The scientific study of wisdom is a contentious field. There is little agreement among dominant research programs concerning how to conceptualize and measure the elusive phenomenon of wisdom. The current study argues for a narrative analysis of this concept given that autobiographical stories offer a contextually rich vista into real-life manifestations of wisdom. Presented here is a qualitative investigation of autobiographical wisdom narratives from 8 individuals distributed across parameters of age, gender, and degree of wisdom. Results point to the possibility that relatively wise persons define wisdom more elaborately, participate in more sophisticated autobiographical reasoning processes, and engage with master narratives in a more evaluative and critical manner than relatively unwise individuals. These features did not appear to differ across levels of age and gender. This study validates a narrative approach to the science of wisdom, and suggests that stories may be central to advancing our understanding of this concept.

The scientific study of wisdom is a contentious field. There is little agreement among dominant research programs concerning how to conceptualize and measure the elusive phenomenon of wisdom. The current study argues for a narrative analysis of this concept given that autobiographical stories offer a contextually rich vista into real-life manifestations of wisdom. Presented here is a qualitative investigation of autobiographical wisdom narratives from 8 individuals distributed across parameters of age, gender, and degree of wisdom. Results point to the possibility that relatively wise persons define wisdom more elaborately, participate in more sophisticated autobiographical reasoning processes, and engage with master narratives in a more evaluative and critical manner than relatively unwise individuals. These features did not appear to differ across levels of age and gender. This study validates a narrative approach to the science of wisdom, and suggests that stories may be central to advancing our understanding of this concept.

Este trabajo se basa en el uso de entornos oportunísticos, los cuales se caracterizan por aprovechar el tiempo en que las máquinas permanecen ociosas para ejecutar procesos de usuarios. Una parte fundamental de estos entornos consiste en gestionar procesos concurrentes que constituyen una aplicación paralela. En sistemas oportunísticos el objetivo del gestor de recursos es doble: por una lado ha de proveer tiempos de ejecución razonables (los usuarios desean obtener sus procesos acabados cuanto antes), y por el otro ha de proveer buena eficiencia, esto es, buen uso de los recursos, lo cual constituye el objetivo fundamental de un sistema que desea soportar grandes cantidades de cómputo durante largos períodos de tiempo.El desarrollo de un gestor de recursos adecuado para aplicaciones paralelas que se ejecutan en entornos oportunísticos incluye varios aspectos. En particular, este trabajo aborda tres de ellos:- Determinar el número de máquinas, pertenecientes a un entorno oportunístico, necesarias para ejecutar una aplicación, de manera tal que se obtenga buena eficiencia y buen tiempo de ejecución.- Planificar las tareas a las máquinas asignadas.- Reducir los efectos negativos producidos sobre una aplicación, cuando una máquina es reclamada por su dueño, lo que implica que el proceso que ejecuta allí debe dejar dicha máquina.En este trabajo se han considerado aplicaciones de tipo master-worker. El master envía tareas a los workers y recoge los resultados. Este proceso se repite varios ciclos, hasta que se produce una condición de finalización.Para asignar las tareas de la aplicación master-worker a las máquinas disponibles se ha propuesto una política de planificación dinámica denominada Random & Average. Esta política se evaluó por simulación, y los resultados muestran que su comportamiento es parecido al de políticas que necesitan información a-priori sobre el tiempo de ejecución de las tareas. También se dedujo la existencia del Intervalo Ideal, que corresponde al intervalo entre los números de máquinas mínimo y máximo para ejecutar la aplicación de manera tal que se obtenga una buena relación entre el tiempo de ejecución y la eficiencia.Luego se propuso un algoritmo para ajustar dinámicamente el número de máquinas, de manera tal que cualquier aplicación master-worker se ejecute con un número de máquinas perteneciente al intervalo ideal. Esta estrategia se implemento tanto en entornos homogéneos como heterogéneos, utilizando una aplicación encargada de obtener el esqueleto de imágenes.En un entorno oportunístico las máquinas pueden participar o dejar de participar en la ejecución de una aplicación, si son cedidas o reclamadas por sus dueños. Cuando una máquina es reclamada, el proceso que se ejecuta en dicha máquina debe ser detenido y debe dejar esa máquina inmediatamente. Si dicho proceso pertenece a una aplicación paralela, el rendimiento de toda esa aplicación se verá afectado negativamente. Dicho impacto se evaluó, y para disminuirlo se propusieron diferentes estrategias basados en utilizar máquinas extra y en duplicación de tareas. Estas estrategias se estudiaron primero por simulación y luego fueron implementadas. / This work focuses on the use of opportunistic environments, which are characterized by harnessing idle times of machines for executing user jobs. Management of the concurrent jobs constituting a parallel application is an integral part of such non-dedicated systems. In non-dedicated opportunistic environments, the resource manager's goal is to provide both a reasonable execution time (as users are interested in having their job finished as soon as possible), and good efficiency, i.e., good resource usage, which is the main goal of the system in order to obtain high throughput.The development of effective resource management for parallel applications running on opportunistic systems involves a great number of issues. In particular, this work deals with three of them:- Determining and allocating the number of machines, from the pool of machines belonging to the opportunistic system, needed for executing an application obtaining both a good execution time and a good efficiency. - Scheduling application tasks to the assigned computational resources.- Reducing the negative effects produced on an application when a machine belonging to a non-dedicated environment is reclaimed by its owner, and should therefore be released by the task running on it. Throughout this work master-worker applications have been considered. In these applications, there is a master that sends tasks to workers and collects the results. This process is repeated over a number of cycles until an end condition is reached. In order to assign tasks belonging to a master-worker application to machines belonging to an opportunistic environment, we proposed a dynamic scheduling policy called Random & Average. This policy was first evaluated by simulation, and results showed that it exhibits a similar behavior with respect to other policies requiring information in advance about the execution time of the tasks. We also derived the existence of the ideal interval, which corresponds to the interval comprised between the minimum and maximum number of machines for executing the application that obtain a good trade-off between execution time and efficiency. Then we proposed an algorithm for dynamically adjusting the number of machines, for executing any master-worker application, to a number of machines belonging to the ideal interval. This strategy was implemented and evaluated on both homogeneous and heterogeneous environments, with a master-worker thinning application.In an opportunistic environment machines can join and leave the computation as they are released or reclaimed by their owners. When a machine is reclaimed, the job running on that machine must be stopped and vacated. If this job belongs to a parallel application, the whole performance will be negatively affected. We evaluate this impact, and then, in order to alleviate it, propose strategies based on using extra machines and task replication. These strategies were first evaluated by simulation and then implemented and tested in a real environment.

Stability of a power system is vital for its reliable operation and maintaining system stability has been a big challenge for engineers over the years. One way of improving system stability is the use of power system stabiliser (PSS). Its main function is to add damping to the generator rotor oscillation by modulating the generator excitation so as to develop a component of electrical torque in phase with the rotor speed deviation. In Ghana, two power stations have their generators equipped with PSS but none of the PSS are activated. The main objective of this study is to assess how the stability of the power system of Ghana can be improved by activating the power system stabilizers (PSS) on the excitation system of some of the generating units. To effectively perform the study the following questions had to be answered.To what extent will the activation of the PSS on some generating units affect the overall system dynamic performance?Where in the power system should the PSS be activated?To what extend can the PSS reduces system oscillation? What improvement can be made to the power system to optimise the performance of the PSS?Data of Ghana and the interconnected systems were first collected, reviewed and all the systems were modelled using PSSE program. Steady state stability studies were then performed to identify the inadequacy in the system during steady state operations. Five base cases including peak and average load condition with and without contingency were used for this study. Dynamic stability studies were also carried out by selecting appropriate dynamic models for generators, exciters and governors that best fit the dynamic behaviour of the generating units in the PSSE program. Appropriate PSS models were selected for units equipped with PSS based on manufacturers’ recommendation. Series of dynamic simulations were carried out to identify the best location and parameter settings for the PSS. Small signal stability studies were also carried out to complement the results obtained from the transient studies using NEVA. There was however a defect in the NEVA program and full results could not be obtained.In conclusion, Ghana’s system is likely to experience voltage collapse during a transmission outage on some critical lines at peak period unless some loads are shed. This risk can be reduced by improving the power factor to 0.95 using more reactive power compensating devices (capacitor bank) at the local substation. Transient stability results also show that the best location for the PSS to effectively damped oscillation is Akosombo GS. Inter-area oscillations of 0.5Hz between Ghana and Ivory Coast systems, local-area oscillation of 0.8Hz between the Akosombo units and Aboadze units in Ghana, were effectively damped within 7sec with PSS at Akosombo GS. It is highly recommended that PSS at Akosombo generation station be activated since their application has a positive impact on the dynamic performance of Ghana’s system. Steady state stability be improved by correcting the power factor at the local stations and line relay settings reviewed to accommodate the present operating condition. It is also recommended that the PSS be coordinated effectively with the protection and control devices for optimal performanc

