Compression of spectral meteorological imagery

Data compression is essential to current low-earth-orbit spectral sensors with global coverage, e.g., meteorological sensors. Such sensors routinely produce in excess of 30 Gb of data per orbit (over 4 Mb/s for about 110 min) while typically limited to less than 10 Gb of downlink capacity per orbit (15 minutes at 10 Mb/s). Astro-Space Division develops spaceborne compression systems for compression ratios from as little as three to as much as twenty-to-one for high-fidelity reconstructions. Current hardware production and development at Astro-Space Division focuses on discrete cosine transform (DCT) systems implemented with the GE PFFT chip, a 32x32 2D-DCT engine. Spectral relations in the data are exploited through block mean extraction followed by orthonormal transformation. The transformation produces blocks with spatial correlation that are suitable for further compression with any block-oriented spatial compression system, e.g., Astro-Space Division's Laplacian modeler and analytic encoder of DCT coefficients

COMPETITION, EFFICIENCY AND STABILITY IN ALBANIAN BANKING SYSTEM

Competition policy in the banking sector is complicated by the necessity of maintaining financial stability. Greater competition may be good for (static) efficiency, but bad for financial stability. The issues regarding banking competition and its effects are of particular interest in transition countries, as bank credit there is by far the largest source of external finance for companies. This paper investigates the interrelationships among bank competition, efficiency and stability in Albania banking system and it compare with other transition countries. Initially had an increase in banking competition where the level of efficiency also has been growing and stability indicators have been generally good, but further intensifying competition has been associated with increased fragility of the banking system and reduced the level of efficiency. In the case of Albania the margin net interest as an efficiency indicator reacts negatively against the increase of non-performing loans degree. So, their levels and dynamics should be constantly supervised by policy-makers, assessing their implications and preparing the necessary measures.Banking competition, bank efficiency, financial stability

MINCER RATES OF RETURN TO EDUCATION IN THE EMERGING ECONOMY OF ALBANIA

In this paper we study the relationship between earnings and education measured in schooling levels. The main hypothesis to be tested is whether higher education levels reward with higher earnings the working labour force in Albania. We use cross section data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) of 2002 and develop a comprehensive framework for our quantitative analysis of the private returns to schooling and private incentives to invest in education. We construct estimates of the private return to each post-compulsory schooling level, taking into account the effects of education on wages. We find that only tertiary education provides significant positive returns with the upper secondary school being less rewarded. This finding might explain the reduced incentives to invest in additional post-compulsory schooling if this would not lead to tertiary.schooling, Mincer equation, returns to education

The Messsianic Concept in Jewish Apocalyptic Writing

In this paper we propose to discuss certain aspects of the Messianic hope of the Jews as found in their apocalyptic literature. We want to investigate the apocalyptic writings with the desire of piecing together references to the Messiah, hoping in this way to discover what sort of Messiah this particular genre of Jewish literature presents

Android Fog Gateway for Personalized Health Monitoring

Bakalaureusetöö kirjeldab hajusarvutusel põhineva ja üle õhu programmeeritava terviseseire süsteemi loomist ja kasutamist. Süsteem mõeldud arstidele ja hooldajatele enda patsientide pulsi jälgimiseks. Süsteem koosneb veebiserverist, Androidi aplikatsioonist ja Polar H7 pulsivööst. Patsiendi pulsi hetkeseisu kuvatakse Androidi aplikatsioonis, kuid kogu pulsiväärtuste ajalugu on nähtav vaid arstidele mõeldud veebilehel. Lisaks oskab Androidi aplikatsioon patsiendi pulssi analüüsida iga patsiendi jaoks spetsiaalselt loodud algoritmiga ning vajadusel teavitab patsiendi terviserikkest nii veebiserverit, kui ka saadab arsti telefonile sõnumi. Patsiendi seisundi muutumisel on olemas ka võimalus luua patsiendi jaoks uus algoritm ning see üle interneti Androidi seadmesse edastada.This bachelor’s thesis details the design, implementation, and deployment of a fog computing based Over-The-Air programmable medical system which is intended to be used by doctors and caretakers to monitor the heart rate of their patients. The system consists of a web service, an Android application, and a Polar H7 heart rate sensor. It displays the current heart rate in the Android application and also has the ability to display the patient’s whole heart rate history using a Web service. With the customized algorithm built for each patient, the Android application analyzes the patient’s heart rate and notifies the doctor as well as the Web service when it detects an abnormal heart rate value. In case the patient’s condition changes, a new algorithm can be sent from the Web service to the application

Eesti tööturu etnilist ebavõrdsust kujundavad hoiakud ja väärtused eri rahvusrühmade subjektipositsioonide kontekstis

Ethnic inequalities attitudes and values in the Estonian labor market in the context of subject positions of different ethnic groupsThe aim of the article is to analyze the situation of ethnic inequality in the Estonian labor market, the mechanisms of its reproduction, and its transformation through the understanding of the attitudes and values inherent in different subject positions.The study focuses on the analysis of the relational causes of ethnic stratification and the attitudes of different subjects that have been confirmed in Estonian society in order to find answers to the questions of whether and to what extent Estonians and Russians perceive this phenomenon as subjects in different positions. The empirical data of the study are based on the data of the study DIMA (Political and socio-psychological determinants of inclusive integration context, funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism EMP 138, 2013-2017) conducted in 2013-2017.According to the author, the most important conclusion of the analysis is that despite years of work and efforts to reduce ethnic inequality in Estonia, integration has not yielded such results that the gap between Estonians and Russians has narrowed. If we add to this the growing public debate in recent years about the privileged position of Estonian as an indigenous people and the Estonian language at the political level, these circumstances do not give hope of reducing inequality between the two ethnic groups.Keywords: labor market inequality, unequal treatment, relational analyses, ethnic discrimination, social stratification, EstoniaMärksõnad: tööturu ebavõrdsus, ebavõrdne kohtlemine, relatsiooniline analüüs, etniline diskrimineerimine, sotsiaalne kihistumine, Eest

Pros and Cons for the Incineration of Solid Waste

According to the latest calculations , the world is currently producing about 1.3 billion tons of garbage every year .Putting that in perspective , if we took all the human beings on the planet and placed them on an impossibly gigantic scale ,their combined weight would only be one –quarter of that amount . Unfortunately –or perhaps ominously is the better word –about 60 percent of this garbage will end up in landfills , which are multiplying globally as a pace that neraly matches the reproduction rate of the rat populations that live in them . Dumping and burying everything in landfill is not a viable solution to our collective garbage disposal problems . There simly isn’t enough usable space , horizantally or vertically to safely deposit billions of tons of this heavily contaminated material on an annual basis . Other solutions are needed and may people believe incineration facilities offer a cleaner , tidier and less land-consuming alternative .Even thugh they are not as common as landfills , municipal incinetarion plants have been around for a while , so there is nothing experimental or theoretical about this option . But is incineration truly a legitimate or desirable alternative ? That is a question with no definitive answe