This thesis is concerned with computational methods for alignment and score-informed transcription of piano music. Firstly, several methods are proposed to improve the alignment robustness and accuracywhen various versions of one piece of music showcomplex differences with respect to acoustic conditions or musical interpretation. Secondly, score to performance alignment is applied to enable score-informed transcription. Although music alignment methods have considerably improved in accuracy in recent years, the task remains challenging. The research in this thesis aims to improve the robustness for some cases where there are substantial differences between versions and state-of-the-art methods may fail in identifying a correct alignment. This thesis first exploits the availability of multiple versions of the piece to be aligned. By processing these jointly, the alignment process can be stabilised by exploiting additional examples of how a section might be interpreted or which acoustic conditions may arise. Two methods are proposed, progressive alignment and profile HMM, both adapted from the multiple biological sequence alignment task. Experiments demonstrate that these methods can indeed improve the alignment accuracy and robustness over comparable pairwise methods. Secondly, this thesis presents a score to performance alignment method that can improve the robustness in cases where some musical voices, such as the melody, are played asynchronously to others - a stylistic device used in musical expression. The asynchronies between the melody and the accompaniment are handled by treating the voices as separate timelines in a multi-dimensional variant of dynamic time warping (DTW). The method measurably improves the alignment accuracy for pieces with asynchronous voices and preserves the accuracy otherwise. Once an accurate alignment between a score and an audio recording is available, the score information can be exploited as prior knowledge in automatic music transcription (AMT), for scenarios where score is available, such as music tutoring. Score-informed dictionary learning is used to learn the spectral pattern of each pitch that describes the energy distribution of the associated notes in the recording. More precisely, the dictionary learning process in non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is constrained using the aligned score. This way, by adapting the dictionary to a given recording, the proposed method improves the accuracy over the state-of-the-art.

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar como ocorre o alinhamento entre as estratégias de negócio e a tecnologia de informação (TI), além de compreender como implementar sistemas de informação (SI) em pequenas empresas. A pesquisa contemplou uma revisão bibliográfica e um estudo de caso, que forneceram subsídios para o entendimento sobre conceitos de Planejamento Estratégico (PE) e de SI, assim como sua importância na gestão empresarial. Ela possibilitou ainda conhecer como são conduzidos os processos de implementação de um SI. O caso estudado, em uma pequena empresa de serviços contábeis, do município de Porto Alegre, foi realizado através da análise de seu PE, da aplicação de questionários e de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Ele permitiu identificar a realidade desta indústria, bem como suas necessidades tecnológicas. Foi possível identificar os dificultadores dos processos de implementação de novas TI e compreender como ocorre o processo de alinhamento com seu planejamento estratégico. Observou-se que a pequena empresa sofre impactos potencializados de fatores internos e externos na implementação de seus SI. Concluiu-se que a inexistência de uma governança de TI estruturada, a sensibilidade acentuada da troca de pessoas, a dificuldade de encontrar o equilíbrio entre o número e a complexidade dos SI, adequados ao tamanho da organização e que atenda a todas as suas necessidades, a não automatização da obtenção de indicadores de desempenho, representam os principais itens dificultadores da implementação e do alinhamento. Observou-se que o modelo proposto por Brodbeck (2001) é apropriado para a revisão dos SI e o alinhamento ao PE. A necessidade de revisão constante, tanto do processo de implementação quanto de realinhamento, torna-se evidente quando se analisa a realidade da pequena empresa e se conclui que ela é muito suscetível aos impactos do seu meio, remetendo a essa necessidade de acompanhamento constante. / This paper aims to analyze the alignment between business strategy and Information Technology (IT), as well as to under how to best implement information systems in small businesses. This research contemplated both a bibliographic revision and a case-study, which provided an underpinning to understand the concepts of strategic planning and information systems, as well as its importance on business management. It also allowed a better understanding on how the processes to implement Information Systems (IS) are conducted. The study-case of a small accounting firm in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, was performed based on an analysis of its strategic planning through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. It allowed identifying the realities of this vertical, as well as its technological needs. The paper allowed identifying the hurdles faced during implementation of new IT processes and understanding their alignment process with the strategic planning. We observed that small businesses do suffer impacts due to internal and external factors over the implementation process of their information systems. We concluded that factors such as the lack of an structured IT-governance, exacerbated sensibilities due to personnel turn-over, the difficulty to find balance between the sheer number and complexity of information systems matching the organization size and the lack of automatic collection of performance indicators do represent the main issues complicating implementation and alignment. We observed that the model proposed by Brodbeck (2001) is appropriated for revision of information systems and its alignment with strategic planning. The necessity of constant revision, both over the implementation process as well as its realignment becomes evident when we analyze the realities of small companies and conclude they are very sensitive of the impacts on their environment, requiring thus their continuous monitoring.

