Examining Introductory Computer Science Student Cognition When Testing Software Under Different Test Adequacy Criteria

The ability to test software is invaluable in all areas of computer science, but it is often neglected in computer science curricula. Test adequacy criteria (TAC), tools that measure the effectiveness of a test suite, have been used as aids to improve software testing teaching practices, but little is known about how students respond to them. Studies have examined the cognitive processes of students programming and professional developers writing tests, but none have investigated how student testers test with TAC. If we are to improve how they are used in the classroom, we must start by understanding the different ways that they affect students’ thought processes as they write tests. In this thesis, we take a grounded theory approach to reveal the underlying cognitive processes that students utilize as they test under no feedback, condition coverage, and mutation analysis. We recorded 12 students as they thought aloud while creating test suites under these feedback mechanisms, and then we analyzed these recordings to identify the thought processes they used. We present our findings in the form of the phenomena we identified, which can be further investigated to shed more light on how different TAC affect students as they write tests.

Ginger and Honey

Ginger and Honey is an application service for those interested in holistic health and wellness. It is intended to provide a cohesive space where eating plans, recommendations and information can be easily accessed. The app captures the art and science of food as a healing mechanism for those fighting diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes

Experimental study of bore-driven swash hydrodynamics on permeable rough slopes

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Influence of Type of Cigarette on Peripheral versus Central Lung Cancer

Objectives: Adenocarcinoma has replaced squamous cell carcinoma as the most common cell type of lung cancer in the United States. It has been proposed that this shift is due to the increased use of filter and lower-tar cigarettes, resulting in increased delivery of smoke to peripheral regions of the lungs, where adenocarcinoma usually occurs. We reviewed radiologic data to evaluate the hypothesis that tumors in smokers of cigarettes with lower-tar yield are more likely to occur peripherally than tumors in smokers of higher-yield cigarettes. Methods: At two urban academic medical centers, we reviewed computed tomographic scans, chest radiographs, and medical records to assign tumor location (peripheral or central) for 330 smokers diagnosed with carcinoma of the lung between 1993 and 1999. We compared the proportion of tumors in a peripheral versus central location by lifetime filter use and average lifetime tar rating (<21 and ≥21 mg). Results: Tumor location (69% peripheral and 31% central) was unrelated to cigarette filter use. Smokers of cigarettes with lower-tar ratings were more likely than those with higher ratings to have peripheral rather than central tumors (odds ratio, 1.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.89-3.47). When restricted to subjects with adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 2.31 (1.05-5.08). Conclusions: Among cigarette smokers with lung cancer, use of cigarettes with lower-tar yield was associated with preferential occurrence of tumors in peripheral sites. Our findings support the hypothesis that changes in smoking associated with lower-tar cigarettes have led to a shift in the location of smoking-related lung cancer

Structural Patterns and Generative Models of Real-world Hypergraphs

Graphs have been utilized as a powerful tool to model pairwise relationships between people or objects. Such structure is a special type of a broader concept referred to as hypergraph, in which each hyperedge may consist of an arbitrary number of nodes, rather than just two. A large number of real-world datasets are of this form - for example, list of recipients of emails sent from an organization, users participating in a discussion thread or subject labels tagged in an online question. However, due to complex representations and lack of adequate tools, little attention has been paid to exploring the underlying patterns in these interactions. In this work, we empirically study a number of real-world hypergraph datasets across various domains. In order to enable thorough investigations, we introduce the multi-level decomposition method, which represents each hypergraph by a set of pairwise graphs. Each pairwise graph, which we refer to as a k-level decomposed graph, captures the interactions between pairs of subsets of k nodes. We empirically find that at each decomposition level, the investigated hypergraphs obey five structural properties. These properties serve as criteria for evaluating how realistic a hypergraph is, and establish a foundation for the hypergraph generation problem. We also propose a hypergraph generator that is remarkably simple but capable of fulfilling these evaluation metrics, which are hardly achieved by other baseline generator models.Comment: to be published in the 26th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD '20

Higher levels of serum triglyceride and dietary carbohydrate intake are associated with smaller LDL particle size in healthy Korean women

The aim of this study was to investigate the influencing factors that characterize low density lipoprotein (LDL) phenotype and the levels of LDL particle size in healthy Korean women. In 57 healthy Korean women (mean age, 57.4 ± 13.1 yrs), anthropometric and biochemical parameters such as lipid profiles and LDL particle size were measured. Dietary intake was estimated by a developed semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The study subjects were divided into two groups: LDL phenotype A (mean size: 269.7Å, n = 44) and LDL phenotype B (mean size: 248.2Å, n = 13). Basic characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. The phenotype B group had a higher body mass index, higher serum levels of triglyceride, total-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, apolipoprotein (apo)B, and apoCIII but lower levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and LDL particle size than those of the phenotype A group. LDL particle size was negatively correlated with serum levels of triglyceride (r = -0.732, P < 0.001), total-cholesterol, apoB, and apoCIII, as well as carbohydrate intake (%En) and positively correlated with serum levels of HDL-cholesterol and ApoA1 and fat intake (%En). A stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that carbohydrate intake (%En) and serum triglyceride levels were the primary factors influencing LDL particle size (P < 0.001, R2 = 0.577). This result confirmed that LDL particle size was closely correlated with circulating triglycerides and demonstrated that particle size is significantly associated with dietary carbohydrate in Korean women

Effect of trait anxiety on prefrontal control mechanisms during emotional conflict

International audienceConverging evidence points to a link between anxiety proneness and altered emotional functioning, including threat-related biases in selective attention and higher susceptibility to emotionally ambiguous stimuli. However, during these complex emotional situations, it remains unclear how trait anxiety affects the engagement of the prefrontal emotional control system and particularly the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a core region at the intersection of the limbic and prefrontal systems. Using an emotional conflict task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated in healthy subjects the relations between trait anxiety and both regional activity and functional connectivity (psychophysiological interaction) of the ACC. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with stronger task-related activation in ACC but with reduced functional connectivity between ACC and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). These results support the hypothesis that when one is faced with emotionally incompatible information, anxiety leads to inefficient high-order control, characterized by insufficient ACC-LPFC functional coupling and increases, possibly compensatory, in activation of ACC. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of the neural circuitry underlying anxiety and may offer potential treatment markers for anxiety disorders

The Grizzly, September 6, 2012

Ursinus Welcomes New Dean • Wismer Changes • Orientation Update • Dr. Heinzl Lecture • Gary Hodgson\u27s Tenure as Campus Safety Officer • Meet Mike Mullin, New R.D. • Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Arrive on UC Campus • Residence Life Offers Support for the Class of 2016 • Opinion: Athletes Frustrated by Dining Changes; Senator Rubio Would Have Been a Better V.P. Choice for the GOP • Field Hockey Looks to Keep Tradition • Under New Coach, Volleyball Begins 2012 Season • Lofty Expectations for Bears Footballhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1861/thumbnail.jp

Reduced expression of PMCA1 is associated with increased blood pressure with age which is preceded by remodelling of resistance arteries

Hypertension is a well-established risk factor for adverse cardiovascular events, and older age is a risk factor for the development of hypertension. Genomewide association studies have linked ATP2B1, the gene for the plasma membrane calcium ATPase 1 (PMCA1), to blood pressure (BP) and hypertension. Here, we present the effects of reduction in the expression of PMCA1 on BP and small artery structure and function when combined with advancing age. Heterozygous PMCA1 null mice (PMCA1(Ht) ) were generated and conscious BP was measured at 6 to 18 months of age. Passive and active properties of isolated small mesenteric arteries were examined by pressure myography. PMCA1(Ht) mice exhibited normal BP at 6 and 9 months of age but developed significantly elevated BP when compared to age-matched wild-type controls at ≥12 months of age. Decreased lumen diameter, increased wall thickness and increased wall:lumen ratio were observed in small mesenteric arteries from animals 9 months of age and older, indicative of eutrophic remodelling. Increases in mesenteric artery intrinsic tone and global intracellular calcium were evident in animals at both 6 and 18 months of age. Thus, decreased expression of PMCA1 is associated with increased BP when combined with advancing age. Changes in arterial structure precede the elevation of BP. Pathways involving PMCA1 may be a novel target for BP regulation in the elderly

Intra-swash hydrodynamics and sediment flux for dambreak swash on coarse-grained beaches

The paper reports on dambreak-type swash experiments in which intra-swash hydrodynamics and sediment flux are measured for swash on a coarse sand beach and a gravel beach. Flow velocity and depth are measured using PIV and LIF respectively; the intra-swash sediment flux is measured using sediment traps. Comparison of measured hydrodynamics with the immobile, permeable bed experiments of Kikkert et al. (2013) indicates that bed mobility impacts on the swash hydrodynamics, reducing the maximum run-up by approximately 8% for both beaches, compared to the maximum run-up on the corresponding immobile beach. The measured intra swash sediment flux at a given location is characterised by high flux at the moment of bore arrival, followed by rapid decay during uprush, becoming zero at some time before flow reversal. For the gravel beach, the backwash sediment flux is negligibly small, while for the sand beach the backwash flux increases slowly as the flow accelerates down the beach, and peaks at about the time of maximum backwash velocity. Intra-swash sediment flux calculated using the Meyer-Peter and Müller bed load transport formula, with measured hydrodynamics as input and bed shear stress estimated using both the Swart and Colebrook formulae, is within a factor 2 of the measured intra-swash flux. The agreement between the calculated and measured flux is better for the sand beach than for the gravel beach, and better for uprush than for backwash. For the sand beach there is good agreement between calculated and measured total uprush and total backwash sediment volumes. The agreement is less good for the gravel beach, for which calculated and measured uprush volumes show a similar trend but the calculated backwash volumes over-estimate the (negligible) volumes observed in the experiments