Dans les régions exposées à des aléas naturels, une large partie des bâtiments composant l'environnement construit sont réalisés presque exclusivement sur la base de l'expérience et de l'observation des bâtisseurs locaux, sans l'appui d'un architecte ou d'un ingénieur. Les communautés installées dans ces zones ont développé, au fil du temps, une multitude de stratégies pour co-habiter avec ces phénomènes, incluant des comportements sociaux et des approches de construction visant à prévenir et/ou à limiter l'exposition du bâti et de ses habitants. En fait, les constructeurs ont souvent intégré la présence et les caractéristiques locales des aléas naturels dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes, élaborant des détails et des dispositions constructives particulières pour réduire la vulnérabilité des artefacts et du milieu bâti. Le concept de culture constructive embrasse la dimension sociale et technique de l'acte de construire et du processus d'élaboration des savoirs et savoir-faire qui lui sont inhérents, reflétant intrinsèquement la multiplicité des sociétés humaines et leur enracinement indissoluble au territoire qu'elles habitent. Le vernaculaire en tant que caractérisation des modes de bâtir, d'habiter et de se protéger se révèle par ce fait une source précieuse de pratiques, techniques et mesures, testées au cours des siècles et des multiples aléas, pour la construction d'environnements bâtis durables, accessibles et sûrs. Ce travail de recherche explore le potentiel présenté par les cultures constructives vernaculaires dans le renforcement de la résilience locale. Et cela à partir des pratiques - constructives et comportementales - développées par les populations, groupes et individus habitant des contextes géographiquement exposés à des aléas naturels. Se fondant sur une forte interaction entre la théorie et la pratique, cette recherche entame une (re)découverte de l'ingéniosité intrinsèque à ces savoirs par le développement de deux axes thématiques. L'un investigue les dispositions et les dispositifs vernaculaires à caractère parasinistre ayant démontré leur efficacité à réduire la vulnérabilité de l'environnement construit envers différents types d'aléas naturels. L'autre axe questionne les modalités de leur identification et contribution directe au renforcement des capacités de populations et institutions dans la gestion des crises. À une analyse technique s'associe l'élaboration d'un outil méthodologique soutenant la mise en place d'une démarche de projet s'ancrant fortement aux spécificités contextuelles selon une logique de continuité, tant culturelle que de pratique, entre passé et futur, entre préparation et réponse aux catastrophes. / In areas prone to natural hazards, many of the buildings that make up the built environment are constructed almost exclusively through the experience and the direct observation of local builders, without the support of any architect or engineer. In these regions, communities have developed over time a variety of strategies to cope with natural phenomena through patterns of social behaviours and building approaches intended to prevent and/or to reduce their exposure to local risks. Similarly, local builders have often integrated natural hazards into their daily practices, developing singular techniques, building details or devices aiming to reduce the vulnerability of the built environment. The concept of building culture embraces the social and technical aspects related to the construction process and to the development of corresponding knowledge and know-how, intrinsically reflecting the multiplicity of human societies and their indissoluble connection with the territories they inhabit. The vernacular as characterization of ways of building, living and protecting oneself proves to be a valuable source of practices, techniques and measures, tested over the years and during multiple hazards, for contemporary construction of sustainable, accessible and safe built-environments. This research explores the potential of vernacular building cultures in enhancing local resilience; and this starting from - constructive and behavioural – practices developed by individual people and groups living in contexts geographically exposed to natural hazards. Based on a strong interaction between theory and action, this research undertakes a (re)discovery of vernacular knowledge through two thematic focuses. One examines disaster resilient vernacular provisions and devices which have demonstrated their effectiveness to reduce vulnerability of the built environment to various types of natural hazards. The other one considers ways for their identification and direct contribution to strengthening capacities of communities and institutions for disaster risk management. This research combines a technical analysis with the development of a methodological tool, contributing to set up a project approach strongly rooted into contextual specificities, linking culture and practice, past experience and future needs, disaster response and preparedness.