Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Loosely Coupling'

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited<br>Component-based software engineering is an emerging software development approach based on the fundamentals of object-oriented technology. This approach moves programmers' focus from component development to component assembly. Event-based programming is one of the techniques that can be used to assemble software components into applications. In this thesis, a new, generic, highly adaptable and flexible event channel has been designed and implemented. The main product is a Java utility package, called "channel package", which should help Java application developers create or enhance large systems using an event-based programming approach. The new channel design has several demonstrated performance advantages over existing event channel implementations. The flexibility and adaptability of the channel package has also been validated by a successful upgrade of the channel mechanism of the SAAM prototype system.

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems are important in many areas, such as medical, communication, transportation, and consumer electronics. The underlying WPT system is comprised of a transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX). For biomedical applications, such systems can be implemented on rigid or flexible substrates and can be implanted or wearable. The efficiency of a WPT system is based on power transfer efficiency (PTE). Many WPT system optimization techniques have been explored to achieve the highest PTE possible. These are based on either a figure-of-merit (FOM) approach, quality factor (Q-factor) maximization, or by sweeping values for coil geometries. Four WPT systems for biomedical applications are implemented with inductive coupling. The thesis later presents an optimization technique for finding the maximum PTE of a range of frequencies and coil shapes through frequency, geometry and shape sweeping. Five optimized TX coil designs for different operating frequencies are fabricated for three shapes: square, hexagonal, and octagonal planar-spirals. The corresponding RX is implemented on polyimide tape with ink-jet-print (IJP) silver. At 80 MHz, the maximum measured PTE achieved is 2.781% at a 10 mm distance in the air for square planar-spiral coils.

This Master Thesis approaches the analysis and design of a novel solution for the “Circuito di binario (CdB”) i.e., a railway track circuit, that is used as a detection system of the trains for track management and is integrated into the signalling and safety systems on board. The presented CdB exploits an inductive loop system coupled to an S-shaped joint (replacing the previously used mechanical joints) in the audio-frequency range (from 8 to 16 kHz). The tracks, therefore, constitute a transmission route similar to a transmission line equipped with a Transmitter (Tx) and a Receiver (Rx), and can be used to transmit information. As a starting point, different electromagnetic simulations of a prototype system of the CdB (scale 1:4), realized in the ARCES laboratories of the University of Bologna, have been carried out. A 3D replica of the CdB has been realized in CST and electromagnetically analysed. Afterward, the Rail Trak with its actual dimension (scale 1:1) has been simulated and the length of the S joint has been optimized in such a way that that the loops that are not in the Tx-Rx circuit are highly decoupled, whereas the coupling of those that are part of the communication circuit is maximum. Subsequently, with the purpose to lighten the whole CdB electromagnetic simulations, the rail-track has been analysed alone in order to extract an equivalent circuit to be used in AWR together with the outputs (scattering matrices) of the electromagnetic simulations of the S joint with loop (both Tx and Rx). The agile obtained optimization tool has allowed the design of the two matching networks with lumped components (one between the transmitting circuit and the Tx loop, the other between the Rx loop and the receiving circuit) for the maximization of the received power: the highest challenge of this project has been the satisfaction of the matching over such a broad frequency band (equal to one octave).

Many of the technological and social systems our society has come to depend on can be classified as complex adaptive systems (CAS). These systems are made of many individual parts that self-organize to respond and adapt to changing outside and inside influences affecting the system and its actors. These CAS can be placed on a spectrum ranging from loosely- to tightly-coupled, depending on the degree of interrelatedness and interdependence between system components. This research has explored how the process of collaboration occurs in both a loosely- and tightly-coupled setting using one exemplar of each system. The loosely-coupled exemplar related to disaster risk reduction in two Canadian communities while the tightly-coupled one involved the implementation of a surgical information management system in a Canadian hospital. A list of core elements of collaboration that should be considered essential to the success of all collaborative endeavours was developed as a result: Engagement, Communication, Leadership, Role Clarity, Awareness, Time, and Technical Skills and Knowledge. Based on observing how the core elements of collaboration interacted with one another within each of these example systems, two models were created to represent their relationships. A list of considerations that collaborative tool designers should consider was also developed and the implications of these considerations were discussed. As businesses and other organizations increasingly incorporate team-based work models, they will come to depend more heavily on technology-based solutions to support collaboration. By incorporating collaborative technologies that properly support the activity of these teams—based on the specific type of complex adaptive system in which their organization exists—organizations can avoid wasting time and resources developing tools that hinder collaboration.

