<p>With the conditions of new economy such tendencies as internationalization of firms, mi-gration of high skilled workers, growing importance of the knowledge and others become relevant. Having these contextual matters in mind, the authors of this thesis identify the beneficial aspects that are related to Diasporas' inclusion into the process of internationali-zation. In broad outline, this thesis is about the competitive advantage achieved by a firm which employs foreigners to work with the process of business expansion to foreigners' countries of origin. This competitive advantage is proved to manifest itself through the knowledge and competences embedded in those employed foreigners.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to answer 'in what ways can Swedish SMEs benefit from Di-asporas' inclusion into the process of internationalization?' and thus fill the theoretical gap in the existent studies. In order to address the purpose of the research, a theoretical model which merges the research field of internationalization and Diaspora studies, considered the conditions of new economy, was constructed. With the help of this model, the role of Diasporas in the process of internationalization has been explored and explained.</p><p>For the empirical study, the qualitative method was applied and semi-structured interviews were conducted in five different Swedish SMEs. The interview guide, which was based on the theoretical model and on the main research objectives, was used when conducting in-terviews with a number of management positions fulfilling participants, as well as Diaspora.</p><p>The results of an empirical study showed that Diasporas can be efficiently used for compa-ny's expansion strategies and significantly benefit due to several reasons. First of all, fo-reigners, or Diasporas, can be considered as holding relevant knowledge base in regards to their home countries, such as language, culture, personal contacts, etc. At the same time, while staying in Sweden, they get to familiarize with the Swedish culture, social structures, and business opportunities, and establish diversified contacts. With regards to international business expansion, this knowledge of two-fold nature is proved to be highly valuable.</p>

This PhD project aims to develop a cost modelling system to support lean product and process development. The system enables the designers to assess the design along with associated manufacturing processes and provides decision support at an early development stage. Design assessment at early development stage can help designers to take proactive decisions, eliminate mistakes and enhance product value. The developed cost modelling system to support lean product and process development incorporates three lean product and process development enablers, namely set-based concurrent engineering, knowledge-based engineering, and mistake-proofing (poka-yoke). To facilitate above explained lean enablers, the system architecture contains six modules, six separate groups of database, a CAD modelling system, and a user interface. The system modules are: (i) value identification; (ii) manufacturing process/machines selection; (iii) material selection; (iv) geometric features specification; (v) geometric features and manufacturability assessment; and (vi) manufacturing time and cost estimation. The group of database includes: (i) geometric features database, (ii) material database, (iii) machine database, (iv) geometric features assessment database, (v) manufacturability assessment database, and (vi) previous projects cost database. A number of activities have been accomplished to develop the cost modelling system. Firstly, an extensive literature review related to cost estimation, and lean product and process development was performed. Secondly, a field study in European industry and a case study analysis were carried out to identify current industrial practices and challenges. Thirdly, a cost modelling system to support lean product and process development was developed. Finally, validation of the system was carried out using real life industrial case studies. The system provides a number of benefits, as it enables designers to incorporate lean thinking in cost estimation. It takes into consideration downstream manufacturable process information at an early upstream stage of the design and as a result the designer performs the process concurrently and makes decisions quickly. Moreover, the system helps to avoid mistakes during product features design, material and manufacturing process selection, and process parameters generation; hence it guides toward a mistake-proof product development. The main feature of the system, in addition to manufacturing cost estimation, is set-based concurrent engineering support; because the system provides a number of design values for alternative design concepts to identify the feasible design region. The major contribution of the developed system is the identification and incorporation of three major lean product and process development enablers, namely set-based concurrent engineering, knowledge-based engineering and poka-yoke (mistake-proofing) in the cost modelling system. A quantification method has been proposed to eliminate the weaker solution among several alternatives; therefore only the feasible or strong solution is selected. In addition, a new cost estimation process to support lean product and process development has been developed which assists above explained three lean product and process development enablers.

The structures obtained from homology modeling methods are of intermediate resolution 1-3Ã… from true structure. Energy minimization methods allow us to refine the proteins and obtain native like structures. Previous work shows that some of these methods performed well on soluble proteins. So we extended this work on membrane proteins. Prediction of membrane protein structures is a particularly important, since they are important biological drug targets, and since their number is vanishingly small, as a result of the inherent difficulties in working with these molecules experimentally. Hence there is a pressing need for alternative computational protein structure prediction methods. This work tests the ability of common molecular mechanics potential functions (AMBER99/03) and a hybrid knowledge-based potential function (KB_0.1) to refine near-native structures of membrane proteins in vacuo. A web based utility for protein refinement has been developed and deployed based on the KB_0.1 potential to refine proteins.

When building aircrafts, structural components must be designed for high strength, low cost, and easy assembly.To meet these conditions structural components are often based upon previous designs, even if a new component is developed.Refining previous designs can be a good way of preserving knowledge but can also limit the exploration of new design concepts. Currently the design process for structural aircraft components at SAAB is managed by design engineers. The design engineer is responsible for ensuring the design meets requirements from several different disciplines such as structural analysis, manufacturing, tool design, and assembly.Therefore, the design engineer needs to have good communication with all disciplines and an effective flow of information. The previous design is refined, it is then reviewed and approved by adjacent disciplines.Reviewing designs is an iterative process, and when several disciplines are involved it quickly becomes time consuming.Any time the design is altered it has to be reviewed once more by all disciplines to ensure the change is acceptable.So there is a need for further customizing the design concept to decrease the number of iterations when reviewing. Design Space Exploration DSE is a well known method to explore design alternatives before implementation and is used to find new concepts.This thesis investigates if DSE can be used to facilitate the design process of structural aircraft components and if it can support the flow of information between different disciplines.To find a suitable discipline to connect with design a prestudy is conducted, investigating what information affect structural design and how it is managed.The information flow is concluded in a schematic diagram where structural analysis is chosen as additional discipline. By using topology optimization in a DSE, design and structural analysis are connected.The design space can be explored with regards to structural constraints.The thesis highlights the possibilities of using DSE with topology optimization for developing structural components and proposes a method for including it in the design process.

Atualmente pode-se verificar um aumento na demanda por estudos de simulação causado principalmente por dois fatores: necessidade de otimização ele produtos e processos decorrente do crescimento do grau de competição entre as empresas, e aumento da facilidade do uso dos sistemas simuladores gerado pela incorporação de novos recursos como inteligência artificial, programação gráfica, realidade virtual, etc. Esta situação induz a uma falsa impressão que este tipo de sistema simulador diminui a demanda de conhecimentos que o analista ou projetista de simulação precisa dominar para obter resultados válidos e consistentes da realização do estudo de simulação. O objetivo deste trabalho é construir uma base de conhecimentos a respeito da realização de estudos de simulação que permita sistematizar uma metodologia apropriada para realização de estudos de simulação de eventos discretos, e realizar uma investigação sobre os conhecimentos que o analista/projetista de um estudo de simulação deve dominar para obter resultados consistentes do mesmo. / Recently an increase demand by simulation studies can be verified, caused mainly by two factor: - need of products and processes optimization due to the growth of the competition degree among the companies, and - an increase of the easiness of the systems simulators use generated by the incorporation of new resources as artificial intelligence, graphic programming, virtual reality, etc. This situation induces to a false impression that this type of system simulator decreases the demand of knowledge that the simulation analyst or planner needs to dominate to obtain valid and consistent results of the accomplishment of the simulation study. The objective of this work is to build a base of knowledge regarding the accomplishment of simulation studies that allows to systematize a methodology adapted for accomplishment of studies of simulation of discreet events, and to accomplish an investigation on the knowledge that the analyst/planner of a simulation study should dominate to obtain consistent results of the same.