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:52:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5927.pdf: 1158172 bytes, checksum: da512af227afdf83a621e75580a2a3de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-27 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The changing in the labor dynamics of the sugarcane harvesting, occasioned by integration of mechanical harvesters, has subjected workers to new working conditions, increasing the interactions with machines, and consequently causing new diseases and work accidents. For improving the performance of work so that this becomes less destructive of human capabilities, is important the use of instruments that allow the identification of risks from man-labor ratio, which are identified through the study of literature in Ergonomics. This study aimed to verify the applicability of the checkpoints of the instrument Ergonomic Checkpoints in Agriculture to the work situation in the context of mechanized harvesting of cane sugar. A review of the relevant issues related to the study was accomplished, considering the themes: Ergonomics, ergonomic analysis tools and working conditions; process of mechanized production of cane sugar, with a focus on the process of harvesting and working conditions; and, finally, the study of the instrument Ergonomic Checkpoints in Agriculture. Subsequently, the analysis of the instrument was accomplished, which was constituted of the following principal stages. Initially, the checkpoints of the instrument were classified considering the workloads, and the similarity of content. Posteriorly, the checkpoints were analysed with respect the applicability in the job functions found in mechanical harvesting of cane sugar process. As a result, 84 checkpoints were classified into 23 clusters and 16 checkpoints were not grouped, among which 11 clusters and 8 checkpoints, which represent 53% of the content of the instrument, were identified with potential of application in the sugarcane mechanical harvesting. The checkpoints identified may assist in the evaluation and implementation of better working conditions, considering the ergonomic point of view, in the mechanical harvesting of sugarcane. / A mudança na dinâmica de trabalho no processo de colheita da cana-de-açúcar, através da crescente inserção de colhedoras mecânicas, tem submetido os trabalhadores a novas condições de trabalho, que inclui a interação com máquinas e equipamentos, ocasionando doenças ocupacionais. Para melhoria das condições de realização do trabalho de forma que esse se torne menos destrutivo das capacidades humanas, é necessária a utilização de instrumentos que permitam a identificação de riscos provenientes da relação homem-trabalho, que são identificados através do estudo da literatura em Ergonomia. Este trabalho objetivou verificar a aplicabilidade dos pontos de verificação do instrumento Ergonomic Checkpoints in Agriculture à situação de trabalho no contexto da colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar. Foi realizada uma revisão sobre os temas relevantes que envolvem o estudo, isto é: Ergonomia, instrumentos de análise ergonômica e condições de trabalho; processo de produção mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar, com enfoque no processo de colheita e nas condições de trabalho advindas deste processo; e, estudo do instrumento Ergonomic Checkpoints in Agriculture. Posteriormente, foi realizada a análise do instrumento, que se constituiu das etapas de classificação dos pontos de verificação do instrumento por cargas de trabalho, por similaridade de conteúdo, e da análise da aplicabilidade dos pontos de verificação considerando as características e as funções de trabalho encontradas no processo de colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar. Como resultados, 84 pontos de verificação foram classificados em 23 agrupamentos e 16 pontos de verificação não foram agrupados, dentre os quais foram identificados 11 agrupamentos e 8 pontos de verificação aplicáveis, que representam 53% do conteúdo do instrumento. Os pontos de verificação identificados podem auxiliar na avaliação e implementação de melhores condições de trabalho, do ponto de vista ergonômico, na colheita mecanizada da cana-de-açúcar.

Verification and validation is one of the most important concerns in the area of software engineering towards more reliable software development. Hence it is important to overcome the challenges of testing concurrent programs. The extensive use of concurrent systems warrants more attention to the concurrent software testing. For testing concurrent software, automatic tools development is getting increased focus. The first part of this study presents a systematic review that aims to explore the state-of-the-art of concurrent software testing. The systematic review reports several issues like concurrent software characteristics, bugs, testing techniques and tools, test case generation techniques and tools, and benchmarks developed for the tools. The second part presents the evaluation of four commercial and open source static analysis tools detecting Java multithreaded bugs. An empirical evaluation of the tools would help the industry as well as the academia to learn more about the effectiveness of the static analysis tools for concurrency bugs.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une nouvelle lecture du Devisement du Monde – connu également sous le titre du Livre des Merveilles, La Description du Monde ou Il Milione – axée sur le regard que porte Marco Polo sur ses contemporains de l’autre bout du monde et la réception qui lui est réservée. Parti dans le contexte des croisades qui réduit l’opposition Orient/Occident à la dualité sarrasin/chrétien, le jeune Marco Polo se retrouve, au travers de ses voyages et à la cour de Kubilai Khan, dans une problématique beaucoup plus vaste, où pratiques et croyances multiples s’inscrivent dans des courants philosophiques jusqu’alors peu connus en Occident. « L’observateur des religions », comme le nomme Philippe Ménard, semble être véritablement fasciné par cette diversité culturelle et religieuse qu’il relève durant son séjour dans l’empire mongol. Tant de nouveautés sont difficiles à assimiler et surtout à rapporter. Nous nous intéressons à la forme que prennent ces descriptions à l’intérieur d’un récit aux versions et traductions multiples, dans un contexte historique et littéraire marqué par les guerres de religion et de pouvoir. Dans la poursuite des travaux de C. Dutschke et de C. Gadrat sur la réception, ce travail de recherche s’appuie sur l’étude diachronique de dix manuscrits et de six éditions du Devisement du monde datant de la première moitié du XIVe siècle jusqu’à la fin du XIXe siècle. Nous envisageons cette réception du texte, non pas sous l’angle de l’usage du récit polien par d’autres auteurs ou au regard de sa diffusion, mais à partir du texte lui-même, du paratexte ainsi que des enluminures et des illustrations. Ces éléments renseignent sur la manière dont le texte est reçu au cours des siècles, et sont porteurs des attentes du public potentiel qui évoluent elles-mêmes avec le temps. La numérisation systématique des versions/traductions retenues, ainsi que l’usage d’outils d’analyse de données textuelles permettent de concilier une lecture attentive du texte et une analyse quantitative au-delà de l’approche linéaire traditionnelle. / The main goal of this dissertation is to propose a new reading and approach of Marco Polo’s Travels, also known as the Devisement du monde, the Description of the World or Il Milione. This study is based both on Marco Polo’s description of people living on the other side of the world and on the critical reception of his book. When Marco Polo left Venice, the prevailing opposition between West and East was mainly grounded in the duality opposing Christians and Saracens. However, through his travels and during his stay at Kubilai Khan’s Mongol court, the young man embraced more complex issues relating to religious beliefs and practices related to philosophical movements barely known in the Western world.“The observer of religions”, as historian P. Ménard calls him, seems to be fascinated by the cultural and religious diversity he encounters during his stay in the Mongol empire. So, many differences with his own culture were difficult to absorb and to report. In this study, we particularly focus on the many versions and translations of these descriptions, written in a context of political and religious turmoil. Following the works of C. Dutschke and C. Gadrat on the reception theory applied to the Travels, this diachronic research is founded on ten manuscripts and six editions dating from the early 14th century until the late 19th century. The impact of Marco Polo’s account is not studied here through the circulation of his Travels or according to the number of authors mentioning it in their own writings, but is rather established in relation to the text itself, along with the paratext, miniatures and illustrations. All these elements provide valuable information concerning its reception through ages, and about the expectations of the potential audience, which also evolved over time. All the versions and translations of our corpus have been digitized, and thanks to text analysis tools, we were able to reconcile close reading and data processing while analyzing the text.

<p>Static program analyzers are vital tools to produce useful insights about programs without executing these programs. These insights can be used to improve the quality of programs, e.g., detecting defects in programs, or optimizing programs to use fewer resources. However, building static program analyzers that are simultaneously sound, performant, and flexible is notoriously challenging.</p> <p>This dissertation aims to address this challenge by exploring the potential of applying correct-by-construction metaprogramming techniques to build static program analyzers. Metaprogramming techniques manipulate and transform programs as data objects.  In this thesis, we consider static program analyzers as the objects to be manipulated or transformed. We show that metaprogramming techniques can improve our understanding, the construction, flexibility, and performance of program analyzers.</p> <p>We first study the inter-derivation of abstract interpreters. Using off-the-shelf program transformation techniques such as refunctionalization, we demonstrate that big-step abstract interpreters can be mechanically derived from their small-step counterparts, thus building a functional correspondence between two different styles of abstract interpretation.</p> <p>To build high-performance program analyzers, we exploit the first Futamura projection to build compilers for abstract interpretation and symbolic execution. The first Futamura projection states that specializing an interpreter with respect to an input program is a process equivalent to compilation, thus providing a practical way to repurpose interpreters for compilation and code generation. We systematically apply this idea to build program-analysis compilers by writing analyzers as staged interpreters using higher-level abstractions. The staged interpreter can be used for generating sound and performant analysis code given a specific input program. Moreover, the approach enables using abstractions without regret: by using higher-level program abstractions, the analyzer can be written in a way that is close to its high-level specification (e.g. big-step operational semantics), and by compilation, the analyzer is performant since it does not need to pay the runtime overhead of using these abstraction mechanisms.</p> <p>We also develop novel type systems that track sharing and separation in higher-order imperative languages. Such type systems are useful both for general-purpose programming languages and for optimization of domain-specific metaprograms such as those program-analysis compilers.</p> <p><br></p>

No description available.

Sport, and particularly soccer, is becoming increasingly professionalised and thus commercialised. Soccer has managed to uphold notable economic growth globally. As affirmation of this growth, both the South African and sport industry experienced tremendous attention and interest during the period 2000 to 2012. Thus, the need for soccer to become formalised, coupled with the increased need for professional management and the implementation of business principles has created an appetite for proper planning and coordination. As a result, strategic planning is becoming indispensable to sport organisations. Organisations that use strategic planning are regarded as being relatively productive, profitable and making better use resources. Large amounts of money are often invested in soccer clubs which renders them prone to huge financial risks if due strategic planning processes and governance structures and processes are not in place. Against this background, this study explored the strategic planning processes of South African Football Association soccer clubs which are at the grassroots level, as these processes inform strategic decision making and growth prospects. A qualitative data collection process in the form of semi-structured interviews was used. A total of 13 club managers (from 12 soccer clubs-two were from one club) participated in the study. Atlas.ti software was used to deductively analyse the data. The findings suggest that the soccer clubs struggle to separate strategic issues from other operational and technical matters, and that soccer clubs generally have low levels of knowledge on strategic planning processes and tools. Recommendations are made to SAFA, government and the private sector to assist grassroots soccer clubs with funding, management training programmes and partnership initiatives. Some of the pressing recommendations are that soccer clubs need to receive education and training in the areas of business management, particularly in the area of strategic management and governance. This can be further accompanied by business coaching and mentoring programmes to ensure that the soccer clubs can be run as professional establishments. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The thesis is focused on the analysis of presently offered products supporting Business Intelligence (BI) which are affordable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Current BI solutions available to SMEs are mostly offered via Cloud computing, specifically in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) as it requires low initial acquisition costs. The objectives of this thesis are to analyse the work in applications for BI in cloud that can be used by SMEs and to analyse in detail the comparison the worldwide extended reporting tools distributed as SaaS in the lower price category. The theoretical part provides a description of the Cloud computing and the BI system. In the practical part are selected following products: IBM Watson Analytics, Qlik Sense Cloud, Zoho Reports, Tableau Public and Microsoft Power BI. Practical testing of these applications was based on evaluation of the selected metrics with weights calculated by using the Fuller's triangle. Analyses and the information form the basis for comparison of selected applications. The contribution of this thesis is in discovering the strengths and weaknesses of these BI solutions. The output of this thesis can be used as a source for the selection of BI applications for SMEs.

Social media has been getting more and more attention from common users as well as businesses. Although the level of social media adoption varies by sector and geographical location, all companies strive to understand which social media platforms adopt and how to effectively use them. There is a specific position for the winery sector, which is widely recognised as traditional. However, more and more people search for information, share information and purchase goods or services online, which made presence on social media inevitable even for wineries. There is a body of literature concerning wineries' social media adoption and usage, however there is none of such kind to be found in the Czech Republic. Thus, this paper's aim is to fill this gap and to find out to what extent do Czech wineries use social media and why. This paper investigates 96 responses from wineries from all regions of the Czech Republic. The evidence is that the common communication channels of Czech wineries are rather traditional, being it personal communication, email or phone. However, the level of social media adoption in comparison with Australia, Germany or New Zealand is rather high. Although Czech wineries value social media, there is a significant lack of knowledge in how to use them efficiently.

