In this work, an extensible word-alignment framework is implemented from scratch. It is based on a discriminative method that combines a wide range of lexical association measures and other features and requires a small amount of manually word-aligned data to optimize parameters of the model. The optimal alignment is found as minimum-weight edge cover, selected suboptimal alignments are used to estimate confidence of each alignment link. Feature combination is tuned in the course of many experiments with respect to the results of evaluation. The evaluation results are compared to GIZA++. The best trained model is used to word-align a large Czech-English parallel corpus and from the links of highest confidence a bilingual lexicon is extracted. Single-word translation equivalents are sorted by their significance. Lexicons of different sizes are extracted by taking top N translations. Precision of the lexicons is evaluated automatically and also manually by judging random samples.

The aim of this thesis is to promote a dialogue about constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996) with a particular focus on the use of reflective writing as an assessed task in courses of teacher education and the influence it has, or does not have, on teacher reflection and/or in improving practice. The work is set against a national context in which time to reflect is being written out of teacher education as a consequence of policy which locates ‘training’ to teach increasingly within the busy-ness of school life. Persuaded by principles of constructive alignment and, therefore, troubled by student teachers’ perceptions of complex assignments which appear to have little relevance to their practice as teachers, I have undertaken an action research study (McAteer, 2013; Norton, 2009; and Wells, 2001), beginning with a conviction that it is possible to design assessment tasks which truly integrate professional and academic requirements and influence the learning activity of student teachers in ways which are meaningful for their development as teachers. Using an adaptation of the Ward and McCotter (2004) ‘Reflection Rubric’ to locate characteristics of reflection within the reflective writing submitted for assessment, the study evaluated the relationship between written reflection and academic and professional attainment and found little evidence that engagement in the reflective writing assignment had contributed to the participants’ development as teachers. I conclude that the assessment strategies of students and of the course had been either not aligned or destructively aligned. The thesis narrates my journey to the adoption of a socio-constructivist perspective, leading to greater insight into the relationship between established assessment practice and the learning activity of student teachers, and a questioning of my practice. Crucially, the notion of a ‘framework for assessment’ is broadened to encompass all assignment-related activity, the people involved and the timeframe, in addition to the task and criteria. I conclude by identifying a desire to know more about the national view of assessment in teacher education, seeking a network of colleagues in order to explore ways in which counterparts in other institutions are supporting student teachers to develop reflective practice and assess reflective writing.

Shawnee is a language whose alignment system is of the type first proposed by Nichols (1992) and Siewierska (1998): hierarchical alignment. This alignment system was proposed to account for languages where distinctions between agent (A) and object (O) are not formally manifested. Such is the case in Shawnee; there are person-marking inflections on the verb for both A and O, but there is not set order. Instead, Shawnee makes reference to an animacy hierarchy and is an inverse system. This thesis explores how hierarchical alignment is accounted for by Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), and also applies Paradigm Function Morphology to LFG’s m(orphological)-structure as most of the alignment system in Shawnee is realized in the inflectional morphology.

Sequence analysis and structure analysis are two of the fundamental areas of bioinformatics research. This dissertation discusses, specifically, protein structure related problems including protein structure alignment and query, and genome sequence related problems including haplotype reconstruction and genome rearrangement. It first presents an algorithm for pairwise protein structure alignment that is tested with structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). In many cases it outperforms two other well-known algorithms, DaliLite and CE. The preliminary algorithm is a graph-theory based approach, which uses the concept of \stars" to reduce the complexity of clique-finding algorithms. The algorithm is then improved by introducing \double-center stars" in the graph and applying a self-learning strategy. The updated algorithm is tested with a much larger set of protein structures and shown to be an improvement in accuracy, especially in cases of weak similarity. A protein structure query algorithm is designed to search for similar structures in the PDB, using the improved alignment algorithm. It is compared with SSM and shows better performance with lower maximum and average Q-score for missing proteins. An interesting problem dealing with the calculation of the diameter of a 3-D sequence of points arose and its connection to the sublinear time computation is discussed. The diameter calculation of a 3-D sequence is approximated by a series of sublinear time deterministic, zero-error and bounded-error randomized algorithms and we have obtained a series of separations about the power of sublinear time computations. This dissertation also discusses two genome sequence related problems. A probabilistic model is proposed for reconstructing haplotypes from SNP matrices with incomplete and inconsistent errors. The experiments with simulated data show both high accuracy and speed, conforming to the theoretically provable e ciency and accuracy of the algorithm. Finally, a genome rearrangement problem is studied. The concept of non-breaking similarity is introduced. Approximating the exemplar non-breaking similarity to factor n1..f is proven to be NP-hard. Interestingly, for several practical cases, several polynomial time algorithms are presented.

RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) has become one of the most widely used techniques to interrogate the transcriptome of an organism since the advent of next generation sequencing technologies [1]. A plethora of tools have been developed to analyze and visualize the transcriptome data from RNA-Seq experiments, solving the problem of mapping reads back to the host organism's genome [2] [3]. This allows for analysis of most reads produced by the experiments, but these tools typically discard reads that do not match well with the reference genome. This additional information could reveal important insight into the experiment and possible contributing factors to the condition under consideration. We introduce PARSES, a pipeline constructed from existing sequence analysis tools, which allows the user to interrogate RNA-Sequencing experiments for possible biological contamination or the presence of exogenous sequences that may shed light on other factors influencing an organism's condition.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / The purpose of the research case study was to assess the current state of alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals (PSGs) and services in the Provincial Government and to identify the way to align business processes to PSGs and services for an effective e-government implementation. Existing literatures were reviewed in order to identify relevant models to achieve the purpose of the research case study. An empirical research case study and comparative approach were used in order to identify suitable models, by means of strengths and weaknesses of the identified models and discussed. A qualitative research design and methodology was applied while assessing existing models from various literatures. A model to identify the current state of business processes was identified by the researcher and tested to assess the current state of business processes in the Provincial Government in question. There was no existing model to assess the alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals and services. Alignment elements that were cited by various literatures were used by the researcher to design and propose a Business Process Alignment Model (BPAM). The BPAM was tested and accepted by the Provincial Government where the study was conducted. The research case study predominantly used a qualitative research design and method. The quantitative illustrative approach was applied only to validate the proposed model that was designed by the researcher. A questionnaire was used to conduct interviews with research participants that were selected within the Provincial Government in question. It should further be noted that a quantitative approach was used to illustrate some findings that were analysed by the researcher. Results confirmed that the current state of business processes within the Provincial Government in question was still at level two (repeatable state). Yet the alignment of business processes to Provincial Strategic Goals and services did not exist; this alignment was assessed using the proposed BPAM which was designed by the researcher during this research case study. The effectiveness of e-government services is dependent on proper alignment of business processes and the maturity level of business processes across the organisation. Without proper alignment of business processes, it is a challenge for the public sector organisations to realise effective e-government implementation, not excluding other factors that have been identified by other literatures. This research case study will contribute to the current body of knowledge regarding effective e-government implementation, particularly in the public sector at Provincial level. Public sector organisations in South Africa could leverage on this work to address issues associated with business process alignment.

[pt] Sistemas de informação, desenvolvidos para diversos setores econômicos, necessitam com maior freqüência capacidade de rastreabilidade dos dados. Para habilitar tal capacidade, é necessário modelar a proveniência dos dados. Proveniência permite testar conformidade com a legislação, repetição de experimentos, controle de qualidade, entre outros. Habilita também a identificação de agentes (pessoas, organizações ou agentes de software) e pode ser utilizada para estabelecer níveis de confiança para as transformações dos dados. Esta dissertação propõe um modelo genérico de proveniência criado com base no alinhamento de recortes de ontologias de alto nível, padrões internacionais e propostas de padrões que tratam direta ou indiretamente de conceitos relacionados à proveniência. As contribuições da dissertação são portanto em duas direções: um modelo conceitual para proveniência - bem fundamentado - e a aplicação da estratégia de projeto conceitual baseada em alinhamento de ontologias. / [en] Information systems, developed for several economic segments, increasingly demand data traceability functionality. To endow information systems with such capacity, we depend on data provenance modeling. Provenance enables legal compliance, experiment validation, and quality control, among others . Provenance also helps identifying participants (determinants or immanents) like people, organizations, software agents among others, as well as their association with activities, events or processes. It can also be used to establish levels of trust for data transformations. This dissertation proposes a generic conceptual model for provenance, designed by aligning fragments of upper ontologies, international standards and broadly recognized projects. The contributions are in two directions: a provenance conceptual model - extensively documented - that facilitates interoperability and the application of a design methodology based on ontology alignment.

