Lifelines are vital networks and it is important that those networks are still be functional after major natural disasters such as earthquakes. The goal of this study is to develop a GIS software for evaluating network reliability of lifelines under seismic hazard. In this study, GIS, statistics and facility management is used together and a GIS software module, which constructs GIS based reliability maps of lifeline networks, is developed by using geoTools. Developed GIS module imports seismic hazard and lifeline network layers in GIS formats using geoTools libraries and after creating a gridded network structure it uses a network reliability algorithm, initially developed by Yoo and Deo (1988), to calculate the upper and lower bounds of lifeline network reliability under seismic hazard. Also it can show the results in graphical form and save as shape file format. In order to validate the developed application, results are compared with a former case study of Selcuk (2000) and the results are satisfactorily close to previous study. As a result of this study, an easy to use, GIS based software module that creates GIS based reliability map of lifelines under seismic hazard was developed.

Airburst projectiles increase the effectiveness of air defense, by forming clouds of small pellets. In this work, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of airburst projectiles, Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) is computed at different burst distances by using three lethality functions defined from different measures of effectiveness. These different measures are target coverage, number of sub-projectile hits on the target and kinetic energy of sub-projectiles after burst. Computations are carried out for two different sub-projectile distribution patterns, namely circular and ring patterns. In this work, for the determination of miss distance, a Monte Carlo simulation is implemented, which uses Modified Point Mass Model (MPMM) trajectory equations. According to the results obtained two different distribution patterns are compared in terms of effectiveness and optimum burst distance of each distribution pattern is determined at different ranges.

The experimental factors such as the cell type and the treatment may have different impact on expression levels of individual genes which are quantitative measurements from microarrays. The measurements can be collected at a few unevenly spaced time points with replicates. The aim of this study is to consider cell type, treatment and short time series attributes and to infer about their effects on individual genes. A mixed effects model (LME) was proposed to model the gene expression data and the performance of the model was validated by a simulation study. Realistic data sets were generated preserving the structure of the sample real life data studied by Nymark et al. (2007). Predictive performance of the model was evaluated by performance measures, such as accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, as well as compared to the competing method by Smyth (2004), namely Limma. Both methods were also compared on real life data. Simulation results showed that the predictive performance of LME is as high as 99%, and it produces False Discovery Rate (FDR) as low as 0.4% whereas Limma has an FDR value of at least 32%. Moreover, LME has almost 99% predictive capability on the continuous time parameter where Limma has only about 67% and even it cannot handle continuous independent variables.

The thesis investigates the basis of possible sources of shifts in the classical conceptualizations of political legitimacy of nation state as a result of the impositions of globalization. To this end, it first suggested that we should have a theory of globalization. Globalization in the fields of economy, politics, society, culture and identity along with fragmentation provides crucial changes in the roles and functions of the state, which result in fundamental transformation in the distinctive features of nation state, such as autonomy, capacity, unity, territoriality, sovereignty and identity. The depreciation in the classical roles and functions of nation state is observed in its decreasing capacity to cope with emerging global threats, such as environmental pollution, unequal development and international crimes. Economic globalization deprives nation state of its autonomy in determining its own economic policies. And identity/culture assertions of the locality disintegrate the unity and identity of nation state. Decreasing autonomy, capacity and unity lead to further depreciation in other two fundamental features of nation state, which are territoriality and sovereignty. These developments force nation state to find out new ways of legitimizing its position under the global context. In classical conceptions, political legitimacy of nation state had been constructed within the framework of the premises of its autonomy, sovereignty, territoriality, unity, identity and capacity. However, those fundamental characteristics of nation state seem to be depreciating under the global context. Actually, this depreciation will result in a new conceptualization of political legitimacy under globalization. Therefore, in this re-conceptualization of political legitimacy, individual, local and global impositions emerge as major sources. Nation state, which is eager to resituate itself in a legitimate basis in the twenty first century, should take into account emerging individual, local and global concerns.

One-way and two-way classification models in experimental design for both balanced and unbalanced cases are considered when the errors have Generalized Secant Hyperbolic distribution. Efficient and robust estimators for main and interaction effects are obtained by using the modified maximum likelihood estimation (MML) technique. The test statistics analogous to the normal-theory F statistics are defined to test main and interaction effects and a test statistic for testing linear contrasts is defined. It is shown that test statistics based on MML estimators are efficient and robust. The methodogy obtained is also generalized to situations where the error distributions from block to block are non-identical.

The uncertainty attached to future movements of interest rates is an essential part of the Financial Decision Theory and requires an awareness of the stochastic movement of these rates. Several approaches have been proposed for modeling the one-factor short rate models where some lead to arbitrage-free term structures. However, no definite consensus has been reached with regard to the best approach for interest rate modeling. In this work, we briefly examine the existing one-factor interest rate models and calibrate Vasicek and Hull-White (Extended Vasicek) Models by using Turkey&#039 / s term structure. Moreover, a trinomial interest rate tree is constructed to represent the evolution of Turkey&rsquo / s zero coupon rates.

Random field models have provided a flexible environment in which the properties of the term structure of interest rates are captured almost as observed. In this study we provide an overview of the forward rate random fiield models and propose an extension in which the forward rates fluctuate along with a two parameter process represented by a random field. We then provide a mathematical expression of the yield curve under this model and sketch the prospective utilities and applications of this model for interest rate management.

Im Gesundheitswesen müssen ganz unterschiedlich strukturierte Einrichtungen bei der Behandlung von Patienten zusammenarbeiten. Die Arbeit stellt Lösungen vor, die eine solche Zusammenarbeit mit Hilfe verteilter Anwendungen auf Basis von Webservices und Peer-to-Peer Technologie unterstützen. Dabei werden vorhandene Strukturen und Beziehungen zwischen diesen Einrichtungen benutzt, um gute Ergebnisse bei der Suche nach Daten und der Steuerung von Abläufen zu erzielen.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-06-23T21:14:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 NathaliaMattosNovaesDaRocha_DISSERT.pdf: 8902893 bytes, checksum: 548054835dc66d4ee903a6646b0226ac (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-06-28T18:39:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 NathaliaMattosNovaesDaRocha_DISSERT.pdf: 8902893 bytes, checksum: 548054835dc66d4ee903a6646b0226ac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-28T18:39:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NathaliaMattosNovaesDaRocha_DISSERT.pdf: 8902893 bytes, checksum: 548054835dc66d4ee903a6646b0226ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-14 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES) / Descoberto em 1963, 3C 273 foi o segundo quasar identificado e catalogado no Terceiro Cat?logo de Cambridge para r?dio fontes, e o primeiro para o qual as linhas de emiss?o foram identificadas com uma sequ?ncia de hidrog?nio desviada para o vermelho. Ele ? o quasar mais brilhante da esfera celeste, o mais estudado, analisado, e com uma resultante abund?ncia de dados dispon?veis em uma vasta literatura. A an?lise precisa dos desvios das linhas espectrais de quasares, fornece informa??o suficiente para p?r em prova a varia??o das constantes fundamentais da natureza e similarmente da taxa de expans?o do universo. A an?lise da variabilidade das curvas de luz desses corpos, e a consequente precis?o das suas periodicidades, ? de suma import?ncia pois proporciona uma efic?cia nas observa??es deles, possibilita uma maior compreens?o dos seus fen?menos f?sicos, e torna fact?vel a realiza??o de observa??es espectrais em datas mais exatas (momentos nos quais suas curvas de luz apresentam picos acentuados e, por conseguinte, espectros mais ricos em informa??o). Na presente disserta??o, vinte e oito curvas de luz do quasar 3C 273 s?o estudadas, abrangendo todas as faixas do espectro eletromagn?tico (da emiss?o r?dio aos raios gama), totalizando na an?lise de quatro curvas de luz para cada faixa. Aplicamos o m?todo da Transformada Wavelet Cont?nua do tipo Morlet de ordem w = 06 e obtivemos resultados precisos e coerentes com a literatura. / Discovered in 1963, 3C 273 was the second quasar identified and cataloged in the Third Cambridge Catalog for radio sources, and the first one for which emission lines were identified with a hydrogen sequence redshifted. It is the brightest quasar of the celestial sphere, the most studied, analyzed, and with a resulting abundance of data available in a vast literature. The accurate analysis of the deviations of the spectral lines of quasars provides enough information to put in evidence the variation of fundamental constants of nature and similarly the universe expansion rate. The analysis of the variability of the light curves of these bodies, and the consequent accuracy of their periodicity, is of utmost importance as it provides an efficiency of their observations, enables a greater understanding of the physical phenomena, and makes it possible to conduct spectral observations on more accurate dates (when their light curves show pronounced peaks and therefore richer spectra information). In this master?s thesis twenty eight light curves from the quasar 3C 273 are studied, covering all the electromagnetic spectrum wavebands (radio emission to gamma rays), totaling in the analysis of four light curves for each waveband. We have applied the method of Continuous Wavelet Transform using the sixth-order (!0 = 6) Morlet wavelet function, and obtained excellent results in accordance with the literature.

