Clustering is the process in which data is differentiated, classified according to some criteria. As a result of partitioning process, data is grouped into clusters for specific purpose. In a social network, clustering of people is one of the most popular problems. Therefore, we mainly concentrated on finding an efficient algorithm for this problem. In our study, data is made up of two types of entities (e.g., people, groups vs. political issues, religious beliefs) and distinct from most previous works, signed weighted bipartite graphs are used to model relations among them. For the partitioning criterion, we use the strength of the opinions between the entities. Our main intention is to partition the data into k-clusters so that entities within clusters represent strong relationship. One such example from a political domain is the opinion of people on issues. Using the signed weights on the edges, these bipartite graphs can be partitioned into two or more clusters. In political domain, a cluster represents strong relationship among a group of people and a group of issues. After partitioning, each cluster in the result set contains like-minded people and advocated issues. Our work introduces a general mechanism for k-way partitioning of signed bipartite graphs. One of the great advantages of our thesis is that it does not require any preliminary information about the structure of the input dataset. The idea has been illustrated on real and randomly generated data and promising results have been shown.

Föreliggande uppsats utgår från ett potentiellt problem för Försvarsmakten att i det nyligen införda tvåbefälssystemet omhänderta den högskolemässigt utbildade officeren som sannolikt generellt innehar en högre utbildningsnivå och mer uttalad karriärambition än de äldre yrkesofficerarna från det tidigare enbefälssystemet NBO. Uppsatsens syfte är att tydliggöra vilka förutsättningar på arbetsplatsen som gäller för tvåbefälsystemets högskolemässigt utbildade officerare vid officersprogrammet ur ett anställningsbarhetsperspektiv. Anställningsbarhetsbegreppet kommer att utgöra det redskap som jag applicerar på det avgränsade empiriska materialet för att se vilka förutsättningar, som gäller på arbetsplatsen i jämförelse med kraven i examensbeskrivningen för de högskolemässigt utbildade officerarna då de tagit examen sommaren 2010. Är de anställningsbara? Genom en dokumentgranskning tolkas och jämförs de dokument som ligger till grund för officersutbildningen och de strategiska styrdokument som definierar Försvarsmaktens verksamhet. Resultatet visar utifrån ett anställningsbarhetsperspektiv att Försvarsmaktens dokument och officersprogrammets utbildningsplan samt examensbeskrivning i stort sett stämmer väl överens vilket borgar för en hög anställningsbarhet hos officeren. / Present thesis raises a potential problem for the Swedish Armed Forces to care for its academically trained officers of the newly imposed all rank system. They will generally hold possession of a higher level of education and also generally express a greater concern for their advancement than their predecessors of the old rank system. The object of the thesis is to illustrate what conditions that applies on the workplace for the academically trained officers of a employability perspective when commissioned. The employability definition will be used as the tool applied on the empirical material to see what conditions that is applicable on the workplace in comparison with the demands of the examination requirements for the academically trained officers when they get commissioned in the summer of 2010. Are the employable? Thru a qualitative study of documents regarding the education of officers and the Armed Forces strategic activities it’s contents are interpreted and compared. The result shows from a employability perspective that the Armed Forces documents and the officers programme’s examination requirements and education plan mainly correspond which is a guarantee for a high level of employability for the officer.

Facing global and dynamic competition environment, companies have to collaborate with other companies instead of struggle alone to optimize performance of supply chain. In a distributed supply chain structure, it is an important issue for companies to coordinate seamlessly to effectively fulfill customer orders. In this thesis, we seek to propose a fast and flexible method to solve the order fulfillment scheduling conflicts among partners in a supply chain. Due to the risk of exposing trade secrets and the cost of gathering information, the centralized constraint satisfaction mechanism is infeasible to handle distributed scheduling problem in real world environment. Moreover, the distributed constraints satisfaction model just focuses on finding a globally executable order fulfillment schedule. Therefore, we propose an agent-based distributed coordination mechanism that integrates negotiation with generic algorithm. We chose the mold manufacturing industry as an example and conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism and to compare with other benchmark methods proposed by researchers prior to this study. The experimental results indicate that the distributed coordination mechanism we proposed is a feasible approach to solve the order fulfillment scheduling conflicts in outsourcing activities in a supply chain.

