Implementation Experiences from Smart Grid Security Applications and Outlook on Future Research

Experiences from smart grid cyber-security incidents in the past decade have raised questions on the applicability and effectiveness of security measures and protection mechanisms applied to the grid. In this chapter we focus on the security measures applied under real circumstances in today’s smart grid systems. Beginning from real world example implementations, we first review cyber-security facts that affected the electrical grid, from US blackout incidents, to the Dragonfly cyber-espionage campaign currently focusing on US and European energy firms. Provided a real world setting, we give information related to energy management of a smart grid looking also in the optimization techniques that power control engineers perform into the grid components. We examine the application of various security tools in smart grid systems, such as intrusion detection systems, smart meter authentication and key management using Physical Unclonable Functions, security analytics and resilient control algorithms. Furthermore we present evaluation use cases of security tools applied on smart grid infrastructure test-beds that could be proved important prior to their application in the real grid, describing a smart grid intrusion detection system application and security analytics results. Anticipated experimental results from the use-cases and conclusions about the successful transitions of security measures to real world smart grid operations will be presented at the end of this chapter.

Compendium of practices on the implementation of ICT questions in households and businesses surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean 2010

Includes bibliography

Expectations and challenges : the implementation of mobile devices in a Scottish primary school

Acknowledgements Sincere thanks are due to all who have contributed to this study, which was funded in part by the Local Authority. The Head Teacher and Local Authority Officer have been instrumental in encouraging and supporting the research and the teachers and pupils at the school, along with several local authority support staff, have contributed directly. Colleagues from the University of Aberdeen, including Prof Do Coyle, Dr Yvonne Bain, and Phil Marston, helped to guide the project and provided useful feedback.

Expectations and challenges : the implementation of mobile devices in a Scottish primary school

Acknowledgements Sincere thanks are due to all who have contributed to this study, which was funded in part by the Local Authority. The Head Teacher and Local Authority Officer have been instrumental in encouraging and supporting the research and the teachers and pupils at the school, along with several local authority support staff, have contributed directly. Colleagues from the University of Aberdeen, including Prof Do Coyle, Dr Yvonne Bain, and Phil Marston, helped to guide the project and provided useful feedback.

Semantic modeling method for configurable enterprise information systems

Business practices vary from one company to another and business practices often need to be changed due to changes of business environments. To satisfy different business practices, enterprise systems need to be customized. To keep up with ongoing business practice changes, enterprise systems need to be adapted. Because of rigidity and complexity, the customization and adaption of enterprise systems often takes excessive time with potential failures and budget shortfall. Moreover, enterprise systems often drag business behind because they cannot be rapidly adapted to support business practice changes. Extensive literature has addressed this issue by identifying success or failure factors, implementation approaches, and project management strategies. Those efforts were aimed at learning lessons from post implementation experiences to help future projects. This research looks into this issue from a different angle. It attempts to address this issue by delivering a systematic method for developing flexible enterprise systems which can be easily tailored for different business practices or rapidly adapted when business practices change. First, this research examines the role of system models in the context of enterprise system development; and the relationship of system models with software programs in the contexts of computer aided software engineering (CASE), model driven architecture (MDA) and workflow management system (WfMS). Then, by applying the analogical reasoning method, this research initiates a concept of model driven enterprise systems. The novelty of model driven enterprise systems is that it extracts system models from software programs and makes system models able to stay independent of software programs. In the paradigm of model driven enterprise systems, system models act as instructors to guide and control the behavior of software programs. Software programs function by interpreting instructions in system models. This mechanism exposes the opportunity to tailor such a system by changing system models. To make this true, system models should be represented in a language which can be easily understood by human beings and can also be effectively interpreted by computers. In this research, various semantic representations are investigated to support model driven enterprise systems. The significance of this research is 1) the transplantation of the successful structure for flexibility in modern machines and WfMS to enterprise systems; and 2) the advancement of MDA by extending the role of system models from guiding system development to controlling system behaviors. This research contributes to the area relevant to enterprise systems from three perspectives: 1) a new paradigm of enterprise systems, in which enterprise systems consist of two essential elements: system models and software programs. These two elements are loosely coupled and can exist independently; 2) semantic representations, which can effectively represent business entities, entity relationships, business logic and information processing logic in a semantic manner. Semantic representations are the key enabling techniques of model driven enterprise systems; and 3) a brand new role of system models; traditionally the role of system models is to guide developers to write system source code. This research promotes the role of system models to control the behaviors of enterprise.