O setor de compras nas empresas tem se deparado com a necessidade de tornar-se mais eficiente e eficaz em suas aquisições, por isso, as organizações têm aderido ao uso de ferramentas estratégicas de compras adequadas às suas necessidades. Por este motivo, o presente trabalho objetivou propor um modelo de gestão de compras de materiais e serviços em uma empresa privada do agronegócio Matogrossense de nutrição animal, alinhado às suas estratégias. Desta forma, o trabalho estruturou-se em dois artigos. No primeiro artigo foi realizada uma análise no processo de compras praticado na empresa, para verificar o alinhamento do modelo de gestão do setor de materiais e serviços às estratégias da empresa, através do mapeamento do processo de compras e de uma entrevista semi estruturada com a direção da empresa responsável pela área, no intuito de verificar o alinhamento do processo utilizado com as estratégias da empresa. No segundo artigo, realizou-se a proposição do modelo de gestão de compras de materiais e serviços para a empresa, partindo das necessidades estratégicas identificadas no primeiro artigo e do levantamento dos principais modelos de gestão estratégica de compras de materiais e serviços existentes na literatura. Um modelo estratégico de gestão de compras para a empresa em estudo, foi estruturado através de um diagrama SIPOC e de um fluxograma detalhado do processo e, posteriormente, validado junto à diretoria da empresa. Obteve-se então, como resultado, um modelo de gestão capaz de alinhar o setor de compras de materiais e serviços às estratégias da empresa. O modelo contém, além do detalhamento das etapas do processo de compra, a proposta do uso de ferramentas de compras estratégicas adequadas ao perfil da empresa, como a Matriz de Kraljic (1983) aliada ao modelo de Ogden (2003), ambas adaptadas ao contexto analisado. / The purchasing department in companies has been faced with the need to become more efficient and effective in their acquisitions, so organizations have joined the use of strategic tools appropriate to their shopping needs. Therefore, this study aimed at proposing a purchasing management model of materials and services in a private company in Mato Grosso agribusiness animal nutrition, aligned to its strategies. For this purpose, work was structured in two articles. The first article it was done an analysis in the shopping process practiced for the company, to check the alignment of the materials and services sector of the management model to business strategies, through the purchasing process mapping and a semi structured interview with the company´s management responsible for the area, in order to verify the alignment process used, with the company's strategies. On the second article, took place on purchasing management model proposition of materials and services for the company, starting from the strategic needs identified on the first article and the survey of the main models of strategic management purchases of materials and services available in the literature. A strategic model of purchasing management for the company under investigation, it was structured through a SIPOC diagram and a detailed flow chart of the process and subsequently validated by the company´s staff. There was thus, as a result, a management model able to align the purchasing department of materials and services to the company's strategies. The model contains, in addition to detailing the stages of the buying process, the proposed of use of strategic purchasing tools appropriate to the company profile, such as the Mother of Kraljic (1983) combined with the model of Ogden (2003), both adapted to the analyzed context .

This thesis presents measurements of the branching fractions of the charmless baryonic decays B(s) → p anti-p h+ h'-, where h(') denotes a kaon or a pion. Three new modes (B → p anti-p pi+ pi-, Bs → p anti-p K+ K- and Bs → p anti-p K+(-) pi-(+)) are observed for the first time and evidence is found for a fourth (B → p anti-p K+ K-). The inclusive branching fraction of B → p anti-p K+(-) pi-(+) is measured for the first time and the upper limit is set on the branching fraction of the Bs → p anti-p pi+ pi- decay. This represents the first observation of four-body charmless baryonic decays of a Bs meson and one of the first observations of baryonic Bs decays. The implementation of the real-time alignment of LHCb's vertex detector is also described. The novel real-time alignment and calibration strategy adopted by LHCb is essential to allow more stable data taking conditions and an optimal 'offline-quality' reconstruction to be performed at the trigger level, ensuring more efficient trigger selections and the possibility to perform physics analyses directly on the trigger output.

