Philosophy of technology (PoT) analyzes the nature of technology, its significance and consequences, and its mediation of human experiences of the world. Classical philosophers of technology describe mechanization as alienating: Technology causes humans to lose their connection with the natural world. Tehno-rationality replaces critical engagement and creativity. Failing to comprehend the essence/nature of Technology, and its consequences, portends disastrous social, political, and economic consequences. Such perspectives, however, neglect individual experiences of technologies. Filling that lacuna, contemporary philosophers of technology challenge the sweeping determinism of their intellectual forerunners and investigate how specific technologies mediate particular human experiences. Their descriptive prowess, however, lacks the normative engagement of classical PoT, and they emphasize micro effects of technologies to the detriment of macro implications. This dissertation describes an 'un-disciplined' philosophy of technology (UPoT) that unites the macro and micro perspectives by providing narratives of human-technology symbiosis and co-development. Un-disciplined philosophers of technology present posthuman and transhuman perspectives that emphasize the symbiotic relationships between humans and technology. Thus, they deny disciplined philosophy's first critical maneuver: define and demarcate. UPoT enables conversations and debate regarding the ontological and moral consequences of imagining humans and technologies as hybrid, co-dependent things. UPoT builds upon environmental and animal rights movements, and postphenomenology, to emphasize pluralist accounts that emphasize the dynamism of human-technology relations. UPoT argues we should imagine technologies as extensions/parts of living things: they do the shaping and are shaped in turn. I argue that such thinking reinforces the habit, already proposed by contemporary PoT, that emerging human-technology relations demand active interpretation and engagement because the relationships constantly change. Thus, we need to imagine a moral theory that best matches the hybrid/connected condition of the present century. Increasing automation in agriculture and surgery, for instance, exemplify technologies mediating human experiences of food and health, thus affecting how we understand and define these categories. / Ph. D.

In order to address the problem of newly hired teachers' failure to transfer technology integration knowledge and skills, this study used a developmental research approach in which, factors of knowledge transfer were operationalized through using The First Principles of Instructions (Merrill, 2002) to form a set of instructional considerations to promote the transfer of technology integration knowledge and skills from the learning setting to the application setting. A panel of expert reviewers from Kuwait and United states validated these considerations and led the revisions process. This study describes the development process of the instructional considerations, the expert review, and the revision of the final product. / Doctor of Philosophy / Newly hired teachers in the Kuwaiti context often fail to transfer knowledge and skills of technology integration from instructional technology courses to in classroom teaching. Research in knowledge transfer has identified factors that can promote the transfer of skills and knowledge from the learning context to the application context. These factors showed their effectiveness in technology integration literature. This study used a developmental research approach in which factors of knowledge transfer were operationalized through using The First Principles of Instructions (Merrill, 2002) to form a set of instructional considerations to promote the transfer of technology integration knowledge and skills from the learning setting to the application setting. A panel of expert reviewers from Kuwait and United states validated these considerations and led the revisions process. This study describes the development process of the instructional considerations, the expert review, and the revision of the final product.

A generic visual language for diagram editing has been created which may be instantiated for a particular modelling technique. The instantiated visual language is used within the generated design tool. It provides non-obtrusive guidance observing the semantics of the underlying modelling technique. The tool user is allowed to produce intermediate inconsistent states to facilitate diagram editing. A prototype, comprising a compiler for the specification language, a multi-purpose graph tool and a configurable design tool was implemented to prove the feasibility of the complete approach. The prototype compiler generates executable code. The target of the compiler is the persistent programming language Napier88. The architecture of the compiler has been designed as two separate components: a front-end (the parser), and a back-end (the code generator). This approach gives independence from the target language. The code generator comprises a number of translation rules to produce Napier88 from a VC-t specification. The prototype compiler only incorporates some of the translation rules to demonstrate that executable Napier88 can be generated automatically. The remainder of the translation rules have been applied manually to produce Napier88, to demonstrate that the rules are correct. The multi-purpose graph tool, designated as GraphTool, can be used with the class of applications using graphs as their main data structures. It provides support for visual and interactive representations of an application. The application acts as a client of the Graph-Tool. A protocol has been defined to connect the client application to the GraphTool. Any number of visual representations can be associated with the application. Maps are used for this purpose: to change the representation it is only necessary to change the map. The GraphTool includes a constraint manager used to associate constraints with the representations objects and check these at run-time. The configurable design tool has been developed as a client for the GraphTool. It includes generic components for diagram editing and a drawing canvas. The functionality of the canvas is fully provided by the GraphTool.

<p> Advances in mobile communication technologies have made it easier for individuals to connect to the workplace during non-work time. The attraction of mobile devices by employers is they enhance productivity, reduce response time and costs, and enhance customer service, while at the same time an individual&rsquo;s constant connectivity to the workplace can cause conflict between the work and home domains. This research study focused on the individual&rsquo;s connectivity behavior after hours while using mobile technologies and the effect it had on work-life balance and organizational efficiency. The research study used a quantitative research methodology to survey Information Technology Professionals. The survey was sent to 877 potential participants, of which 329 responded. The focus of the research was to learn how the use of mobile technology after hours related to employee satisfaction, work-life balance, absenteeism, burnout, and the inability to detach from work. Results indicated a significant relationship between the use of mobile technology after hours and absenteeism, burnout, and the inability to detach from work, while indicating no significant relationship with work-life balance and employee satisfaction. Because mobile technologies are influencing the way we remain connected to the workplace during non-work time, it is important to understand how this technology affect work-life balance and organizational efficiency. The implication for both employer and employees is discussed with emphasis on strategies for maintaining work-life balance and employee satisfaction. </p>

The effects of a squeezed vacuum on absorptive optical bistability (AOB) are calculated using the different relaxation rate approximation for in-quadrature and in-phase components of a two-level system developed by Gardiner. An expression for the complex absorption coefficient is developed, and the result applied to the AOB equation for the unidirectional ring cavity. We find a significant degradation of bistability for values of the in-quadrature decay constant less than or equal to approximately.5 of the in-phase decay constant. Effects of detuning and relative phase of the pump field to the squeezed vacuum field are also examined.

