In the recent years, the mobile gaming has been tremendously increased because of its enormous entertainment features. Mobile cloud gaming is a promising technology that overcomes the implicit restrictions such as computational capacity and limited battery life. GamingAnywhere is an open source cloud gaming system which is used in this thesis to measure the Quality of service of mobile cloud gaming. The aim of the thesis is to measure the QoS used in GamingAnywhere for mobile cloud gaming. Games are streamed from the server to the mobile client. In our study, QoS is measured using Differentiated Service (DiffServ) architecture for the traffic shaping. The research method is carried out using an experimental testbed. Dummynet is used for traffic shaping. Performance is measured in terms of bitrate, packet loss, jitter, and frame rate. Different resolutions of the game are considered in our empirical research and our results show that the framerate and bitrate have increased with the impact of network delay. / <p>Ganesh Grandhi: +46767671612</p>

The purposes of this study were to identify the procedures and criteria used for conducting teacher performance evaluation in Texas public schools, to determine the degree to which teacher performance evaluation procedures and instruments reflect the stated evaluation policies of Texas public schools, and to determine the degree to which teacher performance evaluation instruments used in Texas public schools reflect presage criteria (teacher characteristics) as opposed to process criteria (teacher behavior) as opposed to product criteria (student change or gain) as opposed to general job performance requirements (job expectations). The main findings include the following. (1) Teacher performance evaluation is required in all Texas public school districts and is often performed several times a year by more than one observer. The building principal is the key person involved in this process. (2) Although all school districts stated the supervisory function of the improvement of instruction as the major purpose of their teacher performance evaluation policy, a large number of school districts utilize teacher performance evaluation for the administration functions of serving as a basis for retention or dismissal. (3) If in reality teacher performance evaluation were construed as the improvement of instruction or teaching performance, it should be predictable that process criteria (teacher behavior) would account for the majority of items in the evaluation instruments. However, these items accounted for only about one-fourth of the total number. At the same time, items relating to general job requirements accounted for over 50 percent of the items. This exhibits a maintenance rather than teaching thrust. (4) The data gathered on current teacher performance evaluation instruments appear to be highly pertinent to maintaining the school as an organization and appear to be helpful in making personnel decisions. (5) Teacher performance evaluation instruments in Texas public schools are much more heavily weighted toward assessing teachers in their multiple roles rather than the many aspects of teaching.

Distributed systems are shared by a large number of users that generate task-based workloads. The sharing of hardware and software by multiple workloads mandates the need for security mechanisms that protect the artifacts of individual tasks. Additionally, these systems must meet user-based performance expectations, a factor that must be addressed during the security service selection process. Current performance-based security service selection methodologies use flat GSPN models that suffer from exponential evaluation complexity as the model size increases. Due to this limitation, these methodologies cannot evaluate models representing the scale of current distributed systems. To address the evaluation complexity problem the hierarchical methodology presented in this report was designed to avoid the system size limitations of the current flat GSPN model-based methodologies. The methodology relies only on general performance models capable of modeling platform-independent systems designs. The refactoring methodology uses a divide-and-conquer approach to evaluate the entire system model. Using model-refactoring techniques the input model is modified into a hierarchy of subsystem models using abstraction to isolate performance measurement to component level. This technique further increases the effectiveness of the performance evaluation by avoiding the duplicate evaluation of identical components. Therefore increasing the number of alternate security service components results in a linear complexity growth of the entire system model. Thus, the limiting factor of the hierarchical methodology is the size of the largest component rather than the previous system size limitation. The experimental results show that the hierarchical model-based methodology is able to scale beyond system model sizes that can be evaluated using current flat GSPN-based performance evaluation methodologies. This scalability improvement implies that the hierarchical technique can evaluate models containing up to 50 individual components using the current GSPN tools. Thus the contribution of this hierarchical technique will continue to improve with subsequent advancements in GSPN model evaluation techniques.

