Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Full-knowledge'

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1987.
Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science.
Bibliography: leaves 71-75.
by Marc H. Larrère.
M.S.

The success of web services is changing the way in which software is designed, developed, and distributed. The increasing diffusion of software in the form services, available as commodities over the Internet, has en- abled business scenarios where processes are implemented by composing loosely-coupled services chosen at runtime. Services are in fact continuously re-designed and incrementally developed, released in heterogeneous and distributed environments, and selected and integrated at runtime within external business processes. In this dynamic context, there is the need of solutions supporting the evaluation of service performance at an early stage of the software development process, or even at design time, to support users in an a priori evaluation of the impact, a given service might have when integrated in their business process. A number of useful performance verification and validation techniques are proposed to test and simulate web services, but they assume the availability of service code or at least of reliable information (e.g., collected by testing) on service behavior. Among these approaches, simulation-based techniques are mostly used to assess the behavior of the service and predict its behavior using historical data. Despite the benefits of such solutions, few proposals have addressed the problem of how service performance can be assessed at design time and how historical data can be replaced by simulation data for performance evaluation at early stage of development cycle. In this thesis, the notion of simulation is fully integrated within early phases of the software development process in order to predict the behavior of services. We propose model-based approaches that rely on the amount of information available for the simulation of the performance of service operations. We distinguish full-knowledge, partial-knowledge and zero-knowledge scenarios. In a full-knowledge scenario, the total execution times for each operation and the internal distributions of delays are known and used for performance evaluation. In a partial-knowledge scenario, partial testing results (i.e., the lower and upper bounds to the operation execution times) are used to simulate a service performance. In the zero-knowledge scenario, no testing results are considered; only simulation results are used for performance evaluation. The main contributions of this thesis can be summarized as follows. Firstly, we proposed a model-based approach that relies on Symbolic Transition System (STS) to describe the web services as finite state automata and evaluate their performance. This model was extended for testing and simulation. The testing model annotates model transitions with performance idioms, which allow to evaluate the behavior of the service. The simulation model extends the standard STS-based model with transition probabilities and delay distributions. This model is used to generate a simulation script that allows to simulate the service behavior. Our methodology used simulation along the design and pre-deployment phases of the web service lifecycle to preliminarily assess web service performance using coarse-grained information on the total execution time of each service operation derived by testing. We used testing results and provided some practical examples to validate our methodology and the quality of the performance measurements computed by simulation considering the full-knowledge and partial-knowledge scenarios. The results obtained showed that our simulation gives accurate estimation of the execution times. Secondly, the thesis proposed an approach that permits service developers and software adopters to evaluate service performance in a zero-knowledge scenario, where testing results and service code are not yet available. Our approach is built on expert knowledge to estimate the execution time of the service operation. It evaluates the complexity of the service operation using the input and output Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages, and the Web Service Description Language (WSDL) interface of the service. Then, the operation interval of execution times is estimated based on profile tables providing the time overhead needed to parse and build SOAP messages, and the performance inferred from the testing of some reference service operations. Our simulation results showed that our zero-knowledge approach gives an accurate approximation of the interval of execution times when compared with the testing results at the end of the development. Thirdly, the thesis proposed an application of our previous approaches to the definition of a framework that allows to negotiate and monitoring the performance Service Level Agreement (SLA) of the web service based on the simulation data. The solution for SLA monitoring is based on the STS-based model for testing and the solution for SLA negotiation is based on the service model for simulation. This work provides an idea about the SLA of the service in advance and how to handle the violations of the SLA on performance after the service deployment.
Le succès des services Web est entrain de changer la façon dont le logiciel est conçu, développé et distribué. La diffusion croissante des logiciels sous forme de services, disponibles en tant que produits sur Internet, a permis la définition de scénarios d’entreprise où les processus sont mis en œuvre par la composition de services faiblement couplés, choisis au moment de l’exécution. Les services sont en effet en permanence re-conçus et développés progressivement, publiés dans des environnements hétérogènes et distribués, et sélectionnés et intégrés à l’exécution dans les processus externes d’entreprise. Dans ce contexte dynamique, il est nécessaire d’avoir des solutions permettant l'évaluation de la performance du service à un stade précoce du processus de développement des logiciels, ou encore au moment de la conception, afin de permettre aux utilisateurs de faire une évaluation “a priori” de l’impact qu’un service donné peut avoir quand il est intégré dans leur processus d’entreprise. Un certain nombre de techniques de vérification et de validation des performances utiles sont proposées pour tester et simuler les services web, mais elles requièrent la disponibilité du code source du service ou au moins d’informations fiables (par exemple, recueillies par test) sur le comportement du service. Parmi ces approches, les techniques basées sur la simulation sont principalement utilisées pour évaluer le comportement du service et prédire son comportement en utilisant des données obtenues par test. Malgré les avantages de ces solutions, peu de propositions ont abordé le problème lié à la manière dont la performance du service peut être ́évaluée au moment de la conception et comment les données de test peuvent être remplacées par les données de simulation en vue de l’évaluation de la performance à un stade précoce du cycle de développement. Dans cette thèse, la notion de simulation est entièrement intégrée dans les premières phases du processus de développement des logiciels afin de prédire le comportement des services. Nous proposons des approches basées sur l’utilisation de modèles s’appuyant sur la quantité d’informations disponibles pour la simulation de la performance des opérations du service web. Nous distinguons les scénarios full-knowledge, partial-knowledge et zero-knowledge. Dans un scénario full-knowledge, les temps d’exécution total de chaque opération et les distributions internes des délais sont connus et utilisés pour l’évaluation des performances. Dans un scénario partial-knowledge, les résultats des tests partiels (par exemple, les bornes inférieures et supérieures des temps d’exécution de l’opération) sont utilisés pour simuler la performance du service web. Dans le scénario zero-knowledge, aucun résultat de test n’est considéré, seuls les résultats de simulation sont utilisés pour l’évaluation des performances. Les principales contributions de cette thèse peuvent être résumées comme suit. Premièrement, nous avons proposé une approche basée sur l’utilisation de modèle qui s’appuie sur le Système de Transition Symbolique ( STS ) pour décrire les services web comme des automates à ́états finis et évaluer leur performance. Ce modèle a ́été étendu pour les tests et la simulation. Le modèle de test ajoute aux transitions du modèle STS standard des idiomes de performance, qui permettent d’évaluer le comportement du service. Cependant, le modèle de simulation étend le modèle STS standard avec des probabilités de transition et les distributions de délais. Ce modèle est utilisé pour générer un script de simulation permettant de simuler le comportement du service. Notre méthodologie utilise la simulation tout au long des phases de conception et de pré-déploiement du cycle de vie des services web pour une évaluation préliminaire de la performance des services web en utilisant les informations brutes sur le temps total d’exécution de chaque opération du service web provenant des tests. Nous avons utilisé les résultats des tests et fourni des exemples concrets pour valider notre méthodologie et la qualité des mesures de performance obtenues par simulation en considérant les scénarios full-knowledge et partial-knowledge. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que notre simulation donne une estimation précise des temps d’exécution. Deuxièmement, notre thèse a proposé une approche qui permet aux développeurs de services web et aux utilisateurs des logiciels d’évaluer la performance des services en considérant le scénario zero-knowledge , où les résultats des tests et le code source des services ne sont pas encore disponibles. Notre approche est fondée sur les connaissances des experts pour estimer le temps d’exécution de l’opération du service web. Il évalue la complexité de l’opération en utilisant les messages SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) d’entrée et de sortie et l’interface de description WSDL (Web Service Description Language) du service. Ensuite, l’intervalle du temps d’exécution de l’opération est estimé sur la base des tables de profils fournissant le temps nécessaire pour parser et construire les messages SOAP, et la performance déduite à partir du test de certaines opérations de web services de référence. Nos résultats de simulation ont montré que notre scénario zero-knowledge donne une bonne approximation de l’intervalle du temps d’exécution par rapport aux résultats des tests obtenus à la fin du développement. Troisièmement, cette thèse propose une application de nos précédentes approches pour la mise en place d’un framework qui permet de négocier et de surveiller le contrat de niveau de service (SLA) sur la performance du service web en se basant sur les données de simulation. La solution pour le suivi du contrat de niveau de service est basée sur le modèle STS étendu pour le test et la solution de négociation du niveau de service est basée sur le modèle de service étendu pour la simulation. Ce travail fournit à l’avance une idée sur le contrat de performance du service et la façon dont les violations du contrat sont traitées après le déploiement du service web.

The purpose of this master's project was to investigate the types of personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills TESOL employers are seeking in foreign job candidates in today's biggest EFL job markets, specifically in China and South Korea. First, the literature review introduces the enormous development of the EFL job market in these two countries and some challenges these two countries faced in their attempt to hire foreign EFL teachers. A total of 303 job advertisements were gathered from two Internet sources (Dave's ESL Café and TESOL.org) that met all the established criteria for choosing a reliable data source during a 12-month period and analyzed in order to determine the personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills listed by TESOL employers in these two Asian countries. The results indicate that 92% of the ads required international applicants to be native speakers of English. Key skills needed in both countries included communication skills, computer skills, a high level of English language proficiency, and writing skills. The majority of the full-time positions sought instructors with experience in materials development, curriculum development, or assessment. In terms of personal characteristics, employers want applicants to be enthusiastic, energetic, dedicated, and interested in young learners ranging in age from kindergarten to high school level. These findings have important implications for those TESOL graduates preparing themselves to obtain full-time jobs in China and South Korea.

This research investigated the leadership style in a research and development (R&D) work unit within a petro-chemical company, using the Full Range Leadership Development Theory as assessed by Multifactor-Leadership-Questionnaire (MLQ). From the literature review conducted, it was concluded that an R&D environment is multi-dimensional and the workforce can be diverse in the field of specialisation and personality characteristics. Subsequently, the literature review also focused on functional diversity and gender differences within technological and/or scientific environments. Descriptive statistics were provided and the data were then statistically analysed. The research results showed a statistical difference in the perception of the frequency of leadership style between manager-leaders and subordinates. Differences in the mean scores of manager-leaders and subordinates found that the manager-leaders overestimated the frequency ratings of their transformational leadership style and the leadership outcomes, while they under-estimated the frequency ratings for transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. This indicates that although the manager-leaders consider themselves as more transformational, the subordinates of this R&D unit view their immediate managers as not displaying ideal levels of transformational leadership behaviours. A self-bias phenomenon may be present where the manager-leaders judge themselves as overly favourable. It is recommended that this be addressed within the organisation. A statistical significant difference was observed in how some male and female employees experienced their manager-leaders' leadership style. The females indicated a higher frequency of laissez-faire leadership style, while some males viewed their manager-leaders as more transformational compared to the female employees. Manager-leaders may need different skills to manage females and in general an increasing awareness of gender bias within the unit may mitigate stereotypical assumptions. No statistically significant differences (p<0, 05) could be found for the total group between functional areas, being scientists versus engineers. It should be noted that the departments consist of predominantly scientists, while only one department showed a mixture of scientists and engineers.
Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:44:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA DA LUZ SANTOS RAMOS.pdf: 5200804 bytes, checksum: 7bb2e2f8a8a154ff3e2fc547bd0296ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-06
This research sought to investigate the Schools Network in Full-time State Public Education, in Goiás, established in 2006, aiming to answer the following question: full-time school has consolidated itself as a school of knowledge or host? We used qualitative research that was developed through field research and documentary analysis. Data collection took place through observation and interviews with the management team of the selected schools, specifically with the coordinators and directors of the schools involved in the deployment and implementation of this project. To analyze the data we use as theoretical the following authors: CAVALIERE; COELHO (2002), DEWEY (1979), LIBÂNEO (2003, 2006), MOLL (2012), PARO (1988, 2001), PEREZ GOMEZ (2001), RIBEIRO (1985, 1995, 2009), SACRISTÁN (1999, 2007), SILVA (2010), TEIXEIRA (1950, 1954, 1959, 1971, 1976a, 1976b, 2007). The results obtained from this research are organized into three chapters, which cover the following areas: Chapter I-considerations of schooling and full-time school, explaining the three projects implemented in Brazil, the first by Teixeira, second by Darci Ribeiro and finally the proposed deployment of full-time schooling in the public state education in Goiás, Chapter II - an ethnography of schools selected by three categories, namely: school full time - preparation, training and working conditions; school full-time: the physical space into focus and finally, full-time school: teaching time; Chapter III, with an analysis of the conceptions that guide the school as a full-time school host and concepts that guide the full-time school as a school of knowledge. In this perspective, the results of this research show that the Schools Full-Time Network Public State of Goias face many challenges and the implementation process of these schools has been consolidating a school's host, to the detriment of school knowledge
Esta pesquisa foi realizada em Escolas de Tempo Integral na Rede Pública Estadual de Ensino, em Goiás, implantadas no ano de 2006, objetivando responder à seguinte indagação: a escola de tempo integral vem consolidando-se como escola do conhecimento ou do acolhimento? Para tanto, utilizamos a pesquisa qualitativa que foi desenvolvida por meio da pesquisa de campo e da análise documental. A coleta dos dados deu-se por meio de observação in loco e de entrevistas realizadas com a equipe gestora das escolas selecionadas, especificamente com os coordenadores e diretores destas escolas envolvidos na implantação e implementação deste projeto. Para a análise dos dados utilizamos como referenciais teóricos os seguintes autores: CAVALIERE; COELHO (2002), DEWEY (1979), LIBÂNEO (2003; 2006), MOLL (2012), PARO (1988; 2001), PÉREZ GOMEZ (2001), RIBEIRO (1985; 1995; 2009), SACRISTÁN (1999; 2007), SILVA (2010), TEIXEIRA (1950; 1954; 1959; 1971; 1976a; 1976b; 2007). Os resultados obtidos com esta investigação estão organizados em três capítulos, que apresentam os seguintes conteúdos: Capítulo I- considerações acerca da educação escolar e da escola de tempo integral, explicitando os três projetos implantados no Brasil, o primeiro, por Anísio Teixeira, o segundo, por Darci Ribeiro e finalmente a proposta de implantação da escola de tempo integral na rede pública estadual de ensino, em Goiás; o Capítulo II - uma etnografia das escolas selecionadas por meio de três categorias, a saber: escola de tempo integral preparação, formação e condições de trabalho; escola de tempo integral: o espaço físico em foco, e, por último, escola de tempo integral: o tempo pedagógico; o Capítulo III, com um análise das concepções que orientam a escola de tempo integral como escola do acolhimento e das concepções que orientam a escola de tempo integral como escola do conhecimento. Nesta perspectiva, os resultados desta investigação evidenciam que as Escolas de Tempo Integral da Rede Pública Estadual de Goiás enfrentam muitos desafios e que o processo de implementação destas escolas vem consolidando uma escola do acolhimento, em detrimento da escola do conhecimento

Most neural network learning algorithms cannot use knowledge other than what is provided in the training data. Initialized using random weights, they cannot use prior knowledge such as knowledge stored in previously trained networks. This manuscript thesis addresses this problem. It contains a literature review of the relevant static and constructive neural network learning algorithms and of the recent research on transfer of knowledge across neural networks. Manuscript 1 describes a new algorithm, named knowledge-based cascade-correlation (KBCC), which extends the cascade-correlation learning algorithm to allow it to use prior knowledge. This prior knowledge can be provided as, but is not limited to, previously trained neural networks. The manuscript also contains a set of experiments that shows how KBCC is able to reduce its learning time by automatically selecting the appropriate prior knowledge to reuse. Manuscript 2 shows how KBCC speeds up learning on a realistic large problem of vowel recognition.

Almost no work has been done on the substance of Kierkegaard's epistemology. I argue, however, that knowledge plays a much more important role in Kierkegaard's thought than has traditionally been appreciated.
There are two basic types of knowledge, according to Kierkegaard: "objective knowledge" and "subjective knowledge." I argue that both types of knowledge are associated by Kierkegaard with "certainty" and may be defined as justified true mental representation (forestilling). I also argue, however, that the meaning of 'certainty,' 'justified' and 'true' is derivative of the object of knowledge. That is, I argue that Kierkegaard employs these expressions in both an objective and subjective sense and that the latter sense is not, as it has often been interpreted to be, subjectivist.
Finally, I argue that an appreciation of the substance of Kierkegaard's epistemology reveals that the charges of irrationalism which have often been made against him, are without foundation.

What is the best way to understand 'applies to' when it is said of a linguistic theory that it applies to a particular language-user? We can answer by saying that a linguistic theory is applicable to an individual language-user just in case that individual tacitly-knows the theory. But this is an uninformative answer until we are told how to understand 'tacit-knowledge'. The end goal of this thesis is to defend the claim that we should take tacit-knowledge to be, simply, knowledge. Towards this end I argue against the satisfactoriness of competing ways of understanding 'tacit-knowledge'. For example, the instrumentalist position is neutral on whether linguistic theories are actually known by the ordinary language-users who tacitly-know them; instead, linguistic theories are to be such that knowing them would enable someone to do whatever it is that the tacit-knower can do. Other competing positions hold that, though tacit-knowledge is a psychological relation of some sort, it is not genuine knowledge. I also attempt to meet specific objections to the claim that a typical language-user (as opposed to a linguistic theorist) could plausibly be said to know a linguistic theory. An objection on which I focus is based on the claim that typical language-users do not possess the requisite concepts for having genuine knowledge of a linguistic theory. The aim in attempting to meet these objections is to open up the way for the linguistic theorist to exploit a paradigm of explanation: explanation of behaviour by knowledge attribution. Attributing knowledge of linguistic theories would be potentially explanatory of linguistic behaviour in exactly the same way that attributions of knowledge in non-linguistic spheres are potentially explanatory of behaviour. Finally, because my emphasis is specifically on semantic theories, I attempt to explicate and defend the claim that a semantic theory could and should have the form of a theory of truth.

