This thesis presents the design and implementation of the pipeline architecture of H.264/AVC video decoder. The H.264 video compression standard is one of the emerging standards proposed by Joint Video Team (JVT), which can provide high compression ratio and good rate distortion efficiency. It adopts smaller block size and finer motion vector resolution to achieve better predicted motion compensated pictures. While the compression ratio is greatly improved, the computational complexity also increases a lot. How to design the efficient H.264 decoder has become an important topic. This thesis first addresses the design issue of the individual module, and several good architectural solutions are proposed. For the design of the interpolation module, a novel interpolator architecture which can dynamically configure the datapath to perform different computation schedules suitable for the input order of reference samples is proposed. The resulted architecture not only reduces the hardware requirement, but most importantly the communication time spent to move the reference data can be overlapped with the computation time of the predicted samples. Our experimental result shows that the proposed interpolator can achieve 40% average cycle reduction with less hardware cost. For the design of deblocking filter, the thesis also proposes a novel schedule which interleaves the operation of row and column filtering that can lead to a low-cost deblocking filter based on the single-port memory. For the design of variable length decoder, this thesis proposes a new table partitioning method to reduce the overall table size. Finally, all the individual modules are further integrated in the pipelining fashion to increase the overall decoding throughput. The minimum pipelining unit between different stages used in the proposed decoder is the 4x4 block such the memory buffer required can be greatly reduced. The proposed architecture can perform the real-time decoding of video at the resolution of 640x480 pixels.

After East Asian financial crisis in 1997 and European monetary unification in 1999, if it is suitable of establishing the Asian common monetary area becomes the hot topic. The precondition of establishing the monetary policy cooperation depends on the synchronization of various countries¡¦ business cycle co-movement. And the trade is the connector among the countries. Trade linkages seemed to have an influence on business cycle co-movement. Countries with close international trade link are more likely to be members of an optimal currency area. According to the theoretical literature, the impact of trade integration on business cycle correlation may go either way. On the one hand, if trade occurs mainly by Heckscher-Ollin or is of the Ricardian type, higher specialization would induce the industrial structures of the trading countries to diverge, resulting in less synchronized movements of business cycle. In contrast, if trade occurs mainly through intra-industry trade, specialization does not necessarily lead to less synchronized. In summary, the total effect of trade intensity on cycle correlation is theoretically ambiguous and poses a question that could only be solved empirically. The volume of trade in East Asia has increased continuously. This paper extends the study of Frankel and Rose (1998) to analyze the impact of trade integration on business cycle correlation and intra-industry trade by using SITC data and other macroeconomic factors. Moreover, using two-stage estimation and instruments to take into account the fact that trade intensity itself may be endogenous. Then, we use panel data to estimate our equation. By gathering annual information of 10 East Asian countries from 1987 to 2005, we found that higher trade integration leads higher business cycle synchronization. To sum up, intra-industry trade is the process of establishing East Asian common monetary area.

ABSTRACT This dissertation constructs three strategic trade models. The first model is a single-shot two-stage game model of intra-industry trade with trade retaliation against government provided export subsidies and lobbying by foreign firm on domestic government¡¦s import tariff. The second model is an infinite repeated game model of intra-industry where the history of government and firm interaction is the basis for constructing trade strategies. The third model is a single-shot three-stage game model of intra-industry trade with the linkage between domestic and foreign intermediate-input and final-good industries and the choice of optimal export subsidies in the two industries for two governments. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation, objectives, framework, and literature review of this dissertation. The literature review is organized as follows. Initially we review the foundations of the basic intra-industry trade model, where our model is rooted. Next we present the more significant papers that describe the sensitivity of the basic model, because our repeated game model will show yet another way that the basic model is sensitive. Next we present some dynamic game theoretic results, which we use to construct our repeated game model. Finally, we review some papers related to intermediate input and strategic trade. The first model is developed in Chapter 2. We discover that there are two perfect strategy subgame perfect equilibria in this model. And then an import tariff is available, and using that tariff will remove the benefits originally conferred by an export subsidy. Active trade policy is not eliminated by the two governments and tariff policy is larger than subsidy policy. Hence, an import tariff will more than offset the anticipated gains from a subsidy policy. There is no reason to believe that one equilibrium is better or more likely than another, because the highest payoffs equilibrium of the two governments and domestic firm is not the best payoff equilibrium of the foreign firm. We used the single-shot game model of Chapter 2 and molded it into a repeated game in Chapter 3. First, we found the set of Nash equilibria toward solving the repeated game model. Second, we only focused on the subgame perfect equilibria from the infinite Nash equilibria¡¦s set. We used the result in Fudenberg and Maskin (1986) to define the subgame perfect equilibria. Third, we showed that in the repeated game a subgame perfect strategy of free trade can increase all players¡¦ payoffs which are better than the single-shot game equilibrium payoffs. Chapter 4 develops the third model. We observe how domestic and foreign governments choose their optimum export subsidy policies for their intermediate input and final good production by using the linkage between domestic and foreign intermediate-input and final-good industries under the condition of vertical specialization. The result indicates that under the condition of vertical specialization, the two governments will choose positive export subsidies for their final goods while they will give no subsidies for their intermediate inputs. Chapter 5 presented the implications of vertical specialization on the cross-strait economy and trade. To maintain the competitive advantage of Taiwan economy and smoothly upgrade industry structure, transferring the labor-intensive industry and the labor-intensive production sections to China seems an optimum choice under the principle of comparative advantages. Nevertheless, for Taiwan, the upgrade of local industries has never stopped, but with the acceleration of industrial relocation, the transformation of production and trade structures are also taking place. The impact carried by this transformation is extensive and profound. In addition to obvious impact on the economic perspective, if the structure of employment market cannot react in time, a great social cost may be incurred. How to utilize the edge of industrial specialization between the Strait to strengthen Taiwanese industries¡¦ competitive, enhance product development ability through cooperation with multinational enterprises, dominate product development, and establish a center of task division for regional industries can be one of the main focuses in the development of Taiwan¡¦s industrial policy.

