No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Deborah D. Canter / Despite the enormous amount of research about job satisfaction and intent to leave, few studies have focused on Registered Dietitians (RDs) with management responsibilities. Even less is known about the level of career satisfaction or intent to leave the dietetics profession. This study examined job and career satisfaction among members of four dietetic practice groups (DPGs). An online questionnaire included 36 items of the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), career satisfaction and intent to leave measures. Data were analyzed from 966 dietitians in management and clinical practice using traditional statistical procedures. Management dietitians had significantly higher composite scores for six out of nine facets of job satisfaction than dietitians in non-managerial positions. Overall satisfaction scores for management dietitians (M = 153.75 ± 26.68) were also significantly higher compared to non-management dietitians (M = 140.79 ± 30.26, t = 4.368, p < 0.001). Overall satisfaction scores also differed significantly across seven groups of management dietitians, F (6, 844) = 4.41, p < 0.001. The majority of dietitians in this study did not intend to seek other jobs or leave their current jobs. Overall, management dietitians were satisfied with their careers (19.82 ± 3.73). In contrast, non-management dietitians were closer to neutral and significantly less satisfied with their careers (16.44 ± 5.06, t = 6.907, p < 0.001). Career satisfaction scores also differed significantly across seven job titles of managers, F (6, 839) = 5.69, p < 0.001. Intent to leave the profession was not observed for the majority of dietitians in this study. Additional results, implications for the dietetics profession and recommendations for future research are discussed.

<p> In this work we propose and investigate a new method of solving quadratic and linear optimization problems using analog electrical circuits instead of digital computation.</p><p> We present the design of an analog circuit which solves Quadratic Programming (QP) or Linear Programming (LP) problems. In particular, the steady-state circuit voltages are the components of the QP (LP) optimal solution. The thesis shows how to construct the circuit and provides a proof of equivalence between the circuit and the QP (LP) problem.</p><p> We study the stability of the analog optimization circuit. The circuit dynamics are modeled as a switched affine system. A piece-wise quadratic Lyapunov function and the KYP lemma are used to derive the stability criterion. The stability criterion characterizes the range of critical circuit parameters for which the QP circuit is globally asymptotically stable.</p><p> The proposed method is used to build a printed circuit board (PCB) using programmable components to allow solution of various QP problems. The board supports implementation of an MPC controller for buck DC-DC converter. We conduct an experimental study to evaluate the performance of the analog optimization circuit.</p><p> We study the feasibility of very high speed implementation of the optimization circuit using Analog Very Large Scale Integration (AVLSI) technology. In AVLSI, all the required circuit components are built on top of a silicon substrate using advanced photo-lithographic technologies. AVLSI circuits are fast, small and cheap. Thus, AVLSI implementation is paramount to make the proposed technology commercially competitive.</p><p> We discuss the possible usage of the proposed method to make fast MPC controllers, image processors, communication decoders and analog co-processors. In fact, any application that requires a repeating solution of related optimization problems can benefit from this technology. Besides being faster than the digital computers, analog computers are more power efficient, may occupy smaller area on silicon and may be more resilient in harsh environments.</p>

This is a conceptual dissertation which addresses itself to the criticism that the social systems framework is highly abstract and theoretical, and as such relevant only to academics and specialists. The primary purpose of this paper is to operationalise the social system framework, to illustrate its application and to highlight its unique potential. It represents an attempt to enlarge, even redefine, the frameworks used for studying and transforming organisations. In order to best highlight the differences between the social systems framework and other models implicit in traditional approaches, a specific component of organisation reality is focused on, namely the performance appraisal. After discussing and illustrating the models behind most research on the topic, an alternative holistic framework for performance appraisal is sketched. Following this, an actual performance improvement intervention is described in a case study. This provides a practical illustration of the points made in the paper. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial Psychology)

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

The kanban system is the most popular technique for implementing the Just-In-Time philosophy. In this dissertation we develop mathematical models for the deterministic, capacitated, single kanban system. Three different production structures are studied. The models are used to analyze the system, understand the need and behavior of kanbans, and compute good solutions for the number of kanbans to allocate for each part. The first model applies to the single-stage, single-item system. Optimal solutions for the number of kanbans for this system are developed. The second and third models are built for the multi-stage, single-item system and the single-stage, multi-item system respectively. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the feasibility of a set of kanbans are developed for the last two models. The conditions are used to develop heuristic and optimal solution procedures. The heuristic procedures are tested over randomly generated problems and are shown to perform very well compared to the optimal solution procedures.