This research project evaluates the dynamics of stakeholder interaction, the development and change of culture and its effects on strategic drift within Skynet, a South African courier company under investigation. The problem statement is: An evaluation of value creation in a South African managed courier company and the objectives are: To evaluate the dynamics of stakeholder interaction and its affects on value creation activities. To investigate how the development and change of culture and how it affects value creation. To determine the extent and effect of strategic drift and how this affects the value creation activities of the company.

隨著網際網路的發展，與手機上網率的增加，越來越多的人開始在網路上購物，近年來尤其是中國所創立的「光棍節」銷售金額更是一年比一年的驚人。這些網路購物的結構，亦隨著電子商務的發展，逐漸成熟。在電子商務的浪潮下，交易的部份多涉及實體的物流，亦即貨物的運送；這樣新興的交易形態，對商家、消費者、銀行金融業、乃至於國家政法與運送業者來說，都是一個需要調整與適應的過程。 本研究探討個案公司為一國際快遞公司，在全球標準作業流程規範下，處理所有的貨物運送過程中，在面對電子商務盛行的現況下，針對最後將貨物遞送環節所遭遇到的問題。研究主要採用個案研究法，透過訪問個案公司與其他競爭者，由其高階主管、市場相關人員的訪談中蒐集相關資訊，並彙整產業相關資料及報告，加以整合分析其個案公司之產業優劣勢與競爭策略，並同步探討其環境變化，應如何因應進行調整迎合市場。 藉由本研究之相關分析、探討，希冀能提供台灣快遞業者，在面對電子商務環境的快速變遷下，貨物運送之策略觀點及經營規劃之參考，並提出因地制宜地設計不同運送模式之建議，以面對電子商務的未來發展。

This thesis describes the derivation of Venusian global cloud properties from infrared remote sensing data obtained by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on the European Space Agency Venus Express satellite. A computationally-efficient retrieval method is designed to exploit the dataset, which provides coverage of the entire nightside southern hemisphere of Venus. Spatially-resolved near-infrared spectra have been used to derive improved models of the vertical structure and global distribution of cloud properties in the southern hemisphere. Wavelengths within transparency windows in the 1.0 - 2.6 micron range covered by VIRTIS are sensitive on the nightside to absorption by the lower and middle sulphuric acid cloud layers, which are back-lit by thermally-emitted radiation from the hot lower atmosphere (Taylor et al. 1997). The cloud model used to interpret the spectra builds on work by Crisp (1986), Pollack et al. (1993) and Grinspoon et al. (1993). Retrieved parameters are the acid concentration in the cloud droplets, the average size of the particles in the lower cloud and the altitude of the cloud base in the model. Values are estimated initially using wavelength pairs selected for their unique sensitivity to each parameter, and then validated using model spectra generated using the NEMESIS radiative transfer and retrieval code (Irwin et al. 2008) as developed for Venus (Tsang et al. 2008a). The spatial variation of sulphuric acid concentration in the cloud particles is estimated ; the concentration is found to be higher in regions of optically thick cloud. The retrieved cloud base altitude varies with latitude, reaching a maximum height near -50 degreees before falling by several km towards the pole. An increase in average particle size near the pole (Wilson et al. 2008) and the finding of latitudinally-variable CO abundance at 35 - 40 km altitude (Tsang et al. 2008) are both confirmed. A decrease in tropospheric H₂O abundance at high latitudes is observed, and provides evidence for strong downwelling between +/-60 and +/-75 degrees latitude, which marks the poleward extent of the Hadley cell circulation. Long-term secular change is also observed over a period of two Earth years. The measurements presented here provide a reference dataset for microphysical and dynamical modelling of the cloud deck, and the role of the cloud as a dynamical and chemical tracer means that such observations are of considerable value for increased understanding of the Venusian atmosphere.

This research project evaluates the dynamics of stakeholder interaction, the development and change of culture and its effects on strategic drift within Skynet, a South African courier company under investigation. The problem statement is: An evaluation of value creation in a South African managed courier company and the objectives are: To evaluate the dynamics of stakeholder interaction and its affects on value creation activities. To investigate how the development and change of culture and how it affects value creation. To determine the extent and effect of strategic drift and how this affects the value creation activities of the company.

The thesis addresses a complicated real-world scheduling problem from the space operations environment. The Mars Express Orbiter scheduling problem was first presented as a challenge by the European Space Agency. The thesis compares two different solutions. The first solution is an ad-hoc scheduler that is based on scheduling actions into a set of time windows and heavily utilizes local search techniques. The second solution models the problem as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) and uses the SICStus Prolog constraint programming solver to find a solution. Both schedulers are experimentally evaluated and the results are compared. Both approaches were able to provide a working solution. The conclusion however states that the more generic CSP based approach was capable of producing higher quality schedules even without a complicated heuristic. It however to compute the schedule for a small subset of inputs. On the other hand, the ad-hoc scheduler was capable of solving larger inputs but the produced solutions are not as good.

