[pt] A necessidade pela transmissão em altas taxas, por exemplo nos novos sistemas de TV Digital de alta definição, telefonia celular de terceira e quarta geração, DSL e etc, trazem consigo um problema: o aumento dos múltiplos percursos no canal de comunicações (principalmente nas interfaces áereas), dando origem ao fenômeno de interferência intersimbólica (IES). Este trabalho investiga o desempenho de sistemas de transmissão com uma única portadora (SC ou single-carrier) com equalização linear no domínio da freqüência. Diferentes algoritmos recursivos são apresentados para implementar estes filtros FIR. Além dos equalizadores lineares, uma estrutura não-linear é introduzida, onde decisões passadas do decisor de mínima distância são utilizadas para mitigar os efeitos da IES na detecção dos símbolos subseqüentes. Este arranjo é conhecido como equalização/filtragem com decisões realimentadas (DFE ou Decision Feedback Equalizers). Por último, os resultados obtidos com o sistema SC nas diferentes configurações de filtragem na recepção são comparados com os resultados do já estabelecido sistema OFDM. A transmissão OFDM se dá com múltiplas portadoras, onde as freqüências das sub-portadoras são ortogonais entre si, permitindo que a informação seja enviada de forma paralela. Resultados mostram que os sistemas SC-FDE tem desempenho superior aos sistemas OFDM. / [en] The demand for high rate transmission systems, for example in HDTV, third and fourth generation cellular telephony, DSL and so on, causes the rise of a problem: The multipath communications channel (specially in wireless communications), which leads to intersymbol interference phenomenon (ISI). The present work investigates the performance of single-carrier (SC) transmission systems with frequency-domain linear equalization. Different recursive algorithms are presented in order to implement these FIR filters. Besides the linear equalizers, a non- linear structure is introduced, where the past decisions made by the detectors are used to mitigate the effect of ISI on the detection of the forthcoming symbols. This set is known as Decision Feedback Equalizers (DFE). Finally, the results of the aforementioned systems are compared to the well-known OFDM. OFDM transmission relies on sub-carriers, frequency orthogonal to each other, in which the data is sent in a parallel basis. The results obtained show that SC- FDE systems outperform OFDM systems.

M.Ed. / The White Paper on the provision of education in the RSA (1983: 3) has made proposals for a new policy framework on issues of ownership, governance, finance and legal categories of schooling. On launching the White Paper (1993) on Education Provision, Prof. Sibusiso Bhengu (Minister of Education) (Learning Press No 7:712/03/1993:49) said that S.A. has never had a truly national system of education and training and does not have one yet. He added that the White Paper describes the process of transformation in education and training so that a system serving all our people, democracy and the RDP can come into existence. According to the ANC Discussion Document (1994:50) the upgrading of the teacher's quality will improve their competence. The country needs a dynamic system with a clear mission and sufficient scope to perform it. The ANC Discussion Document (1994: 50)states that teacher preparation and development would be the cutting-edge of educational

Abstract This thesis focuses on advanced multi-antenna receiver and transmission techniques to improve the utilization efficiencies of radio resources in broadband single carrier communications. Special focus is devoted to the development of computationally efficient frequency domain (FD) turbo equalization techniques for single and multiuser MIMO frequency selective channels. Another special emphasis is given to transmission power optimization for single user MIMO communications, which takes into account the convergence properties of the iterative equalizer. A new iterative FD soft cancellation (SC) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) filtering based joint-over-antenna (JA) multiuser MIMO signal detection technique for multiuser MIMO uplink transmission in frequency-selective channels is proposed. The proposed FD multiuser MIMO detection technique requires significantly lower computational complexity than its time-domain counterpart. Furthermore, significant performance gains can be achieved with the proposed JA turbo receiver compared to an antenna-by-antenna (AA) turbo receiver when the total number of transmitter antennas and users is larger than the number of receiver antennas, as well as in the presence of spatial correlation. The impact of existing linear precoding techniques, e.g, maximum information rate (MaxRate) and minimum sum mean square error (MinSumMSE), on the performance of frequency domain turbo equalization is investigated by utilizing extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analysis. A novel transmission power minimization framework based on an EXIT analysis of single carrier MIMO transmission with iterative FD SC-MMSE equalization is then proposed. The proposed optimization framework explicitly takes into account the convergence properties of the iterative equalizer. The proposed convergence constrained power allocation (CCPA) technique decouples the spatial interference between streams using singular value decomposition (SVD), and minimizes the transmission power while achieving the mutual information target for each stream after iterations at the receiver side. The transmission power allocation can be formulated as a convex optimization problem. A special case having only two mutual information constraints is considered, for which the Lagrange dual function is derived and its dual problem is solved. Inspired by the Lagrange duality, two CCPA based heuristic schemes are developed. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed CCPA schemes outperform the existing power allocation schemes. / Tiivistelmä Tässä työssä tutkitaan edistyksellisten moniantennivastaanotto- ja lähetysmenetelmien käyttöä radioresurssien tehokkuuden parantamiseen laajakaistaisessa yhden kantoaallon kommunikaatiossa. Työssä keskitytään erityisesti laskennallisesti tehokkaiden taajuustasossa suoritettavien iteratiivisten kanavakorjaintekniikoiden kehittämiseen yhden ja usean käyttäjän multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) -kommunikaatiossa taajuusselektiivisen radiokanavan yli. Toinen tutkimuksen painopiste on lähetystehon optimointi yhden käyttäjän MIMO-kommunikaatiossa, jossa iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuudet otetaan huomioon. Työssä ehdotetaan uudenlaista iteratiivista taajuustasossa suoritettavaa soft-cancellation (SC) ja minimum mean square error (MMSE) -suodatukseen pohjautuvaa joint-over-antenna (JA) monen käyttäjän ilmaisumenetelmää nousevan siirtokanavan tiedonsiirtoon taajuusselektiivisessa radiokanavassa. Ehdotettu tajuustasossa suoritettava usean käyttäjän MIMO-lähetyksen ilmaisumenetelmä vaatii selvästi vähemmän laskentatehoa verrattuna aikatason menetelmään. Tämän lisäksi ehdotetulla menetelmällä voidaan saavuttaa merkittävää suorituskykyhyötyä verrattuna antenna-by-antenna (AA) -pohjaiseen iteratiiviseen vastaanottimeen kun lähetysantennien ja käyttäjien kokonaislukumäärä on suurempi kuin vastaanotinantennien. Suorituskykyhyöty pätee myös tilakorrelaation tapauksessa. Työssä tutkitaan lisäksi olemassa olevien lineaaristen esikoodaustekniikoiden, esim. maximum information rate (MaxRate) and minimum sum mean square error (MinSumMSE), vaikutusta taajuustasossa suoritettavaan iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuuksiin xtrinsic information transfer (EXIT) -analyysin avulla. Työssä ehdotetaan uudenlaista EXIT-analyysi-pohjaista lähetystehon minimointimenetelmää yhden kantoaallon MIMO-lähetykseen käyttäen iteratiivista taajuustason SC-MMSE-kanavakorjainta. Menetelmä ottaa huomioon iteratiivisen kanavakorjaimen konvergenssiominaisuudet. Ehdotettu convergence constrained power allocation (CCPA) -menetelmä erottaa tilatason häiriön lähetteiden välillä hyödyntäen singular value decomposition (SVD) -tekniikkaa ja minimoi lähetystehon ja saavuttaa samalla keskinäisinformaatiotavoitteet jokaiselle lähetteelle iteraatioiden jälkeen vastaanottimessa. Lähetystehon minimointiongelma voidaan muotoilla konveksiksi optimointiongelmaksi. Kahden keskinäisinformaatiorajoitteen erityistapaukselle johdetaan Lagrangen duaalifunktio ja ratkaistaan sen duaalifunktio. Työssä kehitetään lisäksi kaksi CCPA-pohjaista heuristista menetelmää. Numeeriset tulokset osoittavat ehdotettujen CCPA-pohjaisten menetelmien suoriutuvan paremmin verrattuna olemassa oleviin menetelmiin.

