SmartUnit: Empirical Evaluations for Automated Unit Testing of Embedded Software in Industry

In this paper, we aim at the automated unit coverage-based testing for embedded software. To achieve the goal, by analyzing the industrial requirements and our previous work on automated unit testing tool CAUT, we rebuild a new tool, SmartUnit, to solve the engineering requirements that take place in our partner companies. SmartUnit is a dynamic symbolic execution implementation, which supports statement, branch, boundary value and MC/DC coverage. SmartUnit has been used to test more than one million lines of code in real projects. For confidentiality motives, we select three in-house real projects for the empirical evaluations. We also carry out our evaluations on two open source database projects, SQLite and PostgreSQL, to test the scalability of our tool since the scale of the embedded software project is mostly not large, 5K-50K lines of code on average. From our experimental results, in general, more than 90% of functions in commercial embedded software achieve 100% statement, branch, MC/DC coverage, more than 80% of functions in SQLite achieve 100% MC/DC coverage, and more than 60% of functions in PostgreSQL achieve 100% MC/DC coverage. Moreover, SmartUnit is able to find the runtime exceptions at the unit testing level. We also have reported exceptions like array index out of bounds and divided-by-zero in SQLite. Furthermore, we analyze the reasons of low coverage in automated unit testing in our setting and give a survey on the situation of manual unit testing with respect to automated unit testing in industry.Comment: In Proceedings of 40th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice Track, Gothenburg, Sweden, May 27-June 3, 2018 (ICSE-SEIP '18), 10 page

Efficient kk-separability criteria for mixed multipartite quantum states

We investigate classification and detection of entanglement of multipartite quantum states in a very general setting, and obtain efficient $k$-separability criteria for mixed multipartite states in arbitrary dimensional quantum systems. These criteria can be used to distinguish $n-1$ different classes of multipartite inseparable states and can detect many important multipartite entangled states such as GHZ states, W states, anti W states, and mixtures thereof. They detect $k$-nonseparable $n$-partite quantum states which have previously not been identified. Here $k=2,3,\cdots,n$. No optimization or eigenvalue evaluation is needed, and our criteria can be evaluated by simple computations involving components of the density matrix. Most importantly, they can be implemented in today's experiments by using at most $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ local measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Production of FMDV virus-like particles by a SUMO fusion protein approach in Escherichia coli

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are formed by the self-assembly of envelope and/or capsid proteins from many viruses. Some VLPs have been proven successful as vaccines, and others have recently found applications as carriers for foreign antigens or as scaffolds in nanoparticle biotechnology. However, production of VLP was usually impeded due to low water-solubility of recombinant virus capsid proteins. Previous studies revealed that virus capsid and envelope proteins were often posttranslationally modified by SUMO in vivo, leading into a hypothesis that SUMO modification might be a common mechanism for virus proteins to retain water-solubility or prevent improper self-aggregation before virus assembly. We then propose a simple approach to produce VLPs of viruses, e.g., foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). An improved SUMO fusion protein system we developed recently was applied to the simultaneous expression of three capsid proteins of FMDV in E. coli. The three SUMO fusion proteins formed a stable heterotrimeric complex. Proteolytic removal of SUMO moieties from the ternary complexes resulted in VLPs with size and shape resembling the authentic FMDV. The method described here can also apply to produce capsid/envelope protein complexes or VLPs of other disease-causing viruses

The scalars from the topcolor scenario and the spin correlations of the top pair production at the LHC

The topcolor scenario predicts the existences of some new scalars. In this paper, we consider the contributions of these new particles to the observables, which are related to the top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production at the LHC. It is found that these new particles can generate significant corrections to the $t\bar{t}$ production cross section and the $t\bar{t}$ spin correlations.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; discussions and references added; agrees with published versio

KSU Confucius Institute presents East Meets West Chinese-American Cultural Exchange Concert

Presented by the KSU Confucius Institute and KSU School of Music, this special performance will feature singers from the Yangzhou University College of Music with additional performances by faculty and students of the KSU School of Music. The program will include Chinese folk songs, poetry, art songs, and opera as well as works by Mozart, Puccini, Gluck, and more performed by soprano Ms. Di Sheng, soprano and Head of Vocal Music Teaching, Ms. Yan Lu, and baritone and Head of Music Performance Teaching, Mr. Ting Yao.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2127/thumbnail.jp

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in dairy goats in Shaanxi Province, Northwestern China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>is an important zoonotic pathogen causing significant human and animal health problems. Infection in dairy goats not only results in significant reproductive losses, but also represents an important source of human infection due to consumption of infected meat and milk. In the present study we report for the first time seroprevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection in Guanzhong and Saanen dairy goats in Shaanxi province, Northwestern China.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sera from 751 dairy goats from 9 farms in 6 counties were examined for <it>T. gondii </it>antibodies with an indirect haemagglutination (IHA) test. Antibodies to <it>T. gondii </it>were detected in 106 (14.1%) serum samples, with antibody titres ranging from 1:64 to 1:1024. Seropositive goats were found in all 9 farms and seroprevalences in Guanzhong (16.3%, 75/461) and Saanen (10.7%, 31/290) dairy goats were not statistically significantly different. All the factors (sex, age and location) reported in the present study affected prevalence of infection, and seroprevalence increased with age, suggesting postnatal acquisition of <it>T. gondii </it>infection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of the present survey indicate that infection by <it>T. gondii </it>is widely prevalent in dairy goats in Shaanxi province, Northwestern China, and this has implications for prevention and control of toxoplasmosis in this province.</p