Metaheuristic techniques such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing and tabu search have found wide application in most areas of engineering. These techniques have also been applied in business, financial and economic modelling. Metaheuristics have been applied to three areas of software engineering: test data generation, module clustering and cost/effort prediction, yet there remain many software engineering problems which have yet to be tackled using metaheuristics. It is surprising that metaheuristics have not been more widely applied to software engineering; many problems in software engineering are characterised by precisely the features which make metaheuristics search applicable. In the paper it is argued that the features which make metaheuristics applicable for engineering and business applications outside software engineering also suggest that there is great potential for the exploitation of metaheuristics within software engineering. The paper briefly reviews the principal metaheuristic search techniques and surveys existing work on the application of metaheuristics to the three software engineering areas of test data generation, module clustering and cost/effort prediction. It also shows how metaheuristic search techniques can be applied to three additional areas of software engineering: maintenance/evolution system integration and requirements scheduling. The software engineering problem areas considered thus span the range of the software development process, from initial planning, cost estimation and requirements analysis through to integration, maintenance and evolution of legacy systems. The aim is to justify the claim that many problems in software engineering can be reformulated as search problems, to which metaheuristic techniques can be applied. The goal of the paper is to stimulate greater interest in metaheuristic search as a tool of optimisation of software engineering problems and to encourage the investigation and exploitation of these technologies in finding near optimal solutions to the complex constraint-based scenarios which arise so frequently in software engineering

The systematic and widespread treatment of sex offenders is a comparatively recent innovation in the human services field. Consequently, research considering the impact of such work on providers and organisations is still in its infancy. The first swathe of international research, published throughout the 1990s, identified a range of deleterious effects for treatment providers, ranging from mild anxiety to severe psychological morbidity. More recent findings indicate a considerably more optimistic psychological future. This paper seeks to provide the reader with an overview of the relevant literature, together with its shortcomings, and introduce the Model of Dynamic Adaptation (MDA), a framework through which variables associated with both positive and negative outcomes may be grouped and managed. It is proposed that understanding and managing the MDA can support both individuals and organisations in achieving their goals in good psychological health, through the development and implementation of informed, evidence-based, best practice strategies.

Purpose. Since 1991 over 1,400 Prison Service personnel have been trained in the delivery of therapeutic interventions with men convicted of sexual abuse. In that time anecdotal evidence of psychological difficulties experienced by treatment providers has emerged. However, empirical support for this evidence is sparse, and reflects a disproportionately low level of research into the impact on treatment providers of their work when compared with the efficacy of the treatment they deliver. One of the consistent shortcomings of the available research has been the lack of a valid and reliable psychometric assessment of the psychological well-being of treatment providers, and this paper reports on the construction and validation of a scale designed to assess the personal and professional effects of working therapeutically with sex offenders. Method.A scenario technique was used to elicit items. Exploratory factor analysis of the responses of 182 active facilitators yielded a three-factor scale comprising 61 items. The structure was replicated on an independent sample of 165 facilitators.Results. Negative reactivity to offenders (NRO) described generally adverse responses to offenders, ruminative vulnerability (RV) was characterized by emotional pre-occupation with work and increasing sensitivity to emotional issues, and organizational dissatisfaction (OD) included items relating to lack of collegial and managerial support. Concurrent validation showed that the three factors were systematically related to a range of relevant variables. Conclusion. The new assessment of dynamic adaptation (ADA) scale should provide an invaluable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of SOTP training programmes.The provision of systematic treatment programmes for sex offenders is a relatively recent innovation in the human services field, and treatment facilitation is consequently still a young profession (Edmunds, 1997). Over the past two decades intervention

This article presents the first research findings into the resilience of Dutch probation officers. The research has been a part of European-funded SPORE project, that aimed to identify approaches that appear to have a positive impact on probation officers' resilience. The theoretical starting point for the research was the Stress Shield Model, developed and validated in research among police officers. This model views resilience as the capacity to cope with, adapt to, and develop from the demands, challenges and changes encountered as a result of working in a critical occupation. The model describes resilience as an outcome, resulting from the interaction between organizational, peer related, and individual factors.By means of five focus groups and an internet survey consisting of questionnaires measuring the model factors, the research aimed to identify how the factors in the

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