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Juvenile sexual offenders and a matched sample of nonoffending youth were compared on the Family Environment Scale (FES), the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES ill), the Adult Adolescent Parent Inventory (AAPI), and a biographical inventory. The purpose was to determine whether or not juvenile sexual offenders and nonoffenders would prove to have different perceptions of family characteristics and whether the biographical inventory could distinguish between the two groups. "The sample consisted of 95 participants (46 offenders, 49 nonoffenders) in the northern Utah area. The offending population were in outpatient treatment for their sexual offending. When the participants were categorized as offender/ nonoffender and 12-15 year olds/ 16-19 year olds, only an age effect was found to be significant on the variables cohesiveness, cohesion, and conflict. Offender group membership did not have any effect. Younger adolescents viewed their family environment as more cohesive and felt more freedom to express anger and dissent. Significant differences were found between offenders with multiple victims and all other groups on two AAPI variables: inappropriate developmental expectations of children and lack of empathic awareness of children. The discriminant function analysis of the biographical inventory items yielded a 90% correct classification rate on participants cooed as either offender or nonoffender. Only eight biographical items were used in this procedure. It is clear that, of the four instruments used in this study, the biographical inventory provided the best descriptive profile of the juvenile sexual offenders. Offenders reported more instability in their home-life and lack of positive emotional relationships with their caretakers. The perception of diminished humanness in relationships went hand in hand with victimizing others. One can conclude that family environment remains an important factor to consider in the development and treatment of sexually abusive behavior.

My thesis is focused on the legal regulations of property taxes in the Czech Republic and its comparison with the chosen state of the European Union (Germany). The theoretical part describes a taxation system of road tax, real estate tax and inheritance tax, gift tax and real estate-transfer tax. And also a taxation system of road tax and real estate tax in Germany, because during the year 2007 it happened neither to a gift, succession nor a real estate transfer. The practical part is about the company Groz-Beckert, s.r.o. which has a subsidiary company in the Czech Republic and a controlling company in Albstadt in Germany. Then the comparison is made so these vehicles, land and buildings owned by the company in the Czech Republic would be also owned in the same quantity in Germany. It solves how much more the company had to pay in taxes and if the Czech Republic is for this company much more advantageous from the point of view of property taxes.

This research overview aimed to answer what different fields of use there is in mathematical homework and also how these varied between different grades. This was done by summarizing different studies and reports. The result showed that there were five different areas of use in mathematical homework. These were repetition-/ practice homework, immersion homework, preparatory homework, homework that is given for grades and the lack of homework. Furthermore, it showed that the usage changed with the grades. The conclusion showed that in earlier grades mathematical homework tended to be used to develop study techniques and responsibility. Whereas in the higher grades, homework is used to prepare the students for their next lesson or repetition.

Political structures and the evolution of late capitalism in liberal Western democracies lend a common frame to the development of national media systems. However, whereas media policy from the post-war period to the mid-1980s was largely driven by socio-political concerns and coextensive with policy for public service television, this model has been vehemently challenged. Key factors were the convergence of erstwhile-separated industries and infrastructures, as well as the ambitions of the corporate sector and governments alike, to benefit from the economic opportunities offered by the communications revolution. By assessing the changing relationship between the role of the state, economic structures and technological innovation, this research investigates these processes in the UK and Germany. Both countries have the two key public service systems but also feature striking differences such as the antithetic political systems and democratic processes (majoritarian vs. consensus democracy). The basic assumption suggests that a genuine understanding of contemporary developments is only possible if political/economic as well as historic/sociological perspectives are incorporated into the holistic approach applied. Thereby this study gives consideration to key processes and events which have determined transitions between communications policy paradigms and regulatory regimes. Given the Anglo-Saxon tradition of regulating, key processes and events in the UK are often indicated by the appointment and report of a committee of enquiry. For the purpose of this study the most crucial of these is the Committee on Financing the BBC (1986), which first applied market-driven politics onto British broadcasting, and whose recommendations still serve as a blueprint for current communications policy-making. In Germany the KtK Report (1974) formed the basis for decisive reforms in broadcasting and communications. Apart from that, however, Germany features the characteristic of administering state interventions in as detailed a manner as possible through legislation. Of central importance are, therefore, the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, which continuously set decisive parameters for the development of the broadcasting system. The thesis follows two driving themes which have been identified as crucial in terms of the comparative dimension and are elaborated continuously in more detail. First, the focus is on the interdependencies between public and private sector. Second, implications and responses of the central vis-à-vis federal characteristic of state formation are investigated. In doing so, the thesis draws on vast sources of archival documents as well as exclusive material from a series of elite interviews with a purposively-selected sample of very high-level sources, including Chairmen, Director-Generals, ministers, very senior civil servants and so on. The thesis demonstrates how communications policy-making is carried out in both countries and how these processes are determined by national regulatory frameworks which are rooted within the borders of the nation state. As such the research findings have broader implications for commercial and public sector regulation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how Swedish portfolio companies perform after being exited by the PE-company. Through the perspective of the portfolio company, we follow how well they maintain the created value and if there is a difference in performance depending of different exit strategies. Theory: The study is based on theories regarding corporate governance, the principal-agent theory and the tax-shield theory. Method: To perform this study we have used a quantitative and deductive research approach. We compare the portfolio companies pair-wise with themselves during another time period. We then test if there is a difference in performance comparing key figures. Results: Data has been collected from 480 annual reports covering a total of 60 portfolio companies. The results consist of three different key figures from every year for each portfolio company. Analysis: The tests show a few statistically significant changes in performance when making comparisons regarding the different points in time. Generally, portfolio companies exited 2003-2005 performs better than those exited 2006-2011. The portfolio companies exited during 2006-2008 showed significant decrease in two out of the three key figures after being exited. Conclusion: The results show that portfolio companies perform differently depending on when they are exited, which is natural considering constant macro-economic changes. There was no significant difference in performance when using exit method as the dependent variable. / Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur svenska portföljbolag utvecklas efter avyttring, samt att ur portföljbolagets perspektiv följa upp hur väl dessa bibehåller det värde som skapats och om det finns skillnad i prestationer portföljbolagen emellan i förhållande till exitmetod. Teori: Corporate governance, principal-agentteorin, teorin om skattesköld. Metod: Studien genomförs med en kvantitativ metod och en deduktiv ansats. Portföljbolagen jämförs parvis med sig själva vid olika tidsperioder och testas med hypoteser för att undersöka om de skiljer sig i de nyckeltal som mäts. Empiri: Empirin består av 480 årsredovisningar från 60 portföljbolag. Ur dessa har tre olika nyckeltal tagits fram för analys. Alla siffror som använts i studien går att finna bland bilagorna. Analys: Testen ger att antal signifikanta resultat på förändring tidpunkterna emellan. Generellt presterar portföljbolag avyttrade mellan 2003-2005 bättre än de som avyttrats 2006-2011. Perioden 2006-2008 visade negativ signifikant utveckling på två av de tre nyckeltalen som uppmätts. Slutsats: Empirin visar att portföljbolag utvecklas olika beroende på när de avyttrats, vilket är en given effekt av att det makroekonomiska klimatet ständigt förändras. Det gick inte att utläsa någon prestationsskillnad portföljbolagen emellan när exitmetod sattes som beroende variabel.

The subject of the thesis is theoretical and empirical analysis of literary form haiku concerning the place of origin (Japan), circumstances of its spreading in czech area and finally interdisciplinary analysis of this form. The papier aims to point out the connection of this artistic form with specific aspects of cultural psychology comparing the attitudes of Japanese and Czech culture. The used method is based on qualitative collection data, including the selective research in the field of Czech art in the spirit of haikai.

There is an ongoing crisis between Ugandan and North American United Methodists related to global missional partnerships and the financial ethics of international donor funds. For nearly a decade, these two parties worked together around the themes of global partnerships in mission and ministry. Today, these relationships are broken and communication has been severely impacted due to allegations of mismanaged funds on the episcopal level in East Africa. After reviewing existing literature focused on communication, moral decision-making, conflict resolution, and cultural and intercultural competency from both western and African perspectives, I invited two theological resources into a conversation. As parties involved in conflict address problems of communication and moral decision-making, the deeper issues of cultural and intercultural awareness can be examined. This research intentionally took a small step toward the larger goal of conflict forming a new theological resource for shared coherent moral discourse.

A análise de agrupamentos (cluster analysis) é o conjunto de ferramentas estatísticas de análise multivariada para encontrar ou revelar a existência de grupos em uma amostra. A literatura apresenta muitos métodos para particionar um conjunto de dados. Porém, ao utilizá-los, o pesquisador muitas vezes se depara com o problema de decidir em quantos grupos deverá ser feita essa divisão, bem como comparar agrupamentos obtidos por diferentes métodos estabelecendo quão semelhantes eles são. Neste trabalho é feita uma revisão dos principais métodos de comparação de agrupamentos e é apresentada uma nova técnica para a escolha do número ideal de grupos, baseada na diferença de entropias. Afim de avaliá-la, estudos de simulação foram realizados comparando-a com outras técnicas conhecidas: a estatística Gap e a silhueta média. Os resultados indicaram que a nova proposta é tão ou mais eficiente que as demais, no sentido de encontrar o número correto de grupos. Além disso, ela também é computacionalmente mais rápida e de simples implementação. Duas aplicações a dados reais são apresentadas, ambas na área de genética. / Cluster analysis is the set of multivariate statistical techniques to uncover or discover groups in a sample. There?s plenty of methods in the literature to partition a dataset. But, when doing so, the user is frequently faced with the problem of choosing the appropriate number of groups and, also, how to compare clusterings obtained through different methods and establish how similar they are. In the present work, it is presented a revision of methods to compare clusterings and proposed a new technique to choose the appropriate number of groups, based on the difference of entropies. To evaluate it, a simulation study was made comparing it with other already known techniques: the Gap statistic and the silhouette. The results indicated that the new approach is more or as efficient as the others, in the sense of finding the correct number of clusters. Moreover, it is computationally faster and simple to implement. Two application are shown, both in genetics.

The thesis is comparing Czech and foreing bullying prevention programs. At first terms bullying and prevention are explained. The bullying prevention programs are described, compared and evaluated acording to predefined criteria. Based on the result quality of Czech bullying prevention programs is determine and suggestions to improve Czech programs are placed.