Physical-Layer Network Coding (PNC) is a promising technique that has great potentials for improving the achievable data rates of end-to-end flows through higher packet transmission rates, thereby increasing the overall network throughput. In this thesis, we study the performance of the PNC transmission techniques for unidirectional end-to-end flows in multi-hop wireless networks, and compare it with that of the traditional transmission techniques. We first derive the bit-error rate (BER) that the PNC transmission technique achieves. Then, using the derived BER, we evaluate and quantify the achievable network throughput under both the PNC transmission technique and the traditional technique, where the network throughput is measured as the aggregate/sum of all end-to-end flows' achievable data rates in the wireless network. Using extensive simulations, we show that PNC increases the overall achievable end-to-end flow throughput in multi-hop wireless networks, especially under medium to high signal-to-noise ratios. / Graduation date: 2012

The goal of this project was to implement and compare Invere Discrete Cosine Transform using three methods i.e. by bit parallel, digit serial and bit serial. This application describes a one dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform by bit prallel method and has been implemented by 0.35 ìm technology. When implementing a design, there are several considerations like word length etc. were taken into account. The code was implemented using WHDL and some of the calculations were done in MATLAB. The VHDL code was the synthesized using Design Analyzer of Synopsis; power was calculated and the results were compared.

With the advancement of display technology, consumers expect high quality display of image and video data. Many viewers are used to watching video content on high definition television and large screens. However, certain display technologies, such as several of those used in portable electronic books, are limited on resources such as the availability of number of bits per pixel (i.e. the bit-depth). Display of good or even acceptable perceptual quality video on these devices is a hard technical problem that a display designer must solve. Video halftoning reduces the number of represented colors or gray levels for display on devices that are unable to render the video at full bit-depth. Bit-depth reduction results in visible spatial and temporal artifacts. The designer would want to choose the halftoning algorithm that reduces these artifacts while meeting the target platform constraints. These constraints include available bit-depth, spatial resolution, computational power, and desired frame rate. Perceptual quality assessment techniques are useful in comparing different video halftoning algorithms that satisfy the constraints. This dissertation develops a framework for the evaluation of two key temporal artifacts, flicker and dirty-window-effect, in medium frame rate binary video halftones generated from grayscale continuous-tone videos. The possible causes underlying these temporal artifacts are discussed. The framework is based on perceptual criteria and incorporates properties of the human visual system. The framework allows for independent assessment of each of the temporal artifacts. This dissertation presents design of algorithms that generate medium frame rate binary halftone videos. The design of the presented video halftone generation algorithms benefits from the proposed temporal artifact evaluation framework and is geared towards reducing the visibility of temporal artifacts in the generated medium frame rate binary halftone videos. This dissertation compares the relative power consumption associated with several medium frame rate binary halftone videos generated using different video halftone generation algorithms. The presented power performance analysis is generally applicable to bistable display devices. This dissertation develops algorithms to enhance medium frame rate binary halftone videos by reducing flicker. The designed enhancement algorithms reduce flicker while attempting to constrain any resulting increase in perceptual degradation of the spatial quality of the halftone frames. This dissertation develops algorithms to enhance medium frame rate binary halftone videos by reducing dirty-window-effect. The enhancement algorithms reduce dirty-window-effect while attempting to constrain any resulting increase in perceptual degradation of the spatial quality of the halftone frames. Finally, this dissertation proposes design of medium frame rate binary halftone video enhancement algorithms that attempt to reduce a temporal artifact, flicker or dirty-window-effect, under both spatial and temporal quality constraints. Temporal quality control is incorporated by using the temporal artifact assessment framework developed in this dissertation. The incorporation of temporal quality control, in the process of reducing flicker or dirty-window-effect, helps establish a balance between the two temporal artifacts in the enhanced video. At the same time, the spatial quality control attempts to constrain any increase in perceptual degradation of the spatial quality of the enhanced halftone frames. / text

