Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2002--Aachen.

This study investigates how the establishment of blame becomes a framework for sensemaking in a national policy subsystem. Using the only two fatal accidents in NASA's manned space flight history as case studies, this dissertation examines how the space policy subsystem responded to these two accidents and the process by which culpability was established. This dissertation extends our knowledge of how the blame dynamic operates within a policy subsystem and how, through this assignment of blame, the policy subsystem and the nation makes sense of these tragic events. Three distinct literatures (i.e. policy subsystems, sensemaking, and blame) are brought together to describe this complex blame environment. The conclusions of this research are that the membership of the space policy subsystems increases following a disaster; the locus of the blame attribution rhetoric rests with Congress and the media, which are members of the space policy subsystem; those who were blamed for the Apollo 1 and Challenger disasters were from both NASA and the contractor; and their culpability was publicized. The space policy subsystem assigns the blame to its members and the process of blaming becomes the framework by which the Nation makes sense of the disaster. / Ph. D.

Konstanz, Univ., Diplomarb., 2001.

This dissertation is a descriptive study of a policy network designed for U.S. government and global cooperation to promote Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It is aimed at exploring the historical and structural features of the ITS policy network, and evaluating its roles in the policy process. Until now, the network literature has barely examined the full arrays of networks, catching just part of their full pictures. First, this study draws attention to transnational networks and their organic or systematic relationships with lower levels of networks. Second, it examines the individual properties and synergy of three core elements of the ITS policy network: public-private partnerships, professional networks, and intergovernmental networks. Third, it takes a close look at the pattern of stability change and power relations of the policy network from within the net. Finally, this study discusses what difference networks make, compared to hierarchies and markets. This dissertation employed multiple sources of evidence: unstandardized elite interviews, government documents, and archival records. Through a networking strategy to find the best experts, face-to-face, telephone, and e-mail interviews were conducted with twenty-two public officials and ITS professionals. It was found that the U.S. ITS policy network was a well-designed strategic governance structure at the planning level, but an experimental learning-focused one at the implementation level. It was initially designed by a new, timely, cross-sectional coalition, which brought together field leaders from both the public and the private sectors under the slogan of global competitiveness. Yet, day-to-day managers within the net often experience much more complex power relationships and internal dynamics as well as legal obstacles; also, they confront external uncertainty in political support and market. For better results, policy networks should be designed in flexible ways that will handle their disadvantages such as ambiguous roles, exclusiveness, and increased staff time. In this respect, it is inevitable for the networks to include some components of a wide range of conventional structures, ranging from highly bureaucratic to highly entrepreneurial, on the one hand, and ranging between issue networks (grounded in American pluralism) and policy communities (based on European corporatism), on the other hand. / Ph. D.

Η τηλεπικοινωνιακή πλατφόρμα IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) φιλοδοξεί να γεφυρώσει το χάσμα μεταξύ των δικτύων κινητής επικοινωνίας και διαδικτύου, προσφέροντας τη βάση για ανάπτυξη καινοτόμων εφαρμογών και υπηρεσιών. Μια από αυτές τις υπηρεσίες φαίνεται πως θα είναι εκείνη της αποστολής μεγάλων αρχείων πολυμέσων σε συνδρομητές. Το περιεχόμενο αυτών των αρχείων δεν θα είναι όμοιο για όλους αλλά θα αποτελείται από αρκετά ξεχωριστά τμήματα το καθένα προσαρμοσμένο στις ατομικές ανάγκες και ενδιαφέροντα του χρήστη στον οποίο και αποστέλλεται. Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία περιγράφει μια πρόταση για την αποστολή εξατομικευμένου διαφημιστικού υλικού, η επιλογή του οποίου γίνεται με βάση τις προσωπικές πληροφορίες που υπάρχουν διαθέσιμες για το χρήστη στο διαδίκτυο και δεδομένα που παρέχει ο φορέας της υπηρεσίας. Παρουσιάζεται με λεπτομέρεια η πλατφόρμα πάνω στην οποία βασίστηκε η ανάπτυξη, η σχεδίαση του αλγορίθμου επιλογής καθώς επίσης και η μέθοδος αξιολόγησης των αποτελεσμάτων που ελήφθησαν από την εκτέλεση της εφαρμογής που υλοποιήθηκε. / Implementation and evaluation of an online environment for personalized content delivery.

No description available.

The aim of this work is to give information about the structure and elements of the IP Multimedia Subsystem, using signaling protocol and transferring messages between the terminal and elements of IMS. Create model, which implements messages transfer between terminal and IMS elements, by environment tools OPNET Modeler. This work describes system function IMS, its architecture, basic elements, architecture of using signaling protocol SIP and its elements, SIP and SDP messages format and the way of ensuring Quality of Services. There is a project of model terminal registration and reservation data flow by terminal in the IMS. These models were realized in a simulation environment called OPNET Modeler by using tools: project editor, node editor and process editor. In the last part of this work, the method of verification correct function of realized models was created by simulation tools called Debbuger. This tool is one of the environment tools OPNET Modeler.

In traditional aircraft conceptual design, subsystems are largely accounted for implicitly based on available historical data and trends. Such an approach has limitations when novel subsystem architectures such as More Electric or All Electric aircraft are considered, since historical data regarding such architectures is either limited or non-existent. In such cases, the incorporation of more thorough and explicit consideration of the aircraft subsystems into the conceptual design phase is warranted. The first objective of this dissertation is to integrate subsystem sizing and analysis methods that are suitable for the early design phases with the traditional aircraft sizing methodology. The goal is to facilitate the assessment subsystem architecture performance with respect to vehicle and mission level metrics. The second objective is to investigate how the performance of different subsystem architectures varies with aircraft size. The third and final objective is to assess the sensitivity of architecture performance to epistemic and technological uncertainty. These objectives are pursued through the development of an integrated sizing and analysis environment where the subsystems are sized in parallel with the aircraft itself using subsystem models that are computationally inexpensive and do not require detailed aircraft definition. The effects of subsystem mass, secondary power requirements, and drag increments are propagated to the mission performance analysis following which the vehicle and subsystems are re-sized. A number of experiments are performed to first test the capabilities of the developed environment and subsequently assess the performance of numerous subsystem architectures and the sensitivity of select architectures to epistemic and technological uncertainty.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis considers the evaluation of LabVIEW based control for reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), and in particular for an RMS subsystem. The evaluation used a rivet feeder station as a case study. The architecture of the rivet feeder station included a vibratory bowl feeder, a singulation device, a pick-n-place mechanism and an XYZ positioning table. The objective of the research was to determine whether LabVIEW is a suitable development environment for implementing holonic control. The motivation for considering LabVIEW in this thesis was that other control approaches, such as IEC 61499 function blocks, agent-based control and object-orientated control, that have been used in most RMS research, have not found favour with industry. The PROSA holonic reference architecture was adopted here, with the following holons: Coms Holon, Request Manager Holon, Order Holon, Product Holon Manager, Pick-n-Place Holon and XYZ Table Holon. The holons, constituting the controller, were designed based on LabVIEW’s producer/consumer and state machine architectures. The controller was aimed at making the rivet feeder station reconfigurable. Furthermore, the controller was interfaced with a cell controller through a TCP/IP connection and an XML format of messaging was adopted for communication. The main limitations and disadvantages of LabVIEW, for the implementation of holonic control systems, were found to be: the graphical programming which makes the block diagram cumbersome to follow, for complex applications; and that dynamic instantiation of objects or memory cannot be achieved in LabVIEW. However, LabVIEW holds the following advantages: shared variables and TCP/IP components simplify communication over a network; easy