DCT Implementation on GPU

There has been a great progress in the field of graphics processors. Since, there is no rise in the speed of the normal CPU processors; Designers are coming up with multi-core, parallel processors. Because of their popularity in parallel processing, GPUs are becoming more and more attractive for many applications. With the increasing demand in utilizing GPUs, there is a great need to develop operating systems that handle the GPU to full capacity. GPUs offer a very efficient environment for many image processing applications. This thesis explores the processing power of GPUs for digital image compression using Discrete cosine transform

Human Resource Management Practices in Polish Companies During the Economic Slowdown

The objective of the paper is to present how companies operating in the Polish market faced challenges in the field of HR-function during the economic slowdown. As a source of data for the analysis two empirical studies have been used, which were conducted in 2009. In both studies structured questionnaires were used. The first study deals with turnover and retention issues and the second one focuses on trends in reward systems. Efforts have been made in the paper to examine how companies adapt their HR policies and practices while coping with changes in the environment. After presenting some general adaptation strategies, the authors will focus on two issues mentioned above. The findings of the empirical research indicate that typical reactions of the examined companies as a response to the crises in the financial markets were: freezing of recruitment actions, cuts in training budgets, changes in reward systems, limitations of benefits as well as restrictions of HR-departments budgets. The research evidence reveals that changes in the labor market caused by economic slowdown forced 46% of the firms to plan reductions of employment but on the other hand 41% did not plan to do that. The uncertainty in the business context of HRM makes HR-professionals rethink practices they have been using so far.Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie sposobów radzenia sobie przez przedsiębiorstwa z wyzwaniami w obszarze funkcji HR w okresie spowolnienia gospodarczego. Źródłem danych wykorzystanych w analizie były dwa badania empiryczne z wykorzystaniem techniki ankiety, przeprowadzone w 2009 roku. Pierwsze z nich dotyczyło kwestii płynności i retencji pracowników, a drugie trendów w systemach wynagrodzeń. W obu tych badaniach podjęto próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie: w jaki sposób przedsiębiorstwa dostosowują politykę i praktykę zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi do zmian zachodzących w ich otoczeniu, w szczególności na rynku pracy. Autorzy przedstawili w kolejności ogólne strategie adaptacji praktyk HR do zmian by następnie skoncentrować się na wspomnianych wcześniej dwóch kwestiach tj. retencji i rotacji pracowników oraz systemach wynagrodzeń. Wyniki badań wskazują, że do typowych działań w okresie spowolnienia gospodarczego należały: blokady etatów, cięcia budżetów szkoleniowych, zmiany w systemach wynagrodzeń, ograniczenia świadczeń dodatkowych, tzw. benefitów. Badania wskazały też, że zmiany na rynku pracy spowodowane spowolnieniem gospodarczym doprowadziły do redukcji zatrudnienia w 46% badanych firm, z drugiej strony w 41% badanych firm nie planowano takich działań. Na podstawie przeprowadzonych badań można stwierdzić, że zmiany w otoczeniu biznesowym funkcji HR powinny skłaniać menedżerów i specjalistów do spraw zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi do krytycznego spojrzenia na stosowane praktyki w dziedzinie funkcji HR

Localized temporal decorrelation for video compression

Many of the current video compression algorithms perform analysis and coding operations in a block-wise manner. Most of them use a motion compensated DCT algorithm as the basis. Many other codecs, mostly academic and in their infancy and known as Second Generation techniques, utilize region and contour based and model based techniques. Unfortunately, these second-generation methods have not been successful in gaining widespread acceptance in both the standards and the consumer world. Many of them require specialized computationally intensive software and/or hardware. Due to these shortcomings, current block based methods have been finetuned to get better performance at even very low bit rates (sub 64 kbps). Block based motion estimation is the principal mechanism used to compensate for motion between frames in an image sequence. Although current algorithms are fast and quite effective, they fail in compensating for uncovered background areas in a frame. Solutions such as hierarchical motion estimation schemes do not work very well since there is no reference in past, and in some cases, future frames for an uncovered background resulting in the block being transmitted as an intra frame (which requires the most bandwidth among all type of blocks). This thesis intro duces an intermediate stage, which compensates for these isolated uncovered areas. The intermediate stage uses a localized decorrelation technique to reduce frame to frame temporal redundancies. The algorithm can be easily incorporated into exist ing systems to achieve an even better performance and can be easily extended as a scalable video coding architecture. Experimental results show that the algorithm, used in conjunction with motion estimation, is quite effective in reducing temporal redundancies

World Bank lending for labor markets : 1991 to 1996

This report serves as a conceptual background piece for the development of the Social Strategy Paper (SSP). To develop the conceptual underpinnings, the objectives and instruments of strategy papers (SP) are viewed under the rubric of Social Risk Management (SRM). SRM consists of public measures intended to assist individuals, households, and communities in managing income risks in order to reduce vulnerability, improve consumption smoothing, and enhance equity while contributing to economicdevelopment in a participatory manner. To support the approach and its logic, the structure of this note is as follows: Chapter 2 sets the stage and presents global trends, definitions, and outlooks. Chapter 3 presents key issues of SRM, from the reasons for World Bank concern to a typology of strategies and instruments, and ends with the role of the main actors. Chapter 4 focuses on the boundaries of SP/SRM and on three key policy issues to balance equity, efficiency, and political sustainability. Chapter 5 ends with a preliminary list of ways in which the new framework may affect our view of SP and the development of better instruments.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Banks&Banking Reform,Labor Standards,Health Economics&Finance,ICT Policy and Strategies

A document management methodology based on similarity contents

The advent of the WWW and distributed information systems have made it possible to share documents between different users and organisations. However, this has created many problems related to the security, accessibility, right and most importantly the consistency of documents. It is important that the people involved in the documents management process have access to the most up-to-date version of documents, retrieve the correct documents and should be able to update the documents repository in such a way that his or her document are known to others. In this paper we propose a method for organising, storing and retrieving documents based on similarity contents. The method uses techniques based on information retrieval, document indexation and term extraction and indexing. This methodology is developed for the E-Cognos project which aims at developing tools for the management and sharing of documents in the construction domain

WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE: HOW THE WEAK POINTS OF THE POWER GRID LEAVE THE UNITED STATES WITH AN UNACCEPTABLE RISK

Federal regulations aim to ensure grid reliability and harden it against outages; however, widespread outages continue. This thesis examines the spectrum of regulations to evaluate them. It outlines their structure, the regulations’ intent, and weighs them against evolving cyber and physical threats and natural disaster risks. Currently, the regulatory structure is incapable of providing uniform security. Federal standards protect only the transmission portion of the grid, leaving the distribution section vulnerable to attack due to varying regulations from state to state, or county to county. The regulations cannot adapt quickly enough to meet dynamic threats, rendering them less effective. Cyber threats can be so agile that protectors are unaware of vulnerabilities, and patching requirements are too lengthy, which increases the risk exposure. No current weather mitigation or standard is capable of protecting the grid despite regular natural disasters that cause power shutdowns. The thesis concludes that bridging these gaps requires not increasing protection standards, but redundancy. Redundancy, mirrored after the UK's infrastructure policy, is more likely to reduce failure risk through layered components and systems. Microgrids are proven effective in disasters to successfully deliver such redundancy and should be implemented across all critical infrastructure sectors.Civilian, Department of Homeland SecurityApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited