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This article sets out to improve upon the current state of design principles and implementation guidance for software safety and security by focusing on the developer's ecosystem to prevent software defects. The article emphasizes a continuous assurance method focusing on the implementation of safe coding and secure design for all applications and tools used by software developers.

The article explores the potential for language-based testing bots to conduct software testing. First, the authors detail the requirements of a software testing bot including input generation as well as output evaluation. Then, an investigation of the incorporation of grammars with constraints in order to satisfy both syntax and semantics of inputs and outputs are presented utilizing the authors' open source tool ILSa (Input Specification Language).

The article focuses on the improvement of test effectiveness and quality of test data in deep learning systems. Topics of discussion include the combination of mutation testing using DeepMutation and differential testing using DeepXplore, iterations of models using data from the MNIST database, and the discovery of errors in deep neural network (DNN) models.

This article discusses the concept of fuzzing as a learning process, using Shannon's entropy to quantify the efficiency of a fuzzer in discovering new behaviors of a program. The authors propose an entropy-based power schedule called "Entropic" for greybox fuzzing, assigning more energy to seeds that reveal more information about a program's behaviors. This approach is implemented in the popular greybox fuzzer LibFuzzer and has been integrated into Google and Microsoft's fuzzing platforms. The paper highlights that the efficiency of a fuzzer is determined by the average information each generated input reveals about a program's behaviors. The authors conducted experiments with over 250 open-source programs, demonstrating a substantial improvement in efficiency and confirming their hypothesis that an efficient fuzzer maximizes information.

Twinsburg, Ohio hosts the world's largest gathering of twins every August, with over 84,000 sets of twins, triplets, and quadruplets attending the annual Twins Days Festivals since 1976. The festival includes various activities such as picnics, a parade, costume contests, fireworks, and a volleyball tournament. Twinsburg got its name from twin businessmen Aaron and Moses Wilcox, who promised to donate money for a new school and land for a town square if the town renamed itself after them. Identical twins come from a single fertilized egg that splits into two babies, while fraternal twins result from two separate eggs being fertilized. Scientists study twins to understand the role of genetics and environment in various traits and characteristics. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on deploying Jenkins X for enhanced CI/CD and cloud-native transition. Topics include the architecture of Jenkins X, its interaction with Kubernetes, and the integration of various tools and frameworks like Helm, Tekton, and GitOps. Jenkins X streamlines cloud-native CI/CD on Kubernetes, facilitates local development and testing, and addresses the unique challenges of modern software development through automation, GitOps, and integration with the cloud-native ecosystem.

The article outlines the evolution and impact of DevOps, describing how it merges development and operations into a unified process to improve efficiency and collaboration. It also discusses the history of DevOps, its benefits such as faster deployment and better collaboration, and its drawbacks including cultural transformation and complexity.

The article presents information on software fuzzing, a process used for automated bug and vulnerability testing. Several papers are cited and discussed by Stefan Nagy, an assistant professor at the University of Utah. Software fuzzing uses new and unexpected inputs which are systematically generated in order to test programs. The cited papers provide information on topics such as specific classes of bugs and finding bugs in compilers, demonstrating the advantage of combining traditional testing methods with innovative techniques and machine learning in order to identify bugs in complex software systems.

This paper aims to provide a data-driven approach for modeling the longitudinal dynamics of a typical ground vehicle with a gasoline engine and automatic transmission. In the identification process, a Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) model is considered, whose inputs are throttle level and road grade and whose parameters vary as a function of throttle level and gear number to capture the nonlinear dynamics. Three parametric structures based on time-series modeling (ARX, ARMAX, BJ) are investigated, whose performances are discussed comparatively. In addition to selecting the best structure, an optimization problem is proposed to acquire the optimal model order of these structures. It is shown, using semi-experimental tests on the CarSim® software package, that the dynamics of different vehicles can best be represented by different model orders. To evaluate the versatility and utility of the proposed LPV model, a PI controller is tuned using the model, and the closed-loop performance of the system is compared against the model. It is shown that the LPV model is very accurate in closed-loop settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the significance of open source DevOps tools, emphasizing their flexibility, accessibility, and strong community support. It explores three categories of tools crucial for DevOps: continuous integration tools like Jenkins and Travis CI, version control tools such as Git and Apache Subversion, and configuration management tools like Ansible and Chef.

