Consider an SQL query that involves joins of several relations, optionally followed by selections and/or projections. It can be represented by a conjunctive datalog query Q without negation or arithmetic subgoals. We consider the problem of answering such a query Q using a mediator M. For each relation R that corresponds to a subgoal in Q, M contains several sources; each source for R provides some of the tuples in R. The capability of each source are described in terms of templates. It might not be possible to get all the tuples in the result, Result(Q), using M, due to restrictions imposed by the templates. We consider best-effort query answering: Find as many tuples in Result(Q) as possible. We present an algorithm to determine if Q can be so answered using M. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Interactive fisheye views use distortion to show both local detail and global context in the same display space. Although fisheyes allow the presentation and inspection of large data sets, the distortion effects can cause problems for users. One such problem is lack of memorability the ability to find and go back to objects and features in the data. This thesis examines the possibility of improving the memorability of fisheye views by adding historical information to the visualization. The historical information is added visually through visit wear, an extension of the concepts of edit wear and read wear. This will answer the question Where have I been? through visual instead of cognitive processing by overlaying new visual information on the data to indicate a users recent interaction history. This thesis describes general principles of visibility in a space that is distorted by a fisheye lens and defines some parameters of the design space of visit wear. Finally, a test system that applied the principles was evaluated, and showed that adding visit wear to a fisheye system improved the memorability of the information space.

Interactive fisheye views use distortion to show both local detail and global context in the same display space. Although fisheyes allow the presentation and inspection of large data sets, the distortion effects can cause problems for users. One such problem is lack of memorability the ability to find and go back to objects and features in the data. This thesis examines the possibility of improving the memorability of fisheye views by adding historical information to the visualization. The historical information is added visually through visit wear, an extension of the concepts of edit wear and read wear. This will answer the question Where have I been? through visual instead of cognitive processing by overlaying new visual information on the data to indicate a users recent interaction history. This thesis describes general principles of visibility in a space that is distorted by a fisheye lens and defines some parameters of the design space of visit wear. Finally, a test system that applied the principles was evaluated, and showed that adding visit wear to a fisheye system improved the memorability of the information space.

As computing becomes ubiquitous and intelligent, it is possible for systems to adapt their behavior based on information sensed from the situational context. However, determining the context space has been taken for granted in most ubiquitous applications, and so that context-adaptive systems often miss the situational factors that are most relevant to users. The mismatch between a system's computational model and users' mental model of the context may frustrate and disorient users. This thesis describes the CCM (cognitive context model)-based approach for eliciting individual cognitive views of a context-aware task and selecting an appropriate context space for context-aware computing. It captures the situational and cognitive context for each task, using a structural architecture in which individual participants use a context view to describe their situational perspective of the task. Clustering and optimization techniques are applied to analyze and integrate context views in CCM. Developers can use the optimization output to identify an appropriate context space, specify context-aware adaptation policies and resolve run-time policy conflicts. This approach simplifies the task of context elicitation, emphasizes individual variance in context-aware activity, and helps avoid user requirements misunderstanding.

Insofar as human beings try to “know” we must define concepts, objects, actions. We label, we distinguish between one concept and another, and in doing this, we make categories. Labels are categories. Our categories are imperfect. Our labels are always relative, defined by and dependent on that which they exclude. The boundaries of our terms, what “counts” as something or what is considered to be within a certain term, are always shifting. Our definitions change based on our method of analysis. For instance, the definition of “human” is different in different disciplines, like science, philosophy, sociology, economics, etc. Given their instability, categories can only be rough approximations of what we mean, and not always very good ones at that. To our detriment, we sometimes forget that they are approximations, and already laden with meaning of their own. Michel Foucault and other thinkers have pointed out that some of our ways of knowing, for example, the scientific method, have become synonymous with truth, objectivity or neutrality. When this happens, we cease to question those ways of knowing, and the questions within those ways of knowing. We forget that the kinds of questions we ask determine the kinds of answers we find. Then, when something that does not prove easily “knowable” or categorizable troubles our ways of knowing, we call it trouble. Instead of remembering that our methods are imperfect, we think that the thing we want to know about is flawed, wrong or bad. This thesis is a reclamation of the flawed, the failed, the queer, a revaluation of it as something positive and productive. It is a reminder to be critical of our categories, and to rule them rather than be ruled by them. Categories are tools, not truth.

As computing becomes ubiquitous and intelligent, it is possible for systems to adapt their behavior based on information sensed from the situational context. However, determining the context space has been taken for granted in most ubiquitous applications, and so that context-adaptive systems often miss the situational factors that are most relevant to users. The mismatch between a system's computational model and users' mental model of the context may frustrate and disorient users. This thesis describes the CCM (cognitive context model)-based approach for eliciting individual cognitive views of a context-aware task and selecting an appropriate context space for context-aware computing. It captures the situational and cognitive context for each task, using a structural architecture in which individual participants use a context view to describe their situational perspective of the task. Clustering and optimization techniques are applied to analyze and integrate context views in CCM. Developers can use the optimization output to identify an appropriate context space, specify context-aware adaptation policies and resolve run-time policy conflicts. This approach simplifies the task of context elicitation, emphasizes individual variance in context-aware activity, and helps avoid user requirements misunderstanding.

Cultural diversity is a subject that has been getting growing attention not just internationally but also in Sweden in the 21st century. The globalization of economies and the migration has dramatically increased opportunities while also affecting organizations in a manner that it requires it to be more open and accommodative towards a heterogeneous working environment. Unfortunately many companies do not see the advantages that cultural diversity could bring and how a well managed cultural diversity could essentially achieve competitive edge in the market. Therefore there is little to be found regarding how organizations today view and manage a culturally diverse workforce, especially in a Swedish working environment. The lack of this typeof research in a Swedish context creates a possible research gap and leads to this study ininvestigating the organizations in Västerbotten and their view and management of cultural diversity. Thus the research question: How do Swedish organizations view and manage cultural diversity? In order to gain insights to this question, previous research has been investigated and some main theories have been selected. Through this it has been found that cultural diversity is a complex subject that can bring both positive and negative effects to an organization. These are in turn affecting how cultural diversity is viewed by that organization. Furthermore, this view affects how cultural diversity is managed, and the management in turn affects the result this concept brings to the company. This in turn has been represented in a theoretical model representing the relationship between these concepts. The main theory that is used throughout thenstudy and in analyzing the empirical data is Adler’s approaches to answer the research question. This study takes view of interpretivism and constructionism as its philosophical stance. This has led to the choice of conducting a qualitative research approach with mixed method that is a combination of both the deductive and inductive way of collecting data. The research is conducted through multiple case study design with semi structured interviews as the way of gaining empirical data. These interviews have been conducted on seven organizations within Västerbotten that represents different types of industries within this region. As it is shown in this study the cultural diversity is viewed in a positive way and managed to achieve synergy within the organizations in Västerbotten. The firms believe that in order to develop and gain competitive advantage, they need to accommodate cultural diversity and create an atmosphere that is open and flexible. Still most of the firms lack the holistic view as they fail to articulate diversity at the strategic level and consequently in all dimensions of the organization.In addition the study has also identified different influential factors of cultural diversity, such as the geographical location, organizational culture, cultural diversity leading to cultural diversity, customers’ diversity and managers’ perspectives affects the existence of cultural diversity within an organization. These findings have been presented in the developed analytical model in the conclusion.

