The question this dissertation seeks to address is if the process of disease mongering can be ethically assessed. Chapter one provides a broad scope of the ethical challenge of disease mongering, UNESCO model framework, ADHD and PMDD. Chapter two examines disease mongering and its driving forces in detail. Chapter three provides an overview of the UNESCO model framework. Chapter four ethically examines disease mongering in conjunction with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Chapter five examines disease mongering in association with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Chapter six concludes that examined through the UNESCO model ethical framework disease mongering is occurring for both ADHD and PMDD, and provides remarks for the addressing this in the future. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Health Care Ethics / PhD; / Dissertation;

I here have been very few studies carried out on enhancing CFC (Cross-functional Collaboration) for the product design development. nevertheless there is a clear consensus among researchers that this issue is a critical one in ne product design development. Besides, almost all of the research work, which attempted to encourage CFC in NPD situations, was carried out focused on the cross-functional team which is the most effective organisation type to encourage collaboration between other functional groups, rather than the functional organisation, which is difficult organisation to facilitate collaboration between other functional groups. On the other hand, there is still no clear evidence which proves that CFC improves the performance of' design development. Nevertheless, this proof is essential premise to support the value of producing the information to improve CFC for product design development. This research attempts to fill in this gap in the deficiency of research. This longitudinal research has been conducted with complementary research methods: a qualitative research and a quantitative research in the field. As the main body of this research, 15 key -decision makers for new product design development were interviewed and 243 questionnaires from eight leading consumer electronics companies in three countries (Korea, Japan. UK) were analysed. In conclusion, firstly, this research has proved there is a plus correlation between the level of CFC and several dimensions of the design development performance of consumer electronics products. Furthermore, a new framework model is developed and proposed after compressing and combining all vital findings of this research work. This developed model presents three major findings of this research. Firstly, the factors affecting CF C for design development of consumer electronics products, secondly, the priority of importance of these factors, and finally, factors directly contributing to design development performance in several dimensions. Overall, the findings of this research help to people what are valuable factors for building CFC climate and what are prior factor in a quandary concerning, where to concentrate their efforts so as to successfully implement their (TV to improve their design development performance. In particular, the findings of this research could further help designers and design managers who lack the experience and knowledge of collaboration situations in the rigid functional organisational boundaries, which many consumer electronics companies face.

abstract: As a term and method that is rapidly gaining popularity, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is under the scrutiny of many building professionals questioning its potential benefits on their projects. A relevant and accepted calculation methodology and baseline to properly evaluate BIM's benefits have not been established, thus there are mixed perspectives and opinions of the benefits of BIM, creating a general misunderstanding of the expected outcomes. The purpose of this thesis was to develop a more complete methodology to analyze the benefits of BIM, apply recent projects to this methodology to quantify outcomes, resulting in a more a holistic framework of BIM and its impacts on project efficiency. From the literature, a framework calculation model to determine the value of BIM is developed and presented. The developed model is applied via case studies within a large industrial setting where similar projects are evaluated, some implementing BIM and some with traditional non-BIM approaches. Cost or investment metrics were considered along with benefit or return metrics. The return metrics were: requests for information, change orders, and duration improvements. The investment metrics were: design and construction costs. The methodology was tested against three separate cases and results on the returns and investments are presented. The findings indicate that in the tool installation department of semiconductor manufacturing, there is a high potential for BIM benefits to be realized. The evidence also suggests that actual returns and investments will vary with each project. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Construction 2011

Nowadays there are powerful tools for Domain-Specific Modeling. An ongoing problem is the insuffcient tool interoperability which complicates the development of complete tool chains or the re-use of existing metamodels, models, and model operations. In this paper we present the approach of M3-Level-Based Bridges and apply this approach to enable the interoperability between two selected tools. The first tool is MetaEdit+ with strengths in (meta)modeling and the second tool is the Eclipse Modeling Framework with advantages in model processing by transformation and generation tools.

