Zuhoor Al-Khanjari

Testability, fault size and the domain-to-range ratio: An eternal triangle

A number of different concepts have been proposed that, loosely speaking, revolve around the notion of software testability. Indeed, the concept of testability itself has been interpreted in a variety of ways by the software community. One interpretation is concerned with the extent of the modifications a program component requires, in terms of its input and output variables, so that the entire behaviour of the component is observable and controllable. Another interpretation is the ease with which faults, if present in a program, can be revealed by the testing process and the propagation, infection and execution (PIE) model has been proposed as a method of estimating this. It has been suggested that this particular interpretation of testability might be linked with the metric domain-to-range ratio (DRR), i.e. the ratio of the cardinality of the set of all inputs (the domain) to the cardinality of the set of all outputs (the range). This paper reports work in progress exploring some of the connections between the concepts mentioned. In particular, a simple mathematical link is established between domain-to-range ratio and the observability and controllability aspects of testability. In addition, the PIE model is re-considered and a relationship with fault size is observed. This leads to the suggestion that it might be more straightforward to estimate PIE testability by an adaptation of traditional mutation analysis. The latter suggestion exemplifies the main goals of the work described here, namely to seek greater understanding of testability in general and, ultimately, to find easier ways of determining it.

Critical Analysis of the PIE Testability Technique

The work of Voas and colleagues has introduced, refined and applied the propagation, infection and execution (PIE) analysis technique for measuring testability of programs. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to summarize and review the work done by Voas and others, and (2) to lay down a framework for automating the measurement of testability. In doing so, we introduce a prototype system, which uses the mutant schemata approach to calculate the infection estimate. The attempt, reported in this paper, to reproduce the results reported by Voas for one example, have shown that intermediate calculations are quite sensitive to minor variations in the parameters to the process, although the final testability results are in agreement.

Developing virtual lab to support the Computer Science Education in Moodle

E-Learning plays the main role to support the traditional learning with online learning. This is achieved through the management of the Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and their functionalities. Many LMSs contain functionality that virtualizes the courses theoretical part in the classroom but not addressing the technical part. In this direction and to support the Computer Science Education (CSE), the virtual lab has emerged as an adopted environment which could be integrated into the LMS environment. This paper proposes two integration approaches (e.g. Web-Based Approach and Service-Oriented Approach) those can be used to prepare and integrate the virtual lab for CSE into the LMSs (e.g. Moodle).

Promoting online learning through learners' vision

Rapidly improving services over the internet and increasing availability of web-based education (WBED) products and services encourages the management of the education institutions to decide for any tangible transformation in the existing education paradigm. As learners represent the customers of any education paradigm, it becomes an important issue to understand their vision over the infl uence of technology on the current education environment. Without this knowledge any transformation of the current education paradigm may seem to be possible, but may lead to some unforeseen results. It is foreseen that introduction of a course management tool at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) would initiate an effective transformation of currently practiced education scheme. This has also created an unavoidable hesitation to carry out a full-scale implementation of e-learning. In order to resolve this problem, we (the researchers at SQU) are encouraged to carry out a full-scale experimental study to identify the visions of learners with respect to the increasing influence of Technology on the current education. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted on the learner community in the Faculty of Science along with a useful discussion and conclusion.

The Efficiency of Critical Slicing in Fault Localization

In software testing, developing effective debugging strategies is important to guarantee the reliability of software under testing. A heuristic technique is to cause failure and therefore expose faults. Based on this approach mutation testing has been found very useful technique in detecting faults. However, it suffers from two problems with successfully testing programs: (1) requires extensive computing resources and (2) puts heavy demand on human resources. Later, empirical observations suggest that critical slicing based on Statement Deletion (Sdl) mutation operator has been found the most effective technique in reducing effort and the required computing resources in locating the program faults. The second problem of mutation testing may be solved by automating the program testing with the help of software tools. Our study focuses on determining the effectiveness of the critical slicing technique with the help of the Mothra Mutation Testing System in detecting program faults. This paper presents the results showing the performance of Mothra Mutation Testing System through conducting critical slicing testing on a selected suite of programs.

PlagDetect: a Java programming plagiarism detection tool

Practical computing courses that involve significant amount of programming assessment tasks suffer from e-Plagiarism. A pragmatic solution for this problem could be by discouraging plagiarism particularly among the beginners in programming. One way to address this is to automate the detection of plagiarized work during the marking phase. Our research in this context involves at first examining various metrics used in plagiarism detection in program codes and secondly selecting an appropriate statistical measure using attribute counting metrics (ATMs) for detecting plagiarism in Java programming assignments. The goal of this investigation is to study the effectiveness of ATMs for detecting plagiarism among assignment submissions of introductory programming courses.

