This thesis aims to explore architectural experience by addressing how different types of openings exert an impact to the space. The openings not only play a critical role in giving a palpable presence to natural light in a space, but also facilitate a specific way of seeing the world – together generating a spiritual resonance through a sequence of well-designed spaces. The journey happens in a four-story tower, which is influenced by four parts of a tree, providing a space to experience tranquility removed from a chaotic world and to gain a deeper understanding of the trees. With an emphasis on the manipulation of natural light and views, certain kinds of atmospheres are created on each floor to shape the perception of space. / Master of Architecture

Analyzing modern day's information systems that produce humongous multi-dimensional data in form of logs, traces or events that unfold over time can be tedious without adequate visualization, thereby, advocating the need for an intelligible visualization. This thesis researched and developed a visualization framework that represents multi-dimensional dynamic and temporal process data in a potentially intelligible and actionable form. A prototype showing four different views using notional malware data abstracted from Normal Sandbox behavioral traces were developed. In particular, the B-matrix view representing the DLL files used by the malware to attack a system. This representation is aimed at visualizing large data sets without losing emphasis on the process unfolding over multiple dimensions.

"Data warehousing and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) are essential elements for decision support applications. Since most OLAP queries are complex and are often executed over huge volumes of data, the solution in practice is to employ materialized views to improve query performance. One important issue for utilizing materialized views is to maintain the view consistency upon source changes. However, most prior work focused on simple SQL views with distributive aggregate functions, such as SUM and COUNT. This dissertation proposes to consider broader types of views than previous work. First, we study views with complex aggregate functions such as variance and regression. Such statistical functions are of great importance in practice. We propose a workarea function model and design a generic framework to tackle incremental view maintenance and answering queries using views for such functions. We have implemented this approach in a prototype system of IBM DB2. An extensive performance study shows significant performance gains by our techniques. Second, we consider materialized views with PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators. Such operators are widely used for OLAP applications and for querying sparse datasets. We demonstrate that the efficient maintenance of views with PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators requires more generalized operators, called GPIVOT and GUNPIVOT. We formally define and prove the query rewriting rules and propagation rules for such operators. We also design a novel view maintenance framework for applying these rules to obtain an efficient maintenance plan. Extensive performance evaluations reveal the effectiveness of our techniques. Third, materialized views are often integrated from multiple data sources. Due to source autonomicity and dynamicity, concurrency may occur during view maintenance. We propose a generic concurrency control framework to solve such maintenance anomalies. This solution extends previous work in that it solves the anomalies under both source data and schema changes and thus achieves full source autonomicity. We have implemented this technique in a data warehouse prototype developed at WPI. The extensive performance study shows that our techniques put little extra overhead on existing concurrent data update processing techniques while allowing for this new functionality."

No description available.

This research sought to establish the nexus between the two management disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management. Through a study of the life cycle of knowledge assets within the Australian Public Sector, this nexus has been established. Over the last three decades, there has been a growing interest in the nascent discipline of knowledge management (Wiig 1997). However, discussion regarding knowledge, knowledge workers and knowledge management started much earlier when Chester Barnard’s management classic The Functions of the Executive (1938) included suggestions made on how to manage knowledge workers. The 1960s saw management authors and researchers such as Peter Drucker (1993; 1994; 1995; 1997a; 1997b), Machlup (1962), and Michael Polanyi (1967) discussing topics such as knowledge work, knowledge workers, and tacit and explicit knowledge. During much the same period, strategic management was also being researched and discussed, with Alfred D. Chandler being among the first scholars to study strategic management. His book Strategy and Structure (1962) described the development of organisations, and showed that the practice of strategic management predated its study as a management discipline. Chandler was followed by other researchers including Igor Ansoff (1965) and Learned, Christensen, Andrews and Guth (1965), Henry Mintzberg (1979; 1985; 1990; 1996a; 1996b; 1999), and Michael E. Porter (1980; 1985). Research continues in both disciplines; however, research on the interface between these two important disciplines is rare, particularly in Australia.The Australian Public Sector was selected as the target industry for this research, and case study as the research strategy. The research strategy combined a variety of methods including interviews, questionnaires and surveys. The approach taken with data analysis was to employ aspects of the approach used in grounded theory. In addition, action research was used as a meta-methodology, in that periods of review and reflection were undertaken that generated improvements to the research methodology. This research has found that there is a marked interdependence between strategic management and the management of knowledge assets. The strategic management process requires skills and capabilities (knowledge assets) for its execution. Moreover, the resultant strategies require the exploitation of knowledge assets to ensure effective implementation. The life cycle of knowledge assets starts and ends when their need or otherwise is identified directly or indirectly by strategic plans. Knowledge assets are acquired, deployed, utilised and maintained until they are no longer needed. They are then disposed of by outsourcing or atrophy when people are redeployed or retrained. This research has focused on the disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management; however, its contribution lies largely in the area of capability management. Corporate strategy theorists, from the RBV (Resource Based View) and KBV (Knowledge Based View) schools, see organisations as a body of knowledge (Spender 1996). From the perspective of knowledge assets, used as the theme of this research, an organisation is a body of capabilities, and to achieve corporate objectives, the capabilities must match the strategies.

