A survey on adaptive random testing

Random testing (RT) is a well-studied testing method that has been widely applied to the testing of many applications, including embedded software systems, SQL database systems, and Android applications. Adaptive random testing (ART) aims to enhance RT's failure-detection ability by more evenly spreading the test cases over the input domain. Since its introduction in 2001, there have been many contributions to the development of ART, including various approaches, implementations, assessment and evaluation methods, and applications. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on ART, classifying techniques, summarizing application areas, and analyzing experimental evaluations. This paper also addresses some misconceptions about ART, and identifies open research challenges to be further investigated in the future work

Birth weight charts for a Chinese population: an observational study of routine newborn weight data from Chongqing

Background: To construct birth weight charts for the Chongqing municipality, China and to identify whether differences in birth weight exist across urban/rural populations, thereby warranting separate charts.Methods: Secondary analysis of routinely collected data from 338,454 live infants between 2014 and 2017 in Chongqing municipality. Sex-specific birth weight-for-gestational age centiles were constructed by the lambda-mu-sigma method via the GAMLSS R-based package. This method remodels the skewed birth weight distribution to estimate a normal distribution, allowing any birth weight centile to be generated. A separate set of centiles were created, accounting for urban/rural differences in birth weight.Results: The centiles performed well across all gestational ages. For example, 2.37% (n = 4176) of males and 2.26% (n = 3656) of females were classified as below the 2nd centile (expected percentage = 2.28%), 49.75% of males (n = 87,756) and 50.73% of females (n = 82,203) were classified as below the 50th centile (expected proportion = 50%) and 97.52% of males (n = 172,021) and 97.48% of females (n = 157,967) were classified as below the 98th centile (expected proportion = 97.72%). The overall estimated centiles of birth weight for rural infants were higher than the centiles for urban infants at the earlier gestational ages (Conclusion: We have constructed a readily utilizable set of birth weight references from a large representative sample of births in Chongqing. The method used to construct the references allows for the calculation of the exact centile for any infant delivered between 28 and 42 completed weeks, which was not possible with previous charts.</div

Maternal Dietary Patterns and Pregnancy Outcome

Abstract: Maternal nutritional status during pregnancy will affect the outcomes for the mother and the baby. Many analyses of the relationship between diet and outcome are often based on a single or a few food items or nutrients. However, foods are not consumed in isolation and dietary patterns can be used to assess the whole diet consumed. The use of dietary pattern analysis to understand nutritional intake and pregnancy outcome is becoming more and more popular. Many published studies have showed the association between maternal dietary patterns and pregnancy outcome. This review examined articles about the relationship between maternal dietary patterns and pregnancy outcome. As a modifiable factor, dietary patterns may be more applicable to clinical and pregnant health interventions

Protocol for a longitudinal twin birth cohort study to unravel the complex interplay between early-life environmental and genetic risk factors in health and disease: the Chongqing Longitudinal Twin Study (LoTiS)

INTRODUCTION: Non-communicable diseases (NCD) now represent the major burden of adverse health in most countries. It is clear that much of the risk of such conditions begins very early in life, potentially in utero. Given their complex aetiology, an understanding of the origins of NCD requires an in-depth analysis of the interplay between genetic variation and environment, preferably over time. For decades, twin studies have played a key role in understanding such traits. Their strength lies in the ability to disentangle genetic and environmental factors that contribute to a phenotype. This is done by comparing genetically identical monozygotic (MZ) with dizygotic twins, who share on average 50% of genetic variation, or by comparing MZ twins within a pair. This study aims to determine the relative contributions of genes and environment to early-onset intermediate phenotypes related to later adult onset disease (such as growth and neurodevelopment) and to identify specific biomarkers and time points for emergence of phenotypes from infancy, largely independent of underlying genetic factors. METHODS/DESIGN: The Chongqing Longitudinal Twin Study (LoTiS) will recruit 300 women pregnant with twins, enriched for MZ pregnancies, with follow-up to 3&thinsp;years of age. Data collection will be undertaken at key time points in gestation (&times;3), at delivery and postnatally (&times;9). Maternal and infant biospecimens including blood, urine, hair, nails and buccal swabs along with measures such as fetal scans and body measurements will be collected. Additional information from questionnaires and medical records includes pregnancy, diet, sociodemographics, maternal stress, and infant growth and neurodevelopment. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Medical University (record no: 201530) and has been registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registry no: ChiCTR-OOC-16008203). Results of the recruitment and all subsequent analyses will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.<br /

Digitizing tuberculosis treatment monitoring in Wuhan city, China, 2020–2021: Impact on medication adherence

