In this dissertation, level set methods are employed to segment masses in digital mammographic images and to classify land cover classes in hyperspectral data. For the mammography computer aided diagnosis (CAD) application, level set-based segmentation methods are designed and validated for mass periphery segmentation, spiculation segmentation, and core segmentation. The proposed periphery segmentation uses the narrowband level set method in conjunction with an adaptive speed function based on a measure of the boundary complexity in the polar domain. The boundary complexity term is shown to be beneficial for delineating challenging masses with ill-defined and irregularly shaped borders. The proposed method is shown to outperform periphery segmentation methods currently reported in the literature. The proposed mass spiculation segmentation uses a generalized form of the Dixon and Taylor Line Operator along with narrowband level sets using a customized speed function. The resulting spiculation features are shown to be very beneficial for classifying the mass as benign or malignant. For example, when using patient age and texture features combined with a maximum likelihood (ML) classifier, the spiculation segmentation method increases the overall accuracy to 92% with 2 false negatives as compared to 87% with 4 false negatives when using periphery segmentation approaches. The proposed mass core segmentation uses the Chan-Vese level set method with a minimal variance criterion. The resulting core features are shown to be effective and comparable to periphery features, and are shown to reduce the number of false negatives in some cases. Most mammographic CAD systems use only a periphery segmentation, so those systems could potentially benefit from core features.

No description available.

Given the unique nature of crises, a key capability of the crisis response system is to facilitate adaptive response structures in relation to the circumstances of any given crisis. This thesis views the crisis response system as complex adaptive system, in which adaptive response is an emergent phenomenon that occurs through the interactions of crisis response organizations within the crisis response system. Training cooperative capabilities needed to foster adaptive crisis response has proven difficult, as well as reporting learnings from collaborative exercises in a useful manner.   Based in these challenges, this thesis aims to investigate the potential of using boundary stories as pedagogical tools for learning of inter-organizational cooperative capabilities. This exploration is structured in relation to three research questions:   1.       How can inter-organizational boundaries be described through the lens of systems theory? 2.     What can be learned from inter-organizational work during the Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate learning of cooperative capabilities within the crisis response system? 3.     How can boundary stories be empirically defined and constructed to capture learnings and experiences from inter-organizational boundary work during crises?   It is suggested that inter-organizational boundaries be described as the interactional connections between crisis response organizations through which the organizations communicate and cooperate. Boundary structures can further be understood as one of four types of bureaucratic adaptation, as a function of structure and tasks.   The Covid-19 pandemic has produced entirely new circumstances in relation to how crises are usually thought of within the crisis response system. The long timeframe of the pandemic has forced integrations of crisis and everyday structures, thus producing entirely new inter-organizational structures. The core challenge in establishing these structures is fostering a common understanding between the involved actors.   Finally, a two-part concept of boundary stories and boundary narratives are suggested. The first refers to the enacted living story of the inter-organizational structure, and the latter refers to a simplified, constructed narrative version of the story with the purpose of mediating the experiences of inter-organizational work in an understandable manner to actors not directly involved in the boundary setting to foster learning of cooperative capabilities for future crisis response. / Givet att varje kris är unik i sin karaktär så är en av de viktigaste förmågorna hos ett krishanteringssystem att kunna upprätta adaptiva responsstrukturer i relation till de unika omständigheterna för varje uppkommen kris. Den här uppsatsen betraktar krishanteringssystemet som ett komplext adaptivt system där adaptiv respons förstås som ett emergent fenomen som uppstår genom interaktioner mellan organisationer i krishanteringssystemet.    