The work highlighted in this dissertation comprises of syntheses and characterizations of coordination driven supramolecular compounds. The synthesized complexes are characterized by IR spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and single crystal structure determination. Chapter 2: In this chapter we attempted to make a three dimensional self-assembled cage by the reaction between N, N’, N’’- tris(3-pyridyl)trimesic amide a tritopic donor and Pt(II) based 90° ditopic acceptor cis-(dppe)Pt(II)(OTf)2 [dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane]. It resulted in a trigonal bipyramidal structure. The cage was characterized by single crystal XRD and FT-IR spectra. Chapter 3: In this chapter we have reported the synthesis and characterization of two hereby unknown metal containing carboxylic acid ligands containing the Pt-ethynyl moiety. Also we have shown the preparation and structure analysis of a copper containing metal-organic framework incorporating one of the Pt-ethynyl containing carboxylic acid ligand. This has resulted in the formation of a very interesting hetero-metallic MOF which is quite uncommon in literature.

[pt] Softwares personalizados para as necessidades de um cliente proveem vantagem competitiva quando comparados aos softwares de proposito geral. Linhas de produtos de softwares tem como objetivo a produção de produtos personalizados a partir de um conjunto de features reutilizáveis. É conhecido que o reuso sistemático de features potencialmente leva a ganhos significativos como rápida produção de software a um baixo custo e com maior qualidade. Na prática, a construção de linhas de produtos de softwares empresariais pode se tornar uma tarefa arriscada e sujeita a erros quando se leva em consideração o uso das técnicas atuais de implementação de features. O desenvolvimento de linhas de produtos de software empresariais de fato requer a convergência coordenada de várias visões (ex., especialistas de domínio, projetistas de interface, e desenvolvedores). Neste caso, cada participante do processo de desenvolvimento tem uma linguagem particular para resolver o problema específico a sua especialidade. Os desafios para integração de diferentes linguagens, evitando uma potencial cacofonia, é o problema do conhecimento de configuração heterogêneo. Nesta tese, nos examinamos as dificuldades atuais na especificação do conhecimento de configuração heterogêneo e como solução nos propomos a noção de Linguagens de Modelagem do Conhecimento do Domínio (LMCD). O propósito das LMCDs é evidenciar os conceitos do domínio e suas interfaces de programação, o que ajuda reduzir o ofuscamento do código fonte e aumentar a compreensão. Além disso, evidenciando os conceitos específicos de domínio, somos aptos a prevenir inconsistências em produtos pela detecção de erros em toda a linha de produto de software. Outro resultado deste trabalho de pesquisa é GenArchPlus, uma ferramenta extensível que suporta de forma flexível a incorporação de LMCDs na engenharia de linhas de produtos de softwares tradicional. Nos enfatizamos os benefícios da ferramenta, incluindo simplicidade, expressividade, e a capacidade de ser independente de qualquer tecnologia de implementação do domínio. Finalmente, nos ilustramos e avaliamos o uso de LMCDs em três diferentes linhas de produtos de software. / [en] Customer-specific software can provide a competitive advantage compared to general-purpose software. A software product line (SPL) aims at tailoring customer-specific products from a set of reusable features. It is well known that systematic reuse of features potentially leads to significant gains such as faster production with low costs and high quality. In practice, building enterprise software product lines might become a laborious and error-prone task when we take into account the use of current implementation techniques. Successful development of modern enterprise software product lines requires the convergence of multiple views (e.g., domain experts, interface designers, and developers), which are usually managed via domain-specific concepts. In this case, each participant of the development process has a particular working language to solve specific problems to its expertise. The challenge of integrating these differences into the engineering process, avoiding the potential cacophony of multiple different languages, is the heterogeneous configuration knowledge problem. In this thesis, we examine the current shortcomings on the specification of heterogeneous configuration knowledge and as a solution we propose the notion of Domain Knowledge Modeling Languages (DKMLs). The purpose of DKMLs is to put in evidence the domain concepts and their programming interfaces, which help to reduce source code obfuscation and increase feature comprehension. Moreover, evidencing the domain-specific concepts, we are also able to prevent inconsistencies on products by detecting errors in the entire software product line. Another result of this research is the GenArchPlus, an extensible tool that supports the flexible incorporation of DKMLs in traditional software product line engineering. We emphasize the benefits of GenArchPlus, including simplicity, expressiveness, and being framework independent. Finally, we illustrate and evaluate the use of DKMLs in three different product lines.

