Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infects the lower respiratory tract in children under the age of two years and is spread through droplet and contact with infected persons. An estimated 200,000 children suffer from complications of RSV annually worldwide. Palivizumab is a monoclonal antibody used to immunize children from RSV and has been on the market since 1988. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated its policy for recommendation of RSV in premature infants. The objective of this capstone is to propose an evaluation framework with an example of how it could have been applied to assess the impact of the AAP policy change on RSV vaccination use and RSV outcomes among premature infants. The proposed evaluation framework would be a unique link between birth certificate records and surveys of parents/guardians of 32 week gestation premature infants or less in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The birth certificate data would identify “at risk” infants and would allow for selection of a sample of parents/guardians, both pre-policy change (August 1, 2013 to July 30, 2014) and post-policy change (August 1, 2014 to July 30, 2015). The primary endpoints would be: initiation and completion of the RSV vaccine series and RSV infection rates. Moderating variables would be obtained from birth certificate data (e.g. mother’s education and race) and survey data (e.g. attitudes toward vaccine acceptance). The evaluation framework proposed in this Capstone can be used in future analyses of RSV vaccination policy changes. It can also be generalized to other geographic areas in the US and used for routine surveillance of RSV vaccination use and RSV outcomes.

Chemnitz, Techn. Univ., Diplomarb., 2008.

Water is an important natural resource and a building block to all life on earth. However, substantial increase in water demand and consumption has led to numerous nations, including South Africa, to face water scarcity. Improved water demand management strategies and water monitoring approaches are imperative. In South Africa, it's a legal requirement for all water supply points to be metered. Currently, water flow is primarily measured by conventional meters. However, substantial developments have been noted in the last two decades where conventional meters with added capabilities (such as communication capabilities) added have been introduced. These meters are known as advanced water meters. These capabilities offer functions such as leakage detection and more immediate consumption feedback. However, advanced meters also have significant disadvantages such as require high start-up capital and are susceptible to higher failure rates than conventional meters. It remains to be seen if advanced metering technology is an appropriate technology to be adopted in South Africa. Due to the different dynamics of South Africa's income level groups, the metering application and effects will differ for each income level group. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of implementing advanced metering systems in high income areas in South Africa. An evaluation framework was developed to gauge the viability of implementing advanced metering systems on four performance criteria; technical, economic, environmental and social. The composite indicator framework template was selected as it was not tailor made for a specific reason and could be adapted for this research. The necessary framework input parameter data were acquired from practitioners in the field through questionnaires and from literature. Due to lack of advanced metering case studies in South Africa (except for prepaid meter), literature from developed countries were used as proxies. The input data entailed details of the current metering system, advanced metering system and new conventional metering system with the later used as a control for comparative purposes. The typical high-income scenario was derived from typical input data. For each input parameter, there were value ranges from the low parameter value to high parameter value. These ranges were used to conduct the sensitivity analysis on the framework to access critical input parameters to the success or failure of implementation Implementing advanced metering systems in high income areas in South Africa was found to be less economically viable than conventional meters. This is due to the lack of needed infrastructure for advanced metering as well as high initial capital costs and high operating costs. Advanced meters however proved to be more environmentally viable than conventional meters as they offered higher reduction in consumption. However, the manner in which faulty batteries are disposed could lead to environmental damage. Social factors were considered negligible for high income areas as revolts to introduction to new meters arises from financial constraints that those meters might induce. Further research with more South Africa based case studies and smaller scale advanced metering systems has been recommended.

Yes / With the arrival of the service economy, businesses across different sectors have to rely increasingly on service design, with its focus on the viewpoints of customers and their experiences. Existing frameworks for evaluating customer experience tend to neglect the connection between customer experience and value co-creation, which is critical for enhancing the performance of service design. The aim of this conceptual paper is, therefore, to develop a customer experience evaluation framework that is coherently integrated with the value co-creation construct. It is achieved by intersecting the most relevant insights from prior approaches to evaluating customer experiences with a theoretical interpretation of service value as value in the experience that is always co-created and uniquely determined by the customer's personal lived and imagined experiences. The proposed framework is original in its theorizing of the evaluation process as a transformation from a customer experience evaluation to a synchronized evaluation of value in the experience and value co-creation throughout and beyond the service process. The framework proposes to utilize it in both major service redesign and on-the-spot service improvements, which are extremely relevant to businesses operating in highly competitive environments. The proposed framework is designed to guide future empirical evaluations, accommodate new theoretical extensions, and inform practical applications to design service offerings as unique and preferred experiences for customers.

No description available.

Within the field of Product Design there is an increasing interest in designing with emerging markets. Considering how long people have already been concerned with increasing global living standards it is surprising how little has been achieved. This suggests our current methods are insufficient. The Capability Approach (CA) by Amartya Sen offers a new way of assessing inequality and poverty, focusing on what people have reason to value to be or do. Products can be means to achieve these beings and doings. An evaluation framework inspired by this philosophy was developed. The framework was tested in a case study. The sociological impact was evaluated of the Philips Chulha, a subsidized cooking stove implemented in tribal India. The impact in terms of the CA was identified and explained using Kleine&rsquo / s Choice Framework and Bourdieu&rsquo / s concept of habitus. The framework was successful in engaging into deep dialogues with the target users. The interpreter appeared to be highly influential on the way the study was executed. Since the research was conducted in one region, no firm statements could be made based on this single case study. The framework needs further testing and developing in order to increase the collaboration between the interviewer and the interviewee. Eventually product designers can use the improved evaluation framework as a prospective framework to uncover design opportunities for developmental purposes.

<p>Companies today experience problems with poor data quality in their systems. Because of the enormous amount of data in companies, the data has to be of good quality if companies want to take advantage of it. Since the purpose with a data warehouse is to gather information from several databases for decision support, it is absolutely vital that data is of good quality. There exists several ways of determining or classifying data quality in databases. In this work the data quality management in a large Swedish company's data warehouse is examined, through a case study, using a framework specialized for data warehouses. The quality of data is examined from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic point of view. The results of the examination is then compared with a similar case study previously conducted in order to find any differences and similarities.</p>

<p>In this report a method is applied that was originally developed for the creation of evaluation frameworks for CASE-tools. Here the method is taken out of its original context and applied for the creation of an evaluation framework for database design transformation in CASE-tools. The focus of this report is on the process of creating the framework and not on the resulting framework.</p><p>The creation of the framework is divided into two main processes. During phase1 a framework is developed from existing literature. This framework is then refined in phase 2 when the framework is tested in an in-depth exploratory study of support for design transformation in two commercial CASE-tools.</p>

<p>There exist several methods, which can be used for evaluation of commercially available CASE-tools. Each method has its own focus and is based on specific underlying assumptions. There have been attempts to standardise evaluation of CASE-tools; however available methods differs much from each other.</p><p>One such method, named the 2G method has been proposed, which for each application, will establish a specific evaluation framework. This framework is tailored to the organisation at a specific point in time (since an organisation will change over time). The method consists of two phases which are iterated a sufficient number of times before a stable evaluation framework will be the result. The 2G method has been successfully applied on several applications in different organisations, though only for evaluation of CASE-tools before adoption. In this dissertation we report on an application of the 2G method, which aims to evaluate a CASE-tool from a company context which has already adopted a CASE-tool. As part of this method application the 2G method has also been transferred to the organisation.</p><p>An additional issue this dissertation addresses is what kind of support a general Qualitative Research Tool will offer a method user when using the tool in a 2G method application. Likewise the goal includes to establish is what is poorly or unsupported in such tool in a 2G application.</p><p>This dissertation will show that the 2G method is applicable also in a scenario where a CASE-tool has already been adopted, and therefore demonstrate that the method also is useful in evaluation studies performed after a CASE-tool has been adopted in an organisation. From the experiences of the application points will be made concerning what kind of support one would like to have in a qualitative research tool to simplify the work during the 2G applications.</p>

<p>This study aims to evaluate the use of the method Information Demand Analysis (henceforth IDA) against an analysis tool. To gain empirical understanding of IDA, the method will be applied to a cooperation process between two business organisations. The research questions of the study are to investigate what can be required of a method, to identify the information demand for the above mentioned cooperation process, and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the use of IDA.</p><p>Based on a literature study an evaluation framework, which describes what can be required of a method, was developed. The evaluation framework resulted in an analysis tool, which consists of the elements: method content, method user, method context, method validation, the method creator’s requirements, and the wishes and expectations of the business organisations. The use of IDA implied scoping to delimit the problem situation and a workshop to identify the information demand. In order to gain an understanding of the use of the method IDA, and to identify the information demand, the method was applied to a cooperation process between Steel AB and Wood AB. The information demand was later represented in Extended Enterprise Modelling Language (henceforth EEML). Finally, we analysed if and how the elements in the analysis tool were reflected in IDA and identified the strengths and weaknesses of the use of the method.</p><p>The strengths of IDA are that it is general and applicable on different types of business organisations. Furthermore, it has well defined concepts and the possibility of selecting appropriate concepts ensures that it is applicable on different problem situations. The business organisations, which participated in the workshop, found that IDA resulted in a holistic view and increased the understanding for each other. The weaknesses of IDA are lack of documentation of explicitly defined steps, the implications for selecting certain concepts, guidance, and explicitly described notations. Concerning the involved roles, in IDA, we request a description of them, their responsibilities, and the needed knowledge sets and skills for using the method. Since IDA still is under development we had difficulties understanding how our outcome of the method should fulfil the purpose of IDA.</p>