Within any manufacturing environment, the selection of the production or assembly machines is part of the day to day responsibilities of management. This is especially true when there are multiple types of machines that can be used to perform each assembly or manufacturing process. As a result, it is critical to find the optimal way to select machines when there are multiple related assembly machines available. The objective of this research is to develop and present a model that can provide guidance to management when making machine selection decisions of parallel, non-identical, related electronics assembly machines. A model driven Decision Support System (DSS) is used to solve the problem with the emphasis in optimizing available resources, minimizing production disruption, thus minimizing cost. The variables that affect electronics product costs are considered in detail. The first part of the Decision Support System was developed using Microsoft Excel as an interactive tool. The second part was developed through mathematical modeling with AMPL9 mathematical programming language and the solver CPLEX90 as the optimization tools. The mathematical model minimizes total cost of all products using a similar logic as the shortest processing time (SPT) scheduling rule. This model balances machine workload up to an allowed imbalance factor. The model also considers the impact on the product cost when expediting production. Different scenarios were studied during the sensitivity analysis, including varying the amount of assembled products, the quantity of machines at each assembly process, the imbalance factor, and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the assembly processes. The results show that the higher the CV, the total cost of all products assembled increased due to the complexity of balancing machine workload for a large number of products. Also, when the number of machines increased, given a constant number of products, the total cost of all products assembled increased because it is more difficult to keep the machines balanced. Similar results were obtained when a tighter imbalance factor was used.

The 3D applications, until recently restricted to the desktops and workstations, are expanding into the mobile platforms, such as cellular phones and PDAs. Similar to the desktop, the consumers will expect high-quality 3D experience, and this is a big challenge. Handheld devices have slower processors that are less capable of computing large workloads, and the batteries have limited lifetimes, so for large and complex workload, we need an excellent power management policy for saving power. Besides, although mobile platforms have lower resolution than desktop, each pixel must still be rendered since the screen is closed to the observer¡¦s eye, or we will see some imperfections. For the reasons above, we make a point of performance optimization and power saving, and these rely on accuracy and fast workload estimation. We refer to some workload estimation methods which researchers have mentioned before, such as UW1, UW5, PID[8], Frame Structure[9], Signature Table[1], and hybrid power management policy[10].UW1 and UW5 both use the previous workload as the estimation workload. PID uses the feedback loop to correct the estimation workload. Frame Structure classifies frames into several structures, and sums the workload of each structure up as the estimation workload. Signature Table stores some 3D parameters in the table, and when a new frame comes in, the 3D parameters of this frame will compare with the table, if match, we use the workload in the table as the estimation workload. Our method is a hybrid policy of UW1 and UW5, and we will decide to use UW1 or UW5 when a new frame comes in. Finally we will compare the performance of each power management policy.

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The focus of our study was to examine personal assistants and group home assistants experiences of stress at work, how they cope with stress and how it affects the relationship with the care recipient. The study is made out of a qualitative frame and based on interviews with two personal assistants and four group home assistants. Our theoretical perspectives consist of Aaron Antonovsky’s SOC theory, Richard Lazarus theory about coping and also sociologist Johan Asplund’s theory about social interaction. The result indicates that the experiences of stress are individual and varied among the participants while the presence of stress at work is a shared apprehension. The Main reasons for the emergence of stress are related to workload, diffuse information, work-tasks and staff exchange. Coping-strategies that are used to reduce the experiences of stress are spread between both problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping while the latter is more frequently applied. Social Support has a vital part in the staff’s management of stress. Colleagues, supervisors and other people in their close environment are presented as important resources.  Our final conclusion is that stress has an impact on the relationship with the recipient of care because of the close interaction they have with each other. The close interaction with the recipient of care may however itself be a powerful stress factor due to the fact that the work itself is characterized by close interaction and it would be an impossibility to not be affected by it.

In this thesis, we present an approach to managing the execution of large queries that involves the decomposition of large queries into an equivalent set of smaller queries and then scheduling the smaller queries so that the work is accomplished with less impact on other queries. We describe a prototype implementation of our approach for IBM DB2™ and present a set of experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-17 22:05:05.304

In today’s database server environments, multiple types of workloads, such as on-line transaction processing, business intelligence and administrative utilities, can be present in a system simultaneously. Workloads may have different levels of business importance and distinct performance objectives. When the workloads execute concurrently on a database server, interference may occur and result in the workloads failing to meet the performance objectives and the database server suffering severe performance degradation. To evaluate and classify the existing workload management systems and techniques, we develop a taxonomy of workload management techniques. The taxonomy categorizes workload management techniques into multiple classes and illustrates a workload management process. We propose a general framework for autonomic workload management for database management systems (DBMSs) to dynamically monitor and control the flow of the workloads and help DBMSs achieve the performance objectives without human intervention. Our framework consists of multiple workload management techniques and performance monitor functions, and implements the monitor–analyze–plan–execute loop suggested in autonomic computing principles. When a performance issue arises, our framework provides the ability to dynamically detect the issue and to initiate and coordinate the workload management techniques. To detect severe performance degradation in database systems, we propose the use of indicators. We demonstrate a learning-based approach to identify a set of internal DBMS monitor metrics that best indicate the problem. We illustrate and validate our framework and approaches using a prototype system implemented on top of IBM DB2 Workload Manager. Our prototype system leverages the existing workload management facilities and implements a set of corresponding controllers to adapt to dynamic and mixed workloads while protecting DBMSs against severe performance degradation. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-07 13:35:42.858

Cultural adaptations to environment can result in certain biological changes in individuals (Kennedy, 1989; Jurmain, 1999). Some of these changes can affect the human skeleton and leave markers pointing to patterns of habitual behavior or general level of workload stress placed on the body. This study assesses the variation in workload caused by environmental and cultural differences of three contemporaneous Nubian groups of the Kerma era (2,500-1,500BC) in ancient Nubia. The skeletal samples used here are from three contemporaneous ancient Nubian groups who lived during this period. The Kerma Collection represents a population from the urban capital city of Kerma in Upper Nubia (1,750-1,500BC; n=216), the collection of the Northern Dongola Reach Survey (NDRS) represents a rural population located 70km south of the Kerma city in Upper Nubia (2,500-1,750BC; n=48), and the C-Group collection represents a subsistence based society from the area of Lower Nubia (2,000-1,600BC; n=109). The rural and urban groups were located in the fertile area of Sudan known as the Dongola Reach and the subsistence based society occupied the more rugged, desert-like terrain outside of the Dongola Reach. Behavioral reconstruction markers entheseal changes (EC), workload trauma, and degenerative joint disease (DJD) were employed in order to attain broader answers of how Homo sapiens from the same civilization cope with varying environments. Results suggest that the subsistence based population (C-Group) experienced the least amount of workload stress, suggesting increase in workload with an increase in agricultural intensity/social complexity, as both the urban and rural populations had much more intensive agriculture and were more socially complex than the subsistence based population. This increase in workload with the advent of agriculture (Cohen and Armelagos, 1984; Goodman et al., 1984; Larsen, 1995) and with increase in social complexity (Zabecki, 2009) has been suggested in prior studies with other populations and this is seen here. Furthermore, though sex differences concerning pattern of behavior are clearer in the C-Group suggesting fewer habitual activities due to a less complex society (as suggested by Petersen, 1998; Eshed et al., 2004), similar behavior differences between sexes were still somewhat visible in the urban and rural populations. This suggests that some cultural traits remain constant in the Nubian culture despite environment or level of social complexity. The Kerma city and NDRS collections are, in general, highly stressed when compared to the C-Group or contemporaneous populations, irrespective of which marker is assessed. This may be due to the intensive agriculture practiced or the threat of attack from other populations forcing strenuous construction and fortification efforts of settlements. Juvenile remains, which are traditionally excluded from behavior studies, displayed lesions on several areas of the skeleton which may suggest heavy workload. This study builds on previous information known about the people of the Kerma era and gains a clearer perspective of how these populations lived their lives from day to day. These data can be used to continue investigation into ways in which environment and culture affect human biology and, in turn, the human skeleton.

nÃo hà / This work presents a scale-space based approach to assist dynamic resource provisioning. The application of this theory makes it possible to eliminate the presence of irrelevant information from a signal that can potentially induce wrong or late decision making. Dynamic provisioning involves increasing or decreasing the amount of resources allocated to an application in response to workload changes. While monitoring both resource consumption and application-specic metrics is fundamental in this process since the latter is of great importance to infer information about the former, dealing with these pieces of information to provision resources in dynamic environments poses a big challenge. The presence of unwanted characteristics, or noise, in a signal that represents the monitored metrics favors misleading interpretations and is known to aect forecast models. Even though some forecast models are robust to noise, reducing its inuence may decrease training time and increase eciency. Because a dynamic environment demands decision making and predictions on a quickly changing landscape, approximations are necessary. Thus it is important to realize how approximations give rise to limitations in the forecasting process. On the other hand, being aware of when detail is needed, and when it is not, is crucial to perform ecient dynamic forecastings. In a cloud environment, resource provisioning plays a key role for ensuring that providers adequately accomplish their obligation to customers while maximizing the utilization of the underlying infrastructure. Experiments are shown considering simulation of both reactive and proactive strategies scenarios with a real-world trace that corresponds to access rate. Results show that embodying scale-space theory in the decision making stage of dynamic provisioning strategies is very promising. It both improves workload analysis, making it more meaningful to our purposes, and lead to better predictions.

abstract: The study aimed to determine the relationship of subjective perception of wellness (Intrinsic Fatigue) and Global Positioning Satellite derived workload amongst elite high school soccer players. Twenty-nine (16.4 ± 1.54 years) male participants completed a mobile app-based wellness questionnaire comprising of 6 subjective markers prior to 10 workload variables being measured by STATSports 10Hz GPS units later that same day. Only instances where both wellness and GPS reports qualified for analyses (N=231 exposures). No significant differences were reported in reported wellness within- or between-weeks (p > 0.05) with average Effect Sizes (ES) ranging from 0.001 to 0.15. Total Distance (TD) was significantly different (p < 0.05) within week. All GPS variables except TD and Distance per Minute (DpM) were significantly different (p < 0.05) between-weeks. Average GPS ES sizes ranged from 0.02 to 0.58. Wellness and GPS or it’s ESs were not correlated, with correlations ranging from -1.000 to 0.207. The results suggest monitoring of GPS reports to be a practical method of monitoring variation in player workload but does not support subjective questionnaires as a means of monitoring player wellness reflecting these workload variations in youth populations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Exercise and Wellness 2020

The purpose of this study was to explore workload allocation, what informed workload allocation in secondary schools and analyse documents relevant to educator workload. A qualitative interpretive approach using a case study as a research design was used to complete the study. Sixteen educators which consist of 6 heads of departments, principal and 9 post level one educators were purposively sampled and interviewed from different types of schools( rural, township and former model C schools). The findings of the study suggested that, workload in the secondary schools under study was allocated in a transparent and flexible manner. Educators were consulted and their inputs were regarded imperative in decision making. Further, it was found that experience, specialisation and qualifications informed workload allocation in schools. During the analysis of data, themes such as educator reputation meaning their competence, learner results and commitment emerged as factors that also informed workload allocation in schools. Allocators considered factors like the number of subjects, number of preparations and number of classes but ignored the number of learners in classes when allocating work in schools. Therefore, the differences in terms of number of learners would mean there was no equity in allocation of educators because the number of learners affected marking of assessments, feedback to learner, reaching gifted and not gifted learners, discipline in classrooms, timeous submissions of marks, and regular control of learner books. Majority of educators were allocated teaching time below the requirements as stipulated in the Personnel Administration Measures (PAM) Government Gazette No. 24948 dated 21 February 2003. Therefore workload of most educators was manageable. The majority of post level one educators were allocated teaching time below 85%. Only one post level one educator from school A and B was allocated within the stipulated teaching time as expected by the department and most educators were allocated below. From the allocation of school C only 3 post level one educators out of a maximum of twenty five paid by the government were allocated within the stipulated time. Allocation changed throughout the year because promotions and redeployment of educators were done at any time during the year. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted