Αντικείμενο της εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση της ταυτότητας του λογοτεχνικού και φιλολογικού περιοδικού "Ακρίτας" και η αναλυτική ευρετηρίασή του. Η μελέτη επιχειρεί να αναδείξει την ιδιαίτερη φυσιογνωμία του βραχύβιου αυτού περιοδικού και τη συμβολή του στη διαμόρφωση του λογοτεχνικού πεδίου των αρχών του 20ου αιώνα.Το περιοδικό κυκλοφόρησε για πρώτη φορά το Μάρτιο του 1904 και συνέχισε χωρίς διακοπή μέχρι το Φεβρουάριο του 1906. Οι βασικότεροι συντελεστές του "Ακρίτα" ήταν ο εκδότης του, Σωτήρης Σκίπης, η Αιμυλία Κούρτελη και ο Άριστος Καμπάνης.Επιπλέον, με το περιοδικό συνεργάστηκαν και άλλοι σημαντικοί λόγιοι και λογοτέχνες, όπως ο Άγγελος Σικελιανός, ο Κωστής Παλαμάς, ο Ρώμος Φιλύρας και ο Δημοσθένης Βουτυράς. Η εργασία είναι διαρθρωμένη σε τρία μέρη. Στο πρώτο μέρος παρουσιάζονται η ταυτότητα, οι στόχοι, οι αναγνώστες και οι συντελεστές του "Ακρίτα". Στο δεύτερο μέρος παρουσιάζονται η ύλη του περιοδικού, τα πρωτότυπα έργα και τα μεταφρασμένα έργα που δημοσιεύονται στις σελίδες του.Τέλος, στο τρίτο μέρος δίνονται οι αρχές της ευρετηρίασης και τα ευρετήρια του "Ακρίτα", τα οποία περιλαμβάνουν τέσσερις πίνακες. / Subject of this thesis is the presentation of the identity and the detailed indexing of the literary magazine "Akritas". This study attempts to highlight the special character of this short-lived magazine and its contribution to the shaping of literature in the beginning of the twentieth century. The magazine was first released in March 1904 and continued to be published without interruption until February 1906. The main contributors of the "Akritas", were its publisher Sotiris Skipis, Emilia Kourteli and Aristos Kampanis. Additionally, several important scholars and writers of that era were affiliated with the magazine, such as Aggelos Sikelianos, Kostis Palamas, Romos Filiras and Dimosthenis Voutiras. This thesis consists of three parts. The first part presents the identity, the objectives, the audience and the collaborations of the "Akritas". The magazine's content as well as the original and translated works that are published in the magazine are presented in the second part. The third and last part contains the indexing principles and the indexes of the "Akritas", which are four in the number.

Database systems employ physical structures such as indexes and materialized views to improve query performance, potentially by orders of magnitude. It is therefore important for a database administrator to choose the appropriate configuration of these physical structures (i.e., the appropriate physical design) for a given database. Deciding on the physical design of a database is not an easy task, and a considerable amount of research exists on automatic physical design tools for relational databases. Recently, XML database systems are increasingly being used for managing highly structured XML data, and support for XML data is being added to commercial relational database systems. This raises the important question of how to choose the appropriate physical design (i.e., the appropriate set of physical structures) for an XML database. Relational automatic physical design tools are not adequate, so new research is needed in this area. In this thesis, we address the problem of automatic physical design for XML databases, which is the process of automatically selecting the best set of physical structures for a given database and a given query workload representing the client application's usage patterns of this data. We focus on recommending two types of physical structures: XML indexes and relational materialized views of XML data. For each of these structures, we study the recommendation process and present a design advisor that automatically recommends a configuration of physical structures given an XML database and a workload of XML queries. The recommendation process is divided into four main phases: (1) enumerating candidate physical structures, (2) generalizing candidate structures in order to generate more candidates that are useful to queries that are not seen in the given workload but similar to the workload queries, (3) estimating the benefit of various candidate structures, and (4) selecting the best set of candidate structures for the given database and workload. We present a design advisor for recommending XML indexes, one for recommending materialized views, and an integrated design advisor that recommends both indexes and materialized views. A key characteristic of our advisors is that they are tightly coupled with the query optimizer of the database system, and rely on the optimizer for enumerating and evaluating physical designs whenever possible. This characteristic makes our techniques suitable for any database system that complies with a set of minimum requirements listed within the thesis. We have implemented the index, materialized view, and integrated advisors in a prototype version of IBM DB2 V9, which supports both relational and XML data, and we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of their recommendations using this implementation.