Hung Wah Johnson. / Thesis submitted in: August 2004. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-121). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Problem Statement --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Outline of the thesis --- p.6 / Chapter 2 --- Background --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Biological Background --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Sequence Alignments --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Pairwise Sequences Alignment --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Multiple Sequences Alignment --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3 --- Neighbor Joining Tree --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4 --- Marker Extractions --- p.18 / Chapter 2.5 --- Neural Network --- p.19 / Chapter 2.6 --- Conclusion --- p.22 / Chapter 3 --- Related Work --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- FASTA --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2 --- Suffix Tree --- p.25 / Chapter 4 --- Sub-Sequence Segmentation Tree --- p.28 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.28 / Chapter 4.2 --- Problem Statement --- p.29 / Chapter 4.3 --- Design --- p.33 / Chapter 4.4 --- Time and space complexity analysis --- p.38 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.40 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.48 / Chapter 5 --- Applications: Global Sequences Alignment --- p.51 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.51 / Chapter 5.2 --- Problem Statement --- p.53 / Chapter 5.3 --- Pairwise Alignment --- p.53 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Algorithm --- p.53 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Time and Space Complexity Analysis --- p.64 / Chapter 5.4 --- Multiple Sequences Alignment --- p.67 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- The Clustalw Algorithm --- p.68 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- MSA Using SSST --- p.70 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Time and Space Complexity Analysis --- p.70 / Chapter 5.5 --- Experiments --- p.71 / Chapter 5.5.1 --- Experiment Setting --- p.72 / Chapter 5.5.2 --- Experimental Results --- p.72 / Chapter 5.6 --- Summary --- p.80 / Chapter 6 --- Applications: Marker Extractions --- p.81 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.81 / Chapter 6.2 --- Problem Statement --- p.82 / Chapter 6.3 --- The Multiple Sequence Alignment Approach --- p.85 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Design --- p.85 / Chapter 6.4 --- Reference Sequence Alignment Approach --- p.88 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Design --- p.90 / Chapter 6.5 --- Time and Space Complexity Analysis --- p.95 / Chapter 6.6 --- Experiments --- p.95 / Chapter 6.7 --- Summary --- p.99 / Chapter 7 --- HBV Application Framework --- p.101 / Chapter 7.1 --- Motivations --- p.101 / Chapter 7.2 --- The Procedure Flow of the Application --- p.102 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Markers Extractions --- p.103 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Rules Training and Prediction --- p.103 / Chapter 7.3 --- Results --- p.105 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Clustering --- p.106 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Classification --- p.107 / Chapter 7.4 --- Summary --- p.110 / Chapter 8 --- Conclusions --- p.112 / Chapter 8.1 --- Contributions --- p.112 / Chapter 8.2 --- Future Works --- p.114 / Chapter 8.2.1 --- HMM Learning --- p.114 / Chapter 8.2.2 --- Splice Sites Learning --- p.114 / Chapter 8.2.3 --- Faster Algorithm for Multiple Sequences Alignment --- p.115 / Bibliography --- p.121

