Background: Cervical cancer remains a significant public health concern in Macao SAR despite the implementation of a cervical cancer screening program and HPV vaccination. To improve early detection, Macao SAR introdu...Background: Cervical cancer remains a significant public health concern in Macao SAR despite the implementation of a cervical cancer screening program and HPV vaccination. To improve early detection, Macao SAR introduced HPV DNA testing alongside cytology (co-testing) as the primary screening method in 2019. This study evaluates the effectiveness of co-testing in identifying cervical precancerous lesions (CIN2+) compared to cytology alone. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of women aged 30 - 65 years who participated in the routine cervical cancer screening program in Macao SAR Primary Healthcare Centers from 2019 to 2022. Data from over 70,000 women were analyzed, comparing the detection rates of CIN2+ through co-testing and cytology alone. Women with abnormal cytology or positive HPV results were referred for colposcopy. Results: The introduction of co-testing led to a significant increase in the detection of CIN2+, particularly in women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) or negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM) cytology results. Between 2019 and 2022, the percentage of women with ASCUS/NILM and any high-risk HPV (hrHPV) positive who were diagnosed with CIN2+ after colposcopy were 24%, 13%, 10% and 7.5% respectively. This highlights the ability of co-testing to identify high-risk individuals who would have been missed by cytology alone. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of co-testing in improving the sensitivity of cervical cancer screening in Macao SAR. The inclusion of HPV DNA testing allows for better risk stratification of women with ASCUS/NILM cytology, leading to more targeted referrals for colposcopy and timely detection of precancerous lesions. The initial high positive rate in 2019 (24%) might be attributed to the small sample size and potentially reflects a backlog of undiagnosed cases prior to co-testing implementation. Conclusion: The implementation of co-testing in Macao SAR’s cervical cancer screening program significantly improves the early detection of precancerous lesions, particularly in women with ambiguous cytology results. This proactive approach contributes to reducing cervical cancer morbidity and mortality and improving women’s health outcomes in Macao SAR.展开更多
Because of high development costs of IC (Integrated Circuit) test programs,recycling ekisting test programs from one kind of ATE (Automatic Test Equip-ment) to another or generating directly from CAD simulation module...Because of high development costs of IC (Integrated Circuit) test programs,recycling ekisting test programs from one kind of ATE (Automatic Test Equip-ment) to another or generating directly from CAD simulation modules to ATEis more and more vauable. In this papert a new approach to migrating test pro-grams is presented. A virtual ATE model based on object-oriellted paradigm isdeveloped; it runs Test C++ (an intermediate test control language) programsand TeIF (Test Intermediate Format - an intermediate pattern), migrates testprograms among three kinds of ATE (Ando DIC8032, Schlumberger S15 andGenRad 1732) and gellerates test patterns from two kinds of CAD (Daisy andPanda) automatically.展开更多
The first swine testing station and program in the world was started in Denmark.Denmark has tested breeding and genetics traits of pigs for more than 100 years and have developed an efficient structure and system to s...The first swine testing station and program in the world was started in Denmark.Denmark has tested breeding and genetics traits of pigs for more than 100 years and have developed an efficient structure and system to select pigs which produce quality pork for the consumer. The Danish pork is exported to many countries around the world.The testing programs described in the article have proven to be very successful over the last 100 years.The history of swine testing for superior pigs is not finished yet.The selection criteria for quality swine breeding animals will also need to be updated on a regular time table because the production systems are changing yearly and new environmental codes and animal welfare regulations are added each year so the testing programs on pig farms also need to change to meet the new production standards.It is not uncommon to obtain some unusual traits when selecting for extreme traits in pigs when they are on testing programs.When these traits are obtained, it requires additional testing to remove these traits.An example would be the Porcine Stress Syndrome.Osteochondrosis is another example.The gene mapping research will also open up new directions for swine testing programs.Therefore, as long as we produce pigs for quality pork and efficient production we will need outstanding swine testing programs.展开更多
In this paper our studies about the sequential testing program for predicting and identificating carcinogens, sequential discriminant method and cost- effectiveness analysis are summarized. The analysis of our databas...In this paper our studies about the sequential testing program for predicting and identificating carcinogens, sequential discriminant method and cost- effectiveness analysis are summarized. The analysis of our database of carcinogeniclty and genotoxicity of chemicals demonstrates the uncertainty . of short- term tests ( STTs ) to predict carcinogens and the results of most routine STTs are statistically dependent. We recommend the sequential testing program combining STTs and carclnogenicity assay, the optimal STT batteries, the rules of the sequential discrimination and the preferal choices of STTs tor specific chemical class. For illustrative pmposes the carclnogenicity prediction of several sample chamicals is presented. The results of cost-effectiveness analysis suggest that this program has vast social-economic effectiveness.展开更多
