Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Enabling structures'

Abstract THE IMPACT OF ENABLING SCHOOL STRUCTURES ON THE DEGREE OF INTERNAL SCHOOL CHANGE AS MEASURED BY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES By Joseph D. Tylus, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: Dr. William C. Bosher Distinguished Professor, G. Wilder School of Policy Adjunct Professor, VCU School of Education This non-experimental, correlational study looked at the relationship between bureaucratic structures in middle and high schools in bringing about change in individual teacher classroom instructional practices through the centralized directive of membership in a professional learning community. Using a continuum of bureaucratic structure, from enabling to hindering, designed by Hoy and Sweetland (2001), each teacher identified the type of bureaucratic structure they believed they operated within. The teacher participants responded to a questionnaire on how involved they were and to what degree they participated with colleagues in a professional learning community during the current school year. Further, they were asked how membership in a professional learning community influenced, if at all, their instructional practices. A regression analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between enabling bureaucratic structure and a higher degree of teacher personal professional growth. A regression analysis also demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between enabling bureaucratic structure and change in instructional practices in the classroom associated with membership in a professional learning community. However, while the analyses found statistical significance, the actual effect size was low, challenging the level of practical significance of the model. One interaction of interest related to teachers who teach courses where there is a state mandated end-of-course test that impacts the school’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) rating. Teachers in this group reported the highest level of change in their classroom instructional practices through membership in a professional learning community when they perceived a more enabling bureaucratic structure for the school in which they worked. Hopefully these results will help encourage future work that pertains to which bureaucratic structures are most effective in producing change in the classroom through the use of professional learning communities. The dissertation was created using Microsoft Word 2003.

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2012.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).
As environmental footprint considerations for companies gain greater importance, the need for quantitative impact assessment tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) has become a higher priority. Currently, the cost and time burden associated with LCA has prevented it from becoming more prevalent. While several streamlining approaches have been suggested, questions regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the streamlined results are still of concern. The streamlining method of probabilistic underspecification has shown initial success in its ability to reduce LCA efforts while simultaneously increasing certainty in the final impact assessment. Probabilistic underspecification streamlines LCA by prioritizing targets of more refined data collection and by implementing the use of underspecified surrogate data within LCI analysis. This thesis concentrates on further developing and improving the streamlining methodology of probabilistic underspecification through refinement of the materials classification systems for polymers and minerals and through additional case study analysis. The classification system allows for a better understanding of the relationship between the degree of materials specificity and the uncertainty in the resulting impact values. Additionally, the resulting polymer and mineral classifications were combined with existing materials classifications to conduct an alkaline battery case study in order to test the effectiveness of the streamlining method. The material classifications created through this research provide a logical and practical approach to underspecification while maintaining consistent and reasonable levels of uncertainty. Furthermore, the case study analysis showed that the streamlining methodology significantly lowered LCA burden by systematically reducing the number of product components requiring full specification. This research provides further evidence that probabilistic underspecification may provide a promising LCA streamlining method among a set of such strategies that can significantly reduce LCA efforts while maintaining the accuracy of the overall impact assessment.
by Abhishek Rampuria.
S.B.

Computing infrastructures offer remote access to computing power that can be employed, e.g., to solve complex mathematical problems or to host computational services that need to be online and accessible at all times. From the perspective of the infrastructure provider, large amounts of distributed and often heterogeneous computer resources need to be united into a coherent platform that is then made accessible to and usable by potential users. Grid computing and cloud computing are two paradigms that can be used to form such unified computational infrastructures. Resources from several independent infrastructure providers can be joined to form large-scale decentralized infrastructures. The primary advantage of doing this is that it increases the scale of the available resources, making it possible to address more complex problems or to run a greater number of services on the infrastructures. In addition, there are advantages in terms of factors such as fault-tolerance and geographical dispersion. Such multi-domain infrastructures require sophisticated management processes to mitigate the complications of executing computations and services across resources from different administrative domains. This thesis contributes to the development of management processes for distributed infrastructures that are designed to support multi-domain environments. It describes investigations into how fundamental management processes such as scheduling and accounting are affected by the barriers imposed by multi-domain deployments, which include technical heterogeneity, decentralized and (domain-wise) self-centric decision making, and a lack of information on the state and availability of remote resources. Four enabling technologies or approaches are explored and developed within this work: (I) The use of explicit definitions of cloud service structure as inputs for placement and management processes to ensure that the resulting placements respect the internal relationships between different service components and any relevant constraints. (II) Technology for the runtime adaptation of Virtual Machines to enable the automatic adaptation of cloud service contexts in response to changes in their environment caused by, e.g., service migration across domains. (III) Systems for managing meta-data relating to resource usage in multi-domain grid computing and cloud computing infrastructures. (IV) A global fairshare prioritization mechanism that enables computational jobs to be consistently prioritized across a federation of several decentralized grid installations. Each of these technologies will facilitate the emergence of decentralized computational infrastructures capable of utilizing resources from diverse infrastructure providers in an automatic and seamless manner.

Note that the author changed surname from Henriksson to Espling in 2011

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biological Engineering, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Mammalian noses can detect and distinguish an inestimable number of odors at minute concentrations. Four classes of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are responsible for this remarkable sensitivity: olfactory receptors (ORs), vomeronasal receptors (VNRs), trace amine-associate receptors, and formyl peptide receptors. Structural knowledge of these receptors is necessary to understand the molecular basis of smell. However, no structure exists for three main reasons. First, milligrams of protein are needed for crystallization screens, but most are expressed at low levels endogenously or in heterologous expression systems. Second, detergents capable of solubilizing and stabilizing these proteins in aqueous solution must be found. Third, the flexible nature of GPCRs can inhibit crystal lattice formation. Methods for overcoming each obstacle were developed. Milligrams of a VNR were expressed in HEK293 cells, and milligrams of 13 GPCRs were expressed in a cell-free system. All could be purified to >90%. The purified receptors had correct secondary structures, and could bind their ligands. The HEK293 and cell-free receptors had nearly identical structures and binding affinities, demonstrating that cell-free expression can be used for GPCR production and mutational studies. To demonstrate this, six variants of mOR103-15 with single amino acid substitutions were expressed. Ligand-binding measurements indicated which residues were involved in ligand recognition. The choice of detergent used in the cell-free system was critical, and significantly affected expression levels. A class of amphiphilic peptide detergents was designed and tested with the receptors. These detergents could be used to express milligrams of functional receptors. The peptide tail and head group properties did not significantly affect their function, suggesting that they may be a class of surfactants usable with multiple olfactory-related receptors, and even other membrane proteins. Lastly, the protein T4 Lysozyme (T4L) was fused in the 3rd intracellular loop of two receptors to increase potential crystal lattice contact points. Purified T4L variants had correct secondary structures, and could bind their ligands and initiate intracellular signaling. The methods described generated sufficient quantities of pure receptors for crystal screens. The large number of functionally expressed GPCRs indicates that these techniques can be applied to other olfactory-related receptors, and even other membrane proteins.
by Karolina Corin.
Ph.D.

In the 1980s, the evolution of engineering methods and techniques yielded the object-oriented approaches. Specifically, object orientation was established in software engineering, gradually relieving structured approaches. In other domains, e.g. systems engineering, object orientation is not well established. As a result, different domains employ different methods and techniques. This makes it difficult to exchange information between the domains, e.g. passing systems engineering information for further refinement to software engineering. This thesis presents a generic principle for bridging the gap between structured and object-oriented specification techniques. The principle enables interoperability of structured and object-oriented analysis and design tools through mutual information exchanges. Therefore, the concepts and elements of representative structured and object-oriented specification techniques are identified and analyzed. Then, a metamodel for each specification technique is created. From the meta-models, a common metamodel is synthesized. Finally, mappings between the meta-models and the common meta-model are created. Used in conjunction, the meta-models, the common meta-model and the mappings enable tool interoperability through transforming specification information under one meta-model via the common meta-model into a representation under another metamodel. Example transformations that illustrate the proposed principle using fragments of an aircraft’s landing gear specification are provided. The work presented in this thesis is based on the achievements of the SEDRES (ESPRIT 20496), SEDEX (NUTEK IPII-98-6292) and SEDRES-2 (IST 11953) projects. The projects strove for integrating different systems engineering tools in the forthcoming ISO-10303-233 (AP-233) standard for systems engineering design data. This thesis is an extension to the SEDRES / SEDEX and AP-233 achievements. It specifically focuses on integrating structured and modern UML based object-oriented specification techniques which was only performed schematically in the SEDRES / SEDEX and AP-233 work.

As industries are increasingly adapting to new technological trends for data collection and production efficiency, they are fulfilling the description of being part of the industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigm. This swift development has led to unforeseen consequences concerning managerial and strategic aspects of security. In addition, threats and sophisticated attacks have increased, emphasizing a greater demand for information security management in the industrial setting. For smaller industrial manufacturers, information security management is not always available due the cost of resources, placing them in a challenging position. In addition, I4.0 introduces the area of OT/IT (Operational Technology and Information Technology) convergence, which is often heavily complex, creating the need for cross-competence. Furthermore, consequences from cyber attacks in the production domain can be catastrophic as they may endanger the safety and health of personnel. Thus, smaller manufacturing industries need to utilize existing resources to enable the prerequisites of managing security issues that may come with I4.0. Structuring and effectivizing the communication of security issues is needed to ensure that suitable competence can address security issues in a timely manner. The aspects of communication and competence are not addressed by current security standards and frameworks in the industrial context, nor are they equally applicable for smaller industrial organizations.  This study aims to contribute to the research field of information security in I4.0 by investigating how security vulnerabilities should be communicated at a smaller manufacturing industry that does not have an information security management system. The framework is based on a traditional incident response information flow and was designed at a Swedish manufacturing industry through the narrative of OT or production personnel.

