Effects of war exposure on air force personnel's mental health, job burnout and other organizational related outcomes.

Longitudinal data from a stratified representative sample of U.S. Air Force personnel (N = 1009) deployed to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations were analyzed in this study. Using structural equation models, we examined the effects of war exposure on traumatic experiences, Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms, resource loss, and on subsequent functioning, perceived health, and on job and organizationally relevant outcomes. The job and organizational outcomes included job burnout, job involvement, job strain, job satisfaction, work-family conflict, organizational commitment, deployment readiness, and intention to reenlist. We found that deployment to the theater of the war increased risk of exposure to trauma, which in turn, predicted elevated PTS symptoms and resource loss. PTS symptoms predicted later loss of resources and deterioration in perceived health and functioning. In turn, resource loss predicted negative job and organizational outcomes. Exposure to trauma fully mediated the effects of deployment to the theater of war on PTS symptoms and resource loss and had additional significant indirect effects on several job and organizational relevant outcomes. For returning veterans, deployment to the theater of war, exposure to trauma, PTS symptoms, and resource loss represents a “cascading” chain of events that over time results in a decline of health and functioning as well as in adverse job and organizationally relevant outcomes that may affect organizational effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sichere Internet-Zahlungsdienste durch starke Kundenauthentifizierung?

Die europäischen Aufsichtsbehörden haben dem Betrug im Internet-Zahlungsverkehr den Kampf angesagt. Aufsichtsrelevante Sicherheitsvorgaben sollen in Europa für ein einheitlich hohes Schutzniveau sorgen. Eine zentrale Sicherheitsanforderung besteht darin, dass die sogenannte starke Kundenauthentifizierung verpflichtend wird. Doch können dadurch wirklich Schäden nachhaltig reduziert und das Vertrauen in Internet-Zahlungsdienste gesteigert werden?     

Towards a core ontology for robotics and automation

In this paper, we present the current results of the newly formed IEEE-RAS Working Group, named Ontologies for Robotics and Automation. In particular, we introduce a core ontology that encompasses a set of terms commonly used in Robotics and Automation along with the methodology we have adopted. Our work uses ISO/FDIS 8373 standard developed by the ISO/TC184/SC2 Working Group as a reference. This standard defines, in natural language, some generic terms which are common in Robotics and Automation such as robot, robotic device, etc. Furthermore, we discuss the ontology development process employed along with the problems and decisions taken.     

Managing requirements uncertainty with partial models

Models are good at expressing information that is known but do not typically have support for representing what information a modeler does not know at a particular phase in the software development process. Partial models address this by being able to precisely represent uncertainty about model content. In previous work, we developed a general approach for defining partial models and using them to reason about design models containing uncertainty. In this paper, we show how to apply our approach to managing uncertainty in requirements by providing support for uncertainty capture, elaboration, and change. In particular, we address the problem of specifying uncertainty within a requirements model, refining a model as uncertainty reduces, providing meaning to traceability relations between models containing uncertainty, and propagating uncertainty-reducing changes between related models. We describe the implementation of uncertainty management within the Model Management Tool Framework and illustrate our approach using two examples.     

Neural network based modeling and optimization of deep drawing – extrusion combined process

A combined deep drawing–extrusion process is modeled with artificial neural networks (ANN’s). The process is used for manufacturing synchronizer rings and it combines sheet and bulk metal forming processes. Input–output data relevant to the process was collected. The inputs represent geometrical parameters of the synchronizer ring and the outputs are the total equivalent plastic strain (TEPS), contact ratio and forming force. This data is used to train the ANN which approximates the input-output relation well and therefore can be relied on in predicting the process input parameters that will result in desired outputs provided by the designer. The complex method constrained optimization is applied to the ANN model to find the inputs or geometrical parameters that will produce the desired or optimum values of TEPS, contact ratio and forming force. This information will be very hard to obtain by just looking at the available historical input–output data. Therefore, the presented technique is very useful for selection of process design parameters to obtain desired product properties.     

A2thOS: availability analysis and optimisation in SLAs

Information technology (IT) service availability is at the core of customer satisfaction and business success for today's organisations. Many medium‐ to large‐size organisations outsource part of their IT services to external providers, with service‐level agreements describing the agreed availability of outsourced service components. Availability management of partially outsourced IT services is a non‐trivial task since classic approaches for calculating availability are not applicable, and IT managers can only rely on their expertise to fulfil it. This often leads to the adoption of non‐optimal solutions. In this paper we present A ²thOS , a framework to calculate the availability of partially outsourced IT services in the presence of SLAs and to achieve a cost‐optimal choice of availability levels for outsourced IT components while guaranteeing a target availability level for the service. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does not compute — old security vs new threats

??Does not compute?? was a catchphrase in old science fiction works. It was mostly uttered by robots that were in the unfortunate situation of having to understand the human conditions in computational logic. The robots frequently exploded in such cases. IT-security finds itself in a similar situation. It has to understand a new situation: a revolutionary change in the offense. Attackers have grown up. Resourceful, strategic perpetrators have appeared on the stage. Yet IT security cannot tackle these attackers. Its?? priorities are not aligned appropriately. This suggests the need for a paradigm change. But this is not easily evoked. Persistent uncertainties hamper the necessary decisions. And unfortunately, not the inflexible IT security, but other things might explode.     

Exploitation of lettuce waste flour to increase bread functionality: effect on physical,nutritional, sensory properties and on consumer response

Phenol and fibre‐rich flour obtained by air‐drying and grinding of lettuce waste was partially substituted (26, 53, 170 and 575 g kg^?1) to wheat flour to produce functional bread. The addition of flour progressively decreased dough leavening capacity while increased bread moisture and firmness. Lettuce waste flour significantly increased the polyphenolic content (up to 3.4 g GAE kg^?1) of bread samples and enhanced their antioxidant activity by 200%. Bread containing 170 and 575 g kg^?1 of lettuce waste flour presented sensory properties and consumer acceptability comparable to those of commercial wholemeal bread with similar rye bran content. Bread containing at least 170 g kg^?1 of lettuce waste flour could be associated to nutritional claims related to its enhanced fibre content (>30 g kg^?1). Data obtained by conjoint analysis demonstrate the possibility of increasing consumer preference for lettuce waste flour bread by proper nutritional (fibre content) and sustainability (lettuce waste valorisation) claims.