Development of embedded systems poses an increasing challenge fordevelopers largely due to increasing complexity. Several factors contribute tothe complexity challenge: • the number of extra-functional properties applying to embedded systems,such as resource usage, timing effects, safety. • the functionality of embedded systems, to a larger extent than for othersoftware, involves engineers from multiple different disciplines, such asmechanical, control, software, safety, systems and electrical engineers.Themulti-disciplinarity causes the development environments to consistof separate data, models and tools. Several engineering paradigms to handle this complexity increase havebeen suggested, including methodologies focused on architecture, models andcomponents. In systems engineering, a long-standing approach has been todescribe the system in several views, each according to a certain viewpoint.By doing so, a divide-and-conquer strategy is applied to system concerns.Unfortunately, it is hard to always find completely independent concerns:there is always some semantic overlap between the different views. Modelbaseddesign (MBD) deals with building sound abstractions that can representa system under design and be used for analysis. Component-based design(CBD) focuses on how to build reusable component models with well-definedcomposition models. In this thesis, a concept of formalized multi-viewed component models (MVCM) is proposed, which integrates the three above mentioned paradigms.Principles and guidelines for MV CMs are developed. One of the main challengesfor the proposition is to provide MV CMs that produce composabilityboth along component boundaries and viewpoint boundaries. To accomplishthis, the relations between viewpoints need to be explicitly taken into account.Further, the semantic relations between these viewpoints need to be explicitlymodeled in order to efficiently ensure that the views are kept consistent. Asa main contribution, this thesis presents the formalization of the conceptsneeded to build such component models. A proper formalization of multiviewedconcerns provides several opportunities. Given suitable tool support, itwill be feasible to automate architecture analysis and architecture exploration. The thesis includes a number of case studies that provide insight andfeedback to the problem formulation and validating the results. The casestudies include a resource-aware reconfigurable middleware, a design of anarchitecture exploration methodology, and a windshield wiper system. / <p>QC 20130527</p>

This research sought to establish the nexus between the two management disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management. Through a study of the life cycle of knowledge assets within the Australian Public Sector, this nexus has been established. Over the last three decades, there has been a growing interest in the nascent discipline of knowledge management (Wiig 1997). However, discussion regarding knowledge, knowledge workers and knowledge management started much earlier when Chester Barnard’s management classic The Functions of the Executive (1938) included suggestions made on how to manage knowledge workers. The 1960s saw management authors and researchers such as Peter Drucker (1993; 1994; 1995; 1997a; 1997b), Machlup (1962), and Michael Polanyi (1967) discussing topics such as knowledge work, knowledge workers, and tacit and explicit knowledge. During much the same period, strategic management was also being researched and discussed, with Alfred D. Chandler being among the first scholars to study strategic management. His book Strategy and Structure (1962) described the development of organisations, and showed that the practice of strategic management predated its study as a management discipline. Chandler was followed by other researchers including Igor Ansoff (1965) and Learned, Christensen, Andrews and Guth (1965), Henry Mintzberg (1979; 1985; 1990; 1996a; 1996b; 1999), and Michael E. Porter (1980; 1985). Research continues in both disciplines; however, research on the interface between these two important disciplines is rare, particularly in Australia.The Australian Public Sector was selected as the target industry for this research, and case study as the research strategy. The research strategy combined a variety of methods including interviews, questionnaires and surveys. The approach taken with data analysis was to employ aspects of the approach used in grounded theory. In addition, action research was used as a meta-methodology, in that periods of review and reflection were undertaken that generated improvements to the research methodology. This research has found that there is a marked interdependence between strategic management and the management of knowledge assets. The strategic management process requires skills and capabilities (knowledge assets) for its execution. Moreover, the resultant strategies require the exploitation of knowledge assets to ensure effective implementation. The life cycle of knowledge assets starts and ends when their need or otherwise is identified directly or indirectly by strategic plans. Knowledge assets are acquired, deployed, utilised and maintained until they are no longer needed. They are then disposed of by outsourcing or atrophy when people are redeployed or retrained. This research has focused on the disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management; however, its contribution lies largely in the area of capability management. Corporate strategy theorists, from the RBV (Resource Based View) and KBV (Knowledge Based View) schools, see organisations as a body of knowledge (Spender 1996). From the perspective of knowledge assets, used as the theme of this research, an organisation is a body of capabilities, and to achieve corporate objectives, the capabilities must match the strategies.

