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Adaptability is crucial in the engineering workplace, particularly for Black engineers. Job postings use different terms such as resiliency, agility, or flexibility to denote the importance of adaptability for a role. However, there is a lack of exploration into what adaptability means for individuals from racially marginalized backgrounds. For Black engineers, navigating work responsibilities is complicated by the social ramifications of their racial identity. Simply framing their efforts as adaptability overlooks the impact of racialization and the complex interplay of working conditions on career decisions. This study aimed to understand how being racialized as Black influences how Black engineers respond to changing working conditions. Working conditions encompass the tools used for work, the workplace environment, and the workforce composition. The central question for this study was: How do Black engineers respond to various working conditions encountered during the early stages of their engineering career? A multiple case study approach was employed, focusing on the experiences of eight early-career Black engineers. The participants were selected based on their self-identification as Black, regardless of ethnicity, considering the commonplace of racialization in the United States. Interviews and resumes were utilized to comprehensively capture their work experiences. Analysis revealed ten key characteristics of working conditions and five adaptability responses. These responses exhibited a temporal nature, leading to the development of sub-adaptability responses. Vignettes were crafted to contextualize participants' responses to salient working conditions. Participants sought to achieve work-life balance, derive meaning from their work, and have a sense of belonging in their careers. The perception of their ability to achieve these goals influenced the turnover intention of Black engineers within their organization. This study expands our understanding of factors influencing Black engineers' retention and informs prospective engineers of prioritized outcomes other Black engineers have used to navigate their careers. These findings can be used by organizations to inform the strategies they use to foster the retention and advancement of Black engineers in the engineering workforce. / Doctor of Philosophy / Adaptability is important for Blac engineers in the engineering workplace. Adaptability is denoted within job postings with different terms such as resiliency, agility, or flexibility. Even though adaptability is generally deemed to be important, there is a lack of exploration into what adaptability means for individuals from racially marginalized backgrounds. For Black engineers, navigating work responsibilities includes navigating and understanding the social ramifications of their racial identity. Therefore, simply framing the efforts of racially marginalized engineers as adaptability overlooks the impact of racialization and the complex interplay of working conditions on career decisions. This study aimed to understand how being racialized as Black influences how Black engineers respond to changing working conditions. Working conditions encompass the tools used for work, the workplace environment, and the workforce composition. The central question for this study was: How do Black engineers respond to various working conditions encountered during the early stages of their engineering career? A multiple case study approach was employed, focusing on the experiences of eight early-career Black engineers. Participants sought to achieve work-life balance, derive meaning from their work, and have a sense of belonging in their careers. The perception of their ability to achieve these goals influenced the turnover intention of Black engineers within their organization. Analysis revealed ten key characteristics of working conditions and five adaptability responses. This study expands our understanding of factors influencing Black engineers' retention and informs prospective engineers of prioritized outcomes other Black engineers have used to navigate their careers. These findings can be used by organizations to inform the strategies they use to foster the retention and advancement of Black engineers in the engineering workforce.

Multicultural teacher education promotes "culturally responsive practice" as a means of meeting the needs of diverse children. This qualitative study investigates four student teachers' field experiences so as to better understand future teachers' translation of "culturally responsive practice" during field work. Data sources include individual and group interview-conversations across a semester and the researcher's own stories from her experiences as a participant-observer in the school. Results are reported as four case studies with cross-case analysis. The researcher makes recommendations for teacher education based on findings from the four cases and group similarities. Results suggest that teacher education should place an emphasis on the complexity of culture, gaining knowledge about specific cultural factors, knowledge of history and present-day conditions, individual talk, and "culturally responsive relationships." / Ph. D.