Sammanfattning Denna studie har utförts på en svensk medelstor fabrik som tillverkar gipsbaserade byggprodukter och tillhör en internationell koncern. Vissa arbetsuppgifter i fabriken innebär att personalen utför planerat underhåll och rengöring i områden som klassificeras som slutna utrymmen med otillräcklig ventilation där det kan bildas en farlig atmosfär och/eller att det kan vara svårt att komma in och ut. Brist på syre, brand och explosionsrisker kan leda till allvarliga, till och med dödliga olyckor i slutna utrymmen. Vid studiens start uppfyllde fabrikens befintliga rutiner för arbete i slutna utrymmen inte säkerhetskraven från koncernen och inte heller från lagstiftningen. Koncernen har uppmanat fabriken att ta fram ”bäst praxis” för arbete i slutna utrymmen så att andra fabriker kan implementera samma typ av åtgärder. Syftet med denna studie är därför att utveckla ett verktyg för att förebygga ohälsa och olycksfall i arbetet i slutna utrymmen. Studien avgränsas till att undersöka riskerna på två slutna utrymmen i fabriken.Studien utfördes som en fallstudie. Datainsamling har gjorts genom litteraturstudier, en översikt av lagstiftningskrav, granskning av fabrikens befintliga dokument och verktyg för riskbedömningar, anteckningar under projektmöten, intervjuer av medlemmar i projektgruppen, samt kunskapsinhämtningen via deltagandet i endagsseminarium om ”arbete i slutet utrymme”. För bedömning av kvalitet och funktionalitet av verktyget genomfördes en workshop med öppna frågor.Utifrån dessa forskningsaktiviteter har ett verktyg utvecklats för att systematiskt identifiera och hantera risker i slutna utrymmen på den aktuella fabriken som har följande cykel: 1) Bakgrund, 2) Kartläggning, 3) Risklista, 4) Stratifiering, 5) Riskbedömning, 6) Organisatoriska och tekniska åtgärder, 7) Implementering, 8) Revisioner, 9) Inspektioner, 10) Korrigerande åtgärder.Verktyget kommer att implementeras för arbete även i de andra slutna utrymmena i fabriken. Nästa steg är att testa verktyget i andra gipsfabriker i koncernen och justera efter behov samt sprida kunskapen vidare.Vi rekommenderar att 1) Fabrikens räddningsteam utvecklar specifik nöd-plan för varje slutet utrymme samt ett schema för inspektion av utrustning, samt att 2) Projektgruppen utvecklar ”ett flöde” för att underlätta genomgång av rutinerna när arbete i slutna utrymmen behövs. / Abstract The research study presented in this master thesis was done in a Swedish medium-sized factory that manufactures plaster-based construction products and belongs to an international corporate group. Some work tasks in the factory involve staff carrying out scheduled maintenance and cleaning in areas that are classified as confined spaces with inadequate ventilation that can form a hazardous atmosphere, and/or that it is difficult to get in and out. Lack of oxygen, fire and explosion risks may result in serious, even fatal, accidents in confined spaces. At the start of this research study, the existing factory procedures for working in confined spaces did not fully meet the requirements of the corporate group, nor Swedish legislation. The corporate group has challenged the factory to develop "best practices" for work in confined spaces so that other factories can implement the same kind of counter measures. The aim of this study is therefore to develop a tool to prevent accidents by identifying and managing risks associated with work in confined spaces.The research study was performed as a case study. Data collection was done through literature studies and collection an overview of legislative requirements, review of existing company documents, risk assessment tools, notes during project meetings, interviews of the project team, as well as the acquisition of knowledge through participation in the seminar on "work in the confined spaces". To evaluate the quality of the tool, a workshop was conducted with open questions.Based on these research activities a tool is developed to systematically identify and manage risks in confined spaces at the current factory and has the following cycle: 1) Background, 2) Mapping, 3) Risk List, 4) Stratification, 5) Risk Assessment, 6) Organizational and technical counter measures, 7) Implementation, 8) Audits, 9) Inspections, 10) Corrective actions (continuous improvement)The tool can be implemented in the future for the other confined spaces in the factory. The next step is to test the tool in other gypsum factories in the Group and adjust as needed, and to spread the knowledge further.We recommend that 1) the factory Rescue Team develop specific emergency plans for each confined space as well as a schedule for equipment inspection, and that the 2) Project team develop a "flow" to facilitate the review of routines when work in confined spaces is required.