Diploma thesis oriented on processes and business process management (BPM) is tightly related to the ability of organizations to adapt to the reality of today's world, reality of continuous and accelerating change. The objective for theoretical part is to summarize main terms, approaches, methods and other information about business process management, reasons for its evolution, business process modeling, execution by personal and other sources and its efficiency, process performance evaluation, to be able to use and apply them in commercial practice on the example of a small business company. Practical part includes results of theory application and knowledge acquired throughout studies application on the example of iFirma company. The thesis brings up process approaches application example in a business company and an intention to proof positive impact on its performance and continuous process improvement. What influence will IS/IT support of processes and process changes have? Several approaches to business management and even more applications bring up a need to evaluate and pick the right approach.

During the past ten years the changing sociopolitical context in South Africa challenged mental health services to re-position themselves in order to stay relevant to specific contextual demands. The field of psychology has also been introduced to the application of postmodern principles in counselling and training practices internationally and nationally, which promised exciting alternative avenues for many practitioners and clients. In reading the literature on the possible opportunities of applying postmodern principles to psychological and educational practices, it became clear that the relationship between counsellors/clients and trainers/students can be a collaborative co-construction of knowledge production. Existing literature on current training practices however reflects a fragmented picture, in which the orientation, content and pedagogy are not consistently aligned with an epistemology and practice. Postmodern literature on the notion of “identity/self” as the narration of a multilevelled construct is used to conceptualise training contexts as contexts that provide students with certain narratives with which they can construct their counsellor identities. The aim of the research is to story the construction of counsellor identity through the application of narrative therapy within a learning model. Text production was imbedded in a referential research context which is defined as a context of the following relational positionings: narrative counsellor, trainer, researcher, students and participants. The contribution of this context towards the construction of counsellor identity is explored through engaging in and narrative analysis of written conversations, journals and visual projects of students who engaged in a training context. Through the narrative analysis process, temporal dimension story grids were developed for the written conversations and training journals and the visual projects were analysed according to denotational and higher signification inventories. Narratives that were co-created in the training context include that of uncertainty, self-awareness, growth, change, hope and respect for individual life narratives, which also contributed to the process of the construction of counsellor identity. These are all familiar narratives that exist in the South African context as we live in a country that is in a continuous process of change and where certainty is an elusive concept. On the basis of the narrative themes that emerged, guidelines were developed for creating training contexts that could facilitate the construction of a counsellor identity that is of relevance within the changing South African context. These guidelines include a repositioning in the trainer/student relationship; using externalising language practices to facilitate the co-construction of knowledge through a critical engagement with the learning material and a conceptualisation of evaluation as a process based activity rather than an outcome based activity. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted

This work is motivated by the question: how much complexity is appropriate for a cloud parameterization used in general circulation models (GCM). To approach this question, cloud parameterizations across the complexity range are explored using general circulation models and theoretical Monte-Carlo simulations. Their results are compared with high-resolution satellite observations and simulations that resolve the GCM subgrid-scale variability explicitly. A process-orientated evaluation is facilitated by GCM forecast simulations which reproduce the synoptic state. For this purpose novel methods were develop to a) conceptually relate the underlying saturation deficit probability density function (PDF) with its saturated cloudy part, b) analytically compute the vertical integrated liquid water path (LWP) variability, c) diagnose the relevant PDF-moments from cloud parameterizations, d) derive high-resolution LWP from satellite observations and e) deduce the LWP statistics by aggregating the LWP onto boxes equivalent to the GCM grid size. On this basis, this work shows that it is possible to evaluate the sub-grid scale variability of cloud parameterizations in terms of cloud variables. Differences among the PDF types increase with complexity, in particular the more advanced cloud parameterizations can make use of their double Gaussian PDF in conditions, where cumulus convection forms a separate mode with respect to the remainder of the grid-box. Therefore, it is concluded that the difference between unimodal and bimodal PDFs is more important, than the shape within each mode. However, the simulations and their evaluation reveals that the advanced parameterizations do not take full advantage of their abilities and their statistical relationships are broadly similar to less complex PDF shapes, while the results from observations and cloud resolving simulations indicate even more complex distributions. Therefore, this work suggests that the use of less complex PDF shapes might yield a better trade-off. With increasing model resolution initial weaknesses of simpler, e.g. unimodal PDFs, will be diminished. While cloud schemes for coarse-resolved models need to parameterize multiple cloud regimes per grid-box, higher spatial resolution of future GCMs will separate them better, so that the unimodal approximation improves.

<p dir="ltr">The modern world faces many challenges related to sustainability, including the ability to make high-level decisions using a sustainability-oriented framework, a matter of increasing importance to the United States military with respect to energetic materials (EMs). Although a few pieces - process flowsheet optimization, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, and the use of optimization tools to identify an option - have been studied and utilized, there exists no systematic approach that combines all these pieces to create a framework that allows for holistic decision making. This is especially true with EMs, other key critical materials, and new methods of manufacture. An interconnected framework for LCA-based decision making is developed and a tool based on this framework created for use with novel materials. The interconnected framework and tool are utilized in two case studies related to the manufacture of RDX- a lab-scale, batch-mode configuration and a simplified continuous-mode configuration, to determine the optimal reaction temperature.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:33:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Valeria de Souza.pdf: 5116971 bytes, checksum: b5cf54a3272b1ca8e1f60ea2874b512f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / This work aims to question the current actions of teacher evaluation, specially the policy of Merit-based Promotion, with the objective of analyzing them according to the manifestations of the educational professionals of the Department of Education of the State of São Paulo. The theoretical references include the following authors: Stephen Ball, with his policy cycle approach; Viñao Frago, in order to understand the concept of reform in the perspective of the school culture, the managers culture and the reformers culture; Claude Lessard, to accomplish the analysis of different approaches about teacher evaluation. This research is considered having quantitative and qualitative nature, involving a descriptive-analytical study of proposals, actions and agents that convey ideas about the policy of Merit-based Promotion. In order to do so, we used documental analysis of 67 questionnaires answered by professionals of the educational system of the state of São Paulo (supervisors, directors and teachers) from 04 Boards of Education (from the great ;region of São Paulo and from the countryside of the state), chosen by their profile in the selection process of promotion in 2012. This work, therefore, investigated the policy of Merit-based Promotion, questioning it concerning the ideas, backgrounds, characters, paths, forms and proceedings that form it, focusing them on the perspective of the discourses and actions of the regulators and questioners (context of the influence and the text production), as well as in the perspective of the academic studies (context of the results/effects) and manifestations of educational professionals who work at the public system of the state of São Paulo (context of the practice). Another aim of this investigation was also questioning how the policy strategies are created and recreated, from the regulators and questioners points of view. The main results allowed us to observe, from the analysis of the multiple contexts, how such policy influences careers, practices and conceptions of the professionals of the educational system of the state of São Paulo, acting as a system of control and standardization. It was also possible to confirm the hypothesis that there are many actors who reinterpret and give a new meaning to the policy of Merit-based Promotion; however, the educational professionals are not the most influent actors in this process / Esta investigação problematiza as ações atuais de avaliação docente, em especial a política de Promoção por Mérito, tendo como objetivo analisá-las segundo as manifestações dos profissionais da educação no âmbito da Secretaria Estadual de Educação de São Paulo. O referencial teórico inclui os seguintes autores: Stephen Ball por sua abordagem do ciclo de políticas (policy cycle approach);Viñao Frago para compreender o conceito de reforma na perspectiva da cultura escolar, cultura dos gestores e cultura dos reformadores; Claude Lessard para análise das diferentes abordagens sobre avaliação docente. Trata-se de pesquisa de natureza quantitativa e qualitativa envolvendo um estudo analítico-descritivo de propostas, ações e agentes que veiculam ideias sobre a política de Promoção por Mérito. Para tanto, são utilizadas análises documental e de 67 questionários respondidos por profissionais da rede educacional paulista (supervisores, diretores e professores) de 04 Diretorias de Ensino (da Grande São Paulo e do interior do estado), selecionados por seu perfil em relação ao concurso de promoção realizado em 2012. Esta pesquisa, portanto, investiga a política de Promoção por Mérito, problematizando-a quanto às ideias que a conformam, cenários, personagens, percursos, modalidades e instâncias, focalizando-os na perspectiva dos discursos e ações de regulamentadores e problematizadores (contexto da influência e da produção de texto), bem como na perspectiva dos estudos acadêmicos (contexto dos resultados/efeitos) e manifestações de profissionais da educação que atuam na rede pública estadual de São Paulo (contexto da prática). A investigação procura problematizar também como as estratégias políticas são criadas e recriadas, tanto do ponto de vista dos regulamentadores quanto dos problematizadores. Os principais resultados desta investigação permitem constatar, a partir da análise dos múltiplos contextos, como tal política influencia carreiras, práticas e concepções dos profissionais da educação da rede pública paulista, atuando como mecanismo de controle e padronização. Foi possível confirmar, ainda, a hipótese de que são muitos os atores que ressignificam e reinterpretam a política de Promoção por Mérito, porém, não são os profissionais da educação os atores mais influentes neste processo