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The objective of the study is to explain the location or distribution patterns of urban services in Pichincha Province, Ecuador. It is hypothesized that these services are located in urban centres according to their level of importance, and the settlements of the province were evaluated in terms of ten different measures or indicators of relative importance. The distribution pattern of each of the fourteen services that cater to the rural areas of the province was compared with each measure, and, using additional background information where necessary, an attempt was made to formulate general principles which might explain the distribution of services in the province. It was found that there was generally a close relationship between urban importance and the location choices that had been made by the various service administrations, but that distribution patterns were affected by urban shadow, by local initiative or apathy, and by in-migration from Quito by people buying suburban homes. It was also found that three of the indicators used, frequency of local markets and of bus departures, and the nature of a centre’s highway link, do not provide any significant explanation beyond that given by the other seven indicators of relative importance. In addition, it was possible to classify the centres of the province into four distinct groups, based on population level and the number of services present. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Title on spine. / Manuscript. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 1-32 (4th group)). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 --- p.1 / Chapter (一) --- 問題 --- p.1 / Chapter (二) --- 幾個概念的界定和闡釋 --- p.17 / Chapter (三) --- 方法和資料 --- p.32 / Chapter (四) --- 章節安排 --- p.42 / Chapter 第二章 --- 社區治革和地理環境 --- p.54 / Chapter 第三章 --- 農業集體化以前人力利用、農業技術和經濟狀況 --- p.65 / Chapter (一) --- 土地改革前 --- p.66 / Chapter （̐ơŁ） --- 人力低度利用 --- p.66 / Chapter （̐ơØ） --- 技術不發達 --- p.70 / Chapter （̐ơÐ） --- 人力利用的季節性 --- p.74 / Chapter （̐ơÞ） --- 地權集中和少農經濟 --- p.84 / Chapter (二) --- 土地改革後 --- p.93 / Chapter 第四章 --- 從家庭少農經濟到公社──「組織集約」的策略（Organization intensive）　 --- p.103 / Chapter (一) --- 全國性的背景資料　 --- p.103 / Chapter (二) --- 紅江村的組織變遷 --- p.114 / Chapter 第五章 --- 人力利用與農業現代化 --- p.143 / Chapter (一) --- 人力利用 --- p.144 / Chapter (二) --- 農業技術革新和農業現代化 --- p.150 / Chapter (三) --- 分期之描述　 --- p.171 / Chapter （̐ơŁ） --- 第一時期（一九五四´ؤ´ؤ一九五八年） --- p.171 / Chapter （̐ơØ） --- 第二時期（一九五九´ؤ´ؤ一九六三年） --- p.182 / Chapter （̐ơÐ） --- 第三時期（一九六四´ؤ´ؤ一九六八年） --- p.189 / Chapter （̐ơÞ） --- 第四時期（一九六九´ؤ´ؤ一九七三年） --- p.193 / Chapter 第六章 --- 大組織統籌之下，利用人力和促進技術之各項措施 --- p.201 / Chapter (一) --- 水利灌溉系統的建設和水利化的實境´ؤ´ؤ整合人力利用和農業現代化之要素之一 --- p.203 / Chapter (二) --- 精耕細作´ؤ´ؤ人力利用的出路和農業增產之重要因素　 --- p.209 / Chapter (三) --- 擴大耕地面積´ؤ´ؤ人力利用的出路之一 --- p.218 / Chapter (四) --- 農村工業和多種經營´ؤ´ؤ農村人力出路和農村經濟現代化之方向 --- p.223 / Chapter (五) --- 物化季節性´ؤ´ؤ整合農村人力利用和農業技術發展之一重要環節 --- p.241 / Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.255 / Chapter (一) --- 「組織集約」人力利用模型的一些問題 --- p.255 / Chapter (二) --- 「組織集約」人力動員的方法和技術´ؤ´ؤ社會心理學的命題：「工作刺激」（work lncentive）和「共產主義新人」的型塑 --- p.267 / Chapter (三) --- 組織擴大、結構功能分化、技術華新對農村社會分層的影響表： --- p.274