This thesis highlights a new interpretation of the writings of Ibn Taymiyya. Previous scholarship has stressed the legalistic, social or religious aspect, often at the expense of the philosophical content of Ibn Taymiyya's works. The explanatory insight of a study on the theory of knowledge, hitherto neglected, is evidenced by its capability to demonstrate the convergence of elementary, religious, intuitive and rational principles. The theory illustrates the concerns of a synthetic mind whose attempt was to broaden and not restrict the domain of knowledge vis-a-vis the Divine. Knowledge is not man's privilege and is available to all of creation. All created entities have the capacity to know their Creator. This thesis attempts to shed light on the mechanisms of the acquisition of knowledge about the Divine in their modes of availability to the creatures and to man. Tensions of the human predicament thus participate in the logical framework of the discussion. The attempt is to define the domain of knowledge, its components, and its parameters in the quest for a perfect acquisition of knowledge.

In contemporary organizations, it is common to encounter teams that are formed to create novel outcomes and that are supported by Information Communication Technologies (ICT). These knowledge teams are also formed by members with diverse expertise, in order to create new knowledge by working on complex, non-routine, open-ended, and interdependent tasks. As knowledge teams are often formed to create something novel there is an expectation that the outcomes reflects creativity. Also, individual team members can learn something new by participating in knowledge team activities. By focusing on these two outcomes (team creativity and individual learning), this dissertation identifies the key properties of knowledge teams, reviews the literature on the antecedents of knowledge team creativity and individual members' learning, and investigates the role of passion and knowledge management processes (behaviors) on team creativity and individual learning. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay (Chapter 2) reviews the literature on knowledge teams, identifies the key properties of knowledge teams, and integrates the empirical findings on the antecedents of team creativity and individual learning in knowledge team environments in order to provide several future research topics. The second essay (Chapter 3) investigates the impact of shared team passion and team expertise on team creativity, and the mediation effect of team knowledge processes. Results from an empirical test with survey data suggest that 1) shared team passion is positively associated with internal knowledge sharing and external knowledge sourcing, 2) team expertise is positively associated with internal knowledge sharing, 3) external knowledge sourcing and internal knowledge sharing positively influence team creativity, 4) shared norms of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) use positively moderates the relationship between shared team passion and external knowledge sourcing, and 5) the extent to which team tasks are explorative (exploration of team tasks) positively moderates the impact of external knowledge sourcing on team creativity. The third essay (Chapter 4) develops the role of individual-level passion concerning team activities on individual learning outcomes within knowledge team environments through individuals' knowledge sourcing and sharing and helping behaviors. It is found that 1) individual passion about team activities is positively associated with external knowledge sourcing, internal knowledge sharing, and OCB (organizational citizenship behavior)-helping behaviors, 2) internal knowledge sharing and OCB-helping behaviors positively influence individuals' learning outcomes, and 3) perceived psychological safety positively moderates the relationship between individual passion and internal knowledge sharing (or OCB-helping) behaviors within knowledge teams. My dissertation contributes to several sub-fields of management research, such as passion for work, knowledge management, the role of IT on team processes, team creativity, learning, and OCB. A detailed discussion on the contribution of this dissertation and future research directions are presented at the end of each essay, as well as in the synthesis section (Chapter 5).
Dans les organisations contemporaines, on rencontre fréquemment des équipes qui ont été formées pour créer de nouveaux résultats et qui sont supportées par les technologies de communication de l'information (TCI). Ces équipes-connaissances sont formées par des membres possédant une expertise diversifiée, afin de créer des nouvelles connaissances en travaillant sur des tâches complexes, non routinières, ouvertes et interdépendantes. Comme les équipes-connaissances sont souvent formées pour créer quelque chose de nouveau, on s'attend à ce que les résultats reflètent la créativité. En outre, les membres individuels de l'équipe peuvent apprendre quelque chose de nouveau en participant aux activités de l'équipe-connaissances. En se concentrant sur ces deux résultats (créativité de l'équipe et apprentissage individuel), cette thèse identifie les propriétés clés des équipes-connaissances, résume la littérature concernant les antécédents de la créativité de l'équipe-connaissances et de l'apprentissage des membres individuels, et étudie le rôle de la passion et des processus de gestion des connaissances (comportements) sur la créativité de l'équipe et l'apprentissage individuel.La thèse se compose de trois essais. Le premier essai (chapitre 2) résume la littérature sur les équipes-connaissances, identifie les propriétés clés des équipes-connaissances, et intègre les résultats empiriques sur les antécédents de la créativité de l'équipe et l'apprentissage individuel dans les environnements d'équipes-connaissances, afin de fournir plusieurs sujets de recherche futurs. Le deuxième essai (chapitre 3) examine l'impact de la passion partagée de l'équipe et l'expertise de l'équipe sur la créativité d'équipe, ainsi que l'effet de médiation des processus de connaissance de l'équipe. Les résultats d'une étude empirique avec les données de sondage suggèrent que: 1) la passion partagée de l'équipe démontre un lien positif avec le partage interne des connaissances et l'approvisionnement externe des connaissances, 2) l'expertise de l'équipe démontre un lien positif avec le partage interne des connaissances, 3) l'approvisionnement externe des connaissances et le partage interne des connaissances influencent de manière positive la créativité d'équipe, 4) les normes communes d'utilisation des technologies de communication de l'information (TCI) modèrent de façon positive la relation entre la passion partagée de l'équipe et l'approvisionnement externe des connaissances, et 5) la mesure dans laquelle les tâches de l'équipe sont exploratoires (exploration des tâches de l'équipe) modère positivement l'impact de l'approvisionnement externe des connaissances sur la créativité de l'équipe. Le troisième essai (chapitre 4) développe le rôle de la passion individuelle concernant les activités de l'équipe sur les résultats de l'apprentissage individuel au sein de l'environnement de l'équipe-connaissances à travers l'approvisionnement des connaissances et les comportements de partage et d'aide par les individus. On trouve que 1) la passion individuelle concernant les activités de l'équipe est positivement associée à l'approvisionnement externe des connaissances, le partage interne des connaissances, et les comportement d'aide du genre citoyenneté organisationnel, 2) le partage interne des connaissances et les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnel influencent positivement les résultats d'apprentissage des individus, et 3) la sécurité psychologique perçue modère positivement la relation entre la passion individuelle et le partage interne des connaissances au sein des équipes-connaissances.Ma thèse contribue à plusieurs sous-domaines de la recherche en gestion, telles que la passion pour le travail, la gestion des connaissances, le rôle de l'informatique sur les processus d'équipe, la créativité de l'équipe, l'apprentissage, et les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnel.

