This research has led to a novel methodology for assessment and quantification of supply risks in the supply chain. The research has built on advanced Knowledge Discovery techniques and has resulted to a software implementation to be able to do so. The methodology developed and presented here resembles the well-known consumer credit scoring methods as it leads to a similar metric, or score, for assessing a supplier’s reliability and risk of conducting business with that supplier. However, the focus is on a wide range of operational metrics rather than just financial, which credit scoring techniques typically focus on. The core of the methodology comprises the application of Knowledge Discovery techniques to extract the likelihood of possible risks from within a range of available datasets. In combination with cross-impact analysis, those datasets are examined for establish the inter-relationships and mutual connections among several factors that are likely contribute to risks associated with particular suppliers. This approach is called conjugation analysis. The resulting parameters become the inputs into a logistic regression which leads to a risk scoring model the outcome of the process is the standardized risk score which is analogous to the well-known consumer risk scoring model, better known as FICO score. The proposed methodology has been applied to an Air Conditioning manufacturing company. Two models have been developed. The first identifies the supply risks based on the data about purchase orders and selected risk factors. With this model the likelihoods of delivery failures, quality failures and cost failures are obtained. The second model built on the first one but also used the actual data about the performance of supplier to identify risks of conducting business with particular suppliers. Its target was to provide quantitative measures of an individual supplier’s risk level. The supplier risk scoring model is tested on the data acquired from the company for its performance analysis. The supplier risk scoring model achieved 86.2% accuracy, while the area under curve (AUC) was 0.863. The AUC curve is much higher than required model’s validity threshold value of 0.5. It represents developed model’s validity and reliability for future data. The numerical studies conducted with real-life datasets have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and system as well as its future potential for industrial adoption.

The aim of this research is to explore a need for improving marketing in the small business sector among restaurants. Furthermore, if a potential need was found, starting to dissect how to increase the demand for the need of marketing expertise services through crafting an attractive customer value proposition (CVP). By understanding this, it would allow marketing expertise to have a clearer idea regarding how to attract smaller businesses and increase demand for the needed services. In this way, a new type of market opens up for various types of marketing expertise. The study focuses on finding the smaller restaurants' pains and gains which are needed components of an attractive CVP. The study will also build upon the current knowledge and theory regarding the creation of a VP for smaller businesses, although focused on the restaurant industry. This is done by conducting four separate cases with the help of semi-structured interviews and documentary research. Briefly presented, the results show that the pains and gains which need to be considered for marketing expertise to craft a CVP geared towards attracting small restaurants are; allowing for better positioning which decreases the amount of unsatisfied customers, increasing the restaurants profitability and making them stand out in comparison to their competitors.

The content of the thesis consists of a description of constructivist teaching of the topic of percentage in the primary school, that is the teaching in which not the teacher, but the pupil is in the center. The principles of constructivist teaching and the learning process in terms of the theory of generic models are described on the basis of literature. In accordance with these principles, a number of textbooks have been analyzed, in which the the topic of percentage is introduced, and experimental teaching based on the above principles has been prepared. Experimental teaching was realized in two classes of the 7th grade with a different experience with the teaching of mathematics in their 6th grade. The main goal of the work was to prepare, implement, describe and evaluate the teaching of percentage based on pupils' activity and their individual discovery. The lessons have been described and evaluated on the basis of audio recordings, notes from the lessons, records of pupilss solutions, interviews, notes and interviews with a teacher assistant, pre-tests and post-tests. The lessons were analyzed mainly in terms of pupils' involvement in teaching, their discoveries and knowledge acquisition, including its anchoring in the knowledge structure. In both classes, part of the pupils managed to find a...

The goal of primary science education is to foster children’s interest, develop positive science attitudes and promote science process skills development. Learning by playing and discovering provides several opportunities for children to inquiry and understand science based on the first–hand experience. The current research was conducted in the children’s laboratory in Heureka, the Finnish science centre. Young children (aged 7 years) which came from 4 international schools did a set of chemistry experiments in the laboratory. From the results of the cognitive test, the pre-test, the post-test, supported by observation and interview, we could make the conclusion that children enjoyed studying in the laboratory. Chemistry science was interesting and fascinating for young children; no major gender differences were found between boys and girls learning in the science laboratory. Lab work not only encouraged children to explore and investigate science, but also stimulated children’s cognitive development.

