Automated unit-level testing with heuristic rules

Software testing plays a significant role in the development of complex software systems. Current testing methods generally require significant effort to generate meaningful test cases. The QUEST/Ada system is a prototype system designed using CLIPS to experiment with expert system based test case generation. The prototype is designed to test for condition coverage, and attempts to generate test cases to cover all feasible branches contained in an Ada program. This paper reports on heuristics sued by the system. These heuristics vary according to the amount of knowledge obtained by preprocessing and execution of the boolean conditions in the program

Threats to biodiversity from cumulative human impacts in one of North America's last wildlife frontiers

Land‐use change is the largest proximate threat to biodiversity yet remains one of the most complex to manage. In British Columbia (BC), where large mammals roam extensive tracts of intact habitat, continued land‐use development is of global concern. Extant mammal diversity in BC is unrivalled in North America owing, in part, to its unique position at the intersection of alpine, boreal, and temperate biomes. Despite high conservation values, understanding of cumulative ecological impacts from human development is limited. Using cumulative‐effects‐assessment (CEA) methods, we assessed the current human footprint over 16 regional ecosystems and 7 large mammal species. Using historical and current range estimates of the mammals, we investigated impacts of human land use on species’ persistence. For ecosystems, we found that bunchgrass, coastal Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine have been subjected to over 50% land‐use conversion, and over 85% of their spatial extent has undergone either direct or estimated indirect impacts. Of the mammals we considered, wolves were the least affected by land conversion, yet all species had reduced ranges compared with historical estimates. We found evidence of a hard trade‐off between development and conservation, most clearly for mammals with large distributions and ecosystems with high levels of conversion. Rather than serve as a platform to monitor species decline, we strongly advocate these data be used to inform land‐use planning and to assess current conservation efforts. More generally, CEAs offer a robust tool to inform wildlife and habitat conservation at scale

Cell Cycle Control, Checkpoint Mechanisms, and Genotoxic Stress

The ability of cells to maintain genomic integrity is vital for cell survival and proliferation. Lack of fidelity in DNA replication and maintenance can result in deleterious mutations leading to cell death or, in multicellular organisms, cancer. The purpose of this review is to discuss the known signal transduction pathways that regulate cell cycle progression and the mechanisms cells employ to insure DNA stability in the face of genotoxic stress. In particular, we focus on mammalian cell cycle checkpoint functions, their role in maintaining DNA stability during the cell cycle following exposure to genotoxic agents, and the gene products that act in checkpoint function signal transduction cascades. Key transitions in the cell cycle are regulated by the activities of various protein kinase complexes composed of cyclin and cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) molecules. Surveillance control mechanisms that check to ensure proper completion of early events and cellular integrity before initiation of subsequent events in cell cycle progression are referred to as cell cycle checkpoints and can generate a transient delay that provides the cell more time to repair damage before progressing to the next phase of the cycle. A variety of cellular responses are elicited that function in checkpoint signaling to inhibit cyclin/Cdk activities. These responses include the p53-dependent and p53-independent induction of Cdk inhibitors and the p53-independent inhibitory phosphorylation of Cdk molecules themselves. Eliciting proper G1, S, and G2 checkpoint responses to double-strand DNA breaks requires the function of the Ataxia telangiectasia mutated gene product. Several human heritable cancer-prone syndromes known to alter DNA stability have been found to have defects in checkpoint surveillance pathways. Exposures to several common sources of genotoxic stress, including oxidative stress, ionizing radiation, UV radiation, and the genotoxic compound benzo[a]pyrene, elicit cell cycle checkpoint responses that show both similarities and differences in their molecular signaling.ImagesFigure

Characterization of nuclear reactor containment penetrations. Final report

This report concludes a preliminary report prepared by ANL for Sandia, published as NUREG/CR-3855, in June 1984. The preliminary report, NUREG/CR-3855, presented the results of a survey of nuclear reactor containment penetrations, covering the number of plants surveyed at that time (22 total). Since that time, an additional 26 plants have been included in the survey. This final report serves two purposes: (1) to add the summary data sheets and penetration details for the additional plants now included in the survey; and (2) to confirm, revise, or add to analyses and discussions presented in the first report which, of course, were based solely on the earlier sample of 22 plants. This final report follows the outline and format of the preliminary survey report. In general, changes and additions to the preliminary report are implied, rather than stated as such to avoid repeated reference to that report. If no changes have been made in a section the title of the section of the previous report is simply repeated followed by ''No Changes''. Some repetition is used for continuity and clarity

