On detecting faults for Boolean expressions

Fault based testing aims at detecting hypothesized faults based on specifications or program source. There are some fault based techniques for testing Boolean expressions which are commonly used to model conditions in specifications as well as logical decisions in program source. The MUMCUT strategy has been proposed to generate test cases from Boolean expressions. Moreover, it detects eight common types of hypothesized faults provided that the original expression is in irredundant disjunctive normal form, IDNF. Software practitioners are more likely to write the conditions and logical decisions in general form rather than IDNF. Hence, it is interesting to investigate the fault detecting capability of the MUMCUT strategy with respect to general form Boolean expressions. In this article, we perform empirical studies to investigate the fault detection capability of the MUMCUT strategy with respect to general form Boolean expressions as well as mutated expressions. A mutated expression can be obtained from the original given Boolean expression by making a syntactic change based on a particular type of fault.

Algorithms for fast evaluation of Boolean expressions

Summary For Boolean functions whose variables appear in secondary storage, algorithms which minimize the expected cost of evaluation are considered. An easyto-implement algorithm which gives nearly optimal results is proposed for the case of monotonic functions without a priori probabilities. Optimality proofs are given for a simple special cases.     

细分曲面的有序邻接顶点表数据结构

细分曲面的实现过程中使用的网格数据结构都是基于边的结构,它们只是提供了一种通用的网格遍历方法;而对于细分曲面来说,基于顶点和多边形的网格表示却是更合理有效的选择。给出了一种适用于细分曲面的数据结构OAVL,它具有简便易于实现的特点,可以方便地获取网格中邻接顶点、边和面的信息,并且具有较高的空间效率,最后分析了基于OAVL的细分曲面的存储。     

Techniques for reducing Boolean evaluation time in CSG scan-line algorithms

Atherton's scan-line hidden surface algorithm for Boolean combinations of plane-faced primitives is intended for fast image generation of complex models.

An important step in the algorithm is the Boolean evaluation at the required positions on each scan-line. This step, however, can be very time consuming if performed in a straightforward way.

Some techniques are presented here that considerably reduce the time needed for the Boolean evaluation. These include a fast bottom-up evaluation technique and partial backface elimination.     

The number of registers required for evaluating arithmetic expressions

We study the number of registers required for evaluating arithmetic expressions. This parameter of binary trees appears in various computer science problems as well as in numerous natural sciences applications where it is known as the Strahler number.We give several enumeration results describing the distribution of the number of registers for trees of size n. The average number of registers has the asymptotic expansion log₄n + D(log₄n) + 0(1); here, function D is periodic of period one, and its Fourier expansion can be explicitly determined in terms of Riemann's zeta function and Euler's gamma function.     

On affine (non)equivalence of Boolean functions

In this paper we construct a multiset S(f) of a Boolean function f consisting of the weights of the second derivatives of the function f with respect to all distinct two-dimensional subspaces of the domain. We refer to S(f) as the second derivative spectrum of f. The frequency distribution of the weights of these second derivatives is referred to as the weight distribution of the second derivative spectrum. It is demonstrated in this paper that this weight distribution can be used to distinguish affine nonequivalent Boolean functions. Given a Boolean function f on n variables we present an efficient algorithm having O(n2²ⁿ ) time complexity to compute S(f). Using this weight distribution we show that all the 6-variable affine nonequivalent bents can be distinguished. We study the subclass of partial-spreads type bent functions known as PS _ap type bents. Six different weight distributions are obtained from the set of PS _ap bents on 8-variables. Using the second derivative spectrum we show that there exist 6 and 8 variable bent functions which are not affine equivalent to rotation symmetric bent functions. Lastly we prove that no non-quadratic Kasami bent function is affine equivalent to Maiorana–MacFarland type bent functions.     

On the Minimization of (Complete) Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams

Ordered binary decision diagrams (OBDDs) are a popular data structure for Boolean functions. Some applications work with a restricted variant called complete OBDDs which is strongly related to nonuniform deterministic finite automata. One of its complexity measures is the width which has been investigated in several areas in computer science like machine learning, property testing, and the design and analysis of implicit graph algorithms. For a given function the size and the width of a (complete) OBDD is very sensitive to the choice of the variable ordering but the computation of an optimal variable ordering for the OBDD size is known to be NP-hard. Since optimal variable orderings with respect to the OBDD size are not necessarily optimal for the complete model or the OBDD width and hardly anything about the relation between optimal variable orderings with respect to the size and the width is known, this relationship is investigated. Here, using a new reduction idea it is shown that the size minimization problem for complete OBDDs and the width minimization problem are NP-hard.     

Labeling of medicines and patient safety: evaluating methods of reducing drug name confusion

OBJECTIVE: We report three experiments evaluating the proposal that highlighting sections of drug names using uppercase ("tall man") lettering and/or color may reduce the confusability of similar drug names. BACKGROUND: Medication errors commonly involve drug names that look or sound alike. One potential method of reducing these errors is to highlight sections of names on labels in order to emphasize the differences between similar products. METHOD: In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were timed as they decided whether similar name pairs were the same name or two different names. Experiment 3 was a recognition memory task. RESULTS: Results from Experiments 1 and 2 showed that highlighting sections of words using tall man lettering can make similar names easier to distinguish if participants are aware that this is the purpose of the intervention. Results from Experiment 3 suggested that tall man lettering and/or color does not make names less confusable in memory but that tall man letters may increase attention. CONCLUSION: These findings offer some support for the use of tall man letters in order to reduce errors caused by confusion between drug products with look-alike names. APPLICATION: The use of tall man letters could be applied in a variety of visual presentations of drug names--for example, by manufacturers on packaging, labeling, and computer software, and in pharmacies on shelf labels. Additionally, this paper demonstrates two meaningful behavioral measures that can be used during product design to objectively assess confusability of packaging and labeling.     

Identifying the spatial footprint of pollen distributions using the Geoforensic Interdiction (GOFIND) model

Geoforensics leverages various spatial analytical, biological, ecological, and geological techniques to improve criminal investigations, including efforts to thwart terrorism, evaluate humanitarian crises or identify the origin of fraudulent goods. In addition to investigating what took place, geoforensic efforts often focus on determining where and when the event occurred. Forensic palynology is a promising subfield of geoforensics that uses pollen to link persons or objects to particular places and times. This promise is driven by pollen's strong utility as a biomarker. It is ubiquitous, durable and demonstrates a relatively predictable distribution in time and space. As a result, pollen often provides important clues for determining the provenance of hard-to-trace items, such as computers, fraudulent goods, digging tools, clothing, and undetonated explosives during geoforensic investigations. One major limitation that has reduced the implementation of forensic palynology is the lack of computational tools that relate pollen species to geographic locations. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a robust geocomputational framework that uses pollen sample composition to identify the relative likelihood of potential origin locations for improving geoforensic efforts. Using USDA CropScape data for the state of Texas, our results suggest that this framework allowed for multiple potential origin sites to be identified simultaneously, with solution properties that were better than a random process and offer a possible alternative to the single site joint probability approaches commonly used in the field of forensic palynology.