The diploma thesis explores the meaning of business analyst role in IT. What possible influence this role has on successfulness of IT projects and how companies could effectively educate such an employee using optimized framework of their internal processes. Suggested process framework for business analysts' development involves five areas of company's life: company culture, education, knowledge management, practical application of gained experience and last but not least - the recruitment process. Processes of these areas affect each other and together create integrated system, which allows for effective education of business analysts. Process framework enables complex approach to employees development and effectively links human resources development strategy and company's global strategy.

The need for licensed teachers and specialists in the area of moderate to severe disabilities has been a point of concern for the past two decades; however, technology is increasingly being used to deliver instruction and assist in providing supervision and consulting for students in need of certification in diverse fields through synchronous online learning environments (Luna & Medina, 2007; Spooner & Wood, 2006). The use of these technologies, such as video and web conferencing, are an increasingly popular and viable option for educators and teacher candidates living in rural locations or that have schedules that may not allow for travel to on-campus meetings. In response to this need, the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Early Childhood, Special Education, & Rehabilitation Counseling, has been delivering instruction through satellite, interactive video, and web-based course management systems for 30 years. This chapter describes how UK has increased their capacity to serve students by using distance education technologies not only for course delivery, but practicum supervision as well (Collins & Baird, 2006).

The current investigation replicated and extended previous research on training of behavior professionals to implement functional assessment and analysis procedures. Specifically, the study extended procedures described by Metras to train board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) to administer two components of the Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analyses (IISCA) by: (1) conducting the study in the context of a large residential/training facility for adults with ID, (2) including a participant who served as a behavior analyst for a caseload of individuals who lived and received services at the facility, and (3) adjusting the vignettes and interview scripts to reflect the change in context. This current study shows that, following a brief training sequence, the participant was able to accurately administer the open-ended interview and construct a synthesized test and control condition.

Defining ambiguity as investor's uncertainty about the precision of the observed information, Chapter One constructs an empirical measure of ambiguity based on analysts' earnings forecast information, and finds that the market tends to react more negatively to highly ambiguous bad news, while it tends to be less responsive to highly ambiguous good news. This result supports the theoretical argument of Epstein and Schneider (2003, 2008) that ambiguity-averse investors take a worst-case assessment of the information precision, when they are uncertain about the information precision. In addition, Chapter One shows that returns on stocks exposed to highly ambiguous and intangible information are more negatively skewed. Chapter Two finds that certain traders are informed about either the forthcoming analysts' forecasts or long-term value of the stock, and informed traders prefer to use medium-size trades to exploit their private information advantage. Specifically, medium-size trade imbalance prior to the forecast announcements is positively correlated with the nature of forecast revisions, while in the days immediately after the forecasts medium-size trade imbalance is positively correlated with future stock returns for up to four months. Small-size trade imbalance is also positively correlated with future returns but only following downward revisions. In contrast, it is also shown that large trades placed right after the forecasts are unprofitable and generate slightly negative profits in the long run. Overall, our results are consistent with the "stealth trading hypothesis" proposed by Barclay and Warner (1993).

Pedestrian walking and choice behavior presented was first studied by Fruin in 1971, and since then a lot of research have been carried out in order to understand how humans move and what does make them make choices and obtain certain patterns. In relation to pedestrians, a significant bottleneck inside public stations evaluated by research are the level-change facilities, as Stair Walks and Escalators. The aim of this research is studying how pedestrian behave in the vicinity to stairways and escalators, and how does that affect pedestrian choice, speed and acceleration when choosing one of the two facilities. Also, with a need for more data on pedestrian traffic, further data collection is a big requirement to analyze their behavior and use as tools in future measures. At last, how to optimize the movement of pedestrians in relation to level changes, considering the effects of the movements observed. Two case studies were analysed, Stockholm Central Station and Uppsala Central Station.The study compares data collection methods, tracking methods and previous studies to better fit the scope of this research. The data is backed up from previous research and explains which method better fitted the options available. As a result, video data collection was chosen to collect the data, a semi-automatic tracking software called T-analyst was used to extract speed, trajectories and acceleration from the videos, and microsimulation modelling from VISSIM further investigated different design options to optimize the overall performance and improve travel time in the same area. The analysis found out that there was a possibility to increase the overall performance of the location in higher flow levels, where the most significant queues could be seen, since there was the possibility to achieve higher speeds by modifying the width and position of the stair walks, which allow for a smaller queue in both directions.

