Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cooperative exploration'
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Kim, Jonghoek. "Simultaneous cooperative exploration and networking." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/39536.
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This thesis provides strategies for multiple vehicles to explore unknown environments in a cooperative and systematic manner. These strategies are called Simultaneous Cooperative Exploration and Networking (SCENT) strategies. As the basis for development of SCENT strategies, we first tackle the motion control and planning for one vehicle with range sensors. In particular, we develop the curve-tracking controllers for autonomous vehicles with rigidly mounted range sensors, and a provably complete exploration strategy is proposed so that one vehicle with range sensors builds a topological map of an environment. The SCENT algorithms introduced in
this thesis extend the exploration strategy for one vehicle to multiple vehicles.
The enabling idea of the SCENT algorithms is to construct a topological map of the environment, which is considered completely explored if the map corresponds to a complete Voronoi diagram of the environment. To achieve this, each vehicle explores its local area by incrementally expanding the already visited areas of the environment.
At the same time, every vehicle deploys communication devices at selected locations and, as a result, a communication network is created concurrently with a topological map. This additional network allows the vehicles to share information in a distributed manner resulting in an efficient exploration of the workspace.
The efficiency of the proposed SCENT algorithms is verified through theoretical investigations as well as experiments using mobile robots. Moreover, the resulting networks and the topological maps are used to solve coordinated multi-robot tasks,
such as capturing intruders.
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Craparo, Emily M. (Emily Marie) 1980. "Cooperative exploration under communication constraints." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46558.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-137).
The cooperative exploration problem necessarily involves communication among agents, while the spatial separation inherent in this task places fundamental limits on the amount of data that can be transmitted. However, the impact of limited communication on the exploration process has not been fully characterized. Existing exploration algorithms do not realistically model the tradeoff between expansion, which allows more rapid exploration of the area of interest, and maintenance of close relative proximity among agents, which facilitates communication. This thesis develops new algorithms applicable to the problem of cooperative exploration under communication constraints. The exploration problem is decomposed into two parts. In the first part, cooperative exploration is considered in the context of a hierarchical communication framework known as a mobile backbone network. In such a network, mobile backbone nodes, which have good mobility and communication capabilities, provide communication support for regular nodes, which are constrained in movement and communication capabilities but which can sense the environment. New exact and approximation algorithms are developed for throughput optimization in networks composed of stationary regular nodes, and new extensions are formulated to take advantage of regular node mobility. These algorithms are then applied to a cooperative coverage problem. In the second part of this work, techniques are developed for utilizing a given level of throughput in the context of cooperative estimation. The mathematical properties of the information form of the Kalman filter are leveraged in the development of two algorithms for selecting highly informative portions of the information matrix for transmission. One algorithm, a fully polynomial time approximation scheme, provides provably good results in computationally tractable time for problem instances of a particular structure. The other, a heuristic method applicable to instances of arbitrary matrix structure, performs very well in simulation for randomly-generated problems of realistic dimension.
by Emily M. Craparo.
Ph.D.
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Rekleitis, Ioannis. "Cooperative localization and multi-robot exploration." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=84423.
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This thesis has two main contributions. The first contribution is the use of cooperative localization for decoupling the positional error of a moving robot from its environment. The second contribution is the development of efficient multi-robot exploration strategies for an unknown environment.The proposed method is designed to be robust in the face of arbitrarily large odometry errors or objects with poor reflectance characteristics. Central to the exploration strategy is a sensor (robot tracker) mounted on a robot that could track a second mobile robot and accurately report its relative position. Our exploration strategies use the robot tracker sensor to sweep areas of free space between stationary and moving robots and to generate a graph-based description of the environment. This graph is used to guide the exploration process. Depending on the size of the environment relative to the range of the robot tracker, different spatial decompositions are used: a triangulation or a trapezoidal decomposition of the free space. Complete exploration without any overlaps is guaranteed as a result of the guidance provided by the dual graph of the spatial decomposition of the environment.
The uncertainty in absolute robot positions and the resulting uncertainty in the map is reduced through the use of a probabilistic framework based on particle filtering (a Monte Carlo simulation technique). Particle filtering is a probabilistic sampling technique used to efficiently model complex probability distributions that cannot be effectively described using classical methods (such as Kalman filters).
We present experimental results from two different implementations of the robot tracker sensor, in simulated and in real environments. The accuracy of the resulting map increases with the use of cooperative localization. Furthermore, the deterioration of the floor conditions did not affect the quality of the map verifying the decoupling of positioning error from the environment.
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Wu, Wencen. "Bio-inspired cooperative exploration of noisy scalar fields." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/48940.
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A fundamental problem in mobile robotics is the exploration of unknown fields that might be inaccessible or hostile to humans. Exploration missions of great importance include geological survey, disaster prediction and recovery, and search and rescue. For missions in relatively large regions, mobile sensor networks (MSN) are ideal candidates. The basic idea of MSN is that mobile robots form a sensor network that collects information, meanwhile, the behaviors of the mobile robots adapt to changes in the environment. To design feasible motion patterns and control of MSN, we draw inspiration from biology, where animal groups demonstrate amazingly complex but adaptive collective behaviors to changing environments.
The main contributions of this thesis include platform independent mathematical models for the coupled motion-sensing dynamics of MSN and biologically-inspired provably convergent cooperative control and filtering algorithms for MSN exploring unknown scalar fields in both 2D and 3D spaces. We introduce a novel model of behaviors of mobile agents that leads to fundamental theoretical results for evaluating the feasibility and difficulty of exploring a field using MSN. Under this framework, we propose and implement source seeking algorithms using MSN inspired by behaviors of fish schools. To balance the cost and performance in exploration tasks, a switching strategy, which allows the mobile sensing agents to switch between individual and cooperative exploration, is developed. Compared to fixed strategies, the switching strategy brings in more flexibility in engineering design. To reveal the geometry of 3D spaces, we propose a control and sensing co-design for MSN to detect and track a line of curvature on a desired level surface.
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Mahdoui, Chedly Nesrine. "Communicating multi-UAV system for cooperative SLAM-based exploration." Thesis, Compiègne, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018COMP2447/document.
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Dans la communauté robotique aérienne, un croissant intérêt pour les systèmes multirobot (SMR) est apparu ces dernières années. Cela a été motivé par i) les progrès technologiques, tels que de meilleures capacités de traitement à bord des robots et des performances de communication plus élevées, et ii) les résultats prometteurs du déploiement de SMR tels que l’augmentation de la zone de couverture en un minimum de temps. Le développement d’une flotte de véhicules aériens sans pilote (UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) et de véhicules aériens de petite taille (MAV: Micro Aerial Vehicle) a ouvert la voie à de nouvelles applications à grande échelle nécessitant les caractéristiques de tel système de systèmes dans des domaines tels que la sécurité, la surveillance des catastrophes et des inondations, la recherche et le sauvetage, l’inspection des infrastructures, et ainsi de suite. De telles applications nécessitent que les robots identifient leur environnement et se localisent. Ces tâches fondamentales peuvent être assurées par la mission d’exploration. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse aborde l’exploration coopérative d’un environnement inconnu en utilisant une équipe de drones avec vision intégrée. Nous avons proposé un système multi-robot où le but est de choisir des régions spécifiques de l’environnement à explorer et à cartographier simultanément par chaque robot de manière optimisée, afin de réduire le temps d’exploration et, par conséquent, la consommation d’énergie. Chaque UAV est capable d’effectuer une localisation et une cartographie simultanées (SLAM: Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) à l’aide d’un capteur visuel comme principale modalité de perception. Pour explorer les régions inconnues, les cibles – choisies parmi les points frontières situés entre les zones libres et les zones inconnues – sont assignées aux robots en considérant un compromis entre l’exploration rapide et l’obtention d’une carte détaillée. À des fins de prise de décision, les UAVs échangent habituellement une copie de leur carte locale, mais la nouveauté dans ce travail est d’échanger les points frontières de cette carte, ce qui permet d’économiser la bande passante de communication. L’un des points les plus difficiles du SMR est la communication inter-robot. Nous étudions cette partie sous les aspects topologiques et typologiques. Nous proposons également des stratégies pour faire face à l’abandon ou à l’échec de la communication. Des validations basées sur des simulations étendues et des bancs d’essai sont présentéesIn the aerial robotic community, a growing interest for Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) appeared in the last years. This is thanks to i) the technological advances, such as better onboard processing capabilities and higher communication performances, and ii) the promising results of MRS deployment, such as increased area coverage in minimum time. The development of highly efficient and affordable fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) of small size has paved the way to new large-scale applications, that demand such System of Systems (SoS) features in areas like security, disaster surveillance, inundation monitoring, search and rescue, infrastructure inspection, and so on. Such applications require the robots to identify their environment and localize themselves. These fundamental tasks can be ensured by the exploration mission. In this context, this thesis addresses the cooperative exploration of an unknown environment sensed by a team of UAVs with embedded vision. We propose a multi-robot framework where the key problem is to cooperatively choose specific regions of the environment to be simultaneously explored and mapped by each robot in an optimized manner in order to reduce exploration time and, consequently, energy consumption. Each UAV is able to performSimultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) with a visual sensor as the main input sensor. To explore the unknown regions, the targets – selected from the computed frontier points lying between free and unknown areas – are assigned to robots by considering a trade-off between fast exploration and getting detailed grid maps. For the sake of decision making, UAVs usually exchange a copy of their local map; however, the novelty in this work is to exchange map frontier points instead, which allow to save communication bandwidth. One of the most challenging points in MRS is the inter-robot communication. We study this part in both topological and typological aspects. We also propose some strategies to cope with communication drop-out or failure. Validations based on extensive simulations and testbeds are presented
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Eckart, Mischa. "Cooperative governance : a multi-perspective exploration on the strategic direction and control of cooperative groups /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2004. http://aleph.unisg.ch/hsgscan/hm00119662.pdf.