The work begins with a theoretical description of conductivity and the importance of this material property in the electrical power industry. The various theories describing high voltage conduction in highly insulating dielectric liquids are analysed to ascertain their propensity to explain the exponential rise in the conductivity of the insulating liquid at high fields.The work goes further to analyse the various methods and standards that are presently utilised in the measurement of conductivity of highly insulating oils. The short-comings of the present methods particularly the IEC 61620 and 60247 are identified. The physics behind the peculiar behaviour of the conductivity when stressed under high electric fields is described and analysed.Measurements carries out according to a standard, may not lead to useful results. Therefore, it is preferable to determine the conductivity under practical aspects and also to measure the different parameters on which the conductivity depends (1). A new method of carrying out conductivity measurements based on the use of triangular and sinusoidal input high voltage is used in this work.Conductivity analysis is carried out based on this method while time dependency, frequency dependency and field dependencies are studied.The results of the various results show a strong dependency of the resistance of the oil on the input electric field up to two powers of ten; when the electric field is varied from zero to 10 kV/mm for all frequencies. The frequency of input voltage has a minimum effect of the results of the conductivity up to 0.1 Hz; the only observable change is the increasing values of the capacitive current component of the measured total current.The time dependency of the resistance values shows a very remarkable variation of conductivity. There is an average of 3 times in the conductivity when the oil is stressed over a 24 hour period.Finally Comsol Multiphysics simulation is carried out to compare to the results of the experimental results obtained in the laboratory. The results of the current as well as the resistance values obtained using the comsol simulation bears great similarity to that of the laboratory experiments.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how different age categories of users and the service provider’s point of view about understandability, technicality, importance and awareness of privacy policy. The emerging ambiguity in information security has raised many privacy and trust issues that are context dependent. Therefore there are several uncertainties and risks seen today concerning theprivacy policy & subscriber trust. It is a responsibility of services providers before amending their policy to notify their subscribers. Because if they do not take this initiative then it creates trust deficit for their subscribers and this affects their business and goodwill.In this work we have adopted the online survey questionnaire technique to perform a research based on the user’s ideas and thoughts about the privacy policy and security issues. We have used the same technique with different questions based on the organization’s own perspectives on the privacy policy. This would highlight to what extent an organization thinks the policy fulfills the user’s confidence. We have decided to target Norwegian service providers and people as participants for this survey, to better understand the theme of research. It took about four months to collect the responses from the organizations and from the participants. This report discusses the importance of privacy policy for a common user / subscriber. Generally observed in this work is that, before accepting privacy policy, it is hard to read these policies and understood by end-user, and taking this prospect ahead, many privacy policies and regulations have a difficult context to understand.This survey methodology was selected to ensure the originality of the user`s state of mind, and it was also vital for the service providers to show their responses and opinion on privacy policy. We have noticed that a majority of the users are not interested in reading the contents of the privacy, and they simply provide their sensitive information without ensuring the authenticity and regulations inside theprivacy policy. Furthermore, we observed that users think privacy policy just saves them from viruses and threats, and there is a chance of phishing if it is not mentioned on the service provider website. Most of the service providers have recently introduced the privacy protection seals for secure data transmission on their website in order to build a strong subscriber`s trust.Finally, it is important to continue researching to get better tools and more mechanisms for a good security policy, and to establish guidelines for better understanding as we learn more.Keywords: Privacy; Personal information; Service providers; Subscriber`s; Policy; Issues; Survey design; Legislation; Settings; Practices.

