Municipal solid waste management system: decision support through systems analysis

Thesis submitted to the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering

Development of a life cycle management system for remote products.

The research described in this thesis has been developed as a part of the Reliability and Field Data Management for Multi-Component Products (REFIDAM) Project. This project was funded under the Applied Research Grants Scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland. The project was a partnership between Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and an industrial company, Thermo King Europe. The project aimed to develop a system to manage the information required for maintenance costing, cost of ownership, reliability assessment and improvement of multi-component products, by establishing information flows between the customer network and across the Thermo King organisation.

Adaptive Privacy Management System Design For Context-Aware Mobile Devices

While mobile technologies can provide great personalized services for mobile users, they also threaten their privacy. Such personalization-privacy paradox are particularly salient for context aware technology based mobile applications where user's behaviors, movement and habits can be associated with a consumer's personal identity. In this thesis, I studied the privacy issues in the mobile context, particularly focus on an adaptive privacy management system design for context-aware mobile devices, and explore the role of personalization and control over user's personal data. This allowed me to make multiple contributions, both theoretical and practical. In the theoretical world, I propose and prototype an adaptive Single-Sign On solution that use user's context information to protect user's private information for smartphone. To validate this solution, I first proved that user's context is a unique user identifier and context awareness technology can increase user's perceived ease of use of the system and service provider's authentication security. I then followed a design science research paradigm and implemented this solution into a mobile application called "Privacy Manager". I evaluated the utility by several focus group interviews, and overall the proposed solution fulfilled the expected function and users expressed their intentions to use this application. To better understand the personalization-privacy paradox, I built on the theoretical foundations of privacy calculus and technology acceptance model to conceptualize the theory of users' mobile privacy management. I also examined the role of personalization and control ability on my model and how these two elements interact with privacy calculus and mobile technology model. In the practical realm, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the tradeoff between the benefit of personalized services and user's privacy concerns it may cause. By pointing out new opportunities to rethink how user's context information can protect private data, it also suggests new elements for privacy related business models.

Development of a GPS-Based Sign Inventory Tool for Iowa’s Statewide Management System, May 2011

This report is on state-of-the-art research efforts specific to infrastructure inventory/data collection with sign inventory as a case study. The development of an agency-wide sign inventory is based on feature inventory and location information. Specific to location, a quick and simple location acquisition tool is critical to tying assets to an accurate location-referencing system. This research effort provides a contrast between legacy referencing systems (route and milepost) and global positioning system- (GPS-) based techniques (latitude and longitude) integrated into a geographic information system (GIS) database. A summary comparison of field accuracies using a variety of consumer grade devices is also provided. This research, and the data collection tools developed, are critical in supporting the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) Statewide Sign Management System development effort. For the last two years, a Task Force has embarked on a comprehensive effort to develop a sign management system to improve sign quality, as well as to manage all aspects of signage, from request, ordering, fabricating, installing, maintaining, and ultimately removing, and to provide the ability to budget for these key assets on a statewide basis. This effort supported the development of a sign inventory tool and is the beginning of the development of a sign management system to support the Iowa DOT efforts in the consistent, cost effective, and objective decision making process when it comes to signs and their maintenance.

Issue review : electronic document management system or EDMS.

This issue review provides an overview of the electronic documents management system, or EDMS project.

Report and Specification for Transportation Program Management System, HR-394, 1997

TPMS is proposed as a distributed, PC-based system for automating two processes required for road improvements in Iowa: a) the annual preparation, submission, and approval of road improvement programs. b) the ongoing process of developing plans and obtaining approval for projects to be let for bids.

Transportation Program Management System, HR-394, 2003

HR-394 was a software and database development project. Via funding provided by the Iowa Highway Research Board, the Iowa County Engineer's Association Service Bureau oversaw the planning and implementation of an Internet based application that supports two major local-government transportation project activities: Project programming and Development tracking. The goals were to reduce errors and inconsistencies, speed up the processes, link people to both project data and each other, and build a framework that could eventually support a 'paperless' work flow. The work started in 1999 and initial development was completed by the fall of 2002. Since going live, several 'piggy back' applications have been required to make the Programming side better fit actual work procedures. This part of the system has proven adequate but will be rewritten in 2004 to make it easier to use. The original development side module was rejected by the users and so had to be rewritten in 2003. The second version has proven much better, is heavily used, and is interconnected with Iowa DOT project data systems. Now that the system is in operation, it will be maintained and operated by the ICEA Service Bureau as an ongoing service function.

Planning, Developing, and Implementing the Iowa Pavement Marking Management System (IPMMS): Phases I and II, 2006

With an annual pavement marking program of approximately $2 million and another $750 thousand invested in maintenance of durable markings each year, the Iowa DOT is seeking every opportunity to provide all-year markings staying in acceptable condition under all weather conditions. The goal of this study is to analyze existing pavement marking practices and to develop a prototype Pavement Marking Management System (PMMS). This report documents the first two phases of a three-phase research project. Phase I includes an overview of the Iowa DOT’s existing practices and a literature review regarding pavement marking practices in other states. Based on this information, a work plan was developed for Phases II and III of this study. Phase II organized the key components necessary to develop a prototype PMMS for the Iowa DOT. The two primary components are (1) performance/life cycle curves for pavement marking products, and (2) an application matrix tailored to the pavement marking products and roadway and environmental conditions faced by the Iowa DOT. Both components will continue to be refined and tailored to Iowa materials and conditions as more performance data becomes available.

Implementation of an Integrated Activity-Based Costing in a Holistic Database Management System and its Implications for Operations Management

Diplomityössä on tutkittu reaaliaikaisen toimintolaskennan toteuttamista suomalaisen lasersiruja valmistavan PK-yrityksen tietojärjestelmään. Lisäksi on tarkasteltu toimintolaskennan vaikutuksia operatiiviseen toimintaan sekä toimintojen johtamiseen. Työn kirjallisuusosassa on käsitelty kirjallisuuslähteiden perusteella toimintolaskennan teorioita, laskentamenetelmiä sekä teknisessä toteutuksessa käytettyjä teknologioita. Työn toteutusosassa suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin WWW-pohjainen toimintolaskentajärjestelmä case-yrityksen kustannuslaskennan sekä taloushallinnon avuksi. Työkalu integroitiin osaksi yrityksen toiminnanohjaus- sekä valmistuksenohjausjärjestelmää. Perinteisiin toimintolaskentamallien tiedonkeruujärjestelmiin verrattuna case-yrityksessä syötteet toimintolaskentajärjestelmälle tulevat reaaliaikaisesti osana suurempaa tietojärjestelmäintegraatiota.Diplomityö pyrkii luomaan suhteen toimintolaskennan vaatimusten ja tietokantajärjestelmien välille. Toimintolaskentajärjestelmää yritys voi hyödyntää esimerkiksi tuotteiden hinnoittelussa ja kustannuslaskennassa näkemällä tuotteisiin liittyviä kustannuksia eri näkökulmista. Päätelmiä voidaan tehdä tarkkaan kustannusinformaatioon perustuen sekä määrittää järjestelmän tuottaman datan perusteella, onko tietyn projektin, asiakkuuden tai tuotteen kehittäminen taloudellisesti kannattavaa.

XML-based information management environment for PE technologies

Printed electronics is an emerging concept in electronics manufacturing and it is in very early development stage. The technology is not stable, design kits are not developed, and flows and Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools are not fixed yet. The European project TDK4PE addresses all this issues and this PFC has been realized on this context. The goal is to develop an XML-based information system for the collection and management of information from the technology and cell libraries developed in TDK4PE. This system will ease the treatment of that information for a later generation of specific Design Kits (DK) and the corresponding documentation. This work proposes a web application to generate technology files and design kits in a formatted way; it also proposes a structure for them and a database implementation for storing the needed information. The application will allow its users to redefine the structure of those files, as well as export and import XML files, between other formats.

