In recent times, the popularity of hedge funds has undoubtedly increased. There are shared opinions on whether hedge funds generate absolute rates of returns and whether they provide a strong alternative investment to mutual funds. This thesis aims to examine whether hedge funds with different investment strategies create absolute returns and if certain investment strategies outperform others. This thesis compares hedge funds risk-adjusted rate of return towards mutual funds, such as mutual funds, to see if certain investment strategies are more lucrative than the corresponding investments in terms of excess returns to corresponding indices. An econometric approach was applied to search for significant differences in risk-adjusted returns of hedge funds in contrast to mutual funds. Our results show that Swedish hedge funds do not generate as high risk-adjusted returns as Swedish mutual funds. In regard to the best performing hedge fund strategy, the results are inconclusive. Also, we do not find any evidence that hedge funds violate the effective market hypothesis. / Hedgefonder har den senaste tiden ökat i popularitet. Samtidigt finns det delade meningar huruvida hedgefonder genererar absolutavkastning och om de fungerar som bra alternativ till traditionella fonder. Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka huruvida hedgefonder skapar absolutavkastning samt om det finns investeringsstrategier som presterar bättre än andra. Denna uppsats jämför hedgefonders riskjusterade avkastning med traditionella fonder, för att på sätt se om en viss investeringsstrategi ar mer lukrativ i termer av överavkastning i förhållande till motsvarande index. Vi har använt ekonometriska metoder för att söka efter statistiskt signifikanta skillnader mellan avkastningen för hedgefonder och traditionella fonder. Våra resultat visar att svenska hedgefonder inte genererar högre risk-justerade avkastningar än svenska aktiefonder. Våra resultat visar inga signifikanta skillnader vad gäller avkastning mellan olika strategier. Slutligen finner vi heller inga bevis för att hedgefonder går emot den effektiva marknadshypotesen

The ability for unmanned autonomous aerial vehicles (UAV) to localize themselves in an environment is fundamental for them to be able to function, even if they do not have access to a global positioning system. Recently, with the success of deep learning in vision based tasks, there have been some proposed methods for absolute geolocalization using vison based deep learning with satellite and UAV images. Most of these are only tested in urban environments, which begs the question: How well do they work in non-urban areas like forests and fields? One drawback of deep learning is that models are often regarded as black boxes, as it is hard to know why the models make the predictions they do, i.e. what information is important and is used for the prediction. To solve this, several neural network interpretation methods have been developed. These methods provide explanations so that we may understand these models better. This thesis investigates the localization accuracy of one geolocalization method in both urban and non-urban environments as well as applies neural network interpretation in order to see if it can explain the potential difference in localization accuracy of the method in these different environments. The results show that the method performs best in urban environments, getting a mean absolute horizontal error of 38.30m and a mean absolute vertical error of 16.77m, while it performed significantly worse in non-urban environments, getting a mean absolute horizontal error of 68.11m and a mean absolute vertical error 22.83m. Further, the results show that if the satellite images and images from the unmanned aerial vehicle are collected during different seasons of the year, the localization accuracy is even worse, resulting in a mean absolute horizontal error of 86.91m and a mean absolute vertical error of 23.05m. The neural network interpretation did not aid in providing an explanation for why the method performs worse in non-urban environments and is not suitable for this kind of problem. / Obemannade autonoma luftburna fordons (UAV) förmåga att lokaliera sig själva är fundamental för att de ska fungera, även om de inte har tillgång till globala positioneringssystem. Med den nyliga framgången hos djupinlärning applicerat på visuella problem har det kommit metoder för absolut geolokalisering med visuell djupinlärning med satellit- och UAV-bilder. De flesta av dessa metoder har bara blivit testade i stadsmiljöer, vilket leder till frågan: Hur väl fungerar dessa metoder i icke-urbana områden som fält och skogar? En av nackdelarna med djupinlärning är att dessa modeller ofta ses som svarta lådor eftersom det är svårt att veta varför modellerna gör de gissningar de gör, alltså vilken information som är viktig och används för gissningen. För att lösa detta har flera metoder för att tolka neurala nätverk utvecklats. Dessa metoder ger förklaringar så att vi kan förstå dessa modeller bättre. Denna uppsats undersöker lokaliseringsprecisionen hos en geolokaliseringsmetod i både urbana och icke-urbana miljöer och applicerar även en tolkningsmetod för neurala nätverk för att se ifall den kan förklara den potentialla skillnaden i precision hos metoden i dessa olika miljöer. Resultaten visar att metoden fungerar bäst i urbana miljöer där den får ett genomsnittligt absolut horisontellt lokaliseringsfel på 38.30m och ett genomsnittligt absolut vertikalt fel på 16.77m medan den presterade signifikant sämre i icke-urbana miljöer där den fick ett genomsnittligt absolut horisontellt lokaliseringsfel på 68.11m och ett genomsnittligt absolut vertikalt fel på 22.83m. Vidare visar resultaten att om satellitbilderna och UAV-bilderna är tagna från olika årstider blir lokaliseringsprecisionen ännu sämre, där metoden får genomsnittligt absolut horisontellt lokaliseringsfel på 86.91m och ett genomsnittligt absolut vertikalt fel på 23.05m. Tolkningsmetoden hjälpte inte i att förklara varför metoden fungerar sämre i icke-urbana miljöer och är inte passande att använda för denna sortens problem.

