Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has long been associated with an array of negative effects, one of which is decreased employee self-efficacy, an essential determinant of human agency and workplace success. The negative discourse of control and discipline dominating the research field fails to account for the role of performance feedback, an integral component of EPM and part of an alternative discourse focusing on employee development. While feedback has been shown to ameliorate the negative impact of EPM, its effect on self-efficacy remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigates how employees subjected to EPM perceive and experience social persuasion – feedback aimed at increasing self-efficacy – using semi-structured interviews (with 10 customer service agents from as many call centers) and theoretical thematic analysis. The findings suggest that social persuasion can mitigate the efficacy-depleting effects of EPM, and that a mixture of positive and negative feedback is particularly conducive to successful persuasion. Moreover, the conflict between management's predilection for quantitative performance criteria and employees' qualitatively oriented conceptions of service quality is found to be a key issue. Based on these findings, it is argued that the heavy emphasis on positive feedback found in extant literature on EPM and self-efficacy is potentially misleading, as is the dominance of the control and discipline discourse. Finally, it is argued that social persuasion may ameliorate the quantitative-qualitative conflict, and that the potential of social persuasion is particularly high in call centers, where low self-efficacy levels are likely to be the norm.

Os processos industriais, em geral, estão sujeitos à presença de distúrbios não medidos, estas perturbações influenciam diretamente na eficiência do processo de produção e na qualidade de seus produtos finais. Essas razões tornam a presença de distúrbios não medidos um dos principais problemas de controle tornando-os, assim, um importante elemento na teoria de controle. Porém, existe um problema fundamental no que envolve o estudo destes sinais uma vez que o comportamento temporal dos distúrbios não medidos não é precisamente conhecido nem é possível sua medição direta em tempo real. Em virtude desses aspectos o presente trabalho propõe uma metodologia capaz de estimar o distúrbio não medido presente em uma malha de controle SISO a partir de dados de processo em condição normal de operação, da estrutura e dos parâmetros de ajuste do controlador. São propostas também outras duas metodologias que utilizam o conhecimento do distúrbio não medido estimado, uma delas realiza a identificação do modelo da planta e a outra prediz o potencial de redução de variabilidade, levando em consideração o distúrbio não medido estimado, o modelo da planta identificado e a real estrutura do controlador em operação. A metodologia foi analisada através de estudos de casos envolvendo modelos de planta de primeira e segunda ordem com e sem tempo morto. Através dos resultados foi possível observar uma boa capacidade de estimação dos distúrbios não medidos assim como uma boa qualidade no modelo da planta identificado, via metodologia proposta, medida através de sua capacidade em reprodutibilidade do modelo real da planta e uma boa capacidade de predição da redução de variabilidade das malhas de controle decorrentes de alterações no ajuste do controlador. / Industrial processes are subject to the presence of unmeasured disturbances and their consequent effects. These disturbances have direct influence on the production process progress and the quality of their products. These reasons make the presence of unmeasured disturbances a problem into control theory. However, there is a fundamental problem to study these signals, since the temporal behavior of unmeasured disturbances is not precisely known and its measurement is not possible directly in real time. Due to these aspects, this paper proposes a methodology to estimate the unmeasured disturbance present in a SISO control loop from normal operating data, the controller structure and its tuning parameters. It proposes also two other methodologies that use the knowledge of the unmeasured disturbance estimate. One of these approaches performs the identification of the plant model and the second computes the potential variability reduction estimated taking account the unmeasured disturbance estimate, the identified plant model and the real controller structure. The methodology was analyzed by some case studies involving plant models of first and second order with and without dead time and different unmeasured disturbances. Through the results we observed a good ability to estimate the unmeasured disturbances, as well as a good quality of the identified plant model, measured by its ability to reproduce the actual plant model and a good ability to predict the reduction of the control loop variability obtained by changes on the controller tuning.

Nas últimas décadas os pavimentos rodoviários brasileiros têm tido seu desempenho comprometido devido a uma série de fatores, entre eles incluem-se não somente o crescente aumento do volume de tráfego de veículos pesados e aumento de sua capacidade de transporte, mas principalmente a circulação com cargas acima dos limites legais estabelecidos, configurando uma situação crítica para a sua adequada durabilidade da estrutura projetada. Paralelamente aos investimentos necessários, é importante também o desenvolvimento de métodos mais racionais de dimensionamento de pavimentos contemplando as especificidades dos materiais empregados e levando em consideração as condições climáticas e, principalmente uma completa e detalhada caracterização do tráfego solicitante. Neste contexto apresentado, a pesquisa insere-se em dois importantes estudos. O acompanhamento construtivo e monitoramento sistemático de desempenho de dois trechos na rodovia BR-448/RS e a continuidade do monitoramento de outros dois na BR-290/RS, trecho em concessão entre Osório e Porto Alegre (Freeway). Estas atividades inserem-se no “Projeto Integrado da Rede Temática de Tecnologia em Asfalto Petrobras/ANP", de abrangência nacional, para desenvolvimento de um novo método brasileiro de dimensionamento de pavimentos O segundo estudo trata-se de um completo monitoramento de cargas na Freeway, através da instalação e operacionalização inédita de um equipamento de pesagem dinâmica de alta velocidade (Hight Speed Weigh-in-Motion – HS-WIM) para determinação do espectro de cargas e posterior análise de sua influência no desempenho de pavimentos. Com ambos os estudos foi possível, além de determinar o espectro de cargas, os carregamentos médios e os níveis de sobrecargas praticados naquela rodovia, verificar como estas cargas influenciam o desempenho do pavimento e confrontar estes dados com as tendências observadas através do monitoramento sistemático dos trechos analisados. Por meio do desenvolvimento do presente trabalho pretende-se contribuir para melhorias na engenharia rodoviária e de tráfego através da inserção de novas tecnologias de monitoramento e fiscalização das cargas transportadas e contribuir com o desenvolvimento de um novo método de dimensionamento de pavimentos flexíveis proposto pela Rede Temática de Asfalto, através do levantamento de dados nos trechos experimentais para desenvolvimento de modelos de desempenho e sua posterior inserção nos modelos de calibração. / In recent decades the Brazilian road pavements have had their performance reduced due to a number of factors, not only the increasing volume of heavy vehicles and increased transport capacity, but mainly the flow with loads above the established legal limits, setting a critical situation for the durability of the designed structure. Alongside the necessary investment, it is also important to the development of more rational methods of pavement design, considering the specificities of the materials used and taking into account the climatic conditions and a complete and detailed characterization of the traffic. In this context, the research was developed to attain two main objectives: the construction monitoring and systematic assessment of performance of two test sections built in BR-448/RS highway and the continuity of assesment of two others previously built in BR-290/RS, between Osório and Porto Alegre (known as Freeway). These activities are part of the "Integrated Project Theme Technology Network Petrobras Asphalt/ANP", a nationwide project aimed at developing a new Brazilian method for pavement design The second objective was to conduct a comprehensive monitoring loads study on the Freeway, by installing and carrying on an unprecedented operation of a dynamic weighting equipment of high speed (High speed weigh-in-Motion - HS-WIM) to determine the loads spectrum and subsequent analysis of the influence on pavement performance. Both studies made possible to determine the loads spectrum, average loads and levels of overloads practiced on that highway, to estimate how these loads affect the pavement performance and to compare these data with the trends observed through the systematic assessment of the analyzed sections. This work aims to contribute to improvements in road and traffic engineering, by introducing new monitoring technologies, monitoring the transported cargo and contributing to the development of a new design method of flexible pavements, a major goal of the Thematic Network of Asphalt, to be achieved through experimental data collection in test sections, the development of performance models and their subsequent insertion in the calibration models.

This thesis deals with the influence of age of lacaune breed ewes on milk performance, influence of parity and influence of stage of lactation on milk performance in terms of the milk yield and the content of individual components of milk. Further was evaluated the influence of rams on milking. Data from farm Statek Horní Dvorce s.r.o. were used and data from Svaz chovatelů ovcí a koz z.s. were used too and entries from years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, when the milk performance was monitored by method AT. The influence of rams on milking has not been fully demonstrated. For the four comparing lines, the statistically significant difference was only between LINUX and LUPIN, and only in one year of performance control over the three years compared. From the point of view of the influence of age on total milk yield in the studied farm, fat and protein content of lacaune breed increased with increasing age, whereas the lactose content showed a decreasing trend. The influence of parity had a significant effect on the monitored parameters of milk. With an increasing parity, the protein content was slightly increased, the fat and lactose content decreased. Ewes on the second lactation showed the best results in milk yield, since the third lactation was recorded in milking a decrease. The influence of stage of lactation on milking and on the content of individual components of milk was also significanted. With prolonged lactation the milk yield and lactose content were decreased. The fat and protein content has been shown to increase with the increasing of the stage of lactation.

Os processos industriais, em geral, estão sujeitos à presença de distúrbios não medidos, estas perturbações influenciam diretamente na eficiência do processo de produção e na qualidade de seus produtos finais. Essas razões tornam a presença de distúrbios não medidos um dos principais problemas de controle tornando-os, assim, um importante elemento na teoria de controle. Porém, existe um problema fundamental no que envolve o estudo destes sinais uma vez que o comportamento temporal dos distúrbios não medidos não é precisamente conhecido nem é possível sua medição direta em tempo real. Em virtude desses aspectos o presente trabalho propõe uma metodologia capaz de estimar o distúrbio não medido presente em uma malha de controle SISO a partir de dados de processo em condição normal de operação, da estrutura e dos parâmetros de ajuste do controlador. São propostas também outras duas metodologias que utilizam o conhecimento do distúrbio não medido estimado, uma delas realiza a identificação do modelo da planta e a outra prediz o potencial de redução de variabilidade, levando em consideração o distúrbio não medido estimado, o modelo da planta identificado e a real estrutura do controlador em operação. A metodologia foi analisada através de estudos de casos envolvendo modelos de planta de primeira e segunda ordem com e sem tempo morto. Através dos resultados foi possível observar uma boa capacidade de estimação dos distúrbios não medidos assim como uma boa qualidade no modelo da planta identificado, via metodologia proposta, medida através de sua capacidade em reprodutibilidade do modelo real da planta e uma boa capacidade de predição da redução de variabilidade das malhas de controle decorrentes de alterações no ajuste do controlador. / Industrial processes are subject to the presence of unmeasured disturbances and their consequent effects. These disturbances have direct influence on the production process progress and the quality of their products. These reasons make the presence of unmeasured disturbances a problem into control theory. However, there is a fundamental problem to study these signals, since the temporal behavior of unmeasured disturbances is not precisely known and its measurement is not possible directly in real time. Due to these aspects, this paper proposes a methodology to estimate the unmeasured disturbance present in a SISO control loop from normal operating data, the controller structure and its tuning parameters. It proposes also two other methodologies that use the knowledge of the unmeasured disturbance estimate. One of these approaches performs the identification of the plant model and the second computes the potential variability reduction estimated taking account the unmeasured disturbance estimate, the identified plant model and the real controller structure. The methodology was analyzed by some case studies involving plant models of first and second order with and without dead time and different unmeasured disturbances. Through the results we observed a good ability to estimate the unmeasured disturbances, as well as a good quality of the identified plant model, measured by its ability to reproduce the actual plant model and a good ability to predict the reduction of the control loop variability obtained by changes on the controller tuning.