We investigate some problems commonly found when dealing with stereo images. Working within the context of visual effects for films, we explore software solutions to issues arising with stereo images captured on-set. These images originate from a wide variety of hardware which may or may not provide additional data support for post-production needs. Generic software solutions are thus greatly to be preferred. This dissertation documents contributions in the following three areas. Each project was undertaken at Double Negative and investigated with the aim of improving the post-production pipeline for 3D films. Colour matching is the process whereby the colours of one view from a stereo pair are matched with those of the other view. This process is necessary due to the fact that slight differences in hardware and viewing angle can result in some surprisingly large colour discrepancies. Chapter 3 presents a novel approach to colour matching between stereo pairs of images, with a new tool for visual effects artists given in section 6.2.Vertical alignment of stereo images is key to providing a comfortable experience for the viewer, yet we are rarely presented with perfectly aligned footage from the outset. In chapter 4 we discuss the importance of correcting misalignments for both the final audience and the artists working on these images. We provide a tool for correcting misalignments in section 6.3.Disparity maps are used in many areas of post-production, and so in chapter 5 we investigate ways in which disparity map generation can be improved for the benefit of many existing tools at Double Negative. In addition, we povide an extensive exploration of the requirements of 3D films in order to make them presentable in the cinema. Through these projects, we have provided improvements to the stereo workflow and shown that academic research is a necessary component of developing tools for the visual effects pipeline. We have provided new algorithms to improve the 3D experience for moviegoers, as well as artists, and conclude by discussing the future work that will provide further gains in the field.

The focus of this thesis is to investigate the roles of leaders, managers, and mutual roles in aligning strategy and project management (ASPM) in public sector organisations (PSOs) in developing countries (DCs). ASPM as a phenomenon has emerged to support organisations to improve the performance of their projects and fulfil their strategic objectives. In reviewing the normative literature in this area, it is evident that a limited number of studies have been conducted on ASPM, particularly studies related to PSOs in DCs, where the statistics reflect a higher percentage of failed and/or delayed projects. To the best of this author's knowledge, and having conducted a thorough review of the literature, it is believed that none of the existing research studies conducted on ASPM have explored the roles of leaders, managers, and mutual roles in ASPM in PSOs. Thus, the author asserts that it is of high importance to investigate this area within ASPM and to prepare a study that contributes by shedding light on the roles of leaders, managers, and common roles between them in ASPM in PSOs in DCs. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge related to strategic alignment and management, project management, the public sector and leadership/management as it investigates the roles of leaders, managers, and mutual roles in ASPM in PSOs in DCs. Furthermore, this thesis presents the factors that influence leaders and managers as they carry out their individual as well as mutual roles. The proposed conceptual framework is developed and presented in Chapter 3. From a practical perspective, this thesis contributes by providing the decision makers with a tool that has been tested through multiple units in KSA government case, which may support them in improving the performance of their projects and bring benefits to organisations. In addition to that, in Chapter 5 this thesis presents some lessons learned from the pilot unit study. The author assumes that such the conceptual framework and the factors influencing the roles of managers and leaders and the mutual roles in ASPM are significant and novel and may help to improve project performance, highlighting the importance of strategy management, and ultimately improving the performance in PSOs. The author uses qualitative, interpretive, multiple unit studies research strategy to validate the proposed conceptual framework. The author found from the pilot unit study and other four units study results, present that this kind of approach contributes to more strong decisions for ASPM implementation and highlight that it is acceptable by the unit studies. In spite of the fact that these results cannot be generalised, they can allow others researcher's to link their views with the ones reported in this thesis. This thesis proposes tests and presents a novel framework for ASPM and contributes to the body of knowledge by enriching the literature. The findings from the five units study organisations reveal that the proposed framework is acceptable and clearly indicate the significance of ASPM in PSOs.

O presente estudo foi desenvolvido no porto de Santos em que a empresa que o administra passou por profunda reestruturação administrativa e operacional na última década, em função da Publicação da Lei de Modernização dos Portos, em 1993. A empresa na necessidade de procurar um melhor controle das informações como fator principal para o seu faturamento no qual não existia um alinhamento estratégico de negócios com a tecnologia de informação, firmou um convênio e parceiras para o desenvolvimento de um sistema para atender as suas necessidades. Esta dissertação aborda através de levantamento bibliográfico a utilização de sistemas de informações gerenciais nas empresas do setor portuário. O objeto do estudo é o sistema supervia eletrônica de dados, que consiste em receber via internet essa massa de dados, sua metodologia de desenvolvimento e integração com os demais sistemas existentes. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, como objetivo pretendeu-se analisar as vantagens com a implantação das transmissões eletrônicas de dados, os ganhos na eficiência dos processos e a redução nos custos operacionais. Os dados foram levantados através da análise da base de dados e planilhas fornecidas pela empresa e posteriores levantamentos estatísticos. / This study was developed in the port of Santos, where the company that manages the port went through a thorough managerial and operational restructuring process during the last decade, as a result of the publication of the Port Modernization Law in 1993. The company due to the need to seek better information control as a prime factor for its revenues, which had not so far been strategically aligned with information technology, entered an agreement and established partnerships to develop a system to meet its requirements. This dissertation contemplates by way of a bibliographic survey the use of management information systems in the port companies industry. The object of this study is the electronic data superhighway, which consists in receiving through the internet this volume of data, its development methodology and integration with the other existing systems. This is a qualitative research effort, and its purpose is to analyze the advantages of the implementation of electronic data upload, the gains in efficiency of processes and the reduction of operating costs. Data has been collected by means of database analysis raised by analyzing database and spreadsheets provided by the company and further statistical surveys.

