Given a particular combinatorial structure, there may be many distinct objects having this structure. When investigating these, two natural questions to ask are: - Given two objects, where and how do they differ? - How much of an individual object is necessary to uniquely identify it? These two questions are obviously related, with the first leading to the concept of a trade, and the second to that of a defining set. In this thesis we study trades and defining sets, in the context of t-(v,k,lambda) designs. In our enquiries, we make use of both theoretical and computational techniques. We investigate the spectrum of trades, and prove an extant conjecture regarding this. Our results also suggest a more general version of this conjecture. A t-(v,k,lambda) design where lambda=1 is called a Steiner design, and the related trades are called Steiner trades. In the case t=2, we establish the spectrum of Steiner trades for each value of k, except for a finite number of values in each case. The connection between trades and defining sets is used to obtain some new theoretical results on defining sets of designs, and is exploited throughout the thesis. We also consider the collections of all trades and all defining sets in a design. A simple design is one which is a set, as opposed to a multiset. We present an algorithm to enumerate all the trades in simple designs. For non-simple designs we introduce the concept of a discriminating set, and present an algorithm to enumerate these. Output from these algorithms was used to investigate the trades and defining sets of a number of designs, and some new results were obtained. Given part of a design, its completions are all those designs that contain it. An existing algorithm to complete partial designs is examined, and a heuristic yielding a much improved algorithm for Steiner designs is discussed. This completion routine was used to investigate a number of designs, and new information on the size and distribution of their defining sets was obtained.

Veiksmo pavadinimo konstrukcijos – būdingi šiuolaikinių technologijų, mokslo, teisės verslo ir daugelio kitų sričių kalbos bruožai. Šie žodžiai suteikia pavadinimą įvairiems procesams, procedūroms, metodams ir kt., todėl jie plačiai vartojami įvairiuose oficialiuose dokumentuose, ir būtent šie dokumentai dažnai apibūdinami kaip turintys bene daugiausia veiksmų pavadinimų konstrukcijų. Šiais laikais žmonės, kalbantys skirtingomis kalbomis, nuolat turi bendrauti, ir todėl dažnai atsiranda būtinybė versti oficialius dokumentus iš vienos kalbos į kitą. Taigi, pagrindinė keliama hipotezė, kad vertėjai, versdami oficialius dokumentus, vartoja tam tikrus žodžius, kurie apibrėžia skirtingus veiksmus, ir jie verčia šiuos žodžius pasitelkdami pačias produktyviausias priemones, t.y. produktyviausias priesagas anglų ir lietuvių kalbose, tuo tarpu kitas priesagas vartodami labai retai. Šio magistrinio darbo tema – „Veiksmo pavadinimo konstrukcijos dalykinio stiliaus tekstuose” (lyginamoji analizė). Nors praeityje daugelis mokslininkų tyrinėjo veiksmo pavadinimo konstrukcijas tiek anglų, tiek lietuvių kalboje, šios konstrukcijos dar nebuvo nagrinėjamos oficialiuose dokumentuose bei lyginamos tarpusavyje. Magistrinio darbo tikslas – atskleisti būdus, kaip yra sudaromi veiksmų pavadinimai, ir kaip jie yra verčiami anglų ir lietuvių kalbų dalykinio stiliaus tekstuose, atsižvelgiant tiek į jų formą, tiek į prasmę. Šiame darbe buvo apibrėžta veiksmo sąvoka, išskirta derivacinės morfologijos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Action defining words are characteristic features of the modern language style of technology, science, law, business and many other fields. They create an individual subgroup of naming units in the vocabulary inventory. From the point of view of terminological use, action defining words may designate processes, procedures, methods, ways of processing materials and administration acts. Such words are widely used in different formal documents, and, therefore, the texts are characterized as having a great many of action defining words. Nowadays, as different language speakers regularly communicate, formal documents are facing the necessity to be translated from one language to another. Thus, the main hypothesis of the research is suggested by the fact that in formal texts translators use a determined set of words which define actions and consequently their translations often are performed in a particular manner: they use the most productive English and Lithuanian suffixes leaving aside other linguistic means. In other words, translators do not vary and choose the easiest ways how to express the action in the process of translating. Although there are many research studies carried out on the action defining words by the English and Lithuanian linguists, such as Quirk (1972), Holvoet (2006), Keinys (1999), Pakerys (2006), comparative investigations on the issue of the action defining words in English and Lithuanian are not widespread. This Master thesis aims at revealing the means... [to full text]

