A taxonomy of asymmetric requirements aspects

The early aspects community has received increasing attention among researchers and practitioners, and has grown a set of meaningful terminology and concepts in recent years, including the notion of requirements aspects. Aspects at the requirements level present stakeholder concerns that crosscut the problem domain, with the potential for a broad impact on questions of scoping, prioritization, and architectural design. Although many existing requirements engineering approaches advocate and advertise an integral support of early aspects analysis, one challenge is that the notion of a requirements aspect is not yet well established to efficaciously serve the community. Instead of defining the term once and for all in a normally arduous and unproductive conceptual unification stage, we present a preliminary taxonomy based on the literature survey to show the different features of an asymmetric requirements aspect. Existing approaches that handle requirements aspects are compared and classified according to the proposed taxonomy. In addition,we study crosscutting security requirements to exemplify the taxonomy's use, substantiate its value, and explore its future directions

What Difference Does a Visit Make? Changes in Animal Welfare Perceptions after Interested Citizens Tour a Dairy Farm

Citizens’ concerns about farm animal welfare are often dismissed on the assumption that they are not well informed about farming practices. We conducted exploratory surveys of interested citizens (n = 50) before and after a self-guided tour of a 500-head dairy farm. ‘Before’ survey questions explored perceptions, concerns, and values about dairy cattle farming and welfare, in addition to a short knowledge-based quiz on dairy cattle husbandry. An ‘after’ survey explored the extent to which these constructs shifted after the tour. Before, most participants correctly answered quiz questions about general feeding and housing practices, but scores were low on questions about specific practices such as cow-calf separation. Participants considered several elements as necessary for a ‘good’ life for dairy cattle: fresh food and water, pasture access, gentle handling, space, shelter, hygiene, fresh air and sunshine, social companions, absence of stress, health, and safety from predators. These elements reflect a diverse conception of animal welfare that incorporates values for physical and mental well-being, natural living, and humane care. The visit had a mixed effect on perceptions of whether dairy cows had a ‘good’ life, improving perceptions for a quarter of participants, worsening perceptions in a third, with no shift in the remaining participants. The visit appeared to mitigate some concerns (e.g., provision of adequate food and water, gentle humane care) while reinforcing or eliciting others (e.g., lack of pasture access, early cow-calf separation). Moreover, animal welfare-relevant values held by participants (e.g., natural living, care) appeared to play an important role in influencing perceptions of farm practices. These results suggest that education and exposure to livestock farming may resolve certain concerns, but other concerns will likely persist, especially when practices conflict with deeply held values around animal care

Building bridges? An evaluation of the costs and effectiveness of the separated parents information programme (PIP)

The Separated Parent Information Programme (PIP) is the first nationally available parent education programme for parents involved in litigation over contact and residence in England. The programme is a Contact Activity, introduced by the Children and Adoption Act 2006 as an additional tool for courts to facilitate contact. PIP is a four hour group programme for parents referred by the court. Both parties, i.e. the applicant and respondent, are required to attend the programme, but former couples attend separate groups. The groups are designed to include both men and women. The aim of the programme is to encourage parents to focus on children’s needs and perspectives. The programme is delivered by trained providers from mediation, counselling or contact services backgrounds

Do it Right or Not at All: A Longitudinal Evaluation of a Conflict Managment System Implementation

We analyzed an eight-year multi-source longitudinal data set that followed a healthcare system in the Eastern United States as it implemented a major conflict management initiative to encourage line managers to consistently perform Personal Management Interviews (or PMIs) with their employees. PMIs are interviews held between two individuals, designed to prevent or quickly resolve interpersonal problems before they escalate to formal grievances. This initiative provided us a unique opportunity to empirically test key predictions of Integrated Conflict Management System (or ICMS) theory. Analyzing survey and personnel file data from 5,449 individuals from 2003 to 2010, we found that employees whose managers provided high-quality interviews perceived significantly higher participative work climates and had lower turnover rates. However, retention was worse when managers provided poor-quality interviews than when they conducted no interviews at all. Together these findings highlight the critical role that line mangers play in the success of conflict management systems

Evaluation of a pilot of legally assisted and supported family dispute resolution in family violence cases

Evidence of the prevalence of a history of past and/or current family violence among separated parents, and the presence of ongoing safety concerns for themselves and their children as a result of ongoing contact with the other parent, has created an impetus for the family law system to find more effective ways of dealing with families affected by family violence. In July 2009, the Federal Government announced funding for a pilot program to provide assistance, including family dispute resolution (FDR), to such families. Subsequently, Women’s Legal Service Brisbane (and other consultants) were funded by the Attorney- General’s Department (AGD) to develop a model for coordinated family dispute resolution (CFDR). CFDR is a service for separated families who need assistance to resolve parenting disputes where there has been a history of past and/or current family violence. It is being implemented in five sites/lead agencies across Australia: Perth (Legal Aid Western Australia), Brisbane (Telephone Dispute Resolution Service [TDRS], run by Relationships Australia Queensland), Newcastle (Interrelate), Western Sydney (Unifam) and Hobart (Relationships Australia Tasmania). TDRS made adaptions to the model to accommodate its telephone-based service. The pilot commenced operation at most sites in the final quarter of 2010. Implementation in one location (Brisbane) was delayed until mid-2011 to allow time to finalise the composition of the partnership. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of this process