In one of the highly globalized fields such as Marine Industry, shipping operations are hugely dependent on the quick and readily accessible information about the people, machinery and services available both at port and terminal levels. The e-collaboration tools often result in improving the potential to take advantage of the information across various dimensions such as nations, organizations and professions. In the maritime transportation sector, collaboration is very much evident as intersection between various elements associated with it such as business processes (or service management), software tools (or technologies) and users. As a result, collaboration is crucial either to make good plans that are aligned with the different stakeholders or can be used as a tool for deviation management if such a thing occurs. Usually, the maritime shipping operations are carried out both on ship and also by various bodies affiliated with port and terminal services. However, establishing collaboration between operations and tools is often challenging as they are two very different disciplines. Therefore, the knowledge gathered via intersection of software engineering and processes involved holds the means for establishing the collaboration between the service providers and potential users. Normally the information is coming from sensors as well as traditional message based sources. These information sources can be used for identifying and capturing business processes which are part of maritime enterprise to achieve collaboration among various involved parties. In this thesis, a method is proposed to overcome the problem of process management by establishing a collaboration medium between the service providers and participants in a maritime enterprise. This work is based on literature study, industry test cases and validation of test case models using process centric approach. The process centric approach, which regards notion of developing enterprise based on process models and facilitating collaboration among participants of business process models, is the main result this work. The steps are to define goals, identify business processes and define collaboration in these. To support this we need the other contributions of the thesis; i.e. uncovering the collaboration space through intersection of entities, collaboration platform, collaboration-oriented architecture and collaboration matrix generation. BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) provided a means to model the industrial test case using the process-centric approach and study collaboration among tasks in business process. The analysis of test case BPMN model validates concepts of Marine Information Center (MIS) project at SINTEF and provides set of requirements for improving collaboration further

Pervasive games are a new gender of games that is gaining popularity in recent years.The potential of pervasive games is their ability of mixing real-life physical objects in the gameplay, creating a thrilling experience for players.This thesis work researches the possibility of engaging vehicle drivers in pervasive games with road safety as the primary concern.First a research of main causes of traffic accidents is conducted though available statistics.The statistics shows that the human-factor contributes to the top five causes of traffic accidents.The statistics also concluded that the driver psychophysiological state is vital for road safety.Factors conditioning human's psycho physiological state are analyzed from computer games perspective.Affective Gaming, a gender of gaming highly dependent on player psychophysiological state, is further studied in terms of its applicability for in-vehicle use.The study includes researching various methods of capturing human psychophysiological state.Furthermore, different types of pervasive games are discussed including state of the art games available for vehicles.A research is conducted to cover available driver support systems and show how they work and contribute to road safety.Heads-up Display are also discussed as a method of displaying information to the driver with minimal distraction from driving.Relevant concepts and technologies in relation to pervasive games, driver support systems and road safety were defined and utilized as a basis for the conceptual framework which was developed in this thesis work. The framework shows how pervasive games can be used to contribute to road safety using various driver support systems. The idea is illustrated in a set of example game scenarios.A simulation software is used to demonstrate a part of the conceptual framework as a proof of concept.An important outcome of this thesis includes a conceptual framework for pervasive game implementation. The guidelines and relevant technologies are indispensable not only for pervasive games, but also for other multimedia (infotainment) application development and integration in the vehicle environment in terms of road safety and driving quality.

The necessity of a revolution in the electrical system is obvious, and smart meters will be the solution. The development of smart grids will be built over the new electronic measuring devices, which imply a challenge for the next few years in the engineering field.In order to understand the basics of smart grids, we have carried a description and comparison of both the current and the next-gen electrical systems. Emphasizing the advantages and opportunities obtained by changing into the smart grids, it demonstrates the importance of moving towards a more modern measurement system.A very important issue is to decide which should be the minimum features in Smart Meters, therefore this thesis analyzes the different exiting models and also proposes several suggestions for the future. Finally, it was conducted a report of the current deployment situation of this new technology in various representative countries. Describing the settings and options chosen by each country, we can achieve a conclusion that unifies a standard solution by the choice of the best proposals.