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Pham, Ngoc Hai. "A Comprehensive Architecture for the Cooperative Guidance and Control of Autonomous Ground and Air Vehicles." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1637.
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This thesis deals with the problem of cooperative explorations of a group of autonomous vehicles in unknown environments in the context of decentralized behaviour. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a comprehensive decentralized cooperative exploration frame work in which each individual vehicle has the ability to explore an unknown environment by itself and also by cooperative behaviour in a team of several vehicles. To simulate the whole system, each individual vehicle will have the ability to explore an unknown environment by dynamically path-planning (with obstacle and collision avoidance), high-level con- trolling, updating the environment map, proposing potential destinations (frontiers), and solving online task assignment. In this thesis, the framework simulates an unknown environment as an occupancy grid map and uses a frontier-base exploration strategy, in which a cell will be marked as a frontier if it is adjacent at least one open cell, as the core architecture. In dealing with the uncertainties in process transition and observation models of autonomous vehicles, the well-known discrete extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm is investigated and implemented. When exploring the environment, a vehicle will update its surrounding information, then propose its potential destinations and evaluate the utility (benefit) to travel to each of those destinations. The benefit to go to each destination is derived from the subtraction of the utility (value) of that cell to the sum of the cost to travel to that cell and the steering cost. The key to cooperative exploration in the team of vehicles lies in each vehicle's ability to communicate the updates of the world to the whole team and to contribute to the global list of potential destinations. And each vehicle has the capability of solving the task assignment problem for the team by calling its own online-task-assignment solving engine. This algorithm results each vehicle in having a destination to visit, which benefits the whole team the most and reduces the total exploration time of the team.
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Pham, Ngoc Hai. "A Comprehensive Architecture for the Cooperative Guidance and Control of Autonomous Ground and Air Vehicles." University of Sydney, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1637.
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Master of Engineering (Research)This thesis deals with the problem of cooperative explorations of a group of autonomous vehicles in unknown environments in the context of decentralized behaviour. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a comprehensive decentralized cooperative exploration frame work in which each individual vehicle has the ability to explore an unknown environment by itself and also by cooperative behaviour in a team of several vehicles. To simulate the whole system, each individual vehicle will have the ability to explore an unknown environment by dynamically path-planning (with obstacle and collision avoidance), high-level con- trolling, updating the environment map, proposing potential destinations (frontiers), and solving online task assignment. In this thesis, the framework simulates an unknown environment as an occupancy grid map and uses a frontier-base exploration strategy, in which a cell will be marked as a frontier if it is adjacent at least one open cell, as the core architecture. In dealing with the uncertainties in process transition and observation models of autonomous vehicles, the well-known discrete extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm is investigated and implemented. When exploring the environment, a vehicle will update its surrounding information, then propose its potential destinations and evaluate the utility (benefit) to travel to each of those destinations. The benefit to go to each destination is derived from the subtraction of the utility (value) of that cell to the sum of the cost to travel to that cell and the steering cost. The key to cooperative exploration in the team of vehicles lies in each vehicle's ability to communicate the updates of the world to the whole team and to contribute to the global list of potential destinations. And each vehicle has the capability of solving the task assignment problem for the team by calling its own online-task-assignment solving engine. This algorithm results each vehicle in having a destination to visit, which benefits the whole team the most and reduces the total exploration time of the team.
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Kottayam, Viswanathan Vignesh. "Cooperative Navigation in Space in-proximity of Small Bodies." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Rymdteknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-84881.
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Autonomous proximity operations are the future of Deep space robotic exploration for searchof life, mining for resources and to establish outposts. Part of that future depends on howwell the spacecraft is capable to navigate around the complex environment of the smallcelestial body. The shift from huge monolithic spacecraft to a lightweight distributed Spacesystems has opened up a new opportunity for early characterization and global mappingmissions around these bodies. This project aims to contribute to help solve a part of thedream, wherein multiple spacecrafts operate cooperatively in proximity of small celestialbodies. To that extent, a 6 DoF controlled software-in-loop simulation is performed withsimulated optical sensors and IMU on board the spacecraft for verification of the controlledcooperative operation of two spacecrafts in a Leader-Follower configuration.
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Bruno, H. Raven. "Farm to school an exploration of purchasing local foods for school cafeterias in southeastern North Carolina /." View electronic thesis (PDF), 2009. http://dl.uncw.edu/etd/2009-1/brunoh/hbruno.pdf.
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Kerrigan, Warren Jack Jr. "Exploration of urban extension county offices: identifying patterns of success using a modified delphi and case study." The Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1123858682.
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Gagliardi, F. "Firm performance and institutional context : a theoretical exploration with evidence from the Italian cooperative sector." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/4819.
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This thesis examines the relationship between institutional context and firm performance, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. The aim is to engage with the debate seeking to explain the observed diversity in the forms of economic organisation prevailing in socio-economic systems. The focus of the empirical work is on investigating the effects of the structure and behaviour of banking institutions on firm performance, in the Italian context. The analysis is comparative in the sense that confronts cooperative and capitalist business structures. The analytical framework is institutionalist in emphasising the institutionally embedded nature of economic performance, and the historical and cultural dimensions of economic behaviour. The institutional complementarity approach is used to investigate the hypothesis that the relative performance of different firm structures is context dependent. The main conclusions are that the economic performance of cooperative firms is strongly conditioned in a sense of institutional complementarity by the degree of development and competition characterising the financial domain. Rejected are the pessimistic predictions of conventional accounts that democratic firms are unequivocally unviable. Instead, there are relations of context dependency, of institutional complementarity that influence the viability of firm types. The overall conclusion is that the dynamics governing the evolution of socio-economic systems are much more complex than mainstream economics suggests; productive organisations may assume a multiplicity of forms. The theoretical claims of a universalistic history in which all production systems must follow the same line of development must be abandoned. This brings about major policy implications at the regional, national and international levels.
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Yokoyama, Soichi. "Exploration of Photoreaction and Cooperative Self-Assembly of Photofunctional Molecules at Two-Dimensional Surface toward Nanodevices." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/202723.
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Wells, Jennifer Ann Abell Ellen Elizabeth. "An exploration of participant-level factors associated with the success of the Begin Education Early Program." Auburn, Ala., 2005. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2005%20Fall/Thesis/WELLS_JENNIFER_51.pdf.
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Benavides, Olivera Facundo. "Multi-robot exploration under non-ideal communication conditions." Thesis, Toulouse, ISAE, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019ESAE0006/document.
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Le problème d’exploration est un sujet fondamental de la robotique mobileautonome qui traite la réalisation de la catographie complète (mapping) d’un environnementprécédemment inconnu. Il y a plusieurs scénarios où l’achèvement de l’exploration d’unezone est une composante principale de la mission à accomplir. Par exemple: l’explorationplanétaire, la reconnaissance, la recherche et le sauvetage, l’agriculture, le nettoyage des lieuxdangereux, comme champs de mines et des zones radioactives. D’autre part, la communicationsans fil joue un rôle important dans les stratégies multi-robot collaboratives. Malheureusement,la supposition ou l’exigence de communication stable, ou encore, la connectivité continue,peuvent être compromises dans des scénarios réels. Dans cette thèse, deux nouvellesapproches abordent le problème d’exploration multi-robot d’environnements, en considérantune communication restreinte. D’abord, une stratégie multi-objectif auto-adaptative est proposéepour diriger la sélection de tâches en tennant compte de la performance d’explorationet du niveau de connectivité. Deuxièmement, deux rôles – l’explorateur et le relais de communication– sont considérés pour améliorer la stratégie de sélection de tâche précédente. Basésur le modèle de communication, une nouvelle approche de placement de robot relais pour desmissions d’exploration multi-robot est présentée en détail. Comparé avec d’autres approchesde l’état de l’art, les deux approches proposées dans cette thèse sont capables de diminuer ladurée de périodes de déconnexion sans dégradation considérable sur temps d’explorationThe exploration problem is a fundamental subject in autonomous mobilerobotics that deals with achieving the complete coverage of a previously unknown environment.There are several scenarios where completing exploration of a zone is a main part of themission, e.g. planetary exploration, reconnaissance, search and rescue, agriculture, cleaning,or dangerous places as mined lands and radioactive zones. Wireless communication plays animportant role in collaborative multi-robot strategies. Unfortunately, the assumption or requirementof stable communication and end-to-end connectivity may be easily compromised inreal scenarios. In this thesis, two novel approaches to tackle the problem of multi-robot explorationof communication constrained environments are proposed. At first, an auto-adaptivemulti-objective strategy is followed in order to support the selection of tasks regarding bothexploration performance and connectivity level. Secondly, two roles –explorer and communicationrelay– are considered in order to improve the benefits of the previous task selectionstrategy. Based on the communication model, a novel polynomial-time relay placement approachfor multi-robot exploration missions is introduced in detail. Compared with others,the proposed approaches are capable of decreasing the last of disconnection periods withouta noticeable degradation of the completion exploration time
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Dong, Hongbo. "A qualitative exploration of how host Chinese staff make sense of their intercultural experiences in a Sino-foreign cooperative university." Thesis, Durham University, 2014. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10688/.
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This study is concerned with how host Chinese staff (HCS) make sense of their intercultural experiences in a Sino-foreign cooperative university from a sensemaking perspective. Specifically, the study qualitatively explores HCS’s perceptions of and their responses to cultural differences. The empirical findings show that: 1) HCS construct cultural differences from three perspectives: personality traits, communication styles, and cultural values. 2) HCS’s responses to cultural differences are identified as three types: fight-flight, acceptance, and intercultural sensemaking which encompasses three concurrent processes: learning, identity construction, and relationship building. In addition, the findings also show the hindrances of intercultural sensemaking from the perspective of HCS: lack of language proficiency, lower self-esteem, lack of similarity, lack of availability, and perceived communication difficulties. 3) HCS’s engagement in intercultural sensemaking can lead to the development of intercultural competence in terms of awareness of the self and the other, communicating across culture, acquiring cultural knowledge, intercultural responsibility building, and positive attitudes. A model of HCS’s intercultural interaction is developed based on the empirical findings. It provides a holistic overview of HCS’s intercultural interaction, and highlights the dynamic nature of sensemaking. The findings give valuable insights and have practical implications for multicultural organisations and individuals working or interested in working in multicultural organisations, especially in the context of China.
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Rathnam, Ravi Kulan [Verfasser], Andreas [Akademischer Betreuer] Birk, Kaustubh [Akademischer Betreuer] Pathak, and Dieter [Akademischer Betreuer] Kraus. "Distributive Cooperative 3D Exploration under Range Communication Constraints / Ravi Kulan Rathnam. Betreuer: Andreas Birk. Gutachter: Andreas Birk ; Kaustubh Pathak ; Dieter Kraus." Bremen : IRC-Library, Information Resource Center der Jacobs University Bremen, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1087324033/34.
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Strayer, Thomas Edward III. "Dissemination of Health Promotion Information in Cooperative Extension: A multi-study exploration of channels, sources, and characteristics that influence intervention uptake." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/100747.
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A translational gap exists between the development of an evidence-based health promotion intervention and its eventual implementation in the intended setting. This lack of translation impacts the uptake of health promotion interventions within delivery systems such as the Cooperative Extension Service (Extension). Within this system, Extension educators serve as the intermediaries addressing needs in the communities in which they are employed with support from Extension health specialists. Previous research has shown that educators utilize other peer educators and specialists to learn and adopt health promotion programming, but these studies are over two decades old (e.g., missing technological advances such as Internet and social media) and often focused on a single state Extension system.
The purpose of this research was to understand how evidence-based health promotion intervention information is shared within Cooperative Extension by 1) identifying information sources and channels of Extension specialists and educators while 2) identifying the characteristics of an intervention that aid in the adoption and uptake of these health promotion interventions. The first mixed-methods study aimed to identify information sources and channels used by Extension educators from a national sample and learn their preferences for information delivery. Results of this study (Manuscript 1), identified specialists as the key information source Therefore, the second study (Manuscript 2) focused on Extension health specialists' preferences for information sources and channels while also 1) determine how specialists communicate with educators 2) preliminary thoughts on a dissemination intervention. The final study (Manuscript 3) explored the intervention characteristics that are both educator and specialists deemed most important to their adoption decision-making process.
The results of this dissertation inform the development of a dissemination intervention to bridge the translational gap across Extension. The information sources and channels used and trusted by both Extension educators and specialists are highlighted in this work. Additionally, specialists have given insight for consideration for an online repository that can be used on demand to both facilitate the adoption and uptake of health promotion interventions as needed by Extension Educators.Doctor of Philosophy
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Pitt, Christine Ann, and n/a. "An exploration of groupware as an enabling technology for the learning organisation." University of Canberra. Information Sciences & Engineering, 2003. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060427.100120.
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The Australian business environment has been changing at an ever-increasing pace
since the mid-1980s. Technological, economic and social changes have altered the
working environment. There have been constant technological advances with
information technology influencing most categories of work. Organisations in public
and private sectors have ongoing expectations of increased productivity, increased
quality of processes and swifter responsiveness to clients. Team roles have changed.
Team members are multi-skilled and work is designed to emphasise the whole task.
The Karpin Industry Task Force described a vision for an Australian business
environment that would, by 2014, be one with a flexible, skilled and motivated
workforce, world class managers, a customer comes first mentality, and an
internationally competitive perspective. These characteristics are congruent with
those of learning organisations.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the suitability of groupware as the supporting
infrastructure for a learning organisation. To do this, the study assesses the use of
technology to support personal and team learning in a learning organisation, studies
the impact of groupware on learning within workgroups, determines the extent to
which communication and learning styles influence its effectiveness, and identifies
ways in which groupware can be used to capture the information used to support
knowledge management in an organisation. Two case studies are used to undertake
this assessment.
Three distinct yet related frameworks underpin this study. The first is that of
Groupware and the related research frameworks of Computer Supported Cooperative
Work (CSCW) and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). The
second is the Learning Organisation and its supporting disciplines. The final
framework is that of learning and the action-oriented learning processes. Each is
examined and the interrelatedness of the frameworks is explored.
The journey to produce this written material has been one of twists and turns, blind
alleys and blinding revelations, observation and reflection. My choice of techniques
has been eclectic, reflecting the breadth of theoretical material covered.
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Tian, Daji. "Optimisation de la Cartographie et de la navigation des Robots Mobiles Coopératifs." Thesis, Ecole centrale de Lille, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014ECLI0016/document.
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Cette thèse présente tout d'abord un méthode d’exploration mono-robot, ensuite une stratégie coopérative décentralisée d'exploration pour un groupe de robots équipés de range finders. Une carte 2-D de la zone explorée est construite sous la forme de figure en pixels et est étendue par les robots en utilisant un planner local qui décide automatiquement entre l'information gagnée et le coût d'exploration. La carte est construite en utilisant la méthode des moindres carrés pour réduire les erreurs des données des capteurs. En divisant la tâche globale en sous-tâches, un contrôleur intelligent permet de réduire la complexité. Cependant, la fusion de différents comportements avec des objectifs différents peut entraîner des contradictions et modifier ainsi la stabilité du système. Par conséquent, la question de mécanisme de coordination de comportements est essentielle pour réaliser un mouvement sécurisé sans collisions. Une méthode intégrée par la coordination des comportements et de commande par fusion est proposée dans le présent travail. Une nouvelle approche basée sur cinq comportements de base pour la navigation de robots mobiles est discutée. Player/Stage est un projet de logiciel open-source pour la recherche sur la robotique. Ses composants comprennent le serveur de réseau et les simulateurs de robot pour plusieurs types de plates-formes de robots. Nous utilisons principalement simulation sous Player/Stage pour tester nos algorithmes en mono-agents/multi-agents , en cartographie et en navigation. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les solutions proposées sont efficaces et peuvent être utilisées dans des robots réelsIn this Ph. D., we will present firstly a single robot exploration method, then a decentralized cooperative exploration strategy for a team of mobile robots equipped with a range finders. A two dimensional map of the explored area is built in the form of a pixel figure. This is expanded by the robots by using a randomized local planner that authomatically realizes a decision between information gain and navigation cost. In our work, the map is reconstructed using a least-mean square method to reduce the errors of the sensor data. In dividing the overall task into subtasks, the intelligent controller allows reducing the robots task complexity. But the fusion of different behaviors with different objectives may cause contradiction in the procedure and alter the stability of the system. Therefore, the issue of behavior coordination mechanisms is crucial in order to realize the non-collision safety-ensured movements. A method integrated by behavior coordination and command fusion is proposed. A new approach with five basic behaviors for mobile robot navigation is discussed.Player/ Stage is an open-source software project for research in robotics and sensor systems. Its components include the Player network server and the Stage robot platform simulators providing a hardware abstraction layer to several popular robot platforms. Player is one of the most popular robot interfaces in research. We mainly use Player/Stage simulation to test our algorithms in mono-agent/multi-agent exploration, map reconstruction and robot navigation. Obtained results show that the proposed approaches are effective and can be applied in real robots
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Kerrigan, Warren Jack. "Exploration of future practices for urban extension county offices identifying patterns of success using a modified delphi and case study /." Connect to resource, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1123858682.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 599 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 383-408). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center
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Bures, Eva Mary Hunt Bidwell. "Effect of cooperative structure of small-group online activities on student satisfaction, benefits and use in distance education and an exploration of online strategies." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/mq25948.pdf.
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Kinney, Kimberlee Ann. "Exploration of Facilitators, Barriers and Opportunities for Faith-Based Organizations to Implement Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs and Partner with Virginia's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82927.
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Poor diet and physical inactivity contribute to excessive weight and related diseases in the United States. Given the increasing rates of adult overweight and obesity among Americans, there is a need to develop and implement effective prevention and treatment strategies to decrease the public health burden of obesity-related chronic diseases. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) provide a unique setting and partnership opportunity for delivering evidence-based programs into communities that can be sustained. The federally funded Virginia Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) delivered through Virginia Tech's Cooperative Extension and Family Nutrition Program, utilizes evidence-based programs to promote healthy eating and physical activity among limited income populations. The Virginia SNAP-Ed Volunteer Led Nutrition Education Initiative uses SNAP-Ed agents and educators to reach limited income populations by training and coordinating volunteers from communities to deliver nutrition education programs. However, these partnerships and training initiatives have been underutilized in FBOs across Virginia. This dissertation research describes four studies conducted to better understand how to facilitate collaborative partnerships and health-promotion programming initiatives between academic/extension educators and FBOs to build capacity and inform future initiatives within VCE. Study one conducted a literature review to examine FBO characteristics and multi-level strategies used to implement nutrition and physical activity interventions. Study two examined VCE SNAP-Ed agents' perspectives on FBO partnerships to deliver health programming. Study three assessed three FBOs and their member health needs to identify policies, systems and environments to support healthy lifestyles. Study four examined the acceptability of Faithful Families, a faith-based nutrition and physical activity program delivered in a rural church, and explored ways to build capacity for program sustainability through input from stakeholder partners. Results across studies yielded information which helped to identify and prioritize strategies for promoting FBO partnerships within VCE and helped to generate questions that merit further investigation to identify specific culturally relevant strategies for promoting health in FBOs. This exploratory body of research contributes to the field by describing relevant opportunities for academic sectors to partner with FBOs using participatory approaches to increase partnership readiness and build capacity to carry out and sustain health programs within faith settings.Ph. D.
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Perdahl, Perdahl, and Sebastian Fronczak. "Kundägt : En explorativ fallstudie på Länsförsäkringar Östgöta." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-121946.
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Bakgrund Ordet kundägt används av både ömsesidiga och kooperativa bolag men vad är ett kundägt bolag för något och vad gör ett kundägt bolag speciellt? I förhållande till sina marknadsandelar är kundägda bolag understuderade vilket motiverar en explorativ studie för att öka kunskapen kring den här typen av bolag. Syfte Genom att göra en explorativ kvalitativ fallstudie i ett kundägt företag vill vi driva fram akademiska undersökningsområden för att främja den företagsekonomiska forskningen i området. Metod Studien gjordes genom en explorativ kvalitativ fallstudie på Länsförsäkringar Östgöta på grund av att det är ett framgångsrikt kundägt bolag. Fyra personer från ledningsgruppen på Länsförsäkringar Östgöta och en person från dotterbolaget Länsförsäkringar AB intervjuades. Parallellt så inhämtades information även från deltagande observationer och dokument för att förstärka empirin som genererades vid intervjutillfällena. Slutsats Studien bidrar med att visa att kundägda bolag fortfarande spelar en viktig roll på marknaden och visar på ett antal områden som bör studeras närmare. En av de främsta punkterna är den lokala aspekten som verkar samverka med det kundägda för att skapa en organisation med hög trovärdighet bland kunderna. Hur konceptet med ett kundägt lokalt bolag påverkas av digitaliseringen är en annan punkt som bör väcka ett intresse bland forskarna att studera vidare.Background The word customer-owned is used by both mutuals and cooperatives but what is a customer-owned company and what makes it special? Customer-owned companies are in relation to their market shares less studied which motivates an explorative study to increase the knowledge about this type of companies. Aim We want to develop academic research areas to advance the theory in the field of business by doing an explorative qualitative case-study in a customer-owned company. Methodology The study was made by an explorative qualitative case-study on Länsförsäkringar Östgöta as it is a successful customer-owned company. Four people from the Länsförsäkringar Östgöta management team and one person from the subsidiary Länsförsäkringar AB was interviewed. Data was gathered parallel to the interviews by participatory observations and documents to enhance the empiricism. Conclusion The study contributes by showing that customer-owned companies still plays an important role in the market and the study also shows areas were future research should be conducted. One of the main conclusions is that it seems like the local aspect have synergies with the customer-owned to create a company that have a high level of trustworthiness. How the concept with a local and customer-owned company will fare in a more digitalized world is another area that should have a high interest among researchers.
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Khawaldah, Mohammad Mansour Deeb Al. "Exploration and map-building by cooperating robots." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.606827.
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Exploration and map-building of an unknown environment is one of the main issues in mobile robotics due to its wide range of practical applications. Among them: search and rescue, hazardous material handling, military actions, planetary exploration, path-planning, and devastated area exploration. The purpose of this research work is to investigate the field of exploration and map-building with cooperating mobile robots. New and efficient exploration and mapping techniques are proposed by employing simple robot sensors. The research work also aims to integrate existing techniques and newly proposed ones to increase the exploration efficiency (i.e. to reduce the environment exploration time and the energy consumed by the robots to accomplish the exploration task). The goal of the proposed method is to have two cooperating mobile robots exploring a given unknown environment as fast as they can, while coordinating their actions and sharing their local maps in a continuous way to save time and robot motor energy. The new suggested exploration algorithms combine methods of line-of-sight, frontier-based, and wall-following exploration. Frontier-based and wall-following are important to guide the robots during the exploration. Wall-following is more relevant at the beginning of the exploration. Line-of-sight is an important way to detect free spaces. Combining these three methods represents an innovative exploration method that is not available in the current literature. Furthermore, it is proposed to use line-of-sight to generate grid-based maps. A new factor was introduced to enhance the performance of the frontier-based exploration. A general algorithm to optimize the exploration process is also proposed. The new algorithms were assessed through extensive testing. Test trials considered environments with different shapes, sizes and number of obstacles. The experimentation included a comparison with exploration algorithms available in the literature. The experimentation also included real robots implementing the proposed exploration and map-building algorithms which combine line-of-sight and wall following exploration techniques to generate grid-based maps. The results of the real experimentation confirmed the benefits of the proposed technique and led to promising results.
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Chalvignac, Benoît. "Collective production processes, cooperation and incentives : experimental explorations." Phd thesis, Université de Strasbourg, 2012. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00830965.
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The study of knowledge creation processes has pointed to the complexity of individual interactions within productive organizations. This complexity appears to be such that incentive-based theories of the firm, which focus on information processing issues, may fail to grasp a substantial part of the individual decision-making involved in the context of organizational learning, and more broadly in collective production processes. In this thesis we use experimental methods to study the determinants of cooperation, in order to refine the behavioral assumptions on which economic theories of collective production are based. We show that the two visions of cooperation embodied in competing theories of the firm - a behavior to be elicited from diverging interests and an emergent property stemming from social interactions among agents - find support from the laboratory experiments. Accordingly, we conclude that both approaches should be upheld and possibly combined in a broader, integrative, analytical framework.
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Adams, Priscilla M. "The future of human space exploration: toward cooperation or competition?" Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/37577.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedOver the past 52 years, the world has progressed from the first man in space, to landing on the moon, to permanent human presence on manned space stations. Mankind is now poised to explore even farther. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze whether international cooperation or competition is more in the U.S. interest from the perspective of political, technological, and cost-effectiveness criteria for returning humans to the moon, Mars or an asteroid and establishing a permanent presence. The 1960s space race between the U.S. and USSR and current cooperation on the International Space Station will provide a historical basis for comparison. Countries with major space programs will be reviewed for possible partnerships in future space endeavors. This thesis concludes that the future and next steps for human spaceflight with international partners will need to begin as a coordinated and interdependent effort at the onset with the goal of habitation on the moon.
