The life expectancy development during the past 150 years has been remarkable in many parts of the world. These developments, however, have been very different across countries. In Europe, the diverse historical and political changes lead to clusters of regions that followed different mortality developments. The aim of this study was to examine how countries that entered the European Union in 2004 and 2007 differ in terms of mortality from continuous members of the EU and from Eastern European countries that have never joined the EU. Moreover, I studied a possible convergence in mortality indicators between these groups of countries. The data used to explore mortality conditions in those groups of countries was derived from two sources: The Human Mortality Database and European Health for All Database. Descriptive statistics and calculations of average yearly pace of change for groups of countries have been applied for each mortality indicator. Furthermore, regression models have been conducted to estimate the impact of belonging to a country group on mortality indicators, adjusted for some macro-level indicators of economic progress and health expenditure. The results verified previous research implying the importance of period factors which can affect mortality in the short term. For all mortality indicators, accelerated improvements between 1995 and 1999 have been found in countries who became EU members in 2004. Moreover, life expectancy convergence was observed for life expectancy at birth but not for the older ages which could imply that the positive progress affected older ages to smaller degree. My findings confirm the importance of social environment and imply that the process of joining the EU possibly could reduce social stress and affect mortality conditions positively.

This thesis examines the role of human capital in the growth and convergence of the Iberian countries. Using a newly computed series for human capital at the NUTS III level for the Portuguese regions, the comparison between Portugal and Spain suggests a positive role for human capital proxied by the average years of schooling in both Iberian countries regional growth, which supports the hypothesis that higher levels of education improved the regions‟ ability to adopt new technology; although the levels of education indicate that secondary schooling is important for technology adoption in Portugal, but not in Spain, and its effect is higher than that of tertiary education. Using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), two convergence clubs are identified within the Iberia Peninsula (Core and Periphery), but convergence occurs mainly in the Periphery group and education plays a positive and significant role only in the Core club.

Student Number : 0413210T - MSc dissertation - School of Mathematics - Faculty of Science / The aim of this work is to do a literature study on spaces of martingales on Riesz spaces and Banach lattices, using [16, 19, 20, 17, 18, 2, 30] as a point of departure. Convergence of martingales in the classical theory of stochastic processes has many applications in mathematics and related areas. Operator theoretic approaches to the classical theory of stochastic processes and martingale theory in particular, can be found in, for example, [4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 26, 27]. The classical theory of stochastic processes for scalar-valued measurable functions on a probability space ( ,#6;, μ) utilizes the measure space ( ,#6;, μ), the norm structure of the associated Lp(μ)-spaces as well as the order structure of these spaces. Motivated by the existing operator theoretic approaches to classical stochastic processes, a theory of discrete-time stochastic processes has been developed in [16, 19, 20, 17, 18] on Dedekind complete Riesz spaces with weak order units. This approach is measure-free and utilizes only the order structure of the given Riesz space. Martingale convergence in the Riesz space setting is considered in [18]. It was shown there that the spaces of order bounded martingales and order convergent martingales, on a Dedekind complete Riesz space with a weak order unit, coincide. A measure-free approach to martingale theory on Banach lattices with quasi-interior points has been given in [2]. Here, the groundwork was done to generalize the notion of a filtration on a vector-valued Lp-space to the M-tensor product of a Banach space and a Banach lattice (see [1]). In [30], a measure-free approaches to martingale theory on Banach lattices is given. The main results in [30] show that the space of regular norm bounded martingales and the space of norm bounded martingales on a Banach lattice E are Banach lattices in a natural way provided that, for the former, E is an order continuous Banach lattice, and for the latter, E is a KB-space. The definition of a ”martingale” defined on a particular space depends on the type of space under consideration and on the ”filtration,” which is a sequence of operators defined on the space. Throughout this dissertation, we shall consider Riesz spaces, Riesz spaces with order units, Banach spaces, Banach lattices and Banach lattices with quasi-interior points. Our definition of a ”filtration” will, therefore, be determined by the type of space under consideration and will be adapted to suit the case at hand. In Chapter 2, we consider convergent martingale theory on Riesz spaces. This chapter is based on the theory of martingales and their properties on Dedekind complete Riesz spaces with weak order units, as can be found in [19, 20, 17, 18]. The notion of a ”filtration” in this setting is generalized to Riesz spaces. The space of martingales with respect to a given filtration on a Riesz space is introduced and an ordering defined on this space. The spaces of regular, order bounded, order convergent and generated martingales are introduced and properties of these spaces are considered. In particular, we show that the space of regular martingales defined on a Dedekind complete Riesz space is again a Riesz space. This result, in this context, we believe is new. The contents of Chapter 3 is convergent martingale theory on Banach lattices. We consider the spaces of norm bounded, norm convergent and regular norm bounded martingales on Banach lattices. In [30], filtrations (Tn) on the Banach lattice E which satisfy the condition 1[n=1 R(Tn) = E, where R(Tn) denotes the range of the filtration, are considered. We do not make this assumption in our definition of a filtration (Tn) on a Banach lattice. Our definition yields equality (in fact, a Riesz and isometric isomorphism) between the space of norm convergent martingales and 1Sn=1R(Tn). The aforementioned main results in [30] are also considered in this chapter. All the results pertaining to martingales on Banach spaces in subsections 3.1.1, 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 we believe are new. Chapter 4 is based on the theory of martingales on vector-valued Lp-spaces (cf. [4]), on its extension to the M-tensor product of a Banach space and a Banach lattice as introduced by Chaney in [1] (see also [29]) and on [2]. We consider filtrations on tensor products of Banach lattices and Banach spaces as can be found in [2]. We show that if (Sn) is a filtration on a Banach lattice F and (Tn) is a filtration on a Banach space X, then 1[n=1 R(Tn Sn) = 1[n=1 R(Tn) e M 1[n=1 R(Sn). This yields a distributive property for the space of convergent martingales on the M-tensor product of X and F. We consider the continuous dual of the space of martingales and apply our results to characterize dual Banach spaces with the Radon- Nikod´ym property. We use standard notation and terminology as can be found in standard works on Riesz spaces, Banach spaces and vector-valued Lp-spaces (see [4, 23, 29, 31]). However, for the convenience of the reader, notation and terminology used are included in the Appendix at the end of this work. We hope that this will enhance the pace of readability for those familiar with these standard notions.

The goal of this research study is to develop a model of information that will enable media conglomerates and other companies, with theme park investments, to make informed and effective decisions based on scholarly and empirical evidences. In order to do this, the following research study uses historic, scholarly, journalistic, and focus group evidences to consolidate the information necessary to create a model to support concepts and designs. The paper begins with establishing why it is important for media conglomerates, with theme park investments, to integrate cinema into the park’s design. Then it looks back through the history of cinema and theme parks, identifying the similarities and differences. Furthermore, it analyzes the development of Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland. The study uses the history of Hollywood from its beginning to the decentralization to parallel the development of the movie-based theme park, and how the decentralization of Hollywood and the rise of the movie-based theme park support one another. As the idea of the convergence of one media with another is not a new concept, information on media convergence is used as part of the scholarly research in this area. Because movies and movie-based attractions are each forms of storytelling, the study includes prolific information on media, film, literary, and psychological theories as supporting evidence. The empirical research method utilized in the research, specific to this study, includes four focus groups in Florida, New York City, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles and one interview with a theme park president. Throughout the study, concepts of narrative, spectacle, pleasure, character, and setting are addressed in terms of how these elements work in movies and movie-based theme park attractions.

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures En vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître en droit (LL.M.)" / This thesis aims to consider the debates in the field of corporate governance in the fact that there have been and will be dramatic changes in the structure of corporate activities, such as the nature of work and the organization of corporations, as well as the influences of reforms in the financial reforms. Moreover, the emergence of institutional investment in the financial markets, the process of globalization and the development of electronic commerce have the influences on the corporate governance both in Canada and in China. There is an immense magnitude of discussion on various aspects of corporate governance in the academic field. This thesis will focus on comparing two rather distinctive systems of corporate governance, with respect to three specific aspects of the corporate governance. Those are: the board of directors, the role of shareholders, the roles of banks and investors in the two countries, also the reforms in China. Moreover, the convergence of the two corporate governance systems is introduced. / Le présent mémoire vise à faire enquête sur de tels débats dans le domaine de gouvernance des sociétés pour le fait qu'il y a ou aura de changements dramatiques dans la structure des activités des sociétés, par exemple, la nature de travail et l'organisation des corporations, ainsi que les influences des réformes financières. De plus, l'émergence de l'investissement institutionnel dans Ie marché financier, la progression de globalisation et le developpement du commerce électronique ont d'influence sur gouvernance des sociétés tant au Canada qu'en Chine. II y a une magnitude immense de discussion sur les aspects variés de gouvernance des sociétés dans le domaine académique. Ce mémoire présente une étude de comparaison détaillée sur les deux systèmes différents de gouvernance des sociétés concernant trois aspects spéciaux de gouvernance des sociétés, y compris le conseil d'administration, les rôles des banques et les investisseurs dans les deux États, ainsi que les réformes en Chine, de plus, la convergence des deux systèmes de gouvernance des sociétés est introduite.

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

In this paper, we look at a media controversy that took effect at the release of the third game of the Mass Effect videogame series. The fans hated the ending of the game and demanded the publisher change it, which later happened. The fans have thus been given a certain amount of power and influence that wasn't too standard. The first part of the paper deals with videogame theory - we talk about the expressive power of videogames and how it can influence people. With the help of Henry Jenkins and Pierre Lévy we then showcase several media theories which attempt to explain the relationship between the fans, authors and content. Central to this paper is a qualitative research of chosen internet forum posts where we have attempted to learn the reasons for the fans' outrage. In the summary, we summarize what we have learned so far and attempt to put it all together.

The thesis focuses on the status of the blogosphere in traditional journalism. It defines blogs, describes their history, typology and audience, which has changed from passive recipients of media content to its active creators. The thesis depicts convergence as a process in which amateur journalists affect the institution of traditional journalism by publishing online. This gave rise to a new phenomenon, called participative journalism, which is a potential source of discrepancy between traditional and new media. The thesis voices mutual criticism and arguments from both professional journalists and bloggers. This need not prevail if these two media systems learn to live in symbiosis. The thesis further mentions the legal protection of bloggers in the Czech Republic and the democratizing potential of the blogosphere. The conducted qualitative research is based on twelve structured in-depth respondent interviews (both bloggers and editors) and focuses on the cooperation between lifestyle magazines (and newspapers) and bloggers. It examines motivations to take up the cooperation, its progress and its advantages and disadvantages. The research demonstrates that a symbiotic relationship is possible. It also discusses some notions introduced in the theoretical part of the thesis.

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce theoretical and analytical approaches to mortality convergence and divergence tendencies and assessment of these tendencies in the European area since late 1950s using selected analytical tools. In the considered period fundamental changes in mortality development in Europe were observed. The theoretical part of this study deals with the assumptions of mortality convergence and divergence which are included in significant demographic theories and concepts. In the practical part of this thesis, there are analyzed convergence and divergence tendencies of life expectancy at birth in 28 European countries between the years 1959 and 2009 using selected basic statistical characteristics of variability as well as of indicators that consider state population size. Divergence tendencies of mortality since the 1970s are documented and quantified, the specific development of convergence and divergence from the mortality point of view in post-communist states at the end of the 20th century is observed. Next, possibilities of future convergence of mortality in the Czech Republic to states with more favorable initial mortality conditions on the basis of the development of life expectancy at the exact age of 65 in the period 1990-2009 are evaluated. According to this approach,...

Title: Analysis of Krylov subspace methods Author: Tomáš Gergelits Department: Department of Numerical Mathematics Supervisor: prof. Ing. Zdeněk Strakoš, DrSc. Abstract: After the derivation of the Conjugate Gradient method (CG) and the short review of its relationship with other fields of mathematics, this thesis is focused on its convergence behaviour both in exact and finite precision arith- metic. Fundamental difference between the CG and the Chebyshev semi-iterative method is described in detail. Then we investigate the use of the widespread lin- ear convergence bound based on Chebyshev polynomials. Through the example of the composite polynomial convergence bounds it is showed that the effects of rounding errors must be included in any consideration concerning the CG rate of convergence relevant to practical computations. Furthermore, the close corre- spondence between the trajectories of the CG approximations generated in finite precision and exact arithmetic is studied. The thesis is concluded with the discus- sion concerning the sensitivity of the closely related Gauss-Christoffel quadrature. The last two topics may motivate our further research. Keywords: Conjugate Gradient Method, Chebyshev semi-iterative method, fi- nite precision computations, delay of convergence, composite polynomial conver-...