Although not universally accepted, much of the field has converged upon the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality as constituting a comprehensive taxonomy of normal personality functioning. A weakness common to all personality inventories is excessive length, which can result in examinee fatigue, and ultimately, poor data quality. Computer adaptive testing offers a solution to the test fatigue problem by administering only the items that are informative for that examinee on a given scale. A new test based upon the FFM of normal personality administered in a computer adaptive fashion was constructed. Reliability and validity evidence were obtained, with favorable results. New approaches to the detection of intentional response distortion were explored with mixed results including some promising findings in need of cross-validation. Response latencies were able to discriminate between honest and faking subjects, but the findings were unable to clarify the issue of whether faking is an easier or more laborious cognitive process than honest answering. New directions in computer adaptive personality testing research are proposed. / Ph. D.

Throughout gestation, the blood vessel network of the placenta is formed sequentially by processes known as vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, which together meet the needs of the growing fetus. Normal placental angiogenesis is critical to support adequate fetal growth and assure the health of the offspring. Proper angiogenesis requires precise regulation of expression of agents that modulate this process; otherwise, pathologies of pregnancy such as preeclampsia may occur. The placenta is composed of different layers of tissue, including the lamellar (LZ), junctional, and glandular zones, each with a vascular morphology attuned to its function. We hypothesized that higher expression of pro-angiogenic factors is associated with increased morphological metrics in the LZ, the major vascularized zone. Thus, we aimed to characterize the major changes in morphology and vascular development in the placenta throughout pregnancy in cats, alongside a compressive analysis of the expression of major angiogenic factors and their receptors in the placenta, with an emphasis on the identification and interaction of different isoforms of the VEGF family. Microscopic analysis of tissue specimens from different stages of pregnancy revealed increased thickness of the LZ, especially during early to mid-gestation, at which time the tissue is composed of abundant materno-fetal interdigitations that appears rich in capillaries. VEGF proteins were detected in placental tissue in both fetal and maternal cells of the placenta, suggesting stimulatory interactions between different cell types to promote growth and angiogenesis. Gene expression analysis of placenta revealed upregulation of the pro-angiogenic factor VEGF-A in mid-pregnancy, followed by a steady decline toward term, consistent with morphologic changes in the LZ. In contrast, another pro-angiogenic factor, PlGF, showed a marked increase toward term; Flt-1, which acts as a receptor or reservoir for PLGF and VEGF A, was also upregulated at late pregnancy. Increased ratios of PLGF:VEGF-A may contribute to LZ proliferation in the last trimester. These findings are consistent with the creation of a proangiogenic placental state during gestation. Overall, we expect that this research will help elucidate mechanisms of placental vascularization, which can be applied to the design of improved strategies to treat vascular complications of pregnancy. Lastly, we applied the tools developed for placental studies to investigate pathologic angiogenesis in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), a common skin cancer with major economic and medical impacts in humans and veterinary species. The creation of a new blood supply is essential for growth and metastasis of many tumor types. The goal of this study was to measure expression of variants of proteins that stimulate angiogenesis or transmit an angiogenic stimulus in feline CSCC. The results were mixed, with differences detected in expression of some regulatory agents and, for others, unexpectedly lower expression in CSSC compared to controls. Interestingly, the expression of VEGF-A relative to the protein that transmits its signal (KDR) was elevated in CSCC, suggestive of an altered signaling relationship. This finding supports our hypothesis and is consistent with human SCC studies. Our results encourage further studies on angiogenic factor variants in feline CSCC. / PHD

This thesis investigates the rate of translation errors in Czech legal texts published in the Official Journal of the European Union using automated quality assurance tools. In the theoretical part, the aim of the thesis-to determine the error rate of analyzed text-is set, and individual hypotheses are defined. Subsequently, individual reasons which make translation for the EU institutions specific and why it is a separate subcategory within legal translation are listed. The method used to achieve the set objective and to confirm or disprove proposed hypotheses is described as well as the corpus which has been created for the analysis is presented. The corpus is comprised of legally binding texts- regulations, directives, and decisions published in the Official Journal of the European Union between 2004 and 2018. In the theoretical part, a definition of an error established for the purpose of this thesis is also provided. The definition was created based on QA tools options and a comparative analysis of different metrics used to evaluate the error rate in translation. The empirical part focuses on the research itself and discuss various issues encountered. The results of the analysis-whether the hypotheses have been proven-are then presented, and future research is outlined.

Cette thèse est une contribution au domaine des cubulations de groupes hyperboliques au sens de Gromov. Nous nous intéressons au cas particulier des groupes fondamentaux de variétés hyperboliques réelles compactes. La philosophie inspirée dans ce domaine par les travaux de M. Sageev est que si un groupe hyperbolique possède suffisamment de sous-groupes de codimension 1 quasi-convexes, alors il agit géométriquement sur un complexe cubique CAT(0) de dimension finie. Nous démontrons un critère précis de cubulation pour les groupes fondamentaux de variétés hyperboliques compactes, à l'aide de constructions d'espaces à murs quasi-isométriques à l'espace hyperbolique réel. Nous nous restreignons par la suite au cas particulier de la dimension 3 et plus particulièrement aux 3-variétés hyperboliques compactes virtuellement fibrées sur le cercle. Nous exploitons alors une construction de surfaces immergées incompressibles dites coupées-croisées due à D. Cooper, D. Long et A. Reid dans une telle 3-variété M pour fabriquer des sous-groupes de surface de son groupe fondamental~G. En raffinant des arguments de J. Masters et en exploitant la structure de l'application de Cannon-Thurston, nous parvenons à construire des sous-groupes de surfaces quasi-convexes de G en quantité suffisante pour que leurs ensembles limites permettent de séparer toutes les paires de points distincts du bord du revêtement universel de M. En conséquence de cette construction, G agit géométriquement sur un complexe cubique CAT(0) de dimension finie. D. Wise soulève alors la question de savoir si ce groupe G peut agir géométriquement et également virtuellement co-spécialement (au sens de F. Haglund et D. Wise) sur un complexe cubique CAT(0). Une réponse positive résoudrait les conjectures selon lesquelles G est large et le premier nombre de Betti virtuel de M est infini. Nous faisons remarquer que pour obtenir une réponse positive à cette question, il suffit de trouver une surface coupée-croisée virtuellement plongée dans un revêtement fini fibré sur le cercle de M. Nous concluons en présentant des conditions algébriques, puis géométriques et cohomologiques suffisantes pour qu'une surface coupée-croisée donnée soit virtuellement plongée. / This thesis contributes to the study of geometric actions of word-hyperbolic groups on finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complexes. We are mainly interested in the case of fundamental groups of closed hyperbolic manifolds. The philosophy coming from pioneer work of M. Sageev is that a hyperbolic group with sufficiently many quasi-convex codimension one subgroups acts geometrically on a finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complex. We prove a precise criterion for cubulation in the case of closed hyperbolic manifolds, by constructing spaces with walls quasi-isometric to real hyperbolic space. We next focus on the case of three dimensional closed hyperbolic manifolds which are virtually fibered over the circle. In this setting, we use a construction of incompressibly immersed cut-and-cross-join surfaces due to D. Cooper, D. Long and A. Reid that yields surface subgroups of the fundamental group G of the 3-manifold M. By expanding on work of J. Masters and using the structure of the Cannon-Thurston map, we are able to build many quasi-convex surface subgroups of G whose limits sets may be used to separate any pair of distinct points in the boundary of the universal cover of M. As a consequence, G acts geometrically on a finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complex. D. Wise then asks if it is possible that G acts both geometrically and virtually co-specially (in the sense of F. Haglund and D. Wise) on a CAT(0) cube complex. A positive answer would solve the long-standing conjectures that G is large and M has infinite virtual first Betti number. We then explain why finding a virtually embedded cut-and-cross-join surface in a finite cover of M would be enough to solve this problem. Finally, we give some algebraic and then geometric and cohomological sufficient conditions for a given cut-and-cross-join surface to virtually embed.

O presente trabalho é uma apresentação de aplicações de estruturas da álgebra de dimensões altas para a teoria de homotopia. Mais precisamente mostramos que existe uma equivalência entre as categorias dos cat$^n$-grupos e a dos $n$-cubos cruzados de grupos, ambas equivalentes a categoria das $n$-categorias estritas internas à categoria de grupos, e uma certa subcategoria da categoria dos $n$-cubos fibrantes, os chamados $n$-cubos de Eilenberg-MacLane. Além disso existe uma equivalência entre uma localização dessa subcategoria e a categoria homotópica dos $(n+1)$-tipos homotópicos, o que sugere a utilidade de usar as estruturas algébricas apresentadas como invariantes topológicas. O teorema central dessa teoria, o teorema generalizado de Seifert-van Kampen, diz que o funtor dos $n$-cubos de fibração aos cat$^n$-grupos usado para mostrar a equivalência mencionada preserva o colimite de certos diagramas e que nesses casos conectividade é preservada, o que permite certas computações. Apresentaremos definições das estruturas algébricas mencionadas além de como calcular certos colimites na categoria de $n$-cubos cruzados de grupos, demonstraremos os teoremas principais da teoria e mostramos como usar esses resultados para generalizar resultados clássicos da topologia algébrica como o teorema de Blakers-Massey, o teorema de Hurewicz e a fórmula de Hopf para homologia de grupos. / The present work is a presentation of applications to homotopy theory of structures in higher dimensional algebra. More precisely we show how the categories of crossed $n$-cubes of groups and of cat$^n$-groups, both equivalent to the category of strict $n$-categories internal to the category of groups, are equivalent to a subcategory of the category of fibrant $n$-cubes, namely the Eilenberg-MacLane $n$-cubes. There is also an equivalence between a localization of the category of Eilenberg-MacLane $n$-cubes and the homotopy category of homotopy $(n+1)$-types, which suggests the usefulness of the presented algebraic structures as topological invariants. The central theorem of this theory, the generalized Seifert-van Kampen theorem, states that the functor from $n$-cube of fibrations to the cat$^n$-groups used to show the aforementioned equivalence preserves the colimit of certain diagrams, and in these cases connectivity is preserved, which permits some computations. We present definitions of the relevant algebraic structures and also how to calculate certain colimits in the category of crossed $n$-cubes of groups, we demonstrate the main theorems of the theory and then we show how to generalize classical results in algebraic topology like the Blakers-Massey theorem, Hurewicz theorem and Hopf\'s formula for the homology of groups.

90年代由於世界各地巨災頻傳，導致再保險人的承保能量嚴重不足，甚至於威脅到再保險人的清償能力，由於保險市場的容量已無法足夠涵蓋巨災的損失，再保險人開始尋找其他的風險移轉工具，因而在1992年芝加哥交易所保險證券化商品問世---巨災保險期貨。 本篇文章主要在介紹保險證券化最典型的兩個商品：巨災債券及巨災選擇權。首先針對巨災債券及巨災選擇權的商品內容加以描述；然後我們採用1970~2000年全球前四十大巨災損失作為巨災損失指數，透過定價模型對巨災債券及巨災選擇權作評價；最後分別對巨災債券及巨災選擇權的價格作敏感度分析，了解相關變數對巨災債券及巨災選擇權的價格的影響性。 在敏感度分析中，可看出巨災債券及巨災選擇權之價格具下列特性： (1) 在巨災債券方面，巨災債券價格和損失基準點、利息收回比率、本金收回比率、報酬率標準差呈正向關係，和報酬率、巨災發生次數呈反向關係； (2) 在巨災選擇權方面，損失資料分為理論巨災損失指數及實際損失指數，選擇權型態採用亞式選擇權，故選擇權價格有平均價格式及平均履約價格式兩種。 <1>在理論巨災損失指數選擇權方面，平均價格式選擇權價格和履約價、報酬率呈反向關係，和巨災發生次數呈正向關係，和標準差無關；平均履約價格式選擇權價格和報酬率呈反向關係，和巨災發生次數呈正向關係，和履約價、標準差無關； <2>在實際巨災損失指數選擇權方面，平均價格式選擇權價格和履約價、報酬率呈反向關係，和標準差無關；平均履約價格式選擇權價格和履約價、報酬率及標準差都呈反向關係。 希望藉由此篇論文之撰寫，將保險證券化的概念帶進國內保險領域，並提供保險業者了解另一種風險管理的方法。 / In the 1990s, many catastrophes occurred around the world, leading to a lack in reinsurers’ underwriting capacity and even, in some cases, threatening their solvency. Because the insurance market as a whole was unable to provide sufficient coverage for the catastrophe losses, reinsurers started looking for other risk transfer and management tools. In 1992, the first insurance securitization product was traded on the Chicago Board of Trade---Catastrophe Insurance Futures. This article aims to introduce two typical products: Catastrophe Bond (Cat Bond) and Catastrophe Option (Cat Option). First, we describe merchandise contents of Cat Bond and Cat Option. We then adopt global catastrophe losses as the catastrophe losses index for the period 1970-2000 and price models to evaluate Cat Bond and Cat Option. Finally, we conduct a sensitive analysis of Cat Bond and Cat Option prices. This allows us to understand the variables related to influencing the prices of Cat Bond and Cat Option. From the sensitive analysis, we realize that Cat Bond and Cat Option prices have the following characteristics: (1) From the Cat Bond aspect, the Cat Bond price has positive