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<div>This thesis deals with three problems in image analysis and processing: determining optimal resolution for scanned document raster content, page orientation, and color table compression. </div><div><br></div><div>Determining optimal resolution for scanned document raster content aims to find an optimal scan resolution for different scan materials. Here the optimal scan resolution means the lowest resolution that keeps all the information of the scan materials. In this way we can save a lot of storage. In this study, the resolutions in question are 300 dpi, 150 dpi, and 75 dpi. We start with 300 dpi since this resolution would keep most scanned pages' information. 75 dpi is usually the smallest scan resolution that a printer has, and 150 dpi is the resolution in between. We developed an algorithm that extracts features and use SVM to find the optimal scan resolution. The features include tile standard deviation (STDDEV) structural similarity index measure mean (tile-STDDEV SSIM), tile STDDEV structural similarity index measure STDDEV (tile-STDDEV SSIM STDDEV), sample power spectrum MSE, and spatial activity, edge density, and edge contrast. These features can reflect the truthfulness between high-resolution images (references) and their low-resolution counterparts and the intrinsic changes from the high resolution to low resolutions. By feeding these feature into support vector machine (SVM) classifier, we can have a prediction accuracy of 93.4\%.</div><div><br></div><div>Determining the scan page orientation can spare people from manually aligning printed pages before using a scanner. In this thesis, we propose an algorithm based on hand-crafted features and SVM. The features include vertical document vector (VDV), horizontal document vector (HDV), zonal density vector (ZDV) and profile document vector (PDV). Concatenating them together, we can have a feature vector for the document page. The feature vectors are then fed into SVM for training and predicting. This algorithm could work on multiple scripts, including Chinese, Devanagari, Japanese, Korean, Numeral, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. In our algorithm we detect the script first, and then the orientation of the page. We also build a script detection hierarchy based on the structure similarities of different scripts. Experimental results show that the overall script accuracy is \textit{98.2\%}, and the overall orientation accuracy for all scripts is \textit{99.2\%}. </div><div><br></div><div>Color Management plays an important role in color reproduction and transformation of color information among various devices. Device profiles, such as Color look-up tables (LUTs), provide color management systems with the information necessary to convert color data between native device color spaces and device-independent color spaces. LUTs are often embedded in color documents to achieve color fidelity between different devices. The size of color tables will also increase with finer sampling of the spaces and larger bit depths. Thus, a method to compress LUTs is desirable for the purpose of conserving memory and storage, and also reducing network traffic and delay. In this dissertation, we propose a 1D color table lossless compression method based on discrete-time transformation (DCT). The compressed data consists of four files: the rounded quantized DCT coefficients for the color table, the residue table whose values are the difference of the original color tables and the initial reconstructed color tables, the coefficients bit assignment tables (CBAT) and the residue bit assignment tables (RBAT) that we proposed for quantized DCT coefficients and residue table, respectively. With these four files, we can perfectly reconstruct original 1D color tables. Experimental results show that we can achieve a compression ratio of around 3.05.</div>

The article solves the riddle of the fine structure constants with the help of the Planck units, derives its physical meaning and shows the consequences.:Abstract Introduction What is the fine structure constant? Consequence from the existence of the fine structure constant.

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of board games. It is divided into three parts, the theoretical, practical and didactic part. In the theoretical part, the author describes iconography of board games and playing board games from the Middle Ages to the present time. The use of board games is interpreted on specific works of art in painting, sculpture and crafts. The practical part was focused on the creation of an art history educational board game, which develops knowledge in the form of a quiz with questions and answers. The game was redesigned as a digital / online version and a mobile application. Versions of the game were created in a unified author's design. In the didactic part, the author examines whether the game is a suitable teaching material for teachers, students and a group of respondents from the general public. It also includes a methodology for secondary school teachers on how to deal with play in teaching.

Three years ago, the Ministry of Justice in the Czech Republic stated in judicial practice a recommending table whose intention was to unify the decision-making practice of courts in determining of alimony. The table should rectify a vague treatment of the maintenance obligations, guarantee a legal certainty for all participants and predictability of decisions. The alimony often covers only a part of all costs for a child under conditions that it is paid. The situation is even more problematic because the single-parent families with minors usually belong to the households which are mostly threatened by poverty. These families are most often headed by woman, who bears the brunt of caretaker and breadwinner roles. Their role is also influenced by the disadvantageous position at a labour market. The result of all these factors is usually a feminization of poverty and transmission of the standard of living from a mother to a child. My research interviews were focused on the fact if the table is used in practice. I evaluate its efficiency and represent modifications suggested by the courts. The analysis showed that not all courts use the table or use it at different levels. It is a consequence of reading of the word "recommending". This fact indicates a neglect of any need to use and a broader context...

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The research was driven by a need to increase the knowledge base concerning wetland ecological responses, as well as to identify and evaluate the factors driving the functioning of the Franschhoek Trust Wetland. An ecohydrological study was undertaken in which vegetation cover, depth to groundwater, water and soil chemistry were monitored at 14 sites along three transects for a 12 month period. The parameters used include temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, chloride, bicarbonate, sulphate, total nitrogen, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and phosphorus. T-tests and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to analyze trends and to express the relationship between abiotic factors and vegetation. Results reflect the strong influence of hydrology, microtopography and nutrient availability in structuring vegetation composition in the wetland. The wetland has been classified as a palustrine valley bottom with channel wetland, which is predominantly groundwater-fed (phreatrotropic), but receives surface water inputs as well. Small scale gradients of microtopography allow for differences in flooding frequency and duration resulting in hydrologically distinct sites which differ chemically. Three zones were distinguished in the wetland. Hollows or low sites were characterized by intermittent flooding and drying and higher nutrient concentrations in soil and groundwater. High sites which were rarely or never flooded exhibited higher groundwater temperature and ammonia as well as iron in soils and groundwater. The inundated sites remained flooded throughout the year and were characterized by high nitrate and nitrite in soil as well as high EC, magnesium, bicarbonate, sulphate and phosphorus in groundwater. The limited availability of nitrogen in the wetland favoured plant types Typha capensis, Paspalum urvillei and Juncus .kraussii which are able to either fix nitrogen or store nitrogen during more favorable conditions. The main chemical concentration changes take place between summer and winter. The Principal Component Analyses suggest that sodium, chloride, potassium, ammonia and phosphorus are the dominant ions determining the chemistry of groundwater. Increased abstraction from the table mountain aquifer to supplement human demand may put the wetland at risk of degradation. Intensified agriculture and other land use in the area are likely to increase pollution loads into the wetland causing shifts in nutrient availability and vegetation composition. Continued and long term monitoring is essential to ensure effective management of the wetland and is highly recommended. Closer partnerships between wetland managers and scientists as well as community awareness and involvement through a volunteer monitoring programme should be encouraged

Odds ratios and risk ratios are useful measures of effect size in 2-group studies in which the response variable is dichotomous. Confidence interval methods are proposed for combining and comparing odds ratios and risk ratios in multistudy designs. Unlike the traditional fixed-effect meta-analysis methods, the proposed varying coefficient methods do not require effect-size homogeneity, and unlike the randomeffects meta-analysis methods, the proposed varying coefficient methods do not assume that the effect sizes from the selected studies represent a random sample from a normally distributed superpopulation of effect sizes. The results of extensive simulation studies suggest that the proposed varying coefficient methods have excellent performance characteristics under realistic conditions and should provide useful alternatives to the currently used meta-analysis methods.

In recent years, a new generation of architecture has emerged in the world of computer networks, known as software-defined networking (SDN), that aims to improve and remove the limitations of traditional networks. Although SDN provides viable benefits, it has faced many security threats and vulnerability-related issues. To solve security issues in the SDN, one of the most vital solutions is employing an intrusion detection system (IDS). Merging IDS into the SDN network remains efficient due to the unique features of SDN, such as high manageability, flexibility, and programmability. In this paper, we propose a new approach as a kangaroo-based intrusion detection system (KIDS), which is an SDN-based architecture for attack detection and malicious behaviors in the data plane. Designing a zone-based architecture in the KIDS assists us in achieving a distributed architecture which is scalable in both area and anomaly detection. In the KIDS architecture, the IDS module supplies the flow-based and packet-based intrusion detection components based on monitoring packet parser and Flow tables of the SDN switches. In the proposed approach, the IDS uses consecutive jumps like a kangaroo for announcing the attacks both to the SDN controller and other IDSs, contributing to improved scalability and efficiency. The evaluation of the proposed approach shows an enhanced performance against that of peer approaches in detecting malicious packets.

Background: Left/right judgment (LRJ) measurement is a potential way to identify dysfunction in cortical body maps, and to measure improvement related to corresponding treatments. Few studies have explored the reliability of various methods for LRJ measurement. Objectives: To determine measurement reliability of LRJ utilizing two methods: card-based (CB) and tablet-based (TB). Establish minimal detectable difference (MDD) for accuracy and reaction time for both assessments. Methods: Testing was done over two different days. Session 1 consisted of testing LRJ utilizing CB assessment with photos of left and right hands over two trial periods. The TB format was also tested over two trial periods. Session 2 tested with the CB assessment for two trial periods. 40 images were used in the basic upright position for both CB and TB formats. Results: Fifty participants (N = 50; female = 35) with an average age of 24.3 (range 19–35) were studied. ICC (2,k) for reaction time for both methods were >0.84. The MDD for reaction time was between 0.19 and 0.49 s for various test points for both methods. Combined left and right accuracy ICC (2,k) for both methods were >0.51, with MDD between 5 and 14%. Conclusions: This study examined the reliability and MDD for the LRJ measurement for card and tablet-based assessments. Generally, LRJ reaction time had good reliability, while accuracy had moderate reliability and varied between testing methods.