5,269 research outputs found
An empirical investigation of the relationship between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in supply chains
This research aimed to develop an empirical understanding of the relationships between integration,
dynamic capabilities and performance in the supply chain domain, based on which, two conceptual
frameworks were constructed to advance the field. The core motivation for the research was that, at
the stage of writing the thesis, the combined relationship between the three concepts had not yet
been examined, although their interrelationships have been studied individually.
To achieve this aim, deductive and inductive reasoning logics were utilised to guide the qualitative
study, which was undertaken via multiple case studies to investigate lines of enquiry that would
address the research questions formulated. This is consistent with the author’s philosophical
adoption of the ontology of relativism and the epistemology of constructionism, which was considered
appropriate to address the research questions. Empirical data and evidence were collected, and
various triangulation techniques were employed to ensure their credibility. Some key features of
grounded theory coding techniques were drawn upon for data coding and analysis, generating two
levels of findings. These revealed that whilst integration and dynamic capabilities were crucial in
improving performance, the performance also informed the former. This reflects a cyclical and
iterative approach rather than one purely based on linearity. Adopting a holistic approach towards
the relationship was key in producing complementary strategies that can deliver sustainable supply
chain performance.
The research makes theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to the field of supply
chain management. The theoretical contribution includes the development of two emerging
conceptual frameworks at the micro and macro levels. The former provides greater specificity, as it
allows meta-analytic evaluation of the three concepts and their dimensions, providing a detailed
insight into their correlations. The latter gives a holistic view of their relationships and how they are
connected, reflecting a middle-range theory that bridges theory and practice. The methodological
contribution lies in presenting models that address gaps associated with the inconsistent use of
terminologies in philosophical assumptions, and lack of rigor in deploying case study research
methods. In terms of its practical contribution, this research offers insights that practitioners could
adopt to enhance their performance. They can do so without necessarily having to forgo certain
desired outcomes using targeted integrative strategies and drawing on their dynamic capabilities
2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog
This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State
Gender Roles in Super Bowl Commercials: A Qualitative Longitudinal Content Analysis From 2013-2022
Although numerous studies have examined gender stereotypes in advertising, relatively few have investigated the communication of gender roles in Super Bowl commercials. The Super Bowl attracts the largest televised audience in the United States; thus, it holds the power to shape, influence, and reinforce attitudes and beliefs. Through a sociocultural lens, this qualitative study examines the communication of gender roles in Super Bowl commercials across a 10-year period from 2013 to 2022. Utilizing a longitudinal content analysis design, 279 Super Bowl advertisements from 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022 were analyzed. The problem addressed is how the depiction of gender roles in Super Bowl commercials has changed over the past decade. The purpose of this qualitative longitudinal content analysis is to understand and explore how gender roles have changed in Super Bowl commercials from 2013 to 2022. Four research questions guided the study in which seven primary themes and 12 subthemes emerged. Key results include shifts in sexuality, role types, and product categories. Although many shifts occurred to varying degrees, traditional couples and family units continue to be communicated through heterosexual narratives. A significant number of commercials utilize the role of celebrity, comedic appeal, and elements of competition regardless of product type. Theoretically, the mirror argument and the mold argument are both at play. Six suggestions for future research are presented
Operatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe
In Early Modern times, techniques of assembling, compiling and arranging pre-existing material were part of the established working methods in many arts. In the world of 18th-century opera, such practices ensured that operas could become a commercial success because the substitution or compilation of arias fitting the singer's abilities proved the best recipe for fulfilling the expectations of audiences. Known as »pasticcios« since the 18th-century, these operas have long been considered inferior patchwork. The volume collects essays that reconsider the pasticcio, contextualize it, define its preconditions, look at its material aspects and uncover its aesthetical principles
Human-Centered Approach to Technology to Combat Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a serious crime that continues to plague the United States. With the rise of computing technologies, the internet has become one of the main mediums through which this crime is facilitated. Fortunately, these online activities leave traces which are invaluable to law enforcement agencies trying to stop human trafficking. However, identifying and intervening with these cases is still a challenging task. The sheer volume of online activity makes it difficult for law enforcement to efficiently identify any potential leads. To compound this issue, traffickers are constantly changing their techniques online to evade detection. Thus, there is a need for tools to efficiently sift through all this online data and narrow down the number of potential leads that a law enforcement agency can deal with. While some tools and prior research do exist for this purpose, none of these tools adequately address law enforcement user needs for information visualizations and spatiotemporal analysis. Thus to address these gaps, this thesis contributes an empirical study of technology and human trafficking. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, systemic literature analysis, and a user-centered design study, this research outlines the challenges and design considerations for developing sociotechnical tools for anti-trafficking efforts. This work further contributes to the greater understanding of the prosecution efforts within the anti-trafficking domain and concludes with the development of a visual analytics prototype that incorporates these design considerations.Ph.D
Tensors in statistics and rigidity theory
This is a short report on the discussions of appearance of tensors in
algebraic statistics and rigidity theory, during the semester ``AGATES:
Algebraic Geometry with Applications to TEnsors and Secants". We briefly survey
some of the existing results in the literature and further research directions.
We first provide an overview of algebraic and geometric techniques in the study
of conditional independence (CI) statistical models. We study different
families of algebraic varieties arising in statistics. This includes the
determinantal varieties related to CI statements with hidden random variables.
Such statements correspond to determinantal conditions on the tensor of joint
probabilities of events involving the observed random variables. We show how to
compute the irreducible decompositions of the corresponding CI varieties, which
leads to finding further conditional dependencies (or independencies) among the
involved random variables. As an example, we show how these methods can be
applied to extend the classical intersection axiom for CI statements. We then
give a brief overview about secant varieties and their appearance in the study
of mixture models. We focus on examples and briefly mention the connection to
rigidity theory which will appear in the forthcoming paper \cite{rigidity}.Comment: Comments are welcome! arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:2103.1655
Explaining Recommendation System Using Counterfactual Textual Explanations
Currently, there is a significant amount of research being conducted in the
field of artificial intelligence to improve the explainability and
interpretability of deep learning models. It is found that if end-users
understand the reason for the production of some output, it is easier to trust
the system. Recommender systems are one example of systems that great efforts
have been conducted to make their output more explainable. One method for
producing a more explainable output is using counterfactual reasoning, which
involves altering minimal features to generate a counterfactual item that
results in changing the output of the system. This process allows the
identification of input features that have a significant impact on the desired
output, leading to effective explanations. In this paper, we present a method
for generating counterfactual explanations for both tabular and textual
features. We evaluated the performance of our proposed method on three
real-world datasets and demonstrated a +5\% improvement on finding effective
features (based on model-based measures) compared to the baseline method
Examples of works to practice staccato technique in clarinet instrument
Klarnetin staccato tekniğini güçlendirme aşamaları eser çalışmalarıyla uygulanmıştır. Staccato
geçişlerini hızlandıracak ritim ve nüans çalışmalarına yer verilmiştir. Çalışmanın en önemli amacı
sadece staccato çalışması değil parmak-dilin eş zamanlı uyumunun hassasiyeti üzerinde de
durulmasıdır. Staccato çalışmalarını daha verimli hale getirmek için eser çalışmasının içinde etüt
çalışmasına da yer verilmiştir. Çalışmaların üzerinde titizlikle durulması staccato çalışmasının ilham
verici etkisi ile müzikal kimliğe yeni bir boyut kazandırmıştır. Sekiz özgün eser çalışmasının her
aşaması anlatılmıştır. Her aşamanın bir sonraki performans ve tekniği güçlendirmesi esas alınmıştır.
Bu çalışmada staccato tekniğinin hangi alanlarda kullanıldığı, nasıl sonuçlar elde edildiği bilgisine
yer verilmiştir. Notaların parmak ve dil uyumu ile nasıl şekilleneceği ve nasıl bir çalışma disiplini
içinde gerçekleşeceği planlanmıştır. Kamış-nota-diyafram-parmak-dil-nüans ve disiplin
kavramlarının staccato tekniğinde ayrılmaz bir bütün olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırmada literatür
taraması yapılarak staccato ile ilgili çalışmalar taranmıştır. Tarama sonucunda klarnet tekniğin de
kullanılan staccato eser çalışmasının az olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Metot taramasında da etüt
çalışmasının daha çok olduğu saptanmıştır. Böylelikle klarnetin staccato tekniğini hızlandırma ve
güçlendirme çalışmaları sunulmuştur. Staccato etüt çalışmaları yapılırken, araya eser çalışmasının
girmesi beyni rahatlattığı ve istekliliği daha arttırdığı gözlemlenmiştir. Staccato çalışmasını yaparken
doğru bir kamış seçimi üzerinde de durulmuştur. Staccato tekniğini doğru çalışmak için doğru bir
kamışın dil hızını arttırdığı saptanmıştır. Doğru bir kamış seçimi kamıştan rahat ses çıkmasına
bağlıdır. Kamış, dil atma gücünü vermiyorsa daha doğru bir kamış seçiminin yapılması gerekliliği
vurgulanmıştır. Staccato çalışmalarında baştan sona bir eseri yorumlamak zor olabilir. Bu açıdan
çalışma, verilen müzikal nüanslara uymanın, dil atış performansını rahatlattığını ortaya koymuştur.
Gelecek nesillere edinilen bilgi ve birikimlerin aktarılması ve geliştirici olması teşvik edilmiştir.
Çıkacak eserlerin nasıl çözüleceği, staccato tekniğinin nasıl üstesinden gelinebileceği anlatılmıştır.
Staccato tekniğinin daha kısa sürede çözüme kavuşturulması amaç edinilmiştir. Parmakların
yerlerini öğrettiğimiz kadar belleğimize de çalışmaların kaydedilmesi önemlidir. Gösterilen azmin ve
sabrın sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan yapıt başarıyı daha da yukarı seviyelere çıkaracaktır
Automatic Question Generation to Support Reading Comprehension of Learners - Content Selection, Neural Question Generation, and Educational Evaluation
Simply reading texts passively without actively engaging with their content is suboptimal for text comprehension since learners may miss crucial concepts or misunderstand essential ideas.
In contrast, engaging learners actively by asking questions fosters text comprehension.
However, educational resources frequently lack questions.
Textbooks often contain only a few at the end of a chapter, and informal learning resources such as Wikipedia lack them entirely.
Thus, in this thesis, we study to what extent questions about educational science texts can be automatically generated, tackling two research questions.
The first question concerns selecting learning-relevant passages to guide the generation process.
The second question investigates the generated questions' potential effects and applicability in reading comprehension scenarios.
Our first contribution improves the understanding of neural question generation's quality in education.
We find that the generators' high linguistic quality transfers to educational texts but that they require guidance by educational content selection.
In consequence, we study multiple educational context and answer selection mechanisms.
In our second contribution, we propose novel context selection approaches which target question-worthy sentences in texts.
In contrast to previous works, our context selectors are guided by educational theory.
The proposed methods perform competitive to related work while operating with educationally motivated decision criteria that are easier to understand for educational experts.
The third contribution addresses answer selection methods to guide neural question generation with expected answers.
Our experiments highlight the need for educational corpora for the task. Models trained on noneducational corpora do not transfer well to the educational domain.
Given this discrepancy, we propose a novel corpus construction approach.
It automatically derives educational answer selection corpora from textbooks.
We verify the approach's usefulness by showing that neural models trained on the constructed corpora learn to detect learning-relevant concepts.
In our last contribution, we use the insights from the previous experiments to design, implement, and evaluate an automatic question generator for educational use.
We evaluate the proposed generator intrinsically with an expert annotation study and extrinsically with an empirical reading comprehension study.
The two evaluation scenarios provide a nuanced view of the generated questions' strengths and weaknesses.
Expert annotations attribute an educational value to roughly 60 % of the questions but also reveal various ways in which the questions still fall short of the quality experts desire.
Furthermore, the reader-based evaluation indicates that the proposed educational question generator increases learning outcomes compared to a no-question control group.
In summary, the results of the thesis improve the understanding of the content selection tasks in educational question generation and provide evidence that it can improve reading comprehension.
As such, the proposed approaches are promising tools for authors and learners to promote active reading and thus foster text comprehension
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