Traffic monitoring using computer vision is becoming the desired system in practice. It allows nondestructive installation and also is very useful in many applications. This thesis focuses on automatic detection of vehicles approaching to a crossroads. This work also includes description of selected methods for detecting moving vehicles and the way of tracking them. On the basis of these methods is designed application that is implemented and tested in different lighting and weather conditions and various direction of approaching vehicles.

Hlavním cílem této diplomové práce je navrhnout efektivní přípravu pro expatrioty na profesionální působení v Albánské republice. Pro dosažení tohoto cíle autorka práce naplní jednotlivé cíle. Nejprve bude prozkoumána teorie dané problematiky a také související výzkumy. Hlavním cílem analytické části práce je provést dotazníkový výzkum mezi expatrioty, kteří v současnosti pracují nebo v milulých letech pracovali v Albánii a analyzovat jeho výsledky.

This master’s thesis introduces factoring as a possibility of financing business activities. It describes factoring as a form of finance business transactions, analyses selected company and proposes improvement its finance situation by means of factoring. And then master’s thesis compares financing by means of bank overdraft, which used selected company before, with financing by means of factoring, of purpose to use given finance.

<div>The goal of this research is to develop a method of control for a team of unmanned aerial and ground robots that is resilient, robust, and scalable given both complete and incomplete information of the environment. The method presented in this paper integrates approximate and optimal methods of path planning integrated with a market-based task allocation strategy. Further work presents a solution to unmanned ground vehicle path planning within the developed mission planning system framework under incomplete information. Deep reinforcement learning is proposed to solve movement through unknown terrain environment. The final demonstration for Advantage-Actor Critic deep reinforcement learning elicits successful implementation of the proposed model.</div>

Short term assignments to other countries are increasing and it is important to take note of the associated potential tax compliance requirements. South Africa is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) whose main objective is to advance the development and economic growth of the member countries through regional integration. It is difficult for persons with limited or no international tax background to identify potential taxes when going on short term assignments to other SADC countries as very little has been published with regard to the procedure to follow. The procedure to follow and the main tax concepts (corporate tax, personal tax, VAT and withholding tax) have not been published in a user friendly, holistic format to enable such persons to identify potential tax implications. In this research a conceptual tax-compliance framework was created and tested to enable persons to follow the procedure to identify potential taxes that could be triggered when going on short term assignments. It also enables them to have an understanding of the concepts of the main tax principles applicable in SADC countries that have double tax agreements in place with South Africa. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmchunu2014 / Taxation / unrestricted

A large body of research has investigated the effects of religion on individual behavior and, more recently, the collective performance of societies. Religion is predominantly credited with favorable outcomes, such as pro-social behavior, better health and higher life satisfaction. Religious and non-religious individuals also differ in their values and preferences. Moreover, religious institutions such as churches also have a large direct effect on society by being an employer or a social welfare provider. Against this background, the constant decline in church membership rates in Germany since the late 1960s is an economically relevant phenomenon. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the economic causes and consequences of church disaffiliation, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. Based on an extensive literature review of models of religious consumption choices I conclude that most of the previous work does not pay sufficient attention to the institutional framework of church membership and church financing in Europe. I develop a theoretical model in which I analyze an individual’s decisions on church membership and on voluntary giving to religious and secular organizations against the institutional backgrounds of the German church tax system and the Italian tax assignment system. The model predicts that in a church tax system individuals with a higher income and those who have to pay a higher church tax rate are more likely to disaffiliate from the church. In contrast, in a tax assignment system cost-benefit considerations of church membership should not take place. Furthermore, the model shows that church and assignment taxes can crowd out voluntary giving to religious and non-religious purposes. In the empirical part of the dissertation I focus on the case of Germany, testing the hypotheses derived from the theoretical discussion with the help of the German Taxpayer Panel for the years 2001 to 2006. The main research question in the first empirical chapter is whether the institutional framework in the form of the existing church tax regulations has a statistically significant effect on the decision to leave the church. The hypothesis is that ceteris paribus an increase in the price of church membership increases the probability that an individual disaffiliates from the church. The estimation results show that both the price of church membership in the first year of the observation period and the change in price experienced by the individual have a significant positive, but moderate effect on the probability of church disaffiliation. In the second empirical part of the dissertation I ask if church members and non-members differ in their voluntary giving and if the giving behavior changes from before to after disaffiliation. I distinguish between the decision whether to make a contribution at all and the decision how much to give. The results imply that church members are not less, but rather more likely to make a charitable contribution than non-members. However, I do find that the average amount given by church members is below the amount given by non-members. This finding suggests that church taxes and additional voluntary donations might be substitutes at the intensive margin. With respect to church disaffiliation, I find evidence that giving is moderately higher after individuals have left the church than before. However, results are inconsistent in whether the increase is due to a higher inclination to give, a higher amount given by those who make a contribution, or both.

