MSMAM: Testing resources allocation, obtaining non-functional indexes based on functional testing results, and evaluating security

Background: Software testing and software security have become one of the most important parts of an application. Many studies have explored each of these topics but there is a gap wherein the relation of software security and software testing in general has not been explored. Objective: This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to capture the current state-of-the-art in software testing related to security. Methods: The search strategy obtains relevant papers from IEEE Xplore and ScienceDirect. The results of the search are filtered by applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The search results identified 50 papers. After applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria, we identified 15 primary studies that discuss software security and software testing. We found approaches, aspects, references, and domains that are used in software security and software testing. Conclusion: We found certain approach, aspect, references, and domain are used more often in software security testing Keywords: Software security, Software testing, Security testing approach, Security threats, Systematic literature review

To investigate vestibular abnormalities in subjects with Waardenburg syndrome. Retrospective record review. Tertiary referral neurotology clinic. Twenty-two adult white subjects with clinical diagnosis of Waardenburg syndrome (10 type I and 12 type II). Evaluation for Waardenburg phenotype, history of vestibular and auditory symptoms, tests of vestibular and auditory function. Results of phenotyping, results of vestibular and auditory symptom review (history), results of vestibular and auditory function testing. Seventeen subjects were women, and 5 were men. Their ages ranged from 21 to 58 years (mean, 38 years). Sixteen of the 22 subjects sought treatment for vertigo, dizziness, or imbalance. For subjects with vestibular symptoms, the results of vestibuloocular tests (calorics, vestibular autorotation, and/or pseudorandom rotation) were abnormal in 77%, and the results of vestibulospinal function tests (computerized dynamic posturography, EquiTest) were abnormal in 57%, but there were no specific patterns of abnormality. Six had objective sensorineural hearing loss. Thirteen had an elevated summating/action potential (>0.40) on electrocochleography. All subjects except those with severe hearing loss (n = 3) had normal auditory brainstem response results. Patients with Waardenburg syndrome may experience primarily vestibular symptoms without hearing loss. Electrocochleography and vestibular function tests appear to be the most sensitive measures of otologic abnormalities in such patients.

To create reliable, safe, and high quality software is the primary purpose of software testing. With the development of software engineering, functional software testing is one essential part of software testing. This paper explains that back-propagation neural networks can be used for functional software testing efficiently and significantly. In here we established a method which is sufficient to reveal the majority of software faults in functional testing. We explained how the method can be used to produce a set of test cases covering the most common functional existing in software automatically. Then we used the proposed methodology to test large-scale software systems. Based on the results, in the paper we paid more attention to more arithmetic and date mining methods for function software testing development.

In today’s organizations, a vast amount of existing software systems is insecure, which results in compromised valuable assets and has negative consequences on the organizations. Throughout the years, many attempts have been made to build secure software systems, but the solutions proposed were limited to a few add-on fixes made after implementation and installation of the system.The contribution of the research in this thesis is a software security engineering methodology, called Controlled Security Engineering Process, which provides support to developers when developing more secure software systems by integrating software lifecycle and security lifecycle, and enhancing the control in the engineering process. The proposed methodology implements security in every phase of general software system engineering, i.e., requirement, design, implementation, and testing, as well as operation and maintenance to certify that software systems are built with security in mind.The Controlled Security Engineering Process methodology addresses security problems in the development lifecycle. Construction of a secure software system involves specific steps and activities, which include security requirements specifications of system behavior, secure software design, an analysis of the design, implementation, with secure coding and integration, and operating and maintenance procedures.The methodology incorporates software security patterns and control of the engineering process. The software security patterns can be used as security controls and information sources to demonstrate how a specific security task should be performed or a specific security problem solved. Many patterns can be implemented in an automated way, which can facilitate the work of software engineers.The control of the engineering process provides visibility over the development process. The control assures that authorised developers access legitimate and necessary information and projects’ documents by using authentication, and authorization.To support implementation of automated patterns and provide control over the engineering process, a design of a multi-agent system is provided. The multi-agent system supports implementation of patterns and extracting security information, and provides traceability in the engineering process. The security information is requirements, threats and security mechanisms that are provided by matching project documents, and traceability is achieved by monitoring and logging services.The Controlled Security Engineering Process methodology has been evaluated through interviews with developers, security professionals, and decision makers in different types of organizations but also through a case study which was carried out in an organization.

Software security has drawn much attention recently. As an effective approach to detect software vulnerabilities and improve software security, dynamic taint analysis has been frequently researched in the last few years. In this paper, we implement a dynamic taint tracking system LTTS. In order to address the efficiency problem which exists in many of the current taint tracking systems, we also propose a taint behavior summary mechanism to optimize the system. According to our experiments, LTTS has achieved relative high efficiency compared to the existing techniques.

