A estabilidade a longo prazo do tratamento ortodôntico é o objetivo dos ortodontistas na busca do sucesso dos casos clínicos. Desta forma o presente estudo objetivou avaliar retrospectivamente a influência da expansão rápida da maxila na estabilidade pós-contenção do alinhamento dos dentes ântero-superiores, em casos tratados com extração de pré-molares. A amostra foi constituída de 60 pacientes de ambos os gêneros, com más oclusões de Classe I e Classe II, tratados com extrações de 4 pré-molares, utilizando-se a mecânica de Edgewise. A amostra foi dividida em dois grupos, de acordo com o protocolo de tratamento, sendo o Grupo 1 composto por 30 pacientes (14 do gênero masculino e 1 do gênero feminino), com idade inicial média de 13,55 anos (d.p.= ± 1,58 anos), tratados ortodonticamente com extrações de quatro pré-molares. O Grupo 2 apresentou 30 pacientes (9 do gênero masculino e 21 do gênero feminino), com idade inicial média de 13,98 anos (d.p.= ± 2,61 anos), tratados ortodonticamente com expansão rápida da maxila e posteriormente mecânica corretiva com extrações de quatro pré-molares ou dois pré-molares superiores. Foram avaliados os modelos de estudo referentes às fases inicial (T1), final (T2) e pós-contenção (T3) de cada paciente, medindo-se o de Little, as distâncias intercaninos, interpré-molares, intermolares, o comprimento e o perímetro do arco. A análise estatística dos dados foi realizada pela análise de variância (ANOVA) a um critério para avaliação intragrupos entre as três fases. O teste de Tukey foi aplicado nas variáveis que apresentaram resultados estatisticamente significantes. A comparação intergrupos foi realizada pelo teste t independente. O teste de Pearson foi utilizado para correlacionar o Índice de Irregularidade de Little às demais variáveis estudadas. Os resultados evidenciaram que o Índice de Irregularidade de Little apresentou 9,40% de recidiva para o grupo 1 e 13,57% para o grupo 2. Não ocorreu diferença estatisticamente significante entre os grupos na recidiva das distâncias intercaninos, interpré-molares e intermolares, no comprimento e no perímetro do arco. Entretanto, o grupo 2 apresentou maior quantidade de recidiva na quantidade de apinhamento ântero-superior em relação ao grupo 1. Portanto, houve influência da expansão rápida da maxila na estabilidade do alinhamento dos incisivos superiores. / The long-term stability of orthodontic treatment is the objective of orthodontists in the search for success in clinical cases. Thus, the present retrospective study evaluated the influence of rapid maxillary expansion on the post-retention stability of alignment of maxillary anterior teeth in patients treated with premolar extraction. The sample was composed of 60 patients of both genders, with Class I and Class II malocclusions, treated by extraction of 4 premolars and edgewise mechanics. The sample was divided into two groups according to the treatment protocol. Group 1 comprised 30 patients (14 males and 16 females), with initial mean age 13.55 years (s.d. = ± 1.58 years), orthodontically treated by extraction of four premolars. Group 2 included 30 patients (9 males and 21 females), with initial mean age 13.98 years (s.d. = ± 2.61 years), orthodontically treated by rapid maxillary expansion followed by corrective mechanics with extraction of four premolars or two maxillary premolars. Dental casts obtained from all patients at initial (T1), final (T2) and postretention stages (T3) were assessed by measurements of the Little irregularity index, intercanine, interpremolar and intermolar distances, and length and perimeter of the maxillary arch. Statistical analysis of data was performed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for evaluation within groups among the three stages. The Tukey test was applied for the variables presenting statistically significant outcomes. Comparison between groups was performed by the independent t test. The Pearson test was used to correlate the Little irregularity index to the other study variables. The results demonstrated that the Little irregularity index presented 9.40% of relapse for Group 1 and 13.57% for Group 2. There was no statistically significant difference between groups as to the relapse in intercanine, interpremolar or intermolar distance, length and perimeter of the maxillary arch. However, Group 2 exhibited greater relapse in the amount of maxillary anterior crowding compared to Group 1. Thus, rapid maxillary expansion influenced the stability of alignment of maxillary incisors.

