Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Management and coordination activity'

De nombreuses catastrophes de diverses envergures frappent régulièrement des populations partout dans le monde. Parmi les exemples marquant on peut citer l'ouragan Katrina en 2005, le tremblement de terre en Haïti en 2010 ou plus récemment le Tsunami au Japon et la catastrophe de Fukujima qui a suivie. Au cours de ces catastrophes, plusieurs centaines d'organisations, comme la police, les pompiers ou les organisations d'aide humanitaire, interviennent pour sauver les gens et aider à revenir à une vie normale. Ces organisations ont besoin de se coordonner pour faire face à une situation dynamique avec des ressources limitées et une vision partielle de la situation. L'évolution de la situation entraîne souvent des changements d'objectif et de plan. Un des problèmes typique est d'obtenir un aperçu sur les relations entre ce qui a été fait, ce qui se passe actuellement et quelles sont les prochaines étapes. Ce problème est particulièrement difficile sur le plan inter-organisationnel : Chaque organisation coordonne la réponse de sa propre perspective et s'appuie sur les informations fournies par d'autres organisations. Notre objectif dans cette thèse est d'étudier comment supporter la coordination des activités par des personnes de différentes organisations dans une situation dynamique par un système d'information. L'idée de base est de tirer profit d'une approche basée sur les processus, où les activités et leurs relations sont rendues explicites. Nous présentons un cadre pour la coordination des activités dans des situations dynamiques. Il permet la modélisation ad hoc des relations entre ce qui a été fait, ce qui se passe actuellement et quelles sont les prochaines étapes. Les écarts par rapport au modèle et comment les activités ont été réalisées sont affichées à l'utilisateur pour mettre en évidence l'impact de l'évolution des objectifs. Nous étendons ce cadre au niveau inter-organisationnel. Certaines activités peuvent être partagées entre différentes organisations. Tout n'est pas partagé entre tout le monde pour tenir compte du respect de la vie privée, de la réglementation, des raisons stratégiques ou autres. Les activités partagées sont reproduites dans les espaces de travail de ces organisations. Nous décrivons comment des vues divergentes sur les activités et leurs relations peuvent etre détectées et traitées afin de revenir éventuellement à une vue convergente. Les concepts sont mis en oeuvre comme une extension d'un service de collaboration distribuée ouvert. Ils ont été évalués par des gestionnaires de catastrophes expérimentés. Par ailleurs, nous avons conçu une expérience visant à évaluer l'utilisation d'outils pour aborder ces question. Nous avons effectué plusieurs expériences pour valider cette expérience. D'autres expériences pourront fournir une validation plus complété du modèle proposé dans cette thèse
Recently we have seen several large scale disasters affecting humans all over the world. Examples are Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 or the September 11/2001 terrorist attacks on the world trade center. During these disasters, several hundred organizations, such as police, fire brigade or humanitarian aid organizations, respond with the goal to save people and support them to live a normal life again. They need to coordinate to deal with scarce resources, different skills and capabilities. People in these organizations drive coordination based on their judgment of the situation. The situation can be dynamic: it evolves in sometimes unexpected ways, goals shift and priorities of the organizations change. Typical problems are to get an overview on the relations between what has been done, what is currently going on and what are the next steps. This problem is specially challenging on the inter-organizational level: Each organization coordinates the response from its own perspective and relies on the information provided by other organizations. We aim in this dissertation at supporting coordination of activities by people of different organizations in a dynamic situation by an information system. The disaster response is a critical example for this. The basic idea is to leverage a process-based approach, where activities and their relations are made explicit. We present a framework for coordination of activities in dynamic situations. It allows ad-hoc modeling of the relations between what has been done, what is currently going on and what are the next steps. A model can be verified for correctness in predictable and acceptable time. Deviations from the model and how activities have been performed are displayed to the user to highlight the impact of shifting goals. We extend this framework to the inter-organizational level. Selected activities can be shared by people with selected organizations. This means not everything is shared between everybody to take into account privacy, regulatory, strategic or other reasons. Shared activities are replicated in the workspaces of these organizations. We describe how diverging views on replicated activities and their relations can be detected and handled to ensure eventually a converging view. The concepts are implemented as an extension to an open distributed collaboration service. They are also commented by experienced disaster managers. Furthermore, we design an experiment to evaluate tool support addressing the research questions. We conducted several experiments to validate the design of the experiment. Further experiments can provide validation of the concepts implemented as a prototype in this thesis

Kiekvienoje organizacijoje galima aptikti daugelį veiklos sričių, kuriose vyksta įvairūs žinių valdymo procesai: žinių identifikavimas, žinių įgijimas, žinių plėtojimas, dalijimasis žiniomis ir žinių platinimas, žinių panaudojimas, žinių išsaugojimas, apsauga (Probst ir kt., 2006, p. 40). Šis darbas yra skirtas savivaldybės darbuotojų neformaliam dalijimuisi žiniomis koordinavimo veiklos situacijoje. Savivaldybės, kaip ir visos kitos Lietuvos organizacijos, šiais laikais išgyvena įvairias, dažniausiai glaudžiai tarpusavyje susietas transformacijas: giluminę restruktūrizaciją, veiklos perorientavimą, personalo kaitą ir kt. Kad ir kuo besireikštų šios transformacijos, kad ir kokioje veiklos situacijoje, tenka konstatuoti faktą, kad savivaldybės susiduria su tam tikrais iššūkiais, pavyzdžiui, biudžeto mažinimu, veiklos fragmentiškumu, organizacijos žinių praradimu, pasitraukus iš veiklos ar pasikeitus kai kuriems darbuotojams. Tai atsiliepia teikiamų paslaugų kokybei.
Each organization can be found in many areas of activity , which hosts a variety of knowledge management processes : knowledge identification , knowledge acquisition, knowledge development , knowledge sharing and dissemination of knowledge , knowledge utilization , knowledge preservation , protection ( Probst et al . , 2006, p . 40) . This work is intended for municipal workers informal knowledge-sharing activities coordination situation. Municipalities , as well as all other Lithuanian organizations these days are going through various , often closely interconnected transformations : the deep restructuring, reorientation activities , personnel changes , etc. . Whatever you besireikštų this transformation , and the activities that situation have to state the fact that municipalities are faced with some challenges, such as budget cuts, fragmentary activity , the organization of knowledge loss , withdrawal from activity or changes in the staff. This affects the quality of services .

Muovendo dalla complessità e diversificazione del reale, il lavoro si confronta con il fenomeno del «cash pooling» nei gruppi societari, privilegiando un approccio di tipo contrattuale. In questa prospettiva, che muove dalle implicazioni conseguenti all'utilizzo dello strumento contrattuale da parte dell'impresa di gruppo, l'analisi dei profili strutturali dei modelli che compongono l'operatività suggerisce di abbandonare soluzioni di respiro unificante o generale, per riconoscere la pluralità e la variabilità di funzioni che possono contraddistinguere queste operazioni. Sulla base di tale conclusione il lavoro si concentra altresì su alcuni dei più importanti profili disciplinari di un singolo, e diffuso, modello di cash pooling, caratterizzato da un'apertura di credito esclusiva nei confronti della società pooler.
The thesis analyzes cash pooling in company groups. Following an investigation of the current state of the practice through the assessment of various contractual models, the thesis argues against the adoption of a unifying or general model, which would not allow for the recognition of the various functions and goals which can be achieved through cash pooling. Based on the foregoing, the thesis also focuses on some of the most important disciplinary profiles concerning a single, widely-adopted, cash pooling model, characterized by an exclusive line of credit to the pooler.

