This study describes algorithms for the solution of several single facility location problems with maximin or minimax objective functions. Interactive computer graphical algorithms are presented for maximizing the minimum rectilinear travel distance and for minimizing the maximum rectilinear travel distance to a number of point demands when there exist several right-angled polygonal barriers to travel. For the special case of unweighted rectilinear distances with barriers, a purely numerical algorithm for the maximin location problem is described. An interactive computer graphical algorithm for maximizing the minimum Euclidean, rectilinear, or general 1p distance to a number of polygonal areas is described. A modified version of this algorithm for location problems with the objective of minimizing the maximum cost when the costs are non-linear monotonically decreasing functions of distance is presented. Extension of this algorithm to problems involving the minimization of the maximum cost when the costs are functions of both distance and direction is discussed using asymmetric distances. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Hundreds of thousands of organizations have chosen to boost their competitive position by demonstrating compliance to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standard. In order for these standards to become credible policy options, they must ensure the capacity to build an industrial morality and to institutionalize responsibility. Relying on a series of in-depth interviews with environmental auditors, this dissertation contributes to a deeper empirical understanding of these regulatory instruments by, first, exploring how the adoption of an EMS promotes self-regulatory capacity and contributes toward effective environmental protection, and second, discussing the limitations of its accountability structure and the threats to the credibility of the standard. This project highlights several misconceptions associated with the role of ISO 14001, and explains why both public and private sectors hold conflicting and inappropriate expectations regarding the certification process. According to the environmental auditors interviewed, the standard has helped thousands of committed organizations to effectively improve their self-regulatory capacity as well as their environmental performance. Yet, organizations with no intrinsic motivation can take advantage of the flexibility granted by the standard and the limitations of the conformity assessment process, to obtain an empty environmental certificate. ISO 14001 is a process standard that can help both "environmental leaders and laggards / Ph. D.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and study the usability issues within Technical Data Management Systems (TDMS). The research has been conducted as a single case study at the gardening and landscape maintenance company Husqvarna. The inductive research led to conducting 10 interviews, 2 expert focus groups and a observational study. An artefact was produced during the research to emulate a potential system. During the research, the researchers identified ten heuristic usability issues within TDMS. Fur- thermore the functional and non-functional needs of Husqvarna have been identified. The artefact was created, based on existing usability guidelines, addressing the usability issues and the needs of Husqvarna. The artefact was used to answer if the applied guidelines have solved the identified usability issues. The conclusion was set, that the applied guidelines had solved the identified issues. With the research being conducted with a single case study, the result may lack generalisability. Future researchers are encouraged to conduct a multiple case study to further identify issues within the research area.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-07-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:29:48Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 nadae_j_me_bauru.pdf: 1907066 bytes, checksum: 69205ceeb00e7293526059a8928551b6 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo desta pesquisa é propor um método para introdução de práticas integradas de gestão da qualidade, meio ambiente e segurança e saúde no trabalho a ser implantado coletivamente pelas PMEs pertencentes a clusters industriais. Este método foi desenvolvido com base em uma revisão bibliográfica e uma pesquisa de campo, que ajudou a conhecer o ambiente e o comportamento das PMEs em um cluster. Para consecução do proposto, selecionou-se o cluster industrial metal-mecânico localizado na cidade de Sertãozinho-SP como base para uma pesquisa exploratória, visando contribuir com a formulação do método. Os instrumentos utilizados para a coleta de dados foram a entrevista semi-estruturada com o agente de governança e o questionário aplicado em uma amostra de 20 empresas do aglomerado. Com base no referencial teórico, elaborou-se um método para introdução de práticas integradas de gestão. este método está dividido em três macroetapas: (i) preparação/planejamento, (ii) implantação e (iii) avaliação e manutenção. Cada uma das etapas é composta por ações que devem ser desenvolvidas pelas empresas e pela governança. A implantação deste método requer acompanhamento constante do agente de governança do cluster, além de ser um processo que busca a melhoria contínua / The objective of this research is to propose a practical method for introducing integrated quality management, environment, safety and health at work to be implemented collectively by SMEs belonging to industrial clusters. This method was development based on a literature review and field research, which helped to understand the environment and the behavior or SMEs in a cluster. To achieve the proposed selected to the metal-mechanic industrial cluster located in the town of Sertaozinho-SP as a basis for exploratory research, to contribute to the formulation of the method. The instruments used for data collection were semi-structured interview with the agent of governance and the questionnaire in a sample of 20 companies of the custer. Based on the theoretical framework, developed a method for introduction of integrated management practices. This method is divided into three macroetapas: (i) preparation/planning, (ii) deployment and (iii) evaluation and maintenance. Each stage consists of actions that should be developed by business and governance. The implementation of this method requires constant monitoring of the agent's governance cluster, besides being a process that seeks continuous improvement

With the transition from closed to open innovation in recent years, the next trend for companies has been to bring in new ideas from external stakeholders using innovation tools, known as Open Innovation Software (OIS). The most common type of OIS, called idea management systems, allows participants to submit, evaluate, and engage in discussions around ideas. However, implementing software to support innovation is not a sure success and potential problems may arise. The purpose of this thesis is to research problems within features in current idea management systems, and to provide guidelines that suggest ways that may eliminate or reduce the impact of the particular problems. Interviews were conducted with representatives from five different idea management systems. The respondents demonstrated their systems, which made it possible to gather features and to learn about problems that exist in these systems. Five problems within features were found; these were related to engagement, duplicates, idea evaluation, complexity, and bias. Numerous recommendations regarding how the impact of these problems may be reduced have been identified. The findings of this thesis show that Problems with engagement is best dealt with using features that delivers better feedback in order to give more motivation to the participants. As for managing duplicates, it is recommended to implement a feature that suggests similar ideas during the idea submission phase. It was found that allowing users to have an unlimited amount of votes should be avoided. To prevent bias, managers should be careful of having features that displays idea ratings before users have casted their vote, features that allow users to edit their casted vote unless an idea has been edited,  and  for instance features that show ideas in order of popularity.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the differences in latency between PostgreSQL and MongoDB as a consequence of their differences in software architecture. This has been achieved through benchmarking of Insert, Read and Update operations with the tool “Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark”, and through source code analysis of both database management systems (DBMSs). The overall structure of the architecture has been researched with Big O notation as a tool to examine the complexity of the source code. The result from the benchmarking show that the latency for Insert and Update operations were lower for MongoDB, while the latency for Read was lower for PostgreSQL. The results from the source code analysis show that both DBMSs have a complexity of O(n), but that there are multiple differences in their software architecture affecting latency. The most important difference was the length of the parsing process which was larger for PostgreSQL. The conclusion is that there are significant differences in latency and source code and that room exists for further research in the field. The biggest limitation of the experiment consist of factors such as background processes which affected latency and could not be eliminated, resulting in a low validity.

The South African property sector is characterised by property practitioner firms that fail to comply with the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) code of conduct and firms having inefficient systems which are unable to combat hacking and cybercrime in the sector. Although property practitioner firms have systems and processes in place, there are still instances of unethical behaviour. Failure to prevent client personal information from being leaked is still a major problem in the sector, this issue can be addressed by demonstrating due diligence with respect to safeguarding sensitive information. The accuracy of information is also a problem in the sector and requires firms to resort to analysing collected data before capturing it, in order to maintain accuracy. The sector encounter illegal access to systems including breaking the password protected websites and password protection on a computer system. The objectives for this study were to investigate the extent to which firms enforce Information Ethics (IE), explore the systems and processes put in place by firms to enforce IE and to explore the challenges experienced by the firms in the Gauteng province when enforcing IE. The study was qualitative in nature and indepth interviews were conducted to gather information from five managers and five employees within the firm situated in Gauteng province. The study found that these property practitioner firms enforce IE to a certain extent. These firms use (22) systems and processes to enforce IE and experienced (5) challenges during the enforcement of IE. The study concludes that these property practitioner firms enforce IE using different systems and processes and experience challenges during enforcement. The list of IE enforcement systems and processes and challenges identified in this study will assist policy makers in compiling IE policies. The findings will also assist firms in IE enforcement and reduction of IE enforcement challenges. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Είναι ευρέως γνωστό ότι, τα τελευταία χρόνια, οι ΤΠΕ (Τεχνολογίες Πληροφορίας και Επικοινωνίας) ενσωματώνονται σε όλα τα σύγχρονα εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα διότι με τη χρήση τους παρέχονται ποικίλες διευκολύνσεις – πλεονεκτήματα κατά τη μαθησιακή διαδικασία. Σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η σχεδίαση και η παράδοση του μαθήματος "Ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον" με χρήση της πλατφόρμας ανοικτής εκπαίδευσης DIPLEK που χρησιμοποιεί τις ΤΠΕ για την ανάπτυξη και οργάνωση του εκπαιδευτικού υλικού από τους εκπαιδευτικούς. Το μάθημα «Ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον» απευθύνεται στους μαθητές της Γ’ Τάξης Τεχνολογικής Κατεύθυνσης Ενιαίου Λυκείου, του Κύκλου Πληροφορικής και Υπηρεσιών. Στόχος του μαθήματος είναι η εισαγωγή του μαθητή στη λογική του προγραμματισμού και η ανάπτυξη του κατάλληλου τρόπου σκέψης για την αλγοριθμική επίλυση προβλημάτων. Σκοπός της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η δημιουργία μιας υποδειγματικής διδασκαλίας του πανελληνίου αυτού εξεταζόμενου μαθήματος που θα αποτελέσει ένα χρήσιμο βοήθημα για τους μαθητές και εργαλείο αναφοράς για τους εκπαιδευτικούς. Για την υλοποίηση του μαθήματος θα χρησιμοποιηθεί η πλατφόρμα ανοικτής εκπαίδευσης DIPLEK. Η πλατφόρμα αυτή έχει σχεδιαστεί και υλοποιηθεί με βάση τις σύγχρονες ανάγκες του μαθητή και καθηγητή για εύκολη πρόσβαση σε εκπαιδευτικό υλικό και μπορεί και προσαρμόζεται στις ανάγκες του. Ακόμα η χρήση της δεν απαιτεί ιδιαίτερες γνώσεις ηλεκτρονικού υπολογιστή αφού παρέχει ένα φιλικό γραφικό περιβάλλον εργασίας στο χρήστη. Η ύλη που θα καλύπτει το μάθημα είναι η ύλη που καλούνται οι μαθητές της Γ Λυκείου να εξεταστούν στις πανελλήνιες εξετάσεις (ανάλυση προβλήματος, βασικές έννοιες αλγορίθμων, δομές δεδομένων και αλγόριθμοι, η γλώσσα προγραμματισμού «Γλώσσα» και το κεφάλαιο υποπρογράμματα). Για την επίτευξη του στόχου αυτού θα χρησιμοποιηθούν μια σειρά από δραστηριότητες που θα καλύπτουν το εύρος των δυνατοτήτων της πλατφόρμας. Δραστηριότητες που θα στοχεύουν στην ανάλυση των δυσνόητων σημείων θεωρίας, ασκήσεις λυμένες και ασκήσεις για λύση με σκοπό την εμπλοκή των μαθητών σε προσωπική πειραματική διαδικασία, τεστ πολλαπλής επιλογής, διαγωνίσματα. Περαιτέρω μελέτη αποτελεί η αξιολόγηση των σεναρίων στη σχολική τάξη και εφαρμογή παρόμοιων σεναρίων για περισσότερα γνωστικά αντικείμενα. / It is widely believed that in recent years, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have been incorporated into all modern educational systems since their use provides a variety of facilities - the advantages in the learning process. The purpose of this particular thesis, is the design and teaching of the " Application Development in a programming environment " course, by using the open education platform DIPLEK, which utilizes the ICT for the development and organization of educational material by teachers. The course mentioned before, is addressed to those students of the Third Grade of High School, who are orientated to the Technological field of computer Science and Services Cycle. The course aims at introducing to student the sense of planning and developing the appropriate way of thinking about algorithmic problem solving. The goal of this thesis is to create an exemplary instructive method of this Pan-Hellenic subject that will be a useful tool for students and a reference tool for teachers. For the realization of the course, the platform of open education DIPLEK will be used. It has been designed and implemented based on the current needs of both student and teacher, for easy access to educational material and can be adapted to their needs as well. Furthermore, its use requires no special computer knowledge due to the fact that it offers a friendly graphical user interface. The material covered by the course, is the one the third Grade candidates are invited to know well, since they enter for it during National exams (problem analysis, basic concepts of algorithms, data structures and algorithms, the programming language "Language" and sub programmes charter). To achieve this goal a range of activities covering the breadth of capabilities of the platform will be used. Activities which aim at analyzing the obscure points of theory, already answered drills and exercises or others which demand a solution with the view to student’s involvement in a personal experiment process and a variety of tests such as multiple choices ones.

Modern data intensive applications, such as multimedia systems require the ability to store and manipulate complex data. The classical Database Management Systems (DBMS), such as relational databases, cannot support these types of applications efficiently. This dissertation presents the salient features of Object Database Management Systems (ODBMS) and Persistent Programming Languages (PPL), which have been developed to address the data management needs of these difficult applications. An 'impedance mismatch' problem occurs in the traditional DBMS because the data and computational aspects of the application are implemented using two different systems, that of query and programming language. PPL's provide facilities to cater for both persistent and transient data within the same language, hence avoiding the impedance mismatch problem. This dissertation presents a method of implementing a PPL by extending the language C++ with pre-compiled classes. The classes are first developed and then used to implement object persistence in two simple applications. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

An initial review of literature concerned with commercial and industrial office design indicated the need to research and develop a method for the design of the management systems of offices with the purpose of improving the operational effectiveness and alignment to strategy. In particular the literature review indicated that the application of lean methods, in non-manufacturing areas is comparatively rare. A critical review of the literature identified that Value Stream Mapping has been used to map mechanistic task activities, however, a need was identified for a new generation of Value Stream Mapping to map mixed mechanistic and organic task activities. To complement the literature survey and discover if there were significant variables (e.g. task uncertainty, interdependence, task complexity, mechanistic / organic structures, risk, task analysability etc) influencing office design, pilot studies were carried out in a mechanistic and organic office. Several additional variables were identified. From the pilot studies combined with the literature review a conceptual model was formulated which provides guidelines for managers enabling them to design the management systems fully taking all the variables into account. The conceptual model was then tested using a multiple case study design of two small consulting type offices that exhibited mixed mechanistic and organic characteristics. This resulted in an improved version of the model which was then further validated. This validation based upon the opinions of office managers focused mainly on identifying the practical usefulness of the model from an industrial perspective. Following the validation a final form of the model has been proposed in this research. It remains for future researchers to fully test the model by applying it in a wider range of offices. This study makes an explicit contribution to the redesign of offices as well as the utilisation of Value Stream Mapping to the mechanistic and the organic task activities within commercial and industrial offices.