Server Intervention Research Articles

The impact of tableside ordering technologies on alcohol sales to the intoxicated.

The impact of tableside ordering technologies on alcohol sales to the intoxicated.

A service system where junior servers approach a senior server on behalf of customers

Many service systems in various type of industry operate under a policy according to which customers are not allowed to directly approach the senior server of the system. If the senior server's intervention in the service is required, the junior server who handles the request approaches the senior server on behalf of the customer. Thus, the service is divided into two phases, where the first phase (e.g., obtaining information or performing an initial service) is conducted by one of the junior servers, after which the junior server approaches the senior server and they together complete the service. However, the senior server may be occupied by another junior server, in which case the junior server joins a queue of such servers who are waiting for the senior server to become available. That is, the servers of the first phase (junior servers) act as customers in the second phase. We formulate and analyze this stochastic queueing system as a two-dimensional quasi-birth-and-death (QBD) process and derive its steady-state probabilities using matrix geometric methods. By means of economic analysis, we provide a scheme for deriving an optimal work division policy, which dictates how much work should be assigned to each phase in order to minimize the system's overall cost or maximize the system's utility. The economic analysis is carried out with an eye to three practical examples: (i) a bank office model; (ii) an app development model; and (iii) a system subject to the constraint that a certain amount of work is assigned to the senior server. Sensitivity analyses are conducted for all three models.

Overserving and Allowed Entry of Obviously Alcohol-Intoxicated Spectators at Sporting Events.

Alcohol intoxication among spectators at sporting events and related problems, such as violence, are of great concern in many countries around the world. However, knowledge is scarce about whether or not alcohol is served to obviously intoxicated spectators at licensed premises inside and outside the sporting arenas, and if obviously intoxicated spectators are allowed entrance to these events. The objective of this study was therefore to examine the occurrences of overserving at licensed premises inside and outside arenas, and of allowed entry of obviously intoxicated spectators into arenas. An observational study assessing the rate of denied alcohol service and denied entry to arenas of trained professional actors portraying a standardized scene of obvious alcohol intoxication (i.e., pseudo-patrons) was conducted. The scene was developed by an expert panel, and each attempt was monitored by an observer. The settings were 2 arenas hosting matches in the Swedish Premier Football League in the largest city in Sweden and 1 arena in the second largest city, including entrances and licensed premises inside and outside the arenas. The rates of denied alcohol service were 66.9% at licensed premises outside the arenas (n=151) and 24.9% at premises inside the arenas (n=237). The rate of denied entry to the arenas (n=102) was 10.8%. Overserving and allowed entry of obviously alcohol-intoxicated spectators are problematic at sporting events in Sweden and may contribute to high overall intoxication levels among spectators. The differences in server intervention rates indicate that serving staff at licensed premises inside the arenas and entrance staff are not likely to have been trained in responsible beverage service. This result underscores the need for server training among staff at the arenas.

Hierarchical Aggregation of Uncertain Sensor Data for M2M Wireless Sensor Network Using Reinforcement Learning

The communication among heterogeneous embedded devices could lead to correctness problems in M2M environment. Sometimes, it is not easy to classify the data because they may provide wrong or uncertain information. The data from these devices should be gathered in a safe, efficient, and right manner without the help of server or human intervention; even the low-level information from each device causes interoperability problems. This data gathering or data fusion process is very important because the data mapping result could be understood as totally different situation and hence cause different reaction, feedback, and controls. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical aggregation for uncertain sensor data using reinforcement learning to get correct and efficient data gathering result for reliable wireless sensor network. In our proposal, we add a new category for uncertain data and classify them through reinforcement learning using hierarchical subcategories. By adopting our proposed aggregation, false classification caused by uncertain data can be decreased and the correctness of data gathering can be enhanced.

