Generally, collisions between packets are undesired in wireless networks. We design this scheme, Cooperative Jamming in Wireless Networks (CJWN), to make use of collision to protect secret DATA packets from being sniffed by a nearby eavesdropper. We are intending to greatly increase the Packet Error Rate (PER) at the eavesdropper when the PER at the receiver is maintained at an acceptable level. This scheme is not intended to completely take the place of various encryption/decryption schemes which are working based on successfully received packets. Adding CJWN to the popular CSMA/CA adopted in IEEE 802.11 will add more security even the key for encryption/decryption is already exposed. Because the overhead of CJWN is very big, we do not suggest using it on every transmission. When some secret packets have a high requirement of confidentiality, CJWN is worth trying at the cost of throughput performance and power.

There is a wide variety of drivers for business process modelling initiatives, reaching from organisational redesign to the development of information systems. Consequently, a common business process is often captured in multiple models that overlap in content due to serving different purposes. Business process management aims at exible adaptation to changing business needs. Hence, changes of business processes occur frequently and have to be incorporated in the respective process models. Once a process model is changed, related process models have to be updated accordingly, despite the fact that those process models may only be loosely coupled. In this article, we introduce an approach that supports change propagation between related process models. Given a change in one process model, we leverage the behavioural abstraction of behavioural profiles for corresponding activities in order to determine a change region in another model. Our approach is able to cope with changes in pairs of models that are not related by hierarchical refinement and show behavioural inconsistencies. We evaluate the applicability of our approach with two real-world process model collections. To this end, we either deduce change operations from different model revisions or rely on synthetic change operations.

Cette thèse traite de l'utilisation des réseaux locaux sans fil dans un environnement industriel. Nous traitons l'impact des conditions de propagation et leur implémentation, sur des outils de simulations. La première partie s'intéresse au choix du modèle par des méthodes analytiques appliquées sur des mesures. La comparaison des performances obtenues dans un site avec les résultats de simulations montre une nette différence. Elle nous a permis de conclure que les modèles classiques ne permettent pas de simulations pertinentes pour un tel contexte. Pour ces raisons, nous proposons une nouvelle façon de modéliser les conditions de propagation. Notre modèle appelé "split model" permet de distinguer : liens entre stations et point d'accès des liens entre stations. Nous avons utilisé le modèle dans la simulation pour étudier les performances dans une cellule en mode infrastructure de la norme 802.11. Les résultats montrent que des collisions au niveau du point d'accès sont constatées et en résulte une dégradation des performances pour laquelle les mécanismes prévus pour compenser l'effet du terminal caché (RTS/CTS) se sont montrés inefficaces. L'utilisation du split model dans un processus de simulation met en avant les effets dus a l'existence de ces zones cachées et permet d'avoir des résultats obtenus par simulation plus représentatifs du comportement d'une cellule recouvrant une chaîne de production.

This thesis describes processing of RSSI parameter and its subsequently use for cal- culating distance of wireless node. This thesis also describes analysis of radio model environment and calibration of key variables needed for localization. There is also sys- tem realized for localization of wireless nodes in sensor network. It uses dynamically calibrated variables for calculations, which describes radio model.

The diploma thesis deals with the design of the LTE radio part using the ICS Designer program. First, the work describes the signal processing in the physical layer LTE system, for downlink and uplink. Subsequently, it was made simple block diagram. The next part deals with models of signal propagation in the radio environment. The last part is an introduction to the ICS Designer. This section describes the base station design and demonstration of some simulations. The last part is devoted to the design of the mobile network in the given area, its simulation and subsequent comparison with the existing mobile network.

