Diverse virtual social networks: Implications for remote software testing teams

This paper evaluates offshore outsourcing in the IT testing industry and determines what conditions determine its success. There is particular focus on the influence of diversity in teams on group relationships. Two studies are described: the first, investigated the perceptions of professional software testers on the critical factors of offshore outsourcing; and the second study looked at the ability for diverse teams to form close working relationships through virtual networks. We find that overt diversity factors inhibit interaction across nationality boundaries. The limitations of virtual networks for fostering personal communications is apparent in preventing group members from overcoming the initial aversion to mix with out-group members, which could be achieved with closer and more personal communications between members with different diversity factors in normal face to face communications. Where software testing teams are outsourced globaly, and must rely on virtual communications, there seems potential for significant difficulties in developing close working relationships, which on the one hand, can be negative for group cohesion, but one the other hand, can be positive for encouraging imparitality

Canine osteosarcoma is a promising animal model for the study of human osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant primary bone tumour in dogs and humans. OS is an aggressive malignancy that occurs mostly in the appendicular skeleton of both dogs and humans. OS classification is based on its malignant stroma and formation of extracellular matrix into osteoblastic, chondroblastic or fibroblastic OS. The characterisation of an appropriate natural disease animal model to study human OS is essential to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease. Several studies have established the vital role of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and its receptor (PTHR1) in bone formation and remodeling. In addition, these molecules play a role in the progression and metastasis of several human tumour types. Novel prognostic indicators are crucial to determine a better outcome for cancer patients. The current study aimed to validate canine OS as a model for the human disease by immunohistochemically evaluating the expression of markers known to be important in human OS including vimentin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), desmin, S100, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), runt-related protein 2 (Runx2) and bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4). In addition, the localisation of PTHR1 and PTHrP in canine OS tissues was investigated and their prognostic values were assessed. The correlation between the three histological subtypes of canine OS and a clinical outcome was determined. The study also examined whether there was any difference in the immunostaining of desmin, S100 and NSE among the three histological subtypes. The validation of canine OS as a model for human OS utilised immunostaining of canine OS samples with antibodies specific for vimentin, ALP, desmin, S100, NSE, Runx2 and BMP4 which were compared with those previously described for human OS. Immunohistochemistry was conducted on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections from 56 dogs (Bristol-56 group) with confirmed primary OS. Vimentin, ALP, Runx2 and BMP4 were highly expressed by all tumours, while desmin, S100, NSE had variable expressions. Before this study, there was no information about the immunostaining of PTHR1 and PTHrP and their prognostic values in canine OS. FFPE tissue samples from 50 dogs (Australian Specialised Animal Pathology laboratory (ASAP)-50 group) diagnosed with primary OS were immunostained with antibodies specific for PTHR1 and PTHrP. The staining intensity of PTHR1 and PTHrP was correlated with survival time. Both PTHR1 and PTHrP were detected in all OS samples (n= 50). Dogs with strongly stained OS tumours for PTHR1 had remarkably shorter survival times (mean survival time= 61 ± 11 days, n= 21 dogs) when compared with those with OS showing moderate (mean survival time= 227 ± 36 days, n= 27 dogs) or weak staining (mean survival time= 580 ± 122 days, n= 2 dogs) (P= 0.000023, log-rank test). Moreover, univariate (P= 0.002) and multivariate (P= 0.002) Cox regression analyses suggested that the staining intensity of PTHR1 was an independent prognostic indicator for overall survival. However, PTHrP staining intensity did not correlate with survival time (P > 0.05). The association between the three histological subtypes of canine OS and clinical outcomes was investigated and the difference in the localisation of desmin, S100 and NSE among these three histological subtypes was examined. Primary canine OS tissue sections from 106 dogs (Bristol-56 and ASAP-50) comprising osteoblastic (n= 61 dogs), chondroblastic (n= 24 dogs) and fibroblastic (n= 21 dogs) were examined. The survival times correlated with OS subtypes (n= 50 dogs). Dogs with chondroblastic OS showed significantly decreased survival times (mean survival time= 104 ± 22 days, n= 11 dogs) in comparison to those with osteoblastic (mean survival time= 168 ± 33 days, n= 33 dogs) or fibroblastic OS (mean survival time= 463 ± 116 days, n= 6 dogs) (P= 0.037, log-rank test). Furthermore, the current study showed that the histological subtypes of OS were an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (Cox regression: univariate, P= 0.037; multivariate, P= 0.030). The study¿s findings also indicated that there was no significant correlation between the localisation of desmin, NSE or S100 and histological subtypes (n= 56 dogs). In conclusion, this project demonstrated that the localisation of vimentin, ALP, desmin, S100, NSE, Runx2 and BMP4 in canine OS were similar to those described previously for human OS and suggested that canine OS may represent a useful model for the study of the disease in humans. More importantly, it was also showed that increased expression of PTHR1 antigen in canine OS is associated with poor prognosis. This suggests that PTHR1 may be useful as a prognostic indicator in canine OS. Dogs with chondroblastic OS also had a poorer prognosis when compared to dogs with other subtypes. This suggests that the histological subtypes of canine OS have differing behaviours and could be used to categorise patients for risk-based assessment. Finally, the localisation of desmin, S100 and NSE were not correlated with the histological subtypes of canine OS

Piezoelectric metamaterial with negative and zero Poisson's ratios

This study presents the finite element–based micromechanical modeling approach to obtain the electromechanical properties of the piezoelectric metamaterial based on honeycomb (HC) cellular networks. The symmetry of the periodic structure was employed to derive mixed boundary conditions (MBCs) analogous to periodic boundary conditions (PBCs). Three classes of hexagonal HC cellular networks, namely, a conventional HC (CHC), a re-entrant HC (RE), and a semi-re-entrant HC (SRE) were considered. The representative volume elements (RVEs) of these three classes of cellular materials were created, and finite element analyses were carried out to analyze the effect of orientation of the ligament on their effective electromechanical properties and their suitability in specific engineering applications. The longitudinally poled piezoelectric HC cellular networks showed an enhanced behavior as compared to the monolithic piezoelectric materials. Moreover, longitudinally poled HC cellular networks demonstrated that, as compared to the bulk constituent, their hydrostatic figure of merit increased and their acoustic impedance decreased by one order of magnitude, respectively, indicating their applicability for the design on hydrophones. Moreover, results showed that cellular metamaterial with tunable electromechanical characteristics and a variety of auxetic behaviors such as negative, positive, or zero Poisson’s ratios could be developed. Such novel HC network-based functional cellular materials are likely to facilitate the design of light-weight devices for various next-generation sensors and actuators

Identifying cloud security threats to strengthen cloud computing adoption framework

Cloud Computing allows firms to outsource their entire information technology (IT) process, allowing them to concentrate more on their core business to enhance their productivity and innovation in offering services to customers. It allows businesses to cut down heavy cost incurred over IT infrastructure without losing focus on customer needs. However, to a certain limit adopting Cloud computing has struggled to grow among many established and growing organizations due to several security and privacy related issues. Throughout the course of this study several interviews were conducted, with cloud developers and security experts, and the literature was reviewed. This study enabled us to understand, current and future, security and privacy challenges with cloud computing. The outcome of this study led to identification of total 18, current and future, security issues affecting several attributes of cloud computing

Adaptive link-weight routing protocol using cross-layer communication for MANET

Routing efficiency is one of the challenges offered by Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). This paper proposes a novel routing technique called Adaptive Link-Weight (ALW) routing protocol. ALW adaptively selects an optimum route on the basis of available bandwidth, low delay and long route lifetime. The technique adapts a cross-layer framework where the ALW is integrated with application and physical layer. The proposed design allows applications to convey preferences to the ALW protocol to override the default path selection mechanism. The results confirm improvement over AODV in terms of network load, route discovery time and link reliability

Analytical and numerical assessment of the effect of highly conductive inclusions distribution on the thermal conductivity of particulate composites

Highly conductive composites have found applications in thermal management, and the effective thermal conductivity plays a vital role in understanding the thermo-mechanical behavior of advanced composites. Experimental studies show that when highly conductive inclusions embedded in a polymeric matrix the particle forms conductive chain that drastically increase the effective thermal conductivity of two-phase particulate composites. In this study, we introduce a random network three dimensional (3D) percolation model which closely represent the experimentally observed scenario of the formation of the conductive chain by spherical particles. The prediction of the effective thermal conductivity obtained from percolation models is compared with the conventional micromechanical models of particulate composites having the cubical arrangement, the hexagonal arrangement and the random distribution of the spheres. In addition to that, the capabilities of predicting the effective thermal conductivity of a composite by different analytical models, micromechanical models, and, numerical models are also discussed and compared with the experimental data available in the literature. The results showed that random network percolation models give reasonable estimates of the effective thermal conductivity of the highly conductive particulate composites only in some cases. It is found that the developed percolation models perfectly represent the case of conduction through a composite containing randomly suspended interacting spheres and yield effective thermal conductivity results close to Jeffery's model. It is concluded that a more refined random network percolation model with the directional conductive chain of spheres should be developed to predict the effective thermal conductivity of advanced composites containing highly conductive inclusions

Certain Results for the Laguerre-Gould Hopper Polynomials

In this paper, we derive generating functions for the Laguerre-Gould Hopper polynomials in terms of the generalized Lauricella function by using series rearrangement techniques. Further, we derive the summation formulae for that polynomials by using different analytical means on its generating function or by using certain operational techniques. Also, generating functions and summation formulae for the polynomials related to Laguerre-Gould Hopper polynomials are obtained as applications of main results

Optimizing Expert Rankings with Multiple Regression Analysis

The primary goal of this research is to establish a methodology that gives significant weight to an expert's qualifications and experience in the expertise ranking process. This methodology aims to enhance the effectiveness of expert identification by taking into account an expert's background and credentials, thus yielding more realistic expert rankings. To achieve this, we incorporate the details of an expert's qualifications and experience into the evaluation process by assigning assumed values, which are then integrated with their expertise level. These combined factors are subsequently utilized as inputs for a multiple regression analysis to generate an optimal ranking of experts. By emphasizing the significance of experience and qualifications in the ranking process, we can significantly improve the precision of our expert ranking mechanism. Our approach employs multiple regression analysis to identify the most suitable subject expert for user query transformation

Antibacterial effects and microbial quality of commonly consumed herbs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

© All Rights Reserved. Herbal plants are traditionally known to exhibit antimicrobial properties and used in several countries as an alternative to modern pharmaceutical drugs. This study investigated the antibacterial properties and microbial quality of common herbs used in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In total, 20 herb samples of parsley (Petroselinum crispum), basil (Ocimum basilicum), sage (Salvia officinalis), mint (Mentha spicata), and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) were randomly collected and analysed for the total aerobic bacteria count, yeasts and molds, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by standard plate counting method using selective and differential culture media. Antibacterial effects of herbs on E.coli, S. aureus, Salmonella and P. aeruginosa were tested by disk diffusion method. The microbial analysis of herbs revealed that 50% of herb samples exceeded the world health organization (WHO) limit for the total aerobic bacteria count, and 75% exceeded the permissible limit for total molds and yeast count. 75% of herb samples were found contaminated with Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp, 65% with Shigella, and 10% exceeded the WHO permissible limit for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, all herb samples were found to be within the WHO acceptable limit for Staphylococcus aureus. All herbal extracts exhibited some form of antibacterial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella and P. aeruginosa except for parsley, which had no inhibitory effect on S. aureus. However, the results of microbial quality suggest that most of the analysed herbs had unsafe microbial contamination that exceeded the World Health Organization permissible limits. Therefore, strict measures to reduce the risk of microbial contamination by applying Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) need to be implemented on local and imported herbs prior to consumption