Exploiting method semantics in client cache consistency protocols for object-oriented databases

PhD ThesisData-shipping systems are commonly used in client-server object-oriented databases. This is in- tended to utilise clients' resources and improve scalability by allowing clients to run transactions locally after fetching the required database items from the database server. A consequence of this is that a database item can be cached at more than one client. This therefore raises issues regarding client cache consistency and concurrency control. A number of client cache consistency protocols have been studied, and some approaches to concurrency control for object-oriented datahases have been proposed. Existing client consistency protocols, however, do not consider method semantics in concurrency control. This study proposes a client cache consistency protocol where method se- mantic can be exploited in concurrency control. It identifies issues regarding the use of method semantics for the protocol and investigates the performance using simulation. The performance re- sults show that this can result in performance gains when compared to existing protocols. The study also shows the potential benefits of asynchronous version of the protoco

Extractive socionatures and resistance. The un/making of Kyrgyzstan's gold rush

Die Grenzen von Ressourcenabbau reichen tausende Meter über und unter die Erde. Dabei verfestigt und vertieft die Beschleunigung des Extraktivismus ungleiche Entwicklung und Ungerechtigkeiten auf der Welt. In Zentralasien bleiben Konflikte um Sozionatur in der kritischen Forschung zu Ressourcenextraktivismus und Widerstand jedoch weitgehend unterbeleuchtet. Diese Doktorarbeit leistet einen Beitrag zu der Ausweitung des Goldbergbaus in Kirgisistan und trägt zu einem räumlich umgearbeiteten, historisierenden und politisch sensiblen Verständnis des sich global ausweitenden Ressourcenextraktivismus bei. Die Arbeit präsentiert eine situierte Darstellung der multiskalaren Prozesse und Praktiken innerhalb und zwischen drei Standorten, die Kirgisistans Goldrausch ab/schaffen: die Hauptstadt Bischkek, das politische- und Verwaltungszentrum für mineralische Rohstoffe; Orlovka, ein Fall von angeblicher Kooperation; und Maidan, ein Fall von sich lange hinziehenden Auseinandersetzungen. Durch einen interdisziplinären Forschungsprozess entwickelt die Doktorarbeit einen relationalen soziomaterialen Ansatz zur Erforschung von multiskalaren extraktiven Verschränkungen der materiellen Dimensionen von Gold, seinen unterschiedlichen Bewertungen und seiner Governance. Sie mobilisiert die interdisziplinäre soziomateriale Analytik, durch ein multimethoden- Forschungsdesign, welche die miteinander verflochtenen strukturellen und historisch-geographischen Bedingungen offenbart. Dabei werden Konvergenzen im wachsenden geerdeten politischen Aktivismus gegen die globalen Strukturen des Extraktivismus, der die pluriversalen Wege zum Wohlbefinden aufkündigt zu Tage gefördert. Diese Doktorarbeit zeigt konsequent den Wert von disziplinärem und methodischem Pluralismus bei der empirischen Erforschung zum Zusammenspiel gegenseitig konstituierender Strukturen als auch von verorteter mehr-als-menschlicher Autonomie, die dem Schaffen und Abschaffen von Ressourcen und Ressourcengrenzen zugrunde liegen.Resource frontiers extend to thousands of meters below and above the soil in pursuit of progress. Accelerating extractivism in fact entrenches uneven development and injustices across the globe. Yet, our age is not only hyper-extractive, it is also resistant: multifarious communities stand up against incessant extractivism. Socionatural struggles in Central Asia however remain unexplored in critical research on resource extractivism and resistance. Focusing on expanding gold mining in Kyrgyzstan, the given thesis contributes to spatially reworked, historicising and politically sensitive understandings of globally advancing resource extractivism. The thesis presents a grounded account of the multi-scalar processes and practices within and between three sites un/making Kyrgyzstan’s gold rush: the capital Bishkek, the centre of mineral governance; Orlovka, an alleged case of cooperation; and Maidan, a protracted case of contestation. Within an interdisciplinary research process, the thesis advances a relational sociomaterial approach for engaging the multi-scalar extractive entanglements of gold’s material dimensions, its different valuations, and its governance. Mobilising the interdisciplinary sociomaterial analytic through a multi-method research design reveals the intertwined structural and historico-geographical conditions that enact gold mining in Kyrgyzstan in an extractive state order while motivating ordinary citizens’ resistance to this order based on its emergent sociomaterialities. Unpacking embodied complexities in Orlovka and Maidan unearths convergences in surging grounded political activism against the global structures of extractivism that forecloses pluriversal paths to well-being. This thesis demonstrates the value of disciplinary and methodological pluralism in rendering visible the interplay of mutually constitutive structures and situated more-than-human agency that undergirds the making and unmaking of resources and resource frontiers

