An overview of ciao and its design philosophy

We provide an overall description of the Ciao multiparadigm programming system emphasizing some of the novel aspects and motivations behind its design and implementation. An important aspect of Ciao is that, in addition to supporting logic programming (and, in particular, Prolog), it provides the programmer with a large number of useful features from different programming paradigms and styles and that the use of each of these features (including those of Prolog) can be turned on and off at will for each program module. Thus, a given module may be using, e.g., higher order functions and constraints, while another module may be using assignment, predicates, Prolog meta-programming, and concurrency. Furthermore, the language is designed to be extensible in a simple and modular way. Another important aspect of Ciao is its programming environment, which provides a powerful preprocessor (with an associated assertion language) capable of statically finding non-trivial bugs, verifying that programs comply with specifications, and performing many types of optimizations (including automatic parallelization). Such optimizations produce code that is highly competitive with other dynamic languages or, with the (experimental) optimizing compiler, even that of static languages, all while retaining the flexibility and interactive development of a dynamic language. This compilation architecture supports modularity and separate compilation throughout. The environment also includes a powerful autodocumenter and a unit testing framework, both closely integrated with the assertion system. The paper provides an informal overview of the language and program development environment. It aims at illustrating the design philosophy rather than at being exhaustive, which would be impossible in a single journal paper, pointing instead to previous Ciao literature.

Integrating software testing and run-time checking in an assertion verification framework

We have designed and implemented a framework that unifies unit testing and run-time verification (as well as static verification and static debugging). A key contribution of our approach is that a unified assertion language is used for all of these tasks. We first propose methods for compiling runtime checks for (parts of) assertions which cannot be verified at compile-time via program transformation. This transformation allows checking preconditions and postconditions, including conditional postconditions, properties at arbitrary program points, and certain computational properties. The implemented transformation includes several optimizations to reduce run-time overhead. We also propose a minimal addition to the assertion language which allows defining unit tests to be run in order to detect possible violations of the (partial) specifications expressed by the assertions. This language can express for example the input data for performing the unit tests or the number of times that the unit tests should be repeated. We have implemented the framework within the Ciao/CiaoPP system and effectively applied it to the verification of ISO-prolog compliance and to the detection of different types of bugs in the Ciao system source code. Several experimental results are presented that ¡Ilústrate different trade-offs among program size, running time, or levéis of verbosity of the messages shown to the user.

Integrating software testing and run-time checking in an assertion verification framework.

We have designed and implemented a framework that unifies unit testing and run-time verification (as well as static verification and static debugging). A key contribution of our approach is that a unified assertion language is used for all of these tasks. We first propose methods for compiling runtime checks for (parts of) assertions which cannot be verified at compile-time via program transformation. This transformation allows checking preconditions and postconditions, including conditional postconditions, properties at arbitrary program points, and certain computational properties. The implemented transformation includes several optimizations to reduce run-time overhead. We also propose a minimal addition to the assertion language which allows defining unit tests to be run in order to detect possible violations of the (partial) specifications expressed by the assertions. This language can express for example the input data for performing the unit tests or the number of times that the unit tests should be repeated. We have implemented the framework within the Ciao/CiaoPP system and effectively applied it to the verification of ISO-prolog compliance and to the detection of different types of bugs in the Ciao system source code. Several experimental results are presented that illustrate different trade-offs among program size, running time, or levels of verbosity of the messages shown to the user.

A general framework to testing the effect of transport policy measures to achieve a modal shift: a sequental hybrid model

In order to achieve to minimize car-based trips, transport planners have been particularly interested in understanding the factors that explain modal choices. In the transport modelling literature there has been an increasing awareness that socioeconomic attributes and quantitative variables are not sufficient to characterize travelers and forecast their travel behavior. Recent studies have also recognized that users? social interactions and land use patterns influence travel behavior, especially when changes to transport systems are introduced, but links between international and Spanish perspectives are rarely deal. In this paper, factorial and path analyses through a Multiple-Indicator Multiple-Cause (MIMIC) model are used to understand and describe the relationship between the different psychological and environmental constructs with social influence and socioeconomic variables. The MIMIC model generates Latent Variables (LVs) to be incorporated sequentially into Discrete Choice Models (DCM) where the levels of service and cost attributes of travel modes are also included directly to measure the effect of the transport policies that have been introduced in Madrid during the last three years in the context of the economic crisis. The data used for this paper are collected from a two panel smartphone-based survey (n=255 and 190 respondents, respectively) of Madrid.