This study proposes a metamodel, named Federation Architecture Metamodel (FAMM), for describing the architecture of a High Level Architecture (HLA) compliant federation. The metamodel provides a domain specific language and a formal representation for the federation adopting Domain Specific Metamodeling approach to HLA-compliant federations. The metamodel supports the definitions of transformations both as source and as target. Specifically, it supports federate base code generation from a described federate behavior, and it supports transformations from a simulation conceptual model. A salient feature of FAMM is the behavioral description of federates based on live sequence charts (LSCs). It is formulated in metaGME, the meta-metamodel for the Generic Modeling Environment (GME). This thesis discusses specifically the following points: the approach to building the metamodel, metamodel extension from Message Sequence Chart (MSC) to LSC, support for model-based code generation, and action model and domain-specific data model integration. Lastly, this thesis presents, through a series of modeling case studies, the Federation Architecture Modeling Environment (FAME), which is a domain-specific model-building environment provided by GME once FAMM is invoked as the base paradigm.

The thesis studies Le Corbusier&rsquo / s Dom-ino clusters. It is a research in the field of architectural design. The aim is to explore and reveal the architectural potentials of Le Corbusier&rsquo / s mass-producible Dom-ino frame (1914), not only by concentrating on a single Dom-ino unit but by focusing mainly to the clusters of Dom-ino, searching for the logic behind their multiplication, how they come together and to what extent the units allow variety. To achieve this, six alternative Dom-ino clusters are analyzed, and alternative Dom-ino units are explored, other than the well-known single one. Today, Dom-ino is argued as an architectural diagram, and this research reinforces this argument. The analysis of both the clusters and the units with different plan types eventually puts forward that the Dom-ino frame identifies and exploits all the potentials of mass-production with the standardization of the elements and modularity of the structural grid / and it is an adaptable, flexible and consequently a generic frame that produces infinitely alternative solutions. For this reason, this thesis argues that resolving the way Dom-ino units come together, and analyzing how and in what scale they allow variety in producing clusters will introduce the tools for proper mass-housing, and consequently could produce solutions for today&#039 / s mass-housing problems.

Wireless broadband technologies provide ubiquitous broadband access to wireless users, enabling services that were available only to wireline users. At the same time, with the steady growth of real-time streaming applications such as video on demand (VoD), voice over IP (VoIP), massive online gaming, and so forth, the IEEE 802.16 standard (commonly known as WiMAX) has emerged as one of the strongest contenders to provide such kind of broadband wireless access services. WiMAX has specified some advanced lard features at physical (PHY) layer techniques and media access control (MAC) layer protocols, which adopted many Quality of Service (QoS) scheduling algorithms, resource allocation, Hybrid ARQ and so on. Moreover, forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) techniques have already specified in the standard and they are used to support real-time streaming services in all kind of channel conditions. Inside this thesis, we propose an efficient fast feedback algorithm and buffer congestion control improvement scheme for data streaming over WiMAX networks. Two reserved bits in Generic MAC header (GMH) of each MPDU in WiMAX systems are utilized. The first reserved bit is used as a trigger in fast feedback strategy to add more robust coding and choose better feedback channel when the feedback message does not arrive properly within its cycle time trip (CTT) or after timeout. The second reserved bit is used to inform the base station about the serving subscriber stations¡¦ buffers states when their buffers are above the predefine-threshold value. Increasing number of retrieval of the feedback message, which means we can increase restore-bit-error probabilities within each frame, and then the throughput performance shall increase as well. In addition, by having each subscriber stations or service station¡¦s buffer states knowledge, the BS will be able to provide extra bandwidth allocation to the SSs more efficiency and accuracy. Keywords: WiMAX, PHY, MAC, Hybrid ARQ, QoS, Generic MAC header, CTT, Fast Feedback, Buffer Congestion Control Improvement, Real-Time streaming.

No description available.

Increasing health care costs is an international problem from which South Africa is not excluded. Prescription medication contributes most to these high health care costs, and methods to reduce their costs to society are implemented worldwide. In South Africa, such a method is a managed care reference medicine price list, as introduced by a PBM (pharmacy benefit management) company. This step had some cost implications in the private health sector in South Africa, and these implications were investigated in this study. Central nervous system (CNS) medicine items are among the top ten medicine items claimed and represent a substantial amount of the costs of all medicine items claimed during the study period. Antidepressants, a subdivision of the CNS agents, comprise the largest share of CNS agents claimed and CNS costs, and were therefore investigated more closely. The objective of this study was to analyse the usage patterns and costs of central nervous system medicine items, and more specifically, the antidepressants, against the background of the implementation of a managed care reference medicine price list in the private sector of South Africa. This study was conducted as a retrospective, non-experimental quantitative research project. The study population consisted of all medicine items claimed as observed on the database over the two-year study period of May 2001 to April 2002 (pre-MPL) and May 2002 to April 2003 (post-MPL). Data were provided by MedschemeTM/lnterpharm, and the Statistical Analysis System® SAS 8.2® was used to extract the data from the database. The central nervous system agents had a prevalence of 8.10% (N=49098736) and a total cost of R757576976.72 over the two-year study period. The cost per CNS item increased by 5.98% or R11.50 per CNS item in the year after MPL implementation, and the cost per prescription containing CNS medicine items increased by 4.09% or R9.07 per prescription. CNS agents are classified into ten sub-pharmacological groups, according to the MIMSC3 (Snyman, 2003:13a). One of these sub-pharmacological groups, antidepressants, comprised 33.97% of all CNS medicine items claimed (N=3978364) and 45.53% of all costs associated with CNS medicine items (N=R757576976.72) over the study period. The number one antidepressant claimed was amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant. Of the antidepressants with generic substitutes, all with the exception of clomipramine, were prescribed at generic substitution rates of more than 50%. After the MPL implementation, generic antidepressant products were more frequently prescribed (16.48% increase, N=617190), although patient co-payments did not decrease immediately. Some innovator products had price reductions after the implementation of the MPL. This study indicates that cost minimisation analyses and retrospective drug utilisation reviews are valuable tools in the evaluation of managed care medicine price lists. / Thesis (M. Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Current developments of hardware devices have allowed the computer vision technologies to analyze complex human activities in real time. High quality computer algorithms for human activity interpretation are required by many emerging applications, such as patient behavior analysis, surveillance, gesture control video games, and other human computer interface systems. Despite great efforts that have been made in the past decades, it is still a challenging task to provide a generic gesture recognition solution that can facilitate the developments of different gesture-based applications. Human vision is able to perceive scenes continuously, recognize objects and grasp motion semantics effortlessly. Neuroscientists and psychologists have tried to understand and explain how exactly the visual system works. Some theories/hypotheses on visual perception such as the visual attention and the Gestalt Laws of perceptual organization (PO) have been established and shed some light on understanding fundamental mechanisms of human visual perception. In this dissertation, inspired by those visual attention models, we attempt to model and integrate important visual perception discoveries into a generic gesture recognition framework, which is the fundamental component of full-tier human activity understanding tasks. Our approach handles challenging tasks by: (1) organizing the complex visual information into a hierarchical structure including low-level feature, object (human body), and 4D spatiotemporal layers; 2) extracting bottom-up shape-based visual salience entities at each layer according to PO grouping laws; 3) building shape-based hierarchical salience maps in favor of high-level tasks for visual feature selection by manipulating attention conditions of the top-down knowledge about gestures and body structures; and 4) modeling gesture representations by a set of perceptual gesture salience entities (PGSEs) that provide qualitative gesture descriptions in 4D space for recognition tasks. Unlike other existing approaches, our gesture representation method encodes both extrinsic and intrinsic properties and reflects the way humans perceive the visual world so as to reduce the semantic gaps. Experimental results show our approach outperforms the others and has great potential in real-time applications. / PhD Thesis

