Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / The Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) represents a dramatic revision in the construction and maintenance of military housing. Since its inception in 1996, the number of projects has grown exponentially and the learning process has been continuous and steep. This thesis researches the effectiveness of the methods in place at the Department of Defense and Service levels to document, share, and, above all, learn from past experiences. This analysis reviews the cumulative documented lessons from all Services and compares it to the lessons learned within the first jointly partnered privatization project at the Presidio of Monterey (POM) and Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. This research showed at least six lessons previously documented within the lessons learned system, which were relearned at the POM/NPS project. Given this data, the lessons learned program is a partial success but overall has a positive impact on the MHPI. The current lessons learned program improves each new privatization project ensuring it does not experience all of the same lessons from previous projects. Only a few lessons seem to slip through the cracks and are repeated even after documentation and distribution. / Captain, United States Army

Extreme weather events and effects of climate change are threats to the transport sector’s functionality and safety. Risk management in this context implies a necessity to focus on the connection between near-term experiences and coping strategies on one hand, and long-term adaptation analyses on the other. How learning from past events and subsequent knowledge sharing can be adopted is a question that needs to be explored, discussed and tested. A systematic approach to lessons learned calls for measures of investigation, reporting, planning, implementation and evaluation. A qualitative case study approach was used in this thesis. In the first paper the practices of accident investigation in operation and maintenance were inventoried within the Swedish Transport Administration (STA). Three accident investigation methods were applied and tested on a cloudburst event, causing flooding in a railway tunnel in Sweden. In the second paper, semi-structured interviews, documents, and archival records were used as means for penetrating deeper into the attitudes and understanding of lessons learned concerning extreme weather events within a procured public-private partnership. The results of the two studies showed weak signals of feedback on lessons learned. Partly, these weak signals could be traced back to weak steering signals. Various obstacles impeded learning curves from lessons learned. The obstacles were of both hard and soft values, e.g. resources in time and equipment, systematic investigation methods, incentives for lessons learned, education and knowledge, values, norms and attitudes towards how and why identified problems should be solved. Successful knowledge sharing requires that close attention is paid to such obstacles and that an adaptive approach is adopted. / Den pågående och framtida klimatförändringen sätter press på aktörer att möta risker som associeras med klimatförändring. Syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra med kunskap om lärande och kunskapsöverföring inom offentlig förvaltning av landtransportinfrastruktur. Eftersom lärande och kunskapsöverföring är grundläggande för planering och beslutsfattande om strategier och åtgärder som främjar ett robust transportsystem. Målet för detta arbete är att belysa lärande och kunskapsöverföring inom och mellan olika organisationer i det svenska samhället. Det socio-tekniska systemperspektivet - som används som analysram i båda studierna ger en djupare förståelse för bakomliggande faktorer. En kvalitativ ansats, som omfattar intervjuer, deltagande observationer och dokumentanalys, har används i detta licentiatarbete. I den första studien belyses möjligheten att använda sig av industriella utredningsmetoder på naturolyckor i en svensk kontext av en översvämning i en järnvägstunnel. De industriella utredningsmetoderna visade sig vara användbara för utredning av konsekvenser efter skyfall, med olika metodologiska fördelar och nackdelar. Den andra studien utforskar hur Trafikverkets verksamhetsområde Underhåll arbetar med lärande kopplat till väderextremer; hur de fångar upp erfarenheter och kunskap som finns hos kontrakterade entreprenörer, samt hur entreprenörerna uppfattar att lärande och erfarenhetsåterföring sker. Resultatet från båda studierna visar på både svaga styrsignaler och svaga återkopplingssignaler, vilket medför svaga lärandekurvor. Olika hinder sågs ligga bakom med svaga styr- och återkopplingssignaler bl.a. resurser i tid och processer, systematik i utredning av naturolyckor, incitament att lära av varandra, utbildning och kunskap, värderingar normer och attityder till hur och varför identifierade problem ska lösas. Ett adaptivt förhållningssätt innebär att man behöver ta hänsyn till dessa hinder på ett systematiskt sätt. / The agreement in Paris in 2015 was an historic manifestation that society has to work with both mitigation and adaptation to achieve a reduction of the adverse effects of climate change. One way to achieve adaptation is through the integration of present coping strategies. A first step is to study the existing processes and routines that support short-term coping. This licentiate thesis targets different aspects of learning as a strategy for coping and building adaptive capacity. Road infrastructure and maintenance in relation to extreme weather are used as the physical context and the Swedish Transport Administration as a case to study. Paper I shows the possibility to apply industrial accident investigation methods to an extreme weather event and get useful insights into underlying root causes. Paper II shows the intra- and interrelated patterns that exist in public-private partnerships (PPP) in Sweden. The paper describes a parallel of systems with infrequent overlaps regarding lessons learned.  In both papers the socio-technical perspective approach was used to highlight aspects of learning from and investigating damage due to extreme weather at different tiers in society. The socio-technical perspective provides an understanding of how decisions and legislation that affect our actions and behavior today may have been taken in different time and space settings. This thesis contributes to concept and theory building regarding the socio-technical system approach. / <p>Paper 2 ingick i licentiatuppsatsen som manuskript, nu publicerat.</p>

Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur comment les représentations parcimonieuses peuvent aider à augmenter les performances pour réduire le bruit, extraire des régions de texte, reconnaissance des formes et localiser des symboles dans des documents graphiques. Pour ce faire, tout d'abord, nous donnons une synthèse des représentations parcimonieuses et ses applications en traitement d'images. Ensuite, nous présentons notre motivation pour l'utilisation de dictionnaires d'apprentissage avec des algorithmes efficaces pour les construire. Après avoir décrit l'idée générale des représentations parcimonieuses et du dictionnaire d'apprentissage, nous présentons nos contributions dans le domaine de la reconnaissance de symboles et du traitement des documents en les comparants aux travaux de l'état de l'art. Ces contributions s'emploient à répondre aux questions suivantes: La première question est comment nous pouvons supprimer le bruit des images où il n'existe aucune hypothèse sur le modèle de bruit sous-jacent à ces images ? La deuxième question est comment les représentations parcimonieuses sur le dictionnaire d'apprentissage peuvent être adaptées pour séparer le texte du graphique dans des documents? La troisième question est comment nous pouvons appliquer la représentation parcimonieuse à reconnaissance de symboles? Nous complétons cette thèse en proposant une approche de localisation de symboles dans les documents graphiques qui utilise les représentations parcimonieuses pour coder un vocabulaire visuel / In this thesis, we focus on how sparse representations can help to increase the performance of noise removal, text region extraction, pattern recognition and spotting symbols in graphical documents. To do that, first of all, we give a survey of sparse representations and its applications in image processing. Then, we present the motivation of building learning dictionary and efficient algorithms for constructing a learning dictionary. After describing the general idea of sparse representations and learned dictionary, we bring some contributions in the field of symbol recognition and document processing that achieve better performances compared to the state-of-the-art. These contributions begin by finding the answers to the following questions. The first question is how we can remove the noise of a document when we have no assumptions about the model of noise found in these images? The second question is how sparse representations over learned dictionary can separate the text/graphic parts in the graphical document? The third question is how we can apply the sparse representation for symbol recognition? We complete this thesis by proposing an approach of spotting symbols that use sparse representations for the coding of a visual vocabulary

Inom byggindustrin är det svårt att skapa standardiserade logistikprocesser eftersom det vid varje nytt bygge även skapas en ny organisation. Förutsättningarna skiljer sig även mellan olika byggen, vilket försvårar ett förbättringsarbete. Skanska Väg och Anläggning Norr fick under 2017 uppdraget att bygga om Vasaplan i centrala Umeå, och i september 2018 stod projektet klart. Ombyggnationen var i det stora hela ett mycket lyckat projekt, men efter färdigställandet av projektet har problem angående materialtillgång identifierats. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur leveranser till en byggarbetsplats kan optimeras samt hurvida ett mellanlager kan underlätta hanteringen av leveranserna till byggarbetsplatsen. En jämförelse har gjorts där det har undersökts ifall det är mer lönsamt att använda sig av lagerhållning, eller endast av JIT-leveranser. Förhoppningen är att arbetet kan bidra till att Skanska i framtiden får ett mer standardiserat tillvägagångssätt vid planering av leveranser till byggarbetsplats av material som kräver liknande lagerhållning och transport som granithällar. För att lösa detta har två matematiska modeller använts; Anläggningslokaliseringsproblemet (ALP) samt en matematisk modell som optimerar placering av material på en lageryta. Två stycken produktionsflödesmodeller, JIT och EOQ, har även använts i beräkningarna. Resultatet från produktionsflödesmodellerna, JIT och EOQ, visar att JIT-leveranser med hjälp av en omlastningscentral alltid är den mest kostnadseffektiva lösningen då lageryta är en direkt kostnad för Skanska. I de fall lager inte är en direkt utgift för Skanska så rekommenderar den matematiska modellen för ALP en optimal användning av de lager som är tillgängliga. / For every new construction project, a new organisation is created. It is therefore a challenge for the construction industry to create standardized logistic processes. In addition, different construction projects have different traits, which results in further challenges for improvement efforts for the construction logistic processes. In 2017 Skanska Väg och Anläggning Norr did the reconstruction of Vasaplan in the central of Umeå, and in September 2018 the reconstruction project was done. The reconstruction was in its entirety a very successful project, however when the project was finished problems regarding material supply were identified. The aim of this paper is to analyze how deliveries to a