Neurovascular models have played an important role in understanding neuronal function or medical conditions. In the past few decades, only small volumes of neurovascular data have been available. However, huge data sets are becoming available with high throughput instruments like the Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope (KESM). Therefore, fast and robust tracing methods become necessary for tracing such large data sets. However, most tracing methods are not effective in handling complex structures such as branches. Some methods can solve this issue, but they are not computationally efficient (i.e., slow). Motivated by the issue of speed and robustness, I introduce an effective and efficient fiber tracing algorithm for 2D and 3D data. In 2D tracing, I have implemented a Moving Window (MW) method which leads to a mathematical simplification and noise robustness in determining the trace direction. Moreover, it provides enhanced handling of branch points. During tracing, a Cubic Tangential Trace Spline (CTTS) is used as an accurate and fast nonlinear interpolation approach. For 3D tracing, I have designed a method based on local maximum intensity projection (MIP). MIP can utilize any existing 2D tracing algorithms for use in 3D tracing. It can also significantly reduce the search space. However, most neurovascular data are too complex to directly use MIP on a large scale. Therefore, we use MIP within a limited cube to get unambiguous projections, and repeat the MIP-based approach over the entire data set. For processing large amounts of data, we have to automate the tracing algorithms. Since the automated algorithms may not be 100 percent correct, validation is needed. I validated my approach by comparing the traced results to human labeled ground truth showing that the result of my approach is very similar to the ground truth. However, this validation is limited to small-scale real-world data due to the limitation of the manual labeling. Therefore, for large-scale data, I validated my approach using a model-based generator. The result suggests that my approach can also be used for large-scale real-world data. The main contributions of this research are as follows. My 2D tracing algorithm is fast enough to analyze, with linear processing time based on fiber length, large volumes of biological data and is good at handling branches. The new local MIP approach for 3D tracing provides significant performance improvement and it allows the reuse of any existing 2D tracing methods. The model-based generator enables tracing algorithms to be validated for large-scale real-world data. My approach is widely applicable for rapid and accurate tracing of large amounts of biomedical data.

The primary purpose of this study is to uncover the future FMCG industry trend in the Taiwanese market. After literature review, five aspects of industrial forces based on Porter¡¦s Five-Force Model are used as the framework of this study. Qualitative research method is used to generate insight understanding of FMCG industry phenomena and the meanings behind each one of them. Three consumer manufacturing companies are selected and interviewed with each of the firm¡¦s market-leading consumer goods that belong to different categories in the FMCG industry. Trends from each product category are found through the interviews; by comparing and contrasting the trends of each three investigated categories, the overall FMCG industry trend are uncovered. Moreover, suggestions and recommendations are presented at the last chapter of this study with particular focused attention on the managerial implication of the study.

<p>From efficient market theory we know that there is no such a thing as a free lunch. If you want higher returns then you also have to take on higher risk. The critical question technical analysis has to answer therefore becomes, does technical analysis (TA) provide an investor with an edge in the stock market? To answer this question empirically data was investigated for the Standard and Poor’s-500 Index for a twenty years time period from 1986 to 2006.</p><p>Two different portfolios were constructed. The portfolios were named Hugin with a high time resolution a Munin with a lower time resolution. A simple 30 period MA cross strategy with optimized stop-losses were tested on the two portfolios. The stop-losses were optimized on the first ten years 1986-1996 in order to make the backtesting more realistic.</p><p>The conclusion was that neither Hugin nor did Munin produce abnormal returns without the optimized stop losses. When the stop losses were optimized, Hugin but not Munin provided an investor with slightly better return than a long position. However Hugin’s returns were highly sensitive to the assumed level of price slippage and transaction costs. The conclusion to be drawn is therefore that investing based only on a simple 30 periods moving average crossover investment strategy seams not to be the best way to manage hard-earned money.</p>

ITC/USA 2014 Conference Proceedings / The Fiftieth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 20-23, 2014 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, CA / This paper presents an effective multi-layer background modeling method to detect moving objects by exploiting the advantage of novel distinctive features and hierarchical structure of the Codebook (CB) model. In the block-based structure, the mean-color feature within a block often does not contain sufficient texture information, causing incorrect classification especially in large block size layers. Thus, the Binary Ordered Dithering (BOD) feature becomes an important supplement to the mean RGB feature In summary, the uniqueness of this approach is the incorporation of the halftoning scheme with the codebook model for superior performance over the existing methods.

Examensarbetet har haft som syfte att utifrån dagens montering ta fram ett förslag på hur ett optimalt monteringssystem kan se ut med avseende på effektivitet och flexibilitet på befintlig yta. En beskrivning av nuläget har genomförts med hjälp av observationer och intervjuer. Efter att dagsläget analyserats har ett flertal förslag tagits fram, dessa har sedan utvärderats mellan författarna. För att nå en slutgiltig lösning har utvärdering skett med handledaren på Moving. För att få inblick i olika monteringssystem har författarna utfört benchmarking inom olika branscher. Detta har sedan använts som uppslag i den detaljerade utformning för att få fram det bästa möjliga resultatet. Projektet har resulterat i ett slutgiltigt layoutförslag samt hur en bra monteringscell enligt de krav som finns och då främst med tanke på flexibilitet ska se ut. För att påvisa att dessa nya idéer kan öka produktiviteten och effektiviteten i Movings montering har en ekonomiskkalkyl tagits fram. Investeringskostnaden för den nya layouten inklusive nytt monteringsupplägg kommer att kosta Moving cirka 750 000 kronor. Den uppskattade årliga besparingen för monteringssystemet blir cirka 1 215 000 kr.

