Water is an essential resource from an environmental, biological, economic or social point of view. In basin management, the irregular distribution in time and in space of this resource is well known. This issue is worsened by extreme climate conditions, generating drought periods or flood events. For both situations, optimal management is necessary. In one case, different water uses should be supplied efficiently using the available surface and groundwater resources. In another case, the most important goal is to avoid damages in flood areas, including the loss of human lives, but also to optimize the revenue of energy production in hydropower plants, or in other uses. The approach presented in this thesis proposes to obtain optimal management rules in water resource systems. With this aim, evolutionary algorithms were combined with simulation models. The first ones, as optimization tools, are responsible for guiding the process iterations. In each iteration, a new management rule is defined in the simulation model, which is computed to comprehend the situation of the system after applying this new management. For testing the proposed methodology, four evolutionary algorithms were assessed combining them with two simulation models. The methodology was implemented in four real case studies. This thesis is presented as a compendium of five manuscripts: three scientific papers published in journals (which are indexed in the Journal Citation Report), another under review, and the last manuscript from Conference Proceedings. In the first manuscript, the Pikaia optimization algorithm was combined with the network flow SIMGES simulation model for obtaining four different types of optimal management rules in the Júcar River Basin. In addition, the parameters of the Pikaia algorithm were also analyzed to identify the best combination of them to use in the optimization process. In the second scientific paper, the multi-objective NSGA-II algorithm was assessed to obtain a parametric management rule in the Mijares River basin. In this case, the same simulation model was linked with the evolutionary algorithm. In the Conference manuscript, an in-depth analysis of the Tirso-Flumendosa-Campidano (TFM) system using different scenarios and comparing three water simulation models for water resources management was developed. The third published manuscript presented the assessment and comparison of two evolutionary algorithms for obtaining optimal rules in the TFM system using SIMGES model. The algorithms assessed were the SCE-UA and the Scatter Search. In this research paper, the parameters of both algorithms were also analyzed as it was done with the Pikaia algorithm. The management rules in the three first manuscripts were focused to avoid or minimize deficits in urban and agrarian demands and, in some case studies, also to minimize the water pumped. Finally, in the last document, two of the algorithms used in previous manuscripts were assessed, the mono-objective SCE-UA and the multi-objective NSGA-II. For this research, the algorithms were combined with RS MINERVE software to manage flood events in Visp River basin minimizing damages in risk areas and losses in hydropower plants. Results reached in the five manuscripts demonstrate the validity of the approach. In all the case studies and with the different evolutionary algorithms assessed, the obtained management rules achieved a better system management than the base scenario of each case. These results usually mean a decrease of the economic costs in the management of water resources. However, comparing the four algorithms assessed, SCE-UA algorithm proved to be the most efficient due to the different stop/convergence criteria and its formulation. Nevertheless, NSGA-II is the most recommended due to its multi-objective search focus on the enhancement of different objectives with the same importance where the decision makers can make the best decision for the management of the system. / El agua es un recurso esencial desde el punto de vista ambiental, biológico, económico o social. En la gestión de cuencas, es bien conocido que la distribución del recurso en el tiempo y el espacio es irregular. Este problema se agrava debido a condiciones climáticas extremas, generando períodos de sequía o inundaciones. Para ambas situaciones, una gestión óptima es necesaria. En un caso, el suministro de agua a los diferentes usos del sistema debe realizarte eficientemente empleando los recursos disponibles, tanto superficiales como subterráneos. En el otro caso, el objetivo más importante es evitar daños en las zonas de inundación, incluyendo la pérdida de vidas humanas, pero al mismo tiempo, optimizar los beneficios de