published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 349-379). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.Hous.Man.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-96).

M.Com. (Business Management) / Logistics Service Providers are becoming increasingly involved within their client’s businesses. Beyond just providing vehicles and buildings, logistics service providers are now also becoming involved with the knowledge-type work that is connected to the traditional services provided. LSPs are also becoming better integrators of supply chain functions and are offering an increasingly vast basket of services to clients that can be configured in a way that adds value to the client. The research presented in this paper looks at the theoretical impact that converged planning and execution functions have on business success as well as a view of how selected IMPERIAL Logistics client organisations perceive the impact of increased integration of IMPERIAL Logistics within their businesses. The research viewed the integration of planning and execution in two ways:  The impact of a supply chain partner integrating their business functions with that of the client organisation.  The integration of the tasks of planning and execution under a single arrangement. The impact of integrated planning and execution functions for the client organisation was found to be improved long term commitment and alignment in terms of business operations and relationships, better communication, more integrated planning and decision making, better usage of systems to streamline the process as well as a focus on core business whilst supply chain experts handle their core business, which is planning and executing supply chain functions.

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M.B.A. / The following study concerns Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. More specifically, it gives a brief description of what Knowledge Management is; the different types and phases, the economics and strategies, different drivers, the outcomes, critical success factors, the benefits, frameworks and the influence that Knowledge Management has on competitiveness and innovation in the workplace. The topic is concluded with a discussion around technologies for enabling Knowledge Management. Also discussed in the study is the definition of Outsourcing, the different theories, critical success factors, drivers and moving from traditional to transformational Outsourcing. Mention is also made about some of the obstacles and problems associated with Outsourcing and the different prescriptive models around. Lastly, the determinants of organisational adoption and the stages of the Outsourcing framework are discussed in depth. The original decision was to develop a questionnaire and distribute it throughout the company, Business Connexion, a leader in the IT Outsourcing industry. However, due to time constraints and the number of potential employees, approximately 4700, it was agreed upon to only target the staff members within the Outsourcing division. At the time of the questionnaire, the total number of employees was 539 and 127 participated in this study by responding via a URL link set up by Statkon, a division of the University of Johannesburg. The responses were fed into a database which produced the relevant results for this particular study. These questionnaires were designed to specifically measure the varying issues surrounding Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. Due to the fact that this study was implemented within only one division of the organisation, it is important to note that the findings of this study cannot be generalised, thus providing an opportunity for future comparative research.

This study examines the relationship that people have with the modern day food environment. This study used a qualitative approach using interviews, videotapes, and questionnaires with seventeen participants. This varied approach was used to understand the decision-making process at dinnertime when deciding whether to cook at home or eat out at a restaurant. This was examined primarily through semi-structured interviews as well as the observation and videotaping of individuals preparing meals at dinnertime. The research resulted in three different categories of importance: why people choose to eat out, how people utilize restaurants, and the current roles restaurants have in modern American society. The results show the importance of restaurants in modern society beyond the nourishment that a meal can provide. Many of the themes that arose in this research have been seen in other research in this field, but a few new areas came up. For example, using a restaurant as a resource for new recipes to prepare at home was an area that emerged that had not been mentioned in the previous research. This shows that the relationship that American’s have with the food environment outside the home is continuously transforming. Understanding all of the reasons people eat outside the home is important, as there is a general decrease in cooking practices inside the home. Gaining knowledge in how people make food choices on a daily basis is a good first step in being able to address public health issues that relate to food. This study explores the current food environment in order to have a deeper understanding of why people make the choice to eat outside the home, the ways people utilize restaurants, and the roles of restaurants in society.

Cette thèse introduit deux outils pour l'accès performant aux données d'un algorithme à front d'onde dans un contexte d'exécution out-of-core. Ces algorithmes sont facilement parallélisables en utilisant des techniques de macro-pipelining, qui permettent un recouvrement des calculs et des communications. Le premier outil part du constat que les performances des opérations de lecture/écriture dans une telle situation sont désastreuses: les données sont éclatées sur disque et leur rapatriement en mémoire est long et coûteux. Le nouvel agencement de données sur disque proposé permet de résoudre ces problèmes en accédant aux données uniquement de manière contiguë. Si ce premier outil décrit comment accéder aux données, le deuxième est un modèle de synchronisation qui décrit quand y accéder. En effet, l'exécution parallèle et concurrente des algorithmes à front d'onde nécessite un contrôle strict des temps d'accès et des temps d'attente. Le modèle présenté dans cette thèse remplit ce rôle, tout en donnant des garanties de propriétés intéressantes pour les applications itératives: verrouillage pro-actif, évolution sans interblocages, progression homogène des tâches. L'utilisation de ces deux outils a été intensivement testée sur un benchmark de référence et expérimentée sur des machines de la plate-forme Grid'5000. / This thesis introduces two tools for efficiently access data of a wavefront algorithm in an out-of-core execution context. These algorithms are easily to parallelize by using macro-pipelining techniques which allow to overlap computations and communications. The first tool is build on the observation that input/output operations in such a situation have disastrous performance: data is scattered on disk and getting them in and out of memory is long and expensive. The new data layout on disk that is proposed resolves these issues by accessing data only in a contiguous way. If the first tool describes how to access data, the second one is a synchronization model that describes when to access them. Indeed, concurrent and parallel execution of wavefront algorithms require strict control over accessing and waiting periods. The model presented in this thesis fulfills this role while providing guarantees on interesting properties for iterative applications: proactive locking, deadlock-free evolution, homogeneous progression of tasks. The usage of these two tools has been intensively tested on a reference benchmark and experimented on machines from the Grid'5000 platform.