Depuis plusieurs années, on observe une multiplication des services de communication en temps réel de type Over-The-Top (OTT). Ces solutions utilisent l¿Internet « best-effort » et s¿adaptent aux fluctuations du réseau. Néanmoins, il est discutable que l¿approche OTT soit suffisante pour fournir une qualité de service de communication acceptable quelles que soient les conditions réseaux. Dès lors, est-il possible d¿utiliser l¿assistance réseau pour améliorer la qualité de service des solutions OTT ?Pour traiter cette question, nous étudions tout d¿abord les solutions OTT, et particulièrement la technologie WebRTC. Nous identifions trois stratégies de couplage lâche qui permettent de tirer parti des mécanismes réseaux pour améliorer la qualité de service des solutions OTT.Nous vérifions la pertinence de ces stratégies dans le contexte de la gestion du trafic. On identifie deux approches de gestion du trafic adaptées à WebRTC : 1) qui assure des délais d¿attente courts quel que soit le trafic ou 2) qui isole le trafic sensible. On évalue ces solutions et leur impact sur WebRTC, pour les réseaux d¿accès filaire (uplink, ADSL et fibre). Les résultats obtenus montrent que les pratiques actuelles de gestion du trafic ne sont pas adaptées au trafic WebRTC. De plus, les solutions proposées assurent plus d¿équité entre le trafic WebRTC et TCP et elles permettent d¿éviter que le trafic WebRTC soit désavantagé et elles améliorent la qualité de communication.Enfin, ces solutions de la gestion du trafic sont positionnées dans le contexte des stratégies de couplage proposées. A partir de là, on fournit des recommandations pour améliorer la qualité WebRTC avec l¿assistance du NSP<br>The number of real-time Over-The-Top (OTT) communication services has increased in the recent years. OTT solutions use the best-effort Internet delivery and rely on mechanisms built into the endpoints to adapt to underlying network fluctuations. Nevertheless, it is questionable if this approach is enough to provide acceptable quality of communication regardless the network conditions. Therefore, can network assistance be used to improve the quality of OTT real-time communication services?To address this question, we study OTT solutions with a focus on WebRTC. We identify three loose coupling strategies that leverage network mechanisms for improving OTT communication services quality.We verify the pertinence of these coupling strategies in the context of traffic management. We identify two approaches of traffic management solutions adapted to WebRTC traffic: 1) aiming at assuring lower queuing delays regardless the traffic or 2) isolating the sensitive traffic. We study the impact of identified traffic management solutions on WebRTC for wireline access networks (uplink, ADSL and fiber). The obtained results show that current Internet engineering practices are not well adapted to the WebRTC traffic, but are optimized for TCP traffic. Furthermore, the proposed solutions ensure more fairness between WebRTC and TCP flows and consequently enable avoiding WebRTC traffic starvation and improve the overall quality of the communication.In the final analysis, the evaluated traffic management solutions are positioned in the context of identified coupling strategies. Based on this assessment, we provide recommendations of improving WebRTC quality with the assistance of NSP

In complex systems, it has been observed that the parts within the system are "loosely coupled". Loose coupling means that the parts of the system interact in some way, and as long as this interaction is maintained the parts can evolve independently. Detrimental evolutionary changes within one part of the system do not negatively affect other parts. Overall system functionality is maintained, leading to faster evolution. In swarm robotic systems there are multiple robots working together to achieve a shared goal. However it is not always obvious how to program the actions of the robots such that the desired aggregate behaviour emerges. One solution is to use a genetic algorithm to evolve robot controllers, this approach is called "Evolutionary Swarm Robotics". This thesis makes the case that swarm robotic systems are complex systems, and hypothesises that loose coupling between the robots in a swarm would lead to faster evolution. Robot swarms are investigated where robots describe environmental features to each other as part of a foraging task. Multiple descriptions can be used to describe a feature. The mappings between feature descriptions, and the signals used to express those descriptions, are manipulated. By doing this, the interactions between robots can change over time or stay the same. Results show that loose coupling leads to higher swarmfitnesses because it makes the communicated information easier to interpret. However there are some subtleties in its working. We also observe that if some of the information is not useful for completing the task, this negatively affects swarm fitness regardless of coupling. This problem can be mitigated by using loose coupling. This research has implications for the design of communication within robot swarms. Before evolution, it is difficult to know what information is relevant. This research shows that sharing unnecessary information between robots is detrimental to swarm fitness because the cost of interpreting information can be greater than the benefit gained from the information. Loose coupling can reduce, but not eliminate, the evolutionary cost of interpreting multiple pieces of information in exchange for slower message transmission.

This thesis presents an in-depth case study of a Malaysian public utility company expected by the government to transform itself into a self-financing, efficient and profitable organisation during corporatisation. As profitability became increasingly important, attempts to enhance profitability were made through imposing new accounting rules and recruiting new accounting graduates. In spite of these attempts, the finding reveals that accounting changes were enacted, but over time became separated from, or loosely coupled with, other intraorganisational concerns. An explanatory case study method, using mainly semistructured interviews and document reviews, was adopted. The framework for understanding the process of implementing accounting change, the context in which change unfolded and the emerging consequences of change is based on the combined insights of New Institutional Sociology (Meyer and Rowan, 1977) and Old Institutional Economics (Bums and Scapens, 2000). As sensitising devices, these institutional theories are useful, but alone are not able to fully incorporate the idiosyncrasies of the case findings. Subsequently, the research aims to develop a theoretical framework to understand the processes through which accounting systems can become loosely coupled by incorporating the insights drawn from the two institutional theories as well as the idiosyncrasies of the case. In this framework loose coupling is conceptualised as an evolutionary process shaped by existing internal institutions, the beliefs and norms in the environment, and the interests and power of organisational actors. Issues of the intertwined relationship between efficiency and institutional pressures, the balancing act between public service and profitability concerns, and the inter-play of resistance, trust and power are included. The theoretical framework enriches our understanding of why the role of accounting took its present form and why accounting change was enacted, but continued to (re )embed the existing public service values and norms within the case organisation. It is able to capture the complexity of the ongoing process of accounting change during which the ingrained public service values and practices remained stable in spite of corporatisation.

Actuellement, l’implémentation des services (modèles SOAP et RESTful) et de leurs applications clientes est de plus en plus basée sur la programmation par objet. Ainsi, les cadriciels orientés-objets pour les services Web sont essentiellement composés de deux couches : une couche à objets qui enveloppe une couche à services. Dans ce contexte, deux principes sont nécessaires pour la spécification de ces cadriciels : (i) En premier lieu, un couplage faible entre les deux couches, ce qui permet de cacher la complexité des détails techniques de la couche à services dans la couche à objets et de faire évoluer la couche à services avec un impact minimal sur la couche à objets (ii) En second lieu, une interopérabilité induite par le principe de substitution associée au sous-typage dans la couche à objets. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons d’abord les faiblesses existantes dans les cadriciels orientés-objets liés à ces deux principes. Ensuite, nous proposons une nouvelle spécification pour ces cadriciels en vue de résoudre ces problèmes. Comme application, nous décrivons la mise en œuvre de notre spécification dans le cadriciel cxf, à la fois pour SOAP et RESTful<br>Today, the implementation of services (SOAP and RESTful models) and of client applications is increasingly based on object-oriented programming languages. Thus, object-oriented frameworks for Web services are essentially composed with two levels: an object level built over a service level. In this context, two properties could be particularly required in the specification of these frameworks: (i)First a loose coupling between the two levels, which allows the complex technical details of the service level to be hidden at the object level and the service level to be evolved with a minimal impact on the object level, (ii) Second, an interoperability induced by the substitution principle associated to subtyping in the object level, which allows to freely convert a value of a subtype into a supertype. In this thesis, first we present the existing weaknesses of object-oriented frameworks related to these two requirements. Then, we propose a new specification for object-oriented Web service frameworks in order to resolve these problems. As an application, we provide an implementation of our specification in the cxf framework, for both SOAP and RESTful models

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2009.<br>Department of Information Systems, [Weatherhead School of Management]. Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

<p>The overall aim of this Master Thesis was to achieve a long life-time for the Miles Platform by enabling loose coupling between its various components and tools. The Miles Platform is a software development platform consisting of several interconnected tools and components. For this platform to survive future changes in technology it must be possible to replace the various components without requiring large changes to the surrounding dependent components. Based on a preceding prestudy, a layered Proof of Concept was implemented and evaluated with respect to the success of the implementation, coupling (modifiability) and amount of work. Simple prototypes involving the two first layers, namely the RESTful and the Atom Publishing Protocol based layers were implemented. The final prototype included all three layers, which involved using Semantic Web technology in addition the RESTful Atom Publishing Protocol. Only a few non-blocking issues are unresolved for this final prototype. Both the RESTful, Atom Publishing Protocol and Semantic layer contributed to maintaining a stable interface on top of the issue tracker component. By enforcing stable interfaces and serving as wrappers or intermediares between the issue trackers and their dependent components, each layer contributed to achieving looser coupling, if not in all dimensions. If the issue trackers have many dependent components that needs customization in order to communicate with the issue trackers, and the issue trackers are expected to be replaced one or preferably several times, a positive return on investment are expected from this Proof of Concept.</p>

Syfte: Syftet med denna studien är att öka förståelsen kring hur medlemmar hanterar spänningar mellan ett traditionellt styrsystem och ett modernt styrsystem. Metod: För att besvara studiens syfte har vi använt oss av den naturalistiska forskningsfilosofin och en induktiv forskningsansats. Empiriinsamlingen har bestått av intervjuer av en kvalitativ karaktär. Analys av den empiriska data gjordes med hjälp av en tematisk analys. Bidrag: Studien tillför ett teoretiskt bidrag där spänningarna bevisligen existerar mellan styrsystem. De centrala spänningar vi har fått fram är Ansvarstagande, Organisationsstruktur, Kommunikation och Arbetssätt, när Lean används som styrkoncept. Med hjälp av att kunna se verksamhetsstyrning som ett paket kan spänningarna dels förstås bättre, dels förklara varför de kan uppstå. Till sist, kan Loose coupling med framgång användas för att analysera hur medlemmarna hanterar spänningar som uppstår mellan dessa styrsystem. Vi kan se att företagen som undersöks i studien använder olika metoder för att hantera spänningarna. Förslag till vidare forskning: ● Vidareutveckla de teorier vi presenterat i studien gällande identifiering av spänningar. Genom att vidare undersöka hur spänningar fungerar och var de kan uppstå kan forskare bidra till en stabilare verksamhetsstyrning för företag. ● Mer fördjupning inom hantering av spänningar. Genom att utveckla de metoder som redan finns kan det underlätta för företag med spänningar och genom att formulera nya metoder och identifiera nya verktyg kan forskningen föras framåt ytterligare. ● Att undersöka om spänningar går att mäta, för att sedan bygga ett verktyg för företagen att kunna identifiera och hantera spänningarna.<br>Aim: The aim is to increase the understanding of how members in a company handle tensions between a modern traditional control system and a modern control system. Method: This study was conducted with a qualitative design using a multiple case study and an inductive process. Furthermore, has the study been shaped after the scientific method. Empirical data has been gathered from interviews and the analysing of the empirical data has been done using thematic analysis. Contributions of the thesis: The theoretical contribution of this study is proof that tensions exists between two different control systems. The most central tensions that we have discovered are Responsibility, Organizational structure, Communication and Working methods, when Lean is used as a control concept. With the help of being able to see business management as a package, the tensions can be better understood and also explain why they can arise. Finally, Loose coupling can be successfully used to analyse how members handle tensions that arise between these control systems. We can see that the companies that are analysed in this study use different methods to handle the tensions. Suggestions for future research: ● To further develop the theories we presented in the study regarding the identification of tensions. This can be made by further investigating how tensions work and where they can arise. Researchers can contribute to more stable business management for companies. ● More in-depth study of handling the tensions. By developing the methods that already exist, this can make it easier for companies to handle their tensions between the control systems. But also formulating new methods and identifying new tools that could take the research further. ● To examine if tensions could be measured in order to build a tool that could identify and handle the tensions.

Simulations play an integral role in the understanding and development of rotor- craft aeromechanics. Computational Fluid Dynamics coupled with Computational Structural Dynamics (CFD/CSD) offers an excellent approach to analyzing rotors. These methods have been traditionally “loosely-coupled” where data are exchanged periodically, motion is prescribed for CFD, and the updated loads have a static component for CSD. Loosely-coupled CFD/CSD assumes the solution to be periodic, which may not be true for some simulations. “Tightly-coupled” CFD/CSD, where loads and motion are exchanged at each time step, does not make this periodic assumption and opens up new avenues of simulation to research. A major drawback to tightly-coupled CFD/CSD is an increase in computational cost. Different approaches are explored to reduce this cost as well as examine numerical implications in solutions from tightly and loosely-coupled CFD/CSD. A trim methodology optimized for tightly-coupled simulations is developed and found to bring trim costs within parity of loosely-coupled CFD/CSD simulations. Aerodynamic loading is found to be nearly similar for fixed controls. However, the lead-lag blade motion is determined to contain a harmonic in the tightly-coupled analysis that is not an integer multiple of the rotor speed. A hybrid CFD/CSD methodology employing the use of a free-wake code to model the far-field effects of the rotor wake is developed to aid in computational cost reduction. Investigation of this approach reveals that computational costs may be reduced while preserving solution accuracy. This work’s contributions to the community include the development of a trim algorithm appropriate for use in tightly-coupled CFD/CSD simulations along with a detailed examination of the physics predicted by loose and tight coupling for quasi-steady level flight conditions. The influence of the wake in such cases is directly examined using a modular hybrid coupling to a free-wake code that is capable of reduced cost computations.

