Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka Steven Mirriones och Juliette Welflings klippstil i filmen The Hunger Games (2012). Sex olika situationer som representerar en bredd av användning av jump cuts har analyserats för att undersöka jump cutsens funktioner, hur diskontinuitet kombineras med kontinuitet samt vad de har för påverkan på filmens narrativa berättande. Med hjälp av Bordwells och Thompsons teori om filmklippningens dimensioner, Murchs teori om vad som motiverar ett klipp och Kimergårds forskning på diskontinuitetsklippning kombinerat med kontinuitetsklippning undersöker uppsatsen jump cuts funktioner, deras relation till det narrativa berättandet och hur de skapar en relation till karaktärerna. Resultatet visar på användandet av jump cuts i filmen The Hunger Games bidrar till att leda den narrativa berättelsen framåt, de skapar en kontakt med karaktärernas subjektiva upplevelser samt visar på att diskontinuitet kan fungera i symbios med kontinuitet.

This study analyzes the relation between accounting conservatism, future tax rate cuts and countries' level of book-tax conformity. Firms have an incentive to increase conservatism in financial reporting when a tax rate cut is imminent to shift taxable income into the lower taxed future. Using a panel of firms across 18 countries from 1995 to 2010 I find that conditional conservatism is positively and significantly associated with future tax rate cuts when book-tax conformity is high. This effect is particularly pronounced for firms that concentrate the majority of their operations in the country in which the tax rate is cut. In contrast, there is no significant relation between future tax rate cuts and unconditional conservatism. / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

The aim of the study was to determine the quality of South African lamb, particularly the carcass, nutrient and sensory attributes. To this end the cut composition of SA lamb carcasses with different fat scores was determined and cuts suitable for trimming were identified. Sixty four grain fed Dorper lambs were divided randomly into three slaughter groups of 30, 36 and 42 kg, respectively. After slaughter, electrical stimulation (how much/long) and chilling (how long/temp) the carcass sides were subdivided into seven wholesale cuts. Each cut was dissected into meat, bone and subcutaneous fat (SCF) in order to determine the physical composition per cut and for the whole carcass. It was found that the percentages total fat in the carcass increased with 15.5 % in subcutaneous fat over the five fat classes. In order to determine and compare the raw and cooked nutrient composition of shoulder, loin and leg cuts of Dorper and Merino lamb carcasses of the A age class of fat class 2 (± 7 % SCF) from three main production areas in South Africa were analysed. Samples were analysed both raw (left side cuts) and cooked (right sides) using accredited methodologies for nutrient content namely proximate composition, vitamin B and minerals. There was no significant difference in the iron and zinc values between the cooked cuts. Results showed differences in both trace elements and B vitamins among different cooked cuts, although the differences were not statistically significant. Cooked SA lamb (A age class, fat class 2) contains an average of 60.5 % less total fat and 5.28 % less protein, resulting in 1891 kJ less per 100 g edible portion energy, if compared to the previous values in the food composition tables. Quantitative descriptive sensory analyses were performed by a trained panel on the M. longissimus lumborum (loin) from lambs of the same age. Aroma intensity, initial impression of juiciness, first bite, sustained impression of juiciness, muscle fibre and overall tenderness, amount of connective tissue (residue), overall flavour intensity and off-flavour intensity were measured, as well as cooking related measurements and resistance to shear. With the exception of juiciness, the results in this study showed that contrary to expected carcass fatness (in the same age over five fat classes), as portrayed in the South African Classification system, does not have a significant effect on the sensory qualities of M. longissimus lumborum (loin) from lambs of the same age. This investigation provides important scientific insight into the physical, nutrient and sensory quality of South African lamb. The results obtained show that subcutaneous carcass fat that increased significantly with an increase in fat class can be trimmed to represent leaner cuts to the discerning consumer. This study found unique values for South African lamb cuts, almost 40 % lower in fat content than the previously-believed-to-be-accurate values, as published by the Medical Research Council for health workers. Contrary to expected it was found in this study that increased fatness did not improve lamb tenderness as popularly believed in the United States. Therefore, the study justifies greater scope for further research into all these aspects, as it provides valuable information for the Red Meat Industry. / Thesis (PhD(Consumer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Consumer Science / PhD / unrestricted

Master of Science / Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Todd W. Easton / Integer programming is an important discipline in operation research that positively impacts society. Unfortunately, no algorithm currently exists to solve IP's in polynomial time. Researchers are constantly developing new techniques, such as cutting planes, to help solve IPs faster. For example, DeLissa discovered the existence of equality cuts limited to zero and one coefficients for the multiple knapsack equality problem (MKEP). An equality cut is an improper cut because every feasible point satisfies the equality. However, such a cut always reduces the dimension of the linear relaxation space by at least one. This thesis introduces lifted equality cuts, which can have coefficients greater than or equal to two. Two main theorems provide the conditions for the existence of lifted equalities. These theorems provide the foundation for The Algorithm of Lifted Equality Cuts (ALEC), which finds lifted equality cuts in quadratic time. The computational study verifies the benefit of lifted equality cuts in random MKEP instances. ALEC generated millions of lifted equality cuts and reduced the solution time by an average of 15%. To the best of the author's knowledge, ALEC is the first algorithm that has found over 30.7 million cuts on a single problem, while reducing the solving time by 18%.

