A study of the history of the book trade (printing, bookselling, stationery and publishing) in Leicester, from the medieval beginnings of the trade (parchment making etc. ) up to cl 850. The development of the book trade is examined in its local, regional and national contexts, including cultural, social and economic aspects, with the aim of contributing to the growing corpus of historical study of the provincial book trade in England, which has developed considerably over the last thirty years. Extensive use has been made of primary source material, not least the Borough Records of Leicester including the registers of freemen and apprentices, newspaper advertisements, extant locally-printed books and other material. More than three hundred book-trade individuals have been identified. The activities of the leading practitioners are explored, including the stock and services they provided, the economics of their trading activity, their standing in the town (many held civic office), and their interaction within the business community. The impact of the book trade and the printed word in Leicester are discussed, as are other significant aspects of the trade such as the importance of family businesses, the role of women, and the handing on of trade skills from master to apprentice. In the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth, the striking contrast between the conservatism of the old Corporation and the strident radicalism, and religious dissent, of many Leicester people provides a vibrant setting for the activities of booksellers, printers and newspaper publishers. Many of the town's leading book-trade practitioners were politically radical - an interesting and historically important dimension to the later development of the book trade in Leicester, to a degree seldom found elsewhere.

M.Bibl. / The ability to read has particular psychological and educational value for the mentally handicapped pupil. This entails amongst other things the raising of the achievement ceiling of the pupiI because of stimulation and enrichment arising from contact with reading material, as well as achieving of academic goals and the opportunity of becoming and remaining functionally literate. The latter provides the opportunity for dignified adaptation in society. The reading-ability of mentally handicapped pupils can be improved with practice. Mentally handicapped pupils do however have particular characteristics and not just any reading material can be made available to them. Reading material provided for these pupils should be in concordance with their capabilities, needs and interests to ensure that mentally handicapped pupils come into contact with books that they can master and derive benefit from. The formative value of reading and the characteristics, needs and interests of mentally handicapped pupils were identified and were used as a base for the formulation of a variety of criteria that can be used to select reading material for these pupils. A questionnaire was designed based on Fry's readability graph and the identified criteria for selection. This questionnaire can be used for evaluating books to determine whether a book is a high interest low vocabulary book such as is needed for mentally handicapped pupils. This questionnaire provides a useful method for collecting suitable reading material. The questionnaire was used to identify fifty Afrikaans stories with various topics and content, as examples of suitable reading material for mentally handicapped pupils. The conclusion that was drawn is that there are enough high interest low vocabulary stories available in Afrikaans to provide for mentally handicapped pupils in special schools. The selection of such books is time consuming and should be undertaken on a co-operative base by teachers and librarians. The discerning selection of reading material is essential because mentally handicapped pupiIs can be motivated to want to read continuously if they perceive books to be manageable and interesting rather than threat.

This dissertation introduces a novel automated book reader as an assistive technology tool for persons with blindness. The literature shows extensive work in the area of optical character recognition, but the current methodologies available for the automated reading of books or bound volumes remain inadequate and are severely constrained during document scanning or image acquisition processes. The goal of the book reader design is to automate and simplify the task of reading a book while providing a user-friendly environment with a realistic but affordable system design. This design responds to the main concerns of (a) providing a method of image acquisition that maintains the integrity of the source (b) overcoming optical character recognition errors created by inherent imaging issues such as curvature effects and barrel distortion, and (c) determining a suitable method for accurate recognition of characters that yields an interface with the ability to read from any open book with a high reading accuracy nearing 98%. This research endeavor focuses in its initial aim on the development of an assistive technology tool to help persons with blindness in the reading of books and other bound volumes. But its secondary and broader aim is to also find in this design the perfect platform for the digitization process of bound documentation in line with the mission of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), a nonprofit Alliance at making reading materials available in digital form. The theoretical perspective of this research relates to the mathematical developments that are made in order to resolve both the inherent distortions due to the properties of the camera lens and the anticipated distortions of the changing page curvature as one leafs through the book. This is evidenced by the significant increase of the recognition rate of characters and a high accuracy read-out through text to speech processing. This reasonably priced interface with its high performance results and its compatibility to any computer or laptop through universal serial bus connectors extends greatly the prospects for universal accessibility to documentation.

We analyse the steady-state behaviour of two different models with collaborating queues: that is, models in which 'customers' can be served by many types of 'servers', and 'servers' can process many types of 'customers'. The first example is a large-scale service system, such as a call centre. Collaboration is the result of cross-trained staff attending to several different types of incoming calls. We first examine a load-balancing policy, which aims to keep servers in different pools equally busy. Although the policy behaves order-optimally over fixed time horizons, we show that the steady-state distribution may fail to be tight on the diffusion scale. That is, in a family of ever-larger networks whose arrival rates grow as O(r) (where r is a scaling parameter growing to infinity), the sequence of steady-state deviations from equilibrium scaled down by sqrt(r) is not tight. We then propose a different policy, for which we show that the sequence of invariant distributions is tight on the r (1/2+epsilon) scale, for any epsilon > 0. For this policy we conjecture that tightness holds on the diffusion scale as well. The second example models a limit order book, a pricing mechanism for a single-commodity market in which buyers (respectively sellers) are prepared to wait for the price to drop (respectively rise). We analyse the behaviour of a simplified model, in which the arrival events are independent of each other and the state of the limit order book. The system can be represented by a queueing model, with 'customers' and 'servers' corresponding to bids and asks; the roles of customers and servers are symmetric. We show that, with probability 1, the price interval breaks up into three regions. At small (respectively large) prices, only finitely many bid (respectively ask) orders ever get fulfilled, while in the middle region all orders eventually clear. We derive equations which define the boundaries between these regions, and solve them explicitly in the case of iid uniform arrivals to obtain numeric values of the thresholds. We derive a heuristic for the distribution of the highest bid (respectively lowest ask), and present simulation data confirming it.

The study explores teachers’ experiences in book clubs and how these experiences inform their pedagogical practices. Framed by a social constructivist epistemological stance, grounded in the work of narrative inquiry, and conceptualized by transactional reader-response theory, this study explores why teachers join and sustain book club membership, the ways books clubs are used to create meaning, how participating in a book club influences pedagogical practices, and ways in which clubs are used to negotiate aspects of their teaching identities and subjectivities. Through a multifaceted qualitative research design, I worked with thirteen teachers who belong to (or have recently belonged to) a book club as a separate entity from their teaching lives. I conducted interviews with thirteen teachers; attended three meetings of three separate book clubs to contextualize the study; and administered written reading profiles to explore participants’ reading practices. This research argues that teachers join and remain in book clubs for social interaction, intellectual stimulation and motivation to read ‘quality’ literature. Knowledges are created and validated by a community of readers capable of such recognition in a forum that does not otherwise exist. Club meetings are used in different and complex ways to negotiate teaching subjectivities and push back against fixed notions of the teacher identity. Further, this study showcases a myriad of ways that teachers’ experiences in book clubs enter the classroom both explicitly and implicitly.

Přístupy ohodnocování akcií, technická analýza, fundamentální analýza, psychologická analýza, teorie efektivních trhů. Metody oceňování podniku, fundamentálně analytické, tržní princip, výnosový princip.

The purpose of this thesis is to survey the successfulness of electronic book sale in the Czech environment. The thesis is intended to provide an evaluation of the present situation, identify the main issues regarding e-book market competitiveness and determine critical factors which must be considered in order for the e-book sale to be profitable.

Esta pesquisa foi efetivada com a finalidade de mapear os artefatos que são atualmente denominados 'livros digitais', caracterizando-os a partir do cruzamento dos recursos próprios do meio digital com as principais especificidades dos livros impressos. A metodologia utilizada abrangeu revisão bibliográfica e observação do objeto de estudo. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto, realizou-se um resgate histórico, identificando as características associadas à noção de 'livro', levando em consideração as modificações ocorridas a partir de sua materialidade. Após esse estudo, foi possível compreender a remediação dos livros impressos nos e-books, principalmente naqueles que podem ser acessados através de e-readers e tablets. Outro recorte abordado por esta pesquisa focaliza a identificação e o registro dos recursos que vêm sendo explorados nas produções que estão sendo chamadas de livros digitais. Efetuada a revisão bibliográfica, foram estudadas as potencialidades do hipertexto, da multimídia e da interatividade dentro do livro eletrônico. Ademais, foram comentadas diferentes maneiras de o leitor se aproximar e interagir com o conteúdo da obra, através da utilização dos recursos citados. Antes de se realizar a análise dos artefatos em questão, foi necessário, ainda, aprender mais sobre a materialidade dos mesmos, percebendo como o hardware, o software e o conteúdo interagem entre si, restringindo, assim, as possibilidades que podem ser ofertadas ao leitor. Na tabela final de análise foram avaliadas as particularidades das seguintes macrocategorias: Identificação, Acesso, Funcionalidades, Potencialidades do meio digital, Aproximação da ideia de livro impresso (remediação) e Projeto gráfico. A partir do estudo teórico e empírico realizado, percebeu-se que o livro é um artefato com propriedades flexíveis, decidindo-se, por isto, propor uma série de princípios que, juntos, possam ser utilizados para caracterizar esse tipo de publicação, independente de ela ser digital ou impressa. Logo, chegou-se a conclusão de que o e-book é um conteúdo digital com as mesmas características de um livro e que pode explorar, além do texto e da imagem, recursos da mídia digital, tais como interatividade, som, vídeo e animação. Através das características predominantes dos artefatos analisados, foram identificados os seguintes tipos de livros digitais: customizável, PDF, digitalizado, multimídia e interativo. / This research has as its purpose to map out the artifacts so-called ‘digital books’ nowadays. They were characterized from a crossing between printed books main specificities and those related to digital environment very own resources. The research methodology applied to it was of two kinds: literature review and an observational study of the object of study. A historical overview was unearthed in order to achieve the intended purpose, identifying the characteristics linked to the notion of ‘book’, taking into account changes that have taken place stemming from its materiality. Given this perception it was possible to understand the remediation of the print book proposed in e-books, the ones accessed through e-readers and tablets mainly. Identification and registration of the latest developments in digital books resources were another point covered in this work. From a literature review standpoint, interactivity, multimedia and hypertext potentialities were crossexamined. Moreover, there had been discussed some of the alternatives to offer readers proximity and different ways to interact with the work content through the use of cited resources. Still, before realizing the artifact analysis, a more in-depth study of e-book materiality was needed. That is, to perceive how hardware, content and software interact among themselves restricting the possibilities that might be made available to the reader. The singularities of the following macro categories: Identification, Access, Functionalities, Potentialities of the digital environment and the approach of the printed book concept (remediation) to graphic project were evaluated in the table analysis. After an empirical and theoretical study, it was realized that book is an artifact with flexible properties, thus, a definition was set forth based upon a series of principles that together characterize this type of publication, regardless of being in printed or digital form. Therefore, we came to the conclusion the e-book is a digital content with the same features of a printed book and the former can exploit digital media resources such as sound, video, animation and interactivity besides virtually text and image. We were also able to identify through the artifacts primary features that were under analysis the following types of digital books: customized, PDF, digitized, multimedia and interactive.

The aim of the diploma thesis is the graphic processing of the monographic publication of Kateřina Šedá. In my work I refer to the cooperation of designer, author and curator, with many aspects that influence us in the process of creation and define the result. The work of Kateřina Šedá consists predominantly of participatory actions, often linked to a specific place (excluded locality, housing estate, village), with events, interactions and the experiences of many people being the key output. The aim of the monograph is to provide a clear report on major authorial projects in one comprehensive publication. Considering the quantity, variety and complexity of Kateřina Šedá’s work, the work also includes searching for solutions and systems to process projects to a limited extent.

The purpose of this thesis is to set forth the ideals and the philosophy of reading for young people and to show the importance of' stimulating and guiding students in all phases of their reading so that they may find increasing enjoyment and satisfaction and may grow in critical judgment and appreciation. It is therefore necessary that the books from which they choose their reading are of the best available, and so it is important that the librarian give the greatest thought and study to the selection of books for her library. To make these ideals practical and usable, carefully prepared lists of books have been made for various purposes. These lists are constantly used by both teachers and pupils at Stanford, and have been a source of help and inspiration. There are many excellent books on children's reading and the selection of books for children of different ages in different fields of interest. It has been necessary to limit the field of research and discussion and it has not been attempted to make an exhaustive list or selection for all material in the field of book selection. The thesis can only be suggestive, as it is a field which grows and one in which new material is constatnly appearing.