Missing from extant conflict literature is an examination of both symmetric and asymmetric conflict ties. To address this void, network analysis was utilized to examine the responses (both symmetric and asymmetric conflict ties) of 140 employees and managers in four divisions of a large agency of the Federal Government. The study was limited to conflict over scarce resources. Conflict management methods were examined as well as the perceptions of how respondents both cope with and feel about conflict. The results indicate that when two people in a conflict setting are structurally equivalent they both report actions and feelings that are opposite from those of- the other person. This finding, an inverse contagion effect, has been termed diffusion resistance.

abstract: Despite the prevalence of teams in complex sociotechnical systems, current approaches to understanding workload tend to focus on the individual operator. However, research suggests that team workload has emergent properties and is not necessarily equivalent to the aggregate of individual workload. Assessment of communications provides a means of examining aspects of team workload in highly interdependent teams. This thesis set out to explore how communications are associated with team workload and performance under high task demand in all-human and human–autonomy teams in a command and control task. A social network analysis approach was used to analyze the communications of 30 different teams, each with three members operating in a command and control task environment of over a series of five missions. Teams were assigned to conditions differentiated by their composition with either a naïve participant, a trained confederate, or a synthetic agent in the pilot role. Social network analysis measures of centralization and intensity were used to assess differences in communications between team types and under different levels of demand, and relationships between communication measures, performance, and workload distributions were also examined. Results indicated that indegree centralization was greater in the all-human control teams than in the other team types, but degree centrality standard deviation and intensity were greatest in teams with a highly trained experimenter pilot. In all three team types, the intensity of communications and degree centrality standard deviation appeared to decrease during the high demand mission, but indegree and outdegree centralization did not. Higher communication intensity was associated with more efficient target processing and more successful target photos per mission, but a clear relationship between measures of performance and decentralization of communications was not found. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Human Systems Engineering 2020

Survey instruments utilized to quantify relationships, or aspects of relationships, may introduce multiple sources of nonindependence"”clustered variance"”into scores, including from actor, alter and dyadic sources. Estimating the magnitude of actor, alter and dyad nonindependence and their impact on the reliability of scores is an important step towards assuring quality data. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and the social relations model offer methods for quantifying the influence and estimating the reliability of multiple sources of clustered variance. The use of these methods is illustrated in the analysis of data gathered via a survey designed to quantify relational embeddedness in social network analyses.

Colder, harsher parenting attitudes and behaviours negatively impact children's behaviour and development, and have been linked to heightened levels of violence towards children. Parenting interventions can improve outcomes by reducing violent and increasing non-violent parenting behaviours. I investigated how changes associated with a low-cost positive parenting intervention spread through a rural, low-income, South African community. Specifically, I assessed whether exposure to a community-wide social activation process and Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) programmes (focused on violence prevention in low-resource settings) significantly predict: (1) improved parenting, and (2) change in the communication networks of female caregivers in the whole community, while controlling for variables such as psychiatric symptoms, parenting stress, and alcohol misuse. Additionally, I investigated whether ties to parenting programme attendees in the communication network predicted improved parenting. Afrikaans-speaking female caregivers (n = 235; mean age 35.92 years), with children aged between 1½ and 18 years old, participated in the intervention; three waves of data were collected (January 2016, June 2017, and February 2019). The social network was measured based on a peer nomination procedure (of study participants whom “you talk to about parenting”). To analyse the role of interpersonal ties as pathways for spreading intervention effects, I make use of Social Network Analysis (SNA), in the form of nominations of people with whom respondents discuss parenting, together with self-report measures of parenting-related outcomes (from caregivers and their children). I then trace the extent to which both the social activation process and the parenting programmes are effective, in part, via their diffusion throughout the community. SNA was used to disentangle whether network changes improved parenting practices (i.e., selection effects) or whether reported improvements in parenting practices improved caregiver information networks (i.e., socialisation effects). Analysis of data from waves 1 and 2 indicated that community-wide improvements in parenting behaviour were evidenced. The significant predictors of improvement were social activation “dose” received, change in network centrality and the influence of indirect exposure to the parenting programmes via attendees. Furthermore, attending at least one session of a parenting programme offered in the intervention significantly predicted change in the caregivers' communication networks, indicating the spread of social influence through their network. The small subset of caregivers (n = 51; 21.7%) attending one or more sessions of a parenting programme evidenced greater activity (i.e., covariate ego effect) and potential influence (i.e., covariate alter effect) within the communication network compared to caregivers who did not attend any programme sessions. This subset of attending caregivers were more likely to reach out to other caregivers to speak about parenting after being exposed to the intervention, and both sought and received social support from other caregivers. Follow-up assessment using a third wave of data showed that while attendees remained socially influential within the caregiver network the overall community improvement was not sustained. These results illustrate the value of social network analysis for ascertaining the pathways through which the intervention achieved its impact and tracking the evolution of social norms within a community. The results indicate an association between spill-over effects from attendees to non-attendees and community-wide changes through targeted interventions.