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Along with the growth of Taiwan¡¦s capital markets, the public tend to serve stocks as the main investment tool. Underwriting markets are also monitored by investors. Generally, Taiwanese firms¡¦ stocks possess ¡§honeymoon periods¡¨ after they went public, in which the stocks kept gaining prices for consecutive days. Due to the phenomenon, companies tend to went public once the requirements are satisfied. On the other hand, investors are willing to purchase such stocks, thus let the underwriting market prosper. The aspect of initial public offerings (IPOs) is also gaining attention of researchers. This research aims at examining the relation between Taiwanese firms¡¦ IPOs¡¦ initial return and the Monday effect and Intra-month effect. This thesis also tried to discover that whether Taiwanese IPOs possess differences between size and industry groups. The results indicate that Taiwanese IPOs have lower return if issued in Mondays, which is the Monday effect. The reason may be that the closed market in weekends allowed investors to spend more time to search and to analyze information and to hinder themselves from overreaction. In addition, when issuing companies are determining underwriting prices, they tend to serve discount as a risk compensation for the uninformed investors, thus when investors have more time to analyze their investment decisions, the issuing companies need not to discount to induce investors.

<p>The purpose of the thesis is to determine whether Russia has changed its intra-industry trade pattern with Sweden between the years of 1997 and 2003. To be able to see any changes five products, vehicles, grain, forest, optical instruments and jewellery has been chosen. With the Grubel-Lloyd index the products will be analysed and the index will also measure the extent of the intra-industry trade between Sweden and Russia</p><p>Theories predict that countries with similar factor endowments and income tend to have a two-way trade which would indicate that Russia is starting to catch up to the industrialised countries, in this thesis that would be Sweden. The theory of income effects predicts that when consumers are getting a larger budget they will start to move away from the most necessary goods and towards more luxury good consumption.</p>

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the pattern of intra-industry trade (IIT) between Sweden and EU 15 during the time period 1980-2002. Focus is put on the Swedish manu-facturing industry, which has been divided into the forest, metal and machinery industries. With help of the Grubel-Lloyd index, values have been calculated in order to measure the size of IIT with the other Member States and in product groups.</p><p>Theories about two-way trade argue that countries with similar characteristics have more IIT. The results from the empirical findings show that the Swedish IIT is higher with nearby countries such as Denmark, Finland and Germany. Similar for these countries are the factor endowments, GDP per capita, culture, language, and the closeness to Sweden. The forest industry has more net trade than IIT. In the metal and machinery industries, the IIT is as large as the net trade. Regarding two-way trade within product groups, the analysis proved that products which can be differentiated into more sub-groups have more IIT. A large part of the products have higher net trade than IIT.</p>

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf xxxi). Also available via the World Wide Web.

published_or_final_version / Dental Surgery / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

Avsikten med denna studie var att synliggöra hur barn utforskade matematiken i ett specifikt projekt på förskolan utifrån ett transdisciplinärt perspektiv. Samtidigt ville jag ta reda på hur andra aktörer, mänskliga såsom ickemänskliga, intra-agerade med barnen och hjälpte dem i deras matematiska utforskande. Uppsatsen hade postkonstruktionism som teoretisk utgångspunkt. För att få svar på mina forskningsfrågor valde jag att använda en kvalitativ metod med inspiration från etnografin. Datainsamlingen bestod av observationsanteckningar, fotografier och barnens teckningar. Jag observerade och samtidigt deltog i projektet som både pedagog och forskare. Urvalet för genomförande av projektet var sammanlagt fem barn, alla i femårsålder. Studien visade hur ett transdisciplinärt lärande uppstod då förskolebarn utforskade matematik med hjälp av andra uttrycksformer såsom dans, rörelse, musik, genom kroppen och tänkandet. Utforskandet skede i intra-aktion med rummet, tingen och andra aktiva aktörer som fanns i deras omgivning. Både mänskliga och ickemänskliga aktörer bildade ett nätverk där alla gick in i varandra och på så sätt skapades ett transdisciplinärt lärande. Det andra intressanta med studien var att traditionella undervisningspraktiker utmanades. Med hjälp av transdisciplinaritet kunde matematiska lärandesituationer bli mer stimulerande och attraktiva både för barn och för pedagoger.