Knowledge Management

In light of globalisation an intensive global competition has evolved amongst corporations and companies, which have started extending their activities to the international market by establishing more and more subsidiaries all over the world. On the other hand, these extensions have generated problems for managers as their departments and units have got to be diversely located geographically and they have to find a solution for transferring knowledge, the core competences of the organization within their departments, units and teams to sustain the business activities and operations. To bridge over the geographical distance, people within organization have started using non-face-to-face technological (ICT) tools to be able to discuss problems, requests, solutions and develop business solutions or solve tasks were required in different places at the same time. The aim of this thesis is to create a theoretical framework to answer the questions how people use ICT tools for tacit knowledge sharing and which factors influence how actually these tools are used. The framework is built on the results of the inductive study. This study is conducted as a qualitative case study by interviewing nine members of the Hungarian department. The empirical research pointed out that the tacit knowledge sharing through ICT tools (especially email, instant messaging and telephone) within the case company is influenced by organizational, social, relational context and characteristics of ICT tools.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Landschaftsmalerei der Avantgarde in China

Der chinesische Naturbegriff unterscheidet sich in seinem Wesen grundlegend von jenem des Abendlandes. Natur wird als immerwährend schöpferische und verändernde Kraft gesehen, dessen Grundcharakter gerade dieses Hervorbringen, Schöpfen ist. Natur besteht somit aus den drei erschaffenden Kräften: Himmel, Erde und Mensch. Der Mensch wird demnach nicht mehr als Geschöpf gesehen, sondern als Prinzip, der durch seine Taten und Handeln, Auslöser für diverse Erscheinungen ist. Diese Erscheinungen, welche Kunstfertigkeiten sein können, sind Teil der Natur und können Einfluss auf das Gleichgewicht des kosmischen Geschehens ausüben. Die chinesische Landschaftsmalerei unterlief im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert maßgeblichen Veränderungen. Diese resultieren aus den kultur- und politisch-historischen Ereignissen des vorherigen Jahrhunderts, als auch aus der Auseinandersetzung mit den künstlerischen sowie philosophischen Themen / Theorien des Westens. Durch die sozialen Umstrukturierungen wurde Landschaftsmalerei zu einem Thema des allgemeinen Volkes degradiert und war nicht mehr der Schicht der Literaten vorenthalten. Es darf aber nicht außer acht gelassen werden, dass die Darstellung der Landschaft, da sie durch den Mensch geschaffen ein Teil der Natur ist, zum Erhalt eines stabilen Gleichgewichtes der universalen Kräfte dienen kann. Gerade in der Zeit des Sozialistischen Realismus ist Landschaftsmalerei auf einer politisch-sozialen Ebene zu betrachten, nämlich zur Stärkung des politischen Anführers. Landschaftsmalerei verlor an ihrer Stellung, dennoch blieb ihre Funktion dieselbe. Die Ölmalerei wie die Neuen Medien forderte neue Darstellungsmodi innerhalb des Themas. Landschaft steht, nicht mehr für die Abbildung einer natürlichen Umgebung, sondern wird zur sozialen und gesellschaftlichen Kritik, die in ihrer Geisteshaltung immer noch durch die traditionelle Philosophie beeinflusst ist.The Chinese understanding of the term nature conceptually differs from the western, perception. Their imagination of nature roots in a continually changing and creative energy where the emphasis on the creation and on the generation lies. Consequently it consist form three creative forces: sky, earth and human. The human is considered not only as creature, but as a concept. This triggers through action and doing various phenomena. These phenomena could appear in a form of artistic craftsmanship, which are then a part of nature so might influence the versatile balance of cosmic happenings. Chinese landscape painting and the way it is conceived and implemented underwent significant changes during the 20th and 21st centuries. Cultural and political-historical processes of the 20th century in China generated and accelerated this process of change. Chinese artists confronted and examined the artistic and philosophic themes and theories of the western world. The Cultural Revolution imposed new rules and bans on painting. Landscape painting has become a topic in paintings of common people and was no longer sole domain of literati. One should not lose the focus on the fact, that picturing landscape is a result of human act, whereas the human forms a part of the nature. This way they serve the stable balance of universal energy. During Social Realism the landscape painting is to consider on a specific social and political level, and serves here the purpose of the political leader. With this the landscape painting loses its previous high position. Functionally however stays intact. Oil painting and the New Media have opened new display grounds and required a new view on landscape painting. Landscape stands no longer for the portrait of a natural environment, but rather contains social commentary and criticism. These artists with their mind set continue to reflect the influence of traditional Chinese philosophy

Modelling of Product Changing Processes in Extrusion Dies

Die effiziente Durchführung von Produktwechseln bietet insbesondere bei der kontinuierlichen Herstellung von Waren aus Kunststoff hohe Einsparpotenziale bezüglich Material- und Energiebedarf sowie Anlagenverfügbarkeit. Unter Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Aspekte ist die Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit, Produktwechselvorgänge in Extrusionsprozessen wissenschaftlich zu untersuchen und durch eine geeignete Modellbildung beschreibbar zu machen. Für die Ermittlung eines abgeschlossenen Wechsels ist die Fließgeschichte entlang des Stromfadens der längsten Verweilzeit im Kanal zu berücksichtigen. Als Messmethode zur Beurteilung abgeschlossener Wechsel hat sich die Messung von Proben- bzw. Folienoberflächen mittels Spektralphotometer bewährt. Die Prognose von Wechselvorgängen gelingt durch das in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte analytische Modell. Dies zeigt sich anhand des Vergleichs der berechneten und der experimentell ermittelten Wechselmassen. Die durchgeführten Untersuchungen zeigen eine starke Abhängigkeit der Wechselvorgänge zu den strömungsmechanischen Materialeigenschaften. Es ist insbesondere ein deutlicher Einfluss des Viskositätsverhältnisses beider Wechselpartner zu identifizieren. Auf die Viskositäten der Wechselpartner nimmt dabei neben der Geometrie des Werkzeuges vor allem der Betriebspunkt des Prozesses Einfluss. Durch die Annahme, dass vornehmlich die Eigenschaften des Zielmaterials, vor allem die Schubspannung, den Wechsel dominieren, wird es möglich, den Wechsel auf den einzelnen Abschnitten eines Stromfadens längster Verweilzeit zu prognostizieren. Zur Bestimmung des Wechselverhaltens in Extrusionswerkzeugen werden im Allgemeinen numerische Mehrschichtsimulationen vorgeschlagen. Um auch quantitative Ergebnisse zu erzielen, wird die Simulation mit Hilfe des analytischen Ansatzes kalibriert. In Verarbeitungsanlagen kommt es bei allen realen Polymeren in Abhängigkeit von der Temperatur und der Verweilzeit im Extrusionssystem zu Alterungsphänomenen. Bei Produktwechseln mit niedrigem Viskositätsverhältnis der Wechselpartner entstehen insbesondere in den wandnahen Schichten verhältnismäßig lange Verweilzeiten. Eine thermo-rheologische Charakterisierung von Polyolefinen zeigt unter praxisrelevanten Randbedingungen deutliche Änderungen der makromolekularen Kettenstruktur zu einem Auf- bzw. Abbau. Die Messergebnisse deuten auf eine zusätzliche Abhängigkeit der Alterungsphänomene von der Schergeschwindigkeit hin, die das Material erfährt. Die betriebspunktabhängigen Einflüsse auf Wechselprozesse lassen sich auf eine Veränderung der strömungsmechanischen Materialeigenschaften zurückführen. So sind Einsparungen der Wechselmasse in Abhängigkeit von der Massetemperatur damit zu begründen, dass ein höheres Verhältnis der Viskositäten von Ziel- zu Ausgangsmaterial erreicht wird. Ein solcher Effekt auf das Viskositätsverhältnis wird durch unterschiedliche Resultate bei der Ermittlung der jeweiligen Temperaturverschiebungsfaktoren erkennbar und quantitativ berechenbar. Anhand der Untersuchungen ist davon auszugehen, dass Wechsel aufgrund hoher Schubspannungen immer bei maximalem Durchsatz durchzuführen sind. Einsparungen der Wechselmasse durch wiederholte Variationen des Durchsatzes während eines Wechsels zeigen sich nicht.More efficient product changing processes lead to economic advantages by saving additional material, energy and production time especially by continuous production of polymer products. Taking different aspects into consideration it is the main objective of this work to analyse product changing processes and be able to describe them with a proper mathematical model. To determine completed changing processes the history of the melt flow along the streamline at the highest residence time in the channel is taken into account. As a measuring method for the evaluation of completed changes the sampling of probe surfaces with a spectrophotometer measuring colour values has proven to be most useful. Changing processes are predicted by the analytical model presented in this work, which is shown by comparison of the calculated and the experimentally determined changeover masses. A strong dependence of the changing processes to the fluid mechanical material properties is shown. In particular a significant influence from the viscosity ratio of the changing partners was identified. The viscosities are mainly influenced by the flow channel design and the operation point. Assuming that the shear stresses resulting from the target material dominate the whole changing process a prediction of the progress along the streamline of highest residence time in sections is possible. The usage of numerical multiphase simulations are proposed to determine the change of behaviour in extrusion dies. This already showed a good qualitative way to identify critical areas of long residence times in the die design. In order to obtain quantitative results, the simulation is calibrated by means of the analytical approach. During the processing of all real polymers phenomena of aging are observable depending on temperature and residence time in the extrusion system. Especially high residence times result at product changes with low viscosity ratios in layers near the channel wall. Normally fluid mechanical properties after long durations under thermal load are measured to test the stability of materials. Analysing the changes to the properties or the way of structural changes caused by aging are not mainly focused. Thermo-rheological characterizations of polyolefines show significant alterations of the macromolecular chain structure to coupling/crosslinking or scission under practical conditions. The measurement results indicate an additional dependence between aging and the experienced shear rate. Influences on changing processes resulting from variation of operation points are attributed to a change in the fluid mechanical material properties. The variation of the material temperature affects the changeover mass by leading to lower or higher viscosity ratios of the changing partners. Such influences on the viscosity ratio are noticeable from different temperature shifting factors of the materials, which can be used to calculate the outcome for the changing process. The studies show advantages performing the material changes at maximal throughputs resulting from high shear stresses. A repeatedly variation of the mass flow during the changing process shows no positive effect on the changeover mass

Low nitrogen and phosphorus effects on wheat Fe, Zn, phytic acid and phenotypic traits

In sub-Saharan Africa, crops are often grown under low nitrogen (N) and low phosphorus (P) conditions, which may impact on the nutritional components of the grains. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low N and low P and a combination of the two on iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and phytic acid content in two commercial South African spring wheat cultivars (PAN3497 and SST806). Phenotypic traits were also investigated. Although cultivar effects were not significant, treatment effects were highly significant for the phenotypic and nutritional traits. Low P stress increased Fe and Zn levels, whereas low N stress had the opposite effect. In addition, low P stress inhibited phytic acid accumulation the most, suggesting that under this treatment, Fe and Zn were more available because of less interaction with phytic acid. Compared to the low N treatment, the low P treatment led to lower reductions in the number of tillers, plant height, stem thickness, number of seeds, weight of seeds and dry weight for both cultivars. While low P had positive effects on the nutritional value of wheat, the combination of low N and P treatment had a negative impact on most of the measured characteristics. Low N conditions had more negative effects on all measured characteristics than low P conditions and was very detrimental to wheat nutritional value and yield.Significance: Results from this study emphasise the impact of fertilisation and the impact of insufficient nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser on wheat productivity. Low nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisation impact grain microelement content and bioavailability which impact nutritional value

A hierarchical phytosociology of the Greater Zandvlei area

The Zandvlei Nature Reserve is to be expanded to form the Greater Zandvlei Estuary Nature Reserve and will encorporate a much greater area (250 more hectares). The Greater Zandvlei area was classified by means of Zurich Montpellier (Braun Blanquet) procedures. 60 relevés were used to create a hierarchical phytosociology using TWINSPAN and DCA-ordination analyses. 3 major community types were identified, which were then subdivided to reveal 6 community types important to future management: Moist Grassland/Wetland Disturbed Parkland, Dune Asteraceous Fynbos, Thicket/Shrub Mosaic, Rhus-Euclea Dune Thicket and Homogenous Patches. CCA-ordination indicates that the abiotic soil factors sampled (texture composition, pH, carbon content and visible disturbance) explain very little of the variation between the communities (r²=0.002). This phytosociology is provided as a tool for future research in the area, and it is hoped to assist in future management decisions regarding the newly founded GZENR

Systemic plant protection substances and products: how to assess the risk for bees? A beekeepers point of view

contribution to session II Test and risk assessment Background: The current plant protection products (PPPs) assessment is no more suitable when applied to systemic substances since systemic chemicals can contaminate nectar and pollen during a long length of time. Largely focused on the acute toxicity, the current assessment scheme does not take into account several elements i.e. the chronic toxicity, the possible synergies between substances, and between pathogens and PPPs. Possible bee contamination through nectar and pollen leads to a specific exposure, mainly oral, concerning the hive bees, including larvae, drones and queens, as well as potentially delayed through the stored honey and pollen consumption. Moreover, regarding the long-term exposure, sublethal chronic effects should be taken into account. Results: For such substances we would take both the chronic toxicity and the acute toxicity measurements into consideration. Therefore the TER should be calculated based on the lowest LD50 and in the case of risk, the PEC/PNEC ratio should be measured and calculated for various behaviours. A larvae test should also be performed. Tunnel tests may be helpful but the exposure to the PPP cannot be proven and the bee behaviour observation is currently inaccurate. Further research on the effect of small doses of PPP on the bee immune system seems more than necessary. Conclusion: A new assessment scheme, which takes these parameters into account, is the core of ourcontribution. Keywords: Assessment scheme, chronic toxicity, sublethal toxicity, synergies, larvae test, PEC, PNEC, TER

The Possibility of Online Mediation under the Hungarian Mediation Act

  The first question which has to be discussed is the definition of online disputeresolution and, the definition of online mediation, and we would like to show thefeatures (advantages and disadvantages) of online mediation.  The presentation focuses on the Hungarian legal background. We’re going toanalyse whether online mediation can be conducted in the frame of the existingHungarian law on mediation, or not, how should the existing principles beinterpreted in online environment, and – finally – what are the crucial points of theexisting rules, which should be amended to ensure, that online mediation can beconducted under the law of mediation in Hungary. We shall examine the relevantprovisions of the Hungarian Mediation Act from two angles. First of all, we shallexamine the provisions referring to the possibility of online mediation, and, secondly,(where possible) we shall compare the provisions with a number of Europeandocuments on mediation

Evolutionary discriminative confidence estimation for spoken term detection

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0913-zSpoken term detection (STD) is the task of searching for occurrences of spoken terms in audio archives. It relies on robust confidence estimation to make a hit/false alarm (FA) decision. In order to optimize the decision in terms of the STD evaluation metric, the confidence has to be discriminative. Multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) and support vector machines (SVMs) exhibit good performance in producing discriminative confidence; however they are severely limited by the continuous objective functions, and are therefore less capable of dealing with complex decision tasks. This leads to a substantial performance reduction when measuring detection of out-of-vocabulary (OOV) terms, where the high diversity in term properties usually leads to a complicated decision boundary. In this paper we present a new discriminative confidence estimation approach based on evolutionary discriminant analysis (EDA). Unlike MLPs and SVMs, EDA uses the classification error as its objective function, resulting in a model optimized towards the evaluation metric. In addition, EDA combines heterogeneous projection functions and classification strategies in decision making, leading to a highly flexible classifier that is capable of dealing with complex decision tasks. Finally, the evolutionary strategy of EDA reduces the risk of local minima. We tested the EDA-based confidence with a state-of-the-art phoneme-based STD system on an English meeting domain corpus, which employs a phoneme speech recognition system to produce lattices within which the phoneme sequences corresponding to the enquiry terms are searched. The test corpora comprise 11 hours of speech data recorded with individual head-mounted microphones from 30 meetings carried out at several institutes including ICSI; NIST; ISL; LDC; the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and the University of Edinburgh. The experimental results demonstrate that EDA considerably outperforms MLPs and SVMs on both classification and confidence measurement in STD, and the advantage is found to be more significant on OOV terms than on in-vocabulary (INV) terms. In terms of classification performance, EDA achieved an equal error rate (EER) of 11% on OOV terms, compared to 34% and 31% with MLPs and SVMs respectively; for INV terms, an EER of 15% was obtained with EDA compared to 17% obtained with MLPs and SVMs. In terms of STD performance for OOV terms, EDA presented a significant relative improvement of 1.4% and 2.5% in terms of average term-weighted value (ATWV) over MLPs and SVMs respectively.This work was partially supported by the French Ministry of Industry (Innovative Web call) under contract 09.2.93.0966, ‘Collaborative Annotation for Video Accessibility’ (ACAV) and by ‘The Adaptable Ambient Living Assistant’ (ALIAS) project funded through the joint national Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) programme