In Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), programmers must manage memory operations, synchronization, and utility functions of Central Processing Unit programs that control and issue data-parallel general purpose programs running on a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). NVIDIA Corporation developed the CUDA framework to enable and develop data-parallel programs for GPUs to accelerate scientific and engineering applications by providing a language extension of C called CUDA-C. A foreign-function interface comprised of Scheme and CUDA-C constructs extends the Gambit Scheme compiler and enables linking of Scheme and data-parallel CUDA-C code to support high-performance parallel computation with reasonably low overhead in runtime. We provide six test cases — implemented both in Scheme and CUDA-C — in order to evaluate performance of our implementation in Gambit and to show 0–35% overhead in the usual case. Our work enables Scheme programmers to develop expressive programs that control and issue data-parallel programs running on GPUs, while also reducing hands-on memory management.

Nowadays there are many CAD system used in garment industry, but only few systems are used to compose measurement schemas. Only the biggest companies like well known “Gerber technology”, “Lectra system”, “Richpeace” could offer such kind of systems. Unfortunately, these systems are quite complicated, expensive and could only be used with the CAD system from the same creators. This is the reason why many companies are not capable of buying a full CAD system besides there are no possibilities to buy a system to compose garment products measurement schemas separately. So, naturally, there comes a demand for a less complicated and cheaper system. The main objective of this project was to create less complicated garment products measurement schemas composing system, which includes features of a large system and also avoids its defects. An analysis of existing garment products’ measurement schemas software and customers’ needs was made in this work. “Clothing models measuring scheme composition system” software was created as an outcome of this work. The project was programmed with JAVA programming language. Therefore it can be used on the different operating systems. The system was successfully installed and tested in the UAB “Vivat Modus” company. In short period of time this company has seen the great propose of system. People who were using the new system to create garment products’ measurement schemas have saved their time and made less mistakes. The system helped to save... [to full text]

No description available.

No description available.

Background: Access to &quot high-cost medicines&quot under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is characterised by strict eligibility criteria. The PBS access scheme for the anti-rheumatic biologicals (etanercept, infliximab, and adalimumab) was examined for concordance with Australia?s National Medicines Policy. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholders were conducted. National, aggregated prescription and expenditure data from Medicare Australia and dispensing data from the Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee were analysed. Access to biologicals was also examined from an ethical perspective. Results: Interviewees agreed that controlled access to high-cost medicines was broadly equitable and practical but specific concerns included: timeliness of access; bureaucracy of the process; contentious cases of individual patients being denied access; insufficient patient information; the quantum of resources required to administer the access scheme; inadequate stakeholder consultation. The access requirement of a history of failure of conventional anti-rheumatic drugs was supported. Recommendations included proactive review of the access criteria and outcomes; greater transparency and formal stakeholder involvement to increase public confidence in the definition of &quot target patient population" and a formal appeal mechanism to increase the fairness and accountability of the PBS. Establishment of an appeal mechanism is supported by &quot accountability for reasonableness&quot framework grounded in procedural justice. Data needed to examine the health outcomes associated with the use of biologicals on a national level was not easily available. This shortcoming is discordant with National Medicines Policy. Utilisation of biologicals over the first two years of PBS-subsidy was conservative but with considerable variability across States and Territories (an 8-fold difference between the jurisdictions), usage roughly correlating with access to rheumatologists. Introduction of PBS-subsidised biologicals did not alter the trends in utilisation of non-biological anti-rheumatic drugs. Conclusions: This research suggests that policy-makers focus upon: explicitly considering ethical principles and formally involving stakeholders when developing policies on access to high-cost medicines; improving communication and providing information based on increased transparency; and establishing formal mechanisms for review of and appeals against PBS decisions. The comprehensive evaluation of medicine use and outcomes post-subsidy is critical for the future of the PBS. The National Medicines Policy has proved a useful framework for evaluating this access scheme.

Parallel processing is an important and popular aspect of computing and has been developed to meet the demands of high-performance computing applications. In terms of hardware, a large number of processors connected with high speed networks are put together to solve large scale computationally intensive applications. The computer performance improvements made so far have been based on technological developments. In terms of software, many algorithms are developed for application problem execution on parallel systems to achieve required performance. Clustering and scheduling of tasks for parallel implementation is a well researched problem. Several techniques have been studied to improve performance and reduce problem execution times. In this thesis, a new clustering and scheduling scheme, called flexible clustering and scheduling (FCS) algorithm is proposed. It is a novel approach where clustering and scheduling of tasks can be tuned to achieve maximal speedup or efficiency. The proposed scheme is based on the relation between the costs of computation and communication of task clusters. Vital system parameters such as processor speed, number of processors, and communication bandwidth affect speedup and efficiency. Processor speed and communication bandwidth vary from system to system. Most clustering and scheduling strategies do not take into account the system parameters. The low complexity FCS algorithm can adapt itself to suit different parallel computing platforms and it can also be tuned to suit bounded or unbounded number of processors. The analytical, simulation and experimental studies presented in this thesis validate the claims.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 56-58)

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-97).

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.