Üzleti teljesítménymérés a sportban = Business performance evaluation in sports associations

A sportszervezetek, sportvállalkozások esetében is kulcsfontosságú a teljesítménymérés. Annak ellenére, hogy a teljesítménymérés sok esetben elsősorban a sportteljesítményre koncentrál, egyre többen foglalkoznak az üzleti teljesítménymérés relevanciájával is. A nyugati társadalmakban a szűkös erőforrások és a növekvő társadalmi kontroll igénye erősíti ezt a folyamatot. A szakirodalom ezen a téren még viszonylag szűk körű. Jelen tanulmány célja, hogy egy olyan szakirodalmi áttekintést adjon, ami elindíthatja a jelenlegi és potenciális jövőbeli vezetők gondolkodását az üzleti teljesítménymérés fontosságának irányába. A tanulmány először áttekinti a pénzügyi teljesítménymérés lehetőségeit, foglalkozik a költségfelosztás problémakörével, kiemelt szerepet szán a stratégiai gondolkodás és a több szempontú megközelítés érvényesítésének. Részletesen összehasonlítja a sportszervezeteknél javasolt kiegyensúlyozott stratégiai mutatószámrendszer (BSC) adaptációkat. A tanulmány kiinduló pontot jelenthet nemcsak a szakirodalom feldolgozásához, de a gyakorlati megvalósításhoz is. _____ Performance measurement is crucial in sports associations. Although sports performance is in the spotlight, more and more researchers and experts deal with the business perspective of performance evaluation. This trend is strengthened by the scarcity of resources and a rising demand for social control in Western societies. The literature in this field is relatively limited. The aim of this study is to provide a literature review, which can motivate experts and managers to shift towards business thinking, and realize the importance of business performance evaluation. The study presents the opportunities of financial performance measurement, deals with the issues of cost allocation, and focuses on the role of strategic thinking and multi-dimension approach. Finally it compares the proposed balanced scorecard adaptations for sports associations. The study can be a starting point for literature review as well as for practical implementation.

Performance Evaluation of a Statistical and a Neural Network Model for Nonrigid Shape-Based Registration

Shape-based registration methods frequently encounters in the domains of computer vision, image processing and medical imaging. The registration problem is to find an optimal transformation/mapping between sets of rigid or nonrigid objects and to automatically solve for correspondences. In this paper we present a comparison of two different probabilistic methods, the entropy and the growing neural gas network (GNG), as general feature-based registration algorithms. Using entropy shape modelling is performed by connecting the point sets with the highest probability of curvature information, while with GNG the points sets are connected using nearest-neighbour relationships derived from competitive hebbian learning. In order to compare performances we use different levels of shape deformation starting with a simple shape 2D MRI brain ventricles and moving to more complicated shapes like hands. Results both quantitatively and qualitatively are given for both sets.

Building performance evaluation of domestic energy efficient retrofits in current and future climates

Approximately half of the houses in Northern Ireland were built before any form of minimum thermal specification or energy efficiency standard was enforced. Furthermore, 44% of households are categorised as being in fuel poverty; spending more than 10% of the household income to heat the house to bring it to an acceptable level of thermal comfort. To bring existing housing stock up to an acceptable standard, retrofitting for improving the energy efficiency is essential and it is also necessary to study the effectiveness of such improvements in future climate scenarios. This paper presents the results from a year-long performance monitoring of two houses that have undergone retrofits to improve energy efficiency. Using wireless sensor technology internal temperature, humidity, external weather, household gas and electricity usage were monitored for a year. Simulations using IES-VE dynamic building modelling software were calibrated using the monitoring data to ASHARE Guideline 14 standards. The energy performance and the internal environment of the houses were then assessed for current and future climate scenarios and the results show that there is a need for a holistic balanced strategy for retrofitting.

Laboratory performance evaluation of CIR-emulsion and its comparison against CIR-foam test results from Phase III, TR-578

Currently, no standard mix design procedure is available for CIR-emulsion in Iowa. The CIR-foam mix design process developed during the previous phase is applied for CIR-emulsion mixtures with varying emulsified asphalt contents. Dynamic modulus test, dynamic creep test, static creep test and raveling test were conducted to evaluate the short- and long-term performance of CIR-emulsion mixtures at various testing temperatures and loading conditions. A potential benefit of this research is a better understanding of CIR-emulsion material properties in comparison with those of CIR-foam material that would allow for the selection of the most appropriate CIR technology and the type and amount of the optimum stabilization material. Dynamic modulus, flow number and flow time of CIR-emulsion mixtures using CSS-1h were generally higher than those of HFMS-2p. Flow number and flow time of CIR-emulsion using RAP materials from Story County was higher than those from Clayton County. Flow number and flow time of CIR-emulsion with 0.5% emulsified asphalt was higher than CIR-emulsion with 1.0% or 1.5%. Raveling loss of CIR-emulsion with 1.5% emulsified was significantly less than those with 0.5% and 1.0%. Test results in terms of dynamic modulus, flow number, flow time and raveling loss of CIR-foam mixtures are generally better than those of CIR-emulsion mixtures. Given the limited RAP sources used for this study, it is recommended that the CIR-emulsion mix design procedure should be validated against several RAP sources and emulsion types.

Manipulation in U.S. REIT Investment Performance Evaluation: Empirical Evidence

We investigate whether Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) managers actively manipulate performance measures in spite of the strict regulation under the REIT regime. We provide empirical evidence that is consistent with this hypothesis. Specifically, manipulation strategies may rely on the opportunistic use of leverage. However, manipulation does not appear to be uniform across REIT sectors and seems to become more common as the level of competition in the underlying property sector increases. We employ a set of commonly used traditional performance measures and a recently developed manipulation-proof measure (MPPM, Goetzmann, Ingersoll, Spiegel, and Welch (2007)) to evaluate the performance of 147 REITs from seven different property sectors over the period 1991-2009. Our findings suggest that the existing REIT regulation may fail to mitigate a substantial agency conflict and that investors can benefit from evaluating return information carefully in order to avoid potentially manipulative funds.

Namibia RSRC Activity Performance Evaluation: Component 1 Report

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) contracted the Technology & Social Change group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington to conduct a performance evaluation of the Namibia Regional Study and Resource Centers (RSRC) Activity. This evaluation has been designed to serve the needs of two major stakeholders, MCC and the Namibia Library and Archives Service (NLAS). The evaluation comprises a set of quantitative and qualitative data collection efforts divided into two categories: Component 1 and Component 2. This report presents the findings for Component 1 only, focusing on evaluating the RSRC planning and implementation activities leading up to the end of the MCA-Namibia Compact in September 2014.

Mixing performance evaluation of additive manufactured milli-scale reactors

The mixing performance of three passive milli-scale reactors with different geometries was investigated at different Reynolds numbers. The effects of design and operating characteristics such as mixing channel shape and volume flow rate were investigated. The main objective of this work was to demonstrate a process design method that uses on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for modeling and Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology for manufacture. The reactors were designed and simulated using SolidWorks and Fluent 15.0 software, respectively. Manufacturing of the devices was performed with an EOS M-series AM system. Step response experiments with distilled Millipore water and sodium hydroxide solution provided time-dependent concentration profiles. Villermaux-Dushman reaction experiments were also conducted for additional verification of CFD results and for mixing efficiency evaluation of the different geometries. Time-dependent concentration data and reaction evaluation showed that the performance of the AM-manufactured reactors matched the CFD results reasonably well. The proposed design method allows the implementation of new and innovative solutions, especially in the process design phase, for industrial scale reactor technologies. In addition, rapid implementation is another advantage due to the virtual flow design and due to the fast manufacturing which uses the same geometric file formats.

Performance evaluation of DCA and SRC on a single bot detection

Malicious users try to compromise systems using new techniques. One of the recent techniques used by the attacker is to perform complex distributed attacks such as denial of service and to obtain sensitive data such as password information. These compromised machines are said to be infected with malicious software termed a “bot”. In this paper, we investigate the correlation of behavioural attributes such as keylogging and packet flooding behaviour to detect the existence of a single bot on a compromised machine by applying (1) Spearman’s rank correlation (SRC) algorithm and (2) the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA). We also compare the output results generated from these two methods to the detection of a single bot. The results show that the DCA has a better performance in detecting malicious activities.

