The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has quickly become the industry standard for object-oriented software development. It is being widely used in organizations and institutions around the world. However, UML is often found to be too complex for novice systems analysts. Although prior research has identified difficulties novice analysts encounter in learning UML, no viable solution has been proposed to address these difficulties. Sequence-diagram modeling, in particular, has largely been overlooked. The sequence diagram models the behavioral aspects of an object-oriented software system in terms of interactions among its building blocks, i.e. objects and classes. It is one of the most commonly-used UML diagrams in practice. However, there has been little research on sequence-diagram modeling. The current literature scarcely provides effective guidelines for developing a sequence diagram. Such guidelines will be greatly beneficial to novice analysts who, unlike experienced systems analysts, do not possess relevant prior experience to easily learn how to develop a sequence diagram. There is the need for an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novices. This dissertation reports a research study that identified novice difficulties in modeling a sequence diagram and proposed a technique called CHOP (CHunking, Ordering, Patterning), which was designed to reduce the cognitive load by addressing the cognitive complexity of sequence-diagram modeling. The CHOP technique was evaluated in a controlled experiment against a technique recommended in a well-known textbook, which was found to be representative of approaches provided in many textbooks as well as practitioner literatures. The results indicated that novice analysts were able to perform better using the CHOP technique. This outcome seems have been enabled by pattern-based heuristics provided by the technique. Meanwhile, novice analysts rated the CHOP technique more useful although not significantly easier to use than the control technique. The study established that the CHOP technique is an effective sequence-diagram modeling technique for novice analysts.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks the incidence of terrorism has been on the rise. At the same time, news media coverage of major terrorist attacks has reached epic proportions, greatly expanding the number of individuals psychologically affected by terrorism. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand how individuals cope with terrorism experienced at a distance. Specifically, this investigation focuses on the impact of stress on integrative complexity (IC; a measure of cognitive processing; Suedfeld, Tetlock, & Streufert, 1992) during and shortly after a major terrorist event. Taken together, the findings from the three studies reported in this dissertation provide several insights into this process. Study 1 replicates and extends results from an earlier study of television newscasters reporting live on 9/11 (Jhangiani & Suedfeld, 2005), in the context of the 2005 London bombings and the medium of radio. In doing so, it provides the first empirical evidence outside of the research laboratory for the curvilinear relationship between stress and IC. Specifically, during the early stages of reports concerning the London bombings, a positive relationship is found between negative emotion and IC. However, once the nature and extent of the event become clearer, increases in negative emotion are related to decreases in IC (the disruptive stress hypothesis). Study 2 replicates this curvilinear relationship in the short-term reactions of two prominent political leaders to 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings. For one of these political leaders, the magnitude of his psychological reaction is moderated by the psychological distance between him and the victims of the attacks. Finally, Study 3 finds that two key personality variables, neuroticism and empathy, play important roles in determining the magnitude of the short-term psychological reactions to 9/11 of more than 250 students from Canada and the United States. This finding is particularly true for those students who were psychologically closer to the victims of the attacks. Implications, strengths and limitations of this research, and possible future directions are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Complexity of business information systems (IS) and information and communication technology (ICT) in general is a challenge faced by both IT professionals and project managers, but also the users of these systems, whether as employees of enterprises and organizations or their customers, partners or suppliers. In this work we study the complexity and its manifestations in informatics. We review relevant literature to analyze the state of the art in methods and approaches used for building and maintaining business information systems. The main results of this analysis is realization that even though complexity is considered an important parameter that have a negative impact on performance of information systems, the current methods and approaches for IT system maintenance do not provide any tools for complexity evaluation or management. The author therefore based on existing approaches and methodologies is establishing his own definition of a metrics to measure the complexity of the information system. The complexity is defined as the sum of the individual entities of system UML models, which are selected according to the methodology MMDIS to consistently describe all relevant content dimensions of the system. Subsequently derives causal relationship between the complexity of each dimension. Both between each other in one phase of the life cycle of the information system and in time. The next section examines the reasons and mechanisms to increase the complexity of the corporate information system and identifies the causes, characteristics, stakeholders, processes and life cycle stages of the IS, which influence this growth. Next we investigate impact of IS complexity on its implementation and we identify the critical processes involved in day to day operation of IS, in its maintenance and in extending its functionality. The main aim of this dissertation thesis is to design a methodology for managing the complexity of the information system and its validation in practice on a real SAP implementation project. In addition, we provide a software tool written in ABAP programming language. This program can be used as a tool of the methodology for measuring SAP IS complexity.

