Atsižvelgiant į tai, kad siekiant teisingai kvalifikuoti kyšininkavimą, būtina išanalizuoti jo požymius, o iki šiol Lietuvos baudžiamosios teisės literatūroje dažniausiai buvo nagrinėjami tik atskiri šio nusikaltimo požymiai, taip pat tai, kad po 2011 metų BK XXXIII skyriaus pataisų dalis šių minčių nebetinka dabartinei BK redakcijai, šiame magistro baigiamajame darbe, nagrinėjami kvalifikavimo problemų keliantys kyšininkavimo požymių aspektai. Pirmoje dalyje aptariamas šio nusikaltimo reglamentavimas tarptautiniuose ir Europos Sąjungos teisės aktuose, palyginamas juose ir BK įtvirtintų nuostatų suderinamumas. Antroje dalyje nagrinėjami objektyvieji ir subjektyvieji kyšininkavimo požymiai. Aptariamos šios nusikalstamos veikos dalyko, pavojingos veikos, subjekto, kaltės ir kitų požymių sampratos, jų atribojimo tarpusavyje bei kitos problemos, kylančios kvalifikuojant kyšininkavimą. Paskutinėje dalyje nagrinėjami kyšininkavimo atribojimo nuo kitų nusikalstamų veikų valstybės tarnybai ir viešiesiems interesams pagrindai. / In pursuance of right qualification of bribery it is very important to analyse the features of this crime. Till now the majority of Lithuanian authors have examined only particular features of bribery. Also the Criminal Code of Republic of Lithuania changed in 2011 and some their ideas are not topical today. Because of these reasons, in this master work the author investigates the bribery features which raise the problems of qualification of this crime. In the first part of work the regulation of bribery according to international and European Union documents is discussed. Also the provisions of these documents and the Criminal Code of Republic of Lithuania are compared. In the second part the objective and subjective features of bribery are analysed. There is disputed the conceptions of matter, subject, guilt and other features, delimitation of each other and other problems connected with qualification of bribery. In the last part the grounds of delimitation between bribery and other crimes of XXXIII chapter of the Criminal Code of Republic of Lithuania are analysed.

The aim of this study was to identify the strategies used to render the literary dialect in A State of Independence into the Swedish translation. In order to systematically study the translation solutions, a number of ‘coupled pairs’ consisting of source text ‘problems’ and target text ‘solutions’ were extracted from the original text and the translation. The ‘coupled pairs’ were then analysed in order to detect regularities in the translation solutions. The study showed that the major strategy used by the translator was the use of ‘eye-dialect’, i.e. non-standard spellings that simulate non-standard speech. Moreover, some passages in the translation had been standardised, whereas eye-dialectal spellings were found in other passages where the original did not contain any non-standard features. Finally, a comparative count of dialectally marked utterances in both texts was made. The count showed that the dialectal markers were in the majority in the translation, which might indicate that the translator has tried to compensate for the lack of equivalent target language features.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A serra do Tepequém, situada no Município de Amajarí no norte do Estado de Roraima, atraiu um enorme contingente de pessoas no final da década de 30, em virtude de sua riqueza mineral diamantífera, o que promoveu intensa atividade garimpeira. Esta atividade esteve concentrada, sobretudo nas bordas das drenagens, cujas marcas na paisagem são evidenciadas pela retirada da mata ciliar, presença de feições erosivas lineares além do assoreamento dos cursos. Entretanto, apesar das mudanças da paisagem advindas da atividade garimpeira, a serra do Tepequém ostenta um cenário paisagístico que atualmente é muito requisitado para a atividade turística. Essa beleza cênica é atribuída as suas características fisiográficas com destaque para as feições geológicas-geomorfológicas que sustentam e modelam a paisagem local. A crescente atividade turística, praticada de forma desordenada imprime impactos negativos na paisagem e baixo rendimento econômico para a comunidade da serra do Tepequém. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho busca relacionar os aspectos paisagísticos de cunho geológico e geomorfológico da serra do Tepequém e seu potencial para o geoturismo. Visando este entendimento foram realizados os seguintes procedimentos metodológicos: levantamento bibliográfico, cartográfico e de sensores remotos sobre a área de estudo e o segmento geoturístico; aquisição de dados em duas etapas de trabalho de campo (identificação dos pontos geoturísticos, mapeamento de trilhas, entrevistas com ex-garimpeiros) e em gabinete processamento das imagens digitais e análise e correlação dos dados. As mudanças na paisagem em consequência do histórico da atividade garimpeira são evidentes nos igarapés Cabo Sobral e Paiva, os quais exibem extensas áreas aluvionares e perda significativa da mata ciliar. As potencialidades geoturísticas identificadas (morros, mirantes, cachoeiras e cavernas) foram descritas e denominadas conforme suas características geológicas-geomorfológicas e reunidas em um único produto (carta-imagem) constituindo uma fonte de pesquisa de cunho técnico científico. As trilhas apresentaram alto grau de dificuldade, mas a riqueza de feições geológicas-geomorfológicas permitem um aproveitamento turístico com ênfase na temática educativa. Com relação as estratégias de valorização e utilização da serra do Tepequém, estas corroboram para a preservação e ao mesmo tempo proporciona o desenvolvimento da vila Tepequém, por agregar valor e selecionar o público interessado no viés