11,020 research outputs found

    With the Participatory Consumer Audience in mind: exploring and developing professional brand identity designers reflexive practice

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    This PhD reflects upon first-hand unidirectional and passive consumer audience experience approaches prevalent in professional UK brand identity design. It explores: How brand identity designers might move towards an improved reflexive practice in the design of consumer audience experiences. This practice-led research focuses on the ideas generation stage of their design process. An ongoing constructivist audience paradigm shift signals that when thinking about and using their positionality in relation to their consumer audience experiences, designers need reflexive practice to support critical reflection of themselves, their biases and assumptions. This research uncovered a lack of relevant theory regarding reflexive practice specific to the context of brand identity design. This insufficiency throws into doubt designers' relational, participatory and equitable approaches in their working practices and their abilities to address market imperatives, including client requirements connected to the ongoing audience paradigm shift. Aligned with John Dewey's ethical pragmatism and drawing from Creswell, Tashakkori and Teddlie, my study adopts a mixed methods methodology. Alongside established qualitative and quantitative methods, this includes my practice via design visualisations, as discussed by Drucker, and builds upon Carl DiSalvo's approach of practice used to do inquiry and design as a method of inquiry. My practice enabled me to critically reflect, evaluate and construct reflexive practice knowledge, including the development of reflexive practice communications, to advance understanding of and improve other designers' reflexive practice, and to communicate my process of reflexive design practice research. Thirty UK-based professional brand identity designers participated in this research: nineteen participants in Phase One, a questionnaire, and six in Phase Two semi-structured interviews. Phase One and Two findings identified a gap in that designers are not employing a reflexive design practice and lack the resources to do so. Seeking to improve these shortcomings, eighteen initial reflexive design practice principles were explored and tested in Phase Three, a workshop involving five design participants. Results showed that the principles facilitated participants to advance prior thinking and engage in a reflexive design practice. Further reflections and insights from the same five Phase Three participants uncovered a need to refine and reduce the principles and communicate them in a guide. Eight revised overarching and eighteen sub-principles in a prototype guide were explored in Phase Four in applied practice by three brand identity designers involved in Phase Three. Results corroborated workshop findings and provided further recommendations. Contributions of this research are three-fold. First, offering an advanced understanding of professional brand identity designers' reflexive practice and process knowledge. Second, it produced a reflexive design guide with eight overarching and eighteen sub-reflexive design principles and corresponding digital app, thereby offering a preliminary new design practice method. This method offers a way to improve designers' thinking about and operation of their relational positionality, participatory consumer audience experience approaches, and reflexive design practice actions. Third, it provides a contribution to knowledge via its methodology, which integrates design visualisation practice into a mixed methods approach

    Transformer models: an introduction and catalog

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    In the past few years we have seen the meteoric appearance of dozens of models of the Transformer family, all of which have funny, but not self-explanatory, names. The goal of this paper is to offer a somewhat comprehensive but simple catalog and classification of the most popular Transformer models. The paper also includes an introduction to the most important aspects and innovation in Transformer models

    Estilo de vida asociado al desarrollo de complicaciones tardías en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 atendidos en hospitalización en las especialidades de Endocrinología y Medicina Interna del Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins en el periodo abril - diciembre del 2022

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    Introducción: La Diabetes mellitus tipo 2 es una enfermedad no transmisible que representa en el Perú y a nivel del mundo un problema de salud pública, debido a su alta incidencia y a la aparición de sus complicaciones que genera daños y gastos irreparables. Objetivo: Determinar la asociación entre el estilo de vida y el desarrollo de complicaciones tardías en pacientes con diagnóstico de diabetes mellitus tipo 2 atendidos en hospitalización en las especialidades de Endocrinología y Medicina Interna en el Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins en el periodo abril - diciembre del 2022 Métodos: Estudio retrospectivo analítico transversal. Se realizó el estudio en pacientes hospitalizados en las especialidades de Endocrinología y Medicina Interna en el Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati Martins en el periodo abril – diciembre del 2022, para lo cual se utilizó una ficha de datos además de la historia clínica del paciente para corroborar sus diagnósticos y como instrumento de medición del estilo de vida a la encuesta IMEVID. La variable principal del estudio fue la presencia de complicaciones crónicas de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 macrovasculares (enfermedad arterial periférica, pie diabético, enfermedad coronaria, enfermedad cerebrovascular) y microvasculares (nefropatía, retinopatía, neuropatía). La variable independiente fue el estilo de vida. Resultados: Se trabajó con una muestra de 164 pacientes diabéticos tipo 2 hospitalizados, de los cuales 5 no cumplieron con los criterios de inclusión al no querer responder la encuesta. Del total de encuestados que fueron 159 se obtuvo que el 89,93% presenta al menos una complicación tardía de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 y 68,6% presentó un mal estilo de vida. En el análisis multivariado se evidenció una asociación entre un mal estilo de vida y la aparición de complicaciones tardías de la enfermedad con un OR: 1.73, IC 95%: 1.16 - 1.76, p: 0.005 para complicaciones macrovasculares y un OR:1.17, IC95%: 1.02 a 1.35; y valor p: 0.025 para las complicaciones microvasculares. Conclusiones: Un mal estilo de vida se encuentra asociado a la aparición de complicaciones tardías macrovasculares y microvasculares de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2

