Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is one of the most widely used methodologies for Operations Research (OR) modeling and analysis. However, designing and implementing DES can be a time-consuming and error-prone task. This thesis designed, implemented and evaluated a tool, the Event Graph Graphical Design Tool (EGGDT), to help OR analystsin the design, implementation, and maintenance of DES reducing the development and debugging times. The Unified Modeling Language was used to document the development of the EGGDT, which was programmed in Java using J2D and Swing. Human Factors techniques were employed to help in the design process and to evaluate the final prototype of the EGGDT. During the design process, two formative experiments were performed to evaluate the Graphical User Interface design decisions. A final summative experiment was done to test if the potential users consider the tool a useful means to develop OR simulations. Participants of the experiments agreed that tools like the EGGDT are an essential instrument when developing simulation. / Spanish Navy author

In the Paris Agreement from 2015, nations agreed to limit the effects of global warming to well below 2°C. To be able to reach those goals, cheap, abundant and carbon neutral energy alternatives needs to be developed. The microorganisms that several billion years ago oxygenated the atmosphere; cyanobacteria, might hold the key for creating those energy technologies. Due to their capacity for photosynthesis, metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria can reroute the carbon dioxide they fix from the atmosphere into valuable products, thereby converting them into solar powered cell factories. Of the many products bacteria can be engineered to make, the production of terpenoids has gained increasing attention for their attractive properties as fuels, pharmaceuticals, fragrances and food additives. In this thesis, I detail the work I have done on engineering the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 for terpenoid production. By deleting an enzyme that converts squalene into hopanoids, we could create a strain that accumulates squalene, a molecule with uses as a fuel or chemical feedstock. In another study, we integrated two terpene synthases from the traditional medical plant Coleus forskohlii, into the genome of Synechocystis. Expression of those genes led to the formation of manoyl oxide, a precursor to the pharmaceutically active compound forskolin. Production of manoyl oxide in Synechocystis was further enhanced by engineering in two additional genes from C. forskohlii that boosted the flux to the product. To learn how to increase the production of squalene, manoyl oxide or any other terpenoid, we conducted a detailed investigation of each step in the MEP biosynthesis pathway, which creates the two common building blocks for all terpenoids. Each enzymatic step in the pathway was overexpressed, and increased flux was assayed by using isoprene as a reporter and several potential targets for overexpression were identified. The final part of this thesis details the characterization of native, inducible promoters and ribosomal binding sites in Synechocystis.

Background: Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is one of the earliest subclinical indicators of impaired cardiovascular health and several non-invasive tools have been developed to evaluate vascular function, including strain gauge plethysmography (SGP), brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) via ultrasound, and peripheral artery tonometry (PAT). While these tools have extensively been studied during a resting condition, the responses following acute exercise are not as well characterized. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the pre- and post-exercise vascular function values obtained with SGP, FMD, and PAT. Relationships among the primary outcome variables obtained with each assessment tool were also evaluated. Methods: Vascular function was assessed in 17 sedentary, apparently healthy male subjects (24±4 yrs; 24.5±3.2 kg/m2) at rest and following an acute submaximal exercise bout with SGP, FMD, and PAT. Results: During rest, post-occlusion reactive hyperemia resulted in significant (p<0.05) increases in forearm blood flow (FBF; 2.13±1.03 vs 6.35 ± 2.90 mL/min/100 mL tissue) and area under the curve (AUC; 226.77 ± 111.20 vs 588.22 ±283.33 mL/min/100 mL) as determined by SGP. Brachial artery diameter (BAD) as assessed with FMD was increased by 5.3% (p<0.05). Resting reactive hyperemia index (RHI) as assessed by PAT was observed to be 1.73±0.34. Significant exercise-induced increases (p<0.05) were observed in baseline and post-occlusion FBF and baseline AUC values utilizing SGP. Additionally, FMD baseline blood velocity was significantly increased (91.8±11.1 vs 108.0±17.1 cm/sec, p<0.05) and the PAT augmentation index (AI) was significantly more negative (-8.8 ±9.4 vs -18.9±8.4%, p<0.05) after exercise. There were no significant correlations observed among the primary outcome measures obtained from each assessment technique. There was, however, a moderate correlation between pre-exercise vascular reactivity as assessed by SGP and change in blood velocity as assessed by FMD (r= 0.566, p= 0.035). Conclusions: The addition of an exercise stress to vascular function assessment may offer greater insight into the health of the vasculature. This initial study was undertaken to further evaluate the pre- to post-exercise responses obtained using three commonly employed vascular function assessment techniques in healthy individuals. Additional research as to the value of the addition of an exercise stress to vascular function assessment in individuals with traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors or known cardiovascular disease is warranted.