The collection and the use of data on the internet with e-learning purposes are tasks made by many people every day, because of their role as teachers or students. The web provides several data sources with relevant information that could be used in educational environments, but the information is widely distributed, or poorly structured. Also, resources on the web are diverse, sometimes with high quality, but sometimes not. These situations involve a difficult search of e-learning resources, and therefore a lot of time invested, because the search process – typing, reasoning, selecting, using resources, bookmarking, and so forth - is completely executed by humans, despite that some of them can be executed by computers. Linked data provides designed practices for organizing, and for discovering information using the processing power of computers. At the same time, the community of linked data provides data sets that are already connected, and this information could be consumed by people anytime as resources with e-learning purposesThe current article presents the findings of a master thesis that address the linked data techniques and also the techniques used by students when searching e-learning resources, using internet. The resources used by the students, as well as the sources preferred, will be comparing with the current resources offered by the linked data community. Likewise, the strategies and techniques selected by the students will be taken into account, in order to establish the basic requirements of an e-learning collaborative environment prototype.The outline of the thesis is:Chapter 2 discusses the research methodology as well as the constructing and administering the research survey in which the current thesis based the requirements elicitation. Chapter 3 lays the groundwork for the rest of the thesis by presenting the principles and terminology of linked data, as well as related work about the internet in education, availability of e-learning resources, and surveys about the use of the internet in e-learning resources searchingChapter 4 presents the investigation of the methods used by student for exploring and discovering e-learning resources through the data analysis and interpretation of the survey. Chapter 5 Introduces to the prototype design. It includes the prototype idea, the requirements specification using the data analysis of the survey, and the architecture of the e-learning collaborative environment using the assumptions reached in the literature review and the dereferencable URIs found in the linked open data cloud diagram. The design of components in the environment will be addressed in terms of UML diagrams. Chapter 6 Validates the requirements of the prototype.Chapter 7 Tackles conclusions of the master thesis project in order to find incomes for further research in the area. This chapter also shows the contributions e-learning world evaluation is based on the benefits indentified by using this approach and gives indications of what future work can be done to improve the results. The findings address the decision-making process for designing a new era of e-learning environments that enhance the selection of e-learning resources, taking into account the technology available, and the information around the World Wide Web.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-11-24T10:51:58Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Henrique Lopes de Almeida - 2013.pdf: 1936028 bytes, checksum: 2979efe4054b9b6eb427e7de0419f0cc (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-11-24T13:59:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Henrique Lopes de Almeida - 2013.pdf: 1936028 bytes, checksum: 2979efe4054b9b6eb427e7de0419f0cc (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-24T13:59:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Carlos Henrique Lopes de Almeida - 2013.pdf: 1936028 bytes, checksum: 2979efe4054b9b6eb427e7de0419f0cc (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-19 / The present work aims to study two books from the Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Índias and Sumario de la natural historia de las Índias. These are the issues published in few months with 81 chapters approximately, without been pretentious due to the absence of notes and records of the observations made in the New World at the moment of such production. Those ones have around 1800 pages distributed in 50 books with more time for elaboration and frequent returns to the text. So, it will be designed an analysis that traces the influences of the literarily aspect in the historiographical thoughts present in both books, considering the presence of some imagistical reflexes from the heritage and traces from the Middle age‘s tradition are been announced o n Oviedo‘s chronistical construction. The scenario description of the discovered lands, the encounter between the Old World referential and the New worlds‘ space, the transliterization of the structures responsible to the approximation and incorporation of the new discovers are thematic elements present in the Oviedo‘s chronistical production brought to this