In October 1991 Zambia abandoned one party politics and embraced multi-party politics. Upon winning the elections, the MMD Government abandoned UNIP's commandist development strategies for Neo-Liberal ones, in an effort to salvage the ailing Zambian economy and ensure development sustainability. In adopting the Structural Adjustment Programme and its affiliated policy of Enabling Shelter Strategy, the Government hopes among other things to stimulate supply in the hitherto ailing construction industry. It is postulated that, by applying Neo-Liberal policies, an enabling environment for private investment can be created, where an efficient and high productivity private sector is the main provider of construction supply. This research aims at assessing the contributions made by the construction industry to the macroeconomic in Zambia, during the first five years of the Structural Adjustment Programme and the Enabling Shelter Strategy. To do this, the study analyses the adjustment and enablement conditionalities that have been placed on the Zambian economy and then analyses their net effect on the supply-side of the construction market. The contention of in this study is that although the Structural Adjustment Programme and the Enabling Shelter Strategy have made positive contributions to the Zambian Construction industry, there are, however, areas that still need reviewing and changing in light of the experiences of the last five years. The study was conducted using a survey research strategy, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. Primary data was collected during a field survey trip to Zambia between the 10th of October 1995 and 17th of March 1996. Secondary data on the other hand has mainly come from published literature, business journals, World Bank and IMF publications and Government publications and the media. The conclusions reached at the end of the study are twofold. First they validate the postulations that have been made in both strategies, that enabling policies do indeed break down the structural rigidities in the macro-economy and the construction industry. The result of which has been to promote international and local private participation at different levels in the Zambia construction industry. Secondly, they show that despite the easy entry of construction firms in the industry, especially in the informal sector, the formal construction sector labour market has, however, continued to reduce. The study further concludes that some of the (adjustment and enablement) conditionalites, and Neo-Liberal (Government) measures meant to promote the economy and the industry in particular have had the net effect of reducing construction demand, thereby reducing overall construction output in response to reduced demand. In some cases, however, the study found that surplus local supply was diverted to exports within the region.

The literature on non-European immigrant offspring has established that some children of non-European immigrants are achieving social mobility by way of attaining a post-secondary education, and others are faring worse than their working-class immigrant parents. One such group that has had difficulty incorporating into mainstream institutions and society are racialized black immigrant offspring. Notwithstanding the importance and usefulness of highlighting differences between non-European immigrant offspring, a lack of focus on within group differences in the literature perpetuates stereotypes about racialized non-white groups. To assist in addressing this imbalance in the literature, this study aims to further enrich limited extant research that examines how racialized black immigrant offspring 'successfully adapt' to living in a racially stratified and unequal society. More precisely, this research strives to capture the diverse experiences of racialized black children of immigrants—a group labelled ‘at-risk' to underachieve and prone to experience downward socioeconomic mobility. Twenty-three children of Sub-Saharan African immigrants and ten African immigrant parents and key informants were interviewed for this qualitative narrative study. Participants’ narratives revealed that racialized black immigrant offspring, who were able to successfully navigate the compulsory school system, shared some similarities. A commonality that the participants shared was that they adopted or were receptive to or in tune with their parents’ culture, advice, guidance, high educational expectations, and optimistic worldviews as adolescents. However, participants differed with respect to their identity formations and educational journeys. Participants who were independent learners, studious and/or identified as intelligent (e.g. enrolled in an enrichment program) were able to progress through the education system with little support. Other participants, on the other hand, relied—to varying degrees—on their family’s assistance and community-based supports to overcome structural, institutional and spatial barriers. Without these supports, some of these participants would have had greater difficulty achieving their goals. Furthermore, the narratives suggest that racialized black youth from low socioeconomic backgrounds who rely heavily on family and community support to complete high school are vulnerable to experience difficulties (including dropping out) at the post-secondary level, especially when their support system diminishes. With respect to identity formation, participants formed a diverse ray of identities.

This study examines how leaders enable their organisations to adapt and succeed in complex environments. Through the joint lenses of complexity theory and the cognition and social neuroscience of leadership it focuses on how leadership directly influences the creation and ongoing function of an adaptive organisation. The study includes the comparison of four leaders through embedded case studies as an abductive approach to initial theory building, and the follow up of two of them as a comparative method of analysis, and it generates a substantive theory of leadership cognition called emergent logic. This leadership approach is especially relevant to leading complex human systems in emergent environments, the scenario for the majority of organisations in the present day. This thesis addresses two questions: How do leaders of adaptive organisations think? And what do leaders of adaptive organisations do? Among the major findings the study reveals that a critical success factor is the leader’s capacity to create and guide a complex human system by establishing and maintaining a shared mental model of its collective purpose, guided by deeply held and articulated values. The cognitive constructs of complexity and emergent logic have a direct and indirect effect on individuals and the organisation, and facilitate the creation of an adaptive operational culture and organisational mind, and the complementary enabling structures that allow for ongoing evolution through emergence, transformation and diffusion as required. Thus the organisation and its people can progressively build more complex emergent mental models and solutions in the face of increasingly common unpredictable situations, leading to the capability for organisational adaption and evolution over time. In contributing to the theory of creating and leading adaptive organisations, supported by empirical research, this study has improved our understanding of the effect of the leader’s cognitive capacity on organisational adaptability and the level of entanglement; revealed the links between the creation of adaptive organisational structures and their culture; examined the growth of individual and collective capability to manage the increasing complexity and emergence created by successful adaption and evolution; identified the common elements of various types of complex systems that are relevant to adaptive change; presented a model of emergent logic and described the empirical use of that model over time.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 2014

The right to adequate housing is recognized internationally as a basic human right. South Africa is one of the countries that include this basic right as one of the cornerstones in its constitution. Quite a number of ways and means have been implemented and various kinds of mechanisms have been put into place to kickstart and spearhead the process of providing shelter mainly to the poor segments of the communities in South Africa at large. Towards this end the South African Housing Policy is formulated around the notion of the enabling approach whereby state assistance in the form of a lump sum subsidy is given to households to enhance and intensify the beneficiaries' own efforts towards improving their housing. In other words the smooth operation of the enabling approach is to a large extent dependent on the individuals' substantial contribution in many if not all aspects of housing process. The study demonstrates that since the implementation of this enabling approach too little has been achieved in terms of housing delivery. The study therefore identifies three key issues (among other issues) that are seen as major bottlenecks in the implementation of the enabling approach in housing delivery for all. The study argues that in order for the beneficiaries to consolidate their housing, they need to augment their low-income with a loan or any other form of a housing credit. It is the central argument of this study in this regard that proper housing credit mechanisms suited to the circumstances of the low-income groups have not been adequately addressed. The study further observes that the majority of low-income groups do not have proper labour and employment skills in that these groups also lack access to employment opportunities. This study therefore adopts the position that proper structures need to be put in place in-order to eradicate these above-mentioned major hurdles standing in the way of the enabling approach. The study argues that if these issues are not adequately addressed, housing consolidation among low-income groups will remain a major problem and the enabling approach will eventually be regarded as non-viable and incompetent.
Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This thesis identifies how the IT function can create agility in existing information systems. Agility is the capability to quickly sense and respond to environmental perturbations. This thesis contrasts the agility perspective from a widely used industry framework with research perspectives on agility in the IS literature. Beer’s Viable System Model is a useful meta-level theory to house agility elements from IS research literature and applies cybernetic principles to identify the capabilities required of the IT function. Indeed, a survey of 70 organizations confirms that the meta-level theory better correlates with reported agility measures than existing practice measures do on their own.
There were three stages to the research. First, was conceptually applying the Viable System Model to the concept of agility from IS research literature. The cybernetic model proposed an explanative theory for agility in information systems and prescribed capabilities for the IT function.
The second research stage was a qualitative study with an IT consultancy. Managers and consultants participated in applicability checking the theoretical development to the agility topic. The level of analysis was the client base of an IT consultancy, which consists of approximately 250 Australian organizations. A research deliverable was a joint white paper between the University of Melbourne and the IT consultancy.
The final stage was two quantitative surveys for theory testing. The first survey mailed a Likert-type questionnaire to business and IT managers amongst the IT consultancy’s clients. The second survey invited international members of professional interest groups to complete a web-based questionnaire. The responses from the surveys were analyzed using partial-least-squares modeling and linear regression. The data analysis correlated process maturity of the IT function and the likelihood of agility in existing information systems. The thesis claims to generalize the survey findings to other large organizations in OECD countries.
The thesis offers an agility-capability model for the IT function, which extends IS research with a theory that explains and predicts agility in existing information systems. A further contribution is to improve IT industry ‘best practice’ frameworks by prescribing capabilities to develop.

In this thesis, we demonstrate a new type of resonant, nonlinear, light-matter interaction facilitated by the unique electromagnetic vacuum density-of-state (DOS) structure of Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials. Strong light localization inside PBG waveguides allows extremely strong coupling between laser fields and embedded two-level quantum dots (QD). The resulting Mollow splitting is large enough to traverse the precipitous DOS jump created by a waveguide mode cutoff. This allows the QD Bloch vector to sense the non-smoothness of the vacuum structure and evolve in novel ways that are forbidden in free space. These unusual strong-coupling effects are described using a "vacuum structure term" of the Bloch equation, combined with field-dependent relaxation rates experienced by the QD Bloch vector. This leads to alternation between coherent evolution and enhanced relaxation. As a result, dynamic high-contrast switching of QD populations can be realized with a single beam of picosecond pulses. During enhanced relaxation to a slightly inverted steady state at the pulse peak, the Bloch vector rapidly switches from anti-parallel to parallel alignment with the pulse torque vector. This then leads to a highly inverted state through subsequent coherent "adiabatic following" near the pulse tail, providing a robust mechanism for picosecond, femto-Joule all-optical switching. The simultaneous input of a second, weaker (signal) driving beam at a different frequency on top of the stronger (holding) beam enables rich modulation effects and unprecedented coherent control over the QD population. This occurs through resonant coupling of the signal pulse with the Mollow sideband transitions created by the holding pulse, leading to either augmentation or negation of the final QD population achieved by the holding pulse alone. This effect is applied to ultrafast all-optical logic AND, OR and NOT gates in the presence of significant (0.1 THz) nonradiative dephasing and (about 1%) inhomogeneous broadening. Further numerical studies of pulse evolutions inside the proposed devices demonstrate satisfactory population contrast within a PBG waveguide length of about 10 micro meter. These results provide the building blocks for low-power, ultrafast, multi-wavelength channel, on-chip, all-optical computing.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
This study puts forward the following research question: What is the role of organisational structure and culture in enabling the dynamic capabilities used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the global orchestration of their operational capabilities? Dynamic capabilities are the processes used to manage operational capabilities, such as marketing and technological capabilities. While previous research has provided us with valuable insights into these important organisational capabilities for organisations in general, few studies have investigated them in an international business (IB) context. However, dynamic capabilities are especially valuable for MNEs with regard to taking advantage of global opportunities and addressing the unique challenges in global capability orchestration. It is understood that the role played by dynamic capabilities is conditioned by enablers. Organisational structure and culture have been proposed as enablers, but there is little understanding of their role. To address the research question, two exploratory research objectives are proposed: (1) explore the role of organisational structure and how it enables dynamic capabilities and (2) explore the role of organisational culture and how it enables dynamic capabilities. This thesis uses a qualitative multiple case study approach to explore the roles that organisational structure and culture play as enablers of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring processes of dynamic capability deployment used by MNEs. The findings indicate that a combination of formal and informal centralised governance are the organisational structure characteristics that enable these dynamic capabilities; put simply, they are enabled through formal coordination utilising a global perspective combined with informal reinforcement of support for global orchestration. A collaborative culture is found to enable dynamic capabilities through creating alignment with global orchestration initiatives. This study’s contribution lies in providing a link between the dynamic capabilities and IB literature. More specifically, the study contributes to the dynamic capability literature by identifying the organisational structure and culture characteristics that enable dynamic capabilities, in addition to outlining how they enable dynamic capabilities. The study also contributes to the debate in both the dynamic capabilities and IB literature on the value of centralisation versus decentralisation by finding that centralisation, supported by a collaborative culture, is to be valued in the global orchestration of operational capabilities by MNEs. It also provides managerial implications, which indicate that MNEs should adopt the identified organisational characteristics in order to enable the dynamic capabilities that would help them take advantage of global opportunities.

