Semilogarithmic Nonuniform Vector Quantization of Two-Dimensional Laplacean Source for Small Variance Dynamics

In this paper high dynamic range nonuniform two-dimensional vector quantization model for Laplacean source was provided. Semilogarithmic A-law compression characteristic was used as radial scalar compression characteristic of two-dimensional vector quantization. Optimal number value of concentric quantization domains (amplitude levels) is expressed in the function of parameter A. Exact distortion analysis with obtained closed form expressions is provided. It has been shown that proposed model provides high SQNR values in wide range of variances, and overachieves quality obtained by scalar A-law quantization at same bit rate, so it can be used in various switching and adaptation implementations for realization of high quality signal compression

Multiproduct Uniform Polar Quantizer

The aim of this paper is to reduce the complexity of the unrestricted uniform polar quantizer (UUPQ), keeping its high performances. To achieve this, in this paper we propose the multiproduct uniform polar quantizer (MUPQ), where several consecutive magnitude levels are joined in segments and within each segment the uniform product quantization is performed (i.e. all levels within one segments have the same number of phase levels). MUPQ is much simpler for realization than UUPQ, but it achieves similar performances as UUPQ. Since MUPQ has low complexity and achieves much better performances than the scalar uniform quantizer, it can be widely used instead of scalar uniform quantizers to improve performances, for any signal with the Gaussian distribution

Financial Measures and Instruments for Adjustment of Agriculture for EU Accession

Agricultural development is the first and the main priority of the Republic of Croatia. Agricultural land comprises more than a half of te land area of the Republic of Croatia, almost 48 % of the population live in rural areas and the share of agriculture in GNP amounts to approximately 10%. Since the Republic of Croatia wants to join the EU in near future various sorts of harmonisation of Croatian legislature with acquis communautaire are necessary. The process of harmonisation in the field of agriculture is especially demanding and multi-layered. Sustainability and multifunctionality of agricultural production and rural regions are the very bases of modern agricultural policy in the most developed countries, including the EU. The negotiations held on agriculture between the Republic of Croatia and the EU make even 50% of the total negotiations, which additionally emphasizes the importance of agriculture. Competitiveness of the national agriculture can increase substantially with the help of the preaccession funds, which is the topic of the paper. SAPARD stands out as the most important among them; within this fond the Republic of Croatia can have use of 25 million euros. The same amount is provided for the new preaccession fund IPARD that will replace SAPARD next year. The aims of these funds are to prepare the candidate countries, i.e. Croatia for their participation in EU common market when it comes to accession.agriculture, EU, preaccession funds, SAPARD, IPARD

Foreword guest editor

It is my pleasure and privilege to be a guest Editor for UTMS Journal of Economics Vol. 6 No. 1. I want to thank the Editor in Chief and the entire Editorial Board for support and trust. Papers that were selected are from the various fields of economics considering that this is multidisciplinary scientific journal with an active interest in economic issues. Papers in this journal deal with subjects like: growth models, climate changes, taxes, socio-economic status of workers, macroeconomic forecasting, tourism management and development, sport management, public shares, employee performance, business models, dividend discount models, technology development and risk management. I want to thank the authors for their contribution in high quality papers. I would also like to thank the reviewers in reviewing 24 selected papers, and their recommendations for publishing 15 papers, which I, as Guest Editor, have accepted for publishing in this number of UTMS Journal of Economics. I am confident to say that these papers are expanding the frontiers of economic science and that they will serve as the research starting point for many generations to come

Towards a methodology to help predict and reduce impact of projects on long-term costs, corporate strategy and existing IT infrastructure

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and BuildingThis thesis contributes to the body of project management and systems development knowledge, by investigating the success of a project beyond the standard criteria of project budget, objectives and timelines used to judge project performance. This research has been conducted as part of the UTS “Doctor of Project Management” course, which encourages extension of the theoretical study of project management to a commercial environment - by investigating problems related to practical applications of project management. This research attempts to highlight the unforeseen and unplanned impacts created by projects which are often neglected and excluded from project evaluation and strategic alignment. The goal of this study is to find ways to increase the overall benefits to organisations achieved through projects, while minimising unplanned and unforeseen negative impacts caused by projects. To identify long-term impacts caused by projects, a case study is conducted with a real example, focusing on a large, deemed to be successfully completed project within an Australian financial organisation. The case study explores the environment, processes and events throughout project cycle and identifies various factors that influence project flow and create unforeseen impacts outside the planned project actions and outcomes. The case study analysis showed that some crucial decisions made about the project would have been different if some of those unplanned impacts were discovered earlier, for example during the discovery stage of the project. The unplanned impacts resulting from this project were manifested through extended timeline, additional costs and numerous post-project systems interdependencies. Since the original decisions about the way in which the project was implemented were largely based on financial factors, these impacts would have been highly relevant to project planning and could have changed some important decisions crucial to the conduct of the project by the organisation. The case study is representative of how projects are managed in the case study organisation. The findings from the case study are further extended trough a mini-survey of 123 professionals, who confirmed that unplanned impacts created by projects are worth considering and managing. The survey respondents indicated that projects in their organisations were mainly concentrated on short-term, often isolated business needs and had little alignment with the overall strategy and coordination with other projects and initiatives. While organisations are aware of the problem and keen to improve management of unforeseen impacts and associated post-project costs, their efforts so far are largely informal. Both the case study and survey indicated the need for a formal way of managing the post-project impacts and alignment between projects and strategy within organisations. Based on the literature review, case study and survey results, the research arrived at a set of findings and suggestions. The suggestions are articulated through an organisational strategy alignment framework, covering four management areas: strategy and senior management, business management, systems development and project management. The main focus of the recommended actions is around effective management of vendor relationship, strategic alignment and unforeseen project impacts. The recommended actions are grouped around the management areas as follows: • Strategy and Senior Management Suggestions • Vendor management strategy directions • Strategy alignment directions • Roles and responsibilities • Business Management Suggestions • Business impact analysis approach • Project success evaluation • Effective communication • Systems Development Suggestions • Technical impact analysis approach • Solutions evaluation • Business and vendor communication • Project Management Suggestions • Project planning and impact analysis • Solution evaluation • Strategy alignment • Project success evaluation • Utilisation of past experiences • Effective communication The findings and resulting suggestions of this research contribute to: • Project management theory • Project management and systems development practice • Project management, strategic and IT management practice The main focus of this research is the identification of factors that cause unforeseen impact caused by projects on the IT environment and organisations. While the study provides a number of suggestions to improve the effective management of these factors, the detailed analysis of the recommended actions is not within the scope of this study and is suggested as an area for further research

Management Of Building Projects

In this work we have shown the concept of logistic support in management in building production and in building of objects, which is realised in Enterprise resource Planning – ERP system ERPINSG, developed in Informatic firm Informatic engineering – ININ in Slavonski Brod, and in cooperation with scientists of catedra for informatics of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and users from building firms.manufacturing logistic, management, ERP systems, ERPINSG