Developing management capability within a horizontal supply chain in performance measurement deployment and evolution: A Dynamic Capabilities and Goal Theory perspective

Complex collaboration in rapidly changing business environments create challenges for management capability in Utility Horizontal Supply Chains (UHSCs) involving the deploying and evolving of performance measures. The aim of the study is twofold. First, there is a need to explore how management capability can be developed and used to deploy and evolve Performance Measurement (PM), both across a UHSC and within its constituent organisations, drawing upon a theoretical nexus of Dynamic Capability (DC) theory and complementary Goal Theory. Second, to make a contribution to knowledge by empirically building theory using these constructs to show the management motivations and behaviours within PM-based DCs. The methodology uses an interpretive theory building, multiple case based approach (n=3) as part of a USHC. The data collection methods include, interviews (n=54), focus groups (n=10), document analysis and participant observation (reflective learning logs) over a five-year period giving longitudinal data. The empirical findings lead to the development of a conceptual framework showing that management capabilities in driving PM deployment and evolution can be represented as multilevel renewal and incremental Dynamic Capabilities, which can be further understood in terms of motivation and behaviour by Goal-Theoretic constructs. In addition three interrelated cross cutting themes of management capabilities in consensus building, goal setting and resource change were identified. These management capabilities require carefully planned development and nurturing within the UHSC. 

Designing games for older adults: an affordance based approach

The main purpose of this study is to determine the game principles that need to be adopted in order to create an enjoyable and engaging game experience for older adults, whilst ensuring that the purpose of the game, encouraging upper limb mobility, is respected. The study reported in this paper involved a group of older adults who played and gave feedback on an early game prototype which feed into the design modification process. Each player's action capabilities were measured and taken into account in the design process. This helped ensure that opportunities for action that the game afforded were adapted to players' need.

Android Malware Detection: an Eigenspace Analysis Approach

The battle to mitigate Android malware has become more critical with the emergence of new strains incorporating increasingly sophisticated evasion techniques, in turn necessitating more advanced detection capabilities. Hence, in this paper we propose and evaluate a machine learning based approach based on eigenspace analysis for Android malware detection using features derived from static analysis characterization of Android applications. Empirical evaluation with a dataset of real malware and benign samples show that detection rate of over 96% with a very low false positive rate is achievable using the proposed method.

A creative approach to isometries integrating Geogebra and Italc with ‘paper and pencil’ environments

Creativity is recognized nowadays as a basic skill. However, the educational system fails in promoting their development. On the other hand, a growing acknowledgement of the importance of geometry emerges. Conceptual renewal, namely on isometries, requires new approaches based on mathematically significant tasks. The digital revolution has brought powerful tools but demands changes in the educational process. The use of Dynamic Geometry Environments (DGE), complementing ‘paper and pencil’, can contribute to provide rich learning environments, enhanced by Classroom Management Systems (CMS) such as iTALC. Indeed, the qualitative case study we carried out suggests that: the creation of an "atmosphere" of cooperation, collaboration and sharing seems to increase creativity dimensions; the use of DGE can facilitate the emergence of more creative productions; development of knowledge and geometrical capabilities seems to benefit from a complementary approach that combines DGE and ‘paper and pencil’ environments. Different approaches, with a more technological and exploratory nature seem to promote more favourable attitudes towards mathematics in general, and geometry, in particular.

In search of reliable centimeter-level indoor positioning: a smartphone-based approach

This thesis describes the design and implementation of a reliable centimeter-level indoor positioning system fully compatible with a conventional smartphone. The proposed system takes advantage of the smartphone audio I/O and processing capabilities to perform acoustic ranging in the audio band using non-invasive audio signals and it has been developed having in mind applications that require high accuracy, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, gaming and audio guides. The system works in a distributed operation mode, i.e. each smartphone is able to obtain its own position using only acoustic signals. To support the positioning system, a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) of synchronized acoustic beacons is used. To keep the infrastructure in sync we have developed an Automatic Time Synchronization and Syntonization (ATSS) protocol with a standard deviation of the sync offset error below 1.25 μs. Using an improved Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) estimation approach (which takes advantage of the beacon signals’ periodicity) and by performing Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) mitigation, we were able to obtain very stable and accurate position estimates with an absolute mean error of less than 10 cm in 95% of the cases and a mean standard deviation of 2.2 cm for a position refresh period of 350 ms.

