XML files are frequently used by developers when building Web applications or Java EE applications. However, maintaining XML files is challenging and time-consuming because the correct usage of XML entities is always domain-specific and rarely well documented. Also, the existing compilers and program analysis tools seldom examine XML files. In this thesis, we developed a novel approach to XML file debugging called Xeditor where we extract XML consistency rules from open-source projects and use these rules to detect XML bugs. There are two phases in Xeditor: rule inference and application. To infer rules, Xeditor mines XML-based deployment descriptors in open-source projects, extracting XML entity pairs that frequently co-exist in the same files and refer to the same string literals. Xeditor then applies association rule mining to the extracted pairs. For rule application, given a program commit, Xeditor checks whether any updated XML file violates the inferred rules; if so, Xeditor reports the violation and suggests an edit for correction?. Our evaluation shows that Xeditor inferred rules with high precision (83%). For injected XML bugs, Xeditor detected rule violations and suggested changes with 74.6% precision, 50% recall. More importantly, Xeditor identified 31 really erroneous XML updates in version history, 17 of which updates were fixed by developers in later program commits. This observation implies that by using Xeditor, developers would have avoided introducing errors when writing XML files. Finally, we compared Xeditor with a baseline approach that suggests changes based on frequently co-changed entities, and found Xeditor to outperform the baseline for both rule inference and rule application. / XML files are frequently used in Java programming and when building Web application implementation. However, it is a challenge to maintain XML files since these files should follow various domain-specific rules and the existing program analysis tools seldom check XML files. In this thesis, we introduce a new approach to XML file debugging called Xeditor that extracts XML consistency rules from open-source projects and uses these rules to detect XML bugs. To extract the rules, Xeditor first looks at working XML files and finds all the pairs of entities A and B, which entities coexist in one file and have the same value on at least one occasion. Then Xeditor will check when A occurs, what is the probability that B also occurs. If the probability is high enough, Xeditor infers a rule that A is associated with B. To apply the rule, Xeditor checks XML files with errors. If a file violates the rules that were previously inferred, Xeditor will report the violation and suggest a change. Our evaluation shows that Xeditor inferred the correct rules with high precision 83%. More importantly, Xeditor identified issues in previous versions of XML files, and many of those issues were fixed by developers in later versions. Therefore, Xeditor is able to help find and fix errors when developers write their XML files.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / An examination of the literature revealed that conflict is prevalent throughout American colleges and universities-especially within divisions of student affairs-and that senior student affairs officers are expected to assume an important role campus-wide in the management of conflict. Trends suggest a significant increase in their involvement with conflict over the next twenty years. This study sought to identify the nature of conflict and the conflict resolution process at small liberal arts colleges and to examine differences among senior student affairs officers in the methods they use to resolve conflicts, the theories they report as underlying these methods, and the sources of these espoused theories of conflict resolution. Interviews on these matters were held with 15 senior student affairs officers in such colleges in the American mid-west. The following are among the most important findings: 1) the deans have a firm understanding of how to handle conflict (contrary to many prior research findings); 2) the deans have a strong dislike for conflict; 3) one-third of the deans report that they avoid conflict whenever possible; 4) the deans see it as their responsibility to handle any conflict involving students and they have the potential to be directly and indirectly involved in almost any such situation, even outside their divisions; 5) handling conflict is reported to take up three-fourths of their time; 6) half of the deans attempt to mediate (minor) violations of policy while others deem it inappropriate; 7) factors which most frequently contribute to conflict include communication, and diversity-the interplay among people from different cultures and backgrounds; 8) the deans view issues of diversity as being the most difficult to handle because of their emotional intensity; and 9) the deans reported a predominantly trial-and-error preparation for dealing with conflict rather than through formal education. The findings suggest that further research is needed to address such questions as these: 1) What is the relationship between espoused theories of handling conflict and theories-in-use? 2) How does having a strong dislike for conflict affect one's ability to manage it? 3) How does institutional culture affect the handling of conflict? 4) What are the consequences of conflict avoidance? 5) How do institutions support deans in handling conflicts involving diversity issues? (6) What consequences typically ensue from trying to mediate policy violations? The findings also suggest the need for practical programs and policies such as the following: 1) improving relevant pre-professional programs; 2) improving in-service programs for those having responsibility for managing and resolving conflict; 3) changing the recruitment, hiring, and evaluation process for the dean of students position; 4) transforming college cultures in ways that better support conflict management and resolution; 5) institutionalizing the process of the effective management of conflict; 6) addressing the issue of avoidance to ensure that conflict is being addressed in a timely manner; 7) developing an ombudsman position to centralize and formalize the process of assisting faculty, staff, and students to resolve conflicts; and 8) creating a Center for Conflict Management to provide faculty, staff, and students with resource materials, training workshops, and assistance with mediating and managing conflict. / 2999-01-01

No / This article reports on original research designed to track the impact on student learning and development of fundamental pedagogical changes - from tradition to critical pedagogy - in undergraduate conflict resolution teaching in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Using grounded theory methodology, the authors researched the transformative learning potential of the pedagogy. They found broad support for the pedagogy on student learning and development grounds in relation to the praxeological challenges of peacebuilding and conflict resolution work many of their students will expect to do after graduation. Out of the data emerged four clusters of learning experience that support transformative learning theory, particularly the role of disruption in learning and the importance of critical reflection, but that also, in a preliminary way, suggest some gaps in our current levels of understanding of transformative learning as praxis.

The pivotal role that R&D plays in a nation’s development is well recognized globally. Even India has made long strides in this area post-independence. However, it is plagued by issues such as lack of investment, dearth of research work force, poor quality of research output, lower enrollment and inefficient policies. India has for the last few years; strongly felt the need for the increase in the quality and the quantity of research output. This has direct implications on research scholars who are considered as foot soldiers of research institutions in India. Besides the pressure to outperform, research scholar’s face challenges on multiple fronts— academic, personal, financial, and social. To successfully navigate through these challenges a cordial relationship with the research supervisor is most desirable. However, this is not easily achieved as there can be various conflict situations arising between a supervisor and a research scholar. Resolving these conflicts amicably is essential for smooth sailing of the research journey. Thus, studying the nature of conflicts between research scholars and supervisors; and investigating the patterns in conflict resolution behavior of research scholars is a challenging and complex research problem. This was accomplished in three phases. In the first phase, we analyzed the relationship between the Big Five Personality types (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness and Consciousness) and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Resolution Styles (Collaborating, Compromising, Accommodating, Competing, and Avoiding). This was motivated by past studies linking personality and conflict resolution behavior. In the second phase, we used a Narrative based instrument to determine the dominant styles of Conflict Resolution employed by the research scholars. This was motivated by the strength of Narrative approach in effecting a change in the belief systems of individuals as demonstrated in past studies. The third phase involved modeling two Conflict Resolution Styles — Collaborative (high assertion and high cooperation) and Competitive (high assertion and low cooperation) — using influence functions applied to the research scholar – supervisor relationship. Results from the first study indicated that Accommodation and Avoiding were the two most preferred styles of conflict resolution employed by research scholars. We found association between personality types and conflict resolution styles: Agreeableness with Accommodation, Avoiding and Competing; Openness with Accommodation and Competing; Neuroticism with Accommodation; and Extraversion with Avoiding. Further, research scholars in advanced stage (>3 years) were found to be more Accommodating than those in the early stage (<3 years). Our second study showed that research scholars while evaluating a conflict situation objectively as an observer, consistently suggested co-operative styles of conflict resolution (Collaboration and Compromising). It also highlighted the role of the nature of conflict situation and the supervisor response, on choice of conflict resolution styles. The third study emphasized the effectiveness of Collaboration style of conflict resolution in maintaining a fruitful relationship with the supervisor in the long-term. In summary, the results emphasized and provided future directions to encourage research scholars to seek out co-operative ways of resolving conflicts with supervisors.

The aim of this study is to investigate an inter-action and a roleplay activity that takes place every Friday at a preschool in a suburb of Stockholm. The aim is to investigate learning in this activity and how it is corresponding to the curriculum for preschools. What is the teachers aim and how do the children think, talk and act before, during and after the game. It is a qualitative study and data was collected through qualitative interviews, field notes from observations and recordings with my I-phone. The results showed that the play is useful as a pedagogical documentation and as a tool for reflection. According to the educators it is possible to involve the entire curriculum for preschool in this roleplay, such as fundamental value, conflict resolution, children´s participation, traditional topics as mathematics and languages. The activity has developed in a cooperation with children and teachers together.

Dans de multiples domaines, un nombre grandissant d'applications interagissant avec des entités ommunicantes apparaissent dans l'environnement pour faciliter les activités quotidiennes (domotique et télémédecine). Leur impact sur la vie de tous les jours des utilisateurs rend ces applications critiques: leur défaillance peut mettre en danger des personnes et leurs biens. Bien que l'impact de ces défaillances puisse être majeur, la sécurité est souvent considérée comme un problème secondaire dans le processus de développement et est traitée par des approches ad hoc. Cette thèse propose d'intégrer des aspects de sécurité dans le cycle de développement des systèmes d'informatique ubiquitaire. La sécurité est spécifiée à la conception grâce à des déclarations dédiées et de haut niveau. Ces déclarations sont utilisées pour générer un support de programmation afin de faciliter l'implémentation des mécanismes de sécurité, tout en séparant ces aspects de sécurité de la logique applicative. Notre approche se concentre sur le contrôle d'accès aux entités et la protection de la vie privée. Notre travail a été implémenté et fait levier sur une suite outillée existante couvrant le cycle de développement logiciel.

