This thesis investigates both theoretical and practical aspects of the design and analysis of modern error-control coding schemes, namely low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and rateless codes for unequal error protection (UEP). It also studies the application of modern error-control codes in efficient data dissemination in wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. Two methodologies for the design and analysis of UEP-LDPC codes are proposed. For these proposed ensembles, density evolution formulas over the binary erasure channel are derived and used to optimize the degree distribution of the codes. Furthermore, for the first time, rateless codes that can provide UEP are developed. In addition to providing UEP, the proposed codes can be used in applications for which unequal recovery time is desirable, i.e., when more important parts of data are required to be recovered faster than less important parts. Asymptotic behavior of the UEP-rateless codes under the iterative decoding is investigated. In addition, the performance of the proposed codes is examined under the maximum-likelihood decoding, when the codes have short to moderate lengths. Results show that UEP-rateless codes are able to provide very low error rates for more important bits with only a subtle loss in the performance of less important bits. Moreover, it is shown that given a target bit error rate, different parts of the information symbols can be decoded after receiving different numbers of encoded symbols. This implies that information can be recovered in a progressive manner, which is of interest in many practical applications such as media-on-demand systems. This work also explores fundamental research problems related to applying error-control coding such as rateless coding to the problem of reliable and energy-efficient broadcasting in multihop wireless ad-hoc sensor networks. The proposed research touches on the four very large fields of wireless networking, coding theory, graph theory, and percolation theory. Based on the level of information that each node has about the network topology, several reliable and energy-efficient schemes are proposed, all of which are distributed and have low complexity of implementation. The first protocol does not require any information about the network topology. Another protocol, which is more energy efficient, assumes each node has local information about the network topology. In addition, this work proposes a distributed scheme for finding low-cost broadcast trees in wireless networks. This scheme takes into account various parameters such as distances between nodes and link losses. This protocol is then extended to find low-cost multicast trees. Several schemes are extensively simulated and are compared.

Esta tesis se ha centrado en el desarrollo de las relaciones entre China y España en el contexto de penetración occidental en China desde la firma del Tratado de Nanjing (1842) hasta el final de la década de 1860. España fue un actor secundario en este proceso, pero sus relaciones con el imperio Chino muestran que algunas de las suposiciones de la historiografía más clásica sobre el mismo son demasiado limitadas y restringidas.A mediados de siglo XIX España era una nación en crisis y carecía de los recursos necesarios para tomar parte activa en las acciones occidentales en China. No obstante, su presencia en territorio chino le permitió implicarse de manera indirecta en acontecimientos capitales como las guerras del opio o la Rebelión de los Taiping, negociar en términos similares a los empleados por otros países como la Gran Bretaña o Francia por la obtención de un tratado; e incluso un agente español fue escogido por el Zongli yamen para actuar como representante del gobierno chino en un país europeo. / The main focus of this dissertation is the relationship between China and Spain in the context of the process of foreign penetration in China from the signature of the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) to the end of 1860s. Spain was a minor actor in this process, but her relations with the Chinese empire demonstrate that some of the classical historiographical approaches are too narrow and restricted. In the 19th century, Spain was a nation in crisis and it lacked the resources to take a leading role in the Western imperial actions in China. Nevertheless, the Spanish presence in China allowed that country to get indirectly involved in major events like the Opium Wars or the Taiping Rebellion; Spain also became embroiled in the negotiations for a treaty in the same terms than those used for imperial powers like Great Britain; and still a Spaniard was chosen by the Zongli yamen to act as a representative of the Chinese government in a European country.