Šis magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas investicijų apsaugos užsienio valstybėse analizei. Klasikinėje tarptautinėje teisėje visiškas subjektiškumas buvo suprantamas kaip būdingas tik valstybėms, todėl visi tarptautiniai santykiai, tarp jų ir ginčų sprendimas buvo valstybių tarpusavio reikalas. Dėl to, jei reikėdavo ginti asmenį užsienyje patyrusį žalą, tai galima buvo padaryti tik remiantis fikcija – kad žala padaryta asmeniui yra žala padaryta jo valstybei. Jei asmuo investavęs į užsienio valstybę patirdavo žalą dėl neteisėtų investicijas priimančios valstybės veiksmų, jis pats galėdavo kreiptis dėl kompensacijos į vietinius valstybės teismus arba į savo pilietybės ar nacionalinės priklausomybės valstybę, kad ši imtųsi diplomatinių priemonių. Šiuolaikinė tarptautinė teisė subjektų klausimu, galima sakyti, žengia toliau. Šiuo metu fiziniai asmenys yra įgiję dalinį tarptautinį teisinį subjektiškumą žmogaus teisių srityje. Nuosavybės apsauga (tame tarpe ir investicijų apsauga) yra viena iš svarbiausių žmogaus teisių, deklaruojamų tiek valstybių konstitucijose, tiek tarptautiniuose dokumentuose, todėl investuotojai gali patys, be savo valstybės įtraukimo ar įsikišimo, išspręsti investicinį ginčą su investicijas priimančia valstybe. Įvairių instrumentų pagalba šiuolaikinėje tarptautinėje teisėje yra sukurta nemažai pažeistų teisių gynimo mechanizmų, kuriais gali pasinaudoti investuotojai tiek fiziniai, tiek juridiniai asmenys. Jei investuotojas siekia investicinį ginčą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The analysis of the protection of foreign investment is the key object of this master thesis. States were recognized as the only subjects in the classical international law. Therefore all international relationships and disputes where settled between the states themselves. In case of a breach of the rights of a foreign investor it was the state of his nationality to bring any kind of claims in regards to another state. Contemporary international law goes way further in regard to international legal personality of natural persons or legal entities. Partial personality, in particular in the field of human rights, is recognized for the natural/legal persons. Protection of property, as well as investment, is considered to be one of the most fundamental human rights embedded in constitutions and international treaties. Therefore, investors have a right to protect their injured rights by bringing claims in international tribunals. There are quite a few mechanisms for the protection of investors’ rights in the domain of international law. Such as international institutional arbitration, ad hoc arbitration, ECHR, ICSID and diplomatic protection by investor’s state of nationality. The analysis of the investment protection mechanisms wouldn’t be completed without the analysis of the notion of investor itself. There is no universal definition of the notion of investor. In most BIT this notion differs because of the different interests of capital exporting and capital importing countries... [to full text]

With the fast adoption of LTE and IEEE 802.11N, more devices are employing multiple antennas to boost the data rate and reliability of the communication link. Traditionally, fixed antennas are used in such devices. In recent years, reconfigurable antennas have been sought out to further boost the performance, which can adaptor to the changing wireless channel by altering their radiation characteristics, and maintain or exceed the performance of fixed antennas. This thesis studies the possibility of performance increase using pattern reconfigurable antennas as receivers. Their performance potential was first estimated using simulations, and then demonstrated using two electrically steerable passive array radiator (ESPAR) antennas against a pair of monopole antennas on a hardware bit error rate (BER) testbed. The former produces equal performance in BER with certain pattern combinations and excels in theoretical capacity with substantial lead making pattern reconfigurable antenna a potent option as receiver in MIMO-related applications.

With the fast adoption of LTE and IEEE 802.11N, more devices are employing multiple antennas to boost the data rate and reliability of the communication link. Traditionally, fixed antennas are used in such devices. In recent years, reconfigurable antennas have been sought out to further boost the performance, which can adaptor to the changing wireless channel by altering their radiation characteristics, and maintain or exceed the performance of fixed antennas. This thesis studies the possibility of performance increase using pattern reconfigurable antennas as receivers. Their performance potential was first estimated using simulations, and then demonstrated using two electrically steerable passive array radiator (ESPAR) antennas against a pair of monopole antennas on a hardware bit error rate (BER) testbed. The former produces equal performance in BER with certain pattern combinations and excels in theoretical capacity with substantial lead making pattern reconfigurable antenna a potent option as receiver in MIMO-related applications.

No description available.