Technology is accepted as one of the key aspects that influence society and business in an unmistakable manner. Current literature is however not singular in its views and methods of technology strategy, its interface with business strategy, and how technology strategy is executed and assessed internally. The text adopts a 3-tiered domain approach at the outset, focusing on the integration of (i) strategy, (ii) measurement and (iii) architecture. The literature assessment was carried out on the hand of the three domains and ultimately resulted in the proposed internal technology strategy assessment framework for the services sector. At the heart of the framework is the merging of the disciplines and current models of (i) technology management (MOT), (ii) business architecture, (iii) strategic performance measurement and (iv) total quality management. The model aims to indicate that specific modelling techniques coupled with an excellence scorecard, can facilitate the mathematical assessment of strategic contribution of individual technology artefacts to a specific business strategy. The proposed model is represented in the text in flowchart form and is supplemented by the derivation of the required research approach, namely case study protocol. Three case studies were conducted, each of which is resident in the services sector, and the tabulated results are presented in the text and its appendixes. The results obtained indicate that strategic artefact differentiation on a procedural level can indeed be obtained. These results are consistent throughout the three case studies and valuable future benefit could be extrapolated for (i) continuing investigation on the hand of the model, as well as (ii) cross-pollination to the disciplines of (a) enterprise modelling and design and (b) project management. / Dissertation (MEng (Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

The analysis of dynamic systems provides insights into their time-dependent characteristics. This enables us to monitor, evaluate, and improve systems from various areas. They are often represented as graphs that model the system's components and their relations. The analysis of the resulting dynamic graphs yields great insights into the system's underlying structure, its characteristics, as well as properties of single components. The interpretation of these results can help us understand how a system works and how parameters influence its performance. This knowledge supports the design of new systems and the improvement of existing ones. The main issue in this scenario is the performance of analyzing the dynamic graph to obtain relevant properties. While various approaches have been developed to analyze dynamic graphs, it is not always clear which one performs best for the analysis of a specific graph. The runtime also depends on many other factors, including the size and topology of the graph, the frequency of changes, and the data structures used to represent the graph in memory. While the benefits and drawbacks of many data structures are well-known, their runtime is hard to predict when used for the representation of dynamic graphs. Hence, tools are required to benchmark and compare different algorithms for the computation of graph properties and data structures for the representation of dynamic graphs in memory. Based on deeper insights into their performance, new algorithms can be developed and efficient data structures can be selected. In this thesis, we present four contributions to tackle these problems: A benchmarking framework for dynamic graph analysis, novel algorithms for the efficient analysis of dynamic graphs, an approach for the parallelization of dynamic graph analysis, and a novel paradigm to select and adapt graph data structures. In addition, we present three use cases from the areas of social, computer, and biological networks to illustrate the great insights provided by their graph-based analysis. We present a new benchmarking framework for the analysis of dynamic graphs, the Dynamic Network Analyzer (DNA). It provides tools to benchmark and compare different algorithms for the analysis of dynamic graphs as well as the data structures used to represent them in memory. DNA supports the development of new algorithms and the automatic verification of their results. Its visualization component provides different ways to represent dynamic graphs and the results of their analysis. We introduce three new stream-based algorithms for the analysis of dynamic graphs. We evaluate their performance on synthetic as well as real-world dynamic graphs and compare their runtimes to snapshot-based algorithms. Our results show great performance gains for all three algorithms. The new stream-based algorithm StreaM_k, which counts the frequencies of k-vertex motifs, achieves speedups up to 19,043 x for synthetic and 2882 x for real-world datasets. We present a novel approach for the distributed processing of dynamic graphs, called parallel Dynamic Graph Analysis (pDNA). To analyze a dynamic graph, the work is distributed by a partitioner that creates subgraphs and assigns them to workers. They compute the properties of their respective subgraph using standard algorithms. Their results are used by the collator component to merge them to the properties of the original graph. We evaluate the performance of pDNA for the computation of five graph properties on two real-world dynamic graphs with up to 32 workers. Our approach achieves great speedups, especially for the analysis of complex graph measures. We introduce two novel approaches for the selection of efficient graph data structures. The compile-time approach estimates the workload of an analysis after an initial profiling phase and recommends efficient data structures based on benchmarking results. It achieves speedups of up to 5.4 x over baseline data structure configurations for the analysis of real-word dynamic graphs. The run-time approach monitors the workload during analysis and exchanges the graph representation if it finds a configuration that promises to be more efficient for the current workload. Compared to baseline configurations, it achieves speedups up to 7.3 x for the analysis of a synthetic workload. Our contributions provide novel approaches for the efficient analysis of dynamic graphs and tools to further investigate the trade-offs between different factors that influence the performance.