Brain atrophy measurement is increasingly important in studies of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. From this perspective, a regional segmentation framework for magnetic resonance images has recently been developed by the team that I joined for my master thesis. It combines an atlas fusion and a tissue classification. A graph-cuts optimization step is then applied to obtain the final segmentation from the combination probability maps. To begin with neighboring constraints were integrated into the optimization step so as to prevent some labels to be adjacent in accordance with anatomical criteria. They were successfully tested on a restricted list of patient images which previously presented segmentation errors. Secondly, a multigrid tissue classification was implemented in order to compensate for the effects of intensity inhomogeneities. However, the visual observations on a few cases showed little improvement compared to the increased computation time. Consequently another possibility was investigated to modify the classification. An atlas-based classification was implemented and tested both on a small-scale and a large-scale. The efficiency of the proposed method was visually assessed on a few patients, especially regarding the separation between grey and white matter. The process was then applied on a database containing several hundreds patients and the results demonstrated an improved group separation based on grey matter volume, whose reduction is particularly significant with patients suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. To conclude, several links of the segmentation framework have been upgraded, which promises good results for future regional atrophy studies.

Denna uppsats byggs på de besparingar som sker inom lagen om stöd och service åt vissa funktionshindrade. Lagen antogs för att förbättra levnadsvillkoren för personer med funktionsnedsättning, men även för att ge en möjlighet till självbestämmande och goda levnadsvillkor. Uppsatsen syftar till att ta reda på hur enhetschefer upplever sitt handlingsutrymme vid en budget-läggning men också hur man som enhetschef hanterar de konsekvenser som uppstår i en budget som minskar. Syftet ska uppnås med kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar delade meningar i handlingsutrymmet men att man upplever att man som enhetschef upplever lite eller inget handlingsutrymme och att det är en stram budget som man har att arbeta efter. Nedskärningarna och konsekvenserna är att chefsstödet i många kommuner har blivit indraget, men man upplever också att arbetet blir påverkat. Detta eftersom man som chef inte har tid att utföra det kvalitetsarbete som skulle behövas och detta i sin tur leder till att brukaren inte får det denne har rätt till, såsom fritidsaktivitet. / This essay is based on the savings that take place within the law on support and service for certain disabled people. The law was adopted to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities, but also to provide an opportunity for self-determination and good living conditions. The essay aims to find out how middle managers experience their room for maneuver when setting a budget, but also how unit manager handles the consequences that arise in a budget that is reduced. The purpose is to be achieved with qualitative semi-structured interviews. The results show divided opinions in the room for maneuver, but that you experience that as a unit manager you experience little or no room for maneuver and that it is a tight budget that you have to work according to. The cuts and consequences are that managerial support in many municipalities has been withdrawn, but it is also felt that the work is affected. This is because you as a manager do not have time to perform the quality work that would be needed and this in turn leads to the user not getting what he is entitled to, such as leisure activities.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Depth estimation is one of the most important problems in computer vision. It has attracted a lot of attention because it has applications in many areas, such as robotics, VR and AR, self-driving cars etc. Using the defocus blur of a camera lens is one of the methods of depth estimation. In this thesis, we have researched this technique in virtual environments. Virtual datasets have been created for this purpose. In this research, we have applied graph cuts and convolutional neural network (DfD-net) to estimate depth from defocus blur using a natural (Middlebury) and a virtual (Maya) dataset. Graph Cuts showed similar performance for both natural and virtual datasets in terms of NMAE and NRMSE. However, with regard to SSIM, the performance of graph cuts is 4% better for Middlebury compared to Maya. We have trained the DfD-net using the natural and the virtual dataset and then combining both datasets. The network trained by the virtual dataset performed best for both datasets. The performance of graph-cuts and DfD-net have been compared. Graph-Cuts performance is 7% better than DfD-Net in terms of SSIM for Middlebury images. For Maya images, DfD-Net outperforms Graph-Cuts by 2%. With regard to NRMSE, Graph-Cuts and DfD-net shows similar performance for Maya images. For Middlebury images, Graph-cuts is 1.8% better. The algorithms show no difference in performance in terms of NMAE. The time DfD-net takes to generate depth maps compared to graph cuts is 500 times less for Maya images and 200 times less for Middlebury images.

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No / The current austerity in government spending has far reaching implications, not only for individuals but for the context in which a welfare state is perceived. The position has been reached at the same time as equality legislation makes some groups more visible. This article is an early attempt at drawing out the relationship between lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people and welfare spending cuts, made observable because of legislation requiring impact assessment. This article draws on research into impact prepared by the author, in affiliation with the Bradford LGBT Strategic Partnership, and considers LGB claims to welfare and to citizenship.