Taking a longer view of contact: the perspectives of young adults who experience parental separation in their youth

This is a report of a research study funded by the Nuffield Foundation exploring the experiences of a representative group of young adults in England (aged 18-35) who had experienced the break-up of their parents' relationships before they reached the age of 16. The study was based on a telephone survey of 398 and face to face qualitative telephone interviews with 50 of them. It produced valuable empirical evidence on how these young adults viewed the contact arrangements they had had during their childhood and what they believed had made that contact a more or less successful experience. The study provides information which will assist practitioners to predict whether contact arrangements being made for a particular child are likely to be beneficial or not

The Psychological Needs of U.S. Military Service Members and Their Families: A Preliminary Report

Since September 11, 2001, American military service personnel and their families have endured challenges and stressful conditions that are unprecedented in recent history, including unrelenting operational demands and recurring deployments in combat zones. In response to concerns raised by members of the military community, the American Psychological Association (APA) President, Dr. Gerald Koocher, established the Task Force on Military Deployment Services for Youth, Families and Service Members in July of 2006. This Task Force was charged with: identifying the psychological risks and mental health-related service needs of military members and their families during and after deployment(s); developing a strategic plan for working with the military and other organizations to meet those needs; and constructing a list of current APA resources available for military members and families, as well as additional resources that APA might develop or facilitate in order to meet the needs of this population. At present, 700,000 children in America have at least one parent deployed. Having a primary caretaker deployed to a war zone for an indeterminate period is among the more stressful events a child can experience. Adults in the midst of their own distress are often anxious and uncertain about how to respond to their children's emotional needs. The strain of separation can weigh heavily on both the deployed parent and the caretakers left behind. Further, reintegration of an absent parent back into the family often leads to complicated emotions for everyone involved. This Task Force was established to examine such potential risks to the psychological well-being of service members and their families, acknowledging the changing context and impact of the deployment cycle, and to make preliminary recommendations for change and further review at the provider, practice, program, and policy levels. To meet the Task Force charge, we will first provide an overview of what is currently known about the impact of military deployments on service members and their families (spouses, children and significant others). In addition, we will discuss a number of programs that have been developed to meet the mental health needs of service members and their families, and we will describe the significant barriers to receiving mental health care within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) system. Finally, we will offer several general recommendations for improving the psychological care offered to service members and their Military Deployment Services TF Report 5 families, and we will outline some specific proposals for how existing APA programs and resources can be employed or modified to support military communities

A comparative survey of anxiety level in primary school children with working and unemployed mothers in north of Iran; 2013

Background: Anxiety is one of important disorders of mental health in children and adolescents which is influenced by various endogenous and environmental factors. The aim of this study was a comparative survey of anxiety level in primary school children with working and unemployed mothers in Gorgan in 2013. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study, 745 male and female primary school students in public and private schools in Gorgan were selected using a combination sampling (stratification and clustering). For data collection were used Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) included 38 questions. The collecting data were analyzed using SPSS-21 statistical software and chi-square and t tests. P values of less than 0.05 were considered as the significance level. Results: The results showed that the average age of students were 9.4 ± 1.65 and in the 38.4% of them were males and 61/6% were female 61/9% of the students had working mothers and 38.1% of their mothers were unemployed. Spence Children's Anxiety Scale total score for the studied sample was 22.74 ± 12.72. A significant difference was observed between two groups of the students with working and unemployed mothers and between two sexes (P<0.05). The separation anxiety and fear of physical harm was the most common disorders and the fear of open spaces also had the lowest prevalence. The prevalence of anxiety disorders in children with unemployed mothers with lower education levels, in female, in families with fewer children and public school students was more. Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of anxiety disorders in students whose mothers are unemployed and among the girls was more. Therefore, it's necessary to pay more attention to the mental health of the mothers and students with considering of their important role in family and society. © 2015 Derakhshanpoor F, et al

The Changing Face of The Family in Ireland: Parenting Issues

This report examines family policy in Ireland, highlighting the substantial amount of service activity which are currently supporting families and, at the same time, the general awareness that significant gaps exist in services. Consequently, Mckeown and Clarke outline a selection of project ideas which might be used to fill some of these gaps, particularly with regard to supporting parents. These are based on a consideration of the statutory initiatives in place, some broadly focussed voluntary organisations and voluntary activity at local level

Building Programmable Wireless Networks: An Architectural Survey

In recent times, there have been a lot of efforts for improving the ossified Internet architecture in a bid to sustain unstinted growth and innovation. A major reason for the perceived architectural ossification is the lack of ability to program the network as a system. This situation has resulted partly from historical decisions in the original Internet design which emphasized decentralized network operations through co-located data and control planes on each network device. The situation for wireless networks is no different resulting in a lot of complexity and a plethora of largely incompatible wireless technologies. The emergence of "programmable wireless networks", that allow greater flexibility, ease of management and configurability, is a step in the right direction to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of the wireless networks. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of the architectures proposed in literature for building programmable wireless networks focusing primarily on three popular techniques, i.e., software defined networks, cognitive radio networks, and virtualized networks. This survey is a self-contained tutorial on these techniques and its applications. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges in building next-generation programmable wireless networks and identify open research issues and future research directions.Comment: 19 page