centrales hidroeléctricas, o de otros usos. El enfoque presentado en esta tesis propone la obtención de reglas de gestión óptimas en sistemas reales de recursos hídricos. Con este objetivo, se combinaron algoritmos evolutivos con modelos de simulación. Los primeros, como herramientas de optimización, encargados de guiar las iteraciones del proceso. En cada iteración se define una nueva regla de gestión en el modelo de simulación, que se evalúa para conocer la situación del sistema después de aplicar esta nueva gestión. Para probar la metodología propuesta, se evaluaron cuatro algoritmos evolutivos combinándolos con dos modelos de simulación. La metodología se implementó en cuatro casos de estudio reales. Esta tesis se presenta como un compendio de cinco publicaciones: tres de ellas en revistas indexadas en el Journal Citation Report, otra en revisión y la última como publicación de un congreso. En el primer manuscrito, el algoritmo de optimización Pikaia se combinó con el modelo de simulación SIMGES para obtener reglas de gestión óptimas en la cuenca del río Júcar. Además, se analizaron los parámetros del algoritmo para identificar la mejor combinación de los mismos en el proceso de optimización. El segundo artículo evaluó el algoritmo multi-objetivo NSGA-II para obtener una regla de gestión paramétrica en la cuenca del río Mijares. En el trabajo presentado en el congreso se desarrolló un análisis en profundidad del sistema Tirso-Flumendosa-Campidano utilizando diferentes escenarios y comparando tres modelos de simulación para la gestión de los recursos hídricos. En el tercer manuscrito publicado se evaluó y comparó dos algoritmos evolutivos (SCE-UA y Scatter Search) para obtener reglas de gestión óptimas en el sistema Tirso-Flumendosa-Campidano. En dicha investigación también se analizaron los parámetros de ambos algoritmos. Las reglas de gestión de estas cuatro publicaciones se enfocaron en evitar o minimizar los déficits de las demandas urbanas y agrarias y, en ciertos casos, también en minimizar el caudal bombeado, utilizando para ello el modelo de simulación SIMGES. Finalmente, en la última publicación se evaluó el algoritmo mono-objetivo SCE-UA y el multi-objetivo NSGA-II. Para esta investigación, los algoritmos se combinaron con el software RS MINERVE para gestionar los eventos de inundación en la cuenca del río Visp minimizando los daños en las zonas de riesgo y las pérdidas en las centrales hidroeléctricas. Los resultados obtenidos en las cinco publicaciones demuestran la validez del enfoque. En todos los casos de estudio y, con los diferentes algoritmos evolutivos evaluados, las reglas de gestión obtenidas lograron una mejor gestión del sistema que el escenario base de cada caso. Estos resultados suelen representar una disminución de los costes económicos en la gestión de los recursos hídricos. Comparando los cuatro algoritmos, el SCE-UA demostró ser el más eficiente debido a los diferentes criterios de convergencia. No obstante, el NSGA-II es el más recomendado debido a su búsqueda multi-objetivo enfocada en la mejora, con la misma importancia, de diferentes objetivos, donde los tomadores de decisiones pueden sel / L'aigua és un recurs essencial des del punt de vista ambiental, biològic, econòmic o social. En la gestió de conques, és ben conegut que la distribució del recurs en el temps i l'espai és irregular. Este problema s'agreuja a causa de condicions climàtiques extremes, generant períodes de sequera o inundacions. Per a ambdúes situacions, una gestió òptima és necessària. En un cas, el subministrament d'aigua als diferents usos del sistema ha de realitzar-se eficientment utilitzant els recursos disponibles, tant superficials com subterranis. En l'altre cas, l'objectiu més important és evitar danys en les zones d'inundació, incloent la pèrdua de vides humanes, però al mateix temps, optimitzar els beneficis de centrals hidroelèctriques, o d'altres usos. La proposta d'esta tesi és l'obtenció de regles de gestió òptimes en sistemes reals de recursos hídrics. Amb este objectiu, es van combinar algoritmes evolutius amb models de simulació. Els primers, com a ferramentes d'optimització, encarregats de guiar les iteracions del procés. En cada iteració es definix una nova regla de gestió en el model de simulació, que s'avalua per a conéixer la situació del sistema després d'aplicar esta nova gestió. Per a provar la metodologia proposada, es van avaluar quatre algoritmes evolutius combinant-los amb dos models de simulació. La metodologia es va implementar en quatre casos d'estudi reals. Esta tesi es presenta com un compendi de cinc publicacions: tres d'elles en revistes indexades en el Journal Citation Report, una altra en revisió i l'última