Nos recherches s'inscrivent dans le domaine de l'ingénierie des connaissances et plus particulièrement dans la capitalisation et le partage de connaissances d'observation et d'analyse de traces numériques d'activités. Dans ce cadre, nous basons notre approche sur le concept de la trace modélisée (M-Trace) développée par l'équipe SILEX. Au travers de notre approche nous donnons la possibilité d'exploiter des traces numériques d'activités de bas niveaux pour faire émerger des connaissances de plus haut niveaux obtenues via des transformations à base de règles. Ces règles modélisent des connaissances d'observation et d'analyse de différents utilisateurs et sont capitalisables et partageables entre ces derniers. Nous complétons notre proposition en fournissant une visualisation synthétique des niveaux de connaissances et de leurs observés. Via un modèle générique de trace, que nous avons développé, cette synthèse visuelle est navigable afin de permettre aux utilisateurs d'explorer les différents niveaux de connaissances et de reconstituer le chemin de construction des observables entre les niveaux, facilitant ainsi l'analyse. Nos différentes propositions ont été réifiées dans un logiciel du nom de D3KODE (« Define, Discover, and Disseminate Knowledge from Observation to Develop Expertise »). Ce logiciel a été mis à l'épreuve dans le contexte de la formation professionnelle sur les simulateurs pleine échelle du groupe EDF utilisés pour la formation et le perfectionnement des agents de conduite de centrale nucléaire. Dans un tel cadre l'observation, l'analyse et le débriefing des interactions individuelles et collectives des opérateurs sont des activités critiques et particulièrement dense notamment pour les jeunes formateurs. Les données collectées sont difficilement exploitables dû à leur grande quantité et à leur très bas niveau nécessitant une expertise forte que tous les formateurs ne possèdent pas. Ce travail a donné lieu à une évaluation en contexte réel sur simulateur pleine échelle et à des résultats significatifs permettant de valider notre approche et d'encourager des perspectives de recherche nombreuses
Our research takes place in the field of knowledge engineering. In particularly we focus our study in capitalizing and sharing knowledge of observation and analysis of digital traces. In this context, we base our approach on the concept of modeled trace (M-Trace) developed by the SILEX team. Our approach give the possibility to exploit low levels digital traces in order to extract higher knowledge level through rule-based transformations. These rules modelize the knowldege of observation and analysis of different users. Rules can be capitalized and shared between users. We complete our proposal by providing a synthetic visualization of the knowledge levels with observed elements from the activity. By means of a generic trace model, that we have specified, users can explore the different abstraction level in purposes of investigation in order to better understand and analyze the activity. Our proposals have been implemented in a prototype, called D3KODE (« Define, Discover, and Disseminate Knowledge from Observation to Develop Expertise »), allowing the processing, representation and visualization of traces. D3KODE was applied in the context of professional training on the nuclear power plant full-scope simulator of the EDF group designed to maintain and enhance the knowledge and skills of Nuclear Power Plant control room staff. In such context, the observation, analysis and debriefing of individual and collective interactions of trainees’ operators is a dense activity that require attention and constant alertness of the trainers throughout the simulation, especially for the young trainers who do not have the expertise of confirmed trainers. The amount of data collected during a simulation is big and very low levels. They are difficult to analyse manually in order to extract high level information reflecting the behaviour of trainees. In such a context, understand and follow the activity requires a strong expertise that all trainers don’t have. So as to validate our approach, D3KODE was evaluated in a real context according to a comparative protocol conducted with a team of trainers from EDF Group. The evaluation gave significant results to validate our approach and encourage many research opportunities

This thesis examines the transmission of intergenerational cultural knowledge on eastern James Bay Cree lands. Geospatial technologies and the representation of Cree knowledge are explored, with emphasis on the geoweb. A geoweb with two parts, old and new, is theorized as compatible with Cree interests at a landscape level of analysis. Local and traditional knowledge scales also emerge as crucial levels of analysis for the creation and transmission of hybrid forms of knowledge on the geoweb.The hypothesis that the meme is a viable and valid mechanism (replicator) for the transmission of indigenous intergenerational knowledge on the geoweb is supported. The assertion that the geoweb would be the primary vehicle for the protection and replication of place-memes is also well supported. Evidence for these claims was provided by examining traditional and local toponymic densities and qualitative data, revealing both the capacity and the will, historically and presently, to use geoweb-enabled mapping for local and traditional knowledge preservation and transmission.
Cette thèse examinent la transmission de connaissance intergénérationnelles et culturelles de la réserve des Cris habitant l'est de la Baie James. La technologie géospatiale et la connaissance des Cris sont explorées, avec une emphase sur le Géoweb. Un Géoweb divisé en deux, ancien et nouveau, est théorisé comme étant compatible avec les intérêts des Cris au niveau de l'analyse du paysage. L'échelle de connaissances locale et traditionnelle ressort comme une pièce primordiale pour l'analyse de la création et de la transmission des connaissances hybrides sur le Géoweb. L'hypothèse supporte que le mème est un mécanisme viable et valable (réplication) pour transmettre les connaissances intergénérationnelles autochtones sur le Géoweb. L'affirmation que le Géoweb sera l'outil principal pour la protection et la réplication de mèmes de lieu est aussi bien supporté. Les preuves de ces allégations proviennent de l'examen traditionnel et local des densités toponymiques et des données qualitatives révélant à la fois la capacité et la volonté, historiquement et actuellement, d'utiliser la cartographie Géoweb pour la préservation et la transmission des connaissances locales et traditionnelles.

In chapter one, I describe the different conceptions of self that Murdoch and Nussbaum have, and I show how these affect their depictions of human good. And I relate how each one defends the internal logic of her claims against the critique of moral relativism. I examine Iris Murdoch's conception of reality and consciousness in the distinctive way that she fuses them to a transcendent morality.
In chapter two, I turn to Murdoch's description of the journey from illusion to reality and the role of love or eros in this journey. I examine the many points of intersection between her description of the escape from selfishness and Wendy Farley's (1996) theory of how we acknowledge the other through a type of attention that she calls eros for the other .
In Chapter three, I discuss the problem that evil poses for Murdoch's moral philosophy, and how Murdoch and Farley interpret the experience of the void as yearning for relation. In the conclusion of this thesis, I present Murdoch's views on form as the consolation of human yearning. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

During recent years, industry has increasingly focused on knowledge processes. Similar to traditional or manufacturing processes, knowledge processes need to be managed and controlled in order to provide the expected results for which they were designed. During the last decade, the principals of process management have evolved, especially through work done in software engineering and workflow management.
Process monitoring is one of the major components for any process management system. There have been efforts to design process control and monitoring systems; however, no integrated system has yet been developed as a "generic intelligent system shell". In this dissertation, an architecture for an integrated process monitoring system (IPMS) is developed, whereby the end-to-end activities of a process can be automatically measured and evaluated. In order to achieve this goal, various components of the IPMS and the interrelationship among these components are designed.
Furthermore, a comprehensive study on the available methodologies and techniques revealed that sparse data estimation (SDE) is the key component of the IPMS which does not yet exist. Consequently, a series of algorithms and methodologies are developed as the basis for the sparse data estimation of knowledge based processes. Finally, a series of computer programs demonstrate the feasibility and functionality of the proposed approach when applied to a sample process. The sparse data estimation method is successful for not only knowledge based processes, but also for any process, and indeed for any set of activities that can be modeled as a network.

With the increase in more service-oriented industries in the current economy, companies are having to reasses their assets in order to overcome competition. The lifestyles of people have become more fast-paced and along with the effects of globalisation, companies need to be able to adapt quickly to the ever-changing nature of consumer demands. Traditional material assets are no longer the only things that could be considered of value within the organisation. The skills, expertise and knowledge of the employees within the company could also be considered an asset that should be utilised efficiently to generate more income for the company. Furthermore, the advances in technology have created a society where information is utilised and modified at a rapid pace. Therefore, organisations; need to be aware of the knowledge that is within the company and utilise it efficiently to create services and products that would be attractive to the buying market. In the interest of knowledge and it s value within organisations, this research studies the capability of the organisation to manage the knowledge of their employees within the context of Knowledge Management( KM) processes. The research aims to discover how organisations identify the necessary knowledge required within the company and encourage their staff to become more knowledgeable. Moreover, this study includes questioning the extent to which companies have implemented KM strategies within the organisation that would assist them in the management of employee knowledge. Furthermore, the thesis aims to study how knowledge is retained and disseminated within the organisation. Lastly, the Human Resource support systems that would assist in the management of knowledge within the company are also studied. The research takes place within four different companies from four separate industries, namely the pharmaceutical, architecture, telecommunications and the oil and gas industries. The study is conducted using the qualitative multiple case-study method where key members within the chosen organisations are interviewed. It is discovered that although all the companies involved in the research are aware of the importance of their employees' knowledge and that they would like to manage it more efficiently, the organisations have not implemented any formal KM strategy. However, the companies have a variety of other policies and procedures that, when combined, could help the company to manage the knowledge base within the organisation. In addition, the findings of the study raise the issue of utilising support systems such as training and rewards as a means for encouraging employees to remain within the company as well as to contribute to the collective knowledge of the organisation. In conclusion, this research discovers possible points of interest regarding the issues relating to the KM process that should be taken into consideration when planning a KM strategy within an organisation.

In order to satisfy increasing demand for better, smarter, more flexible land resource information an alternative form of representation is proposed. That representation is to be achieved through the coupling of Expert System methods and Geographic Information Systems. Instead of representing resource information using entities such as soil types, defined by rigid boundaries on a map, a more fluid presentation is proposed. Individual resource attributes will be represented by surfaces that describe their probability of occurrence, at a number of levels, across a landscape. Such flexible representations, which are designed to better capture the mental models behind their creation, are capable of being combined and synthesised to answer a wide range of resource queries.An investigation of methods of knowledge representation in a number of fields of research, led to the belief that a Bayesian Network provides a representational calculus that is appropriate to the "fuzzy" and imprecise conceptual models used in resource assessment. The fundamental mathematical principles of such networks have been tailored to provide a representation that is in tune with the intuitive processes of a surveyor's thinking.Software has been written to demonstrate the method and tested on a variety of data sets from Australia and overseas. These tests and demonstrations have used a range of densities of knowledge and range of acuity in evidential data. In general the results accord with the mental models used as drivers. A number of operational facets of the method have been highlighted during these demonstrations and attention has been given to a discussion of them.

