Constraints T-Way Testing Strategy With Modified Condition /Decision Coverage (MC/DC)

Modern society in today’s digital era depends heavily on software in almost every aspect of daily life. In fact, whenever possible, most hardware implementation is now being replaced by the software counterparts. From the washing machine controllers, mobile phone applications to the sophisticated airplane control systems, the growing dependency on software can be attributed to a number of factors. Unlike hardware, software does not wear out. Thus, the use of software can also help to control maintenance costs. Additionally, software is also malleable and can easily be changed and customized as the need arises. With the advent of advancement in computer hardware technology, software applications grow drastically in terms of lines of codes, that is, to keep up with ever increasing customer demands for new functionalities and innovations. As such, ensuring software quality can be a daunting task. Exhaustive testing is practically infeasible given the large domain of inputs and possibly too many possible execution paths. Over the years, many sampling techniques (or strategies) have been proposed to select subsets of test cases for testing consideration. In many applications, sampling strategies based on boundary value analysis, equivalence partioning, cause and effect analysis, and decision tables are sufficiently useful but they are not designed to address faults due to interaction. In other applications particularly involving structural (predicate) testing (e.g. in avionic industry), sampling strategies based on coverage criteria such as statements, decisions, and path coverage are deemed necessary, however, they often suffer from the effect of masking (i.e. due to the resulting AND and OR operations). Currently, researchers in combinatorial testing have already developed strategies based on interaction testing (termed t-way testing) in order to detect bugs due to interaction. Here, depending on the value of interaction strength (t), all desired t-way interactions are faithfuly covered in the resulting test cases.Although useful, much existing work t-way testing has not sufficiently considered modified conditions/decision coverage (MC/DC) as the criteria for test generation. In many critical applications particularly involving the airborne system, compliants to MC/DC are required by law [1]. Proposed by NASA in 1992, the MC/DC is a white box testing criterion ensuring each condition within a predicate can independently influence the outcome of the decision - while the outcome of all other conditions remains constant. In this manner, MC/DC criterion subsumes other well known coverage such as statements, decisions, and path [2]. Addressing some of the aforementioned issues, this research discusses the design of a new constraints based t-way strategy with MC/DC criterion for structural (predicate) testing. In doing so, this paper also highlights the possible implementations

Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Peta Konsep Dapat Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar IPA Siswa Kelas IV Mi Muhammadiyah Sungai Segajah Kecamatan Kubu

Classroom action researchwas conducted because of the low sciencelearning outcomes of students with an average of 58.8 olehkurangnya causedstudent interest in learning and lack of problem solving abilities of students inlearning science. To improve the learning outcomes of the fourth grade scienceSegajah River MI Muhammadiyah Kubu district, the school year 2013/2014Concept maps applied learning models. This study was conducted from April toJune 2014 subjects were fourth graders totaling 17 people. Average studentlearning outcomes in daily test first cycle is 72.4 with a good category. While onthe second cycle of daily test students increased to 76.8 with either category. Forthe average teacher activity in the first cycle is 68.8 pertemua first with enoughcategories, at the second meeting increased to 75, while the second cycle to thefourth meeting of teachers has increased activity with both categories is 81.2, thefifth meeting of the 87, 5 with very good category. While the activities of studentsin the first cycle is 62.5 pertemua first with enough categories, at the secondmeeting increased to 68.8. While in the second cycle to the fourth meeting of thestudent activity increased to 75 with either category, the fifth meeting of the 81.2with either category. From this study it can be concluded that the application ofthe concept map learning model to improve learning outcomes IPA fourth gradestudents of Muhammadiyah River MI Segajah Kubu district

Sitting Posture Amongst Level One Primary Schoolchildren (Lops) In Perlis, Kedah And Pulau Pinang

This study is a continuous study of previous paper ( Wahyuni Masyidah, Noor Azlina & Muhammad Fauzi 2015). Based on the quantitative result of mismatch between anthropometric and chair dimensions amongst LOPS show that over 96% did not fit to school chair dimension during learning session in the class, and only 4% were fitted to the school chair in class. Due to the mismatch result, the aim of this paper is to reveal the qualitative result of the study which frequent types of sitting postures that attribute to discomfort that have been identified amongst Level One Primary Schoolchildren (LOPS) in Kedah Perlis and Pulau Pinang. The qualitative analysis consist 12 respondent that randomly been taken between 7 to 9 years old from different primary school in Perlis, Kedah and Pulau Pinang. It can be concluded that the sitting postures amongst LOPS could lead towards permanent damage to the body and jeopardize the children’s health