geoturístico. Portanto, a serra do Tepequém resguarda uma geodiversidade que pode ser utilizada e preservada por meio da atividade geoturística. / The mountain Tepequém, located in the Municipality of Amajari in northern Roraima state, attracted a huge number of people in their late 30s, because of its mineral wealth diamond, which promoted intense mining activity. This activity was concentrated mainly on the edges of drainages, whose marks in the landscape are evidenced by the removal of riparian vegetation, presence of linear erosional features beyond the silting of courses. However, despite the changes of the landscape resulting from mining activity, the mountain Tepequém display a landscaped setting that is currently much in demand for tourism. This scenic beauty is attributed to its physiographic characteristics with emphasis on geomorphologicalgeological features that support and shape the local landscape. The growing tourist activity, practiced in a disorderly mode prints negative impacts on the landscape and low economic return to the community of the Tepequém mountain. In this context, this paper aims to relate the landscape aspects of geological and geomorphological nature of the Tepequém mountain and its potential for geotourism. Aiming this understanding were performed the following methodological procedures: bibliographical survey, mapping and remote sensing on the study area and the geotouristc segment, data acquisition in two stages of fieldwork (Identification of points, mapping trails, interviews with former miners) and in office processing of digital images and analysis and correlation of data. The landscape changes as a result of historic mining activity are evident in streams Cabo Sobral and Paiva, which exhibit extensive alluvial areas and significant loss of riparian vegetation. The potential geoturistc identified (hills, lookouts, waterfalls and caves) have been described and named as its geologicalgeomorphological aspects and combined in a single product (image map) are a key source of research stamp scientific - technical. The tracks showed a high degree of difficulty, but the wealth of geologic-geomorphological, allow a tourist use with emphasis on educational theme. Regarding strategies for appreciation and utilization of Tepequém mountain, they corroborate the preservation while providing the development of the Tepequém village, by adding value and select the interested public in geoturist bias. Therefore, the Tepequém mountain has a geodiversity that can be used and preserved through activity geoturistc.

L’exploitation de données radiographiques, en particulier pour la reconstruction 3D du rachis de patients scoliotiques, est un prérequis à la modélisation personnalisée. Les méthodes actuelles, bien qu’assez robustes pour la routine clinique, reposent sur des ajustements manuels fastidieux. Dans ce contexte, ce travail de thèse vise à la détection automatisée de points anatomiques spécifiques des vertèbres, permettant ainsi des ajustements automatisés. Nous avons développé premièrement une méthode originale de localisation de coins de vertèbres cervicales et lombaires sur les radiographies sagittales. L’évaluation rigoureuse de cette méthode suggère sa robustesse et sa précision. Nous avons ensuite développé un algorithme pour le problème pertinent cliniquement de localisation des pédicules sur les radiographies coronales. Cet algorithme se compare favorablement aux méthodes similaires dans la littérature, qui nécessitent une saisie manuelle. Enfin, nous avons soulevé les problèmes, relativement peu étudiés, de détection, identification et segmentation des apophyses épineuses du rachis cervical dans les radiographies sagittales. Toutes les tâches mentionnées ont été réalisées grâce à une combinaison originale de descripteurs visuels et une classification multi-classe par Random Forest, menant à une nouvelle et puissante approche de localisation et de segmentation. Les méthodes proposées dans cette thèse suggèrent un grand potentiel pour être intégré à la reconstruction 3D du rachis, utilisée quotidiennement en routine clinique. / Exploitation of spine radiographs, in particular for 3D spine shape reconstruction of scoliotic patients, is a prerequisite for personalized modelling. Current methods, even though robust enough to be used in clinical routine, still rely on tedious manual adjustments. In this context, this PhD thesis aims toward automated detection of specific vertebrae landmarks in spine radiographs, enabling automated adjustments. In the first part, we developed an original Random Forest based framework for vertebrae corner localization that was applied on sagittal radiographs of both cervical and lumbar spine regions. A rigorous evaluation of the method confirms robustness and high accuracy of the proposed method. In the second part, we developed an algorithm for the clinically-important task of pedicle localization in the thoracolumbar region on frontal radiographs. The proposed algorithm compares favourably to similar methods from the literature while relying on less manual supervision. The last part of this PhD tackled the scarcely-studied task of joint detection, identification and segmentation of spinous processes of cervical vertebrae in sagittal radiographs, with again high precision performance. All three algorithmic solutions were designed around a generic framework exploiting dedicated visual feature descriptors and multi-class Random Forest classifiers, proposing a novel solution with computational and manual supervision burdens aiming for translation into clinical use. Overall, the presented frameworks suggest a great potential of being integrated in current spine 3D reconstruction frameworks that are used in daily clinical routine.

L’infection par le virus du Chikungunya est devenu en quelques années un problème de santé publique. D’abord limitée dans les régions tropicales et subtropicales, la diffusion mondiale du vecteur de l’infection couplée à la migration humaine et aux adaptations du virus contribue à la survenue de phénomènes épidémiques fréquents et touchant de nombreux territoires jusqu’aux pays tempérés. Dans les prochaines décades, la population des 65 ans ou plus sera probablement largement impactée lors des épidémies. Les conséquences de la maladie dans cette population est méconnu du fait de l’absence de données d’observation disponibles. Or, les spécificités de cette population sont connues (risque de comorbidité associée, immunosenescence, modifications physiologiques affectant le système rénal, cardiaque, pulmonaire…) et influencent fortement son mode de réponse et sa capacité à supporter un épisode infectieux. A travers l’observation et le suivi de la cohorte ChikOld constituée de 687 sujets âgés de 65 ans ou plus ayant contracté ou non la maladie en 2014, nous avons mis en évidence que les outils d’aide au diagnostic élaborés dans une population d’adultes jeunes avaient des performances médiocres dans la population âgée. Nous avons également pu mettre en évidence que les tableaux cliniques habituellement décrits de la maladie ne sont pas ceux observés le plus fréquemment dans une population de sujets de 65 ans ou plus. Ces observations ont abouti à l’élaboration un outil d’aide au diagnostic (score) spécifique à cette population. De nombreuses questions subsistent concernant cette infection, notamment sur les conséquences à moyen et long terme, sachant les conséquences en phase aiguë et l’existence de formes chroniques. Une étude préliminaire que nous avons conduit suggère l’absence de surmortalité à moyen terme (un an) et la majoration de la dépendance dans les suites d’une infection par le virus du Chikungunya. D’autres travaux seront nécessaires pour caractériser la forme habituelle de la maladie chez les sujets âgés ainsi que pour mieux appréhender les conséquences à moyen et long terme concernant la mortalité et la dépendance. / Chikungunya virus infection is an emergent arthropod-borne alpha-virus transmitted by mosquito bites, and causes fever with debilitating arthritic illness. Chikungunya virus infection is still considered as an emerging public health problem in both tropical and temperate regions. The presence of favourable conditions in temperate regions has enabled propagation of the vector, leading to the emergence of the first autochthonous cases of CHIKV in Europe and the USA. Older people may be particularly concerned about infection during an outbreak. CVhikungunya virus infection prevalence rates are not fully known, and vary from 18% to 48% The use of predictive scores would thus be very helpful in this situation. We have showed that predictive scores developed in young population have poor diagnostic performances in elderly population. In fact, the populations described in observational studies of chikungunya virus infection were predominantly young subjects. Clinical and epidemiological data in older subjects (aged 65 and over) are sparse. The mortality and morbidity related to infection in elderly people is poorly documented. We showed that the usual clinical expression of CHIKV infection is different in elderly subjects (absence of fever, arthralgia or both). We have developed and validated a new Chikungunya virus infection screening score specifically for use in the aged population.Some questions remain, in particular concerning mid- or long-term consequences of infection in elderly people. In a preliminary study, we have showed that the mid-term mortality rate of aged people infected by Chikungunya was lower than that of uninfected aged people.We need to continue our work on this thematic to explore more precisely the consequences of chikungunya virus infection in elderly people (mid- and long-term mortality, loss of autonomy, chronic form…).

