Fractional factorial designs are a popular choice in designing experiments for studying the effects of multiple factors simultaneously. The first step in planning an experiment is the selection of an appropriate fractional factorial design. An appro- priate design is one that has the statistical properties of interest of the experimenter and has a small number of runs. This requires that a catalog of candidate designs be available (or be possible to generate) for searching for the "good" design. In the attempt to generate the catalog of candidate designs, the problem of design isomor- phism must be addressed. Two designs are isomorphic to each other if one can be obtained from the other by some relabeling of factor labels, level labels of each factor and reordering of runs. Clearly, two isomorphic designs are statistically equivalent. Design catalogs should therefore contain only designs unique up to isomorphism. There are two computational challenges in generating such catalogs. Firstly, testing two designs for isomorphism is computationally hard due to the large number of possible relabelings, and, secondly, the number of designs increases very rapidly with the number of factors and run-size, making it impractical to compare all designs for isomorphism. In this dissertation we present a new approach for tackling both these challenging problems. We propose graph models for representing designs and use this relationship to develop efficient algorithms. We provide a new efficient iso- morphism check by modeling the fractional factorial design isomorphism problem as graph isomorphism problem. For generating the design catalogs efficiently we extend a result in graph isomorphism literature to improve the existing sequential design catalog generation algorithm. The potential of the proposed methods is reflected in the results. For 2-level regular fractional factorial designs, we could generate complete design catalogs of run sizes up to 4096 runs, while the largest designs generated in literature are 512 run designs. Moreover, compared to the next best algorithms, the computation times for our algorithm are 98% lesser in most cases. Further, the generic nature of the algorithms makes them widely applicable to a large class of designs. We give details of graph models and prove the results for two classes of designs, namely, 2-level regular fractional factorial designs and 2-level regular fractional factorial split-plot designs, and provide discussions for extensions, with graph models, for more general classes of designs.