Lifecycle Information Management of a Mass Customized Product

Diplomityön tavoitteena on tutkia mitä uusia tiedonhallinnallisia ongelmia ilmenee, kun massaräätälöidyn tuotteen tuotetieto hallitaan läpi tuotteen elinkaaren, sekä miten nämä ongelmat voitaisiin ratkaista. Ongelmat ja haasteet kerätään kirjallisuuslähteistä ja massaräätälöintiprosessi yhdistetään PLM-vaiheisiin. Ratkaisua tutkitaan testaamalla kuinka standardit STEP ja PLCS sekä standardeja tukeva PLM järjestelmä voisivat tukea massaräätälöidyn tuotteen elinkaaren tiedonhallintaa. MC tuotteiden ongelmia ovat tuoterakenteen monimutkaisuus, jäljitettävyys ja muutosten hallinta läpi elinkaaren. STEP ja PLCS pystyvät kummatkin tahollaan tukemaan tiedonhallintaa. MC-tuotteen geneerinen tuoterakenne on kuitenkin manuaalisesti liittettävä elinkaaritiedon tukemiseen. PLM-järjestelmä pystyy tukemaan MC-tuotteiden elinkaarta, mutta koska toiminto ei ole järjestelmään sisäänrakennettuna, MC-tuotteiden tukemisen parantamisessa on edelleen haasteita.

Semantic data integration in a newspaper content management system

A newspaper content management system has to deal with a very heterogeneous information space as the experience in the Diari Segre newspaper has shown us. The greatest problem is to harmonise the different ways the involved users (journalist, archivists...) structure the newspaper information space, i.e. news, topics, headlines, etc. Our approach is based on ontology and differentiated universes of discourse (UoD). Users interact with the system and, from this interaction, integration rules are derived. These rules are based on Description Logic ontological relations for subsumption and equivalence. They relate the different UoD and produce a shared conceptualisation of the newspaper information domain.

Interoperability of learning objects copyright in the LUISA semantic learning management system

Semantic Web technology is able to provide the required computational semantics for interoperability of learning resources across different Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Object Repositories (LOR). The EU research project LUISA (Learning Content Management System Using Innovative Semantic Web Services Architecture) addresses the development of a reference semantic architecture for the major challenges in the search, interchange and delivery of learning objects in a service-oriented context. One of the key issues, highlighted in this paper, is Digital Rights Management (DRM) interoperability. A Semantic Web approach to copyright management has been followed, which places a Copyright Ontology as the key component for interoperability among existing DRM systems and other licensing schemes like Creative Commons. Moreover, Semantic Web tools like reasoners, rule engines and semantic queries facilitate the implementation of an interoperable copyright management component in the LUISA architecture.

Implementation of Customer Relationship Management system to support channel partners

Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää, kokevatko matkapuhelinalalla toimivat kanavapartnerit heitä varten suunnitellun asiakassuhdehallintajärjestelmän lisäarvopalveluna vaiko eivät. Työ toteutettiin asiakastyytyväisyystutkimuksen avulla, jossa mitattiin erilaisten partnereiden asennetta palvelua kohtaan. Työn tuloksena ilmeni, että palvelussa olevan informaation määrällä ei ollut suurta vaikutusta asiakkaiden tyytyväisyyteen. Syyt ovat pikemminkin yleisissä asenteissa vastaavia palveluja kohtaan.

Integrating Financial Perspective to Quality Orientated Management System. Case: ALSTOM Finland Oy

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena on tutkia taloudellisen näkökulman integroimista laatuajatteluun pohjautuvaan johtamisjärjestelmään esimerkkiyrityksessä. Johtamisjärjestelmän tulee tuottaa tietoa johdon strategiselle päätöksenteolle ja lisäksi täyttää laatujärjestelmän (ISO 9001:2000) asettamat vaatimukset. Tutkimuksen kohteena oleva työkalu on balanced scorecard (tasapainotettu tuloskortti). Työn tarkoituksena on ehdottaa balanced scorecard- talouden tunnuslukuja esimerkkiyritykselle. Tutkimuksen tavoitteisiin päästään empiiristä tutkimusta varten tehdyn teoreettisen viitekehyksen avulla. Empiiristä tutkimustietoa kerätään osallistuvan havainnoinnin, haastattelujen ja keskustelujen avulla. Tutkimusmenetelmänä on laadullinen case -tutkimus. Balanced scorecardin eri näkökulmille ehdotettiin tunnuslukuja empiirisen tutkimuksen pohjalta. Lisäksi talouden näkökulmaa tutkittiin tarkemmin. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä esitettiin, että taloudelliset tunnusluvut mittaavat ensisijaisesti strategiaa eivätkä laatua. Lisäksi huomioitiin, että tuloskorttien tulisi olla koekäytössä ennen bonuspalkkauksen ja balanced scorecardin yhdistämistä.