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Published Article / The study addresses a concern in higher education and specifically in Health Sciences and Technology regarding integrated and authentic assessment with an outcomes-based approach. From the information generated, an assessment model is proposed for application in Health Sciences and Technology. By applying the Delphi technique, a validated assessment model is presented for assessment in outcomes-based education and training in Health Sciences and Technology. The process and product of the research should add value to the assessment of learning in the outcomes-based approach in higher education with specific reference to Health Sciences and Technology.

Weed seed contaminants in agricultural products from China in recent years have the potential for introducing new invasive plant species. Seeds of 169 weedy species from 39 families were collected from Chinese farmlands. Fifty-eight of these that are currently absent in Canada were evaluated. Two weed risk assessment (WRA) models (modified WRA+ secondary screen tool and weed elsewhere+ modified WRA+ secondary screen tool) rejected all invasive plant species and showed similar accuracy in non-invasvie plant species prediction based on 140 existing alien plant species in Canada, yet the second WRA model took significantly less time to conduct the evaluation. Fifty-five potential invasive species with various negative impacts in Chinese farmlands were rejected to enter Canada by the “weed elsewhere+ modified WRA+ secondary screen tool” model, including eight species that cause significant damage to Chinese farmlands. However, Anemone rivularis and Silene jenisseensis, which have no negative impacts in China, were also rejected. Seed germination characteristics among 18 Chinese weedy species were found with base temperatures for germination (Tb) varying from -2.5°C to 10.9°C, thermal time requirements to reach 50% germination (θ_50) ranging from 23.7 to 209.2℃*Day, and different optimal temperatures for germination, which may facilitate these species to cause different degrees of negative impacts in Canadian prairie provinces. An alien species would have a higher competitive advantage in resource uptake and space occupation than its congeneric with advantageous seed germination characteristics; otherwise it will be less competitive than its congeneric. In addition, plant functional traits that promote invasiveness would make an alien species more invasive. In conclusion, the “weed elsewhere+ modified WRA+ secondary screen tool” model is a fast and highly accurate way to screen out potential invasive species from Chinese environments, and is applicable to other environments with modification. Seed germination characteristics can be used to predict seasonal dynamics of weed seedling populations. The comparison of seed germination characteristics and other plant functional traits between alien plant and its congeneric weed from native areas provides a new way to evaluate the invasive potential of alien plant species.

Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / Dam removal is a widely used river restoration technique. Historically, dams produced hydropower, controlled flooding, and provided water storage, but currently many dams in the United States, specifically low head dams in New England, are obsolete. This study aims to assess the ability of a simple morphodynamic sediment transport model, Dam Removal Express Assessment Model (DREAM-1), developed by Cui et al. (2006a). I compare simulations to a dam removal monitoring project that quantified the physical response of the Souhegan River to the removal of the Merrimack Village Dam (MVD), Merrimack, NH. Pearson et al. (2011) reported results of field monitoring from August 2007-May 2010 and found that the Souhegan River responded to dam removal in two phases: initial rapid incision of impoundment sediment induced by immediate base level drop of 3.9 m (~50% of impounded sediment eroded in ~2 months), followed by an event-driven phase in which impoundment sediment eroded primarily during floods. The reach downstream of the dam showed a similar two-phase response, with rapid deposition in the first three weeks after dam removal followed by bed degradation to the pre-removal elevation profile within a year. I have continued the field methods of Pearson et al. (2011) for the past two survey periods, June 2011 and July 2012. Using five years of comprehensive field data, I conduct a hindcast to compare the sediment erosion and deposition patterns predicted by DREAM-1 to the observed downstream response of the Souhegan River. I model the changes in bed elevation for the downstream and upstream channel reaches at intervals that correspond with the dates of four longitudinal profile surveys and seven annual cross-section surveys. Results of the hindcast show that DREAM-1 predicts channel elevation accurately within one meter and with average discrepancy of ±0.35 m when compared to average channel bed elevations of each cross-section. DREAM-1 successfully simulates two phases of upstream channel response, rapid impoundment erosion followed by a longer period of gradual sedimentation change. However, DREAM-1 erodes to base elevation within 11 weeks after dam removal (erosion of the 88% impoundment sand), leaving little sand for transport during the later survey periods. This overestimation of impoundment erosion is likely the product of limitations of the model, specifically the simplification of channel cross-sections with constant width throughout the simulation. The model assumes uniform lateral sediment transport in the impoundment and does not capture the variation in width due to incision and channel widening. This hinders the ability of the model to simulate some details of the sediment budget developed by Pearson et al. (2011) and extended with recent surveys. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Introduction Industry 4.0 is rapidly approaching the manufacturing industry and are generating multiple challenges for the companies to overcome. Simultaneously, the customer demand is changing towards customisation and the industry requires new technology within the production system development to remain competitive. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop a framework and assess the maturity towards Industry 4.0 and to provide guidance for further advancement. The following two research questions were defined and answered to guide the authors: ~        RQ1: What dimensions should be considered when assessing the maturity of Industry 4.0? ~        RQ2: How could the maturity assessment of Industry 4.0 be performed?    Methodology A literature review was performed to attain previous results within the area of creating and performing maturity assessment. Further, a multiple case study was performed at a selection of case companies where semi-structured interviews, workshop and observations were used to collect empirical data. The analysis has been performed through a cross case analysis for evaluating patterns between the frame of reference and empirical findings. Frame of Reference The literature review increased the authors understanding of how a maturity assessment model functions and which parameters that creates the foundation. The review mainly focused on what set of dimensions and how many levels that can be used in relation to assess a production system. Empirical Findings The empirical findings provide an overview of the current state of production within each case company. Aspects regarding a transition towards Industry 4.0 is elaborated based on process, technology and people aspects. Analysis and Discussion The synthesis between Frame of Reference and Empirical findings contribute with important dimensions to consider when assessing the maturity model. This thesis has decided to conclude the dimensions into three headings consisting of process, technology and people.  A second contribution is a framework for a maturity assessment towards Industry 4.0, where five levels are defined for each dimension. A concluded picture visualises the case companies’ mean maturity level within each dimension of process, technology and people. Conclusions and Recommendations Provided by the maturity assessment, an initiative towards Industry 4.0 exist within the case companies, although major challenges of defining the concept of Industry 4.0 and a lack of competence is highlighted. Future recommendations are to perform a similar study with more depth into the investigations within each case company to validate the maturity assessment towards Industry 4.0 within each case company.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-04-29T12:48:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 1827584 bytes, checksum: 8e2c4699b20e87ffce14b44d0467564c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T12:48:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 1827584 bytes, checksum: 8e2c4699b20e87ffce14b44d0467564c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-14 / This work aims to develop a model for assessing the implementation of lean production in supply chains. In order to reach this aim, an analysis of the relevant literature on lean production and lean supply chains was carried out and, based on this literature review, it was possible to identify attributes of lean supply chains that were used to build the conceptual framework and were classified as factors and sub-factors for the assessment model. The Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA) was used as a tool to model the evaluation elements of lean production supply chains, thus the evaluation considers the interrelations between the assessment factors and analyzes the interrelationships between companies that are part of the supply chain. Thus, it brings the required weights for the assessed system, considering that the companies of a supply chain and the assessment factors have mutual relations of influence. Initially, the model evaluates the implementation of the factors individually for each company, and then compose the overall assessment of the supply chain. The model was applied through four case studies from an automotive supply chain, conducted with structured and semi-structured interviews with managers from the logistics department of each company. As a result of the evaluation, it can be concluded that the studied supply chain has an moderate level of implementation of lean production. From the case studies, it was concluded that the proposed model is suitable for their intended purposes, establishing an overall assessment of the implementation of lean production in supply chains. / Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo desenvolver um modelo de avaliação da implementação da produção enxuta em cadeias de suprimentos. Com este intuito, foi realizada uma análise da literatura nos temas produção enxuta e produção enxuta em cadeias de suprimentos. Com base na revisão da literatura, foi possível identificar atributos característicos de cadeias de suprimentos enxutas que foram utilizados para construir a estrutura conceitual do modelo, sendo considerados como fatores e subfatores de avaliação. O método Graph Theoretic Approach (GTA) foi utilizado como ferramenta para modelar os elementos de avaliação da produção enxuta em cadeias de suprimentos, assim, a avaliação considera as inter-relações entre os fatores de avaliação, como também analisa as inter-relações entre as empresas que fazem parte da cadeia de suprimentos. Desta forma, é possível realizar ponderações necessárias ao sistema avaliado, considerando que as empresas de uma cadeia e os fatores avaliados possuem relações mútuas de influência. O modelo avalia, inicialmente, a implementação dos fatores individualmente para cada empresa, para então compor a avaliação geral da cadeia de suprimentos. O modelo desenvolvido foi aplicado por meio de quatro estudos de caso em uma cadeia de suprimentos do setor automotivo, com realização de entrevistas estruturadas e semiestruturadas com gestores diretamente ligados ao setor de logística de cada empresa. Como resultado da avaliação, pode-se concluir que a cadeia de suprimentos estudada apresenta um nível médio de implementação da produção enxuta. A partir dos estudos de caso, foi possível concluir que o modelo proposto é adequado para os seus devidos fins, estabelecendo uma avaliação geral da implementação da produção enxuta em cadeias de suprimentos.

Context. In recent years Agile has gained lots of importance in the fieldof software development. Many organization and software practitioners hasalready adopted agile practice due to its flexibility in nature. Hence, agiledevelopment methodologies have been replaced to traditional developmentmethods. Agile is a family of several methodologies namely Scrum. eXtremeprogramming (XP) and several others. These several methods areembedded with different set of agile practices for the organizations to adoptand implement for their development process. But there is still a need forempirical research to understand the benefits of implementing the Agilepractices which contributes to the overall success of accomplishment of thesoftware project. Several agile maturity models have been published over adecade but not all of the models have been empirically validated. Hence,additional research in the context of agile maturity is essential and needed. Objectives. This study focus on providing a comprehensive knowledgeon the Agile Maturity Models which help in guiding the organizations regardingthe implementation of Agile practices. There are several maturitymodels published with different set of Agile practices that are recommendedto the industries. The primary aim is to compare the agile maturity maturitymodels and to investigate how the agile practices are implemented inthe industry Later the benefits and limitations faced by the software practitionersdue to implementation of agile practices are identified. Methods. For this particular research an industrial survey was conductedto identify the agile practices that are implemented in the industry. Inaddition, this survey aims at identifying the benefits and limitations of implementingthe agile practices. A literature review is conducted to identifythe order of agile practices recommended from the literature in agile MaturityModels. Results. From the available literature nine Maturity Models have beenextracted with their set of recommended agile practices. Then the resultsfrom the survey and literature are compared and analyzed to see if thereexist any commonalities or differences regarding the implementation of agilepractices in a certain order. From the results of the survey the benefitsand limitations of implementing the Agile practices in a particular order areidentified and reported. Conclusions. The findings from the literature review and the survey resultsin evaluating the agile maturity models regarding the implementationof agile practices.

Research findings in requirements engineering (RE) report that software organizations still struggle in establishing processes that lead to proper requirements handling. This leads to the acknowledgement that the adoption of good requirements engineering practices by industry is still not common. Although some initiatives have been made to spread the use of good practices of bespoke RE, the area of market-driven requirements engineering (MDRE) still lacks a contribution in that direction. MDRE is characterized by strong market and strategic orientation, which contrasts with the customer/development organization relationship of bespoke RE. This poses several challenges to software product organizations, such as the need for aligning development activities with organizational and product strategies. In an attempt to help these organizations to realize the benefits of MDRE, this Master Thesis presents the Market-Driven Requirements Engineering Process Model (MDREPM). MDREPM is both a collection of good practices in MDRE, and an assessment tool for organizations to get a snapshot of the current state of their MDRE practices. The assessment intends to reveal problem areas of organization’s requirements process, which can then be worked upon by introducing good practices described in the model. The thesis describes the motivation for creating MDREPM, both from an academia and industry perspectives. In addition, it describes the process of developing the model, from its creation through to its validation within academia and industry. As the series of three case studies conducted indicate, the MDREPM has been shown to be useful for industry practitioners. A unanimous opinion has been found as to the good coverage it provides of issues related to MDRE, and as to its usefulness for driving improvement efforts in requirements engineering.

Integrated Assessment Models (IAM)s play a key role in climate policy research; however, many IAMs are limited by their treatment of technological change. This is a particularly vexing limitation because technological change significantly affects the optimal carbon policy. We propose a means of incorporating technological change within the Dynamic Integrated Model of the Climate and Economy (DICE). We modify DICE to allow it to adjust the cost of CO2 abatement based on the demand for solar photovoltaic generating capacity. We find that deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV) is highly sensitive to returns to scale and the grid integration costs associated with PV intermittency. At low returns to scale integration costs cause PV to be deployed in steps, reducing the benefit of scale effects; at higher returns to scale PV is deployed smoothly but is arrested integration costs become significant; and when returns are high PV becomes so inexpensive that it’s deployed widely in spite of integration costs. The implication of this behavior is that the optimal allocation of research and development resources depends on returns to scale in the solar market: if returns to scale are low, R&D should focus on PV itself, while if they’re high, R&D should focus on reducing integration costs.

A tool allowing the prediction of the risk of bleeding in patients with hemophilia would be relevant for patients, stakeholders, and policymakers. We performed a systematic review of the literature searching for available risk assessment models to predict the risk of bleeding in people living with hemophilia, and to determine the key risk factors that the ideal model should include. We also systematically review the literature to determine the acceptability and accuracy of wrist-wearable devices to measure physical activity in the general population. Finally, we validated the performance of a risk assessment model for the prediction of the risk for bleeding in people living with hemophilia. We identified the following risk factors for bleeding in people living with hemophilia: plasma factor levels, history of bleeds, physical activity, antithrombotic treatment, and obesity. The FitBit Charge and FitBit Charge HR are the most accurate devices for measuring steps, and the Apple Watch is the most accurate for measuring heart rate. No device proved to be accurate in measuring energy expenditure. The predictive accuracy of the risk assessment model that we validated does not endorse its use to drive decision making on treatment strategies based on the predicted number of bleeds. This might in part be explained by the methods used in the derivation phase. The need for an accurate risk assessment model to predict the risk of bleeding in people living with hemophilia is still unmet. This should be done by including the relevant risk factors identified through our work, with data on physical activity possibly collected using an accurate wrist-wearable device, and through the application of rigorous methods in the derivation and validation phases. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / People living with hemophilia lack a coagulation factor and tend to experience spontaneous bleeds, with frequency and intensity that vary between individuals. Predicting who will experience more bleeds would allow for changing the treatment strategies and directing the best resources to the persons that can benefit more. Through this project, we identified the variables that should be considered to estimate the risk for bleeding in people living with hemophilia, namely the blood levels of the lacking coagulation factor, the bleeding history, the physical activity levels, the concomitant treatment with blood thinners, and the presence of obesity. We determined that Fitbit Charge and Charge HR are the most accurate devices for measuring steps and Apple Watch for heart rate. Lastly, we found that an existing tool for predicting the risk of bleeding is not accurate enough to be used in this setting, and a new model should be produced.