Este trabalho aborda a dinâmica do movimento em favor da responsabilidade social corporativa, avaliando a efetividade do Balanço Social, a partir do modelo apresentado pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas, como instrumento de divulgação e mensuração das políticas de Responsabilidade Social em organizações brasileiras. Utilizando a pesquisa bibliográfica como eixo central de pesquisa, apresenta o cenário por onde transitam as organizações em busca de práticas que as tornem reconhecidas como organizações responsáveis. / This job approaches the dynamics of the movement in favor of the corporative social responsibility, evaluating the effectiveness of the Social Rocking, from the model presented for the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses, as instrument of disclosing and spreading of the politics of Social Responsibility in Brazilian organizations. Using the bibliographical research as central axle of research, it presents the scene for where transit the organizations in search of practical that they become them recognized as responsible organizations.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-07-22T15:02:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FabioDeSousaLeal_DISSERT.pdf: 4632537 bytes, checksum: e73b6f4fa9d420fff9ac92bcd734f16b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-07-26T22:20:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FabioDeSousaLeal_DISSERT.pdf: 4632537 bytes, checksum: e73b6f4fa9d420fff9ac92bcd734f16b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-26T22:20:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FabioDeSousaLeal_DISSERT.pdf: 4632537 bytes, checksum: e73b6f4fa9d420fff9ac92bcd734f16b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Engenharia de Software Baseada em Componentes (CBSE) e Arquitetura Orientada a Servi?os (SOA) tornaram-se formas populares de se desenvolver software nos ?ltimos anos. Durante o ciclo de vida de um software, v?rios componentes e servi?os podem ser desenvolvidos, evolu?dos e substitu?dos. Em ambientes de produ??o, a substitui??o de componentes essenciais - como os que envolvem bancos de dados - ? uma opera??o delicada, onde v?rias restri??es e stakeholders devem ser considerados. Service-Level agreement (acordo de n?vel de servi?o - SLA), de acordo com o gloss?rio oficial da ITIL v3 , ? ?um acordo entre um provedor de servi?o de TI e um cliente. O acordo consiste em um conjunto de restri??es mensur?veis que um prestador de servi?os deve garantir aos seus clientes.?. Em termos pr?ticos, um SLA ? um documento que um prestador de servi?o oferece aos seus consumidores garantindo n?veis m?nimos de qualidade de servi?o (QoS). Este trabalho busca avaliar a utiliza??o de SLAs para guiar o processo de transi??o de bancos de dados em ambientes de produ??o. Em particular, propomos um conjunto de guidelines baseados em SLAs para apoiar decis?es migra??es de bancos de dados relacionais (RDBMS) para bancos NoSQL. Nosso trabalho ? validado por estudos de caso. / Component-based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) became popular ways to develop software over the last years. During the life-cycle of a software system, several components and services can be developed, evolved and replaced. In production environments, the replacement of core components, such as databases, is often a risky and delicate operation, where several factors and stakeholders should be considered. Service Level Agreement (SLA), according to ITILv3?s official glossary, is ?an agreement between an IT service provider and a customer. The agreement consists on a set of measurable constraints that a service provider must guarantee to its customers.?. In practical terms, SLA is a document that a service provider delivers to its consumers with minimum quality of service (QoS) metrics.This work is intended to assesses and improve the use of SLAs to guide the transitioning process of databases on production environments. In particular, in this work we propose SLA-Based Guidelines/Process to support migrations from a relational database management system (RDBMS) to a NoSQL one. Our study is validated by case studies.

Using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the current study examines Saudi students’ perspectives, coupled with EAL instructors’ views, regarding Saudi students’ English language-learning needs. Two data collection tools were used, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study (N = 172) included samples of EAL learners (n = 127) and EAL instructors (n = 45) both in Saudi Arabia and Canada, Victoria. The mismatch between the skills identified as important and areas identified as needing support by the learners, in addition to the divergence between learners’ and instructors’ perceptions, underscores the necessity of triangulation when using needs analysis to discover language-learning needs. The study delineates oral communication (i.e., being able to interact by using the language appropriately and efficiently) as a language-learning need identified by both Saudi students and their language instructors. Quantitative (skill ratings) and qualitative (responses to open-ended questions and interviews) data suggest that both students and instructors view writing as a challenging area for Saudi English-language learners. The results also indicate issues that contribute to the challenges faced by Saudis in the process of learning English. Findings show the importance of educational background and cultural differences in the students’ language development. Responses report that reading is devalued in the Saudi educational system and Saudi culture in general. Hence, both Saudi students and instructors in Canada pinpointed reading as an area needing support. Based on the key findings, it is evident that the language-learning needs of Saudi students are shaped according to the requirements of their immediate study context and their prospective goals. The study contributes crucial findings about participants’ perceptions of the importance of skills and their assessment of skills status in Saudi Arabia and Canada. In addition to the implications for English language learning in Saudi Arabia, these findings can be informative for educational institutions and practitioners in the English-speaking world. Most importantly, the multi-level analysis confirms that language learning needs are context-specific. / Graduate

This is a case study focusing on the effects of extensive reading. The study mainly deals with grammatical development and the relationship between input and output, but it also discusses learning strategies. The study aimed to answer the following question: To what extent, and in what ways, does extensive reading affect output and grammatical performance? The essay analyses the grammatical performance of a Spanish speaking PhD student in chemistry, whose main exposure to English was scientific literature during the study period. Accuracy tests were used in combination with free writing. The study did not find any direct, unquestionable relationship between extensive reading and grammatical development. Instead it shows the difficulty of separating input and output. However, the study indicates that output may be an effective tool for improving grammatical performance and that some focus on form may be necessary, at least for the grammatical development of adults. Furthermore, the study indicates that teaching may influence grammatical performance and, therefore, the presentation of grammar needs to be carefully considered.

Uppsatsen har undersökt kinesiska läroböcker för det internationella engelskaprovet IELTS. Läroböckerna har analyserats enligt ett kodningschema och teorier inom SLA (Second Language Acquisition). Uppsatsens resultat visar att de kinesiska läroböckerna inte följde SLA:s rekommendationer för optimal inlärning av främmande språk och lämnar därför stort utrymme för förbättring.

This paper is a study within the general area of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), focusing on second language learning in formal (class room) settings. The main questions discussed in this essay are firstly, whether social factors matter while learning a second language, secondly, to what extent attitudes towards the second language matter and thirdly, what attitudes students actually have towards studying a second language. The paper compares both students and teachers in the UK and Sweden. To be able to make this comparison I travelled to the UK and followed a class at the University of Wolverhampton that study Swedish. This paper has benefited from both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative part consists of a questionnaire that was handed out to the students in both England and Sweden. For the qualitative part of my research I made use of the structured interview form, which is a method that has a compact nest of questions and where the sequence of questions is decided before the interview. I interviewed two students and one teacher in each of the countries that this paper covers. The social factors that this paper recognises are age, gender, social class and ethnic identity. Furthermore, the essay examines the impact of students’ motivation and attitudes while studying and learning a new language. It has been demonstrated that motivation has a major role to play while learning a second language. It can be argued that the more motivated students are the more and better they will learn. According the students in question their opinions are that you have to have a good teacher while learning languages, i.e. a teacher that can encourage you and make you develop. On the other hand the teachers in question said that the students must be interested in learning second languages otherwise it is pointless since they will not develop. The findings of the present paper are analysed in the light of previous research published in this field.

Autorizado por el autor, pero con restricción para ser publicada a texto completo hasta el año 2015 / El Centro de Modelamiento Matemático de la Universidad de Chile (CMM), en conjunto con HP Labs de Palo Alto, California, ha realizado dos trabajos de investigación para desarrollar aplicaciones de teoría de juegos al modelamiento de diseño y negociación de contratos, para la industria de tecnologías de información. Este trabajo corresponde a un siguiente eslabón en la cadena de investigación, donde luego de entender su potencial de aplicación en otras industrias, la importancia del contexto de servicios business-to-business y aceptar como un desafío el aceleramiento del uso de estas aplicaciones, se ha trabajado en el mejoramiento de la estimación de la función utilidad de los clientes del servicio, basándose en el acercamiento a ellos y la comprensión del valor que el servicio les genera. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo general, por lo tanto, proponer y aplicar una metodología para el enriquecimiento de funciones utilidad para modelos matemáticos de negociación de contratos basándose en conceptos de marketing business-to-business. En una primera etapa, se revisan diversos aspectos del contexto tales como teoría de juegos, teoría de contratos, marketing business-to-business, industrias de outsourcing y Cloud Computing. Luego, se propone una metodología para el cálculo de funciones utilidad de los clientes basado en el “valor” y su aplicación en los modelos matemáticos. Esta metodología se aplica posteriormente en un servicio que posee las características de Cloud Computing, disponible en el mercado local, trabajando en conjunto con un proveedor de servicios nacional. La metodología propuesta consta de cinco etapas: análisis de entorno, estudio del cliente, definición de métricas de desempeño, estimación de la utilidad y aplicación al modelo matemático. Estas etapas son descritas y posteriormente aplicadas a un servicio de mensajería corporativa de QUINTEC, cuyos contratos corresponden a SLA’s (Service Level Agreements). Siguiendo la metodología, se estiman finalmente funciones utilidad basadas en el valor agregado al cliente y capaces de ser aplicadas a un modelo de negociación y generando valor a QUINTEC en el entendimiento del valor al cliente para sus servicios. Este trabajo representa una aplicación inédita del “valor” en la estimación de funciones utilidad para modelos matemáticos de negociación de contratos, capaz de obtener resultados concretos a partir del estudio de los clientes, estableciendo una metodología clara y replicable para tal efecto. Además, posee la potencialidad de ser aplicada para la investigación de contratos en otras industrias, como es el caso de contratos de la industria minera.

Due to the increasing economical significance of information services the thesis attempts to map possible payments models (revenue streams) and compile relevant selection criteria. First part is therefore dedicated to clarify the very basic terms, such as general and information service, followed by a description of web services as an implementation of their particular subset. This somewhat more technically and technologically oriented chapter covers standards as XML-RPC, SOAP, REST, WSDL and UDDI. Next part's goal is to explore the most important non-functional aspects of information services operation, including QoS and security, guaranteed by outlined SLA contracts. To meet these requirements, additional infrastructure components are needed, such as an identity management, monitoring, metering and accounting. Different pricing strategies, involving differentiation and bundling, are followed by an analysis of possible payment models themselves, divided to both revenue (transactional, subscription, register, licensing, one-time) and non-revenue (provider-supported, advertisement, freemium) based. Covered models are briefly described and their advantages and disadvantages proposed, as well as their infrastructure prerequisites and key metrics. The final chapter compiles relevant selection criteria and uses them to compare the chosen models, so that providers are given a guide when dealing with a service pricing.

This diploma thesis engages with methodologies of managing processes in informatics. This thesis takes into account ITIL, COBIT and ITGPM frameworks considering primarily aspects of setting-up and ensuring SLAs of the services provided by informatics. The author of this thesis has chosen this topic with regards to his profession where as project manager has met typical problems related to the development as well as to the operation of information systems. The goal of this work is to find out what is the approach of each of the considered methodologies to SLAs and their fulfilment. In the second part the thesis is aimed in practical impact of SLAs to the development and operation phases of the service lifecycle. In the first part of the thesis, the given objectives are met on a theoretical level, where is for each of the selected methodological frameworks captured its approach to the issues related to an information service operation, its parameters and their ensuring. Next goal, still on theoretical level, is to find out, whether the individual methodologies (approaches) can be combined together in order to reach the needed quality of a service. In its second part is the thesis aimed on practical analysis of the SLA impact on the development and operational activities. As an example, the author describes necessary adjustments to the processes of both, the provider and the customer of any informatics service, beginning from the initial analytical phases to the live mode of the service. The practical part combines approaches of the given frameworks and adds author's experiences gained in the domain. In the end of the thesis, findings and conclusions resulting from the captured facts are briefly summarized, including the author's opinion and recommendations.

The assurance of Quality of Service (QoS) to the applications, although identified as a key feature since long ago [1], is one of the fundamental challenges that remain unsolved. In the Cloud Computing context, Quality of Service is defined as the measure of the compliance of certain user requirement in the delivery of a cloud resource, such as CPU or memory load for a virtual machine, or more abstract and higher level concepts such as response time or availability. Several research groups, both from academia and industry, have started working on describing the QoS levels that define the conditions under which the service need to be delivered, as well as on developing the necessary means to effectively manage and evaluate the state of these conditions. [2] propose Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as the vehicle for the definition of QoS guarantees, and the provision and management of resources. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal contract between providers and consumers, which defines the quality of service, the obligations and the guarantees in the delivery of a specific good. In the context of Cloud computing, SLAs are considered to be machine readable documents, which are automatically managed by the provider's platform. SLAs need to be dynamically adapted to the variable conditions of resources and applications. In a multilayer architecture, different parts of an SLA may refer to different resources. SLAs may therefore express complex relationship between entities in a changing environment, and be applied to resource selection to implement intelligent scheduling algorithms. Therefore SLAs are widely regarded as a key feature for the future development of Cloud platforms. However, the application of SLAs for Grid and Cloud systems has many open research lines. One of these challenges, the modeling of the landscape, lies at the core of the objectives of the Ph. D. Thesis. / García García, A. (2014). SLA-Driven Cloud Computing Domain Representation and Management [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/36579 / TESIS