Thesis (Ph.D. 1979) from the Department of Physchology, University of Adelaide. / Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T14:09:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_2620_.pdf: 1210633 bytes, checksum: d51273aea6c212ca520ab101c507cd95 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-26 / The research was conducted because of the importance of business software in the information society and this dichotomy between free software and proprietary software standards. The analyzed situations are related to companies that migrated their technology park from proprietary software to free software, and vice versa. It was identified financial, technological and institutional issues in these processes. We used the categories of evaluation of some theories of adoption of technology, applied in three situations of research: the first one was exploratory, seeking to understand the subject; the second the second was exploratory in depth, made with two organizations in order to refine the issues identified; and the third was of quantitative nature, using a questionnaire sent to 1,740 people in the area of related to IT, returning a sample of 38 companies. The final considerations show that the feature of being free or proprietary software influences the decision to migrate. Although it is not because of the availability of source code - the factor that differentiates most of the other standard - but because of issues of reliability and usability found in each of these standards. They also suggest several hypotheses to be tested in future research. / O trabalho foi realizado devido à importância do setor de software na sociedade da informação e à dicotomia presente entre os padrões software livre e software proprietário. Foram analisadas situações de migração no parque tecnológico de empresas que usavam software proprietário e optaram pelo software livre, e vice-versa, e identificadas questões financeiras, tecnológicas e institucionais presentes neste processo. Utilizou-se das categorias de algumas teorias de avaliação de adoção de tecnologia, aplicadas em três situações de pesquisa: a primeira foi exploratória, visando o entendimento do tema; a segunda foi exploratória em profundidade, realizada com duas organizações a fim de refinar as questões identificadas; e a terceira foi de caráter quantitativo, por meio de um questionário enviado a 1.740 pessoas da área de TI, retornando uma amostra de 38 empresas. As análises mostram que o fato de ser livre ou proprietário exerce influência na decisão de migração não pela disponibilidade ou não do código fonte – fator que mais diferencia um padrão do outro – mas sim por aspectos de confiabilidade e de usabilidade reconhecidos em cada um destes padrões. As considerações finais apontam diversas hipóteses a serem testadas em pesquisas futuras.

This diploma thesis describes law history, present way of acqusition of imovable property and considerations about a future law adjustment of a civil law book.

Antalet programvaror ökar för varje dag och människor använder dagligen en mängd olika sorters programvara både på datorer och på andra enheter. Det finns idag programvara som kallas för fri och öppen programvara som tar upp kampen med gamla klassiska proprietära programvaror. Öppna och fria programvaror släpper sin källkod helt fri så användaren själv har möjlighet att göra ändringar i den programvara som används medan proprietär programvaras källkod är skyddad och hemlig. Dessa tre olika sorters programvaror jämförs och diskuteras utifrån tekniska likheter och skillnader i denna kandidatuppsats.   Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats inom informatik är att undersöka vad privatpersoner som är tekniskt intresserade har för tankar och attityder kring proprietär, öppen och fri programvara och visa vilka tekniska aspekter som prioriteras vid val mellan dem.   I undersökningen har ett kvantitativt angreppssätt bestående av en webbenkät som besvarats av privatpersoner tillämpats. Resultatet från denna enkät har tillsammans med den teori som insamlats visat vilka tekniska funktioner och skillnader som påverkar en privatperson då val av olika sorters programvara ska ske.   Undersökningen har visat att det som användaren prioriterar högst i en programvara är användbarheten som handlar om hur användarvänligt användargränssnittet är och hur lättanvänd en programvara är. Vidare har undersökningen visat att de proprietära programvarorna är överlägsna när det gäller användarvänlighet.   Trots den förmodan som finns om att proprietära programvaror är mycket mer säkra och tillförlitliga än fria och öppna alternativ så har undersökningen även visat att fria och öppna programvaror ofta är lika säkra och tillförlitliga. Ibland överträffar de till och med de proprietära programvarorna i både säkerhet och tillförlitlighet.   Vidare visar undersökningen att fria och öppna programvaror till störst del inriktar sig till utvecklare. Detta för att om användaren ska kunna dra någon nytta av att källkoden finns tillgänglig och möjligheten att själv ändra och anpassa programvaran efter eget tycke så krävs kunskaper inom programmering som en väldigt stor majoritet av alla datoranvändare i världen inte innehar.     Nyckelord: proprietär programvara, öppen programvara, fri programvara, proprietary software, open source, free software.

