In the US transportation system, environmental justice (EJ) issues are regulated by a variety of laws to ensure that all have fair treatment with respect to implementation of policies. If State Departments of Transportation adhere to all regulations properly but unconsciously, then an underlying negative impact on a community may still exist as a result of a newly implemented project. Since the implementation of High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes are fairly new, and since there have been numerous concerns from the public about their discriminatory nature, a decision support system is needed to identify potential EJ violations and issues when implementing a new or converted HOT lane. No prior model exists. The goal of this research is to assist state's Department of Transportation (DOT) in the early stages of the development of an HOT lane by developing a Potential Environmental Justice Violation Model that will help state agencies predict potential EJ violations before additional resources are invested into a project. By developing a model, this study identifies and classifies characteristic drivers of potential EJ violations related to communities' economic, social, or health and safety status. The Potential Environmental Justice Violation Model (PEJVM) allows state DOTs employees to define and evaluate the distribution of impacts in the relevant categories. The model provides a method for transforming complex qualitative and quantitative data about a project into a user-friendly format where the results can then be visualized using a spider radar diagram to determine the level of impact of each identified variable. The PEJVM was validated using two previous anonymous HOT case studies and demonstrated using the Interstate 85 Case Study in Atlanta, Georgia. This model offers a uniform method of identifying potential environmental justice violations when implementing a HOT lane. The model will also help inform state agencies of potential violations early in the planning stages of HOT lane projects so that the agency can solve any potential EJ issues before additional resources are invested.

No description available.

The aim of the disertation is to improve the efficiency of the of the refurbishment process of the public buildings by using methods of multiple criteria analysis, the developed model for integrated analysis of the negotiations process for refurbishment of buildings and the Multiple Criteria Decision Support System for Refurbishment of Public Buildings developed on the basis of these models.

The aim of the dissertation is to improve the efficiency of the refurbishment process of public buildings by using methods of multiple criteria analysis, the developed model for integrated analysis of the lifecycle of a public building, the model for integrated analysis of the negotiations process for refurbishment of buildings and the Multiple Criteria Decision Support System for Refurbishment of Public Buildings developed on then basis of these models.

This research explores the barriers and limitations of the interaction between building development processes in an attempt of an integrated decision support approach to improve building design for effective maintenance in the field of office building automation. Extensive coverage of literature and practice in office building industry over the last two decades indicates a wide diffusion and application of the information and communication technologies (ICT). While this has resulted in the adoption of advanced system integration in buildings, system redundancy and excessive expenditures are causing a major impact on the overall efficiency and has burdened building owners and occupiers with escalating maintenance costs. This phenomenon stimulates and warrants the re-examination of integrated building development, not just on system integration but also on the interdisciplinary development process integration particularly linking design and maintenance. Studies in this field revealed existing problems such as the inherent professional fragmentation, lack of historical information and service data, the first cost mentality of owners and developers, difficulties in forecasting future conditions and changes early in the design stage. With extensive use of qualitative information, this situation presents a great potential for the development of a decision support system exploring the communication and integration of design and maintenance phases, which has been one of the primary objectives of this research. In addition to literature studies, a questionnaire survey and a case study to identify industry concerns, feasible solutions, and practical procedure oriented approaches through knowledge extractions were carried out. A set of guidelines, a checklist for its implementation and prototype system for computerized decision support to design and maintenance of building automation systems were also produced. These strategic approaches to balance design and maintenance will help facilitate appropriate decision making in the early design stage for sustainable maintenance of buildings.

