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Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Rouse / Society faces a variety of grand challenges: global problems that must be addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort such as reducing global poverty, effective management of natural resources, and balancing innovation and security in the development of emerging technologies. Management researchers have made great strides in conceptualizing what makes these challenges unique, why they are especially difficult to solve, and how organizations can help solve them. Despite this progress, we lack an understanding of the experience of the “grand challenge workers” who seek to address these problems, including the unique difficulties they face in their work and how they overcome them. Through a qualitative, inductive study of workers seeking to ensure the safe development of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, I explored the pressures and worrying thoughts that lead these workers to experience work performance anxiety. I show how, in response to this anxiety, workers engage in various bounding and reframing practices to limit the demands their work places on them and expand their sense of the resources available to them. I also illustrate how these workers relate to grand challenge communities: groups focused on coordinating efforts to address the grand challenge. I build theory around the contextual factors that lead workers to rely heavily on these communities and subsequently adopt an exclusive solidarity approach to addressing the grand challenge. I show how these workers recognize the threats this approach poses to their judgment, well-being, and effectiveness, and how they shift toward an expansive solidarity approach. Practically, this research provides insights into how these workers respond to the challenges they face in ways that enable them to address the grand challenge while also preserving their well-being. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

According to the progressive era and technical development, many industries have already input emerging technology. In the medical industry of Taiwan, most of the hospitals have set up the operating system, data management and case history in electric facilities. It can help to deliver the information more accuracy and convenient. However, there are still many traditional models in medical regulation. The main reason is that the processes of care usually involve face to face communication. Therefore, to insure safety to the patients, human observation and communication are needed in traditional concept. To give an example of inpatient healthcare, patients always need intimate observation and treatment because the function of ward is to keep the patients safe and easy to observe. In recent years, the tradition care models have been challenged by the lack of human resources and the rise of patient safety conscious. In consequence, the service quality of ward has also been focus. According to the official data record in 2007, there were 2 million people affected with Nephrology disease, and this population content 50 thousands patient of long term dialysis. Nephrology disease has become the most popular disease in Taiwan. This thesis is trying to focus on the huge amount of Nephrology patients, and enhance the care process with forward-looking solutions. After inducing traditional problems and collecting emerging technologies, this research is going to produce an emerging health care model on Nephrology inpatients. The conventional process of IO record, medicament allocation, fall injury prevention, nursing record and home care after discharged from hospital would be improved in many technologies, such as lover¡¦s cup, electric scale, barcode, RFID, urgent button, PDA, mobile nursing station, intouch message board and monitoring stool. Not only building the model, the evaluation of time cost, quality and innovative services would also discuss in the research to make the emerging health care model more suitable for clinical demand.

abstract: Over the past six years, the use of drones for recreational and commercial purposes has increased dramatically. There are currently over one million registered drones in the United States, and this number is expected to increase in the foreseeable future. For now, drones are a local phenomenon. The operational limitations prevent them from long range activity and federal policies prevent them from operating beyond the visual line of sight of the controller. The localized nature of drone operation makes them a particularly salient issue at the local regulatory level. At this level, cities must contend with the uncertainty of drone operation and a complex regulatory environment. Within a single metropolitan region, there are cities that may attempt to restrict the use of drones through various local ordinances while neighboring cities may have not even considered, let alone adopted, any type of regulation. The reasons behind these policy choices are not clear. In an effort to understand the factors involved in the decisions to adopt a local drone use policy, this dissertation leverages qualitative methods to analyze the policy process leading to local decisions. The study capitalizes on rich contextual data gathered from a variety of sources for select cities in Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Specifically, this study builds a conceptual framework from policy innovation literature and applies it in the form of content analysis. This initial effort is used to identify the catalysts for policy discussion and the specific innovation mechanisms that support or detract from the decision to adopt a local drone use ordinance. Then, qualitative comparative analysis is used to determine which configuration of factors, identified during the content analysis, contribute to the causal path of policy adoption. Among other things, the results highlight the role that uncertainty plays in the policy process. Cities that adopt a drone use ordinance have low levels of uncertainty, high numbers of registered drone users, and at least two neighboring cities that also have drone use policies. This dissertation makes a modest contribution to policy innovation research, highlights how a configurational analysis technique can be applied to policy adoption decisions, and contains several recommendations for regulating drone use at the local level. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration and Policy 2019

Memristor-based nano-crossbar computing is a revolutionary computing paradigm that does away with the traditional Von Neumann architectural separation of memory and computation units. The computation of Boolean formulas using memristor circuits has been a subject of several recent investigations. Crossbar computing, in general, has also been a topic of active interest, but sneak paths have posed a hurdle in the design of pervasive general-purpose crossbar computing paradigms. In this paper, we demonstrate that sneak paths in nano-crossbar computing can be exploited to design a Boolean-formula evaluation strategy. We demonstrate our approach on a simple Boolean formula and a 1-bit addition circuit. We also conjecture that our nano-crossbar design will be an effective approach for synthesizing high-performance customized arithmetic and logic circuits.

The agricultural industry is changing every day, and new innovations are being developed faster than educational resources can be developed. Secondary agricultural education is faced with the challenges of keeping up with the changes in the industry. Determining how to bring cutting edge innovative content to the classroom is difficult and without a clear vision of what is relevant it is impossible. The purpose of this case study was to determine how modern agricultural education programs may be designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The researcher focused on the planning theory of (Cervero and Wilson, 2006), as well as the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers, 2003) for the theoretical framework of the research. The case study used a qualitative approach to examine the phenomenological views of stakeholders and artifacts collected to support the innovative program design. This qualitative study used interviews to describe and find the meanings to how modern agricultural education programs may be designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The findings of this study delivered a clear picture of this innovative agricultural education program. There were five categories and nine themes to emerge from the data collected, these categories and themes support the role the participants have played in the design and development of this innovative agricultural education program. The study showed that teachers were the key to a successful program. Teachers were then connected to professional development, program support, curriculum, and expectations of students at the end of their agricultural education program. / PHD / This case study looked at a modern rural high school agricultural education program in Southwest Virginia. The purpose of the study was to determine how this modern agricultural education program was designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The researcher focused on the data collected to describe the methods and resources used to establish the current program. There were twenty-one stakeholders interviewed to examine their views and lived experiences during the development of the program, also artifacts were collected to support the innovative program design. The findings of this study delivered a clear picture of this innovative agricultural education program. There were five categories and nine themes to emerge from the data collected, these categories and themes support the role the participants played in the design and development of this innovative agricultural education program. The study showed that teachers were the key to a successful program. Teachers were then connected to professional development, program support, curriculum, and expectations of students at the end of their agricultural education program.

No / Augmented reality (AR) within the context of higher education is an approach to engage students with experiential learning by utilising AR technology. This paper discusses the process undertaken by a teacher in higher education in designing and implementing cloud-based AR lesson for the students. The methodology engaged was case study at one institution of higher learning in Malaysia. The AR teaching process involves six stages, beginning with the selection of the course, followed by selection of the topic, designing of the AR teaching plan and the implementation of the AR lesson. Upon completion of the implementation of the AR lesson, the teacher and students would provide reflection of their experiences. The process concludes by the improvement of the AR teaching plan by the teacher. The study found that cloud based has indeed disrupted higher education in terms of providing richer learning experiences to the students, as well as enhanced teaching practices for the teachers. Hopefully, this paper would provide insights into the practices of AR teaching and learning approach for teachers in general, and within the context of higher education in particular. It is also intended that the six-steps process outlined in this paper becomes a reference and be duplicated by teachers at large who might be interested to design and implement AR lessons for their own courses.

