Large ice blocks containing enough sediment to be denser than sea water form in the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy. The timing of ice block formation and ice block composition were monitored to improve understanding of the potential threat to tidal power generators posed by collision with ice blocks. Large blocks are produced from ice cliffs that form when anchored ice obstructs tidal channels and decreases flow speed. Decreased flow causes the channel cross-sectional area to decrease. In 2012, the Kennetcook River cross- sectional area decreased by 21% due to the formation of ice cliffs. Large ice blocks separated from the walls during the two spring tides following a 20-day time lag of the minimum air temperature. Ten percent of sampled ice blocks were denser than freshwater. Four of twelve ice cores collected from the ice cliffs along the Kennetcook River contained enough sediment to become denser than seawater.

The Coats-Hines site (40WM31) is a potential pre-Clovis site located in Franklin, Tennessee. The site rests, geographically, at the convergence of the Central Basin and Western Highland Rim. The site was discovered during the construction of a nearby golf course when a salvage team uncovered a mature female mastodon.. The site was later excavated in 1994-1995, during which time two additional mastodons were uncovered, in direct association with lithic artifacts. Preliminary radiocarbon dates reveal the site was deposited during the late Pleistocene epoch at roughly 12,000^(14)C yr BP. During the summer of 2012, the site was excavated with the goal of determining the depositional setting of the site and geographic region, as well as establishing the antiquity of the archaeological remains. The site geology was determined through field interpretation and texturing, micromorphological analysis, laboratory particle size analysis, and radiocarbon dating. Sedimentation at the site is a combination of cherty colluvium from upslope as well as alluvium. Four chronostratigraphic sequences of sedimentation were determined to have occurred during the last glacial, the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the Holocene, and modern time periods. The volume, distribution, and composition of the nine defined stratigraphic units are dependent on the fluctuations occurring in the climate during these time periods. The climate changes and rates of deposition occurring at Coats-Hines were correlated to similar sites in the region. The Coats-Hines site was surveyed along the wet-weather drainage that bounds the site during in the spring of 2013. A channel unconformity was discovered, likely dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and providing context to the 1994/1995 excavation.

Joint source-channel coding (JSCC) has been acknowledged to have superior performance over separate source-channel coding in terms of coding efficiency, delay and complexity. In the first part of this thesis, we study a hybrid digital-analog (HDA) JSCC system to transmit a memoryless Gaussian source over a memoryless Gaussian channel under bandwidth compression. Information-theoretic upper bounds on the asymptotically optimal mean squared error distortion of the system are obtained. An allocation scheme for distributing the channel input power between the analog and the digital signals is derived for the HDA system with mismatched channel conditions. A low-complexity and low-delay version of the system is next designed and implemented. We then propose an image communication application demonstrating the effectiveness of HDA coding. In the second part of this thesis, we consider problems in information hiding. We begin by considering a single-user joint compression and private watermarking (JCPW) problem. For memoryless Gaussian sources and memoryless Gaussian attacks, an exponential upper bound on the probability of error in decoding the watermark is derived. Numerical examples show that the error exponent is positive over a (large) subset of the entire achievable region derived by Karakos and Papamarcou (2003). We then extend the JCPW problem to a multi-user setting. Two encoders independently embed two secret information messages into two correlated host sources subject to a pair of tolerable distortion levels. The (compressed) outputs are subject to multiple access attacks. The tradeoff between the achievable watermarking rates and the compression rates is studied for discrete memoryless host sources and discrete memoryless multiple access channels. We derive an inner bound and an outer bound with single-letter characterization for the achievable compression and watermarking rate region. We next consider a problem where two correlated sources are separately embedded into a common host source. A single-letter sufficient condition is established under which the sources can be successfully embedded into the host source under multiple access attacks. Finally, we investigate a public two-user information hiding problem under multiple access attacks. Inner and outer bounds for the embedding capacity region are obtained with single-letter characterization. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-28 23:11:21.398

Empowered by linear precoding and decoding, a spatially multiplexed multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system becomes a convenient framework to offer high data rate, diversity and interference management. While most of the current precoding/decoding designs have assumed perfect channel state information (CSI) at the receiver, and sometimes even at the transmitter, in this thesis we design the precoder and decoder with imperfect CSI at both the transmit and the receive sides, and investigate the joint impact of channel estimation errors and channel correlation on system structure and performance. The mean-square error (MSE) related performance metrics are used as the design criteria. We begin with the minimum total MSE precoding/decoding design for a single-user MIMO system assuming imperfect CSI at both ends. Here the CSI includes the channel estimate and channel correlation information. The structures of the optimum precoder and decoder are determined. Compared to the perfect CSI case, linear filters are added to the transceiver structure to improve system robustness against imperfect CSI. The effects of channel estimation error and channel correlation are quantified by simulations. With imperfect CSI at both ends, the exact capacity expression for a single-user MIMO channel is difficult to obtain. Instead, a tight capacity lower-bound is used for system design. The optimum structure of the transmit covariance matrix for the lower-bound has not been found in the existing literature. By transforming the transmitter design into a joint precoding/decoding design problem, we derive the expression of the optimum transmit covariance matrix. The close relationship between the maximum mutual information design and the minimum total MSE design is also discovered assuming imperfect CSI. For robust multiuser MIMO communications, minimum average sum MSE transceiver (precoder-decoder pairs) design problems are formulated for both the uplink and the downlink, assuming imperfect channel estimation and channel correlation at the base station (BS). We propose improved iterative algorithms based on the associated Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. Under the assumption of imperfect CSI, an uplink--downlink duality in average sum MSE is proved. As an alternative for the uplink optimization, a sequential semidefinite programming (SDP) method is proposed. Simulation results are provided to corroborate the analysis. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-25 10:53:45.175

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No description available.

