Abstract The research focuses on rural environments and the questions concerning cultural environment surveys in land use planning. The main purpose of the study is to scrutinize how survey information serves planning. The focus is on pointing out the challenges which can be identified in data management and utilization of information. Main challenges are related to the extendedness and increasing workload of surveys, fragmentation of information and the emphasis put on expertise knowledge. The problems are mainly caused by the lack of well-established practical examples, partly on the hegemony of sector based planning and rationalist-comprehensive tradition in theory of science. Yet the surveys form basically the framework, in which the object or area is been reviewed in the preparation phase of planning. In that sense, the chosen methods in fact-finding also define which qualities primarily come into focus. Single methods or viewpoints and the theories they rely on enlighten the whole only in part. On this basis the aims of the study can be divided roughly in three sections – firstly to the critique of the current practices, secondly, conceptual definition of the structural components of the cultural environment itself, and thirdly, formulation of an integrative approach derived from the above mentioned points of departure. The general understanding of the interaction between man, culture and environment is achieved through phenomenological and existential hermeneutics. The person mapping or exploring the environment with his methods is seen as ”link” between the existing conditions and the future plan. Through that, the overall terms of perception and practice-bound preconditions of human interpretation will come under scrutiny. The study aims to ponder the integration of different approaches and angles, forming a ”toolkit” for environmental analytics and interpretation as a kind of a complexity management. Cultural environment surveys should be developed in a way that they would regard areas as thematic and functional entities instead of a sum of single elements. The research results are presented as a matrix of needs-and-goals -analysis, which forms a framework of assessment for values and desicions. The aim is to clarify the general set-up of land use planning which includes various stakeholders and is multidisciplinary by nature, especially in the context of cultural environments. The needs-and-goals -analysis is based on cultural environment profiling, which includes recognition of values and tolerance towards changes. The purpose of an integrative analysis is to bring out development possibilities and restrictions, together with different development goals. The intensions of different stakeholders should be brought out early enough, in order to prevent disagreements to evolve into conflicts and problems. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään maaseudun kulttuuriympäristöjä sekä maankäytön suunnittelun valmisteluvaiheessa tuotettuja kulttuuriympäristöselvityksiä. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, miten suunnittelun tausta-aineistoina toimivat selvitykset ja niiden sisältämä tieto voitaisiin jäsentää palvelemaan paremmin suunnittelua. Tutkimuksessa on pyritty tuomaan esiin haasteita, joita tiedon hallinnassa ja hyödynnettävyydessä suunnittelun pohjaksi on voitu todeta. Pääasiallisesti nämä liittyvät selvitystiedon laajuuteen ja kuormittavuuteen, sektoroitumiseen ja asiantuntijanäkökulman korostumiseen. Tutkimuksessa esille tuodut ongelmat johtuvat osin selkeitten toimintamallien puutteesta, osin sektorisuunnittelun vahvasta taustavaikutuksesta sekä rationalistis-komprehensiivisesta perinteestä tieteenteoriassa. Kaavoituksen valmisteluvaiheen selvitykset muodostavat kuitenkin viitekehyksen, jonka puitteissa suunnittelualuetta tarkastellaan. Siten valitut tiedonhankinnan menetelmät määrittävät mihin ominaisuuksiin tarkastelun fokus ensisijaisesti painottuu. Käytännössä yksittäiset menetelmät tai niiden taustalla olevat tieteenalat valottavat kokonaisuutta kuitenkin vain osittaisesti ja hajanaisesti. Tutkimuksen tavoitteet voidaan jakaa karkeasti kolmeen eri osa-alueeseen - edellä mainittuun nykyisten käytäntöjen kritiikkiin, ilmiöstä itsestään määrittyvien rakennetekijöiden teoreettis-käsitteelliseen määrittelyyn sekä tähän nojautuvan integroivan lähestymistavan muodostamiseen. Tutkimuksessa hahmotellun kokonaiskäsityksen perustana on fenomenologisen ja eksistentiaalisen analytiikan keinoin määritelty ymmärrys ihmisen, kulttuurin ja ympäristön vuorovaikutuksesta. Tarkasteltavana ovat täten havainnoinnin yleiset edellytykset sekä ne käytäntösidonnaiset ennakkoehdot, joiden myötä selvityksen laatija muodostaa tulkintansa. Kulttuuriympäristöä tutkiva ihminen on keinovalikoimineen eräänlainen ”linkki” olemassa olevan ympäristön ja tulevan suunnitelman välillä. Tutkimuksessa on pohdittu eri näkökulmien integroitumista eräänlaiseksi organisoiduksi kompleksisuuden hallinnaksi, jonka perustana on havaintojen tekemisen ”välinekokonaisuus” kohteena olevan ympäristön piirteistä. Selvitysmenetelmiä tulisi kehittää ennen muuta siten, että kulttuuriympäristöjen tarkastelu teemallisten ja toiminnallisten kokonaisuuksien kautta mahdollistuisi nykyistä paremmin yksittäisten kohteitten sijaan. Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitetty tarve- ja tavoiteanalyysi muodostaa tulkintakehyksen suunnitteluvalinnoille ja toisaalta selkiyttää monitoimijaisen ja monialaisen suunnittelun lähtökohtia. Lähtökohtana on kulttuuriympäristöprofiilin laadinta, arvojen ja muutoksensietokyvyn määrittely sekä kehittämispotentiaalien esille nostaminen vaihtoehtoisten kehityspolkujen hahmottamisessa. Eri osapuolten tarpeet ja tavoitteet on myös tuotava esille riittävän aikaisin. Tällä on pyrittävä ennen muuta ehkäisemään ristiriitojen kehittymistä konflikteiksi ja asenteiden lukkiutumista vastakkainasetteluiksi.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to make up costs and products analysis and to arrange costing. These issues were described by vertical and horizontal analysis and were performed costing for particular products with using absorbing costing and variable costing methods. In conclusion were both methods compared and the break even point was analyzed. Theoretical part describes costs classification, methods and sort of costing and break even point analysis as well.

Diploma thesis brings an insights into the organization of sports event Prague Riverside cross in Prague, which should showcase canoe slalom just before the ICF Canoe slalom World cup Prague 2015 and also bring the people to this main event. Diploma thesis will present specifics of event promotion by another event and it will focus on the effectiveness of such promotion on a specific example. The aim of the work is based on analyzes of the organization of sports events and based on the analysis of visitors and a general sense of awareness and evaluate the effectiveness of event promotion, recommend suitable proposals for future propagation in this way and finally draw attention to inappropriate solutions and risk of this kind of promotion. Work compares the situation before using the promotion of events and after the introduction of this method. The results will be reached by using questionnaire methods, financial analysis and comparison of statistical data.

This diploma thesis deals with the development of individual financial indicators of a selected company using the methods of financial analysis, interval regression analysis and time series analysis. Based on the results of these analyzes there is evaluated the financial situation of the company and created a forecast of the evolution of the selected indicators for the next two years. The selected company is described by an analysis of the internal and external surroundings. Possible risks are identified by a risk analysis and proposals are made to reduce the value of individual risks to an acceptable level.

This thesis deals with the evaluation of high-risk economical factors of one particular organization and consequently with their evaluation based on statistical methods. The principal aim of the study was to determine the dominant economic indicators of the organization and assess their development over time based on statistical methods, using statistical tools. The tools utilized in the thesis were Statgraphics Centurion XV and MS Excel.

Master’s thesis assesses the financial and economic situation of the joint-stock company Composite Components. There are theoretical aspects including financial, regression and correlation analysis in the first part of the thesis. Financial indicators are computed and then subjected to the mentioned analyses in order to get prognoses for following years. The created suggestions which are in the end of the thesis are based on the indicators and prognoses.

Scientists' ability to generate and store simulation results is outpacing their ability to analyze them via ad hoc programs. We observe that these programs exhibit an algebraic structure that can be used to facilitate reasoning and improve performance. In this dissertation, we present a formal data model that exposes this algebraic structure, then implement the model, evaluate it, and use it to express, optimize, and reason about data transformations in a variety of scientific domains. Simulation results are defined over a logical grid structure that allows a continuous domain to be represented discretely in the computer. Existing approaches for manipulating these gridded datasets are incomplete. The performance of SQL queries that manipulate large numeric datasets is not competitive with that of specialized tools, and the up-front effort required to deploy a relational database makes them unpopular for dynamic scientific applications. Tools for processing multidimensional arrays can only capture regular, rectilinear grids. Visualization libraries accommodate arbitrary grids, but no algebra has been developed to simplify their use and afford optimization. Further, these libraries are data dependent—physical changes to data characteristics break user programs. We adopt the grid as a first-class citizen, separating topology from geometry and separating structure from data. Our model is agnostic with respect to dimension, uniformly capturing, for example, particle trajectories (1-D), sea-surface temperatures (2-D), and blood flow in the heart (3-D). Equipped with data, a grid becomes a gridfield. We provide operators for constructing, transforming, and aggregating gridfields that admit algebraic laws useful for optimization. We implement the model by analyzing several candidate data structures and incorporating their best features. We then show how to deploy gridfields in practice by injecting the model as middleware between heterogeneous, ad hoc file formats and a popular visualization library. In this dissertation, we define, develop, implement, evaluate and deploy a model of gridded datasets that accommodates a variety of complex grid structures and a variety of complex data products. We evaluate the applicability and performance of the model using datasets from oceanography, seismology, and medicine and conclude that our model-driven approach offers significant advantages over the status quo.

yes / A comprehensive spectral analysis of both the solar background magnetic field (SBMF) in cycles 21-23 and the sunspot magnetic field in cycle 23 reported in our recent paper showed the presence of two principal components (PCs) of SBMF having opposite polarity, e. g., originating in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Over a duration of one solar cycle, both waves are found to travel with an increasing phase shift toward the northern hemisphere in odd cycles 21 and 23 and to the southern hemisphere in even cycle 22. These waves were linked to solar dynamo waves assumed to form in different layers of the solar interior. In this paper, for the first time, the PCs of SBMF in cycles 21-23 are analyzed with the symbolic regression technique using Hamiltonian principles, allowing us to uncover the underlying mathematical laws governing these complex waves in the SBMF presented by PCs and to extrapolate these PCs to cycles 24-26. The PCs predicted for cycle 24 very closely fit (with an accuracy better than 98%) the PCs derived from the SBMF observations in this cycle. This approach also predicts a strong reduction of the SBMF in cycles 25 and 26 and, thus, a reduction of the resulting solar activity. This decrease is accompanied by an increasing phase shift between the two predicted PCs (magnetic waves) in cycle 25 leading to their full separation into the opposite hemispheres in cycle 26. The variations of the modulus summary of the two PCs in SBMF reveals a remarkable resemblance to the average number of sunspots in cycles 21-24 and to predictions of reduced sunspot numbers compared to cycle 24: 80% in cycle 25 and 40% in cycle 26.

One of the key concerns in spatial analysis and modelling is to study and analyse similarities or dissimilarities between places over geographical space. However, ”global“ spatial models may fail to identify spatial variations of relationships (spatial heterogeneity) by assuming spatial stationarity of relationships. In many real-life situations spatial variation in relationships possibly exists and the assumption of global stationarity might be highly unrealistic leading to ignorance of a large amount of spatial information. In contrast, local spatial models emphasise differences or dissimilarity over space and focus on identifying spatial variations in relationships. These models allow the parameters of models to vary locally and can provide more useful information on the processes generating the data in different parts of the study area. In this study, a framework for localising spatial interaction models, based on geographically weighted (GW) techniques, has been developed. This framework can help in detecting, visualising and analysing spatial heterogeneity in spatial interaction systems. In order to apply the GW concept to spatial interaction models, we investigate several approaches differing mainly in the way calibration points (flows) are defined and spatial separation (distance) between flows is calculated. As a result, a series of localised geographically weighted spatial interaction (GWSI) models are developed. Using custom-built algorithms and computer code, we apply the GWSI models to a journey-to-work dataset in Switzerland for validation and comparison with the related global models. The results of the model calibrations are visualised using a series of conventional and flow maps along with some matrix visualisations. The comparison of the results indicates that in most cases local GWSI models exhibit an improvement over the global models both in providing more useful local information and also in model performance and goodness-of-fit.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis we set out to design an algorithm for solving the all-pairs fixed-radius nearest neighbours search problem for a massively parallel heterogeneous system. The all-pairs search problem is stated as follows: Given a set of N points in d-dimensional space, find all pairs of points within a horizon distance of one another. This search is required by any nonlocal or meshless numerical modelling method to construct the neighbour list of each mesh point in the problem domain. Therefore, this work is applicable to a wide variety of fields, ranging from molecular dynamics to pattern recognition and geographical information systems. Here we focus on nonlocal solid mechanics methods. The basic method of solving the all-pairs search is to calculate, for each mesh point, the distance to each other mesh point and compare with the horizon value to determine if the points are neighbours. This can be a very computationally intensive procedure, especially if the neighbourhood needs to be updated at every time step to account for changes in material configuration. The problem also becomes more complex if the analysis is done in parallel. Furthermore, GPU computing has become very popular in the last decade. Most of the fastest supercomputers in the world today employ GPU processors as accelerators to CPU processors. It is also believed that the next-generation exascale supercomputers will be heterogeneous. Therefore the focus is on how to develop a neighbour searching algorithm that will take advantage of next-generation hardware. In this thesis we propose a CPU - multi GPU algorithm, which is an extension of the fixed-grid method, for the fixed-radius nearest neighbours search on massively parallel systems. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis het ons die ontwerp van ’n algoritme vir die oplossing van die alle-pare vaste-radius naaste bure soektog probleem vir groot skaal parallele heterogene stelsels aangepak. Die alle-pare soektog probleem is as volg gestel: Gegewe ’n stel van N punte in d-dimensionele ruimte, vind al die pare van punte wat binne ’n horison afstand van mekaar af is. Die soektog word deur enige nie-lokale of roosterlose numeriese metode benodig om die bure-lys van alle rooster-punte in die probleem te kry. Daarom is hierdie werk van toepassing op ’n wye verskeidenheid van velde, wat wissel van molekulêre dinamika tot patroon herkenning en geografiese inligtingstelsels. Hier is ons fokus op nie-lokale soliede meganika metodes. Die basiese metode vir die oplossing van die alle-pare soektog is om vir elke rooster-punt, die afstand na elke ander rooster-punt te bereken en te vergelyk met die horison lente, om dus so te bepaal of die punte bure is. Dit kan ’n baie berekenings intensiewe proses wees, veral as die probleem by elke stap opgedateer moet word om die veranderinge in die materiaal konfigurasie daar te stel. Die probleem word ook baie meer kompleks as die analise in parallel gedoen word. Verder het GVE’s (Grafiese verwerkings eenhede) baie gewild geword in die afgelope dekade. Die meeste van die vinnigste superrekenaars in die wêreld vandag gebruik GVE’s as versnellers te same met SVE’s (Sentrale verwerkings eenhede). Dit is ook van mening dat die volgende generasie exa-skaal superrekenaars GVE’s sal implementeer. Daarom is die fokus op hoe om ’n bure-lys soektog algoritme te ontwikkel wat gebruik sal maak van die volgende generasie hardeware. In hierdie tesis stel ons ’n SVE - veelvoudige GVE algoritme voor, wat ’n verlenging van die vaste-rooster metode is, vir die vaste-radius naaste bure soektog op groot skaal parallele stelsels.