[pt] O objetivo geral deste trabalho é avaliar o impacto relativo da utilização de atributos de forma na segmentação de imagens de diferentes características e classes de objeto distintas. Para tanto, uma extensão do método de Segmentação Multiresolução (Baatz00) foi proposta e implementada, permitindo que vários atributos de forma possam ser considerados no processo de crescimento de regiões. Para se selecionar a métrica usada na avaliação da qualidade da segmentação, oito métricas disponíveis na literatura foram consideradas. O desempenho relativo das oito métricas foi verificado experimentalmente e avaliada a correlação entre este desempenho e a percepção humana da qualidade da segmentação. Na sequência, dez atributos de forma foram selecionados. A qualidade das segmentações realizadas considerando um atributo de forma de cada vez foi então comparada com a qualidade de segmentações baseadas somente na cor. Depois disso o impacto da utilização de pares de atributos de forma no processo de segmentação foi avaliado. Os experimentos foram realizados para quinze classes de objetos distintas presentes em doze imagens representativas de áreas de aplicação diferentes – sensoriamento remoto, microscopia e imagens médicas. Os resultados confirmam a importância dos atributos de forma na qualidade da segmentação e suscitam uma discussão sobre trabalhos futuros. / [en] This work’s general goal is to evaluate the relative impact of using different morphological attributes on the segmentation of different images and object classes. Therefore, this work proposes an extension to the Multiresolution Segmentation method (Baatz00), in a way that several morphological attributes can be considered in the region growing process. In order to select a segmentation quality assessment metric to be used in the evaluation of the proposed segmentation algorithm, a study on eight metrics available in the literature was conducted. This study aimed at assessing the relative performance of the quality metrics and to verify which of them presented the higher correlation with the human perception of segmentation quality. Eight shape attributes were then chosen to compose the heterogeneity criterion and the quality of segmentations using one shape attribute at a time was compared with the color only based segmentation. After that, the impact of using pairs of morphological attributes was also evaluated. The experiments were performed over fifteen classes of interest present in twelve different images, representing application areas such as remote sensing, microscopy and medical images. The results confirm the importance of including morphological attributes in the segmentation process and promote an interesting discussion about future works.

Over the past two decades, research in both the management accounting and marketing disciplines has reported insightful developments, theoretically and empirically, in which both are implicated, yet research into the interface between the two disciplines remains relatively unexplored. In the management accounting literature, a strategically-orientated approach has evolved in which customers, customer satisfaction, customer value and competitive positioning have developed as key management themes requiring a re-evaluation of the existing management accounting information for decision-making. In marketing, research on �market orientation�, has emphasised similar and interrelated themes of customers, competitors, and the interfunctional coordination of organisational activities in the creation of customer value and the ascertainment and calculation of profits. Taking market orientation as a point of departure, in this thesis a conceptual framework is developed which reflects the theoretical links between management accounting and market orientation at a product decision-making level. The undertaking of two in-depth organisational case studies is reported in which market orientation and management accounting for each functional area is analysed and discussed. A greater functional and organisational emphasis on customers� vis-�-vis competitors was found as was an emphasis on informal means of information communication and coordination between functional areas. Despite consistent cross-functional understanding of customers� product-attribute needs in both case studies, the findings indicate the use of �traditional� accounting information for product-level decision-making and an absence of market-orientated accounting information. Exploration and description of the industry and organisational context in both case studies provides an insight into several factors - formality, strategic orientation, organisational structural costs and resource capability � that appear to influence market orientation and the adoption of market-orientated accounting for product decision-making.