On the testing of large PV arrays

This paper reports on the IES-UPM experience from 2006 to 2010 in the field of the characterization of PV arrays of commercial large PV plants installed in Spain within the framework of the profitable economic scenarios associated to feed-in tariff laws. This experience has extended to 200 MW and has provided valuable lessons to minimize uncertainty, which plays a key role in quality assurance procedures. The paper deals not only with classic I–V measurements but also with watt-metering-based procedures. Particular attention is paid to the selection of irradiance and cell temperature sensors

Evaluating the achievements and impacts of EC framework programme transport projects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present what kind of elements and evaluation methods should be included into a framework for evaluating the achievements and impacts of transport projects supported in EC Framework Programmes (FP). Further, the paper discusses the possibilities of such an evaluation framework in producing recommendations regarding future transport research and policy objectives as well as mutual learning for the basis of strategic long term planning. Methods The paper describes the two-dimensional evaluation methodology developed in the course of the FP7 METRONOME project. The dimensions are: (1) achievement of project objectives and targets in different levels and (2) research project impacts according to four impact groups. The methodology uses four complementary approaches in evaluation, namely evaluation matrices, coordinator questionnaires, lead user interviews and workshops. Results Based on the methodology testing, with a sample of FP5 and FP6 projects, the main results relating to the rationale, implementation and achievements of FP projects is presented. In general, achievement of objectives in both FPs was good. Strongest impacts were identified within the impact group of management and co-ordination. Also scientific and end-user impacts of the projects were adequate, but wider societal impacts quite modest. The paper concludes with a discussion both on the theoretical and practical implications of the proposed methodology and by presenting some relevant future research needs.

A framework for collaborative filtering recommender systems

As the use of recommender systems becomes more consolidated on the Net, an increasing need arises to develop some kind of evaluation framework for collaborative filtering measures and methods which is capable of not only testing the prediction and recommendation results, but also of other purposes which until now were considered secondary, such as novelty in the recommendations and the users? trust in these. This paper provides: (a) measures to evaluate the novelty of the users? recommendations and trust in their neighborhoods, (b) equations that formalize and unify the collaborative filtering process and its evaluation, (c) a framework based on the above-mentioned elements that enables the evaluation of the quality results of any collaborative filtering applied to the desired recommender systems, using four graphs: quality of the predictions, the recommendations, the novelty and the trust.

Agile Product Inception: Framework Analysis and Support

In this dissertation, after testing that neither the definition of Agile methodologies, nor the current tools that support them, such as Scrum or XP, gave guidance for stages of software development prior to the definition of the first interaction of development; we proceeded to study the state of the art of Inception techniques, that is, techniques to deal with this early phase of the project, that would help guide its development. From the analysis of these Inception techniques, we defined what we considered as the essential properties of an Inception framework. With that list at hand, it was found that no current Inception framework supported all the features, also, we found that it did not exist, either, any software application on the market that did it. Finally, after checking the above gaps, we defined the Inception framework "Agile Incepti-ON", with all the practices necessary to meet the requirements specified above. In addition to this, a software application was developed to support the practices defined in the Inception framework, called "Agile Dojo".

A systematic mapping study on testing technique experiments: has the situation changed since 2000?

Context: Empirical Software Engineering (ESE) replication researchers need to store and manipulate experimental data for several purposes, in particular analysis and reporting. Current research needs call for sharing and preservation of experimental data as well. In a previous work, we analyzed Replication Data Management (RDM) needs. A novel concept, called Experimental Ecosystem, was proposed to solve current deficiencies in RDM approaches. The empirical ecosystem provides replication researchers with a common framework that integrates transparently local heterogeneous data sources. A typical situation where the Empirical Ecosystem is applicable, is when several members of a research group, or several research groups collaborating together, need to share and access each other experimental results. However, to be able to apply the Empirical Ecosystem concept and deliver all promised benefits, it is necessary to analyze the software architectures and tools that can properly support it.