In der folgenden Ausarbeitung soll der Einfluss der vertikalen Auflösung der Eingangsprofile auf die Schallausbreitungsrechnungen eines Schallstrahlenmodells näher untersucht werden. Der Grund hierfür liegt in dem Auftreten eines „Schichtenproblems“ bei der Arbeit mit einem solchen Modell. Das bedeutet, dass je größer die vertikale Auflösung der Eingangsprofile ist, desto mehr weicht die mit dem Computermodell bestimmte Lösung von der analytischen ab. Im folgenden Beitrag werden verschiedene vertikale Auflösungen untersucht und es wird gezeigt, dass eine höhere Auflösung dieses Problem lösen kann. Die Berechnungen erfolgen mit dem Schallstrahlenmodell SMART. Dieses Modell basiert auf der Berechnung des Weges, den der Schall in einer geschichteten Atmosphäre zurücklegt. Die Berechnungsgrundlage für das Strahlenmodell bilden dabei aus Radiosondendaten interpolierte, sowie klimatologisch klassifizierte Temperatur- und Windprofile. Diese Untersuchungen stellen eine notwendige Grundlage bei der Analyse und Interpretation der durch ein Strahlenmodell gewonnenen Dämpfungsberechnungen dar. / In the following article, effects of the vertical resolution of input data on numerical sound attenuation simulations are investigated. The reason for this lies in the occurrence of a „layer problem“ during work with such a model. That means, even larger the vertical resolution of the input profiles is, so much more the calculated answer deviates from the analytic. Therefore, different vertical resolutions are examined. The analyzed results show that a higher resolution can solve this problem. Calculations are carried out using the sound ray model SMART which considers the dependency of sound ray propagation on stratified atmosphere. As a basis for calculating the sound ray paths interpolated and climatologically classified profiles of temperature and wind obtained from radiosonde data are utilized. These investigations provide a basis for the analysis and interpretation of attenuation calculations derived from a sound ray model.

Molecular imaging plays an important role for development of systems biomedicine, which non-invasively extracts pictorial information on physiological and pathological activities at the cellular and molecular levels. Optical molecular tomography is an emerging area of molecular imaging. It locates and quantifies a 3D molecular probe distribution in vivo from data measured on the external surface of a small animal around the visible and infrared range. This approach can facilitate or enable preclinical applications such as cancer studies, involving angiogenesis, tumor growth, cell motility, metastasis, and interaction with a micro-environment. The reconstruction of diffuse light sources is the central task of optical molecular tomography, and generally ill-posed and rather complex. The key element of optical molecular tomography includes the geometrical model, tissue properties, photon characteristics, transport model, and reconstruction algorithm. This dissertation focuses mainly on the development optical molecular tomography methods based on bioluminescence/fluorescence probes to solve some well-known challenges in this field. Our main results are as follows. We developed a new algorithm for estimation of optical parameters based on the phase-approximation model.  Our iterative algorithm takes advantage of both the global search ability of the differential evolution algorithm and the efficiency of the conjugate gradient method. We published the first paper on multispectral bioluminescence tomography (BLT). The multispectral BLT approach improves the accuracy and stability of the BLT reconstruction even if data are highly noisy. We established a well-posed inverse source model for optical molecular tomography. Based on this model, we proposed a differential evolution-based reconstruction algorithm to determine the source locations and strengths accurately and reliably. Furthermore, to enhance the spatial resolution of fluorescence molecular tomography, we proposed fluorescence micro-tomography to image cells in a tissue scaffold based on Monte Carlo simulation on a massive parallel processing architecture. Each of these methods shows better performance in numerical simulation, phantom experiments, and mouse studies than the conventional methods. / Ph. D.

The performance of a mobile satellite communications link can be determined by the propagation path between a satellite and mobile users. Some of the most important factors are multipath propagation and vegetative shadowing. System designers should have the most reliable information about the statistics of fade duration in order to determine fade margin or to compensate for the fades using modulation and coding scheme. This report describes a simulator, PROSIM, developed at Virginia Tech for simulating a propagation model in land mobile satellite communications. The simulator is based on a random number generator that generates data sets to compute statistics of the propagation channel. Performance of the simulator was evaluated by comparing statistics from an analytical model and experimental data provided by W. Vogel of Univ. of Texas at Austin and J. Goldhirsh of the Applied Physics Laboratory. New expressions for phasor plot and its mathematical expression for lognormal channel were derived and were simulated. Finally, the advantages of the simulator using random number generator in simulating the propagation model are described. / Master of Science

This dissertation aims to contribute towards the understanding and modeling of tribological phenomena of contact, friction, and wear in viscoelastic materials with application in rubber compounds. Tribiological properties of rubber compounds are important for many applications such as tires, shoe heels and soles, wiper blades, artificial joints, O-ring seals, and so on. In all these applications, the objective is to maximize the friction coefficient to avoid slipping and reduce the wear rate to improve the life expectancy and performance of the products. The first topic in this study focuses on a novel multiscale contact theory proposed by Persson and explains the advantages of this theory over other classical contact theories. The shortcomings of this theory are also investigated, and three methods are proposed to improve Persson's original contact model by correcting the approximation of deformation in the contact area. The first method is based on the original Greenwood and Williamson (GW) contact theory, which neglects the effect of elastic coupling between asperities. The second method is based on an improved version of GW theory, which considers the elastic coupling effect of asperities in an approximate way. The third method is based on the distribution of local peaks of asperities, which is particularly suitable to determine the fraction of a skewed height profile involved in tribological processes. This method can be implemented within the framework of other proposed methods. Since the height profiles of rough surfaces studied in this dissertation are approximately normally distributed, the second correction method is applied to the original contact model to calculate the real contact area and friction coefficient. The second topic addresses the theoretical model of hysteresis friction in viscoelastic materials. The multiscale temperature rise of the rubber surface due to hysteresis friction is also modeled and the effect of flash temperature on the real contact area and friction coefficient is studied. Since the hysteresis friction is not the only mechanism involved in the rubber friction, a semi-empirical model is added to the hysteresis model to include the contribution of adhesion and other processes on the real contact area. Based on the improved multiscale contact theory, a pressure-dependent friction model is also developed for viscoelastic materials, which is in good agreement with experimental results. The third topic deals with the theory of stationary crack propagation in viscoelastic materials and the effect of crack tip flash temperature on the instability of crack propagation observed in some experimental results in the literature. Initially, a theoretical model is developed to calculate the tearing energy vs crack tip velocity in a Kelvin-Voigt rubber model. Besides, two coupled iterative algorithms are developed to calculate the temperature field around the crack tip in addition to the tearing energy as a function of crack tip velocity. In this model, the effect of crack tip flash temperature on the tearing energy is considered to update the relation between tearing energy vs crack tip velocity, which also affects the flash temperature. A theoretical model is also developed to calculate the contribution of the hysteresis effect to the tearing energy vs crack tip velocity using the dynamic modulus master curve of a rubber compound. Then, the low-frequency fatigue test results are compared with the theoretical predictions and used in the framework of powdery rubber wear theory to calculate the stationary rubber wear rate due to fatigue crack propagation. Moreover, a sliding friction and wear test set-up, with both indoor and outdoor testing capability, is developed to validate the theoretical models. The experimental results confirm that the theoretical model can successfully predict the friction coefficient when there is no trace of thermochemical degradation on the rubber surface. Investigating the wear mechanism of rubber samples on three different surfaces reveals that the contribution of fatigue wear rate is less important than other wear mechanisms such as abrasive wear due to sharp asperities or thermochemical degradation due to a significant rise of temperature on the contact area. Finally, the correlation between friction coefficient and wear rate on different surfaces is studied, and it is found that the relation between friction and wear rate strongly depends on the dominant wear mechanism, which is determined by the surface characteristics, sliding velocity, normal load, and contact flash temperature. / PHD / The objective of this dissertation is to understand and develop models for contact, friction, and wear in rubber-like materials. Friction and wear of rubber-like materials are important in many applications such as tires, shoe heels and soles, wiper blades, artificial joints, O-ring seals, and so on. In all these applications, it is desired to maximize the friction to avoid slipping and reduce the mass loss due to abrasion to improve the life expectancy of the products. The first topic in this dissertation focuses on a novel multiscale contact theory proposed by Persson and different approaches proposed in this work to improve this theory. Then, the real contact area is calculated using an improved version of the contact model. The second topic addresses the theoretical model of rubber friction due to hysteresis energy dissipation and the effect of frictional heating on the real contact area. Since the hysteresis friction is not the only mechanism involved in the rubber friction, a semi-empirical model is also used to include the contribution of adhesion and other processes on the real contact area. Based on the improved contact theory, a pressure-dependent friction model is also developed for rubber-like materials, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The third topic deals with the theory of stationary crack propagation in rubberlike materials and the effect of crack tip temperature rise on the instability of crack propagation observed in some experimental results in the literature. The low-frequency fatigue test results are compared with the theoretical predictions, and the results are used in the framework of powdery rubber wear theory to calculate the rubber wear rate due to slow crack propagation. A sliding friction and wear test set-up is also developed to validate the theoretical models. The theoretical model of the friction coefficient is successfully validated by experimental results. Investigating the rubber wear on different surfaces reveals that the contribution of fatigue wear rate is less important than the other wear mechanisms. The correlation between friction coefficient and wear rate on different surfaces reveals that relation between friction and wear rate strongly depends on the dominant wear mechanism, which is determined by the surface characteristics, sliding velocity, normal load, and temperature rise on the contact surface.

L’évaluation visuelle de lésions cutanées est l’analyse la plus couramment réalisée par les dermatologues. Ce diagnostic s’effectue principalement à l’œil nu et se base sur des critères tels que la taille, la forme, la symétrie mais principalement la couleur. Cependant, cette analyse est subjective car dépendante de l’expérience du praticien et des conditions d’utilisation. Nous proposons dans ce manuscrit (1) le développement d’une caméra multispectrale spécialement conçue pour un usage en dermatologie. Cette caméra multispectrale se base sur la technologie de roue porte-filtres composée de filtres interférentiels et d’un algorithme basé sur les réseaux de neurones générant un cube hyperspectral de données cutanées. Cet ensemble combine l’avantage d’un spectrophotomètre (information spectrale), et celui d’une caméra (information spatiale). Son intérêt est également de délivrer une information reproductible et indépendante des conditions d’acquisition. La mise en place d’un protocole d’acquisition de données de peaux saines issues de cinq des six phototypes existants a permis la validation de notre système en comparant les spectres générés par notre système avec des spectres théoriques acquis par un spectrophotomètre professionnel. (2) La réflectance spectrale de données de peau fournit une information précieuse, car directement liée à sa composition en chromophores. La mesure quantitative des propriétés optiques du tissu cutané peut être basée sur la modélisation de la propagation de la lumière dans la peau. Pour cela, nous nous sommes appuyés sur le modèle de Kubelka-Munk, auquel nous avons associé une méthode d’optimisation basée sur les algorithmes évolutionnaires. Cette dernière apporte une réponse à l’inversion de ce modèle. A partir de cette approche, la quantification de divers paramètres de la peau peut être obtenue, tels que la mélanine et l’hémoglobine. (3) La validation de cette méthodologie est effectuée sur des données pathologiques (vitiligo et melasma) et permet de quantifier une différence de composition entre zone saine et zone affectée sur une même image. / Visual evaluation of cutaneous lesions is the analysis the most commonly performedby dermatologists. This diagnostic is mainly done by naked eye and is based on criterionsuch as the size, shape, symmetry but principally on colour of the lesions. However, thisanalysis is subjective because it depends on the practician experience and the acquisitionconditions. We propose in this dissertation (1) the development of a multispectralcamera specifically dedicated for dermatological use. This device is based on a filterwheel composed of interferential filters and a neural network-based algorithm, generatinga hyperspectral cube of cutaneous data. This setting combines advantage of both spectrophotometer(spectral information) and digital camera (spatial information). Its maininterest is also to provide reproducible information which is independent of the acquisitionconditions. The setting-up of an acquisition protocol of healthy skin data from five of thesix exisiting skin phototypes allows the validation of our system by comparing spectragenerated by our system and theoretical spectra acquired by professional spectrophotometer.(2) Skin spectral reflectance provides precious information because it is directly linkedto the skin chromophore composition. Quantitative measure of cutaneous tissue opticalproperties can be based on the modelisation of light propagation in skin. For this purpose,we based our method on Kubelka-Munk model with which we associated an optimizationmethod based on evolutionary algorithm. This method helps for the model inversion.Using this approach, quantification of diverse parameters of skin can be obtained such asmelanin and haemoglobin. (3) The validation of this model is performed on disease skindata (vitiligo and melasma) and allows to quantify difference between healthy and affectedskin area within a single image.