Food Safety in Restaurants: A Human Relations Model

Barry Reece and Rhonda Brandt use a human relations perspective to explain behavior at work. Following a review of the six components of their model, the author presents research to illustrate how it can be used by managers to help them understand why food safety violations occur in restaurants. An additional variable not included in the model is discusses and recommendations for managers are made.

Refinement methods for software architecture design using the software architecture model

Modern software systems are often large and complicated. To better understand, develop, and manage large software systems, researchers have studied software architectures that provide the top level overall structural design of software systems for the last decade. One major research focus on software architectures is formal architecture description languages, but most existing research focuses primarily on the descriptive capability and puts less emphasis on software architecture design methods and formal analysis techniques, which are necessary to develop correct software architecture design. ^ Refinement is a general approach of adding details to a software design. A formal refinement method can further ensure certain design properties. This dissertation proposes refinement methods, including a set of formal refinement patterns and complementary verification techniques, for software architecture design using Software Architecture Model (SAM), which was developed at Florida International University. First, a general guideline for software architecture design in SAM is proposed. Second, specification construction through property-preserving refinement patterns is discussed. The refinement patterns are categorized into connector refinement, component refinement and high-level Petri nets refinement. These three levels of refinement patterns are applicable to overall system interaction, architectural components, and underlying formal language, respectively. Third, verification after modeling as a complementary technique to specification refinement is discussed. Two formal verification tools, the Stanford Temporal Prover (STeP) and the Simple Promela Interpreter (SPIN), are adopted into SAM to develop the initial models. Fourth, formalization and refinement of security issues are studied. A method for security enforcement in SAM is proposed. The Role-Based Access Control model is formalized using predicate transition nets and Z notation. The patterns of enforcing access control and auditing are proposed. Finally, modeling and refining a life insurance system is used to demonstrate how to apply the refinement patterns for software architecture design using SAM and how to integrate the access control model. ^ The results of this dissertation demonstrate that a refinement method is an effective way to develop a high assurance system. The method developed in this dissertation extends existing work on modeling software architectures using SAM and makes SAM a more usable and valuable formal tool for software architecture design. ^

An aspect-oriented approach to designing role-based access control services

Access control (AC) limits access to the resources of a system only to authorized entities. Given that information systems today are increasingly interconnected, AC is extremely important. The implementation of an AC service is a complicated task. Yet the requirements to an AC service vary a lot. Accordingly, the design of an AC service should be flexible and extensible in order to save development effort and time. Unfortunately, with conventional object-oriented techniques, when an extension has not been anticipated at the design time, the modification incurred by the extension is often invasive. Invasive changes destroy design modularity, further deteriorate design extensibility, and even worse, they reduce product reliability. ^ A concern is crosscutting if it spans multiple object-oriented classes. It was identified that invasive changes were due to the crosscutting nature of most unplanned extensions. To overcome this problem, an aspect-oriented design approach for AC services was proposed, as aspect-oriented techniques could effectively encapsulate crosscutting concerns. The proposed approach was applied to develop an AC framework that supported role-based access control model. In the framework, the core role-based access control mechanism is given in an object-oriented design, while each extension is captured as an aspect. The resulting framework is well-modularized, flexible, and most importantly, supports noninvasive adaptation. ^ In addition, a process to formalize the aspect-oriented design was described. The purpose is to provide high assurance for AC services. Object-Z was used to specify the static structure and Predicate/Transition net was used to model the dynamic behavior. Object-Z was extended to facilitate specification in an aspect-oriented style. The process of formal modeling helps designers to enhance their understanding of the design, hence to detect problems. Furthermore, the specification can be mathematically verified. This provides confidence that the design is correct. It was illustrated through an example that the model was ready for formal analysis. ^

Child parent dyadic treatment for anxiety disorders in youths

There is evidence for the efficacy of treatments for childhood anxiety disorders; however, less is known about whether including parents in the child's treatment enhances child treatment response. There also are few studies that have examined predictors of treatment completion/non-completion and success/failure. In this dissertation, a child focused individual treatment was compared to a dyadic child-parent treatment. In dyadic, parent anxiety symptoms and child-parent relationships were targeted. Based on the Transfer of Control Model proposed by Silverman and Kurtines (1996a, b, 2005), it was hypothesized that treatment changes in parent anxiety symptoms and child-parent relationships would be related to positive child treatment response. ^ Participants were 119 youths (ages 6 to 16 years, M = 9.93 SD = 2.75; 68 girls) and their parents. All youth were born in the U.S. but had various backgrounds; 40 were European American, 73 were Latinos/as, 6 were of other ethnic backgrounds or did not report their ethnicity. Participants signed informed consent (assent for youths) and completed a pretreatment assessment. Participants were randomized to a child individual treatment or dyadic treatment, were assessed immediately after treatment and one year post treatment. Findings showed that treated youths improved across all measures over time. Comparison of treatment conditions across all measures showed no statistically significant differences between the child individual and dyadic treatment. Reductions in parent anxiety symptoms and improvements in child-parent relationships were significantly related to child treatment change at posttreatment and at one year follow-up across treatments. No factors differentiated completers from non-completers and only parent reported child internalizing behavior problems were significantly negatively related to child treatment response. ^ The study findings support a premise of the Transfer of Control Model that changes in parent anxiety symptoms and child-parent relationships are related to child treatment response. The study findings show that children can be successfully treated when parents are included as co-clients in dyadic treatment, thereby supporting the utility of this approach in practice. ^

Controls on Ecosystem Carbon Dioxide Exchange in Short- and Long-Hydroperiod Florida Everglades Freshwater Marshes

Although freshwater wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, little is known of carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange in low latitude wetlands. The Everglades is an extensive, oligotrophic wetland in south Florida characterized by short- and long-hydroperiod marshes. Chamber-based CO2 exchange measurements were made to compare the marshes and examine the roles of primary producers, seasonality, and environmental drivers in determining exchange rates. Low rates of CO2 exchange were observed in both marshes with net ecosystem production reaching maxima of 3.77 and 4.28 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 in short- and long-hydroperiod marshes, respectively. Fluxes of CO2 were affected by seasonality only in the short-hydroperiod marsh, where flux rates were significantly lower in the wet season than in the dry season. Emergent macrophytes dominated fluxes at both sites, though this was not the case for the short-hydroperiod marsh in the wet season. Water depth, a factor partly under human control, significantly affected gross ecosystem production at the short-hydroperiod marsh. As Everglades ecosystem restoration proceeds, leading to deeper water and longer hydroperiods, productivity in short-hydroperiod marshes will likely be more negatively affected than in long-hydroperiod marshes. The Everglades stand in contrast to many freshwater wetlands because of ecosystem-wide low productivity rates.