Because of the advancement of wireless networks, it is important to provide quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees as they are expected to support multimedia applications. In this paper we propose a new bandwidth reservation scheme based on the characteristic of the cell equipped with sector antenna. According to this information, the proposed scheme can predict the next location of each connection and precisely reserve bandwidth in appropriate neighboring cells, not all of its neighboring cells. Besides, the proposed scheme uses bandwidth borrowing mechanism to be our call admission control strategy. The combination of bandwidth reservation and bandwidth borrowing provides network users with QoS in terms of guaranteed bandwidth, call blocking and call dropping probabilities.

This paper utilizes a sample of 6,185 locally-issued, general obligation municipal bonds to examine the relationship between a city’s cumulative pension contributions and its cost of borrowing. Following the Great Recession unfunded public pension liabilities have soared to record highs, which, in theory, represent additional credit risks and may hinder local governments’ ability to service their outstanding debt. After controlling for bond characteristics, bond ratings, and issuer characteristics, the empirical analysis finds a statistically significant correlation between pension costs and borrowing costs, defined as the spread between the effective offering yield on municipal debt and the yield on a maturity-matched treasury on the municipal bond’s date of issuance. The results suggest that a 1% increase in cumulative city pension costs as a percent of city revenue is associated with an increase in yield spreads ranging from 1.2 to 3.5 basis points. These findings indicate that municipal bond investors do in fact consider pension expenses when pricing municipal bonds and suggest that addressing unfunded pension liabilities by mandating higher annual contributions will lead to higher borrowing costs for local governments.

We explore using pulsed latches for timing optimization -- a first in the academic FPGA community. Pulsed latches are transparent latches driven by a clock with a non-standard (i.e. not 50%) duty cycle. As latches are already present on commercial FPGAs, their use for timing optimization can avoid the power or area drawbacks associated with other techniques such as clock skew and retiming. We propose algorithms that automatically replace certain flip-flops with latches for performance gains. Under conservative short path or minimum delay assumptions, our latch-based optimization, operating on already routed designs, provides all the benefit of clock skew in most cases and increases performance by 9%, on average, essentially for "free". We show that short paths greatly hinder the ability of using pulsed latches, and further improvements in performance are possible by increasing the delay of certain short paths.

We explore using pulsed latches for timing optimization -- a first in the academic FPGA community. Pulsed latches are transparent latches driven by a clock with a non-standard (i.e. not 50%) duty cycle. As latches are already present on commercial FPGAs, their use for timing optimization can avoid the power or area drawbacks associated with other techniques such as clock skew and retiming. We propose algorithms that automatically replace certain flip-flops with latches for performance gains. Under conservative short path or minimum delay assumptions, our latch-based optimization, operating on already routed designs, provides all the benefit of clock skew in most cases and increases performance by 9%, on average, essentially for "free". We show that short paths greatly hinder the ability of using pulsed latches, and further improvements in performance are possible by increasing the delay of certain short paths.

The present study sought to contribute to the research on Chinese orthography and borrowing by testing native Chinese readers' understanding of different semantically and phonetically oriented borrowing paradigms in order to investigate the constraints the writing system has placed on the semantics and phonology of the language. Building on other pertinent qualitative studies which have established that Chinese orthography works as a "morphosyllabic" syllabary, this study identified both phonetic and semantic elements present in the writing system. A quantitative study was carried out using seven discrete orthographic borrowing strategies which tested both real and invented loanwords on native Chinese readers. In addition, the study asked native Chinese readers to borrow English words into Chinese orthography through any orthographic means. Analysis of this study revealed that a lack of congruity is present in Chinese borrowing, which in turn hampers understanding. Furthermore, many borrowing strategies are dependent on certain constraints. These constraints are examined in detail via a proposed borrowing continuum. Possible solutions and the direction the writing system may take are further discussed.