Es wird ein auf der Submodelltechnik basierender Ansatz vorgestellt, mit dem Cord-Elastomer-Verbunde, speziell die Balgwände von Luftfedern, einer detaillierten FE-Analyse zugänglich gemacht werden können. Dieser Ansatz beinhaltet ein Globalmodell, das die gesamte Luftfeder abbildet, und zwei Submodelle, die sich auf bestimmte Ausschnitte der Balgwand konzentrieren.

Specialpedagogens uppdrag och yrkesroll har i många år uppmärksammats i forskningen, främst i förhållande till speciallärarens uppdrag och yrkesroll för att belysa likheter och skillnader. Denna studie har en ambition att bidra till att belysa vad som påverkar utformningen av en specialpedagogs uppdrag och yrkesroll. Studien är kvalitativ och utgår ifrån Karen Barads teori om agentisk realism där både mänskliga och icke-mänskliga kroppar (performativa agenter) påverkar föreställningar kring t.ex. specialpedagogens uppdrag och yrkesroll. Materia så som t.ex. styrdokument, utbildning mm och språk är starkt sammankopplade i den verklighet som specialpedagogen verkar i och därför bygger studien på en materiell-diskursiv analys. Syftet med denna studie är att åskådliggöra och identifiera vilka performativa agenter som påverkar hur specialpedagogens uppdrag och yrkesroll utformas i grundskolorna i ett skolområde. Metoddelen bygger på en brevmetod samt semistrukturerade intervjuer med speciallärare, specialpedagoger, rektorer och en skolområdeschef i ett skolområde. För att tydliggöra vilka performativa agenter som äger agens i bearbetningen har ett analysschema skapats utifrån uppdrag respektive yrkesroll. I analysschemat för uppdraget har de performativa agenterna kategoriserats utifrån en figur som jag har skapat för att tydliggöra uppdraget. Resultatdelen visar på hur uppdrag respektive yrkesroll presenteras av specialpedagoger, speciallärare, rektorer samt skolområdeschef och pekar på att det förekommer ett stort antal performativa agenter varav rektorns kompetens, rektorns beslut, verksamhetens behov och specialpedagogens kunskap och kompetens har stor betydelse i utformningen av specialpedagogens uppdrag och yrkesroll. Avslutningsvis diskuteras vilken betydelse de performativa agenterna har för utformningen av specialpedagogens uppdrag och yrkesroll samt hur det specialpedagogiska stödet utformas i en organisation. Men även hur figuren som använts kan vara en tydlig modell att använda för att analysera specialpedagogens uppdrag i förhållande till elevhälsoteamets hälsofrämjande, förebyggande och åtgärdande arbete i skolorganisationen d.v.s. som en del i skolutveckling. / The special educator´s mission and professional role have for many years been noticed in the research, mainly in relation to the special teacher´s mission and professional role to highlight similarities and differences. This study has an ambition to help illuminate what influences the design of a special educator´s mission and professional role. The study is qualitative and is based on Karen Barad´s theory of agentic realism where both human and non-human bodies (performative agents) influence perceptions about, for example the special educator´s mission and professional role. Matter and language are strongly interconnected in the reality in which the special educator works and therefore the study is based on a material-discursive analysis. The purpose of the study is to illustrate and identify which performative agents influence how the special educator´s assignments and professional role are designed in primary school in a school district. The method part is based on a letter method and semistructured interviews with specialist teachers, special educators, principals and a school district manager in a school district. In order to clarify which performative agents own agents in the processing, an analysis scheme has been created based on assignments and professional role. In the analysis schedule for the assignment, the performative agents have been categorized on the basis of a figure that I created to clarify the assignment. The results section shows how assignments and professional roles are presented by special educators, special teachers, principals and a school district manager, and points to the fact that there are a large number of performative agents, of which the principals competence, the decision of the principal, the needs of the organization and the knowledge and competence of the special educator are of great importance in the design of the special educator´s assignment and profession. Finally, we discuss the importance of the performative agents for the design of the special educator´s mission and professional role and how the special educational support is designed in an organization. But also how the figure used can be a clear model to use to analyze the special educator´s assignment in relation to the student health team´s health promotion, prevention and corrective work in the school organization, i.e. as part of school development.

