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Context Mediation is a field of research that is concerned with the interchange of information across different environments, which provides a vehicle to bridge semantic gaps among disparate entities. Knowledge Discovery is concerned with the extraction of actionable information from large databases. A challenge that has received relatively little attention is knowledge discovery in a highly disparate environment, that is multiple heterogeneous data sources, multiple domain knowledge sources and multiple knowledge patterns. This thesis tackles the problem of semantic interoperability among data, domain knowledge and knowledge patterns in a knowledge discovery process using context mediation. All presented techniques, methods and models are applied in real-world scenarios, covering disciplines from a wide range of industry, namely web mining and marketing, manufacturing, meteorology and internationalisation. When feasible, industry standards were utilised, for instance ODMG, PMML and KQML.The carried out research has resulted in almost fifty international publications, including the co-authorship of a book, a journal editorship and one conference best paper award.

The purpose of this study was to examine two instructional methods for delivering a radar operators training class for members of a municipal police department. The first method examined was the traditional classroom-based training with a certified radar instructor. The second method was a computer-based training (CBT) course based on the instructional material from the classroom-based course. The CBT course was administered on CD-ROM using the police department s Windows© based computers. This study compared the two methods of delivery to determine if the CBT course was as effective as the traditional classroom-based course. Effectiveness was measured by the completion times of the two courses, examination scores, and overall participant satisfaction levels. These measures were conducted using quasi-experimental design that involved two sample groups. The total population was sixty-nine police officers. The sample contained fourteen participants, divided into two equal groups of seven. The independent variable was the instructional method. The dependent variables were the course completion times, examination scores, and the satisfaction levels of the participants. Of the two groups of police officers, Group 1 received the CBT for radar operators, while Group 2 received the traditional classroom training. Data was gathered regarding the completion times, test results, and participant satisfaction levels of the two courses. A statistical analysis of the data was conducted to determine the difference in course completion times, test scores, and participant satisfaction levels between the two courses.

This study investigated whether known economic and international business theories available in the literature are meaningful enough to explain the nature, existence and role of multinational companies (MNCs) in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. Two sets of questionnaires were distributed in major cities of Saudi Arabia -- one set for 100 multinational managers and another for 280 multinational customers. 234 questionnaires were collected -- 45 from multinational managers and 189 from customers. This represents a total response rate of 62 percent, which is adequate for this study. The empirical results, supported with comprehensive secondary data, confirmed virtually all of the research hypotheses. The study found that joint ventures are the dominant form of multinational business in Saudi Arabia, both in manufacturing and service industries. The core roles of MNCs in the Saudi-foreign ventures are evident in the cross-border value-adding activities of marketing, trading, manufacturing, consulting, contracting, project management, insurance, hotel operation and banking. The results indicate that the business success of multinationals operating in Saudi Arabia is positively related to their local cultural awareness and responsiveness. Along this line, this study covers some vital elements of Islamic culture, which will help MNCs understand further the cultural needs, values and sensitivities of the Saudi people and Muslims in general.

This dissertation involves a preliminary study into the structural dynamic behavior of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), located in the Flight Acceleration Facility, bldg 29, in Houston, Texas. The 50-ft. arm can swing the three-man gondola to create g-forces astronauts will experience during controlled flight and during reentry. The centrifuge was designed primarily for training Apollo astronauts. During operation of the centrifuge, the astronauts can control the motion of the gondola in two gimbal axes, while the gondola is rotating about its principal axis, to simulate flight activity. The result of these coupled motions lead to transient loading functions, which arise due to rigid body kinematics.The study is describe in three Chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the response of a simplified model of the arm, gimbal and gondola structure for the purpose of obtaining dynamic response factors to be associated with the arm. Chapter 2 deals briefly with a simplified model of the same system for the purpose of obtaining dynamic response factors to be associated with the gimbal ring and to justify the simplifications implicit in the model used in Chapter 1. In Chapter 3, the rigid body kinematic equations are studied in order to develop relations between the forcing functions utilized in Chapters 1 and 2 and the motion parameters of the kinematic analysis. Using these relations, the dynamic response factors tabulated in Chapters 1 and 2 in terms of the generalized forcing functions may be interpreted in terms of the motion parameters.

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored leadership by means of accessing the lived experiences of leaders perceived as being philanthropian in bureaucratic, mechanistic organizations in Canada and the United States. Philanthropian leaders display the following characteristics: (a) love, (b) compassion, (c) caring, (d) altruism and (e) perceptive listening. The selection process relied on the criterion and snowball sampling techniques as means for choosing thirty participants for the in-depth interviews. After the transcription of the interviews, an analysis of the data occurred using Atlas.ti, a software program. Three themes emerged. These themes centered on the leaders' mindsets, leadership tools and the emergence of the philanthropian leadership phenomenon. The implication was that employees responded positively to attitudes and behaviors of leaders who acknowledged and emphasized the value of employees.

Communication is frequently identified in the literature as a major factor impacting Information Technology (IT) project failure. The importance of communication is amplified in buyer - seller relationships through the long-term impact of project failures on the future business of IT vendors with their customers.The formal communication between IT project sponsors from buyer firms and project managers from IT vendor firms within business to business markets is investigated through this study. Typical communication patterns between project sponsor and manager in high and low performing projects are identified. The antecedents of these patterns are assessed and the effectiveness of project sponsor - manager communication investigated. A multi-method approach is used with a quantitative analysis of a worldwide survey with 200 responses, followed by a qualitative analysis of three interviews with pairs of project sponsor and manager, each pair from the same project.Results show that project sponsors expect more analytic and verbal communication from project managers. A model shows the development from frequent informal communication to formal communication between project managers and sponsors. A second model shows how communication in high performing projects is determined by the level of collaboration between project managers and sponsors, as well as the degree of structure in project execution. Effectiveness of project sponsor and manager communication is found to be decreased through written statements about recent achievements, and increased through face-to-face meetings of the parties. A series of recommendations is provided to improve project sponsor - manager communication.

Adventure-based training has become an effective medium for delivering experiential training programs within a variety of disciplines such as; school outdoor education, corporate teamwork development, youth at risk and psychological counseling. In addition, Meyer & Wenger (1998) and Meyer (2000) were instrumental in pioneering research in to the efficacy of adventure-based training with sporting teams. This investigation adds to the growing body of knowledge in this area by demonstrating the positive effects an adventure training intervention has on athletes ability to learn new team and psychological skills. In addition, results indicated that individual and team performance might have been enhanced because of skills learnt during the intervention. This study examined the impact of an adventure-based training intervention on the group cohesion and psychological skills development of elite netball players. Data was gathered using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Many researchers are of the belief that the two methodologies compliment one another and thereby strengthen the total research model (Henderson, 1993). A phenomenological approach to qualitative data collection was followed based on the work by Dale (1996). Knowing how the intervention impacted on the participants from their perspective, is a critical question often overlooked by researchers. Results clearly indicated how athletes changed and developed during and after the intervention. Improved cohesion around task issues was especially evident, along with enhanced mental skills to handle the pressures of major competition. Lewin s change theory was examined to explain the learning process; modifications to this theory were suggested. Recommendations were outlined for improving sport psychology teaching practice, along with improved facilitation of adventure programming.

This dissertation seeks to establish that there is a renaissance of Thomistic Philosophy in the Post-Conciliar Catholic Church, specifically a reawakening of Scholasticism, as evidenced by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) ushered in a new era for the Roman Catholic religion prompted by the desire of Pope John XXIII to have the 2,000 year old institution catch up with the modern world and address current problems as well as present the ancient faith in contemporary ways. Prior to Vatican II, there was a monolithic way to explain faith and reason. Theology and Philosophy were rigidly taught via textbook manuals according to a norm established under Pope Pius X who vigorously denounced the errors of Modernism in his encyclical Pascendi (1907). His immediate predecessor, Pope Leo XIII had issued Aeterni Patris (1879) which directed a restoration of the pre-eminence of Thomistic philosophy. Unfortunately, the neo-Thomism of the Leonine papacy was not as resilient as the classical Thomism before it. This paper intends to show the development of the Natural Moral Law doctrine from its beginnings to its most famous herald followed by a systematic review of Veritatis Splendor in order to show that Thomism is indeed alive and well in Catholic thought and has once again captured the imprimatur of Papal endorsement. While there are many non-Catholic theologians and moralists who dispute some or all of the major tenets and propositions of the Natural Law as the means to discern ethical behavior, Pope John Paul II makes it clear where he wants to shepherd the Roman Catholic religion in terms of morality, faith and reason.

This thesis dissertation, written in Spanish, presents a new model for the linguistic specification and the computational management of man-machine dialogues following commands issued in spoken natural language. Our aim is to design and implement a conversational system for the automatic telephone task scenario, namely Delfos. Voice dialing represents a current trend in research, the purpose of which is to provide functional systems for products ranging from domestic appliances such as a video or a washing machine to more sophisticated environments such as a complete house, with an interface in spoken natural language.Our system, Delfos, represents a challenge for the fields of Language Engineering and Computational Linguistics as it implies the integration of different technologies such as voice recognition, natural language processing, dialogue management, natural language generation and speech synthesis. The present work belongs to the field of Dialogue Management Systems (DMS), that is, computational systems capable of interpreting natural language. A system with these characteristics manages dialogues between people and machines trying to perform different tasks in a preestablished domain (for instance: travel route planning, bank transactions, phone services, etc.). Research on DMS must be placed in the broader scope of Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Knowledge Engineering. NLP has to do with the formalization and automatization of natural languages. The study of DMS is centered on the analysis of the characteristics of language at the discourse level and which must be taken into account when implementing real and natural systems. Thus, the field of "discourse analysis" and its subfields (pragmatics, dialogue acts, discourse analysis.) represent the starting point in the design and implementation of these kinds of system. Those phenomena characteristic of discourse and conversation such as conversational turns, anaphoras, ellipses silences, repairs, overlappings. are all aspects to be considered by the dialogue management system designer. By doing research in this field we are contributing to the enhancement of our linguistic and computational knowledge of the dialogue for those applications which are a key factor in our present information society. In this sense, and with potential users in mind, we will contribute to improve the use, functionality and success of these information services and products.