Comprehensive classification of collaboration approaches in E-learning

Abstract There are a number of approaches to learning such as traditional approaches (teacher-centered) and collaborative approaches (learner-centered). Nowadays, the concepts of collaboration and social interactions are the major trends in education. Therefore, many researchers embrace these concepts to offer the educational field enhanced learning environments which are supported by communication and collaboration techniques. The adaptation causes the existence of varied approaches which are addressing the collaborative learning techniques. As a result, there is a need for a mechanism to study those approaches and highlight their eminence. The aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive overview about the state-of-art in collaborative learning, especially by integrating social media tools. To do so, the study adopts a classification framework based on four different views (subject, purpose, method, and tool). The framework has been used to compare ten collaborative e-learning approaches. The finding indicates the potential of all approaches in developing an online learning environment for remote collaborative learning despite the lack of fulfilling all the requirements highlighted in the four views.

Crowd sourced testing through end users for Mobile Learning application in the context of Bring Your Own Device

Mobile Learning (M-Learning) has gained considerable popularity among the learners. Accessibility and compatibility of M-Learning application is no more restricted to limited number of mobile devices. Now M-Learning providers have given freedom of learning on any mobile device owned by the user in the environment called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

Developing a Collaborative Learning Environment Using Web Services Techniques

Collaborative e-learning has a set of characteristics which requires interaction and negotiation among learners and teachers. It also needs support to achieve high-level requirements for learning content and systems such as accessibility, reusability, interoperability and adaptability. The focus of this paper is to investigate three commonly used standards in e-learning which are: SCORM, IMS-LD, IEEE and LOM to enhance the characteristics of collaborative e-learning in relation to the features of these standards. Due the lack of collaboration features in these standards, this paper highlights Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) features to fulfill the collaborative e-learning requirements.

A PROPOSED SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR ESTABLISHING PRIVACY DOMAINS IN E-HEALTH CLOUD

During the treatment of this paper it is aimed the accurate characterization of natural objects that constitute the natural heritage of this region, as well as the proposals for new monuments. In this article it is conducted a genuine scientific work for the analysis of these monuments and the values associated with them. The basic method that is used in the treatment of this paper has been the one of direct field observations, analyzing these aspects; their physical condition, size, prognosis and photography. The paper has scientific value to researchers in the field of geography and local authorities. The main part in the paper is occupied by the results of the performed work in the following areas: The assessment of the natural conditions of this district, in function ofthe natural monuments. The classification of natural monuments; geomonuments, bio and hidromonuments. The physical analysis of the declared monuments,explaining their current situation and future trend.Their association with different views. Proposals for new natural monuments, for those objects that meet the criteria of being such. All these proposed monuments, are analyzed by the natural aspect, and accompanied by photos. At the end of this paper are given the conclusions, noting that the natural heritage of this district is a national asset. There are given some recommendations such as; their defence is responsibility of the state and of all the public opinion. Their good management requires strong legal measures in order to preserve these values.This article focuses in the azorean third tea period (1878-1879), time to learn and the first move towards tea industry. This time is made up of two periods: First, time to collect and make tea (March to July 1878); Second, time to collect and make tea (April to July 1879). With the hiring of two Chinese tea technicians, Lau-a-Pan (the master) and Lau-a- Teng (the interpreter) by the local agricultural society, locals rapidly acquired two things: how to grow and make tea and the value of his tea. Tea industry brought together first and second generation SPAM members, who, to cope with wine and orange crises, among other products, invested in tea. Industry mainly developed in Saint Michaels‘s Island.Military in Pakistan and Bangladesh has been deeply involved in politics all over the history. Since after the birth of both countries, the strong democratic government has not yet been established, due to the continuous involvement of Military in politics. The current research attempts to evaluate the main causes of Military Intervention in two countries. The utilized information of causes has been taken from books, journals, articles, on line materials and other secondary sources. The findings result with regard to the sources of military interventions in politics are the causes of weak political institution, vested interest of the military, legacy of the British army, political corruption and superiority.The subject of insurance law has been a very trickish and clumsy one to anybody who desires to know about it or conduct any research with regard to same. The general notion of the public against insurance companies is very negative when it comes to the aspect of payment of indemnity by the insurers. Perhaps based on a simple or very trivial excuse, the insurer may repudiate liability either on the basis of non – disclosure or non – possession of insurable interest e.t.c. In most cases, insurers have denied or repudiated indemnities on ground of non – disclosure which in all of the policies are made to be a ―warranty‖ or ―conditions‖ which goes to the root of the contract itself. The common law rule on this is very strict and therefore operates against the claim of the assured whenever the defence is raised by the insurer. However, the Nigerian Insurance Act, appears to have remedied this common law position by making the concept of non – disclosure equitable to both parties to an insurance policy. It is hereby suggested that other jurisdiction should follow suit for the development of insurance law.The need to own assets, whether in the form of long-term tangible or intangible assets, conditions a successful operation of an accounting entity in some cases. The objective of the article is to compare the asset structure defined for public sector accounting entities to the asset structure binding for business entities in compliance with the legislation valid in SR. Further objective of the article is to compare the legislation valid in SR in terms of long-term assets to the legislation defined under IAS/IFRS International Accounting Standards (applicable for businesses) and IPSAS (applicable for public sector entities). Our effort is to point out the differences on the grounds of the given comparisons, and to propose measures aimed at enhancing the legislation on the grounds of the analysis.Mass housing estates of the second half of the 20th century represent a poorly described and appraised topic of recent history. Mainly professionals overlook their garden design related aspect. It seems unbuilt areas within them were neglected by their authors; still, they represent an essential change in the urban structure in the 20th century and the rising significance of elements representing nature in urbanized environments. The present text focuses on housing estates in the Czech Republic that were built between the 1960s and 1989, especially their garden design related and landscape related aspects. First, circumstances of post-war building of mass housing and the role of modernist theories are introduced. Second, the development of forms of public areas in specific conditions of socialist central planning is observed. Our exploration concentrates on significant projects presented in the press of the time as well as housing estates that did not stand out from the average. The results, which we are presenting, are an overview of particular types of public spaces within mass housing estates with their basic characteristics and a definition of the roles of vegetation and other garden design means related to housing. In conclusion, we formulate a general development direction which the relation between landscape and housing took, as we can observe it in the example of housing estates of the second half of the 20th century.Our research is dedicated to the problem of the development of the future doctors’ subject competencies in Medical deontology by means of Cooperative learning structures. In this article we are going to review the findings on the initial level of the future doctors’ subject competencies in Medical deontology in terms of the motivational component within the framework of the experimental part of the investigation. Our main task is to reveal the gaps in the motivational component of the future doctors’ subject competencies in Medical deontology and to suggest Cooperative learning as a technique to improve the deontological education. The initial level of the development of the future doctors’ subject competencies in Medical deontology has been evaluated by us in terms of three components – motivational, cognitive and behavioral the essence of which is represented in criteria and the latter are reflected in indicators. In this article we will review the findings on the motivational component. The initial level of the development of the motivational component of the competencies in Medical deontology has been determined in terms of the professional needs and interests of the medical students, the indicators of which include awareness of a career choice, type of motivation to study at the higher medical educational establishment (“professional” motives, motives of “personal prestige”, “pragmatic” and “educational” motives, external factors), prevailing personality orientation (humanistic, professional, social, business, and antisocial), motivation for communication, self-improvement and selfdevelopment motivation, recognition of the practical significance of the academic course “Deontology in medicine”, an interest in ethical and deontological education.Nowadays, the number of stimuli reaching the consumers is underdrastic growth. At the same time, consumers are not able to or willing toprocess this amount of information. In spite of the educational level,informative campaigns and publications, the consumers‘ level of knowledgeremains low concerning the composition of food products. On the basis of aresearch carried out in 2013, in Hungary and involving 1,150 individuals, wecan state that consumers are not aware of the extent of carbohydrates andenergy contained in their food products. It is the responsibility of consumerprotection to work out a signalling for food products that is easy to beprocessed and can be immediately understood by the consumers. Such aninitiative could be the comprehensive and mandatory introduction of the―traffic light system‖.Agence France-Presse (AFP) is an international French news agency located in Paris. It is the oldest and largest news agency in the world. It is one of four most outstanding agencies together with “Associate Press”, “Reuters” and “Itar-Tass”. Information agencies originated from 1835 when a young French writer and translator Charles-Louis Havas established Agency Havas on the basis of which was established one of the greatest agencies France-Presse. A lot of issues were changed in the strategy of the Agency from the day of its foundation, but in XXI century, the epoch of modern technologies, it faced new challenges and accomplished changes in the sphere of its activities. Top management of Agence France- Presse managed to implement new technologies and become one of the most prestigious agencies in the world.The spectrum of the problems analyzed in the following article is based on the works by Merab Mamardashvili (1930-1990) dedicated to the theme of Europe, talks given in Paris and Barcelona, articles and interviews published in various French newspapers or journals. Mamardashvili clearly realized that the establishment of democratic regime in the society emerging on the ruins of a totalitarian state could create the most complicated problem to the state and culture; that the indigenous peoples of the former Soviet Union (including Georgians) who before October Revolution could not follow the time, modernity, would find themselves in a difficult situation in the process of formation of civil society and its members as citizens. The aspiration toward modernizing the individuals poses many difficulties to the politicians and citizens because we are simultaneously being transformed into free and independent nation, and the members of civil society. The situation is complicated by the fact that this process passes through the fog of post-totalitarian society. Merab Mamardashili’s critical analysis is due to a desire for better future of Georgia, the desire that in the era of globalization Georgian thinking could adequately respond to the challenges of time. In the process of desovietization of thinking and formation of civil society, the views developed by the philosopher Merab Mamardashili about the relationships between the individual and society are still valuable and relevant.The total world population is 7.093 billion of them 1.29 billion do live with absolute poverty [PPP below