Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52).

Thesis (M.E.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). "March 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. [113]-117). Also available via the World Wide Web.

nÃo hà / A avaliaÃÃo da AtenÃÃo PrimÃria à SaÃde ganha destaque no Sistema Ãnico de SaÃde (SUS), mas enfrenta desafios teÃricos e operacionais decorrentes da complexidade de seus processos e de suas mÃltiplas causas conjunturais e histÃricas. Em Sobral, CearÃ, a construÃÃo do Sistema Municipal de SaÃde, enquanto um conjunto de serviÃos coordenados por gestÃo local, com Ãrea geogrÃfica definida e metas para melhoria da situaÃÃo de saÃde da populaÃÃo claramente estabelecidas, iniciou-se em 1997. Diante disso, nos reportamos ao modelo de atenÃÃo a saÃde vigente em Sobral, completou dez anos de implantaÃÃo, embasado nos pressupostos do Programa SaÃde da FamÃlia, e centrado nas aÃÃes de promoÃÃo da saÃde e prevenÃÃo das doenÃas, no sentido de avaliar como se encontra esse processo de mudanÃa ao longo desse perÃodo. Nos propomos, neste estudo a analisar o cenÃrio da AtenÃÃo PrimÃria à SaÃde à luz do pensamento sistÃmico. Para tanto, desenvolvemos um estudo avaliativo de abordagem qualitativa, a partir dos referenciais do Pensamento SistÃmico (PS). Os atores sociais da pesquisa foram os profissionais que atuam na EstratÃgia SaÃde da FamÃlia de trÃs Centros de SaÃde da FamÃlia de Sobral, CearÃ, os gerentes destes Centros de SaÃde e os usuÃrios do serviÃo de saÃde, que aceitaram participar da pesquisa a partir da utilizaÃÃo do Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido. As informaÃÃes foram coletadas durante o ano de 2006, a partir de formulÃrio, grupo focal e entrevista. Os dados foram analisados a partir da TÃcnica do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Nos resultados, prevaleceram os fatores facilitadores da satisfaÃÃo dos serviÃos apresentados: acolhimento, sentimento de conforto, limpeza das UBS, satisfaÃÃo com o atendimento, a nÃo existÃncia de dÃvidas pÃs-consulta, confianÃa no trabalho da equipe, respeito demonstrado pela equipe; Sendo os restritivos: limitadas informaÃÃes sobre o funcionamento do serviÃo e pouca receptividade dos usuÃrios para participaÃÃo nas sessÃes educativas. O estudo demonstrou ainda que os profissionais da equipe de saÃde da famÃlia, tem uma forte relaÃÃo estabelecida com a comunidade do territÃrio de abrangÃncia da mesma e isso se apresenta como um determinante da qualidade da assistÃncia prestada, mostra tambÃm a importÃncia do agente comunitÃrio de saÃde como elo de ligaÃÃo entre profissionais e comunidade, a participaÃÃo da comunidade nas tomadas de decisÃo atravÃs do espaÃo da roda de co gestÃo de coletivos, percebemos ainda a dificuldade dos gerentes dos Centros de SaÃde da FamÃlia em assumir dois papÃis gerenciamento e cuidado das famÃlias, a dificuldade de acesso da populaÃÃo em relaÃÃo aos serviÃos mÃdicos. Por fim, o estudo demonstrou que os princÃpios da promoÃÃo da saÃde estÃo presentes em alguns aspectos, mas ainda precisam esforÃos de todas as esferas de governo para que as aÃÃes sejam fortalecidas atravÃs de polÃticas centradas na promoÃÃo da saÃde e prevenÃÃo de doenÃas, permitindo um melhor desempenho dos atores na ESF, inclusive de mais investimentos que priorizem o financiamento dos componentes que dÃo sustentabilidade as polÃticas na atenÃÃo primÃria. / The evaluation of Primary Health Care gains importance in the Unified Health System (UHS), yet it faces theoretical and operational challenges due to the complexity of its processes and its multiple conjunct and historical causes. In Sobral, CearÃ, the construction of the Municipal Health System, as a set of services coordinated by local management, with defined geographic area and goals to improve the populationâs health situation clearly established, began in 1997. Through this, we report on the current health care model in Sobral that has completed ten years of implantation, based on presuppositions from the Family Health Program and centered on health promotion actions and illness prevention, in the sense of evaluating how this process of change is faring throughout this process and socialize, after research, the main indicators of change, enabling the redirecting of actions proposed by the actors involved in the system from the perspective of health care professionals and users. Understanding the intrinsic relationship between the Health Care model developed in Sobral and the presuppositions of Health Promotion, we propose in this study to analyze the Primary Health Care scenario in the light of systemic thinking, taking the year 2006 as reference. For which, we developed an evaluative study with qualitative approach, from the referential of Systemic Thinking (ST). The social actors in the survey were the professionals that perform in the Family Health Strategy in the three Health Centers in Sobral, CearÃ: Pedrinhas, Sumarà and Padre Palhano, the managers of these Health Centers and the health service users, who accepted to participate in the survey by means of a Term of Free and Informed Consent. The information was collected by means of a form, group focus and interview. For the data from interviews, managers and focus groups, we used the Collective Subject Speech technique. In the results, the facilitating factors for the satisfaction of presented services prevailed: reception, sense of comfort, at Basic Health Units, attendance satisfaction, and non-existence of post-consultation doubts, confidence in the work team, respect demonstrated by the team; With limitations being in smaller proportions and overcome by the relevance of facilitating factors, being presented by: limited information on the running of the service and little receptivity from users for participation in educative sessions. The study demonstrated that the professionals from the Family Health Team (FHT) had a strong relationship established with the community in the territory covered and this is presented as a determinant in the quality of assistance provided. Finally, we require articulation from all the governmental and non-governmental spheres to rethink, discuss and redirect strategies that permit better performance and running of (FHTs), including more investments that prioritize the financing of components that give sustainability to policies in primary care.

In many settings, agents engage in problem-solving activities, which require them to share resources, act on each others behalf, coordinate individual acts, etc. If autonomous agents are to e ectively interact (or support interaction among humans) in situations such as deciding whom and how to approach the provision of a resource or the performance of an action, there are a number of important questions to address. Who do I choose to delegate a task to? What do I need to say to convince him/her to do something? Were similar requests granted from similar agents in similar circumstances? What arguments were most persuasive? What are the costs involved in putting certain arguments forward? Research in argumentation strategies has received signi cant attention in recent years, and a number of approaches has been proposed to enable agents to reason about arguments to present in order to persuade another. However, current approaches do not adequately address situations where agents may be operating under social constraints (e.g., policies) that regulate behaviour in a society. In this thesis, we propose a novel combination of techniques that takes into consideration the policies that others may be operating with. First, we present an approach where evidence derived from dialogue is utilised to learn the policies of others. We show that this approach enables agents to build more accurate and stable models of others more rapidly. Secondly, we present an agent decision-making mechanism where models of others are used to guide future argumentation strategy. This approach takes into account the learned policy constraints of others, the cost of revealing in- formation, and anticipated resource availability in deciding whom to approach. We empirically evaluate our approach within a simulated multi-agent frame- work, and demonstrate that through the use of informed strategies agents can improve their performance.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Electrical Engineering Department. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-131).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 77 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-77).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen. / At head of title: Rijksuniversiteit te Groninge. Summary in Dutch. Parts of this thesis are based on material originally appearing in Statistica Neerlandica, 1978, Automatica, 1981 and the proceedings of Dynamic Modelling and Control of National Economics 1981 ... Includes index. Bibliography: p. 153-159.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Dr. Martha Gallivan, Committee Member ; Dr. Chris Paredis, Committee Member ; Dr. Janet K. Allen, Committee Member ; Dr. Peter Hesketh, Committee Co-Chair ; Dr. Farrokh Mistree, Committee Co-Chair.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-166). Also available via the World Wide Web.