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L-glutamate is the predominant excitatory amino acid neurotransmitter inthe mammalian central nervous system. Prior aging studies have focusedprimarily on dopaminergic circuitry of the striatum, and data obtained studyingglutamate regulation in the striatum have been largely equivocal. Thesediscrepancies are due in large part to the limitations of microdialysis; while it isextremely sensitive to minute concentrations of analyte, it is lacking in terms ofthe temporal resolution necessary to study a neurotransmitter with rapid releaseand clearance kinetics such as glutamate. In order to address this matter, ourlaboratory has designed a ceramic-based multisite microelectrode with thecapability to detect and analyze fluctuations in extracellular glutamateconcentrations on a sub-second basis. These microelectrodes were utilized tostudy the phasic release and uptake dynamics of potassium-evoked glutamate inthe striatum of young (6 month), late-middle aged (18 month) and aged (24month) Fischer 344 rats. Our results showed a reduced glutamate clearancerate and an attenuated response to potassium depolarization in the corticostriatalprojections of aged animals in comparison to other age groups. In addition,average maximal glutamate release amplitudes were decreased in the striatumof aged animals. Pressure ejection of exogenous glutamate solution furtherconfirmed the decreased glutamate clearance ability of the aged striatum. Thesepotassium and exogenous glutamate data also highlighted a markeddorsoventral gradient in the striatum in terms of glutamate release and clearanceability. We further explored this phenomenon of age-related decreased glutamateuptake by coupling our in vivo technology with classical immunoblotting andbiotinylation techniques in order to investigate glutamate transporter regulation.Decreased glutamate clearance in the aged rats cannot be attributed to areduction in steady-state total transporter protein levels. Rather, our resultsindicate that reduced plasma membrane surface trafficking of GLAST in the agedstriatum may be partially responsible for this effect. Finally, we modified ourmicroelectrodes to study basal glutamate levels in the striatum of the aging,freely moving rat. This approach allowed us to study extracellular glutamateregulation free from the potential confounding variable of anesthesia. Our resultsdemonstrate that there is no significant alteration in basal glutamate levels inaging in the brain regions investigated. More importantly, this study validated theefficacy of the utilization of ceramic-based multisite microelectrodes for the studyof alterations in glutamate neurotransmission in the aging, freely moving rat, andit lays the foundation for future work correlating such changes with age associatedimpairments in motor function.

Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas yra išnagrinėti judančių objektų indeksavimo duomenų bazėse problemas, siūlomus sprendimus bei palyginti keleto iš jų veiksmingumą. Įvairiais pjūviais buvo lyginami praeities duomenis indeksuojantys R ir iš jo išvesti STR bei TB medžiai. Eksperimentai atlikti naudojant sugeneruotus judančių objektų duomenis. Gauti rezultatai parodė, kad indeksų veiksmingas priklauso nuo tam tikrų sąlygų ir aplinkybių, kuriomis jie naudojami. / Over the past few years, there has been a continuous improvement in the wireless communications and the positioning technologies. As a result, tracking the changing positions of continuously moving objects is becoming increasingly feasible and necessary. Databases that deal with objects that change their location and/or shape over time are called spatio-temporal databases. Traditional database approaches for effective information retrieval cannot be used as the moving objects database is highly dynamic. A need for so called spatio-temporal indexing techniques comes to scene. Mainly, by the problem they are addressed to, indices are divided into two groups: a) indexing the past and b) indexing the current and predicted future positions. Also the have been proposed techniques covering both problems. This work is a survey for well known and used indices. Also there is a performance comparison between several past indexing methods. STR Tree, TB Tree and the predecessor of many indices, the R Tree are compared in various aspects using generated datasets of simulated objects movement.

In this thesis we consider the task of catching a moving target with multiple pursuers, also known as the “Pursuit Game”, in which coordination among the pursuers is critical. Our testbed is inspired by the pursuit problem in video games, which require fast planning to guarantee fluid frame rates. We apply supervised machine learning methods to automatically derive efficient multi-agent pursuit strategies on rectangular grids. Learning is achieved by computing training data off-line and exploring the game tree on small problems. We also generalize the data to previously unseen and larger problems by learning robust pursuit policies, and run empirical comparisons between several sets of state features using a simple learning architecture. The empirical results show that 1) the application of learning across different maps can help improve game-play performance, especially on non-trivial maps against intelligent targets, and 2) simple heuristic works effectively on simple maps or less intelligent targets.

Thesis (D.C.P. / M. Sc.)--School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed 13 January 2009). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology/ Master of Science to the School of Psychology, Faculty of Science. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.