Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-224).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-200).

Introduction: Thailand is experiencing a demographic change with an increasing elderly population. The care of elderly is mainly within the family, however changes that comes with modernization is leading to an increase in nursing homes and changing values. Purpose: The purpose is to explore and understand four professional social workers - with academic and practical experience, point of view on  how elderly care in Thailand is changing and what role social workers have in that change. The study aims to explore how the social workers perceive how elderly care and social work is developing in Thailand. Method: Semi structured interviews with four social workers were conducted after convenience sampling and snowball sampling. I have used an inductive approach when researching since the purpose in the beginning was general and later narrowed down. Theory: The theory used in this thesis is the system theory.Results: The results were divided into three main themes answering each research question. The social workers’ believed elderly’s role is changing and that depending on their children to provide for them has been replaced with elderly now taking care of themselves. The social workers’ working within the elderly field is few and their role can be administrative but also educating, empowering the elderly. Discussion: Social workers’ role as educators is important since the elderly reforms are new and may be unknown for some Thai elderly. The government has taken another path, focusing on home health care rather than expanding nursing homes. This sector is mainly private and fee based and expanding without demands on regulations and registration.

M.A. (Psychology) / The present study represents an attempt to develop a metatheory with regard to counseling theory and practice. The metatheory is based upon principles abstracted from the General Systems Theory, whereby it is possible to encompass all levels of client functioning in the explanation of behavior and the application of helping strategies. The present state of theory in counseling was taken as the point of departure. Counseling theory is shown to be hindered by a state of seperateness and fragmentation. It is also shown that there currently exists a tendency towards the integration of different theories and the helping strategies involved. Eclecticism is studied as a way of integrating different counseling strategies. It is shown that although applicable as a method of integration, eclecticism is theoretically unsatisfactory because of its subjective and unsystematic character. Other methods of integration and its implications to the development of a meta theory in counseling is then discussed. The General Systems Theory is then discussed in terms of its value to the development of a metatheory in counseling. It is shown that by differentiating between the complex systems representing an individual's functioning, and the cybernetic feedback cycles involved in these systems, valuable guidelines for the implementation of helping strategies can be obtained. Two cybernetic feedback cycles that ought to be closely moni- . tored during the counseling process is mentioned. They are (a) the interactions amongst biological and physiological factors, thinking, feeling and acting, and (b) the feedback patterns in the larger social systems of which the client forms part, for example family and career functioning...

In this paper we consider three topics in reliability and maintenance. Their common feature is the explicit consideration of interdependence, either amongst components within a machine, amongst stages in a logistics chain, or amongst machines sharing maintenance facilities. Chapter 1 examines measures of the contribution of a component towards a system's reliability; these measures include structural importance, marginal reliability importance, joint reliability importance, and link importance. We review these different measures and examine how they relate to each other. We show that some structural results previously derived for independent components continue to hold for associated components. We then propose extensions to each importance measure to cover components which have two failure modes rather than the conventional one, and show that these extensions largely retain the properties of the original definitions. Chapter 2 examines a system containing one machine subject to random failure, for which we wish to determine a maintenance policy and a spare ordering policy. We consider the solvability and desirability of jointly optimizing these two traditionally separate policies. We discuss why the general form of the problem is intractable and show how it might be approached using bounds and heuristic policies; more importantly, we examine several special cases which are more tractable. Particular attention is paid to systems which contain only one spare at a time; we show that these systems have some convexity properties which facilitate cost minimization. We subsequently consider systems which allow more than one spare, but make use of other restrictions or assumptions to simplify analysis. Chapter 3 examines how to coordinate maintenance for machines sharing repair facilities, a task which is commonly called the machine repairman problem. Existing studies of this problem make the restrictive assumption that repairs are performed only after machine failure; our work extends the machine repairman model by allowing preventive repair. We derive analytical results for a single critical age repair policy, and then use numerical studies to investigate other heuristic policies which can improve the system's cost effectiveness. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Computers and information systems are playing increasingly prominent and direct roles in the conduct of human affairs and in the survival of corporations in highly competitive environments. Because of this increasingly important role, it has become imperative that users be able to use these systems optimally. It has been pointed out that the computer systems designers should be the main agents to apply psychology to system design and that information systems specialists are best placed to take responsibility for helping users utilize systems in an optimal fashion by designing information systems that will incorporate learning-to-learn principles. In this research we developed information system interface tools that incorporate cognitive learning strategy theory. The research question posed is: Can we build cognitively-engineered electronic note-taking tools that will allow users to implement cognitive learning strategies and thereby improve performance and stimulate learning? To answer this question we designed software tools that allowed users to implement rehearsal and organizational cognitive learning strategies. The model was then validated in a laboratory experiment. The independent variables were: (1) the technology used, with or without the cognitively engineered software (CES) tools, and (2) two methods of presentation used involving the tools, the embedded method, in which the users were told how they could use the tools presented to them, and the adjunct method, in which the users were told about the cognitive learning strategies and how they could be implemented by the user using the tools presented to them. Dependent variables were: (1) the performance variables, (2) satisfaction with the software tools, and (3) variables indicating the level of usage of the software tools. What we discovered was that subjects who were aware of the cognitive learning strategies on which the tools were based were significantly more satisfied with the quality of the system than users who were not aware of the strategies. We also found that familiarity with the task performed and familiarity with the technology both had significant effects on overall performance. In addition, subjects who were aware of the cognitive learning strategies tended to implement several of these strategies as they used the tools and they tended to use the tools in a more efficient fashion that subjects not aware of these strategies. The major limitations of the study were the subject population, the task chosen and the limited training session. Future research will center on eliminating these limitations and further explore the effects of the presentation of the cognitive learning strategies on tool use and performance.

