Emerging 3-D applications and 3-D display technologies raise some transmission problems of the next-generation multimedia data. Multi-view Video Coding (MVC) is one of the challenging topics in this area, that is on its road for standardization via ISO MPEG. In this thesis, a 3-D geometry-based MVC approach is proposed and analyzed in terms of its compression performance. For this purpose, the overall study is partitioned into three preceding parts. The first step is dense depth estimation of a view from a fully calibrated multi-view set. The calibration information and smoothness assumptions are utilized for determining dense correspondences via a Markov Random Field (MRF) model, which is solved by Belief Propagation (BP) method. In the second part, the estimated dense depth maps are utilized for generating (predicting) arbitrary (other camera) views of a scene, that is known as novel view generation. A 3-D warping algorithm, which is followed by an occlusion-compatible hole-filling process, is implemented for this aim. In order to suppress the occlusion artifacts, an intermediate novel view generation method, which fuses two novel views generated from different source views, is developed. Finally, for the last part, dense depth estimation and intermediate novel view generation tools are utilized in the proposed H.264-based MVC scheme for the removal of the spatial redundancies between different views. The performance of the proposed approach is compared against the simulcast coding and a recent MVC proposal, which is expected to be the standard recommendation for MPEG in the near future. These results show that the geometric approaches in MVC can still be utilized, especially in certain 3-D applications, in addition to conventional temporal motion compensation techniques, although the rate-distortion performances of geometry-free approaches are quite superior.

A novel and efficient methodology is presented for the conversion of stereo to multi-view video in order to address the 3D content requirements for the next generation 3D-TVs and auto-stereoscopic multi-view displays. There are two main algorithmic blocks in such a conversion system / stereo matching and virtual view rendering that enable extraction of 3D information from stereo video and synthesis of inexistent virtual views, respectively. In the intermediate steps of these functional blocks, a novel edge-preserving filter is proposed that recursively constructs connected support regions for each pixel among color-wise similar neighboring pixels. The proposed recursive update structure eliminates pre-defined window dependency of the conventional approaches, providing complete content adaptibility with quite low computational complexity. Based on extensive tests, it is observed that the proposed filtering technique yields better or competitive results against some leading techniques in the literature. The proposed filter is mainly applied for stereo matching to aggregate cost functions and also handles occlusions that enable high quality disparity maps for the stereo pairs. Similar to box filter paradigm, this novel technique yields matching of arbitrary-shaped regions in constant time. Based on Middlebury benchmarking, the proposed technique is currently the best local matching technique in the literature in terms of both precision and complexity. Next, virtual view synthesis is conducted through depth image based rendering, in which reference color views of left and right pairs are warped to the desired virtual view using the estimated disparity maps. A feedback mechanism based on disparity error is introduced at this step to remove salient distortions for the sake of visual quality. Furthermore, the proposed edge-aware filter is re-utilized to assign proper texture for holes and occluded regions during view synthesis. Efficiency of the proposed scheme is validated by the real-time implementation on a special graphics card that enables parallel computing. Based on extensive experiments on stereo matching and virtual view rendering, proposed method yields fast execution, low memory requirement and high quality outputs with superior performance compared to most of the state-of-the-art techniques.

