El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Microfinance allows the integration of all sectors for the country's economic growth. Data duplicity, invalid data and the inability to have reliable data for decision-making are generated without a formal Governance. For this reason, Data Governance is the key to enable an autonomous, productive and reliable work environment for the use of these. Although Data Governance models already exist, in most cases they don't meet the requirements of the sector, which has its own characteristics, such as the volume exponential growth, data criticality, and regulatory frameworks to which it is exposed. The purpose of this research is to design a reference model for the microfinance organizations, supported by an evaluation tool that provides a diagnosis with the objective of implementing and improving the organization processes regarding Data Governance. This model was implemented based on the information of Peru's microfinance organizations, from which a 1.72 score was diagnosed, which is encouraging for the organization, since it shows that it has defined all its plans concerning Data Governance. Finally, after the validation, it was concluded that the model serves as a medium to identify the current status of these organizations to ensure the success of the Data Governance initiatives.

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In the United States, 6.7 million or 10.9% of women, between the ages of 15 and 44 have difficulty becoming or staying pregnant and of these women 6% are infertile (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). Infertility is defined as twelve months of regular, unprotected intercourse yielding no pregnancy (Tierney, McPhee, & Papadakis, 1999). For those struggling with infertility there can be numerous negative psychological problems, including depression and anxiety (Jordan & Revenson, 1999). Given the widespread and negative impact of infertility, it is important to further understand and explain the experiences of infertile women. The present work contributes to the literature by qualitatively examining women’s infertility as a stigmatizing experience. Goffman (1963) defines stigma as an attribute that society deems as deeply discrediting and reduces an “individual from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one” (p. 3). Moreover, individuals who possess a stigmatizing condition are likely viewed as a less or inferior person. Because women struggling with infertility are unable to fulfill societal norms that mandate motherhood (e.g., Gonzalez, 2000; Whiteford & Gonzalez, 1995), women experiencing infertility may perceive stigma. The aim of the current study is to explore infertility as stigmatizing in order to provide a more complete framework for understanding negative psychological outcomes among women with infertility. To this end, we conducted qualitative interviews with nine women who had been trying to conceive without success for at least one year. Participants were recruited by newspaper advertisements, campus emails, flyers in local nurse practitioner clinics and local infertility clinics in Johnson City, TN. Interviews were conducted one-on-one and were guided by general questions about the most difficult aspects of infertility and how women’s lives, including social relationships and beliefs about themselves, had been impacted by the experience. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded for themes. Five reoccurring themes were identified: culture and norms, feelings of failure and loss of 2013 Appalachian Student Research Forum Page 115 womanhood, infertility as stigmatizing condition, change of world view, and social support. Each of these themes can be discussed in relation to the public and self aspects of stigma. For example, the expectation that females progressing into adulthood will eventually have children influenced infertile women’s interactions with the world around them causing them to feel inadequate and question their purpose in life. Moreover, women in our study reported being constantly reminded of their infertility struggles through everyday social interactions with strangers, family, and friends, some of which included differential treatment due to infertility. These continual reminders led women to internalize the negative beliefs regarding not living up to societal gender expectations or stereotypes. Furthermore, women’s reports of alienation and self-isolation, as well as anger and frustration map onto previous models of stigma-related processes (e.g., Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Richman & Leary, 2009. Thus, stigma theory may provide a framework with which to more fully understand the negative psychosocial outcomes commonly reported among women encountering infertility.

Web applications are quickly replacing standalone applications for everyday tasks. These web applications need to be tested to ensure proper functionality and reliability. There have been substantial efforts to create tools that assist with the testing of web applications, but there is no standard set of tools or a recommended workflow to ensure speed of development and strength of application. We have used and outlined the merits of a number of existing testing tools and brought together the best among them to create what we believe is a fully- featured, easy to use, testing framework and workflow for web application devel- opment. We then took an existing web application, PolyXpress, and augmented its development process to include our workflow suggestions in order to incorporate testing at all levels. PolyXpress is a web application that “allows you to create location-based stories, build eTours, or create restaurant guides. It is the tool that will bring people to locations in order to entertain, educate, or provide amazing deals.”[10] After incorporating our testing procedures, we immediately detected previously unknown bugs in the software. In addition, there is now a workflow in place for future developers to use which will expedite their testing and development.

<p>The PFC plays an important role in memory tasks in organizing free recall. However, very little is known about the exact mechanisms underlying PFC function. Many researchers, like Morris Moscovitch (1994) believe the PFC supplies cues to other memory areas but details concerning this hypothetical function are vague. Anderson (2003), in contrast, believes that the PFC directly suppresses semantic memory traces. These potential functions of the PFC were explored in the following work. A model of non-strategic memory was built using a TCM framework, and a number of different implementations were evaluated. The model was then applied to Anderson's RIF work, to determine whether an item inhibition account of memory was necessary to explain RIF results. Finally, the model was applied to semantic memory strategies in free recall results to guide empirical research. It was found that no direct inhibition was necessary to explain RIF, and that, in a timed and categorized free recall task, the PFC best performs a semantic strategy by generating category labels at recall. Implications of this work were then discussed. </P> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> This thesis studies a number of issues in optimal fiscal and monetary policy using the Ramsey framework. Specifically, it focuses on the effects of learning-by-doing and organizational capital on optimal policy responses. The first essay investigates the optimal capital income taxation in presence of learning-by-doing effects. The main result is that the optimal tax rate on capital income is significantly positive in the long run even though the product market is imperfectly competitive. This finding contrasts with results obtained in the literature that the capital income tax should be zero if the product market is perfectly competitive and negative if the product market is imperfectly competitive. The second essay studies the effects of learning-by-doing, and price rigidities on the dynamic properties of optimal fiscal and monetary policy variables. The m~in result is that, contrary to the findings of other papers in this literature, optimal Ramsey inflation is very stable and persistent over the business cycle. A second important result is that optimal tax policy is counter-cyclical - tax rates fall during recession and rise during boom. This finding contrasts with pro-cyclical tax results obtained in standard sticky price Ramsey models. Finally, the third essay studies welfare maximizing fiscal and monetary policy rules in a model with sticky prices, learning-by-doing in the technology, and distortionary taxation. Specifically, it considers monetary feedback rules whereby the nominal interest rate is set as a function of 'output and inflation. The main finding is that the optimal interest-rate rules call for a very strong response to inflation and a very weak response to output. Also, the optimal interest-rate rules are forward looking. This result contrasts with the backward looking optimal interest rate rules obtained in the existing optimal policy literature. The optimized fiscal rule is passive in the sense that tax revenues increase only mildly in response to increases in government liabilities. The optimized regime yields a level of welfare that is very close to that implied by the Ramsey optimal policy. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