Interstate arbitration is commonly viewed as an essentially judicial process, suitable for the resolution of legal questions but inappropriate to deal with “political” issues. This conception, however, arguably flies in the face of both the origins and historical function of interstate arbitration and the complex legal-political nature of most interstate disputes. This paper offers an alternative account of interstate arbitration, which views it as a sui generis hybrid mechanism that combines “legal” and “diplomatic” dimensions to effectively resolve all aspects of interstate disputes. The paper examines this proposed account by analyzing four complex interstate territorial disputes that were submitted to arbitration and assessing the extent to which these two dimensions were recognized and employed, and how this may have affected the resolution of the disputes. Based on this analysis, the paper offers a two-dimensional operative framework intended to guide states and arbitrators in the resolution of future complex interstate disputes.

This research examines faith-based mediators and their usage of mediation strategies, in relation to durability of peace agreements and it is guided by the following research question; Why do some faith-based mediators succeed to aid the creation of durable peace, while others do not? In order to find an answer to this question a hypothesis, suggesting that faith-based mediators applying the fostering, rather than the forcing, strategy will be more successful, is tested. This hypothesis mirrors the causal logic, suggesting that faith-based mediators have the potential to contribute to the creation of durable peace agreements, through the usage of facilitative and formulative techniques. The methodological design makes use of tools provided by Mills Method of Difference and Structured Focused Comparison. These tools aid the analysis of faith-based mediation in Uganda and Sierra Leone. The findings indicate that the application of the fostering strategy has a positive effect in relation to the process of creating durable peace agreements. However, this positive effect comes with one condition, the faith-based mediators have to be influential in relation to the peace process.

A typology of marital dyads derived from Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Psychology was used to investigate the communicative behaviors of married companions. Four groups based on Kelly's Commonality (dyadic similarity) and Sociality (dyadic understanding) corollaries were contrasted: similar-understanding, dissimilar-understanding, similar-misunderstanding, and dissimilar-misunderstanding couples. It was expected that dyadic understanding would contribute more to self-disclosure, cooperative involvement, and marital satisfaction than dyadic similarity. Furthermore, it was anticipated that couples high in understanding and low in similarity would represent optimally functioning couples, as evidenced by disclosure, satisfaction, and involvement with each other. Sixty-three married couples who had known each other at least two years completed questionnaire items assessing demographic variables, marital satisfaction (Dyadic Adjustment Scale) and self-reported communication behaviors (Partner Communication Inventory, Dyadic Disclosure Inventory). Each spouse also completed an 8 X 8 Repertory Grid and predicted the mate's responses on the Rep Grid. Subjects then participated in three different audio-taped discussion tasks (an informal conversation, a consensus decision-making task, and a role-played conflict-resolution scene) which were rated for avoidant, competitive, and cooperative responses, as well as overall self-disclosure. Although understanding facilitated disclosure in conflict situations and similarity fostered marital satisfaction, communicative behaviors generally reflected the joint influence of both similarity and understanding. Dissimilar-understanding couples were intensely involved with each other and freely disclosed, but were not highly satisfied. Similar-understanding couples were the most content and had the greatest sense of validation as a couple. Similar-misunderstanding couples restricted their relationship by attempting to avoid expected confrontations. Dissimilar-misunderstanding couples viewed themselves in a socially desirable light, tried to maintain congenial, nonintimate interactions, and were moderately contented. Implications for therapeutic programs, for Kelly's theory, and for future research were discussed.

Declarative process models define the behaviour of business processes as a set of constraints. Declarative process discovery aims at inferring such constraints from event logs. Existing discovery techniques verify the satisfaction of candidate constraints over the log, but completely neglect their interactions. As a result, the inferred constraints can be mutually contradicting and their interplay may lead to an inconsistent process model that does not accept any trace. In such a case, the output turns out to be unusable for enactment, simulation or verification purposes. In addition, the discovered model contains, in general, redundancies that are due to complex interactions of several constraints and that cannot be cured using existing pruning approaches. We address these problems by proposing a technique that automatically resolves conflicts within the discovered models and is more powerful than existing pruning techniques to eliminate redundancies. First, we formally define the problems of constraint redundancy and conflict resolution. Second, we introduce techniques based on the notion of automata-product monoid, which guarantees the consistency of the discovered models and, at the same time, keeps the most interesting constraints in the pruned set. The level of interestingness is dictated by user-specified prioritisation criteria. We evaluate the devised techniques on a set of real-world event logs.