No description available.

Marfan Syndrome leads to the weakening of the thoracic aorta and ultimate rupture causing death of the patient. Current monitoring method involves measuring the diameter of the aorta near the heart. Our approach is to develop a new technology that will provide clinicians the ability to evaluate the size, shape and motion of the entire thoracic aorta using four-dimensional cardiac MRI. This project alters the existing research algorithms to provides an integrated application for processing the images and provides novel measurements about the aorta from a data set of 32 normal subjects and 38 patients with serial scans.

Tait showed in 1878 that the Four Color Theorem is equivalent to being able to three-color the edges of any planar, three-regular, two-edge connected graph. Not surprisingly, this equivalent problem proved to be equally difficult. We consider the problem of fractional colorings, which resemble ordinary colorings but allow for some degree of cheating. Happily, it is known that every planar three-regular, two-edge connected graph is fractionally three-edge colorable. Is there an analogue to Tait’s Theorem which would allow us to derive the Fractional Four Color Theorem from this edge-coloring result?

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what ideas there are about the future role of the public libraries in society, what challenges the public libraries may face and how the public libraries will continue to be a place to meet. The future of the public libraries has been, and still is, a discussed topic and many believe that public libraries have an obvious place in society. The thesis focuses on library plans from the ten largest municipalities in Sweden. The theory used to analyze the source material in the study is The Four Space Model made by Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Dorte Skot‐Hansen. This model consists of four “spaces”, learning, meeting, inspiration and performative space that represents different aspects of how to manage a library, these spaces were more or less represented in the library plans. The results of the thesis showed that the library is a popular meeting place and that the public library has an important role, as an institution, to play in the society. Results also showed that cooperation between the libraries in the same municipality, but also cooperation with public libraries in other municipalities is important for the future.

ABSTRACT Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY Mary E. Phillips The following project submitted for the Master of City and Regional Planning Professional Project is the Downtown Revitalization Strategy Report for Glenrock, WY completed November 25, 2009. At the onset of the project, the Town of Glenrock, WY was recognized as an Aspiring Main Street Community, and sought guidance to become a Certified Main Street Community. This Strategy Report was prepared to provide an implementation plan for revitalization of the downtown following the Main Street Approach, as well as for achievement of a Certified Main Street Community status by the year 2014. The project included an interactive process, directly involving key representatives and stakeholders in the community. This included a public workshop and on-site strategy sessions with Town staff and the Glenrock Downtown Development Committee. The Strategy Report includes a basic assessment of existing conditions in downtown Glenrock based on information gathered at these meetings. From this initial assessment, issues, goals and objectives for downtown were identified. An overall strategy was then developed, in accordance with the Main Street Approach, which outlines the plan of action for the downtown revitalization and Main Street certification. The implementation section of the plan then takes the identified actions and prioritizes them based on a 5-year implementation schedule. The development and prioritization of these actions was based on the following factors: Requirements for the Wyoming Main Street Community certification status Community goals for development in the downtown Feasibility of implementation of plan components Access to resources (of all types) for implementation Players in the implementation of the plan The result of this methodology was a plan that addressed the community’s needs, with an implementation program specifically tailored for the community’s available resources.

No description available.

Participants for this study were 56 four-year-old children and their parents. All children were enrolled or on a waiting list to be enrolled in a preschool program in the Cache Valley area. A parent questionnaire and environmental assessment were utilized to determine whether a) the physical environment, b) behaviors of parents, and c) birth order of children is related to development of print awareness as measured by a print awareness test. A variety of statistical analyses was used to explore relationships among the above variables. Major findings suggest that the behaviors that reflect parents' attitudes regarding literacy are most important in the development of their children's print awareness. Fathers' use of the library and mothers' education are significantly related to their children's performance on the print Awareness Test. The amount of time that children spend watching videos is also significantly correlated to their print Awareness Test scores. Significant differences were found in what mothers and fathers do to prepare their children for reading, with mothers taking a more active role in reading to the children and teaching them literacy skills. Other notable findings suggest that the reading pleasure of each parent is important to their children's enjoyment in being read to and to creating positive feelings about reading. Parents tend to predict that their children will learn to read at about the same ages as they themselves learned to read.

Since the late seventies, the violence, speed and spectacle associated with the genres of war films, Westerns and the spectacular melodramas of early cinema have developed into a distinct genre of its own – the action film. With the development of the stylistic language at the core of this generic universe came derogatory generalisations and a tendency to categorise simplistically. To overcome these simplifications, this thesis explores the shifts in generic language to distinguish its subtleties and complexities of logic. Overwhelmingly the genre is considered masculine, but the purpose of this thesis is to explore the logic of this masculinity and analyse the effect of the feminine upon it. Beginning with overviews of the theoretical attempts to grasp the concept of genre that focus primarily on the limitations of the view of their having distinct boundaries, the theory that genre theory has failed is investigated. Leaving this view of boundaries through an exploration of symbolic universes that have translucent boundaries, the filmic movement of genre passes back and forth through the theoretical frameworks. The intention is not to analyse the overall concept of genre, but to focus on the symbolic universe and the language intrinsic to action films. The rules of action cannot be simply transposed onto other generic categories but stand-alone. Genre theory does not fail if approached from a perspective of discourse analysis focusing on the development of symbolic universes. Using Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, and focusing primarily on the oppositions of the Master’s and the Analyst’s discourse, the question moves from the listing of conventions as the markers of the boundaries of genre, to exploring why the combination of certain conventions and signifiers coming together created the genre. Through Lacanian discourse analysis it becomes apparent that the generally acknowledged logic of masculine and feminine are limited. The masculine is the ‘norm’ that appears to need no explanation, but the feminine has transgressed the norm and shown the construction of fantasy inherent in the genre. This has led to post-action films that are ambiguous both in their generic structure and symbolic language.

<p>Under år 2007 började ekonomin vända från hög till lågkonjunktur, senare fick denna lågkonjunktur namnet finanskrisen. När konjunkturen vänder neråt påverkas de allra flesta i samhället på något plan, företags vinster kan blir lägre och arbetslösheten ökar.</p><p> </p><p>Denna studie undersöker hur revisionsbyråerna i Big Four påverkas i en lågkonjunktur, både hur de påverkas som ekonomisk verksamhet och vad de gör för att vara fortsatt framgångsrika. För att få reda på dessa frågor bygger uppsatsens empiriska studie på kvalitativa intervjuer med tre revisorer, samtliga verksamma i tre olika Big Four byråer i Sverige.</p><p> </p><p>Teoriavsnittet innehåller rapporter från internationella organisationer som studerat hur Big Four påverkas ekonomiskt. Det följs därefter av tre stycken guider från konsulter som ger tips på hur företag ska bli framgångsrika under en lågkonjunktur. Slutligen i teoriavsnittet presenteras forskning om relationsmarknadsföring och kundvärde.</p><p> </p><p>Efter genomförd undersökning har vi kommit fram till att revisionsbyråerna påverkas av konjunkturförändringar. Byråernas omsättning minskar från den starka tillväxten de hade under den tidigare högkonjunkturen. Anledningarna till att omsättningen inte minskar mer drastiskt beror på att revisionsbyråerna arbetar med att erbjuda ett högt kundvärde, vilket i sin tur gör att priset inte blir något konkurrensmedel, förutom i vissa undantagsfall. Byråerna samarbetar även inom sina nätverk med att flytta personal till de kontor med hög efterfrågan, detta för att behålla nuvarande personal och vara väl förberedda när konjunkturen vänder uppåt igen. </p>

<p>In George Orwell's two most famous novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm we find a totalitarian state, and in each case there are strategies that enable these societies to stay totalitarian. The reader of today not only sees the Soviet Union when reading Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, but a large number of other totalitarian societies with similar structures and systems that exist throughout the world. A close reading of the novels shows that the strategies for the leaders in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm to preserve the status quo include the control of media and flow of information, maintaining the class system, controlling education, creating distractions from issues that matter, being able to put the blame on a traitor, and enforcing control of people’s memory. Media is used to make the inhabitants believe that they are better off now than before, so that they will be content with what they have. Traitors and enemies are used to silence resistance and make sure that people stay in line. People’s memory is something that the leaders manipulate, even if it works in different ways in the two stories. In Animal Farm the animals just have a bad memory, and in Nineteen Eighty-Four it might be that the people have lost their ability to think critically and thus their ability to remember. Maintaining the class system and controlling education is to remain in control and minimizing the risks of another uprising. The reason why the Animal Farm becomes totalitarian is because the animals themselves looked the other way as the pigs started to take more than their fair share, which means that the responsibility of this situation is just as much the leaders as it is the peoples. The totalitarian societies in these books remain at status quo, but the message of these novels is that it can be different in real life. If we do not let things get out of hand, and if we keep on being aware of what is happening around us, we can stop this from happening.</p>