This dissertation studies interference in wireless networks. Interference results from multiple simultaneous attempts to communicate, often between unassociated sources and receivers, preventing extensive coordination. Moreover, in practical wireless networks, learning network state is inherently expensive, and nodes often have incomplete and mismatched views of the network. The fundamental communication limits of a network with such views is unknown. To address this, we present a local view model which captures asymmetries in node knowledge. Our local view model does not rely on accurate knowledge of an underlying probability distribution governing network state. Therefore, we can make robust statements about the fundamental limits of communication when the channel is quasi-static or the actual distribution of state is unknown: commonly faced scenarios in modern commercial networks. For each local view, channel state parameters are either perfectly known or completely unknown. While we propose no mechanism for network learning, a local view represents the result of some such mechanism. We apply the local view model to study the two-user Gaussian interference channel: the smallest building block of any interference network. All seven possible local views are studied, and we find that for five of the seven, there exists no policy or protocol that universally outperforms time-division multiplexing (TDM), justifying the orthogonalized approach of many deployed systems. For two of the seven views, TDM-beating performance is possible with use of opportunistic schemes where opportunities are revealed by the local view. We then study how message cooperation --- either at transmitters or receivers --- increases capacity in the local view two-user Gaussian interference channel. The cooperative setup is particularly appropriate for modeling next-generation cellular networks, where costs to share message data among base stations is low relative to costs to learn channel coefficients. For the cooperative setting, we find: (1) opportunistic approaches are still needed to outperform TDM, but (2) opportunities are more abundant and revealed by more local views. For all cases studied, we characterize the capacity region to within some known gap, enabling computation of the generalized degrees of freedom region, a visualization of spatial channel resource usage efficiency.

Web application design is a broad term that refers to any aspect of designing a Web application, including designing Web interfaces to data. There are a number of commercial software tools available that employ various techniques for implementing Web access to databases. However, these techniques apply only to portions of Web application implementation and lack a common design paradigm. We believe that defining an approach to designing and implementing Web applications based on views, frameworks, and patterns allows us to extend an object-oriented design representation and develop reusable and extensible design solutions for a class of Web applications in which the concerns are separated. The major contribution of this thesis is the development of a new approach to designing Web applications, producing the following visible contributions: a model for Web applications based upon a separation of concerns using views; a framework for system elements so that object-oriented design patterns can be used to build the application; a reusable design approach so that many Web applications can be built around the same framework; a coherent and organized framework representation using extended UML; and an implementation approach that can be implemented on a number of different platforms using a range of software and tools. In support of this solution, this thesis shows the design and implementation of a proof-of-concept Web application using this design technique. We believe that the approach to Web application design promoted in this thesis has proven itself useful in a practical way for the case studies discussed herein and points the way to a wider range of design and implementation possibilities.

Trygghet är en mänsklig rättighet för alla individer. Det finns dock sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga faktorer i samhället som kan påverka den upplevda tryggheten. Denna uppsats har avgränsats till att undersöka vad som upplevs påverka tryggheten på ett bostadsområde i en större stad i mellersta Sverige. Bostadsområdets invånare har sämre socioekonomisk status än generellt i staden. Boende på bostadsområdet har även visat på otrygghet och oro att gå ut efter det blivit mörkt. Detta beror främst på rädsla att utsättas för brott. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att öka förståelsen kring vad ungdomar och lokala aktörer upplever kan påverka den upplevda tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Metoden var kvalitativ med induktiv utgångspunkt. Datainsamlingen genomfördes med hjälp av två fokusgrupper, en med ungdomar och en med aktörer som arbetar med trygghet på bostadsområdet. Analys skedde därefter med innehållsanalys. Med hjälp av meningskategorisering utkristalliserades fem teman på trygghet. Resultatet och slutsatserna visar att det upplevs vara flertalet faktorer som påverkar tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Det fanns även olika åsikter vad som upplevdes som viktigast för tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Det kan således vara viktigt att lyfta fram boendes åsikter i arbetet med trygghet på bostadsområdet. / Security is a human right for all individuals. However, there are social, economic and environmental factors in the community that may affect the perceived security. This paper has been limited to examining what is affecting the security of a local neighborhood area in a major city in central Sweden. People living in the area have lower socioeconomic status than most other areas in the city. People in the neighborhood have also shown the insecurity and anxiety to go out after it got dark. This is mainly due to fear of being exposed to crime. The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of what adolescents and adults’ thinks can affect the perceived security in the neighborhood area. A qualitative method with an inductive focus where conducted. The data was collected using two focus groups. The analysis was done with a content analysis. With the help of meaningful categorization, five themes emerged. The results show that there are many factors that affect the security of the residential area. There were different opinions what was perceived as most important for security protection factor. It may therefore be important to highlight the residents' views in the work of security in the residential area.