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In this age of technology, building quality software is essential to competing in the business market. One of the major principles required for any quality and business software product for value fulfillment is reliability. Estimating software reliability early during the software development life cycle saves time and money as it prevents spending larger sums fixing a defective software product after deployment. The Software Reliability Growth Model (SRGM) can be used to predict the number of failures that may be encountered during the software testing process. In this paper we explore the advantages of the Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm in estimating the SRGM’s parameters with the objective of minimizing the difference between the estimated and the actual number of failures of the software system. We evaluated three different software reliability growth models: the Exponential Model (EXPM), the Power Model (POWM) and the Delayed S-Shaped Model (DSSM). In addition, we used three different datasets to conduct an experimental study in order to show the effectiveness of our approach.

In Alain Chartier: Père de l'éloquence française contributors explore the diverse literary production of this influential late-medieval writer, whose concern with personal and political ethics and renovation of poetic form inspired generations of writers, and still resonate with modern readers.

Local governments are a vital component in the national effort to promote sensible methods for community development, growth and social justice. The benefits and challenges of sustainable development have become apparent as more local governments initiate programs to address economic, environmental and social equity issues. This research investigates county and municipal government efforts toward sustainable development using survey information for local governments in the southern United States. Survey responses were analyzed to examine whether local governments “practice what they preach” in terms of actually implementing the sustainable policies proclaimed to be important to their operations. Overall, results suggest local governments do place these policies into action for environmental and social justice issues. In addition, the analysis explores the impact of population size, geographic area and form of government on sustainable development. Measuring the implementation of sustainable policies in terms of dollars, however, proves difficult because there is no consistency among municipalities with regard to reporting the amount of dollars (federal or local) spent in support of sustainability efforts.

Delivery of a quality introductory accounting course is essential for schools of business. The first step in revitalization and improvement of the course is to identify factors suggested to be empirically related to succeessful completion. Accounting major status is of particular interest. While it has long been anecdotally observed and logically expected that accounting majors would earn higher grades in introductory accounting, it is rarely addressed in empirical studies. To investigate the impact of accounting major status on performance in introductory accounting, a sample of 398 students exposed to the same professor, text, teaching and examination format over five-years was gathered. Results suggest accounting major status was in fact a significant positive predictor of grades earned in the class controlling for three additional variables (i.e., grade point average, mathematics background and previous experience in the course). These results could be used to support the creation of an honors section(s) of accounting which could include a more rigorous curriculum taught with real life cases. Previous research supported the concept of an honors program from students, faculty and potential employers. In addition, the results suggest requiring a minimum grade point average and the completion of mathematics requirement before taking introductory accounting.

The reporting of non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Measures (non-GAAP) by U.S. publically traded companies is not new but it has recently come under increased scrutiny by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This case presents a specific example of this scrutiny in the form of Tesla, Inc.’s quarterly earnings announcements and Tesla’s subsequent correspondence with the SEC. This case requires students to answer relevant questions about GAAP vs Non GAAP reporting, generally in the form of a research memo, with references to applicable SEC regulations and guidance on the use and reporting of non-GAAP measures.

With a dynamical mass of 3 M Jup, the recently discovered giant planet AF Lep b is the lowest-mass imaged planet with a direct mass measurement. Its youth and spectral type near the L/T transition make it a promising target to study the impact of clouds and atmospheric chemistry at low surface gravities. In this work, we present JWST/NIRCam imaging of AF Lep b. Across two epochs, we detect AF Lep b in F444W (4.4 μm) with signal-to-noise ratios of 9.6 and 8.7, respectively. At the planet’s separation of 320 mas during the observations, the coronagraphic throughput is ≈7%, demonstrating that NIRCam’s excellent sensitivity persists down to small separations. The F444W photometry of AF Lep b affirms the presence of disequilibrium carbon chemistry and enhanced atmospheric metallicity. These observations also place deep limits on wider-separation planets in the system, ruling out 1.1 M Jup planets beyond 15.6 au (0.″58), 1.1 M Sat planets beyond 27 au (1″), and 2.8 M Nep planets beyond 67 au (2.″5). We also present new Keck/NIRC2 imaging of AF Lep b; combining this with the two epochs of F444W photometry and previous Keck photometry provides limits on the long-term 3–5 μm variability of AF Lep b on timescales of months to years. AF Lep b is the closest-separation planet imaged with JWST to date, demonstrating that planets can be recovered well inside the nominal (50% throughput) NIRCam coronagraph inner working angle.

Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education: Pathways and Possibilities examines the ways in which divide-and-conquer strategies operate in the American public education system. In U.S. education, these mechanisms are endemic and enduring, if not always evident. Coordinated, strategic, well-funded, politically-viable campaigns continue to stoke fear, othering, villainization, and dehumanization of minoritized groups, pushing false and problematic narratives that inhibit progress toward social justice. Weaponizing hegemony and leveraging misinformation, reactionary agents and institutions seek to suppress truth, block access to democratic participation, and dismantle education and other sites of emancipatory possibility through the strength of divide-and-conquer mechanisms, pitting relatively disempowered groups against one another to preserve the dominant social order. Readers of this book will encounter conceptual and critical interrogations of divide and conquer. The text will help facilitate inquiry and engagement into how divide and conquer operates and how it can be resisted. It looks at the history of the phenomenon, as well as its current state, especially as it relates to education. What insights and lessons might we learn from a focused examination of divide and conquer, and what strategies of resistance are both possible and necessary for challenging it? This text is designed for undergraduate and graduate classrooms in education and social sciences. Part I, Ideology and Sociopolitical Contexts, dissects how divide-and-conquer mechanisms operate ideologically and sociopolitically. Part II, Policies and Practices, focuses on how divide-and-conquer mechanisms shape exclusionary U.S. educational policies and practices. Part III, Resistance and Liberation, documents efforts of liberatory communicative, curricular, and pedagogical possibilities. Each chapter concludes with a set of critical questions for reflection and engagement.Perfect for courses such as: Foundations of Education; Schools and Society; Schooling in America; History of Education; Philosophy of Education; Sociology of Education; Social Studies; Critical Theory in Education

At the origin of the Universe, an asymmetry between the amount of created matter and antimatter led to the matter-dominated Universe as we know it today. The origins of this asymmetry remain unknown so far. High-energy nuclear collisions create conditions similar to the Universe microseconds after the Big Bang, with comparable amounts of matter and antimatter1–6. Much of the created antimatter escapes the rapidly expanding fireball without annihilating, making such collisions an effective experimental tool to create heavy antimatter nuclear objects and to study their properties7–14, hoping to shed some light on the existing questions on the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. Here we report the observation of the antimatter hypernucleus $${}_{\bar{\Lambda }}{}^{4}\bar{{\rm{H}}}$$, composed of a $$\bar{\Lambda }$$, an antiproton and two antineutrons. The discovery was made through its two-body decay after production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider15,16. In total, 15.6 candidate $${}_{\bar{\Lambda }}{}^{4}\bar{{\rm{H}}}$$antimatter hypernuclei are obtained with an estimated background count of 6.4. The lifetimes of the antihypernuclei $${}_{\bar{\Lambda }}{}^{3}\bar{{\rm{H}}}$$and $${}_{\bar{\Lambda }}{}^{4}\bar{{\rm{H}}}$$are measured and compared with the lifetimes of their corresponding hypernuclei, testing the symmetry between matter and antimatter. Various production yield ratios among (anti)hypernuclei (hypernuclei and/or antihypernuclei) and (anti)nuclei (nuclei and/or antinuclei) are also measured and compared with theoretical model predictions, shedding light on their production mechanisms.

The 30 yr orbit of the Cepheid Polaris has been followed with observations by the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array from 2016 through 2021. An additional measurement has been made with speckle interferometry at the Apache Point Observatory. Detection of the companion is complicated by its comparative faintness—an extreme flux ratio. Angular diameter measurements appear to show some variation with pulsation phase. Astrometric positions of the companion were measured with a custom grid-based model-fitting procedure and confirmed with the CANDID software. These positions were combined with the extensive radial velocities (RVs) discussed by Torres to fit an orbit. Because of the imbalance of the sizes of the astrometry and RV data sets, several methods of weighting are discussed. The resulting mass of the Cepheid is 5.13 ± 0.28 M ⊙. Because of the comparatively large eccentricity of the orbit (0.63), the mass derived is sensitive to the value found for the eccentricity. The mass combined with the distance shows that the Cepheid is more luminous than predicted for this mass from evolutionary tracks. The identification of surface spots is discussed. This would give credence to the identification of a radial velocity variation with a period of approximately 120 days as a rotation period. Polaris has some unusual properties (rapid period change, a phase jump, variable amplitude, and unusual polarization). However, a pulsation scenario involving pulsation mode, orbital periastron passage, and low pulsation amplitude can explain these characteristics within the framework of pulsation seen in Cepheids.

