This thesis analyzes the issue of fiscal imbalance in selected member states of European Union, namely, the first 12 states which officially introduced the Euro banknotes and coins in 2002. Empirical part of thesis analyzes the development of indebtedness in selected countries. The thesis also deals with the existence of causal relationship between public debt and economic growth in these countries via regression analysis of data panel for period 1995-2014 and 2008-2014. Sub-analysis of the thesis aims also at research of determinants of public debt in these countries.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-02-20Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:28:05Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 zini_eoc_me_ilha.pdf: 1142984 bytes, checksum: 4ff93a7fe459a5a56e15da26b7a6dd45 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia composta de duas fases para resolver problemas de otimização com restrições usando uma estratégia multiobjetivo. Na primeira fase, o esforço concentra-se em encontrar, pelo menos, uma solução factível, descartando completamente a função objetivo. Na segunda fase, aborda-se o problema como biobjetivo, onde se busca a otimização da função objetivo original e maximizar o cumprimento das restrições. Na fase um propõe-se uma estratégia baseada na diminuição progressiva da tolerância de aceitação das restrições complexas para encontrar soluções factíveis. O desempenho do algoritmo é validado através de 11 casos testes bastantes conhecidos na literatura especializada. / This work presents a two-phase framework for solving constrained optimization problems using a multi-objective strategy. In the first phase, the objective function is completely disregarded and entire search effort is directed toward finding a single feasible solution. In the second phase, the problem is treated as a bi-objective optimization problem, where the technique converts constrained optimization to a two-objective optimization: one is the original objective function; the other is the degree function violating the constraints. In the first phase a methodology based on progressive decrease of the tolerance of acceptance of complex constrains is proposed in order to find feasible solutions. The approach is tested on 11 well-know benchmark functions.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciência da Informação, 2011. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2011-12-22T12:13:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marília Freitas(marilia@bce.unb.br) on 2012-01-03T15:23:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-01-03T15:23:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / As organizações atuam hoje em um ambiente caracterizado pela mudança constante. Por isso, necessitam de instrumentos que permitam agilidade para adaptar suas estratégias, processos e sistemas µas necessidades de cada momento. A Arquitetura Empresarial (AE) tem sido identificada por pesquisadores como a abordagem adequada para prover a agilidade organizacional, pois permite o conhecimento dos elementos organizacionais favorecendo planejar e realizar as mudanças necessárias. Entretanto, a AE ainda não é uma realidade para a maioria das organizações. Os motivos são a complexidade inerente, a falha das abordagens atuais para lidar com essa complexidade e o custo das ferramentas envolvidas. A AE é uma disciplina em desenvolvimento e requer princípios, teorias e instrumentos adequados µa sua natureza e acessíveis a organizações de qualquer porte. Nesse contexto, este estudo identifica um novo referencial teórico: a AE como Arquitetura de Informação Organizacional (AIO). O estudo propõe, ainda, uma abordagem para a AIO, que se fundamenta nos princípios da colaboração organizacional e nos métodos frágeis. Seu principal objetivo é reduzir a complexidade e o custo da AIO. A solução proposta é avaliada em estudo de caso em uma instituição do sistema financeiro brasileiro. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / Currently, organizations operate in an environment marked by constant changes. Thus, they need instruments bringing agility to adopt their strategies, processes and systems to each moment needs. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been identified by researchers as the approach suitable to the organizational agility as it allows the know-ledge of different organizational elements leading to planning and accomplishment of the changing actions. However, AE has not comprised the most part of organizations yet. The reasons are due to its complexity, the current approach failure to deal with the complexity and the cost of the tools involved. AE is an on-going process discipline and it requires appropriate principles and specific theories and instruments for organizations of any size. In this context, this study identifies a new theoretical framework: EA as Architecture of Information for Organizations (AIO) and proposes a new approach that is based on the principles of organizational collaboration and agile methods. Its main objective is to reduce complexity and cost of AIO. The proposed solution is evaluated on a case study in an institution of the Brazilian financial system. Currently, organizations operate in an environment marked by constant changes. Thus, they need instruments bringing agility to adopt their strategies, processes and systems to each moment needs. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been identified by researchers as the approach suitable to the organizational agility as it allows the know-ledge of different organizational elements leading to planning and accomplishment of the changing actions. However, AE has not comprised the most part of organizations yet. The reasons are due to its complexity, the current approach failure to deal with the complexity and the cost of the tools involved. AE is an on-going process discipline and it requires appropriate principles and specific theories and instruments for organizations of any size. In this context, this study identfies a new theoretical framework: EA as Architecture of Information for Organizations (AIO) and proposes a new approach that is based on the principles of organizational collaboration and agile methods. Its main objective is to educe complexity and cost of AIO. The proposed solution is evaluated on a case study in an institution of the Brazilian financial system.

