Connectivity provided by technology and liberation of trade have led to a globalization of organizations, affecting supply chains to expand in complexity. As a result, many organizations today have challenges of managing information in a consistent manner throughout a complex system environment. This study aims to identify the most valuable attributes of a solution for managing master data, in an efficient and consistent manner, across an extended and complex supply chain. Master data, such as products, customers and suppliers, can be defined as valuable core business information, since it is vital for supporting business operations. A requirements elicitation was performed, including interviews conducted internally with employees at IFS and externally with customers. Furthermore, a requirements analysis resulted in a specification of requirements including the most desirable attributes of a future Master Data Management (MDM) solution. Five main themes of the attributes were identified; architecture, availability and integration, governance, user interface and lifecycle management. The study contributes to the area of research, by identifying challenges and valuable attributes to consider when developing or investing in a solution for MDM.

This master’s thesis deals with a total concept of decentralized control system for process control by means of PLC SIMATIC. This concept is demonstrated on a model of a portal crane in the introductory chapter. The second chapter is focused on industrial communication network PROFIBUS. Different types of this network and ways of communication are described. The third chapter is concerned with industrial communication network PROFINET (Industrial Ethernet). Different types of this network and ways of communication techniques are described. The next chapter presents components of Siemens company, which are necessary for creation of demanded control system. The following part describes the programming facilities for STEP 7 programs - Simatic Manager, Micro/WIN and WinCC flexible. It contains creation of the control system including communications on the networks.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Microfinance has undergone a great growth in the last years, bringing consequently the significant increase of the data of the transactions and daily operations, manual processes of cleaning, complexity in IT projects and, in comparison with the traditional bank, a less amount of resources. For this reason, the model must allow the master data to have maintenance processes that reduce manual cleaning activities and contribute to the implementation of technology projects in an agile manner. On the other hand, the research seeks to combine a basic pillar such as Master Data Management (MDM) for the analysis of information with the lean approach, already used in the industry for the operational cost and additionally an evaluation measure prior to this process obtaining the state of the capabilities in the organization. In this way, the result will be that the organization can be previously evaluated and quickly identify which points should be improved to achieve the implementation of MDM initiatives. Likewise, within the research it is concluded that the Peruvian microfinance sector is prepared for the implementation of master data management with a 'proactive' maturity level of 3.46 points.

This thesis deals with the Master Data Management (MDM), specifically its implementation. The main objectives are to analyze and capture the general approaches of MDM implementation including best practices, describe and evaluate the implementation of MDM project using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) realized in the Czech environment and on the basis of the above theoretical background, experiences of implemented project and available technical literature create a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. To achieve objectives above are used these procedures: exploration of information resources (printed, electronic and personal appointments with consultants of Clever Decision), cooperation on project realized by Clever Decision and analysis of tool Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services. Contributions of this work are practically same as its goals. The main contribution is creation of a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first (theoretically oriented) part deals with basic concepts (including definition against other systems), architecture, implementing styles, market trends and best practices. The second (practically oriented) part deals at first with implementation of realized MDS project and hereafter describes a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool.

The domain of distributed simulation is growing rapidly. This growth leads to larger and more complex supporting network architectures with high requirements on availability and reliability. For this purpose, efficient fault-monitoring is required. This work is an attempt to evaluate the viability of an Active probing approach in a distributed simulation system in a wide area network setting. In addition, some effort was directed towards building the probing-software with future extensions in mind. The Active probing approach was implemented and tested against certain performance requirements in a simulated environment. It was concluded that the approach is viable for detecting the health of the network components. However, additional research is required to draw a conclusion about the viability in more complicated scenarios that depend on more than the responsiveness of the nodes. The extensibility of the implemented software was evaluated with the QMOOD-metric and not deemed particularly extensible.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In most developing economies, and in South Africa in particular, students’ perceptions, motives and attitudes towards the Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) have increasingly become a topic of interest to researchers and academics. Given the high number of students registering to study towards an MBA degree each year, this research assignment aimed to investigate and illuminate the perceived impact of an MBA degree from the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) on salary and career advancement. Data was collected through a carefully designed and structured questionnaire. Supplemented by a comprehensive literature review, the study applied descriptive and inferential statistical procedures along with various tools of analysis to analyse the perceived effects of the USB MBA degree on its students’ income and career advancement. The general perception among MBA graduates was that an MBA degree might help them achieve a major breakthrough in their career path and long-term advancement, accompanied by an increase in income. A further perception was that the reputation of an accredited business school would get them rewarding job opportunities at reputable organisations.