construction site can be optimized and whether storage spaces can aid in the handling of deliveries to the construction site. A comparison has been made between storing material and using JIT-deliveries. The hope is to help Skanska in developing a more standardized approach when it comes to planning the deliveries of materials that has similar storage and transport conditions as the slabs of granite used. To solve this two mathematical models have been used; Facility location problem and a mathematical model that optimizes the placement of materials in a storage space. Two production flow models, JIT and EOQ, were also used when performing the calculations. The result from the production flow models, JIT and EOQ, show that JIT deliveries are always the most cost effective solution when storage space is a direct cost for Skanska, when used together with a logistics center. However, when storing is no extra expense for Skanska, the mathematical model for the Facility location problem suggests a optimal use of the storage spaces that are available.

La présence culturelle française en Italie du sud s'est développée durant l'entre-deux guerre, sous l'ère délicate du fascisme, à travers la création et le développement de l'Institut Français de Naples. La première partie dresse le portrait de Naples : malgré sa déchéance politique, cette ville reste attractive culturellement et économiquement. Sa tradition cosmopolite est envisagée à travers les récits de voyageurs depuis le Grand Tour. Elle est dotée d'institutions locales capables de répondre aux défis lancés par un institut étranger. La description des principales communautés étrangères montre par contraste la faiblesse de l'enracinement français. La deuxième partie s'attache à décrire la création puis l'évolution de l'Institut entre 1914 et 1925. Les pouvoirs publics français considèrent sa création comme le moyen de s'assurer une zone d'influence sur les régions méridionales italiennes et en Méditerranée. Son développement est considérable, surtout en considérant l'ascension du fascisme et la menace de la "dictature légale". Le charisme des professeurs, l'intérêt croissant des services officiels français et les motivations inhérentes à la nature même du fascisme méridional sont des facteurs favorables à ce succès. La troisième partie se penche sur le développement paradoxal de l'Institut, menacé par un fascisme triomphant et radicalisé. Il apparaît comme une institution inadaptée face aux exigences d'un nouvel équilibre mondial et à la précarité des relations politiques franco-italiennes. Malgré la réorganisation des Instituts d'Italie en 1938, l'établissement,démuni, subit une lente agonie avant d'être séquestré par les autorités en 1940. / French cultural presence in Southern Italy grew during the in-between wars period, against the tricky backdrop of fascism, through the birth and development of the French Cultural Institute in Naples. The Opening part of this work is about Naples, a city which, in spite of political decline, remained culturally and economically attractive, while its ever cosmopolitan tradition is best depicted borrowing the words of travelers who visited the region, starting with the Great Tour. Local institutions live up to challenges set by the foreign institute. Closer scrutiny of the main foreign communities however, reveals how shallow-rooted France is, over there. The second part focuses on the creation and evolution of the Institute between 1914 and 1925. The French government sees it as way of starting an area of influence in the Southern Italian regions and across the Mediterranean. The Institute develops at quite an impressive pace, especially considering the contemporaneous rise of fascism and the threat of a "legal dictatorship". Charismatic professors, a increasing interest of the French officials and the very motivations of fascism in the South contributed to its success. In the third part, we shall see how paradoxical the development of the Institute is. An institution faced with an all conquering radicalized Fascism, unfit to meet the needs of a new world order and the poor relation between France and Italy. Despite the 1983 reshaping of all Institutes in Italy, the one in Naples is literally slowly dying ans will end up hostage of the Italian government in 1940.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

ABSTRACT EFFECT OF INITIAL SUPPORT OF EXCAVATION ON SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF CUT AND COVER STRUCTURES Rezaei, Hamidreza M.Sc., Department of Civil Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Alp Caner MAY 2011, 66 pages The effect of the initial support and its embedment depth, on the seismic performance of cut and cover tunnels is investigated. Cut and cover construction is one of the fastest and cheapest methods for constructing rectangular shallow tunnels. Construction of cut and cover structure in soil usually starts with installation of the initial support of excavation system, which may consists of rigid type of initial supports such as tangent piles or secant piles. These systems usually remain in place after completion of the final structure. However, to simplify the design, it is a common practice to ignore the contribution of initial support. In this study the effect of initial support of excavation on the seismic performance of cut and cover tunnels is investigated by means of a detailed dynamic finite element analysis. Three different tunnel geometries, three soil types and three acceleration histories were considered Results of the study show that depending on the soil stiffness (soft, medium, or stiff soil), the dynamic response of the tunnel deformations are affected significantly by the initial support of excavation. The effect of the initial support diminishes as the quality of the soil improves. Therefore, dynamic analyses are recommended for the final design of this type of structures especially in soft soils.

This study explores the ways in which objects are used in the organization of daily life, by specifically focusing on the use of prayer beads and their mechanical and digital variations. For this purpose, a framework based on material culture and practice theory is employed to understand how Islam informs and guides the organization and the conduct of daily life around the pervasive prayer practices, the ways objects are used for these purposes and how practices and products co-evolve by influencing each other. Fieldwork with devout Muslims, who are using prayer beads together with mechanical and digital counters for their daily praying practices, is conducted by employing ethnomethodology. Findings on the ways in which objects are used, utilized, appropriated and adopted within the socio-cultural and political dynamics of Islam in Turkey are analysed regarding the social and practical aspects of daily life such as the organization of daily life and daily practices, the core issues shaping these practices, thus objects, how identity discourse reflected on/by the use of objects and the ensemble of products that is orchestrated for a meaningful organization of daily life around prayer practices.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder that can develop in the aftermath of a traumatic or life–threatening event involving extreme horror, intense fear or bodily harm. The disorder is typified by a symptom triad consisting of re–experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance symptoms. Approximately 15–25% of trauma–exposed individuals go on to develop PTSD, depending on the nature and severity of the trauma. Although dysfunctional adaptive responses exist in multiple neurobiological pathways in the disorder, e.g. glutamate, GABA, glucocortocoids and serotonin, the noradrenergic system is particularly prominent and represents an important pharmacological target in attempts at preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, current literature shows opposing and conflicting results regarding the effect of selective noradrenergic agents in memory processing, and the effect of modulation of selective noradrenergic receptors are spread over diverse protocols and paradigms of learning and fear also employing different strains of animals. Fear conditioning is a behavioural paradigm that uses associative learning to study the neural mechanisms underlying learning, memory and fear. It is useful in investigating the underpinnings of disorders associated with maladaptive fear responses. Performing fear conditioning experiments with the aim of applying it to an animal model of PTSD, and relating these behavioural responses to a defined neural mechanism, will assist both in the elucidation of the underlying pathology of the disease, as well as the development of more effective treatment. This project has set about to re–examine the diverse and complex role of noradrenergic receptors in the conditioned fear response with relevance to PTSD. To the best of my knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at studying a range of noradrenergic compounds with diverse actions and their ability to modify conditioned fear in a single animal model. This work thus introduces greater consistency and comparative relevance not currently available in the literature, and will also provide much needed pre–clinical evidence in support of treatment strategies targeting the noradrenergic system in the prevention of PTSD posttrauma. The first objective of this study was to set up and validate a passive avoidance fear conditioning protocol under our laboratory conditions using the Gemini Avoidance System. The noradrenergic system plays a prominent role in memory consolidation and fear conditioning, while administration of –adrenergic blockers, such as propranolol, have been shown to abolish learning and fear conditioning in both humans and animals. Propranolol has also demonstrated clinical value in preventing the progression of acute traumatic stress syndrome immediately posttrauma to full–blown PTSD. To confer predictive validity to our model, the centrally active –adrenergic antagonist, propranolol, and the non–centrally acting –adrenergic antagonist, nadolol, were administered to Wistar rats after passive avoidance fear conditioning training in the Gemini Avoidance System. Wistar rats were used because of their recognised enhanced sensitivity to stress. Evidence from this pilot study confirmed that propranolol 10 mg/kg significantly inhibits the consolidation of learned fear in rats, whereas nadolol is ineffective. This effectively validated our protocol and the apparatus for further application in this study and also confirmed the importance of a central mechanism of action for –adrenoceptor blockade in the possible application of these drugs in preventing the development of PTSD posttrauma. The second objective of this study was to investigate the role of 1–, 2–, 1–, and 2–receptors in a conditioned fear passive avoidance paradigm. This was done in order to investigate how selective pharmacological modulation of these receptors may modify the conditioned fear response, and whether any of these receptor systems might exert opposing effects in passive fear conditioning. Various centrally active noradrenergic agents were employed over a 3–tiered dose response design, including the 1–antagonist, prazosin, the 2–agonist, guanfacine, the 2–antagonist, yohimbine, the 1–antagonist, betaxolol and the 2–antagonist ICI 118551. The effect of post–exposure administration of these drugs on conditioned fear was compared to that of propranolol 10 mg/kg. Selected doses of betaxolol (10 mg/kg) and ICI 118551 (1 mg/kg) attenuated fear conditioning to an extent comparable to propranolol, as did prazosin (0.1 mg/kg). Yohimbine tended to boster fear learning at all doses tested, albeit not significantly, while guanfacine did not produce any significant effect on memory retention at any of the doses studied. This latter observation was surprising since yohimbine tended to bolster fear conditioning while earlier studies indicate that 2–agonism impairs conditioned fear. Concluding, this study has conferred validity to our passive avoidance model and has provided greater insight into the separate roles of noradrenergic receptors in contextual conditioned fear learning. The study has provided supportive evidence for a key role for both 1– and 2–antagonism, as well as 1–antagonism, in inhibiting fear memory consolidation and hence as viable secondary treatment options to prevent the development of PTSD posttrauma. However, further study is required to delineate the precise role of the 2–receptor in this regard. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmacology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The 21'' century business environment can be described in terms of globalisation, intensified competitiveness on a global level, and ever-increasing customer expectations. In the changing nature of the world of work, with its increasing complexity, competition and accelerated pace, the issue of leadership development is critical. Executives are pressured to continuously improve their performance, skills and contribution to the organisation. In the mining industry, executives are experiencing ongoing skill shortage, increased job stress, increased job dissatisfaction and the need to redress social imbalances via affirmative action and accelerated career development. This highlights the need to find effective ways of developing executives. In South Africa more traditional forms of executive development, such as prescribed training programmes, courses and business schools are used. Training programmes, courses and business schools do not address specific individual needs but tend to be more generic in content. Over the course of the last 10 years, executive coaching, an oneon- one intervention with middle and senior managers for the purpose of improving or enhancing management skills has become widely adopted by the corporate community. Executive coaching is one of the fastest growing executive development processes in adult learning. Recent literature in the field of coaching purports the advantages of coaching such as increased performance, job satisfaction, team effectiveness, self awareness, decreased job stress, higher optimism and change management. The objectives of this study were to develop an executive coaching programme and to determine the effect of this programme on the general wellbeing, job characteristics, coping strategies, personality characteristics (both pervasive and situational), work-related wellness, as well as the performance of executives in the mining industry in South Africa. A longitudinal design was used. The participants (n = 29) consisted of General Managers, Mine Overseers and Production Managers from one area in a large mining company in South Africa. The Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R), the Job Characteristics Survey - Mining (JCM), the Learned Optimism Scale (LOS), the ituational Sense of Coherence Scale (SSOC), the Perceived Wellness Scale (PWS) and a 360" Performance Evaluation Measurement (PEM) were used. The results showed that the xecutive Coaching Programme developed for this study increased the general wellbeing, job characteristics, performance and coping strategies of the executives in the mining industry. The study also found an increase in the situational personality characteristics (situational sense of coherence and learned optimism) after the completion of the coaching programme. Furthermore, the results showed an increase in the positive affective evaluation of work (engagement) (vigour and professional efficacy), as well as a decrease in the negative affective evaluation of work (burnout) (exhaustion and cynicism). In terms of coping strategies passive coping decreased, while problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping increased. Interestingly, the findings showed an increase in pervasive personality characteristics and a decrease in absorption of executives after completion of the coaching programme. The qualitative results from the dairy study showed very positive reports in relation to the executives' experiences of the performance evaluation process and the executive coaching programme in relation to their development. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.