Despite considerable effort considerable cost in both time and money, as many as two out of three persons with type 1 diabetes are not in control of their disease. As a result, 40% of these individuals will go on to develop at least one serious complication including retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and cardiomyopathy. It is further estimated that as much as $4 billion could be saved annually if all persons with type 1 diabetes in the US were properly controlled. Adequate treatment of type 1 diabetes is predicated on the estimation of three clinical insulin therapy parameters: the basal dose, the insulin sensitivity factor and the insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio. Currently, these therapy parameters are determined by iterative titration procedures based on expert opinion. Unfortunately, there is evidence suggesting that for the majority of individuals, these titration protocols do not provide good results. In this work we develop an alternative to traditional insulin titration protocols that allows clinical insulin therapy parameters to be estimated directly from a set of easily acquired measurements. First, a simple model of type 1 diabetes is used to derive a series of equations connecting the model's parameters to the clinically important insulin therapy parameters of insulin sensitivity factor, insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio and basal insulin dose. The simplifying assumptions used to derive these equations are tested and shown to be valid and the Fisher Information Matrix is used to demonstrate parameter identifiability. Parameter estimation is then performed on two cohorts of virtual subjects, as well as two segments of real continuous glucose monitoring data from a person with type 1 diabetes. Identification of the true insulin therapy parameters is successful under most conditions for both cohorts of virtual subjects. Parameter estimation for one of the two segments of real continuous glucose monitoring data is also successful. Finally, because continuous glucose monitors are instrumental to successful implementation of our insulin therapy framework, the physiological environment in which continuous glucose monitoring takes place is modeled and a fundamental limitation on measurement precision is shown to exist. An examination of physiological variability in the parameters indicates that many of the challenges observed in real world continuous glucose monitoring may have a relationship to changes in capillary bed perfusion. A rationale for anecdotally reported sensor faults is also proposed based on the physical mechanisms explored. / text

Managing groundwater can be difficult because there is no common perspective among stakeholders about what they wish for their desired future conditions (DFCs) for Texas' aquifers. Conflicts over how to manage aquifers, whether to mine or sustain groundwater levels are complicated by diverse state and local approaches. This dissertation proposes a decision support method to derive acceptable future aquifer conditions through engaging stakeholders by combining five processes: landowner surveys, stakeholder and decision maker focus groups, contingent valuation, system element identification and scenario-testing. Surveys of water users identified conflicts among water users and decision makers' preferences. For example, how much is groundwater worth in Texas? Responses to two survey questions revealed a willingness to buy groundwater for an average of $2,872 per acre-foot. Most landowners most did not want to sell groundwater at any cost. Those willing to sell revealed an average of $4,069 per acre-foot. A survey of landowners and decision makers indicated that 41 percent of landowners indicated that no new users be issued permits to support stable Trinity Aquifer groundwater levels. Meanwhile, the decision makers chose a DFC of a 30 foot drawdown in the Trinity Aquifer over 50 years. Stakeholder surveys identified the 'best groundwater decision makers' as being the stakeholders or well owners, yet 75 percent of the decision makers preferred the groundwater conservation district board presidents. This suggests that stakeholders would prefer to be the decision makers rather than being asked for their preferences. One decision-maker focus group identified 12 elements representing their understanding of the DFC process. These elements form a system information diagram or preference map. Such a map can help identify alternative pathways for solving problems in the decision process. These complexities remain challenging as Texas moves toward more local regulatory control, more competing interests, and less certainty about Texas' future groundwater supply. / text

In September 2009 exploratory testing of an old geothermal power well caused a blowout at the El Tatio geothermal field of northern Chile. El Tatio is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere. The blowout was a paradigm-shifting event for the management of the El Tatio geothermal field and drew attention to the disparity and critical nature of scientific information sharing. This study uses the El Tatio incident as a case study for examining problems of common-pool resource management and geothermal energy development. It explores how differing valuations of geothermal resources resulted in a breakdown of coherent regulation and negative outcomes for all stakeholders. Contingent valuation methods were used to create an elicitive interview process in order to assess how differences in valuation drove these conflicts and negative outcomes. The sharing of scientific information through Decision Support Systems (DSS) is identified as an important element in resolving these conflicts and creating new policies for common-pool resource management. These methods are presented as tools that can be used by stakeholders to find common ground and seek mutually beneficial outcomes. In addition, these tools can help with the critical issue of social perception of scientific data and science driven solutions to these problems. This study posits that the path forward is to ensure not only that scientific data is communicated in modes appropriate to the community and problem at hand, but that the acquisition and interpretation of this data is informed by stakeholder needs. / text

