Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Since the advent of Naval Warfare, Tactical Knowledge Management (KM) has been critical to the success of the On Scene Commander. Today's Tactical Knowledge Manager typically operates in a high stressed environment with a multitude of knowledge sources including detailed sensor deployment plans, rules of engagement contingencies, and weapon delivery assignments. However the WarFighter has placed a heavy reliance on delivering this data with traditional messaging processes while focusing on information organization vice knowledge management. This information oriented paradigm results in a continuation of data overload due to the manual intervention of human resources. Focusing on the data archiving aspect of information management overlooks the advantages of computational processing while delaying the empowerment of the processor as an automated decision making tool. Resource Description Framework (RDF) and XML provide the potential of increased machine reasoning within a KM design allowing the WarFighter to migrate from the dependency on manual information systems to a more computational intensive Knowledge Management environment. However the unique environment of a tactical platform requires innovative solutions to automate the existing naval message architecture while improving the knowledge management process. This thesis captures the key aspects for building a prototype Knowledge Management Model and provides an implementation example for evaluation. The model developed for this analysis was instantiated to evaluate the use of RDF and XML technologies in the Knowledge Management domain. The goal for the prototype included: 1. Processing required technical links in RDF/XML for feeding the KM model from multiple information sources. 2. Experiment with the visualization of Knowledge Management processing vice traditional Information Resource Display techniques. The results from working with the prototype KM Model demonstrated the flexibility of processing all information data under an XML context. Furthermore the RDF attribute format provided a convenient structure for automated decision making based on multiple information sources. Additional research utilizing RDF/XML technologies will eventually enable the WarFighter to effectively make decisions under a Knowledge Management Environment. / Civilian, SPAWAR System Center San Diego

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Flavio_L_Richieri.pdf: 1114743 bytes, checksum: bcff37d37fa82d4ada322b5f2f7c4ce8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-26 / There are evidences suggesting a growing importance of the intellectual capital (IC) and the intangible assets in the economy. Therefore, it is critical to find ways to measure the companies IC, and to understand the relationship between it and their value generation. The pressure for it, affects not only managers, who have a broad and differentiated access to all the operational aspects of their companies, but specially, investors and other stakeholders that are external to these companies. For the former, the formulation of indexes, capable to measure the stock and the flows of companies IC, based on the financial information available, and the analysis of the association, between these indexes and companies value generation, can bring a completely new perspective, fundamental for supporting their investment decisions in intellectual capital intensive companies. This dissertation makes usage of CIV (Calculated Intangible Value) and ICE (Intellectual Capital Efficiency) to measure IC stock and flows respectively. Through the usage of multivariate regressions and application of static panel data models, the influence of IC indexes on companies value generation is analyzed. The value generation perspective is captured by using: ROE (Returnon-Equity), ROA (Return-on-Assets) and ROS (Return-on-Sales) ratios. The research utilizes a non-probabilistic sample, built with secondary data coming from the Exame magazine Maiores e Melhores annual survey database, which contains 628 observations from 237 companies in the period between years 2000 and 2005. The following question is addressed: What is the relationship between the stock and flow of IC and company s value generation? Results found, suggest the existence of a positive relation between both CIV and ICE and the dependent variables ROE, ROA and ROS. It also shows that IC seems to be a more relevant indicator of value generation than the stock of financial and physical assets. / As evidências apontam para uma participação crescente do capital intelectual e dos ativos intangíveis na economia. Esse fato torna crítico encontrar formas para medir o capital intelectual das empresas e entender a relação deste com a criação de valor das mesmas. Afetando assim, não apenas os gestores, que possuem um acesso diferenciado e abrangente aos diversos aspectos operacionais das empresas, mas principalmente, os investidores e demais partes interessadas externas às empresas. Para os últimos, a construção de índices capazes de medir capital intelectual da empresa, desenvolvidos com base em informações financeiras e contábeis disponíveis, e o estudo da associação desses índices, com a geração de valor das empresas, podem fornecer uma perspectiva nova e fundamental para a análise de investimentos em empresas intensivas em capital intelectual. Esta dissertação faz uso do CIV (Calculated Intangible Value) e do ICE (Intelectual Capital Efficiency), como medidas de estoque e fluxo de capital intelectual respectivamente. Através de tratamento estatístico por regressões multivariadas, e do uso de modelos estáticos de dados em painel (panel data), efetua-se a análise da influência desses índices de capital intelectual, na geração de valor das empresas, aqui medida através dos índices de: ROE (retorno sobre patrimônio líquido); ROA (retorno sobre ativos) e ROS (retorno sobre vendas). O estudo é feito com base numa amostra não probabilística, utilizando dados secundários provenientes da base de dados do anuário Maiores e Melhores da revista Exame e contendo 628 observações relativas a 237 empresas no período entre 2000 e 2005. Responde-se assim à questão: Qual é a relação entre o estoque e o fluxo do capital intelectual e a geração de valor da empresa ? Os resultados da pesquisa mostram a existência de relação positiva em relação ao CIV e ao ICE e as variáveis dependentes ROE, ROA e ROS. Mostram ainda que o capital intelectual parece ser um direcionador mais relevante do que o estoque de ativos físicos e financeiros para a geração de valor das empresas.

Les transitions spatiale et temporelle de la subduction à la collision sont des charnières géodynamiques. Nous précisons dans ce travail le rôle et le devenir de ces zones grâce à des modèles analogiques et l'étude tectonique d'un cas réel. La modélisation a montré qu'une transition temporelle entre subduction et collision est toujours marquée par une phase de subduction continentale. La durée de cette phase dépend de la façon dont se déforme la lithosphère subductée en profondeur. Plus elle se déforme, plus courte est la subduction continentale. Dans le cas d'une transition latérale entre subduction et collision, la déformation de la plaque supérieure est aussi fonction de sa résistance à la déformation et notamment de l'existence de zones de faiblesse. Notre analyse tectonique montre que la déformation actuelle à la transition Zagros-Makran (SE Iran) est distribuée sur un large domaine, au niveau de deux systèmes de failles, d'orientation N 160° et N 0°. Le régime est globalement transpressif, et montre deux phases distinctes. 1-Mio-Pliocène : failles inverses avec un probable partitionnement avec des plis. 2-Plio-Quaternaire : déformation purement cassante, avec une contrainte principale horizontale, s1, de direction NE-SO, homogène sur toute la zone. L'analyse de marqueurs géomorphologiques décalés et datés (datations 10Be, et corrélations paléoclimatiques et archéologiques), nous a permis de déterminer les vitesses de déplacement de chaque faille et d'obtenir le déplacement total sur la zone, de 12±2 mm/a dans une direction environ ~10°. La distribution de la déformation montrée par la tectonique peut être attribuée à la prolongation du slab du Makran sous le Zagros, et montre, comme la modélisation, à quel point la déformation de surface est tributaire de processus profonds. La déformation en Iran comme celle des modèles montre de plus une forte localisation de la déformation par des zones de faiblesse héritées de l'histoire géologique régionale.

The elimination of drugs from the body is in many cases performed by the liver. Much could be gained if an accurate prediction of this process could be made early in the development of new drugs. However, for the elimination to occur, the drug molecule needs first to get inside the liver cell. Disposition is the expression used to encapsulate both elimination and distribution. This thesis presents novel approaches and models based on simple in vitro systems for the investigation of processes involved in the hepatic drug disposition. An approach to the estimation of enzyme kinetics based on substrate depletion data from cell fractions was thoroughly evaluated through experiments and simulations. The results that it provided were confirmed to be accurate and robust. In addition, a new experimental setup suitable for a screening environment, i.e., for a reduced number of samples, was generated through optimal experimental design. The optimization suggested that sampling at late time points over a wide range of concentration was the most advantageous. A model, based on data from primary hepatocytes in suspension, for the investigation of cellular disposition of metabolized drugs was developed. Information on the relative importance of metabolism and membrane protein related distribution was obtained by analysis of changes in the kinetics by specific inhibition of the various processes. The model was evaluated by comparing the results to those obtained from an in vivo study analyzed with an especially constructed mechanistic PBPK model. These investigations showed that the suggested model produced good predictions of the relative importance of metabolism and carrier mediated membrane transport for hepatic disposition. In conclusion, new approaches for the investigation of processes involved in hepatic disposition were developed. These methods were shown to be robust and increased the output of information from already commonly implemented in vitro systems.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MariaVMMpdf.pdf: 1276052 bytes, checksum: 2a1c6384ed87c24c3ab5a2346947a35d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-24 / The main objective of this study is to apply recently developed methods of physical-statistic to time series analysis, particularly in electrical induction s profiles of oil wells data, to study the petrophysical similarity of those wells in a spatial distribution. For this, we used the DFA method in order to know if we can or not use this technique to characterize spatially the fields. After obtain the DFA values for all wells, we applied clustering analysis. To do these tests we used the non-hierarchical method called K-means. Usually based on the Euclidean distance, the K-means consists in dividing the elements of a data matrix N in k groups, so that the similarities among elements belonging to different groups are the smallest possible. In order to test if a dataset generated by the K-means method or randomly generated datasets form spatial patterns, we created the parameter Ω (index of neighborhood). High values of Ω reveals more aggregated data and low values of Ω show scattered data or data without spatial correlation. Thus we concluded that data from the DFA of 54 wells are grouped and can be used to characterize spatial fields. Applying contour level technique we confirm the results obtained by the K-means, confirming that DFA is effective to perform spatial analysis / O principal objetivo do presente trabalho foi aplicar m?todos recentemente desenvolvidos em f?sica-estat?stica ?s s?ries temporais, em especial a dados de perfis el?tricos de indu??o de 54 po?os de petr?leo localizados no Campo de Namorado Bacia de Campos - RJ, para estudar a similaridade petrof?sica dos po?os numa distribui??o espacial. Para isto, utilizamos o m?todo do DFA com o intuito de saber se podemos, ou n?o, utilizar esta t?cnica para caracterizar espacialmente o campo. Depois de obtidos os valores de DFA para todos os po?os, fizemos uma an?lise de agrupamento com rela??o a estas caracter?sticas; para tanto, utilizamos o m?todo de agrupamento n?o-hier?rquico chamado m?todo K-m?dia. Geralmente baseado na dist?ncia euclidiana, o K-m?dia consiste em dividir os elementos de uma matriz n de dados em k grupos bem definidos, de maneira que as semelhan?as existentes entre elementos pertencentes a grupos distintos sejam as menores poss?veis. Com o objetivo de verificar se um conjunto de dados gerados pelo m?todo do K-m?dia ou gerado aleatoriamente forma padr?es espaciais, criamos o par?metro Ω (?ndice de vizinhan?a). Altos valores de Ω implicam em dados mais agregados e baixos valores de Ω em dados dispersos ou sem correla??o espacial. Com aux?lio do m?todo de Monte Carlo observamos que dados agrupados aleatoriamente apresentam uma distribui??o de Ω inferior ao valor emp?rico. Desta forma conclu?mos que os dados de DFA obtidos nos 54 po?os est?o agrupados e podem ser usados na caracteriza??o espacial de campos. Ao cruzar os dados das curvas de n?vel com os resultados obtidos pelo K-m?dia, confirmamos a efici?ncia do mesmo para correlacionar po?os em distribui??o espacial