In recent decades the interpretation of music history of the interwar period was determined by factors which allowed only national or folkloristic approaches to modern music in Hungary. However, the composers of the group ‘Modern Hungarian Musicians’, connected to the forums of the New Music like the ISCM or Cowell‘s NMS, were committed to a transcultural view of musical innovation. Through intermedial connections between literary and fine art, they received non-musical impulses by modern and avantgarde movements. This paper makes an approach on their heterogeneous conception of music with the common sense, to set a renewal of the musical language as its goal.

The PID controller is regarded as a dependable and reliable controller for process industry systems. Many researchers have devoted time and attention to PID controller tuning and they all agree that PID controllers are very important for control systems. A PID equation is very sensitive; its parameters must always be varied following the specific application to increase performance, such as by increasing the system’s responsiveness. PID controllers still have many problems despite their importance for control systems in industries. The problem of big overshoot on the conventional gain tuning is one of the serious problems. Researchers use the PSO algorithm to try and overcome those problems. The tuning of the MIMO PID controller based on the PSO algorithm shows many disadvantages such as high-quality control with a short settle time, steady-state error, and periodical step response. The traditional PSO algorithm is very sensitive and it sometimes affects the quality of good PID controller tuning. This research has proposed a new equation for improving the PSO algorithm. The proposed algorithm is the combination of linearly decreasing inertia weight and chaotic inertia weight, after which a control factor was introduced as an exponential factor. This was very useful for simulations as it is adjustable. The Matlab simulation results of the experiments show that the simulations as it is adjustable. The Matlab simulation results of the experiments show that the new proposed equation converges faster and it gives the best fitness compared to linear inertia weight and oscillating inertia weight and other old equations. The MIMO PID controller system that consists of four plants was tuned based on the new proposed equation for the PSO algorithm (LCPSO). The optimized results show the best rise time, settling time, time delays, and steady-state compared to the systems that are tuned using the old equations. The exploration was directed at considering the impact of using the PSO calculation as an instrument for MIMO PID tuning. The results obtained in the examination reveal that the PSO tuning output improved reactions and can be applied to various system models in the measure control industry. The results for the MIMO PID controller tuned using PSO were assessed using integral square error (ISE), integral absolute error (IAE), and the integral of time expanded by absolute error (ITAE). The five well-known benchmark functions were also used to endorse the feasibility of the improved PSO and excellent results in terms of convergence and best fitness were attained. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)

Wilcox (1990) examined the Type I and Type II error rates for several robust tests of H0: σ12/σ22 = 1 in paired-data designs and concluded that a satisfactory solution does not yet exist. A confidence interval for a ratio of correlated mean absolute deviations is derived and performs well in small sample sizes across realistically nonnormal distributions. When used to test a hypothesis, the proposed confidence interval is almost as powerful as the most powerful test examined by Wilcox.

La République de Pologne-Lituanie, par sa forme de gouvernement unique, a suscité l’intérêt d’auteurs français fondamentaux tels que Théodore de Bèze, Jean Bodin, Montesquieu, Voltaire et Jean-Jacques Rousseau, mais aussi de penseurs aujourd’hui moins connus, comme Jean Boucher, Claude de Rubis ou Nicolas Baudeau. La Pologne apparaît dans la littérature politique française dès 1573, date à laquelle Henri de Valois fut élu roi de Pologne, jusqu’en 1795, moment de la disparition de la carte de l’Europe de l’État polono-lituanien. Malgré cette présence continue, elle ne fut que très peu étudiée dans l’historiographie française. Pourtant, elle représente une clé de lecture passionnante pour éclairer les débats politiques français de l’époque moderne, ce qu’entreprend de démontrer cette thèse. / The Republic of Poland-Lithuania, with its unique form of government, aroused the interest of fundamental French authors such as Théodore de Bèze, Jean Bodin, Montesquieu, Voltaire or Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but also the attention of less known thinkers like Jean Boucher, Claude de Rubis or Nicolas Baudeau. Poland appeared in French political literature in 1573, when Henri of Valois was elected king of Poland, until 1795, when the Polish-Lithuanian state disappeared from the map of Europe. Despite this continuous presence, it has been insufficiently analyzed in the French historiography. Yet, it represents a fascinating key for reading the French political debates of the modern era. This thesis aims at demonstrating it.

Poverty is a condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are not being met. Poverty is generally of two types: absolute and relative poverty. Some of the causes of poverty include changing trends in a country’s economy, lack of education, high divorce rate which causes feminisation of poverty, having a culture of poverty, overpopulation, epidemic diseases such as AIDS and malaria, and environmental problems such as lack of rainfall (business dictionary.com). / Dissertation (PhD (Applied Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Centre for Contextual Ministry / PhD (Applied Theology) / Unrestricted

Master´s thesis is focused on the evaluation of the financial position of the company and it compares results with branch averages. The first part of the thesis is based on clear theory, which is important to the overall understanding of the financial position. Then the company is briefly described. In the third part of the thesis we provide information on the current implemented financial analysis position of the company, comparing with the competition from the same branch and with the branch averages and results of comparing.

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