Geo-data visualization has always been an important tool in the urban planning process. Recent trends in geo-information technology are, however, offering additional opportunities for the development of new visualization tools. In parallel, developments have also taken place in the field of urban planning, which has evolved from the rational planning model towards a more strategic planning process with a greater emphasis on collaboration and inclusiveness. This study investigates how an innovative geo-data visualisation tool can be used to develop more inclusive and participatory planning processes, and it tests this approach by means of a case study in Tripoli, Lebanon. The study compared two geo-data visualization techniques regarding their potential for an increased involvement of different types of stakeholders in the urban planning processes: The first technique employed coloured printed transparency maps of the present land-use and the 2000-2020 Master Plan, both geo-referenced to a mosaic of QuickBird satellite imagery used to assist the participant’s orientation. The second technique was the Lenticular Foil Display (LFD) using the so-called flip effect, also based on the geo-coding of the same three “layers”. By tilting this product the observer was easily able to interpret the changes between present and planned state. The LFD technology is particularly useful for true-3D (auto-stereoscopic) viewing. Statistical evaluations of questionnaires concerning sociological and perception-scientific aspects revealed interesting details regarding the role of the new visualization method in the participatory city planning process. The result of the interviews revealed that all stakeholders were readily able to participate in the planning process and to contribute their ideas by sketch-map drawing and writing, using the LFD technology. Regarding the possibilities to stimulate the participation of different stakeholders in the planning process, the LFD was found to be more effective than the conventional approach using transparencies overlaid over orthophotos. Non-experts, in particular, preferred the LFD technology to the transparent overlays which were, however, the preferred approach for the professionals and experts familiar with Master Plan map-reading. One conclusion of the present study is that an efficient participatory urban-planning process should explicitly consider the level of map-reading skills of the stakeholders. Geo-data visualization products like the Multi-Flip-LFDs and other innovative approaches offer possibilities to improve stakeholder participation. The monograph closes by making concrete suggestions for further research into the development and optimization of LFDs.

This paper presents the work in progress regarding an international research project based on an empirical survey. It focuses on the early stages of making the adoption decision, thereafter evaluating and selecting an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system prior to implementation in Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). The project seeks to close some of the identified gaps in ERP research. In addition, it attempts to link the results of the early stages of decision making to implementation, usage and evolution success in order to allow important conclusions to be made, for example, on the best practices in decision making or decision quality and success. This project will be restricted to the case of ERP software but will also give insights into the potential of integrating ERP and other important applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Supply Chain Management (SCM). The proposed research seeks to identify any differences and similarities contributing to the analysed research areas between British and Austrian companies. The choice of companies originating from two different regions in Europe is an important precondition in order to formulate results that will be applicable to the European Union in general. Due to the pervasive nature of ERP systems, our research results should be of interest to a wide range of professional and scholarly communities (from software engineering to accounting), in addition to the Information Systems (IS) field. The results presented should especially help practitioners in SMEs facing the important task of introducing an ERP system into their company. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations

Geo-data visualization has always been an important tool in the urban planning process. Recent trends in geo-information technology are, however, offering additional opportunities for the development of new visualization tools. In parallel, developments have also taken place in the field of urban planning, which has evolved from the rational planning model towards a more strategic planning process with a greater emphasis on collaboration and inclusiveness. This study investigates how an innovative geo-data visualisation tool can be used to develop more inclusive and participatory planning processes, and it tests this approach by means of a case study in Tripoli, Lebanon. The study compared two geo-data visualization techniques regarding their potential for an increased involvement of different types of stakeholders in the urban planning processes: The first technique employed coloured printed transparency maps of the present land-use and the 2000-2020 Master Plan, both geo-referenced to a mosaic of QuickBird satellite imagery used to assist the participant’s orientation. The second technique was the Lenticular Foil Display (LFD) using the so-called flip effect, also based on the geo-coding of the same three “layers”. By tilting this product the observer was easily able to interpret the changes between present and planned state. The LFD technology is particularly useful for true-3D (auto-stereoscopic) viewing. Statistical evaluations of questionnaires concerning sociological and perception-scientific aspects revealed interesting details regarding the role of the new visualization method in the participatory city planning process. The result of the interviews revealed that all stakeholders were readily able to participate in the planning process and to contribute their ideas by sketch-map drawing and writing, using the LFD technology. Regarding the possibilities to stimulate the participation of different stakeholders in the planning process, the LFD was found to be more effective than the conventional approach using transparencies overlaid over orthophotos. Non-experts, in particular, preferred the LFD technology to the transparent overlays which were, however, the preferred approach for the professionals and experts familiar with Master Plan map-reading. One conclusion of the present study is that an efficient participatory urban-planning process should explicitly consider the level of map-reading skills of the stakeholders. Geo-data visualization products like the Multi-Flip-LFDs and other innovative approaches offer possibilities to improve stakeholder participation. The monograph closes by making concrete suggestions for further research into the development and optimization of LFDs.

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Scheduling von Tasks in Computersystemen. Wir untersuchen sowohl die in neueren Arbeiten betrachtete Zielfunktion zur Energieminimierung als auch die klassische Zielfunktion zur Lastbalancierung auf mehreren Prozessoren. Beim Speed-Scaling mit Sleep-State darf ein Prozessor, der zu jedem Zeitpunkt seine Geschwindigkeit anpassen kann, auch in einen Schlafmodus übergehen. Unser Ziel ist es, den Energieverbrauch zu minimieren. Wir zeigen die NP-Härte des Problems und klären somit den Komplexitätsstatus. Wir beweisen eine untere Schranke für die Approximationsgüte für eine spezielle natürliche Klasse von Schedules. Ferner entwickeln wir eine Familie von Algorithmen, die gute Approximationsfaktoren liefert, und zeigen, dass diese sogar Lösungen liefert, die optimal für die zuvor erwähnte Klasse von Schedules sind. Anschließend widmen wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit dem folgenden Termin-basierten Scheduling-Problem. Es seien mehrere Prozessoren gegeben, wobei jeder einzelne Prozessor zu jedem Zeitpunkt seine Geschwindigkeit anpassen kann. Ziel ist es wie zuvor, den Energieverbrauch des erzeugten Schedules zu minimieren. Für den Offline-Fall entwickeln wir einen optimalen Polynomialzeit-Algorithmus. Für das Online-Problem erweitern wir die zwei bekannten Ein-Prozessor-Algorithmen Optimal Available und Average Rate. Wir zeigen, dass diese den gleichen bzw. einen um die additive Konstante von eins vergrößerten kompetiven Faktor haben. Bei der Lastbalancierung auf mehreren Prozessoren betrachten wir Offline-Load-Balancing auf identischen Maschinen. Unser Ziel ist es, die Current-Load für temporäre Tasks mit identischem Gewicht zu minimieren. Wir zeigen, dass eine Lösung mit maximaler Imbalance von eins immer existiert und entwickeln einen effizienten Algorithmus, der solche Lösungen liefert. Zum Schluss beweisen wir die NP-Härte von zwei Verallgemeinerungen des Problems. / This thesis studies problems of scheduling tasks in computing environments. We consider both the modern objective function of minimizing energy consumption, and the classical objective of balancing load across machines. We first investigate offline deadline-based scheduling in the setting of a single variable-speed processor that is equipped with a sleep state. The objective is that of minimizing the total energy consumption. Apart from settling the complexity of the problem by showing its NP-hardness, we provide a lower bound of 2 for general convex power functions, and a particular natural class of schedules. We also present an algorithmic framework for designing good approximation algorithms. Furthermore, we give tight bounds for the aforementioned particular class of schedules. We then focus on the multiprocessor setting where each processor has the ability to vary its speed. We first study the offline problem and show that optimal schedules can be computed efficiently in polynomial time. Regarding the online problem and a natural class of power functions, we extend the two well-known single-processor algorithms Optimal Available and Average Rate. We prove that Optimal Available has the same competitive ratio as in the single-processor case. For Average Rate we show a competitive factor that increases by an additive constant of one compared to the single-processor result. With respect to load balancing, we consider offline load balancing on identical machines, with the objective of minimizing the current load, for temporary unit-weight jobs. The problem can be seen as coloring n intervals with k colors, such that for each point on the line, the maximal difference between the number of intervals of any two colors is minimal. We prove that a coloring with maximal difference at most one is always possible, and develop a fast polynomial-time algorithm for generating such a coloring. Lastly, we prove that two generalizations of the problem are NP-hard.