Open Gardens are those in private homes that have been opened as visitor attractions, where a proportion of money charged for entry is given to charity. Whilst there is a body of literature on garden visiting, there is little empirical research into garden opening. In addition, the existing studies, which were largely based on quantitative methods, do not differentiate between the roles and perspectives of the various agents who produce garden openings. This research investigates how Open Gardens, under the auspices of the charitable organisation Scotland’s Gardens, are collaboratively produced by garden openers, their helpers, volunteers and salaried staff of the organisation. The principal method of data collection was fieldwork that included participant observations from 39 site visits and 41 semi-structured interviews with the four kinds of producers. Supplementary data were generated from archival documents that record the historical development of Open Gardens. Data collected from fieldwork were analysed and categorised according to themes emerging by means of domain analysis. Each theme was carefully defined and described by creating thematic codes. After the preliminary data analysis, ongoing reading of various social theory literatures drew me towards using concepts of power to more deeply understand the nuanced ways in which the four kinds of producers work together. Hearn’s (2012) theoretical framework was employed to examine how power which differs in perception between the various agents in a given social situation operates in the production of Scottish Open Gardens. The data suggest that the meaning of legitimate power exercised by the producers of Scottish Open Gardens is often highly subjective. Some volunteers were reluctant to fully exercise their power to instruct garden openers because they assumed their request would not be accepted or that it would lead to unwanted conflict. Some garden openers concealed their intentions to show off their horticultural achievements through engagement with Scottish Open Gardens, because they perceived that others would regard pursuing such personal interests to be egocentric. The data also suggest that the production of Scottish Open Gardens is partly dependent on non-human forces such as nature or materials. The quality of gardens, the number of visitors and the amount raised for charity were determined by weather conditions, public transportation and even the refreshments on offer. The findings highlight the role of such non-human elements in the production of Scottish Open Gardens, and challenges the conventional premise that human-intentionality alone defines agency. The thesis concludes that the production of Scottish Open Gardens can be more deeply understood by considering the highly fluid, subjective and non-human ways in which power operates. There is no definitively powerful agent present, as the locus of power is continually contested between a rich and complex mixture of human and non-human agents. An implication for practice is that Scotland’s Gardens should clarify which agents may be more or less empowered in given aspects of Open Garden production, and the ways in which his or her power can and should be legitimised. The thesis also offers a broad theoretical framework which may help to more deeply understand the subtle power operations present in the co-production of outdoor leisure and tourism pursuits.

Aim: To describe medical nurses’ experiences caring for patients and families within an environment with open visiting hours (OVH). Background: OVH is an approach where families and friends can visit patients without restrictions. OVH is a strategy used by hospitals to promote patient-and-family-centered care (PFCC). In an OVH environment, the increased presence of family can alter nurses’ working environments. However, research examining nurses’ perspectives on OVH is limited. As OVH becomes more widely implemented, it is essential to understand the influence of OVH on the nurse. Design: A qualitative descriptive approach was used. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 registered nurses on two medical units in a large urban Canadian hospital. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data inductively. Strategies were used to enhance rigour. Results: Four main themes resulted which described participants’ experiences with OVH as they related to the processes and philosophy of OVH, the care of patients and family, and the influence families had on patient care and nurses working environments. An overarching theme of Reliance and Resistance reflected participants’ mixed feelings toward OVH. While OVH facilitated PFCC and alleviated nurses’ work, at times it also hindered opportunities for nurses to get to know patients and added to their work. Further, increased family presence created challenges related to space, overcrowding, increased noise levels, and created concerns about safety. Conclusion: The findings add to an understanding of the clinical realities of OVH from the perspectives of medical nurses, and the potential implications for PFCC and nurses’ working environment. Relevance to clinical practice: OVH creates an environment to foster PFCC. However, nurses may benefit from training to facilitate communication and engagement with families. Organizations who wish to implement OVH should consider how contextual factors may influence nurses’ environments and their practice.

Open Educational Resources (OER) provide openly licensed alternatives to commercial instructional materials. Proponents of K-12 OER suggest that their benefits include cost savings, increased access, improved quality, and increased teacher professionalism or empowerment. While the small body of K-12 OER research is growing, perceived benefits of K-12 OER usage have not yet been proven. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand whether certain potential benefits were being realized by a group of secondary teachers using open science textbooks. In surveys and interviews, teachers were asked to describe their classroom practice before and after adopting an open textbook, including practices relating to openness. Teachers were also asked to rate the quality of open textbooks they were using in contrast to textbooks used previously. Most participants reported changes to practice, and the most commonly cited changes could be attributed to a combination of openness and online format. For example, participants described linking textbook content to other online resources. In comparisons of current to previous practice, however, teachers did not report increases in the open practices of collaboration, revising, or adapting.

Libraries share a number of core values with the Open Source Software (OSS) movement, suggesting there should be a natural tendency toward library participation in OSS projects. However, Dale Askey's 2008 Code4Lib column entitled We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can't Have Our Code, claims that while libraries are strong proponents of OSS, they are unlikely to actually contribute to OSS projects. He identifies, but does not empirically substantiate, six barriers that he believes contribute to this apparent inconsistency. The goal of this thesis is to empirically investigate not only Askey's central claim but also the six barriers he proposes. Additionally, we will utilize statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to identify barriers encountered by libraries as they grapple with whether or not to release their code as open source. We will offer insights into possible correlations between a library's engineering, talent management and innovation policies and practices and its propensity to initiate open source software projects.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores - Major Telecomunicações. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Cette thèse étudie le rôle des différents régimes de propriété intellectuelle (DPI) et évalue ses conséquences sur l'industrie du logiciel. En outre, ce travail porte sur l'équilibre entre deux modèles de logiciels, celui des logiciels privés et celui des logiciels libres et open source, et cherche à évaluer leurs effets sur la performance des entreprises. Ainsi nous discutons dans un premier article les facteurs clés de la cinquième révolution technologique à travers le concept de paradigme technoéconomique (Freeman et Perez, 1988) et nous considérons l'open source comme le principal de ces facteurs. D'autre part, nous étudions les trois aspects des technologies logicielles. Les caractéristiques structurelles des logiciels, c'est-a-dire les économies de gamme (Panzar et Willig, 1981; Teece, 1980) et la modularité (Parnas, 1972; Langlois et Robertson, 1992) représentent les deux premiers. Le régime de propriété intellectuelle, qui est a l'origine des particularités institutionnelles du logiciel (Mazzeloni et Nelson, 1998b), représente le troisième aspect. Au sein de cette thèse nous utilisons différentes méthodologies et considérons plusieurs technologies logicielles pour répondre à nos questions de recherches. Les économies de gamme de logiciels sont étudiées à travers une simulation multi-agents. La recherche sur la modularité est effectuée par une analyse des brevets sur la technologie d'indexation de vidéo. La question des DPI est examinée dans deux chapitres différents. Dans un premier chapitre, une analyse de données de panel est faite pour démontrer l'effet du brevetage et de la contribution au projet du noyau Linux sur la performance des entreprises. Le second chapitre traite quant à lui d'un cas particulier où l'innovation ouverte est réalisée par un groupe de recherche en ingénierie du logiciel au sein d'Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Nozay, France. Ces exemples uniques ne peuvent conclure sur aucune tendance macro sur l'industrie du logiciel, mais cette thèse vise à alimenter les discussions sur les droits de propriété intellectuelle au sein de l'industrie du logiciel. / This thesis studies the role of the intellectual property right (IPR) regimes and its implications on the software industry. Moreover, it focuses on the balance of proprietary and free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) development models for innovative performance. In this thesis, first the concept of key factor of the fifth technological revolution, age of information and telecommunication is discussed within the techno-economic paradigm literature (Freeman and Perez, 1988). Then the three aspects of software technologies are investigated. The first two are the structural characteristics of software which are; economies of scope (Panzar and Willig, 1981; Teece, 1980) and modularity (Parnas, 1972; Langlois and Robertson, 1992). The last one is the IPR regimes which create the institutional peculiarities of software (Mazzeloni and Nelson, 1998b). Inthis thesis, different methodologies are used and several software technologies are considered to illustrate the research questions. Economies of scope of software is investigated by using an agent based simulation. The research on modularity is carried out by exploiting a patent analysis on the video indexing technology. The IPR issue is examined within two different chapters. In the first one, panel data analysis is used to understand the effect of patenting and contribution to the Linuxkernel project on the performance of _rms. The second one focuses on a case where open innovation is implemented by a software R&D group within Alcatel- Lucent Bell Labs, Nozay, France. These unique examples cannot give any macro trend on software industry but this thesis aims to contribute to the IPR discussions within the software industry.

