<p>The purpose of this thesis is to disentangle the causes behind differences in regional employment across the 81 Swedish LA regions. Thus, two questions will be answered; which factors causes regional disparity in employment and which where the least and the</p><p>most affected regions during the economic crises of the 1990’s? The answer to these questions are imposed by certain chosen restrictions, where only the situation within two manufacturing industries will be investigated; the car- and machine manufacturing sectors. Previous research claim that there are specific factors that influence and creates regional growth disparity. Among these factors can be found; education, infrastructure, demography, industry diversity and migration. Statistical data then enables a division of the regions on basis of the change in employment level within the manufacturing industries as a share of total employment. It is revealed that the most affected regions during an economic shock are those areas that have the highest employment ratio within these manufacturing sectors. The empirical findings indicates that in the case of Swedish manufacturing industries especially three factors influence the employment level; population, education and migration. Additionally, distance to a larger city is proven to be</p><p>significant during recessions while being insignificant during economic booms. The last factor, diversity, on the other hand indicates that the correlation is the reverse. Hence, diversity has an impact during economic upswings, while this is not the case during downturns. With the development during the 90’s as a reference, the same method is used to locate today’s most vulnerable industrial regions. Statistics show that Ljungby is at the top</p><p>of this list. When studying the strategic development plan for this region it is found that this area follows a policy in line with those variables that this thesis has pin-pointed to be</p><p>beneficial for regional growth. Hence, this region has taken beneficial policy steps in order to decrease the dependency on a vulnerable and market sensitive industrial sector.</p> / <p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda varför anställningsgraden skiljer sig mellan de 81 svenska LA regionerna. De två frågor som skall besvaras är följaktligen; vilka faktorer påverkar skillnader i sysselsättningsgrad samt utpeka vilka regioner var de minst och mest</p><p>drabbade under 1990-talets ekonomiska kris? Dessa frågor har dock begränsats till att undersöka förhållandet inom två tillverkningsindustrier; bil- och maskintillverkning.</p><p>Tidigare forskning hävdar att det finns vissa specifika faktorer som påverkar och skapar regionala skillnader i tillväxt. Bland dessa kan nämnas utbildning, infrastruktur, demografi, diversitet och migration. Den deskriptiva statistiken delar därefter upp Sveriges regioner på basis av förändringen i anställning inom de två valda industrisektorerna som en del av totala sysselsättningen. De hårdast drabbade regionerna under en lågkonjunktur är deregioner som har störst andel av totala arbetskraften inom tillverkningsindustrin. Vidare indikerar de empiriska resultaten att för svensk tillverkningsindustris vidkommande så har främst population, utbildning samt migration ett starkt samband med</p><p>sysselsättningsfrekvensen. Vidare visar det sig att avståndet till en större stad har en inverkan under lågkonjunktur men ej under högkonjunktur. För den sista variabeln, grad av diversitet, visar sig sambandet vara det motsatta; det vill säga ingen påverkan under en konjunkturnedgång, medan en positiv influens under konjunkturuppgång. Med händelseutvecklingen från 90-talet som grund kan samma metod användas för att lokalisera dagens mest sårbara industriregioner. Statistiken visar att Ljungby toppar denna lista. Men då man studerar denna regions framtids- och utvecklingsmål följer dessa just de faktorer som denna uppsats utpekar som viktiga ingredienser för regional tillväxt. Följaktligen har denna region tagit positiva steg i riktning mot att minska sitt beroende av en sårbar och konjunkturkänslig industrisektor.</p>

This study aims to analyze China’s regional disparity during 1997-2006 by adopting Keng’s (2004) general equilibrium analysis. China’s 31 provinces are divided into ten regions. The intra- and inter regional disparity as well as the Effective Regional Disparity (ERD) are all investigated in this study. Based on ample quantitative findings, in 2006, the largest intra-regional disparity existed in the Coastal North while the smallest intra-regional disparity existed in the Inner West. The largest inter-regional disparity existed between the Coastal East and the Inner South not between the richest region (the Coastal North) and the poorest region (the Inner West). This study also uses the Effective Regional Disparity (ERD) to understand the magnitude of an individual province’s contribution to the overall regional disparity. The top five on the ERD ranking of China’s 21 lower income provinces in 2006 were Henan, Sichuan, Anhui, Hebei, and Hunan. Hence, in order to reduce the regional disparity, the Chinese central government needs to focus on the heavily populated provinces in the Inner area rather than in the West.

