<p>In ordinary image coding, the same image quality is obtained in all parts of an image. If it is known that there is only one viewer, and where in the image that viewer is focusing, the quality can be degraded in other parts of the image without incurring any perceptible coding artefacts. This master's thesispresents a coding scheme where an image is segmented into homogeneous regions which are then separately coded, and where knowledge about the user's focus point is used to obtain further data reduction. It is concluded that the coding performance does not quite reach the levels attained when applying focus-based quality degradation to coding schemes not based on segmentation.</p>

<p>The United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was passed by the Security Council in 2000. Its passing was made possible by the efforts of NGOs around the world and was seen as a huge step for women in conflict and post-conflict situations as women were not only seen as victims but as agents of peace. The resolution deals with the obligations of Member States as well as those of the Security Council within its peacekeeping missions.</p><p>Eight years have passed since the passing of the resolution and this thesis examines how the resolution is visible in a peacekeeping mission. In order to answer this question reports and resolutions by the Security Council and the Secretary- General have been examined as well as literature on gender and peacekeeping. Field research was conducted in the Sudan from April to June 2008 in Khartoum and Kadugli. Interviews were carried out with NGOs, UN staff and with personnel within the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, UNMIS.</p><p>The UN reports and the field research both conclude that there are several obstacles preventing resolution 1325 from being implemented within the UN. One of the main obstacles is the lack of accountability within the UN system. Furthermore, it was found that personal interest played a major role in whether or not a gender perspective was being taken into account. Gender was also regarded by UN staff as ad hoc instead of an integral part of their work. The conclusion is that resolution 1325 is not yet fully visible in the peacekeeping mission observed, UNMIS.</p>

No description available.

The ability to detect faces in images is of critical ecological significance. It is a pre-requisite for other important face perception tasks such as person identification, gender classification and affect analysis. Here we address the question of how the visual system classifies images into face and non-face patterns. We focus on face detection in impoverished images, which allow us to explore information thresholds required for different levels of performance. Our experimental results provide lower bounds on image resolution needed for reliable discrimination between face and non-face patterns and help characterize the nature of facial representations used by the visual system under degraded viewing conditions. Specifically, they enable an evaluation of the contribution of luminance contrast, image orientation and local context on face-detection performance.

The central challenge in face recognition lies in understanding the role different facial features play in our judgments of identity. Notable in this regard are the relative contributions of the internal (eyes, nose and mouth) and external (hair and jaw-line) features. Past studies that have investigated this issue have typically used high-resolution images or good-quality line drawings as facial stimuli. The results obtained are therefore most relevant for understanding the identification of faces at close range. However, given that real-world viewing conditions are rarely optimal, it is also important to know how image degradations, such as loss of resolution caused by large viewing distances, influence our ability to use internal and external features. Here, we report experiments designed to address this issue. Our data characterize how the relative contributions of internal and external features change as a function of image resolution. While we replicated results of previous studies that have shown internal features of familiar faces to be more useful for recognition than external features at high resolution, we found that the two feature sets reverse in importance as resolution decreases. These results suggest that the visual system uses a highly non-linear cue-fusion strategy in combining internal and external features along the dimension of image resolution and that the configural cues that relate the two feature sets play an important role in judgments of facial identity.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharm.) (Pharmaceutical Chemistry))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

No description available.

Seismic survey design methods often rely on qualitative measures to provide an optimal image of their objective target. Fold, ray tracing techniques counting ray hits on binned interfaces, and even advanced 3-D survey design methods that try to optimize o?set and azimuth coverage are prone to fail (especially in complex geological or structural settings) in their imaging predictions. The reason for the potential failure of these commonly used approaches derives from the fact that they do not take into account the ray geometry at the target points. Inverse theory results can provide quantitative and objective constraints on acquisition design. Beylkin??s contribution to this ?eld is an elegant and simple equation describing a reconstructed point scatterer given the source/receiver distribution used in the imaging experiment. Quantitative measures of spatial image resolution were developed to assess the e?cacy of competing acquisition geometries. Apart from the source/receiver con?guration, parameters such as the structure and seismic velocity also in?uence image resolution. Understanding their e?ect on image quality, allows us to better interpret the resolution results for the surveys under examination. A salt model was used to simulate imaging of target points located underneath and near the ?anks of the diapir. Three di?erent survey designs were examined. Results from these simulations show that contrary to simple models, near-o?sets do not always produce better resolved images than far-o?sets. However, consideration of decreasing signal-to-noise ratio revealed that images obtained from the far-o?set experiment are degrading faster than the near-o?set ones. The image analysis was performed on VSP ?eld data as well as synthetics generated by ?nite di?erence forward modeling. The predicted image resolution results were compared to measured resolution from the migrated sections of both the ?eld data and the synthetics. This comparison con?rms that image resolution analysis provides as good a resolution prediction as the prestack Kirchho? depth migrated section of the synthetic gathers. Even in the case of the migrated ?eld data, despite the presence of error introducing factors (di?erent signal-to-noise ratios, shape and frequency content of source wavelets, etc.), image resolution performed well exhibiting the same trends of resolution changes at di?erent test points.

Software development outsourcing is a very common way to gain source for information system among government and private business. Although there are lots of advantages of software development outsourcing, if one do not really understanding outsourcing correctly, not only expected results cannot be met, there will be additional problems. From the past research data and real cases, there are lots of problems shown. There are always lots of participants involved in product development, thus conflicts are very closely associated with participants. If conflicts do not get solved immediately or root caused had not been found right away, conflicts always results in large damages to developments. For example, there are hidden conflicts with in ambiguous document format and request. When mistakes stack up and do not get solved right away, they will become potential conflicts. However, most members do not pay too much attention to the reasons how conflict occurred or to ways of solving but pay more attention on teamwork and professionalism. There were lots of research done in the past regarding the conflicts between customers and suppliers of software development outsoursing; most of them are limited in reseach conflicts of orgination and individuals. Most research methods are market research or individual interviews there is no in depth research regarding the conflict events with long period of data collection and analysis; also tracking the major factors for the root causes. This research method involoved two real cases. We observe, record, and collect data from the real events and interviews participants. We investigate the causes of conflicts between customers and outsourcing suppliers by framing theory. Then we analyzed the cognition of customers and outsourcing suppliers toward conflicts during the research period. Then, this research result came from using six main conflict frames work as conflict types : identity, characterization, fact, power, loose versus gains, process. After the data was collected, we use consistent comparison as a foundation. The purpose is to cross exam the data and found the root causes before and after conflict resolution. In software industry, when people encounter conflicts or found problems of conflict, this research helps them to understand the root cause faster and it provides great resource for project managers. By using real cases records and results as examples to find the root cause or potential problems; people could come to neutral agreement by using conflict management to satisfy both parties.

The United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was passed by the Security Council in 2000. Its passing was made possible by the efforts of NGOs around the world and was seen as a huge step for women in conflict and post-conflict situations as women were not only seen as victims but as agents of peace. The resolution deals with the obligations of Member States as well as those of the Security Council within its peacekeeping missions. Eight years have passed since the passing of the resolution and this thesis examines how the resolution is visible in a peacekeeping mission. In order to answer this question reports and resolutions by the Security Council and the Secretary- General have been examined as well as literature on gender and peacekeeping. Field research was conducted in the Sudan from April to June 2008 in Khartoum and Kadugli. Interviews were carried out with NGOs, UN staff and with personnel within the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, UNMIS. The UN reports and the field research both conclude that there are several obstacles preventing resolution 1325 from being implemented within the UN. One of the main obstacles is the lack of accountability within the UN system. Furthermore, it was found that personal interest played a major role in whether or not a gender perspective was being taken into account. Gender was also regarded by UN staff as ad hoc instead of an integral part of their work. The conclusion is that resolution 1325 is not yet fully visible in the peacekeeping mission observed, UNMIS.