We introduce an extension of the Description Logic FL0 that allows us to define concepts in an approximate way. More precisely, we extend FL0 with a threshold concept constructor of the form Ct><l t for t><l ∈ {≤, <, ≥, >}, whose semantics is given by using a membership distance function (mdf). A membership distance function m assigns to each domain element and concept a distance value expressing how “close” is such element to being an instance of the concept. Based on this, a threshold concept Ct><l t is interpreted as the set of all domain elements that have a distance s from C such that s t><l t. We provide a framework to obtain membership distance functions based on functions that compare tuples of languages, and we show how weighted looping tree automata over a semiring can be used to define membership distance functions for FL0 concepts. / This is an extended version of an article accepted at the 36th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2023).

Yes / This paper investigates whether bond, issuer, industry and macro-specific variables account for the observed variation of credit spreads’ changes of global shipping bond issues before and after the onset of the subprime financial crisis. Results show that conclusions as to the significant variables of spreads depend significantly on whether two-way clusteradjusted standard errors are utilized, thus rendering results in the extant literature ambigious. The main determinants of global cargo-carrying companies’ shipping bond spreads are found in this paper to be: the liquidity of the bond issue, the stock market’s volatility, the bond market’s cyclicality, freight earnings and the credit rating of the bond issue.

In this thesis, three websites are explored in-depth and serve as a case study for an intercultural comparison of websites as public relations tools. The websites of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), and Citibank were evaluated for this specific study because they represent three models of current banks operating in a culturally-evolving Chinese society. The two-way symmetrical model of public relations and the personal influence model have provided basic framework for this thesis. To establish the two-way symmetrical public relations via the website, these three banks employ different public relations strategies due to the different organizational structure and operating systems. In addition, culture has played an important role for banks to build relationships with their various publics. Specifically, Confucian ideology, the foundation for Chinese culture, provides insights for this thesis. To cater to the publics, ICBC adhered more strictly to Chinese culture norms, while SPDB's website is a reflection of a hybrid of Western and Chinese culture. Moreover, although Citibank does not make many efforts to culturally cater to its Chinese publics, Citibank successfully built its reputation and image through building a business-oriented and expert website. / Master of Arts

內生經濟成長認為政府支出結構與收入結構均會影響恆定狀態成長率之觀點和事實是否一致呢？許多先前相關之研究需被修正，因為這些研究在政府預算限制式的設定並不完全，導致實證之結果產生偏誤。本文除了將討論忽略這些偏誤所會導致之影響外，進一步將以One-Way與TwO-Way的固定效果與隨機效果模型來進行估計，並修正先前研究所發生之問題，然後找出強力的證據來支持Barro模型（1990）所做的預測。本文的樣本資料取自東亞經濟前瞻與亞洲開發銀行，以亞洲新、舊四小龍，加上申國，共九個國家的17年時間序列資料所形成的揉合資料（pooling data）為實證對象。分析結果發現在考慮異質性與同期相關性下，若採用似無相關迴歸技巧來對One-Way固定效果模型進行估計，則：（1）不論政府是以租稅收入或是非租稅收入作為融通財源，資本性支出的增加均會提高經濟成長率，經常性支出的增加則均會對經濟成長率造成負面影響；（2）在政府以租稅收入為融通來源下，非租稅收入增加將會降低經濟成長率；若政府以非租稅收入作為融通之財源，則此時租稅收入之增加將會降低經濟成長。 〔關鍵字〕資本支出、經常支出、同期相關性（Contemporaneous correlation）、異質性（HetereSkedaStiCity）、One-Way fixed（random）effect model、Two-way fixed（random）effect model、似無相關迴歸（Seemingly unrelated regression）

Many real life problems can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems <i>(CSPs)</i>. Backtracking search algorithms are usually employed to solve <i>CSPs</i> and in backtracking search the choice of branching strategies can be critical since they specify how a search algorithm can instantiate a variable and how a problem can be reduced into subproblems; that is, they define a search tree. In spite of the apparent importance of the branching strategy, there have been only a few empirical studies about different branching strategies and they all have been tested exclusively for numerical constraints. In this thesis, we employ the three most commonly used branching strategies in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. These branching strategies are described as follows: first, a branching strategy with strong commitment assigns its variables in the early stage of the search as in k-Way branching; second, 2-Way branching guides a search by branching one side with assigning a variable and the other with eliminating the assigned value; third, the domain splitting strategy, based on the least commitment principle, branches by dividing a variable's domain rather than by assigning a single value to a variable. In our experiments, we compared the efficiency of different branching strategies in terms of their execution times and the number of choice points in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. Interestingly, our experiments provide evidence that the choice of branching strategy for finite domain problems does not matter much in most cases--provided we are using an effective variable ordering heuristic--as domain splitting and 2-Way branching end up simulating k-Way branching. However, for an optimization problem with large domain size, the branching strategy with the least commitment principle can be more efficient than the other strategies. This empirical study will hopefully interest other practitioners to take different branching schemes into consideration in designing heuristics.

Once a year for over forty years public relations’ practitioners in Sweden gathers, the political week in Almedalen, in the town of Visby. There they exchange knowledge and experience on all types of subjects using different and common communication models whether they are aware of them or not. The research on communication models is sparse, with one exception: Grunig’s model. Both practitioners and researches believe them to be important, even strategic. But too little knowledge about the models as such negatively impacts the understanding of public relations’ activities. It also contributes to the view that public relations is frittered. The thesis studies and analyses communication models of public relations. Models have been created by theorists and practitioners to describe the phenomenon, to understand communication as such and to facilitate communication between humans. The thesis addresses basic questions such as which models there are, where they stem from, who the originators were and the characteristics of each respective model. The basis of the study is comprehensive Anglo-American literature. All in all, over twenty different models have been analyzed in three different ways, i.e. the structure of a model, its historical deposits (sediment) and the application of the model. The result is manifold, since many characteristics form ten attributes and three families of models (a reduction). The characteristics can be seen as the models’ building blocks, e.g. the direction of the communication, the number of contacts and synchronism. Three model families are built on three differentiating characteristics, and the families are named correspondingly. Directional model (Riktningsmodellen), the Co-orientational model (Saminriktningsmodellen) and the Connectivity model (Konnektivitetsmodellen). The classification is of course not set in stone. It should be regarded as a first step to reduce the number of models in use and concentrate on the important characteristics of the models that help public relations researchers and professionals to solve problems and theorists to explain, foresee or guide to better public relations. Finally, five areas of future research are presented: a multinational study of models, a study of practitioners’ model use, a deeper history study according the concept of sediment, a notational system for models and, last but not least, a development of the Connectivity model. The last subject is the one that once inspired me to write a thesis. / <p>QC 20170426</p>

S’inscrivant dans l’histoire des relations culturelles internationales, cette thèse porte sur la seconde vague d’américanisation culturelle du Brésil (1946-1978). Elle s’interroge sur la notion d’américanisation, sur ses acteurs et décideurs et sur leurs moyens d’action, ainsi que sur les lieux de rencontres culturels entre le Brésil et les États-Unis. Dans un contexte politique international bipolaire, la seconde américanisation culturelle du Brésil s’insère dans une Guerre froide« périphérique », celle qui dépasse l’axe États-Unis - Union Soviétique : elle est conduite par un réseau complexe de décideurs artistiques, convaincus de l’importance du renforcement de l’amitié continentale américaine. Pour cela, la culture, sous toutes ses formes, s’avère un outil de politique étrangère relevant du soft power, mais aussi un instrument privilégié, voire une « arme » actionnée par des décideurs privés. Cette thèse s’intéresse aux acteurs et médiateurs individuels ou collectifs, à titre étatique ou privé, ainsi qu’à leurs actions culturelles contribuant à la diffusion de l’American Way of Life dans l’axe Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo. Les Brésiliens eux-mêmes, individus comme autorités politiques ou institutions privées, occupent une place déterminante dans cette démarche d’alignement culturel : les Brésiliens invitent ainsi volontiers des artistes états-uniens et organisent ou reçoivent avec sympathie des manifestations culturelles en provenance du « grand frère ». Cette participation brésilienne volontariste conduit l’approche de cette étude : celle d’une américanisation largement « invitée » dans les musées, galeries, théâtres ou instituts culturels brésiliens. Ces lieux de rencontres et domaines culturels ont jusqu’alors été peu analysés par l’historiographie ; mais ils s’avèrent fondamentaux pour la compréhension tout aussi bien de la place attribuée au Brésil dans les circuits internationaux artistiques dans le contexte bipolaire, que de la présence culturelle états-unienne au Brésil ou de la nature des relations internationales des deux géants américains lors de la Guerre froide culturelle. / As a part of the history of the international cultural relations, this thesis focuses on the second wave of the cultural americanisation of Brazil (1946-1978). It questions the notion of americanisation, its actors, its decision makers and their means of action, as well as the cultural meeting places between Brazil and the United States. In a bipolar international political context, the second cultural americanisation of Brazil takes place in a « peripheral » Cold War which oversteps the axis United- States - Soviet-Union. It is realized by a complex network of decision makers who believe in the importance of the strenghtening of the American continental friendship. For that purpose, culture in all its different forms proves to be useful for the « soft power » foreign politic and to be an ideal tool, a true « weapon », in the hands of the private decision makers.This thesis focuses on the actors and the individual or collective mediators, private ones or public ones, as well as on their cultural actions which help to spread the American Way of Life over the axis Rio de Janeiro - Sao Paulo. The Brazilians, individuals, political authorities or private institutions occupy a key place in this cultural alignement process: they invite artists from the United-States willingly and organise or receive cultural events from the « big brother » with sympathy. This voluntary Brazilian participation leads the process approach of this work: a widely « invited » americanisation in the museums, galleries, theaters or Brazilian cultural instituts. These meeting places and cultural areas have not yet been much analysed by the historiography; but they are fundamental for the comprehension of the place given to Brazil in the international art circuits in the bipolar context, for the comprehension of the cultural presence of the United States in Brazil and for the nature of the international relations of the two giants during the cultural Cold War.

