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2020
Journal article
Open Access
Flexible automatic support for web accessibility validation
Broccia G, Manca M, Paternò F, Pulina F
Automatic support for web accessibility validation needs to evolve for several reasons The increasingly recognised importance of accessibility implies that various stakeholders, with different expertise, look at it from different viewpoints and have different requirements regarding the types of outputs they expect. The technologies used to support Web application access are evolving along with the associated accessibility guidelines. We present a novel tool that aims to provide flexible and open support for addressing such issues. We describe the design of its main features including support for recent guidelines and tailored results presentations, and report on first technical and empirical validation s that have provided positive feedbackSource: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACM ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, vol. 4
Broccia G, Manca M, Paternò F, Pulina F
Automatic support for web accessibility validation needs to evolve for several reasons The increasingly recognised importance of accessibility implies that various stakeholders, with different expertise, look at it from different viewpoints and have different requirements regarding the types of outputs they expect. The technologies used to support Web application access are evolving along with the associated accessibility guidelines. We present a novel tool that aims to provide flexible and open support for addressing such issues. We describe the design of its main features including support for recent guidelines and tailored results presentations, and report on first technical and empirical validation s that have provided positive feedbackSource: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACM ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, vol. 4
See at:
dl.acm.org 
| CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS 
| CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2020
Other
Open Access
Using spatial logic and model checking for nevus segmentation
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Spatial and spatio-temporal model checking techniques have a wide range of application domains, among which large scale distributed systems and signal and image analysis. In the latter domain, automatic and semi-automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile application that can greatly facilitate the work of professionals in this domain, while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In recent work we have applied this model-checking technique to the (3D) contouring of tumours and related oedema in magnetic resonance images of the brain. In the current work we address the contouring of (2D) images of nevi. One of the challenges of treating nevi images is their considerable inhomogeneity in shape, colour, texture and size. To deal with this challenge we use a texture similarity operator, in combination with spatial logic operators. We apply our technique on images of a large public database and compare the results with associated ground truth segmentation provided by domain experts.DOI: 10.32079/isti-tr-2020/017
Metrics:
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Spatial and spatio-temporal model checking techniques have a wide range of application domains, among which large scale distributed systems and signal and image analysis. In the latter domain, automatic and semi-automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile application that can greatly facilitate the work of professionals in this domain, while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In recent work we have applied this model-checking technique to the (3D) contouring of tumours and related oedema in magnetic resonance images of the brain. In the current work we address the contouring of (2D) images of nevi. One of the challenges of treating nevi images is their considerable inhomogeneity in shape, colour, texture and size. To deal with this challenge we use a texture similarity operator, in combination with spatial logic operators. We apply our technique on images of a large public database and compare the results with associated ground truth segmentation provided by domain experts.DOI: 10.32079/isti-tr-2020/017
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2021
Conference article
Open Access
Feasibility of Spatial Model Checking for Nevus Segmentation
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Recently developed spatial and spatio-temporal model checking techniques have a wide range of application domains, among which large scale distributed systems as well as signal and image analysis. In the latter domain, automatic and semi-automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile application that may facilitate the work of professionals in this domain, while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In recent work, spatial model-checking has been applied to the 3D contouring of brain tumours and related oedema in magnetic resonance images of the brain. In the present paper we address the contouring of 2D images of nevi. One of the challenges of contouring nevi is that they show considerable inhomogeneity in shape, colour, texture and size. In addition these images often include also extraneous elements such as hairs, patches and rulers. To deal with this challenge we explore the use of a texture similarity operator in combination with spatial logic operators. We investigate the feasibility of our technique on images of a large public database. We compare the results with associated ground truth segmentation provided by domain experts; the results are very promising, both from the quality and from the performance point of view.
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Recently developed spatial and spatio-temporal model checking techniques have a wide range of application domains, among which large scale distributed systems as well as signal and image analysis. In the latter domain, automatic and semi-automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile application that may facilitate the work of professionals in this domain, while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In recent work, spatial model-checking has been applied to the 3D contouring of brain tumours and related oedema in magnetic resonance images of the brain. In the present paper we address the contouring of 2D images of nevi. One of the challenges of contouring nevi is that they show considerable inhomogeneity in shape, colour, texture and size. In addition these images often include also extraneous elements such as hairs, patches and rulers. To deal with this challenge we explore the use of a texture similarity operator in combination with spatial logic operators. We investigate the feasibility of our technique on images of a large public database. We compare the results with associated ground truth segmentation provided by domain experts; the results are very promising, both from the quality and from the performance point of view.
See at:
CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | www.computer.org | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2021
Other
Open Access
A graphical user interface for medical image analysis with declarative spatial logic - Cognitive and memory load evaluation
Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Logic based (semi-)automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile technique that can potentially greatly facilitate the work of different professionals in this domain while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In such a context there is a clear need of a prototype Graphical User Interface (GUI) support for professionals which is usable, understandable and which reduces unnecessary cognitive load to the minimum, so that the focus of attention can remain on the main, critical, tasks such as image segmentation in support of planning of radiotherapy. In this paper we introduce a first proposal for a graphical user interface for the segmentation of medical images via the spatial logic based analyser VoxLogicA. Since both the logic approach to image analysis and its application in medical imaging are completely new, this is the first step in an iterative development process that will involve various analysis and development techniques, including empirical research and formal analysis. In the current work we analyse the GUI with a focus on the cognitive and memory load aspects which are critical in this domain of application.DOI: 10.32079/isti-tr-2021/012
Metrics:
Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Logic based (semi-)automatic contouring in Medical Imaging has shown to be a very promising and versatile technique that can potentially greatly facilitate the work of different professionals in this domain while supporting explainability, easy replicability and exchange of medical image analysis methods. In such a context there is a clear need of a prototype Graphical User Interface (GUI) support for professionals which is usable, understandable and which reduces unnecessary cognitive load to the minimum, so that the focus of attention can remain on the main, critical, tasks such as image segmentation in support of planning of radiotherapy. In this paper we introduce a first proposal for a graphical user interface for the segmentation of medical images via the spatial logic based analyser VoxLogicA. Since both the logic approach to image analysis and its application in medical imaging are completely new, this is the first step in an iterative development process that will involve various analysis and development techniques, including empirical research and formal analysis. In the current work we analyse the GUI with a focus on the cognitive and memory load aspects which are critical in this domain of application.DOI: 10.32079/isti-tr-2021/012
Metrics:
See at:
CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2022
Contribution to conference
Open Access
Towards a GUI for declarative medical image analysis: cognitive and memory load issues
Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
In medical imaging, (semi-)automatic image analysis techniques have been proposed to support the current time-consuming and cognitively demanding practice of manual segmentation of regions of interest (ROIs). The recently proposed image query language ImgQL, based on spatial logic and model checking, represents segmentation methods as concise, domain-oriented, human-readable procedures aimed at domain experts rather than technologists, and has been validated in several case studies. Such efforts are directed towards a human-centred Artificial Intelligence methodology. To this aim, we complemented the ongoing research line with a study of the Human-Computer Interaction aspects. In this work we investigate the design of a graphical user interface (GUI) prototype that supports the analysis procedure with minimal impact on the focus and the memory load of domain experts.Source: COMMUNICATIONS IN COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (PRINT), pp. 103-111. Online conference, 26/06-01/07/2022
Broccia G, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
In medical imaging, (semi-)automatic image analysis techniques have been proposed to support the current time-consuming and cognitively demanding practice of manual segmentation of regions of interest (ROIs). The recently proposed image query language ImgQL, based on spatial logic and model checking, represents segmentation methods as concise, domain-oriented, human-readable procedures aimed at domain experts rather than technologists, and has been validated in several case studies. Such efforts are directed towards a human-centred Artificial Intelligence methodology. To this aim, we complemented the ongoing research line with a study of the Human-Computer Interaction aspects. In this work we investigate the design of a graphical user interface (GUI) prototype that supports the analysis procedure with minimal impact on the focus and the memory load of domain experts.Source: COMMUNICATIONS IN COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (PRINT), pp. 103-111. Online conference, 26/06-01/07/2022
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2022
Journal article
Open Access
Empirical software engineering and formal methods for IoT systems
Basile D, Ter Beek Mh, Broccia G, Ferrari A
Researchers from the Formal Methods and Tools (FMT) lab of ISTI-CNR are working on the application of formal methods to devise interaction protocols for safe-by-construction IoT Systems of Systems. They are also working on the empirical investigation and evaluation of the effectiveness of techniques and methodologies proposed for IoT application scenarios. The research is being conducted in the context of the national project T-LADIES, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the program for Projects of National Interest (PRIN).Source: ERCIM NEWS, vol. 131, pp. 34-35
Project(s): Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
Basile D, Ter Beek Mh, Broccia G, Ferrari A
Researchers from the Formal Methods and Tools (FMT) lab of ISTI-CNR are working on the application of formal methods to devise interaction protocols for safe-by-construction IoT Systems of Systems. They are also working on the empirical investigation and evaluation of the effectiveness of techniques and methodologies proposed for IoT application scenarios. The research is being conducted in the context of the national project T-LADIES, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the program for Projects of National Interest (PRIN).Source: ERCIM NEWS, vol. 131, pp. 34-35
Project(s): Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
See at:
ercim-news.ercim.eu | CNR IRIS | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2023
Conference article
Open Access
Evaluating a language workbench: from working memory capacity to comprehension to acceptance
Broccia G, Ferrari A, Ter Beek Mh, Cazzola W, Favalli L, Bertolotti F
Language workbenches are tools that enable the definition, reuse and composition of programming languages and their ecosystem. This breed of frameworks aims to make the development of new languages easier and more affordable. Consequently, the comprehensibility of the language used in a language workbench (i.e., the meta-language) should be an important aspect to consider and evaluate. To the best of our knowledge, although the quantitative aspects of language workbenches are often discussed in the literature, the evaluation of comprehensibility is typically neglected.Neverlang is a language workbench that enables the definition of languages with a modular approach. This paper presents a preliminary study that intends to assess the comprehensibility of Neverlang programs, evaluated in terms of users' effectiveness and efficiency in a code comprehension task. The study also investigates the relationship between Neverlang comprehensibility and the users' working memory capacity. Furthermore, we intend to capture the relationship between Neverlang comprehensibility and users' acceptance, in terms of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intention to use. Our preliminary results on 10 subjects suggest that the users' working memory capacity may be related to the ability to comprehend Neverlang programs. On the other hand, effectiveness and efficiency do not appear to be associated with an increase in users' acceptance variables.Project(s): Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
Broccia G, Ferrari A, Ter Beek Mh, Cazzola W, Favalli L, Bertolotti F
Language workbenches are tools that enable the definition, reuse and composition of programming languages and their ecosystem. This breed of frameworks aims to make the development of new languages easier and more affordable. Consequently, the comprehensibility of the language used in a language workbench (i.e., the meta-language) should be an important aspect to consider and evaluate. To the best of our knowledge, although the quantitative aspects of language workbenches are often discussed in the literature, the evaluation of comprehensibility is typically neglected.Neverlang is a language workbench that enables the definition of languages with a modular approach. This paper presents a preliminary study that intends to assess the comprehensibility of Neverlang programs, evaluated in terms of users' effectiveness and efficiency in a code comprehension task. The study also investigates the relationship between Neverlang comprehensibility and the users' working memory capacity. Furthermore, we intend to capture the relationship between Neverlang comprehensibility and users' acceptance, in terms of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intention to use. Our preliminary results on 10 subjects suggest that the users' working memory capacity may be related to the ability to comprehend Neverlang programs. On the other hand, effectiveness and efficiency do not appear to be associated with an increase in users' acceptance variables.Project(s): Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
See at:
CNR IRIS | ieeexplore.ieee.org | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2023
Book
Open Access
Message from the Chairs: FormaliSE 2023
Gnesi S, Plat N, Jakobs M C, Murray T, Ferrari A, Broccia G
This volume contains the papers presented at FormaliSE 2023: the 11th International Conference on Formal Methods in Software engineering, co-located with ICSE 2023, the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering.
Gnesi S, Plat N, Jakobs M C, Murray T, Ferrari A, Broccia G
This volume contains the papers presented at FormaliSE 2023: the 11th International Conference on Formal Methods in Software engineering, co-located with ICSE 2023, the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering.
See at:
CNR IRIS | ieeexplore.ieee.org | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS
2024
Conference article
Restricted
Assessing the understandability and acceptance of attack-defense trees for modelling security requirements
Broccia G., Ter Beek M. H., Lluch Lafuente A., Spoletini P., Ferrari A.
Context and Motivation Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and assess security requirements. ADTs are widely popular, as they can facilitate communication between differ-ent stakeholders involved in system security evaluation, and they are for-mal enough to be verified, e.g., with model checkers. Question/Problem While the quality of this notation has been primarily assessed quanti-tatively, its understandability has never been evaluated despite being mentioned as a key factor for its success. Principal idea/Results In this paper, we conduct an experiment with 25 human subjects to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation. The study focuses on performance-based variables and perception-based variables, with the aim of evaluating the relationship between these measures and how they might impact the practical use of the notation. The results confirm a good level of understandability of ADTs. Participants consider them useful, and they show intention to use them. Contribution This is the first study empirically supporting the understandability of ADTs, thereby contributing to the theory of security requirements engineering.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 14588, pp. 39-56. Winterthur, Switzerland, April 8–11, 2024
Project(s): CODECS
, Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
Broccia G., Ter Beek M. H., Lluch Lafuente A., Spoletini P., Ferrari A.
Context and Motivation Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and assess security requirements. ADTs are widely popular, as they can facilitate communication between differ-ent stakeholders involved in system security evaluation, and they are for-mal enough to be verified, e.g., with model checkers. Question/Problem While the quality of this notation has been primarily assessed quanti-tatively, its understandability has never been evaluated despite being mentioned as a key factor for its success. Principal idea/Results In this paper, we conduct an experiment with 25 human subjects to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation. The study focuses on performance-based variables and perception-based variables, with the aim of evaluating the relationship between these measures and how they might impact the practical use of the notation. The results confirm a good level of understandability of ADTs. Participants consider them useful, and they show intention to use them. Contribution This is the first study empirically supporting the understandability of ADTs, thereby contributing to the theory of security requirements engineering.Source: LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, vol. 14588, pp. 39-56. Winterthur, Switzerland, April 8–11, 2024
Project(s): CODECS
, Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
See at:
CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS | link.springer.com
2024
Journal article
Open Access
Evaluating the understandability and user acceptance of Attack-Defense Trees: original experiment and replication
Broccia G., Ter Beek M. H., Lluch Lafuente A., Spoletini P., Fantechi A., Ferrari A.
Context: Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and evaluate security requirements. ADTs are popular because they facilitate communication among different stakeholders involved in system security evaluation and are formal enough to be verified using methods like model checking. The understandability and user-friendliness of ADTs are claimed as key factors in their success, but these aspects, along with user acceptance, have not been evaluated empirically. Objectives: This paper presents an experiment with 25 subjects designed to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation, along with an internal replication involving 49 subjects. Methods: The experiments adapt the Method Evaluation Model (MEM) to examine understandability variables (i.e., effectiveness and efficiency in using ADTs) and user acceptance variables (i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use). The MEM is also used to evaluate the relationships between these dimensions. In addition, a comparative analysis of the results of the two experiments is carried out. Results: With some minor differences, the outcomes of the two experiments are aligned. The results demonstrate that ADTs are well understood by participants, with values of understandability variables significantly above established thresholds. They are also highly appreciated, particularly for their ease of use. The results also show that users who are more effective in using the notation tend to evaluate it better in terms of usefulness. Conclusion: These studies provide empirical evidence supporting both the understandability and perceived acceptance of ADTs, thus encouraging further adoption of the notation in industrial contexts, and development of supporting tools.Source: INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 178
Project(s): CODECS, Secure Internet of Things – Risk analysis in design and operation, Security-by-Design in Digital Denmark, Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
Broccia G., Ter Beek M. H., Lluch Lafuente A., Spoletini P., Fantechi A., Ferrari A.
