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

NM-LEACH: A Novel Modified LEACH Protocol to Improve Performance in WSN

Saving energy and improving the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has remained as a key research challenge for some time. Low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH), a classical protocol is designed originally for the purpose of reducing and balancing the network’s energy consumption. However, as the distances between the cluster head (CH) and the member nodes are not taken into consideration, it results in the uneven distribution of the clusters and uneven consumption of the energy in the network. Choosing the CHs with no distinction is an issue as well. Based on the original algorithm, a novel modified LEACH (NM-LEACH) has been proposed, considering critical problems that exist in the network. NM-LEACH protocol is capable of reasonably solving the number of the CHs in each round and takes the energy as a factor of weight under consideration in selecting the CH. The proposed protocol enhances performance by extending the WSN lifecycle, which results in increasing the balance of the energy consumption in the network, and improving the efficiency of the network

Phylogeography of the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata): distinct evolutionary lineages and hybridization with the Asian small clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus)

We investigated the phylogeography of the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) to determine its spatial genetic structure for aiding an adaptive conservation management of the species. Fifty eight modern and 11 archival (dated 1882–1970) otters sampled from Iraq to Malaysian Borneo were genotyped (mtDNA Cytochrome-b, 10 microsatellite DNA loci). Moreover, 16 Aonyx cinereus (Asian small-clawed otter) and seven Lutra lutra (Eurasian otter) were sequenced to increase information available for phylogenetic reconstructions. As reported in previous studies, we found that L. perspicillata, A. cinereus and A. capensis (African clawless otter) grouped in a clade sister to the genus Lutra, with L. perspicillata and A. cinereus being reciprocally monophyletic. Within L. perspicillata, we uncovered three Evolutionarily Significant Units and proved that L. p. maxwelli is not only endemic to Iraq but also the most recent subspecies. We suggest a revision of the distribution range limits of easternmost L. perspicillata subspecies. We show that smooth-coated otters in Singapore are L. perspicillata x A. cinereus hybrids with A. cinereus mtDNA, the first reported case of hybridization in the wild among otters. This result also provides evidence supporting the inclusion of L. perspicillata and A. cinereus in the genus Amblonyx, thus avoiding the paraphyly of the genus Aonyx

Molecular phylogeography of the smooth-­‐coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata, Mustelidae) for its conservation in the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq

The smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) (SCO) includes perspicillata (SE Asia), sindica (SE Pakistan, W India) and endemic-to-Iraq maxwelli morphological subspecies. Classified as vulnerable by IUCN, the SCO is threatened by habitat transformation, illegal trade and poaching. Non-invasively collected samples in Iraq (10), central and E Asia (nine countries, 46) were sequenced at the entire mtDNA Cytochrome-b gene and genotyped (ongoing) at the microsatellite DNA. We also obtained 307 bp-long gene fragments from 16 SCOs resident to US and European museums. We used 19 Lutrinae GenBank entries. In Iraq, we provided genetic evidence for endemicity of maxwelli to Mesopotamia (private haplotype, mostly from Al-Hawizeh Marsh, S Iraq), while we could not confirm the occurrence of the SCO in N Iraq (Kurdistan).We found reciprocally monophyletic mtDNA lineages across the SCO range each corresponding to a subspecies. Preliminary microsatellite DNA results confirmed this mtDNA picture, overall pointing to three Evolutionarily Significant Units. Looking-like SCOs from Singapore showed oriental small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) mtDNA. We will investigate A. cinerea-mtDNA introgressed SCOs at the microsatellite DNA to assess if they are descendant of L. perspicillata x A. cinerea otters (i.e., first hybrid record in the wild for Lutrinae). Several museum specimens were genetically identified as other than the SCO (even an African otter),indicating that morphology can be not sufficient to reliably catalogue otter study skins. In Iraq, genetic and fieldwork (not shown) data will help establishing a National Single Species Action Plan for the SCO. [National Geographic Society Conservation

Prediction of Flood Severity Level Via Processing IoT Sensor Data Using Data Science Approach