This research is concerned with the modeling and development of algorithmic approaches for solving airport operational problems that arise in Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems within the terminal area at hub airports. Specifically, the problems addressed include the Aircraft Sequencing Problem (ASP) for runway operations, the Network Assignment Problem (NAP) for taxiway operations, and a simulation model for the evaluation of current or proposed ATC system in detail. For the ASP, we develop a mathematical model and apply the Reformulation-Linearization-Technique (RLT) of Sherali and Adams to construct an enhanced tightened version of the proposed model. Since ASP is NP-Hard and in fact, it is a variation of the well-known Traveling Salesman Problem with time-windows, sub-optimal solutions are usually derived to accommodate the real-time constraints of ATC systems. Nevertheless, we exhibit a significant advancement in this challenging class of problem. Also for the purpose of solving relatively large sized problems in practice, we develop and test suitable heuristic procedures. For the NAP, we propose a quasi-dynamic assignment scheme which is based on the incremental assignment technique. This quasi-dynamic assignment method assumes that the current aircraft route is influenced only by the previous aircraft assigned to the network. This simplified assumption obviates the need for iterative rerouting procedures to reach a pure equilibrium state which might not be achievable in practical taxiway operations. To evaluate the overall system, we develop a microscopic simulation model. The simulation model is designed to have the capability for reproducing not only the dynamic behavior of aircraft, but also incorporates communication activities between controllers and pilots. These activities are critical in ATC operations, and in some instances, might limit the capacity of the facility. Finally, using the developed simulation model named Virginia Tech Airport Simulation Model (VTASM) in concert with ASP and NAP, we compare the overall efficiencies of several control strategies, including that of the existing control system as well as of the proposed advanced control system. / Ph. D.

Chronic pain in children and adolescents is common; approximately 5% of children and adolescents report chronic pain along with moderate to high pain-related disability. Chronic pain is a subjective experience and can best be explained by a bio-psycho-social approach, which suggests reciprocal relations between different levels of this multidimensional phenomenon. The different dimensions of chronic pain need to be considered for a comprehensive assessment. Due to the subjective nature of pain, the child’s self-report is usually considered the best available and most valid estimate of the pain experience. A reliable and multidimensional assessment is an indispensable requirement for treatment planning. To date, questionnaires in German language are available to assess a wide range of relevant parameters in pediatric chronic pain. However, so far, no validated self-report tool exists to assess sensory and affective pain perception in children. These two parameters are of relevance since they describe aspects of the biological as well as the psychological dimension of chronic pain. Furthermore, a comprehensive diagnostic approach combining parameters from the three dimensions of chronic pain does not yet exist for children and adolescents. Such a comprehensive approach could be used for sample descriptions and standardized comparisons across different populations; it could serve as an approach for treatment planning or to classify outcome. This doctoral thesis is aimed at further developing the available diagnostic measures for older children and adolescents with chronic pain based on the above mentioned gaps in pediatric pain assessment. Research was performed on three patient samples. Sample 1 includes data from a prospective assessment at the German Pediatric Pain Centre from August 2008 to March 2009 (N(1)=139). Sample 2 includes retrospective data from patients who were treated at the German Pediatric Pain Centre from July 2005 to June 2010 (N(2)=1242). Sample 3 consists of pediatric pain patients who started an intensive interdisciplinary inpatient treatment between November 2009 and July 2011 (N(3)=83). In a first study, a tool to assess sensory and affective pain perception, the Pain Perception Scale for Adolescents, was adapted and validated in an adolescent clinical sample (Sample 1). The Pain Perception Scale for Adolescents allows pain patients to provide a valid and reliable self-report of parameters for both the biological and psychological dimensions of pain. In a second study, this tool was applied to a further sample of adolescents with migraine and tension-type headache (subsample of Sample 2). It was demonstrated that, contrary to the official headache classification guidelines, the sensory pain perception in this sample did not differentiate between migraine and tension-type headache. To develop a multidimensional assessment approach, in a third study, an adult classification system (Chronic Pain Grading) was applied to a sample of pediatric pain patients (Sample 2). This approach proved useful as a valid measure for a brief operationalization of pain problem severity, including pain intensity and pain-related disability only, and as an outcome measure. However, it displayed major shortcomings with regards to treatment stratification. To further develop an approach for treatment stratification and treatment planning, a fourth study focused on developing a new multidimensional approach for subgroup classification (subsample of Sample 2). The stability of subgroups was demonstrated in a cross-validation with an independent sample (Sample 1). Furthermore, the identified subgroups displayed distinct treatment outcomes after a standardized treatment program (Sample 3). In conclusion, this doctoral thesis offers an addition to diagnostic measures for older children and adolescents with chronic pain by adding the Pain Perception Scale for Adolescents and by proving the validity of the Chronic Pain Grading for the application in this patient group. These tools allow a valid description of adolescents’ subjective pain experience. Results from this doctoral thesis also indicate that the findings from adults cannot be readily transferred to children and adolescents. The final output of this doctoral thesis is a bio-psycho-social classification approach that identifies subgroups of adolescents with chronic pain with treatment relevant differences. This is a first step toward the development of subgroup-specific treatment.