La thèse porte sur le contrôle des systèmes de systèmes (SdS) et, sur la manière de construire des SdS adaptables et fiables. Ce travail fait partie du laboratoire d’excellence Labex MS2T sur le développement des SdS technologiques. Les SdS sont des systèmes complexes constitués de plusieurs systèmes indépendants qui fonctionnent ensemble pour atteindre un objectif commun. L’ingénierie des SdS est une approche qui se concentre sur la manière de construire et de concevoir des SdS fiables capables de s’adapter à l’environnement dynamique dans lequel ils évoluent. Compte tenu de l’importance du contrôle des systèmes constituants (SC) pour atteindre les objectifs du SdS , la première partie de cette thèse a consisté en une étude bibliographique sur le sujet du contrôle des SdS. Certaines méthodes de contrôle existent pour les systèmes à grande échelle et les systèmes multi-agents, à savoir, le contrôle hiérarchique, distribué et décentralisé peuvent être utiles et sont utilisés pour contrôler les SdS. Ces méthodes ne conviennent pas pour contrôler un SdS dans sa globalité et son évolution, en raison de l’indépendance de leur SC ; alors que les “frameworks” multi-vues conviennent mieux à cet objectif. Une approche de ”framework” générale est proposée pour modéliser et gérer les interactions entre les SC dans un SdS. La deuxième partie de notre travail a consisté à contribuer aux systèmes de transport intelligent. À cette fin, nous avons proposé le gestionnaire de manœuvres coopératives pour les véhicules autonomes (CMMAV), un “framework” qui guide le développement des applications coopératives dans les véhicules autonomes. Pour valider le CMMAV, nous avons développé le gestionnaire de manœuvres latérales coopératives (CLMM), une application sur les véhicules autonomes qui permet d’échanger des demandes afin de coopérer lors de manœuvres de dépassement sur autoroute. Cette application a été validée par des scénarios formels, des simulations informatiques, et testée sur les véhicules autonomes du projet Robotex au laboratoire Heudiasyc. / This thesis focuses on System of Systems (SoS) control, and how to build adaptable and reliable SoS. This work is part of the Labex MS2T laboratory of excellence on technological SoS development. SoS are complex systems that consist of multiple independent systems that work together to achieve a common goal. SoS Engineering is an approach that focuses on how to build and design reliable SoS that can adapt to the dynamic environment in which they operate. Given the importance of controlling constituent systems (CS) in order to achieve SoS objectives, the first part of this thesis involved a literature study about the subject of SoS control. Some control methods exist for large-scale systems and multi-agent systems, namely, hierarchical, distributed, and decentralized control might be useful and are used to control SoS. These methods are not suitable for controlling SoS in its whole, because of the independence of their CS; whereas, multi-views frameworks are more suitable for this objective. A general framework approach is proposed to model and manage the interactions between CS in a SoS. The second part of our work consisted of contributing to Intelligent Transportation Systems. For this purpose, we have proposed the Cooperative Maneuvers Manager for Autonomous Vehicles (CMMAV), a framework that guides the development of cooperative applications in autonomous vehicles. To validate the CMMAV, we have developed the Cooperative Lateral Maneuvers Manager (CLMM), an application on the autonomous vehicles that enables equipped vehicles to exchange requests in order to cooperate during overtaking maneuvers on highways. It was validated by formal scenarios, computer simulations, and tested on the autonomous vehicles of the Equipex Robotex in Heudiasyc laboratory.

In den letzten Jahren konzentriert sich die Entwicklung in der kommerziellen Informatik zunehmend auf den Einsatz von Standardsoftware, vorgefertigten Komponenten und Frameworks. Gleichzeitig stehen bei steigenden funktionalen Anforderungen regelmäßig geringere personelle und monetäre Ressourcen für die Anwendungsentwicklung zur Verfügung. Andererseits ist immer mehr Rechenleistung zu sinkenden Preisen verfügbar. Vorhandene, individuell entwickelte und an die Prozesse im Unternehmen angepasste Software muss häufig für den Einsatz im Intranet und Internet erweitert werden. Die technologischen Veränderungen und der Zwang zur Konsolidierung erfordern und erzwingen ein anderes Management von IT-Projekten. Die Diskussionen der letzten Jahre über leichtgewichtige Verfahren geben den Praktikern das theoretische Rüstzeug für die Umsetzung dieser Vorgehensweisen in die Hand [COC 03]. Nachfolgend werden die Aspekte dieser Veränderungen für das Projektmanagement diskutiert. In einem Großprojekt einer deutschen Versicherung wurden einige der betrachteten Verfahren und Methoden durch den Autor im praktischen Einsatz angewandt.