Abstract Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of mental retardation syndrome, is caused by an expansion of the CGG trinucleotide repeat in the 5' UTR of the FMR1 gene, with concurrent hypermethylation of the region, which represses FMR1 expression. The syndrome is associated with the folate-sensitive chromosomal fragile site at Xq27.3 (FRAXA), where the gene responsible for the syndrome was first localized by linkage analysis using RFLP markers. In this study the linkage relationships of the RFLP markersat Xq27-28 and the characteristics of the CGG repeat expansion were investigated in northern Finnish fragile X families and molecular diagnostic methods were applied in order to improve diagnosis of the syndrome. Furthermore, the origin of fragile X mutations in the northern part of Finland was studied by haplotype analysis. Linkage studies were performed in 34 northern Finnish fragile X families/pedigrees using a total of 15 RFLPs (defining 11 loci). A refined genetic map around FRAXA including five RFLP markers having recombination fractions of 0.04 or less with FRAXA was obtained in an international study of 112 affected families, containing linkage data on twelve northern Finnish families. Linkage analysis significantly improved carrier detection in fragile X families compared with previous cytogenetic methods used in diagnosis. The most efficient RFLP-based protocol for carrier detection was proposed, which is based on use of the most adjacent markers and a minimum number of restriction enzymes. CGG repeat expansion of the FMR1 gene was investigated in original families collected for linkage studies and additional new ones. Large CGG repeat expansions (Δ > 500 bp) with concomitant methylation of the adjacent CpG island, i.e. full mutations, were found to be associated with mental retardation completely in males, but only 50% of the females having a full mutation were mentally impaired. Premutations (Δ < 700 bp) were found in healthy carriers. There was a size range of Δ = 500 to 700 bp, where the expansions could be either abnormally methylated or non-methylated, and it appeared that methylation is more important in determining the phenotype than the exact size of an expansion. Instability of the enlarged CGG repeats was detected, leading preferentially to size increases in successive generations. The instability of premutations was found to be stronger and the size increases larger in maternal than in paternal transmissions, and transition to a full mutation occurred only in female transmissions. In addition, the size of a maternal premutation was shown to have an important influence on the risk of its transition to a full mutation when transmitted. The critical premutation size leading invariably to full mutation in the offspring was found to be between Δ = 175 to 200 bp. In one of the studied families a rare contraction of a paternal premutation to a normal CGG repeat number in one of the daughters and further in her son was detected. Direct mutation analysis including measurement of the CGG repeat size and hypermethylation allowed unambiguous diagnosis of carriers and affected individuals in most cases. Haplotype analysis using two tightly linked microsatellite markers flanking the CGG repeat mutation was performed in 60 unrelated northern and eastern Finnish fragile X families. A significant difference was found in allelic and haplotypic distributions between normal X and fragile X chromosomes. A single haplotype, which was present only in 8% of the normal X chromosomes, accounted for 80% of the fragile X chromosomes. This enrichment of one fra(X) mutation in the Finnish population suggests founder effect.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Statistics / Haiyan Wang / Advances in technology easily collect a large amount of data in scientific research such as agricultural screening and micro-array experiments. We are particularly interested in data from one-way and crossed two-way designs that have a large number of treatment combinations but small replications with heteroscedastic variances. In this framework, several test statistics have been proposed in the literature. Even though the form of these proposed test statistics may be different, they all use limiting normal or chi-square distribution to conduct their tests. Such approximation approaches the true distribution very slowly when the sample size ni is small while the number of levels of treatments a gets large. A strategy to obtain better accuracy in the classical large sample size setting is to use the bootstrap procedure with studentized statistic. Unfortunately, the available bootstrap method fails when the number of treatment level combinations is large while the number of replications is small. The Fisher and Hall (1990) asymptotic pivotal statistic under large sample size setting is no longer pivotal under small sample size setting with large number of treatment levels. In the first part of this dissertation, we start with describing suitable bootstrap statistics and procedures for hypothesis tests in one- and two-way ANOVA with a large number of levels and small sample sizes. We prove that the theoretical type I error-rate of Akritas and Papadatos (2004) and Wang and Akritas (2006) test statistics and their corresponding bootstrap versions have accuracy of order O(1/√a). We then modify their statistics to obtain asymptotically pivotal statistics in our current framework. We prove that the theoretical type I error-rate of the bootstrap version of the pivotal statistics is accurate up to order O(1/√a). In the second part of the dissertation, we propose a new test statistic in one-way ANOVA which is asymptotically pivotal in the current setting. We improve the accuracy of approximation of the distribution of the test statistic by deriving asymptotic expansion of the statistic under the current framework and define a new test rejection region through Cornish-Fisher expansion of quantiles. The type I error-rate of the new test has a faster convergence rate and is accurate up to order O(1/a). Simulation studies show that our tests performs better in terms of type I error-rate but comparable power with that of Akritas and Papadatos (2004) in the large a small ni setting. The connection between our asymptotic expansions and bootstrap distribution in the large a small ni setting is discussed. Our proposed test based on asymptotic expansion and Cornish-Fisher expansion of quantiles have both the advantage of higher accuracy and computational efficiency due to no resampling is needed.

Modern financial engineering is a part of applied mathematics that studies market models. Each model is characterized by several parameters. Some of them are familiar to a wide audience, for example, the price of a risky security, or the risk free interest rate. Other parameters are less known, for example, the volatility of the security. This parameter determines the rate of change of security prices and is determined by several factors. For example, during the periods of stable economic growth the prices are changing slowly, and the volatility is small. During the crisis periods, the volatility significantly increases. Classical market models, in particular, the celebrated Nobel Prize awarded Black–Scholes–Merton model (1973), suppose that the volatility remains constant during the lifetime of a financial instrument. Nowadays, in most cases, this assumption cannot adequately describe reality. We consider a model where both the security price and the volatility are described by random functions of time, or stochastic processes. Moreover, the volatility process is modelled as a sum of two independent stochastic processes. Both of them are mean reverting in the sense that they randomly oscillate around their average values and never escape neither to very small nor to very big values. One is changing slowly and describes low frequency, for example, seasonal effects, another is changing fast and describes various high frequency effects. We formulate the model in the form of a system of a special kind of equations called stochastic differential equations. Our system includes three stochastic processes, four independent factors, and depends on two small parameters. We calculate the price of a particular financial instrument called European call option. This financial contract gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to buy a predefined number of units of the risky security on a predefined date and pay a predefined price. To solve this problem, we use the classical result of Feynman (1948) and Kac (1949). The price of the instrument is the solution to another kind of problem called boundary value problem for a partial differential equation. The resulting equation cannot be solved analytically. Instead we represent the solution in the form of an expansion in the integer and half-integer powers of the two small parameters mentioned above. We calculate the coefficients of the expansion up to the second order, find their financial sense, perform numerical studies, and validate our results by comparing them to known verified models from the literature. The results of our investigation can be used by both financial institutions and individual investors for optimization of their incomes.

This study investigates the impact of employing the Miller cycle on a high specific power downsized gasoline engine by means of Early Intake Valve Closing (EIVC) and Late Intake Valve Closing (LIVC). This investigation assesses the potential for the Miller cycle to improve fuel economy at part load points, as well as high load points with significantly elevated boost pressures (Deep Miller) of up to 4 bar abs. The impact of geometric Compression Ratio (CR) and Exhaust Back Pressure (EBP) has also been investigated. The knock mitigating qualities of Deep Miller have been assessed, and its ability to increase maximum engine load explored. Low Speed Pre-ignition (LSPI) and autoignition tendencies with reduced coolant flow rates and with aged and new fuels have also been studied. This study comprises both experimental and analytical studies. A Ricardo Hydra single cylinder thermodynamic engine was developed and used for the experimental component of the study. This engine features a high specific power output (120kW/l) cylinder head from the Mahle 1.2l 3 cylinder aggressively downsized engine. The analytical component was carried out using a 1-dimensional GT-Power model based on the Ricardo Hydra experimental engine. A Design of Experiments (DoE) based test plan was adopted for this analytical study. The experimental study found that EIVC was the optimal strategy for improving fuel economy at both part-load and high-load conditions. LIVC yielded a fuel economy penalty at part-load operations and a fuel economy improvement at high-loads. The unexpected part-load LIVC result was attributed to the engine breathing dynamics of the experimental engine. The analytical study found moderate LIVC to be the optimal strategy at lower speeds, unless compensation for the increased degree of scavenging experienced with EIVC was compensated for, in which case EIVC was optimum. At higher speeds EIVC was found to be optimum regardless of whether or not compensation for scavenging was employed. It was generally found that less sensitivity to EBP was exhibited the more extreme the EIVC and LIVC. It was also found that a higher geometric CR could be tolerated with extreme EIVC and LIVC, and a fuel economy benefit could be obtained through the elevation of Geometric CR.

Anthropogenic changes to forests, agriculture and hydrology are being driven by a need to provide water, food and shelter to more than six billion people. Unfortunately, these changes have a major impact on hydrology, biodiversity, climate, socio-economic stability and food security. The most pervasive form of land-cover change in South Africa is human settlement expansion. In many cases, new human settlements and settlement expansion are informal and occur in areas that are typically covered by natural vegetation. Settlements are infrequently mapped on an ad-hoc basis in South Africa which makes information on when and where new settlements form very difficult. Determining where and when new informal settlements occur is beneficial from not only an ecological but also a social development standpoint. The objective of this thesis is to make use of coarse resolution satellite data to infer the location of new settlement developments in an automated manner by making use of machine learning methods. The specific sensor that is considered in this thesis is the MODIS sensor on-board the Terra and Aqua satellites. By using samples taken at regular intervals (8 days), a hyper-temporal time-series is constructed and consequently used to detect new human settlement formations in South Africa. Two change detection methods are proposed in this thesis to achieve the goal of automated new settlement development detection using this high-temporal coarse resolution satellite time-series data. / Thesis (PhD(Eng))--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

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Subject of the thesis is "The expansion of the company Partners to the Romanian market." It analyses each step of this financial advisory firm that it took while preparing the expansion abroad. The thesis consists of four chapters: the first summarises the theory concerning the expansion abroad and the composition of the entrepreneurial plan of expansion. The second chapter analyses the romanian market. It includes both macro- and micro-analysis specializing on the sector of financial services. The analyses PEST follows. The third chapter states basic information about the company Partners For Life Planning, including economic results and the composition of product portfolio. Last chapter looks at each practical step that the company had to deal with while getting ready for the expansion: choice of legal form, budget and the composition of entrepreneurial plan. The thesis is suppose to serve as both theoretical and practical guide to the expansion of a Czech company to an eastern European market.

The theses analyses the expansion of the german company meridian Neue Energien GmbH to the Czech market. The goal of this theses is to analyse the possibility of the company to suceed on the Czech market. This theses consists of five chapters, where the first, theoretical, explains the basic terms and the legislation. The second chapter is focused on the company, mainly on the entrance of the company on the czech market. The third chapter analyses the market, especially its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and threats of the czech market. The fourth chapter analyses the competition on the market and company's marketing mix. The last, fifth, chapter is focused on the concrete future of the company on the Czech market. In the conclusion are summarized the outcomes of the analyses and assessed the chances of the company.

This diploma thesis considers the possibility for Ukrainian manufacturing company entry into the Czech market. The diploma thesis aim is to analyze the possibility for the Ukrainian company entry to the Czech Republic and to choose an optimal form of an entrance. And on the basis of these results to offer the standardized method for the entry of the Ukrainian company into the European market. For achievement of the diploma thesis aim the most used methods are analysis, synthesis and comparison. Main analytical tools are Porter's five forces analysis and PEST analysis. Approach to the choice of the best form for an expansion to foreign markets can be used by the companies in case of making decision on geographical diversification of its zone of sale.