The objective of this study was to compute economic values of traits for dairy cattle improvement using an empirical approach. Field recorded data were obtained from the Programme d'Analyse des Troupeaux Laitiers du Quebec (PATLQ) and genetic evaluation data were obtained from the Canadian Dairy Network (CDN). After the editing procedure, the data set consisted of 195,001 lifetime records of Holstein, Ayrshire, Jersey, Brown Swiss and Canadienne cows which calved for the first time between January 1980 and December 1994. / Different profitability measurements were computed and used as the dependent variables in covariance model to compute different sets of economic values. Since the majority of cows produced 5 lactations or less, results obtained by using lifetime profits and profits until the end of the fifth lactation are similar. A kilogram genetic increase in fat production had higher economic values than the same increase in milk production in all breeds. A unit genetic increase in conformation had the highest positive impact on profit while a same increase in capacity had a negative impact on profit. Results obtained by using lifetime profit adjusted for the opportunity cost of postponed replacement showed that this adjustement reduced the influence of type traits on profit. Finally, profits of first lactations were used to study consequences of changes in pricing systems occurred in Quebec in August 1992. Economic values attached to protein production changed drastically. A kilogram genetic increase in protein production had negative economic values in the 80's and positive economic values after August 1992.

The foreign exchange market plays an important role in global finance, as it is considered to be among the largest financial markets in the world because of the significant amount of money involved in the foreign exchange market's transactions. Economic theories show that the exchange rate market may interact with the stock market index, but empirical studies on the interaction between the exchange rate market and the stock market index produced mixed results. Thus there is no empirical agreement regarding the interactions between the stock prices and exchange rate. This study examined the interaction between the real exchange rate and the stock market index in South Africa, with the aim of identifying the effect of exchange rate shocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). It establishes the direction of causality between the stock market index and the real exchange rate; identifies the long-run and short-run relationships between the South African stock market and the exchange rate and determines the response of the South African stock market to different exchange rate regimes from 1978 to 2008. This study used different econometrics models, including descriptive statistics analysis, Engle-Granger cointegration approach, Error Correction Model and a Granger-Causality test. Variables used in this study include the real values of the JSE all share index and the real exchange rate series (the Rand/U.S. dollar exchange rate) from January 1978 to December 2008. The stock market index responded to changes in exchange rate regimes. Although the response tended to be slightly stronger during the period of the free floating exchange rate, correlation coefficients were insignificant in both fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes. A negative long-run relationship between the real exchange rate and the stock market index was found. The short-run results established that changes in the real exchange rate have no impact on the real stock market index. Granger-Causality tests indicated that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between the South African stock market index and the Rand/U.S. dollar exchange rate. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The theory behind the efficient market hypothesis exerts that it is not possible to consistently outperform the overall stock market by using stock picking and market timing strategies. The argument holds that, in an efficient market, all stock prices are appropriately priced and there is no over- or undervalued stocks to be found. Nevertheless, deviations from true stock prices can occur according to the hypothesis, although these deviations are mostly random occurrences. Thus, the only way an investor can outperform the overall stock market is by luck alone. However, the efficient market hypothesis is a controversial topic where it is often discussed within modern financial circles where academic theory has strong arguments both for and against the theory. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is feasible to outperform the overall stock market through investing in stocks that appear undervalued according to enterprise multiple (EV/EBITDA) and the price-earnings ratio. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

Biological diversity - means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ekological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and ecosystems, as Biological Diversity Convention says. In this work was made analysis of forest data of State Forest Enterprise of Kaisiadorys, Buda forest district. Atention was paid to the forest elements that can promote biological diversity. The archive data of managment (1977,1987,1996,2003 years)of Buda forest district used for assessment. Stand species diversity was analyzed using Number of species, Diversity, Proportionality and Dominance indexes. Thestand diversity dynamics of the Buda forest district was analyzed accordind to these indexes. There also were analyzed Species of Data Red Book of Lithuania of forest district, reserves teritories and key habitat teritories of Buda forest district.That supported to mark 2 teritories of Great biodiversity and 8 hotspots of biological diversity on the map of analyzed forest district.

White adipose tissue is not just a storage organ. It is now recognised as an endocrine organ. It secretes many substances known as adipokines, which are thought to link obesity with type 2 diabetes (T2D). One of the most important adipokines is adiponectin. It is a peptide hormone consisting of 244 amino acids with molecular weight of 30 KD. It circulates in plasma in high concentrations (3-30 4g/ml). Adiponectin polymerises to form many bigger forms. Those are low molecular weight (LMW); middle molecular weight (MMW) and high molecular weight (HMW). The HMW adiponectin is the active form of the hormone. The concentrations of most adipokines are increased in obese people. Adiponectin is unusual in that its concentration is lower in obese people. Consequently its concentration is decreased in some related metabolic disorders. Its concentrations decrease in cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, dyslipidemia and insulin resistances. It is well known that exercise increases insulin sensitivity, also adiponectin was reported to regulate insulin. The effect of exercise on the adiponectin concentrations in plasma is controversial, but the extent to which the exercise regulates the interstitial adiponectin concentrations is not fully examined. The main site of adipokines secretion is adipose tissue. Therefore the study of these substances at the site of their production has a special interest. Recently, microdialysis techniques have been extended to become important in the measurement of substances in the extracellular fluid of many tissues such as subcutaneous adipose tissue. In particular, it has been used for measurement of adipokines. This thesis includes three studies. The first study was aimed at examining the effect of one hour of moderate exercise at 50% of maximum oxygen consumption v on adiponectin concentration in dialysate samples taken from subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissues (SCAAT). 15 healthy young female volunteers, age 22.8 ± 3.0 years (mean ± SD) participated in this experiment divided into two groups depending on their body mass index (BMI), a lean group BMI 22.2 ± 1.6 kg/m2 (mean ± SD) and an overweight group BMI 27.7 ± 1.9 kg/m2 (mean ± SD). The samples were collected using CMA 66 M. Alzwayi iii microdialysis catheters with membrane cut off 100 KD. Fitness assessment was done for all volunteers about one week before the main trials. The main trials were done on two consecutive days, a rest day and an exercise day. Each day lasted for 4 to 6 hours. On the first day the microdialysis catheter were inserted in abdominal subcutaneous tissue 4 cm lateral to the umbilicus on the left side. Dialysate samples were collected every 30 - 45 minutes. On the exercise day volunteers exercised for one hour at 50% 2 . V O max. All samples were analysed for adiponectin concentrations using Mercodia ELISA technique. The principle findings of this study were that CMA 66 microdialysis catheters worked effectively for two consecutive days for fluid recovery. Adiponectin concentrations were very low and varied, in same volunteer from time to time, and between volunteers. However, the statistical analysis showed no significant difference in adiponectin concentrations between lean and overweight groups. Adiponectin concentrations in the first two samples on the first day of the insertion were significantly higher than the first two samples on the second day of the insertion. Finally, adiponectin concentrations in dialysate samples recovered by 100 KD microdialysis catheters were very low. Therefore, the effect of the exercise was not clear. The second study aimed to compare the adiponectin concentrations in plasma and dialysate samples. Six healthy male volunteers age 32.8 ± 13.1 years and BMI 25.9 ± 3.3 kg/m2 (mean ± SD), were recruited for this study. The experiment was run for two consecutive days using the same microdialysis catheters CMA 66. Dialysate samples were collected as before. 2 ml of blood samples were collected using a cannula inserted into the anticubital vein. Samples were taken every hour for a period of five hours each day. The plasma and dialysate samples were analysed for adiponectin using the Mercodia kits. Adiponectin concentrations in plasma samples were 256 and 1791 times higher than the adiponectin concentrations in dialysate samples. The conclusion of the two studies was that the CMA 66 microdialysis catheter with cut off 100 KD membranes only recovers a small part of the total adiponectin present. M. Alzwayi iv Therefore a third study was designed to use plasma samples. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of acute exercise at 50% 2 . V O max on HMW adiponectin, total adiponectin, interleukin (IL)-6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), insulin and glucose concentrations directly after the exercise, one hour after and 48 hours. 13 young healthy female volunteers age 24.3 ± 2.7 years and BMI 21.9 ± 2.2 kg/m2 (mean ± SD) contributed in this study. The volunteers were invited for five visits. Their fitness was measured on the first visit. Then they came for two main trials rest day and exercise day, which they were randomly assigned. The main trails lasted for two hours. Three blood samples were collected each day using same cannulated system in the second study. The volunteers followed 48 hours after each trial, one blood sample were collected each day. The 8 plasma samples were analysed for: total adiponectin and insulin concentrations via Mercodia ELISA kits, HMW adiponectin, IL-6 and TNF-α concentration via R&D systems and glucose concentration using the glucose oxidase colorimetric method. The results showed no statistical difference in total or HMW adiponectin, TNF-α and glucose concentrations under the effect of moderate exercise at 50% 2 . V O max