Genomic regions associated with kyphosis in swine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A back curvature defect similar to kyphosis in humans has been observed in swine herds. The defect ranges from mild to severe curvature of the thoracic vertebrate in split carcasses and has an estimated heritability of 0.3. The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions that affect this trait.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations performed with 198 SNPs and microsatellite markers in a Duroc-Landrace-Yorkshire resource population (U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, USMARC resource population) of swine provided regions of association with this trait on 15 chromosomes. Positional candidate genes, especially those involved in human skeletal development pathways, were selected for SNP identification. SNPs in 16 candidate genes were genotyped in an F2 population (n = 371) and the USMARC resource herd (n = 1,257) with kyphosis scores. SNPs in <it>KCNN2 </it>on SSC2, <it>RYR1 </it>and <it>PLOD1 </it>on SSC6 and <it>MYST4 </it>on SSC14 were significantly associated with kyphosis in the resource population of swine (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05). SNPs in <it>CER1 </it>and <it>CDH7 </it>on SSC1, <it>PSMA5 </it>on SSC4, <it>HOXC6 </it>and <it>HOXC8 </it>on SSC5, <it>ADAMTS18 </it>on SSC6 and <it>SOX9 </it>on SSC12 were significantly associated with the kyphosis trait in the F2 population of swine (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that this kyphosis trait may be affected by several loci and that these may differ by population. Carcass value could be improved by effectively removing this undesirable trait from pig populations.</p

Evaluating the Shelf Life and Sensory Properties of Beef Steaks from Cattle Raised on Different Grass Feeding Systems in the Western United States

Consumer interest in grass-fed beef has been steadily rising due to consumer perception of its potential benefits. This interest has led to a growing demand for niche market beef, particularly in the western United States. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the impact of feeding systems on the change in microbial counts, color, and lipid oxidation of steaks during retail display, and on their sensory attributes. The systems included: conventional grain-fed (CON), 20 months-grass-fed (20GF), 25-months-grass-fed (25GF) and 20-months-grass-fed + 45-day-grain-fed (45GR). The results indicate that steaks in the 20GF group displayed a darker lean and fat color, and a lower oxidation state than those in the 25GF group. However, the feeding system did not have an impact on pH or objective tenderness of beef steaks. In addition, consumers and trained panelist did not detect a difference in taste or flavor between the 20GF or 25GF steaks but expressed a preference for the CON and 45GR steaks, indicating that an increased grazing period may improve the color and oxidative stability of beef, while a short supplementation with grain may improve eating quality

Selection Enhanced Estimates of Marker Effects on Means and Variances of Beef Tenderness

Historic surveys of retail beef have identified beef tenderness as a critical issue to consumer acceptability of beef and suggested continued investigation of pre-harvest and postharvest interventions to improve beef tenderness (Morgan et al., 1991). Koohmaraie (1996) identified the protease μ-calpain (CAPN1) and its inhibitor calpastatin (CAST) as major factors affecting post-mortem tenderization in meat. Genetic markers in CAPN1 (Page et al., 2002; White et al., 2005) and CAST (Casas et al., 2006; Morris et al., 2006) are commercially available to beef producers. However, early studies evaluating these markers had low frequency of rare homozygote animals and occasionally ignored those animals from analysis (White et al., 2005; Morris et al., 2006) – removing the opportunity to evaluate mode of inheritance (additive or dominance) for a genetic marker. Therefore, selection was used in 2 populations (Angus and U.S. Meat Animal Research Center III – ¼ Angus, ¼ Hereford, ¼ Red Poll, and ¼ Pinzgauer composite) to equalize the allele frequency of CAPN1 haplotypes and CAST genotypes to enhance estimates for slice shear force (SSF) of: 1) effect size, 2) mode of inheritance, and 3) interaction between CAPN1 and CAST (Tait et al., 2014a; Tait et al., 2014b). Furthermore, these studies evaluated the potential for genotype specific residual variances and found these models to fit significantly better than single residual variance models for CAST genotypes