University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

This dissertation examines the suitability of Display-Processor (DP) image computers for image enhancement and restoration tasks. Because the major architectural feature of the DP devices is their ability to rapidly evaluate finite impulse response (FIR) convolutions, much of the study focusses on the use of spatial-domain FIR convolutions to approximate Fourier-domain filtering. When the enhancement task requires the evaluation of only a single convolution, it is important that the FIR kernel used to implement the convolution is designed so that the resulting output is a good approximation of the desired output. A Minimum-Mean-Squared-Error design criterion is introduced for the purpose of FIR kernel design and its usefulness is demonstrated by showing some results of its use. If the restoration or enhancement task requires multiple convolutions in an iterative algorithm, it is important to understand how the truncation of the kernel to a finite region of support will affect the convergence properties of an algorithm and the output of the iterative sequence. These questions are examined for a limited class of nonlinear restoration algorithms. Because FIR convolutions are most efficiently performed on computing machines that have limited precision and are usually limited to performing fixed-point arithmetic, the dissertation also examines the effects of roundoff error on output images that have been computed using fixed point math. The number of bits that are needed to represent the data during a computation is algorithm dependent, but for a limited class of algorithms, it is shown that 12 bits are sufficient. Finally, those architectural features in a DP that are necessary for useful enhancement and restoration operations are identified.

This study analysed perceptions on the application of cost accounting in the budgeting process, a case of the City of Tshwane (CoT) municipality. Employee perceptions were analysed to determine whether recognised costing techniques were being applied, and if so, were those costing techniques being efficiently and effectively applied. An analysis of the employee perceptions of the reliability of the currently implemented costing techniques for the preparation of budget estimates, together with the employees’ perceptions of management’s implementation and maintenance of the budget estimates, as required by legislation, was also conducted. The research instruments comprise questionnaires that were distributed to all municipal officials at CoT who are responsible for budgeting within their municipal department or division, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected officials. Data collected from the participants were descriptively analysed. This study identified a performance gap between the potential of the costing techniques nominally being used and the manner in which CoT budget officials actually apply them. Based on the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the data, recommendations were made. Some of these recommendations include that officials of the CoT should improve training on the proper application of currently used costing techniques and that the CoT should conduct a pilot study aimed at introducing transfer pricing (TP) and standard costing as their next-generation budget costing techniques. In addition, including decisionmaking tools, such as cost-volume and profit (CVP) analysis in the costing process can add value to the budget costing process if applied as a cost-volume and service (CVS) analysis.

published_or_final_version / Electrical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Chronic non-specific low back pain (CNSLBP) is prevalent in the Canadian Forces. Physiotherapists use behavioural change techniques (BCT) to challenge maladaptive cognitions and behaviours in the treatment of CNSLBP. The aim of this study was to determine the range and type of BCT used in the “Back to Fitness” class at CFB Halifax. A nomenclature integrating a psychology BCT checklist and relevant physiotherapy literature was used to create a physiotherapist BCT checklist tool that was piloted in a field study. A wide range (n=24) and type (cognitive, behavioural and motivational) of BCT were identified in three settings (lecture, two exercise sessions). The nomenclature produced in this first examination of BCT in physiotherapy practice, will be useful for future research and training. This project revealed an overlap between psychology and physiotherapy that could lead to improved interprofessional communication and earlier access to behaviour change interventions for patients with CNSLBP.

No description available.

No description available.

Recongurable computing technology has progressed to a stage where it is now possible to achieve orders of magnitude performance and power eciency gains over conventional computer architectures for a subset of high performance computing applications. In this thesis, we investigate the potential of recongurable computers to accelerate genomic sequence alignment specically for genome sequencing applications. We present a highly optimized implementation of a parallel sequence alignment algorithm for the Berkeley Emulation Engine (BEE2) recongurable computer, allowing a single BEE2 to align simultaneously hundreds of sequences. For each recongurable processor (FPGA), we demonstrate a 61X speedup versus a state-of-the-art implementation on a modern conventional CPU core, and a 56X improvement in performance-per-Watt. We also show that our implementation is highly scalable and we provide performance results from a cluster implementation using 32 FPGAs. We conclude that reconfigurable computers provide an excellent platform on which to run sequence alignment, and that clusters of recongurable computers will be able to cope far more easily with the vast quantities of data produced by new ultra-high-throughput sequencers.