This thesis examines the bilingual discourse of a cohort of Belizean Spanish speakers who engage in robust language mixing between Spanish, English and to a lesser extent Belize Kriol, an English-lexified creole. The speakers selected for the current study have been identified as the “highest language mixers” in a corpus of 51 interviews conducted in northern and western Belize, areas which have been classified as two distinct dialect regions (Cardona Ramírez 2010; Hagerty 1979). While an abundance of research exists on Spanish-English bilingualism in the U.S. (e.g. Torres Cacoullos and Travis 2014; Silva Corvalán 1994; Roca and Lipksi 1993) there is less research on non-U.S. varieties of Spanish in contact with English, in particular, Belizean varieties of Spanish. Thus, by appealing to the comparative variationist framework (Poplack and Tagliamonte 2001), the major aims of the study are: (i) to describe the major patterns of use among those speakers of Belizean varieties of Spanish who engage in language mixing and, (ii) to determine the status of the single and multiword English-origin fragments which comprise the majority of non-native material in Spanish discourse. In determining the status of the English-origin material with regard to borrowing and code-switching, not only are the specific linguistic mechanisms used by these speakers elucidated, but insights are gained as to whether code-switching and borrowing are distinct linguistic phenomena. Diagnostics of subject position and gender and number agreement on English-origin nouns and verbal morphology and variable clitic placement for English-origin verbs revealed both these categories to pattern with Spanish suggesting that they are borrowings. The remaining one-third of the data, comprised of multiword fragments, consisted primarily of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching and a large category of multiword fragments which initially appeared to be neither code-switches nor borrowings. A comparative quantitative analysis revealed these items to be integrated into Spanish suggesting that they may be treated as single units of meaning. Results, for the most part, are consonant with the literature on bilingual speech. Data consists mainly of lexical borrowing (Thomason 2001; Pfaff 1979; Berk-Seligson 1986), specifically nouns, the most borrowed category cross-linguistically (Muysken 2000; Poplack et al. 1988). Speakers engage in “skilled” or equivalence intrasentential code-switching consistent with other Spanish-English data (Poplack 1980). In addition, only those speakers who reported being equally dominant in the respective languages exhibited robust intrasentential code-switching, thus, concurring with the prevailing assertion that code-switching is the domain of fluent bilinguals (Bullock and Toribio 2012; Lipski 1985; Poplack 1980). Some distinctive features of the language mixing employed by these speakers include the frequent and productive use of bilingual compound verbs (BCV) and a near categorical preference for BCVs as the mechanism for borrowing English-origin verbs. With regard to Spanish determiner marking on English-origin nouns, the masculine default is used almost exclusively, unlike the variability reported elsewhere (Dubord 2004; Smead 2000). By analyzing data from both dialect regions of Belize, this study provides insight both into the global picture of language mixing practices in Belize as well as regional patterns insofar as they are instantiated by the cohort analyzed.

L’objectif de la thèse est d’apporter de nouveaux éléments d’analyse sur les limites de l’emprunt. Elle comprend quatre chapitres qui fournissent des éléments théoriques, méthodologiques et empiriques. Le premier chapitre contribue à la théorie des limites de l’emprunt par une étude des prêteurs en dernier ressort (PDR). Le second chapitre constitue un apport méthodologique en introduisant une nouvelle approche pour tester et mesurer empiriquement les limites de l’emprunt. Il contribue également à la compréhension empirique des limites de l’emprunt en appliquant une nouvelle approche pour tester le comportement cyclique et les effets de la réglementation sur les limites de l’emprunt. Le troisième chapitre est un apport sur les effets des limites de l’emprunt sur la consommation. Le quatrième chapitre, enfin, présente de nouveaux éléments empiriques sur l’impact de la propriété bancaire sur les limites de l’emprunt durant une crise financière. / The aim of this PhD dissertation is to provide new insights about the limits of borrowing. It includes four essays which provide theoretical, methodological and empirical results. The first chapter contributes to the theory of limits of borrowing by a study of lender of last resort (LOLR) in an original model. The second chapter contributes to methodology by introducing a new approach to test and measure the limits of borrowing econometrically. It also contributes to the empirical understanding of the limits of borrowing by applying the new approach to test the cyclical behavior and the effects of regulation on the limits of borrowing. The third chapter contributes to our empirical understanding of the effect of limits of borrowing on consumption. The fourth chapter yields new insight about the effect of bank ownership on the limits of borrowing during a financial crisis.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014

There is a growing and legitimate concern about sovereign debt increasing to unsustainable levels among the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Understanding the determinants of external debt to these countries influenced the direction of this study. The existing literature that was examined shed light mostly on the qualitative determinants of sovereign borrowing. In addition to existing empirical literature, there is a complimentary need to examine further the quantitative determinants of external debt. The researcher seeks to establish the extent to which the cost of borrowing (proxied by interest rate) explains the changes in the borrowing behaviour (proxied by external debt) among SSA countries. To achieve this objective, data from 36 SSA countries for the period 2009–2017 was used. The data were collected from International Debt Statistics compiled by the World Bank. External debt has been regressed against interest rate and other predictor variables. Hausman tests, robustness tests and collinearity tests were carried out to ascertain the validity of results. Interest rate is found to have a positive determining impact on external debt for all SSA countries aggregated: SSA countries excluding South Africa (SA); SSA excluding Nigeria; SSA excluding Nigeria and SA; SSA excluding debt-distressed countries, middle income and oilexporting countries. It does not have predictive power over changes in external debt for SSA excluding countries at high risk of distress; countries with low to moderate risk of distress; heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative post-implementation recipient countries; low income, other resource intensive and non-resource-intensive countries. External debt is also found to respond to changes in: gross national income (GNI); exports-to-imports ratio; primary income on foreign direct investment (FDI); reserves-to-imports ratio; FDI-to-GNI ratio; debt service-to-GNI ratio; interest arrears on long-term debt; short-term-to-total-debt ratio; and reserves-to-debt ratio for different country groupings. Different country groupings are found to have unique combinations of external debt determinants.

Fractures for Clarinet and Computer is a piece for live interactive performance using custom software designed in Max/MSP. the work explores musical borrowing and transformation of music from works such as Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and several fragments from synthesizer recordings of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. the dissertation focuses on both the musical aesthetics that informed the creation of the work and the software programming that enables live sampling and harmonization systems as well as flexible control of global parameters.