This master thesis discusses the possibilities of education of women managers/entrepreneurs. The aim of the thesis is to identify the form of an educational project suitable for the development of women entrepreneurs. As a result, I analyze not only the skills typical for successful managers, but also the features of managerial development and education and factors influencing the development and education of women entrepreneurs. Then I am trying to outline suitable methods for development of women entrepreneurs, with a special focus on women only training programs. In order to analyze the educational program better, I also focus on the design and evaluation of an educational activity. In the practical part of the thesis, I analyze the effectiveness of the PROFI ŽENA I. project and of the training course Managerial Skills and Team Building, and I am trying to identify the educational preferences of women entrepreneurs. Although, according to the survey, the concept of two-day courses seems to be insufficient for gaining new skills and knowledge, the project appears to be very beneficial for the participants, especially in terms of gaining new contacts, experience, self- affirmation and raising self-confidence. A good way to increase the effectiveness of the course would be some form of a follow-up...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:26:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Beatrice Maria Pedroso da Silva.pdf: 2660622 bytes, checksum: ebaa41d5bab5888037d0fed77e9f00b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-11-08 / The Federal Constitution of 1988 proclaimed the right health as the right of all and guaranteed by the State, guaranteed by social and economic politics that aim the reduction of the risk of illness and other aggravate and to the universal and equal access to the actions and services for its promotion, protection and recovery . It adopted an ample concept of health, conceiving it as physical and mental well-being of the human being and its adequacy in social lifre. For the accomplishment of this state duty the Constitution established the Only System of Health - SUS, integrated by all the federative beings, and fixed principles and rules apply to it. With the edition of the Federal Law 8.080/90 - Organic Law of the Health - and, after, of the Federal Law 8.142/90, had beginning the process of construction of the System, that is not completed yet. The changes and inovations that were inserted throught this process causes all the questions that guides to this present study. With all this changes, it is questioned, if with these modifications had evolved in the direction of the concretion of the principles that had originally used to it as base or if, the opposite, modify the politician-constitutional option inserted in the in the effective Federal Constitution. The studies accomplished guides for the change of the central lines of direction of the SUS Only System of Health - beyond the concrete reduction of the public sphere in the scope of the System. It has a visible and gradual removal between the of the SUS and its expression in the legal system. If in one hand, did not happen in the theory, a rupture of the constitutional normative structure, in the other hand, clearly has a redirecionament of theu health public politics of universal, complete and equal, resolting a unify serious threat of a definitive disruption with the estruturantes beddings of the public politics of health. Even thought the fact of the constitutional principles that informs the SUS, is still supported by its managers, is clear the trend of the public politics to orient itself by a new boarding that emphasizes the results and it promotes the values of the efficiency and the economy rationality. Built as a nature system of monopoly public state, the SUS goes thought, by the concrete plan, all the innovators experiments of management that involves the joint between the public sectors and the private for the rendering of services of health. The effective form of state provision - direct and exclusive - comes being substituted for another model where the State starts to be the fiscalize and to co- ordinate the established duties / A Constituição Federal de 1988 proclamou a saúde como "direito de todos e dever do Estado, garantido mediante políticas sociais e econômicas que visem à redução do risco de doença e de outros agravos e ao acesso universal e igualitário às ações e serviços para sua promoção, proteção e recuperação". Adotou um conceito amplo de saúde, concebendo-a como bem-estar físico e mental do indivíduo e a sua adequação na vida em sociedade. Para a realização desse dever estatal a Constituição instituiu o Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS, integrado por todos os entes federativos, e fixou os princípios e regras a ele aplicáveis. Com a edição da Lei Federal 8.080/90 - Lei Orgânica da Saúde - e, após, da Lei Federal 8.142/90, teve início o processo de construção do Sistema, que ainda não se completou. As mudanças e inovações introduzidas no decorrer deste processo suscitam as indagações que norteiam o presente estudo. Questiona-se se estas modificações evoluíram na direção da efetivação dos princípios que originalmente lhe serviram de base ou se, ao revés, desconfiguram a opção político-constitucional consubstanciada na vigente Constituição Federal. Os estudos realizados sinalizam para a mudança das diretrizes centrais do SUS, além da concreta redução da esfera pública no âmbito do Sistema. Há um visível e progressivo afastamento entre a realidade do SUS e sua expressão no ordenamento jurídico. Se, de um lado, não houve, no plano teórico, uma ruptura da estrutura normativa constitucional, por outro ocorreu um claro redirecionamento da política pública de saúde universalizante, integral e equânime, consubstanciando séria ameaça de um definitivo rompimento com os fundamentos estruturantes da política pública de saúde. Apesar do fato de os princípios constitucionais que informam o SUS serem ainda sustentados por seus gestores, é clara a tendência da política pública de orientar-se por nova abordagem que enfatiza os resultados e promove os valores da eficiência e da racionalidade econômica. Edificado como um sistema de natureza pública estatal monopolista, o SUS passa, no plano concreto, pelo aprofundamento das experiências inovadoras de gestão que envolve a articulação entre os setores público e privado para a prestação de serviços de saúde. O modelo de provisão estatal - direta e exclusiva vem sendo substituído por um modelo em que o Estado passa a ser o coordenador e fiscalizador de serviços estabelecidos

