Existing verbal standards accepted in visual resource management (U.S.D.A. Forest Service, 1975 and U.S.D.I., Bureau of Land Management, 1980) as a reference for evaluating the landscape have certain shortcomings. One hypothesis is that visual images of the landscape which are used as a basis or standard along with landscape descriptions for measuring different levels or categories of a landscape attribute (visual standards) will produce more consistent ratings than using verbal standards. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the use of visual standards as a predictive tool to improve landscape assessment. This study involved the development of visual standards and a comparative survey study. One group of survey respondents was asked to rate or evaluate selected landscape variables (complexity and vividness) for a set of 15 landscape scenes. Another group used more traditional verbal standards to evaluate the same variables for the same landscape scenes. The effects of visual standards was compared with the effect of verbal standards on (1) assessing the landscape; (2) people’s attitudes toward landscape ratings; and (3) people’s attitudes toward the rating process. The findings indicate that using visual standards cannot produce more consistent results for rating landscape variables. Further research needs to be conducted for excluding the external variables which may affect the quality of visual standards. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that visual standards are perceived by the user as a more accurate reference. The findings also indicate that using visual standards result in a broader use of the rating scale particularly at the lower end of the scale and cause lower rating results for the tested scenes compared to verbal standards. Although using visual standards to access complexity and vividness cannot improve their predictive relationship to preference, the past research indicating a strong relationship between landscape complexity and visual quality may be influenced or biased by people’s preference for the landscape. In terms of the use of image based visual standards in computer application, this limited research has been unable to find any clear advantages in terms or reliability or validity. However, visual standards do not appear to be any less reliable and valid than verbal standards. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is the process of assessing the social consequences that are likely to follow specific policy actions or project development. SIA has not been widely adopted and is said to be the orphan of the assessment process. Using Environmental Assessment (EA) however, there are two primary limitations to EA: first, EA is inherently biased toward the biophysical environment, and social impacts, when considered, are only considered in an indirect or secondary manner; second, EA is targeted at the project level, where many alternatives that may have met the larger goals have been rejected. These limitations are reflected in Canadas agricultural sector where SIAs are rarely, if ever, undertaken. Agriculture is responsible for approximately ten percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada, and several better management practices (BMP) have been suggested for managing these emissions in Canadian agriculture. However, there has not been a strategic assessment of the on-farm socioeconomic effects of such programs, nor the geographic implications of a one-size-fits-all policy solution. <p>This paper presents a higher level strategic assessment of alternative policy options for managing greenhouse gas emissions in Canadian agriculture. Data are collected using a stakeholder survey assessment, and the process is guided by a seven-phase strategic environmental assessment framework. Using this strategic framework, the on-farm social impacts of alternative greenhouse gas mitigation programs are assessed. Data are aggregated using multi-criteria weighting techniques. Stakeholder preference structures for the alternatives set are identified as well, the results of the SIA identified adoption of zero till practices as the most socially acceptable alternative. The research results suggest that a one-size-fits-all GHG mitigation policy would not be acceptable from a social perspective. The implications of include such issues as: the applicability of regional policies based on soil zone, alternatives to governmental top down hierarchical policies, and the necessity for collaboration and meaningful dialogue between on-farm individuals and policy makers. Adoption of a GHG mitigation policy in Canada will require education and collaboration between all affected stakeholders and decision makers. The application of a strategic framework illustrates how the SIA process is enhanced when an assessment is completed at the plan, policy, and program level it enables proactive consideration of the social effects on par with the biophysical effects, and it facilitates consideration of a broad range of alternatives, in support of sustainable development principles.

Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is the process of assessing the social consequences that are likely to follow specific policy actions or project development. SIA has not been widely adopted and is said to be the orphan of the assessment process. Using Environmental Assessment (EA) however, there are two primary limitations to EA: first, EA is inherently biased toward the biophysical environment, and social impacts, when considered, are only considered in an indirect or secondary manner; second, EA is targeted at the project level, where many alternatives that may have met the larger goals have been rejected. These limitations are reflected in Canadas agricultural sector where SIAs are rarely, if ever, undertaken. Agriculture is responsible for approximately ten percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada, and several better management practices (BMP) have been suggested for managing these emissions in Canadian agriculture. However, there has not been a strategic assessment of the on-farm socioeconomic effects of such programs, nor the geographic implications of a one-size-fits-all policy solution. <p>This paper presents a higher level strategic assessment of alternative policy options for managing greenhouse gas emissions in Canadian agriculture. Data are collected using a stakeholder survey assessment, and the process is guided by a seven-phase strategic environmental assessment framework. Using this strategic framework, the on-farm social impacts of alternative greenhouse gas mitigation programs are assessed. Data are aggregated using multi-criteria weighting techniques. Stakeholder preference structures for the alternatives set are identified as well, the results of the SIA identified adoption of zero till practices as the most socially acceptable alternative. The research results suggest that a one-size-fits-all GHG mitigation policy would not be acceptable from a social perspective. The implications of include such issues as: the applicability of regional policies based on soil zone, alternatives to governmental top down hierarchical policies, and the necessity for collaboration and meaningful dialogue between on-farm individuals and policy makers. Adoption of a GHG mitigation policy in Canada will require education and collaboration between all affected stakeholders and decision makers. The application of a strategic framework illustrates how the SIA process is enhanced when an assessment is completed at the plan, policy, and program level it enables proactive consideration of the social effects on par with the biophysical effects, and it facilitates consideration of a broad range of alternatives, in support of sustainable development principles.