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To evaluate disease- and patient-related characteristics, mortality, and charges associated with non-AIDS defining malignancies (NADM) among inpatient settings in the United States from 2005 to 2009. Methods: This retrospective cohort investigation utilized nationally-representative hospital discharge records from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Inclusion criteria included adult inpatients ≥18 years with a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS and malignant neoplasms. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess inpatient mortality and charges. Main Results: Overall, 104,488 were included. Average age associated with each case was 46.9 years (±10.66), with 21.9% cases being female (n=22,868). The mean length of stay was 8.6 days (±10.5) and inpatient mortality occurred in 7.7% of cases (n=8,035). The mean number of procedures performed was 2.3 (±2.5) and the mean number of diagnoses on record was 9.5 (±4.4). Charges for each episode of care averaged $59,483 (±85,748), summing to a national bill of $6.14 billion (2011 dollars) over the five-year course. A higher number of cases were associated with teaching hospitals (74.1%), the south (42%), large metropolitan areas (75.1%), median household income in the 0-25th percentile (41.2%), and Medicaid payers (34.3%). Increased mortality was associated with increased age, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, and the comorbidities of anemia, coagulopathy, lymphoma, and fluid and electrolyte disorders. Conclusions: This investigation of NADMs suggest a considerable clinical and economic burden of illness, summing to a 7.7% inpatient death rate and $1.3 billion in charges per year.

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is a state institution, but its primary function is collecting money for the U.S. Bureau of reclamation, to pay for the Weber Basin Project. Different classes of water users pay markedly different fees for identical Project services. More than half of the water developed by the Project is not used consumptively, yet supply facilities continue to be built in the Basin because they are less expensive to their owners than prices charged for the underused capacity of the Project. Paradoxically, some Basin residents are bitterly resentful to both the District and the Bureau, claiming that water rights formerly their own have, by means of the Project, been stolen. That is, both the enemies and the proponents of the Project adhere to the Western orthodoxy that water is scarce and drought imminent. The principal difficulty of this investigation lay in identifying the nature of the problem, for the situation seemed full of contradictions. Consequently, the primary contribution of the dissertation is an explanation of Basin circumstances that accounts for arresting observations without inconsistency or contradiction. The most important hypotheses are, therefore, empirical, or historical and institutional. Economics, according to Richard T. Ely and Frank H. Knight, is a set of principles concerning what ought to be, not empirical descriptions of what is. Consistent with that perspective, once the nature of the problem is clear, applications of economic principles is a prescriptive judgement of how the problem may be resolved. The most important empirical hypotheses are as follows: Water is not scarce in the Weber Basin; neither are storage and conveyance facilities. All are abundant, even redundant. Nevertheless in combination with certain institutional arrangements and sustained propaganda campaign, this very abundance contributes to persistence of the attitude that water is scarce. Redundant facilities thereby encourage even more unneeded development. What appears on first examination to be a case of misallocated water resources by discriminatory prices, turns out to be a problem of distributing the burden of paying for excessive, unwanted public works. Water itself is a free good in the Basin. Actual distribution of the repayment burden is partly ideological and partly pragmatic; partly a political choice and partly a bureaucratic decision; partly a manifestation of agrarian policy and partly what the traffic will bear. If water is free, it is not an economic good, and not a subject for economic analysis. The Basin has an ample water supply, but water may nevertheless be locally and periodically scarce. The water problem is therefore one of conveyance and timing. Control of timing requires storage. Conveyance requires energy, as well as aqueducts. In the Weber Basin, conveyance energy may be either the controlled flow of falling (mountain) water, or electrically powered pumps tapping abundant groundwater reservoirs. The water development problem is therefore, an issue of alternative capital facilities for the control and delivery of water (itself abundant). Efficient resource allocation in water development is consequently relevant at the investment level; it is not a matter of pricing water. In this case, the major investment decisions have already been implemented, and the problem is one of evaluating distribution of the repayment burden. The relevant economics literature is principles of equitable taxation, and of public utilities' pricing. Application to the basin situation produces a conclusion that present arrangements are as equitable as could be devised. Further redundant investment (inefficient use of resources), however, could be avoided if the State Engineer's Office took a harder line on requests to drill new wells. The information provided in this work could be the basis for making such a program popularly acceptable.

