Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mateus Filipe Domingos.pdf: 1191779 bytes, checksum: 63e51f251554afacbc758ca4d8b42abd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-07 / The research deals about business ERP-SIM game, one IBTA tool, Brazilian Institute of Advanced Technologies, we bring the study of analysis and results of students who played the Business ERP-SIM game as a tool for development and learning promotion for professionals in the corporate world, where the target audience is owned by andragogical mode. We focus our writing instrument (questionnaire) with issues related to Marketing. During the research we seek to bring concepts related to andragogy, meaningful learning of Ausubel. Games in general and gamification, business game, investigating the ways of how does learning the game especially in game companies. Regarding learning theories and approaches, we brought a brief account of Skinner behavioral, social cognitive, historical and socialization Vygotsky, and it is through these approaches that happens to promotion of learning and insertion apprentice in half or corporate group. This has been confirmed by the fact that some corporate executives to encourage their employees to participate in training that accelerate and promote learning with content from various fields of expertise and organizational projects. Currently the business games are used as an aid in learning tool for training in various areas at universities, especially in business administration courses, thus ensuring the future managers a significant baggage to face the real world of business. Theoretically we rely on concepts covered by major authors: Bellan, Gramigna, Sauaia Martinelli, Huizinga, Kirby, Piaget, Karl Kapp, Malcolm Knowles, Moreira, Vygotsky, Ausubel among others, adopting concepts related to learning through the intermediary of the business game. The survey also brings the analysis of some steps taken in the game to promote learning the light of the approaches and theories of Vygotsky / A pesquisa trata acerca de business game ERP-SIM, uma ferramenta do IBTA, Instituto Brasileiro de Tecnologias Avançadas, trazendo a análise de estudo e resultados de alunos que jogaram o Business game ERP-SIM como ferramenta para desenvolvimento e promoção da aprendizagem para profissionais no mundo corporativo, onde o público-alvo é pertencente à modalidade andragógica. Focalizamos nosso instrumento escrito (questionário) com questões relacionadas ao Marketing. Durante a pesquisa procuramos trazer conceitos relacionados a andragogia, aprendizagem significativa de Ausubel, games em geral e gamification, business game, investigando as formas de como se dá a aprendizagem no game, especialmente nos jogos de empresas. Em relação às teorias da aprendizagem e às abordagens, trouxemos um breve relato behaviorista de Skinner, sociocognitivo, histórico e socialização de Vygotsky, e é através destas abordagens que acontece a promoção da aprendizagem e a inserção do aprendiz ao meio ou grupo corporativo. Isto tem sido confirmado pelo fato de alguns executivos de empresas incentivarem seus funcionários a participarem de treinamentos que acelerem e promovam a aprendizagem com conteúdos de diversas áreas de atuação e projetos organizacionais. Atualmente, os jogos de negócio são usados como ferramenta de auxílio na aprendizagem em treinamento de diversas áreas em universidades, especialmente nos cursos de administração de empresas, garantindo, assim, aos futuros administradores uma bagagem significativa para enfrentar o mundo real dos negócios.Teoricamente nos embasamos em conceitos abordados pelos principais autores: Bellan, Gramigna, Sauaia, Martinelli, Huizinga, Kirby, Piaget, Karl Kapp, Malcolm Knowles, Moreira, Vygotsky, Ausubel, entre outros, adotando conceitos relacionados a aprendizagem por intermédio do business game. A pesquisa também traz a análise de alguns passos adotados no game para a promoção da aprendizagem à luz das abordagens e teorias de Vygotsky

User groups have been recognised as one of the most important coupling mechanisms between users and vendors. There are hundreds of such groups around the world attached to complex technological artefacts and systems. Innovation scholars have referred to these groups as the new sites of innovation and gone as far to suggest that vendors may struggle to survive without the user-led innovation that derives from these forums (von Hippel, 2005). This is particularly the case for software products. However, despite their growing academic and policy importance, and notwithstanding the fact these communities have been in existence for more than three decades, the Information Systems literature has not yet explained the complex workings of such groups. This study produces one of the first ethnographic studies of a major software user group linked to a complex packaged enterprise system. It describes and characterises the range of functions carried out by this group, which includes their internal workings and organisation, how members relate to each other, how the group links to the vendor and other intermediaries, and the group’s attempts to shape the development of its technology. A key focus of the work is the various tensions and barriers found in these communities. To analyse this group the study adopts and extends the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) and its recent offshoot, the ‘Biography of Artefact’ (BoA) framework. This thesis contributes to these approaches by showing the importance of multifaceted time dimensions and heterogeneity of spaces in examining users groups. Whilst existing studies using these approaches have looked at the evolution of technology over extended periods, this thesis contributes by considering the coevolution of the technology and the community attached at the same time. This allows us not only to gain a better conceptualisation of the user group but as a result see new forms of innovation invisible to more dominant perspectives. It challenges economist led understandings of user-led innovation which tend to give only a rather superficial understanding of the process by which users create new innovation. In particular, and through arguing for the need to take into account both ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in the process of user-led innovation, the thesis offers the concept of ‘artification’ to explain further complex outputs originating from the interaction of these actors in multiple spaces and over long periods of time. The thesis also extends theories of the Social Shaping of Technology by depicting innovation as an arena where different actor spaces act collectively, but also compete, and as a result wield influence on different stages of the technology lifecycle. This leads to a further contribution of this thesis in the field of Information Systems research by suggesting that enterprise software innovation is a community achievement. In particular, the research proposes the concept of ‘unification’ to show the collective acts of users in aggregating their needs to participate in the development of technology. The study concludes by offering insights and recommendation to practitioners and policy makers for deploying user communities for better technological outcomes, both in terms of design and development as well as implementation and use.