Αντικείμενο της διπλωματικής αυτής εργασίας είναι η σχεδίαση, εξομοίωση και υλοποίηση συστήματος οδήγησης ψηφιακής συστοιχίας ηχείων με 5-bit PCM και 1-bit Σ-Δ σήματα εισόδου, δια μέσω διαφορετικών τεχνικών ανάθεσης των bits της πληροφορίας σε κάθε ηλεκτροακουστικό μετατροπέα της συστοιχίας, και ο υπολογισμός της απόκρισης πλάτους της συστοιχίας και των THD και THD+N σε διάφορες θέσεις ακρόασης. Τέλος γίνεται σύγκριση των αποτελεσμάτων μεταξύ εξομοίωσης και υλοποίησης. / The object of this thesis is the design, simulation and implementation of a system driving a digital transducer array loudspeaker with 5-bit PCM and 1-bit Sigma-Delta input signals, by applying different bit allocation methods on the transducers of the array, and the calculation of the array's amplitude response, THD and THD+N at different positions. Finally, simulation and implementation results are contrasted.

Comprendre l'interaction lumière-matière est toujours un sujet d'actualité malgré des décennies de recherche intense. Grâce au large couplage lumière-matière présent dans les circuits quantiques supraconducteurs, il est maintenant possible d'effectuer des expériences où la dynamique d'environnements contenant beaucoup de degrés de liberté, devient pertinente. Ainsi, relier la physique à N-corps, généralement réservée à la matières condensée, et l’optique quantique est à portée de main.Dans ce travail, nous présentons un système totalement accordable in-situ pour étudier l'interaction lumière-matière à N-corps (N grand) dans différents régimes de couplage. Le circuit est constitué d'un bit quantique de type transmon (“la matière”) couplé capacitivement à une chaîne de 4700 jonctions Josephson en géométrie squid. Cette chaîne supporte de nombreux modes électromagnétiques ou modes plasma (“la lumière”). Grâce à la grande inductance cinétique des jonctions Josephson, la chaîne présente une impédance caractéristique élevée ce qui augmente significativement le couplage qubit-modes. Les squids dans le transmon et dans la chaîne nous permettent de modifier la force de ce couplage en appliquant un flux magnétique.Avec ce sytème, nous avons les trois ingrédients requis pour explorer la physique à N-corps: un environnement avec une grande densité de modes électromagnétiques, un couplage lumière-matière ultra-fort, et une non linéarité comparable aux autres échelles d'énergie pertinentes. De plus, nous présentons un traitement de l'effet des fluctuations du vide de ce large nombre de degrées de liberté. Ce qui nous permet d'obtenir un modèle quantitatif et sans paramètre libre de ce système complexe. Finalement, à partir du décalage de phase induit par le transmon sur les modes de la chaîne, le transmon phase shift, nous quantifions l’hybridation du qubit transmon avec plusieurs modes de la chaîne (jusqu'à 10 modes) et obtenons la fréquence de résonance du transmon, ainsi que sa largeur, confirmant que nous sommes dans le régime de couplage ultra-fort.Ce travail démontre que les circuits quantiques sont un outil puissant pour explorer l'optique quantique à N-corps de manière totalement contrôlée. Combiner des métamatériaux supraconducteurs et des qubits devrait permettre de mettre en évidence des effets à N-corps qualitatifs, comme le décalage de Lamb géant, d’observer des états non-classiques de la lumière ou la production de particules ou encore de simuler des problèmes d’impuretés quantiques (par exemple le modèle de Kondo ou celui de Sine-Gordon) et des transitions de phase quantiques dissipatives. / Understanding the way light and matter interact remains a central topic in modern physics despite decades of intensive research. Owing to the large light-matter interaction in superconducting circuits, it is now realistic to think about experiments where the dynamics of environments containing many degrees of freedom becomes relevant. It suggests that bridging many-body physics, usually devoted to condensed matter, and quantum optics is within reach.In this work we present a fully tunable system for studying light-matter interaction with many bodies at different coupling regimes. The circuit consists of a transmon qubit (“the matter”) capacitively coupled to an array of 4700 Josephson junctions in a squid geometry, sustaining many electromagnetic or plasma modes (“the light”). Thanks to the large kinetic inductance of Josephson junctions, the array shows a high characteristic impedance that enhances the qubit-modes coupling. The squids in the transmon and in the array allow us to tune the strength of this coupling via an external magnetic flux.We observe the three required ingredients to explore many-body physics: an environment with a high density of electromagnetic modes, the ultra-strong light-matter coupling regime and a non-linearity comparable to the other relevant energy scales. Moreover, we present a method to treat the effect of the vacuum fluctuations of all these degrees of freedom. Thus we provide a quantitative and parameter-free model of this large quantum system. Finally, from the phase shift induced by the transmon on the modes of the array, the transmon phase shift, we quantify the hybridization of the transmon qubit with several modes in the array (up to 10) and obtain the transmon resonance frequency and its width, demonstrating that we are in the ultra-strong coupling regime.This work demonstrates that quantum circuits are a very powerful platform to explore many-body quantum optics in a fully controlled way. Combining superconducting metamaterials and qubits could allow us to observe qualitative many-body effects such as giant lambshift, non-classical states of light and particle productions or to simulate quantum impurity problems (such as the Kondo model or the sine-Gordon model) and dissipative quantum phase transitions.