Essays on governance and failure of co-operative banks: the portuguese agricultural credit co-operatives

The 2008 global crisis, and the European sovereign debt crisis that follow it, originated, among other consequences, a general mistrust in financial institutions. This situation encourages the debate on the role of co-operative banks within a fairer society and their social responsibility as a key in the economic recovery, namely in the south European countries. The co-operative banking sector remains poorly understood and its specific governance challenges remain largely unexplored. The research included in this thesis aims to improve knowledge of the conduct and performance of the co-operative banks, and its findings should support the decision making process by members and management, mainly in terms of governance model. Thus, the main objective of this research is to analyse, both theoretically and empirically, the governance and financial robustness of co-operative banks, taking as a reference the Portuguese agricultural credit co-operatives (CCAM) and their integrated system (SICAM). Specifically, the thesis is structured in order to answer the following questions: (1) What are the economic bases of co-operative banks?; (2) How does a particular regulatory framework affect co-operative banking activity?; (3) What is the impact of the different governance mechanisms of co-operative banks on control management?; and (4) What are the explanatory factors of Portuguese co-operative bank failures? Besides the Introduction (Chapter 1) and the Conclusions (Chapter 6), the answer to these four questions is formulated in the chapters 2 to 5. Chapter 2 includes a survey of the economic nature of the co-operatives as a specific economic organisation, highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses of the governance model of co-operative banking. Chapter 3 presents a literature review of the regulatory framework and some historic data on the Portuguese co-operative credit system. Chapter 4 is concerned with the governance of co-operative banks, paying special attention to the control mechanisms operating within SICAM and assessing its effect on CCAM performance by two multinomial logit models. Chapter 5 is concerned with the survival of CCAM associated within SICAM, analysing the determinants of CCAM failures, by the estimation of a logistic regression analysis and a multiple discriminant analysis. In empirical terms, the period under analysis is mainly 1995–2009. As recognized in the literature on the topic, the co-operative governance model presents deficiencies in controlling agency conflicts, mainly resulting from its co-operative nature, which can jeopardize its survival. Operating in network, the CCAM are able to improve the effectiveness of CCAM governance mechanisms and, consequently, their performance. The results highlight the importance of the supervision role of Central CCAM in the performance of its associates. Moreover, the analysis of CCAM failure emphasizes the importance of diversifying CCAM income sources and of improving cost efficiency. This result support CCAM lobbying for the removal of product restrictions, in order to achieve better conditions to compete with IOF banks, at a time when these banks are reorienting their activities towards traditional banking activity, i.e., domestic retail banking, the usual business core of CCAM.A crise global de 2008 e a crise europeia da dívida soberana que se lhe seguiu originaram, entre outras consequências, uma desconfiança generalizada nas instituições financeiras. Esta situação incita ao debate relativamente ao papel dos bancos cooperativos numa sociedade que se quer mais justa e a sua responsabilidade social, enquanto agentes chave para recuperação económica, especialmente, nos países do sul da Europa. O sector bancário cooperativo permanece pouco compreendido e os desafios que se colocam à sua governação permanecem largamente inexplorados. A pesquisa incluída nesta tese visa aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a conduta e desempenho dos bancos cooperativos e as suas descobertas apoiar o processo de tomada de decisão de membros e gestores, principalmente, em termos de governação. Assim, o principal objectivo deste estudo é analisar, em termos teóricos e empíricos, a governação e robustez financeira dos bancos cooperativos, tendo como referência as Caixas de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo (CCAM) e o seu sistema integrado (SICAM). Especificamente, a tese está estruturada de modo a responder às seguintes questões: (1) Quais as bases económicas dos bancos cooperativos?; (2) De que forma o seu enquadramento legal afecta a actividade da banca cooperativa?; (3) Qual o impacto dos diferentes mecanismos de governação dos bancos cooperativos no controlo da gestão?; e, por fim, (4) Quais os factores explicativos da falência dos bancos cooperativos portugueses? Além da Introdução (Capítulo 1) e das Conclusões (Capitulo 6), a resposta a estas quatro questões é formulada nos capítulos 2 a 5. O Capitulo 2 inclui uma resenha sobre a natureza económica das cooperativas enquanto organização económica específica, salientando as forças e fraquezas do modelo de governação da banca cooperativa. O Capitulo 3 apresenta uma revisão da regulamentação e alguns dados históricos sobre o sector da banca cooperativa em Portugal. O Capitulo 4 debruça-se sobre a governação dos bancos cooperativos, tomando especial atenção aos mecanismos de controlo que operam dentro do SICAM e avaliando os seus efeitos sobre a performance das CCAM através de dois modelos multinominal logit. O Capitulo 5 examina a sobrevivência das CCAM associadas do SICAM, analisando os determinantes do desaparecimento das CCAM, através de um modelo de regressão logística e outro de análise discriminante múltipla. Em termos empíricos, o período sob análise é, predominantemente, 1995-2009. Como reconhecido na literatura sobre o tópico, o modelo de governação cooperativa apresenta deficiências no controlo dos conflitos de agência, particularmente devido à sua natureza cooperativa, podendo mesmo por em causa a sua sobrevivência. Funcionando em rede, as CCAM foram capazes de melhorar a eficácia dos seus mecanismos de governação e, consequentemente, a sua performance. Os resultados salientam a importância do papel de supervisão da Caixa Central na performance das suas associadas. A análise da falência das CCAM enfatiza a importância da diversificação das suas fontes de rendimento e da melhoria da eficiência custo, justificando assim o lobbying desenvolvido pelas CCAM no sentido da remoção das restrições à sua oferta de produtos, para melhor competir com os restantes bancos numa altura em que estes estão a reorientar as suas actividades para a banca tradicional, ou seja, para a banca a retalho doméstica, o negócio central das CCAM

