Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4788.pdf: 1588226 bytes, checksum: c369684839c007e031e6c23626c58793 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-12 / Middleware for interactive digital TV systems are designed to provide convenient abstractions to overcome differences of hardware/software in order to improve the portability of applications. The development of a middleware implementation from scratch is a complex and costly task. To minimize this effort, software assets of existing implementations of these middleware can be reused through software reuse techniques. A refactoring process can be applied to existing middleware implementations to improve some software requirements such as modularity and reusability, in order to facilitate reuse of the middleware. This work presents an approach of refactoring focused on portability as a reuse strategy for the development of new instances of a digital TV middleware for new hardware platforms. The proposed approach is based on software portability concepts and construction characteristics of digital TV middleware. To evaluate the work, we present a case study with our experience of refactoring an implementation of the Brazilian digital TV system s middleware. / Middleware para TV Digital interativa tem a função de prover um ambiente padronizado para a execução de aplicações no qual dependências e/ou diferenças de hardware/software são abstraídas, permitindo o desenvolvimento de aplicativos portáveis. O desenvolvimento completo de um middleware é uma tarefa complexa e que consome muitos recursos. Entretanto, técnicas de reúso de software podem ser aplicadas de forma a tornar o processo de desenvolvimento mais eficiente através da reutilização de artefatos de software de outras implementações existentes do mesmo middleware. Dentro desse contexto, um processo de refatoração (refactoring) pode ser utilizado para melhorar características como modularidade ou reusabilidade, de modo a facilitar o reúso de partes dessas implementações. Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta uma abordagem de refatoração voltada para portabilidade como estratégia de reúso em implementações de novas inst ancias de middleware para TV Digital para plataformas de hardware diferentes daquela para o qual foi originalmente desenvolvido. A abordagem proposta apoia-se em conceitos e técnicas de portabilidade de software, bem como em características de arquitetura e aspectos de implementação de middleware para TV Digital. Como estudo de caso de aplicação dessa abordagem, resultados de experimentações realizadas com uma implementação do middleware do sistema brasileiro de TV Digital são apresentados e discutidos.

I samband med den nya dataskyddsförordningen för EU tillkommer ny lagstiftning kring hur verksamheter får behandla EU-medborgares personuppgifter. En av de stora nyheterna är dataportabilitetskravet som ställer krav på att verksamheter ska kunna överföra individers personuppgifter till individerna själva eller till andra personuppgiftsansvariga. Detta innebär omfattande utmaningar med verksamheters förmåga till interoperabilitet i förhållande till andra aktörer utifrån juridisk, organisatorisk, teknisk och semantisk interoperabilitet. Med dataportabilitetskravet hamnar interoperabilitet i fokus som en förutsättning förverksamheter att uppfylla dataskyddslagstiftningen. Mot bakgrund av detta studeras en offentlig organisation som berörs av dataskyddsreformen och kravet på dataportabilitet. I studien inryms en fördjupning av hur organisationen hanterar sina system och strukturer samt jobbar med standarder och samarbeten för att uppnå interoperabilitet i enlighet med dataportabilitet. Det studerade fallet bidrar med insikter för hur andra organisationer kan arbeta med liknande frågor som berör dataportabilitet och interoperabilitet. I studien framkommer det att fallorganisationen sedan tidigare arbetar med interoperabilitetsfrågor. Detta är på grund av egenuppmärksammade behov inom verksamheten och inte enbart av lagkravet från dataskyddsförordningen på dataportabilitet. Med hänsyn till dataskyddsförordningen pågår för närvarande interna analyser kring vilka åtgärder som behöver vidtas där dataportabilitet är ett av dessa områden. Organisationen ser utmaningar främst rörande tolkningen av de nya lagkraven, organisatorisk interoperabilitet och semantisk. Arbetet för att kunna uppfylla kravet pågår, och man följer de rekommendationer som ges från rådgivande organisationer, både från EU och nationellt. Studiens kunskapsbidrag bidrar till ökad förståelse för vilken relevans som interoperabilitet har för dataportabilitet kontextualiserat till den nya