A Designer’s Approach: Exploring how Autistic Adults with Additional Learning Disabilities Experience their Home Environment

Autistic adults with limited speech and additional learning disabilities are people whose perceptions and interactions with their environment are unique, but whose experiences are under-explored in design research. This PhD by Practice investigates how people with autism experience their home environment through a collaboration with the autism charity Kingwood Trust, which gave the designer extensive access to a community of autistic adults that it supports. The PhD reflects upon a neurotypical designer’s approach to working with autistic adults to investigate their relationship with the environment. It identifies and develops collaborative design tools for autistic adults, their support staff and family members to be involved. The PhD presents three design studies that explore a person’s interaction with three environmental contexts of the home i.e. garden, everyday objects and interiors. A strengths-based rather than a deficit-based approach is adopted which draws upon an autistic person’s sensory preferences, special interests and action capabilities, to unravel what discomfort and delight might mean for an autistic person; this approach is translated into three design solutions to enhance their experience at home. By working beyond the boundaries of a neurotypical culture, the PhD bridges the autistic and neurotypical worlds of experience and draws upon what the mainstream design field can learn from designing with autistic people with additional learning disabilities. It also provides insights into the subjective experiences of people who have very different ways of seeing, doing and being in the environment

Host-symbiont interactions in the deep-sea vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus : a molecular approach

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, especialidade de Biologia Marinha, 19 de Dezembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Adding local priority-based dispatching mechanisms to P-NET networks: a fixed priority approach

In this paper we address the real-time capabilities of P-NET, which is a multi-master fieldbus standard based on a virtual token passing scheme. We show how P-NET’s medium access control (MAC) protocol is able to guarantee a bounded access time to message requests. We then propose a model for implementing fixed prioritybased dispatching mechanisms at each master’s application level. In this way, we diminish the impact of the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy that P-NET uses at the data link layer. The proposed model rises several issues well known within the real-time systems community: message release jitter; pre-run-time schedulability analysis in non pre-emptive contexts; non-independence of tasks at the application level. We identify these issues in the proposed model and show how results available for priority-based task dispatching can be adapted to encompass priority-based message dispatching in P-NET networks.

ESEIG Mobile: an m-learning approach in a superior school

In recent years, mobile learning has emerged as an educational approach to decrease the limitation of learning location and adapt the teaching-learning process to all type of students. However, the large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to mobile devices. In this paper we study several approaches to adapt the learning content to mobile phones. We present an architecture for deliver uniform m-Learning content to students in a higher School. The system development is organized in two phases: firstly enabling the educational content to mobile devices and then adapting it to all the heterogeneous mobile platforms. With this approach, Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.

Prescribed burning impact on forest soil properties – a fuzzy boolean nets approach

The Portuguese northern forests are often and severely affected by wildfires during the Summer season. These occurrences significantly affect and negatively impact all ecosystems, namely soil, fauna and flora. In order to reduce the occurrences of natural wildfires, some measures to control the availability of fuel mass are regularly implemented. Those preventive actions concern mainly prescribed burnings and vegetation pruning. This work reports on the impact of a prescribed burning on several forest soil properties, namely pH, soil moisture, organic matter content and iron content, by monitoring the soil self-recovery capabilities during a one year span. The experiments were carried out in soil cover over a natural site of Andaluzitic schist, in Gramelas, Caminha, Portugal, which was kept intact from prescribed burnings during a period of four years. Soil samples were collected from five plots at three different layers (0–3, 3–6 and 6–18) 1 day before prescribed fire and at regular intervals after the prescribed fire. This paper presents an approach where Fuzzy Boolean Nets (FBN) and Fuzzy reasoning are used to extract qualitative knowledge regarding the effect of prescribed fire burning on soil properties. FBN were chosen due to the scarcity on available quantitative data. The results showed that soil properties were affected by prescribed burning practice and were unable to recover their initial values after one year.

ESEIG Mobile: an m-learning approach in a superior school

In recent years, mobile learning has emerged as an educational approach to decrease the limitation of learning location and adapt the teaching-learning process to all type of students. However, the large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to mobile devices. This paper studies several approaches to adapt the learning content to mobile phones. It presents an architecture for deliver uniform m-Learning content to students in a higher School. The system development is organized in two phases: firstly enabling the educational content to mobile devices and then adapting it to all the heterogeneous mobile platforms. With this approach, Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.

Dynamic Approach and Testbed for Small and Medium Players Simulation in Smart Grid Environments

The Smart Grid environment allows the integration of resources of small and medium players through the use of Demand Response programs. Despite the clear advantages for the grid, the integration of consumers must be carefully done. This paper proposes a system which simulates small and medium players. The system is essential to produce tests and studies about the active participation of small and medium players in the Smart Grid environment. When comparing to similar systems, the advantages comprise the capability to deal with three types of loads – virtual, contextual and real. It can have several loads optimization modules and it can run in real time. The use of modules and the dynamic configuration of the player results in a system which can represent different players in an easy and independent way. This paper describes the system and all its capabilities.

