People frequently have problems making multiple devices work together. In this thesis, I use the Research‐through‐Design approach to understand the issues and propose solutions. Through an iterative series of investigations, the problems people have with the connection of multiple devices has been examined, including usability issues, difficulties with the sequential connection procedure, and difficulties performing an action. I found non‐expert users to have difficulties with interpreting and evaluating the devices’ interaction status regarding the sequence of the connection procedure. When an evaluation problem occurs, they have problems dealing with the required sequence or diagnosing the error in their interactions. The problem understanding was examined from additional cases. The comprehension of the problems allowed me to generate design implications and propose a design solution. I proposed two implications with which to solve the stated problem. I suggested helping users evaluate device interaction and reduce unnecessary user interactions. A design framework was suggested as a solution by providing diagrammatic representations of system interaction and signals revealing device status. I then assessed the suggested solutions using paper prototypes, and demonstrated their effectiveness. The improved interfaces helped users evaluate device connection status so they may determine how to proceed with sequential interaction. With the Research‐through‐Design approach constructing knowledge by integrating theories and hypothesis, I found the feature of user‐multiple device interaction in which a user is required to manage the interaction between the devices. A single device cannot aid the user interaction. In the dissertation, I proposed a desirable state of user interaction, which is achieved by two devices revealing connection states together so that a user can earn a useful system image.

This thesis focuses on forensic analysis of network connection in operating systems based on Linux kernel. The paper is divided into chapters that describe principles of digital forensics, packet processing inside Linux kernel and compare forensic software tools. This knowledge is then applied in design of application for network connection forensics in Linux. Designed application is implemented and used in practical process of digital forensic analysis. In conclusion possible extensions are proposed.

The development of connected vehicle (CV) technologies enables advanced management of individual vehicles and traffic signals to improve urban mobility and energy efficiency. In this thesis, a cooperative vehicle-signal control system will be developed to integrate an Eco-driving system and a proactive signal control system under a mixed connected environment with both connected vehicles (CVs) and human-driven vehicles (HDVs). The system utilizes CVs to conduct an accurate prediction of queue length and delay at different approaches of intersections. Then, a queue-based optimal control strategy is established to minimize the fuel usage of individual CVs and the travel time delay of entire intersections. The system applies the model predictive control to search for the optimal signal timing plan for each intersection and the most-fuel efficient speed profiles for each CV to gain the global optimum of the intersection. In this thesis, a simulation platform is designed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system under different traffic scenarios. The comparison with the eco-driving only and signal control only algorithms verifies that the cooperative system has a much more extensive reduction range of the trip delay in the case of medium and high saturation. At low saturation, the effect of the system is not much different from that of the eco-driving algorithm, but it is still better than the signal control. Results show that the benefits of CVs are significant at all different market penetration rates of CVs. It also demonstrates the drawback of the system at high congestion levels. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

鋼鐵産業是象徵國家經濟情況的重要基礎産業，也是代表社會發展程度、經濟實力的重要標誌。因此鋼鐵產業常被認為是具有代表國力強弱的指標性意義，不論是先進國家或發展中國家，皆長期的、積極的振興鋼鐵產業。 現今臺灣的鋼鐵業者在面對上、下游皆瘦而中游獨大的特殊產業環境之下，許多企業為了達到產業規模經濟與拓展銷售市場，紛紛前往海外另闢戰場。傳統的國際化理論認為國際化過程的演變是大型企業為了因應產品生命週期的演進而選擇在海外市場發揮其資源優勢的行為，然而從網絡連結觀點我們可以把國際化看成是企業試圖和國外網絡連結建立關係的作為。通常非大型企業並不具備獨自建立國外相關網絡的資源深度，然而透過網絡關係的合作卻可以快速取得當地市場知識並藉由現有通路進入國際市場。這對於具有高進入障礙、高度資本密集、高度技術密集且企業難以獨自擁有足夠生產資源等特性的鋼鐵產業而言，網絡關係連結相當重要。 在這個全球化的時代，大多數企業遲早都會在國際上競爭。因此，專注於國內市場交易的在地企業會被迫具有國際競爭力並參與國際商業活動。所有管理國內企業或跨國集團的經理人都必須意識到這個潮流的影響力。全球化經濟現在已經充斥在世界的各個角落，而且國際化現在所影響的不僅是大型企業集團連許多的非大型企業也是。本次研究針對鋼鐵產業使用多點個案研究法，調查網絡連結對企業國際化進程的影響。來自六家鋼鐵業者的研究證據顯示可以印證在企業的國際化過程中，網絡連結會觸發並驅動企業的國際化、影響企業的海外市場選擇決策與進入模式決策、幫助企業獲得起始信用、接近新網絡關係與現成通路、也協助降低成本與風險，並且影響企業的國際化步調。 / The iron-and-steel industry is an important basic industry to symbolize national economics, and a main indicator which represents social development level and economics power. Because the iron-and-steel industry is usually considered as an index of national strength, no wander many developed and developing nations all have prospering iron-and-steel industries. Now iron-and-steel firms in Taiwan are facing a unique industrial environment, and many are expanding new overseas markets to exploit economies of scale. Traditional internationalization theory posited that the internationalization process is a behavior of giant enterprises to adapt to the product life cycle evolvement and exploit the resource advantage abroad. However, we can view internationalization as a behavior of SMEs to establish relationships with foreign networks from the network perspective. Usually small firms can’t afford enough resources to build up international networks by themselves, but by only cooperating through network connections they can obtain foreign market knowledge soon and penetrate international markets via existing channels. The iron-and-steel industry has high entry barriers, high capital requirement and technology intensity, for SMEs difficult to have all kinds of production resources, the network relationship connections are quite crucial to succeed in international markets. In this era of globalization, most firms will sooner or later have to compete in the international market. Therefore, local firms that focus their business on the domestic market are forced to be internationally competitive and to participate in international business. All managers must be aware of this trend when managing a domestic firm or a multinational conglomerate. The global economy now has reached every corner of the world, and internationalization now involves not just the giant corporations but also many SME enterprises. This research use case research method to examine the influence of network connections on the internationalization process of SME iron-and-steel firms in Taiwan. The evidence from the cases of six iron-and-steel firms shows that the firms’ internationalization process was triggered and motivated by network connections which also affected their foreign market-selection decisions and mode-of-entry decisions, helped them obtain initial credibility and access to other relationships and established channels, helped in lowering cost and risk, and influenced their internationalization pace.

People relate with one another in space and through imagined and technologically mediated networks. This thesis is concerned with the relationship between these two types of social connections – spatial and network. Spatial connections structure collectives of people in the same place at the same time. Network connections structure relations between people without regard to place or time. Spatial connections are complex, but rigid by nature, while network connections are simple, but flexible. Essential articulations emerge between these two connection types. These articulations create and evolve contemporary socio-spatial systems such as the city, its many places, and groups of people therein. However, the basic human experience of these systems remains largely polarized between spatial and network social practices to the disadvantage of human agency. This thesis proposes a teleodynamic, socio-spatial interaction model for the articulation of these social practices in human agency architecture. The model is a mobile experience design that functions through people with ‘smart’ mobile devices. It connects them with one another in public place and to global information and communication networks simultaneously. Sociological study informs the model’s design – constraints and conditions for the connection extents and integrity of social interaction. The model supports self-organizing circular relationships between human interaction dynamics and their trace structures based on a methodology for emergence in complex systems. It effects the emergence of the aforementioned socio-spatial, human agency architecture, with great flexibility. The model and architecture together serve to better articulate contemporary spatial and network social practices to the benefit of human agency in urban space.

People relate with one another in space and through imagined and technologically mediated networks. This thesis is concerned with the relationship between these two types of social connections – spatial and network. Spatial connections structure collectives of people in the same place at the same time. Network connections structure relations between people without regard to place or time. Spatial connections are complex, but rigid by nature, while network connections are simple, but flexible. Essential articulations emerge between these two connection types. These articulations create and evolve contemporary socio-spatial systems such as the city, its many places, and groups of people therein. However, the basic human experience of these systems remains largely polarized between spatial and network social practices to the disadvantage of human agency. This thesis proposes a teleodynamic, socio-spatial interaction model for the articulation of these social practices in human agency architecture. The model is a mobile experience design that functions through people with ‘smart’ mobile devices. It connects them with one another in public place and to global information and communication networks simultaneously. Sociological study informs the model’s design – constraints and conditions for the connection extents and integrity of social interaction. The model supports self-organizing circular relationships between human interaction dynamics and their trace structures based on a methodology for emergence in complex systems. It effects the emergence of the aforementioned socio-spatial, human agency architecture, with great flexibility. The model and architecture together serve to better articulate contemporary spatial and network social practices to the benefit of human agency in urban space.

This project responds to an ongoing discussion in scholarship that identifies and analyzes the ideological functions of computer interfaces. In 1994, Cynthia Selfe and Richard Selfe claimed that interfaces are maps of cultural information and are therefore ideological (485). For Selfe and Selfe and other scholars, these interfaces carried a colonial ideology that resulted in Western dominance over other cultures. Since this early scholarship, our perspectives on interface have shifted with changing technology; interfaces can no longer be treated as having persistent and predictable characteristics like texts. I argue that interfaces are interactions among dynamic information that is constantly being updated online. One of the most prominent ways users interact with information online is through the use of search engines such as Google. Interfaces like Google assist users in navigating dynamic cultural information. How this information is arranged in a Google search event has a profound impact on what meaning we make surrounding the search term. In this project, I argue that colonial ideologies are upheld in several Google search events for the term "Benghazi, Libya." I claim that networked connection during Google search events leads to the creation and sustainment of a colonial ideology through patterns of arrangement. Finally, I offer a methodology for understanding how ideologies are created when search events occur. This methodology searches for patterns in connected information in order to understand how they create an ideological lens.

<p>Osnovna svojstva telefonske mreţe, koja opisuju njen kvalitet, su kvalitet prenetog govornog signala i kvalitet u uspostavljanju telefonske veze. Na kvalitet uspostavljanja veze utiĉu mogućnost i brzina uspostavljanja veze. Brzina uspostavljanja veze se izraţava vremenima za koje se obave odreĊene aktivnosti u pojedinim fazama uspo-stavljanja veze. Trajanje ovih faza je propisano normama, koje su odreĊene meĊunarodnim propisima i date su u publikovanim preporukama. Osnovni ĉinilac brzine uspo-stavljanja veze je vreme odziva pozvane strane. Ovaj parametar se defini&scaron;e kao vremenski interval od slanja poslednjeg adresnog parametra traţenog korisnika od strane pozivajućeg korisnika, do poĉetka odgovora mreţe. U disertaciji je izvr&scaron;ena analiza vremena odziva pozvane strane u telefonskim mreţama i njegovih svojstava. Usled razlika u preno&scaron;enju adresnih informacija u klasiĉnim i savremenim paketskim mreţama, uslovi koji se odnose na vreme odgovora pozvane strane nisu isti. Ovaj zakljuĉak je formulisan u predlogu za izmenu postojećih normi koje se odnose na savremene mreţe. U nastavku je opisana mogućnost kori&scaron;ćenja vremena odziva pozvane strane u me&scaron;ovitoj mreţi kao &scaron;to je elektroprivredna telefonska mreţa, u cilju dono&scaron;enja zakljuĉka o radu mreţe. U takvoj me&scaron;ovitoj mreţi, razliĉite signalizacije i razliĉito trajanje vremena odziva pozvane strane mogu se iskoristiti za nadgledanje ispravnosti pojedinih delova mreţe odnosno detekciju neispravnih veza u njoj. Koristeći ovu osobinu, predloţen je detektor predalarmnog stanja tj. neispravnih veza u me&scaron;ovitoj telefonskoj mreţi Elektroprivrede Srbije.</p> / <p>Main features of telephone network which describe its service quality are the quality of speech signal and the quality of connection setup. The quality of connection setup is affected by the ability and the speed of connection setup. The speed of connection setup is expressed by the time needed for executing of some connection setup phases. Duration of these phases is prescribed by recommended target values, determined in international recommendations. The key indicator of connection set-up speed is post selection delay. This parameter is defined as the time interval from the moment when the complete address information about the called subscriber is sent from the calling subscriber to the network, till the moment when the answer is received from the network. The analysis of post selection delay in telephone networks and its characteristics is performed in the dissertation. Due to differences in transmission of adress information in classic and modern telephone networks, conditions dealing with the post selection delay are not same. This conclusion is formulated in the proposition for changing existing target values related to modern packet networks. In addition, the possibility of using post selection delay in mixed network, such as the telephone network of electric power utility, for monitoring the network operation is described. In such mixed network, different signaling systems i.e. different durations of post selection delay can be used for checking of proper operation of the network parts and detection of faulty connections. Applying this feature, the pre-alarm state detector is proposed.</p>

The target of this master's thesis were the known methods for testing the quality of transfer parameters of data networks. I have studied the RFC 2544 document to analyze these tests. From that information and by studying other existing web-based applications I was able to design a concept of my own application that will allow to measure basic quality parameters of transfers made through the Internet (the parameters: downstream, upstream, latency, variance of these and a traced route). My application doesn't require any modifications on the user's system. It's built on the server-based programming language PHP and uses the relational database engine MySQL to store measurement and user data. On the client side, it's assisted by the JavaScript scripting language. Both registered users and visitors are allowed to perform the listed measurements. Registered users are able to browse the history of their own benchmark results and also to send messages to others. There is an administrative account to oversee the operations. Another part of my thesis work is an application for Windows that performs the same measurements but does not use JavaScript.