No description available.

Infrastructure wireless mesh networks (IWMNs) provide inexpensive deployment, flexible extension of wireless infrastructure, and easy access to the Internet. With multiple radios at each node, a capacity per node improves by transmitting over these radios simultaneously using orthogonal channels. However, without properly addressing the problem of channel assignment and routing for those nodes that form wireless infrastructures, the resulting network throughput and reliability are unlikely to meet the requirements of those highly demanding, media distribution applications. On a particular channel, poor resource allocation at a given access point/gateway of the underlying IWMN can amplify the problem even further. Motivated by these problems, we develop, based on the theory of network coding, a set of alternative solutions that addresses the above issues. We first introduce a sub-optimal solution to the joint problem of network coding, channel assignment and link scheduling for throughput optimization in the multi-channel multi-radio IWMN. We mathematically formulate the problem as a linear program, taking into account opportunistic overhearing, among other constraints. Based on this formulation, we develop a sub-optimal, auction-based algorithm for network throughput optimization. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of our algorithm in exploiting multiple radios and channels while coping with fairness issues arising from auctions. The proposed solution also shows promising gains over traditional routing solutions. Our experimental results on an 802.11 testbed further confirm these results. The second part of this thesis then presents three AP/gateway-oriented solutions that address the link-level issues related to radio resource allocation at a particular AP/gateway node of the underlying IWMN, which operates on a given channel serving a set of wireless clients. Since the last-hop wireless link is normally a bottleneck of the IWMN, the key idea underlying all the proposed solutions is to use a version of network coding at the bottlenecked AP/gateway. We use Markov chains and the probability theory to derive several performance measures related to media distribution for both uplink and downlink applications. Via extensive simulations, we show the promising delay and reliability gains of the network-coding based schemes over the traditional schemes without network coding.

Broadband wireless access systems can be used to deliver a variety of high data rate applications and services. Many of the channels being considered for such applications exhibit multipath propagation coupled with large delay spreads. Cur- rently, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is employed in these channels to compensate the effect of dispersion. Single carrier (SC) modulation in conjunc- tion with frequency-domain equalization (FDE) at the receiver has been shown to be a practical alternate solution as it has lower peak to average power ratio and is less sensitive to frequency offsets and phase noise compared to OFDM. The effect of multipath propagation increases with increasing data rate for SC systems. This leads to larger inter-symbol-interference (ISI) spans. In addition the achievable ca- pacity of SC-broadband systems depends on their ability to accommodate multiple signal transmissions in the same frequency band, which results in co-channel inter- ference (CCI) when detecting the desired data stream. The effects of CCI and ISI are more pronounced at high data rates. The objective of this research is to investi- gate and a develop low-complexity frequency domain receiver architectures capable of suppressing both CCI and ISI and employing practical channel estimation. In this thesis, a linear and a non-linear receiver architecture are developed in the frequency domain for use in highly dispersive channels employing multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas. The linear receiver consists of parallel branches each corresponding to a transmit data stream and implements linear equalization and demodulation. Frequency domain joint CCI mitigation and ISI equalization is implemented based on estimated channel parameters and is called space-frequency Broadband wireless access systems can be used to deliver a variety of high data rate applications and services. Many of the channels being considered for such applications exhibit multipath propagation coupled with large delay spreads. Cur- rently, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is employed in these channels to compensate the effect of dispersion. Single carrier (SC) modulation in conjunc- tion with frequency-domain equalization (FDE) at the receiver has been shown to be a practical alternate solution as it has lower peak to average power ratio and is less sensitive to frequency offsets and phase noise compared to OFDM. The effect of multipath propagation increases with increasing data rate for SC systems. This leads to larger inter-symbol-interference (ISI) spans. In addition the achievable ca- pacity of SC-broadband systems depends on their ability to accommodate multiple signal transmissions in the same frequency band, which results in co-channel inter- ference (CCI) when detecting the desired data stream. The effects of CCI and ISI are more pronounced at high data rates. The objective of this research is to investi- gate and a develop low-complexity frequency domain receiver architectures capable of suppressing both CCI and ISI and employing practical channel estimation. In this thesis, a linear and a non-linear receiver architecture are developed in the frequency domain for use in highly dispersive channels employing multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas. The linear receiver consists of parallel branches each corresponding to a transmit data stream and implements linear equalization and demodulation. Frequency domain joint CCI mitigation and ISI equalization is implemented based on estimated channel parameters and is called space-frequency

SyfteSyftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka styrning och hantering av butikskedjan som helhet, varumärketoch servicens roll, parallellt med företagskulturens och visionens funktion. Vidare vill vi kartlägga hurdessa delar bidrar till en enhetlig image.ForskningsfrågaPå vilket sätt kan butikskedjor styras för att upprätthålla en enhetlig bild av butikskedjansvarumärke?MetodVi har valt att utgå från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod då syftet med denna uppsats är att få endjupare förståelse av undersökningsproblemet. Vi har i denna undersökning använt oss av ettinduktivt tillvägagångssätt med vissa inslag av deduktion. Undersökningen tar sinutgångspunkt i verkligheten, då arbetet grundar sig i en observation av butikskedjor ochempiriskt material i form av intervjuer med experter på området.SlutsatserVi har identifierat ett flertal karaktäriska egenskaper för ledningen i arbetet med attupprätthålla en enhetlig bild av butikskedjan. Studiens resultat har belyst betydelsen förbutikskedjor att ha en tydlig vision. Vidare står det klart att en tydlig och snabb kommunikation inom butikskedjor är en viktig aspekt. Det framgår även av studien att entydlig linje bör hållas för att skapa en enhetlig varumärkesbild ut mot kund.