Flexibil and accessibil public relations technologies are able to replace specific communication solutions of e. government based public institution with. Public reations should be recognized as a constituent part of e. governemt policy, which is aimed to governments’ accesability and effectiveness increase, accountability and transparency.

In this thesis, research efforts are dedicated towards the development of practical adaptable techniques to be used in Smart Homes and Buildings, with the aim to improve energy management and conservation, while enhancing the learning capabilities of Programmable Communicating Thermostats (PCT) – “transforming” them into smart adaptable devices, i.e., “Smart Thermostats”. An Adaptable Hybrid Intelligent System utilizing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques is presented, based on which, a novel Adaptive Learning System (ALS) model utilizing WSN, a rule-based system and Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) concepts is proposed. The main goal of the ALS is to adapt to the occupant’s pattern and/or schedule changes by providing comfort, while not ignoring the energy conservation aspect. The proposed ALS analytical model is a technique which enables PCTs to learn and adapt to user input pattern changes and/or other parameters of interest. A new algorithm for finding the global maximum in a predefined interval within a two dimensional space is proposed. The proposed algorithm is a synergy of reward/punish concepts from the reinforcement learning (RL) and agent-based technique, for use in small-scale embedded systems with limited memory and/or processing power, such as the wireless sensor/actuator nodes. An application is implemented to observe the algorithm at work and to demonstrate its main features. It was observed that the “RL and Agent-based Search”, versus the “RL only” technique, yielded better performance results with respect to the number of iterations and function evaluations needed to find the global maximum. Furthermore, a “House Simulator” is developed as a tool to simulate house heating/cooling systems and to assist in the practical implementation of the ALS model under different scenarios. The main building blocks of the simulator are the “House Simulator”, the “Smart Thermostat”, and a placeholder for the “Adaptive Learning Models”. As a result, a novel adaptive learning algorithm, “Observe, Learn and Adapt” (OLA) is proposed and demonstrated, reflecting the main features of the ALS model. Its evaluation is achieved with the aid of the “House Simulator”. OLA, with the use of sensors and the application of the ALS model learning technique, captures the essence of an actual PCT reflecting a smart and adaptable device. The experimental performance results indicate adaptability and potential energy savings of the single in comparison to the zone controlled scenarios with the OLA capabilities being enabled.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T15:23:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 998722 bytes, checksum: 3a548419837df03be3b142c6ab8b7e9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Presents the results of researched in the Masters program in the Graduate Program in Information Science at the Federal University of Paraiba, in line with Ethics, Management and Information policy, entitled "ANALYSIS OF BARRIERS IN COMMUNICATING INFORMATING FOR DECISION-MAKING: the case of the Institute of Metrology and Industrial Quality of Paraiba". Discusses the concepts of public administration, decision making, information management and communication barriers in the information. The objective was to delineate the profile of managers and decision makers to analyze the barriers to communication of information in the process of management decision making of managers of the Institute of Metrology and Industrial Quality of Paraiba (IMEQ), an agency linked to the Brazilian Network of the Institute of Metrology National Metrology and Quality. Reports the results of analysis of data from field research conducted in IMEQ through pictures and comments with comments on the barriers identified in the communication of information by managers in decision-making process. / Apresenta os resultados de pesquisada no Mestrado no programa de Pós- Graduação em Ciência da Informação da Universidade Federal da Paraíba, na linha de pesquisa Ética, Gestão e Políticas de informação, com o título ANÁLISE DAS BARREIRAS NA COMUNICAÇÃO DA INFORMAÇÃO PARA TOMADA DE DECISÃO: o caso do Instituto de Metrologia e Qualidade Industrial da Paraíba . Discute os conceitos de administração pública, tomada de decisão, gestão da informação e barreiras na comunicação da informação. Objetivou-se delinear o perfil dos gestores tomadores de decisões e analisar as barreiras na comunicação da informação no processo de tomada de decisão gerencial dos gestores do Instituto de Metrologia e Qualidade Industrial da Paraíba (IMEQ), órgão vinculado à Rede Brasileira de Metrologia do Instituto Nacional de Metrologia e Qualidade. Relata os resultados da análise dos dados da pesquisa de campo realizada no IMEQ, através de quadros e comentários com observações sobre as barreiras na comunicação da informação identificadas pelos gestores, no processo de tomada de decisão.

Computer systems are used in almost all aspects of our lives and our dependency on them keeps on increasing. When computer systems are used to handle critical tasks, any software failure can cause severe human and/or material losses. Therefore, for such applications, it is important to detect software errors at an early stage of software development. Furthermore, the growing use of concurrent and distributed programs exponentially increases the complexity of computer systems, making the problem of detecting software errors even harder (if not impossible). This calls for defining systematic and efficient techniques to evaluate the safety and the correctness of programs. The aim of Model-Checking is to analyze automatically whether a given program satisfies its specification. Early applications of Model-Checking were restricted to systems whose behaviors can be captured by finite graphs, so called finite-state systems. Since many computer systems cannot be modeled as finite-state machines, there has been a growing interest in extending the applicability of Model-Checking to infinite-state systems. The goal of this thesis is to extend the applicability of Model Checking for three instances of infinite-state systems: Ad-Hoc Networks, Dynamic Register Automata and Multi Pushdown Systems. Each one of these instances models challenging types of networks of communicating processes. In both Ad-Hoc Networks and Dynamic Register Automata, communication is carried through message passing. In each type of network, a graph topology models the communication links between processes in the network. The graph topology is static in the case of Ad-Hoc Networks while it is dynamic in the case of Dynamic Register Automata. The number of processes in both types of networks is unbounded. Finally, we consider Multi Pushdown Systems, a model used to study the behaviors of concurrent programs composed of sequential recursive sequential programs communicating through a shared memory.