This thesis presents information on community healthy marriage initiatives and university-community collaborations. Specifically, it examined the workings of one of those healthy marriage initiatives in the university-community collaborative context. The project explored the current process of this initiative, identifying specific challenge points and defining factors and characteristics associated with the success thereof. Rather than working in discrete categories, these challenge points exist on a success continuum. How each challenge is managed determines whether it is a success factor or a stumbling block. The project is grounded in published learning from other university-community initiatives and employs an ethnographic qualitative research strategy. Data consist of interviews with several key collaborators (n = 9) who were involved with this initiative. The findings from this ethnography support and enhance previous literature on university-community collaborations and outreach scholarship and provide useful examples and lessons that can be used by other university-community collaborations, especially those involving marriage education initiatives in a community setting.

The population of Kosovo had suffered years of abuse, ethnic cleansing, turmoil, human atrocities, and constant conflict--the results of which plunged Kosovo into costly war. Following the war, Kosovo was placed under the protection of the United Nations in 1999. Kosovo received many years of support and developmental assistance from the international community. Kosovo became a sovereign nation in February 2008. Kosovo's government immediately recognized the importance of serving the needs of the people with responsibility and integrity. There is no institution more important to the successful development of a sovereign nation and their economy than the ethical administration of a tax authority. In the spring of 2008, after Kosovo's declaration of independence, this study was initiated to determine the moral maturity of the members of the Tax Authority of Kosovo. This study provides an extensive review of the current situation in Kosovo and discusses ethical considerations in tax administration. The paper further provides a comprehensive discussion of ethical concerns and discusses the importance of moral development in the tax administration of Kosovo. Recommendations for managers and future research are presented.

The thesis entitled “This is Africa giving form to the informal” arose from a concern with the growing levels of poverty and unemployment in South Africa and the recognition that small scale, self-generated economic activity provides an important means of survival for the very poor. It acknowledges the positive contributions that informal street trading makes to the urban environment. The dissertation draws upon a study of recently initiated projects that aimed to legitimise informal trading, by integrating it in the built environment. It is also driven by a study of the way in which traders organise, claim and define space in the urban environment. This process can be seen as the way in which traders themselves seek legitimacy. Collectively, case studies revealed a number of key elements necessary for the legitimisation of informal trade. Although the area of the proposed intervention is the Pretoria Station precinct, the study acknowledges that there are universal elements contained in informal trading. These elements establish a set of principles that define the minimal intervention necessary in order to allow opportunities for trade to as many people as possible whilst giving the traders themselves the maximum possible room to manoeuvre. In essence, the approach does not argue for the formalisation or ‘neatening’ of informal activity, but aims to give form to activities frequently regarded as illegal, and to provide street market spaces that can function as essential forms of urban infrastructure (Dewar 1990:xi). / Mini Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to define and describe the nature of predatory mortgage lending in the state of Utah . Twelve professionals from the state who work in the mortgage lending market participated. Data consisted of interviewee comments and were analyzed qualitatively using a multi-step method of coding for concepts and themes. Through coding and analysis it was determined that the term predatory mortgage lend ing is defined as an act of abuse that is targeted towards a borrower with one or more vulnerable characteristics. It was al so found that users of this term do not always adhere to this strict definition, but rather use it as a catch-all term for any general mortgage abuse, rather than only for those that are targeted. The term is al so used when referring to instances of fraud, and nearly all other forms of unfair lending. To help increase the measurability of predatory lending, the interviews also gave descriptive detail in terms of its magnitude, underlying factors, commonly occurring practices, victim characteristics, impacts, and suggestions for reduction. Suggestions for reduction of predatory lending include increasing accountability of actors, both legally and by the industry itself bridging state and national jurisdictional gaps, and increasing fun ding for consumer education and neighborhood revitalization. Education was especially emphasized as a tool for preventing occurrences of predatory mortgage lending. not only in the form of pre-homebuyer education but especially in the form of financial education as a requirement in the public school s, beginning at a very young age.

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No description available.