One component of wireless communications of increasing necessity in both civilian and military applications is the process of automatic modulation classification. Modulation of a detected signal of unknown origin requiring interpretation must first be determined before the signal can be demodulated. This thesis presents a novel architecture for a modulation classifier that determines the most likely modulation using Grey Relational Analysis with the extraction and combination of multiple signal features. An evaluation of data preprocessing methods is conducted and performance of the classifier is investigated with the addition of each new signal feature used for classification. / Master of Science

<p>This thesis considers the problem of making dynamic models for industrial processes by combining physical modelling with experimental data. The focus is on distributed parameter systems, that is, systems for which the model structure involves partial differential equations (PDE). Distributed parameter systems are important in many applications, e.g., in chemical process systems and in intracellular biochemical processes, and involve for instance all forms of transport and transfer phenomena. For such systems, the postulated model structure usually requires a finite dimensional approximation to enable identification and validation using experimental data. The finite dimensional approximation involves translating the PDE model into a set of ordinary differential equations, and is termed model reduction.</p><p>The objective of the thesis is two-fold. First, general PDE model reduction methods which are efficient in terms of model order for a given level of accuracy are studied. The focus here is on a class of methods called moving mesh methods, in which the discretization mesh is considered a dynamic degree of freedom that can be used for reducing the model reduction error. These methods are potentially highly efficient for model reduction of PDEs, but often suffer from stability and robustness problems. In this thesis it is shown that moving mesh methods can be cast as standard feedback control problems. Existing moving mesh methods are analyzed based on tools and results available from control theory, and plausible explanations to the robustness problems and parametric sensitivity experienced with these methods are provided. Possible remedies to these problems are also proposed. A novel moving finite element method, Orthogonal Collocation on Moving Finite Elements (OCMFE), is proposed based on a simple estimate of the model reduction error combined with a low order linear feedback controller. The method is demonstrated to be robust, and hence puts only small demands on the user.</p><p>In the second part of the thesis, the integration of PDE model reduction methods with grey-box modelling tools available for finite dimensional models is considered. First, it is shown that the standard approach based on performing model reduction using some ad hoc discretization method and model order, prior to calibrating and validating the reduced model, has a number of potential pitfalls and can easily lead to falsely validated PDE models. To overcome these problems, a systematic approach based on separating model reduction errors from discrepancies between postulated model structures and measurement data is proposed. The proposed approach is successfully demonstrated on a challenging chromatography process, used for separation in biochemical production, for which it is shown that data collected at the boundaries of the process can be used to clearly distinguish between two model structures commonly used for this process.</p>

