This research takes steps towards developing a new theory of organizational information management based on the ideas that, first, information creates ordering effects in transactions and, second, that there are multiple centers of authority in organizations. The rationale for developing this theory is the empirical observation that hospitals have great difficulty in managing information relating to transactions with patients. The research illustrates the detailed workings of an initial conceptual framework based on an action research project into the revenue cycle of a hospital. The framework facilitates a deeper understanding of how information technology can help to transform information management practices in complex organizations, such as hospitals. At the same time, this research adds to the literature on Polycentricity Theory by linking its two core concepts—multiple nested centers of decision making and context-dependent governance—with Transaction Cost Theory and information management theories to establish a new foundation for understanding the role of information technology in organizational contexts.

With the rapid advance in information technology (IT), many hospitals seek new IT to cope with the dynamic change in the competitive environment. This study utilizes the net-enabled business innovation cycle theory to analyze the new opportunity, hospital innovation, capability gap, and customer value when hospitals implement a Citrix Information System. A set of critical dynamic capabilities and guidelines for this IT implementation are identified. These results provide great insight for practitioners and scholars for enhancing their understanding of new IT implementation and provide implication guidelines to help practitioners adapt new IT.

Synthetic jet actuators for flow control applications have been an active topic of experimental research since the 90’s. Numerical simulations have become an important complement of that experimental work, providing detailed information of the dynamics of the controlled flow. This study is part of the AVOCET (Adaptive VOrticity Control Enabled flighT) project and is intended to provide computational support for the design and evaluation of closed-loop flow control with synthetic jet actuators for small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The main objective is to analyze active flow control of a NACA4415 airfoil with tangential synthetic jets via computational modeling. A hybrid Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes/Large Eddy Simulation (RANS/LES) turbulent model (called Delayed Detached-Eddy Simulation-DDES) was implemented in CDP, a kinetic energy conserving Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. CDP is a parallel unstructured grid incompressible flow solver, developed at the Center for Integrated Turbulence Simulations (CITS) at Stanford University. Two models of synthetic jet actuators have been developed and validated. The first is a detailed model in which the flow in and out of the actuator cavity is modeled. A second less costly model (RSSJ) was also developed in which the Reynolds stress produced by the actuator is modeled, based on information from the detailed model. Several static validation test cases at different angle of attack with modified NACA 4415 and Dragon Eye airfoils were performed. Numerical results show the effects of the actuators on the vortical structure of the flow, as well as on the aerodynamic properties. The main effect of the actuation on the time averaged vorticity field is a bending of the separation shear layer from the actuator toward the airfoil surface, resulting in changes in the aerodynamic properties. Full actuation of the suction side actuator reduces the pitching moment and increases the lift force, while the pressure side actuator increases the pitching moment and reduces the lift force. These observations are in agreement with experimental results. The effectiveness of the actuator is measured by the change in the aerodynamic properties of the airfoil in particular the lift ([Delta]C[subscript t]) and moment ([Delta]C[subscript m]) coefficients. Computational results for the actuator effectiveness show very good agreement with the experimental values (over the range of −2° to 10°). While the actuation modifies the global pressure distribution, the most pronounced effects are near the trailing edge in which a spike in the pressure coefficient (C[subscript p]) is observed. The local reduction of C[subscript p], for both the suction side and pressure side actuators, at x/c = 0.96 (the position of the actuators) is about 0.9 with respect to the unactuated case. This local reduction of the pressure is associated with the trapped vorticity and flow acceleration close to the trailing edge. The RSSJ model is designed to capture the synthetic jet time averaged behavior so that the high actuation frequencies are eliminated. This allows the time step to be increased by a factor of 5. This ad hoc model is also tested in dynamic simulations, in which its capacity to capture the detail model average performance was demonstrated. Finally, the RSSJ model was extended to a different airfoil profile (Dragon Eye) with good results. / text

