An examination of the trans-nationality and applicability of Nonaka's theory of organizational knowledge creation to urban regeneration in UK.

General awareness of a knowledge-based society and the academic interest in knowledge management (KM) in the field of organization studies have both intensified in recent years. However, research into 'knowledge' has, to date, received scant attention in the field of the urban regeneration process. This fact has greatly motivated this thesis, whose main objective is "to examine the trans-nationality and applicability of Nonaka's theory of organizational knowledge creation to urban regeneration in UK". After having introduced TEAM linguistic theory into the examination of the validity of the hypotheses of this thesis (see Chapter 2), the trans-nationality and applicability of Nonaka's theory are examined in the KM context of UK in particular - in both a theoretical and practical sense (see Chapter 3). Because there is no comprehensive theoretical framework which allows for a comparison to be made between urban regeneration theories and Nonaka's theory, from either an epistemological or ontological point of view, this thesis has looked in great depth into urban planning theory, rather than any literature on the theories of urban regeneration. It in particular, examines two sets of procedural theories of urban planning, namely Systems Theories and Rational Theories of Planning (see Chapter 4), and Communicative Planning Theory (see Chapter 5). In order to examine the applicability of Nonaka's theoretical frameworks to the empirical context of urban regeneration in the UK, case study research was conducted using the Creative Town Initiative (CTI) in Huddersfield (see Chapter 6) from which important generic and context specific conclusions have been drawn (see Chapter 7)

Organising knowledge in the age of the semantic web: a study of the commensurability of ontologies

 This study is directed towards the problem of conceptual translation across different data management systems and formats, with a particular focus on those used in the emerging world of the Semantic Web. Increasingly, organisations have sought to connect information sources and services within and beyond their enterprise boundaries, building upon existing Internet facilities to offer improved research, planning, reporting and management capabilities. The Semantic Web is an ambitious response to this growing demand, offering a standards-based platform for sharing, linking and reasoning with information. The imagined result, a globalised knowledge network formed out of mutually referring data structures termed "ontologies", would make possible new kinds of queries, inferences and amalgamations of information. Such a network, though, is premised upon large numbers of manually drawn links between these ontologies. In practice, establishing these links is a complex translation task requiring considerable time and expertise; invariably, as ontologies and other structured information sources are published, many useful connections are neglected. To combat this, in recent years substantial research has been invested into "ontology matching" - the exploration of algorithmic approaches for automatically translating or aligning ontologies. These approaches, which exploit the explicit semantic properties of individual concepts, have registered impressive precision and recall results against humanly-engineered translations. However they are unable to make use of background cultural information about the overall systems in which those concepts are housed - how those systems are used, for what purpose they were designed, what methodological or theoretical principles underlined their construction, and so on. The present study investigates whether paying attention to these sociological dimensions of electronic knowledge systems could supplement algorithmic approaches in some circumstances. Specifically, it asks whether a holistic notion of commensurability can be useful when aligning or translating between such systems.      The first half of the study introduces the problem, surveys the literature, and outlines the general approach. It then proposes both a theoretical foundation and a practical framework for assessing commensurability of ontologies and other knowledge systems. Chapter 1 outlines the Semantic Web, ontologies and the problem of conceptual translation, and poses the key research questions. Conceptual translation can be treated as, by turns, a social, philosophical, linguistic or technological problem; Chapter 2 surveys a correspondingly wide range of literature and approaches.      The methods employed by the study are described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 critically examines theories of conceptual schemes and commensurability, while Chapter 5 describes the framework itself, comprising a series of specific dimensions, a broad methodological approach, and a means for generating both qualitative and quantitative assessments. The second half of the study then explores the notion of commensurability through several empirical frames. Chapters 6 to 8 applies the framework to a series of case studies. Chapter 6 presents a brief history of knowledge systems, and compares two of these systems - relational databases and Semantic Web ontologies. Chapter 7, in turn, compares several "upper-level" ontologies - reusable schematisations of abstract concepts like Time and Space . Chapter 8 reviews a recent, widely publicised controversy over the standardisation of document formats. This analysis in particular shows how the opaque dry world of technical specifications can reveal the complex network of social dynamics, interests and beliefs which coordinate and motivate them. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the framework is useful in making evident assumptions which motivate the design of different knowledge systems, and further, in assessing the commensurability of those systems. Chapter 9 then presents a further empirical study; here, the framework is implemented as a software system, and pilot tested among a small cohort of researchers. Finally, Chapter 10 summarises the argumentative trajectory of the study as a whole - that, broadly, an elaborated notion of commensurability can tease out important and salient features of translation inscrutable to purely algorithmic methods - and suggests some possibilities for further work

