Human behavior is a key factor influencing the spread of infectious diseases. Individuals adapt their daily routine and typical behavior during the course of an epidemic -- the adaptation is based on their perception of risk of contracting the disease and its impact. As a result, it is desirable to collect behavioral data before and during a disease outbreak. Such data can help in creating better computer models that can, in turn, be used by epidemiologists and policy makers to better plan and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. However, traditional data collection methods are not well suited to support the task of acquiring human behavior related information; especially as it pertains to epidemic planning and response. Internet-based methods are an attractive complementary mechanism for collecting behavioral information. Systems such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and online survey tools provide simple ways to collect such information. This thesis explores new methods for information acquisition, especially behavioral information that leverage this recent technology. Here, we present the design and implementation of a crowd-sourced surveillance data acquisition system -- WiSDM. WiSDM is a web-based application and can be used by anyone with access to the Internet and a browser. Furthermore, it is designed to leverage online survey tools and MTurk; WiSDM can be embedded within MTurk in an iFrame. WiSDM has a number of novel features, including, (i) ability to support a model-based abductive reasoning loop: a flexible and adaptive information acquisition scheme driven by causal models of epidemic processes, (ii) question routing: an important feature to increase data acquisition efficacy and reduce survey fatigue and (iii) integrated surveys: interactive surveys to provide additional information on survey topic and improve user motivation. We evaluate the framework's performance using Apache JMeter and present our results. We also discuss three other extensions of WiSDM: Adapter, Synthetic Data Generator, and WiSDM Analytics. The API Adapter is an ETL extension of WiSDM which enables extracting data from disparate data sources and loading to WiSDM database. The Synthetic Data Generator allows epidemiologists to build synthetic survey data using NDSSL's Synthetic Population as agents. WiSDM Analytics empowers users to perform analysis on the data by writing simple python code using Versa APIs. We also propose a data model that is conducive to survey data analysis. / Master of Science

L’évolution technologique du web durant ces dernières années a favorisé l’arrivée d’environnements virtuels collaboratifs pour la modélisation 3D à grande échelle. Alors que la collaboration réunit dans un même espace partagé des utilisateurs distants géographiquement pour un objectif de collaboration commun, les ressources matérielles qu'ils apportent (calcul, stockage, 3D ...) avec leurs connaissances sont encore trop rarement utilisées et cela constitue un défi. Il s'agit en effet de proposer un système simple, performant et transparent pour les utilisateurs afin de permettre une collaboration efficace à la fois sur le volet computationnel mais aussi, bien entendu, sur l'aspect métier lié à la modélisation 3D sur le web. Pour rendre efficace le passage à l’échelle, de nombreux systèmes utilisent une architecture réseau dite "hybride", combinant client serveur et pair-à-pair. La réplication optimiste s'adapte bien aux propriétés de ces environnements répartis : la dynamicité des utilisateurs et leur nombre, le type de donnée traitées (3D) et leur taille. Cette thèse présente un modèle pour les systèmes d’édition collaborative en 3D sur le web. L'architecture cliente (3DEvent) permet de déporter les aspects métiers de la 3D au plus près de l’utilisateur sous la forme d’évènements. Cette architecture orientée événements repose sur le constat d’un fort besoin de traçabilité et d’historique sur les données 3D lors de l’assemblage d’un modèle. Cet aspect est porté intrinsèquement par le patron de conception event-sourcing. Ce modèle est complété par la définition d’un intergiciel en pair-à-pair. Sur ce dernier point, nous proposons d'utiliser la technologie WebRTC qui présente une API familière aux développeurs de services en infonuagique. Une évaluation portant sur deux études utilisateur concernant l’acceptance du modèle proposé a été menée dans le cadre de tâches d’assemblage de modèles 3D sur plusieurs groupes d’utilisateurs. / Web technologies evolutions during last decades fostered the development of collaborative virtual environments for 3D design at large scale. Despite the fact that collaborative environments gather in a same shared space geographically distant users in a common objective, the hardware ressources of their clients (calcul, storage, graphics ...) are often underused because of the challenge it represents. It is indeed a matter of offering an easy-to-use, efficient and transparent collaborative system to the user supporting both computationnal and 3D design visualisation and business logic needs in heterogeneous web environments. To scale well, numerous systems use a network architecture called "hybrid", combining both client-server and peer-to-peer. Optimistic replication is well adapted to distributed application such as 3D collaborative envionments : the dynamicity of users and their numbers, the 3D data type used and the large amount and size of it.This document presents a model for 3D web-based collaborative editing systems. This model integrates 3DEvent, an client-based architecture allowing us to bring 3D business logic closer to the user using events. Indeed, the need of traceability and history awareness is required during 3D design especially when several experts are involved during the process. This aspect is intrinsec to event-sourcing design pattern. This architecture is completed by a peer-to-peer middleware responsible for the synchronisation and the consistency of the system. To implement it, we propose to use the recent web standard API called WebRTC, close to cloud development services know by developers. To evaluate the model, two user studies were conducted on several group of users concerning its responsiveness and the acceptance by users in the frame of cooperative assembly tasks of 3D models.