dataskyddsförordningen. Studien visar relevansen av hur gemensamma spelregler mellan olika parter i form av gemensam juridik bidrar till förbättrade förutsättningar att nå interoperabilitet på även de andra nivåerna: organisatoriskt, tekniskt och semantiskt, vilket utifrån vad studien visar är avgörande för möjligheten till dataportabilitet. Studien bidrar därtill med en användbar konceptuell modell för att utvärdera interoperabilitet som en förutsättning för dataportabilitet för organisationer. / In the context of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within EU, new legislation is added upon how organizations are permitted to process EU citizens’ personal data. One of the changes is the right to data portability which sets the requirements that organizations must be able to transfer subjects’ personal data to the subject itself or to other data controllers. This implicates comprehensive challenges for organizations’ capacity to reach interoperability in relation to other actors’ based on juridical, organizational, technical and semantic interoperability. In light of the requirement of data portability, interoperability comes into focus as a condition for organizations to comply with the GDPR regulation. In consideration of this background, a public organization that is affected by the data protection reform and the data portability requirement is being studied. In the study, a deepening is made on how the organization manage their systems and structures as well as working with standards and co-operations to reach interoperability in accordance with data portability. The studied case contributes with insights on how organizations can work with similar issues that consider data portability and interoperability. In the study it is clear that the case organization is already working with interoperability issues. This as a result of the organizations own attention of related issues and not only as an effect due to the new data protection regulation and its requirement of data portability. In effect of the data protection regulation, an ongoing analysis is made within the case organization to investigate which actions are needed, where the right to data portability is one of the areas to deal with. The organization identify challenges mainly within the interpretation of the GDPR, organizational and semantic interoperability. The work on how to comply with the requirements is in progress, and the organization follow the recommendations which are given by advising organizations both within EU and on national level. The contribution of the study is deepening knowledge on the relevance of interoperability as a condition to achieve data portability contextualized by the GDPR. Our study shows the relevance of how common rules between different actors in the form of common legislation contributes to improved prerequisites to reach interoperability on all four levels, namely, organizational, juridical, technical and semantic interoperability, which from what our study show is crucial for data portability. The study also contributes with a useful conceptual model to evaluate interoperability as a prerequisite to achieve data portability for organizations.

This thesis presents SkePU 2, the next generation of the SkePU C++ framework for programming of heterogeneous parallel systems using the skeleton programming concept. SkePU 2 is presented after a thorough study of the state of parallel programming models, frameworks and tools, including other skeleton programming systems. The advancements in SkePU 2 include a modern C++11 foundation, a native syntax for skeleton parameterization with user functions, and an entirely new source-to-source translator based on Clang compiler front-end libraries. SkePU 2 extends the functionality of SkePU 1 by embracing metaprogramming techniques and C++11 features, such as variadic templates and lambda expressions. The results are improved programmability and performance in many situations, as shown in both a usability survey and performance evaluations on high-performance computing hardware. SkePU’s skeleton programming model is also extended with a new construct, Call, unique in the sense that it does not impose any predefined skeleton structure and can encapsulate arbitrary user-defined multi-backend computations. We conclude that SkePU 2 is a promising new direction for the SkePU project, and a solid basis for future work, for example in performance optimization.