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Jamieson, Stewart Christopher. "Enabling human-robot cooperation in scientific exploration of bandwidth-limited environments." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127067.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, May, 2020Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-104).
Contemporary scientific exploration most often takes place in highly remote and dangerous environments, such as in the deep sea and on other planets. These environments are very hostile to humans, which makes robotic exploration the first and often the only option. However, they also impose restrictive limits on how much communication is possible, creating challenges in implementing remote command and control. We propose an approach to enable more efficient autonomous robot-based scientific exploration of remote environments despite these limits on human-robot communication. We find this requires the robot to have a spatial observation model that can predict where to find various phenomena, a reward model which can measure how relevant these phenomena are to the scientific mission objectives, and an adaptive path planner which can use this information to plan high scientific value paths. We identified and addressed two main gaps: the lack of a general-purpose means for spatial observation modelling, and the challenge in learning a reward model based on images online given the limited bandwidth constraints. Our first key contribution is enabling general-purpose spatial observation modelling through spatio-temporal topic models, which are well suited for unsupervised scientific exploration of novel environments. Our next key contribution is an active learning criterion which enables learning an image-based reward model during an exploration mission by communicating with the science team efficiently. We show that using these together can result in a robotic explorer collecting up to 230% more scientifically relevant observations in a single mission than when using lawnmower trajectories.
by Stewart Christopher Jamieson.
S.M.
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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Lopez, Carlos Ramiro. "An Exploration of Cooperation during an Asymmetric Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2020. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1707264/.
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Researchers investigated how the contingent delivery of a cultural consequence on target culturants in an asymmetric iterated prisoner's dilemma game (IPDG) affected players' choices. The asymmetric IPDG creates an analogue to income disparities created by wage gaps and other cultural practices that create wealth inequalities between different members of the population and allows researchers to explore how these inequalities affect cooperation between players. Six undergraduate students divided into three dyads participated in an ABABCDCD reversal design. An asymmetric IPDG was arranged in Condition A and C such that one player received a greater number of points regardless of the second participants' selections - analogue to contingencies that produce income inequalities from wage gaps. In Condition B and D, a metacontingency was arranged such that delivery of a cultural consequence (CC; bonus points equally distributed among the dyad) was contingent on the oscillating production of target aggregate products (AP) across two consecutive cycles. When participants' coordinated responding and contacted the target AP→ CC relation, the wage gap was reduced. However, individual contingencies are in direct competition for the "wealthier" player, reducing the probability of cooperative responding. Results showed the CC selected certain oscillations between target APs resulting in a decrease of a point disparity between the players while also establishing equal points between the players during certain conditions.
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Ito, Atsuki. "Culture as Group Dynamics -Collective survival strategy, bases of intragroup cooperation and social hierarchy-." Doctoral thesis, Kyoto University, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/263731.
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京都大学新制・課程博士
博士(人間・環境学)
甲第23270号
人博第985号
京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻
(主査)教授 内田 由紀子, 教授 齋木 潤, 教授 月浦 崇
学位規則第4条第1項該当
Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies
Kyoto University
DGAM
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Leung, Kenneth K. P. "An explorative study of the effect of cooperative learning on creativity in craft design and technology /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2004. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe18570.pdf.
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Mensah, David Ampoma. "An exploration of refugee integration : a case study of Krisan refugee camp, Ghana." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1014.
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Conflict in Africa remains one of the continent’s principal development challenges. The human, economic and development costs of conflict are immense. A peaceful and secure environment remains the greatest priority for ordinary Africans across the continent. However, this often remains a mirage for many as violent armed conflicts continue to take its toll on many ordinary citizens, often, displacing them as refugees. Some refugees remain in very a deplorable refugee camps that offer them no prospects of decent livelihood for many years. With fear that they would be persecuted upon return to their countries of origin and often the delays in finding solutions to political violence, refugees remain in a protracted situation. A Protracted refugee situation means that refugees have lived in exile for more than five years with no immediate prospect of finding a durable solution to their plight by means of voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement. Thousands of refugees who fled violent conflicts in the West Africa and other parts of Africa have lived for more than a decade in the Krisan and Buduburam refugee camps in Ghana. A situation that can be termed protracted. This paper investigated the perceptions of local Ghanaians, Refugees of Krisan Refugee Camp and Government Official on the integration of refugees in Ghana. Krisan Refugee Camp which was built in 1996, particularly, houses about 1,700 refugees from nine countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Sudan. The refugees have lived with the indigenous people of Krisan village for more than a decade and thus offered the best case for the investigation. The researcher used qualitative triangulation method to collect data. That is, he observed the refugees, the local people and supervisors of the refugee camp who made up the sample population. The researcher was able to conduct a face to face in-depth interview and studied necessary documents that informed the study immensely. Thematic data analysis revealed economic and employment opportunities, security, cultural and social networking and finally good counselling on the three traditional durable solutions as the themes greatly impacting on the integration of refugees in Ghana. A number of recommendations are made to inform the management and integration of refugees in Ghana and in Africa in general.
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Gardner-Stephen, Paul Mark, and paul gardner-stephen@flinders edu au. "Explorations In Searching Compressed Nucleic Acid And Protein Sequence Databases And Their Cooperatively-Compressed Indices." Flinders University. Computer Science, Engineering & Mathematics, 2008. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20081111.105047.
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Nucleic acid and protein databases such as GenBank are growing at a rate that perhaps eclipses even Moores Law of increase in computational power. This poses a problem for the biological sciences, which have become increasingly dependant on searching and manipulating these databases. It was once reasonably practical to perform exhaustive searches of these databases, for example using the algorithm described by Smith and Waterman, however it has been many years since this was the case. This has led to the development of a series of search algorithms, such as FASTA, BLAST and BLAT, that are each successively faster, but at similarly successive costs in terms of thoroughness.
Attempts have been made to remedy this problem by devising search algorithms that are both fast and thorough. An example is CAFE, which seeks to construct a search system with a sub-linear relationship between search time and database size, and argues that this property must be present for any search system to be successful in the long term.
This dissertation explores this notion by seeking to construct a search system that takes advantage of the growing redundancy in databases such as GenBank in order to reduce both the search time and the space required to store the databases and their indices, while preserving or increasing the thoroughness of the search.
The result is the creation and implementation of new genomic sequence search and alignment,
database compression, and index compression algorithms and systems that make progress toward resolving the problem of reducing search speed and space requirements while improving sensitivity. However, success is tempered by the need for databases with adequate local redundancy, and the computational cost of these algorithms when servicing un-batched queries.
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Tackett, Trevor M. "China-Philippine Joint Explorations| The Future of Competition and Cooperation in the South China Sea." Thesis, The George Washington University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10822348.
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The South China Sea has long been a region of competition and tension. In the Spratly Islands alone, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam maintain disputing claims to the region’s land features and surrounding maritime territories. Some argue that ongoing negotiations between China and the Philippines toward joint explorations of one of these disputed regions could be the key to promoting greater cooperation amongst the other claimants. These arguments, however, do not consider other elements of the international system that drive states to compete. Looking specifically at China, the Philippines, and the United States, this thesis analyzes joint explorations within the framework of motivational realism to understand the interaction of relevant historical elements, state objectives, and state estimations of one another’s power, offense-defense balance, and motives—greedy or security-seeking. The thesis then examines the specific case of joint explorations to understand historical, domestic, and international legal components restricting the pathways within which the two states could reach an agreement. Finally, this thesis concludes that, due to domestic constraints, international legal developments, state objectives, and the way in which China, the Philippines, and the United States assess one another’s motives, the South China Sea will likely remain a region of long-term competition and tension.
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Fischer, Stefan W. "An explorative study of performance management in the German cooperative banking sector in response to regulatory and market forces." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2014. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=24651.