Expansion of Pinus L. (pinyon) and Juniperus L. (juniper) (P-J) trees into sagebrush (Artemisia L.) steppe communities can lead to negative effects on hydrology, loss of wildlife habitat, and a decrease in desirable understory vegetation. Tree reduction treatments are often implemented to mitigate these negative effects. In order to prioritize and effectively plan these treatments, rapid, accurate, and inexpensive methods are needed to estimate tree canopy cover at the landscape scale. We used object based image analysis (OBIA) software (Feature AnalystTM for ArcMap 10.1®, ENVI Feature Extraction®, and Trimble eCognition Developer 8.2®) to extract tree canopy cover using NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) imagery. We then compared our extractions with ground measured tree canopy cover (crown diameter and line point) on 309 subplots across 44 sites in Utah. Extraction methods did not consistently over- or under-estimate ground measured P-J canopy cover except where tree cover was > 45%. Estimates of tree canopy cover using OBIA techniques were strongly correlated with estimates using the crown diameter method (r = 0.93 for ENVI, 0.91 for Feature Analyst, and 0.92 for eCognition). Tree cover estimates using OBIA techniques had lower correlations with tree cover measurements using the line-point method (r = 0.85 for ENVI, 0.83 for Feature Analyst, and 0.83 for eCognition). Results from this study suggest that OBIA techniques may be used to extract P-J tree canopy cover accurately and inexpensively. All software packages accurately evaluated accurately extracted P-J canopy cover from NAIP imagery when imagery was not blurred and when P-J cover was not mixed with Amelanchier alnifolia (Utah serviceberry) and Quercus gambelii (Gambel's oak), which are shrubs with similar spectral values as P-J.

Levee breaching is the most frequent and dangerous form of levee failure. A levee breach occurs when floodwater breaks through part of the levee creating an opening for water to flood the protected area. According to National Committee on Levee Safety (NCLS), a reasonable upper limit for damage resulting from levee breaching is around $10 billion per year during 1998 and 2007. This number excludes hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 which resulted in economic damages estimated to be more than $200 billion dollar and a loss of more than 1800 lives. In response to these catastrophic failures, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) started to develop the National Levee Database (NLD) on May 2006. The NLD has a critical role in evaluating the safety of the national levee system. It contains information regarding the attributes of the national levee system. The Levee Analyst Data Model was developed by Dr Norm Jones, Jeff Handy and Thomas Griffiths to supplement the NLD. Levee Analyst is a data model and suite of tools for managing levee information in ArcGIS and exporting the information to Google Earth for enhanced visualization. The current Levee Analyst has a concise and expandable structure for managing, archiving and analyzing large amounts of levee seepage and slope stability data. (Thomas 2009). The new set of tools developed in this research extends the ability of the Levee Analyst Data Model to analyze and mange levee breach simulations and store them in the NLD geodatabase. The capabilities and compatibilities with the NLD of the new geoprocessing tools are demonstrated in the case study. The feasibility of using GSSHA model to simulate flooding is also demonstrated in this research.

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本研究主要探討公司設置獨立董監事及其專業性，對於分析師進行公司盈餘預測時是否會產生影響。由於上市櫃審查準則的規範，本研究將樣本分為兩群，第一群樣本為受此準則規範，須強制設置獨立董監事之IPO公司，第二群樣本為不受此準則規範之上市櫃公司，以研究透過獨立董監的設置，是否會對分析師行為產生影響。 研究結果發現，獨立董事的設置有助於降低分析師預測離散度，尤其是具有專業背景之獨立董事，對於降低分析師的預測誤差及預測離散度有顯著影響；在獨立監察人方面，僅具專業背景之獨立監察人對於提升分析師跟隨人數有顯著影響。另外，亦發現受規範公司樣本對於分析師預測行為之影響力明顯大於不受規範公司樣本，本研究推論其原因為國內除了新上市櫃有因應法規之需求而設置獨立董監事外，一般上市櫃公司並無強大誘因促使其設立獨立董監事，造成自願設置之樣本數量過少，而導致其實證結果不顯著。 / This study investigates the effect on the forecasting behavior of analysts through employing independent directors or independent supervisors and their professional background. According to the listed examination criterion of TSEC and OTC, the samples are classified into two groups: companies regulated by the law and non-regulated companies. The empirical results suggest that independent directors contribute to reducing forecasting dispersion of analysts. Furthermore, independent directors who have professional background contribute to reducing forecasting dispersion and forecasting error of analysts. In terms of independent supervisors, only people who have professional background are positively related with analyst following. The results also show that regulated companies have more significant influence on analysts than non-regulated companies do, indicating that in response to the listed examination criterion of TSEC and OTC, regulated companies have to employ independent directors and independent supervisors. On the other hand, there is no motive for non-regulated companies to employ independent directors and independent supervisors, resulting in no significant impact on forecasting behavior of analysts.