The poems I, Too and The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes Compare & Contrast

Have you ever read a poem that cached your eye? Ever wondered how that poem is similar to others or different? Perhaps you read a poem about animals, the economy or someone’s feelings. The poems I, Too and The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, have many important similarities and differences. One could have been when he was young and the other when he was older. He describes what he’s seen and done in The Negro Speaks of Rivers. In the poem I, Too, he describes what he wants to do. In both of these poems they cross a point where it is noticeable what they have in common. Both have very strong views, along with the positive attitudes that he has towards inequality and discrimination. He attempts to get his voice out so everyone can see what he really wants to say. Also, they have many differences with the things he has done. There are many differences between I, Too and The Negro Speaks of Rivers. In I, Too Hughes expresses more internal than external and he speaks about himself more than speaking about others around him. Secondly, he describes racism and the way he is unequally treated. They don’t treat him fairly and he has challenges to over come. Therefore, he opens up to what he did and is going to do. He also wants people to notice him more. Hughes, wants to be visible to others, not invisible. Americans should be treated the same and that’s what he says he wants to be treated, the same as others, because he too is American. His tone is surprisingly joyful, hopeful and confident. His feelings as well as his being, are important. He is, he isn’t ashamed of who he is and tries to explain who he is and the actions he wants to take. He wants a change in his life and will no longer put up with the situation he is in. Another difference between the two poems is that in The Negro Speaks of Rivers, he is expressing more of an external concerned vs. an internal manner. However, he speaks more about beauty, nature and the world and describes the things he’s seen and wants to see. Hughes, wants to explore and travel the world. He wants to see the things around him. Next, the poet describes the different things he has seen and the places where he has gone. He, therefore expresses how beautiful the world can be if one goes out an explores; this shows he is more free than before. Hughes, takes on a serious tone and the poem is more formal. Time has passed when he wrote this poem according too, the places and events he has seen with Abe Lincoln and slavery. Hughes, describes the things that have occurred during the time of his life and him seeing everything. There are some similarities between the two poems, I, Too and The Negro Speaks of Rivers. For example, they both talk about the abolishment of slavery. Everyone has the right to be treated equally. The world can be cruel to everyone but everyone has something to look forward to and live life happily. In both poems, he expresses how in both situations he had obstacles to over come and how the world can come to a change. He had both strong and positive words to express in both poems. According to his poem I, Too â€Å"My soul has grown deep like the rivers† he says his soul hasn’t stopped, he continues to fight for what he really wants and he is beautiful no matter what. He also states, â€Å"Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed† he says he’s beautiful inside and out. He wants to show everyone who he really is and says he is both strong and confident. Hughes, is no longer the same man as he was before as he expresses in the line â€Å"bathed in the Euphrates. † He expresses, the lives of African Americans and how they are being treated during that time. In conclusion, although both have many differences, they also have many things in common. Both poems have very strong views and ways to express his feelings. He also had positive views towards both of the poems to get his voice out so everyone can hear and see what he really wants to say. He expresses the obstacles he has done and wants to do with the challenges he is going to face. In both poem he abolishes slavery and express the way they wanted slavery to be vanished. In both of these poems they cross a point where it is noticeable what they have in common. He describes what African Americans really go through and what they really feel. They came to America for an opportunity not for slavery. As time passed, things had changed along with himself and the world. He did an amazing job to express himself with his writing to get his point across with both poems.

Explain Christian views on suicide Essay

In a broad sense suicide can be defined as, â€Å"the act of intentionally ending your life.† However, there are many different types of suicide. Durkheim identified four kinds: egoistic suicide, which is the result of feeling one’s life is meaningless; altruistic suicide, the act of giving one’s life for the greater good; anomic suicide, the result of a major social change that disrupts a person’s sense of order; and fatalistic suicide, the results of excessive regulation, when one’s future is pitilessly blocked by oppressive discipline, such as in a prison or dictatorship. Christians believe that all life is sacred, and therefore the vast majority of denominations are against all forms of suicide. In examining the reasons behind this, a good place to start is the Christian teaching on the sacredness of human life. Christians believe in the sanctity of life, meaning that all human life is created in God’s image and has intrinsic worth. The Decalogue teaches, â€Å"Do not kill.† This includes killing oneself. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 7:17 states, â€Å"Be not over much wicked, neither be you foolish: why should you die before your time?† Prematurely ending your life prevents the believer from serving God to his full potential. This idea is backed up in the New Testament, where the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16, â€Å"Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?† Christians reject the idea of total bodily autonomy, meaning that they do not believe we have the right to do whatever we want with our bodies. The Bible suggests that our bodies are not our own, but God’s, and therefore we do not have the right to destroy them. Historical church fathers have held consistently negative views on suicide. Augustine was one of the first to publically speak out against it. He opposed it because we have a duty of selfà ¢care arising from natural inclination and we have a debt of love that we owe to others. In The City of God he wrote, â€Å"certainly he who kills himself is a homicide, and so much guiltier of his own death, as he was more innocent of that offence for which he doomed himself to die.† To take one’s own life into one’s hands and act precipitously by committing suicide is to look away from God (a final and definitive refusal of trust in God and a denial of trust in his providence, by the very nature of the act itself excluding any subsequent repentance/penance). Furthermore, Aquinas was also against suicide. In Summa Theologica he set forth three reasons why suicide is immoral. Firstly, it is contrary to natural law. Secondly, suicide does injury to the common good because the person’s community will suffer. Thirdly, it is a sin against God because life is God’s gift to man. For it belongs to God alone to pronounce sentence of death and life, according to Deuteronomy 32:39, â€Å"I will kill and I will make to live.† However, there is one form of suicide that some Christians would accept, and that is altruistic suicide in the form of martyrdom or self-sacrifice. Jesus taught that, â€Å"Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.† For example, in Judges Samson brings down a temple killing both himself and the Philistines. Augustine said that suicide was rooted in pride and lack of charity, whereas martyrdom is commendable and for the good of others. The different Christian denominations are generally unified when it comes to views on suicide. In the Roman Catholic Church it is regarded as a mortal sin, and the Catechism asserts, â€Å"Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life.† The Presbyterian Church would hold a similar view, as the Westminster Confession reads, â€Å"The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in the case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence.† Even though they clearly teach that suicide is a sin, it is not an unpardonable sin. Salvation is by grace alone and if one is truly saved, nothing (not even suicide) can separate them from Jesus. The United Methodist Church believes that suicide is not the way life should end, but would be hesitant to label it a sin. Therefore, they denounce the condemnation of people who commit suicide, and do not believe surviving family should be stigmatised. Modern psychology has impacted the Christian view of suicide. In the past Christians were guilty of separating physical and mental illness and although they were in support of treatment for physical ailments, they were wary of psychiatric treatment. Even today some fundamentalist churches would see illnesses such as depression as purely spiritual afflictions. In the wake of high profile suicides such as Rick Warren’s son Matthew, most leaders are encouraging the Church to acknowledge that matters of depression and suicide are medical in nature and should be addressed no differently than other physical illnesses. They imply that to do otherwise promotes stigma, shame and restricts the believer’s access to appropriate care. Another reason why Christians are against suicide is the profound negative effect it can have on other people. Suicide does not just harm the person who dies, it is a form of bereavement even more devastating than usual because the family will forever agonise over what led the person to take their life, and if they could have prevented it. This is especially so if the family discover the body or witness the suicide. Suicide can damage close communities such as schools and churches. Wyatt said that, â€Å"suicide can have devastating effects on others. In fact, it can be one of the most selfish and destructive acts anyone can perform.†

