3,294 research outputs found

    A robust model generation technique for model-based video coding

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    Centre for Multimedia Signal Processing, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

    SYZ mirror symmetry for toric Calabi-Yau manifolds

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    We investigate mirror symmetry for toric Calabi-Yau manifolds from the perspective of the SYZ conjecture. Starting with a non-toric special Lagrangian torus fibration on a toric Calabi-Yau manifold XX, we construct a complex manifold Xˇ\check{X} using T-duality modified by quantum corrections. These corrections are encoded by Fourier transforms of generating functions of certain open Gromov-Witten invariants. We conjecture that this complex manifold Xˇ\check{X}, which belongs to the Hori-Iqbal-Vafa mirror family, is inherently written in canonical flat coordinates. In particular, we obtain an enumerative meaning for the (inverse) mirror maps, and this gives a geometric reason for why their Taylor series expansions in terms of the K\"ahler parameters of XX have integral coefficients. Applying the results in \cite{Chan10} and \cite{LLW10}, we compute the open Gromov-Witten invariants in terms of local BPS invariants and give evidences of our conjecture for several 3-dimensional examples including K_{\proj^2} and K_{\proj^1\times\proj^1}.Comment: v3: final version, published in JDG 90 (2012), no. 2, 177-250. 71 pages, 14 figures; substantially revised and expande

    Understanding adoption and continual usage behaviour towards internet banking services in Hong Kong

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    Banks and financial institutions in Hong Kong are increasingly finding themselves facing rapid increases in turbulence and complexity, leading to greater uncertainty and increased competition. Customers are also becoming more demanding. Apart from the traditional type of banking services, customers today require more personalized products and services, and access to such services at any time, and at any place. Although there is no panacea for banks to stay competitive, Internet Banking is one of the advanced information technologies they can employ to achieve a high level of customer services. Internet Banking is an emerging technology that permits conduct of banking transactions through the Internet. From the banks’ point of view, it requires the lowest transaction cost among various channels, just one percent of branch-based banking. It also can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of corporate business processes through elimination of paper work. One of the many benefits of Internet Banking is that customers can use bank services 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world. This study investigates university students\u27 adoption/continual usage behaviour within the context of Hong Kong Internet Banking services. A research framework based on the extension of Technology Acceptance Model and Social Cognitive Theory was developed to identify factors that would influence the adoption/continual usage of Internet Banking. The framework includes subjective norm, image, result demonstrability, perceived risk, computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and intention constructs. A diverse sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students of seven universities in Hong Kong was used to test the models. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine the entire pattern of intercorrelations among the eight proposed constructs and to test related propositions empirically. The results reveal that both subjective norm and computer self-efficacy play significant roles in influencing the intention to adopt Internet Banking indirectly. Perceived usefulness has significant positive effect on intention to adopt, this result supports the extension of the Technology Acceptance Model. Perceived ease of use has significant indirect effect on intention to adopt/continual usage through perceived usefulness, while its direct effect on intention to adopt is not significant in this empirical study. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented

    The early impact of the Secondary School Places Allocation reform in Hong Kong: a study of school choice

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    Recent educational reforms in Hong Kong aimed to increase choice, diversity and quality of education for everyone. The advocates of school-choice policies claim that more choice is good because it is 'classless' and fairer than planned provision (Chubb & Moe 1990). Everyone has the chance to choose and to decide upon the best providers of goods and services to meet their needs. However, opponents (Gewirtz, Ball & Bowe 1995) argue that social and cultural capital may play an important role in choice-making. They conclude that choice is very directly and powerfully related to social-class, and that 'choice emerges as a major new factor in maintaining and indeed reinforcing social-class divisions and inequalities' (ibid: 55). All such literature prompts the question: what are the main effects of the new school choice policy implemented in Hong Kong in 2001? The focus of this research is, therefore, to investigate the early impact of the new school choice policy in Hong Kong and the reactions of parents and schools. In this thesis, I have employed a multi-method research strategy which includes case studies of four schools, a questionnaire survey of 905 parents and interviews with parents, school managers and policy-makers in order to investigate the early impact of the new secondary school choice (SSPA) policy in Hong Kong. I examined how parents engaged in choosing schools and the subsequent consequences of the policy for the key stakeholders - consumers and providers. The richness of the data reveals the equality issues inherent in the choice process in the unique choice situation in Hong Kong

    Learning mixtures of structured distributions over discrete domains

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    Let C\mathfrak{C} be a class of probability distributions over the discrete domain [n]={1,...,n}.[n] = \{1,...,n\}. We show that if C\mathfrak{C} satisfies a rather general condition -- essentially, that each distribution in C\mathfrak{C} can be well-approximated by a variable-width histogram with few bins -- then there is a highly efficient (both in terms of running time and sample complexity) algorithm that can learn any mixture of kk unknown distributions from C.\mathfrak{C}. We analyze several natural types of distributions over [n][n], including log-concave, monotone hazard rate and unimodal distributions, and show that they have the required structural property of being well-approximated by a histogram with few bins. Applying our general algorithm, we obtain near-optimally efficient algorithms for all these mixture learning problems.Comment: preliminary full version of soda'13 pape

    A new block motion vector estimation using adaptive pixel decimation

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    Variable temporal-length 3-D discrete cosine transform coding

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    A cyclic correlated structure for the realization of the discrete cosine transform

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