Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Oorspr. proefschrift Bayreuth, 2007. / Bibliogr.: p. 251-268. Met lit. opg.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Sept. 23, 2009). Thesis advisor: Wayne K. Clatterbuck. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010. / Thesis Advisor(s): Goshorn, Rachel ; Goshorn, Deborah. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on June 24, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Anomaly Detection, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Behavior Analysis, Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance, Maritime Domain Awareness, Maritime Force Protection, Multi-agent Systems, Network-centric Operations, Network-centric Systems Engineering, Network-centric Warfare, Smart Sensor Networks, Systems Engineering, Systems Integration, System of Systems. Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-212). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / John Papapolymerou, Committee Chair ; Joy Laskar, Committee Member ; John Cressler, Committee Member ; Alan Doolittle, Committee Member ; Clifford Henderson, Committee Member.

As systems become more interconnected, the focus of engineering design must shift to include consideration for systems of systems (SoS) e ects. As the focus shifts from singular systems to systems of systems, so too must the focus shift from performance based analysis to an evaluation method that accounts for the tendency of such large scale systems to far outlive their original operational environments and continually evolve in order to adapt to the changes. It is nearly impossible to predict the nature of these changes, therefore the rst focus of this thesis is the measurement of the exibility of the SoS and its ability to evolve and adapt. Flexibility is measured using a combination of network theory and a discrete event simulation, therefore, the second focus is the development of a simulation environment that can also measure the system's performance for baseline comparisons. The results indicate that simulated exibility is related to the performance and cost of the SoS and is worth measuring during the design process. The third focus of this thesis is to reduce the computational costs of SoS design evaluation by developing heuristics for exibility. This was done by developing a network model to correspond with the discrete event simulation and evaluating network properties using graph theory. It was shown that the network properties can correlate with simulated exibility. In such cases it was shown that the heuristics could be used in connection with an evolutionary algorithm to rapidly search the design space for good solutions. The entire methodology was demonstrated on a multi-platform maintenance planning problem in connection with the Navy Hardware Open System Technologies initiative.

The purpose of this empirical study is to examine the usage of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPS) in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). Recently, rapid growth in information technology services compels developing countries to emerge as an information-based society. This emergence corresponds with the calls of researchers to address ERPS (Abbas, 2011). However, there is a scarcity of efforts by researchers to identify the factors contributing to the usage of ERPS at the organisational, departmental and end-user layer in HEIs. To fill this gap, this research develops a Multi-Layer Usage Model (MLUM) to determine the factors of ERPS usage across the organisational, departmental and individual levels of HEIs. The theoretical foundation of this study is adapted from unified theory of acceptance and use of technology developed by Venkatesh et al (2003). The study is unique in many respects. Firstly, it offers a newly developed multi-level conceptual model that is tested empirically using three distinct questionnaires; one for each layer. A large primary dataset, 1317 responses, is collected through three questionnaire from 18 higher education institutions in Pakistan; 86 responses from the organisational layer, 143 from the departmental layer and 1088 from the end-user layer. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the effect of factors at three layers contributing to the usage of ERPS. Furthermore, the models are refined by applying extensions of structural equation modelling. Results suggest that at the organisational layer human resource availability, tolerance for risks and conflicts, collegial support and collaboration and decision making and control are significant and contributed towards ERPS usage while at the end-user layer behavioural intentions and motivation were insignificant and were therefore, removed from the model. This study contributes to theory development regarding usage of innovations in the under-researched context of HEIs. It also provides indigenous manifestations of ERPS usage that may be used by policy-makers.

Orientador: Carlos Roberto Valêncio / Banca: Elaine Parros Machado de Sousa / Banca: Rogéria Cristiane Gratão de Souza / Resumo: Dentre os diversos níveis de isolamento sob os quais uma transação pode executar, Snapshot se destaca pelo fato de lidar com uma visão isolada da base de dados. Uma transação sob o isolamento Snapshot nunca bloqueia e nunca é bloqueada quando solicita uma operação de leitura, permitindo portanto uma maior concorrência quando a mesma é comparada a uma execução sob um isolamento baseado em bloqueios. Entretanto, Snapshot não é imune a todos os problemas decorrentes da concorrência e, portanto, não oferece garantia de serialização. Duas estratégias são comumente empregadas para se obter tal garantia. Na primeira delas o próprio Snapshot é utilizado, mas uma alteração estratégica na aplicação e na base de dados, ou até mesmo a inclusão de um componente de software extra, são empregados como auxiliares para se obter apenas históricos serializáveis. Outra estratégia, explorada nos últimos anos, tem sido a construção de algoritmos fundamentados no protocolo de Snapshot, mas adaptados de modo a impedir as anomalias decorrentes do mesmo e, portanto, garantir serialização. A primeira estratégia traz como vantagem o fato de se aproveitar os benefícios de Snapshot, principalmente no que diz respeito ao monitoramento apenas dos elementos que são escritos pela transação. Contudo, parte da responsabilidade em se lidar com problemas de concorrência é transferida do Sistema Gerenciador de Banco de Dados (SGBD) para a aplicação. Por sua vez, a segunda estratégia deixa apenas o SGBD como responsável pelo controle de concorrência, mas os algoritmos até então apresentados nesta categoria tem exigido também o monitoramento dos elementos lidos. Neste trabalho é desenvolvida uma técnica onde os benefícios de Snapshot são mantidos e a garantia de serialização é obtida sem a necessidade de adaptação do código da aplicação ou da introdução de uma camada de software extra. A técnica proposta é ... / Abstract: Among the various isolation levels under which a transaction can execute, Snapshot stands out because of its capacity to work on an isolated view of the database. A transaction under the Snapshot isolation never blocks and is never blocked when requesting a read operation, thus allowing a higher level of concurrency when it is compared to an execution under a lock-based isolation. However, Snapshot is not immune to all the problems that arise from the competition, and therefore no serialization warranty exists. Two strategies are commonly employed to obtain such assurance. In the first one Snapshot itself is used, but a strategic change in the application and database, or even the addition of an extra software component, are employed as assistants to get only serializable histories. Another strategy, explored in recent years, has been the coding of algorithms based on the Snapshot protocol, but adapted to prevent the anomalies arising from it, and therefore ensure serialization. The first strategy has the advantage of exploring the benefits of Snapshot, especially with regard to monitoring only the elements that are written by the transaction. However, part of the responsibility for dealing with competition issues is transferred from the Database Management System (DBMS) to the application. In turn, the second strategy leaves only the DBMS as responsible for concurrency control, but the algorithms presented so far in this category also require the monitoring of the elements that the transaction reads. In this work we developed a technique where the benefits of Snapshot use are retained and serialization warranty is achieved without the need for adaptation of application code or the addition of an extra software layer. The proposed technique is implemented in a prototype of a DBMS that has temporal features and has been built to demonstrate the applicability of the technique in systems that employ the object-oriented model. However, the ... / Mestre