Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2004. / Typescript. "A dissertation [submitted] as partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Educaton." Bibliography: leaves 90-98.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 16, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

When using Business Intelligence (BI), organizations can improve decision-making bycompiling, understanding and utilizing the data held by the organization. Self-serviceBusiness Intelligence (SSBI) has emerged as a new focus within BI and aims to make BI tools available to business users, and relieve IT-experts involvement of in ad hoc reporting andanalysis. The aim of this research is to examine challenges of casual users being self-reliant when using SSBI tools, and the way they are using them in the data mining process. This wasdone through a qualitative study, interviewing seven individuals from different user groups: casual users, power user and IT-experts. From the results it appears that most casual users are not sufficiently self-reliant in the data mining process using SSBI. The visualization is theprime area for SSBI, which most casual users manage themselves if the data and dashboards are pre-defined for them. SSBI is becoming increasingly more common, which leads to moreand more casual users with increased experience who need to be able to dig out their own data for interpretation and analysis. Yet, without additional knowledge, such as data knowledge or SQL skill, casual users are in need of support when it comes to more complex operations thanad hoc analysis and reporting, still creating a request-response relationship to power users and IT-experts. The major challenges, limiting casual users from being self-reliant, are: not sufficiently user-friendly tools, poor data definition and lack of data knowledge, limited data access, indigent validation of reports and lastly, inadequate education.

美國總統歐巴馬自2009年上任後，立即著手將美國的全球戰略重心向亞太地區轉移，同時提出「亞太再平衡」政策指導方針，逐步實現以美國利益為依歸的全球戰略重新布局。2012年美國公布國防戰略指導原則《維持美國的全球領導地位：21世紀國防優先任務》，列出21世紀的國防任務優先順序，文件中提及「戰略再平衡」亦即要發展「空海整體戰」，以反制中共的「反介入／區域拒止」（A2AD)為主要關鍵任務之一，由此可見，美國仍將中共視為亞太地區的重要競爭對手。 回顧美國公開宣稱重返亞洲的戰略布局以來，先後於2010年1月、2011年9月及2015年12月三次對臺軍售，總價值高達140.75億美元。臺灣是美國在亞太地區防衛中共所建構反介入的第一道防線，對美國當然存在重要的軍事意義。就美國「亞太再平衡」與戰略替代方案中，華美共同利益或美方缺漏不足之處，應積極尋求雙方更緊密之軍事合作，以因應共軍「反介入/區域拒止」(A2/AD)能力對其亞太利益威脅，同時兼顧減輕美軍的防衛負擔及信守對盟邦的安全承諾。 在傳統戰爭中，臺灣面對中共之勝算極低，但我國絕無鬆懈建軍備戰之理由，而建構一個「財力可負擔、戰力可信賴」的國防，亦是國軍當前的重大挑戰。研究發現，在結合美國「亞太再平衡」策略中，我國應朝1.強化國家利益經營對美關係；2.結合區域安全發展國防武力；3.加強整合國防資源及推動國防自主等面向努力。在無立即危安的情況下，國防建設宜結合國家經濟發展需要，即「以經濟建構國防、以國防支援經濟」，把軍事投資轉型為具附加價值的產業發展策略，並著重在前瞻先進與軍民兩用的科研上，促進武器更新，減少偏重消費性質的武器彈藥採購，以提升國防自主能力，帶動國內產業發展，創造國防的多元價值。 / Since President Obama took over the oval office in 2009, immediate actions are taken to pivot U.S. global strategy emphasis to Asia Pacific area and “Rebalancing” policy was introduced. The idea was to realize the re-plotting of global strategy which is centered on U.S. interest. The priorities of defense mission for U.S. in 21st century was clearly listed in 2012 defense strategy guidance “Sustaining U.S. Global leadership: Priorities for 21st century defense.” When the document talked about “Strategy rebalancing”, it actually talked about Air-Sea battle(ASB), which is one of the critical mission in countering China’s A2AD measures. Hence we can see that U.S. still sees China as her primary competition in Asia Pacific area. Since the proclamation of “Pivot to Asia” strategy, U.S. has granted Taiwan’s arms sales requests in Jan 2010, Sept 2011, and Dec 2015 for a total worth of 14.075 B USD. Taiwan no doubt has great military meaning to U.S. for which is considered as U.S.’s first line of defense in Asia Pacific area when dealing with China. As for the strategic alternative and U.S.’s “Rebalancing” policy, closer military cooperation should be conducted to fulfill the mutual interest of Taiwan and U.S. or the missing link in U.S. strategy. So is to cope with the threat that inflicted by China’s anti-access / area denial" (A2 / AD), ease U.S. defense burden, and comply the security promise to allies. In conventional warfare, the odd is against Taiwan greatly when confronting China. However, that is not the reason to go easy on force building and enhancing combat readiness. Certainly, it is a big challenge to Taiwan’s arms forces when comes to constructing “financial affordable, force creditable” national defense. The study has shown, when integrate with U.S. “Rebalancing” policy, Taiwan should work toward 1. emphasize national interest and nourish the relationship with U.S.; 2. develop defense capability to cope with regional security situation; 3. increase defense resources integration and promote “self-reliant defense”. Under the condition of without immediate danger, national defense construction should combine with the need of national economy development. That means “use economy to build national defense, and use national defense to support economy development”. Military investment can be transformed into industry development strategy added value. The focus should be fore sighting and advance science research that can be applied on both military and civilian domain. We should stimulate weapon innovation instead of weapon or munitions procurement which is plain consuming nature. Hence, self-reliant defense capability can be improved, domestic industries development can be driven, and multiple values of national defense can be created.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the water engineering industry from the vantage point of creating funds for the renewal of infrastructure with an emphasis on the situation in small municipalities that run their own water supply networks. On the basis of data analysis for the prices of water and sewer rates and the value of infrastructural facilities it is shown that the networks are underfinanced in a third of the municipalities with a self-reliant management model. There is a lack of finance for their reconstruction and the networks are becoming obsolete. Personal empirical research supported the surmise, that the reason for underfinancing is the mayors' attempt at appealing politics. The hypothesis that artificial decrease of prices indeed leads to higher election gains and a longer term for the mayors, was however not confirmed. The thesis concludes that to reach rectification of the situation and secure creation of funds for the renewal of infrastructure in the examined municipalities, it is necessary to increase awareness within the management of the municipalities regarding the legislative situation and secure consultations by experts.

Home Seniors Club es un proyecto que ofrece un servicio de alta calidad, orientado a satisfacer las necesidades de un segmento desatendido actualmente: personas autovalentes de la tercera edad. Es esta porción de la sociedad limeña la que demanda una especial atención donde se involucre en su estilo de vida elementos alineados al confort, distracción, equilibrio emocional, y su interrelación social. Este emprendimiento surge como una opción diferenciada. La estrategia que usaremos se soportará en la exposición de un concepto de negocio sobre la base de la generación de valor a través de un modelo de club exclusivo que involucrará un conjunto de experiencias integrales, que partirán desde la esfera intelectual con prácticas como la lectura, atravesando el entretenimiento de cada una de las actividades lúdicas y aterrizando hasta el confort de los espacios de relajación con las milenarias disciplinas. Se identifica que nuestro mercado objetivo son las personas mayores de 65 años, quienes gozan de una edad sana estándar post jubilación y se hallan en el ápice de su operatividad laboral y doméstica, muchas alejadas de su núcleo familiar. Seniors club está conformado por jóvenes profesionales, con experiencia en gestión de la virtud empresarial, que reúnen un conjunto de habilidades y competencias que sumadas a su pasión de compromiso y liderazgo natural lo predisponen hacia el logro de un objetivo mayor: el servicio. Se pide la suma de S/35,150.00, invitando al inversionista a ser parte de la empresa, con un porcentaje de un 20% de las acciones. / Home Senior´s club is a project that offers a high-quality service, focusing in satisfying the needs of a current unattended segment: self-reliant seniors. It is this portion of the Lima society that demands special attention where elements aligned to comfort, distraction, emotional balance, and their social interrelation are involved in their lifestyle. This entrepreneurship arises from a differentiated option. The strategy that we will use will be supported in the exposition of a business concept based on the generation of value through an exclusive club model that will involve a set of comprehensive experiences, which will start from the intellectual sphere with practices such as reading, going through the entertainment of each of the recreational activities and landing to the comfort of the relaxation spaces with the ancient disciplines. It is identified that our target market is people over 65 years old, who enjoy a standard healthy age after retirement and are at the apex of their work and domestic operations, many far from their family nucleus. Seniors club is made up of young professionals, with experience in business virtue management, who bring together a set of skills and competences that, together with her passion for commitment and natural leadership, predispose her towards the achievement of a greater objective: service. We ask for the sum of S/35,150.00, inviting the investor to be part of the company with a 20% of shares. / Trabajo de investigación

No description available.

Studien syftar till att undersöka hur utbildning av de anställda påverkar deras arbetssätt med Self-Service Business Intelligence (SSBI). SSBI kan sammanfattas som en arbetsmetod baserad på dataunderlag som ger beslutstöd för anställda inom verksamheten. Vid tidigare beslutstöd som Business intelligence (BI) fanns det specifika roller som använde sig av dataunderlag och skapade rapporter. Dessa roller befann sig i IT-avdelningen och fick förfrågningar av anställda som var i behov av rapporter för att ta beslut. Syftet med SSBI är att möjliggöra för anställda att vara oberoende av IT-avdelningen och självständigt kunna analysera och tolka data för att sedan skapa rapporter. Detta är något som effektiviserar arbetet hos företag och skapar mer värde genom att underlätta för IT-avdelningen. Även om SSBI tillåter anställda till att bli mer självständiga inom sitt arbete, finns det utmaningar vid införandet. Den väsentliga utmaningen som denna uppsats fokuserar på är hur utbildning påverkar BI-användarna i sitt arbete med SSBI. Studien baseras på kvalitativa intervjuer med totalt fyra företag och fem respondenter. Frågorna som ställts har utgått från det teoretiska ramverket med teorier och modeller om självständighet, kunskap, utbildning och värdeskapande. Detta har varit en substantiell aspekt för att kunna generera kunskap om huruvida utbildning påverkar anställdas arbetssätt med SSBI.   Resultatet av uppsatsen presenterade att utbildning har en tydlig påverkan och en stor roll vid användningen av SSBI. Införandet av SSBI har lett till att anställda känner sig mer självständiga med en större frihet, däremot klarar de med formell utbildning mer avancerade arbetsuppgifter med SSBI. Arbetet inom organisationen har förenklats med SSBIeftersom navigering, definitioner och tolkning av data kan ske självständigt. Uppsatsen visar en tydlig indikation att deltagarna blivit påverkade av införandet av SSBI på olika nivåer framför allt beroende på utbildning men även tidigare kunskap och hur engagerade företag är med att kontinuerligt utveckla SSBI inom verksamheten. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how the education of employees affect their way of working with Self-Service Business intelligence (SSBI) as a working method. SSBI can be summarized as a working method based on data that provides decision support for employees within the business. In previous decision support such as Business intelligence (BI), there were specific roles that were used for data and creating of reports. These roles were in the IT department and received inquiries from employees who needed reports to make decisions. The purpose of SSBI is to enable employees to be independent of the IT department and to be able to independently analyze and interpret data so that reports can be created. With this method implemented in companies, it will create more value by creating more relief for the IT department. Although SSBI applies to employees to become more independent in their work, there are challenges with the implementation. The significant challenges that this study focuses on are how education affects BI users in their work with SSBI. The study has been conducted with qualitative interviews with a total of four companies and five respondents. The questions are based on the theories and models of independence, education, knowledge and value creation to generate knowledge whether training affects employees' working methods.  The results of the study showed a clear impact on how education plays a major role in the use of SSBI. The implementation of SSBI has made employees feel more independent with greater freedom, but with a formal education they can handle more advanced tasks with SSBI. The work within the organization has been simplified with SSBI because navigation, definitions and interpretation of data independently. The study shows a clear indication that the participants have been affected by the introduction of SSBI at different levels, primarily due to training but also previous knowledge and how committed companies are to continuously developing SSBI within the business.

This dissertation utilizes theories of deviance in conjunction with literary methods of reading and analyzing to study a range of deviant or transgressive characters in American literature of the 1840s and 50s. I justify this methodology on the basis of the intersecting and related histories of Emersonian self-reliance and deviance in American thought. I contend that each of the texts of self-reliance discussed by the dissertation – The National Police Gazette (1845-present), Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” (1849) and Walden (1854), and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The Blithedale Romance (1852) – actually sanctions deviance. Since deviance is endorsed by these texts in some shape or form, it is a critical component of American culture; consequently American culture is one that promotes deviance. My work on Douglass and Thoreau employs the sociological theories of Robert K. Merton (1949) to investigate the tensions between the culturally lauded goal of self-reliance and the legitimate means for securing this. I explore the importance of Transcendentalist self-reliance to the American Dream ethos and the ways in which it is valorized by each protagonist. The work on the National Police Gazette puts popular and elite forms of literary discourse into conversation with one another. My primary concern here is with explaining why and how specific self-reliant behaviours are deemed “deviant” in the literary context, but “criminal” by popular works. The chapters on female deviance elucidate the confines of women’s writing and writing about women as well as the acceptable female modes of conduct during the nineteenth century. They also focus on the ways female characters engaged in deviance from within these rigid frameworks. A functionalist interrogation of female deviance underscores the ways society is united against those women who are classed as unwomanly or unfeminine. My conclusion seeks to reinvigorate the conversation regarding the intersection between literature and the social sciences and suggests that literature in many ways often anticipates sociological theory. Ultimately, I conclude by broadening the category of the self-reliant individual to include, for instance, females and African-American slaves who were otherwise not imagined to possess such tendencies. Thus, this dissertation revises notions of Emerson’s concept of self-reliance by positioning it instead as a call to arms for all Americans to engage in deviant or socially transgressive behaviour.