This diploma thesis are describing the evolution of audio commentary in sports computer games since 1998. As the subject for the research was selected the FIFA game series, currently the best-selling game of virtual sports category. The objective of the analysis is to find out under which circumstances could this game includes the Czech version of audio commentary. Structurally this diploma thesis is divided into theoretical and research part. The first part describes the theoretical aspects of the researched issue. Describes the evolution in the video game industry from its beginnings to the present time, including the phenomenon of the eSports that is described in the second chapter. The theoretical part concludes with an analysis of methods, elements and specifics, for commentating of a sporting events. At the beginning of the research, this analysis is confronted with the specifics of the word algorithm for audio commentary used in the FIFA game series. Final SWOT analysis describe evaluation of the current state of evolution in the video game industry with the focus on the subject of this diploma thesis, audio commentary in the FIFA game series and possible return of the Czech version of audio commentary into the game. Keywords Commentating, FIFA, pc games, videogames, word algortihm,...

As a result of the digitalization of industrial processes, huge amounts of data are generated in organizations every second. Developing solutions that properly represent this data is critical for making it useful to the organization's stakeholders. Data visualization is a field within computer science that can be utilized to address this demand by enabling the development of appropriate methods for showing the data output of Digital Twins of the Organization (DTO). A recently proposed architecture for a resilient DTO using the EA Blueprint Pattern provides a promising basis for implementing DTOs that are capable of evolving alongside a dynamic organization. However, there is a lack of implementation of any prototypes of the proposed architecture's Information Architecture, which is responsible for dealing with data and visualizing them. Therefore, this thesis aims to develop a visualization prototype, aligned with the proposed architecture. The thesis achieves this goal by first establishing a theoretical basis in data visualization and applicable visualization techniques through a brief review of research articles. After a systematic selection process of visualization tools, the Python frameworks Plotly and Dash are chosen for designing and implementing a visualization prototype. The final design consists of a Python application containing various features and implementing multiple classes which make the prototype easily modifiable and thus able to evolve. In an industrial use case, the prototype is demonstrated to be fulfilling its requirements. Using the observations from the use case, it is finally concluded that the prototype is, in fact, sufficiently aligned with the proposed DTO architecture.

The purpose of this study is to suggest improvements in the field of low current technology for the office of Cegelec which is located in the French town of Le Mans. Cegelec is an international technological service company. First, this master’s thesis report draws the current situation of Cegelec Le Mans thanks to enterprise architecture models, and the study of a specific project as well as different previous projects. The current state is then confronted to the theoretical model lean product development in order to suggest improvements and future scenarios.

La movilidad internacional universitaria es una realidad que se ha visto incrementada considerablemente en las últimas décadas. En este contexto, la presente tesis doctoral se plantea varios objetivos: averiguar la situación lingüística en la que se encuentra habitualmente el alumnado de movilidad a su llegada a la Universidad de Alicante (UA) y cuál sería la idónea para lograr una satisfactoria integración lingüística y académica, así como el éxito durante su estancia; comprobar cómo es percibida la presencia de este colectivo por su profesorado y por sus coordinadores; y, por último, diseñar, pilotar y valorar la utilidad de un Curso de Español Académico. Por tanto, presentamos la investigación llevada a cabo entre los cursos académicos 2010-2011 y 2013-2014 sobre el Español Académico (EA) en contexto universitario y para este perfil de estudiante, cuya lengua materna no es el español, a través del pilotaje del Curso de Español Académico para alumnos extranjeros de la Universidad de Alicante que ha sido impartido en seis ediciones. Mediante la metodología de la Investigación-Acción (IA) hemos ido modificando y adaptando los contenidos y materiales a su perfil específico. Los participantes de nuestra investigación han sido 100 estudiantes, 16 docentes y 16 coordinadores de movilidad. Así pues, el empleo de diversos instrumentos de investigación cualitativa, como el cuestionario de necesidades, las encuestas de satisfacción y las entrevistas a los agentes implicados, nos ha permitido triangular los datos para ahondar en las experiencias lingüísticas y culturales específicas del alumnado desde estas tres perspectivas. Los resultados revelan las dificultades que este experimenta y que avalan la conveniencia de implementar cursos de estas características. Para ello ofrecemos, fruto de este trabajo, un curso de EA definitivo para que el estudiante internacional adquiera el nivel óptimo de esta modalidad de lengua que facilite su período de inmersión en cualquier universidad española y repercuta positivamente en sus resultados académicos.

