Multi‐level reranking approach for bug localization

Bug fixing has a key role in software quality evaluation. Bug fixing starts with the bug localization step, in which developers use textual bug information to find location of source codes which have the bug. Bug localization is a tedious and time consuming process. Information retrieval requires understanding the programme's goal, coding structure, programming logic and the relevant attributes of bug. Information retrieval (IR) based bug localization is a retrieval task, where bug reports and source files represent the queries and documents, respectively. In this paper, we propose BugCatcher, a newly developed bug localization method based on multi‐level re‐ranking IR technique. We evaluate BugCatcher on three open source projects with approximately 3400 bugs. Our experiments show that multi‐level reranking approach to bug localization is promising. Retrieval performance and accuracy of BugCatcher are better than current bug localization tools, and BugCatcher has the best Top N, Mean Average Precision (MAP) and Mean Reciprocal Rank (MRR) values for all datasets.     

Analytical and numerical comparisons of biogeography-based optimization and genetic algorithms

We show that biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a generalization of a genetic algorithm with global uniform recombination (GA/GUR). Based on the common features of BBO and GA/GUR, we use a previously-derived BBO Markov model to obtain a GA/GUR Markov model. One BBO characteristic which makes it distinctive from GA/GUR is its migration mechanism, which affects selection pressure (i.e., the probability of retaining certain features in the population from one generation to the next). We compare the BBO and GA/GUR algorithms using results from analytical Markov models and continuous optimization benchmark problems. We show that the unique selection pressure provided by BBO generally results in better optimization results for a set of standard benchmark problems. We also present comparisons between BBO and GA/GUR for combinatorial optimization problems, include the traveling salesman, the graph coloring, and the bin packing problems.     

Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

IT outsourcing is a complex and opaque decision problem. Managers facing a decision about IT outsourcing have difficulty in framing what needs to be thought about further in their discourses. Framing is one of the most crucial steps of human decision making and needs to be assisted to better understand a decision situation. In this research, we examine a number of decision primitives in the context of an IT outsourcing decision situation. We demonstrate how the decision primitives can be employed so that managers can probe deep to better understand a decision situation and to establish a decision basis. In the organizational setting, we exemplify the use of the decision primitives in relation to the perceived outsourcing implications for the managers looking for assistance in accommodating a knowledge management perspective on IT outsourcing. Consequently, we induce insight and a guideline on how to use knowledge management for effective outsourcing in one of the leading financial institutes in Europe.

Decoupled approach to integrated optimum design of structures and robust control systems

Integrated optimum design of structures and control systems is studied by using H ₂ and robust control formulations. It is derived that conventional simultaneous optimization approach by using these robust control laws can be approximated by a decoupled optimization approach in which the structures are optimized by shaping the structural singular values and then the controllers can be designed, namely, decoupled, sequential or successive design approach. It is shown that the proposed decoupled optimization approach can be used to design optimum robust structures and has certain advantages over the conventional simultaneous optimization procedures such as it avoids the drawbacks of pure robust control laws and faster, especially if the number of degrees of freedom (DOF) of the associated structure is large. The bounds for achievable robustness measures are also obtained. Following, simultaneous and decoupled optimization approaches are applied to active control of two structures. The optimization results are presented, and it is concluded that the proposed decoupled optimization approach yields the achieved global minimum much faster than the simultaneous optimization approach.     

An incremental neural network for tissue segmentation in ultrasound images

This paper presents an incremental neural network (INeN) for the segmentation of tissues in ultrasound images. The performances of the INeN and the Kohonen network are investigated for ultrasound image segmentation. The elements of the feature vectors are individually formed by using discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and discrete cosine transform (DCT). The training set formed from blocks of 4x4 pixels (regions of interest, ROIs) on five different tissues designated by an expert is used for the training of the Kohonen network. The training set of the INeN is formed from randomly selected ROIs of 4x4 pixels in the image. Performances of both 2D-DFT and 2D-DCT are comparatively examined for the segmentation of ultrasound images.     

A gantry-based tri-modality system for bioluminescence tomography

A gantry-based tri-modality system that combines bioluminescence (BLT), diffuse optical (DOT), and x-ray computed tomography (XCT) into the same setting is presented here. The purpose of this system is to perform bioluminescence tomography using a multi-modality imaging approach. As parts of this hybrid system, XCT and DOT provide anatomical information and background optical property maps. This structural and functional a priori information is used to guide and restrain bioluminescence reconstruction algorithm and ultimately improve the BLT results. The performance of the combined system is evaluated using multi-modality phantoms. In particular, a cylindrical heterogeneous multi-modality phantom that contains regions with higher optical absorption and x-ray attenuation is constructed. We showed that a 1.5 mm diameter bioluminescence inclusion can be localized accurately with the functional a priori information while its source strength can be recovered more accurately using both structural and the functional a priori information.     

Coordinating metaheuristic agents with swarm intelligence

Coordination of multi agent systems remains as a problem since there is no prominent method suggests any universal solution. Metaheuristic agents are specific implementations of multi-agent systems, which imposes working together to solve optimisation problems using metaheuristic algorithms. An idea for coordinating metaheuristic agents borrowed from swarm intelligence is introduced in this paper. This swarm intelligence-based coordination framework has been implemented as swarms of simulated annealing agents collaborated with particle swarm optimization for multidimensional knapsack problem. A comparative performance analysis is also reported highlighting that the implementation has produced much better results than the previous works.     

A stochastic neighborhood search approach for airport gate assignment problem

An appropriate and efficient gate assignment is of great importance in airports since it plays a major role in the revenue obtained from the airport operations. In this study, we have focused mainly on maximum gate employment, or in other words minimize the total duration of un-gated flights. Here, we propose a method that combines the benefits of heuristic approaches with some stochastic approach instead of using a purely probabilistic approach to top-down solution of the problem. The heuristic approaches are usually used in order to provide a fast solution of the problem and later stochastic searches are used in order to ameliorate the previous results of the heuristic approach whenever possible. The proposed method generates an assignment order for the whole planes that corresponds to assignment priority. The ordering process is followed by the allocation step. Since, in practice, each airport has its own physical architecture, there have been arisen many constraints mainly concerning airplane types and parking lots in this step. Sequentially handling the plane ordering and allocation phases provides us great modularity in handling the constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been tried to be illustrated firstly on fictively generated flight schedule data and secondly on the real world data obtained from a real world application developed for ?stanbul Atatürk Airport.     

Towards quality requirements via animated formal specifications

Assuring a high quality requirements specification document involves both an early validation process and an increased level of participation. An approach and its supporting environment which combines the benefits of a formal system specification and its subsequent execution via a rapid prototype is reported. The environment assists in the construction, clarification, validation and visualisation of a formal specification. An illustrative case study demonstrates the consequences of assertions about system properties at this early stage of software development. Our approach involves the pragmatic combination of technical benefits of formal systems engineering based techniques with the context‐sensitive notions of increased participation of both developer and user stakeholders to move us closer towards a quality requirements specification document.