Le cancer du sein est le type de cancer le plus répandu, il est la cause principale de mortalité chez les femmes aussi bien dans les pays occidentaux que dans les pays en voie de développement. L'imagerie médicale joue un rôle clef dans la réduction de la mortalité du cancer du sein, en facilitant sa première détection par le dépistage, le diagnostic et la biopsie guidée. Bien que la Mammographie Numérique (DM) reste la référence pour les méthodes d'examen existantes, les échographies ont prouvé leur place en tant que modalité complémentaire. Les images de cette dernière fournissent des informations permettant de différencier le caratère bénin ou malin des lésions solides, ce qui ne peut être détecté par DM. Malgré leur utilité clinique, les images échographiques sont bruitées, ce qui compromet les diagnostiques des radiologues à partir de celles ci. C'est pourquoi un des objectifs premiers des chercheurs en imagerie médicale est d'améliorer la qualité des images et des méthodologies afin de simplifier et de systématiser la lecture et l'interprétation de ces images.La méthode proposée considère le processus de segmentation comme la minimisation d'une structure probabilistique multi-label utilisant un algorithme de minimisation du Max-Flow/Min-Cut pour associer le label adéquat parmi un ensemble de labels figurant des types de tissus, et ce, pour tout les pixels de l'image.Cette dernière est divisée en régions adjacentes afin que tous les pixels d'une même régions soient labelisés de la même manière en fin du processus. Des modèles stochastiques pour la labellisation sont crées à partir d'une base d'apprentissage de données. / Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer being the leading cause of cancer death among females both in western and in economically developing countries. Medical imaging is key for early detection, diagnosis and treatment follow-up. Despite Digital Mammography (DM) remains the reference imaging modality, Ultra-Sound (US) imaging has proven to be a successful adjunct image modality for breast cancer screening, specially as a consequence of the discriminative capabilities that US offers for differentiating between solid lesions that are benign or malignant. Despite US usability,US suffers inconveniences due to its natural noise that compromises the diagnosis capabilities of radiologists. Therefore the research interest in providing radiologists with Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) tools to assist the doctors during decision taking. This thesis analyzes the current strategies to segment breast lesions in US data in order to infer meaningful information to be feet to CAD, and proposes a fully automatic methodology for generating accurate segmentations of breast lesions in US data with low false positive rates.

With the development of autonomous driving technology, vehicle trajectory prediction has become a hot topic in the intelligent traffic area. However, complex road conditions may bring multiple challenges to the vehicle trajectory prediction model. To address this, most recent studies mainly focus on designing different neural network structures to learn vehicles’ dynamics and interaction features for better prediction. In this thesis we restrict our research scope to highway scenarios. Based on the experimental comparison among Vanilla Recurrent Neural Network (Vanilla RNN), Vanilla Long short-term memory (Vanilla LSTM), and Vanilla-Transformer, we find the best configuration of the Dynamics-Only encoder module and utilize it to design a novel model called the LSTM-Attention model for vehicle trajectory prediction. The objective of our design is to explore whether the Self-Attention mechanism based encoder outperforms the pooling mechanism based encoder utilized in most current baseline models. The experiment results on the interaction encoder module show that the Self- Attention mechanism based encoder with 8 heads outperforms the pooling mechanism based encoder for the longer prediction horizons. To test the robustness of our LSTM-Attention model, we also compare the prediction performance between using Maneuver-Based decoder and using Maneuver-Free decoder, respectively. According to the experiment results, we find the Maneuver-Based decoder performs better on the heavily unbalanced Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) dataset. Finally, to explore other latent interaction features our LSTM-Attention model might fuse, we analyze the Graph-Based encoder and the Polar-Based encoder, respectively. Based on this, we find more meaningful designs that could be exploited in our future work. / Med utvecklingen av självkörande fordon har förmågan att förutsäga fordonsbanan blivit ett attraktivt ämne inom intelligenta trafiksystem. Däremot kan komplexa vägförhållanden medföra flera utmaningar för modellering av fordonets bana. För att ta itu med detta fokuserar de senaste studierna huvudsakligen på att designa olika neurala nätverksstrukturer för att lära sig fordons dynamiker och interaktioner för bättre kunna förutsäga resebanan. I denna avhandling begränsar vi vårt forskningsområde till motorvägsscenarier. Baserat på den experimentella jamförelsen mellan Vanilla Recurrent Neural Network (Vanilla RNN), Vanilla Long-korttidsminne (Vanilla LSTM) och Vanilla-Transformer, hittar vi den bästa konfigurationen av Dynamic-Only kodningsmodulen och använder den för att designa en enkel modell som vi kallar LSTM- Attention-modellen för förutsägelse av fordonets resebana. Målet med vår design är att undersöka om den Self-Attention-baserade kodaren överträffar den pooling-baserade kodaren som används i de flesta nuvarande basmodeller. Experimentens resultat på interaktionskodarmodulen visar att Self-Attention kodaren med 8 huvuden överträffar den poolning baserade kodaren när de gäller längre fönster av förutsägelser. För att testa robustheten hos vår LSTM-Attention-modell, jämför vi också prestandan mellan att använda manöverbaserad avkodare respektive att använda manöverfri avkodare. Enligt experimentens resultat finner vi att den manöverbaserade avkodaren presterar bättre på den kraftigt obalanserade Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) datamängden. Slutligen, för att utforska andra möjliga egenskaper som vår LSTM-Attention-modell kan utnytja, analyserar vi den grafbaserade kodaren respektive den polbaserade kodaren. Baserat på detta så hittar vi mer meningsfulla mönster som skulle kunna utnyttjas i framtida arbeten.

Semantic interoperability (SI) of a product model refers to automatic exchange of meaning associated with the product data, among applications/domains throughout the product development cycle. In the product development cycle, several applications (engineering design, industrial design, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, maintenance etc.) and different engineering domains (mechanical, electrical, electronic etc.) come into play making the ability to exchange product data with semantics very significant. With product development happening in multiple locations with multiple tools/systems, SI between these systems/domains becomes important. The thesis presents a feature-based framework for shape model to address these SI issues when exchanging shape models. Problem of exchanging semantics associated with shape model to support the product lifecycle has been identified and explained. Different types of semantic interoperability issues pertaining to the shape model have been identified and classified. Features in a shape model can be associated with volume addition/subtraction to/from base-solid, deformation/modification of base-sheet/base surface, forming of material of constant thickness. The DIFF model has been extended to represent, classify and extract Free-Form Surface Features (FFSFs) and deformation features in a part model. FFSFs refer to features that modify a free-form surface. Deformation features are created in constant thickness part models, for example, deformation of material (as in sheet-metal parts) or forming of material (as in injection molded parts with constant thickness), also referred to as constant thickness features. Volumetric features covered in the DIFF model have been extended to classify and represent volumetric features based on relative variations of cross-section and PathCurve. Shape feature ontology is described based on unified feature taxonomy with definitions and labels of features as defined in the extended DIFF model. Features definitions are used as intermediate and unambiguous representation for shape features. The feature ontology is used to capture semantics of shape features. The proposed ontology enables reasoning to handle semantic equivalences between feature labels, and is used to map shape features from a source to target applications. Reasoning framework for identification of semantically equivalent feature labels and representations for the feature being exchanged across multiple applications is presented and discussed. This reasoning framework is used to associate multiple construction paths for a feature and associate applicable meanings from the ontology. Interface is provided to select feature label for a target application from the list of labels which are semantically equivalent for the feature being exchanged/mapped. Parameters for the selected feature label can be mapped from the DIFF representation; the feature can then be represented/constructed in the target application using the feature label and mapped parameters. This work shows that product model with feature information (feature labels and representations), as understood by the target application, can be exchanged and maintained in such a way that multiple applications can use the product information as their understandable labels and representations. Finally, the thesis concludes by summarizing the main contributions and outlining the scope for future work.

With the growth of computer power, Digital Image Processing plays a more and more important role in the modern world, including the field of industry, medical, communications, spaceflight technology etc. There is no clear definition how to divide the digital image processing, but normally, digital image processing includes three main steps: low-level, mid-level and highlevel processing. Low-level processing involves primitive operations, such as: image preprocessing to reduce the noise, contrast enhancement, and image sharpening. Mid-level processing on images involves tasks such as segmentation (partitioning an image into regions or objects), description of those objects to reduce them to a form suitable for computer processing, and classification (recognition) of individual objects. Finally, higher-level processing involves "making sense" of an ensemble of recognised objects, as in image analysis. Based on the theory just described in the last paragraph, this thesis is organised in three parts: Colour Edge and Face Detection; Hand motion detection; Hand Gesture Detection and Medical Image Processing. II In Colour Edge Detection, two new images G-image and R-image are built through colour space transform, after that, the two edges extracted from G-image and R-image respectively are combined to obtain the final new edge. In Face Detection, a skin model is built first, then the boundary condition of this skin model can be extracted to cover almost all of the skin pixels. After skin detection, the knowledge about size, size ratio, locations of ears and mouth is used to recognise the face in the skin regions. In Hand Motion Detection, frame differe is compared with an automatically chosen threshold in order to identify the moving object. For some special situations, with slow or smooth object motion, the background modelling and frame differencing are combined in order to improve the performance. In Hand Gesture Recognition, 3 features of every testing image are input to Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and then the Expectation Maximization algorithm (EM)is used to compare the GMM from testing images and GMM from training images in order to classify the results. In Medical Image Processing (mammograms), the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and clustering rule are applied to choose the feature. Two classifier, ANN and Support Vector Machine (SVM), have been applied to classify the results, in this processing, the balance learning theory and optimized decision has been developed are applied to improve the performance.

The study aims to investigate the fundamental validity issues that can affect the DR Congo English state examination, a national exit test administered to high school final year students for certification. The study aspires to generate an understanding of the potential issues that affect the construct validity of a test within the epistemological stance that supports a strong relationship between test construct and test context. The study draws its theoretical underpinning from three theories: the validity theory that provides a theoretical ground necessary for understanding the quality of tests needed for assessing students’ reading abilities / the construction-integration theory that provides an understanding of how texts used in reading assessments are processed and understood by the examinees / and the strategic competence theory that explains how examinees deploy strategies to complete test tasks, and the extent to which these strategies tap into the reading construct. Furthermore, the study proposes a reading model that signposts the social context of testing / therefore, conceptualizing reading as both a cognitive and a social process. As research design, the study adopts an exploratory design using both qualitative and quantitative data. Besides, the study uses protocol analysis and content analysis methodologies. While the former provides an understanding of the cognitive processes that mediate the reading construct and test performance so as to explore the different strategies examinees use to answer the English state examination (henceforth termed ESE) test questions, the latter examines the content of the different ESE papers so as to identify the different textual and item features that potentially impact on examinees’ performance on the ESE tasks. As instruments, the study uses a concurrent strategies questionnaire administered to 496 student-participants, a contextual questionnaire administered to 26 student-participants, a contextual questionnaire administered to 27 teacher-articipants, and eight tests administered to 496 student-participants. The findings indicate that, the ESE appears to be less appropriate to the ESE context as the majority of ESE test items target careful reading than expeditious reading / on the one hand, and reading at global level than to reading at local level / on the other hand. The findings also indicate that the ESE tasks hardly take account of the text structure and the underlined cognitive demands appropriate to the text types. Besides, the ESE fails to include other critical aspects of the reading construct. Finally, the findings also indicate that the ESE constructors may not be capable to construct an ESE with five functioning distractors as expected. Moreover, the inclusion of the implicit option 6 overlaps with the conceptual meaning of this option. The entire process of the present study has generated some insights that can advance our understanding of the construct validity of reading tests. These insights are: (a) the concept of validity is an evolving and context-dependent concept, (b) reading construct cannot be examined outside the actual context of reading activity, (c) elimination of distractors can sometimes be a construct-relevant strategy, (d) construct underrepresentation is a context-dependent concept, and (e) a reading test cannot be valid in all contexts. The suggested proposal for the improvement of the ESE requires the Congolese government through its Department of Education to (a) always conduct validation studies to justify the use of the ESE, (b) always consider the actual context of reading activity while developing the ESE, (c) revisit the meanings and interpretations of the ESE scores, (d) ensure the appropriateness of tasks to be included in the ESE, (e) ensure the construct representativeness of the ESE tasks, (f) revisit the number of questions to be included in the ESE, (g) avoid bias in the ESE texts in order to ensure fairness, (h) diversify the genres of ESE texts, (i) ensure the coherence of ESE texts through the use of transitions and cohesive devices, (j) ensure that the order of test questions is in alignment with the order of text information, (k) revisit the structure and length of the texts to be included in the ESE, (l) revisit the number of alternatives to be included in the ESE, and (m) reconsider the use of the implicit alternative 6.