A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Social Science, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg 2015 / The literature on International Relations purports that the proliferation of strategic partnership, particularly at the minilateral level, is explained with reference to the inherent characteristics of this latest archetype of international alignment. Although it is generally accepted that it is the inherent characteristics of strategic partnership that make it an effective diplomatic and political tool through which states can strategically position themselves in a shifting global arena, this assumption has yet to be validated. The aim of this research study is to elucidate the extent to which, and how, strategic partnership at the minilateral level impacts upon the global strategic position(ing) (GSP) of its member states. Combining universal comparison in case study methodology with constructivist perspectives, South Africa’s dual membership of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum and the Brazil-Russia-India- China-South Africa (BRICS) Forum are used to test the hypothesis that strategic partnership at the minilateral level enhances the GSP of its member states. The considerable overlap in membership of IBSA and BRICS yields two related research questions addressed in this study; what it is that India, Brazil and South Africa are better suited to achieve through IBSA without China and Russia; and what it is that China and Russia (the two BRICS members not in IBSA) bring to the table. The findings of this research study reveal that membership of IBSA and of BRICS has made a positive impact upon South Africa’s GSP according to the three strengths by which GSP is measured. However, the impact of IBSA on South Africa’s GSP is limited and largely confined to the diplomatic arena, while in the case of BRICS the impact is more significant and cuts across the diplomatic, political, economic and social spheres. As part of these findings, the particular issue-areas in which IBSA and BRICS respectively make a discernible impact upon South Africa’s GSP are identified. These findings show that IBSA and BRICS are better suited to dealing with different issue areas, which enables the two forums to be considered sui generis entities on separate but parallel tracks. Further than this, the findings provide valuable insight into South Africa’s strategic approach to international politics in the 21st Century; in particular how South Africa seeks to leverage its soft power in the international system through the intensification of its network power. More significantly, though, at the theoretical level these findings show that strategic partnership at the minilateral level is not by itself sufficient to strengthen the GSP of its member states. Instead, the extent to which a strategic partnership has an impact upon a member state’s GSP is determined by the particular composition of that minilateral alignment; that is to which particular states are (minimally) essential to achieving a particular identified mutually desired outcome. Thus, a smarter more targeted approach to minilateral alignments may well rest not only in a “magic number” but, more crucially, in their composition.