My dissertation focuses on the strategic implications of the link between organizational culture and social network structure. I study their role in the process of knowledge transfer and diffusion, organizational memory, and organizational design. More broadly, I examine the way that social structure influences the information environment, and what effect this has on organizational learning. I focus in particular on the process of cultural evolution. My dissertation leverages digitization as a phenomenon of inherent interest and as an empirical setting that can improve our theoretical understanding of both digital and non-digital communities. I have developed an expertise in computational methods, especially in machine learning techniques related to text and other unstructured data, and in the analysis of "big data," especially pertaining to large-scale networks. By combining these computational tools with organizational theory and the rich relational data generated by the explosion of digital records, my research grants insight into the dynamic process of learning in organizations and the implications for innovation and competitive advantage. I explore how digitization informs and develops our understanding of organizational culture, knowledge transfer, and the labor market. Specifically, I investigate how digitization has opened a window to observe network structure and language, providing a lasting record of these changes through time. Using these digital records to observe the structure of social relations and the language used to communicate can help deepen our theory of knowledge transfer for a wide range of organizations, not just those that operate in the digital sphere. This means that these studies also have implications for understanding organizations in non-digital settings. My dissertation contributes both theoretically and empirically to the knowledge theory of the firm. However, the mechanisms underlying knowledge transfer remain underdeveloped. I contribute by disentangling the related mechanisms of language and organizational structure, and I propose that common language directly impacts what knowledge may be efficiently transferred. Next, my dissertation contributes to the growing field of digitization. Digitization is salient for researchers both as a unique phenomenon and as an ever-expanding source of accessible data to test theory. Moreover, since one of the central contributions of digitization is to reduce the cost of information gathering, it is well-suited to my theoretical setting of knowledge transmission and organizational memory. Finally, my dissertation contributes to our understanding of culture in organizations. The focus on language as an aspect of culture allows both additional formalization as well as more specific empirical tests of the contribution of culture to organizational outcomes. In particular, a focus on dynamic settings in each of the chapters reveals the interplay between organizational structure, memory, and change. This helps us to understand how language evolves, how it is learned, and how it changes in response to information shocks.

No description available.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to build stand-alone impedance analyzer for mesasuring antennas’ impedance. The vector network analysis is used as measuring method. Analog (with directional coupler and gain and phase detector) and digital (with 8bit AVR microcontrollers) part of analyzer are described and then build.

