O presente trabalho elenca um rol de argumentos que apresentam a agricultura brasileira como um setor dinâmico e pujante da economia brasileira, mostrando que, muito mais do que gerar alimentos, este setor é um dos eixos de crescimento e desenvolvimento econômico, podendo contribuir muito mais para o crescimento de longo prazo da economia brasileira se ativado para este propósito. No entanto, para que se tenha um horizonte de longo prazo é necessário discutir-se a competitividade desse setor, o que é feito a partir da apresentação dos resultados de uma pesquisa de levantamento e comparação de custos de produção de Milho, Soja e Trigo, realizada entre 2008 e 2012, com a mesma metodologia, nos principais países do mundo, conhecida como Agri benchmark. Os dados mostram que o Brasil exibe alto custo de produção em relação a seus concorrentes e este estudo apresenta algumas das principais razões para essa diferença de custos, quais sejam: tributação, logística, produtividade da mão-de-obra e as diferenças entre as políticas públicas. Esta dissertação busca mensurar as Vantagens Comparativas Reveladas dos principais grãos de exportação brasileiros, com o intuito de descobrir se os altos custos de produção observados chegam a retirar a competitividade da agricultura nacional, o que se verificou somente para o caso do Trigo. / This study gives many arguments which presents Brazilian Agriculture as a dynamic and strong sector of Brazilian economy, showing that, more than the ability to supply food, this sector is one of the axis for growth and economic development. It would contribute for long term economic growth if it would be activate toward this proposal. However, for long term view is necessary to discus the competitiveness of this sector, which is made by using results of a research that compares cost of production of corn, soybean and wheat between 2008 and 2012, using the same methodology, for most producers around the world, known as Agri benchmark. The date shows that Brazil is the most expensive country in terms of cost of production in comparison with his competitors and this study also shows the main reasons, which are: taxation, logistics, workforce productivity and subsidies. This thesis measures Revealed Comparative Advantages of mains Brazilian grains produced, aiming to realize if high costs reduces agriculture competitiveness, which is observed in wheat.

Les travaux de cette thèse s'inscrivent dans le cadre du projet Petasky. Notre objectif est de proposer des outils permettant de gérer des dizaines de Peta-octets de données issues d'observations astronomiques. Nos travaux se focalisent essentiellement sur la conception des nouveaux systèmes permettant de garantir le passage à l'échelle. Dans cette thèse, nos contributions concernent trois aspects : Benchmarking des systèmes existants, conception d'un nouveau système et optimisation du système. Nous avons commencé par analyser la capacité des systèmes fondés sur le modèle MapReduce et supportant SQL à gérer les données LSST et leurs capacités d'optimisation de certains types de requêtes. Nous avons pu constater qu'il n'y a pas de technique « magique » pour partitionner, stocker et indexer les données mais l'efficacité des techniques dédiées dépend essentiellement du type de requête et de la typologie des données considérées. Suite à notre travail de Benchmarking, nous avons retenu quelques techniques qui doivent être intégrées dans un système de gestion de données à large échelle. Nous avons conçu un nouveau système de façon à garantir la capacité dudit système à supporter plusieurs mécanismes de partitionnement et plusieurs opérateurs d'évaluation. Nous avons utilisé BSP (Bulk Synchronous Parallel) comme modèle de calcul. Les données sont représentées logiquement par des graphes. L'évaluation des requêtes est donc faite en explorant le graphe de données en utilisant les arcs entrants et les arcs sortants. Les premières expérimentations ont montré que notre approche permet une amélioration significative des performances par rapport aux systèmes Map/Reduce / This work is carried out in framework of the PetaSky project. The objective of this project is to provide a set of tools allowing to manage Peta-bytes of data from astronomical observations. Our work is concerned with the design of a scalable approach. We first started by analyzing the ability of MapReduce based systems and supporting SQL to manage the LSST data and ensure optimization capabilities for certain types of queries. We analyzed the impact of data partitioning, indexing and compression on query performance. From our experiments, it follows that there is no “magic” technique to partition, store and index data but the efficiency of dedicated techniques depends mainly on the type of queries and the typology of data that are considered. Based