by Jeffrey C. Chi., Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2001., Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-216).

Context can be described as the totality of ideas, situations and information that (a) related to, (b) provide the origins for, and (c) influence our response, perspective or judgment of a thing. Design always takes place in a context. However,…

The human tongue is a versatile, lithe and structurally complex muscular organ that is of paramount importance for many physiological tasks. The lingual musculature is composed of various orthogonally oriented myofiber populations. Furthermore, coupling this knowledge of tissue myoarchitecture with…

This Ph.D. thesis has covered the scientific issues of defect reactions involving dopants and impurities in Si, and the applications of this knowledge to reactive ion etching (RIE) and Fe gettering processes. The reactions among self-interstitials (Sii), vacancies (V), impurities…

(cont.) which is expected, given their additional knowledge resources. The respondents' urgency in looking for the relevant knowledge is the primary explanation for this difference between the two networks. This difference in knowledge networking among the different groups did not…

This thesis examines the evolution of Internet based knowledge networks (e-knowledge networks) in the domain of sustainable development. The objective of this thesis is to use an engineering systems approach to understand knowledge networks, identify the barriers to their sustainability…

Knowledge networks have received a significant amount of attention in the past few decades as people look beyond corporate governance and resource-based approaches to uncover sources of competitive advantage. While this area of research is useful for organizations in general,…

If we are to understand how we can build machines capable of broad purpose learning and reasoning, we must first aim to build systems that can represent, acquire, and reason about the kinds of commonsense knowledge that we humans have…

(cont.) updates. It produces plan-ready information, by exploiting the self-serving and opportunistic pursuit of instant return-on-investment by frontline offices. Thanks to its emergent qualities, City Knowledge engenders unexpected plan-demanding situations, where the ability to conduct second-order analyses leads to deeper…

One important purpose for creating clinical practice guidelines is to improve quality of care by reducing variations in practice. In the current healthcare environment, guidelines are being advocated as a means to disseminate research findings, standardize care, improve quality of…