The increasing availability of digitized biodiversity data worldwide, provided by an increasing number of sources, and the growing use of those data for a variety of purposes have raised concerns related to the \"fitness for use\" of such data and the impact of data quality (DQ) on outcomes of analyses, reports and decisions making. A consistent approach to assess and manage DQ is currently critical for biodiversity data users. However, achieving this goal has been particularly challenging because of the idiosyncrasies inherent to the concept of quality. DQ assessment and management cannot be suitably carried out if we have not clearly established the meaning of quality according to the data user\'s standpoint. This thesis presents a formal conceptual framework to support the Biodiversity Informatics (BI) community to consistently describe the meaning of data \"fitness for use\". Principles behind data fitness for use are used to establish a formal and common ground for the collaborative definition of DQ needs, solutions and reports useful for DQ assessment and management. Based on the study of the DQ domain and its contextualization in the BI domain, which involved discussions with experts in DQ and BI in an iterative process, a comprehensive framework was designed and formalized. The framework defines eight fundamental concepts and 21 derived concepts, organized into three classes: DQ Needs, DQ Solutions and DQ Report. The concepts of each class describe, respectively, the meaning of DQ in a given context, the methods and tools that can serve as solutions for meeting DQ needs, and reports that present the current status of quality of a data resource. The formalization of the framework was presented using conceptual maps notation and sets theory notation. In order to validate the framework, we present a proof of concept based on a case study conducted at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. The tools FP-Akka Kurator and the BDQ Toolkit were used in the case study to perform DQ measures, validations and improvements in a dataset of the Arizona State University Hasbrouck Insect Collection. The results illustrate how the framework enables data users to assess and manage DQ of datasets and single records using quality control and quality assurance approaches. The proof of concept has also shown that the framework is adequately formalized and flexible, and sufficiently complete for defining DQ needs, solutions and reports in the BI domain. The framework is able of formalizing human thinking into well-defined components to make it possible sharing and reusing definitions of DQ in different scenarios, describing and finding DQ tools and services, and communicating the current status of quality of data in a standardized format among the stakeholders. In addition, the framework supports the players of that community to join efforts on the collaborative gathering and developing of the necessary components for the DQ assessment and management in different contexts. The framework is also the foundation of a Task Group on Data Quality, under the auspices of the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and is being used to help collect user\'s needs on data quality on agrobiodiversity and on species distributed modeling, initially. In future work, we plan to use the framework to engage the BI community to formalize and share DQ profiles related to a number of other data usages, to recommend methods, guidelines, protocols, metadata schemas and controlled vocabulary for supporting data fitness for use assessment and management in distributed system and data environments. In addition, we plan to build a platform based on the framework to serve as a common backbone for registering and retrieving DQ concepts, such as DQ profiles, methods, tools and reports. / A crescente disponibilização de dados digitalizados sobre a biodiversidade em todo o mundo, fornecidos por um crescente número de fontes, e o aumento da utilização desses dados para uma variedade de propósitos, tem gerado preocupações relacionadas a \"adequação ao uso\" desses dados e ao impacto da qualidade de dados (QD) sobre resultados de análises, relatórios e tomada de decisões. Uma abordagem consistente para avaliar e gerenciar a QD é atualmente crítica para usuários de dados sobre a biodiversidade. No entanto, atingir esse objetivo tem sido particularmente desafiador devido à idiossincrasia inerente ao conceito de qualidade. A avaliação e a gestão da QD não podem ser adequadamente realizadas sem definir claramente o significado de qualidade de acordo com o ponto de vista do usuário dos dados. Esta tese apresenta um arcabouço conceitual formal para apoiar a comunidade de Informática para Biodiversidade (IB) a descrever consistentemente o significado de \"adequação ao uso\" de dados. Princípios relacionados à adequação ao uso são usados para estabelecer uma base formal e comum para a definição colaborativa de necessidades, soluções e relatórios de QD úteis para a avaliação e gestão de QD. Baseado no estudo do domínio de QD e sua contextualização no domínio de IB, que envolveu discussões com especialistas em QD e IB em um processo iterativo, foi projetado e formalizado um arcabouço conceitual abrangente. Ele define oito conceitos fundamentais e vinte e um conceitos derivados organizados em três classes: Necessidades de QD, Soluções de QD e Relatório de QD. Os conceitos de cada classe descrevem, respectivamente, o significado de QD em um dado contexto, métodos e ferramentas que podem servir como soluções para atender necessidades de QD, e relatórios que apresentam o estado atual da qualidade de um recurso de dado. A formalização do arcabouço foi apresentada usando notação de mapas conceituais e notação de teoria dos conjuntos. Para a validação do arcabouço, nós apresentamos uma prova de conceito baseada em um estudo de caso conduzido no Museu de Zoologia Comparativa da Universidade de Harvard. As ferramentas FP-Akka Kurator e BDQ Toolkit foram usadas no estudo de caso para realizar medidas, validações e melhorias da QD em um conjunto de dados da Coleção de Insetos Hasbrouck da Universidade do Estado do Arizona. Os resultados ilustram como o arcabouço permite a usuários de dados avaliarem e gerenciarem a QD de conjunto de dados e registros isolados usando as abordagens de controle de qualidade a garantia de qualidade. A prova de conceito demonstrou que o arcabouço é adequadamente formalizado e flexível, e suficientemente completo para definir necessidades, soluções e relatórios de QD no domínio da IB. O arcabouço é capaz de formalizar o pensamento humano em componentes bem definidos para fazer possível compartilhar e reutilizar definições de QD em diferentes cenários, descrever e encontrar ferramentas de QD e comunicar o estado atual da qualidade dos dados em um formato padronizado entre as partes interessadas da comunidade de IB. Além disso, o arcabouço apoia atores da comunidade de IB a unirem esforços na identificação e desenvolvimento colaborativo de componentes necessários para a avaliação e gestão da QD. O arcabouço é também o fundamento de um Grupos de Trabalho em Qualidade de Dados, sob os auspícios do Biodiversity Information Standard (TDWG) e do Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) e está sendo utilizado para coletar as necessidades de qualidade de dados de usuários de dados de agrobiodiversidade e de modelagem de distribuição de espécies, inicialmente. Em trabalhos futuros, planejamos usar o arcabouço apresentado para engajar a comunidade de IB para formalizar e compartilhar perfis de QD relacionados a inúmeros outros usos de dados, recomendar métodos, diretrizes, protocolos, esquemas de metadados e vocabulários controlados para apoiar a avaliação e gestão da adequação ao uso de dados em ambiente de sistemas e dados distribuídos. Além disso, nós planejamos construir uma plataforma baseada no arcabouço para servir como uma central integrada comum para o registro e recuperação de conceitos de QD, tais como perfis, métodos, ferramentas e relatórios de QD.

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird ein Konzept entwickelt und umgesetzt, welches eine umfassende Bewertung von Daten flugzeuggetragener hyperspektraler Systeme ermöglicht. Es baut auf mehreren aktuellen Initiativen zur Erfassung der Datenqualität flugzeuggetragener Sensoren auf: Der ''European Facility for Airborne Reseach'', der ''Quality Assessment for Earth Observation Workgroup'' und dem ''Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology''. Bei der Befliegung eines Gebietes mit hyperspektralen Sensorsystemen werden mehrere, teilweise sich überlappende, Flugstreifen aufgenommen. Es wird vorgeschlagen, die Bildinformationen dieser Überlappungsbereiche als redundant anzusehen und so die innere Variabilität der Daten zu erfassen. Die jeweils zwischen zwei Flugstreifen auftretende Variabilität kann (aufgrund unterschiedlicher Blickrichtungen) als ungünstigster anzunehmender Fall (''worst-case'') betrachtet werden und ergänzt daher existierende Ansätze, die sich auf die Auswertung homogener Flächen konzentrieren. Das entwickelte Konzept ist auf unterschiedliche Sensorsysteme anwendbar, somit generisch und kann problemlos in die aktuelle Datenprozessierungskette des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. integriert werden. Im ersten Abschnitt der Arbeit wird dargelegt, wie korrespondierende Pixelpaare, die in den jeweiligen Streifen an gleicher Geolokation liegen, ermittelt werden können. Darauf aufbauend erfolgt eine Plausibilitätsüberprüfung der erfaßten Pixelpaare unter Verwendung von Zuverlässigkeitsmetriken, die auf Basis höherwertigerer Datenprodukte berechnet werden. In einem weiteren Schritt werden die Ergebnisse genutzt, um die notwendigen Parameter für eine optimierte Bildauswertung - hier im Sinne der Zuverlässigkeit - abzuleiten. Abschließend werden die Pixelpaare benutzt, um die globale Variabilität der Reflektanzwerte abzuschätzen. Insgesamt werden durch diese Arbeit die existierenden Methoden zur Qualitätskontrolle optischer Bilddaten umfassend ergänzt. / This work proposes a methodology for performing a quality assessment on the complete airborne hyperspectral system, thus ranging from data acquisition up to land-product generation. It is compliant with other quality assessment initiatives, such as the European Facility for Airborne Research (EUFAR), the Quality Assessment for Earth observation work-group (QA4EO) and the Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM). These are extended into a generic framework allowing for a flexible but reliable quality assessment strategy. Since airborne hyperspectral imagery is usually acquired in several partially overlapping flight-lines, it is proposed to use this information redundancy to retrieve the imagery''s internal variability. The underlying method is generic and can be easily introduced in the German Aerospace Center DLR''s hyperspectral processing chain. The comparison of two overlapping flight-lines is not straightforward, should it only be because the presence of geo-location errors present in the data. A first step consists in retrieving the relative variability of the pixel''s geo-locations, hence providing pairs of pixels imaging the same areas. Subsequently, these pairs of pixels are used to obtain quality indicators accounting for the reproducibility of mapping-products, thus extending the EUFAR''s quality layers up to land-products. The third stage of the analysis consists of using these reliability results to improve the mapping-products: it is proposed to maximise the reliability over the mapping-methods'' parameters. Finally, the repeatability assessment is back propagated to the hyperspectral data itself. As a result, an estimator of the reflectance variability (including model-, and scene-induced uncertainties) is proposed by means of a blind-deconvolution approach. Altogether, this complements and extends the EUFAR quality layers with estimates of the data and products repeatability while providing confidence intervals as recommended by JCGM and QA4EO.

