The aim of this thesis is to analyze the online sales of the travel agency New Travel.cz for the past year 2010 and then use the particular results of the analysis and find out and characterize the major market segments of this company. The travel agency gets through the market segmentation better general view of it's customers and consumer's behavior and comapny can effectively focusing their marketing activities. This analysis can be regarded as pilot project of the New Travel.cz., therefore, deals only with the sale of the previous year. This analysis will serve as a source of information needed to progression of the new generation database of tours and administrative interface of travel agency New Travel.cz.

This thesis is dedicated to the problem of communication strategy in the fashion business with application on one of the fashion retailers, Kenvelo. Clothing business, or as we will refer here fashion business is together with food, transportation and communication businesses one of the most natural and essential parts of our lives. Nonetheless, fashion business is one of the most challenging and unpredictable ones, driven by many different factors and sometimes hardly comprehensive links. The main aim of the thesis is to identify the communication tools appropriate for the target group of Kenvelo, develop a new concept for communication and propose a media plan which would support this concept.

Context. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of new cases of legal blindness in people of working age. Early diagnosis is the key to slowing the progression of the disease, thus preventing blindness. Retinal fundus image is an important basis for judging these retinal diseases. With the development of technology, computer-aided diagnosis is widely used. Objectives. The thesis is to investigate whether there exist specific regions that could assist in better prediction of the retinopathy disease, it means to find the best region in fundus image that works the best in retinopathy classification with the use of computer vision and machine learning techniques. Methods. An experiment method was used as research methods. With image segmentation techniques, the fundus image is divided into regions to obtain the optic disc dataset, blood vessel dataset, and other regions (regions other than blood vessel and optic disk) dataset. These datasets and original fundus image dataset were tested on Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models, respectively. Results. It is found that the results on different models are inconsistent. As compared to the original fundus image, the blood vessel region exhibits the best performance on SVM model, the other regions perform best on RF model, while the original fundus image has higher prediction accuracy on CNN model. Conclusions. The other regions dataset has more predictive power than original fundus image dataset on RF and SVM models. On CNN model, extracting features from the fundus image does not significantly improve predictive performance as compared to the entire fundus image.

Neste trabalho é proposta uma metodologia para reconhecimento de anseios de segmento do mercado de real estate residencial. Será desenvolvido um protocolo contemplando um projeto de pesquisa para a formação de um banco de dados e o tratamento adequado das informações. O projeto de pesquisa parte do desenvolvimento de um questionário seguindo orientações científicas, fundamentado nas teorias de segmentação e nos fatores psicodinâmicos de influência do consumidor, resultando na estruturação de um banco de dados com as informações sobre o perfil dos entrevistados e seus anseios sobre imóveis residenciais. Aborda ainda o tratamento necessário das informações, que resultam no reconhecimento procurado para que sirva como ferramenta de ajuda na formatação de empreendimentos residenciais que utilizam segmentação como estratégia de inserção. Para validação do protocolo foi realizada uma pesquisa de caráter exploratório, aplicando o questionário resultante deste trabalho em 50 interessados na compra de imóveis residenciais. A amostra é formada de clientes que procuram imóveis nas regiões sul e sudeste da cidade em duas grandes imobiliárias da região. Os resultados obtidos na pesquisa formaram um banco de dados, deste foram escolhidos dois segmentos para análise de anseios: I) agrupados por ciclo de vida familiar: segmento de solteiros e II) segmento de clientes que procuram imóveis: casal com filhos. Os resultados foram comparados entre si e no total da amostra, possibilitando reconhecer os anseios de cada segmento e comprovando a importância da ferramenta proposta. / In this work the proposal is a methodology for recognition of yearnings of the residential market in real state. A protocol will be developed regarding to a research project for the formatting of a data base and the adjusted treatment of information. The research project goes from the development of a questionnaire following scientific directions, based on the recital theories and in the psychodynamics factors that influences the consumer. Resulting the formatting of a database with information about the interviewed profile and his yearnings for residential properties. It still approaches the necessary treatment of approaches that results in the looked recognition so that serves as an aid tool in the formatting of residential enterprises that use segmentation as insertion strategy. For validation of the protocol was realized an exploration character research applying the questionnaire of this work in 50 people interested in the purchase of residential enterprises. The sample is formed by costumers who look for properties in the regions south and southeastern of the city in two great real state ones of the regions. The gotten results in the research have formed a database; from these two segments had been chosen for earning analyses. i) grouped for cycle of familiar life: segment of bachelors, e ii) segment of: couples with children. The results where compared between it selves and with the total of the sample, making this way possible to recognize the yearnings of each segment and proving the importance of the proposed tool.