The quality of service from a hospital is the number one factor that will either turn a customer/patient away or make one for life. More and more hospitals are competing for greater shares in the market and customer-driven quality management is becoming the preferred method for improving their performance. Awali hospital is a private hospital in the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is a small 35-bed hospital that offers private medical services to the public. The hospital was originally built to serve the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) refinery workers but later opened its doors to the public. With the introduction of private patients came higher expectations of quality and higher demands on the overall services. A number of service quality shortfalls were identified over the years but never identified quantitatively by a patient evaluation survey. An English and Arabic version of the questionnaire based on SERVQUAL (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1988) was developed and placed in Awali hospital to test these service quality shortfalls. This study intends to evaluate these areas by answering questions about the relevant areas of service provided by the hospital. It measured patient satisfaction by looking at human aspects of service (responsiveness, reliability, empathy and assurance) with only one factor of the instrument being devoted to the non-human aspect of care rendered (tangibles). The SERVQUAL instrument has five dimensions that were measured by 21 pairs of item statements. One statement from each pair reflects perceptions, the other expectations. Measurement was accomplished by subtracting expectation from perceptions resulting in a service quality score. Positive or zero scores would reflect ideal or adequate service quality offered by the hospital. A negative score would be indicative of a service experience that did not meet customer expectations. Using the SERVQUAL questionnaire provided, quantifiable reasoning to the research questions in each dimension could be obtained so that precision, objectivity and rigour replaced hunches, experience and intuition as a means of investigating problem areas. Customers were first asked to supply some additional demographic information, for example gender, number of hospital visits, nationality, patient type (Bapco worker, general practitioner referred or private) and type of visit (inpatient, outpatient or both). They werethen asked to rate the hospital service on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Agree (7) to Strongly Disagree (1). At the end of the questionnaire was space to write open comments. In total 600 paper questionnaires were distributed in the hospital, 300 English and 300 Arabic. Another 150 electronic questionnaires via emails were sent to refinery workers. Of the total 750 questionnaires distributed 162 were returned of which 156 (or 21.6%) could be statistically analysed. The empirical data results showed that the perception scores were significantly different at the p < 0.05 level from expectation scores. All the service quality differences (SQ=P-E) were negatively scored. This indicated that patients were not satisfied in all five dimensions of services offered by the hospital. Of the five dimensions responsiveness had the largest difference with assurance and reliability following with no significant differences between them. The demographic information revealed some interesting differences between the groups. Of all the demographic groups the most significant differences were between groups, “patient types” and “types of visit”, which showed differences between private patients and refinery workers and patients who used the hospital only as an outpatient and patients who used both services, outpatient and inpatient. In terms of the managerial implications, it was recommended that Awali hospital look to closing Gaps 1-4 of the SERVQUAL gap model which would result in closing the consumer gap, Gap 5. A process model for continuous measurement and improvement of service quality was recommended that looks at asking questions about how the hospital is performing. By adopting some of the recommendations identified in the research questions, Awali hospital could improve their quality of service, and as a consequence, their customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Healthcare today has become a competitive industry, not only locally, but on a global level as well. In the South African economy the healthcare sector presently offers healthcare seekers two options to satisfy their healthcare needs – either through private business enterprises in the private sector or public enterprises in the public sector. Likewise, in the healthcare sector's hospital environment, patients can receive treatment from either private or public hospitals. As private business enterprises offering a relatively 'pure', but generally unsought-after service, private hospitals compete aggressively to attract patients. Patients are a hospital's lifeblood and they rightfully expect a high standard of customer service throughout the stay. With today's consumers being better informed, more sophisticated and more demanding than in the past, experts agree that the key to survival in the service industry today, almost without exception, is the quality of the service. The cornerstone of the service industry is without doubt the ability to deliver superior service quality that results in customer satisfaction. And the healthcare industry is no exception. Most consumers will experience a need for healthcare services at some time in their lives, but in South Africa, escalating medical costs in general and private hospitals in particular, have made private healthcare increasingly more expensive for the majority of the country's healthcare seekers. This situation raises the question of customer service in the private hospital industry and how patients' perceive service quality and evaluate customer satisfaction after a hospital stay. There is a growing body of empirical evidence from United States studies to show that service quality and customer (patient) satisfaction positively influence patients' behavioural intentions to reuse the hospital or recommend it to others (word-of-mouth endorsements). However, in South Africa, empirical studies to investigate these relationships have not been adequately addressed. This study was therefore an attempt to address the lack of scientific evidence and debate in the area of patient satisfaction. Against this background, the primary objective of this study was to measure patients' perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction with a private hospital experience and to estimate the effect that each of these constructs will have on future behavioural intentions. More specifically, the present study was an attempt to assess empirically the most important dimensions of service quality and transaction-specific customer satisfaction dimensions that drive both patient loyalty and ‘overall’ or cumulative satisfaction in the South African private hospital industry. For the purpose of this study, buying intentions was used as a surrogate measure of loyalty as measured by willingness to reuse the hospital and/or willingness to recommend it to others (word-of-mouth endorsements). Initial exploratory research was conducted with the aim of assessing the views of three private hospital stakeholder groups, namely former patients, doctors and management about what the quality of service and customer satisfaction meant to each individual interviewed. A service enterprise that specialises in patient satisfaction surveys in the US provided particularly useful information during this phase of the study. Several case studies of patient satisfaction programmes, mostly at US hospitals, provided additional insights in this area. The study was conducted nationally at private hospitals owned by one of South Africa's three major hospital groups. Five private hospitals in four major centres were selected on a non-probability convenience basis to participate in the study. The hospital group's senior management and the management at each selected hospital gave their full commitment to ensure that the survey was successfully conducted in their hospital wards. Data were collected by means of a quantitative study using a selfadministered, structured questionnaire. Patients had to meet certain qualifying criteria which included being of adult age, in the hospital for an operation and at least one overnight stay. A total of 3 800 questionnaires was distributed to patients on a random basis in selected wards at the five hospitals by senior hospital staff designated for this task. From this distribution, 425 questionnaires were returned of which a final sample of 323 could be statistically analysed. To confirm the internal reliability of the measuring instrument, Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated for each of the factors identified by the exploratory factor analysis. In order to assess the discriminant validity of the measuring instrument used to measure both service quality and customer satisfaction, the items were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis. The factors that emerged after the exploratory factor analysis were then used as independent variables in the four subsequent multiple regression analyses to assess the study's four hypothesised relationships. The findings revealed that the service quality dimensions that impact positively on both loyalty and cumulative satisfaction are Empathy of nursing staff and Assurance. The customer satisfaction dimensions to impact positively on both loyalty and cumulative satisfaction are Satisfaction with the nursing staff, Satisfaction with meals, and Satisfaction with fees charged.

M.Cur. / A staffing programme does not exist in a private hospital that compiles with the criteria cost effectiveness and quality nursing care. For this reason a study was undertaken to develop a staffing programme that would facilitate cost-effectiveness as well as quality nursing care. The nursing managers' role is not only to maintain cost-effectiveness but also to facilitate wholeness in patients and nursing staff. To achieve wholeness an exploratory. descriptive instrumental study was conducted and the Nursing Theory of Wholeness was used as a foundation for this study. Various research techniques were used such as scheduled observation, a structured questionnaire, nursing audit and a semi structured interviewing technique to quantify results. An analysis was conducted retrospectively to verify the statistical significance of a cost effective staffing programme. A staffing programme was designed consisting of seven steps to provide a basis for validity and reliability of the programme. The staffing programme proved to be cost-effective and proved to be statistically significant and shows a significant difference on a I% significance level (p = <0,003). The most important conclusion made is that valid, reliable staffing programme was designed for a nursing service in the private hospital. The staffing programme proved to be easily comprehended, useful, and relevant to its purpose. Cost-effectiveness was proved. A patient questionnaire was implemented to test the construct quality nursing. Partial validity of the construct quality nursing was confirmed.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Renato Rodrigues Kinouchi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, São Bernardo do Campo, 2018. / O progresso tecnológico traz consigo certa dualidade: por um lado é responsável pelo aumento da produtividade de bens materiais; por outro, submete a vida humana a novos ¿ e por vezes maiores ¿ riscos. Uma vida humana digna depende da possibilidade de autorrealização do indivíduo ¿ e a tecnologia tem historicamente aumentado a prosperidade material necessária para que tenhamos maior liberdade para escolher e construir novas formas de viver. Ponderar os riscos tecnológicos, porém, depende de conhecimentos científicos específicos, os quais não são sabidos pelo público leigo. Como consequência, boa parte da população se vê impedida de opinar sobre os rumos da sociedade da qual faz parte e mesmo privada da autonomia para decidir suas ações. Cada vez mais dependente de conhecimento tecnocientífico, a existência do público leigo passa a se reduzir a seguir os conselhos proferidos pelos especialistas. Nesta pesquisa, tal cenário é discutido sob uma perspectiva filosófica e temática, em formato de argumentação ensaística, baseada na leitura livre e crítica de bibliografia plural e interdisciplinar. / Technological progress brings duality: on the one hand, it is responsible for the increase of productivity of material goods; on the other hand, it subjugates human life by new ¿ and sometimes bigger ¿ risks. Worth living human life depends on the possibility of individual self-fulfillment ¿ and technology historically increased the material prosperity needed to increase our liberty to choose and construct new ways to live. Pondering technological risks, however, depends on specific scientific knowledges, which are unknown by lay public. Therefore, a great part of the population sees themselves impeded to opine about the patches of their own societies and, even more, deprived of the autonomy to decide their own actions. More and more dependent on scientific knowledge, lay public existence is reduced to follow blindly the specialists¿ advices.

The thesis is focused on the establishment of company's e-commerce. Content of the thesis is a detailed market analysis and possible suppliers of solution, security, law and technology. Part of this work is a proposal for the implementation of e-commerce in company. Thesis is also engaged in internet marketing and SEO optimization.

This master´s thesis deals with a legal regulation of expropriation for construction of traffic infrastructure. Basic related terms such as ownership, property, a building, public works etc. are defined in the first part. The second part deals with the historic development of expropriation. The third part discusses the purposes and aims of expropriation, the term “public interest” and harmony of the aims and tasks of zoning. A special part is devoted to the expropriating proceedings, the principles of the expropriating proceedings, the participants of the proceedings etc. The last part deals with the possibility of expropriation for the purpose of construction of traffic infrastructure and the specifics related to this issue.