General purpose microcontrollers have been used as computational elements in various spheres of technology. Because of the distinct requirements of specific application areas, however, general purpose microcontrollers are not always the best solution. There is a need for specialized processor architectures for specific application areas. This thesis discusses the design of such a specialized processor architecture targeted towards event driven sensor applications. This thesis presents an augmented multibus dataflow processor architecture and an automation framework suitable for executing a range of event driven applications in an energy efficient manner. The energy efficiency of the multibus processor architecture is demonstrated by comparing the energy usage of the architecture with that of a PIC12F675 microcontroller. / Master of Science

The thesis begins by critiquing the use of a street, Broadway, in the Garment District, NYC, which primarily is used for display of public art. The main goal of the exhibition is to attract visitors so as to promote local business, according to the local alliance responsible for the display. This action actively neglects the needs of everyday users of the space: homeless individuals, employees, delivery workers, etc. This thesis serves as functional art, providing a space for all occupants to coexist while challenging the notion that homeless people are fundamentally different. Focusing on the distinct architecture and zoning laws of New York City, this work examines the city's unique history with homelessness, including the recent historic amendment of the 'Right to Shelter' law. Additionally, it proposes a modification to Privately Owned Public Space (POPS) so that empty commercial spaces could benefit the public. This architectural exploration also involves thinking about temporary structures, light, urban layout, and landscaping. By combining these artistic and architectural explorations, this thesis provides a framework for Broadway in Garment District of New York City for occupants to use, interact with, and modify, fostering an inclusive and adaptable urban space. This thesis is functional art, architecture, and a framework. / Master of Architecture / Art for/of the unhomed envisions an inclusive urban space along Broadway in the Garment District, New York City. It critiques the existing use of the area, which primarily serves tourists and visitors while neglecting the needs of local occupants, including homeless individuals, employees, and delivery workers. To address this issue, the project proposes a series of street furniture and enclosures, complemented by the occupation of currently vacant commercial spaces in the area. As an architectural thesis, the focus is on creating inhabitable spaces for these occupants. Concurrently, as an art thesis, the project emphasizes raising awareness about homelessness. The design provides amenities that support both survival and the expression of creativity. Utilizing a flexible framework of conventional wood framing and carpentry, the structures can be modified and adapted by the occupants themselves. This approach aims to foster a more inclusive and responsive urban environment.

The aim of this work was to design and implement component framework for development of web applications written in PHP programming language. The design has been based on pros and cons analysis of component framework usage, existing framework solution comparison and analysis of drawbacks of these frameworks. End-user device independence is both the main requirement for this framework and also its greatest contribution to the field of web frameworks. To be able to generate different output for mobile and desktop devices and to keep the application logic at one place only, thus minimizing the amount of work required from the developer, it uses its own original implementation of Model-View-Controller architecture. The output is being generated by so called rendering objects associated with individual components. Applications based on this framework are purely event driven, thus having their code more readable and manageable. Framework tries to offer comfortable usage of web applications for mobile device users without forcing application developers to create additional versions of their applications.o tato zařízení.

Over the past few years information technology (IT) and business alignment has become a great concern to organizations. To achieve alignment has become a daunting task for organizations due to rapid changes in business environment and lack of IT support. In business organizations business processes and IT are interrelated and interact with each other where one entity influences to another entity i.e. evolution in business processes requires evolution in IT and vice versa. When this co-evolution is not well aligned, a gap is created due to wrong configuration between business requirements and IT deployment. Organizations usually strive to bridge the gap by implementing business and IT strategies (i.e. top-down planning) and tend to ignore other aspects of the co-evolution. Alignment is a continuous co-evolutionary process in which all components of business and IT are interrelated and enhance organization performance. The co-evolution between business and IT is not restricted to a level but it occurs at all levels and therefore, it is necessary to understand and study co-evolution at all levels within organizations. This thesis presents a co-evolutionary framework that helps to study and understand the co-evolution at three levels i.e. strategic level, operational level and individual level in an integrated fashion. The three levels need to co-evolve so that all components at each level co-evolve. This framework will speed up the alignment in organizations. We argue that the lack of knowledge of business among IT people and IT knowledge among business executives may cause the gap; therefore, a need arises to have a knowledgeable mediator between the domains that could help in the co-evolution. A K-mediator (i.e. knowledge mediator) has been used in the proposed co-evolutionary framework that facilitates the co-evolution at each level. Finally the thesis presents a case study in financial domain in order to evaluate and validate the framework.