In this thesis, research efforts are dedicated towards the development of practical adaptable techniques to be used in Smart Homes and Buildings, with the aim to improve energy management and conservation, while enhancing the learning capabilities of Programmable Communicating Thermostats (PCT) – “transforming” them into smart adaptable devices, i.e., “Smart Thermostats”. An Adaptable Hybrid Intelligent System utilizing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques is presented, based on which, a novel Adaptive Learning System (ALS) model utilizing WSN, a rule-based system and Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) concepts is proposed. The main goal of the ALS is to adapt to the occupant’s pattern and/or schedule changes by providing comfort, while not ignoring the energy conservation aspect. The proposed ALS analytical model is a technique which enables PCTs to learn and adapt to user input pattern changes and/or other parameters of interest. A new algorithm for finding the global maximum in a predefined interval within a two dimensional space is proposed. The proposed algorithm is a synergy of reward/punish concepts from the reinforcement learning (RL) and agent-based technique, for use in small-scale embedded systems with limited memory and/or processing power, such as the wireless sensor/actuator nodes. An application is implemented to observe the algorithm at work and to demonstrate its main features. It was observed that the “RL and Agent-based Search”, versus the “RL only” technique, yielded better performance results with respect to the number of iterations and function evaluations needed to find the global maximum. Furthermore, a “House Simulator” is developed as a tool to simulate house heating/cooling systems and to assist in the practical implementation of the ALS model under different scenarios. The main building blocks of the simulator are the “House Simulator”, the “Smart Thermostat”, and a placeholder for the “Adaptive Learning Models”. As a result, a novel adaptive learning algorithm, “Observe, Learn and Adapt” (OLA) is proposed and demonstrated, reflecting the main features of the ALS model. Its evaluation is achieved with the aid of the “House Simulator”. OLA, with the use of sensors and the application of the ALS model learning technique, captures the essence of an actual PCT reflecting a smart and adaptable device. The experimental performance results indicate adaptability and potential energy savings of the single in comparison to the zone controlled scenarios with the OLA capabilities being enabled.

This thesis investigates deep pushdown automata and introduces their modification called controlled deep pushdown automata. Distributed deep pushdown automata systems and parallel communicating deep pushdown automata systems are described. Their accepting power and properties are investigated and several variants are introduced. This thesis proves that the accepting power of one such variant of parallel communicating deep pushdown automata systems is equal to the accepting power of Turing machines. A method for syntactical analysis based on the previously introduced automata systems is described.

This thesis defines and studies two new types of automata, cooperating distributed pushdown automata systems (CDPDAS) and parallel communicating pushdown automata systems (PCPDAS).  CDPDAS and PCPDAS adapt the main concept of cooperating distributed grammar systems (CDGS) and parallel communicating automata systems (PCPDAS), respectively.  CDPDAS are proven to have the same power as PDA and this thesis further explores the reason why CDPDAS do not increase power while CDGS do and introduces an automata system inspired by CDPDAS that does increase the power.  PCGS have similar power as CDGS, but PCPDAS are equvalent with TM, which is proven by creating a communication protocol to access a second stack.

No description available.

Nous proposons de concevoir et de mettre en oeuvre un environnement logiciel pour une "gestion guidée par les modèles" des changements dans les architectures des applications distribuées coopératives. Les aspects adaptabilité des applications, les aspects transformations de graphe et les aspects particuliers des applications distribuées coopératives sont étudiés. Une approche d'adaptation s'appuyant sur une modélisation par les graphes et un style architectural de type Poducteur/Consommateur est présentée pour des applications communicantes collaboratives sensibles au contexte. Une démarche de raffinement est proposée permettant de garantir un certain degré d'adaptabilité en faisant un compromis entre les différents paramètres du contexte. Ces travaux de recherche ont aussi permis de définir un cadre algorithmique générique de reconfiguration architecturale multi-niveaux pour la sélection des architectures de déploiement les plus adaptées à un contexte et aux situations associées. Ce cadre a été appliqué au cas de la communication et de la coopération de groupe. Elle a aussi permis de modéliser le style architectural Producteur/Consommateur pour une communication orientée événement. Des règles d'adaptation ont été définies. Elles comportent une partie basée sur SWRL pour la description du contexte et des règles d'adaptation, et une partie basée sur les grammaires de graphes pour la transformation des configurations de déploiement / In this work, we study dynamic reconfiguration of collaborative communicating applications. Providing generic and scalable solutions for automated self-reconfiguration in group collaboration support systems can be driven by rule-based reconfiguration policies. To achieve this goal, we elaborate a dynamic graph-based modeling approach and we develop structural models that can represent the different interaction dependencies from different configuration-related point of views: communication flows between the distributed machines, the networked deployment nodes, and the service composition. Our solution is based on graph grammars rewriting. We provide graph transformation to specify rules for changing deployment architecture while being in conformance to an architectural style. In order to handle the complex design of communicating collaborative system architectures and the related adaptation issues, we propose a multi-layer modelling approach. This approach assures generic solutions for automatic context aware adaptation. Our approach is based on the observation that semantic data analysis that can be exploited to manage priorities and more generally to manage communications. This allows us to represent, in a richer way, the semantics of the managed systems