relationships with the loss trigger level, the receivable coupon ratio, the receivable principal ratio and the deviation error of return rate. It has negative relationships with the return rate and the times of catastrophe occurrences. (2) From the Cat Option aspect, we can distinguish between loss data to the theoretical catastrophe loss index and the actual catastrophe loss index. We adopt Asian Option as the option type, so that there are two types of option prices: the average price type of option price and the average exercise price type of option price. <1> From the aspect of the theoretical catastrophe loss index option, the average price type of option price has negative relationships with the exercise price and the return rate. It has a positive relationship with the times of catastrophe occurrence and has no relationships with the deviation error of the return rate. The average exercise price type of option price has negative relationships with the return rate. It has positive relationships with the times of catastrophe occurrence and has no relationships with the exercise price and the deviation error of the return rate. <2> From the aspect of the actual catastrophe loss index option, the average price type of option price has negative relationships with the exercise price and the return rate. It has no relationship with the deviation error of the return rate. The average exercise price type of option price has negative relationships with the exercise price, the return rate and the deviation error of the return rate. We hope that by writing this thesis, we can bring insurance securitization knowledge to the domestic insurance industry and can offer insurers an understanding of another risk management tool.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:03:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TaffarelMT_DISSERT.pdf: 2213102 bytes, checksum: 779f70cd3a9747e4f3a386630bd3d1cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-09 / Funda??o de Apoio ? Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte / Oilseeds are a high-value natural resource, due to its use as a substitute for petroleum. However, the storage time can reduce seed viability and oil quality. Therefore, scientific efforts have been made to provide a increment of storage time, germination rates and plant establishment of high-value oilseeds. The seedling establishment depends of the plant pass over the functional transition stage, characterized by a metabolic change from heterotrophic condition to autotrophic one. The storage oil mobilization is performed by &#946;-oxidation process and the glyoxylate cycle. Also, the functional transition involves acclimation to photosynthetic condition, which generally includes the participation of antioxidant system and the reactive oxygen species, the latter are produced in various reactions of primary and secondary metabolism. In the present study, Catalase was inhibited during the functional transition of sunflower and safflower, after were performed many analyzes to elucidate the effects caused on the SOD and APX antioxidant systems. Also, were checked the changes in expression pattern of the glyoxylate cycle enzymes markers, ICL and MLS. It was observed that after CAT inhibition, the SOD and APX antioxidant systems allow the seedling establishment. Besides, was verified that both oilseeds can be accelerate the reverse mobilization and the photosynthetic establishment when Catalase activity has dramatically decreased / As sementes oleaginosas armazenam ?leos, um recurso natural de alto valor econ?mico devido a sua aplicabilidade como substituto aos derivados do petr?leo. Por?m, o tempo de armazenamento pode inviabilizar a semente provocando a redu??o da qualidade do ?leo e perda da viabilidade da semente. Por este motivo, esfor?os cient?ficos t?m sido realizados para proporcionar um maior tempo de armazenamento e incrementar taxas de germina??o e estabelecimento destas plantas com alto valor econ?mico. O estabelecimento da pl?ntula depende da capacidade do vegetal transpassar a etapa de transi??o funcional, caracterizada pela mudan?a do estado heterotr?fico para o autotr?fico. O consumo das reservas de ?leo depende das vias de &#946;-oxida??o e do ciclo do glioxilato. No entanto, o processo de transi??o envolve a aclimata??o do vegetal ? condi??o de organismo fotossintetizante, que em geral conta com a participa??o fundamental do sistema antioxidante do vegetal devido ? produ??o de esp?cies reativas de oxig?nio em v?rias rea??es do metabolismo prim?rio e secund?rio. Neste estudo, a Catalase foi inibida durante a transi??o funcional de girassol e c?rtamo para analisar os efeitos provocados nos sistemas antioxidantes de APX e da SOD e verificar as modifica??es no padr?o de express?o das enzimas marcadoras do ciclo do glioxilato, ICL e MLS. Constatou-se que diante da inibi??o da Catalase o sistema antioxidante da APX e da SOD permitem o estabelecimento da pl?ntula. Verificou-se tamb?m que as duas oleaginoasas parecem acelerar a mobiliza??o de reservas e o estabelecimento fotossint?tico quando a Catalase tem a atividade drasticamente reduzida