Träning av de samverkansförmågor som krävs för att upprätta adaptiv respons, samt att rapportera lärdomar från samverkansövningar på ett användbart sätt har visat sig svårt i tidigare studier. Med grund i dessa utmaningar syftar den här uppsatsen till att undersöka potentialen hos gränshistorier som pedagogiskt verktyg för lärande av interorganisatoriska samverkansförmågor. Undersökningen struktureras i relation till tre frågeställningar:    1.       Hur kan interorganisatoriska gränser beskrivas genom systemteori? 2.     Vilka lärdomar från interorganisatoriskt arbete under Covid-19-pandemin kan fångas upp och nyttjas för lärande av samverkansförmågor inom det svenska krishanteringssystemet? 3.     Hur kan gränshistorier definieras och skapas på empirisk grund med syfte att fånga lärdomar och erfarenheter från interorganisatorisk samverkan under kriser?   Uppsatsen beskriver interorganisatoriska gränser genom de interaktionsmönster som etableras och uppstår mellan organisationer i krishanteringssystemet, genom vilka organisationer kommunicerar och samverkar. Gränsstrukturer kan fortsatt förstås som en av fyra typer av byråkratiska anpassningar som en funktion av struktur och uppgifter.   Covid-19-pandemin har medfört helt nya förutsättningar i relation till den arketypiska bilden av kriser som finns etablerad i krishanteringssystemet. Det faktum att pandemin pågått under så lång tid har tvingat fram integreringar av vardagliga organisatoriska strukturer och krishanteringsstrukturer, vilket har medfört nya interorganisatoriska samverkansformer. Kärnutmaningen i dessa samverkansstrukturer har varit att lyckas etablera en gemensam förståelse mellan de involverade aktörerna.    Slutligen har ett tvådelat koncept innefattandes gränshistorier och gränsnarrativer föreslagits. Gränshistorier syftar till de pågående, levande historierna som utspelar sig i det interorganisatoriska gränsarbetet. Gränsnarrativer ska förstås som förenklade, konstruerade narrativa versioner av gränshistorier med syftet att förmedla olika erfarenheter av interorganisatoriskt arbete på ett sätt som kan förstås och ligga till grund för lärande av samverkansförmågor för att stärka framtida krishantering.

Progress towards sustainability requires changes in our individual and collective behaviour. Yet, our fundamental understanding of behaviour in relation to environmental change remains severely limited. In particular, little attention has been given to how individual and collective behaviours respond to, and are shaped by, non-linear environmental change (such as ‘regime shifts’) and its inherent uncertainties. The thesis makes two main contributions to the literature: 1) it provides one of the first accounts of human behaviour and collective action in relation to ecological regime shifts and associated uncertainties; and 2) extends the incipient behavioural common-pool resource literature that acknowledges social-ecological dynamics and ecological complexity. The overarching aim of this thesis is to further advance an empirically grounded understanding of human behaviour in social-ecological systems. In particular, the thesis attempts to unravel critical social-ecological factors and mechanisms for the sustainability of common-pool resources. This is especially relevant for contexts in which livelihoods can be more directly threatened by regime shifts. The following methods are applied: behavioural economic experiments in the lab (with students; Papers I and II) and in the field (with small-scale fishers from four different communities in the Colombian Caribbean; Paper III), and agent-based modelling empirically informed by a subset of the lab experiments (Paper IV). Paper I tests the effect of an endogenously driven regime shift on the emergence of cooperation and sustainable resource use. Paper II tests the effect of different risk levels of such a regime shift. The regime shift in both papers has negative consequences for the productivity of the shared resource. Paper III assesses the effect of different degrees of uncertainty about a climate-induced threshold in stock dynamics on the exploitation patterns; as well as the role of social and ecological local context. Paper IV explores critical individual-level factors and processes affecting the simultaneous emergence of collective action and sustainable resource use. Results cumulatively suggest that existing scientific knowledge indicating the potential for ecological regime shifts should be communicated to affected local communities, including the remaining uncertainties, as this information can encourage collective action for sustainable resource use. Results also highlight the critical role of ecological knowledge, knowledge-sharing, perceived ecological uncertainties, and the role local contexts play for sustainable outcomes. This thesis enriches the literature on social-ecological systems by demonstrating how a behavioural experimental approach can contribute new insights relevant for sustainability. Overall, these insights indicate that, given the opportunity and the willingness of people to come together, share knowledge, exchange ideas, and build trust, potential ecological crises can encourage collective action, and uncertainties can be turned into opportunities for dealing with change in constructive ways. This provides a hopeful outlook in the face of escalating environmental change and inherent uncertainties. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

邁入21世紀，許多環境趨勢與變動如全球化浪潮、時基競爭、快速回應的壓力等，使現代組織面臨另一波的典範轉移。面對如此動盪的環境，近年來一些組織為了得以快速地感知與因應環境變動，開始由單一組織的營運活動逐漸轉變為「跨組織」、甚至「跨產業」的連結與互動，透過組織間價值利益交換與共同演化，產生高度的適應性與多樣性，得以與複雜不確定的動盪環境共存。組織間連結關係的普遍，使得學術界與實務界開始將關於企業競爭力的探討，由組織內在能力之強調轉移至與組織生存攸關之外部資源的管理上。而對於企業來說，發展的關鍵就是如何與其他企業相互協調、將資源集中起來為消費者創造價值。 本研究從複雜適應系統(Complex Adaptive Systems)角度出發，試圖剖析一「組織間連結」群體之現有樣貌與未來可能樣貌。本研究首先針對相關文獻、研究進行整理，由系統觀點找出複雜適應系統的組織發展光譜，並提出其中商業生態系統(Business Ecosystem)與混序式組織(Chaordic Organization)兩個組織類型將座落於此組織發展光譜之兩端，而混序式組織將可視為一複雜適應系統的最終理想境界，如同相關文獻所述。 本研究更進一步針對兩種組織類型內涵進行解構，並佐以現行個案：台積電公司與Visa國際組織進行實例驗證，歸納出「生態型」與「混序型」兩種經營模式，並於共同特徵與對稱差異分析下，得出以下結論與管理意涵： 1)未來動盪環境之下，組織協議力量(protocal)將取代傳統控制力量，促成網絡內部之複雜與多樣性；2) 協議力量下，未來組織之創新將發生在價值活動的任何一端，屬「激發創新」；3) 面對動盪環境，組織複雜與適應性的建立，將會是不斷重複且持續循環的任務與挑戰。

No description available.

Submitted by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-17T13:29:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-30 / Não recebi financiamento / The use of mobile devices to browse the Web has become increasingly popular as a consequence of easy access to the Internet. However, moving from the desktop development to the mobile platform features, requests from developers an important focus on interaction elements which fit into the interaction demands. There by, several approaches have emerged for adaptation of Web applications. One of the most adopted solution by Web developers are front-end frameworks . Nevertheless, this technique has shortcomings that directly impact in the interaction elements and user satisfaction. In this scenario, the objective of this work is to propose a hybrid adaptation approach of context-sensitive Web interfaces with multimodality support, called HyMobWeb, which aims to help developers to create solutions closer to the device’s characteristics, to the contexts of use and the needs of end-users. The approach is composed of stages of static and dynamic adaptation. Static adaptation subsidizes developers in marking elements to be adapted through a grammar that can reduce the coding effort of solutions that address aspects related to multimodality and context sensitivity. Dynamic adaptation is responsible for analyzing changes in the context of the user and performing the marked adaptations in static adaptation. The approach was outlined from a review of the literature on mobile Web interface adaptation and three exploratory studies. The first and second study dealt with end users’ difficulties regarding the use of non-mobile Web applications. The third is about gaps in traditional adaptations - made through frameworks front-end - in relation to the users needs. Aiming to evaluate the approach, two evaluations were carried out, one from the perspective of the developer and another from the end user. The first one focused on verifying the acceptance of the proposal by software developers in the use of the grammar and resources proposed from it. The second sought to identify if the adaptation, previously implemented by the developers, brought satisfaction to the end-users during its use. The findings suggested that HyMobWeb brought significant contributions to the work of the developers and that the resources explored by the approach provided positive reactions to the satisfaction of end-users. / O uso de dispositivos móveis para navegar na Web tornou-se cada vez mais popular devido à proliferação dos aparelhos e sua facilidade de acesso. No entanto, a transição da plataforma desktop para mobile inseriu um novo desafio aos desenvolvedores sobre o uso de elementos de interação e de suas funcionalidades. Com isso, surgiram diversas abordagens para adaptação das aplicações Web. Entre elas, uma das mais comuns entre Desenvolvedores Web é a utilização de frameworks front-end . Contudo, estes frameworks possuem limitantes nas funcionalidades de