Orientador: Samuel da Silva / Resumo: Muitas aplicações da engenharia envolvem estruturas essencialmente não-lineares onde várias técnicas têm sido recentemente estudadas e investigadas por muitos pesquisadores. Dentre as várias abordagems, as que usam séries de Volterra têm apresentado propriedades úteis para fornecer um melhor entendimento para identificação e análise. Neste contexto, a presente tese propõem novas contribuições em como usar as séries de Volterra para caracterização, identificação e análise dinâmica de sistemas não-lineares usando sinais de entrada e saída e sinais somente de saída. Inicialmente, apresenta-se uma metodologia para análise de sistemas mecânicos não-lineares através das funções de resposta em frequência de alta-ordem (HOFRFs) e o conceito de HOFRFs estendidas com dados apenas de saída é introduzido e descrito em detalhes. Após isso, uma abordagem para identificação de sistemas não-lineares com base nas séries de Volterra através da expansão na base ortonormal de Kautz é proposta. Essa técnica permite identificar os seus núcleos mais facilmente e permite separar as contribuições dos termos lineares e não-lineares usando somente sinais de saída. Além disso, uma metodologia para análise modal de sistemas fracamente não-lineares sujeito a excitações com vários níveis de amplitude é também apresentada. A contribuição desse novo método reside no fato de que as HOFRFs são simplesmente estimadas como função das FRFs lineares. Basicamente, essa metodologia estende o conceito ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Most recent engineering applications involve structures essentially nonlinear where several techniques have been recently studied and investigated by many researchers. Among them, the methods based on Volterra series expansion have presented powerful properties to provide a better understanding for identification and analysis. In this context, the present thesis proposes new contributions in how to use Volterra series for characterization, identification and dynamical analysis of nonlinear systems based on input and output signals and output-only signals. Initially, a methodology for analysis of nonlinear mechanical systems through higher-order frequency response functions (HOFRFs) is presented and the concept of extended HOFRFs based on output-only is introduced and described in detail. Afterwards, an approach for identification of nonlinear systems based on Volterra series through the expansion onto orthonormal Kautz basis is proposed. This technique allows to identify the Volterra kernels easily and enable to split the contribution of the linear and nonlinear terms using input-output as well as output-only signals. Furthermore, a methodology for modal analysis of weakly nonlinear systems under multilevel excitation is also proposed. The contribution of this new approach lies in the fact that HOFRFs are simply computed as functions of the linear FRFs. Basically, it extends the conventional experimental modal analysis methods in order to characterize and treat no... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Swarm robotics is the study of developing and controlling large groups of robots. Collectives of robots possess advantages over single robots such as being robust to mission failures due to single-robot errors. Experimental research in swarm robotics is currently limited by swarm robotic technology. Current swarm robotic systems are either small groups of sophisticated robots or large groups of simple robots due to manufacturing overhead, functionality-cost dependencies, and their need to avoid collisions, amongst others. It is therefore useful to develop a swarm robotic system that is easy to manufacture, that utilises its sensors beyond standard usage, and that allows for physical interactions. In this work, I introduce a new type of low-friction locomotion and show its first implementation in the HoverBot system. The HoverBot system consists of an air-levitation and magnet table, and a HoverBot agent. HoverBots are levitating circuit boards which are equipped with an array of planar coils and a Hall-effect sensor. HoverBot uses its coils to pull itself towards magnetic anchors that are embedded into a levitation table. These robots consist of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), surface mount components, and a battery. HoverBots are easily manufacturable, robots can be ordered populated; the assembly consists of plugging in a battery to a robot. I demonstrate how HoverBot's low-cost hardware can be used beyond its standard functionality. HoverBot's magnetic field readouts from its Hall-effect sensor can be associated with successful movement, robot rotation and collision measurands. I build a time series classifier based on these magnetic field readouts, I modify and apply signal processing techniques to enable the online classification of the time-variant magnetic field measurements on HoverBot's low-cost microcontroller. This method allows HoverBot to detect rotations, successful movements, and collisions by utilising readouts from its single Hall-effect sensor. I discuss how this classification method could be applied to other sensors and demonstrate how HoverBots can utilise their classifier to create an occupancy grid map. HoverBots use their multi-functional sensing capabilities to determine whether they moved successfully or collided with a static object to map their environment. HoverBots execute an "explore-and-return-to-nest" strategy to deal with their sensor and locomotion noise. Each robot is assigned to a nest (landmark); robots leave their nests, move n steps, return and share their observations. Over time, a group of four HoverBots collectively builds a probabilistic belief over its environment. In summary, I build manufacturable swarm robots that detect collisions through a time series classifier and map their environment by colliding with their surroundings. My work on swarm robotic technology pushes swarm robotics research towards studies on collision-dependent behaviours, a research niche that has been barely studied. Collision events occur more often in dense areas and/or large groups, circumstances that swarm robots experience. Large groups of robots with collision-dependent behaviours could become a research tool to help invent and test novel distributed algorithms, to understand the dependencies between local to global (emergent) behaviours and more generally the science of complex systems. Such studies could become tremendously useful for the execution of large-scale swarm applications such as the search and rescue of survivors after a natural disaster.

中國為控制龐大的人口，自1979年開始實施計劃生育政策，一轉眼已經過了30年，一群1980年前後出生的獨生子女紛紛邁入婚姻、走入家庭，形成了獨生子女相互婚配的「獨生父母」，也同時造就了有別於傳統中國「發散型」家庭結構的「四二一家庭」。 本研究以此為出發，探究「四二一家庭」結構中的新型家庭關係，並挑戰結構功能論大師帕森斯關於現代化家庭之理論。本文認為，由於夫妻雙方皆為獨生子女，父母要協助子女分擔家務不再分身乏術，三代同堂的擴大家庭將成為中國城市的主要家庭模式，並非現代化理論所認為的核心家庭為主；而在四二一家庭中，親子關係也將居於核心地位，有別於帕森斯所認為的以夫妻軸為主。 筆者於2010年5月親赴北京對10位「獨生父母」進行訪談，深入了解獨生子女從擇偶、新婚、一直到四二一家庭成形所遇到的種種情況，包括夫妻家務分工上的不適應、為人父母後的角色轉換，以及在四二一家庭中獨一無二的天倫樂。 本文最後依據中國2010年第六次人口普查結果及獨生父母的訪談內容，結合各方專家意見，對計劃生育政策做出利弊分析，並探究生父母們在邁入家庭、準備「哺乳」的過程中，對父母的依賴，究竟「斷乳」了沒。 / Abstract In order to control the colossal population in China, the Chinese Communist Party have been implementing the birth control policy since 1979.Thirty years on, more and more children born under the one-child policy have arrived at nubile age. Marriage of only sons and only daughters compose the dual-core family which is different from the traditional Chinese family structure. This text focuses on the dual-core family, to explore the new family relationships and to challenge the Modernized theory of family proposed by T. Parsons. The text is of the opinion that the extended family model with three generations will become the main family structure in urban China as opposed to the nuclear family described in the Modernized theory; the focus of the family will be on the parent-child relationship rather than the conjugal relationship Parsons suggested. The author visited Beijing in May 2010 for interviews with ten “only-child parents”, This granted deeper understanding of the range of circumstances encountered during the process of partner selection, marriage and family formation by adult only-children. These include maladaptation in housework allocation, the role switch after becoming parents and the familial relationships and happiness unique to the extended family structure. In summation, the text combined findings from the sixth Chinese national census 2010, the conducted interviews and the opinions of various specialists and scholars to comment on the pros and cons of the birth control policy and to assess the level of parental dependence of adult only-children in China and their readiness for parenthood.