Enhancing Privacy and Security of RFID System with Serverless Authentication and Search Protocols in Pervasive Environments

One of the recent realms that gathered attention of researchers is the security issues of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems that have tradeoff between controlled costs and improved efficiency. Evolvement and benefits of RFID technology signifies that it can be low-cost, efficient and secured solution to many pervasive applications. But RFID technology will not intermingle into human lives until prevailing and flexible privacy mechanisms are conceived. However, ensuring strong privacy has been an enormous challenge due to extremely inadequate computational storage of typical RFID tags. So in order to relieve tags from responsibility, privacy protection and security assurance was guaranteed by central server. In this paper, we suggest serverless, forward secure and untraceable authentication protocol for RFID tags. This authentication protocol safeguards both tag and reader against almost all major attacks without the intervention of server. Though it is very critical to guarantee untraceability and scalability simultaneously, here we are proposing a scheme to make our protocol more scalable via ownership transfer. To the best of our knowledge this feature is incorporated in the serverless system for the first time in pervasive environments. One extension of RFID authentication is RFID tag searching, which has not been given much attention so far. But we firmly believe that in near future tag searching will be a significant issue RFID based pervasive systems. So in this paper we propose a serverless RFID tag searching protocol in pervasive environments. This protocol can search a particular tag efficiently without server's intervention. Furthermore they are secured against major security threats.

Headlight Prefetching and Dynamic Chaining for Cooperative Media Streaming in Mobile Environments

Media streaming in mobile environments is becoming more and more important with the proliferation of 3G technologies and the popularity of online media services such as news clips, live sports, and hot movies. To avoid service interruptions, proper data management strategies must be taken by all parties. We propose a two-level framework and cooperative techniques for mobile media streaming. Headlight prefetching is for the cooperation of streaming access points to deal with unpredictable client movement and seamless hand-off. For each user, we maintain a virtual fan-shaped prefetching zone along the direction of movement similar to a vehicle headlight. The overlapping area and accumulated virtual illuminance of the headlight zone on a particular cell determine the degree and volume of prefetching on that cell. Dynamic chaining facilitates cooperation among users to maximize cache utilization and streaming benefit. On receiving a request from a client, the streaming access point starts a search for supplying partners before attempting to a remote media server. If a qualified partner is found, the client is chained to the partner and receives subsequent segments without server intervention. The client can itself be a supplying partner for other clients and naturally form a chain of users that are viewing and sharing the same media. Simulation results demonstrate that headlight prefetching and dynamic chaining can significantly decrease streaming disruptions, reduce bandwidth consumption, increase cache utilization and improve service response time.

Responsible Alcoholic Beverages Sales and Services Training Intervention in Cape Town: A Pilot Study

The aim of this study was to pilot a responsible beverage service intervention in order to reduce alcohol-impaired road use. The sample included 20 shebeens including 10 licensed and 10 unlicensed establishments chosen from a list of alcohol serving establishments in Gugulethu, Cape Town. The study examined whether changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour of servers as well as BAC levels of patrons occurred as a result of receiving server intervention training. Results indicate that the training programme was effective in changing serving practices consistent with the techniques and strategies emphasized in the training. However, the breathalyser results for baseline and follow-up, respectively, in the intervention and control group did not show differences among patrons. It is recommended that mandatory server training be introduced in South Africa for licensed establishments and develop an incentive system to encourage voluntary use of server training for unlicensed establishments.