Histopathology is the clinical standard for tissue diagnosis. However, histopathology has several limitations including that it requires tissue processing, which can take 30 minutes or more, and requires a highly trained pathologist to diagnose the tissue. Additionally, the diagnosis is qualitative, and the lack of quantitation leads to possible observer-specific diagnosis. Taken together, it is difficult to diagnose tissue at the point of care using histopathology.

Several clinical situations could benefit from more rapid and automated histological processing, which could reduce the time and the number of steps required between obtaining a fresh tissue specimen and rendering a diagnosis. For example, there is need for rapid detection of residual cancer on the surface of tumor resection specimens during excisional surgeries, which is known as intraoperative tumor margin assessment. Additionally, rapid assessment of biopsy specimens at the point-of-care could enable clinicians to confirm that a suspicious lesion is successfully sampled, thus preventing an unnecessary repeat biopsy procedure. Rapid and low cost histological processing could also be potentially useful in settings lacking the human resources and equipment necessary to perform standard histologic assessment. Lastly, automated interpretation of tissue samples could potentially reduce inter-observer error, particularly in the diagnosis of borderline lesions.

To address these needs, high quality microscopic images of the tissue must be obtained in rapid timeframes, in order for a pathologic assessment to be useful for guiding the intervention. Optical microscopy is a powerful technique to obtain high-resolution images of tissue morphology in real-time at the point of care, without the need for tissue processing. In particular, a number of groups have combined fluorescence microscopy with vital fluorescent stains to visualize micro-anatomical features of thick (i.e. unsectioned or unprocessed) tissue. However, robust methods for segmentation and quantitative analysis of heterogeneous images are essential to enable automated diagnosis. Thus, the goal of this work was to obtain high resolution imaging of tissue morphology through employing fluorescence microscopy and vital fluorescent stains and to develop a quantitative strategy to segment and quantify tissue features in heterogeneous images, such as nuclei and the surrounding stroma, which will enable automated diagnosis of thick tissues.

To achieve these goals, three specific aims were proposed. The first aim was to develop an image processing method that can differentiate nuclei from background tissue heterogeneity and enable automated diagnosis of thick tissue at the point of care. A computational technique called sparse component analysis (SCA) was adapted to isolate features of interest, such as nuclei, from the background. SCA has been used previously in the image processing community for image compression, enhancement, and restoration, but has never been applied to separate distinct tissue types in a heterogeneous image. In combination with a high resolution fluorescence microendoscope (HRME) and a contrast agent acriflavine, the utility of this technique was demonstrated through imaging preclinical sarcoma tumor margins. Acriflavine localizes to the nuclei of cells where it reversibly associates with RNA and DNA. Additionally, acriflavine shows some affinity for collagen and muscle. SCA was adapted to isolate acriflavine positive features or APFs (which correspond to RNA and DNA) from background tissue heterogeneity. The circle transform (CT) was applied to the SCA output to quantify the size and density of overlapping APFs. The sensitivity of the SCA+CT approach to variations in APF size, density and background heterogeneity was demonstrated through simulations. Specifically, SCA+CT achieved the lowest errors for higher contrast ratios and larger APF sizes. When applied to tissue images of excised sarcoma margins, SCA+CT correctly isolated APFs and showed consistently increased density in tumor and tumor + muscle images compared to images containing muscle. Next, variables were quantified from images of resected primary sarcomas and used to optimize a multivariate model. The sensitivity and specificity for differentiating positive from negative ex vivo resected tumor margins was 82% and 75%. The utility of this approach was further tested by imaging the in vivo tumor cavities from 34 mice after resection of a sarcoma with local recurrence as a bench mark. When applied prospectively to images from the tumor cavity, the sensitivity and specificity for differentiating local recurrence was 78% and 82%. The results indicate that SCA+CT can accurately delineate APFs in heterogeneous tissue, which is essential to enable automated and rapid surveillance of tissue pathology.

Two primary challenges were identified in the work in aim 1. First, while SCA can be used to isolate features, such as APFs, from heterogeneous images, its performance is limited by the contrast between APFs and the background. Second, while it is feasible to create mosaics by scanning a sarcoma tumor bed in a mouse, which is on the order of 3-7 mm in any one dimension, it is not feasible to evaluate an entire human surgical margin. Thus, improvements to the microscopic imaging system were made to (1) improve image contrast through rejecting out-of-focus background fluorescence and to (2) increase the field of view (FOV) while maintaining the sub-cellular resolution needed for delineation of nuclei. To address these challenges, a technique called structured illumination microscopy (SIM) was employed in which the entire FOV is illuminated with a defined spatial pattern rather than scanning a focal spot, such as in confocal microscopy.

Thus, the second aim was to improve image contrast and increase the FOV through employing wide-field, non-contact structured illumination microscopy and optimize the segmentation algorithm for new imaging modality. Both image contrast and FOV were increased through the development of a wide-field fluorescence SIM system. Clear improvement in image contrast was seen in structured illumination images compared to uniform illumination images. Additionally, the FOV is over 13X larger than the fluorescence microendoscope used in aim 1. Initial segmentation results of SIM images revealed that SCA is unable to segment large numbers of APFs in the tumor images. Because the FOV of the SIM system is over 13X larger than the FOV of the fluorescence microendoscope, dense collections of APFs commonly seen in tumor images could no longer be sparsely represented, and the fundamental sparsity assumption associated with SCA was no longer met. Thus, an algorithm called maximally stable extremal regions (MSER) was investigated as an alternative approach for APF segmentation in SIM images. MSER was able to accurately segment large numbers of APFs in SIM images of tumor tissue. In addition to optimizing MSER for SIM image segmentation, an optimal frequency of the illumination pattern used in SIM was carefully selected because the image signal to noise ratio (SNR) is dependent on the grid frequency. A grid frequency of 31.7 mm-1 led to the highest SNR and lowest percent error associated with MSER segmentation.

Once MSER was optimized for SIM image segmentation and the optimal grid frequency was selected, a quantitative model was developed to diagnose mouse sarcoma tumor margins that were imaged ex vivo with SIM. Tumor margins were stained with acridine orange (AO) in aim 2 because AO was found to stain the sarcoma tissue more brightly than acriflavine. Both acriflavine and AO are intravital dyes, which have been shown to stain nuclei, skeletal muscle, and collagenous stroma. A tissue-type classification model was developed to differentiate localized regions (75x75 µm) of tumor from skeletal muscle and adipose tissue based on the MSER segmentation output. Specifically, a logistic regression model was used to classify each localized region. The logistic regression model yielded an output in terms of probability (0-100%) that tumor was located within each 75x75 µm region. The model performance was tested using a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis that revealed 77% sensitivity and 81% specificity. For margin classification, the whole margin image was divided into localized regions and this tissue-type classification model was applied. In a subset of 6 margins (3 negative, 3 positive), it was shown that with a tumor probability threshold of 50%, 8% of all regions from negative margins exceeded this threshold, while over 17% of all regions exceeded the threshold in the positive margins. Thus, 8% of regions in negative margins were considered false positives. These false positive regions are likely due to the high density of APFs present in normal tissues, which clearly demonstrates a challenge in implementing this automatic algorithm based on AO staining alone.

Thus, the third aim was to improve the specificity of the diagnostic model through leveraging other sources of contrast. Modifications were made to the SIM system to enable fluorescence imaging at a variety of wavelengths. Specifically, the SIM system was modified to enabling imaging of red fluorescent protein (RFP) expressing sarcomas, which were used to delineate the location of tumor cells within each image. Initial analysis of AO stained panels confirmed that there was room for improvement in tumor detection, particularly in regards to false positive regions that were negative for RFP. One approach for improving the specificity of the diagnostic model was to investigate using a fluorophore that was more specific to staining tumor. Specifically, tetracycline was selected because it appeared to specifically stain freshly excised tumor tissue in a matter of minutes, and was non-toxic and stable in solution. Results indicated that tetracycline staining has promise for increasing the specificity of tumor detection in SIM images of a preclinical sarcoma model and further investigation is warranted.

In conclusion, this work presents the development of a combination of tools that is capable of automated segmentation and quantification of micro-anatomical images of thick tissue. When compared to the fluorescence microendoscope, wide-field multispectral fluorescence SIM imaging provided improved image contrast, a larger FOV with comparable resolution, and the ability to image a variety of fluorophores. MSER was an appropriate and rapid approach to segment dense collections of APFs from wide-field SIM images. Variables that reflect the morphology of the tissue, such as the density, size, and shape of nuclei and nucleoli, can be used to automatically diagnose SIM images. The clinical utility of SIM imaging and MSER segmentation to detect microscopic residual disease has been demonstrated by imaging excised preclinical sarcoma margins. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that fluorescence imaging of tissue micro-anatomy combined with a specialized algorithm for delineation and quantification of features is a means for rapid, non-destructive and automated detection of microscopic disease, which could improve cancer management in a variety of clinical scenarios.

Dissertation

This dissertation explores how middle managers use their micro-strategising practices of agency and sense-making to shape strategic outcomes during and after strategic change implementation within an enabling and/or constraining organisational social structure. The researcher examined this phenomenon through the theoretical lenses of strategy-as-practice perspective and sense-making. The qualitative case-study research design with an interpretivist, social constructionist paradigm captured the lived organisational social reality of the administrative middle managers over time at a for-profit educational brand of a private higher education (PHE) provider. A thematic data analysis approach integrated manual coding with electronic coding to analyse data gathered through an emergent research design of text messages and e-mail journals over a four-month period. Data-driven inductive coding was synthesised with structural deductive coding in response to the research questions. The dissertation concludes that administrative middle managers use micro-level strategising practices of retrospective and prospective cognitive and emotional sense-making and the practical coping of agency, or embodied sense-making, to navigate a complex and contradictory organisational socio-cultural context that is both enabling and constraining. A further contribution of the current study speaks to the embedded practices between the two discrete levels of organisation and individual, which has been interpreted through the contradictions following the equivocal signals that these two main levels demonstrate. The porous inter-dependency between the two levels of organisation and individual creates an inter-woven entity where the strands of individual and organisational action are difficult to pull out and name distinctly, without unravelling the tapestry that is the organisational entity. These contributions affirm the intellectual puzzle which sought to understand and/or restore the balance of the individual within an organisational socio-cultural context to attain organisational security and equilibrium after organisational change. The findings of this current study is not generalisable to the other seven educational brands of the PHE provider.
Boithuto bona bo shebana le tsela eo ka yona baokamedi ba mahareng ba sebedisang ditlwaelo tsa ketso ya meralo e menyane (micro-strategising) ya diejensi le ketso ya moelelo ho bopa diphetho tsa meralo nakong ya le kamora ho kenngwa tshebetsong ha phetolo ya moralo kahare ho sebopeho se dumellang le/kapa se thibelang sa setjhaba. Mofuputsi o hlahlobile mohopolo ona ka leihlo la thiori ya moralo-jwalokaketso le ketso ya moelelo. Sebopeho sa dipatlisiso tsa phuputso ya boleng se nang le saense ya setjhaba le paterone ya kgaho ya setjhaba se hapile mokgatlo wa setjhaba wa sebele o phetsweng wa baokamedi ba mahareng ba tsamaiso nako e telele letshwaong la thuto la phaello ho mofani wa thuto e hodimo ya poraefete (PHE). Katamelo ya manollo ya pokello e amanang le thuto e ikgethang e kopantse tokiso ya tokomane ka letsoho le ka elektoniki ho manolla pokello e bokelletsweng ka sebopeho sa dipatlisiso se qalang sa melaetsa ya mongolo le di-emaili nakong ya dikgwedi tse nne. Mongolo wa qaleho o tsamaiswang ke pokello o ile wa hlahiswa ka elektoniki le mongolo o latelang dikarolo tse itseng tsa molao o akaretsang ho araba dipotso tsa dipatlisiso. Thuto e phethela ka hore baokamedi ba bohareng ba tsamaiso ba sebedisa ditlwaelo tsa mekgwa e boemong bo tlase ba ketsahalo ya moelelo boiphihlelong ka ho kgutlela morao le ho nahanela pele ka