<p>A difficult issue in stress management is to use biomedical sensor signal in the diagnosis and treatment of stress. Clinicians often make their diagnosis and decision based on manual inspection of physiological signals such as, ECG, heart rate, finger temperature etc. However, the complexity associated with manual analysis and interpretation of the signals makes it difficult even for experienced clinicians. Today the diagnosis and decision is largely dependent on how experienced the clinician is interpreting the measurements.  A computer-aided decision support system for diagnosis and treatment of stress would enable a more objective and consistent diagnosis and decisions.</p><p>A challenge in the field of medicine is the accuracy of the system, it is essential that the clinician is able to judge the accuracy of the suggested solutions. Case-based reasoning systems for medical applications are increasingly multi-purpose and multi-modal, using a variety of different methods and techniques to meet the challenges of the medical domain. This research work covers the development of an intelligent clinical decision support system for diagnosis, classification and treatment in stress management. The system uses a finger temperature sensor and the variation in the finger temperature is one of the key features in the system. Several artificial intelligence techniques have been investigated to enable a more reliable and efficient diagnosis and treatment of stress such as case-based reasoning, textual information retrieval, rule-based reasoning, and fuzzy logic. Functionalities and the performance of the system have been validated by implementing a research prototype based on close collaboration with an expert in stress. The case base of the implemented system has been initiated with 53 reference cases classified by an experienced clinician. A case study also shows that the system provides results close to a human expert. The experimental results suggest that such a system is valuable both for less experienced clinicians and for experts where the system may function as a second option.</p> / IPOS, PROEK

Thesis (Ph.D. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Kaohsiung area has the excellent geographical position, eliminates has the deep water port which the transportation amount is among the best, also the international airport simultaneously has the shortest average distance with the neighbor country, not only the peripheral region correlation industry foundation is abundant, it really has the potential to develop "the Global Logistic Center" on behalf of Taiwan. But in the pass, Taiwan in both shore policy, the industrial policy, under the correlation law intriguing, creates the Kaohsiung double port area development to be unbalanced, also faces Mainland China and the Southeast Asia area, local city and so on and also South Korean Pusan¡¦s astringently challenge, therefore draining of the Kaohsiung double port competitive ability is becomes inevitably. Therefore, motive of this research, namely emphatically in: Kaohsiung has the sea and air double port condition, analyzes the region industry development and the global logistic tendency of, and establishes Kaohsiung to develop into the Global Logistic Center foundation.

Sedan den 1 januari 2009 begränsas avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter vid internt finansierade förvärv av delägarrätter från ett företag som ingår i samma intressegemenskap. Syftet med lagstiftningen är att förhindra skatteplanering med ränteupplägg. För att bestämmelserna inte skall träffa affärsmässigt bedriven verksamhet medges undantag från begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter om ränteintäkten beskattas med minst 10 procent enligt lagstiftningen i den stat där det företag inom intressegemenskapen som faktiskt har rätt till inkomsten hör hemma eller om såväl förvärvet som skulden som ligger till grund för ränteutgifterna är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverade. Om undantag medges beviljas det företag som betalar ränta avdrag för ränteutgifterna. Författarna anser att utformningen av den undantagsregel som medger avdrag för ränteutgifter om såväl förvärvet som skulden som ligger till grund för ränteutgifterna är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverade är tämligen vag. Uppsatsen syftar därför till att utreda i vilka situationer ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter från ett företag som ingår i samma intressegemenskap kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat för att undantag från lagstiftningen om begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter skall medges. I uppsatsen klargörs att det vid ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter skall ligga sunda företagsekonomiska och affärsmässiga överväganden - utöver eventuella skatteeffekter - bakom den interna skulden och det interna förvärvet. Författarna anser att följande omständigheter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverade. Interna förvärv av delägarrätter vilka föranleds av behovet att undvika intressekonflikter och samarbetsproblem, ge bolagen en självständig ledning och göra dem finansiellt oberoende från varandra, uppnå riskspridning samt att omstrukturera en verksamhet som till sin art och geografiska placering är helt skilda från varandra är exempel på när ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat. Därtill är det vid en förestående extern försäljning av en verksamhetsgren inom koncernen affärsmässigt motiverat att göra ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter. Om anledningen till att ett företag etablerat sig i en lågskattestat är för att detta land har en juridisk, ekonomisk och politiskt stabil situation eller om företaget som mottar räntebetalningen bedriver ekonomisk verksamhet eller om interna förvärv av delägarrätter har förekommit tidigare inom intressegemenskapen, ger dessa omständigheter en indikation på att ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat. Uppsatsen syftar vidare till att utreda huruvida hänsyn tagits till rättssäkerhets- och effektivitetsaspekter vid