Analysis of methods

Information is one of an organization's most important assets. For this reason the development and maintenance of an integrated information system environment is one of the most important functions within a large organization. The Integrated Information Systems Evolution Environment (IISEE) project has as one of its primary goals a computerized solution to the difficulties involved in the development of integrated information systems. To develop such an environment a thorough understanding of the enterprise's information needs and requirements is of paramount importance. This document is the current release of the research performed by the Integrated Development Support Environment (IDSE) Research Team in support of the IISEE project. Research indicates that an integral part of any information system environment would be multiple modeling methods to support the management of the organization's information. Automated tool support for these methods is necessary to facilitate their use in an integrated environment. An integrated environment makes it necessary to maintain an integrated database which contains the different kinds of models developed under the various methodologies. In addition, to speed the process of development of models, a procedure or technique is needed to allow automatic translation from one methodology's representation to another while maintaining the integrity of both. The purpose for the analysis of the modeling methods included in this document is to examine these methods with the goal being to include them in an integrated development support environment. To accomplish this and to develop a method for allowing intra-methodology and inter-methodology model element reuse, a thorough understanding of multiple modeling methodologies is necessary. Currently the IDSE Research Team is investigating the family of Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) DEFinition (IDEF) languages IDEF(0), IDEF(1), and IDEF(1x), as well as ENALIM, Entity Relationship, Data Flow Diagrams, and Structure Charts, for inclusion in an integrated development support environment

The strategic symbiosis between us Asian policy and Taiwanese nationalism

This thesis explores the influence of us Asian policy on the evolution of Taiwanese nationalism and the role of Taiwanese nationalism in America's Asian policy. The study consists of five parts. The first part (1895-1950) introduces the source of Taiwanese nationalism and America's strategic scheme on Taiwan before 1945, and explores American options after the germination of Taiwanese nationalism. America's intention to separate Taiwan from the mainland so as to deny the island to Chinese Communists late 1948 helped preserve inchoate Taiwanese nationalism. The second part (1950-1970) examines how America simultaneously exploited the Chinese Nationalist regime's anti-communism and facilitated the growth of Taiwanese nationalism in the bipolarized Cold-War era. The Truman administration's separatist intention after the Korean War, US aid and American scholars' Taiwan independence theories had significant implications for the evolution of Taiwanese nationalism. The third part (1970-1989) examines how America reconciled US-PRC rapprochement with its promotion of Taiwanese nationalism. Taiwan's democratisation evolved in the context of US political, economic and military intervention. During the transition to democratisation, secessionists turned political opposition movement into nation-building revolution. The fourth part (1989-2000) examines how US conservatives and Taiwanese nationalists jointly promoted Taiwanization. The dynamics of democratisation, native president Lee Teng-hui's domination of political agenda, the ambience of US-Taiwan strategic realignment and the maturity of political nationalism together facilitated Taiwanization. The fifth part (2000֊present) explores how America and Taiwan establish a strategic symbiosis for US-China strategic competition. The 9/11 Incident has little influence on the course of strategic symbiosis. The consolidation of Taiwan identity obliged thepan-blue camp to identify with Taiwan, promote political nationalism and deviate from their pro-unification ideology. The increased antagonism between Taiwanese nationalism and Chinese nationalism ossifies the symbiotic partnership between USAsian policy and Taiwanese nationalism and hinders China's rise to regional hegemonyand global superpower

Sharing the Spotlight: Co-authored Reasons on the Modern Supreme Court of Canada

When the Supreme Court of Canada delivers its reasons forjudgment, the normal expectation (the rare By the Court decision aside) is that the judgment of the Court-unanimous or majority or even plurality-will be designated as having been delivered by one specific judge. ( The reasons of A, B, C and D were delivered by B. ) But in recent decades, the practice has developed for two or more judges to share this formal designation; co-authorships currently account for one judgment (and, for that matter one set of minority reasons) in every ten. This article explores this practice, unusual among comparable national high courts: when it started, which judges and which combinations of judges have been the most frequent participants, and what sorts of cases (type of law, size of panel, length of reasons) have tended to be involved; and it concludes by considering why this matters, and what it tells us about the evolving Court

Coping with evolution in information systems: a database perspective

Business organisations today are faced with the complex problem of dealing with evolution in their software information systems. This effectively concerns the accommodation and facilitation of change, in terms of both changing user requirements and changing technological requirements. An approach that uses the software development life-cycle as a vehicle to study the problem of evolution is adopted. This involves the stages of requirements analysis, system specification, design, implementation, and finally operation and maintenance. The problem of evolution is one requiring proactive as well as reactive solutions for any given application domain. Measuring evolvability in conceptual models and the specification of changing requirements are considered. However, even "best designs" are limited in dealing with unanticipated evolution, and require implementation phase paradigms that can facilitate an evolution correctly (semantic integrity), efficiently (minimal disruption of services) and consistently (all affected parts are consistent following the change). These are also discussedComputingM. Sc. (Information Systems