La relation entre l’Union européenne et la Suisse est celle d’une ambivalenceentre l’intériorité et l’extériorité de la Suisse par rapport à l’Union européenne, tension querend prégnant l’effet de l’écoulement du temps. Une analyse de l’interaction entre lesubjectivisme et l’objectivisme caractérisant cette relation permet d’expliquer juridiquementcette tension, et de qualifier le développement de la relation Suisse-UE. Il existe entrel’Union européenne et la Suisse un phénomène d’objectivisation du droit, profondément liéà l’utilisation du droit de l’Union européenne pour fonder les règles applicables. Cephénomène se prolonge au niveau institutionnel : les négociations en cours visent àrenforcer l’homogénéité du droit de la relation Suisse-UE sur le droit de l’UE. Pourtant, cephénomène d’objectivisation se heurte à certaines limites : l’ensemble formé entre l’Unioneuropéenne et la Suisse ne peut prétendre qu’à un développement intrinsèquement limité,parce qu’il ne bénéficie pas d’une « idée d’oeuvre » propre, mais emprunte celle del’Union européenne. La tension résultant entre le maintien dans le temps d’un phénomèned’objectivisation et les limites inhérentes de l’objectivité possible, semble alors être lamanifestation de la liberté politique, qui se pose dans un ensemble qui se construit, sanspouvoir se déployer dans la mesure du commun. / The relationship between Switzerland and the European Union can bedescribed as a tension between the interiority and the exteriority of the former to the latter.This ambivalence is emphasised by the effect of the passage of time. The interactionbetween objectivism and subjectivism can explain both the legal analysis of this tension asthe evolution of the relationship. One can point to the existence of a legal objectivizationphenomenon linked to the use of European Union law in order to determine the applicablelaw between the two parties. This phenomenon extends to the institutional part of therelationship as well: the ongoing negotiations are to strengthen the homogeneity of the lawapplied in the EU-Switzerland relationship by aligning it on European Union law. However,the evolution of this objectivization phenomenon is limited. The evolution of thegroup/ensemble formed by the European Union and Switzerland has an innate boundaryas it is lacking its own “idée d’oeuvre”, thus following that of the European Union. Thetension between the ongoing objectivization phenomenon and its innate limits seems toreflect the issue of political liberty. As the group/ensemble is still evolving and raisespolitically related issues, political liberty cannot unfold.

The process of determining the structural relationships between words in both natural and machine languages is known as parsing. Parsers are used as core components in a number of Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications such as online tutoring applications, dialogue-based systems and textual entailment systems. They have been used widely in the development of machine languages. In order to understand the way parsers work, we will investigate and describe a number of widely used parsing algorithms. These algorithms have been utilised in a range of different contexts such as dependency frameworks and phrase structure frameworks. We will investigate and describe some of the fundamental aspects of each of these frameworks, which can function in various ways including grammar-driven approaches and data-driven approaches. Grammar-driven approaches use a set of grammatical rules for determining the syntactic structures of sentences during parsing. Data-driven approaches use a set of parsed data to generate a parse model which is used for guiding the parser during the processing of new sentences. A number of state-of-the-art parsers have been developed that use such frameworks and approaches. We will briefly highlight some of these in this thesis. There are three specific important features that it is important to integrate into the development of parsers. These are efficiency, accuracy, and robustness. Efficiency is concerned with the use of as little time and computing resources as possible when processing natural language text. Accuracy involves maximising the correctness of the analyses that a parser produces. Robustness is a measure of a parser’s ability to cope with grammatically complex sentences and produce analyses of a large proportion of a set of sentences. In this thesis, we present a parser that can efficiently, accurately, and robustly parse a set of natural language sentences. Additionally, the implementation of the parser presented here allows for some trading-off between different levels of parsing performance. For example, some NLP applications may emphasise efficiency/robustness over accuracy while some other NLP systems may require a greater focus on accuracy. In dialogue-based systems, it may be preferable to produce a correct grammatical analysis of a question, rather than incorrectly analysing the grammatical structure of a question or quickly producing a grammatically incorrect answer for a question. Alternatively, it may be desirable that document translation systems translate a document into a different language quickly but less accurately, rather than slowly but highly accurately, because users may be able to correct grammatically incorrect sentences manually if necessary. The parser presented here is based on data-driven approaches but we will allow for the application of constraint rules to it in order to improve its performance.