either directly or 48 (p value > 0.05). IL-6 concentrations increased about two fold one hour after the exercise above the resting level (P value < 0.05). IL-6 concentrations return to the basal level 48 hour latter. Insulin concentrations show a decrease one hour after the exercise finished. The number of volunteers was small and the change was close to significance. A one way ANOVA returned a P value of < 0.05, but a two way ANOVA with repeated measures returned a P value of > 0.05. In conclusion, the acute exercise at 50% 2 . V O max changes IL-6 concentrations but it has no effect on adiponectin concentrations in dialysate or plasma samples. Low adiponectin concentration is related to obesity, insulin resistance and T2D. Therefore, increase in adiponectin concentration probably lies in weight loss and the exercise may play role, even if it has little direct action on adiponectin concentration.

The most successful method used for improving the growth rate of broilers is genetic selection. Improvements in nutrition, housing and disease resistance have been impressive, yet genetic selection is purported to have contributed the majority of the tremendous increase in growth rate that has taken place over the past 50 years (McKay, 2008). Many selection strategies are available, but not all are suitable, as the choice is dependent on the objective of the breeder. Selection strategies are bound to change over time as different traits become more important, and this has been the case in the broiler industry: focus was initially placed predominantly on growth rate, but the negative genetic correlation that exists between growth rate and reproductive and liveability traits has forced breeders to change their position, especially as growth rate has almost reached its upper limit and reproductive traits lag behind. This has resulted in a change from single trait to multiple trait selection. In the exercise reported here, four selection strategies commonly used for single trait selection, namely individual, between family, within family and family-index selection, were applied to a simulated broiler population using the Monte Carlo method of simulation, and constructed with the use of genetic parameters obtained from the literature. Theoretical and simulated methods of the four selection strategies were compared. A fifth selection strategy, index selection, was applied to represent multiple trait selection. The relative merit of each selection procedure was then compared, as well as the results obtained from the theoretical and simulated methods. Construction of the selection index was complex in comparison to single trait selection, as each trait included in the index had to be assigned an economic value. This value is representative of the relative importance of that trait to the overall profitability, or ability to save costs in the operation. Therefore traits favourable to profitability, or having the ability to reduce production costs, are given a heavier weighting and will consequently achieve a relatively larger improvement when applied to the selection index. A model was constructed using production rates, income and costs to represent the current overall economic situation in the industry. This was then used to determine cost economic values, which represent the saving in cost per unit improvement in each of the economically important traits, and revenue economic values, calculated as the value of each unit improvement attained in each of the economically important traits. Body weight remains the most profitable trait in a broiler enterprise; however breeder egg production is equally important as the industry would fail without sufficient day-old broilers. Therefore, it would be beneficial to determine whether current egg production levels could be maintained, or even improved, whilst improvement is made to the growth rate of the progeny. The above statement was found to be possible with the use of index selection. This multiple trait selection strategy proved capable of defying the negative genetic correlation that exists between body weight and egg production by improving egg production to 60 weeks by eight eggs, and body weight at 35 days by 259 grams. Furthermore, in some cases index selection was able to achieve improvements in some traits greater than those attained with single trait selection, whilst simultaneously improving certain negatively correlated traits. Index selection has illustrated its superiority over single trait selection strategies and its relative value to the poultry industry. / Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

The problem of determining an objective means for assessing local characteristics of television subpictures in a Hadamard transform multicoder scheme is stated and discussed. Detailed investigations of transform domain coefficient statistical characteristics for different test images have been conducted. Both monochrome and colour signals were used, as well as different transform sizes and shapes. " Directing Indexes " are proposed which, depending on the inter-relationships among transform coefficients and groups of coefficients, direct each subpicture to the appropriate coder. Three indexes in the case of monochrome signals are proposed, each with its own computational procedures and application requirements. Necessary modifications and changes for application of some indexes on colour signals are also discussed. The proposed technique of indexing eliminates the necessity of equal distribution of subpictures among 'activity classes', a major disadvantage encountered in present activity index. Coders to be used with each directing index are devised and tested, subject to an arbitrary bit rate of 2 bits per pixel, with satisfactory performance compared with some published results for other techniques.