本研究採用問卷調查法了解完全中學學生使用圖書館之期望與實際感受之服務品質，藉以瞭解學生對圖書館的滿意度，作為圖書館改善服務之參考。研究首先透過文獻分析，參考圖書館的服務品質評量工具LibQUAL+，並研究國內針對高中職圖書館之相關理論，修改發展出適合高中生與國中生之圖書館服務品質評量指標，並經與學校圖書館人員及使用者進行共三場焦點團體訪談後修正指標並進一步發展為問卷。本問卷以抽樣之台中市四所完全中學學生為實證研究對象，共發出1,142份問卷，回收1,138份，回收率高達99.64％，其中有效問卷1,133份。本服務品質評量問卷共分為「空間環境」、「館藏資源與利用」、「圖書館服務」及「圖書館教育與推廣」等四大構面，共有29項指標，並採用期望服務品質及感受服務品質兩種滿意度評分差距。 本論文研究結果顯示：（一）完全中學學生期待圖書館有更豐富的館藏及提供電子資源。(二)學生到館頻率每週少於一次的高達57.8％，顯示完全中學圖書館的利用率偏低。（三）學生對圖書館感受之服務品質平均值大都在3.5以上，顯示學生對圖書館的服務大致可接受，但均未達優質服務。國中生及高中生均對「圖書館所在便利性」最不滿意。（四）不同性別對圖書館感受服務品質差異性較小，國中生及高中生對圖書館感受服務品質差異性大；國中生感受的服務品質大都高於高中生。（五）完全中學圖書館需針對國中生及高中生提出不同的服務策略。 根據上述研究結果，本論文提出以下建議：(一)運用圖書館服務品質評量加強圖書館評鑑，做為圖書館經營管理之參考。（二）加強推展圖書館利用教育，發揮圖書館功能。（三）擴充圖書館編制提升專業形象，並擴大服務範圍。（四）提昇圖書館軟硬體設備，發揮圖書館資訊服務的功能。 / This study uses the method of Questionnaire to measure the expectations and degrees of satisfaction of comprehensive high school students toward libraries. Using the method of literature review, also taking reference from Library Service Quality Assessment LibQUAL+ and relevant theories concerning high school or professional high school libraries, this study comes up with a revised index of service quality assessment suitable for junior and senior school students. After conducting three focus group interviews with school librarians and users, the researcher then revises the above-mentioned index and transformed it into a Questionnaire. This study, using students from four comprehensive high schools in Taichung City as subjects of empirical studies, issued 1,142 questionnaires, among which 1,138 were returned (the return rate was as high as 99.64%), and effective ones amounted to 1,132.The questionnaire consists of four aspects: space and environment, library resources and usages, library services, and librarian education and promotion. It includes 29 indicators, and is rated by the expected and perceived service qualities. The study shows the following results: 1.Comprehensive high school students look forward to more comprehensive library resources as well as resources in electronic forms. 2.The percentage of students visiting libraries less than once in a week is as high as 57.8%, meaning the usage rate for comprehensive high school libraries is low. 3.The perceived quality for library service, on average, is generally above 3.5 points in a score ranging from 1-5, but not reaching the expected service qualities. Such result manifests that students find the library service mostly acceptable, but not preferable. Both junior and senior high students find ‘the accessibility of libraries’ most unacceptable. 4.Gender has relatively little effect on the difference of perceived quality of service, whereas there’s a big gap between junior and senior high school students. Junior high students tend to score higher than senior high students on perceived service quality. 5.It is imperative for comprehensive high school libraries to provide different service strategies for junior and senior high school students. Based on the result of the above study, the thesis suggests the following: 1.Libraries should use service quality assessment as a way to enhance their evaluation, whose result should be taken as managerial reference. 2.It is imperative to strengthen the promotion of the usage of libraries. 3.It is imperative to enlarge the organization scale of libraries so as to promote professional image and to enlarge service range. 4.It is imperative to upgrade soft, as well as hardware equipment of libraries to enhance information service of libraries.