on our work on benchmarking, we identified some techniques to be integrated to large-scale data management systems. We designed a new system allowing to support multiple partitioning mechanisms and several evaluation operators. We used the BSP (Bulk Synchronous Parallel) model as a parallel computation paradigm. Unlike MapeReduce model, we send intermediate results to workers that can continue their processing. Data is logically represented as a graph. The evaluation of queries is performed by exploring the data graph using forward and backward edges. We also offer a semi-automatic partitioning approach, i.e., we provide the system administrator with a set of tools allowing her/him to choose the manner of partitioning data using the schema of the database and domain knowledge. The first experiments show that our approach provides a significant performance improvement with respect to Map/Reduce systems

O presente trabalho elenca um rol de argumentos que apresentam a agricultura brasileira como um setor dinâmico e pujante da economia brasileira, mostrando que, muito mais do que gerar alimentos, este setor é um dos eixos de crescimento e desenvolvimento econômico, podendo contribuir muito mais para o crescimento de longo prazo da economia brasileira se ativado para este propósito. No entanto, para que se tenha um horizonte de longo prazo é necessário discutir-se a competitividade desse setor, o que é feito a partir da apresentação dos resultados de uma pesquisa de levantamento e comparação de custos de produção de Milho, Soja e Trigo, realizada entre 2008 e 2012, com a mesma metodologia, nos principais países do mundo, conhecida como Agri benchmark. Os dados mostram que o Brasil exibe alto custo de produção em relação a seus concorrentes e este estudo apresenta algumas das principais razões para essa diferença de custos, quais sejam: tributação, logística, produtividade da mão-de-obra e as diferenças entre as políticas públicas. Esta dissertação busca mensurar as Vantagens Comparativas Reveladas dos principais grãos de exportação brasileiros, com o intuito de descobrir se os altos custos de produção observados chegam a retirar a competitividade da agricultura nacional, o que se verificou somente para o caso do Trigo. / This study gives many arguments which presents Brazilian Agriculture as a dynamic and strong sector of Brazilian economy, showing that, more than the ability to supply food, this sector is one of the axis for growth and economic development. It would contribute for long term economic growth if it would be activate toward this proposal. However, for long term view is necessary to discus the competitiveness of this sector, which is made by using results of a research that compares cost of production of corn, soybean and wheat between 2008 and 2012, using the same methodology, for most producers around the world, known as Agri benchmark. The date shows that Brazil is the most expensive country in terms of cost of production in comparison with his competitors and this study also shows the main reasons, which are: taxation, logistics, workforce productivity and subsidies. This thesis measures Revealed Comparative Advantages of mains Brazilian grains produced, aiming to realize if high costs reduces agriculture competitiveness, which is observed in wheat.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:53:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo5133_1.pdf: 5742440 bytes, checksum: b8acaf8765518dc4580f06ca970cc072 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002 / Um método de acesso multidimensional (MAM) é uma estrutura de indexação voltada ao suporte de objetos espaciais, especialmente de retângulos. O principal objetivo de um MAM é propiciar uma rápida obtenção dos objetos espaciais que satisfazem um certo relacionamento topológico, métrico ou direcional. Neste sentido, o espaço indexado é organizado de tal forma que, por exemplo, a recuperação dos retângulos de dados contidos em uma área particular requeira apenas o acesso aos retângulos próximos a esta área, em oposição à análise do conjunto completo de retângulos armazenados em memória secundária. Um MAM, portanto, é projetado como um caminho otimizado aos dados espaciais e o seu uso melhora significativamente o desempenho de sistemas gerenciadores de banco de dados espaciais no processamento de consultas. Nesta tese, nós investigamos o desempenho de um conjunto de MAM, a maioria dos quais tem sido identificado na literatura como um MAM muito eficiente no suporte a consultas espaciais de seleção. Este grupo consiste dos seguintes métodos de acesso: R-tree, R-tree Greene, R+-tree, Hilbert R-tree, SR-tree e três variantes da R* -tree chamadas de R* -tree CR (i.e., close reinsert), de R* -tree FR (isto é, far reinsert) e de R* -tree WR (isto é, without reinsertion). A comparação