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Publications

2025

Using nuclear observations to improve climate research and GHG emission estimates – the NuClim project

Authors
Barbosa, S; Chambers, S; Pawlak, W; Fortuniak, K; Paatero, J; Röttger, A; Röttger, S; Chen, X; Melintescu, A; Martin, D; Kikaj, D; Wenger, A; Stanley, K; Ramos, JB; Hatakka, J; Anttila, T; Aaltonen, H; Dias, N; Silva, ME; Castro, J; Lappalainen, HK; Azevedo, E; Kulmala, M;

Publication
EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies

Abstract
Project NuClim (Nuclear observations to improve Climate research and GHG emission estimates) aims to use high-quality measurements of atmospheric radon activity concentration and ambient radioactivity to advance climate science and improve radiation protection and nuclear surveillance capabilities. It is supported by new metrological capabilities developed in the EMPIR project 19ENV01 traceRadon. This work reviews the scientific objectives of project NuClim in terms of both climate science and radiological protection, and provides an overview of the NuClim field campaign and the various nuclear measurements being implemented within the scope of the project.

2025

Efficient Instance Selection in Tree-Based Models for Data Streams Classification

Authors
Paim, AM; Gama, J; Veloso, B; Enembreck, F; Ribeiro, RP;

Publication
Proceedings of the 40th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing, SAC 2025, Catania International Airport, Catania, Italy, 31 March 2025 - 4 April 2025

Abstract
The learning from continuous data streams is a relevant area within machine learning, focusing on the creation and updating of predictive models in real time as new data becomes available for training and prediction. Among the most widely used methods for this type of task, Hoeffding Trees are highly valued for their simplicity and robustness across a variety of applications and are considered the primary choice for generating decision trees in data stream contexts. However, Hoeffding Trees tend to continuously expand as new data is incorporated, resulting in increased processing time and memory consumption, often without providing significant gains in accuracy. In this study, we propose an instance selection scheme that combines different strategies to regularize Hoeffding Trees and their variants, mitigating excessive growth without compromising model accuracy. The method selects misclassified instances and a fraction of correctly classified instances during the training phase. After extensive experimental evaluation, the instance selection scheme demonstrates superior predictive performance compared to the original models (without selection), for both real and synthetic datasets for data streams, using a reduced subset of examples. Additionally, the method achieves relevant improvements in processing time, model complexity, and memory consumption, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed instance selection scheme. Copyright © 2025 held by the owner/author(s).

2025

Testing infrastructures to support mobile application testing: A systematic mapping study

Authors
Kuroishi, PH; Paiva, ACR; Maldonado, JC; Vincenzi, AMR;

Publication
INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
Context: Testing activities are essential for the quality assurance of mobile applications under development. Despite its importance, some studies show that testing is not widely applied in mobile applications. Some characteristics of mobile devices and a varied market of mobile devices with different operating system versions lead to a highly fragmented mobile ecosystem. Thus, researchers put some effort into proposing different solutions to optimize mobile application testing. Objective: The main goal of this paper is to provide a categorization and classification of existing testing infrastructures to support mobile application testing. Methods: To this aim, the study provides a Systematic Mapping Study of 27 existing primary studies. Results: We present a new classification and categorization of existing types of testing infrastructure, the types of supported devices and operating systems, whether the testing infrastructure is available for usage or experimentation, and supported testing types and applications. Conclusion: Our findings show a need for mobile testing infrastructures that support multiple phases of the testing process. Moreover, we showed a need for testing infrastructure for context-aware applications and support for both emulators and real devices. Finally, we pinpoint the need to make the research available to the community whenever possible.

2025

Layer-based management of collaborative interior design in extended reality

Authors
Pintani, D; Caputo, A; Mendes, D; Giachetti, A;

Publication
BEHAVIOUR & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
We present CIDER, a novel framework for the collaborative editing of 3D augmented scenes. The framework allows multiple users to manipulate the virtual elements added to the real environment independently and without unexpected changes, comparing the different editing proposals and finalising a collaborative result. CIDER leverages the use of 'layers' encapsulating the state of the environment. Private layers can be edited independently by the different subjects, and a global one can be collaboratively updated with 'commit' operations. In this paper, we describe in detail the system architecture and the implementation as a prototype for the HoloLens 2 headsets, as well as the motivations behind the interaction design. The system has been validated with a user study on a realistic interior design task. The study not only evaluated the general usability but also compared two different approaches for the management of the atomic commit: forced (single-phase) and voting (requiring consensus), analyzing the effects of this choice on collaborative behaviour. According to the users' comments, we performed improvements to the interface and further tested their effectiveness.

2025

An Automated Repository for the Efficient Management of Complex Documentation

Authors
Frade, J; Antunes, M;

Publication
INFORMATION

Abstract
The accelerating digitalization of the public and private sectors has made information technologies (IT) indispensable in modern life. As services shift to digital platforms and technologies expand across industries, the complexity of legal, regulatory, and technical requirement documentation is growing rapidly. This increase presents significant challenges in managing, gathering, and analyzing documents, as their dispersion across various repositories and formats hinders accessibility and efficient processing. This paper presents the development of an automated repository designed to streamline the collection, classification, and analysis of cybersecurity-related documents. By harnessing the capabilities of natural language processing (NLP) models-specifically Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) technologies-the system automates text ingestion, extraction, and summarization, providing users with visual tools and organized insights into large volumes of data. The repository facilitates the efficient management of evolving cybersecurity documentation, addressing issues of accessibility, complexity, and time constraints. This paper explores the potential applications of NLP in cybersecurity documentation management and highlights the advantages of integrating automated repositories equipped with visualization and search tools. By focusing on legal documents and technical guidelines from Portugal and the European Union (EU), this applied research seeks to enhance cybersecurity governance, streamline document retrieval, and deliver actionable insights to professionals. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a scalable, adaptable platform capable of extending beyond cybersecurity to serve other industries that rely on the effective management of complex documentation.

2025

Using Explanations to Estimate the Quality of Computer Vision Models

Authors
Oliveira, F; Carneiro, D; Pereira, J;

Publication
HUMAN-CENTRED TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE, VOL 2, IAMOT

Abstract
Explainable AI (xAI) emerged as one of the ways of addressing the interpretability issues of the so-called black-box models. Most of the xAI artifacts proposed so far were designed, as expected, for human users. In this work, we posit that such artifacts can also be used by computer systems. Specifically, we propose a set of metrics derived from LIME explanations, that can eventually be used to ascertain the quality of each output of an underlying image classification model. We validate these metrics against quantitative human feedback, and identify 4 potentially interesting metrics for this purpose. This research is particularly useful in concept drift scenarios, in which models are deployed into production and there is no new labelled data to continuously evaluate them, becoming impossible to know the current performance of the model.

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