This study focused on the testimonios [life narratives] of 33 Mexican American Ph.D.s who successfully navigated educational systems and obtained their doctorates in a variety of disciplines at 15 universities across the United States. The theoretical and methodological frameworks employed were critical race theory (CRT), Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit), and narrative analysis in order to examine power relations, multiple forms of oppression, and the intersections of race, social class, and gender within educational contexts. CRT and LatCrit frameworks were expanded by attending to the experiences of middle class participants and participants who identified as second- or third-generation college students, which challenge traditional paradigms that essentialize Mexican American communities. This study uncovered and contextualized the ways that Mexican American Ph.D.s resisted and reproduced power relations, racism, sexism, and classism through master narratives constructed by the dominant culture to justify low rates of Mexican American educational attainment. The findings suggested that as the dominant culture develops master narratives, Mexican American communities reproduce these stories as well. Mexican American communities also crafted counter-narratives that resisted the master narratives. The dominant culture master narratives were: Mexican American families do not value education; Mexican American women are not allowed to get an education; The dominant culture and Mexican American communities reproduce masculinist ideology; If Mexican Americans would work hard enough and persevere, they can succeed in education; The U.S. is a colorblind, gender-blind, and class-blind society; and Mexican Americans are only in college/graduate school because they are minorities. In addition, Mexican American communities constructed two master narratives in an effort to advocate for educational equity and increase research in Mexican American communities: Mexican Americans must struggle through educational systems and Mexican American Ph.D.s should research Mexican American issues. This study provided a venue for narratives on Mexican American educational attainment that reflected struggle and survival, privilege and merit, as well as overcoming obstacles and not finding any barriers along the way. These narratives have the power to reshape, reframe, and transform discourses of deficiency to those of empowerment and resistance in K-12 education, postsecondary education, and graduate school.

Superconductors are known for carrying very high current density without any loss of energy. This characteristic helps to achieve very high power capacity with compact size of machine. In application of superconductors, the main obstacle has been the cooling of the conductors since it operates at very low temperatures below ambient. After the discovery of high temperature superconductor (HTS) in 1986, several prototype machines have been built using in DC field winding. The application of superconductor in AC armature winding has not been feasible due to excessive AC losses. These losses are caused due to penetration of time varying magnetic field. This thesis concerns the possibility of the application of superconductor in armature windings of permanent magnet synchronous generator. A 10 MW wind power generator with copper winding has been taken as reference machine and the machine has been redesigned with several pole-slot combinations using superconductor. Permanent magnet has been used as the source of field. Three alternatives have been designed with superconductor in armature winding and the machine with 176 poles, 192 slots has been selected as the best among them based upon the active weight of the generator, outer volume, utilization factor, power factor, full load losses, and total harmonic distortion and cogging torque. The selected machine has been found to be 62 ton in weight where as that of reference machine is 90 ton. Moreover, the outer volume of the superconducting machine is about 2.5 times lesser than that of the copper winding reference machine. The reduction in volume of generator will consequently reduce the volume of nacelle and the reduction in weight will reduce the transportation cost. The major reference of comparison has been the utilization factor of the machines which is 110 kN•m/m3 for the proposed superconducting machine whereas that for reference machine has been 44.6 kN•m/m3. The total loss in superconducting machine has not been calculated due to unavailability of actual AC losses in superconductors. Therefore, a tolerable limit of AC losses has been calculated using the losses incurred by the reference machine which is 0.82 mW/A•m at 20 K when a perpendicular AC field of 0.39 T is applied. Normalized AC losses lower than this value will make the superconducting machine to possess lower loss in comparison to reference machine. Some measures to improve the power factor of superconducting machine by increasing the thickness of magnet have also been studied. It has been found that an increase by 20 mm of additional layer of magnet makes the proposed superconducting machine to have better power factor than the reference machine. Hence, the SC machine consumes less reactive power from the grid and needs a smaller power electronic converter in the system. In this work, it has been put forth that permanent magnet synchronous generators with AC superconductors will make a system compact in size and weight provided AC superconductors with lower losses than aforementioned value are manufactured.