Bakgrund och problem: Bolagisering är ett växande fenomen inom svenska kommuner där övergången till ett kommunalt bolag innebär en rad förändringar inom verksamheten såsom tillämpning av aktiebolagslagen och en förändrad styrkedja. Motiven bakom bolagisering omfattas av att öka effektiviteten i verksamheten samtidigt som kostnadsreduceringar kan uppnås. Däremot presenteras även en rad risker som reformeringen kan medföra såsom en minskad insyn i det kommunala bolaget till följd av en separation av kontroll och ägande samt att bolaget driftar från kommunen. Till följd av den kritik som riktats mot bolagisering så kan lämpligheten ifrågasättas i specifika kontexter samt vilka faktorer som påverkat beslutet att genomföra reformeringen.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar ett bolagiseringsbeslut i en vård- och omsorgsförvaltning samt om beslutet fastställts till följd av att andra kommuner tidigare genomfört en bolagisering.Metod:Denna studie är av kvalitativt slag där en abduktiv forskningsansats antagits. Vidare har en enfallsstudie genomförts där empirisk insamling skett dels genom semistrukturerade intervjuer men även genom dokumentgranskning.Slutsats: Bolagiseringsbeslutet i en vård- och omsorgsförvaltning baseras på ett erhållande av ekonomiska fördelar i form av gynnsammare mervärdesskatteregler. Vidare påvisas även att kommunernas samverkan påverkar beslutet att genomföra en bolagisering där en uttryckt efterliknelse präglat beslutsfattandet samt genomförandet. Bolagiseringen hade troligtvis inte uppdagats om inte en närliggande kommun genomfört reformeringen tidigare vilket påvisar betydande influenser kommunerna emellan. Metod: Denna studie är av kvalitativt slag där en abduktiv forskningsansats antagits. Vidare har en enfallsstudie genomförts där empirisk insamling skett dels genom semistrukturerade intervjuer men även genom dokumentgranskning.Slutsats: Bolagiseringsbeslutet i en vård- och omsorgsförvaltning baseras på ett erhållande av ekonomiska fördelar i form av gynnsammare mervärdesskatteregler. Vidare påvisas även att kommunernas samverkan påverkar beslutet att genomföra en bolagisering där en uttryckt efterliknelse präglat beslutsfattandet samt genomförandet. Bolagiseringen hade troligtvis inte uppdagats om inte en närliggande kommun genomfört reformeringen tidigare vilket påvisar betydande influenser kommunerna emellan. Slutsats: Bolagiseringsbeslutet i en vård- och omsorgsförvaltning baseras på ett erhållande av ekonomiska fördelar i form av gynnsammare mervärdesskatteregler. Vidare påvisas även att kommunernas samverkan påverkar beslutet att genomföra en bolagisering där en uttryckt efterliknelse präglat beslutsfattandet samt genomförandet. Bolagiseringen hade troligtvis inte uppdagats om inte en närliggande kommun genomfört reformeringen tidigare vilket påvisar betydande influenser kommunerna emellan. / Background and problem: Corporatization is a growing phenomenon in Swedish municipalities where the transition to a municipal company implicates a number of changes such as application of aktiebolagslagen and a changed control chain. The motives behind corporatization are to increase efficiency while enabling cost reduction. On the other hand, corporatization is also associated with risks such as a reduced insight in the municipal company due to separation of ownership and control and that the municipal company is being separated from the municipality. As a result of the criticism of corporatization, the adequacy has been questioned in specific industries as well as the factors that influence the decision to realize the reform.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of the factors that influence a decision to corporatize a health- and social care administration and also if the decision was made as a result of other municipalities realizing the reform earlier. Method:  This study is of a qualitative nature where an abductive research approach has been adopted. Furthermore, a case study has been conducted where the empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews and document review. Conclusion: The decision to corporatize a health- and social care administration is based on beneficial VAT-regulations. Furthermore, it is also shown that a cooperation between municipalities affects the decision to realize a corporatization where an expressed imitation occurs regarding the decision-making as well as the implementation. If the nearby municipality would not have realized a corporatization the phenomenon would probably not have been discovered which demonstrates significant influences between the municipalities.  Method: This study is of a qualitative nature where an abductive research approach has been adopted. Furthermore, a case study has been conducted where the empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews and document review.  Conclusion: The decision to corporatize a health- and social care administration is based on beneficial VAT-regulations. Furthermore, it is also shown that a cooperation between municipalities affects the decision to realize a corporatization where an expressed imitation occurs regarding the decision-making as well as the implementation. If the nearby municipality would not have realized a corporatization the phenomenon would probably not have been discovered which demonstrates significant influences between the municipalities.

With increasing external and internal pressure to increase retention and graduation rates in select colleges along with increasing numbers of college-going populations over time, student affairs professionals have responded with a variety of programs to support students' transition to college. This study sought to examine freshman students in science majors went on academic probation at the end of their first semester. If these students did not raise their GPAs quickly, they faced academic dismissal from the institution. Consequently, the institution would not be able to retain them, and ultimately, they would not graduate. Managerial professionals at the institution created, implemented, and evaluated an intervention in the form of a success course for these students to help get them back on track, retain them, and ultimately graduate from the institution. The literatures drawn upon for this study included retention theory, probationary student behaviors and attitudes, interventions, success courses, fear appeal theories, academic capitalism, and institutional isomorphism. The study employed tests including chi-square, logistic regressions, and differences-in-differences fixed effects regressions to identify the differences and effects on performance, persistence, and graduation rates of the treatment and comparison groups. The findings of this study showed significant differences between the persistence and graduation rates of the treatment and control groups, and regression effects showed a short-term causal effect on performance as well as significant likelihoods of persisting and graduating within four or five years. Recommendations for further improvements to interventions are discussed in the final chapter.