The brain is a complex multiscale dynamical system made of neurons, connected with each other by synapses. Neurons are multidimensional nonlinear systems able to exhibit dynamical activities at different temporal and spatial scales. The correct operation of the brain requires a carefully orchestrated activity across these scales, which includes the establishment of synchronized behavior within and among multiple neuronal populations. In this thesis we study different collective dynamical phenomena in brain networks that reveal exquisite coordination, by means of different models of cortical neuronal networks. First we study temporally coordinated patterns in the thalamus. During the sleep and awake states, this brain area is characterized by the presence of two dynamical regimes: in the sleep state the activity is dominated by spindle oscillations, weakly affected by external stimuli, while in the awake state the activity is primarily driven by external stimuli. We have developed a simple thalamic model that exhibits two dynamical regimes with different information-processing capabilities, and study the transition between them. Our results give a novel description of the role that thalamocortical and reticular thalamic cells, and their connectivity, play in the dynamical regimes observed in the thalamus, and in the transition between them. Secondly we study the synchronization of neuronal oscillations in the gamma range. Collective oscillations emerging from the synchronized activity of several neurons can increase the functional connectivity between neural assemblies by coherently coordinating their phases. This synchrony could involve distant regions in the brain. We study the dynamics of two delayed-coupled populations using spiking models, examining how different synaptic delays give rise to in-phase/anti-phase transitions at particular frequencies within the gamma range, how this behavior is related to the phase coherence between the two populations at different frequencies and how information is exchanged between the two networks. The results confirm that zero-lag synchronization maximizes information transmission, although out-of-phase synchronization allows for efficient communication under specific conditions. The brain self-organizes in different spatiotemporal organized patterns across temporal and spatial scales. We examine how these scales interact in the functioning brain, by considering the coupled behavior of two mesoscopic neural masses (NM) that communicate with each other through a microscopic neuronal network (NN). We use the synchronization between the two NM models as a tool to probe the interaction between the mesoscopic scales of those neural populations and the microscopic scale of the mediating NN. Our results show that the neuronal network, which operates at a fast temporal scale, is indeed sufficient to mediate coupling between the two mesoscopic oscillators, which evolve dynamically at a slower scale. We also establish how this synchronization depends on the topological properties of the microscopic NN. When synchronized neuronal oscillations exhibit a consistent phase pattern across recording sites, spatiotemporal phenomena arise in the form of brain waves. We study traveling waves emerging from a one-dimensional network of inhibitory neurons with asymmetric synaptic coupling. These networks exhibit anomalous dispersion with counter-intuitive backward propagating waves. When neurons at the head of the chain are periodically forced, waves emerge with wavefronts moving in a direction opposite to that of the synaptic connectivity. We investigate the generality of this phenomenon by studying an integrate-and-fire continuum model approximation, and derive a self-consistency condition for the existence of traveling waves which allows the calculation of the dispersion curve. Our results reveal how wave propagation depends on a variety of neuronal properties.
El cerebro es un complejo sistema dinámico multiescala de neuronas, que se conectan a través de conexiones sinápticas. Las neuronas son sistemas no lineales multidimensionales con actividad dinámica en diferentes escalas temporales y espaciales. El correcto funcionamiento del cerebro requiere una actividad cuidadosamente orquestada a través de estas escalas, que incluye el establecimiento de un comportamiento sincronizado tanto entre las neuronas de una población neuronal como entre varias poblaciones neuronales, que es el objeto de estudio de esta Tesis. Primero estudiamos patrones coordinados temporalmente en el tálamo. Durante los estados de sueño y vigilia, esta área del cerebro se caracteriza por la presencia de dos regímenes dinámicos: en el estado de sueño la actividad está dominada por oscilaciones spindle, débilmente afectadas por estímulos externos, mientras que en estado de vigilia la actividad está impulsada principalmente por estímulos externos. Hemos desarrollado un modelo simple del tálamo que exhibe dos regímenes dinámicos con diferentes capacidades de procesamiento de la información, y hemos estudiado la transición entre ellos. Nuestros resultados ofrecen una novedosa descripción del papel que las células reticulares y talamocorticales, y su conectividad, juegan en los regímenes dinámicos observados en el tálamo y en la transición entre ellos. En segundo lugar estudiamos la sincronización de oscilaciones neuronales en el rango de ondas gamma. Las oscilaciones colectivas que emergen de la actividad sincronizada de grupos de neuronas pueden aumentar la conectividad funcional entre poblaciones neuronales coordinadas coherentemente en fase. Esto podría favorecer la sincronía de regiones distantes del cerebro. Estudiamos la dinámica de dos poblaciones acopladas con retardo mediante modelos de disparo neuronal, examinando cómo diferentes retrasos sinápticos dan lugar a transiciones de fase en determinadas frecuencias dentro del rango de gamma, observando cómo este comportamiento está relacionado con la coherencia de fase entre dos poblaciones con diferentes frecuencias y cómo se intercambia información entre las dos redes. Los resultados confirman que la sincronización a retraso cero maximiza la transmisión de información, aunque incluso sin sincronización de fase se puede dar una comunicación eficiente bajo condiciones específicas. Examinamos cómo interactúan estas escalas en el funcionamiento cerebral, considerando el comportamiento de dos modelos mesoscópicos de masa neural acoplados que se comunican entre sí a través de una red neuronal microscópica. Utilizamos la sincronización entre los dos modelos de masa neural como una herramienta para investigar la interacción entre la escala mesoscópico de esas poblaciones neuronales y la escala microscópica de la red neuronal. Nuestros resultados muestran que la red neuronal, que opera en una escala temporal rápida, es, de hecho, suficiente para mediar el acoplamiento entre los dos osciladores mesoscópicos, que evolucionan dinámicamente en una escala más lenta. También establecemos cómo esta sincronización depende de las propiedades topológicas de la red neuronal microscópica. Cuando oscilaciones neuronales sincronizadas exhiben un patrón de fase coherente en distintos puntos de medida del tejido neural, se puede inferir la existencia de fenómenos espaciotemporales en forma de ondas cerebrales. Estudiamos dichas ondas en una red unidimensional de neuronas inhibidoras con acoplamiento sináptico asimétrica. Estas redes presentan dispersión anómala con una propagación en la dirección opuesta a la del acoplamiento. Investigamos la generalidad de este fenómeno mediante una aproximación continua al modelo integrate-and-fire, que nos permite obtener una condición de consistencia para la existencia de ondas viajeras, que permite el cálculo de la curva de dispersión. Nuestros resultados revelan cómo la propagación de la onda depende de diversas propiedades neuronales

Primarily via constructivist teaching experiment methodology, units coordination (Steffe, 1992) has emerged as a useful construct for modeling students' psychological constructions pertaining to several mathematical domains, including counting sequences, whole number multiplicative conceptions, and fractions schemes. I describe how consideration of units coordination as a Piagetian (1970b) structure is useful for modeling units coordination across contexts. In this study, I extend teaching experiment methodology (Steffe and Thompson, 2000) to model the dynamics of students' units coordinating activity across contexts within a teaching experiment, using the construct of propensity to coordinate units. Two video-recorded teaching experiments involving pairs of sixth-grade students were analyzed to form a model of the dynamics of students' units coordinating activity. The modeling involved separation of transcriptions into chunks that were coded dichotomously for the units coordinating activity of a single student in each dyad. The two teaching experiments were used to form 5 conjectures about the output of the model that were then tested with a third teaching experiment. The results suggest that modeling units coordination activity via the construct of propensity to coordinate units was useful for describing patterns in the students' perturbations during the teaching sessions. The model was moderately useful for identifying sequences of interactions that support growth in units coordination. Extensions, modifications, and implications of the modeling approach are discussed.
Ph. D.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between parental factors and physical activity in children with DCD. The role of parental knowledge about DCD was also examined via a new questionnaire which was developed for this study (PUMP-Q). The psychometric properties of this questionnaire were assessed. A total of 124 parent-child dyads participated in the current study, including 48 pairs in the DCD group and 72 pairs in the control group. Children were aged eight to ten years. Parents completed questionnaires measuring: (i) their own physical activity levels (ii) beliefs about physical activity (iii) support of physical activity and (iv) knowledge about DCD. Children completed questionnaires examining (i) their physical activity levels and (ii) perceived physical competence. The design of the study was cross-sectional. Results suggest that parents of children with DCD may have an influence on the physical activity of children. Parental support of physical activity was most strongly related to children’s physical activity and also to perceived physical competence. Parental physical activity and parental beliefs about physical activity did not significantly relate to child physical activity. Parental knowledge about DCD was weakly positively related to child physical activity, however, this relationship just failed to reach significance. The PUMP-Q displayed adequate internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability. Evidence of construct validity is presented. In conclusion, the results of this study highlighted a strong relationship between parental support and physical activity for children with DCD. This indicates the importance of professionals involving parents in treatment of children with DCD to maximise treatment outcomes. Furthermore, it is suggested that they work with parents to create opportunities for the child to be active outside of the treatment room. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Since the late 1980s there has been a greater awareness of the need to manage organisational knowledge resources, which are seen as vital to the value proposition of any organisation. This has resulted in the development of a multiplicity of Organisational Knowledge Management (OKM) approaches, systems and processes. OKM as a concept is however experiencing a prolonged period of practitioner and academic dissatisfaction, which is impacting its credibility. Commentators claim that this emanates from the fact that a general model, as a diagnostic mechanism for the field, has not yet emerged, an indicator of immaturity in the field and a destabilising influence on practitioner confidence. This research sets out to explore OKM, with the aim of understanding and attempting to help address this dissatisfaction. The literature review focuses on environmental drivers of OKM as a concept from both practitioner and academic perspectives. This highlights a need for (1) an agreed definition of purpose for OKM systems and (2) a general diagnostic model or framework for those systems that identifies common constructs across sectors or geographic locations. In turn, these require appropriate research evidence. The research reported on in this thesis utilises Soft Systems Methodology as a framework for enquiry. By means of a meta-analysis of literature, the enquiry progresses to a descriptive survey, with findings being illustrated and analysed through fractal analysis. The data is then compared against a sample of models from the field before being translated into a new OKM diagnostic model and supporting toolkit, using logic modelling and a Participatory Integrated Assessment Tool. The application of these to a case study, carried out within in a large multinational organisation, is reported on and evaluated. Findings are that 'self-similarity' exists across existing views of OKM; that the need for knowledge to be used as an organisational resource is a persistent one; that a methodology can be developed that reacts to the needs of academics and practitioners in responding to the challenges from the field; that a proposition for a general organisation diagnostic model is possible; that a robust evidence-based definition for the concept, as well as a general diagnostic model for the coordination of organisational knowledge resources is needed and are provided; and that such a general diagnostic tool, such as has been developed in the research on which this thesis is based, can be applied within an organisation to identify gaps in systems designed to coordinate organisational knowledge resources.

Background: In the eighties the debate concerning the declining relevance of the traditional calculation started. The reason was that the method of calculating not had been changed despite that the costs and manufacturing had changed in many companies. This led to the development of activity-based costing. Management by means of activity information is called activity-based management, but there is no general accepted definition of what the term com- prises. Neither are there any studies which describe within which areas activity information is used as a base for decisions.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe in which situations activity information is used as a base for different decisions, and to define the term activity-based management.

Method: The approach taken is qualitative. A total of 13 telephone interviews with four different companies, three producers and one wholesale firm, have been carried out.

Results: Activity information is used as a base for decisions principally in situations that concerns changes in the operational work through management of processes, price and product changes and costumer profitability. Changes within these areas may concern increases in efficiency and effectiveness, and changes in price, assortment and focus on different costumers. In a long perspective these changes may lead to an increase in the profitability. From the studied empirical applications we formulated the following definition of the ABM- term: “The use of activity information as a support for decisions, which concerns securing the companies profitability and to make activities and processes visible and in that way make improvements possible.”

This internship report reviews the privately owned, for-profit entity South By Southwest (SXSW), and the main festival it produces each March. The report includes an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and offers suggestions for improvements. The history of SXSW, a description of volunteer programs, and a breakdown of the staff structure provide a basic understanding of the organization. For the purpose of this internship report, the timeframe being reviewed covers January through May 2014.

Disaster scholarship and recent disaster policy in the United States have suggested that coordination of efforts in the disaster recovery process will allow impacted jurisdictions to maximize positive recovery outcomes. Yet it remains unclear exactly who should be, or is, coordinating disaster recovery at the local level. This study explored the role of county elected officials in disaster recovery in an attempt to understand what role these elected officials currently play in the recovery process?particularly as related to the coordination of recovery efforts. During the initial data collection process, the researcher discovered that the role of county elected officials in disaster recovery appears to be consistent with their routine, day-to-day role in county government. No one person within the impacted counties was charged with a coordinator role in recovery. The researcher expanded the focus of the study to explore whether there were disaster conditions that necessitate overall coordination in order to best negotiate the recovery process and, if so, who was fulfilling that overall coordination role and what were they doing as part of it. Data was initially collected through 20 in-depth, telephone interviews with county elected officials in twelve states. Grounded theory was used to conceptualize the overall research design and analyze the data. Based on theoretical sampling, an additional 22 in-depth, telephone interviews were completed with a combination of county elected officials, emergency managers, designated recovery coordinators, and municipal mayors. The data showed that overall coordination in disaster recovery as implied by the literature and supported in federal policy did not appear to be currently happening?at least not at the county level. Coordination?to the extent that it was occurring in most jurisdictions?could best be described as in pockets and ad hoc. However, the study was unable to determine the extent to which this absence of coordination represents a problem in recovery. Based on the findings of this research, it would seem that there is a discrepancy between the literature-based idealization of coordination in recovery and the ad hoc coordination materializing in practice that needs to be addressed by both researchers and practitioners.

This research is an analysis of the major challenges and barriers confronted when considering civil-military coordination in disaster operations. The main objective of this study was to investigate Swedish civil-military governmental organizations strengths and weaknesses together with the intention of increasing civil-military coordination. This study is conducted, to provide knowledge on progress understanding the challenges for civil-military coordination for Sweden.   The main conclusion of the research addresses the findings from Swedish organizations views about conditions for coordination. Also the implications of coordination based on real-life experiences, such as the Haiti earthquake, into a greater civil-military coordinating in disaster operations. Based on this analysis the Swedish organizations paradox remains that; at the same time of increasing demands on efficiency and effectiveness measuring organization’s performances, it presently has also the further demands and growing requests of military involvement in humanitarian operations. Thus, the issue of coordination becomes even more obvious amongst governmental organizations, in such way that it is challenging the current political policies, strategies and mandates, governing organizations today. Coordination becomes evident and illustrates the need for organizational changes; from traditional methods and processes, to a more useful and business oriented operations. Of which, greater efficiency and effectiveness should be the desired output. The question of coordination in disaster operations represents also motivation for organizations, to develop areas of performance in which greater use of their resources and capabilities can be achieved. In view of these, logistical challenges, including clear differences in capabilities, values and focus that make organizations develop in different ways; good examples of coordination were presented. These were intended as a foundation for further discussions among Swedish governmental organizations. Unresolved still, is whether increasing civil-military coordination is a marginal activity in the logistics area and consequently preventing the duplication and overlapping of tasks. Thus, it is more of an integrated activity that seeks to complement responses only partly, or is it more of a single strategy reaching higher effectiveness and efficiency of national resources?  Finally, the empirical findings are highlighting the need for a coherent governance of the humanitarian issue in Sweden. Therefore signifying, the need for greater trust and understanding of each other which should be regarded as the most important factors in the development of efficient civil-military coordination. Including, the need for a national coordination platform in which organizations can coordinate and develop capability for coordination.

The current study examined the effects of three speech conditions (voiced, whispered, mouthed) on articulatory kinematics at the sentence and word level. Participants included 20 adults (10 males, 10 females) with no history of speech, language, or hearing disorders. Participants read aloud six target utterances in the three different speaking conditions while articulatory kinematics were measured using the NDI Wave electromagnetic articulograph. The following articulators were examined: mid tongue, front of tongue, jaw, lower lip, and upper lip. One of the target utterances was chosen for analysis (It's time to shop for two new suits) at the sentence level and then further segmented for more detailed analysis of the word time. Results revealed a number of significant changes between the voiced and mouthed conditions for all articulators at the sentence level. Significant increases in sentence duration, articulatory stroke count, and stroke duration as well as significant decreases in peak stroke speed, stroke distance, and hull volume were found in the mouthed condition at the sentence level when compared to the voiced condition. Peak velocity significantly decreased in the mouthed condition at the word level, but overall the sentence level measures were more sensitive to change. These findings suggest that both laryngeal activation and auditory feedback may be necessary in the production of normally articulate speech, and that the absence of these may account for the significant changes between the voiced and mouthed conditions.

KUEHNEN, STEFAN ALEXANDER. Model Based Conceptual Communication Design in Coordination Systems (under the Direction of Dr. Padmini Srinivasan-Hands and Dr. Samuel C. Winchester)The purpose of this research has been to investigate the feasibility of developing a model-based method for conceptual communication design in coordination systems. Business process modeling methodologies are surveyed and the methodology of choice, Actionworkflow?, is presented. As the basis for method development Language/Action and Speech Act theories, underlying the Actionworkflow? methodology, are examined for potential concepts aiding the development of the method. Their history and surrounding philosophies are presented. Critique of the Actionworkflow? methodology is presented and discussed.The major focus of the research is the development of the model-based method to conceptually design communications in coordination systems. Its development, structure and components are presented and explained. The method is illustrated with a simple, everyday-life, application example. Applications of the method to examine web-based e-commerce sites are presented. It has been determined that the application for these environments is insightful. The examples discussed are ebay, an auction provider, e-trade, an on-line broker, and priceline.com, a purchasing service applying a unique process for the purchase of services and goods. Consequently the application of the method to establish the feasibility of designing coordination support systems for textile new product development is provided. Coordination model development and design of communications are discussed in parallel. Application results show that the method can successfully be used for conceptually designing coordination support systems, although practical issues have to be further investigated.Finally underlying assumptions are displayed and discussed, model validation provided, performance evaluation, as to the goals set forth for the research undertaken, and recommendations for future research provided.

This study is about the coordination of complex systems’ development. A Framework has been designed and deployed by the author in the development practice of Ericsson, a major supplier of telecommunication systems on the global market. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impacts on coordination from the Framework. The development projects are very large and subject to turbulent market conditions. Moreover, they have many participants (often several thousand), have tight time constraints and are distributed to many design centres all over the world. In these projects, coordination of the development is of crucial importance. The Framework is grounded in a tentative theory called the Activity Domain Theory, which in turn is based on the praxis philosophy. In this theory the interaction between the individual and her environment is mediated by signs. Coordination is conceived as a particular activity domain which provides coordination to the development projects. The coordination domain is gradually constructed by the actors in this domain by iteratively refining a conceptual model, a process model, a transition model, a stabilizing core and information system support. In this process individual knowledge, shared meaning and organizational artefacts evolve in a dialectical manner. The Framework has been introduced in the Ericsson development practice over a period of more than ten years. Between 1999 and 2002 approximately 140 main projects and sub-projects at Ericsson have been impacted by the Framework. These projects were distributed to more than 20 different development units around the world and were carried out in a fiercely turbulent environment. The findings indicate that the Framework has had a profound impact on the coordination of the development of the most complex nodes in the 3rd generation of mobile systems. The knowledge contributions include an account for the history of the Framework at Ericsson and an identification of elements which contribute to successful outcomes of development projects.
The electronic version of the printed dissertation is a corrected version where all spelling and grammatical errors are corrected. Errors in tables has been corrected as in the errata above.