DNA diagnostics are important technologies in molecular and cellular biology. By allowing identification of specific sequences, DNA-based diagnostics potentially provide more accurate and rapid results than protein- or antigen-based diagnostics, primarily because phenotypic changes come much later than changes in genotype. Despite this advantage, there are fewer diagnostic or imaging systems that target DNA than those targeting proteins, antibodies, or antigens.Each type of DNA-based diagnostic has its own, unique set of limitations; however, most can be attributed to issues related to sequence restriction, signal detection, specificity, or some combination thereof. For example, while PCR-based methods allow amplification and assessment of specific DNA sequences, they lack the ability to report information of specific cells, or cell types, within the heterogeneous pool of cells typically found in a tumor biopsy. In addition, none of the currently available DNA detection methods has the potential to be utilized in living cells, a disadvantage which limits the potential applications.The work presented here describes the design and development of a new methodology for the detection of specific double-stranded DNA sequences. This detection method is based on the concept that two inactive fragments of a reporter protein, each coupled to engineered zinc finger DNA-binding motifs, are able to reassemble and form an active complex in the presence of a predefined DNA sequence. This system, designated sequence-enabled reassembly (SEER), can achieve single base-pair specificity, and has the potential to be utilized in living cells.In this dissertation, we discuss the efforts from constructing to refining the system, as well as the future applications of SEER in diagnostics and therapeutics. Chapter I will provide an introduction to DNA detection methods, on which the principles of the SEER system are based. Chapter II describes the design and construction of an enzymatic SEER system, SEER-LAC, using beta-lactamase as the enzyme. In Chapter III, we outline the in vitro characterization of the SEER-LAC system, followed by its optimization in Chapter IV. Chapter V illustrates the efforts to develop SEER system for mammalian cell culture applications. In the final chapter, the future developments and applications of SEER are discussed.

abstract: This dissertation presents my work on development of deformable electronics using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based fabrication technologies. In recent years, deformable electronics are coming to revolutionize the functionality of microelectronics seamlessly with their application environment, ranging from various consumer electronics to bio-medical applications. Many researchers have studied this area, and a wide variety of devices have been fabricated. One traditional way is to directly fabricate electronic devices on flexible substrate through low-temperature processes. These devices suffered from constrained functionality due to the temperature limit. Another transfer printing approach has been developed recently. The general idea is to fabricate functional devices on hard and planar substrates using standard processes then transferred by elastomeric stamps and printed on desired flexible and stretchable substrates. The main disadvantages are that the transfer printing step may limit the yield. The third method is "flexible skins" which silicon substrates are thinned down and structured into islands and sandwiched by two layers of polymer. The main advantage of this method is post CMOS compatible. Based on this technology, we successfully fabricated a 3-D flexible thermal sensor for intravascular flow monitoring. The final product of the 3-D sensor has three independent sensing elements equally distributed around the wall of catheter (1.2 mm in diameter) with 120° spacing. This structure introduces three independent information channels, and cross-comparisons among all readings were utilized to eliminate experimental error and provide better measurement results. The novel fabrication and assembly technology can also be applied to other catheter based biomedical devices. A step forward inspired by the ancient art of folding, origami, which creating three-dimensional (3-D) structures from two-dimensional (2-D) sheets through a high degree of folding along the creases. Based on this idea, we developed a novel method to enable better deformability. One example is origami-enabled silicon solar cells. The solar panel can reach up to 644% areal compactness while maintain reasonable good performance (less than 30% output power density drop) upon 40 times cyclic folding/unfolding. This approach can be readily applied to other functional devices, ranging from sensors, displays, antenna, to energy storage devices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2014

This thesis aimed to study the everyday use of ICT-enabled memory aids in order to understand and to describe the technological mediations that are brought by them (i.e. how they shape/mediate experiences and actions of their users). To do this, a post-phenomenological approach was appropriated. Postphenomenology is a modified, hybrid phenomenology that tries to overcome the limitations of phenomenology. As for theoretical framework, ‘Technological Mediation’ was adopted to conduct the study. Technological Mediation as a theory provides concepts suitable for explorations of the phenomenon of human-technology relation. It was believed that this specific choice of approach and theoretical framework would provide a new way of exploring the use of concrete technologies in everyday life of human beings and the implications that this use might have on humans’ lives. The study was conducted in the city of Växjö, Sweden. Data was collected by conducting twelve face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Collected data was, then, analyzed by applying the concepts within the theoretical framework – Technological Mediation - to them. The results of this study provided a list of ICT-enabled devices and services that participants were using in their everyday life in order to support their memory such as: calendars, alarms, notes, bookmarks, etc. Furthermore, this study resulted in a detailed description of how these devices and services shaped/mediated the experiences and the actions of their users.