Dans un contexte où les coordinations productives gagnent constamment en complexité, la question du fonctionnement de l’organisation réseau et son impact sur les performances des entreprises devient aujourd'hui un enjeu majeur aussi bien pour les entreprises que pour la recherche en sciences économiques. Cela nous a amené, à proposer, dans une première étape, une méthode d'analyse des transformations et de la gestion de l’entreprise réseau. On adhère à l’hypothèse selon laquelle la réussite et la cohésion de cette organisation contemporaine repose sur la mobilisation des différents modes de coordination. Dans une deuxième étape, nous cherchons à contribuer à une meilleure compréhension théorique de l’entreprise réseau. Nous montrons que, si les approches des contrats et les approches des compétences offrent de nouvelles formes analytiques par rapport à la théorie classique, elles sont encore incapables de prendre en compte la complexité de l’entreprise réseau. Nous suggérons, par ailleurs, que l’approche des connaissances apporte une synthèse novatrice et satisfaisante. Dans une troisième étape, nous étudions, sur un plan micro-Économétrique et en se basant sur la méthode de matching, la causalité entre l’organisation réseau caractérisée par l’implantation des innovations organisationnelles et la performance des entreprises. Les données disponibles sont issues des données appariées de l’enquête COI et de la base des données DIANE. Nous montrons que la mise en œuvre des innovations organisationnelles induit des effets négatifs sur la valeur ajoutée et la rentabilité du capital financier et n’induit aucun effet sur le chiffre d’affaires et la productivité du travail. / In a context where productive coordination is constantly becoming complex, the issue of the function of the network organization and its impact on business performance is now becoming a major issue for both: companies and Economic researches. This led us to propose, as a first step, a method for analyzing the transformations and the management of this network company. We adhere to the hypothesis that success and cohesion of this contemporary organization are based on the mobilization of different modes of coordination. In a second step , we will seek to contribute to a better theoretical understanding of a network company . We will show that if approaches of contact and approaches that are based on skills offer new analytical forms compared to the classical theory, they are still unable to take into account the complexity of a company network. We suggest, moreover, that the approach of knowledge brings an innovative and satisfying synthesis. In a third step, we will study from a micro- econometric point of view and based on the method of matching, the causality between a network organization characterized by the implementation of certain organizational innovations and the performance of companies. The available data are from matched survey data IOC 2006 and based DIANE data. We will show that the application of new management practices induce negative effects on the value added and profitability of financial capital and induce no effect on turnover and labor productivity.

Garantir le fonctionnement correct des systèmes informatisés est un enjeu chaque jour plus important. La vérification formelle est un ensemble de techniquespermettant d’établir la correction d’un modèle mathématique du système par rapport à des propriétés exprimées dans un langage formel.Le "Regular model checking" est une technique bien connuede vérification de systèmes infinis. Elle manipule des ensembles infinis de configurations représentés de façon symbolique. Le "Regular model checking" de systèmes à canaux non fiables (LCS) soulève des questions fondamentales de décision et de complexité concernant l’ordre sous-mot qui modélise la perte de messages. Nous abordons ces questions et résolvons un problème ouvert sur l’index de la congruence de Simon pour les langages testables par morceaux.L’accessibilité pour les LCS est décidable mais de complexité F_{omega^omega} très élevée, bien au delà des complexités primitives récursives. Plusieurs problèmes de complexité équivalente ont été découverts récemment, par exemple dans la vérification de mémoire faibles ou de logique temporelle métrique. Le problème de plongement de Post (PEP) est une abstraction de l’accessibilité des LCS, lui aussi de complexité F_{omega^omega}, et qui nous sert de base dans la définition d’une classe de complexité correspondante. Nous proposons une généralisation commune aux deux variantes existantes de PEP et donnons une preuve de décidabilité simplifiée. Ceci permet d’étendre le modèle des systèmes à canaux unidirectionnels (UCS) par des tests simples tout en préservant la décidabilité de l’accessibilité. / The increasing use of software and automated systems has made it important to ensure their correct behaviour. Formal verification is the technique that establishes correctness of a system or a mathematical model of the system with respect to properties expressed in a formal language.Regular model checking is a common technique for verification of infinite-state systems - it represents infinite sets of configurations symbolically in a finite manner and manipulates them using these representations. Regular model checking for lossy channel systems brings up basic automata-theoretic questions concerning the subword relation on words which models the lossiness of the channels. We address these state complexity and decision problems, and also solve a long-standing problem involving the index of the Simon's piecewise-testability congruence.The reachability problem for lossy channel systems (LCS), though decidable, has very high F_{omega^omega} complexity, well beyond primitive-recursive. In recent times several problems with this complexity have been discovered, for example in the fields of verification of weak memory models and metric temporal logic. The Post Embedding Problem (PEP) is an algebraic abstraction of the reachability problem on LCS, with the same complexity, and is our champion for a "master" problem for the class F_{omega^omega}. We provide a common generalization of two known variants of PEP and give a simpler proof of decidability. This allows us to extend the unidirectional channel system (UCS) model with simple channel tests while having decidable reachability.

This research focuses on project complexity with the aim to better understand it and to highlight the factors that affect/contribute to it. In addition, this research also highlights key project management practices and project critical success factors considered important to manage project complexity/complex projects. The two main motivating factors behind this research were, the lack of understanding of complex projects and the lack of relevance of project management theory to practice, which have been highlighted by many researchers. Since projects in different sectors are increasingly being characterised as complex, this entails a better project management knowledge base focusing on the dynamic, social and complex contexts of projects, so that the interrelationships, interdependencies and uncertainties between different project interfaces can be understood and managed properly. In order to understand this 'project actuality', it was necessary to obtain the views from practitioners working in these project settings and managing project dynamics and intricacies. To establish this pragmatic view, a series of interviews and questionnaire surveys was carried out and all efforts were made to select the participants working on complex projects with complex products falling under the Complex Product Systems (CoPS) category which was the case in the 2nd phase interviews and questionnaire, whereas in the 1st phase practitioners with industrial experience and also involved and/or in the process of getting academic qualification in project management were preferred. The first phase helped in establishing the theoretical and pragmatic perspective and the 2nd phase in refining and validating the findings. The questions were inline with the research focus mentioned earlier.The main findings of the research show that the perception of project complexity and its contributing factors were very much influenced by the project context, i.e. from organization level to work discipline level. No difference in the practitioners' perception of project complexity and its contributing factors was observed among the practitioners based in a similar organization and project setting. Novelty was found to be one of the key project complexity characteristics related to three project elements-people, product and process. In terms of key project management practices and skills considered important in managing project complexity, soft skills were reported useful by majority of the participants. The key processes found useful were either the ones which focused on people or others which helped to manage changes/deviations in projects. Influence and relationship, delegation, flexibility and trust were the main project critical success factors which emerged out of this research for complex projects.

The thesis deals with knapsack problems variants and possibility of their solving, furthermore with the impact of particular task (instance) special structure on the effciency of tested approach. The thesis also proposes conversion possibility between described tasks and their continuous extension (continuous relaxation). It describes L3 algorithm and superdecreasing knapsack problem solving from the common sort of algorithms and Monte Carlo Method, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms from the sort of probability ones. Other possibilities are also discussed. Integral part of this thesis is the accompanying application, which was used to create groundwork used in the text and which can be also used to solve other instances.

The objective of this study was to test the efficiency of an educacional program (PECC) in order to improve moral reasoning and cognitive complexity. The sample was 18 tenth-grade students of both genders, aged 15-16 years. Even though there were no structural advances in the moral reasoning leve!, there was an increase of reasoning complexity and in the number of elements that the subjects were able to identify in social dilemma. / El objetivo de esta investigación fue probar la eficiencia de un programa educativo (PECC) para elevar el nivel de razonamiento moral y de complejidad cognitiva. La muestra estuvo constituida por 18 estudiantes de 4to de secundaria, de ambos sexos, de 15 y 16 años de edad. Los resultados indican que, aunque no se dieron avances estructurales en el nivel de razonamiento moral, hubo un incremento de la complejidad del razonamiento y en el número de elementos que los sujetos fueron capaces de identificar en los dilemas sociales.

Le sujet de cette thèse est la théorie des graphes. Formellement, un graphe est un ensemble de sommets et un ensemble d’arêtes, c’est à dire de paires de sommets, qui relient les sommets. Cette thèse traite de différents problèmes de décisions binaires ou de minimisations liés à la notion de graphe, et cherche, pour chacun de ces problèmes, à déterminer sa classe de complexité, ou à fournir un algorithme. Le premier chapitre concerne le problème de trouver le plus petit sous-graphe connexe tropical dans un graphe sommet-colorié, c’est à dire le plus petit sous-graphe connexe contenant toutes les couleurs. Le deuxième chapitre concerne les problèmes d’homomorphisme tropical, une généralisation des problèmes de coloriage de graphe. On y trouve un lien entre ces problèmes et plusieurs classes de problèmes d’homomorphismes, dont la classe des Problèmes de Satisfaction de Contraintes. Le troisième chapitre concerne deux variantes lointaines du problème de domination, nommément les problèmes d’alliances globales dans un graphe pondéré et le problème de l’ensemble sûr. Le quatrième chapitre concerne la recherche d’une décomposition arborescente étoilée, c’est à dire une décomposition arborescente dont le rayon des sacs est 1. Enfin, le cinquième chapitre concerne une variante du problème de décider du comportement asymptotique de l’itéré du graphe des bicliques. / This thesis is about graph theory. Formally, a graph is a set of vertices and a set of edges, which are pair of vertices, linking vertices. This thesis deals with various decision problem linked to the notion of graph, and, for each of these problem, try to find its complexity class, or to give an algorithm. The first chapter is about the problem of finding the smallest connected tropical subgraph of a vertex-colored graph, which is the smallest connecter subgraph containing every colors. The second chapter is about problems of tropical homomorphism, a generalization of coloring problem. A link between these problems and several other class of homomorphism problems can be found in this chapter, especially with the class of Constraint Satisfaction Problem. The third chapter is about two variant of the domination problem, namely the global alliance problems in a weighted graph and the safe set problem. The fourth chapter is about the problem of finding a star tree-decomposition, which is a tree-decomposition where the radius of bags is 1. Finally, the fifth chapter is about a variant of the problem of deciding the asymptotic behavior of the iterated biclique graph

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