The intensive search of optimal matching block greatly increases the complexity of motion estimation that constitutes the most time-consuming part of H.264/AVC. This thesis presents a novel fast hierarchical motion search (FHMS) strategy along with a heuristic early termination technique. The proposed FHMS paradigm is based on the observation that most search operations can be avoided by sub-sampling current macroblocks first to reduce the dimensions of both reference pictures and search range. The early termination establishes a statistical threshold that makes motion search for stationary or quasi-stationary areas to terminate earlier without sacrificing accuracy. Experimental results show the proposed FHMS is highly time-efficient in finding the motion vectors and at the same time maintaining satisfactory video quality.

In evaluating a prospective NBA player, one might consider past performance in the player’s previous years of competition. In doing so, a general manager may ask the following questions: Do certain characteristics of a player’s past statistics play a role in how long a player will last in the NBA? In this study, we examine the data from players who entered in the NBA in a five-­‐year period (1997-­‐1998 through 2001-­‐2002 season) by looking at their attributes from their collegiate career to see if they have any effect on their career longevity. We will look at basic statistics take for each of these players, such as field goal percentage, points per game, rebounds per game and assists per game. We aim to use Bayesian survival methods to model these event times, while exploiting the hierarchical nature of the data. We will look at two types of models and perform model diagnostics to determine which of the two we prefer. / text

The following study utilizes data from the High School and Beyond Study in order to predict mathematics achievement using both student characteristics and school level characteristics. Utilizing Hierarchical Linear Modeling, this study extends the body of literature by exploring how race, socio-economic status, and gender, as well as the percentage of minority students in a school, whether or not the school is Catholic, the proportion of students in the academic track, and the mean socioeconomic status of the school all affect mathematics achievement. Through this methodology, it was possible to see the direct effects of both student level and school level variables on achievement, as well as the cross-level interaction of all of these variables. Findings suggest that there are discrepancies in how different types of students achieve, as well as how those students achieve in varying contexts. Many of the variables were statistically significant in their effect on mathematics achievement. Implications for this research are discussed and considerations for future research are presented.

Purpose: Depression in older females is a significant and growing problem. Females who experience life stressors across the life span are at higher risk for developing problems with depression than their male counterparts. The primary aim of this study was (a) to examine gender-specific differences in the correlates of depression in older primary care patients based on baseline and longitudinal analyses; and (b) to examine the longitudinal effect of biopsychosocial risk factors on depression treatment outcomes in different models of behavioral healthcare (i.e., integrated care and enhanced referral). Method: This study used a quantitative secondary data analysis with longitudinal data from the Primary Care Research in Substance Abuse and Mental Health for Elderly (PRISM-E) study. A linear mixed model approach to hierarchical linear modeling was used for analysis using baseline assessment, and follow-up from three-month and six-month. Results: For participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder female gender was associated with increased depression severity at six-month compared to males at six-month. Further, the interaction between gender and life stressors found that females who reported loss of family and friends, family issues, money issues, medical illness was related to higher depression severity compared to males whereas lack of activities was related to lower depression severity among females compared to males. Conclusion: These findings suggest that gender moderated the relationship between specific life stressors and depression severity similar to how a protective factor can impact a person’s response to a problem and reduce the negative impact of a risk factor on a problem outcome. Therefore, life stressors may be a reliable predictor of depression for both females and males in either behavioral health treatment model. This study concluded that life stressors influence males basic comfort, stability, and survival whereas life stressors influence females’ development, personal growth, and happiness; therefore, life stressors may be a useful component to include in gender-based screening and assessment tools for depression.

This dissertation utilized cross-national and cross-sectional micro-data, internationally comparable macro-data, and hierarchical methodology to model variability in status attainment by religious factors, gender traditionalism, and contextual features of the fifty-seven countries included in the sample. The broad research goals were to ascertain gender differences in attainment outcomes, and to extend the scope of existing knowledge on the religion-attainment intersections, the bulk of which is based upon single-country and single-religion data. Cross-national findings validate that individuals' attainment outcomes are greatly shaped by contextual circumstances in terms of human development levels, public outlays on education, urbanization trends, and gross domestic product per capita. The random factors substantially reduce the fixed effects. Attainment variations exist within each religious group and religiosity level. This work illuminates the efficacy of adding `contexts' among the principal predictors in all research endeavors on attainment outcomes, stratification trends, social class mobility, and gender disparities with the purposes to discern individual-and country-level effects. In so doing, this dissertation in Sociology provides multidisciplinary analysis that may have implications for comparable research in Public Policy, Economics, and Gender Studies.

