Shadow of a Doubt: Testing for Divergences Between Software Versions

© 2016 ACM.While developers are aware of the importance of comprehensively testing patches, the large effort involved in coming up with relevant test cases means that such testing rarely happens in practice. Furthermore, even when test cases are written to cover the patch, they often exercise the same behaviour in the old and the new version of the code. In this paper, we present a symbolic execution-based technique that is designed to generate test inputs that cover the new program behaviours introduced by a patch. The technique works by executing both the old and the new version in the same symbolic execution instance, with the old version shadowing the new one. During this combined shadow execution, whenever a branch point is reached where the old and the new version diverge, we generate a test case exercising the divergence and comprehensively test the new behaviours of the new version. We evaluate our technique on the Coreutils patches from the CoREBench suite of regression bugs, and show that it is able to generate test inputs that exercise newly added behaviours and expose some of the regression bugs

Shadow symbolic execution for testing software patches

While developers are aware of the importance of comprehensively testing patches, the large effort involved in coming up with relevant test cases means that such testing rarely happens in practice. Furthermore, even when test cases are written to cover the patch, they often exercise the same behaviour in the old and the new version of the code. In this article, we present a symbolic execution-based technique that is designed to generate test inputs that cover the new program behaviours introduced by a patch. The technique works by executing both the old and the new version in the same symbolic execution instance, with the old version shadowing the new one. During this combined shadow execution, whenever a branch point is reached where the old and the new version diverge, we generate a test case exercising the divergence and comprehensively test the new behaviours of the new version. We evaluate our technique on the Coreutils patches from the CoREBench suite of regression bugs, and show that it is able to generate test inputs that exercise newly added behaviours and expose some of the regression bugs

Hermitian boson mapping and finite truncation

Starting from a general, microscopic fermion-to-boson mapping that preserves Hermitian conjugation, we discuss truncations of the boson Fock space basis. We give conditions under which the exact boson images of finite fermion operators are also finite (e.g., a 1+2-body fermion Hamiltonian is mapped to a 1+2-body boson Hamiltonian) in the truncated basis. For the most general case, where the image is not necessarily exactly finite, we discuss how to make practical and controlled approximations.Comment: 12 pages in RevTex with no figures, Los Alamos preprint # LA-UR-94-146

An overview of the tapeworms of vertebrate bowels of the earth

entire volume OA; selected chapter posted hereCopyright: © The University of Kansas, Natural History Museum. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

On the R-Matrix Formulation of Deformed Algebras and Generalized Jordan-Wigner Transformations

The deformed algebra $\cal{A(R)}$, depending upon a Yang-Baxter R- matrix, is considered. The conditions under which the algebra is associative are discussed for a general number of oscillators. Four types of solutions satisfying these conditions are constructed and two of them can be represented by generalized Jordan-Wigner transformations.Our analysis is in some sense an extension of the boson realization of fermions from single-mode to multimode oscillators.Comment: 10+ii pages,preprint RBI-TH-10/93,Latex,(to appear in Europhys.Lett.

The Cestode Community in Northern Fur Seals (\u3cem\u3eCallorhinus ursinus\u3c/em\u3e) on St. Paul Island, Alaska

The diversity and ecology of cestodes from the northern fur seals, Callorhinus ursinus (NFS), were examined using newly collected material from 756 humanely harvested subadult males between 2011 and 2014. NFSs were collected from five different haul-outs on St. Paul Island, Alaska. A total of 14,660 tapeworms were collected with a prevalence of 98.5% and intensity up to 107 cestodes per host (mean intensity 19.7 ± 16.5 SD). Three species of tapeworms were found: Adenocephalus pacificus (Diphyllobothriidea) was the most prevalent (prevalence 97.4%), followed by Diplogonoporus tetrapterus (49.7%), and 5 immature specimens of Anophryocephalus cf. ochotensis (Tetrabothriidea) (0.5%). Most of the cestodes found in the NFS were immature (69.7%). However, only 0.9% of cestodes were in larval (plerocercoid) stages. The species composition, prevalence and intensity of cestodes from these NFSs were not statistically different between the five separate haul-outs. Significant increases in the intensity of NFS infections were observed during the study period

2D Kagome Ordering in the 3D Frustrated Spinel Li2Mn2O4

muSR experiments on the geometrically frustrated spinel oxide, Li2Mn2O4, show the development of spin correlations over a range of length scales with decreasing temperature. Increased relaxation below 150 K is consistent with the onset of spin correlations. Below 50 K, spin order on a length scale, which is long range for the muSR probe, appears abruptly in temperature, consistent with prior neutron diffraction results. The oscillations in the zero field asymmetry are analyzed using a three frequency model. By locating the muon site this is shown to be consistent with the unexpected 2D q = root 3 x root 3 structure on the Kagome planes proposed originally from neutron data. Longitudinal field data demonstrate that some spin dynamics persist even at 2 K. Thus, a very complex magnetic ground state, featuring the co-existence of long length scale 2D ordering and significant spin dynamics, is proposed. This is unusual considering the 3D topology of the Mn3+ spins in this material.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, to be submitted to J. Phys. Cond. Mat

Evolution of the adaptogenic concept from traditional use to medical systems: Pharmacology of stress- and aging-related diseases

Adaptogens comprise a category of herbal medicinal and nutritional products promoting adaptability, resilience, and survival of living organisms in stress. The aim of this review was to summarize the growing knowledge about common adaptogenic plants used in various traditional medical systems (TMS) and conventional medicine and to provide a modern rationale for their use in the treatment of stress-induced and aging-related disorders. Adaptogens have pharmacologically pleiotropic effects on the neuroendocrine-immune system, which explain their traditional use for the treatment of a wide range of conditions. They exhibit a biphasic dose-effect response: at low doses they function as mild stress-mimetics, which activate the adaptive stress-response signaling pathways to cope with severe stress. That is in line with their traditional use for preventing premature aging and to maintain good health and vitality. However, the potential of adaptogens remains poorly explored. Treatment of stress and aging-related diseases require novel approaches. Some combinations of adaptogenic plants provide unique effects due to their synergistic interactions in organisms not obtainable by any ingredient independently. Further progress in this field needs to focus on discovering new combinations of adaptogens based on traditional medical concepts. Robust and rigorous approaches including network pharmacology and systems pharmacology could help in analyzing potential synergistic effects and, more broadly, future uses of adaptogens. In conclusion, the evolution of the adaptogenic concept has led back to basics of TMS and a new level of understanding of holistic approach. It provides a rationale for their use in stress-induced and aging-related diseases

Identifying the sources driving observed PM2.5 temporal variability over Halifax, Nova Scotia, during BORTAS-B

The source attribution of observed variability of total PM_2.5 concentrations over Halifax, Nova Scotia was investigated between 11 July–26 August 2011 using measurements of PM_2.5 mass and PM_2.5 chemical composition (black carbon, organic matter, anions, cations and 33 elements). This was part of the BORTAS-B (quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants using aircraft and satellites) experiment, which investigated the atmospheric chemistry and transport of seasonal boreal wild fire emissions over eastern Canada in 2011. The US EPA Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model was used to determine the average mass (percentage) source contribution over the 45 days, which was estimated to be: Long-Range Transport (LRT) Pollution 1.75 μg m⁻³ (47%), LRT Pollution Marine Mixture 1.0 μg m⁻³ (27.9%), Vehicles 0.49 μg m⁻³ (13.2%), Fugitive Dust 0.23 μg m⁻³ (6.3%), Ship Emissions 0.13 μg m⁻³ (3.4%) and Refinery 0.081 μg m⁻³ (2.2%). The PMF model describes 87% of the observed variability in total PM_2.5 mass (bias = 0.17 and RSME = 1.5 μg m⁻³). The factor identifications are based on chemical markers, and they are supported by air mass back trajectory analysis and local wind direction. Biomass burning plumes, found by other surface and aircraft measurements, were not significant enough to be identified in this analysis. This paper presents the results of the PMF receptor modelling, providing valuable insight into the local and upwind sources impacting surface PM_2.5 in Halifax during the BORTAS-B mission

Pressure effect on the in-plane magnetic penetration depth in YBa_2Cu_4O_8

We report a study of the pressure effect (PE) on the in-plane magnetic field penetration depth lambda_{ab} in YBa_2Cu_4O_8 by means of Meissner fraction measurements. A pronounced PE on lambda_{ab}^{-2}(0) was observed with a maximum relative shift of \Delta\lambda^{-2}_{ab}/\lambda^{-2}_{ab}= 44(3)% at a pressure of 10.2 kbar. It arises from the pressure dependence of the effective in-plane charge carrier mass and pressure induced charge carrier transfer from the CuO chains to the superconducting CuO_2 planes. The present results imply that the charge carriers in YBa_2Cu_4O_8 are coupled to the lattice.Comment: 4pages 3 figure