At a time where almost 1.75 billion people around the world use the Internet on a regular basis, optical communication over optical fibers that is used in long distance and high demand applications has to be capable of providing higher communication speed and re-liability. In recent years, strong demand is driving the dense wavelength division multip-lexing network upgrade from 10 Gb/s per channel to more spectrally-efficient 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s per wavelength channel, and beyond. The 100 Gb/s Ethernet is currently under standardization, and in a couple of years 1 Tb/s Ethernet is going to be standardized as well for different applications, such as the local area networks (LANs) and the wide area networks (WANs). The major concern about such high data rates is the degradation in the signal quality due to linear and non-linear impairments, in particular polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and intrachannel nonlinearities. Moreover, the higher speed transceivers are expensive, so the alternative approaches of achieving the required rates is preferably done using commercially available components operating at lower speeds.In this dissertation, different LDPC-coded modulation techniques are presented to offer a higher spectral efficiency and/or power efficiency, in addition to offering aggregate rates that can go up to 1Tb/s per wavelength. These modulation formats are based on the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) and include: (i) three-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation using hybrid direct and coherent detection, (ii) multidimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iii) subcarrier-multiplexed four-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iv) hybrid subcarrier/amplitude/phase/polarization LDPC-coded modulation, and (v) iterative polar quantization based LDPC-coded modulation.

Arbetsgivares nätkontroller i sociala medier är bara ett exempel på alla emergenta beteendemönstersom utvecklats både på individ- företagande- och samhällsnivå på grund av den interaktiva webben(Webb 2.0) och Facebook kring vilket en diskussion förs.Resultatet i den kvalitativa studien sammanställs i en slutsats giltig för den lokala urvalsgruppeninkluderande 7 småföretagare och påvisar att arbetsgivarna, även om det inte alltid är helt medvetet, påverkas i sina subjektiva bedömningar kring arbetssökandens lämplighet för anställning genominformation inhämtad från Facebook jämte andra informationskällor. Facebook är en social webbaserad plattform ursprungligen designad för social interaktion koppladtill privatlivet. Information lyfts ur sitt sammanhang och in i helt andra kontexter när andra aktörer i form av beslutsfattande yrkespersoner träder in på nätverket i syfte att bakgrundskontrollera. Informationen kan tolkas och användas som informationsunderlag för professionellt beslutsfattandeoch påverka användares livsförhållanden. Resultatet redovisar för några svårigheter och möjlighetermed informationsöverföring via Facebook som kan vara av intresse att överväga och diskutera vidpolicyutformningar för sociala medier kopplat till informationsinhämtning vid rekrytering samt viddesignandet av social informationsteknik. / Employers background checks in social media is just one example of all emergent behavioralpatterns developed at the individual- enterprise- and community level because of the interactiveweb (Web 2.0) and Facebook around which a discussion is held. The results of the qualitative study is compiled in a conclusion valid for the local sample groupincluding 7 small business owners and demonstrates that employers, although it is not alwaysconsciously, are influenced in their subjective judgments about the job applicants suitability foremployment through information obtained from Facebook along with other information sources. Facebook is a web-based social platform originally designed for social interaction related toprivacy. The information are used in completely different contexts when other stakeholders in theform of decision-making professionals enter the network in order to perform background checks. This information can be interpreted and used as a basis for professional decision-making and influence users' living conditions. Earnings reports for some difficulties and opportunities ofinformation transfer through Facebook that may be of interest to consider and discuss whilecomposing social media policys related to information gathering during recruitment and duringinteraction design of social media.

In this thesis, we present a space-time coded system which achieves high through- put and good performance with low processing delay using low-complexity detection and decoding. Initially, Hamming codes are used in a simple interleaved bit-mapped coded modulation structure (BMCM). This is concatenated with Alamouti's or- thogonal space-time block codes. The good performance achieved by this system indicates that higher throughput is possible while maintaining performance. An analytical bound for the performance of this system is presented. We also develop a class of low density parity check codes which allows flexible "throughput versus performance" tradeoffs. We then focus on a Rate 2 quasi-orthogonal space-time block code structure which enables us to achieve an overall throughput of 5.6 bits/symbol period with good performance and relatively simple decoding using iterative parallel interference cancellation. We show that this can be achieved through the use of a bit-mapped coded modulation structure using parallel short low density parity check codes. The absence of interleavers here reduces processing delay significantly. The proposed system is shown to perform well on flat Rayleigh fading channels with a wide range of normalized fade rates, and to be robust to channel estimation errors. A comparison with bit-interleaved coded modulation is also provided (BICM).