Orientador: Manoel Cleber de Sampaio Alves / Resumo: A superliga de níquel VAT 32® foi desenvolvida como um substituto da liga UNS N07751 (Inconel 151) na fabricação de válvulas automotivas para motores de combustão interna de alto desempenho. A formação de carbonetos de nióbio confere a esta liga elevada resistência ao desgaste, desejada na aplicação em válvulas automotivas, criando-se, porém, uma maior dificuldade na usinagem deste material. Este trabalho estudou o torneamento da liga VAT 32® com quatro tipos de ferramentas de corte. São elas insertos de metal duro com diferentes revestimentos, Ti(C,N) + Al2O3 pelo processo de deposição química de vapor (chemical vapor deposition – CVD), e revestimento de Ti-Al-Si-N pelo processo de deposição física de vapor (physical vapor deposition – PVD), pastilhas de nitreto cúbico de boro (cBN) e pastilhas experimentais de Al2O3 + MgO. Através do método de Taguchi de planejamento experimental, foram obtidas as combinações e os efeitos principais dos parâmetros velocidade de corte, avanço da ferramenta, profundidade de usinagem e tipo de lubrificação (seco ou em abundância) para otimizar cada uma das variáveis respostas, sendo elas potência de usinagem, desgaste das ferramentas, qualidade superficial das peças usinadas, e os sinais de emissão acústica e vibração do processo. Foram obtidos também, através da análise da razão sinal-ruído (S/N) de Taguchi, a composição dos parâmetros de corte em que o processo apresentou menor variabilidade das características de qualidade, o chamado proces... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: VAT 32® is a nickel based super alloy developed to substitute UNS N07751 alloy in production of automotive valves for high performance internal combustion engines. The formation of niobium carbides gives to this alloy a high resistance to wear, desired in the application in automotive valves, creating however, a greater difficulty in the machining of this material. This thesis aimed the study of VAT 32® turning with four different cutting tools. The tested tools were Ti(C,N)+Al2O3 coated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) carbide inserts, Ti-Al-Si-N coated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) carbide inserts, cubic boron nitrite (cBN) inserts and experimental Al2O3+MgO ceramic inserts. Optimal combination of the cutting parameters and main effects of the factors speed of cutting, tool feed, depth of cutting and lubrication condition (dry and abundant) in turning of VAT 32® were found using Taguchi’s method as a design of experiment (DOE). The analyzed response variables were machining power, tool wear, surface quality of the machined pieces, chips format and acoustic emission and vibration signals of the process. It was also obtained in this work the robust process with the analysis of signal to noise ratio (S/N) where cutting parameters for smaller process variability were found. Finally, the multi-objective optimization method called Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) was used to find optimal cutting conditions for each tested tools. These optimal conditions were used in a tool l... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This thesis considers the problem of making dynamic models for industrial processes by combining physical modelling with experimental data. The focus is on distributed parameter systems, that is, systems for which the model structure involves partial differential equations (PDE). Distributed parameter systems are important in many applications, e.g., in chemical process systems and in intracellular biochemical processes, and involve for instance all forms of transport and transfer phenomena. For such systems, the postulated model structure usually requires a finite dimensional approximation to enable identification and validation using experimental data. The finite dimensional approximation involves translating the PDE model into a set of ordinary differential equations, and is termed model reduction. The objective of the thesis is two-fold. First, general PDE model reduction methods which are efficient in terms of model order for a given level of accuracy are studied. The focus here is on a class of methods called moving mesh methods, in which the discretization mesh is considered a dynamic degree of freedom that can be used for reducing the model reduction error. These methods are potentially highly efficient for model reduction of PDEs, but often suffer from stability and robustness problems. In this thesis it is shown that moving mesh methods can be cast as standard feedback control problems. Existing moving mesh methods are analyzed based on tools and results available from control theory, and plausible explanations to the robustness problems and parametric sensitivity experienced with these methods are provided. Possible remedies to these problems are also proposed. A novel moving finite element method, Orthogonal Collocation on Moving Finite Elements (OCMFE), is proposed based on a simple estimate of the model reduction error combined with a low order linear feedback controller. The method is demonstrated to be robust, and hence puts only small demands on the user. In the second part of the thesis, the integration of PDE model reduction methods with grey-box modelling tools available for finite dimensional models is considered. First, it is shown that the standard approach based on performing model reduction using some ad hoc discretization method and model order, prior to calibrating and validating the reduced model, has a number of potential pitfalls and can easily lead to falsely validated PDE models. To overcome these problems, a systematic approach based on separating model reduction errors from discrepancies between postulated model structures and measurement data is proposed. The proposed approach is successfully demonstrated on a challenging chromatography process, used for separation in biochemical production, for which it is shown that data collected at the boundaries of the process can be used to clearly distinguish between two model structures commonly used for this process. / QC 20101020

The Fifty Shades-trilogy by E. L. James has become a cultural phenomenon, and is widely debated as such. The main issue of the debate is often concerning the story’s relation to women’s position in society. Common standpoints are that it is either contributing to women’s sexual liberation or that it perpetuates violence against women. The story is also considered to be of poor literary quality. In my thesis, I seek for approaches to understand the story beyond polarisation. I am performing a reparative reading of the first novel of the trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, through Michel Foucault’s notions of knowledge, power and pleasure. The purpose is to examine how these work in relation to each other, and how they relate to the presentation of sexuality and subjectivity in the novel. Furthermore, I engage in dialogue with previous research on Fifty Shades in the feminist field. In my analysis, I illustrate how knowledge, power and pleasure are synergetic and under constant negotiation. They are woven together and move between characters, laying the foundation for the subjects and their sexualities. I demonstrate how the power relations operate in multiple directions between Christian, Ana and Ana’s friend Kate, which is something that Ana shows awareness of. Further, I find that a conflict between mind and body occurs. Ana assumes the position of the knowing subject, through which she approaches corporality, and thereby gains new independence. Finally, I reflect on corporality’s intrusion of language in relation to the (de)valuation of the literary quality of the novel. As a question to bring to future studies, I ask whether the reading of Fifty Shades of Grey might be understood as consumption of body rather than consumption of literature, sexism or heteronormativity. / Fifty Shades-trilogin av E. L. James har blivit ett populärkulturellt fenomen som omdebatterats kraftigt. Temat för diskussionerna gäller ofta berättelsens förhållande till kvinnors sociala position i samhället. Vanliga åsikter är att den antingen bidrar till kvinnors sexuella frigörelse eller att den normaliserar våld mot kvinnor. Berättelsen anses även vara litterärt undermålig. I denna uppsats söker jag efter sätt att förstå berättelsen utanför polariseringen.  Jag genomför en reparativ läsning av trilogins första del, Fifty Shades of Grey, genom Michel Foucaults begrepp vetande, makt och njutning. Syftet är att undersöka hur begreppen fungerar i relation till varandra samt hur de förhåller sig till framställningen av sexualitet och subjektivitet i romanen. Jag går även i dialog med tidigare forskning om Fifty Shades i det feministiska fältet.  I min analys belyser jag hur vetande, makt och njutning samverkar med varandra och är under ständig förhandling. De rör sig mellan karaktärerna och vävs ihop till ett nät som lägger grunden för subjekten och sexualiteterna. Jag visar hur maktrelationerna är verksamma åt flera håll mellan Christian, Ana och Anas vän Kate, vilket Ana genom berättelsen också är medveten om. Jag finner även att det uppstår en konflikt mellan sinne och kropp. Ana intar rollen som ett det vetande subjektet. Genom denna roll närmar hon sig kroppsligheten, i vilken hon finner ny självständighet. Avslutningsvis reflekterar jag över kroppslighetens inträngande i språket, i relation till (ned)värderandet av romanens litterära kvalitét. Inför framtida studier ställer jag frågan om läsandet av Fifty Shades of Grey skulle kunna förstås som konsumtion av kropp snarare än som konsumtion av litteratur, sexism eller heteronorm.

Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were published more than forty years before the appearance of the feminist type that the Victorians called the “New Woman;” yet, both novels contain characteristics of New Woman fiction. By considering how Brontë's novels foreshadow New Woman fiction, the reader of these novels can re-enact the “gentlest” Brontë as an influential feminist whose ideology informed the construction of the radical New Woman. Brontë, like the New Woman writers, incorporated autobiographical dilemmas into her fiction. By using her own experiences as a governess, Brontë constructs Agnes Grey's incongruent social status and a morally corrupt gentry and aristocracy through her depiction of not only Agnes's second employers, the Murrays, but also the morally debauched world that Helen enters upon her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Moreover, Brontë incorporates her observations of Branwell's alcoholism and her own religious beliefs into The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Although Brontë's novels contain autobiographical material, her heroines are fictional constructions that she uses to engage her readers with the woman question. Brontë accomplishes this engagement through her heroines' narrative re-enactments of fictional autobiographical dilemmas. Helen's diary and Agnes's diary-based narrative produce the pattern of development of the Bildungsroman and foreshadow the New Woman novelists' Kunstlerromans. Brontë's heroines anticipate the female artist as the protagonist of the New Woman Kunstlerromans. Agnes and Helen both invade the masculine domain of economic motive and are feminists who profess gender definitions that conflict with dominant Victorian ideology. Agnes questions her own femininity by internalizing the governess's status incongruence, and Helen's femininity is questioned by those around her. The paradoxical position of both heroines anticipates the debate about the nature and function of art in which the New Woman writers engaged. Through her reconciliation of the aesthetic and the political, Brontë, like the New Woman novelists who will follow, explores the contradiction between art and activism.

Software effort estimation by analogy is a viable alternative method to other estimation techniques, and in many cases, researchers found it outperformed other estimation methods in terms of accuracy and practitioners' acceptance. However, the overall performance of analogy based estimation depends on two major factors: similarity measure and attribute selection & weighting. Current similarity measures such as nearest neighborhood techniques have been criticized that have some inadequacies related to attributes relevancy, noise and uncertainty in addition to the problem of using categorical attributes. This research focuses on improving the efficiency and flexibility of analogy-based estimation to overcome the abovementioned inadequacies. Particularly, this thesis proposes two new approaches to model and handle uncertainty in similarity measurement method and most importantly to reflect the structure of dataset on similarity measurement using Fuzzy modeling based Fuzzy C-means algorithm. The first proposed approach called Fuzzy Grey Relational Analysis method employs combined techniques of Fuzzy set theory and Grey Relational Analysis to improve local and global similarity measure and tolerate imprecision associated with using different data types (Continuous and Categorical). The second proposed approach presents the use of Fuzzy numbers and its concepts to develop a practical yet efficient approach to support analogy-based systems especially at early phase of software development. Specifically, we propose a new similarity measure and adaptation technique based on Fuzzy numbers. We also propose a new attribute subset selection algorithm and attribute weighting technique based on the hypothesis of analogy-based estimation that assumes projects that are similar in terms of attribute value are also similar in terms of effort values, using row-wise Kendall rank correlation between similarity matrix based project effort values and similarity matrix based project attribute values. A literature review of related software engineering studies revealed that the existing attribute selection techniques (such as brute-force, heuristic algorithms) are restricted to the choice of performance indicators such as (Mean of Magnitude Relative Error and Prediction Performance Indicator) and computationally far more intensive. The proposed algorithms provide sound statistical basis and justification for their procedures. The performance figures of the proposed approaches have been evaluated using real industrial datasets. Results and conclusions from a series of comparative studies with conventional estimation by analogy approach using the available datasets are presented. The studies were also carried out to statistically investigate the significant differences between predictions generated by our approaches and those generated by the most popular techniques such as: conventional analogy estimation, neural network and stepwise regression. The results and conclusions indicate that the two proposed approaches have potential to deliver comparable, if not better, accuracy than the compared techniques. The results also found that Grey Relational Analysis tolerates the uncertainty associated with using different data types. As well as the original contributions within the thesis, a number of directions for further research are presented. Most chapters in this thesis have been disseminated in international journals and highly refereed conference proceedings.