M.Ed. (Multiculturalism and Education) / This project will endeavour to turn misconceptions of the past into mutual trust, understanding and respect for each of the population groups involved. It is hypothesized that: Intergroup contact can help refine information related to stereotypes and prejudice (Engels, 1993:1). Engels (1993:1) further argues that "intergroup contact alone is not sufficient to improve intergroup relationships and counter prejudices permanently". This research endeavours to probe into the possibility of reducing prejudice by creating a situation in which juveniles from different population groups will interact and engage in communication. To this, Czula (1979:31), contends that "only the type of contact that leads people to do things together is likely to result in changed attitudes". As a result, non-racial extra-curricula activities have been organised to provide a common ground where interpersonal and intergroup encounters will take place. Such an encounter is meant to instill in the youth (i.e. high school students, black and white) respect and understanding for other cultural groups irrespective of their pigmentation. In preparation for an integrated, multicultural education system which does not deny cultural plurality, it is necessary to prepare our youth for the advent of such a system by exposing them to a situation in which they will learn about each other's perceptions. It is hoped that this will enable students to rid themselves of unfounded misconceptions by laying the ground for them to acquire knowledge about each other and share matters of common concern, in order to bridge the chasm which exists between them.

M. Ed.

No description available.

In terms of Section 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996, Chapter Two, the Bill of Rights, there should be gender equality amongst other things. In terms of Section15 (i) of the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998), there should be equal representation of suitably qualified people from the designated groups (blacks, women and people with disabilities) in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce. Section 15 (ii)provides that an employer who employs more than 50 employees must conduct a gender audit and make a gender equity plan and implement it when new employees are employed. In the Department of Education in the District of Butterworth, there is no gender equality in the number of senior secondary school managers. Men constituted 65 percent and women constituted 35 percent. The study investigated reasons for unequal representation of men and women as senior secondary school managers. The study was qualitative in design. The participants in the study were the Assistant Director of the Human Resource Section of the Department of Education and school governing body members, who were parents and educators. Interviews were used to collect data from the participants The study found that, amongst other things, gender equity was not considered when senior secondary schools managers were employed. That was why there was unequal representation of men and women in senior secondary schools’ management positions. This implied that those involved in the employment of secondary school managers in the district of Butterworth did not consider the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998) as a guide when employing senior secondary school managers in order to be able to achieve gender equality in this position. That was why there was unequal representation of men and women in senior secondary schools’ management positions.

Aujourd’hui, des appareils capables de capter et de traiter les images peuvent être trouvés dans les systèmes complexes de surveillance ou de simples téléphones mobiles. Dans certaines applications, le temps nécessaire au traitement des images n’est pas aussi important que la qualité du traitement (par exemple, l’imagerie médicale). Par contre, dans d’autres cas, la qualité peut être sacrifiée au profit du facteur temps. Cette thèse se concentre sur ce dernier cas, et propose deux types de méthodes rapides pour l’amélioration du contraste d’image. Les méthodes proposées sont fondées sur l’égalisation d’histogramme (EH), et certaines s’adressent à des images en niveaux de gris, tandis que d’autres s’adressent à des images en couleur. En ce qui concerne les méthodes EH pour des images en niveaux de gris, les méthodes actuelles tendent à changer la luminosité moyenne de l’image de départ pour le niveau moyen de l´interval de niveaux de gris. Ce n’est pas souhaitable dans le cas de l’amélioration du contraste d’image pour les produits de l’électronique grand-public, où la préservation de la luminosité de l’image de départ est nécessaire pour éviter la production de distortions dans l’image de sortie. Pour éviter cet inconvénient, des méthodes de Biégalisation d’histogrammes pour préserver la luminosité et l’amélioration du contraste ont été proposées. Bien que ces méthodes préservent la luminosité de l’image de départ tout en améliorant fortement le contraste, elles peuvent produire des images qui ne donnent pas une impression visuelle aussi naturelle que les images de départ. Afin de corriger ce problème, nous proposons une technique appelée multi-EH, qui consiste à décomposer l’image en plusieurs sous-images, et à appliquer le procédé classique de EH à chacune d’entre elles. Bien que produisant une amélioration du contraste moins marquée, cette méthode produit une image de sortie d’une apparence plus naturelle. Nous proposons deux fonctions de décalage par découpage d’histogramme, permettant ainisi de concevoir deux nouvelle méthodes de multi-EH. Une fonction de coût est également utilisé pour déterminer automatiquement en combien de sous-images l’histogramme de l’image d’entrée sera décomposée. Les expériences montrent que nos méthodes sont meilleures pour la préservation de la luminosité et produisent des images plus naturelles que d´autres méthodes de EH. Pour améliorer le contraste dans les images en couleur, nous introduisons une méthode 5 Résumé 6 générique et rapide, qui préserve la teinte. L’égalisation d’histogramme est fondée sur l’espace couleur RGB, et nous proposons deux instantiations de la méthode générique. La première instantiation utilise des histogrammes 1D R-red, G-green, et B-bleu afin d’estimer l’histogramme 3D RGB qui doit être égalisé, alors que le deuxième instantiation utilise des histogrammes 2D RG, RB, et GB. L’égalisation d’histogramme est effectué en utilisant des transformations de décalage qui préservent la teinte, en évitant l’apparition de couleurs irréalistes. Nos méthodes ont des complexités de temps et d’espace linéaire, par rapport à la taille de l’image, et n’ont pas besoin de faire la conversion d’un espace couleur à l’autre afin de réaliser l’amélioration du contraste de l’image. Des évaluations objectives comparant nos méthodes et d’autres ont été effectuées au moyen d’une mesure de contraste et de couleur afin de mesurer la qualité de l’image, où la qualité est établie comme une fonction pondérée d’un indice de “naturalité” et d’un indice de couleur. Nous analysons 300 images extraites d’une base de données de l’Université de Berkeley. Les expériences ont montré que la valeur de contraste de l’image produite par nos méthodes est en moyenne de 50% supérieure à la valeur de contraste de l’image original, tout en conservant une qualité des images produites proche de celle des images originales / Nowadays devices are able to capture and process images from complex surveillance monitoring systems or from simple mobile phones. In certain applications, the time necessary to process the image is not as important as the quality of the processed images (e.g., medical imaging), but in other cases the quality can be sacrificed in favour of time. This thesis focuses on the latter case, and proposes two methodologies for fast image contrast enhancement methods. The proposed methods are based on histogram equalization (HE), and some for handling gray-level images and others for handling color images As far as HE methods for gray-level images are concerned, current methods tend to change the mean brightness of the image to the middle level of the gray-level range. This is not desirable in the case of image contrast enhancement for consumer electronics products, where preserving the input brightness of the image is required to avoid the generation of non-existing artifacts in the output image. To overcome this drawback, Bi-histogram equalization methods for both preserving the brightness and contrast enhancement have been proposed. Although these methods preserve the input brightness on the output image with a significant contrast enhancement, they may produce images which do not look as natural as the ones which have been input. In order to overcome this drawback, we propose a technique called Multi-HE, which consists of decomposing the input image into several sub-images, and then applying the classical HE process to each one of them. This methodology performs a less intensive image contrast enhancement, in a way that the output image presented looks more natural. We propose two discrepancy functions for image decomposition which lead to two new Multi-HE methods. A cost function is also used for automatically deciding in how many sub-images the input image will be decomposed on. Experimental results show that our methods are better in preserving the brightness and producing more natural looking images than the other HE methods. In order to deal with contrast enhancement in color images, we introduce a generic fast hue-preserving histogram equalization method based on the RGB color space, and two instances of the proposed generic method. The first instance uses R-red, G-green, and Bblue 1D histograms to estimate a RGB 3D histogram to be equalized, whereas the second instance uses RG, RB, and GB 2D histograms. Histogram equalization is performed using 7 Abstract 8 shift hue-preserving transformations, avoiding the appearance of unrealistic colors. Our methods have linear time and space complexities with respect to the image dimension, and do not require conversions between color spaces in order to perform image contrast enhancement. Objective assessments comparing our methods and others are performed using a contrast measure and color image quality measures, where the quality is established as a weighed function of the naturalness and colorfulness indexes. This is the first work to evaluate histogram equalization methods with a well-known database of 300 images (one dataset from the University of Berkeley) by using measures such as naturalness and colorfulness. Experimental results show that the value of the image contrast produced by our methods is in average 50% greater than the original image value, and still keeping the quality of the output images close to the original / Dispositivos para aquisição e processamento de imagens podem ser encontrados em sistemas complexos de monitoração de segurança ou simples aparelhos celulares. Em certas aplicações, o tempo necessário para processar uma imagem não é tão importante quanto a qualidade das imagens processadas (por exemplo, em imagens médicas), mas em alguns casos a qualidade da imagem pode ser sacrificada em favor do tempo. Essa tese se foca nesse último caso, e propõe duas metodologias eficientes para o realce de contraste de imagens. Os métodos propostos são baseados em equalização de histograma (EH), e focam em imagens em tons de cinza e em imagens coloridas. Os métodos baseados em EH atualmente utilizados para processar imagens em tons de cinza tendem a mudar o brilho médio da imagem para o tom médio do intervalo de tons de cinza. Essa mudança não é desejavél em aplicações que visam melhorar o contraste em produtos eletrônicos utilizados pelo consumidor, onde preservar o brilho da imagem original é necessário para evitar o aparecimento de artefatos não exitentes na imagem de saída. Para corrigir esse problema, métodos de bi-equalização de histogramas para preservação do brilho e contraste de imagens foram propostos. Embora esses métodos preservem o brilho da imagem original na imagem processada com um realce significante do contraste, eles podem produzir imagens que não parecem naturais. Esse novo problema foi resolvido por uma nova técnica chamada de Multi-Equalização de histogramas, que decompõe a imagem original em várias sub-imagens, e aplica o método de EH clássico em cada uma delas. Essa metodologia realiza um realce de contraste menos intenso, de forma que a imagem processada parece mais “natural”. Essa tese propõe duas novas funções de discrepância para decomposição de imagens, originando dois novos métodos de Multi-EH. Além disso, uma função de custo é utilizada para determinar em quantas sub-imagens a imagem original será dividida. Através da comparação objetiva e quantitative usando uma medida de constrate, os experimentos mostraram que os métodos propostos são melhores que outros EH estudados, uma vez que eles preservam o brilho e produzem imagens com uma aparência mais natural. Em relação aos métodos para realce de contraste em imagens coloridas, essa tese propõe um método genérico e eficiente de EH baseado no espaço de cores RGB que preserva o tom 9 Resumo 10 (a matiz), e implementa duas instâncias desse método genérico. A primeira instância utiliza os histogramas 1D R-red, G-green e B-blue para estimar um histograma 3D RGB, que é então equalizado. A segunda instância, por sua vez, utiliza os histogramas 2D RG, RB, e GB. A EH é executada utilizando transformadas de deslocamento que preservam a tonalidade da cor, evitando o aparecimento de cores não reais. Os métodos propostos tem complexidade linear no espaço e no tempo em relação ao tamanho da imagem, e não usam nenhuma conversão de um espaço de cores para outro. As imagens produzidas foram avaliadas objetivamente, comparando os métodos propostos com outros estudados. A avaliação objetiva foi feita utilizando medidas de contraste e de qualidade da cor da imagem, onde a qualidade foi definida como uma função ponderada dos índices de naturalidade e cromicidade. Um conjunto de 300 imagens extraídas da base de dados da Universidade de Berkeley foram analisadas. Os experimentos mostraram que o valor do contraste das imagens produzidas pelos métodos propostos é, em médias, 50% maior que o valor do contraste na imagem original, e ao mesmo tempo a qualidade das imagens produzidas é próxima a qualidade da imagem original / Dispositivi per l’acquisizione e lo svolgimento di immagini si possono trovare nei complessi sistemi di monitoramento di sicurezza o nei semplici cellulari. In alcune applicazioni il tempo necessario per svolgere un’immagine non è cosi importante come la qualità delle immagini svolte (es. nelle immagini mediche), ma in alcuni casi la qualità dell’immagine potrà venire daneggiata a favore del tempo. Questa tesi è basata su quest’ultimo caso e propone due metodi efficienti per evidenziare il contrasto di colore delle immagini. I metodi proposti vengono basate sull’equalizazzione d’istogramma (EI), mirati su delle immagini grigie e sulle immagini