The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of ingesting an 8% carbohydrate (CHO) beverage during a moderate intensity exercise trial on performance outcomes, fuel utilization and blood glucose levels of wheelchair athletes (spinal cord injury (SC I) or cerebral palsy (CP)). The secondary purpose was to analyze the dietary intake of the eight participants and to determine if they were meeting current sport nutrition guidelines for macronutrients and fluids recommended in the joint position statement developed by the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Dietitians of Canada (DC).<p> Under random, double blind conditions eight athletes (6 males, 2 females); mean age 36 ± 8.5 y with a SCI (n = 7) or CP (n = 1) completed two exercise trials on an adapted stationary hand cycle; each trial was 60 minutes in duration at 65 % VO2peak followed immediately by a 30-minute performance trial. During the first 60-minutes the participants were given four 200 ml dosages (15, 30, 45, 60-min) of an 8% CHO beverage or a taste-matched placebo beverage. Blood lactate and glucose levels were sampled during the 60-minute exercise trial (pre, 20, 40, 60-min) and immediately after the 30-minute performance trial (post, 2, 5, 10-min). Heart rate was monitored continuously during the exercise and performance trial. Expired gas samples were also taken for 5-min periods during the exercise trial and then continuously during the performance trial. These values were used to calculate respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and carbohydrate oxidation. Dietary intake was assessed with a three day food record.<p> No significant differences were apparent between beverage trials for total distance (km), average speed (kmhr-1) or maximum speed achieved (kmhr-1). Significant differences were evident for blood glucose values, RER and CHO oxidation between the two beverage trials (p< .05). At the end of the 30-minute performance trial blood glucose values were significantly higher in the CHO trial (4.8 ± 1.3 mmol.l-1 vs. 4.0 ± 0.5 mmol.l-1 for placebo trial; p< .05). The CHO beverage resulted in higher CHO oxidation during the last 5 minutes of the performance trial, 2.1 ± 1.0 gmin-1 vs. the placebo beverage 1.9 ± 1.0 gmin-1 (p< .05). The CHO beverage trial resulted in significantly higher RER values during the final 5 minutes of the exercise trial and during the final 10 minutes of the performance trial. At the 20-25 minute mark RER values were significantly higher with the CHO beverage trial (1.04 ± 0.10) vs. the placebo trial (1.01 ± 0.11) (p< .05). During the final 5 minutes of the performance trial RER values were also significantly higher with the CHO beverage trial (1.06 ± 0.11) vs. the placebo trial (1.01 ± 0.10) (p< .05). The results indicated the participants were not meeting the current dietary guidelines for able-bodied athletes and active adults. Only 25% of the participants met the daily caloric requirements for active adults. Carbohydrate recommendations of 6 to 10 gkg-1 body weightd -1 were not met by any of the wheelchair athletes Seven participants were within the acceptable macronutrient range (AMDR) for CHO. For protein intake, 63% of the participants were meeting the protein recommendations active adults and all of them were within the AMDR. Average caloric intake from fat exceeded current recommendations of 20 to 25%; two participants were above the AMDR. The results demonstrate that the 8% CHO beverage consumed during exercise resulted in higher CHO oxidation rates and elevated blood glucose values, but it did not result in a performance gain.

Today, companies work with issues concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A higher demand from customers and other stakeholders as well as an extended legislation are great reasons. Framework and guidelines for sustainability reporting has been developed which includes indices that companies are able to report. Though, for a long term work with sustainability a functional system and internal tool is necessary. Balanced Scorecard, BSC, is a useful tool and efforts have been made to integrate BSC and CSR with purpose to establish the work with sustainability in a more concrete and clear way. Some Greek researchers have developed a framework and their result leads to the question whether it is transferable to Swedish companies in a Swedish environment? / Företag arbetar idag med frågor som handlar om ett miljömässigt, ett ekonomiskt samt ett socialt ansvarstagande (CSR). Kunder, andra intressenter samt en utökad lagstiftning kräver det. Ramverk samt riktlinjer för hållbarhetsredovisning har utvecklats vilka inkluderar indikatorer som företag kan redovisa. För ett långsiktigt hållbarhetsarbete behövs dock ett fungerande system och ett internt verktyg. Balanced Scorecard, BSC, är ett användbart verktyg och försök har gjorts att integrera BSC och CSR med avsikt att förankra hållbarhetsarbetet på ett mer konkret och tydligt sätt i verksamheten. Några grekiska forskare har utvecklat ett ramverk och deras resultat leder fram till en fundering huruvida det är överförbart till svenska företag och svensk miljö?

