This research focuses on effective decision-making for sustainable manufacturing design and management. The research contributes to the decision-making tools that can enable sustainability analysts to capture the aspects of the economic, environmental and social dimensions into a common framework. The framework will enable the practitioners to conduct a sustainability impact analysis of a real or proposed manufacturing system and use the outcome to support sustainability decision. In the past, the industries had focused more on the economic aspects in gaining and sustaining their competitive positions; this has changed in the recent years following the Brundtland report which centred on incorporating the sustainability of the future generations into our decision for meeting today's needs (Brundtland, 1987). The government regulations and legislation, coupled with the changes in consumers' preference for ethical and environmentally friendly products are other factors that are challenging and changing the way companies, and organisations perceive and drive their competitive goals (Gu et al., 2015). Another challenge is the lack of adequate tools to address the dynamism of the manufacturing environment and the need to balance the business' competitive goal with sustainability requirements. The launch of the Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) framework further emphasised the needs for the integration and analysis of the interdependencies of the three dimensions for effective decision-making and the control of unintended consequences (UNEP, 2011). Various studies have also demonstrated the importance of interdependence impact analysis and integration of the three sustainability dimensions of the product, process and system levels of sustainability (Jayal et al., 2010; Valdivia et al., 2013; Eastwood and Haapala, 2015). Although there are tools capable of assessing the performance of either one or two of the three sustainability dimensions, the tools have not adequately integrated the three dimensions or address the holistic sustainability issues. Hence, this research proposes an approach to provide a solution for successful interdependence impact analysis and trade-off amongst the three sustainability dimensions and enable support for effective decision-making in a manufacturing environment. This novel approach explores and integrates the concepts and principles of the existing sustainability methodologies and frameworks and the simulation modelling construction process into a common descriptive framework for process level assessment. The thesis deploys Delphi study to verify and validate the descriptive framework and demonstrates its applicability in a case study of a real manufacturing system. The results of the research demonstrate the completeness, conciseness, correctness, clarity and applicability of the descriptive framework. Thus, the outcome of this research is a simulation-based impact analysis framework which provides a new way for sustainability practitioners to build an integrated and holistic computer simulation model of a real system, capable of assessing both production and sustainability performance of a dynamic manufacturing system.

In economically turbulent times, Business Intelligence (BI) is increasingly being used to mitigate risk and increase certainty. The evolution of BI from a series of technologies to a platform for supporting strategies is analyzed in this thesis. The concentration is on how BI can streamline manufacturing, quality assurance, marketing and customer service are evaluated, as are the potential payoffs of increasing the level of insight an organization has. The thesis also includes analysis of how the more complex value chain processes including build-to-order, configure-to-order and quote-to-order can be made more efficient and profitable through the inclusion of BI and its associated analytics and technologies. The inclusion of the Delphi research technique makes this paper unique and strong in its content as well. The role of BI has shifted from being used in specific functional areas of an organization to being strategic in scope. The intent of this thesis is to evaluate its contributions to the customer-facing processes that are the most complex and most challenging to sustain, making BI an indispensible platform for their successful execution on the base of theories and practical experience of the BI experts.

Abstract available on PDF file. / Ph.D.--University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

