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Testing is one of the indispensable activities in software development and is being adopted as an independent course by software engineering (SE) departments at universities worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to carry out an investigation of the performance of learners about testing, given the tendencies in the industry and motivation caused by the unavailability of similar studies in software testing field.

This study is based on the data collected over three years (between 2012 and 2014) from students taking the software testing course. The course is included in the second year of undergraduate curriculum for the bachelor of engineering (SE).

It has been observed that, from the performance perspective, automated testing outperforms structural and functional testing techniques, and that a strong correlation exists among these three approaches. Moreover, a strong programming background does help toward further success in structural and automated testing, but has no effect on functional testing. The results of different teaching styles within the course are also presented together with an analysis exploring the relationship between students’ gender and success in the software testing course, revealing that there is no difference in terms of performance between male and female students in the course. Moreover, it is advisable to introduce teaching concepts one at a time because students find it difficult to grasp the ideas otherwise.

These findings are based on the analysis conducted using three years of data collected while teaching a course in testing. Obviously, there are some limitations to this study. For example, student’s strength in programming is calculated using the score of C programming courses taken in previous year/semester. Such scores may not reflect their current level of programming knowledge. Furthermore, attempt was made to ensure that the exercises given for different testing techniques have similar difficulty level to guarantee that the difference in success between these testing techniques is due to the inherent complexity of the technique itself and not because of different exercises. Still, there is small probability that a certain degree of change in success may be due to the difference in the difficulty levels of the exercises. As such, it is obviously premature to consider the present results as final since there is a lack of similar type of studies, with which the authors can compare the results. Therefore, more work needs to be done in different settings to draw sound conclusions in this respect.

Although there are few studies (see e.g. Chan et al., 2005; Garousi and Zhi, 2013; Ng et al., 2004) exploring the preference of testers over distinct software testing techniques in the industry, there appears to be no paper comparing the preferences and performances of learners in terms of different testing techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a test for data centres, repositories and archives to determine OAIS functional model conformance. The test developed was carried out among the World Data Centre (WDC) member data centres. The method used to develop the OAIS functional model conformance test is discussed, along with the test results.

To conduct the OAIS functional model conformance test, a quantitative approach in the format of an online survey was used. This was part of a mixed methods research project.

The test developed did produce a means for quantifying OAIS functional model conformance. The mean score for the 26 WDC member data centres that completed the test was 62.08 out of a possible 92. The highest scoring WDC member data centre obtained a score of 90, while the lowest score obtained was 27.

This test was only conducted among a relatively small sample, making it difficult to generalise the results obtained and determine how effectively the OAIS functional model conformance test measured conformance. It remains a challenge to quantify data curation practices with regard to the OAIS functional model.

The OAIS functional model conformance test is the first attempt at quantifying OAIS functional model compliance.

One concern that has slowed the progress of surface mounted technology, in particular leadless chip carriers, has been the question of the reliability of the surface mount attachment technology. This concern follows from the realisation that the functional reliability of surface mount technology is a very complex issue involving many not very well understood components. What is needed is a relatively simple, useful, predictive model. The model reported here sidesteps the numerous complex underlying issues, which, if considered separately, make a predictive reliability model all but impossible, by taking a purely phenomenological approach and relegating second‐order effects to a lumped empirical figure of merit.

Estimates of the UK demand for money function are obtained utilising the Box‐Cox family of power transformations based on a Bank of England adjusted data set for the period 1963I — 1979IV. The functions are subjected to functional and structural stability testing with careful consideration of the resulting error structure. First‐order autocorrelation problems are encountered in the narrow money series Ml and attempts to consider a more flexible dynamic structure are investigated.

Electronic sub‐assemblies are now a common feature of many products. The final output of production in areas such as computers, consumer goods, instrumentation and telecommunications equipment contain one or more electronic sub‐assemblies. Electronic sub‐assemblies are complex components built from smaller components such as Integrated Circuits (ICs) assembled on to Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). Testing is an important but non‐productive part of the process of electronic sub‐assembly. However, it is a means of cost avoidance and ultimately a requirement for staying in business.

Baltagi and Li (2001) derived Lagrangian multiplier tests to jointly test for functional form and spatial error correlation. This companion paper derives Lagrangian multiplier tests to jointly test for functional form and spatial lag dependence. In particular, this paper tests for linear or log-linear models with no spatial lag dependence against a more general Box-Cox model with spatial lag dependence. Conditional LM tests are also derived which test for (i) zero spatial lag dependence conditional on an unknown Box-Cox functional form, as well as, (ii) linear or log-linear functional form given spatial lag dependence. In addition, modified Rao-Score tests are also derived that guard against local misspecification. The performance of these tests are investigated using Monte Carlo experiments.

We consider conditional distribution and conditional density functionals in the space of generalized functions. The approach follows Phillips (1985, 1991, 1995) who employed generalized functions to overcome non-differentiability in order to develop expansions. We obtain the limit of the kernel estimators for weakly dependent data, even under non-differentiability of the distribution function; the limit Gaussian process is characterized as a stochastic random functional (random generalized function) on the suitable function space. An alternative simple to compute estimator based on the empirical distribution function is proposed for the generalized random functional. For test statistics based on this estimator, limit properties are established. A Monte Carlo experiment demonstrates good finite sample performance of the statistics for testing logit and probit specification in binary choice models.

In the absence of any theoretical guidance, a solution to the question of what is the appropriate functional form for an import demand model can only be found empirically. Examines this question in the context of UK motor vehicle imports by applying a range of tests of functional form to two, alternatively specified, import demand models: the “traditional” price‐income model incorporating the popular but restrictive partial adjustment mechanism and a cost‐expenditure model that employs a less restrictive lag structure. Finds, principally that the commonly imposed linear or log‐linear functional forms cannot be rejected in relation to the price‐income specification, but there is some evidence that neither functional form may be appropriate in relation to the theoretically sounder cost‐expenditure model of import demand.

This article describes the University of Iowa’s process of system migration from selection and data conversion to implementation and presentation of this new system to staff, faculty, students, and the public. Following a three‐year selection effort, Ex Libris’ Aleph500 was chosen as the new system. Staff effort during the selection process and implementation is analyzed and quantified. A comprehensive review of implementation efforts is described including system and client configuration, functional testing and problem reporting, training, and local programming.