colorate. I metodi basati sull’EI attualmente utilizzati per svolgere delle immagini grigie tendono a cambiare il brillo medio dell’immagine per il tono medio dell’intervallo grigio. Questo cambiamento non è desiderato nelle applicazioni mirate al miglioramento del contrasto sui prodotti elettronici utilizzati dal consumatore, dove preservare il brillo dell’immagine originale è necessario per evitare la comparsa di artefatti inesistenti nell’immagine d’uscita. Sono stati proposti dei metodi di biequalizazzione di istogrammi per corregere questo problema della preservazione del brillo e del contrasto di colore delle immagini. Nonostante questi metodi preservino il brillo dell’immagine originale con significante rilievo del contrasto nell’immagine svolta, questi possono produrre delle immagini che non sembrino naturali. Questo nuovo problema è stato risolto con una nuova tecnica detta Multiequalizazzione di istogrammi, che decompone l’immagine originale in varie sottoimmagini, applicando su ognuna di queste il metodo EI classico. Questa metodologia realizza un contrasto di rilievo meno intenso in modo che l’immagine svolta sembri più “naturale”. Questa tesi propone due nuove funzioni di discrepanza per la decomposizione delle immagini, originandone due nuovi metodi Multi-EI. Inoltre una funzione di costo viene utilizzata per determinare in quante sottoimmagini l’immagine originale verrà divisa. Attraverso paragone obiettivo e quantitativo, usando una misura di contrasto, gli esperimenti hanno convalidato che i metodi proposti sono migliori di quegli EI studiati perché quelli preservano il brillo e producono immagini con un’apparenza più naturale. Con riferimento ai metodi utilizzati per rilevare il contrasto nelle immagini colorate questa tese propone un metodo generico ed efficiente di EI, in base negli spazi di colori 11 Risumo 12 RGB, che preserva il tono (la sfumatura) e implementa due istanze di questo metodo generico. La prima istanza utilizza gli istogrammi 1D R-Red, G-green e B-blue per stimare un istogramma 3D RGB, che viene di seguito equalizzato. La seconda istanza invece utilizza gli istogrammi 2D RG, RB e GB. La EI viene eseguita utilizzando trasformate di trasloco che preservano il tono del colore, evitando così la comparsa di colori non reali. I metodi proposti hanno complessità lineare nello spazio e nel tempo rispetto alla grandezza dell’immagine e non usano nessuna conversione da un spazio di colore all’altro. Le immagini prodotte sono state valutate in modo obiettivo, paragonando i metodi proposti con gli altri studiati. La valutazione obiettiva è stata fatta utilizzando delle misure di contrasto e qualità del colore dell’immagine, dove la qualità è stata definita come una funzione ponderata degli indici di naturalità e colorito. Si analisarano un insieme di 300 immagini tratte dalla base dei dati dell’Università di Berkeley. Gli sperimenti mostrarono che il valore del contrasto delle immagini prodotte daí metodi proposti è mediamente 50% maggiore del valore del contrasto nell’immagine originale e una volta ancora la qualità delle immagini prodotte è vicina alla qualità dell’immagine originale

Contrast is an important factor in any subjective evaluation of image quality. It is the difference in visual properties that makes an object distinguishable from other objects and background. Contrast Enhancement method is mainly used to enhance the contrast in the image by using its Histogram. Histogram is a distribution of numerical data in an image using graphical representation. Histogram Equalization is widely used in image processing to adjust the contrast in the image using histograms. Whereas Gamma Correction is often used to adjust luminance in an image. By combining Histogram Equalization and Gamma Correction we proposed a hybrid method, that is used to modify the histograms and enhance contrast of an image in a digital method. Our proposed method deals with the variants of histogram equalization and transformed based gamma correction. Our method is an automatically transformation technique that improves the contrast of dimmed images via the gamma correction and probability distribution of luminance pixels. The proposed method is converted into an android application. We succeeded in enhancing the contrast of an image by using our method and we have tested for different alpha values. Graphs of the gamma for different alpha values are plotted.

The United States (U.S.) Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) conducted a series of rotary-wing flight tests for the sole purpose of checking out Telemetry data link instrumentation. Four flights were conducted at YPG in February 2016 that built upon an earlier test flight conducted in June 2015. The most recent iteration of testing examined the benefits of frequency diversity on aircraft and the spatial diversity of receiving sites using existing hardware at YPG. Quantitative analysis from those flight results will be presented and include discussion on how results will affect future mission operations at YPG.