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Reliability growth models are commonly categorized into two primary groups: parametric and non‐parametric models. Parametric models, known as Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGM) rely on a set of hypotheses that can potentially affect the accuracy of model predictions, while non‐parametric models (such as neural networks) can predict the model solely based on training data without any assumptions regarding the model itself. In this paper, we propose several methods to enhance prediction accuracy in software reliability context. More specifically, we, on one hand, introduce two gradient‐based techniques for estimating parameters of classical SRGMs. On the other, we propose methods involving LSTM Encoder–Decoder and Bayesian approximation within Langevin Gradient and Variational inference neural networks. To evaluate our proposed models' performance, we compare them with various neural network‐based software reliability models using three real‐world software failure datasets and utilizing the Mean Square Error (MSE) as a model comparison criterion. The experimental results indicate that our proposed non‐parametric models outperform most classical parametric and non‐parametric models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our fast-paced modern world, software systems have become indispensable in both personal and professional spheres. With increasing reliance on software products, the demand for reliable and high-quality software has intensified, placing significant pressure on developers to stay competitive. Software reliability growth models (SRGMs) play a vital role in assessing the dependability of software systems during their development. These models mathematically analyze the relationship between detected faults, testing time, and failures, enabling the prediction of software failures. This paper introduces an approach to software reliability evaluation, considering the dynamic nature of fault removal efficiency (FRE) during development. Additionally, the model accounts for the change rate of residual errors, considering both error introduction and correction processes. Moreover, the adoption of S-shaped curves captures the learning process of software developers, enhancing the model's accuracy. This approach guides software developers to make informed decisions, leading to improved software reliability and performance, meeting escalating demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software is used in diverse settings and depends on development and testing environments. Software development should improve the reliability, quality, cost, and stability of software, making the software testing period crucial. We proposed a software reliability model (SRM) that considers the uncertainty of software environments and the fault detection rate function as a Rayleigh distribution, with an explicit mean value function solution in the model. The goodness-of-fit of the proposed model relative to several existing nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) SRMs is presented based on three software application failure datasets. Further, a cost model is also presented that addresses the error-removal risk level and required time. The optimal testing release policy for minimizing the expected total cost (ETC) is also determined for NHPP SRMs. The impact of the software environment is studied by varying it, and the optimal release times and minimum ETCs are compared. The goodness-of-fit comparison confirmed that the proposed model has more accurate prediction values than other models. Further, whereas the existing models applied to the cost model do not change after a certain operation period, the proposed model yields changes in release time even for long operating periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For highly reliable software systems, it is expensive, time consuming, or even infeasible to perform reliability testing via a conventional software reliability demonstration testing (SRDT) plan. Moreover, in the traditional SRDT approach, the various characteristics of the software system or test sets are not considered when making the testing schemes. Some studies have focused on the effect of software testability on SRDT, but only limited situations were discussed, and many theoretical and practical problems have been left unresolved. In this paper, an extended study on the quantitative relation between test effectiveness (TE) and test effort for SRDT is proposed. Theoretical derivation is put forward by performing statistical analysis for the test suite according to TE. The combinations of all the cases of zero-failure and revealed nonzero failure, as well as discrete-type software and continuous-type software, are studied with the corresponding failure probability models constructed. That is, zero-failure and nonzero failure, as well as discrete-type software and continuous-type software, respectively, constitute the symmetry and asymmetry of SRDT. Finally, we illustrated all the models and performed applications on the Siemens program suite. The experimental results show that within the same limitation of requirements and confidence levels, this approach can effectively reduce the number of test cases and the test duration, i.e., accelerate the test process and improve the efficiency of the SRDT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Code smells indicate potential symptoms or problems in software due to inefficient design or incomplete implementation. These problems can affect software quality in the long-term. Code smell detection is fundamental to improving software quality and maintainability, reducing software failure risk, and helping to refactor the code. Previous works have applied several prediction methods for code smell detection. However, many of them show that machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques are not always suitable for code smell detection due to the problem of imbalanced data. So, data imbalance is the main challenge for ML and DL techniques in detecting code smells. To overcome these challenges, this study aims to present a method for detecting code smell based on DL algorithms (Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)) combined with data balancing techniques (random oversampling and Tomek links) to mitigate data imbalance issue. To establish the effectiveness of the proposed models, the experiments were conducted on four code smells datasets (God class, data Class, feature envy, and long method) extracted from 74 open-source systems. We compare and evaluate the performance of the models according to seven different performance measures accuracy, precision, recall, f-measure, Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC), the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), the area under the precision–recall curve (AUCPR) and mean square error (MSE). After comparing the results obtained by the proposed models on the original and balanced data sets, we found out that the best accuracy of 98% was obtained for the Long method by using both models (Bi-LSTM and GRU) on the original datasets, the best accuracy of 100% was obtained for the long method by using both models (Bi-LSTM and GRU) on the balanced datasets (using random oversampling), and the best accuracy 99% was obtained for the long method by using Bi-LSTM model and 99% was obtained for the data class and Feature envy by using GRU model on the balanced datasets (using Tomek links). The results indicate that the use of data balancing techniques had a positive effect on the predictive accuracy of the models presented. The results show that the proposed models can detect the code smells more accurately and effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document offers guidance to medical students on how to prepare for virtual residency interviews. It emphasizes the importance of creating a professional environment, including having a neat background and reliable internet. The document also provides advice on personal appearance, backup devices, and researching the interviewers. It suggests practicing mock interviews and provides a template for structuring answers. The document encourages authenticity and highlighting strengths and experiences. Additionally, it provides guidance on asking relevant questions, handling uncomfortable experiences, and making the most of downtime during the interview day. Thorough preparation and follow-up are also emphasized. [Extracted from the article]

Evaluating program reliability against software faults involves the work of analyzing program failure against software faults as behavior on failures is fundamental for assessing reliability. Similar failure behavior reflects similar reliability assessment against software faults of same time–space distribution. Since program failure is determined by fault manifestations, working on similarities on fault manifestations helps figuring out failures in similarity as well. In this paper, we propose a novel method to characterize program behavior by defining fine-grained runtime states at assembly-level of code, aiming to capture the very first abnormal manifestation—first-error—after software fault being activated during program run. Failure prediction model and measurement is presented based on similarities reflected by the runtime behaviors obtained. Fault injection experiments are conducted to verify the prediction measurement by utilizing software faults of Orthogonal Defect Classification to inject and MiBench programs to perform. Over 15 000+ times of fault injection by considering type and location of fault were conducted into each program in order to quantify and analyze the sensitivity on first-error and similarity on failure accordingly. The results show that programs having particular structural features (e.g. massive operations with regards to calculations, nested function-calls, case structures and loop structures, etc.) are well characterized toward first-error behaviors by extracting fine-grained states. Similarities on first-error sensitivity can be represented better for these programs as well. Same trend is seen on failure behavior and its prediction measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software testing are any errors, flaws, bugs, mistakes, failures in a piece of software that might cause the programme to produce incorrect or unexpected results. Testing in software almost always increase both the time and money needed to finish a project. And finding bugs and fixing them is a laborious and expensive software process in and of itself. While it's unrealistic to expect to completely eradicate all testing from a project, their severity may be mitigated. It is possible to predict where bugs may appear in software using a method known as software defect prediction (SDP). The goal of each software development project should be to provide a bugfree product. Predicting where bugs may appear in code, often known as software defect prediction (SDP), is an important part of fixing software. Software of a high calibre should have few bugs. A software metric is a quantitative or qualitative evaluation of some aspect of the programme or its requirements. One of the more recent population-based algorithms, Cuckoo Search (CS) was inspired by the flight patterns of some cuckoo species as well as the Lévy flying patterns of other birds and fruit flies. The needs for international convergence are met by CS. KNN is a significant non-parameter supervised learning technique. This paper presents an overview of Stochastic Diffusion Search (SDS) in the form of a social metaphor to illustrate the processes by which SDS allots resources. The best-fit pattern identification and matching difficulties were addressed by SDS using a novel probabilistic method. As a multiagent population-based global search and optimization method, SDS is a distributed model of computing that makes use of interaction amongst basic agents. The behaviour of SDS is described by studying its resource allocation, convergence to global optimum, resilience, minimum convergence criterion, and linear time complexity within a rigorous mathematical framework, setting it apart from many nature-inspired search algorithms. This paper proposes a hybrid optimization strategy based on CSSDS techniques. By using the global search strategy solution of the SDS algorithm, this hybridization idea aims to enhance the cuckoo bird's search strategy for the optimum host nest. To that end, the SDS method would be used to place the cuckoo egg in the most advantageous location. When compared to other classifiers, PC2's improved performance may be attributed to its higher recall values. When compared to the Naive Bayes and Radial Bias Neural Network classifiers, the KNN performs 7.64% and 2.20% better, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the realm of cloud computing, ensuring the dependability and robustness of software systems is paramount. The intricate and evolving nature of cloud infrastructures, however, presents substantial obstacles in the pre-emptive identification and rectification of software anomalies. This study introduces an innovative methodology that amalgamates hybrid optimization algorithms with Neural Networks (NN) to refine the prediction of software malfunctions. The core objective is to augment the purity metric of our method across diverse operational conditions. This is accomplished through the utilization of two distinct optimization algorithms: the Yellow Saddle Goat Fish Algorithm (YSGA), which is instrumental in the discernment of pivotal features linked to software failures, and the Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA), which further polishes the feature compilation. These features are then processed by Neural Networks (NN), capitalizing on their proficiency in deciphering intricate data patterns and interconnections. The NNs are integral to the classification of instances predicated on the ascertained features. Our evaluation, conducted using the Failure-Dataset-OpenStack database and MATLAB Software, demonstrates that the hybrid optimization strategy employed for feature selection significantly curtails complexity and expedites processing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial part of the software development cycle is software maintenance. The demands included in the software management are fault fixes and request to change or bring a new feature. If priority is not given to these demands, then it may lead to customer dissatisfaction, inefficient planning, and software failure as well. Therefore, it is important to study the severity of the bug reports to maintain the efficiency of the software. Various research has been conducted in the past to predict the severity of the paper using text mining focusing only on the content of the bug reports. The sentiment of the user while reporting a bug also plays a vital role. In this study, we will be focusing on two aspects, that is, sentiment and content to improve the prediction. We propose a prediction model based on LDA to study the content aspect and emotion analysis to study the sentiment aspect. The model is validated on the datasets collected from the Eclipse project using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The results show that the CNN model effectively utilizes the content and sentiment aspect of the data to handle the severity prediction. CNN has weight sharing feature that decreases the number of parameters used for training. It also improves generalization and overfitting is avoided The Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F‐measure are improved when both aspects are taken into account rather than considering only content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better address mechanical behavior, it is necessary to make use of modern tools through which it is possible