The expression of the HER-2/neu (HER2) gene, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, has been shown to be a valuable prognostic indicator for breast cancer. However, interobserver variability has been reported in the evaluation of HER2 with immunohistochemistry. It has been suggested that automated computer-based evaluation can provide a consistent and objective evaluation of HER2 expression. In this manuscript, we present an automated method for the quantitative assessment of HER2 using digital microscopy. The method processes microscopy images from tissue slides with a multistage algorithm, including steps of color pixel classification, nuclei segmentation, and cell membrane modeling, and extracts quantitative, continuous measures of cell membrane staining intensity and completeness. A minimum cluster distance classifier merges the features to classify the slides into HER2 categories. An evaluation based on agreement analysis with pathologist-derived HER2 scores, showed good agreement with the provided truth. Agreement varied within the different classes with highest agreement (up to 90%) for positive (3+) slides, and lowest agreement (72%-78%) for equivocal (2+) slides which contained ambiguous scoring. The developed automated method has the potential to be used as a computer aid for the immunohistochemical evaluation of HER2 expression with the objective of increasing observer reproducibility.

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According to the now widely accepted "onion-model" of the organization of open source software development, an open source project typically relies on a core of developers that is assisted by a larger periphery of users. But what does the role of the periphery consist of? Raymond's Linus's Law which states that "given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow" suggests at least one important function: the detection of defects. Yet, what are the ways through which core and periphery interact with each other? With the help of text-mining methods, we study the treatment of bugs that affected the Firefox Internet browser as reflected in the discussions and actions recorded in Mozilla's issue tracking system Bugzilla. We find various patterns in the modes of interactions between core and peripheral members of the community. For instance, core members seem to engage more frequently with the periphery when the latter proposes a solution (a patch). This leads us to conclude that Alan Cox's dictum "show me the code", perhaps even more than Linus's law, seems to be the dominant rule that governs the development of software like Firefox.

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