This work is a research in the field of systems science, emphasising the importance of applying models and theories that have been developed in this area. This work studies the possibility of using James Miller's living systems theory (LST) as a diagnostic tool. The application area was project management processes used when developing computerised information systems. The focus on the analyses was on the critical subsystems that process information. Based on this study it was found that LST function as a diagnostic tool according to the following criteria: it was possible to identify the critical subsystems in the application, the critical subsystems covered relevant information flows in the application and LST could make a unique contribution in the analyses of the application.

Living systems theory provides a conceptual model the use of which might help to improve the understanding of an organisation and its problems, thus helping analysts to find solutions to these problems. A method to guide the application of living systems theory to the analysis of organisations is needed. In this work, a number of methods based on living systems theory are analysed, and a method for analysing organisations that consists of nine steps based on fundamental living systems theory concepts and, to some extent, the aforementioned methods is proposed. The steps of the method range from the initial problem, i. e. the reason to undertake the analysis, to the evaluation of the final solution. The method is iterative - the analyst will have to go back and forth between the steps of the method - and is also supposed to be continually applied. Together with this method a number of description techniques are proposed. Several of these description techniques are graphical, which will hopefully enhance readability and maintainability.

The purpose was to investigate the relationship between Canadian and Saskatchewan PISA 2009 reading performance and organizational learning (OL) conditions as perceived by students and principals when selected student and school characteristics were taken into consideration. Gender, Aboriginal status, and socioeconomic status were the student characteristics that were considered. School size, urban versus rural school community, proportion of students self-identified as Aboriginal, and school average socioeconomic status were school characteristics taken into consideration. A nationally represented sample of 978 schools and 23,207 15-year-old students across the ten Canadian provinces participated in the PISA 2009. Within this sample, 1,997 students and 99 schools were from Saskatchewan. Principal components analyses were conducted to produce components for the calculation of two composite (OL) indices: a Student OL Index based on the Canada and OECD PISA student questionnaires and a School OL Index based on OECD PISA school questionnaire. Subsequently, two hierarchal linear modelling analyses were employed to examine the association of student-level OL index and school-level OL index with reading performance. Across Canadian and Saskatchewan schools, students’ perspective of OL conditions was positively associated with reading performance in the presence of the selected student and school characteristics. Except for one school-level OL component (i.e., principal’s perspective of school culture/environment) in the Canadian model, school-level OL conditions were not significantly associated to reading performance in the presence of student and school characteristics. With the adjustment of student and contextual characteristics incorporated in the modelling, the average reading performance was comparable across Canadian and Saskatchewan schools, 528 and 523 respectively. Variance decomposition of final models indicated that 55% of the Canadian school-level variance in reading achievement and 68% of the Saskatchewan school-level variance were explained by the selected student and school characteristics along with student perspective of OL conditions. The findings from this study supported the hypothesis that OL conditions are associated with student achievement. Additionally, it was noted that the effect of OL conditions was of similar magnitude to that of the socioeconomic status effect. Furthermore, the findings from this study further emphasized the importance of the student voice within the school OL framework.

While many organisations, including business and civil society, have recognized the imperative of sustainable development, without structural changes to an organisations’ governance system, sustained change is impeded. The Natural Step (TNS) Social Template is hereby expanded to guide organisations to develop systems for decision-making, information generation and distribution, and resource allocation that allows for, rather than inhibits, change capacity. A systemic approach to organisational development that does not undermine the capacity of their members to meet their needs can contribute to increased productivity, member engagement and commitment, and drive the innovation necessary for altering our complex, dynamic social-ecological systems in alignment with sustainability. Our research explores the internal factors that may create barriers to organisational change and sustainability. In addition, we synthesise basic human needs, systems’ science, and organisational change research into concrete guidelines for strategic sustainable development within the TNS Social Template framework. We aim to provide an integrated approach for internal social sustainability and strategic planning for improved governance systems. / <p>Contact for more information: olersmarie@hotmail.com geneva.rae@ualberta.net julia.smolyaninoa@hotmail.com</p>

Undergraduate students lack the opportunity and environment to contemplate and develop ecoliteracy skills that serve to integrate subject matter into their everyday experiences. Ecoliteracy is grounded in Capra's web of life theoretical framework and represents students' capacities to read world systems objectively with their head, heart, hands, and spirit. Contemplative pedagogy provides educators with exercises that give students time to reflect on the integration of learning. Ecoliteracy and contemplative pedagogy research has shown little quantitative data pertaining to how contemplative pedagogy affects undergraduate student ecoliteracy. To address that gap, this causal-comparative study measured the use of contemplative pedagogy exercises relative to undergraduate student ecoliteracy. A convenience sample of 150 undergraduate students who did and did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises completed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form. Independent-samples t tests measured the differences between the 2 groups. Findings indicated that students who did not experience contemplative pedagogy exercises in the classroom were more likely to self-report higher ecoliteracy. A possible interpretation of these findings is that current contemplative pedagogy exercises may focus students' attention internally and not adequately promote the world-centered view that would more readily advance student ecoliteracy skills. Results of this study provide further insight that may inform professional development and contemplative pedagogy exercises that empowers students' ecoliteracy skills by encouraging critical thinking, action, and compassion towards positive social change.

Potentially transformational ideas in several applications of human and computer interaction form the motivation for this work. It is targeted towards a systematic approach to the design of systems with complex, intelligent and interactive exchange of information between a system and the environment it is meant to monitor, and gather knowledge about. The Pahl and Beitz systematic design method is modified with the inclusion of generic sub-systems from Living Systems Theory, modeling and simulation tools and other adaptations within the context of the validation square to synthesize a design method for the design of systems with intelligent and interactive information flow. The validation of the proposed design method is carried out with the aid of an example wherein a motion capture system is designed based on the Nintendo Wii Remote(TM). Results include an evaluation of the performance of a prototype as well as the design method itself in the context of the requirements that the method must fulfill.

L'instrumentation permet à notre environnement, maison ou bâtiment, de devenir intelligent en s'adaptant à nos modes de vie et en nous assistant au quotidien. Un environnement intelligent est sensible et réactif à nos activités, afin d'améliorer notre qualité de vie. La fiabilité d'identification des activités est ainsi essentielle pour cette intelligence ambiante : elle est directement dépendante du positionnement des capteurs au sein de l'environnement. Cette question essentielle du placement des capteurs est très peu considérée par les systèmes ambiants commercialisés ou même dans la littérature. Pourtant, elle est la source principale de leurs dysfonctionnements où une mauvaise reconnaissance des activités entraîne une mauvaise assistance fournie. Le placement de capteurs consiste à choisir et à positionner des capteurs pertinents pour une identification fiable des activités. Dans cette thèse, nous développons et détaillons une méthodologie de placement de capteurs axée sur l'identifiabilité des activités d'intérêt. Nous la qualifions en nous intéressant à deux évaluations différentes : la couverture des intérêts et l'incertitude de mesures. Dans un premier temps, nous proposons un modèle de l'activité où nous décomposons l'activité en actions caractérisées afin d'être indépendant de toute technologie ambiante (axée connaissances ou données). Nous représentons actions et capteurs par un modèle ensembliste unifiant, permettant de fusionner des informations homogènes de capteurs hétérogènes. Nous en évaluons l'identifiabilité des actions d'intérêt au regard des capteurs placés, par des notions de précision (performance d'identification) et de sensibilité (couverture des actions). Notre algorithme de placement des capteurs utilise la Pareto-optimalité pour proposer une large palette de placements-solutions pertinents et variés, pour ces multiples identifiabilités à maximiser. Nous illustrons notre méthodologie et notre évaluation en utilisant des capteurs de présence, et en choisissant optimalement la caractéristique à couvrir pour chaque action. Dans un deuxième temps, nous nous intéressons à la planification optimale des expériences où l'analyse de la matrice d'information permet de quantifier l'influence des sources d'incertitudes sur l'identification d'une caractéristique d'action. Nous représentons les capteurs continus et l'action caractérisée par un modèle analytique, et montrons que certaines incertitudes doivent être prises en compte et intégrées dans une nouvelle matrice d'information. Nous y appliquons les indices d'observabilité directement pour évaluer l'identifiabilité d'une action caractérisée (incertitude d'identification). Nous illustrons cette évaluation alternative en utilisant des capteurs d'angle, et nous la comparons à la matrice d'information classique. Nous discutons des deux évaluations abordées et de leur complémentarité pour la conception d’environnement instrumenté pour la veille à la personne. / Instrumentation enables our environment, house or building, to get smart through self-adjustment to our lifestyles and through assistance of our daily-life. A smart environment is sensitive and responsive to our activities, in order to improve our quality of life. Reliability of activities' identification is absolutely necessary to such ambient intelligence: it depends directly on sensors' positioning within the environment. This fundamental issue of sensor placement is hardly considered by marketed ambient systems or even into the literature. Yet, it is the main source of ambient systems' malfunctions and failures, because a bad activity recognition leads to a bad delivered assistance. Sensor placement is about choosing and positioning relevant sensors for a reliable identification of activities. In this thesis, we develop and detail a sensor placement methodology driven by identifiability of activities of interest. We quantify it by looking at two different evaluations: coverage of interests and uncertainty of measures. First, we present an activity model that decomposes each activity into characterised actions to be technology-free (either knowledge or data driven one). We depict actions and sensors by a set theoretic model, enabling to fuse homogeneous informations of heterogeneous sensors. We then evaluate each action of interest's identifiability regarding placed sensors, through notions of precision (identification's performance) and sensitivity (action's coverage). Our sensor placement algorithm use Pareto-optimality to offer a wide range of relevant solution-placements, for these multiple identifiabilities to maximise. We showcase our methodology and our evaluation through solving a problem featuring motion and binary sensors, by optimally choosing for each action the characteristic to cover. Finally, we look into optimal design of experiments by analysing the information matrix to quantify how sources of uncertainties influence the identification of an action's characteristic. We depict continuous sensors and the characterised action by an analytical model, and we show that some uncertainties should be considered and included in a new information matrix. We then apply directly observability indexes to evaluate identifiability of a characterised action (uncertainty of identification), and compare our new information matrix to the classical one. We showcase our alternate evaluation through solving a sensor placement problem featuring angular sensors. We discuss both covered evaluations and their complementarity towards the design of instrumented environment for human monitoring.