This thesis examines the validity of exclusionary clauses in medical contracts, more especially, hospital contracts in which the healthcare provider exonerates itself against edictal liability arising from the negligent conduct of its staff, resulting in the patient suffering damages. In assessing whether these types of clauses should be outlawed by our courts, this thesis attempts to synthesize six major traditional areas of law, namely, the law of delict, the law of contract, medical law and ethics, international and foreign law, statutory law and constitutional law into a legal conceptual framework relating specifically to exclusionary clauses in medical contracts in South Africa. This thesis highlights systemic inconsistencies with regard to the central issue, namely, whether these types of clauses are valid or not, especially, given the fact that the practice of exclusionary clauses or waivers in hospital contracts has hitherto traditionally been assessed within the framework of the law of contract. The alignment of the various pre-existing areas of statutory and common law with the Constitution highlights that an inter-disciplinary and purposive approach under the value-driven Constitution, brings about a less fragmented picture in assessing the validity of these types of clauses. This approach accords with the new solicitude of the executive, the judiciary, the legislature and academia to transform the South African legal system not only in terms of procedural law but also substantive law. This has resulted in the alignment with constitutional principles and the underlying values to test the validity of these types of clauses, alternatively, contracts. Whereas pre-constitutionally the assessment of disclaimers in hospital contracts was done against the stratum of antiquated principles, namely, freedom of contract and the sanctity of contract, ignoring values such as reasonableness, fairness and conscionability, post-constitutionally, because the values that underlie the Bill of Rights and which affects all spheres of law, including the law of contract, concepts such as fairness, equity, reasonableness should weigh heavily with the decision-maker. In this regard, broader medico-legal considerations, normative medical ethics and the common law principles of good faith, fairness and reasonableness play a fundamental role in the assessment of contractual provisions, including the practice of disclaimers or exclusionary clauses in hospital contracts. This thesis critically examines how these types of clauses or contracts ought to be adjudicated eventually against the background of such alignment. It concludes that the entering into a hospital contract, in which the patient exonerates a hospital and its staff from liability flowing from the hospital or its staff's negligence causing damages to the patient, would be inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid. In the old order in which traditional divisions of law have been encouraged, a fragmented approach resulted in legal in congruencies which, in turn, created turbulence and a lot of uncertainty. This approach is apposite to that which the new constitutionally based legal system, aims to achieve. The rights in the Bill of Rights which are interconnected and which influences all spheres of law, including contract law, offers a fairer basis upon which, the validity of contracts, or contractual provisions, can be measured than, the pure contract approach. In this regard, although contracts or contractual provisions in the past may have been unfair and unreasonable, the courts, however, refused to strike them down purely on this basis. The law of contract, as a legal vehicle for adjudicating the validity of exclusionary clauses or waivers in hospital contracts, is therefore not ideal. This is primarily due to the antiquated approach the South African courts have always taken in this area of law. The law of delict, statutory law and medical law, standing alone, also does not provide a satisfactory answer. What is needed is an integrated approach in which the traditional areas of law are united and wherein constitutional principles and values, give much guidance and direction. Alternatively, should the unification of the traditional areas of law not be possible in bringing about fair and equitable results, the introduction of legislative measures may very well be indicated. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Public Law / unrestricted

Les ressources naturelles sont au cœur de dynamiques contradictoires. Alors qu'elles sont essentielles à la reproduction des sociétés et du vivant, l'organisation actuelle de l'économie mondiale tend à les subordonner principalement à des logiques d'accumulation. Outre que ces dernières ne prennent pas suffisamment en compte les limites physiques au sein desquelles l'humanité évolue, elles entraînent à diverses échelles des inégalités problématiques sur les plans social et écologique. L'ordre économique international actuel tend en effet à générer des phénomènes d'échange écologique inégal qui nuisent au développement des pays producteurs et exportateurs de matières premières, ainsi qu'aux populations et écosystèmes les plus vulnérables en leur sein. Le monde tropical est exemplaire de telles contradictions, concentrant parmi les plus importantes ressources de la biosphère – notamment en matière de biodiversité – ainsi que des milieux socio-écologiques particulièrement fragilisés. Face à des visions et logiques économicistes d'exploitation des ressources, qui s'inscrivent dans la longue durée historique, et trouvent des relais dans les structures juridico-politiques du système économique mondial, il importe de repenser le concept même de ressource naturelle. Il s'agit en effet de redonner toute leur place aux dimensions sociales et écologiques dans les processus de gestion et d'exploitation des ressources. Cela implique une réflexion sur les valeurs qui guident les interactions avec la nature et les relations économiques internationales, afin que la solidarité, la complémentarité et la justice deviennent des priorités. / Natural resources are in the midst of contradictory dynamics. While they are essential to the reproduction of societies and life, actual organization of the world economy subordinates them to logics of accumulation. In addition to the fact that these logics don't take into account (consider) the physical limits inside of which humanity evolves, they induce problematic socio-ecological inequalities at different scales. Indeed, actual international economic order tends to generate ecologically unequal exchanges, which disrupt the development of primary exporting countries and threaten the most vulnerable populations and ecosystems inside of them.Tropics are the typical context in which such contradictions develop themselves. Actually, this part of the world concentrates some of the most important resources for the biosphere – such as biodiversity – but also highly fragilized socio-ecological environments.To confront economistic views and logics of resources exploitation, which are the product of the longue durée, and find support in the juridical and political structures of the world economic system, it is critical to rethink the very concept of natural resources. Social and ecological dimensions should be put back at the heart of natural resources management and exploitation process. Such an approach necessitates thinking about the values that guide interactions with nature and international economic relations, so that solidarity, complementarity and justice become priorities.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à l'estimation de la synchrone de consommation électrique (courbe moyenne). Etant donné que les variables étudiées sont fonctionnelles et que les capacités de stockage sont limitées et les coûts de transmission élevés, nous nous sommes intéressés à des méthodes d'estimation par sondage, alternatives intéressantes aux techniques de compression du signal. Nous étendons au cadre fonctionnel des méthodes d'estimation qui prennent en compte l'information auxiliaire disponible afin d'améliorer la précision de l'estimateur de Horvitz-Thompson de la courbe moyenne de consommation électrique. La première méthode fait intervenir l'information auxiliaire au niveau de l'estimation, la courbe moyenne est estimée à l'aide d'un estimateur basé sur un modèle de régression fonctionnelle. La deuxième l'utilise au niveau du plan de sondage, nous utilisons un plan à probabilités inégales à forte entropie puis l'estimateur de Horvitz-Thompson fonctionnel. Une estimation de la fonction de covariance est donnée par l'extension au cadre fonctionnel de l'approximation de la covariance donnée par Hájek. Nous justifions de manière rigoureuse leur utilisation par une étude asymptotique. Pour chacune de ces méthodes, nous donnons, sous de faibles hypothèses sur les probabilités d'inclusion et sur la régularité des trajectoires, les propriétés de convergence de l'estimateur de la courbe moyenne ainsi que de sa fonction de covariance. Nous établissons également un théorème central limite fonctionnel. Afin de contrôler la qualité de nos estimateurs, nous comparons deux méthodes de construction de bande de confiance sur un jeu de données de courbes de charge réelles. La première repose sur la simulation de processus gaussiens. Une justification asymptotique de cette méthode sera donnée pour chacun des estimateurs proposés. La deuxième utilise des techniques de bootstrap qui ont été adaptées afin de tenir compte du caractère fonctionnel des données / In this thesis, we are interested in estimating the mean electricity consumption curve. Since the study variable is functional and storage capacities are limited or transmission cost are high survey sampling techniques are interesting alternatives to signal compression techniques. We extend, in this functional framework, estimation methods that take into account available auxiliary information and that can improve the accuracy of the Horvitz-Thompson estimator of the mean trajectory. The first approach uses the auxiliary information at the estimation stage, the mean curve is estimated using model-assisted estimators with functional linear regression models. The second method involves the auxiliary information at the sampling stage, considering πps (unequal probability) sampling designs and the functional Horvitz-Thompson estimator. Under conditions on the entropy of the sampling design the covariance function of the Horvitz-Thompson estimator can be estimated with the Hájek approximation extended to the functional framework. For each method, we show, under weak hypotheses on the sampling design and the regularity of the trajectories, some asymptotic properties of the estimator of the mean curve and of its covariance function. We also establish a functional central limit theorem.Next, we compare two methods that can be used to build confidence bands. The first one is based on simulations of Gaussian processes and is assessed rigorously. The second one uses bootstrap techniques in a finite population framework which have been adapted to take into account the functional nature of the data

This thesis, structured in two parts, addresses a series of problems of relevance in the field of Spatial Geodesy. The first part delves into the application of satellite gravity data to enhance our understanding of water transport dynamics. Here, we present two significant contributions. Both are based on satellite gravity data but stem from different mission concepts with distinct objectives: time-variable gravity monitoring and high-resolution, accurate static geoid modelling. First, the fundamental notions about gravity are introduced and a brief summary is made of the different gravity satellite missions throughout history, with emphasis on the GRACE/GRACE-FO and GOCE missions, whose data are the basis of this work. The first application focuses on estimating water transport and geostrophic circulation in the Southern Ocean by leveraging a GOCE geoid and altimetry data. The Volume Transport across the Antartic Circumpolar Current is analyzed and the resulsts are validated validated using the in-situ data collected during the multiple campaigns in the DP. The second application uses time-variable gravity data from the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions to estimate the water cycle in the Mediterranean and Black Sea system, a critical region for regional climate and global ocean circulation. The analysis delves into the analysis of the different components of the hydrological cycle within this region, including the water flow across the Gibraltar Strait, examining their seasonal variations, climatic patterns, and their connection with the North Atlantic Oscillation Index. The second part of the thesis is more focused on data analysis, with the objective of developing mathematical methods to estimate the cross correlation function between two time series that are both unevenly spaced spaced (the sampling is not uniform over time) and observed at unequal time scales (the set of time points for the first series is not identical to the set of time points of the second series). Such time series are frequently encountered in geodetic surveys, especially when combining data from different sources. The estimation of the the cross correlation function for these time series presents unique challenges and requires the adaptation of traditional analysis methods designed for evenly spaced and synchronized time series. The two main contributions in this context are: (i) the study of the asymptotic properties of the Guassian Kernel estimator, that is the recommended estimator for the cross correlation function when the two time series are observed at unequal time scales; (ii) an extension of the stationary bootstrap that allows to construct bootstrap-based confidence intervals for the cross correlation function for unevenly spaced time series not sampled on identical time points.

This study of contemporary jazz discourse and gender applies the techniques of critical discourse analysis, inspired by M.A.K. Halliday's systemic functional linguistics and Norman Fairclough's qualitative critical discourse analysis, to explicate the unequal distribution of power in society as represented by the institutions of jazz and mass media, in discourse about jazz vocal artists. Specifically, the study focuses on the way the genres of jazz CD review, jazz performance review, and interviews with jazz artists – disseminated via the institutions JazzTimes and Live New Orleans – represent the artists' identities, roles, achievements and skills. Following Norman Fairclough and the feminist scholar Mary Talbot, the study assumes that institutions of mass media not only discursively construct the gender of jazz vocal artists, but also represent the performers' achievement and skills from a hegemonic standpoint, reflecting the commonsense assumptions about women and men and their roles in patriarchal society.

Perseguendo politiche comuni per gli Stati membri, l'Unione Europea si è trasformata da unione puramente economica ad unione politica. Tuttavia, per quanto riguarda quest'ultimo aspetto, è stato fatto poco. Lo scetticismo è venuto a caratterizzare il clima politico dell'Unione Europea e l’elevata eterogeneità nei termini degli Stati membri hanno causato difficoltà nel processo decisionale. Questa tesi si concentra sulle politiche europee da tre aspetti: la legittimità, che si riferisce al sostegno politico dei cittadini, il comportamento di voto e di partecipazione dei cittadini. Una delle questioni principali della ricerca riguarda l’esistenza delle basi per la genesi di veri e propri partiti politici europei, come via d’uscita dalla crisi di legittimità dell'Unione Europea. Ci si chiede poi quali sono i principali fattori che influenzano la partecipazione alle elezioni del Parlamento Europeo, dal momento che esso è l'unica fonte diretta di legittimità. Infine, si studiano le cause del gap in affluenza per le elezioni europee e nazionali, guardando la quota di voto del partito. L'argomento principale per l’esistenza dei partiti pan-europei è quello di difendere gli stessi interessi e valori su scala europea. I risultati empirici sottolineano che la polarizzazione di classe sociale, è già presente nei primi 12 Stati membri dell'UE, e anche nei nuovi Stati membri, mentre nelle elezioni del Parlamento europeo gli elettori votano sinceramente. In conclusione: l'Europa soddisfa la base per la creazione di partiti pan-Europei che difendino vere e proprie politiche europee, mirate ai gruppi sociali che rappresentano, come una possibile soluzione per la crisi di legittimità. / By pursuing common policies for its Member States, the European Union moved from being a purely economic union, to being a political one as well. However, little has been done to tackle the latter aspect. Skepticism has come to characterize the political climate of the European Union and high heterogeneity in terms of Member States has induced difficulties in the decision-making process. This thesis focuses on the European Politics from three aspects: legitimacy, which refers to citizens’ political support, voting behavior and turnout. One of the main research questions we address is whether or not the basis for the existence of true European party politics exists, as a way out of the European Union legitimacy crisis. Then, we ask what are the main factors that influence electoral participation in the European Parliament elections since it is the only source of direct legitimacy. Lastly, we investigate what are the causes for the turnout gap across European and National elections, looking at the party vote share. The main argument for pan-European to exist is to defend the same values and interests European-wide. Empirical results point out that social class's polarization already exists in the initial 12 EU Member States, as well as later entries, while in the European Parliament elections voters cast their vote sincerely. We conclude that Europe fulfils the base requirement for the creation of true European politics, party politics and social groups' targeted-policies being a possible solution for the legitimacy crisis.