Conventionally, the focus during supplier evaluation has been to assess cost, quality and delivery effectiveness due to their impact on profitability. In recent years, there has been increased emphasis on promoting more sustainable business practices that focus on reducing environmental impact and improve societal well-being, in addition to economic benefits. However, most of the existing supplier evaluation methods in literature as well as those used by leading companies fall short of comprehensively assessing suppliers from a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) perspective. TBL defined as holistically looking at the economic, environmental, and societal aspects of an entity. This paper presents a review and selection of metrics for economic, environmental and societal sustainability evaluation. In addition, this work proposes a methodology for combining the scores into a comprehensive score that can be used to compare two entities performance relative to the TBL.

<p>The dissertation is an ethnographic study of the role of monitoring standards on democratic governance reform in El Salvador since the 1992 end of a 12-year civil war. The study looks at the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation models for rule of law, citizen participation and accountability reforms, in order to understand the impact of standards on the local adaptation and global circulation of democratic reform programs. Through practices of standardization, law and technology together construct the expertise that democratic institutions increasingly require for political participation. The legacy of democratic reform in El Salvador is particularly important because the country served as a laboratory and poster-child for democratization models most recently applied to U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p><p>In-depth qualitative study of the development and use of monitoring standards reveals a formalization of ways of producing and contesting knowledge deemed crucial for political communities - be they rural hamlets or national economic sectors. As with any institutional form, certain political possibilities are enabled while others are marginalized or constrained. However, beside the establishment of dominant frameworks for knowing about social realities and participating in decision-making governing those realities, monitoring standards provide means for the mobilization and advocacy of alternative perspectives and agendas. The dissertation presents a historical account of the institutionalization of monitoring standards that have become typical components of what international agencies promote as democratic governance. Ethnographic accounts of how these standards circulate and are used by governments, NGOs, citizens and social movements illustrate their ubiquity, flexibility and dynamism - from municipal finance and state decentralization, to human rights struggles over water privatization, mining, crime and pharmaceuticals. Research conducted before, during and after the 2009 election of the leftist FMLN party to the presidency captures shifts in the use of monitoring standards as social movement activists move into government.</p> / Dissertation

Informational privacy of individuals has significantly gained importance after information technology has become widely deployed. Data, once digitalised, can be copied, distributed, and long-term stored at negligible costs. This has dramatic consequences for individuals that leave traces in the form of personal data whenever they interact with information technology, for instance, computers and phones; or even when information technology is recording the personal data of aware or unaware individuals. The right of individuals for informational privacy, in particular to control the flow and use of their personal data, is easily undermined by those controlling the information technology. The objective of this thesis is to study the measurement of informational privacy with a particular focus on scenarios where an individual discloses personal data to a second party which uses this data for re-identifying the individual within a set of other individuals. We contribute with privacy metrics for several instances of this scenario in the publications included in this thesis, most notably one which adds a time dimension to the scenario for modelling the effects of the time passed between data disclosure and usage. The result is a new framework for inter-temporal privacy metrics.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur Sveriges kommuner förhåller sig till hållbarhetsmått. Vi ska studera vilka hållbarhetsmått som rapporteras samt vad som påverkar användningen av dessa hållbarhetsmått. Metod: Vi har använt oss av en enkätundersökning som skickats ut per mail för att samla in vårt empiriska underlag. Vi har sedan analyserat underlaget med hjälp av programmet IBM SPSS Statistics 22 för att sedan redovisa våra resultat i form av tabeller och löpande text. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Resultatet av vår studie visar att kommuner rapporterar hållbarhetsmått i genomsnitt i viss till måttlig utsträckning. Den visar även att kommuner med drivande kommunledning tenderar att rapportera och använda hållbarhetsmått i större utsträckning än andra kommuner. Den pekar också på att antal miljöprojekt som kommunen bedriver samt om kommunen låter sig inspireras av andra kommuner även påverkar utsträckningen av rapporteringen och användningen av hållbarhetsmåtten. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vårt förslag till fortsatt forskning är att göra en mer ingående analys av Sveriges kommuners hållbarhetsredovisning då vi på grund av tidsbegränsning inte kunnat göra någon mer ingående analys. Vidare forskning kan granska vilka effekter den bristande hållbarhetsredovisningen i många kommuner orsakar. Uppsatsens bidrag: Vår undersökning bidrar till nya insikter om hur Sveriges kommuner hållbarhetsredovisar. Vi belyser vilka hållbarhetsmått som kommunerna rapporterar samt vad som påverkar rapporteringen och användningen av hållbarhetsmåtten.