National freight transport planning: towards a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS)

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified

Principais factores organizacionais que influenciam a adopção, desenvolvimento e utilização de sistemas workflow administrativos: estudos de caso

Dissertação apresentada na Universidade do Minho com vista à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Tecnologias e Sistemas de InformaçãoNum contexto de mudança, em que as organizações têm de dar respostas rápidas face à grande competitividade e agressividade do mercado económico actual, e onde a estratégia de negócio, baseada numa óptica funcional, tem dado lugar aos processos de negócio, os sistemas Workflow têm ganho protagonismo. O sucesso da implementação de um sistema Workflow, e o aproveitamento das suas potencialidades, deverá passar pela identificação e compreensão dos factores que influenciam a sua adopção e o seu desenvolvimento, bem como as possíveis mudanças organizacionais que dela decorrerão. Com o presente trabalho pretendeu-se, por um lado, aferir o grau de penetração de algumas tecnologias de informação colaborativas, em especial da tecnologia Workflow, nas grandes empresas portuguesas, e por outro identificar os principais factores internos e externos à organização que influenciam a adopção, o desenvolvimento e a utilização de um sistema Workflow e que mudanças organizacionais podem resultar da sua utilização. Neste sentido, o estudo foi dividido em duas fases: uma primeira referente a uma sondagem; e uma segunda correspondente à revisão da literatura e a dois estudos de caso. Nesta segunda fase, a estratégia de investigação adoptada foi a data grounded theory. Um dos estudos realizados foi longitudinal, enquanto o outro foi retrospectivo. Os dados foram recolhidos através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, observação e análise documental, tendo-se seguido uma análise qualitativa de conteúdo. Ao nível da sondagem, tendo como base as 87 das 529 maiores empresas nacionais que responderam ao inquérito, os resultados obtidos mostraram que o grau de adopção das tecnologias de informação colaborativas é ainda muito baixo. Em relação à tecnologia Workflow, verificou-se existirem boas perspectivas de crescimento, a avaliar pela intenção de cerca de 47% das empresas que responderam ao inquérito assumirem a possibilidade de a adquirir, e de 18,4% já a utilizarem. Quanto aos estudos de caso, os resultados obtidos evidenciaram que: as principais motivações para a adopção dos sistemas Workflow são de carácter estratégico e operacional; existem factores internos (sócio-organizacionais e tecnológicos) e externos (transaccionais e contextuais) que influenciam a adopção, o desenvolvimento e a utilização do sistema Workflow; os resultados obtidos a partir da implementação do sistema Workflow têm implicações positivas ao nível da eficiência e da qualidade dos resultados dos processos, da produtividade, dos custos, da gestão, do controlo e da coordenação dos processos de negócio; em termos humanos, os resultados obtidos a partir da implementação do sistema Workflow têm implicações positivas ao nível da autonomia da gestão das tarefas, da responsabilização, da comodidade na realização das tarefas e da mobilidade proporcionada por um processo de comunicação que passou a ser assíncrono e descentralizado; a implementação do sistema Workflow contribui para uma melhor gestão do conhecimento e para a aprendizagem organizacional. Contudo, nos casos estudados verificou-se que os resultados obtidos não podem ser dissociados do contexto em que a organização está situada. Neste sentido, alguns factores internos e externos identificados ao longo do estudo realizado adquiriram importância distinta em função, por exemplo, do meio envolvente, da estrutura organizacional, da dimensão, dos recursos humanos (idade, habilitações académicas, posição hierárquica, antiguidade na organização, competências técnicas e experiência), da cultura e clima organizacional, do estilo de liderança, da estratégia organizacional, do processo de comunicação, e das infra-estruturas físicas e tecnológicas. Factores como a formação, a assistência técnica e os humanos (a envolvente situacional, a norma subjectiva, o envolvimento intrínseco, a explicitação das razões para mudar, a experiência e as competências técnicas) revelam-se importantes no sentido de minimizar as resistências à mudança e cativar os potenciais utilizadores do novo sistema. Verifica-se também que, fruto da implementação dos sistemas Workflow, quer factores tecnológicos como a metodologia associada à ferramenta, a interface gráfica, as funcionalidades da aplicação, as falhas básicas e as excepções inesperadas, quer factores como a