Many organizations use global incentive systems without recognizing the suitability to foreign subsidiaries' local cultures. Applying incentives to employees in foreign subsidiaries without considering culture's impact on incentive system effectiveness may dilute the incentives' effectiveness. The majority of the incentive system literature is based on Anglo-Saxon notions of incentive system effectiveness and employee motivation. And assuming that culture impacts incentive system effectiveness, the Anglo-Saxon notions may be inapplicable in a non-Anglo-Saxon context. This study uses a sequential exploratory mixed method to explore culture's impact on incentive systems, and to analyze the applicability of Anglo-Saxon incentive system literature to non-Anglo-Saxon cultures. The study develops a five-dimensional incentive system framework that, together with a literature review of Swedish, Japanese, and South Korean culture, interprets empirical findings. Empirical findings from Swedish organizations operating in Japan and South Korea are used to form hypotheses and a basis for qualitative interviews with representatives from the Japanese and South Korean subsidiaries. Sweden, Japan, and South Korea are strongly represented on the global market with multinational organizations covering a wide range of industries. Together they constitute a large portion of global business, and are good representatives for business in Europe and Asia. The study's results establish that culture should be considered an important determinant of incentive system effectiveness, and that the Anglo-Saxon literature may be too insular to be applied outside Anglo-Saxon countries.

In this thesis, we first present a variance estimation technique based on the standardized time series methodology for steady-state simulations. The proposed variance estimator has competitive bias and variance compared to the existing estimators in the literature. We also present the technique of rebatching to further reduce the bias and variance of our variance estimator. Second, we present two fully sequential indifference-zone procedures to select the best system from a number of competing simulated systems when best is defined by the maximum or minimum expected performance. These two procedures have parabola shaped continuation regions rather than the triangular continuation regions employed in several papers. The rocedures we present accommodate unequal and unknown ariances across systems and the use of common random numbers. However, we assume that basic observations are independent and identically normally distributed. Finally, we present procedures for finding a set of feasible or near-feasible systems among a finite number of simulated systems in the presence of multiple stochastic constraints, especially when the number of systems or constraints is large.

In this thesis, we first show that the performance of ranking and selection (R&S) procedures in steady-state simulations depends highly on the quality of the variance estimates that are used. We study the performance of R&S procedures using three variance estimators --- overlapping area, overlapping Cramer--von Mises, and overlapping modified jackknifed Durbin--Watson estimators --- that show better long-run performance than other estimators previously used in conjunction with R&S procedures for steady-state simulations. We devote additional study to the development of the new overlapping modified jackknifed Durbin--Watson estimator and demonstrate some of its useful properties. Next, we consider the problem of finding the best simulated system under a primary performance measure, while also satisfying stochastic constraints on secondary performance measures, known as constrained ranking and selection. We first present a new framework that allows certain systems to become dormant, halting sampling for those systems as the procedure continues. We also develop general procedures for constrained R&S that guarantee a nominal probability of correct selection, under any number of constraints and correlation across systems. In addition, we address new topics critical to efficiency of the these procedures, namely the allocation of error between feasibility check and selection, the use of common random numbers, and the cost of switching between simulated systems.

近年來，隨著國民中學相繼成立及教育經費嚴重的不足，整個國民中學的教學環境已大不如前，在這種愈來愈多公私立國民中學，搶愈來愈少的學生情況下，如何提昇學校之整體績效，將有限的資源做最有效的運用，已成為現今學校績效衡量的重要課題。 本研究採用平衡計分卡之觀念，彙整有關國民中學整體績效衡量指標，同時參考其所扮演的角色及功能，設計問卷，並針對教育人員為實證研究的對象，進行問卷調查，問卷調查所得資料運用電腦統計軟體SPSS for Windows 12.0版，以描述性統計分析、t考驗、單因子變異數分析等統計分析方法進行資料處理。研究結果顯示所有指標在國民中學教育人員的重要性認知選取上平均值都大於3.5，顯示其皆認為這些指標對於國民中學績效衡量上都非常重要。在各構面整體績效衡量指標方面，「財務構面」平均值最高，其次為「內部流程構面」、「顧客構面」、「學習與成長構面」，而「學習與成長構面」受重視程度為最低。在不同樣本特徵之重要性認知差異性分析方面，受試教育人員因性別、年齡、教育程度、現任職務、服務總年資、是否參與決策的不同而有顯著差異。 總之藉由平衡計分卡之觀念彙整成國民中學整體績效衡量指標，對教育人員所作實證性研究，萃取出教育人員之角度對績效指標重要性程度之認知情形，可提供國民中學依其自身的策略、願景按照此平衡計分卡四大構面和績效衡量指標增刪適合其學校目標所需，以建立一套策略性績效評估制度；並可作為教育主管行政機關日後建構績效衡量參考，以補救現行公立高級中等以下學校教師成績考核辦法總結性評量之缺失，藉以提昇學校總體競爭力。 關鍵字：平衡計分卡、績效衡量 / The serious deficiency of education funds in recent years, as junior high schools are established in succession, the teaching environment of the whole junior high school has already been in a greatly reduced state compared with what it used to be. Besides, more and more public and private junior high schools have to vie with each other for students that are getting fewer and fewer. Under the circumstances, how to promote the whole performance of the school and make the most effective use of the limited resources have already become important subjects that assess the performance of a school now. This research adopts the idea of the balance scorecard and gathers together the relevant indicators of the whole performance of junior high school and the role and function they act. According to those mentioned above, the questionnaire was designed and took education personnel as the target to carry out the survey. With the help of the computer software SPSS for Windows edition 12.0, all the questionnaires were analyzed by methods such as describing statistical analysis, t test, and the single factor making a variation, etc. The research shows the average of all the indicators of the choice of secondary school education personnel's importance cognition is greater than3.5, and it also shows that these indicators matter much to the performance of junior high school. As for the indicators in each perspective of the whole performance, the “Financial Perspective” gets the highest average, and then the ”Internal Business Process Perspective”, the “Customer Perspective”, and the “Learning and Growth Perspective.” The “Learning and Growth Perspective” receives the least attention of all. In the discrepancy analysis on importance cognition under different samples, the target varies with the sex, age, education degree, rank, year in service, and decision participating. To sum up, by gathering together the indicators of the whole performance of junior high school with the idea of the balance scorecard, studying the real examples about education personnel, extracting out the cognitive situation of the importance of performance indicators from education personnel’s viewpoint, this research can offer a junior high school to establish a set of tactical performance assessment system according to the school’s strategies and visions which are suggested by the four perspectives of the balance scorecard and the perform indicators. Furthermore, it can also be a reference for the administration of education to set up the performance assessment system in the future which may be a remedy for the current assessment of the teachers under the public high schools and promote the overall competitiveness of the school. Key words: Balance scorecard, Performance measures

Bakgrund och problem: Under de senaste åren har antalet företagsförvärv ökat kraftigt. Det ses numera som ett vanligt alternativ för att få företag att växa. Med dessa förvärv uppkommer ett behov av att integrera de sammanslagna verksamheterna, något som inte alltid är så enkelt. Det är flera faktorer som behöver sammanfalla för att nå en lyckad integration. En viktig faktor är kommunikation, som är en nyckel för att förmedla såväl målbild som prestationer inom koncernen. Kommunikationen kan ske med hjälp av flera verktyg och ofta används rapporter för att förmedla såväl ekonomisk ställning som information kring den operativa verksamheten. Syfte: Uppsatsen syftar till att genom empiri beskriva samt genom teori förklara problematik vid kommunikation av prestationsmått, med fokus på integrationsprocessen vid företagsförvärv. För att vidare identifiera faktorer som spelar in vid kommunikation av prestationsmått. Metod: Uppsatsen grundas i en empiridriven ansats och en kvalitativ forskningsinriktning. Vi har valt att använda semi-strukturerade intervjuer i insamlingen av empiriskt material. Urvalet grundas i det fallföretag som vi arbetat med under studien. Under arbetet med uppsatsen har vi också tagit hänsyn till faktorer så som etiska överväganden och kvalitetsmått. Slutsats: Det har dragits slutsatser kring faktorer som vi genom teori och empiri funnit spelar in vid kommunikation av prestationsmått. Några av de faktorer vi funnit har en betydande roll är problem i integrationsprocessen, kultur, arbetsätt, val av prestationsmått och informationsmängd. Vi kan konstatera att kommunikationen av prestationsmått berör flera delar av verksamheten och därigenom riskerar att bidra till problem i integrationsprocessen i de fall förmedling av prestationer inte fungerar. Vilket innebär att de faktorer som vi lyft är komponenter som är värdefulla att ta hänsyn till för att skapa den kommunikation av prestationsmått som koncernen eftersträvar. / Background: Mergers and acquisitions have been increasing during the last couple of years and are now considered a common method to make business grow. Along with the acquisitions it is necessary to integrate the merged companies, a process that is not always that easy. There are several parts that must go together in order to reach successful integration. One of these factors is communication, which is a key part in conveying company goals and accomplishments within a group of companies. There are several ways to communicate performance, where reports are a frequently used tool, in order to convey both the financial position as information regarding the operational activities. Purpose: The paper aims to through empirical data describe and through theory explain problems in communicating performance measures, focusing on the integration of company acquisitions. To further identify factors to take into account when communicating performance measures. Method: The paper is based on an empirical-driven approach and a qualitative research approach. We have chosen to use semi-structured interviews in the collection of empirical data. The selection is based on the case company we worked with during the study. During the work with the paper we also took into account factors such as ethical considerations and quality measures. Conclusions: Through this study we have drawn conclusions about the factors that we through theoretical and empirical findings have seen companies take into account in the communication of performance measures. Some of the factors we found to have a significant role are problems in the integration process, culture, way of working, the selection of performance measures and the amount of information. We can conclude that the communication of performance measures affect several parts of the business and thereby run the risk of contributing to problems in the integration process in the cases where the communication regarding performances is not working. This means that the factors that we found are valuable to take into account to create the communication of performance measures that the group of companies requires

Cognitive appraisal is a pivotal construct that has been identified in determining the stress response and coping response. Researchers have shown specific physiological outcomes of initial cognitive appraisals that are taken more as a threat or a challenge. Cognitive appraisal is known to fluctuate, but little is known about what influences these cognitive re-appraisals. While it has been theorized that changes in physiological arousal might impact cognitive re-appraisals, there is little support for this return pathway. Performance with the stressor has however been indicated as impacting cognitive reappraisals. The studies presented here tested the relationships between cognitive appraisal, cognitive re-appraisal, coping response, performance measures, and changes in physiology. A computerized digit-symbol reaction time task presented to participants as "an IQ test" yielded performance measures, while heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure were recorded, as were measures of participants' cognitive appraisal of the stressor. Participants were both male and female undergraduates with 28 in the first study and 71 in the second study. Results from both studies indicate that the initial cognitive appraisal predicted the coping response as self-reported after the task. Initial cognitive appraisal also predicted more than a third of the variance observed in cognitive re-appraisal. The performance measure, percent correct, predicted an additional 15% of the variance. Neither heart rate nor mean arterial pressure was found to influence the cognitive re-appraisal at the end of the task. The second study also had a subjective performance measure and another cognitive re-appraisal after three minutes of rest. Tests indicated that the subjective percent correct predicted over 15% of the variance of cognitive re-appraisal, subsuming the objective measure of percent correct. The second study also found only one physiological measure, the stress response’s mean arterial pressure, predicted 4% of the variance of the latter cognitive re-appraisal. Results identify the initial appraisal of, and the perception of performance with a stressful task as the primary targets for interventions promoting more effective coping and positive emotions. Future research is discussed that can address the limitations of these studies and investigate other environmental and personal factors that may influence cognitive appraisals. / text

This research contributes to improved risk analysis of performance measure forecasts in road safety engineering by designing and applying a method to characterize uncertainty associated with forecast input data in cases where input uncertainty is not known. The research applies this method to quantify uncertainty in three categories of inputs used in risk analysis of performance measure forecasts in road safety engineering: (1) estimates of pedestrian exposure to collision risk; (2) estimates of vehicular exposure to collision risk; and (3) estimates of engineering economics parameters that assign valuations to mortality risk reductions based on individual willingness to pay. The common methods used in each of these categories are repeated comparisons of input ground truth to input estimations, the use of simulation approaches (e.g. the simulation of short-term counts by sampling permanent count data), and the use of non-parametric techniques to characterize input uncertainty. Some highlights of quantified input uncertainty levels include: (1) when obtaining pedestrian risk exposure estimates at a site in Winnipeg, MB by expanding two-hour short-term counts using the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project method, 90% of errors are between 62% and 170%; (2) when obtaining estimates of vehicle exposure to collision risk by expanding two 48-hour counts using the individual permanent counter method for Manitoba highways, 92 % of errors are between 9.5% and 10.8%; and (3) when applying an income-disaggregated transfer function to estimate value of a statistical life for road safety in developing countries, 90% of errors are between 53% and 54%. The results provide further detail on the structure of these input uncertainties. Analytic and computational capabilities in forecasting and risk analysis have advanced beyond our understanding of corresponding input uncertainty levels; this research closes some of this gap and enables better risk analysis of performance measure forecasts in road safety engineering.

Pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) cumprem um importante papel no desenvolvimento econômico e social das nações: geram riquezas, empregos e produzem inovação. Empresas como Apple® e Microsoft®, maiores do mundo na atualidade, já figuraram na dimensão dessas empresas. Entretanto, compreender a dinâmica desse universo empresarial tem se revelado um desafio para a pesquisa acadêmica. No contexto mundial constata-se que em torno de 25% das empresas nascentes sobrevivem menos de dois anos e, em torno de 50%, menos de cinco. O objetivo desta Tese consistiu em identificar e testar os fatores que determinam a sobrevivência e o desempenho de PMEs. A amostra foi formada por 410 empresas da região centro-sul do Estado do Paraná, sendo 74 empresas inativas (não sobreviventes) e 336 ativas (sobreviventes). A medida de desempenho resultou de oito indicadores, e foi testada sob três modalidades: a) sobrevivência versus não sobrevivência; b) grupos: não sobreviventes, sobrevivência marginal e alto desempenho, e; c) desempenho como variável contínua. As variáveis independentes foram distribuídas em oito dimensões: capital humano, capital social, características gerenciais, condições do ambiente, características organizacionais, motivação e percepção do risco, demografia pessoal e tamanho que, por sua vez, formaram as oito hipóteses declaradas no estudo. As inferências foram realizadas no contexto de cada uma das dimensões e em relação ao conjunto geral, mediante utilização das estatísticas análise fatorial, regressão linear múltipla e regressão logística. Das oito dimensões, seis (capital humano, capital social, características gerenciais, condições do ambiente, características organizacionais e tamanho) apresentaram pelo menos um indicador influente, e tiveram a hipótese nula rejeitada. A maior densidade nas evidências foi apresentado pelo modelo logístico geral (R2 = 75%) onde o suporte governamental, experiência ocupacional, capital social, sazonalidade e a qualificação dos empregados foram os indicadores que apresentaram maior poder discriminatório, demonstrando que as chances de sobrevivência de PMEs aumentam com a melhora desses fatores. Pelo modelo multinomial (R2 = 80%) constatou-se que o planejamento antes da abertura da empresa, a disponibilidade de recursos, o acesso ao crédito e as fontes e os custos de financiamento de curto prazo apresentaram maior capacidade de discriminação, demonstrando que o empobrecimento e a deterioração das características gerenciais e de fatores de capital social diminuem a probabilidade da empresa sobreviver ou de obter elevado desempenho. Na regressão linear (R2 = 42%) a qualificação dos empregados (32%) e o suporte governamental (22%) melhor explicaram o desempenho de PMEs. Constatou-se, ainda, que aproximadamente 35% das variáveis influentes estão associadas com a fase anterior à abertura da empresa, como: planejamento ou plano de negócio, experiências e disponibilidade de capital. / Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in economic and social development of nations: they generate wealth, jobs and innovation. Companies like Apple® and Microsoft®, the world\'s largest today, have already appeared in the size of these companies. However, understanding the dynamics of these enterprises has proven a challenge for academic research. In the international context it appears that about 25% of new companies survive less than two years, and about 50%, less than five. The aim of this study consisted in to identify and test the factors that determine the survival and performance of SMEs. The sample consisted of 410 companies in the central southern State of Paraná, including 74 inactive companies (non-survivors) and 336 active (survivors). The performance measure resulted from eight indicators, and was tested in three ways: a) survival versus non-survival b) groups: no survivors, marginal survival and high performance, and; c) performance as a continuous variable. The independent variables were divided into eight dimensions: human capital, social capital, managerial characteristics, environmental conditions, organizational characteristics, motivation and perceived risk, personal demographics and size, that, in turn, formed the eight hypothesis reported in the study. Inferences were made in the context of each of the dimensions and in relation to the general assembly by use of statistical factor analysis, multiple linear regression and logistic regression. Of the eight dimensions, six (human capital, social capital, managerial characteristics, environmental conditions, organizational characteristics and size) had at least one influential indicator, and had rejected the null hypothesis. The highest density was presented by the general logistic model (R2 = 75%) where government support, occupational experience, capital, seasonality and quality of staff were indicators that showed greater discriminatory power, demonstrating that the chances of survival of SMEs increase with the improvement of these factors. By multinomial model (R2 = 80%) found that planning before of the opening of the company, the availability of resources, access to credit and the sources and costs of short-term financing had higher capacity discrimination, demonstrating that the impoverishment and deterioration of managerial characteristics and factors of capital decrease the likelihood of the company surviving or get high performance . In OLS regression (R2 = 42%) the quality of staff (32%) and government support (22%) best explained the performance of SMEs. It was noted also that about 35% of influential variables are associated with earlier stage the opening of the company, such as planning or business plan, experience and availability of capital.