Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2007. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Une modélisation de rugosité de faible amplitude d’une rugosité d’interface, à l’aide de méthodes ultrasonores, est proposée. On examine le cas d’une plaque élastique immergée dont l’une des faces est rugueuse. L’étude de la rugosité dont la géométrie est triangulaire et périodique repose sur l’analyse du coefficient de transmission par la plaque. Une simulation numérique basée sur la Méthode des Éléments Finis est réalisée. D’un autre côté, la théorie de Fiorito, Madigosky et Überall (FMU) de la plaque sans rugosité montre que le coefficient de transmission peut être compris comme une somme de résonances, chacune étant associée à un modèle de Breit et Wigner (BW). La position des pics de résonance, que ceux-ci soient relatifs aux modes symétriques ou antisymétriques sont peu affectées par la présence de la rugosité. Seules les largeurs et les amplitudes varient notablement. Les expériences numériques ont montré que ces pics sont interprétables comme des résonances BW. Une nouvelle modélisation basée sur un modèle rhéologique est établie pour le coefficient de transmission. A partir de celle-ci, un nouveau modèle BW a été développé et validé par la simulation numérique. Celui-ci modèle permet de remplacer avantageusement les simulations numériques coûteuses en temps, par un modèle analytique simple. / The modelling of roughness of small amplitude a rough interface, by using ultrasound methods is proposed. One investigates the case of an immersed elastic plate with only one corrugated face. The study of the roughness, the shape of which is triangular and periodic is based upon the analysis of the transmission coefficient. A numerical simulation using the Finite Element Method (FEM) is carried out. On the other hand, the Fiorito, Madigosky et Überall (FMU) theory of the flat plate shows that the transmission coefficient may be seen as a sum of resonances, each being associated with a Breit-Wigner (BW) resonance shape. The location of the resonance spikes peaks, which are related to either symmetric or antisymmetric modes, are not significantly affected by the roughness ; only the half widths and the magnitudes vary notably. The numerical experiments led with FEM on the corrugated plate showed that the spikes peaks can be interpreted as BW resonances.

Dissertation interfaces two current accounting issues: International Financial Reporting Standards and financial reporting quality. Theoretical framework begins with historical development and contemporary position of IFRS. It is followed by financial accounting quality where overview of methods is used for assessment of accounting quality. The literature underpinning represents the final part of theoretical part. Dissertation examines publicly traded Czech companies on Prague stock exchange and together their financial statements are presented under Czech accounting standards and later on switched on International Financial Reporting Standards. Final sample consists of 15 companies (222 firm-year observations) during period 1993-2013. World accepted models were adjusted before its application to be more convenient for Czech environment. Research results show that there are only limited improvements in financial reporting quality in IFRS period, only some companies are models applicable and therefore law and professional environment play significant role within quantitative methods.

I ett försök att stärka revisionsbyråers oberoende och därmed revisionskvaliteten har Europeiska Unionen infört en ny reform. Reformen innebär bland annat krav på byrårotation. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka relationen mellan revisionskvalitet och den tid som en revisionsbyrå har utfört revision på ett företag. Genom kvantitativ data från årsredovisningar i perioden år 2005-2014 undersöks 191 svenska börsnoterade företag. Företags redovisningskvalitet har analyserats genom en modifierad version av Jones-modellen där en låg grad av redovisningsmanipulation är ett mått på en högre redovisningskvalitet. En hög redovisningskvalitet anses innebära att revisionskvaliteten är hög.Då en revisionsbyrå har utfört revision under en kortare period finns det ett negativt samband med revisionskvalitet. Undersökningen visar även på att en längre uppdragslängd inte leder till en signifikant sämre revisionskvalitet. Studien visar följaktligen att byrårotation efter 10 år inte behöver ge en högre revisionskvalitet. En tänkbar policyimplikation är att en förlängning av denna 10-årsperiod ska tillåtas.

Ce mémoire aborde le problème de la détection de visages à partir d'une image compressée. Il touche également à un problème connexe qui est la qualité des standards de compression et l'estimation de celle-ci. Ce mémoire est organisé sous la forme d'une introduction générale sur la détection de visages et de deux articles soumis à des conférences internationales. Le premier article propose une amélioration de la méthode classique pour comparer la qualité de deux standards. Le deuxième propose une méthode de décompression spécialisée pour faire fonctionner le détecteur de visages de Viola-Jones dans le domaine compressé.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Stella Jones Gallery: An Organizational Analysis and Suggested Marketing Plan is based on my internship as Managing Director of Stella Jones Gallery. The internship report will focus on 1. Analyzing the organizational structure and cultures of Stella Jones Gallery as it relates to the internship and 2. Creating a marketing plan to support, expose, and expand the mission of the organization. Because of the report's objectives, the internship report has been segmented into the following sections: Part I: Organizational Analysis Stella Jones Gallery's organizational structure and culture will be analyzed to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of its methods and practices. Through the analysis, a description and evaluation of my internship as Managing Director will be provided to discuss the overall effectiveness of the position. It will also discuss the position's contribution to the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This section will be immediately followed by suggestions in management and staffing as well as ways in which the organization can redefine and strengthen its organizational culture. Part II: Suggested Marketing Plan At the time of the internship, Stella Jones Gallery had been in existence for three and a half years and is emerging as one of the leading African-American galleries in the southeast region of the United States. The gallery has been very fortunate to have reviews in highly regarded magazines such as Art Business News, Art and Antiques, and the International Review of African-American Art. It has not, however, established a strategic marketing plan to propel the gallery to the forefront of the commercial arts industry. The marketing plan created will suggest ways the gallery can capitalize on the medial attention it has received. Secondly, it will illustrate how the gallery can promote and establish its product within the commercial arts industry and non-profit sector of the visual arts. Finally, it offers ways in which the gallery can forge ahead of its competition by offering on-line as well as curatorial and educational services. The issues addressed and suggestions made are to help Stella Jones Gallery reach its potential as a leading art organization. In conclusion, this report will note any changes or improvements made in the gallery's management practices, staff, and marketing strategies as a result of the suggestions offered.

The Polarizer-Sample-Analyzer (PSA) arrangement with the optical components P and A rotating with a fixed speed ratio (3:1) was originally introduced to determine nine Mueller matrix elements from Fourier analysis of the output signal of a photodetector. The arrangement is modified to the P'PSAA' arrangement where P' and A' represent fixed polarizers that are added at both ends with the speed ratio of the rotating components (P and A) remaining the same as before. After determination of the partial Mueller matrix in the ideal case, azimuthal offsets and imperfection parameters are introduced in the straight-through configuration and the imperfection parameters are determined from the Fourier coefficients. Finally, the sample is reintroduced and the full Mueller matrix elements are calculated to show the deviation from the ideal case and their dependency on the offsets and imperfection parameters.

Det finns mycket och omfattande forskning kring företags engagemang i miljö- och socialrelaterade frågor, också benämnt CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Det råder dock ännu ingen konsensus om hur CSR påverkar marknadsvärdet av företag och huruvida hållbarhetsarbete är värdeskapande eller ej. Trots att Europa anses ligga i framkant inom hållbarhet är flertalet studier gjorda på den amerikanska marknaden. Därför syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur inkludering/exkludering ur ett hållbarhetsindex påverkar kortsiktigt aktiekurs för företag i Europa. Dessutom undersöks om det finns en skillnad i kortsiktig marknadsreaktion vid inkludering beroende på om ett företag antas ha små respektive stora agentproblem. För att undersöka detta genomförs en eventstudie, dels för annonseringsdagen av Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, dels för dagen då justeringen av indexet görs gällande. Studien påvisar ingen signifikant marknadsreaktion för varken inkludering/exkludering. Små och stora agentproblem kan heller inte fastslås orsaka en skillnad i marknadsreaktion vid inkludering. Detta utesluter dock inte att CSR kan ha en effekt på aktiekursen på längre sikt. Något som rekommenderas för framtida studier är därför att undersöka hur arbete med hållbarhet påverkar företags aktiekurs på längre sikt.

This thesis examines the nature of what I have termed "the sacramental vision" of Gerard Manley Hopkins and David Jones: it is an exploration of the mutually sustaining relationship between poetry and religion; or, as Jones puts it, between art and sacrament. The key to the relationship is to be found in language: the inherited language of theologian and poet is saturated with metaphor, sign and symbol, linguistic forms of a particularly resistant and irreducible kind. In literature, as in religion, such forms represent ultimate points of vision, to which in trust we assent, and from which we infer belief, that is, we are required to convert what begins as "an impression upon the Imagination" into a belief which may be tested by reason. The poet's renewal of such sacramental signs is a necessary exercise of the religious imagination if each generation is to remake the beliefs it has inherited. The opening chapter is an examination of the origins of Hopkins's and Jones's use of the sacramental sign and the subsequent chapters scrutinise the value of sign-making to the development of the poetic method of both poets. I suggest that this method is best elucidated through three controlling principles: the Coleridgean view of the sacramental potential of language helps to define the verbal content of the poem; the Thornist sacramental schema instresses the form of the poem; and the Newmanesque process of notional and real assent determines the grammar or inscape of the total oeuvre as a chronicle of the development of the poet's spiritual growth. Hopkins and Jones deepen our understanding of a grammar common to faith and belief, shared by poet and theologian, by claiming that poetry should be the tranforming crucible of the encounter between the experience of the poet, the reader and the divine.