Darbo tikslas – įvertinti antropometrinių indeksų ir lėtinių ligų rizikos veiksnių ryšius. Uždaviniai: Įvertinti tiriamųjų antropometrinius indeksus ir jų tarpusavio sąsajas; nustatyti lėtinių ligų rizikos veiksnių paplitimą tiriamojoje populiacijoje; palyginti skirtingų antropometrinių indeksų ryšį su lėtinių ligų rizikos veiksniais. Tyrimo metodika: Tiriamieji – atsitiktinai atrinkti Kauno miesto gyventojai, gimę 1964 metais, pirmą kartą ištirti 1977 metais pagal Juvenilinės hipertenzijos programą (n=1082). 2012 metais sveikatos patikrinime dalyvavo 511 asmenų (64,4 proc. galėjusių atvykti). Tiriamiesiems buvo atlikti antropometriniai matavimai, matuotas arterinis kraujospūdis ir atlikti biocheminiai kraujo tyrimai. Skaičiuotas kūno masės indeksas – KMI=svoris (kg)/ūgis2(m2). Antsvoris nustatytas, kai KMI buvo 25-29,9 kg/m2, nutukimas – kai KMI >30 kg/m2. Vyrų liemens apimtis >94 cm, o moterų – >80 cm laikyta padidėjusia. Padidėjęs liemens ir klubų santykis vyrams buvo >1, moterims – >0,85. Padidėjęs liemens ir ūgio santykis buvo >0,51. Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 16.0 for Windows programą. Rezultatai: Net 69,1 proc. vyrų ir 56,1 proc. moterų turėjo per didelį KMI, 57,0 proc. tirtųjų – per didelę liemens apimtį, 23,2 proc. vyrų ir 13,0 proc. moterų – padidėjusį liemens ir klubų santykį, 63,5 proc. vyrų ir 41,1 proc. moterų – padidėjusį liemens ir ūgio santykį. Visi antropometriniai indeksai buvo tarpusavyje susiję. Didėjant antropometrinių indeksų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of the study is to assess the associations between anthropometric indexes and risk factors of chronic diseases. Objectives: to evaluate anthropometric indexes and their interrelationship in Kaunas cohort; to determine prevalence of the risk factors of chronic diseases in the study population; to compare strength of associations between anthropometric indexes and risk factors of chronic diseases. Methods: In 1977, a random sample of Kaunas schoolchildren born in 1964 (n=1082) was examined in the first cross-sectional survey. In 2012, 511 subjects participated in 35-year follow-up survey (64.4% response rate). Health examination involved measurements of blood pressure, anthropometric and biochemical parameters. The body mass index was calculated - BMI=weight (kg)/ūgis2 (m2). Overweight was defined when BMI was 25 - 29.9 kg/m2 and obesity – when BMI >30 kg/m2. Waist circumference >94 cm for men and >80 cm for women was considered as increased. Waist-to-hip ratio > 1 for men and >0.85 for women was defined as increased. Waist-to-height ratio >0.51 was considered as increased. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS 16.0 for Windows program. Results: The study has revealed that even 69.1% of men and 56.1% of women were overweight or obese, 57.0% of participants had increased waist circumference, 23.2% of men and 13.0% of women - increased waist-to-hip ratio, 63.5% of men and 41.1% of women - increased waist-to-height ratio. All anthropometric indexes were... [to full text]