Bakgrund: Intresset för världens första kryptovaluta Bitcoin har fått världen att öppna upp ögonen för dess underliggande teknologi: Blockkedjan (”Blockchain”). Blockkedjan kan beskrivas som en decentraliserad databas där ingen central aktör ensam kan bestämma över nätverket. Istället registreras och verifieras transaktioner av nätverkets deltagare. Detta möjliggör för digital information att distribueras men inte kopieras på ett tillförlitligt sätt. Teknologin har således möjlighet att skapa tillit mellan aktörer som vanligtvis inte litar på varandra och anses därför ha stor potential att effektivisera många branscher, däribland banksektorn. Det råder en stor optimism bland flertalet finansiella aktörer som undersöker vilka möjligheter teknologin har att förbättra dess produkter och tjänster. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka användningsområden svenska banker ser potential för Blockkedjan och hur teknologin kan komma att appliceras inom banksektorn. Studien ämnar även analysera vilka effekter användningen av Blockkedjan kan få på transaktioner inom den svenska banksektorn. Genomförande: Studien karaktäriseras av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Empirinsamlingen har skett genom ett selekterat urval med fokus på individer som är insatta inom ämnet och banksektorn. Slutsats: Studien identifierar KYC, Smarta Kontrakt och Transaktioner som potentiella användningsområden för den svenska banksektorn. Framförallt KYC lyfts fram som ett område där blockkedjeteknologi kan spela en framtida roll i att förbättra hanteringen av kundinformation. Studien framhäver även trade finance och interbank-transaktioner som attraktiva områden för teknologin att effektivisera. Vidare visar resultatet att Blockkedjan inte skall ses som ett hot mot bankernas roll som intermediär utan en teknologi som möjliggör effektivisering av deras befintliga tjänster. Teknologin är att betrakta som en Emerging technology med en hög osäkerhet i dagsläget där teknologins största potential att ge effekt ligger i framtiden. De största hoten mot en implementering av blockkedjeteknologin inom banksektorn är att teknologin fortfarande befinner sig i en experimentell fas samt en brist på gemensamma standarder och regler banker och länder emellan. / Background: The interest for the first cryptocurrency in the world made the world caught the attention of the technology behind Bitcoin: Blockchain. Blockchain can be described as a decentralized database with no central part controlling its network. Instead, all transactions are registered and verified by the members of the network. This enables digital information to be distributed but not copied in a trustworthy way. The technology therefore has the possibility to create trust between parties that normally does not trust each other and is for that reason considered to have the potential to make many industries, including the banking industry more effective. Amongst a number of financial players that investigate the possible opportunities the technology have for improving their products and services, the optimism is high. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to research which potential fields of application Swedish banks sees for Blockchain and how the technology could be used by the banking industry. The study also intend to analyze the effects the usage of the technology would have on transactions within the Swedish banking industry. Completion: A qualitative research method characterize the study. The empirical data has been collected through a selected sample focused on individuals with knowledge and experience within the field. Conclusion: The study identifies KYC, Smart Contracts and Transactions as potential fields of application for the Swedish banking industry. In particular, KYC was highlighted as an area where the Blockchain technology could help improve managing the personal information of the customer. The study also points out trade finance and interbank-transactions as attractive areas of possible use for the technology. Furthermore, the result of the study shows that the technology should not be seen as a threat against banks role as an intermediary but a technology that enables the banks services to become more efficient. The technology is to be seen as an Emerging technology with high uncertainty today and where the potential impact lays in the future. The biggest threats against an implementation of the technology are that the technology still is in an experimental phase and the shortage of common standards and rules between banks and across countries.

New technological advancements such as the “Hyperloop” touted as “the fifth mode of transport” could be an answer to the problems ailing the current transport industry. Hyperloop consists of transport pods running through low pressure tubes for the high speed(upto 1000 km/hr) transportation of goods and people. This technology came into prominence after the open design concept “Hyperloop Alpha” was published by Musk (2013) and since then several governments, academia and private firms have shown interest in the technology with a few test tracks being built in the U.S and Europe. The first Hyperloop human passenger tests at 48m/s (173kmph) inside the vacuum tube were successfully carried out by Virgin Hyperloop at Las Vegas, U.S.A in November 2020 (Mlot, S., 2020). Hardt in collaboration with the Province of North Holland had published a concept study on the impact of 5 proposed Hyperloop routes in Northern Holland (Prov. N-Holland & Hardt, 2020). This research project explores the proposed Hyperloop transport solution in North Holland and its neighbouring areas from a social, socio-economic and environmental perspective as a comparison with existing rail and aviation transport alternatives. A Multi-Criteria Analysis of one of the proposed Hyperloop transport project routes was conducted as a comparison with existing rail and aviation transport alternatives. Results showed that Hyperloop was the highest ranked transport alternative overall in this study, closely followed by Rail, and Aviation was ranked last. Within the social criteria, Hyperloop was ranked best whereas within socio-economic and environmental criteria, Rail was ranked as the best alternative. This MCA could be useful as an aid to decision makers such as regional and national governments, transport policymakers or investors for any similar Hyperloop transport projects within Europe. / Nya tekniska framsteg som ”Hyperloop” som ”femte transportsättet” kan vara ett svar på de problem som drabbar den nuvarande transportbranschen. Hyperloop består av transportbälgen som går genom lågtrycksrör för transport av gods och människor med hög hastighet (upp till 1000 km / tim). Denna teknik kom till framträdande efter att det öppna designkonceptet ”Hyperloop Alpha” publicerades av Musk (2013) och sedan dess har flera regeringar, den akademiska världen och privata företag visat intresse för tekniken med några testspår som byggs i USA och Europa. De första Hyperloop-testningarna för mänskliga passagerare vid 48m / s (173kmph) inuti vakuumröret utfördes framgångsrikt av Virgin Hyperloop i Las Vegas, USA i november 2020 (Mlot, S., 2020). Hardt i samarbete med provinsen Nordholland hade publicerat en konceptstudie om effekterna av 5 föreslagna Hyperloop-rutter i norra Holland (Prov. N-Holland & Hardt, 2020). Detta forskningsprojekt utforskar den föreslagna Hyperloop-transportlösningen i Nordholland och dess närliggande områden ur ett socialt, socioekonomiskt och miljömässigt perspektiv som en jämförelse med befintliga tåg- och flygtransportalternativ. En multikriterieanalys av en av de föreslagna vägarna för Hyperloop-transportprojekt genomfördes som en jämförelse med befintliga järnvägs- och flygalternativ. Resultaten visade att Hyperloop var det högst rankade transportalternativet totalt sett i denna studie, tätt följt av Rail, och Aviation rankades sist. Inom de sociala kriterierna rankades Hyperloop bäst medan inom socioekonomiska och miljömässiga kriterier rankades Rail som det bästa alternativet. Denna MCA kan vara användbar som ett hjälpmedel för beslutsfattare som regionala och nationella regeringar, transportpolitiker eller investerare för liknande Hyperloop-transportprojekt inom Europa.

Law and technology regularly conflict. The reasons for this are several and complex. Some conflicts are trivial and straightforwardly resolvable. Others, such as the creation of artificial minds, are not. History indicates that when law and technology conflict; both systems can adapt—often over periods of time—to new social circumstances and continue performing their societal functions. Simply: law and technology co-evolve. However, if the legal system is to retain its autonomous role in society, what are its adaptive limits in the context of profound, and perhaps unprecedented, technological changes? My thesis addresses the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, the legal system can respond to ‘conflicts’ with increasingly complex and legally problematic technological change. It draws on theories of legal and social evolution—particularly the Social Systems Theory (SST) of Niklas Luhmann—to explore the notion of a ‘lag’ in the legal system’s ability to respond to technological changes and ‘shocks’. It evaluates the claim that the legal system’s ‘lagged’ response to technological change is a deficit of its functioning. ‘Lag’ may be both good and bad. It allows the law to be self-referential while also limiting its effectiveness in controlling other sub-systems. Thus there is an implicit intersystemic trade-off. The hypothesis here: ‘lag’ is an endogenous legal advantage that helps to ensure the legal system’s autonomy, as well as the continuity of legal processes that help ameliorate potentially harmful or undesirable outcomes of science and technology on society and the individual. The legal system can adjust to technological change. However, it can only adjust its internal operations, which takes time and is constrained by the need to maintain legal autonomy—or in SST terms—sits autopoiesis. The signs of this adjustment are the conceptual evolution of legal concepts and processes related to new technological changes and risks, among other things. A close reading of Anglo-American legal history and jurisprudence supports this. While legal systems are comparatively inflexible in response to new technologies—due to doctrinal ossification and reliance upon precedent and analogy in legal reasoning—an alternative outcome is possible: the disintegration of the boundary between law and technology and the consequential loss of legal autonomy. The disintegration of this boundary would consequentially reduce society’s capacity to mediate and regulate technological change, thus diminishing the autopoiesis of the legal system. A change of this kind would be signalled by what some identify as the emergence of a technological ordering—or a ‘rule of technology’—displacing and potentially subsuming the rule of law. My thesis evaluates evidence for these two scenarios—the self-renewing capacity of the legal system, on the one hand, or its disintegration in response to technological change, on the other. These opposing scenarios are evaluated using a social ontological study of technology generally, and a case study using Artificial Intelligence (AI) specifically, to identify and predict the co- evolutionary dynamics of the law/technology relationship and assess the extent to which the legal system can shape, and be shaped by, technological change. In assessing this situation, this thesis explores the nature of AI, its benefits and drawbacks, and argues that its proliferation may require a corresponding shift in the fundamental mechanics of law. As AI standardises across industries and social sub-systems, centralised authorities such as government agencies, corporations, and indeed legal systems, may lose the ability to coordinate and regulate the activities of disparate persons through ex post regulatory means. Consequentially, there is a pressing need to understand not just how AI interfaces with existing legal frameworks, but how legal systems must pre-adapt to oncoming, and predominately unexplored, legal challenges. This thesis argues that AI is an autopoietic technology, and that there is thus a corresponding need to understand its intersystemic effects if there is to be an effective societal governance regime for it. This thesis demonstrates that SST provides us with the shared theoretical grammar to start and sustain this dialogue.