M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The reason why I chose this topic is not nor the complexity of global world neither the growing pressure on quick and effective managerial resolutions as it is mentioned in similar scripts. Surprisingly, the main impulse was the synergy of three principal aspects of my master study. First millstone was a study of main specialization by its self: Information management, on cathedra of System analysis, faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Economic University in Prague. The second angle is the minor specialization of the study: Retail business, on cathedra of Commercial business, faculty of International relations, Economic University in Prague. Last but no least aspect is simultaneously exercised practice in field of managing the project ICT/ IS and logistic operations. Prime aim of this work is a concept of presentation of DSS, which is intended to support the decision-making process of development of a retail chain of fictitious firm JK, a.s. Partial goals heading to fulfilment of a prime aim are: determination of a theoretical expectations, methods and methodic needed to proposal of DSS, description, and analysis of company and retail chain, procedural analyze of decision making-process of retail chain development, concept of system dynamic model, which forms the root of DSS and the concept of DSS by its self. Secondary aim is to gather satisfactory amount of theoretical and practical details for presentation of project DSS to management of the company. The biggest benefits of this work are fulfilment of a prime and secondary aim, together with the project DSS it self, which could be partly applied for the support of the decision-making process in the company. Further assets for the firm JK, a.s. are conclusions of some captures, which could be used for planning of marketing campaigns, generating Business Knowledge Base, evaluation of affectivity of sales and human resources, etc. The final bonus for the author of this work is the personal progression, profession growth, caused by gain of new

Pricing decision support systems have been developed in order to help retail companies optimise the prices they set when selling their goods and services. This research aims to enhance the essential forecasting and optimisation techniques that underlie these systems. This is first done by applying the method of Dynamic Linear Models in order to provide sales forecasts of a higher accuracy compared with current methods. Secondly, the method of Support Vector Regression is used to forecast future competitor prices. This new technique aims to produce forecasts of greater accuracy compared with the assumption currentlyused in pricing decision support systems that each competitor's price will simply remain unchanged. Thirdly, when competitor prices aren't forecasted, a new pricing optimisation technique is presented which provides the highest guaranteed profit. Existing pricing decision support systems optimise price assuming that competitor prices will remain unchanged but this optimisation can't be trusted since competitor prices are never actually forecasted. Finally, when competitor prices are forecasted, an exhaustive search of a game-tree is presented as a new way to optimise a retailer's price. This optimisation incorporates future competitor price moves, something which is vital when analysing the success of a pricing strategy but is absent from current pricing decision support systems. Each approach is applied to the forecasting and optimisation of daily retail vehicle fuel pricing using real commercial data, showing the improved results in each case.

In this thesis, a framework for market-based resource allocation in manufacturing is developed and described. The most salient feature of the proposed framework is that it builds on a foundation of well-established economic theory and uses the theory to guide both the agent and market design. There are two motivations for introducing the added complexity of the market metaphor into a decision-making environment that is traditionally addressed using monolithic, centralized techniques. First, markets are composed of autonomous, self-interested agents with well defined boundaries, capabilities, and knowledge. By decomposing a large, complex decision problem along these lines, the task of formulating the problem and identifying its many conflicting objectives is simplified. Second, markets provide a means of encapsulating the many interdependencies between agents into a single mechanism—price. By ignoring the desires and objectives of all other agents and selfishly maximizing their own expected utility over a set of prices, the agents achieve a high degree of independence from one another. Thus, the market provides a means of achieving distributed computation. To test the basic feasibility of the market-based approach, a prototype, system is used to generate solutions to small instances of a very general class of manufacturing scheduling problems. The agents in the system bid in competition with other agents to secure contracts for scarce production resources. In order to accurately model the complexity and uncertainty of the manufacturing environment, agents are implemented as decision-theoretic planners. By using dynamic programming, the agents can determine their optimal course of action given their resource requirements. Although each agent-level planning problem (like the global level planning problem) induces an unsolvably large Markov Decision Problem, the structured dynamic programming algorithm exploits sources of independence within the problem and is shown to greatly increase the size of problems that can be solved in practice. In the final stage of the framework, an auction is used to determine the ultimate allocation of resource bundles to parts. Although the resulting combinational auctions are generally intractable, highly optimized algorithms do exist for finding efficient equilibria. In this thesis, a heuristic auction protocol is introduced and is shown to be capable of eliminating common modes of market failure in combinational auctions. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

