Where are artificial neural networks applied?

The artificial neural networks have been applied to a number of problems in diverse fields such as engineering, finance, medical, physics, medicine, and biology and so on. 

- All these applications are based on the fact that these neural networks can simulate the human brain capabilities. 

- They have found a potential use in classification and prediction problems. 

- These networks can be classified under the non-linear data driven self adaptive approaches. 

- They come handy as a powerful tool when the underlying data relationship is not known. 

- They find it easy to recognize and learn the patterns and can correlate between the input sets and the result values.

- Once the artificial neural networks have been trained, they can be used in the prediction of the outcomes of the data. 

- They can even work when the data is not clear i.e., when it is noisy and imprecise. 

- This is the reason why they prove to be an ideal tool for modeling the agricultural data which is often very complex. 

- Their adaptive nature is their most important feature.

- It is because of this feature that the models developed using ANN is quite appealing when the data is available but there is a lack of understanding of the problem.

- These networks are particularly useful in those areas where the statistical methods can be employed. 

- They have uses in various fields:

    1. Classification Problems:

a)   Identification of underwater sonar currents.

b)   Speech recognition

c)   Prediction of the secondary structure of proteins.

d)   Remote sensing

e)   Image classification

f)    Speech synthesis

g)   ECG/ EMG/ EEG classification

h)   Data mining

i)     Information retrieval

j)    Credit card application screening

2. Time series applications:

a)   Prediction of stock market performance

b)   ARIMA time – series models

c)   Machine robot/ control manipulation

d)   Financial, engineering and scientific time series forecasting

e)   Inverse modeling of vocal tract

3. Statistical Applications:

a)   Discriminant analysis

b)   Logistic regression

c)   Bayes analysis

d)   Multiple regression

4. Optimization:

a)   Multiprocessor scheduling

b)   Task assignment

c)   VLSI routing

5. Real world Applications:

a)   Credit scoring

b)   Precision direct mailing

6. Business Applications:

a)   Real estate appraisal

b)   Credit scoring: It is used for determining the approval of a load as per the applicant’s information.

c)   Inputs

d)   Outputs

7. Mining Applications

a)   Geo-chemical modeling using neural pattern recognition technology.

8. Medical Applications:

a) Hospital patient stay length prediction system: the CRTS/ QURI system was developed using a neural network for predicting the number of days a patient has to stay in hospital. The major benefit of this system was that money was saved and better patient care. This system required the following 7 inputs:

Ø  Diagnosis

Ø  Complications and comorbidity

Ø  Body systems involved

Ø  Procedure codes and relationships

Ø  General health indicators

Ø  Patient demographics

Ø  Admission category

9. Management Applications: Jury summoning prediction: a system was developed that could predict the number of jurors that were actually required. Two inputs were supplied: the type of case and judge number. The system is known to have saved around 70 million.
10. Marketing Application: A neural network was developed for improving the direct mailing response rate. This network selected those individuals who were likely to respond to the 2^nd mailing. 9 variables were given as the input. It saved around 35 % of the total mailing cost.
11. Energy cost prediction: A neural network was developed that could predict the price of natural gas for the next month. It achieved an accuracy of 97%. 

How test cases are generated using Testing Anywhere?

Testing anywhere software product helps you create the test cases using any of the 5 methods namely:

- Web recording

- Object recording

- Image recognition

- Smart recording and

- Editor

- While editor can be used for editing the test cases by advanced users, wizard is for those who do not have any programming skills. 

- Another facility is that the creation of the files that are executable. 

- These files are created in such a way that they can be executed on a machine that might be located in a remote location. 

- IT and business processes are created by the work flow designer and is managed by the same.

In this article we explain how the test cases can be generated using the testing anywhere product. 

How test cases are generated using Testing Anywhere?

- The testing anywhere product comes with a SMART recorder that one can use to create new tests. 

- Clicking on the ‘record’ button will drop down a list of options from which you have to select what type you are testing i.e., a web or windows application type. 