A model-based high autonomy system employs a multiplicity of models at various control layers to support the predefined system objectives. Such models differ in levels of abstraction and in formalism. Concepts and tools are needed to organize the models into a coherent whole. This dissertation deals with the abstraction processes for systematic derivation of related models through the use of system morphisms. Morphism abstraction tools to support model construction and model base consistency are developed and integrated into the Systems Entity Structure/Model Base (SES/MB) framework, which is employed as a foundation for model base management in advanced multifacetted system design. The DEVS-Scheme knowledge-based, discrete event simulation environment is used to test the models and tools in an autonomous laboratory application.

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of an algebraic axiom support environment for software testing. Since absolute software correctness is undecidable, "approximate" correctness is as good as software engineering can hope to do. The approximately correct behavior of a software system with respect to a specification can only be demonstrated incrementally, beginning with the modules of a system and finishing with the external interface. Software module specification in the form of algebraic axioms provides a base from which we can be complete and concise in developing and testing the behavior of modules. Algebraic axioms can also be useful for a variety of software issues such as reusability, completeness and consistency of a requirements specification, and the definition of abstract and hierarchical data types. The primary focus of this dissertation is that algebraic axioms can provide a complete and consistent means to record a specification with which to test a software system's behavior at the module level. A major aim of this research has been to specify and develop sufficient support software to demonstrate the viability of this approach in actual software development, making design for testability a development parameter. This research focuses on the following issues: (1) The relationship between algebraic axioms and other formal methods for specifying software behavior. (2) Extensions needed to make the algebraic axiom method encompass testing. (3) What software support is necessary to make algebraic specifications, with our extensions, useful for real-world software development. Results indicate that using the formal method of algebraic specifications can have a positive impact on software development when adequate and realistic support software is introduced into the process. The approach results in additional initial labor for a software system, but is shown to be economical in terms of testing completeness, maintenance, and potential reuse.

