Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T16:01:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo8983_1.pdf: 2694145 bytes, checksum: eada2ca72336a7b81aacb802940a6312 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / A popularização do serviço de Internet e a redução de custo facilitaram o acesso de usuários a diversos provedores de conteúdo, sejam estes baseados em voz, vídeo ou qualquer outro recurso de multimídia. Consequentemente aumentam os benefícios de ter uma rede de comunicações de melhor resiliência, pois quando uma conexão falha os dados podem fluir por conexões alternativas, reduzindo a probabilidade de perdas de pacotes e falhas na transmissão. Dessa forma, abre-se um novo cenário de estudo que tem a intenção de verificar e propor melhoras em formas de uso dos protocolos de comunicação que tenham o objetivo de tornar confiável a escolha dos melhores caminhos de transmissão para cada tipo de conteúdo. Para a transmissão de stream de vídeo, a escolha do protocolo de transporte é tão importante quanto a escolha de algoritmos e estruturas de dados em relação à aplicação rede. O estudo do desempenho de protocolos de rede de transportes é essencial para o desenvolvimento de protocolos tolerantes a falhas. A avaliação de políticas combinado com o caminho de transmissão, e os limiares de detecção de falhas, largura de banda, atrasos e perda de vazão são avaliados através da simulação dos diferentes protocolos de transmissão utilizado. O comportamento dos protocolos são verificados, comparando o tráfego considerando caminhos alternativos simétricas e assimétricas. O protocolo escolhido para o estudo é o UDP, devido à sua popularidade e sua tolerância a perda. Mostramos neste estudo que a configuração do tamanho do GOP (Group Of Picture) e a utilização correta do tamanho do Frame do UDP podem contribuir para uma transmissão de Vídeo Stream com melhor qualidade utilizando-se dos recursos de conexões disponíveis (seleção de caminhos) na rede

In video surveillance business, a recurring topic of discussion is quality versus data usage. A higher quality allows for more details to be captured at the cost of a higher bit rate, and for cameras monitoring events 24 hours a day, limiting data usage can quickly become a factor to consider. The purpose of this thesis has been to apply additional compression features to a h.264 video steam, and evaluate their effects on the videos overall quality. Using a surveillance camera, recordings of video streams were obtained. These recordings had constant GOP and frame rates. By breaking down one of these videos to an image sequence, it was possible to encode the image sequence into video streams with variable GOP/FPS using the software Ffmpeg. Additionally a user test was performed on these video streams, following the DSCQS standard from the ITU-R recom- mendation. The participants had to subjectively determine the quality of video streams. The results from the these tests showed that the participants did not no- tice any considerable difference in quality between the normal videos and the videos with variable GOP/FPS. Based of these results, the thesis has shown that that additional compression features can be applied to h.264 surveillance streams, without having a substantial effect on the video streams overall quality.

The Republican Party of California faces a serious demographic challenge as a burgeoning Latino population threatens to turn this majority-minority state a darker shade of blue. The purpose of my research and of this thesis is to explore the relationship between Latino voters in California and the Republican Party and to draw conclusions about the most viable and proven means of attracting Latino votes to Republican candidates. The Latino vote is by no means a lost cause for Republicans. My research supports several claims, which are laid out here and discussed throughout the paper. The first is that the Republican Party waits now at a crucial moment of opportunity for failure or survival in California. The next is that there are multiples issues with which the GOP can make inroads with Hispanic communities. The research available leads me to conclude that it matters less what Republicans might say about these issues, and more how and where (and even in what language) they say it.

FM köpte satellitkapacitet för närmare 20 miljoner kronor under 2014 för utbildning, övning och internationella operationer. Enligt HKV räcker dock inte upphandlad kapacitet för att täcka behoven ute hos förbanden. Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på mer hur kapacitetsanvändningen ser ut vid en operativ stab utifrån deras arbete och därigenom se om det finns någon militär nytta att vinna kopplad till kapacitetsanvändning. Utgångspunkten för arbetet är insamlad information om datornätverkstrafiken i de olika nätverken. Detta kvantitativa data jämförs med stabens arbete utifrån kvantitativ och kvalitativ data i krigsdagbok, styrdokument och deltagande studie. Studien visar på att kapacitetsanvändningen ej är relaterad till stabens arbete utan snarare är kopplad till när personal är på plats och personalens internetanvändning. Studien pekar på att det kan finnas en potential att få mer militär nytta, dock måste mekanismer för prioritering i nätverket införas och vidare studier avseende trafiken genomföras. / In 2014 the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF) spent almost SEK 20 million on the procurement of satellite capacity for use during training, exercises and operations. However, according to SwAF Headquarters, the capacity procured did not meet unit demands. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the capacity usage in an operational headquarters, based on the headquarters’ staff procedures and to see if there is any military utility to be gained in connection with this capacity. The starting point for the study is quantitative data about network usage. This quantitative data is then compared with staff work based on quantitative and qualitative data from war diaries, governing documentation and studies. The study shows that capacity usage is not related to staff work, but is instead linked to the presence of staff and their use of the Internet. The study also indicates that there could be potential for greater military utility of network capacity, but this will require the introduction of network priority mechanisms and further studies into user traffic.

