Utilizing archival research from Berea College's Appalachian Sound Archives and Appalachian State University's Belk Special Collection, more than 45 survey results, 15 extensive interviews, and participant observations from 15 festival field sites, I examine bluegrass festivals as sites of identity production through feminist methodologies and a participatory ethnographic approach. This requires careful analysis of the nature of the genre's audience and audience members' investments in the process of framing the performance of bluegrass music's history through a shared historical narrative. More broadly, this analysis clarifies the nuanced role of bluegrass festivals in constructing generalizations about place-based identities, race, and gender within the performative space of festivals. In this assessment, the political and economic actions generated as a result of bluegrass performances are explored as temporal and spatial organizers for the (re)production and consumption of generalized ideals which are projected onto both literal and figurative southern stages. I perform this research utilizing the conceptual frameworks of theories of space and place, politics of culture, and feminist methods, combined through critical regionalism. My hypothesis is that bluegrass festivals serve as spaces to perform white patriarchal capitalist desires while relying on marginalized and hidden cultural productions and exchanges. My findings reveal that in order to gain a fuller understanding of politics culture, the stage must be subverted and the researcher's gaze must go beyond that which is typically traditionally framed to encompass the festival in its entirety. This requires seeking out not merely that which is intentionally framed but also narratives that create the stage or are omitted by dominant ways of interpreting the festival space. Ultimately, I find the significance of temporary physical sites for identity construction and the potential for dynamic social change within these spaces relies on the ability of scholars and participants alike to re-historicize and retell dominant narratives. / Ph. D. / The fantasized rural Appalachian region and greater south—a social construct, constantly created and recreated by social desires, political needs, and economic trends—has been a space of cultural production and experimentation, notably since the reconstruction era. One result has been the stereotypically regional genre of bluegrass music. This project asks how bluegrass music festivals began, for whom, and to what end. More importantly, it turns an eye towards research methods and power structures within the community. Research was conducted at Berea College’s Appalachian Sound Archives, at Appalachian State University’s Belk Special Collection, and through online surveys, participant observations, and interviews. In this dissertation, I carefully examine the role(s) of bluegrass festivals, specifically those envisioned and enacted by Carlton Haney (notably, in Fincastle, Virginia, in 1965). My findings illuminate how bluegrass festivals serve as sites where widely accepted generalizations about place (specifically, Appalachia and the rural American south) and specifically the bluegrass community are formed. Further, I address the role of gender within these spaces and the symbiotic relationship between female labor and bluegrass. The history of bluegrass festivals is approached with the intention of broadening discussions of gender, labor, and historical narratives beyond the festival grounds.

Zero-shot video generation involves generating videos of concepts (action classes) that are not seen in the training phase. Even though the research community has explored conditional video generation for long high-resolution videos, zero-shot video remains a fairly unexplored and challenging task. Most recent works can generate videos for action-object or motion-content pairs, where both the object (content) and action (motion) are observed separately during training, yet results often lack spatial consistency between foreground and background and cannot generalize to complex scenes with multiple objects or actions. In this work, we propose Concept2Vid that generates zero-shot videos for classes that are completely unseen during training. In contrast to prior work, our model is not limited to a predefined fixed set of class-level attributes, but rather utilizes semantic information from multiple videos of the same topic to generate samples from novel classes. We evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively on the Kinetics400 and UCF101 datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposed model. / Master of Science / Humans are able to generalize unseen scenarios without explicit feedback. They can be thought of as self-learning Artificial Intelligence agents that can collect data from various modalities (video, audio, text) found in surrounding environments, to develop new knowledge and acclimate to unseen situations without explicit feedback. Many recent studies have learned how to perform this process for images, but very few have been able to extend it to videos. Videos provide rich multi-modal data, such as text, audio, and images, and hence are composed of multifaceted knowledge that can introduce more complex temporal and spatial constraints. Leveraging videos in combination with text and audio data can assist intelligent systems to learn similar to how humans do. Zero-shot video generation (ZSVG) involves generating videos of concepts that are not seen in the training phase of a machine learning model. Generating a zero-shot video requires a multitude of temporal and spatial dependencies. In generating a video, not only does the model need temporal coherence but also the understanding of object properties. Current approaches for ZSVG are not well suited due to these challenges. We propose Concept2Vid which generates zero-shot videos for classes that are completely unseen during training. In contrast to prior work, our model is not limited to a predefined fixed set of class descriptions, but rather utilizes semantic information from multiple videos of the same topic to generate samples from novel classes. We evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively on the Kinetics400 and UCF101 datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposed model.