Cattle from 20 dairy farms were serologically tested over a five-year period using agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGIDT) as part of a voluntary Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) control program. After five years of removing...Cattle from 20 dairy farms were serologically tested over a five-year period using agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGIDT) as part of a voluntary Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) control program. After five years of removing infected animals from the herds based on BLV-AGIDT serological status, blood samples from 332 cattle in these farms were collected and analyzed side by side by AGIDT and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect antibodies against BLV. AGIDT detected 29.2% (97) and 16.0% (53) of the animals as positive and weak positive respectively, whereas ELISA detected 58.2% (193) cattle as positive. The prevalence of BLV-antibodies determined with AGIDT in the dairy farms oscillated between 0% and 86%, whereas prevalence determined by ELISA ranged between 28% and 100% in the same farms. Although both techniques showed similarly results in farms with high BLV-prevalence, ELISA detected a larger proportion of BLV-positive, especially in farms with low or no BLV-prevalence based on AGIDT, leading to wrong assumptions in terms of farm level control efforts. Our results strongly suggest that AGIDT alone is inadequate to implement BLV control programs and ELISA is a more adequate test for BLV surveillance and control programs.展开更多
PL/SQL is the most common language for ORACLE database application. It allows the developer to create stored program units (Procedures, Functions, and Packages) to improve software reusability and hide the complexity ...PL/SQL is the most common language for ORACLE database application. It allows the developer to create stored program units (Procedures, Functions, and Packages) to improve software reusability and hide the complexity of the execution of a specific operation behind a name. Also, it acts as an interface between SQL database and DEVELOPER. Therefore, it is important to test these modules that consist of procedures and functions. In this paper, a new genetic algorithm (GA), as search technique, is used in order to find the required test data according to branch criteria to test stored PL/SQL program units. The experimental results show that this was not fully achieved, such that the test target in some branches is not reached and the coverage percentage is 98%. A problem rises when target branch is depending on data retrieved from tables;in this case, GA is not able to generate test cases for this branch.展开更多
This paper defines a new relation--little strong happened-before（LSHB） and presents the algorithm for LSHB. Compared with strong happened-before （SHB） and weak happened- before （WHB）, LSHB supports keeping-read-...This paper defines a new relation--little strong happened-before（LSHB） and presents the algorithm for LSHB. Compared with strong happened-before （SHB） and weak happened- before （WHB）, LSHB supports keeping-read-result and ensures definite sufficiency of testing. Equivalence partitioning the set of SYN-sequences based on LSHB can efficiently reduce the number of testing SYN-sequences. The case studies prove that LSHB has high practicability.展开更多
Aspect-oriented programs have received much attention from software testing researchers. Various testing techniques and approaches have been proposed to tackle issues and challenges when testing aspect-oriented progra...Aspect-oriented programs have received much attention from software testing researchers. Various testing techniques and approaches have been proposed to tackle issues and challenges when testing aspect-oriented programs including traditional mutation testing. In traditional mutation testing of aspect-oriented programs, mutants are generated by making small changes to the syntax of the aspect-oriented language. Recently, a new approach known as semantic mutation testing has been proposed. This approach mutates the semantics of the language in which the program is written. The mutants generated misunderstandings of the language which are different classes of faults. Aspect-oriented programming presents itself with different properties that can be further explored with respect to semantic mutation testing. This paper describes various possible scenarios that semantic mutation testing strategy might have particular value in testing aspect-oriented programs.展开更多
A unit testing approach for AspectJ programs is proposed to separately test aspect units which have their own states. In the approach, aspects under test are converted to classes before execution of unit testing. In t...A unit testing approach for AspectJ programs is proposed to separately test aspect units which have their own states. In the approach, aspects under test are converted to classes before execution of unit testing. In the conversion process, the context information passed through pointcut is transformed into advices, then the advices are converted to class member methods, and conflicts in the conversion result, if any, are resolved finally. The unit testing process consists of generating test cases, executing test cases and checking results.展开更多
Rolling dynamic compaction (RDC),which employs non-circular module towed behind a tractor,is an innovative soil compaction method that has proven to be successful in many ground improvement applications.RDC involves r...Rolling dynamic compaction (RDC),which employs non-circular module towed behind a tractor,is an innovative soil compaction method that has proven to be successful in many ground improvement applications.RDC involves repeatedly delivering high-energy impact blows onto the ground surface,which improves soil density and thus soil strength and stiffness.However,there exists a lack of methods to predict the effectiveness of RDC in different ground conditions,which has become a major obstacle to its adoption.For this,in this context,a prediction model is developed based on linear genetic programming (LGP),which is one of the common approaches in application of artificial intelligence for nonlinear forecasting.The model is based on in situ density-related data in terms of dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) results obtained from several projects that have employed the 4-sided,8-t impact roller (BH-1300).It is shown that the model is accurate and reliable over a range of soil types.Furthermore,a series of parametric studies confirms its robustness in generalizing data.In addition,the results of the comparative study indicate that the optimal LGP model has a better predictive performance than the existing artificial neural network (ANN) model developed earlier by the authors.展开更多
Under India’s National AIDS Control Program (NACP), WHO recommended strategy of using three rapid tests is adopted for diagnosis of HIV in an asymptomatic individual. Since the NACP has a stringent kit evaluation pro...Under India’s National AIDS Control Program (NACP), WHO recommended strategy of using three rapid tests is adopted for diagnosis of HIV in an asymptomatic individual. Since the NACP has a stringent kit evaluation procedure and due to the availability of newer third generation Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) it may be possible to adapt two test strategy for HIV diagnosis instead of the recommended three test strategy. The authors reviewed programmatic data on HIV testing to explore whether use of two rapid tests for HIV diagnosis as against three tests could be a feasible approach without compromising the quality and readability of testing. Data on the HIV diagnosis performed on serum specimens collected for the period of one year (2011-12) from 82 Integrated Testing and Counselling Centers (ICTCs) or Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission Centers (PPTCTs) associated with State reference Laboratories (SRLs) was analysed. Out of 654258 results that were analysed 25168 (3.84%) specimens were positives. It was observed that both two and three test algorithms provided similar results for majority (>99%) of the HIV positive specimens. Discordance was observed in labelling of specimen with inconclusive status (N = 21), however the true status of these samples could not be obtained. The analysis indicated that the use of two test algorithm will have programmatic benefits in terms of reduced financial burden to the programme and ease of procurement, shipment and storage before and after distribution without comprising the quality of the testing. The prospective study would confirm this observation.展开更多
This paper describes the statistical methods of the comparison of the incidence or mortality rates in cancer registry and descriptive epidemiology, and the features of microcomputer program (CANTEST) which was designe...This paper describes the statistical methods of the comparison of the incidence or mortality rates in cancer registry and descriptive epidemiology, and the features of microcomputer program (CANTEST) which was designed to perform the methods. The program was written in IBM BASIC language. Using the program CANTEST we presented here the user can do several statistical tests or estimations as follow: 1. the comparison of the adjusted rates which were calculated by directly or indirectly standardized methods, 2. the calculation of the slope of regression line for testing the linear trends of the adjusted rates, 3. the estimation of the 95% or 99%conndence intervals of the directly adjusted rates, of the cumulative rates (0-64 and 0-74), and of the cumulative risk. Several examples are presented for testing the performances of the program.展开更多
文摘Background: Cervical cancer remains a significant public health concern in Macao SAR despite the implementation of a cervical cancer screening program and HPV vaccination. To improve early detection, Macao SAR introduced HPV DNA testing alongside cytology (co-testing) as the primary screening method in 2019. This study evaluates the effectiveness of co-testing in identifying cervical precancerous lesions (CIN2+) compared to cytology alone. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of women aged 30 - 65 years who participated in the routine cervical cancer screening program in Macao SAR Primary Healthcare Centers from 2019 to 2022. Data from over 70,000 women were analyzed, comparing the detection rates of CIN2+ through co-testing and cytology alone. Women with abnormal cytology or positive HPV results were referred for colposcopy. Results: The introduction of co-testing led to a significant increase in the detection of CIN2+, particularly in women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) or negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM) cytology results. Between 2019 and 2022, the percentage of women with ASCUS/NILM and any high-risk HPV (hrHPV) positive who were diagnosed with CIN2+ after colposcopy were 24%, 13%, 10% and 7.5% respectively. This highlights the ability of co-testing to identify high-risk individuals who would have been missed by cytology alone. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of co-testing in improving the sensitivity of cervical cancer screening in Macao SAR. The inclusion of HPV DNA testing allows for better risk stratification of women with ASCUS/NILM cytology, leading to more targeted referrals for colposcopy and timely detection of precancerous lesions. The initial high positive rate in 2019 (24%) might be attributed to the small sample size and potentially reflects a backlog of undiagnosed cases prior to co-testing implementation. Conclusion: The implementation of co-testing in Macao SAR’s cervical cancer screening program significantly improves the early detection of precancerous lesions, particularly in women with ambiguous cytology results. This proactive approach contributes to reducing cervical cancer morbidity and mortality and improving women’s health outcomes in Macao SAR.
