Thesis (M.M. (Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / The establishment and growth of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in most economies have been attributed with a corresponding need and desire for these SMEs as catalysts for economic growth, unemployment reduction, etc. Various factors are also impacting on how SMEs can become competitive and one of these enablers is the adoption of ICT by SMEs to improve performance. The purpose of this research was to establish the perceived relationship between the adoption by SMEs of Information Communication Technology (ICT) usage in the manufacturing sector in South Africa and its perceived impact on firm performance. The intended objective was to assess whether the perception of ICT adoption usage within SME’s operating within a manufacturing sector will either have a positive or negative performance outcome. The research methodology adopted was a quantitative approach which was guided by a positivist paradigm. The population targeted were SMEs in the manufacturing sector in South Africa but deliberately excluded SME manufacturers involved in the production of computers, electronics, etc. A combination of an online survey and paper questionnaire was utilised to gather data. The adoption of ICT and the perceived impact on performance within SMEs in manufacturing in South Africa revealed some findings consistent with existing literature in terms of the overall accepted perception that ICT adoption has a perceived positive impact on firm performance, including but also not limited to market share, products and service innovation, etc. as measured in the research. A deeper analysis is required to understand why the respondents in the research did not overwhelmingly state that ICT adoption has a perceived positive impact on performance, market share, product and service innovation etc.

Idag finns det ett begränsat utbud av material för källkritiska övningar på lågstadienivå och undervisning i källkritik anses påbörjas i för höga årskurser (Skolverket 2018a; Skolverket 2019a). Detta är två centrala aspekter i denna studie. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om ett videoredigeringsprogram med stöd för interaktivitet kan underlätta dagens undervisning i källkritik på lågstadienivå, samt vilka behov och utmaningar som finns idag. Studien syftar också till att ta reda på hur ett sådant videoredigeringsprogram skulle kunna se ut och fungera. Tanken med studiens tjänst är att eleverna ska lära sig tänka källkritiskt och enklare kunna urskilja vad som är sant eller falskt genom videoredigering där inlagda filmklipp kan manipuleras. För lågstadielärarnas del finns potential för att undervisa eleverna genom skapande av interaktivitet som kan leda till bland annat diskussion i klassrummet. För att ta reda på om tjänsten kan underlätta undervisning i källkritik, vilka behov och utmaningar som finns idag samt önskad funktionalitet och design har flera lärare deltagit i enkätundersökningar och intervjuer. Elever har även observerats vid användning av studiens tjänst för att sedan intervjuas. Det som upptäckts i studien är bland annat att lågstadielärare är ovana inom ämnet, de har svårt att hitta material och är i behov av källkritiskt material för lägre åldrar. Eleverna har en vana av digitala verktyg men behöver bland annat tydliga och enkla instruktioner utan ett avancerat språk och god tid på sig att läsa dessa instruktioner. Får att fånga uppmärksamhet av de elever som deltagit i studien behövs också utstickande färger på centrala knappar samt begränsat med valmöjligheter. I studien framkommer även att det finns en önskan om källkritisk undervisning i lägre åldrar, som till exempel i lågstadiet eller förskolan. Det har även framkommit att studiens prototyp eller liknande tjänst möjligtvis kunnat underlätta undervisning i källkritik, detta är dock något som kräver vidare forskning.

