How do knowledge workers cope with their everyday job

Knowledge work, which forms a large part of modern economy, often involves collaboration. In order not to overemphasise either the transactional or the communicative aspect of collaboration, attitudes and technologies may have to change. Data from a survey show how knowledge workers manage their time and tasks using straightforward office technologies. Enhanced context awareness could help both the communication initiator and the communication target. This is a matter of behaviour and a chance for technology

Landscope | Interpreting Environmental Consciousness

This thesis proposes a way in which architecture and the built environment might work to integrate human consciousness and natural process. A theoretical design entitled Landscope is presented as a responsive, sustainable landscape that offers understanding of nature through active observation, interpretation and transformation of the environment. The design proposal is situated at the edge of Hamilton Harbour, Ontario, Canada, adjacent to the existing facilities of the National Water Research Institute. Two extended studies accompany the design proposal. The first, Water, presents a poetic exploration of cosmic, responsive, and connective qualities of water relating to nature and technology. The second study, Connected Fields, focuses on the visionary American engineer Buckminster Fuller and his ‘Geoscope’ project, a geodesic dome designed to act as a monitoring and control centre for global material and resource flows. This section also includes a discussion of general conceptions of the world, focusing on key twentieth-century conceptions of the Biosphere, Gaia, and the Noösphere. Historical theories of environmental perception are discussed including Gestalt psychology and technical systems of observation. Drawing upon this cultural material, the thesis attempts to open boundaries that separate nature and technology, encouraging a complex, mutually dependent relationship between these traditionally separate realms. The general pursuit is a cybernetic and virtual model for environmental and ontological hybridity, involving an evolution of consciousness at both individual and global scales

Knowledge Integrated Business Process Management for Third Party Logistics Companies

The growing importance of logistics as well as the increasing dynamic complexity of markets, technologies, and customer needs has brought great challenges to logistics. In order to focus on their core competency in such a competitive environment, more and more companies have outsourced a part or the entirety of the logistics process to third party logistics (3PL) service providers. 3PL has played a crucial role in managing logistics processes within supply chain management. Logistics processes require and supply various types of knowledge for planning, developing, operating, controlling and improving business processes. Therefore, in the current knowledge era, knowledge integrated business process management (KIBPM) is of significant importance for 3PL. This work applies KIBPM in 3PL from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The methodology for this study is a combination of literature and primary source research. From the theoretical perspective, it reviews the related literature on knowledge, KM, KIBPM and 3PL. It next analyzes application potentials as well as basic theories of KIBPM in 3PL, and proposes a framework for application. Furthermore, it studies the issues, knowledge sources and content, as well as KM approaches from the strategic and operational perspectives. In particular, it discusses the dynamics, logistics networks, business process networks and tacit knowledge sharing in 3PL. From the practical perspective, a case study of a leading 3PL provider demonstrates the drivers, practices and approaches of KIBPM application. The case study is based on in-depth interviews and extensive access to the secondary data of the firm. It analyzes the core business processes, the process knowledge and key activities of KM in the formulation of business strategy and the operation of business processes in contract logistics. In addition, it applies the proposed framework in this case. Furthermore, it discusses the findings from the literature and case study that relate to the research questions, compares the differences and similarities of KM in 3PL between theory and practice, and puts forward some research and managerial implications. This study has come to the conclusion that it is more effective and efficient to integrate KM in business processes. Knowledge of market, customer requirements, partners, and competitors and collaborative KM in the logistics networks are essential when choosing competitive strategies, process designs and development strategies for business. 3PL needs dynamic capabilities to sustain competitive advantage through KM. In operation, knowledge related business procedures and domains, as well as the results in project management of warehousing, intermodal transport and cooperation between geographic networks, have considerable value for business process execution, evaluation and improvement. 3PL motivates tacit knowledge sharing and effective knowledge acquisition, production, warehousing, distribution and application with a trusting organizational culture, process oriented structure, appropriate technology, and incentive measures. However, while KM is a tool for improving the competency and performance for the organization, learning capability is more important to keeping sustainable competitive advantage in the long term for 3PL. The application of KIBPM in 3PL supports business process management at both the strategic and operational levels. It especially contributes to business development, collaborative projects, intermodal transport, and logistics service improvement

ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF AFRICAN BOUNDARY DELINEATION LAW AND POLICY: THE CASE OF ETHIO– ERITREA BOUNDARY DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

Africa is poor in the midst of plenty. Though multiple causes and reasons may be claimed for Africa’s shrinking state of development, disruptive effects of colonialism takes forefront. Present-day Africa is literally free but colonial footprints are still apparent in the borderlands. The study pinpoints how natural borderline development was thwarted by the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884 -1885. As result, people, ethnic groups, nations and nationalities have been disintegrated. Ethnic disintegration and arbitrary colonial boundaries lines have been source of unavoidable intra and inter state conflicts in Africa. Ironically, in fear of opening “Pandora’s Box” that would further unlock unmanageable conflict, founding fathers of OAU have decided to abide by the colonial boundaries “whether they are good or bad” in Cairo Resolution of 1964, thereby suppressing Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of forming United Sates of Africa by removing colonial boundary lines. The study argues that Africa has missed the best opportunity that would avoid boundary conflict that constitutes 90% of African interstate conflicts. This study proves deficiencies of the Cairo Declaration of 1964 that has honored colonial boundaries, as boundaries between independent African States taking Ethio-Eritrean boundary as case study. The Ethio-Eritrean boundary meant to be defined by the three successive colonial treaties of 1900, 1902, and 1908 that were concluded between Italy, Ethiopia and Great Britain, but the actual boundary line never been drawn on the ground and cannot be define in accordance with the awkward terms of the treaties. Any attempt for strict application of the elusive treaty wordings exacerbates the complexity, confusion and ultimately fuels up conflict. The study focuses on resolving the current impasse between Ethiopia and Eritrea by drawing an acceptable boundary line through constructive dialogue. A true and acceptable boundary line cannot be drawn simply on the basis of elusive colonial treaties, but through constructive and honest dialogue. Drawing a line of separation is not a goal by itself, but it would perpetuate peace, create good neighborhood, and contribute for rebuilding sense of brotherhood by avoiding animosity and mistrust. Peaceful coexistence, coupled with effects of globalization, therefore, would stimulate economic and political integration that would ultimately remove restraining effects border walls. This will effectuate AU’s Border Program that aims to change the nature of borders from barriers to bridges thereby enable everyone to freely move all over Africa once again

Shifting place identities in a post-conflict society : irony and multiculturality in Quemoy, Taiwan

ABSTRACT Quemoy is a small island with an area of fifty-eight square miles at the mouth of Xiamen Bay on the southeast coast of China. As a Cold-War front of Taiwan shelled by the Chinese artillery for twenty years, Quemoy is becoming a heritage tourism destination attracting mainland Chinese to sightsee in its military structures. In this study, I examine landscape change in the post-conflict society through the interplay of three social dynamics—reconciliation, demilitarization, and touristification—exploring the cultural mechanism of landscape change and its meaning. Through a review of Quemoy’s history, I identify Quemoy’s geographical characteristics—marginality, cultural hybridity, and islandness—formed and articulated in a repetitive process that I term as the reversal of geographical coordinate system. The reversal coincides with a change of social concerns in the marginal society, whose negotiations with terrestrial and maritime powers direct its engaging front toward the land or the sea, and stimulates distinct human inscriptions in the landscape. Militarization of Quemoy as Chinese Nationalists’ Cold-War front initiated the last reversal, which turned its front toward the mainland China in 1949 and brought forth a military landscape characterized by its rigidity, hierarchy, and pragmatism. Simultaneously, the militarization incurred biopolitical production through militia duty, everyday regulation, combat economy, and battlefield knowledge. As the 1949-reversal is now dissolving under current demilitarization, from reinvention and destruction of military structures I reveal irony in the landscape as a way of cultural demilitarization subverting the significance of the past anticommunist conflicts. Furthermore, by reconstruction of historical landscapes and reinterpretation of symbolic landscapes, Quemoyans (re)localize landscape and jointly engage in a process of homeland construction. The juxtaposition of historical simulacra and reinvented military relics produces heterotopias of a museum island for heritage tourism. Consequently, the production of irony and heterotopias together serves as the cultural mechanism of the current identity reformulation from a battlefield to a heritage tourism destination. Uncovering the mechanism, I then demonstrate that ambiguity and multiculturality emerging from this irony’s multivocality and heterotopia’s multilocality is a cultural strategy of the border island society to negotiate with the post-conflict situation

Breaking Boundaries: Re-assembling the Refugee Camp through Home-making Practices of the Camp Dwellers. Examining Refugee Agency in Sustainable Processes and Assemblage Formations

Scholars often study refugee camps as hierarchical structures, with a predominant focus on the authorities in charge of the camps (i.e., Agier, 2010; Ticktin, 2011). However, this approach often overlooks the role of refugees as key co-creators of the camps. This thesis seeks to explore the agency of refugees in the camp development by examining their everyday practices that give camp dwellers a sense of belonging (i.e., home-making practices). Specifically, I seek to shift the analysis of refugee camps by placing refugees at the center of the inquiry. Through three manuscript essays, I explore the following research themes: 1- The range of home-making practices that are mobilized in the refugee camp, 2- The level of agency the refugees have to shape, conceive and imagine their own living spaces and the factors or determinants that influence this agency, 3- Finally, I seek to understand how the camps are spatially and temporally constructed and how this is defined by exchanges, interactions and flows within and beyond their boundaries. Drawing on theories of home-making (Brun & Fabos, 2015; Elmasri, 2020; Dudley, 2011), assemblage (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; De Landa, 2006; McFarlane, 2009; Dovey, 2010), and refugee agency (Ramadan, 2012; Abourahmeh, 2015), and utilizing a methodology that blends empirical and archival research, this study examines three Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan: Baqa’a, Al-Husn, and Talbiyeh. The findings demonstrate that refugees exercise agency at both the individual dwelling and camp-wide scale. The evidence reveals that through engaging in different everyday tasks (such as gardening, masonry, textile crafts, etc.) the refugees develop a deep sense of place and identity that transcends the physical space of the camp. However, the ability to do so is conditioned by the resources, social and political networks and geographic attributes of their respective camp space. The ultimate objective of this thesis is to identify new solutions that engage refugees as co-creators in camp assemblage, thereby improving living conditions in refugee camps

Robustness Enhancement of Sensory Transduction by Hair Bundles

How do biological systems ensure robustness of function despite developmental and environmental variation? Our sense of hearing boasts exquisite sensitivity, precise frequency discrimination, and a broad dynamic range. Experiments and modeling imply, however, that the auditory system achieves this performance for only a narrow range of parameter values. Although the operation of some systems appears to require precise control over parameter values, I describe how the function of the ear might instead be made robust to parameter perturbation. The sensory hair cells of the cochlea are physiologically vulnerable: small changes in parameter values could compromise hair cells\u27 ability to detect stimuli. Most ears, however, remain highly sensitive despite differences in their physical properties. I propose that, rather than exerting tight control over parameters, the auditory system employs a homeostatic mechanism that increases the robustness of its operation to variation in parameter values. To slowly adjust the response to sinusoidal stimulation, the homeostatic mechanism feeds back to its adaptation process a rectified version of the hair bundle\u27s displacement. When homeostasis is enforced, the range of parameter values for which the sensitivity, tuning sharpness, and dynamic range exceed specified thresholds can increase by more than an order of magnitude. Certain characteristics of the hair cell\u27s behavior might provide a means to determine through experiment whether such a mechanism operates in the auditory system. This homeostatic strategy constitutes a general principle by which many biological systems might ensure robustness of function