The loss of ecological integrity as a result of urban spread and construction threatens the overall biodiversity of urban areas and prompts us to consider means of better including ecological biodiversity within development projects. The UK’s best practice tool for ensuring the integration of ecology into such projects is the Building Research Establishments Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). This thesis seeks to identify the efficacy of the current approach to ecological integration within BREEAM, and enable development to foster biodiversity and ecology more positively in the urban environment. Qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to develop a new approach to the integration of ecology within an existing and nationally recognised model. This began by exploring the efficacy of and the main flaws in the present system by a survey of ecologists with experience of the BREEAM process. This led to a new approach to establishing the ecological value of urban ecology utilising a new calculation methodology, adapting the current scheme to focus on land use change as a result of urban land use planning and development. This new approach utilises habitat changes at its core to measure positive and negative change and indicate potential design solutions in land use planning within a development. The innovative methodology was tested using an in depth case study to review and discuss its effective application. The outcome was a new way to address the important variables of habitat integration and linkages maintaining ecological integrity and provision of ecosystem services. It is considered that the outlined approach of the new Land Use and Ecology section of BREEAM is suitable for integration into the next iteration in 2010, which will enable development to positively foster biodiversity and ecology in the urban environment.

The practice of evaluating situations with the Riverside Situational Q-Sort (RSQ:Wagerman & Funder, 2009) is relatively new. The present study aimed to investigate the theoretical framework supporting the RSQ with regards to the potential confounds of emotional state and the use of Likert-type ratings. Data were collected from a sample of Florida Atlantic University students (N = 206). Participants were primed for either a positive or negative mood state and asked to evaluate a situation with the RSQ in either the Q-Sort or Likert-type response format. Results suggested that response format has a significant influence on RSQ evaluations, but mood and the interaction between mood and response format do not. Exploratory analyses were conducted to determine the underlying mechanisms responsible. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This research is in the management discipline, more specifically in human resource management concerned with staffing. It examines a relatively new phenomenon: career changes by a special cadre of individuals who have advanced education and training, perhaps a doctoral degree in sciences, humanities, or engineering, and who, at the dusk of their careers, became entrepreneurial and strive to switch from an executive position in business to an academic post or vice versa. In the light of recent societal and environmental developments, and the fact that people more often change careers, there is a growing need for systematic assessment processes. For people who want to change careers at an older age, there are no assessment models available and consulting agencies have not specialized in these areas. By using the assessment methodology developed in this research, it is possible to assess a person’s lifelong careers and to use these assessments in recruitment situations. The models explain how to select shortlisted candidates. The models are based on learning theory, especially experiential learning theory which is particularly important for candidates with lifelong careers and older exam certificates. The models give special attention to the learning that has taken place in practice for people aspiring to change careers. The respondents of the empirical study were of this type. Ten people with lifelong careers were interviewed through a narrative method but guided through a learning model of content, incentive, and interaction. Their cases have been related to experiential learning theory to give a foundation for developing an assessment methodology of lifelong careers. The concepts of competence and employability are central, as assessment has to be towards an object and purpose: a candidate for a job in a recruitment situation. The special characteristic of this study is that it deals with people who show entrepreneurial behavior by shifting to business after a long career in academia, or vice versa. For them a lifewide career can be described by the occupation they have had in the two professions, academia and business. Lifelong careers give candidates possibilities to see their lives’ courses in retrospect and to assess their careers. Based on recruitment criteria set up by the employer, candidates have the opportunity to deliver information and evidence for employability through describing their competences to assessors. Special weight should be put on describing the life courses through eras of their professional lives and what has motivated them in specific eras – and especially what has motivated them to change careers. The portfolio is a tool suitable for lifelong career reporting – especially on the candidate side as this gives him a “database” from which he can tailor job applications and address employer requirements. On the employer side, there is a need for assessment methods to select the best candidates. With the assessment methodology developed in this research, employers have models and tools for more objective recruitment of candidates. This research provides concrete methods for assessing candidates and models for quantitatively prioritizing shortlisted candidates. The aim of the study is to make assessment methodology and tools for recruiting purposes, especially for entrepreneurial people with a lifelong career.

Submitted by JESSICA OLIVEIRA DE SOUZA null (osz.jessica@gmail.com) on 2017-06-09T12:04:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação-Jessica-Melo.pdf: 5257476 bytes, checksum: 21d6468b47635a4df09d971c6c0bb581 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-06-12T12:21:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 melo_josf_me_mar.pdf: 5257476 bytes, checksum: 21d6468b47635a4df09d971c6c0bb581 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-12T12:21:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 melo_josf_me_mar.pdf: 5257476 bytes, checksum: 21d6468b47635a4df09d971c6c0bb581 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A Web Semântica sugere a utilização de padrões e tecnologias que atribuem estrutura e semântica aos dados, de modo que agentes computacionais possam fazer um processamento inteligente, automático, para cumprir tarefas específicas. Neste contexto, foi criado o projeto Linked Open Data (LOD), que consiste em uma iniciativa para promover a publicação de dados linkados (Linked Data). Com o evidente crescimento dos dados publicados como Linked Data, a qualidade tornou-se essencial para que tais conjuntos de dados (datasets) atendam os objetivos básicos da Web Semântica. Isso porque problemas de qualidade nos datasets publicados constituem em um empecilho não somente para a sua utilização, mas também para aplicações que fazem uso de tais dados. Considerando que os dados disponibilizados como Linked Data possibilitam um ambiente favorável para aplicações inteligentes, problemas de qualidade podem também dificultar ou impedir a integração dos dados provenientes de diferentes datasets. A literatura aplica diversas dimensões de qualidade no contexto do Linked Data, porém indaga-se a aplicabilidade de tais dimensões para avaliação de qualidade de dados linkados. Deste modo, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo propor uma metodologia para avaliação de qualidade nos datasets de Linked Data, bem como estabelecer um modelo do que pode ser considerado qualidade de dados no contexto da Web Semântica e do Linked Data. Para isso adotou-se uma abordagem exploratória e descritiva a fim de estabelecer problemas, dimensões e requisitos de qualidade e métodos quantitativos na metodologia de avaliação a fim de realizar a atribuição de índices de qualidade. O trabalho resultou na definição de sete dimensões de qualidade aplicáveis ao domínio do Linked Data e 14 fórmulas diferentes para a quantificação da qualidade de datasets sobre publicações científicas. Por fim realizou-se uma prova de conceito na qual a metodologia de avaliação de qualidade proposta foi aplicada em um dataset promovido pelo LOD. Conclui-se, a partir dos resultados da prova de conceito, que a metodologia proposta consiste em um meio viável para quantificação dos problemas de qualidade em datasets de Linked Data, e que apesar dos diversos requisitos para a publicação deste tipo de dados podem existir outros datasets que não atendam determinados requisitos de qualidade, e por sua vez, não deveriam estar inclusos no diagrama do projeto LOD. / The Semantic Web suggests the use of patterns and technologies that assign structure and semantics to the data, so that computational agents can perform intelligent, automatic processing to accomplish specific tasks. In this context, the Linked Open Data (LOD) project was created, which consists of an initiative to promote the publication of Linked Data. With the evident growth of data published as Linked Data, quality has become essential for such datasets to meet the basic goals of the Semantic Web. This is because quality problems in published datasets are a hindrance not only to their use but also to applications that make use of such data. Considering that data made available as Linked Data enables a favorable environment for intelligent applications, quality problems can also hinder or prevent the integration of data coming from different datasets. The literature applies several quality dimensions in the context of Linked Data, however, the applicability of such dimensions for quality evaluation of linked data is investigated. Thus, this research aims to propose a methodology for quality evaluation in Linked Data datasets, as well as to establish a model of what can be considered data quality in the Semantic Web and Linked Data context. For this, an exploratory and descriptive approach was adopted in order to establish problems, dimensions and quality requirements and quantitative methods in the evaluation methodology in order to perform the assignment of quality indexes. This work resulted in the definition of seven quality dimensions applicable to the Linked Data domain and 14 different formulas for the quantification of the quality of datasets on scientific publications. Finally, a proof of concept was developed in which the proposed quality assessment methodology was applied in a dataset promoted by the LOD. It is concluded from the proof of concept results that the proposed methodology consists of a viable means for quantification of quality problems in Linked Data datasets and that despite the diverse requirements for the publication of this type of data there may be other datasets that do not meet certain quality requirements, and in turn, should not be included in the LOD project diagram.