A Educação Permanente à Saúde (EPS) é um importante instrumento para garantir qualidade do cuidado em Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS). O Projeto Telessaúde RS objetiva avaliar as necessidades em EPS e qualificar a APS por meio de ferramentas de teleducação e teleassistência. Objetivo: Avaliar necessidades em EPS percebidas por médicos das equipes de Saúde da Família dos municípios participantes do Projeto Telessaúde RS. Método: Estudo transversal do censo de profissionais médicos de equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) de 32 municípios do Rio Grande do Sul e Estudo Delphi de docentes de disciplinas em APS, preceptores de Residências de Medicina de Família e Comunidade, pesquisadores, gestores e profissionais da APS do Rio Grande do Sul. Resultados: Os temas em EPS com maior necessidade percebida estão associados às áreas de saúde mental, doenças cardiovasculares e outras doenças crônico-degenerativas como Hipertensão e Diabetes. Observa-se concordância de leve à moderada (Kappa 0,2- 0,5) entre as necessidades em EPS de médicos do Projeto Telessaúde e o consenso do Estudo Delphi. A satisfação com o salário e a formação em Medicina de Família estão associados com maior concordância (p<0,05). Há pobre concordância entre necessidades percebidas e causas de internações por condições sensíveis à APS (ICSAP) mais freqüentes. Conclusão: O estudo Delphi constitui-se em ferramenta de apoio para condução de políticas de EPS. A avaliação da efetividade da APS por meio das ICSAPs deve ser incluída no processo de planejamento do cuidado em APS pelas equipes. / The Continuos Professional Development (CPD) is an important instrument to guarantee quality of care in Primary Health Care (PHC). The Telessaúde Project objective to evaluate the necessities in PHE and to qualifying the PHC through teleeducation tools and teleassistance. Goals: To evaluate necessities in CPD perceived by medical doctors of the Family Health teams of participant cities of the Telessaúde RS Project. Method: Crosssectional study with census of medical professionals of Family Health Strategy teams (FHS), within 33 cities of the Rio Grande do Sul and Delphi study with professors of disciplines about PHC, preceptores of residences of family practice, researchers, managers and medical professionals of Rio Grande do Sul PHC. Results: The subjects in CPD with major perceived necessity are associates to areas of mental health, cardiovascular disease and others chronic degenerative diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension . We observed fair to moderate agreement (Kappa 0,2-0,5) between the necessities in CPD of Telessaúde Project doctors and the consensus of Delphi Study. The wage satisfaction and the Family Medicine Graduate were associated with major agreement (p< 0,05). Poor agreement was detected between perceived necessities and Hospitalizations for ambulatory care Sensitive conditions (HACSC) more frequent. Conclusion: The Delphi study, consists in a tool of support for conduction of PHE policies. The evaluation of the effectivity of the PHC by through of the HACSC must be enclosed in the process of planning the PHC care. / Telemedicina

A Educação Permanente à Saúde (EPS) é um importante instrumento para garantir qualidade do cuidado em Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS). O Projeto Telessaúde RS objetiva avaliar as necessidades em EPS e qualificar a APS por meio de ferramentas de teleducação e teleassistência. Objetivo: Avaliar necessidades em EPS percebidas por médicos das equipes de Saúde da Família dos municípios participantes do Projeto Telessaúde RS. Método: Estudo transversal do censo de profissionais médicos de equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) de 32 municípios do Rio Grande do Sul e Estudo Delphi de docentes de disciplinas em APS, preceptores de Residências de Medicina de Família e Comunidade, pesquisadores, gestores e profissionais da APS do Rio Grande do Sul. Resultados: Os temas em EPS com maior necessidade percebida estão associados às áreas de saúde mental, doenças cardiovasculares e outras doenças crônico-degenerativas como Hipertensão e Diabetes. Observa-se concordância de leve à moderada (Kappa 0,2- 0,5) entre as necessidades em EPS de médicos do Projeto Telessaúde e o consenso do Estudo Delphi. A satisfação com o salário e a formação em Medicina de Família estão associados com maior concordância (p<0,05). Há pobre concordância entre necessidades percebidas e causas de internações por condições sensíveis à APS (ICSAP) mais freqüentes. Conclusão: O estudo Delphi constitui-se em ferramenta de apoio para condução de políticas de EPS. A avaliação da efetividade da APS por meio das ICSAPs deve ser incluída no processo de planejamento do cuidado em APS pelas equipes. / The Continuos Professional Development (CPD) is an important instrument to guarantee quality of care in Primary Health Care (PHC). The Telessaúde Project objective to evaluate the necessities in PHE and to qualifying the PHC through teleeducation tools and teleassistance. Goals: To evaluate necessities in CPD perceived by medical doctors of the Family Health teams of participant cities of the Telessaúde RS Project. Method: Crosssectional study with census of medical professionals of Family Health Strategy teams (FHS), within 33 cities of the Rio Grande do Sul and Delphi study with professors of disciplines about PHC, preceptores of residences of family practice, researchers, managers and medical professionals of Rio Grande do Sul PHC. Results: The subjects in CPD with major perceived necessity are associates to areas of mental health, cardiovascular disease and others chronic degenerative diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension . We observed fair to moderate agreement (Kappa 0,2-0,5) between the necessities in CPD of Telessaúde Project doctors and the consensus of Delphi Study. The wage satisfaction and the Family Medicine Graduate were associated with major agreement (p< 0,05). Poor agreement was detected between perceived necessities and Hospitalizations for ambulatory care Sensitive conditions (HACSC) more frequent. Conclusion: The Delphi study, consists in a tool of support for conduction of PHE policies. The evaluation of the effectivity of the PHC by through of the HACSC must be enclosed in the process of planning the PHC care. / Telemedicina