In der vorliegenden Publikation wird die Entstehung der leistungsbezogenen Hochschulfinanzierung im englischen Universitätssektor untersucht. Leistungsbezogene Hochschulfinanzierung wird in vielen Ländern als geeigneter Lösungsansatz für das Problem der gerechten Verteilung von staatlichen Finanzmitteln an individuelle Hochschulen diskutiert. Das englische Beispiel zeigt sich als sehr lehrreich für die Diskussion um die Umsetzung und die Konsequenzen eines solchen Lösungsansatzes. Der größte Teil der staatlichen Finanzmittel wurde den Universitäten seit Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts als globale Zuweisung zugeteilt. Die Entscheidung über die Höhe der Summe dieses Geldes wurde ursprünglich von einem nicht-amtlichen Organ, dessen Mitglieder mehrheitlich Akademiker waren, bestimmt. Veränderungen der Mitgliedschaft und Verfahren dieses Organs und dessen Nachfolger-Organe haben wesentliche indirekte Implikationen und direkte Folgen für die Universitäten in England hervorgebracht. Die Verfahren zur Bewertung der Qualität der Leistung einer Universität sowie zur Verteilung von Finanzmitteln entsprechend dieser Leistung stellen das Instrumentarium für einen neuen steuernden Einfluss des Staates dar. Da die Höhe der staatlichen Finanzmittel für die Universitäten indessen seit Anfang der 80er Jahre stark abgenommen hat, müssen die Universitäten sich gleichzeitig erfolgreich auf dem Markt behaupten können. Die Universitäten müssen also innerhalb eines gestalterischen Raumes agieren, der zwischen Markt und Staat -- als die wesentlichen Einflussgrößen -- aufgespannt ist. Das Grundverhältnis zwischen dem Staat und den Universitäten zeigt sich entsprechend als höchst komplex. Dabei müssen die Universitäten eine Managementkompetenz entwickeln, die eine Maximierung an Finanzierung verspricht, während sie gleichzeitig die Grundaufgaben der Lehre und Forschung vor allzu negativen Konsequenzen dieser Wirtschaftsorientierung bewahren soll. Die Publikation belegt anhand einer Fallstudie, dass nicht alle Universitäten hierzu in der Lage sind und, dass die Implikationen und Folgen des sogenannten "Finanzierungsregimes" für deren Aufgabenerfüllung nachteilig sein können. Es wird deutlich, dass die konkreten Verfahren der Hochschulfinanzierung und, hier insbesondere, leistungsbezogene Ansätze nicht allein als technische Lösungen betrachtet werden können, sondern sie sollen nur im Zusammenhang mit einer Vorstellung von der idealen Universität gesehen werden, denn diese Verfahren beeinflussen die Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten einer Universität in direkter und indirekter Weise. / This publication investigates the emergence of performance-based funding in the English university sector. Performance-based funding of higher education institutions is discussed in many countries as an appropriate solution to the problem of distributing public funding to individual universities in a fair manner. The English example proves to be very instructive to the discussion with regards to the implementation, and then the implications, of such a proposal. From the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of public funding was distributed as a lump sum to individual universities in England. Decisions on the amount of funding were originally determined by a non-governmental body, whose members were mainly academics. Changes to this membership and to the procedures of this body have had a number of indirect implications for and direct effects on universities in England. Procedures for assessing the qualitative performance of universities, together with procedures which distribute funding according to this assessment provide the instruments of a new steering-influence utilised by the State, a new form of Public Management. As the amount of public state funding for universities has been reduced drastically since the beginning of the 1980's, universities have had to strive concurrently for funds on the open market. Universities are thus being forced to act within an area defined by the market and the State - the two strongest influences on the university sector. The fundamental relationship between the State and its universities has accordingly become highly complex. Universities, for their part, must develop management competencies, which promise a maximisation of funding, whilst at the same time aiming to protect a university's vital tasks of teaching and research from the more negative consequences of business-orientation. In a concluding case study, some evidence is provided which shows that not all universities are in a position to do this and that the implications and effects of the so-called "funding regime" are disadvantageous, in such cases, for their fulfilment of this entrepreneurial challenge. It becomes clear that the concrete procedures for funding higher education institutions and, in particular, performance-based models cannot been seen solely as technical solutions, but must instead be seen in combination with an idea of the ideal university, since these procedures influence the strategic options of a university both directly and indirectly.

L'objectif de cette thèse est le déploiement et l'évaluation d'une plate-forme de télé-échographie mobile, utilisée pour fournir un diagnostic et des soins à distance dans des milieux médicalement isolés. La plateforme intègre de nouveaux concepts qui permettent de l’utilisation de la télé-échographie robotisée sur les réseaux sans fil 3G, 4G et 5G pour satisfaire au transfert de qualité des vidéos ultrasonores pour un diagnostic médical robuste. Ce travail contribue au domaine des Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication appliquées au secteur de la santé et en particulier à la robotique médicale téléopérée. Les principales contributions de la thèse sont : I. Un état de l’art des systèmes télé-robotiques appliqués au médical menée sur la base de publications écrites entre 2004 et 2016, II. L'évaluation objective et subjective (clinique) de la qualité vidéo a démontré que les normes H.264/AVC et HEVC peuvent atteindre une qualité vidéo sans perte de diagnostic à des débits (1024 et 2048 Kbps) bien en deçà des débits de données supportés par les réseaux 4G. Les normes de codage vidéo antérieures (Mpeg-4, Mpeg-2) ne peuvent pas être utilisées pour le diagnostic clinique à ces débits car elles présentent une perte d'information pour le diagnostic médical, III. Les experts médicaux ont apprécié la réactivité dynamique mécanique de la plate-forme en raison du faible délai présenté par les canaux LTE. La limitation la plus importante soulevée par l'expert médical, empêchant une évaluation globale clinique favorable au diagnostic, était le positionnement initial du robot sur le corps du patient et son déplacement vers l'obtention d’une échographie cardiaque, Les résultats fournissent une forte indication que la plate-forme télé-échographie robotisée peut être utilisée pour fournir un diagnostic fiable et à distance sur les réseaux sans fil émergents 4G et au-delà. / The objective of this Thesis was the deployment and evaluation of an end-to-end mobile tele-echography platform used to provide remote diagnosis and care within medically isolated settings. The platform integrates new concepts that enable robotized tele-echography over commercially available 4G and beyond mobile networks for rendering diagnostically robust medical ultrasound video. It contributes to the field of Information and Communication technologies applied in the healthcare sector. The main contributions of the Thesis are: I. A systematic review on the state of the art in medical telerobotic systems was conducted based on publications of the last decade, and more specifically between the years 2004 to 2016. II. Both objective and subjective (clinical) video quality assessment demonstrated that H.264/AVC and HEVC standards can achieve diagnostically-lossless video quality at bitrates (1024 and 2048 Kbps) well within the LTE supported data rates. Earlier video coding standards (Mpeg-4 & Mpeg-2) cannot be employed for clinical diagnosis at these rates as they present loss of clinical information.III. Medical experts highly appreciated the proposed platform’s mechanical dynamic responsiveness due to the low end-to-end delay (latency) facilitated by LTE-channels. The most important limitation raised by the medical expert and prevented higher overall rating and ultimately clinical QoE was the robot initial positioning on the patient’s body and navigation towards obtaining the cardiac ultrasound. IV. Results provides a strong indication that the proposed robotized tele-echography platform can be used to provide reliable, remote diagnosis over emerging 4G and beyond wireless networks.

Este estudo teve como objetivo elaborar uma proposta de indicadores para avaliação da qualidade do sistema de educação superior brasileiro e, com base nestes indicadores elaborados, medir e avaliar o desenvolvimento da sua qualidade no período 1993-2004. Considerou-se que o período escolhido está associado à intensificação do fenômeno da mercantilização da educação superior no Brasil. Para caracterizar o fenômeno, o estudo apóia-se nas perspectivas teóricas de Boaventura de Sousa Santos sobre as crises da universidade, de Ana Maria Seixas acerca das transformações privatistas e dos autores David Dill, Pedro Teixeira, Bem Jonbloed e Alberto Amaral sobre os mercados da educação superior. Os temas da qualidade e da avaliação da qualidade têm como referência principal os trabalhos de Ronald Barnett, Lee Harvey e Diana Green. Foram estudados os indicadores e sistemas de indicadores de educação adotados pelas agências internacionais, tais como Unesco e OCDE. Com essas referências foi elaborado um sistema de indicadores para avaliação do desenvolvimento da qualidade do Sesb, que compreende as categorias eqüidade, relevância, diversidade e eficácia. O estudo apresenta o sistema de indicadores elaborado e sua aplicação no período 1993-2004. Os resultados explicam a hipótese de trabalho, ou seja, em tempos de mercantilização da educação superior a qualidade da educação superior brasileira não se desenvolveu positivamente, visto que no período 1994- 2003 não foram encontradas evidências claras de melhorias do Sesb em termos de eqüidade, relevância, diversidade e eficácia. / The present study was carried out with the aiming to elaborate a proposal of indicators for assessing quality in Brazilian system for higher education and, based on those indicators, measure and evaluate the development of such quality in the period ranging from 1993 to 2004. It was considered the chosen period as associated to the increasing of the commodification of higher education in Brazil. In order to characterize that phenomena, the study used as grounds the theories developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, about the university crisis; by Ana Maria Seixas, about the privatizing transformations; and by David Dill, Pedro Teixeira, Bem Jonbloed, and Alberto Amaral, on the higher education markets. The matters involving quality and quality assessment have the main studies by Ronald Barnett, Lee Harvey, and Diana Green as references. The indicators and systems of education indicators adopted by international agencies such as Unesco and OCDE, were also studied. Based on those references a system of indicators for the evaluation of quality development in Sesb was elaborated, and it includes the following categories: equity, relevance, diversity, and efficiency. This study presents that indicators system as well as its application during the period 1993-2004. The results explain the hypothesis upon which work was developed, that is, in times of commodification of higher education, the quality of such education in Brazil has not developed positively. That is said based on the fact that during the period 1993-2004 there could not be found clear evidences of improvement in Sesb in what concerns equity, relevance, diversity, and efficiency.

