Abstract
The provisioning of a growing number of services depends on the proper interoperation of multiple products, forming a new distributed system, often subject to timing requirements. To ensure the interoperability and timely behavior of this new distributed system, it is important to conduct integration tests that verify the interactions with the environment and between the system components. Integration test scenarios for that purpose may be conveniently specified by means of UML sequence diagrams (SDs) enriched with time constraints. The automation of such integration tests requires that test components are also distributed, with a local tester deployed close to each system component, coordinated by a central tester. The distributed observation of execution events, combined with the impossibility to ensure clock synchronization in a distributed system, poses special challenges for checking the conformance of the observed execution traces against the specification, possibly yielding inconclusive verdicts. Hence, in this paper we investigate decision procedures and criteria to check the conformance of observed execution traces against a specification set by a UML SD enriched with time constraints. The procedures and criteria are specified in a formal language that allows executing and validating the specification. Examples are presented to illustrate the approach. Copyright

Abstract
Application frameworks are a powerful technique for large-scale reuse, but require a considerable effort to understand them. Good documentation is costly, as it needs to address different audiences with disparate learning needs. When code and documentation prove insuficient, developers turn to their network of experts. Nevertheless, this proves difficult, mainly due to the lack of expertise awareness (who to ask), wasteful interruptions of the wrong people and unavailability ( either due to intrusion or time constraints). The DRIVER platform is a collaborative learning environment where framework users can, in a non-intrusive way, store and share their learning knowledge while following the best practices of framework understanding (patterns). Developed by the authors, it provides a framework documentation repository, mounted on a wiki, where the learning paths of the community of learners can be captured, shared, rated, and recommended. Combining these social activities, the DRIVER platform promotes collaborative learning, mitigating intrusiveness, unavailability of experts and loss of tacit knowledge. This paper presents the assessment of DRIVER using a controlled academic experiment that measured the performance, effectiveness and framework knowledge intake of MSc students. The study concluded that, especially for novice learners, the platform allows for a faster and more effective learning process.

Abstract
Software business continues to expand globally, highly motivated by the reachability of the Internet and possibilities of Cloud Computing. While widely adopted, development for the cloud has some intrinsic properties to it, making it complex to any newcomer. This research is capturing those intricacies using a pattern catalog, with this paper contributing with three of those patterns: Messaging System, a message bus for abstracting service placement in a cluster and orchestrating messages between multiple services; Preemptive Logging, a design principle where services and servers continuously output relevant information to log files, making them available for later debugging failures; and Log Aggregation, a technique to aggregate logs from multiple services and servers in a centralized location, which indexes and provides them in a queryable, user friendly format. These patterns are useful for anyone designing software for the cloud, either to guide or validate their design decisions. © 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

Abstract
Breaking down applications into smaller modules is a common way for software developers to cope with the increasing complexity of their projects. A common barrier to this endeavor is the presence of crosscutting concerns that prevent reusability and reduce comprehensibility. The promise of AOP (Aspect-Oriented Programming) is that, by using it, developers will be able to organize these crosscutting concerns into their own units of modularity. However, AOP does not tackle the problem of having tangled automatic tests. This paper presents a technique using incremental testing and invasive aspects to modify and adapt tests, enabling the development of unit tests that are free of crosscutting concerns and thus easier to reuse. Using a medium scale project, we will show that without using this technique, due to the presence of invasive aspects, some unit tests would have to be discarded or modified to accommodate the changes made by them.

Abstract
In continental Portugal, the publicly financed supply of gastroenterology exams was limited since the end of the last century, restricted to a fixed set of private providers that was hired by the Portuguese state. This way of contracting created market entry barriers and is inefficient, since prices are administratively set. Besides, it produced access inequalities, because of the way that the supply was geographically distributed. This paper applies the Extended Kernel Density 4-Step Floating Catchment Area (EKD4SFCA) method to identify priority districts for the promotion of new supply by the state, in order to choose the appropriate way of contracting new private supply, as determined by current law, and to reduce access inequalities. The applied method enables the identification of the Portuguese regions with strong competition between health care providers and where patients’ access to publicly financed gastroenterology exams is relatively low. In these regions, the state should promote public bids to stimulate new supply, exploring thereby the potential for setting lower prices and reducing access inequalities.

Abstract
Location-based games require, among other things, physical activity and real-world context. Additionally, ensuring that the players are assigned challenges that are adequate and safe for the current context (both physical and spatial) is also important, as it can improve both the gaming experience and the outcomes of the exercise. However, the impact adaptivity has in the specific case of location-based exergames still has not been researched in depth. In this paper, we present a location-based exergame capable of adapting its mechanics to the current context.