A new hazard analysis technique, called System-Theoretic Process Analysis, is capable of identifying potential hazardous design flaws, including software and system design errors and unsafe interactions among multiple system components. Detailed procedures for performing the hazard analysis were developed and the feasibility and utility of using it on complex systems was demonstrated by applying it to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency H-II Transfer Vehicle. In a comparison of the results of this new hazard analysis technique to those of the standard fault tree analysis used in the design and certification of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, System-Theoretic Hazard Analysis found all the hazardous scenarios identified in the fault tree analysis as well as additional causal factors that had not been) identified by fault tree analysis.

Defining organization-specific process standards by integrating, harmonizing, and standardizing heterogeneous and often implicit processes is an important task, especially for large development organizations. On the one hand, such a standard must be generic enough to cover all of the organization's development activities; on the other hand, it must be as detailed and precise as possible to support employees' daily work. Today, organizations typically maintain and advance a plethora of individual processes, each addressing specific problems. This requires enormous effort, which could be spent more efficiently. This article introduces an approach to developing a Software Process Line that, similar to a Software Product Line, promises to reduce the complexity and thus, the effort required for managing the processes of a software organization. We propose as majors steps Scoping, Modeling, and Architecting the Software Process Line, and describe in detail the Scoping approach werecommend, based on an analysis of the potential products to be produced in the future, the projects expected for the future, and the respective process capabilities needed. In addition, the article sketches experience from determining the scope of space process standards for satellite software development. Finally, it discusses the approach, and related work, conclusions, and an outlook on future work are presented

Abstract. Defining process standards by integrating, harmonizing, and standardizing heterogeneous and often implicit processes is an important task, especially for large development organizations. However, many challenges exist, such as limiting the scope of process standards, coping with different levels of process model abstraction, and identifying relevant process variabilities to be included in the standard. On the one hand, eliminating process variability by building more abstract models with higher degrees of interpretation has many disadvantages, such as less control over the process. Integrating all kinds of variability, on the other hand, leads to high process deployment costs. This article describes requirements and concepts for determining the scope of process standards based on a characterization of the potential products to be produced in the future, the projects expected for the future, and the respective process capabilities needed. In addition, the article sketches experience from determining the scope of space process standards for satellite software development. Finally, related work with respect to process model scoping, conclusions, and an outlook on future work are presented.

Recently, we demonstrated 5,6 that cultivation of leafy daikon (Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus) reduced density of resting spores (RS) of the pathogen in the soil by 75 and 95% compared with the control without leafy daikon in greenhouse and field experiments, respectively. Though leafy daikon promotes the germination of RS in the soil, the pathogen cannot multiply in leafy daikon plants and subsequently dies out. As a result, the RS density of the pathogen in the soil decreases after cropping leafy daikon. The disease severity (DS) in succeeding JARQ 44 (4), 383 -390 (2010) AbstractA model was developed to evaluate long-term temporal changes in disease severity (DS) of the clubroot disease of Chinese cabbage in the field with various management strategies. The model consists of a dose-response curve (DRC) of resting spore (RS) density of Plasmodiophora brassicae and DS, and the rate of RS density change due to leafy daikon cropping as a decoy plant, plowing the clubbed roots in the soil after harvest, and natural reduction. The DRC was estimated by greenhouse experiments. Three DRCs were estimated by experiments carried out in 1995-1997. The DRC in 1996 predicted the highest DS at all RS densities and hence was considered to represent a conducive condition, and that in 1997 predicted the lowest DS and was considered to represent a suppressive condition, respectively. Field data for three years (1996)(1997)(1998) fell into an area surrounded by both DRC. This result confirmed the validity of the DRCs. Also the model was validated by field experiments where leafy daikon was cultivated before planting Chinese cabbage. The usefulness of the model for longterm prediction of temporal changes of DS was discussed.