Context MongoDB is an open-source, scalable, NoSQL database that distributes the data over many commodity servers. It provides no single point of failure by copying and storing the data in different locations. MongoDB uses a master-slave design rather than the ring topology used by Cassandra. Virtualization is the technique used for accessing multiple machines in a single host and utilizing the various virtual machines. It is the fundamental technology, which allows cloud computing to provide resource sharing among the users. Objectives Studying and identifying MongoDB, Virtualization on AWS and OpenStack. Experiments were conducted to identify the CPU utilization associated when Mongo DB instances are deployed on AWS and physical server arrangement. Understanding the effect of Replication in the Mongo DB instances and its effect on MongoDB concerning throughput, CPU utilization and latency. Methods Initially, a literature review is conducted to design the experiment with the mentioned problems. A three node MongoDB cluster runs on Amazon EC2 and OpenStack Nova with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as an operating system. Latency, throughput and CPU utilization were measured using this setup. This procedure was repeated for five nodes MongoDB cluster and three nodes production cluster with six types of workloads of YCSB. Results Virtualization overhead has been identified in terms of CPU utilization and the effects of virtualization on MongoDB are found out in terms of CPU utilization, latency and throughput. Conclusions It is concluded that there is a decrease in latency and increases throughput with the increase in nodes. Due to replication, increase in latency was observed.

Thesis (M.M. (Public Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2013. / Globally, there is an increasing emphasis on results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. The emphasis on M&E systems is driven by the need to: promote good governance; improve government’s performance and public accountability; comply with international donor funding requirements; achieve the millennium development goals; and respond to economic and social pressures experienced by countries. A readiness assessment is considered a critical first step and the foundation of results-based M&E system. In light of limited evidence, the aim of this study was to examine the state of readiness of the Limpopo Department of Health (LDOH) to implement the new results-based M&E policy framework. The research approach selected for this study was qualitative in nature, and provided a systematic inquiry of the state of readiness of the LDOH for the implementation of the new results-based M&E policy framework. The study employed in-depth interviews and document analysis to obtain information, in order to bring rich insights, meaning, values and holistic views to the study questions. A key finding that emerged from the study is the existence of an enabling legislative and policy environment for the implementation of the results-based M&E system. However, there are several factors that mitigate against the successful implementation of the results-based M&E system. These included sub-optimal leadership and accountability; structural weaknesses with high vacancy rates and unclear roles and responsibilities; lack of integrated management information and M&E systems; inadequate infrastructure and resources; and problems with M&E culture, capacity and skills development. The overall conclusion of the study is that the LDOH is not ready to implement a results-based M&E system. Key recommendations include dedicated resources (finances, staff, etc.) for implementation, strong leadership at political and management level, strengthening capacity and systems; and focus on the establishment of an integrated results-based M&E system, without neglecting processes and the organisational culture.

A defining feature of humanitarian crises is their unpredictable nature, making them interesting sites to analyse how accounting systems can facilitate engagement with the unexpected. This thesis explores the question of how evaluation systems can be designed and practiced to engage with the complexities of humanitarian crisis settings, in which the potential for disastrous errors is overwhelming. Informed by empirical research on the management practices in a large-scale refugee camp, the study investigates principles and tactics that allow humanitarian evaluation systems to make a resource of the inevitable ambiguity and incompleteness that define their contexts. In doing so, the thesis draws from and further develops the concept of heterarchy, defined as ‘governance through difference’, and shows how it provides promising insights for accounting research. To explain how evaluation systems can become performable in the dynamic humanitarian environments, the study theorizes four interlinked principles that emerge from the empirical findings. These principles are: (1) in-built tensions between evaluation dimensions; (2) open and participatory design; (3) relational value and incompleteness; and (4) enacting minimalist control through a community of practitioners. In doing so, the study makes three contributions. Firstly, the study contributes to the accounting literature on the enabling role of ambiguity by theorizing how evaluation systems can foster approaches and techniques that embrace ambiguity as a resource to engage with complex settings. Secondly, it further develops the notion of heterarchy by explicating how heterarchical tensions can become productive without leading to chaos and by theorizing additional principles that are necessary to sustain heterarchies in an organized fashion. Thirdly, departing from the emerging literature on humanitarian crises that primarily focuses on how accounting systems can be used to normalize and control disaster settings, the thesis advances understanding of how accounting technologies can serve as anomalizing devices for the adaptive management of crises.

A number of techniques for indoor and outdoor WiFi localization using received signal strength (RSS) signatures have been published. Little work has been performed to characterize the RSS signatures used by these WiFi localization techniques or to assess the accuracy of current channel models to represent the signatures. Without accurate characterization and models of the RSS signatures, a large amount of empirical data is needed to evaluate the performance of the WiFi localization techniques. The goal of this research is to characterize the RSS signatures, propose channel model improvements based on the characterization, and study the performance of channel models for use in WiFi localization simulations to eliminate the need for large amounts of empirical data measurements. In this thesis, we present our empirical database of RSS signatures measured on the Worcester Polytechnic Institute campus. We use the empirical database to characterize the RSS signatures used in WiFi localization, showing that they are composed of connective segments and influenced by the access point (AP) location within a building. From the characterization, we propose improving existing channel models by building partitioning the signal path-loss using site-specific information from Google Earth. We then evaluate the performance of the existing channel models and the building partitioned models against the empirical data. The results show that using site-specific information to building partition the signal path-loss a tighter fit to the empirical RSS signatures can be achieved.

Com o intuito de atender às recomendações do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE), o poder público adota modelos de gestão que julga eficiente, porém as informações sobre a eficácia e eficiência, antes e após a implementação dos mesmos são escassas, o que dificulta os estudos de avaliação. O Estado de Goiás, a partir de 1995, migrou do modelo de gestão centralizado para o modelo de gestão descentralizado, no qual o Governo do Estado de Goiás transfere para as unidades escolares os recursos financeiros bem como a responsabilidade de execução do Programa de Alimentação Escolar. Visando avaliar o modelo de gestão em questão, 51 unidades de ensino estadual de 04 Subsecretarias de Educação Regional foram avaliadas. Foram calculados a composição nutricional (carboidratos, proteínas, lipídeos, fibras, vitaminas A e C, ferro, cálcio, magnésio e zinco), o Ndpcal e o valor calórico dos cardápios oferecidos. Os índices de adesão e aceitação foram verificados. As condições operacionais referentes a recursos humanos, equipamentos, utensílios, estrutura de distribuição das refeições, custos e a presença de cantinas também foram averiguadas. Como resultados, os valores médios da composição nutricional e do valor calórico das refeições mostraram-se abaixo dos preconizados pelo PNAE. A adesão média foi de 49%, considerando o número de alunos matriculados. Já sobre os presentes, o índice subiu para 56%. A presença de cantinas, o período (matutino e vespertino) e o tipo de cardápio influenciaram na adesão ao Programa. Dos cardápios planejados, 23% não foram cumpridos e a aceitação média foi de 87%. Em 80% das escolas as preparações foram servidas em sala de aulas. Em relação aos equipamentos e utensílios, 64% e 72%, respectivamente, encontravam-se em bom estado. O número de funcionários da cozinha não é padronizado e insuficiente para atender a demanda, bem como o de nutricionistas. Um dos objetivos da implantação do modelo escolarizado no estado de Goiás foi a melhoria na qualidade, porém, de acordo com todos os resultados obtidos, a realidade do Programa das unidades de ensino ainda não condiz com às referências estabelecidas pelo Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação. / Aiming to achieve the recommendations of the National School Lunch Program (PNAE), the government adopt management models that judge efficient, but the information on the effectiveness and efficiency before and after implementation of them are scarce, which difficults evaluations. The State of Goiás, in 1995, migrated from centralized to the schooled model, in which the state government of Goias transfers to the schools the financial resources and the responsibility for implementing the School Lunch Program . Aiming to evaluate the model in question, 51 schools from 04 Departments of Regional Education were studied. Nutritional composition (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, fiber, vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc), the Ndpcal and calorific value of the meal were calculated. The acceptance and adhesion rates were verified. The operational requirements related to human resources, equipment, utensils, distribution structure, costs and the presence of commercial establishment were also investigated. As result, the average values of the nutritional composition and caloric value of the meals were below those recommended by FNDE Resolution. The rate of students participation in the School Lunch Program was 49%, considering the number of students enrolled. The rate increased when the present students was consideres. The presence of commercial stablishments, the period (morning and afternoon) and the type of menu influenced the adhesionn. Considering planned menus, 23% were not met and the average acceptance was 87%. In 80% of schools the melas were served in the classroom. In terms of equipment and utensils, 64% and 72%, respectively, were in good condition. The number of employees was not standardized and insufficient to meet demand, as well as nutritionists. The implantation of the model schooled in the state of Goiás had the purpose to improve the quality, however, considering the results, the reality of the Program does not consistent with the references provided by FNDE.

