TESTQUAL: Conceptualizing Software Testing as a Service

Software testing has emerged as a distinct responsibility in software development. This paper argues that software testing should be conceptualized as a service rather than being viewed as a sequential line of responsibility in software development. Testing as a service has two key aspects: (1) a service to developers, and (2) a service to end users. This paper draws from the SERVQUAL and software quality literature in information systems to propose a structured measurement tool for testing as a service and to briefly discuss its relationship with software quality. The TESTQUAL framework is described, and its components are defined and exemplified. The practical implications of TESTQUAL are also discussed

Research on the influence of virtual modeling and testing–based rubber track system on vibration performance of engineering vehicles

The rubbertrack system can be quickly swapped on the tyres, exerting a smaller ground pressure while generating a greater adhesion to solve the problem vehicles faced in traversing rough and difficult terrain. This paper will discuss the influence of rubber track system on the ride comfort of engineering vehicles with rigid suspension. First, a multi-body dynamic model of the rubber track system and a mathematical model of contact between the ground and the track are established, and then the macro commands are programmed to add many complex contact forces. Moreover, by using the method of physical prototype obstacle testing, the correctness of the simulation model is validated. The ride comfort of the engineering vehicle when equipped with rubber track system is explored by the method of the multi-body dynamics and real vehicle test. The research shows that a flexible roller wheel system can significantly improve the ride comfort of the engineering vehicle when compared to wheeled vehicles. When the vehicle speed is low, the weighted root-meansquare acceleration of the wheeled vehicle and tracked vehicle is almost the same. At the same time, it is verified that the ride comfort of the steelchain tracked vehicles is worse than that of rubber tracked vehicles, due to the polygon effect. Through the multi-body dynamics simulation of the virtual prototype, we can predict and evaluate the ride comfort of vehicles, saving the cost of testing and obtaining the actual experimental data, which has great significance for the research and development of vehicles

A DECISION-TREE APPROACH TO ANALYZING CHANNEL ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS FOR TWO-TIER WIRELESS LOCAL LOOPS

A wireless local loop (WLL) uses radio signals to connect customer premise equipment (CPE) to a public switched telephone network (PSTN). It has the potential to help the telephony providers overcome the “last mile” problem in delivering telephony services. A typical WLL consists of a base station controller (BSC), a base station (BS), and subscriber terminals (STs). A WLL can be single-tier, two-tier, or threetier, based on the configuration of the cells within it. There are numerous channel allocation algorithms for two-tier WLLs. These algorithms include no repacking, always repacking, repacking on demand— random, repacking on demand—least load, and repacking on demand—subscriber terminal. This paper provides a decision-tree approach to analyzing these channel allocation algorithms for designing two-tier WLLs. The generated decision-trees can not only help us understand these channel allocation algorithms better, but can also serve as a basis for constructing simulation models and eventually implementing simulation programs for the purpose of comparing the performance of the different network designs

Type VI Secretion Systems Present New Insights on Pathogenic Yersinia

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a versatile secretion system widely distributed in Gram-negative bacteria that delivers multiple effector proteins into either prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, or into the extracellular milieu. T6SS participates in various physiological processes including bacterial competition, host infection, and stress response. Three pathogenic Yersinia species, namely Yersinia pestis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and Yersinia enterocolitica, possess different copies of T6SSs with distinct biological functions. This review summarizes the pathogenic, antibacterial, and stress-resistant roles of T6SS in Yersinia and the ion-transporting ability in Y. pseudotuberculosis. In addition, the T6SS-related effectors and regulators identified in Yersinia are discussed

SAM3D: Segment Anything in 3D Scenes

In this work, we propose SAM3D, a novel framework that is able to predict masks in 3D point clouds by leveraging the Segment-Anything Model (SAM) in RGB images without further training or finetuning. For a point cloud of a 3D scene with posed RGB images, we first predict segmentation masks of RGB images with SAM, and then project the 2D masks into the 3D points. Later, we merge the 3D masks iteratively with a bottom-up merging approach. At each step, we merge the point cloud masks of two adjacent frames with the bidirectional merging approach. In this way, the 3D masks predicted from different frames are gradually merged into the 3D masks of the whole 3D scene. Finally, we can optionally ensemble the result from our SAM3D with the over-segmentation results based on the geometric information of the 3D scenes. Our approach is experimented with ScanNet dataset and qualitative results demonstrate that our SAM3D achieves reasonable and fine-grained 3D segmentation results without any training or finetuning of SAM.Comment: Technical Report. The code is released at https://github.com/Pointcept/SegmentAnything3

Simultaneous spectroscopic determination of trace mixed organic acids in aqueous samples using magnetic solid phase extraction coupled with chemometrics method

243-249The polyaniline-coated magnetite/silica nanomaterials (Fe3O4@SiO2/PANI) have been synthesized and successfully applied as an effective sorbent for preconcentration of several typical organic acids from environmental water samples. The properties of Fe3O4@SiO2/PANI are characterized by FT-IR and XPS. These magnetic materials can enrich trace organic acids effectively by solid-phase extraction. Three kinds of organic acids, including benzoic acids, phthalic acids, and p-toluene sulfonic acids, are selected as target analytes for magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE). Various experimental parameters of the MSPE were investigated and optimized. After the desorption process, the elution is detected by the UV-visible spectrophotometer. The spectroscopic data are analyzed through the partial least squares (PLS) method, which facilitate quantitation of mixture from complex data. The enrichment factor of benzoic acids, phthalic acids and p-toluene sulfonic acids reached 19.53, 20.31, and 16.89, respectively. A wide measurement range of 10 μg L-1 to 50 mg L-1 is obtained. The LOD is 0.8 μg L-1. The spiked recoveries in the range of 94%-101% with RSD (n=8) lower than 4%. The results illustrated that the combined approach of MSPE and PLS has great applied potential for a mixture of trace compounds in different fields because of its high efficiency, easy to operate conditions, speediness, and simplicity

Clinical recognition of sensory ataxia and cerebellar ataxia

Ataxia is a kind of external characteristic that appears on human body harmoniously undesirable and balance obstacle, it often indicates that some parts of the body have effected from diseased. There are many internal factors leading to ataxia. Currently, doctors often observe the external characteristics of patients with naked eyes and judge the cause of ataxia by combining their own experience, as a result, sensory ataxia is often misdiagnosed as cerebellar ataxia, which makes patients unable to get accurate and effective treatment and cause of delayed recovery. However, using modern high-precision medical instruments for detection is mostly expensive, which increases the economic burden on patients. In this paper, wireless sensing technology is used to detect and distinguish sensory ataxia and cerebellar ataxia. Firstly, the data of patients in Romberg's test and gait detection are collected by a wireless sensing system composed of omnidirectional antennas, then the data is preprocessed, finally, three machine learning algorithms are used to train the model. The experimental results show that the prediction accuracy of most algorithms can reach above 96%, which proves that the technical scheme described in this paper is feasible and effective

Comparative transcriptomic analyses of two sugarcane Saccharum L. cultivars differing in drought tolerance

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an important cash crop, and drought is an important factors limiting its yield. To study the drought resistance mechanism of sugarcane, the transcriptomes of two sugarcane varieties with different levels of drought resistance were compared under different water shortage levels. The results showed that the transcriptomes of the two varieties were significantly different. The differentially expressed genes were enriched in starch and sucrose metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolic pathways. Unique trend genes of the variety with strong drought resistance (F172) were significantly enriched in photosynthesis, mitogen-activated protein kinases signaling pathway, biosynthesis of various plant secondary metabolites, and cyanoamino acid metabolism pathways. Weighted correlation network analysis indicated that the blue4 and plum1 modules correlated with drought conditions, whereas the tan and salmon4 modules correlated with variety. The unique trend genes expressed in F172 and mapped to the blue4 module were enriched in photosynthesis, purine metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, beta-alanine metabolism, photosynthesis-antenna proteins, and plant hormone signal transduction pathways. The expression of genes involved in the photosynthesis-antenna protein and photosynthesis pathways decreased in response to water deficit, indicating that reducing photosynthesis might be a means for sugarcane to respond to drought stress. The results of this study provide insights into drought resistance mechanisms in plants, and the related genes and metabolic pathways identified may be helpful for sugarcane breeding in the future

Overexpression of the focal adhesion kinase (p125FAK) in the vascular smooth muscle cells of intimal hyperplasia

Purpose: The migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are important events in the development of intimal hyperplasia (IH). The focal adhesion kinase (FAK) gene encodes a protein tyrosine kinase (p125FAK) involved in signal transduction pathways used in cell adhesion, motility, and proliferation. Because alterations in these cellular processes are thought to occur in VSMCs during IH, we studied FAK expression in healthy arteries and veins in comparison with that in pathologic vessels containing IH. Methods: To determine p125FAK expression at the cellular level, we developed a monoclonal antibody that specifically detected FAK in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections (5 μm) and analyzed the levels of FAK expression in human arteries and veins. Specificity of monoclonal antibody 4.47 was demonstrated by means of immunofluorescence microscopy showing FAK-specific staining at focal adhesions of healthy human vascular smooth muscle cells (AoSMCs). By using immunohistochemistry techniques, we analyzed the expression of p125FAK in 25 adult human vascular tissue samples from individual patients, which contained a histologically confirmed healthy artery, vein, or IH. Results: FAK expression in healthy and pathologic human vascular tissue was localized predominantly within VSMC cytoplasm. In healthy human artery and vein, borderline FAK expression was detected in the media of seven of 17 vessels and undetectable in the remainder of specimens. However, in vessels containing IH, FAK was overexpressed in the pathologic VSMC populations at moderate-to-strong levels in eight of eight specimens. The levels of FAK expression were directly correlated with structures containing IH, and the results of FAK staining intensity and the percentage of positive cells in these samples were significantly increased compared with normal vascular tissue levels (P <.05, Student t test). Conclusion: These results provide the first evidence that FAK is overexpressed in VSMCs involved in IH and suggest that FAK upregulation may be part of a mechanism for migration and proliferation of VSMCs during this process. Furthermore, the dramatic upregulation of FAK in IH and the relative lack of expression in healthy vessels suggest that FAK may be a rational target for controlling IH. (J Vasc Surg 2001;34:344-9.