This research sought to establish the nexus between the two management disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management. Through a study of the life cycle of knowledge assets within the Australian Public Sector, this nexus has been established. Over the last three decades, there has been a growing interest in the nascent discipline of knowledge management (Wiig 1997). However, discussion regarding knowledge, knowledge workers and knowledge management started much earlier when Chester Barnard’s management classic The Functions of the Executive (1938) included suggestions made on how to manage knowledge workers. The 1960s saw management authors and researchers such as Peter Drucker (1993; 1994; 1995; 1997a; 1997b), Machlup (1962), and Michael Polanyi (1967) discussing topics such as knowledge work, knowledge workers, and tacit and explicit knowledge. During much the same period, strategic management was also being researched and discussed, with Alfred D. Chandler being among the first scholars to study strategic management. His book Strategy and Structure (1962) described the development of organisations, and showed that the practice of strategic management predated its study as a management discipline. Chandler was followed by other researchers including Igor Ansoff (1965) and Learned, Christensen, Andrews and Guth (1965), Henry Mintzberg (1979; 1985; 1990; 1996a; 1996b; 1999), and Michael E. Porter (1980; 1985). Research continues in both disciplines; however, research on the interface between these two important disciplines is rare, particularly in Australia.The Australian Public Sector was selected as the target industry for this research, and case study as the research strategy. The research strategy combined a variety of methods including interviews, questionnaires and surveys. The approach taken with data analysis was to employ aspects of the approach used in grounded theory. In addition, action research was used as a meta-methodology, in that periods of review and reflection were undertaken that generated improvements to the research methodology. This research has found that there is a marked interdependence between strategic management and the management of knowledge assets. The strategic management process requires skills and capabilities (knowledge assets) for its execution. Moreover, the resultant strategies require the exploitation of knowledge assets to ensure effective implementation. The life cycle of knowledge assets starts and ends when their need or otherwise is identified directly or indirectly by strategic plans. Knowledge assets are acquired, deployed, utilised and maintained until they are no longer needed. They are then disposed of by outsourcing or atrophy when people are redeployed or retrained. This research has focused on the disciplines of strategic management and knowledge management; however, its contribution lies largely in the area of capability management. Corporate strategy theorists, from the RBV (Resource Based View) and KBV (Knowledge Based View) schools, see organisations as a body of knowledge (Spender 1996). From the perspective of knowledge assets, used as the theme of this research, an organisation is a body of capabilities, and to achieve corporate objectives, the capabilities must match the strategies.

During the last decades, franchising as an organizational form has received a lot of attention from researchers and practitioners alike. While many studies have examined various aspects of franchising from the franchisor's perspective, little research has taken the franchisee’s perspective. Therefore, given the importance of franchisees in a franchise system, the lack of research about consequences from the franchisee's perspective, and that many of the previous studies have taken a top-bottom view, this research concentrated on the franchisee's performance. This study focused on business format franchising in the restaurant industry in two countries, Iran and Sweden. In this study, the three perspectives of entrepreneurship, strategic management, and marketing were used to study the franchisee’s performance. Moreover, the resourcebased view, relational view, and relational exchange theory have been used to find the influential factors in a franchisee’s performance. Therefore, by considering franchising as a mutual relationship and examining the influential factors in a franchisee's performance, the related factors of both the franchisor and franchisee, as well as the relationship between them, were examined. According to the franchisee’s related factors, the franchisor's related factors, and the relationship and environmental factors, 12 main hypotheses and 9 sub-hypotheses were developed. In total, 191 usable questionnaires from Sweden and Iran, comprising a response rate of 22 percent, were returned from the franchisees. In this study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the construct measurement; to test the hypothesis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed. Moreover, the Chow test was conducted to integrate the data from these two countries. A primary contribution of this study is taking a bottom-top view in franchising research. This study also provided a detailed and holistic view about the consequences of franchising for franchisees. Moreover, this study, offers important contributions toward understanding entrepreneurial activities, as a controversial issue, in franchising outlets. The results provide interesting insights into the franchisee’s performance. While the franchisees’ related factors of absorptive capacity, Kirznerian entrepreneurial orientation, and social capital positively affected their performance, Schumpeterian entrepreneurial orientation and human capital did not affect their performance. Moreover, the franchisor’s related factors of system profitability, brand reputation, advertisement and providing raw material had a positive influence on the performance. However, training did not cause a difference in the franchisee’s performance. All relationship factors also positively affected the performance, and conflict and satisfaction mediated the relationship between trust and performance. Finally, the implications of this study and suggestions for further contributions in this stream of research are discussed.

No description available.