The aim of the Diploma thesis is to evaluate the selected object-oriented (OO) methodology as it was defined by its author, on the basis of defined criteria, whether it is applicable in practice when designing an information system, with a main focus on analysis of the new core banking system supporting key processes of payment institution and Forex broker. Diploma thesis describes selected OO methodologies and notations used in the analysis and design of information systems. Further, it focuses on the evaluation of the real usage of selected method (Unified Process) in the environment of payment institution. It confronts the theoretical definition of a selected OO methodology with its application during the analysis of IS through practical demonstrations created within the case study.

This thesis considers new methods that exploit recent developments in computer technology to address three extant problems in the area of Finance and Econometrics. The problem of Asian option pricing has endured for the last two decades in spite of many attempts to find a robust solution across all parameter values. All recently proposed methods are shown to fail when computations are conducted using standard machine precision because as more and more accuracy is forced upon the problem, round-off error begins to propagate. Using recent methods from numerical analysis based on multi-precision arithmetic, we show using the Mathematica platform that all extant methods have efficacy when computations use sufficient arithmetic precision. This creates the proper framework to compare and contrast the methods based on criteria such as computational speed for a given accuracy. Numerical methods based on a deformation of the Bromwich contour in the Geman-Yor Laplace transform are found to perform best provided the normalized strike price is above a given threshold; otherwise methods based on Euler approximation are preferred. The same methods are applied in two other contexts: the simulation of stable distributions and the computation of unit root densities in Econometrics. The stable densities are all nested in a general function called a Fox H function. The same computational difficulties as above apply when using only double-precision arithmetic but are again solved using higher arithmetic precision. We also consider simulating the densities of infinitely divisible distributions associated with hyperbolic functions. Finally, our methods are applied to unit root densities. Focusing on the two fundamental densities, we show our methods perform favorably against the extant methods of Monte Carlo simulation, the Imhof algorithm and some analytical expressions derived principally by Abadir. Using Mathematica, the main two-dimensional Laplace transform in this context is reduced to a one-dimensional problem.

INTRODUÇÃO: Esta tese trata da discussão em torno às perguntas necessárias para compor uma agenda política estratégica da reforma hospitalar brasileira. Buscou-se construir argumentos sobre a relevância de abordar nessas perguntas a grande insuficiência da oferta de leitos hospitalares, como indicador da falta de resposta oportuna em volume e qualidade para materializar a resposta às necessidades da população e garantir os direitos humanos e sociais à saúde, conforme os preceitos constitucionais de 1988. MÉTODOS: O estudo adotou um enfoque desde a perspectiva de política de saúde, o que nos remete ao debate sobre processo e poder, destacando os ciclos de formulação e implementação de políticas, a hierarquização desses debates como de política estratégica (High Politics) ou setorial (Low Politics) e as condições requeridas em termos de atores e espaços de decisão a considerar. Realizou-se a revisão da experiência internacional para identificar as referências do número e perfil de leitos requeridos para atender populações nacionais em seus territórios e também foram resgatados os parâmetros adotados no Brasil desde o Estado Novo. Para a análise da oferta hospitalar entre 2005 e 2014, foram utilizados os dados secundários extraídos do Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos em Saúde - CNES, do Sistema de Informações Ambulatoriais e Hospitalares - SIA / SIH, da Agencia Nacional de Saúde Suplementar - ANS e do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE. RESULTADOS: 1. O número e tipo de leitos necessários e o número, porte, tipo e características sistêmicas dos serviços hospitalares que os abrigariam, são temas que se consideraram relevantes para compor as perguntas para a agenda estratégica em debate. 2. A análise da política do período 2004 a 2014 permite identificar a fragmentação e descontinuidade das ações mesmo obtendo resultados pontuais de melhora, mas afastando-se da promessa estratégica de algumas agendas ensaiadas no período. 3. Ganhou destaque a diminuição continuada do estoque geral de leitos e de leitos para o SUS, alcançando níveis muito inferiores a qualquer parâmetro comparativo de outros sistemas universais de saúde, particularmente quando adotou-se o critério de leitos efetivos para examinar a oferta de leitos e seu desempenho. Na Saúde Suplementar houve aumento de leitos, porém queda no número por mil assegurados dado o crescimento das coberturas hospitalares no período. CONCLUSÕES: A crise persistente de acesso hospitalar constitui razão para construir uma agenda estratégica para a reforma hospitalar brasileira. Ao buscar o caminho para elevar o tema da crise hospitalar a um tratamento de alta política, foram mapeados: o conteúdo de política hospitalar dos planos estaduais de saúde, documentos técnicos estaduais e organogramas de coordenação da atenção hospitalar estadual, examinando-se a possibilidade dos governos estaduais liderarem no processo de regionalização a construção de uma agenda política estratégica estadual e nacional, fortalecendo o diálogo entre os entes federados, incluindo seus próprios prestadores e os prestadores não estatais particularmente os filantrópicos, além de estender o diálogo com o corpo médico e os usuários entendidos como cidadãos sujeitos de direitos. Para alicerçar este caminho possível se apresenta o processo de elaboração participativa de planos diretores de redes e hospitais por estados e suas regiões, como forma de construção de comunidades epistêmicas e suas projeções para a sustentação de uma agenda para a alta política, orientada a alcançar 4 leitos por 1000 habitantes em 20 anos de esforço sustentado / INTRODUCTION: This thesis addresses the debate on the questions that should be part of a strategic political agenda of the Brazilian hospital reform. The purpose is to develop arguments on the relevance that such questions should approach the huge insufficient supply of hospital beds, as an indicator of the lack of timely answer, in number and quality, to materialize people\'s needs, and therefore to guarantee the human and social rights to health, according to the 1988 constitutional principles. METHODS: This study adopts the approach from the health policy perspective, referring us to debates on process and power, and outlining the cycles of policy formulation and implementation, as well as the classification of these debates as strategic policy (High Politics) or sectorial policy (Low Politics), and the required conditions in terms of actors and decision-making spaces. A review of international experience was carried out to identify data on number and types of hospital beds necessary to attend national populations in their territories; moreover a review of the parameters adopted in Brazil since President Vargas\' dictatorship, known as the New State (1937-1945), was also carried out. For the analysis of the hospital supply between 2005 and 2014, we used secondary data drawn from the National Health Facilities Register - CNES, both the Ambulatory and Hospital Information Systems - SIA / SIH, National Regulatory Agency for Private Health Insurance and Plans - ANS, and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE. RESULTS: 1. The topics considered relevant to set the issues for the strategic agenda are: number and type of necessary beds; and number, size, type and systemic characteristics of the hospital services that would provide the beds. 2. The political analysis of the period between 2004 and 2014 allows us to identify fragmentation and discontinuity of actions, limited improvement, and failure to fulfil the strategic promise of some agendas that were tried out during that time frame. 3. The on-going decrease in the total number of national hospital beds and at the Unified Health System (SUS) is outlined, showing much lower levels than any comparative parameter of other universal national health systems, particularly when considering effective beds in the analysis of beds\' supply and its performance. In Private Health, there has been an increase in beds, but also a decrease in the number per 1,000 insureds in view of the increase in the insurance coverings in that period. We refer the persistent crisis of the hospital access as the reason to build a strategic agenda for the Brazilian hospital reform. CONCLUSIONS: In our effort to find a path that could elevate the hospital crisis\' topic to be addressed as a high politics, we delineated the content of hospital policy in Brazilian States\' health plans, technical documents, and organization charts of their hospital care coordination; considering the possibility of States\' governments lead, in the regionalization process, the development of both state and national strategic political agenda; as well as strengthen dialogue among the federated entities and the non-state providers, especially the philanthropic ones; and also extend the dialogue with medical professionals and service users who should be regarded as citizens-subjects endowed with rights. To pave this possible path we indicate the process of participative development of director plans of hospitals networks for the States and their regions, as a mean of developing epistemic communities and their projections to the sustainability of an agenda for high politics aimed to achieve 4 beds for 1,000 inhabitants in 20 years of sustained effort