The envisioned rapid and exponential increase of wireless data traffic demand in the next years imposes rethinking current cellular networks due to the available spectrum scarcity. In this regard, 3 main drivers are considered to increase the capacity of today's most advanced (4G) and future (5G and beyond) cellular networks: use more bandwidth (more Hz) through spectral aggregation, enhance the spectral efficiency per base station (BS) (more bits/s/Hz/BS) by using multi-antenna (i.e. MIMO) systems, and increase the density of BSs (more BSs/km2) through a dense and heterogeneous deployment. We focus on the last 2 drivers. First, the use of MIMO systems allows exploiting the spatial dimension for improving the capacity of a conventional point-to-point link, increasing the number of served users, and reducing unwanted emissions (interference). Second, dense heterogeneous networks are a simple and cost-effective way to boost the area spectral efficiency by densifying the network and improving the spatial re-use of the spectrum. However, increasing the BSs density entails two main technical challenges: the interference increases because neighboring BSs/users are nearer and the amount of data traffic, as well as downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) traffic asymmetry, varies over space and time more drastically since the number of users per BS is reduced. The increase of interference makes the development of efficient interference management techniques a key enabler for MIMO dense heterogeneous networks. On the other hand, the variability of the per-BS traffic amount and the DL/UL traffic asymmetry convert flexible duplexing (i.e. flexible allocation of DL/UL resources per BS) into a necessity for an efficient resource usage. Therefore, the development of resource management schemes capable of adapting to the varying traffic load, as well as interference management, becomes crucial. Accordingly, this thesis focuses on the development of advanced interference management techniques to deal with inter-cell interference in MIMO dense networks and on the design of traffic- and interference-aware resource management schemes for flexible duplexing systems in asymmetric traffic conditions. To these goals, the wide deployment of MIMO systems is capitalized to develop advanced multi-antenna signal processing techniques when full reuse of time and frequency resources among densely deployed BSs is adopted. In the first part, different statistical characterizations of the transmitted signals are analyzed to improve the capacity of wireless interference-limited MIMO channels. Advanced signaling schemes are developed and the use of improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) is investigated, which allows exploiting the real and imaginary dimensions of MIMO channels. Majorization theory is exploited to demonstrate the strict superiority of IGS. In the second part, transmit coordination strategies are proposed to manage interference in extremely dense cellular networks. The design of BSs transmit strategies (involving design of spatial transmit/receive filters, power control, and user scheduling) is coordinated to optimize different network functions while reducing the stringent requirements needed for channel estimation in dense networks. Coordination strategies for the case in which different signaling schemes coexist in the network are also derived. Further, coordination strategies for cluster-based joint transmissions are developed, where BSs are grouped into clusters and different clusters interfere to each other. The third part focuses on the design of traffic- and interference-aware duplexing techniques to make a better use of the available resources by taking into account the asymmetric traffic conditions that arise in dense networks and managing the new kinds of interference that come up under flexible duplexing. Short-term and long-term optimizations are investigated, being therefore the interference managed instantaneously and statistically, respectively.
L'augment ràpid i exponencial previst per a la demanda de tràfic de dades en els pròxims anys imposa redissenyar les xarxes cel·lulars actuals degut a l'escassetat de l'espectre radioelèctric disponible. Es consideren 3 eixos directors per augmentar la capacitat dels sistemes més avançats d'avui dia (4G) i del futur (5G i més enllà): utilitzar més ample de banda (més Hz), millorar l'eficiència espectral per estació base (BS) (més bits/s/Hz/BS) utilitzant sistemes multi-antena (MIMO) i incrementar la densitat de BSs (més BSs/km2) a través d'un desplegament dens i heterogeni. Ens centrem en els 2 últims eixos. En primer lloc, l'ús de sistemes MIMO permet explotar la dimensió espacial per millorar la capacitat d'un enllaç convencional punt a punt, incrementar el nombre d'usuaris servits i reduir emissions indesitjades (interferències). En segon lloc, les xarxes denses i heterogènies són una manera simple i rentable de millorar l'eficiència espectral per àrea a través de la densificació de la xarxa i la reutilització espacial de l'espectre. No obstant això, l'increment de la densitat de BSs planteja dos principals reptes tècnics: les interferències augmenten perquè BSs/usuaris veïns estan més propers i la quantitat de tràfic de dades, així com l'asimetria del tràfic de baixada (DL) i de pujada (UL), fluctua amb el temps i l'espai més dràsticament ja que el nombre d'usuaris per BS és reduït. Per tant, un factor clau per a les xarxes MIMO denses i heterogènies és el desenvolupament de tècniques eficients de gestió d'interferències. D'altra banda, la variabilitat de la quantitat i asimetria del tràfic converteix en una necessitat el duplexat flexible (és a dir, assignacions flexibles de recursos DL/UL per BS) per aconseguir un ús eficient dels recursos. Així doncs, es torna crucial el desenvolupament d'esquemes de gestió de recursos capaços d'adaptar-se a càrregues de tràfic variable i, a la vegada, gestionar interferències. Aquesta tesi es centra en el desenvolupament de tècniques avançades de gestió d'interferències per combatre interferències entre cel·les en xarxes MIMO denses i en el disseny d'esquemes de gestió de recursos que tenen en compte el tràfic i la interferència per a sistemes de duplexat flexible en condicions asimètriques de tràfic. Per aconseguir aquests objectius, s'aprofita l'ampli desplegament de sistemes MIMO per desenvolupar tècniques avançades de processament de senyals quan s'adopta reutilització completa de recursos entre BSs densament desplegades. En la primera part, s'analitzen diferents caracteritzacions estadístiques dels senyals transmesos per millorar la capacitat dels canals limitats per interferència. Es deriven esquemes de senyalització avançats i s'investiga l'ús de la senyalització Gaussiana improper, la qual permet explotar les dimensions reals i imaginàries dels canals MIMO. En la segona part, es proposen estratègies de transmissió coordinades per gestionar interferències en xarxes denses. El disseny de les estratègies de transmissió a les BSs (incloent: disseny de filtres espacials en transmissió/recepció, control de potència i selecció d'usuaris) és coordinat per optimitzar diferents funcions de xarxa mentre que es redueixen els estrictes requisits d'estimació de canal en xarxes denses. També s'analitzen estratègies de coordinació per al cas en què diferents esquemes de senyalització coexisteixen. A més, es deriven estratègies de coordinació per a transmissions conjuntes basades en grups, on les BSs s'agrupen en grups i grups veïns s'interfereixen entre si. La tercera part es centra en el disseny de tècniques de duplexat flexible que tenen en compte tràfic i interferència per fer un millor ús dels recursos disponibles, considerant condicions de tràfic asimètriques i gestionant els nous tipus d'interferències que apareixen sota el duplexat flexible. S'investiguen optimitzacions a curt i a llarg termini, sent llavors la interferència gestionada instantàniament i estadísticament, respectivament.
El aumento rápido y exponencial previsto para la demanda de tráfico de datos en los próximos años impone rediseñar las redes celulares inalámbricas actuales debido a la escasez del espectro radioeléctrico disponible. En este sentido, se consideran tres ejes directores para aumentar la capacidad de las redes celulares más avanzadas de hoy en día (sistemas 4G) y las del futuro (sistemas 5G y más allá): - utilizar más ancho de banda (más Hz) a través de la agregación de espectro, - mejorar la eficiencia espectral por estación base (BS) (más bits/s/Hz/BS) utilizando múltiples antenas en las BSs y los usuarios (sistemas MIMO), e - incrementar la densidad de BSs (más BSs/km2) mediante un despliegue denso y heterogéneo (conocido como redes densas y heterogéneas). Esta tesis se centra en los dos últimos ejes directores. En primer lugar, el uso de sistemas multi-antena permite explotar la dimensión espacial con varias finalidades: mejorar la capacidad de un enlace inalámbrico convencional punto a punto, incrementar el número de usuarios servidos y reducir emisiones indeseadas (interferencias). En segundo lugar, las redes densas y heterogéneas son una manera simple y rentable de mejorar la eficiencia espectral por área a través de la densificación de la red con BSs de diferentes características y de la reutilización espacial del espectro radioeléctrico. Sin embargo, el incremento de la densidad de BSs plantea dos principales desafíos técnicos: - las interferencias en la red aumentan porque BSs/usuarios vecinos están más próximos y - la cantidad de tráfico de datos, así como la asimetría del tráfico de bajada (DL) y de subida (UL), fluctúa con el tiempo y el espacio más drásticamente debido a que el número de usuarios por BS se reduce. El aumento de interferencias en la red hace que un factor clave para las redes MIMO densas y heterogéneas sea el desarrollo de técnicas eficientes de gestión de interferencias. Pero, a medida que avanzamos hacia redes más densas, la gestión de interferencias se convierte cada vez en un reto más desafiante. Por otro lado, la variabilidad de la cantidad de tráfico de datos por BS y de la asimetría del tráfico DL/UL convierten en una necesidad el duplexado flexible (es decir, asignaciones flexibles y dinámicas de recursos DL/UL por BS, ya sea en el dominio temporal o frecuencial) para conseguir un uso eficiente de los recursos radio que satisfaga las cargas de tráfico no uniformes en espacio y variantes en tiempo. Por lo tanto, se vuelve crucial el desarrollo de esquemas de gestión de recursos capaces de adaptarse a cargas de tráfico variable y de, a su vez, gestionar las interferencias. En este sentido, esta tesis doctoral se centra en: 1. el desarrollo de técnicas avanzadas de gestión de interferencias para hacer frente a las interferencias entre celdas en redes celulares MIMO densas, y 2. el diseño de esquemas de gestión de recursos que tengan en cuenta el tráfico y la interferencia para sistemas de duplexado flexible bajo condiciones de tráfico asimétricas. Para alcanzar estos objetivos, se aprovecha el amplio despliegue de sistemas MIMO con el fin de desarrollar técnicas multi-antena avanzadas de procesado de señales cuando se adopta un reúso completo de los recursos en tiempo y en frecuencia entre BSs densamente desplegadas en la red. En la primera parte de la tesis, se analizan diferentes caracterizaciones estadísticas de las señales de transmisión para mejorar la capacidad de los canales inalámbricos interferentes. En este sentido, se desarrollan esquemas de señalización avanzados y se investiga el uso de la señalización Gaussiana improper (IGS), la cual permite aprovechar las dimensiones reales e imaginarias de los canales de propagación MIMO mediante la división de una dimensión espacial en dos mitades. La teoría de la majorización se explota para demostrar la superioridad estricta de IGS. Después, los beneficios de IGS se aplican a diferentes escenarios MIMO limitados por interferencia. Otra forma de gestionar la interferencia con reúso completo de los recursos frecuenciales es mediante la coordinación y/o cooperación de BSs. La coordinación entre BSs permite ajustar de manera coordinada las estrategias de transmisión de diferentes BSs con el objetivo de reducir el impacto de las interferencias en la red. Por el contrario, la cooperación entre BSs permite que las BSs actúen como un único transmisor multi-antena y tiene la gran ventaja de que convierte la interferencia en señal útil a través de la transmisión conjunta de BSs cooperativas hacia un mismo usuario. Sin embargo, la cooperación requiere sincronización estricta y alta capacidad de backhaul para compartir datos de usuario entre BSs. Por esta razón, en implementaciones prácticas, la cooperación sólo se puede lograr entre un número reducido de BSs (las cuales forman un grupo) y la coordinación entre grupos sigue siendo necesaria para hacer frente a las interferencias. Tanto la coordinación como la cooperación, ya sean implementadas de forma centralizada o descentralizada, requieren el conocimiento de todos los canales de propagación de la red, lo cual impone requisitos estrictos en cuanto a estimación de canal para la gestión de interferencias en redes densas. En la segunda parte de este trabajo se proponen estrategias de transmisión coordinadas para gestionar interferencias en las redes celulares extremadamente densas. El foco está en la transmisión DL. El diseño de las estrategias de transmisión en las BSs (incluyendo el diseño de los filtros espaciales de transmisión y recepción, el control de potencia y la selección de usuarios) es coordinado con tal de optimizar diferentes funciones de red (como, por ejemplo, la suma ponderada de las tasas de transmisión), mientras que se reducen los estrictos requisitos necesarios para estimación de canal en redes densas. También se analizan estrategias de coordinación para el caso en que diferentes esquemas de señalización (proper e improper) coexisten en la red. Además, la tesis deriva estrategias de coordinación para transmisiones conjuntas basadas en grupos, donde las BSs se agrupan en grupos formados por un número reducido de BSs cooperativas y grupos vecinos se interfieren entre sí. En este caso, la estrategia de transmisión se optimiza conjuntamente con la formación de los grupos. Por último, se aborda la gestión de recursos en sistemas de duplexado flexible, donde los recursos tienen que ser distribuidos adecuadamente entre las transmisiones DL y UL de acuerdo con las asimetrías y la cantidad de tráfico de cada BS. Bajo una reutilización de recursos en BSs densamente desplegadas, el uso del duplexado flexible conlleva cambios en la interferencia generada entre BSs y/o usuarios vecinos. Como consecuencia, surgen nuevos tipos de interferencias (como la interferencia de BS a BS). La tercera parte de la tesis se centra en el diseño de técnicas de duplexado flexible que tienen en cuenta el tráfico para la gestión de recursos y de interferencias. En contraste con las partes anteriores, se consideran transmisiones DL y UL para cada BS. El objetivo principal es hacer un mejor uso de los recursos tiempo/frecuencia disponible, teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de tráfico asimétricas que surgen en redes densas, así como la gestión de los nuevos tipos de interferencias que aparecen bajo sistemas de duplexado flexible. Se investigan optimizaciones a corto plazo y a largo plazo, siendo entonces la interferencia gestionada de manera instantánea y de manera estadística, respectivamente.