In recent work, N. Hitchin described special geometries in terms of a variational problem for closed generic $p$-forms. In particular, he introduced on 8-manifolds the notion of an integrable $PSU(3)$-structure which is defined by a closed and co-closed 3-form. In this thesis, we first investigate this $PSU(3)$-geometry further. We give necessary conditions for the existence of a topological $PSU(3)$-structure (that is, a reduction of the structure group to $PSU(3)$ acting through its adjoint representation). We derive various obstructions for the existence of a topological reduction to $PSU(3)$. For compact manifolds, we also find sufficient conditions if the $PSU(3)$-structure lifts to an $SU(3)$-structure. We find non-trivial, (compact) examples of integrable $PSU(3)$-structures. Moreover, we give a Riemannian characterisation of topological $PSU(3)$-structures through an invariant spinor valued 1-form and show that the $PSU(3)$-structure is integrable if and only if the spinor valued 1-form is harmonic with respect to the twisted Dirac operator. Secondly, we define new generalisations of integrable $G_2$- and $Spin(7)$-manifolds which can be transformed by the action of both diffeomorphisms and 2-forms. These are defined by special closed even or odd forms. Contraction on the vector bundle $Toplus T^*$ defines an inner product of signature $(n,n)$, and even or odd forms can then be naturally interpreted as spinors for a spin structure on $Toplus T^*$. As such, the special forms we consider induce reductions from $Spin(7,7)$ or $Spin(8,8)$ to a stabiliser subgroup conjugate to $G_2 times G_2$ or $Spin(7) times Spin(7)$. They also induce a natural Riemannian metric for which we can choose a spin structure. Again we state necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of such a reduction by means of spinors for a spin structure on $T$. We classify topological $G_2 times G_2$-structures up to vertical homotopy. Forms stabilised by $G_2 times G_2$ are generic and an integrable structure arises as the critical point of a generalised variational principle. We prove that the integrability conditions on forms imply the existence of two linear metric connections whose torsion is skew, closed and adds to 0. In particular we show these integrability conditions to be equivalent to the supersymmetry equations on spinors in supergravity theory of type IIA/B with NS-NS background fields. We explicitly determine the Ricci-tensor and show that over compact manifolds, only trivial solutions exist. Using the variational approach we derive weaker integrability conditions analogous to weak holonomy $G_2$. Examples of generalised $G_2$- and $Spin(7)$ structures are constructed by the device of T-duality.

This Dissertation covers three aspects of General Relativity: inequivalent Einstein metrics on Lie Group Manifolds, proving the Hoop Conjecture for Black Rings, and investigating ergoregions in magnetised black hole spacetimes. A number of analytical and numerical techniques are employed to that end. It is known that every compact simple Lie Group admits a bi-invariant homogeneous Einstein metric. We use two ansatze to probe the existence of additional inequivalent Einstein metrics on the Lie Group SU (n). We provide an explicit construction of 2k + 1 and 2k inequivalent Einstein metrics on SU (2k) and SU (2k + 1) respectively. We prove the Hoop Conjecture for neutral and charged, singly and doubly rotating black rings. This allows one to determine whether a rotating mass distribution has an event horizon, that it is in fact a black ring. We investigate ergoregions in magnetised black hole spacetimes. We show that, in general, rotating charged black holes (Kerr-Newman) immersed in an external magnetic field have ergoregions that extend to infinity near the central axis unless we restrict the charge to q = amB and keep B below a maximal value. Additionally, we show that as B is increased from zero the ergoregion adjacent to the event horizon shrinks, vanishing altogether at a critical value, before reappearing and growing until it is no longer bounded as B becomes greater than the maximal value.

Since its introduction in 2004, the Structural Similarity (SSIM) index has gained widespread popularity as an image quality assessment measure. SSIM is currently recognized to be one of the most powerful methods of assessing the visual closeness of images. That being said, the Mean Squared Error (MSE), which performs very poorly from a perceptual point of view, still remains the most common optimization criterion in image processing applications because of its relative simplicity along with a number of other properties that are deemed important. In this thesis, some necessary tools to assist in the design of SSIM-optimal algorithms are developed. This work combines theoretical developments with experimental research and practical algorithms. The description of the mathematical properties of the SSIM index represents the principal theoretical achievement in this thesis. Indeed, it is demonstrated how the SSIM index can be transformed into a distance metric. Local convexity, quasi-convexity, symmetries and invariance properties are also proved. The study of the SSIM index is also generalized to a family of metrics called normalized (or M-relative) metrics. Various analytical techniques for different kinds of SSIM-based optimization are then devised. For example, the best approximation according to the SSIM is described for orthogonal and redundant basis sets. SSIM-geodesic paths with arclength parameterization are also traced between images. Finally, formulas for SSIM-optimal point estimators are obtained. On the experimental side of the research, the structural self-similarity of images is studied. This leads to the confirmation of the hypothesis that the main source of self-similarity of images lies in their regions of low variance. On the practical side, an implementation of local statistical tests on the image residual is proposed for the assessment of denoised images. Also, heuristic estimations of the SSIM index and the MSE are developed. The research performed in this thesis should lead to the development of state-of-the-art image denoising algorithms. A better comprehension of the mathematical properties of the SSIM index represents another step toward the replacement of the MSE with SSIM in image processing applications.

In this thesis, firstly the original G&ouml / del&#039 / s metric is examined in detail. Then a more general class of G&ouml / del-type metrics is introduced. It is shown that they are the solutions of Einstein field equations with a physically acceptable matter distribution provided that some conditions are satisfied. Lastly, some examples of the G&ouml / del-type metrics are given.

This thesis analyzes fundamental estimation filters &ndash / Alpha-Beta Filter, Alpha-Beta-Gamma Filter, Constant Velocity (CV) Kalman Filter, Constant Acceleration (CA) Kalman Filter, Extended Kalman Filter, 2-model Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) Filter and 3-model IMM with respect to their resource requirements and performance. In resource requirement part, fundamental estimation filters are compared according to their CPU usage, memory needs and complexity. The best fundamental estimation filter which needs very low resources is the Alpha-Beta-Filter. In performance evaluation part of this thesis, performance metrics used are: Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE), Average Euclidean Error (AEE), Geometric Average Error (GAE) and normalized form of these. The normalized form of performance metrics makes measure of error independent of range and the length of trajectory. Fundamental estimation filters and performance metrics are implemented in MATLAB. MONTE CARLO simulation method and 6 different air trajectories are used for testing. Test results show that performance of fundamental estimation filters varies according to trajectory and target dynamics used in constructing the filter. Consequently, filter performance is application-dependent. Therefore, before choosing an estimation filter, most probable target dynamics, hardware resources and acceptable error level should be investigated. An estimation filter which matches these requirements will be &lsquo / the best estimation filter&rsquo / .

19 Dec 2004. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "IS-T 2359" Dongping Xu. 12/19/2004. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.