The conditional performance of euro bond funds: evidence from Portugal during the debt crisis

This paper evaluates the performance of a survivorship bias-free data set of Portuguese funds investing in Euro-denominated bonds by using conditional models that consider the public information available to investors when the returns are generated. We find that bond funds underperform the market significantly and by an economically relevant magnitude. This underperformance cannot be explained by the expenses they charge. Our findings support the use of conditional performance evaluation models, since we find strong evidence of both time-varying risk and performance, dependent on the slope of the term structure and the inverse relative wealth variables. We also show that survivorship bias has a significant impact on performance estimates. Furthermore, during the European debt crisis, bond fund managers performed significantly better than in non-crisis periods and were able to achieve neutral performance. This improved performance throughout the crisis seems to be related to changes in funds’ investment styles.

Long term performance evaluation of small-diameter vascular grafts based on polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel and dextran and MSCs-based therapies using the ovine pre-clinical animal model.

The functional and structural performance of a 5 cm synthetic small diameter vascular graft (SDVG) produced by the copolymerization of polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel with low molecular weight dextran (PVA/Dx graft) associated to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based therapies and anticoagulant treatment with heparin, clopidogrel and warfarin was tested using the ovine model during the healing period of 24 weeks. The results were compared to the ones obtained with standard expanded polyetetrafluoroethylene grafts (ePTFE graft). Blood flow, vessel and graft diameter measurements, graft appearance and patency rate (PR), thrombus, stenosis and collateral vessel formation were evaluated by B-mode ultrasound, audio and color flow Doppler. Graft and regenerated vessels morphologic evaluation was performed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis. All PVA/Dx grafts could maintain a similar or higher PR and systolic / diastolic laminar blood flow velocities were similar to ePTFE grafts. CD14 (macrophages) and α-actin (smooth muscle) staining presented similar results in PVA/Dx/MSCs and ePTFE graft groups. Fibrosis layer was lower and endothelial cells were only detected at graft-artery transitions where it was added the MSCs. In conclusion, PVA/Dx graft can be an excellent scaffold candidate for vascular reconstruction, including clinic mechanically challenging applications, such as SDVGs, especially when associated to MSCs-based therapies to promote higher endothelialization and lower fibrosis of the vascular prosthesis, but also higher PR values.

Dynamic Modeling and Seasonal Performance Evaluation of Air-to-Water Heat Pump Systems

In this Thesis a series of numerical models for the evaluation of the seasonal performance of reversible air-to-water heat pump systems coupled to residential and non-residential buildings are presented. The exploitation of the energy saving potential linked to the adoption of heat pumps is a hard task for designers due to the influence on their energy performance of several factors, like the external climate variability, the heat pump modulation capacity, the system control strategy and the hydronic loop configuration. The aim of this work is to study in detail all these aspects. In the first part of this Thesis a series of models which use a temperature class approach for the prediction of the seasonal performance of reversible air source heat pumps are shown. An innovative methodology for the calculation of the seasonal performance of an air-to-water heat pump has been proposed as an extension of the procedure reported by the European standard EN 14825. This methodology can be applied not only to air-to-water single-stage heat pumps (On-off HPs) but also to multi-stage (MSHPs) and inverter-driven units (IDHPs). In the second part, dynamic simulation has been used with the aim to optimize the control systems of the heat pump and of the HVAC plant. A series of dynamic models, developed by means of TRNSYS, are presented to study the behavior of On-off HPs, MSHPs and IDHPs. The main goal of these dynamic simulations is to show the influence of the heat pump control strategies and of the lay-out of the hydronic loop used to couple the heat pump to the emitters on the seasonal performance of the system. A particular focus is given to the modeling of the energy losses linked to on-off cycling.

Orthogonal chirp division multiplexing: performance evaluation in the presence of phase noise

In Beyond 5G technologies, Terahertz communications will be used: frequency bands between 100 GHz and 10 THz will be exploited in order to have higher throughput and lower latency. Those frequency bands suffer from several impairments, and it is thought that phase noise is one of the most significant. Orthogonal Chirp Division Multiplexing (OCDM) might be used in Beyond 5G communications, thanks to its robustness to multipath fading: it outperforms Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The aim of this thesis is to find a suitable model for describing phase noise in Terahertz communications, and to study the performance of an OCDM system affected by this impairment. After this, a simple compensation scheme is introduced, and the improvement that it provides is analysed. The thesis is organized as follow: in the first chapter Terahertz communications and Beyond 5G are introduced, in the second chapter phase noise is studied, in the third chapter OCDM is analysed, and in the fourth chapter numerical results are presented.

Numerical simulation of the flow and performance evaluation of an aerospike engine

The main focus of this work is to define a numerical methodology to simulate an aerospike engine and then to analyse the performance of DemoP1, which is a small aerospike demonstrator built by Pangea Aerospace. The aerospike is a promising solution to build more efficient engine than the actual one. Its main advantage is the expansion adaptation that allows to reach the optimal expansion in a wide range of ambient pressures delivering more thrust than an equivalent bell-shaped nozzle. The main drawbacks are the cooling system design and the spike manufacturing but nowadays, these issues seem to be overcome with the use of the additive manufacturing method. The simulations are performed with dbnsTurbFoam which is a solver of OpenFOAM. It has been designed to simulate a supersonic compressible turbulent flow. This work is divided in four chapters. The first one is a short introduction. The second one shows a brief summary of the theoretical performance of the aerospike. The third one introduces the numerical methodology to simulate a compressible supersonic flow. In the fourth chapter, the solver has been verified with an experiment found in literature. And in the fifth chapter, the simulations on DemoP1 engine are illustrated.

Sistema de avalia????o e premia????o por resultados da Embrapa

O presente trabalho apresenta conceitos e aspectos operacionais do Sistema de Avalia????o e Premia????o por Resultados da Embrapa/SAPRE, implantado em 1996, cujo objetivo ?? o de elevar o desempenho das unidades de pesquisa, equipes e empregados da Empresa, recompensando os mais produtivos. O Sistema ?? constitu??do por 6 componentes: a) avalia????o de unidades; b) premia????o de unidades; c) avalia????o de equipes e empregados; d) premia????o de equipes e empregados; e) premia????o nacional de projetos e f) premia????o por excel??ncia. As unidades s??o avaliadas em conformidade a: a) cumprimento de metas; b) efici??ncia relativa; c) avalia????o de qualidade t??cnica; d) impacto s??cio-econ??mico; e) avalia????o de imagem. A conjuga????o desses fatores constitui o ??ndice de Desempenho Institucional de uma unidade, base para o c??lculo financeiro de sua premia????o. A avalia????o de equipes e empregados de cada unidade compreende o respectivo desempenho em: a) cumprimento de metas individuais; b) capta????o de recursos; c) criatividade em pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D); d) qualidade t??cnica dos projetos de pesquisa. Os empregados com melhor desempenho, individualmente e por equipes de trabalho, s??o premiados com um b??nus financeiro. Al??m disso, o SAPRE inclui a premia????o de projetos, que, no ??mbito nacional, se destacam em termos de criatividade, parceria, capta????o de recursos, qualidade t??cnica e melhoria de processos. Tamb??m s??o premiados com trof??us e diplomas os dois melhores empregados (um pesquisador e um de suporte ?? pesquisa) de cada unidade descentralizada e da sede como um todo.

TOXICITY EVALUATION AS A TOOL TO ASSES THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ANAEROBIC IMMOBILIZED BIOMASS REACTOR

Effluents from pulp mill are usually toxic and mutagenic. This characteristic is mainly a consequence of xenobiotic compounds that are formed during the process. Global parameters such as chemical oxidation demand, total organic carbon and others, do not permit identify whether the toxic potential was remedied by the treatments or not. The objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of an horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass reactor (HAIB) treating the bleaching effluent from a Kraft pulp mill using toxicological (Daphnia similis - Ceriodaphnia sdvestrii) mutagenicity and citotoxicological assays (Allium cepa L). The results showed high sensibility of the test-organisms and capability of the anaerobic reactor to remove compounds that are exerting toxic and mutagenic effects. The bioassays represented an attractive alternative to water quality analyzes and the performance evaluation of treatments.