License plate recognition (LPR) technology has great importance for the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems by automatically identifying the vehicles using image processing and pattern recognition techniques. Conventional LPR systems consist of license plate detection (LPD), character segmentation (CS) and character recognition (CR) steps. Successful detection of license plate and character locations have vital role for proper LPR. Most LPD and CS techniques in the literature assume fixed distance and orientation from the vehicle to the imaging system. Hence, application areas of LPR systems using these techniques are limited to stationary platforms. However, installation of LPR systems on mobile platforms is required in many applications and algorithms that are invariant to distance, orientation, and illumination should be developed for this purpose. In this thesis work, a LPD algorithm that is based on multi-scale vertical edge density feature, and a character segmentation algorithm based on local thresholding and connected component analysis operations are proposed. Performance of the proposed algorithm is measured using ground truth positions of the license plate and characters. Algorithm parameters are optimized using recall and precision curves. Proposed techniques for each step give satisfying results for different license plate datasets and algorithm complexity is proper for real-time implementation if optimized.

Met lit. opg. / Ook een bijdrage in het Engels.

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Congestion is one of the most pressing urban issues Texans face today — it imposes steep social and economic costs on citizens and businesses and shows no sign of subsiding without substantial intervention. This thesis will argue that in the current environment of austerity and sharp political tension, it is of critical importance to implement low cost, politically amicable strategies to manage congestion. Flexible work arrangements like telework and flextime have been developed in the private sector as a cost-saving measure and as a reward for exceptional employees. When workers adopt a non-traditional schedule, the transportation network benefits as vehicles are removed or shifted from the peak period. Despite being widely available, non-traditional work arrangements are little used by employers and employees since both parties are uncertain if the new arrangement will benefit their career path and job security. Recently, public agencies and executives have launched programs and passed mandates that force or greatly incentivize employers to adopt flexible work arrangements. The case studies examined in this thesis show that modern programs can provide cheap, temporary congestion relief for urban areas while substantially benefitting the businesses and agencies who adopt them. / text

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It is well recognized that there are imperfections in the market for knowledge transfer due to the nature of ideas and inventions. This is consistent with market failures commonly discussed in the economics of information literature. Some of the impediments to efficiency axe examined here in three essays—one empirical, one theoretical, and one case study—all of which share the theme of scientific knowledge movement. The first essay is empirical and measures the systematic effects of direct interaction and geographic distance between university and firm scientists on the economic performance of imported inventions. This study concludes that, with respect to licensing royalties, scientific interaction has an elasticity of approximately 3 at the mean, which is highly robust, and that distance does not have a significant effect after controlling for interaction. This suggests imperfections in the market for know-how that are sensitive to distance. The second essay is a case study of an invention from the area of robotics and control systems and augments the empirical work presented in the previous essay by illustrating specific reasons why interaction was important for the commercialization of one particular early stage invention. The third essay develops a game theoretic model involving the strategic manipulation of incentives by an incumbent to create an 'intellectual property commons' for the purpose of preventing the commercial development of a disruptive technology that would otherwise threaten existing industry margins. The strategy of spoiling incentives to commercialize public sector scientific inventions by eliminating exclusive intellectual property rights—the strategy of the commons—is motivated by a fear of cannibalization and supported by a credible threat. It is shown that the degree of cannibalization to which the new technology exposes the old market is responsible for this market failure.

Aštuntajame XX a. dešimtmetyje išplitus skaitmeninėms technologijoms ir didžiajai daliai žmogaus gyvenimo persikėlus į skaitmeninę erdvę, autorių teisių įstatymai ėmė nebeatitikti susiklosčiusios situacijos ir nepagrįstai riboti informacijos sklaidą bei prieinamumą internete. Siekiant padėti autoriams ir kūrinių naudotojams išspręsti šias problemas bei skaitmeninėje erdvėje sukurti protingą ir lanksčią autorių teisių apsaugos sistemą, 2001 m. buvo įkurta Creative Commons organizacija, 2002 m. pasiūliusi visuomenei autorių teisių suteikimo sutartis – Creative Commons licencijas. Šios skaitmeninės formos sutartys įgalina autorių ar jo teisių turėtoją suteikti teisę kitiems asmenims neribotą laiką, bet kurioje pasaulio valstybėje, nemokamai naudotis sutartyje aiškiai nurodytomis autorių turtinėmis teisėmis į skaitmeninės formos literatūros, mokslo ar meno kūrinį. Tačiau naudojantis bendruoju CC licencijų variantu, parengtu remiantis JAV autorių teisės nuostatomis, ir nesuderintu su teisės aktais, kyla klausimas, ar tokios licencijos užtikrina pakankamą autorių teisių apsaugą Lietuvoje. Siekiant atsakyti į šį klausimą ir išanalizuoti CC licencijų santykį su klasikiniais autorių teisių įstatymais, pirmoje šio darbo dalyje atskleidžiama CC licencijos sąvoka, tikslai bei pagrindinės sąlygos. Antroje darbo dalyje didžiausias dėmesys skiriamas galimų problemų identifikavimui, taikant CC licencijas Lietuvoje. Taip pat apžvelgiamas bendrųjų (tipinių) CC licencijų naudojimas ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In eight decade of twentieth century the appearance and development of digital technologies moved a great part of human life into cyberspace. However copyright laws were in conflict with factual situation and started to interfere with the dispersion and accessibility of information in internet. In 2001, aiming to help authors and users to deal with those problems and to develop reasonable and flexible copyright protection, Creative Commons organization was created. In 2002 this organization introduced to the public agreements, known as CC licenses, granting author’s economic rights to the user. These digital agreements enables author or holder of his rights, to grant other party perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use authors economic rights to literature, science or art works. Though using unported version of CC licenses, which was prepared according to USA copyright law, may raise the question of secure copyright of unported licenses in Lithuania. Search for the answer to the above question and analysis of the relation between CC licenses and classical copyright law is provided. In the first part of this paper objectives, main features and concept of CC licenses are indicated. In the second part considerable attention is given to indicate possible problems while using CC licenses in Lithuania. The usage and internationalization of CC licenses are also developed in the second part of the paper. Finally, conclusion is made that unported CC licenses, even not... [to full text]

Canadian doctors have historically been an extremely powerful interest group. While there are many variables that account for their political influence, it is widely accepted that much of their power is due to their control over specialized knowledge. To determine whether or not physicians’ control over knowledge is changing, I examine doctors’ position relative to the state, the public and other health professionals. This research finds that, in all three relationships, physicians’ control over knowledge is weakening. Moreover, organized medicine’s response to these developments has largely been a strategy of co-optation, demonstrating that doctors are aware that these changes often cannot be openly fought. This strategy signals that the medical profession recognizes that some changes in its control over knowledge are bound to occur. This study concludes that these changes could contribute to a ‘critical juncture’ signalling the potential for significant change in the physician-state relationship.

Varje år ökar antalet äldre personer och i samband med den ökningen blir även antalet äldre personer med körkort allt fler. Med åldern är det vanligt att reaktionsförmåga, syn och hörsel försämras vilka alla är viktiga egenskaper för trafiksäkerheten. Läkare i Sverige är skyldiga att rapportera till Transportstyrelsen om en individ inte anses vara lämplig att köra bil. Att läkare över huvud taget tar upp körkortsfrågan med sina patienter sker endast i 60 procent av fallen och därmed fortsätter många olämpliga körkortsinnehavare att köra bil. Majoriteten av länder inom Europeiska Unionen (EU) har någon form av övre åldersbegränsning i körkorten där körkortsinnehavarna måste genomgå en kontroll för att få körkortet förnyat. Det är endast Sverige och sex andra länder inom EU som inte har någon form av körkortskontroll för äldre och i denna studie kommer en kostnadsnyttoanalys utformas för att ta reda på om kontroller för körkortsinnehavare över 75 år skulle reducera antalet döda och skadade i trafikolyckor och därmed vara samhällsekonomiskt lönsamt. De länder som tillämpar körkortskontroller har olika bestämmelser hur metoderna är utformade och studien tar upp hur det fungerar i några av länderna. Vidare redovisas forskning inom området och resultatet av undersökningar av olika testmetoder. Merparten av forskningsresultaten visar att körkortskontroller inte har någon större effekt på trafiksäkerheten och det går inte med säkerhet att säga hur många liv som räddas och antal skadade som skulle kunna reduceras genom införandet av tester. Därmed har dessa siffror fått antagits utan att ha något säkert underlag och utifrån denna antagning visar kostnadsnyttoanalysen att införandet av körkortskontroller inte skulle generera välfärd i Sverige. Utifrån resultatet går det att dra slutsatsen att Sverige har gjort en god bedömning om att endast ha anmälningsplikt för läkare förutsatt att den följs bättre. Även om resultatet visar att kontroller för personer över 75 år inte ska införas bör ändå trafiksäkerheten för äldre utvecklas genom att till exempel förenkla körningen vid vänstersvängar och förbättra kollektivtrafiken. / The numbers of elderly increase every year and the amount of older people with a license will increase as well. When getting older, it is natural that the reaction time, hearing and vision will change and these are all important features for traffic safety. Doctors in Sweden are required to report to the Swedish Transport Agency if an individual does not seem appropriate to drive. It is not common that doctors ask their patients about their physical health and ability to drive, the questions are only asked in about 60 percent of the physical evaluations and because of that, inappropriate license holders may proceed to use a vehicle. The majority of countries within the European Union embrace some kind of upper age limit to provide drivers with a valid license and several countries have compulsory medical examinations for license holders at a certain age. It is only Sweden together with six other EU countries that does not provide any license controls for elderly and in this study a cost benefit analysis is designed to determine whether controls for drivers over the age of 75 would reduce deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents and thus increase welfare. The countries that apply driving license controls have different rules how the controls are designed and the study presents how it works in some of the countries. Further, research within the area shows that license controls does not have any sufficient effect on traffic safety. It cannot with certainty be said how many lives are saved and the amount injuries that could be reduced by an introduction of these tests. Thus, these numbers are adopted without any sufficient evidence and from this an assumption of the cost benefit analysis will show that an introduction of license controls would not generate a welfare increase in Sweden. Based on the result it is possible to conclude that Sweden has made a good assessment to have only a reporting requirement for physicians but the reports must be stricter. Although the result shows that license controls for people over the age of 75 should not be imposed, nevertheless traffic safety for elderly should be further developed, for example with simplifying left turns and improve public transportation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed August 7, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.