Ultra wideband (UWB) has the potential for high data rates, ranging and positioning. A UWB communication system's design requires knowledge regarding the channel. This thesis investigates the effect that different antenna orientations have on the wireless channel; in an indoor office environment. Channel reciprocity, path loss, body shadowing and spatial correlation are investigated for the frequency band 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The measurements are performed in the frequency domain. UWB channels are shown to be highly reciprocal in all instances. Path loss versus distance was determined for line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) scenarios. Body shadowing is measured for an average Caucasian male, and the root mean square (RMS) delay spread and received power loss plotted spatially. The spatial correlation is investigated using a two dimensional grid. A comparison between the horizontal and vertical polarization is made. / Graduate

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Expertise is undoubtedly a feature of policy areas in contemporary societies; inputs of formal knowledge are important components of the policy process. The post- 1945 period, in Britain, has witnessed a proliferation and diversification in both the number and type of expert, and expert group used in policy areas. This situation poses both theoretical and empirical difficulties for any analysis of the role and influence of expert groups. The thesis focuses upon expert groups in the policy process, the nature and reasons for their influence, and the subsequent democratic and normative implications raised by such an analysis. The thesis makes an assessment of the various definitions of the expert, as well as a thorough examination of technocracy. Moreover, the nature of expertise is examined to demonstrate how expert influence may alter at different levels in the policy-making process. It is contended that complexity, and a corresponding requirement of legitimacy, are the primary reasons for the use of experts in policy areas. This analysis is placed in historical context since 1945, a period that has witnessed alterations in both the nature and type of expert and expert group, the level of demand for expertise, and the reasons for that demand, made by policy- makers for expert input. This theoretical and historical overview is utilised in the analysis of two diverse case studies of policy sub-sectors: the case of air pollution and asthma, and the siting of the route of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Although distinct in nature, it is shown that within both of these policy areas expert groups operate on a formal mandate, as a result of complexity and a requirement of legitimacy. And furthermore, that the primary effect of the complex nature of the policy-making process, and the corresponding use of expert knowledge to legitimate policy, is on the level and type of political participation.

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In this thesis, the 2×2 MIMO performance of several low mutual coupling antennas has been investigated in indoor and hallway scenarios. Three compact antennas intended for mobile applications with low mutual coupling between the input ports are presented in this thesis. To gauge the performances of the three designed antennas, two reference antennas are also used. Channel capacity measurements were conducted in Bahen Center Antenna Lab room 8175 and the Bahen Center 8th floor hallway by using the five antennas as receivers. The antenna spatial location, orientation, line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight situation and richness of multipath effect were considered in the measurements. By averaging the results, it is found that in an indoor environment, low mutual coupling antennas can outperform the reference high mutual coupling antennas especially in higher SNR scenarios. In the hallway environment, low mutual coupling antennas always outperform the reference high mutual coupling antennas due to pattern diversity.

In this thesis, the 2×2 MIMO performance of several low mutual coupling antennas has been investigated in indoor and hallway scenarios. Three compact antennas intended for mobile applications with low mutual coupling between the input ports are presented in this thesis. To gauge the performances of the three designed antennas, two reference antennas are also used. Channel capacity measurements were conducted in Bahen Center Antenna Lab room 8175 and the Bahen Center 8th floor hallway by using the five antennas as receivers. The antenna spatial location, orientation, line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight situation and richness of multipath effect were considered in the measurements. By averaging the results, it is found that in an indoor environment, low mutual coupling antennas can outperform the reference high mutual coupling antennas especially in higher SNR scenarios. In the hallway environment, low mutual coupling antennas always outperform the reference high mutual coupling antennas due to pattern diversity.