do desempenho destes MAM foi realizada visando-se analisar prioritariamente a influência do fator distribuição espacial dos dados. Neste sentido, nós propusemos uma metodologia de avaliação de desempenho que permite a geração de um conjunto de tipos de distribuição espacial com diferentes características, as quais tornam possível que a influência do fator distribuição espacial dos dados seja analisada sob diferentes perspectivas, desde uma fraca até uma forte influência. Por meio de diversos testes de desempenho, nós observamos de que forma a distribuição espacial dos dados afetou os custos de inserção e de armazenamento de novas entradas no índice espacial, além do custo de point queries, intersection range queries, enclosure range queries e containment range queries. Com relação a estas consultas espaciais de seleção, os resultados de desempenho mostraram que a R+-tree foi a melhor estrutura de indexação espacial para poin queries e enclosure range queries, ao passo que as variantes da R* -tree produziram os melhores resultados de desempenho para intersection e containment range queries. Por outro lado, os métodos Hilbert R-tree e SR-tree geraram um baixo desempenho para as quatro consultas espaciais investigadas. No entanto, em testes de desempenho adicionais, os quais modificaram tanto o tamanho quanto o formato dos retângulos de dados, os métodos de acesso Hilbert R-tree e SR-tree geraram resultados competitivos, particularmente para intersection e containment range queries

Submitted by Jessica Andrade (jessicastefanysa@gmail.com) on 2018-06-28T18:00:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TELMO.pdf: 5034534 bytes, checksum: d5ff82ed46adf98d29eb0e7b1578bb38 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Margareth Ferreira Pinto (margarethfpinto@hotmail.com) on 2018-07-16T21:35:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TELMO.pdf: 5034534 bytes, checksum: d5ff82ed46adf98d29eb0e7b1578bb38 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-16T21:35:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TELMO.pdf: 5034534 bytes, checksum: d5ff82ed46adf98d29eb0e7b1578bb38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / O desenvolvimento de sistemas com complexidade necessária a uma abordagem mul- tiagente carrega consigo também aspectos de complexidade relacionados à avaliação dos diferentes níveis e componentes desse sistema. Um sistema multiagente pode ser com- posto por uma série de agentes heterogêneos, que apresentam variabilidade quanto à sua arquitetura interna, modelos utilizados para o seu desenvolvimento, linguagem de programação, de especificação e validação. Agregam-se a isso, contextos específicos de cada solução para com o ambiente para o qual foi projetado. Deste modo, impõem-se mecanismos que permitam estabelecer métricas de avaliação para cada nível do desenvol- vimento de um sistema multiagente, considerando dimensões como organização, comuni- cação entre agentes e os agentes em si. Esta dissertação apresenta como problemática, o estabelecimento de um benchmark para sistemas multiagente dentro do simulador de futebol de robôs Soccer Server 2D. Mais especificamente, este benchmark deve prover métricas e mecanismos de avaliação de esquemas organizacionais multiagente segundo os diferentes cenários que podem se estabelecer dentro da dinâmica de uma partida de futebol. Não obstante, deve-se permitir o estabelecimento de referências de avaliação da coletividade dos times implementados para o Soccer Server 2D, indiferente aos demais níveis de concepção do sistema. / The development of systems with the required complexity for a multi-agent approach, also carries complexity aspects related to the evaluation of different levels and compo- nents of such a system. A multi-agent system can be composed of a series of hetero- geneous agents, which have variability regarding its internal architecture, models used for its development, programming language, specification and validation. Added to this, are situated the particular contexts of each solution towards the environment for which it is designed. Therefore, it is needed mechanisms to establish evaluation metrics for each multi-agent system development level, taking into account dimensions such as or- ganization, communication between agents and the agents themselves. This dissertation presents as a problem, establish a benchmark for multi-agent systems within the robot soccer simulator Soccerserver 2D. Specifically, this benchmark should provide metrics and evaluation mechanisms of multi-agent organization schemes according to different scenarios that can be established within the dynamics of a football match . Nevertheless, it should be allowed the establishment of assessment referrals for the Robocup teams collectivity, regardless to other levels of system design.

