The objective of this thesis is to clarify the ways that organizational factors influence nuclear power plant performance in order to improve performance. Therefore, this thesis studied the nuclear power plant organizational environment by identifying and detailing its important work…

Continued advances in the semiconductor industry will require the introduction of new materials and processes concurrent with shrinking device dimensions. These simultaneous demands drastically reduce margins for error and necessitate an increasingly quantitative understanding of semiconductor processes. Leaders of the…

All intelligence relies on search - for example, the search for an intelligent agent's next action. Search is only likely to succeed in resource-bounded agents if they have already been biased towards finding the right answer. In artificial agents, the…

Two-electron mixed-valence complexes of rhodium may be supported by diphosphazane ligands (RN(PY2)2). Whereas diphosphazane ligands with strongly [pi]-acidic phosphine groups (Y = F, OCH2CF3) react with RhI starting materials to afford binuclear Rh20,II complexes, Rh20,II(MeN(PY)2)3X2(L) or Rh2"II(MeN(PY),)3X2 (X = Cl,…

Modem society requires reliable and safe operation of its infrastructure. Policymakers believe that, in many industries, competitive markets and regulatory incentives will result in system performance superior to that under command-and-control regulation. Analytical techniques to evaluate the reliability and safety…

Most studies on Japanese supplier-automaker relationships have focused on the nature of
the dyadic inter-firm relationship and the performance of the assembler. We examine the
relationship between a Japanese supplier's "customer scope strategy" (i.e. number of
customers) and the supplier's…

his dissertation analyzes how local knowledge improves environmental decisions. The premise is that controlling pollution and addressing public health disparities are not problems that professionals alone can solve. Concerned lay publics, especially low-income populations and people of color that experience…

This thesis explores a holistic design process through which architectural elements can engage the dynamic forces of natural phenomena and integrate the spatial and temporal experience of building form with its physical environment. The framework for this exploration is a…

by Hani Umar Shakeel., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2001., Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98).

by Yaichi Aoshima., Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1996., Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-264).