GPUs offer high-performance floating-point computation at commodity prices, but their usage is hindered by programming models which expose the user to irregularities in the current shared-memory environments and require learning new interfaces and semantics. This thesis will demonstrate that the message-passing paradigm can be conceptually cleaner than the current data-parallel models for programming GPUs because it can hide the quirks of current GPU shared-memory environments, as well as GPU-specific features, behind a well-established and well-understood interface. This will be shown by demonstrating a proof-of-concept MPI implementation which provides cleaner, simpler code with a reasonable performance cost. This thesis will also demonstrate that, although there is a virtualization constraint imposed by MPI, this constraint is harmless as long as the virtualization was already chosen to be optimal in terms of a strong execution model and nearly-optimal execution time. This will be demonstrated by examining execution times with varying virtualization using a computationally-expensive micro-kernel.

The workshop ¨Portierbare numerische Simulationen auf parallelen Architekturen¨ (¨Portable numerical simulations on parallel architectures¨) was organized by the Fac- ulty of Informatics/Professorship Computer Architecture at 18 April 1996 and held in the framework of the Sonderforschungsbereich (Joint Research Initiative) ¨Numerische Simulationen auf massiv parallelen Rechnern¨ (SFB 393) (¨Numerical simulations on massiv parallel computers¨) ( http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~pester/sfb/sfb393.html ) The SFB 393 is funded by the German National Science Foundation (DFG). The purpose of the workshop was to bring together scientists using parallel computing to provide integrated discussions on portability issues, requirements and future devel- opments in implementing parallel software efficiently as well as portable on Clusters of Symmetric Multiprocessorsystems. I hope that the present paper gives the reader some helpful hints for further discussions in this field.

Magistrinio baigiamasis darbas - 67 puslapiai, 11 lentelių, 19 grafikų, 108 literatūros šaltiniai, 3 priedai lietuvių kalba. Tyrimo objektas - reklamos elementai. Tyrimo dalykas - reklamos elementų (teksto,spalvos,garso ir vaizdo) poveikis vartotojų elgsenai. Darbo tikslas – teoriniu lygmeniu išanalizavus ir apibendrinus reklamos elementų įtaką vartotojų elgsenai, juos empiriškai patikrinti Lietuvos studijuojančio jaunimo pavyzdžiu. Darbo uždaviniai: • Atskleisti reklamos sampratą; • Teoriniu lygmeniu išanalizuoti ir pagrįsti reklamos ir vartotojų elgsenos sąsajas; • Išstudijuoti ir apibendrinti reklamos elementų įtaką vartotojų elgsenai; • Parengti reklamos elementų įtakos vartotojų elgsenai tyrimo metodiką; • Remiantis apibendrintomis metodologinėmis nuostatomis, atlikti reklamos elementų įtakos vartotojų elgsenai empirinį tyrimą ir pateikti rekomendacijas. Tyrimo metodika. Rašant magistro darbą naudotasi mokslinės literatūros šaltinių, periodikos, virtualių duomenų bazių sisteminės ir palyginamosios analizės metodais. Atliekant empirinį tyrimą naudoti kokybinio ir kiekybinio tyrimo metodai. Kokybiniuose tyrimuose naudojamas giluminis interviu, kiekybiniuose tyrimuose naudojama anketinė apklausa, tiesinė ir kryžminė empirinio tyrimo rezultatų analizė. / Final work of University Post – graduate Studies, 67 pages, 11 tables, 19 figures, 108 references, 3 appendixes in lithuanian language. KEY WORDS: advertisement, promotional message, advertisement campaign, advertisement aim, advertisement strategy, consumer behavior, consumer, effectiveness of advertisement. The object of research – advertising elements. The subject of research – the influence of advertising text, colour, sound and image on behavior of consumers. Research aim – to analyses and to generalisable the influence of advertising elements on behaviors of consumers in theoretically level and to justify empirically in youth Lithuanian studying example. Tasks: • To reveal the advertisement conception; • In the abstract to analyses and to reason the advertisements and behaviors of consumers links; • To explore and to generalize the influence of advertising elements on behaviors of consumers; • To prepare methodology of the influence of advertising elements on behaviors of consumers; • On the strength of broad-brush methodological attitudes, to do the influence of advertising elements on behaviors of consumers empirical analysis and to do the recommendations; Methods of research – comparative, analysis and synthesis, generalization, survey, graphics methods. The final work deals with analysis of theoretical principles of advertisement, research methods of advertisement influence on consumers behavior and explore Persil washing-powder of advertising elements (text, colour... [to full text]

The general purpose this study has been to determine the perception of MBA students on quality lecturing. Business schools are concerned about how learners evaluate the lecturing experiences in order to monitor the quality of the lecturing. Student evaluations are assumed to mirror relative stable views which hold implications for how tertiary institutions act upon and reward the educational practices of lecturers. It is evident from prior research that broad reaching claims concerning student satisfaction cover large alternatives in terms of a construct being evaluated. Links between what is measured, and how this information should be utilised, are not always well-defined. Previous studies suggest that student satisfaction and perception is a multifaceted concept consisting of several complex dimensions. The true muscle of lecturing is crucial leadership ability. It is not just a lecture or a presentation. Lecturing is a set of skills. It is not just about a gift. It is a set of practices that should be rehearsed, mastered and delivered. A lecturer will certainly not deliver a faultless lecture, but might bring an influential and current lecture. The skill set of lecturing is both a skill and a discipline. A lecturer should learn and practices the discipline; then the skill will be conquered. Everyone can be a powerful and skillful presenter, but it will take time, rehearsal and vigor to overcome mediocrity. The management of business schools should comprehend the importance of quality lecturing. Without emphasis on lecturing, the perceived quality of a business school could be misconceived by students. Quality lecturing should always be a focus point and the emphasis on improved effectiveness by management. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Two studies based on one online randomized controlled trial examined the effects of sport gain-framed messages (Rothman & Salovey, 1997) and a sport possible self (Murru & Martin Ginis, 2010) protocol on indices of possible self activation and elaboration, sport intention, and sport activity. 244 non-sporting adults (M = 50.59, 40-59 yrs) completed baseline/screening measures (T1), a gain-framed experimental/control intervention one week later (T2), and follow-up measures (T3) four weeks after T2. Study 1 showed gain-framed participants most frequently attended to a health and fitness message, more frequently described a possible self, and elaborated more on their possible selves (especially about delaying aging and developing friendships through sport). Study 2 indicated that gain-framed individuals requested more sport newsletters and registered for more sport programs. From T1 to T2, gain-framed conditions facilitated increased intentions for those with low approach motivation, whereas control conditions improved intentions for individuals with high approach motivation.

An open queueing network model (QNM) is proposed for wormhole-routed hypercubes with finite buffers and deterministic routing subject to a compound Poisson arrival process (CPP) with geometrically distributed batches or, equivalently, a generalised exponential (GE) interarrival time distribution. The GE/G/1/K queue and appropriate GE-type flow formulae are adopted, as cost-effective building blocks, in a queue-by-queue decomposition of the entire network. Consequently, analytic expressions for the channel holding time, buffering delay, contention blocking and mean message latency are determined. The validity of the analytic approximations is demonstrated against results obtained through simulation experiments. Moreover, it is shown that the wormholerouted hypercubes suffer progressive performance degradation with increasing traffic variability (burstiness).

This study investigates the understanding of emoticons and emojis used in text messages. Theaim of this study is to determine whether there is a universal understanding of emoticons andemojis, which is important considering the number of people using them every day whensending text messages. Many studies have been made of communication via text messagesand the usage of emoticons and emojis, but no study has focused on the interpretation of thesymbols and the importance of the context.For the purposes of this study, a questionnaire was completed in an uppersecondary school (Swedish gymnasium) in Stockholm, during normal school hours inNovember 2014, by 90 16-19 year old students. The result was then analysed through a‘Relevance Theory’ perspective, and in the light of the works of, amongst others, Saussure,Peirce and Thomas.The result revealed that, for the interpreter of a text message, it is important thata textual context is established, in order for the interpreter to be able to understand what theemoticons or emojis used in text messages mean. The result also showed that the emoticonsand emojis do not have a meaning in themselves and that they can have different meaningsdepending on the situation, and the mood or the person for whom the message is intended.

The aim of this thesis is to articulate and defend a general notion of 'perspectives' and some of the ways that they relate to one another, in order to help to clarify one of the preliminary conceptual problems in cybernetics, namely, the relation between energy propagation (signal) and information propagation (message). The literature on this topic is meagre, although the literature relevant to it is too great to cover comprehensively. The approach closely follows the ideas of Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend in the philosophy of science. It is found that the perspective notion has possible uses other than that of signal and message, since the same arguments apply to a wide variety of conceptual and human situations. The concepts considered include: point of view, field space, overall view, three broad categories of perspective difference, compatible and incompatible perspectives, the effect of values and goals, and mutual sensitivity and relevance of perspective spaces. There are five chapters: the first introduces the perspective approach to the 'problem of meanings' and provides a brief introduction to the other four chapters; the second examines two fragments of the philosophical background; the third offers a relatively informal discussion of perspectives and perspective relativity; the fourth suggests an example of a terminology of perspectives (true to perspective relativity, not the only possible one); and the final chapter summarises some immediate results as well as suggesting some possible specialised applications, including political models, information retrieval and machine intelligence.

Previous research has documented the prevalent effects of message order on message persuasiveness. Based on the Belief Updating Model (Hogarth and Einhorn, 1992), response mode has been found as one moderator of primacy versus recency effects. The present study considers additionally the role of culture as a moderator. Because internalized cultural values and norms affect how messages are processed and interpreted, we propose that cultural differences in cognitive processing styles will impact whether primacy or recency effects are stronger under different message order conditions in for Easterners and Westerners. Results from the current work offer evidence that both culture and cognitive style (holistic versus analytical thinking) serve as moderators to explain message order effects. Results replicate prior studies showing a primacy effect with End of Sequence response mode and a recency effect with Step-by-Step response mode. Further, we found that Easterners were more influenced by the primacy effect when compared to Westerners. However, the effect of primacy was attenuated by response mode. Westerners were equally influenced by both primacy and recency effects.

With perpetual strains on resources, road agencies need to develop network-level decision-making frameworks to ensure optimum resource allocation. This is especially true for incident management services and in particular variable message signs (VMS), which are relatively immature disciplines compared to traditional road engineering. The objective of incident management and VMS is to minimise the safety, efficiency, reliability and environmental impacts of incidents on the operations of the transport system. This may be achieved by informing travellers of the incidents so they can adapt their behaviour in a manner that reduces community impacts, such as lateness and the associated vehicle emissions, unreliability of travel times, as well as secondary accidents due to incidents. Generally, road authorities do carry out needs assessments, but qualitatively in many cases. Therefore, this masters research presents a framework that is systematic, quantitative and relatively easy to implement. In order to prioritise VMS infrastructure deployment, a risk management approach was taken that focuses on minimising the impacts on, and costs to the community. In the framework and case study conducted, safety, efficiency and reliability, and environmental impacts are quantified using an economic risk management approach to determine an overall risk score. This score can be used to rank road sections within the network, indicating the roads with the highest risk of incident network impacts and therefore the roads with the highest need for intervention. A cost-effectiveness based risk-reduction ranking can then be determined for each incident management treatment type, comparing the net risk with treatment to that without treatment, and dividing by the net present value of deployment. The two types of ranking, pure risk and cost-effectiveness based risk reduction, will help to minimise the network impacts on the community and optimise resource allocation.