The electronic system of a modern vehicle is essential to achieve a successful automotive product. Vehicle development is performed by integrating components that include embedded electronics from several suppliers. This thesis present results on the subject of integration of automotive electronic systems. Our studies aim at providing knowledge on how to integrate automotive electronic systems successfully in a setting where vehicles are developed based on existing platforms. We focus on early phases of automotive electronic system development and in particular on the decisions taken in integration of electronic sub-systems. The contribution is the presented support for making decisions to successfully integrate electronic systems for modern vehicles. The contribution includes an overview of driving factors of automotive electronics system design, a validated set of success practices for the integration of electronic components, and the proposal and demonstration of a decision model. The influential factors and the validated set of practices stems from case studies of products and projects while the proposed decision model is a result of combining two general models for architecture analysis and decision making, ATAM and AHP. We demonstrate that choices in strategy and design preceding integration are central to achieve a successful integration. Our studies show that problems arise from omitted strategy decisions and we provide a checklist for decision making in the areas; functionality, platform, integration design, and assigning responsibilities. We provide a recommendation that we validate in a multiple cases study where fulfillment of recommendations is demonstrated to affect project success in integration projects. The potential gain for OEMs using our results lies in achieving more solid foundations for design decisions. Designers and managers could potentially find central decisions on integration strategy early that, if omitted, could cause delays. Thus, applying the result could avoid pitfalls and enable successful integration projects.

With an abundant average precipitation rate, Vietnam could be considered water-reach country. Unfortunately, the non-uniform spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, coupled with a demographic and industrial development polarized on the two major river deltas, it makes the water resources extremely vulnerable. As consequence, severe depletions of groundwater table are reported all over the country, often in the range of 1-2 m per year and more. The subsequent land subsidence is just one of the drawbacks, another being the increasing salinity of coastal aquifers as sea water level continues to rise. Under these conditions, the natural groundwater replenishment alone is not anymore able to provide for a safe water supply, different studies indicating that the groundwater exploitation in major urban agglomerations like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City already passed the sustainability level. The solution presented in this paper implies making use of engineered methods for enhancing the natural groundwater recharge rates by enabling better percolation rates of surface water into subsurface and thus optimizing the regional water cycle. The method known as ‘managed aquifer recharge’ (MAR) is introduced, together with general guidelines and tools for planning of MAR schemes, such as the newly web-based decision support system INOWAS_DSS. / Với tốc độ lượng mưa trung bình dồi dào, Việt Nam có thể được coi là quốc gia có nguồn nước trong tầm tay. Thật không may, sự phân bố không gian và thời gian không đồng đều của lượng mưa, cùng với sự phát triển dân số và công nghiệp phân cực trên hai vùng châu thổ sông lớn làm cho các nguồn nước rất dễ bị tổn thương. Vì vậy, sự suy giảm nước ngầm nghiêm trọng được báo cáo trên khắp đất nước, thường mỗi năm giảm 1-2 m và nhiều hơn nữa. Hiện tượng sụt lún đất xảy ra sau đó chỉ là một trong những hạn chế, mặt khác là độ mặn ngày càng tăng của các tầng chứa nước ven biển do mực nước biển tiếp tục tăng. Dưới những điều kiện này, việc bổ sung nước ngầm tự nhiên đơn thuần không còn có thể cung ứng cho một nguồn cấp nước sạch an toàn. Các nghiên cứu khác nhau cho thấy rằng việc khai thác nước ngầm tại các đô thị lớn như Hà Nội hay thành phố Hồ Chí Minh đã vượt qua mức độ bền vững. Giải pháp được trình bày trong bài báo này gợi ý việc sử dụng các phương pháp thiết kế để nâng cao tỷ lệ tái nạp nước ngầm tự nhiên bằng cách cho phép tỷ lệ thẩm thấu tốt hơn nước mặt vào dưới bề mặt và do đó tối ưu hóa chu trình nước trong khu vực. Phương pháp được gọi là 'tái nạp nước ngầm có quản lý (MAR) được giới thiệu, cùng với các hướng dẫn chung và các công cụ để lập kế hoạch đề án MAR, ví dụ như hệ thống mớihỗ trợ quyết định dựa trên kết nối mạng INOWAS_DSS.

The planning and implementation of effective water resources management strategies need an assessment of multiple (physical, environmental, and socio-economic) issues, and often requires new research in which knowledge of diverse disciplines are combined in a unified methodological and operational framework. Such integrative research to link different knowledge domains faces several practical challenges. The complexities are further compounded by multiple actors frequently with conflicting interests and multiple uncertainties about the consequences of potential management decisions. This thesis aims to overcome some of these challenges, and to demonstrate how new modeling approaches can provide successful integrative water resources research. It focuses on the development of new integrated modeling approaches which allow integration of not only physical processes but also socio-economic and environmental issues and uncertainties inherent in water resources systems. To achieve this goal, two new approaches are developed in this thesis. At first, a Bayesian network (BN)-based decision support tool is developed to conceptualize hydrological and socio-economic interaction for supporting management decisions of coupled groundwater-agricultural systems. The method demonstrates the value of combining different commonly used integrated modeling approaches. Coupled component models are applied to simulate the nonlinearity and feedbacks of strongly interacting groundwater-agricultural hydrosystems. Afterwards, a BN is used to integrate the coupled component model results with empirical knowledge and stakeholder inputs. In the second part of this thesis, a fuzzy-stochastic multiple criteria decision analysis tool is developed to systematically quantify both probabilistic and fuzzy uncertainties associated with complex hydrosystems management. It integrates physical process-based models, fuzzy logic, expert involvement and stochastic simulation within a general framework. Subsequently, the proposed new approaches are applied to a water-scarce coastal arid region water management problem in northern Oman, where saltwater intrusion into a coastal aquifer due to excessive groundwater extraction for irrigated agriculture has affected the aquifer sustainability, endangering associated socio-economic conditions as well as traditional social structures. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The first method can aid in the impact assessment of alternative management interventions on sustainability of aquifer systems while accounting for economic (agriculture) and societal interests (employment in agricultural sector) in the study area. Results from the second method have provided key decision alternatives which can serve as a platform for negotiation and further exploration. In addition, this approach suits to systematically quantify both probabilistic and fuzzy uncertainties associated with the decision problem. The new approaches can be applied to address the complexities and uncertainties inherent in water resource systems to support management decisions, while serving as a platform for stakeholder participation.

M. Tech. Information Networks / This dissertation reports on a systematic evaluation of the quality of services that are provided by clothing industry in South Africa. Textile and apparel clothing industry is an important leading segment of the world economy. Clothing retail stores are continuously striving to improve their service quality towards delivering customer satisfaction, which has surfaced as one of the foundational blocks of modern competitive business. The methodological evaluation of clothing stores follows two essential steps. The first step applies Partial Least Squares algorithm to Taiwan-, Europe- and American customer satisfaction models to identify suitable quality criteria that influence customer satisfaction of clothing store service. The second step uses the identified quality criteria in a multiple criteria decision making algorithm to evaluate a set of 17 popular clothing stores in South Africa. The results of the evaluation of the clothing stores revealed the core competence of South African clothing industry in quality service delivery. The results of this study can be used to guide clothing stores on how to better improve the quality of their services. This supplies confirmation for additional enhancement on corporate competitiveness.

Thesis (DTech. in Business Information Systems)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2008. / Existing literature propagates a variety of methods for assessment of intellectual capital. Unfortunately, awareness of, and interest in the assessment of intellectual capital far exceeds its use in practice. This research argues that, due to complexities involved in selecting and customising an appropriate method or combination of methods for assessing intellectual capital, mechanisms are needed for managing and applying the evolving body of knowledge concerning such assessment. This research proceeds to develop a model, referred to as a conceptual design for a system to (i) provide management support to the process of selecting and customising an appropriate method (or combination of methods) for assessment of intellectual capital, (ii) utilise past knowledge and expertise to accelerate and improve decision-making, (iii) promote synergism through integration of methods, and (iv) manage the evolving body of knowledge concerning the assessment of intellectual capital.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy