The aim of the Master's thesis is a comprehensive analysis of the company's financial health over a certain period. In the theoretical part of the work I describe the methods of analysis from basic ones to more complex assessment models. In the practical part, I apply the acquired knowledge directly to the construction company with using its accounting documents. The financial analysis consists of analysis of absolute, differential and proportional company's indexes, which are followed by comparison of the company and industry. Last part focuses on the credit-worthy and bankruptcy models of financial situation assessments as well as their final comparison. At the end, I summarizes the financial situation by using methods and propose measures to improve the future development.

nÃo hà / Considering two of the main costs indicators in the civil construction sector, this study proposes models to estimate the costs trend in that sector in 2011. Forecasts from vector autoregressive models composed by INCC and SINAP index seasonally adjusted allow determining an upward trend for costs in the sector analyzed and that, as in periods of financial crisis, this should be the object of counter cyclical policy to contain the spread of movement of rising prices in the Brazilian economy. / Considerando dois dos principais indicadores de custos no setor da construÃÃo civil, o estudo propÃe modelos para estimar a tendÃncia dos custos no referido setor em 2011. PrevisÃes a partir de modelos vetoriais autorregressivos compostos pelo INCC e Ãndice SINAPI com ajuste sazonal permitem constatar uma tendÃncia ascendente para os custos no setor analisado e que, assim como nos perÃodos de crise financeira, este deve ser objeto de polÃtica anticÃclica visando conter a propagaÃÃo do movimento de elevaÃÃo de preÃos na economia brasileira.

Agreement between raters on a categorical scale is not only a subject of scientific research but also a problem frequently encountered in practice. Whenever a new scale is developed to assess individuals or items in a certain context, inter-rater agreement is a prerequisite for the scale to be actually implemented in routine use. Cohen's kappa coeffcient is a landmark in the developments of rater agreement theory. This coeffcient, which operated a radical change in previously proposed indexes, opened a new field of research in the domain. In the first part of this work, after a brief review of agreement on a quantitative scale, the kappa-like family of agreement indexes is described in various instances: two raters, several raters, an isolated rater and a group of raters and two groups of raters. To quantify the agreement between two individual raters, Cohen's kappa coefficient (Cohen, 1960) and the intraclass kappa coefficient (Kraemer, 1979) are widely used for binary and nominal scales, while the weighted kappa coefficient (Cohen, 1968) is recommended for ordinal scales. An interpretation of the quadratic (Schuster, 2004) and the linear (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009c) weighting schemes is given. Cohen's kappa (Fleiss, 1971) and intraclass kappa (Landis and Koch, 1977c) coefficients were extended to the case where agreement is searched between several raters. Next, the kappa-like family of agreement coefficients is extended to the case of an isolated rater and a group of raters (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009a) and to the case of two groups of raters (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009b). These agreement coefficients are derived on a population-based model and reduce to the well-known Cohen's kappa coefficient in the case of two single raters. The proposed agreement indexes are also compared to existing methods, the consensus method and Schouten's agreement index (Schouten, 1982). The superiority of the new approach over the latter is shown. In the second part of the work, methods for hypothesis testing and data modeling are discussed. Firstly, the method proposed by Fleiss (1981) for comparing several independent agreement indexes is presented. Then, a bootstrap method initially developed by McKenzie et al. (1996) to compare two dependent agreement indexes, is extended to several dependent agreement indexes (Vanbelle and Albert, 2008). All these methods equally apply to the kappa coefficients introduced in the first part of the work. Next, regression methods for testing the effect of continuous and categorical covariates on the agreement between two or several raters are reviewed. This includes the weighted least-squares method allowing only for categorical covariates (Barnhart and Williamson, 2002) and a regression method based on two sets of generalized estimating equations. The latter method was developed for the intraclass kappa coefficient (Klar et al., 2000), Cohen's kappa coefficient (Williamson et al., 2000) and the weighted kappa coefficient (Gonin et al., 2000). Finally, a heuristic method, restricted to the case of independent observations, is presented (Lipsitz et al., 2001, 2003) which turns out to be equivalent to the generalized estimating equations approach. These regression methods are compared to the bootstrap method extended by Vanbelle and Albert (2008) but they were not generalized to agreement between a single rater and a group of raters nor between two groups of raters. / Sujet d'intenses recherches scientifiques, l'accord entre observateurs sur une échelle catégorisée est aussi un problème fréquemment rencontré en pratique. Lorsqu'une nouvelle échelle de mesure est développée pour évaluer des sujets ou des objets, l'étude de l'accord inter-observateurs est un prérequis indispensable pour son utilisation en routine. Le coefficient kappa de Cohen constitue un tournant dans les développements de la théorie sur l'accord entre observateurs. Ce coefficient, radicalement différent de ceux proposés auparavant, a ouvert de nouvelles voies de recherche dans le domaine. Dans la première partie de ce travail, après une brève revue des mesures d'accord sur une échelle quantitative, la famille des coefficients kappa est décrite dans différentes situations: deux observateurs, plusieurs observateurs, un observateur isolé et un groupe d'observateurs, et enfin deux groupes d'observateurs. Pour quantifier l'accord entre deux observateurs, le coefficient kappa de Cohen (Cohen, 1960) et le coefficient kappa intraclasse (Kraemer, 1979) sont largement utilisés pour les échelles binaires et nominales. Par contre, le coefficient kappa pondéré (Cohen, 1968) est recommandé pour les échelles ordinales. Schuster (2004) a donné une interprétation des poids quadratiques tandis que Vanbelle and Albert (2009c) se sont interessés aux poids linéaires. Les coefficients d'accord correspondant au coefficient kappa de Cohen (Fleiss, 1971) et au coefficient kappa intraclasse (Landis and Koch, 1977c) sont aussi donnés dans le cas de plusieurs observateurs. La famille des coefficients kappa est ensuite étendue au cas d'un observateur isolé et d'un groupe d'observateurs (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009a) et au cas de deux groupes d'observateurs (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009b). Les coefficients d'accord sont élaborés à partir d'un modèle de population et se réduisent au coefficient kappa de Cohen dans le cas de deux observateurs isolés. Les coefficients d'accord proposés sont aussi comparés aux méthodes existantes, la méthode du consensus et le coefficient d'accord de Schouten (Schouten, 1982). La supériorité de la nouvelle approche sur ces dernières est démontrée. Des méthodes qui permettent de tester des hypothèses et modéliser des coefficients d'accord sont abordées dans la seconde partie du travail. Une méthode permettant la comparaison de plusieurs coefficients d'accord indépendants (Fleiss, 1981) est d'abord présentée. Puis, une méthode basée sur le bootstrap, initialement développée par McKenzie et al. (1996) pour comparer deux coefficients d'accord dépendants, est étendue au cas de plusieurs coefficients dépendants par Vanbelle and Albert (2008). Pour finir, des méthodes de régression permettant de tester l'effet de covariables continues et catégorisées sur l'accord entre deux observateurs sont exposées. Ceci comprend la méthode des moindres carrés pondérés (Barnhart and Williamson, 2002), admettant seulement des covariables catégorisées, et une méthode de régression basée sur deux équations d'estimation généralisées. Cette dernière méthode a été développée dans le cas du coefficient kappa intraclasse (Klar et al., 2000), du coefficient kappa de Cohen (Williamson et al., 2000) et du coefficient kappa pondéré (Gonin et al., 2000). Enfin, une méthode heuristique, limitée au cas d'observations indépendantes, est présentée (Lipsitz et al., 2001, 2003). Elle est équivalente à l'approche par les équations d'estimation généralisées. Ces méthodes de régression sont comparées à l'approche par le bootstrap (Vanbelle and Albert, 2008) mais elles n'ont pas encore été généralisées au cas d'un observateur isolé et d'un groupe d'observateurs ni au cas de deux groupes d'observateurs. / Het bepalen van overeenstemming tussen beoordelaars voor categorische gegevens is niet alleen een kwestie van wetenschappelijk onderzoek, maar ook een probleem dat men veelvuldig in de praktijk tegenkomt. Telkens wanneer een nieuwe schaal wordt ontwikkeld om individuele personen of zaken te evalueren in een bepaalde context, is interbeoordelaarsovereenstemming een noodzakelijke voorwaarde vooraleer de schaal in de praktijk kan worden toegepast. Cohen's kappa coëfficiënt is een mijlpaal in de ontwikkeling van de theorie van interbeoordelaarsovereenstemming. Deze coëfficiënt, die een radicale verandering met de voorgaande indices inhield, opende een nieuw onderzoeksspoor in het domein. In het eerste deel van dit werk wordt, na een kort overzicht van overeenstemming voor kwantitatieve gegevens, de kappa-achtige familie van overeenstemmingsindices beschreven in verschillende gevallen: twee beoordelaars, verschillende beoordelaars, één geïsoleerde beoordelaar en een groep van beoordelaars, en twee groepen van beoordelaars. Om de overeenstemming tussen twee individuele beoordelaars te kwantificeren worden Cohen's kappa coëfficiënt (Cohen, 1960) en de intraklasse kappa coëfficiënt (Kraemer, 1979) veelvuldig gebruikt voor binaire en nominale gegevens, terwijl de gewogen Kappa coëfficiënt (Cohen, 1968) aangewezen is voor ordinale gegevens. Een interpretatie van de kwadratische (Schuster, 2004) en lineaire (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009c) weegschema's wordt gegeven. Overeenstemmingsindices die overeenkomen met Cohen's Kappa (Fleiss, 1971) en intraklasse-kappa (Landis and Koch, 1977c) coëfficiënten kunnen worden gebruikt om de overeenstemming tussen verschillende beoordelaars te beschrijven. Daarna wordt de familie van kappa-achtige overeenstemmingscoëfficiënten uitgebreid tot het geval van één geïsoleerde beoordelaar en een groep van beoordelaars (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009a) en tot het geval van twee groepen van beoordelaars (Vanbelle and Albert, 2009b). Deze overeenstemmingscoëfficiënten zijn afgeleid van een populatie-gebaseerd model en kunnen worden herleid tot de welbekende Cohen's coëfficiënt in het geval van twee individuele beoordelaars. De voorgestelde overeenstemmingsindices worden ook vergeleken met bestaande methodes, de consensusmethode en Schoutens overeenstemmingsindex (Schouten, 1982). De superioriteit van de nieuwe benadering over de laatstgenoemde wordt aangetoond. In het tweede deel van het werk worden hypothesetesten en gegevensmodellering besproken. Vooreerst wordt de methode voorgesteld door Fleiss (1981) om verschillende onafhankelijke overeenstemmingsindices te vergelijken, voorgesteld. Daarna wordt een bootstrapmethode, oorspronkelijk ontwikkeld door McKenzie et al. (1996) om twee onafhankelijke overeenstemmingsindices te vergelijken, uitgebreid tot verschillende afhankelijke overeenstemmingsindices (Vanbelle and Albert, 2008). Al deze methoden kunnen ook worden toegepast op de overeenstemmingsindices die in het eerste deel van het werk zijn beschreven. Ten slotte wordt een overzicht gegeven van regressiemethodes om het eect van continue en categorische covariabelen op de overeenstemming tussen twee of meer beoordelaars te testen. Dit omvat de gewogen kleinste kwadraten methode, die alleen werkt met categorische covariabelen (Barnhart and Williamson, 2002) en een regressiemethode gebaseerd op twee sets van gegeneraliseerde schattingsvergelijkingen. De laatste methode was ontwikkeld voor de intraklasse kappa coëfficiënt (Klar et al., 2000), Cohen's kappa coëfficiënt (Williamson et al., 2000) en de gewogen kappa coëfficiënt (Gonin et al., 2000). Ten slotte wordt een heuristische methode voorgesteld die alleen van toepassing is op het geval van onafhankelijk waarnemingen (Lipsitz et al., 2001, 2003). Ze blijkt equivalent te zijn met de benadering van de gegeneraliseerde schattingsvergelijkingen. Deze regressiemethoden worden vergeleken met de bootstrapmethode uitgebreid door Vanbelle and Albert (2008) maar werden niet veralgemeend tot de overeenstemming tussen een enkele beoordelaar en een groep van beoordelaars, en ook niet tussen twee groepen van beoordelaars.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Populations and species are disappearing due to disturbances in the environment caused by human activities. Given the obvious risk of loss of diversity, it is increasingly necessary to take actions concerning preservation, in which safety features are necessary for measuring the variation of diversity in space and time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the structure and diversity in the arboreal component and natural regeneration in an area of Araucaria forest in the National Forest of São Francisco de Paula, RS. The vegetation sampling was performed by analyzing 180 subunits of 10m x 10m, where all the arboreal individuals and natural regeneration were inventoried. The parameters of frequency and density, dispersion indexes of MacGuinnes, Fracker and Brischle and Payandeh, and different alpha and beta indexes of diversity were calculated. The values of alpha indices were correlated with environmental variables by Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). It was found 102 species, distributed in 66 genera and 36 families. The dispersion indexes showed different patterns for the arboreal component and natural regeneration. The Margalef, Shannon, and the Beta indexes were underestimated, possibly influenced by the size of sample unit. Index Menhinick represented the diversity in a very real form, even in small sampling units. The indexes of Simpson and Mcintosh denote low dominance and the equity indexes showed high uniformity in species. The CCA showed that diversity is strongly related to declive, stoniness and contents of sand and clay, in the arboreal component, and contents of clay, fine sand and silt, in natural regeneration. / Populações e espécies estão desaparecendo devido às perturbações no ambiente por meio de atividades antrópicas. Diante do risco evidente de perda de biodiversidade, deve-se cada vez mais realizar ações de preservação, nas quais são necessárias ferramentas seguras capazes de medir a variação da diversidade no espaço e no tempo. Objetivou-se com esse trabalho avaliar a estrutura e a diversidade no componente arbóreo e na regeneração natural em área de Floresta Ombrófila Mista na Floresta Nacional de São Francisco de Paula, RS. A amostragem da vegetação foi realizada por meio de 180 subunidades de 10m x 10m, onde foram inventariados todos os indivíduos arbóreos e da regeneração natural. Foram calculados os parâmetros de frequência e densidade, os índices de dispersão de MacGuinnes, Fracker e Brischle e Payandeh, e diferentes índices de diversidade alfa e beta. Os valores dos índices alfa foram correlacionados com variáveis ambientais pela Análise de Correspondência Canônica (CCA). Foram encontradas 102 espécies, distribuídas em 66 gêneros e 36 famílias. Os índices de dispersão revelaram diferentes padrões para o componente arbóreo e a regeneração natural. Os índices de Margalef, Shannon e os índices Beta obtiveram valores subestimados possivelmente influenciados pelo tamanho da unidade amostral. O índice de Menhinick representou a diversidade de forma bastante real mesmo em unidades amostrais pequenas. Os índices de Simpson e Mcintosh denotaram baixa dominância e os índices de equidade demonstraram alta uniformidade nas espécies. A CCA mostrou que a diversidade está fortemente relacionada à declividade, pedregosidade e teores de areia grossa e argila no componente arbóreo, e a teores de argila, areia fina e silte na regeneração natural.

This master thesis deals with the financial situation of the company KLIKA - BP, s.r.o. within the years 2003 and 2006 on the basis of selected methods of the financial analysis. It comprieses proposals of possible solutions of identified problems which should result in the improvement of financial situation of the firm in future years.

The main goal of this thesis is to analyze contemporary financial position of building company Pátek, spol. s .r. o. with an accent to selected methods of financial analysis and overall comparison with selected competition. At the basis of evaluation of the company position in the years 2003 to 2006 there are defined correspondent conclusions. Father possible solutions are proposed to manage company increasing production growth in future years.

This master’s thesis assess the financial health of the company in 2005-2008 with using suitable methods of the financial analysis. It also suggests convenient proposals for strengthen financial situation of the company.

The present study investigated identification, access and usage of periodicals in university libraries in Kenya, with a view of recommending a tool for assisting users to identify information. Using questionnaires completed by 316 university library users and 27 librarians, backed with participant observations, document analysis as well as interviews, it was found that usage of periodicals was low as most users browse through periodicals to identify information, a method that is not effective. In-house indexing was investigated and found to be an effective tool in facilitating access to relevant information. The study recommends establishment of in-house indexing programs and databases in university libraries; formulation of consistent indexing policies to achieve quality indexing; and that indexing should be focused on both content and user requirements by specifying points- of- view, and study methodologies to enhance retrieval of relevant information. / Information Science / M. A. (Information Science)

We study stochastic heat equations of the forms $[\partial_t u-\sL u]\d t\d x=\lambda\int_\R\sigma(u,h)\tilde{N}(\d t,\d x,\d h),$ and $[\partial_t u-\sL u]\d t\d x=\lambda\int_{\R^d}\sigma(u,h)N(\d t,\d x,\d h)$. Here, $u(0,x)=u_0(x)$ is a non-random initial function, $N$ a Poisson random measure with its intensity $\d t\d x\nu(\d h)$ and $\nu(\d h)$ a L\'vy measure; $\tilde$ is the compensated Poisson random measure and $\sL$ a generator of a L\'{e}vy process. The function $\sigma:\R\rightarrow\R$ is Lipschitz continuous and $\lambda>0$ the noise level. The above discontinuous noise driven equations are not always easy to handle. They are discontinuous analogues of the equation introduced in \cite{Foondun} and also more general than those considered in \cite{Saint}. We do not only compare the growth moments of the two equations with each other but also compare them with growth moments of the class of equations studied in \cite{Foondun}. Some of our results are significant generalisations of those given in \cite{Saint} while the rest are completely new. Second and first growth moments properties and estimates were obtained under some linear growth conditions on $\sigma$. We also consider $\sL:=-(-\Delta)^{\alpha/2}$, the generator of $\alpha$-stable processes and use some explicit bounds on its corresponding fractional heat kernel to obtain more precise results. We also show that when the solutions satisfy some non-linear growth conditions on $\sigma$, the solutions cease to exist for both compensated and non-compensated noise terms for different conditions on the initial function $u_0(x)$. We consider also fractional heat equations of the form $ \partial_t u(t,x)=-(-\Delta)^{\alpha/2}u(t,x)+\lambda\sigma(u(t,x)\dot{F}(t,x),\,\, \text{for}\,\, x\in\R^d,\,t>0,\,\alpha\in(1,2),$ where $\dot{F}$ denotes the Gaussian coloured noise. Under suitable assumptions, we show that the second moment $\E|u(t,x)|^2$ of the solution grows exponentially with time. In particular we give an affirmative answer to the open problem posed in \cite{Conus3}: given $u_0$ a positive function on a set of positive measure, does $\sup_{x\in\R^d}\E|u(t,x)|^2$ grow exponentially with time? Consequently we give the precise growth rate with respect to the parameter $\lambda$.

