The development of a "good" information system relies heavily on the designer's (or project leader's) understanding of the system's boundaries and environment within the organization, and the ability to derive an appropriate model of the system. This report presents an overview of the systems appproach to organizational theory and information systems development, and examines one computer supported analysis and documentation tool, PSL/PSA. The report also shows that this tool, PSL/PSA, is not only able to represent such a systems view, but that it is also valuable as an aid, in terms of modeling, to other techniques which try to reach these goals. The examination of PSL/PSA is followed with two examples showing how it is applied to the BIAIT BICMX and Structured Analysis. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

What explains the shape of Zauzou noun phrases? Zauzou (Trans-Himalayan, China) noun phrases exhibit considerable diversity in both the choice of the phrase's primary reference type, and the presence of classifiers, demonstratives, modifiers, and case marking. This investigation uses a large, previously existing Zauzou textual corpus. The corpus was annotated for variables hypothesized to predict the variation in noun phrase form. Syntactic variables investigated include word order, subordination, subordinate role, and a new variable called "loneliness." Participant semantic variables include thematic role, agency, and affectedness. Referential semantic variables include boundedness, number, and animacy. The information packaging variable investigated is accessibility. Statistical analysis of the corpus revealed that case marking was predicted using a variable called "loneliness." This is where a multivalent verb has only one argument that is explicitly referenced in the clause. Lonely noun phrases are more likely to be case marked. The role of loneliness in motivating case marking confirms that disambiguation can be an explanation for differential case marking. Animacy and accessibility are important predictors of noun phrase weight. Overall, high animacy and high accessibility correspond to reduced noun phrase weight. Agency and thematic role were also significant variables. The Zauzou data makes clear that speech act participants occupy a unique role in the animacy hierarchy. Speech act participants are often unexpectedly light upon first mention, being referred to with a pronoun or zero anaphor. They are often unexpectedly heavy while highly activated, remaining a pronoun instead of reducing to a zero anaphor. Zauzou, like Mandarin and Cantonese, allows classifiers to be used with a noun but without a numeral. In Mandarin, this construction is used only with new or generic noun phrases. In Cantonese, this construction can be used with noun phrases of any accessibility value. Zauzou occupies a unique intermediate position. In Zauzou, a noun with bare noun phrase can occur with new or old noun phrases, but rarely with active ones. This thesis provides evidence for the importance of text corpora. Using a corpus allowed for the simultaneous inclusion of many variables as well as the consideration of genre effects. In addition, the annotated corpus produced in this investigation is an important output; it is available in the supplemental materials accompanying this thesis.

This research project explores the Hosh house typology, a historic dwelling type in Baghdad facing rapid decline and extinction. The study critically examines historic documentation and employs a wide range of methods to expand knowledge and understanding of the Hosh house. By building an archive around selected architectural objects, the research provides insights in various fields, including architectural anthropology, heritage, craftmanship and sustainable construction. The study draws from scarce and dated documentation, providing new translations of German books on Iraqi architecture, while simultaneously questioning and challenging these findings. The study explores the reasons behind the disappearance of the Hosh house, including urbanization, preference for modern technology and social attitudes. The findings highlight the characteristics and layouts of the Hosh house, presenting the ideal and compromised versions of its design. It also incorporates contemporary sources, such as interviews with local enthusiasts, to fill knowledge gaps and provide a contemporary perspective on the vanishing architectural tradition. Overall, this project contributes to the understanding of the Hosh house's cultural significance within Iraqi architecture and cultural heritage, while emphasizing the need for updated sources and in situ inventories.

Context: In an era where every industry is impacted by software, it is vital to keep software costs under control for organizations to be competitive. A key factor contributing to software costs is software maintenance where a significant proportion is utilized to deal with different types of technical debt. Technical debt is a metaphor used to describe the cost of taking shortcuts or sub-optimal design and implementation that compromises the software quality. Similar to financial debt, technical debt needs to be paid off in the future. Objective: To be in control of technical debt related costs, organizations need to identify technical debt types and quantify them to introduce solutions and prioritize repayment strategies. However, the invisible nature of technical debt makes its identification challenging in practice. Our aim is to find pragmatic ways to identify technical debt in practice, that can be supported by evidence. Once technical debt types that are significant have been identified, we aim to propose suggestions to mitigate them. Method: We used design science as a methodological framework to iteratively improve the technical debt identification methods. We utilized bug reports, which are artifacts produced by software engineers during the development and operation of the software system  as the data source for technical debt identification. Software defects reported through bug reports are considered as one of the key external quality attributes of a software system  which supports us in our evidence based approach. Throughout the design science iterations, we used the following research methods: case study and sample study. Results: We produced three design artifacts that support technical debt identification. The first artifact is a systematic process to identify architectural technical debt from bug reports. The second is an automated bug analysis and a visualization tool to support our research as well as to support practitioners to identify components with hot spots in relation to the number of defects. The third is a method for identifying documentation debt from bug reports. Conclusion: Based on the findings from this thesis, we demonstrated that bug reports can be utilized as a data source to identify technical debt in practice by identifying two types of technical debt; architectural technical debt and documentation debt. Compared to the identification of documentation debt, architectural technical debt identification still remains challenging due to the abstract nature of the architecture and its boundaries. Therefore, our future work will focus on evaluating the impact of reducing the sources of documentation debt on the frequency of bug reports and overall project cost.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of abuse cases, with bruising being the most common indicator. Often when a victim comes forward to report an assault, only slight redness may be observed, which may not accurately represent the injury severity. This study focuses on the use of Alternate Light Source (ALS) to detect and document such injuries more effectively. Following institutional approval, blunt trauma was inflicted on fifty-five healthy participants with no known medical conditions. The participant was seated while a spherical object weighing 465 grams was dropped at a height of 1.5 meters through a vertical tube onto the ventral/anterior surface of the participant’s forearm. The injury site was observed under four different lighting conditions. Findings were documented with photography over specific time intervals over 21 days. A comparison was made between body composition and skin tone on their effect on the visibility of the bruise. Our findings concluded that bruising in females persisted for a longer period, and the optimal wavelength for documentation of bruises is 415 nanometers with a yellow filter. A blinded study was conducted using the same methodology to assess the accuracy of ALS for detection of bruises. The blinded study results showed an accuracy of 75%. Although the results showed high accuracy, it was determined that the results rely on the researcher’s perception of bruising. Therefore, the results of the blinded study were inconclusive. Subsequently, peer review of the photographs was conducted to evaluate the effect of bias in detection of bruises. Similar to the results from the blinded study, the observation of the bruise remains highly subjective. The representative sample size was insufficient to provide statistical analysis between the observations of each reviewer. Therefore, the results from the peer review study were also inconclusive. Although ALS is effective in the documentation of bruises, caution is advised when using ALS to detect bruises as skin pigments, and pre-existing skin conditions may interfere with the interpretation.

The study conducted aims to contribute knowledge about systematic quality work in preschools from the perspective of preschool teachers, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of documentation. A qualitative method employing nine semi-structured interviews supported by a flexible interview guide was utilized as the data collection method. The study is based on a phenomenographic approach, using a phenomenographic analysis method to analyze preschool teachers' perceptions of documentation work. The results reveal variations in preschool teachers' perceptions of the documentation work in preschools. The findings show differing opinions on who engages in documentation and for what purpose. Other perceptions include the situations in which documentation occurs, the various approaches employed, how visibility is achieved, and the structure of reflective practices. In addressing the challenges associated with documentation work, there are perceptions related to resources and tools, time constraints, and the structure of documentation work. Our conclusion shows that the work with documentation reveals variations in how it is carried through, based on the purpose it serves and the challenges preschool teachers face.

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