TOOLympics I: Competition on software testing

Research competitions and challenges are a driving force in transferring theoretical results into working software tools that demonstrate the state of the art in the respective field of research. Regular comparative evaluations provide guidance to practitioners that have to select new technology and tools for their development process. In order to support competitions and challenges with an appropriate publication venue, a new theme of issues in the International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer was created. This issue is the inaugural issue of the newly introduced theme on “Competitions and Challenges” (CoCha). Test-Comp, the International Competition on Software Testing, is an example of a tool competition, where the research teams submit tools for test-generation, and the competition evaluates the tools and assigns scores according to achieved coverage. Test-Comp 2019 was part of the TOOLympics event, which took place as part of the 25-year celebration of the conference TACAS. Thus, it is most natural to start the new STTT-CoCha theme with a special issue that describes the results and participating systems of Test-Comp 2019. There will be a second issue on TOOLympics with contributions from other competitions.

     

Serotyping of Streptococcus pneumoniae by coagglutination with 12 pooled antisera

We report on the performance of a recently introduced commercial chessboard method using 12 antisera, in comparison with that of the 55-antiserum panel used in determining the serogroups and types (SGTs) of Streptococcus pneumoniae, both of which were carried out by a coagglutination technique. Of a total of 150 strains of S. pneumoniae studied, 135 (90%) belonged to the SGTs represented in the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine; of these, 130 (96.3%) were identified as the same SGTs by both typing methods. The remaining five strains showed cross-reactivity with more than two pools by the chessboard method, but could be assigned to a single SGT by the Quellung test. The 96.3% concordance of the chessboard method suggests it can be adopted for determination of the SGTs of S. pneumoniae in laboratories.     

Sequence database searches via de novo peptide sequencing by tandem mass spectrometry

A method is described for searching protein sequence databases using tandem mass spectra of tryptic peptides. The approach uses a de novo sequencing algorithm to derive a short list of possible sequence candidates which serve as query sequences in a subsequent homology-based database search routine. The sequencing algorithm employs a graph theory approach similar to previously described sequencing programs. In addition, amino acid composition, peptide sequence tags and incomplete or ambiguous Edman sequence data can be used to aid in the sequence determinations. Although sequencing of peptides from tandem mass spectra is possible, one of the frequently encountered difficulties is that several alternative sequences can be deduced from one spectrum. Most of the alternative sequences, however, are sufficiently similar for a homology-based sequence database search to be possible. Unfortunately, the available protein sequence database search algorithms (e.g. Blast or FASTA) require a single unambiguous sequence as input. Here we describe how the publicly available FASTA computer program was modified in order to search protein databases more effectively in spite of the ambiguities intrinsic in de novo peptide sequencing algorithms.     

Determination of the equivalent circuit of gunn-elements for X-band oscillator applications

The main purpose of this paper is to develope a procedure for the computer-aided determination of the equivalent circuit of Gunn-elements. In order to determine the equivalent circuit, the Gunne-element is first measured in a test oscillator. Varying the elements of the circuit the calculated frequency and power distribution is adjusted to the measured one by means of an iterative method. The equivalent circuit of Gunn-elements obtained in this way is used for the dimensioning of Gunn-element-oscillators in the X-band in finline technique.