INTRODUÇÃO: Esta tese trata da discussão em torno às perguntas necessárias para compor uma agenda política estratégica da reforma hospitalar brasileira. Buscou-se construir argumentos sobre a relevância de abordar nessas perguntas a grande insuficiência da oferta de leitos hospitalares, como indicador da falta de resposta oportuna em volume e qualidade para materializar a resposta às necessidades da população e garantir os direitos humanos e sociais à saúde, conforme os preceitos constitucionais de 1988. MÉTODOS: O estudo adotou um enfoque desde a perspectiva de política de saúde, o que nos remete ao debate sobre processo e poder, destacando os ciclos de formulação e implementação de políticas, a hierarquização desses debates como de política estratégica (High Politics) ou setorial (Low Politics) e as condições requeridas em termos de atores e espaços de decisão a considerar. Realizou-se a revisão da experiência internacional para identificar as referências do número e perfil de leitos requeridos para atender populações nacionais em seus territórios e também foram resgatados os parâmetros adotados no Brasil desde o Estado Novo. Para a análise da oferta hospitalar entre 2005 e 2014, foram utilizados os dados secundários extraídos do Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos em Saúde - CNES, do Sistema de Informações Ambulatoriais e Hospitalares - SIA / SIH, da Agencia Nacional de Saúde Suplementar - ANS e do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE. RESULTADOS: 1. O número e tipo de leitos necessários e o número, porte, tipo e características sistêmicas dos serviços hospitalares que os abrigariam, são temas que se consideraram relevantes para compor as perguntas para a agenda estratégica em debate. 2. A análise da política do período 2004 a 2014 permite identificar a fragmentação e descontinuidade das ações mesmo obtendo resultados pontuais de melhora, mas afastando-se da promessa estratégica de algumas agendas ensaiadas no período. 3. Ganhou destaque a diminuição continuada do estoque geral de leitos e de leitos para o SUS, alcançando níveis muito inferiores a qualquer parâmetro comparativo de outros sistemas universais de saúde, particularmente quando adotou-se o critério de leitos efetivos para examinar a oferta de leitos e seu desempenho. Na Saúde Suplementar houve aumento de leitos, porém queda no número por mil assegurados dado o crescimento das coberturas hospitalares no período. CONCLUSÕES: A crise persistente de acesso hospitalar constitui razão para construir uma agenda estratégica para a reforma hospitalar brasileira. Ao buscar o caminho para elevar o tema da crise hospitalar a um tratamento de alta política, foram mapeados: o conteúdo de política hospitalar dos planos estaduais de saúde, documentos técnicos estaduais e organogramas de coordenação da atenção hospitalar estadual, examinando-se a possibilidade dos governos estaduais liderarem no processo de regionalização a construção de uma agenda política estratégica estadual e nacional, fortalecendo o diálogo entre os entes federados, incluindo seus próprios prestadores e os prestadores não estatais particularmente os filantrópicos, além de estender o diálogo com o corpo médico e os usuários entendidos como cidadãos sujeitos de direitos. Para alicerçar este caminho possível se apresenta o processo de elaboração participativa de planos diretores de redes e hospitais por estados e suas regiões, como forma de construção de comunidades epistêmicas e suas projeções para a sustentação de uma agenda para a alta política, orientada a alcançar 4 leitos por 1000 habitantes em 20 anos de esforço sustentado / INTRODUCTION: This thesis addresses the debate on the questions that should be part of a strategic political agenda of the Brazilian hospital reform. The purpose is to develop arguments on the relevance that such questions should approach the huge insufficient supply of hospital beds, as an indicator of the lack of timely answer, in number and quality, to materialize people\'s needs, and therefore to guarantee the human and social rights to health, according to the 1988 constitutional principles. METHODS: This study adopts the approach from the health policy perspective, referring us to debates on process and power, and outlining the cycles of policy formulation and implementation, as well as the classification of these debates as strategic policy (High Politics) or sectorial policy (Low Politics), and the required conditions in terms of actors and decision-making spaces. A review of international experience was carried out to identify data on number and types of hospital beds necessary to attend national populations in their territories; moreover a review of the parameters adopted in Brazil since President Vargas\' dictatorship, known as the New State (1937-1945), was also carried out. For the analysis of the hospital supply between 2005 and 2014, we used secondary data drawn from the National Health Facilities Register - CNES, both the Ambulatory and Hospital Information Systems - SIA / SIH, National Regulatory Agency for Private Health Insurance and Plans - ANS, and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE. RESULTS: 1. The topics considered relevant to set the issues for the strategic agenda are: number and type of necessary beds; and number, size, type and systemic characteristics of the hospital services that would provide the beds. 2. The political analysis of the period between 2004 and 2014 allows us to identify fragmentation and discontinuity of actions, limited improvement, and failure to fulfil the strategic promise of some agendas that were tried out during that time frame. 