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The effects of the Subprime Crisis in 2007, which evolved into the still continuing economic crisis, have caused worldwide financial damages in excess of USD 1,6 trillion until 2009 alone according to banks' estimates and renewed awareness for the way financial institutions are run and regulated. It has captured the interest of regulatory standard-setters in their efforts to adjust their supervisory frameworks in order to improve financial stability forcing bank executives to re-think and adjust their business models in order to adapt to the new regulatory environment. Several studies and other publications have been produced on this topic. However, these are limited by their focus on banks in general, especially large-scale and shareholder-oriented banks with sufficient information publicly available. This project contributes to current debates by analysing the impact of the new regulatory measures, Basel III, as well of other competitive forces on the German cooperative banking sector being the smallest of the so-called Three Pillar System, consisting of ap. 1.100 individual banks (primary banks) with 30 million customers and 17 million shareholders (members) plus two central institutions organized within the Cooperative Financial Services Network. Particularly, the aim is to explore and identify how primary banks react and adjust or have to adjust their modus operandi in order to stay competitive given the special characteristics and limitations within their network. Considering tangible as well as intangible assets, this is done via a multi-level research design using a number of methodologies and referencing a range of information and informants while taking advantage of the privileged status of having hands-on access to real-life subjects, i.e. cooperative banks, to gather relevant practical data. This research has concluded that the effect of Basel III on cooperative banks is not as severe as commonly assumed when the entire banking sectory is regarded. Especially with regard to equity, being the focus of the majority of literature, evidence suggests a low impact, with liquidity issues, having been of secondary attention, representing higher pressure. However, no need to conduct material reorganisations has been identified upon analysing current data and historical performance. Giving the dependence on interest income, the on-going low interest level in connection with limitations on conducting maturity transformation poses the biggest threat to performance requiring primary banks to carry out new thinking. A number of key topics have been researched and also implemented as part of this project. One of the main findings in this context was that there is in fact a well-developed awareness of issues and challenges, however, a lack of willingness to change. This is regarded a problem associated with core principles of adherence to cooperative values and the regional principle, a principle of the cooperative banking sector that requires primary banks to operate within a practically limited area. However, evidence and research suggests that there is high potential for performance improvements by introducing structured concepts and the enhanced use of the cooperative network. Quantitative and as well as qualitative instruments tested, such as a financial model for regulatory compliance or the BSC to improve operational improvements, have been successfully tested. With regard to the ideas and strategies proposed to improve competitiveness some will argue that it is not feasible. However, this research confirms that the economic and regulatory environment leaves no choice by to change the old-established way of operation. It forces banks, especially smaller ones, to react and fight with no time to lose.
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Bezzant, Gary J. Jr. "Instances of Conflict and Cooperation: An Exploration into the Role of Competition Between USDA-Wildlife Services and Wildlife Control Operators." DigitalCommons@USU, 2012. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1438.
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In early 1994 the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal Damage Control agency implemented a directive providing guidance to help avoid competition between themselves and private businesses, known as Wildlife Control Operators (WCOs) engaging in similar work. Nearly two decades later some WCOs still complain about having to compete with the Animal Damage Control agency, now named Wildlife Services. Other businesses report enjoying a cooperative relationship with the agency. I analyzed four policies that regulate competition between Wildlife Services and WCOs and found that there is a good amount of guidance given to Wildlife Services in regards to their competitive relationship with WCOs. These guidelines do not carry the force of law, however, and are subject to change and deletion. I conducted interviews with representatives from the WCO community and Wildlife Services and found that the top four factors contributing to conflict are an overlap in similar services, agency advantages, money and pricing, and policy. The top four factors contributing to cooperation were cooperative work, communication, clarified roles, and training and education. Working to decrease the conflict factors and emphasize the cooperative factors will lead to a better relationship between Wildlife Services and WCOs.
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Carolyn, Cadena A. "The Politics of History Education: An Exploration of Revisionist History and Educating for the Enrichment of Democracy, Community, and International Cooperation." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1250681787.
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Cadena, Carolyn Ann. "The politics of history education an exploration of revisionist history and educating for the enrichment of democracy, community, and international cooperation /." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc_num=ucin1250681787.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Cincinnati, 2009.Advisor: Laura Jenkins. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Nov. 10, 2009). Includes abstract. Keywords: history education; revisionist history; civic education. Includes bibliographical references.
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Inamori, Takao. "An exploration into managerial perception and its influence on performance in cross cultural setting : the case of Japan International Cooperation Agency's support for development." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4890.
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There is a wealth of studies which suggest that manager's positive perceptions/expectations can considerably influence organisational performance; unfortunately, little empirical evidence has been obtained from development studies. This first time research explores how Japanese aid workers' perceptions towards the local staff affects their behaviour and performance in cross-cultural project settings. Moreover, this research focuses on the perceptual and behavioural trait differences of successful and unsuccessful aid workers. With cooperation from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 244 valid responses were obtained from the aid workers (managers) through a webbased survey. As a result of statistical analysis, positive causal relationships were confirmed between perception related factors and behaviour related factors and the organisational performance variable. These results strongly suggest that aid worker's positive perceptions result in positive behaviour in local colleagues and subsequently higher organisational performance. In addition, it was discovered that the aid workers' positive perception/expectation about work and their local colleagues was related to higher organisational performance, whilst conversely, the negative perception on their part was generally associated with negative behaviour and lower organisational performance.Although the differences in perceptual tendencies suggested by that these findings apply to Japanese aid managers; however, as human nature is universal, positive perception and behaviour should bring out positive output in most organisations. It is recommended that there is a need for people-related and cross-cultural management skills to ensure successful future activities, and stress management competencies to maintain positive managerial perception on the part of aid workers.
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Chidongo, Tsawe-Munga wa. "Towards a dialogical theology : an exploration of inter-religious cooperation between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion among the Midzi-Chenda people of coastal Kenya." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1249/.
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The ongoing global problems that adversely affect human society require re-dress, not only from a political perspective but also from the view of religions which are daily lived and practised by individuals and communities, seeking positive solutions for a more habitable earth. Africa, from its colonial legacies, has continually experienced disasters such as wars, droughts, famine, HIV and AIDS. All these have contributed to abject poverty and have affected the well-being of society, reducing the population to despair and hopelessness. Africa, however, is rich: more developed in her religions than in her economy. ‘You can not teach an African child about the existence of God’ (Dickson 1984). Nevertheless, in communities such as the Midzi-Chenda of Coastal Kenya, religion has become the cause of both religious and social exclusion. From the fear of condemnation, communities are hesitant to meet together as religious people in order to dialogue and address issues that persistently affect their lives. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between Christianity and African Indigenous Religion, with the purpose of discovering whether at the height of successive problems in Africa AIR and Christianity can agree to cooperate and together build a healthier society. This research is conducted among the Midzi-Chenda of Coastal Kenya, a community that has had diverse religious experience, whilst living with their multiple problems. Socially excluded by other religions, the Midzi-Chenda have been unable in solidarity to address their problems. The questions asked are firstly: ‘what are the historical causes for the religious rift?’ Secondly: ‘what possibilities can be found for achieving the cooperation which is essential for the two religious communities to be assisted to progress towards essential dialogue for life and action, and addressing the issue of community health?’
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Herrera, Salinas Pablo Alberto [Verfasser], and Johannes [Akademischer Betreuer] Schröder. "Cooperation and Resistance toward medical treatment in Hypertensive patients who require lifestyle changes. Exploration of patient’s schemas and personal constructs / Pablo Alberto Herrera Salinas ; Betreuer: Johannes Schröder." Heidelberg : Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, 2017. http://d-nb.info/1180985192/34.
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Krause, Julia. "R³ - Research-, Response-, Result-oriented Teaching: Ein neues Unterrichtsformat zum nachhaltigen Wissenstransfer." Hochschuldidaktisches Zentrum Sachsen (HDS), 2020. https://ul.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A72770.
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Im Masterkurs „Sustainable Supply Chain Management“
wurde ein innovatives und vielschichtiges
Seminar entwickelt. Es bietet Studierenden die besondere
Herausforderung, Wissen durch eigene
Forschung sowie in Teams und durch die Kooperation
mit Partnern aus der Wirtschaft/der Industrie zu
erlangen und dabei dieses Wissen mit kreativen
Methoden zu systematisieren und weiter zu entwickeln,
um am Ende eigene Ideen, Lösungen und Konzepte
zu kreieren. Die Studierenden sind von Anfang
an aktive Gestalter_innen der Unterrichtsinhalte, verfolgen
das klare Lernziel, Resultate und Erkenntnisse
aus der Forschung kreativ für Industriepartner aufzubereiten,
und tragen dadurch zum Wissenstransfer
bei.
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Gillier, Thomas. "Comprendre la génération des objets de coopération interentreprises par une théorie des co-raisonnements de conception : vers une nouvelle ingénierie des partenariats d'exploration technologique." Thesis, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, INPL, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010INPL021N/document.
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Les partenariats d’exploration constituent, pour les organisations contemporaines, une opportunité pour ouvrir leur portefeuille partenarial et coopérer sur des objets de plus en plus innovants et transversaux. Mais ces nouvelles formes de partenariats R&D sont déstabilisées par leur nature même : les objets de coopération ne sont pas connus ex-ante et doivent donc être conçus durant la coopération.A partir de l’étude d’un partenariat transectoriel technologique, MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, cette thèse explique comment des partenaires différents parviennent finalement à s’accorder sur des sujets de coopération et à lancer des projets d’innovation.Pour comprendre et modéliser l’élaboration progressive de ces objets de coopération, nous proposons le modèle Matching/Building. Basé sur une extension de la théorie de conception C-K, ce modèle rend compte de la manière dont des acteurs développent et modifient leurs propres raisonnements de conception durant leurs interactions.De plus, cette recherche expose les résultats de deux instruments de gestion qui facilitent la génération de la coopération : OPERA, un outil de cartographie pour piloter des champs d'innovation et représenter l'évolution des objets de coopération et la méthode D4 qui permet de co-innover en revisitant collectivement l’identité de technologies émergentesFor contemporary organizations, exploratory partnerships constitute opportunities to open their portfolio partnership and to embrace objects increasingly innovative and cross-functional. But, in such new forms of R&D relationships, a major crisis is caused by the fact that the common purpose is unknown at the beginning and need to be designed during the cooperation process.From a single-case study of a cross-industrial technological exploratory partnership, MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, that research explains how heterogeneous actors reach shared objectives and launch together innovation projects.In order to understand and to model those collective objects, we propose the Matching/Building model. Based on the recent advances of the C-K Design Theory, our model describes interactions patterns between the partners’ design reasoning during their cooperation.Furthermore, that research highlights two methodological tools for enhancing cooperation in innovation : OPERA is a cartographic system to manage innovation projects and to master the evolution of the cooperation, D4 method permits to co-innovate by challenging the identity of emerging technology
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BHOLA, GAURAV. "INDIA AND CHINA SPACE PROGRAMS: FROM GENESIS OF SPACE TECHNOLOGIES TO MAJOR SPACE PROGRAMS AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THE INTERNATI." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2009. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3276.
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The Indian and Chinese space programs have evolved into technologically advanced vehicles of national prestige and international competition for developed nations. The programs continue to evolve with impetus that India and China will have the same space capabilities as the United States with in the coming years. This will present new challenges to the international community in spheres civilian, to space and military applications and their residual benefits.M.A.
Department of Political Science
Sciences
Political Science MA
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Fenollosa, Artés Felip. "Contribució a l'estudi de la impressió 3D per a la fabricació de models per facilitar l'assaig d'operacions quirúrgiques de tumors." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/667421.
Full textAbstract:
La present tesi doctoral s’ha centrat en el repte d’aconseguir, mitjançant Fabricació Additiva (FA), models per a assaig quirúrgic, sota la premissa que els equips per fer-los haurien de ser accessibles a l’àmbit hospitalari. L’objectiu és facilitar l’extensió de l’ús dels prototips com a eina de preparació d’operacions quirúrgiques, transformant la pràctica mèdica actual de la mateixa manera que en el seu moment ho van fer tecnologies com les que van facilitar l’ús de radiografies. El motiu d’utilitzar FA, en lloc de tecnologies més tradicionals, és la seva capacitat de materialitzar de forma directa les dades digitals obtingudes de l’anatomia del pacient mitjançant sistemes d’escanejat tridimensional, fent possible l’obtenció de models personalitzats. Els resultats es centren en la generació de nou coneixement sobre com aconseguir equipaments d’impressió 3D multimaterials accessibles que permetin l’obtenció de models mimètics respecte als teixits vius. Per facilitar aquesta buscada extensió de la tecnologia, s’ha focalitzat en les tecnologies de codi obert com la Fabricació per Filament Fos (FFF) i similars basades en líquids catalitzables. La recerca s’alinea dins l’activitat de desenvolupament de la FA al CIM UPC, i en aquest àmbit concret amb la col·laboració amb l’Hospital Sant Joan de Déu de Barcelona (HSJD). El primer bloc de la tesi inclou la descripció de l’estat de l’art, detallant les tecnologies existents i la seva aplicació a l’entorn mèdic. S’han establert per primer cop unes bases de caracterització dels teixits vius -sobretot tous- per donar suport a la selecció de materials que els puguin mimetitzar en un procés de FA, a efectes de millorar l’experiència d’assaig dels cirurgians. El caràcter rígid dels materials majoritàriament usats en impressió 3D els fa poc útils per simular tumors i altres referències anatòmiques. De forma successiva, es tracten paràmetres com la densitat, la viscoelasticitat, la caracterització dels materials tous a la indústria, l’estudi del mòdul elàstic de teixits tous i vasos, la duresa d’aquests, i requeriments com l’esterilització dels models. El segon bloc comença explorant la impressió 3D mitjançant FFF. Es classifiquen les variants del procés des del punt de vista de la multimaterialitat, essencial per fer models d’assaig quirúrgic, diferenciant entre solucions multibroquet i de barreja al capçal. S’ha inclòs l’estudi de materials (filaments i líquids) que serien més útils per mimetitzar teixits tous. Es constata com en els líquids, en comparació amb els filaments, la complexitat del treball en processos de FA és més elevada, i es determinen formes d’imprimir materials molt tous. Per acabar, s’exposen sis casos reals de col·laboració amb l’HJSD, una selecció d’aquells en els que el doctorand ha intervingut en els darrers anys. L’origen es troba en la dificultat de l’abordatge d’operacions de resecció de tumors infantils com el neuroblastoma, i a la iniciativa del Dr. Lucas Krauel. Finalment, el Bloc 3 té per objecte explorar nombrosos conceptes (fins a 8), activitat completada al llarg dels darrers cinc anys amb el suport dels mitjans del CIM UPC i de l’activitat associada a treballs finals d’estudis d’estudiants de la UPC, arribant-se a materialitzar equipaments experimentals per validar-los. La recerca ampla i sistemàtica al respecte fa que s’estigui més a prop de disposar d’una solució d’impressió 3D multimaterial de sobretaula. Es determina que la millor via de progrés és la de disposar d’una pluralitat de capçals independents a fi de capacitar la impressora 3D per integrar diversos conceptes estudiats, materialitzant-se una possible solució. Cloent la tesi, es planteja com seria un equipament d’impressió 3D per a models d’assaig quirúrgic, a fi de servir de base per a futurs desenvolupaments.La presente tesis doctoral se ha centrado en el reto de conseguir, mediante Fabricación Aditiva (FA), modelos para ensayo quirúrgico, bajo la premisa que los equipos para obtenerlos tendrían que ser accesibles al ámbito hospitalario. El objetivo es facilitar la extensión del uso de modelos como herramienta de preparación de operaciones quirúrgicas, transformando la práctica médica actual de la misma manera que, en su momento, lo hicieron tecnologías como las que facilitaron el uso de radiografías. El motivo de utilizar FA, en lugar de tecnologías más tradicionales, es su capacidad de materializar de forma directa los datos digitales obtenidos de la anatomía del paciente mediante sistemas de escaneado tridimensional, haciendo posible la obtención de modelos personalizados. Los resultados se centran en la generación de nuevo conocimiento para conseguir equipamientos de impresión 3D multimateriales accesibles que permitan la obtención de modelos miméticos respecto a los tejidos vivos. Para facilitar la buscada extensión de la tecnología, se ha focalizado en las tecnologías de código abierto como la Fabricación por Hilo Fundido (FFF) y similares basadas en líquidos catalizables. Esta investigación se alinea dentro de la actividad de desarrollo de la FA en el CIM UPC, y en este ámbito concreto con la colaboración con el Hospital Sant Joan de Déu de Barcelona (HSJD). El primer bloque de la tesis incluye la descripción del estado del arte, detallando las tecnologías existentes y su aplicación al entorno médico. Se han establecido por primera vez unas bases de caracterización de los tejidos vivos – principalmente blandos – para dar apoyo a la selección de materiales que los puedan mimetizar en un proceso de FA, a efectos de mejorar la experiencia de ensayo de los cirujanos. El carácter rígido de los materiales mayoritariamente usados en impresión 3D los hace poco útiles para simular tumores y otras referencias anatómicas. De forma sucesiva, se tratan parámetros como la densidad, la viscoelasticidad, la caracterización de materiales blandos en la industria, el estudio del módulo elástico de tejidos blandos y vasos, la dureza de los mismos, y requerimientos como la esterilización de los modelos. El segundo bloque empieza explorando la impresión 3D mediante FFF. Se clasifican las variantes del proceso desde el punto de vista de la multimaterialidad, esencial para hacer modelos de ensayo quirúrgico, diferenciando entre soluciones multiboquilla y de mezcla en el cabezal. Se ha incluido el estudio de materiales (filamentos y líquidos) que serían más útiles para mimetizar tejidos blandos. Se constata como en los líquidos, en comparación con los filamentos, la complejidad del trabajo en procesos de FA es más elevada, y se determinan formas de imprimir materiales muy blandos. Para acabar, se exponen seis casos reales de colaboración con el HJSD, una selección de aquellos en los que el doctorando ha intervenido en los últimos años. El origen se encuentra en la dificultad del abordaje de operaciones de resección de tumores infantiles como el neuroblastoma, y en la iniciativa del Dr. Lucas Krauel. Finalmente, el Bloque 3 desarrolla numerosos conceptos (hasta 8), actividad completada a lo largo de los últimos cinco años con el apoyo de los medios del CIM UPC y de la actividad asociada a trabajos finales de estudios de estudiantes de la UPC, llegándose a materializar equipamientos experimentales para validarlos. La investigación amplia y sistemática al respecto hace que se esté más cerca de disponer de una solución de impresión 3D multimaterial de sobremesa. Se determina que la mejor vía de progreso es la de disponer de una pluralidad de cabezales independientes, a fin de capacitar la impresora 3D para integrar diversos conceptos estudiados, materializándose una posible solución. Para cerrar la tesis, se plantea cómo sería un equipamiento de impresión 3D para modelos de ensayo quirúrgico, a fin de servir de base para futuros desarrollos.