Demand side management (DSM) is a means to improve the energy efficiency, reduce the greenhouse gas emission, the consumers’ cost and the power grid investments. Due to the energy shortage and environmental problems, DSM has received more attention in recent decades. In this thesis, a micro grid consisted of 100 fridges is constructed to simulate the approach of DSM. The thermodynamic model of refrigeration system is simulated. Three schedulers are designed, implemented and programmed to execute the load switching based on the power curves. Simulations are carried out on Matlab. Results are analyzed and discussed based on the overall power consumption, average power and temperature.

Emergency management (EM) can benefit from new information and communication technology (ICT). However, the complexity of the field poses high demands upon prospective system developers. The design of technological support in a field where roles and actions are entwined and never completely predetermined, requires an understanding of interactions in the socio-technical system as a whole. In this thesis, an attempt is made to work from a Cognitive Systems Engineering stance to identify important characteristics of coordination in intermunicipal EM. Applying perspectives from distributed cognition, joint activity and common ground, Hollnagel’s COCOM and ECOM models have been applied to identify points of entry into work practices. Working with data from a simulated forest-fire in a role-playing exercise, an analysis of dialogues uncovered ambiguity in how functions are handled in a large event, indicating vulnerabilities in face of larger crises. In addition, it became evident that functions moved across roles during the evolving event, and it was possible to uncover recognizable phases of a response. The results underline characteristics that should be supported by future ICT, and occurrences that can be explored in future studies.

Depuis plusieurs années, nous constatons l'augmentation de l'utilisation des techniques d'agents et multiagent pour assister l'humain dans ses tâches. Ce travail de maîtrise se situe dans la même voie. Précisément, nous proposons d'utiliser les techniques multiagent de planification et de coordination pour la gestion de ressources dans les systèmes de commande et contrôle (C2) temps réel. Le problème particulier que nous avons étudié est la conception d'un système d'aide à la décision pour les opérations anti-aérienne sur les frégates canadiennes. Dans le cas où plusieurs frégates doivent se défendre contre des menaces, la coordination est un problème d'importance capitale. L'utilisation de mécanismes de coordination efficaces permet d'éviter les actions conflictuelles et la redondance dans les engagements. Dans ce mémoire, nous présentons quatre mécanismes de coordination basés sur le partage de tâche. Trois sont basés sur les communications : la coordination centrale, le Contract Net, la coordination similaire à celle proposée par Brown; tandis que la défense de zone est basée sur les lois sociales. Nous exposons enfin les résultats auxquels nous sommes arrivés en simulant ces différents mécanismes.
The use of agent and multiagent techniques to assist humans in their daily routines has been increasing for many years, notably in Command and Control (C2) systems. This thesis is is situated in this domain. Precisely, we propose to use multiagent planning and coordination techniques for resource management in real-time \acs{C2} systems. The particular problem we studied is the design of a decision-support for anti-air warfare on Canadian frigates. In the case of several frigates defending against incoming threats, multiagent coordination is a complex problem of capital importance. Better coordination mechanisms are important to avoid redundancy in engagements and inefficient defence caused by conflicting actions. In this thesis, we present four different coordination mechanisms based on task sharing. Three of these mechanisms are based on communications: central coordination, Contract Net coordination and Brown coordination, while the zone defence coordination is based on social laws. Finally, we expose the results obtained while simulating these various mechanisms.

The United States (U.S.) healthcare system is the most expensive in the world. To improve the quality and safety of care, health information technology (HIT) is broadly adopted in hospitals. While EHR systems form a critical data backbone for the facility, we need improved 'work-flow' coordination tools and platforms that can enhance real-time situational awareness and facilitate effective management of resources for enhanced and efficient care. Especially, these IT systems are mostly applied for reactive management of care services and are lacking when they come to improving the real-time "operational intelligence" of service networks that promote efficiency and quality of operations in a proactive manner. In particular, we leverage operations research and predictive analytics techniques to develop proactive coordination mechanisms and decision methods to improve the operational efficiency of bed management service in the network spanning the emergency department (ED) to inpatient units (IUs) in a hospital, a key component of healthcare in most hospitals. The purpose of this study is to deepen our knowledge on proactive coordination empowered by predictive analytics in dynamic healthcare environments populated by clinically heterogeneous patients with individual information changing throughout ED caregiving processes. To enable proactive coordination for improved resource allocation and patient flow in the ED-IU network, we address two components of modeling/analysis tasks, i.e., the design of coordination mechanisms and the generation of future state information for ED patients.

First, we explore the benefits of early task initiation for the service network spanning the emergency department (ED) and inpatient units (IUs) within a hospital. In particular, we investigate the value of proactive inpatient bed request signals from the ED to reduce ED patient boarding. Using data from a major healthcare system, we show that the EDs suffer from severe crowding and boarding not necessarily due to high IU bed occupancy but due to poor coordination of IU bed management activity. The proposed proactive IU bed allocation scheme addresses this coordination requirement without requiring additional staff resources. While the modeling framework is designed based on the inclusion of two analytical requirements, i.e., ED disposition decision prediction and remaining ED length of stay (LoS) estimation, the framework also accounts for imperfect patient disposition predictions and multiple patient sources (besides ED) to IUs. The ED-IU network setting is modeled as a fork-join queueing system. Unlike typical fork-join queue structures that respond identically to a transition, the proposed system exhibits state-dependent transition behaviors as a function of the types of entities being processed in servers. We characterize the state sets and sequences to facilitate analytical tractability. The proposed proactive bed allocation strategy can lead to significant reductions in bed allocation delay for ED patients (up to ~50%), while not increasing delays for other IU admission sources. We also demonstrate that benefits of proactive coordination can be attained even in the absence of highly accurate models for predicting ED patient dispositions. The insights from our models should give confidence to hospital managers in embracing proactive coordination and adaptive work flow technologies enabled by modern health IT systems.

Second, we investigate the quantitative modeling that analyzes the patterns of decreasing uncertainty in ED patient disposition decision making throughout the course of ED caregiving processes. The classification task of ED disposition decision prediction can be evaluated as a hierarchical classification problem, while dealing with temporal evolution and buildup of clinical information throughout the ED caregiving processes. Four different time stages within the ED course (registration, triage, first lab/imaging orders, and first lab/imaging results) are identified as the main milestone care stages. The study took place at an academic urban level 1 trauma center with an annual census of 100,000. Data for the modeling was extracted from all ED visits between May 2014 and April 2016. Both a hierarchical disposition class structure and a progressive prediction modeling approach are introduced and combined to fully facilitate the operationalization of prediction results. Multinomial logistic regression models are built for carrying out the predictions under three different classification group structures: (1) discharge vs. admission, (2) discharge vs. observation unit vs. inpatient unit, and (3) discharge vs. observation unit vs. general practice unit vs. telemetry unit vs. intensive care unit. We characterize how the accumulation of clinical information for ED patients throughout the ED caregiving processes can help improve prediction results for the three-different class groups. Each class group can enable and contribute to unique proactive coordination strategies according to the obtained future state information and prediction quality, to enhance the quality of care and operational efficiency around the ED. We also reveal that for different disposition classes, the prediction quality evolution behaves in its own unique way according to the gain of relevant information. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

The purpose of this study was to explore perceived physical competence and participation in physical activity of children with physical awkwardness. Children with physical awkwardness are those without known neuromuscular problems but who have difficulty in learning and performing motor skills. Participants were 135 children, 31 with physical awkwardness and 104 without any motor deficiency. The age ranged from 5 to 11 years. It was hypothesized that children with physical awkwardness would have lower levels of perceived physical competence and would participate less in physical activity than their nonawkward peers. Finally, a positive relationship between motor performance and perceived physical competence was expected.
There were no significant differences found in perceived physical competence between the two groups. However, nonawkward children participated significantly more in community sports and were significantly more active during free play than children with physical awkwardness. The results also indicated that the relationship between motor performance and perceived physical competence was very low in both groups. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

In modern informational society and dynamic business environment innovation is the only factor which can sustain long-run growth of certain country under the influence of global development gap, rapidly changing customer needs, high level of market competition. Besides it not only governments but more and more firms are realizing the importance of innovation to gain competitive advantage. Obviously, they are engaging themselves in various innovative activities, ranging from manufacturing processes, product improvement, and brand building initiatives. Firms are creating new products, solutions and services that provide a radically better experience for the consumers.

Le développement de composés de coordination biologiquement actifs (antimicrobiens, les anti-inflammatoires, les antifongiques, les anti-oxydants et les anticancéreux) est un domaine de la chimie inorganique en évolution rapide, susceptible d'avoir un impact direct sur l'amélioration de la qualité de la vie. Les complexes métallo-antibiotique tirent parti de l'effet synergique pour aboutir à une activité pharmacologique améliorée. La reconnaissance du rôle des ions métalliques dans les systèmes biologiques et dans le traitement de diverses maladies attire l'attention sur les avantages d'étudier l'interaction des ions métalliques avec les molécules de médicaments organiques. Dans la continuité avec les travaux précédents de l’équipe, nous nous intéressons à la synthèse de nouvelles familles de complexes métaux-antibiotiques associant l’activité antiseptique d’un ion métallique à un ou deux types de molécules bioactives. Leurs actions additives doivent avoir un effet synergique et conduire à des traitements plus efficaces et devraient fortement minimiser les risques d'apparition de bactéries mutantes. Au cours de ce travail, nous avons réussi à synthétiser le premier complexe métal-antibiotique associant deux types d'antibiotiques différents comme ligands du Zn(II). Des études comparatives montrent qu'il a une meilleure activité antibactérienne contre E. Coli, E. Aureus, E. Feacalis que les antibiotiques parents et les complexes ne contenant qu'un seul de ces antibiotiques. Cela ouvre un nouveau concept appelé « Assemblage de Biomolécules Multi-actifs, ABM ». De plus, nous décrivons la synthèse et la caractérisation de nouveaux ligands antimicrobiens trifluorométhylés
Development of novel coordination complexes with diverse biological activities (antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antioxidant and anticancer) is a rapidly evolving field of inorganic chemistry with potential direct impact on quality of life. Metal–drug complexes are of increasing interest in bioinorganic chemistry, leveraging the synergistic effect to lead to compounds with improved pharmacological activity. The recognition of the role of metal ions in biological systems and in treatment of various diseases calls attention to the benefits of studying the interaction of metal ions with organic drug molecules. In continuation with previous works of team, we focus here on the synthesis of new families of metal-antibiotic complexes associating, on one single-molecule, the antiseptic activity of a metal ion with the bioactivity of one or two type of bioactive molecules. Their additive actions have a synergetic effect and lead to more effective and shorter treatments and should strongly minimize the risks for appearance of bacteria mutants. In this work, we succeeded to synthesis the first metal-antibiotic complex associating two types of different antibiotic as ligands with Zn(II). The structure in the solid state of this new complex was established together with the studies of the chemical-physical properties. Comparative studies show it has a better antibacterial activity against (E.Coli, E,Aureus, E.Feacalis ) than parent antibiotics and complexes with only one of the antibiotic. This open a new concept named as Multi-Active Biomolecule Assembly. Moreover, the synthesis and characterisation of new trifluorométhylated antimicrobial ligands are described

Whether human-made or natural disasters, both could typically followed by chaos, this often results from an inadequate overall response. Preparedness is the best response to emergencies, and a multi-agent-based approach to coordination decision support systems often plays a significant role in disaster management and response. Using an integrated approach to facilitate coordination is considered important in dealing with disasters. Often, there are different kinds of coordination, such as physical coordination between emergent agencies or local agencies, and administrative coordination. While traditional disaster management studies have focused on coordination of managerial or government policy approaches, this study focuses on the direct local-based advice network used by emergency personnel (such as managers and volunteers) to understand how the properties of such human networks affect the ability to access and share expertise during a disaster incident in order to ensure prompt and accurate decisions. The key motivating question guiding this research is: how can the multi-level study of properties of social networks at network, actor and tie level help us understand the coordination that enables expertise access and sharing during disasters? Moreover, this study also asks: To what degree is this relationship associated with expertise coordination in a negative or positive manner? How are centralisation and efficiency in an individual’s social network associated with coordination? Do network constraints and tie strength in an individual’s social network negatively or positively affect coordination? This study uses novel theoretical approaches to suggest an empirical-based framework and methodology for exploring the relationship between the properties of social networks and coordination of expertise during disasters.

"Uncertainty" is used broadly to refer to things that are unknown or incompletely understood. In operations management, basic sources of uncertainty may include decision uncertainty, model uncertainty, analytical uncertainty, data uncertainty, and so on. Although uncertainty is unavoidable in decision making, different mechanisms can be designed to mitigate the impact of uncertainty. One commonly used strategy is "decision postponement," wherein the decision maker purposefully delays some of the decisions to a time when uncertainty is reduced or resolved. This type of a recourse action provides the decision maker with increased ability to match supply with demand. In this dissertation, we study the value of decision postponement in the context of different settings, including capacity investment, revenue management, and supply chain coordination. These problems share one characteristic in common: decision postponement, and as such, are all modeled as two-stage stochastic programming problems. In the first stage, a set of decisions are made under uncertainty so as to maximize the expected profit or utility. Then in the second stage, all uncertainty is resolved and a deterministic optimization problem is solved to determine the postponed decisions, constrained by the first stage decisions. In capacity investment, we study the capacity, pricing, and production decisions of a monopolist producing substitutable products with flexible or dedicated resources. While the capacity decision needs to be made ex-ante, under demand uncertainty, pricing and production decisions can be postponed until after uncertainty is resolved. We show how key demand parameters (the nature of uncertainty, market size, market risk, and risk attitude) impact the optimal capacity decision under the linear demand function. In particular, we show that if the demand shock is multiplicative, then in terms of the "invest or not" decision, the firm will be immune to forecast errors in parameters of the underlying demand shock distribution. Furthermore, incorrectly modeling the demand shock as additive, when, in fact, it is multiplicative, may lead to overinvestment. On the other hand, while the concept of a growth in market size leads to similar conclusions under both additive and multiplicative demand shocks, how market risk affects the optimal capacity decision depends critically on the form of the demand shock. In addition, the decision-maker's attitude toward risk significantly affects the optimal capacity level, and its impact highly depends on the structure of the resource network. Our analysis provides insights and principles on the optimal capacity investment decision under various settings. In airline revenue management, a well-studied problem is the optimal allocation of seat inventory among different fare-classes, given a capacity for the flight and a demand distribution for each class. In practice, capacity on a flight does not have to be fixed; airlines can exercise some flexibility on the supply side by swapping aircraft of different capacities between flights as partial booking information is gathered. This provides the airline with the capability to more effectively match their supply and demand. In this dissertation, we study the seat inventory control problem considering the aircraft swapping option. Our analytical results demonstrate that booking limits considering the swapping option can be considerably different from those under fixed capacity. We also show that principles on the relationship between the optimal booking limits and demand characteristics (size and risk) developed for the fixed-capacity problem no longer hold when swapping is an option. We develop new principles and insights on how demand characteristics affect the optimal seat allocation under the swapping possibility. We also perform a numerical study, which indicates that the revenue impact of using the "true" optimal booking limits under the swapping possibility can be significant. In supply chain coordination, we consider the influenza vaccine supply chain, which, due to the biological complexity of the production process, has a unique characteristic in that production yield is highly uncertain. Given the market demand and price, a monopolist supplier must decide how much raw material to input into production in the first stage. However, since the yield is unknown and production is costly, it is not necessarily in the supplier's best interest to ensure that all market demand is met. The supplier's input quantity depends on the trade-off between the costs of overproduction and undersupply. This, in fact, is one of the reasons why the influenza vaccine manufacturers in the United States lack motivation to produce sufficient amounts of vaccine to meet all demand [Williams (2005), Chick et al. (2008)]. In operations management, it is a well-known result that decentralized supply chains, where each player is only interested in optimizing her own objective, often lead to poor overall performance for the supply chain. However, a higher efficiency is achievable through contracting on a set of transfer payments [Cachon (2004)]. A "coordinating" contract is referred to as one in which each player's objective is in accordance with the supply chain's objective. Given the fact that influenza vaccine plays an important role in health care industry, it is important to study how different contracts impact the influenza vaccine supply chain, where the uncertainty is on the supply side. We study a game in which the supplier and the retailer are engaged in certain type of contracts that specify how risk is shared between the players. We study both the pre-ordering and the post-ordering settings, which respectively refer to the cases where the retailer orders the vaccine before or after the vaccine production is completed. We show that pre-ordering wholesale price contracts dominate post-ordering wholesale price contracts in terms of the resulting supply chain efficiency, but neither of them are able to fully coordinate the supply chain. We also find that cost-sharing contracts are able to coordinate the supply chain, while payback and advance-ordering wholesale price contracts fail to do so. Finally, we prove that if the unsold vaccine can be salvaged with some positive value, then the supply chain can be easily coordinated with wholesale price contracts. In studying this type of stochastic programming problems, it is not only important to characterize the optimal solution, but also important to gain an understanding of how the optimal solution will be affected by environmental parameters. Since the most inaccurate part in stochastic programming often lies in the parameters of the distribution functions, it is both interesting and meaningful to investigate how the optimal solution varies with the intrinsic nature of the random variables. Consequently, we make use of stochastic order relationships to study the behavior of the optimal solutions when the underlying random variables become either "larger" or "more risky."
Ph. D.