순수 P2P 네트워크 환경에서의 효율적인 피어 고립 방지 기법

각 사용자들이 자료를 직접 주고받을 수 있는 P2P 네트워킹 방식에는 하이브리드 P2P 네트워킹 방식과 순수 P2P 네트워킹 방식이 있다. 하이브리드 P2P 네트워킹 방식에서는 각 피어들로 하여금 서버에 연결하여 서비스를 제공받게 하기 때문에, 서버가 운영되고 있는 한 각 피어들은 서버로부터 지속적인 서비스를 받을 수 있으며 다른 피어들간의 통신이 단절되는 네트워크 고립 현사이 발생되지 않는다. 그러나 순수 P2P 네트워킹 방식에서는 각 피어들이 서버가 아닌 다른 피어에게로 연결하여 서비스를 제공받게 함으로써, 피어들간의 통신을 중재하는 특정 피어가 종료할 경우 피어들간에 통신을 할 수 없는 네트워크 고립 현상이 발생될 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위해 각 피어들로 하여금 인접한 피어들의 연결 상태를 관리하게 함으로써, 연결된 피어가 종료할 경우 종료한 피어의 인접 피어에게 연결하는 기법과 이때 특정 피어에게 집중될 수 있는 연결들을 제거하거나 다른 피어로 분산하는 기법을 제시한다. 그에 따라 이 제안기법은 각 피어들로 하여금 연결된 특정 피어가 종료되어도 다른 피어에게 연결하여 네트워크 그룹에 지속적으로 연결을 유지하게 함으로써, 특정 피어가 네트워크 그룹으로부터 고립되어 서비스를 제공받지 못하는 현상을 방지할 수 있다. 시뮬레이션을 통하여 각 피어들이 네트워크 그룹으로의 고립이 발생하지 않는 상태에서 네트워크 연결을 분산시키는 것을 확인하였고, 피어 하나당 권장 연결 수 에 따른 전체 네트워크 트래픽 양과 권장 연결 수에 따른 최대 흡수를 측정하여 비교하였다. According to the arbitration mechanism among the peers in the network, the P2P networking environments can be classified into hybrid P2P networking environments and pure P2P networking environments. In hybrid P2P networking environments, each peer gets continual services from the servers that arc operational most of the time, and so, network isolation does not occur because every peer can always keep connection to the server. In pure P2P networking environments, however, every peer directly connects to another peer without server intervention, and so, network isolation can occur when the per mediating the connection is terminated. In this paper, we propose a scheme for each peer to keep connection information of other peers by maintaining IDs of its neighbor peers, to reconnect to another peers when the mediating peer fails to work. and, for efficiency. to balance the number of connections that should be maintained by each peer. With our mechanism, each pier in the network can continuously maintain connection to the network and get seamless services from other peers. Through the simulation, we ascer-tained that network isolation does not occur in the pure P2P network adopting our mechanism and that our mechanism distributes and balances the connections that are maintained by each peer. We also analyzed the total network traffic and the mean number of hops for the connections made by each peer according to the recommended number of connections that is established at system setup time.

Signs of intoxication and server intervention among 18-39-year-olds drinking at licensed premises in New South Wales, Australia.

To estimate the extent of responsible service of alcohol (RSA) practice to young adults showing signs of alcohol intoxication on licensed premises in New South Wales. Telephone-based cross-sectional survey. New South Wales, Australia. A total of 1090 people aged 18-39 years old. Seventy-five per cent of males and 64% of females reported that they had consumed at levels for acute alcohol-related harm during the previous 12 months, with 34% of males and 24% of females reporting doing so weekly; 54% (95% CI: 51-58%) of both males and females who had consumed at acute-risk levels, reported that this last drinking occasion occurred at a licensed premises. Of these, 56% (95% CI: 51-61%) reported that they had exhibited at least one sign of overt alcohol intoxication, while 19% (95% CI: 15-23%) reported showing three or more signs of intoxication. Among those reporting at least one sign of intoxication, only 10% (95% CI: 7-15%) reported that the licensed premises staff had provided at least one of seven different responsible service initiatives, while 55% (95% CI: 48-61%) reported that they were continued to be served alcohol. While these results suggest that intoxicated patrons are not being refused service as often as they should, there was evidence for some degree of responsible service provision with around half of the 'non-intoxicated' patrons reporting that they had seen licensed premises staff intervene in some way with other 'intoxicated' patrons. While the majority of 18-39-year-olds report showing signs of intoxication while drinking at licensed premises in NSW, only a small minority report experiencing RSA initiatives from bar staff in response to these signs.

Think they're drunk? Alcohol servers and the identification of intoxication.

Despite alcohol server training programs and legal liability aimed at controlling intoxication, server intervention appears to be rare. Given the difficulty in assessing intoxication, it can be assumed that improvement in assessment skills would increase the likelihood of intervention. Unfortunately, little is known regarding practices servers use to identify intoxication. In order to build a more informed base for policy formation and server training, the focus of this inquiry was to examine practices used by servers to assess intoxication. The analysis was based upon questionnaires mailed to a random probability sample of licensed servers from one state (N = 822). Indicators found to be most important were examined in relation to a variety of occupational characteristics. Implications for training curricula, policy formation, and future research are discussed.

Preventing Alcohol-Related Problems in the US Through Policy: Media Campaigns, Regulatory Approaches and Environmental Interventions

This paper provides an overview of research focusing on several general strategies for reducing drinking-related problems, including controls on alcohol advertising and counter advertising; laws and regulations pertaining to minimum legal drinking age, service to minors and drinking and driving; and environmental measures pertaining to price of alcohol, density of outlets, server intervention, control systems and community-based interventions. The paper concludes with a commentary on the potential effectiveness of different interventions, support for policy interventions, challenges facing enhanced initiatives.

Where Problems and Policy Intersect: servers, problem encounters and targeted policy

In an effort to broaden and design server intervention policies more efficiently, this research examines the work location where the greatest intersection between the point of policy intervention (licenced servers) and the problem (intoxicated customers) occurs. Given the historic policy focus on servers, this research examines perceptions of all licenced servers, rather than those employed in selected settings. A six-page questionnaire was mailed to a random probability sample of all licenced servers. The sample was drawn from an official list of all individually licenced servers in the State of Indiana, USA. Bivariate and regression analyses were conducted on the 938 responses received. The analyses indicated that licenced servers' perception of their frequency of encounters with intoxicated customers is highly variable, and dependent upon numerous work location variables. The most important variable was type of establishment, particularly nightclubs and hotel or motel bars. The results suggest the need for targeted policy-making efforts, such as differential licensing and training on the basis of establishment type, which would result in more effective use of scarce resources.

An Examination of the Utility of Server Intervention to Reduce Alcohol‐Related Problems in College Students1

College student alcohol‐related problems are a major social issue. Past research has revealed that server intervention can have a positive impact on excessive alcohol consumption and driving under the influence of alcohol. The present study is an examination of bar owners and college students' attitudes and beliefs about server intervention policies. The findings reveal group differences in acceptance and rejection of the policies. The findings are discussed with respect to change efforts geared toward alcohol service establishments.

A cognitive analysis of server intervention policies: perceptions of bar owners and servers.

The present study examined the underlying psychological variables relevant to alcohol server intervention policies. The focus of the research was the theoretical examination of college bar owners' and servers' attitudes and beliefs about server intervention policies. Owners (n = 185) and servers (n = 185) of college bars were asked about their attitudes and perceived cognitive outcomes regarding server intervention policies. Although the findings revealed no statistical differences between owners and servers on their attitudes toward the different server intervention policies, statistical differences were found between the different policies (p < .05). Favorable policies focused on providing services to customers, whereas unfavorable policies focused on limiting the sales of alcohol. Finally, structural equation modeling revealed perceived cognitive outcomes related to the attitudes toward different server intervention policies. According to the present study's theoretical orientation, the attitudes are likely to have a direct influence on the adoption of policies or, on the part of the server, compliance with the policies. These attitudes toward the policies were found to be a function of the perceived hassle of implementing the policies and how effective the policy was in preventing driving under the influence.

Long-term effects of a community-wide alcohol server training intervention.

The Rhode Island Community Alcohol Abuse and Injury Prevention Project (CAAIPP), implemented from 1984 through 1989, employed the "community gatekeeper" approach to reduce alcohol-related injuries and deaths. Targeting alcohol servers rather than drinkers, community-wide interventions were designed and implemented to encourage responsible serving behaviors through the adoption of techniques of responsible service. The primary goal of the CAAIPP server intervention evaluation was to assess both short-term and long-term changes in behavior of alcohol beverage servers who were recipients of CAAIPP training. A 5-hour training curriculum on "Responsible Alcohol Service" was offered to all alcohol servers in a randomly selected study community. A prospective study design was used to evaluate long-term changes in the self-reported behavior of 321 trainees using three time-points over 5 years. A cross-sectional survey was conducted 4 years posttraining to compare rates of self-reported server behaviors in the intervention community (n = 106) with two comparison communities (nA = 56, nB = 49). Fifteen months after training, trainees reported significantly higher levels of desired serving behavior than nontrained servers. Though positive effects of server training diminished with time, responsible serving behavior 4 years posttraining remained higher than pretraining levels. The impact appeared greatest for servers with fewer years serving experience, wait-persons, younger servers and servers who worked in establishments without written policies regarding serving practices. The results with regard to modifying server behavior are positive and indicate that server interventions shown to be efficacious should be implemented. Training programs that target specific serving skills in repeat sessions may be most promising for improving server behavior, particularly among both young and new servers working in establishments without written policies regarding serving practices.

A community‐wide Responsible Beverage Service program in three communities: early findings

Evidence accumulating over the past 10 years or so suggests that commercial servers of alcoholic beverages will intervene to reduce levels of impairment among their patrons and will refuse service to intoxicated customers. While some Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) programs have had significant effects on server and patron behavior, others have not. This leads us to consider issues of implementation and program effectiveness. In the current paper, a community-wide RBS program is described in some detail. The program was comprised by a larger comprehensive community intervention project in three sites across California and South Carolina. Process evaluation data, to track program implementation and proximal effects, provide early findings. Expressed support for RBS principles was high for both the public and the hospitality industry in all sites. A telephone survey of managers also suggests that prevention policies at bars and restaurants are beginning to show up, but a direct measure of server intervention with heavy drinkers does not yet demonstrate a program effect.

Drinking environment and sociodemographic factors among DWI offenders.

This study was designed to identify issues for public health/traffic safety in prevention of DWI and alcohol-related traffic injuries/deaths by investigating the relationships among drinking locations, sociodemographic characteristics and drinking-environment-related factors of convicted DWI offenders. Subjects were clients (N = 5,154, 79% male) referred to the Lovelace Comprehensive Screening Program for alcohol-related assessment and were interviewed by counselors using a structured, computer-based questionnaire. Differences among ethnic/racial and gender categories were analyzed by logistic regression. (1) Some groups showed a higher rate of DWI convictions, compared to the adult county population: young, single male: Hispanic and Mexican National; divorced/ separated/widowed (increasing with age): (2) older, educated or employed offenders reported drinking more in bars/lounges, while younger offenders were more likely drinking in private parties; (3) Hispanic and Mexican National men showed equal likelihood of drinking with friends and relatives in bars/lounges, whereas non-Hispanic white males reported drinking more with friends; and (4) Native Americans were associated with higher blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and alcohol-related problems. (1) Young offenders' drinking and social behavior in private parties has implications for traffic safety; (2) divorced/separated offenders suggest a need for attention to underlying emotional problems; (3) strong family ties among Hispancies and Mexican Nationals may be a factor in remedial treatment; (4) Native American BAC statistics showed a need for further study; (5) multiple offenders' association with away-from-home drinking locations increased their risk of being involved in fatal crashes; and (6) server intervention programs should be emphasized to minimize intoxication of customers in commercial establishments.

The role of alcohol providers in prevention: an evaluation of a server intervention programme

Server intervention is a relatively new approach in the attempt to reduce the incidence of drinking and driving. Although a number of evaluations have suggested that the approach may be effective, there have been few comprehensive evaluations of such programmes. The present study utilized process evaluation techniques to assess reactions to a programme developed by the Addiction Research Foundation, and a quasi-experimental design to determine the impact of the programme on the serving practices of servers. Actors portrayed behaviours often faced by servers, and observers rated the reactions of the servers, who were unaware of the simulations, to these situations. The programme appears to have been effective in changing behaviour, in that trained servers exhibited less inappropriate responses than did untrained servers. In addition the results suggested that the programme increased servers' knowledge about their obligations and potential strategies for dealing with these situations. The implications of these findings for future implementations of such programmes are discussed.

Changes in access to and availability of alcohol in the United States: research and policy implications.

Recent changes in alcohol availability and access in the United States are reviewed and the role public policy research played in such changes are discussed. The paper finds that there are two concurrent trends, i.e. increased alcohol availability through changes in wine and spirits structural availability, lower prices and increased outlet densities, and decreased availability and access through higher minimum drinking ages, server intervention and training, server liability, low- and no-alcohol beverages, and warning labels on alcohol containers. This paper discusses these trends and the implications for policy development to which research is an input.

Public support for warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers

Warning labels are now required on alcohol beverage containers in the United States. Prior to the enactment of the warning label law, a random sample of adults in the general population of the United States were interviewed by telephone to assess baseline knowledge and support for the warning labels (n = 2006). This paper proceeds on the assumption that public support is crucial for sustained success of alcohol control policies such as the warning label mandate. We found that a vast majority (87%) of the respondents felt that alcoholic beverages should have warning labels about possible health hazards, with abstention as the most significant predictor of support. A majority of the respondents also felt that alcohol education, server intervention, treatment and counter-advertisement programs should be increased. A large minority felt that alcohol taxes should be increased store hours should be decreased, and the legal drinking age should be increased. Most respondents agreed that warning labels would not have much effect on heavy drinkers. When compared to responses to similar questions about alcohol control policies over the past 20 years, evidence supporting a conservative trend towards alcohol in the United States was found.