This research seeks to demonstrate the need for alternative forms of sentencing in the Uganda criminal justice system with a specific focus on the use of community service. Approaching community service as a child protection strategy in sentencing parent offenders would be a positive step in addressing issues of child neglect and attendant problems. The study seeks to: (1) Analyse the impact of parental incarceration on children (2) Make a specific inquiry into the use of community service orders as an alternative to imprisonment in Uganda (3) Illustrate that approaching community service as a child protection strategy in sentencing parent offenders would be a positive step in addressing issues of child neglect and attendant problems (4) Make recommendations for a new course of action that will highlight and be aimed at preventing the abuse of children / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Atangcho Nji Akonumbo, Université Catholique D’Afrique Centrale Yaoundé Cameroun / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis aims to investigate the consequences of a judgement issued by UK Supreme Court in November 2021, known within the shipping industry as the "CMA CGM Libra" case. This case is perceived by the industry to have affected hte the understanding of the concept of seaworthiness and due diligence, as they should be understood within the context of the Hague Rules and Hague Visby Rules.  The focus lies on the understanding of these two concepts within an English as well as Swedish context, in order to further conclude whether the Judgement may have changed the definitioin of these concepts in any way; from the perspecteve of English as well as Swedish maritime law. This also includes a thorough discussion about the extent of influence English maritime law has on Swedish maritime law, if any.  This text is suitable for anyone with an intererst in or objective to learn more about seaworthines and due diligence as these concepts shall be understood from an English and/or Swedish point of view, and/or in getting better aquainted with the reasoning of the UK Supreme Court in the Libra judgement. As mentioned, the relationship between the two legal systems (including Denmark and Norway) will also be discussed. Students of maritime law will likely be best suited to read and understand this thesis and the conclusions thereof.

Our knowledge discovery algorithm employs a combination of association rule mining and graph mining to identify frequent spatial proximity relationships in genomic data where the data is viewed as a one-dimensional space. We apply mining techniques and metrics from association rule mining to identify frequently co-occurring features in genomes followed by graph mining to extract sets of co-occurring features. Using a case study of ab initio repeat finding, we have shown that our algorithm, ProxMiner, can be successfully applied to identify weakly conserved patterns among features in genomic data. The application of pairwise spatial relationships increases the sensitivity of our algorithm while the use of a confidence threshold based on false discovery rate reduces the noise in our results. Unlike available defragmentation algorithms, ProxMiner discovers associations among ab initio repeat families to identify larger more complete repeat families. ProxMiner will increase the effectiveness of repeat discovery techniques for newly sequenced genomes where ab initio repeat finders are only able to identify partial repeat families. In this dissertation, we provide two detailed examples of ProxMiner-discovered novel repeat families and one example of a known rice repeat family that has been extended by ProxMiner. These examples encompass some of the different types of repeat families that can be discovered by our algorithm. We have also discovered many other potentially interesting novel repeat families that can be further studied by biologists.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Yang M. Chang / There have been considerable discussions about why countries have interests in forming preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which typically take the forms of a “free trade area” (FTA) with Rules of Origin (ROO) and a “customs union” (CU) (World Bank, 2005). This dissertation contains three essays with three different models of trade under oligopoly to analyze various issues on preferential trade agreements. The first essay examines welfare implications of forming preferential trade arrangement (PTAs) between two asymmetric countries that differ in their market sizes. Key findings are as follows. First, when market size asymmetry between two countries is not too large and ROO requirements are not too restrictive, the formation of an FTA with effective ROO can be welfare-improving to both members. Second, the formation of a PTA is more likely to emerge between countries of similar in their market sizes, ceteris paribus. Third, compared to the pre-PTA equilibrium, there are greater reductions in external tariffs under an FTA than under a CU such that a non-member country is relatively better off under the FTA. The second essay presents a three country model of trade under Bertrand price competition to analyze differences in welfare implications between an FTA with ROO and a customs union (CU). It is shown that the maximum limit of ROO requirements over which there are welfare gains from trade for FTA members depends crucially on the degree of substitutability of final goods (or the intensity of product market competition). It is also found that member countries and their final-good exporters are better off in a CU than in an FTA. There are greater reductions in external tariffs under an FTA than under a CU such that a non-member country is relatively better off under the FTA. The third essay presents a three country model of FTA with Cournot quantity competition and derives the maximum enforceable level of ROO over which there are welfare gains from trade to each member country. It is shown that ROO and external tariffs are strategic complements such that the higher is the regional input restrictions, the higher is the external tariff necessary to induce firms to fully comply with ROO requirements. It is also shown that an FTA with effective ROO has a positive effect on the final-good trade. But the trade-diverting effect does not occur in the final-good sector.

Motivation: In the Sub-Saharan Africa countries there are several factors contributing to the collapse of firms. Most firms have failed due to poor corporate governance practices. The recent collapse of some firms in the financial and non-financial sectors in the Sub-region shows that there are challenges hindering effective corporate governance of firms in the Subregion. Consequently, this study uses empirical evidence to identify views about the important components of good corporate governance practice for listed firms: institutional characteristics; the board of directors; and the effects of external factors. Research question: The pertinent research question that this study addresses is the identification of the components that are essential for good corporate governance of firms in the Sub-region. This study tries to prioritise the components. Methodology: Data were collected by questionnaire administered to stakeholders of corporate governance of listed firms in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. Regression is used to estimate the relationship between institutional characteristic, responsibilities of the board of directors and external factors on corporate governance system. Main findings: 1. Enforcement, disclosure, transparency and regulatory frameworks may be necessary to improve corporate governance practice in all the countries in the Sub-region (SSAA). 2. There is evidence that commitment of board members to disclosure and communication may provide effective corporate governance practice. 3. Board duality (separation of role between chairman and CEO) is likely to hinder corporate governance practices. 4. We found that in all the countries in the Sub-region accounting system plays a major role to promote sound corporate governance practice. However, the political environment, societal and cultural factor, corruption, and economic factors such as macro-economic policies may hinder corporate governance practices.Policy recommendations: This study recommends that corporate governance stakeholders should adopt a whistle blowing method and also that institutional bodies should be more prudent in monitoring of rules and laws with stringent penalties. In addition, there should be adequate information and disclosure on the rights and obligation of the shareholder of firms in the sub-region region. There is need to increase the number and role of independent directors, increase the use of advisory vote by shareholders on executive compensation and facilitation of shareholders activism. Furthermore, there is a need to have autonomous regulatory bodies and supervisory agencies free from any political/ government interference in the implementation of the Code and Guideline of corporate governance. The regulatory bodies and the supervisory agencies should be manned or be under the leadership of people of goodwill, good character and trust. The Code or Guideline of corporate governance of Sub-Saharan Africa Anglophone countries should take cognisance of and be aligned with socio-cultural environment of the countries in the Sub-region.

The discovery of interesting patterns from database transactions is one of the major problems in knowledge discovery in database. One such interesting pattern is the association rules extracted from these transactions. Parallel algorithms are required for the mining of association rules due to the very large databases used to store the transactions. In this paper we present a parallel algorithm for the mining of association rules. We implemented a parallel algorithm that used a lattice approach for mining association rules. The Dynamic Distributed Rule Mining (DDRM) is a lattice-based algorithm that partitions the lattice into sublattices to be assigned to processors for processing and identification of frequent itemsets. Experimental results show that DDRM utilizes the processors efficiently and performed better than the prefix-based and partition algorithms that use a static approach to assign classes to the processors. The DDRM algorithm scales well and shows good speedup.