Diploma thesis focuses on the design of a project solution for the creation of internet shop for a selected company with using project management methods. The thesis describes the theoretical knowledge about project management and analyses the corporate environment, based on which is created a proposal for solution of a project for successful realization of the new e-shop.

This study develops a heuristic procedure for specifying parameters for a neural network configuration (learning rate, momentum, and the number of neurons in a single hidden layer) in Shewhart X-bar control chart applications. Also, this study examines the replicability of the neural network solution when the neural network is retrained several times with different initial weights.

In this current economical environment business are looking to become more efficient to lower the costs and provide a better service. New technological advances are quickly being integrated to automate or more rapidly perform the task. Most of these technological advances are in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Nevertheless, the introduction of technologies is not enough, as better management strategies and organization structures are needed to develop the business further. Duroc Machine Tools identified a problem within the sales and service approach, which does not employ ICT tools while communicating with the customer. Therefore, the cost per order is high and a direct one to one communication is the only approach. The project focuses on lowering the cost of each order, without decreasing the customer care and the overall quality of the service. This was firstly done by studying the possibilities of what ICT tools would be applied to enhance the communication processes. Data was collected from statistical sources to give an overall idea. Next case studies of companies within similar industries and region were performed to indicate in more detail the tools used and available. An educated guess was formulated of what ICT tools should be considered, the more infrequent or conflicting ICTs recommended were verified by interviewing employees with a demonstration of the tools application. The second stage was to analyze the organizational structure and applying lean tools to add value to the customer. A customer perspective is at the centre of this theory and several tools were used to improve the system. Finally the ICT tools were integrated with the new organizational structure to demonstrate the developments possibilities in the future vision. The study found that common ICT functions such as information upload have become essential for doing business today. Another trend that was established is that live information or user-generated approach which is a must have factor in the future ICT platform, this was mostly suggested by introducing micro-blogs. The infrequent and conflicting ICTs within the industry that were recommended were: e-commerce, order management and model driven process solving (MDP). The verification showed a strong consent within the company to apply such tools. To finish the project a strategy of implementation was formulated to guide the company towards its vision of a better system.

Denna rapport behandlar passform och gradering av åtsittande träningstights i stretchmaterial.Det finns lite forskning på detta område och genom ett samarbete med ett företag, somtillverkar träningskläder, har det konstaterats att det är svårt att få till duglig passform i allastorlekar på åtsittande tights. Problemet är att plagget ofta upplevs för stort. Syftet med arbetetär att undersöka hur passformen kan förbättras och bli lika god i alla storlekar och i olikamaterial. Rapporten presenterar ett sätt att omvandla grundstorlek och gradera utifrånmaterialets maximala stretch kapacitet, med hänsyn till kroppsmått. Provplagg sys upp utifrånden nämnda graderingsmetoden och provas av på tre personer med storlek S och tre personermed storlek XL. Dessa plagg jämförs med företagets plagg och det konstateras, utifrånprovpersonernas kommentarer, att passformen och upplevelse av plagget, med denomvandlade måttlistan, har blivit bättre. En formel för omvandling av kroppsmått tas fram.Denna används för att ta fram plaggmåttlistor med material i olika procent stretch, därstretchen är mellan 100-210%. Dessa analyseras och resultatet blir plaggmåttlistor igrundstorlek samt skillnadsmåttlistor som grupperats efter materialets stretch och som kananvändas som bas i produktutveckling utav träningstights. / Denna rapport behandlar passform och gradering av åtsittande träningstights i stretchmaterial. Det finns lite forskning på detta område och genom ett samarbete med ett företag, som tillverkar träningskläder, har det konstaterats att det är svårt att få till duglig passform i allastorlekar på åtsittande tights. Problemet är att plagget ofta upplevs för stort. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur passformen kan förbättras och bli lika god i alla storlekar och i olika material. Rapporten presenterar ett sätt att omvandla grundstorlek och gradera utifrån materialets maximala stretch kapacitet, med hänsyn till kroppsmått. Provplagg sys upp utifrån den nämnda graderingsmetoden och provas av på tre personer med storlek S och tre personer med storlek XL. Dessa plagg jämförs med företagets plagg och det konstateras, utifrån provpersonernas kommentarer, att passformen och upplevelse av plagget, med den omvandlade måttlistan, har blivit bättre. En formel för omvandling av kroppsmått tas fram. Denna används för att ta fram plaggmåttlistor med material i olika procent stretch, där stretchen är mellan 100-210%. Dessa analyseras och resultatet blir plaggmåttlistor i grundstorlek samt skillnadsmåttlistor som grupperats efter materialets stretch och som kan användas som bas i produktutveckling utav träningstights.

The VSWR is an important entity when assessing the properties of an antenna. This report presents measurements of the VSWR, related to antennas, by means of a Vector Network Analyzer. The open/short/load calibration method is used as a preparation before the actual measurement in order to obtain accurate results. The way that the VSWR depends on frequency is illustrated by three measurment methods: direct measurement of the VSWR, by using 𝑆11, or by using the Smith chart. The results are compared and conclusions are drawn.

A novel clinical assay for the assessment and subsequent treatment of Haemonchus infection in sheep to slow down the development of anthelmintic resistance – the FAMACHA / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2001. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted

When monitoring a binary process proportion p, it is usually assumed that the binary observations are independent. However, it is very common that the observations are correlated with p being the correlation between two successive observations. The first part of this research investigates the problem of monitoring p when the binary observations follow a first-order two-state Markov chain model with p remaining unchanged. A Markov Binary GLR (MBGLR) chart with an upper bound on the estimate of p is proposed to monitor a continuous stream of autocorrelated binary observations treating each observation as a sample of size n=1. The MBGLR chart with a large upper bound has good overall performance over a wide range of shifts. The MBGLR chart is optimized using the extra number of defectives (END) over a range of upper bounds for the MLE of p. The numerical results show that the optimized MBGLR chart has a smaller END than the optimized Markov binary CUSUM. The second part of this research develops a CUSUM-pp chart and a GLR-pp chart to monitor p and p simultaneously. The CUSUM-pp with two tuning parameters is designed to detect shifts in p and p when the shifted values are known. We apply two CUSUM-pp charts as a chart combination to detect increases in p and increases or decreases in p. The GLR-pp chart with an upper bound on the estimate of p, and an upper bound and a lower bound on the estimate of p works well when the shifts are unknown. We find that the GLR-pp chart has better overall performance. The last part of this research investigates the problem of monitoring p with p remains at the target value when the correlated binary observations are aggregated into samples with n>1. We assume that samples are independent and there is correlation between the observations in a sample. We proposed some GLR and CUSUM charts to monitor p and the performance of the charts are compared. The simulation results show MBNGLR has overall better performance than the other charts. / Ph. D.

Analysis and predictive modeling of massive datasets is an extremely significant problem that arises in many practical applications. The task of predictive modeling becomes even more challenging when data are imperfect or uncertain. The real data are frequently affected by outliers, uncertain labels, and uneven distribution of classes (imbalanced data). Such uncertainties create bias and make predictive modeling an even more difficult task. In the present work, we introduce a cost-sensitive learning method (CSL) to deal with the classification of imperfect data. Typically, most traditional approaches for classification demonstrate poor performance in an environment with imperfect data. We propose the use of CSL with Support Vector Machine, which is a well-known data mining algorithm. The results reveal that the proposed algorithm produces more accurate classifiers and is more robust with respect to imperfect data. Furthermore, we explore the best performance measures to tackle imperfect data along with addressing real problems in quality control and business analytics.

Det som ska undersökas i denna fallstudie är ifall visualisering av studerad tid kan öka motivationen hos en högskolestudent att studera på högskola. I denna uppsats definieras studietillfällen som schemalagda föreläsningar och övningar, eller självorganiserade studiepass. Kopplingen mellan motivation och visualisering av tid lagt på träning i gym har tidigare undersökts. Vi bygger vidare på det och undersöker ifall det finns ett liknande samband med mängden tid nedlagd på studier och motivationen att studera vid högre utbildning. Frågan är av intresse för främst utvecklare av lärplattformar, då ifall att fallstudiens resultat skulle tyda på att visualisering av tid nedlagt på studier orsakar en ökad motivation skulle det vara värdefullt att implementera i lärplattformar. Vidare, är frågan av intresse för studenter eftersom det skulle kunna öka deras studiemotivation. Fallstudien inleddes med att 28 studenters motivation mättes, för att få fram ett referensvärde. Därefter fick studenterna under en tvåveckorsperiod dagligen logga den tid de lagt på studier. Utöver det fick studenterna dagliga uppdateringar med stapeldiagram som visuellt representerade den loggade tid de dagligen lade ner på sina studier. Därefter mättes deras motivation återigen, som sedan jämfördes med den inledande mätningen. Resultatet visade att det fanns en signifikant skillnad i två av de sju motivationsskalorna i “Academic Motivational Scale”, den inre motivationen att prestera och den yttre introjicerade motivationen. Detta styrker tidigare studier som visat en koppling mellan visualisering av en elevs nedlagda tid på avklarade moment och elevens prestation i skolan. / This case study aims to examine if a visualization of undergraduate students’ learning sessions can increase their motivation to study. Previous studies have shown that there is a correlation between motivation and visualization of time spent on, for example, training in gyms. Consequently, this case study aims to expand on this subject and examine if there is a similar correlation in time spent on studying and the motivation to study in higher educational settings. This question is mainly of interest for developers of learning management systems, such as online course platforms, since if the case study results show that there is an increase in motivation caused by a visualization of time spent studying it would be of value to implement in their learning management systems. Furthermore, this question is of interest for students since it could increase their motivation to study. The case study was initialised by measuring and evaluating 28 undergraduate students’ motivation, to calculate a reference value. The students were then asked to log their study sessions each day and they were given daily updates based on their loggings of their time spent studying during two weeks, with visual bar charts. The case study finished by re-evaluating the motivation of the students and comparing it to the initial measurement. The results showed that there was a significant difference in 2 of the 7 motivational categories of the employed “Academic Motivational Scale”, namely the intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment, and the extrinsic introjected motivation. This further validates previous studies which shows a connection between visualising a students total time spent on accomplished course modules.

After an intense period of concerts and projects that involved learning large quantities of new music I realized that I often got vocally tired when learning music. I have always been a quick learner but my method of learning has not always been beneficial for my vocal health. In this project I have explored new ways of learning music in which I prioritize vocal health. I have deepened my understanding of the vocal mechanism and experimented with vocal exercises as a part of learning repertoire. Making and listening to recordings of my repertoire and working sessions has helped me to hone my approach. I worked with two pieces of repertoire, spending three weeks on each piece, and focused on different parts of the learning process every week. After completing the work with each piece I chose a few of the recordings to show my singing teacher and a small group of my singing colleagues. This led to meaningful discussions that took my work further. This project has helped me to practice efficiently without becoming vocally tired, created a bridge between repertoire work and vocal technique, and increased the quality of my everyday work as a classical singer.