La recherche qui suit porte sur l'évaluation du profil de personnalité des cyclistes sur route élites québécois. Elle vise à mieux connaître ces athlètes qui se sacrifient sur le terrain pour voir si ceux-ci ont des comportements adaptés malgré la « pression de performance » qui leur incombe. Les cyclistes vivent beaucoup de stress physique et psychologique. L'entraînement intensif, les compétitions, les échecs sportifs, la retraite précoce, l'appui conditionnel des commanditaires, etc. sont autant de facteurs susceptibles d'engendrer des vulnérabilités comportementales. Notre recherche vise donc à évaluer la personnalité des cyclistes professionnels québécois pour être en mesure de leur offrir un encadrement physique et psychologique conséquent et adéquat, à la hauteur de leur investissement sportif. 20 cyclistes sur route élites canadiens ont été évalués via le TCI (Temparement and Character Inventory) qui permet de définir le caractère des individus selon 3 dimensions (détermination, coopération et transcendance) et le tempérament des individus selon 4 dimensions (recherche de nouveautés, évitement du danger, dépendance à la récompense et persistance). Tous les cyclistes participants étaient de niveau élite, âgés de 19 à 35 ans et de sexe masculin. Ils ont eu à remplir un questionnaire auto-administré de 226 questions (Vrai ou Faux). Un groupe témoin de 20 sujets a également rempli le TCI. Les résultats montrent en somme qu'il existe peu de différences entre le groupe de cyclistes et le groupe témoin. Les premiers obtiennent des scores plus élevés pour la dimension de « persistance ». C'est dire que les sportifs participants accusent d'une plus grande détermination que le groupe témoin. Les athlètes obtiennent par ailleurs des résultats plus faibles pour la dimension « dépendance à la récompense » laissant présumer qu'ils sont plus pragmatiques et plus rationnels que le groupe témoins. Ces résultats sont encourageants puisqu'ils laissent croire que les cyclistes élites canadiens ont des comportements adaptés à leur pratique. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : cyclistes, profil de personnalités, pression de performance, Temparement and Character Inventory, comportement, athlètes

We study simulation optimization methods for the stochastic economic lot scheduling problem. In contrast to prior research, we focus on methods that treat this problem as a black box. Based on a large-scale numerical study, we compare approximate dynamic programming with a global search for parameters of simple control policies. We propose two value function approximation schemes based on linear combinations of piecewise- constant functions as well as control policies that can be described by a small set of parameters. While approximate value iteration worked well for small problems with three products, it was clearly outperformed by the global policy search as soon as problem size increased. The most reliable choice in our study was a globally optimized fixed-cycle policy. An additional analysis of the response surface of model parameters on optimal average cost revealed that the cost effect of product diversity was negligible. (authors' abstract)

The aim of this study was to explore the validity of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) in an African context. This 240-item self-report questionnaire that measures 24 character strengths (Peterson & Seligrnan, 2004), was developed in a western individualistic context, and it cannot be assumed to be valid in African contexts without prior scientific evaluation. The current study, a first step in the evaluation of its validity in an African context, focussed on psychometric properties such as reliability, mean scores and variance, criterion-related validity, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, as well as translatability. In a cross-sectional survey design an availability sample of African students (N=256) completed the original English version of the VIA-IS and other criterion-related measures of psychological well-being and health, during facilitated group sessions. The latter scales were the Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Flett, 1983), the Fortitude Questionnaire (Pretorius, 1998), the Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1987), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, et al. 1985), and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). Translation of the VIA-IS into Setswana and back-translation were conducted and evaluated by a research evaluation committee. Results indicated that mean scores of the VIA-IS subscales are relatively aligned with those in a western context. Twenty of the twenty-four VIA-subscales showed satisfactory Cronbach alphas reliability indices above .70. The VIA-IS satisfies criterion-related validity as indicated by positive correlation with life satisfaction, positive affect, fortitude and sense of coherence, and negative correlation with negative affect and symptoms of ill-health. The VIA-IS was found to be translatable with preservation of original meaning, but in some instances technical terms had to be borrowed. Second order confirmatory and exploratory principal component factor analyses on the 24 strengths yielded three significant factors, and not six as theoretically expected, in this African group. The three emic virtue clusters are 1) Wisdom, knowledge and courage, 2) Horizontal and vertical relatedness and 3) Integrity in a group context: temperance and justice. This clustering of virtues reflects a socio-centric, collectivistic African cultural value system. It is concluded that the VIA-IS may have merit in an African context, but is not completely valid in its original form with its hypothesised six value clusters. With modifications and adaptations a more valid version may be developed for an African context. Studies on randomly selected, larger African samples are recommended. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Time-since-fire data are used to describe wildfire disturbances, the major disturbance type in the Boreal forest, over a landscape. These data can be used to calculate various parameters about wildfire disturbances, such as size, shape and severity. Collecting time-since-fire data is expensive and time consuming; the ability to derive it from existing forest inventory data would result in availability of fire data over larger areas. The objective of this thesis was to explore the use of forest inventory information for the prediction of time-since-fire data in the mixedwood boreal forests of Saskatchewan. Regression models were used to predict time-since-fire from forest inventory variables for each inventory polygon with a stand age. Non-water polygons with no stand age value were assigned values from neighbouring polygons, after splitting long polygons that potentially crossed many historic fire boundaries. This procedure filled gaps that prevented polygons from being grouped together in latter analysis. The predicted time-since-fire ages were used to generate wildfire parameters such as age-class distributions and fire cycle. Three methods were examined to group forest inventory polygons together to predict fire event polygons: simple partitions, hierarchical clustering, and spatially constrained clustering. The predicted fire event polygons were used to generate polygon size distribution wildfire metrics. I found that there was a relationship between time-since-fire and forest inventory variables at this study site, although the relationship was not strong. As expected, the strongest relationship was between the age of trees in a stand as indicated by the inventory and the time-since-fire. This relationship was moderately improved by including tree species composition, harvest modification value, and the ages of the surrounding polygons. Assigning no-age polygons neighbouring values and grouping the forest inventory polygons improved the predicted time-since-fire results when compared spatially to the observed time-since-fire data. However, a satisfactory method of comparing polygon shapes was not found, and the map outputs were highly dependent on the grouping method and parameters used. Overall it was found that forest inventory data did not have sufficient detail and accuracy to be used to derive high quality time-since-fire information.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether water protection areas with nearby shooting ranges could be polluted by lead from ammunition or not. The goal was to make a risk assessment of the hazard for human health and the environment. The risk assessment leads to a classification of the shooting ranges. The work of the inventory was done according to the method developed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, called “Methodology for Inventory of Polluted Areas”. The report contains two types of studies: one literature study and one practical study where interviews were conducted along with a visit to one of the shooting ranges. The results show that one shooting range was considered to be of high risk to the environment because of the high activity that accumulated several tons of lead and the shooting range’s nearness to a water treatment plant. The other two shooting ranges were smaller and not too close to a drinking water source. Therefore the risks were moderate. Conclusions drawn from this report is that water protection areas within nearby shooting ranges are exposed to potential pollution from lead, but the risks aren’t immediate. Probably will time play an important role to prevent lead spreading to the ground water. Because of its attributes, lead has low mobility under normal conditions.  The vertical transport in the ground is considered slow and it could take hundreds of years before it reaches ground water.