This thesis presents a quantitative evaluation of an operating system virtualization technology known as Solaris Containers or Solaris Zones, with a special emphasis on measuring the influence of a security technology known as Solaris Trusted Extensions. Solaris Zones is an operating system-level (OS-level) virtualization technology embedded in the Solaris OS that primarily provides containment of processes within the abstraction of a complete operating system environment. Solaris Trusted Extensions presents a specific configuration of the Solaris operating system that is designed to offer multi-level security functionality. Firstly, we examine the scalability of the OS with respect to an increasing number of zones. Secondly, we evaluate the performance of zones in three scenarios. In the first scenario we measure - as a baseline - the performance of Solaris Zones on a 2-CPU core machine in the standard configuration that is distributed as part of the Solaris OS. In the second scenario we investigate the influence of the number of CPU cores. In the third scenario we evaluate the performance in the presence of a security configuration known as Solaris Trusted Extensions. To evaluate performance, we calculate a number of metrics using the AIM benchmark. We calculate these benchmarks for the global zone, a non-global zone, and increasing numbers of concurrently running non-global zones. We aggregate the results of the latter to compare aggregate system performance against single zone performance. The results of this study demonstrate the scalability and performance impact of Solaris Zones in the Solaris OS. On our chosen hardware platform, Solaris Zones scales to about 110 zones within a short creation time (i.e., less than 13 minutes per zone for installation, configuration, and boot.) As the number of zones increases, the measured overhead of virtualization shows less than 2% of performance decrease for most measured benchmarks, with one exception: the benchmarks for memory and process management show that performance decreases of 5-12% (depending on the sub-benchmark) are typical. When evaluating the Trusted Extensions-based security configuration, additional small performance penalties were measured in the areas of Disk/Filesystem I/O and Inter Process Communication. Most benchmarks show that aggregate system performance is higher when distributing system load across multiple zones compared to running the same load in a single zone.

Measuring the performance of Freight Villages (FVs) has important implications for logistics companies and other related companies as well as governments. In this paper we apply Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the performance of European FVs in a purely data-driven way incorporating the nature of FVs as complex operations that use multiple inputs and produce several outputs. We employ several DEA models and perform a complete sensitivity analysis of the appropriateness of the chosen input and output variables, and an assessment of the robustness of the efficiency score. It turns out that about half of the 20 FVs analyzed are inefficient, with utilization of the intermodal area and warehouse capacity and level of goods handed the being the most important areas of improvement. While we find no significant differences in efficiency between FVs of different sizes and in different countries, it turns out that the FVs Eurocentre Toulouse, Interporto Quadrante Europa and GVZ Nürnberg constitute more than 90% of the benchmark share. / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations

本研究目的為了解企業招募青年外派人才的需求及目的、招募甄選、外派訓練之現況；調查了11家佈局國際的台灣知名企業，產業類別涵蓋科技業、金融業、製造業、量販流通相關業、旅遊業。 研究發現台灣企業外派新鮮人才目的為擔任確保當地維持母公司的制度、填補職缺的角色。在招募甄選方面，企業招募外派新鮮人才綜合使用傳統與網路徵才管道。傳統管道多為校園招募，網路管道則是官網、網路人力銀行與臉書。甄選外派新鮮人才重視個人特質因素包含海外求職意願、適應性、海外經驗、學習潛能、人際關係技巧等，在能力因素方面語言是最重要的。外派培訓方面，受訪企業皆重視人才培訓，培訓的內容與時間依照產業、職缺目的、產品複雜程度而有所不同。 本研究建議企業使用國際畢業人才專案來進行統一的招募甄選以集中招募的資源、搭配職涯規劃與完善培訓制度吸引求職者的目光。在培訓方面增加跨文化的培訓，例如跨文化的課程、當地產業個案探討與雙輔導員制度協助外派者順利完成派外任務。 / The purpose of this study is to understand the current situation about companies of recruiting, selecting and training young talents as expatriates. This study investigates 11 well-known enterprises in Taiwan, covering the science and technology industry, finance industry, manufacturing industry, retailing industry, and tourism. The study finds that the purpose of young expatriate assignment of Taiwanese companies is to take control of the role to ensure that the local maintenances follow the parent company’s system. In the recruitment of selection, companies use both traditional and Internet channels to recruit fresh graduates. They usually use the campus recruitment as the main traditional channel; meanwhile, they use the official website, cooperation websites and Facebook as major internet channels to approach the fresh graduates. Companies emphasize personal factors including individual willing of working overseas, adaptability, overseas experiences, learning potential, social skills, etc. as the selection of fresh talents and in terms of external factors, the language skill is the most important. With regard to the training of the young expatriates, all the respondents put emphasis on the training of young expatriates. The training programs are different from industry to industry. This study suggests that companies use international graduates program which can unify resources to recruit and select fresh graduates. With promising career plan and well-planned training system, companies can attract the attention of job seekers. Moreover, companies can improve cross-cultural training, such as cross-cultural curricula, local industry case studies and dual counselors to assist young expatriates in successfully completing the expatriate assignment.

The development of the mobile phone has been rapid. From being a device mainly usedfor phone calls and writing text messages the mobile phone of today, or commonlyreferred to as the smartphone, has become a multi-purpose device. Because of its size andthermal constraints there are certain limitations in areas of battery life andcomputational capabilities. Some say that cloud computing is just another buzzword, away to sell already existing technology. Others claim that it has the potential to transformthe whole IT-industry. This thesis is covering the intersection of these two fields byinvestigating if it is possible to increase the speed of mobile phones by offloadingcomputational heavy mobile phone application functions by using cloud computing. Amobile phone application was developed that conducts three computational heavy tests.The tests were run twice, by not using cloud computing offloading and by using it. Thetime taken to carry out the tests were saved and later compared to see if it is faster to usecloud computing in comparison to not use it. The results showed that it is not beneficial touse cloud computing to carry out these types of tasks; it is faster to use the mobile phone.

The concept of organisational governance has been researched and debated by many. However, the concept of organisational governance maturity and what exactly this entails has received significantly less attention. It is beneficial for an organisation to understand how far they have progressed with implementing the various governance elements, as this will enable them to implement the most appropriate and necessary next steps, while taking corrective actions in becoming more mature in respect of organisational governance. This will furthermore aid the internal audit activity to provide more effective internal audit services, as knowledge of the level of organisational governance maturity enables them to more accurately determine which service they should deliver – either an assurance (organisation is mature) service or a consulting (organisation is not mature) service. The question now arises: how does an organisation, and the internal audit activity in particular, determine the level of organisational governance maturity without a benchmark of some sort that details the structures, systems and processes required to support governance at various levels of maturity? Published maturity frameworks/models can be used for this, however, there is very little that pertains specifically, comprehensively and holistically to organisational governance. This created the opportunity for the development of an organisational governance maturity framework. The main objective of this study is to develop a framework that can be used for assessing the level of organisational governance maturity within South African private sector organisations. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review was conducted where eight governance-related maturity models were used to produce a preliminary organisational governance maturity framework for the private sector in South Africa. Secondly, interviews were conducted with key governance stakeholders at the selected organisation to obtain input in the preliminary framework. The research findings, which resulted from the data analysed, were used as a means to refine the preliminary framework developed from the literature. No significant amendments were made to the preliminary framework and input obtained during the interviews supported the relevance and contribution of the framework developed from the literature. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014 / gm2015 / Auditing / MCom / Unrestricted