användandet av begreppet affärsmässigt motiverad i lagstiftningen om begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter. Då varken lagtexten eller förarbetena ger en klar definition av i vilka situationer ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat gör författarna bedömningen att hänsyn inte tagits till rättssäkerhet vid utformandet av den undantagsregel som medger avdrag för ränteutgifter om såväl förvärvet som skulden är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverad. Genom att de skattskyldiga torde ha möjlighet att erhålla förhandsbesked kan dock ledning för fastställande av huruvida interna förvärv av delägarrätter är affärsmässiga bidra till ökad rättssäkerhet. / Since the first of January 2009 the Swedish government limited the deductibility of interest expenses on internally funded acquisition of shares between affiliated parties. The purpose of the legislation is to prohibit tax avoidance schemes with interest. In order for the provisions not to prevent business with sound business reasons the legislation grants exemption if the interest income is taxed at a rate of at least 10 percent, according to the laws of the Statute of the company within the community that actually has the right to the income, or if both the acquisition and the debt that is the basis for the interest expenditure is mainly commercially motivated. The authors believe that the wording of the provision that allows the deduction of interest expenses, if both the acquisition and the debt underlying the interest expenditure are mainly commercially motivated, is rather vague. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to analyze the circumstances under which an internal acquisition of shares from an affiliated company can be considered as a commercially motivated transaction in order to be granted an exemption from the legislation restricting the tax deductibility of interest expenses. To be granted an exemption the affiliated company which request deduction has to show that the internal debt and the acquisition are entered into mainly for sound business purpose in addition to any tax reasons. Acquisition of shares which responds to the need to avoid conflicts of interest and cooperation problems, giving companies an independent management and make them financially independent from each other, achieve diversification and to restructure a business which by their nature or location is distinct from each other, are examples on when an acquisition of shares can be considered as a commercially motivated acquisition of shares. If the reason why a company established itself in a country which has a low tax on interest income is that this country has a legal, financial and politically stable situation, or if the company who receives the interest payment engage in economic activities or the acquisition of shares have occurred earlier, these circumstances indicates that an acquisition is commercially motivated. The aim of the thesis is further to investigate whether account has been taken to legal certainty and efficiency aspects in the use of the term business purpose in the legislation restricting the tax deductibility of interest expenses. Since neither the wording of the provision nor the preparatory work gives a clear definition of the circumstances under which an internal acquisition of shares can be considered as commercially motivated the authors conclude that account has not been taken to legal certainty. Since taxpayers have the opportunity to request a preliminary ruling regarding the determination of whether the acquisition of shares is commercially motivated, the authors conclude that this may contribute to a greater legal certainty.

Cytotoxicity of Multi-Purpose Solutions (MPS) is commonly tested on cells using diluted MPS or extracts from MPS soaked contact lenses. There is evidence that lens type will affect uptake and release of compounds contained in MPS. To assess the cytotoxicity of agents contained in MPS that would be released by contact lens, an in vitro “onlay” model was used, whereby MPS soaked silicone hydrogel lenses were directly set onto a confluent monolayer of corneal cells. Chapter 4 describes the impact of MPS released from contact lenses on immortalized human corneal epithelial cells. MPS-soaked lens interactions with cells were characterized by studying cell viability, cell adhesion and caspase assays. In Chapter 5, mechanisms of cell death induced by exposure to MPS from contact lenses were determined through evaluation of apoptotic markers, such as activation of caspase 3 and 9. In Chapter 6, the impact of the physical properties of silicone hydrogel lenses, specifically surface treatments, on cytotoxicity of MPS were investigated. The development of methods for characterizing the release of MPS from lenses, using absorbance spectra, is also described. The results indicate that exposure to contact lenses soaked in Opti-Free Express (OFX) and ReNu not only induces cell death in vitro, but also has an adverse effect on adhesion phenotype, suggesting that the remaining cells may have a compromised epithelial structure. Borate- buffered MPS were found to be more cytotoxic than phosphate-buffered base solutions. Investigation of the mechanisms of cell death revealed that ReNu and OFX induced corneal epithelial cell death in vitro using different pathways, whereby ReNu induced a necrotic pathway while OFX-induced cell death was mediated by the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. The in vitro model was also able to identify differences between silicone hydrogels with different surface treatments: the different surface treatments and chemistries of silicone hydrogels lens will affect the release profile of MPS and hence their potential cytotoxicity. By investigating the induction of cell death processes by solution-lens combinations in vitro, we aim to prevent potential adverse effects in the cornea, which may ultimately compromise various visual and barrier functions. The findings indicate the wealth of information in vitro cytotoxicity testing can provide when evaluating the toxicological profile of MPS.

Cytotoxicity of Multi-Purpose Solutions (MPS) is commonly tested on cells using diluted MPS or extracts from MPS soaked contact lenses. There is evidence that lens type will affect uptake and release of compounds contained in MPS. To assess the cytotoxicity of agents contained in MPS that would be released by contact lens, an in vitro “onlay” model was used, whereby MPS soaked silicone hydrogel lenses were directly set onto a confluent monolayer of corneal cells. Chapter 4 describes the impact of MPS released from contact lenses on immortalized human corneal epithelial cells. MPS-soaked lens interactions with cells were characterized by studying cell viability, cell adhesion and caspase assays. In Chapter 5, mechanisms of cell death induced by exposure to MPS from contact lenses were determined through evaluation of apoptotic markers, such as activation of caspase 3 and 9. In Chapter 6, the impact of the physical properties of silicone hydrogel lenses, specifically surface treatments, on cytotoxicity of MPS were investigated. The development of methods for characterizing the release of MPS from lenses, using absorbance spectra, is also described. The results indicate that exposure to contact lenses soaked in Opti-Free Express (OFX) and ReNu not only induces cell death in vitro, but also has an adverse effect on adhesion phenotype, suggesting that the remaining cells may have a compromised epithelial structure. Borate- buffered MPS were found to be more cytotoxic than phosphate-buffered base solutions. Investigation of the mechanisms of cell death revealed that ReNu and OFX induced corneal epithelial cell death in vitro using different pathways, whereby ReNu induced a necrotic pathway while OFX-induced cell death was mediated by the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. The in vitro model was also able to identify differences between silicone hydrogels with different surface treatments: the different surface treatments and chemistries of silicone hydrogels lens will affect the release profile of MPS and hence their potential cytotoxicity. By investigating the induction of cell death processes by solution-lens combinations in vitro, we aim to prevent potential adverse effects in the cornea, which may ultimately compromise various visual and barrier functions. The findings indicate the wealth of information in vitro cytotoxicity testing can provide when evaluating the toxicological profile of MPS.

Internet har gett människan helt nya möjligheter och former för att kommunicera. I början var nätet mer ett entydigt redskap, idag talar vi om virtuella gemenskaper och nätkulturer, sociala rum som inte finns fysiskt utan bara i själva kontakten människor emellan. Denna studie undersöker om betydelsefulla och hållbara sociala relationer kan uppstå och utvecklas på nätet, utifrån en teori om att detta är möjligt, och om dessa nätrelationer leder till en förskjutning i nätanvändarens sociala umgänge. Studien bygger på en enkät som gjorts på nätet hösten 2005, besvarad av 208 respondenter i ett självselektivt urval. Enkäten är huvudsakligen kvalitativ, då det är de berättande svaren på de öppna frågorna som till största delen utgör empiri i denna studie. Resultatet är inte representativt för nätanvändare i stort utan enbart som exempel på hur nätanvändare kan använda nätet för social relationsreproduktion. Studiens syfte är ge en förståelse om fenomenet nätvänner, såväl som att ge uppslag till kommande forskning på området nätrelationer. Resultatet visar att betydelsefulla och hållbara sociala relationer kan uppstå och utvecklas på nätet, trots brist på fysiska möten. Nätvänner kan upplevas som mycket betydelsefulla, ge starkt socialt stöd och vara en väg ut ur social isolering för dem som befinner sig i svåra livssituationer. Nätvänner kan också ses som en resurs för praktisk hjälp i vardagslivet. Svaren visar att tiden för umgänge med nätvänner främst tas från fritidsaktiviteter, men även till viss del från tidigare umgänge med familj och vänner. Ungefär en tredjedel av respondenterna har idag mer umgänge med nätvänner än med övriga vänner, jämfört med för tio år sedan. En slutsats i denna studie är att nätet har blivit ett viktigt verktyg för social interaktion. / Net surfers make friends online. This study, by Eva Johansson, shows that the net users who use the net for relational purpose can form meaningful and sustainable social relations with other net users whom they have never met in real life (IRL), and may never meet face to face. 208 net users have answered a survey about social relations on the net. The purpose of this study is to find out if meaningful social relations can develop on the net; and function as a feasibility study for future research in this sphere. Using the net for relational purposes is becoming a growing trend. The answers in this mainly qualitative study gives a hint of what social relations, formed and developed on the net, may mean for the individual. It can mean everything from practical help and finding those with similar interests, to strong social support in difficult life situations. A majority of the respondents are women and many of them are middle aged. They have a considerable skill and experience as net users, and do use the net for their own purposes. About a third of the respondents spend more social time with net friends than IRL-friends today, compared to ten years ago. The time used for social interaction on the net is mainly taken from leisure time but also from time spent with family members and with friends face to face.

The performance gap between processor and memory continues to remain a major performance bottleneck in both application specific and general purpose processors. This thesis strives to ease the above bottleneck by exploiting the characteristics of the application domain to improve the cache organization for two distinct processor architectures: (1) application specific processors for packet forwarding, (2) general purpose processors. Packet forwarding algorithms make use of a trie data structure to determine the forwarding route. We observe that the locality characteristics of the nodes at various levels of such a trie are different. Nodes that are closer to the root node, especially those that are immediate children of the root node (level-one nodes), exhibit higher temporal locality than nodes lower down the trie. Based on this observation we propose a novel Heterogeneously Segmented Cache Architecture (HSCA) that uses separate caches for level-one and lower-level nodes, each with carefully chosen sizes. We also propose a new replacement policy to enhance the performance of HSCA. Performance evaluation indicates that HSCA results in up to 32% reduction in average memory access time over a unified cache that shares the same cache space among all levels of the trie. HSCA also outperforms a previously proposed results cache. The use of a large root branching factor in a forwarding trie forcefully introduces a large number of nodes at level-one. Among these, only nodes that cover prefixes from the routing table are useful while the rest, are superfluous. We find that as many as 75% of the level-one nodes are superfluous. This leads to a skewed distribution of useful nodes among the cache sets of the level-one nodes cache. We propose a novel two-level mapping framework that achieves a better nodes to cache set mapping and hence incurs fewer conflict misses. Two-level mapping first aggregates nodes into Initial Partitions (IPs) using lower order bits and then remaps them from IPs into Refined Partitions (RPs), that form sets, based on some higher order bits. It provides flexibility in placement by allowing each IP to choose a different remap function. We propose three schemes conforming to the framework. A speedup in average memory access time of as much as 16% is gained over HSCA. In general purpose processor architectures, the design objectives of caches at various levels of the hierarchy are different. To ensure low access latencies, L1 caches are small and have low associativities, making them more susceptible to conflict misses. The extent of conflict misses incurred is governed by the placement function and the memory access patterns exhibited by the program. We propose a mechanism to learn the access characteristics of the program at runtime by analyzing the repetitive phases of program. We then make use of the two-level mapping framework to dynamically adapt the placement function. Further, we elegantly incorporate two-level mapping into the cache organization without increasing the cache access latency. Performance evaluation reveals that the proposed adaptive placement mechanism eliminates 32—36% of misses on average over a range of cache sizes. To prevent expensive off-chip accesses, L2 caches are larger and have higher associativities. Hence, the replacement policy plays a significant role in determining L2 cache performance. Further, as the inherent temporal locality in memory accesses is filtered out by the L1 cache, an L2 cache using the widely prevalent LRU replacement policy incurs significantly higher misses than the optimal replacement policy (OPT). We propose to bridge this gap through a novel replacement strategy that mimics the replacement decisions of OPT. The L2 cache is logically divided into two components, a Shepherd Cache (SC) with a simple FIFO replacement and a Main Cache (MC) with an emulation of optimal replacement. The SC plays the dual role of caching lines and shepherding the replacement decisions close to optimal for MC. Our proposed organization can cover 40% of the gap between LRU and OPT, resulting in 7% overall speedup.

No description available.

<p>Sedan den 1 januari 2009 begränsas avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter vid internt finansierade förvärv av delägarrätter från ett företag som ingår i samma intressegemenskap. Syftet med lagstiftningen är att förhindra skatteplanering med ränteupplägg. För att bestämmelserna inte skall träffa affärsmässigt bedriven verksamhet medges undantag från begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter om ränteintäkten beskattas med minst 10 procent enligt lagstiftningen i den stat där det företag inom intressegemenskapen som faktiskt har rätt till inkomsten hör hemma eller om såväl förvärvet som skulden som ligger till grund för ränteutgifterna är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverade. Om undantag medges beviljas det företag som betalar ränta avdrag för ränteutgifterna.</p><p>Författarna anser att utformningen av den undantagsregel som medger avdrag för ränteutgifter om såväl förvärvet som skulden som ligger till grund för ränteutgifterna är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverade är tämligen vag. Uppsatsen syftar därför till att utreda i vilka situationer ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter från ett företag som ingår i samma intressegemenskap kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat för att undantag från lagstiftningen om begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter skall medges.</p><p>I uppsatsen klargörs att det vid ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter skall ligga sunda företagsekonomiska och affärsmässiga överväganden - utöver eventuella skatteeffekter - bakom den interna skulden och det interna förvärvet. Författarna anser att följande omständigheter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverade. Interna förvärv av delägarrätter vilka föranleds av behovet att undvika intressekonflikter och samarbetsproblem, ge bolagen en självständig ledning och göra dem finansiellt oberoende från varandra, uppnå riskspridning samt att omstrukturera en verksamhet som till sin art och geografiska placering är helt skilda från varandra är exempel på när ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat. Därtill är det vid en förestående extern försäljning av en verksamhetsgren inom koncernen affärsmässigt motiverat att göra ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter. Om anledningen till att ett företag etablerat sig i en lågskattestat är för att detta land har en juridisk, ekonomisk och politiskt stabil situation eller om företaget som mottar räntebetalningen bedriver ekonomisk verksamhet eller om interna förvärv av delägarrätter har förekommit tidigare inom intressegemenskapen, ger dessa omständigheter en indikation på att ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat.</p><p>Uppsatsen syftar vidare till att utreda huruvida hänsyn tagits till rättssäkerhets- och effektivitetsaspekter vid användandet av begreppet affärsmässigt motiverad i lagstiftningen om begränsningar i avdragsrätten för ränteutgifter. Då varken lagtexten eller förarbetena ger en klar definition av i vilka situationer ett internt förvärv av delägarrätter kan anses affärsmässigt motiverat gör författarna bedömningen att hänsyn inte tagits till rättssäkerhet vid utformandet av den undantagsregel som medger avdrag för ränteutgifter om såväl förvärvet som skulden är huvudsakligen affärsmässigt motiverad. Genom att de skattskyldiga torde ha möjlighet att erhålla förhandsbesked kan dock ledning för fastställande av huruvida interna förvärv av delägarrätter är affärsmässiga bidra till ökad rättssäkerhet.</p> / <p>Since the first of January 2009 the Swedish government limited the deductibility of interest expenses on internally funded acquisition of shares between affiliated parties. The purpose of the legislation is to prohibit tax avoidance schemes with interest. In order for the provisions not to prevent business with sound business reasons the legislation grants exemption if the interest income is taxed at a rate of at least 10 percent, according to the laws of the Statute of the company within the community that actually has the right to the income, or if both the acquisition and the debt that is the basis for the interest expenditure is mainly commercially motivated.</p><p>The authors believe that the wording of the provision that allows the deduction of interest expenses, if both the acquisition and the debt underlying the interest expenditure are mainly commercially motivated, is rather vague. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to analyze the circumstances under which an internal acquisition of shares from an affiliated company can be considered as a commercially motivated transaction in order to be granted an exemption from the legislation restricting the tax deductibility of interest expenses.</p><p>To be granted an exemption the affiliated company which request deduction has to show that the internal debt and the acquisition are entered into mainly for sound business purpose in addition to any tax reasons. Acquisition of shares which responds to the need to avoid conflicts of interest and cooperation problems, giving companies an independent management and make them financially independent from each other, achieve diversification and to restructure a business which by their nature or location is distinct from each other, are examples on when an acquisition of shares can be considered as a commercially motivated acquisition of shares. If the reason why a company established itself in a country which has a low tax on interest income is that this country has a legal, financial and politically stable situation, or if the company who receives the interest payment engage in economic activities or the acquisition of shares have occurred earlier, these circumstances indicates that an acquisition is commercially motivated.</p><p>The aim of the thesis is further to investigate whether account has been taken to legal certainty and efficiency aspects in the use of the term business purpose in the legislation restricting the tax deductibility of interest expenses. Since neither the wording of the provision nor the preparatory work gives a clear definition of the circumstances under which an internal acquisition of shares can be considered as commercially motivated the authors conclude that account has not been taken to legal certainty. Since taxpayers have the opportunity to request a preliminary ruling regarding the determination of whether the acquisition of shares is commercially motivated, the authors conclude that this may contribute to a greater legal certainty.</p>