In recent years businesses around the world have been facing the challenges of a rapidly changing business and technology environment. As a result, organisations are paying more attention to supporting business process management by adapting to the dynamic environment. With the increased complexity and uncertainty in business operations, adaptive and collaborative business process and exception management (EM) are gaining attention. In the logistics industry, the growing importance of logistics worldwide as well as the increasing complexity of logistics networks and the service requirement of customers has become a challenge. The current logistics exceptions are managed using human brain power together with the traditional workflow technology-based supply-chain management or other logistics tools. The traditional workflow technology models and manages business processes and anticipated exceptions based on predefined logical procedures of activities from a centralised perspective. This situation offers inadequate decision support for flexibility and adaptability in logistics EM. The traditional workflow technology is also limited to monitoring the logistics activities in real-time to detect and resolve exceptions in a timely manner. To mitigate these problems, an intelligent agent incorporating business activity monitoring (BAM) decision support approach in logistics EM has been proposed and investigated in this research. This research creates and evaluates two IT designed artefacts (conceptual framework and prototype) intended to efficiently and automatically monitor and handle logistics exceptions. It follows a design science research strategy. The design, development, and evaluation adhere to the principles enunciated in the design science literature. The aim of this research is to solve the important logistics EM problem in a more effective and efficient manner. Two designed artefacts were strictly informed by, and incorporated with, three different theories. An exploratory case study and a later confirmatory case study assisted in the rigorous derivation of the design and framework. The results of the confirmatory case study were used in particular to refine the designed artefacts. Such a build-and-evaluate loop iterated several times before the final designed artefacts were generated. The designed artefacts were then evaluated empirically via a field experiment. The research included both a technical presentation and a practical framing in terms of application in the logistics exception monitoring and handling domain. In this study, there were three interrelated research phases. In the first research phase, a decision-making conceptual framework (an artefact) for design and development of real-time logistics EM system was developed. To enable more efficient decision support practices for logistics EM, the characteristics of logistics exceptions were first examined and identified. The logistics exception analysis was conducted through a comprehensive literature review and an exploratory case study conducted in a major logistics company in Australia. The logistics exceptions were then classified into known and knowable categories, based on the Cynefin sense-making framework (Snowden, 2002). On the basis of the logistics analysis, informed by Gartner’s three-layer BAM architecture (Dresner, 2003), the Cynefin sense-making framework decision models (Snowden, 2002), and Simon’s (1977) decision-making/problem-solving process, the real-time logistics EM conceptual framework was depicted. The BAM architecture provided the real-time decision support. Based on Cynefin’s decision model, adaptive business process flow was chosen for known and knowable logistics exceptions to speed up the decision-making process. In addition, Simon’s process theory was deployed to model the diagnosing process for known and knowable logistics exceptions. This conceptual model guided the analysis, design, and development for real-time logistics EM systems. In the second research phase, based on the logistics EM conceptual framework, a Web-service-multi-agent-based real-time logistics EM system (an artefact) was designed and developed. Intelligent agent technology was applied to deal with the complex, dynamic, and distributed logistics EM processes. Web-services techniques were proposed for more interoperability and scalability in network-based business environment. By integrating agent technology with Web-services to make use of the advantages from both, this approach provided a more intelligent, flexible, autonomous, and comprehensive solution to real-time logistics EM. In the third research phase, two designed artefacts were evaluated via a confirmatory case study and a field experiment. The confirmatory case study was conducted to collect feedback on the two designed artefacts (i.e., conceptual framework and prototype system) to refine them. The field experiment was then conducted to investigate the proposed logistics EM prototype system decision support effectiveness and efficiency by comparing the human decision-making performance with/without the logistics EM decision support facility. The evaluation results indicated that the proposed logistics EM prototype outperformed the one without logistics EM decision support in terms of more efficient decision process, higher decision outcome quality, and better user perception. The two designed artefacts were the major contributions of this research. They add knowledge to decision theory and practice. The artefacts are the real-time extension for Simon’s (1977) classic decision-making/problem-solving process model in logistics EM by incorporating BAM (Dresner, 2003). In addition, by adding the Cynefin sense-making framework (Snowden, 2002), the artefacts provide a more efficient decision-making routine for logistics EM. This research provides the first attempt (to the best of the researcher’s knowledge) to design a real-time logistics EM decision support mechanism based on decision science theories. To demonstrate the usability of the proposed conceptual framework, a logistics EM decision support prototype was designed, developed, and evaluated. For practice, the logistics exceptions classification, logistics EM conceptual framework, and incorporating agent technologies into logistics EM all will assist logistics companies to develop their logistics exception handling decision-making strategies and solutions.

In recent years businesses around the world have been facing the challenges of a rapidly changing business and technology environment. As a result, organisations are paying more attention to supporting business process management by adapting to the dynamic environment. With the increased complexity and uncertainty in business operations, adaptive and collaborative business process and exception management (EM) are gaining attention. In the logistics industry, the growing importance of logistics worldwide as well as the increasing complexity of logistics networks and the service requirement of customers has become a challenge. The current logistics exceptions are managed using human brain power together with the traditional workflow technology-based supply-chain management or other logistics tools. The traditional workflow technology models and manages business processes and anticipated exceptions based on predefined logical procedures of activities from a centralised perspective. This situation offers inadequate decision support for flexibility and adaptability in logistics EM. The traditional workflow technology is also limited to monitoring the logistics activities in real-time to detect and resolve exceptions in a timely manner. To mitigate these problems, an intelligent agent incorporating business activity monitoring (BAM) decision support approach in logistics EM has been proposed and investigated in this research. This research creates and evaluates two IT designed artefacts (conceptual framework and prototype) intended to efficiently and automatically monitor and handle logistics exceptions. It follows a design science research strategy. The design, development, and evaluation adhere to the principles enunciated in the design science literature. The aim of this research is to solve the important logistics EM problem in a more effective and efficient manner. Two designed artefacts were strictly informed by, and incorporated with, three different theories. An exploratory case study and a later confirmatory case study assisted in the rigorous derivation of the design and framework. The results of the confirmatory case study were used in particular to refine the designed artefacts. Such a build-and-evaluate loop iterated several times before the final designed artefacts were generated. The designed artefacts were then evaluated empirically via a field experiment. The research included both a technical presentation and a practical framing in terms of application in the logistics exception monitoring and handling domain. In this study, there were three interrelated research phases. In the first research phase, a decision-making conceptual framework (an artefact) for design and development of real-time logistics EM system was developed. To enable more efficient decision support practices for logistics EM, the characteristics of logistics exceptions were first examined and identified. The logistics exception analysis was conducted through a comprehensive literature review and an exploratory case study conducted in a major logistics company in Australia. The logistics exceptions were then classified into known and knowable categories, based on the Cynefin sense-making framework (Snowden, 2002). On the basis of the logistics analysis, informed by Gartner’s three-layer BAM architecture (Dresner, 2003), the Cynefin sense-making framework decision models (Snowden, 2002), and Simon’s (1977) decision-making/problem-solving process, the real-time logistics EM conceptual framework was depicted. The BAM architecture provided the real-time decision support. Based on Cynefin’s decision model, adaptive business process flow was chosen for known and knowable logistics exceptions to speed up the decision-making process. In addition, Simon’s process theory was deployed to model the diagnosing process for known and knowable logistics exceptions. This conceptual model guided the analysis, design, and development for real-time logistics EM systems. In the second research phase, based on the logistics EM conceptual framework, a Web-service-multi-agent-based real-time logistics EM system (an artefact) was designed and developed. Intelligent agent technology was applied to deal with the complex, dynamic, and distributed logistics EM processes. Web-services techniques were proposed for more interoperability and scalability in network-based business environment. By integrating agent technology with Web-services to make use of the advantages from both, this approach provided a more intelligent, flexible, autonomous, and comprehensive solution to real-time logistics EM. In the third research phase, two designed artefacts were evaluated via a confirmatory case study and a field experiment. The confirmatory case study was conducted to collect feedback on the two designed artefacts (i.e., conceptual framework and prototype system) to refine them. The field experiment was then conducted to investigate the proposed logistics EM prototype system decision support effectiveness and efficiency by comparing the human decision-making performance with/without the logistics EM decision support facility. The evaluation results indicated that the proposed logistics EM prototype outperformed the one without logistics EM decision support in terms of more efficient decision process, higher decision outcome quality, and better user perception. The two designed artefacts were the major contributions of this research. They add knowledge to decision theory and practice. The artefacts are the real-time extension for Simon’s (1977) classic decision-making/problem-solving process model in logistics EM by incorporating BAM (Dresner, 2003). In addition, by adding the Cynefin sense-making framework (Snowden, 2002), the artefacts provide a more efficient decision-making routine for logistics EM. This research provides the first attempt (to the best of the researcher’s knowledge) to design a real-time logistics EM decision support mechanism based on decision science theories. To demonstrate the usability of the proposed conceptual framework, a logistics EM decision support prototype was designed, developed, and evaluated. For practice, the logistics exceptions classification, logistics EM conceptual framework, and incorporating agent technologies into logistics EM all will assist logistics companies to develop their logistics exception handling decision-making strategies and solutions.

Background. Vulnerability management makes it easier for companies to find, manage and patch vulnerabilities in a network. This is done by scanning the network for known vulnerabilities. The amount of information collected during the scans can be large and prolong the analysis process of the findings. When presenting the result of found vulnerabilities it is usually represented as a trend of number of found vulnerabilities over time. The trends do not explain the cause of change in found vulnerabilities.  Objectives. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how to explain the cause of change in found vulnerabilities, by comparing vulnerability scanning reports from different points in time. Another objective of this thesis is to create an automated system that connects changes in vulnerabilities to specific events in the network. Methods. A case study was conducted where three reports, from vulnerability scans of Outpost24's internal test network, were examined in order to understand the structure of the reports and mapping them to events. To complement the case study, an additional simulated test network was set up in order to conduct self defined tests and obtain higher accuracy when identifying the cause of change in found vulnerabilities. Results. The observations done in the case study provided us with information on how to parse the data and how to identify the cause of change with a rule-based system. Interpretation of the data was done and the changes were grouped into three categories; added, removed or modified. After conducting the test cases, the results were then interpreted to find signatures in order to identify the cause of change in vulnerabilities. These signatures were then made into rules, implemented into a proof-of-concept tool. The proof of concept tool compared scan reports in pairs in order to find differences. These differences were then matched with the rules and if it did not match any rule, the change in the report was flagged as an ''unexplained'' change. The proof-of-concept tool was then used to investigate the cause of change between the reports from the case study. The framework was validated by evaluating the rules gathered from the simulated test network on the data from the case study. Furthermore, a domain expert verified that the identified causes were accurate by manually comparing the vulnerability reports from the case study. Conclusions. It is possible to identify the cause of change in found vulnerabilities from vulnerability scan reports by constructing signatures for events and use these signatures as rules. This can also be implemented automatically, as a software, in order to identify the cause of change faster than manual labor. / Bakgrund. Sårbarhetshantering underlättar arbetet för företag att hitta, hantera och korrigera sårbarheter i ett nätverk. Det görs genom att skanna nätverket efter kända sårbarheter. Mängden information som samlas under skanningar kan vara stor och medföra till att analysprocessen av upptäckterna försenas. Resultaten av de upptäckta sårbarheterna brukar vanligtvis presenteras som en trend av antalet funna sårbarheter över ett tidsintervall. Trenderna förklarar dock inte andledningen till de funna sårbarheterna. Syfte. Målet med denna avhandling är att undersöka hur det är möjligt att identifiera anledningen till skillnaden i funna sårbarheter genom att jämföra sårbarhetsrapporter från olika tidpunkter. Ett andra mål är att utveckla ett automatiskt system som kopplar skillnaderna i funna sårbarheter till specifika händelser i nätverket. Metod. En fallstudie utfördes där tre sårbarhetsrapporter, från Outpost24s interna testnätverk, undersöktes för att få förståelse kring strukturen av rapporterna samt för att koppla upptäckter i rapporterna till händelser. För att komplementera fallstudien satte vi upp ett nytt, simulerat testnätverk för att kunna utföra egna tester samt för att uppnå en högre precision vid identifiering av förändringar. Resultat. Utifrån fallstudien fick vi förståelse för hur vi skulle tolka informationen från rapporterna samt för hur man kan ge orsak till förändring genom ett regelbaserad system. Informationen från rapporterna tolkades och förändringarna delades in i tre olika kategorier; tillagda, borttagna eller modifierade. Utifrån testerna från det simulerade nätverket byggdes signaturer som identifierar orsak till föränding av funna sårbarheter. Signaturerna användes sedan för att göra regler, vilka implementerades i ett konceptverktyg. Konceptverktyget jämförde sårbarhetsrapporter i par för att upptäcka skillnader. De identifierade skillnaderna försökte sedan matchas ihop med reglerna och skulle skillnaden inte matcha någon regel så flaggas skillnaden som ''oförklarad''. Konceptverktyget användes slutligen för att finna orsak till förändringar i rapporterna från fallstudien. Ramverket validerates genom att utvärdera hur reglerna byggda utifrån det simulerade nätverket presterade för fallstudien. En domänexpert verifierade att händelserna som presenterades och orsaken till förändringarna var korrekta genom att analysera sårbarhetsrapporterna från fallstudien manuellt. Slutsatser. Det är möjligt att identifiera orsak till förändringar i upptäckta sårbarheter i sårbarhetsrapporter genom att identifiera signaturer för händelser, och använda dessa signaturer i ett reglerbaserat system. Systemet är också möjligt att implementera automatiskt, i form av mjukvara, för att kunna identifiera orsaken till förändring snabbare än om det skulle gjorts manuellt.

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-09-05T11:44:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUCINEY SILVA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PROFIAP-CCJS) 2018.doc: 2880512 bytes, checksum: d325dd189fa7739bfb9d218aba0feac6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-05T11:44:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUCINEY SILVA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PROFIAP-CCJS) 2018.doc: 2880512 bytes, checksum: d325dd189fa7739bfb9d218aba0feac6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018 / Decidir é uma constante durante toda a vida de qualquer pessoa e com o avanço das ciências da Administração, a Tomada de Decisão ganhou notoriedade. As Instituições de Ensino Superior são organizações complexas e extremamente relevantes para a sociedade moderna. Analisar aspectos administrativos de uma organização de natureza pública é além de enriquecedor, necessário, pois são mantidas por recursos públicos cada vez mais escassos. O uso dos sistemas de informações permite que o erário público seja melhor gerido. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo buscou analisar até que ponto o Sistema de Concessão de Diárias e Passagens auxilia os ordenadores de despesas da Universidade Federal de Campina Grande no processo de tomada de decisão na concessão de diárias e passagens. Quanto a metodologia, trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e estudo de campo, exploratório-descritiva que coletou os dados através de um questionário aplicado aos ordenadores de despesas, para realizar uma análise temática e categorial dos dados. A apreciação dos resultados possibilitou traçar o perfil dos ordenadores de despesas da UFCG, e confirmar que os mesmos utilizam relatórios e dados gerenciais do SCDP no processo decisório. Ao descobrir a maneira que os gestores priorizam as concessões de viagens, foi proposta uma lista de prioridades que pode ser aplicada na instituição. Os modelos de tomada de decisão preponderantes, reaplicando os estudos de estudos correlatos de Leitão (1991), Simão (2001) e Sorgetz (2016), foram o Burocrático e Colegiado. O potencial de Sistema de Apoio à Decisão do SCDP é reconhecido pelos decisores, embora ainda não exista a implantação do perfil operacional na instituição. Apesar de menosprezar esse potencial, conclui-se que o SCDP auxilia o processo decisório dos ordenadores de despesa ao conceder diárias e passagens e mesmo com predominância, não há modelo capaz de sozinho, contemplar todo processo de tomada de decisão. Recomenda-se estudos futuros em instituições com o módulo de apoio a decisão do SCDP implantado para confrontar com este estudo ou ratificar o entendimento comportamental do processo decisório na concessão de diárias e passagens em IES públicas. / Deciding is a constant throughout the life of any person and with the advancement of the Management sciences, Decision Making has gained notoriety. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are complex and extremely relevant organizations for modern society. Analyzing administrative aspects of an organization of a public nature is beyond enriching, necessary, as they are maintained by increasingly scarce public resources. The use of information systems allows the public treasury a better managed. In this context, the present study sought to analyze the extent to which the Sistema de Concessão de Diárias e Passagens (Daily Travel Allowance System - SCDP) helps the managers of the Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (Federal University of Campina Grande - UFCG) in the decision-making process in the concession of daily travels and tickets. As for the methodology, this is a qualitative research and field study, exploratory-descriptive that collected the data through an evaluation questionnaire applied to the expenses administrators, to perform a thematic and categorical analysis of the data. The results analyze made it possible to trace a profile of the UFCG's expenses administrators and confirm that they use reports and management data from the SCDP in the decision-making process. By discovering how managers prioritize travel grants, a list of priorities that can be applied at the institution has been proposed. The prevailing decision-making models, re-applying the related studies of Leitão (1991), Simão (2001) and Sorgetz (2016), were the Bureaucratic and Collegiate. Decision-makers recognize the potential of the SCDP like a Decision Support System, although the operational profile has not been implemented in the institution yet. Although this potential is underestimated, it can be concluded that the SCDP assists the decision-making process of the managers granting daily travels and tickets, even with predominance, there is no model capable of alone, contemplating every decision-making process. Recommend future studies in institutions with the SCDP decision support module deployed to confront this study or ratify the behavioral understanding of the decision-making process in the granting of diaries and passages in public HEIs.

Les travaux de recherche présentés dans cette thèse se situent dans une problématique d’aide à la conception d’enveloppes isolantes pour la rénovation thermique de bâtiments résidentiels collectifs. Ces enveloppes isolantes sont composées de panneaux multifonctionnels rectangulaires, configurables et préfabriqués en usine. Leur conception repose sur les cinq caractéristiques suivantes. Premièrement, le nombre de panneaux nécessaires pour concevoir une enveloppe ainsi que leur taille respective ne sont pas
 connus au début de la rénovation (mais leur taille est cependant bornée). Deuxièmement, en raison des contraintes de fabrication, chaque fenêtre et chaque porte présentes sur la façade à rénover doivent être insérées dans un et un seul panneau. Troisièmement, les panneaux sont fixés à des endroits spécifiques de la façade, assez résistants pour supporter leur poids, nommés zones d’accroche. Quatrièmement, ni trous (zone non couverte), ni chevauchements entre panneaux ne sont autorisés. Cinquièmement, afin de garantir une isolation thermique performante tout en minimisant son coût, les enveloppes doivent être
 composées d’un nombre minimal de panneaux. Aux vues de la complexité de ce problème, nous restreignons nos travaux de recherche aux façades rectangulaires portant des menuiseries et des zones d’accroche rectangulaires. Compte tenu des cinq caractéristiques énoncées et de l’hypothèse de forme rectangulaire des éléments traités (panneaux, façades, menuiseries, zones d’accroche), la conception des enveloppes est à la fois un problème de découpe et de conditionnement à deux dimensions et un problème de configuration. Ce problème est formalisé et traité comme un problème de satisfaction de contraintes et a pour but d’aider la conception dédites enveloppes isolantes. En tant que tel, les travaux de cette thèse présentent deux contributions majeures. En raison des caractéristiques originales du problème de calepinage de façades, sa description et sa formalisation comme un problème de satisfaction de contraintes constituent la première contribution de ces travaux de thèse. Deuxièmement, les solutions algorithmiques basées sur les contraintes constituent notre seconde contribution. En particulier, ces travaux de thèse présentent deux solutions manuelles et trois automatiques pour le problème de conception d’enveloppes isolantes. / The research presented in this thesis falls within the problem of supporting the design of thermal insulating envelopes for the renovation of collective residential buildings. These insulating envelopes are composed of rectangular multi-functional panels, configurable and prefabricated in the factory. Their design is based on the following five characteristics. First, the number of panels needed to design an envelope and their size are not known at the beginning of the renovation (but their size is however bounded). Second, because of manufacturing constraints, every window and every door present on the facade to be renovated must be inserted into one and only one panel. Third, panels are attached to specific areas of the facade strong enough to support their weight, called supporting areas. Fourth, neither holes (uncovered area) or overlapping between panels are allowed. Fifth, to ensure efficient thermal insulation while minimizing cost, envelopes should be composed of a minimum number of panels. In view of the complexity of this problem, we restrict our research to rectangular facades with rectangular joinery and supporting areas. Given the five stated characteristics and the assumption of rectangular elements (panels, facades, 
joinery, supporting areas), the envelopes design is both a two-dimensional Cutting & Packing problem as well as a configuration one. This problem is formalized and treated as a constraint satisfaction problem and aims to support the design of such insulating structures. As such, the thesis presents two major contributions. Given the original features of the building renovation problem, its description and its formalization as a constraint satisfaction problem are the first contribution of the work. Second, constraint-based algorithmic solution’s are our second contribution. In particular, the thesis presents two manual and three automatic solutions for the design problem of insulating envelopes.