Forventninger om høyere kraftpris og et generelt økende effektbehov, i tillegg til økte muligheter for politisk aksept og tilskudd, gir økt interesse for å etablere nye fornybare produksjonskilder i Norge. Et gradvis økende antall interessenter melder sin ankomst, og nye produksjonsetableringer dreier seg primært om små vannkraftverk eller vindparker. Slike etableringer vil kunne medføre problemstillinger som krever relativt omfattende undersøkelser og analyser for å finne påvirkninger i tilhørende nettområder. I Fusa kommune i Hordaland er det stor satsing på små vannkraftverk. Dette gir behov for konsekvensanalyser i nettområder som berøres av integrasjonen. Over 20 nye småkraftverk er planlagt etablert. Disse befinner seg på ulike stadier i etableringsfasen. Hovedtyngden av småkraftverkene er planlagt tilkoblet på distribusjonsnettnivå, og dette nettområde er derfor tillagt mest fokus i dette arbeidet.Integrasjonen medfører at enkelte tiltak blir nødvendig i distribusjonsnettet for å kunne handtere den nye mengden kraftproduksjon. Enkelte overføringer vil kreve oppgradering for å unngå overbelastning i forhold til merkeverdier. Én av fire sekundærstasjoner mellom regionalnett og distribusjonsnett må oppgraderes til en høyere ytelse. For å unngå for høye spenninger i distribusjonsnett burde enkelte småkraftverk ilegges ansvar for reaktiv effektregulering. Med gjeldende koblingsbilde må totalt syv av de 21 planlagte enhetene kunne importere en mengde reaktiv effekt tilsvarende en kapasitiv effektfaktor på 0.95 dersom spenninger skal kunne holdes innenfor den definerte spenningsgrensa brukt i denne oppgaven.Småkraftverk vil påvirke systemets dynamiske stabilitet. Særlig den transiente responsen for systemet vil bli påvirket. Tilgjengelig dokumentasjon for småkraftverkene i systemet viser at alle er utstyrt med synkrongenerator. Det bør stilles krav til parameterverdier for denne typen generatorer i distribusjonsnettet, og da særlig angående generatorens reaktansverdier. Reaktansverdier for små generatorer vil være helt avgjørende for dens respons under transiente forstyrrelser. Analyser utført i dette arbeidet viser at transient reaktans i synkrongeneratorens direkteakse må ha en tilstrekkelig lav verdi for at generatoren skal kunne være transient stabil.I arbeidet er det benytta samme type transiente forstyrrelse for de fleste av analysene rundt det transiente aspektet. Denne forstyrrelsen er foreslått av SINTEF Energi AS som en standard for transient hendelse til bruk i slike analyser. Analysene viser at den transiente direkteakse reaktansen primært ikke bør ha verdier over 0.3 pu for at synkrongeneratorene, uavhengig av merkeytelse og belastningsgrad, skal være transient stabile mot nevnte forstyrrelse. Transient stabil verdi for denne reaktansen varierer med andre korresponderende reaktanser, men verdier over 0.3 pu vil kreve til dels urealistiske verdier for andre parametre i småkraftverkene. Hvilke reaktansverdier som kan tillates vil være svært avhengig av generatorens belastning. En belastningsgrad i området 70 % - 80 % vil gi lavere krav til reaktansverdier enn tilfeller med høyere verdier for samme forhold.Av det totale antallet på 21 småkraftverk er fire av disse allerede installert i distribusjonsnettet. For at disse skal være transient stabile mot forannevnte forstyrrelse må de redusere sin nominelle produksjon i forhold til det tilgjengelig dokumentasjon beskriver. Mengden som må reduseres for de fire som er installert avhenger av synkrongeneratorens reaktansverdier. Resultatene viser at generatorer med høye reaktansverdier må redusere sin relative produksjon mer enn generatorer med lavere reaktansverdier.For å kunne finne anbefalte verdier for reaktanser til nye småkraftverk er det utvikla en alternativ metode til bruk av dynamiske analyseprogram. Denne metoden gir reaktansverdier som skaper forutsetninger for at synkrongenerator er transient stabil mot den benytta typen forstyrrelse. Metoden er relativt mye forenkla i forhold til beskrivelser i relevant litteratur på området, og krever med dette et minimum av inputverdier. Metoden er testet og funnet tilfredsstillende til å kunne gi veiledende verdier for reaktanser til nye småkraftverk med synkrongenerator.