StubCoder: Automated Generation and Repair of Stub Code for Mock Objects

Mocking is an essential unit testing technique for isolating the class under test (CUT) from its dependencies. Developers often leverage mocking frameworks to develop stub code that specifies the behaviors of mock objects. However, developing and maintaining stub code is labor-intensive and error-prone. In this paper, we present StubCoder to automatically generate and repair stub code for regression testing. StubCoder implements a novel evolutionary algorithm that synthesizes test-passing stub code guided by the runtime behavior of test cases. We evaluated our proposed approach on 59 test cases from 13 open-source projects. Our evaluation results show that StubCoder can effectively generate stub code for incomplete test cases without stub code and repair obsolete test cases with broken stub code.Comment: This paper was accepted by the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) in July 202

The Change of Immunoactivity of Dendritic Cells Induced by Mouse 4-1BBL Recombinant Adenovirus

*These authors contributed equally to this work. ∙The authors have no financial conflicts of interest. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to construct a recombinant adenovirus vector carrying mouse 4-1BBL and observe its effects in dendritic cells. Materials and Methods: Mouse 4-1BBL cDNA was taken from the plasmid pcDNA3-m4-1BBL and subcloned into adenovirus shuttle plasmid pAdTrack-CMV, and then transformed into competent BJ5183 with plasmid pAdEasy-1. After recombination in E. coli, Ad-4-1BBL was packaged and amplified in HEK 293 cells. The expression of 4-1BBL in Ad-4-1BBL-transfected mouse prostate cancer cell line RM-1 was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. After the co-culture of dendritic cells (DCs) with Ad-4-1BBLtransfected RM-1 cells, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-12 production were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and co-stimulatary moleculs (CD80 and CD86) on DCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. Results: The levels of IL-6 (3,960 pg/mL) and IL-12 (249 pg/mL) production in Ad-m4-1BBL-pulsed DCs were more than those in none-pulsed DCs. The differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The expression of co-stimulatary molecules (CD80 and CD86) was up-regulated in Ad-m4-1BBL-pulsed DCs. Conclusion: The results indicated the recombinant mouse 4-1BBL can effectively activate DCs

Hepatitis B virus inhibits the in vivo and in vitro synthesis and secretion of apolipoprotein C3

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the body can damage liver cells and cause disorders in blood lipid metabolism. Apolipoprotein C3 (ApoC3) plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism, but no study on the HBV regulation of ApoC3 has been reported. This purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of HBV on ApoC3 expression and its regulatory mechanism. Methods The expression levels of ApoC3 mRNA and protein in the human hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 were determined using real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot. The HepG2 cells were co-transfected with the ApoC3 gene promoter and either HBV-infected clone pHBV1.3 or its individual genes. The changes in luciferase activity were assayed. The expression levels of ApoC3 mRNA and protein were determined using RT-qPCR and Western blot. The content of ApoC3 in the supernatant of the cultured cells was determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The sera were collected from 149 patients with HBV infection and 102 healthy subjects at physical examination as the normal controls. The serological levels of ApoC3 in the HBV group and the normal control group were determined using ELISA. The contents of serum triglyceride (TG) and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) in the HBV patients and the normal control were determined using an automatic biochemical analyser. Results The expression levels of ApoC3 mRNA and protein were lower in the HepG2.2.15 cells than in the HepG2 cells. pHBV1.3 and its X gene could inhibit the activity of the ApoC3 promoter and its mRNA and protein expression. The serum levels of ApoC3, VLDL and TG were 65.39 ± 7.48 μg/ml, 1.24 ± 0.49 mmol/L, and 0.46 ± 0.10 mmol/L in the HBV patients and 41.02 ± 6.88 μg/ml, 0.76 ± 0.21 mmol/L, 0.29 ± 0.05 mmol/L in the normal controls, respectively, statistical analysis revealed significantly lower serum levels of ApoC3, VLDL and TG in HBV patients than in the normal controls (P < 0.05). Conclusion HBV can inhibit the in vivo and in vitro synthesis and secretion of ApoC3

Construction of a recombinant adenovirus co-expressing truncated human prostate-specific membrane antigen and mouse 4-1BBL genes and its effect on dendritic cells

Our aim was to construct a recombinant adenovirus co-expressing truncated human prostate-specific membrane antigen (tPSMA) and mouse 4-1BBL genes and to determine its effect on dendritic cells (DCs) generated from bone marrow suspensions harvested from C57BL/6 mice for which the effect of 4-1BBL on DCs is not clear, especially during DCs processing tumor-associated antigen. Replication deficient adenovirus AdMaxTM Expression System was used to construct recombinant adenovirus Ad-tPSMA-internal ribosome entry site-mouse 4-1BBL (Ad-tPSMA-IRES-m4-1BBL) and Ad-enhanced green fluorescent protein. Day 7 proliferating DC aggregates generated from C57BL/6 mice were collected as immature DCs and further mature DCs were obtained by lipopolysaccharide activated immature DCs. After DCs were exposed to the recombinant adenovirus with 250 multiplicity of infection, the expression of tPSMA and m4-1BBL proteins were detected by Western blot, and the apoptosis and phenotype of DCs were analyzed by flow cytometry. Cytokines (IL-6 and IL-12) in the supernatant were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Proliferation of T cells was detected by allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reactions. The tPSMA and m4-1BBL proteins were expressed correctly. The apoptosis rate of DCs transfected with Ad-tPSMA-IRES-m4-1BBL was 14.6%, lower than that of control DCs. The expression of co-stimulatory molecules &#91;CD80 (81.6 ± 5.4%) and CD86 (80.13 ± 2.81%)&#93; up-regulated in Ad-tPSMA-IRES-m4-1BBL-pulsed DCs, and the level of IL-6 (3960.2 ± 50.54 pg/mL) and IL-12 (249.57 ± 12.51 pg/mL) production in Ad-tPSMA-IRES-m4-1BBL-transduced DCs were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those in control DCs. Ad-tPSMA-IRES-m4-1BBL induced higher T-cell proliferation (OD450 = 0.614 ± 0.018), indicating that this recombinant adenovirus can effectively enhance the activity of DCs

Naturally Dried, Double Nitrogen-Doped 3D Graphene Aerogels Modified by Plant Extracts for Multifunctional Applications

Two-dimensional graphene has become one of the most intensively explored carbon allotropes in materials science owing to its attractive features, such as its outstanding physicochemical properties. To advance its practical application, the fabrication of self-assembled 2D graphene sheets into 3D nitrogen-doped graphene aerogels (NGA) with novel functions is becoming essential. Herein, the first attempts to modify graphene with Plectranthus amboinicus (PA), to introduce double nitrogen doping, and to prepare NGA by a natural drying (ND) method are reported. Natural drying was achieved by increasing the pore structure of NDPA-NGA using PA to simultaneously cross-link the graphene sheets and increase the stiffness of the sample. Meanwhile, we used ammonia and urea as double nitrogen sources to achieve an N-doping amount as high as 12.06 atom %. In addition, NDPA-NGA exhibited superelastic properties (with 95% maximal strain and almost no loss after 60 replicates), a high oil absorption capacity, and an excellent electrochemical performance (371 and 204 F g^–1 at current densities of 1 and 50 A g^–1, respectively, corresponding to a retention of 54.987%). In addition, NDPA-NGA also demonstrated predominant refractoriness, low density, hydrophobicity, and physicochemical stability, which make this material an excellent candidate for use in energy storage, catalysis, and other applications