The article details the successful testing of the POTION flight-path planning software developed by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) using the Vanilla Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in the Arctic Circle. Topics discussed include the innovative integration of POTION with Vanilla UAV, the significant achievements and records set during the Arctic flight, and the implications of the research for advancing UAV technology and operational efficiency.

The article examines the design of software for quantum computing. The application of quantum computing for drug discovery and vaccine development is described along with efforts at European research centers to build ion-trapped and 100-qubit supercomputer and alleged idiosyncrasies associated with testing and debugging quantum software.

The article delves into the transformative impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) programming on various user groups, including end users, internal users, developers, and technology operations teams, emphasizing its potential to enhance productivity, streamline operations, and unlock new opportunities. It also explores specific use cases and highlights open source tools that can assist in harnessing the potential of generative AI programming, catering to diverse user personas.

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The Army's Pathfinder Program is designed to address the need for cybersecurity professionals by encouraging college students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and emerging technology fields within the Army Acquisition Workforce. The program offers internships, scholarships, and research opportunities to students, providing them with hands-on experience and necessary certifications. Currently, 25 colleges are participating in the program, which is expanding to include more agencies and increase diversity. The program aims to train future security professionals in red team roles, while also promoting collaboration with blue teams to defend against cyberattacks. Rebecca Wright, an experienced writer and editor, contributes her expertise to Army AL&T magazine at the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the progress and preparations for NASA's Artemis II mission. It discusses various aspects of the mission, including the integration of the European Service Module (ESM), the installation of the heat shield for the crew capsule, and the crew members who will participate in the mission. It also provides details about the testing and preparations for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The article discusses the significance of fuzzing as an effective method for testing software. Fuzzing involves feeding random or invalid test data to programs to discover potential crashes or vulnerabilities, often at scale. Fuzzing is categorized into black-box, grey-box, and white-box approaches, each with varying levels of information about the system under test. Unlike traditional test generation papers that focus on theory and code coverage, fuzzing emphasizes practical applications and bug discovery in real systems. The article introduces a a paper that presents a novel twist to grey-box fuzzing, proposing a power schedule that selects seeds for mutation based on their potential to reveal new program behavior. This approach is underpinned by information theory and measures entropy as an efficiency metric for fuzzers. The article highlights the potential of fuzzing to bridge the gap between traditional test generation and practical testing methods, offering a valuable contribution to the field of software testing.

The article discusses the use of metamorphic testing to test driverless cars, specifically their untestable software, detecting fatal errors in autonomous vehicles' onboard computer systems. Topics include metamorphic testing's cost-effective ability to address the oracle problem and the automated test-case-generation problem, and the use of both LiDAR obstacle perception to determine an object's shape and position and radar to estimate the velocity of moving obstacles in autonomous vehicles.

The article focuses on the introduction of QPHY-NBASE-T software by Teledyne LeCroy for testing and validating NBase-T Ethernet compliance according to IEEE 802.3bz-2016 standards, including the software's features such as automated testing for NBASE-T compliance.

Purpose: The purpose of this sudy is to provide a complete optimization-based methodology to design waveguides with metamaterial walls. The present methodology is based on optimization. Indeed, the inverse problems of design are formulated as nonlinear black-box optimization problems with constraints. Two inequality black-box constraints are taken into account as penalized terms that are added to the objective function when the constraints are not satisfied. The numerical steps are done by using a finite element method solver (GetDP). Thus, different optimization software are tested to solve the nonlinear black-box optimization problems such as IPOPT, NLOPT and NOMAD from the Opti ToolBox in MatLab. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, a methodology to design waveguides with metamaterial walls is proposed. The aim is to solve an inverse problem to find the best design where the electric field cartography is the closest to an imposed one. Findings: The present methodology is applied to solve inverse problems of design and satisfactory results were provided by the three solvers IPOPT, NLOPT and NOMAD. Those numerical experiments show that NOMAD is the most efficient method to optimize the design of those cylindrical waveguide structures with metamaterial walls. Research limitations/implications: The model is set to find solutions using a specific pattern of metamaterials. This is promising to take those geometries as variables of the optimization problems. Moreover, in this exploratory work, no constraint on the fabrication limits has been taken into account. Originality/value: The originality is to formulate design problems of waveguide with metamaterial walls into optimization problems. These optimization problems are difficult to solve because the objective function and two inequality constraints are computed via a numerical simulation code based on finite element methods. Thus, an original approach based on penalization is implemented and three optimization software are used. Hence, the authors propose an optimization-based methodology and apply to solve two inverse problems of design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Conditional Simple Temporal Network with Uncertainty and Decisions (CSTNUD) is a formalism to model, validate, and execute temporal plans subject to controllable and uncontrollable events as well as controllable and uncontrollable choices simultaneously. Dynamic Controllability implies the existence of a strategy scheduling the events and fixing the controllable choices in real time in a way that only depends on the already executed uncontrollable events and already fixed uncontrollable choices. This paper unifies CSTNUDs with other temporal network formalisms by providing Conditional Temporal Networks with Uncertainty and Decisions (CTNUDs) and proposes a semantics for dynamic controllability modeled as a two-player game between Controller and Nature where each player can react instantaneously to the other player moves. Such a game is designed to guarantee termination with exactly one winner (i.e., the game is determined). We prove that adopting the instantaneous reaction semantics allows for modeling any possible reaction time, absorbing de facto previous proposed semantics of dynamic controllability. We provide an encoding into Timed Game Automata to synthesize an execution strategy for any dynamically controllable CTNUD. We implement our approach to synthesize C++ programs for the execution of dynamically controllable CTNUDs. We test our software on a set of randomly-generated instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papa Johns has partnered with Loadmill, a provider of AI-powered software testing solutions. This collaboration aims to significantly improve Papa Johns' software testing capabilities, ultimately leading to a smoother and more efficient customer experience, according to a press release. Papa... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sony has developed a new plug-in software application called Gaming Virtualizer by 360 Reality Audio, which allows game developers to create immersive spatial game sound for headphone users. The software integrates with Wwise, a widely used audio middleware, and optimizes signal processing to reduce the load on game hardware, enabling high-quality spatial sound even on devices with limited processing capabilities. The software has been tested by game developers in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, and is expected to enhance the sound design process and provide a more realistic sound expression in games. [Extracted from the article]

Papa Johns has partnered with Loadmill, a provider of AI-powered software testing solutions. This collaboration aims to significantly improve Papa Johns' software testing capabilities, ultimately leading to a smoother and more efficient customer experience, according to a press release. Papa... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shareholders have filed a lawsuit against cybersecurity startup CrowdStrike, alleging that the company misled them by not disclosing how its subpar software testing may have contributed to a worldwide outage on July 19. The outage affected over 8 million machines and disrupted emergency lines, hospitals, banks, airlines, and emergency rooms. The shareholders claim that CrowdStrike made false and misleading claims about its technology, leading to a significant drop in the company's share price. CrowdStrike has stated that it believes the case lacks merit and will vigorously defend itself. [Extracted from the article]

Aspire's Aju Mathew on AI and Advanced Application DevelopmentAju Mathew, Vice President, Software Engineering at Aspire Systems detailed how generative AI will enhance software tasks like frontend development, migration, maintenance and testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the authors' views about the need for the distributed systems research community to improve the state of the art in fault tolerance testing as of 2018, and it mentions how ordinary users need the tools to automate the selection of custom-tailored faults to inject. Cloud software applications, Chaos Engineering, and computer failures are assessed, along with the Jepsen fault-injection testing technique and the superusers that are known as Chaos Engineers.