Social responsibility has a long history and it is evolved from the genuine altruism of human beings. On the other hand, corporate social responsibility finds its roots from organizations. The interactions of an organization and the public enable CSR to emerge and affect both organizations and human beings.The term CSR is evaluated differently in different contexts with different approaches by the scholars.One type of CSR, strategic CSR, aims for evaluating CSR from a strategic point of view. As strategic CSR is a long term investment, it provides a competitive advantage over competitors once a company invests in CSR and communicates CSR properly. The interest of consumers in products is the main drive for the introduction of the brand concept. Brand becomes important due to the fact that organization wants the products and services to be recognizable by the public. This recognition is followed by formation of brand reputation which requires long term investments to be established.The purpose of this study is to analyze how strategic CSR and brand reputation are perceived to affect competitive advantage in a specific company. This study traces the perceptions of CSR, the brand reputation and the competitive advantage concepts in this company, with particular focus on how they are perceived by the employees in the organization.In this case study, Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Design is used to have different insights from qualitative and quantitative analyses. In this design, first qualitative analysis has been conducted and it is followed by the quantitative analysis.Findings of this study reveal that in the specific company, the perceptions of management and nonmanagement employees differ for the given concepts. The non-management employees think that CSR enables competitive advantage whereas management favors brand reputation more and thinks that it is crucial for competitive advantage of the specific company. Although management thinks that CSR is an important concept that the organization might benefit from, there is no plan to evaluate CSR strategically in the specific company.A crucial attribute of a company is to be dynamic and to adapt rapidly to the industry and market changes. This is followed by generation of the brand and improvement of the brand to provide reputation. From this perspective, it is a necessity that both CSR and brand reputation should be evaluated strategically in ACME AB and if neglected, the competitive advantage of a company cannot be realized. / Socialt ansvar har en lång historia och det utvecklats från äkta altruism av människans inneboende altruism. Å andra sidan, finner samhällsansvar (CSR) sina rötter i organisationer. Samspelet mellan en organisation och samhället möjliggör för CSR sikt att växa och påverka både organisationer och människor.Termen CSR utvärderas olika i olika sammanhang med olika metoder av akademiker. En typ av CSR, strategisk CSR, syftar till att utvärdera CSR ur ett strategiskt perspektiv. Eftersom strategisk CSR är en långsiktig investering ger det en konkurrensfördel gentemot konkurrenterna när ett företag investerar i CSR och kommunicerar CSR väl.Konsumenternas intresse av produkter är den viktigaste drivkraften för införandet av varumärkesbegreppet. Varumärket blir viktigt på grund av att organisationen vill att deras produkter och tjänster ska kännas igen av allmänheten. När väl varumärket etablerats kan dess rykte börja byggas upp.Syftet med denna studie är att analysera hur strategisk CSR och varumärke uppfattas påverka konkurrensfördel i ett specifikt företag. Denna studie analyserar uppfattningar om CSR, det varumärke och konkurrensfördelar uppfattningar om begreppen i ett specifikt företag, med särskilt fokus på hur de uppfattas av de anställda i organisationen.I denna fallstudie används metodiken Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Design för att få insikt både via kvalitativa och kvantitativa analyser. I denna metodik, har första kvalitativ analys genomförts och det följs av den kvantitativa analysen.Resultaten av denna studie visar att i ett specifikt företag skiljer sig uppfattningarna om de givna begreppen mellan anställda i ledande och icke ledande ställning. Anställda i icke ledande befattningartror att CSR ger konkurrensfördelar, medan ledningen gynnar varumärke mer och tycker att det är avgörande för att ge företaget konkurrensfördelar. Även om ledningen anser att CSR är ett viktigt begrepp som organisation kan dra nytta, finns det inga planer på att utvärdera CSR strategiskt i ett specifikt företag.En avgörande egenskap hos ett företag är att vara dynamiskt och att kunna anpassa sig snabbt till förändringar i branschen och dess marknad. Detta bidrar till att bygga upp varumärket och, på längre sikt, ge det ett got rykte. Ur detta perspektiv är det en nödvändighet att både CSR och rykte utvärderas strategiskt i ett specifikt företag och om de försummas, kan deras associerade konkurrensfördelar för ett företag inte förverkligas.