New privacy regulations bring new challenges to organizations that are handling and processing personal data regarding persons within the EU. These challenges come mainly in the form of policies and procedures but also with some opportunities to use technology often used in other sectors to solve problems. In this thesis, we look at the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU that comes into full effect in May of 2018, we analyze what some of the requirements of the regulation means for the industry of processing personal data, and we look at the possible solution of using hardware security modules (HSMs) to reach compliance with the regulation. We also conduct an empirical study using the Delphi method to ask security professionals what they think the most important aspects of securing personal data, and put that data in relation to the identified compliance requirements of the GDPR to see what organizations should focus on in their quest for compliance with the new regulation. We found that a successful implementation of HSMs based on industry standards and best practices address four of the 35 identified GDPR compliance requirements, mainly the aspects concerning compliance with anonymization through encryption, and access control. We also deduced that the most important aspect of securing personal data according to the experts of the Delphi study is access control followed by data inventory and classification.

A Educação Permanente à Saúde (EPS) é um importante instrumento para garantir qualidade do cuidado em Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS). O Projeto Telessaúde RS objetiva avaliar as necessidades em EPS e qualificar a APS por meio de ferramentas de teleducação e teleassistência. Objetivo: Avaliar necessidades em EPS percebidas por médicos das equipes de Saúde da Família dos municípios participantes do Projeto Telessaúde RS. Método: Estudo transversal do censo de profissionais médicos de equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) de 32 municípios do Rio Grande do Sul e Estudo Delphi de docentes de disciplinas em APS, preceptores de Residências de Medicina de Família e Comunidade, pesquisadores, gestores e profissionais da APS do Rio Grande do Sul. Resultados: Os temas em EPS com maior necessidade percebida estão associados às áreas de saúde mental, doenças cardiovasculares e outras doenças crônico-degenerativas como Hipertensão e Diabetes. Observa-se concordância de leve à moderada (Kappa 0,2- 0,5) entre as necessidades em EPS de médicos do Projeto Telessaúde e o consenso do Estudo Delphi. A satisfação com o salário e a formação em Medicina de Família estão associados com maior concordância (p<0,05). Há pobre concordância entre necessidades percebidas e causas de internações por condições sensíveis à APS (ICSAP) mais freqüentes. Conclusão: O estudo Delphi constitui-se em ferramenta de apoio para condução de políticas de EPS. A avaliação da efetividade da APS por meio das ICSAPs deve ser incluída no processo de planejamento do cuidado em APS pelas equipes. / The Continuos Professional Development (CPD) is an important instrument to guarantee quality of care in Primary Health Care (PHC). The Telessaúde Project objective to evaluate the necessities in PHE and to qualifying the PHC through teleeducation tools and teleassistance. Goals: To evaluate necessities in CPD perceived by medical doctors of the Family Health teams of participant cities of the Telessaúde RS Project. Method: Crosssectional study with census of medical professionals of Family Health Strategy teams (FHS), within 33 cities of the Rio Grande do Sul and Delphi study with professors of disciplines about PHC, preceptores of residences of family practice, researchers, managers and medical professionals of Rio Grande do Sul PHC. Results: The subjects in CPD with major perceived necessity are associates to areas of mental health, cardiovascular disease and others chronic degenerative diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension . We observed fair to moderate agreement (Kappa 0,2-0,5) between the necessities in CPD of Telessaúde Project doctors and the consensus of Delphi Study. The wage satisfaction and the Family Medicine Graduate were associated with major agreement (p< 0,05). Poor agreement was detected between perceived necessities and Hospitalizations for ambulatory care Sensitive conditions (HACSC) more frequent. Conclusion: The Delphi study, consists in a tool of support for conduction of PHE policies. The evaluation of the effectivity of the PHC by through of the HACSC must be enclosed in the process of planning the PHC care. / Telemedicina

No description available.

Vi lever i en föränderlig värld. Globalisering, urbanisering och digitalisering är ledord i nuvarande samhällsutveckling. Hur påverkar denna föränderliga värld gymnasieskolans matematik? Det ledord som kanske ligger närmast och ingjuter störst påverkan för ämnet matematik är troligtvis digitalisering. Digitalisering som ursprungligen innebar omvandling från analog till digital representation av information handlar numera även om skapande och nyttjande av nya tekniska lösningar, system, tjänster et cetera. Det moderna informationssamhället bryts på ett sätt ned i nollor och ettor där lösningar eller tillämpningar skapas med ett enkelt knapptryck. Bakom dessa automatiserade system utförs mängder av matematiska beräkningar. Matematik förekommer och nyttjas således extremt mycket idag, förmodligen mer än någonsin tidigare. I detta examensarbete kommer jag undersöka om gymnasieskolans matematik förändras och utvecklas i samma utsträckning som övriga samhället. Är gymnasieskolans matematiska innehåll det som ungdomar har nytta av senare i livet? Utvecklar skolan rätt förmågor? Forskningsfrågan som är min startpunkt för denna studie lyder enligt följande. Vilka matematiska kunskaper/förmågor bör en elev från gymnasieskolan inneha? För att undersöka detta genomför jag en så kallad Delfistudie riktad till en mängd olika aktörer i samhället. Jag söker följaktligen ”hela samhällets” svar på denna fråga. Delaktiga i min studie återfinns bland annat inom fastighets-, försäkrings- och läkemedelsbranschen. Individer från fordons-, olje- och stålindustrin samt detaljhandel och pedagogiskt arbete ä räven inkluderade. Samtliga inkommande svar har jag analyserat och kategoriserat i två grupper – innehåll respektive förmågor. Kategoriseringen är ett medvetet val för att underlätta jämförelsen med gymnasieskolans ämnesplan och kursplaner i matematik. Slutsatserna av min Delfistudie är följande. Efter avslutad gymnasieutbildning ska eleverna vara tillräckligt matematiskt utrustade för att leva ett bra fungerande och delaktigt liv isamhället. Innehållsmässigt ska de således klara av den vardagliga matematiken som attf örstå procentuella prisnedsättningar och räntekostnader av lån. De ska även inneha förståelse om nyhetsrapporteringens och valrörelsens statistiska undersökningar et cetera. Vidare visar Delfistudien att de matematiska förmågor som samhället söker återges relativt väl i Skolverkets styrdokument. Möjligen önskas en högre grad av abstrakt, logiskt och analytiskt tänkande samt att förstå samband än vad styrdokumenten tydliggör. Delfistudien leder även till tankar och funderingar som är något utanför det traditionella matematiska området. Undersökningen visar att förmågan arbetsmoral kan ses som en viktig egenskap att inneha efter gymnasieskolan. Denna generella förmåga är inte en traditionell akademisk matematisk förmåga vilket initierar följdfrågor. Vilket skolämne i gymnasieskolanska utveckla elevernas arbetsmoral? Vilka fler generella förmågor borde ingå i gymnasieskolans utbildning och vilket eller vilka ämnen ska ta ansvar över dessa? / We live in a changing world. Globalization, urbanization and digitalization are key words in current societal development. How does this changing world affect upper secondary school mathematics? The key word that perhaps is closest and instills the greatest impact on the subject of mathematics is probably digitalization. Digitalization, which originally involved the transformation from analogue to digital representation of information, is now also about the creation and use of new technical solutions, systems, services and so on. The modern information society is broken down in away into zeros and ones where solutions or applications are created with a simple push of a button. Behind all these automated systems, lots of mathematical calculations are performed. Mathematics thus occurs and is used extremely widely today, probably more than ever before. In this thesis, I will investigate whether upper secondary school mathematics changes and develops to the same extent as the rest of society. Is the mathematical content of uppersecondary school what young people benefit from later in life? Does the school develop the right abilities? The research question that is my starting point for this study reads as follows. What mathematical knowledge/abilities should a student from upper secondary school possess? To investigate this, I conduct a so-called Delphi study aimed at a variety of participants i nsociety. Hence, I am seeking the answer from "the whole of society" to this question. Participation in my study are found, among others, in real estate, insurance, pharmaceutical, transport, oil and steel industries as well as retail and educational work. I have analyzed and categorized all incoming answers into two groups – content and abilities. The categorization is a conscious choice to facilitate the comparison with the curriculum of upper secondary school.The conclusions of my Delphi study are as follows. After completing upper secondary education, students must be sufficiently mathematically equipped to live a well-functioning and participatory life in society. In terms of content, they must thus be able to cope with everyday mathematics such as understanding percentage price reductions and interest costs on loans. They must also have an understanding of statistical surveys performed by news reporting and election campaigns et cetera. Furthermore, the Delphi study shows that the abilities that society desires are reproduced relatively well compared to the Swedisheducational governing documents. However, the study possible implies to seek a higherdegree of abstract, logical and analytical thinking and to understand connections than what the governing documents make clear. The Delphi study also leads to thoughts and reflections that are somewhat outside the traditional mathematical field. The survey shows that the ability work ethics can be seen as an important quality to possess after upper secondary school. This general ability is not a traditional academic mathematical ability which initiates consequential questions. What school subject in upper secondary school should educate work ethics? What more general abilities should be included in upper secondary school education and what subject or subjects should take responsibility for these?