The threat of surveillance by governmental and industrial parties is more eminent than ever. As communication moves into the digital domain, the advances in automatic assessment and interpretation of enormous amounts of data enable tracking of millions of people, recording and monitoring their private life with an unprecedented accurateness. The knowledge of such an all-encompassing loss of privacy affects the behavior of individuals, inducing various degrees of (self-)censorship and anxiety. Furthermore, the monopoly of a few large-scale organizations on digital communication enables global censorship and manipulation of public opinion. Thus, the current situation undermines the freedom of speech to a detrimental degree and threatens the foundations of modern society. Anonymous and censorship-resistant communication systems are hence of utmost importance to circumvent constant surveillance. However, existing systems are highly vulnerable to infiltration and sabotage. In particular, Sybil attacks, i.e., powerful parties inserting a large number of fake identities into the system, enable malicious parties to observe and possibly manipulate a large fraction of the communication within the system. Friend-to-friend (F2F) overlays, which restrict direct communication to parties sharing a real-world trust relationship, are a promising countermeasure to Sybil attacks, since the requirement of establishing real-world trust increases the cost of infiltration drastically. Yet, existing F2F overlays suffer from a low performance, are vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks, or fail to provide anonymity. Our first contribution in this thesis is concerned with an in-depth analysis of the concepts underlying the design of state-of-the-art F2F overlays. In the course of this analysis, we first extend the existing evaluation methods considerably, hence providing tools for both our and future research in the area of F2F overlays and distributed systems in general. Based on the novel methodology, we prove that existing approaches are inherently unable to offer acceptable delays without either requiring exhaustive maintenance costs or enabling denial-of-service attacks and de-anonymization. Consequentially, our second contribution lies in the design and evaluation of a novel concept for F2F overlays based on insights of the prior in-depth analysis. Our previous analysis has revealed that greedy embeddings allow highly efficient communication in arbitrary connectivity-restricted overlays by addressing participants through coordinates and adapting these coordinates to the overlay structure. However, greedy embeddings in their original form reveal the identity of the communicating parties and fail to provide the necessary resilience in the presence of dynamic and possibly malicious users. Therefore, we present a privacy-preserving communication protocol for greedy embeddings based on anonymous return addresses rather than identifying node coordinates. Furthermore, we enhance the communication’s robustness and attack-resistance by using multiple parallel embeddings and alternative algorithms for message delivery. We show that our approach achieves a low communication complexity. By replacing the coordinates with anonymous addresses, we furthermore provably achieve anonymity in the form of plausible deniability against an internal local adversary. Complementary, our simulation study on real-world data indicates that our approach is highly efficient and effectively mitigates the impact of failures as well as powerful denial-of-service attacks. Our fundamental results open new possibilities for anonymous and censorship-resistant applications. / Die Bedrohung der Überwachung durch staatliche oder kommerzielle Stellen