<p>Routers are probably the most important component of a NoC, as the performance of the whole network is driven by the routers’ performance. Cost for the whole network in terms of area will also be minimised if the router design is kept small. A new application specific processor architecture for implementing NoC routers is proposed in this master thesis, which will be called µNP (Micro-Network Processor). The aim is to offer a solution in which there is a trade-off between the high performance of routers implemented in hardware and the high level of flexibility that could be achieved by loading a software that routed packets into a GPP. Therefore, a study including the design of a hardware based router and a GPP based router has been conducted. In this project the first version of the µNP has been designed and a complete instruction set, along with some sample programs, is also proposed. The results show that, in the best case for all implementation options, µNP was 7.5 times slower than the hardware based router. It has also behaved more than 100 times faster than the GPP based router, keeping almost the same degree of flexibility for routing purposes within NoC.</p>

Early breast cancer in women is best identified through high quality mammographic screening. This is achieved by well trained health professionals and appropriate imaging. Traditionally this has used X-ray film but is rapidly changing to utilise digital imaging with the resultant mammograms visually examined on high resolution clinical workstations. These digital images can also be viewed on a range of display devices, such as standard computer monitors or PDAs. In this thesis the potential of using such non-clinical workstation display devices for training purposes in breast screening has been investigated. The research introduces and reviews breast screening both in the UK and internationally where it concentrates upon China which is beginning screening. Various imaging technologies used to examine the breast are described, concentrating upon the move from using X-ray film to digital mammograms. Training in screening in the UK is detailed and it is argued that there is a need to extend this. Initially, a national survey of all UK mammography screeners within the National Health Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) was undertaken. This highlighted the current main difficulties of mammographic (film) interpretation training being tied to the device for inspecting these images. The screeners perceived the need for future digital imaging training that could be outside the breast screening centre; namely 3W training (Whatever training required, Whenever and Wherever). This is largely because the clinical workstations would logistically not be available for training purposes due to the daily screening demand. Whilst these workstations must be used for screening and diagnostic purposes to allow visualisation of very small detail in the images, it is argued here that training to identify such features can be undertaken on other devices where there is not the time constraints that exist during breast screening. A series of small pilot studies were then undertaken, trialling experienced radiologists with potential displays (PDAs and laptops) for mammographic image examination. These studies demonstrated that even on a PDA small mammographic features could be identified, albeit with difficulty, even with a very limited HCI manipulation tool. For training purposes the laptop, studied here with no HCI tool, was supported. Such promising results of display acceptability led to an investigation of mammographic inspection on displays of various sizes and resolutions. This study employed radiography students, potentially eventual screeners, who were eye tracked as they examined images on various sized displays. This showed that it could be possible to use a small PDA to deliver training. A detailed study then investigated whether aspects of an expert radiologist s visual inspection behaviour could be used to develop various training approaches. Four approaches were developed and examined using naïve observers who were eye tracked as they were trained and tested. The approaches were found to be all feasible to implement but of variable usefulness for delivering mammographic interpretation training; this was confirmed by opinions from a focus group of screeners. On the basis of the previous studies, over a period of eight months, a large scale study involving 15 film readers from major breast screening centres was conducted where they examined series of digital mammograms on a clinical workstation, monitor and an iPhone. Overall results on individuals performance, image manipulation behaviour and visual search data indicated that a standard monitor could be employed successfully as an alternative for the digital workstation to deliver on-demand mammographic interpretation training using the full mammographic case images. The small iPhone, elicited poor performance, and was therefore judged not suitable for delivering training with the software employed here. However, future software developments may well overcome its shortcomings. The potential to implement training in China was examined by studying the current skill level of some practicing radiologists and an examination of how they responded to the developed training approaches. Results suggest that such an approach would be also applicable in other countries with different levels of screening skills. On-going further work is also discussed: the improvement of performance evaluation in mammography; new visual research on other breast imaging modalities and using visual search with computer aided detection to assist mammographic interpretation training.