Business intelligence (BI) involves transforming data into actionable information to make better business decisions that may help improve operations. Although businesses have experienced success with BI, how leaders of church organizations might be able to exploit the advantages of BI in church organizations remains largely unexplored. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of pastoral leaders concerning the potential usefulness of BI in church organizations. Conceptual support for the study was based on the premise that churches may also benefit from BI that helps improve decision making and organizational performance. Three research questions were used to examine the current role of BI in church organizations, the potential usefulness of BI in church organizations, and potential conflicts that might exist between spiritual and BI management objectives. Semistructured interviews were used to obtain data from 20 pastoral leaders. The data were analyzed using the modified Van Kaam method of analysis. The results indicated that pastoral leaders perceived that BI can be a useful technology in church organizations. Additionally, the pastoral leaders did not perceive any conflict between BI and church management objectives. Church leaders may be able to take advantage of BI to achieve their social outreach programs. As a result, local churches can have a greater social impact on the surrounding communities.

A substantial amount of IT projects fail or stay challenged in meeting their targets based on project schedule, budget and system requirements.  Leading global surveys in the last decade barely indicate any improvement in the statistical performance of IT projects in spite of the fact that a lot of effort has been taken in the past to identify and fix those critical factors on which the success and failure of IT projects are generally based on. The poor trend and the underperformance of IT projects still continue. Different researches based on different approaches identify different critical factors but to a very large extent people and processes are blamed. This thesis is under taken to understand the impact of Information Systems (IS) processes and methodologies in the success and failure of IT projects. Major challenges within IS processes, such as their initial identification, implementation and organizational process awareness are identified through qualitative research methods. ‘Identification and selection of IS process and methodologies’ is identified as a major challenge within IT projects and is discussed in detail as, why and what difficulties organizations face in the process of  selecting processes and methodologies on a given IT project. A couple of methodology selection frameworks to overcome these difficulties are presented along side with their critical review and improvement. We come to a conclusion that there is a growing need for more efficient and competent methodology selection frameworks as the ones which exist today are barely complete and efficient and if they do then only to a limited and partial degree.

In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015, and the longstanding advocacy of Indigenous peoples, there is a national movement within Canada to better support Indigenous students in post-secondary institutions. Research that is strength-based, Indigenous-led, and community-focused recognizes the wealth of existing Indigenous knowledge, practices and programs across Canada. This includes the variety of interventions which are being employed to Indigenize and decolonize post-secondary institutions, such as the On-Campus Friendship Centre at Grande Prairie Regional College. The On-Campus Friendship Centre, which is an Indigenous-based support program for all students, has been running for nearly two decades. Nationally, there are 125 Friendship Centres, yet the On-Campus Friendship Centre is the only one that is directly situated within a post-secondary institution. Through the guidance of my Métis Sash Research Framework, which I created to reconcile Indigenous and qualitative methodologies, I have engaged in research that explores the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre in the experiences of Indigenous students at Grande Prairie Regional College. From my findings, I discuss the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre and address prominent challenges within the program. I also highlight wise-practices for improving Indigenous-based support within post-secondary institutions across Canada. / Graduate / 2019-08-31

A tecnologia de agentes tem sido reconhecida como um paradigma promissor em sistemas educacionais da nova geração. Entretanto, o esforço e inflexibilidade de algumas metodologias próprias para agentesacarretam num alto custo, tempo e adaptação de escopo. Este trabalho visaavaliar alternativas de desenvolvimento de um jogo educacional médico orientado a agentes, através da aplicação de um estudo de caso, com o intuito de verificar se metodologias próprias para implementação de sistemas multiagentes trazem benefícios no resultado final da implementação do jogo, e também se os resultados alcançados na comparação de processos de desenvolvimento de cunho tradicional e ágil fazem diferença no resultado final. Desta forma, este trabalho compara três metodologias baseadas nos conceitos da Engenharia de Software através de um estudo de caso, sendo elas: O-MaSE que é uma metodologiatradicional de desenvolvimento de sistemas multiagentes e utiliza um processo de desenvolvimento tradicional; AgilePASSI que é baseada no processo de desenvolvimento ágil e específica para sistemas multiagentes; e, por último, Scrum que é uma metodologia ágil, não sendo específica para implementação de sistemas multiagentes / The agent technology has been recognized as a promising paradigm in educational systems of the new generation. However, the effort and inflexibility of some specific methodologies entail a high cost, time and adaptation scope. This work aims to validate options for developing an educational medical game oriented agents by applying an experiment in order to verify that methodologies specific to implement multi-agent systems provide benefits in the result of the implementation of the game, and also the results achieved by comparison of traditional and agile development processes makes a difference in the outcome. Thus, this paper compares three approaches based on the concepts of software engineering through an experiment, as follows: O-MaSE is a traditional methodology for the development of multi-agent systems and uses a traditional development process; AgilePASSI which is based on agile and specific development for multi-agent systems; and finally, Scrum that is an agile methodology, not specific to implementation of multi-agent systems.

A tecnologia de agentes tem sido reconhecida como um paradigma promissor em sistemas educacionais da nova geração. Entretanto, o esforço e inflexibilidade de algumas metodologias próprias para agentesacarretam num alto custo, tempo e adaptação de escopo. Este trabalho visaavaliar alternativas de desenvolvimento de um jogo educacional médico orientado a agentes, através da aplicação de um estudo de caso, com o intuito de verificar se metodologias próprias para implementação de sistemas multiagentes trazem benefícios no resultado final da implementação do jogo, e também se os resultados alcançados na comparação de processos de desenvolvimento de cunho tradicional e ágil fazem diferença no resultado final. Desta forma, este trabalho compara três metodologias baseadas nos conceitos da Engenharia de Software através de um estudo de caso, sendo elas: O-MaSE que é uma metodologiatradicional de desenvolvimento de sistemas multiagentes e utiliza um processo de desenvolvimento tradicional; AgilePASSI que é baseada no processo de desenvolvimento ágil e específica para sistemas multiagentes; e, por último, Scrum que é uma metodologia ágil, não sendo específica para implementação de sistemas multiagentes / The agent technology has been recognized as a promising paradigm in educational systems of the new generation. However, the effort and inflexibility of some specific methodologies entail a high cost, time and adaptation scope. This work aims to validate options for developing an educational medical game oriented agents by applying an experiment in order to verify that methodologies specific to implement multi-agent systems provide benefits in the result of the implementation of the game, and also the results achieved by comparison of traditional and agile development processes makes a difference in the outcome. Thus, this paper compares three approaches based on the concepts of software engineering through an experiment, as follows: O-MaSE is a traditional methodology for the development of multi-agent systems and uses a traditional development process; AgilePASSI which is based on agile and specific development for multi-agent systems; and finally, Scrum that is an agile methodology, not specific to implementation of multi-agent systems.

The software development for mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones and tablets requires knowledge not only of processes but also related to software and hardware technology platforms of these devices. Continuous improvement in the performance of these platforms and the increasing demand for a variety of applications require a high competitiveness and, therefore, high levels of productivity and quality. In this scenario, agile methodologies are used and fit well to frequently changing requirements and to time to market. Among these methodologies, Scrum is one of the most accepted and used, contributing to the improvement of project management, team productivity, product quality and increasing the probability of project success. On the other hand, there is an increasing adoption of quality management methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma in Information Technology and Communication (ICT) organizations due to their proven results in improving processes development and quality of services and products developed. Methodologies such as Scrum and Lean Six Sigma have different goals, however, they can contribute together in the development of software for mobile devices. In literature, there are studies that propose the integration of agile methodologies and software quality, however, they have gaps regarding the possibility of systematic reuse of this integration, as well as in evaluating the use of these integrated methodologies. Thus, this paper proposes an evolution of an existing approach, called SLeSS, that integrates Scrum to Lean Six Sigma and has been used in the software customization for mobile phones. The evolution of this approach is to add software development in addition to customization and improve integration mechanisms initially proposed with a focus on evaluation of the practices and principles of Scrum from the use of techniques of Lean Six Sigma. This new version is applied in seven actual projects that are related to software development and customization for mobile devices and their results are also discussed in this dissertation. / O desenvolvimento de software para dispositivos mÃveis como smartphones, celulares e tablets requer conhecimento dos processos e das tecnologias relacionadas Ãs plataformas de software e de hardware desses dispositivos. A melhoria contÃnua no desempenho dessas plataformas e a demanda crescente por uma variedade de aplicaÃÃes impÃem uma alta competitividade e, por conseguinte, exigem nÃveis elevados de produtividade e de qualidade dos projetos de desenvolvimento. Nesse cenÃrio, as metodologias Ãgeis sÃo utilizadas por se adequarem bem Ãs frequentes mudanÃas de requisitos e Ãs demandas de prazo desse nicho de mercado. Dentre essas metodologias, o Scrum à uma das mais aceitas e utilizadas, contribuindo na melhoria da gestÃo de projetos, na produtividade do time, na qualidade dos produtos e no aumento da probabilidade de sucesso dos projetos. Por outro lado, hà uma crescente adoÃÃo de metodologias de gestÃo da qualidade como o Lean Six Sigma por organizaÃÃes da Ãrea de Tecnologia da InformaÃÃo e ComunicaÃÃo (TIC) devido aos seus resultados comprovados na melhoria dos processos de desenvolvimento e da qualidade dos serviÃos e dos produtos desenvolvidos. Metodologias como o Scrum e o Lean Six Sigma possuem objetivos distintos, entretanto, elas podem contribuir juntas no desenvolvimento de software para dispositivos mÃveis. Na literatura existem trabalhos que propÃem a integraÃÃo de metodologias Ãgeis e de qualidade de software, entretanto, esses trabalhos possuem lacunas no que tange a possibilidade de reuso sistemÃtico das mesmas bem como a avaliaÃÃo do uso dessas metodologias integradas. Este trabalho propÃe entÃo uma evoluÃÃo de uma abordagem jà existente, denominada SLeSS, que integra o Scrum ao Lean Six Sigma e que foi utilizada na customizaÃÃo de software para celulares. Essa evoluÃÃo visa ampliar a abordagem tanto para o desenvolvimento de software alÃm da customizaÃÃo quanto para melhorar os mecanismos de integraÃÃo inicialmente propostos com um foco na avaliaÃÃo das prÃticas e princÃpios do Scrum a partir do uso de tÃcnicas do Lean Six Sigma. Para avaliar a nova versÃo, ela à aplicada em sete projetos reais de desenvolvimento e customizaÃÃo de software para dispositivos mÃveis e seus resultados sÃo tambÃm discutidos nesta dissertaÃÃo.

Remote work was already an ongoing trend amongst software developers, but the sudden and unexpected occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic made it normal due to the obligations for many people to stay and work from home.  To go from the safeness of the work office with an always-working Internet connection and colleagues around to exchange ideas with, to working from home can be a big change from one day to another. Without a good structure or adjustment from the organization, this would lead to a decrease in good work results, communication issues and difficulty for managers to keep track of what is done and by whom. To facilitate this, commonly used methods are the Agile Methodologies. Beck et al. (2001) make it significant in the 12 principles of Agile that the most efficient and effective method of conveying information is by face-to-face conversation for the best results. Investigating the work that was done face-to-face previous to the pandemic but is now done remotely from home within agile teams is therefore of much relevance today. This thesis was intended to investigate and learn how the use of agile methodologies has facilitated the sudden transition to remote work from home and affected the aspects of communication and work results within an agile development team. The study was conducted using the qualitative method with interviews consisting of seven open-response and two closed-response questions with respondents in agile teams from a software development company in Sweden. The analysis was made thematically in relation to Bridge’s Transition Model, and in relation to previous research. The study identified three themes to answer the research question based on the theoretical framework; The Change, Communication and Work Results. The results of the study show that the use of Agile Methodologies indeed has simplified the sudden transition to remote work from home, which was called The Change, as many of the agile practices already were done online previous to the pandemic. The study has also concluded that the use of Agile Methodologies has positively affected the aspects of communication and work results in an agile team, as it was found that forms of communication became more creative as they occurred more frequently while working from home, and it ultimately led to more valuable end-results. / Distansarbete var redan en pågående trend bland mjukvaruutvecklare, men den plötsliga och oväntade förekomsten av COVID-19-pandemin gjorde det normalt på grund av restriktionerna för många människor att arbeta hemifrån. Att gå från arbetskontorets säkerhet med en alltid fungerande internetuppkoppling och kollegor runt om för att diskutera idéer med, till att arbeta hemifrån kan vara en stor förändring från en dag till en annan. Utan en bra struktur eller anpassning från organisationen skulle detta leda till en minskning av goda arbetsresultat, dålig kommunikation och svårigheter för chefer att hålla reda på vad som görs och av vem. Vanliga metoder att använda för att underlätta detta är de agila metoderna. Beck et al. (2001) gör det tydligt i de 12 principerna för Agile att den mest effektiva metoden för att förmedla information i ett projekt är genom konversationer face to face, för bästa resultat. Att undersöka det arbete som innan pandemin gjordes face to face men nu görs på distans hemifrån inom agila team är därför av stor relevans idag. Denna studie var avsedd att undersöka och få kunskap om hur användningen av agila metoder har underlättat den plötsliga övergången till distansarbete hemifrån och påverkat aspekterna av kommunikation och arbetsresultat inom ett agilt utvecklingsteam. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av den kvalitativa metoden med intervjuer bestående av sju öppna frågor och två slutna svarfrågor med respondenter i agila team från ett mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag i Sverige. Analysen gjordes tematiskt i förhållande till Bridge’s Transition Model och i förhållande till tidigare forskning. Studien identifierade tre teman för att besvara forskningsfrågan utifrån det teoretiska ramverket; The Change, Communication och Work Results. Resultaten av studien visar att användningen av agila metoder har förenklat den plötsliga övergången till distansarbete hemifrån, eftersom många av de agila aktiviteterna redan gjordes online före pandemin. Studien har också dragit slutsatsen att användningen av agila metoder har påverkat aspekterna kommunikation och arbetsresultat positivt i ett agilt team, eftersom det visade sig att kommunikationsformer blev mer kreativa eftersom kommunikationen blev mer frekvent inträffande när de arbetade hemifrån, och det ledde slutligen till mer värdefulla slutresultat i projekt.

Ammonium Nitrate-Fuel Oil (ANFO) is the explosive generally used in the mining industry to blast ore from the rock face. The use and detonation of ANFO explosives in an underground mine is an intrinsically hazardous process. The by-products formed during blasting have been well studied over the years and modern mining techniques and methods have evolved to mitigate the inherent blasting and gas emission risks. However, there is insufficient research and quantitative data on mine workers’ respiratory exposure to blasting gasses under realistic underground conditions. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine whether blasting gasses such as nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ammonia (NH3) pose an inhalation health risk to underground mine workers cleaning at the blasting panels approximately three hours after the detonation of ANFO explosives. Scraper Winch Operators’ (SWOs) respiratory exposure to selected blasting gasses was simultaneously sampled by means of active and passive sampling methodologies. Method: Personal exposures to NO, NO2 and NH3 were measured and analysed in accordance with NIOSH methods 6014 and 6015. Along with the active air samplers, respiratory exposure to NO2 and NH3 were measured by means of radial symmetry diffusive samplers (Aquaria® RING). Measurements were taken over an 8-hour period, where this was not applicable; results were time weighed to an average 8-hour exposure concentration in order to compare the Scraper Winch Operators’ (SWOs) respiratory exposure to the Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) contained in the Regulations of the Mine Health and Safety Act (No. 29 of 1996). Results: The active air sampling results indicated that the SWOs’ respiratory exposure to NO, NO2 and NH3 complied with their respective OELs contained in the Regulations of the Mine Health and Safety Act (No. 29 of 1996). However, one of the SWOs had an exposure which exceeded the action level (50% of OEL) at which level the implementation of control measures are recommended to reduce the SWO’s exposure. Based on the results of the Wilcoxon matched pairs test, statistical significant differences were observed between the exposure results of the two sampling methodologies for NO2 (p = 0.00078) and NH3 (p = 0.044), with the passive diffusive sampling technique under sampling when compared to the active sampling method. This was also confirmed by a Spearman rank order correlation which indicated a poor relationship between the two sampling methods for NO2 (r = -0.323) and NH3 (r = 0.090). Environmental conditions (i.e. temperature and humidity), as presented in an underground mine, may have been a major factor for the variation between the two sampling methods, mostly affecting the passive samplers. Conclusion: It was established that engineering and administrative control measures implemented at the underground mine were effective to control SWOs’ respiratory exposure to NO, NO2 and NH3 below their respective OELs. An acute health risk pertaining the inhalation of blasting gasses was, therefore, not presented to mine workers cleaning at the blasting panels approximately three hours after the detonation of ANFO explosives. However, long-term exposure to blasting gasses at low concentrations may present SWOs with a health risk if such exposures are not adequately controlled or mitigated. The dilution and production of blasting gasses also varied from one blasting level to another. Geological formation, explosive charge-up and loading practices, the amount of water vapour inside the stopes and ventilation parameters are among the factors that may have affected the amount of blasting gasses produced underground. In addition, a drop in the carbon monoxide levels as indicated by the mine’s central gas monitoring system would not necessarily mean a lowering in other blasting gas concentrations (i.e. elevated ammonia gas concentrations as identified in the present study). The personal exposure levels between the active and passive sampling measurements also differed considerably. This may be ascribed to the impact underground mining conditions and processes had on the sampling media as well the complexities involved when sampling blasting gasses in general. / MSc (Occupational Hygiene), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014