Poultry have many behavioural, structural and biological features that are ideal for domestication and for meat and egg production (Appleby et al., 1992). Because of the importance of poultry meat and eggs to the human population, breeders and farmers are always looking for ways of improving these traits. Artificial selection is the primary method of trait improvement, and involves selecting individuals with the highest breeding values as parents in each generation. There are a number of different methods of artificial selection, including: individual selection, between family selection, within family selection, family-index selection and index selection. In order to maintain a good response to selection breeders are constantly striving to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of the different methods of artificial selection for traits of economic importance. One method of achieving this goal is the use of computer models. Computer models can be used to simulate selection strategies and to predict what strategy will be the most appropriate for the improvement of a particular trait. This is important as all traits are influenced by many different genetic and environmental factors (Falconer and Mackay, 1996). This investigation was designed to compare the effectiveness of five different artificial selection strategies, namely individual selection, between family selection, within family selection, family index selection and index selection. Five computer models were developed using Microsoft Excel 2000 and these models were then used to compare the efficiencies of the five selection strategies for four different traits. The selection techniques were applied to an artificially, randomly generated population of 500 chickens. The four traits were egg weight with a heritability of 0.51, egg production with a heritability of 0.22, age at first egg with a heritability of 0.41 and body weight with a heritability of 0.55. Firstly, each of these traits were selected for independently using the first four selection methods and secondly the traits were selected for two at a time using index selection. The most significant results obtained from the single trait simulations were that for all traits family-index selection produced the best response to selection in the initial generations and between family selection produced the best response in the later generations. The traits with a higher heritability (egg weight and body weight) responded better to individual selection than they did to within family selection and between family selection in the initial generations. However, within family selection and between family selection proved to be more effective for traits with a low heritability such as egg production. Individual selection and family-index selection resulted in a very rapid decline in the standard deviation of all the traits. Between family selection resulted in the slowest drop in the standard deviation of all the traits, which is why this technique produced the best responses to selection in the later generations. The impact of the correlations between the economically important traits were evident from the results of index selection. For example, egg production is negatively correlated with egg weight making it difficult to gain a correlated response in both these traits simultaneously. Furthermore, egg production is negatively correlated with age at first egg implying that early maturing birds will lay more eggs, however, these eggs will be lighter. The majority of the results obtained were to be expected. Family-index selection takes all the information about an individual's breeding value into account resulting in this method of selection consistently identifying the most desirable individuals being selected. It is therefore the preferred method of selection under all circumstances. It is, however, often not economically and practically efficient to incorporate this technique and the use of another method of selection usually proves to be more beneficial. Individual selection proved to be most effective when applied to traits with high heritabilities, due to the fact that this method selects individuals based on their own phenotypic values. For traits with a high heritability, an individual with a good phenotypic value will have a good breeding value. Between family selection and within family selection proved better for traits with lower heritabilities. For traits with a low heritability the phenotypic value of an individual is a poor indicator of its breeding value. Information from a number of relatives may thus improve the accuracy of prediction of the breeding value by accounting for the influence of environmental effects. The use of computer models to simulate the selection techniques proved very successful in illustrating the effectiveness of the different selection techniques under various genetic and environmental conditions. The models may also prove to be very effective from an educational perspective. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietemaritzburg, 2003.