95 research outputs found

    Systematic Analysis of COVID-19 Ontologies

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    This comprehensive study conducts an in-depth analysis of existing COVID-19 ontologies, scrutinizing their objectives, classifications, design methodologies, and domain focal points. The study is conducted through a dual-stage approach, commencing with a systematic review of relevant literature and followed by an ontological assessment utilizing a parametric methodology. Through this meticulous process, twenty-four COVID-19 Ontologies (CovOs) are selected and examined. The findings highlight the scope, intended purpose, granularity of ontology, modularity, formalism, vocabulary reuse, and extent of domain coverage. The analysis reveals varying levels of formality in ontology development, a prevalent preference for utilizing OWL as the representational language, and diverse approaches to constructing class hierarchies within the models. Noteworthy is the recurrent reuse of ontologies like OBO models (CIDO, GO, etc.) alongside CODO. The METHONTOLOGY approach emerges as a favored design methodology, often coupled with application-based or data-centric evaluation methods. Our study provides valuable insights for the scientific community and COVID-19 ontology developers, supplemented by comprehensive ontology metrics. By meticulously evaluating and documenting COVID-19 information-driven ontological models, this research offers a comparative cross-domain perspective, shedding light on knowledge representation variations. The present study significantly enhances understanding of CovOs, serving as a consolidated resource for comparative analysis and future development, while also pinpointing research gaps and domain emphases, thereby guiding the trajectory of future ontological advancements.Comment: 16 pages, accepted for publication in 17th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR2023), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy, October 23-27, 202

    International financial reporting standards (IFRS): exploring financial evidence from Australia, Germany, Greece, the UK and the US

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    This project relates to the financial effects of the official adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2005. IFRS is a set of unique, high-quality standards that aim to increase the transparency and comparability of information in firms’ financial statements. However, since their implementation, issues have arisen, such as their introduction in the US, and the global financial crisis in 2008 which resulted in a huge downturn in global stock markets. There are indications that, under certain circumstances, firms have used earnings management to gain competitive advantage. Earnings management, or the deliberate misstatement of earnings figures, is a form of fraud. It is an important issue because firms that use such techniques disorientate investors and market participants, and increase market imbalances. Many studies have focused on the connection between earnings management and IFRS, provoking three core questions. Would it have been better for countries to apply their own national GAAP? Has acceptance of IFRS in the US improved matters? Might better measures have been taken to avoid or eliminate any management effects during the crisis? This study involved quantitative analysis of secondary numerical data, focusing on the Australian, German, Greek, UK and US stock markets. The findings reveal that IFRS has not succeeded in eliminating falsified statements entirely. However, this study helps market participants by developing a database of investment strategies based on the potential for firms to use earnings management. It contributes to theory by exploring additional tools and motives for earnings management, and to practice by analysing possible methods for investors and authorities to detect such practices. It is thus of interest to both academics and market professionals

    A Longitudinal study of organizational capability development process : rendering project portfolio management capability (PPMC)