In der Geschichte Libanons sind Steinbrüche immer für die Gewinnung von Baumaterialien wie Sand, Kies, Steine, Zement usw. genutzt worden. Durch die Komplexität dieses Sektors im Libanon gibt es kaum verfügbare Daten, Erhebungen und Studien über Ausmaß und Auswirkungen der Abbautätigkeit. Deshalb behandelt die vorliegende Untersuchung eines der drängendsten Probleme und legt eine aktuelle Datenübersicht über die Steinbrüche vor. Es ist ein vollständiger und integrierter Überblick über die Steinbrüche im Libanon im Allgemeinen und das Problem ihre Rehabilitation im Besonderen unter Berücksichtigung des schwierigen Themas eines integrierten Steinbruchmanagements in einem nachhaltigen Konzept. Meilensteine und Etappen bei der Etablierung eines Rehabilitationsprogrammes werden auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen wie der öffentliche Sektor, der private Sektor und den öffentlichen Kommunen entwickelt. Um die Nachhaltigkeit des Rehabilitationskonzeptes aufzuzeigen, wurde ein Feldexperiment in einem ehemaligen Steinbruch nördlich von Beirut angelegt. Bei dieser Rehabilitation wurden in die aufgebrachte Bodenschicht Johannisbrotbäume (Ceratonia siliqua) aufgepflanzt. Durch diese Fallstudie konnte die Nachhaltigkeit der Maßnahme für das Management natürlicher Ressourcen geprüft, unterschiedliche Ergebnisse validiert und untersucht werden. / Throughout Lebanon’s history, quarries have been used as a means to extract essential construction materials such as sand, aggregates, stone masonry, cement, block stone, and others. Due to complexity of the quarry sector in Lebanon very few data are available, records and studies in this field are limited. Therefore, the presented research tackles one of Lebanon’s most pressing issues and represents the most updated database on quarries in Lebanon. A comprehensive and integrated overview of the quarries issue in Lebanon in general and the problem of rehabilitation in particular are given and the problematical topic of an integrated quarry planning within a sustainable development concept in Lebanon is pointed out. Milestones and landmarks toward the adoption of a setup needed for the proper rehabilitation approach at different levels as public sector, private sector and local communities are developed. In order to demonstrate the rehabilitation concept was realised a field experiment in a closed quarry northerly from Beirut. The rehabilitation was finalised by planting of carob trees (Ceratonia siliqua) in a layer of top soil. By this case study it was possible to address a sustainable procedure for natural resources management, examine and validate.

Completely couched in and steered by the qualitative research method, this study examines the linguistic constraints on the code-switching of the bilingual Shona-Xhosa speakers in Cape Town. The views of the key research participants obtained through participant observation, interviews and questionnaires were heavily relied on. The motivations for the code-switching of the bilingual Shona-Xhosa speakers in Cape Town were explored in this study, including the Shona-Xhosa interlink. Myers-Scotton‟s Markedness theory was scrutinized to discern the assorted social variables motivating the bilingual speakers to code-switch in Cape Town while the Matrix Language Frame Model was used to determine that Shona is the base language and isiXhosa is the embedded language in the Shona-Xhosa code-switching in Cape Town. Diverse linguistic constraints were examined in the context of the Shona-Xhosa code-switching and their universality was disputed. Similarities between Shona and Xhosa were unearthed and the researcher recommends that further Shona-Xhosa studies be pursued. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

The thesis is focused on the area of Business Intelligence Governance that seeks to management BI as a complex environment in an organization. The goal of this thesis is to create comprehensive BIG framework that will help to understand and lead BI, to support business strategy execution. The fist part of this thesis is introduction to the area of BIG. It contains definition of the term BI, description of trends in BI, definition of the term BIG and the answer on question Why do we need to governance BI. The second part focuses on description and evaluation of existing BIG instruments. The third part handles about new BIG framework and authorities. It describes particular building blocks of the framework and discovers structure of BIG authorities.