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Text in Afrikaans / Key terms in English and Afrikaans / Verskeie tekortkomings is in die bestaande konseptuele model en kwantitatiewe navorsingsliteratuur oor skofwerk geidentifiseer. Ontevredenheid met die oorvereenvoudigde oorsaak-gevolg-verklarings vir getroude vroue se skofwerkervaring het in die studie gelei tot die ontwikkeling van 'n ekologiese model van vroueskofwerk. Hierdie nuwe konseptuele model weerspieel 'n altematiewe benadering waar erkenning gegee word aan die bestaan van meervoudige realiteite wat mense in konsensus deur taal konstrueer. Die oogmerk met die ekologiese model is om, met inagneming van vroueskofwerkers se wyer konteks, patrone te ondersoek van hoe die verskillende beskrywings van getroude vroue se ervaring van skofwerk bymekaar pas. Daarmee kan 'n meer sistemiese begrip verkry word wat die kompleksiteit van menslike interaksie respekteer. Die ekologiese model van vroueskofwerk is ontwikkel as 'n hulpmiddel vir die waamemer om ryk, beskrywende ekologiese verhale te kan konstrueer van hoe getroude vroue se belewing van skofwerk tot sistemiese ontwrigting of behoud kan lei. / Several shortcomings have been identified in the existing conceptual model and quantitative research literature regarding shiftwork. Dissatisfaction with the oversimplified cause-effect-explanations for married women's shiftwork experience has led to the development of an ecological model of women shiftwork in this study. This new conceptual model reflects an alternative approach where recognition is given to the existence of multiple realities which are consensually created by people through language. The aim with the ecological model, by taking into account the broader context of women shiftworkers, is to search for patterns of how the different descriptions of women's experience of shiftwork fit together. This offers a more systemic view that respects the complexity of human interaction. The ecological model for women shiftwork is developed as an aid to the observer to construct rich, descriptive ecological stories about how married women's experience of shiftwork can lead to systemic disruption or conservation. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Text in Afrikaans / Key terms in English and Afrikaans / Verskeie tekortkomings is in die bestaande konseptuele model en kwantitatiewe navorsingsliteratuur oor skofwerk geidentifiseer. Ontevredenheid met die oorvereenvoudigde oorsaak-gevolg-verklarings vir getroude vroue se skofwerkervaring het in die studie gelei tot die ontwikkeling van 'n ekologiese model van vroueskofwerk. Hierdie nuwe konseptuele model weerspieel 'n altematiewe benadering waar erkenning gegee word aan die bestaan van meervoudige realiteite wat mense in konsensus deur taal konstrueer. Die oogmerk met die ekologiese model is om, met inagneming van vroueskofwerkers se wyer konteks, patrone te ondersoek van hoe die verskillende beskrywings van getroude vroue se ervaring van skofwerk bymekaar pas. Daarmee kan 'n meer sistemiese begrip verkry word wat die kompleksiteit van menslike interaksie respekteer. Die ekologiese model van vroueskofwerk is ontwikkel as 'n hulpmiddel vir die waamemer om ryk, beskrywende ekologiese verhale te kan konstrueer van hoe getroude vroue se belewing van skofwerk tot sistemiese ontwrigting of behoud kan lei. / Several shortcomings have been identified in the existing conceptual model and quantitative research literature regarding shiftwork. Dissatisfaction with the oversimplified cause-effect-explanations for married women's shiftwork experience has led to the development of an ecological model of women shiftwork in this study. This new conceptual model reflects an alternative approach where recognition is given to the existence of multiple realities which are consensually created by people through language. The aim with the ecological model, by taking into account the broader context of women shiftworkers, is to search for patterns of how the different descriptions of women's experience of shiftwork fit together. This offers a more systemic view that respects the complexity of human interaction. The ecological model for women shiftwork is developed as an aid to the observer to construct rich, descriptive ecological stories about how married women's experience of shiftwork can lead to systemic disruption or conservation. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

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