This thesis deals with practical solutions of software for retinal images digital processing. The theoretic part describes human eye and retinal anatomy and also glaucoma disease. It is also focused on description of method for retinal nerve fiber layer enhancement and analysis. These enhancement are then used for designing of automated image processing. One chapter is devoted to detection and analysis of retinal nerve fibers layer. The practical part includes the user manual for application Image Blockz, which was established within this thesis. Further practical part contains the programmer's manual describing the basic structure of the program and its possible extensions.

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The dissertation investigates the issues of image authentication and tamper localization after general image processing operations – blurring, sharpening, rotation and JPEG compression. The dissertation consists of four parts including Introduction, 4 chapters, Conclusions, References. The introduction reveals the investigated problem, importance of the thesis and the object of research and describes the purpose and tasks of the paper, research methodology, scientific novelty, the practical significance of results examined in the paper and defended statements. The introduction ends in presenting the author’s publications on the subject of the defended dissertation, offering the material of made presentations in conferences and defining the structure of the dissertation. Chapter 1 revises used literature, analyzes competitive methods. The devastating effect of blur/sharpen methods on digital image matrices is shown. General pixel-wise tamper localization methods are completely inefficient after such casual processing. Block-wise methods demonstrate some resistance against blurring/sharpening, but no tamper localization with the resolution of up to one pixel is possible. There is clearly a need for a method, able to locate damaged pixels despite general image processing operations such as blurring or sharpening. Chapter 2 defines theoretical foundation for the proposed method. It is shown that phase of Fourier transform demonstrates invariance against blurring or sharpening... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjamos atvaizdų apsaugos – autentiškumo užtikrinimo ir pažeidimų radimo, po bendrųjų vaizdo apdorojimo procedūrų – blukinimo, ryškinimo, pasukimo ar JPEG suspaudimo – problemos. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, keturi skyriai, rezultatų apibendrinimas, naudotos literatūros ir autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, aprašomas tyrimų objektas, formuluojamas darbo tikslas bei uždaviniai, aprašoma tyrimų metodika, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai. Įvado pabaigoje pristatomos disertacijos tema autoriaus paskelbtos publikacijos ir pranešimai konferencijose bei disertacijos struktūra. Pirmasis skyrius skirtas literatūros apžvalgai. Jame pateikta konkuruojančių metodų apžvalga. Parodomas globalus blukinimo/ryškinimo operacijų poveikis atvaizdo skaitmeninėms matricoms. Išsiaiškinama kodėl pikselių tikslumo metodai nėra atsparūs tokiam poveikiui. Kodėl blokiniai metodai demonstruoja dalinį atsparumą – bet jie nėra pajėgūs surasti vieno pažeisto pikselio. Parodomas aiškus poreikis metodo, tiek galinčio rasti pažeistus pikselius, tiek atsparaus bendroms vaizdo apdorojimo procedūroms, tokioms kaip blukinimas ar aštrinimas. Antrajame skyriuje pateiktas sukurto metodo teorinis pagrindimas. Įrodoma, kad Furjė fazė pasižymi atsparumu blukinimui ir ryškinimui. Tačiau iškyla sekanti problema dėl to, kad Furjė fazėje neįmanoma rasti konkretaus pikselio –... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Inledning: Arbetsintegrerande sociala företag (ASF) fyller många betydelsefulla samhällsfunktioner och deras insatser bidrar till samhällsekonomisk nytta, som dessvärre inte inräknas i det traditionella bokslutet. Det interna bokslutet hos företaget kan visa förlust medan samhället gör en ekonomisk vinst till följd av dess existens. Genom socioekonomiska bokslut kan den samhällsekonomiska nyttan värderas i monetära termer. Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att genom ett socioekonomiskt bokslut skapa förståelse om hur arbetsintegrerande sociala företag bidrar med samhällsekonomisk nytta samt identifiera vilka externa aktörer som påverkas av dessa, för att slutligen undersöka vilka av de identifierade aktörerna som påverkas minst/mest ekonomiskt av arbetsintegrerande sociala företag. Metod: Denna kvalitativa fallstudie har utförts med en abduktiv forskningsansats. För att upprätta det socioekonomiska bokslutet samt uppfylla studiens syfte har vi genomfört 18 semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer från ett arbetsintegrerande socialt företag. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att arbetsintegrerande sociala företag bidrar med samhällsekonomisk nytta genom minskad kontakt med myndigheter, minskad vårdkonsumtion samt upphörande/minskade bidrag, då människor i utanförskap integreras i arbete. De externa aktörer som identifierades var landsting, kommun, Arbetsförmedlingen samt Försäkringskassan. Den aktör som gynnades mest ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv var landstinget respektive Arbetsförmedlingen som gynnades minst. / Introduction: Work integration social enterprises (WISE) fulfill many important social functions and their efforts contribute to socio-economic benefits, which unfortunately are not included in the traditional final accounts. The internal final accounts of the company can show loss while society makes a financial profit as a result of its existence. The socio-economic benefits can be valued in monetary terms through socio-economic accounts. Purpose: The purpose of our study is to investigate, through a socio-economic account, how WISE contribute with socio-economic benefits and also identify which external actors are affected by them, in order to finally examine which of the identified actors are least/most economically affected by work integration social enterprises.  Method: This qualitative case study has been conducted with an abductive research approach. In order to establish the socio-economic account and to fulfill the purpose of the study, have 18 semi-structured interviews with people from a WISE been conducted. Result: The study’s results show that work integration social enterprises contribute to socio-economic benefits through reduced contact with authorities, reduced healthcare consumption and cessation/reduction of contributions, as peole in exclusion are integrated into work. The identified external actors were county councils, municipalities, the employment service and the Swedish social insurance agency. The actor who benefited the most from an economic perspective was the county council. The employment service benefited the least.

Diffusion Tensor MRI can be used to depict the anisotropy of tissue. Translation of this technique to moving objects such as the beating heart has recently become feasible, but remains a challenging task, often leading to high noise levels and limited accuracy. Ultimately, knowledge of the 3D fibre architecture of the myocardium invivo should allow for a better understanding of the cardiac function both in healthy and pathological situations. The main goal of the work presented in this thesis is to overcome the difficulties that such technology presents, by introducing a combination of image processing and analysis approaches. In particular, the characteristic ellipsoidal shape of the left ventricular chamber is used to introduce a shape-based prolate spheroidal coordinate frame that allows for comprehensive, robust and dedicated analysis of diffusion tensor data within the myocardial wall. It is shown that the description of this information is more compact in this coordinate frame. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the acquisition limitations can be overcome by introducing an approximation scheme based on this coordinate frame. These techniques are tested on ex-vivo datasets to assess their fidelity and sensitivity. Finally, these techniques are applied in-vivo on a group of healthy volunteers, where 2D DTI slices of the LV were acquired at end diastole and end systole, using cardiac dedicated diffusion MR acquisition. Results demonstrate the advantages of using curvilinear coordinates both for the analysis and the approximation of cardiac DTI information. Resulting in-vivo fibre architectures were found to agree with previously reported studies on ex-vivo specimens. The outcome of this work can open the door for clinical applications and cardiac electrophysiology modelling, and improve the understanding of the left ventricular structure and dynamics.

Research report on the reliability of results of Lithuanian forest inventories is given in the thesis. Aim of research – to estimate the reliability of the results of National forest inventory, Stand-wise forest inventory and forest inventory before cutting. Object of research – spruce and birch stands of Lithuanian forests. Methods of research – sampling, verification of statistical hypotheses and comparison of averages. Results of research – the reliability analysis of the results of National forest inventory shows, that calculated differences are statistically inconsequential. The reliability analysis of the results of Stand-wise forest inventory shows, that Stand-wise forest inventory results has allowed errors, except the height. The estimation of the reliability of results of forest inventory before cutting demonstrates that the errors are too high and the inequality of total volume of stands is -11,1 %.

In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015, and the longstanding advocacy of Indigenous peoples, there is a national movement within Canada to better support Indigenous students in post-secondary institutions. Research that is strength-based, Indigenous-led, and community-focused recognizes the wealth of existing Indigenous knowledge, practices and programs across Canada. This includes the variety of interventions which are being employed to Indigenize and decolonize post-secondary institutions, such as the On-Campus Friendship Centre at Grande Prairie Regional College. The On-Campus Friendship Centre, which is an Indigenous-based support program for all students, has been running for nearly two decades. Nationally, there are 125 Friendship Centres, yet the On-Campus Friendship Centre is the only one that is directly situated within a post-secondary institution. Through the guidance of my Métis Sash Research Framework, which I created to reconcile Indigenous and qualitative methodologies, I have engaged in research that explores the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre in the experiences of Indigenous students at Grande Prairie Regional College. From my findings, I discuss the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre and address prominent challenges within the program. I also highlight wise-practices for improving Indigenous-based support within post-secondary institutions across Canada. / Graduate / 2019-08-31