com a publicació d'un congrés. En el primer manuscrit, l'algoritme d'optimització Pikaia es va combinar amb el model de simulació SIMGES per a obtindre regles de gestió òptimes en la conca del riu Xúquer. A més, es van analitzar els paràmetres de l'algoritme per a identificar la millor combinació dels mateixos en el procés d'optimització. El segon article va avaluar l'algoritme multi-objectiu NSGA-II per a obtindre una regla de gestió paramètrica en la conca del riu Millars. En el treball presentat en el congrés es va desenvolupar una anàlisi en profunditat del sistema Tirso-Flumendosa-Campidano utilitzant diferents escenaris i comparant tres models de simulació per a la gestió dels recursos hídrics. En el tercer manuscrit publicat es va avaluar i va comparar dos algoritmes evolutius (SCE-UA i Scatter Search) per a obtindre regles de gestió òptimes en el sistema Tirso-Flumendosa-Campidano. En dita investigació també es van analitzar els paràmetres d'ambdós algoritmes. Les regles de gestió d'estes quatre publicacions es van enfocar a evitar o minimitzar els dèficits de les demandes urbanes i agràries i, en certs casos, també a minimitzar el cabal bombejat, utilitzant per a això el model de simulació SIMGES. Finalment, en l'última publicació es va avaluar l'algoritme mono-objectiu SCE-UA i el multi-objetiu NSGA-II. Per a esta investigació, els algoritmes es van combinar amb el programa RS MINERVE per a gestionar els esdeveniments d'inundació en la conca del riu Visp minimitzant els danys en les zones de risc i les pèrdues en les centrals hidroelèctriques. Els resultats obtinguts en les cinc publicacions demostren la validesa de la metodología. En tots els casos d'estudi i, amb els diferents algoritmes evolutius avaluats, les regles de gestió obtingudes van aconseguir una millor gestió del sistema que l'escenari base de cada cas. Estos resultats solen representar una disminució dels costos econòmics en la gestió dels recursos hídrics. Comparant els quatre algoritmes, el SCE-UA va demostrar ser el més eficient a causa dels diferents criteris de convergència. No obstant això, el NSGA-II és el més recomanat a causa de la seua cerca multi-objectiu enfocada en la millora, amb la mateixa importància, de diferents objectius, on els decisors poden seleccionar la millor opció per a la gestió del sistema. / Lerma Elvira, N. (2017). Assessment and implementation of evolutionary algorithms for optimal management rules design in water resources systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/90547 / TESIS

The key objective of this study was to determine the importance of remuneration in the organisational employer value proposition (EVP) decision-making process, who the EVP decision makers in organisations are, and whether EVP strategy is aligned with the organisational strategy.A quantitative study, using a survey as data-collection method, was conducted. The survey was developed to explore the importance of remuneration in the EVP process and to gather data regarding EVP decision makers and the alignment of EVP to organisational strategy. A total of 101 respondents participated in this study, and content analysis was used to interpret the data. The data were collected via SurveyMonkey and statistically analysed using SPSS.The findings indicate that remuneration and all of its components are crucial to the process of EVP decision making. The findings also indicate the importance of aligning EVP strategy to organisational strategy. The main EVP decision makers in organisations are the CEO and the Human Resources Manager. Organisations need to find the correct mix of decision makers in this process to optimise value. Organisations should also ensure alignment of the EVP with organisational strategy, and implement an optimal remuneration strategy to ensure the best possible EVP. A relationship framework was developed to graphically represent the findings of the study. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The objective of this study is to investigate the approaches utilised by external decision-makers in their evaluation of the different facets of performance of manufacturing organisations, operating as open systems. In process, important linkages which exist among relevant performance parameters are explored. The types and frequencies of performance measures used by the sampled Portuguese financial analysts are compared using factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results tend to underscore the significance of the collective performance of all subsystems of the manufacturing system. Based on the findings of this research, implications focusing on the management of organisational performance systems are identified.

This study provides a view of the decision-making process of Dutch company pension funds. The success of this research was the exceptional granting of access to four cases. Lack of such access could very well be the reason why research of this nature has not been previously achieved. The financial health of pension funds, expressed by the coverage ratio, showed a decline in 2008. Research has shown that there is a relationship between decision-making processes and outcome. Were the processes appropriate to set up and maintain a sufficient coverage ratio? A tailor-made conceptual research model has been developed and used as an analysis aid to research the TO BE situation based on legal requirements and factional documents and the AS IS situation based on empirical data. The model made it feasible to shed light on the implementation of good pension fund governance principles and decision-making process, which is a contribution to the current gap in research. The research showed that there is a relationship between the implementation of pension fund governance principles and appropriate decision-making processes. It also showed that there is a relationship between an appropriate decision-making process and coverage ratio. Both conclusions are not statistically proven due to the lack of the statistical significance, but are qualitative analysed and confirmed in the conducted case studies. It is suggested to use the research model by supervisor or pension funds to establish the mismatch between the implementation of pension fund governance principles and decision-making processes to enhance the quality of decision-making processes and outcome.

Yes / The article discusses how nurses are increasingly being valued as autonomous decision makers and co-ordinators of patient care. Topics include relating to the age of the dependent children, a woman's working hours and any successive career breaks, woman's career progression directly related to the school age of the dependent children, and children being inhibit and is driven in part by a determination to maintain traditional employment practices.

Abstract: Interpersonal skills such as perception are an important topic within sustainability discourse. Additionally, businesses play a key role in the sustainable transition the world is currently undergoing. Through this study, we aimed to investigate how business leaders and decision makers perceive the sustainability performance of the firms they work for and explore how these perceptions align with real-world circumstances. In doing so, we will discover how such interpersonal skills are being utilised within a business context. 'The study was developed using theories such as inner development skills, the Dunning-Kruger effect and Brandlogic’s sustainability IQ Matrix. We followed an inductive interpretivistmethodology to gather qualitative data through a series of interviews. The findings show thatperceptions and their accuracy are quite varied, though participants who reported higher levels of communication from their firm often had more positive perceptions. Furthermore, despite the Dunning-Kruger effect suggesting that education would have an impact on accuracy, we did not find this to be the case, rather participants who demonstrated usage of a variety of inner development skills tended to be more accurate. These findings suggest businesses who wish to improve the perception of their firm should focus on how they communicate their efforts, and those seeking to improve accuracy should focus on development of inner development skills.