Algoritmos meméticos são meta-heurísticas evolutivas voltadas intrinsecamente à exploração e incorporação de conhecimentos relacionados ao problema em estudo. Nesta dissertação, foi proposto um algoritmo memético multi populacional baseado em conhecimento para lidar com o problema de predição de estruturas tridimensionais de proteínas voltado à modelagem de estruturas livres de similaridades conformacionais com estruturas de proteínas determinadas experimentalmente. O algoritmo em questão, foi estruturado em duas etapas principais de processamento: (i) amostragem e inicialização de soluções; e (ii) otimização dos modelos estruturais provenientes da etapa anterior. A etapa I objetiva a geração e classificação de diversas soluções, a partir da estratégia Lista de Probabilidades Angulares, buscando a definição de diferentes grupos estruturais e a criação de melhores estruturas a serem incorporadas à meta-heurística como soluções iniciais das multi populações. A segunda etapa consiste no processo de otimização das estruturas oriundas da etapa I, realizado por meio da aplicação do algoritmo memético de otimização, o qual é fundamentado na organização da população de indivíduos em uma estrutura em árvore, onde cada nodo pode ser interpretado como uma subpopulação independente, que ao longo do processo interage com outros nodos por meio de operações de busca global voltadas a características do problema, visando o compartilhamento de informações, a diversificação da população de indivíduos, e a exploração mais eficaz do espaço de busca multimodal do problema O algoritmo engloba ainda uma implementação do algoritmo colônia artificial de abelhas, com o propósito de ser utilizado como uma técnica de busca local a ser aplicada em cada nodo da árvore. O algoritmo proposto foi testado em um conjunto de 24 sequências de aminoácidos, assim como comparado a dois métodos de referência na área de predição de estruturas tridimensionais de proteínas, Rosetta e QUARK. Os resultados obtidos mostraram a capacidade do método em predizer estruturas tridimensionais de proteínas com conformações similares a estruturas determinadas experimentalmente, em termos das métricas de avaliação estrutural Root-Mean-Square Deviation e Global Distance Total Score Test. Verificou-se que o algoritmo desenvolvido também foi capaz de atingir resultados comparáveis ao Rosetta e ao QUARK, sendo que em alguns casos, os superou. Corroborando assim, a eficácia do método. / Memetic algorithms are evolutionary metaheuristics intrinsically concerned with the exploiting and incorporation of all available knowledge about the problem under study. In this dissertation, we present a knowledge-based memetic algorithm to tackle the threedimensional protein structure prediction problem without the explicit use of template experimentally determined structures. The algorithm was divided into two main steps of processing: (i) sampling and initialization of the algorithm solutions; and (ii) optimization of the structural models from the previous stage. The first step aims to generate and classify several structural models for a determined target protein, by the use of the strategy Angle Probability List, aiming the definition of different structural groups and the creation of better structures to initialize the initial individuals of the memetic algorithm. The Angle Probability List takes advantage of structural knowledge stored in the Protein Data Bank in order to reduce the complexity of the conformational search space. The second step of the method consists in the optimization process of the structures generated in the first stage, through the applying of the proposed memetic algorithm, which uses a tree-structured population, where each node can be seen as an independent subpopulation that interacts with others, over global search operations, aiming at information sharing, population diversity, and better exploration of the multimodal search space of the problem The method also encompasses ad-hoc global search operators, whose objective is to increase the exploration capacity of the method turning to the characteristics of the protein structure prediction problem, combined with the Artificial Bee Colony algorithm to be used as a local search technique applied to each node of the tree. The proposed algorithm was tested on a set of 24 amino acid sequences, as well as compared with two reference methods in the protein structure prediction area, Rosetta and QUARK. The results show the ability of the method to predict three-dimensional protein structures with similar foldings to the experimentally determined protein structures, regarding the structural metrics Root-Mean-Square Deviation and Global Distance Total Score Test. We also show that our method was able to reach comparable results to Rosetta and QUARK, and in some cases, it outperformed them, corroborating the effectiveness of our proposal.

