41 research outputs found
Linking Unit Tests and Properties
No full textQuickCheck allows us to verify software against particular proper- ties. A property can be regarded as an abstraction over many unit tests. QuickCheck uses generated random input data to test such properties. If a counterexample is found, it becomes immediately clear what we have tested. This is not the case when all tests pass, since we do not (and shall not) see the actual generated test cases. How can we be sure about what is tested? QuickCheck has the ability to gather statistics about the test cases, which is insightful. But still it does not tell us whether the particular unit test scenarios we have in mind are included. For this reason, we have developed a tool that can answer this question. It checks if a given unit test can be generated by a property, making it easier to judge the property’s quality. We have applied our tool to an industrial use case of testing the AUTOSAR basic software modules and shows that it can handle complex models and large unit tests
Partnership in Economic Development: The Case of U.K. Local Enterprise Agencies
No full textThe rapid development of local enterprise agencies in Britain in the 1980s has been an important focus for the increasing involvement of the private sector in economic development. These agencies present themselves as locally oriented partnerships and the paper draws on evidence from a recent survey, undertaken by the author in Greater London, to show what partnership can mean in practice. A particular focus is the relation between enterprise agencies and local authorities. This leads to a discussion of some of the policy issues arising from the development of these agencies which is part of a wider growth of the non-elected state in Britain through the decade. It is argued that their development raises important questions concerning their lack of local democratic accountability. Copyright 1991 by The Policy Studies Organization.
Offenders who use child sexual exploitation material: Development of an integrated model for their classification, assessment, and treatment
No full textSince the advent of the internet, convictions for the possession, display, trading and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) have risen steadily. Professionals working in sex offender assessment and treatment have seen an influx in individuals who engage in this type of child sexual abuse without any direct contact with the victim. Despite an increase in recent research activities, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding this “new type” of sex offenders, in terms of appropriate assessment, treatment and management strategies.
A comprehensive review was undertaken, establishing the knowledge basis regarding CSEM offending and the offenders who engage in it. The identified differences between CSEM offenders (CSEMOs) and contact sex offenders (CSOs) and the nature of their offending led to the development of a theoretical model of CSEM offending, suggesting a classification of CSEM users on three dimensions: CSEM offending with or without direct sexual contact to a minor (fantasy-driven versus contact-driven offending), the individual’s motivation to offend, and the level of networking with other offenders. The question of risk of reoffending in CSEMOs, especially concerning cross-over to contact sex offending with a minor, was examined in terms of actual reoffending data and in the context of behavioural consequences resulting from general pornography consumption. The findings further confirmed the value of the two-fold distinction of CSEMOs, with contact-driven offenders presenting higher risk of direct sex offending based on a greater inclination for sexual violence. A review of existing risk assessment tools and established risk factors for sexual reoffending pointed to the value of structured professional guidelines when assessing CSEM offenders.
Sixty-eight offenders were assessed via an anonymous computer survey including a variety of clinical and risk-related variables; the sample included 22 CSEMOs, 29 CSOs, and 17 offenders with both offence types (mixed offenders, MOs). The findings confirmed differing profiles between CSEM users and CSOs, most notably in the high emotional, time-related and financial cost involved in CSEMOs’ internet behaviour and MOs’ apparent disregard for their emotional ties to others. As a heterogeneous nature of CSEM users became apparent, numerical and graphical methods were employed to identify subgroups of CSEM users: Contact-driven Users (n = 15), Fantasy-driven Users (n = 12), and three smaller subgroups (each n = 2): Users with a preference for material with extreme content (Extreme Material Users), users who enacted high caution in their CSEM offending (Cautious Users), and users with high social connectedness (Social Users). While the focus of Contact-driven Users was pointed to direct sexual contact with minors, Fantasy-driven Users showed higher involvement in their CSEM usage, for example regarding their social or emotional investment online. The spatial representation of participants identified three dimensions as crucial in the classification of these subgroups: direct sexual contact with a minor, possession of fantasy-generating material, and social contact with other users with a sexual interest in minors. Exploring the subgroups’ profile on these variables and on conventional predictors of sex offending led to the development of an empirical model of CSEM users, differentiating a contact-driven pathway (Cautious Users, Contact-driven Users) from a fantasy-driven pathway (Extreme Material Users, Fantasy-driven Users, and Social Users), with offenders on the contact-driven pathway appearing more similar to CSOs.
The theoretical and empirical models were then combined into an Integrated Model for the Classification, Assessment, and Treatment of CSEM Users (IMCAT-CU), leading to the development of structured professional guidelines for their assessment and risk evaluation according to the five prototypes of CSEM offending
Sexual crimes
No full textWe begin by setting out the rationale for targeting offenders, victims, and settings. For this purpose we draw primarily on Eck’s (2003) crime triangle, which proposes a motivated offender, a suitable target, and a conducive location, as the three basic prerequisites for any crime to occur. We then summarise research findings concerning sexual offenders, their victims, and the settings in which various kinds of sexual offences occur. Next we outline our rationale for focusing on three prevention levels, drawing on the public health model that distinguishes primary (or universal), secondary (or selected), and tertiary (or indicated) prevention. In the remainder of the chapter we work through each of the nine cells in the matrix, presenting examples of evidence informed prevention strategies for each target × level configuration.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Criminology and Criminal JusticeNo Full Tex
Endemic Sexual Violence and Abuse: Contexts and Dispositions
No full textEndemic sexual violence and abuse has been observed in a number of specific circumstances, most notably conflict zones, remote and marginalised communities, and religious and state institutions. In this article we examine several documented examples and argue that a similar set of causal processes are at work in all of these otherwise apparently disparate circumstances. Rather than construing the problem as ‘organised’ sexual abuse, we present the problem in terms of the breakdown (or disorganisation) of usual individual, situational and ecological constraints.</p
Testing Safety PLCs Using QuickCheck
No full textThe testing of safety-related industrial systems is usually carried out by means of checklists. A tester has a list of scenarios that he or she manually applies to the system to check whether the system behaves according to its specification. However, operators behave unpredictably. Their behavior may not be covered by the set of scenarios tested and may lead to dangerous situations. To avoid this, randomized test case generation can be useful as it allows for unanticipated scenarios. The presented framework uses a tool for randomized test case generation, QuickCheck, to trigger event sequences that are then applied to a Safety Programmable Logic Controller (Safety PLC). Experiments show that this concept is capable of finding errors in safety code or increasing the tester\u27s confidence in the correctness of the code by exhibiting a large number of passing test cases. While this concept proves to be powerful, it does not require much effort from the tester as the execution of test cases is done without user interaction
QuickSpec: a lightweight theory exploration tool for programmers (system demonstration)
No full textThis document gives the outline of a system demonstration for the QuickSpec theory exploration tool.</jats:p
HipSpec : Automating Inductive Proofs of Program Properties
No full textWe present ongoing work on HipSpec, a system for automaticallyderiving and proving properties about functional programs. HipSpec usesa combination of theory formation, counter example testing andinductive theorem proving to automatically generate a set ofequational theorems about recursive functions in a program, which are laterused as a background theory for proving stated properties about a program.Initial experiments are encouraging; our initial HipSpec prototype already performs comparably to other, similar systems, even being able to deal with some properties other systems cannot handle.</jats:p
Preventing youth sexual violence and abuse in Aurukun and West Cairns: Neighbourhoods project implementation and evaluation report 2013-2016
No full textNo Full Tex
QuickSpec: a lightweight theory exploration tool for programmers (system demonstration)
No full textThis document gives the outline of a system demonstration for the QuickSpec theory exploration tool