Recently, it has been postulated that fatigue is a mechanism to protect the muscle fiber from deleterious ATP depletion and cell death. The ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel is believed to play a major role in this mechanism. Under metabolic stress, the channels open, reducing membrane excitability, Ca2+ release and force production. This alleviates energy demand within the fiber, as activation of the channel reduces ATP consumption from cellular ATPases. Loss of KATP channel activity during fatigue results in excessive intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) levels, likely entering the fiber through L-type Ca2+ channels. It has been demonstrated that when mouse muscle lacking functional KATP channels are stimulated to fatigue, ATP levels become significantly lower than wild type levels. Thus, it was hypothesized that a lack of KATP channel activity impairs energy metabolism, resulting in insufficient ATP production. The focus of work for this M.Sc. project was to test this hypothesis. Fatigue was elicited in Kir6.2-/- FDB muscles for three min followed by 15 min recovery. After 60 sec, a 2.6-fold greater glycogen breakdown was observed in Kir6.2-/- FDB compared to wild type FDB. However, this effect disappeared thereafter, as there were no longer any differences between wild type and Kir6.2-/- FDB in glycogen breakdown by 180 sec. Glucose oxidation after 60 sec was also greater in Kir6.2-/- FDB compared to wild type FDB. However, levels of oxidation failed to increase in Kir6.2-/- FDB from 60 to 180 sec. Calculated ATP production during the fatigue period was 2.7-times greater in Kir6.2-/- FDB, yet measured ATP levels during fatigue are much lower in Kir6.2-/- FDB compared to wild type FDB. Taken together, it appears that muscle energy metabolism is impaired in the absence KATP channel activity.

