Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper a strategy is proposed for compressing the test data while using concurrent hybrid-BIST methodologyfor testing SoCs. In the proposed method, in addition tousing BIST strategy for testing cores with deterministic sequential test patterns in an SoC( Without using scan chains), (ATE) is used for testing cores with deterministic test patterns through Test Access Mechanism (TAM) or functional bus. As will be shown in experimental results, this process compresses hybrid-BIST overall test patterns considerably that affects the overall Test Application Time (TAT) in comparison with pure deterministic, pure pseudo random, and combination of deterministic and pseudo random test patterns  

Quality is one of the most important issues in the context of agile and lightweight methodologies. These methodologies recommend automated testing as the main method for quality assurance; however, they are plagued with several deficiencies in this regard, including complex and difficult-to-maintain test case scripts. Model-based testing is an approach for automating the test creation process through replacing individual test-case design with abstract models. In this paper, we explore a set of patterns based on current methods used in model-based testing which can be used to ameliorate the abovementioned deficiencies in agile/lightweight methodologies. We then demonstrate how these patterns... 

In software testing, different metrics are proposed to predict and compare test suites effectiveness. In this regard, Mutation Score (MS) is one of most accurate metrics. However, calculating MS needs executing test suites many times and it is not commonly used in industry. On the other hand, Line Coverage (LC) is a widely used metric which is calculated by executing test suites only once, although it is not as accurate as MS in terms of predicting and comparing test suites effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a novel test coverage metric, called Program State Coverage (PSC), which improves the accuracy of LC. PSC works almost the same as LC and it can be calculated by executing test... 

Oil contamination can affect the mechanical and physical properties of soil, making its reuse a challenge. In the present study, the effect of kerosene contamination on two types of poorly graded sand (S1 and S2) was investigated. Geotechnical tests for compaction, direct shear and constant head permeability were conducted. The compaction test revealed that dry density increased at a 3% and 6% kerosene content for S1 and S2 soil, respectively. A further increase in kerosene content caused the dry density to decrease for both S1 and S2. The optimum moisture content of kerosene-contaminated soil samples decreased. The direct shear test showed that kerosene contamination increased cohesion and... 

Predictive mutation testing (PMT) is a technique to predict whether a mutant is killed, using machine learning approaches. Researchers have proposed various methods for PMT over the years. However, the impact of unreached mutants on PMT is not fully addressed. A mutant is unreached if the statement on which the mutant is generated is not executed by any test cases. We aim at showing that unreached mutants can inflate PMT results. Moreover, we propose an alternative approach to PMT, suggesting a different interpretation for PMT. To this end, we replicated the previous PMT research. We empirically evaluated the suggested approach on 654 Java projects provided by prior literature. Our results... 

Predictive mutation testing (PMT) is a technique to predict whether a mutant is killed, using machine learning approaches. Researchers have proposed various methods for PMT over the years. However, the impact of unreached mutants on PMT is not fully addressed. A mutant is unreached if the statement on which the mutant is generated is not executed by any test cases. We aim at showing that unreached mutants can inflate PMT results. Moreover, we propose an alternative approach to PMT, suggesting a different interpretation for PMT. To this end, we replicated the previous PMT research. We empirically evaluated the suggested approach on 654 Java projects provided by prior literature. Our results... 

This paper proposes a high-level test generation method which considers the control part as well as data path of a register transfer level circuit as a set of polynomial functions to generate behavioral test patterns from faulty behavior instead of comparing the faulty and fault-free circuits based on a hybrid Boolean-word canonical representation called Horner expansion diagram. Since this set of polynomial functions express primary outputs and next states with respect to primary inputs and present states, it is not necessary to perform justification/propagation phase which leads to a minimum number of backtracks. It improves fault coverage and reduces test generation time over logic-level... 

Reusing test cases across similar applications can significantly reduce testing effort. Some recent test reuse approaches successfully exploit word embedding models to semantically match GUI events across Android apps. It is a common understanding that word embedding models trained on domain-specific corpora perform better on specialized tasks. Our recent study confirms this understanding in the context of Android test reuse. It shows that word embedding models trained with a corpus of the English descriptions of apps in the Google Play Store lead to a better semantic matching of Android GUI events. Motivated by this result, we hypothesize that we can further increase the effectiveness of... 

The Next Bit Test briefly states that a sequence is random if and only if, given any i bits of the sequence, it is not possible to predict the next bit of the sequence with a probability of success significantly greater than 1/2. In 1996, Sadeghiyan and Mohajeri proposed a so-called "new universal test for bit strings", based on the theoretical next bit test. In this paper, we study different aspects of this test and show its weakness. Then, we improve it both theoretically and practically for better classification of the sequences. As a result, a Practical Next Bit (PNB) test is introduced in two Global and Local versions and a histogram, which gives an impression of the global evaluation... 

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software design framework where distributed services are provided and used by applications over a network. By using this architecture new challenges appeared for software testing. Lack of access to the source code and runtime binding are examples of these challenges. Functional testing of services assures the quality of service-oriented applications. In this paper, we introduce a new 3-phase consumer and provider contract-based process for web service testing to overcome SOA testing challenges. Our proposed process, namely OTaaWS, consists of Test Automation, Test Execution and Test Management steps on the provider's side, which can be done on-demand.... 

A new test specimen for a tensile test of industrial graphite is introduced using experiment and finite element results. The most influencing factors on the tensile strength of the test specimens are considered and the number of tests, which are necessary to optimize the tensile strengths are reduced based on the design of experiment using the Taguchi method and the effects of all factors on strength of test samples are studied. Comparison of the predicted strengths based on the Taguchi approach with the measured experimental results and finite element analysis shows a good correlation between them. In addition, results show that the new introduced specimen makes a 33% increase in the... 

Regression testing activities greatly reduce the risk of faulty software release. However, the size of the test suites grows throughout the development process, resulting in time-consuming execution of the test suite and delayed feedback to the software development team. This has urged the need for approaches such as test case prioritization (TCP) and test-suite reduction to reach better results in case of limited resources. In this regard, proposing approaches that use auxiliary sources of data such as bug history can be interesting. We aim to propose an approach for TCP that takes into account test case coverage data, bug history, and test case diversification. To evaluate this approach we... 

This study presents a process-driven view on the use of model-based testing (MBT) in agile/lightweight processes. It argues that process-related aspects of MBT and agile processes should be explicitly considered in any practical MBT approach intended for use in agile development (AD). It demonstrates that an effective MBT approach for lightweight processes has to specify how MBT activities are integrated into a development process, how and when MBT artefacts are generated in relation to other development artefacts, and who would carry out MBT activities. Accordingly, a set of integration criteria is introduced for complete incorporation of MBT into agile/lightweight processes. The... 

Test Driven Development (TDD), as a quality promotion approach, suffers from some shortages that discourage its usage. One of the most challenging shortcomings of TDD is the low level of granularity and abstraction. This may lead to production of software that is not acceptable by the end users. Additionally, exploiting of TDD is not applicable in the enterprise systems development. To overcome this defect, we have merged TDD with Model Based Testing (MBT) and suggested a framework named Model Based Test Driven Development (MBTDD). According to TDD, writing test cases comes before programming, and based on our improved method of TDD, modeling precedes writing test cases. To validate the... 

Power system state estimation is a reliable tool used in Energy Management System (EMS) to identify the existence state of the system during its operating hours. The results of this estimation are values for unknown state parameters of the power system. The presence of systematic errors can alter the results of state estimation. The chi-square and normalized residual tests are the common post estimation procedures usually used for detection and identification of gross errors in the estimation algorithm. These tests are based on two separate test statistics and are not so powerful for detection of smaller magnitudes of gross errors. In this paper, an implementation of largest studentized... 

Development of design and production technology of centrifugal pumps for achieving better performance and less energy consumption in these devices has increasingly been taken into consideration. This is due to the fact that centrifugal pumps have an important contribution in industrial applications and energy consumption around the world. Accordingly, the international standards of centrifugal pumps, urge more precise analysis systems for obtaining the performance curves of these pumps. For this reason, a complete, precise and real-time monitoring and performance analysis system for centrifugal pumps is introduced in this paper. The pump characteristics are measured by precise measuring... 

By advances in technology, integrated circuits have come to include more functionality and more complexity in a single chip. Although methods of testing have improved, but the increase in complexity of circuits, keeps testing a challenging problem. Two important challenges in testing of digital circuits are test time and accessing the circuit under test (CUT) for testing. These challenges become even more important in complex system on chip (SoC) zone. This paper presents an improved scheme for generating pre-computed test patterns in core-based systems on chip. This approach reduces the number of pre-computed test patterns and as the result, test application time (TAT) will be decreased.... 

We study one of the simplest covariant modified-gravity models based on the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) brane cosmology, a self-accelerating universe. In this model gravitational leakage into extra dimensions is responsible of late-time acceleration. We mainly focus on the effects of the model parameters on the geometry and the age of universe. Also we investigate the evolution of matter density perturbations in the modified gravity model, and obtain an analytical expression for the growth index, f. We show that increasing Ωrcleads to less growth of the density contrast δ, and also decreases the growth index. We give a fitting formula for the growth index at the present time and indicate...