2025
Autores
Silva, M; Paiva, ACR; Mendes, A;
Publicação
SOFTWARE QUALITY JOURNAL
Abstract
Software testing plays a fundamental role in software engineering, involving the systematic evaluation of software to identify defects, errors, and vulnerabilities from the early stages of the development process. Education in software testing is essential for students and professionals, as it promotes quality and favours the construction of reliable software solutions. However, motivating students to learn software testing may be a challenge. To overcome this, educators may incorporate some strategies into the teaching and learning process, such as real-world examples, interactive learning, and gamification. Gamification aims to make learning software testing more engaging for students by creating a more enjoyable experience. One approach that has proven effective is to use serious games. This paper presents a novel serious game to teach white-box testing test case design techniques, named GAMFLEW (GAMe For LEarning White-box testing). It describes the design, game mechanics, and its implementation. It also presents a preliminary evaluation experiment with students to assess the usability, learnability, and perceived problems, among other aspects. The results obtained are encouraging.
2025
Autores
Vincenzi, AMR; Kuroishi, PH; Bispo, J; da Veiga, ARC; da Mata, DRC; Azevedo, FB; Paiva, ACR;
Publicação
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE
Abstract
Mutation testing maybe used to guide test case generation and as a technique to assess the quality of test suites. Despite being used frequently, mutation testing is not so commonly applied in the mobile world. One critical challenge in mutation testing is dealing with its computational cost. Generating mutants, running test cases over each mutant, and analyzing the results may require significant time and resources. This research aims to contribute to reducing Android mutation testing costs. It implements mutation testing operators (traditional and Android-specific) according to mutant schemata (implementing multiple mutants into a single code file). It also describes an Android mutation testing framework developed to execute test cases and determine mutation scores. Additional mutation operators can be implemented in JavaScript and easily integrated into the framework. The overall approach is validated through case studies showing that mutant schemata have advantages over the traditional mutation strategy (one file per mutant). The results show mutant schemata overcome traditional mutation in all evaluated aspects with no additional cost: it takes 8.50% less time for mutant generation, requires 99.78% less disk space, and runs, on average, 6.45% faster than traditional mutation. Moreover, considering sustainability metrics, mutant schemata have 8,18% less carbon footprint than traditional strategy.
2025
Autores
Rodrigues, JF; Cardoso, HL; Lopes, CT;
Publicação
Research Challenges in Information Science - 19th International Conference, RCIS 2025, Seville, Spain, May 20-23, 2025, Proceedings, Part II
Abstract
Text readability is vital for effective communication and learning, especially for those with lower information literacy. This research aims to assess Llama 3’s ability to grade readability and compare its alignment with established metrics. For that purpose, we create a new dataset of article lead sections from English and Simple English Wikipedia, covering nine categories. The model is prompted to rate the readability of the texts on a grade-level scale, and an in-depth analysis of the results is conducted. While Llama 3 correlates strongly with most metrics, it may underestimate text grade levels. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
2025
Autores
Rodrigues, JF; Cardoso, HL; Lopes, CT;
Publicação
COMPANION PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACM WEB CONFERENCE 2025, WWW COMPANION 2025
Abstract
Text simplification converts complex text into simpler language, improving readability and comprehension. This study evaluates the effectiveness of open-source large language models for text simplification across various categories. We created a dataset of 66,620 lead section pairs from English and Simple English Wikipedia, spanning nine categories, and tested Llama 3 for text simplification. We assessed its output for readability, simplicity, and meaning preservation. Results show improved readability, with simplification varying by category. Texts on Time were the most shortened, while Leisurerelated texts had the greatest reduction of words/characters and syllables per sentence. Meaning preservation was most effective for the Objects and Education categories.
2025
Autores
Dias, M; Lopes, CT;
Publicação
Research Challenges in Information Science - 19th International Conference, RCIS 2025, Seville, Spain, May 20-23, 2025, Proceedings, Part II
Abstract
Entity linking is an important task in medical natural language processing (NLP) for converting unstructured text into structured data for clinical analysis and semantic interoperability. However, in lower-resource languages, this task is challenging due to the limited availability of domain-specific resources. This paper explores a translation-based cross-lingual entity linking approach using GPT models, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4o, for zero-shot machine translation and entity linking with in-context learning. We evaluate our approach using a Portuguese-English parallel dataset of radiology abstracts. Our results show that chunk-level machine translation outperforms sentence-level translation. Moreover, our translation-based approach to cross-lingual entity linking of UMLS concepts outperformed the multilingual encoder method baseline. However, the in-context learning entity linking approach did not outperform a translation-based approach with a dictionary-based entity linking method. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
2025
Autores
Giagnolini, L; Koch, I; Tomasi, F; Teixeira Lopes, C;
Publicação
Journal of Documentation
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to comparatively evaluate two semantic models, ArchOnto (CIDOC CRM based) and Records in Contexts Ontology (RiC-O), for archival representation within the Linked Open Data framework. The research seeks to critically analyse their ability to represent archival documents, events, activities, and provenance through the application on a case study of historical baptism records. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a comparative approach, utilising the two models to represent a dataset of baptism records from a Portuguese parish spanning several centuries. This involved information extraction and conversion processes, transforming XML EAD finding aids into RDF to facilitate more explicit semantic representation and analysis. Findings – The analysis revealed distinctive strengths and limitations of each semantic model, providing nuanced insights into their respective capacities for archival description. The findings guide cultural heritage institutions in selecting and implementing the most suitable semantic model for their needs and pave the way for semantic alignment between the two models. Research limitations/implications – Although the case study explored the representation of a wide range of features, potential limitations include the specific contextual constraints of parish records and the need for broader comparative studies across diverse archival contexts. Originality/value – This paper offers original insights into semantic modelling for archival representations by providing a detailed comparative analysis of two ontological approaches. It offers valuable perspectives for archivists, digital humanities researchers, and cultural heritage professionals seeking to enhance the semantic richness of archival descriptions. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited
The access to the final selection minute is only available to applicants.
Please check the confirmation e-mail of your application to obtain the access code.