Performance management, which is a core element of the New Public Management (NPM), has maintained its significance both in academic and practical perspectives for many scholars and governments, although enthusiasm for the NPM has waned since the late 1990s. There have been debates on the universality of the NPM, and the divergence argument regards the practices and trajectories of specific reforms as being shaped by the different characteristics of politico-administrative and cultural systems. Through the comparative study of performance management based on the case studies in the UK and South Korea, this thesis demonstrates that the processes of a NPM-type reform can be similar in spite of differences of politico-administrative and cultural characteristics. It examines performance management systems in the two countries in terms of the speed and nature of reform, resistance to reform, use of performance information and importance as a control mechanism. The comparison is also useful for lesson-drawing for the improvement of current systems. This research has been conducted by undertaking a wide literature review, including journal articles and government papers, and by conducting semi-structured interviews. To undertake analysis and comparison of performance management systems, the thesis looks at the Public Service Agreements (PSAs) in the UK and the Government Performance Evaluation (GPE), Financial Performance Management System (FPMS) and Performance Agreements in Korea. Case studies have been carried out with the Department of Health in the UK and the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs in Korea. The PSA system has problems generated by excessive central control and lack of participation of professionals and front-line staff. In Korea all three performance management systems are based on evaluation. Departments used evaluation as a tool of exercising control, which resulted in duplication of evaluation and excessive bureaucracy. Focus on the process-oriented evaluation has undermined the value of the systems for improving public services. Whilst the two countries display differences in the fundamental approach to performance management, there are similarities in the detailed practices and trajectories in the operation of the systems. The reason for these similarities may be attributed to the strong leadership of top politicians in both countries.

Dans le domaine des évaluations des performances des élèves en fin de scolarité obligatoire, et à côté des traditionnelles évaluations scolaires, s’est développé le Programme International pour le Suivi des Acquis (PISA), harmonisé par l’Organisation de Coopération et de Développements Économiques (l’OCDE). Ce programme a atteint une grande notoriété internationale et tente de s’imposer comme programme qui évalue les compétences des élèves. Ce mémoire explore dans quelle mesure les évaluations PISA permettent de prédire les performances scolaires des élèves lors de la transition de la fin des études secondaires vers les études collégiales au Québec. Nous avons construit une variable mesurant l’évolution des performances scolaires entre le secondaire et le Cégep. Nos résultats tendent à confirmer que les évaluations PISA sont en mesure de prédire en partie la continuité des bonnes performances scolaires après contrôle des variables contextuelles des parcours de vie. Cependant, les évaluations scolaires antérieures expliquent mieux cette continuité des bonnes performances scolaires réalisées en première année de postsecondaire que les évaluations PISA. Néanmoins, toujours après contrôle des variables contextuelles, les évaluations scolaires antérieures ne sont pas capables de prédire la différence entre des performances scolaires faibles et fortes lors de la transition secondaire-collégial. Seules les évaluations PISA conservent une faible part pour expliquer ces différences. / In order to assess international student performance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed academic assessments, and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for students reaching the end of the compulsory schooling. This program has achieved international reknown and is intended to become a key program for assessing student performance in skills necessary for success in life. This research presented here explores in to what degree the PISA is capable of predicting academic success of students who are moving into postsecondary studies in the province of Quebec. We have defined a variable allowing us to predict performance results for students as they transition from high school to Cégep. Our results tend to confirm that the PISA assessments are able to predict in part the continuation of good grades in school when variables related to student life are controlled for. However, an even better indicator than PISA assessments is the earlier grades, which explain the grades earned in the first year of postsecondary studies. However, after controlling for some environmental variables, the early grades are not able to predict the difference between low and high scores during the transition. Only the PISA assessments preserve a low part to predict a decline in school performance for those making the transition to postsecondary studies.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to find the organizational practices in place for the performance evaluation of temporary employees and how that varies from permanent employees. Method – The study takes an inductive and interpretive approach to find out the unknown practices. The study is conducted over 7 respondents from different organizations split between recruitment agencies and client organizations and represents practices maintained by both set of industries. Findings – The study identifies low standardization in performance evaluation and discusses the variance from literature over the subject matter. Also a model is drawn based on the amalgamation of literary review and empirical results. Implications – The study presents variance in the processes for temporary employees and the prime areas where the variance occurs. For the organizations to have fair and just performance management system and for equality towards temporary employees, these issues must be addressed. Limitations – Cultural practices are not taken into consideration and literature might be based on different cultural practices than the respondents country and for a wholesome study, more respondents might be needed.