The dissertation consists of two parts. The first part is devoted to results in Discrepancy Theory. We consider geometric discrepancy in higher dimensions (d > 2) and obtain estimates in Exponential Orlicz Spaces. We establish a series of dichotomy-type results for the discrepancy function which state that if the L¹ norm of the discrepancy function is too small (smaller than the conjectural bound), then the discrepancy function has to be very large in some other function space.The second part of the thesis is devoted to results in Additive Combinatorics. For a set with small doubling an order-preserving Freiman 2-isomorphism is constructed which maps the set to a dense subset of an interval. We also present several applications.

In late 19th century Russia, Darwinism was viewed as a measuring-rod of modernity. Thus, the Jewish reception of Darwinism may serve as an indicator of the extent to which the Jews in Russia were part of the modernization of Russian society. But the Darwinian concept of evolution of species through natural selection is considered incompatible with a teleological worldview, including a God-given plan for creation. This thesis addresses a twofold problem. One concerns the difficulties of reconciling Darwinism with Judaism and its traditional view of a God-given purpose in creation. The other problem is to explain the possible motives of the Jewish intellectuals for using Darwinian concepts such as the ‘struggle for existence’ in journal articles in the emerging Russian-Jewish press. The study employs discourse analysis, and the concept of isomorphism from institutional theory, for the examination of key concepts, citations, implied readers and purposes in a selection of journal articles from the Russian-Jewish press of the period 1860-1900. Contrasting with the lively general Russian debate on Darwinism, the results show that the Jews in Russia were rather reluctant to discuss Darwinism in the Russian-Jewish press. Censorship, other constraints and imminent problems facing the Jews, such as defence against growing anti-Semitism, are indicated as possible causes of the minimal evidence of a Jewish reception of Darwinism that was found. It was only to the extent that Darwinian concepts such as the ‘struggle for existence’ could be employed to address these more pressing issues that they were they found useful in a Jewish context. The results further imply that the integration between Russian and Jewish intellectuals during this period was weak, as reflected by the insignificant number of references to Russian sources in the selection of Jewish journal articles that were examined.

The purpose of this study is to explore the eldercare managers' descriptions of their work situation, and through our research, reach a comprehesive view of the managers discretion in the municipational eldercare system in Sweden. Our questions in focus are: In what sense do the managers feel that laws, guidelines and objectives control their decisions? In what sense do the magangers feel that colleagues influence their decisions? How do the managers experince that superior managers and politicians influence their decisions? The essay is based on semi-structured interviews, with six different managers in the eldercare, from three different municipalities. We have made a questionnaire as a tool for our interviews, so that no questions were forgotten during the interview sessions, (with a few additional follow up questions). We analyze our results by using DiMaggio and Powell theory; we have chosen to work with two of the isomorphisms, in order to show how the managers relate to the organisations. We are also using Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucrats and their professional discretion, to see the manger from the other perspective; as an individual person in the organisation. Our results and analysis indicates that managers in the eldercare have a wide ability to control and shape their discretion. The factors, which control how the managers form their discretion, are laws, guidelines, goals, colleagues and superior management levels. These factors are largely interpretable, which gives the managers a wider possibility to shape decisions based on the existing guidelines and framework. The study shows that the most limiting factor to constrain the discretion is the financial resources.

There are four prominent product graphs in graph theory: Cartesian, strong, direct, and lexicographic. Of these four product graphs, the lexicographic product graph is the least studied. Lexicographic products are not commutative but still have some interesting properties. This paper begins with basic definitions of graph theory, including the definition of a graph, that are needed to understand theorems and proofs that come later. The paper then discusses the lexicographic product of digraphs, denoted $G \circ H$, for some digraphs $G$ and $H$. The paper concludes by proving a cancellation property for the lexicographic product of digraphs $G$, $H$, $A$, and $B$: if $G \circ H \cong A \circ B$ and $|V(G)| = |V(A)|$, then $G \cong A$. It also proves additional cancellation properties for lexicographic product digraphs and the author hopes the final result will provide further insight into tournaments.