In 1971, sludge wastes contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin were mixed with waste oil and sprayed on a dirt road at the Quail Run Mobile Home Park in Gray Summit, Mo. We performed a comprehensive examination of 154 exposed and 155 unexposed persons in the area. There were no consistent differences between the two groups on medical history, physical examination, serum and urinary chemistry studies, and neurologic tests. Results of liver function tests suggested possible subclinical effects. The exposed group had an increased frequency of anergy (11.8% vs 1.1%) and relative anergy (35.3% vs 11.8%). The exposed group also had non-statistically significant increased frequencies of abnormal T-cell subset test results (10.4% vs 6.8%), a T4/T8 ratio of less than 1.0 (8.1% vs 6.4%), and an abnormality in the functional T-cell test results (12.6% vs 8.5%). These findings suggest that long-term exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin is associated with depressed cell-mediated immunity, although the effects have not resulted in an excess of clinical illness in the exposed group. Further studies are indicated to elucidate the pathophysiology and clinical significance of these immunologic findings.

The importance of software security technologies is increasingly being recognized with the increase in services available on the Internet. It is important to foster human resources with knowledge and skills relevant to software security technologies. This paper proposes a learning process for software security and a learning environment that supports the learning process. In the learning process, learners create artifacts for software security from artifacts created in a traditional software engineering course, without dealing with software security, by referring to the reference information for software security (standards, methodologies, guidelines, security patterns, and so on). The learning environment supports storage of (1) the artifacts created in a traditional software engineering course, (2) artifacts created in a software security course, (3) the reference information and the relationships between different pieces of the reference information, (4) the rationale and association of the reference information with the artifacts created in a software security course, and (5) review comments and their association with the artifacts created in a software security course.

Genetic screening using high-throughput DNA sequencing has become a tool in diagnosing patients with suspected inherited bleeding disorders (IBD). However, its usefulness and diagnostic efficacy in children is unclear. To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of genetic screening for IBD in children and downstream further testing. After informed consent, children (<18years) with suspected IBD underwent genetic screening with 94 selected genes. A total of 68 heterozygous class 3-5 variants were detected in 30 children, 2.3 variants per patient. Directed specific functional testing was performed after genetic screening in a subset of patients. Adhering to the ACMG guidelines, the results of functional testing together with family history and previous publications classified three variants as likely disease causing (class 4) and two variants as disease causing (class 5), all in children with thrombocytopenia. The overall diagnostic rate was 16.7% (5/30). Children with thrombocytopenia had a significantly higher rate of significant genetic findings, 5/9 (55.6%) vs. 0/21 (0%; P=.0009). We conclude that performing genetic screening in children is an effective tool especially for children with inherited thrombocytopenia and has the possibility to diagnose platelet disorders adequately early in life. Children with bleeding diathesis, normal coagulation work-up and without thrombocytopenia are unlikely to be diagnosed by genetic screening. Ethical issues such as incidental findings, variants associated with cancer and the interpretation of the genetic results into clinical practice remain problematic.

β-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is a representative ketone body that may play a role in the mitigation of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy by altering energy metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective efficacy of exogenous BHB administration in a suckling rat model after hypoxia-ischemia (HI). Thirteen-day-old (P13) rat pups were subjected to 120 min of hypoxia according to the Rice-Vannucci model. BHB (5.0 mmol/kg, HI-BHB) or vehicle (0.9% saline, HI-Veh) was administered 0, 2, 4, and 6 h after HI induction. Pathologic injury scores and the number of TUNEL-positive cells were evaluated on P15. Residual hemispheric volume was measured with T2-weighted MRI (on P27) and functional tests, such as the negative geotaxis test, rope suspension test, rotarod test, novel object recognition test, and cylinder test, were performed. Systemic ketosis (approx. 2.0–3.0 mM/L) was well tolerated by the rat pups with no difference in the mortality rate between both groups. Compared with the HI-Veh group, the HI-BHB group demonstrated significantly lower pathological scores as well as fewer TUNEL-positive cells. The intact residual hemispheric and hippocampal volumes were greater in the HI-BHB group than the HI-Veh group. However, the results of functional tests did not differ between both groups. Postischemic BHB administration reduced brain injury in suckling rats after HI. The safe clinical application of our animal model to human infants with HI requires further investigation.

Security affects every software component in different types of computing systems. Many vulnerabilities and attacks on software systems are due to security weaknesses in the software itself. During the process of software specification, development, or testing, security issues are either taken into consideration insufficiently or not at all. Such software, due to internal weaknesses is prone to new attacks. By teaching secure software engineering techniques for designing and developing software modules, students would learn systematic secure software development techniques, such as defect detecting and security testing. This paper presents a series of modules that are designed to be integrated into undergraduate software engineering courses from a security perspective. The goal of the modules is to teach the building of robust software security requirements, secure software design and development, and secure software verification through a secure software development lifecycle.