Software developer turnover can have disastrous effects on an organization due to the loss of business process knowledge, as well as acquired technical skills. Annual rates of turnover in information technology (IT) departments have been estimated at 20% or more with the cost of replacing technology workers ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 times annual salaries. This study purposely focused only on software developers as opposed to IT employees in general due to the critical nature of their work.The factors leading to turnover intention in this field are poorly understood; therefore, this study was designed to further understand the relationships between job characteristics, job satisfaction, and turnover intention among software developers. 326 web surveys were completed that contained questions relating to job characteristics, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and demographic information. The first four job characteristics are specific to software developers while the last five job characteristics and the job satisfaction scales are from the Hackman and Oldham Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS).Two research questions, sixteen hypotheses, and a theoretical path model were developed to understand which job characteristic variables contribute to the various dimensions of job satisfaction and which job satisfaction dimensions contribute to turnover intention. Additionally, the indirect effects of job characteristics through job satisfaction on turnover intention were also determined. The statistical testing consisted of descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Bivariate correlations are presented, as well as path analysis, an extension of multiple regression analysis.The results of the study uncovered several factors that can influence turnover intention among software developers. Identified in the study as statistically significant job characteristics that can be influenced by management are training, autonomy, feedback, number of developers, task significance, and skill variety. With the results of this study, management can better understand the unique needs of software developers and design development jobs to ensure that these needs are met. The study concludes with implications for practitioners and recommendations for future research.

The primary objective of this study is to determine whether practicing personnelists and research scholars agree on what constitutes an effective performance appraisal system in public safety organization. If Personnel managers at public safety organization possess knowledge of the characteristics of effective performance appraisal system in public safety organizations, they are more likely to design and/or advocate performance appraisal system in public safety organizations that include these important attributes. In addition, the research is an opportunity for the academic community to learn from the experience of practitioners. Concepts and techniques that are valued by academics may not be functional or effective for those involved in the development and administration of performance appraisal system in public safety organizations. Thus, areas of disagreement can serve to identify subjects for further research and improve both theory and practice.

This thesis argues that progressive dispensationalism cannot integrate the pretribulation rapture doctrine into its reconstructed dispensational system on any basis of theological distinctiveness between the church and Israel. This will be accomplished by first setting forth the theological systems of the three major forms of dispensationalism that have existed during its history, namely, classical, revised, and progressive dispensationalism, and second, by showing that each of three kinds of theological distinctiveness, namely, anthropological, soteriological, and eschatological distinctiveness, are present in the classical and revised systems and therefore these systems can support the rapture's integration, but are not present in the progressive system and therefore this system cannot support the rapture's integration. The thesis closes with an explanation as to why progressive dispensationalism is more compatible with amillennialism than with premillennialism.

(Complete work in Spanish) The doctoral thesis contributes to some related Management Control areas such us Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and the informal components of Control Systems. The objective of the research was to analyse how this process of business concentration may impact on the Management Control System of the acquired firm. For this purpose an alternative theoretical model have been developed from the review of Management Control literature and M&A in Management Accounting. This model builds on contingency theoretical insights and extends it with elements of informal control.To test the prepositions a single ethnographic in-depth case study was carried out. It was conducted in a Spanish subsidiary of an English chemical group during 31 months. The main findings of this research are related to the role of (1) both non-formal and formal mechanisms and, specially, (2) top management within this process of organizational change. Besides, it should be highlighted that one of the more interesting studied issues in our case was the analysis of the Spanish versus Anglo-Saxon Management styles.

The purpose of this study is to examine the questioning behavior of males and females in an undergraduate Speech class. Whether one is analyzing social, mental, emotional, or verbal behavior of students, biological sex is usually a factor. This study describes differences between male and female questioning and discusses the implications of these differences for classroom teaching.The classroom is a small society with its own special language, a language that contributes to classroom events. Student questioning, a behavior that provides information on how students adapt and function within the classroom, is an important part of the student learning repertoire.Although researchers have devoted much attention to teacher questioning, they have devoted little attention to male/female questioning in the college classroom. This qualitative study gathers data in the form of direct observation, field notes, coding of students' questions, journals, and audio-taping over a period of two months [thirteen observations].My findings revealed no differences between males and females on the types of questions they asked. Males, however, asked more questions overall than females.This study offers suggestions for further research.