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Synchronous distributed groupware is a class of software applications allowing a geographically distributed group of people to collaborate in real time. There are different types of groupware, e.g., collaborative editing software, distributed meeting support tools, and multiplayer games. However, collaborators in groupware can become disconnected from the session. Disconnections can range in duration from a few seconds (e.g., due to a network outage) to hours or days (e.g., stowing a laptop while flying). Disconnection causes information loss and makes it difficult for users to understand both the state of the workspace and the current activities of other people upon reconnection. Thus, it is important to handle disconnection in groupware. However, handling disconnection is difficult for groupware developers. They need to determine varieties of strategies in order to address different disconnection scenarios. These strategies determine how stored information can be manipulated as the system waits for a disconnected user to rejoin, and how information should be replayed upon reconnection. If disconnection lasts for a long time, developers need to select and combine strategies in order to manage a trade-off between performance requirements (e.g., delivering stored information as quickly as possible upon reconnection) and understandability requirements (e.g., allowing users to watch missed information in an understandable manner). Developers might not know how to implement such strategies in a reusable manner. Because of this lack of knowledge in handling disconnection, developers might build disconnection-aware groupware applications that will not address the range of wide variety of user-level requirements that arise from different disconnection scenarios. Moreover, as there are a few disconnection-aware groupware applications, developers might not know the overhead (e.g., additional message transmission time, memory usage and programming complexity) of handling disconnection in synchronous groupware in practice. In order to mitigate developers’ problems to handle disconnection in synchronous groupware, this thesis provides codified solutions that capture and organize a wide range of strategies for handling disconnection, that manage the performance and understandability trade-off through selecting and combining suitable strategies and that show how to implement the strategies in a reusable manner. In order to determine the overhead of handling disconnection, a toolkit is developed following the designed solutions, and different applications are constructed using the toolkit. User studies and performance analyses are conducted that evaluate the toolkit and demonstrate its quality goals, such as offering simple application programming interface (API), high performance, and supporting different disconnection scenarios and timeframes. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-29 17:52:00.165

Saturated markets and a competitive business climate create pressure on organisation to find new ways to remain competitive and differentiated towards competitors. One new strategy is to adapt a more service oriented business, and more specifically a concept call solutions. Solutions is about moving from only selling e.g. products or single services, to offer a whole solution to cover more needs, an offer usually created together with the customers. This demand on the market together with limited research on the concept of solution, makes it an interesting area to study. The purpose with the study was to describe the whole solution process between the supplying firm and the customer. In order to do so, a longitudinal, dynamic model based on extant literature was developed, which consisted of three stages and 11 important factors throughout these three stages. The primary data collection came from interviews with managers from five companies, all experienced within the area of solution strategy. Out of the eleven theoretical factors, four factors were explicitly highlighted as most important.

In order to develop a better understanding of the process of development and deployment of automated systems, this thesis examines aspects of project execution and knowledge transfer in the context of a large automation project. <br /><br /> Background issues of project execution are examined, including the challenges of knowledge sharing in project development, as well as a brief discussion of measures of project success. The lifecycle of a large automation project is presented, including aspects of development and the development team, as well as design challenges inherent in the development process of a successful automation project which consisted of approximately 11,000 hours of combined effort by vendor and customer development teams. <br /><br /> Human factors aspects of large automation projects are explored, including an investigation of the workings of a large project team, by examining the cognitive aspects of the project team, as well as ecological aspects of the automation development process. <br /><br /> Using an interview methodology that can be termed the "echo method", project team members were interviewed in order to elicit helpful and unhelpful behaviours exhibited by other team members throughout the project. The results of these interviews are categorized and examined in the context of both knowledge management and social networks. Common themes in interview comments are identified, and related to both the areas of knowledge management and social networks. <br /><br /> Results indicated that team member experience and availability affect overall team performance. However, overlapping capabilities within a team were found to allow the team to adapt to changing circumstances, as well as to overcome weaknesses in team member availability. Better understanding of team interactions and capabilities supports improvements in project performance, ultimately delivering higher quality automation and streamlining the development process.