to run predictions, simulate scenarios, and optimize decisions. sources integration. This will increase the capability of detecting material modifications that forerun damage and/or to forecast the stage in the future when very likely fatigue is initiating and propagating cracks. Early warning outcomes obtained by the synergetic implementation of NDE-based protocols for studying mechanical and fatigue and fracture behavior will enhance the preparedness toward economically sustainable future damage control scenarios. Specifically, these early warning outcomes will be developed in the form of retopologized models to be used coupled with FEA. This paper presents the first stage of calibration and the combination of a system of different sensors (photogrammetry, laser scanning and strain gages) for the creation of volumetric models suitable for the prediction of failure of FEA software. The test objects were two components of car suspension to which strain gauges were attached to measure its deformation under cyclic loading. The calibration of the methodology was carried out using models obtained from photogrammetry and experimental strain gauge measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MECH-Gcomp was developed as web-based free software to aid in learning and to help researchers and industry professionals in failure analysis of composite materials. The software is already well-established for the study of micromechanics and has extended to other fields. This work focuses on one of its newest modules, related to the failure analysis of composite laminae, for which thirteen different failure criteria were implemented, along with an important tool for the construction of failure envelopes. The programming and characteristics of this module are presented and discussed. In addition, jute/polyester composites were manufactured and tested under different stress states to verify the software predictions. The root-mean-square error ranged from 0.096 to a maximum of 0.545, and most of the analyzed criteria yielded reasonable agreement compared to the experimental data. A significant variation in predictions among the criteria could be clearly observed, especially based on the produced failure envelopes for the different stress states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of applications in distributed environments have a linear structure, varying priorities, and may experience transient software failures. As the computational demands of such linear workflow (LW) jobs continue to grow, their efficient, fair, and fault-tolerant resource allocation and scheduling is becoming more challenging. To address this problem, we propose a fair and efficient scheduling approach, which considers that the priorities of the jobs age with time. We jointly use this scheduling strategy with three practical routing techniques, as well as two variants of an application-directed checkpointing scheme. The first variant of this scheme incorporates imprecise computations in a selective manner, whereas the second one does not use imprecise computations at all. Our aim is to dynamically allocate and schedule LW jobs with different priorities and transient software failures in a distributed system. Through extensive experimentation, we evaluate the system performance under the considered routing methods and checkpointing schemes, utilizing various load cases and failure probabilities. The simulation results showcase the impact of selective imprecise computations on the system performance, while providing insights into how the examined routing strategies perform in each of the investigated scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project risk management which has been rarely considered, especially in software projects, is a crucial process to complete projects successfully. This paper aims to propose a novel project risk management framework both to evaluate the project risks and to predict the success or failure of software projects based on their risk. This new framework uses Machine Learning (ML) and Multi-Attribute Decision-Making under a cloud model to effectively manage uncertainty. Based on the proposed framework, in the first stage, the important risks of the software projects are identified by an organized approach. Then, the risks are evaluated based on their probability and impacts on time, cost, and quality. In the second stage, the obtained results of the previous stage are entered into a new COPRAS method under the cloud model to rank the risks. Then, the risks are classified into various groups according to their rank. It helps project managers to gain a profound awareness of their high-priority project risks. In this paper, data on risks for fifty software projects has been collected. All the steps of the second stage are implemented on these projects in order to assess their risks. As a result, a data set whose features are nine types of software project risks and the label of success or failure of the projects is created. To recognize the pattern between risks' values and the success or failure of the projects, various efficient ML algorithms such as Naive Bayes, Logistic regression, Decision Tree, Bagging, Random Forest, and AdaBoost are applied. This framework can predict the success or failure of software projects based on their risks with good accuracy. The results depict that the Naive Bayes algorithm has the best results compared to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definition: Space exploration has become an integral part of modern society, and since its early days in the 1960s, software has grown in importance, becoming indispensable for spaceflight. However, software is boon and bane: while it enables unprecedented functionality and cost reductions and can even save spacecraft, its importance and fragility also make it a potential Achilles heel for critical systems. Throughout the history of spaceflight, numerous accidents with significant detrimental impacts on mission objectives and safety have been attributed to software, although unequivocal attribution is sometimes difficult. In this Entry, we examine over two dozen software-related mishaps in spaceflight from a software engineering perspective, focusing on major incidents and not claiming completeness. This Entry article contextualizes the role of software in space exploration and aims to preserve the lessons learned from these mishaps. Such knowledge is crucial for ensuring future success in space endeavors. Finally, we explore prospects for the increasingly software-dependent future of spaceflight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming increasingly common for software to operate in various environments. However, even if the software performs well in the test phase, uncertain operating environments may cause new software failures. Traditional proposed software reliability models under uncertain operating environments suffer from the problem of being well-suited to special cases due to the large number of assumptions involved. To improve these problems, this study proposes a new software reliability model that assumes an uncertain operating environment. The new software reliability model is a model that minimizes assumptions and minimizes the number of parameters that make up the model, so that the model can be applied to general situations better than the traditional proposed software reliability models. In addition, various criteria based on the difference between the predicted and estimated values have been used in the past to demonstrate the superiority of the software reliability models. Also, we propose a new multi-criteria decision method that can simultaneously consider multiple goodness-of-fit criteria. The multi-criteria decision method using ranking is useful for comprehensive evaluation because it does not rely on individual criteria alone by ranking and weighting multiple criteria for the model. Based on this, 21 existing models are