文摘Because of high development costs of IC (Integrated Circuit) test programs,recycling ekisting test programs from one kind of ATE (Automatic Test Equip-ment) to another or generating directly from CAD simulation modules to ATEis more and more vauable. In this papert a new approach to migrating test pro-grams is presented. A virtual ATE model based on object-oriellted paradigm isdeveloped; it runs Test C++ (an intermediate test control language) programsand TeIF (Test Intermediate Format - an intermediate pattern), migrates testprograms among three kinds of ATE (Ando DIC8032, Schlumberger S15 andGenRad 1732) and gellerates test patterns from two kinds of CAD (Daisy andPanda) automatically.
文摘The first swine testing station and program in the world was started in Denmark.Denmark has tested breeding and genetics traits of pigs for more than 100 years and have developed an efficient structure and system to select pigs which produce quality pork for the consumer. The Danish pork is exported to many countries around the world.The testing programs described in the article have proven to be very successful over the last 100 years.The history of swine testing for superior pigs is not finished yet.The selection criteria for quality swine breeding animals will also need to be updated on a regular time table because the production systems are changing yearly and new environmental codes and animal welfare regulations are added each year so the testing programs on pig farms also need to change to meet the new production standards.It is not uncommon to obtain some unusual traits when selecting for extreme traits in pigs when they are on testing programs.When these traits are obtained, it requires additional testing to remove these traits.An example would be the Porcine Stress Syndrome.Osteochondrosis is another example.The gene mapping research will also open up new directions for swine testing programs.Therefore, as long as we produce pigs for quality pork and efficient production we will need outstanding swine testing programs.
文摘In this paper our studies about the sequential testing program for predicting and identificating carcinogens, sequential discriminant method and cost- effectiveness analysis are summarized. The analysis of our database of carcinogeniclty and genotoxicity of chemicals demonstrates the uncertainty . of short- term tests ( STTs ) to predict carcinogens and the results of most routine STTs are statistically dependent. We recommend the sequential testing program combining STTs and carclnogenicity assay, the optimal STT batteries, the rules of the sequential discrimination and the preferal choices of STTs tor specific chemical class. For illustrative pmposes the carclnogenicity prediction of several sample chamicals is presented. The results of cost-effectiveness analysis suggest that this program has vast social-economic effectiveness.
文摘Cattle from 20 dairy farms were serologically tested over a five-year period using agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGIDT) as part of a voluntary Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) control program. After five years of removing infected animals from the herds based on BLV-AGIDT serological status, blood samples from 332 cattle in these farms were collected and analyzed side by side by AGIDT and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect antibodies against BLV. AGIDT detected 29.2% (97) and 16.0% (53) of the animals as positive and weak positive respectively, whereas ELISA detected 58.2% (193) cattle as positive. The prevalence of BLV-antibodies determined with AGIDT in the dairy farms oscillated between 0% and 86%, whereas prevalence determined by ELISA ranged between 28% and 100% in the same farms. Although both techniques showed similarly results in farms with high BLV-prevalence, ELISA detected a larger proportion of BLV-positive, especially in farms with low or no BLV-prevalence based on AGIDT, leading to wrong assumptions in terms of farm level control efforts. Our results strongly suggest that AGIDT alone is inadequate to implement BLV control programs and ELISA is a more adequate test for BLV surveillance and control programs.
文摘PL/SQL is the most common language for ORACLE database application. It allows the developer to create stored program units (Procedures, Functions, and Packages) to improve software reusability and hide the complexity of the execution of a specific operation behind a name. Also, it acts as an interface between SQL database and DEVELOPER. Therefore, it is important to test these modules that consist of procedures and functions. In this paper, a new genetic algorithm (GA), as search technique, is used in order to find the required test data according to branch criteria to test stored PL/SQL program units. The experimental results show that this was not fully achieved, such that the test target in some branches is not reached and the coverage percentage is 98%. A problem rises when target branch is depending on data retrieved from tables;in this case, GA is not able to generate test cases for this branch.
基金Supported by the National Pre-research Foundation Project of China (513150402)
文摘This paper defines a new relation--little strong happened-before（LSHB） and presents the algorithm for LSHB. Compared with strong happened-before （SHB） and weak happened- before （WHB）, LSHB supports keeping-read-result and ensures definite sufficiency of testing. Equivalence partitioning the set of SYN-sequences based on LSHB can efficiently reduce the number of testing SYN-sequences. The case studies prove that LSHB has high practicability.
文摘Aspect-oriented programs have received much attention from software testing researchers. Various testing techniques and approaches have been proposed to tackle issues and challenges when testing aspect-oriented programs including traditional mutation testing. In traditional mutation testing of aspect-oriented programs, mutants are generated by making small changes to the syntax of the aspect-oriented language. Recently, a new approach known as semantic mutation testing has been proposed. This approach mutates the semantics of the language in which the program is written. The mutants generated misunderstandings of the language which are different classes of faults. Aspect-oriented programming presents itself with different properties that can be further explored with respect to semantic mutation testing. This paper describes various possible scenarios that semantic mutation testing strategy might have particular value in testing aspect-oriented programs.
文摘A unit testing approach for AspectJ programs is proposed to separately test aspect units which have their own states. In the approach, aspects under test are converted to classes before execution of unit testing. In the conversion process, the context information passed through pointcut is transformed into advices, then the advices are converted to class member methods, and conflicts in the conversion result, if any, are resolved finally. The unit testing process consists of generating test cases, executing test cases and checking results.
基金supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme(project No. DP120101761)
文摘Rolling dynamic compaction (RDC),which employs non-circular module towed behind a tractor,is an innovative soil compaction method that has proven to be successful in many ground improvement applications.RDC involves repeatedly delivering high-energy impact blows onto the ground surface,which improves soil density and thus soil strength and stiffness.However,there exists a lack of methods to predict the effectiveness of RDC in different ground conditions,which has become a major obstacle to its adoption.For this,in this context,a prediction model is developed based on linear genetic programming (LGP),which is one of the common approaches in application of artificial intelligence for nonlinear forecasting.The model is based on in situ density-related data in terms of dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) results obtained from several projects that have employed the 4-sided,8-t impact roller (BH-1300).It is shown that the model is accurate and reliable over a range of soil types.Furthermore,a series of parametric studies confirms its robustness in generalizing data.In addition,the results of the comparative study indicate that the optimal LGP model has a better predictive performance than the existing artificial neural network (ANN) model developed earlier by the authors.
文摘Under India’s National AIDS Control Program (NACP), WHO recommended strategy of using three rapid tests is adopted for diagnosis of HIV in an asymptomatic individual. Since the NACP has a stringent kit evaluation procedure and due to the availability of newer third generation Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) it may be possible to adapt two test strategy for HIV diagnosis instead of the recommended three test strategy. The authors reviewed programmatic data on HIV testing to explore whether use of two rapid tests for HIV diagnosis as against three tests could be a feasible approach without compromising the quality and readability of testing. Data on the HIV diagnosis performed on serum specimens collected for the period of one year (2011-12) from 82 Integrated Testing and Counselling Centers (ICTCs) or Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission Centers (PPTCTs) associated with State reference Laboratories (SRLs) was analysed. Out of 654258 results that were analysed 25168 (3.84%) specimens were positives. It was observed that both two and three test algorithms provided similar results for majority (>99%) of the HIV positive specimens. Discordance was observed in labelling of specimen with inconclusive status (N = 21), however the true status of these samples could not be obtained. The analysis indicated that the use of two test algorithm will have programmatic benefits in terms of reduced financial burden to the programme and ease of procurement, shipment and storage before and after distribution without comprising the quality of the testing. The prospective study would confirm this observation.
文摘This paper describes the statistical methods of the comparison of the incidence or mortality rates in cancer registry and descriptive epidemiology, and the features of microcomputer program (CANTEST) which was designed to perform the methods. The program was written in IBM BASIC language. Using the program CANTEST we presented here the user can do several statistical tests or estimations as follow: 1. the comparison of the adjusted rates which were calculated by directly or indirectly standardized methods, 2. the calculation of the slope of regression line for testing the linear trends of the adjusted rates, 3. the estimation of the 95% or 99%conndence intervals of the directly adjusted rates, of the cumulative rates (0-64 and 0-74), and of the cumulative risk. Several examples are presented for testing the performances of the program.