Context: Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and evaluate security requirements. ADTs are popular because they facilitate communication among different stakeholders involved in system security evaluation and are formal enough to be verified using methods like model checking. The understandability and user-friendliness of ADTs are claimed as key factors in their success, but these aspects, along with user acceptance, have not been evaluated empirically. Objectives: This paper presents an experiment with 25 subjects designed to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation, along with an internal replication involving 49 subjects. Methods: The experiments adapt the Method Evaluation Model (MEM) to examine understandability variables (i.e., effectiveness and efficiency in using ADTs) and user acceptance variables (i.e., ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use). The MEM is also used to evaluate the relationships between these dimensions. In addition, a comparative analysis of the results of the two experiments is carried out. Results: With some minor differences, the outcomes of the two experiments are aligned. The results demonstrate that ADTs are well understood by participants, with values of understandability variables significantly above established thresholds. They are also highly appreciated, particularly for their ease of use. The results also show that users who are more effective in using the notation tend to evaluate it better in terms of usefulness. Conclusion: These studies provide empirical evidence supporting both the understandability and perceived acceptance of ADTs, thus encouraging further adoption of the notation in industrial contexts, and development of supporting tools.Source: INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 178
Project(s): CODECS
, Secure Internet of Things – Risk analysis in design and operation, Security-by-Design in Digital Denmark, Typeful Language Adaptation for Dynamic, Interacting and Evolving Systems
See at:
CNR IRIS | www.sciencedirect.com | CNR IRIS
2021
Conference article
Open Access
Querying medical imaging datasets using spatial logics (Position paper)
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Bussi L, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Nowadays a plethora of health data is available for clinical and research usage. Such existing datasets can be augmented through artificial-intelligence-based methods by automatic, personalised annotations and recommendations. This huge amount of data lends itself to new usage scenarios outside the boundaries where it was created; just to give some examples: to aggregate data sources in order to make research work more relevant; to incorporate a diversity of datasets in training of Machine Learning algorithms; to support expert decisions in telemedicine. In such a context, there is a growing need for a paradigm shift towards means to interrogate medical databases in a semantically meaningful way, fulfilling privacy and legal requirements, and transparently with respect to ethical concerns. In the specific domain of Medical Imaging, in this paper we sketch a research plan devoted to the definition and implementation of query languages that can unambiguously express semantically rich queries on possibly multi-dimensional images, in a human-readable, expert-friendly and concise way. Our approach is based on querying images using Topological Spatial Logics, building upon a novel spatial model checker called VoxLogicA, to execute such queries in a fully automated way.
Belmonte G, Broccia G, Bussi L, Ciancia V, Latella D, Massink M
Nowadays a plethora of health data is available for clinical and research usage. Such existing datasets can be augmented through artificial-intelligence-based methods by automatic, personalised annotations and recommendations. This huge amount of data lends itself to new usage scenarios outside the boundaries where it was created; just to give some examples: to aggregate data sources in order to make research work more relevant; to incorporate a diversity of datasets in training of Machine Learning algorithms; to support expert decisions in telemedicine. In such a context, there is a growing need for a paradigm shift towards means to interrogate medical databases in a semantically meaningful way, fulfilling privacy and legal requirements, and transparently with respect to ethical concerns. In the specific domain of Medical Imaging, in this paper we sketch a research plan devoted to the definition and implementation of query languages that can unambiguously express semantically rich queries on possibly multi-dimensional images, in a human-readable, expert-friendly and concise way. Our approach is based on querying images using Topological Spatial Logics, building upon a novel spatial model checker called VoxLogicA, to execute such queries in a fully automated way.
See at:
CNR IRIS | link.springer.com | ISTI Repository | CNR IRIS | CNR IRIS
2019
Software
Metadata Only Access
MAUVE++
Manca M, Paternò F, Santoro C, Iannuzzi N, Broccia G, Pulina F
3755 Registered users on 2023-05-24. 82817 Single pages have been evaluated since May the 10th 2021. 8924 Projects have been created since September the 29th 2019 for a total of 155506 validated pages.
Manca M, Paternò F, Santoro C, Iannuzzi N, Broccia G, Pulina F
3755 Registered users on 2023-05-24. 82817 Single pages have been evaluated since May the 10th 2021. 8924 Projects have been created since September the 29th 2019 for a total of 155506 validated pages.
See at:
CNR IRIS | mauve.isti.cnr.it
2023
Other
Restricted
THE D.3.2.1 - AA@THE User needs, technical requirements and specifications
Pratali L, Campana M G, Delmastro F, Di Martino F, Pescosolido L, Barsocchi P, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Gennaro C, Girolami M, Lagani G, La Rosa D, Latella D, Magrini M, Manca M, Massink M, Mattioli A, Moroni D, Palumbo F, Paradisi P, Paternò F, Santoro C, Sebastiani L, Vairo C
Deliverable D3.2.1 del progetto PNRR Ecosistemi ed innovazione - THE
Pratali L, Campana M G, Delmastro F, Di Martino F, Pescosolido L, Barsocchi P, Broccia G, Ciancia V, Gennaro C, Girolami M, Lagani G, La Rosa D, Latella D, Magrini M, Manca M, Massink M, Mattioli A, Moroni D, Palumbo F, Paradisi P, Paternò F, Santoro C, Sebastiani L, Vairo C
Deliverable D3.2.1 del progetto PNRR Ecosistemi ed innovazione - THE