An important feature of the collaboration between the people who develop tools that improve or automate workflow and the training function is that the training is not simply focused on how to use the tool. The training wasn't mandatory because, as with many software firms, Company B valued speed in getting products out the door above all else, and the training had to prove its value. The software firm's training team didn't recognize the value of engaging with the tool owners for approving product designs. The training team could say, "Tools only work when paired with informed behavior", and the tools team should immediately agree. [Extracted from the article]

NASA recently issued a software patch for Voyager 1, an unmanned probe launched in 1977, to fix a problem with its thrusters. The patch was necessary to prevent Voyager 1 from losing contact with Earth. The software update was a complex task due to the unique machine language used by the probe and the simplicity of its system compared to modern standards. The patch was extensively tested using a software simulator and was successfully applied, allowing Voyager 1 to continue collecting data from the outer reaches of the solar system. As the probe continues to age, more upgrade missions will be needed to keep it functioning. The data collected by Voyager 1 and its companion, Voyager 2, is invaluable and cannot be replicated by newer devices. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the use of open source software-defined networking (SDN) in enterprise networks. Topics include the use of the Faucet network by the organization Open Networking Foundation, the testing and deployment of networking software, and the role of a control-plane network (CPN) in network security.

A patent has been issued for a system and method for testing blood vessel access using powered fluid injector systems. The patent, assigned to Bayer Healthcare LLC, describes systems and methods for testing the acceptability of blood vessel access using a powered fluid injector. The invention allows for adjustments in fluid delivery rate and the ability to perform test injections with multiple phases. This technology aims to improve the accuracy and safety of medical procedures involving the injection of fluids into patients. [Extracted from the article]

After a system crash is not the time to find out your backup software failed or doesn't have a key feature you need. This is how we kick the tires to find the backup programs you can trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to present a convex–concave optimization approach for solving the problem of a multistage launch vehicle ascent trajectory. The proposed method combines convex–concave decomposition and successive linearization techniques to generate a new sequence of convex subproblems to replace the original non-convex problem. Bernstein approximation is used to transform the chance constraints into convex ones. A h p -adaptive pseudospectral scheme is employed to discretize the optimal control problem into a nonlinear programming problem with less computation cost. The performance of the proposed strategy is compared against other typical techniques in a selection of test case scenarios. Numerical results demonstrate the viability of the method and show pros and cons of the proposed technique. • A noise-perturbed multi-stage launch vehicle trajectory optimization model is proposed. • The convex–concave decomposition method is applied to the multistage launch vehicle ascent problem. • The convex–concave decomposition and successive linearization methods allow for a reduction of the computational cost. • An extension to handle chance constraints based on Bernstein approximation approach is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A data storage company has broken the world record for calculating the number pi by decoding over 100 trillion digits. Pi is an irrational number with infinite non-repeating decimal places, and its value is equal to the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. While calculating pi to such a precise value has no practical impact on mathematics, it is often used as a benchmark for testing new computer programs and data-storage systems. The company used 36 solid-state drives and powerful processors to complete the calculation in 75 days. [Extracted from the article]

On behalf of the TOMMI - Deutscher Kindersoftwarepreis (German Children’s Software Award), a criteria catalog was developed in a student project at HAW Hamburg in the winter semester 2020/2021 to support parents, librarians and educators in the evaluation of children’s software. First, the state of research on the evaluation of children’s software was surveyed and the market (providers, consumers) of games, apps for children, electronic toys and educational software was investigated. Subsequently, digital and electronic applications were tested in structured software tests and evaluated using test protocols. For a more comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of children’s software, expert interviews with children, game developers, media educators as well as teachers, educators and librarians were conducted and content-analytically evaluated. The result is a searchable and sortable catalog based on Javascript with around 300 criteria in the categories of safety, technology, fun, content, design and educational value, which is available free of charge on the website of the TOMMI - German Children’s Software Award. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new Bernoulli Weighted Random Network model controlling variance of edge distributions to nodes. • Uses this model to create alternative organizational structures of a covert network data. • Represents covert metwork structure as multi-layer network and stochastic block model. We focus on organizational structures in covert networks, such as criminal or terrorist networks. Their members engage in illegal activities and attempt to hide their association and interactions with these networks. Hence, data about such networks are incomplete. We introduce a novel method of rewiring covert networks parameterized by the edge connectivity standard deviation. The generated networks are statistically similar to themselves and to the original network. The higher-level organizational structures are modeled as a multi-layer network while the lowest level uses the Stochastic Block Model. Such synthetic networks provide alternative structures for data about the original network. Using them, analysts can find structures that are frequent, therefore stable under perturbations. Another application is to anonymize generated networks and use them for testing new software developed in open research facilities. The results indicate that modeling edge structure and the hierarchy together is essential for generating networks that are statistically similar but not identical to each other or the original network. In experiments, we generate many synthetic networks from two covert networks. Only a few structures of synthetics networks repeat, with the most stable ones shared by 18% of all synthetic networks making them strong candidates for the ground truth structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of satisfiability modulo theory solvers in formula-based software debugging as form of computer-assisted debugging. Topics include the use of symbolic techniques to extract candidate specifications, the use of an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) implementation, and the use of interpolants to find error root-causes.

The article on the Veritesting dynamic symbolic execution and path merging or static symbolic execution testing technique for automating software testing as a method of solving the "path explosion" problem is presented. The bug identification rate of MergePoint software with veritesting is compared to MergePoint without veritesting using Debian binaries and verification-based algorithms are presented as a technique to enhance symbolic execution.

The article discusses the verification and validation of distributed systems. Particular focus is given to partial failure and asynchrony. Details on formal specification languages such as TLA+ and Coq, and on the formal verification method known as model checking, are presented. Informal methods such as monitoring, canary tests, and unit and integration tests are also discussed, along with random model checkers and fault-injection testing.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of entrepreneurial features and the intention towards entrepreneurship (ITE) of generation Z students. The paper also explores if entrepreneurial education (EE) plays a role in the development of individual entrepreneurship orientation (IEO) and in increasing the ITE of the generation Z students. Design/methodology/approach: The research consists of a survey of students in the fields of marketing and communication (n = 590) conducted in January 2018. The authors used SPSS software to test the reliability of scales that measure IEO, ITE, the need for achievement, structural behaviour, self-efficacy and the attitude towards job flexibility, and to run Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and t test to test the hypotheses. Findings: The findings show that generation Z students have similar ITE and EE to colleagues from other generations. EE has a significant impact on increasing both IEO and ITE. Nevertheless, generation Z students have a higher need for achievement, a lower self-efficacy and are more open to a flexible labour market. Originality/value: This paper explores a topic which has received little attention: the interest and capacity of generation Z students to develop their own business. The paper also analyses whether the EE offered by universities can play a role in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the benefits of Application program interfaces (API) testing. The API act as a layer between presentation layer and database layer. Early testing can validate one's business logic. Other benefits include Language Independent, improved test coverage and faster releases. It mentions some popular API testing tools.

The article focuses on debugging high-performance computing (HPC) applications. It is noted that these applications can run long numerical simulations which model the real world. The numerical correctness and software reliability of these applications is very important for scientists. Debugging parallel programs is much more difficult compared to debugging serial programs. According to the authors, dynamic analysis tools and algorithms which match an application's input and number of compute nodes allow programmers identify the root cause of bugs. INSET: Real-World Debugging Case.

Antivirus suites should catch threats to your PC, go easy on system resources, and charge a fair price. Here's how we evaluate software for those qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]