There is a particular class of products where people must visit the point of production in order to be consumers, and these products are normally lifestyle, tourism or leisure services. Examples include environmentally-based leisure facilities, housing, and tourist accommodation. Frequently the assertion is made that location makes one product 'superior' to another, in terms of both its production and consumption. This study enquires into the asserted significance of location in product differentiation, with special reference to hospitality and tourism products. The study is particularly concerned with commercially tradeable products offered to a consumer market by a number of competitive firms, rather than being concerned with one-off markets for assets for exclusive use, such as houses. By the use of characteristics theory, this study shows that the role of geographic location within a product such as hotel accommodation is that of a product-differentiating characteristic, or set of characteristics. However, the location of such a product is an example of a fixed, or unalterable, characteristic, once a supplier has entered a market. With most product-differentiating characteristics, a supplier can attain an optimal business position by enhancing the differentiation for as long as customers' willingness to pay 'the extra' (marginal revenue) exceeds or equals the cost (marginal cost) of product enhancement. However, a supplier cannot easily do this for a fixed characteristic. So what is the value of a particular location to a supplier of this type of product? This study develops a model to identify the specific elements of a location that are important to consumers, and then to estimate their values. It is argued that the values of each specific element (locational characteristics) should contribute in a predictable way to the overall price of each product in the market place. It is also shown in this study that individual suppliers who cannot identify, or who incorrectly set, prices based on locational characteristics face a measurable variation in demand from the mean in the market place. The model and methodology are tested empirically in the market for international-standard hotel accommodation on the Gold Coast, Queensland. It is shown that this constitutes a single, coherent market as a tourist destination, where a limited number of producers compete with differentiated products. Those product characteristics that are important to the market are identified, and it is shown that elements of location and other characteristics can be valued accurately across the market. The relationship between suppliers' 'overpricing' or 'underpricing' of their product characteristics and variations in demand from the market average is explored. This study therefore has implications for pricing strategy, as well as for land valuation and planning. The study can be seen as contributing primarily to the economics literature, in the area of industrial economics, but also to the marketing, and hospitality and tourism literature.

This thesis examines the cultural models and discourses that a group of aspiring, primary school teachers in South-East Queensland employed to explain their current world and describe the likely development of their own careers and lives. Thirteen males and fifty-seven females, aged between 15 and 25, were involved in the study. All participants had expressed an interest in preservice teacher training with 77 percent of the cohort currently enrolled in a teacher-training program in the South-East region of Queensland, Australia. This study adopted a multi-method approach to data collection and included informal interviews, scenario planning workshops, focus groups, and a telephone survey. Initial pilot studies, incorporating informal interviews, preceded scenario planning workshops. Four males and eleven females were involved in six scenario planning groups. The scenario planning format, based upon Schwartz (1991), followed a seven-step approach whereby participants formulated and evaluated four possible future scenarios for Australia. These formed the stimulus material for the second stage of the study where thirteen focus groups critically analysed the scenario planning data. Interpretation of the data was underpinned by a framework based on an amalgamation of Gee's (1999) theoretical concepts of acts of meaning, cultural models, and Discourses and Bernstein's (1996) theoretical concepts of classification, framing, and realisation and recognition rules. The respondents exhibited five pre-eminent Discourses. These were a Technologies Discourse, Educational Discourse, Success Discourse, Voyeuristic Discourse, and an Oppositional Discourse. The group's Technologies Discourse was pervasive and influenced their future predictions for Australian society, themselves, and education and was expressed in both positive and negative terms. The respondents spoke of their current and future relationship to technologies in positive terms while they spoke of society's future relationship to technologies in negative terms. Their reactions to technologies were appropriated from two specific cultural resources. In the first instance this appears to be from their personal positive interactions with technologies. In the second instance the group have drawn from Science Fiction Discourses to predict malevolent and controlling technologies of the future. The respondents' Technologies Discourse is also evident in their Educational Discourse. They predict that their future classrooms will be more technological and that they, as teaching professionals, will be technologically literate and proficient. Their past experiences with education and schooling systems has also influenced their Educational Discourse and led them to assume, paradoxically, that while the process of education is and will continue to be a force for change, schools will not evidence a great deal of change in the coming years. The respondents were optimistic and confident about themselves, their current interactions with technologies, their future lives, and their future careers. These dispositions formed part of their Success Discourse and manifested as heroism, idealism, and a belief in utopian personal futures. The respondents' Voyeuristic Discourse assumed limited social engagement and a limited ability to accept responsibility for the past, present, and future. The respondents had adopted an 'onlooker' approach to society. This aspect of their Discourse appeared to be mutable and showed signs of tempering as the respondents matured and became more involved in their teaching careers. Finally, the respondents' Oppositional Discourse clearly delineated between themselves and 'others'. They were users of technologies, teachers, good people, young, privileged, white, Australian, and urban dwelling while 'others' were controllers of technologies, learners, bad people, older or younger, non-privileged, non-Australian, and country dwelling. Current reforms introduced by Education Queensland have stressed the need for a new approach to new times, new economies, and new workplaces. This involves having a capacity to envisage new forms, new structures, and new relationships. 'New times' teaching professionals are change agents who are socially critical, socially responsible, risk takers, able to negotiate a constantly changing knowledge-rich society, flexible, creative, innovative, reflexive, and collaborative (Sachs, 2003). The respondents in this study did not appear to be change agents or future activist teaching professionals (Sachs, 2003). Rather, they were inclined towards reproducing historical, traditional, and conservative social and professional roles as well as practices, and maintaining a safe distance from social and environmental responsibility. Essentially, the group had responded to a period of rapid social and cultural change by placing themselves outside of change forces. Successful educational reform and implementation, such as that being proposed by Education Queensland (2000), demands that all interested stakeholders share a common vision (Fullan, 1993). The respondents' Discourses indicated that they did not exhibit a futures vision beyond their immediate selves. This limited vision was at odds with that being espoused by Education Queensland (2000). This body recognises the importance of being able to envisage, develop, and sustain preferable futures visions and have developed futures oriented curricula with this in mind. Such curricula are said to respond to the changing needs of today's and tomorrow's society by having problem solving and the concept of lifelong learning at the core. The future towards which the respondents aspire is one where lifelong learning and problem solving have little significance beyond their need to stay current with evolving technologies. In reflecting on the respondents' viewpoints and the range of Discourses that they draw upon to accommodate their changing world, I propose a number of recommendations for policy makers and educators. It is recommended that preservice teacher training institutions take up the challenge of equipping future teachers with the skills, knowledges, and dispositions needed to be responsible, reflective, and proactive educators who are able to envisage and work towards preferable visions of schooling and society. Ideally, this could occur through mandatory Futures Studies courses. Currently, Futures Studies courses are not seen as an essential area of study within education degrees and as such preservice teachers are given little opportunity to engage with futures concepts, knowledges, or skills. The success of the scenario planning approach in this thesis and the richness of the issues raised through interactive engagement in imagining possible futures, suggests that all citizens, but particularly teachers, need to enlighten their imaginations more often through such processes.

<p>This study aims to give an overview on young Chinese consumers’ car purchase behavior. The results show that car purchasing decision is an important decision for most of Chinese. Consumers get information from different channels. The results of this study also tells us that Chinese consumers take “safety” as the most important characteristic and take “value for money” as the second most important and “riding comfort” as the third important characteristic. Chinese consumers take “after-sale maintenance” and “exterior design/size” as the forth most important factors when making the purchase decision. For “exterior design/size”, it indicates that Chinese people are status-seeking and Chinese people prefer to choose a bigger car with a good appearance (Mian Zi Che) to show their good social status and want to get respects from others. Chinese consumers put the least importance on resale value that is because second hand car market is not well developed in China.</p>

<p>There is a common belief amongst those who are involved in projects that as project complexity increases the difficulty to manage a project increases and thus the probability to succeed in project completion considerably decreases. Perception of complexity in a project usually refers to common criteria from traditional project management thinking such as the scale of the project; cost; duration; and the degree of risk to its owner. However, whether a project is perceived to be complex or not may not be purely a product of the size of the project. It may also be derived from the person’s experience in projects. The aim of this study is to identify attributes of perception of project complexity and observe whether experience is also a determining factor in perceiving a project as complex. The research is based on the assumption that a complex project may exhibit behaviour similar to complex adaptive system. This study proposes a theoretical framework based on projects understood as complex adaptive systems. A project experience matrix is developed which will be useful to help link degree and type of experience to perceptions of project complexity.</p><p>This study employs a comparative study between two cases to explore and compare the perception of complexity in each case. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained through semi-structured interview and questionnaires, then analysed accordingly. The outcomes of this research attempted to find answers to the following questions: How do project managers and team members perceive a project as complex (project complexity)?” In answering this question we explored how project managers and team members perceived project complexity. The major question above was elaborated by some minor specific questions. These are: Which attributes of complex adaptive systems are attributed by project managers and team members to project complexity? Is project experience a determining factor to the perception of project complexity? Based on our sample we found no significant differences between attributes of complex adaptive systems and perception of project complexity; no significant association between depth and context of experience and perception of project complexity. We also found no significant differences between the Chinese and Indonesian samples.</p>

<p>The cereal couture company, <em>[me] & goji, </em>is the dream of three young entrepreneurs. They were the first online company ever to provide the U.S market with customized cereal mix. This case study finds that online companies with an innovative product such as <em>[me] & goji</em> may benefit from using Social Networks as a marketing channel to communicate their Value Proposition. Supported by Roger's Adoption theory, selected theories on, Value Proposition, Social Networks, and qualitative data gathered from, interviews and surveys several findings were made. The conclusion is that despite offering a relatively non complex product, with a high relative advantage the market may have difficulties with recognizing the value of the product. This is mainly due to the fact that products sold online cannot be tried by the customer until after purchase. This may be perceived as an uncertainty factor for some customers. The main benefit with viral marketing tools such as Social Networks is that they may increase the rate of the market adopting new products.</p>

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Contemporary software engineering practice overemphasizes the distinction of software design from software implementation, and designer (“software architect”) from implementor (“computer programmer”). In this contemporary meme, software architects are concerned with large-grained system structures, quality attributes that arise from these structures (security, availability, performance, etc.) and quality attribute tradeoff to satisfy conflicting stakeholder needs; programmers are concerned with low–level algorithms and data structures, program functionality, and with satisfying architectural intent. However, software is unique in that design and implementation are not cleanly separable. While architect and programmer may have many different design concerns, they also have many complementary and interacting concerns; their respective design practices must be well–integrated. Instead, contemporary architecture and programming practices are diverging. Architects are likely to regard programming as a routine production activity, while programmers are likely to regard architecture as a routine management activity; communication is hindered by a lack of shared vocabulary or appreciation of mutual concerns. Instead of effective integration, a gap has opened in software architecture and programming practice. The research reported here defines the architecture/program seam (“the Seam”), a region of overlap in software architecture and programming practice. The Seam emphasizes design concerns centered on achieving predictable runtime behavior. For a behavior to be predictable it must be described in a theory that must ultimately be consistent with basic theories of computation, and each such theory must have objective evidence to demonstrate that theory observations correspond to system observations. The validity of a theory will likely depend on invariants that can be expressed, and enforced, by means of theory–induced design rules. A system that satisfies the design rules of a theory is then regarded as having behavior that is predictable by construction with respect to that theory. Predictability by construction reduces uncertainty, and hence risk in design, and helps designers explain complex design decisions. The research reported here also defines prediction–enabled component technology (PECT) as a foundation technology to support the Seam, and demonstrates a prototype on industrial problems in electric grid substation control, industrial robot control, and desktop streaming audio. The prototype PECT extends a basic component technology of pure assembly (“Pin”) with theory extension points (“reasoning frameworks”) that are used to achieve predictability by construction. Reasoning frameworks for real–time performance and temporal–logic model checking have been developed, with statistical confidence intervals providing evidence of predictive quality for the former, and code–embeddable proof certificates providing evidence for the latter. Finally, the research reported here defines the Seam itself as inducing a new kind of evolutionary design problem, whose solutions require the integration of programming language theory, design theory, specialized theories of system behavior and deep systems expertise.