Nas últimas décadas os pavimentos rodoviários brasileiros têm tido seu desempenho comprometido devido a uma série de fatores, entre eles incluem-se não somente o crescente aumento do volume de tráfego de veículos pesados e aumento de sua capacidade de transporte, mas principalmente a circulação com cargas acima dos limites legais estabelecidos, configurando uma situação crítica para a sua adequada durabilidade da estrutura projetada. Paralelamente aos investimentos necessários, é importante também o desenvolvimento de métodos mais racionais de dimensionamento de pavimentos contemplando as especificidades dos materiais empregados e levando em consideração as condições climáticas e, principalmente uma completa e detalhada caracterização do tráfego solicitante. Neste contexto apresentado, a pesquisa insere-se em dois importantes estudos. O acompanhamento construtivo e monitoramento sistemático de desempenho de dois trechos na rodovia BR-448/RS e a continuidade do monitoramento de outros dois na BR-290/RS, trecho em concessão entre Osório e Porto Alegre (Freeway). Estas atividades inserem-se no “Projeto Integrado da Rede Temática de Tecnologia em Asfalto Petrobras/ANP", de abrangência nacional, para desenvolvimento de um novo método brasileiro de dimensionamento de pavimentos O segundo estudo trata-se de um completo monitoramento de cargas na Freeway, através da instalação e operacionalização inédita de um equipamento de pesagem dinâmica de alta velocidade (Hight Speed Weigh-in-Motion – HS-WIM) para determinação do espectro de cargas e posterior análise de sua influência no desempenho de pavimentos. Com ambos os estudos foi possível, além de determinar o espectro de cargas, os carregamentos médios e os níveis de sobrecargas praticados naquela rodovia, verificar como estas cargas influenciam o desempenho do pavimento e confrontar estes dados com as tendências observadas através do monitoramento sistemático dos trechos analisados. Por meio do desenvolvimento do presente trabalho pretende-se contribuir para melhorias na engenharia rodoviária e de tráfego através da inserção de novas tecnologias de monitoramento e fiscalização das cargas transportadas e contribuir com o desenvolvimento de um novo método de dimensionamento de pavimentos flexíveis proposto pela Rede Temática de Asfalto, através do levantamento de dados nos trechos experimentais para desenvolvimento de modelos de desempenho e sua posterior inserção nos modelos de calibração. / In recent decades the Brazilian road pavements have had their performance reduced due to a number of factors, not only the increasing volume of heavy vehicles and increased transport capacity, but mainly the flow with loads above the established legal limits, setting a critical situation for the durability of the designed structure. Alongside the necessary investment, it is also important to the development of more rational methods of pavement design, considering the specificities of the materials used and taking into account the climatic conditions and a complete and detailed characterization of the traffic. In this context, the research was developed to attain two main objectives: the construction monitoring and systematic assessment of performance of two test sections built in BR-448/RS highway and the continuity of assesment of two others previously built in BR-290/RS, between Osório and Porto Alegre (known as Freeway). These activities are part of the "Integrated Project Theme Technology Network Petrobras Asphalt/ANP", a nationwide project aimed at developing a new Brazilian method for pavement design The second objective was to conduct a comprehensive monitoring loads study on the Freeway, by installing and carrying on an unprecedented operation of a dynamic weighting equipment of high speed (High speed weigh-in-Motion - HS-WIM) to determine the loads spectrum and subsequent analysis of the influence on pavement performance. Both studies made possible to determine the loads spectrum, average loads and levels of overloads practiced on that highway, to estimate how these loads affect the pavement performance and to compare these data with the trends observed through the systematic assessment of the analyzed sections. This work aims to contribute to improvements in road and traffic engineering, by introducing new monitoring technologies, monitoring the transported cargo and contributing to the development of a new design method of flexible pavements, a major goal of the Thematic Network of Asphalt, to be achieved through experimental data collection in test sections, the development of performance models and their subsequent insertion in the calibration models.

Context: Extensive and rapid continuous growth in Internet Protocol (IP) based networks and as the result of increasing dependencies on these networks makes them extremely challenging to manage and keep them running all the time. 24/7 non-stop monitoring is important to minimize the down time of the network. For this reason dependency on automated network monitoring has been increased. Objectives: There are many tools and systems available for network monitoring. This includes expensive commercial solutions to open source products. Nagios and OpenNMS are two of the most popular systems and they are considered to be close competitors. Comparison discussions about them are very common at different forums on internet. But no empirical study for comparison analysis has been done. In this thesis the comparison study between Nagios and OpenNMS was conducted. Methods: Network monitoring functionalities are listed down from literature followed by industrial interviews with the networking professionals. Then taking these functionalities as a base, to evaluate, survey studies for both systems were conducted separately and comparison analysis of the results was performed. Usability evaluation of both systems was done by conducting usability testing and comparison analysis of the results was performed. Results: Besides providing the comparison of both systems this study also can help to findout the strengths and weaknesses of both systems separately. And in the end we suggested a list of functionalities and features which might help in selection of a monitoring system and also might be helpful for improvement of the monitoring systems.

Java Performance Measurement Framework (JPMF) is a framework dedicated to description of points, where the performance is measured. This description is used to gather performance data in these running points. Data are gathered and written without any processing. The handling increases bandwidth and puts high load on the storage. JPMF does not provide any possibility for user to reduce this data. This thesis aims to solve the described problem by introduction of filtering and aggregation, that should reduce the bandwidth. Additionally, performance bottlenecks in various parts of JPMF are investigated and removed. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

A business process is a defined collection of linked structured tasks, activities, and decisions performed together to produce a desired set of results in order to achieve business goals on behalf of the organization. Companies are increasingly moving their business processes online using Business Process Management (BPM) tools and technologies. With BPM, online business processes are defined by an explicit business process model that flexibly combines and orchestrates forms delivered through a web browser to integrate tasks performed by people, and web services accessible through Internet protocols to integrate tasks performed by software. Often the approach to quality assurance for online business processes is similar to what would be done with any other web application. This is insufficient since it only provides rudimentary verification of single user behavior whereas the orchestration of tasks across many users and software systems can be quite complex. As well, a simple web application testing approach does not leverage the defined model for a business process to ensure consistency, completeness and enable automation. Nor will such an approach validate that a business process is contributing towards the achievement of business goals. A more systematic approach is required. This thesis proposes a quality assurance framework to provide a repeatable, systematic, cost-efficient approach to quality assurance for BPM. A prototype framework was implemented and evaluated using two case studies, including one case study that was developed in collaboration with a local hospital to support a business process for cancer care assessment.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) används i allt större utsträckning för att samla in data om mjukvarusystems prestanda och om hur användare interagerar med systemen. Detta för att säkerställa tillgänglighet och robusthet samt förbättra slutanvändarupplevelser. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur införandet av APM kan gå till, vilka utmaningar som finns samt vilka kostnader och prestandaförsämringar som införandet innebär. Detta görs genom en fallstudie där APM implementeras i Enterprise Resource Planning-systemet MONITOR G5 som utvecklats av det svenska företaget Monitor ERP System AB. Systemet är utvecklat i Microsofts mjukvaruramverk .NET Framework och APM-tjänsten som används är Microsofts Application Insights. Studien resulterade i ett förslag på en APM-lösning där data om användarinteraktioner, prestanda och uppkomna fel samlas in och visualiseras. Sex instrumentpaneler skapades som visar olika aspekter av insamlade data, bland annat prestandamätvärden såsom processor- och minnesanvändning, uppkomna fel, laddningstider för vyer samt vilka delar av systemet som används mest och minst. Kostnadsanalysen visar att kostnaderna kan bli väldigt höga, men förslag på strategier för att hålla kostnaderna nere ges. Prestandatesterna som utfördes för att undersöka APM-lösningens påverkan på systemets prestanda gav otillförlitliga resultat, men det är troligt att prestandakostnaden för APM är liten. / The use of Application Performance Monitoring (APM) for collecting data about performance and end-user behaviors in complex software systems is increasing. APM is used to ensure availability and robustness and to enhance end-user experiences. This study aims to investigate how the adoption of APM can be done, what challenges organizations face during the implementation as well as costs and performance overhead associated with APM. This is achieved through a case study in which APM is introduced into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system MONITOR G5, developed and maintained by the Swedish software company Monitor ERP System AB. The system is developed in Microsoft’s .NET Framework and the APM service used is Microsoft’s Application Insights. The study resulted in a proposed APM solution wherein data regarding user interactions, performance and errors are collected and visualized. Six dashboards were created, showing different aspects of the collected data, for instance: which parts of the system is most and least frequently used, errors, load times and performance metrics such as processor and memory usage. The cost analysis shows that monetary costs can be very high, but strategies for suppressing costs are proposed. The performance tests that were conducted to determine the performance overhead of APM are inconclusive, but it is likely that the performance penalty of using APM is small.