Den här uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i en arbetsgrupp, inom äldrevården, vilken har en förhållandevis jämn fördelning mellan antalet män och kvinnor. Hypotesen är att en organisation, med en sådan arbetsgrupp, i större utsträckning inhyser konflikter mellan arbetsplatsens jämställdhet och vårdtagarnas valfrihet att tacka ja eller nej till hjälp beroende på om den tilltänkta utföraren är man eller kvinna. Platsen har alltså valts strategiskt för att utröna om hypotesen kan bekräftas. Uppsatsen behandlar hur organisationen, formellt och informellt, samordnar dessa normer och utgår ifrån att det finns en inneboende intressekonflikt i relationen dem emellan. Det empiriska materialet har hämtats in med hjälp av samtalsintervjuer. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att tydliggöra ansvarsfördelningen för hur de olika normerna avvägs mot varandra men också att utröna vilka efterverkningar avvägningarna får i det praktiska arbetet och rekryteringen. Som titeln implicerar använde sig organisationen av en undvikande logik i avvägningen. Istället för att synliggöra konflikten tonade man ner den genom att bara ta till sig jämställdhetskonceptet på ett terminologiskt plan och på så sätt löskoppla det från de interna aktiviteterna. Genom detta pragmatiska förhållningssätt kunde arbetet fortlöpa som tidigare utan att den inbyggda intressekonflikten gjorde avkall på effektiviteten.<br>This essay has its outset in a work team within the elderly care. The work team is relatively equally composed regarding the number of men and women. The hypothesis is that an organization, with a work team of that composition, will even more so contain conflicts between the work place' equality and the caretakers freedom of choice to accept or decline help depending on if the prospective personnel is male or female. The scene of the study has thereby been chosen strategically in order to prove the hypothesis. The essay is addressing how the organization, formally and informally, coordinates these norms and assumes that there is an immanent conflict of interest in the relation between them. The empirical data has been obtained through research interviews. The intention of the essay has been to clarify the division of responsibilities regarding how the norms should be balanced in relation to one another but also to determine which impacts the balancing will provide in the hands-on work and the recruitment of new staff. As the title implicate; did the organization use an avoidant approach in the balancing process. Rather than making the conflict visible, it was de-emphasized by absorbing the concept of equality only on a semantic level, thereby loose coupling the concept from the internal activities. Through such pragmatic disposition the activities could proceed as before without a conflict of interests intervening on the efficiency of the organization.

Arbetet med att stärka ett arbetsgivarvarumärkes attraktivitet, både internt och externt, det alltmer välbekanta begreppet “Employer branding”, är ett vanligt förekommande koncept i dagens organisationer. Syftet med studien är att försöka ta reda på vad fenomenet “Employer branding” är och hur organisationer kan bedriva arbetet med att göra sitt arbetsgivarvarumärket attraktiv på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Tieto, COWI och Klarna AB är de företag som deltar i studien. Begreppen legitimitet och löskoppling från den institutionella- och nyinstitutionella teorin kommer att ligga som teoretisk utgångspunkt för att besvara studiens frågeställningar och syfte. Den metod som har använts är en kvalitativ intervjustudie, där totalt åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer utifrån ett strategiskt urval har genomförts med de tre företagen. För att bearbeta materialet har transkriberingsmetoden använts där vi utgår från en deduktiv ansats och har kodat materialet efter på förhand formulerade begrepp som var ställda i relation till den teoretiska utgångspunkten. Det empiriska materialet visar att alla tre företagen är medvetna om både den interna och framförallt den externa sidan av Employer branding och påstår att de är aktiva i arbetet med att öka attraktiviteten internt inom organisationen såväl som externt.<br>The work with Employer branding, both external and internal, is a frequent used concept in organizations today. The purpose of our study is to try to find out what the phenomenon of “Employer branding” is and how organizations can pursue efforts to make its employer brand attractive on the Swedish labor market. Tieto, COWI and Klarna AB are the companies participating in our study. The terms legitimacy and loose coupling from the institutional- and new institutional theory is going to be our theoretical base to enable us to answer our questions and purpose of our study. The used method is a qualitative study, where a total of eight semi-structured interviews based on a strategic selection were carried out with the three companies. In order to process the material have transcription-method been used that is based on a deductive approach and the material has been coded after pre-formulated concepts that were made out in relation to the theoretical starting point. The empirical material indicates that all three companies are aware of both the internal and especially the external side of Employer branding and states that they are active in the work to increase attractiveness internally within the organization as well as the extern.

Based on the limited outcomes and often failed implementation processes of annual employee surveys a new phenomenon for collecting people data has risen; the pulsed employee survey. This survey and its continuous way of measuring are by many providers and consultants stated to be an important tool that increases employee engagement. The phenomenon of the pulsed employee survey has so far received limited academic attention, despite its growing importance as a potential institutionalized practice. Therefore, this study aims at broadening the understanding of the phenomenon of the pulsed employee survey. How is it transformed into organizations during an implementation process and can the process be seen as coupled or decoupled from the institutionalized practice? Further, what explains the potential coupling or decoupling? To investigate this, a model based on decoupling theories by Bromley &amp; Powell(2012) has been used through a qualitative case study. The result shows that, even though the surveys are implemented into the organizations, means-ends decoupling can be found, whichmay be explained by the complexity of what is measured as well as the multifaceted expectations and perceptions at different organizational levels.