Mit der zunehmenden Bedeutung von virtuellen Prototypen in den frühen Phasen der Produktentwicklung wachsen ebenso die an die verwendeten Softwarelösungen gestellten Anforderungen. Sollen unterschiedliche Faktoren wie Funktionalität, Design oder auch Ergonomie getestet werden, so muss die verwendete Software Module bereitstellen, welche die Erstellung von ganzheitlichen Produktmodellen ermöglichen. Zu den benötigten Modulen zählen zum Beispiel Simulation, Grafik, Eingabeschnittstellen oder Sound. Mit der steigenden Komplexität der zu erstellenden Prototypen wächst jedoch auch der Aufwand für die Entwickler und Anwender, sich in diese einzuarbeiten, diese zu konfigurieren und zu verwalten. An dieser Stelle setzt das Forschungsprojekt GENIAC an. Sein Ziel ist es, die Konfiguration von hochkomplexen Software-Frameworks mit Hilfe natürlicher Benutzeroberflächen zu vereinfachen. Hierzu werden die zu untersuchenden Konfigurationen als Netzwerke auf großflächigen Multi-Touch Bildschirmen dargestellt und mittels natürlicher Gestensteuerung bearbeitet.

The analysis of dynamic systems provides insights into their time-dependent characteristics. This enables us to monitor, evaluate, and improve systems from various areas. They are often represented as graphs that model the system's components and their relations. The analysis of the resulting dynamic graphs yields great insights into the system's underlying structure, its characteristics, as well as properties of single components. The interpretation of these results can help us understand how a system works and how parameters influence its performance. This knowledge supports the design of new systems and the improvement of existing ones. The main issue in this scenario is the performance of analyzing the dynamic graph to obtain relevant properties. While various approaches have been developed to analyze dynamic graphs, it is not always clear which one performs best for the analysis of a specific graph. The runtime also depends on many other factors, including the size and topology of the graph, the frequency of changes, and the data structures used to represent the graph in memory. While the benefits and drawbacks of many data structures are well-known, their runtime is hard to predict when used for the representation of dynamic graphs. Hence, tools are required to benchmark and compare different algorithms for the computation of graph properties and data structures for the representation of dynamic graphs in memory. Based on deeper insights into their performance, new algorithms can be developed and efficient data structures can be selected. In this thesis, we present four contributions to tackle these problems: A benchmarking framework for dynamic graph analysis, novel algorithms for the efficient analysis of dynamic graphs, an approach for the parallelization of dynamic graph analysis, and a novel paradigm to select and adapt graph data structures. In addition, we present three use cases from the areas of social, computer, and biological networks to illustrate the great insights provided by their graph-based analysis. We present a new benchmarking framework for the analysis of dynamic graphs, the Dynamic Network Analyzer (DNA). It provides tools to benchmark and compare different algorithms for the analysis of dynamic graphs as well as the data structures used to represent them in memory. DNA supports the development of new algorithms and the automatic verification of their results. Its visualization component provides different ways to represent dynamic graphs and the results of their analysis. We introduce three new stream-based algorithms for the analysis of dynamic graphs. We evaluate their performance on synthetic as well as real-world dynamic graphs and compare their runtimes to snapshot-based algorithms. Our results show great performance gains for all three algorithms. The new stream-based algorithm StreaM_k, which counts the frequencies of k-vertex motifs, achieves speedups up to 19,043 x for synthetic and 2882 x for real-world datasets. We present a novel approach for the distributed processing of dynamic graphs, called parallel Dynamic Graph Analysis (pDNA). To analyze a dynamic graph, the work is distributed by a partitioner that creates subgraphs and assigns them to workers. They compute the properties of their respective subgraph using standard algorithms. Their results are used by the collator component to merge them to the properties of the original graph. We evaluate the performance of pDNA for the computation of five graph properties on two real-world dynamic graphs with up to 32 workers. Our approach achieves great speedups, especially for the analysis of complex graph measures. We introduce two novel approaches for the selection of efficient graph data structures. The compile-time approach estimates the workload of an analysis after an initial profiling phase and recommends efficient data structures based on benchmarking results. It achieves speedups of up to 5.4 x over baseline data structure configurations for the analysis of real-word dynamic graphs. The run-time approach monitors the workload during analysis and exchanges the graph representation if it finds a configuration that promises to be more efficient for the current workload. Compared to baseline configurations, it achieves speedups up to 7.3 x for the analysis of a synthetic workload. Our contributions provide novel approaches for the efficient analysis of dynamic graphs and tools to further investigate the trade-offs between different factors that influence the performance.:1 Introduction 2 Notation and Terminology 3 Related Work 4 DNA - Dynamic Network Analyzer 5 Algorithms 6 Parallel Dynamic Network Analysis 7 Selection of Efficient Graph Data Structures 8 Use Cases 9 Conclusion A DNA - Dynamic Network Analyzer B Algorithms C Selection of Efficient Graph Data Structures D Parallel Dynamic Network Analysis E Graph-based Intrusion Detection System F Molecular Dynamics