Os gastos com saúde vêm crescendo em ritmo alarmante e os hospitais universitários, as unidades mais complexas dos sistemas de saúde, enfrentam grandes desafios para reduzir custos e melhorar a eficiência operacional. Considerando-se que a gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores tem grande potencial para apoiar melhorias de desempenho no setor hospitalar e, conforme indicações da literatura acadêmica, tem limitada abordagem no setor hospitalar, decidiu-se aprofundar o estudo de gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores em organizações hospitalares. Tendo-se como referência uma revisão sistemática de literatura, desenvolveu-se um framework específico para gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores em hospitais. O framework estabelece aspectos relacionados com apoio da alta administração, estrutura organizacional, infraestrutura de tecnologia de informação e capacitações dos recursos humanos como requisitos que devem ser atendidos para possibilitar a implementação de processos de gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores em hospitais. Com o auxílio do framework, foram realizados estudo de casos em quatro hospitais universitários de grande porte, dois públicos e dois privados. Nos relatórios dos casos são analisados o atendimento aos requisitos mencionados, os processos utilizados nos hospitais universitários e as dificuldades enfrentadas para a gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores. Constatou-se que os hospitais universitários privados estão mais evoluídos que os públicos na implantação de gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores. Restrições impostas pela legislação de compras públicas, políticas públicas de gestão de recursos humanos e carência de recursos financeiros para investimentos na infraestrutura de tecnologia de informação impedem que os hospitais universitários públicos consigam melhores resultados com a gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores. Este estudo contribui para preencher uma lacuna referente à abordagem de gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores em hospitais universitários e disponibiliza informações que podem auxiliar os gestores hospitalares a aprimorar a gestão de relacionamento com fornecedores. / Health spending has been growing at an alarming rate, and university hospitals, the most complex units of health care systems, face major challenges in reducing costs and improving operational efficiency. Considering that supplier relationship management has great potential to support performance improvements in the hospital sector and, as indicated in the academic literature, has received limited approach in the healthcare sector, it was decided to deepen the study of supplier relationship management in hospitals. Based on a systematic literature review, a specific framework for supplier relationship management in hospitals was developed. The framework establishes aspects related to senior management support, organizational structure, information technology infrastructure and human resource skills as requisites that must be met to enable the implementation of supplier relationship management processes in hospitals. With the help of the framework, a case study was carried out in four large university hospitals, two public and two private hospitals. In the case study reports it was analyzed the attendance to the mentioned requisites, the processes used in university hospitals and the difficulties faced for the supplier relationship management. It was verified that private university hospitals are more developed than the public ones in the implementation of supplier relationship management practices. Constraints imposed by public procurement legislation, public policies for human resources management and lack of financial resources for investments in information technology infrastructure prevent public university hospitals from achieving better results with supplier relationship management. This study contributes to fill a gap regarding supplier relationship management approach in university hospitals and provides information that can help hospital managers to improve supplier relationship management.