Introdução: A proporção de idosos na população tem aumentado significativamente. O envelhecimento traz como consequência o declínio funcional, limitando sua independência e dificultando o aprendizado de novas habilidades. A expectativa de vida feminina é maior que a masculina, de forma que frequentemente ocorre a viuvez feminina. A viuvez e o divórcio são situações que podem trazer à mulher a necessidade de assumir novas tarefas, assim como aprender a utilizar tecnologias da informação e comunicação que não faziam parte de seu cotidiano, demandando o desenvolvimento de habilidades visando adotar os novos equipamentos e realizar independentemente as novas tarefas. Devido ao declínio funcional natural do envelhecimento e a experiência limitada na utilização desses equipamentos, tornando-se um desafio a elas. Dessa forma, o processo de adaptação da mulher ao assumir novas tarefas e adotar novos equipamentos em seu cotidiano mostra-se como um importante tópico a ser estudado. Objetivo: Conhecer o processo de adaptação que mulheres têm ao assumir tarefas predominantemente masculinas, identificando quais equipamentos adotados, as dificuldades enfrentadas e as estratégias desenvolvidas. Métodos: Estudo exploratório, correlacional, seccional, com abordagem quali-quantitativa. Participaram 96 mulheres. Foram aplicados o Mini-Exame do Estado Mental, o índice de Lawton e Brody, um Questionário sócio-demográfico e a Entrevista \"Novas tarefas e tecnologias no dia-a-dia\". Os dados coletados foram tabulados no software Epi Info® e divididos em categorias temáticas e submetidos à Análise de Conteúdo. Resultados: Participaram 96 mulheres, idades entre 50 e 86 anos e média de 62,5 anos. Observou-se que o adoecimento e/ou óbito de familiares, principalmente do marido, demandaram que as mulheres se adaptassem ao assumir novas tarefas, exigindo direta e indiretamente o desenvolvimento de novas habilidades e a utilização de novos equipamentos no cotidiano. Observou-se que as mulheres apresentaram dificuldades ao adotar os equipamentos devido às características ergonômicas e pela pouca experiência prévia em utilizar equipamentos semelhantes. Conclusão: A viuvez e o divórcio podem demandar que as mulheres assumam novas tarefas. Observou-se também a necessidade indireta proveniente da busca por novas formas de lazer e por maior contato com familiares. Através dos resultados deste estudo é possível auxiliar o processo de adaptação das mulheres e facilitar a adoção dos equipamentos e o desenvolvimento de estratégias mais adequadas. / Introduction: The proportion of elderly in the population has increased significantly. Aging brings as a consequence the functional decline, limiting their independence and making the learning of new skills. Female life expectancy is higher than men\'s, so that often occurs to female widowhood. The widowhood and divorce are situations that may bring the woman need to take on new tasks, as well as learn how to use information and communication technologies that were not part of their daily lives. Requiring the development of skills in order to adopt the new equipment and perform new tasks independently. Due to natural aging and functional decline the limited experience in the use of the equipment, making it a challenge to them. In this way, the process of adaptation of the woman to take on new tasks and adopt new equipment in your daily life shows itself as an important topic to be studied. Objective: To know the process of adaptation that women have to assume tasks predominantly male, identifying what equipment adopted, the difficulties faced and strategies developed. Methods: Exploratory study, correlational, sectional, with quali-quantitative approach. Attended 96 women. Were applied the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Index of Lawton and Brody, a socio-demographic questionnaire and the interview \"New tasks and technologies in everyday life\". The collected data were tabulated in Epi lnfo® software and divided into thematic categories and subjected to Content Analysis. Results: Participants were 96 women, ages 50 and 86 years and average of 62.5 years. It was observed that the death of relatives, and/or illness primarily of husband, demanded that women adapt to take on new tasks, requiring directly and indirectly the development of new skills and the use of new equipment in daily life. It was observed that women have difficulties in adopting the equipment due to the ergonomic features and little previous experience using similar equipment. Conclusion: The widowhood and divorce can demand that women assume new tasks. We also observed an indirect need coming from search for new forms of leisure and for greater contact with relatives. Through the results of this study can help the process of adaptation of women and facilitate the adoption of the equipments and the development of more appropriate strategies.