Security Analysis of System Behaviour - From "Security by Design" to "Security at Runtime" -

The Internet today provides the environment for novel applications and processes which may evolve way beyond pre-planned scope and purpose. Security analysis is growing in complexity with the increase in functionality, connectivity, and dynamics of current electronic business processes. Technical processes within critical infrastructures also have to cope with these developments. To tackle the complexity of the security analysis, the application of models is becoming standard practice. However, model-based support for security analysis is not only needed in pre-operational phases but also during process execution, in order to provide situational security awareness at runtime. This cumulative thesis provides three major contributions to modelling methodology. Firstly, this thesis provides an approach for model-based analysis and verification of security and safety properties in order to support fault prevention and fault removal in system design or redesign. Furthermore, some construction principles for the design of well-behaved scalable systems are given. The second topic is the analysis of the exposition of vulnerabilities in the software components of networked systems to exploitation by internal or external threats. This kind of fault forecasting allows the security assessment of alternative system configurations and security policies. Validation and deployment of security policies that minimise the attack surface can now improve fault tolerance and mitigate the impact of successful attacks. Thirdly, the approach is extended to runtime applicability. An observing system monitors an event stream from the observed system with the aim to detect faults - deviations from the specified behaviour or security compliance violations - at runtime. Furthermore, knowledge about the expected behaviour given by an operational model is used to predict faults in the near future. Building on this, a holistic security management strategy is proposed. The architecture of the observing system is described and the applicability of model-based security analysis at runtime is demonstrated utilising processes from several industrial scenarios. The results of this cumulative thesis are provided by 19 selected peer-reviewed papers

Principles and practices for the application of systems engineering to heterogeneous research partnerships

A heterogeneous research partnership (HRP) is one in which industry, academia and government collaborate to conduct research, typically of national importance. Whilst most HRPs complete their planned duration and deliver their agreed tasks, it is not uncommon for participants to be left feeling somewhat dissatisfied, suggesting that the requirements which are being met are incomplete. There is an opportunity to improve the success of HRPs by establishing principles and practices for the application of systems engineering in their development. The thesis reviews literature drawn from a broad body of work covering three main areas: the context of HRPs themselves, systems engineering and related disciplines, and research methodology. The research adopts an interpretive approach, initially applying Soft Systems Methodology in a pilot case study and subsequently conducting a qualitative analysis of sixteen HRP case studies in order to develop and refine generic models which are relevant to HRPs. Drawing from the commentary of interviewees, published sources and other evidence, major themes across the case studies are integrated in order to develop ten principles and ten practices for the application of systems engineering to HRPs. The importance of consistency between the research context, systems approach and research methodology is emphasised, and the thesis highlights a significant philosophical challenge facing system of systems research as the discipline seeks to use a range of hard and soft systems approaches which are fundamentally rooted in different paradigms

The role of inter-organisational knowledge management in the UEA's public policing sector

Inter-organisational knowledge sharing between airport security organisations has become increasingly vital to maintain the highest standards of security and public safety. Social networks are considered a significant space for knowledge sharing within and across organisations. The purpose of this research is to investigate inter-organisational knowledge sharing in social media between key organisations in policing and airport security. A cross-sectional case study strategy combining qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to investigate the use of social media in inter-organisational knowledge sharing in the context of airport security in the UAE. Findings showed that the structural characteristics within knowledge sharing were highly centralised and polarised with low intensity in knowledge sharing. Social capital was constrained at a relational level due to cultural factors of trust, risk aversion and power distance that influenced a closed culture and reduced the scope for tacit knowledge sharing practices as well as low level cognitive capital. Analysis of dimensions of the SECI model for knowledge creation revealed that knowledge and the process of knowing was impacted by cultural distinctions that constrained socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation processes. The key barriers to knowledge sharing were identified and associated with trust, risk aversion, organisational culture, resource constraints and interoperability factors. This study makes a contribution to theory and practice in terms of the relationship between social capital dimensions and knowledge creation processes and the characteristics of knowledge-sharing within social media. The study further adds to knowledge on the antecedents of inter-organisational knowledge sharing, particularly in the Arabic context.UAE Government and Ministry of Interio