In the spring term of 2013, national tests were conducted in social sciences for the first time in the Swedish sixth grade. The tests fell under criticism from various outlets associated with education which eventually resulted in the removal of these new national tests. However, as of 2016 it has been decided that the same institutions responsible for the national tests are to develop voluntary assessment support material in these subjects, which will be available nationwide in 2017, essentially replacing the tests.    The idea for this essay was born out of a need to investigate to what extent the different types of knowledge and abilities of Lgr 11, the Swedish curriculum, correspond to the new national tests, since such research has yet to be done for the sixth grade version of the tests. Out of constraints related to time and size, we chose to limit ourselves to two of the four subjects in social sciences, namely history and religion.    Using text analysis as method and Bloom’s revised taxonomy as an analysis model to study the alignment between the national tests and the curriculum, we’ve endeavoured to answer the following questions: To what extent are the different types of knowledge and abilities tested in the national tests in history and religion for grade six? How well do the national tests in history and religion for grade six and the knowledge requirements of Lgr 11 correspond in regard to which types of knowledge and abilities are tested and the extent of these? The results showed that the national tests and the knowledge requirements of the Swedish curriculum by and large share a high level of alignment. However, the amount of test questions corresponding to each knowledge requirement varies greatly, creating a possible gap for teachers to fill should they use the forthcoming assessment support material in their work.

Além do fato do programa seis sigma e a logística estarem em evidência no ambiente organizacional, soma-se a importância de se obter sucesso na implantação do programa, caracterizando como um fator crítico, o alinhamento da estratégia dos projetos de melhoria. Sendo assim, uma análise do processo de alinhamento da estratégia de projetos seis sigma se justifica. Para abordar esta questão, esta dissertação objetiva identificar a importância do alinhamento da estratégia e propõe uma sistematização deste com o processo de seleção de projetos seis sigma. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa está estruturada, primeiramente, com uma revisão bibliográfica sobre seis sigma, estratégia e operadores logísticos. Com o embasamento teórico é proposta uma sistematização conceitual do alinhamento da estratégia do processo de seleção de projetos seis sigma detalhado em um passo a passo. Com o objetivo de analisar a proposta conceitual, realizaram-se três estudos de casos em operadores logísticos. Pode-se concluir que o fato do processo de seleção de projetos seis sigma estar alinhado com a estratégia realmente é um ponto crítico para o sucesso do programa seis sigma, bem como a apresentação da sistematização proposta obteve uma boa avaliação e aceitação dos casos apresentados. / Beyond the fact of the six sigma program and the logistic, that are on evidence in the organizational environment, adds to them the importance of getting success in the implantation of the program, characterizing as a critical factor to the strategical alignment of the improvement projects. Being thus, an analysis of the process of strategical alignment of six sigma projects is justified. Approaching this question, this dissertation proposes a systematization of the alignment of the organizational strategy with the process of six sigma projects` selection. This research is structuralized, first, with a bibliographical revision on six sigma, logistic strategy and operators. With the theoretical basement was proposed a systematization of strategical alignment of the selection process of six sigma projects, detailed step by step. With the objective of analyzing the proposal conceptual, three cases\' studies in logistic operators were done. The importance of the process of six sigma projects\' selection can be noticed and its alignment with the organizational strategy, as well as the validation of the systematization proposal.