assistência técnica, a formação, a estrutura organizacional e o estilo de liderança podem influenciar a eficácia dos resultados obtidos. No final do trabalho são enumeradas diversas recomendações para a implementação de sistemas Workflow, tendo como base a revisão da literatura efectuada e os resultados obtidos dos estudos de caso.In a context of change, in which organisations have to provide quick answers to the present competitive and aggressive economics market, and whose business strategy based upon a functional optics has been replaced by business processes, Workflow systems have played an increasingly important role. To succeed in setting up a Workflow system, and take advantage of its potential, it is necessary to identify and understand the factors which influence its adoption and its development, as well as the probable occurring organisation changes. The aim of the present piece of work was, on one side, to evaluate the spreading of some of the cooperative information technology, especially as regards Workflow, in major Portuguese companies. On the other side, its aim was to identify the main organisation internal and external factors, which influence the adoption, development and use of a Workflow system, as well as the organisation changes that may occur from its implementation. Bearing that in mind, this analysis was divided into two phases: the first was a survey, and the second consisted of the revision of literature and two case studies. In this second phase, the adopted investigation strategy was data grounded theory. One of the studies was longitudinal-orientated while the other one was retrospective. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, observation and documents analysis according to a qualitative analysis of the contents. As regards the survey, only 87 out of 529 major national companies answered the questionnaire. Based on these 87 questionnaires, it was concluded that the level of adoption of cooperative information technology is still very low. As for Workflow technology, it showed good growth perspectives since 47% of the companies which answered the questionnaire would like to implement it while 18,4% of those already use it. As far as case studies are concerned, their results demonstrated that: the main motivation for the adoption of Workflow systems is of strategy and operational order; there are internal (socio-organisational and technological) factors and external (transactional and contextual) factors which influence the adoption, development and implementation of the Workflow system; the results based on the implementation of the Workflow system have positive implications related to the level of efficiency and quality of the results of the process, productivity, costs, management, control and coordination of the business process; as for workers, the results obtained from the implementation of the Workflow system have positive influence on the autonomy of tasks management, responsibility awareness, commodity while fulfilling tasks and mobility, all thanks to the communication process which became asynchronous and decentralised; the implementation of the Workflow system contributes to improve knowledge management and to organisational learning. However, in the cases which were studied it was clear that the results can not be dissociated from the context of the organisation. Consequently, some internal and external factors identified throughout the study gained distinct importance depending, for example, on the surrounding environment, organisational structure, dimension, human resources (age, educational skills, hierarchy position, working time in the organisation, technical skills and experience), culture and organisational environment, kind of leadership, organisational strategy, communication process as well as physical and technological facilities. Factors such as training, technical assistance and human factors (the situational involving, the subjective norm, the intrinsic involvement, the explaining of reasons to change, the experience and technical skills) are important to minimise the resistance to change and to catch the attention of potential users of the new system. It can also be concluded that, due to the implementation of Workflow systems, technological factors (such as the methods related to the tool, the graphics interface, the application functions, the basic fails and unexpected exceptions) as well as factors such as technical assistance, training, organisational structure and kind of leadership can influence the efficiency of the results. At the end of this piece of work several recommendations are listed towards the implementation of Workflow systems, based upon the revision of literature and the results from the case studies

Transaction Models Supporting Cooperative Work -- The TransCoop Experiences

Cooperative work on shared information requires different kind of computing system support to coordinate the work of multiple users, to establish mutual awareness and to ensure consistency. These issues are currently tackled separately in various loosely related areas, like workflow systems, groupware, and advanced transactional models. We present a transactional model that provides a core functionality for information sharing in cooperative systems, that explicitely supports cooperation primitives and at the same time ensures consistency of results. The model has been derived from a thorough analysis of various cooperative appliciation scenarios. It is currently being implemented as an extension of an object-oriented database management system and evaluated for a cooperative document authoring application

The Political Economy of Social Markets: How Voluntary Standards Emerge, Compete, and Segment International Policy-making.

How do we make sense of the tangled web of voluntary standards that have recently proliferated across the globe? There are over 430 different social and environmental voluntary standards in the world today. Prior to 1990 there were twelve. Most of these voluntary standards exist within industries that contain several other standards and ecolabels. Behind the scenes of this veritable industry of industry standards, we observe a vibrant and yet faintly understood political landscape. In some markets, as in the forest industry, industry actors revolt against NGO-initiated standards to form competing standards. In other markets, as in the diamonds industry, industry actors, advocacy groups and even states align to create the dominant voluntary standard system for the planet. While still in others, as in the coffee industry, there is such a diversity of standards originating from a variety of actors that few patterns have yet to be discovered. This research explores the logic behind voluntary standards, and proposes a framework to explain and predict the pattern of emergence and competition of standards within an industry. Drawing from existing research in norms evolution, non-state market drive governance, voluntary clubs and corporate social responsibility, I develop two principle arguments. The first, the logic of market integration, suggests that when social movement norms are increasingly institutionalized within markets, the movement itself will gradually take on the forms, character and procedures of market actors. The second extends this logic in order to understand how, why and when multiple voluntary standards emerge, and seemingly compete, within the same industries. Based on the in-depth case analysis of the coffee market, as well as an extended analysis of ten other markets, I highlight how this phenomenon of multiple standards may be understood by examining change along two factors: Industry Political Centralization and Differentiation. The overarching thesis is that standards proliferate where power is more decentralized, and opportunities for differentiation along market segments are highest. Further, that differentiation also follows a pattern: higher, more stringent standards, will occupy higher end market segments, while lower, less stringent standards occupy mainstream market segments