compared with the proposed model using two datasets, and the proposed model is found to be superior for both datasets using 15 criteria and the multi-criteria decision method using ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuing development of autonomous vehicle technology is making the presence of fully autonomous vehicles (SAE Level 5 of Driving Automation) on the road an ever more likely possibility. Similarly, regulation changes show countries are preparing for autonomous vehicles to increase their presence on public roads for both testing and use after sale. With this in mind, solutions to the problem of disengagement from the autonomous driving system by Level 5 vehicles, due to damage, operation outside of expected parameters or software failure among other reasons are being investigated including remote operation. This research aims to give evidence for the inclusion of remote operation into the autonomous driving and define the types of remote operation that may occur from existing literature. The four types of remote operation are Remote Monitoring, Remote Assistance, Remote Management and Remote Driving. Operator sequence diagrams are used to evaluate these types of remote operation in likely scenarios they may occur and draw conclusions about the role and the tasks the operator will be required to complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flying Ad hoc Networks have emerged as a promising technology for number of real-time applications. However, the flexible and unstructured characteristics of these networks make them vulnerable to security threats posed by malicious nodes, such as denial of service attacks, node impersonation, and information breaches. Another major issue is the consideration of those nodes being unable to prove their trustworthiness due to factors like hardware or software failure, or by link interruptions, during the processing of detection of false nodes in the network. The existing mechanisms encompassing encryption, authentication, and intrusion detection highlight limitations to secure real-time applications and services due to the high speed of flying nodes and the absence of fixed network structures. To overcome these constraints, this research paper incorporates a novel framework for evaluating and improving the security of network by introducing an innovative cluster-based approach. Moreover, it presents a fuzzy model that dynamically estimates the trust levels of both individual nodes and clusters, by assigning weight to the parameters to address vulnerabilities. Additionally, a trust reconfiguration mechanism is further proposed to address the issue of nodes unable to substantiate their trust by providing them with additional chances based on the collective trust from previous evaluations. Further, the paper incorporates a dynamic reputation system to proficiently identify and separate malicious and selfish nodes from the network. Simulation results indicate a significant improvement in performance metrics, with a considerable reduction in delay and drop ratio by 41.46% and 36.37%, respectively, while the sufficient rise of 54.71% and 46.05% in throughput and coverage, respectively, comparing with the considered state-of-art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose stochastic scheme models with two kinds of errors for a computer system. A highly reliable computer system needs greatly to be backed up successfully in case of computer system crashes due to hardware failures and malicious software infections. We aim to determine appropriate backup times in computer processing of constant and random tasks. For this purpose, the trade-off between backup times and data losses due to errors is considered. The total execution times until the computing processing completes are obtained, and optimal backup policies to minimize them are derived analytically. Furthermore, we take up extended models of random tasks with n sub-tasks and analyze them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software engineers widely acknowledge the inclusion of security requirements in the early stages of the development process. However, the need to prepare the software for the failure of the implemented security controls and subsequent investigation of the incident is often not discussed. Forensic‐ready software systems represent an evolution of secure systems being designed for the eventual digital forensic investigation. However, their exact properties remain largely unexplored, beyond preliminary high‐level conceptualizations of requirements and capabilities. Further obstacles hindering the adoption of forensic‐ready software systems are the different priorities and goals of involved parties and a gap in the digital forensics expertise of software engineers. In this paper, we conduct an empirical qualitative study identifying the problems and needs of forensic readiness while framing the notion of an ideal forensic‐ready software system and how it should treat potential evidence. To this end, we conducted semisupervised interviews with digital forensics experts on their idea, experience, and suggestions. The results provide insights into the needs of the experts to facilitate the definition of correct requirements towards forensic‐ready software systems to support the anticipated investigations properly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In risk and safety assessments of aviation systems, engineers generally pay more attention to the risks of hardware or software failure and focus less on the risks caused by human errors. In this paper, a (FRAHE) method is proposed for identifying this critical error type and determining the risk severity of human errors. This method accounts for the human error probability as well as the impacts of human errors on the system. The fuzzy inference approach is employed in this paper to address the uncertainty and issues of imprecision that arise from insufficient information and scarce error data and a risk assessment model of human error is developed. The model can be used to precisely describe the relationship between the output risk severity and the input risk indicators, including the human error probability, the error impact probability, and the human error consequence. A case study of the approach task is presented to demonstrate the availability and reasonability of the model. The risk-based modeling method can not only provide valuable information for reducing the occurrence of critical errors but also be used to conduct prospective analyses to prevent unsafe incidents or aviation accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasingly large and complex network brings convenience to our life and production, but it also brings potential dangers. Any minor vulnerability may lead to failure of application software configuration, software maintenance, user management and system management. Eventually, our network is interrupted, and even life and production data are leaked. Therefore, establishing a scientific and effective network security evaluation model is an effective way to supervise, manage and improve network security; It is also an effective measure to reduce the loss of life and production. Therefore, we first selected six factors closely related to network security to form a complete network security evaluation index system. Then, the utility function in the traditional measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) method is improved by using the value function in cumulative prospect theory (CPT), and a PDHL-MARCOS evaluation model that can reflect the decision-makers' (DMs') attitudes towards gains and losses is obtained in the probabilistic double hierarchy linguistic term set (PDHLTS). In addition, the relative entropy (RE) method is also used to obtain expert weights. The combination weights of attributes are obtained using the correlation coefficient and the standard deviation (CCSD) method and the weight function in CPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents Bayesian techniques for conservative claims about software reliability, particularly when evidence suggests the software's executions are not statistically independent. We formalise informal notions of "doubting" that the executions are independent, and incorporate such doubts into reliability assessments. We develop techniques that reveal the extent to which independence assumptions can undermine conservatism in assessments, and identify conditions under which this impact is not significant. These techniques – novel extensions of conservative Bayesian inference (CBI) approaches – give conservative confidence bounds on the software's failure probability per execution. With illustrations in two application areas – nuclear power‐plant safety and autonomous vehicle (AV) safety – our analyses reveals: (1) the confidence an assessor should possess before subjecting a system to operational testing. Otherwise, such testing is futile – favourable operational testing evidence will eventually decrease one's confidence in the system being sufficiently reliable; (2) the independence assumption supports conservative claims sometimes; (3) in some scenarios, observing a system operate without failure gives less confidence in the system than if some failures had been observed; (4) building confidence in a system is very sensitive to failures – each additional failure means significantly more operational testing is required, in order to support a reliability claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current technological era, the reliability growth model depicts the failure in software that is employed for estimating the reliability of software. Conventional software reliability growth model (SRGMs) usually presume that faults in software are immediately corrected once a software fault is found and no new faults are introduced. This consideration can be impractical. However, introduction of several new faults is possible throughout debugging, which is called imperfect debugging. During such a process of debugging and introduction of new faults, consumption of testing effort also plays an important role. Hence, in this paper, two models are proposed that incorporate testing effort along with imperfect debugging during fault correction. Additionally, the combined testing effort is the addition of two efforts, specifically detection effort as well as correction effort. The formulated models are validated for real data set and contrasted with additional famous SRGMs. These inferences indicate that Model 2 performs best in terms of fitting and prediction capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software reliability engineering has been developed to examine software systems over the years. Non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models are widely employed for analyzing software reliability data, as they have the ability to describe the expected number of failures over time using the mean value function. In addition, these models have an intensity function representing the failure rate over time. This article proposes a new non-homogeneous Poisson process model based on extended log-logistic (NHPP ELL) distribution with three parameters. The model properties were derived and represented graphically. Furthermore, the maximum likelihood estimation method was utilized to estimate the model parameters, which were computed numerically using the Newton–Raphson method. Three real software reliability datasets were utilized to evaluate the performance of the new NHPP ELL model based on three distinct criteria: the mean square error, the coefficient of determination (R2), the Theil statistic, the predictive-ratio risk, and the predictive power. Moreover, a comparative study was conducted between the proposed model and several well-known NHPP models regarding goodness-of-fit and predictive performance. All the evaluation measures indicate that the proposed model outperforms the other models across all the considered datasets. In addition, the graphical plots depicting the actual data and the prediction results for all the fitted models show that the proposed model performs well in all three considered software reliability datasets compared to other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biometric technology, founded on recognizing distinctive individual features, enhances identification and automation, yielding personal and institutional benefits. This literature review employs the Kitchenham and Charters methodology to analyze recent perspectives on biometric technology in educational time and attendance. The analysis identifies benefits, such as preventing impersonation and enhancing data security, but emphasizes concerns about biometric alterations and hardware/software failures hindering optimal outcomes. A noteworthy trend is adopting a bimodal behavioral approach in biometric technologies in education. The study recommends research avenues focusing on privacy safeguards, biometric system robustness, and technological resilience. Beyond mere identification, a shift towards quantitative and descriptive methods is proposed, guiding future research. The results underscore the importance of a multimodal approach and stringent security measures to address biometric system vulnerabilities. Future exploration should consider integrating emerging technologies to enhance system resilience and data protection, providing a comprehensive guide for refining and expanding biometric technology applications in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Search-based software testing (SBST) typically relies on fitness functions to guide the search exploration toward software failures. There are two main techniques to define fitness functions: (a) automated fitness function computation from the specification of the system requirements, and (b) manual fitness function design. Both techniques have advantages. The former uses information from the system requirements to guide the search toward portions of the input domain more likely to contain failures. The latter uses the engineers' domain knowledge. We propose ATheNA, a novel SBST framework that combines fitness functions automatically generated from requirements specifications and those manually defined by engineers. We design and implement ATheNA-S, an instance of ATheNA that targets Simulink® models. We evaluate ATheNA-S by considering a large set of models from different domains. Our results show that ATheNA-S generates more failure-revealing test cases than existing baseline tools and that the difference between the runtime performance of ATheNA-S and the baseline tools is not statistically significant. We also assess whether ATheNA-S could generate failure-revealing test cases when applied to two representative case studies: one from the automotive domain and one from the medical domain. Our results show that ATheNA-S successfully revealed a requirement violation in our case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software bugs are a noteworthy concern for developers and maintainers. When a failure is detected late, it costs more to be fixed. To repair the bug that caused the software failure, the location of the bug must first be known. The process of finding the defective source code elements that led to the failure of the software is called bug localization. Effective approaches for automatically locating bugs using bug reports are highly desirable, as they would reduce bug-fixing time, consequently lowering software maintenance costs. With the increasing size and complexity of software projects, manual bug localization methods have become complex, challenging, and time-consuming tasks, which motivates research on automated bug localization techniques. This paper introduces a novel bug localization model, which works on two levels. The first level localizes the buggy classes using an information retrieval approach and it has two