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    This dissertation analyzes the heterogeneous development paths of project portfolio management capability (PPMC). Earlier, modern literature has prioritized its focus on the performance-based classification of organizational capabilities, while their development process remained obscure. Consequently, scholarship advocating high performance organizational capabilities (such as a dynamic capability) are in abundance. However, the evidence of development path-affected performance dissimilarities is rather sparse or otherwise remained implicit due to the increasing conceptual differences among the prominent scholarship. Along with the longitudinal process research design of this research, a critical realism-based retroduction approach has enabled the discovery of the capability investigation framework. This capability dimensions, routines, and performance outcome based framework has been further extended to investigate project portfolio management capability (PPMC). This retroductive framework is operationalized to evidence the nine years of capability development path heterogeneity at three entities of a case company. The research case findings explain the effect of underlying mechanisms, which due to their context dependent outcomes, either positively reinforce the existing development paths or lead to an alternative path selection. The case findings also confirm that higher performance is not universally attributable to any specific organizational capability known in the literature. Instead, the actuation of all three identified learning mechanisms (of a learning organization) can develop high performing organizational capabilities. This research concludes that a capability development process endures through an extemporized mixture of refinement, reconfiguration, and transformation activities. As a result, an organizational capability always remains idiosyncratic in its details and, hence, produce diverse performance outcomes. Finally, this PhD research has created a critical realist model to extend the emergent theory of capability path dependence to the other organizational contexts.TÀmÀ tutkimus analysoi projektiportfolion hallintaa koskevan kyvykkyyden moninaisia kehittÀmisvaihtoehtoja. Aiempi tutkimus on keskittynyt organisaation toimintaa tukevien kyvykkyyksien luokitteluun, mutta kyvykkyyksien kehittymistÀ on tutkittu vÀhemmÀn. Kyvykkyyden kehittymiseen (kuten dynaamiseen kyvykkyyteen) tÀhtÀÀvÀ tutkimus keskittyy enimmÀkseen organisaation nÀkökulmaan. LisÀksi kyvykkyyden kehittymistutkimusta vaikeuttaa se, ettÀ alan keskeiset tutkijat kÀyttÀvÀt keskenÀÀn erilaista terminologiaa. TÀmÀ tutkimus on pitkittÀinen ja siinÀ rakennettiin kriittisen realismin lÀhestymistavan avulla kyvykkyyden kehittymisen tutkimista varten viitekehys. Kyvykkyyden osatekijöitÀ, rutiineja ja toiminnan tuloksia kuvaavaa viitekehystÀ kehitettiin edelleen niin, ettÀ sitÀ voidaan kÀyttÀÀ organisaation projektisalkun hallinnan kyvyn selvittÀmiseen. TÀmÀn viitekehyksen avulla osoitettiin tapausyrityksen kolmen yksikön kyvykkyyden kehittymispolku yhdeksÀn vuoden ajalta. Tapaustutkimuksen tulokset selittÀvÀt kyvykkyyden kehittymisen mekanismeja, jotka joko vahvistavat organisaation vallitsevia kehittymispolkuja tai johtavat uuden kehittymispolun valintaan. Tapaustutkimukset myös osoittavat, ettÀ tehokas toiminta ei ole kirjallisuudessa mainitun yksittÀisen organisaation kyvykkyysosatekijÀn seurausta. Sen sijaan kaikki tunnistetut oppivan organisaation oppimiskeinot kehittÀvÀt tehokkaasti toimivan organisaation kyvykkyyksiÀ. TÀmÀn tutkimuksen johtopÀÀtös on, ettÀ kyvykkyyden kehittymisprosessi muodostuu improvisoiduista hienosÀÀtö-, uudelleenkonfigurointi- ja muokkausvaiheista. Niiden tuloksena organisaation kyvykkyys sÀilyy aina yksityiskohdissaan omaperÀisenÀ ja siten voi tuottaa vaihtelevia tuloksia. TÀmÀ vÀitöskirja on luonut kriittiseen realismiin perustuvan mallin, jolla laajennetaan uutta kyvykkyyden kehittymispolkuriippuvuuden teoriaa muihin organisaatiokonteksteihin.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

    Towards a regional ontology for information systems project management

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    Includes bibliographical references (leaves [170]-185).The extant research literature on Information Systems (IS) project management illustrates that there is considerable confusion about the true nature of IS project management. The bewilderment is expressed in a number of ways. Practitioners are reporting that there is considerable mismatch between the prescribed practices they are socialised into and their actual experiences of project work. Appropriately, there are also debates about what constitutes project success and about what factors influence project success and failure. Whilst these fundamentals are being debated there are also concerns expressed about the lack of adequate underlying theoretical constructs to give coherence to the kinds of questions raised. As the essence of IS project management is being debated there is evidence suggesting that the project-driven organisational form is growing in popularity. Together with the concerns there are proposals being offered as alternatives to improve understanding of project management. The review undertaken in this thesis illustrates that alternatives are emerging despite the existence of an entrenched value system that makes society prone to unwittingly accept and be attracted to the adoption of best practices such as PMBOK, which is central to the debate taking place in IS project management

    Foresight Programs for Educational Policy: Program Participants' Perceptions and Experiences with Outcomes.

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    University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. Advisor: Karen Seashore. 1 computer file (PDF); xiv, 216 pages.Increasingly rapid technological and social changes pose significant challenges for educators and educational policymakers in Iceland. To address these challenges, Icelandic policymakers implemented two foresight programs intended to provide anticipatory intelligence and promote long-term perspectives for educational policymaking. Foresight programs are intended to produce intelligence and capacities that encourage stakeholder organizations to adopt long-term perspectives regarding policy change and development. Foresight outcomes have been categorized as: immediate outcomes, resulting from initial program activities; intermediate outcomes, resulting from the transfer of immediate outcomes to stakeholder organizations; and ultimate outcomes, that are expected to occur over the long-term. This multi-methods case study examined two foresight programs implemented in Iceland, the Iceland 2020 program and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture's foresight program on technology and education. The programs were implemented to explore, and address, future challenges relating to education, and in the case of the Iceland 2020 program, other related issues. The study used Engeström's (1999) Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to explore how immediate foresight outcomes were transferred from program contexts to program participants' organizational contexts and their affects on organizations. The study included a survey and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to develop themes as they emerged. The data were further analyzed using the CHAT framework to explore the processes that were involved in the transfer of immediate foresight outcomes between the program and organizational contexts. The findings suggest that foresight program coordinators and planners need to ensure that program participants have a sufficient understanding of foresight and futures methods to recognize immediate foresight outcomes and how to engage others within their organizations with them. The outcomes of the study provide an empirical foundation for extending current models of foresight processes and outcomes as they relate to educational policy. Furthermore, they help to better inform foresight program coordinators and planners to ensure that program objectives are met

    Evolutionary Design Model for the design of complex engineered systems : Masdar City as a case study

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    Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Computation for Design and Optimization Program, 2009."September 2009." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-157).This thesis develops a framework for constructing an Evolutionary Design Model (EDM) that would enhance the design of complex systems through an efficient process. The framework proposed is generic and suggests a group of systematic methodologies that eventually lead to a fully realized and integrated design model. Within this model, complexities of the design are handled and the uncertainties of the design evolution are managed. Using the framework, vast design spaces can be searched while solutions are intelligently modified, their performance evaluated, and their results aggregated into a compatible set for design decisions. The EDM is composed of several design states as well as design evolving processes. A design state describes a design at a particular point in time and maps the system's object to the system's requirements and identifies its relation to the context in which the system will operate. A design evolving process involves many sub-processes which include formulation, decomposition, modeling, and integration. These sub-processes are not always carried out in a sequential manner, but rather a continuous move back and forth to previous and subsequent stages is expected. The resulting design model is described as an evolutionary model that moves a system's design from simple abstract states to more complex and detailed states throughout its evolution.(cont.) The framework utilizes system modeling methodologies that include both logical and mathematical modeling methods. The type of model used within the EDM's evolving processes is highly dependent on and driven by design needs of each process. As the design progresses a shift from logical models to mathematical models occurs within the EDM. Finally, a partial EDM is implemented within the context of a computational design system for Masdar city to demonstrate the application of the proposed framework.By Anas Alfaris.S.M

    Cultural Policy and the Creative City: Legitimation Discourses, Culture and the State

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    This thesis addresses cultural policy. It proposes that the creative city urban development paradigm is a useful perspective from which cultural policy can be analysed in order to reveal the imperatives, pressures, contingencies and deficits within it and the state, vis-à-vis the market. The thesis, therefore, rests on three analytical pillars: the general field of cultural policy, the specific construct of the creative city paradigm, and an investigation of relations between these domains through a study of policy texts in Scotland, Finland and Ireland. Using Michel Foucault’s discourse formation theory and Jurgen Habermas’s concepts of lifeworld, system, legitimation and colonisation, the dissertation demonstrates that instrumental discourses like the creative city are used to legitimate cultural policies by providing tangible rationales for investment in culture and by addressing local state issues, though this process ultimately works to delegitimate cultural policy. The thesis also shows that cultural policies typically deploy conflicting and dual discourses that appeal to the interests of the state and the public, as well as obfuscating prevailing state ideologies. It is argued that this characteristic has developed because of difficulties with defining culture, the weakness of the policy sector and the state’s interest in sustaining itself. From the case material, therefore, it is firstly demonstrated that cultural policy does not have a tangible policy mandate, is not a sui generis area of public policy, and is primarily used to address central government agendas and other policy sectors. It is further shown that this understanding of cultural policy is held at the highest political levels and therefore constitutes the a priori purpose of contemporary cultural policy. Secondly, using Peter Sloterdijk’s concept of cynical reason, this thesis demonstrates that the dependency and perpetual case-making of the cultural sector evident in rational instrumental discourses like the creative city, leads to a cynicism amongst the stakeholders of cultural policy ii which impacts on the functioning of their relationships. Thirdly, though instrumentalism is endemic to all policy, cultural policy’s dependency, weak status and relationship to the market are reflexively linked and lead to a structural or cyclical instrumentalism in cultural policy. This cycle of instrumentalism exacerbates difficulties amongst stakeholder relationships, and can result in a colonisation or imbalance between political-economic and socio-cultural imperatives in a policy sector that is already in deficit, with implications for the state. This analysis, therefore, results in a new consideration of the role and implications of the creative city paradigm in relation to cultural policy, public policy and the stat

    A Structured Systemic Framework for Software Development

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    The purpose of this research was to develop and apply a systems-based framework for the analysis of software development project performance. Software development project performance is measured at the project level; that is, cost, schedule, and product quality that affect the overall project. To date, most performance improvement efforts have been focused on individual processes within the overall software development system. Making improvements to sub-elements, processes, or sub-systems without regard for the overall project is a classic misbehavior entered into by practitioners who fail to use a holistic, systemic approach. Attempts to improve sub-system behavior are at odds with The Principle of Sub-optimization. (van Gigch, 1974) The traditional method of predicting software development project performance, in terms of sub-system performance is too restrictive. A new holistic, systemic view based on systems principles offers a more robust way to look at performance. This research addressed this gap in the systems and software body of knowledge by developing a generalizable and transportable framework for software project performance that is based on systems principles. A rigorous mixed-method research methodology, employing both inductive and case study methods, was used to develop and validate the framework. Two research questions were identified as integral to increasing the understanding of a systems-based framework. (1) How does systems theory apply to the analysis of software development project performance? (2) What results from the application of a systems-based analysis framework for analyzing performance on a software development project? Using Discoverers\u27 Induction (Whewell, 1858), a systems-based framework for the analysis of software development project performance was constructed, adding to the systems and software body of knowledge and substantiating a comprehensive and unambiguous theoretical construct for software development. Then, the framework was applied to two completed software development projects to support validation. The structured systemic framework shows significant promise for contribution to software practitioners by indicating future software development project performance. The research also made a contribution in the area of research methodologies by resurrecting William Whewell\u27s Discoverers\u27 Induction (1858) and furthering the use of the case study method in the engineering management and systems engineering domain, areas where their application has been very limited

    Technical Sensoriums: A Speculative Investigation into the Entanglement and Convergence of Surveillance and Technology

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    Surveillance and technology are among the most prevalent phenomena in the developed world, the proliferation of which is abetted by an ever increasing profusion of products and services extending the competencies of these capabilities into new opportunities and markets worldwide. More significantly, this momentum is leading to a convergence of these disparate competencies towards a common techno-surveillant milieu. Yet much of what is written and theoretically understood about these topics (singularly and collectively) fails to provide for a unified accounting that anticipates either the trajectory or the heterogeneous forms of this converging phenomenon. This projects sets out to excavate why our understanding of techno-surveillance is so myopic. Following the evidence, I assert that this short-sightedness is not simply the result of methodological shortcomings. Rather, most researchers of surveillance and technology are blinded by philosophical presumptions (primarily grounded in epistemology) that exclude the kinds of questions (largely ontological) they must ask to go deeper in their investigations. This study examines the archaeological detritus of an early techno-surveillant system, the characteristics of which are typical of the kinds of systems that have come to challenge researchers about the implications of their analyses. Based on this analysis, this study proposes an ontological model, which I call ontigeny that is consistent with the evidence and helps to explain the heterogeneity of techno-surveillance, as well as its potential trajectories
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