Comparative analysis of representation by the attorney in Czech and Spanish civil proceedings The subject of the diploma thesis is the comparative analysis of representation by the attorney in Czech and Spanish civil proceedings. The first part is dedicated to concepts of civil procedure and it's categories. The second part contains a definition of the concept of representation in the civil procedure and it's categories in the Czech and the Spanish law. The third part which is crucial for this thesis focus on the role and the position of an attorney in the civil procedure and on the relationship between the attorney and his client. The third part is also dedicated to the attorney and the requirements the attorney has to meet according to the law. In case of the attorney, as a professional in law and as a member of a bar association, and in case of the relationship between attorney and his client - Czech and the Spanish law are very similar to each other. However significant differences exist in roles which attorney holds - precisely the extent of his activity as a representative of the participant. One of differences is an existence of the legal institute of the legal representative in the Spanish procedural law. This legal institute does not exist in the Czech procedural law and its functions...

The quality of STEM in higher education is widely recognized as an important issue. There is tremendous amount of concern around persistence, retention, and attrition for under-represented minority students (URMs) majoring in STEM disciplines. Retaining this population of students in the different STEM discipline is also a major concern for educators and policy makers in the United States. Student interest is there, however, problems arise when course work becomes challenging. As a result, students tend to lose confidence and change their majors. The purpose of this study was to discover factors that are related to persistence in STEM majors for a group of URMs who participated in a summer bridge program between 2008- 2014 at a Predominately White Institution of higher learning. In this study the researcher used archived data and quantitative research methods to identify different factors. Data analysis was conducted to answer the eight research questions that guided the study. To answer research question 1, descriptive statistics were used to analyze data that provided a comprehensive description of the students’ high school and college academic performance. One way ANOVAs were computed to analyze data for research questions 2-6, whereas Chi –Square Tests of Independence were used to analyze data for research questions 7 and 8. The researcher examined data for 232 URMs who participated in a summer bridge program during 2008-2014 academic years. The findings for research question 1 revealed that URMs represented in this study were college ready according to their average ACT scores and high school GPAs. An examination of two gatekeeper courses (Calculus and Chemistry) revealed that majority of the students passed with a letter grade of C or below. The findings for research questions 2-6 revealed statistically significant differences for URM students who persisted in STEM majors. They included ACT composite scores, ACT subscale scores all expect for reading, first semester GPA, first year GPA, sophomore year GPA, and number of credits earned through sophomore year. The findings for research questions 7 and 8 revealed that persistence was not influenced by gender or STEM major.

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This work is a discourse analysis on a case study of Swedish school politic. Whith Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’-method this thesis conducts an analysis of the two propositions ’Ett mer likvärdigt skolval’ and ’Ökad likvärdighet för skolhuvudmän’. The method’s strength is that it seeks what’s presupposed in policy and problematizes it. The research questions are from ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ and are as follows: 1) What problem representations can be found in P58 and P161? Is anyone more prominent? 2) What presuppositions underpin this representation of the ‘problem’? 3) What’s left unproblematic? Can the ‘problem’ be thought about differently? The analysis showed that the problem is the high concentration of students with the same weak socioeconomic background at schools and school segregation which is contingent of the residential segregation. The presupposition to this problem representation is the idea of school as a democratic meeting point for students with different backgrounds. The school segregation causes the school to fail being a meeting point of that sort. The school choice enables school segregation and the so called ‘white flight’-phenomenon. The voluntary segregation was not accustomed for in the propositions but that provides ground for further research.

Existem bases para as quais os dados são naturalmente representados por mais de uma visão. Por exemplo, imagens podem ser descritas por atributos de cores, textura e forma. Proteínas podem ser caracterizadas pela sequência de aminoácidos e pela representação tridimensional. A unificação das diferentes visões de uma base de dados pode ser problemática porque elas podem não ser comparáveis entre si ou podem apresentar diferentes graus de importância. Esses graus de importância podem, inclusive, se manifestar de maneira local, de acordo com a subestrutura dos dados em questão. Isso motivou o surgimento de algoritmos de agrupamento de dados capazes de lidar com bases multi-representadas (i.e., que possuem mais de uma visão dos dados), como o algoritmo SCAD. Esse algoritmo se mostrou promissor em experimentos relatados na literatura, mas possui problemas críticos identificados neste trabalho que o impedem de funcionar em determinados cenários. Tais problemas foram solucionados por meio da proposição de uma nova versão do algoritmo, denominada ASCAD, fundamentada em provas formais sobre a sua convergência. Foram desenvolvidas versões relacionais do algoritmo ASCAD, capazes de lidar com bases descritas apenas por relações de proximidade entre os objetos. Foi desenvolvido também um índice de validação interna e relativa de agrupamento voltado para dados multi-representados. A avaliação de agrupamento possibilístico e de bi-agrupamento por meio da comparação entre solução encontrada e solução de referência (validação externa) também foi explorada. Algoritmos de bi-agrupamento têm ganhado um interesse crescente da comunidade de análise de expressão gênica. No entanto, pouco se conhece do comportamento e das propriedades das medidas voltadas para validação externa de bi-agrupamento, o que motivou uma análise teórica e empírica dessas medidas. Essa análise mostrou que a maioria das medidas de biagrupamento possui problemas críticos e destacou duas delas como sendo as mais promissoras. Foram inclusas nessa análise três medidas de agrupamento particional não exclusivo, cujo uso na comparação de bi-agrupamentos é possível por meio de uma nova abordagem de avaliação de bi-agrupamento proposta nesta tese. Agrupamento particional não exclusivo faz parte de um domínio mais geral de soluções, i.e., o domínio dos agrupamentos possibilísticos. Observou-se algumas falhas conceituais importantes das medidas de agrupamento possibilístico, o que motivou o desenvolvimento de novas medidas e de uma análise empírica e conceitual envolvendo 34 medidas. Uma das medidas propostas se destacou como sendo a única que apresentou avaliações imparciais com relação ao número de grupos, o valor máximo de similaridade ao comparar a solução ideal encontrada com a solução de referência e avaliações sensíveis às diferenças das soluções em todos os cenários considerados / There are data sets for which the instances are naturally represented by more than one view. For example, images can be described by attributes of color, texture, and shape. Proteins can be characterized by the amino acid sequence and by their three-dimensional description. The unification of different views of a data set can be problematic because they may not be comparable or may have different degrees of importance. These degrees of importance may even manifest itself locally, according to the data substructures. This prompted the emergence of clustering algorithms capable of handling multi-represented data sets (i.e., data sets having more than one view) as the SCAD algorithm. This algorithm has shown promising results in experiments reported in the literature, but it has critical problems identified in this work that hinder its application in certain scenarios. These problems were solved here by proposing a new version of the algorithm, called ASCAD, based on formal proofs about its correctness. We developed relational versions for ASCAD, capable of handling data sets described only by the proximities between the instances. We also developed an index for internal and relative validation of multi-represented data clusterings. The evaluation of possibilistic clustering and bi-clustering by comparing the found and reference solutions (external validation) was also explored. Bi-clustering algorithms have gained increasing interest from the community of gene expression analysis. However, little is known of the behavior and properties of the measures aimed at external validation of bi-clustering, which motivated a theoretical and empirical analysis of these measures in this work. This analysis showed that most bi-clustering measures has critical issues and highlighted two of the measures as being the most promising. We included in this analysis three measures of non-exclusive partitional clustering, whose use in comparing bi-clusterings is possible through a new approach proposed in this thesis. Non-exclusive partitional clustering belong to a more general domain of solutions, i.e., the domain of possibilistic clusterings. There are some important conceptual flaws in the measures of possibilistic clustering, which motivated us to develop new measures and to conceptually and empirically analyse 34 measures. One of the proposed measures stood out as being the one who presented unbiased evaluations regarding the number of clusters, the maximum similarity when comparing the optimal solution with the reference one, and evaluations sensitive to solution differences in all scenarios considered

This thesis examines the Swedish Government Cyber Security Strategy laid out for the years 2016-2022 using Carol Bacchi’s discourse method and theory concept “What’s the problem represented to be” (WPR). The theoretical framework of the thesis also builds on critical theories on security- and threat perception following the concept of “exceptionalist securitising” and “diffusing insecurities”. The study suggests that the government has a national security focus that stresses “high politics” cyber threats rather than risks related to individuals and the Swedish society. Potential enemies are presented as located outside of the national boarders indicating a more traditional security perspective and enemy construction coming from other states. The study also disclosed that the strategy strives to stress the necessity of raising the awareness on cyber security as well as uniting the authorities working on cyber security while neglecting the democratic limits that political actions such as state-monitoring and data surveillance implicates.