The construction industry is known for its inefficiency, with projects exceeding budgets and not completing on time. It is claimed that these problems stem from the industry’s characteristics and affect the project’s success. Research has increased within the field of construction supply chains and construction supply chain management as a way to increase coordination and improve project performances. However, the industry and the companies within have a long way to go before construction supply chain management is integrated. This study presents problems that are manageable for a general contractor and what enabler can be implemented to facilitate the integration of construction supply chain management and coordination. The study investigates a Swedish project and its current situation, where the collected data from interviews belong to either people, processes, or contexts. The study identifies 22 problems and 21 enablers from interviews, literature, and frameworks. Early on in the study, it is noted that problems are linked and affect various disciplines. Consequently, if one problem arises it affects other disciplines. Therefore to understand the problems origin and connections will the opted analysis provide their association to each other and their belonging to either the construction or supply process. Based on the belonging, the problems are sorted if they are considered manageable for a general contractor and relate to either organizational efforts, management of the information flow, or relationships. The study also provides proposed applications for information and communication technology. Furthermore, initial steps towards integrating construction supply chain management for a general contractor this is done by initiating ’supply chain integration’ and develop integrating processes, products, and services. It is recommended that this should be done by mapping the current state of the supply and construction process, identifying individuals who are familiar with supply chain methods, and involve them in works for improvement. The second step is to develop an organizational and team culture that is open for change and supports integration. Once the culture has been established, more effort and resources can be added towards building relationships and develop construction supply chain collaborations. Proposed enablers are among several to develop selection criteria to determine suppliers and subcontractors and adapt resources such as time and money accordingly. Since subcontractors are responsible for the supply process, it is recommended that goals and evaluation criteria for these actors should be developed based on supply chain performances and form the basis for evaluating subcontractors. This study confirms previous studies where the general contractors’ ability to cooperate and their practices are affected by the owners’ demand and preferred methods. Therefore it is required that the general contractor’s ability to adapt accordingly is increased. Consequently, the need for new management principles that are highly adaptive and easy to use is demonstrated. The compiled results indicate an imbalance of responsibilities and a lack of ownership for changing the industry and showing the need for new management principles. Which leaves the question, who is responsible for changing the industry? Even though this is a complex question, as indicated in the study, there are actions that a general contractor can take to integrate construction supply chain management and increase coordination.

Utility coordination is an exceedingly complex effort of managing, communicating, and facilitating the avoidance and relocation of utility facilities as needed for highway projects. Utility coordination occurs throughout the design and delivery of a project and best practices are used to make sure this occurs efficiently and in the best interest of the public, who are not only the taxpayers but also the ratepayers. Recent research has attempted to enhance utility location technology and procedures, instill frameworks and tools for utility coordination, and proceduralize risk management relative to utility coordination. However, research attempting to improve various aspects of utility coordination simultaneously has led to a lack of consensus on how to integrate these research efforts into an effective standard of practice. These is also not a standard of practice for quantifying utility related risks for transportation projects. This research will attempt to build consensus and contribute to the body of knowledge in this area of utility coordination by presenting an approach to assess the relative utility risks of a project and align current and new practices to minimize those risks. Through statistical analysis of historical project data regarding utility coordination schedules and costs for transportation projects in Kentucky, this study was able to produce a model that estimates utility related risk early in transportation project development. With input and evaluation by subject matter experts, utility coordination best practices were collected and aligned to utility risks on transportation projects. A decision support tool was developed to assist in the use of the mathematical utility risk model and the best practices associated with the varying risk levels. This research also finds that there are disparities among utility stakeholders on transportation projects in regard to the effectiveness or satisfaction with particular best practices. This finding presents the need for early involvement and collaborative utility coordination to select practices that ensure utility related issues on transportation projects are minimized. The research also presents that increased use of alternative contracting methods can pose significant challenges to utility coordination on transportation projects. This stems from the finding that utility coordination practices were not uniformly effective across these varying procurement methods. Furthermore, as Departments of Transportation continue to deal with resource issues, one of which being manpower within utility coordination, the use of consultants for utility coordination presents its own set of complexities. The research finds the best application of consult-led utility coordination is through third-part consultants specializing in utility coordination, those who have been state-specifically trained for utility coordination, and prequalified for utility coordination work.

Protecting U.S. transportation hubs against a wide variety of security threats, while avoiding undue interference with the normal operations of the hubs, is one of the greatest challenges facing security agencies. The problem addressed in this study was the limited information on the contributing factors to seaport security. The purpose of this case study was to explore issues that can inhibit efficiency of security agency operation and collaboration and to identify actions that have enhanced collaboration. Based on theories of organizational development, leadership, and security tradecraft, this study examined the activities related to maintenance of security at a large California seaport. Research questions focused on the types of relationships that exist among supervisors and employees, how these relationships were formed, types of conflicts among organizations, and methods of task allocation among agencies. Individuals who worked for security agencies were randomly selected for participation (n =20). Data gathering was primarily through face-to-face interviews in an open-ended format and augmented by observations of people working within the research environment. An inductive approach to data collection, with open and axial coding, was used to identify themes and patterns. Key findings included themes of trust among seaport security personnel and threats such as smuggling, sabotage, and terrorism. Conclusions and recommendations may help security officials improve the efficiency and effectiveness of security resources. Positive social change may result from enhanced measures that increase security while avoiding threats to commercial activity and individual civil liberties.

This dissertation considers the problems of coordinating different supply chain inventory systems with private information under deterministic settings. These systems studied are characterized by the following properties: (a) each facility in the system has self decision-making authority, (b) cost parameters of each facility are regarded as private information that no other facilities in the system have access to, and (c) partial information is shared among the facilities. Because of the above properties, the existing approaches for systems with global information may not be applicable. Thus, new approaches for coordinating supply chain inventory systems with private information are needed. This dissertation first studies two two-echelon distribution inventory systems. Heuristics for finding the replenishment policy of each facility are developed under global information environment. In turn, the heuristics are modified to solve the problems with private information. An important characteristic of the heuristics developed for the private information environment is that they provide the same solutions as their global information counterpart. Then, more complex multi-echelon serial and assembly supply chain inventory systems with private information are studied. The solution approach decomposes the problem into separate subproblems such that the private information is divided as required. Global optimality is sought with an iterative procedure in which the subproblems negotiate the material flows between facilities. At the core of the solution procedure is a node-model that represents a facility and its corresponding private information. Using the node-model as a building block, other supply chains can be formed by linking the node-models according to the product and information flows. By computational experiments, the effect of the private information on the performance of the supply chain is tested by comparing the proposed approach against existing heuristics that utilize global information. Experimental results show that the proposed approach provides comparable results as those of the existing heuristics with global information.

This internship report reviews the non-profit entity French Quarter Festivals, Inc. (FQFI), and each of the three festivals it produces. The report includes an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and offers suggestions for improvements. The history of FQFI, a description of programs and a breakdown of the staff structure provide a basic understanding of the organization. For the purpose of this internship report, the timeframe being reviewed covers June 2012 through August 2012.