Este trabalho propõe um Sistema de Controle de Qualidade (CQP) dos processos fotogramétricos digitais para a produção de dados espaciais baseados nos conceitos de gestão de qualidade ISO 9000 e nas diretrizes normativas suíças e norte-americanas. Procurou-se obter parâmetros de qualidade em cada um dos processos fotogramétricos digitais, de forma a garantir a qualidade final dos produtos e satisfazer às necessidades de precisão e exatidão dos dados espaciais e as suas aplicações. As principais fontes de erros são identificadas e comentadas e algumas das soluções propostas foram testadas com sucesso. / This work is aimed to the development of a Quality Control Process to be applied in the digital photogrametric processes that are part of the spatial data production. It is based on quality managements standards of ISO 9000 and in the Swiss and North American standards guidelines. Each step of the process was investigated to obtain individual parameters of quality that, collectively, were able to assure the quality of the end product, mostly in those aspects regarding the requirements for precision and accuracy. The main sources of errors are identified and discussed and some of the proposed solutions were tested successfully.

Este trabalho propõe um Sistema de Controle de Qualidade (CQP) dos processos fotogramétricos digitais para a produção de dados espaciais baseados nos conceitos de gestão de qualidade ISO 9000 e nas diretrizes normativas suíças e norte-americanas. Procurou-se obter parâmetros de qualidade em cada um dos processos fotogramétricos digitais, de forma a garantir a qualidade final dos produtos e satisfazer às necessidades de precisão e exatidão dos dados espaciais e as suas aplicações. As principais fontes de erros são identificadas e comentadas e algumas das soluções propostas foram testadas com sucesso. / This work is aimed to the development of a Quality Control Process to be applied in the digital photogrametric processes that are part of the spatial data production. It is based on quality managements standards of ISO 9000 and in the Swiss and North American standards guidelines. Each step of the process was investigated to obtain individual parameters of quality that, collectively, were able to assure the quality of the end product, mostly in those aspects regarding the requirements for precision and accuracy. The main sources of errors are identified and discussed and some of the proposed solutions were tested successfully.

This thesis investigates the relationship between social meaning and linguistic change. An important observation regarding spoken languages is that they are constantly changing: the way we speak differs from generation to generation. A second important observation is that spoken utterances convey social as well as denotational meaning: the way we speak communicates something about who we are. How, if at all, are these two characteristics of spoken languages related? Many sociolinguistic studies have argued that the social meaning of linguistic features is central to explaining the spread of linguistic innovations. A novel form might be heard as more prestigious than the older form, or it may become associated with specific social stereotypes relevant to the community in which the change occurs. It is argued that this association between a linguistic variant and social meaning leads speakers to adopt or reject the innovation, inhibiting or facilitating the spread of the change. In contrast, a number of scholars have argued that social meaning is epiphenomenal to many linguistic changes, which are instead driven by an automatic process of convergence in face-to-face interaction. The issue that such arguments raise is that many studies proposing a role of social meaning in the spread of linguistic innovations rely on production data as their primary source of evidence. Observing the variable adoption of innovations across different groups of speakers (e.g. by gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status), a researcher might draw on their knowledge of the social history of the community under study to infer the role of social meaning in that change. In many cases, the observed patterns of could equally be explained by the social structure of the community under study, which constrains who speaks to whom. Are linguistic changes facilitated and inhibited by social meaning? Or is it rather the case that social meaning arises as a consequence of linguistic change, without necessarily influencing the change itself? This thesis explores these questions through a study of vocalic change in York, Northern England, focusing on the fronting and diphthongization of the tense back vowels /u/ and /o/. It presents a systematic comparison of the social meanings listeners assign to innovations (captured using perceptual methods), their social attitudes with regard to those meanings (captured through sociolinguistic interviews), and their use of those forms in production (captured through acoustic analysis). It is argued that evidence of a consistent relationship between these factors would support the proposal that social meaning plays a role in linguistic change. The results of this combined analysis of sociolinguistic perception, social attitudes and speech production provide clear evidence of diachronic /u/ and /o/ fronting in this community, and show that variation in these two vowels is associated with a range of social meanings in perception. These meanings are underpinned by the notion of 'Broad Yorkshire' speech, a socially-recognized speech register linked to notions of authentic local identity and social class. Monophthongal /o/, diphthongal /u/, and back variants of both vowels are shown to be associated with this register, implying that a speaker who adopts an innovative form will likely be heard as less 'Broad'. However, there is no clear evidence that speakers' attitudes toward regional identity or social class have any influence on their adoption of innovations, nor that that their ability to recognise the social meaning of fronting in perception is related to their production behaviour. The fronting of /u/ is spreading in a socially-uniform manner in production, unaffected by any social factor tested except for age. The fronting of /o/ is conditioned by social network structure - speakers with more diverse social networks are more likely to adopt the innovative form, while speakers with closer social ties to York are more likely to retain a back variant. These findings demonstrate that York speakers hear back forms of /u/ and /o/ as more 'local' and 'working class' than fronter realizations, and express strong attitudes toward the values and practices associated with regional identity and social class. However, these factors do not appear to influence their adoption of linguistic innovations in any straightforward manner, contrasting the predictions of an account of linguistic change where social meaning plays a central role in facilitating or inhibiting the propagation of linguistic innovations. Based on these results, the thesis argues that many linguistic changes may spread through the production patterns of a speech community without the direct influence of social meaning, and advocates for the combined analysis of sociolinguistic perception, social attitudes and speech production in future work.

Marine biotoxins constitute one of the major hazards associated with seafood consumption. Risk assessments are essential for the effective management of problems arising from marine biotoxins occurrence, as they are a prerequisite for the establishment or periodic re-evaluation of marine biotoxins regulatory limits and for the adoption of appropriate risk management plans. Risk assessments are science-based data-intensive processes, and their successful outcomes are largely dependent on the quality of data used when they are carried out. In fact, data-related challenges are the most frequently reported issues rendering most marine biotoxins’ risk assessments conducted to date as inconclusive. Notably, data quality perceptions among the stakeholders involved in risk assessments may vary significantly, which may be a human factor influencing data quality. As such, the problem addressed in this thesis is the shortage of empirical information on how data quality is perceived by the different stakeholder roles involved in risk assessments relevant to marine biotoxins hazards. The focus of this thesis is thus to investigate the perceptions of diverse stakeholders within the information chain, namely data producers, collectors and consumers/users, regarding the quality of data used in risk assessments of marine biotoxins hazards, to provide a contribution directed towards data quality improvement. This was done by means of a survey, gathering data through interviewing a number of recognized marine biotoxins’ experts with documented experience in risk assessments. The research question of this study is: “What are the perceptions of data quality among diverse stakeholders along the information chain relevant to marine biotoxins’ risk assessments?” To answer the research question, the concept of data quality for marine biotoxins data destined for risk assessments was dissected into seven individual subtopics on which the perceptions of expert participants of all three roles were captured. The subtopics explored included: data quality challenges; changes in marine biotoxins data quality during the last decade; awareness on data quality legislation and standardization; importance of data quality dimensions, objectives and key performance indicators; importance of data quality-related feedback exchange between stakeholders of the relevant information chain; factors for successful adoption of harmonized standardized formats for marine biotoxins data collection; and suggestions for data quality improvement. The perceptions gathered per subtopic were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, yielding a total of twelve themes, namely communication, compound, data/quality control, Information Technology or Data Collection Framework, legislation, method, organization, people, policy, risk assessment procedure, society/environment and toxicological aspects, with each subtopic containing items categorized within several of these themes. Certain differences were observed in the perceptions between participants of diverse data roles, in the sense that data producers and to a lesser extent data users mostly focused on themes relevant to analytical methodology, compound particularities, data and quality control, toxicological aspects and policies. On the other hand, data collectors’ views were more concentrated on items relevant to Information Technology or Data Collection Framework and organization. It is noted, however, that interpretation of these trends needs to consider that in many of the study participants different roles overlapped in the same person. This indicates that results should be cautiously generalized. Nevertheless, they could constitute a basis for further research to generate deeper knowledge in the field of data quality in risk assessments relevant to marine biotoxins and gain further insights on the differences in perceptions among data roles.

The Master’s Thesis focuses on examination and assessment of information system in the Plojhar s.r.o. company and on proposal of changes for its improvement. The theoretical part contains definitions of the basic concepts relevant to the subject of information systems and approaches to their assessment, management and administration. In the next, analytical part, the information system is examined from several points of view and a complex analysis is performed. Possible solutions of changes of the information system are presented on the basis of the analysis.