To improve the quality of services delivered to customers, hotels can benefit from the experiences of manufacturing firms and employ quality and process improvement philosophies/tools with proven track records in the manufacturing industries. This article presents a framework which integrates the tools of Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Benchmarking (BM), Reengineering (RE) and Continuous Improvement (CI) within the context of a Rapid Assessment Methodology (RAM). Application of the framework is illustrated and the potential benefits a hotel can derive from the implementation of the framework are discussed.

The creation of futures scenarios is a tool to addresschallenges towards sustainability in planning and thebuilt environment. Scenarios in the project BeyondGDP growth explore futures where priority is givento social and environmental aspects and economicgrowth is regarded as uncertain. When futures areused as an input to planning, there has to be anawareness of the possible consequences of those.Sustainability assessment for futures scenarios aimsto give a comprehensive assessment of how differentscenarios can affect relevant aspects. This thesis gives an overview of current methods forsustainability assessment of futures scenarios. It alsoproposes improvements to one of them and tests iton the Beyond GDP growth scenarios. SAFS (SustainabilityAssessment Framework for Scenarios) isthe method selected. SAFS considers environmentaland social aspects providing qualitative results anduses consumption perspective and life cycle approach. Improvements to SAFS are proposed in two directions.First, the Doughnut developed by Raworth(2012) is integrated in the method. It gives a graphicrepresentation, putting each aspect in context withthe others and facilitate the communication of theassessment results. Second, an alternative approachis suggested to evaluate the consequences of environmentaldeprivation on social conditions. Thisalternative approach can also help communicateuncertainties. / Att skapa framtidsscenarier är ett verktyg för attadressera utmaningar relaterade till hållbarhet inomsamhällsplanering och samhällsbyggnad. ProjektetBortom BNP-tillväxt utforskar i ett antal scenarierolika framtider där sociala och miljömässiga aspekterfår prioritet och ekonomisk tillväxt betraktas somosäker. När framtidsscenarier används som inputi samhällsplanering behöver det finnas en medvetenhetom dessa framtiders möjliga konsekvenser. Hållbarhetsbedömning av framtida scenarier utgören omfattande utvärdering av hur olika scenarier kanförväntas påverka relevanta aspekter. Den här uppsatsen ger en översikt över befintligametoder för hållbarhetsbedömning av framtidsscenarier,den applicerar en av dessa metoder - SAFS(Sustainability Assessment Framework for Scenarios) -på scenarierna inom Bortom BNP-tillväxt och föreslårförbättringar till metoden. SAFS väljs därför att densom metod tar hänsyn till såväl miljö- som socialaaspekter, ger kvalitativa resultat och utvärderar scenariernaur ett konsumtions- och livscykelperspektiv. Två förbättringar av SAFS föreslås. Den ena är attintegrera Raworths “Doughnut” (2012) eftersomden erbjuder ett sätt att grafiskt representera allautvärderade aspekter tillsammans och underlättaratt kommunicera resultatet från bedömningen. Denandra förbättringen innebär ett annat angreppssättför att utvärdera konsekvenserna av miljöförstöringför sociala aspekter. Det föreslagna angreppssättetkan även underlätta att kommunicera metodens inneboendeosäkerheter gällande resultaten. / Beyond GDP growth

Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur lärare resonerar kring hur de arbetar med formativ bedömning och individanpassad undervisning i matematikundervisningen i grundskolan. Vi har därför undersökt detta område närmare genom en empirisk enkätstudie. Vårt urval har bestått av respondenter som dagligen möter denna problematik och som har erfarenheter inom området d.v.s. grundskollärare.Hälften av respondenterna hävdade att de individanpassade matematikundervisningen i stor utsträckning, resterande i måttlig eller liten utsträckning. Gällande frågan om formativ bedömning svarade omkring hälften av respondenterna att implementeringen av formativ bedömning sker i stor utsträckning och resterande i liten eller måttlig utsträckning. Av resultaten framstod fem vanligt förekommande formativa strategier som användes i matematikundervisningen dagligen. Häpnadsväckande nog har även Wiliam (2013) betonat vikten av och behandlat samma strategier som förekom i den empiriska studien. / The aim is to examine how teachers reason about how they work with formative assessment and individualized instruction in mathematics teaching in primary schools. We have therefore studied this area in more detail by an empirical survey. Our sample consisted of respondents who daily face this problem and who have experience in the area i.e. primary school teachers.Half of the respondents claimed that they personalized mathematics teaching extensively, remaining in moderate or small extent. Regarding the issue of formative assessment about half of the respondents claimed to the implementation of formative assessment is done extensively and the remainder in small or moderate extent.In the result it appeared five common formative strategies used in mathematics instruction daily. Astoundingly, even Wiliam (2013) emphasized the importance of the same strategies that appeared in the empirical study.