Cyclermate Report Essay

I. An executive summary Dai Armstrong and Lewis Llewellyn are the two men who planned to open their own company after being superfluous due to the shutting down of the steel plants in their town of South Wales were Dai Armstrong and Lewis Llewellyn. They became good friends because of taking part in the local club of cycle touring together and decided to start Cyclermate, which was a bicycle manufacturing company that was laid down in the year 1988. In the beginning of time, Cyclermate gained a huge influence over the share of the market. The company appeared well with no problems and difficulties up to 2010, the time when the business is in trouble, it confronted lots of consequences with respect to operation human resource and finance. Therefore, the demand by purchasers fell continue sadly even though the prices were cut down by the company; the distinguishing attributes of the goods were not up to the quality as they were earlier. The rising complaints from the customers regarding degrading quality and faults in the product and the concern by the bank manager regarding the overdraft could cause trouble if the problems are not solved as soon as possible. Because of that, the company requires a right way to deal with this issue and save it from the edge of going bankrupt. II. Introduction Based on case study research in Cyclermate Ltd. and a series of case in community, this report will work out the financial problems and various other problems confronted by Cyclermate. It has been designed to analysis the business environment and management, measured by SWOT and PET models that are required to be looked upon. The report also draws on a brief summary for the financial side of the business. In addition, this report takes into account an examination of difficulties confronted by Cyclermate and possible solution for the problems, included short and long term solutions. Another function of this report is to examine how the company could get out of the crisis and get back to the current market share. Finally, the report brings us some recommendations and conclusion of the whole Cyclermate case study. III. Analysis of Business Environment 1. PEST Analysis PEST analysis is involved in the chief external environmental that effect or control considerably a business strategy. As we can see, PEST is aimed for Political, Economic, Social and Technological matters that can affect the business. PEST is recognized to persuade it in a utile manner of summarizing the external environment. However, it may be adopted the ability of how an establishment should react to these factors. Political Factor A political factor has a powerful impact on income tax, labor law, trade restriction and many more. Company did not recruit enough workers to meet the targets and worker had to work overtime to get the work done and workers are getting paid at normal rate. Using a traditional method may harm workers health and decreased their productivity as well. These mistakes made Cyclermate become a target of health and safety agencies. They have to improve the quality or else they can be stuck in authorized issues. On the  other hand, they also need to achieve higher standard in manufacturing to meet requirements of the market, especially foreign markets. Economic Factor Cyclermate had purchased a larger storehouse for goods, which indeed was essential to them but did not suffice their requirements. Purchasing a warehouse, which fulfilled the needs of the company, could have saved a lot of money and that same money could have used in new or currently in existence projects. Another factor in economics that affects to the development of Cyclermate Ltd is labor. The unemployment rate is increasing, therefore, this is a good chance for this company to choose worker more easily, and employ them easily with affordable price. Social Factor Social factor has a powerful impact on human behavior, Cyclermate had many order but they did not have enough workforce to complete these orders. They have to work long hours in order to achieve their goals. One more important thing is that high-speed innovation as well as the increasing demands of consumers requires Cyclermate to change and improve every day. But there is a truly infact that living standard of clients could effect to their choices. The higher income distribution they get, the higher demands they re Technological Factor Cyclermate Ltd is using the oldest way to advertise their products by posting advertisement in traditional newspapers. It has limited their goods to the customers. Instead, this company can set up its own website. In addition, Cyclermate Ltd is using the oldest way to advertise their products by posting advertisement in traditional newspapers. It has limited their goods to the customers. Instead, this company can set up its own website. 2. SWOT Analysis It is a methodical technique that is utilized to categorize and identify substantial external (Opportunities and Threats) and internal (Strengths and Weaknesses) factors confronted with a specific area. (Johnson, 1993) It  renders data which are useful in corresponding the capabilities and resources to the spiritual atmosphere in which it functions and hence is a significant addition to the planning and marketing procedure. (Pearce, 2005) Let have look at the SWOT of cyclermate to understand more about the current issue that company has to face with. Strengths Direct channels of sale Cyclermate has direct channels of sales with the direct sales and direct shops; hence intermediary’s cost is largely eliminated. Reducing the cost of manufacturing could unquestionably help Cyclermate achieve a huge share of the market. As direct channels are in direct contact with the providers, thus, it could help in increasing in quantity or value of the sales and it provides a good opportunity to the providers to empathize the clients and could make required changes are per the requirement of the customers. Motivated workforce The employees at the Cyclermate are extremely pioneering and are can fully utilize and achieve any given objective or alterations in the company but they are inhibited by the administration as a result they are unable to express their views freely. The employees could have a crucial role in the company for its overall growth and development. Possession of buildings and lands Unlike Cyclermate most of the companies don’t possess either building or land and hence have to pay the heavy rents which adds to the cost but cyclermate can make any changes in the buildings and could capitalize in whichever way they wish to as they own it, which reduces the overall cost. Weaknesses Inexperience and unmotivated staffs of the company The company has made use of untrained workers. These untrained workers are not given the proper training after their employment. It is the fact that the employees and the staff are never allowed to put forward their creative and self-ideas due to the policies of the management, as a result of this  motivation in the staff is lost. Sales are decreasing in amount or degree and there is piling up of stocks in the warehouses which generates a feeling among the staff that they are not under a good management and as this feeling flourishes they lose hopes from the company and it has a very bad impact on their morale. The investors do not truly interested in the business Due to the low returns on the capital invested by the investors, they are unhappy with the performance of the company and are losing faith in it. In addition, the very fact that the shareholders were not paid any interest last year, it may result in the withdrawal of their money from the company. The quality concerns Because lack of the power to be effective of the staffs to keep up the measures of the goods and the quality of raw material utilized is leading to degraded quality of the goods eventually. Old machinery such as traditional spaying technique, painting and low-quality stock control technology needs updating as soon as possible if the business hopes to improve the production and sales in the coming time. Opportunities Take the advantages of social media Cyclermate should launch its website, which provides complete detail and range of the products available with them. Company can employ a new computer system for keeping a good database of the company. They can introduce online selling and modification according to the wish of customers. Introduction of new machines They should introduce some of the modern machinery in order to achieve higher-level productivity. Cyclermate could bring in new robotic machinery in the production process that will lead to speedy output and a superior quality of goods. Employ trained workers They have the opportunity to make use of the trained workforce, which has been recently laid off from the nearby production site. More workforce means opportunity to gain more productivity. Threats Overseas competitors As a result of the growth to a global or worldwide scale, many companies from across the globe have entered the market with products of low price and high quality, which certainly is a threat for Cyclermate as it supplies good with high cost and of lower quality. Due to recession, which is prevailing in Europe the purchasing power of people is going down. Thus, company can have reduced sales or can face financial crises. Reputation Due to poor-quality product for a period of Cyclermate’s reputation is going down and therefore people do not like to go for their products. Huge retail Merchants Retail Merchants like Argos and Halfords are captivating the market eventually and it might happen that Cyclermate may lose the market share completely. Customer threatens them to sue their company after their product was fail in delivering the good performance. IV. Analysis of Business Management 1. Financial Problems Prob. 1.1: Uncontrolled cost The main problem that company is in this situation is because of the uncontrolled cost and mismanaged budget. The costs are increasing yearly with the sales and selling price of the products going down. Let have look at the financial statement that company has  £210,800 worth of non-current assets. Loan request will be refused as company only holds cash fund of  £675 into their bank account. Costs are increasing at a rapid rate year after year. Asset turnover ratio is 2.06:1. This indicates that the profit margins for the company are very low that’s why the ratio is so high. We can also conclude from this that the company’s pricing strategy is not effective leading to lower profits. Prob. 1.2: Dealing with a big loan Creditor days – 24 days leads to the company has to pay back it its debtors in 24 days and it is just left with 675 £ of cash. The Company is liable to pay  £87,500 to the creditors and if they don’t so a legal action may be taken on them, which are not good for company’s reputation. They may talk to the creditors and ask for an extension in time for payments as they are going through financial crisis and don’t have money right now to pay back. Prob. 1.3: Lots of inventories Besides, it shows that the majority of inventories are stored and not effectively managed, that is why current ratio is at such high level, which also means low sales and low revenue gained. Moreover, the company relies on the bank loan as the main monetary support. 2. Operation Problems Prob. 2.1: Stock control system Disturbingly, materials are always in the shortage which results in the disruption of the production process recently. Although the demand is higher and higher, company cannot meet their requirement because of lacking necessary components. Prob. 2.2: Inappropriate division of duties The inappropriate division of duties obviously had made such a burden on many workers. In particular, Dai Armstrong has to deal with many tasks such as making all the frames, factory manager and business director at the same time. He himself also finds it hard to keep up the level of production (approximately 8 frames/day) because it requires the harsh physical demands. Prob. 2.3: Assembly is a complex process Moreover, assembly is a complex process, which takes 2 or 3 hours for one person. Janice Jones and Ffred Gregory often have to work overtime to catch up with the progress. As a result, their health and time issue could be heavily damaged. 3. HR Management problems Prob. 3.1: Improper workforce in manufacturing Unreasonable workforce division is one of the most serious problems of Cyclermate Ltd. Besides, lack of experienced employees and the aging workforce are worrying the production process and raising a big question for a more effective training system. Prob. 3.2: The training system creates The training system creates such obstacles for the assembly process. Typically, Fred, who is 18 years old, is a new and un-experienced person; the training for him is necessary, however, not easy at all. It takes so much time to instruct Fred in traditional way, which is apparently the cause of slow production recently. Prob. 3.3: Corporate culture The staff is highly de-motivated due to decreasing sales and profits and also the behavior of the management as in the sinking company they are not free to put up their ideas even if they do they are rejected because of the superiority of the management. V. Solution A. Short term and immediate planning 1. Financial problems: Solution 1.1: Cost in selling and distribution Cost in selling and distribution could be possible declined to save more money for the company such as cutting cost for postage and courier charges by substituting by cheaper service, as well as the travelling and hospitality. Those indirect costs contribute such high cost to the manufacturing of the cycles, restricting them would help boost the sales with cheaper price. Solution 1.2: Ask for trading debtors to repay The solution to this issue is that they should strictly resolve and for the  trade debtors to repay the loans as soon as possible. The amount of $200,571 would help the financial situation better in the coming time. Once their assets are raised through and their liquidity are proved to be valuable enough to afford the loan, it will be beneficial for them to borrow money from the banks. Solution 1.3: Direct sale prices Cyclermate’s direct sale prices are higher than shop sale price. In order to generate healthy revenue, Cyclermate needs to reduce their direct sale price. By reducing the direct sale prices will increase their sale and it will be easy for them to generate healthy revenue. 2. Operation Problems Solution 2.1: Buy stock when needed Company should only buy stock when they needed. Buying stock earlier will harm company’s financial positions, because raw material does not hold their value and it has got more chances of losing its market value. Solution 2.2: Require clear division A good answer for this problem is that the company should require clear division to who is able to undertake and separate arrangement of duties. Specifically, assigning other qualified person on frame-making position so that Mr. Dai could concentrate and dedicate himself to external relations business only. Solution 2.3: hiring more experienced labors The company should consider hiring more experienced labors for assemble line and frame-making because Mr Dai can no longer put up with the physical requirement of the task. With those simple tasks like packaging, it is acceptable for free hand employees to help out, but only when they finished all their tasks. 3. HR Management problems Solution 3.1: Employ cheaper labors In this case, the company can consider employ cheaper labors that are  suggested by Maldwyn Jones: Chinese or Taiwanese labor to make the machine for them- much better quality but half the price and move Idris Pugh to higher position as a supervisor for the whole wheel-making process. Solution 3.2: Improving the staff’s skills This training program involves directly in the new changes with a purpose of improving the staff’s skills, expertise and methods to complete an error-free task, exposing them to unfamiliar ideas and of course, giving them the chance to practice task under time/speed limit. Solution 3.3: Core business value Trust in others and a firm belief in overcoming difficulties (set up new mission: overcome difficulty, minimize waste and consequence) B. Long term and efficiency improvements Present fiscal condition of Cyclermate (Accounting ratios).The acid / liquid ratio of Cyclermate is 0.76:1, which depicts Cyclermate is incapable to satisfy indebtednesses of shorter term, which mean that it would not be competent to satisfy fiscal difficulty which may happen in the time to come. The Asset turnover ratio for Cyclermate is 2.06:1. As the ratio is excessively high, this means that profit margins are very low. The pricing strategy of Cyclermate is ineffective and because of that low profit. Return on capital employed –Cyclermate has far too less returns on the capital employed, just a mere 0.11 or 11%. Debtor days –It would take Cyclermate 115 days to get back the money from debtors. Creditor days – Cyclermate has to pay back in 24 days to its debtors with a cash balance of 675 £. The financial statement of Cyclermate shows that it has non-current assets which is of worth  £210,800.Any request regarding a loan from the bank will be refused as it has a mere cash balance of  £675. It may get a loan based on the position of its non-current assets. In place of the above-discussed alternative, it can sell its freehold land, which is worth  £160,000, and use the proceeds from the sale in the business. Cyclermate could acquire funds if they pursue its trade debtors to pay off soon. Debtors worth  £200,571 are to be recovered and the funds would be acquired soon if the debtors do not  default and pay in full. Once it has sufficient fund, Cyclermate could apply for the bank loan. VI. Conclusion Overall, Cyclermate will have a better future if they operate their business in slightly different ways. Cyclermate products were famous for its quality and price,if the company still provide what the consumer wants than it would be no harm to the company. But there few changes needs to be changed and once the new rules and regulation apply into the business than it would be a great opportunity for Cyclermate to operate their services. Moreover, With the movement of new threats into the marketplace the present systematic plan of action of Cyclermate is continuously below the acceptable level in its performance due to the fact that the new firms and the existing organizations are coming up with improved quality of products at a cheaper price VII. Recommendations The company must sign up correct individual as per the requirement of the position. Currently the management is interfering in the process of production and is unable to focus of the activities they should be concerned. The financial hardships through which Cyclermate is going through at present could be resolved by selling the unused stock that is piled up in the warehouse. In order to generate revenues and funds to invest in other arena of the company, Cyclermate must sell its freehold land that would certainly generate high revenue. In order to achieve higher output and productivity, modern technology should be applied in the production process. Installing a computer database through which the management could look into all the important and relevant data as and when required. Cyclermate should launch its website, which provides complete detail and range of the products available with them. Reducing both direct sales prices so as to sell the current stock and trade debtors. Employing young and trained workforce that is fit for the position.

HR Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HR Questions - Essay Example Conducting needs assessment requires a closer evaluation of the requirements of the employee, the responsibilities to be undertaken, and the goals of the organization. Ensuring employees’ readiness would necessitate establishing preparedness of the employee with regards to their motivation, drives and needs, behavior, and basic skills for undertaking current and future responsibilities. Creating a learning environment defines the training materials and resources, including monitoring and administration of the training program. The phase that indicates ensuring transfer of learning means that people involved in the training process must validate knowledge, skill and abilities that were developed through self-management, peer and manager’s support. Developing an evaluation plan is a measure for evaluation and performance of the training program through identification of the learning objectives, selecting an appropriate evaluation design, and undertaking cost-benefit analy sis. Selection of the training method requires determining whether traditional or e-learning methods are most effective for the organizations’ goals. Finally, monitoring and evaluating the program should determine the strengths and weaknesses of the program and address the weaknesses, as required. The two flaws of the ISD model are: (1) in real life setting, organizations rarely follow the exact step-by-step process; and (2) evaluation of its effectiveness is only done at the end-time (Noe: PPT 9). A formal learning entails a planned effort for employees to gain knowledge regarding their specific job requirements. On the other hand, informal learning is a type of learning that is not structured or rigid and is based on a trial and error method, consulting colleagues, and researching for more information through electronic means. Formal training is more preferable in situations that require adherence to rigid, formalized and highly structured strategies to

A Study of Business Sustainability Indices in Malaysian Cities Dissertation

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Mesotherapy Strategies and Techniques MESOTHERAPY INTRODUCTION Mesotherapy is an art of injecting small quantities of various medicinal preparations such as vitamins, minerals and other conventional drugs directly into the mesoderm to treat pathological conditions locally. It involves the administration of intradermal or subcutaneous injections of compounds to treat a variety of medical conditions and avoiding systemic adverse effects due to drugs. It appears to be a novel technique to administer medicines local to the pathology while the skin serves as a natural time- release system. BACKGROUND OF MESOTHERAPY The term mesotherapy (derived from Greek mesos. â€Å"Middle† and therapeia to treat medically) denotes injection of substances into middle layer of skin ( mesoderm) for medical purposes. Historical aspects[1] Mesotherapy was originally used to treat painful conditions using local procaine injections. Michael Pistor who coined the term mesotherapy is considered the father of mesotherapy. In his original article,he described treating deafness, tinnitus, vertigo and headaches using local injections of procaine. Earlier to this in 1884, Koller an ophthalmologist used local cocaine to relieve pain. In 1925 Lerich used intradermal injections in the intercostal spaces. In 1937 Aron studied the use of intradermal injections to have an analgesic effect. Albert Lemaire, a Belgian physician used procaine injections to treat trigeminal neuralgia. In 1952, Michel Pistor a French physician popularized mesotherapy to treat various conditions in dermatology,sports,traumatology and vascular disease chiefly as a pain-relieving therapy. He defined mesotherapyas a techniquethat was used to treat mesoderm,(primary germ layer that develops into connective tissue, muscle and the circulatory system). In 1953, Dr .Mario Lebel invented a 3mm length needle that could be used precisely for injection of substances into the dermis. In 1964, the French society of Mesotherapy was founded by Michel Pistor and use of mesotherapy was extended to treat cosmetic conditions. The American influence was evident after Dr. Lionel Bissoon popularized the technique in North America. Despite the fact that mesotherapy is gaining popularity in aesthetic medicine especially for localized cellulite reduction, it continues to be a controversial topic and therefore requires cautious approach. The safety and efficacy of these mesotherapy remain ambiguous to patients and physicians alike. [2] Applied basic science [1, 3] The concept that led to discovery of mesotherapy is quite interesting. Pistor saw recovery of chronic hearing loss while treating a patient with procaineinjections for an asthma attack. Subsequent intradermal injections of this product into the mastoid region proved this effect to be true. However the depth of injection was considered important. This led the researchers to the fact that at a depth of 1.5 to 2mm the local activity of the product would last longer due to a persistent reservoir with weak local diffusion in the dermis whereas products injected into dermis would dissipate to greater distances.A product when injected intradermally acts in two ways. Firstly, by stimulating dermal receptors in situ and secondly, over long distances by reaching other organs via circulation. A concept of meso-interface exists which is the surface of contact established between the injected products and the tissue injected. The more the multiple punctures are made and the more fragmented produc ts are delivered in small quantities, the greater the meso-interface and proportionately greater numbers of dermal receptors get activated.Pistor has always described this technique as follows. â€Å"A little volume, a few times and in the right place†. The idea was that by placing these products in the dermis, the skin acts as a reservoir for drugs to diffuse slowly via microcirculation to activate dermal receptors. A general mechanism of action (based on the target site, dermis) and a specific mechanism of action (based on the ingredients used) has been proposed to explain the concept of mesotherapy. The dermis is considered to be common denominator for circulatory, neurological and immunological functions; and the general mode of action is believed to occur by correction of these altered functions. Individual drugs or agents target the specific indication of mesotherapy. EQUIPMENTS The various equipments used in mesotherapy are Mesogun (Fig 1) Mircromesotherapy device Needleless Mesotherapy Mesogun Mesogun is a syringe infusion pump that is capable of injecting the desired substance at a required amount, speed and depth using the injector and needle. Syringes varying from 2cc-10cc and needle lengthsvarying in size from 4mm to 13mm can be used based on the indication, and desired depth of injection. A device known as guide is used to keep the needle at a constant depth. Once the parameters are chosen, the product can be injected by one of the following modes. Continuous – Min 3cc/min Max 10cc/min. Mircrodose – Max0.1cc/trigger. Standard dose – Max 0.3cc/trigger. Mesoperfusion – Max 0.3cc/trigger. Nappage – 0.1cc/trigger. Advantages of Mesogun Good comfort level for patient and physician Procedure is faster and relatively painless Accurate delivery system Versatality – Ability to perform various modes such as nappage, continuous, mesoperfusion in dosimetry. Syringes used in Mesogun: Generally 1ml, 5ml, 10ml and 20ml syringes with luer lock system is used based on the indication. MesoNeedles (Fig2 a): Mesoneedles or â€Å"Lebel needles† are commonly used in mesotherapy.The John Screw needles have an adjustable length.The recommended parameters for needles are based on the site of injection: Face and neck – 4mm 30G mesoneedles Fat and cellulite – 6mm 30G mesoneedles,  ½ inch 30G needles. Multi-injectors and plates (Fig2 b): These accessories help to cover larger areas in a short time facilitating faster and easier procedure for the injector. There are sterile circular and linear multi-injectors with needles ready to be used for any body part. Micromesotherapy Device Micromesotherapy is an evolution of conventional mesotherapy. Usually mesotherapy uses needles to deliver drugs in deep dermal layer. Here a reverse cone shaped device has ultrafine needle 32Gx2mm by which drugs are injected into the superficial layer of dermis therebyminimizing incidence of bruising, pain and scarring. Needle-Less Mesotherapy or No Needle Mesotherapy This is a needle free device that pushes mesotherapy products painlessly through the skin using electrical waves known as isophoresis. The main features of needle less mesotherapy are: Less painful and less traumatic Uses ultrasound/electroporation technology. Probably around 20% efficiency compared to traditional mesotherapy as there is no neocollagenesis or neo angiogenesis reactions that occur with needle micro injury. This may be an option if mesotherapy is not allowed in the country. It has been discussed in details in Chapter 12. MESO SOLUTIONS (Fig6[VG1] The basic requirements of meso products is that it should be approved and skin-compatible.Systemic administration (intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous or intradermal) should be safe and known pharmacological actions to be effective. The ingredients used in mesotherapy products should be water soluble, isotonic and non-allergenic. The mesoproducts vary with the indications chosen for treatment. [4] [ Figure 3]Products used for mesotherapy involves combination of products some of which are main ingredients known as principals as they have high grade of evidence in the treatment of each indications and complementary agents that have been approved for treatment of each indications. For a mixture to be effective it should contain 2 – 3 principals for any given indication. Therefore the ingredients in mesosolutions are broadly classified into main categories: Principal (P) / Major Complementary (C) / Minor. The main targets for mesotherapy are skin, hair, fat and cellulite. (Table 11.1). Table 11.1 Principal and Complementary ingredients in meso solutions in various indications INDICATION