This research considers the organisational factors and processes that impact on knowledge retention and subsequent perceptions of organisational effectiveness during downsizing/restructuring events. By exploring these relationships, the research seeks to help organisations facing downsizing/restructuring to identify best practices to support employees during the process and achieve positive organisational outcomes. The thesis presents a detailed review of the literature in the field of downsizing and organisational restructuring, together with knowledge, knowledge sharing and organisational effectiveness. A conceptual framework and hypotheses, informed through the literature and qualitative focus group process, were developed for testing. Data were collected from 81 organisations, drawn from both the private and public sectors. Analyses enabled detailed consideration of the impact of perceived levels of organisational knowledge on perceptions of post-downsizing/restructuring organisational effectiveness. The significance of relationships between downsizing/restructuring events, both decisions and processes, and knowledge sharing in organisations undergoing downsizing/restructuring were also examined. Findings indicate the need for open and honest relationships between managerial (Decision Makers and Implementers) and non-managerial employees (Affected Employees) in order to achieve successful organisational outcomes. The impact of knowledge sharing on organisational knowledge was assessed by studying the extent of both formal knowledge sharing and informal networks present in respondent organisations. The direct impact of knowledge sharing on organisational outcomes was also analysed and discussed.
Conclusions are reached that both formal knowledge sharing and informal networks have a significant impact not only on perceived levels of organisational knowledge but also on post-downsizing/restructuring organisational effectiveness. However, different aspects of knowledge sharing appear to be more significant to Decision Makers and Implementers and Affected Employees. For business, the findings of this research demonstrate a need to concentrate on organisational knowledge during downsizing/restructuring in order to achieve improved outcomes. The findings suggest this can be done through attention to ensuring that intent and interpretation of the decisions and processes involved are open and honest. Assessment of the knowledge present in the organisation and a focus on retention of key individuals with important knowledge is also advisable. Communication of what is planned and inclusion of employees in both planning and implementation were identified as ways in which organisations can do so, thereby promoting distributive and procedural fairness throughout the process. Formal knowledge sharing strategies arose as being important to achieving improved organisational outcomes, particularly to Decision Makers and Implementers. These strategies included identifying, capturing and storing information in ways that are accessible to employees. Documentation of practices and procedures was also found to be important as was careful planning of the change.
Communication, providing training and support to survivors and allowing the necessary time for sharing knowledge were also identified as key strategies. Overall, developing a culture and climate within the organisation that is supportive of knowledge sharing was found to be central to achieving improved organisational effectiveness. Informal networks were identified by Affected Employees as impacting on both perceived levels of organisational knowledge and, indirectly on organisational outcomes. The research indicates the Decision Makers and Implementers and Affected Employees have different perceptions about the role and importance of informal networks. Those implementing downsizing/restructuring may therefore need to examine the structure and operation of informal networks prior to downsizing/restructuring to ensure they are adequately supported during the process. Informal networks may also be utilised to assist in bringing about the change. The findings of this research are important to assist organisations develop best practice approaches to downsizing/restructuring. With increasing acceptance of downsizing/restructuring as a business strategy, this research provides insights into key issues of downsizing/restructuring events and knowledge retention as predictors of improved organisational outcomes.

Primary and secondary teachers in Western Australian have adopted a new Curriculum Framework (Curriculum Council, 1998a) which is outcomes-focused and endorses a constructivist approach to science for school students. This research examines the influence of teachers' science content knowledge on how they make judgements about students' conceptual understandings and the extent to which follow-up activities they suggest reflect a conceptual change approach to teaching science.Primary and secondary teachers, from a range of science education histories and experiences teaching students of different ages, responded to a science task involving concepts of heat energy, combustion and ignition. They were asked to judge a student work sample about the same task, and suggest follow-up activities to support further learning.How teachers made their judgements was found to vary in accord with their science knowledge, categorised as high, midrange and low. Teachers with high science knowledge were the most adept at making accurate and appropriate judgements and had the lowest frequency of problems with their judgements. Teachers with high and midrange science knowledge were more able to link their suggestions for follow-up activities to students' science concepts, and showed greater familiarity with activities commensurate with a conceptual change orientation to teaching. Non-recognition of students' concepts as critical evidence of development was a key aspect of the judgements of teachers with low science knowledge.Recommendations are made for professional development to assist teachers to develop appropriate science content knowledge they can use to support their pedagogical content knowledge so they are able to foster students' conceptual development.

In this thesis we follow two directions: Zero Knowledge Protocols and the Discrete Logarithm Problem. In each direction we present the necessary background and we give a new approach for some parts of the existing protocols.
The new parts are dedicated to the soundness property of the Schnorr Identification Scheme and to the security of the sum+-Protocol. Since both directions are very well-known and studied in the field of cryptography, they are presented with many details so that the new results are easy to follow.
In writing this thesis we have tried to present the material in a specific order and in a manner easy to read even by beginners in cryptography.

Research started in 2009 as an enquiry in Knowledge Reuse in Systems Engineering, as part of an EPSRC funded project, with the aim to evaluate and improve the mechanisms of knowledge reuse among practitioners. Knowledge segmentation in different Systems Engineering domains, knowledge representation techniques, artifacts and information exchange mechanisms were identified and benchmarked. Despite a wealth of publicly funded research, systems integration with digital environment and despite the apparent adherence of knowledge holders to funding policies the required resources were not accessible due to a complex entanglement of politics, culture, language and unidentified factors such as psychology and prejudice of key stakeholders. The thesis identifies the knowledge representation, exchange and reuse mechanism and technical artifacts used in Engineering practice, as well as non technical challenges that prevent access and reuse to knowledge, especially considering the existence of Open Access policies and in relation to the perspective of a 'knowledge seeker' in the systems engineering knowledge domain. Open Access policies applicable to this domain in the UK are evaluated in the context of a wider regulatory landscape that motivates their existence, specifically monitoring the availability of shared resources such as journal publications as well as other digital mechanisms and knowledge sharing artifacts adopted in technical domains. A unique research methodology is devised that combines mixed method techniques, including FOI (freedom of information) requests. A novel collection instrument and a set of heuristic indicators are developed to support the empirical observation of the gap between 'Open Access policies in theory', corresponding approximately to what the funding body state on their website, and 'Open Access policies in practice', corresponding to the level of adoption of these policies by grant holders in Systems Engineering Research and findability. A systematic review and a meta-analysis of a 100 publicly-funded projects are carried out. The research makes a number of unique contributions, including KAF (Knowledge Audit Framework), a novel approach enabling remote auditing of digital resources, OAM (Open Access Monitor) the first monitoring method and web service for OA, and a core vocabulary for systems engineering knowledge representation. The research concludes demonstrating empirically that in the majority of the audited project publicly-funded by UK research councils, and despite the existence of policies to ensure Open Access, no resources could be located.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the medical data management expert system at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Montreal Children's Hospital. The objective of this study is to provide a systematic method to evaluate and, progressively improve the knowledge embedded in the medical expert system.
Following a literature survey on evaluation techniques and architecture of existing expert systems, an overview of the Patient Data Management System hardware and software components is presented. The design of the Expert Monitoring System is elaborated. Following its installation in the intensive Care Unit, the performance of the Expert Monitoring System is evaluated, operating on real vital sign data and corrections were formulated. A progressive evaluation technique, new methodology for evaluating an expert system knowledge-base is proposed for subsequent corrections and evaluations of the Expert Monitoring System.

This dissertation presents a methodology for generation of fault diagnostic knowledge from a description of a device. The generated knowledge is to be used in a computer based learning environment for fault diagnostic tasks. In the past, developers of such environments obtained diagnostic knowledge through a knowledge engineering exercise with human experts. There are a number of drawbacks associated with such an approach. A major bottleneck in the development of such learning environments was capturing human expertise for diagnosis of an application, encoding this knowledge in a suitable form in a computer, and then verifying this knowledge. This exercise also depends on the availability and cooperation of a knowledgeable human expert(s). If more than one expert participates in the knowledge acquisition process, one may obtain contradictory information. Furthermore, most of the diagnostic knowledge is highly application specific thus making it useless for other applications. The starting point of the methodology of this thesis is a description of a device in terms of the components, component behaviors, and interconnections between components (structural knowledge). The end point of the methodology is a set of rules that can be used to diagnose faults in the device. The intermediate points are a behavioral and causal descriptions of the device, and a set of domain independent diagnostic strategies. This methodology has been applied to a counter circuit in the domain of digital electronics to test both the ability of the fault diagnostic system to diagnose faults in a device as well as to test its efficiency. The rules generated were able to successfully detect all the faults that were inserted in the counter application. Furthermore, as more diagnostic strategies were included in the diagnostic rule generation, the efficiency of the diagnostic system improved considerably.