Published Article / The need for a state of the art advanced National Casting Technology Centre (NCTC) has been widely supported throughout industry and recognised as an important facilitator in the growth of the foundry industry. This initiative also aligns itself with the government's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy (AMTS), which is an implementation strategy in support of the South African government's Integrated Manufacturing Strategy (IMS) and National R&D Strategy (NRDS). The AMTS aims at supporting and developing the downstream high technology manufacturing industry, inter alia through the aerospace, automotive and metals sectors. <br>In light of the above and in an effort to retain and expand the current national skills, expertise and facilities in advanced casting technologies, the National Product Development Centre at the CSIR has initiated a process of establishing a National Casting Technology Centre (NCTC). The establishment of the NCTC provides a supportive technology platform for the Advanced Metals Initiative (AMI), which was launched in 2003. <br>The primary objective of the NCTC is to preserve and expand the national expertise and capabilities in cast metals manufacturing by supporting the local casting industry with process development, technology transfer and skills enhancement in order to increase their global competitiveness.

<p> In the modern world, information and speed are paramount. Governments and businesses alike compete not only with one another but to better serve the public. Governments around the world are using more and more technology to reach those that are not capable of traveling to the nearest cities or do not have the resources for technology. Governments with smaller budgets or in third world countries are looking at technology as an option to do more with less. This new trend is referred to as eGovernment, or electronic government. Through this new breakthrough, governments may improve service hours, lower costs, and allow citizens to interact more with them. </p><p> This investigation will illustrate worldwide trends of doing governance utilizing more businesslike applications, such as enterprise software and network architecture. In addition, we found many good reasons to use electronic government solutions within the island of Puerto Rico in order to reduce operating costs and increase productivity. After a thorough analysis of the basic necessities of the four principal groups that demand services from any government, the ideal model for carrying out electronic government in Puerto Rico was created. </p>

<p> With millions invested in educational technology, what is its impact on student achievement and engagement? This question formed the basis for a review of the current literature on the impact of iPads and other instructional technology on student academic growth and motivation in public schools. The research supports technology&rsquo;s positive impact on student achievement and engagement, but more research is needed in order to better understand how iPad use impacts students in the early elementary mathematics classroom. </p><p> This dissertation study examines the effects of an iPad-based math intervention, as compared to a traditional paper-pencil approach, on second graders&rsquo; achievement and engagement in mathematics. The students were assigned to treatment and control groups in matched pairs based on sex and pre-test scores. Then students engaged in a four-week math intervention, using either the iPad or paper-pencil. At the end of each intervention, students completed quantitative posttests given by their classroom teachers. Students then switched treatment and control groups for a second four-week math intervention. Quantitative pre-post assessments include Bridges math unit tests, easyCBM math tests, and a Likert-scale engagement measure. After the two interventions were completed, qualitative focus group data were collected from the teachers involved in the study, giving a more complete view of student engagement.</p><p> With finite intervention time and resources, schools need to know how to best improve student achievement and engagement in mathematics. This study fills a documented research gap and will help inform school decisions regarding instructional technology in the early elementary math classroom. </p>

Credit risk analysis is an important topic in financial risk management. Financial institutions (e.g. commercial banks) that grant consumers credit need reliable models that can accurately detect and predict defaults. This research investigates the ability of artificial neural networks as a decision support system that can automatically detect and predict “bad” credit risks based on customers demographic, biographic and behavioural characteristics. The study focuses specifically on the learning vector quantization neural network algorithm. This thesis contains a short overview of credit scoring models, an introduction to artificial neural networks and their applications and presents the performance evaluation results of a credit risk detection model based on learning vector quantization networks.

The objective of this research is to investigate how mobile cellular network operators can increase the average revenue per user by stimulating the usage of mobile broadband services. There is a general consensus that the revenue from voice calls is slowly reaching saturation; hence, mobile cellular operators, service providers and content providers are looking for other sources of revenue from their new and existing customers. They are therefore beginning to focus more intensively on customer retention and on developing new strategies that will stimulate the usage of high speed mobile data services. The research shows that most people are aware of many of the mobile data services offered by operators, but that they thought that they were unreliable, slow, difficult to use and expensive. By and large, people signed up for mobile data services because they wanted a mobile always-on connection anytime, anywhere, with faster speed when accessing e-mail and other services or when downloading data from the Internet. The majority of people would use mobile broadband internet service if it cost less to use; if the speed were faster and the service were easy to use; if the cellular phone had a larger screen and used less battery power; and if the keyboard were larger. The relationship between Network operators, WASPs and content providers was found to be good, even though at times it is strained by the increased competition between them; this forces them not to cooperate on some issues for fear of compromising their competitive advantage.