Dynamic Capabilities and Real Options

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien teorian kehittymistä ja nykytilaa. Työssä tarkastellaan myös mahdollisuuksia yhdistää reaalioptioajattelua ja dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien teoriaa. Tutkielma on toteutettu teoreettisena kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien teorian mukaan muuttuvassa toimintaympäristössä yritysten kilpailuetu perustuu kykyyn rakentaa, yhdistää ja muokata resursseja ja kyvykkyyksiä. Yritysten täytyy pystyä löytämään, sulauttamaan ja muuntamaan tietoa voidakseen tunnistaa uusia mahdollisuuksia ja pystyäkseen reagoimaan niihin. Tutkielma tuo esille uusia yhteyksiä dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien teorian ja yritysten käyttäytymisen välillä. Reaalioptioajattelu auttaa tunnistamaan yrityksen rajojen määrittämiseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Työssä tehdään ehdotuksia dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien teorian jatkotutkimusta varten.

Energy Management in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Crosslayer,Channel Adaptive Approach Towards Performance Optimization

The proliferation of wireless sensor networks in a large spectrum of applications had been spurered by the rapid advances in MEMS(micro-electro mechanical systems )based sensor technology coupled with low power,Low cost digital signal processors and radio frequency circuits.A sensor network is composed of thousands of low cost and portable devices bearing large sensing computing and wireless communication capabilities. This large collection of tiny sensors can form a robust data computing and communication distributed system for automated information gathering and distributed sensing.The main attractive feature is that such a sensor network can be deployed in remote areas.Since the sensor node is battery powered,all the sensor nodes should collaborate together to form a fault tolerant network so as toprovide an efficient utilization of precious network resources like wireless channel,memory and battery capacity.The most crucial constraint is the energy consumption which has become the prime challenge for the design of long lived sensor nodes.

Techniques for Enhancing Wind Energy Generation - A CFD Based Multibody Dynamics Approach in Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

Wind energy has emerged as a major sustainable source of energy.The efficiency of wind power generation by wind mills has improved a lot during the last three decades.There is still further scope for maximising the conversion of wind energy into mechanical energy.In this context,the wind turbine rotor dynamics has great significance.The present work aims at a comprehensive study of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) aerodynamics by numerically solving the fluid dynamic equations with the help of a finite-volume Navier-Stokes CFD solver.As a more general goal,the study aims at providing the capabilities of modern numerical techniques for the complex fluid dynamic problems of HAWT.The main purpose is hence to maximize the physics of power extraction by wind turbines.This research demonstrates the potential of an incompressible Navier-Stokes CFD method for the aerodynamic power performance analysis of horizontal axis wind turbine.The National Renewable Energy Laboratory USA-NREL (Technical Report NREL/Cp-500-28589) had carried out an experimental work aimed at the real time performance prediction of horizontal axis wind turbine.In addition to a comparison between the results reported by NREL made and CFD simulations,comparisons are made for the local flow angle at several stations ahead of the wind turbine blades.The comparison has shown that fairly good predictions can be made for pressure distribution and torque.Subsequently, the wind-field effects on the blade aerodynamics,as well as the blade/tower interaction,were investigated.The selected case corresponded to a 12.5 m/s up-wind HAWT at zero degree of yaw angle and a rotational speed of 25 rpm.The results obtained suggest that the present can cope well with the flows encountered around wind turbines.The areodynamic performance of the turbine and the flow details near and off the turbine blades and tower can be analysed using theses results.The aerodynamic performance of airfoils differs from one another.The performance mainly depends on co-efficient of performnace,co-efficient of lift,co-efficient of drag, velocity of fluid and angle of attack.This study shows that the velocity is not constant for all angles of attack of different airfoils.The performance parameters are calculated analytically and are compared with the standardized performance tests.For different angles of ,the velocity stall is determined for the better performance of a system with respect to velocity.The research addresses the effect of surface roughness factor on the blade surface at various sections.The numerical results were found to be in agreement with the experimental data.A relative advantage of the theoretical aerofoil design method is that it allows many different concepts to be explored economically.Such efforts are generally impractical in wind tunnels because of time and money constraints.Thus, the need for a theoretical aerofoil design method is threefold:first for the design of aerofoil that fall outside the range of applicability of existing calalogs:second,for the design of aerofoil that more exactly match the requirements of the intended application:and third,for the economic exploration of many aerofoil concepts.From the results obtained for the different aerofoils,the velocity is not constant for all angles of attack.The results obtained for the aerofoil mainly depend on angle of attack and velocity.The vortex generator technique was meticulously studies with the formulation of the specification for the right angle shaped vortex generators-VG.The results were validated in accordance with the primary analysis phase.The results were found to be in good agreement with the power curve.The introduction of correct size VGs at appropriate locations over the blades of the selected HAWT was found to increase the power generation by about 4%