abstract: In most of the work using event-related potentials (ERPs), researchers presume the function of specific components based on the careful manipulation of experimental factors, but rarely report direct evidence supporting a relationship between the neural signal and other outcomes. Perhaps most troubling is the lack of evidence that ERPs correlate with related behavioral outcomes which should result, at least in part, from the neural processes that ERPs capture. One such example is the NoGo-N2 component, an ERP component elicited in Go/NoGo paradigms. There are two primary theories regarding the functional significance of this component in this context: that the signal represents response inhibition and that the component reflects conflict. In this paper, a trial-level method of analysis for the relationship between ERP component potentials and downstream behavioral outcomes (in this case, response accuracy) using a multi-level modeling framework is proposed to provide discriminatory evidence for one of these theories. Following a description of the research on the NoGo-N2, preliminary data supporting the conflict monitoring theory are presented, noting important limitations. Next, an EEG simulation study is presented in which NoGo-N2 data are generated with a known relationship to fabricated reaction time data, showing that, with added levels of complexity and noise within the data, the MLM approach is consistently successful at extracting the known relationships that occur in real NoGo-N2 data. Next, using independent components analysis (ICA) to extract spatiotemporal components that best represent the signal of interest, a well-powered analysis of the relationship between the NoGo-N2 and response accuracy is used to provide strong discriminatory evidence for the conflict monitoring theory of the NoGo-N2. Finally, implications for the NoGo-N2, as well as all ERP components, are discussed with a focus on how this approach can and should be used. the paper concludes with potential expansions of this approach to areas beyond identifying the function of ERP components. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2019

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Automação). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009

The recognition accuracy of emotion in faces varies depending on the discrete emotion being expressed and the location of the stimulus. More specifically, emotion detection performance declines as facial stimuli are presented further out in the periphery. Interestingly, this is not always true for faces depicting happy emotional expressions, which can be associated with maintained levels of detection. The current study examined neurophysiological responses to emotional face discrimination in the periphery. Two event-related potentials (ERPs) that can be sensitive to the perception of emotion in faces, P1 and N170, were examined using EEG data recorded from electrodes at occipitotemporal sites on the scalp. Participants saw a face presented at a 0° angle of eccentricity, at a 10° angle of eccentricity, or at a 20° angle of eccentricity, and responded whether the face was a specific emotion or neutral. Results showed that emotion detection was higher when faces were presented at the center of the display than at 10° or 20° for both happy and angry expressions. Likewise, the voltage amplitude of the N170 component was greater when faces were presented at the center of the display than at 10° or 20°. Further exploration of the data revealed that high intensity expressions were more easily detected at each location and elicited a larger amplitude N170 than low intensity expressions for both emotions. For a peripheral emotion discrimination task like that which was employed in the current study, emotion cues seem to enhance face processing at peripheral locations.

In an increasingly transparent and rapidly changing market customer demands needs to be satisfied in a more customized approach, while the rate of change in the business sector continues to increase. The relationship between technology and competition has been strengthened where technology represents great opportunities to achieve and maintain competitive advantages. Correct investment calculations can be crucial for enterprises, where unsuccessful investments within internal elements can lead to critical consequences. Despite the large investment required to implement an ERP system and the long implementation time, few enterprises remain within the budget and time frame. SME are exposed to greater financial risks where access to knowledge and resources are limited. The study aims to investigate the hidden costs that may exist when implementing an ERP system, which has been achieved using a qualitative method. Through interviews with enterprises and system suppliers, primary data has been collected and analyzed based upon the theoretical framework. The study results in the factors of precision, education and external integration as important aspects to consider when implementing ERP system.