3. The on-going decrease in the total number of national hospital beds and at the Unified Health System (SUS) is outlined, showing much lower levels than any comparative parameter of other universal national health systems, particularly when considering effective beds in the analysis of beds\' supply and its performance. In Private Health, there has been an increase in beds, but also a decrease in the number per 1,000 insureds in view of the increase in the insurance coverings in that period. We refer the persistent crisis of the hospital access as the reason to build a strategic agenda for the Brazilian hospital reform. CONCLUSIONS: In our effort to find a path that could elevate the hospital crisis\' topic to be addressed as a high politics, we delineated the content of hospital policy in Brazilian States\' health plans, technical documents, and organization charts of their hospital care coordination; considering the possibility of States\' governments lead, in the regionalization process, the development of both state and national strategic political agenda; as well as strengthen dialogue among the federated entities and the non-state providers, especially the philanthropic ones; and also extend the dialogue with medical professionals and service users who should be regarded as citizens-subjects endowed with rights. To pave this possible path we indicate the process of participative development of director plans of hospitals networks for the States and their regions, as a mean of developing epistemic communities and their projections to the sustainability of an agenda for high politics aimed to achieve 4 beds for 1,000 inhabitants in 20 years of sustained effort

By projecting observed microseismic data backward in time to when fracturing occurred, it is possible to locate the fracture events in space, assuming a correct velocity model. In order to achieve this task in near real-time, a robust computational system to handle backward propagation, or Reverse Time Migration (RTM), is required. We can then test many different velocity models for each run of the RTM. We investigate the use of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) based system using Compute Unified Device Architecture for C (CUDA-C) as the programming language. Our preliminary results show a large improvement in run-time over conventional programming methods based on conventional Central Processing Unit (CPU) computing with Fortran. Considerable room for improvement still remains. / text

本研究旨在探討2000年我國中央政府政黨輪替前後，不同的政府型態對於重大法案審議的影響。我們運用統計、內容分析（content analysis）、深度訪談等方法，檢視第2屆至第6屆立法院（1993年2月至2007年1月）期間，行政院提出的249個重大法案在立法院審議的情形，屬於「貫時性分析」（longitudinal analysis）。 就分立政府（divided government）與一致政府（unified government）的比較而言，研究結果發現：台灣的分立政府之重大法案審議結果，與一致政府的確有所差異，但差異並不大。值得強調的是，吾人企圖跳脫「分立vs.一致」的二元思考，嘗試作更細膩的觀察──本研究以二元對數勝算比模型（binary logit model）檢視影響重大法案通過與否的因素，藉由兩個模型的比較，最重要的發現在於：本研究提出的「四個階段」（一致政府前期、一致政府後期、分立政府前期、分立政府後期）之分析方式，較傳統「一致政府vs.分立政府」二元對立的分類，更具意義。分析結果顯示：「分立政府後期」的重大法案通過情形，明顯較「一致政府前期」好，分立政府的重大法案生產力未必不如一致政府。而且，分立政府本身有顯著差異，一致政府後期與前期的差異則更為顯著。易言之，本研究發現：分立政府的情形不能一概而論，分立初期行政部門的重大法案在國會常遭擱置延宕，頗符合Sundquist等傳統派學者的看法，但分立後期，重大法案通過率大幅回升甚至略高於一致政府的平均數，此階段的情況大致符合修正派學者Mayhew的觀點（分立政府無損於重大法案之制定），惟國會對於法案主導權的爭奪明顯較一致政府時期嚴重。另一方面，一致政府的情形亦不能一概而論，一致政府前期的重大法案推動情形並不順暢，頗值得2008年重回一致政府「完全執政」的新政府借鏡。

In today's global market environment, enterprises are increasingly turning towards collaboration in projects to leverage their resources, skills and expertise, and simultaneously address the challenges posed in diverse and competitive markets. Moderators, which are knowledge based systems have successfully been used to support collaborative teams by raising awareness of problems or conflicts. However, the functioning of a moderator is limited to the knowledge it has about the team members. Knowledge acquisition, learning and updating of knowledge are the major challenges for a Moderator's implementation. To address these challenges a Knowledge discOvery And daTa minINg inteGrated (KOATING) framework is presented for Moderators to enable them to continuously learn from the operational databases of the company and semi-automatically update the corresponding expert module. The architecture for the Universal Knowledge Moderator (UKM) shows how the existing moderators can be extended to support global manufacturing. A method for designing and developing the knowledge acquisition module of the Moderator for manual and semi-automatic update of knowledge is documented using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML has been used to explore the static structure and dynamic behaviour, and describe the system analysis, system design and system development aspects of the proposed KOATING framework. The proof of design has been presented using a case study for a collaborative project in the form of construction project supply chain. It has been shown that Moderators can "learn" by extracting various kinds of knowledge from Post Project Reports (PPRs) using different types of text mining techniques. Furthermore, it also proposed that the knowledge discovery integrated moderators can be used to support and enhance collaboration by identifying appropriate business opportunities and identifying corresponding partners for creation of a virtual organization. A case study is presented in the context of a UK based SME. Finally, this thesis concludes by summarizing the thesis, outlining its novelties and contributions, and recommending future research.