Univerzita Karlova Abstract of the diploma thesis Analysis in Banach spaces Matěj Novotný, Praha 2013 In the thesis, connection between two certain types of equivalence on Ba- nach spaces is studied: Between Lipschitz and linear one. In general, linear equivalence of two Banach spaces implies their Lipschitz equivalence, but the converse need not be true, which is shown by some nonseparable examples. There are summarized several examples to this question in the thesis, both positive and negative ones. Moreover, it is shown that James' quasi-reflexive space and its dual space have unique Lipschitz structure. To prove this, theory of linearization of Lipschitz mappings and at the same time linear structure of the two mentioned spaces is used. 1

Inledning: En stor del av den svenska ekonomin vilar på den svenska banksektorn. I och med den ökande digitaliseringen som blivit än mer påtaglig på senare tid har konkurrenssituationen bidragit till ett nytt utgångsläge än tidigare. Idag talas det om nya konkurrenter i banksektorn, som FinTech bolag, internationella banker och andra aktörer som börjar utmana svenska storbanker om fler marknadsandelar. Syfte och problemformulering: Syftet med arbetet är att identifiera, beskriva och förklara hur svenska storbanker och FinTech bolag uppfattar möjligheterna och hoten i samband med den ökande digitaliseringen inom banksektorn. Detta är för att försöka skapa en förståelse för förändringen av banksektorn i samband med digitaliseringen. Hur uppfattar svenska storbanker och FinTech bolag de möjligheter och hot som uppkommer i samband med den ökande digitaliseringen? Teoretisk referensram: De teorier som har använts under studien är isomorfismen med underbegreppen tvingande, imiterande och normativ isomorfism samt Porters strategiteori, femkraftsmodellen. En SWOT analys har använts för att enklare kunna identifiera bankernas styrkor, svagheter, möjligheter och hot i samband med digitaliseringen. Studien har även använt sig av tidigare forskning och tagit hänsyn till strävan efter legitimitet och krav på kostnadseffektivisering. Detta har använts som stöd till det empiriska resultat som samlats in för att enklare kunna analysera och därmed få problemformuleringen besvarad. Metod: Det empiriska materialet har samlats in med en kvalitativ metod. 5 informanter har medverkat i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Författarna till studien har identifierat och beskrivit flera faktorer till hur de uppfattar de möjligheter och de hot som finns i samband med den ökande digitaliseringen. Informanterna belyste både möjligheter och hot, exempelvis att regelverket PSD2 ökar konkurrensen och förbättrar situationen för mindre aktörer att konkurrera mot de större bankerna. Studien har även begränsats till svenska storbanker och FinTech bolag. / Introduction: A big part of the Swedish economy rests on the shoulders of the Swedish bank sector. Because of the increasing digitalization in recent times, the difference in competition has become substantially more evident and it has received a completely new starting point compared to before. The newest and most recent additions to the competition within the banking sector are examples such as FinTech companies, international banks and other parties that are also starting to compete with the big Swedish banks for market shares. Purpose and problem formulation: The purpose of this study is to describe the way the big Swedish banks and FinTech companies perceive the different opportunities and threats related to the increased digitalization that we see today. This will allow us to try and create an understanding of what the future might look like and what has already changed within the banking sector ever since the introduction of digitalization. How do the big Swedish banks and FinTech companies perceive the different opportunities and threats related to the increased digitalization? Theoretical frame of reference: The theories that have been used during the study are isomorphism with the notion of compelling, imitating and normative isomorphism as well as Porter's strategy theory, the five force model. A SWOT analysis has been used to more easily identify the banks' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during the digitization. The study has also used previous research and taken into account the quest for legitimacy and demands for cost efficiency. This has become a support for the empirical results that have been collected in order to be able to analyze more easily, reach a conclusion and thus get the problem formulation answered. Method: The empirical material has been collected with a qualitative method. 5 informants have participated in semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: The authors of the study have identified, described and explained several factors as to how they perceive opportunities and threats during the increasing digitization. The informants shared both opportunities and threats, such as the fact that the PSD2 regulations increase competition and improve the situation for smaller players to compete against the big banks. The study has also been limited to big Swedish banks and FinTech companies.

L'interrogation de graphes de données est un problème fondamental qui connait un grand intérêt, en particulier pour les données structurées massives où les graphes constituent une alternative prometteuse aux bases de données relationnelles pour la modélisation des grandes masses de données. Cependant, l'interrogation des graphes de données est différente et plus complexe que l'interrogation des données relationnelles à base de tables. La tâche principale impliquée dans l'interrogation de graphes de données est la recherche d'isomorphisme de sous-graphes qui est un problème NP-complet.La recherche d'isomorphisme de sous-graphes est un problème très important impliqué dans divers domaines comme la reconnaissance de formes, l'analyse des réseaux sociaux, la biologie, etc. Il consiste à énumérer les sous-graphes d'un graphe de données qui correspondent à un graphe requête. Les solutions les plus connues de ce problème sont basées sur le retour arrière (backtracking). Elles explorent un grand espace de recherche, ce qui entraîne un coût de traitement élevé, notamment dans le cas de données massives.Pour réduire le temps et la complexité en espace mémoire dans la recherche d'isomorphisme de sous-graphes, nous proposons d'utiliser des graphes compressés. Dans notre approche, la recherche d'isomorphisme de sous-graphes est réalisée sur une représentation compressée des graphes sans les décompresser. La compression des graphes s'effectue en regroupant les sommets en super-sommets. Ce concept est connu dans la théorie des graphes par la décomposition modulaire. Il sert à générer une représentation en arbre d'un graphe qui met en évidence des groupes de sommets qui ont les mêmes voisins. Avec cette compression, nous obtenons une réduction substantielle de l'espace de recherche et par conséquent, une économie significative dans le temps de traitement.Nous proposons également une nouvelle représentation des sommets du graphe, qui simplifie le filtrage de l'espace de recherche. Ce nouveau mécanisme appelé compact neighborhood Index (CNI) encode l'information de voisinage autour d'un sommet en un seul entier. Cet encodage du voisinage réduit la complexité du temps de filtrage de cubique à quadratique. Ce qui est considérable pour les données massifs.Nous proposons également un algorithme de filtrage itératif qui repose sur les caractéristiques des CNIs pour assurer un élagage global de l'espace de recherche.Nous avons évalué nos approches sur plusieurs datasets et nous les avons comparées avec les algorithmes de l’état de l’art / Querying graph data is a fundamental problem that witnesses an increasing interest especially for massive structured data where graphs come as a promising alternative to relational databases for big data modeling. However, querying graph data is different and more complex than querying relational table-based data. The main task involved in querying graph data is subgraph isomorphism search which is an NP-complete problem. Subgraph isomorphism search, is an important problem which is involved in various domains such as pattern recognition, social network analysis, biology, etc. It consists to enumerate the subgraphs of a data graph that match a query graph. The most known solutions of this problem are backtracking-based. They explore a large search space which results in a high computational cost when we deal with massive graph data. To reduce time and memory space complexity of subgraph isomorphism search. We propose to use compressed graphs. In our approach, subgraph isomorphism search is achieved on compressed representations of graphs without decompressing them. Graph compression is performed by grouping vertices into super vertices. This concept is known, in graph theory, as modular decomposition. It is used to generate a tree representation of a graph that highlights groups of vertices that have the same neighbors. With this compression we obtain a substantial reduction of the search space and consequently a significant saving in the processing time. We also propose a novel encoding of vertices that simplifies the filtering of the search space. This new mechanism is called compact neighborhood Index (CNI). A CNI distills all the information around a vertex in a single integer. This simple neighborhood encoding reduces the time complexity of vertex filtering from cubic to quadratic which is considerable for big graphs. We propose also an iterative local global filtering algorithm that relies on the characteristics of CNIs to ensure a global pruning of the search space.We evaluated our approaches on several real-word datasets and compared them with the state of the art algorithms