bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Exploring the importance of employee incentives and their effectiveness in improving quality performance in a Cambodian public organization
Authors:   , Tep Oun 
Published: November 2021

<p>The main purpose of this study is to identify the importance of incentives and their effectiveness in employee performance. The detail of this research will be conducted in an attempt to demonstrate whether incentives have a great potential to increase public employees’ motivation and work performance. The purpose of the research is also to illustrate to what extent incentives are used in the Cambodian public service sector. To fulfill the objective of the research as well as to obtain real and reliable data, a research study was conducted at the Cambodian Investment Board – CIB under the Council for the Development of Cambodia – CDC. The method of this research study was implemented with a qualitative analysis to investigate the work characteristic of Cambodian public employees, and to identify the correlation between the rewarding, recognition and employee work performance. In addition to the research method, the analysis of the qualitative interview data was to be done through the use of thematic analysis. After the qualitative research method was completely finished, the findings of the research study were much the same as those mentioned in the literature review. The data analysis proved a significant correlation between incentives in the form of rewards and recognition, and better work performance. Based on the findings of this research study, most of the public employees in the above mentioned organization commented that both financial and non-financial incentives are significantly important to encourage and motivate them for greater work performance. It also indicated that there was an absence of employee incentive particularly financial incentive. Meanwhile, the level of utilization of non-financial incentives is extremely poor. Therefore, within the limitations of the research study, it could be concluded that both financial and non-financial incentives have a potential effect on employee motivation and work performance in the public service organization of Cambodia.</p>
The letters of French and German soldiers in World War One
Authors:   , Sippel Rebekka 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis uses letters written by French and German soldiers to investigate the mobilization of masculinity during World War One 1914-1918. Through the letters of French and German soldiers of World War One, the thesis discusses the initial ways the soldiers were encouraged to enlist, which includes discussions on patriotism. The work also discusses the concepts of brotherhood and equality, and the idea of protecting women. While masculinity in these two societies was highly militarized, the soldiers took their role as domesticated men very serious and rarely followed instructions from censors as to what to write to their families. Although soldiers were separated from their loved ones and relationships were truly strained by separation, they never forgot their role at home. A comparative framework has been employed to highlight significant differences in French and German ideals of masculinity. This includes an emphasis on religion among French soldiers and the concept of Heldentod in German letters. The analysis of hundreds of letters in published or digitized collections complicates the image of French and German soldiers portrayed in both official propaganda and historians’ work. For example, French and German soldiers had different ideas concerning thoughts on the enemy and equality within the army took on different forms as well. Yet the soldiers from both nations had similar notions regarding goals of personal survival and the defence of the country. Studies of World War One soldiers’ letters have overwhelmingly focused on English language sources. Therefore, an overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to existing research in the English language by using French and German sources. The aim of translating these letters is to facilitate the availability of foreign language sources for English-language historians.</p>
Misfits: An ethnographic study of extremely fat patients in intensive care
Authors:   , Hales Caroline 
Published: November 2021

<p>Critically ill fat patients pose considerable healthcare delivery and resource utilisation challenges which are often exacerbated by the patients’ critical condition and types of interventional therapies used in the intensive care environment. Added to these difficulties of managing care is the social stigma that is attached to being fat. Intensive care staff not only have to attend to the specific needs of the critically ill body but also navigate, both personally and professionally, the social terrain of stigma when providing care to this patient population. The purpose of this research was to explore the culture and influences within the intensive care setting in which doctors and nurses cared for fat patients. A focused ethnographic approach was adopted to elicit the specific knowledge and ‘situated’ experiences of caring for critically ill fat patients from the perspectives of intensive care staff. The setting for this study was an 18 bedded tertiary intensive care unit (ICU) in New Zealand. Participant observation of care practices and interviews with intensive care staff were undertaken over a four month period. This study adopted an insider perspective throughout the research process as the study site was also my place of work. The dual tensions of the nurse and researcher position are reflexively explored through the thesis. Key findings from this research reveal how fat patients were considered to be ‘misfits’ in the ICU as a result of not fitting the physical, medical, and social norms of intensive care practices. Staff managed their private perceptions of fatness during care situations through the use of emotional labour, behavioural regions, and face-work. Through the construction and presentation of the professional and private ‘face’, staff were able to establish positive social experiences for fat patients. This study has brought new understandings of fatness; often percieved as the last socially accepted form of discrimination. Conceptualising fat patients as ‘misfits’ in the intensive care setting, reveals the performances of staff in managing the social awkwardness of fat stigma. The implications of this for healthcare is the provision of clinical services that are fit for purpose and a reconceptualisation of how staff use emotional labour in order to deliver non-discriminatory care to socially stigmatised fat patients.</p>
Convex Optimisation for Communication Systems
Authors:   , Singh Sudhir 
Published: November 2021