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GabrielCL.pdf: 2007363 bytes, checksum: ca984fd5a6f2237f46ab8dc2298c9389 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo da Gest?o do Conhecimento (GC) no sistema petrol?fero do Rio Grande do Norte, considerando poss?veis inova??es resultantes dessa gest?o. Inicialmente, foi feita uma abordagem com rela??o as caracter?sticas do sistema de petr?leo e g?s do RN, com base em conceitos dispon?veis na literatura. Visou atender aos seguintes objetivos: diagnosticar a rede de empresas do setor petrol?fero do RN, identificando qual o est?gio de GC em que elas se encontram; identificar e avaliar as pr?ticas de GC utilizadas internamente na Petrobras e nas suas intera??es dentro da aglomera??o; caracterizar a ocorr?ncia das rela??es entre a UFRN (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte) x Petrobras. Para alcan?ar tais objetivos foi desenvolvido um formul?rio baseado em indicadores de GC e na PINTEC2005 (IBGE), o qual foi aplicado em tr?s grupos: PETROBRAS, Fornecedores da PETROBRAS e UFRN. Como resultados obtidos t?m-se: uma an?lise da GC na PETROBRAS, da GC nos Fornecedores e da coopera??o para inova??o entre os participantes do sistema, sendo apresentado um estudo da parceria para inova??o entre a UFRN x PETROBRAS. Conclui-se que o sistema ? uma aglomera??o e que apresenta caracter?sticas de um Cluster. Conclui-se ainda que a GC na PETROBRAS encontra-se em fase avan?ada de implanta??o no ?mbito da corpora??o, e a parceria entre UFRN e Petrobras pode ser utilizada como modelo de sucesso de integra??o entre empresas e institui??es de pesquisa. Ao final s?o apresentados, em especial, os resultados obtidos com rela??o ? gest?o do conhecimento para a inova??o na rede de empresas que operam o sistema petrol?fero no Rio Grande do Norte, objetivo principal desta disserta??o

The last years, libraries and information centers, as well as other organizations are attempting to survive in a knowledge-driven society. Moreover, they are called upon to redefine their structure and management processes in order to increase their competitive advantage through their learning capability and their knowledge assets. Knowledge has become their core element that contributes to the development and improvement of their services through knowledge management (KM) initiatives, connected with knowledge assets creation, sharing, and exploitation. This study is a qualitative research that has been conducted in NTUA Central Library with main research object the Department of Information and Users’ Services. The study examines the knowledge management (KM) perception in the Department and by extension, the library. It aims to identify the adopted KM practices, investigate the KM process through knowledge creation and sharing, collaboration and communication among employees and external collaborators and finally, to propose new methods and techniques through a KM strategy, for improving the Department and library’s internal operation and services provision. The study’s goal is to present the current situation of one of the biggest Greek academic libraries regarding KM initiatives and to draw attention on the academic libraries’ changing role in the new digital era and the opportunities that KM provides them to participate in the knowledge-based economy and the knowledge-based society. The importance of this study lies on the fact that few researches have been conducted in Greek academic libraries and the results have presented that they demonstrate little attempt to adopt KM practices and rather, to establish a clear KM strategy. In this context, the study is trying to clarify the importance of focusing on people as libraries’ knowledge resource connected with their knowledge and experience, which defined as “intellectual assets” that need to be recorded, classified, updated and definitely shared, in order to become searchable and accessible. It is a case study, conducted through an interpretive approach, following a holistic ethnography tradition. The research methods used for the data collection were the methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data collected have been analyzed through the six (6) phases of the thematic analysis, while methods data validation have been used to ensure their reliability. In conclusion, the study presents results connected with the Department’s knowledge specification (tacit and explicit), the process of knowledge sharing by mentioning the people involving, the methods and tools. Furthermore, the weaknesses the Department faces are presented regarding employees’ involvement – mostly connected with communication and collaboration – and the systems and resources management. Finally, the anticipated future challenges are presented and analyzed, as defined by the library’s role, the employees’ role and the KM role.

