Mutual Savings Banks

Aim The aim of the thesis is to explain the factors that affect the auditor's recommendation concerning audit services to customers who are not subject to mandatory auditing. Background and problem In 2010 mandatory auditing for small companies was abolished. It is common for the auditor to provide recommendations re-garding whether or not a customer should chose to retain the audit. The question is which factors can explain the auditor's recommendation. Method and empirics This thesis uses a deductive approach with inductive elements and a combination of qualitative and quantitative data is used. The qualitative data consists of a pilot study and the quantitative data consists of a questionnaire survey. The analysis of the empirical data was performed using regression analysis. Theory This thesis applies an eclectic approach where the starting point is legitimacy, institutional theory, professional theory and decision making theory to develop a model. Results and conclusions The notion of the recommendation as well as the extent of the recommendations can be explained by factors related to the auditor's agency affiliation and the auditor's personal qualities.Syfte Studiens syfte är att förklara vilka faktorer som påverkar revisorns rekommendation om revisionstjänster till kunder som inte omfattas av revisionsplikt. Bakgrund och problem År 2010 avskaffades revisionsplikten för mindre bolag. Vid valet om att behålla eller avskaffa revisionen är det vanligt att revisorn rekommenderar kunden om hur bolaget ska välja. Frågan är vilka faktorer som kan förklara revisorns rekommendation. Metod och analys Studien har en deduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag samt an-vänder en kombination av kvalitativ och kvantitativ data. Den kvalitativa datan består utav en pilotstudie och den kvantitativa datan utav en enkätundersökning. Regressionsanalyser genom-fördes vid analys av den empiriska datan. Teori Studien tillämpar ett eklektiskt angreppssätt där utgångspunkten är legitimitet, institutionell teori, professionsteori och beslutsteori som används för att utveckla en modell. Resultat och slutsats Både uppfattning om rekommendation samt omfattningen av rekommendationer kan förklaras av faktorer kopplade till dels revisorns byråtillhörighet och dels revisorns personliga egenskaper

Loop radiofrequency coils for clinical magnetic resonance imaging at 7 TESLA

To date, the 7 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner remains a pure research system and there is still a long way ahead till full clinical integration. Key challenges are the absence of a body transmit radiofrequency (RF) coil as well as of dedicated RF coils in general, short RF wavelengths of the excitation field in the order of the dimensions of a human body leading to signal inhomogeneities, and severe limitations with respect to the specific absorption rate. They all result in a strong need for RF engineering and sequence optimization to explore the potential of MRI at 7 T, and to pave the way for its future clinical application. In this thesis, high-resolution MRI with a rather small field-of-view (FOV) in the head and neck region (parotid gland/duct and carotid arteries), and of the musculoskeletal system as well as with a very large FOV in the abdomen (spine) were presented. Therefore, a variety of RF coils were used: from a commercially available single-loop coil to novel, specially developed phased array coils each consisting of eight loop elements. Methods to thoroughly characterize and test the developed RF coils were presented, including numerical simulations, bench and MRI measurements. Characterization with respect to performance for parallel acquisition techniques and an extensive compliance testing for patient safety were described in detail. All aspects of the engineering part, from design to optimization, and finally, to the in vivo application in volunteers and patients were covered. Since clinical applicability has always been the purpose, optimized imaging protocols along with a discussion on the clinical relevance was included in each study. The presented RF loop coils widely expand the options for clinical research at 7 T and advance the integration of this technology in a clinical setting

Uncertainties of Human Perception in Visual Image Interpretation in Complex Urban Environments

Today satellite images are mostly exploited automatically due to advances in image classification methods. Manual visual image interpretation (MVII), however, still plays a significant role e.g., to generate training data for machine-learning algorithms or for validation purposes. In certain urban environments, however, of e.g., highest densities and structural complexity, textural and spectral complications in overlapping roof-structures still demand the human interpreter if one aims to capture individual building structures. The cognitive perception and real-world experience are still inevitable. Against these backgrounds, this article aims at quantifying and interpreting the uncertainties of mapping rooftop footprints of such areas. We focus on the agreement among interpreters and which aspects of perception and elements of image interpretation affect mapping. Ten test persons digitized six complex built-up areas. Hereby, we receive quantitative information about spatial variables of buildings to systematically check the consistency and congruence of results. An additional questionnaire reveals qualitative information about obstacles. Generally, we find large differences among interpreters’ mapping results and a high consistency of results for the same interpreter. We measure rising deviations correlate with a rising morphologic complexity. High degrees of individuality are expressed e.g., in time consumption, insitu-or geographic information system (GIS)-precognition whereas data source mostly influences the mapping procedure. By this study, we aim to fill a gap as prior research using MVII often does not implement an uncertainty analysis or quantify mapping aberrations. We conclude that remote sensing studies should not only rely unquestioned on MVII for validation; furthermore, data and methods are needed to suspend uncertainty

