This thesis presents the philosophy of Kaizen which is applied for improviment of processes in production and leadership. The main aims of the thesis are to introduce the essence of the philosophy of Kaizen and to suggests implementation of the philosophy into schools as an alternative model of managment. In the theoretical part, the principles of philosophy of management, which have the roots in Japan, are characterized on the basis of research from the available literature and other theoretical sources. The history and evolution of Kaizen philosophy is anaylised within the text for a better undersatnding and the differences between Japanese and Czech society are also mentioned. The practical part is focused on qualitative survey of applying the philosophy of Kaizen in the company Česká spořitelna. The empirical investigation is mainly based on interviews and observations. The experience of the Česká spořitelna with the implementation of Kaizen philosophy is analysed through these two methods. The results of the survey provide a view on new phenomenon for the school sector and introduce options for its possible implementation of some of the concepts of Kaizen philosophy in the management of changes in schools. The transcript of qualitative research is the basis for the application of Kaizen...

Inter-process communications (IPC) are ubiquitous in today’s software systems, yet they are rarely treated as first-class programming concepts. Implementing crosscutting concerns for message-based IPC are difficult, even using aspect-oriented programming languages (AOPL) such as AspectJ. Many of these challenges are because the context of a communication-related crosscutting concern is often a conversation consisting of message sends and receives. Hence, developers typically have to implement communication protocols manually using primitive operations, such as connect, send, receive, and close. This dissertation describes an extension to AspectJ, called CommJ, with which developers can implement communication-related concerns in cohesive and loosely coupled aspects. It then presents preliminary, but encouraging results from a subsequent study that begin by defining a reuse and maintenance quality model. Subsequently the results show seven different ways in which CommJ can improve the reusability and maintainability of applications requiring network communications.