The security of information is an indispensable element of a communication system when transmitted signals are vulnerable to eavesdropping. This issue is a challenging problem in a wireless network as propagated signals can be easily captured by unauthorized receivers, and so achieving a perfectly secure communication is a desire in such a wiretap channel. On the other hand, cryptographic algorithms usually lack to attain this goal due to the following restrictive assumptions made for their design. First, wiretappers basically have limited computational power and time. Second, each authorized party has often access to a reasonably large sequence of uniform random bits concealed from wiretappers. To guarantee the security of information, Information Theory (IT) offers the following two approaches based on physical-layer security. First, IT suggests using wiretap (block) codes to securely and reliably transmit messages over a noisy wiretap channel. No confidential common key is usually required for the wiretap codes. The secrecy problem investigates an optimum wiretap code that achieves the secrecy capacity of a given wiretap channel. Second, IT introduces key agreement (block) codes to exchange keys between legitimate parties over a wiretap model. The agreed keys are to be reliable, secure, and (uniformly) random, at least in an asymptotic sense, such that they can be finally employed in symmetric key cryptography for data transmission. The key agreement problem investigates an optimum key agreement code that obtains the key capacity of a given wiretap model. In this thesis, we study the key agreement problem for two wiretap models: a Discrete Memoryless (DM) model and a Gaussian model. Each model consists of a wiretap channel paralleled with an authenticated public channel. The wiretap channel is from a transmitter, called Alice, to an authorized receiver, called Bob, and to a wiretapper, called Eve. The Probability Transition Function (PTF) of the wiretap channel is controlled by a random sequence of Channel State Information (CSI), which is assumed to be non-causally available at Alice. The capacity of the public channel is C_P₁∈[0,∞) in the forward direction from Alice to Bob and C_P₂∈[0,∞) in the backward direction from Bob to Alice. For each model, the key capacity as a function of the pair (C_P₁, C_P₂) is denoted by C_K(C_P₁, C_P₂). We investigate the forward key capacity of each model, i.e., C_K(C_P₁, 0) in this thesis. We also study the key generation over the Gaussian model when Eve's channel is less noisy than Bob's. In the DM model, the wiretap channel is a Discrete Memoryless State-dependent Wiretap Channel (DM-SWC) in which Bob and Eve each may also have access to a sequence of Side Information (SI) dependent on the CSI. We establish a Lower Bound (LB) and an Upper Bound (UB) on the forward key capacity of the DM model. When the model is less noisy in Bob's favor, another UB on the forward key capacity is derived. The achievable key agreement code is asymptotically optimum as C_P₁→ ∞. For any given DM model, there also exists a finite capacity C⁰_P₁, which is determined by the DM-SWC, such that the forward key capacity is achievable if C_P₁≥ C⁰_P₁. Moreover, the key generation is saturated at capacity C_P₁= C⁰_P₁, and thus increasing the public channel capacity beyond C⁰_P₁ makes no improvement on the forward key capacity of the DM model. If the CSI is fully known at Bob in addition to Alice, C⁰_P₁=0, and so the public channel has no contribution in key generation when the public channel is in the forward direction. The achievable key agreement code of the DM model exploits both a random generator and the CSI as resources for key generation at Alice. The randomness property of channel states can be employed for key generation, and so the agreed keys depend on the CSI in general. However, a message is independent of the CSI in a secrecy problem. Hence, we justify that the forward key capacity can exceed both the main channel capacity and the secrecy capacity of the DM-SWC. In the Gaussian model, the wiretap channel is a Gaussian State-dependent Wiretap Channel (G-SWC) with Additive White Gaussian Interference (AWGI) having average power Λ. For simplicity, no side information is assumed at Bob and Eve. Bob's channel and Eve's channel suffer from Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), where the correlation coefficient between noise of Bob's channel and that of Eve's channel is given by ϱ. We prove that the forward key capacity of the Gaussian model is independent of ϱ. Moreover, we establish that the forward key capacity is positive unless Eve's channel is less noisy than Bob's. We also prove that the key capacity of the Gaussian model vanishes if the G-SWC is physically degraded in Eve's favor. However, we justify that obtaining a positive key capacity is feasible even if Eve's channel is less noisy than Bob's according to our achieved LB on the key capacity for case (C_P₁, C_P₂)→ (∞, ∞). Hence, the key capacity of the Gaussian model is a function of ϱ. In this thesis, an LB on the forward key capacity of the Gaussian model is achieved. For a fixed Λ, the achievable key agreement code is optimum for any C_P₁∈[0,∞) in both low Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) and high SIR regimes. We show that the forward key capacity is asymptotically independent of C_P₁ and Λ as the SIR goes to infinity, and thus the public channel and the interference have negligible contributions in key generation in the high SIR regime. On the other hand, the forward key capacity is a function of C_P₁ and Λ in the low SIR regime. Contributions of the interference and the public channel in key generation are significant in the low SIR regime that will be illustrated by simulations. The proposed key agreement code asymptotically achieves the forward key capacity of the Gaussian model for any SIR as C_P₁→ ∞. Hence, C_K(∞,0) is calculated, and it is suggested as a UB on C_K(C_P₁,0). Using simulations, we also compute the minimum required C_P₁ for which the forward key capacity is upper bounded within a given tolerance. The achievable key agreement code is designed based on a generalized version of the Dirty Paper Coding (DPC) in which transmitted signals are correlated with the CSI. The correlation coefficient is to be determined by C_P₁. In contrast to the DM model, the LB on the forward key capacity of a Gaussian model is a strictly increasing function of C_P₁ according to our simulations. This fact is an essential difference between this model and the DM model. For C_P₁=0 and a fixed Λ, the forward key capacity of the Gaussian model exceeds the main channel capacity of the G-SWC in the low SIR regime. By simulations, we show that the interference enhances key generation in the low SIR regime. In this regime, we also justify that the positive effect of the interference on the (forward) key capacity is generally more than its positive effect on the secrecy capacity of the G-SWC, while the interference has no influence on the main channel capacity of the G-SWC.

In this thesis, various pilot symbol aided channel estimation and tracking methods are investigated and their performances are compared for an OFDM system with packet based communication on HF channel. For the HF channel, Watterson HF channel model is used. The compared methods are least squares (LS) channel estimation, linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) channel estimation, least mean squares (LMS) channel tracking, recursive least squares (RLS) channel tracking, constant position model based Kalman filter channel tracking, and constant velocity model based Kalman filter channel tracking. For LMS and RLS methods some adaptive approaches are also investigated.