Three macroeconomic issues are examined in separate self-contained studies. The first study tests the business cycle theory with application of an enhanced Augmented Dickey-Fuller test on the U.S. time series of real gross national product. Unlike previous studies, the null hypothesis of a unit root is rejected. The second study tests for IS-LM conditions in the U.S. during the post-Bretton Woods era by combining the Johansen's approach to cointegration with bootstrap algorithms. The estimated model produces a dynamic version of the IS-LM that permits short-term evaluations of fiscal and monetary policies. The third study seeks to explain the observed persistence in the Bolivan dollarization process. It is found that dollarization is now an irreversible process, with the Bolivian economy in transition toward equalization with U.S. prices and interest rates.

A fundamental problem in open pit mine planning is that of determining the optimum ultimate pit limits of the mine. These limits are that pit contour which is the result of extracting a volume of material which maximizes the difference between the value of extracted ore and the total extraction cost of ore and waste whilst satisfying certain practical operational requirements, such as. safe wall slopes. The determination of the optimum pit contour provides information which is essential in the evaluation of the economic potential of the mineral deposit.A number of optimization techniques have been proposed for determining the optimum pit contour. Of these techniques, those based on graph theory, linear programming and dynamic programming are mathematically rigorous, but only those based on graph theory are more suited to solving the three-dimensional problem. Unfortunately, direct application of these techniques to large ore- bodies may cause considerable difficulties because of the exceptionally high demand on computer storage and time requirements. Indeed, 25 years of research effort has not satisfactorily resolved these computational problems.A major contribution of the work presented in this thesis is the successful implementation of a system of techniques to solve the graph theoretic model, particularly when applied to large ore- bodies. A measure of this success is the fact that pits, as much as seven times larger may be designed with a given amount of computer storage, at a fraction of the time required by current software packages. The solution strategy presented involves the application of a modified Dinics Maximum Flow algorithm, together with an efficient data reducing technique. Computational results of these techniques applied on data from gold producing mines in Western Australia are used to demonstrate the success of this strategy.The relationships ++ / between the rigorous pit optimization techniques are also considered in this work. In particular, the Lerchs-Grossman graph-theoret ic method is shown to be stepwise equivalent to a modified version of the Dual-Simplex Linear Programming technique and not as efficient as the Network Flow method.

Bangladesh introduced open and distance learning as a means of providing education for people in isolated and remote locations through the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The broad aim of the BOU is to provide flexible and needs-based education to those unable or not wishing to enter conventional educational institutions. The BOU is presently the only university in Bangladesh to provide mass education and also to provide continuing education and professional and technical education to support the existing educational system. The BOU has a mission that encompasses secondary and higher levels of education. BOU operates its programs through a centralised academic and administrative staff, and regional and local offices throughout Bangladesh that organise local tutorials and distribute information and materials. BOU has adult students in all parts of the country, and most of the students live in rural areas. They need support that is appropriate to their local circumstances. Using an interpretive approach, this research examines the support needs of students studying for the Secondary School Certificate and the Bachelor of Education, assesses the effectiveness of current support services and explores alternatives to the current system. The underlying assumption is that support needs to be appropriate to the country’s culture and circumstances, and useful and feasible from the perspectives of students, staff, administrators and senior university officials. To investigate the appropriate support for distance education students, this research was conducted in four sample regions. Two were selected from areas of sparse population where the terrain makes transport difficult and two from areas that are more densely populated and where transport is easier. A questionnaire survey and focus groups were conducted with students, focus groups with local staff and interviews with Regional Directors within the four sample regions. Interviews were also undertaken with central University senior staff to get their perspectives on current and future policies for student support.

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