O presente trabalho é uma apresentação de aplicações de estruturas da álgebra de dimensões altas para a teoria de homotopia. Mais precisamente mostramos que existe uma equivalência entre as categorias dos cat$^n$-grupos e a dos $n$-cubos cruzados de grupos, ambas equivalentes a categoria das $n$-categorias estritas internas à categoria de grupos, e uma certa subcategoria da categoria dos $n$-cubos fibrantes, os chamados $n$-cubos de Eilenberg-MacLane. Além disso existe uma equivalência entre uma localização dessa subcategoria e a categoria homotópica dos $(n+1)$-tipos homotópicos, o que sugere a utilidade de usar as estruturas algébricas apresentadas como invariantes topológicas. O teorema central dessa teoria, o teorema generalizado de Seifert-van Kampen, diz que o funtor dos $n$-cubos de fibração aos cat$^n$-grupos usado para mostrar a equivalência mencionada preserva o colimite de certos diagramas e que nesses casos conectividade é preservada, o que permite certas computações. Apresentaremos definições das estruturas algébricas mencionadas além de como calcular certos colimites na categoria de $n$-cubos cruzados de grupos, demonstraremos os teoremas principais da teoria e mostramos como usar esses resultados para generalizar resultados clássicos da topologia algébrica como o teorema de Blakers-Massey, o teorema de Hurewicz e a fórmula de Hopf para homologia de grupos. / The present work is a presentation of applications to homotopy theory of structures in higher dimensional algebra. More precisely we show how the categories of crossed $n$-cubes of groups and of cat$^n$-groups, both equivalent to the category of strict $n$-categories internal to the category of groups, are equivalent to a subcategory of the category of fibrant $n$-cubes, namely the Eilenberg-MacLane $n$-cubes. There is also an equivalence between a localization of the category of Eilenberg-MacLane $n$-cubes and the homotopy category of homotopy $(n+1)$-types, which suggests the usefulness of the presented algebraic structures as topological invariants. The central theorem of this theory, the generalized Seifert-van Kampen theorem, states that the functor from $n$-cube of fibrations to the cat$^n$-groups used to show the aforementioned equivalence preserves the colimit of certain diagrams, and in these cases connectivity is preserved, which permits some computations. We present definitions of the relevant algebraic structures and also how to calculate certain colimits in the category of crossed $n$-cubes of groups, we demonstrate the main theorems of the theory and then we show how to generalize classical results in algebraic topology like the Blakers-Massey theorem, Hurewicz theorem and Hopf\'s formula for the homology of groups.

(in English): The aim of this thesis is to provide an introduction into the topic of specialized texts in relation to Czech and German, or to be more precise, into the topic of translating business administrative texts into a foreign language. The theoretical part begins with an introduction of the research results hitherto achieved in the area of specialized texts and the translation thereof. After that, we deal with business administrative texts and their translation. Within these first two parts, we always first give an introduction into the particular topic giving an historical overview of research formulated in our three languages of main interest - English, German and Czech, with, Spanish being mentioned to a much lesser extent. We address the issue of translation into non-mother tongues and translation associated computer technologies in relation to the text we analyze in the analytical part of the thesis. There, we analyze a typical type of business-administrative text - annual reports. We compare the results with the theory knowledge. The analysis of the interview led in the company that provided the texts for the analysis serves as supplementary information. Finally we sum up the hitherto carried out research and correlate it with the results of our translatological analysis.

No description available.