Business Process Improvement (BPI) is a challenge for most companies facing challenges in finding temporary solutions to immediate problems. An increased intertwining between the digital and the physical world leads to new ways of customer interaction. Today's digitalized society placing high demands on the digitalization of companies and insurance companies is no exception. The insurance industry is considered behind for what is required for digitization leading to unnecessarily long processing times and arbitrary assessments. A digital solution for insurance management is expected to reduce processing times and be more in line with customers' expectations. The purpose of the work is to evaluate how process improvements in claims management can be achieved via a digital customer portal. The research includes a case study at a well-established insurance company where a current situation of a claims process is mapped and evaluated through interviews and workshops. A prototype of a digital customer portal is developed and evaluated in a theoretical applicability test. Important factors for BPI are developed with the help of previous research and the study's result analyzes based on these factors. The primary result showed that BPI were generated via the digital customer portal through the factors lead times, automation, bottlenecks, quality assurance of information and value creation. Thus, the customer portal proved to be a theoretical way of being able to live up to customers' expectations of digitalization, contribute with competitiveness, customer loyalty and improved customer experience and customer service. Finally, companies can acquire knowledge about the importance of customer centering and the development of digital customer portals for BPI and which factors to consider for BPI. / Förbättring av affärsprocesser (eng. Business Process Improvement, BPI) är en utmaning för de flesta företag som ständigt står inför utmaningen att hitta tillfälliga lösningar på omedelbara problem. En ökad sammanflätning mellan den digitala och den fysiska världen leder till nya sätt för kundinteraktion. Dagens digitaliserade samhälle ställer höga krav på digitaliseringen hos företag och försäkringsbolagen är inget undantag. Försäkringsbranschen anses ligga efter vad gäller digitalisering vilket kan leda till onödigt långa handläggningstider och godtyckliga bedömningar. En digital lösning för försäkringshandläggning förväntas kunna effektivisera handläggningstider och leva upp till kundernas förväntningar. Syftet med arbetet är att utvärdera hur processförbättringar inom försäkringshandläggning kan uppnås via en digital kundportal. Arbetet omfattar en fallstudie på ett väletablerat försäkringsbolag där ett nuläge av en skadeprocess kartläggs för att sedan utvärderas genom intervjuer och workshops. En prototyp av en digital kundportal utvecklas och utvärderas i ett teoretiskt applicerbarhetstest. Viktiga faktorer för BPI tas fram med hjälp av tidigare forskning och studiens resultat analyseras utifrån dessa faktorer. Det primära resultatet var att BPI förväntades kunna uppnås via den digitala kundportalen med hänsyn till faktorerna ledtider, automatisering, flaskhalsar, kvalitetssäkring av information samt värdeskapande. Kundportalen visade sig också teoretiskt sätt kunna leva upp till kundernas förväntan av digitalisering, bidra med konkurrenskraft, kundlojalitet samt förbättrad kundupplevelse och kundservice. Avslutningsvis kan företag utifrån arbetet inhämta kunskap om kundcentreringens och utvecklingen av digitala kundportalers betydelse för BPI samt vilka faktorer att ta hänsyn till vid BPI.

It is about a new building, Free times activits center 3710/3 in a catastral Pardubice 717657. The building has two floors, withount any cellar. The structure system of walls is bassed on the basse passes. Horizontal structures are made from prestessed panels. The roof is flat, only one – coated. Floors are hooked uz by concrete stairs and by lift.

La résolution des pronoms est le processus par lequel un pronom anaphorique est mis en relation avec son antécédent. Les humains en sont capables sans efforts notables en situation normale. En revanche, les systèmes automatiques ont une performance qui reste loin derrière, malgré des algorithmes de plus en plus sophistiqués, développés par la communauté du Traitement Automatique des Langues. La recherche en psycholinguistique a montré à travers des expériences qu'au cours de la résolution de nombreux facteurs sont pris en compte par les locuteurs. Une question importante se pose : comment les facteurs interagissent et quel poids faut-il attribuer à chacun d'entre eux ? Une deuxième question qui se pose alors est comment les théories linguistiques de la résolution des pronoms incorporent tous les facteurs. Nous proposons une nouvelle approche à ces problématiques : la simulation computationnelle de la charge cognitive de la résolution des pronoms. La motivation pour notre approche est double : d'une part, l'implémentation d'hypothèses par un système computationnel permet de mieux spécifier les théories, d’autre part, les systèmes automatiques peuvent faire des prédictions sur des données naturelles comme les corpus de mouvement oculaires. De cette façon, les modèles computationnels représentent une alternative aux expériences classiques avec des items expérimentaux construits manuellement. Nous avons fait plusieurs expériences afin d'explorer les modèles cognitifs computationnels de la résolution des pronoms. D'abord, nous avons simulé la charge cognitive des pronoms en utilisant des poids de facteurs de résolution appris sur corpus. Ensuite, nous avons testé si les concepts de la Théorie de l’Information sont pertinents pour prédire la charge cognitive des pronoms. Finalement, nous avons procédé à l’évaluation d’un modèle psycholinguistique sur des données issues d’un corpus enrichi de mouvements oculaires. Les résultats de nos expériences montrent que la résolution des pronoms est en effet multi-factorielle et que l’influence des facteurs peut être estimée sur corpus. Nos résultats montrent aussi que des concepts de la Théorie de l’Information sont pertinents pour la modélisation des pronoms. Nous concluons que l’évaluation des théories sur des données de corpus peut jouer un rôle important dans le développement de ces théories et ainsi amener dans le futur à une meilleure prise en compte du contexte discursif. / Pronoun resolution is the process in which an anaphoric pronoun is linked to its antecedent. In a normal situation, humans do not experience much cognitive effort due to this process. However, automatic systems perform far from human accuracy, despite the efforts made by the Natural Language Processing community. Experimental research in the field of psycholinguistics has shown that during pronoun resolution many linguistic factors are taken into account by speakers. An important question is thus how much influence each of these factors has and how the factors interact with each-other. A second question is how linguistic theories about pronoun resolution can incorporate all relevant factors. In this thesis, we propose a new approach to answer these questions: computational simulation of the cognitive load of pronoun resolution. The motivation for this approach is two-fold. On the one hand, implementing hypotheses about pronoun resolution in a computational system leads to a more precise formulation of theories. On the other hand, robust computational systems can be run on uncontrolled data such as eye movement corpora and thus provide an alternative to hand-constructed experimental material. In this thesis, we conducted various experiments. First, we simulated the cognitive load of pronouns by learning the magnitude of impact of various factors on corpus data. Second, we tested whether concepts from Information Theory were relevant to predict the cognitive load of pronoun resolution. Finally, we evaluated a theoretical model of pronoun resolution on a corpus enriched with eye movement data. Our research shows that multiple factors play a role in pronoun resolution and that their influence can be estimated on corpus data. We also demonstrate that the concepts of Information Theory play a role in pronoun resolution. We conclude that the evaluation of hypotheses on corpus data enriched with cognitive data ---- such as eye movement data --- play an important role in the development and evaluation of theories. We expect that corpus based methods will lead to a better modelling of the influence of discourse structure on pronoun resolution in future work.

The Diploma thesis "Prophetic model of catechesis as a response to the questions of our time" examines the theme of the historical-prophetic model of catechesis. The study part of the work looks at the model in the context of the biblical concept of prophecy consummated in the personality of Jesus of Nazareth and as one of the manifestations of the participation of those baptised in Christ's prophetic office, realised in the evangelical mission of the Church. His sensitivity to social challenges, the emphasis laid on small Christian communities, and the entitlement to Christian engagement are viewed within the scope of the Social Doctrine of the Church and its development after the Second Vatican Council. The authorial part of the work presents original catechesis to the current social topic, read through the prism of gospel and Christian belief. The objective of the work is to show how the historical-prophetic model of catechesis can help adult believers understand the "signs of the times" and contribute to the growth of Christian community. The objective is to be achieved by submitting the topic to the members of two small communities and evaluating the results of the meeting.

In this article a Novikov engine with fluctuating hot heat bath temperature is presented. Based on this model, the performance measure maximum expected power as well as the corresponding efficiency and entropy production rate is investigated for four different stationary distributions: continuous uniform, normal, triangle, quadratic, and Pareto. It is found that the performance measures increase monotonously with increasing expectation value and increasing standard deviation of the distributions. Additionally, we show that the distribution has only little influence on the performance measures for small standard deviations. For larger values of the standard deviation, the performance measures in the case of the Pareto distribution are significantly different compared to the other distributions. These observations are explained by a comparison of the Taylor expansions in terms of the distributions’ standard deviations. For the considered symmetric distributions, an extension of the well known Curzon–Ahlborn efficiency to a stochastic Novikov engine is given.