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are a class of easily decodable error-correcting codes. Published parallel LDPC decoders demonstrate high throughput and low energy-per-bit but require a lot of silicon area. Decoders based on digit-online arithmetic (processing several bits per fundamental operation) process messages in a digit-serial fashion, reducing the area requirements, and can process multiple frames in frame-interlaced fashion. Implementations on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) are usually power- and area-hungry, but provide flexibility compared with application-specific integrated circuit implementations. With the penetration of mobile devices in the electronics industry the power considerations have become increasingly important. The power consumption of a digit-online decoder depends on various factors, like input log-likelihood ratio (LLR) bit precision, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and maximum number of iterations. The design is implemented on an Altera Stratix IV GX EP4SGX230 FPGA, which comes on an Altera DE4 Development and Education Board. In this work, both parallel and digit-online block LDPC decoder implementations on FPGAs for WiMAX 576-bit, rate-3/4 codes are studied, and power measurements from the DE4 board are reported. Various components of the system include a random-data generator, WiMAX Encoder, shift-out register, additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) generator, channel LLR buffer, WiMAX Decoder and bit-error rate (BER) Calculator. The random-data generator outputs pseudo-random bit patterns through an implemented linear-feedback shift register (LFSR). Digit-online decoders with input LLR precisions ranging from 6 to 13 bits and parallel decoders with input LLR precisions ranging from 3 to 6 bits are synthesized in a Stratix IV FPGA. The digit-online decoders can be clocked at higher frequency for higher LLR precisions. A digit-online decoder can be used to decode two frames simultaneously in frame-interlaced mode. For the 6-bit implementation of digit-online decoder in single-frame mode, the minimum throughput achieved is 740 Mb/s at low SNRs. For the case of 11-bit LLR digit-online decoder in frame-interlaced mode, the minimum throughput achieved is 1363 Mb/s. Detailed analysis such as effect of SNR and LLR precision on decoder power is presented. Also, the effect of changing LLR precision on max clock frequency and logic utilization on the parallel and the digit-online decoders is studied. Alongside, power per iteration for a 6-bit LLR input digit-online decoder is also reported.

During the past two decades, panicle-feeding Hemiptera have become pests of sorghum in West and Central Africa, and particularly in Mali, where this is a staple food crop. Of the more than 100 sorghum insect pests reported in Africa, 42 species were found to be panicle-feeding pests. Prior to this study, no research had been done on the paniclefeeding Hemiptera in South Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine the abundance and diversity of panicle-feeding Hemiptera on sorghum. A check list was compiled and the temporal distribution of different Hemiptera species determined during the different panicle stages of development. In addition, the effect of insecticide application on Hemiptera numbers was evaluated and the correlation between grain mould severity and Hemiptera feeding damage was investigated. To determine the abundance and diversity of Hemiptera on sorghum panicles, surveys were conducted between November 2004 and June 2006 at 26 sites in four provinces of South Africa. Two methods of collection were used viz. the plastic bag and D-Vac methods. The total number of the adults and nymphs collected during this study was 23 798. Forty-three different herbivorous Hemiptera species were collected. The most abundant family was the Miridae (41 %), followed by the Lygaeidae (17 %). Eurystylus spp., Calidea dregii, Campylomma sp., Creontiades pallidus, Nysius natalensis and Nezara viridula were the most abundant species and also occurred widely in the sorghum production area. Infestation levels of these species were low compared to that in other parts of Africa and it cannot be concluded that they have pest status in South Africa. There was no clear distinction between the stages during which panicles were infested by different species. The general tendency was that nearly all species were present from the flowering stage onwards and that numbers declined when grain hardened. In general, Campylomma sp. and C. pallidus numbers peaked during the flowering stage and Eurystylus spp. and N. natalensis during the milk stage. Hemiptera feeding damage resulted in an increase in incidence of seeds with discoloured germ, therefore contributing significantly to reduction in grain quality. / Thesis (M. Environmental Science (Plant Protection))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