I denna fallstudie undersöks hur kunskapshanteringen ser ut hos ett produktionsföretag i storleksordningen litet till mellanstort, med ett egenutvecklat Enterprise Resource Planner-system, vilket vanligen enbart större företag har. Syftet är att utreda behovet av formell struktur kring företagets kunskapshantering, samt att vid behov skapa ett åtgärdsförslag med rutin och metod för att hantera kunskap och lärande inom företaget. För att samla in empiri, genomfördes kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta medarbetare på företaget som sedan transkriberades och analyserades med en abduktiv tematisk analys. Det analysresultatet som uppkom från studien, lade sedan grund för den morfologiska matris som nyttjades för att kunna prototypa de koncept som det föreslagna åtgärdsförslaget utgörs av. Vi fann inom fallstudien vikten av ett effektivt nyttjande av det mänskliga kapitalet, dokumentation och ett aktivt arbete med kunskapsbehållning inom företaget. Detta kan i kombination med implicit och explicit kunskap utveckla och förbättra en verksamhets nyttjande av sina affärsystem samt integrationen av dess dolda processer. För att hjälpa företaget att tillgodose sig detta på ett bra sett, har ett åtgärdsförslag utformats som drar nytta av de förfarande som idag redan finns och nyttjas. Vilket är goda kunskaper om företagets processer samt en väldigt god samhörighet inom organisationen som knyter an till att medarbetarnas lärande ofta sker i dialog med andra människor. / This case study examines how knowledge management looks at a small to medium-sized production company, with an in-house developed Enterprise Resource Planner system, which usually only larger companies have. The purpose is to investigate the need for a formal structure around the company’s knowledge management, as well as, if necessary, to create a proposal for action with routines and methods for managing knowledge and learning within the company. In order to gather empirical evidence, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight employees at the company, which were then transcribed and analyzed with an abductive thematic analysis. The analysis result that arose from the study then laid the foundation for the morphological matrix that was used to be able to prototype the concepts that make up the proposed action proposal. We found in the case study the importance of effective use of human capital, documentation and active work with knowledge retention within the company. This, in combination with implicit and explicit knowledge, can develop and improve a business’s use of its business systems as well as the integration of its hidden processes. To help the company accommodate this in a good way, a proposal for action has been designed that takes advantage of the procedures that already exist and are used today. Which is good knowledge of the company’s processes as well as a very good sense of belonging within the organization, which is connected to the fact that the employees’ learning often takes place in dialogue with other people.

The knowledge economy has brought about some new challenges for organisations. Accessing data and information in a logical manner is a critical component of information and knowledge management. Taxonomies are viewed as a solution to facilitate ease of access to information in a logical manner. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of taxonomies within organisations which utilise a knowledge management framework or strategy. An interview process was utilised to gain insight from leading organisations as to the use of taxonomies within the knowledge management environment. Organisations are starting to use taxonomies to manage multi-sourced environments and facilitate the appropriate sourcing of the organisations intellectual capital. Based on the research it is clear that taxonomies will play a central role in the coming years to help manage the complexity of the organisation's environment and ease the access to relevant information. / Information Science / M.Inf.

In biosensors, printing involves the transfer of materials, proteins or cells to a substrate. It offers many capabilities thatcan be utilized in many applications, including rapid deposition and patterning of proteins or other biomolecules.However, issues such as stability when using biomaterials are very common. Using proteins, enzymes, as biomaterialink require immobilizations and modifications due to changing in the structural conformation of the enzymes, whichleads to changes in the properties of the enzyme such as enzymatic activity, during the printing procedures andrequirements such as solvent solutions. In this project, an innovative approach for the fabrication of proteinmicroparticles based on cross-linking interchange reaction is presented to increase the stability in different solvents.The idea is to decrease the contact area between the enzymes and the surrounding environment and also preventconformation changes by using protein microparticles as an immobilization technique for the enzymes. The theory isbased on using a cross-linking reagent trigging the formation of intermolecular bonds between adjacent proteinmolecules leading to assembly of protein molecules within a CaCO3 template into a microparticle structure. TheCaCO3 template is removed by changing the solution pH to 5.0, leaving behind pure highly homogenous proteinmicroparticles with a size of 2.4 ± 0.2 μm, according to SEM images, regardless of the incubation solvents. Theenzyme model used is Horse Radish Peroxidase (HRP) with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and Glutaraldehyde (GL)as a cross-linking reagent. Furthermore, a comparison between the enzymatic activity of the free HRP and the BSAHRPprotein microparticles in buffer and different solvents are obtained using Michaelis-Menten Kinetics bymeasuring the absorption of the blue product produced by the enzyme-substrate interaction using a multichannelspectrophotometer with a wavelength of 355 nm. 3,3’,5,5’-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was used as substrate. As aresult, the free HRP show an enzymatic activity variation up to ± 50 % after the incubation in the different solventswhile the protein microparticles show much less variation which indicate a stability improvement. Moreover, printingthe microparticles require high microparticle concentration due to contact area decreasing. However, usingmicroparticles as a bioink material prevent leakage/diffusion problem that occurs when using free protein instead.