<p>The packing and coding of digital video is a part of science where much innovation has taken place during the last few decades. The MPEG standards of video encoding are some of the most well-known and used video coding standards today. Since MPEG defines exact requirements for the decoder, but not the encoder, encoders can be made in many different ways and levels of complexity, as long as they produce legal MPEG streams that can be viewed on any MPEG-conformant decoder. This thesis will examine the possible performance of MPEG, in particular MPEG-1/MPEG-2 full TV resolution (720*576), for coding video at bitrates significantly lower than the 2-15 Mb/s MPEG-2 originally was designed for. For this purpose, encoding methods previously proposed by various researchers are presented. Furthermore a few new algorithms, which can be used for MPEG coding in general, but was constructed with a low-bitrate encoder in mind, were developed. Finally objective video quality benchmarks were conducted and the results evaluated.</p>

The packing and coding of digital video is a part of science where much innovation has taken place during the last few decades. The MPEG standards of video encoding are some of the most well-known and used video coding standards today. Since MPEG defines exact requirements for the decoder, but not the encoder, encoders can be made in many different ways and levels of complexity, as long as they produce legal MPEG streams that can be viewed on any MPEG-conformant decoder. This thesis will examine the possible performance of MPEG, in particular MPEG-1/MPEG-2 full TV resolution (720*576), for coding video at bitrates significantly lower than the 2-15 Mb/s MPEG-2 originally was designed for. For this purpose, encoding methods previously proposed by various researchers are presented. Furthermore a few new algorithms, which can be used for MPEG coding in general, but was constructed with a low-bitrate encoder in mind, were developed. Finally objective video quality benchmarks were conducted and the results evaluated.

Video content is expected to account for 80 percent of all Internet traffic in 2019. There is therefore an increasing need for better video compression methods, to decrease the use of internet bandwidth. One way of achieving high video compression is to predict pixel values for a video frame based on prior and succeeding pictures in the video. The H.265 video compression standard supports this method, and in particular makes it possible to specify in which order pictures are coded, and which pictures are predicted from which. The coding order is specified for Groups Of Pictures (GOP), where a number of pictures are grouped together and predicted from each other in a specified order. This thesis evaluates how the GOPs should be structured, for instance in terms of sizing, to maximize the compression efficiency relative to the video quality. It also investigates the effect of multiple reference pictures, a functionality that enables the picture that renders the best prediction to be selected. The results show that the largest tested GOP size of 32 pictures is preferable for all tested video characteristics, and that support for multiple reference pictures renders a similar increase in compression efficiency for all GOP sizes.

Across the world, war has been declared against poverty because of its devastating effects on local communities. The world has made a concerted effort to fight the effects of poverty through developmental agencies and regional integration bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In an effort to complement the efforts of the above–mentioned agencies and bodies, the South African government has developed its own poverty alleviation strategies, policies, initiatives and Acts that focus primarily on alleviation of poverty on the level of local government. The Constitution of South Africa, 1996 provides the guidelines to several regulations and Acts (such as the Development and Facilitation Act, 67 of 1995, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 32 of 2000, and the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998.) that support the alleviation of poverty on the local sphere of government. The Integrated Development Planning programme was formulated and implemented to alleviate poverty at this level. The purpose of this study was to determine how the level of poverty within the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality could be alleviated through effective integrated development planning. A quantitative approach was followed because the target population response rate was expected to be large. In addition, the research design for this study included a literature review, analyses of official documents, observation and data sampling through questionnaires and scientific analysis of the responses. The study found that IDP objectives aligned to service delivery targets were unclear and did not depict the aspirations and needs of the community. The programmes aimed at the infrastructure coupled with skills development programmes and job creation initiatives could assist in the alleviation of poverty. / M Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

"Perhaps no phase of American history has been more written about than the Reconstruction period, but few historians seriously consider the role of the Negroes during this period. It is the purpose of this thesis to show the part played by the Negroes during the Reconstruction of the states of Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana and the factors which led to their ascendancy to political leadership. Most historians give a one-sided view of this period of Reconstruction, playing down the role of the Negroes with the assumption that they were members of an inferior race and incapable of contributing anything constructive to American history. An examination of the facts, however, discloses that the Negroes did contribute a great deal to American history during their brief role in politics. Many of the Negro office holders, usually considered ignorant and illiterate, were well trained and well educated and displayed considerable ability in their particular offices. Contributions of these Negro leaders have merely been obscured by bitterness in partisan politics, and more objective study of Reconstruction will inevitably alter the traditional picture of the Negro political leaders." -- leaf iv.

Across the world, war has been declared against poverty because of its devastating effects on local communities. The world has made a concerted effort to fight the effects of poverty through developmental agencies and regional integration bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In an effort to complement the efforts of the above–mentioned agencies and bodies, the South African government has developed its own poverty alleviation strategies, policies, initiatives and Acts that focus primarily on alleviation of poverty on the level of local government. The Constitution of South Africa, 1996 provides the guidelines to several regulations and Acts (such as the Development and Facilitation Act, 67 of 1995, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 32 of 2000, and the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998.) that support the alleviation of poverty on the local sphere of government. The Integrated Development Planning programme was formulated and implemented to alleviate poverty at this level. The purpose of this study was to determine how the level of poverty within the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality could be alleviated through effective integrated development planning. A quantitative approach was followed because the target population response rate was expected to be large. In addition, the research design for this study included a literature review, analyses of official documents, observation and data sampling through questionnaires and scientific analysis of the responses. The study found that IDP objectives aligned to service delivery targets were unclear and did not depict the aspirations and needs of the community. The programmes aimed at the infrastructure coupled with skills development programmes and job creation initiatives could assist in the alleviation of poverty. / M Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014