Die Arbeit versucht hauptsächlich basierend auf Grundlage der (Keramik-) Funde eine chronologische Abfolge der mittelalterlichen Besiedlung des Cottbuser Altstadtviertels im Bereich Spremberger-, Schlosskirch- und Burgstraße zu erstellen. Dabei lässt sich eine Besiedlung dieses Viertels in Stadtrandlage und eine Einbeziehung in die Stadtplanung seit dem ersten Drittel des 13. Jahrhunderts belegen. Aufgrund des Stadtbaues am Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts kommt, neueren Forschungen zur Landesgeschichte folgend, noch Konrad von Landsberg als Gründungsinitiator der größten Stadt der Niederlausitz in Frage. Die meist ebenerdigen Besiedlungsstrukturen des 13. Jahrhunderts haben sich nur partiell erhalten und lassen daher die Unterscheidung bestimmter Nutzungsareale bzw. Parzelleneinteilungen und Strukturen nur eingeschränkt zu. Erst ab dem 14. Jahrhundert liegen sichere Hinweise auf eine ältere Parzellenstruktur und Nutzung der Areale vor. Es zeichnet sich eine Vorderhausbebauung mit Seitenflügeln ab, von denen nur noch die Kellerbauten zeugen. Im Hofbereich fanden sich Brunnenanlagen zur Wasserversorgung der Grundstücke. Der Entsorgung dienten zahlreiche Latrinenbauten am hinteren Grundstücksrand. Das umfangreiche Fundmaterial aus diesen Befunden gibt einen umfangreichen Einblick in einen spätmittelalterlichen Haushalt am Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts. Die neuzeitlichen Funde und Befunde wurden nicht nur aufgrund der zunehmenden schriftlichen Überlieferung dieses Viertels nur noch punktuell erfasst. Bereits die archäologischen Untersuchungen konzentrierten sich hauptsächlich auf die mittelalterlichen Strukturen. Eine Versteinerung dieses Stadtviertels setzte erst im 16. Jahrhundert ein. Die nicht erfolgte Wiederbebauung nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg, die teilweise bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts anhielt, ermöglichte die gute Erhaltung der älteren mittelalterlichen Baustrukturen im Boden. / Mainly based on pottery and other finds, this doctoral thesis tries to establish a chronology of the medieval settlement of the Cottbus old town quarter in the area between Spremberger Strasse, Schlosskirchstrasse and Burgstrasse This approach proves a settlement of the quarter at the town periphery and its inclusion into urban planing since the first third of the 13th century. Following recent research in regional history, the city construction at the beginning of the 13th century might indicate to Konrad von Landsberg as a founding initiator of the largest town in Lower Lusatia. The mostly ground level building structures of the 13th century have been preserved only partially. Therefore, a distinction of certain activity zones as well as of plots and structures is possible only to a limited extend. Reliable indications of an older plot structure and the usage of areas do not exist until the 14th century. Buildings are characterized by a front house with side wings of which only the cellars have been preserved. Wells for the water supply of the plots were found in the yard area. Numerous latrine buildings on the rear edge of the plot served for disposal. Of outstanding importance are the findings of the buildings that were destroyed by one or more city fires (probably that of 1478). The extensive archaeological material of these findings provides a comprehensive insight into a late medieval household at the end of the 15th century. Modern finds and findings were recorded only occasionally, not only because of the increasing written tradition. Already the archaeological investigations focused mainly on the medieval structures. Stone buildings did not exist in this area until the 16th century. As the place was not rebuild after the Thirty Years' War, what partially continued until the beginning of the 18th century, the older medieval structures have been well preserved in the soil.

Stimuli-responsive (stimuli-sensitive, intelligent, or smart) polymers are polymer materials which, after small external stimuli, evidently change their physical or chemical properties. Smart polymers can be classified according stimuli they respond to such as: temperature changes, mechanical stress, light irradiation, ultrasonic treatment, application of external magnetic as well as electric field, changes of pH, ionic strength, addition of the chemical agents and presence of biomolecules and bioactive molecules. Stimuli-responsive synthetic polymer systems has attracted considerable attention due to wide range of applications, i.e. controlled drug delivery and release systems, diagnostics, tissue engineering and 'smart' optical systems, as well as biosensors, microelectromechanical systems, coatings, and textiles. Among the types of stimuli for this dissertation temperature, pH and reactive oxygen species (ROS) responsive polymer systems were studied. In case of thermoresponsive polymers, when polymer chains are molecularly dissolved in a good solvent, changes (increasing or decreasing) of temperature result in insolubility (globular nanoparticles formation) of polymer chains, called temperature induced phase-separation. pH responsive polymers change properties such as: solubility, volume (gels),...