En este estudio convergen conocimientos de neuropsicología y tecnologías de la información para el desarrollo de una aplicación informática que optimice una batería de identificación de disfunciones cognitivas en pacientes adultos con esclerosis múltiple. Esta aplicación informática es presentada como respuesta a una clara necesidad de los centros médicos especializados en neurología de proveer herramientas que permitan la inclusión del mayor número de pacientes con esclerosis múltiple a la administración de baterías de identificación de disfunciones cognitivas. El desarrollo de un sistema informático que contenga y permita rendir las pruebas que conforman la batería, la posterior calificación de las mismas, la interpretación de los resultados, el almacenamiento y la actualización de la historia clínica del paciente conforman la sistematización de la batería de identificación de disfunciones cognitivas brindando beneficios reales al segmento en estudio manteniendo la eficacia de la administración. Además, se espera crear un precedente de la adherencia de los pacientes frente a la solución informática propuesta con el fin de ser base favorable para futuras soluciones informáticas que decidan incursionar en temas médicos. Con la meta de cumplir adecuadamente el desarrollo de la aplicación informática basada en el conocimiento, el presente documento ha sido estructurado en ocho capítulos: 1) fundamentos teóricos del negocio, las tendencias y tecnologías actuales, el objeto de estudio, el campo de acción y el análisis crítico de los problemas de información; 2) propuesta de solución indicando los objetivos y beneficios del proyecto; 3). modelado del negocio bajo la metodología del Proceso Unificado de Rational; 4) requerimientos y modelado de la aplicación informática; 5) arquitectura de software; 6) construcción del sistema; 7) muestra la calidad y pruebas del producto; y 8) la gestión del proyecto. / In this study, knowledge of neuropsychology and information technologies converge for the development of a computer application that optimizes a battery of identification of cognitive dysfunctions in adult patients with multiple sclerosis. This computer application is presented as a response to a clear need of medical centers specialized in neurology, to provide tools that allow the inclusion of a largest number of patients with multiple sclerosis in the administration of batteries of identification of cognitive dysfunctions. The development of a computer system which contains and allows perform the tests that conform the battery, the subsequent qualification of the same tests, the interpretation of the results, the storage and the updating of the patient's clinical history make up the systematization of the battery of identification of cognitive dysfunctions providing real benefits to the segment under study maintaining the effectiveness of the administration. In addition, it is expected to create a precedent for the adherence of patients to the proposed computer solution in order to be a favorable basis for future IT solutions that decide to explore medical issues. Considering the goal of fulfilling the development of the knowledge-based computer application properly, this document has been structured in eight chapters: 1) theoretical foundations of the business, current trends and technologies, the object of study, the field of action and the critical analysis of information problems; 2) proposed solution indicating the objectives and benefits of the project; 3). modeling the business under the Rational Unified Process methodology; 4) requirements and model of the computer application; 5) software architecture; 6) system construction; 7) shows the quality and testing of the product; and 8) project management. / Tesis

Les réseaux métaboliques à l’échelle génomique décrivent les relations entre milliers de réactions et molécules biochimiques pour améliorer notre compréhension du métabolisme. Ils trouvent des applications dans les domaines chimiques, pharmaceutiques, et dans la biorestauration.La complexité de modèles métaboliques mets des obstacles á l’inférence des modèles, à la comparaison entre eux, ainsi que leur analyse, curation et amélioration par des experts humains. Parce que l’abondance des détailles dans les réseaux à grande échelle peut cacher des erreurs et des adaptations importantes de l’espèce qui est étudié, c’est important de trouver les correct niveaux d’abstraction qui sont confortables pour les experts humains : on doit mettre en évidence la structure essentiel du modèle ainsi que les divergences de celle-là (par exemple les chemins alternatives et les réactions manquantes), tout en masquant les détails non significatifs.Pour répondre a cette demande nous avons défini une généralisation des modèles métaboliques, fondée sur les connaissances, qui permet la création des vues abstraites de réseaux métaboliques. Nous avons développé une méthode théorétique qui regroupe les métabolites en classes d’équivalence et factorise les réactions reliant ces classes d’équivalence. Nous avons réalisé cette méthode comme une bibliothèque Python qui peut être téléchargée depuis metamogen.gforge.inria.fr.Pour valider l’intérêt de notre méthode, nous l’avons appliquée à 1 286 modèles métaboliques que nous avons extraits de la ressource Path2Model. Nous avons montré que notre méthode aide l’expert humain à relever de façon automatique les adaptations spécifiques de certains espèces et à comparer les modèles entre eux.Après en avoir discuté avec des utilisateurs, nous avons décidé de définir trois niveaux hiérarchiques de représentation de réseaux métaboliques : les compartiments, les modules et les réactions détaillées. Nous avons combiné notre méthode de généralisation et le paradigme des interfaces zoomables pour développer Mimoza, un système de navigation dans les réseaux métaboliques qui crée et visualise ces trois niveaux. Mimoza est accessible en ligne et pour le téléchargement depuis le site mimoza.bordeaux.inria.fr. / Genome-scale metabolic models describe the relationships between thousands of reactions and biochemical molecules, and are used to improve our understanding of organism’s metabolism. They found applications in pharmaceutical, chemical and bioremediation industries.The complexity of metabolic models hampers many tasks that are important during the process of model inference, such as model comparison, analysis, curation and refinement by human experts. The abundance of details in large-scale networks can mask errors and important organism-specific adaptations. It is therefore important to find the right levels of abstraction that are comfortable for human experts. These abstract levels should highlight the essential model structure and the divergences from it, such as alternative paths or missing reactions, while hiding inessential details.To address this issue, we defined a knowledge-based generalization that allows for production of higher-level abstract views of metabolic network models. We developed a theoretical method that groups similar metabolites and reactions based on the network structure and the knowledge extracted from metabolite ontologies, and then compresses the network based on this grouping. We implemented our method as a python library, that is available for download from metamogen.gforge.inria.fr.To validate our method we applied it to 1 286 metabolic models from the Path2Model project, and showed that it helps to detect organism-, and domain-specific adaptations, as well as to compare models.Based on discussions with users about their ways of navigation in metabolic networks, we defined a 3-level representation of metabolic networks: the full-model level, the generalized level, the compartment level. We combined our model generalization method with the zooming user interface (ZUI) paradigm and developed Mimoza, a user-centric tool for zoomable navigation and knowledgebased exploration of metabolic networks that produces this 3-level representation. Mimoza is available both as an on-line tool and for download atmimoza.bordeaux.inria.fr.

Dans un processus traditionnel de conception de produits mécaniques, l’organisation classique est la conception du produit puis son dimensionnement et enfin son optimisation. Les concepteurs prennent des risques en n’évaluant les performances du produit que dans les dernières phases du processus, et l’étape d’optimisation est bien souvent mise de côté, faute de temps ou à cause du retard pris sur les autres phases. La phase de conception préliminaire est une étape délicate car les décisions doivent y être prises dans un contexte imprécis ou peu de choses sont définies. Il n’existe pas d’outils informatiques adaptés et l’étude de plusieurs concepts multiplie les tâches routinières et les pertes de temps associées. Le concepteur prend donc des risques en réduisant le nombre de concepts développés. Le dimensionnement de produits comporte également un certain nombre de difficultés, comme un positionnement tardif dans le processus, entraînant des étapes de pré et post traitement lourdes ainsi que des simulations longues. L’analyse d’aide à la décision est prometteuse mais elle reste marginale, faute de modèles simplifiés disponibles dans les phases amont du processus de conception.Cette thèse expose la synthèse de nos travaux de recherche portant sur l’optimisation en conception de systèmes mécaniques. L’étude proposée s’intègre dans une démarche d’ingénierie hautement productive de systèmes mécaniques et comporte plusieurs facettes : conception fonctionnelle paramétrique, application d’ingénierie à base de connaissances, outils de simulation numérique et d’optimisation. Nous proposons une méthodologie permettant d’introduire au plus tôt dans le processus de conception, une étape d’optimisation couplée à des simulations d’aide à la décision, en vue d’identifier des architectures optimales inédites, présentant les meilleurs compromis vis-à-vis d’objectifs multiples relatifs au comportement mécanique. L’objectif du travail de recherche est de développer des modèles, des méthodes et des outils dédiés à la génération semi-automatique de modèles géométriques tridimensionnels multiples identifiés comme solutions les plus performantes dans un cadre de conception collaborative de produits mécaniques. Notre méthodologie est ensuite expérimentée sur plusieurs projets de conception de systèmes mécaniques relevant de la mécanique des structures, en analyses statique et dynamique. Il s’agit en particulier de la conception d’organes du véhicule de l’UTBM participant au trophée SIA. / In a traditional process of design of mechanical products, the traditional organization is the product design and the sizing and finally optimization. The