The purpose of this study was to compare first- and second-language text comprehension across passage types.
Results indicate that there was no main effect for language when the total texts were compared. In contrast, a large difference was found for the type of passage read. Significantly higher recall and inferencing were found on the passages for which subjects had prior knowledge, regardless of the language of presentation. Although global comprehension measures did not reveal differences in text processing, more detailed paragraph-level analyses indicated that text processing differences were present.
Total reading times indicated that there was a large effect for the language in which the passage was read, with significantly longer reading times recorded for passages read in the second language.
These findings were interpreted as an indication that second-language reading comprehension capacity is underestimated. The findings also suggest that the type of passage read influences text comprehension more than the language in which it is read.

This dissertation contains three essays in game theory, focusing particularly on the issues of information, knowledge, and stability in complex interactions. It begins with an introductory overview.
Chapter 2 offers a general framework for analyzing complex economic and social environments. Specifically, I introduce new notions of a general system and a ϕ-stable set. By making use of Tarski's fixed point theorem, I then establish the existence of a ϕ-stable set. I further apply the proposed notions to game theory, e.g., rationalizability is derived from the largest ϕ-stable set.
Chapter 3 establishes epistemic foundations for the criterion of "stability." Specifically, in strategic games, achieving common knowledge of rationality (CKR) implies an internally ϕ-stable set that is contained in an externally ϕ-stable set and, moreover, whenever mutually known, a ϕ-stable set is implied by rationality alone. In the case of two-person games, achieving CKR implies a ϕ-stable set. In extensive games with perfect information, achieving CKR implies a unique ϕ-stable set. On the other hand, in both strategic and extensive games, any of the commonly known ϕ-stable sets implies CKR. Furthermore, any ϕ-stable set can be achieved in terms of CKR.
Chapter 4 presents a new solution concept of stable equilibrium in beliefs (SEB) by assuming it is common knowledge that players are uncertainty averse. By making use of an appealing criterion of "stability," an SEB is defined as a strategy profile supported by a stable belief system. It is shown that all SEBs constitute a unique stable belief system, and an SEB satisfies subgame perfectness; moreover, it is shown that the notion of SEB "refines" that of subgame perfect equilibrium in terms of path of play. Finally, we establish the epistemic foundation for the notion of SEB.

Designing systems with the ability to make optimal decisions under uncertainty is one of the goals of artificial intelligence. However, in many applications the design of optimal planners is complicated due to imprecise inputs and uncertain outputs resulting from stochastic dynamics. Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) provide a rich mathematical framework to model these kinds of problems. However, the high computational demand of solution methods for POMDPs is a drawback for applying them in practice.
In this thesis, we present a two-fold approach for improving the tractability of POMDP planning. First, we focus on designing good heuristics for POMDP approximation algorithms. We aim to scale up the efficiency of a class of POMDP approximations called point-based planning methods by designing a good planning space. We study the effect of three properties of reachable belief state points that may influence the performance of point-based approximation methods. Second, we investigate approaches to designing good controllers using an alternative representation of systems with partial observability called Predictive State Representation (PSR). This part of the thesis advocates the usefulness and practicality of PSRs in planning under uncertainty. We also attempt to move some useful characteristics of the PSR model, which has a predictive view of the world, to the POMDP model, which has a probabilistic view of the hidden states of the world. We propose a planning algorithm motivated by the connections between the two models.

This study examines Christian experientialist epistemology as articulated of late by Alvin Plantinga especially and also William Alston. It situates their approach to the epistemic status of Christian belief claims within the overall outlook they have respectively developed on what features generally legitimate beliefs as being rationally responsible or even qualify some true beliefs as constituting knowledge. First to be taken up is Plantinga's journey from considering the deontological justification for basic belief in God to making his own externalist proposal for warranted belief at large. Next up for consideration is Alston's accent on adequate grounds and reliable process, attending as well to his stance on perceptual immediacy and belief-forming or doxastic practices in general. The study then looks at his case for Christian mystical practice as a dependable perceptual doxastic habit. Also treated is Alston's support for the process of forming Christian beliefs on testimony and his contention that these practices are realist and partly amenable to evaluation drawing on standards used also outside them. Then comes extended analysis of Plantinga's recent lengthy claim that, courtesy of special divine provisions, core Christian convictions can enjoy warrant even in the face of frequently alleged defeaters.
While Alston's reliabilist epistemology is not as strong as Plantinga's package on appropriate proper function, his appreciation for the communal contribution to second-level knowledge is an important supplement. He offers more perspective on the status of Christian belief overall. Plantinga's model suffers from some internal tensions which admit better resolution than he has yet supplied. His response to religious pluralism is a solid one within his framework. Like Alston, Plantinga unabashedly appeals to theology to indicate doxastic propriety, but could do so in a way more sensitive to hermeneutical challenges. Yet Plantinga's and Alston's realism is an attempt to honor the distance between God's knowledge and that of believers.

The complete design of many electromagnetic devices requires the solution of a coupled problem. Typically, the coupling is in the form of magnetic/thermal, magnetic/structural, magnetic/electronic, or possibly a combination of several disciplines. Computer based tools exist for many of these engineering specializations but they are usually "stand-alone" and each requires an experienced designer to use it effectively. This requirement for an expert user places a major constraint on the design cycle, and a lack of communication between the various experts can result in major design errors.
This thesis proposes a software architecture that is capable of providing loose coupling between currently available design tools and of absorbing new tools in the future. The structure provides an integration environment for a suite of design programs. The environment automatically allows the iterative solution of coupled problems by loosely coupling individual tools through a comprehensive database and organizing their execution via a rule-based control program. In order to effectively integrate a diverse set of tools and to define the kind of coupling between the various analyses, it is necessary that the input and output requirements of each tool be carefully defined. The BlackBoard for Computational Analysis and Design (BBCAD) is a hybrid knowledge-based system which uses the blackboard architecture, and generates a systematic method of integrating the "stand-alone" design tools, together with an automatic method of ensuring that, if a change is made to the design, all the relevant design tools are re-run.

The Inuit of Kangiqsualujjuaq have maintained functional and spiritual connections with the landscape and waters of Arctic Quebec (Nunavik) for over four thousand years. While ethnographic studies about this ocean-going population have revealed their pragmatic relationships with the arctic milieu, less is known, however, about their perceptions of terrestrial and aquatic realms. Three fieldtrips to Kangiqsualujjuaq were undertaken between 2003 and 2005 to explore how three generations of Inuit perceived the land-water interface, a geographical setting regularly frequented and considered spiritually important to the Inuit. Surveys were carried out to determine whether Inuit regarded the sea as an extension of the “land”, a way of thinking about space that is common among indigenous islanders in southern latitudes. The research reported in this thesis involved the participation of thirty-four Inuit men and women from six families, whose ancestors once lived in separate hunting camps along the Ungava Bay coast. Using an intergenerational approach to explore whether perceptions of the land-water interface were consistent or inconsistent across and between generations, the cohort responded to questions about spatial concepts, travel patterns, traditional narratives, senses of place, and hunting knowledge. A series of drawing exercises, which were designed to understand how the cohort perceived the land-water interface pictorially, were performed by 13 Inuit participants and 14 Inuit adolescent students from the local School. Traditional methods of Inuit learning and transmitting knowledge about the land-water interface were also investigated to ascertain the extent to which pedagogical instruments underpin and mould Inuit perceptions of this setting. A series of knowledge-maps/trees were subsequently created for each family unit to illustrate the flow of traditional knowledge both among and across Inuit generations. The data derived from interviews and the draw
L’Inuit de Kangiqsualujjuaq a maintenu pendant plus de quatre mille ans, des connections fonctionnelles et spirituelles avec le paysage et les eaux du Québec Arctique. Bien que des études ethnographiques sur cette population océanographique aient révélé leurs relations pragmatiques avec le milieu arctique, il existe moins de connaissances dans le domaine de leurs perceptions terrestres et aquatiques. Entre les années 2003 et 2005, trois voyages d’études à Kangiqsualujjuaq ont été entrepris pour explorer comment trois générations d’Inuits perçoivent l’interface terre/eau; un cadre géographique régulièrement fréquenté et considéré important spirituellement par l’Inuit. Des sondages ont été effectués pour déterminer si l’Inuit considère la mer comme une extension de la terre; une manière de pensée à propos de l’espace qui est commune entre les indigènes insulaires des latitudes sud. L’étude a impliqué la participation de trente-quatre Inuits provenant de six familles, des hommes et des femmes, dont les ancêtres ont résidé dans des camps de chasse individuels le long de la côte de la Baie d’Ungava. Utilisant une approche intergénérationnelle pour explorer si les perceptions de l’interface terre/eau étaient cohérentes ou incohérentes entre et à travers les générations, les participants ont répondu à des questions traitant de concepts spatiaux, de tendances de voyagement, de récits traditionnels, de sens du lieu et de connaissances de chasse. Une série d’exercices de dessin, qui ont été conçus afin de comprendre comment le groupe d’étude percevait en image l’interface terre/eau, furent accomplis par 13 participants Inuit du village et 14 adolescents Inuit étudiant à l’école local. Des méthodes traditionnelles d’apprentissage Inuit et de transmission des connaissances sur l’interface terre/eau furent aussi examinées afin d’établir jusqu’où les instruments pédagogiques ont é