This study aimed to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of users of the subunits of the Health Sciences Center of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM). To achieve this objective, an evaluation survey instrument based on the SERVQUAL model was used, in order to assess the quality of services and it was applied to users of services provided by the board of the center. In data analysis, there was a considerably high level of satisfaction perceived by users. In addition, it was found that for most respondents, the working hours of the center were satisfactory and they consider that the board staff treats people politely. It was also pointed out that users agreed that the members of the board demonstrated to have knowledge of the administrative routines of UFSM. On the other hand, it was clear that respondents do not consider that bureaucracy contributes to improve the quality of services and that the center´s management provides individualized services to the subunits. Moreover, it is noteworthy that one of the main weaknesses, which should be given more attention by the managers of the Health Sciences Center, is related to the infrastructure of the unit, since the aspects related to this issue are among the least positively evaluated. The survey also revealed that there was a difference in the evaluation between the gender of the respondents regarding some aspects related to quality and that those teachers who hold management positions, staff with over ten years of experience in UFSM and those with more than three years in the position tended to evaluate more negatively several quality attributes. / O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar o grau de satisfação dos usuários das subunidades do Centro de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Federal da Santa Maria. Para alcançar tal objetivo, foi aplicado um instrumento de pesquisa de avaliação da qualidade de serviços baseado no modelo SERVQUAL junto aos usuários dos serviços prestados pela direção do Centro. Na análise dos dados, constatou-se um índice de satisfação consideravelmente alto percebido pelos usuários. Além disso, foi verificado que a maioria dos respondentes considerou os horários de expediente satisfatórios e que os servidores da direção tratam as pessoas com educação. Também, apontou-se que os usuários tenderam a concordar que os integrantes da direção demonstram conhecimento sobre as rotinas administrativas da UFSM. Por outro lado, foi possível evidenciar que respondentes não consideram que a burocracia torne a qualidade de serviço mais elevada e que a direção presta serviços individualizados às subunidades. Ademais, percebeu-se que um dos principais pontos negativos, e que deve ser atentado pelos gestores do CCS, está ligado à questão de infraestrutura da Unidade, pois os aspectos ligados a essa perspectiva estão entre os menos positivamente avaliados. A pesquisa permitiu detectar também que há uma diferença de avaliação entre os sexos em alguns aspectos de qualidade e que os docentes detentores de cargos, os servidores com mais de dez anos de atuação na UFSM e aqueles com mais de três anos na função tenderam a avaliar mais negativamente diversos atributos de qualidade.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LucasABO_DISSERT.pdf: 3642189 bytes, checksum: dfbb19c21532e293bdb151d8a377e0d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-15 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This dissertation has as objective at analyzing the students' perception about the quality of graduate courses distance of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, which was motivated by the following research problem: the perception that graduate students of the distance of the UFRN have on the quality of the undergraduate? To this end, we sought to gather evidence for a satisfactory approach that addresses the complexity of the subject studied: quality management, distance learning and quality in the Higher Education Institutions. We chose to adopt as a research method, case study on the procedure of the research, exploratory research-descriptive about the objective and quantitative research when tackling the problem. The object of the study were six graduate courses distance UFRN/SEDIS, having as target the students of the courses. The sample was calculated using the Stratified sampling on which 217 students, the courses surveyed were selected. The survey instrument consisted of 21 structured questions, of which seven questions designed to identify the profile of students, seven issues of perceptions (manifest variables) on quality management in distance learning, where students have given values (responses) for 24 statements (which address the central theme of this dissertation) composite based on a 5-point Likert s scale, and six questions about general characteristics that may interfere with students' perception about the quality. Was used as statistical method (data analysis), descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. The results show the identification of four latent factors (obtained by exploratory factor analysis), namely: (1) infrastructure and management - polo presence, (2) teaching-learning processes, (3) communication tools and integration; (4) tutors. We also observed that aspects related to infrastructure and management at the pole face had the lowest score among the factors observed, requiring special attention by the education institution. On the other hand, teachers and teaching learning processes were the items with better performance in the perception of students. It is concluded that the perception of students in relation to quality in distance education courses, the median is trending positive perception, ie the perception of overall quality of the courses is not assertive and unison, but tends to positive perception. Thus, the results, it is expected that the managers of the institution to focus attention on critical points in order to minimize them (or eliminate them) and maximize the positive aspects that are perceived by the students / A presente disserta??o tem como objetivo geral analisar a percep??o dos discentes quanto ? qualidade dos cursos de gradua??o a dist?ncia da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, que foi motivada pelo seguinte problema de pesquisa: qual a percep??o que os discentes da gradua??o a dist?ncia da UFRN tem sobre a qualidade no curso de gradua??o? Para tanto, buscou-se reunir elementos para uma abordagem satisfat?ria que contemple a complexidade da tem?tica pesquisada: Gest?o da qualidade, educa??o a dist?ncia e qualidade nas Institui??es de Ensino Superior. Optou-se por adotar como m?todo de pesquisa, o estudo de caso quanto ao procedimento da pesquisa, a pesquisa explorat?ria-descritiva quanto ao objetivo e a pesquisa quantitativa quando ? abordagem do problema. O objeto de estudo foram os seis cursos de gradua??o a dist?ncia da UFRN/SEDIS, tendo como popula??o alvo os discentes dos cursos. A amostra foi calculada por meio da amostra estratificada aleat?ria em que 217 discentes, dos cursos pesquisados, foram selecionados. O instrumento de pesquisa foi composto por 21 quest?es estruturadas, das quais 7 quest?es destinadas para identifica??o do perfil dos discentes; 7 quest?es de percep??es (vari?veis manifestas) sobre a gest?o da qualidade na EAD, em que os discentes atribuiram valores (respostas) para as 24 afirmativas (que abordam a tem?tica central dessa disserta??o) compostas com base na escala Likert de 5 pontos, e 6 quest?es acerca de especificidades gerais que podem interferir na percep??o dos discentes acerca da qualidade. Utilizou-se, como m?todo estat?stico (an?lise de dados), a estat?stica descritiva e an?lise fatorial explorat?ria. Os resultados mostram a identifica??o de quatro fatores latentes (obtidas por meio da an?lise fatorial explorat?ria), a saber: (1) infraestrutura e gest?o polo presencial; (2) processos de ensino-aprendizagem; (3) ferramentas de comunica??o e integra??o; (4) tutores. Foi observado, ainda, que aspectos relacionados a infraestrutura e gest?o no polo presencial tiveram a menor avalia??o dentre os fatores observados, necessitando de aten??o especial por parte da Institui??o de Ensino. Por outro lado, os professores e os processos de ensino aprendizagem foram os itens com melhor desempenho na percep??o dos discentes. Conclui-se que a percep??o dos discentes, em rela??o ? qualidade nos cursos a dist?ncia, ? mediana tendendo para percep??o positiva, ou seja, a percep??o acerca da qualidade geral nos cursos n?o ? assertiva e un?ssona, mas tende para percep??o positiva. Assim, de posse dos resultados, espera-se que os Gestores da Institui??o foquem sua aten??o nos pontos cr?ticos afim de minimiza-los (ou elimina-los) e maximizem os aspectos que t?m percep??o positiva por parte dos discentes

Este estudo teve como objetivo elaborar uma proposta de indicadores para avaliação da qualidade do sistema de educação superior brasileiro e, com base nestes indicadores elaborados, medir e avaliar o desenvolvimento da sua qualidade no período 1993-2004. Considerou-se que o período escolhido está associado à intensificação do fenômeno da mercantilização da educação superior no Brasil. Para caracterizar o fenômeno, o estudo apóia-se nas perspectivas teóricas de Boaventura de Sousa Santos sobre as crises da universidade, de Ana Maria Seixas acerca das transformações privatistas e dos autores David Dill, Pedro Teixeira, Bem Jonbloed e Alberto Amaral sobre os mercados da educação superior. Os temas da qualidade e da avaliação da qualidade têm como referência principal os trabalhos de Ronald Barnett, Lee Harvey e Diana Green. Foram estudados os indicadores e sistemas de indicadores de educação adotados pelas agências internacionais, tais como Unesco e OCDE. Com essas referências foi elaborado um sistema de indicadores para avaliação do desenvolvimento da qualidade do Sesb, que compreende as categorias eqüidade, relevância, diversidade e eficácia. O estudo apresenta o sistema de indicadores elaborado e sua aplicação no período 1993-2004. Os resultados explicam a hipótese de trabalho, ou seja, em tempos de mercantilização da educação superior a qualidade da educação superior brasileira não se desenvolveu positivamente, visto que no período 1994- 2003 não foram encontradas evidências claras de melhorias do Sesb em termos de eqüidade, relevância, diversidade e eficácia. / The present study was carried out with the aiming to elaborate a proposal of indicators for assessing quality in Brazilian system for higher education and, based on those indicators, measure and evaluate the development of such quality in the period ranging from 1993 to 2004. It was considered the chosen period as associated to the increasing of the commodification of higher education in Brazil. In order to characterize that phenomena, the study used as grounds the theories developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, about the university crisis; by Ana Maria Seixas, about the privatizing transformations; and by David Dill, Pedro Teixeira, Bem Jonbloed, and Alberto Amaral, on the higher education markets. The matters involving quality and quality assessment have the main studies by Ronald Barnett, Lee Harvey, and Diana Green as references. The indicators and systems of education indicators adopted by international agencies such as Unesco and OCDE, were also studied. Based on those references a system of indicators for the evaluation of quality development in Sesb was elaborated, and it includes the following categories: equity, relevance, diversity, and efficiency. This study presents that indicators system as well as its application during the period 1993-2004. The results explain the hypothesis upon which work was developed, that is, in times of commodification of higher education, the quality of such education in Brazil has not developed positively. That is said based on the fact that during the period 1993-2004 there could not be found clear evidences of improvement in Sesb in what concerns equity, relevance, diversity, and efficiency.