In the present study, the differential effects of two different feedback-delivery methods (written feedback vs. written plus verbal feedback) were compared on the utility and affective reactions of the feedback providers (i.e., raters) and the recipients (i.e., ratees) toward the feedback process, and also on the job performance of the feedback recipients in a military sample. Using a quasi-experimental design, 77 supervisors (who provided feedback) and 71 subordinates (who received feedback) participated in the study. Results indicated that the feedback-delivery technique was differentially effective on the utility and affective reactions of the supervisors. Both the utility and affective reactions of the supervisors who provided written plus verbal feedback were more favorable than those of the supervisors who provided written-only feedback to their subordinates. However, neither the reactions nor the job performance of the subordinates in the two feedback conditions differed significantly from each other.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate educator perceptions of the implementation of Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS) in Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in South Africa. Quality in education is presently put more firmly on the agenda not withstanding the fact that a vast range of literature is available to support the process of improving the quality in education. The department of education has made many attempts to introduce an effective appraisal system in support of quality education only to find that the previous appraisal systems were rejected by the educator force for the mere fact that it was perceived as a form of inspection and supervision rather than for development purposes. This study also focuses on a review of the integrated quality management system (IQMS), of its purpose, guidelines and its subsequent implementation in FET colleges in South Africa in 2004. The primary focus of the discussion is on the processes, the methods, the guiding principles and the pitfalls of the implementation of quality management systems in educational organizations To guide this discussion literature reviews on quality, quality education, quality management and quality management systems were undertaken. The empirical study entailed gleaning information from a structured questionnaire which was distributed to a sample group of lecturers at Sedibeng College for FET in the Gauteng Province. The questions were structured in a manner to gain information about the understanding of the operational principles of quality management, the aims and guiding principles of IQMS, the importance of quality control and the external relationships of the college. The major finding emanating from this study was that there was a need for intensive training in IQMS, thus a management's strategy for ensuring that IQMS is effectively implemented was proposed. The overall recommendation arising from this study includes ensuring that management designs a quality manual to guide the process of quality assurance. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

The purpose of this study was to investigate educator perceptions of the implementation of Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS) in Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in South Africa. Quality in education is presently put more firmly on the agenda not withstanding the fact that a vast range of literature is available to support the process of improving the quality in education. The department of education has made many attempts to introduce an effective appraisal system in support of quality education only to find that the previous appraisal systems were rejected by the educator force for the mere fact that it was perceived as a form of inspection and supervision rather than for development purposes. This study also focuses on a review of the integrated quality management system (IQMS), of its purpose, guidelines and its subsequent implementation in FET colleges in South Africa in 2004. The primary focus of the discussion is on the processes, the methods, the guiding principles and the pitfalls of the implementation of quality management systems in educational organizations To guide this discussion literature reviews on quality, quality education, quality management and quality management systems were undertaken. The empirical study entailed gleaning information from a structured questionnaire which was distributed to a sample group of lecturers at Sedibeng College for FET in the Gauteng Province. The questions were structured in a manner to gain information about the understanding of the operational principles of quality management, the aims and guiding principles of IQMS, the importance of quality control and the external relationships of the college. The major finding emanating from this study was that there was a need for intensive training in IQMS, thus a management's strategy for ensuring that IQMS is effectively implemented was proposed. The overall recommendation arising from this study includes ensuring that management designs a quality manual to guide the process of quality assurance. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.

To navigate successfully in a previously unexplored environment, a mobile robot must be able to estimate the spatial relationships of the objects of interest accurately. A Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) sys- tem employs its sensors to build incrementally a map of its surroundings and to localize itself in the map simultaneously. The aim of this research project is to develop a SLAM system suitable for self propelled household lawnmowers. The proposed bearing-only SLAM system requires only an omnidirec- tional camera and some inexpensive landmarks. The main advantage of an omnidirectional camera is the panoramic view of all the landmarks in the scene. Placing landmarks in a lawn field to define the working domain is much easier and more flexible than installing the perimeter wire required by existing autonomous lawnmowers. The common approach of existing bearing-only SLAM methods relies on a motion model for predicting the robot’s pose and a sensor model for updating the pose. In the motion model, the error on the estimates of object positions is cumulated due mainly to the wheel slippage. Quantifying accu- rately the uncertainty of object positions is a fundamental requirement. In bearing-only SLAM, the Probability Density Function (PDF) of landmark position should be uniform along the observed bearing. Existing methods that approximate the PDF with a Gaussian estimation do not satisfy this uniformity requirement. This thesis introduces both geometric and proba- bilistic methods to address the above problems. The main novel contribu- tions of this thesis are: 1. A bearing-only SLAM method not requiring odometry. The proposed method relies solely on the sensor model (landmark bearings only) without relying on the motion model (odometry). The uncertainty of the estimated landmark positions depends on the vision error only, instead of the combination of both odometry and vision errors. 2. The transformation of the spatial uncertainty of objects. This thesis introduces a novel method for translating the spatial un- certainty of objects estimated from a moving frame attached to the robot into the global frame attached to the static landmarks in the environment. 3. The characterization of an improved PDF for representing landmark position in bearing-only SLAM. The proposed PDF is expressed in polar coordinates, and the marginal probability on range is constrained to be uniform. Compared to the PDF estimated from a mixture of Gaussians, the PDF developed here has far fewer parameters and can be easily adopted in a probabilistic framework, such as a particle filtering system. The main advantages of our proposed bearing-only SLAM system are its lower production cost and flexibility of use. The proposed system can be adopted in other domestic robots as well, such as vacuum cleaners or robotic toys when terrain is essentially 2D.