A pesquisa busca descrever e analisar as experiências de temporalidades em narrativas digitais, desenvolvidas especificamente pelas produções audiovisuais digitais do grupo de Vjs Embolex. O estudo se dará a partir de uma análise comparativa entre a influência da narrativa midiática na percepção da temporalidade moderna e as temporalidades proporcionadas pelas novas tecnologias de comunicação e suas narrativas. Busca-se entender em que medida a inserção das tecnologias digitais provocaram mudanças no deslocamento da noção de temporalidade diacrônica proporcionando o advento de outras temporalidades técnicas. Primeiramente, é feita a contextualização das narrativas midiáticas diacrônicas, por meio de numa análise histórica introdutória que estabelece a relação entre as distintas tecnologias midiáticas (a oral, a escrita e as eletrônicas) e as respectivas temporalidades narrativas que engendraram. Num segundo momento, a pesquisa busca desenvolver um estudo sobre as produções audiovisuais digitais do núcleo de Vjs Embolex. A análise destas produções buscará identificar os tipos específicos de temporalidades técnicas apresentadas por suas narrativas, além dos seus conteúdos e especificidades estéticas. / The research seeks to describe and analyse the experiences of temporality in digital narratives developed specifically by the audiovisual digital production of the group of Vjs Embolex. The study will take place from a comparative analysis on the influence of media narratives on perception of the modern temporality and the temporalities offered by new communication technologies and their narratives. We seek to understand to what extent the insertion of digital technologies have caused changes in the displacement of the notion of diachronic temporality providing the advent of other technical temporalities. Firstly, the context of the diachronic narratives produced by the media is drawn through an introductory historical analysis that establishes the relationship between the different media technologies (oral, written and electronic) and the type of temporality they engender. Secondly, the research seeks to develop a study on the audiovisual digital production of Embolex Vjs. The analysis of these productions aims to identify the specific types of technical temporalities presented by their narratives, beyond their specific content and aesthetics.

This essay presents a qualitative study of how an interactive audio guide can influence the experience of art in an art museum. The study was performed at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, by testing the audio guide of Moderna Museet and two self-produced audio guides at the exhibition Samlingen. Observation studies combined with interviews were conducted to understand how the visitors are using the audio guides and what advantages and disadvantages the different design parameters had. The results showed that there where specific advantages and disadvantages within the different parameters. It also indicated that an audio guide should not contain too much or too little interaction and should thereby concentrate on frictionless operating. A usage that was cancelled resulted in making the user feel misplaced and unwilling of understanding the art. When the usage was frictionless, the audio guide also served mediating and contributed to the overall experience. / Denna uppsats presenterar en kvalitativ studie av hur en interaktiv audioguide kan påverka upplevelsen av konst på ett konstmuseum. Studien utfördes på Moderna Museet i Stockholm, genom att testa Moderna Museets audioguide och två versioner av en egenutvecklad audioguide på utställningen Samlingen. Djupgående studier där observationer kombinerat med intervjuer gjordes för att skapa förståelse för hur besökare använde audioguiderna och vilka för- samt nackdelar de olika designparametrar i dessa hade. Resultatet innehöll data där specifika för- och nackdelar med de olika parametrarna kunde identifieras. Framförallt framgick det att en audioguide inte bör innehålla varken för mycket eller för lite interaktion, utan bör fokusera på att fungera friktionsfritt. Ett användande där avbrott skedde resulterade i att användaren kände sig bland annat malplacerad och oförstående inför konsten. Ett friktionsfritt användande bidrog till att audioguiden fungerade medierande och bidrog till en helhetsupplevelse.

I ett allt mer digitaliserat och tjänstebaserat samhälle ter det sig viktigt att se över på vilket sätt olika typer av produkter framförs och används. Världens framtida ekonomi beräknas ligga inom tjänstesektorn, och då främst den digitala, vilket gör att tjänstelogiken verkligen är att ta på allvar. Denna studie syftar till att bidra med en ökad kunskap kring utvecklandet av främst digitala tjänster genom att påvisa de viktigaste faktorerna vid utvecklandet av dessa. För att påvisa detta genomfördes en enkätstudie samt en intervjustudie. Resultatet som påvisades är att tillgänglighet, bekvämlighet och tillit uppfattas som de viktigaste faktorerna. Dessa faktorer tenderar sedermera att vara vitala vid utvecklandet av digitala tjänster för att tjänsten skall upplevas som värd att nyttja. Dock så dras slutsatsen att de resurser som innefattas inom dessa faktorer är kontextbaserade och sedermera att samskapande mellan olika aktörer likväl är nödvändigt.

This study examined if there was a correlation between a video game experience based upon ethnicity and gender, using the framework from scholars and activists of Critical Race Theory(​Delgado och Stefancic, 2017), the researchers had 16 participants play the controversial game Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 2009). All the participants played for 15 minutes, half of which played as the American main character Chris Redfield while the other as his African sidekick Sheva Alomar. Participants were later interviewed where the data was then collected to be coded usinga thematic analysis. The results shows that there are only minor differences between the character perspectives of each respective character, the main themes found were emotions, player experience, prejudice and our own term unidentification, which mean that the players could notidentify with the characters in the game. This study can be used to identify potential problems and solutions on ethnic and gender questions regarding video games.

The main goal of this thesis is to map and determinate position of ICT sector in the Czech economy and estimate competitiveness of this segment in the scope of economy of the Czech Republic. The first part explores and evaluates topical position of ICT sector in the Czech Republic, mainly by analyzing basic statistical data about the economic and employment impact of all ICT firms as a whole. There is also calculated effectiveness of each sector of the economy. This part provides a basic image of the ICT sector position compared to other sectors of the Czech economy. The second part continues with the research made in the first part, but on an aggregate level. It summarizes and visualizes changes in aggregated parts of economy in chronological order. Sectors of economy are aggregated to three groups according to their absorption of ICT. The third part expands previous analysis of a global scale. It summarizes and comments the Global Competitiveness Report published by World Economic Forum. This chapter provides clear review of competitiveness of Czech Republic compared to European Union, with accent on ICT sector. The last part is aimed at new methodology of scoring projects developed by the Department of Information Technologies at the University of Economics, Prague. It also sets some recommendations for future methodology. This part contains the library of case studies worked up in new methodology. Finally, there is summary of findings made during the process of exploring selected area of research which evaluates the contribution of the whole thesis as a whole to the researched topic.

The study is aimed to map the gestures of Non Player Characters to make it easier for developers in the future to find fitting gestures for their characters to make sure they retain their believability. By making a survey with open questions and animations of the different gestures, the respondents were asked what they thought the characters in the animation wanted to convey. By counting how many times the respondents used the same, or similar words, each question were summarized into a table. The results were that many of the gestures that were used to convey a feeling, were better suited to another type of gesture, and by mapping these the goal is to create a lexikon with gestures that makes it easier for future developers to apply the correct gesture in the right situation. / Studien avser att kartlägga gesterna hos Non Player Characters för att underlätta för framtida utvecklare att hitta passade gester för olika situationer som gör att karaktärerna i spelet bibehåller sin trovärdighet. Genom att formulera en enkät med öppna frågor och animeringar för att gestalta gesterna tillfrågades respondenterna vad de trodde att karaktären försökte förmedla. Genom att räkna hur många gånger respondenterna valde att beskriva gesterna i enkäten med samma eller liknande ord, sammanfattades varje fråga i en tabell. Resultatet blev att många gester som används i vissa syften passar bättre för att gestalta andra typer av känslor, och genom att kartlägga dessa gester är syftet att bygga upp ett lexikon med gester som utvecklare i framtiden kan använda för att applicera rätt typ av gest i rätt situation.

This thesis presents the data extraction of digitized old newspaper content and the implementation of a search function to simplify for the user. This is developed as a master’s degree project at Linköping University. The application allows the user to search for interesting content in a database of articles and can be used by both genealogists, local historians and novices. The database is filled with data from OCR scanned newspapers and the user can either search the database by their own or with the help of their family tree. The family tree is implemented by reading the users GEDcom file and extracting useful information that is then used to get better search results. The result is returned to the user in the form of digital articles. The work concludes that the information from GEDcom files can be used to find new interesting facts and that the user should be allowed to affect how the data is reduced, in the form of article categorization and filtering.