The purpose of the study was to identify the key descriptors of a definition of technology and curricular organizers for use in the study of technology. Seven panels were used for the three round Delphi to identify the key descriptors and curricular organizers. The panels included: (1) technology educators, (2) philosophers of education, (3) philosophers of technology, (4) historians of technology, (5) anthropologists of technology, (6) futurists, (7) industrialists/business leaders. A Thurstone and Chave Method of Equal Appearing Intervals was used to assign scale and Q values to each item ranked in the Q sort. An 80th centile was used for an item to achieve a consensus. The results of both research questions were rank ordered based on scale value from highest to lowest. Fourteen key descriptors of a definition of technology obtained a consensus. These are innovation; invention; creative; extends human capabilities (physical, social ,and intellectual); a process (change, individual, corporate, design, creative, and systematic); extension of human potential; problem solving; purposeful human manipulation of the material world; closely linked to science but not simply applied science, body of knowledge; used to solve problems and create opportunities; played an important role in the emergence of Homo sapiens; a system of tools, knowledge, and behaviors associated with the exploitation of environments; and has social, economic, political, and environmental impacts. Seven curricular organizers achieved a consensus. These are problem solving; process organizers (creativity, enterprise, systems, inventions, and problem solving); the process of technology; design and innovation; research and development; and awareness of implications and potential of technology (health, food, communication, production, and control). / Ed. D.