Obtaining low-latency results from window-aggregate queries can be critical to certain data-stream processing applications. Due to a DSMS's lack of control over incoming data (typically, because of delays and bursts in data arrival), timely results for a window-aggregate query over a data stream cannot be obtained with guarantees about the results' accuracy. In this thesis, I propose a technique, which I term prodding, to obtain early result estimates for window-aggregate queries over data streams. The early estimates are obtained in addition to the regular query results. The proposed technique aims to maximize the contribution to a result-estimate computation from all the stateful operators across a multi-level query plan. I evaluate the benefits of prodding using real-world and generated data streams having different patterns in data arrival and data values. I conclude that, in various DSMS applications, prodding can generate low-latency estimates to window-aggregate query results. The main factors affecting the degree of inaccuracy in such estimates are: the aggregate function used in a query, the patterns in arrivals and values of stream data, and the aggressiveness of demanding the estimates. The utility of the estimates obtained using prodding should be optimized by tuning the aggressiveness in result-estimate demands to the specific latency and accuracy needs of a business, considering any available knowledge about patterns in the incoming data.

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Researchers studying the affects of resource loss following a technological disaster have exclusively investigated the acute period directly after the event occurred. This study applied Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) Conservation of Resources model in order to examine the long term effects of resource loss on depression in Cordova, Alaska a decade after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill. Results suggest that resource loss was a more prominent predictor for depression than demographics, involvement in the on-going litigation, or commercial fishing jobs. The research concludes that certain aspects of resource loss are critical in the development of depression after a technological disaster, and in understanding how to address depression in the community.

Technical Standards have become a new arena of competition in the race for technological leadership since securing their control and ownership provides considerable economic and political advantages. Particularly telecommunication standards, which underpin global networks, can produce substantial economic and strategic benefits for the country and industry that largely shape their process and outcome. In light of these implications, new aspiring standard setters, such as China and South Korea, have actively increased their participation in international standards settings, challenging the predominant position of traditional standard setters such as the United States and European countries. The rise of new aspiring standard setters has provoked shifts in the power structures of international standardization regimes that had mostly reflected the preferences of traditional standard setters in the last decade, implying a redistribution of gains and costs among countries and industries. Despite this, only a few studies have focused on explaining power shifts in international standardization, drawing on IR/IPE theories. In addition, studies have only partially inquired about the political and economic of conditions that might explain such shifts. Against this background, this study aims to contribute to the literature focusing on power shifts in standardization by assessing under what conditions countries turn into leading standard setters. This is evaluated empirically by analyzing the capacity of six technological powers in shaping the three latest generations of telecommunication standards, namely 3G, 4G, and 5G. It deploys a multimethod approach to perform the analysis, combining a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with a process tracing (PT) analysis. The study found that the combination of conditions composed of a great innovator, a large economic power, and a highly complementary domestic system resulted in the most consistent sufficiency path, suggesting that when countries hold roughly the same technological and economic capabilities, a complementary system conducive to a strong government-industry partnership proves crucial to shaping standardization. This interpretation calls for further research on the role and influence of governments in securing technological leadership by providing competitive advantages to industries contributing to global standards.

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No / The convergence of several technological systems (especially nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and robotics) has now been adopted as a strategic goal by several countries, most notably the United States and those of the European Union. The anticipated benefits and related fears of competitive disadvantage have brought together a wide range of interested parties, governmental and nongovernmental. In the rush to enter and/or dominate this arena, the benign promise of converging technologies (CT) are highlighted, although a range of risks and less welcome (if difficult to quantify) implications are at best understated. What, then, are the prospects for exercising governance over the technological systems we are busy creating¿and the uses to which they might be put? What will it mean to speak of "global governance" in a world in which the technological promise of CT has been fulfilled?