2022
Authors
Bamber, D; Collins, HE; Powell, C; Goncalves, GC; Johnson, S; Manktelow, B; Ornelas, JP; Lopes, JC; Rocha, A; Draper, ES;
Publication
BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Abstract
Background The small sample sizes available within many very preterm (VPT) longitudinal birth cohort studies mean that it is often necessary to combine and harmonise data from individual studies to increase statistical power, especially for studying rare outcomes. Curating and mapping data is a vital first step in the process of data harmonisation. To facilitate data mapping and harmonisation across VPT birth cohort studies, we developed a custom classification system as part of the Research on European Children and Adults born Preterm (RECAP Preterm) project in order to increase the scope and generalisability of research and the evaluation of outcomes across the lifespan for individuals born VPT. Methods The multidisciplinary consortium of expert clinicians and researchers who made up the RECAP Preterm project participated in a four-phase consultation process via email questionnaire to develop a topic-specific classification system. Descriptive analyses were calculated after each questionnaire round to provide pre- and post- ratings to assess levels of agreement with the classification system as it developed. Amendments and refinements were made to the classification system after each round. Results Expert input from 23 clinicians and researchers from the RECAP Preterm project aided development of the classification system's topic content, refining it from 10 modules, 48 themes and 197 domains to 14 modules, 93 themes and 345 domains. Supplementary classifications for target, source, mode and instrument were also developed to capture additional variable-level information. Over 22,000 individual data variables relating to VPT birth outcomes have been mapped to the classification system to date to facilitate data harmonisation. This will continue to increase as retrospective data items are mapped and harmonised variables are created. Conclusions This bespoke preterm birth classification system is a fundamental component of the RECAP Preterm project's web-based interactive platform. It is freely available for use worldwide by those interested in research into the long term impact of VPT birth. It can also be used to inform the development of future cohort studies.
2022
Authors
Gomes D.F.; Lopes J.C.; Palma J.M.L.M.; Senra F.; Dias S.; Coimbra I.L.;
Publication
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Abstract
Experimental field campaigns for collecting wind data, essential for academic research and the wind energy industry, are non-trivial due to the complex equipment and infrastructure required. This paper reports the latest developments of the WindsPT e-Science platform for planning, executing, and disseminating wind measurement campaign data. Existing e-Science platforms have been developed for more generic domains, preventing them from capturing the details and requirements of the field. Additionally, we propose a protocol for transferring large volumes of data from the in-site devices to our platform, ensuring data replication. With an easy-to-use Web interface, WindsPT promotes collaboration between participants, disseminates results among the stakeholders, publishes metadata, uses DOI, and includes metadata that enables machine-to-machine communication. The platform has multiple sections, with maps, images, and documents, where there is information about the location of the stations, positioning of the sensors, operating dates, photos, technical sheets, calibration documents, among others. The WindsPT platform has been used to host the Perdigão 2017 experimental campaign and proved to be a valuable tool during all the phases of this large field experiment. A new version of WindsPT, designed to be FAIR, host multiple campaigns, and include multiple cross-campaign shared features, as full-text search capabilities, is now developed and tested.
2022
Authors
Almeida, P; Faria, JP; Lima, B;
Publication
2022 IEEE 22ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE QUALITY, RELIABILITY AND SECURITY, QRS
Abstract
One of the most critical ICT application domains is healthcare, where a single failure can lead a patient into a hazardous situation. Due to this, there's a great necessity to ensure that the developed solutions are safe and secure and perform as expected. Smart-Health-4-All (SH4ALL) is a project aiming at accelerating the research, development, commercialization, and dissemination of trustworthy smart health solutions in Portugal. One of the key components of the project is a web platform that supports the generation of integration and system tests for smart health solutions (comprising medical devices, applications, etc.), following a software product line approach. At the domain engineering level, the platform supports the creation of feature models and related test patterns for families of smart health products. At the product engineering level, the platform supports the instantiation of test patterns and the generation of corresponding test scripts ready for execution on specific products under test. This paper presents the aforementioned test platform and test process, and the discovery of test patterns.
2022
Authors
Reis, D; Piedade, B; Correia, FF; Dias, JP; Aguiar, A;
Publication
IEEE ACCESS
Abstract
Cloud computing and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), supported by technologies such as Docker, have shaped how many software systems are built and deployed. Previous research has identified typical issues for some types of IaC specification but not why they come to be, or they have delved into collaboration aspects but not into technical ones. This work aims to characterize the activities around two particular kinds of IaC specification-Dockerfiles and docker-compose.yml files. We seek to know how they can be better supported and therefore study also what approaches and tools practitioners employ. We used an online questionnaire to gather data. The first part of the study reached 68 graduate students from a study program on informatics engineering, and the second one 120 professional software developers. The results show that most of the activities of the process of developing a Dockerfile are perceived as time-consuming, especially when the respondents are beginners with this technology. We also found that solving issues using trial-and-error approaches is very common and that many developers do not use ancillary tools to support the development of Dockerfiles and docker-compose.yml files.
2022
Authors
Fernandes, S; Aguiar, A; Restivo, A;
Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 37TH IEEE/ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTOMATED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, ASE 2022
Abstract
Refactoring software can be hard and time-consuming. Several refactoring tools assist developers in reaching more readable and maintainable code. However, most of them are characterized by long feedback loops that impoverish their refactoring experience. We believe that we can reduce this problem by focusing on the concept of Live Refactoring and its main principles: the live recommendation and continuous visualization of refactoring candidates, and the immediate visualization of results from applying a refactoring to the code. Therefore, we implemented a Live Refactoring Environment that identifies, suggests, and applies Extract Method refactorings. To evaluate our approach, we carried out an empirical experiment. Early results showed us that our refactoring environment improves several code quality aspects, being well received, understood, and used by the experiment participants. The source code of our tool is available on: https://github.com/saracouto1318/LiveRef. Its demonstration video can be found at: https://youtu.be/_jxx21ZiQ0o.
2022
Authors
Fernandes, S; Aguiar, A; Restivo, A;
Publication
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming, Programming 2022, Porto, Portugal, March 21-25, 2022
Abstract
Refactoring helps improve the design of software systems, making them more understandable, readable, maintainable, cleaner, and self-explanatory. Many refactoring tools allow developers to select and execute the best refactorings for their code. However, most of them lack quick and continuous feedback, support, and guidance, leading to a poor refactoring experience. To fill this gap, we are researching ways to increase liveness in refactoring. Live Refactoring consists of continuously knowing, in real-time, what and why to refactor. To explore the concept of Live Refactoring and its main components - recommendation, visualization, and application, we prototyped a Live Refactoring Environment focused on the Extract Method refactoring. With it, developers can receive recommendations about the best refactoring options and have support to apply them automatically. This work helped us reinforce the hypothesis that early and continuous refactoring feedback helps to shorten the time needed to create high-quality systems. © 2022 ACM.
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