In the past decade, the application of adaptive beamforming methods to medical ultrasound imaging has become a field of increased interest, due to their ability to achieve superior ultrasound image quality. Such enhancements, however, come at a high computational cost. This thesis attempts to address the following simple question: Can we maintain a superior image quality while reducing the computational cost of adaptive beamforming? Our goal is to effectively combine low-complexity nonadaptive beamforming, such as the Delay-and-Sum (DAS) technique, with high-complexity adaptive beamforming, such as the Minimum variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) technique, implemented using the Generalized Sidelobe Canceller (GSC), to obtain high-quality images at low computational cost. We propose a simple two-pass beamforming scheme for that purpose. During the first pass, our scheme processes buffered input vectors using the inexpensive DAS method and computes the corresponding envelope. Based on that envelope information, selected outputs may be recomputed during the second pass (to improve beamforming performance) using the expensive GSC beamforming method. The purpose of the first pass is to identify which nonadaptively beamformed outputs can be spared from a heavy computational load of adaptive beamforming taking place in the second pass. We have evaluated our scheme using simulated ultrasound images of a 12-point phantom and a point-scatterer-cyst phantom, achieving substantial threshold-dependent computational savings without significant degradation in image resolution and contrast, compared to pure GSC beamforming. / Graduate / rehoumahichem@gmail.com

This report describes the product development thesis that was conducted as an end project in the Master programme Industrial Design at Jönköping University. The thesis has been about developing, designing and building an ironing board for compact living. The name for the product that has been developed is UNI and it is a multifunctional ironing board which can either be mounted on the wall or hanged over the door. When the ironing board is not in used, it can be folded up and will then act as a mirror. When the ironing board is folded down, parts of the mirrors frame will be folded down and act like a supporting leg for the ironing board. On the inside is shelves and hooks mounted. Here can the owner store small things like keys and jewelleries. To get the best final result, have the design process Bootcamp Bootleg been used. This design process is divided in to five different stages where different methods are used to help with moving the project forward. The CAD-programme SolidWorks 2014 was used to create the CAD-models and the renderings where made in the rendering programme Keyshot 5. The physical model which was made during this thesis, was made in a scale of 1:1. The materials that were used for the model were hard foam, metal, wood, acrylic mirror, wadding and fabric. This thesis has been performed in collaboration with the company Rörets Industrier AB located in Jönköping, Sweden. / Denna rapport beskriver examensarbete inom produktutveckling som gjordes som det slutliga projektet på Master programmet Industrial Design på Jönköpings universitet. Detta examensarbete har handlat om att utveckla, formge och bygga en strykbräda för compact living. Namnet på den produkt som blivit utvecklad är UNI och det är en multifunktionell strykbräda som kan monteras på en vägg eller hängas över en dörr. När strykbrädan inte används, kan den fällas upp och användas som en spegel. När strykbrädan är nedfälld kommer delar av spegels ram att fällas ner och fungera som ett stöttande ben. På insidan finns de hyllor och krokar monterat. Här kan ägaren förvara små föremål som nycklar eller smycken. För att få ett så bra resultat som möjligt, har design processen Bootcamp Bootleg använts. Denna process är uppdelad i fem olika steg där man använder olika metoder för att föra projektet framåt. CAD-programmet SolidWorks 2014 har använts för att skapa CAD-modellerna och renderingarna har gjorts i renderingsprogrammet Keyshot 5. Den fysiska modellen som gjorts under examensarbete, har gjorts i skala 1:1. Materialen som använts i vid bygget av modellen var hårt skum, metall, trä, spegelglas och tyg. Detta examensarbete har gjorts i samarbete med företaget Rörets Industrier AB lokaliserat i Jönköping, Sverige