Modern Internet technologies open new possibilities in a wide spectrum of traditional methods, used in mathematical education. One of the areas, where these technologies can be efficiently used, is an organization of mathematical competitions. Contestants can stay in their schools or universities in different cities and even different countries and try to solve as many mathematical problems as possible and then submit their solutions to organizers through the Internet. Simple Internet technologies supply audio and video connection between participants and organizers in a time of the competitions.

Thesis (MSc (Mathematics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The main topic of this thesis is the construction of the algebraic geometric codes (Goppa codes), and their decoding by the list-decoding, which allows one to correct beyond half of the minimum distance. We also consider the list-decoding of the Reed–Solomon codes as they are subclass of the Goppa codes, and the determination of the parameters of the non primitive BCH codes. AMS Subject Classification: 4B05, 94B15, 94B35, 94B27, 11T71, 94B65,B70. Keywords: Linear codes, cyclic codes, BCH codes, Reed–Solomon codes, list-decoding, Algebraic Geometric codes, decoding, bound on codes, error probability.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:32:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4572.pdf: 2152921 bytes, checksum: e21c8f519e2e26f72a2fd87da4e3a8f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-08 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / In this paper, we analyzed the Brazilian subterranean fauna, in relation to the actual conservation status, considering the knowledge of its biodiversity, threats to the conservation of this environment and the current legislation relevant to our speleological heritage. The work was divided into chapters, for publication purposes. In chapter I, we present faunal lists of Brazilian troglobitic species (with formal descriptions and not yet described, totaling a minimum of 252 species), their distributions, besides the main causes of destruction / threat of subterranean realm. Still, we propose the Serra do Ramalho, southwestern Bahia state, as a priority area for conservation, since the pressure mining and other factors could decimate the caves of this region biologically important. In chapter II, we discuss about the difficulties of species inclusion in the Red List, and its effective protection, with a case study of Brazilian troglobitic fishes. Problems such as the taxonomic impediment, geographical variations and inclusion only of binomials (Genus species) are discussed. In chapter III, we elected a new hotspot for neotropical subterranean fauna, quartzitic caves from Igatu, in the center region of Chapada Diamantina, central Bahia state. In addition, we tested one of the items of the Instrução Normativa No. 2 of Decreto 6640, which legislates about environmental impact studies of Brazilian caves and we demonstrate that there is not any protectionist law for our subterranean environment. / No presente trabalho, analisamos a fauna subterrânea brasileira, em relação ao seu status de conservação atual, contemplando o conhecimento de sua biodiversidade, as ameaças à conservação deste ambiente e a atual legislação pertinente ao nosso patrimônio espeleológico. O trabalho foi dividido em capítulos, para fins de publicação. No capítulo I apresentamos listas faunísticas de troglóbios brasileiros (com descrições formais e os ainda não descritos, totalizando um mínimo de 252 espécies), suas distribuições, além das principais causas de destruição/ameaça do meio subterrâneo. Ainda, propomos a região da Serra do Ramalho, sudoeste da Bahia, como uma área prioritária para conservação, visto que a pressão minerária e outros fatores podem dizimar as cavernas dessa região, biologicamente importantes. Para o capítulo II, versamos sobre as dificuldades de inserção de espécies às Listas de Fauna Ameaçada de Extinção e efetiva proteção destas, com um estudo de caso de peixes troglóbios brasileiros. Problemas como o impedimento taxonômico, variações geográficas e a inserção somente de binômios (Gênero espécie) são abordados. No capítulo III, elegemos um novo hotspot de fauna subterrânea neotropical, as cavernas quatzíticas de Igatu, no centro da Chapada Diamantina, Bahia central. Além disso, testamos um dos itens da Instrução Normativa nº 2 do Decreto 6.640, o qual legisla sobre as cavernas brasileiras em estudos de impactos ambientais e mostramos que nenhuma lei ambiental para o meio hipógeo é protecionista.

The advent of the era of big data on the Web has made automatic web information extraction an essential tool in data acquisition processes. Unfortunately, automated solutions are in most cases more error prone than those created by humans, resulting in dirty and erroneous data. Automatic repair and cleaning of the extracted data is thus a necessary complement to information extraction on the Web. This thesis investigates the problem of inducing cleaning rules on web extracted data in order to (i) repair and align the data w.r.t. an original target schema, (ii) produce repairs that are as generic as possible such that different instances can benefit from them. The problem is addressed from three different angles: replace cross-site redundancy with an ensemble of entity recognisers; produce general repairs that can be encoded in the extraction process; and exploit entity-wide relations to infer common knowledge on extracted data. First, we present ROSeAnn, an unsupervised approach to integrate semantic annotators and produce a unied and consistent annotation layer on top of them. Both the diversity in vocabulary and widely varying accuracy justify the need for middleware that reconciles different annotator opinions. Considering annotators as "black-boxes" that do not require per-domain supervision allows us to recognise semantically related content in web extracted data in a scalable way. Second, we show in WADaR how annotators can be used to discover rules to repair web extracted data. We study the problem of computing joint repairs for web data extraction programs and their extracted data, providing an approximate solution that requires no per-source supervision and proves effective across a wide variety of domains and sources. The proposed solution is effective not only in repairing the extracted data, but also in encoding such repairs in the original extraction process. Third, we investigate how relationships among entities can be exploited to discover inconsistencies and additional information. We present RuDiK, a disk-based scalable solution to discover first-order logic rules over RDF knowledge bases built from web sources. We present an approach that does not limit its search space to rules that rely on "positive" relationships between entities, as in the case with traditional mining of constraints. On the contrary, it extends the search space to also discover negative rules, i.e., patterns that lead to contradictions in the data.

Title: Graph coloring problems Author: Bernard Lidický Department: Department of Applied Mathematics Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Jiří Fiala, Ph.D. Abstract: As the title suggests, the central topic of this thesis is graph coloring. The thesis is divided into three parts where each part focuses on a different kind of coloring. The first part is about 6-critical graphs on surfaces and 6-critical graphs with small crossing number. We give a complete list of all 6-critical graphs on the Klein bottle and complete list of all 6-critical graphs with crossing number at most four. The second part is devoted to list coloring of planar graphs without short cycles. We give a proof that planar graphs without 3-,6-, and 7- cycles are 3-choosable and that planar graphs without triangles and some constraints on 4-cycles are also 3-choosable. In the last part, we focus on a recent concept called packing coloring. It is motivated by a frequency assignment problem where some frequencies must be used more sparsely that others. We improve bounds on the packing chromatic number of the infinite square and hexagonal lattices. Keywords: critical graphs, list coloring, packing coloring, planar graphs, short cycles

Les méthodes de dynamique moléculaire (MD pour Molecular Dynamics en anglais) sont utilisées pour simuler des systèmes volumineux et complexes. Cependant, la simulation de ce type de systèmes sur de longues échelles temporelles demeure un problème coûteux en temps de calcul. L'étape la plus coûteuse des méthodes de MD étant la mise à jour des forces entre les particules. La simulation de particules restreintes de façon adaptative (ARMD pour Adaptively Restrained Molecular Dynamics en anglais) est une nouvelle approche permettant d'accélérer le processus de simulation en réduisant le nombre de calculs de forces effectués à chaque pas de temps. La méthode ARMD fait varier l'état des degrés de liberté en position en les activants ou en les désactivants de façon adaptative au cours de la simulation. Du fait, que le calcul des forces dépend majoritairement de la distance entre les atomes, ce calcul peut être évité entre deux particules dont les degrés de liberté en position sont désactivés. En revanche, le calcul des forces pour les particules actives (i.e. celles dont les degrés de liberté en position sont actifs) est effectué. Afin d'exploiter au mieux l'adaptabilité de la méthode ARMD, nous avons conçu de nouveaux algorithmes permettant de calculer et de mettre à jour les forces de façon plus efficace. Nous avons développé des algorithmes permettant de construire et de mettre à jour des listes de voisinage de manière incrémentale. En particulier, nous avons travaillé sur un algorithme de mise à jour incrémentale des forces en un seul passage deux fois plus rapide que l'ancien algorithme également incrémental mais qui nécessitait deux passages. Les méthodes proposées ont été implémentées et validées dans le simulateur de MD appelé LAMMPS, mais elles peuvent s'appliquer à n'importe quel autre simulateur de MD. Nous avons validé nos algorithmes pour différents exemples sur les ensembles NVE et NVT. Dans l'ensemble NVE, la méthode ARMD permet à l'utilisateur de jouer sur le précision pour accélérer la vitesse de la simulation. Dans l'ensemble NVT, elle permet de mesurer des grandeurs statistiques plus rapidement. Finalement, nous présentons des algorithmes parallèles pour la mise à jour incrémentale en un seul passage permettant d'utiliser la méthode ARMD avec le standard Message Passage Interface (MPI). / Molecular Dynamics (MD) is often used to simulate large and complex systems. Although, simulating such complex systems for the experimental time scales are still computationally challenging. In fact, the most computationally extensive step in MD is the computation of forces between particles. Adaptively Restrained Molecular Dynamics (ARMD) is a recently introduced particles simulation method that switches positional degrees of freedom on and off during simulation. Since force computations mainly depend upon the inter-atomic distances, the force computation between particles with positional degrees of freedom off~(restrained particles) can be avoided. Forces involving active particles (particles with positional degrees of freedom on) are computed.In order to take advantage of adaptability of ARMD, we designed novel algorithms to compute and update forces efficiently. We designed algorithms not only to construct neighbor lists, but also to update them incrementally. Additionally, we designed single-pass incremental force update algorithm that is almost two times faster than previously designed two-pass incremental algorithm. These proposed algorithms are implemented and validated in the LAMMPS MD simulator, however, these algorithms can be applied to other MD simulators. We assessed our algorithms on different and diverse benchmarks in both microcanonical ensemble (NVE) and canonical (NVT) ensembles. In the NVE ensemble, ARMD allows users to trade between precision and speed while, in the NVT ensemble, it makes it possible to compute statistical averages faster. In Last, we introduce parallel algorithms for single-pass incremental force computations to take advantage of adaptive restraints using the Message Passage Interface (MPI) standard.

Cultural, social, personal and psychological factors were identified by Rani (2014) as the four major influences on consumer’s buying behavior. While There are many studies about the personal values and consumer purchase behavior, but there is very little research to study Africa women’ consumer behavior, and in Zambia there is even less studies which are conducted to analyze their women’ values and their consumer decision-making styles. The purpose of this study is to explore Zambian women’ personal values and their consumption decision-making styles and how personal values influence their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension products. It is very important to analyze the consumer values of Zambia women and their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension, because the demand for hair extension in Zambia is growing fast and the hair extension has become a muti-billion dollars industry This paper had reviewed literature regarding consumer behavior, in specifically personal values and consumer decision-making styles. The LOV scale proposed by Kahle (1983) and the Consumer’s decision making styles proposed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) were adopted to analyze the inter relationship through methodology of multiple regression. The author conducted a descriptive analysis of the primary data collected by a field survey of research questionnaire toward Zambian women. All the questionnaires are distributed and collected at the main shopping malls and universities in Lusaka, Zambia. Through a series analysis of the sample by SPSS, the paper had detected all the list of values and decision-making styles of Zambian women. There are only two consumer values namely Security related with physical and financial safety and Self-fulfillment related with achievement of consumption which achieved a reasonable degree of reliability, and the consumer decision-making styles of Confused by Over-choice related with lacking ability of information analysis and Novelty-Fashion Consciousness related up-to-date fashion pursuit achieved a reasonable degree of reliability. The results reveal that the higher the value of Security, the greater the adoption of Novelty-Fashion Consciousness, and the higher the value of Self-fulfillment, the greater the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making Styles. However the Security value does not have any significant impact on the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making styles and the effect of Self-fulfilment value on Novelty-Fashion Consciousness is not significant.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the needs and consumer behavior in spa services to the dominant segments Czech clientele and also predictions of potential behaviors that part of the population that has been in the spa. In the practical part mainly analyzes the project titled "Let's go to the spa," which was presented to the 6th challenges in the Integrated Operational Programme and in April 2010 was from this program and approved for funding. The project was completed in June 2012. The project was elaborated author of this thesis. Finally, the practical part was especially pointed out the current situation ongoing in almost all spa facilities with regard to the results of research just everything where R is the author's spa visits and the number of received proposals on health care in the previous period and a summary of current critical situation in the spa is

Orientador: Fernando Leite Hoffmann / Banca: Crispin Humberto Garcia Cruz / Banca: Walkíria Hanada Viotto / Banca: Roberto da Silva / Resumo: Alguns queijos frescos como o Minas frescal e a ricota, apresentam elevada atividade de água e diversidade nutricional, fatores que propiciam a proliferação e o desenvolvimento de microbiota oportunista, prejudicando a qualidade e a integridade destes produtos. Diversos microrganismos são propostos como bioindicadores de contaminação da matéria-prima e/ou do produto pronto para o consumo. Para evitar quaisquer fontes de contaminação é imprescindível a adoção de Boas Práticas de Fabricação (BPF), as quais podem ser avaliadas por meio da aplicação do formulário check-list. Nesse contexto, este estudo objetivou avaliar as condições higiênico-sanitárias e adequações quanto às BPF, em uma indústria de laticínios de pequeno porte, produtora de queijos Minas frescal e ricota, localizada em São José do Rio Preto - SP, por meio do monitoramento microbiológico, físico-químico, e aplicação de check-list. Foram realizadas análises, conforme o fluxograma de fabricação, nas seguintes etapas: água, leite pasteurizado, coalho, massa, soro, superfície palmar dos manipuladores e tanque de coagulação, e queijos Minas frescal e ricota logo após o processamento (t0) e com cinco dias de vida de prateleira (t5). Tais etapas foram monitoradas quanto à qualidade microbiológica, por meio da determinação do Número Mais Provável (NMP) de coliformes totais e termotolerantes; contagem de Staphylococcus coagulase positiva e bactérias aeróbias mesófilas; pesquisa de Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. e Listeria monocytogenes. A contagem de bactérias aeróbias mesófilas foi efetuada apenas nas amostras de água. As análises de determinação do NMP de coliformes totais, termotolerantes foram realizadas para todas as amostras. A contagem de Staphylococcus aureus, pesquisa de Escherichia coli e de Salmonella spp., foram efetuadas para todas as amostras citadas... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Some fresh cheeses as Minas frescal and ricota present high water activity and nutritional diversity, factors that permit the proliferation and the development of opportunist microrganisms, damaging the quality and integrity of these products. Several microrganisms are proposed as bioindicators of raw material and/or product ready for consumption contamination. To avoid any contamination source it's indispensable to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which may be evaluated by application of checklist form. According to the presented, this study had the objective of evaluate the hygienic sanitary conditions and adequacies, in relation to the GMP, at a small dairy industry; which produces ricota and Minas frescal cheeses, located in São José do Rio Preto - SP by the physical-chemical and microbiological monitoring and check-list application. The analyses were done according to the following production stages: water, pasteurized milk, curd, mass, sour, manipulator hands, coagulation tank, ricota and Minas frescal cheese right after the processing (t0) and with five days of shelf-life (t5). Such stages were monitored in relation to the microbiological quality by the determination of the Most Probable Number (MPN) of total and thermotolerant coliforms; mesophilic aerobic bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus counting; research of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. The counting of mesophilic aerobic bacteria was done only in the water samples. The analyses of the determination of the MPN of total and thermotolerant coliforms were done for all samples. The counting of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. research were done for all samples except water. The analysis of Listeria monocytogenes was done only for Minas frescal and ricotta cheeses. For the water analysis it was verified that 3 samples (25%) presented... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:50:32Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_vaq_me_sjrp.pdf: 586910 bytes, checksum: ec20d7bdb371005191d77053bb2d959e (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Alguns queijos frescos como o Minas frescal e a ricota, apresentam elevada atividade de água e diversidade nutricional, fatores que propiciam a proliferação e o desenvolvimento de microbiota oportunista, prejudicando a qualidade e a integridade destes produtos. Diversos microrganismos são propostos como bioindicadores de contaminação da matéria-prima e/ou do produto pronto para o consumo. Para evitar quaisquer fontes de contaminação é imprescindível a adoção de Boas Práticas de Fabricação (BPF), as quais podem ser avaliadas por meio da aplicação do formulário check-list. Nesse contexto, este estudo objetivou avaliar as condições higiênico-sanitárias e adequações quanto às BPF, em uma indústria de laticínios de pequeno porte, produtora de queijos Minas frescal e ricota, localizada em São José do Rio Preto – SP, por meio do monitoramento microbiológico, físico-químico, e aplicação de check-list. Foram realizadas análises, conforme o fluxograma de fabricação, nas seguintes etapas: água, leite pasteurizado, coalho, massa, soro, superfície palmar dos manipuladores e tanque de coagulação, e queijos Minas frescal e ricota logo após o processamento (t0) e com cinco dias de vida de prateleira (t5). Tais etapas foram monitoradas quanto à qualidade microbiológica, por meio da determinação do Número Mais Provável (NMP) de coliformes totais e termotolerantes; contagem de Staphylococcus coagulase positiva e bactérias aeróbias mesófilas; pesquisa de Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. e Listeria monocytogenes. A contagem de bactérias aeróbias mesófilas foi efetuada apenas nas amostras de água. As análises de determinação do NMP de coliformes totais, termotolerantes foram realizadas para todas as amostras. A contagem de Staphylococcus aureus, pesquisa de Escherichia coli e de Salmonella spp., foram efetuadas para todas as amostras citadas... / Some fresh cheeses as Minas frescal and ricota present high water activity and nutritional diversity, factors that permit the proliferation and the development of opportunist microrganisms, damaging the quality and integrity of these products. Several microrganisms are proposed as bioindicators of raw material and/or product ready for consumption contamination. To avoid any contamination source it`s indispensable to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which may be evaluated by application of checklist form. According to the presented, this study had the objective of evaluate the hygienic sanitary conditions and adequacies, in relation to the GMP, at a small dairy industry; which produces ricota and Minas frescal cheeses, located in São José do Rio Preto - SP by the physical-chemical and microbiological monitoring and check-list application. The analyses were done according to the following production stages: water, pasteurized milk, curd, mass, sour, manipulator hands, coagulation tank, ricota and Minas frescal cheese right after the processing (t0) and with five days of shelf-life (t5). Such stages were monitored in relation to the microbiological quality by the determination of the Most Probable Number (MPN) of total and thermotolerant coliforms; mesophilic aerobic bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus counting; research of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. The counting of mesophilic aerobic bacteria was done only in the water samples. The analyses of the determination of the MPN of total and thermotolerant coliforms were done for all samples. The counting of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. research were done for all samples except water. The analysis of Listeria monocytogenes was done only for Minas frescal and ricotta cheeses. For the water analysis it was verified that 3 samples (25%) presented... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)