The last 15 years have brought a lot of changes to the upbringing of children with the special disorders. Children with insignificant intellectual disorders, also children having specific learning disorders are started to be taught at secondary schools. Until 1991 the biggest part of these children has been taught at special schools for children with intellectual disorders. At present, children who have not been taught at all came to special schools. Children who have been taught at secondary schools now form majority at secondary schools. In this connection, there was a need to have specialized pedagogues at secondary schools. Their functions and duties have been always discussed at media and in scientific conferences. However, the content of work of specialized pedagogues is not very clear. Object of work - preparedness of specialized pedagogues to work at secondary school. Problem of work - functions of specialized pedagogues at secondary school. Aim of work - to find out how the schedule of specialized pedagogues duties meets the expectations of pedagogues of secondary schools and the expectations of the specialized pedagogues. Goals of work: 1. to study pedagogical and special literature about the content of work and aims of specialized pedagogue at secondary school. 2. to analyze the content and methods of specialized pedagogue who works at secondary school. 3. to find out the priorities of work spheres of specialized pedagogue, how it is perceived by specialized... [to full text]

Finansų rinkų programos Verslo nuosavybės ekonomikos specializacijos magistro baigiamojo darbo tema yra aktuali, nes atsargų valdymas, efektyvus atsargų valdymo proceso organizavimas yra aktualus kiekvienai įmonei, užsiimančiai gamybine ar prekybine veikla. Atsargos – vienas iš įmonės veiksnių jos pelningai veiklai palaikyti. Atsargų valdymas yra jų optimalaus kiekio paieška bei tinkamiausio santykio tarp naudos ir išlaidų išlaikymas. Tyrimo objektas – atsargų valdymas. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas – nustatyti, kokia įtaką įmonės pelningumui daro efektyvus atsargų valdymas. Tikslui pasiekti buvo iškelti šie uždaviniai: 1. susipažinti su atsargų rūšimis; 2. atsargų poreikio nustatymas; 3. apibrėžti pagrindinius atsargų įkainojimo metodus; 4. atlikti atsargų panaudojimo efektyvumo analizę. Tyrimo metodika. Darbe naudota mokslinės, ekonominės literatūros analizė apie atsargų valdymą ir su juo susijusias problemas, turto panaudojimo efektyvumo koeficientų analizė. Šiuo darbu norime pagrįsti hipotezę, kad efektyvus atsargų valdymas padidintų įmonės pinigų srautus, kas leistų juos panaudoti verslo plėtrai ar veiklos procesų efektyvumui gerinti. Pirmoje darbo dalyje išanalizavime, kas tai yra atsargos, išnagrinėjome atsargų rūšis ir jų klasifikavimą. Atsargos – trumpalaikis turtas (žaliavos ir komplektavimo gaminiai, nebaigta gamyba, pagamint produkcija bei pirktos prekės, skirtos perparduoti), kurį įmonė sunaudoja pajamoms uždirbti per vienus metus arba per vieną įmonės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Master‘s work in business property economics is actual, because the inventory management, the effective inventory organizing is actual for each producing and trade company. Inventory is one from the most important factors for profitable activity of company. Inventory management is the most suitable relation between the profit and expenses. The object is inventory management. The aim of this article is to research the effective inventory management influence for company’s profitableness. To reach this goal we resolved such tasks as: 1. Become acquainted with qualities of inventory; 2. To define the basic estimation methods; 3. To carry out the analyze of the effective inventory employment. In this article we want to ground the hypothesis that effective inventory management increase profit of company. In the first part we have analyzed the inventory qualities and classification. Inventory is the short-term assets (raw materials and consumables, work in progress, finished products and goods for resale), which company used for receipts earn during one year. Raw materials and consumables, work in progress and finished products are the inventory of producing company. And the goods for resale are the inventory of trade company. In the second part we analyzed the basic estimation methods. The choosing of the estimation methods is one from the most important factors for profitable activity of company, which could influence the sale cost price. For the calculating of used in production... [to full text]