An exploration of The Virtues Project: Ontological, educational and cross-cultural inquiries into a moral education program within a Mongolian school setting

This thesis explores The Virtues Project's ontological, educational and cross-cultural dimensions taking Charles Taylor's philosophical perspective of an anthropological account of the self and a phenomenological account of moral life and engagement. The experience of Mongolian schoolteachers implementing this moral education program is analyzed using a narrative inquiry method. The globally attractive project appears in moral education and virtues ethics research and surveys, yet no critical evaluation has been undertaken. Its conceptual features are appraised from a Taylorean perspective. The Listening Guide analysis of teacher experiences is presented in two narratives. The first is about the teachers' implementation experiences of moral flourishing as selves, in relationships and in community. The second is about their experience of becoming Mongolian in their modern day context. In conclusion, the project is coherent, constructive and potentially suitable cross-culturally.

R2P ten years after the World Summit: Explaining ongoing contestation over Pillar III

This article examines how and why contrasting interpretations of the international community’s role in preventing and responding to mass atrocity crimes continue to exist a decade after the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was unanimously endorsed at the 2005 World Summit. Building on recent critical constructivist insights into the fluid, dynamic nature of norms, it advances two main arguments. The first is that continuing contestation over R2P’s third pillar is a product of a combination of internal and external sources of norm dynamism. R2P’s inherently complex normative structure, coupled with several external factors, including the broader normative environment, norm implementation experiences and a shift in global power towards the BRICS, have contributed to a period of renewed contestation and triggered attempts to re-formulate R2P thorough Brazil’s ‘Responsibility while Protecting’ (RwP) proposal and China’s semi-official ‘Responsible Protection’ concept. The second central argument is that such contestation is affecting R2P’s distinct normative prescriptions in different ways. While resistance to the implementation of coercive pillar III measures is currently impeding the normative progress of that component of the norm, this contestation has not prevented consensual pillar II assistance from becoming more deeply embedded in international practice and discourse.

Historia conceptual de la reintegración a partir del estudio de las experiencias de Namibia, República Democrática del Congo, la Provincia de Aceh-Indonesia y Colombia

Durante las dos últimas décadas, la etapa final de los programas modernos de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración (DDR), se ha convertido en un componente decisivo en los procesos de transición hacia la paz. Aun así, no existe suficiente análisis conceptual sobre la Reintegración. Esta investigación analiza cómo desde sus inicios, las experiencias de práctica e implementación de programas de DDR ha influenciado y contribuido a la aparición y transformación del concepto de reintegración de excombatientes a la vida civil. La investigación toma tres categorías de análisis de la metodología historiográfica Historia de los Conceptos, propuesta por Reinhart Koselleck, y a partir de cuatro casos, Namibia, República Democrática del Congo, la provincia de Aceh, Indonesia y Colombia, traza una línea de tiempo que evidencia elementos permanentes y discontinuidades al interior del concepto a nivel diacrónico, y la complejización que el término ha sufrido desde 1989 hasta el 2015 a nivel sincrónico

Modas e modismos em gestão empresarial: uma pesquisa empírica sobre sistemas integrados de gestão (ERP) no Brasil

Este trabalho discute a onda dos Sistemas Integrados de Gestão (SIG). SIG representam imensos investimentos para empresas em todo o mundo e tem sido promovidos como panacéias gerenciais. Previsivelmente, muitas implantações não atendem as expectativas. Neste estudo, nós: (i) propomos uma perspectiva ampla para a compreensão dos fatores substantivos, institucionais e políticos envolvidos no fenômeno SIG, assim como uma alternativa ao "tecno-reducionismo" que tem caracterizado as abordagens usuais ao tema; e (ii) apresentamos uma pesquisa exploratória de 28 experiências de implantação, concentrando o foco no processo de adoção, na abordagem escolhida para implantação e na avaliação dos resultados.

A full cost environmental accounting experiment

A lack of appropriate measurement techniques has constrained full cost environmental accounting (FCEA) experimentation. Yet, there has been little research on the applicability of valuation techniques recently developed by environmental economists within FLEA frameworks. This paper examines a reporting experiment using these valuation techniques that was undertaken by an Australian Government Department managing publicly owned forests. The FCEA experiment was ultimately not successful. However, the implementation experiences of the Department including the reactions of its managers and stakeholders provide an opportunity to critically reflect on the experimental outcomes to extend the current empirical knowledge of corporate social responsibility reporting. Such critical reflection has not been common in past FCEA experimentation. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implementing The KiVa Antibullying Program: What Does It Take?