The dynamics of poor urban areas - analyzing morphologic transformations across the globe using Earth observation data

The urban environment is in constant motion, mostly through construction but also through destruction of urban elements. While formal development is a process with long planning periods and thus the built landscape appears static, informal or spontaneous settlements seem to be subject to high dynamics in their ever unfinished urban form. However, the dynamics and morphological characteristics of physical transformation in such settlements of urban poverty have been hardly empirically studied on a global scale or temporal consistent foundation. This paper aims at filling this gap by using Earth observation data to provide a temporal analysis of builtup transformation over a period of ~7 years in 16 documented manifestations of urban poverty. This work applies visual image interpretation using very high resolution optical satellite data in combination with in-situ and Google Street View images to derive 3D city models. We measure physical spatial structures through six spatial morphologic variables - number of buildings, size, height, orientation, heterogeneity and density. Our temporal assessment reveals inter- as well intra-urban differences and we find different, yet generally high morphologic dynamic across study sites. This is expressed in manifold ways: from demolished and reconstructed areas to such where changes appeared within the given structures. Geographically, we find advanced dynamics among our sample specifically in areas of the global south. At the same time, we observe a high spatial variability of morphological transformations within the studied areas. Despite partly high morphologic dynamics, spatial patterns of building alignments, streets and open spaces remain predominantly constant

Parents’ Perception of Overweight in Relation to Child Mood and Disordered Eating

Parental perception of their child’s weight may impact child’s psychological functioning; however, there is a dearth of literature examining this relationship. Data suggest that parental concern with child’s overweight may be related to child distress and/or disordered eating. Yet, it is unknown if parents’ perception of teens’ overweight relates to child functioning. We examined 113 adolescent (12-17y; 14.4 ± 1.6) boys and girls (53% girls) with overweight or obesity (BMIz 2.0 ± .45) and their parents. Youth self-identified as 53% Caucasian or White, 27% Black or African American, 3.5% Asian, and 16.5% multiple races, unknown, or other. Parents reported on their perception of their child’s overweight as either “somewhat/sometimes true” and “very/often true.” Teens reported on their symptoms of anxiety and depression and whether they had experienced loss-of-control eating in the past month. T-tests and Chi Square analyses were used to analyze child factors based on parent perceptions. Compared to parents who reported “somewhat/sometimes true” (n = 51), parents who reported “very/often true” (n = 62), had children with significantly higher anxiety (p = .048) and higher likelihood of reporting loss-of-control eating in the past month (p = .039). There were no differences in symptoms of depression. Including sex, race, and BMIz as covariates did not alter findings. In summary, youth whose parents perceive their children as more definitively overweight are more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and disordered eating. Further data are needed to determine if parental perception is related to their adolescent child’s overall well-being

Impact of age and race on outcomes of a program to prevent excess weight gain and disordered eating in adolescent girls

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) prevents weight gain and reduces loss-of-control (LOC)-eating in adults. However, IPT was not superior to health-education (HE) for preventing excess weight gain and reducing LOC-eating over 1-year in adolescent girls at risk for excess weight gain and eating disorders. Limited data suggest that older and non-White youth may be especially responsive to IPT. In secondary analyses, we examined if age or race moderated weight and LOC-eating outcomes. The 113 participants (12–17 years; 56.6% White) from the original trial were re-contacted 3 years later for assessment. At baseline and follow-up visits through 3 years, we assessed BMI, adiposity by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and LOC-eating presence. In linear mixed models, baseline age moderated 3-year BMI outcome; older girls in IPT had the lowest 3-year BMI gain compared to younger girls in IPT and all girls in HE, p = 0.04. A similar pattern was observed for adiposity. Race moderated 3-year LOC-eating; non-White girls in IPT were most likely to abstain from LOC-eating at 3 years compared to all other girls, p = 0.04. This hypothesis-generating analysis suggests future studies should determine if IPT is especially efficacious at reducing LOC-eating in older, non-White adolescents

Optimized spectrally selective steady-state free precession sequences for cartilage imaging at ultra-high fields