El objetivo de investigación ha sido determinar la implicancia del clima organizacional en la gestión institucional de la Superintendencia Nacional de Aseguramiento en Salud. La hipótesis general ha comprobado la existencia de una relación directa y significativa entre el clima organizacional y la gestión institucional; obteniéndose una débil relación entre las variables. The research objective has been to determine the implication of the organizational climate in the institutional management of the National Superintendence of Health Insurance. The The general hypothesis has proven the existence of a direct and significant relationship between the organizational climate and institutional management; obtaining a weak relationship between variables

Com o intuito de atender às recomendações do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE), o poder público adota modelos de gestão que julga eficiente, porém as informações sobre a eficácia e eficiência, antes e após a implementação dos mesmos são escassas, o que dificulta os estudos de avaliação. O Estado de Goiás, a partir de 1995, migrou do modelo de gestão centralizado para o modelo de gestão descentralizado, no qual o Governo do Estado de Goiás transfere para as unidades escolares os recursos financeiros bem como a responsabilidade de execução do Programa de Alimentação Escolar. Visando avaliar o modelo de gestão em questão, 51 unidades de ensino estadual de 04 Subsecretarias de Educação Regional foram avaliadas. Foram calculados a composição nutricional (carboidratos, proteínas, lipídeos, fibras, vitaminas A e C, ferro, cálcio, magnésio e zinco), o Ndpcal e o valor calórico dos cardápios oferecidos. Os índices de adesão e aceitação foram verificados. As condições operacionais referentes a recursos humanos, equipamentos, utensílios, estrutura de distribuição das refeições, custos e a presença de cantinas também foram averiguadas. Como resultados, os valores médios da composição nutricional e do valor calórico das refeições mostraram-se abaixo dos preconizados pelo PNAE. A adesão média foi de 49%, considerando o número de alunos matriculados. Já sobre os presentes, o índice subiu para 56%. A presença de cantinas, o período (matutino e vespertino) e o tipo de cardápio influenciaram na adesão ao Programa. Dos cardápios planejados, 23% não foram cumpridos e a aceitação média foi de 87%. Em 80% das escolas as preparações foram servidas em sala de aulas. Em relação aos equipamentos e utensílios, 64% e 72%, respectivamente, encontravam-se em bom estado. O número de funcionários da cozinha não é padronizado e insuficiente para atender a demanda, bem como o de nutricionistas. Um dos objetivos da implantação do modelo escolarizado no estado de Goiás foi a melhoria na qualidade, porém, de acordo com todos os resultados obtidos, a realidade do Programa das unidades de ensino ainda não condiz com às referências estabelecidas pelo Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação. / Aiming to achieve the recommendations of the National School Lunch Program (PNAE), the government adopt management models that judge efficient, but the information on the effectiveness and efficiency before and after implementation of them are scarce, which difficults evaluations. The State of Goiás, in 1995, migrated from centralized to the schooled model, in which the state government of Goias transfers to the schools the financial resources and the responsibility for implementing the School Lunch Program . Aiming to evaluate the model in question, 51 schools from 04 Departments of Regional Education were studied. Nutritional composition (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, fiber, vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc), the Ndpcal and calorific value of the meal were calculated. The acceptance and adhesion rates were verified. The operational requirements related to human resources, equipment, utensils, distribution structure, costs and the presence of commercial establishment were also investigated. As result, the average values of the nutritional composition and caloric value of the meals were below those recommended by FNDE Resolution. The rate of students participation in the School Lunch Program was 49%, considering the number of students enrolled. The rate increased when the present students was consideres. The presence of commercial stablishments, the period (morning and afternoon) and the type of menu influenced the adhesionn. Considering planned menus, 23% were not met and the average acceptance was 87%. In 80% of schools the melas were served in the classroom. In terms of equipment and utensils, 64% and 72%, respectively, were in good condition. The number of employees was not standardized and insufficient to meet demand, as well as nutritionists. The implantation of the model schooled in the state of Goiás had the purpose to improve the quality, however, considering the results, the reality of the Program does not consistent with the references provided by FNDE.