are different equations in literature which provides distinct ...results. In the present work, the fusion efficiency was calculated by different equations available in the literature and the results compared using Box-Behnken design of experiment. It sought to study the influence of welding parameters as wire-feed speed, arc voltage, and welding speed in the calculated values, with the aim to better understand the variables influenced in melting efficiency results through the contour plots. The evaluated joint geometries were bead on plate and fillet T-joint. Three equations were used to fusion efficiency determination and comparison, showing significant differences among results and allowing a better understanding of heat flow difference between the joints. Also, it was determined the welding parameters influence in melted area and bead width geometry.
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