Les provinces canadiennes sont présentement aux prises avec des dépenses élevées en matière de médicaments. Afin de contrôler ces dépenses, plusieurs d'entre elles ont adopté différentes politiques visant à promouvoir et à accélérer la vente de médicaments génériques, lesquels sont équivalents aux médicaments novateurs mais de trente à quarante pourcents moins chers. Le gouvernement canadien, en vertu de son pouvoir de réglementation en matière de brevets, pourrait contribuer aux efforts des gouvernements provinciaux en assouplissant les règles relatives aux brevets pharmaceutiques pour ainsi promouvoir l'accélération de la mise en marché de médicaments génériques. Le gouvernement hésite toutefois à le faire en raison de sa politique en matière de brevets pharmaceutiques dont les effets se veulent équilibrés tant pour l'industrie pharmaceutique novatrice que pour l'industrie du médicament generique. Précisément, cette politique vise, d'une part, à encourager les investissements en recherche et développement par l'industrie novatrice et, d'autre part, à garantir la vente rapide de médicaments génériques au Canada pour que soient contrôlées les dépenses en matière de médicaments. Ce mémoire consiste en un examen du cadre juridique de la politique canadienne en matière de brevets pharmaceutiques. Nous y soulevons et analysons particulièrement ses glissements, quant à l'objectif d'équilibre recherché de la politique canadienne, qui résultent de son application dans le contexte juridique, politique, scientifique et économique actuel. Notre intention est de démontrer que, dans l'intérêt des Canadiens à court et à long terme, la politique canadienne en matière de brevets pharmaceutiques ne doit pas être assouplie en faveur de l'industrie du médicament générique seulement, ceci malgré la croissance des dépenses en matière de médicaments. En effet, l'intérêt des Canadiens ne peut être maximisé que si cette politique est rééquilibrée en tenant compte de l'ensemble de ses glissements juridiques observés. / All Canadian provinces are presently facing increasingly growing drug expenditures. In order to control these expenditures the provinces have adopted different policies to promote and accelerate the sale of generic drugs, these drugs being equivalent to brand-name drugs but thirty to fourthly percent less expensive. Considering its jurisdiction in the field of patents, the Canadian government could contribute to the efforts of the provincial governments in making more flexible the Canadian patent rules, thus promoting the marketing ofgeneric drugs in Canada. The government is however hesitating to do so because of its policy on pharmaceutical patents, which policy aims at balancing the interests of both the brand-name and generic drug industries. Effectively, the purpose ofthe poltey is to promote, on the one hand, the investments in research and development of new drugs in Canada and, on the other hand, to guarantee the rapid marketing of generic drugs, thus controlling drug expenditures. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the judicial framework of the Canadian policy on pharmaceutical patents. Its weaknesses, with regard to the balanced objective of the policy, resulting from its application in the present judicial, political, and economical and scientific context are the focus of this analysis. Our goal is to demonstrate that, to reach the Canadian social benefit, both in the short and long run, the Canadian policy on pharmaceutical patents should not be relaxed for the sole benefit of the generic drug industry, although the drug expenditures are growing. Rather, the social Canadian benefit would only be maximised by re-balancing the Canadian policy in the light of all its demonstrated weaknesses. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maîtrise en droit". Ce mémoire a été accepté à l'unanimité et classé parmi les 10% des mémoires de la discipline.