The successful delivery of low-carbon housing (both new and retrofitted) is a key aspect of the UK s commitment to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. In this context, the inclusion of small-scale building-integrated renewable energy technologies is an important component of low carbon design strategies, and is subject to numerous regulation and incentive schemes (including the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)) set up by government to encourage uptake and set minimum performance benchmarks. Unfortunately there are numerous examples of in-use energy and carbon performance shortfalls for new and retrofitted buildings this is termed the performance gap . Technical and human factors associated with building subsystem performance, which are often not considered in design tools used to predict performance, are the root cause of performance uncertainty. The research presented in this doctoral thesis aims to develop and apply a novel probabilistic method of evaluating the performance uncertainty of solar thermal systems installed in the UK. Analysis of measured data from a group of low carbon retrofitted dwellings revealed that the majority of buildings failed to meet the designed-for carbon emissions target with an average percentage difference of 60%. An in-depth case study technical evaluation of one of these dwellings showed significant dysfunction associated with the combined ASHP/solar thermal heating system, resulting in a performance gap of 94%, illustrating that the performance gap can be regarded as a whole-system problem, comprising a number of subsystem causal factors. Using a detailed dataset obtained from the UK s largest field trial of domestic solar thermal systems, a cross-cutting evaluation of predicted vs. measured performance similarly revealed a discrepancy with a mean percentage difference in predicted and measured annual yield of -24%. Having defined the nature and extent of underperformance for solar thermal technology in the UK, causal factors influencing performance were mapped and the associated uncertainty quantified using a novel knowledge-based Bayesian network (BN). In addition, the BN approach along with Monte Carlo sampling was applied to the well-established BREDEM model in order to quantify performance uncertainty of solar thermal systems by producing distributions of annual yield. As such, the modified BN-based BREDEM model represents a significant improvement in the prediction of performance of small-scale renewable energy technologies. Finally, financial analysis applied to the probabilistic predictions of annual yield revealed that the current UK RHI scheme is unlikely to result in positive returns on investment for solar thermal systems unless the duration of the payments is extended or electricity is the primary source of heating.

[pt] Este trabalho teve como principal objetivo o estudo da indústria automobilística brasileira, relacionando o posicionamento estratégico competitivo das empresas com a formação de grupos estratégicos e o desempenho dos mesmos. O período estudado compreende os anos de 2001 a 2006, a amostra foi formada por 20 empresas ligadas à Abeiva - Associação Brasileira de Importadores Veículos Automotores - e à Anfavea - Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores, e a análise foi baseada na tipologia de Porter. Os resultados demonstraram que empresas que apresentam melhores desempenhos são as que optaram por uma das estratégias genéricas propostas por Porter, no caso a de Diferenciação; as empresas que obtiveram os piores resultados foram as que não apresentaram estratégia definida (stuck-in-the-middle). / [en] This research aims to study the Brazilian automobile industry, relating the strategic positioning of the companies with the formation of strategic groups and their performances. The studied period started in 2001 and ended in 2006 and the sample was formed by 20 associated companies from Abeiva - the Brazilian Importers Association of Automotive Vehicles and the Anfavea - the National Association of Automotive Vehicles. The study was based on the Porter`s typology and the findings showed that the best performances companies are those that applied the generic strategy of Differentiation, moreover, the companies who had gotten the worse result had been the ones who had not presented a well-defined strategy (stuck-in-the-middle).

A fronteira entre as áreas de negócios e as de tecnologia de informação (TI) vai deixando de existir e isso exige competências de gestão, baseadas em novos conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes de liderança, que extrapolam as questões técnicas. A literatura disponível discute quais são as competências críticas de forma isolada, não as relaciona com a competitividade das empresas e não analisa o desempenho dos gestores em cada uma das competências consideradas críticas. Com o objetivo de compreender quais são as competências críticas de gestão em TI e qual é o desempenho dos gestores nessas competências, foi efetuada, neste estudo, uma revisão da teoria, a fim de elaborar um modelo de avaliação de desempenho e avaliar 149 gestores de TI. Essa avaliação foi baseada em 22 competências de gestão, organizadas em cinco áreas: gestão da estratégia de TI, gestão da inovação e tecnologia, gestão do valor da TI, gestão das equipes de TI e gestão do desempenho da TI. Na análise dos dados foram testadas dez hipóteses de pesquisa sobre as prioridades e o desempenho dos gestores de TI para poder analisar se há variação em função de fatores externos ligados ao negócio (orientação competitiva, segmento de mercado e porte do negócio) e de fatores internos (processos e funções exercidas em TI). Com base nos resultados, foi possível constatar que os fatores internos, mais que os externos, influenciam o desempenho dos gestores de TI, principalmente dependendo da função por ele ocupada dentro da organização de TI. As avaliações de competências dos gestores de infraestrutura foram superiores aos gestores de desenvolvimento e na escolha de prioridades, um maior número de gestores de infraestrutura elegeu a gestão da inovação e a gestão do valor como prioridade para o negócio. / The frontier between business and technology is reducing with technologies advance and it is requiring management competencies, based on new knowledge, skills and attitudes of leadership that go beyond technical issues. The literature discusses which competencies are critical, but it is not taking in count the business competitiveness and also does not analyzes the managers performance in each critical competency. Aiming to understand which competencies are critical in IT management and how is the performance of managers on these competencies, in this study has been conducted a theory review in order to develop a performance evaluation model and evaluate 149 IT managers based on 22 management competencies, which were organized in five areas: IT strategy management, innovation and technology management, IT value management, IT team management and IT performance management. In data analysis were tested ten research hypotheses about the priorities and performance of IT managers in order to conclude whether there is performance variation due to external factors related to the business (competitive orientation, market segment and company size) and internal factors (processes and functions in IT) that can influence the performance evaluations based on management competencies. Based on the results, it was found that the internal factors rather than external ones, influence the performance of managers, mainly depending on the role they have within the IT organization. The Competencies evaluations of IT infrastructure managers were higher than systems development managers and also most of them chose innovation management and value management as a business priority.

O armazenamento de arquivos e dados está seguindo um paradigma de mudança para a Internet utilizando a nuvem. Porém, este processo ainda gera algumas dúvidas em relação à segurança e a disponibilidade dos arquivos. Este projeto de mestrado propõe criar uma camada de abstração entre diversos servidores de armazenamento público, sem infraestrutura adicional, e possibilitar ao usuário comum um método de armazenamento distribuído, com maior redundância e segurança se comparada às abordagens atuais de armazenamento. Outro aspecto importante deste projeto foi criar uma ferramenta que seja flexível o suficiente para ser fácil de ser utilizada por outros pesquisadores para avaliar novas técnicas de armazenamento e seleção automática de estratégias de dispersão. Este projeto foi feito utilizando conceitos de dispersão de arquivos e de mecanismos de seleção automática utilizando atributos de QoS. A primeira contribuição foi um protótipo denominado FlexSky que implementa os mecanismos de dispersão utilizados. Devido a quantidade grande de parâmetros para se escolher no processo de dispersão, foi necessário desenvolver um mecanismo que reduzisse a quantidade de parâmetros para que um usuário comum consiga utilizar a ferramenta. Este mecanismo foi a segunda contribuição (MSSF), no qual foi criado um modelo baseado em otimização linear inteira para realizar a seleção automática de estratégias de armazenamento multinuvem. Para se avaliar as contribuições foram propostos testes qualitativos de usabilidade da ferramenta e teste quantitativos de desempenho dos processos da ferramenta. Os resultados sugerem que a ferramenta FlexSky facilitou o estudo destes mecanismos de dispersão e possibilita uma avaliação de desempenho deles. Jà o MSSF consegue a partir de atributos de QoS escolher uma estratégia ótima que maximize os parâmetros desejados do processo de dispersão para diversos casos considerando diferentes quantidades de módulos e de provedores. / Data and file storage is moving to the Internet using the cloud approach. However, this process still creates issues related to security and availability. This project creates an abstraction layer among several public storage servers, without the need for additional infrastructure, enabling regular users to use a distributed storage method with increased redundancy and security comparing to current techniques. Another important aspect of this project was to create a tool flexible enough to be easy for other researchers to evaluate new dispersal techniques. The first contribution was a prototype named FlexSky, which implements the studied dispersal mechanisms. Due to the big amount of parameters to choose from during the dispersal process, it was needed to develop a mechanism to reduce the amount of user input parameters so a regular user can use the tool. This mechanism was the second contribution (MSSF) and it is composed of a model based on integer linear optimization that automatically selects multicloud dispersal strategies. The evaluation phase was composed of qualitative usability tests and quantitative performance tests. The results suggests that the FlexSky tool made the study of dispersal mechanisms easier and enables to evaluate their performance. MSSF results shown that using QoS attributes, MSSF can choose an optimal dispersal strategy which maximizes and minimizes the required QoS attributes considering several modules and providers.

Esta tese teve por objetivo verificar o impacto da influência familiar na discricionariedade da determinação da remuneração dos executivos em empresas brasileiras. Assume-se que a visão tradicional da relação principal x agente é fundamentalmente distinta nas empresas familiares, nas quais a propriedade e a gestão se confundem, se não totalmente, pelo menos em parte. Nesse caso, questionam-se o uso e função da remuneração por incentivo como mecanismo de alinhamento de interesses. Existem evidências de que as empresas familiares tendem a estruturar planos de incentivo com menor uso de remuneração variável, parte pelo controle natural e implícito da presença familiar na empresa, parte, por não ser compatível com preservação da riqueza socioemocional. Essas evidências influenciam nas relações esperadas: (a) quanto maior a influência familiar menor a tendência para fornecer remuneração variável aos executivos; (b) quanto maior a influência familiar maior a propensão para uso de flexibilidade na avaliação de desempenho para a determinação da remuneração variável dos executivos; (c) quanto maior a propensão para uso de flexibilidade na avaliação de desempenho menor a tendência para fornecer remuneração variável aos executivos. Para analisar essas relações, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida por meio de um levantamento realizado em 128 empresas familiares brasileiras de capital fechado. Os dados foram analisados por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados indicaram que a influência familiar captada pelo modelo F-PEC (poder, experiência e cultura) não tem relação direta com a proporção de remuneração variável fornecida aos executivos. Entretanto, a influência familiar impacta positivamente na propensão sobre a flexibilização da avaliação de desempenho para a determinação da remuneração variável dos executivos. Os achados evidenciaram que quanto maior é a propensão para uso de flexibilidade na avaliação de desempenho, maior a tendência para fornecer remuneração variável aos executivos. Esse resultado contradiz a relação esperada na pesquisa, todavia, pode ser interpretado como propício do ambiente familiar, em que a confiança, a preocupação com a reputação e a percepção de justiça são tidos como características fundamentais, indicando que quanto maior é a influência familiar, maior é a propensão ao uso de discricionariedade na determinação dos incentivos, o que resulta em maior proporção de remuneração variável em relação a remuneração total do executivo. Entretanto, a relação entre influência familiar e remuneração variável só foi constatada quando a flexibilidade tem papel de mediadora. Do ponto de vista organizacional, essa flexibilização para mudança pode trazer diferentes consequências sobre a empresa. Quando proporcionar mudança tal que o executivo perceba sua meta como inatingível, o fato pode gerar desinteresse dos executivos sobre o plano de remuneração e destruir a estratégia de motivação. Da mesma forma, se a mudança for feita e o executivo entender que foi favorável, pode ocorrer, como consequência, o descrédito perante o sistema de avaliação, sendo considerado que ele não será utilizado de fato. Todavia, a possibilidade de descrédito perante o sistema de avaliação e remuneração pode não ocorrer em ambientes nos quais a confiança, a preocupação com a reputação e a percepção de justiça são tidos como características fundamentais, o que é mais comum em empresas familiares. / The main goal of this thesis was to verify the impact of family influence in the discretionary choice of the remuneration of executives in Brazilian companies. This research assumed that the traditional view of the principal versus agent relationship is fundamentally different in family firms, where ownership and management are, at least in part, confused. In this case scenario, we question the use and function of the incentive compensation as interests alignment mechanism. Theoretical evidences support that family businesses tend to structure incentive plans with less use of variable compensation. This could be explained in part by the natural control and implicit family presence in the company, and in part by it\'s incompatibility with the preservation of socioemotional wealth. Those evidences are related with the expected relationships: (a) greater the family influence in the company, higher is the probability that the company provide variable remuneration to their executives; (b) higher family influence increase the propensity for flexibility in the use of performance assessment for determining the variable remuneration of the executives; (c) bigger propensity for flexibility in the use of lower performance evaluation tend to provide variable remuneration to the executives. To analyze these relationships, this research conducted a survey with 128 Brazilian family companies that are privately held. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that family influence captured by the F-PEC model (power, experience and culture) are not directly related to the proportion of variable compensation provided to executives. However, the family influence positively impacts the propensity on the relaxation of performance evaluation for determining the variable remuneration of executives. The results also showed that higher propensity for flexibility in the evaluation of performance, is associated with a higher tendency to provide variable remuneration to the executives. This finding contradicts the expected theoretical relationship, however, they can be interpreted as a consequence of a unique family environment, where trust, concern for the reputation and the perception of fairness are considered fundamental characteristics, indicating that the larger the family influence, greater is the propensity to use discretion in determining the remuneration incentives, which results in a higher proportion of variable remuneration in relation to total executive remuneration. However, the relationship between family influence and variable compensation was only found when flexibility works as a mediator factor. From an organizational point of view, this higher flexibility to change can bring different consequences for the company. If the change makes the executive realizes its goal as unattainable, for example, that can generate disinterest of business on the compensation plan and destroy the motivation strategy of the company. Similarly, if the change is made and the executive view this change as favorable, they tend to discredit the system of evaluation, and considered that it will not actually be used. However, the possibility of disbelief before the evaluation and remuneration system, cannot occur in environments where trust, concern with the reputation and the perception of fairness are considered fundamental characteristics, which is more common in families companies