A concept of EVA is critical in evaluating the performance of any business. Economic Value Added refers to the incremental value created by an activity or a business venture. It measures the economic rather than accounting profit created by a business after the cost of all resources including debt and equity had been implied. Improving EVA can be achieved by generating more revenue without using additional capital. The capital invested in the business might be reduced by selling non-operating assets and redeploying the capital into projects and activities with higher operating performance than current projects have. ...

No description available.

The master’s thesis consists of several parts. Describes the technology 10 Gbps Ethernet. Analyzer Ixia and Endace presents, especially their use for traffic analysis and stress testing the network devices. It deals with documents RFC concerning the routers and switch testing. Thesis includes the reports of tests switches and router performed by RFC 2544 and RFC 2889 documents. Part of the thesis is dedicated to COMBO FPGA cards. Documentations to the analyzers is created in this thesis and macro is on the CD for presentation of measurement results.

The growing need to source manufacturing activities to original equipment manufacturers has presented a strategic challenge for firms in evaluating and selecting supplier partners for their products. Supplier performance evaluation is a well-researched area within supply chain management. Though several authors have contributed with models for supplier selection, there still exist uncertainties regarding how high-tech start-up firms should capitalize on these models. By conducting a case study at AB Realisator Management Consulting currently developing a new firefighting robot concept called FUMO™, the authors were able to develop a model for supplier selection and test it on a real case scenario. Results indicate that high-tech start-up firms in general should apply the following step-by-step process for selecting suppliers: Align supply chain strategy with product characteristics regarding supply and demand uncertainty, select supplier performance metrics from the comprehensive bank of metrics presented in this thesis related to the supply chain strategy, evaluate suppliers based on the selected performance metrics using the decision making framework Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). By following the suggested process step by step, incorporating performance metrics to the AHP structure, high-tech start-up firms will be able to find strategically suitable suppliers to manufacture their products. / Det växande behovet av att lägga ut tillverkningsverksamhet till externa leverantörer har bidragit med en strategisk utmaning för företag, gällande att utvärdera och välja leverantörer för sina produkter. Leverantörsutvärdering är ett väl utforskat område inom supply chain management. Även om flera författare har bidragit med modeller för leverantörsutvärdering, finns det fortfarande oklarheter om hur högteknologiska nystartsföretag bör dra nytta av dessa modeller. Genom att utföra en fallstudie på AB Realisator Management Consulting som för närvarande utvecklar ett nytt robotkoncept för brandförsvaret, har författarna kunnat utveckla en modell för val av leverantörer, samt testat den på ett verkligt scenario. Resultat visar att högteknologiska nystartsföretag i allmänhet bör tillämpa följande steg-för-steg-process för val av leverantörer: Matcha supply chain-strategi med produktattribut baserat på osäkerhet i tillgång och efterfrågan, välja mätvärden relaterade till vald supply chain-strategi från den omfattande mätvärdesbanken som presenteras i denna avhandling, utvärdera leverantörer utifrån valda mätvärden genom att applicera beslutsverktyget Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Genom att följa den föreslagna processen steg för steg kommer högteknologiska nystartsföretag kunna välja strategiskt lämpliga leverantörer för att tillverka sina produkter.

Le nombre croissant d'approches de détection de texte proposé dans la littérature exige une évaluation rigoureuse de la performance. Un protocole d'évaluation repose sur trois éléments: une vérité terrain fiable, une stratégie d'appariement et enfin un ensemble de métriques. Peu de protocoles existent et ces protocoles manquent souvent de précision. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un nouveau protocole d'évaluation qui résout la plupart des problèmes rencontrés dans les méthodes d'évaluation actuelles. Ce travail est axé sur trois contributions principales : tout d’abord, nous introduisons une représentation complexe de la vérité terrain qui ne contraint pas les détecteurs de texte à adopter un niveau de granularité de détection spécifique ou une représentation d'annotation ; d’autre part, nous proposons un ensemble de règles capables d'évaluer tous types de scénario qui peuvent se produire entre les objets de la vérité terrain et les détections correspondantes ; et enfin, nous montrons comment nous pouvons analyser un ensemble de résultats de détection, non seulement à travers un ensemble de mesures, mais aussi à travers une représentation visuelle intuitive. Un défi fréquent pour de nombreux systèmes de détection de texte est d'aborder la variété des caractéristiques de texte dans des images naturelles ou d’origine numérique pour lesquels les OCR actuels ne sont pas bien adaptées. Par exemple, des textes en perspective sont fréquemment présents dans les images réelles. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons également une procédure de rectification capable de corriger des textes hautement déformés, évalué sur un ensemble de données difficiles. / The growing number of text detection approaches proposed in the literature requires a rigorous performance evaluation and ranking. An evaluation protocol relies on three elements: a reliable text reference, a matching strategy and finally a set of metrics. The few existing evaluation protocols often lack accuracy either due to inconsistent matching or due to unrepresentative metrics. In this thesis we propose a new evaluation protocol that tackles most of the drawbacks faced by currently used evaluation methods. This work is focused on three main contributions: firstly, we introduce a complex text reference representation that does not constrain text detectors to adopt a specific detection granularity level or annotation representation; secondly, we propose a set of matching rules capable of evaluating any type of scenario that can occur between a text reference and a detection; and finally we show how we can analyze a set of detection results, not only through a set of metrics, but also through an intuitive visual representation. A frequent challenge for many Text Understanding Systems is to tackle the variety of text characteristics in born-digital and natural scene images for which current OCRs are not well adapted. For example, texts in perspective are frequently present in real-word images because the camera capture angle is not normal to the plane containing the text regions. Despite the ability of some detectors to accurately localize such text objects, the recognition stage fails most of the time. In this thesis we also propose a rectification procedure capable of correcting highly distorted texts evaluated on a very challenging dataset.