User resistance is an important issue in the implementation of an Enterprise System (ES). However, despite the prevalence of user adoption literature, user resistance literature is scarce. Although some studies have conceptualized user resistance as the opposite of user adoption, a mandatory, role-transforming system such as an ES clearly shows that users may use a system while resisting it. Although this area is highly relevant, it is theoretically underdeveloped. This study examines user resistance at the individual level of analysis to determine the underlying reasons for user resistance, the types of resistant behaviors, and the management strategies to minimize resistance. It also seeks to understand the types of users that exist during an implementation and in particular, the groups of resisters. This dissertation identifies four categories of reasons for user resistance, which comprise a total of twelve reasons for user resistance. Resistant behaviors are also identified and classified. Three categories of management strategies are also identified, comprising a total of eight management strategies that are useful in minimizing user resistance. Groups of ES users are also described and examined.

Denna studie har gjorts hos företaget Monitor ERP System AB, som utvecklar och säljer ett affärssystem. Till affärssystemet har Monitor utvecklat ett e-handelssystem som är integrerat med affärssystemet. Artiklar i Monitor kan göras synliga som produkter i webbshopen som skapas med hjälp av e-handelssystemet och order som läggs på webbshopen läggs automatiskt till i affärssystemet. Ett antal av Monitors kunder, som bedriver försäljning mot slutkunder (privatpersoner) använder inte Monitors webbshop, utan vill istället kunna integrera affärssystemet med ett tredjeparts e-handelssystem. I studien undersöks varför kunderna använder sig av en tredjepartslösning framför Monitors webbshop genom intervjuer med några av Monitors kunder. Svaren från intervjuerna utgjorde underlag till en integrationslösning av Monitors affärssystem och en tredjeparts en-handelssystem. Ett e-handelssystem som flera av kunderna var intresserade av var WooCommerce som är ett tillägg till innehållshanteringssystemet WordPress. Ett tillägg till WooCommerce har skapats som skickar order till Monitors affärssystem. För att ta emot ordern har en REST-webbtjänst utvecklats som, efter att ta emot ordern, skapar en order i Monitors affärssystem via Monitors REST API. / The following study has been performed in association with Monitor ERP System AB, a company that develops an enterprise resource planning system (ERP). Monitor has developed an e-commerce system which is integrated with the ERP system so that articles in the ERP system can be sold from a web shop. When an order is placed in the web shop it is automatically added in the ERP system. A number of Monitor’s customers want to integrate the ERP system with a third-part e-commerce system instead of using the one developed by Monitor for B2C (business to customer) sales. In the study, the reasons for this is examined and a prototype and conceptual integration model is developed. Interviews with the customers have been performed that has shown that they consider the content management in Monitor’s e-commerce system far too limited. An e-commerce system that they showed interest in was WooCommerce which is a plugin for WordPress. It is for WooCommerce that the prototype and integration model has been created. A plugin for WooCommerce has been written that sends orders to the ERP system. To receive the order, a REST service has been developed that receives the order and creates it in the ERP system by using Monitor’s REST API.

The value of information technology investments is becoming a topical issue for corporate governance under the recent regulations enacted in the US (Sarbanes Oxley Act, US Congress, 2002). Increasingly, it is becoming clear that the absence of a definitive approach to evaluating IT investments is an impediment to the governance of corporations. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems are a key IT implementation that has been promoted in both vendor and practitioner communities alike as a panacea for informed enterprise performance management. This research sets out a methodology for the evaluation of ERP’s contribution to enterprise value. This issue is important because billions of dollars of corporate funds have been invested in these systems since the early 1990s. Shareholders and management require a justification of ERP based upon its proven contribution to enterprise and shareholder value.The study develops a theory for the value relevance of ERP information by showing how ERP meets the requirement of a management and organizational innovation. Such an innovation promotes enterprise operations, improves enterprise performance, supports value creation, and increases shareholder wealth. A model is presented for testing the value of ERP adoption. Empirical testing proceeds in two phases. The first phase develops a model for forecasting normal performance. Performance is shown to be a function of autoregressive earnings moderated by macroeconomic factors impacting operations. The latter are associated with the business cycle. The estimated coefficients of the model are used for predicting the earnings performance of the firm. The residuals of actual earnings less the predicted represent abnormal performance. This represents the unique improvement in performance over the prior year after adjusting for macroeconomic effects. The second phase tests the value relevance of ERP information. A returns–earnings model developed by previous research is adapted with ERP–earnings interaction terms representing the ERP system’s effect on performance. Two classes of tests are performed on the model: tests of performance relevance of ERP systems, and tests of value relevance. The former tests ERP performance across several accounting metrics identified as indicators of firm performance level change. The latter tests the market response to these changes in a bid to determine if, in the perception of the market, the changes in the performance level attained to by the firm are associated with ERP adoption. These tests are performed for each year of a 5–year period following adoption. The results of the tests of performance relevance show that ERP–adopter firms do not achieve significant abnormal earnings in years 1 and 2 of the test period. They realize significant, negative, abnormal earnings in year 3. In years 4 and 5, they attain significant, positive, abnormal earnings. The tests of value relevance show that the market responds significantly to ERP adoption in year 2 of the test, but not in other years. The early response immediately after the year of adoption would seem to indicate a significant early expectation from these systems. However, this does appear to translate into long–term value relevance for ERP.