This thesis has focused on the development of a design process to strengthen the human-environment relationship through emphasizing the identity of place. By exploring and researching a comjnunity's cultural context, some sense of societal identity can be uncovered. However, it is in identifying a culture's values and traditions through its folklore that architects can begin to comprehend the meanings behind the symbols, stories, myths, music and rituals present within a community.Secondary research into the cultural-architectural relationship revealed what was coined in the 1960's and 70's by such scholars as Ian McHarg, Amos Rapoport, Christopher Alexander, and John Zeisel as "man-environment relationships." This research spoke of timelessness and connections of architecture to anthropology, archaeology and sociology.The question that arose from this investigation was, "How does one find the identity or spirit of a p/ace?" Through its people? Through its relics? What is missing as an important piece of the puzzle in the connection? Merely looking at a context or culture does not provide one with the underlying meanings of symbols, gestures, rituals, building practices and social values. One needs to see, listen, comprehend and internalize the culture and context of a place if one is to understand the culture in which the building exists. The connection with folklore and folklore studies became an avenue to be researched in finding this missing piece of the puzzle.The research method used to identify folklore within a given parameter was of the participatory-observation approach. Living for six months in the community started to unveil traits, customs and actions only primary research can reveal. Music, art, stories, rituals, and myths are the means by which people cannot otherwise explain values, thoughts and messages. These instruments. of folklore are the segways into understanding the people of a place. The primary and secondary sources of research set the stage for the conceptual design development of a civic structure within the cultural context of the community. What evolved from this architectural design experience is a scenario for this process to be integrated into architectural curricula at the college level. In creating designers that value unique identities of "place," the building of unique places respective of cultural context foster identity and meaning in an ever-changing global society.Architects have the challenge of designing in areas of the world that possess a variety of differing cultural contexts. How architects respond through creating the built environment in the 21St century will have lasting affects upon the identity of those cultures and their communities. / Department of Architecture

This research has provided an analysis of how the issue of age is related to the expression of specific symptoms characteristic of the genetic disorder known as Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome occurs when the body cannot produce, or produces too little fibrillin-1, a component of the connective tissues. The body systems affected by Marfan syndrome include the skeletal, cardiovascular, ocular, and pulmonary systems. Evidence drawn from medical case studies showed that while not statistically significant, illustrated that symptom expression increases with age, especially during the period of adolescence. The evidence also suggested that the type of physician involved in a diagnosis may affect the information provided in case studies. / Department of Anthropology

Aims: The Second World War had a dramatic impact on the lives of those who lived through it (Davies, 1997) and its long-term impact continues for older people whose formative life experiences were affected by the process of Britain‟s wartime child evacuation scheme (Foster et al., 2003). Despite the place in the national psyche that remembrance of the World Wars holds there is very little literature or psychological research investigating the long-term effects of evacuation. There have been some previous quantitative studies using questionnaires to explore the effects of evacuation (e.g. Rusby, 2008, Foster et al., 2003, Waugh et al., 2007). There has also been one qualitative study exploring evacuees' experience of evacuation (Sturgeon-Clegg, Dpsych unpublished thesis). However, with an increasing number of former evacuees now becoming eligible for older people's services and being seen by mental health practitioners in specialist older people's services, this study is the first to ask psychologists who have worked with former evacuees about their experience of the therapy and whether they consider there is a long-term impact of evacuation. Method: Six psychologists took part in one-to-one, face-to-face interviews to investigate their experiences of working with evacuated clients whether they thought there had been a long-term impact of the evacuation on former evacuees. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al., 2009) methodology was used to analyse the data. Each interview was analysed individually before cross analysis. Results: The research produced three prominent themes related to the way psychologists understood the therapy with former evacuees. The first theme was the different voices around evacuation in the therapy room and how these different voices (the therapist's, the former evacuee's and dominate discourses) influenced participants' understanding of the evacuation experience. The second theme around "being genuine" explored psychologists' beliefs about their role and the role of therapy for former evacuees. The third theme was an awareness of death in the therapy with former evacuees and the impact this had on the therapeutic relationship. Implications: The main implications identified were: the need for psychologists working with former evacuees to have an understanding of evacuation and knowledge of the research on the long-term impact of evacuation on former evacuees. The importance of supporting psychologists working with former evacuees around the complex task of making sense of the relationship issues in the therapeutic relationship. Finally, participants in the study stressed the importance of developing a trusting, non-judging environment to encourage psychologists to process their response to the former evacuees they worked with.

Managing relations with customers has been a main concern for business organisations from different sizes and fields. Such a concern has grown rapidly in the last few decades for a number of reasons such as the development of new technologies especially in the field of information technology (IT). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a newly emerged concept in the fields of IT and business that aims to strengthen the relationships between an organisation and its customers. Despite the promising expectations of implementing such a concept by many organisations, a significant number of CRM projects fail or result in disappointing outcomes that fall far short of expectations. This motivated researchers and practitioners to study the sources of failure and the factors of success in CRM implementation. Although CRM existed first in western organisations, it has spread almost all over the world as an increasing number of firms are implementing or planning to implement CRM. This research designed an integrated framework for investigating and evaluating the implementation of CRM in developing countries. The design of this framework was based on previous studies in the field of CRM implementation especially in the area of studying CRM success and failure. It is also based on the common sense and knowledge of the researcher in the field of CRM. To help identify successful implementation of CRM and to provide organisations with a guide to implement CRM projects, the research reviewed and organised the literature on CRM success and failure as well as the previous studies in CRM frameworks. Subsequently, the research designed a framework for CRM implementation that integrates CRM implementation phases/stages, CRM components, and CRM success factors. To assess the feasibility of the framework in developing countries, the research developed in-depth case study methodology that focused on two large communication companies which operate in Saudi Arabia and are implementing CRM projects fully and partially. The questions of the case study were developed to assess the feasibility of the framework based on the comparison between the conceptual framework and the practical implementation of CRM by the case companies, and the case study protocol was developed accordingly. Data was collected through multiple sources such as in-depth interviews, observations, documentations and archival records. The results of the case study support the feasibility of the framework in implementing CRM in general. The assessment stage was highly supported by the results. In addition, the success factors and their importance in implementing CRM were supported by the results with variation of importance of the success factors. However, cultural issues were significant to the CRM implementation and required modification to the framework to be more effective when implemented in developing countries.

Transforming growth factor-βs (TGF-βs) are highly expressed in neural development but why the adult nervous system continues to express them is unclear. TGF-β2 is concentrated at mature neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) of mammalian skeletal muscle fibres, and the nerve terminal expresses TβR-II receptors. To test the role of TGF-β2 at mammalian NMJs, I performed four experiments. The first study tested whether TGF-β2 acutely modulates synaptic transmission at mature mammalian NMJs. Second, I asked if chronically reduced TGF-β2 expression disrupts synaptic transmission. Third, I asked if TGF-β2’s effects differ in terminals adapted to different activity patterns in vivo. Lastly, I asked whether TGF-β1, a related peptide to TGF-β2, is distinct in terms of its effects on transmitter release. Using single electrode potential recording, I found TGF-β2 significantly increased the amplitude of spontaneous released single neurotransmitter vesicles (miniature endplate potentials, MEPPs) and nerve stimulation evoked multi-vesicular release (endplate potentials, EPPs). These effects were blocked by L-vesamicol, a vesicular acetylcholine transporter inhibitor, and bafilomycin, a proton pump inhibitor, suggesting the increase in MEPP/EPP amplitude is due to increased vesicle filling presynaptically. These effects were also blocked by the MARK inhibitors, UO126 and PD98059, suggesting TGF-β2 acts via a MARK-dependent pathway. Postsynaptically, two electrode recording showed postsynaptic potential amplitude was enhanced by an increased fibre input resistance, suggesting TGF-β2 also acts postsynaptically. TGF-β2 reduced the number of vesicles released per stimulus (quanta content, QC) but this was blocked by atropine, showing this was indirect through autoreceptor negative feedback. Voltage clamp recording showed TGF-β2 significantly increased the miniature end plate currents (MEPCs), but not the end-plate currents (EPCs), supporting my initial hypothesis that TGF-β2 acts mainly presynaptically to increase vesicle filling. In TGF-β2+/- mice, I found greater MEPP amplitude variability. This supports my previous findings that TGF-β2 modulates vesicle filling. Unexpectedly, there was an excess in larger MEPP sizes (>0.88 mV), perhaps reflecting upregulation of either presynaptic signalling or another synaptic mediator. Two MEPP amplitude populations were induced in TGF-β2-treated TGF-β2+/- mouse NMJs, similar to the bimodal vesicle population in electroplaques. The extensor digitorum longus (EDL, ~95% fast fibres) and soleus (SOL, ~95% slow fibres) were used to investigate whether the TGF-β2-mediated effect differed between fibre types. Overall, TGF-β2 increased the quantal size (MEPP amplitude) in NMJs of both muscles, suggesting this effect is not fibre-type specific and, together with results in mice, that the TGF-β2-mediated increase in vesicle filling is common to all mammalian neuromuscular terminals. With respect to EPP amplitude and QC, the results differed between muscles. In EDL, the EPP amplitude was not significantly changed, whereas it increased in SOL. In EDL, QC was reduced but not in SOL. These difference compared to diaphragm perhaps do reflect muscle fibre-type dependent differences. TGF-β1, at 0.1 ng/ml, significantly reduced quantal size – the opposite of TGF-β2 at any concentration. One explanation would be that a receptor inhibition by TGF-β1 at low concentration interferes with endogenous TGF-β2 binding/receptor activation at the NMJ. However, when the TGF-β1 concentration was raised to 1 ng/ml, like TGF-β2, it significantly increased MEPP amplitude. This suggests that perhaps sufficient binding of TGF-β1 results in the receptor activation of TGF-β2 like signalling. Overall, I conclude that TGF-β2 enhances the size of spontaneous synaptic potentials in all types of muscle fibres, and this is much more rapid (1 hr vs 1 day) than at central neurone synapses in culture. Detailed study in the rat diaphragm shows it increased the evoked EPP amplitude, reduced QC and increased postsynaptic input resistance. Together, TGF-β2 would therefore enhance the postsynaptic depolarisation increasing synaptic strength, and by reducing QC, increase the efficiency of neurotransmission at mammalian NMJs. While unimportant for single stimuli in healthy terminals, by conserving vesicle use, it may help maintain release during stimulus trains, especially during neuromuscular disease.