PLC programming students are often limited to simulated systems or soft PLCs, because the high price of the hardware and the software licenses make it difficult for faculties to use real equipment for teaching. This paper describes the design and building of a PLC controlled self-balancing robot with CodeSys and Raspberry Pi as a low-cost demonstrator model that students can use as a base to interact with a real system. A first prototype has been developed, which can be used in the future to get students involved in beginner automation courses without having to build a system from scratch.

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Synopsis Business analysis is defined as the process in which business needs are identified and solutions proposed. This process is regarded as one of the most important parts of systems development because no other part is more difficult to rectify later. However, current business analysis methodologies are inadequate because they are at a too high level and only address portions of the complete business analysis process. In particular, the lack of clear objectives, relevance and outcomes of the phases make business analysis methodologies inadequate. Moreover, activities, techniques and tools not mapped to those phases are also problematic. The aim of this research was to develop a business analysis methodology for business analysts in the South African financial services environment. The intentions were to identify the phases, as well as objectives, relevance and outcomes for each of these phases. Furthermore, this research intended to identify appropriate activities, techniques and tools to address the objectives of each phase of a methodology. This was done by presenting a literature review of previous research relating to business analysis methodologies. For information gathering, 45 participants (comprising of business analysts, project managers, IS managers and CIOs) contributed to this research, 22 of whom were interviewed individually while 23 participated in focus group interviews. The data from each of these methods was analysed independently and did not influence or feed into any of the other methods. Once the individual interviews and focus group interviews had been transcribed, content analysis and analysis within and between interviews (Merriam, 1998; Strauss, 1987) was used to analyse the information gathered independently. The phases of a business analysis methodology identified by the research are the: • feasibility phase; • business case phase; • analysis and design phase; and • post-implementation evaluation phase. Objectives, relevance and outcomes of these phases were also identified. In addition, activities, techniques and tools were mapped to each of these phases.

Introduction : DevOps bridges the gap between the development and operations by improving the collaboration while automating the as many as steps from developing the software to releasing the product to the customers. To automate the software development activities, DevOps relies on the tools. There are many challenges associated with the tool implementation such as choosing the suitable tools and integrating tools with existed tools and practices. There must be a clear understanding on what kind of tools are used by the DevOps practitioners and what challenges does each tool create for them. Objectives: The main aim of our study is to investigate the challenges faced by the DevOps practitioners related to the tools and compare the findings with the related literature. Our contributions are (i) a comprehensive set of tools used by Developers and Operators in the software industries; (ii) challenges related to tools faced by the practitioners; and (iii) suggested recommendations and its effectiveness to mitigate the above challenges. Methods: we adopted case study for our study to achieve our research objectives. We have chosen literature review and semi-structured interviews as our data collection methods. Results: In our study we identified seven tools used by developers and operators which were not reported in the literature such as Intellij, Neo4j, and Postman. We identified tool related challenges from the practitioners such as difficulty in choosing the suitable tools, lack of maturity in tools such as Git, and learning new tools. We also identified recommendations for addressing tool related challenges such as Tech-Talks and seminars using complementary tools to overcome the limitations of other tools. We also identified benefits related to the adoption of such recommendations. Conclusion: We expect the DevOps tool landscape to change as old tools either become more sophisticated or outdated and new tools are being developed to better support DevOps and more easily integrate with deployment pipeline. With regard to tool related challenges literature review as well as interviews show that there is a lack of knowledge on how to select appropriate tools and the time it takes to learn the DevOps practices are common challenges. Regarding suggested recommendations, the most feasible one appears to be seminars and knowledge sharing events which educate practitioners how to use better tools and how to possible identify suitable tools.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study was the initial research conducted to ascertain the validity of a prevocational behavior checklist. The instrument under investigation was developed at the South Shore Rehabilitation Center in Quincy, Massachusetts. The Center's assessment instrument entitled, 466 Behaviors Necessary to Function Successfully as a Sheltered Worker, was used for assessing the skills of 60 severely retarded subjects enrolled in the Center's prevocational program. The major purpose of this study was to identify which of the 466 behaviors comprising the checklist contributed highly discriminating information. Test scores from 60 severely retarded adults were collected and processed in two phases of the study. Phase I included the analysis of the distribution of scores, elimination of behaviors that did not discriminate between 5 percent or less of the sample. In Phase II of this study, the investigator statistically analyzed behavior-to-Specific Skill Area correlations. If the analysis resulted in a correlation coefficient of less than +.5, the behavior was dropped from the checklist. This procedure was completed in four consecutive series. Thus, the investigator guaranteed that the remaining items were providing reliable information about the related Specific Skill Areas. Phase I of this study resulted in the elimination of 218 behaviors from the checklist and further calculations. Only 248 behaviors discriminated differences between more than 5 percent of the sample. Of the 248 behaviors, 144 behaviors met the +.5 criterion in Phase II. The investigator concluded that 114 behaviors comprising 25 Specific Skill Areas on the assessment instrument were contributing discriminating information. Recommendations were made to continue research of the prevocational behavior checklist. The recommended research would contribute to validating the instrument, producing an effective method of assessing vocational skills of severely retarded adults. / 2031-01-02