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis explores the causes of Russian foreign policy towards Georgia. It argues that the Russian Federation continues to pursue a policy which weakens the sovereignty of the Caucasus. The main priority of this thesis is to identify why the Russian Federation seems to be pursuing a set of policies that economically and politically weaken the sovereignty of Georgia. Therefore, this thesis examines the forces and factors of Russian domestic politics that drive Russian national interests towards the Caucasus. The analysis focuses on one particular issue-area: the role of the economic elite in shaping Russia's domestic and foreign policies vis-a-vis the state in the electricity sector. In focusing on the energy policies of the Russian Federation, this thesis reveals the negative consequences for Georgia's sovereignty that result from a strong Russian influence in the region. This thesis analyzes how Russian national interests towards Georgia challenge the latter to establish autonomous decisionmaking with regard to its foreign policy and to exercise its own authority through an exclusive competence in internal affairs of the state. In conclusion, this thesis offers policy prescriptions on how Georgia might best preserve its sovereignty with respect to the Russian Federation in terms of energy dependency. / Civilian, Ministry of Defense, Georgia

This thesis explores the relationship between gender policy, gender culture, and political participation in unified Germany. It investigates the extent to which political regimes shape citizens' attitudes towards gender roles and examines the effect of such attitudes on women's participation in politics. The thesis is divided into three parts: The first part explores the differences in gender regime types between the former German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany during the Cold War period. Building on existing studies, the analysis considers how generations that were socialised in the divided Germany differ in their attitudes toward gender roles. It finds that citizens from West Germany are more socially conservative than citizens from the East. The second part of the thesis tests the effects of these traditional gender attitudes on citizens' participation, focusing on party membership. The analysis highlights that gender gaps in formal political participation in unified Germany still exist, but that these gaps are smaller in the new federal states. The investigation further shows that traditional gender attitudes exert a negative effect on women’s political engagement beyond the predictive power of socio-economic and demographic factors. The final part of this thesis casts a critical look at the political controversy in Germany over the introduction of a cash-for-care subsidy (the so-called Betreuungsgeld). It explores the normative assumptions and ideas about gender roles that have been promoted by Germany's main political parties throughout the policy negotiation process. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the research presented in this thesis draws on, and contributes to, studies on gender, welfare states, political socialisation, and political participation.

This diploma thesis deals with the project of unified revenue administration, more precisely the harmonization of tax base, assessment basis for health insurance and assessment basis for social security. The aim is to compare characteristics, which those revenues have in common and decide whether it is possible to harmonize them. The second part of this thesis refers to the levy of taxes from total wages. Each institution is compared from the point of view of two bills and the act no. 458/2011 Sb., on amendment of acts related to the establishment of unified revenue administration and on amendments of other tax and insurance acts. The first chapter deals with the description of each area which should be unified. It means the areas of income taxes, social security and public health insurance. The term personal tax is described in this chapter. Then follows a description of the project of unified revenue administration, its evolution and systems of revenue administration common in other countries. The description of the bills and acts mentioned above and their aims takes place in the third chapter. The fourth and fifth chapters where I use mainly a comparative method follows. The fourth chapter focusses on harmonization and contains descriptions of income tax base, assessment basis for health...