In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

In contemporary software development, an emergent understanding of the problem domain and envisioned goals forms the basis of designing, testing and development activities. Lack of a common understanding of the domain can result in costly rework or client dissatisfaction. Research shows that the development of shared understanding in this context is a complex and error-prone process and there is room for improvement. Is this because practitioners are not following suggested practice from literature? Or are the actual barriers to shared understanding not being addressed by current tools and techniques? Is the development of shared domain understanding even viewed as problematic (or even important) by practitioners? These are some questions that need to be investigated in order to effectively design process improvements and tool support in this area, yet there is little information related to this. This study takes a multi-case study approach, which incorporate semi-structured interviews with representative from ten small-to-medium organisations. This study focuses on the vendor’s perspective and includes a mix of application domains. Result of the interviews is analysed to discover themes and patterns related to an analysis framework constructed from the literature review. The findings indicate that vendors perceive the process of developing shared application-domain understanding with their clients as being both problematic and important to a successful implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified from the analysis. The results also confirm that the process of sharing understanding development is generally perceived as being evolutionary and collaborative. This process is described by most interviewees comprises iterative phases of elicitation, confirmation and refinement of the understanding. A definite preference for face-to-face interaction is evident at regular times throughout development, particularly in early stages, although the importance of ad-hoc communications by phone or email, as domain knowledge needs arise, is also emphasised. Access to cooperative domain-expert throughout development is generally seen as a critical success factor. Several companies report using in-house domain-expert as client “proxies” in this regard. There is a mix of attitudes apparent regarding the direct communications of developers with client stakeholders. This ranged from insisting that developers are involved from initial elicitation and “kick-off” meetings, to “shielding” developers almost entirely from client. In terms of representations of understanding, participants relate natural-language, screen-shots, mock-ups, prototypes and product-demonstrations as the most useful artefacts for sharing and confirming understanding of the problem domain. They emphasise the importance of flexibility and client familiarity with the representations. In general, there is no clear separation between problem and solution spaces evident when the interviewees discussed representations of understanding, and the preference seems to be for concrete rather than abstract representations. In conclusion, comparisons between the findings and literature generally confirm contemporary thinking regarding domain knowledge sharing, although a number of barriers were given particular emphasis in this field study. The use of computer-based tool support is not widespread and the need to improve the domain knowledge sharing process and tool support in practice is widely acknowledged by the participants in this investigation. This study has identified some fruitful areas of research in this regard.

Transportation is one of the areas where Sweden could not yet manage to reduce the CO2 emissions. One solution that has been suggested to reduce the CO2 emissions in this sector is through the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). However, mass EV adoption brings complications with it. Drivers behavior is a critical aspect since people often charge their car at home after work. This could negatively affect the evening load peak and thus cause a high impact on the electricity system. A survey was sent out to current private EV owners in Sweden, to learn about their charging schedules, driving patterns and battery capacity. 226 of 403 replied to the survey which gave a survey reply rate of 56 %. The goal of this work was to estimate the future adoption of EVs, based on the current trends and national targets in order to develop different scenarios. With the scenarios in mind, the projected consumption of EVs for different periods of the day, the magnitude and time of the peak load as well as the overall consumption and CO2 reduction per year were calculated. Three scenarios were analyzed with 96 000, 650 000 and 1 000 000 electric vehicles where 25 % are defined to be running entirely on electricity in the middle and high penetration scenario since even plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, PHEV where included. The scenarios are estimated as the possible situation in 2030 and a simulation is done in MATLAB for summer and winter cases as well as weekdays and weekends. Results showed that the charging pattern of the EV drivers would cause a peak load at around 20.00 where the peak load from the overall household consumptions also takes place. The highest consumption takes place during the weekend cases but there were no significant difference between summer and winter. For example the peak consumption of the EVs was 150 MWh during winter and weekends at 20.00. The annual consumption of the EVs would be 238 GWh, 342 GWh and 616 GWh for the low, middle and high penetration scenario. By analyzing the current installed power of renewable energy sources in Sweden, it was found that the demand for EVs could be met by renewables entirely today. It was also found that using EVs instead of conventional fossil fueled cars can save up to 264 Mton CO2 for the low penetration scenario, 447 Mton for the middle penetration scenario and 688 Mton for the high penetration scenario. Different assumptions could have caused deviation from the actual result and it was found during the implementation of the simulation that the survey questions could be improved for future surveys. It was concluded that mass adoption of EVs is possible in terms of electricity production and installed power. However, increase in the evening peak led to the conclusion that balancing of the grid is necessary for example through Vehicle-to-grid (V2G), controlled charging or energy storage. Keywords: MATLAB, electricity consumption, EV, CO2 emissions, simulation, 2030, Scenario, penetration level

ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper presents a case study of the commercialisation of an ad-hoc wireless network technology from a subsidiary of a multinational company. The paper does not disclose any intellectual property specifics, the organisations or individuals involved. Instead the paper focuses on generic issues associated with technology transfer; exploration of market opportunities, market validation, the identification of a novel business model and economic validation. The paper wraps the case study within the academic context of commercialisation providing substantive literature sources, tools and techniques for readers faced with similar challenges; tools and techniques that can be applied irrespective of the underlying technology.