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1975 H8

Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2017-11-09T10:26:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 NicoleBerwangerCobachoDissertacao2017.pdf: 2681393 bytes, checksum: 06c28d06b89b63056ccfd84351dd8d36 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2017-11-09T11:17:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 NicoleBerwangerCobachoDissertacao2017.pdf: 2681393 bytes, checksum: 06c28d06b89b63056ccfd84351dd8d36 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-09T11:17:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NicoleBerwangerCobachoDissertacao2017.pdf: 2681393 bytes, checksum: 06c28d06b89b63056ccfd84351dd8d36 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-22 / UCB / The resistance of microorganisms to commonly used antibiotics has increased dramatically in recent years, suggesting that we will soon enter a post-antibiotic era where no therapy currently used will be effective in the fighting against infection. Thus, the search and study of new drugs and models of action of compounds that prevent or reduce the development of pathogens is essential. In this context, antimicrobial peptides (PAMs) appear as a new generation of compounds that demonstrate a great therapeutic potential. These molecules present themselves in low concentration in the organism of origin, making their isolation from natural sources an expensive and often impracticable process. In order to obtain a greater quantity of these peptides, recombinant expression via the heterologous system can be considered an efficient alternative in terms of time, cost and productivity. In 2009, Mandal et al. isolated three coconut water (Coco nucifera) peptides, called Cn-AMP1-2 and -3. Among them, Cn-AMP1 presented better activity against bacteria and fungi of medical importance. Subsequently, Lopez-Abarrategui et al. in 2012 isolated peptides with antimicrobial activity from the mollusk Cenchritis muricatus called Cm-p1 and Cm-p2. From these, a series of variant peptides were theoretically proposed in silico and evaluated against Candida albicans and the peptide named Cm-p5 demonstrated, among them, better antifungal activity. In this work, several constructs containing the peptides Cm-p5 and Cn-AMP1 were drawn in tandem and inserted into the pETSUMO (Life Technologies) vector. Genes were expressed in large quantities in strains derived from Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and after affinity column purification, they were evaluated, still fused with SUMO protein, against pathogenic microorganisms. However, none of the expressed peptides demonstrated bactericidal activity against the strains evaluated. / A resist??ncia dos microrganismos aos antibi??ticos que s??o comumente utilizados vem aumentando drasticamente nos ??ltimos anos, sugerindo que brevemente, entraremos em uma era p??s-antibi??ticos onde terapias utilizadas atualmente n??o ser??o mais eficientes no combate a infec????es. Desta forma, a procura e o estudo de novas drogas e modelos de a????o de compostos que impe??am ou reduzam o desenvolvimento de pat??genos ?? essencial. Neste contexto, os pept??deos antimicrobianos (PAMs) surgem como uma nova gera????o de compostos que demonstram um grande potencial terap??utico. Essas mol??culas apresentam-se em baixa concentra????o no organismo de origem, tornando o seu isolamento a partir de fontes naturais um processo dispendioso e, por muitas vezes, invi??vel. Para a obten????o de maior quantidade desses pept??deos, a express??o recombinante via sistema heter??logo pode ser considerada uma alternativa eficiente em rela????o ao tempo, custo e produtividade. Em 2009, Mandal e colaboradores isolaram tr??s pept??deos da agua de coco (Coco nucifera), denominados Cn-AMP1 -2 e -3. Dentre eles, o Cn-AMP1 apresentou melhor atividade contra bact??rias e fungos de import??ncia medica. Posteriormente, Lopez-Abarrategui e colaboradores em 2012 isolaram pept??deos com atividade antimicrobiana do molusco Centrichis muricatus denominados Cm-p1 e Cm-p2. A partir destes, uma serie de pept??deos variantes foram teoricamente propostos in silico e avaliados contra C. albicans sendo que o pept??deo nominado o Cm-p5 demonstrou, entre todos, melhor atividade antif??ngica. Neste trabalho, v??rias constru????es contendo os pept??deos Cm-p5 e Cn-AMP1 foram desenhadas em tandem e inseridas no vetor pETSUMO (Life Technologies). Os genes foram expressos em grandes quantidades em cepas derivadas de Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) e ap??s purifica????o em coluna de afinidade, os mesmos foram avaliados, ainda fusionados com a prote??na SUMO, contra microrganismos patog??nicos. No entanto, nenhum dos pept??deos expressos demonstrou atividade bactericida contra as cepas avaliadas.

Diploma thesis deals the process of choosing the optimal method of the shipping with TNT Express. The theoretical part is devoted to definiton of the particular methods of transportation. The aim of the operative part is to highlight and solve the problem within the internal communication between salesmen and Special Services Agents.

If a fault occurs in a technical system, for example in an airplane, it is important to beable to detect that there is a fault and to find what in the system that is faulty. Theprocedure of determining, given certain observations, if faults are present and if so thelocation of faults is called a diagnosis. For achieving diagnosis we can use computersoftware that takes observations of a system as input and that generates a diagnosis asoutput. This is called a diagnostic system. To build a diagnostic system we needanother piece of computer software which is called a diagnostic tool. This thesis willpresent a market survey for diagnostic tools as well as an analysis of three of the toolsfound in the survey. The analysis can be seen as constituted by two different aspects,one focusing on the diagnostic methods with which each tool creates diagnosticsystems, the other focusing on practical details that determine the usability of eachtool. The analysis found that the largest differences were between the methods used increating the diagnostic systems.