Simultaneous computation of model order and parameter estimation of a heating system based on particle swarm optimization for autoregressive with exogenous model

System identification is a method used to obtain a mathematical model of a system by performing analysis of input-output behavior of the system. In system identification, the procedure can be separated into four main parts. The first part is constructing an experiment to collect the input-output data of the system. Then, based on some criteria, the model order and structure are selected. The next part is to estimate the parameters of the model. For the final part, the mathematical model is verified. In this study, a new approach called simultaneous model order and parameter estimation (SMOPE), which is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), is proposed to combine model order selection and parameter estimation in one platform. In this approach, both the model order and the parameters of the system are searched simultaneously by a particle. Similar to other PSO implementation, a number of particles are utilized in the search process. In order to realize the simultaneous search of the best model order and the associated parameters, a suitable particle representation is employed. Based on a heating system case study, it is proven that the proposed approach is superior compared to some other methods in literature

Sustainable bio-economy that delivers the environment-food-energy-water nexus objectives: the current status in Malaysia

Biomass is a promising resource in Malaysia for energy, fuels, and high value-added products. However, regards to biomass value chains, the numerous restrictions and challenges related to the economic and environmental features must be considered. The major concerns regarding the enlargement of biomass plantation is that it requires large amounts of land and environmental resources such as water and soil that arises the danger of creating severe damages to the ecosystem (e.g. deforestation, water pollution, soil depletion etc.). Regarded concerns can be diminished when all aspects associated with palm biomass conversion and utilization linked with environment, food, energy and water (EFEW) nexus to meet the standard requirement and to consider the potential impact on the nexus as a whole. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the detail interactions between all the components in the nexus once intended to look for the best solution to exploit the great potential of biomass. This paper offers an overview regarding the present potential biomass availability for energy production, technology readiness, feasibility study on the techno-economic analyses of the biomass utilization and the impact of this nexus on value chains. The agro-biomass resources potential and land suitability for different crops has been overviewed using satellite imageries and the outcomes of the nexus interactions should be incorporated in developmental policies on biomass. The paper finally discussed an insight of digitization of the agriculture industry as future strategy to modernize agriculture in Malaysia. Hence, this paper provides holistic overview of biomass competitiveness for sustainable bio-economy in Malaysia

Defining the causes of sporadic Parkinson's disease in the global Parkinson's genetics program (GP2)

The Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) will genotype over 150,000 participants from around the world, and integrate genetic and clinical data for use in large-scale analyses to dramatically expand our understanding of the genetic architecture of PD. This report details the workflow for cohort integration into the complex arm of GP2, and together with our outline of the monogenic hub in a companion paper, provides a generalizable blueprint for establishing large scale collaborative research consortia

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson?s disease

Although over 90 independent risk variants have been identified for Parkinson’s disease using genome-wide association studies, most studies have been performed in just one population at a time. Here we performed a large-scale multi-ancestry meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease with 49,049 cases, 18,785 proxy cases and 2,458,063 controls including individuals of European, East Asian, Latin American and African ancestry. In a meta-analysis, we identified 78 independent genome-wide significant loci, including 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) and fine-mapped 6 putative causal variants at 6 known PD loci. By combining our results with publicly available eQTL data, we identified 25 putative risk genes in these novel loci whose expression is associated with PD risk. This work lays the groundwork for future efforts aimed at identifying PD loci in non-European populations

DOLOMITE AS AN ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING AGENT IN DRILLING FLUIDS

A series of experimental tests have been conducted to assess the suitability of using dolomite as an alternative weighting agent in drilling fluids. Currently, barite is widely used as weighting agent in drilling fluids slurry to ensure proper weights are achieved. However, barite contains toxic materials which make it unattractive from health and environment point of views. This is especially true when drilling operations are offshore, where most of the used drilling fluids will be dumped back into the sea. In this work, rheological properties of dolomite blend drilling fluids slurry were studied. Dolomite rocks were first crushed to produce dolomite powder, before being mixed with water and bentonite at various proportions. A total of 10 samples which contains various percentages of water, bentonite and dolomite were studied. For each sample, its rheological properties were determined. Such properties include density from mud balance, viscosity from viscometer, filtrate loss from API filter press and gel strength. The effect of aging on the properties of drilling fluids was also studied. From the study, it is concluded that Sample E, which consists of 70% dolomite by weight, produces the most stable drilling fluids. It is also observed that the amount of 336 g of dolomite in the sample shows the similar physical and rheological properties to that of the 480 g barite in the sample although the density for both samples is not same