<p>In this thesis new robust methods for the efficient sharing of the radio spectrum for underlay cognitive radio (CR) systems are developed. These methods provide robustness against uncertainties in the channel state information (CSI) that is available to the cognitive radios. A stochastic approach is taken and the robust spectrum sharing methods are formulated as convex optimisation problems. Three efficient spectrum sharing methods; power control, cooperative beamforming and conventional beamforming are studied in detail. The CR power control problem is formulated as a sum rate maximisation problem and transformed into a convex optimisation problem. A robust power control method under the assumption of partial CSI is developed and also transformed into a convex optimisation problem. A novel method of detecting and removing infeasible constraints from the power allocation problem is presented that results in considerably improved performance. The performance of the proposed methods in Rayleigh fading channels is analysed by simulations. The concept of cooperative beamforming for spectrum sharing is applied to an underlay CR relay network. Distributed single antenna relay nodes are utilised to form a virtual antenna array that provides increased gains in capacity through cooperative beamforming. It is shown that the cooperative beamforming problems can be transformed into convex optimisation problems. New robust cooperative beamformers under the assumption of partial and imperfect CSI are developed and also transformed into convex optimisation problems. The performance of the proposed methods in Rayleigh fading channels is analysed by simulations. Conventional beamforming to allow efficient spectrum sharing in an underlay CR system is studied. The beamforming problems are formulated and transformed into convex optimisation problems. New robust beamformers under the assumption of partial and imperfect CSI are developed and also transformed into convex optimisation problems. The performance of the proposed methods in Rayleigh fading channels is analysed by simulations.</p>
Effective Slip Lengths for Stokes Flow over Rough, Mixed-Slip Surfaces
Authors:   , Lund Nathaniel Joseph 
Published: November 2021

<p>In this thesis, homogenization and perturbation methods are used to derive analytic expressions for effective slip lengths for Stokes flow over rough, mixed-slip surfaces, where the roughness is periodic, and the variation in slip length has the same period. If the classical no-slip boundary condition of fluid mechanics is relaxed, the slip velocity of the fluid at the surface is non-zero. For simple shear flow, the slip velocity is proportional to the shear rate. The constant of proportionality has dimensions of length and is known as the slip length. Any variation in the slip length over the surface will cause a perturbation to the flow adjacent to the surface. Due to the diffusion of momentum, at sufficient height above the surface, the flow perturbations have diminished, and flow is smooth and uniform. The velocity and shear rate at this height imply an effective slip length of the surface. The purpose of this thesis is to predict that effective slip length. Homogenization is a technique for finding approximate solutions to partial differential equations. The essence of homogenization is to construct a mathematical model of a physical problem featuring some periodic heterogeneity, then generate a sequence of models such that the period in question reduces with each increment in the sequence. If the sequence is appropriately defined, it has a limit model in the limit of vanishing period, for which a solution can be found. The solution to the limit system is an approximation to the solutions of systems with a finite period. We use homogenization to find the effective slip length of a system of Stokes flow over a periodically rough surface, described by periodic function h(x; y), with a local slip length b(x; y) varying with the same period. For systems where the period L is smaller than both the domain height P and typical slip lengths, the effective slip length bₑff is well-approximated by the harmonic mean of local slip lengths, weighted by area of contact between liquid and surface: [See 'Thesis' document below for equation.] We further use a perturbation technique to verify the above expression in the special case of a flat surface, and to derive another effective slip length expression: For a flat surface with local slip lengths much smaller than the period and domain height, the effective slip length bₑff is well-approximated by the area-weighted average of local slip lengths: [See 'Thesis' document below for equation.]</p>
A qualitative study investigating the association between social exclusion, stigma and long term problem drug use in a New Zealand town
Authors:   , Wilson Murray David 
Published: November 2021

<p>Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the association between problematic drug use (PDU) and social exclusion and stigma in a deindustrialised New Zealand town (DNZT). The purpose of this research is to capture the perceptions; experiences and life course journey of individuals with long term problematic drug use (IPDUs) and contribute new knowledge and understanding of this lived experience. Method: A review of national and international literature related to the phenomena of social exclusion, stigmatisation and problematic drug use was conducted to theoretically inform the study. The small-scale study employed a qualitative approach that involved a non-probability sample that met the criteria for long-term problematic drug use. This allowed respondents to share their perceptions and experiences of social exclusion, stigma and PDU in their own words and by their own frames of reference. The researcher occupied a position of insider. Following transcription of the interviews a six stage thematic analysis was conducted on the data. Findings: The downward social and psychological trajectory of this respondent group began before the respondents encountered long-term unemployment and before the onset of problematic drug use, initiated at an early age by common experiences of trauma, exclusion and damaged home environments. For this cohort it appears problematic drug use may have become a coping mechanism or relief from the reverberating impact of stigma, exclusion and marginalisation. Conclusion: The cohort interviewed show significant experiences of stigma, trauma and a disrupted life journey. These experiences became considerably exacerbated by problematic drug use and it appears most of the respondents have internalised and embraced a permanent status as ‘addicts’ with limited expectation of change. Respondents spoke of being ‘parked’ on methadone in respect of their drug problem and excluded from employment. This research suggests there is a need to look beyond the presented problem of addiction and its apparent solution of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) and explore a more holistic strength-based approach that addresses issues of inequality, social care and discrimination.</p>
Ennui and Alys: Conceptions of Complex Boredom in Plutarch
Authors:   , Howell Samuel 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis addresses the conceptualisation of boredom in Plutarch through a survey of relevant lexical terms, and analysis of the depiction of character in the 'Moralia' and the 'Lives..'. A distinction is made between the temporary tedium of simple boredom, and the persistent and spiritual dissatisfaction of complex boredom. The first chapter is composed of a discussion of the context necessary to understand boredom in an ancient context. It discusses relevant psychological theories for understanding emotion, as well as simple and complex forms of boredom. It also establishes the context for discussing ancient emotions. Depictions of simple and complex boredom in the ancient world prior to the work of Plutarch are summarised and addressed. Similar themes in the works of Seneca, Horace, and Lucretius are also discussed. The second chapter charts the lexical course of words identified by modern scholarship as relating to concepts of boredom. Their occurrence and significance within Plutarch’s oeuvre are discussed. These terms include ἄλυς (boredom), ἀλύω (wandering, to be distraught), ἀκηδία (lassitude), ἄση (surfeit, distress), ἀπληστία (insatiate greed), κόρος (satiety) and πλησμονή (abundance, surfeit). This analysis attempts to identify the underlying semantic field of these terms, and to assess how much these correspond with modern conceptions of boredom. The discussion focusses on the themes of luxury and leisure, revelry, warfare, philosophy, exile, retirement, and dissatisfaction. The third chapter attempts to contextualise the lexical research through the use of case studies in Plutarch’s works. The paired 'Lives of Pyrrhus' and 'Marius' are analysed in terms of the dissatisfaction and insatiable ambitions of their protagonists. The paired 'Lives of Antonius' and 'Demetrius' are discussed in relation to the themes of dissatisfaction, luxurious excess, and the reversal of fortune. The theme of philosophical satisfaction, and the escape from dissatisfaction, are discussed in the context of the 'On Exile' and 'On Tranquility'.</p>
Manual to Automated Testing
Authors:   , Guan Dayu 
Published: November 2021

<p>Purpose - The purpose of this case study is to understand how two organizations view and utilise automated testing and how it relates to the literature. It outlines and discusses the key factors to be taken into consideration when setting up an automated testing, in addition to the risks involved. Design/methodology/approach – Focus group discussions were executed to collect the data and the findings were compared with other literatures. Findings – For cognition of automated testing, it is not only limited to its definition and benefits that may be brought into the organization, but also need to focus more on scope of application and preconditions. Aside from the key considerations such as people resistance, working process and training, some other concerns were also found from managerial perspective when adopting automated testing: (1) Cost-benefit – Return of Investment (ROI) is an effective method to analyse the investment, especially for the factors affecting the cost of investment; (2) Management support. It includes balancing between business and technology, management involvement and coordinating the relations between the departments; (3) Tool selection: Choosing the right automation tool is a very complicated process with a lot internal factors involved. Practical implication – For an organization that doesn’t have automated testing implemented yet, a pilot project can be the first option to understand its practicality and applicability based on individual organizational context. Originality/Value – This case study can be used for an organization that interests in better introducing and implementing automated testing within the organization. Key Words – Automated testing, Cost-benefit, Management support, Tool selection, practicality, applicability and ROI. Paper Type – Case Study Research.</p>
How is Supply Chain Visibility Affecting SME's Operating in International Supply Chains?
Authors:   , Smart Gordon Kenneth 
Published: November 2021

<p>Supply chain visibility is generally seen as a positive attribute for individual supply chain partners and the supply chain as a whole. There is limited research on how increasing levels of supply chain visibility can impact individual organizations, particularly smaller entities (SME's). This paper uses an Australasian SME (Orion) as a case study to investigate how increasing visibility is affecting them and the way they operate within international supply chains. The results indicate that increasing visibility can pose significant challenges and potentially negative consequences for smaller organizations. In addition to the extra resources required and complexity for the SME itself, diverging expectations and a lack of trust between supply partners can negatively impact on supply chain relations and long term supply chain innovation. Within the supply chains Orion operates, increasing visibility does not appear to be leading to improvements in collaboration, risk sharing or shared goals. Viewed through the lens of Michael Porter's five forces model Orion is in a precarious environment, although there remain options for increased visibility to be used to Orion's advantage.</p>
Dealing with unpredictable risk - The influence of external factors on information systems development and implementations
Authors:   , Esterhuizen Ettiene 
Published: November 2021

<p>Organisations and especially Government departments develop information systems for their own specific needs, due to this Government departments invests a great deal in information systems development and implementation projects. The intention is to save on cost and develop information systems according to their needs and requirements. Unfortunately such projects are vulnerable and subject to a range of risks. This case study identifies the risk factors involved in information systems development and implementation projects and the risk processes that are in place to mitigate against those risk factors. Furthermore the case study investigates an information systems development and implementation project where four legacy systems were to be merged into one newly developed system. The project was interrupted when an organisational merger resulted in the loss of key members of the governance board and the project team, either through redundancy or being allocated other responsibilities within the organisation. This exposed the project to unpredictable risk which caused the project to head down the path of possible failure. The case study outlines the project plan, what actually happened and what according to the interviewed participants happened during the project. It is clear that the risk management processes wasn't followed and that wrongful decisions were made during the organisational merger. Unpredictable risks as a result of the merger and the decision to continue the project required a strong governance board, proper project management, proper risk management and the execution of the risk management processes. The lack of governance and project management had a huge impact on the project while the loss of expertise and knowledge added to the risk profile which resulted in further complications to the project. It’s during these situation that a strong governance board and proper project management is needed to make those critical decisions and steer the project towards success.</p>
An analysis of the benefits and issues in the development of an Enterprise Data Catalogue
Authors:   , Wang Xuemei 
Published: November 2021

<p>Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to examine the rationality for taking an enterprise approach towards metadata’s development. It outlined and discussed the benefits and challenges involved from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Methodology – The data for this case study is collected through a one on one interview method. The findings were discussed and analysed with other literature. Findings – Taking an enterprise wide approach towards the development of metadata offers both short-term and long-term benefits to the Ministry. In particular, the short-term benefits include efficiency in time to answer, re-use and re-purposing of existing information. The long-term benefits are the ability to operate at a strategic level with its data and information. On the other hand, the different level of understanding towards the concept of metadata at present, in addition to a lack of a clear guardianship from a data perspective has lead to challenges in gaining a level of active contribution and ongoing maintenance. This report suggested that it is essential for the Ministry to maintain a constant marketing style of communication to promote the understanding of the metadata and to incorporate the principle of data stewardship in managing the component of metadata mapping. Value – This case study provides value by explaining the concept and outlining the key benefits and issues involved to those organisations discovering the topic of metadata management for the first time. This case study adds additional value by offering rare insights into taking an enterprise approach towards the development of a business metadata, offering practical learning and suggestions for other organisations that are embarking on a similar journey.</p>