<p><em>The simple view of reading</em> is a theory in which reading is divided into decoding and linguistic comprehension. The theory has been used to explain and to subgroup reading disabilities. Research has also investigated if additional factors are of relevance to reading. In the present study, decoding was divided into the factors orthographic decoding and phonological decoding, while comprehension was divided into word comprehension and grammatical comprehension. The purpose was to analyze these factors and their contribution to reading ability in children in fourth grade: one group with reading difficulties (n=36) and one group with typical reading ability (n=36). Results were analyzed using multiple regression and the two groups were compared. The contribution of non-verbal ability and general processing speed was also studied. The results showed differences between the groups. Decoding made the largest contribution to reading ability for the children with reading difficulties, while linguistic comprehension contributed the most for the children with typical reading ability. Differences were also found in how much the underlying factors contributed to decoding and linguistic comprehension, respectively. Non-verbal ability and general processing speed made small contributions, for both groups, to reading ability, decoding and linguistic comprehension, respectively. However, the two factors increased the explained variance in reading ability for the children with reading difficulties. In this group the two factors in <em>The simple view of reading</em> explained somewhat less of the variance in reading ability than for the children with typical reading ability. The study shows that decoding and comprehension are useful predictors of reading ability, and also indicates that <em>The simple view of reading</em> is less appropriate for children with reading difficulties.</p> / <p><em>The simple view of reading</em> är en teori om läsning där läsförmåga delas in i vkodning och språkförståelse. Teorin har bland annat använts för att kartlägga lässvårigheter. Forskning har undersökt om ytterligare faktorer har betydelse för läsning. I föreliggande studie delades avkodning in i faktorerna ortografisk avkodning och fonologisk avkodning, medan språkförståelse delades in i ordförståelse och satsförståelse. Syftet var att undersöka faktorernas bidrag till läsförmåga hos barn i skolår fyra: en grupp med lässvårigheter (n=36) och en grupp med typisk läsförmåga (n=36). Testresultaten analyserades med multipel regressionsanalys och de båda grupperna jämfördes. Bidragen från icke-verbal förmåga och generell processhastighet studerades också. Resultaten visade att profilerna skilde sig åt mellan grupperna. För barnen med lässvårigheter gav avkodning störst bidrag till läsförmåga, medan språkförståelse var den mest bidragande faktorn för barnen med typisk läsförmåga. Skillnader fanns även i hur underliggande faktorer bidrog till avkodning respektive språkförståelse. Icke-verbal förmåga och generell processhastighet visade sig ge små bidrag till läsförmåga, avkodning respektive språkförståelse, för båda grupperna. När dessa två faktorer lades till framkom dock en relativt stor ökning av den förklarade variansen i läsförmåga hos barnen med lässvårigheter. Hos denna grupp var den förklarade variansen i läsförmåga av de två faktorerna i <em>The simple view of reading</em> något mindre än hos barnen med typisk läsförmåga. Sammantaget visar studien att avkodning och förståelse är användbara prediktorer till läsförmåga, samtidigt som resultaten antyder att <em>The simple view of reading</em> är mindre tillämpbar för barn med lässvårigheter.</p>

Data is being published in digital formats at very high rates nowadays. A large share of this data has complex structure, typically organized as trees (Web documents such as HTML and XML being the most representative) or graphs (in particular, graph-structured Semantic Web databases, expressed in RDF). There is great interest in exploiting such complex data, whether in an Open Data access model or within companies owning it, and efficiently doing so for large data volumes remains challenging. Materialized views have long been used to obtain significant performance improvements when processing queries. The principle is that a view stores pre-computed results that can be used to evaluate (possibly part of) a query. Adapting materialized view techniques to the Web data setting we consider is particularly challenging due to the structural and semantic complexity of the data. This thesis tackles two problems in the broad context of materialized view-based management of Web data. First, we focus on the problem of view selection for RDF query workloads. We present a novel algorithm, which, based on a query workload, proposes the most appropriate views to be materialized in the database, in order to minimize the combined cost of query evaluation, view maintenance and view storage. Although RDF query workloads typically feature many joins, hampering the view selection process, our algorithm scales to hundreds of queries, a number unattained by existing approaches. Furthermore, we propose new techniques to account for the implicit data that can be derived by the RDF Schemas and which further complicate the view selection process. The second contribution of our work concerns query rewriting based on materialized XML views. We start by identifying an expressive dialect of XQuery, corresponding to tree patterns with value joins, and study some important properties for these queries, such as containment and minimization. Based on these notions, we consider the problem of finding minimal equivalent rewritings of a query expressed in this dialect, using materialized views expressed in the same dialect, and provide a sound and complete algorithm for that purpose. Our work extends the state of the art by allowing each pattern node to return a set of attributes, supporting value joins in the patterns, and considering rewritings which combine many views. Finally, we show how our view-based query rewriting algorithm can be applied in a distributed setting, in order to efficiently disseminate corpora of XML documents carrying RDF annotations.

I sistemi finanziari si sono sempre contraddistinti per la loro natura fiduciaria e il ruolo di sostegno alla stabilità dei mercati (Bianchi, 2002). Quanto affermato giustifica il verificarsi, in determinati contesti di mercato, di crisi economiche di portata straordinariamente ampia. Il legislatore italiano, quindi, al fine di favorire uno sviluppo controllato del settore, negli ultimi anni ha rivolto il focus della regolamentazione normativa verso l’individuazione e la prevenzione di diversi rischi tipici di settore, soprattutto quelli legati all'operatività e quelli di tipo legale e reputazionale. In questo contesto, la teoria dell’Isomorfismo coercitivo si colloca per comprendere quali siano i motivi di adeguamento delle organizzazioni a normative ai fini della legittimazione nei confronti dell’ambiente in cui operano. La ricerca si pone quindi l’obiettivo di indagare i riflessi organizzativi e di governance delle imprese di assicurazione, legati a un processo di isomorfismo coercitivo attraverso la teoria della dipendenza dalle risorse, in particolare quelle reputazionali. / Financial Services are always being recognized like robustness and trust institutions (Bianchi 2002). In fact they always give a fundamental contribute to the stability of economic and social environment. This fact in some conditions, like the present ones, has often created very large financial crisis. More than in the past Italian laws in the financial services, aim at prevent some risk like operational, compliance and reputational ones. The theory of Coercive Isomorphism aim at explains how the organizations try to legitimate themselves towards their social and economic environment. In this direction the study aim at analyzed how coercive isomorphism had influenced the organizational design in the Italian insurance sector. In order to explain this process I used the RBV (Resource Based View) theory to explain how reputation could be a very strategic resource to gain robustness and trust in financial institutions after the crisis, so I analyzed how organization build reputation trough the processes compliance to the new law.

在知識經濟時代下，企業競爭優勢之來源不再是有形資產，而是企業內部的制度、人力資源、創新等無形資產，即為智慧資本，因此外部資訊使用者所關心的不再只是企業所擁有的有形資產，更包括企業所擁有的智慧資本，但現行會計報表仍偏重衡量與報導有形資產之部分，逐漸喪失正確傳達企業價值之功能，遂興起改革之聲。 目前國內外許多會計學者已積極探討企業價值之來源—智慧資本，希望藉由正確釐清智慧資本之本質，以制訂切合時宜之會計制度，以助企業內部管理其智慧資本，並適切地對外進行智慧資本外部報導，提供有助於外部資訊使用者決策之資訊。智慧資本外部報導之內容應為何呢？為目前學術界積極探討的主題之一，已有多篇相關的學術文章發表，但其多為大原則及大方向之探索性研究，對於智慧資本報導所應包含內容未有較多具體著墨；故本研究以使用者觀點為依據，希望藉由探討外部資訊使用者認為企業報導哪些智慧資本項目有助於其評價企業，以作為企業智慧資本外部報導之參考依據。 本研究利用問卷調查直接蒐集外部資訊使用者與企業之看法，再經由多種統計分析後，發現以下結果： 一、影響外部資訊使用者對企業評價的重要智慧資本有「研發及產品化能力」、「增加客戶購買意願之能力」、「完善的人力資源管理」、「提昇銷售多樣產品之能力」、「拓展新客戶之能力」、「經營團隊品質」、「風險評估與管理能力」、「員工專業能力」等八個因素構面。 二、影響外部資訊使用者對企業評價的智慧資本項目會因產業不同而有所不同。 三、不論是資訊電子業或金融服務業，企業認為影響其評價之智慧資本項目與外部資訊使用者之看法有所差異。 / Intellectual capital — the brain of a company’s employees, their know-how, the processes and customer knowledge that they create — is the new source of competitive advantage in the information age. The source of corporate competitive advantage is no longer the tangible assets of companies. The users of external business reports do not only need information of tangible assets of the firm, but also the details of intellectual capital a firm owns. Our conventional reporting framework only highlights the measurement and reporting of tangible assets. Consequently, the current financial statements do not capture or communicate the true value of the company. Increasing number of users have been issuing calls for the reform of the traditional financial reporting and disclosure requirements to meet the growing need for information on intellectual capital. Numerous papers have been issued on intellectual capital. The scholars have covered such areas as the definition of intellectual capital, the measurement of intellectual capital, and the reform of the conventional reporting framework. What should the corporate intellectual capital report contain? This study seeks to determine what type of intellectual capital information users will need to value firms correctly. We used questionnaire to obtain data from users and firms directly and applied statistics analysis to the data. We found that: 1、Intellectual capital details which can assist users in valuing firms are: the ability on R&D and production, the ability to increase consumer spending, the ability of human resource management, the ability to sell different kinds of products, the ability to increase the number of clients, the quality of managers, the ability to assess and control risk, and the professional skills of employees. 2、Intellectual capital details which affect users valuation of firms are different for each industry. 3、Different Intellectual capital information is used in valuing the firm by the inside and outside users of financial statements.

Basé sur une étude empirique, la présente thèse apporte un éclairage sur les compétences de lecture, de décodage et de compréhension orale en allemand chez des élèves plurilingues immigrés et leurs homologues monolingues suisses allemands. Un échantillon d’environ 500 élèves plurilingues et de 160 élèves monolingues constitue la base empirique de ce travail qui nous a servi à examiner certains éléments de controverses ainsi que la capacité prédictive de la théorie de la «Simple View of Reading » ( Philipp B. Gough & Tunmer, 1986 p. 85; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Nous constatons que la compréhension orale et le décodage possèdent une forte valeur prédictive pour les compétences en lecture. Cette valeur prédictive dépend cependant fortement de la façon dont les compétences en lecture sont opérationnalisées et elle est plus élevée dans le groupe des lecteurs débutants (en CE1/CE2). La modélisation des compétences de lecture d’après la la « Simple View of Reading Theory » réussit mieux pour des tests de lecture courts, à choix multiples et sous contrainte de temps que pour des tests à base de textes plus longs et authentiques, qui proposent différents formats de réponses. L’intégration du facteur de l’intelligence dans le modèle de prédiction est plus bénéfique pour le groupe des lecteurs plus expérimentés (CM2/6ème). L’utilisation de la méthode des analyses de régressions multiples à plusieurs niveaux (MLwiN) a mis en évidence que l’apport du QI est plus important lorsqu’on examine les compétences au niveau des classes qu’au niveau des élèves pris individuellement. Nous écartons donc la proposition d’une substitution du facteur compréhension orale au profit du QI comme Tiu, Thompson et Lewis (2003) l’ont proposé. / This work aimed to examine controversial elements as well as the explanatory strength of the “Simple View of Reading Theory”. It has been based on empirical data analyses of language abilities of about 500 multilingual and 160 monolingual school graders in the German speaking part of Switzerland (Philipp B. Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). We found evidence in both groups (monolingual and multilingual pupils) for a strong impact of listening comprehension and decoding in explaining reading comprehension abilities. The degree of the explained variance was determined by the test used to evaluate reading comprehension and by the age of pupils, showing a bigger effect with young readers (2nd/3rd graders) than with more experienced readers (5th / 6th graders). Modeling reading comprehension abilities based on the «Simple View of Reading Theory» proved to be more successful when using short, time limited, multiple choice reading tests than using a test with longer, authentic texts and offering a mixture of different response formats. The integration of the intelligence factor into our model improved the prediction of reading abilities in the group of the more experiences readers (5th / 6th graders). The improvement though was essentially situated at the level of school classes as unit of analyses. On the individual level only minor improvements were observed. Therefore we would reject the idea of eliminating the listening comprehension factor in favor of an integration of the IQ factor that has been suggested by Tiu, Thompson and Lewis (2003).

Titel: Lönsam CSR: Behöver företag immateriella tillgångar för att tjäna på CSR? Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Anita Johansson och Rikard Andersson Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2018 – maj Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka om immateriella tillgångar förmedlar eventuella samband mellan CSP och CFP i båda riktningar. Syftet var också att undersöka om tillväxtfasen påverkar styrkan på sambandet. Metod: Studien antar en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats. Sekundärdata har samlats in från databasen Thomson Reuters. Studien är av longitudinell design där data har inhämtats från elva år och sedan analyserats i SPSS. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Resultatet ger bevis för att de immateriella tillgångarna agerar som en partiell medlande funktion i det positivt dubbelriktade sambandet mellan CSP och CFP. De immateriella tillgångarnas påverkan på CSP eller CFP beroende på tillväxtfas visar dock inte något entydigt resultat och kan således inte styrkas. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien ger bevis för att det finns en partiell medlande effekt från de immateriella tillgångarna i det dubbelriktade sambandet mellan CSP och CFP. Även om vårt resultat med tillväxt som variabel inte styrks kan detta ligga till grund för vidare forskning och har trots allt bidragit till mer kunskap. Vårt resultat bidrar till teoretisk kunskap som framtida forskning kan bygga vidare på samtidigt som företagsledare kan satsa på immateriella tillgångar och nå finansiella mål. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till fortsatt forskning är att göra en studie som också inkluderar de företag som inte självmant lämnat in sin rapportering. Detta kan skapa ett mer jämförbart resultat. Eftersom vår studie inte får något resultat på företagets tillväxttakt hade det varit intressant om vidare forskning ser detta ur en annan aspekt. Eftersom det tar tid att bygga upp immateriella tillgångar och detta kan förklara varför företag i tillväxt inte har stärkt effekt från de immateriella tillgångarna. Således kan det vara relevant att göra ett urval av de företag som har haft tid att bygga upp sina immateriella tillgångar för att se om dessa företag visar starkare effekt under några år med hög tillväxt för att sedan visa sämre effekt vid en stagnerad tillväxt. / Title: Profitable CSR: Are intangible assets necessary to earn money on CSR? Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Anita Johansson and Rikard Andersson Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date:  2018 – may Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether intangible assets constitute the missing link in the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. The aim was also to investigate if the growth phase affects the strength of the relationship. Method: The study assumes a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical-deductible approach. Secondary data have been collected from the database Thomson Reuters. Time perspective that has been used is called longitudinal design using data from eleven years and this data has been analyzed in SPSS. Result &amp; Conclusions: The result provides evidence that intangible assets act as a partial mediator of the positive bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. However, the impact of intangible assets in the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP depending on growth phase does not show any evident result and cannot be established. Contribution of the thesis: The study provides proof that there is a mediating effect from the intangible assets of the bidirectional relationship between CSP and CFP. Even though our result of growth as a variable is not strengthened, this can be the basis for further research and, in spite of everything, has contributed to more knowledge. Our results contribute to the theoretical knowledge that future research can build on while corporate executives can invest in intangible assets while achieving financial goals. Suggestions for future research: One suggestion for future research is to include private companies who are missing public sustainable reporting. If another selection is included, it can make the result more justified. Since our study did not bring an evident result about the impact of the growth phase it would have been interesting if further research could be a comparative study. Since it takes time to build up intangible assets a comparison between the same companies during a period of high growth to a period of stagnant growth, could show a more evident result of the impact of the intangible assets.

(in English): The productions of language of the students learning Czech or other foreign languages may be evaluated in light of three criteria - the accuracy, the fluency and the complexity. The improvement of the quality of each of these can be influenced by a variety of factors, inter alia, personality of the student, the topic, the possibility to prepare before the production and so on, but also by student's language competence or the didactical methods used to reach this level of competence. In this master thesis, the main focus will be placed on the fluency, more precisely on the methods, which are contributing to its development; Rather than focusing on their effectiveness, the scrutiny will analyze the attitude of students as well as the teachers towards each of those methods. Also, we compare, how the preferred aspect (accuracy or fluency) influence the evaluation of the methods and, in the end, if and how the evaluation of the activities is being influenced by the students' level of language. Within questioning we obtained data from teachers and students of Czech as a foreign language. With them, we verified the role of the factors above for the respondends evaluations. Apart from that, we compared, in which measure the evaluations of students and teachers differ and we occupied with a...

Vygotskij menar att människans tänkande och utveckling är beroende av vår språkliga förmåga. Som pedagoger har vi vad Vygotskij kallar för begrepp och aktiviteter till vår hjälp i undervisningen. Ur ett historiskt perspektiv har dock begreppen om stavning och skriftspråkliga normer i kursplanen för svenska blivit något urvattnade. Denna studie söker svar på hur stavning och skriftspråkliga normer och strukturer förändras mellan åk5 och åk9 hos en grupp elever. Resultatet visar att de största svårigheterna i åk5 handlar om skiljetecken och sär-/hopskrivningar. Dubbelteckningar och vokalutbyten är de största stavningssvårigheterna. I åk9 är svårigheterna med skiljetecken större än i åk5, likaså felaktigt användande av pronomina de/dem/dom. Procentuellt sett har alla stavfel minskat i åk9. Eftersom det fortfarande görs fel av eleverna i åk9 är det tydligt att interventioner behöver göras. Vilken metod som används är beroende på vad en analys av felen säger. Slutsatsen av studien innebär att lärare och speciallärare arbetar gemensamt med elevernas fonologiska medvetenhet parallellt med samtal om skrivregler och regler för stavning. Forskning visar att äldre elevers kognitiva förmåga är större än hos yngre elever och att de därför också fått ytterligare ett medium att förstå stavning och skrivning med. Studiens resultat kan betraktas som generaliserbara för elevgrupper med en normal läs- och skrivutveckling med svenska som modersmål. / Vygotsky means that the human thinking and development depends on our ability to use language. As teachers we have, what Vygotsky calls words and activities to help teaching. In a historical perspective the curriculum of the Swedish language has become somewhat diluted concerning spelling and written norms. This study seeks answers to whether knowledge about spelling and written norms change with a group of 5th graders as they move on to 9th grade. The results of the study show that the greatest difficulties in year 5 are the ones concerning punctuation and whether a word should be written as one or two words. The spelling of the vowel quantity and the substitutions of vowels are the most common spelling errors. In year 9 the errors concerning punctuation have increased proportionally compared to year 5, as have the wrong usage of the pronoun de/dem/dom. All spelling errors have decreased proportionally in year 9. Since the students still make errors in year 9, it is clear that they need some kind of intervention. Which method to use depends on the analysis of the errors. The conclusion of the study means that teachers and special education teachers work together to increase the students ́ phonological awareness parallel to conversations about rules of writing and rules of spelling. Research shows that older students have a better cognitive ability than younger students and therefor they also have a new medium as to understand rules about spelling and writing. The results of this study can be considered as valid to groups of students with a normal development in reading- and writing skills with Swedish as a mother tongue.