The thesis reviews the literature relating to girls and computing within a framework which is structured around three specific questions. First, are there differences between girls and boys in their participation in class computing activities and/or in non-class computing activities? Second, do these differences in participation in computing activities have broader implications which justify the growing concern about the under-representation of girls? Third, wahy are girls under-represented in these activities? Although the available literature is predominantly descriptive, the underlying implicit theoretical model is essentially a social learning model. Girl's differential participation is attributed to learned attitudes towards computing rathan to differences between girls and boys in general ability. These attitudes, which stress the masculine, mathematical, technological aspects of computing are developed through modelling, direct experience, intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement and generalisation from pre-existing, attitudes to related curriculum areas. In the literature it is implicitly assumed that these attitudes underlie girl's decisions to self-select out of computing activities. In this thesis predictions from a social learning model are complemented by predictions derived from expectancy-value, cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories. These are tested in three separate studies. Study one provides data from a pretest-posttest study of 24 children in a year four class learning BASIC. It examines pre- and posttest differences between girls and boys in computing experience, knowledge and achievement as well as the factors relating to computing achievement. Study two uses a pretest-posttest control group design to study the gender differences in the impact of the introduction of Logo into years 1, 3, 5 and 7 in both a coeducational and single-sex setting using a sample of 222 children from three schools. Study three utilises a larger sample of 1176 students, drawn from three secondary schools and five primary schools, enabling an evaluation of gender differences in relation to a wide range of class computing experiences and in a broader range of school contexts. The overall results are consistent across the three studies, supporting the contention that social factors, rather than ability differences influence girls' participation and achievement in computing. The more global theoretical framework, drawing on social learning, expectancy-value, cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories, provides a more adequate explanation of gender differences in participation than does any one of these models.

This dissertation examined the experiences of African American and Hispanic community college transfers studying in a predominantly White institution (PWI) teacher education program. Extant literature has demonstrated that there is an increasing shortage of public school teachers of color. To address this pervasive crisis, universities must recruit larger numbers of under-represented students from America's community colleges to fill the gap. Additionally, under-represented students in predominantly White institution (PWI) teacher education programs must be retained and graduated in higher numbers to impact teacher production. To understand the needs and experiences of these students, three African American and four Hispanic students successfully studying in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A & M University were interviewed to examine their experiences as they transitioned into and through the pre-service teacher education program. This study utilized a case study analysis and data collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis were analyzed utilizing constant comparative techniques. Key themes that emerged through data analysis included (1) Student Perceptions of the Transfer Process, (2) The Role of Intimate Support Structures, (3) The Role of Institutional Support Structures, (4) Situational Factors Faced by Under-represented Transfers, and (5) Strategies Employed by Under-represented Transfers in a Predominantly White, Teacher Education Program. Findings from this study suggest that Texas A & M University should improve the marketing of academic support resources and provide narrowly tailored services to meet the needs of under-represented transfer students. Additionally, Schlossberg's Transition Theory is amended to better represent the assets and liabilities utilized by these populations in this particular PWI.

This study examined the use of information sources in college choice processing of historically-under-represented students from four different types of colleges who traditionally have not been studied in previous research. Historically under-represented types of students included students who were older than 24 years of age, African-Americans, Latinos, and low SES. The four types of colleges included a traditional public university, public community college, proprietary university, and proprietary college. Students from similar college programs of study were surveyed regarding their demographics to determine their categorization as historically under-represented and their use of information sources. Administrators from the selected colleges were interviewed and surveyed. Five students from each college were then interviewed. While most college choice processing research and the development of models are based on traditional college students, this study demonstrated that historically under-represented students generally utilize information sources and perform their college choice processing differently from traditional college students. These differences question the applicability of college choice processing models, such as Hossler and Gallagher's three stage model, without revisions. These revisions include redefinition of the stages and how they are executed in order to embrace the lack of college choices of historically under-represented students due to their lack of college informational motivators. The use of alternate information sources by historically-under-represented students and their motivational impact that differ from those utilized by traditional college students demonstrated the need to employ these sources within traditional colleges in order to increase college access for historically-under-represented students. This includes the utilization of non-traditional college informational motivators, such as the media, spouses, employers, and children, access to college informational motivators for students and their parents at all levels of schooling, and greater college access for older adults/parents. This study provided evidence that historically-underrepresented students still experience deficiencies in their access to college due to their lack of access to traditional information sources and their resulting compensation by utilizing alternative sources which were motivational as well as informational.

Existem bases para as quais os dados são naturalmente representados por mais de uma visão. Por exemplo, imagens podem ser descritas por atributos de cores, textura e forma. Proteínas podem ser caracterizadas pela sequência de aminoácidos e pela representação tridimensional. A unificação das diferentes visões de uma base de dados pode ser problemática porque elas podem não ser comparáveis entre si ou podem apresentar diferentes graus de importância. Esses graus de importância podem, inclusive, se manifestar de maneira local, de acordo com a subestrutura dos dados em questão. Isso motivou o surgimento de algoritmos de agrupamento de dados capazes de lidar com bases multi-representadas (i.e., que possuem mais de uma visão dos dados), como o algoritmo SCAD. Esse algoritmo se mostrou promissor em experimentos relatados na literatura, mas possui problemas críticos identificados neste trabalho que o impedem de funcionar em determinados cenários. Tais problemas foram solucionados por meio da proposição de uma nova versão do algoritmo, denominada ASCAD, fundamentada em provas formais sobre a sua convergência. Foram desenvolvidas versões relacionais do algoritmo ASCAD, capazes de lidar com bases descritas apenas por relações de proximidade entre os objetos. Foi desenvolvido também um índice de validação interna e relativa de agrupamento voltado para dados multi-representados. A avaliação de agrupamento possibilístico e de bi-agrupamento por meio da comparação entre solução encontrada e solução de referência (validação externa) também foi explorada. Algoritmos de bi-agrupamento têm ganhado um interesse crescente da comunidade de análise de expressão gênica. No entanto, pouco se conhece do comportamento e das propriedades das medidas voltadas para validação externa de bi-agrupamento, o que motivou uma análise teórica e empírica dessas medidas. Essa análise mostrou que a maioria das medidas de biagrupamento possui problemas críticos e destacou duas delas como sendo as mais promissoras. Foram inclusas nessa análise três medidas de agrupamento particional não exclusivo, cujo uso na comparação de bi-agrupamentos é possível por meio de uma nova abordagem de avaliação de bi-agrupamento proposta nesta tese. Agrupamento particional não exclusivo faz parte de um domínio mais geral de soluções, i.e., o domínio dos agrupamentos possibilísticos. Observou-se algumas falhas conceituais importantes das medidas de agrupamento possibilístico, o que motivou o desenvolvimento de novas medidas e de uma análise empírica e conceitual envolvendo 34 medidas. Uma das medidas propostas se destacou como sendo a única que apresentou avaliações imparciais com relação ao número de grupos, o valor máximo de similaridade ao comparar a solução ideal encontrada com a solução de referência e avaliações sensíveis às diferenças das soluções em todos os cenários considerados / There are data sets for which the instances are naturally represented by more than one view. For example, images can be described by attributes of color, texture, and shape. Proteins can be characterized by the amino acid sequence and by their three-dimensional description. The unification of different views of a data set can be problematic because they may not be comparable or may have different degrees of importance. These degrees of importance may even manifest itself locally, according to the data substructures. This prompted the emergence of clustering algorithms capable of handling multi-represented data sets (i.e., data sets having more than one view) as the SCAD algorithm. This algorithm has shown promising results in experiments reported in the literature, but it has critical problems identified in this work that hinder its application in certain scenarios. These problems were solved here by proposing a new version of the algorithm, called ASCAD, based on formal proofs about its correctness. We developed relational versions for ASCAD, capable of handling data sets described only by the proximities between the instances. We also developed an index for internal and relative validation of multi-represented data clusterings. The evaluation of possibilistic clustering and bi-clustering by comparing the found and reference solutions (external validation) was also explored. Bi-clustering algorithms have gained increasing interest from the community of gene expression analysis. However, little is known of the behavior and properties of the measures aimed at external validation of bi-clustering, which motivated a theoretical and empirical analysis of these measures in this work. This analysis showed that most bi-clustering measures has critical issues and highlighted two of the measures as being the most promising. We included in this analysis three measures of non-exclusive partitional clustering, whose use in comparing bi-clusterings is possible through a new approach proposed in this thesis. Non-exclusive partitional clustering belong to a more general domain of solutions, i.e., the domain of possibilistic clusterings. There are some important conceptual flaws in the measures of possibilistic clustering, which motivated us to develop new measures and to conceptually and empirically analyse 34 measures. One of the proposed measures stood out as being the one who presented unbiased evaluations regarding the number of clusters, the maximum similarity when comparing the optimal solution with the reference one, and evaluations sensitive to solution differences in all scenarios considered