kellelo le maikutlo le ho sebetsa ho kgonehang ha mokgatlo, kapa ho fana ka moelelo boiphihlelong ho kopantsweng ho batlisisang maemo a rarahaneng le a hananang a moetlo wa mokgatlo a nolofatsang le a thibelang ka bobedi. Monehelo o eketsehileng wa thuto ya morao-rao o bua ka ditlwaelo tse keneletseng dipakeng tsa maemo a mabedi a fapaneng a mokgatlo le a motho ka mong a tolokuweng ka ho hanyetsana ho latela matshwao a ka tolokehang ka ditsela tse fapaneng tseo maemo ana a mabedi a ka sehloohong a di bontshang. Ho emelana hona ho kenellanang ho dipakeng tsa maemo a mabedi a mokgatlo le motho ka bo mong ho theha mokgatlo wa kgokahano oo ho ona dikgwele tsa motho ka bo mong le kgato ya mokgatlo di bang thata ho hulwa le ho reha ka tsela e hlakileng kantle le ho senya lesela leo e leng mokgatlo. Menehelo ena e netefatsa selotho se neng se batla ho utlwisisa le/kapa ho tsosolosa tekanyo ya motho kahare ho maemo a setso sa setjhaba sa mokgatlo ho fumana tshireletso ya mokgatlo le boikgutso kamora ho fetoha ha mokgatlo. Diphumano tsa thuto ena ya morao-rao ha di akareletswe ho matshwao a mang a thuto a supileng a mofani wa PHE
Lolu cwaningo lucubungula udaba lokuthi izimenenja ezisezikhundleni ezimaphakathi zizisebenzisa kanjani izinkambiso zazo zokwenza amaqhinga namasu emazingeni aphansi okusebenzisa ikhono lazo lokuzikhethela nokuthatha izinyathelo ngokuzimela (agency) nokwenza kuzwakale futhi kuqondakale lokho ezikwenzayo nezikushoyo (sense-making) ngenhloso yokubumba imiphumela enobuqhinga ngaphambi kokuba kuqaliswe uguquko olunobuqhinga futhi nangenkathi sekuqaliswa uguquko olunjalo olwenzeka ngaphakathi ohlakeni lwesakhiwo senhlalo esivumelayo kanye/noma esivimbelayo. Umcwaningi wakuhlaziya futhi wakuhlolisisa lokhu esebenzisa indlela yokubheka izinto ngokwethiyori yokusebenzisa iqhingasu njengenkambiso (strategyas- practice perspective) kanye nokwenza kuzwakale futhi kuqondakale lokho okwenziwayo nokushiwoyo. Idizayini yocwaningo lwesigameko olukhwalithethivu olugxile ekutheni izimenenja zibheke izinto njengoba zinjalo ngokweso lezigameko ezidlule kuzona izimenenja, ngokuqhubeka kwesikhathi, ekuxhumaneni nasekusebenzeni kwazo nabanye abantu esikhungweni semfundo ephakeme esithile esizimele esiqhuba umsebenzi wokuqeqesha ngenhloso yokungenisa imali nokwenza inzuzo, phecelezi umhlinzeki we-private higher education (PHE). Ucwaningo lwasebenzisa indlela yokuhlaziya idatha ngokucubungula nokuqopha amaphethini, okuyindlela eyadidiyela ukuhlelwa nokuhlungwa kwedatha ngesandla nangobuchwepheshe bekhompyutha ngenhloso yokuhlaziya idatha eqoqwe kusetshenziswa i-emergent research design yemiqhafazo (text messages) kanye namajenali ama-imeyili esikhathini esiyizinyanga ezine. Ukuze kuhlinzekwe ngezimpendulo emibuzweni yocwaningo kwahlanganiswa indlela yokuhlela nokuhlunga idatha esuselwa kuhlobo lwedatha eqoqiwe (inductive) kanye nendlela yokuhlunga ngokusebenzisa uhlelo olwenziwe ngaphambi kokuqoqwa kwedatha (deductive). Ucwaningo luphetha ngokukhipha umbono wokuthi izimenenja ezisezikhundleni ezimaphakathi zisebenzisa izinkambiso zazo zokuqhamuka namaqhinga namasu emazingeni aphansi okwenza izinto ziqondakale ngokusebenzisa ingqondo nemizwa mayelana nezigameko ezenzeke esikhathini esedlule, nalezo ezingahle zenzeke esikhathini esizayo kanye nokubonela kwikhono lomunye umuntu, njengoba linjalo, lokuthatha izinyathelo nokwenza izinto ngokuzimela noma ukwenza izinto ziqondakale, okuyingxenye yalokho, ngenhloso yokuchusha nokuthubeleza esimweni senhlalo-masiko esiyinkimbinkimbi futhi esiziphikisayo, esikwenza kokubili ukuvumela kanye nokuvimbela. Elinye futhi igalelo lalolu cwaningo lwamanje liphathelene nezinkambiso ezifakwe zagxila emazingeni amabili ahlukene ngokucacile phakathi kwenhlangano kanye nomuntu ngamunye, ahunyushwe ngokuphikisana okulandela izimpawu eziyindida futhi ezingaqondakali kahle eziboniswa yilawa mazinga amabili amakhulu. Ukuncikana nokuxhasana okuntekenteke phakathi kwalawa mazinga, okuyinhlangano kanye nomuntu ngamunye, kwakha uhlaka oluxhumene lapho kunzima ukutomula nokugagula ngokucacile izingxenye ezakhe izenzo nezinyathelo zenhlangano ezingxenyeni ezakhe izenzo zomuntu ngamunye, ngaphandle kokuqaqa nokuhlukanisa ingxenye ngayinye eyakhe inhlangano ebumbene. Lawa magalelo ocwaningo aqininisekisa futhi asekele indida-mqondo (intellectual puzzle) ebihlose ukuqonda kanye/noma ukubuyisa ukuzimelela komuntu ngamunye esimweni senhlalo-masiko yenhlangano ukuze kuzuzwe ukuvikeleka kwenhlangano nozinzo-kulingana (equilibrium) emva koguquko olwenzekile enhlanganweni. Imiphumelangqangi etholakale kulolu cwaningo lwamanje ayinakuthathwa njengemiphumela engaphinde isetshenziswe futhi iqondaniswe nezimo ezitholakala kwezinye izikhungo eziyisikhombisa zomhlinzeki we-PHE.
Business Management
M. Com. (Business Management)