Improving Reuse of Distributed Transaction Software with Transaction-Aware Aspects

Implementing crosscutting concerns for transactions is difficult, even using Aspect-Oriented Programming Languages (AOPLs) such as AspectJ. Many of these challenges arise because the context of a transaction-related crosscutting concern consists of loosely-coupled abstractions like dynamically-generated identifiers, timestamps, and tentative value sets of distributed resources. Current AOPLs do not provide joinpoints and pointcuts for weaving advice into high-level abstractions or contexts, like transaction contexts. Other challenges stem from the essential complexity in the nature of the data, operations on the data, or the volume of data, and accidental complexity comes from the way that the problem is being solved, even using common transaction frameworks. This dissertation describes an extension to AspectJ, called TransJ, with which developers can implement transaction-related crosscutting concerns in cohesive and loosely-coupled aspects. It also presents a preliminary experiment that provides evidence of improvement in reusability without sacrificing the performance of applications requiring essential transactions. This empirical study is conducted using the extended-quality model for transactional application to define measurements on the transaction software systems. This quality model defines three goals: the first relates to code quality (in terms of its reusability); the second to software performance; and the third concerns software development efficiency. Results from this study show that TransJ can improve the reusability while maintaining performance of TransJ applications requiring transaction for all eight areas addressed by the hypotheses: better encapsulation and separation of concern; loose Coupling, higher-cohesion and less tangling; improving obliviousness; preserving the software efficiency; improving extensibility; and hasten the development process

The Effectiveness of a Program Based on Psychosocial Support in Raising the Level of Family Empowerment among Refugees in Jordan

هدفت الدراسة إلى فحص مدى فاعلية برنامج مستند للدعم النفسي الاجتماعي في رفع مستوى التمكين الأسري لدى اللاجئين في الأردن. وتكونت عينة الدراسة من (32) لاجئًا في محافظة إربد تم تعيينهم بشكل عشوائي لمجوعتين متساويتين: المجوعة التجريبية (ن= 16) التي شاركت في برنامج الدعم النفسي الاجتماعي، والمجموعة الضابطة (ن= 16) التي لم تشارك في أي برنامج تدخل. ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة تم تطوير مقياس التمكين الأسري لجمع بيانات الدراسة في الاختبارات القبلية والبعدية لمجموعتي الدراسة، وفي الاختبار التتبعي مع أفراد المجموعة التجريبية فقط، وبرنامج الدعم النفسي الاجتماعي. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة وجود فروق دالة إحصائيًا بين المجموعتين التجريبية والضابطة في متوسطات الدرجات على مقياس التمكين الأسري في الاختبار البعدي لصالح المجموعة التجريبية، وعدم وجود فروق دالة إحصائيًا بين متوسطات القياسين البعدي والتتبعي في مقياس التمكين الأسري، مما يعكس ثبات تأثير البرنامج.The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a program based on psychosocial support in raising the level of family empowerment among refugees in Jordan. The study sample consisted of (32) refugees in Irbid governorate who were randomly assigned to two equal groups: the experimental group (n = 16), who participated in the psychosocial support program, and the control group (n = 16), who did not participate in any intervention program. To achieve the study's objectives, the Family Empowerment Scale was developed to collect study data in the pre and posttests for the two study groups and the follow-up test with members of the experimental group only and the psychosocial support program. The results of the study showed that there were statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the mean scores on the family empowerment scale in the posttest in favor of the experimental group, and there were no statistically significant differences between the means of the post and follow-up measures in the family empowerment scale, which reflects the reliability of the program’s impact