PRINCIPAL/MAJOR COMPLEMENTARY/MINOR SKIN REJUVENATION Mesolift Hyaluronic Acid5 DMAE Organic silicum Fibronectin + Vegetal Proteins Vitamin C Glycolic Acid Xadenal Vitamin A Growth Factors Stem Cells Mesoglow Hyaluronic Acid Siloag Vitamin C Xadenal Taurine Meso lightening Kojic Acid Azalaic Acid Vitamin C Glutathione Tretinoin Glycolic Acid Striae or stretch marks Stretch Marks Organic silicum Centella Asiatica Vegetal Proteins + Fibronectin DMAE Vitamin C Idebenone Hair Loss Androgenetic Alopecia Minoxidil Finasteride Dutasteride Dexenol Biotin Amino acids Peptides Zinc Azelaic Acid Stem Cells Telogen effluvium Biotin Dexapanthenol Pyridoxine Multi Vitamins Trace Elements Cellulite and Fat Meso Cellulite Caffeine Carnitine Aminophylline DMAE Rutin Artichoke Yohimbine Procaine Vitamin C Fat deposits Body Sculpting, localized fat, Cellulite PPC Deoxy cholate L – Carnitine Aminophylline Pentoxifylline DMAE -Dimethylaminoethanol ; PPC Phosphatidylcholine TECHNIQUES FOR MESOTHERAPY INJECTIONS The mesoproducts can be injected into the skin by various injection techniques to reach desired depth.The commonly used techniques and the desired depth reached are summarized in Table 11.2and Illustration 11.1 Table 11.2: Techniques and depth in mesotherapy injections Technique Depth Intraepidermal 1mm Papular 2mm Nappage 2-4mm Point by point 4mm Mesoperfusion > 4mm The salient features of various techniques are outlined below: Intra-epidermal This is one of the most superficial of the techniques described by Perrin. Depth: 1mm within the epidermis Painless, no bleeding Simple and large surface covered Ideal for patients with low pain threshold Ideal for facial rejuvenation, mesoglow Papular Depth:2mm dermoepidermal junction Painful Useful in mesobotox Ideal treatment of wrinkles Nappage(French for ‘covering’) Also known as picotage is the classic injection technique in mesotherapy. (Illustration 11.2) It is the most widely used technique in aesthetic dermatology. The syringe is held obliquely and the physician applies constant pressure on the plunger flicks the wrist to infuse a drop of the solutioninto the dermis(Fig 4). The injections are 2-2.5mm deep and 1cm apart. This technique can also be used for injections using a mesogun. (Fig 5) Depth 2-4mm Less pain and less bleeding Ideal for rejuvenation and scalp treatments Point by Point(Fig 6) Depth 4mm Perpendicular injection Ideal for fat reduction Mesoperfusion Depth > 4 mm Mesosolution is injected slowly over a priod of 10 minutes Not commonly used in dermatology PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF MESOTHERAPY Indications and contraindications for mesotherapy are listed in box 11.1 and box11.2. Box 11.1 Indications for mesotherapy Box 11.2 : Contraindications for mesotherapy Related to patient Unrealistic expectations Body mass index greater than 30 Pregnancy / Lactation H/O strokes, recent cancer. H/o multiple meds for heart disease H/o allergy to ingredients e.g. Soy proteins, lignocaine. Autoimmune disorders Epilepsy Insulin dependent diabetes Related to product Aminophylline – Known hypersensitivity to drug, active peptic ulcer, Pentoxiphylline, aminophylline- recent cerebral retinal bleed L. carnitine – history of seizure disorder Phosphatidyl choline relative contraindications with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome Caffeine – arrhythmias, anxiety, insomnia hypotension Mannitol – pulmonary edema, renal disease. Patient selection Selecting the patient with a valid indication for mesotherapy is the key to success. Care should be taken to avoid patients with active skin diseases, too elderly and patients with history of sensitive skin. For androgenetic alopecia better results are seen in patient with Grades 1 – 3. Counseling and preparing the patient A proper counseling is essential before starting mesotherapy. Patients with body dysmorphic disorders and those with unrealistic expectations should not be treated. Alternate procedures should be discussed sufficiently as mesotherapy is still in the controversial stage. A written informed consentis mandatory in the present medical scenario. A good before and after clinical photograph is needed to evaluate results following the procedure. Procedural aspects The area to be treated is marked and thoroughly cleaned with an antiseptic solution. For anesthesia, a local anesthetic cream may be applied or ice-anesthesia can be used to numb the treatment area. Patients are preferably injected in a lying down position. The required quantity of ingredients is drawn into the syringe using an 18Gx11/2needle. The injection is given either manually or using a device to deliver by the papular, nappage or point by point technique. A gentle massage is given after the treatments. Fresh normal saline and a mositurising cream can be applied to the treated area and massaged gently. [9]. The procedure takes about 20 – 30 minutes depending on the indication and area to be treated. There is no downtime after the procedure and the patient will be able to return to normal activities immediately. Good results are seen with mesotherapy done for skin rejuvenation, cellulite and double chin. [Fig 7, 8, 9] Post procedure care and counseling for follow up There may be mild pain, pinpoint bleeding, itching, burning or erythema after the injection which will subside spontaneously. Bruising and hematoma can appear occasionally and can be managed symptomatically. Mild swelling at site of injection may require anti-inflammatory agents for few days. The patients need to be counseled on the following aspects: Avoid sun exposure and smoking for next 48 hours Loose fitting clothes to be worn especially after lipolytic injections. The area to be treated is generally massaged after 72 hours and continued daily till disappearance of nodules if any. Follow up: Generally treatments are given once every 1-2weeks for 6 sessions, then once a month for 5months. Maintenance sessions are to be done once or twice a year. This protocol may be altered depending on the indication, patient’s lifestyle, financial position and response to previous treatments. Complications Though there are few evidence based studies on the efficacy of mesotherapy, there are documented reports on various complications. [10-17] The complications can be classified as local and systemic complications. (Box 11. 3) Box 11.3: Complications Local Bruising Burning or itching Pain, Tenderness, swelling Urticaria [10] Skin necrosis, Ulcers [11] Abscess [12] Hyper pigmentation Atypical mycobacterial infection [13] Rare – granulomatous panniculitis [14,15], koebnerisation, granuloma annulare, Oleoma [16] Systemic Anaphylaxis Nausea Vasovagal shock Hepatic toxicity Nerve demyelination Allergy to specific ingredients Thyrotoxicosis Ischaemic colitis [17] Management of Complications: Bruising:  It is a common but preventable complication. Always advice patient to stop aspirin or NSAIDs at least 2 weeks prior to the day of procedure. While injecting be slow and gentle. It is advisable to avoid mesotherapy during menstruation. Burning/Itching:  Burning can be overcome by adding lignocaine to the products if compatible. A mesomask applied immediately following procedure can also minimize burning and itching as it has a soothing effect. Pain/Tenderness: Procedural pain can be minimized by using adequate topical anaesthesia. Immediate post treatment pain can be alleviated by cold compresses with ice. Other methods that help to minimize pain are by pinching the skin for point by point injections or by stretching it when giving a nappage. Change needles after every few pricks to reduce the pain caused by blunt injecting needles Urticaria:  Urticaria can be avoided by a careful history to avoid products that would provoke an allergic reaction. E.g. phosphatidyl choline in individuals with history of allergy to soy proteins. Skin necrosis:  Skin necrosis occurs usually with phosphatidyl choline when the injections are given superficially Ulcers:  Ulcers can due to infection or irritant nature of the drugs. Irritant induced ulcers can be prevented by minimizing the number of drugs used in the cocktail to 4 or 5. Infective ulcers can be avoided by disinfecting the treatment area thoroughly and by wearing sterile gloves and using sterile equipment and materials. Hyper pigmentation:  This can be avoided by advising the patient photo protection for 48 hours after the procedure and by addition of topical skin lightening agents in patients with a history of post inflammatory hyper pigmentation. COMBINING MESOTHERAPY WITH OTHER TECHNIQUES Mesotherapy can be combined with other techniques to enhance results.Soon after injection of mesotherapy products, ultrasound, radiofrequency or electroporation may be applied to help in better diffusion of the injected products. The techniques are discussed in chapter 12. Mesomasks can be applied immediately after the injections to minimize bleeding points and to overcome the discomfort that follows injections.It is a 150 g of powder to be mixed with water to form a paste which is applied for 15minutes as a mask over gauze. This allows all products to penetrate deeper in the skin to give a better effect. These masks contain a mixture of calcium sulfate, talc and orange oil. Other procedures such as chemical peels, fillers and neurotoxins can be carried out between the mesotherapy sessions. In countries where mesotherapy is not practiced, mesotherapy products can be used following cosmetic skin needling. By using a dermaroller in the area to be treated, it is possible to create micro perforations that will be used as channels to deliver a product deeply into the skin. CLINICAL STUDIES Mesotherapy has been in history for a long time and there are proponents who have been successfully using it in practice for the benefits of their patients. However there are few indexed studies about the safety and efficacy of mesotherapy but many about its complications, hence it only natural to distrust proponents in relation to this technique Hence adequate controlled studies are needed to establish the value of mesotherapy in aesthetic dermatology. [18] Mesotherapy for skin rejuvenation, treatment of local fat deposits, body sculpting have been assigned Evidence Level C, whereas cellulite treatment has been assigned Evidence Level D [18]. Few recent studies have shown promising results for mesotherapy in various aesthetic indications. A study by Larruba et al showed good results with hyaluronic acid mesotherapy on photoaging and assessed by ultrasound techniques. [5] A study by Savoia etal showed promising [VG1] An excellent compilation with evidence for few of them are given in these two articles from IJDVL Sarkar R, Garg VK, Mysore V. Position paper on mesotherapy. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2011;77:232-7 Konda D, Thappa DM. Mesotherapy: What is new?. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2013;79:127-34 Another review of various indication s of mesotherapy is in this article by Dr. premlatha 3.Latha P. and Vandana K.R. / International Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutics / 1 (1), 2011, 19-29 ( full text available of all three) The meso solutions can be tabulated in the format below Indication Product Mechanism of action ( should include original intention versus intention in mesotherapy e.g. aminophylline was originally used for brochodilation. In mesotherapy it is used for vasodilatation etc Evidence grade ( wherever available)

Metrics and Models in Software Testing

Metrics and Models in Software Testing How do we measure the progress of testing? When do we release the software? Why do we devote more time and resources for testing a particular module? What is the reliability of software at the time of release? Who is responsible for the selection of a poor test suite? How many faults do we expect during testing? How much time and resources are required to test a software? How do we know the effectiveness of test suite? We may keep on framing such questions without much effort? However, finding answers to such questions are not easy and may require significant amount of effort. Software testing metrics may help us to measure and quantify many things which may find some answers to such important questions. 10.1 Software Metrics â€Å"What cannot be measured, cannot be controlled† is a reality in this world. If we want to control something we should first be able to measure it. Therefore, everything should be measurable. If a thing is not measurable, we should make an effort to make it measurable. The area of measurement is very important in every field and we have mature and establish metrics to quantify various things. However, in software engineering this â€Å"area of measurement† is still in its developing stage and may require significant effort to make it mature, scientific and effective. 10.1.1 Measure, Measurement and Metrics These terms are often used interchangeably. However, we should understand the difference amongst these terms. Pressman explained this clearly as [PRES05]: â€Å"A measure provides a quantitative indication of the extent, amount, dimension, capacity or size of some attributes of a product or process. Measurement is the act of determining a measure. The metric is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a product or process possesses a given attribute†. For example, a measure is the number of failures experienced during testing. Measurement is the way of recording such failures. A software metric may be average number of failures experienced per hour during testing. Fenton [FENT04] has defined measurement as: â€Å"It is the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules†. The basic issue is that we want to measure every attribute of an entity. We should have established metrics to do so. However, we are in the process of developing metrics for many attributes of various entities used in software engineering. Software metrics can be defined as [GOOD93]: â€Å"The continuous application of measurement based techniques to the software development process and its products to supply meaningful and timely management information, together with the use of those techniques to improve that process and its products.† Many things are covered in this definition. Software metrics are related to measures which, in turn, involve numbers for quantification, these numbers are used to produce better product and improve its related process. We may like to measure quality attributes such as testability, complexity, reliability, maintainability, efficiency, portability, enhanceability, usability etc for a software. We may also like to measure size, effort, development time and resources for a software. 10.1.2 Applications Software metrics are applicable in all phases of software development life cycle. In software requirements and analysis phase, where output is the SRS document, we may have to estimate the cost, manpower requirement and development time for the software. The customer may like to know cost of the software and development time before signing the contract. As we all know, the SRS document acts as a contract between customer and developer. The readability and effectiveness of SRS document may help to increase the confidence level of the customer and may provide better foundations for designing the product. Some metrics are available for cost and size estimation like COCOMO, Putnam resource allocation model, function point estimation model etc. Some metrics are also available for the SRS document like number of mistakes found during verification, change request frequency, readability etc. In the design phase, we may like to measure stability of a design, coupling amongst modules, cohesion of a module etc. We may also like to measure the amount of data input to a software, processed by the software and also produced by the software. A count of the amount of data input to, processed in, and output from software is called a data structure metric. Many such metrics are available like number of variables, number of operators, number of operands, number of live variables, variable spans, module weakness etc. Some information flow metrics are also popular like FANIN, FAN OUT etc. Use cases may also be used to design metrics like counting actors, counting use cases, counting number of links etc. Some metrics may also be designed for various applications of websites like number of static web pages, number of dynamic web pages, number of internal page links, word count, number of static and dynamic content objects, time taken to search a web page and retrieve the desired information, similarity of web pages etc. Software metrics have number of applications during implementation phase and after the completion of such a phase. Halstead software size measures are applicable after coding like token count, program length, program volume, program level, difficulty, estimation of time and effort, language level etc. Some complexity measures are also popular like cyclomatic complexity, knot count, feature count etc. Software metrics have found good number of applications during testing. One area is the reliability estimation where popular models are Musas basic executio n time model and Logarithmic Poisson execution time model. Jelinski Moranda model [JELI72] is also used for the calculation of reliability. Source code coverage metrics are available that calculate the percentage of source code covered during testing. Test suite effectiveness may also be measured. Number of failures experienced per unit of time, number of paths, number of independent paths, number of du paths, percentage of statement coverage, percentage of branch condition covered are also useful software metrics. Maintenance phase may have many metrics like number of faults reported per year, number of requests for changes per year, percentage of source code modified per year, percentage of obsolete source code per year etc. We may find number of applications of software metrics in every phase of software development life cycle. They provide meaningful and timely information which may help us to take corrective actions as and when required. Effective implementation of metrics may improve the quality of software and may help us to deliver the software in time and within budget. 10.2 Categories of Metrics There are two broad categories of software metrics namely product metrics and process metrics. Product metrics describe the characteristics of the product such as size, complexity, design features, performance, efficiency, reliability, portability, etc. Process metrics describe the effectiveness and quality of the processes that produce the software product. Examples are effort required in the process, time to produce the product, effectiveness of defect removal during development, number of defects found during testing, maturity of the process [AGGA08]. 10.2.1 Product metrics for testing These metrics provide information about the testing status of a software product. The data for such metrics are also generated during testing and may help us to know the quality of the product. Some of the basic metrics are given as: (i) Number of failures experienced in a time interval (ii) Time interval between failures (iii) Cumulative failures experienced upto a specified time (iv) Time of failure (v) Estimated time for testing (vi) Actual testing time With these basic metrics, we may find some additional metrics as given below: (i) (ii) Average time interval between failures (iii) Maximum and minimum failures experienced in any time interval (iv) Average number of failures experienced in time intervals (v) Time remaining to complete the testing. We may design similar metrics to find the indications about the quality of the product. 10.2.2 Process metrics for testing These metrics are developed to monitor the progress of testing, status of design and development of test cases and outcome of test cases after execution. Some of the basic process metrics are given below: (i) Number of test cases designed (ii) Number of test cases executed (iii) Number of test cases passed (iv) Number of test cases failed (v) Test case execution time (vi) Total execution time (vii) Time spent for the development of a test case (viii) Total time spent for the development of all test cases On the basis of above direct measures, we may design following additional metrics which may convert the base metric data into more useful information. (i) % of test cases executed (ii) % of test cases passed (iii) % of test cases failed (iv) Total actual execution time / total estimated execution time (v) Average execution time of a test case These metrics, although simple, may help us to know the progress of testing and may provide meaningful information to the testers and project manager. An effective test plan may force us to capture data and convert it into useful metrics for process and product both. This document also guides the organization for future projects and may also suggest changes in the existing processes in order to produce a good quality maintainable software product. 