Este trabalho teve como objetivos estabelecer os protocolos para o cálculo de incertezas de medição e a interpretação dos resultados de monitoração do Laboratório de Monitoração In Vivo (LMIV). Especificamente, o trabalho visou quantificar a contribuição dos fatores de influência para o cálculo de incertezas, e estabelecer a incerteza nas medidas. Foram utilizados dois detectores cintiladores de iodeto de sódio ativados com tálio (NaI:Tl) que possuem dimensões de 8x4\" (detector de corpo inteiro) e 3x3\" (detector de tireóide), um analisador multicanal EG&G Ortec, modelo 920E, e um microcomputador onde os espectros são adquiridos, analisados e armazenados com o auxílio do programa Renascence32, Ortec. As medições foram realizadas utilizando-se o objeto simulador antropomórfico do Alderson Research Labs. O radionuclídeo de interesse adotado para este estudo foi o 137Cs. Foram estudadas as influências dos fatores operador, geometria de medição, condições ambientais, flutuações eletrônicas com o tempo e baixa atividade. A análise das incertezas resultou em uma incerteza combinada relativa de 15,7% para o sistema 8x4\" e 9,8% para o sistema 3x3\". Estes valores foram obtidos seguindo os princípios recomendados no Guia para Expressão da Incerteza de Medição (GUM) da Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM). / This work aimed to quantify the contribution of influence factors for the calculation of uncertainties and establish the uncertainties in the measurements of the In Vivo Monitoring Laboratory (LMIV). The materials used were used: two scintillator detectors of sodium iodine activated with thallium (NaI:Tl), with the dimension of 8x4\" (whole body detector) and 3x3\" (thyroid detector), an EG&G Ortec, model 920E multichannel analyzer and a microcomputer, where the spectra are acquired, analyzed and stored, with the support of Ortecs software, Renascence32. The measurements were carried out using the anthropomorphic simulating object from Alderson Research Labs. The targeted radionuclide adopted for this study was 137Cs. The influence factors were operator, measurement geometry, environmental conditions and Electronic fluctuations over time. The analysis of the uncertainties resulted in a relative combined uncertainty of 15.7% for the 8x4\" system and 9.8% for the 3x3\" system. These values were obtained following the Guide for Expression of Uncertainty in the Measurement, (GUM) of Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM).

Este trabalho teve como objetivos estabelecer os protocolos para o cálculo de incertezas de medição e a interpretação dos resultados de monitoração do Laboratório de Monitoração In Vivo (LMIV). Especificamente, o trabalho visou quantificar a contribuição dos fatores de influência para o cálculo de incertezas, e estabelecer a incerteza nas medidas. Foram utilizados dois detectores cintiladores de iodeto de sódio ativados com tálio (NaI:Tl) que possuem dimensões de 8x4\" (detector de corpo inteiro) e 3x3\" (detector de tireóide), um analisador multicanal EG&G Ortec, modelo 920E, e um microcomputador onde os espectros são adquiridos, analisados e armazenados com o auxílio do programa Renascence32, Ortec. As medições foram realizadas utilizando-se o objeto simulador antropomórfico do Alderson Research Labs. O radionuclídeo de interesse adotado para este estudo foi o 137Cs. Foram estudadas as influências dos fatores operador, geometria de medição, condições ambientais, flutuações eletrônicas com o tempo e baixa atividade. A análise das incertezas resultou em uma incerteza combinada relativa de 15,7% para o sistema 8x4\" e 9,8% para o sistema 3x3\". Estes valores foram obtidos seguindo os princípios recomendados no Guia para Expressão da Incerteza de Medição (GUM) da Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM). / This work aimed to quantify the contribution of influence factors for the calculation of uncertainties and establish the uncertainties in the measurements of the In Vivo Monitoring Laboratory (LMIV). The materials used were used: two scintillator detectors of sodium iodine activated with thallium (NaI:Tl), with the dimension of 8x4\" (whole body detector) and 3x3\" (thyroid detector), an EG&G Ortec, model 920E multichannel analyzer and a microcomputer, where the spectra are acquired, analyzed and stored, with the support of Ortecs software, Renascence32. The measurements were carried out using the anthropomorphic simulating object from Alderson Research Labs. The targeted radionuclide adopted for this study was 137Cs. The influence factors were operator, measurement geometry, environmental conditions and Electronic fluctuations over time. The analysis of the uncertainties resulted in a relative combined uncertainty of 15.7% for the 8x4\" system and 9.8% for the 3x3\" system. These values were obtained following the Guide for Expression of Uncertainty in the Measurement, (GUM) of Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology (JCGM).

En kvalitativ studie har genomförts där syftet var att undersöka personalchefers känsla och åsikter kringsubjektivitet och objektivitet under rekryterings-och bedömningsprocesser. Telefonintervjuer har gjortsmed fem personalchefer inom kommunal verksamhet,både i stora och små kommuner. Teorier som lyfts fram i litteratur har behandlats och jämförts med intervjuers resultat. Utgångspunkten för resultatet ligger i det empiriskt insamlade materialet som visade att både subjektivitet och objetivitet i rekryterings-och bedömningsprocesser har en betydande rol

<p>У дисертацији је представљен прототип агентског, домен-оријентисаног језика ALAS. Основни мотиви развоја ALAS језика су подршка дистрибуираном не-аксиоматском резоновању као и омогућавање интероперабилности и хетерогене мобилности Siebog агената јер је приликом анализе постојећих агентских домен-оријентисаних језика утврђено да ни један језик не подржава ове захтеве. Побољшање у односу на сличне постојеће агентске, домен-оријентисане језике огледа се и у програмским конструктима које нуди ALAS језик а чија је основна сврха писање концизних агената који се извршавају у специфичним доменима.</p> / <p>U disertaciji je predstavljen prototip agentskog, domen-orijentisanog jezika ALAS. Osnovni motivi razvoja ALAS jezika su podrška distribuiranom ne-aksiomatskom rezonovanju kao i omogućavanje interoperabilnosti i heterogene mobilnosti Siebog agenata jer je prilikom analize postojećih agentskih domen-orijentisanih jezika utvrđeno da ni jedan jezik ne podržava ove zahteve. Poboljšanje u odnosu na slične postojeće agentske, domen-orijentisane jezike ogleda se i u programskim konstruktima koje nudi ALAS jezik a čija je osnovna svrha pisanje konciznih agenata koji se izvršavaju u specifičnim domenima.</p> / <p>The dissertation presents the prototype of an agent-oriented, domainspecific<br />language ALAS. The basic motives for the development of the<br />ALAS language are support for distributed non-axiomatic reasoning, as well<br />as enabling the interoperability and heterogeneous mobility of agents,<br />because it is concluded by analysing existing agent-oriented, domainspecific<br />languages, that there is no language that supports these<br />requirements. The improvement compared to similar existing agentoriented,<br />domain-specific languages are also reflected in program<br />constructs offered by ALAS language, whose the main purpose is to enable<br />writing the concise agents that are executed in specific domains.</p>

Objective: To examine the impact of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness for children. Design: A between-group comparison of speech intelligibility index (SII) and loudness, based on hearing aids fitted according to NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o] prescriptions. A within-group comparison of gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] and NAL-NL2 for children in terms of SII and loudness. Study sample: Participants were 200 children, who were randomly assigned to first hearing-aid fitting with either NAL-NL1, DSL v4.1, or DSL m[i/o]. Audiometric data and hearing-aid data at 3 years of age were used. Results: On average, SII calculated on the basis of hearing-aid gains were higher for DSL than for NAL-NL1 at low input level, equivalent at medium input level, and higher for NAL-NL1 than DSL at high input level. Greater loudness was associated with DSL than with NAL-NL1, across a range of input levels. Comparing NAL-NL2 and DSL m[i/o] target gains revealed higher SII for the latter at low input level. SII was higher for NAL-NL2 than for DSL m[i/o] at medium- and high-input levels despite greater loudness for gains prescribed by DSL m[i/o] than by NAL-NL2. Conclusion: The choice of prescription has minimal effects on speech intelligibility predictions but marked effects on loudness predictions.

Advances in hearing instrument technology have permitted the development of non-linear prescriptive methods to prescribe amplification characteristics for the hearing- impaired individual. The dispenser’s task in selecting the most appropriate prescriptive procedure for the young child is of utmost importance to ensure optimum hearing aid benefit for communication development. It was the aim of this study to compare and describe the effect of the two most widely used methods, DSL (i/o) and NAL-NL1, on speech recognition and loudness perception. An exploratory, descriptive research design was selected to realise this goal. Ten participants were selected using a convenient non-probability method of sampling. Articulation index calculations and a closed set speech recognition test were utilised in the evaluation of speech recognition, whereas functional gain results and loudness rating measurements provided an opportunity to describe loudness perception. The obtained results were analysed using the SAS (Statistical Analysis System). The study concluded that, although significant statistical differences existed in loudness perception, no statistical difference was observed in actual speech recognition measures. This effect may contribute to the individual amplification approaches of the two methods, which seem to reflect the uncertainties expressed by researchers as to the contribution of high frequency amplification to speech recognition in young children. / Dissertation (M (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

In this thesis, we analyze treatment effect estimate in randomized clinical studies. Treatment effect estimates are constructed on the basis of three models. The first part of this thesis is about the behaviour of these estimates when the treatment effects vary with patients. We find out that all types of estimates are consistent and we derived their asymptotic distribution. The estimates are compared by their asymptotic variances. The theoretical conclusions are confirmed by a simulation study. The second part describes the case where measurements of baseline and final values contain an error. Two estimates are analyzed. We find out that both estimates are consistent. We derive their asymptotic distribution and compare their variances.

The thesis aims to provide a comprehensive experimental analysis of the processing and acquisition of Turkish relative clauses in Turkish monolingual and Turkish-English bilingual children at the ages of 5-8. The study combines of

abstract: With tremendous increase in the popularity of networked multimedia applications, video data is expected to account for a large portion of the traffic on the Internet and more importantly next-generation wireless systems. To be able to satisfy a broad range of customers requirements, two major problems need to be solved. The first problem is the need for a scalable representation of the input video. The recently developed scalable extension of the state-of-the art H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video coding standard, also known as H.264/SVC (Scalable Video Coding) provides a solution to this problem. The second problem is that wireless transmission medium typically introduce errors in the bit stream due to noise, congestion and fading on the channel. Protection against these channel impairments can be realized by the use of forward error correcting (FEC) codes. In this research study, the performance of scalable video coding in the presence of bit errors is studied. The encoded video is channel coded using Reed Solomon codes to provide acceptable performance in the presence of channel impairments. In the scalable bit stream, some parts of the bit stream are more important than other parts. Parity bytes are assigned to the video packets based on their importance in unequal error protection scheme. In equal error protection scheme, parity bytes are assigned based on the length of the message. A quantitative comparison of the two schemes, along with the case where no channel coding is employed is performed. H.264 SVC single layer video streams for long video sequences of different genres is considered in this study which serves as a means of effective video characterization. JSVM reference software, in its current version, does not support decoding of erroneous bit streams. A framework to obtain H.264 SVC compatible bit stream is modeled in this study. It is concluded that assigning of parity bytes based on the distribution of data for different types of frames provides optimum performance. Application of error protection to the bit stream enhances the quality of the decoded video with minimal overhead added to the bit stream. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2011

Universitätskultur kann als eines der Haupthindernisse für die Implementierung von strategischem Management an Universitäten angesehen werden. Vorhandene Ansätze der Organisationsforschung betrachten zwar Veränderungsprozesse, diskutieren die Rolle der Organisationskultur jedoch nur am Rande und fragen nicht nach dem Wie der Umsetzung einer solchen organisationalen Veränderung. Dieser Artikel betrachtet strategisches Management an Universitäten aus einer kulturtheoretischen Perspektive und überträgt das kohäsionsorientierte Organisationsmodell auf den Hochschulkontext. Es wird gezeigt, wie dieses Modell strategische Prozesse unterstützen kann, so dass es einen praktischen Nutzen für das Hochschulmanagement bietet. / University culture is seen as one of the main obstacles to the successful implementation of the process of strategic university management. Although existing organisational approaches of changing processes give theoretical insight, they fail to consider the cultural perspective and how change can be implemented successfully. This article focuses on a cultural approach and therefore introduces a cohesive cultural model to the Higher Education (HE) context. It will be shown how this paradigm can be used in strategic management processes at universities and how it can support them. It therefore offers an approach that is applicable to the practice of university management.