research to a treatment of this issue while trope present in medieval art and literature. Still inside this proposal, this work shall analyse the resources present in the writings of Gonzalo Fernandez Oviedo y Valdés which he uses in the descriptivist reports sometimes characterizing realistically the encounter with nature and natives, and at other times exercising a exquisite touch of literary reflexes. Influenced by the authorities and structures so precious to the middle-aged tradition and responsible for confluence zones that reinforce the porosity of historiography and fiction, Oviedo brings elements of medieval the speech to develop the record of the reports present at the chronics what has its own value and originality if compared to other chroniclers of his time. In this sense, this research proposes to analyze and search medieval marks present in the historiographical scenario, the author‘s literary vocation in his historiographical thoughts which entitles this thesis. What is intended is that may give more meaning to the text itself and with this dynamic, to dialog with factors related to the meddle-aged ideal images, the colonization context present in Spaniard America, the literary ruses and the rhetorical resources used by the author. For that matter, it was developed bibliographical studies of the work and theme in authors such as, Weckmann, Pupo-Walker, Prampolini, Castor, Cuello de la Rosa and Irving among others, in the searching to understand how the literary marks occur in the New worlds‘ historiographical from Oviedo‘s and some of the medieval images present in the reports of discovering and colonization of Spaniard America. The result of this work is to show traces of the influence of medieval mentality in the formation of the literary vocation chronicler of Madrid in their travelogues. Strictly speaking, we try to provide, through the textual organization of this thesis, a contribution to the critical fortunes of Oviedo and the research line Literature, History and Imaginary. / O presente trabalho tem como propósito o estudo de duas obras do cronista espanhol Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Índias e Sumario de la natural historia de las Índias. Trata-se esta, de publicação produzida em poucos meses com aproximadamente 81 capítulos, sem muito rebuscamento, devido à ausência de anotações e registros das observações feitas no Novo Mundo no momento de produção. Aquela, tem aproximadamente 1800 páginas, distribuídas em 50 livros, com um tempo maior para elaboração e constantes retornos ao texto. Assim, traçamos uma análise que rastreia as influências da vocação literária no pensamento historiográfico presente nestas duas obras, considerando a presença de alguns reflexos imagísticos da herança e dos traços da tradição da Idade Média que se anunciam na construção da cronística de Oviedo. A descrição do cenário das terras descobertas, o encontro entre os referenciais do Velho Mundo e o espaço novomundista, a transliteração de esquemas responsáveis pela aproximação e incorporação das novas descobertas são elementos temáticos presentes na produção cronística oviedina trazidos para esta tese para tratamento desse assunto enquanto tropo presente na arte e na literatura medievais. Ainda dentro dessa proposta, analisamos os artifícios narrativos presentes na escrita que Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés utiliza dentro dos relatos descritivistas, ora caracterizando realisticamente o encontro com a natureza e os nativos, ora exercitando um toque requintado de reflexos literários. Influenciado pelas autoridades e por esquemas tão caros à tradição medieval, responsáveis por zonas de confluência que reforçam a porosidade na historiografia e na ficção, Oviedo traz elementos do discurso medieval para o desenvolvimento do registro dos relatos presente nas cronísticas, o que tem seu valor e originalidade se comparado a outros cronistas de sua época. Nesse sentido, esta tese propõe analisar e buscar, nas marcas medievais presentes no cenário historiográfico, a vocação literária no pensamento historiográfico do autor, de acordo com seu título. O que se pretende é que possam dar maior sentido ao texto e, junto a essa dinâmica, dialogar com fatores relacionados ao ideário medieval, ao contexto da colonização presente na América Espanhola, aos artifícios literários e aos recursos retóricos utilizados pelo autor. Desenvolveram-se para tanto, estudos bibliográficos da obra e do tema em questão em autores como Fonseca, Weckmann, Pupo-Walker, Prampolini, Castor, Cuello de la Rosa e Irving entre outros, buscando compreender como se dá a presença das marcas literárias na historiografia novomundista oviedina e algumas das imagens medievais presentes nos relatos do descobrimento e da colonização. O resultado deste trabalho busca demonstrar os traços da mentalidade medieval influenciadores na formação da vocação literária do cronista madrilenho em seus relatos de viagem. A rigor, tentamos proporcionar, por via da organização textual desta tese, uma contribuição à fortuna crítica de Oviedo e à linha de pesquisa Literatura, História e Imaginário.

The thesis deals with constructivist approaches to teaching mathematics in lower secondary school, which means that a pupil is the centre of learning process. Based on study of literature, textbook analysis, and, in particular, in accordance with the theory of generic models as a theory describing way to build pupils' knowledge, a teaching experiment was prepared, focusing on the area of triangle and parallelogram. Experimental lessons were realized in two 7 grade classes with different experience with being taught mathematics at the elementary school. One class was taught by a highly instructive series of textbooks, while the second by textbooks which respected the principles of constructivism aimed at pupils and allowed individualization of learning process. The main objective of the thesis is to describe the experimental education in both classes and evaluate it from two perspectives. First of all, qualitatively, by analysing video recordings of lessons, pupils' solutions, notes from lessons, print screens from interactive whiteboard, but also by examining attendance sheets from teachers observing some lessons. In the second case, quantitatively, based on pre- and post- tests. The qualitative analysis is mainly focused on key discoveries and didactical situations in teaching and on an assessment...

The goal of my dissertation is to find ways and methods by which pupils will be able to most effectively reveal the sense of poetic text. Unearthing the meaning of the poem requires a proactive approach of pupil. It is incompatible with the transmissive approach in teaching. Much knowledge is inspired by constructivist teaching methods. The work is aimed at pupils of the third grade of elementary school. In the practical part based on lessons learned from the literature I suggest pilot verification and contemplate such literary and educational activities in the first grade of primary school, where the teacher has the uncovering of the meanig of poetic text as the primary objective. The methods used in this work are consistent with the program Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking.

Human beings encounter cascades of a plethora of experiences, one after another, every single microsecond of our lives. There are many things happening around. The world is full of events and occurrences. As they happen, the mind reacts to every individual input. This is a very exhausting and difficult. Thus, people have developed a process of self-defense against this horrible mishmash of information. Their minds have this amazing capacity of sorting them out and making sense out of them. Humankind's survival depends on that. If one does not sort all this information out, one might not be able to make a simplest decision. As humans process the information, they learn to ignore and forget. They focus on their feelings and emotions. They forget the logic. The oversimplification process begins. Humans create rigid systems of oversimplified formulas. They assign adjectives to things, occurrences, and other people. The number of those adjectives is small. After assigning, those adjectives obscure everything else. A new world is created, stupid, limited, lazy, and in the end making humans very easy to control. What starts as a basic survival process ends up as a tool one can use to destroy the owners of the mind. In the end, the birth of consciousness leads to its death. My work fights this process. It aims to put a person back into that state of shock created by a mishmash of information and thus create the rebirth of consciousness.

Cette recherche se caractérise, premièrement, par une discussion théorique sur le concept d'agent autonome, basée sur des éléments issus des paradigmes de l'Intelligence Artificielle Située et de l'Intelligence Artificielle Affective. Ensuite, cette thèse présente le problème de l'apprentissage de modèles du monde, en passant en revue la littérature concernant les travaux qui s'y rapportent. A partir de ces discussions, l'architecture CAES et le mécanisme CALM sont présentes. CAES (Coupled Agent-Environment System) constitue une architecture pour décrire des systèmes bases sur la dichotomie agent-environnement. Il définit l'agent et l'environnement comme deux systèmes partiellement ouverts, en couplage dynamique. Dans CAES, l'agent est compose de deux sous-systèmes, l'esprit et le corps, suivant les principes de la situativite et de la motivation intrinsèque. CALM (Constructivist Anticipatory Learning Mechanism) est un mécanisme d'apprentissage fonde sur l'approche constructiviste de l'Intelligence Artificielle. Il permet a un agent situe de construire un modèle du monde dans des environnements partiellement observables et partiellement déterministes, sous la forme d'un processus de décision markovien partiellement observable et factorise (FPOMDP). Le modèle du monde construit est ensuite utilise pour que l'agent puisse définir une politique d'action visant à améliorer sa propre performance / This research is characterized, first, by a theoretical discussion on the concept of autonomous agent, based on elements taken from the Situated AI and the Affective AI paradigms. Secondly, this thesis presents the problem of learning world models, providing a bibliographic review regarding some related works. From these discussions, the CAES architecture and the CALM mechanism are presented. The CAES (Coupled Agent-Environment System) is an architecture for describing systems based on the agent-environment dichotomy. It defines the agent and the environment as two partially open systems, in dynamic coupling. In CAES, the agent is composed of two sub-systems, mind and body, following the principles of situativity and intrinsic motivation. CALM (Constructivist Learning Anticipatory Mechanism) is based on the constructivist approach to Artificial Intelligence. It allows a situated agent to build a model of the world in environments partially deterministic and partially observable in the form of Partially Observable and Factored Markov Decision Process (FPOMDP). The model of the world is constructed and used for the agent to define a policy for action in order to improve its own performance