Strategy tools have mainly been conceptualised through a functional perspective, which views tools as passive instruments that aid managerial decision-making. Studies within strategy-as-practice provide an alternative view to this, by arguing that in practice, strategy tools are devices that enable actors to achieve a variety of purposes that transcend the instrumental purposes that dominate mainstream strategy studies. In this thesis, I argue that both views still portray tools as being used instrumentally. In both cases actors are seen to use tools as a conduit through which they may achieve either analytical purposes or more socially related purposes. The common factor across both views is the focus on the intentionality of the managers in using the tools to achieve a certain purpose. Rather than focus on what strategy tools are used for, this thesis explores the other side of the coin by focusing on what strategy tools do. I do so by exploring how the materiality of strategy tools may impact on the strategizing practices of managers during the strategy development process. The aim of the study is to explore the possible performative roles that strategy tools may play during the strategy process and the implications of these roles for the work of strategizing. In this study, tools are viewed as non-human actors – that is, they are not simply conduits that are utilised instrumentally for achieving a variety of purposes in organisations, rather they actively influence the actions and interactions of managers and therefore contribute to the formation of strategy. This inquiry is based on a longitudinal study (2012 – 2015) of the process of strategy making within a large UK financial institution. Focusing on what the members of the Strategy department do during the development and use of a strategy tool referred to as the Horizon scan and tracing the developmental trajectory of the tool throughout the process. The thesis draws on theoretical insights situated at the intersection of economic sociology, the sociology of financial markets and the sociology of technology, more specifically: the notions of performativity and affordances. The methodological approach is qualitative and is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, direct observations of meetings and workshops and documentary data. The analysis reveals that the strategy tool performed four main interconnected roles which include: enlist participants, reorient temporally, consolidate and persuade. Through performing these roles, the tool shaped the strategizing practices of the strategists in a patterned way, such that the actions and interactions of the strategists reflected the underlying theory within the tool. The findings also reveals that the four roles performed by the tool were underpinned by two main affordances – modular and temporal affordances. Based on the findings, the thesis introduces the concept of an Activation device which refers to strategy tools that instigate or trigger certain actions that result in a co-evolution of the strategy theory within the tool and strategizing practices, where the ‘doing’ of strategy comes to resemble the theory within the tool. The study concludes by presenting a theoretical model of how strategy tools as activation devices shape how strategy is practiced. It therefore contributes to the recent materiality turn in strategy and the nascent literature on performativity in strategy, by reconceptualising the roles of strategy tools and demonstrating empirically, how strategy tools influence strategizing practices through the performative effects they generate.

Decision Support Tools (DSTs) are commonly utilised within the Asset Management (AM) operations of infrastructure organisations. These manual or computerised tools are used to support decisions about what assets to acquire and how to operate them. Their performance can therefore have significant financial and non-financial implications for a business. Despite their importance, managing the performance of DSTs after implementation has received only limited attention within the literature. The output of this research is a conceptual approach for managing the performance of decision support tools used within an Asset Management context. It encompasses a risk-based DST Performance Management Process and DST Performance Assessment Techniques (the methods for applying the process in an industry setting).The novelty of the approach: (1) Alignment with the fundamental principles of the International Standard for Asset Management, ISO 5500x:2014. Thus, consistency of the management of DSTs with other assets types. (2) A generic process that is tailored to the context of the specific organisation. (3) Consistency with the risk management process (ISO 31000:2009) and meeting the requirements for a quality process defined within the Quality Management Standard (ISO 9000: 2015). (4) A cyclical process design ensuring that the approach, and how the approach is applied within an industry setting, will evolve to reflect the changing environment. A case study and the input of subject matter experts from within National Grid Electricity Transmission was used to both inform and evaluate the conceptual approach design. A semi-structured interview, with a water sector subject matter expert, assesses the transferability of the approach to a wider Asset Management population. The results of the evaluation demonstrate the conceptual approach to be both logical and useable in each context. The future research pathway looks to progress the conceptual approach through to industry adoption.