This study was conducted with employees from Drakensberg Power Station, in Kwazulu Natal. Twenty-three non-supervisory employees were interviewed, and six supervisors partook in a focus group. The purpose was to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of employees about the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), by exploring factors influencing utilisation and investigating the extent of employee awareness of the EAP, to recommend appropriate modifications to the service. Findings indicate employees are aware of the service, but unfamiliar with its purpose and functioning. They are not aware of how to access the service. The utilisation is affected by the lack of visibility of the service, the lack of awareness of family members about the services and concerns about confidentiality. It was found that supervisors were not adequately trained in the EAP and lacked the information to effectively utilise the service, thus they were reluctant to refer employees to the EAP. / Dissertation (MSD (EAP))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

Les aides à la conduite sont des systèmes qui aident le conducteur à mieux appréhender la tâche de conduite en situation difficile. Parmi les différents capteurs qu'utilisent ces ADAS, des caméras sont embarquées et délivrent des images de la scène routière qui sont traitées et analysées de manière à informer le conducteur des dangers éventuels ou enclencher des systèmes d'urgence. Les caméras issues de ces ADAS capturent l'environnement routier d'une manière qui est loin d'être représentative de la perception qu'aurait un conducteur. Une des conséquences éventuelles est que ces ADAS soient contre-productives en déclenchant inopinément des systèmes d'alerte et d'action à l'encontre du conducteur. De manière à remplir complétement la vocation de ces ADAS, il est primordial de disposer d'une carte de la perception de l'environnement routier du point de vue du conducteur de manière à ajuster l'aide dont il pourrait avoir besoin. Nous proposons d'estimer par traitement d'image, la visibilité routière du point de vue du conducteur en utilisant un algorithme bio-inspiré simulant la sensibilité au contraste de l'œil humain. Dans un premier temps, nous étendons un modèle de CSF (Contrast Sensitivity Function) de manière à prendre en compte des taux de détection cohérents avec la sécurité routière, l'orientation, la couleur et l'âge du conducteur. Dans un second temps, nous modélisons notre modèle de CSF par un filtrage spatial et en calculons la visibilité en chaque pixel de l'image. Nous appliquons cette carte de visibilité sur une carte de contours issue de notre détecteur de contour bio-inspiré. Ainsi, nous considérons les contours des objets routiers présents dans l'image plutôt que leurs caractéristiques de manière à éviter toute hypothèse. Ces contours sont associés à un niveau de visibilité indiquant s'ils sont visibles ou pas par l'observateur. Nous validons le procédé en le comparant à des performances visuelles d'observateurs, en condition de laboratoire, pour une détection de cible et en situation de conduite simulée en conduite de nuit. Dans un deuxième temps, nous associons ces niveaux de visibilité en deux unités facilement compréhensibles pour des ADAS: un temps de réaction et une distance perçue. En premier lieu, nous proposons un modèle d'estimation du temps de perception du conducteur en fonction de la visibilité en nous inspirant de la loi de Piéron sur des données expérimentales de détection de cibles sur des images routières de synthèse pour une certaine densité de brouillard de jour. Les études ont montré que les conducteurs auraient tendance à se rapprocher du véhicule devant eux de manière à ne pas les perdre de vue. Ce constat nous renseigne sur le fait que le conducteur ne dispose pas suffisamment de visibilité à ses yeux dans cette configuration de conduite. Nous montrons l'intérêt des méthodes de restauration d'images en termes de gain de temps de réaction et de performance visuelle comme le taux de détection du véhicule devant lui. Dans un second temps, nous estimons une distance par rapport au véhicule précédent du point de vue du conducteur en nous inspirant de la détection des feux arrière du véhicule situé devant le conducteur. Les résultats ont montré que les conducteurs estimaient mal les distances sur obstacles lointains en comparaison des aides à la conduite basées sur des imageurs optique, radar ou lidar pour une conduite de nuit. D'après ce constat, les ADAS jouent un rôle fondamental pour prévenir le conducteur de sa conduite inadaptée. Enfin, nous délimitons les limites de nos modèles de CSF et de visibilité et proposons plusieurs perspectives. Pour des applications routières, une des perspectives qui a été concrétisée partiellement est l'évaluation objective des systèmes d'éclairage par notre modèle de visibilité et sa cohérence avec une expertise subjective / The driver assistance systems are systems that help the driver to better understand the plight driving task. Among the various sensors used by these ADAS, cameras are shipped and deliver images of the road scene which are processed and analyzed to inform the driver of potential hazards or switch of emergency systems. The cameras capture from these ADAS is far from representative of perception would have a driver. One of the possible consequences is that these ADAS can be counter productive in triggering warning and action against the driver. In order to completely fulfill the objectives of such ADAS, it is essential to have a map of the perception of the road environment from the perspective of the driver to adjust the help they might need. We propose to estimate by image processing, road visibility from the driver's perspective using a bio-inspired algorithm simulating the contrast sensitivity of the human eye. First, we extend a model of CSF (Contrast Sensitivity Function) to consider coherent detection rate with road safety, orientation, color and age of the driver. In a second step, we model our CSF spatial filtering and calculate the visibility for each pixel of the image. We apply this visibility map on a map of contours of our bio-inspired edge detector. Thus, we consider the contours of the road objects in the image rather than the characteristics in order to avoid assumptions. These contours are associated with a level of visibility as to whether or not they are visible by the observer. We validate the method by comparing it with the visual performance of observers in laboratory conditions for target detection and simulated driving situation in night driving. Secondly, we combine these two levels of visibility in easily understandable units for ADAS: a reaction time and a target distance. First, we propose a model to estimate the driver's reaction time depending on the visibility (inspired by Piéron's law of target detection) with experimental data on road synthetic images for some daylight fog density. Studies have shown that drivers would tend toget closer to the vehicle in front of them in order not to lose sight of them. This observation tells us that the driver does not have enough visibility in that configuration. We show the interest of the image restoration methods in terms of reaction time and gain in visual performance as well as vehicle detection rate. In a second step, we estimate a distance from the point of view of the driver taking inspiration from the detection of the rear lights of the vehicle in front of the driver. The results showed that drivers were bad about the distance evaluation of distant obstacles compared to driving aids based on optical imaging, radar or lidar for night driving. Based on this observation, the ADAS may play a fundamental role in preventing the driver from his inappropriate behavior. Finally, we outline the limits of our models CSF and visibility and offer several perspectives for road applications, one of which was the objective evaluation of lighting systems by our model of visibility and consistency with a subjective expertise

Cybercrimes have been rapidly increasing over the past decade becoming more sophisticated and increasing victimization, resulting in an increased load of the police in the effort to prevent and stop these crimes. This study explores the challenges the Danish police encounter facing cybercrime and their approach to preventing it. The data were collected through interviewing individuals on a managing level in two different departments dealing with cybercrime within the Danish police force. The data were analyzed thematically to identify key issues. The main challenges found being; the time frame the police has to act upon in reference to the nature of the data, the culture that exists on the internet and distinguishing jokes from threats, the effortlessness of criminals justifying once actions, and the visible presence of the police on the internet. The primary focus of prevention to deal with some of these issues is moving towards creating a healthy network between the police and the private sector, in an effort to create a shared responsibility and a forum of which information can be shared to create a possible united front towards cybercrime.

Die Versorgung mit adäquater Information ist eine der Hauptfunktionen von Performance Measurement-Systemen (PMS), gleichzeitig aber auch ihr größter Mangel und der Grund für das häufige Scheitern ihres Einsatzes in Unternehmen. Dabei gibt es derzeit keine Möglichkeit zu bestimmen, inwieweit ein eingesetzes PMS den Beteiligten auch tatsächlich gut und passgenau Informationen liefern kann. Diese Untersuchung geht von der Grundfrage aus, welche Informationen erhoben werden müssen, damit nicht nur die Darstellung der Performance selbst adressiert wird, sondern die auch für ein besseres Verständnis über das PMS und seine organisationale Verankerung und damit Akzeptanz und Nützlichkeit genutzt werden können. Sie folgt damit einem Verständnis von PMS als Informationssysteme, die für die adäquate Versorgung mit Domänenwissen sorgen müssen, und nicht lediglich als Controllinginstrumente, die Performance-Daten liefern sollen. Im Ergebnis steht die Entwicklung einer Theorie, die erklärt, weshalb das bisherige Problem des Scheiterns von PMS auftritt. Damit einhergehend wird der Indikator der Visibility of Performance konstruiert, der über eine einfache Anwendung aussagen kann, wie gut ein PMS bezüglich seiner Wissensversorgung für ein Unternehmen passt. Mithin zeigt er die Güte der performancerelevanten Informationsversorgung in einem PMS eines Unternehmens an.:Versicherung 5 Inhaltsverzeichnis 6 Abbildungsverzeichnis 8 Tabellenverzeichnis 10 Abkürzungsverzeichnis 11 Formelverzeichnis 13 1 Einleitung 14 1.1 Problemstellung 15 1.2 Zielsetzung 16 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 18 2 Grundlagen 21 2.1 Wissenschaftstheoretische Einordnung 21 2.1.1 Ontologische, epistemologische und methodologische Positionierung 21 2.1.2 Erkenntnistheoretische und methodische Spannungsfelder 25 2.1.2.1 Design Science und Behaviorismus 26 2.1.2.2 Design Science und der Theoriebegriff 29 2.1.3 Methodenpluralismus 30 2.1.3.1 Leitmethode Grounded Theory 30 2.1.3.2 Weitere verwendete Methoden 33 2.2 Fundamentale Konzepte und Theoriekontext 37 2.2.1 Performance und Performance Measurement 38 2.2.1.1 Konzeptualisierung von Leistung und Performance 38 2.2.1.2 Konzeptualisierung des Performance Measurement 41 2.2.1.3 Theorien und Modelle 44 2.2.2 Performance-Measurement-Systeme 46 2.2.2.1 Konzeptualisierung von Performance-Measurement-Systemen 46 2.2.2.2 Theorien und Modelle 50 2.2.3 Unternehmerisches Wissen 53 2.2.3.1 Konzeptualisierung von Wissen 53 2.2.3.2 Theorien und Modelle 54 2.3 Kritische Würdigung bestehender Konzepte 59 2.3.1 Anforderungen an ein PMS 60 2.3.1.1 Die Balanced Scorecard 63 2.3.1.2 Das Performance Prism 65 2.3.1.3 Die Performance Pyramid 67 2.3.2 Anforderungen an die Qualität von PMS 69 2.3.3 Zusammenfassung 72 2.3.4 Forschungsfragen 74 3 Arbeitsablauf 75 3.1 Aufbau der Schwerpunkte und Darstellung der Forschungsbeiträge 77 3.2 Erster Schwerpunkt: Indikatoren 78 3.2.1 Forschungsbeitrag 1 79 3.2.2 Forschungsbeitrag 2 80 3.2.3 Forschungsbeitrag 3 80 3.2.4 Zusammenfassung 81 3.3 Zweiter Schwerpunkt: PMS 83 3.3.1 Forschungsbeitrag 1 83 3.3.2 Forschungsbeitrag 2 83 3.3.3 Forschungsbeitrag 3 83 3.3.4 Forschungsbeitrag 4 84 3.3.5 Forschungsbeitrag 7 85 3.3.6 Zusammenfassung 86 3.4 Dritter Schwerpunkt: Kontextuelles Umfeld 87 3.4.1 Forschungsbeitrag 5 88 3.4.3 Forschungsbeitrag 6 89 3.4.4 Forschungsbeitrag 7 90 3.4.5 Zusammenfassung 90 3.5 Vierter Schwerpunkt: Visibility 91 3.5.1 Forschungsbeitrag 3 92 3.5.2 Forschungsbeitrag 4 93 3.5.3 Forschungsbeitrag 6 93 3.5.4 Forschungsbeitrag 8 94 3.5.5 Zusammenfassung 95 3.6 Zwischenstand: Darstellung der Theorie 97 3.6.1 Kausales Referenzmodell 98 3.6.2 Strukturelles Referenzmodell 99 3.6.3 Theorie und Hypothesen 100 3.6.4 Abduktiver Schluss 103 3.7 Fünfter Schwerpunkt: Operationalisierung 103 3.7.1 Forschungsbeitrag 5 104 3.7.2 Forschungsbeitrag 8 104 3.7.3 Forschungsbeitrag 9 110 3.7.4 Zusammenfassung 115 3.8 Sechster Schwerpunkt: Validierung 119 3.8.1 Forschungsbeitrag 8 119 3.8.2 Forschungsbeitrag 9 123 3.8.3 Zusammenfassung 124 3.9 Siebenter Schwerpunkt: Technologische Umsetzung 125 3.10 Vollständigkeitsbetrachtung 129 3.10.1 Thematischer Zusammenhang 130 3.10.2 Zusammenhang im Erkenntnisprozess 130 3.10.3 Individuelle Beiträge zum Methodenpluralismus und zur Diversität 132 4 Zusammenfassung 134 4.1 Diskussion der Ergebnisse 134 4.2 Einordnung bereits bestehender Konzepte 141 4.3 Nutzen für Forschung und Praxis 144 4.4 Generalisierung der Erkenntnisse und Ausblick 150 4.5 Vollständigkeitsbetrachtung 153 Literaturverzeichnis 155 Anhang Forschungsbeitrag 5 166 / The supply with adequate information is one of the main functions of Performance Measurement Systems (PMS), but also still one of its drawbacks and reason for their failure. Not only the collection of indicators is crucial, but also the stakeholders’ understanding of the about their meaning, purpose and contextual embedding. Today, companies are faced to seek for a PMS without a way to express the goodness of a solution, indicating its ability to deliver appropriate information and to address these demands. The goal of this investigation is to explore the mechanisms that drive information and knowledge supply in PMS in order to model a way to express this goodness. Using a grounded Theory approach, a theory of visibility of performance is developed, featuring a catalog of determinants for the goodness of PMS. Companies can conveniently use them to assess their PMS and to improve the visibility of their performance.:Versicherung 5 Inhaltsverzeichnis 6 Abbildungsverzeichnis 8 Tabellenverzeichnis 10 Abkürzungsverzeichnis 11 Formelverzeichnis 13 1 Einleitung 14 1.1 Problemstellung 15 1.2 Zielsetzung 16 1.3 Aufbau der Arbeit 18 2 Grundlagen 21 2.1 Wissenschaftstheoretische Einordnung 21 2.1.1 Ontologische, epistemologische und methodologische Positionierung 21 2.1.2 Erkenntnistheoretische und methodische Spannungsfelder 25 2.1.2.1 Design Science und Behaviorismus 26 2.1.2.2 Design Science und der Theoriebegriff 29 2.1.3 Methodenpluralismus 30 2.1.3.1 Leitmethode Grounded Theory 30 2.1.3.2 Weitere verwendete Methoden 33 2.2 Fundamentale Konzepte und Theoriekontext 37 2.2.1 Performance und Performance Measurement 38 2.2.1.1 Konzeptualisierung von Leistung und Performance 38 2.2.1.2 Konzeptualisierung des Performance Measurement 41 2.2.1.3 Theorien und Modelle 44 2.2.2 Performance-Measurement-Systeme 46 2.2.2.1 Konzeptualisierung von Performance-Measurement-Systemen 46 2.2.2.2 Theorien und Modelle 50 2.2.3 Unternehmerisches Wissen 53 2.2.3.1 Konzeptualisierung von Wissen 53 2.2.3.2 Theorien und Modelle 54 2.3 Kritische Würdigung bestehender Konzepte 59 2.3.1 Anforderungen an ein PMS 60 2.3.1.1 Die Balanced Scorecard 63 2.3.1.2 Das Performance Prism 65 2.3.1.3 Die Performance Pyramid 67 2.3.2 Anforderungen an die Qualität von PMS 69 2.3.3 Zusammenfassung 72 2.3.4 Forschungsfragen 74 3 Arbeitsablauf 75 3.1 Aufbau der Schwerpunkte und Darstellung der Forschungsbeiträge 77 3.2 Erster Schwerpunkt: Indikatoren 78 3.2.1 Forschungsbeitrag 1 79 3.2.2 Forschungsbeitrag 2 80 3.2.3 Forschungsbeitrag 3 80 3.2.4 Zusammenfassung 81 3.3 Zweiter Schwerpunkt: PMS 83 3.3.1 Forschungsbeitrag 1 83 3.3.2 Forschungsbeitrag 2 83 3.3.3 Forschungsbeitrag 3 83 3.3.4 Forschungsbeitrag 4 84 3.3.5 Forschungsbeitrag 7 85 3.3.6 Zusammenfassung 86 3.4 Dritter Schwerpunkt: Kontextuelles Umfeld 87 3.4.1 Forschungsbeitrag 5 88 3.4.3 Forschungsbeitrag 6 89 3.4.4 Forschungsbeitrag 7 90 3.4.5 Zusammenfassung 90 3.5 Vierter Schwerpunkt: Visibility 91 3.5.1 Forschungsbeitrag 3 92 3.5.2 Forschungsbeitrag 4 93 3.5.3 Forschungsbeitrag 6 93 3.5.4 Forschungsbeitrag 8 94 3.5.5 Zusammenfassung 95 3.6 Zwischenstand: Darstellung der Theorie 97 3.6.1 Kausales Referenzmodell 98 3.6.2 Strukturelles Referenzmodell 99 3.6.3 Theorie und Hypothesen 100 3.6.4 Abduktiver Schluss 103 3.7 Fünfter Schwerpunkt: Operationalisierung 103 3.7.1 Forschungsbeitrag 5 104 3.7.2 Forschungsbeitrag 8 104 3.7.3 Forschungsbeitrag 9 110 3.7.4 Zusammenfassung 115 3.8 Sechster Schwerpunkt: Validierung 119 3.8.1 Forschungsbeitrag 8 119 3.8.2 Forschungsbeitrag 9 123 3.8.3 Zusammenfassung 124 3.9 Siebenter Schwerpunkt: Technologische Umsetzung 125 3.10 Vollständigkeitsbetrachtung 129 3.10.1 Thematischer Zusammenhang 130 3.10.2 Zusammenhang im Erkenntnisprozess 130 3.10.3 Individuelle Beiträge zum Methodenpluralismus und zur Diversität 132 4 Zusammenfassung 134 4.1 Diskussion der Ergebnisse 134 4.2 Einordnung bereits bestehender Konzepte 141 4.3 Nutzen für Forschung und Praxis 144 4.4 Generalisierung der Erkenntnisse und Ausblick 150 4.5 Vollständigkeitsbetrachtung 153 Literaturverzeichnis 155 Anhang Forschungsbeitrag 5 166

Purchase management of medical supplies is a critical and important process that affects the services provision quality. Nonetheless, it is facing a growing pressure to provide visibility and traceability of the purchase, to reduce fraud, to improve flexibility and to ensure communication between everyone involved. Currently, private health institutions in Peru choose to implant different software products within the same company with restricted visibility access to other concerned parties and based on information from a single source. A new alternative is Blockchain technology, since it provides a single source of shared truth to all participants and ensures that the information cannot be altered, thus offering high levels of transparency that, together with IoT technology, creates not only visibility about where things are, but also traceability, showing the current state of things. / Revisón por pares

A field study was conducted to find whether open office architecture is related to employees' perceptions of their jobs and their work groups, and to their behavior in and around their work stations. Fifty-two employees in the administrative division of a large manufacturing operation volunteered to participate by answering a questionnaire and allowing their work stations to be analyzed for levels of visual access and visual exposure, the two independent variables. Access and exposure, at first theorized to be independent and interacting functions, were found to be too highly correlated in this open off ice setting to test as originally planned. The design was modified by combining the measures of access and exposure, thereby creating a new independent variable called visual information. Under the modified design, results supported a prediction that less visual information would correlate with more positive responses to survey items about employees' job characteristics, and a prediction that less visual information would correlate with higher rates of work station occupancy. But there was no support for a prediction that more visual information would correlate with more positive responses to survey items about employees' work groups, nor was there support for a prediction that more visual information would correlate with fewer numbers of personal items displayed at employees' work stations. Suggestions were made for more appropriate tests of the original design in order to determine whether visual access and visual exposure operate as independent and interacting dynamics.

No description available.

The media industry has incorporated romantic/sexual intimacy as a hot commodity. A prime example is the mobile dating app Tinder, which has served as a site that encourages users to forge intimacy online in non-traditional ways by appealing to the sexual freedom and fun associated with youth hookup culture. Many studies on romantic/sexual intimacy have alerted us to how social hierarchies of race and gender are adroitly concealed in contemporary visual culture through democratic post-civil rights discourses. In tandem with consumer culture, the increased media visibility of young, postfeminist-generation women deflects political discussions and restructures politics within economic principles. There are two problems here.

The application of the industrial-design mindset of problem solving into the product design category of apparel design is something that intrigued me.Work-wear can be seen as professional sports apparel or equipment, for a usergroup with varying body sizes and shapes this of course in combination with trying to cater to users with widely different needs.The work-wear industry is one of many where users of many different professions are often bundled together as a wholeand given their equipment based on what would serve the average of this large group the best and as with many other categories of product design, it is driven by cost effectiveness. In many cases, this works just fine, but when it doesn’t, that is where problems occur. In this project the topic of “futureworkwear” is approached with a user centered design perspective to understand the issues and problems found within the area of workwear to better be able to provide innovative and new solutions to problems of visibility, ergonomic adjustability and tool carrying. The project also aims to explore the innovative future of smart garments and how this is best implemented in a natural and meaningful way providing the users of work-wear with added value.The result of the project is a new toolcarrying belt & harness combination, giving the user the possibility to adjust how and where tools are worn on the body and being able to ergonomically adjust how the tool carrier fits. All while also equipping the user with smart technology to provide a safer work environment in a non-intrusive way.

Roadway crashes related to vision obstruction due to fog/smoke (FS) conditions constitute a challenge for traffic engineers. Previous research efforts mostly concentrated on the snow and rain related crashes. Statistics show that Florida is among the top three states in terms of crashes due to vision obstruction by FS. This research culminated in a comprehensive study of fog and smoke related crashes in the state of Florida. The analysis took into account the crashes that occurred between 2003 and 2007 on Florida state roads. Spatial analysis and injury severity analysis have been conducted and significant results have been identified. The spatial analysis by GIS examines the locations of high trends of FS related crashes on state roads in the State of Florida. Statistical features of the GIS tool, which is used efficiently in traffic safety research, has been used to find the crash clusters for the particular types of crashes that occur due to vision obstruction by FS. Several segmentation processes have been used, and the best segmentation for this study was found to be dividing the state roads into 1 mile segments, keeping the roadway characteristics uniform. Taking into account the entire state road network, ten distinct clusters were found that can be clearly associated with these types of crashes. However, no clear pattern in terms of area was observed, as it was seen that the percentage of FS related crashes in rural and urban areas are close. The general characteristics of FS related crashes have been investigated in detail. For the comparison to clear visibility conditions, simple odds ratios (in terms of crash frequencies) have been introduced. The morning hours in the months of December to February are found to be the prevalent time for fog related crashes, while for the smoke related crashes the dangerous time was found to be morning to midday in the month of May. Compared to crashes under clear-visibility conditions, the fog crashes tend to result in more severe injuries and involve more vehicles. Head-on and rear-end crashes are the two most common crash types in terms of crash frequency and severe crashes. For the injury severity analysis, a random effect ordered logistic model was used. The model in brief illustrates that the head-on and rear-end crash types are the two most prevalent crash types in FS conditions. Moreover, these severe crashes mainly occurred at higher speeds. Also they mostly took place on undivided roads, roadways without any sidewalk and two-lane rural roads. Increase of average daily traffic decrease the severity of FS related crashes. Overall, this study provides the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) with specific information on where improvements could be made to have better safety conditions in terms of vision obstruction due to FS in the state roads of Florida. Also it suggests the times and seasons that the safety precautions must be taken or the FS warning systems to be installed, and the controlling roadway geometries that can be improved or modified to reduce injury severity of a crash due to FS related vision obstruction.