    An IoT architecture for decision support system in precision livestock

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    Sustainable animal production is a primary goal of technological development in the livestock industry. However, it is crucial to master the livestock environment due to the susceptibility of animals to variables such as temperature and humidity, which can cause illness, production losses, and discomfort. Thus, livestock production systems require monitoring, reasoning, and mitigating unwanted conditions with automated actions. The principal contribution of this study is the introduction of a self-adaptive architecture named e-Livestock to handle animal production decisions. Two case studies were conducted involving a system derived from the e-Livestock architecture, encompassing a Compost Barn production system - an environment and technology where bovine milk production occurs. The outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of e-Livestock in three key aspects: (i) abstraction of disruptive technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence and their incorporation into a single architecture specific to the livestock domain, (ii) support for the reuse and derivation of an adaptive self-architecture to support the engineering of a decision support system for the livestock subdomain, and (iii) support for empirical studies in a real smart farm to facilitate future technology transfer to the industry. Therefore, our research’s main contribution is developing an architecture combining machine learning techniques and ontology to support more complex decisions when considering a large volume of data generated on farms. The results revealed that the e-Livestock architecture could support monitoring, reasoning, forecasting, and automated actions in a milk production/Compost Barn environment.Na indústria pecuária, a produção animal sustentável é o principal objetivo do desenvolvimento tecnológico. Porém, é fundamental manter boas condições no ambiente devido à suscetibilidade dos animais a variáveis como temperatura e umidade, que podem causar doenças, perdas de produção e desconforto. Assim, os sistemas de produção pecuária requerem monitoramento, controle e mitigação das condições indesejadas através de ações automatizadas. A principal contribuição deste estudo é a introdução de uma arquitetura auto-adaptativa denominada e-Livestock para apoiar as decisões relacionadas à produção animal. Foram conduzidos dois estudos de caso, envolvendo a arquitetura e-Livestock, que foi utilizada no sistema de produção Compost Barn - ambiente e tecnologia onde ocorre a produção de gado leiteiro. Os resultados demonstraram a utilidade do e-Livestock para avaliar três aspectos principais: (i) abstração de tecnologias disruptivas baseadas em Internet das Coisas (IoT) e Inteligência Artificial, e sua incorporação em uma arquitetura única, específica para o domínio da pecuária, (ii) suporte para a reutilização e derivação de uma arquitetura auto-adaptativa para apoiar o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação de apoio à decisão para o subdomínio da pecuária e (iii) suporte para estudos empíricos em uma fazenda inteligente real para facilitar a transferência de tecnologia para a indústria. Portanto, a principal contribuição dessa pesquisa é o desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura combinando técnicas de machine learning e ontologia para apoiar decisões mais complexas ao considerar um grande volume de dados gerados nas fazendas. Os resultados revelaram que a arquitetura e-Livestock pode apoiar monitoramento, controle, previsão e ações automatizadas em um ambiente de produção de leite/Compost Barn.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superio

    Ciguatoxins

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    Ciguatoxins (CTXs), which are responsible for Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), are liposoluble toxins produced by microalgae of the genera Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa. This book presents 18 scientific papers that offer new information and scientific evidence on: (i) CTX occurrence in aquatic environments, with an emphasis on edible aquatic organisms; (ii) analysis methods for the determination of CTXs; (iii) advances in research on CTX-producing organisms; (iv) environmental factors involved in the presence of CTXs; and (v) the assessment of public health risks related to the presence of CTXs, as well as risk management and mitigation strategies