SUMMARY Introduction: There has recently been a great deal of interest in the role of synchronous high-frequency gamma oscillations in brain function. This interest has been motivated by an increasing body of evidence, that oscillations which are synchronous in phase across separated neuronal populations, may represent an important mechanism by which the brain binds or integrates spatially distributed processing activity which is related to the same object. Many models of schizophrenia suggest an impairment in the integration of brain processing, such as a loosening of associations, disconnection, defective multiple constraint organization, or cognitive dysmetria. This has led to recent speculation that abnormalities of high-frequency gamma synchronization may reflect a core dimension of the disturbance underlying this disorder. However, examination of the phase synchronization of gamma oscillations in patients with schizophrenia has never been previously undertaken. Method: In this thesis a new method of analysis of gamma synchrony was introduced, which enables the phase relationships of oscillations in a specific frequency band to be examined across multiple scalp sites as a function of time. This enabled, for the first time, the phase synchronization of gamma oscillations across widespread regions, to be studied in electrical brain activity measured at the scalp in humans. Gamma synchrony responses were studied in electroencephalographic (EEG) data acquired during a commonly employed conventional auditory oddball paradigm. The research consisted of two sets of experiments. In the first set of experiments, data from 100 normal subjects, consisting of 10 males and 10 females in each age decade from 20 to 70, was examined. These experiments were designed to characterize the gamma synchonizations that occurred in response to target and background stimuli and their functional significance in normal brain activity, and to exclude the possibility of these findings being due to electromyogram (EMG) or volume conduction artifact. The examination of functional significance involved the development of an additional new analysis technique. In the second set of experiments, data acquired from 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 matched normal controls was analyzed. The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether patients showed disturbances of gamma synchrony compared to controls, and to establish the relationship of any such disturbances to medication levels, symptom profiles, duration of illness, and a range of psychophysiological variables. Results: In the 100 normals, responses to target stimuli were characterized by two bursts of synchronous gamma oscillations, an early (evoked) and a late (induced) synchronization, with different topographic distributions. Only the early gamma synchronization was seen in response to background stimuli. The main variable modulating the magnitude of these gamma synchronizations from epoch to epoch was pre-stimulus EEG theta (3-7 Hz) and delta (1-3 Hz) power. Early and late gamma synchrony were also associated with N1 and P3 ERP component amplitude across epochs. Across subjects, the early gamma synchronization was associated with shorter latency of the ERP components P2, N2 and P3, smaller amplitude of N1 and P2, and smaller pre-stimulus beta power. The control analyses showed that these gamma responses were specific to a narrow frequency range (37 to 41 Hz), and were not present in adjacent frequency bands. The responses were not generated by EMG contamination or volume conduction. In the 35 patients with schizophrenia, significant abnormalities of both the early and late synchronizations were observed compared to the 35 normal controls, with distinctive topographic characteristics. In general, early gamma synchrony was increased in patients compared to controls, and late gamma synchrony was decreased. These gamma synchrony disturbances were not related to medication level or the four summed symptom profile scores (positive, negative, general and total). They were, however, associated with duration of illness, becoming less severe the longer the patient had suffered from the disorder. The disordered gamma synchrony in patients was not secondary to abnormalities in other psychophysiological variables, but appeared to represent a primary disturbance. Discussion: The early synchronization may relate to the binding of object representations in early sensory processing, or, given that a constant inter-stimulus interval was employed, may be anticipatory and related to active memory. The late response is probably involved in binding in relation to activation of the internal contextual model involved in late expectancy/contextual processing (context updating or context closure) for target stimuli. The across epochs effects may relate to whether the focus of attention immediately prior to stimulus presentation is internal or is directed at the task. The across subjects effects suggest that a larger magnitude of the early gamma synchronization might indicate that the subject maintains a more stable and less ambiguous internal representation of the environment, that reduces the complexity of input and facilitates target/background discrimination and subsequent processing. The early gamma synchronization findings in patients with schizophrenia suggest that anticipatory processing involving active memory and forward-prediction of the environment is subject to over-binding or the formation of inappropriate associations. The late synchronization disturbances may reflect a fragmentation of contextual processing, and an inability to maintain contextual models of the environment intact over time. Conclusion: This research demonstrates the potential importance of integrative network activity as indexed by gamma phase synchrony in relation to normal cognition, and the possible broad relevance of such activity in psychiatric disorders. In particular, the application in this study to patients with schizophrenia showed that an impairment of brain integrative activity (missing links) might be a key feature of this illness.