This study surveyed the sexual behaviors and knowledge of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among 117 undergraduate students from McGill University, Montreal. The sample consisted of 32 men and 85 women ranging from 18 up to 24 years of age. The total sample was split into three knowledge groups, Low, Medium, and High, based on answers provided to questions about AIDS. The data were analyzed separately for the total sample, men, women, and the three knowledge groups. The findings indicated that these students were relatively knowledgeable about AIDS (73.23% correct responses out of 21 items), but were engaging in high risk sexual activities. It appears that personal concern about contracting AIDS, not knowledge of this disease, is related to behavior change among undergraduate students. It was recommended that AIDS education programs focus more on increasing the personal concern than the AIDS knowledge of adolescents.

Structured knowledge representations are becoming central to the area of Information Science. Search engines companies have said that constructing an entity graph is the key to classifying their enormous corpus of documents in order to provide more relevant results to their users. Our work presents WikiLabel, a novel approach to text classification using ontological knowledge. We match a document's terms to Wikipedia entities and use, amongst other measures, the path-length shortest distance from each entity to a given Wikipedia category to determine which label should be associated with the document. In the second part of our work, we use the obtained labels to train a supervised machine learning text classification algorithm, an approach we call SuperWikiLabel. We gather a dataset of news articles and obtain high-confidence labels from human coders to evaluate the performance of WikiLabel and SuperWikiLabel. We find that WikiLabel's performance is on par with other methods, and SuperWikiLabel is comparable to the performance of a traditional supervised method, where the document corpus is coded by humans. Our work suggests that it may be possible to largely eliminate the human coding efforts in a given text classification task, and we claim that our approach is more flexible and convenient than the usual methods of obtaining a labeled training document set, which often comes at great expense.
Les représentations de savoir structurées telles que Wikipedia sont devenues un élément important dans le domaine des sciences de l'information. Les compagnies d'engins de recherche ont dit que construire un réseau d'entités est pour eux la clé pour faire la classification de leurs énormes bases de données remplies de documents. Notre document présente WikiLabel, une approche nouvelle à la classification de texte en utilisant du savoir obtenu de ces sources de savoir structurées. Elle reconnaît les entités de Wikipedia dans un document et utilise, parmi d'autres mesures, la mesure de la plus courte distance entre chaque entité et des catégories de Wikipedia. Ceci permet de déterminer quelle catégorie est davantage associée avec le document sous observation. La deuxième partie de notre travail utilise les classifications obtenues en utilisant WikiLabel et entraîne une intelligence artificielle pour classifier des documents, une approche appelée SuperWikiLabel. Nous obtenons des articles de nouvelles ainsi que des classements de haute qualité effectuées par des humains pour évaluer la performance de WikiLabel et SuperWikiLabel. Nous trouvons que la performance de WikiLabel est comparable à d'autres mesures, et que celle de SuperWikiLabel est aussi comparable à une approche traditionnelle d'intelligence artificielle, où les documents sont classés par des humains plutôt que par WikiLabel. Notre travail indique qu'il pourrait être possible d'éliminer en grande partie le classement de documents par des humains, et nous croyons que notre approche est beaucoup plus flexible et pratique que les méthodes habituelles qui doivent obtenir un groupe de documents classés par des humains, qui est parfois coûteux en termes de ressources.

Intellectual capital, as opposed to traditional conceptions of intellectual property, is neither as simple to define nor as straightforward to protect and regulate. As companies in the financial services sector attempt the efficient management of increasingly voluminous and strategically important information and knowledge, governance mechanisms currently available in the Canadian context have not kept pace.
This thesis is at once a retrospective and prospective examination of the regulation and control of intellectual capital. The first two substantive sections of this thesis are primarily definitive and contextualizing---first defining the nature of contemporary legal and managerial concepts of intellectual capital and property, then examining the varied legal frameworks from which an intellectual capital governance scheme is distilled. The final chapter attempts a synthesis of these definitions and legal approaches to the governance of intellectual capital. The keystones of this synthesis are twofold: first, uniform Canadian legislation; and second, a more focused incorporation of 'property rights' in intellectual capital.

Knowledge-based Cascade-correlation is a neural network algorithm that combines inductive learning and knowledge transfer (Shultz & Rivest, 2001). In the present thesis, this algorithm is tested on several real-world and artificial problems, and extended in several ways. The first extension consists in the incorporation of the Knowledge-based Artificial Neural Network (KBANN; Shavlik, 1994) technique for generating rule-based (RBCC) networks. The second extension consists of the adaptation of the Optimal Brain Damage (OBD; LeCun, Denker, & Solla, 1990) pruning technique to remove superfluous connection weights. Finally, the third extension consists in a new objective function based on information theory for controlling the distribution of knowledge attributed to subnetworks. A simulation of lexical ambiguity resolution is proposed. In this study, the use of RBCC networks is motivated from a cognitive and neurophysiological perspective.

Sixty teachers from the Ottawa-Carleton region of Canada were surveyed to measure their knowledge of child maltreatment risk indicators, knowledge of reporting procedures, and the frequency of reporting sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. Correlations did not support the hypothesis of a significant relationship between knowledge and actual reporting frequency. Multiple Regression analyses demonstrated that the knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and the knowledge of reporting procedures were not predictive of reporting. It was found that the teachers sampled were very knowledgeable of the basic risk indicators of child maltreatment and reporting procedures and policy. However, the findings did not support the hypotheses of a significant relationship between knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and of reporting procedures and actual reporting frequency. These findings are discussed in consideration of the limitations of the current study, the implications for practice and the possibilities for further research.

This research aims to improve the effective utilisation of experiential design knowledge by supporting the extraction and subsequent use of knowledge from a store of design experiences. Current computational approaches that support the utilisation of experiential knowledge promote the regurgitation of knowledge from pre-defined viewpoints reflecting knowledge engineers' perspectives of designers' knowledge needs. However, from an investigation into the application of experiential knowledge, it is argued that designers can generate numerous viewpoints according to their own particular perspectives. Consequently, the perspectives imposed by current approaches may be of little use in design if they do not map onto those needed by a designer. A new approach, called 'customised viewpoint', is presented in this thesis as one that promotes the application of more relevant knowledge by generating appropriate viewpoints according to designers' perspectives. Numerical design is pre sented as a well-defined problem area within which this approach is developed, tested and evaluated. The PERSPECT system is the realisation of a 'customised viewpoint' tool developed by integrating and extending the functionality of three relevant existing systems: DESIGNER (a numerical design system), S-PLUS (an extensive data analysis package), and ECOBWEB (a concept formation system). PERSPECT provides valuable assistance; it supports a designer to (a) render new numerical domain models or check and update existing ones in the light of new design experiences, and (b) develop a design solution by (i) supporting the opportunistic utilisation of empirical equations and generalisations from generated customised viewpoints and (ii) reducing design complexity via the abstraction of an existing domain model. However, further work is required to improve PERSPECT's ability to support numerical design. The 'customised viewpoint' approach has been shown to compliment the CAD philosophy of "design assistance" but extensive work is still required to realise an ideal 'customised viewpoint' tool that fully supports the needs of practising designers.

Coined by Motorola in 1986 as a metric for measuring defects and improving quality, Six Sigma has evolved into a robust business improvement initiative. The success of Six Sigma deployment depends on a series of process/quality improvement projects undertaken by organizations. As learning and knowledge creation is vital to problem-solving environments, the primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the role of learning and knowledge creation on project performance and factors that impact them. The research addresses "Six Sigma-learning-performance" relationships through three related studies: (1) Develop a multilevel framework of Six Sigma linking organizational actions (macro), project execution (micro), and business performance (macro) (2) Identify the distinct learning behaviours exhibited by project teams and empirically investigate the impact of managerial factors (organizational and project level) on learning behaviours and in turn on project performance (3) Empirically examine how the motivational aspect of team and technical aspects of project execution interact to impact project performance through knowledge created (Goal theory and Sociotechnical systems theory perspective) The research adopts an explanatory sequential mixed- methods design, a survey followed by a multiple case study research (Quantitative Qualitative). In addition, the research observes the interaction between quantitative and qualitative research strands to achieve interpretive rigor. The quantitative data come from 324 members (project leaders and members) from 102 Six Sigma project teams and the qualitative data from five case projects from two European manufacturing organizations. Building on the existing literature which notes that Six Sigma supports learning and knowledge creation in teams, this research extends and helps refine our understanding of Six Sigma by explaining the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon and their antecedents and performance consequences. The thesis will be of interest to managers who are engaged in Six Sigma deployment and project leaders who lead process improvement teams. Researchers working in the field of Six Sigma will also benefit from this research.

This thesis investigates Plato's analogy between virtue and crafts, a comparison made extensively in the early dialogues. I first detail the model of technical knowledge that Plato uses as a paradigm of knowledge. An application of this model shows the inadequacies in some claims to know or to teach virtue. Applying the model to the Socratic dictum, 'Virtue is knowledge' enables us to understand what such knowledge is about. Such knowledge is identified as 'self-knowledge' and is the product of philosophy. Philosophy is thus revealed as the craft of virtue, directed at the good of individuals. One problematic aspect of the analogy between virtue and crafts is the possibility of misuse. Virtue conceived as self-knowledge enables Plato to explain both why such a craft cannot be misused and why it alone can be the basis for benefiting others.

This thesis investigates, through primary research, the role of traditional knowledge in regional, national, and international political activities of Canadian Inuit. The links between an increasingly postmodern West, global environmental discourse, and the role of traditional knowledge in Inuit self-identity and self-government issues are outlined and set in relation to anthropological theory on globalization. The research indicates that Inuit engagement in competition over resources and power is complemented by a competitive cultural imagery, which draws on and contributes to a discourse on global cultural exchange. Subordinate groups' uses of such imageries have been discussed in anthropology, and are discussed further in the thesis. It is argued that deconstructive critiques of these imageries are problematic, but the need for research about cultural imageries is acknowledged as well. It is suggested that analyses of the politicization of cultural imageries should include political and philosophical contexts in order to lessen their potentially harmful consequences.

My study focuses on b-boying, the archetype of hiphop dance, to better understand the informal teaching and learning processes embodied in the freestyle or raw b-boy cipher (improvisational dance circle). I draw from an ethnographic approach to investigate how hiphop aesthetic practices influence people's ways of doing and habits of mind. In particular, participant observation structures my activities at 13 hiphop events. These observations are complemented by an in-depth interview with Buddha, co-founder of the Canadian Floor Masters, Canada's oldest b-boy dance crew. The theoretical framework uses Lave and Wenger's concept of situated learning in tandem with Nonaka's organizational theory of knowledge creation. By analyzing the cipher as a potential site for dancers to experience a conscious readiness to change I find that 1) situated learning and knowledge creation are closely related; 2) knowledge creation and hiphop practices are connected; 3) b-boy culture resembles an innovative knowledge community that shares personal knowledge to create and advance communal knowledge. The research approach I practice may help educators better understand how a neighbourhood activity created over 30 years ago by and for some South Bronx youth has developed into a global practice produced and consumed by many of today's youth and adults.
Mon étude porte sur le b-boying (break boy, danseur), archétype de la danse hip-hop, pour dégager l'enseignement et les procédés d'apprentissage informels inhérents aux cercles de danse improvisée – création libre (freestyle ou raw cipher). Ma méthodologie intègre certains aspects d'observation participante selon la trajectoire de recherche s'intéressant à l'influence des pratiques hip-hop sur les façons de faire et de penser. Ceci oriente mon observation participante de 13 événements et mon entrevue en profondeur avec Buddha, de la plus ancienne troupe de breaking du Canada, Canadian Floor Masters. Mon cadre théorique s'appuie sur l'apprentissage situé de Lave et Wenger, et la création du savoir de Nonaka. J'analyse le cercle de danse comme lieu permettant de s'ouvrir consciemment au changement, constatant que : 1) il existe une corrélation entre l'apprentissage situé et la création du savoir; 2) la création du savoir et les pratiques hip-hop sont interreliées; 3) la culture b-boy évoque une communauté de savoir novatrice partageant des connaissances personnelles pour générer et faire progresser un savoir collectif. Mon approche aiderait les éducateurs à mieux comprendre comment cette activité de quartier créée il y a trente ans, par et pour des jeunes du South Bronx, s'est transformée en pratique réalisée et consommée à l'échelle du globe par les jeunes et les adultes contemporains.

This thesis considers the dimensional analysis theory in engineering. A Knowledge-Aided Design Tool is presented which permits the solution of many aspects of Dimensional Analysis for electromagnetics. The KAD Tool was coded in the language Lisp with Allegro Common Lisp in a Microsoft-Windows environment on a PC with a 486 microprocessor. It represents 10 196 lines of code. The mathematical functions are supported by the mathematical libraries of the software MAPLE. A menu with nine choices corresponding to nine functionalities of Dimensional Analysis is offered to the user.

Writing in seventh century India, the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti developed a system of epistemology in which he recognized yogic intuition as a valid source of knowledge crowning the practice of meditation and capable of causing the psychological transformation necessary for the achievement of nirvana. But his account of the epistemological character of yogic intuition was controversial. Indeed, while it consists in a full understanding of a conceptual object (i.e. the four noble truths), Dharmakirti insisted that, due to its clarity, the yogin's intuition be considered a category of sensation, which by definition is non-conceptual and pertains to particular objects. This thesis is an analysis of Dharmakirti's account of yogic intuition as a category of cognition allowing the non-conceptual knowledge of conceptual objects.

This dissertation is a study of organizational learning. Organizational learning is a cyclical process through which knowledge that has been learned on an individual or group level is institutionalized on the organizational level. Organizational learning is at the heart of an organization’s ability to adapt and respond to changing environments and can ultimately improve business performance. While organizations are said to learn quite naturally, the processes through which this learning occurs are highly complex and multifaceted. One of the unique facets of organizational learning is the process through which knowledge is embedded in the organizational memory. Crossan, Lane and White (1999) presented a model of organizational learning called the ‘41 framework’ that includes four processes (intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing) which explain how knowledge that is learned on the individual or group level is ultimately embedded in the organizational memory. Research that has followed the 41 framework’ has elaborated on the first three processes but insufficient research has explored the final process of institutionalization.
Cette thèse à pour sujet l’étude de l’apprentissage organisationnel. Dans ce contexte, l’apprentissage organisationnel est défini comme un processus cyclique à travers duquel les apprentissages individuels et de groupe sont institutionnalisés au niveau organisationnel. Ce processus fait partie de ceux qui déterminent la capacité d’une organisation à s’adapter et à répondre aux changements. Également, il peut être un élément favorisant l’amélioration de la performance de l’organisation. La croyance est que le processus d’apprentissage organisationnel est simple et naturel. Par contre, la réalité est tout autre puisque le mécanisme est à la fois très complexe et composé de plusieurs facettes. L’une de ces facettes, unique à l’apprentissage organisationnel, est le procédé par lequel le savoir est incorporé dans la mémoire organisationnelle. Crossan, Lane et White (1999), dans leur présentation d’un cadre conceptuel sur le modèle d’apprentissage organisationnel nommé ‘41 framework’, décrivent un modèle qui introduit quatre processus: la perception (intuiting), l’interprétation, intégration et l’institutionnalisation. Ce modèle représente de quelle manière l’apprentissage individuel et de groupe devient partie de la mémoire organisationnelle. Les recherches ayant déjà utilisé ce cadre conceptuel ont jusqu’à maintenant examiné les trois premiers processus laissant un manque de compréhension sur celui de l’institutionnalisation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate sources of knowledge acquisition of high school team sport coaches. Six teacher/coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured open-ended interview format. Cote, Salmela, and Russell's (1995) guidelines were used to inductively analyze and interpret the data. Results revealed three higher-order categories: (a) sources of knowledge acquisition, which highlighted the different ways coaches acquired their knowledge, including their physical education teacher training, observations and interactions with other coaches, as well as clinics and books; (b) personal and contextual factors, which included the internal and external factors influencing coaches' motivation and commitment to coach, including the challenges faced when teaching and/or coaching; (c) coaching tasks and duties which highlighted coaches' interactions with athletes, as well as their approach to training and competition. Interestingly, many of the findings in the current study were similar to those highlighted in previous studies pertaining to elite coach development, regardless of their undergraduate physical education teacher education (PETE) program or the fact that this sample was coaching high school athletes. However, results provided evidence to support the relative importance of practical coaching experience and interactions with other coaches as central in the development of these coaches. From a practical perspective, these findings could potentially enhance the quality and standard of formal coach education and PETE programs by incorporating more practical elements into the training of coaches and teacher/coaches.