Context. System Development Methodologies (SDM’s) have been an area of intensive research in the field of software engineering. Different software organisations adopt different development methodologies and use different development practices. The frequency of usage of development practices and acceptance factors for adoption of development methodology are crucial for software organisations. The factors of acceptance and development practices differ across geographical locations. Many challenges have been presented in the literature with respect to the mismatch of the development practices across organisations while collaborating across organisations in distributed development. There is no considerable amount of research done in context of differences across development practices and acceptance factors for adoption of a particular development methodology. Objectives. The primary objectives of the research are to find out a) differences in (i) practice usage (ii) acceptance factors such as organisational, social and cultural b) explore the reasons for the differences and also investigate consequences of such differences while collaborating, across organisations located in India and Sweden. Methods. A literature review was conducted by searching in scientific databases for identifying common agile and plan-driven development practices and acceptance theories for development methodologies. Survey was conducted across organisations located in India and Sweden to find out the usage frequency of development practices and acceptance factors. Ten interviews were conducted to investigate, reasons for differences and consequences of differences from the software practitioners from organisations located in India and Sweden. Literature evidences were used to support the results collected from interviews. Results. From the survey, organisations in India have adopted a higher frequency of plan driven practices when compared to Sweden and agile practices were adopted at higher frequency in Sweden when compared to India. The number of organisations adopting "pure agile" methodologies have been significantly higher in Sweden. There was significant differences were found across the acceptance factors such as cultural, organisational, image and career factors between India and Sweden. The factors such as cultural, social, human, business and organisational factors are responsible for such differences across development practices and acceptance factors. Challenges related to communication, coordination and control were found due to the differences, while collaborating between Indian and Sweden sites. Conclusions. The study signifies the importance of identifying the frequency of development practices and also the acceptance factors responsible for adoption of development methodologies in the software organisations. The mismatch between these practices will led to various challenges. The study draws insights into various non-technical factors such as cultural, human, organisational, business and social while collaborating between organisations. Variations across these factors will lead to many coordination, communication and control issues. Keywords: Development Practices, Agile Development, Plan Driven Development, Acceptance Factors, Global Software Development. / -

Orientador: Luiz Felipe Mendes de Moura / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T18:53:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Costa_FernandoNascimento_M.pdf: 2878725 bytes, checksum: 09d497cf9f3daef839e877c884aa66c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Resumo O uso da refrigeração tem crescido de forma considerável nos últimos anos, promovendo diversos estudos que busquem a otimização destes sistemas. Utilizando a automação industrial, processos de instrumentação, sistemas de aquisição e processamento de dados, analisa-se a eficiência de um sistema de refrigeração com o tubo capilar e válvula de expansão eletrônica como dispositivo de expansão. Parâmetros importantes para o bom funcionamento do ciclo: temperatura de evaporação e condensação, pressão de evaporação e condensação, carga térmica no evaporador, grau de superaquecimento na saída do evaporador e coeficiente de desempenho (COP), são analisados. O circuito frigorífico é composto por duas subunidades. O circuito principal, dotado de uma unidade condensadora hermética, evaporador e dispositivos de expansão. A unidade secundária possui uma bomba para circulação de um fluido secundário (álcool etílico), um trocador de calor e um fancoil. Foi também desenvolvido uma análise de eficiência energética no compressor. A potência de compressão, bem como a potência consumida no compressor e a eficiência total do compressor para o tubo capilar e para a válvula de expansão eletrônica foram verificadas. Pode-se verificar que para o sistema em questão, a válvula de expansão eletrônica mostrou ser mais eficiente para todas as condições propostas para o tubo capilar e para a válvula de expansão eletrônica. Palavras Chave: Válvula de Expansão Eletrônica; tubo capilar, estudo comparativo; Automação / Abstract: Summary The use of refrigeration has grown considerably in recent years, many studies that seek to promote the optimization of these systems. Using industrial automation, process instrumentation, data acquisition and processing systems, we analyze the efficiency of a refrigeration system with capillary tube and electronic expansion valve as the expansion device. Important for the proper functioning of the cycle parameters: temperature of evaporation and condensation, evaporation and condensation pressure, the evaporator heat load, degree of superheat at the evaporator outlet and coefficient of performance (COP), are analyzed. The refrigeration circuit is composed of two subunits. The main circuit with a hermetic condensing unit, evaporator and expansion devices. The secondary unit has a pump for circulating a secondary fluid (ethyl alcohol), a heat exchanger and fan coil. Was also developed an analysis of energy efficiency in the compressor. The compression power and the power consumed at the compressor and the overall efficiency of the compressor to the capillary tube and the electronic expansion valve was observed. Can be seen that for the system in question, the electronic expansion valve proved to be more efficient for all conditions proposed for the capillary tube and the electronic expansion valve. Key words: Electronic Expansion Valve; capillary, comparative study; Automation / Mestrado / Termica e Fluidos / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

