Internal audit departments strive to control risk within an organization. To do this they choose specific audit areas to include in an audit plan. In order to select areas, they usually focus on those areas with the highest risk. Even though high risk areas are considered, there are various other restrictions such as resource constraints (in terms of funds, manpower and hours) that must also be considered. In some cases, management might also have special requirements. Traditionally this area selection process is conducted using manual processes and requires significant decision maker experience. This makes it difficult to take all possibilities into consideration while also catering for all resource constraints and special management requirements. In this study, mathematical techniques used in capital budgeting problems are explored to solve the IT audit area selection problem. A DSS is developed which implements some of these mathematical techniques such as a linear programming model, greedy heuristic, improved greedy heuristic and evolutionary heuristic. The DSS also implements extensions to the standard capital budgeting model to make provision for special management requirements. The performance of the mathematical techniques in the DSS is tested by applying different decision rules to each of the techniques and comparing those results. The DSS, empirical experiments and results are also presented in this research study. Results have shown that in most cases a binary 0-1 model outperformed the other techniques. Internal audit management should therefore consider this model to assist with the construction of an IT internal audit plan. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Each inventory manager at the Aviation Supply Office Philadelphia, PA is presently required to manage approximately 700 line items. To allow the inventory manager a more efficient method of reviewing and using the data and reports from the Uniform Inventory Control Point (UICP) computer system, a distributed computer system is necessary. By downloading the the appropriate inventory data from UICP to a local computer system, a decision support system (DSS) can be be implemented using existing off the shelf hardware and software. The ability to replace the present copious paper reports with concise computerized information and import that data into electronic spreadsheets for further analysis can greatly improve the inventory manager's effectiveness. To this end, this thesis provides inventory managers at ASO with access to the following functions: Interactive access to the main UICP database. The ability to use UICP data with a decision support system. A user interface that is easy to understand and learn. A local data base which supports working group requirements. Basic office automation. This thesis will cover the selection of the hardware and software, data identification and management and DSS development. A prototype system called the IM Workstation was developed for this thesis and used to produce the thesis document. COBOL and ALIS ELF macro program listings are provided. / http://archive.org/details/inventorymanager00mare / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) represents one of the core research streams in the field of operations research (OR). Altough numerous sound MCDM methods for various kind of applications exist, the application of such methods in the practical field is found rarely. The reason for this gap between scientific development and practical acceptance can be found in two distinct points: On the one hand, MCDM methods naturally tend to build on rather complex mathematical foundations. Decision makers (DMs) in practice are mostly experts in their area of expertise but do not necessarily have solid education or experience with high-level mathematical methods. Thus, in order to not alienate DMs in practice, academic research has to translate mathematically challenging models into easy-to-use, self-explaining tools that can effectively support real-life decision scenarios. On the other hand, academic research in MCDM often ends in the proposal of a theoretical model, that may be sound and promising, but never leaves the field of academics due to its theoretical nature. Therefore, the underlying dissertation investigates on the usage of MCDM methods for integration in a decision support system (DSS), implemented as a sofware that is easy to distribute and applicable to decision problems in practice. This study tries to mitigate the lack of MCDM acceptance by analysing MCDM methods according to their applicability, pointing out possible improvements and validating proposed advancements. (author's abstract)

This dissertation explores reifying the management science concept of organizations as a collection of decisions. Organizational management entails resource allocation activities that can be formulated in terms of elementary relational functions. All elasticity-type formulations, most generic "production" functions, and various projection models that organizations might require (such as sales forecasts) can all be represented by elementary relational functions. Therefore, information systems in organizations can be representative of relationships between decision requirements, as theorized in relational model bases. A relational model-base structure acts as an integrative device by relating an organization's elementary relational functions to each other, with all that is kept for any model being the current values for coefficients and the now prevailing parametric values for the state variables of the model.Anchoring management information systems around relational model bases is particularly appropriate for organizations that have some reliance on real-time management decision making by providing the answer to two requirements for such organizations: one being the requirement for more accurate and current real-time, operational decision making within the organization; the other being the integration of functions for decision-making purposes within an organization. Relational model bases thus enable more dynamic management and become a central information system type for organizations that have dynamic resource allocation requirements that can employ technical tactics around such relational model bases. The relational model base would reflect revealed needs in an organization as opposed to projected needs, easing an organization's reliance on forecasting and moving it toward real-time decision making. The case for the introduction of these information systems is further strengthened by the fact that relational model base-type structures are already operating in production environments within organizations. The methodology used in this dissertation involved modeling organizational decision requirements in particular organizational cases to determine the behavior of relational model bases within those prototypical organizations and the application of relational model bases to real-time decision making. The first organizational scenario is a recursive agribusiness e-commerce case, with the target application being precision agriculture. The second scenario is a non-recursive ecological economics case, with the target application being preservation of biodiversity through land (habitat) protection.