This diploma thesis deals with creating a project proposal of the research center construction according to the required specifications by SEDOX Company Ltd. The theoretical part describes the basic knowledge and tools of a project management – analytical tools for evaluating the financial and time project costs, also risk analysis relating to competitiveness and maintaining on top of the market. The third part is devoted to the current situation of the development application market. There is the complete proposal of the research centre construction, using the tools according to the IPMA (International Project Management Association) that were described in the theoretical part. In conclusion I have presented my own solution suggestions, their benefits, project sustainability, return of the investment cost and also long-term prosperity.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier la façon dont les individus vivent ensemble et développent des relations ancrées dans un contexte international. Ces espaces sont marqués par une densité importante de situations d’interaction au jour le jour, où l’imprévisibilité est constante. Observer l’évolution des acteurs dans ces situations problématiques où ils disposent de peu d’habitudes, de standards, de manières d’être et de faire prédéfinies, permet d’apprécier le développement de leurs compétences d’innovation et d’ajustement et notamment de suivre la constitution d’un ordre d’interaction. Pour cela, j’ai mené trois enquêtes ethnographiques comparatives dans trois résidences universitaires internationales : deux Maisons Internationales en France (Fondation Ulysse à la Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris) et aux États-Unis (l’International House) et une troisième dans une Graduate House au Canada. Ces trois terrains sont relativement similaires sur plusieurs points : la population y est constituée d'étudiants diplômés de licence de différents domaines d'études, avec une forte proportion d'étudiants étrangers et internationaux ; les conditions de vie sont également comparables (cuisines collectives et sanitaires, salles communes, organisation d'une vie communautaire [community life]). Par ailleurs, les deux premières maisons portent un programme institutionnel similaire, activant une idéologie internationaliste. Leur comparaison et celle avec la troisième résidence universitaire permettra de saisir différentes ingénieries institutionnelles, parties prenantes dans la production d’une normativité pratique. Après avoir présenté les terrains, les méthodes et l’objet d’étude (chapitre introductif), nous suivrons plusieurs questions qui ont émergé sur les terrains d’enquête : la temporalité des sociabilités au cours d’un séjour (chapitre 1) le passage de relations d’anonymes aux relations ancrées (chapitre 2), la coproduction d’un ordre d’interaction, d’une idioculture et d’un ordre social (chapitre 3), une réflexion autour des commérages (chapitre 4) et enfin une réflexion sur les ingénieries institutionnelles et leurs engagements dans les sociabilités des résidents et leur normativité pratique (chapitre 5). En somme, cette recherche contribue aux travaux en sociologie et en micropolitique des sociabilités, en sociologie des petits groupes, en sociologie des réseaux personnels et en sociologie de la communication. / My thesis aims to study how people live together and develop relationships in an international context. These situations are marked by the fact that nobody masters beforehand these collective settings; indeed, they are marked by interactional unpredictability. How do individuals manage to live together, when they share almost no common rules, and no pre-defined shared ways of being? How do they develop personal relationships, and end by building up affinity relationships? What kind of skills of understanding and evaluation, innovation and adjustment, do they have to activate? In order to get a better knowledge of such situations, since 2011, I have conducted three ethnographic fieldworks: two in International Houses in France (Fondation Ulysse at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris) and the United States, and a third one in a Graduate House in Canada. These three residences have relatively similar general settings: the population is graduate students from different fields of study, with a large proportion of foreign and international students, also the living conditions are comparable (collective kitchens and sanitary facilities, communal rooms, organization of a community life). In addition, the first two residences carry a similar institutional project, advocating an internationalist ideology. The comparison between these houses, and with the Canadian residence, will allow us to grasp the institutional engineerings and the practical normativity coproduced by current residents in each house. After introducing the fieldworks, the methods and the research questions (introductionnary chapter), we will study several questions which emerged from the surveys: the temporality of sociabilities during a stay in student residency (chapter 1), the passage of anonymous relationships to anchored relationships (chapter 2), the co-production of an order of interaction, of an idioculture and of a social order (chapter 3), a reflection on gossip (chapter 4) and finally a study on institutional engineering and their engagement towards residents’ sociabilities and their practical normativity (chapter 5). In sum, this research contributes to sociology and micropolitics of sociability, sociology of small groups, sociology of social networks, and sociology of communication.

abstract: Malicious hackers utilize the World Wide Web to share knowledge. Previous work has demonstrated that information mined from online hacking communities can be used as precursors to cyber-attacks. In a threatening scenario, where security alert systems are facing high false positive rates, understanding the people behind cyber incidents can help reduce the risk of attacks. However, the rapidly evolving nature of those communities leads to limitations still largely unexplored, such as: who are the skilled and influential individuals forming those groups, how they self-organize along the lines of technical expertise, how ideas propagate within them, and which internal patterns can signal imminent cyber offensives? In this dissertation, I have studied four key parts of this complex problem set. Initially, I leverage content, social network, and seniority analysis to mine key-hackers on darkweb forums, identifying skilled and influential individuals who are likely to succeed in their cybercriminal goals. Next, as hackers often use Web platforms to advertise and recruit collaborators, I analyze how social influence contributes to user engagement online. On social media, two time constraints are proposed to extend standard influence measures, which increases their correlation with adoption probability and consequently improves hashtag adoption prediction. On darkweb forums, the prediction of where and when hackers will post a message in the near future is accomplished by analyzing their recurrent interactions with other hackers. After that, I demonstrate how vendors of malware and malicious exploits organically form hidden organizations on darkweb marketplaces, obtaining significant consistency across the vendors’ communities extracted using the similarity of their products in different networks. Finally, I predict imminent cyber-attacks correlating malicious hacking activity on darkweb forums with real-world cyber incidents, evidencing how social indicators are crucial for the performance of the proposed model. This research is a hybrid of social network analysis (SNA), machine learning (ML), evolutionary computation (EC), and temporal logic (TL), presenting expressive contributions to empower cyber defense. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2020