Background: Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is the most common congenital craniofacial anomaly, which may negatively impact one’s appearance, health-related quality of life, and facial function. The course of treatment is intensive and multifaceted. Patients with CL/P can undergo numerous procedures, with the goal of improving their appearance or facial function. To assess the outcomes of treatment in patients, a well-developed, valid, and reliable patient-reported outcome instrument is required. The CLEFT-Q is a new patient-reported outcome instrument developed to evaluate outcomes of treatment in patients aged 8 to 29 years with cleft lip and/or palate. The purpose of this thesis was to establish content validity and transferability of the CLEFT-Q. Methods: Study 1 of this thesis presents findings from cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback. Patients aged between 6 and 29 years were recruited from 6 plastic surgery clinics. Healthcare providers and experts from 8 countries participated in a focus group or provided individual feedback. Input was sought on all aspects of the CLEFT-Q development, including item wording, instructions, response options, and to identify missing content. Studies 2 and 3 present findings from the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q to evaluate its transferability. Guidelines set forth by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) were applied. Results: Study 1 involved 69 patients and 44 experts who reviewed the CLEFT-Q. The first draft of the CLEFT-Q consisted of 163 items measuring 12 constructs. Three rounds of interviews and expert feedback were needed to establish content validity. At the completion of the cognitive interviews and expert review, the CLEFT-Q comprised 171 items within 13 scales that measure appearance (of the face, nose, nostrils, teeth, lips, jaws, cleft lip scar), health-related quality of life (psychological, social, school, speech-related distress), and facial function (speech, eating/drinking). Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q from English to 6 different languages including Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, Hindi, Swedish, Turkish, and 3 Spanish language varieties (Colombian, Chilean, and Spain). A total of 18 (12%), 18 (12%), 7 (5%), and 4 (3%) items were difficult to translate during the forward translations for the Arabic, Swedish, Dutch, and Hindi versions respectively. Among the Spanish varieties (study 3) only 10 (7%) items were difficult to translate into Chilean. Comparison of the back translation to the source language version of the CLEFT-Q identified that the meaning of 40 (26%), 17 (11%), 9 (6%), and 5 (3%) items in the Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, and Swedish translations respectively had changed and required re-translation, and none were changed for the Dutch translation in study 2. Similarly, in study 3, back translations identified 23 (15%), 21 (13%), 12 (8%), and 10 (6%) items in the Colombian, Catalan, Chilean, and Spanish (Spain) versions respectively whose meanings were changed. Study 2 cognitive debriefing interview participants were mostly below 20 years of age (n= 36, 88%) with CL/P (n=30, 73%). Participants in study 3 were primarily male (n=14, 67%) diagnosed with CL/P (n=17, 81%). Overall, participants in the cognitive debriefing interviews described the CLEFT-Q as understandable and easy to complete. Conclusion: This thesis presents evidence of the CLEFT-Q’s content validity and transferability. After the completion of study 1, no changes were required to the original CLEFT-Q conceptual framework; however, cognitive interviews and expert review allowed us to identify items that required re-wording, re-conceptualizing, to removal, or addition. Finally, the process of translating and culturally adapting the CLEFT-Q in studies 2 and 3 was useful for finalizing the CLEFT-Q scales, and provided evidence of its transferability to other contexts. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Background: Treatment of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is intensive and involves multiple procedures to improve ones appearance or facial function. To assess outcomes of treatment in patients with CL/P, a well-developed, valid, and reliable patient-reported outcome instrument is required. The purpose of this thesis was to establish content validity and transferability of the CLEFT-Q. Methods: Cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback were obtained in Study 1. Input was sought on the CLEFT-Q item wording, instructions, response options, and to identify missing content. Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q to evaluate its transferability. Results: Three rounds of cognitive interviews with patients and expert feedback were needed to establish content validity of the CLEFT-Q in study 1. Studies 2 and 3 involved the translation and cultural adaptation of the CLEFT-Q from English to 6 different languages including Arabic, Catalan, Dutch, Hindi, Swedish, Turkish, and 3 Spanish language varieties (Colombian, Chilean, and Spain). Translation and cultural adaptation processes provided evidence of the CLEFT-Qs transferability. Conclusion: This thesis presents evidence of the CLEFT-Q’s content validity and transferability.

This thesis proposes the methodology and guidelines for community-based macro-level CPM transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region. In doing this. the macro-level CPMs developed for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) by Lovegrove and Sayed (2006, 2007) was used in a model transferability study. Using those models from GVRD and data from Central Okanagan Regional District (CORD), in the Province of British Columbia. Canada. a transferability test has been conducted that involved recalibration of the 1996 GVRD models to Kelowna, in 2003 context. The case study was carried out in three parts. First, macro-level CPMs for the City of Kelowna were developed using 2003 data following the research by GVRD CPM development and use. Next, the 1996 GVRD models were recalibrated to see whether they could yield reliable prediction of the safety estimates for Kelowna, in 2003 context. Finally, a comparison between the results of Kelowna’s own developed models and the transferred models was conducted to determine which models yielded better results. The results of the transferability study revealed that macro-level CPM transferability was possible and no more complicated than micro-level CPM transferability. To facilitate the development of reliable community-based, macro-level collision prediction models, it was recommended that CPMs be transferred rather than developed from scratch whenever and wherever communities lack sufficient data of adequate quality. Therefore, the transferability guidelines in this research, together with their application in the case studies, have been offered as a contribution towards model transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region.

This thesis proposes the methodology and guidelines for community-based macro-level CPM transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region. In doing this. the macro-level CPMs developed for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) by Lovegrove and Sayed (2006, 2007) was used in a model transferability study. Using those models from GVRD and data from Central Okanagan Regional District (CORD), in the Province of British Columbia. Canada. a transferability test has been conducted that involved recalibration of the 1996 GVRD models to Kelowna, in 2003 context. The case study was carried out in three parts. First, macro-level CPMs for the City of Kelowna were developed using 2003 data following the research by GVRD CPM development and use. Next, the 1996 GVRD models were recalibrated to see whether they could yield reliable prediction of the safety estimates for Kelowna, in 2003 context. Finally, a comparison between the results of Kelowna’s own developed models and the transferred models was conducted to determine which models yielded better results. The results of the transferability study revealed that macro-level CPM transferability was possible and no more complicated than micro-level CPM transferability. To facilitate the development of reliable community-based, macro-level collision prediction models, it was recommended that CPMs be transferred rather than developed from scratch whenever and wherever communities lack sufficient data of adequate quality. Therefore, the transferability guidelines in this research, together with their application in the case studies, have been offered as a contribution towards model transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region.

This thesis proposes the methodology and guidelines for community-based macro-level CPM transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region. In doing this. the macro-level CPMs developed for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) by Lovegrove and Sayed (2006, 2007) was used in a model transferability study. Using those models from GVRD and data from Central Okanagan Regional District (CORD), in the Province of British Columbia. Canada. a transferability test has been conducted that involved recalibration of the 1996 GVRD models to Kelowna, in 2003 context. The case study was carried out in three parts. First, macro-level CPMs for the City of Kelowna were developed using 2003 data following the research by GVRD CPM development and use. Next, the 1996 GVRD models were recalibrated to see whether they could yield reliable prediction of the safety estimates for Kelowna, in 2003 context. Finally, a comparison between the results of Kelowna’s own developed models and the transferred models was conducted to determine which models yielded better results. The results of the transferability study revealed that macro-level CPM transferability was possible and no more complicated than micro-level CPM transferability. To facilitate the development of reliable community-based, macro-level collision prediction models, it was recommended that CPMs be transferred rather than developed from scratch whenever and wherever communities lack sufficient data of adequate quality. Therefore, the transferability guidelines in this research, together with their application in the case studies, have been offered as a contribution towards model transferability to do road safety planning applications, with models developed in one spatial-temporal region being capable of used in a different spatial-temporal region. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

This research introduces the concept of transferability into the usability construct and creates the Usability Paradigm for Multiple Device System (UPMDS) to conceptualize and quantify the usability in multiple device scenarios. This study fills the literature gap that no effective method exists in measuring transferability and in quantifying usability in a multiple device context. This study also answers the research questions regarding the impact of task complexity, user experience, and device order on the total usability of the system. Study one follows a systematic approach to develop, validate, and apply a new questionnaire tailored specifically to measure the transferability within a multiple device system. The System Transferability Questionnaire (STQ) is obtained after validation with 15 question items. In a software usability study, the STQ demonstrated excellent internal reliability and validity. Results show that the STQ is effective in capturing four factors regarding transferability, which are transfer experience (TE), overall experience (OE), consistency perception (CP) and functionality perception (FP). Validation results show good convergent, discriminant, criterion and nomonlogical validity. Study two adopts a systematic tool to consolidate usability constructs into a total usability score. The study utilizes principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the weight of the four usability components (satisfaction, transferability, effectiveness, and efficiency), which is used when obtaining the total usability score. Results show slightly different weights for the four components. This quantitative tool can be applied in different usability context in which multiple devices are involved. Usability specialists are encouraged to adjust the tool based on different usability scenarios. Study three investigates the impact of task complexity, user experience, and device order on the total system usability. Results show that the total usability score is not affected by task complexity, user experience or device order. However, lower physical task complexity leads to longer performance time and lower errors from the users. High experienced users have significantly lower errors made in tasks. The machine order also has divergent results. When the mini-lathe machine was used first, users had better transferability results but poorer performance outcomes as compared to when the drill press was used first.

I examined the abundance, composition, and distribution of 34 fishes within the first 24 km below Philpott Dam on the Smith River, a hydropeaking system in Virginia. Fish were sampled at 12 sites over 8 time periods ranging from 2000 to 2002 across April, June, and October. I evaluated spatial and temporal change in fish community characteristics. Species demonstrated persistent trends in abundance, diversity, and composition throughout the duration of the study. Fish abundance and diversity generally increased with increasing distance from the dam. Fish composition changed minimally across seasons and years, indicating consistent fish assemblages. Distributional patterns suggested a strong response to thermal gradients and presence of tributaries. I concluded that temperature and tributary location directly influence fish community patterns in the Smith River and that the patterns are persistent over space and time. I characterized spawning microhabitat use and availability, and tested transferability of spawning microhabitat criteria for Etheostoma flabellare and Nocomis leptocephalus, two of the most common species in the Smith River. E. flabellare preferentially selected small and large cobble size rocks for their spawning rock. N. leptocephalus selected areas with slower demersal and mean water column velocities in which to build their mounds. Transferability tests were conducted using spawning microhabitat criteria from the unregulated Roanoke River (Smith 1999). The logistic regression model developed for E. flabellare by Smith (1999), using information on the diameter of the spawning rock, silt, and embeddedness, transferred with most success with over half of the spawning sites and available sites correctly classified in the Smith River. / Master of Science

Lo studio ha ad oggetto l’intrasferibilità delle quote nella s.r.l. L’indagine prende le mosse da un’analisi empirica delle varie clausole di incedibilità esistenti nella prassi. L’eterogeneità delle convenzioni riscontrate pone il problema di verificare quali di esse siano riconducibili alla fattispecie di intrasferibilità legalmente rilevante ex art. 2469, comma 2°, c.c. La tesi reputa che l’intrasferibilità legalmente rilevante sia soltanto quella assoluta, distinguendo il divieto di trasferimento per atto tra vivi da quello mortis causa. In questo secondo caso, infatti, non ricorre alcuna esigenza di tutela dei soci; bensì dei soli eredi del defunto, ai quali è impedito di far ingresso nella s.r.l., alla stregua di quanto accade nelle società personali. Infine, vengono analizzate l’intrasferibilità ad applicazione differenziata e quella relativa, in quanto non rientranti direttamente nell’ambito di applicazione dell’art. 2469, comma 2°, c.c. / The study concerns the non-transferability of the shares in limited liability company. The research analyses at first, from the empirical point of view, the different existing clauses of non-transferability in reality. The heterogeneity of the found conventions places the problem to verify which of them are referable to the legal case of non-transferability ex art. 2469, comma 2°, c.c. The thesis deems that the legal relevant non-transferability is only that absolute, distinguishing the prohibition of transfer inter vivos from that mortis causa. In this second case, in fact, it does not subsist some requirement of associates protection; it needs, instead, to see the heirs reasons, who are prevented to became member of the company, as happens in partnerships. At last, is analyzed the non-transferability to differentiated application and that relative one, as not re-entering directly within application of the art. 2469, comma 2°, c.c.

This essay investigates the potential educational mismatch of immigrants compared to natives concerning the Swedish labor market. The data is collected from the European Social Survey between 2002-2014. Our results show that immigrants tend to be more overeducated than natives. Our results also indicate that more recent cohorts are more likely to be overeducated compared to cohorts that have lived for a longer time period in Sweden. Disparities in language and country specific skills but also if a person belong to an ethnic minority are reasons for why these mismatches occur.

(Non-)transferability of shares in business corporations Abstract This diploma thesis deals with (non-)transferability of shares in unlimited partnership, limited partnership, limited-liability company and joint-stock company. A share represents participation of a shareholder in business corporation. Each form of business corporation has a different modification of share transferability in the Business Corporation Act. Transfer of share is either prohibited, limited or allowed without any limitation. The rules on transferability also differ as to whether shareholders may deviate from them or not. The differences are mainly due to the personal or capital nature of the business corporation. The aim of this work is to determine the reasons which led the legislature to current transferability of shares in business corporations and to assess whether this legislation an appropriate solution is. The diploma thesis is structured into five parts. The first part deals with the theoretical introduction and defines a share and business corporations. The second and third part of the diploma thesis provides a detailed analysis of the transferability of the share in business companies, including the explanatory uncertainties and discussions that the current legislation raises. Part of the second part is also the...

The use of Machine Learning for malware detection is essential to counter the massive growth in malware types compared with the traditional signature-based detection system. However, machine learning models could also be extremely vulnerable and sensible to transferable adversarial example (AE) attacks. The transfer AE attack does not require extra information from the victim model such as gradient information. Researchers explore mainly 2 lines of transfer-based adversarial example attacks: ensemble models and ensemble samples. \\ Although comprehensive innovations and progress have been achieved in transfer AE attacks, few works have investigated how these techniques perform in malware data. Besides, generating adversarial examples on an android APK file is not as easy and convenient as it is on image data since the generated AE of malware should also remain its functionality and executability after perturbation. Therefore, it is urgent to validate whether previous methodologies could still have their effect on malware considering the differences compared to image data. \\ In this thesis, we first have a thorough literature review for the AE attacks on malware data and general transfer AE attacks. Then we design our algorithm for the transfer AE attack. We formulate the optimization problem based on the intuition that the contribution evenness of features towards the final prediction result is highly correlated to the AE transferability. We then solve the optimization problem by gradient descent and evaluate it through extensive experiments. Implementing and experimenting with the state-of-the-art AE algorithms and transferability enhancement techniques, we analyze and summarize the weaknesses and strengths of each method. / Master of Science / Machine learning models have been widely applied to malware detection systems in recent years due to the massive growth in malware types. However, these models are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Malicious attackers can add some small imperceptible perturbations to the original testing samples and mislead the classification results at a very low cost. Research on adversarial attacks would help us gain a better understanding of the attacker's side and inspire defenses against them. Among all adversarial attacks, the transfer-based adversarial example attack is one of the most devastating attacks since it does not require extra information from the targeted victim model such as gradient information or query from the model. Although plenty of researchers has explored the transfer AE attack lately, few works focus on malware (e.g., Android) data. Compared with image data, perturbing malware is more complicated and challenging since the generated adversarial examples of malware need to remain functionality and executability. To validate how transfer AE attack methods perform on malware, we implement the state-of-the-art (SOTA) works in this thesis and experiment with them on real Android data. Besides, we develop a new transfer-based AE attack method based on the contribution of each feature for generating AE. We then do comprehensive evaluations and draw comparisons between SOTA works and our proposed method.