ist ein drängendes Problem der modernen Gesellschaft. Heutzutage findet Kommunikation vermehrt über digitale Kanäle statt. Die so verfügbaren Daten über das Kommunikationsverhalten eines Großteils der Bevölkerung in Kombination mit den Möglichkeiten im Bereich der automatisierten Verarbeitung solcher Daten erlauben das großflächige Tracking von Millionen an Personen, deren Privatleben mit noch nie da gewesener Genauigkeit aufgezeichnet und beobachtet werden kann. Das Wissen über diese allumfassende Überwachung verändert das individuelle Verhalten und führt so zu (Selbst-)zensur sowie Ängsten. Des weiteren ermöglicht die Monopolstellung einiger weniger Internetkonzernen globale Zensur und Manipulation der öffentlichen Meinung. Deshalb stellt die momentane Situation eine drastische Einschränkung der Meinungsfreiheit dar und bedroht die Grundfesten der modernen Gesellschaft. Systeme zur anonymen und zensurresistenten Kommunikation sind daher von ungemeiner Wichtigkeit. Jedoch sind die momentanen System anfällig gegen Sabotage. Insbesondere ermöglichen es Sybil-Angriffe, bei denen ein Angreifer eine große Anzahl an gefälschten Teilnehmern in ein System einschleust und so einen großen Teil der Kommunikation kontrolliert, Kommunikation innerhalb eines solchen Systems zu beobachten und zu manipulieren. F2F Overlays dagegen erlauben nur direkte Kommunikation zwischen Teilnehmern, die eine Vertrauensbeziehung in der realen Welt teilen. Dadurch erschweren F2F Overlays das Eindringen von Angreifern in das System entscheidend und verringern so den Einfluss von Sybil-Angriffen. Allerdings leiden die existierenden F2F Overlays an geringer Leistungsfähigkeit, Anfälligkeit gegen Denial-of-Service Angriffe oder fehlender Anonymität. Der erste Beitrag dieser Arbeit liegt daher in der fokussierten Analyse der Konzepte, die in den momentanen F2F Overlays zum Einsatz kommen. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit erweitern wir zunächst die existierenden Evaluationsmethoden entscheidend und erarbeiten so Methoden, die Grundlagen für unsere sowie zukünftige Forschung in diesem Bereich bilden. Basierend auf diesen neuen Evaluationsmethoden zeigen wir, dass die existierenden Ansätze grundlegend nicht fähig sind, akzeptable Antwortzeiten bereitzustellen ohne im Zuge dessen enorme Instandhaltungskosten oder Anfälligkeiten gegen Angriffe in Kauf zu nehmen. Folglich besteht unser zweiter Beitrag in der Entwicklung und Evaluierung eines neuen Konzeptes für F2F Overlays, basierenden auf den Erkenntnissen der vorangehenden Analyse. Insbesondere ergab sich in der vorangehenden Evaluation, dass Greedy Embeddings hoch-effiziente Kommunikation erlauben indem sie Teilnehmer durch Koordinaten adressieren und diese an die Struktur des Overlays anpassen. Jedoch sind Greedy Embeddings in ihrer ursprünglichen Form nicht auf anonyme Kommunikation mit einer dynamischen Teilnehmermengen und potentiellen Angreifern ausgelegt. Daher präsentieren wir ein Privätssphäre-schützenden Kommunikationsprotokoll für F2F Overlays, in dem die identifizierenden Koordinaten durch anonyme Adressen ersetzt werden. Des weiteren erhöhen wir die Resistenz der Kommunikation durch den Einsatz mehrerer Embeddings und alternativer Algorithmen zum Finden von Routen. Wir beweisen, dass unser Ansatz eine geringe Kommunikationskomplexität im Bezug auf die eigentliche Kommunikation sowie die Instandhaltung des Embeddings aufweist. Ferner zeigt unsere Simulationstudie, dass der Ansatz effiziente Kommunikation mit kurzen Antwortszeiten und geringer Instandhaltungskosten erreicht sowie den Einfluss von Ausfälle und Angriffe erfolgreich abschwächt. Unsere grundlegenden Ergebnisse eröffnen neue Möglichkeiten in der Entwicklung anonymer und zensurresistenter Anwendungen.