Cette thèse porte sur l’iconographie des Rois mages du Xe au XIIe siècle à travers l’étude de son adaptation sur supports monumentaux dans l’Occident latin, pour déceler la reformulation du thème dans la « société féodale ». Pour ce faire, le premier fil conducteur est la conception du statut royal qu’acquièrent les Mages de l’Évangéliste Matthieu au Xe siècle, analysée parallèlement à celle de la figure dirigeante élaborée sur cette période et décrite par Marc Bloch dans Les Rois thaumaturges (1924) et par Ernst Kantorowicz dans Les deux corps du Roi (1957). L’optique est de définir la place des nouveaux Rois mages dans les intrications de liens « d’homme à homme » dépeintes par Marc Bloch. Le second est la notion d’espace féodal, étudiée en profondeur par Robert Fossier, autour du concept « d’encellulement », et par Alain Guerreau qui applique cette idée à l’espace sacré. La notion d’espace féodal régit à la fois le corpus des décors étudiés, leur intégration dans l’espace ecclésial et la conception de l’espace iconique lui-même. Une analyse phénoménologique fait ainsi apparaître une figure des personnages dans l’« imaginaire féodal », pleinement investis de la fonction royale et de son aura, trouvant leur place dans un système mental que l’analyse de grands ensembles iconographiques permet de définir. En tant que figures universelles abstraites, les Rois mages forment ainsi une projection claire de l’idée de groupe, modulée selon diverses consciences fédératrices, de sa cellule la plus restreinte à l’universalité chrétienne. / This dissertation deals with the iconography of the Three Kings from the Xth to the XIIth century, by means of a study of its adaptation on monumental decoration in Latin Europe, so as to unravel how it was adapted by feudal society. In order to do so, the first question is that of the new royal status acquired in the Xth century by the Magi from the Gospel of Matthew, analyzed thanks to the concept of “ruler figure” that emerged at the time and was depicted by Marc Bloch in Les Rois thaumaturges (1924) and Ernst Kantorowicz in the The King’s Two Bodies (1957). The aim is to define where the newly defined Three Kings stand in the intricate network of “ties between man and man” theorized by Marc Bloch. The second question is that of the notion of feudal space, studied in depth by Robert Fossier, with his concept of “encellulement” (1982), and Alain Guerreau, who applies this idea to the sacred space. The notion of feudal space informs the corpus of studied pictures, their integration in the ecclesial space and the conception of the iconic space itself. A phenomenological analysis reveals the features of the characters in the “feudal imaginary”, fully invested with their royal function and its aura, and finding their place in a mental system whose mode of functioning can be unveiled thanks to the study of great iconographic sets. Being abstract universal figures, the Three Kings constitute a clear picture of the notion of social group, modulated according to various unifying consciences, from the most basic unit to Christian Holism.

The thesis deals with the figure of Lady Wisdom in the Old Testament in the wisdom books of Job, Proverbs, Wisdom and Sirach. The opening part specifies the selected biblical texts of the Old Testament, the concept of wisdom in antiquity from Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources, and their possible inspiration for authors of wise scriptures. Next the thesis briefly introduces the chosen biblical texts and analyses the concept of wisdom in the each of them. To illustrate the nature and conduct of Wisdom the next part describes the importace of building a house for the ancient people. As an opposite to Lady Wisdom there is Lady Foolishness. Final part describes various forms of personified Wisdom in particular biblical books explaining her transformation within the course of Old Testament history.

The energy consumption to make the off-chip memory writing and readings are aknown problem. In the image processing field structure from motion simpler compressiontechniques could be used to save energy. A balance between the detected features suchas corners, edges, etc., and the degree of compression becomes a big issue to investigate.In this thesis a deeper study of this balance are performed. A number of more advancedcompression algorithms for processing of still images such as JPEG is used for comparisonwith a selected number of simpler compression algorithms. The simpler algorithms canbe divided into two categories: individual block-wise compression of each image andcompression with respect to all pixels in each image. In this study the image sequences arein grayscale and provided from an earlier study about rolling shutters. Synthetic data setsfrom a further study about optical flow is also included to see how reliable the other datasets are. / Energikonsumtionen för att skriva och läsa till off-chip minne är ett känt problem. Inombildbehandlingsområdet struktur från rörelse kan enklare kompressionstekniker användasför att spara energi. En avvägning mellan detekterade features såsom hörn, kanter, etc.och grad av kompression blir då en fråga att utreda. I detta examensarbete har en djuparestudie av denna avvägning utförts. Ett antal mer avancerade kompressionsalgoritmer förbearbetning av stillbilder som tex. JPEG används för jämförelse med ett antal utvaldaenklare kompressionsalgoritmer. De enklare algoritmerna kan delas in i två kategorier:individuell blockvis kompression av vardera bilden och kompression med hänsyn tillsamtliga pixlar i vardera bilden. I studien är bildsekvenserna i gråskala och tillhandahållnafrån en tidigare studie om rullande slutare. Syntetiska data set från ytterligare en studie om’optical flow’ ingår även för att se hur pass tillförlitliga de andra dataseten är.