Stochastic linear programs are linear programs in which some of the problem data are random variables. The particular kind of programs that we study belong to the recourse model. Under this model, some decisions are postponed until better information becomes available (e.g., an outcome of a random variable is realized), while other decisions must be made 'here and now.' For example, in a telecommunication network planning problem, decisions regarding the addition of network capacity have to be made before knowing customer demand (i.e., 'here and now'). Once the demand is realized, efficient usage of the network can then be determined. This work explores algorithms for the solution of such programs: stochastic linear programs with recourse. The algorithms investigated can be described as decomposition based cutting plane methods in which the cuts are estimated from random samples. Moreover, the algorithms all use the incremental sampling plan inherent to the Stochastic Decomposition (SD) algorithm developed by Higle and Sen in 1991. Our study includes both two stage and multistage programs. For the solution of two stage programs, we present the Conditional Stochastic Decomposition (CSD) algorithm, a multicut version of the SD algorithm. CSD is most suitable for situations in which data are difficult to obtain and may be computationally intense. Because of this potential intensity, we explore algorithms which require less computational effort than CSD. These algorithms combine features of both CSD and SD and are referred to as hybrid algorithms. Following our exploration of these algorithms for two stage problems, we next explore an extension of the SD algorithm that can be used for multistage problems with stagewise independent random variables. For the sake of notational brevity, our technical development is centered around the three stage case, although the extension to multistage problems is straightforward. Under mild conditions, convergence results similar to those found in the two stage algorithms hold. Multistage stochastic decomposition is currently a largely uncharted area. Our research represents the first major effort in this direction.

This work advances the use of nonclassical logics for developing qualitative models of real-world systems. Abstract mathematics is "qualitative" inasmuch as it relegates numerical considerations to the background and focuses explicitly on topological, algebraic, logical, or other types of conceptual forms. Mathematical logic, the present topic, serves to explicate alternative modes of reasoning for use in general research design and in model construction. The central thesis is that the theory of formal logical systems, and particularly, of logical systems based on nonclassical modes of reasoning, offers important new techniques for developing qualitative models of real-world systems. This thesis is supported in three major parts. Part I develops a semantically complete axiomatization of L. A. Zadeh's theory of approximate reasoning. This mode of reasoning is based on the conception of a "fuzzy set," by which means it yields a realistic representation of the "vagueness" ordinarily inherent in natural languages, such as English. All axiomatizations of this mode of reasoning to date have been deficient in that their linguistic structures are adequate for expressing only the simplest fuzzy linguistic ideas. The axiomatization developed herein goes beyond these limitations in a two-leveled formal system, which, at the inner level, is a multivalent logic that accommodates fuzzy assertions, and at the outer level, is a bivalent formalization of segments of the metalanguage. This system is adequate for expressing most of the basic fuzzy linguistic ideas, including: linguistic terms, hedges, and connectives; semantic equivalence and entailment; possibilistic reasoning; and linguistic truth. The final chapter of Part I applies the theory of approximate reasoning to a class of structural models for use in forecasting. The result is a direct mathematical link between the imprecision in a model and the uncertainty which that imprecision contributes to the model's forecasted events. Part II studies the systems of logical "form" which have beeen developed by G. Spencer-Brown and F. J. Varela. Spencer-Brown's "laws of form" is here shown to be essentially isomorphic with the axiomatized propositional calculus, and Varela's "calculus for self-reference" is shown to be isomorphically translatable into a system which axiomatizes a three-valued logic developed by S. C. Kleene. No semantically complete axiomatization of Kleene's logic has heretofore been known. Following on Kleene's original interpretation of his logic in the theory of partial recursion, this leads to a proof that Varela's concept of logical "autonomy" is exactly isomorphic with the notion of a "totally undecidable" partial recursive set. In turn, this suggests using Kleene-Varela type systems as formal tools for representing "mechanically unknowable" or empirically unverifiable system properties. Part III is an essay on the theoretical basis and methodological framework for implementing nonstandard logics in the modeling exercise. The evolution of mathematical logic is considered from the standpoint of its providing the opportunity to "select" alternative modes of reasoning. These general theoretical considerations serve to motivate the methodological ones, which begin by addressing the discussions of P. Suppes and M. Bunge regarding the role of formal systems in providing "the semantics of science." Bunge's work extends that of Suppes and is herein extended in turn to a study of the manner in which formal systems (both classical and nonclassical) can be implemented for mediation between the observer and the observed, i.e., for modeling. Whether real-world systems in fact obey the laws of one logic versus another must remain moot, but models based on alternative modes of reasoning to satisfy Bunge's criteria for empirical testability, and therefore do provide viable systems perspectives and methods of research.