Die vorliegende Arbeit analysiert die Möglichkeiten einer Daten- und Kontaktaggregation im Umfeld Sozialer Netzwerke. Zunächst wird eine Kategorisierung der wichtigsten Netzwerke und Frameworks vorgenommen. Die Funktionalitäten von acht Sozialen Netzwerken und fünf Frameworks werden anhand einer zuvor entwickelten Evaluierungsmatrix detailliert untersucht. Dabei stehen insbesondere die Funktionalitäten der APIs im Vordergrund. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen der Analyse wird ein Prototyp für eine Daten- und Kontaktaggregation konzipiert, implementiert und evaluiert. Abschließend werden Empfehlungen zu den verwendeten Technologien und für die Konzipierungen von zukünftigen Daten- und Kontaktaggregationen im Umfeld Sozialer Netzwerke gegeben. / This thesis analyses the potential of a data- and contactaggreation in the context of social networks. It provides an overview and categorization of the most important networks and frameworks. The functions of eight social networks and five frameworks are analyzed on the basis of a previously developed matrix of evaluation. Special attention is paid to the features of the APIs. Using the results from the evaluation a prototype is planned, coded and evaluated. Finally, regards for future aggregations between social networks are elaborated.

Différents matériaux hybrides à base de polyoxométallates (POMs) ont été synthétisés au cours de cette thèse. Dans un premier type de matériaux, appelé POM@MOF, des POMs sont incorporés au sein des cavités poreuses d'un Metal-Organic-Framework (MOF). Ces matériaux ont été synthétisés par une méthode d'imprégnation en milieu aqueux ou par synthèse directe en conditions solvothermales. Ils ont ensuite été caractérisés de manière approfondie. La stabilité ou l'évolution des polyoxométallates lors de l'incorporation dans le MOF étant chaque fois parfaitement établie. Les matériaux POM@MOFs ont ensuite été étudiés pour leurs applications en magnétisme, pour la détection et en catalyse. Dans un second temps, des polymère de coordination hybrides à base de POMs (surnomés POMOFs) construits à partir d'isomères ε-Keggin reliés par des ligands organiques ont été synthétisés par voie hydrothermale. De nouvelles structures POMOFs ont pu être obtenue en présence de POMs, de ligands carboxylates et de complexes métalliques comme contre-ions non-innocents. L'activité de ces matériaux vis-à-vis de la réduction des protons a été étudiée par électrocatalyse et photocatalyse. Parallèlement, des synthèses de composés moléculaires solubles à base de POMs ε-Keggin ont également été réalisées. Finalement, des espèces hybrides incorporant des métaux de transitions et des ligands bisphosphonates ont été synthétisées : des polymères incorporant du cuivre(II) et un composé moléculaire à base fer(III). Ces espèces ont ensuite été étudiées pour leurs propriétés magnétiques, catalytiques pour la réduction des NOx. L'espèce à base de fer a également été sélectionnée comme substrat pour des études de dépôt sur surface de silice. / Different Polyoxometalate (POM) based hybrid materials were synthesised during this doctorate. In the first type of materials, called POM@MOF, POMs are incorporated in the porous cavities of a Metal-Organic-Framework (MOF). These materials were synthesised by a impregnation method in an aqueous medium or by direct synthesis in solvothermal conditions. They were then extensively characterised. For every material, the stability or transformation of the POMs during the incorporation was accurately established. The POM@MOFs materials were then studied for their applications in magnetism, for detection and in catalysis. In a second time, POM-based hybrid coordination polymers (called POMOFs) made from ε-Keggin isomers connected by organic linkers were synthesised by a hydrothermal method. New POMOFs structures have been obtained with POMs, carboxylate linkers and metallic complexes as non-innocents counter ions. The catalytic activity of these materials toward protons reduction was studied by electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. In parallel, syntheses of soluble molecular compounds based on ε-Keggin POMs were also performed. Finally, hybrid species incorporating transition metals and bisphosphonate linkers were synthesised : three copper(II) based polymers and a molecular coumpound incorporating iron(III). The magnetic and catalytic (reduction of NOx) properties of these materials were then studied. The iron based species was also selected as substrate for the deposition on a silica surface.