Food industry is demanding for fast screening methodologies in order to guaranty food quality and safety. These methodologies should allow high throughput with sufficient accuracy and reproducibility. In this context, MS-Sensor is a challenging approach since it allows simultaneous determination of compounds in food matrices and complex mixtures with a high sample throughput. The basic working principle of MS-Sensor systems is based on the introduction of volatile components extracted from the headspace of a sample into the ionization chamber of a mass spectrometer. The mass spectra resulting from the ionization and fragmentation of this extract constitute a very complex ionization pattern that can be seen as a 'fingerprint' which is characteristic of the matrix being analyzed. These ionisation patterns are then processed by pattern recognition engines to perform tasks such as classification, recognition and, to a limited extent, quantification.This thesis is devoted to study the possibilities and capabilities of MS-Sensor approach to its application in several food quality related problems such as the determination rancidity levels in crisps; the detection of fungal spoilage in bakery products, the monitoring of sardines freshness under cold storage; the classification of virgin olive oils according its organoleptic properties and the discrimination of two Iberian ham qualities according pig's feeding. In each one of these applications it has been demonstrated the feasibility of using a MS-Sensor to solve the food quality problem under study. It has been widely demonstrated that the MS-Sensor profile can be considered as a useful fingerprint technique for characterization of the targeted quality property and, as in certain cases, even for quantification of several parameters correlated with this problem.Despite that feasibility of MS-Sensor has been widely demonstrated for the applications under study, this approach stills suffer from some weakness or drawbacks that may influence performance of MS-Sensor. Main drawbacks are the inherent high dimensionality of data response matrices and the low selectivity of m/z fragments pseudosensors used as variables in these matrices.These two drawbacks could be responsible for the lack of reproducibility showed by MS-Sensor systems in certain applications mentioned above. In order to success in the development of such applications it was necessary to figure out different strategies for overcoming this high dimensionality and the low selectivity. In order to handle the low selectivity of m/z fragments several new methodologies based on the use of multi-way algorithms has been implemented for the first time in the framework of this thesis. Besides, new variable selection algorithms has been developed and implemented in order to avoid high dimensionality modelling. It has been demonstrated that use of the developed algorithms leads to a simpler and more parsimonious models and consequently to a better performance and more reproducible results.In addition, several issues related to use of MS-Sensor in food analysis has been studied: the use of different headspace sampling techniques; the comparison of MS-Sensor systems performance against classical MOS based 'electronic noses'; the application of new algorithms for pre-processing MS-Sensor signals; the correlation of MS-Sensor response and the well-established methods to assess the quality property under study, etc.MS-Sensor is a powerful device set-up, capable of producing large amounts of highly selective information. Optimal use of this device implies both, a correct use of analytical techniques (sample handling and instrumental) and a rational use of subsequent data analysis. That can be only attained if analytical people in charge of experimental set-up work side by side with data analysis and software developers. This thesis aims to bring nearer this close collaboration. / La indústria alimentària exigeix el desenvolupament de mètodes analítics que puguin donar resposta immediata i que al mateix temps puguin garantir la qualitat i la seguretat dels productes de forma acurada i reproduïble. En aquests context, els mètodes que utilitzen un sistema MS-Sensor poden ser uns bons candidats ja que permeten fer l'anàlisi de volàtils de matrius complexes d'una manera ràpida i també permeten processar moltes mostres en poc temps. El funcionament d'un MS-Sensor es basa en la introducció dels compostos volàtils que s'extreuen de l'espai de cap d'una mostra en la font d'ionització d'un espectròmetre de masses sense prèvia separació cromatogràfica i sense necessitat d'una preparació de mostra prèvia. L'espectre de masses resultat de la ionització i fragmentació de tots els compostos volàtils presents en l'extracte es pot considerar com una empremta digital característica de la matriu que s'està analitzant. Els espectres de masses generats es processen a posteriori amb un sistema de reconeixement de patrons per tal de realitzar tasques associades a aquests sistemes com son la classificació i el reconeixement de noves mostres i dins de certs límits la quantificació d'aquestes.Aquesta tesi està dedicada a l'estudi de les capacitats i possibilitats d'aquests sistema a donar resposta a tot un seguit d'aplicacions relacionades amb l'anàlisi de la qualitat de diferents tipus d'aliments com son: la determinació del grau d'enranciment de patates fregides; la detecció del creixement fúngic en productes de brioxería industrial; la monitorització del grau de frescor de sardines guardades en fred; la classificació de diversos olis d'oliva en base a les seves propietats organolèptiques i la classificació del pernil ibèric en base a la seva qualitat determinada per l'alimentació del porc. Per cada una d'aquests aplicacions s'ha demostrat l'aplicabilitat i la fiabilitat del sistema MS-Sensor a l'hora de resoldre les diferents qüestions plantejades sobre qualitat alimentària. S'ha demostrat àmpliament que el perfil de volàtils que s'obté amb un MS-Sensor pot cosiderar-se com una empremta digital vàlida i molt útil en la caracterització del problema que es vol resoldre i fins i tot en alguns casos, s'ha demostrat que aquesta mateixa empremta es pot correlacionar amb el paràmetres d'anàlisi clàssics que s'usen més habitualment per tal de resoldre aquests problema o que inclús aquests sistema es pot fer servir per predir-los.Encara que la viabilitat del sistema MS-Sensor en les aplicacions plantejades ha estat demostrada àmpliament en el decurs d'aquesta tesis, aquests sistema té petits inconvenients o punts febles que resten per resoldre. Aquests inconvenients poden afectar de manera directa els resultants que se n'obtenen. Els principals punts febles del MS-Sensor son d'elevada dimensionalitat de les matrius de resposta que s'obtenen que és inherent al propi sistema i la baixa selectivitat del fragments m/z considerats com a variables en aquestes matrius.Aquests dos inconvenients poden ser els responsables de la falta de reproductibilitat que s'ha obtingut en algunes aplicacions. Per tal d'obtenir bons resultats en alguna d'aquestes aplicacions es van haver de plantejar noves estratègies que poguessin salvar les dificultat derivades de la baixa selectivitat de les variables i de la seva elevada dimensionalitat. Per primera vegada i dins del marc d'aquesta tesis s'ha plantejat l'ús d'algoritmes multi-way i la inclusió del temps de retenció com a variable que pugui reportar informació addicional en el processat de les respostes del MS-Sensor. A la vegada, s'ha desenvolupat i implementat nous algoritmes per a la selecció de variables per tal d'evitar en la mesura del possible l'elevada dimensionalitat en les matrius de resposta. S'ha demostrat que l'ús d'aquests nous algoritmes permet obtenir models més simples i robustos i per tant podem aconseguir un millor funcionament del sistema i resultats més reproduïbles.A més a més s'han estudiat diferents aspectes relacionats amb la utilització d'un sistema MS-Sensor per a l'anàlisi d'aliments com son: l'ús de diferents tècniques de mostreig d'espai de cap, la comparació del sistema MS-Sensor amb sistemes clàssics d'olfacte electrònic, l'aplicació i desenvolupament d'algoritmes de pre-processament dels espectres generats, la correlació de les respostes obtingudes amb un sistema MS-Sensor amb mètodes d'anàlisi d'aliments tradicionals, etc.El MS-Sensor es un dispositiu molt potent, capaç de produir una elevada quantitat de dades. L'ús òptim d'aquests sistema es composa d'una banda d'un ús correcte dels aspectes instrumentals com son el propi sistema en si i les tècniques de mostreig i per altra banda d'un ús racional de les tècniques d'anàlisi de dades. Això només s'aconsegueix si els analítics que treballen amb el set-up de l'experiment treballen colze a colze i en estreta col·laboració amb la gent encarregada de fer l'anàlisi de dades. Aquesta tesi, pretén fer més estret l'espai entre aquests dues disciplines i dóna les eines per ajuntat i promoure aquesta col·laboració.

When asked to draw, most people are hesitant because they believe themselves unable to draw well. A human instructor can teach students how to draw by encouraging them to practice established drawing techniques and by providing personal and directed feedback to foster their artistic intuition and perception. This thesis describes the first methodology for a computer application to mimic a human instructor by providing direction and feedback to assist a student in drawing a human face from a photograph. Nine design principles were discovered and developed for providing such instruction, presenting reference media, giving corrective feedback, and receiving actions from the student. Face recognition is used to model the human face in a photograph so that sketch recognition can map a drawing to the model and evaluate it. New sketch recognition techniques and algorithms were created in order to perform sketch understanding on such subjective content. After two iterations of development and user studies for this methodology, the result is a computer application that can guide a person toward producing his/her own sketch of a human model in a reference photograph with step-bystep instruction and computer generated feedback.

The promises of the open door community college system have helped people from all walks of life access and achieve higher education credentials. Numerous community college graduates transferred to other universities to continue their academic pursuits or entered the emerging career areas with skills that afford those wages and lifestyles that allow them to support their families, contribute as tax payers and full participants in the American Dream. For many African American and Latino men, the hope of achieving a college degree was realized through their involvement in a special student success program that offered mentoring, academic support, life skills necessary for managing personal and professional relationships, financial literacy and friendships with peers built on honesty, integrity, and accountability agreements. Many of these programs, though life changing for participants, were small in scale, are not supported across institutions, lacked broad involvement from faculty members, and were limited in their scope. Long term sustainable program plans must include issues related to scalability, replication; financial and strategic plans; common measures of effectiveness that eliminate current achievement and attainment gaps President Obama along with other policy groups has challenged 2-year colleges to help America lead all other nations in producing the largest percentage of adults with a college credential. This research used a qualitative case study approach to collect, review, and analyze 82 community college minority male student success programs. To broaden the research study pertinent to what measures of evidence are used to determine effectiveness, program directors and participants were interviewed with a semi-structured approach. Data were analyzed and greater clarity of the problems many men of color face and the programs designed to increase their academic, career and workforce success. To close the gender and racial gaps identified demands holistic solutions between and among private, public, governmental, social, cultural, academic, and financial organizations. Our global knowledge economy demands college presidents, governing board members, faculty, staff, community, faith-based institutions, and men of color to collaborate and create, and improve and strengthen the chances for more minority men to attain college credentials. / text

Research and the literature show that there is a culture of failure in science subjects in South African schools. Among many factors responsible for this state of affairs, it is assumed that lack of language proficiency in the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) could be the cause. Studies indicate that mother-tongue learning is key to better academic performance in schools. The question of which language should be used as the LoLT in South African schools is a hugely debated issue. Arguments regarding this debate centre around two main issues, namely, the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) and psycholinguistic theories. Means have to be sought to address the issue of poor academic performance by learners in these schools. One of the central areas which needs attention to improve learners academic performance in these schools is learner comprehension. An empirical research study was done in an attempt to determine whether mother-tongue subtitling would improve learners‟ comprehension of science. A total of 93 Grade 12 learners from two schools in one township were used in this study. The participants were divided into two equivalent groups: one group watched and listened to mother-tongue subtitled science content material, and the other group watched and listened to the same science content material that was not subtitled. Both groups then wrote a physical science comprehension test after watching and listening to the video. This process was repeated over a period of six weeks during which one lesson was given and one video was shown each week. The comprehension test questions were divided into the recall and understanding domains. The results of this experiment revealed that mother-tongue subtitling improved the science comprehension of learners in as far as recall is concerned. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

The aim of this research was to develop guidelines for improving the implementation of Quality Management Systems to provide quality service delivery in education. The research was done by means of both a literature review and an empirical research. The focus of the literature review was to determine the nature and purpose of existing Quality Management Systems (QMS) in education; and the role of District Officials and Schools Management Teams (SMTs) in the implementation of QMS to provide quality service delivery in education. Factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of the implementation of the existing QMS in education were highlighted. The empirical research findings revealed that SMTs, being responsible for the implementation of QMS, lack knowledge and understanding of QMS implementation. Responses obtained from questionnaires revealed: limited support by District Officials, non-availability of support programmes; limited knowledge of the vision, mission and goals of the Department of Education; and limited resources provision. SMTs indicated dissatisfaction with the manner in which guidance and regulations pertaining to QMS implementation are provided. Curriculum and assessment support programmes were stated as limited, thus affecting learners’ and teachers’ performance. The impact of limited provision of resources; limited dedication to individual employees’ personal development by leadership and management; unclear communication means; and poor rewarding strategies to encourage employees and learners to perform were further highlighted. Based on the results obtained from the literature study and the empirical research, guidelines for improving the implementation of QMS to provide quality service delivery in education were developed and presented. / PhD, Education Management, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Šio baigiamojo darbo tikslas – pateikti sprendimus organizacinės kultūros gerinimui Šilalės rajono įmonėse. Pirmoje darbo dalyje aprašoma užsienio ir Lietuvių mokslininkų teiginiai apie organizacinės kultūros sampratą, sudedamąsias dalis lemiančias organizacinės kultūros skirtumus bei jų analizavimo priemones. Analitinėje darbo dalyje išanalizuoti Šilalės rajono organizacijų tyrimo rezultatai. Siekiant ištirti šių įmonių organizacinę kultūrą, pasitelktas kiekybinis tyrimas – anketinė apklausa. Tyrimo rezultate buvo nustatytos šios organizacinės kultūros problemos: darbuotojus netenkina fizinė darbo aplinka, neinvestuojama į draugišką bendravimą, komandinį darbą, darbuotojų saviraiškos sistemą, vyrauja per didelė darbo kontrolė; taikomos netinkamos motyvacinės priemonės. Trečioje darbo dalyje pateikti sprendimai ir jų įgyvendinimo priemonės, nustatytoms organizacinės kultūros problemoms spręsti. / The goal of this diploma is to paper propose solutions for the organisational culture improvement of the organizations in Šilalė’s district. The first part of the thesis describes statements by the foreign and Lithuanian authors on the concept of the organisational culture, its constituents determining differences in the organisational culture and tools for their analysis. The analytical part of the thesis deals with the results derived from the investigations of the of the organizations in Šilalė’s district. To investigate organisational culture of the companies, a quantitative method i.e. questionnaires has been employed. The investigation revealed the below problems of the organisational culture: employees are not satisfied with working environment; lack of investments into friendly communication; teamwork and employees’ self-expression; too high level of control over the operations; application of wrong motivation tools. The third part of the thesis offers possible solutions for the detected organisational culture problems and tools for their implementation.

The thesis deals with approaches to improving processes and with application of one to a selected production process. Currently, streamlining processes is of interest to many companies, not only manufacturing ones. The relevance of the topic is also evidenced by the number of publications devoted to this very issue. The aim of the thesis is to propose improvements in manufacturing processes in the welding shop through Jiskuhen activities used in Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile Czech s.r.o. The first part of the thesis defines terms related to processes and their management, followed by description of some of the widely used improvement approaches and their basic assumptions. The other part of the thesis focuses on the description of Jishuken activities and their subsequent practical application within the company. The thesis offers concrete proposals for improving processes and also recommendations for the management of these activities. This thesis demonstrates the philosophy of continuous improvement in the company, which serves as a reference point for other companies in the area of streamlining of processes.

Transition of care refers to the movement of patients between health care settings; it occurs each time patients move between providers within the same setting or between settings based on the patient's acute or chronic health care needs. Care transition includes the efficient and accurate exchange of information needed to provide high-quality continuity of care. A rural community hospital in in the northeastern region of the United States has a skilled nursing facility and an acute care hospital on one campus. This project focused on the development of a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the hospital to improve communication during transitions of care. The Iowa model of evidence-based practice informed the development of the guideline. A project team developed the CPG. Five multidisciplinary experts reviewed the CPG using the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE II) evaluative tool. Results for the 6 domains of the AGREE II tool showed experts' agreement greater than 90% with the guideline as developed. The creation of a CPG to improve communication during care transition could benefit nurses with improved clinical decision making and patients with improved outcomes. The CPG could impact social change by supporting the application of the principles of evidence-based nursing practice, which could result in improved care and patient outcomes.