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar a introdução da TV Digital terrestre no Brasil sob os aspectos de Educação e Cultura. Voltar o olhar para as instâncias culturais que mediam tal transição foi considerado fundamental, uma vez que os pensadores de televisão, seja no plano mercadológico, seja no campo acadêmico, enxergam no recém-implantado e já em operação Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital terrestre (SBTVD-t), uma oportunidade para a inclusão digital, para a criação de novos conteúdos e para a convergência com outras mídias digitais. A pesquisa teve como fontes de consulta documentos oficiais, trabalhos publicados, entrevistas com especialistas e participação em conferências internacionais sobre o tema. As representações sociais, nos termos propostos por Moskovici e Jodelet, dadas à TVD por professores e estudantes foi também outro campo de investigação. A análise do material permitiu o surgimento de quatro eixos temáticos: alta-definição, multiprogramação, interatividade e portabilidade, sendo que neste trabalho é dada ênfase aos dois últimos. As conclusões mostram que existem muitas expectativas em relação à TV Digital , embora atualmente ainda não passe de sinônimo de alta definição de imagem e som. No sentido de mudanças significativas, a TV tem seu papel a ser repensado entre os meios de comunicação, principalmente quando relacionados à educação, permanecendo a incógnita de qual função social a TV Digital passaria a ter no contexto dos modos de recepção das novas mídias digitais como a interatividade da internet, redes sociais virtuais e vídeos sob demanda. Finalmente, a pesquisa aponta para necessidade de novas investigações que avancem no sentido da reverberação das vozes do campo da educação sobre esse que é um dos temas mais relevantes na discussão atual de mídia no Brasil. / [en] This work aims to study the introduction of digital TV in Brazil under the aspects of education and culture. To examine the cultural instances that mediate this transition was considered crucial, since both in the marketplace and in academia, the newly established, operating Brazilian System of Digital Terrestrial TV (SBTVD-t) is seen as an opportunity for digital inclusion, as well as for creating new content and bring about synergies with other digital media. The research is based on official documents, published papers, interviews with experts, and participation in international conferences on the subject. The study of teachers’s and students’s “social representations” of digital TV constituted another subject of the present research. Four themes emerged through the analysis of the material: high definition, multiprogramming, portability and interactivity. Emphasis was given to the last two. The conclusions show that while expectations are extremely positive, digital TV currently is no more than a synonym of high-definition for picture and sound. Its role has to be rethought in the communication scenario, especially in relation to education. Moreover, its social function still needs to be better understood in the context of the reception of new digital media (e.g. internet interactivity of the Internet, virtual social networks, video on demand). Finally, the research points to the need for further research to move towards more connections with the field of education, which is central in discussions about the media in Brazil.

[pt] Custos de troca existentes em certas indústrias são capazes de fornecer poder de mercado para as firmas que os detêm. O que se espera é que estes custos diminuam a concorrência entre as firmas uma vez que consumidores estarão mais inelásticos a variações de preço. No entanto, o que se nota neste trabalho é que dependendo da maturidade do mercado, firmas podem estar concorrendo por market share mais agressivamente para posteriormente aproveitar o custo de troca e o respectivo poder de mercado gerado por este custo. O que se observa no modelo é que se o custo de troca for diminuído em um momento de concorrência para obtenção de market share, preços podem aumentar. Este estudo analisa empiricamente a ocorrência da lei da portabilidade numérica no mercado de telefonia focando os efeitos na concorrência. / [en] Existing switching costs in certain industries are capable of providing market power to the holding firms. It s expected that these switching costs reduce the competition between the firms, as the consumers would likely to be more inelastic to the price variations. However, what s noticed in this paper is that depending of the market maturity; firms could be greedily competing for the market share to posteriorly take advantage of the switching cost. What s noticed is that if the switching cost is reduced in a competition moment of obtaining the marked share, prices would raise. This paper focuses the empirical study of the occurrence of the number portability in the phone market.

