Esta tese apresenta a Notação Essencial para Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (em inglês, ENORM), uma notação de propósito geral que representa os conceitos estruturais do Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (MOR). O objetivo de ENORM é facilitar o projeto através da aplicação clara dos padrões MOR, documentação dos mapeamentos com uma notação independente de plataforma, e tornar-se um repositório para transformações dirigidas por modelos, geração parcial de código e ferramentas de engenharia round-trip. ENORM é uma notação baseada em perfil UML, projetada para representar padrões pertencentes a lógica de modelo do domínio, com objetos do domínio incorporando tanto comportamento como dados. A notação representa padrões adotados por frameworks MOR difundidos no mercado (Active Record, do Ruby; SQLAlchemy, do Python; Entity Framework, da Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, do Java), seguindo os princípios Não se repita e Convenção sobre Configuração. ENORM foi avaliado por experimentos controlados, comparando a modelagem de estudantes com modelos UML e relacionais separados, atingindo um número significativamente maior de objetivos na maioria dos cenários, sem ser significativamente diferente nos piores cenários experimentais. / This thesis presents the Essential Notation for Object-Relational Mapping (ENORM), a general purpose notation that represents structural concepts of Object- Relational Mapping (ORM). The goal of ENORM is to facilitate the design by the clear application of ORM patterns, document mappings with a platform independent notation, and became a repository for model-driven transformations, partial code generation, and round-trip engineering tools. ENORM is a UML profile based notation, designed to represent patterns within a domain modeling logic, with objects of the domain incorporating both behavior and data. The notation represents patterns adopted by widespread ORM frameworks in the market (Active Record, of Ruby; SQLAlchemy, of Python; Entity Framework, of Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, of Java), following the Don´t Repeat Yourself and Convention over Configuration principles. ENORM was evaluated by controlled experiments, comparing the modeling by students with the use of separated UML and relational models, achieving significantly more goals in the majority of the scenarios, without being significantly different in the worst experimental scenarios.

The goal of development of sound database for marine fishes in Taiwan not only preserves data, but also wants to provide a common ground of data sharing to increase the efficiency for the study of fish behavior, automatic recognition, localization, and tracking. In order to provide the sound quality in terms of signal-to-noise ratio to users, the fish sound recording will be analyzed before uploading. Because most available data were recorded either in the field or in fish tank, the fish sounds were extracted by using two different automatic detection methods. If fish sound recordings were from the field, the Time Endpoint Detection was applied by the processing a 0.5-s time frame with 50 % overlapping. Then the energy of the time frame was obtained by the sum of square of amplitude and the median of the energy plus a standard deviation was established as the threshold to extract fish sounds. If the recording was made in the fish tank, the Frequency Endpoint Detection was applied by 0.5-s time frame with 50 % overlapping. Then each time frame will be transformed into spectrum and the energy ratio of each frequency will be calculated from the spectrum. Finally the information entropy was obtained from the energy ratio and the detection threshold was set on standard deviation above the median of the information entropy. From two different automatic detection methods, the sound quality was presented in the signal-to-noise ratio, which was the average power of signal divided by average power of the background noise. The fish sound database was a 3-Tier system and developed by PHP and MySQL. In order to reduce the storage size and maintain the integrity of data, the Relational Model was applied. Firstly, the recording data were conceptually represented as Entity-Relationship Diagram(ERD). Secondly, the ERD was transformed to relational schemas. Thirdly, the schemas was normalized by first, second, and third forms. To improve the users¡¦ efficiency the sound database provides three interfaces. One was data uploading, another was data searching according to the keyword of creature name, recording area, and recording time, the other was data comparing by recording number.

Esta tese apresenta a Notação Essencial para Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (em inglês, ENORM), uma notação de propósito geral que representa os conceitos estruturais do Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (MOR). O objetivo de ENORM é facilitar o projeto através da aplicação clara dos padrões MOR, documentação dos mapeamentos com uma notação independente de plataforma, e tornar-se um repositório para transformações dirigidas por modelos, geração parcial de código e ferramentas de engenharia round-trip. ENORM é uma notação baseada em perfil UML, projetada para representar padrões pertencentes a lógica de modelo do domínio, com objetos do domínio incorporando tanto comportamento como dados. A notação representa padrões adotados por frameworks MOR difundidos no mercado (Active Record, do Ruby; SQLAlchemy, do Python; Entity Framework, da Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, do Java), seguindo os princípios Não se repita e Convenção sobre Configuração. ENORM foi avaliado por experimentos controlados, comparando a modelagem de estudantes com modelos UML e relacionais separados, atingindo um número significativamente maior de objetivos na maioria dos cenários, sem ser significativamente diferente nos piores cenários experimentais. / This thesis presents the Essential Notation for Object-Relational Mapping (ENORM), a general purpose notation that represents structural concepts of Object- Relational Mapping (ORM). The goal of ENORM is to facilitate the design by the clear application of ORM patterns, document mappings with a platform independent notation, and became a repository for model-driven transformations, partial code generation, and round-trip engineering tools. ENORM is a UML profile based notation, designed to represent patterns within a domain modeling logic, with objects of the domain incorporating both behavior and data. The notation represents patterns adopted by widespread ORM frameworks in the market (Active Record, of Ruby; SQLAlchemy, of Python; Entity Framework, of Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, of Java), following the Don´t Repeat Yourself and Convention over Configuration principles. ENORM was evaluated by controlled experiments, comparing the modeling by students with the use of separated UML and relational models, achieving significantly more goals in the majority of the scenarios, without being significantly different in the worst experimental scenarios.

In this diploma thesis I concentrate on analysing the possibilities of standardization of financial Business Intelligence solution. The objective is firstly to assess whether it is useful to create a so-called standard model, i.e. a solution model, which could be used repeatedly in independent BI project implementations. The objective is to analyse whether there are similarities among the implemented BI projects in terms of content requirements (measures and dimensions), or what are the differences. The objective is then to design a standard solution model (design relational and dimensional model for data structures). Another objective is to create a functional prototype solution based on the designed model, i.e. to create the actual data structures and fill them with data. A part of this prototype solution should be a set of demonstrative reports. The objectives will be achieved first of all by analysing the theoretical foundations, which provides the literature, and by analysing available real project documentation. Considered BI projects have been implemented within several non-financial commercial institutions. That means that the outputs of this thesis are applicable primarily in non-financial enterprises environments. In the next step, the dimensional modelling techniques will be used to create the schema. Then, leveraging the knowledge of BI solution development techniques on Microsoft SQL Server platform, the prototype solution will be deployed. Reports will be developed using the Microsoft Excel client tool. The benefit of this thesis consists in the model added value, which can be used as the core of newly developed financial BI solutions. The implementation process should by this spare some time. Another benefit of the thesis is the possible use of the prototype solution as a tool for customized demonstration of the financial BI capabilities to potential customers.

The aim of this research is to construct a biblical theology of social justice drawn specifically from the book of Amos. This is done on the basis of rhetorical analysis. The use of rhetorical analysis is considered to correspond with the genre of the selected texts analyzed (Am 2:6-8; 5:1-17; and 8:4-6), which are mostly rhetorical and relates to the issue of social justice in nature. The rhetorical criticism used in this research combines both diachronic and synchronic approaches, and consists of several steps such as dividing the rhetorical units, finding rhetorical situations, drawing rhetorical inventions, describing rhetorical dispositions and identifying rhetorical techniques. The analysis shows that the prophet Amos used a wide variety of literary devices to persuade his audience, the people of Israel, such as chiasm, rhetorical entrapment, oracle against the nations (OAN), N + 1 formula, inclusion and progression, woe oracle, dirge or lament, wordplay, hymn, wisdom techniques, imagery, sevenfold structure, cause-effect form of speech and “quoting what the accused have said.” These primary devices are utilized in the context or in the imagery of a courtroom. In this connection, Amos used the epideictic, judicial and deliberative rhetoric in order to bring his audience to the “divine court” for the religious and social sins that they have committed. These rhetorical devices function as a means of exposing a theological intention of the utterances of Amos, which is establishing justice in the land of Israel. The message of social justice is mainly based on the covenantal relationship between YHWH and his people, as seen in traditions of creation and redemption in the Old Testament, particularly in the Torah (the codes of law) and the former prophetic writings. The covenant calls for God’s people to love YHWH and to act socially just toward other fellow human beings. As a concept, this research proposes a triangular relational model. YHWH, as the theological angle must be independent, and his people, either the powerful (the political angle) or the powerless (the social angle), are dependent on him. Meanwhile, the powerful and the powerless are interdependent with each other. Keeping a balanced relationship among the angles means manifesting the ideal state of social justice in the land. This research shows that the covenant was broken by the Israelites when the powerful disobeyed YHWH and did social injustices toward other human beings. The powerful became independent both toward YHWH and the powerless. As a result, YHWH took responsibility and action to keep his covenant, and called his rebellious people back into repentance and obedience. In other words, justice must be maintained in the land of Israel. Such a divine decision was carried out in the context of the day of Lord (DOL), a day of either judgment or salvation. The option of death and life are offered to be chosen by the powerful. However, God’s people deliberately choose death, and, consequently, their end is near. YHWH himself definitely will defeat and exile them by using the mighty army of Assyria. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

Esta tese apresenta a Notação Essencial para Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (em inglês, ENORM), uma notação de propósito geral que representa os conceitos estruturais do Mapeamento Objeto-Relacional (MOR). O objetivo de ENORM é facilitar o projeto através da aplicação clara dos padrões MOR, documentação dos mapeamentos com uma notação independente de plataforma, e tornar-se um repositório para transformações dirigidas por modelos, geração parcial de código e ferramentas de engenharia round-trip. ENORM é uma notação baseada em perfil UML, projetada para representar padrões pertencentes a lógica de modelo do domínio, com objetos do domínio incorporando tanto comportamento como dados. A notação representa padrões adotados por frameworks MOR difundidos no mercado (Active Record, do Ruby; SQLAlchemy, do Python; Entity Framework, da Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, do Java), seguindo os princípios Não se repita e Convenção sobre Configuração. ENORM foi avaliado por experimentos controlados, comparando a modelagem de estudantes com modelos UML e relacionais separados, atingindo um número significativamente maior de objetivos na maioria dos cenários, sem ser significativamente diferente nos piores cenários experimentais. / This thesis presents the Essential Notation for Object-Relational Mapping (ENORM), a general purpose notation that represents structural concepts of Object- Relational Mapping (ORM). The goal of ENORM is to facilitate the design by the clear application of ORM patterns, document mappings with a platform independent notation, and became a repository for model-driven transformations, partial code generation, and round-trip engineering tools. ENORM is a UML profile based notation, designed to represent patterns within a domain modeling logic, with objects of the domain incorporating both behavior and data. The notation represents patterns adopted by widespread ORM frameworks in the market (Active Record, of Ruby; SQLAlchemy, of Python; Entity Framework, of Microsoft .net; JPA, Cayenne, and MyBatis, of Java), following the Don´t Repeat Yourself and Convention over Configuration principles. ENORM was evaluated by controlled experiments, comparing the modeling by students with the use of separated UML and relational models, achieving significantly more goals in the majority of the scenarios, without being significantly different in the worst experimental scenarios.

Cette recherche propose la création d’un premier modèle expliquant les relations entre les communautés virtuelles de consommation, leurs membres et leur écosystème virtuel de marques. À la différence des nombreux travaux sur le marketing tribal, concentrés sur les communautés de marque, l’auteur choisit d’axer son travail sur l’étude des communautés virtuelles non centrées autour d’une marque spécifique, permettant ainsi d’explorer pour la première fois divers cas de relations marque-communauté modulées par différentes variables telles que le niveau de congruence entre les valeurs d’une marque et celles de la communauté, le niveau d’intrusion et le niveau de contribution d’une marque dans la communauté. Outre l’identification de ces variables explicatives de la relation marque-communauté, cette recherche caractérise également l’ensemble des relations possibles entre marques et communautés tout en évaluant leur impact sur la relation individuelle marque-membre. Les résultats de l’étude de deux couples de marques testés dans deux communautés différentes montrent notamment que la recommandation d’une communauté à l’égard d’une marque a un impact positif sur la confiance d’un membre auprès de cette marque et que le dénigrement produit l’effet inverse. En revanche, contrairement à ce qui est observé dans les communautés de marque, le phénomène de co-création entre une marque et une communauté non marquée peut conduire à une érosion de la confiance d’un membre à l’égard de cette marque. La distinction entre communauté de marque et communauté « non marquée » est donc fondamentale dans l’étude de ces nouvelles structures sociétales. / This research explains the creation of a first model of relationships between virtual communities, their members and their brands virtual ecosystem. Unlike the many papers on tribal marketing, converging on brand communities, the author chooses to focus his work on the study of virtual communities not centered on a specific brand, allowing for the first time, the exploration of various cases of community-brand relationships modulated by several variables such as the congruence level between the values of the brand and those of the community, the contribution and the intrusion levels of the brand in the community. Besides the identification of these explanatory variables of the community-brand relationship, this research also describes all the possible relationships between brands and communities while assessing their impact on the individual relationship consumer-brand. The results of the study on two couples of brands tested on two different communities especially show that recommendation of a community about a brand has a positive impact on the member trust in this brand and that the denigration has the opposite effect. However, unlike what we observed in brand communities, the co-creation phenomenon between a brand and an “unbranded community” can lead to an erosion of the member trust in this brand. The distinction between brand community and “unbranded community” is therefore essential for the study of these new societal structures.

La gestion des risques est un enjeu majeur, mais difficile pour les projets de construction. La difficulté à gérer les risques dans les projets de construction vient de leur complexité. Ils sont composés de nombreuses entités (activités, acteurs, contrats, ressources, etc.) dont le comportement collectif influencent les comportements individuels. Afin de mieux appréhender et comprendre la complexité du système dans son ensemble, il est nécessaire de capitaliser et structurer la connaissance dans le but de proposer un modèle capable de décrire et simuler le comportement du système étudié. Cependant, la formalisation de tels modèles se confronte à de nombreuses difficultés : présence de facteurs humains, raretés de modèles, connaissances souvent expertes et qualitatives difficiles à formaliser, méconnaissance des mécanismes régissant certains processus, données parcellaires, hétérogènes et souvent imparfaites, échelles multiples, etc. L’objectif est de proposer des approches conceptuelles permettant d’assembler des morceaux de connaissances hétérogènes multi-sources et multi-échelles dans le but de proposer un modèle capable de réduire les incertitudes liées au fonctionnement, au devenir, à la conception et au pilotage des projets de construction.Différentes approches et outils ont été proposés pour modéliser et simuler les projets de construction : structure de répartition des risques, réseaux bayésiens, théorie des réseaux, simulation de Monte Carlo, réseau analytique, etc. Ces outils et méthodes sont utilisés pour simuler le comportement de systèmes, mais inadéquats pour représenter des systèmes complexes dynamiques à grandes échelles. Ils sont pour la plupart parcellaires et ne présentent pas ou peu de généricités. Dans ce contexte, les modèles relationnels probabilistes (MRPs) fourniront un formalisme mathématique pratique permettant de représenter et de simuler des systèmes dynamiques complexes entachés d’incertitudes. Les MRPs étendent le formalisme des réseaux bayésiens en ajoutant la notion de paradigme objet où l'incertitude attachée au système est alors prise en compte en quantifiant la dépendance probabiliste entre les propriétés des objets.Pour ce faire, une ontologie du domaine a été développée pour (a) fournir un vocabulaire commun capable de représenter les connaissances sur les projets de construction, (b) identifier les interconnections entre les différentes entités techniques, humaines, économiques à différents niveaux de description. Guidé par cette ontologie unMRP a été élaboré et utilisé pour simuler le comportement des projets de construction tout en prenant en compte les incertitudes. On montrera comment il peut être utilisé pour prédire la réponse incertaine du système ainsi que pour étudier comment la réponse globale du système est sensible aux valeurs ou hypothèses locales. Enfin, le MRP sera utilisé pour deux études de cas (la construction de routes et de ponts à Hue-Vietnam et d’un bâtiment en France). Les résultats montrent que le formalisme des MRPs permet (1) d’instancier tout type de projets de construction, (2) de prendre en compte l'incertitude, (3) de simuler et prédire le comportement du système et (4) d’extraire de la connaissance à partir d’informations partielles. / The difficulty to manage risks in construction projects comes from their complexity. They are composed of many entities (activities, actors, contracts, resources, etc.) among which interactions exist at many levels and influence the system response. In turn, this response can influence the behaviour of some entities. In order to capture the complexity of the system, it is necessary to structure, model and share cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge flows in a common and unifying framework. Because of this high complexity, the system response may appear as unpredictable. Uncertainties at all scales are source of risk for the construction project itself. Tackling this complexity could improve our grasp of the whole system, in order to provide more robust and efficient decision alternatives in risk management. It is then essential to propose conceptual approaches able to represent the behaviour and the interactions of system entities over the time.Different approaches and tools have been proposed to model and simulate risk of construction project as Risk Breakdown Structure, Bayesian networks, Network Theory, Monte Carlo Simulation, Analytical Network Process, etc. These tools and methods can be used to simulate the behaviour of the system, but they are inadequate for representing large and complex dynamical system because they are based on case-dependant model (i.e. a specific model has to be built for each studied construction project), the fragmented representation of knowledge, the lack of common vocabulary, the lack of generic character. Hence, an ontology paradigm is developed in order (a) to provide a common vocabulary able to represent the knowledge about construction projects and its risks, (b) to shape the structure (interrelations) between those identified database and (c) to represent construction project integrating as well technical, human, sustainability dimensions at different detailed levels of uncertainty.In this context, by coupling the advantages of ontology and Bayesian network, the framework of probabilistic relational model (PRM) will provide a practical mathematical formalism allowing to represent and simulate complex stochastic dynamical systems. PRMs extend the formalism of Bayesian networks by adding the notion of object paradigm where uncertainty attached to the system is then taken into account by quantifying probabilistic dependence between the properties of objects and other properties of related objects. To the best of our knowledge, this thesis report will be the first application in which PRM have been proposed to model and simulate construction project while accounting uncertainties.Therefore PRM is used to simulate the propagation of uncertainties existing in this complexdynamic and multi-scale system, which lead to construction project risk. A prototypal software framework has been developed to check the consistency and the viability of the concept. It will be shown how it can be used in order to predict the uncertain response of the system as well as to study how the overall response of the system is sensitive to local values or assumptions. Lastly, PRM will be applied for two case-studies (a road and bridge construction in Hue-Vietnam and another building project in France). Results show that the formalism of PRMs allows to (1) implement any kind of construction project, (2) to take uncertainty into account, (3) to simulate and predict the behaviour of system and (4) to derive information from partial knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to examine the origins of the Multicultural Relational Model of therapy and demonstrate the application of this model in the clinical setting. Subjects were two ethnic minority children, a Hispanic boy, age nine, and a mixed-race boy, age 10, who was adopted by an African American family.

In this work, we model latent discourse indicators to classify constructive and collaborative conversations online. Such conversations are considered good as they are rich in content and have a sense of direction to resolve an issue, solve a problem or gain new insights and knowledge. These unique discourse indicators are able to characterize flow of information, sentiment and community structure within discussions. We build a deep relational model that captures these complex discourse behaviors as latent variables and make a global prediction about overall conversation based on these higher level discourse behaviors. DRaiL, a Declarative Deep Relational Learning platform built on PyTorch, is used for our task in which relevant discourse behaviors are formulated as discrete latent variables and scored using a deep model. These variables capture the nuances involved in online conversations and provide the information needed for predicting the presence or absence of collaborative and constructive characterization in the entire conversational thread. We show that the joint modeling of such competing latent behaviors results in a performance improvement over the traditional direct classification methods in which all the raw features are just combined together to predict the final decision. The Yahoo News Annotated Comments Corpus is used as a dataset containing discussions on Yahoo news forums and final labels are annotated based on our precise and restricted definitions of positively labeled conversations. We formulated our annotation guidelines based on a sample set of conversations and resolved any conflict in specific annotation by revisiting those examples again.