While students of color’s experiences of academic bullying from their advisors have been documented in the literature (e.g., Moss & Mahmoudi, 2021), little is known regarding the role that race plays in the normalization and perpetuation of academic bullying within higher education. Utilizing Asian critical theory (AsianCrit) as both the theoretical and analytical lens, this phenomenological study centers five STEM Asian international doctoral students’ experiences of academic bullying through semi-structured interviews. It is found that racialized academic bullying is operationalized by a) legitimizing exploitation through racializing discourses; b) maintaining White supremacy across transnational contexts; and c) intersecting systems of oppression. Implications and recommendations are offered as to what stakeholders can do collectively to address racialized academic bullying towards minoritized students and to combat systemic inequities and oppression.

Barcode-less fruit recognition technology has revolutionized the checkout process by eliminating manual barcode scanning. This technology automatically identifies and adds fruit items to the purchase list, significantly reducing waiting times at the cash register. Faster checkouts enhance customer convenience and optimize operational efficiency for retailers. Adding barcode to fruits require using adhesives on the fruit surface that may cause health hazards. Leveraging deep learning techniques for barcode-less fruit recognition brings valuable advantages to industries, including advanced automation, enhanced accuracy, and increased efficiency. These benefits translate into improved productivity, cost reduction, and superior quality control. This study introduces a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) designed explicitly for automatic fruit recognition, even in challenging real-world scenarios. The proposed method assists fruit sellers in accurately identifying and distinguishing between different types of fruit that may exhibit similarities. A dataset that includes 44,406 images of different fruit types is used to train and test our technique. Employing a CNN, the developed model achieves an impressive classification accuracy of 97.4% during the training phase and 88.6% during the testing phase respectively, showcasing its effectiveness in precise fruit recognition.

In the 1960s, professors, students, and activists on the political Left viewed college curricula as useful sites for political transformation. They coordinated efforts to alter general education requirements at the college level to foster change in American thought, with greater openness toward people who had previously been excluded, including women, people of color, the poor and working classes, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community. Their work reshaped American culture and politics, while prompting a significant backlash from conservatives attempting to, in their view, protect classical education from modern encroachment. Elizabeth M. Kalbfleisch details how American universities became a battleground for identity politics from the 1960s through the 1980s. Focusing on two case studies at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, Making the Radical University examines how curricular changes led to polarizing discussions nationwide around academic standards and identity politics, including the so-called canon wars. Today, these debates have only become more politically charged, complex, and barbed.

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Abstract While the familiar Hanukkah story of the ‘miracle of the oil’ is often dismissed as quaint and fanciful, it may be seen as a final link in an interesting chain of traditions about the sanctity of Judaism’s holiest of places. In the book of Exodus, one type of oil is used to light the lamps and another oil is used to anoint the Tabernacle and make it inviolate. The Tabernacle became part of the First Temple so there was no need to anoint the Holy of Holies there. In the time of the First Temple, some considered the Temple to be inviolate. When the First Temple was destroyed, no aspect of the new Temple was anointed. In the 160s BCE, during the Antiochene persecution, some felt the need to explain how the Temple could have been violated. The author of Daniel 9 reinterpreted Jeremiah’s prophecies of the 70 years of exile to be 70 weeks of years so that everything that had befallen the Judeans was seen as part of God’s overarching plan. The complex issues of continuity/discontinuity between, and the violability/inviolability of the temples, underlie Dan. 9 and related texts.

The growth of nonemployer businesses as a share of the working-age population has been little studied relative to the decline of employer business rate in the United States. We show that local labor markets specializing in routine task-intensive jobs have experienced a higher adoption of information technology as well as the growth of nonemployer businesses primarily through increasing self-employment in nonroutine manual task-intensive jobs that are less frequently outsourced to business service firms. © 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The sheep case in Analects 13.18 has generated a heated debate in contemporary Chinese philosophy for more than a decade. One side in this debate criticizes Confucius’ view in the sheep case and the other side defends Confucius’ position. Neither side’s reading of 13.18 is satisfactory. I argue that something important in the text has been overlooked and this omission may explain why neither side gives a satisfying reading. I offer in this essay a new reading of the sheep case which pays attention to what the existent interpretations have overlooked in the text. This new focus will give us a new perspective to reframe the issue in question and to defend the Confucian position in a more convincing way. On the new interpretation, Confucius’ position in the sheep case suggests a sensible and reasonable way for the state to balance some important social interests which the state seeks to protect.