Hair plays an important role in human social and sexual communication. The androgen-stimulated, patterned loss of hair in cases of androgenetic alopecia (or common baldness) in genetically pre-disposed individuals, is associated with ageing and can cause marked phychological distress. However, it is poorly controlled. To investigate the effectiveness of daily topical application of a Chinese medicine-derived herbal mixture, Xiantene, on balding progression, two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies (3 and 12 months) were carried out on balding men using the trichogram approach. Xiantene significantly increased both the total number of hairs and those in anagen, improving the ratio of anagen:telogen hairs. This suggests that topical Xiantene increased the length of the anagen phase and may promote a cessation, or partial reversal, of the progression of androgenetic alopecia in men. Canities, loss of scalp hair colour, is another mark of ageing. To investigate whether early greying may protect follicles from androgenetic alopecia, the extent of alopecia, assessed using the Hamilton scale, was compared between men who first became grey before, or after, 30. Both alopecia and greying increased with age in 843 men (217 European, 626 Thai) whenever they first started greying. However, men who showed greying before 30 were significantly less bald, though more grey, in both groups. Hair follicle melanocytes synthesise the pigment melanin, producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress; losing melanocyte pigmentary activity, and therefore these toxic factors, appears to enable hair follicles to maintain their full size for longer, despite the androgen drive to miniaturisation.

This thesis deals with the development and evaluation of blind discrete cosine transform-based watermarking algorithms for copyright protection of digital still images using handwritten signatures and mobile phone numbers. The new algorithms take into account the perceptual capacity of each low frequency coefficients inside the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) blocks before embedding the watermark information. They are suitable for grey-scale and colour images. Handwritten signatures are used instead of pseudo random numbers. The watermark is inserted in the green channel of the RGB colour images and the luminance channel of the YCrCb images. Mobile phone numbers are used as watermarks for images captured by mobile phone cameras. The information is embedded multiple-times and a shuffling scheme is applied to ensure that no spatial correlation exists between the original host image and the multiple watermark copies. Multiple embedding will increase the robustness of the watermark against attacks since each watermark will be individually reconstructed and verified before applying an averaging process. The averaging process has managed to reduce the amount of errors of the extracted information. The developed watermarking methods are shown to be robust against JPEG compression, removal attack, additive noise, cropping, scaling, small degrees of rotation, affine, contrast enhancements, low-pass, median filtering and Stirmark attacks. The algorithms have been examined using a library of approximately 40 colour images of size 512 512 with 24 bits per pixel and their grey-scale versions. Several evaluation techniques were used in the experiment with different watermarking strengths and different signature sizes. These include the peak signal to noise ratio, normalized correlation and structural similarity index measurements. The performance of the proposed algorithms has been compared to other algorithms and better invisibility qualities with stronger robustness have been achieved.

Neonatal mortality in grey seals on the Isle of May breeding colony and in a rehabilitation centre were investigated by detailed systematic post-mortem examinations (n=59), on-site bacteriology and advanced molecular diagnostic techniques for specific pathogens. Causes of death on the breeding colony included starvation (30%), omphalitis-peritonitis (26%), septicaemia (22%), stillbirth (10%) and trauma (4%) and in the rehabilitation centre starvation (44%) and septicaemia (22%). Detailed key gross and histopathological findings and pathogens are described and include the first report of Listeria monocytogenes in any marine mammal. Phocid herpes virus 1 nucleic acids were detected in nasal swabs of 58% live, free-ranging grey seal pups (n=90) and 28% yearlings (n=19), suggesting recrudescence in the latter. Previously undetected in Scotland, phocid herpes virus 2 nucleic acids were identified only in yearlings (15%); sealpox was detected in a single live stranded grey seal pup and phocine distemper virus was not detected. Given their unique characteristics and potential for acting as sentinels of coastal marine health several pathogens of putative anthropogenic origin were investigated: Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum, Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in 6% dead free-ranging grey seal pups (n=50) but N. caninum was not found. Salmonella (20%) and Campylobacter (50%) were isolated from rectal swabs of live and dead grey seal pups and Campylobacter was significantly associated with moderate to severe colitis implying pathogenicity. These findings imply a land-sea-land transfer of T. gondii and early exposure of pups to this parasite. Extensive genetic fingerprinting suggested an exchange of Salmonella between grey seal, cattle and human populations and that the Campylobacter isolates may share the same origin as human clinical isolates. This work provides a solid base line study of diseases present in grey seal pups and demonstrates that they are useful indicators of coastal marine microbial contamination.