The main strategy of gender equality policies has since the 1990s been gender mainstreaming. Many government inquiries show how much the Swedish government, provincial governments and municipalities are working with gender mainstreaming. The purpose of this paper is to investigative how the municipalities within the county of Stockholm handle gender mainstreaming demands in relation to other demands that the municipalities face. This is in order to closer investigate the hidden factors that create barriers to gender mainstreaming efforts. Given the study's purpose and the formulation of research question, qualitative method is the most suitable method to fulfill the purpose. The theoretical starting points used in this study was organizational theories with discussion of concepts such as institutional isomorphism, rationalized myths, organizational hypocrisy, parallel processes, and especially the theory of loosely coupled systems. The conclusion of this study is that the municipalities within the county of Stockholm handle demands from the environment in different ways. Some municipalities loose couple their system as a temporary solution to deal with various demands placed on the municipality. The result is that there is a lack of coordination within municipalities and their various governments, which in turn results in many municipalities working with the gender issue in parallel processes, hence they lack an overview of the activities in the municipality. These factors are common barriers to gender mainstreaming efforts in the studied municipalities.

Afin d'étudier le rôle du Contrôle de Gestion dans la stratégie de développement durable (DD) de l'entreprise, nous proposons dans un premier temps, un cadre d'analyse fondé sur une revue de la littérature, sur la responsabilité sociale de l'entreprise (RSE) et du contrôle, complétée, dans un deuxième temps, par une étude exploratoire. Ces investigations théoriques et empiriques nous conduisent à proposer la thèse suivante : devant le double défi de l'efficience et de la légitimité, l'entreprise met en oeuvre des systèmes de contrôle diagnostic et interactif. Cette juxtaposition permet de répondre rationnellement aux différentes parties prenantes en dissociant les domaines de performance globale. Cette pratique confirme, d'une part, le rôle du Contrôle de Gestion en tant que vérificateur d'une logique managériale financière et d'autre part, elle participe à l'amorce d'un processus de rééquilibrage entre le système de gouvernance, la stratégie et le contrôle. Cette transformation du modèle économique se heurte à des difficultés techniques et culturelles d'où l'observation d'un phénomène de couplage plus ou moins lâche entre les idéaux du DD et les actions quotidiennes de l'entreprise<br>So as to study the role of management control in the sustainable development of the firm, we first propose a conceptual framework based on a review dealing with Corporate Social Responsability and Control. Secondly, an exploratory study will complete the research.These theorical and empirical investigations lead us to offer the fallowing proposition : facing the double challenge of efficiency and legitimacy, the firm implements control protocols aiming to both establish a diagnosis and interact. This juxtaposition allows to answer in a rational way to the different stakeholders, while the different domains of the overal performance are isolated. This pratice establishes the part of management control as monotoring financial and managing logics first. It then participates to the processus of balancing the system of governance,the strategy and the control.This changing of the business model clashes with technical and cultural difficulties, hence we can observe a phenomenon of tigher or looser coupling between the ideals of the sustainable development and the every day working of the firm

Come spiega l’autore Kevin Ashton di “How to fly a horse: The secret history of creation, invention, and discovery“, negli anni "90 la creazione di sensori collegati a Internet non era una pratica diffusa e "l’idea di creare una vasta rete di sensori per raccogliere dati sulle cose nel mondo reale sembrava molto strana". \newline Oggi, dopo anni di sviluppo tecnologico , è cambiato non solo l'idea per i sensori ma anche la necessità di dare un identità informatica ad ogni oggetto fisico nel contesto della rete dell'Internet of Things.L'idea di dotare queste entità con la capacità di scambiare informazioni e di utilizzare le informazioni che sono state scambiate orienta l'infrastruttura informatica verso i servizi.\newline Avendo presente l'impatto che presentano oggi i sistemi automatizzati negli ambienti IT , minimizzando le inefficienze dovute all’intervento umano, Arrowhead Framework fornisce un’architettura per la creazione di sistemi di automazione basati su Internet of Things secondo i principi della sicurezza IT, la scalabilità del sistema e la semplicità di progettazione. \newline In questa tesi si trattano argomenti legati all'architettura orientata ai servizi,l'interoperabilità e si da una dimostrazione reale dell'esecuzione di questi principi nel contesto di un sistema che funziona secondo il framework Arrowhead.

How do management control systems function when under pressure to mainstream gender equality into a core business? This question is being discussed with an interpretive approach from both the institutional and the gender perspective. Empirical evidence stems from two longitudinal case studies within the Swedish public sector where management by objectives (MBO) is the current model for governmental control. The analysis is based on four aspects: management by objectives, gender mainstreaming, the concept of loose coupling from organization studies and institutional change as translation. The gender perspective highlights constructions that tend to enable or to hamper gender equality. The sociological institutional perspective sheds light over rules, norms and culture. In the empirical cases, it becomes evident that formal goals within MBO proved unable to overrule prevailing norms that have grounded a well established gendered (malestream) culture.  Control systems are designed to handle new issues; however, in the cases studied, this took place merely normatively and in line with the core business, not by changing the grounds on which the control system stands. The MBO model consequently lacks the ability to integrate gender in a transformative mode.

The Swedish Police Authority aims to increase diversity among employees within the authority. This is asserted in the Swedish Police Authority's own policies and action plans, which together with other internal documents are the subject of my qualitative study. The focus of this study is to look at how the use of the concept of diversity has changed within the Swedish Police Authority by using qualitative analysis of ideas and ideological context, the perspective of discursive psychology and neo-institutional theory. The aim is also to find out what is missing out in the current diversity discourse. My study reveals through an examination of a selection of The Swedish Police Authority’s document that there is a discrepancy between the external discourses on diversity and the internal norms that are to be found within the Swedish Police Authority.