During the past two decades, panicle-feeding Hemiptera have become pests of sorghum in West and Central Africa, and particularly in Mali, where this is a staple food crop. Of the more than 100 sorghum insect pests reported in Africa, 42 species were found to be panicle-feeding pests. Prior to this study, no research had been done on the paniclefeeding Hemiptera in South Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine the abundance and diversity of panicle-feeding Hemiptera on sorghum. A check list was compiled and the temporal distribution of different Hemiptera species determined during the different panicle stages of development. In addition, the effect of insecticide application on Hemiptera numbers was evaluated and the correlation between grain mould severity and Hemiptera feeding damage was investigated. To determine the abundance and diversity of Hemiptera on sorghum panicles, surveys were conducted between November 2004 and June 2006 at 26 sites in four provinces of South Africa. Two methods of collection were used viz. the plastic bag and D-Vac methods. The total number of the adults and nymphs collected during this study was 23 798. Forty-three different herbivorous Hemiptera species were collected. The most abundant family was the Miridae (41 %), followed by the Lygaeidae (17 %). Eurystylus spp., Calidea dregii, Campylomma sp., Creontiades pallidus, Nysius natalensis and Nezara viridula were the most abundant species and also occurred widely in the sorghum production area. Infestation levels of these species were low compared to that in other parts of Africa and it cannot be concluded that they have pest status in South Africa. There was no clear distinction between the stages during which panicles were infested by different species. The general tendency was that nearly all species were present from the flowering stage onwards and that numbers declined when grain hardened. In general, Campylomma sp. and C. pallidus numbers peaked during the flowering stage and Eurystylus spp. and N. natalensis during the milk stage. Hemiptera feeding damage resulted in an increase in incidence of seeds with discoloured germ, therefore contributing significantly to reduction in grain quality. / Thesis (M. Environmental Science (Plant Protection))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Darbo tikslas. Įvertinti slaugytojų riziką susirgti lėtinėmis ligomis ir šių ligų pirminės profilaktikos vykdomas priemones. Darbo uždaviniai. 1. Įvertinti slaugytojų profilaktinių sveikatos patikrinimų organizacinius aspektus. 2. Ištirti slaugytojų nuomonę apie sveikatą stiprinančios darbo aplinkos sudarymą. 3. Ištirti slaugytojų žinias apie lėtinių ligų rizikos veiksnius ir jų dažnį. 4. Palyginti slaugytojų, dalyvavusių ir nedalyvavusių profilaktiniuose patikrinimuose informuotumą apie lėtinių ligų rizikos veiksnius ir kontrolę. 5. Įvertinti slaugytojų profilaktinio sveikatos patikrinimo apimtis ir jų metu pateiktas rekomendacijas. Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimas vykdytas vienoje Lietuvos ligoninėje. Tyrimo dalyviai - bendrosios praktikos slaugytojos. Tyrimo būdas - vienmomentinė anoniminė apklausa ir įstaigos dokumentų analizė. Iš viso pateikta 200 anketų, sugrąžinta – 164 anketos, atsako dažnis 82 proc. Statistinei analizei atlikti buvo naudojamos SPSS 17.0 for Windows bei MS Excel programos. Rezultatai. Slaugytojų profilaktinių sveikatos patikrinimų kokybė nepatenkinama: atliekami ne visi teisės aktuose nurodyti būtini tyrimai, slaugytojos nekonsultuojamos gydytojų specialistų, nors 92,0 proc. darbe susiduria su kenksmingais darbo aplinkos veiksniais, nėra vertinami LNL rizikos veiksniai. Ketvirtadalis slaugytojų pristato medicinos pažymas nesitikrinusios sveikatos. Daugiau nei pusei slaugytojų darbovietėje nėra sudarytos sąlygos stiprinti sveikatą. Dauguma dalyvautų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study. To assess NCD risk for the nurses and the primary prevention measures of these diseases. Objectives. 1. To evaluate the organizational aspects of nurses‘ health check-up. 2. To examine the opinion of nurses about health enhancing worksite environment. 3. To assess the nurses‘ awareness about NCD‘ risk factors and their prevalence. 4. To compare the awareness of NCD‘s risk factors, their control among nurses participants and non-participants of health check-up. 5. Toevaluate the coverage of nurses‘ health check-up and the given recommendations. Methods. The study was provided in one Lithuanian hospital. Nurses were the participants of the study.Cross- sectional anonymous survey was carried out and the documentary analysis was performed. 200 questionaires were delivered, 164 - returned, response rate - 82 %. The SPSS 17.0 for Windows and MS Excel programmes were used for statistical anlysis of data. Results. The quality of nurses health check-up is unsatisfactory: not all investigations are carried out which are enumerated in the existing legal documents, nurses are not consulted by physicians specialists, despite the fact, that 92.0 % of them have contact with harmful environmental factors, the NCD risk factors are not detected. The quarter of nurses present the health certificates without health check-up. More than half of the nurses don’t have conditions for health promotion. Majority of nurses express willingness to participate in such health... [to full text]

Bakgrund: När en kvinna genomgår en graviditet och förlossning innebär det stora påfrestningar för hennes kropp. Vid en förlossning kan bristningar uppstå, vilket kan medföra besvär för kvinnan i olika utsträckning. Genom eftervårdsbesöket har barnmorskorna en möjlighet att identifiera problem som kan ha uppstått och upptäcka odiagnostiserade förlossningsskador. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva barnmorskans erfarenheter av gynekologisk undersökning och att bedöma bäckenbottens strukturer vid eftervårdsbesök inom mödrahälsovården. Metod: Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med elva barnmorskor yrkesverksamma inom mödrahälsovården. Tematisk analys användes för att analysera materialet. Resultat: Ett huvudtema, tre organiserande teman samt tio basteman identifierades. Huvudtemat var: kvinnans behov i centrum. Organiserande teman var: att stödja genom sitt förhållningssätt; att verka hälsofrämjande och förbättringsområden. Basteman var: att vara lyhörd; att bekräfta; att se individuella behov; att motivera till undersökning; att motivera till egenvård; utbildning; struktur; dokumentation; tidsaspekten och uppföljning. Slutsats: Barnmorskor inom mödrahälsovården fyller en viktig funktion i att arbeta hälsofrämjande och arbetar med kvinnans behov i centrum. De försöker individanpassa varje besök och den information som ges ut men upplever att det kan finnas svårigheter att motivera kvinnor till gynekologisk undersökning. Mer utbildning, bättre och tydligare struktur för bedömning av bäckenbotten samt en förbättrad samtalsmetodik kring besvär som kan kvarstå efter förlossningen kan bidra till att kvinnor får den hjälp och vård de behöver. Klinisk tillämpbarhet: Studiens resultat belyser behov av mer kunskap, utbildning och struktur. Att detta uppmärksammas i denna studie kan leda till diskussion om vidareutveckling och att ämnet lyfts i den kliniska verksamheten. / Background: Undergoing pregnancy and childbirth, entails great strain on a woman’s body. When giving birth vaginally, tears may occur, which may cause problems for the woman to a different extent. Through the postpartum check-up, midwives have an opportunity to identify problems that may have occurred and detect undiagnosed perineal injuries. Aim: The aim was to describe the midwife’s experiences of pelvic examination and to assess pelvic floor structures at the postpartum check-up. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven midwives working in maternal health care. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the material. Results: One global theme, three organizing themes and ten basic themes were identified. The global theme was: the woman´s needs. The organizing themes were: to support through the approach; to promote health and areas for improvement. The basic themes were: to be responsive; to confirm; to see individual needs; to motivate for examination; to motivate selfcare; education; structure; documentation; time aspect and follow-up. Conclusion: Midwives in maternal health care play an important role in health promotion and working with women's needs. They try to personalize each visit and adapt the information given, but their experience is that there are difficulties in motivating women to undergo a pelvic examination. More education, a better and clearer structure for assessing the pelvic floor and an improved way of addressing problems that may persist after childbirth may enable women getting the help and care they need. Clinical application: The study results highlight an existing need for more knowledge, education and structure. Attention to this can lead to discussion of further development and the subject can also be raised among other healthcare providers.

[pt] Esta dissertação trata sobre o problema de alocação de balcões de check-in em um aeroporto. O processo de check-in é um dos serviços aeroportuários mais problemáticos. Ineficiências neste processo propagam problemas como o efeito chicote, sendo uma das causas dos baixos níveis de serviço. Além disso, em geral, as ilhas de check-in ocupam grandes áreas nos aeroportos afetando possíveis receitas de concessão. Uma alocação eficiente de balcões para o processo de check-in poderia reduzir custos aeroportuários e elevar o nível de serviço oferecido para os passageiros. Visando otimizar o ACCAP a nível diário, este trabalho apresenta uma nova metodologia que combina otimização e simulação. O objetivo é determinar o número ótimo, programação e localização de balcões para check-in, de forma a minimizar custos operacionais e garantir um dado nível de serviço. A metodologia proposta divide-se em três passos. O passo número um faz uso de modelos de otimização para o problema de alocação de balcões de check-in num aeroporto considerando uma política de alocação variável. Dois novos modelos de optimização são apresentados, um para um sistema de check-in comum e outro para um sistema dedicado. Os modelos visam determinar o menor número de balcões por intervalo de tempo e ao mesmo tempo equilibrar os custos operacionais e o nível de serviço oferecido. Estes modelos apresentam dois conjuntos de restrições que levam em consideração aspectos estocásticos do processo de check-in. Um conjunto considera o conceito de fator de utilização da teoria de filas e o outro, a flutuação na taxa de chegada dos passageiros entre intervalos de tempo adjacentes. O passo número dois usa simulação para avaliar se os resultados do passo anterior cumprem um determinado nível de serviço quando são consideradas incertezas na chegada dos passageiros e tempo de atendimento