The automatic prediction of gender from the face has been studied extensively because of its potential relevance in numerous applications related to security. Although the problem of gender classification based on the face is substantial, it remains far from being solved under difficult environmental exposure, especially for different illuminations. In this work, we demonstrate the merits and demerits of classifying gender under cross-illumination variants. We present our approach by employing multi-spectral imaging in nine narrow-spectrum bands stemming from the visible to near-infrared range. The experimental evaluation results were obtained on 78300 sample face images of 145 subjects captured under six different illumination conditions. Further, we present quantitative and qualitative experimental evaluations to determine the average classification accuracy for setting the benchmark results. To demonstrate the goal of this work, we present the results based on three image fusion techniques independently processed using five feature extraction methods for cross-illumination scenarios. This work obtained the highest classification accuracy of $96.32 \%$ for cross-illumination conditions, demonstrating the reliability of employing an image fusion approach to combine complementary information from spectral bands in difficult environmental exposure.

The 80-20 rule is well-known in the real-world. When applied to bugs, it suggests that 80% of bugs arise in just 20% of classes. One research question that has yet to be explored is whether the same rule applies to refactoring activity. In other words, do 20% of classes account for 80% of refactorings applied to a system? In this short paper, we explore this question using data from seven open-source systems drawn from two previous studies. In each case, we explore whether the 80-20 rule applies and suggest why. Results showed limited evidence of an 80-20 rule; in the two systems where it was evident, the refactoring profile implied firstly, a large-scale movement of class fields and methods and, secondly, the deliberate aim of collapsing the class hierarchy using inheritance-based refactorings.

Sepsis is a series of clinical syndromes caused by the immunological response to infection. The clinical evidence for sepsis could typically attribute to bacterial infection or bacterial endotoxins, but infections due to viruses, fungi or parasites could also lead to sepsis. Regardless of the etiology, rapid clinical deterioration, prolonged stay in intensive care units and high risk for mortality correlate with the incidence of sepsis. Despite its prevalence and morbidity, improvement in sepsis outcomes has remained limited. In this comprehensive review, we summarize the current landscape of risk estimation, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis strategies in the setting of sepsis and discuss future challenges. We argue that the advent of modern technologies such as in-depth molecular profiling, biomedical big data and machine intelligence methods will augment the treatment and prevention of sepsis. The volume, variety, veracity and velocity of heterogeneous data generated as part of healthcare delivery and recent advances in biotechnology-driven therapeutics and companion diagnostics may provide a new wave of approaches to identify the most at-risk sepsis patients and reduce the symptom burden in patients within shorter turnaround times. Developing novel therapies by leveraging modern drug discovery strategies including computational drug repositioning, cell and gene-therapy, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats -based genetic editing systems, immunotherapy, microbiome restoration, nanomaterial-based therapy and phage therapy may help to develop treatments to target sepsis. We also provide empirical evidence for potential new sepsis targets including FER and STARD3NL. Implementing data-driven methods that use real-time collection and analysis of clinical variables to trace, track and treat sepsis-related adverse outcomes will be key. Understanding the root and route of sepsis and its comorbid conditions that complicate treatment outcomes and lead to organ dysfunction may help to facilitate identification of most at-risk patients and prevent further deterioration. To conclude, leveraging the advances in precision medicine, biomedical data science and translational bioinformatics approaches may help to develop better strategies to diagnose and treat sepsis in the next decade.

This paper investigates the problem of testing implementations of uniformity statistics. In this paper, we used metamorphic testing to address the oracle problem of checking the output of one or more test executions, for uniformity statistics. We defined a partial oracle that uses regression analysis (a regression model–based metamorphic relation). We investigated the effectiveness of our partial oracle. We found that the technique can achieve mutation scores ranging from 77.78 to 100% and tends towards higher mutation scores in this range. These results are promising and suggest that the regression model–based metamorphic relation approach is a viable method of alleviating the oracle problem in implementations of uniformity statistics, and potentially other classes of statistics, e.g. correlation statistics.

The terms “Oracle Problem” and “Non-testable system” interchangeably refer to programs in which the application of test oracles is infeasible. Test oracles are an integral part of conventional testing techniques; thus, such techniques are inoperable in these programs. The prevalence of the oracle problem has inspired the research community to develop several automated testing techniques that can detect functional software faults in such programs. These techniques include N-Version testing, Metamorphic Testing, Assertions, Machine Learning Oracles, and Statistical Hypothesis Testing. This paper presents a Mapping Study that covers these techniques. The Mapping Study presents a series of discussions about each technique, from different perspectives, e.g. effectiveness, efficiency, and usability. It also presents a comparative analysis of these techniques in terms of these perspectives. Finally, potential research opportunities within the non-testable systems problem domain are highlighted within the Mapping Study. We believe that the aforementioned discussions and comparative analysis will be invaluable for new researchers that are attempting to familiarise themselves with the field, and be a useful resource for practitioners that are in the process of selecting an appropriate technique for their context, or deciding how to apply their selected technique. We also believe that our own insights, which are embedded throughout these discussions and the comparative analysis, will be useful for researchers that are already accustomed to the field. It is our hope that the potential research opportunities that have been highlighted by the Mapping Study will steer the direction of future research endeavours.