Etude par mesures de chaleur massique, d'aimantation, de susceptibilite, de resistivite et d'absorption x, du caractere de systeme kondo a fermions lourds du compose du titre. L'effet d'un champ magnetique pour la transition couplage fort-couplage faible a ete mise en evidence. Effet d'une substitution du cerium par le lanthane ou le cerium. Interpretation des proprietes a basse temperature dans le cadre d'un modele phenomenologique de liquide de fermi reposant sur l'hypothese d'un etat resonnant s-f, non strictement lorentzien situe au niveau de fermi. Ce modele etendu permet de rendre compte des effets de competition entre magnetisme et effet kondo

碩士<br>大葉大學<br>資訊管理學系碩士班<br>93<br>Public creating tools, Blog and Wiki, are two of popular network writing tools. They are separately applied to individual learning and collaborative learning and dispersed liked isolated island which can’t spread out the whole value of them. Moreover, those contents within public creating tools are static resources, which can’t be reuse by SCORM platform. This research considers it will be a great damage to digital learning because of the drain of ideas and learning resources. Public creating tools and SCORM platform are having their unique properties and the way of information processing, and their communications are via network. The integration of them will make knowledge sharing efficiently, but overly integration will cause some bad issues liked tightly coupled, collapse etc. Therefore, it’s a critical key that how to integrate those and save their respective property at the same time. The aim of this research is integrating public creating tools, SCORM platform and portfolio for learning management, moreover, this research employ loosely coupling frame to construct a Management Center for Learning and Sharing. Afterward the empirical study of Management Center is based on the laboratory of digital content and learning industry. The result indicate loosely coupling frame can make public creating tools and SCORM platform form a whole, and bring comprehensive efficiency into full play.

In the thesis, a multiphysics loosely-coupled tool, called U-THERM3D, is assessed as a detailed investigation tool for high-fidelity prediction of combustion and near-wall processes in a LES CHT simulation framework, allowing a deep understanding of heat transfer modes influence with an affordable computational cost. The numerical analysis is carried out on a laboratory-scale combustor representative of a Rich-Quench-Lean concept, emphasizing the effect of radiative and wall heat losses on the highly sooting flame and the improvements in the wall temperature prediction with respect to a steady calculation. In addition, a novel approach based on the application of 2D boundary sources to simulate the injection of coolant from effusion cooling holes is presented to overcome the issues related to the discretization of the effusion perforation, employing Reduced-Order Model techniques from a Machine Learning framework. For this scope, an in-house external code is combined with the CFD package within the U-THERM3D framework. The numerical tool is firstly validated on simplified geometries in RANS and SBES calculations and then applied on a non-reactive single sector planar rig representative of a real combustor geometry to test the robustness of the proposed strategy in presence of a more complex flow field. Nevertheless, several improvable aspects are highlighted, pointing the way for further enhancements.

碩士<br>國立政治大學<br>資訊管理研究所<br>83<br>The reserach objective of the integration of expert systems and database systems is to develope an information system which can integrate both the capabilities of expert systems (ingerencing and problem solving) and capabilities of databases (storing and managing of huge amount of data). There are four ways to integrate them: (1) enhanced databases, (2) enhanced expert systems, (3) loose coupling of independent expert systems and databases, (4) expert database systems. 　　Since there are many existing database systems, the loose coupling of independent expert system and database is considered to be the most appropriate approach. The other three ways are not cost/benefit feasible because they need major modification of the curresn systems. 　　The focus of this reserach is on loose coupling of independent expert system and database. The strengthes and weaknesses of the relevent researchs are discovered through literature review. There are four major considerations in developing the architecture: database independency, expert system independency, system complexity, system extendibility. The proposed architecture is more independent, efficients, and easy to be bulit. This research has also built a prototype system coupling a financial diagnosis expert system with an accounting database. The feasibility of the prototype has verified the usefulness of the proposed architecture. Future reasearch suggestions are also stated.

abstract: This study describes how the concept of “community” is framed in traditional public and charter high school guiding statements and interviews with school leaders. Guiding statements from public high schools in Arizona were analyzed and interviews were conducted with principals from traditional public schools and charter school principals. The findings suggested similarities between traditional public high schools and charter high schools in their framing of the concept of community, suggesting that schools are loosely coupled to state and federal education departments in particular, and to varying degrees at the district level: The guiding statements and high school leaders generally distinguished between the “school as community” frame inside the school and the “the local community” frame focused on the community outside of the school. Both traditional public high schools and charter schools emphasized the importance of both frames and their connections with “the local community.” Differences between traditional public schools and charter schools were observed, as schools appeared to attempt to legitimize themselves in different ways to the communities they are located in. Despite open enrollment policies leading to inter-district enrollment, traditional public schools have a mandate to primarily serve students from a specific area and were framed in the guiding statements and by school leaders as being part of and serving a geographically defined community that they have close ties to, the “school as a member of community” frame. Charter schools, on the other hand, focused on creating and serving a specific educational community characterized by shared interests, ideals, and expectations (‘school as community”) and contributing to the community that the school is located in (“school as a contributor to community”).<br>Dissertation/Thesis<br>Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2018

When students leave the university they enter a world filled with complex organizations. The U.S. education system socializes students to function well in the workforce (Bidwell, 2005; Hallinan, 2005; Bowles & Gintis; 1977, 2002). The focus of this study is how attending a large public university prepares students for life in complex organizations. Schools along with families are primary socializing agents of students (Hallinan, 2005). Policy is a powerful tool used by complex organizations to shape and structure individual behavior (Morgan, 1997; Schuman, 1976). Policies and policy implementation are designed to produce intended consequences, or outcomes; however, policy implementation has unintended and unanticipated consequences as well. One study of higher education found students who attend college are comfortable with complex organizations (Schuman, 1982). Large public research universities have grown into complex organizations, described by Kerr (1995) as "Multiversities." It is in this multiversity environment that a student learns about complex organizations. Although policy consequence studies exist, exploration of unintended consequences is not a typical dissertation topic. Organizational structure affects student learning (Berger, 2002). Unintended consequences of policy implementation in the loosely coupled, complex organization of a large public university remain relatively unexplored. This phenomenological study explored the unintended consequences to student's lives of a single policy, Absence from Class Due to Illness, in the loosely coupled, complex organization of a large public university through observation of study participant experiences. Study participants included university personnel: faculty, administrative deans, health service physicians, health service staff, and students interviewed between June 2006 and February 2007. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and document review. The complexity of the university appears through this single policy lens and allows us to see how students learn to live in this complex environment. The dissertation discussed three student learning themes emerging from study participant stories (1) learning the system, (2) making the system work, and (3) handling ambiguity. Implications and future research for the study of higher education are discussed.

Στην εν λόγω εργασία, έγινε μια προσπάθεια καταγραφής του τεχνολογικού τοπίου της τηλεπικοινωνιακής αγοράς, με έμφαση την διαλειτουργικότητα μεταξύ των Δικτύων Κινητής Τηλεφωνίας και των Ασύρματων Δικτύων Δεδομένων και των σχετικών αλλαγών που έχει επιφέρει αυτή η διαλειτουργικότητα, τόσο στις παρεχόμενες υπηρεσίες, όσο και στα εφαρμοζόμενα επιχειρηματικά μοντέλα από πλευράς εταιρειών της συγκεκριμένης αγοράς. Στα πλαίσια αυτής της προσπάθειας, χρειάστηκε να πραγματοποιηθεί μια λεπτομερής καταγραφή των τεχνολογικών εξελίξεων, σε επίπεδο τεχνικών προδιαγραφών και προτύπων, στις παραπάνω δύο κατηγορίες δικτύων, ώστε να καταλήξουμε σε εκείνα τα πρότυπα που πλέον μπορούν να οδηγήσουν στην υλοποίηση δικτύων τα οποία θα χαρακτηρίζονται από τα παρακάτω: • θα είναι ενοποιημένα ώστε οι διαφορετικές τεχνολογικές πλατφόρμες των εταιρειών να λειτουργούν απρόσκοπτα, • θα χαρακτηρίζονται από χαμηλό κόστος, • ο τελικός χρήστης θα μπορεί να είναι συνεχώς συνδεδεμένος με κάποιο δίκτυο ασύρματης πρόσβασης και να απολαμβάνει τις υπηρεσίες που επιθυμεί, οποτεδήποτε και οπουδήποτε. Η δομή της διπλωματικής εργασίας ακολουθεί τον προαναφερθέντα τρόπο σκέψης. Στο 1ο Κεφάλαιο γίνεται μια σύντομη παρουσίαση του στόχου σε επίπεδο τεχνολογιών αλλά και υπηρεσιών, δηλαδή των αναμενόμενων αποτελεσμάτων αυτών των δικτύων νέας γενιάς, στα οποία έχουμε συνηθίσει να αναφερόμαστε ως δίκτυα 4G (4th Generation) ή δίκτυα B3G (Beyond 3G) ή τέλος ως All – IP ασύρματα δίκτυα. Στο 2ο Κεφάλαιο, γίνεται μια λεπτομερής παρουσίαση των Δικτύων Κινητής Τηλεφωνίας από τις πρώτες τους εκδοχές (1G) έως τις πλέον σύγχρονες (3.5G) που έχουν εμφανιστεί μέχρι σήμερα. Αναλύονται τόσο οι γενιές των δικτύων όσο και τα χρησιμοποιούμενα πρότυπα, σε επίπεδο αρχιτεκτονικής όσο και σε επίπεδο πρωτοκόλλων. Στη συνέχεια του κεφαλαίου υπάρχει η τεχνική περιγραφή των επικρατέστερων δικτύων κινητής τηλεφωνίας, σήμερα, δηλαδή των GSM, GPRS και UMTS, ενώ στο τέλος του κεφαλαίου υπάρχει μια σύντομη περιγραφή της διαδικασίας intersystem handover μεταξύ των GSM και UMTS. Στο 3ο Κεφάλαιο, περνάμε πλέον στα Ασύρματα Δίκτυα Δεδομένων. Γίνεται μια εκτενής περιγραφή των προτύπων που έχουν καθοριστεί και συγκεκριμένα στα πρότυπα IEEE 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) με κυριότερους εκφραστές τα δίκτυα βασιζόμενα σε Bluetooth και IrDA, το πρότυπο IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) με σημαντικότερος εκπροσώπους τα WiFi και HyperLan/2, το πρότυπο IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) ή αλλιώς γνωστότερο ως WiMAX και τέλος το πρότυπο IEEE 802.20 Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) ή διαφορετικά Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MWBA) το οποίο είναι υπό διερεύνηση ακόμα και φιλοδοξεί να αποτελέσει το ασύρματο ανάλογο της τεχνολογίας xDSL, καθώς θα προσφέρει ασύρματες ευρυζωνικές υπηρεσίες. Στο 4ο Κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται μεθοδολογίες υλοποίησης του integration μεταξύ δικτύων των δύο κατηγοριών και συγκεκριμένα παραδείγματα διαλειτουργικότητας, όπως μεταξύ GPRS ή UMTS και WLANs ή μεταξύ UMTS και WiMAX. Γίνεται εκτενής συζήτηση γύρω από τα προβλήματα που θα πρέπει να αντιμετωπιστούν, όπως η εξασφάλιση ανεκτού επιπέδου QoS, οι μηχανισμοί για handover μεταξύ των δικτύων, η διαχείριση της κινητικότητας των χρηστών και των τερματικών και δίνονται παραδείγματα δημιουργίας ενοποιημένων δικτύων, τόσο με τη τεχνική της χαλαρής όσο και με την τεχνική της ισχυρής ζεύξης. Στο τελευταίο τμήμα του Κεφαλαίου, γίνεται μια εκτενής αναφορά στις αρχιτεκτονικές διασύνδεσης ετερογενών δικτύων με IP δίκτυα κορμού, τα γνωστά All – IP networks. Ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στους μηχανισμούς πραγματοποίησης των handovers βάσει πολιτικών (policy based) και η χρήση τεχνικών για micromobility και macromobility σε σχέση με την κινητικότητα των τερματικών. Το 5ο Κεφάλαιο αφορά τις εφαρμογές και υλοποιήσεις ασυρμάτων δικτύων δεδομένων στον Ελληνικό χώρο, στα πλαίσια του Επιχειρησιακού Προγράμματος «Κοινωνία της Πληροφορίας» και πιο συγκεκριμένα τα «Εξοπλισμός και δικτύωση σε όλες τις βαθμίδες της εκπαίδευσης», «Ασύρματα Ευρυζωνικά Δίκτυα ΟΤΑ»και «Μητροπολιτικά Ευρυζωνικά Δίκτυα Οπτικών Ινών ΟΤΑ» και ουσιαστικά αποτελούν παραδείγματα και υλοποιήσεις διασύνδεσης WiFi, WiMAX και IP backbone δικτύων όπως το ΣΥΖΕΥΞΙΣ με δυνατότητες για παροχή VoIP.<br>In this thesis, an effort of presenting the technological landscape of the telecommunication market takes place, with focus on the interoperability between the Mobile Telephony Networks and the Wireless Data Networks and the relative changes that have evolved through this interoperability, both regarding the provided services and the applied business models by the enterprises of the specific market. Within the frames of this effort, a detailed recording of technological developments is realised, in terms of technical specifications and standards, in the two aforementioned categories of networks, so as to conclude to those standards that are utilized by the next generation networks (4G) which will be: • Networks that will be unified so as the different technological platforms will function smoothly. • Networks that will be characterized by low cost of deployment. • The end user will be continuously connected with a wireless access network, enjoying the preferred services anywhere and anytime. The master thesis structure follows the aforementioned methodology. The 1st Chapter includes a short presentation of expected results, both in terms of technologies and services for next generation networks, which we usually refer to as 4G networks (4th Generation) or B3G networks (Beyond 3G) or finally as All - IP wireless networks (AIPN). In the 2nd Chapter, a detailed presentation of Mobile Telephony Networks takes place, from their first versions (1G) until the most modern (3.5G) that have been presented up to today. The analysis includes both the various generations of networks and the used standards, in terms of modulation and multiplexing techniques. The rest of the chapter focuses on the technical description of the prevailing networks, GSM, GPRS and UMTS, while the chapter ends with a short description of intersystem handover processes between GSM and UMTS. Τhe 3rd Chapter, includes an extensive description of the Wireless Data Networks standards such as: IEEE 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) with main representatives networks based on Bluetooth and IrDA, standard IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) mainly represented by WiFi and HyperLan/2, IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) standard, widely known as WiMax and finally the IEEE 802.20 Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) standard, namely Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MWBA) that is still under development and aspires to constitutes the wireless version of the xDSL technology, since it aims to provide wireless broadband services. In the 4th Chapter methodologies for integrating the two types of networks, are presented along with examples of interoperability between GPRS / UMTS and WLANs or between UMTS and WiMAX. Extensive discussion around the problems that should be faced, as the guarantee of bearable QoS level, the mechanisms for handover between the networks and the management of mobility of users and terminals, is held. Moreover, examples of integrated networks with both loose and tight coupling methodologies are presented. The last section of the chapter concerns a detailed description of architectures for interconnecting heterogeneous wireless networks over IP – based backhaul networks, namely All – IP networks, with special focus on policy based handover mechanisms and techniques for managing micromobility and macromobility issues. The 5th Chapter concerns the changes taking place in the telecommunications market deriving from the technological progress in the subject of heterogeneous wireless networks interconnection. New service packets are created, as a result of new business plans that are drawn up by the big telecommunications organizations. Finally, we present the developments in the Greek market and subsidised projects from Information Society AE, via which wireless networks have been materialised, with aim to promote Broadband Services.