Tillämpning av instrument vid utövande av explosiva idrottsgrenar, för att mäta en atlets kraftproduktion, kan användas vid analys för att fastställa hur bra en atlet presterar. Dessa typer av instrument finns på marknaden och är oftast tillämpade för sprintstarter och har funktionen att man kanfånga en atlet på film och koppla en händelse till det data som hämtats in via instrumentet. Nackdelenmed dessa system är att de antingen är väldigt dyra eller är i avsaknaden av att vara smidiga ochportabla då de oftast levereras med mycket kringutrustning.Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utveckla ett system bestående av en mobilapplikation, samtlogik till en mikrokontroll som registrerar den horisontella kraften vid sprintstarter från en analogkälla. Insamlade data beräknas och skickas sedan med hjälp av BLE-kommunikation till mobilapplikationen som presenterar kraftdata för användaren.Utöver detta var syftet även att få inhämtad kraftdata tidssynkroniserad mot en mobil enhet för attgöra det möjligt att utvärdera händelser mot externa källor som IMU och höghastighetsfilm.Resultatet av arbetet visar att det är möjligt att hämta samplade kraftdata från en mikrokontroll viaBLE-kommunikation. Det går även att presentera beräknade kraftdata visuellt för en slutanvändaremed en mobilapplikation och få händelserna tidssynkroniserade med hjälp av tidssynkroniseringsalgoritmer. Resultaten kan emellertid förbättras genom fortsatt utveckling av detta system. / The application of instruments in the practice of explosive sports, to measure an athlete's force production, can be used to determine how well an athlete performs. Present instruments on the marketare most often applied to sprint starts and function to capture an athlete on film, and link the eventto the data retrieved from the instrument. The disadvantages with present day systems are that theyare either too expensive or lack flexibility and portability as they are usually delivered with a lot ofperipherals.The purpose of this thesis was to develop a system of a mobile application and logical code to a microcontroller that register horizontal forces at sprint starts from an analog source. The collected datawas calculated and transmitted using BLE communication to the mobile application which presentsthe force data to the user.Moreover, the purpose was also to have the acquired force data time-synchronized with a mobile device to make it possible to evaluate events against external sources such as IMU and high-speed film.The result for the logic developed throughout this work demonstrate that it is possible to retrievesampled force data from a microcontroller via BLE communication. It was possible to present thecalculated force data visually to an end user with a mobile application and have the events time synchronized using time synchronization algorithms. However, the results can be further improved bydevelopment of the system.

Le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire auprès des infirmières dans le secteur de la santé du Québec est une pratique qui est de plus en plus dénoncée à travers les médias par les infirmières et par les acteurs syndicaux. Le contexte politique et socio-économique dans lequel évolue le système public de la santé influence grandement son fonctionnement. Plusieurs réformes du secteur de la santé ont vu le jour au fil des années, ce qui a eu pour effet de modifier sa structure et par le fait même, d’amener d’importants changements au niveau de l’organisation du travail des infirmières et de l’aménagement des temps de travail. Cette recherche tente de répondre à la question de recherche suivante : quelle est l’influence des modes d’organisation du travail et de l’aménagement des temps de travail sur le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire auprès des infirmières? La comparaison de deux centres hospitaliers permettra de comprendre pour quelles raisons certains établissements ont plus souvent recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire que d’autres. Ainsi, cette recherche permettra de comprendre quels modes d’organisation du travail ou de gestion des temps de travail ont des effets plus significatifs sur le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire. Plusieurs études traitent des effets qu’entraine l’usage du temps supplémentaire obligatoire sur le travail infirmier, mais peu d’études traitent des raisons expliquant le recours à celui-ci. Ainsi, la réalisation de cette recherche contribue à l’état des connaissances concernant les pratiques entourant le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire auprès des infirmières. Pour ce faire, nous avons réalisé une recherche qualitative, soit une étude de cas, comparant les pratiques organisationnelles de deux centres hospitaliers. Les données empiriques proviennent d’une étude documentaire et de huit entretiens semi-dirigés que nous avons réalisés auprès d’interlocuteurs syndicaux et de gestionnaires du secteur de la santé. Les résultats permettent de constater qu’il y a des différences au niveau de l’organisation du travail et de l’aménagement des temps de travail entre les deux centres hospitaliers à l’étude et que ces différences ont une influence sur le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire. Certaines caractéristiques des modes d’organisation du travail ont tendance à favoriser le recours au temps supplémentaire : le taux élevé d’emploi à temps partiel chez les infirmières, la composition de l’équipe de soins, le type de quarts de travail (jour, soir, nuit), la philosophie de gestion et la culture de l’établissement. Les résultats obtenus montrent que l’aménagement des temps de travail a aussi une influence sur le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire. Plus les infirmières ont une perte de contrôle sur leur temps de travail, c’est-à-dire des horaires imprévisibles et peu flexibles, plus le recours au temps supplémentaire s’accroît. Enfin, les résultats suggèrent que plus les horaires de travail sont atypiques, plus le lien entre les modes d’organisation du travail et le recours au temps supplémentaire obligatoire est fort. / Resorting to mandatory overtime for nurses in the healthcare sector of Quebec is a practice that is increasingly denounced in the media by nurses and trade union actors. The political and socio-economic context in which the public healthcare system evolves greatly influences the way it functions. As a result, several reforms of the healthcare sector have emerged over the years, which have resulted in the modification of its structure and, consequently, significant changes in the organisation of the nurses’ labour and planning of working times. In fact, this research attempts to answer a research question that focuses on the influence that the modes of organisation of labour and planning of working times have had on the resort to mandatory overtime for nurses. Furthermore, the comparison of two hospitals will allow us to understand for which reasons certain establishments resort more often to mandatory overtime than others. Thus, this research will allow us to understand which modes of organisation of labour and how the management of working times have more significant effects than others on the resort to mandatory overtime. Many studies cover the effects entailed by the use of mandatory overtime on nursing work, while few studies cover the practices surrounding it. Thus, the production of this research contributes to the state of knowledge concerning the practices surrounding the resort to mandatory overtime for nurses. To accomplish this, we conducted a qualitative research, a case study, comparing the organizational practices of two hospitals. The empirical data arises from eight semi-directed interviews that we conducted with trade union interlocutors and managers of the healthcare sector. The results show that there are differences in the organisation of labour and the planning of working times of the two studied hospitals, which have an influence on the resort to mandatory overtime. Some elements of the modes of organisation of labour have a tendency to increase the resort to overtime: Elevated part-time employment rate amongst nurses, the composition of the healthcare team, the type of working shifts (day, evening, night), the identity of the manager, and the culture of the establishment. Furthermore, the obtained results show that the planning of working times also has an influence on the resort to mandatory overtime. The more nurses experience a loss of control on their working time, that is to say unpredictable and hardly flexible schedules, the more the resort to overtime increases. Finally, the results suggest that the more the work schedules are atypical, the stronger is the link between the modes of organisation of labour and the resort to mandatory overtime.

Johan Adam Heyns is probably the most productive and noteworthy Afrikaans theologian of the twentieth century, born in South Africa. He was a real pioneer in his field. It is a well known fact that the kingdom of God played a vital role in all of his work. In fact, he used it as a systematic-theological category, which flows like a perennial river of opportunity, consistently through all of his writings. It gave him the opportunity to be consistent in both his systematic theology and in his ethics. Heyns used the kingdom of God as a systematic-theological category to show clearly how man and God can be co-workers in this world in a dialogical relationship. This relationship, of which God is the initiator, are characterised by the covenant between God, the Father-King, and man, the obedient child-servant. He also used the opportunity to integrate his love for philosophy with his love for theology. This integration opened up a wide spectrum of thoughts, ideas and meanings which he could scientifically analyze, explore, connect and merge together systematically. His contact with Stoker and their shared Calvinistic worldview as well as their shared Afrikaans culture and Christian religion, together with the influence of amongst others Du Toit and Snyman, Oberholzer, Vollenhoven, Barth, Brunner and Berkouwer, laid the foundation for his frame of reference. Unfortunately there was philosophical flooding from time to time, because it caused him to fill the kingdom of God with philosophical concepts which allowed him to think of the kingdom of God as an ontological cosmic-universal entity. His philosophical background and connection also leads to some inadequate speculations in his theology and especially in his eschatology. Inadmissibly he didn’t always use the Bible appropriately, although his doctrine of Scripture and hermeneutics were satisfactory. Heyns could have explored the important part which prayer must play in theology more thoroughly. But he did pioneer’s work in Dogmatics and Ethics in Afrikaans and as an ecumenist and church leader, which we must really appreciate. Lastly his philosophical modus operandi also had a positive side. It helped him to differentiate between important theological concepts. Heyns distinguished between the rule of God and the kingdom of God, as well as between the realisation of the kingdom of God and the eschatological fulfilment of God’s kingdom. These differentiations were tested on some theological problems, including the question whether the kingdom of God is really an ontological entity, the Theodicy problem and the “Nah-erwartung” problem. It was found that these differentiations, when used consistently, have valuable theological problem solving abilities. Although Heyns perhaps didn’t realise this, and he weren’t consistent in the use of these differentiations, he must be credited for identifying and clarifying them. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted