This thesis explores the state-labour nexus emerging out of the processes through which governing authorities have attempted to maintain or regain political stability and rates of accumulation in Malay(a)sia. Existing studies usefully highlight the extent to which repressive industrial relations legislation and ethnic communalism have weakened the trade union movement and segmented the labour force delivering the relative industrial peace attractive to foreign investors. Some suggest labour’s discontent at this repression has been successfully contained by Malaysia’s relatively strong economic performance. These approaches, however, only partially acknowledge the extent to which labour’s social reproduction under capitalist relations generates political and economic contradictions. After an initial failure to address these contradictions in the early post-colonial era, the Malay-dominated government has since developed avenues through which to deliver economic and cultural concessions in a selective and paternalistic fashion. This economic paternalism has contributed to social stability but has diverted funds from economic development and now runs contrary to structural reforms that seek to address Malaysia’s declining international competitiveness. The transition towards a knowledge-based economy, referred to locally as the k-economy, therefore embodies efforts by the political elite to contain political and societal tensions emerging out of the reform process. This thesis demonstrates and analyses the dynamic, contingent and uneven nature of these efforts as the government seeks to establish new bases of legitimacy more closely linked to household consumption concerns than ethnicity. Despite the relative absence of industrial disputation, labour’s location in Malaysia’s system of capitalism remains a contradictory one. Politically motivated social policies, although under pressure and likely to take new forms, will nonetheless remain pivotal in the attempt to resolve the tensions that threaten accumulation and political stability.

No description available.

The study of serious accidents, which have occurred in the chemical process industry in recent times, highlights the need to understand fluid property related phenomena and the interactions between chemicals under abnormal process conditions or with abnormal fluid compositions. Consideration of these issues should be common practice in professional safety analysis work, and computer programs designed to support this work have to be able to deal with them.

This thesis presents a study into the feasibility of applying a Knowledge Based Engineering System to the manufacture and prescription of custom contoured seating. The custom contoured seats are designed to meet the needs of clients of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Rehabilitation Engineering Unit who have neurological, musculoskeletal and/or other conditions that result in limited movement, complex body shapes and poor posture. The custom contoured seats provide accommodation or correction for poor posture whilst improving the client’s function and comfort level, minimising risk to the client and in some cases providing therapeutic benefits such as improving the client’s unsupported posture. The literature review showed that there is not currently a technique in development or envisaged that would perform the task of the system being investigated in this thesis. Three techniques were identified, two for the prescription of wheelchairs based on a series of extensive questions, the output of which is a wheelchair with no custom contoured seating. The third technique converts pressure readings of clients with low complexity conditions sitting on a flat surface into a custom contoured seat. The client group being investigated in this study are unable to sit unsupported and would not be able to provide a meaningful pressure reading when held in position due to the shape of most of the clients’ bodies. Algorithms were developed to extract useful features from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Rehabilitation Engineering Unit’s mechanical shape sensor; which is called the Cardiff Body Match. The features extracted from the measurements were designed to reduce the dimensionality of the data and inform a clinical engineer as to the anthropometry of the client seated in the Cardiff Body Match mechanical shape sensor. The algorithms developed were able to correct errors in measurements, estimate the location of pelvic landmarks and provide a classification of the curvature of the back. Engineering rules were elicited from clinical engineers at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Rehabilitation Engineering Unit and from the literature. The engineering rules were described in plain English and represented using a novel approach based on notations used in predicate calculus. The engineering rules’ application was tested and the shape of a custom contoured seat that could be produced with the Knowledge Based Engineering System was demonstrated. This study has shown that through further research a Knowledge Based Engineering System for the manufacture and prescription of custom contoured seating for clients of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Rehabilitation Engineering Unit is possible. This thesis contributes to the knowledge by demonstrating the feasibility of the Knowledge Based Engineering System, developing the bespoke algorithms and the novel collection of knowledge through elicitation.

