<p>  </p> <p>The overarching goal of this dissertation was to understand how between-partner feedback loops facilitate adjustment in the year following a military deployment (i.e., reintegration). Reintegration encompasses a period of family transitions and can be a challenging and turbulent time for couples as they attempt to reconnect and reorganize household dynamics. Couples may experience changes in how they interact, and partners may be able to act as a catalyst for promoting positive change in each other. Guided by Family Systems and Interdependence Theories, this study tested a specific feedback loop of a between-partner mechanism across a period of family stress and transitions. Whereas the demand/withdraw dynamic is one example of a feedback loop that is consequential for relationship well-being, the present study examined an alternative feedback loop where partners may respond to individuals’ withdrawal with a type of constructive partner support that encourages discussions and facilitates effective collaboration (i.e., active engagement). Relationship happiness, an indicator for relationship climate, was considered as a moderator in this proposed feedback loop as it intersects with individuals’ tendencies to withdraw, partners’ attempts at support provision, and global relationship functioning during periods of stress and transition. </p> <p>This study utilized longitudinal dyadic data from 124 couples at three time points in the year following service members’ return from deployment to examine the 1) longitudinal interpersonal dynamics of individuals’ tendencies to withdraw, 2) mediating role of partners’ active engagement in the change in individuals’ withdrawal, and 3) moderating role of relationship happiness in the interpersonal dynamics. Study aims were evaluated with a series of actor-partner interdependence models and path models in a structural equation modeling framework. Results suggest three interpretations. First, whereas this study sought to examine change in individuals’ tendencies to withdraw, the data indicate high levels of within-person stability. Second, this study modeled a possible feedback loop where partners’ attempts at active engagement would result in less individual withdrawal. While I did not find evidence of this feedback loop as proposed, it appeared that (female) significant others’ withdrawal was salient for reductions in (male) service members’ active engagement. Finally, I sought to understand how relationship climate (operationalized by a dyad-level indicator of relationship happiness) was associated with the interpersonal dynamics. Couples defined by a happier relationship climate had a stronger negative association between significant others’ withdrawal and service members’ active engagement. This finding may be evidence of happier couples being more apt to shift between levels of independence and interdependence, which may be especially useful for postdeployment transitions. Taken together, findings from this study suggest that individuals’ tendencies to withdraw are relatively robust to the perturbations of deployment and the utility of flexibility and adaptability in couples’ patterns across reintegration. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications, avenues for future research, and potential applications of these findings.  </p>

In the late 1990s, NASA conducted a study of the Interplanetary Internet (IPN) architecture. In order to build and deploy IPN infrastructure, the network technology had to be able to cope with long radio signal propagation delays and frequent radio link disruptions. The concept of a Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) emerged after recognizing that such a networking paradigm can also be applicable for terrestrial use. DTN technology can be applied, for instance, in disaster situations, military battlefields, economically developing areas, and remote regions.This thesis follows the process of applying DTN technology to a remote, communication-challenged area in the Arctic part of Sweden. The aim of the DTN deployments in the remote villages of Sarek and Padjelanta National Parks, between 2008 and 2011, was to provide a basic set of ICT services to the nomadic Sami population. Therefore, the research presented here acknowledges and considers the specific geographical, technical, and cultural conditions of these areas, and how these conditions profoundly shaped the development of the deployed technology as well as the research methodology. As a result, this thesis makes scientific contributions to several research topics, spanning the fields of DTN routing, DTN service development, DTN evaluation methodologies, and ICT deployments.The first contribution in this thesis is the proposal of a new and improved version of the PRoPHETv2 routing protocol. The development of this routing protocol was driven by actual protocol use and the results of experiments conducted during the course of the DTN deployments.Secondly, this thesis proposes an alternative DTN routing objective for a typical remote village DTN scenario. Weaknesses of a conventional DTN routing research objective are exposed by outlining concrete geographical, social, and technical conditions discovered in DTN deployments on the field. When these conditions are overlooked, they can profoundly affect DTN deployments.Thirdly, this thesis discusses the development and deployment of the Not-So-Instant-Messaging (NSIM) DTN service. The NSIM service was designed to leverage from the decentralized DTN infrastructure. Its success in the field demonstrates the importance of localized DTN services. Fourthly, using qualitative reading of DTN routing related papers, this thesis describes shortcomings of established DTN routing evaluation methodologies. Extensive use of simulated environments and scarce real-world experiments in the DTN research field often leads to usage of specific hypothetical scenarios. These scenarios are difficult to compare or relate to each other. Additionally, DTN research that does contextualize itself in remote, extreme, and challenging scenarios performs evaluations of proposed routing schemes in urban or academic environments. The DTN evaluation model that is proposed here tries to improve the readability, comparability, and validity of DTN routing evaluations. This thesis also pays attention to the issue of how to evaluate the complex interplay that occurs between researchers, users, technology and environment throughout the deployment process. The suggested method highlights the dynamics of resistance, as conceptualized within Actor Network Theory (ANT). It illustrates how employment of the concept of resistance facilitates the recognition of different driving forces in the design process that emerge from the events in the deployment.Ultimately, the thesis contributes with the PRoPHET routing protocol specification in the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series that is the official publication channel for the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and other Internet communities. The protocol specification published as the RFC6693 document allows for actual protocol implementation and assures interoperability. The discussion that follows the RFC document in this thesis focuses on the process of transferring scientific findings gained from the experiments on the deployment field into the Internet draft document that was finally recognized as an experimental RFC within the IRTF. / Godkänd; 2014; 20140407 (samo); Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Samo Grasic Ämne: Arbetsvetenskap/Human Work Science Avhandling: Development and Deployment of Delay Tolerant Networks: An Arctic Village Case Opponent: Professor Lars Wolf, Institut für Betriebssysteme und Rechneverbund, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Tyskland Ordförande: Docent Maria Udén, Avd för arbetsvetenskap, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Måndag den 12 maj 2014, kl 10.00 Plats: A109, Luleå tekniska universitet För Tekniska fakultetsnämnden / Networking for Communications Challenged Communities: Architecture, Test Beds and Innovative Alliances