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Carvalho, Rui Miguel Pires. "CoopExp – Cooperative Multi Robot Exploration." Master's thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/81490.
Full textAbstract:
Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaAo longo dos anos tornou-se percetível a crescente in¿uência da robótica no domínio humano, com evidências que vão desde aplicações industriais, espaciais e medicinais, bem como ferramenta de auxílio em ambientes adversos e em tarefas do quotidiano. Muitas destas aplicações requerem a utilização de uma equipa de vários robôs móveis cooperantes - Sistemas Cooperativos Multi-Robô (SCRC) - quer para tornar viável a execução de certas tarefas, quer para melhorar o desempenho obtido com apenas um robô.Apesar da capacidade de cooperação ser inata ao Homem, no domínio robótico apresenta uma série de novos desa¿os: a comunicação, o sincronismo da informação obtida e a fusão dessa mesma informação.Quando a cooperação entre múltiplos robôs é aplicada num contexto de exploração os desa¿os são acrescidos. É fundamental ter em consideração os custos e a utilidade dessa mesma exploração.Esta dissertação pretende apresentar uma solução à problemática supracitada. Para tal foi desenvolvido um método capaz de atribuir a diferentes robôs comportamentos cooperativos com a ¿nalidade de explorar um ambiente, seguindo uma ¿loso¿a de “dividir para conquistar”.O CoopExp, pacote com o algoritmo de exploração, foi desenvolvido segundo uma metodologia distribuída com o intuito de aumentar a resistência a falhas individuais dos agentes de exploração. Foi assim criado um método capaz de calcular os custos implicados, de forma mais rápida e e¿ciente. Foi ainda estabelecida uma abordagem da utilidade de exploração, baseada num compêndio de técnicas descritas na literatura.O desenvolvimento deste tipo de programas era praticamente impossível sem serem realizados testes ao seu funcionamento. Na inexistência de um simulador para este tipo de operações foi desenvolvido o ARENA (cooperAtive multi Robot frontiEr exploratioN simulAtor). Este é composto por um conjunto de novos pacotes especi¿camente desenvolvidos para a identi¿cação de fronteiras (aap_frontiers) e para a otimização da simulação, através de simpli¿cações no processo de obtenção dos mapas (aap_mapping) e posterior combinação dos mesmos, originando o mapa global (aap_map_merger).Estas soluções foram validadas através de testes em simulação, recorrendo a unidades móveis equipadas com um LRF (Laser Range Finder). Testes esses que demonstraram a diminuição do tempo de exploração quando é aumentado o número de robôs, apresentando um desempenho adequado tanto em termos de escalabilidade como de e¿ciência na exploração. Foi ainda realizada, com sucesso, a exploração com uma equipa de robôs reais que comunicam através de uma rede sem ¿os, de forma a validar o funcionamento prático deste projeto.
Over the years the growing in¿uence of robotics in the human domain has been noticeable from industrial to space and medical applications as well as a tool in adverse environments and even in everyday tasks. Many of these applications require the use of a team of several cooperating mobile robots - Cooperative Multi-Robot System (CMRS) - to make the execution of certain tasks possible and to improve the performance achieved by only one robot.Although the cooperation capacity is innate to humans, the robotic domain features a number of new challenges: communication, timing of the information obtained and the merger of that information.When cooperation among multiple robots is applied in an exploration context challenges increase. It is essential to take the costs and utility of that exploration into account.This dissertation aims to present a solution to the aforementioned problem. Therefore, a method has been developed, capable of assigning to di¿erent robots a cooperative behavior in order to explore an environment, following a philosophy of "divide and conquer".The CoopExp, package with the operation algorithm, was developed according to a distributed approach in order to increase resistance to individual failures of the exploration agents. Accordingly, a method that is able to calculate the costs involved in a faster and more e¿cient way, was created. Furthermore, an approach to exploration utility was also established, based on a compendium of techniques described in the literature.The development of such programs would have practically been impossible without performing tests on its functioning. In the absence of a simulator for this type of operation, the ARENA (cooperAtive multi Robot frontiEr exploratioN simulAtor) was developed. It consists of a set of new packages speci¿cally designed for frontier identi¿cation (aap_frontiers) and to optimize the simulation, through simpli¿cations in the process of achieving the maps (aap_mapping) and their subsequent combination, yielding the global map (aap_map_merger).Such solutions were validated through simulation tests, using mobile units equipped with a LRF (Laser Range Finder). These tests showed that exploration time decreases when the number of robots is increased, presenting a proper performance in terms of scalability and e¿ciency in exploration. Last but not least, a exploration with a real team of robots was successfully carried out that was able to communicate through a wireless network in order to validate the practical functioning of this project.
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Eckart, Mischa. "Cooperative governance : a multi-perspective exploration on the strategic direction and control of cooperative groups /." 2005. http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/485022540.pdf.
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Sisson, David Michael. "Supaspace: An exploration of architectural space in cooperative networked hyperreal gaming environments." Thesis, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1911/17301.
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In the late 20th century we find ourselves in a situation where the very nature of reality is questionable; rather than a 'virtual = being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted' supaspace questions the necessity for such distinctions, hence a 'hyper = above something; too much' to discern the paradigm shift that accompanies significant technological & theoretical innovation. Supaspace is fantastic $\mid$ shared $\mid$ networked $\mid$ custom/ized $\mid$ a literal site for interaction developed from binary code; it exists in a Krokeresque panic mode, an interior, point-to-point, baroque multi-viewer, habitable non-scripted cinema: "trans-terrafirma". It is fluid & shifting; at times cool & slow, others disorienting & dangerous.
Supaspace gaming represents one possible model event within hyperreality; it places the architect into the milieu of a quantum lightspeed amorphous middleground found on-location wherever you look for it. The author becomes the interface at the very moment of execution; multiplied & recursively scattered.
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Curotta, Laura. "An exploration of a student string quartet as a model of cooperative learning." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2179.
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This descriptive case study explores the functioning of a student string quartet during rehearsal. Through the theoretical lens of social constructivism, this study seeks to develop a meaningful interpretation of the phenomenon of student chamber music rehearsals. Using a qualitative methodology, this study employs the data collection techniques of non-participant observation, group and individual interview to construct a rich description of the interactions and processes which make up the participants’ rehearsal environment. The data indicate that rehearsals are a complex phenomenon and involve: the musical and social coordination of the group, an agreed sense of leadership, a regular rehearsal structure, and the group members’ individual and collaborative construction of meaning through verbal discussions. External factors, such as upcoming concerts and master classes, appeared to have a positive effect on the group’s perceived level of mental focus during rehearsals. The group’s democratic style of leadership was found to permeate most aspects of the rehearsal process, in particular their mutual construction of meaning. Comparisons are made with the similar functions, leadership and achievements of cooperative learning groups, leading to speculation about further educational implications of this study.Sydney Conservatorium of Music
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Chung, Chia-Ying, and 鍾佳縈. "A Challenge to Sustainable Development for “The First Recycling Limited Cooperative Association”─An Exploration of Business Process Reengineering." Thesis, 2006. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48364428707721668363.
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碩士國立中興大學
會計學研究所
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The question to whether environmental protection and economic development are inextricably linked but necessarily opposed has been debated for a long time. Consuming resources efficiently plays a vital role in solving this dilemma, a resource recycling system therefore came into existence and operation. “The First Recycling Limited Cooperative Association, one of the private and non-profit foundations contributing mostly to paper recycling jobs, is investigated. Emphasis is placed on Association’s leadership maintaining in a currently competitive recycling market. A combined use of intrinsic and instrumental case study is applied to analyze the Association’s weaknesses. After a close examination, we found that the Association’s major problems are associated with the insufficiency of recyclable resource collection, the constraint of distribution channels and the heavy work of inner administration. Significant efforts have been made in the present study to improve those limits by introducing the concept of “Business Process Reengineering”, defined by A-Pu Chen (1997). Some improvements related to integrating internal and external information, establishing intranet and internet, and expanding the market are identified, which not only could enhance the Association’s operations and financial health, but also assist to continuously sustainable development. Above and beyond, we hope that the society can contribute more to this issue rather than pursue economic growth only.