South Africa has been going through a series of political, economic and social changes since 1994. These changes have transformed it into a state that shows increased commitment to sustainable development. Although the country is considered as one of the largest developing country emitters of pollution, the South African government has recognised the need to move towards a low-carbon society. The country’s participation in international climate mitigation bodies has seen its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025. South Africa has committed to achieve these goals provided that it receives the necessary finance, technology and support from the international community. The major objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of green taxes in SA and developed countries. Four countries were chosen for the analysis in this study; South Africa, China, the United States and the United Kingdom. The study depends on secondary analysis obtained from published articles, databases and websites providing research on various organisations and government bodies. From my analysis, this study observed that many developed and developing countries have already implemented environmental taxes, and many other countries are considering similar instruments. The findings of this study are that green taxes and environmental taxes in general, are intended to protect the environment. By levying higher taxes on activities and products that harm the environment, businesses are discouraged from developing industries that destroy nature. Based on the findings, this study recommends that South Africa should address the inconsistencies in its policies across various government departments. The study also recommends the need for tax policy reconsideration so as to improve the relevance of environmental and green taxes. However, the study observed that since South Africa is still hampered by the triple constraints of unemployment, poverty and inequality, and in order to address the negative impacts of carbon taxes, it needs to put in place certain mitigation agreements with high pollution emitting companies. / Dissertation LLM--University of Pretoria, 2014 / hb2014 / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

Very little past work has focused on the comparative analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices between domestic (DEs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs). The majority of the work in this area has instead concentrated on comparing the HRM practices employed by the subsidiaries of MNEs, and has mostly been conducted in the context of developed countries. This research studies the behavioural differences in the HR practices--recruitment, training, internal career opportunities, appraisals, rewards and incentives, as practiced in DEs and MNEs in the emerging country context of Brunei Darussalam. A survey of literature yielded nine major testable hypotheses. These included MNEs being more stringent with regard to their recruitment and training and rigorous with their promotion practices. Performance appraisal (PA) processes were hypothesised to be more advanced and better structured in MNEs when compared to DEs. Incentives and reward systems were also observed and following from literature, these were predicted to be more advanced and better structured in MNEs. In addition, we also hypothesised that the role of HR directors has become more strategic in the two genres of enterprises. We also tested the impact of several control variables on HR practices. In order to put our hypotheses to test, we collected primary data from a cross-section of firms. A count revealed a total of 465 firms in operation; of these, 214 were drawn for study. A total of 151 firms (70%) responded; 88 of these (58%) were DEs and 63 (42%) were MNEs. We applied a mix of parametric and non-parametric tests to analyse the data. On balance, we found support for most hypotheses. In terms of recruitment and selection practices, MNEs are found to be more rigorous in their recruitment, placing more emphasis on such traits as candidates’ willingness to travel, devotion to task, self-motivation, and independent judgment. We also found that MNEs place more emphasis on training; they also emphasise a stronger work culture by relying on ‘induction by socialisation’, and ‘buddy system /mentoring’. Moreover, while the statistical differences on its importance are seen to be higher in MNEs, the mean score emphasising the importance of training for DEs comes out to be high as well. This shows that both sets of enterprises rank the issue of training of their employees high. In terms of internal career opportunities, the results show that MNEs prefer to avoid competition between internal candidates by preparing one person well in advance. Compared to DEs, MNEs rely on sound individual technical skills for promotion purposes, also displaying their preference for technically sound employees in senior positions. Our analysis also shows that MNEs conduct PAs more frequently than DEs, and their feedback system is also rapid. The HR directors and employees of MNEs are more receptive to PAs than those in DEs whilst; in contrast, HR directors in DEs face less opposition to feedback when compared with those in MNEs. It emerges that PAs are an important part of the HR function in both types of organisations. In terms of incentives and rewards systems, MNEs follow market ethos and principles. They also show that DEs tend to look at the industry standards when setting rewards such as ‘basic pay’. There is also higher appeal for social and psychological benefits to employees of MNEs when compared to DEs. When analysing the role of the HR director, HR directors of MNEs show a tighter fit between HR policy and business strategy compared with DEs. With regard to the subject of HR devolvement, HR directors from both DEs and MNEs indicated that rather than having sole responsibility, routine HR responsibilities were shared with line management. The area in which there is less inclination to devolve to line managers is in strategic HR work. Moreever, these traits were more pronounced in MNEs than in DEs. Further, HR directors of MNEs clearly regarded their tasks as more important than the HR directors of DEs. Our analysis also showed that MNEs had higher perceived financial performances when compared to DEs. When analyzed by age, older firms were found to place more importance on language and commitment. With regard to size, larger firms place emphasis on employees’ willingness to travel and work experience in other countries as the main recruitment criteria. Younger firms are more likely to be following market principles in terms of explaining incentives and reward system to their employees, whilst older firms claim that working for them carries social and psychological benefits for employees.