Introducción: El conocimiento de los mecanismos neuroinflamatorios y neurodegenerativos que acontecen en la enfermedad de Alzheimer es aún limitado y la utilidad diagnóstica, pronóstica o de seguimiento del proceso, tanto en la fase DCL como en la EA establecida, de los diferentes marcadores moleculares es controvertida cuando no directamente contradictoria. La teoría patogénica más aceptada hoy en día es que las moléculas centrales de la vía amiloidea pondrían en marcha un proceso inflamatorio crónico, responsable del daño celular, en el que las citocinas tendría un papel preponderante a través de distintas vía de señalización. Objetivos: El objetivo primario comprende la evaluación de la síntesis de una amplia variedad de citocinas (CQs) dentro del SNC en pacientes con deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL) y Enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA), utilizando una técnica más sensible que la tradicional con el propósito de identificar si alguna o algunas CQs o ratio derivada de ellas tienen posibilidades de servir como marcadores diagnósticos de DCL y estudiar si estos mediadores solubles pueden utilizarse como elementos pronósticos/predictivos de evolución a EA desde el estado de DCL. Métodos: Se estudiaron los niveles de diferentes citocinas en LCR y suero mediante tecnología Luminex de 37 pacientes diagnosticados de DCL en la consulta de deterioro cognitivo del Hospital General Universitario de Alicante. Por otro lado, se estudió una cohorte de 24 controles sin quejas subjetivas u objetivas de alteraciones de su capacidad cognitiva. A los 12 meses y tras una nueva punción lumbar, los pacientes se clasificaron como DCL-E (estable, no evolucionados a EA) y DCL-EA (que habían desarrollado EA), volviendo a medir las concentraciones de citocinas en LCR y suero. Se realizó estudio estadístico de estos marcadores y sus ratios en ambos grupos. Resultados: Los dos resultados mayores de este proyecto ha sido la detección de un índice IL6/IL10 en LCR, para los pacientes DCL, con un VPN del 80% a la hora de descartar la presencia de deterioro cognitivo y, en segundo lugar el hallazgo de otro índice IL10S/L, al comparar los valores de esa citocina en suero y LCR de pacientes evolucionados a EA con los del grupo control, con una sensibilidad del 80% para seleccionar pacientes sin riesgo de desarrollar EA. La significación estadística de este segundo índice es independiente de la representada por ßA lo que apunta a mecanismos de acción distintos o bien a momentos de actuación diferentes. Conclusiones: Nuestros resultados apoyan la participación de las citocinas en el proceso inflamatorio de la EA y su valor como marcadores secundarios, con valor diagnóstico/pronóstico, en esto pacientes. Su aplicación puede tener sentido en aquellos casos en los que la clasificación de un paciente es dudosa mediante los métodos diagnósticos habituales.

Digital transformation has been a focus of public and private sectors to both improve and sustain business value by leveraging rapidly evolving technology. Digital technology is ubiquitous and inter-connected, changing the face of business, government and society through the creation of new industries, with automation replacing two thirds of existing jobs. The challenge is that most digital transformation efforts fail, mainly due to inadequate leadership and management as well as failure to accept that it is a multi-disciplinary problem. Another challenge is to distinguish between digital transformation (DT) and digitization where the former is based on a customer-centric value proposition and the latter focuses on cost-cutting and operational excellence. This difference also highlights the business/technology divide where the former is mainly DT and the latter is mainly digitization. The challenge addressed in this thesis is how to obtain management acceptance that digital transformation is multi-disciplinary and to make recommendations with respect to how best to achieve DT goals. The research methods followed is a blend of participatory action research (PAR), case study analysis and literature analysis. The principal research findings are that there is no single, management methodology that can increase the chances of DT success but that a modified form of enterprise architecture (EA) that collaboratively interacts with the other management frameworks can likely provide a solid foundation to effectively achieve DT. The thesis consists of an assessment of the current methodologies, four articles that each discuss an area to support effective DT, followed by a request for change (RFC) to up-date the TOGAF 9 EA framework standard. TOGAF was selected due to its pervasive usage globally (80% of Fortune 50 and 60% of Fortune 500). The RFC accommodated both the concepts raised in the articles and other innovations highlighted in the literature review and assessment. The thesis concludes that enterprise architecture is a key business technique that al-lows the sharing of core decision support information across the enterprise, enabling all management frameworks, especially those on the technology-management divide, to collaboratively realize digital transformation.

Företagens tillväxt har resulterat i en ökad mängd data som kräver analys och därmed uppkommer utmaningar för hantering och analys. För att stödja företagens mål har Enterprise Architecture (EA) utvecklats som ett ramverk. Dessutom har begreppet Technical Debt (TD) uppkommit för att bistå i beslutsfattande om hur begränsade resurser ska investeras och identifiera eventuella nackdelar med befintliga designbeslut. För att inkludera både tekniska och affärsrelaterade aspekter har begreppet Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) introducerats. Trots att EAD har börjat bli mer välkänt saknas för närvarande fastställda gränsvärden för mätning och hantering av konceptet. Detta gör det svårt för organisationer att erhålla en klar uppfattning om sin skuld och prioritera lämpliga åtgärder. Mot denna bakgrund har syftet med denna uppsats varit att definiera gränsvärden för Enterprise Architecture Debt Measurements (EADM) för att underlätta för organisationer att förstå omfattningen av sin skuld och därigenom kunna prioritera åtgärder på ett bättre sätt. För att uppnå detta har en kvalitativ forskningsansats använts i studien, där data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med EA-experter. Genom att lägga fokus på deltagarnas synpunkter och åsikter syftar studien till att bidra till kunskapen om EAD och dess mätvärden. Resultaten visar på en stark vilja bland EA-experter att anpassa och förbättra mätning och hantering av EA inom organisationer. Förändringsarbete betraktas som nödvändigt för att uppnå effektivitet och relevans inom EA, där kostnadsaspekter spelar en betydande roll vid beslutsfattande. Studien undersöker även möjligheten att fastställa kvaliteten på mätningar inom EA. Respondenterna uttrycker en positiv inställning till standardisering av EAD, samtidigt som de betonar utmaningar med att tillämpa generella mätetal. Studien framhäver vikten av flexibilitet och kontinuerlig anpassning för att utveckla meningsfulla och användbara mätvärden som effektivt kan bedöma kvaliteten inom EAD. Slutsatsen i studien blev att fastställandet av kvaliteten på mätetal är möjligt i de sammanhang där organisationerna visar en vilja att påta sig de kostnader som kan uppstå vid utvecklingen av sådana mätetal och att kvaliteten endast kan fastställas när mätetalen är anpassade efter organisationen. / The growth of companies has resulted in an increased amount of data that requires analysis, posing challenges for its management and analysis. To support the goals of companies, Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been developed as a framework. Furthermore the concept of Technical Debt (TD) has emerged to assist in decision-making regarding the allocation of limited resources and identifying potential drawbacks of existing design decisions. To encompass both technical and business-related aspects, the concept of Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) has been introduced. Despite EAD gaining recognition, there are currently no established thresholds for measuring and managing this concept. This poses difficulties for organizations to gain a clear understanding of their debt and prioritize appropriate actions. Against this backdrop, the aim of this thesis has been to define thresholds for Enterprise Architecture Debt Measurements (EADM) to facilitate organizations' understanding of the extent of their debt and enable better prioritization of actions. To achieve this, a qualitative research approach has been employed, with data collected through semi-structured interviews with EA experts. By focusing on participants' perspectives and opinions, the study aims to contribute to the knowledge of EAD and its metrics. The findings indicate a strong willingness among EA experts to adapt and improve the measurement and management of EA within organizations. Change efforts are seen as necessary to achieve efficiency and relevance in EA, with cost considerations playing a significant role in decision-making. The study also explores the possibility of determining the quality of EA measurements. Respondents express a positive attitude towards the standardization of EAD while highlighting challenges in applying generic metrics. The study emphasizes the importance of flexibility and continuous adaptation in developing meaningful and useful metrics that can effectively assess the quality within EAD. The conclusion of the study was that determining the quality of metrics is possible in contexts where organizations show a willingness to bear the costs that may arise in the development of such metrics, and that the quality can only be determined when the metrics are tailored to the organization's needs.