The growth of a nation-state in the 19th century led to the protection of heritage as a distinct discipline. Initially, the prime objective was physical protection and conservation of archaeological and architectural monuments valued for their aesthetic and historic importance. However, the 20th century practice of imposing nationalist ideas onto communities and cultures which share the same territory, but not religion and/or language, brought into prominence a discipline of heritage management. One of the main characteristics of heritage management is its interpretation in national terms which, when used for nation-building purposes, often becomes the subject of contested grand narratives; i.e. ethnically, religiously and socially divisive tool in the hands of political elites interested in securing and maintaining their powers. Historical changes of political systems and state ideologies, however, witnessed the lasting impact on the interpretation of heritage over la longue durée, almost always with negative outcomes. The Wars of Yugoslav Succession during the 1990s resulted not only in the creation of new nation-states, but also their own new national narratives and languages, often rooted in flagrant revisionism of the interpretation of historical sources and surviving heritage. This thesis examines the evolution of national narratives in five ex- Yugoslav republics and Albania from the time of their individual inception until the present. It employs chronologically juxtaposed nation-building processes in the observed states and points to the differences in interpretation which usually coincided with changes of political systems. It also highlights the contemporary interpretations of the heritage as understood by both local and international researchers and publicists, affected by the surrounding political atmosphere. It explores the destruction, vandalism, and “culturcide” and their condemnations and justifications by the media and biased scholarship. The thesis also points to the negative influence of the external political factors in heritage management through the extensive production of poorly and/or partially researched publications. Finally, it concludes that the (re)interpretation of heritage is a recurring process, which will be employed every time when the balance of power in Europe changes and almost always with detrimental consequences for the local population.

Developing complex software systems often involves multiple stakeholder interactions, coupled with frequent requirements changes while operating under time constraints and budget pressures. Such conditions can lead to hidden problems, manifesting when software modifications lead to unexpected software component interactions that can cause catastrophic or fatal situations. A critical step in ensuring the success of software systems is to verify that all requirements can be traced to the design, source code, test cases, and any other software artifacts generated during the software development process. The focus of this research is to improve on the trace matrix generation process and study how human analysts create the final trace matrix using traceability information generated from automated methods. This dissertation presents new results in the automated generation of traceability matrices and in the analysis of analyst actions during a tracing task. The key contributions of this dissertation are as follows: (1) Development of a Proximity-based Vector Space Model for automated generation of TMs. (2) Use of Mean Average Precision (a ranked retrieval-based measure) and 21-point interpolated precision-recall graph (a set-based measure) for statistical evaluation of automated methods. (3) Logging and visualization of analyst actions during a tracing task. (4) Study of human analyst tracing behavior with consideration of decisions made during the tracing task and analyst tracing strategies. (5) Use of potential recall, sensitivity, and effort distribution as analyst performance measures. Results show that using both a ranked retrieval-based and a set-based measure with statistical rigor provides a framework for evaluating automated methods. Studying the human analyst provides insight into how analysts use traceability information to create the final trace matrix and identifies areas for improvement in the traceability process. Analyst performance measures can be used to identify analysts that perform the tracing task well and use effective tracing strategies to generate a high quality final trace matrix.

No description available.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Univ., Diplomarbeit, 2007

Zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diplomarbeit, 2007.

En los últimos años las series televisivas han crecido en calidad de imagen, profundidad de sus argumentos, innovación estética. Han transformado sus estructuras, ritmos y la relación con los autores. ¿Se pueden capitalizar como recursos educativos para chicos, jóvenes y docentes? El concepto “televisión pedagógica” parece indicar que sí.

Landscape genetics is a rapidly growing field of study that compares patterns of gene flow among populations with habitat heterogeneity across a landscape to infer the interaction between dispersal of individuals and their physical environment. Empirical data generated from a landscape genetics study can inform conservation and management strategies, making the field increasing popular. However, concerns have arisen in the literature that the field is expanding faster than the analytic framework that supports it. Multiple methods for generating estimates of the association among habitat types and dispersal (i.e., least-cost paths and resistance surfaces) have been proposed, and there is a debate as to which statistical methods are best for examining the genetic structure on a landscape. We use an integrated empirical- and expert-opinion-based strategy to generate a landscape resistance surface for the California tiger salamander, Ambystoma californiense, which is a species of conservation concern. We utilize several alternative analysis methods (e.g., CCA, MRDM, ResistanceGA, GESTE, and partial Mantel tests) to look for agreement among methods describing the relationship of landscape features and genetic variation. Our analysis revealed variation among methods for describing genetic structure in this A. californiense metapopulation, but all methods indicated the presence of genetic structure, to some extent, across the landscape. This empirical data set provides both a perspective on habitat management for A. californiense and on the suitability of several novel analysis strategies for landscape genetics.

In this thesis the rationales of corporate risk management, as well as the implementation of different risk management strategies and the use of risk management instruments in Croatian and Slovenian companies have been investigated. Based on arguments arising from the review of the literature, we have proposed several hypotheses. We have tested whether the decision to hedge or not, and the decision to hedge with derivatives made by Croatian and Slovenian non-financial companies, is a function of six factors – financial distress costs, agency costs, capital market imperfections and costly external financing, taxes, managerial utility maximisation and hedge substitutes. We have also tested the assumption that corporate risk management is more developed or has different rationales among Slovenian than among Croatian companies. On the basis of our research results, it could be concluded that the explored hedging rationales have little predictive power in explaining corporate risk management decisions both in Croatian and Slovenian companies. The evidence based on univariate and multivariate empirical relations between the decision to hedge or use derivatives in Croatian companies and the predicted theories of hedging fails to provide support for any of the tested hypotheses but one - capital market imperfections and costly external financing. The univariate analysis and multivariate regression conducted for Slovenian companies have revealed that there is no statistically significant explanatory variable for the decision to hedge; therefore we can conclude it is not dependent on any of the predicted theories of hedging. The decision to use derivatives, however, has been shown as dependent on the size of the company. The multivariate test has proven a positive relation between the use of derivatives and the size of Slovenian companies, which supports the informational and transactional scale economies argument that larger firms will be more likely to use derivatives. The analysis conducted to explore differences between risk management practices in Slovenian and Croatian companies has shown statistically significant evidence that Slovenian companies use all types of derivatives, especially structured derivatives, more intensively than Croatian companies. Additionally, Croatian companies use simple risk management instruments like natural hedging to a greater extent in comparison with Slovenian companies. These findings are consistent with our research prediction that Slovenian companies have more advanced risk management practices than Croatian companies.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper introduces the essential points for designing a navigating system, and describes the modules of a typical vehicle navigator. This paper also gives a practical navigator example. Some experience for design is also mentioned.

The primary goal of this thesis is to collect, record and interpret the available coin evidence from the territory of modern Bulgaria during the late Hellenistic and early Roman Imperial period, from an archaeological, historical and numismatic perspective. In so doing the work documents the transition and integration of the monetary system of ancient Thrace to that of the Roman world. The evidence examined covers over 250 years, from the establishment of the province of Macedonia in 146 BC down to the reign of Trajan (AD 98-117). Of foremost importance in this process are the introduction, distribution and use of the denarius in the local coin market. The evidence under study was collected from the area of ancient Moesia and Thrace, an area recognized as a frontier zone in the early Roman Empire. Previously Thrace was never the subject of a comprehensive numismatic study that integrated the existing archeological and historical record for such a critical period of time. The purposely studied coin finds (both hoards and single coins, over 48,000 pieces) allowed for the application of statistical analysis to the coin data, revealing important military, economic and fiscal tendencies. The results document a culture well accustomed to the use of coins as means of payment long before the arrival of the Roman currency. Given these circumstances, it is no surprise that as denarii were introduced during the 1st century BC, the market quickly adjusted to new economic relations. Tracing the regional use and distribution of coins, the study bears witness to how local communities benefited from their strategic location and native resources. The main contribution of this work lies in the systematic comparison between the Late Hellenistic, Thracian, Celtic and Roman coinages that circulated together in a region that was of great strategic importance to the Roman Empire. Mechanisms of introduction and acceptance of Roman coins as financial tools have been documented and interpreted both from a chronological and geographical standpoint. Based on comprehensive analyses, this thesis concludes that the nature of the Thracian and Moesian society and economy, as well as the supply of coins, followed the Imperial and interregional trends as an integral part of the Roman Empire.