additional sub-phases, namely the class-level feature scoring phase and the class-level final score and ranking phase, which ranks the top buggy classes. The second level localizes the buggy methods inside these classes using an information retrieval approach and it has two sub-phases, which are the method-level feature scoring phase and the method-level final score and ranking phase, which ranks the top buggy methods inside the localized classes. A model is evaluated using an AspectJ dataset, and it can correctly localize and rank more than 350 classes and more than 136 methods. The evaluation results show that the proposed model outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches in terms of the mean reciprocal rank (MRR) metrics and the mean average precision (MAP) in class-level bug localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous sensor nodes make up a wireless sensor network. Sensor nodes work together to send information about the environment to the base station. Nodes are susceptible to failure during these operations due to power failure, hardware or software failure, etc.. Consequently, delivering dependable packages necessitates achieving two important objectives: energy efficiency and minimized error rate. A novel approach is proposed to distribute the workload among each sensor node to accomplish these objectives. When estimating the scope of communication between nodes, uncertainties are dealt with using the fuzzy logic method. During some weather hazards, the features and cables are particularly challenging to monitor with simple devices in the WAN area. Remote sensing units are used to check and display the feature conditions to resolve this issue. Using machine learning algorithms, the collected data will be analyzed and processed to create a prediction horizon that will be useful for environmental studies and early warning systems. The MatLab2020b simulation program, which has useful tools and learning applications, will be used to carry out this task. The FIS algorithm obtained a cost distance of just 629 m out of the total WSN sensor lengths of 2600 m, which is the best cost among all implemented routing protocol techniques in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defective modules that cause software execution failures are common in large software projects. Source code for a significant number of modules may be found in several software repositories. This software repository includes each module's software metrics and the module's faulty status. Software companies face a considerable problem detecting defects in sizeable and complex programming code. In addition, many international reports, such as the comprehensive human appraisal for originating (CHAOS) report, have mentioned that there are countless reasons for the failure of software projects, including the inability to detect errors and defects in the programming code of those projects at an early stage. This research employs a statistical analysis technique to reveal the characteristics that indicate the faulty status of software modules. It is recommended that statistical analysis models derived from the retrieved information be merged with existing project metrics and bug data to improve prediction. When all algorithms are merged with weighted votes, the results indicate enhanced prediction abilities. The proposed statistical analysis outperforms the state-of-the-art method (association rule, decision tree, Naive Bayes, and neural network) in terms of accuracy by 9.1%, 10.3%, 13.1%, and 13.1%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software quality assurance relies heavily on software reliability as one of its primary metrics. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the software reliability. Improved software dependability may be studied using a triangular approach that includes software modeling, measurement, and improvement. Each of these steps is critical to the development of a solid software system. Improved accuracy in calculating dependability is critical to managing the quality of software. It has been discovered that deep learning algorithms are excellent methods of assessing many aspects of software dependability. Software systems contain distinct characteristics that can be addressed using deep learning techniques. In this study, a deep-learning-based bidirectional attention-based Zeiler-Fergus convolutional neural network (BA-ZFCNN) technique has been suggested to assess software dependability. In the beginning, the data were standardized by using the scalable error splash method. This approach was then used to extract the software fault-related characteristics using hypertuned evolutionary salp swarm optimization (HESSO). Finally, the Zeiler-Fergus convolutional neural network based on bidirectional attention (BA-ZFCNN) may be used to assess software dependability. The suggested method is used to forecast how many defects or failures there are in a software product. AR1 software defect data is widely used to test the effectiveness of deep learning and traditional machine learning methods. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method's accuracy (96.7%) is higher than the current techniques' accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development encompasses various factors beyond technical considerations. Neglecting non-technical elements like individuals, processes, culture, and social and organizational aspects can lead to debt-like characteristics that demand attention. Therefore, we introduce the non-technical debt (NTD) concept to encompass and explore these aspects. This indicates the applicability of the debt analogy to non-technical facets of software development. Technical debt (TD) and NTD share similarities and often arise from risky decision-making processes, impacting both software development professionals and software quality. Overlooking either type of debt can lead to significant implications for software development success. The current study conducts a comprehensive multivocal literature review (MLR) to explore the most recent research on NTD, its causes, and potential mitigation strategies. For analysis, we carefully selected 40 primary studies among 110 records published until October 1, 2022. The study investigates the factors contributing to the accumulation of NTD in software development and proposes strategies to alleviate the adverse effects associated with it. This MLR offers a contemporary overview and identifies prospects for further investigation, making a valuable contribution to the field. The findings of this research highlight that NTD’s impacts extend beyond monetary aspects, setting it apart from TD. Furthermore, the findings reveal that rectifying NTD is more challenging than addressing TD, and its consequences contribute to the accumulation of TD. To avert software project failures, a comprehensive approach that addresses NTD and TD concurrently is crucial. Effective communication and coordination play a vital role in mitigating NTD, and the study proposes utilizing the 3C model as a recommended framework to tackle NTD concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foundation of a large river crossing bridge is often located on high and steep slopes in mountainous area, and the stability of the slope has a significant impact on the safety of the bridge. Not only the bridge load, but also the hydro-dynamical action in the reservoir area has a significant impact on the stability of the bank slope where the bridge foundation is located, especially for the toppling bank slope. This paper takes the stability of the toppling bank slope where the one major bridge foundation is located at on the Lancang River in China as an example. Through on-site exploration, drilling data and core conditions, and television images of the borehole, the geological structure of the on-site bank slope were conducted. Based on the development of the dumping body obtained from