adaptação das interfaces com deficiências que impactam diretamente nos elementos de interação e na satisfação do usuário. Diante deste cenário, este trabalho tem como objetivo propor a HyMobWeb, uma abordagem híbrida de adaptação de interfaces Web móveis sensíveis ao contexto e com suporte a multimodalidade, que visa a auxiliar os desenvolvedores na criação de soluções mais próximas às características do dispositivo, aos contextos de utilização, e as necessidades dos usuários finais. A abordagem é composta das etapas de adaptação estática e dinâmica. A adaptação estática subsidia os desenvolvedores na marcação de elementos a serem adaptados através de uma gramática que pode reduzir o esforço de codificação de soluções que abordam aspectos relacionados à multimodalidade e à sensibilidade ao contexto. A adaptação dinâmica é a responsável por analisar as mudanças no contexto do usuário e realizar as adaptações marcadas na adaptação estática. A abordagem foi delineada a partir de uma revisão da literatura acerca da adaptação de interface Web em dispositivos móveis e três estudos exploratórios. O primeiro estudo tratou sobre as dificuldades dos usuários finais em relação à utilização de aplicações Web não adaptadas aos dispositivos móveis. O segundo sobre os impactos da adição da multimodalidade em tais ambientes. Enquanto o terceiro, sobre as lacunas existentes nas adaptações tradicionais - realizadas através de frameworks front-end - em relação às necessidades dos usuários finais. Visando avaliar a abordagem, duas avaliações foram realizadas: uma na perspectiva do desenvolvedor e outra do usuário final. A primeira focou em verificar aceitação da proposta por parte dos desenvolvedores de software no uso da gramática e recursos propostos a partir dela. A segunda buscou identificar se a adaptação, previamente implementada pelos desenvolvedores, trazia satisfação para os usuários finais durante seu uso. Os resultados encontrados sugeriram que a HyMobWeb trouxe contribuições significativas para o trabalho dos desenvolvedores e que os recursos explorados pela abordagem propiciaram reações positivas na satisfação dos usuários finais

To a large extent, business-customer interactions are acted out on digital meeting places. When the possibilities for businesses to engage in face-to-face interactions decrease, relationship building and customer service becomes more of a challenge. Digital services are easily duplicated by competitors and with standardization of interfaces and products, customers tend to switch more frequently between providers. One area where the creation and maintenance of loyal customers appears to be highly relevant is the domain of e-banking. Studies have shown that by personalizing the experience for the user, customer loyalty can be enhanced. Existing methods of interface adaptation shifts the responsibility for the resulting user experience design from the designer to either the user or the system. However, research shows that handing over responsibility for the design to the user can damage the user experience. Furthermore, we argue that as long as computers cannot translate the meaning of what a human communicates, and understand the motivation that lies behind her actions, human designers and researchers need to own the responsibility for designing user experiences. Responsive web design differ from the concept of user responsiveness in the way that it is not truly responsive to the user but to the technical device that is used. Following a design science research methodology, this paper presents the development of a conceptual framework for user responsive user experience design (URUXD) that aims to strengthen the bond between user and provider by enabling a more relevant and personalized user experience. The conceptual framework introduces a way to design user responsive information systems that could be useful in domains where the user audience is large and diverse, as in the case of e-banking. A personalized user experience is enabled by transcending the current use of personas as design tools to also involve them in categorizing real-time users through the use of personas as mapping tools. Multiple persona sets are incorporated in the framework which gives the user experience designer the possibility of designing a holistic user experience for each persona set. The framework thus enables the incorporation of multiple GUI designs in an information system that is user responsive, without the risk of violating usability principles. / Interaktionen mellan företag och kund sker nuförtiden oftast på digitala mötesplatser. När möjligheten för företag att träffa kunden öga mot öga minskar blir det en utmaning att skapa nära affärsrelationer och förmedla bra kundservice. Med konkurrenter som enkelt kopierar digitala tjänster och med en standardisering av gränssnitt och tjänster tenderar kunder att oftare byta leverantör. Inom e-banking framstår därför skapande och upprätthållande av lojala kunder som högst relevant. Genom att personifiera användarupplevelsen kan kundlojaliteten förbättras. Befintliga metoder för gränssnittsadaption lämnar över ansvaret för den resulterande designen från designern till antingen användaren eller systemet. Men, om ansvaret för designen tilldelas användaren kan resultatet bli i en skadad användarupplevelse. Så länge datorer inte kan översätta meningen bakom vad en människa kommunicerar eller skapa en förståelse för en användares bakomliggande motivation till varför hen utför handlingar, måste mänskliga designers inneha ansvaret för designen av användarupplevelsen. Vidare skiljer sig responsiv webbdesign från konceptet användarresponsivitet i meningen att responsiv webbdesign inte är direkt responsiv mot användaren utan snarare mot den tekniska apparat som används. Genom att följa en design science forskningsmetodik utvecklades ett konceptuellt ramverk för design av användarresponsiva användarupplevelser (user responsive user experience design (URUXD)). Målet var att stärka bandet mellan användare och leverantör genom att möjliggöra en mer relevant och personifierad användarupplevelse. Det konceptuella ramverket introducerar ett sätt att designa användarresponsiva informationssystem vilket kan vara användbart i domäner där användargruppen är stor och heterogen, vilket är fallet för e-banking. En personifierad användarupplevelse möjliggörs genom att utöka det befintliga användningsområdet för designverktyget personas till att även inkludera dem som mappningssverktyg för att kategorisera användare i realtid. Multipla persona sets införlivas i ramverket vilket skapar möjlighet för designern att skapa en holistisk användarupplevelse för varje enskilt persona set. Det konceptuella ramverket möjliggör därigenom för multipla gränssnittdesigns för ett informationssystem som därmed blir användarresponsivt, utan att underminera principer för användbarhet.

Current global agricultural practices are recognized as unsustainable. The increase in overall human population as well as the global trend of rural to urban migration, partially as a result of historically and continual unsustainable agricultural practices, exacerbates the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger in developing countries. Furthermore, cities and regions in developed countries practice unsustainable food production, distribution and consumption patterns, and as a result, exceed their global ecological footprint (Rees 2009). Consequently, the world is facing a global food (FAO 2009) and water crisis (UN Sick Water 2010). Cities and Regions must learn to feed themselves to address local food insecurity as well as protect from the climate effects of increased urbanization, including the Urban Heat Island effect (UHIe) by optimizing and fully integrating the local ecosystem services of food, water and forest within a tightly woven compact urban form through the implementation of strategic urban and regional food system planning. Cities can mitigate climate change and reduce the UHIe, by implementing sustainable intensive urban agriculture approaches through policy and zoning interventions that include concepts such as intensively productive urban agriculture that includes green roofs, vertical farming and greenways as continuously productive and edible urban landscapes, referred to in this paper as continuously productive urban agriculture and forestation (CPUAF) in the private and public realm. A highly participative, adaptive systems approach is explored as the key to sustainability within an economic world order that included corporate social responsibility and social enterprise as the foundation for the integration of multiple synergies. An increasing body of evidence often links urban forestation with urban greenery initiatives, as a carbon sink to reduce UHI effects, to reduce GHG emissions and as a tool for urban beautification and place making (ISDR: 2009,109). Urban agriculture, through the production of local food is increasingly recognized as a means to reduce fossil fuel emissions by reducing transportation and production outputs, to provide a secure local food source, enhance biodiversity and educate the public regarding food source while fostering a sense of community, environmental awareness and stewardship. This thesis explores the links between intensive urban agriculture and forestation, and the relationship between climate change, and the UHI’s as an adaptation and mitigation process in global cities, implemented as a interconnected, integrated, holistic urban management approach that has a further benefit of providing food security and a sustainable and local urban food source. / Dissertation (MTRP)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