In the United States, the number of female entrepreneurs who receive venture capital funding is significantly lower than the number of male entrepreneurs who receive venture capital funding. This thesis explores some of the economic, sociological, and psychological principles behind why this gender disparity in venture capital might exist. This thesis then surveys the current efforts in place to lessen the disparity, and lastly prescribes future ways in which female entrepreneurs can gain more access to capital for their businesses.

The choice to breastfeed a baby is a woman's concern with impact reaching beyond each individual mother and child to longer term health and mental health outcomes for society. The U.S. government has made increasing breastfeeding rates one of its major public health goals for 2010. Breastfeeding is a health disparity issue with mothers who are poor, young, less educated or Black less likely to breastfeed. This project examined impacts of sexual perceptions of breastfeeding, social support, and work on breastfeeding choices made by a sample of low income mothers. A cross-sectional survey design was employed to examine potential barriers to breastfeeding experienced by a random sample of mothers served by the federal nutrition support program WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) in a geographically central region of Virginia. WIC is the federal nutrition support program for low income pregnant women, infants, and young children. A survey questionnaire was completed through structured interviews or mailed questionnaires with WIC participant mothers with a baby between 6 and 18 months of age. Both breastfeeding and formula feeding mothers were included in the sample. One hundred and forty mothers identified their infant feeding choices in their babies' first six months. They answered questions about positive and negative breastfeeding experiences related to social support, work, and their attitudes regarding public breastfeeding and sexual perceptions of breastfeeding. The creation of a scale to measure sexual perceptions of breastfeeding is a primary contribution of the study. Social support, work, and sexual perception variables as well as demographic variables were used in logistic and linear regression models to explain mothers' breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration choices. Further, mothers also expressed their perspectives on breastfeeding choices and experiences in their own words through open-ended questions in the survey/interview.Results of the study found that social and professional support, discomfort with public breastfeeding, time spent away from baby for work, not being married or partnered, and possessing a lower level of education did constrain the initiation and/or duration of breastfeeding for this low income sample of mothers. Qualitative data added description of mothers' experiences with these breastfeeding constraints.

The population of the United States is increasingly gaining weight each year.Americans are heavier than they have ever been. African American women are at the forefront of this pandemic. This study addresses the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among African American women in comparison to White women. Behavioral, psychological, and social known contributors to overweight and obesity using the National Health Interview Survey, 2001 dataset were examined in this study. The research concluded that even when controlling for vigorous exercise, education, income, depression, emotional support, smoking, health coverage, and age, race is the most important predictor of body mass index. Consistent with previous studies, strong race effects still remained.

La microfinance en Egypte comme en Tunisie répond depuis plusieurs décennies à un besoin permanent des populations qui sont exclues du système financier formel. Ces populations n’ont d’autres sources de financement que celles mises à disposition par les institutions de microfinance. Ces financements sont majoritairement axés sur le microcrédit, l’épargne, et les produits d’assurance. Notre recherche interroge l’influence et la capacité que la microfinance exerce dans les deux pays notamment pour leur participation à un autre mode de développement, local et socialement soutenable. Pour répondre à ces interrogations nous avons adopté une méthodologie mixte (recherche documentaire, interviews et enquêtes par questionnaires).Cette méthodologie a permis de mieux éclairer le problème de la microfinance à travers une typologie des institutions impliquées et de la capacité de ces institutions à faire face à la demande des populations dans les zones périurbaines et rurales de la Tunisie et de l’Egypte. Notre principale contribution théorique est de mettre en évidence que cet ensemble d’éléments constitutifs permet une analyse de l’impact de la microfinance sur le développement dans ces deux pays. Dans quelle mesure a-t-elle permis à la population de sortir de la pauvreté, quelle est sa place dans le développement local notamment dans les zones rurales et dans la périphérie des grandes villes du Caire et de Tunis ? Telles sont les principales questions que nous avons pu traiter. / Microfinance in Egypt and in Tunisia as well has been given for decades an answer to the permanent need from populations that are excluded from the formal banking system. These populations have no other sources of finance than that of microfinance. These funds are mainly, microcredit, savings and insurance. Our research questions the influence and the capacity that microfinance exerts upon both countries especially on their participation to another development mode, local and socially sustainable. To address these questions we adopted a hybrid methodology (in depth documentation, interviews and surveys with questionnaires).This method has permitted to shed a better light on the microfinance issue through a typology of microfinance institutions and through their ability to meet the demand from the populations of rural and suburban areas in Tunisia and Egypt. Our main theoretical contribution is to make it clear that this whole set of elements allows an analysis about the impact of microfinance on development. To what extent does it enable the people to escape from poverty, what is its place in the local development especially in the rural and suburban areas in the large cities like Tunis and Cairo ? Here are the main questions we could deal with.

Détection d’hétérogénéités linéaires dans les textures directionnelles – application à la détection de failles en sismique de réflexion: les méthodes développées concernent la classe particulière de textures directionnelles. Dans un premier chapitre, nous rappelons la notion de texture, le concept de contour et le contexte applicatif concernant l’imagerie sismique. Le deuxième chapitre a pour objet l’analyse des différentes contributions que l’on peut trouver dans la littérature concernant la détection de contours dans le contexte des images texturées: les approches qui relèvent du domaine de la géophysique et les méthodes proposées par la communauté des traiteurs d’image pour la détection de contours. Le troisième chapitre regroupe nos propositions: une approche basée sur une un critère géométrique, une variante récursive robuste et une extension alliant mesure 2D et diffusion 3D. Ces propositions sont validées par une analyse quantitative par rapport aux méthodes existantes. / Linear disparity detection in directional textures – application to fault detection in seismic images: the developed approaches deal with the particular family of directional textures. In the first chapter the notion of texture and the concept of contour are introduced. Also, a detailed presentation of the application concerning seismic imagery is presented in the first chapter. The object of the second chapter is the analysis of the different contributions concerning edge and contour detection in textured images found in the literature: the approaches used in the field of geophysics and the approaches proposed by the image processing community. The third chapter regroups our contributions: a geometric criterion based approach, a recursive robust extension of the geometric approach and a 3D recursive robust extension combining a 2D measure and a 3D diffusion technique. Apart the qualitative comparisons, these contributions are validated by a quantitative analysis in comparison with the existing methods.

The thesis describes and analyses the development of foreign direct investments in Czech Republic with emphasis on state and regional level. The goal of my thesis, focusing on the topic "Regional differences of foreign direct investments", is to answer the question if foreign direct investments help to decrease the regional disparities. The first part of the thesis oves more detail sof FDI definition, types, factors of localizations and barriers. Second part of the thesis answers the question if FDI brings positive impact to economic development. The third part defines the regions supported by government. The main part of the thesis analyses the development of FDI in Czech Republic and two levels of districts during 2000-2008. In the last part of the thesis are mentioned two examples of foreign direct investment localizated in Czech Republic, in different districts.

O trabalho apresentado por essa dissertação busca contribuir com a atenuação do problema da correspondência em visão estéreo a partir de uma abordagem local de soluções. São usadas duas estratégias como solução às ambigüidades e às oclusões da cena: a análise multi-resolução das imagens empregando a estrutura piramidal, e a força de agrupamento perceptual, conhecida como Gestalt theory na psicologia. Inspirado no sistema visual humano, a visão estéreo é uma área de grande interesse em visão computacional, e está relacionada à recuperação de informações tridimensionais de uma cena a partir de imagens da mesma. Para isso, as imagens são capturadas em posições diferentes para o futuro relacionamento das várias projeções de um mesmo ponto 3D. Apesar de ser estudada há quase quatro décadas, ela ainda apresenta problemas de difícil solução devido às dificuldades relacionadas às distorções produzidas pela mudança da perspectiva de visualização. Dentre esses problemas destacam-se os relacionados à oclusão de pontos e também à ambigüidade gerada pela repetição ou ausência de textura nas imagens. Esses por sua vez compõem a base do problema estéreo, chamado de problema da correspondência. Os resultados obtidos são equivalentes aos obtidos por técnicas globais, com a vantagem de requerer menor complexidade computacional. O uso da teoria de agrupamento perceptual faz desse trabalho um método moderno de estimação de disparidades, visto que essa técnica é alvo de atenção especial em recentes estudos na área de visão computacional. / This work aims to give a contribution to the correspondence problem using a local approach. Two strategies are used as solution to ambiguities and occlusions: the multi-resolution analysis with irnages pyramids and the other is the perceptual grouping weight, called Gestalt theory in the psychology. Inspired by human vision system, the stereo vision is an very important area in computer vision. It is related with the 3D information recovery from a pair of images. The images are captured frorn different positions to hereafter association of the 3D point projections. Although it has being studied for quite a long time, stereo vision presents some difficult problems, related to the change of visualisation perspective. Among the different problems originated from point of view changes, occlusions and ambiguities have special attention and compose the foundation of stereo problem, named correspondence problem. The results obtained were closer to the ones generated by global techniques, with the advantage of requiring less computational complexity. The use of Gestalt theory makes this a modern disparity estimation method, as this theory has been received special attention in computer vision researchs.

O trabalho apresentado por essa dissertação busca contribuir com a atenuação do problema da correspondência em visão estéreo a partir de uma abordagem local de soluções. São usadas duas estratégias como solução às ambigüidades e às oclusões da cena: a análise multi-resolução das imagens empregando a estrutura piramidal, e a força de agrupamento perceptual, conhecida como Gestalt theory na psicologia. Inspirado no sistema visual humano, a visão estéreo é uma área de grande interesse em visão computacional, e está relacionada à recuperação de informações tridimensionais de uma cena a partir de imagens da mesma. Para isso, as imagens são capturadas em posições diferentes para o futuro relacionamento das várias projeções de um mesmo ponto 3D. Apesar de ser estudada há quase quatro décadas, ela ainda apresenta problemas de difícil solução devido às dificuldades relacionadas às distorções produzidas pela mudança da perspectiva de visualização. Dentre esses problemas destacam-se os relacionados à oclusão de pontos e também à ambigüidade gerada pela repetição ou ausência de textura nas imagens. Esses por sua vez compõem a base do problema estéreo, chamado de problema da correspondência. Os resultados obtidos são equivalentes aos obtidos por técnicas globais, com a vantagem de requerer menor complexidade computacional. O uso da teoria de agrupamento perceptual faz desse trabalho um método moderno de estimação de disparidades, visto que essa técnica é alvo de atenção especial em recentes estudos na área de visão computacional. / This work aims to give a contribution to the correspondence problem using a local approach. Two strategies are used as solution to ambiguities and occlusions: the multi-resolution analysis with irnages pyramids and the other is the perceptual grouping weight, called Gestalt theory in the psychology. Inspired by human vision system, the stereo vision is an very important area in computer vision. It is related with the 3D information recovery from a pair of images. The images are captured frorn different positions to hereafter association of the 3D point projections. Although it has being studied for quite a long time, stereo vision presents some difficult problems, related to the change of visualisation perspective. Among the different problems originated from point of view changes, occlusions and ambiguities have special attention and compose the foundation of stereo problem, named correspondence problem. The results obtained were closer to the ones generated by global techniques, with the advantage of requiring less computational complexity. The use of Gestalt theory makes this a modern disparity estimation method, as this theory has been received special attention in computer vision researchs.