No Brasil, o processo de urbanização caracterizou-se pela falta de planejamento e infraestrutura adequada, potencializando os impactos advindos das enchentes e inundações. Para mitigá-los, é necessária a realização de estudos hidrológicos que busquem compreender e representar o comportamento da bacia hidrográfica frente aos eventos chuvosos. Uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas para a execução dessa tarefa são os Sistemas de Suporte à Decisão (SSDs) aplicados na área de recursos hídricos, destacando-se o Sistema de Suporte a Decisões para Análise de Ondas de Cheias em Bacias Complexas (ABC6). O ABC6 caracteriza-se por ser um software brasileiro, gratuito e apresentar diversos modelos de determinação da precipitação efetiva e de geração de hidrogramas sintéticos. Quando os dados hidrológicos da área de estudo, como precipitação e vazão, encontram-se disponíveis, os parâmetros desses modelos podem ser determinados. Caso contrário, faz-se necessário estima-los por meio de formulações empíricas, sendo questionável a aplicação dessas formulações em áreas com características diferentes às de sua determinação. Dessa forma, a proposta do presente trabalho consistiu em avaliar o desempenho dos modelos presentes no ABC6, utilizando suas formulações empíricas para estimar o tempo de concentração e os parâmetros dos modelos de precipitação efetiva e de geração de hidrogramas sintéticos de uma bacia hidrográfica em processo de urbanização. Os resultados obtidos colocaram em xeque a validade dos valores dos parâmetros sugeridos em literatura técnica, do modelo do SCS para a determinação da precipitação efetiva e das rotinas de cálculo do ABC6 para os modelos de Horton e de Green-Ampt. Os resultados demonstraram a necessidade da atualização das rotinas de cálculo presentes no ABC6, de forma a torna-lo mais robusto, e da elaboração de um manual técnico detalhado de suas rotinas computacionais, orientando ao usuário de forma a extrair o máximo de sua potencialidade em estudos hidrológicos. Demonstrou-se, também, a necessidade de estudos regionalizados, de forma a incorporar as características e peculiaridades de cada região aos parâmetros a serem utilizados. / In Brazil, the urbanization process was characterized by the lack of planning and adequate infrastructure, strengthening the arising of floods and flooding. In order to mitigate them, it is necessary to conduct hydrological studies that seek to understand and represent the behavior of the watershed when facing rainfall events. One of the most used tools to perform this task is the Decision Support Systems (DSS) applied in the water resources area, highlighting the Decision Support System for Flood Wave Analysis in Complex Watersheds (ABC6). The ABC6 is characterized by being a free Brazilian software and it presents many models to determine the effective precipitation and to generate synthetic hydrographs. When the hydrological data of the study area are available, such as precipitation and flow, the models parameters can be determined. Otherwise, it is necessary to estimate them through empirical formulations so that the application of these formulations is questionable in areas with different characteristics from those of their determination. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the performance of the models presented in ABC6 by using their empirical formulations in order to estimate the time of concentration and the model parameters of effective precipitation and synthetic hydrograph generation for a watershed in the process of urbanization. The results put into question the validity of the parameters values suggested in the technical literature of the SCS model, which is used for the effective precipitation determination and the ABC6 calculation routines for models of Horton and Green-Ampt. The results presented the need of updating the calculation routines presented in the ABC6 in order to make it more robust, and the need of the elaboration of a detailed technical manual of its computational routines, guiding the user in order to make the most of its potential in hydrological studies. In addition, it has been demonstrated a need for regionalized studies in order to incorporate the features and characteristics of each region to the parameters to be used.

Information system is widely used in financial area all around the world today, and businessintelligence systems has draw more and more attention from both academia and businesscircles. Based on this situation, we carried out our research. The main purpose of our researchis to find out how Decision Support System (DSS) is used in China's banks. As there are morethan five hundred banks in China, we choose the four biggest commercial banks(which hascover more than 85% of financial activities in China's banking area) as examples to study. Wesent Emails and made telephone calls to different roles in these four banks, from chiefinformation officer, managers of business to normal staff. Before carried out interviews, wedid literature study to set a scientific background for our interviews. After the collection andanalysis of data from both interview and literature study, the result is presented in threechapters. The theoretical study part introduces the theory background of DSS and how it isused in banks, the framework of the DSS and the basic model of the DSS, also newtechniques in DSS. The Empirical results part introduces the results got from interviews. InAnalysis part the results from the former chapters will be combined and analyzed, in this partwe presents the application situation of DSS in China's banks, the affection of DSS on banksemployees and improvement and drawback DSS brings to China's banks. Also newtechnology of decision support system and its application. And the last part we would drawconclusions for this thesis and summarize results from the interviews and theories andevaluate the whole research process. And the introduction of our research and the methodsused to achieve the research goal will be introduced in the first two chapters.

Decisions Support Systems (DSSs) are used to enhance decision maker speed and effectiveness. However, without a view of an entire system, any decision may have unanticipated effects such as sub-optimal outcomes. The purpose of this research is to show that with a system-level analysis, more informed decisions can be made that take into account a larger system or greater number of dimensions or objectives. This research also explores the benefits of using a DSS over analysis of unprocessed data and the effectiveness of integrating a product design generator (PDG) with a business DSS, creating a system DSS, where system-level effects can be analyzed. These are connected using software which allows them to be interactive, and dynamically updating. After this DSS was developed a variation was also made and decision makers evaluated these tools to identify how they performed in comparison to each other. In one variation, aspects of the tool were split up, guiding the decision maker through the analysis while the other did not. Using survey questions and recording decision makers' actions, it was found that decision makers are significantly faster and came to better conclusions when using the DSS over unprocessed data. However, it was also seen that the difference between the two variants of the System DSS tests was insignificant. This suggests that the limits in potential interactions in the one variant of a system DSS did not substantially reduce the ability of a decision maker to explore and make good design decisions. Overall this research showed that having a system-level tool is better than the unprocessed data, and that more extreme differences in a DSS are required for improved comparisons to establish which visualizations and elements are most effective in a System DSS. Future effort should be made to completely isolate different portions of the System DSS and see how well users are able to make decisions with it compared to the full system analysis.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado. Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Civil - Especialização em Construções. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2012

Background: The 5-hydroxytrptamine receptor 4 (5-HT4 receptor) is heavily expressed on colonic epithelial cells and has been targeted as a therapeutic for functional bowel symptoms and pain; however, adverse cardiac events related to 5-HT4 agonist treatment limited their therapeutic use. Previous studies in the Mawe laboratory have demonstrated that intraluminal application of a 5-HT4 agonist exerts protective epithelial actions in animal models of colitis, and accelerates recovery from colitis. The aim of this study was to test the effects of a luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist in a mouse model of experimental colitis. Methods: The luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist (Takeda Pharmaceuticals; 10 mg/kg) was administered to mice during active dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced colitis. Colitis activity was evaluated using disease activity index, a fecal lipocalin-2 assay, and histological damage scoring. Epithelial proliferation and colonic motility were also measured as readouts of the potential protective actions and colonic function, respectively. Results: Oral gavage and intracolonic delivery of this luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist had no detectable effect on recovery from colitis or colonic motility as compared to vehicle. Additionally, in positive control experiments, we failed to see an effect of the 5-HT4 agonist, tegaserod, on colitis severity or colonic motility in any of the measures tested. Conclusions: In conclusion, it is unclear if the luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist has any effect on recovery from DSS colitis. Given inconsistencies with the model and lack of an effect of tegaserod, additional studies will be required, possibly involving different doses and time points, to fully assess the actions of this luminally restricted compound in colitis recovery.

The purpose of this study was to examine the utilization of Front of House and Back of House technology applications by U.S. restaurants across different types of restaurants along with their level of IT management style, and the importance of these technology applications to the restaurants' operations. This study used secondary data. The survey data collected from 500 randomly selected restaurant technology managers who are current subscribers of Hospitality Technology Magazine as of January 2013. Response rate was 27.2% and these sample groups represented 67,299 restaurant units. The data analysis was organized into 3 parts (descriptive, factor analysis and independent samples t-test). In the descriptive part of the data analysis, the information about respondents' job functions, company characteristics and companies' IT perspectives are evaluated. In the second part, factor analysis was used. Since the factor analysis is a data reduction technique, factor analysis is used to create correlated variable composites and to reduce variables for better interpretation. The third and final stage of the data analysis included testing hypotheses based on factor analysis outcomes by using an independent samples t-test. The main purpose of using an independent samples t-test is to determine whether position (IT versus Non-IT), types of restaurant (Chain versus Independent), business leadership and technology leadership (Innovator versus Follower) differ on the factor attributes.