This paper gives an overview of workflow management systems (WfMSs) and their security requirements with focus on access mechanisms. It is a descriptive paper in which we examine the state of the art of workflow systems, describe what security risks affect WfMSs in particular, and how these can be diminiuished. WfMSs manage, illustrate and support business processes. They contribute to the performance, automation and optimization of processes, which is important in the global economy today. The security of process flows is important, since the sensitive business data need to be protected to inhibit illegal activities, such as blackmailing, imitation and fraud and to provide for good customer service. This paper focuses on access mechanisms, because they are basic security mechanisms used by WfMSs assuring that only authorized users are provided access to data and resources. Also because of the unsecurity of the Internet, which is commonly used as infrastructure of Workflow systems, additional security mechanisms, such as PKIs, digital signatures and SSL have to be used to provide secure workflows. Depending on the particular requirements in workflow systems, different extensional access control (AC) mechanisms have been developed to maintain security. But when it comes to commercially used WfMSs, the availability of the system is of utmost importance. It is the prerequisite for the system to be employed by companies. The problem is that there is always a trade-off between availability of the system and security. Because this trade off is generally solved in favor of availability, a major part of the developed AC mechanisms are not used in commercially used WfMS. After the first part of this paper which is rather theoretical, we examine a commercial WfMS, namely IBM's MQ Workflow , and its security mechanisms. We show vulnerabilities of the system that could be abused by attackers. Afterwards, we show which security mechanisms, in particular, AC mechanisms are provided to secure against threats. We conclude with a summary, which highlights the difference between security concepts developed in the research area and those really implemented by the commercially used WfMS.

M. Tech. / The objectives of the study were: • To measure the extent to which clients understand their role in health and safety on site and accept it as their responsibility from the inception phase through to the maintenance phase; • To establish to what extent clients actively influence construction health and safety performance on their project; • To determine whether clients address health and safety in all phases of their construction projects; • To establish whether clients pre-qualify their appointed contractors on the basis of construction health and safety performance; and • To evaluate whether there is a correlation between client involvement in health and safety and actual health and safety performance. The literature is largely silent on client influence on health and safety during the later phases of a project. Very little has been written about client influence on health and safety and this is further enforced in clients delegating health and safety responsibilities to the consultants and contractor and regarding this as completion of their duties. Further, client should have major influence on the initial phases of construction rather than the later stages as the literature has shown decreased influence on health and safety with project evolvement. Clients regard themselves as most influential in the later phases of a project. The literature found that 63% of fatalities were traceable to pre-construction activities. The reason for poor health and safety is that clients see themselves as being responsible for and addressing health and safety in the later phases of a project.