The ‘riverine flooding’ is deemed a catastrophic phenomenon caused by extreme climate changes and other ecological factors (e.g., amount of sunlight), which are difficult to predict and monitor. However, the use of internet of things (IoT), various types of sensing including social sensing, 5G wireless communication and big data analysis have devised advanced tools for early prediction and management of distrust events. To this end, this paper amalgamates machine learning models and data analytics approaches along-with IoT sensor data to investigate attribute importance for the prediction of risk levels in flood. The paper presents three river levels: normal, medium and high-risk river levels for machine learning models. Performance is evaluated with varying configurations and evaluations setup including training and testing of support vector machine and random forest using principal components analysis-based dimension reduced dataset. In addition, we investigated the use of synthetic minority over-sampling technique to balance the class representations within dataset. As expected, the results indicated that a “balanced” representation of data samples achieved high accuracy (nearly 93%) when benchmarked with “imbalanced” data samples using random forest classifier 10-folds cross-validation

FATIGUE DAMAGE IN WOVEN CARBON FABRIC/EPOXY LAMINATES AT NON-AMBIENT TEMPERATURES

The mechanisms involved in initiation and development of non-ambient temperature fatigue damage in Plain Weave-Woven Carbon fabric/epoxy Composite laminates is explored. Laminates obtained from prepreg woven carbon fabric layers were subjected to tension-tension cyclic loading at –20oC, 0oC, 24oC 100oC and 150oC. Two different stacking sequences, a unidirectional [0]8, and an angle plied [0,0,45,-45]s sequence were studied. Optical microscopy, enhanced-dye penetrant X-ray radiography, and scanning electron fractography were employed to examine the fatigue damage mechanisms operative at various temperatures. Temperature was found to have a significant effect on the fiber/matrix bonding and interply delamination characteristics of these woven carbon fabric/epoxy laminates

Magnetic resonance imaging findings in children with Parry-Romberg syndrome and en coup de sabre

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to: (i) describe the abnormalities seen on brain imaging in a group of children with en coup de sabre (EDCS) with/without Parry-Romberg syndrome (PRS); and (ii) identify clinical predictors of brain imaging abnormalities. METHODS: This was a single centre (Great Ormond Street Hospital, London) retrospective case series of patients with ECDS/PRS seen from 2000 to 2018. We identified patients with cutaneous manifestations consistent with the clinical descriptions of ECDS/PRS. Presenting clinical, laboratory, and radiological brain findings are described. Results are expressed as medians and ranges or frequencies and percentages. Fisher's exact test was used to identify clinical associations with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities. RESULTS: Fourteen patients were studied: 6 males and 8 females; median age 14 years (range 3-20). We observed neuroimaging abnormalities in 2/6 ECDS and 5/8 ECDS/PRS patients. White matter signal abnormality, dystrophic calcification, leptomeningeal enhancement, and sulcal crowding were the typical findings on brain imaging. A total of 50% of patients had no MRI abnormality despite some of these patients having neurological symptoms. The presence of seizures was significantly associated with ipsilateral enhanced white matter signalling on MRI (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we observed several distinct radiographic patterns associated with ECDS/PRS. Seizure disorder was strongly associated with the presence of ipsilateral enhanced white matter signalling. Improved neuroimaging techniques that combine morphological with functional imaging may improve the detection rate of brain involvement in children with ECDS/PRS in the future

Speckle suppression in medical ultrasound images through Schur decomposition

A technique based on Schur decomposition to supress the multiplicative (speckle) noise from medical ultrasound images is presented in this study. An image which carries the speckle noise is divided into small overlapping segments, size of these segments depends on the nature of speckle carried by the image and a global covariance matrix is calculated for the whole image by averaging the covariances of all segments. The global covariance matrix is decomposed through Schur decomposition to obtain the orthogonal vectors. A subset of these orthogonal vectors that correspond to largest magnitudes of eigenvalues are selected to filter out the speckle noise from the image. The proposed approach is compared with four benchmark filtering techniques, homomorphic wavelet despeckling, Wiener, Frost and Gamma. Two types of simulated ultrasound images and five types of real ultrasound images of foetal neck, left kidney, right kidney, musculo skeletal nerve and lymph node are tested. The proposed approach performed maximum suppression of speckle noise in all types of the images with optimal resolution and edge detection. The despeckling performance of the proposed approach is even better compared with the benchmark schemes once the speckle noise is rough, which is usually the case for soft tissue. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2017