Faced with depleted oil stocks from 2035 onwards, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a strategy of becoming a more knowledge-based economy by indigenously exploiting transferred technologies. However, despite significant investment in university-based technology transfer and incubation facilities, there is little progress in establishing high-growth advanced technology companies outside of the oil sector. The thesis explores the commercialisation of university knowledge in university-based incubators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and contrasting with arrangements in the UK, to identify the cause of low spinout rates and what can be done. Beginning with a systematic review of literature on innovation and entrepreneurship as it applies to commercialisation, the thesis identifies gaps and areas of controversy in the literature. From previous research an initial conceptual framework is developed to guide data gathering, its presentation and analysis. Using a qualitative method a sample of twenty-four Saudi interviews and eight UK interviews is justified. Significant new data on Saudi incubator policy, processes and outcomes is presented alongside new data from the UK. This is then analysed from an in-case and cross-case perspective and then re-integrated with literature. A revised conceptual framework is presented and conclusions for theory and practice drawn. The thesis adds to the multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge for example by updating Gerschenkron’s (1966) theory of catch-up, challenging the validity of Etzkowitz’s (1983) triple helix theory, and arguing that North’s (1990) neo-institutional theory is ethnocentric. I argue that culture is a major influence on commercialisation in developing countries and consciously changing cultures necessary for Saudi Arabia’s transition from a rentier state. I find little empirical evidence in either the UK or Saudi Arabia for theories (Shane 2004) of academic entrepreneurship. I conclude that major reforms of Saudi universities and commercialisation processes are necessary if the strategy is to contribute significantly towards diversification of the economy.

Broadband has revolutionised the way the Internet is used and has become the critical enabling infrastructure of our modem and knowledge-based economy. Its widespread introduction has not only greatly enhanced the speed at which information online can be accessed, but also the range and sophistication of the content available. It is still penetrating the telecommunication market and is seen by some as the most significant evolutionary step since the emergence of the Internet. However in the rush to achieve market share, there is a risk that insufficient attention may be paid to quality issues, the central theme of this research. The research addresses the issues of broadband quality with a stated objective of assessing broadband quality by means of an integrated framework that encompasses factors beyond strict technical characteristics of broadband networks. Indeed, the concept of quality is a multi-facetted one, for which various perspectives can be distinguished. In this work, broadband quality as perceived by users, ISP and Government in the United Kingdom (UK) is looked at and a survey report is given and analysed. The aim of this doctoral research was to provide much needed empirical broadband quality framework that would guide the service provider as well as the UK government in the provision of quality broadband to its consumers. It will also stand as a benchmark to countries wanting to provide quality broadband to its citizens. A survey research approach was employed to achieve the overall aim and objective of this research. This was conducted using the response of 133 participants located in various boroughs in the UK. The results of the survey show that quality, though desired by many, has been short-changed by the desire to have access to the Internet via broadband at the lowest cost possible. However, this has not encouraged some consumers to switch to broadband from dial-up service despite continuous low prices being offered by service providers. Furthermore, the results also indicated that focusing on broadband quality will improve and promote investment in broadband capacity and decrease the uncertainty in consumer demand for applications such as multi-media content delivery, enhanced electronic commerce and telecommuting that exploit broadband access.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Under what circumstances does knowledge of causal asymmetry and temporal delay influence causal judgements? We begin a series of thirteen experiments. by providing evidence that both high-level (causal reasoning) processes, and low-level (associative) processes influence causal assessment depending on what is asked about the events. Specifically, participants were more sensitive to causal structure in their ratings than in their prediction responses, on earlier rather than later trials, and when asked to provide an integrative causal rating. Emphasising the direction and nature of the causal relationship and the wording of the test question had no influence on participants' sensitivity to causal asymmetry. Next, we provide evidence that participants' ratings track conditional rather than uncondtional contingencies as predicted by the conditional P account as well as the Rescorla-Wagner model at asymptote. Our results suggest that participants tend to rate the influence of each cause conditional on the absence of the other cause. This tendency is not reflected by the Rescorla-Wagner model. Finally, we examine the role of temporal contiguity on judgments of contingency using a human analogue of the Pavlovian task. Our results suggest that knowledge of temporal delay modulates causal judgements.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis investigates the application of Knowledge Based systems and Fuzzy Logic to automatic control. The knowledge used by a human operator is put in a computer usable form and applied to a control problem. The idea is not to attempt to enhance the stability or response of the system but given a basically stable and controllable system we apply human type control methods via a computer controller. A system can never be modelled exactly and therefore a controller design must allow for the uncertainty in the model. With fuzzy logic, the system inputs, outputs, parameters, reactions and cross coupling are represented in fuzzy or inexact variables, knowledge and reasoning. An exact (or nearly exact) model of the system is not necessary. A simple aircraft is the process to which this control method is applied. Knowledge, reasoning and feedback similar to what a human pilot utilizes are applied in the control of the process. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)