The purpose of this research is to give a historical account of the educational developments for black students in Fairfax County, Virginia. The research will first address a brief history of education in Virginia. The second and third chapters will respectively address education for black students in the state and pre-Civil War education in Fairfax County. Chapters four and five will focus on the formation of post-Civil War public education in Fairfax County and the education of black students within the county. The author will fit the education of Fairfax County's black students into the context of education within the state of Virginia. Comparisons and contrasts can then be made regarding the quality of education offered to black students in Fairfax County. As with many southern communities, the growth of public education was affected by complacent attitudes, agrarian life styles, poor quality roads and lack of transportation. Fairfax County was no exception. Although numerous private and free schools existed prior to the Civil War, few received black students. The education of the black child, then, was left to the mercy and interest of those around him who chose to teach him basic reading and writing. Alexandria, for example, boasted of a large free black population--many of whom were educated in Alexandria when it was a part of Fairfax County. Both philanthropic and missionary agencies supported education for black students. After the Civil War other schools existed such as the Freedmen's Bureau schools. These schools functioned until 1871. By this time free public education was a reality in Virginia and the issue of placing both black and white children in the same school became the major topic of educational discussion. In an effort to avoid integration black students were sent outside of Fairfax County to Manassas and Washington. After years of struggle, Luther Jackson School was built within the county to educate Fairfax County's black students. Other schools were gradually built to accommodate the educational needs of the county's black students. Even though schools were built to educate black students, there were many disparities in terms of the quality of facilities within the buildings. Following the 1954 Brown Decision outlawing de jure segregation school assignment was not based on race for black or white children. As a result, parents could have a voice in school selection. In reality, the Brown Decision offered black parents more voice as these parents often sent their children to the formerly white schools. The general belief by whites was that black schools were inferior. Many of the formerly all-black schools eventually became administrative offices for Fairfax County Public Schools and black students began attending schools in their home districts. / Ed. D.

This dissertation examines whether a degree earned abroad is less valuable for Asianimmigrants in the U.S. labor market than for White immigrants and, if so, the reasons for such disparities. Many studies have documented the existence of a foreign education penalty. However, the underlying mechanisms for the lower returns to foreign education are still being determined. Building on the demographic heterogeneity framework, this study aims to advance our understanding of immigrants’ experience in the labor market by investigating whether the lower earnings returns for Asian immigrants with foreign education stem from lower educational quality/transferability, as suggested by the human capital approach, or from biased practices in the labor market, as proposed by credentialism. Methodologically, this study will compare the earnings outcomes of Asian immigrants to those of U.S.-born Whites as well as foreign-educated white immigrants. Using ACS data from 2015-2019 on White and Asian workers aged 25-64 with bachelor’s degrees or higher, I analyze the impact of STEM majors and the English-speaking proficiency of the sending country to explore the effect of human capital transferability. Then, I examine the effect of a country’s GDP per capita and the rates of tertiary education to capture the effect of educational quality. To access credentialism, I compare the earnings differences for Asian immigrants who earn degrees in regions more culturally or historically similar to the U.S. to those degrees earned in other regions. Then, I examine the residual earnings difference between foreign-educated White and Asian immigrants to access queuing theory. Finally, I separate the study population into subsamples of men and women to investigate whether Asian immigrants’ labor market disadvantages are contingent on gender. Chapter 2 to 5 can be read as a stand-alone study that uses nationally representative survey data to study the aspects listed above. Results from these analyses show that the earnings disadvantage of Asian immigrants educated in foreign countries is largely due to the limited transferability of their human capital in the U.S. labor market rather than to credentialism. Returns to foreign education are higher for immigrants with STEM degrees or from countries where English is an official language. In addition to the human capital transferability, this study also shows that White immigrants seem to have an advantage over Asian immigrants if they were educated in places with longer linguistic and cultural differences compared to the United States. In addition, my findings support the explanation that female immigrants’ varied family experiences and migration paths are different from those of their male counterparts, thus leading to their notable disadvantages in the labor markets. The results indicate that establishing clear and transparent processes for recognizing foreign academic and professional credentials is a critical way to alleviate the lower returns on Asian immigrants’ foreign credentials. / Sociology

Yes / Motion-in-depth can be detected by using two different types of binocular cues: change of disparity (CD) and inter-ocular velocity differences (IOVD). To investigate the underlying detection mechanisms, stimuli can be constructed that isolate these cues or contain both (FULL cue). Two different methods to isolate the IOVD cue can be employed: anti-correlated (aIOVD) and de-correlated (dIOVD) motion signals. While both types of stimuli have been used in studies investigating the perception of motion-in-depth, for the first time, we explore whether both stimuli isolate the same mechanism and how they differ in their relative efficacy. Here, we set out to directly compare aIOVD and dIOVD sensitivity by measuring motion coherence thresholds. In accordance with previous results by Czuba et al. (2010), we found that motion coherence thresholds were similar for aIOVD and FULL cue stimuli for most participants. Thresholds for dIOVD stimuli, however, differed consistently from thresholds for the two other cues, suggesting that aIOVD and dIOVD stimuli could be driving different visual mechanisms.

No / An algorithm for the rectification of uncalibrated images is presented and applied to a variety of cases. The algorithm generates the rectifying transformations directly from the geometrical relationship between the images, using any three correspondences in the images to define a reference plane. A small set of correspondences is used to calculate an initial rectification. Additional correspondences are introduced semi-automatically, by correlating regions of the rectified images. Since the rectified images of surfaces in the reference plane have no relative distortion, features can be matched very accurately by correlation, allowing small changes in disparity to be detected. In the 3-d reconstruction of an architectural scene, differences in depth are resolved to about 0.001 of the distance from camera to subject.

Prior research on intra-firm pay disparity suggests intra-firm pay disparity at various hierarchy levels affects firm performance and executive-level pay disparity is related to investment risk in the credit and the equity market. However, none of the studies examine the relationship between CEO-to-worker pay disparity and credit investment risk. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between CEO-to-worker pay disparity on credit investors' risk assessments. Large CEO-to-worker pay disparity could suggest CEO rent extraction which increases credit risk or effective labor cost management that decreases credit risk. Overall results of this study indicate increased CEO-to-worker pay disparity is associated with a lower cost of debt (a higher probability of credit rating upgrades). This association weakens as the growth rate of average employee pay increases and is more pronounced for labor-intensive firms than for capital-intensive firms, suggesting credit investors incorporate the information about the effectiveness of labor cost management in CEO-to-worker pay disparity in their risk assessments. In addition, the negative relationship between the change in CEO-to-worker pay disparity and the change in the cost of debt is less salient when CEO compensation increases rapidly. Further analysis shows the association is attenuated by increased excessive CEO compensation. The findings indicate credit investors also consider the risk arising from CEO rent extraction when they evaluate CEO-to-worker pay disparity. / Ph. D. / Prior research on pay disparity suggests pay disparity affects firm performance and investment risk in the credit and the equity market. However, none of the studies examine the relationship between CEO-to-worker pay disparity and credit investment risk. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between CEO-to-worker pay disparity on credit investors’ risk assessments. Large CEO-to-worker pay disparity could suggest CEOs’ self-interest maximization which increases credit risk. It could also suggest effectively controlled employee pay that decreases credit risk. Overall results in this study indicate increased CEO-to-worker pay disparity is associated with a lower cost of debt. This association weakens as the growth rate of average employee pay increases and is more pronounced for labor-intensive firms than for capital-intensive firms, suggesting credit investors incorporate the information about the effectiveness of labor cost management in CEO-to-worker pay disparity in their risk assessments. In addition, the negative relationship between the change in CEO-to-worker pay disparity and the change in the cost of debt is less salient when CEO compensation increases rapidly. Further analysis shows the association is attenuated by increased excessive CEO compensation. The findings indicate credit investors also consider the risk arising from CEO rent extraction when they evaluate CEO-to-worker pay disparity.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第25480号 / 経博第692号 / 新制||経||306(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 西山 慶彦, 教授 江上 雅彦, 准教授 柳 貴英 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

Intelligent vehicles require perception systems with high performances. Usually, perception system consists of multiple sensors, such as cameras, 2D/3D lidars or radars. The works presented in this Ph.D thesis concern several topics on cameras and lidar based perception for understanding dynamic scenes in urban environments. The works are composed of four parts.In the first part, a stereo vision based visual odometry is proposed by comparing several different approaches of image feature detection and feature points association. After a comprehensive comparison, a suitable feature detector and a feature points association approach is selected to achieve better performance of stereo visual odometry. In the second part, independent moving objects are detected and segmented by the results of visual odometry and U-disparity image. Then, spatial features are extracted by a kernel-PCA method and classifiers are trained based on these spatial features to recognize different types of common moving objects e.g. pedestrians, vehicles and cyclists. In the third part, an extrinsic calibration method between a 2D lidar and a stereoscopic system is proposed. This method solves the problem of extrinsic calibration by placing a common calibration chessboard in front of the stereoscopic system and 2D lidar, and by considering the geometric relationship between the cameras of the stereoscopic system. This calibration method integrates also sensor noise models and Mahalanobis distance optimization for more robustness. At last, dynamic occupancy grid mapping is proposed by 3D reconstruction of the environment, obtained from stereovision and Lidar data separately and then conjointly. An improved occupancy grid map is obtained by estimating the pitch angle between ground plane and the stereoscopic system. The moving object detection and recognition results (from the first and second parts) are incorporated into the occupancy grid map to augment the semantic meanings. All the proposed and developed methods are tested and evaluated with simulation and real data acquired by the experimental platform "intelligent vehicle SetCar" of IRTES-SET laboratory.

This thesis deals with the task of three-dimensional scene reconstruction using image data obtained from multiple views. It is assumed that intrinsic parameters of the utilized cameras are known. The theoretical chapters describe the basic priciples of individual reconstruction steps. Variuous possible implementaions of data model suitable for this task are also described. The practical part also includes a comparison of false keypoint correspondence filtering, implementation of polar stereo rectification and comparison of disparity map calculation methods that are bundled with the OpenCV library. In the final portion of the thesis, examples of reconstructed 3D models are presented and discussed.

In our aging society, the design and implementation of a high-performance autonomous distributed vision information system for autonomous physical services become ever more important. In line with this development, the proposed Intelligent Vision Agent System, IVAS, is able to automatically detect and identify a target for a specific task by surveying a human activities space. The main subject of this thesis is the optimal configuration of a sensor system meant to capture the target objects and their environment within certain required specifications. The thesis thus discusses how a discrete sensor causes a depth spatial quantisation uncertainty, which significantly contributes to the 3D depth reconstruction accuracy. For a sensor stereo pair, the quantisation uncertainty is represented by the intervals between the iso-disparity surfaces. A mathematical geometry model is then proposed to analyse the iso-disparity surfaces and optimise the sensors’ configurations according to the required constrains. The thesis also introduces the dithering algorithm which significantly reduces the depth reconstruction uncertainty. This algorithm assures high depth reconstruction accuracy from a few images captured by low-resolution sensors. To ensure the visibility needed for surveillance, tracking, and 3D reconstruction, the thesis introduces constraints of the target space, the stereo pair characteristics, and the depth reconstruction accuracy. The target space, the space in which human activity takes place, is modelled as a tetrahedron, and a field of view in spherical coordinates is proposed. The minimum number of stereo pairs necessary to cover the entire target space and the arrangement of the stereo pairs’ movement is optimised through integer linear programming. In order to better understand human behaviour and perception, the proposed adaptive measurement method makes use of a fuzzily defined variable, FDV. The FDV approach enables an estimation of a quality index based on qualitative and quantitative factors. The suggested method uses a neural network as a tool that contains a learning function that allows the integration of the human factor into a quantitative quality index. The thesis consists of two parts, where Part I gives a brief overview of the applied theory and research methods used, and Part II contains the five papers included in the thesis.

Individer har en systematisk tendens att favorisera medlemmar i ens egen grupp och diskriminera de som tillhör en annan grupp, trots minimala grunder för gruppindelning. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om social interaktion mellan individer i grupper påverkar denna särbehandlingstendens. I sådana fall, kan detta komma att yttra sig genom bland annat skillnader i kunskapsutbyte och spridning av information mellan de anställda på en arbetsplats. Grupper delades in slumpmässigt och särbehandlingen mättes via poängfördelning. Datainsamlingen skedde via både experiment (n = 41) och enkät (n = 135) samt med tre olika nivåer av social interaktion. Undersökningsdeltagarna fördelade mer poäng till sin egen grupp, än till den andra gruppen. Däremot påverkade varken grad av social interaktion eller typ av metod poängfördelningen. Vid samtliga tillfällen var det mellan en tredjedel till strax över hälften av undersökningsdeltagarna som särbehandlade. Slutsatsen är att även vid en slumpmässig gruppindelning så kommer en särbehandlingstendens att ske.