Over a few years back, REST APIs were considered standard web APIs, which nowhave a strong competitor. REST APIs provide some excellent features like stateless serversand structured access to resources. However, over time, it doesn’t offer flexibility withthe access of data and client changing requirements. In 2015 GraphQL was introduced byFacebook, which overcomes the problems with the REST and provides more flexibility andefficiency to the client requirements. For example, remove the over and under fetching.To change the existing APIs into GraphQL APIs require considerable time and effort.Therefore, some server implementation tools are developed to reduce the developmentcost and time. A few of these tools generate GraphQL schema and server implementationsautomatically over a legacy database.This master thesis studies tools that automatically generate GraphQL server implementationover legacy databases and evaluate such generated GraphQL server’s performance.First, we find some GraphQL server implementation tools such as Hasura andPostGraphile and then compare the server’s performance using benchmark methodology.Secondly, we run an experiment on a computer system and use the performance metricsfor assessment. The results of our experiment concluded that PostGraphile has higherthroughput and low query execution time as compared to Hasura. In most of the querytemplates from the benchmark, PostGraphile outperforms Hasura.

No description available.

Reducing and managing the environmental impacts of building structures has become a priority of building stakeholders and within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) community; although, conflicting approaches and methods to combat the issues are present. For example, green building standards are widespread throughout the world; however each one has its own characteristics and consequently its own specific requirements. While all have proven to be effective rating systems and have similar requirements, the distinguishing characteristic that separates them is their treatment of performance and prescriptive metrics. The feature they all severely lack or currently limit is the inclusion of strict engineering evaluation through energy simulations; hence, the reason why they fail to offer procedural steps to meet performance metrics. How can design professionals design energy efficient buildings with such constraints? Fortunately, advances in technology have allowed design professionals access to content found in Building Information Modeling (BIM). However, extracting pertinent information for specific use in energy analysis is problematic because BIM software currently available is filled with interoperability issues when placed in external software for energy analysis and energy analysis software itself is created with many assumptions that affect the tabulated energy results. This research investigates current building rating systems, determines how current professionals meet energy requirements, and prove that it is possible to create an add-on feature to Autodesk Revit that will allow design professionals to extract the needed information to meet energy goals with actual prescribed methods of mechanical systems selection and evaluation.

Hospital performance metrics are an indicator of leadership performance. However, there is inadequate research on whether physician or nonphysician chief executive officers (CEOs) perform better in the U.S. hospitals. The purpose of this study was to examine which type of leaders is better. Leadership trait, situational leadership, and leadership behavior theories constituted the theoretical foundation. The key research question examined the relationship between a hospital's outcomes, which in this study, included hospital net income, patient experience ratings, and mortality rates, and the type of CEO in that hospital: physician or non-physician. A quantitative, causal comparative design was used to answer this question. Three hypotheses were tested using multivariate analysis of variance. The dependent variable was hospital outcomes: hospital net income, patient experience ratings, and mortality rates. The independent variable was the type of hospital CEO: physician and nonphysician. Datasets from 2014-2015 were used, which were publically available on the websites of U.S. based hospitals, research organizations, and journals. A sample of 60 hospitals was drawn from U.S. non-federal, short-term, acute care hospitals, based on number of staffed beds (n = 60). No significant differences were found between nonphysician and physician CEOs on hospitals' net income (p = .911), patient experience ratings (p = .166), or mortality rates (p = .636). Thus, the null hypotheses were retained. Findings suggest that physician and non-physician CEOs may produce similar outcomes in the hospitals they lead. Based on these findings, hospital boards can view CEO applicants equally when considering whom to hire and understanding U.S. hospital leadership.

21世紀是供應鏈與供應鏈之間的戰爭。從近幾年Fortune雜誌調查發現，美國前500強企業多以創新的供應鏈管理見長，供應商管理能力已經躍升為今日企業之核心能耐，企業不再單打獨鬥，而是靠跨組織的合作才能贏得商戰。 為了管理日漸龐雜的供應商關係，「供應商計分卡」普遍運用於企業，然而實際走訪電子業界卻發現，供應商計分卡績效衡量指標非常不足，更大的問題是供應商計分卡績效衡量指標欠缺與總公司策略的連結！一個缺乏策略與戰術的衡量指標很容易使組織的管理走向明日黃花。 有鑑於此，本研究期以化策略為行動的績效管理工具平衡計分卡，為企業提供供應商績效衡量指標全新架構，我們稱這套嶄新的管理工具為「供應商平衡計分卡」，供應商平衡計分卡能帶領企業結合跨組織力量，不僅拉升企業績效，更能有效應付未來挑戰。 / The 21st century is the age of supply chain war. In recent years, Fortune magazine survey found that most of the top 500 US companies are known for innovation of supply chain management, and the supplier management capability has emerged as the core competence of today's enterprises. The enterprises can no longer compete solely on themselves, and “inter-organizational cooperation” will be the key to the success. In order to manage increasingly complicated and numerous supplier relationships, “supplier scorecard” is generally used in business. However, after actually interviewing with the electronics industry, we found that the performance measures of supplier scorecard are insufficient. In particular, the supplier performance measurement scorecard lacks for links with the head office strategy. In this study, we introduce a strategy tool which incorporates with the performance management tool Balanced Scorecard. It aims to provide enterprises with a new supplier performance metrics framework, and we call this new management tool “Supplier Balanced Scorecard.” The “Supplier Balanced Scorecard” not only can lead the enterprises to combine inter-organizational efforts, but also pull up business performance, more effectively in meeting the challenge of the new century.