Medical identity fraud is a byproduct of identity theft; it enables imposters to procure medical treatment, thus defrauding patients, insurers, and government programs through forged prescriptions, falsified medical records, and misuse of victim's health insurance. In 2014, for example, the United States Government lost $14.1 billion in improper payments. The purpose of this multiple case study, grounded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act as the conceptual framework, was to explore the strategies 5 healthcare leaders used to prevent identity theft and medical identity fraud and thus improve business performance in the state of New York. Data were collected using telephone interviews and open-ended questions. The data were analyzed using Yin's 5 step process. Based on data analysis, 5 themes emerged including: training and education (resulting to sub-themes: train employees, train patients, and educate consumers), technology (which focused on Kiosk, cloud, off-site storage ending with encryption), protective measures, safeguarding personally identifiable information, and insurance. Recommendations calls for leaders of large, medium, and small healthcare organizations and other industries to educate employees and victims of identity theft because the problems resulting from fraud travel beyond the borders of medical facilities: they flow right into consumers' residences. Findings from this study may contribute to social change through improved healthcare services and reduced medical costs, leading to more affordable healthcare.

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study postulates a unifying rhetorical function for the book of Lamentations during the Persian period. After the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE, the people of Judah were geographically scattered and religiously and culturally fragmented. Lamentations, with its ahistorical, timeless character, its acrostic form, its posture of protest, and its totalizing references to all the different classes and groups of Judahites, became a rallying point for Jews seeking restoration after the exile, as well as a perpetual reflection on YHWH’s role in human suffering for oppressed Jews in many places and at many times through history. The historical component of this study seeks to establish the fragmentation of Judah and the goals of the various Judahite groups during the Persian period. The literary component attempts to demonstrate Lamentations’ suitability as a portable, timeless expression of suffering before YHWH, and as a source of imagery and motivation for Jewish restoration hopes. This study contributes to the understanding of the formation of Jewish identity, which since the destruction of the first temple has been shaped by minority status in nearly every cultural context, and by the evolution of a portable, textual religion. This study concludes that the preservation of the book of Lamentations was both a reflection of and a contribution to these two aspects of Jewish identity. This study also contributes to the interpretation of Lamentations—and the genre of communal lament—as literature and liturgy. It also explores the possibility of literary connections between Lamentations, Isaiah 40-55, and the genre of penitential prayers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie postuleer ‘n verenigende retoriese funksie vir die boek Klaagliedere gedurende die Persiese periode. Na die vernietiging van die tempel in 587 vC was die inwoners van Juda geografies versprei en godsdienstig en kultureel gefragmenteer. Klaagliedere se ahistoriese en tydlose karakter, die akrostiese vorm, die geneentheid tot protes, en die totaliserende verwysings na al die verskillende klasse en groepe van Judeërs, het ‘n aanhakpunt geword vir Jode wat heropbou na die ballingskap nagestreef het, asook vir die voortgaande nadenke by onderdrukte Jode in baie plekke en tye deur die geskiedenis, oor Jahwe se rol in menslike lyding. Die historiese komponent van hierdie studie probeer die fragmentering van Juda gedurende die Persiese periode vasstel, asook die doelwitte van die verskillende groepe in Juda. Die literêre komponent poog om te illustreer dat Klaagliedere uitermate geskik was as oordraagbare, tydlose uitdrukking van lyding voor Jahwe, en dat dit ‘n bron van verbeelding en motivering vir die Joodse heropbou-hoop was. Die studie dra by tot die verstaan van die vorming van Joodse identiteit wat sedert die vernietiging van die eerste tempel sterk beïnvloed is deur hul minderheidstatus in byna elke kulturele konteks, maar ook deur die ontwikkeling van ‘n oordraagbare, tekstuele godsdiens. Hierdie studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die bewaring van die boek Klaagliedere beide ‘n nadenke oor en ‘n bydrae tot hierdie twee aspekte van Joodse identiteit was. Die studie maak ook ‘n bydrae tot die interpretasie van Klaagliedere—asook die genre van gemeenskaplike klag—as literatuur en liturgie. Dit ondersoek ook die moontlike literêre verhoudings tussen Klaagliedere, Jesaja 40-55 en die genre van boetepsalms.

La généralisation de l’usage des systèmes de dialogue homme-machine accroît la nécessité du développement rapide des différents composants de ces systèmes. Les systèmes de dialogue peuvent être conçus pour différents domaines d’application et dans des langues différentes. La nécessité d’une production rapide pour de nouvelles langues reste un problème ouvert et crucial auquel il est nécessaire d’apporter des solutions efficaces.Nos travaux s’intéressent particulièrement au module de compréhension de la parole et proposent des approches pour la portabilité rapide peu coûteuse de ce module.Les méthodes statistiques ont montré de bonnes performances pour concevoir les modules de compréhension de la parole pour l’étiquetage sémantique de tours de dialogue.Cependant ces méthodes nécessitent de larges corpus pour être apprises. La collecte de ces corpus est aussi coûteuse en temps et en expertise humaine.Dans cette thèse, nous proposons plusieurs approches pour porter un système de compréhension d’une langue vers une autre en utilisant les techniques de la traduction automatique. Les premiers travaux consistent à appliquer la traduction automatique à plusieurs niveaux du processus de portabilité du système de compréhension afin de réduire le coût lié à production de nouvelles données d’apprentissage. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que l’utilisation de la traduction automatique permet d’obtenir des systèmes performant avec un minimum de contribution humaine.Cette thèse traite donc à la fois de la traduction automatique et de la compréhension de la parole. Nous avons effectué une comparaison approfondie entre les méthodes utilisées pour chacune des tâches et nous avons proposé un décodage conjoint basé sur une méthode discriminante qui à la fois traduit une phrase et lui attribue ses étiquettes sémantiques. Ce décodage est obtenu par une approche à base de graphe qui permet de composer un graphe de traduction avec un graphe de compréhension. Cette représentation peut être généralisée pour permettre des transmissions d’informations riches entre les composants du système de dialogue / The generalisation of human-machine dialogue system increases the need for a rapid development of the various components of these systems. Dialogue systems can be designed for different applications and in different languages. The need for a fast production of systems for new languages ​​is still an open and crucial issue which requires effective solutions. Our work is particularly interested in speech understanding module and propose approaches for language portability of this module. The statistical methods showed good performance to design modules for speech understanding. However, these methods require large corpora to be trained. The collection of these corpora is expensive in time and human expertise. In this thesis, we propose several approaches to port an understanding system from one language to another using machine translation techniques. The experimental results show that the use of machine translation allows to produce efficient systems with minimal human effort. This thesis addresses both machine translation and speech understanding domain. We conducted a comparison between the methods used for each task and we have proposed a joint decoding between translation and understanding based on a discriminant method. This decoding is achieved by a graph-based approach which allows to compose a translation graph with an understanding graph. This representation can be generalized to allow a rich transmission of information between the components of the dialogue system

Molntjänster erbjuder skalbara IT-resurser på begäran över internet, där molntjänstanvändaren endast betalar efter förbrukning. Dessa resurser kan variera mellan allt från processorkraft till lagring (Amazon, 2019). Digitaliseringen av samhället har bidragit till en ökad efterfrågan på innovativa lösningar. Detta har resulterat i att molntjänster har ökat i popularitet inom offentlig sektor, exempelvis inom kommunal verksamhet där trenden pekar på att efterfrågan på molntjänster samt användning av molnlösningar fortsätter att öka. När offentliga aktörer väljer att implementera molntjänster så är det viktigt att den information som hanteras av en molntjänst bibehåller en hög nivå av informationssäkerhet (Hellberg, Islam, & Karlsson, 2018). Viktiga aspekter som kommunal verksamhet bör beakta är funktionalitet och juridiska krav. Förutom dessa aspekter så bör molntjänstkunder även ställa tydliga krav på de tekniska utmaningar som existerar för att kunna säkerställa att lösningen som tillhandahålls uppfyller verksamhetens kriterier rörande interoperabilitet och dataportabilitet.  Denna studie har till syfte att utveckla en checklista som kan användas vid upphandling av molntjänster inom kommunal verksamhet. Studien ämnar även till att analysera det eventuella gap som existerar mellan leverantör och köpare. Studien utförs genom att använda en kvalitativ metod. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med representanter från ett urval av IT-avdelningar från kommuner inom Västra Götalands län och representanter från molntjänstleverantörer, samlas information in som sedan analyseras och används för att utveckla en checklista som kan användas vid upphandling av molntjänster inom kommunal verksamhet. Befintlig bakgrundslitteratur har även beaktats och analyserats under studien. Resultatet visar att samtliga kommuner involverade i studien använder sig av upphandlade molntjänster i någon utsträckning och är dagsläget i behov av de positiva egenskaper som molntjänster bidrar med till verksamheten. Resultatet visar även att det finns ett visst gap mellan leverantör och kommunal verksamhet när det kommer till vad som anses vara tydlig kravställning på interoperabilitet. / Cloud services offer scalable IT resources on demand over the Internet, where the cloud service user only pays for consumption. These resources can vary between everything from processing power to storage (Amazon, 2019). The digitization of society has contributed to an increased demand for innovative solutions. This has resulted in cloud services increasing in popularity in the public sector for example in municipal activities where the trend indicates that demand for cloud services and the use of cloud solutions continue to increase. When public actors choose to implement cloud services, it is important that the information handled by a cloud service maintains a high level of information security (Hellberg, Islam, & Karlsson, 2018). Important aspects that municipal activities should consider are functionality and legal requirements. In addition to these aspects, cloud service customers should also set clear requirements for the technical challenges that exist in order to ensure that the solution provided meets the operational criteria for interoperability and data portability. The purpose of this study is to develop a checklist that can be used in the procurement of cloud services within municipal activities. The study also aims to analyze the possible gap that exists between the supplier and the buyer. The study is performed using a qualitative method. Through qualitative interviews with representatives from a selection of IT departments from municipalities within the county of Västra Götaland, information is collected then analyzed and used to develop a checklist that can be used in procurement of cloud services within municipal activities. Existing background literature has also been considered and analyzed during the study. The result shows that all municipalities involved in the study make use of procured cloud services to some extent and are currently in need of the positive properties that cloud services contribute to the business. The result also shows that there is a certain gap between supplier and municipal activity when it comes to what is considered to be clear requirements regarding interoperability.

Depurar sistemas distribuídos continua uma tarefa difícil, mesmo após 30 anos de pesquisa intensa. Embora essa situação possa ser parcialmente atribuída à complexidade das execuções concorrentes, o rápido passo de desenvolvimento das plataformas e tecnologias para computação distribuída também carrega a sua parcela de culpa, por encurtar a vida de muitas ferramentas potencialmente úteis. Neste trabalho, apresentamos uma análise dos principais problemas, técnicas e ferramentas ligados à depuração de sistemas concorrentes e discutidos na literatura. Baseados nessa análise, desenvolvemos e apresentamos uma nova técnica, simples e portátil, que pode ser aplicada a sistemas distribuídos que utilizam chamadas síncronas e bloqueantes. Essa técnica, concebida para sobreviver à heterogeneidade, é validada por meio da implementação de um arcabouço escrito para plataforma Eclipse e instanciado para sistemas de objetos distribuídos baseados em Java/CORBA. / After over thirty years of intense research, debugging distributed systems is still regarded as a difficult task. While this situation could be partially blamed on the fact that concurrent executions are complex, the fast pace of evolution witnessed with distributed computing technologies have also played its by shortening the lifespan of many potentially useful debugging tools. This work presents an analysis of the main issues, techniques and tools in the field of parallel, distributed, and concurrent debugging in general. Based on this analysis, we develop and present a simple and portable technique targeted at synchronous-call-based distributed systems. This technique, designed for portability, is validated through the implementation of an Eclipse-based framework that is instantiated for Java/CORBA distributed object systems.