I denna uppsats undersöks habitus påverkan på vilken slags festival människor väljer att besöka och varför. Med dagens stora utbud av festivaler och det nya festivallandskapet som har växt fram de senaste åren finns det något för alla som är intresserade. Syftet är att med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer försöka definiera vad det är som gör en festival intressant för vissa och helt ointressant för andra och hur detta kan kopplas samman med Bourdieus teori om habitus. För att stärka teorin används även två av Bourdieus andra teorier inom det sociologiska fältet, symboliskt kapital och det sociala fältet. Studien har visat att informanternas intresse för musik och för att besöka festivaler startade när de var unga. Med åren har deras habitus förändrats och vad man vill få ut av en festival i vuxen ålder skiljer sig från vad som ansågs viktigt när man var yngre. Tydliga exempel är att man vill sova gott och att man inte vill ”vara fast” på ett festivalområde. Därför har stadsfestivalerna blivit ett alternativ för många. Dock finns det grundläggande syftet till varför man besöker en festival kvar även i vuxen ålder; man vill höra musik och njuta av stämningen. Detta är något som inte är begränsat till vilken festival man besöker utan styrs av smak och sociala grupper. När det finns både campingfestivaler och stadsfestivaler ges individen möjlighet att välja och det finns något för alla som vill besöka festivaler. Uppsatsen ligger inom det musiksociologiska forskningsområdet och tar upp frågor gällande interaktionen mellan personer, deras habitus och deras festivalupplevelser. Tillsammans bildar de ett forskningsområde som inte har berörts tidigare.

本研究欲探究個股新聞影響台灣股票市場之關係，透過蒐集宏達電、台積電與鴻海等三間上市公司從2012年6月至2013年5月的歷史交易資料和個股新聞，使用文字探勘技術找出各新聞內容的特徵，再透過歷史資料、技術分析指標與kNN和2-way kNN演算法將新聞先做分類後分群，建立預測模型，分析新聞對股價漲跌的影響與程度，以及漲跌幅度較高之群集與股價漲跌和轉折的關係。 研究結果發現，加入技術分析指標後能夠提升分類的準確率，而漲跌類別內的分群能夠界定各群集與股價漲跌之間的關係，且漲跌幅度較高之群集的分析則能大幅提升投資準確率至80%左右，而股價轉折點之預測則能提供一個明確的投資進場時間點，並確保當投資人依照此預測模型的結果進行7交易日投資時，可以在風險極低的前提下，穩當且迅速的獲取2.82%至22.03%不等的投資報酬。 / This study investigated the relation that the stock news effect on Taiwan Stock Market. Through collected the historical transaction data and stock news from July, 2012 to May, 2013, and use text mining、kNN Classification and 2-Way kNN Clustering technique analyzing the stock news, build a forecast model to analyze the degree of news effect on the stock price, and find the relation between the cluster which has great degree and the reversal points of stock price. The result shows that using the change range and Technical Indicator rise classification’s accuracy, and clustering in the ”up” group and “down” group can identify the range stock price move, and rise the invested accuracy up to about 80 percent. The forecast of reversal points of stock price offers a specific time to invest, and insure the investors who execute a 7 trading day investment depend on this model can get 2.82 to 22.03 percent return reliably and quickly with low risk.

Many real life problems can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems <i>(CSPs)</i>. Backtracking search algorithms are usually employed to solve <i>CSPs</i> and in backtracking search the choice of branching strategies can be critical since they specify how a search algorithm can instantiate a variable and how a problem can be reduced into subproblems; that is, they define a search tree. In spite of the apparent importance of the branching strategy, there have been only a few empirical studies about different branching strategies and they all have been tested exclusively for numerical constraints. In this thesis, we employ the three most commonly used branching strategies in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. These branching strategies are described as follows: first, a branching strategy with strong commitment assigns its variables in the early stage of the search as in k-Way branching; second, 2-Way branching guides a search by branching one side with assigning a variable and the other with eliminating the assigned value; third, the domain splitting strategy, based on the least commitment principle, branches by dividing a variable's domain rather than by assigning a single value to a variable. In our experiments, we compared the efficiency of different branching strategies in terms of their execution times and the number of choice points in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. Interestingly, our experiments provide evidence that the choice of branching strategy for finite domain problems does not matter much in most cases--provided we are using an effective variable ordering heuristic--as domain splitting and 2-Way branching end up simulating k-Way branching. However, for an optimization problem with large domain size, the branching strategy with the least commitment principle can be more efficient than the other strategies. This empirical study will hopefully interest other practitioners to take different branching schemes into consideration in designing heuristics.