At the best of times, education policy implementation is a difficult and uncertain process. Taking this as a point of departure, the researcher advanced the hypothesis that education policy implementation in a society in transition: is accompanied by a fragmentation of the pre-transition coherence in interpersonal relations among policy actors; is affected by a heightening of value conflicts and the emergence of competing interpretive schemes; is influenced by the perceived self-interest of policy actors; is affected by changing power relationships and structural adjustments; and reflects a general weakening of interpersonal, cultural, and structural linkages that had evolved in pre-transition years. The Indian education system in South Africa was studied as an exemplar of a system located in a society in transition. The data collated by means of three research strategies - historical report, questionnaire, and structured interview - gave strong support to the hypothesis. In addition, they pointed to the significance of variables such as policy content and policy quality, political interference and pressure, bias and favouritism among senior officials, religious, sectional, and language loyalties of participants, and loss of job satisfaction and morale among policy actors. These findings were discussed against the background of relevant literature. This concluded in the development_gf a theoretical model to explain education policy implementation in a society in transition. Basically, the model suggests that socio-political struggles in the larger society tend. to be replicated in the micro-contexts of the education system, producing fundamental alterations in the interpersonal, cultural, and structural aspects of the system, a general weakening of system linkages, and a progressive de-coupling of system components. All these changes recursively impact on and are impacted on by policymaking and policy implementation processes and outcomes. These impacts, however, tend to occur in a non-standard, nonlinear manner. The theoretical underpinnings of the model emerge from general systems theory, modern social systems theory, chaos/ complexity theory, conflict theory, structuration theory, organisation change theory, and loosely coupled systems theory. Finally, the study concludes with general propositions relating to education policy implementation in a society in transition and a set of research and management-oriented recommendations.<br>Educational Leadership and Management<br>D. Ed. (Educational Management)