O planejamento estratégico direcionado para o produto habitacional deve ser orientado para atender expectativas de um determinado estrato de mercado, apresentando características e atributos que satisfaçam à demanda desse público alvo nele inserido. Foram desenvolvidas diretrizes para estratificar um mercado habitacional e extrair informações sobre imagens de expectativas determinantes para a compra de um imóvel. O referencial teórico construído discutiu formas de estratificar um mercado por critérios geográficos, demográficos, socioeconômicos e psicográficos ou comportamentais. Identificaram-se expectativas habitacionais a partir do atendimento de necessidades durante o processo que conduziu a decisão de compra. A enquete realizada desenvolveu um processo de estratificação de mercado a partir da caracterização de um público alvo comprador de alto poder aquisitivo dentro de uma região da cidade de São Paulo. Este estrato, também foi produzido segundo os estágios do ciclo de vida familiar definidos, expresso por gerações e por um perfil psicográfico específico identificado também pela enquete. Ao final, as imagens de expectativas identificadas a partir do segmento de mercado produzido, emularam um produto hipotético apresentado que as atendesse de forma mais eficiente. / Strategic planning directed to the housing product should be directed to meet expectations of a certain stratum of the market, presenting features and attributes that meet the demand of target inserted therein. Guidelines have been developed to stratify a housing market and extract information about images determinants of expectations for the purchase of a property. The theoretical framework discussed ways to build a market stratification by geographic criteria, demographic, socioeconomic and psychographic or behavioral. Expectations were identified from the residential care needs during the process that led to the buying decision. The poll has developed a process of stratification of the market from the characterization of a buyer audience with high purchasing power within a region of São Paulo. This stratum was also produced according to the stages of family life cycle defined for generations and expressed by a specific psychographic profile also identified by the survey. In the end, the images from the expectations identified in the industry produced, emulated a product that presented hypothetical met more efficiently.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma técnica automática baseada em morfologia matemática para medida de sinal em imagens de cDNA desenvolvida no BIOINFO,em parceria com o Instituto Ludwig de Pesquisa contra o Câncer. A tecnologia de lâminas de cDNA é um processo baseado em hibridização que possibilita observar a concentração relativa de mRNA de amostras de tecidos analisando a luminosidade de sinais fluorescentes ou radioativos. Hibridização é o processo bioquímico onde duas fitas de ácido nucleico com seqüências complementares se combinam. A técnica apresentada permite o cálculo da expressão gênica com alto grau de automação, podendo o usuário corrigir com facilidade eventuais erros de segmentação. O usuário interage com o programa apenas para selecionar as imagens e inserir os dados de geometria da lâmina. A estratégia de solução usada tem três fases: gradeamento dos blocos, gradeamento dos spots e segmentação dos spots. Todas as fases utilizam filtros morfológicos e as fases de gradeamento possuem um passo final de correção baseado nos dados de geometria da lâmina o que aumenta a robustez do processo, que funciona bem mesmo em imagens ruidosas. / The objective of this work is to present the automated technique for measuring signal from cDNA images developed in BIOINFO, associated with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Microarray technology is a hybridization based process that makes possible to quantify the relative abundance of mRNA in two tissue samples analysing the luminosity of fluorescent or radioactive signals. Hybridization is a biochemical process where a strand of nucleic acid matches up its counterpart. The developed technique permits the calculation of gene expression with a high level of automation. Besides that, the user can easily correct eventual segmentation mistakes. The user interacts with the program only to select the images and to set the slide geometry parameters. The solution strategy has three main steps: subarray griding, spots gridding and spots detection. All the steps use morphological filters, and the two gridding steps have a final correction substep based on the slide geometry, increasing the process robustness, that works well even in noisy images.