My thesis aims several objectives. The first goal is to search the theoretical basis of management simulators and health management in order to create an overview of these two topics. Healthcare is an exceptional field, so as I set out to find specifics in health service management. Another aim of my thesis is to create a management simulator using Powersim software. Created management simulator is used as a modeling tool for simulation of processes and behavior of the upper or ward nurse on each shift the focus on utilization of subordinate nurses and supervisors themselves. The simulator is designed as a decision support system. The simulator has been tested and consulted on gastroenterology department of Nemocnice Milosrdných sester sv. Karla Boromejského in Prague. One of the goals is to make accessible the system thinking and its application to management. Using system dynamics approaches to case study to find appropriate recommendations for lower-level management in health care facilities in general. The last objective is the creation of test scenarios to verify the functionality of the simulator and testing hypotheses from which emerges a recommendation for hospital departments.

Orientador: Maria Lucia Galves / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T15:07:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marques_AntonioCarlosFerreira_M.pdf: 5138232 bytes, checksum: 1141ab6c0801bb4a81adcc179d6c245a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: A importância dos aeroportos está alicerçada por algumas forças e tendências irreversíveis, tais como aeronaves com grande capacidade de carga e velocidade, tecnologias avançadas de telecomunicações e a globalização das transações comerciais. Um dos eixos dos projetos de expansão dos aeroportos é a instalação de indústrias sem fumaça no situo aeroportuário caracterizando o que vem sendo denominado de "aeroporto industrial". Este trabalho apresenta a caracterização do aeroporto industrial e suas implicações sócio-econômicas e ambientais, bem como revisa o processo decisório da implantação do Aeroporto Industrial de Viracopos - Campinas-SP. Para tanto, optou-se por trabalhar com a metodologia do Apoio Multicritério à Decisão (AMCD), por sua capacidade de auxiliar as etapas de estruturação e avaliação de problemas complexos e de interesses conflitantes, e de tratar tanto de aspectos objetivos quanto subjetivos existentes no contexto decisório. É esperado que uma das contribuições deste estudo seja a de que os especialistas e decisores passem a considerar a aplicação do AMCD no contexto de suas decisões sobre problemas e oportunidades tanto de maior quanto de menor complexidade. / Abstract: The importance of airports has been based on some irreversible forces and trends like airplanes with bigger and bigger cargo capacity and greater speed, advanced telecommunications technology, and the globalization of commerce. One of these axises concerning airports expansion projects is the implementation of smokeless industries in industrial parks built within the airport sites. This dissertation aims at characterizing these airport industrial parks and their social, economic and environmental impacts, as well as reviewing the decision process of implementing Viracopos Industrial Airport. The methodology chosen to review that decision is the Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA), due to its logic of structuring and of evaluating complex and conflicting problems, and of dealing with the objective as well as the subjective aspects existing in a decision context. It is expected that one of the contributions of this study is that specialists and decision makers consider using the MCDA methodology in making their decisions about less or more complex problems. / Mestrado / Transportes / Mestre em Engenharia Civil

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第20005号 / 農博第2189号 / 新制||農||1045(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H28||N5014(農学部図書室) / 33101 / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 藤原 正幸, 教授 村上 章, 准教授 宇波 耕一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The early identification of non-responding psychotherapy clients and reducing their treatment failure rates are the principal functions of Clinical Support Tools (CST). Nearly two decades of patient-focused research have produced several "evidence-based treatment monitoring" (EBTM) practices, that measure individual patients' responses to theory-guided treatments and alert therapists of clients who are at risk of eventual treatment failure. Clinical Support Tools are a quality management program that bundle several EBTM practices, and have been shown to improve outcomes in failing clients (Shimokawa, Lambert & Smart, 2010). Appropriately, EBTM has generated significant interest as it expands notions of what constitutes evidence-based practice with non-responding patients (APA, 2006). There is a practical need to disseminate Clinical Support Tools to a wider audience of clinicians and practice environments. The current study was designed to advance understanding of CST mechanisms by providing detailed, qualitative data that demonstrate how CST procedures are utilized in routine practice. Eleven doctoral-level psychologists experienced in using Clinical Support Tools at a university counseling center were interviewed about their use of Clinical Support Tools with a recent non-responding client and about their general experiences with past non-responding clients. Clinicians' responses were categorized as Actions, Decisions, or Attitudes, and were subjected to inductive, thematic content analysis. Results were interpreted to indicate which CST functions were active or inactive in the therapists' routine care. Findings indicated that therapists utilized CST resources to monitor patient status, to identify problems that may have explained therapy non-response, and to initiate corrective interventions. Although it was clear that therapists used the CST signal-alarm system to initiate a problem assessment and corrective intervention, it was less clear whether therapists used CST's to determine significance of client change or to determine the client's prognosis. This observation needs to be confirmed through further investigation. Future research that quantifies CST utilization and investigates implementation-outcome relationships is recommended. Finally, practical avenues for increasing the influence and prevalence of EBTM practices in behavioral healthcare are discussed.

Yes / The traditional linear economy using a take‐make‐dispose model is resource intensive and has adverse environmental impacts. Circular economy (CE) which is regenerative and restorative by design is recommended as the business model for resource efficiency. While there is a need for businesses and organisations to switch from linear to CE, there are several challenges that needs addressing such as business models and the criticism of CE projects often being small scale. Technology can be an enabler toward scaling up CE; however, the prime challenge is to identify technologies that can allow predicting, tracking and proactively monitoring product's residual value to motivate businesses to pursue circularity decisions. In this paper, we propose an IoT‐enabled decision support system (DSS) for CE business model that effectively allows tracking, monitoring, and analysing products in real time with the focus on residual value. The business model is implemented using an ontological model. This model is complemented by a semantic decision support system. The semantic ontological model, first of its kind, is evaluated for technical compliance. We applied DSS and the ontological model in a real‐world use case and demonstrate viability and applicability of our approach.

Heavy precipitation events are expected to increase in intensity and frequency, due to global warming. Sewer systems might overload during heavy rainfall, resulting in floods which potentially affect all municipalities in Sweden. Traditionally, stormwater is seen as pipe-related problem, but a transition towards Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) has started. SuDS aim to reduce the quantity of the runoff from the site, slow down the runoff to allow (in)filtration, and provide treatment of the surface water before discharge. In Sweden, municipalities are responsible for the sewer system and realization and implementation of climate change adaptation measures, like SuDS. Tools and models support the highly complex selection, location, and design of SuDS, by systematically providing the most relevant information that represents the actual drainage system in the best way possible. Furthermore, models are used to predict the behaviour of SuDS, which may form Decision Support Systems (DSS). The highest interest in SuDS modelling and DSS lies in water quantity, however existing models are complex and lack flexibility, transferability, and stakeholder inclusion. The aim of this project is to provide a tool for the Municipality of Östersund that aids in the decision-making and design process for the implementation of SuDS, concerning their capacity to store stormwater. The ‘SuDS water storage capacity calculator’ can be used to test what (combinations of) SuDS are able to store the stormwater of a heavy rainfall event.The following SuDS components were included in the calculator: extensive green roofs, underground infiltration systems, infiltration basins, swales, porous pavements, detention basins, ponds, and wetlands. Secondly, the technical criteria forming the basis of the calculator were identified through a literature review. These criteria were used to calculate precipitation and the water storage capacity of each SuDS. The calculator was then built in Microsoft Powerpoint using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Two case studies were selected in Östersund and explored using the calculator. The water storage capacity of each SuDS component was calculated using scenarios in which 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the total available area in each case study was used as input. Finally, four combinations of SuDS were tested concerning their water storage capacity. All calculated water storage capacity was compared to the amount of water falling on the case study areas during a heavy precipitation event that only occurs once every 100 years.The developed calculator can be used to calculate water storage capacity of SuDS and precipitation in a simple way. The tool contains user input and default values, which can still be changed. Furthermore, the calculator allows comparison between the amount of precipitation and water storage capacity. The results of the scenarios show that underground infiltration systems and detention basins have the highest potential to store stormwater, followed by infiltration basins, porous pavements, and ponds or wetlands. The calculator has limited design options, due to its simplification of reality. However, its limits are mostly applicable further in the designing process. The4calculator gives a rough estimate of the potential water storage capacity of a variety of SuDS components. The calculator is a useful tool before the design process has started, by providing an indication of the options that are worthwhile to consider in terms of water storage capacity. Furthermore, opportunities for optimization of the tool were recognized. The water storage capacity resulting from the different scenarios was compared to the precipitation falling on each case study area. Realistically, the amount of precipitation that exceeds the capacity of the sewer system might not fall directly where the SuDS are located. Finally, the calculator allows applications of a wider range of combinations of SuDS components. / <p>2022-06.16</p>