Object: Fat suppressed 3D steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequences are of special interest in cartilage imaging due to their short repetition time in combination with high signal-to-noise ratio. At low-to-high fields (1.5-2.0T), spectral spatial (spsp) radio frequency (RF) pulses perform superiorly over conventional saturation of the fat signal (FATSAT pulses). However, ultra-high fields (7.0T and more) may offer alternative fat suppression techniques as a result of the increased chemical shift. Materials and methods: Application of a single, frequency selective, RF pulse is compared to spsp excitation for water (or fat) selective imaging at 7.0T. Results: For SSFP, application of a single frequency selective RF pulse for selective water or fat excitation performs beneficially over the commonly applied spsp RF pulses. In addition to the overall improved fat suppression, the application of single RF pulses leads to decreased power depositions, still representing one of the major restrictions in the design and application of many pulse sequences at ultra-high fields. Conclusion: The ease of applicability and implementation of single frequency selective RF pulses at ultra-high-fields might be of great benefit for a vast number of applications where fat suppression is desirable or fat-water separation is needed for quantification purpose

ICU-Admission-Score - ein Werkzeug zur präoperativen Evaluation

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich damit, einen präoperativen ICU-Admission-Score zu finden. Zweck dieses Scores soll eine Erhöhung der Vorhersagewahrscheinlichkeit einer postoperativen Intensivbehandlung sein. Ein solcher Score würde die Planung der täglichen Ressourcennutzung in der Intensivmedizin erleichtern und könnte die für das Krankenhaus ökonomisch wichtige Bettenauslastung auf der Intensivstation erhöhen. Ein zusätzliches Ziel ist ein in der Handhabung einfacher Score, der von jedem Anästhesisten in der präoperativen Evaluation der Patienten mit geringem Zeitaufwand erhoben werden kann. Zur Datengewinnung wurde insgesamt ein Zeitraum von einem Jahr am Universitätsklinikum Bonn betrachtet. In die Studie eingeschlossen wurden allgemeinchirurgische Patienten mit Operationen, die postoperativ mit etwa gleicher Häufigkeit intensivmedizinisch oder auf einer normalen Station betreut wurden. Insgesamt wurden 332 Patienten retrospektiv untersucht, ob die präoperative Konstitution einen Einfluss auf die postoperative Behandlung hat. Für jeden Patienten wurden zur Untersuchung die Deckblätter der Anästhesieprotokolle herangezogen, die in der präoperativen Evaluation ausgefüllt werden. Es wurden persönliche Faktoren (Alter, Geschlecht, Gewicht, OP-Zeit), laborchemische Parameter (Hb, Kreatinin), andere auf dem Protokoll vorhandene Risikoscores (z.B. ASA, MET, rCRI, NYHA), vom Patienten angegebene Vorerkrankungen (cardiopulmonal, neurologisch, infektiologisch) sowie die Noxe „Rauchen“ erhoben. Die Datenauswertung erfolgte auf verschiedenen Wegen. Zunächst wurde jeder einzelne Parameter in Bezug auf die postoperative Intensivbehandlung auf Signifikanz getestet. Die dort signifikanten Parameter wurden auf verschiedenen Wegen weiter untersucht, um unabhängige Faktoren zu finden. Dadurch ließen sich drei verschiedene Scores errechnen: Mit einer logistischen Regression erhält man einen Score mit fünf Faktoren (OP-Klasse, Herzklappenvitium oder -ersatz, erhöhtes Kreatinin, Alter, Herzinsuffizienz), der auf einer computergestützten Kalkulation basiert und mit einer Sensitivität von 72,4 % bei einer Spezifität von 60,3 % abschneidet. Der zweite Score wurde mit einer Faktorenanalyse ermittelt, es ergab sich ebenfalls ein Score mit fünf unabhängigen Faktoren (OP-Klasse, erhöhtes Kreatinin, erniedrigter Hb, Herzklappenvitium oder -ersatz, COPD), der nach einer manuellen Punktevergabe eine Sensitivität von 71,5 % bei einer Spezifität von 60,5 % erreicht. Der dritte Score wurde mit einer Diskriminanzanalyse errechnet. Auch hier enthält der Score fünf Faktoren (OPKlasse, Herzklappenvitium oder -ersatz, Infektion oder Isolationsmaßnahmen, pAVK, Alter), die nach manueller Punktevergabe sowie einer Kreuzvalidierung mit der „Leaveone- out“-Methode eine Sensitivität von 77,5 % bei einer Spezifität von 60,6 % erreicht. Leider sind diese Ergebnisse dem bisherigen Standard einer Einschätzung durch eine Expertengruppe (Operateur, Anästhesist, Intensivmediziner) nicht überlegen und somit kann vorerst keiner dieser Scores zur täglichen Anwendung empfohlen werden. Auch die Suche nach internationaler Vergleichsliteratur zeigt die Schwierigkeit einer rein präoperativen Vorhersage der postoperativen Intensivbehandlung mit Hilfe eines Scoresystems. Es werden weitere, umfangreichere Studien nötig, die diese Scores prospektiv evaluieren, auch unter Hinzunahme anderer operativer Abteilungen als ausschließlich der Allgemeinchirurgie