10.3 Object Oriented Metrics used in Testing Object oriented metrics capture many attributes of a software and some of them are relevant in testing. Measuring structural design attributes of a software system, such as coupling, cohesion or complexity, is a promising approach towards early quality assessments. There are several metrics available in the literature to capture the quality of design and source code. 10.3.1 Coupling Metrics Coupling relations increase complexity, reduce encapsulation, potential reuse, and limit understanding and maintainability. The coupling metrics requires information about attribute usage and method invocations of other classes. These metrics are given in table 10.1. Higher values of coupling metrics indicate that a class under test will require more number of stubs during testing. In addition, each interface will require to be tested thoroughly. Metric Definition Source Coupling between Objects. (CBO) CBO for a class is count of the number of other classes to which it is coupled. [CHID94] Data Abstraction Coupling (DAC) Data Abstraction is a technique of creating new data types suited for an application to be programmed. DAC = number of ADTs defined in a class. [LI93] Message Passing Coupling. (MPC) It counts the number of send statements defined in a class. Response for a Class (RFC) It is defined as set of methods that can be potentially executed in response to a message received by an object of that class. It is given by RFC=|RS|, where RS, the response set of the class, is given by [CHID94] Information flow-based coupling (ICP) The number of methods invoked in a class, weighted by the number of parameters of the methods invoked. [LEE95] Information flow-based inheritance coupling. (IHICP) Same as ICP, but only counts methods invocations of ancestors of classes. Information flow-based non-inheritance coupling (NIHICP) Same as ICP, but only counts methods invocations of classes not related through inheritance. Fan-in Count of modules (classes) that call a given class, plus the number of global data elements. [BINK98] Fan-out Count of modules (classes) called by a given module plus the number of global data elements altered by the module (class). [BINK98] Table 10.1: Coupling Metrics 10.3.3 Inheritance Metrics Inheritance metrics requires information about ancestors and descendants of a class. They also collect information about methods overridden, inherited and added (i.e. neither inherited nor overrided). These metrics are summarized in table 10.3. If a class has more number of children (or sub classes), more amount of testing may be required in testing the methods of that class. More is the depth of inheritance tree, more complex is the design as more number of methods and classes are involved. Thus, we may test all the inherited methods of a class and testing effort well increase accordingly. Metric Definition Sources Number of Children (NOC) The NOC is the number of immediate subclasses of a class in a hierarchy. [CHID94] Depth of Inheritance Tree (DIT) The depth of a class within the inheritance hierarchy is the maximum number of steps from the class node to the root of the tree and is measured by the number of ancestor classes. Number of Parents (NOP) The number of classes that a class directly inherits from (i.e. multiple inheritance). [LORE94] Number of Descendants (NOD) The number of subclasses (both direct and indirectly inherited) of a class. Number of Ancestors (NOA) The number of superclasses (both direct and indirectly inherited) of a class. [TEGA92] Number of Methods Overridden (NMO) When a method in a subclass has the same name and type signature as in its superclass, then the method in the superclass is said to be overridden by the method in the subclass. [LORE94] Number of Methods Inherited (NMI) The number of methods that a class inherits from its super (ancestor) class. Number of Methods Added (NMA) The number of new methods added in a class (neither inherited, nor overriding). Table 10.3: Inheritance Metrics 10.3.4 Size Metrics Size metrics indicate the length of a class in terms of lines of source code and methods used in the class. These metrics are given in table 10.4. If a class has more number of methods with greater complexity, then more number of test cases will be required to test that class. When a class with more number of methods with greater complexity is inherited, it will require more rigorous testing. Similarly, a class with more number of public methods will require thorough testing of public methods as they may be used by other classes. Metric Definition Sources Number of Attributes per Class (NA) It counts the total number of attributes defined in a class. Number of Methods per Class (NM) It counts number of methods defined in a class. Weighted Methods per Class (WMC) The WMC is a count of sum of complexities of all methods in a class. Consider a class K1, with methods M1,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Mn that are defined in the class. Let C1,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Cn be the complexity of the methods. [CHID94] Number of public methods (PM) It counts number of public methods defined in a class. Number of non-public methods (NPM) It counts number of private methods defined in a class. Lines Of Code (LOC) It counts the lines in the source code. Table 10.4: Size Metrics 10.4 What should we measure during testing? We should measure every thing (if possible) which we want to control and which may help us to find answers to the questions given in the beginning of this chapter. Test metrics may help us to measure the current performance of any project. The collected data may become historical data for future projects. This data is very important because in the absence of historical data, all estimates are just the guesses. Hence, it is essential to record the key information about the current projects. Test metrics may become an important indicator of the effectiveness and efficiency of a software testing process and may also identify risky areas that may need more testing. 10.4.1 Time We may measure many things during testing with respect to time and some of them are given as: 1) Time required to run a test case. 2) Total time required to run a test suite. 3) Time available for testing 4) Time interval between failures 5) Cumulative failures experienced upto a given time 6) Time of failure 7) Failures experienced in a time interval A test case requires some time for its execution. A measurement of this time may help to estimate the total time required to execute a test suite. This is the simplest metric and may estimate the testing effort. We may calculate the time available for testing at any point in time during testing, if we know the total allotted time for testing. Generally unit of time is seconds, minutes or hours, per test case. Total testing time may be defined in terms of hours. Time needed to execute a planned test suite may also be defined in terms of hours. When we test a software, we experience failures. These failures may be recorded in different ways like time of failure, time interval between failures, cumulative failures experienced upto given time and failures experienced in a time interval. Consider the table 10.5 and table 10.6 where time based failure specification and failure based failure specification are given: Sr. No. of failure occurrences Failure time measured in minutes Failure intervals in minutes 1 12 12 2 26 14 3 35 09 4 38 03 5 50 12 6 70 20 7 106 36 8 125 19 9 155 30 10 200 45 Table 10.5: Time based failure specification Time in minutes Cumulative failures Failures in interval of 20 minutes 20 01 01 40 04 03 60 05 01 80 06 01 100 06 00 120 07 01 140 08 01 160 09 01 180 09 00 200 10 01 Table 10.6: Failure based failure specification These two tables give us the idea about failure pattern and may help us to define the following: 1) Time taken to experience ‘n failures 2) Number of failures in a particular time interval 3) Total number of failures experienced after a specified time 4) Maximum / minimum number of failures experienced in any regular time interval. 10.4.2 Quality of source code We may know the quality of the delivered source code after reasonable time of release using the following formula: Where WDB: Number of weighted defects found before release WDA: Number of weighted defects found after release The weight for each defect is defined on the basis of defect severity and removal cost. A severity is assigned to each defect by testers based on how important or serious is the defect. A lower value of this metric indicates the less number of error detection or less serious error detection. We may also calculate the number of defects per execution test case. This may also be used as an indicator of source code quality as the source code progressed through the series of test activities [STEP03]. 10.4.3 Source Code Coverage We may like to execute every statement of a program at least once before its release to the customer. Hence, percentage of source code coverage may be calculated as: The higher value of this metric given confidence about the effectiveness of a test suite. We should write additional test cases to cover the uncovered portions of the source code. 10.4.4 Test Case Defect Density This metric may help us to know the efficiency and effectiveness of our test cases. Where Failed test case: A test case that when executed, produced an undesired output. Passed test case: A test case that when executed, produced a desired output Higher value of this metric indicates that the test cases are effective and efficient because they are able to detect more number of defects. 10.4.5 Review Efficiency Review efficiency is a metric that gives insight on the quality of review process carried out during verification. Higher the value of this metric, better is the review efficiency. 10.5 Software Quality Attributes Prediction Models Software quality is dependent on many attributes like reliability, maintainability, fault proneness, testability, complexity, etc. Number of models are available for the prediction of one or more such attributes of quality. These models are especially beneficial for large-scale systems, where testing experts need to focus their attention and resources to problem areas in the system under development. 10.5.1 Reliability Models Many reliability models for software are available where emphasis is on failures rather than faults. We experience failures during execution of any program. A fault in the program may lead to failure(s) depending upon the input(s) given to a program with the purpose of executing it. Hence, time of failure and time between failures may help us to find reliability of software. As we all know, software reliability is the probability of failure free operation of software in a given time under specified conditions. Generally, we consider the calendar time. We may like to know the probability that a given software will not fail in one month time or one week time and so on. However, most of the available models are based on execution time. The execution time is the time for which the computer actually executes the program. Reliability models based on execution time normally give better results than those based on calendar time. In many cases, we have a mapping table that converts execution time to calendar time for the purpose of reliability studies. In order to differentiate both the timings, execution time is represented byand calendar time by t. Most of the reliability models are applicable at system testing level. Whenever software fails, we note the time of failure and also try to locate and correct the fault that caused the failure. During system testing, software may not fail at regular intervals and may also not follow a particular pattern. The variation in time between successive failures may be described in terms of following functions: ÃŽ ¼ () : average number of failures upto time ÃŽ » () : average number of failures per unit time at time and is known as failure intensity function. It is expected that the reliability of a program increases due to fault detection and correction over time and hence the failure intensity decreases accordingly. (i) Basic Execution Time Model This is one of the popular model of software reliability assessment and was developed by J.D. MUSA [MUSA79] in 1979. As the name indicates, it is based on execution time (). The basic assumption is that failures may occur according to a non-homogeneous poisson process (NHPP) during testing. Many examples may be given for real world events where poisson processes are used. Few examples are given as: * Number of users using a website in a given period of time. * Number of persons requesting for railway tickets in a given period of time * Number of e-mails expected in a given period of time. The failures during testing represents a non-homogeneous process, and failure intensity decreases as a function of time. J.D. Musa assumed that the decrease in failure intensity as a function of the number of failures observed, is constant and is given as: Where : Initial failure intensity at the start of testing. : Total number of failures experienced upto infinite time : Number of failures experienced upto a given point in time. Musa [MUSA79] has also given the relationship between failure intensity (ÃŽ ») and the mean failures experienced (ÃŽ ¼) and is given in 10.1. If we take the first derivative of equation given above, we get the slope of the failure intensity as given below The negative sign shows that there is a negative slope indicating a decrementing trend in failure intensity. This model also assumes a uniform failure pattern meaning thereby equal probability of failures due to various faults. The relationship between execution time () and mean failures experienced (ÃŽ ¼) is given in 10.2 The derivation of the relationship of 10.2 may be obtained as: The failure intensity as a function of time is given in 10.3. This relationship is useful for calculating present failure intensity at any given value of execution time. We may find this relationship Two additional equations are given to calculate additional failures required to be experienced to reach a failure intensity objective (ÃŽ »F) and additional time required to reach the objective. These equations are given as: Where à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  ÃŽ ¼: Expected number of additional failures to be experienced to reach failure intensity objective. : Additional time required to reach the failure intensity objective. : Present failure intensity : Failure intensity objective. and are very interesting metrics to know the additional time and additional failures required to achieve a failure intensity objective. Example 10.1: A program will experience 100 failures in infinite time. It has now experienced 50 failures. The initial failure intensity is 10 failures/hour. Use the basic execution time model for the following: (i) Find the present failure intensity. (ii) Calculate the decrement of failure intensity per failure. (iii) Determine the failure experienced and failure intensity after 10 and 50 hours of execution. (iv) Find the additional failures and additional execution time needed to reach the failure intensity objective of 2 failures/hour. Solution: (a) Present failure intensity can be calculated using the following equation: (b) Decrement of failure intensity per failure can be calculated using the following: (c) Failures experienced and failure intensity after 10 and 50 hours of execution can be calculated as: (i) After 10 hours of execution (ii) After 50 hours of execution (d) and with failure intensity objective of 2 failures/hour (ii) Logarithmic Poisson Execution time model With a slight modification in the failure intensity function, Musa presented logarithmic poisson execution time model. The failure intensity function is given as: Where ÃŽ ¸: Failure intensity decay parameter which represents the relative change of failure intensity per failure experienced. The slope of failure intensity is given as: The expected number of failures for this model is always infinite at infinite time. The relation for mean failures experienced is given as: The expression for failure intensity with respect to time is given as: The relationship for additional number of failures and additional execution time are given as: When execution time is more, the logarithmic poisson model may give large values of failure intensity than the basic model. Example 10.2: The initial failure intensity of a program is 10 failures/hour. The program has experienced 50 failures. The failure intensity decay parameter is 0.01/failure. Use the logarithmic poisson execution time model for the following: (a) Find present failure intensity. (b) Calculate the decrement of failure intensity per failure. (c) Determine the failure experienced and failure intensity after 10 and 50 hours of execution. (d) Find the additional failures and additional and failure execution time needed to reach the failure intensity objective of 2 failures/hour. Solution: (a) Present failure intensity can be calculated as: = 50 failures = 50 failures = 0.01/falures Hence = 6.06 failures/hour (b) Decrement of failure intensity per failure can be calculated as: (c) Failure experienced and failure intensity after 10 and 50 hours of execution can be calculated as: (i) After 10 hours of execution (ii) After 50 hours of execution (d) and with failure intensity objective of 2 failures/hour (iii) The Jelinski Moranda Model The Jelinski Moranda model [JELI72] is the earliest and simples software reliability model. It proposed a failure intensity function in the form of Where = Constant of proportionality N = total number of errors present i = number of errors found by time interval ti. This model assumes that all failures have the same failure rate. It means that failure rate is a step function and there will be an improvement in reliability after fixing an error. Hence, every failure contributes equally to the overall reliability. Here, failure intensity is directly proportional to the number of errors remaining in a software. Once we know the value of failure intensity function using any reliability model, we may calculate reliability using the equation given below: Where ÃŽ » is the failure intensity and t is the operating time. Lower the failure intensity and higher is the reliability and vice versa. Example 10.3: A program may experience 200 failures in infinite time of testing. It has experienced 100 failures. Use Jelinski-Moranda model to calculate failure intensity after the experience of 150 failures? Solution: Total expected number of failures (N) = 200 Failures experienced (i) =100 Constant of proportionality () = 0.02 We know = 2.02 failures/hour After 150 failures = 0.02 (200-150+1) =1.02 failures/hour Failure intensity will decrease with every additional failure experience. 10.5.2 An example of fault prediction model in practice It is clear that software metrics can be used to capture the quality of object oriented design and code. These metrics provide ways to evaluate the quality of software and their use in earlier phases of software development can help organizations in assessing a large software development quickly, at a low cost. To achieve help for planning and executing testing by focusing resources on the fault prone parts of the design and code, the model used to predict faulty classes should be used. The fault prediction model can also be used to identify classes that are prone to have severe faults. One can use this model with respect to high severity of faults to focus the testing on those parts of the system that are likely to cause serious failures. In this section, we describe models used to find relationship between object oriented metrics and fault proneness, and how such models can be of great help in planning and executing testing activities [MALH09, SING10]. In order to perform the analysis we used public domain KC1 NASA data set [NASA04] The data set is available on www.mdp.ivv.nasa.gov. The 145