Background E-mail marketing is used to get consumers’ attention to one’s products, services, need, etc., and ultimately to get them to act in a specific way. How consumers are affected by E-mail marketing is a topic that has not been thoroughly investigated even though it is of great interest due to the vast increase of E-mail marketing the last couple of years. Thus, there is a major gap in the research of this topic, especially in a B2B context. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to analyze behaviors and attitudes of decision-makers in the Swedish manufacturing industry regarding B2B E-mail marketing. Method The authors used a quantitative research approach with an online-survey in order to collect necessary data. The population is decision-makers within the manufacturing industry in Sweden. The result is based on 1 777 participating decision-makers. The questionnaire was constructed by the authors and is based on the theoretical framework consisting: Tri-Component Model of Attitudes, Planned Behavior, Micheaux’s (2011) theory of perceived pressure and A(ad). The authors used analysis techniques such as descriptive univariate analysis, Anova-test, factor analysis and linear regression analysis to derive the result. Conclusion The conclusions drawn from this study are that the decision-makers within the manufacturing industry in Sweden tend to have a negative attitude and behavior toward E-mail marketing messages, only a small minority of the decision-makers had a positive attitude. Furthermore, the authors discovered an association between their attitude and how they actually behave. The study also reveals differences in the attitudes and behaviors regarding age and position within the company. A final conclusion drawn from this study is that the decision-makers do not read all marketing messages they receive and they also delete some marketing messages without reading them. The result of this is a non-functional marketing method, as it does not work as it is intended. A suggestion for marketers working with E-mail marketing is to try to establish more positive attitudes by building relationships with the recipients.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloGS_DISSERT.pdf: 1609622 bytes, checksum: b4c91696abc17e1b9713ab65e73a380a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-20 / Os estudos sobre estrat?gia t?m se difundido h? muitos anos e seu processo de formula??o tamb?m est? inserido no cotidiano dos gestores. O objetivo do presente trabalho ? constatar se h? rela??o entre o pensamento, formula??o e mudan?a estrat?gica e o n?vel acad?mico, hier?rquico e tempo no cargo dos decisores da CAERN. A abordagem te?rica ? realizada com os seguintes pontos: estrat?gia, Decis?o e lideran?a organizacional e o processo de forma??o da estrat?gia (Pensamento estrat?gico; Formula??o da estrat?gia; Mudan?a estrat?gica). O estudo ? de car?ter explorat?rio descritivo. Para a tabula??o e an?lise dos dados, utilizou-se um programa estat?stico em que foi adotada a t?cnica de an?lise fatorial, e verificou-se a confiabilidade da escala de Likert utilizada no question?rio atrav?s do teste Alfa de Cronbach e an?lise de Spearman a fim de constatar a correla??o das vari?veis e proporcionar uma abordagem quantitativa ? pesquisa. Todos os respondentes da pesquisa s?o tomadores de decis?o cujos n?veis hier?rquicos que obtiveram representatividade na amostra foram coordenadores, gerentes e chefes de se??o. A partir das an?lises dos resultados do estudo, constatou-se que, das hip?teses levantadas, apenas uma se mostrou coerente com a realidade dos profissionais respons?veis pela estrat?gia organizacional da empresa: H? correla??o entre a formula??o estrat?gica e o n?vel acad?mico dos decisores (no constructo de formula??o deliberada). Notouse tamb?m que o n?vel de forma??o acad?mica (n?vel superior) ? importante e influencia diretamente no processo da formula??o estrat?gica. Conclui-se que na organiza??o em estudo o conhecimento dos gestores interfere na formula??o estrat?gica

Digital interventions in healthcare have the potential to act as a positive approach to the demographical and social dilemmas existing in sparsely populated regions. Much emphasis lies on designing implementations that are beneficial and used to a large extent. The impact of responsible stakeholders in designing and implementing those interventions is vital to successful outcomes, but research about their perspective on the topic is lacking. The role of voluntariness in eHealth is unclear, and management’s view on determining factors that impact user adoption can contribute to the Information Systems literature. This study aimed to investigate healthcare management’s perspective regarding eHealth. A qualitative study was performed by conducting semi-structured interviews with management and decision-makers in Swedish healthcare on the regional and municipal levels. Their attitude towards the digitalization of healthcare is generally positive, and its benefits for the future are evident. Digitalizing the health sector is seen as necessary as long as equal care and high quality in healthcare can be maintained. Much work lies in increasing adherence to use eHealth solutions, and there is a desire to improve national coordination. Factors that influence adoption are generally compatible with existing technology acceptance literature, but the impact of some determinants differs. The results indicate that social influence has a more important impact in the voluntary context of eHealth than previous literature suggests. An introduction of mandatory elements in healthcare may have benefits for continuous use. Future research about the differences between voluntary and mandated contexts can give rich insight into how to view factors that affect technology adoption and adherence to eHealth solutions.

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