no processo de check-in. Além disso, a simulação terminada ajuda definir a duração adequada do intervalo de tempo e parâmetros chaves relativos aos modelos de otimização. Em geral, o processo de check-in é analisado considerando um padrão de chegada dos passageiros em procura do serviço de registro e como estes passageiros são atendidos nos balcões. A fim de avaliar essas distribuições: tempo entre chegada dos passageiros e tempo de atendimento, um conjunto de cenários é definido. Os principais cenários para ser testados são para um sistema comum e um dedicado. Assim, testando certo número de replicações para cada experimento de simulação, as estatísticas de desempenho do sistema são obtidas. Estatísticas de interesse tem que ver com o tempo de espera e tamanho da fila. O passo número três é aplicado só para sistemas de check-in dedicados. Uma vez que se conhece o número de balcões por intervalo de tempo para cada voo é possível minimizar o total de balcões satisfazendo a restrição de adjacência. Esta restrição estipula que todos os balcões do mesmo voo devem estar juntos. Sem a restrição de adjacência, o número mínimo de balcões poderia ser achado facilmente através de uma alocação fixa de recursos por intervalo de tempo. Este procedimento indicaria o número máximo de balcões requeridos no intervalo de tempo de maior ocupação, mas este resultado não garante uma solução que satisfaz a restrição de adjacência. Assim, os modelos matemáticos relacionados com programação de recursos adjacentes tem que garantir uma alocação ótima de balcões com balcões. A metodologia proposta é testada com um caso de estudo existente na literatura. Primeiro, considerando realidades práticas do planejamento de recursos nos processos aeroportuários, a duração de meia hora identificou-se como o tamanho adequado do intervalo de tempo para a discretização do problema de alocação de balcões de check-in num aeroporto. Depois, comparando os resultados obtidos entre a metodologia e o caso de estudo baseado só em simulação, os resultados demostram a confiabilidade / [en] This dissertation deals with the Airport Check-in Counter Allocation Problem (ACCAP). The check-in process is one of the most problematic airport services. Inefficient check-in processes propagate problems as a bullwhip effect being the basis for low quality service levels. Moreover, check-in counters usually occupy a considerable area in airports affecting concession revenues. An efficient check-in process may therefore contribute to reduce airport costs and increase service level. This work presents a new methodology to optimize the ACCAP that combines optimization and simulation. The objective is to determine the optimal number, schedule and location of check-in counters assigned to departing flights, such that operational costs are minimized and a given service level is ensured. The methodology is composed of three steps. Step 1 uses optimization models to determine the optimal number of desks. Step 2 uses simulation to assess if the results obtained in Step 1 meet the service level. Step 3 uses an optimization model to enforce an adjacent constraint for dedicated check-in systems. For Step 1 it is developed two new optimization models for common and dedicated check-in systems that include constraints regarding the utilization factor concept of queue theory, and the fluctuation in the passenger arrival rate. Step 2 uses standard simulation methods and Step 3 uses models existing in literature. The methodology is tested in a real sample to show its reliability and accuracy. Then, it is applied to a case study in a busiest airport. The results demonstrate the positive performance of the process considering the trade-off between operational costs and a given service level. Also, a maximum waiting time of thirty minutes is obtained and it is incorporated to the overall service level.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 Leonardo Augusto Soares Ferreira.pdf.jpg: 16019 bytes, checksum: dc1eaac0a2de75f6802157267be815c3 (MD5) Leonardo Augusto Soares Ferreira.pdf.txt: 112676 bytes, checksum: f236bd28c9197f48ec072d6ba8170cef (MD5) Leonardo Augusto Soares Ferreira.pdf: 201705 bytes, checksum: 4baa5a6aeb99520a42f7a4766b6def1a (MD5) license.txt: 4886 bytes, checksum: 95e35e47c5ddb6db000fa6ec8243979f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-16T00:00:00Z / This work studies the profitability of Technical Analysis models within Brazilian foreign exchange market. It uses the White`s (2000) methodology to test 1712 rules generated from four technical analysis models and finds out that the best rule do not have significant forecast power when data-snooping effects are considered. The results indicate that the Brazilian foreign exchange market is in line with the efficient markets hypothesis suggested by the literature. / Este trabalho estuda a lucratividade dos modelos de Análise Técnica no mercado de câmbio brasileiro. Utilizando a metodologia de White (2000) para testar 1712 regras geradas a partir de quatro modelos de Análise Técnica verifica-se que a melhor regra não possui poder de previsibilidade significante ao se considerar os efeitos de data-snooping. Os resultados indicam que o mercado de câmbio brasileiro está de acordo com a hipótese de mercado eficiente sugerida pela literatura.