Orientador: Marcos José Salvador / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T12:16:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Feltran_GabrielPrimini_M.pdf: 2195659 bytes, checksum: ca442329b76d3b823e9a0079209f4252 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Os monoterpenos são uma importante classe de produtos naturais com odor e sabor intenso e que contém muitas moléculas que apresentam atividade biológica, incluindo a atividade antimicrobiana, e aplicações na indústria farmacêutica, cosmética e alimentícia. Entretanto, são substâncias lipofílicas, voláteis e apresentam certa instabilidade química. Ciclodextrinas (CDs) são carreadores macrocíclicos, capazes de complexar, aumentar a solubilidade em água e estabilizar um largo espectro de substâncias e que, atualmente, têm sido objeto de pesquisas e de desenvolvimento de novos produtos pela indústria farmacêutica. Neste trabalho procedeu-se um estudo comparativo da complexação de quatro monoterpenos (citral, ?-mirceno, limoneno e 1,8-cineol) em ?CD e HP-?CD, bem como a avaliação biológica desses compostos, complexados ou não. Após essas avaliações realizou-se o desenvolvimento de um enxaguante bucal contendo o monoterpeno mais promissor no combate ao biofilme dentário. Para a caracterização físico-química do complexo de inclusão monoterpeno-CD foram utilizadas técnicas espectroscópicas (UV-Vis), cromatográficas (CG-EM) e calorimétricas (DSC), avaliando a solubilidade dos complexos em água e porcentagem de inclusão dos monoterpenos em CD. Foi realizado um screening da atividade antimicrobiana dos quatro monoterpenos em estudo frente à quatro cepas de bactérias (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853; Escherichia coli ATCC 10538 e Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175) e quatro cepas de fungos (Candida albicans ATCC 10231; Candida dubliniensis ATCC 22019; Candida tropicalis ATCC 157 e Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019). Essa avaliação foi realizada através da determinação da Concentração Inibitória Mínima (concentração que inibiu 50% do desenvolvimento microbiano, CIM) e Concentração Biocida Mínima (concentração que inibiu em 100% o desenvolvimento microbiano, CBM). O monoterpeno citral mostrou-se mais efetivo (CBM citral = 2,5µL/mL) frente à cepa de S. mutans (ATCC 25175). A partir desses resultados o citral foi o monoterpeno escolhido para dar continuidade aos estudos propostos no projeto. Avaliou-se o efeito do citral isoladamente, complexado e incorporado em formulações de enxaguante bucal, frente ao crescimento e aderência de S. mutans (ATCC 25175) em superfície sólida. Avaliou-se, também, a citotoxicidade do citral e de algumas formulações de enxaguante bucal verificando-se baixa citotoxicidade frente a cultura de queratinócitos humanos (HaCat). Tanto o citral em sua forma livre como complexado em CDs apresentou atividade frente a cepa indicadora de S. mutans (ATCC 25175), impedindo a formação do biofilme in vitro em concentração sub-inibitória (CBM/2 = 1,25µL/mL). Ao avaliar o citral e seus complexos de inclusão incorporados nas formulações de enxaguante bucal, observou-se manutenção do efeito antibacteriano in vitro frente a cepa de S. mutans (ATCC 25175) e uma melhor solubilidade do complexo de inclusão citral-HP?CD se comparado ao monoterpeno não complexado em CD / Abstract: Monoterpenes are an important class of natural products with intense flavor and odor and can exhibit biological activity including antimicrobial activity, and applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industry. However, monoterpenes are lipophilic and volatile substances which demonstrate some chemical instability. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are macrocyclic carriers capable of complexing a wide range of substances and increase their water solubility currently been the subject of research and development of new products for the pharmaceutical industry. In this project a comparative study was carried complexing four monoterpenes (citral, ?-myrcene, limonene and 1,8-cineole) in ?-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-?-cyclodextrin, and biological evaluation of such monoterpenes, complexed or not. After these assessments was performed to develop a mouthwash containing the most promising monoterpene to combat dental biofilm. For physico-chemical characterization of the inclusion complex monoterpene-CD spectroscopic (UV-Vis), chromatographic (GC-MS) and calorimetric (DSC) were used to evaluate the solubility of the complex in water and percentage of inclusion of these monoterpenes in cyclodextrin. Antimicrobial activity screening for the monoterpenes was conducted across four strains of bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Escherichia coli ATCC 10538 and Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175) and four strains of fungi (Candida albicans ATCC 10231, Candida dubliniensis ATCC 22019, Candida tropicalis ATCC 157 and Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019). This evaluation was performed by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (concentration that inhibited 50% of microbial growth, MIC) and Minimum Biocide Concentration (concentration that inhibited 100% microbial development, MBC). The monoterpene citral was more effective (MBC citral = 2.5?L/mL) against the strain of S. mutans (ATCC 25175). From these results the monoterpene citral was chosen to continue the studies in the proposed project. Were evaluated the effect of citral alone, complexed and incorporated into mouthwash formulations, to the growth and adherence of S. mutans (ATCC25175) on a solid surface. It was also assessed the cytotoxicity of citral and some mouthwash formulations afford low cytotoxicity against human keratinocytes (HaCat) cell culture. Both citral and citral complexed with CDs presented activity against the indicator strain of S. mutans (ATCC25175), preventing the formation of biofilms in vitro in the sub-inhibitory concentration (MBC/2 = 1.25?L/mL). When evaluating citral and their inclusion complexes embedded in mouthwash formulations, the in vitro antibacterial effect against S. mutans (ATCC 25175) was maintained and an increased solubility of the inclusion complex citral-HP?CD compared to monoterpene uncomplexed with CD / Mestrado / Fármacos, Medicamentos e Insumos para Saúde / Mestre em Ciências

Sweden and Denmark are both welfare states sharing a unique bond and similarities. However, attitudes in integration policies are a world apart. Whilst Denmark has gained a reputation of having a strict and harsh immigration policy seeking to uphold cultural homogeneousness, Sweden proudly announces its welcoming stance on immigration embracing cultural diversity. This study offers an insight into problem representations in integration policies in Sweden and Denmark. Existing literature in this field is mainly concerned with post-integration policies leaving literature on problem representations that are more recent unexplored. This thesis seeks to fill that gap by describing the similarities, differences, and underlying assumptions in integration policies in the respective countries. By applying a ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ approach based on a Foucauldian discourse analysis, the findings of this study show significant differences in problem representations and underlying assumptions.

No abstract / Dissertation MCom--University of Pretoria, 2013. / hb2014 / Taxation / unrestricted

Prediction of stock prices is an important financial problem that is receiving increased attention in the field of artificial intelligence. Many different neural network and hybrid models for obtaining accurate prediction results have been proposed during the last few years in an attempt to outperform the traditional linear and nonlinear approaches. This study evaluates the performance of three different hybrid neural network models used for one-day stock close price prediction; a pre-processed evolutionary Levenberg-Marquardt neural network, Bayesian regularized artificial neural network and neural network with technical- and fractal analysis. It was also determined which of the three outperformed the others. The performance evaluation and comparison of the models are done using statistical error measures for accuracy; mean square error, symmetric mean absolute percentage error and point of change in direction. The results indicate good performance values for the Bayesian regularized artificial neural network, and varied performance for the others. Using the Friedman test, one model clearly is different in its performance relative to the others, probably the above mentioned model. The results for two of the models showed a large standard deviation of the error measurements which indicates that the results are not entirely reliable.

Gifted children are a forgotten group in the Swedish school context according to earlier research. Swedish teachers need to have more knowledge about gifted children. Several countries have special programs or education for gifted children. Sweden has no national action plan for gifted children, though Skolverket has published several texts about gifted children as information to schools.  A comparative research design is applied in this study. The method in the thesis is comparative, and semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The respondents were principals, teachers and special educators from Thailand and Sweden. The collected data was thematised into three topics: Definitions of gifted children, strategies in education and“dark side” for gifted children.  The data collection was limited due to the Corona-outbreak in the beginning of 2020. However, the result shows there is a difference between how the Thai and Swedish respondents define gifted children. They are fairly consistent in how gifted children can be helped in education. Further knowledge, for researchers and educators in both Thailand and Sweden would improve the education and can help more children to succeed in school.

A new method for assessing the performance of popular image matching algorithms is presented. Specifically, the method assesses the type of images under which each of the algorithms reviewed herein perform to its maximum or highest efficiency. The efficiency is measured in terms of the number of matches founds by the algorithm and the number of type I and type II errors encountered when the algorithm is tested against a specific pair of images. Current comparative studies asses the performance of the algorithms based on the results obtained in different criteria such as speed, sensitivity, occlusion, and others. These studies are an important resource to understand the behavior of the algorithms and their influence on the results obtained. But they do not account for the inherent characteristics of the algorithms that derive the process through which the matching features are evaluated, filtered, and finally selected. Moreover, these methods cannot be used to predict the efficiency or level of accuracy that could be reached by using one algorithm or the other depending on of the type of images. This ability to predict performance becomes handy in situations where time is a limiting factor in a project because it allows one to quickly predict which algorithm will save the most time and resources.