- Then you need to perform the activities on the system that you want to be recorded. 

- You can insert a checkpoint wherever you want by clicking on the check point button. 

- When you are done with recording the tests click on the stop button. 

- You can then save these activities in a test by clicking on the save button. 

- You can playback these test scripts whenever you want and any number of times by clicking on the run button. 

- In testing anywhere product, it does not matter if any change occurs between the size and location of the window of the application while the recording or replaying is in progress. 

- Testing anywhere uses a SMART automation technology that helps in automatically adjusting to those changes.

- Another advantage of using testing anywhere is that you can work up on any number of applications.

- You do not have to finish working up on one application before moving on to the next. 

- You can very well switch between the applications. 

- Testing anywhere even works while your computer is locked. 

- It does so because of the auto log-in capability that is unique to this software. 

- With this, you can schedule the tests and they will be executed even when your system is locked. 

- If this capability is enabled and the system is locked, it will be unlocked by the testing anywhere, the test will be executed and the computer will be locked again. 

- Auto log-in capability lets you run the tests in stealth mode when the system is locked. To do this follow:

Properties à security à run this test in stealth mode

- The execution will then be hidden. 

- Further, if you want to lock the keyboard and mouse you can use the ‘disable mouse and keyboard for this test’ option. 

- If you want to stop the execution of a test just keep holding the escape key for some time. 

- Using the pause key on the keyboard you can pause the test while it is executing. 

- Further clicking on the resume button you can continue with the execution. 

- Another thing that makes testing anywhere unique is that it can run the tests in background. 

- A number of advanced technologies lets you run the tests in background such as:

1.    Web recorder

2.    Object recorder

3.    And a number of other powerful actions

- However, there are some tests like those that are recorded through standard recorder. 

- These tests require mouse and keyboard control and therefore cannot be executed in background. 

- There are few other exceptions also such as commands such as screenshots; image comparison etc. that cannot be run in background.

How Silk Test records user actions?

Software systems or applications as we all know are composed of a GUI or graphical user interface objects such as those mentioned below:

1. Windows
2. Menus
3. Buttons and so on.

These GUI objects can be manipulated by the user via a mouse or a key board for initiating the operations on an application.

These GUI objects are interpreted by the silk test and are recognized in to different categories based up on the following aspects that uniquely identify them:

1. Class
2. Properties and
3. Methods

While the testing is in progress, an interaction takes place among the silk test and the GUI objects so that the operations can be submitted to the application under testing or AUT automatically without much efforts and also because the actions of a user can be simulated. 

This is also done to verify the results of each and every operation. The silk test is said to be the simulated user which is then said to drive the application under test or AUT. 

The silk test comes with two distinct components namely:

1. The silk test host software
2. The silk test agent software

- The first component of the silk test i.e., the silk test host software is used for developing, editing, compiling, running and debugging of the test plans as well as the test scripts. 

- The machine on which this component is installed is called the host machine. - The latter component of the silk test i.e., the silk test agent is the one that interacts with the graphical user interface of the application under test. 

- The commands present in the 4test scripts of the application are translated in to GUI specific commands which help in driving and monitoring the application under test.

- It is possible to run the agent locally on the same machine on which the host is already running or else it can be run in a networked environment. 

- But in this case, the machine will be known as the remote machine. 

How the user actions are recorded by the silk test?

 

- A repository is created for storing the information regarding the application under test or AUT before the test scripts are created and executed. 

- This repository consists of the descriptions of the GUI objects that are responsible for compromising with your application under test. 

- The silk test associates with these objects by means of two things namely:

1. Object properties and
2. Object methods

- Using these two aspects the actions performed on the objects can be easily recognized by the silk test and can be intelligently recorded in to the test script using the 4test language. 