Basketball is a sport that has become increasingly popular world-wide. At the professional level it is a game in which each of the five positions has a specific responsibility that requires unique skills. It seems likely that it would be valuable for coaches to know which skills for each position are most conducive to winning. Knowing which skills to develop for each position could help coaches optimize each player's ability by customizing practice to contain drills that develop the most important skills for each position that would in turn improve the team's overall ability. Through the use of Bayesian hierarchical modeling and NBA box-score performance categories, this project will determine how each position needs to perform in order for their team to be successful.

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This thesis explores how digital representations of geography and Geographic Information (GI) may be described, and how these descriptions facilitate the use of the resources they depict. More specifically, it critically examines existing geospatial documentation practices and aims to identify opportunities for refinement therein, whether when used to signpost those data assets documented, for managing and maintaining information assets, or to assist in resource interpretation and discrimination. Documentation of GI can therefore facilitate its utilisation; it can be reasonably expected that by refining documentation practices, GI hold the potential for being better exploited. The underpinning theme connecting the individual papers of the thesis is one of multi-granular documentation. GI may be recorded at varying degrees of granularity, and yet traditional documentation efforts have predominantly focussed on a solitary level (that of the geospatial data layer). Developing documentation practices to account for other granularities permits the description of GI at different levels of detail and can further assist in realising its potential through better discovery, interpretation and use. One of the aims of the current work is to establish the merit of such multi-granular practices. Over the course of four research papers and a short research article, proprietary as well as open source software approaches are accordingly presented and provide proof-of-concept and conceptual solutions that aim to enhance GI utilisation through improved documentation practices. Presented in the context of an existing body of research, the proposed approaches focus on the technological infrastructure supporting data discovery, the automation of documentation processes and the implications of describing geospatial information resources of varying granularity. Each paper successively contributes to the notion that geospatial resources are potentially better exploited when documentation practices account for the multi-granular aspects of GI, and the varying ways in which such documentation may be used. In establishing the merit of multi-granular documentation, it is nevertheless recognised in the current work that instituting a comprehensive documentation strategy at several granularities may be unrealistic for some geospatial applications. Pragmatically, the level of effort required would be excessive, making universal adoption impractical. Considering however the ever-expanding volumes of geospatial data gathered and the demand for ways of managing and maintaining the usefulness of potentially unwieldy repositories, improved documentation practices are required. A system of hierarchical documentation, of self-documenting information, would provide for information discovery and retrieval from such expanding resource pools at multiple granularities, improve the accessibility of GI and ultimately, its utilisation.

La matriz FODA es la herramienta de análisis por excelencia para fines de negocios, y se enseña en cursos de pregrado y postgrado. Sin embargo, se entiende que la elección de los factores críticos de éxito (FCEs) que se incluyen en la matriz para el análisis es un proceso muy subjetivo y no estructurado, que da cabida a sesgos y arbitrariedad. Una forma de dar una mejor base y respaldo a los resultados del análisis es mediante la utilización del Proceso Jerárquico Analítico (AHP) con el fin de ponderar la importancia de los FCEs en la matriz FODA y aumentar la fiabilidad de los resultados. Este documento contiene el diseño de una estrategia para enseñar este tema en un curso de planificación de marketing, con la adición de una técnica útil para superar las limitaciones de la herramienta. / The SWOT matrix is the quintessential analysis tool for business purposes, and is taught both in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. However, it is widely understood that the selection of the critical success factors (CSFs) that are included for analysis in the matrix is a very subjective and unstructured process, leaving room for bias and arbitrariness. One way to give a better foundation and support to the analysis results is by utilizing Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) in order to weigh the importance of CSFs in the SWOT matrix and increase reliability of the output. This paper contains the design of a strategy to teach this topic in a marketing planning course, with the addition of a useful technique to overcome the limitations of the tool.