designers take risks in failing to assess product performance in the final stages of the process, and the optimization step is often ignored because of time or due to delays on other phases. The preliminary design is a delicate step because decisions must be taken in a little vague or defined. There are no adequate data tools and the study of several concepts multiply routine tasks and wasted time associated. The designer is therefore taking risks by reducing the number of concepts developed. The design of products also includes a number of difficulties, such as positioning late in the process, resulting in steps of pre and post processing of heavy and long simulations. An analysis of decision support is promising but remains marginal due to lack of simplified models available in the early phases of the design process.This thesis describes the synthesis of our research on design optimization of mechanical systems. The proposed study is part of a highly productive process engineering of mechanical systems and multi-faceted: parametric functional design, application engineering knowledge base, simulation tools and optimization. We propose a methodology to introduce at the earliest in the design process, an optimization step coupled with simulations of decision support, to identify optimal architectures novel, the three best compromise vis- -vis multiple objectives related to the mechanical behavior. The objective of the research is to develop models, methods and tools dedicated to the semi-automatic generation of multi-dimensional geometric models identified as most effective solutions in a collaborative design of mechanical products. Our methodology is then tested on several projects of design of mechanical systems within the mechanical structures in static and dynamic analysis. This is especially the design of the vehicle components of the UTBM MLS participant trophy.

The objectives of this research are threefold: (i) to develop a conceptual framework and a prototype in order to extend the application capability of a category of multiple objective decision support systems (MODSS) techniques; (ii) to explore the combined functionalities of knowledge-based expert systems (ES) and MODSS through embedding an intelligent front-end, and (iii) to develop a new system and process of dealing with multiple objective decision making (MODM) models in a group decision support system (GDSS) framework. Ultimately, a system that integrates MODSS, ES and GDSS is generated, which is then evaluated in a laboratory experimental setup. This integrated system contains a sufficient number of MODM methods to solve MODM problems, provides an ES-based guide to select and use the most suitable MODM method, and has the capability to aggregate individual decision makers' preferences to produce a compromise solution of an MODM problem in different forms and styles of group meetings. The system is supported by a set of group decision making (GDM) methods which combine the preferences of the individual group members and thus increases the confidence of each group member in the compromise solution.The research is conducted using a multiple-methodologies approach using the system development methodology as the backbone. The conceptual framework of the integrated system is elaborated to integrate multiple system elements into one facility at the application system level based on functional and resource integration. A prototype implements this conceptual framework as an intelligence-based and graphical user interface (GUI)-based MODSS that works in an individual/group environment. Both the conceptual framework and the prototype are called Intelligent Multiple Objectives Group Decision Support Systems (IMOGDSS).Initial evaluation of the IMOGDSS is encouraging, which ++ / is conducted in the form of testing a number of hypotheses in an experimental setup. This research thus makes contributions in both theoretical and application domains. Five major contributions are listed below:It develops a unique conceptual framework of integrating MODSS, ES and GDSS effectively to deal with MODM problem in individual/group decision making under a knowledge-based intelligent architecture.It provides a new application of ES, that is, utilising knowledge-based ES to select the most efficient MODM method for each particular decision maker (or decision group) in a particular decision problem.The complete method management function of the MODM methodology base guides the decision makers to use the most suitable method to solve their decision making problems, allows them to use multiple methods to resolve complex problems, that could not otherwise be solved with a single MODM, and also allows the group members to get solutions from different methods.This study produces an opportunity to select and apply the 'best' aggregation model to aggregate the individual solutions of an MODM problem through integrating various GDM methods in a methodology base.This study implements a two-stage configuration of group decision support software that provides a GUI-based hierarchical procedure for solving MODM problems with intelligent guidance in a decision group. The two-stage group decision making procedure is able to help the decision makers to analyse, understand and interact cooperatively in the group decision making process to reach a compromise solution.