Test case prioritisation aims at finding an ordering which enhances a certain property of an ordered test suite. Traditional techniques rely on the availability of code or a specification of the program under test. We propose to use string distances on the text of test cases for their comparison and elaborate a prioritisation algorithm. Such a prioritisation does not require code or a specification and can be useful for initial testing and in cases when code is difficult to instrument. In this paper, we also report on experiments performed on the "Siemens Test Suite", where the proposed prioritisation technique was compared with random permutations and four classical string distance metrics were evaluated. The obtained results, confirmed by a statistical analysis, indicate that prioritisation based on string distances is more efficient in finding defects than random ordering of the test suite: the test suites prioritized using string distances are more efficient in detecting the strongest mutants, and, on average, have a better APFD than randomly ordered test suites. The results suggest that string distances can be used for prioritisation purposes, and Manhattan distance could be the best choice.

ABSTRACT

The variables determining the attractiveness of social science PhDs remain unknown. A study on the job position of PhD graduates in the social sciences in Grenoble (1984Grenoble ( -1996 was carried out to gain insight into the relationship between the research environment during the PhD (funding and time available for the research, i.e. full-time versus part-time), the quality of research (estimated by distinctions and publications) and PhD students' initial training. The conditions in which the doctoral research is carried out have a crucial influence on the job

The TOP-Slider revisits the classical slider widget to help non-experts to find optimal compromises between tightly coupled, possibly conflicting, criteria. The TOP-Slider is designed to make the tradeoff between criteria both observable and intelligible while hiding the complexity of an underlying optimization algorithm. As a case study, a TOP-Slider has been assessed in terms of perceived affordance, intelligibility and incentive, when used in conjunction with an e-coach energy management system to interactively explore Pareto optimal solutions and to choose the best compromise between comfort and financial cost. A preliminary semi-controlled empirical study with 16 participants using 3 interdependent criteria shows that the TOP-Slider can serve as a sound basis to support nonexpert users in making informed compromises.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how a Wiki is used for knowledge sharing within an organization. Design/methodology/approach – The aim of this research is to evaluate this Wiki performance regarding knowledge sharing objectives. Findings – A Wiki has been deployed since several years within STMicroelectronics Company to improve Business Intelligence teamwork. Originality/value – The proposed evaluation methodology is based on a user-centered approach.

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Only intrusive and expensive ways of precisely expressing emotions has been proposed, which are not likely to appear soon in everyday Ubicomp environments. In this paper, we study to which extent we can identify the emotion a user is explicitly expressing through 2D and 3D gestures. Indeed users already often manipulate mobile devices with touch screen and accelerometers. We conducted a field study where we asked participants to explicitly express their emotion through gestures and to report their affective states. We contribute by ( 1) showing a high number of significant correlations in 3D motion descriptors of gestures and in the arousal dimension; (2) defining a space of affective gestures. We identify (3) groups of descriptors that structure the space and are related to arousal. Finally, we provide with (4) a preliminary model of arousal and we identify (5) interesting patterns in particular classes of gestures. Such results are useful for Ubicomp application designers in order to envision the use of gestures as a cheap and non-intrusive affective modality.