The aim of this diploma thesis is a detailed view of a process and way of managing all the sourcing activities in the company Thermo Fischer Scientific. The focus (of my work) is a czech site of mentioned company situated in Mukařov, which, apart from production itself, is engaged also in sourcing for its own needs (where in most cases it has a decision power in its own hands) as well as for the whole company in the global measure (where it operates just as an intermediate searching for possible business partners, without any powers of decision). The main contribution of my work lies in the comparison of both of these variations and detailed investigation and description of all the activities that could help to optimize the global sourcing. I found out that entire optimizations are based on communication improvements among all the sourcing managers and technologists within the global corporation. On the basis of this fact I have projected models of documents the sourcing managers should work with, suppliers database and an information server. The result of my work is a process scheme which should contribute to the outsourced projects optimization.

The goal of this paper is to explore corporate and information strategies, focus is put on new and modern business models. I accentuate alignment between corporate and information strategy. Theoretical overview of corporate and information strategies is followed by description of modern trends that were discovered by author. All new trends are analyzed from IT and business point of view. Some trends are demonstrated on real companies in the paper. The analysis consists of corporate strategy and searching for the way how IT can support business and how to be in alignment. Two types of companies are included. First type is company that built up business model based on IT/ICT strategy. The other type includes companies that are running business for longer time and new IT/ICT strategy deployment or better alignment between strategies brought improvement and better market position. The paper includes basic model representing strategic management that is presented at the end. This gives an overview to all readers how the process goes from corporate and information strategy to application portfolio. The paper is destined for professionals and nonprofessionals who are interested in modern strategies. It is also useful for IT/ICT managers when working on own strategies.

Submitted by Pablo Possamai (pablopossamai@hotmail.com) on 2018-10-18T10:10:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Pablo Possamai_ Dissertacao MPA.pdf: 1765131 bytes, checksum: 4e094916d32dc4277f82617c65e9b309 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Mayara Costa de Sousa (mayara.sousa@fgv.br) on 2018-10-25T15:10:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Pablo Possamai_ Dissertacao MPA.pdf: 1765131 bytes, checksum: 4e094916d32dc4277f82617c65e9b309 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-10-26T12:47:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Pablo Possamai_ Dissertacao MPA.pdf: 1765131 bytes, checksum: 4e094916d32dc4277f82617c65e9b309 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-26T12:47:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pablo Possamai_ Dissertacao MPA.pdf: 1765131 bytes, checksum: 4e094916d32dc4277f82617c65e9b309 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-20 / A busca por eficiência e constante redução de custos tem levado muitas organizações a reestruturarem seus processos e suas atividades de compras com o objetivo de gerar maior competitividade para o negócio a partir de processos mais robustos. As compras estratégicas de bens e serviços indiretos têm ganhado espaço nas organizações, o que pode ser explicado, em parte, pela competitividade global, pressão por resultados financeiros e mudanças estruturais na indústria. O objetivo deste trabalho foi demonstrar, mediante estudos de caso centrados em serviços de marketing, jurídico e de logística internacional, como as compras indiretas podem ser gerenciadas de forma mais estratégica, para tanto, analisando como esses processos são conduzidos em uma indústria de cosméticos e como se comparam com a literatura. Este estudo abordou as diferentes situações de gastos indiretos, nesse sentido, identificando os gaps e as oportunidades existentes que possam ser explorados. Neste estudo foi abordado como o gerenciamento por categorias de compras, de acordo com a Matriz de Kraljic (1983), comparase com a classificação interna da empresa segundo as áreas clientes e compras. Demonstra-se que as compras de bens e serviços, quando realizadas de forma estratégica, com o uso de tecnologia e uma estrutura independente, geram ganhos competitivos por meio da redução de custos e permite que as áreas funcionais concentrem seus esforços na atividade principal da área. Os campos analisados foram: gerenciamento por categoria, processo de compras e como compras se relaciona com as outras áreas. Na conclusão, algumas recomendações são propostas para aumentar a efetividade da gestão de compras indiretas de serviços. / The search for efficiency and constant cost reduction has led many organizations to restructure their processes and their sourcing activities in order to generate greater competitiveness for the business thru more robust processes. Strategic sourcing of indirect goods and services have gained space in organizations, which can be partly explained by global competitiveness, pressure for financial results and structural changes in industry. The objective of this work was to demonstrate, through case studies focused on marketing, legal and international logistics services, how indirect sourcing can be managed in a more strategic way, by analyzing how these processes are conducted in a cosmetics industry and how they are compared to the literature. This study addressed the different situations of indirect costs, in this sense, identifying the existing gaps and opportunities that can be explored. In this study it was approached how the category management, according to the Kraljic Matrix (1983), compares with the internal classification of the company according to the internal customers and sourcing areas. It is demonstrated that the sourcing of goods and services, when carried out in a strategic way, using technology and an independent structure, generates competitive gains through cost reduction and allows the functional areas to concentrate their efforts on thei main activities. The fields analyzed were: category management, sourcing processes and how the sourcing interacts with the other areas in the organization. In the conclusion, some recommendations are proposed to increase the effectiveness of indirect sourcing management.

The textile industry is considered one of the most challenging industries when it comes to environmental pollution just after the oil industry. It has a huge impact on water pollution and resource consumption in terms of fiber production. Recently sustainability in cotton fiber production is questioned due to the huge uses of land, water, a large number of pesticides, and a significant amount of energy during cultivation. When it comes to cellulosic pulp production, currently fibrous plant material is used which is mainly wood. So, recycling of cellulosic textiles is considered the only option to reduce this impact. The recycling company Renewcell is launching a large-scale plant for cellulosic fiber recycling which is located in Sweden and will use the post-industrial textile waste as one of its feedstocks. The purpose of this research is to analyze the barriers and drivers for collecting this post-industrial textile waste from the garment manufacturing countries to Sweden and analyze the available collaborative business model alternatives. This study was performed by a qualitative study where primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by thematic analysis. The data was collected among four stakeholders within this value chain which are the fashion brands, recyclers, garment manufacturers, and waste handlers. The finding shows that this sector is very informal and is yet to be formalized. The external informal influence was identified throughout the value chain as a non-value-added activity.  And the involvement of fashion brands was identified as one of the drivers. Several collaborative business models are discussed considering their applicability in different contextual situations. This analysis was discussed based on the seven themes which were generated during the thematic analysis and later discussed with the current empirical study and theoretical background. Collaboration between the recycler, traders, brands, and the textile manufacturers were discussed in different dimensions such as direct collaboration and logistic partnership approach. Then the research limitation was discussed in both methodological and research contexts followed by future research recommendations.

Master of Science / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Joy Kozar / Global apparel supply chains require collaboration from many sectors, including consumers, retail firms, manufacturing firms and factories. The role of sourcing agents as a facilitating sector of global apparel supply chains was explored as part of this study. A quantitative analysis of import data from the U.S. Department of Commerce for four apparel categories revealed changes in import volume over the last 10 years for all major trade regions of the world. Qualitative data was also collected to further analyze how industry professionals perceive the role of sourcing agents in facilitating apparel production movement. Participants revealed that sourcing agents breakdown cultural and geographic barriers between U.S. firms and off shore factories, providing a competitive advantage to U.S. apparel firms by reducing production cost and facilitating production of complex designs, but lack any form of formal regulation.

Most contemporary South African businesses are facing tough times. This is the result of emerging trends such as intense global competition which requires businesses to be quick, agile and flexible; new technology available to any business willing to adopt it; more advanced customer expectations and the implementation of new strategic, proactive management approaches. In fact, many of them (including wholesalers) will succeed only if they can successfully integrate strategy, processes, business arrangement, resources, systems and empowered workforces to render their core business effectively. Choosing suppliers and purchasing products are critical wholesaling activities and often determine the success of wholesalers. Wholesaling institutions, however, vary considerably in size, activity, style of business, types of products provided and services rendered. These variables imply that the complexity of wholesaling activities differs. It therefore stands to reason that the level of sophistication with which these wholesalers manage their purchasing, sourcing and supply activities may differ. The level of sophistication with which wholesalers manage their purchasing, sourcing and supply function may vary from traditional management approaches to advanced integrated management approaches. The use of the new management approaches by businesses is a vital instrument in facilitating change. This leads to the development of more focused, specialised and high-performance organisations. Manufacturers are not geared to deal directly with the thousands of small retailers and therefore use wholesalers for this function. Wholesalers provide a vital link between manufacturers and retailers, and play a pivotal role in efficiency of the whole supply chain. Adapting to the supply chain management approach may thus mean the difference between success, failure and the continued existence of the wholesaler in supply chains. This research study was undertaken to determine to what extent wholesalers in South Africa have adapted to new demands and developments in their purchasing, sourcing and supply functions. Secondary to this objective was the need to (1) investigate the scope of wholesaling, with reference to the global and South African context; (2) investigate the concepts of and the evolution of purchasing to strategic sourcing as part of the broader supply chain management approach; (3) analyse the scope and concept of supply chain management; and (4) determine the purchasing, sourcing and supply management approaches used by the wholesale sector in South Africa. The study was conducted in several phases. Firstly, a literature research was conducted to gather and integrate secondary data in order to (1) expound the definitions, importance, types, activities and trends of wholesalers; and (2) investigate the development of purchasing to strategic sourcing and evolution of supply chain management, and to give an overview of purchasing, strategic sourcing and supply chain management. Secondly, a questionnaire was compiled containing all the relevant issues identified in the literature research to enable the researcher to establish how far South African wholesalers have advanced in adopting new approaches to managing the purchasing, sourcing and supply function. This questionnaire was pretested on two respondents to verify its validity, before proceeding to the next step. Thirdly, a letter and the refined and tested questionnaire were mailed to all the wholesalers identified to be involved in the survey, informing them of the research study and soliciting their cooperation. The letter requested the participants to return the questionnaire via facsimile. Fourthly, to improve the response rate, after the date for returning the questionnaire had lapsed, additional questionnaires were faxed to all the respondents who had not completed the initial questionnaire. The literature research established that the new demands and developments facing wholesalers in managing their purchasing, sourcing and supply function are a reality. Wholesalers are confronted with a variety of challenges concerning these demands and developments which is jeopardising their vital role in the supply chain, and they need to adopt a more sophisticated method of managing these activities, not only to ensure their own survival, but also to lower the costs of the wholesale operation, and ultimately allow an increase in shareholders' wealth. The empirical study, however, clearly indicated that South African wholesalers are still significantly focused on the tactical aspects of purchasing, incorporating only a few aspects of strategic sourcing and supply chain management. The position of South African wholesalers regarding the level of sophistication in their management approach to the purchasing, sourcing and supply chain management approach can be regarded as a mechanical approach, with proactive tendencies. It is therefore clear that South African wholesalers have not adapted to the strategic sourcing and supply chain management approaches, and need to prepare themselves for this change - or risk failure. / Business Management / M. Comm.

This research study analyzed the sources of nutrition blog information as measured by frequency and type of sources used by nutrition bloggers. Since the use of online resources for finding health information has become more prevalent, it is important to further research the topic for the purpose of better understanding how our nutrition agenda is set by nutrition bloggers. Focusing on 20 nutrition blogs, the study content analyzed 3,156 blog posts during a one-year period from September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2012, yielding 5,263 sources. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with the writers of all 20 blogs in July 2012. The findings showed that (1) nutrition bloggers are sourcing half of the time, (2) nutrition bloggers are citing a variety of sources that include both credible and less credible sources, (3) nutrition bloggers are finding and choosing sources in various ways that include both credible and less credible methods, and (4) there is no difference in the sources selected by men and women bloggers. Overall, this study shows the need to create best practices for blog sourcing that serve as guidelines for both bloggers and readers, with emphasis on guidelines for source frequency and credibility of sources.