Process based approaches to environmentally sustainable logistics performancemanagement are lacking within organizations that buy logistics services (buyers) and thatsell logistics services (LSPs), which puts a damper on environmentally sustainablelogistics performance. Organizations understand the potential of environmentallysustainable logistics performance management, but they seems unable to developeffective management processes and accurate environmentally sustainable logisticsmetrics. An environmentally sustainable logistics performance management process(ESLPM process) is one way for an organization to manage its performance in line withits environmental strategy and overall environmental targets.The purpose of this thesis is to adapt the logistics performance management process toinclude environmental sustainability. The first research question is about thecharacteristics for including environmentally sustainable logistics in the logisticsperformance management process. Characteristics that need to be included in the logisticsperformance management process must be identified in order to illustrate the process, inorder to improve the environmental performance. Moreover, by identifying thecharacteristics of the process activities, it is possible to compare how the characteristicsof the process are similar and/or different between organizations. The performancemanagement process can only be used successfully if the strategy is closely aligned tosome process activities being implemented; this motivates the second research question,which is how the ESLPM process can be expanded to measure alignment.The method used to collect empirical data is primarily interviews in eight multiple-casestudies of four organizations buying logistics services and four organizations sellinglogistics services. The frame of reference is based on the inclusion of environmentalsustainability characteristics in the logistics performance management process and thealignment between process and strategy as well as within processes. The results include a description of an ESLPM process that contains five activities withseventeen characteristics for managing environmentally sustainable logistics. Specificcontexts of eight organizations, like type (private, public, or private/public) and size(small, medium, or large) and their influence and implications concerning the ESLPMprocess are discussed and presented. The matching between the theoretical ESLPMprocess (based on the frame of reference) and the empirical ESLPM process is presentedand then compared within the eight organizations, resulting in a modified ESLPM processwith twenty characteristics. The results shows that the use of an ESLPM process is stillin beginning stages and is not done in a structured manner; in particular, the organizationsfind it difficult to establish appropriate ESLP metrics, to define the ESLP metrics, to setaccurate ESLP targets, and to collect and measure the ESLP metrics.Results from measuring level of alignment include theoretical measurement models fortwo types of alignment, a model for measuring alignment between process and strategy,as well as a model for measuring alignment within a process. The two theoretical modelscontain different aspects that measure alignment on three different levels (high, medium,low). These models are tested within each organization, and the results from measuringlevel of alignment per organization is used to evaluate the two theoretical models,resulting in modified models for measuring alignment.The results lead to increased understanding of how type and size influence thecharacteristics of the ESLPM process and the level of alignment. The results also contribute to the literature on environmentally sustainable logistics performancemanagement and the alignment both between process and strategy as well as within theESLPM process. The result can be used by organizations selling and buying logisticsservices to improve their environmentally sustainable logistics performance.

[pt] Após a privatização do sistema Telebrás em 1998, o mercado de telefonia fixa brasileiro que era um monopólio estatal foi dividido entre grupos privados gerando uma grande concorrência no setor. A Embratel, que possuía todo o mercado de telefonia de longa distância nacional e internacional, passou a perder clientes para as demais empresas que entraram com força em seu mercado e, ainda hoje, enfrenta o grande desafio de fazer o caminho de volta, entrando no principal mercado das três grandes do setor (Telemar, Telefônica e Brasil Telecom): a telefonia local. Nesse contexto, é essencial que a Embratel seja capaz de planejar estrategicamente seus próximos passos e o propósito desta pesquisa é investigar o modo de assegurar o alinhamento dos planejamentos orçamentário e estratégico no caso desta empresa, além de identificar os fatores organizacionais que contribuem ou prejudicam este alinhamento. Todos os dados da pesquisa foram coletados através de investigação documental e telematizada, entrevistas com executivos da empresa e analistas do setor. A interpretação e análise dos dados foram realizadas com base no referencial teórico, com o auxílio do modelo Genérico Integrativo de Macedo-Soares (2001). Os resultados encontrados mostraram inconsistência, ou seja, não alinhamento entre o planejamento orçamentário e estratégico da empresa. Também foram identificados os fatores organizacionais que contribuem e que não contribuem para o alinhamento. Ao final, são compartilhadas as lições tiradas do estudo de caso da Embratel. / [en] After the Telebrás privatization in 1998, the telecommunication`s market that used to be a governmental monopoly became divided amongst private groups, which generated a huge dispute in the sector. Embratel, who used to have the whole national and international long distance market, started losing a significant part of its client base to its main competitors (Telemar, Telefônica and Brasil Telecom) and is now striving to walk its way back gaining share of its competitors most important market: the local telephony. In this context, it is essential for Embratel to be able to plan strategically its next steps. This is the main purpose of this research: investigate a way to assure the alignment of the budget planning to the strategic planning for the company and also to identify the organizational factors that contribute and hinder this alignment. All the figures of this research were collected by documental and telematic investigation and interviews with executives of Embratel as well as analysts of the telecommunication`s sector. The data interpretation and analysis were conducted based on the theoretical references from the literature review, with the support of the systemic and integrative model developed by Macedo-Soares (2001). The results proved inconsistency (non-alignment) between the budget planning and the strategic planning. Moreover, it was possible to identify the organizational factors that contribute and hinder the alignment. At the end, this study shares lessons related to the case study of Embratel.