The increasing number of smart systems inevitably leads to a huge number of systems that potentially provide independently designed, autonomously operating services. In near-future smart computing systems, such as smart cities, smart grids or smart mobility, independently developed and heterogeneous services need to be dynamically interconnected in order to develop their full potential in a rather complex collaboration with others. Since the services are developed independently, it is challenging to integrate them on-the-fly at run time. Due to the increasing degree of distribution, such systems operate in a decentralized and volatile environment, where central management is infeasible. Conversely, the increasing computational power of such systems also supersedes the need for central management. The four identified key problems of adaptable, collaborative Smart Service Systems are on-demand composition of complex service structures in decentralized environments, the absence of a comprehensive, serendipity-aware specification, a discontinuity from design-time specification to run-time execution, and the lack of a development methodology that separates the development of a service from that of its role essential to a collaboration. This approach utilizes role-based models, which have a collaborative nature, for automated, on-demand service composition. A rigorous two-phase development methodology is proposed in order to demarcate the development of the services from that of their role essential to a collaboration. Therein, a collaboration designer specifies the collaboration including its abstract functionality using the proposed role-based collaboration specification for Smart Service Systems. Thereof, a partial implementation is derived, which is complemented by services developed in the second phase. The proposed middleware architecture provides run-time support and bridges the gap between design and run time. It implements a protocol for coordinated, role-based composition and adaptation of Smart Service Systems. The approach is quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated by means of a case study and a performance evaluation in order to identify limitations of complex service structures and the trade-off of employing the concept of roles for composition and adaptation of Smart Service Systems.:1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Terminology 1.3 Problem Statement 1.4 Requirements Analysis 1.5 Research Questions and Hypothesis 1.6 Focus and Limitations 1.7 Outline 2 The Role Concept in Computer Science 2.1 What is a Role in Computer Science? 2.2 Roles in RoleDiSCo 3 State of the Art & Related Work 3.1 Role-based Modeling Abstractions for Software Systems 3.1.1 Classification 3.1.2 Approaches 3.1.3 Summary 3.2 Role-based Run-Time Systems 3.2.1 Classification 3.2.2 Approaches 3.2.3 Summary 3.3 Spontaneously Collaborating Run-Time Systems 3.3.1 Classification 3.3.2 Approaches 3.3.3 Summary 3.4 Summary 4 On-Demand Composition and Adaptation of Smart Service Systems 4.1 RoleDiSCo Development Methodology 4.1.1 Role-based Collaboration Specification for Smart Service Systems 4.1.2 Derived Partial Implementation 4.1.3 Player & Context Provision 4.2 RoleDiSCo Middleware Architecture for Smart Service Systems 4.2.1 Infrastructure Abstraction Layer 4.2.2 Context Management 4.2.3 Local Repositories & Knowledge 4.2.4 Discovery 4.2.5 Dispatcher 4.3 Coordinated Composition and Subsequent Adaptation 4.3.1 Initialization and Planning 4.3.2 Composition: Coordinating Subsystem 4.3.3 Composition: Non-Coordinating Subsystem 4.3.4 Competing Collaborations & Negotiation 4.3.5 Subsequent Adaptation 4.3.6 Terminating a Pervasive Collaboration 4.4 Summary 5 Implementing RoleDiSCo 5.1 RoleDiSCo Development Support 5.2 RoleDiSCo Middleware 5.2.1 Infrastructure Abstraction Layer 5.2.2 Knowledge Repositories and Local Class Discovery 5.2.3 Planner 6 Evaluation 6.1 Case Study: Distributed Slideshow 6.1.1 Scenario 6.1.2 Phase 1: Collaboration Design 6.1.3 Phase 2: Player Complementation 6.1.4 Coordinated Composition and Adaptation at Run Time 6.2 Runtime Evaluation 6.2.1 General Testbed Setup and Scenarios 6.2.2 Discovery Time 6.2.3 Composition Time 6.2.4 Discussion 6.3 The ›Role‹ of Roles 6.4 Summary 7 Conclusion 7.1 Summary 7.2 Research Results 7.3 Future Work