We have studied a global corporation that is implementing an IT-enabled change program which affect the whole organization. In this change, there exists many different perspectives that we divided into groups to enable analysis. The different perspectives hold differing missions and knowledge bases which in turn affect their respective understanding of the change and its purpose. In this study, we have divided perspectives according to two dimensions: program – project and business – IT. The aim has been to understand how these different perspectives affect change implementation. We have interviewed individuals from multiple positions in the organization to understand their view on what is happening in the organization and how they relate to the various issues found in the change program. We have found that there are many instances where misunderstanding can arise because the stakeholders involved in the change lack mutual understanding of each other’s perspectives. When there is an imbalance between perspectives, IT-enabled change is likely to become an IT roll-out and not an IT-related organizational change. We believe that when stakeholders of change broaden their awareness and understanding regarding the different perspectives that exist, they can enable coordination and cooperation between perspective groups. This will in turn help with successful change implementation.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), whose experiments include the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), produces over 30 million gigabytes of data annually, and implements a distributed computing architecture—a tiered hierarchy, from Tier-0 through Tier-3—in order to process and store all of this data. Out of all of the computing tiers, Tier-3 clusters allow scientists the most freedom and flexibility to perform their analyses of LHC data. Tier-3 clusters also provide local services such as login and storage services, provide a means to locally host and analyze LHC data, and allow both remote and local users to submit grid-based jobs. Using the Rocks cluster distribution software version 6.1.1, along with the Open Science Grid (OSG) roll version 3.2.35, a grid-enabled CMS Tier-3 computing cluster was deployed at Florida International University’s Modesto A. Maidique campus. Validation metric results from Ganglia, MyOSG, and CMS Dashboard verified a successful deployment.

With the advancement in multimedia systems and the increased interest in haptics to be used in interpersonal communication systems, where users can see, show, hear, tell, touch and be touched, mouse and keyboard are no longer dominant input devices. Touch, speech and vision will soon be the main methods of human computer interaction. Moreover, as interpersonal communication usage increases, the need for securing user authentication grows. In this research, we examine a user's identification and verification based on haptic information. We divide our research into three main steps. The first step is to examine a pre-defined task, namely a handwritten signature with haptic information. The user target in this task is to mimic the legitimate signature in order to be verified. As a second step, we consider the user's identification and verification based on user drawings. The user target is predefined, however there are no restrictions imposed on the order or on the level of details required for the drawing. Lastly, we examine the feasibility and possibility of distinguishing users based on their haptic interaction through an interpersonal communication system. In this third step, there are no restrictions on user movements, however a free movement to touch the remote party is expected. In order to achieve our goal, many classification and feature reduction techniques have been discovered and some new ones were proposed. Moreover, in this work we utilize evolutionary computing in user verification and identification. Analysis of haptic features and their significance on distinguishing users is hence examined. The results show a utilization of visual features by Genetic Programming (GP) towards identity verification, with a probability equal to 50% while the remaining haptic features were utilized with a probability of approximately 50%. Moreover, with a handwritten signature application, a verification success rate of 97.93% with False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of 1.28% and @11.54% False Rejection Rate (FRR) is achieved with the utilization of genetic programming enhanced with the random over sampled data set. In addition, with a totally free user movement in a haptic-enabled interpersonal communication system, an identification success rate of 83.3% is achieved when random forest classifier is utilized.

Voting and general elections serves as a cornerstone of modern democracies as it is through this process that the public makes their political positions heard and collectively elect leaders. While many parts of governments across the world are focusing heavily on digitization, voting is one area that remains offline and analog in many developed countries. Current voting systems continue to be scrutinized, most notably in the US after the 2016 presidential election where integrity of votes was put into question. This calls for innovation in the area of voting and blockchain has proven to be a disruptive technology in other areas to introduce transparency and integrity with an immutable and append-only ledger to store information. While the basic characteristics of blockchain may be desirable for a voting system, there has not yet been an implementation of Blockchain Enabled Voting (BEV). In this thesis, we assess current proposals of BEV in the context of the nine-degree Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale to get an overview of how mature the technology is in its current state and what needs to be done to reach further maturity. We do this by consolidating necessary requirements to fulfill for a voting system, based on literature review along with guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We follow this up with translating the TRL scale to suit BEV, as the scale was originally designed for technology used by NASA, and then we review design artifacts of BEV in light of this scale. This enables us to make an informed argument about the current state of the technology as well as what is needed to advance the technology for further maturity. Based on the review of current proposals, flight-readiness of BEV in its current state is still immature. Our analysis shows that there are two emerging design principles, complete decentralization, and partial decentralization, where the former is structured similarly to the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum, who considers all nodes as equals and only has governance through engineering. The partially decentralized approach on the other hand is built on permissioned blockchain with some centralized authority and considers the blockchain as a ballot box, or storage of votes. The results show that both design principles are far from flight-ready as they either do not meet the basic requirements of a voting system or make assumptions about the holistic voting systems, especially in areas of establishing voter eligibility, ease of use as well as scalability and robustness. Further research of both approaches is necessary to establish systems that are more defined and are ready for experimental testing.