Avec l’avènement du traitement distribué et l’utilisation accrue des services web inter et intra organisationnels alimentée par la disponibilité des connexions réseaux à faibles coûts, les données multisources partagées ont de plus en plus envahi les systèmes d’informations. Ceci a induit, dans un premier temps, le changement de leurs architectures du centralisé au distribué en passant par le coopératif et le fédéré ; et dans un deuxième temps, une panoplie de problèmes d’exploitation allant du traitement des incohérences des données doubles à la synchronisation des données distribuées. C’est le cas des bases de prospection marketing où les données sont enrichies par des fichiers provenant de différents fournisseurs.Nous nous intéressons au cadre particulier de construction de fichiers de prospection pour la réalisation de campagnes marketing B-to-B, tâche traitée manuellement par les experts métier. Nous visons alors à modéliser le raisonnement de brokers humains, afin d’optimiser et d’automatiser la sélection du « plan fichier » à partir d’un ensemble de données d’enrichissement multisources. L’optimisation en question s’exprimera en termes de gain (coût, qualité) des données sélectionnées, le coût se limitant à l’unique considération du prix d’utilisation de ces données.Ce mémoire présente une triple contribution quant à la gestion des bases de données multisources. La première contribution concerne l’évaluation rigoureuse de la qualité des données multisources. La deuxième contribution porte sur la modélisation et l’agrégation préférentielle des critères d’évaluation qualité par l’intégrale de Choquet. La troisième contribution concerne BrokerACO, un prototype d’automatisation et d’optimisation du brokering multisources basé sur l’algorithme heuristique d’optimisation par les colonies de fourmis (ACO) et dont la Pareto-optimalité de la solution est assurée par l’utilisation de la fonction d’agrégation des préférences des utilisateurs définie dans la deuxième contribution. L’efficacité du prototype est montrée par l’analyse de campagnes marketing tests effectuées sur des données réelles de prospection. / In Business-to-Business (B-to-B) marketing campaigns, manufacturing “the highest volume of sales at the lowest cost” and achieving the best return on investment (ROI) score is a significant challenge. ROI performance depends on a set of subjective and objective factors such as dialogue strategy, invested budget, marketing technology and organisation, and above all data and, particularly, data quality. However, data issues in marketing databases are overwhelming, leading to insufficient target knowledge that handicaps B-to-B salespersons when interacting with prospects. B-to-B prospection data is indeed mainly structured through a set of independent, heterogeneous, separate and sometimes overlapping files that form a messy multisource prospect selection environment. Data quality thus appears as a crucial issue when dealing with prospection databases. Moreover, beyond data quality, the ROI metric mainly depends on campaigns costs. Given the vagueness of (direct and indirect) cost definition, we limit our focus to price considerations.Price and quality thus define the fundamental constraints data marketers consider when designing a marketing campaign file, as they typically look for the "best-qualified selection at the lowest price". However, this goal is not always reachable and compromises often have to be defined. Compromise must first be modelled and formalized, and then deployed for multisource selection issues. In this thesis, we propose a preference-driven selection approach for multisource environments that aims at: 1) modelling and quantifying decision makers’ preferences, and 2) defining and optimizing a selection routine based on these preferences. Concretely, we first deal with the data marketer’s quality preference modelling by appraising multisource data using robust evaluation criteria (quality dimensions) that are rigorously summarized into a global quality score. Based on this global quality score and data price, we exploit in a second step a preference-based selection algorithm to return "the best qualified records bearing the lowest possible price". An optimisation algorithm, BrokerACO, is finally run to generate the best selection result.