There is variation in how teachers and schools implement bullying prevention programs. Although this variation has been discussed, there has been little empirical research concerning the relationship between implementation fidelity and program outcomes. This thesis contains three studies, each of them in the context of implementing the KiVa antibullying program, and examines teachers’ actions in preventing and intervening in school bullying. The first aim of this thesis is to examine implementation degree of the KiVa curriculum and its’ association with reductions in victimization and bullying perpetration (Study I). The second aim is to clarify why teachers displayed different degrees of adherence to the KiVa curriculum during a school year (Study II). Thirdly, it is investigated whether recognizing victimization can be difficult for school staff (Study III). In addition to these peer-reviewed studies, the thesis includes a qualitative analysis (unpublished) of the teachers’ open answers concerning their implementation experiences. The data were collected from elementary school teachers (Studies I–II; the unpublished study), elementary school students (Study I), and students on the elementary and middle school levels (Study III) during the evaluation of the effectiveness of KiVa antibullying program between 2007 and 2009. The findings demonstrate that a larger reduction in victimization can be achieved in classrooms where teachers display higher levels of adherence to the KiVa curriculum and invest more time for preparing the lessons. Bullying perpetration, however, was not equally affected by the level of curriculum implementation. With respect to the implementation process over one year, there was significant variation between individual teachers’ activity—ranging from systematic and high implementation to declining delivery from lesson to lesson. The sustained actions (high and moderate levels of implementation) were premised on principal support for antibullying work. Lesson preparation was associated with keeping implementation high throughout the school year. The findings also implied that the belief in the effectiveness of the program is important for a higher implementation degree at starting point of the process. Finally, there are severe flaws in teachers’ ability to identify students who are victimized. As it turns out, it is possible that only one-fourth of chronically victimized students are helped by the school staff. Especially when the victims are middle-school-aged girls, when they bully others themselves, or when they do not tell adults about bullying, reaching out for them is difficult. Implementation and dissemination of research-based interventions will take a good deal of time and effort. The findings demonstrate that active implementation is important for improving program outcomes. They also show how implementation can be sustained—there are both individual and interpersonal factors that facilitate or inhibit high-quality implementation. Thus, implications for future research regarding the implementation of school-based programs are suggested.

Information and Learning Experiences in the Cube: Vision, Implementation and Interaction

Executive Summary This project has commenced an exploration of learning and information experiences in the QUT Cube. Understanding learning in this environment has the potential to inform current implementations and future project development. In this report, we present early findings from the first phase of an investigation into what makes learning possible in the context of a giant interactive multi-media display such as the QUT Cube, which is an award-winning configuration that hosts several projects.

Patience, Persistence and Pragmatism: Experiences and Lessons Learnt from the Implementation of Clinically Integrated Teaching and Learning of Evidence-Based Health Care - A Qualitative Study

Background

Clinically integrated teaching and learning are regarded as the best options for improving evidence-based healthcare (EBHC) knowledge, skills and attitudes. To inform implementation of such strategies, we assessed experiences and opinions on lessons learnt of those involved in such programmes.

Methods and Findings

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 EBHC programme coordinators from around the world, selected through purposive sampling. Following data transcription, a multidisciplinary group of investigators carried out analysis and data interpretation, using thematic content analysis. Successful implementation of clinically integrated teaching and learning of EBHC takes much time. Student learning needs to start in pre-clinical years with consolidation, application and assessment following in clinical years. Learning is supported through partnerships between various types of staff including the core EBHC team, clinical lecturers and clinicians working in the clinical setting. While full integration of EBHC learning into all clinical rotations is considered necessary, this was not always achieved. Critical success factors were pragmatism and readiness to use opportunities for engagement and including EBHC learning in the curriculum; patience; and a critical mass of the right teachers who have EBHC knowledge and skills and are confident in facilitating learning. Role modelling of EBHC within the clinical setting emerged as an important facilitator. The institutional context exerts an important influence; with faculty buy-in, endorsement by institutional leaders, and an EBHC-friendly culture, together with a supportive community of practice, all acting as key enablers. The most common challenges identified were lack of teaching time within the clinical curriculum, misconceptions about EBHC, resistance of staff, lack of confidence of tutors, lack of time, and negative role modelling.

Conclusions

Implementing clinically integrated EBHC curricula requires institutional support, a critical mass of the right teachers and role models in the clinical setting combined with patience, persistence and pragmatism on the part of teachers.