Árvore de componentes é uma representação completa de imagens que utiliza componentes conexos dos conjuntos de níveis de uma imagem e a relação de inclusão entre esses componentes. Essas informações possibilitam diversas aplicações em processamento de imagens e visão computacional, e.g. filtros conexos, segmentação, extração de características entre outras. Aplicações que utilizam árvore de componentes geralmente computam atributos que descrevem os componentes conexos representados pelos nós da árvore. Entre esses atributos estão a área, o perímetro e o número de Euler, que podem ser utilizados diretamente ou indiretamente (para o cálculo de outros atributos). Os \"bit-quads\" são padrões de tamanho 2x2 binários que são agrupados em determinados conjuntos e contados em imagens binárias. Embora o uso de \"bit-quads\" resulte em um método rápido para calcular atributos em imagens binárias, o mesmo não ocorre para o cálculo de atributos dos nós de uma árvore de componentes, porque os padrões contados em um nó podem se repetir nos conjuntos de níveis da imagem e serem contados mais de uma vez. A literatura recente propõe uma adaptação dos bit-quads para o cálculo incremental e eficiente do número de buracos na árvore de componentes. Essa adaptação utiliza o fato de cada nó da árvore de componentes representar um único componente conexo e uma das definições do número de Euler para o cálculo do número de buracos. Embora essa adaptação possa calcular o número de Euler, os outros atributos (área e perímetro) não podem ser computados. Neste trabalho é apresentada uma extensão dessa adaptação de bit-quads que permite a contagem de todos os agrupamentos de bit-quads de maneira incremental e eficiente na árvore de componentes. De forma que o método proposto possa calcular todos os atributos que podem ser obtidos pelos bit-quads (além do número de buracos) em imagens binárias na árvore de componentes de maneira incremental. / Component tree is a full image representation which uses the connected components of the level sets of the image and these connected components\' inclusion relationship. This information can be used in various image processing and computational vision applications, e.g. connected filters, segmentation, feature extraction, among others. In general, applications which use component trees compute attributes that describe the connected components represented by the tree nodes. Attributes such as area, perimeter and Euler number, can be used directly or indirectly (when they are used to compute other attributes) to describe the component tree nodes in various applications. The bit-quads are binary patterns of size 2x2 that are grouped in determined sets and counted in binary images to compute area, perimeter (also their continuous approximation) and Euler number. Even though the bit-quads usage can yield an efficient method to compute binary image attributes, they cannot be used efficiently to compute attributes for all component tree nodes, since some bit-quads can be counted more than once over the level sets. An adaptation of the bit-quads has been proposed to compute efficiently and incrementally the number of holes for all component tree nodes. This adaptation uses the fact that each component tree node represents a unique connected component and one of Euler number definitions to compute the number of holes. Even though this adaptation can compute Euler number, it cannot compute other attributes derived from the bit-quads (area and perimeter). In this work, an extension of this adaptation is proposed to efficiently and incrementally count all bit-quads sets in a component tree. Moreover, it yields a method to compute all attributes which can be computed by the bit-quads in binary images in the component tree using an incremental strategy.