How Should Results from Clinical Tests Be Integrated into the Diagnostic Process?

In recent years, software security plays an important role in verifying system safety and avoiding the casualties and property losses, but it is difficult to assess system security in traditional software engineering and software test. Focusing on the software security assessment system, this paper based on the vulnerability analysis method, which takes the advantage of both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis to assess the security of software. The major methods of domestic and foreign software security measurement are discussed. Through the comparative analysis of existing vulnerability rating system, especially the CVSS and VRSS, this paper discovers their respective advantages and proposes a more accurate rating system to obtain the final security score of the software system. An example application is provided in the paper, which shows that the assessment system we proposed is practical.

Aims and Objectives:Most athletes expect to return to their pre-injury sport without restrictions after a reconstruction of their torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACLR). Different indicators for a safe and successful return to sport have been identified. Very recent results revealed that indicators of absolute performance were superior to e.g. limb symmetry. Thus, the primary aim of this investigation was to compare neuromuscular performance of athletes returned to sport after ACLR with uninjured athletes. The secondary aim was to relate overall performance to symmetry in both groups.Materials and Methods:Eighty-four athletes (age: 24 (SD 5) years; 21 women; handball: 33, soccer: 25, volleyball: 15, ice hockey: 5, track and field: 3, judo: 2, swimming: 1) participated in this cross-sectional design. The sample consisted of 17 patients after primary ACL reconstruction (ACLR, 5 women) eleven (6-23) months after return to sport clearance. Participants performed acyclic as well as cyclic neuromuscular tests on a SpeedCourt device (GlobalSpeed GmbH). Unilaterally performed squat jump (SJ) and drop jump (DJ) heights were measured as an indicator of lower extremity explosive or reactive strength under acyclic concentric or fast stretch-shortening muscle action conditions, respectively. The 15 s vertical foot tapping (FT) test was applied to measure cyclic lower extremity performance. The results of each test were converted into z-scores. Z-scores indicate how many standard deviations an individual’s score is away from the mean. Accordingly, a z-score of zero equals the sample’s mean. Athlete’s z-scores were summed up, resulting in the performance score (PS) which indicates overall performance. The participants were ranked based on their PS. Further, for the unilaterally performed tests (SJ, DJ) limb symmetry indices (LSIs) were calculated by dividing the smaller by the larger value and multiplying by 100. LSIs were related to the PS separately for the whole sample as well as for the ACLR subgroup. Effect size is given as Cohen’s d.Results:Uninjured athletes revealed higher values for the PS (t(82) = 3.5, p < 0.001; d > 0.9) and for the LSIs (t(82) > 5.1, p < 0.001; d > 1.4) as compared to ACLR athletes. For the subgroup of uninjured athletes, no significant relationship was found between the overall performance and the LSIs (SJ: r = -0.2, p = 0.15; DJ: r = -0.1, p = 0.43) as well as within both LSIs (r = 0.1, p = 0.41). In athletes after ACLR, in contrast, the LSIs between SJ and DJ showed a strong and significant association (r > 0.73, p < 0.001). Interestingly, neither the overall performance nor the LSIs could be related to the time after injury (0.17 < r < 0.37, p > 0.14).Conclusion:Based on the tests utilized in this study, the ACLR athletes underperformed the uninjured group. Independent from time since injury or surgery, function was not reestablished. Results of functional tests should be an integrative part of the return-to-sport decision process.

Testing plays a vital role in the evolution and establishment of any quality product as well as any quality system. Testing is essential to prove the correctness (valid output when input is valid, and proper handling techniques when input is invalid) of the system and it is crucial to prove the compatibility of the system with the operating environment. In component-based software systems, various components interact with each other to access as well as provide required functionalities. In such complex systems testing is one of the most important activities. Since component-based software engineering relies on the concept of “use of pre-built and pre-tested components”, our focus here, is on functional testing rather than structural testing. Functional testing emphasizes the behavioural attributes of the components when they interact with each other. Components interact through operands and parameters. In this paper we suggest functional testing strategy and test case generation technique for component-based software. When two components are integrated then they generate some specific effect. This strategy is named Integration-effect graph. This strategy is a black-box technique as it covers the input and output domains only. We have used the graph theory notations to show the integration and interaction among the components.

Diagnostic Confusion Attributable to Spurious Elevation of Both Total Thyroid Hormone and Thyroid Hormone Uptake Measurements in the Setting of Autoantibodies: Case Report and Review of Related Literature