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Publications

Publications by HASLab

2025

CRDT-Based Game State Synchronization in Peer-to-Peer VR

Authors
Dantas, A; Baquero, C;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 12TH WORKSHOP ON PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CONSISTENCY FOR DISTRIBUTED DATA, PAPOC 2025

Abstract
Virtual presence demands ultra-low latency, a factor that centralized architectures, by their nature, cannot minimize. Local peer-to-peer architectures offer a compelling alternative, but also pose unique challenges in terms of network infrastructure. This paper introduces a prototype leveraging Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) to enable real-time collaboration in a shared virtual environment. Using this prototype, we investigate latency, synchronization, and the challenges of decentralized coordination in dynamic non-Byzantine contexts. We aim to question prevailing assumptions about decentralized architectures and explore the practical potential of P2P in advancing virtual presence. This work challenges the constraints of mediated networks and highlights the potential of decentralized architectures to redefine collaboration and interaction in digital spaces.

2025

Social Compliance With NPIs, Mobility Patterns, and Reproduction Number: Lessons From COVID-19 in Europe

Authors
Baccega, D; Aguilar, J; Baquero, C; Anta, AF; Ramirez, JM;

Publication
IEEE ACCESS

Abstract
Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns, travel restrictions, and social distancing mandates, play a critical role in controlling the spread of infectious diseases by shaping human mobility patterns. Using COVID-19 as a case study, this research investigates the relationships between NPIs, mobility, and the effective reproduction number (R-t) across 13 European countries. We employ XGBoost regression models to estimate missing mobility data from NPIs and missing R(t )values from mobility, achieving high accuracy. Additionally, using clustering techniques, we uncover national distinctions in social compliance. Northern European countries demonstrate higher adherence to NPIs than Southern Europe, which exhibits more variability in response to restrictions. These differences highlight the influence of cultural and social norms on public health outcomes. In general, our analysis reveals a strong correlation between NPIs and mobility reductions, highlighting the immediate impact of restrictions on population movement. However, the relationship between mobility and R(t )is weaker and more nuanced, reflecting the time delays involved, as changes in mobility take time to influence transmission rates. These results underscore the interdependence of restrictions, mobility, and disease spread while demonstrating the potential for data-driven approaches to guide policy decisions. Our approach offers valuable insights for optimizing public health strategies and tailoring interventions to diverse cultural contexts during future health crises.

2025

ConflictSync: Bandwidth Efficient Synchronization of Divergent State

Authors
Gomes, PS; Rodrigues, MB; Baquero, C;

Publication
CoRR

Abstract

2025

Understanding the adoption of modern Javascript features: An empirical study on open-source systems

Authors
Lucas, W; Nunes, R; Bonifácio, R; Carvalho, F; Lima, R; Silva, M; Torres, A; Accioly, P; Monteiro, E; Saraiva, J;

Publication
EMPIRICAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Abstract
JavaScript is a widely used programming language initially designed to make the Web more dynamic in the 1990s. In the last decade, though, its scope has extended far beyond the Web, finding utility in backend development, desktop applications, and even IoT devices. To circumvent the needs of modern programming, JavaScript has undergone a remarkable evolution since its inception, with the groundbreaking release of its sixth version in 2015 (ECMAScript 6 standard). While adopting modern JavaScript features promises several benefits (such as improved code comprehension and maintenance), little is known about which modern features of the language have been used in practice (or even ignored by the community). To fill this gap, in this paper, we report the results of an empirical study that aims to understand the adoption trends of modern JavaScript features, and whether or not developers conduct rejuvenation efforts to replace legacy JavaScript constructs and idioms with modern ones in legacy systems. To this end, we mined the source code history of 158 JavaScript open-source projects, identified contributions to rejuvenate legacy code, and used time series to characterize the adoption trends of modern JavaScript features. The results of our study reveal extensive use of JavaScript modern features which are present in more than 80% of the analyzed projects. Our findings also reveal that (a) the widespread adoption of modern features happened between one and two years after the release of ES6 and, (b) a consistent trend toward increasing the adoption of modern JavaScript language features in open-source projects and (c) large efforts to rejuvenate the source code of their programs.

2025

Property-based Testing of Attribute Grammars

Authors
Macedo, JN; Viera, M; Saraiva, J;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF SLE 2025 18TH ACM SIGPLAN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE LANGUAGE ENGINEERING, SLE 2025

Abstract
Software testing is an integral part of modern software development. Testing frameworks are part of the toolset of any software language allowing programmers to test their programs in order to detect bugs. Unfortunately, there is no work on testing in attribute grammars. In this paper we combine the powerful property-based testing technique with the attribute grammar formalism. In such property-based attribute grammars, properties are defined on attribute instances. Properties are tested on large sets of randomly generated (abstract syntax) trees by evaluating their attributes. We present an implementation that relies on strategies to express property-based attribute grammars. Strategies are tree-based recursion patterns that are used to encode logic quantifiers defining the properties.

2025

Is There Hypothesis for Attribute Grammars?

Authors
Rodrigues, E; Macedo, JN; Saraiva, J;

Publication
Companion Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming, Programming 2025, June 2-6, 2025, Prague 1, Czechia

Abstract

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