on-site exploration, corresponding indicators have been proposed from the perspectives of rock inclination, deformation, and rock quality to clarify the degree of dumping along the depth of the bank slope. The failure mechanism of the overturned bank slope under the action of a bridge was analyzed from a mechanical perspective. Numerical simulations were conducted using GeoStudio 2018:SEEP/W and FLAC3D 6.0 software to analyze the failure modes of bridge loads and hydrodynamic forces under different water levels and rainfall conditions. The seepage field characteristics, failure modes, and stability characteristics were analyzed from a two-dimensional perspective, while the displacement characteristics, plastic zone, and stress–strain characteristics were explored from a three-dimensional perspective, which revealed the evolution mode of overturned deformation under the action of bridge foundation loads. Finally, the stability of the wide slope was numerically calculated using the strength reduction method, and the stability calculation data was combined with the numerical simulation results to determine the optimal location of the bridge foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which is used in Industrial Internet of Things, uses a controller as its "network brain" located at the control plane. This uniquely distinguishes it from the traditional networking paradigms because it provides a global view of the entire network. In SDN, the controller can become a single point of failure, which may cause the whole network service to be compromised. Also, data packet transmission between controllers and switches could be impaired by natural disasters, causing hardware malfunctioning or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Thus, SDN controllers are vulnerable to both hardware and software failures. To overcome this single point of failure in SDN, this paper proposes an attack-aware logical link assignment (AALLA) mathematical model with the ultimate aim of restoring the SDN network by using logical link assignment from switches to the cluster (backup) controllers. We formulate the AALLA model in integer linear programming (ILP), which restores the disrupted SDN network availability by assigning the logical links to the cluster (backup) controllers. More precisely, given a set of switches that are managed by the controller(s), this model simultaneously determines the optimal cost for controllers, links, and switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysian public sectors have invested billions in digitizing systems. Electronic government efforts created much software. Our informal interview taught us that many software projects encountered delays, and several failed. One of the main contributions of software failure is ambiguity in requirements specification (RS). Ambiguity is a familiar requirement smell that causes misinterpretation. Thus, we seek to devise a technique for detecting and improving ambiguous RS in the Malaysian public sector. One of our challenges is that the Malaysian public sector RS is developed in Malay, and most available techniques support English and other major languages. Hence, this paper investigates the automated and semi-automated techniques to detect and improve ambiguous RS. Following the standard guidelines for systematic mapping, review, snowballing, and quality assessment, we studied works from 2010 to 2022 on ambiguity detection and improvement techniques. We chose 42 articles as primary studies from 2,549. As a result, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) are the most promising techniques for automated and semi-automated ambiguous detection models. Furthermore, the ambiguous improvement technique began using deep learning (DL) in 2019. However, most proposed tools are still in the validation phase and are not widely employed, implying that tool development and validation research are progressing slowly. Apart from the generic linguistic context of RS, some research focuses on industrial domain-based RS. Our study shows that additional strategies have been developed to overcome RS-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of computer software system is inevitable and it is important to analyze the performance of the system. It is equally important to consider the cost factor that occurs during repair. This paper models malware infected system and analyzes its behavior using a hybrid technique. A likelihood estimation is used for filtering malwares and improving the performance of the system. A discrete-time single server retrial queue with two types of arrivals is modeled to address infected system characteristics. A request which is originally legitimate known as the positive arrival, who finds the host free gets instant service; otherwise it joins the buffer. The malware (request) which is not detected by the filter known as the negative arrival will lead to the breakdown of the server, irrespective of the fact that the server is idle or busy. Further, it is assumed that suspicious request has no impact on the system when the server is under repair. Once the server is affected by suspicious request, it is sent for repair immediately. The retrial, service, and repair times are arbitrarily distributed. Performance characteristics such as mean buffer size, mean waiting time have been obtained. The reliability measures such as server availability, failure frequency, probability of packet lost, reliability of the underlying queueing system have also been derived. A cost model has been developed. The efficacy of filtering method and its level of accuracy have been demonstrated experimentally. The infected system has been detected from the performance measures and reliability metrics. A comparative study with and without filtering has been discussed numerically. The optimum cost analysis has also been presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has prompted various industries to embark on digital transformation efforts, with software playing a critical role. Ensuring the reliability of software is of the utmost importance given its widespread use across multiple industries. For example, software has extensive applications in areas such as transportation, aviation, and military systems, where reliability problems can result in personal injuries and significant financial losses. Numerous studies have focused on software reliability. In particular, the software reliability growth model has served as a prominent tool for measuring software reliability. Previous studies have often assumed that the testing environment is representative of the operating environment and that software failures occur independently. However, the testing and operating environments can differ, and software failures can sometimes occur dependently. In this study, we propose a new model that assumes uncertain operating environments and dependent failures. In other words, the model proposed in this study takes into account a wider range of environments. The numerical examples in this study demonstrate that the goodness of fit of the new model is significantly better than that of the existing SRGM. Additionally, we show the utilization of the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) based on the new model to assess the reliability of the dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of most modern software systems is accompanied by a significant level of uncertainty, which can be attributed to the unanticipated activities that may occur throughout the software development process. As these modern software systems become more complex and drawn out, escalating software project failure rates have become a critical concern. These unforeseeable uncertainties are known as software risks, and they emerge from many risk factors inherent to the numerous activities comprising the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Consequently, these software risks have resulted in massive revenue losses for software organizations. Hence, it is imperative to address these software risks, to curb future software system failures. The subjective risk assessment (SRM) method is regarded as a viable solution to software risk problems. However, it is inherently reliant on humans and, therefore, in certain situations, imprecise, due to its dependence on an expert's knowledge and experience. In addition, the SRM does not allow repeatability, as expertise is not easily exchanged across the different units working on a software project. Developing intelligent modelling methods that may offer more unbiased, reproducible, and explainable decision-making assistance in risk management is crucial. Hence, this research proposes enhanced fuzzy induction models for software requirement risk prediction. Specifically, the fuzzy unordered rule induction algorithm (FURIA), and its enhanced variants based on nested subset selection dichotomies, are developed for software requirement risk prediction. The suggested fuzzy induction models are based on the use of effective rule-stretching methods for the prediction process. Additionally, the proposed FURIA method is enhanced through the introduction of nested subset selection dichotomy concepts into its prediction process. The prediction performances of the proposed models are evaluated using a benchmark dataset, and are then compared with existing machine learning (ML)-based and rule-based software risk prediction models. From the experimental results, it was observed that the FURIA performed comparably, in most cases, to the rule-based and ML-based models. However, the FURIA nested dichotomy variants were superior in performance to the conventional FURIA method, and rule-based and ML-based methods, with the least accuracy, area under the curve (AUC), and Mathew's correlation coefficient (MCC), with values of approximately 98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software debugging is the process of detecting and removing bugs during software development. Although the intent of modifications to the software is to remove bugs, one cannot rule out the possibility of introducing new bugs as a result of these modifications. We consider a self‐exciting point process, which can incorporate the case of reliability deterioration due to the potential introduction of new bugs to the software during the development phase. In order to account for the unobservable process of introducing bugs, latent variables are incorporated into the self‐exciting point process models. The models are then applied to two data sets in software reliability and additional insights that can be obtained from these models are discussed. Our results suggest that the self‐exciting processes with latent factors perform better than the standard point process models in describing the behavior of software failures during the debugging process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although there exist various reliability assessment models, many of these models did not consider the temporal incorrectness, incompatibilities and dependencies between hardware and software. Also, many models did not consider the hardware changes, software changes and hardware changes leading to software changes resulting in system failure. Thus, an approach that considers various aspects like pure software failures, pure hardware failures, software change, hardware change, hardware change leading to software change and incompatibility issues between hardware and software components (in the presence of temporal incorrectness) leading to the failure of non-repairable time-critical heterogeneous software systems has been developed. This approach considers the operation of the hardware–software system, both in normal (non-degraded) and degraded modes. The proposed approach was applied to a time-critical stepper motor system, results were obtained and a case study was performed. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been analyzed by comparing the results obtained from the proposed approach with the results obtained from the other existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major challenge is to validate software failure dataset by finding unknown model parameters used. For software assurance, previously many attempts were made based using classical classifiers as decision tree, Naïve Bayes, and k‐nearest neighbor for software fault prediction. But the accuracy of fault prediction is very low as defect prone modules are very small as compared to defect‐free modules. So, for solving modules fault classification problems and enhancing reliability accuracy, a hybrid algorithm proposed on particle swarm optimization and modified genetic algorithm for feature selection and bagging for effective classification of defective or nondefective modules in a dataset. This paper presents an empirical study on National Aeronautics and Space Administration Metric Data Program datasets, using the proposed hybrid algorithm and results showed that our proposed hybrid approach enhances the classification accuracy compared with existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of software failures, software reliability, and failure rates can be measured and predicted by the software reliability growth model (SRGM). SRGM is developed and tested in a controlled environment where the operating environment is different. Many SRGMs have developed, assuming that the working and developing environments are the same. In this paper, we have developed a new SRGM incorporating the imperfect debugging and testing coverage function. The proposed model's parameters are estimated from two real datasets and compared with some existing SRGMs based on five goodness-of-fit criteria. The results show that the proposed model gives better descriptive and predictive performance than the existing selected models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Requirement prioritization (RP) is a crucial task in managing requirements as it determines the order of implementation and, thus, the delivery of a software system. Improper RP may cause software project failures due to over budget and schedule as well as a low-quality product. Several factors influence RP. One of which is requirements dependency. Handling inappropriate handling of requirements dependencies can lead to software development failures. If a requirement that serves as a prerequisite for other requirements is given low priority, it affects the overall project completion time. Despite its importance, little is known about requirements dependency in RP, particularly its impacts, types, and techniques. This study, therefore, aims to understand the phenomenon by analyzing the existing literature. It addresses three objectives, namely, to investigate the impacts of requirements dependency on RP, to identify different types of requirements dependency, and to discover the techniques used for requirements dependency problems in RP. To fulfill the objectives, this study adopts the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method. Applying the SLR protocol, this study selected forty primary articles, which comprise 58% journal papers, 32% conference proceedings, and 10% book sections. The results of data synthesis indicate that requirements dependency has significant impacts on RP, and there are a number of requirements dependency types as well as techniques for addressing requirements dependency problems in RP. This research discovered various techniques employed, including the use of Graphs for RD visualization, Machine Learning for handling large-scale RP, decision making for multi-criteria handling, and optimization techniques utilizing evolutionary algorithms. The study also reveals that the existing techniques have encountered serious limitations in terms of scalability, time consumption, interdependencies of requirements, and limited types of requirement dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]