IntroductionDigital technologies can improve adherence to tuberculosis (TB) treatment. We studied the impact of digitizing TB treatment monitoring on adherence among TB patients in Wuhan, China, during 2020-2021.MethodsWe compared an electronic system introduced to monitor TB medication adherence (e-Patient Service System; e-PSS) with the p paper-based standard of care (TB Control Information System; TCIS) in terms of prescribed TB treatment doses taken by patients and patient outcome after six months of follow up. We designed a cross sectional study using retrospective data for all drug susceptible pulmonary TB patients recorded on both systems. The main indicators were: compliant first follow up visit (within 3 days of start of treatment); medication adherence (80% or more of monthly doses taken); and end of treatment success ratio.ResultsA total of 1,576 TB patients were recorded in TCIS in July September, 2020 and 1,145 TB cases were included in e-PSS in January March, 2021. The distribution of patient demographic and clinical features was similar between the two groups. A larger proportion from the e-PSS group visited the community doctor in the first three days compared with the TCIS group (48.91 versus 29. 76 % respectively). Medication adherence was also higher in the e-PSS group during the 6 months of treatment than in the TCIS group (84. 28 versus 80.3 3 % respectively). Treatment success was 92.52% in the e-PSS group and 92.07% in the TCIS group. Multivariate logistic regress ion analysis demonstrated that adjusted odds ratios for compliant first follow up visit, medication adherence and favorable treatment outcome in the e-PSS versus TCIS groups were 2.94 (95% 2.47 3.50), 1.33 (95% 1.08 1.63), and 1. 12 (95% CL: 0.79 1.57) respectively.DiscussionThis study revealed improvements in TB care following an intervention to monitor treatment digitally in patients in Wuhan, China

Diagnostic value of symptom screening for pulmonary tuberculosis in China.

To evaluate the diagnostic value of symptom screening for tuberculosis (TB) case finding defined in National Tuberculosis Control Program in China (China NTP) among elderly people(≥65 years) and younger people(<65 years).We made a secondary analysis in a population-based TB prevalence survey in China in 2010. Questionnaire including information for cough and haemoptysis was completed by face to face interview, and then chest radiography was conducted in all eligible participants. Sputum smear and culture were followed for all TB suspects. We calculated the odds ratios (OR), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of using different symptoms for screening to detect bacteriologically positive TB in subpopulations stratified by age 65, to evaluate the performance of symptom screening for TB.Of 315 newly diagnosed bacteriologically positive TB, 131 patients (41.59%) were elderly, and 48.57% of TB patients were asymptomatic. Nearly 50% patients did not present cough of any duration, and less than half present cough more than 2 weeks, a defined suspected symptom in China NTP. Cough of any duration was reported more in patients aged under 65 than those in elderly, especially for the acute cough (9.78% vs 6.87%). Those symptoms defined by China NTP were reported by less than half participants in two subpopulations. Acute cough (<2 weeks) was an independent predictor of TB in people aged under 65 (adjusted OR: 3.3, 95% CI: 2.0-5.5), but not in those aged 65 and above (adjusted OR: 1.4, 95% CI: 0.7-2.9). The specificity for each symptom was significantly higher in participants aged under 65 (P<0.01), and sensitivities of most symptoms were significantly higher among elderly (P<0.05 or P<0.01). When compared with cough for 2 weeks and more, using cough of any duration for symptom screening increased the sensitivity from 42.9% to 51. % for all participants, and the AUC increased from 0.70 to 0.74 for participants aged under 65 without significant difference.There is a high percent of asymptomatic TB patients, and those symptoms adopted in China NTP for screening is poorly predictive for TB. The presence of TB symptoms, the sensitivities and specificities of symptoms for TB were distinct between two subpopulations cut by age 65, implying different case finding strategies should be established for them. The current case finding strategy should be improved, and further studies should be done to evaluate the performance and cost-effectiveness of different symptom screening strategy

Comparison of pathologic outcomes of robotic and open resections for rectal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

ObjectiveThe application of robotic surgery for rectal cancer is increasing steadily. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to compare pathologic outcomes among patients with rectal cancer who underwent open rectal surgery (ORS) versus robotic rectal surgery (RRS).MethodsWe systematically searched the literature of EMBASE, PubMed, the Cochrane Library of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized controlled trials (nRCTs) comparing ORS with RRS.ResultsFourteen nRCTs, including 2711 patients met the predetermined inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. Circumferential resection margin (CRM) positivity (OR: 0.58, 95% CI, 0.29 to 1.16, P = 0.13), number of harvested lymph nodes (WMD: -0.31, 95% CI, -2.16 to 1.53, P = 0.74), complete total mesorectal excision (TME) rates (OR: 0.93, 95% CI, 0.48 to 1.78, P = 0.83) and the length of distal resection margins (DRM) (WMD: -0.01, 95% CI, -0.26 to 0.25, P = 0.96) did not differ significantly between the RRS and ORS groups.ConclusionBased on the current evidence, robotic resection for rectal cancer provided equivalent pathological outcomes to ORS in terms of CRM positivity, number of harvested lymph nodes and complete TME rates and DRM