Below we are giving some examples of what is recorded by the silk test for some user actions:

-User action	As recorded by the silk test
-Selection of a radio button from a group	select
-Setting the main window as active	Set Active
-Closing a dialog box	close
-Selecting an item from a list box	Select
-Scrolling the scroll bar to the maximum position possible	Scroll to max
-Writing text in a text field	Set text
-Checking a check box	Check
-Picking a menu item	pick
-Unchecking a check box	uncheck

- A property is that characteristic of an object that can be accessed directly and may be common among some classes. 

- On the other hand, the methods constitute of the user actions and are particular to an object. 

- Methods that are particular to an object are inherited from the parent class of the object. 

- Methods are unique to the objects of a class. 

Can we record an application running on a remote machine using QTP? Explain the keyword CreateObject?

The quick test professional supports the recording of the applications be it on the same machine or on some remote system. The point is that recording on the same machine is much more feasible than compared to the recording what is done on applications installed on remote systems. 

Also the quality that is perceived in both the cases has a lot of difference. 

- The recording that is carried out on the same system is far better as compared to the recording that is carried out on some remote system. 

- For starting the record in quick test professional one just needs to click on the record button which will open up the record and run settings dialog box. 

- This box actually opens up automatically every time a new recording is started on a test.

- In this record and run settings dialog box, a tab is there which corresponds to the add - ins that are installed for the quick test professional software package as well have been loaded for the current test. 

- There is one more tab which is always available and is titled “windows application tab”.

- This tab can be used while operating in environments such as the following:

1. Visual basic
2. Active X
3. Terminal emulators and so on.

- For any of those environments mentioned above the record and run settings are classified in to 2 groups as stated below:

1. Record and run on a specific window: this option works for a particularly selected environment and is the recommended option by the quick test professional.
2. Record and run on any window: this option works when it is not important to the user that whether or not the window belongs to a particular environment.

- If you are some one new to the quick test professional you can go for the default quick professional test settings. 

- Once you are done with these settings, it will always be used by the quick test professional while operating up on the additional record sessions on a particular test until and unless these settings are changed manually. 

- Quick test professional completes the recording in few steps and after completion the recording is saved.

How to record an application running on remote machine?

- A remote application can be recorded provided on one condition which is that the application which is to be recorded must be accessed through the local browser and not by using any remote browser such as citrix. 

- In some cases, it may happen that even by using the local browser you may not be able to record the application! 

- For such cases it will work if you install the application as well as quick test professional on the same machine.

- If you attempt to record on some application and find that you are unable to record anything then make sure that you completed the following steps properly:

1. The application that you want to record is open and you have selected the record and run option for it. if the application is not open, the recording won’t take place.
2. You have configured the record and run settings properly.
3. You have selected the windows application tab.

- Also, before you start recording the application you should know its type.

- If you are going to record web applications then make sure that you have the following add – ins installed:

1. Web
2. .net
3. Active X
4. .WPF
5. Java and so on.

What does the keyword “createobject” is?

- This key word is used to create a reference to an automation object and to return the same. 

- The syntax for this is as follows:

Createobject ( name of the server, type, [,location] )

- Here, the server name denotes the name of the application to which the object belongs. 

- Location argument specifies the network server where the object has to be created. 

Implementation techniques and Remote File Access for Distributed File Systems

Implementation of transparent naming requires a provision for the mapping of a file name to the associated location. Keeping this mapping manageable calls for aggregating sets of files into component units, and providing the mapping on a component unit basis rather than on a single file basis. To enhance the availability of the crucial mapping information, methods like replication, local caching, or both can be used.
A non-transparent mapping technique:
name ----> < system, disk, cylinder, sector >
A transparent mapping technique:
name ----> file_identifier ----> < system, disk, cylinder, sector >
So, when changing the physical location of a file, only the file identifier need be modified. This identifier must be "unique" in the universe.

Remote File Access
In remote-service mechanism, requests for accesses are delivered to the server, the server machine performs the accesses, and their results are forwarded back to the user. The remote-service method is analogous to performing a disk access for each access request. To ensure reasonable performance of a remote-service mechanism, caching is used. In DFSs, the goal is to reduce both network traffic and disk I/O.