Password Management Systems är system som hjälper användaren skapa kontroll över sinaanvändarkonton och lösenord. Denna studie analyserar tre utvalda system, hur användarvänliga de är samtvilken typ av autentisering och kryptering de använder. Metoden som används är experiment tillsammansmed intervjuer av fem deltagare, varav alla hade olika erfarenheter med datorer. Studien har visat attanvändarvänligheten bland flerparten av systemen är höga. Risker finns bland upprepade lösenord ochanvändarnamn, samt osäker autentisering. Denna studie visar att Password Managment Systems kanenkelt hjälpa användare att skapa och använda säkra lösenord. Framtida arbeten finns att titta närmare påsäkerheten bland Password Management Systems, en fallstudie i organisationer samt titta närmare påsvenska system.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agronomy / Ignacio Ciampitti / Potential yield (PY) is defined by the yield limited by temperature, radiation, and genetics – under no limitation on nutrients or water. The difference between PY and actual yield (AY) is defined as yield gap (YG). Management practices such as planting date, row spacing, seeding rate, fertilization program, pest, and disease control can help producers to intensify the productivity of the farming systems and consequently, close the YGs. To evaluate the impact of different management system (MS, specific combination of management practices) on closing the YG the following objectives were established: i) conduct a historical synthesis analysis to characterize shifts in soybean yields, biomass and nutrient uptake and partitioning dissecting the main physiological component related to nutrient use efficiency, seed nutrient composition and nutrient stoichiometry; ii) study the contribution of five MS for intensifying maize-soybean production systems; iii) quantify the nitrogen (N) contribution from the biological N fixation (BNF) process for soybeans under two contrasting MSs (low vs. high inputs); and iv) utilize the same contrasting input treatments to calibrate the Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM) for modeling a maize – soybean rotation and apply the parametrized model to estimate a long-term (1980-2016) simulation. For the first objective, main findings indicate that soybean yield increase over time was driven by an increase in biomass with a relatively small variation in harvest index, and with modern varieties producing more yield per unit of N uptake. For the second objective, field experiments demonstrated that intensification practices (narrow row spacing, increasing seeding rate and implementation of a balanced nutrition program) increased yields in both soybeans and maize under rainfed and irrigated conditions. For the third objective, to better understand the soybean N status, BNF measurements were collected during the 2015 growing season and also investigated in a greenhouse setting. The B value, N fixation when plants are fully relying on atmospheric N, changed among varieties, growth stages and plant fractions. Overall B value at R7 (beginning of maturity) was -1.97 contrasting with the -1.70 value reported as mode according to a literature review. For the range of fixation measured in this research (average of 45-57%), utilization of a B value obtained from the scientific literature or measured in field conditions will have a reduced impact on BNF estimations. Lastly, for the last and fourth objective, the APSIM performed well in estimating yield, biomass production and total N uptake with a high model efficiency and low relative root mean square error (RRMSE). The long-term simulation helped characterize the YG for each crop and MS according to different weather patterns. The modeling approach increased the value of data collected in field experiments. Overall, this research project provided an approach to quantifying and understanding YGs in a maize-soybean rotation and the impact of different MSs on intensifying productivity. Future work can be conducted to model specific MSs to advise producers on the best management systems (BMSs) for sustainably intensifying productivity while minimizing the environmental footprint of current farming systems.

Electric powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a promi- nent aviation concept due to the advantageous such as stealth operation and zero emission. In addition, fuel cell powered electric UAVs are more attrac- tive as a result of the long endurance capability of the propulsion system. This dissertation investigates novel power management architecture for fuel cell and battery powered unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion application. The research work focused on the development of a power management system to control the hybrid electric propulsion system whilst optimizing the fuel cell air supplying system performances. The multiple power sources hybridization is a control challenge associated with the power management decisions and their implementation in the power electronic interface. In most applications, the propulsion power distribu- tion is controlled by using the regulated power converting devices such as unidirectional and bidirectional converters. The amount of power shared with the each power source is depended on the power and energy capacities of the device. In this research, a power management system is developed for polymer exchange membrane fuel cell and Lithium-Ion battery based hybrid electric propulsion system for an UAV propulsion application. Ini- tially, the UAV propulsion power requirements during the take-off, climb, endurance, cruising and maximum velocity are determined. A power man- agement algorithm is developed based on the UAV propulsion power re- quirement and the battery power capacity. Three power states are intro- duced in the power management system called Start-up power state, High power state and Charging power state. The each power state consists of the power management sequences to distribute the load power between the battery and the fuel cell system. A power electronic interface is developed Electric powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a promi- nent aviation concept due to the advantageous such as stealth operation and zero emission. In addition, fuel cell powered electric UAVs are more attrac- tive as a result of the long endurance capability of the propulsion system. This dissertation investigates novel power management architecture for fuel cell and battery powered unmanned aerial vehicle propulsion application. The research work focused on the development of a power management system to control the hybrid electric propulsion system whilst optimizing the fuel cell air supplying system performances. The multiple power sources hybridization is a control challenge associated with the power management decisions and their implementation in the power electronic interface. In most applications, the propulsion power distribu- tion is controlled by using the regulated power converting devices such as unidirectional and bidirectional converters. The amount of power shared with the each power source is depended on the power and energy capacities of the device. In this research, a power management system is developed for polymer exchange membrane fuel cell and Lithium-Ion battery based hybrid electric propulsion system for an UAV propulsion application. Ini- tially, the UAV propulsion power requirements during the take-off, climb, endurance, cruising and maximum velocity are determined. A power man- agement algorithm is developed based on the UAV propulsion power re- quirement and the battery power capacity. Three power states are intro- duced in the power management system called Start-up power state, High power state and Charging power state. The each power state consists of the power management sequences to distribute the load power between the battery and the fuel cell system. A power electronic interface is developed with a unidirectional converter and a bidirectional converter to integrate the fuel cell system and the battery into the propulsion motor drive. The main objective of the power management system is to obtain the controlled fuel cell current profile as a performance variable. The relationship between the fuel cell current and the fuel cell air supplying system compressor power is investigated and a referenced model is developed to obtain the optimum compressor power as a function of the fuel cell current. An adaptive controller is introduced to optimize the fuel cell air supplying system performances based on the referenced model. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system based controller dynamically adapts the actual compressor operating power into the optimum value defined in the reference model. The online learning and training capabilities of the adaptive controller identify the nonlinear variations of the fuel cell current and generate a control signal for the compressor motor voltage to optimize the fuel cell air supplying system performances. The hybrid electric power system and the power management system were developed in real time environment and practical tests were conducted to validate the simulation results.

One of the most significant keys to value creation comes from placing emphasis on producing knowledge. The production of knowledge must a major part of the production strategy. This study aims to harness the concept of knowledge management (KM) as an essential element in the creation of sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. Accordingly, this research seeks to highlight the concept of knowledge management systems (KMS) as an essential element, in which the decision support system (DSS) and organisational performance (OP) are elements that control the survival of organisations in the marketplace. The industry requires creative thinking to generate innovation, learning and excellence in knowledge cognition and knowledge inertia, as well as knowledge acquisition (KA), and spending in three types of DSS: the group decision support system (GDSS), executive support system (ESS) and the expert system (ES). It also requires investment in experience inertia and in work teams for the purpose of access to cross-pollination of the information between the employees and to find new ideas about the industry. This study aims to investigate the issues and factors which affect the utilisation of KM as a tool for effective decision-making (DM).Therefore, decision models and DSSs which enhance effective utilisation of this approach will be investigated. Accordingly, a conceptual model based on the literature review and consultations with knowledge workers was developed. Studies of collaborating organisations which are active in manufacturing in Iraq and the UK were performed to validate the conceptual model and facilitate exploratory investigation regarding the relationships. Data was collected using personal interviews with managers and knowledge workers at the enterprises, in addition to use of the questionnaire which was distributed to samples within these firms. A case study method was used in the data collection stage. These case studies could also be implemented for the mechanical, systems engineering, and manufacturing industries. This is because the findings have been tested where the primary objectives of this study investigate KM gaps in the manufacturing industries generally. This study has also addressed the examined objectives by providing an explanation of several issues, identifying the key sources of KM and the corresponding factors. According to the study, KM is found to occur most strongly over the stages of manufacturing and on which high level KM mainly occurs. Furthermore, this study ties together the concepts of KM, DSS and performance as a way of creating sustinable competitive advantage for the firms. Similarly, the study examines the current use of KM tools and assesses the most prominent methods. This study explores the role of KM in industrial firms and the limitation of obstacles to avoid the gaps. Thus, this study proposes a businesslike framework and creative method, explaining comprehensively how KM must adjust in order to align employees' ideas with the firm's larger goals effectively and strategically, which will reduce the lack of harmonisation between the polarisation and implementation of KMS to those firms. The study identifies high correlation between KM and OP, in addition to identifying high correlation between computer-based DSS and OP.

This thesis explores the role of fresh water in Bronze Age Crete. It presents a catalogue of Minoan water management systems, and investigates the ways in which these systems were incorporated into broader social, political, economic, religious and cultural processes and practices. While the primary focus of this thesis revolves around the data collected on water management systems, it also explores the place of fresh water in Minoan art, iconography, and ritual action. While water is a fundamental resource, and the provision of fresh water on Crete is affected by special geological, geographic, and climatological issues, this has been a largely neglected area in the literature on Minoan archaeology. The thesis seeks to redress this neglect, and argues that the evidence reveals a culture that was deeply concerned with fresh water, developing technologically sophisticated solutions, and devoting considerable economic resources, and political and religious attention to it. One of the key claims of this thesis is that fresh water was a meaningful and valued commodity in Bronze Age Crete, and certain sources of water were particularly revered. This status was exploited by elite groups, who invested in often monumental and highly visible systems for collecting and storing fresh water, in order to assert and reaffirm their special status. Fresh water was also incorporated into ritual practice, and – through its innate capacity to act as a conduit for complex meanings and metaphors – participated in the construction of Minoan religious and cultural beliefs. This thesis also draws out the ways in which water’s religious meaningfulness was incorporated into elite strategies of social control and the construction of an ideology of difference.

The thesis is focused on workflow processes and systems for their design and management. It tries to show readers more familiar way with the nature of these systems and features that should support. It tries to accomplish three goals. The first goal is to determine the criteria by which you can judge the quality of workflow management system. These criteria must be sorted by the importance of specific situations, which are designed weighting of the criteria and technique for their calculation. The second goal of this work is the selection of appropriate tools for testing and subsequent practical test, focusing on appointment criteria and metrics selected for their assessment. The third goal is the inclusion of a practical example of a real process design modifications to make it suitable for using of workflow system to increase its effectiveness. Selected process is the transfer of information between school studies and legal guardians of students by e-mail, prepared for Secondary school, Dubno. The thesis is splitted in two halves for achieving the objectives of the work.The first two chapters are about the theoretical introduce, what benefits can bring the use of workflow systems and what steps to take to be able to effectively and meaningfully utilized. These informations were used from the literature focused primarily on workflow and process management. The third chapter focuses on the practical part, where the selected studies focused on the evaluation criteria workflow systems, build a suitable combination of the current set of criteria and application to selected systems management workflow. In the last chapter of the thesis are processed informations obtained from employees of SOS and SOU Dubno and where is described the current state of that process, a proposal how to make it more effective with using workflow system. Contribution of this thesis is the first assess of the current state workflow on the market and, secondly, the possibility of its use to increase the efficiency of the administrative process SOS and SOU Dubno.

Includes bibliographical references / Although learning management systems (LMSs) have been widely adopted by universities in developing countries, their potential to support students' learning has not been fully exploited due to several factors. Some of the factors limiting the more successful implementation of LMSs in developing country universities have been identified and reported in this study. Most importantly, LMS implementation in developing country universities is constrained by limited institutional ICT infrastructures, Internet bandwidth and electricity outages that affect the accessibility of LMS services by the students. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can we better use the available ICTs and ICT infrastructure in developing country universities to enhance the accessibility of the LMS services by students to better support the implementation of LMSs? The research question was addressed through surveys and experimentation. Two surveys were carried out, and the findings of these surveys were useful in: understanding the current state of practice in LMS implementation in developing country universities; defining the problem; understanding the students' LMS expectations and needs; and deciding the nature of the intervention to be implemented. Through the surveys, it was established that the majority of students in the surveyed universities possessed mobile phones, most of which being internet enabled phones. The study therefore explored the possibility of enabling and enhancing mobile access for LMS services so as to enhance students' LMS accessibility through their mobile phones. The design, development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention (the mobile LMS) were achieved through a user-centred development approach that included participatory design, prototyping and user experience evaluation. An impact evaluation of the mobile LMS intervention indicated that: mobile LMS interfaces can lead to students' increased access and use of the LMS through mobile phones; students prefer streamlined mobile LMS interfaces with fewer and block-based services; with streamlined mobile LMS interfaces, students are able to get the LMS services they need on their mobile phones without the need for desktop and laptop computers and without the need for the full desktop LMS interfaces. While the streamlined mobile LMS allows the students an opportunity to more satisfactorily access the LMS services through their mobile phones, it also takes away the pressure from the constrained institutional ICT infrastructure and facilities such as computer laboratories. The design and development process of the mobile LMS intervention highlighted that students' involvement leads to creation of more usable and useful mobile LMS interfaces and that most of the students' mobile LMS needs can be achieved through a cross-platform mobile Web application.

The Oil and Gas (O&G) Industry has been one of the most environmentally questioned sectors in the lastdecades, where the management of the resources and impact over natural life has been severelycriticized. There are many adverse effects of the activities around the O&G business, from which theconsumption of energy and the emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) stand out to be one of the mostimportant aspects to mitigate. This project studies the actual EnMS in E&P and develops measures of improvement using establishedmanagement tools in the division, applying the principles of the ISO 50001 Standard, to include energysavings and GHG emissions mitigation in the lifecycle of Repsol’s E&P operated assets. The main focuslands over three core elements: the Integrated Project Management platform for new projects, the EnergyPlanning follow-up applications, and the implementation of relevant energy audit outlines.