Įmonių praeities pasiekimai yra menkaverčiai dėl dabartinės rizikos veiksnių, rinkos nepastovumo, ekonominio neapibrėžtumo. Šiuolaikinių įmonių dominavimas rinkoje remiasi logistine sistema, gebančia prisitaikyti prie aplinkos pokyčių, gebančia balansuoti tarp „sveiko proto“ ir greito, operatyvaus reagavimo laiku į besikeičiančią pasaulinę verslo aplinką. Tai įpareigojo įmones ieškoti naujų veiklos efektyvumo didinimo būdų ir paskatino verslą atsigręžti į aprūpinimą bei aprūpinimo sistemų valdymą. Šiuo metu aprūpinimo valdymo problemų sprendimas yra vienas iš dažniausiai nagrinėjamų klausimų įmonėse ir organizacijose. Šio darbo tikslas: išnagrinėti mokslinius šaltinius aprūpinimo tema ir išsiaiškinti aprūpinimo reikšmę šiuolaikiniam verslui. Darbe buvo atlikta UAB „Sander Baltic“ aprūpinimo sistemos analizė, norint suformuluoti ir pateikti projektinį sprendimą įmonės aprūpinimo sistemos veiklos tobulinimui. Magistrinis darbas susideda iš trijų dalių. Pirmoje darbo dalyje yra nagrinėjama aprūpinimo reikšmė ir vaidmuo šiuolaikiniame versle. Aptarta aprūpinimo samprata, aprūpinimo sistemų taikymo ypatumai bei problemos. Antroje dalyje pateikiama UAB „Sander Baltic“ aprūpinimo sistemos analizė. Įmonės veiklos specifika yra labai svarbus aspektas numatant tolesnes aprūpinimo sistemos tobulinimo kryptis, kurios yra pateikiamos trečiojoje darbo dalyje. Pastarojoje dalyje taip pat yra analizuojami atlikto tyrimo rezultatai, vertinantys esamą aprūpinimo sistemą ir nurodantys jos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Achievements of the past became of low value in the context of nowadays risk factors, instability of the market, economical indeterminacy. Domination of the companies in the market is now based upon the logistics system capable of adapting to external changes, capable of balancing between rational thinking and timely rapid response to the changing environment of the global trade. This obliged the companies to search for new ways of increasing efficiency and encouraged them to spotlight the supply and supply system management. Solving the problems related to supply management is one of the biggest concerns of the companies and organizations nowadays. The goal of this work: to analyze the scientific articles dealing with the supply topic and to determine the significance of supply to the modern trade. The supply system analysis of company “Sander Baltic” Ltd. has been performed with goal to formulate and propose project solution of company’s supply system improvement. Master degree thesis consists of three parts. In the first part of the work importance and role of the supply in modern trade is analyzed. Conception of supply, peculiarities and problems of supply systems are discussed. The supply system analysis of company “Sander Baltic” Ltd. is presented in the second part of the work. Peculiarity of the company work is very important aspect in scheduling directions of supply system improvement which are presented in the third part of the work. Results of the research... [to full text]

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The Saint Lawrence Lowlands in eastern Canada contain extensive deposits of marine soils deposited in post-glacial seas during and following the retreat of the most recent continental glacier. These marine soils include silt and clay deposits known collectively as Champlain clay. When the pore fluid in these marine deposits has changed over time to a lower salinity, the clay can become very sensitive, or demonstrate substantial strength loss after reaching the peak strength with sufficient strain under undrained load conditions. Sensitive clay soils are subject to a peculiar type of very large landslide that typically involves great extents of nearly horizontal ground, usually occurring suddenly and without warning. These landslides tend to be described as “retrogressive” in the literature and practice, implying that they develop as a series of successive small failures that advance rearward until a final stable position is reached. The work of this thesis is organized into four different themes, with an overall objective of understanding the hazard and risk associated with large landslides in sensitive clay to linear infrastructure such as railways. The first theme, documented in Chapter 2, develops a number of spatial relationships between specific physiographic and geologic features and landslide occurrence or absence, as determined through air photo analysis and a review of the literature. The second theme, documented in Chapter 3, presents the construction of a digital database of large landslides in sensitive clay in eastern Canada, for the purposes of studying landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk. The third theme, documented in Chapters 4 and 5, presents and defends a novel mechanical model for development of these large landslides. This model suggests the landslides develop progressively, rather than retrogressively, and the science of fracture mechanics is employed to substantiate the model. The fourth theme, documented in Chapters 6 and 7, synthesizes the findings of the earlier themes and presents a methodology for estimating landslide susceptibility in Champlain clay. That approach is then extended to develop an understanding of the hazard. The concluding chapter extends that work to present an initial appreciation of landslide risk to railways. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-23 13:22:19.53