A major impediment to program comprehension, maintenance and evolvability is the existence of crosscutting concerns scattered across different modules tangled with implementations of other concerns. Presence of crosscutting concerns in software systems can lead to bloated and inefficient software systems that are difficult to evolve, hard to analyze, difficult to reuse and costly to maintain. This paper shows that clustering based on easily extractable software features derived through method calls, parameter sharing and method interactions represented as dynamic metrics can be used to determine code scattering and or tangling, thereby providing a steppingstone towards identifying crosscutting concerns leading to mining of possible aspect candidates. A three-step approach is used in the Aspect Mining methodology introduced in this paper. In the first step, two legacy programs were dynamically traced, and data representing interaction between code fragments were collected. In the second step, metrics were formulated from the collected data and submitted as input to Self Organizing Maps for clustering. In the third step, the obtained clusters were mapped against the test programs in order to identify code scattering and tangling symptoms, leading to identification of aspect candidates. Finally viable validation methodologies were applied to assess performance, and establish the validity of the methodologies used. Results obtained in this paper are found to have matched or exceeded results obtained in other existing Aspect Mining methods
When a software system evolves, new requirements may be added, existing functionalities modified, or some structural change introduced. During such evolution, disorder may be introduced, complexity increased or unintended consequences introduced, producing rippleeffect across the system. JHotDraw (JHD), a well-tested and widely used open source Javabased graphics framework developed with the best software engineering practice was selected as a test suite. Six versions were profiled and data collected dynamically, from which two metrics were derived namely entropy and software maturity index. These metrics were used to investigate degradation as the software transitions from one version to another. This study observed that entropy tends to decrease as the software evolves. It was also found that a software product attains its lowest decrease in entropy at the turning point where its highest maturity index is attained, implying a possible correlation between the point of lowest decrease in entropy and software maturity index.
BACKGROUND: Thousands of United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizens are living with physical challenge that render them incapable of performing routine activities the rest of us take for granted. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigated utilization of currently available and emerging assistive technologies, and examined the level of awareness of such technologies among the physically challenged population in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Knowing the level of awareness and usage of assistive technologies can phase the way for governments, and other stakeholders to develop effective policies that are capable of improving the lives of the physically challenged population. METHODS: This research conducted a survey of a total of 50 participants (30 females and 20 males) with varieties of physical disabilities. The data collected from the survey participants were tallied by counting the number of participants’ response to series of simple Yes/No questions. RESULTS: Results have shown that only 40% are currently using assistive technologies; with 61.2% being aware of existing assistive technologies. The most identified currently available assistive technologies among survey participants are the wheelchair and transportation vans, and the least identified emerging technologies are systems that respond to head nod. With regards to the newly emerging technologies, only 10% of participants are aware of them, with (70%) willing to use the newly emerging technologies if made available. Also, 60% of the participants benefit from government assistance, and 40% from both philanthropic and family support. With regards to employability, only 2% are fully employed. CONCLUSIONS: The overall low-level of awareness of (both currently available and emerging assistive technologies) observed is an indication of the need for substantial work that needs to be done towards creating an effective awareness program capable of increasing the overall utilization of assistive technologies.
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