    Accounting in action in the New Zealand health reform process: an analysis informed by a specific case study of a major health provider

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    This thesis constitutes an empirical study of accounting in action, focussing attention on patient based cost systems. The thesis contributes an in depth understanding of the mobilisation of casemix and related information systems at a large regional hospital, Health Waikato (HW), in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. The field research consisted of primarily unstructured and semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. I present the research in the later part of the thesis from a constructionist, interpretive perspective. This consists of richly descriptive case studies of aspects of the change process as it has impacted upon the research site. The themes of the analysis are related, at the macro level, to the resurrection of neoclassical economics policies and the relative ascendancy of free market solutions. The process through which areas of knowledge and in this case particularly public policy become problematised is explicated. My research attempts to describe the experiences and perceptions of medical and managerial\financial staff at a work unit level within a single hospital. A part of this process has involved investigation of the implementation of traditional accounting technologies in unfamiliar environments. The research is primarily concerned to elaborate upon the social context of accounting systems implementation using theoretical insights derived from Latour (particularly: 1987, 1993). The research has sought to explicate the change process as a process of translation. Traditional accounting techniques have been explicated as “black box” technology with which the organisation has been redefined in economic terms. In the study, the power of accounting in the translation and inscription of data (the fabrication of accounting systems per Preston et al, 1992), is central to understanding the role of accounting systems as technology. Drawing from the work of Latour helps to provide a frame of reference to allow an assimilation of disparate changes and influences as they have come to affect the health sector at a national level, within New Zealand, and also at an organisational level, within a large regional health provider. The research contributes in explicating the relevance of Latour’s rules of method, and underlying theoretical framework for an organisational analysis focusing upon accounting. Latour uses a very general conception of technology which encompasses anything emerging from what he terms the process of “translation”. In this context Latour uses the term to refer to the production or “fabrication” of “quasi-objects”. This is most easily seen as consisting of the physical objects which “populate our western societies”, but for Latour also includes inscriptions and “facts/artefacts”. I regard accounting and information systems as consisting of mixtures (or perhaps “collectives”) of technological quasi-objects in this very general sense. The focus of the research has been upon the identification of problems, the choice of accounting techniques and their implementation. Together with other devices the use of accounting techniques may be seen as a central part of the process through which change is made acceptable within the organisation. Supporters are enrolled into the change process in part by being exposed to the accounting inscriptions which are used to represent the cost and profit “reality” of their unit and the whole organisation. The research process has involved detailed investigation on a case by case basis to enable a thorough description of the accounting techniques being put in place. The title of the thesis is based on Latour (1987) "Science in Action". Conventions developed in Actor Network Theory might suggest my title would be better understood as "Accounting as Actant" but it seems to me that Latour was clearly aware of this same point when he chose this title for his book

    A fresh view of China’s OFDI, its motivations and risks thereto

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    2023-2024 academic bulletin & course catalog

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    University of South Carolina Aiken publishes a catalog with information about the university, student life, undergraduate and graduate academic programs, and faculty and staff listings

    Robotic process automation framework - The implementation of Robotic Process Automation in Business Processing Outsourcing Organizations

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    Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMDigital transformation is the digitalization of earlier analogue machine and material processes, service operations, and organizational tasks to aggregate new value for clients and employees. There is an increasing number of organizations that are taking advantage of digital transformation, competing in the market of the digital economy. The advances of the global market in competitiveness trigger organizations whose ambition is to distinguish themselves to develop more efficient and effective processes, delivering distinctive services or products to their consumers. When the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) processes are automated with Robot Process Automated (RPA), the organization can raise cost efficiency, acquire efficiency advantages, and increase their rank in the market. Additionally, when repetitive and tedious activities are automated, human employees have time and opportunity to enhance their cognitive judgment, creative thinking, and social skills. This research approaches the steps that lead to the elaboration of a framework that can be adopted in BPO processes, aiming to help in the knowledge of which processes are typical in BPO, and which of those processes can be fully automated, semi-automated or cannot be automated with Robotic Processing Outsourcing. Afterwards, are revealed the assumptions that were the base of the artifact elaboration, following the description of each component and stage that constitute the framework. Lastly, it is referred the validation of the framework by experts and the discussion of the obtained results, conclude the utility of the artifact as support to the automation of BPO with RPA
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