construction of the graphical user interface using controls and indicators on LabVIEW front panels; the XML standard format in LabVIEW provides flexibility to create your own unlimited tags; and immediate compilation of LabVIEW programs. Furthermore, LabVIEW easily can be integrated with hardware such as the compactRIO with a CANopen card. The reconfigurability assessment of the rivet feeder station included three experiments which involved changing the product type, adding new devices and performing station diagnostics. From these experiments, it was concluded that the key characteristics of reconfigurable manufacturing systems were achieved, thereby demonstrating the suitability of LabVIEW for implementing holonic control. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis beskou die evaluering van LabVIEW-gebaseerde beheer vir herkonfigureerbare vervaardigingstelsels (RMSs), en in besonder vir 'n RMS substelsel. Die evaluering het 'n klinknaelvoerstasie as gevallestudie gebruik. Die voerstasie se argitektuur het 'n vibrerende bakvoerder, 'n singuleringstoestel, 'n optel-en-plaas-robot en 'n XYZ-posisioneringstafel ingesluit. Die doelwit van die navorsing was om te bepaal of LabVIEW 'n geskikte ontwikkelingsomgewing vir die implementering van holoniese beheer bied. Die motivering vir die oorweging van LabVIEW in hierdie tesis was dat ander beheerbenaderings, soos IEC 61499 funksieblokke, agent-gebaseerde beheer and objek-georiënteerde beheer, wat in die meeste RMS-navorsing gebruik is, nie aanvaarding in die nywerheid gevind het nie. Die PROSA holoniese verwysingsargitektuur is hier gebruik, met die volgende holone: Coms Holon (kommunikasieholon), Request Manager Holon (versoekbestuurholon), Order Holon (bestellingholon), Product Holon Manager (produkholonbestuurder), Pick-n-Place Holon (optel-en-plaasholon) en XYZ Table Holon (XYZ-tafelholon). Die holone, wat die beheerder uitmaak, se ontwerp is gebou op LabVIEW se vervaardiger/verbruiker- (producer/consumer) en toetstandmasjien-argitekture. Die beheerder was daarop gemik om die klinknaelvoerstasie herkonfigureerbaar te maak. Verder, die beheerder het 'n koppelvlak met 'n selbeheerder gehad, waarin 'n TCP/IP-verbinding en 'n XML-formaat vir die kommunikasie-boodskappe gebruik is. Die belangrikste beperkings en nadele van LabVIEW, vir die implementering van holoniese beheerstelsels, het geblyk te wees: die grafiese programmering wat die blokdiagramme moeilik maak om te volg, vir komplekse toepassings; en dat objekte en geheue nie in LabVIEW dinamies geskep kan word nie. LabVIEW het, egter, die volgende voordele: gedeelde veranderlikes en TCP/IP-komponente vereenvoudig netwerkkommunikasie; gerieflike skepping van die grafiese gebruikerskoppelvlak met behulp van beheerders en meters (controls and indicators) op LabVIEW se voorpanele (front panels); die XML-standaard-formaat in LabVIEW voorsien buigsaamheid om jou eie onbeperkte etikette (tags) te skep; en onmiddellike vertaling van LabVIEW programme. Verder, LabVIEW kan maklik geïntegreer word met hardeware soos die "compactRIO" met 'n "CANopen" kaart. Die beoordeling van die herkonfigureerbaarheid van die klinknaelvoerstasie het drie eksperimente ingeluit waarin die verandering van die produktipe, die byvoeging van nuwe toestelle en die uitvoering van stasie-diagnoses betrokke was. Uit hierdie eksperimente kan afgelei word dat die sleutel-eienskappe van herkonfigureerbare vervaardigingstelsels behaal is, waardeur aangetoon is dat LabVIEW geskik is om holoniese beheer te implementeer.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Jason Ground System (NJGS) is a consolidated next-generation ground system that will support the simultaneous operation of the OSTM/Jason-2 and Jason-3 ocean surface topography missions. The NJGS will consist of several independent subsystems for spacecraft command and control, telemetry processing, and data archiving and distribution. The existing NOAA Jason-2 Ground System (J2GS) was designed around the concept of subsystem "strings", in which two complete sets of subsystems acted in primary and standby roles. For the NJGS, this concept is replaced with subsystem-level redundancy, in which two or more instances of each subsystem independently provide redundant capabilities. This paper discusses the design elements involved in the provision of a ground system architecture providing redundancy at the subsystem level. The paper focuses on the interaction between primary and standby subsystems and the mechanism through which failover capabilities are provided across the ground system.