Pour l'évaluation de la fonction rénale, l'Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique (IRM) dynamique à rehaussement de contraste est une alternative intéressante à la scintigraphie. Les résultats obtenus doivent cependant être évalués à grande échelle avant son utilisation en pratique clinique. L'exploitation des séquences acquises demande un recalage de la série d'images et la segmentation des structures internes du rein. Notre objectif est de fournir un outil fiable et simple à utiliser pour automatiser en partie ces deux opérations. Des méthodes statistiques de recalage utilisant l'information mutuelle sont testées sur des données réelles. La segmentation du cortex, de la médullaire et des cavités est réalisée en classant les voxels rénaux selon leurs courbes temps-intensité. Une stratégie de classification en deux étapes est proposée. Des classificateurs sont d'abord construits grâce à la coupe rénale principale en utilisant deux algorithmes de quantification vectorielle (K-moyennes et Growing Neural Gas). Ils sont validés sur données simulées, puis réelles, en évaluant des critères de similarité entre une segmentation manuelle de référence et des segmentations fonctionnelles ou une seconde segmentation manuelle. Les voxels des autres coupes sont ensuite triés avec le classificateur optimum pour la coupe principale. La théorie de la généralisation permet de borner l'erreur de classification faite lors de cette extension. La méthode proposée procure les avantages suivants par rapport à une segmentation manuelle : gain de temps important, intervention de l'opérateur limitée et aisée, bonne robustesse due à l'utilisation de toute la séquence et bonne reproductibilité / Dynamic-Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging has a great potential for renal function assessment but has to be evaluated on a large scale before its clinical application. Registration of image sequences and segmentation of internal renal structures is mandatory in order to exploit acquisitions. We propose a reliable and user-friendly tool to partially automate these two operations. Statistical registration methods based on mutual information are tested on real data. Segmentation of cortex, medulla and cavities is performed using time-intensity curves of renal voxels in a two step process. Classifiers are first built with pixels of the slice that contains the largest proportion of renal tissue : two vector quantization algorithms, namely the K-means and the Growing Neural Gas with targeting, are used here. These classifiers are first tested on synthetic data. For real data, as no ground truth is available for result evaluation, a manual anatomical segmentation is considered as a reference. Some discrepancy criteria like overlap, extra pixels and similarity index are computed between this segmentation and functional one. The same criteria are also evaluated between the referencee and another manual segmentation. Results are comparable for the two types of comparisons. Voxels of other slices are then sorted with the optimal classifier. Generalization theory allows to bound classification error for this extension. The main advantages of functional methods are the following : considerable time-saving, easy manual intervention, good robustness and reproductibility

Melanoma, a severe and life-threatening skin cancer, is commonly misdiagnosed or left undiagnosed. Advances in artificial intelligence, particularly deep learning, have enabled the design and implementation of intelligent solutions to skin lesion detection and classification from visible light images, which are capable of performing early and accurate diagnosis of melanoma and other types of skin diseases. This work presents solutions to the problems of skin lesion segmentation and classification. The proposed classification approach leverages convolutional neural networks and transfer learning. Additionally, the impact of segmentation (i.e., isolating the lesion from the rest of the image) on the performance of the classifier is investigated, leading to the conclusion that there is an optimal region between “dermatologist segmented” and “not segmented” that produces best results, suggesting that the context around a lesion is helpful as the model is trained and built. Generative adversarial networks, in the context of extending limited datasets by creating synthetic samples of skin lesions, are also explored. The robustness and security of skin lesion classifiers using convolutional neural networks are examined and stress-tested by implementing adversarial examples. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In this research, image segmentation and visual odometry estimations in real time are addressed, and two main contributions were made to this field. First, a new image segmentation and classification algorithm named DilatedU-NET is introduced. This deep learning based algorithm is able to process seven frames per-second and achieves over 84% accuracy using the Cityscapes dataset. Secondly, a new method to estimate visual odometry is introduced. Using the KITTI benchmark dataset as a baseline, the visual odometry error was more significant than could be accurately measured. However, the robust framerate speed made up for this, able to process 15 frames per second. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In Essay I, I analyze the impact of the target and bidder reference points on the probability of acquisition under general economic conditions as well as in strong/weak economic periods. I find that the target and the bidder reference points have a significant impact on the probability of a firm becoming a bidder or a target. While the target reference point also has a significant impact on the successful completion of the merger, the bidder reference point does not. In addition, I find that the target reference point is a significant determinant of management-led buyout mergers, while the bidder reference point has a significant impact on the probability of the bidder launching a hostile bid. In Essay II, I focus on the impact of the target and bidder reference points on the method of payment in the context of what the target seeks, what the bidder offers, and what the two parties use as their final method of payment. The analysis is performed under general economic conditions and in strong/weak economic periods. I find that while the target reference point has a strong impact on the method of payment agreed upon between the two parties, the bidder reference point does not. This is especially important given that the bidder reference point influences the consideration offered by the bidder but does not translate into a significant impact on the final method of payment. In essay III, I examine the impact of bidder reference point on public targets and the impact of bidder and target reference points on private firms. I analyze the aforementioned relationships under different economic conditions. Consistent with the literature on premium and public targets, I find that the target reference point has a strong and positive relationship with the premium paid for private firms. The relationship is stronger in weak economic times. / At the same time, I do not find any evidence that the bidder reference point exerts a significant influence on the premium paid for public firms. Interestingly, the relationship between the bidder reference point and the premium paid for private firms is negative and significant. / Inga Chira. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.